The Nature Of Manipulation William Gibson s...

The Nature of Manipulation William Gibson’s Neuromancer, and The Matrix by The Wachowskis both depict a society in which humans are under constant manipulation by indispensable machines. In Neuromancer, the protagonist Case is indirectly manipulated by a powerful Artificial Intelligence named Wintermute. In The Matrix, majority of the human population lives within a computer simulated world, run by machines. However, both storylines depict the fact that manipulation takes origin within the individual rather than another entity, as both protagonists are frequently manipulated due to flaws in their own character. These character flaws are not individual, rather, they are representative of all humans. Thus, Neuromancer and The Matrix both†¦show more content†¦In both instances, the audience is intentionally lead by false interpretations, as to prove that individuals are constantly being manipulated unbeknownst to them. Neuromancer demonstrates this omnipresence of manipulation, as the audience is controlled by the author himself. Throughout the novel, Gibson’s distinct word choice not only encapsulates the audience, but also forces the novel to be read from a certain perspective. For example, Gibson describes the atmosphere of Ninsei, by saying â€Å"By day, the bars down Ninsei were shuttered and featureless, the neon dead, the holograms inert, waiting, under the poisoned silver sky† (Gibson 7). Gibson could simply have stated that the street was dark, and the sky was cloudy. However, he makes the conscious effort of wording the sentence with metaphors, and analogies in order to convey the cynical perspective from which the audience is to observe the story. The impact of word choice is shown again in The Matrix, as an agent justifies its horrific intentions by saying â€Å"Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we are the cure† (The Matrix). The agent is able to rationalize its intent, through the use of euphemisms. Similar to the characters of both the novel and the movie, the audience is manipulated by the author because they are unaware of it. Manipulation is a result of unawareness; individuals who are unaware of their society, are prone to manipulation. InShow MoreRelatedWilliam Gibson s Neuromancer, And The Matrix1834 Words   |  8 PagesWilliam Gibson’s Neuromancer, and The Matrix by The Wachowskis both depict a society in which humans are under constant manipulation by indispensable machines. In Neuromancer, the protagonist Case is indirectly manipulated by a powerful Artificial Intelligence named Wintermute. In The Matrix, majority of the human population lives within a computer simulated world, run by machines. However, both storylines ultimately depict the fact that manipulation takes origin within the individual rather thanRead More Realities Redefined in William Gibsons Neuromancer Essay2645 Words   |  11 PagesRealities Redefined in William Gibsons Neuromancer The ways in which characters communicate and interact with one another are redefined in William Gibson?s Neuromancer. An all-encompassing web of intrigue, the Net enables humans and non-humans to access and to communicate an infinite amount of data across time and space. Medical implants open another door on virtual communications. Non-living entities such as artificial intelligences and the Dixie Flatline construct overcome the physical barriers

Sexuality in Advertising †an Occurring Issue Free Essays

Abramovitz 1 She arches her back, glancing at the camera with a look of ecstasy. Water pours down her body, wearing only soapy suds from the loofah in her hands. While a pink bottle of ‘Herbal Essence’ body wash sensors a mature view of this woman’s body, the tagline on the side reads â€Å"Our new moisture-rich lather turns H2O into H2Ohhhh! † This is a real advertisement Clairol for Herbal Essence body wash, but there countless advertisements like this one that American society is bombarded with on a daily basis. We will write a custom essay sample on Sexuality in Advertising – an Occurring Issue or any similar topic only for you Order Now These ads use women’s sexuality to sell both high end and everyday products to consumers. Even though the objectification of women in advertising has become more apparent and worse, it is not a new phenomenon; instead the insecurity of women experience through comparing themselves with idealized women in advertising has been an ongoing problem since the 1920’s. As fashion changed though women’s social empowerment so began the sexual objectification of women in advertising. The iconic figure of the Roaring 20’s was the Flapper. In Edsels, Luckiest and Frigidairies: Advertising the American Way, a flapper is defined as â€Å"A women who could vote, work, drink, and smoke†. 327) Women became more empowered to vote and to go into the workforce, and such large social changes brought new fashions. The once suppressed woman changed out of frumpy petticoats and into short beaded dresses. These were reflected in the flapper style and impacted the sale of silk stockings. â€Å"Silk stocking initially had been regarded as a luxury item †¦ few of who m felt any great compulsion to display their social status in such items. But since silk stockings carried status, once they were made more available to middle and lower class women display became almost a necessity †¦. Women would become increasingly self-conscious about their legs†. (Mquade and Wright 327-28) Silk stockings, once a luxury to have, now were used to objectify the legs of women. A woman could not read the newspaper without viewing advertisements speaking to her awful, ugly, nude legs. Unless she Abramovitz 1 went out and bought herself a pair of silk stockings she would not be sexy enough to be seen in public. Women would be pressured to go out and purchase stockings so she could be up to par with her female friends. The beginning of sexual advertisement in silk stockings promoted the idea of one body part being ‘sexy’. As one progresses through the history of American advertising, one will see that the exploitation of different body parts linked with sexual desire as a technique to raise the sales on items. The Roaring 20’s not only brought the flapper and her iconic silk stockings, but the popularity of the Model T. The automotive industry heavily relies on the sexual objectification of women in its advertising, from the 1950’s to today. One popular car of the 1950’s was the Pontiac Star Chief, a convertible with a roomy interior. In a 1957 advertisement for the Pontiac Star Chief shows a woman in the car, captured at an angle where the viewer cannot see the woman below the waist. A man is right outside the car peering in, and the caption on the ad says â€Å"Spread Your Legs! Enjoy maximum leg room in the new Pontiac Star Chief†. While the phrase â€Å"Spread your legs† is meant to talk about the interior of the car, it also refers to the woman as she opens herself for the man’s pleasure. The double entendre links together motors and women. If a man has a faster and better car, he is likely to get a prettier woman. This mentality is still relevant today’s society, even if the design is more refined. In 2006, Audi, a company that designs and sells luxury vehicles, released it’s Designed to thrill advertisements. One particularly is shocking. It’s simplistic; a black background and whites, reminiscent of a blueprint but in the shape of a female breast. On the side in small print the ad reads ‘designed to thrill’ and on the bottom right corner the Audi symbol is present. The tagline, on the surface, is talking about Audi’s internal mechanics and the fact that engineers improved them to go faster and cause a thrill in the driver. Because of how the graphic is shaped, the catch Abramovitz 1 line entertains a new meaning. When ‘Designed to thrill’ is pictured next to the form of a female bosom, it implies that the woman anatomy was made for the men’s sexual pleasure, or â€Å"thrill†. Objectifying the breasts implies that if a man were to obtain the luxury car, he would get women to show themselves and be more promiscuous. The modern objectification of women in advertisements does not just happen in male oriented products, but female ones too. An online ad for Blush lingerie shows a women in a skirt, a dog and the dog’s apparent owner; a man dressed in a business suit. The dog is looking up the woman’s skirt and blushes because of it sees. Because this is an ad for lingerie, one can assume that the dog is getting a look at scandalous underwear. The professional pleating of the skirt the woman’s wearing, and her low demure heels, the ad represents the woman as a high end professional in the business world; a person to be taken seriously. The blushing dog takes away her credibility though because if she is allowed to be sexy she cannot be respected and intelligent. Ads like this do not embrace the many sides of women, but force them to choose one or the other, although they may appear to be smart and sexy. Because you can’t see her face, just her legs up, it depersonalizes her, dehumanizes her, objectifying her into the sexy, classy, high end lingerie she’s wearing. Not only do ads promote the objectification through the type of underwear women wear, but they also promote reckless sexual behavior. Jean Killbourne, who wrote the book Deadly Persuasion, discusses an ad which promotes this behavior. â€Å"’ The only downfall to female guests that stay over for breakfast is they leave with your nicest shirts’, says an ad featuring a man getting dressed. His back is to the young women in his bed, who is covering herself up as if embarrassed. People in ads like this aren’t lovers, they are users being used. † Advertisements like these promote a culture of commodity; people objectify their friends to what they have to Abramovitz 1 offer sexually, and the aftermath of feelings that naturally come after a sexual connection are thrown in the trash and replaced by a diminished feeling of self worth. When advertisements promote cultures of reckless sex, they pressure people to shallowly judge others by their appearance and how â€Å"sexy† they are rather than their moral character. The objectification of women in advertising is not new. It has been an issue in our society since the 1920’s when print commercial advertisement began to boom. Women today continue to compare themselves with idealized women in advertising and the creates a lasting harm on their self-conscious. Carol Shepard, said â€Å"The objectification of women in advertising campaigns psychological ramifications. It socializes women to think of themselves in the manner in which they are depicted, and causes them to engage in self objectification. †¦ [This] creates anxieties relating to their weight, appearance, body satisfaction, and also creates a negative mood. (qtd Harper Tiggermann, 2008). Thus, their body image causes them to suffer emotionally and psychologically. Perhaps, by buying the advertised items, the viewing audience of women believes that they will instantly become taller, thinner, younger and prettier†. (Shepard, 5) As the objectification of women in advertising is not a new phenomenon, neither are the mental issues that women deal with because of it. Little girls will always wonder why they look at the pretty models in their mother’s magazines and then glance in the mirror only to wonder why they aren’t as pretty. Although the days of silk stockings and red convertibles are long gone, the advertisements and slogans that destroyed our women continue today. How to cite Sexuality in Advertising – an Occurring Issue, Papers

