Slam Dunk and Hook Essay Example

Slam Dunk and Hook Paper Small traumas and small breaks – this is how we played. Our shoes were dirty, but we didnt stop playing. Dirt on our shoes didnt mean anything to us, when we were playing. We were running so fast, that our yard seemed like the labyrinth of the houses, in which we actually lived. The whole picture looked like we ourselves created this picture. I now think that we could play this way forever. We might have been viewed by others as the crowd of running bodies with no exact lines – a mixture of movements†¦ and then a loud sound†¦ and the ball simply falls off the rim. The noise of balls being beaten against the ground was never unpleasant. Our bodies were tall and lanky; in this constant running our bodies comprised nothing else but feet, hands and eyes. These were enough to play good, and the sound of our game created a nice rhythm. The girls were always watching our games, and when we turned our heads towards them, we felt so delightful, that it seemed we could fly.The girls smiled, and it was the best expression of their approval – they liked how we were playing. We fell, and each muscle of our bodies could be seen. Our playground was too simple – just a metal hoop on the oak, but it was enough for us to experience the best emotions. The game was a revelation for us; it was a refuge, in which we were hiding in grief and sorrow. Sonny Boy was my friend, and when his mother died, he could find his consolation only in playing – he was playing all day long, trying to forget his tragedy. We didnt stop playing. Our bodies sweated, but the ball was still in our hands. We had a trouble when we hit the ball with an open palm, but we ran further, and almost glided along the open space. We did have traumas, we didnt have much free time to rest, but the game was so fascinating, that we didnt even realize what we could physically perform. Our bodies seemed to have no bones. We knew that playing was joy for us, and we knew it made us beautiful and brave, sometimes even dangerous.;

Change in Medical Marijuana Essay

Change in Medical Marijuana Essay Change in Medical Marijuana Essay Final Draft May 3, 2013 Barrett, D. (2009, Feb. 7) Change in U.S. Medical Marijuana Policy Likely The Times West Virginian Retrieved 4,29, 2013 From, Http//:timeswv.com/headline news/x681698441/change-in-us-medical-marijuana-policy-1 A hopeful change in U.S. medical marijuana policy is likely, (Barrett, D 2009) to happen. The White House and Drug Enforcement Administration will not say for sure, but there could be some changes made. In 2009 it was said that, â€Å" Experts believe the Obama Administration will change the strategy and the law on medical marijuana†. (Barrett, D. ) 2009). â€Å" The President believes that federal resources should not be circumventing state laws, and as he continues to appoint senior leadership to fill out the ranks of the Federal Government, he expects them to review their policy with that in mind† said White House spokesman Nick Shapiro (Barrett, D. 2009). Thirteen states have laws permitting the use of medical marijuana: California for instance is unique for the presence of dispenser Aries, and businesses that sell marijuana, though dispensaries are illegal under federal law. It might be the law, â€Å"but contradicts the medical marijuana position of the power of the new president† (Barrett, D. 2009). Over time the Obama Administration eventually will instruct the Department of Agriculture empathetically to cut back on raids of dispensaries to conduct raids only on businesses. Who is to say the government can play the role of God and decide if a person is in pain or not? West Virginia is not one of the thirteen states medical marijuana is legal, it should be. I am speaking from experience with my mother who had multiplemyoloma, who was in a lot of pain, and

The Philospohy of Knowledge Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

The Philospohy of Knowledge - Essay Example What we think is important; How we think is important. Epistemology is all about how we think, what we think and what is fundamental to perfect such a thinking process! Some of the important questions related to Epistemology are: What can we know? Why do we know some things, but not others? How can we know it? Is knowledge possible? How do we acquire knowledge? Can knowledge be certain? Why do we believe certain claims and not others? How can we differentiate truth from falsehood? The beauty of the questions is, none of these can be answered in their finality. In every breath of the human being a thought is involved; in every thought of a human being, a breath is involved. Every breath is an action; every action has the opposite reaction. Normally, a human being breathes 22,000 times in a day. Every breath of the human being is part of his thinking process. The gigantic scope and responsibility of epistemology can be understood by this simple illustration, as it is the all-pervading subject related to the entire humankind.