Security Studies and Criminology

Question: Discuss about the Security Studies and Criminology. Answer: Introduction: From: the australian minister for defence To: members of the cabinet Date: 4th, september 2016 Re: sending navy ship/ vessel to perform freedom of navigation patrol in south china sea rol in the South China Sea should be based on various factors. Even though Australia responded towards American Patrol through declaration of support for freedom of navigation, the country is actually faced numerous strategic problems or challenges in long standing alliance and cooperation with United States together with the fact that it has strong interests in enhancing ties with China which is not only a rising global or international influence, but it is also Australias biggest trading partner. However, the position of this memo is that the Australia should indeed dispatch a Navy ship or vessel to perform a Freedom of Navigation Patrol in the South Sea China Sea because Australian Defense Forces have the capabilities of not only performing the Freedom of Navigation Patrol, but the Australian Army also has the ability of deploying some of the land combat forces to Syria (Carl von Clausewitz, 1984). I could therefore wish to refute to the allegations by some sections of the media w hich claimed that the planned military exercises with China had been suspended or delayed. Owing to the fact that the countrys Royal Australian Navy had a long history of involvement with other regional navies and indeed frequently carries out port exercises and visits to various countries including China, it is quite apparent that China is going to send out a Navy Vessel to perform a Navigation Patrol in the South East China Sea. I would therefore wish to categorically state here that the government of Australia is actually holding its options quite open for the future patrol operations. It should also be noted by all and sundry that Australia has a legal interest in maintaining stability and peace, respect for international or global law, freedom of navigation, unimpeded trade, and even over flight in South China Sea. Due to that, both Australian aircraft as well as vessels will thus go on exercising rights as stipulated under the international law of freedom of over flight and freedom of navigation. According to Peter Jennings who was a former assistant Secretary at the Department of Defense (Simpson, 2012). He asserted that it was not actually abnormal for Australia to carry out exercise in collaboration the China Republic. Australia as a country should ultimately consider carrying out a United States style freedom of navigation mission in the South China Sea during some stages. Australia should also possess crucial interest in the specific part of globe since two thirds of the countrys products usually travels via Chinas port. As a result, Australia should not actually take the issue of sending a Navy ship to carry out a Freedom of Navigation Patrol in the South Sea China. It is important to note that even though Australia can send a Navy ship or Vessel to conduct a Freedom of Navigation Patrol in the South Sea of China, it should take precautions so that it does not risk developing a cold war with the country (Hirst, 2014). In essence, Australia should urgently ensure that it safeguards its long-term strategic and economic interests. It can genuinely be asserted that the carrying out of navigation patrols by the United States within the 12 nautical miles of the Chinese claimed territory in the South C hina Sea is a fact sheet that summarizes the current position held by Australia about the navigation freedom operations and also spells out future options (Collins, 2002). Australia should quickly consider carrying out its own Freedom of Navigation Patrols (FONOPs) around the former Low Tide Elevations (LTEs) of signal so that it can signal its concerns. Upon being asked as to whether all the nations that had interest in the South China Sea should perform the US-Style FONOPs FONOPs within the 12 nautical miles zone of the Chinese-claimed islands on the 22nd of February 2016, Joseph Aucoin, the US Vice Admiral answered that it is up to such nations but it is upon their best interests to ensure that such seas remain open (Paret, 2016). He further asserted that it was valuable for Australia to carry out Freedom of navigation Operations. Australia ought to in the nearest future dispatch Navy Vessels aimed at carrying out Freedom of Navigation Patrols in South Sea of China based on various reasons. For instance, since the making of the initial FONOP by the United States in October of last year, the position that has been held by Australia is asserting its right to freedom of navigation through noting that Australian Navy vessels and aircrafts have sailed or flown in the South China Sea for numerous years (Holmes, 2016). Australia holds the view that all nations having a stake or interests in South China Sea should indeed make efforts aimed at avoiding any form of tensions in the area by ensuring that they act with the highest restraint. Australia will thus send Navy vessels and traverse any international waters based on international law. Australia highly believes in the freedom of navigation as one of the significant objectives. Australia will thus continue advocating for peaceful revolution of different claims regarding the South China Sea in accordance with the laid down international law without necessarily adding tensions in that region (Echevarria, 2016). In fact, the freedom of navigation activities or exercises should be matters for each individual nation. Australia should ensure that it sails peacefully and legally through the 12 mile limits of the South China Sea in accordance with international law. Australia should in the nearest future carryout a Freedom of Navigation Patrol in the South Sea China but ensure that it does never jeopardize the security interests and sovereignty of the China Republic. Australia, while conducting the freedom of navigation patrol along the South Sea China, should also not jeopardize the safety of facilities and personnel on reefs and destroy regional peace and stability (Hanson, 2009). It will not thus violate the appropriate Chinese law through entering its territorial seas without permission or authorization (Waldman, 2016). In thing about any war, Australia as a country will always ensure that it observes all the philosophies of war based on not only the political aspects, but also the Cataclysmic and Eschatological aspects. This is because war is actually similar to a game of strategy such as chase. In carrying out a Freedom of Navigation Patrol in the South Sea China, Australia should not necessarily go to war with the country; instead, it should comprehend the negative effects of starting a war with China. In one of the press conferences that was held with Julie Bishop, the Australian Foreign Minister on 17th of February 2016, Wangi Yi, the Chinese Foreign Minister urged China to ensure that it maintains the pledge of non-militarization while conducting a Freedom of Navigation in the South Sea of China. Chinese Foreign Minister further asserted that certainly, Non-Militarization was in the best interest of all concerned parties but it should not just be about one single entity or country (Fox Rossow, 2016). He asserted that non-militarization should not exercise double or multiple standards and appreciated the position of Australia regarding the South China Sea that it will not take sides but instead, it will advocate for peaceful solutions towards emerging disputes in the ar ea. Owing to the fact that Australia has numerous trade agreements with the Republic of China, Australia ought to send the Navy ship or Vessel to carry out a Freedom of Navigation Patrol in the South Sea China, but should not indulge in war with China (Linnemann, 2016). This is because both countries are part and parcel of the Asian Investment Bank and thus they have regular dialogue and contact. Any blow-up of negative activities in the South Sea China will result in poor economic and security issues in the entire region (Lim, 2016). On the other hand, Australia as a country should always think carefully about the issue of joining the US FONOPS. This is because joining the US in the FONOPs would not only be fraught with several risks, but it will also become extremely complex (Holsti, 2016). In order to demonstrate the interest of Australia in the Freedom of Navigation, Australia should send a Navy Vessel to the South Sea China. However, some critics have argued that there is need for Australia to join the United States FONOPs in South China Sea so as to save costs that it would incur if it indulges in the process alone. References Carl von Clausewitz, On War, ed. and trans. Michael Howard and Peter Paret (Princeton University Press, 1984 [1976]), pp. 75-132 (Book I, Chapters 1-8; Book II, Chap. 1) Collins, J. M. (2002). Military Strategy: principles, practices, and historical perspectives. Potomac Books, Inc.. Echevarria II, A. J. (2016). Rediscovering US Military Strategy: A Role for Doctrine. Journal of Strategic Studies, 39(2), 231-245. Fox, A. C., Rossow, A. J. (2016). Assessing Russian Hybrid Warfare: A Successful Tool For Limited War. Journal Article| August, 8(3), 39pm. Hanson, V. D. (2009). The western way of war: Infantry battle in classical Greece. Univ of California Press. Hirst, P. (2014). War and power in the twenty-first century: The state, military power and the international system. John Wiley Sons. Holmes, J.R., 2016. Is there an Asian way of maritime war?. Comparative Strategy, 35(1), pp.32-42. Holsti, K. (2016). On the Study of War. In Kalevi Holsti: Major Texts on War, the State, Peace, and International Order (pp. 5-25). Springer International Publishing. Lim, K. (2016). Big Data and Strategic Intelligence. Intelligence and National Security, 31(4), 619-635. Linnemann, M. R. A. (2016). Unconventional Art and Modern War. MILITARY REVIEW. Paret, P., 2016. On War Then and Now. Journal of Military History, 80(2). Simpson, E. (2012). War from the ground up: twenty-first century combat as politics. Oxford University Press. Waldman, T. (2016). War, Clausewitz and the Trinity. Routledge.

Jean Sartre Essays - Philosophy Of Life, The Myth Of Sisyphus

Jean Sartre On of the major playwrights during this period was Jean-Paul Sartre. Sartre had been imprisoned in Germany in 1940 but managed to escape, and become one of the leaders of the Existential movement. Other popular playwrights were Albert Camus, and Jean Anouilh. Just like Anouilh, Camus accidentally became the spokesman for the French Underground when he wrote his famous essay, "Le Mythe de Sisyphe" or "The Myth of Sisyphus". Sisyphus was the man condemned by the gods to roll a rock to the top of a mountain, only to have it roll back down again. For Camus, this related heavily to everyday life, and he saw Sisyphus an "absurd" hero, with a pointless existance. Camus felt that it was necessary to wonder what the meaning of life was, and that the human being longed for some sense of clarity in the world, since "if the world were clear, art would not exist". "The Myth of Sisyphus" became a prototype for existentialism in the theatre, and eventually The Theatre of the Absurd. Sisyphus is the absurd hero. This man, sentenced to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain and then watching its descent, is the epitome of the absurd hero according to Camus. In retelling the Myth of Sisyphus, Camus is able to create an extremely powerful image with imaginative force which sums up in an emotional sense the body of the intellectual discussion which precedes it in the book. We are told that Sisyphus is the absurd hero "as much through his passions as through his torture. His scorn of the gods, his hatred of death, and his passion for life won him that unspeakable penalty in which the whole being is exerted toward accomplishing nothing." (p.89). Sisyphus is conscious of his plight , and therein lies the tragedy. For if, during the moments of descent, he nourished the hope that he would yet succeed, then his labour would lose its torment. But Sisyphus is clearly conscious of the extent of his own misery. It is this lucid recognition of his destiny that transforms his torment into his victory. It has to be a victory for as Camus says: I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds one's burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night-filled mountain, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy. (p.91).Sisyphus' life and torment are transformed into a victory by concentrating on his freedom, his refusal to hope, and his knowledge of the absurdity of his situation. In the same way, Dr. Rieux is an absurd hero in The Plague, for he too is under sentence of death, is trapped by a seemingly unending torment and, like Sisyphus, he continues to perform his duty no matter how useless or how insignificant his action. In both cases it matters little for what reason they continue to struggle so long as they testify to man's allegiance to man and not to abstractions or 'absolutes'. The ideas behind the development of the absurd hero are present in the first three essays of the book. In these essays Camus faces the problem of suicide. In his typically shocking, unnerving manner he opens with the bold assertion that: There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide. (p. 3).He goes on to discover if suicide is a legitimate answer to the human predicament. Or to put it another way: Is life worth living now that god is dead? The discussion begins and continues not as a metaphysical cobweb but as a well reasoned statement based on a way of knowing which Camus holds is the only epistemology we have at our command. We know only two things:This heart within me I can feel, and I judge that it exists. This world I can touch, and I likewise judge that it exists. There ends all my knowledge, and the rest is construction. (p. 14)With these as the basic certainties of the human condition, Camus argues that there is no meaning to life. He disapproves of the many philosophers who "have played on words and pretended to believe that refusing to grant a meaning to life necessarily leads to declaring that it is not

Civil Rights of a Fetus - Law, Philosophy and Religion

Civil Rights of a Fetus - Law, Philosophy and Religion The Roe majority ruling of 1973 holds that the government has a legitimate interest in protecting potential human life, but that this does not become a compelling state interestoverriding the womans Fourteenth Amendment right to privacy, and her subsequent right to terminate her pregnancyuntil the point of viability, then assessed at 24 weeks. The Supreme Court did not state that viability is or is not when a fetus becomes a person; just that this is the earliest point at which it can be proven that the fetus has the capacity to have a meaningful life as a person. The Planned Parenthood v. Casey Standard In the Casey ruling of 1992, the Court scaled back the viability standard from 24 weeks to 22 weeks. Casey also holds that the state may protect its profound interest in potential life so long as it does not do so in a way that has the intent or effect of posing an undue burden on the womans right to terminate a pregnancy prior to viability. In Gonzales v. Carhart (2007), the Supreme Court held that a ban on live intact DX (partial birth) abortions does not violate this standard. In Fetal Homicide Statutes Laws that treat the murder of a pregnant woman as a double murder arguably affirm fetal rights in a statutory manner. Because the attacker has no right to terminate the womans pregnancy against her will, it could be argued that the states interest in protecting potential life is unrestricted in cases of fetal homicide. The Supreme Court has not ruled on the matter of whether fetal homicide, on its own, may constitute grounds for capital punishment. Under International Law The only treaty that specifically grants rights to fetuses is the American Convention on Human Rights of 1969, signed by 24 Latin American countries, which states that human beings have rights beginning at the moment of conception. The United States is not a signatory to this treaty. The treaty does not require that signatories ban abortion, according to the most recent binding interpretation. In Philosophy Most philosophies of natural rights would hold that fetuses have rights when they become sentient or self-aware, which presumes a neurophysiological definition of personhood. Self-awareness as we generally understand it would require substantial neocortical development, which seems to occur at or near week 23. In the premodern era, self-awareness was most often presumed to occur at quickening, which generally takes place around the 20th week of pregnancy. In Religion Religious traditions holding that personhood rests in the presence of a non-physical soul differ with respect to the question of when the soul is implanted. Some traditions hold that this occurs at the moment of conception, but most hold that this occurs much later in the pregnancy, at or near quickening. Religious traditions that do not include belief in a soul do not generally tend to define fetal personhood in explicit terms. The Future of Fetal Rights The conundrum posed by abortion rests in the tension between a womans right to terminate her pregnancy and the potential rights of the potential human being. Medical technologies currently under development, such as fetal transplantation and artificial wombs, could one day eliminate this tension, deprecating abortion in favor of procedures that terminate the pregnancy without harming the fetus.

Challenges Library Management System Essay Example for Free

Challenges Library Management System Essay n 1981, UNESCO published a study prepared by Jean Lunn1 from Canada, Guidelines for Legal Deposit Legislation. His study is now 30 years old since its publication. Many countries have amended or significantly rewritten their legal deposit laws (Germany, Indonesia, and Norway in 1990; France in 1992, Sweden in 1994, Canada in 1995, South Africa in 1997, Denmark in 1998 and Japan & Finland in 2000). Others are in the process of doing so (Australia, India, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and United Kingdom). The forms of intellectual and artistic expressions have grown in different dimensions. New published media have been developed and electronic publications are now an integral part of many national publishing heritages. UNESCO was under pressure to bring out a revised edition of the Guideline in order to review the impact of it on other countries and to incorporate new forms of publishing, such as, electronic publications. The new revised and updated edition of the Guidelines of Legal 2 Deposit Legislation (2000, UNESCO) by Jules Lariviere is found to be a useful tool. The Indian relevant act, Delivery of Books Act 1954 (rev. 1956 to include newspapers and periodicals) has been under the scanner shortly after it was put into application and over the last five decades the National Library, Kolkata and the three other recipient regional public libraries, Connemara Pubic Library, Chennai, Central Library, Town Hall, Mumbai and Delhi Public Library, Delhi, and especially the publishing world directly involved with it, expressed concern and drew attention of the Government of India, of its limitations and ineffectiveness. The National Library, Federation of Indian Publishers (FIP) and several professional library organizations discussed its drawbacks and recommended revision or specific amendments of the act at various seminars, conferences and other forums. Ministry of Culture, the concerned agency of the government of India, set up several committees to deal with the National Library. The Recommendations of the National Knowledge Commission3 and its Working Group on Libraries (NKC-WGL, 2006) is completely silent on this and other national library related issues. It would be appropriate to draw attention to an article by 3. Challenges in Library Management System (CLMS 2012) Bandopadhyay (2000) former Director of the National Library, is exhaustive enough with a complete set of plan of action for the concerned Ministry to initiate the revision process at the earliest. As a follow up, the Ministry took some steps to obtain the views, of other stakeholders, including academics, library users group and senior library professionals. Based on these suggestions / recommendations a revised draft bill on this issue was prepared that is awaiting final clearance of the Ministry since 2006. Role of Legal Deposit Act: In simple terms Legal Deposit is a statutory obligation which requires that any organization, commercial or public, and any individual producing any type of documentation in multiple copies, be obliged to deposit one or more copies with some recognised national institution/s. It is important to make sure that legal deposit legislation covers all kinds of published material, that is, material generally produced in multiple copies and â€Å"offered to the public regardless of the means of transmission. † Public distribution could mean â€Å"performance† or â€Å"display† e.g. radio or television programme could be considered as â€Å"published† for legal deposit purposes when it has been broadcast. Within the electronic publications environment, it should be noted that a â€Å"one copy item† such as, a database , stored on one server, could be subject to legal deposit requirement since it is made available to the public through a technology enabling the public to read, hear or view the material. 5 (Lariviere ). Most countries rely on a legal instrument of some sort in order to ensure the comprehensiveness of their national deposit collection. In all countries with legal deposit system, â€Å"published material† would naturally include books, periodicals, newspapers, microforms, sheet music, maps, brochures, pamphlets, etc. In some countries audio-visual material (sound recordings, films, videos, etc. ) is also subject to legal deposit and there are several countries where electronic publications are also included into the legislation, but they have done this in different way; some have excluded on-line electronic publications because of the numerous unsolved technical problems related to their acquisition and preservation problems related to ever changing technological scenarios. Legal deposit legislation serves a clear national public policy interest by ensuring comprehensive acquisition, recording, preservation and access of a nation’s published heritage. The role of a legal deposit system is to ensure the development of a national collection of published material in various formats. It should also support the compilation and publication of national bibliography in order to ensure bibliographic control over a comprehensive deposit collection. In addition, an effective legal deposit legislation guarantees to citizens and researchers within the country and abroad, access to research collection of  the national published material. Countries are developing many different models, but are clearly unable to keep pace with the massive changes and challenges related to the deposit of intangible publications. Department of National Heritage6, UK (1997) brought out a consultative paper on current legal deposit of publication issues based on a questionnaire which identified several pertinent issues and posed a number of specific questions to which sought responses from individuals and organizations. This document could also help Indian group and the government agencies in formulating the revised DB Act. Profile of Indian book publishing Before we deal with Indian Delivery of Books Act let us first look at the present trends in book publishing in India. Over the last four decades a large majority of English language publishing has concentrated in and around the capital, Delhi. The city is also a major centre of Hindi publishing industry. With the rapid growth of higher education from 1960s and the pressure built-up within the faculties due to UGC’s policy of ‘publish or perish’ resulted in the increase of publications of research monograph. India is one of the few countries where 4 4. Invited Lectures theses and dissertations submitted for Ph. D. and other similar higher postgraduate degrees in humanities and social sciences particularly, get published as a routine matter, whereas in science and technology this would be a rare phenomenon. There is no reliable source of annual book publishing data in India or any comprehensive list of Indian publishers in different languages. D. N. Malhotra7 (2010), former President of FIP and an established publisher in English and Hindi claimed of having 15,000 20,000 publishing houses, mostly run by individuals or as single family business. According to Vinutha Mallay8 Senior Editor of Mapin Publishing, India is the sixth largest publishing industry in the world with annual growth of 15-20%; third largest publishers of books in English, around 90,000 to 100,000 books are published annually, there are about 19,000 publishers in the country; in addition sixty per cent of global publishing outsourcing is based in India. This growth trend is noticeable only from the 70s onwards when book trade turnover increased gradually due to numerical growth of educational and research institutions at every level. As we look back a few decades, the demand of English books grew fast in libraries of newly established universities, research institutions and other academic centres. Individual buyers of books constitute only a small percentage. Bulk of the titles was imported from the English speaking countries, mostly from the UK and USA based publishing houses. This book import business is largely handled by a few Delhi based book importers and distributors. To accelerate the book supply process from the shelves and warehouses the importers / distributers devised a practice of sending books on credit to academic staff and libraries, through local vendors or jobbers (newcomers in book trade to supply books ‘on approval’ basis). They were allowed to take back books â€Å"not selected† within a credit limit of six months only. Within a few years these jobbers turned into legitimate vendors with book stock of their own which could not be returned to the wholesalers within the stipulated six months credit limit. They start bookshops with the ‘dead stock’ of their own and continue to supply books to the institutions on prevailing terms and conditions. These vendors, having direct contacts with the researchers and faculty members on day to day basis, being the actual selectors in all educational institutions, get offers to publish research monographs of academics. Many of them grabbed these offers on their own terms thereby joining the exclusive club of publishers. We now find several of these vendors are retail bookshop owners, library suppliers and also publishers, all in one. Perhaps it would not be out of place to add a few words of Iain Stevenson9 on the recent trends in British publishing keeping in mind that India is claimed to be the third largest English language publishing country. ‘Since the beginning of this century, there have been strong trends in British publishing in the increase in concentration of publishing and book selling ownership balanced by healthy specialization and the second is an increasing awareness and impact of electronic media and delivery across sectors that have created a large impact across the book trade. In 2004 over 161,000 individual book titles were published in the U.K. as compared to 119,000 in 2001 and over 2. 5 times the number in 1990. Consumers spending on books reach 2436 m. sterling pounds (in 2000 it was 2000 million) out of which 30% was from the export sales. Individual buyers comprised the largest market share, about 70% of total book sale and 20% to academic institutions and corporate bodies’. Indian Legal Deposit Legislation or Delivery of Books Act 1954 and its aftermath The act, commonly referred to as DB Act10 was amended in 1956 to include newspapers and serials under its purview. Annual publishing of books in India during 1950s was small 5. Challenges in Library Management System (CLMS 2012) and below 30,000 titles, whereas by 2010 it is claimed to have exceeded 100,000 [estimated figure obtained from FIP in the absence of any official data from any reliable source] with substantial increase in the coverage of subjects, such as, science and technology. In a recent 11 Annual Report of the Ministry of Culture the National Library claimed to have received 29,875 publications under the DB Act which happens to be only 30% of the estimated total publications as indicated by senior executives of the Library in several professional forums. It was also being pointed out in such gatherings that the other three recipient libraries under this Act, in Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai received even less during the same period. It is worth noting that this was claimed to be the highest figure ever reached by the library ‘due to a special drive’12Intellectual resource (NACONAL 2006). UNESCO Statistical Yearbook is silent on the number of books published annually or the number of libraries in India over the last several decades, although India is one of the major contributors and active member of this international body. This sad state of affaire obviously reached, and continue to be, due to simple negligence of all concern. In most other countries annual publication figures were being provided by organizations declared as recipient/s under the legal deposit or copyright legislation of the country. There must be several reasons for the Library to reach in such a state and to argue, we guess, the limitations of DB Act cannot be the primary cause of it. Rigid administrative and fiscal rules and regulations adopted by the Library to operate under the guidance of the Ministry, is surely to my mind, a major factor but not the main one. The crux of the matter is National Library never received a large number of recent Indian publications under the DB Act. We do not know who all are claimed to be Indian publishers. A sizable number of them are ignorant of DB Act obligations. It is also a fact that number of ‘one time authorpublishers’ is also very high (15% – 20%) especially in vernacular languages. The National Library together with the Central Reference Library committed to bring out Indian National Bibliography(INB) based on the books received under the DB Act, similar in format of the British National Bibliography (BNB). However, neither the British Library (formerly British Museum Library) nor the Indian National Library is in any obligation under their respective legal deposit acts to bring out national bibliographies of books thus received under their respective legal deposit acts. . Bandhopadhyay13 points out,’rules and policy adopted are working smoothly for the British Library but similar regulations unexpectedly, failed to work in our case. One has to keep in mind the fact that default in U. K. is an exception rather than general rule unlike in India’. The provision of penalty for default in DB Act of Rs. 50. 00 sounds just notional. Either revise it to a figure e. g. , Rs. 1000. 00 or 4-5 times of the actual market price of single copy, whichever is higher or just make it voluntary, and hope for the best. The reason of suggesting the latter provision is to avoid the highly cumbersome and built-in procedural delay within our legal system. Since 1958 National Library did not take any legal action against one single defaulter till date. In UK and USA penalty clause is not mentioned as the legal deposit provision is covered under the country’s copyright acts. It is because of this factor legal deposit provision is genuinely more effective and acceptable to authors and publishers of these countries. It would be more realistic to suggest that National Library shall receive one copy of every Indian ‘publication’ and the three other regional repository libraries in Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai shall have the right to claim any current publication in their respective regional languages only, delivered free of cost under the revised provisions of the DB Act. The current practice of demanding four copies of every publication to be delivered free of cost to each of 6. Invited Lectures these four libraries (including National Library) failed to meet our expectations. This is in addition to what publishers have to comply with the demands of different state central libraries under the Press and Book Registration Act of 1867. Moreover, a large volume of these books and other publications, thus received, especially language publications that are not so commonly used in some regions are usually being ‘dumped’ or just temporarily stored as these are of ‘no use’ to the library. This is a colossal wastage of national resource. On the other hand it would not be cost effective to make these so to say, ‘unused books’ (four copies of each) routinely processed, provide costly storage space as well as maintaining them for the posterity in four regional libraries. The National Library shall receive one copy for preservation and access only; create bibliographic records for the benefit of all stakeholders. There are several categories of publications e. g. in English, Hindi, Sanskrit and Urdu (EHSU) languages shall find users in other three regional libraries. Let us accept the real time scenario in terms of availability and accessibility for application of information and communication technologies (ICT) within library systems. Bibliographic data of publications received by the National Library under legal deposit legislation will be accessible to others from INB and National Library catalogue / database online. These three libraries shall buy one copy of all selected books in EHSU languages, from any local vendor / publishers. Additional fund annually spend by three libraries on this account shall be reimbursed from a special annual central government grant. The proposed