Sociology 269 - Globalization Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Sociology 269 - Globalization - Assignment Example Thus, technological advancement has promoted globalization in several ways. Globalization is not necessarily just the exchange of products among countries. Even the live chat people sitting hundreds of thousands of miles away from one another do promotes globalization in its way. Thus, most of the things we do on a daily basis on individual and collective level promotes globalization on a micro or a macro level. Globalization has opened the gate to multiculturalism that is omnipresent in the contemporary age. Today, when I look around in my classroom, I can see Japanese, Chinese, Indians, Mexicans, Americans, Koreans, Arabs and Indonesians. There are people from every culture, every religion, every class and every ideology around me. This is one of the fundamental reasons why democracy has been encouraged so wildly all over the world in the recent years. From nursery to the high school to the college to the workplace, multiculturalism is everywhere! I am a student of the Grant MacEwan University. When I look around, I can find something from almost every country I place my finger upon while rotating the globe ball. In my University, the Grant MacEwan hoodie is made in Canada, the Grant Macewan sweat pants are made in Honduras, the ball pen in its campus’s book store is made in Japan, Lays Chips in the campus’s convenience store are made in USA, the pocket hair comb in the same store has been retrieved from China, coffee available in its food outlets is made from the coffee beens imported from Mexico while fresh oranges are produced by the farmers in USA. Today, Africa is fed the same Nestle products that are consumed in the United States of America. A man in Pakistan is eating the same mango as another in Chicago. Persian rugs glorify the mansions of American elite. Chinese cuisine is endorsed by the people of Texas and Japanese cars are being driven on

Shipboard Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Shipboard Management - Essay Example When the ship is tilted the life boats cannot be released, so the warning system must alert passengers before the tilt takes place. In this condition the passengers did not understand the advantage of taking life rafts and use the life vests on the ship. By the time they understood the situation is out of control. The life rafts were not easy to use and board. They over turned when used by the passengers. It is difficult to assemble them by the people on board. This did not ensure any protection to passengers at the time of accident The supervision regarding the safety measures was not up to mark as some rafts were checked repeatedly and some were left without checking. This caused the destroying the roofs of the rafts for identification by the rescue helicopters. As there are many people to be rescued the number of helicopters did not comply with the need. They were over crowded. The number of rescue crew that came with the helicopters was not enough when compared to the number of p eople to be rescued. The investigation through the video tapes revealed the bow door failure. The failure was due to separation of it from the ferry. The ramp and screen of the bow were damaged and there is no supervision regarding it. This disturbed normal safety measures implementation. The video monitoring that should be done was limited to some part of the vessel only and the bow door and the adjacent parts were not monitored by it. The monitoring of the video was up to that extent only that it is useful after the accident to estimate that up to how much extent and in how much time the water entered the vessel. 1 The crew in operation also did not know about these lapses. Had they know it, they might have reversed the ship which could have avoided the accident by sinking in deep water. This reveals the communication gap between the administration of the ship and crew in operation. After this a joint agreement between different states took place to influence and amend the administrative issues regarding the prohibition of inspection. Not only did the investigations about the sinking of the vessel, the investigation set a stage for enacting further safety measures on board of every vessel. The commissioner for wrecks, Mr Justice Sheen stated that it was the duty f the officer loading the main vehicle deck to see that the bow doors were safe and secure before leaving the harbour. Not only in this case the commissioner found after this investigation that this safety instruction was regularly violated by number of managements of the ship and other officers who monitor the loading of vehicle deck. In this particular case it was found that the officer left the responsibility of closing the bow doors to his assistant. This comes under the violation of standing instructions. The commissioner criticized the ship management company regarding the violation of safety measures and stated the need of considering the strict compliance to the safety measures. When the above statement of commissioner was considered the main responsibility of the disaster lies with the chief officer, his assistant and senior master who was responsible for the monitoring of implementation of the safety measur