module is based on the British legal deposit act where the British Library, London receives one copy of every book / publication and the other five libraries (Wales National Library, Aberystwyth, Scottish National Library, Edinburgh, Oxford University, Cambridge University and Trinity College, Dublin) obtain direct from the publishers, one copy of every book of their choice, selected from the weekly list of books received in the British Library under the legal deposit act. We made an attempt to get some estimation of the annual cost of books published under these four (EHSU) ‘common languages’ from INB and the National library that would give an idea of the total fund required for the three regional libraries under the revised provision of the Act. All the three libraries receive some annual grant from the central government. The revised provision in the act will also bring some savings in terms of time and resources, as lesser number of books are to be dealt with by the libraries. Sooner than later, it  will be a reality (within a decade or so) of making available a digital copy of an Indian publication by the National Library online, that was not originally selected or received earlier to a library or an individual from its own stock within or outside the country. The technology is already in experimental stage at various levels. Slowly and gradually a large part of Indian publications will be brought out in e-format only, which will also change our current perception of borrowing or consulting a ‘book’ from a conventional library. Till we reach that stage in India and the transitional period of overlap (20 years? ) we shall carry on with both the systems as we are now have both bullock carts as well as a BMW 7e series cars on our roads for transportation. Indian library systems shall take a longer path and time to switch over to reach this goal. Moreover, any change in our library ‘modernization’ programme shall be fully dependent on application of technological innovations resulting in inevitable 14 acceptance of a never ending process. Thomas Abhram in a recent article expressed, â€Å"ebooks will be hugely cheaper with the removal of paper and inventory costs†¦. All things taken into account, books in print format are not certainly going away ever from circulation. And e-books, from a publishing point of view, are a ‘consummation devoutly to be wished’. We in India, specially the National Library are to continue dealing with print copies of books for several decades together with information resources available in e-books and or in any other format. 7 Challenges in Library Management System (CLMS 2012) Table 1: Books in Indian Languages Received in National Library LANGUAGE 2007 08 Assamese Bengali English Gujarati Hindi Kannada Malayalam Marathi Oriya Punjabi Sanskrit Tamil Telugu Urdu Total 97 991 5756 127 2370 687 1500 1400 2661 602 112 3685 248 521 20757 NL/DB Act 2008 – 09 35 1463 5385 348 1722 600 1200 1351 52 576 287 2526 145 304 15994 337 2189 5530 476 1237 877 866 1341 750 000 111 1186 406 292 15598 300 350 450 830 INB (2010) AVERAGE COST. The figures quoted above (Table-1) under Books received by the National Library under DB Act during 2007-08 and 2008-09 and those listed in INB for 2010 (CRL) were obtained from the respective libraries on personal requests. In a paper presented at the NACONAL 2006 by Mandal & Syed Abuzar15 (2006) indicated National Library received about 20,000 books annually during 1990 2002. They claimed the Library received about 30,000 during 2005-06 due to some special drive and about similar number of volumes during 2010-11as recorded in the Annual Report of the Ministry of Culture. Unfortunately we could not get breakdown of figures under each language of 29,875 books received during 2005-06 nor of INB listed figures for 2009 and 2011. The significant gap of Oriya books received during 2007-08 and 2008-09 was due to some special efforts put by the concerned language specialist during 2007. [Note:Average cost of recently published books in English, Hindi, Sanskrit and Urdu (EHSU) languages has been worked out from a sample of books procured by University of Delhi, Central Library, Central Secretariat Library and the U. S. Library of Congress, Book Procurement Centre in Delhi. We made here an estimation of annual additional grant amount to be provided by central government to support the three regional libraries (in Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai) under the proposed revised legal deposit legislation. The National Library shall receive one copy only of every Indian publication free of cost delivered by the publishers, and the three regional public libraries are to purchase one copy of any book (in EHSU languages) selected by a library from open market. The three libraries are entitled, under the law, to receive free of cost, one copy of a book published in respective regional languages. It is estimated that each library shall selectively acquire per year about 30,000 new Indian publications (10,000 EHSU + 20,000 in respective regional languages) out of about 90,000 books published annually. It means, central government shall reimburse annually the cost of 30,000 books in EHSU languages where average cost of a set of four EHSU books is Rs. 2000 or Rs. 60 million (30,000 x2000 = 60,000,000). In addition, another 10m (Rs. 10,000,000) would be required to cover annual subscription cost of EHSU periodicals and newspapers. Thus we reach an estimated figure of Rs. 70m or 7crore (add another 10% 8 Invited Lectures annually for inflation). These figures are being presented to get some idea of the extra cost we propose to pass on to the central government exchequer. ] If this revised guidelines are adopted in our legal deposit act (now under revision) by taking over the extra burden of book fund of the three regional libraries by the central exchequer then we could surely expect of getting better cooperation from the publishing fraternity in fulfilling their responsibilities towards the provisions of the revised act. Group of publishers bringing out EHSU language publications are to supply only TWO free copies, like all other publishers, one to the National Library and the other to Parliament Library. The only sensible expectation of the publishers from the CRL / National Library is to bring out a comprehensive, up to date online INB, listing all currently published titles thus received under the act and provide facilities of easy access to the readers within a reasonable time frame. Under the revised provision of the act, there is a strong opinion that Chennai based Connemara Public Library shall receive one copy free of cost, of every publication in Dravidian languages (e. g. Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu). Similarly Central Library, Mumbai shall receive books in all western Indian languages, such as Marathi, Konkani, Gujarati, etc. , and Delhi Public Library shall get publications in Punjabi, Kashmiri, etc. as commonly spoken in the three respective regions. National Library is to receive one copy of all the publications. In addition to the respective regional languages publications these three libraries shall purchase one copy of publications of their choice, in English, Hindi, Sanskrit and Urdu (EHSU), from publishers / local vendors. Total annual cost of this category of publications shall be reimbursed from central exchequer. With the introduction of advanced network technologies, libraries shall be benefitted for not to process (Catalogue / classify highest cost factor) these books as relevant data can be downloaded from INB. The second alternative is to incorporate legal deposit provision within the revised copyright legislation as done in the USA and UK. It is possible to reduce the number of defaulting Indian publishers to bare minimum. Only very recently the National Library claimed to have increased intake of publications under the Act by extensive promotional work through the media and sending direct appeal to publishers that have helped it in bringing more and more publishers within the DB Act net. Secondly, if the total number of copies of each title (an average of seven copies) under both PR and DB Acts could be drastically reduced to minimum two only, there is a hope of getting full support and cooperation of Indian publishers to go by the rule book. Third and the most important factor is to make INB up to date and bring it out at regular frequency (monthly! ) with the target of putting it online within a scheduled time frame. What we need is determination and political will to make the India’s National Library the effective hub of Indian library systems. Similarly, there are several other issues, listed below, which also require attention by both the National Library and appropriate government agencies that shall help in making India proud of its National Library. Central Reference Library (CRL): In 1971 administration of the CRL was separated from the National Library by making it a subordinate office under the Department of Culture. This was an ideal opportunity we missed, for shifting the CRL to Delhi. In the middle of 1970s Central Government created a new wing of the Central Secretariat Library (CSL) and named it as Tulsi Sadan Library to collect and provide access exclusively to all Indian language (excluding English) publications, to commemorate the 400th year of Tulsidasa (of Ramcharitmanas fame). CSL could have been merged with CRL and allowed it to operate from some temporary location till a permanent ‘home’ could be found or built at the proposed site opposite to the National Museum on 9 Challenges in Library Management System (CLMS 2012) Janpath, originally proposed by Edwin Lutyens. CRL would have been the natural choice of declaring it as the fourth recipient public library in Delhi, under the DBAct (instead of making the Delhi Public Library with reluctance, during the 1970s). Ministry of Culture is now under heavy pressure for shifting the Central Secretariat Library out of Shastri Bhavan complex due to severe space crunch and security issues. It is a fact that CSL has lost its original objective of serving information needs of all central secretariat units. Today all the ministries are having their own libraries with specialized collections to cater their respective information needs. It now serves as a general reading room for Shastri Bhavan employees. Reading for pleasure is not so common with the government employees. Central Secretariat Library is administratively a subordinate office of the Ministry of Culture. A large section of its regular visitors, viz. postgraduate students and research scholars have stopped visiting the library due to overwhelming security checks involved in getting through Shastri Bhavan. Recently several thousand volumes of its rich older collections were being disposed under executive orders to make room for babus of the Ministry. It could have been easier to find a suitable location for CRL (incorporating CSL) in Delhi during 1970s. Attempts were also being made during the 1970s and 1980s to merge the CRL with the National Library but these were also stalled by staff associations of the two libraries. During this period, management of the National Library was weak as a result, library service also suffered considerably. Central government in Delhi continued to be indecisive in taking appropriate steps while local library administration in Kolkata failed to deal with the day to day issues in any effective manner. It was more of a failure of the management both at the operational as well as policy making levels. The government allowed the National Library to drift away in the absence of any suitable action plan in place to overcome the crisis. Nor there was any move or pressure from any other corner – library professionals, media or library users’ group. This long drawn uncertainty and lack of effective management control within the National Library campus directly affected services and administration of Central Reference Library thereby putting publication of INB also on the back burner. Indian National Bibliography (INB): It started in 1958 following the British National Bibliography (BNB) format. To overcome the complexity of multi-script languages it adopted Romanization of all scripts with the descriptive part of each entry in English. This has created problems for many who are not familiar with Roman script or English language. The job of printing INB monthly issues was given exclusively to the Government of India Press in Kolkata that failed to realise, from the beginning, the importance of maintaining the production and delivery schedule. After years of persuasion by CRL the Ministry allowed printing of INB through private press. Cataloguing of every title, received by the National Library under BD Act, is first to be acknowledged by the Library then sent to CRL on record, where it will be catalogued once according to INB practices and then books shall be sent back to the National Library for re-cataloguing according to its own specified rules followed by due processing for storage. This long drawn administrative procedural factors and duplication of cataloguing  process have claimed to be a major cause of delay from the date of receipt of the publication to the time its record is found in INB followed by making it available to readers of National Library This delay factor has also indirectly discouraged publishers to follow the DB Act guidelines strictly on the pretext of not finding INB to be a regular and up to date periodical either as a reliable check list of current Indian publications or a selection tool for libraries and other stakeholders; nor their publications are found in any bibliographic record of the National Library on time. National Library takes its own time, sometime nearly two years, to allow access to the books received under the DB Act. Importance of promotion and marketing of INB did never get much support from the concerned authorities. Adoption of appropriate technologies at 10 Invited Lectures different levels of administration and access to resources has been continuously lagged behind. Most national libraries of the world are having full responsibilities of preserving and allowing access to their collections by providing adequate indexing and other access tools, e.  g. national bibliographies, subject bibliographies, annotated catalogues of special collections, many of these are now accessible online on their respective websites. We must allow the National Library for setting up National Bibliographic Division with full control of bringing out INB and to provide other bibliographic services covering pan-India in appropriate standardized formats, as required from time to time. By taking full advantage of technological advances supported by a group of committed well qualified staff the Library would be able to help in both improving and widening the scope of services to individuals as well as to provide back-up services to a large number of academic and public libraries in and outside the country. For example, the day Indian libraries in general adopt the same processing format for all new titles listed in INB,India can claim to have won half the battle in modernizing our library services and systems. Without going into details one can only highlight the fact of centralized processing initiated and applied in most national libraries which have directly and indirectly helped respective library systems of these countries. We are well aware of the fact that both the CRL and INB are as if, linked with the DB Act by an umbilical cord that needs to be focused and dealt with separately for a drastic revision. Proposals l l Title of the revised act may be â€Å"Delivery of Publications (National Library) Act. Definition of Publications shall include – all printed documents, such as, books, periodicals, serials, newspapers, e-publications including audio books, CD books, DVDs and digital online publications and /or any other reformatted or original document produced for commercial distribution, e. g. microform documents. Only one copy of all publications shall be delivered free of charge, direct to the National Library of India (or at an address specified by the Library). The act shall also make adequate provision for the three regional libraries based in Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai to receive on. Challenges Library Management System. (2016, Oct 11).

The common law and equity systems of jurisprudence Essay

The common law and equity systems of jurisprudence - Essay Example The other contribution of equity law was supplementation of common law with such concepts as injunctive relief, the trust and specific performance. The Chancellor implemented the policy of the Statute of Laborers and made decisions concerning occupational competency like negligent activity of carriers, builders, shepherds, etc. The inability of the common law to address damages due to faulty work resulted in the Chancellor’s competence in the issues of loss of wool, dead lambs, and damaged sheep. (Reilly) The majority of suits reviewed in equity court were disputes over land property involving family members. The case was initiated by the plaintiff who filed a bill of complaint which is a petition to the chancellor or an equity court. The answer followed from the defendant. The plaintiff continued with a replication while the defender answered with a rejoinder. This pleading process might continue further or may be finished a bill filing stage. In the equity court the main evidence was not an oral testimony but a written deposition based on interrogatories. (Wikipedia) The Chancellor performed the roles of both a judge and jury. So he had the right to decide cases without a jury. Unlike the common law, the Chancellor as a judge and often as a religious person relied on circumstances of cases and his conscience but not to a set of rules. Term "equitable claim" contains broad moral sense based upon general equitable considerations rather than a strict meaning of the claim involving consideration of principles of right and justice. (Equity)

Financial Strategy and planning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Financial Strategy and planning - Essay Example The decision to purchase or not to purchase rights shares ultimately rest upon the company's performance like an ordinary issue purchase decision. The likely impact of rights issue upon the market value of share, earnings per share and wealth of shareholders depend on the future prospectus of the issuing company. However, unless the company performs better, it is undisputedly say that nothing will gain by the shareholders out of rights issue. This type of financing is preferred when the company needs to fianc its expansion needs and at the same time it does not like to dilute its ownership. Unlike ordinary shares, this type of shares does not offer voting rights to the holders. Therefore, preference shareholders do not have any voice or say in the company's management. Therefore, it does not result in the dilution of ownership of ordinary shareholders. However, preference share holders are entitled to a fixed periodical dividend and the repayment of principal after a stipulated period of time. This may result in a situation where the company will be left with low distributable profit and thereby reduced earnings per share. This may ultimately lead to adversely affect the market value of ordinary shares. Loan stock is a kind of fixed income security. Loan stock is issued by a company against the loan granted by another. The holder gets fixed periodical return coined as interest and principal after the maturity period. Loans stock may be of two types, namely secured and unsecured. The secured loan stock is similar to an ordinary loan for which the borrower offers collateral to guarantee the repayment of the loan. But an unsecured loan does not have any kind of collateral with it. A secured loan stock, when an entity is issued is like debenture/bonds. The issue of loan

7 Chankras Essay Example for Free

7 Chankras Essay Chakra is a Sanskrit word meaning spinning wheel. Chakras are part of the subtle anatomy. The seven major chakras line up from the crown of the head to the base of the spine and connect to various endocrine glands. Each major chakra is directly associated with many aspects of the mind-body-spirit dynamic. When a specific chakra is closed, distorted, or congested, the perception of stress, disease, or illness may result (Seaward, 2012, p. 72.) Of the seven major subtle energy chakras, Western culture only recognizes the seventh chakra, known as the crown chakra. See more: Examples of satire in adventures of huckfinn essay The first chakra is known as the root chakra. It is found at the base of the spine. This chakra is associated with safety and security issues; it represents our foundation and feeling of being grounded (â€Å"The 7 Chakras for Beginners,† 2009.) Furthermore, the root chakra is connected energetically to some organs of the reproductive system, hip joints, lower back, and pelvic area. Some health issues that are believed to correspond with disturbances of the root chakra include lower-back pain, sciatica, rectal difficulties, and some cancers (Seaward, 2012, p. 73.) Some of the emotional issues tied to the root chakra include survival issues such as financial independence, money, and food (â€Å"The 7 Chakras for Beginners,† 2009.) This chakra is known as the seat of the Kundalini energy, a spiritually based concept that is yet to be understood in Western culture (Seaward, 2012, p. 73.) If the Western Culture were to accept the root chakra, it would promote a deep, person al relationship with Earth and nature. When one is rooted in life, they are filled with satisfaction, stability and inner strength (â€Å"The Human Chakra System,† 2009.) The second chakra, known as the sacral chakra, is associated with the sex organs, as well as personal power in terms of business and social relationships (Seaward, 2012, p. 74.) It describes our connection and ability to accept others and new experiences. It is located in the lower abdomen, about 2 inches below the navel and 2 inches in (â€Å"The 7 Chakras for Beginners,† 2009.) The sacral charka deals with emotional feelings that are associated with issues of sexuality, sense of abundance, pleasure, and self-worth. When self-worth is viewed through external means like money, job, or sexuality, this created an energy distortion in this region. Obsessiveness with material gain is believed to be a means to compensate for low self-worth, therefore, created a distortion to this chakra. Some of the symptoms associated with this chakra include menstrual difficulties, infertility, vaginal infections, ovarian cysts, impotency, lower-back pain, sexual dysfunction, slipped disks, and b ladder and urinary infections (Seaward, 2012, p. 74.) Accepting the sacral chakra would encourage people to more easily open themselves towards others, especially the opposite sex (â€Å"The Human Chakra System,† 2009.) The solar plexus chakra, located in the upper stomach region, is the third chakra. This chakra feeds into the organs of the gastrointestinal tract, including the abdomen, small intestine, colon, gallbladder, kidneys, liver, pancreas, adrenal glands, and spleen. This region is associated with self-confidence, self-respect, and empowerment (Seaward, 2012, p. 74.) It relates to our ability to be confident and in-control of our lives (â€Å"The 7 Chakras for Beginners,† 2009.) The solar plexus chakra is commonly known as a gut feeling – an intuitive sense closely connected to our level of personal power. Blockages to this chakra are thought to be related to ulcers, cancerous tumors, diabetes, hepatitis, anorexia, bulimia, and all stomach-related issues (Seaward, 2012, p. 74.) Should the Western Culture accept the solar plexus chakra, it would promote feelings of peace and inner harmony within one’s self and in life. It would allow people to accept themselves complete ly, and respect the feelings and character traits of others (â€Å"The Human Chakra System,† 2009.) The fourth chakra is known as the heart chakra. It is considered to be one of the most important energy centers of the body. The heart chakra refers to our ability to express love (Seaward, 2012, p. 74.) It is located in the center of the chest, just above the heart (â€Å"The 7 Chakras for Beginners,† 2009.) The heart is not the only organ closely tied to this chakra as the lungs, breasts, and esophagus are included. Symptoms of a blocked heart chakra include heart attacks, enlarged heart, asthma, allergies, lung cancer, bronchial difficulties, circulation problems, and problems associated with the upper back and shoulders. An important association exists between the heart chakra and the thymus gland. The thymus gland gets smaller with age and is believed to be a reflection of the state of the heart chakra (Seaward, 2012, p. 74.) The advantage those in the Western Culture would see from accepting the heart chakra involve warmth, sincerity and happiness. These energies open th e hearts of others, inspiring confidence and creating joy among them (â€Å"The Human Chakra System,† 2009.) The fifth charka is located and greatly connected to the throat. Organs associated with the throat chakra are the thyroid, parathyroid glands, mouth, vocal chords, and trachea. This chakra represents the development of personal expression, creativity, purpose in life, and willpower (Seaward, 2012, p. 74.) The inability to express oneself in feelings or creativity distorts the flow of energy to the throat chakra and is thought to result in chronic sore throat problems, throat and mouth cancers, stiffness in the neck area, thyroid dysfunction, migraines, and cancerous tumors in this region (Seaward, 2012, p. 75.) Upon acceptance of the throat chakra, individual feelings, thoughts and inner knowledge could be expressed freely and without fear. Individuals are not manipulated by other’s opinions and they are able to stay true to who they really are without fear (â€Å"The Human Chakra System,† 2009.) The sixth chakra, known as the brow or third eye, is located on the forehead, between the eye brows. It refers to our ability to focus on and see the big picture (â€Å"The 7 Chakras for Beginners,† 2009.) This chakra is associated with intuition and the ability to access the ageless wisdom or bank of knowledge in the depths of the universal consciousness. As energy moves through the dimension of universal wisdom into this chakra, it promotes the development of intelligence and reasoning skills. The sixth chakra is directly connected with the pituitary and pineal gland and feeds energy to the brain for information processing. The wisdom channeled through the brow chakra is more universal in nature with implications for the spiritual aspect of life. Diseases caused by dysfunction of the brow chakra include brain tumors, hemorrhages, blood clots, blindness, comas, depression, and schizophrenia. These types of diseases are believed to be caused by an individual’s inability to see something that is extremely important to their soul growth (Seaward, 2012, p. 75.) The biggest advantage to the acceptance of the third eye chakra is an increased ability of visualization and comprehension of things intuitively. In today’s society, too many people don’t trust their instincts (â€Å"The Human Chakra System,† 2009.) The seventh is the crown chakra. It is located at the very top of our head. It represents our ability to be fully connected spiritually (â€Å"The 7 Chakras for Beginners,† 2009.) The highest level of consciousness is reached when the crown chakra is fully open and functioning. Although no specific disease or illness may be associated the crown chakra, every disease has a spiritual significance (Seaward, 2012, p. 75.) Some of the emotional issues associated with this chakra include inner and outer beauty, our connection to spirituality, and pure bliss (â€Å"The 7 Chakras for Beginners,† 2009.) Western Culture is accepting only of this chakra. In fact, it is highly useful in acupuncture therapy. Resources MindBodyGreen. (2009, October 27). The 7 Chakras for Beginners: Healing, balancing, and opening your chakras with exercises, foods, colors. Retrieved January 10, 2013 from http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-91/The-7-Chakras-for-Beginners.html Richards, R. (2009, September 20). The Human Chakra System. Retrieved January 10, 2013 from http://www.rickrichards.com/chakras/Chakras2.html Seward, B. L. (2012). Managing Stress: Principles and strategies for health and well-being. Burlington, MA: Jones Bartlett Learning

LAN :: essays research papers

INTRODUCTION In our changing society as companies vie to stay alive; many have begun redefining their business strategies, so as to make accessibility to global and internal information easier for their employees. In order that business provide superior services than their competitors, Human Resource professionals strongly believe, that is closely linked to people's attitude about work, the evolution of employment-related laws and sociological tends. They must recognise the dynamic relationship between strategy, people, technology and the processes that drive organisations. In so keeping, SAM's Paper Manufacturing Company Limited, in trying to manage the challenge facing today's organisations, change, given the rapid advances in technology, increased globalisation and the ever present need to assure quality service and contented workers, has proposed internet access for all workstation end users. As organisations grow and develop, external and internal pressures result in changing needs. Systems and practices must be organised so that they continue to fit an organisation as its needs changes. As a result, the strategic and implementation plans are the overall blueprints that define how an organisation will deploy its capital resources, budgetary resources, and technological resources in pursuit of its goal. In providing the Internet access, research would be carried out into the type of infrastructure that is required in providing an effective Internet access service to the employee. The types of infrastructure that need to be investigated are: - <Tab/>Broadband Technology. We would look specifically at Asymmetric Digital Subscribe Line (ADSL), which is a technology used by telephone companies to provide high band with services (faster internet and data speeds) to the home and business using existing telephone cabling infrastructure (See Appendix 1). <Tab/>Routers As its name implies the router serves as a routing switchboard. It connects two or more networks and forwards data packets between them. <Tab/>Microsoft Exchange This would facilitate internal and external e-mails <Tab/>Monitoring and Managing Internet Access Techniques and products for monitoring, controlling and managing Internet access, such as "Web use reporting" which is software used to monitor and report on how a workforce uses its access to websites. In giving right of entry to an abundance of information, via the Internet, to all employees, management has taken into consideration the serious negative cost, which may occur, to both security and productivity of the employees. They have developed and put in place policies that take into consideration the use of firewalls to shield our Local Area Network (LAN) from unauthorised access and the use of Anti Virus products to prevent infection.

College: Ready Or Not, Here It Comes! Essay

Schools from all over the country are preparing for the upcoming graduations in their respective institutions whether it is elementary, secondary or college academies especially those in high school. As often said, high school is a training ground for the upcoming college adventure of teenagers – a sanctuary for students to assert themselves and prepare themselves for the stress they are bound to face once they stepped on their college universities. But sadly, students graduating from secondary schools aren’t that assured as others believed to be. Unfortunately, according to the statistics, of the ten students that will finish elementary level, only seven would move up to the secondary level and only three would finish college up to the very end. These, as researches said, are commonly caused by poverty, lack of motivation and – yes – unpreparedness. The question is how we can deem a student ready for his /her college life. What are the things a student must have to be called prepared? What are the pointers that a senior student must consider in getting ready for college? First things first, we must know what we want. Choosing a course just simply because it’s ‘in’ would get you nowhere. Instead, select the one that would fit your character as well as your interests. Most college freshmen end up flunking their courses due to this misconception. Secondly, choose a college that would fit your standards. Somewhere near your place and offers quality education at your own price. After these two, you won’t have much difficulty in getting to college. But then, we always have the third cue. It would always end with the question ‘Can I do this?’ The answer? Of course you can! You would just need to shape up yourself. You must set your mind first to your goal. Your goal: to survive college and move on with life. Then, start having the confidence in you. Remember, this is college we are talking about. You will start off with only yourself to lean on before you get to meet other people. It would also help if you try to keep the pressure from getting to you. Take a load off and relax while you’re at it. Keep in mind that your education would not prosper if you would think of it as a duty – a burden – instead of an enjoyable activity. It doesn’t matter if you get awards or not, what matters is that you are learning steadily – awards are just bonuses. If you’ll observe our current society, you can perceive that the most successful personalities were not honor students during their times. Take them as your inspiration and surely, you can get through college with lesser difficulties. It wouldn’t hurt to put some effort on to something that we want to achieve. High school, as early as it seems, is not a mere phase of your life to learn something from the books. It is a phase where we should learn both the reality of life and to build an identity of our own – to discover ourselves. We can never stop time so use it wisely. Hopefully, students wouldn’t say the words ‘College: here it comes’ but rather, the declaration ‘College: ready or not, here I come’!

Investment Companies Essay

Investors need to consider a lot of factors before investing their money in any firm. Company stability and ability to generate profits is the main attraction for any investor. Bank of America and Apple Inc are some of the most stable companies in their respective fields. Besides these are some of the highest paying industries in the world today. Bank of America Bank of America is the largest brokerage house and consumer banking franchise in the United States (Lewis, 2010, p1) during the financial crisis, bank of America posted huge losses coupled by the untimely purchase of Merrill Lynch. However in April 2010 bank of America reported a $3. 2 billion first quarter profit signifying an imminent complete turnaround for the company. Interestingly, most of the profits were generated from the trading at Merrill Lynch. The gamble to buy Merrill Lynch had paid off. With the worst of the financial crisis over, bank of America is poised to make bigger profits and reclaim its eminence that it lost to JP Chase and Goldman Sachs. Though it is unlikely to continue with the acquisitions that characterized most of its growth phase, the bank no doubt will be a big player in wealth management in the US. Long term investment in bank of America therefore will be a wise decision by an investor who is looking to capitalize to a rising stock price and dividend per share revenue. Besides, the regulations that the administration will introduce will ensure profitability and stability of the banking sector. However, given that the financial markets have not fully recovered, coupled with the impending WallStreet reform by the administration, there is likelihood that resulting volatility may eat into the company’s profits and share price. Besides, the company, like many other banks is still repaying government bailout money, a move that will affect its profits and effectively its investors. Apple Inc Dynamism describes the world of technology today. New information gadgets are introduced to the market every year. Apple is on of the companies that has emerged as a market leader challenging established giants like Microsoft and easily cutting a niche for its itself in the market. Apple prides itself with successes such as the i-Pod, the i-Tunes Store, MacBook sales, and excellent Mac OS X. Innovation to meet the ever demanding market is the main driver of apple and with its cutting edge products like the i-phone, i-pod and recently the i-pad, investing in Apple inc will be a good decision because certainly these are not the last of their products. The company has one of the highest share prices in the New York Stock exchange which stood at $140 pr share as of 2008 (Tyson, 2008, p 11). Every time people buy Apple products, it increases the company sales and profits which in return drive up the stock price (Tyson, 2008, p 11). With the continued good performance, an investor is guaranteed of good returns in the long run. While some computer and software companies saw their profits plunge during the recession, Apple’s strong position ensures continued movement of their products, a clear indicator that the company can whether big economic fluctuations and guarantees an investors returns for their money. Apple Inc. has concentrated on developing mobile gadgets but the same effort is needed in developing products like the Mac desktop. Competition from other computer and software manufacturers is stiff and an information technology company that cannot sustain the innovation trends is likely to post less sales, profits and stock price. Competitors like Microsoft and phone manufacturers like Motorola are likely to come up with gadgets that will target the entertainment industry, enterprise and high performance computing, none of which apple is well prepared for (Martellaro, 2006, p1). Expanding their niche therefore to include more products will secure the future of the company and ensure long-term stability.

Denmark, Incest, and Uncertainty in Hamlet

Denmark, Incest, and Uncertainty in Hamlet Shakespeares tragedy  Hamlet has a number of  major themes, such as  death  and  revenge, but the play also includes sub-themes, such as the state of Denmark, incest, and uncertainty. With this review, you can better understand the dramas wide range of issues and what they reveal about the characters. The State of Denmark The political and social condition of Denmark is referred to throughout the play, and the ghost is an embodiment of Denmark’s growing social unrest. This is because the bloodline of the monarchy has been unnaturally disrupted by Claudius, an immoral and power-hungry king. When the play was written, Queen Elizabeth was 60, and there was concern about who would inherit the throne. Mary Queen of Scots’ son was an heir but would potentially ignite political tensions between Britain and Scotland. Therefore, the state of Denmark in Hamlet could be a reflection of Britain’s own unrest and political problems. Sexuality and Incest in Hamlet Gertrude’s incestuous relationship with her brother-in-law plagues Hamlet more than  his father’s death. In Act 3, Scene 4, he accuses his mother of living â€Å"In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed, / Stewed in corruption, honeying and making love / Over the nasty sty.† Gertrudes actions  destroy Hamlet’s faith in women, which is perhaps why his feelings toward Ophelia become ambivalent. Yet, Hamlet is not so angered by his uncle’s incestuous behavior. To be clear, incest typically refers to sexual relations between close blood relatives, so while Gertrude and Claudius are related, their romantic relationship does not actually constitute incest. That said, Hamlet disproportionately blames Gertrude for her sexual relationship with Claudius, while overlooking his uncles role in the relationship. Perhaps the reason for this is a combination of women’s passive role in society and Hamlet’s overpowering (maybe even borderline incestuous) passion for his mother. Ophelia’s sexuality is also controlled by the men in her life. Laertes and Polonius are overbearing guardians and insist that she rejects Hamlet’s advances, despite her love for him. Clearly, theres a double standard for women where sexuality is concerned. Uncertainty In Hamlet, Shakespeare uses uncertainty more like a dramatic device than a theme. The uncertainties of the unfolding plot are what drive the actions of each character and keep the audience engaged. From the very beginning of the play, the ghost poses a great deal of uncertainty for Hamlet. He (and the audience) are uncertain about the ghost’s purpose. For instance, is it a sign of Denmark’s socio-political instability, a manifestation of Hamlet’s own conscience, an evil spirit provoking him to murder or his father’s spirit unable to rest? Hamlet’s uncertainty delays him from taking action, which  ultimately leads to the unnecessary deaths of Polonius, Laertes, Ophelia, Gertrude, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern. Even at the end of the play, the audience is  left with a feeling of uncertainty when Hamlet bequeaths the throne to the rash and violent Fortinbras. In the closing moments of the drama, Denmark’s future looks less certain than it did at the beginning. In this way, the play echoes life.

Effective Advertisement English Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Effective Advertisement English Paper - Essay Example However, not every good or service is able to reach its target audience and after all be sold out. Nowadays it is not enough just to get a right idea and implement it in production process. For making your plan work there has to be a promotion, main principles of which will manage to bring your product to customer’s awareness, position it on the market and stimulate sales. Only with a help of precisely elaborated market strategy new product is able to achieve its consumers. Carefully planned advertising campaign may ensure more than fifty percent of success. Otherwise, even a first-class product with high quality and low price can be left unnoticeable by customers. That is why today companies try to advertise their goods and services as frequently and intensively as possible, influencing people’s awareness and behavior. It is fair to mention that advertising has great power, because a lot of things depend on it. Sometimes it happens that according to bad ad, product may be left unaccepted by customers. That is why it is very essential to take into careful consideration every word of slogan, every possible image, color, font, sound or character during advertising campaign. As experience shows, not all advertisements are equally effective and successful. Sometimes producing and advertising the same goods, companies achieve different outcomes. This occurs because various companies choose various marketing strategies. Some of them manage to create the right ad, which is appropriate for customers and able to attract their attention, some do not. Creation of ads requires deep analysis of advertising product and its potential consumers. Sometimes the wrong color of written slogan may make ad unprintable and unattractive, pushing the whole idea to the failure. In this respect, it is urgent to take into account all details of ad’s design, implementing main principles of marketing. For having a clear presentation about different types of ads and also for understanding how exactly flaws of advertising can spoil attitude to the product, several ads of different companies have been chosen for further research. All companies are famous retailers of furniture. The potential audience is multi-faced, mostly family people and businessmen, who can be interested in the furniture for home and office. Advertising analysis Despite advertising’s positive return, many sociologists continue to criticize it, stating that advertisements compel consumers to buy products that they do not need. In the reality advertising is everywhere and it is quit hard to avoid it. We can see it in magazines, newspapers, brochures, booklets, billboards, placards, posters. It is broadcasted on different TV channels and radio waves. It is fair to admit that advertising is so popular due to its effectiveness. Belch stated that good ad requires serious elaboration due to significant financial losses, hence â€Å"the cost of producing a TV commercial can excee d $1 million† (237). Medium expenditure of USA for advertising in newspapers equals to 20 billions of dollars and in magazines 11.7 billions of dollars. That sources of advertising yield only broadcasting television, according to the research of Percy (87). There are several purposes of advertising. First of all, with its help companies make consumers be aware of the new products or possible novelties in design or functions of the

Literature, Business, and Social Change Paper Essay

Literature, Business, and Social Change Paper - Essay Example In contrast to the typical buyer whose main considerations are price and product quality, customers are now keen on the externalities which a manufacturer makes in a society where it operates. Social changes bring about this change in consumer attitude which companies take advantage by launching their own corporate social responsibility programs. For example, the giant retailer Target documents how it contributes 5% of its annual income to education, arts, and social services to specific localities (Target 2008). The company constantly supports projects which uplift the quality of living and improve the condition of the lower income strata. Literature plays a huge role in documenting these efforts made by business organizations in order to communicate these to the public and earn their support. It should be noted that most companies now distribute their annual corporate social responsibility report aside from their annual reports. The company also publicizes these programs through the use of leaflets, flyers, television advertisement, and even in its online website.

Robert Smithson and Ana Mendieta Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Robert Smithson and Ana Mendieta - Essay Example The paper "Robert Smithson and Ana Mendieta" discovers the art of the two artists, Robert Smithson and Ana Mendieta. Both artists use the earth as their medium. The only difference that we can see to them is the way by which they choose the medium to present their art. Smithson in his works tends to make monumental creations. His wonderful idea about making land into a form of art motivated him to come up with the Spiral Jetty in Salt Lake Utah in 1970. Eventually he became the proponent of Earth Art or land art. He called this as a site work, wherein the mere place or location becomes the artist medium or subject. Mendieta’s approach is almost the same. She also uses the earth and other things like feather etc. as her medium. The only difference that we can see is that she does intend to make monumental creation or big work as what Smithson is doing. She is unique in her symbolic approach in visual representation. She does not concentrate in making the site as her subject and medium. She mainly incorporates herself or her body to her art. These are things that Smithson has not done with his work. Most of his concepts revolve on his conceptual ideas of making the mere place or site as a form of art. There are reasons for these differences. Ana Mendieta strives not only to present a piece of art, like what Smithson is doing. Her concept is feministic, therefore bringing her earnest idea into the mediums by which she is using. She makes a lot of symbolisms in her work than what Smithson has done.

A Positive Impacts on Patients and Society as a Whole Essay

A Positive Impacts on Patients and Society as a Whole - Essay Example I have critically evaluated the nature of the nurse practitioner professional and am certain that I am equal to the task. I am certain that I have the ability and commitment to perform those responsibilities with enthusiasm and professionalism. I understand that the nurse practitioner is allowed to provide a wide range of health care services. The first health care services that nurse practitioners are allowed to provide is taking the patient’s history, physically examining the patient, as well as ordering laboratory procedures and tests. The second one is to diagnose, treat and manage diseases. Thirdly, nurse practitioners are allowed to write prescriptions and coordinate referrals. In addition, nurse practitioners are allowed to provide handouts about healthy lifestyles and disease prevention. The final main responsibility of nurse practitioners is to perform specific procedures such as lumbar puncture and bone marrow biopsy. As I seek to lead a purpose-driven life as a nurs e practitioner, I am fully aware of the variety of settings that as a nurse practitioner I can work in. these settings include neonatology, emergency, oncology, women’s health, paediatrics, cardiology, geriatrics, school health, family practice, primary care, and nephrology. I am also aware that I will be sometimes required to work in clinics in the absence of doctors’ supervision, while at other instances I will be required to work together in a joint health care team. More Importantly, I understand that I will be required to work within the authority and scope of state and federal laws.

Key Benefits And Limitations Of LCA Environmental Sciences Essay

Key Benefits And Limitations Of LCA Environmental Sciences Essay Major benefits can arise from LCA. Through the ability to analyses exchanges that take place in the environment, it enables decision-makers to select the product or process that result in the least impact to the environment. LCA data identifies the transfer of environmental impacts from one media to another and/or from one life cycle stage to another (EPA 2001). Quantification of emissions, detection of variation between the various life cycle phases, the ability to estimate environmental burden of materials, the ability to compare and contrast competing products and the potential to structure and improve the flow of data between stakeholders are just some of the obvious benefits that can be gained through adoption of LCA. Papers by Deloitte Enhancing the value of life cycle assessment and Lifecycle assessment: where is it on your sustainability agenda? provide an insight into several benefits from utilizing LCA, including (Deloitte, 2009): Innovation: Through revealing the source and magnitude of environmental impacts, product level LCA data can inform the innovation agenda. Cost savings: Clarity in relation to cost drivers can lead to increased efficiency via material and energy requirements minimizing the negative environmental impacts. Furthermore, certain investments in RD and projects related to renewable energy may be eligible for tax credits or other incentives. Internal alignment: LCA provides a common ground for internal goal-setting and communication. Different departments within an organization can unite on enterprise-wide priorities. Regulatory preparedness: LCA can help quantify the projected product cost implications of future carbon legislation and flag those areas that warrant immediate action. LCA can also enhance general transparency to deflect scrutiny from regulators and other stakeholders. Corporate reputation: LCA can demonstrate a companys deeper commitment to improved environmental impact. Improved sustainability claims can strengthen stakeholder relations. Risk reduction: LCA helps companies develop their position around environmental issues to which their operations contribute. Increases awareness of potential liabilities the company should be aware of. On top of these benefits examples of how customized LCA studies can support significant sustainability objectives include (Deloitte, 2012): Enhance brand value for competitive differentiation: Compares the environmental impact of an organizations product to alternatives to determine which benefits are distinguishable. Improve design decisions: Evaluates resource and materials use to inform product and process design decisions that increase environmental efficiencies. Make better procurement decisions: Engages multiple stakeholders and suppliers to allow organizations to make procurement decisions that significantly boost their sustainability efforts. Meet communications needs: Provides a platform for authentically communicating positive environmental attributes about products to buyers and consumers. Achieve compliance: Addresses regulatory mandates at local, national and international levels. Create better policies: Evaluates internal and external policies of the organization to determine realistic objectives. While all of the above benefits help paint a positive picture of LCA, one also has to consider the various disadvantages or limitations of such systems. As with all new and evolving systems there will always be significant teething problems during development. The more noteworthy of these include the fact LCAs utilizing the same and different methodologies can have vastly different results with assumptions, which can be subjective, being a requisite even for simple comparisons to be carried out. The validity of data is always a concern and whether the most up to date data has been used. Performing LCA is resource consuming and gathering data can be problematic. As a result, it is essential to weigh the resources needed against the projected benefits to measure feasibility. There is still no widely accepted standardised format for LCA, with most of the already existing ones such as ISO 14040 having several imperfections. Finally results of LCAs focused on national and regional level m ay not be suitable for local applications. These limitations do take some of the shine away from LCA and indicate that in essence at present LCA is fundamentally flawed given it can be near impossible in many cases to know the validity and relevance of conclusions drawn by the practitioner. While this may be true what has to be consider is that LCA is the best tool we have at present to tackle this significant area of concern. In reality the benefits of LCA far outreach its flaws and as transparency of methods and data becomes the norm its integrity will increase. What is for certain is LCA is set to become a fundamental element of product and service design. Applications and potential of LCA Applications of LCA The application of LCA has been well documented and includes supporting initiatives to assessing environmental impacts that need addressing. Studies (Frankl and Rubik, 1999; Frankl et al., 2000) have highlighted key areas of application including: Bottleneck identification Information and education to consumers and stakeholders Compare existing products with planned alternatives Compare existing company products with products of competitors Procurement specifications, supplier screening, product co-makership Internal information and training Anticipate and negotiate legislation Marketing, advertising policies joining eco-labelling criteria Environmental cost allocation Assess the gap from eco-label criteria Radical changes in product life cycle What can be taken from these findings is that there are three principle areas of application are; (1) comparison on an environmental basis which includes comparison of materials, methods and conformity. (2) In manufacturing LCA can be used to find the most ecological method through optimal material and processes selection. (3) In commercial development LCA can be used for marketing purposes and as a public informational aid (in example EPDs). In reality there are many different views among the scientific populace as to use and best practice for LCA. What is of interest is that one article by Grantadesigns in 2011 called Grantas new Guide: Five Steps to Eco Design proposed that up to 80% of the environmental footprint of a product is determined during the design phase. From this we must assume that the best application for LCA would be in the design phase via evaluation of design alternative. Potential of LCA LCA is a methodology for quantifying and assessing the potential impacts of goods and services from an environmental perspective. From this viewpoint it can be taken that LCA can be applied to any kind of product or decision where environmental impacts are of concern. This in turn implies LCA can be applied by all the different stakeholders who are invested in a product or service including governmental, non-governmental and industries. While this dissertation cannot elaborate on all the opportunities open to LCA, focus will be placed on the following areas which are of particular interest to this study: The potential of LCA at multinational corporation level The potential of LCA for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) The potential of LCA at governmental level The potential of LCA for multinational enterprises Multinational companies face important strategic decisions that help establish the direction of their environmental performance. The decision whether to adopt a global standard or not is one such decision. While specific characteristics of multinationals make the application of LCA easier including; dedicated resources made available, separate departments responsible for implementation and co-ordination, development of internal databases and operating methodologies, and the ability to influence stakeholders, among others; there are equally other factors which present significant challenges including; diverse cultural approaches and consensus on methodologies including weighting across impact categories (Schmidt and Sullivan, 2002; Reap et al., 2008), and how to integrate LCA across the whole organisation as LCA in general tend to be reserved to environmental departments. The value which can be extracted by large corporations who adopt LCA tends to be in terms of material choice, tech nology choice, infrastructure and location choice, and product and process improvement. The potential of LCA for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) While the need for environmental practices have been widely accepted in SMEs, as can be seen through the widespread adoption of ISO 14001, the adoption of LCA has being met with less enthusiasm. This is largely to do with the fact most SMEs need to focus their available resources on establishing their position in the market and cant afford to extend resources to non essential activities. However, many small and medium enterprises are now seen the economic benefits that can be reaped from LCA implementation via simplified low cost approaches. Significant advantages can be gained in the RD stage of products via material swap outs, process improvements or benchmarking (Hunkeler, 2003). One could even go as far as to say that LCA can be useful to improve credit terms as it improves resource allocation and minimises the risk of resources being spent inappropriately. The tangible benefits with regard to environmental business policy include (Hunkeler et al., 2004): reduced operating cost, improved resource efficiency, improved relations with authorities, improve external image, improved credit terms and reduced overheads. It is also worth noting that the addition of LCA will add value for firms in their IPO (initial public offering) as it will be recognised that the company will be more likely to be sustainable with future environmental requirements. The potential of LCA at governmental level The pattern to which goods and services are produced and consumed is established and controlled via government regulated frameworks and conditions. LCA falls within the reams of sustainable development and is of key importance in addressing waste and emissions attributes of products and services. Government activities are ongoing in regards to LCA with supporting strategies becoming widespread. This has led to the development of several nationally managed databases along with new methodologies and tools. Government bodies, including the departments of environment, energy and defence etc., are now active in supporting LCA development via conducting case studies and making data available. Websites have been developed and product orientated environmental policy is evolving, none more so than in the European Union (EU). In its Communication on Integrated Product Policy (COM (2003)302), the European Commission concluded that Life Cycle Assessments provide the best framework for assessing the potential environmental impacts of products currently available. There is an understanding within the EU for the need of life cycle thinking in stakeholder consultations and in policy implementation. There is an acknowledgment that information from LCA can support public policy making in eco-design criteria setting, such as contributing to performance targets within the Environmental Technology Action Plan (ETAP) and for energy-using products within the EuP Directive, in green public procurement (GPP), and in environmental product declarations (EPDs) (European commission, 2003). However, consideration has to be giving to the fact that LCA is only a decision supporting tool, and not a decision making tool. While advances aid its progression it is still limited with regards economic and social impacts, along with local environmental issues. As a result it can only be utilised in support of other tools to aid detection of potential improvement areas. Policies, Laws, Standards and Incentives Life-cycle analysis (LCA) is not a new phenomenon with scientists and manufacturers increasingly using it to expose opportunities to reduce environmental impacts of products and services, from cradle to grave. This has led to the rise of policies, legislation, standards and incentives in the race to control and maximise the potential of this rapidly expanding sector. Policies LCAs offer the opportunity to shift the traditional policy basis away from waste and resource amounts to one where the potential environmental impacts they cause is the focus and in so far as is feasible the related consequences to humans and the ecosystems is catered for. Laws While traditionally focus has been on reducing impacts of production processes, the responsibility is now being extended to manufacturers to reduce the impacts of products as well. This extension of manufacturers responsibility to cover the entire lifecycle of a product is known as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). The EC Sixth Environmental Action Programme Environment 2010 emphasises the importance of product policy which is also reflected in the Integrated Product Policy. Standards The International Organization for Standardization introduced the ISO 9000 series quality management standards in 1987. These were later followed in 1992 by various environmental standards known as the ISO 14000 series. These voluntary standards require verification by an external certification body to obtain the ISO certificate. In the ISO 14000 series there is a family of standards to choose from, so when you want to get environmentally certified you need to consider which best matches your requirements. The point of note in relation to the ISO 14000 series is that it is generic, meaning any business, regardless of size or sector can apply. The following provides a brisk overview from a European perspective of the main policies, laws and standards where the life-cycle approach is emphasised as an important element. Table : Overview of relevant policy, law and standards (Developed with data from European commission and Irish department of environment) Designation Class Foundation Title Subject matter Policy Framing policy 06/2008 Sustainable Consumption and Production Action Plan, (SCP) This communication sets out the measures to deliver more sustainable consumption and production, while improving the competitiveness of the European economy. It builds on several EU policies including the renewed Sustainable Development Strategy. The Community Lisbon Programme for 2008-2010 includes the promotion of an industrial policy geared towards more sustainable consumption and production as one of its major orientations (European commission, 2008). Framing policy 12/2005 EUs thematic strategy on the sustainable use of natural resources The objective is to reduce environmental impacts linked to resource use in a growing economy enabling sustainable development (European commission, 2005a). A review carried out by the Bio Intelligence Service in 2010 indicates the integration of key concepts conveyed by the resource strategies have had a positive but partial influence with the clear need for clear objectives and targets, and the establishment of data centre for natural resources being highlighted (Mudgal et al., 2010). Framing policy 12/2005 EUs thematic strategy on prevention and recycling of waste Describes a number of key objectives as part of an evolving EU policy on waste including; Prevent waste, Promote re-use, recycling and recovery; and Establish the European recycling society. The aim of this strategy is to reduce the negative impact on the environment that is caused by waste throughout its life-span, from production to disposal, via recycling. The objective is that every item of waste is seen not only as a source of pollution but also a potential resource to be exploited (European commission, 2005b). Framing policy 06/2003 Communication Integrated Product Policy (IPP) Aims to support the realisation of environmental product innovations in order to achieve a broad reduction of all environmental impacts along a products life cycle (Commission, 2001). Due to the nature of products, IPP cannot consist of a single general policy instrument, a variety of measures must be employed to achieve the IPP objective (In example standards or so-called soft environmental policy instruments such as activities regarding voluntary agreements or environmental labelling.) (Rehfeld et al., 2007). European Commission, Integrated Product Policy Communication (IPP), 2003 states LCA is the best framework for assessing the potential environmental impacts of products, but the debate is ongoing about good practice with the European commission committing to; developing a handbook on best practice, Co-ordinating to make data more accessible and systematically collected, Regularly update directory of LCA databases, and develop a platform to facilitate communication and exchanges . All of the above commitments have or are in the process of being delivered. Specific instrument 2005 revised 2009 Eco-design directive Provides for improving the environmental performance of energy related products (ERPs) through ecodesign and prevents distinct national legislations on environmental performance becoming obstacles to the intra-EU trade. The ecodesign requirements must not lower the functionality of a product, its safety, or have a negative impact on its affordability or consumers health. The Directive is under the responsibility of DG Enterprise and Industry and DG Energy (European commission, 2012b). Specific instrument 2005 Energy-using products (EuP) Directive The main objective of the EuP Directive is to bring about improvements in energy efficiency throughout a products lifecycle, from cradle to grave. Its focuses on the design phase as it is considered that up to 80% of the environmental load of a product is fixed during design. EuP is a Framework Directive which outlines the legal context within which implementing measures will be developed and targeted at particular product groups (Premier Farnell, 2009). Specific instrument 1/2004 Environmental Technology Action Plan (ETAP) The plan covers a range of actions to promote eco-innovation and the take-up of environmental technologies including: promoting research and development, mobilising funds, helping to drive demand and improving market conditions. Information from LCAs can contributing to meeting performance targets within the Environmental Technology Action Plan (ETAP). In Ireland specific consideration will be given to projects that have the potential to address the three specific challenges identified in the Environmental Protection Agencys (EPA) State of the Environment Report 2004, namely: eutrophication of surface waters, meeting international commitments on air emissions and better management of waste (Department of the Environment, 2012a). Specific instrument 2008 Green public procurement (GPP) Defined in the Communication (COM (2008) 400) Public procurement for a better environment as a process whereby public authorities seek to procure goods, services and works with a reduced environmental impact throughout their life cycle when compared to goods, services and works with the same primary function that would otherwise be procured. The EU committed to aiming to achieve by 2010 a proposed a target of 50% of all the EUs public procurement tendering procedures to be green. Although this target has not been met a recent report monitoring the uptake of GPP found 26% of the last contracts signed in the 2009-2010 period by public authorities in the EU included all core GPP criteria with 55% of these contracts having at least one EU core GPP criterion, showing that some form of green procurement is being done at a large scale (European commission, 2012c). In Ireland the GPP national action plan has been developed to make half the estimated à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬15 billion in public spendi ng to meet green procurement criteria (Department of the Environment, 2012b). Specific instrument 2002 and Under review Environmental product declarations (EPDs) Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) are life-cycle based ecolabels that disclose the environmental performance of the product, similar to nutrition information labels. In France a law was passed in 2007 the Grenelle Environment which requires environmental product declarations for all mass produced consumer goods. 2012 has seen experiments begin to establish best practice to implement this law. The European Commission is following suit and has begun a program to develop guidance on environmental product declarations indicating this will be widespread shortly. Specific Instument 1992 Eco-labelling Is in general a voluntary scheme where producers, importers and retailers can choose to apply for the label for their products. Ecolabel criteria focus on the stage / stages with the highest environmental impact during a products life cycle. By the end of 2011, more than 1,300 licences had been awarded, and at present, more than 17,000 products have the EU Ecolabel. A licence gives permission to use the EU Ecolabel logo. (European commission, 2012d). Laws Legal requirement 2003 Restriction on the use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (RoHS) Adopted in 2003 by the European Union the directive took effect in 2006 becoming law in each member state. It restricts the use of six hazardous materials in the manufacture of electronic and electrical equipment. It correlates with the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE) 2002/96/EC which is part of a legislative initiative to reduce toxic e-waste. Legal requirement 2002 Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) The WEEE Directive 2002/96/EC is an EU Directive founded on the principle of Producer Responsibility and its general objectives are to prevent waste of electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and to improve the environmental performance of all operators involved in the life cycle of such including producers, distributors and consumers (European commission, 2012e). Legal requirement 2000 End of Life Vehicles Directive 2000/53/ EC of the European Parliament on end of life vehicles was developed to limit or exclude the presence of dangerous substances including lead, cadmium, chromium IV and mercury in vehicles with the purpose of minimising their environmental impact. In 2006, the target for reuse and recovery was a minimum of 85% of the materials rising to 95% in 2015 with most major OEMs such as Ford, Honda etc on the way to meeting these targets. Legal requirement 1994 EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive 94/62/EC This directive regulates the heavy metal content of, and recovery of any packaging put on the market. Implemented in Ireland through the Waste Management (Packaging) Regulations S.I. No. 61 of 2003 as amended by the Waste Management (Packaging) (Amendment) Regulations S.I. No. 871 of 2004. While it should be noted the directive is under review at European level, the legislation is now well developed in Ireland with waste recovery schemes like REPAK in place. Legal requirement 2007 Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) REACH came into force in 2007 with the aim to ensure a high level of protection of human health and the environment from the risks that can be posed by chemicals, the promotion of alternative test methods, the free circulation of substances on the internal market and enhancing competitiveness and innovation (European commission, 2012f). Manufacturers have to register each substance, assess the risks it poses and pass on the safety information to downstream users. Legal requirement 2006 Batteries Directive Directive 2006/66/EC prohibits placing certain batteries and accumulators with mercury or cadmium content above a fixed threshold on the market and promotes a high rate of collection and recycling of waste batteries and accumulators. The aim is the reduction of hazardous substances (mercury, cadmium and lead) dumped in the environment (European commission, 2012g). Standards Voluntary 1997 revised 2000 and 2006 Life cycle assessment: ISO 14040/44 When concerned with the environmental impact of a new or existing product, it may well be beneficial to carryout a complete life cycle assessment. In such a case you would look to the ISO 14040 certificate. It evaluates the products LCA framework and is intended to make reliable and reusable assessments. It endeavours to provide a clear overview of the findings to stakeholders, including those who have limited knowledge of life cycle assessment. The specific requirements and guidelines for LCAs are in ISO 14044. Voluntary 2001 Environmental site assessment: ISO 14015 This International Standard provides guidance on how to conduct an Environmental assessment of sites and organizations (EASO) through a systematic process of identifying environmental aspects and environmental issues and determining, if appropriate, their business consequences. Voluntary ISO 14020 1998 rev 2000 ISO 14024 1999 ISO 14025 2000 rev 2006 Environmental product declaration (EPD), Labelling: ISO 14020/24/25 ISO 14020/24/25 will help you label your product. It includes quantified data which helps ensure environmental data published is of a certain quality. These product labels are built upon the Life Cycle Assessment which means the information generated is relevant, verified and comparable. Voluntary 1999 Environmental Performance Evaluation: ISO 14031 When you dont require a certificate and just want to measure your environmental performance, this document gives guidance on environmental performance evaluation. It provides management with reliable and verifiable information on an ongoing basis through its Plan-Do-Check-Act system (PCDA). Voluntary 2002 Integrating environmental aspects into product design and development: ISO 14062 Guidance standard providing generic instruction on how to incorporate environmental criteria into product design and development. It can act as a reminder or a checklist and is applicable to all industry sectors. Other industry sectors have developed similar standards including:- Standard ECMA 341, Environmental design considerations for electronic products developed by ECMA International. EN/BSI 13420:2000 Packaging Requirements for packaging recovery by material recycling. BS/EN 13193:2000 Packaging and the environment Terminology. Voluntary 2006 Impact on Climate Change: ISO 14064 ISO 14064-1:2006 facilitates quantification and reporting of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and reductions. It provides stakeholders with an integrated set of tools to achieve their objectives and it enables participation in emissions trading schemes using a globally recognised standard. Voluntary/ Under construction N/A Product Carbon Footprint: ISO 14067 Strives to standardize the maze of product carbon footprint approaches. Voluntary/ Under construction N/A Water Footprint: ISO 14046 Aims to establish harmonized metrics for water footprints. Other Voluntary 2008 GHG Protocol Product Standard This is a product life cycle accounting and reporting standard developed by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD). This standard is to a large extent in compliance with ISO 14040/44, except it is explicitly focused on greenhouse gas accounting.