The Logistics Performance Indicators And Importance Commerce Essay

The Logistics Performance Indicators And Importance Commerce Essay Logistics encompasses a complex set of activities which require a collection of metrics to adequately measure performance. Chow et al. (1994) were probably the first to attempt to define supply chain (logistics) performance and they presented some measures for measuring logistics performance. Since then, most of the literature on logistics performance appears to focus on models and frameworks (Clarke and Gourdin, 1991; Mentzer and Konrad, 1991; Rao and Grenoble, 1991; Hubbard, 1992) and on managing different aspects of logistics (Larson, 1994). Sink and his colleagues have defined seven dimensions in order to capture their conception of what performance means: they are effectiveness, efficiency, quality, productivity, quality of work life, innovation and profitability/budgetability [International Journal of Logistics Management]. Given the lack of any universally definition for performance in the organizational literature, it should not be surprising that extant literature offers many ideas about the dimension that ought to be incorporated into a conceptualization of logistics performance. One of the best examples is the framework presented by Rhea and Shrock, where physical distribution effectiveness is defined as the extent to which distribution programmes satisfy customers [International Journal of Logistics Management, 5, p. 3] While measuring logistics performance, a comprehensive strategy of measurement is necessary for the successful planning, realization and control of the different activities which comprise the business logistics function ( Andersson et al. (1989). As Thor (1994, pp. 13-28) correctly advocates, there should be a whole family of measures. This is a balanced collection of four to six performance measures, usually including productivity, quality and customer satisfaction, which together furnish an all-inclusive view of results but, individually, also provide a diagnostic value. Developing such an approach, Mentzer and Firman (1994) claim that the management and control of logistics performance entails four broad aspects: Information systems to collect and report performance measures Efficient performance measures Variance analysis Corrective action Productivity within the performance scenario can be seen as a measurement of resource utilization, including the time element. The productivity philosophy and its improvement has been a high priority, in the first instance, in manufacturing, then in marketing, and later in physical distribution and materials management. Thus, the time is now ripe to focus on the whole logistics process. It is the shape of the organizations physical manifestations which is largely influenced by the nature of the values, beliefs and underlying assumptions of logistics management (Ericsson (1990, pp. 42-49). Quantitative metrics of supply chain performance can be classified into two broad categories: Non-financial and financial. In fact, in the late 1880s financial measures were mainly focused such as return on investment (Christopher, 1992; Schermerhorn et al.,, 2000). However as the second progressed during 1980s, the world market changed and companies began to lose market share to overseas competitors who were able to provide higher-quality products with lower costs and more diversity. To re- capture the competitive edge, companies not only directed their strategic focus from low-cost production to quality, flexibility and short lead time, as non-financial measures. (Bower Hout, 1988; Rushton Oxley, 1989; Stewart, 1995) Logistics performance measures can be categorized into two categories such as qualitative and quantitative measures. Qualitative measures include such as customer satisfaction and product quality etc., and quantitative measures include such as order-to-delivery lead time, supply chain response time, flexibility, resource utilization, delivery performance, etc. It has been suggested that the critical elements that form the basis of logistics management are time, distance and money. Some utilization, productivity and effectiveness metrics used in the logistics management are: Dimension Metric Example Utilization Actual input/norm input Area of warehouse occupied/ total area Productivity Actual output/actual input Ton-miles delivered/cost incurred No of orders processed/ no of hours of labor Effectiveness Actual output/norm output No of shipment on-time/no of shipment sent Utilization measures: They are used to track the use of input resources in process. In logistics, input could be characterized as financial, physical assets or inventory. Utilization metrics include the following: Spending measures Purchase price variance Distribution cost as percentage of sales Variance of transportation cost from budget Non financial resources measures Usage ratios Amortized costs Inventory measures Static metrics (capture level of inventory expressed in physical, financial or other terms) Flow metrics (capture speed of inventory as it flows through the system over a period of time) productivity measures Partial productivity measures (SFP-single factor productivity ratios ) Total factor productivity measurement Financial productivity measurement (ROI-return on investment )( (Frameworx, 2005) Effectiveness metrics Order fill rates( order filled /orders requested Line item fill rates( total line items not filled / shipped in time per period Damage rates (line items damaged per order) Order cycle time (elapsed time between receiving request and delivering order) Delivery or transit time (elapsed time between readying order for shipment and delivery order)( DfT, 2004) On-time ( orders shipped on time or orders received by customer on time ) Perfect deliveries (orders received by customers with no logistics service fullness) Importance of performance metrics: Implementing performance measures is a key to optimizing the supply chain. That reflects the entire process, rather than the individual components that make up the process. Managers can obtain a better picture of the process by focusing on the entire supply chain, rather than its individual parts. This is vital to emphasize the vital importance of the logistics process to the rest of the company and how logistics can affect the financial stability of the organization as a whole. (Rick J Blasgen, 2007) The effectiveness of supply chain of a company heavily affects its profitability and survival. Surprisingly few companies appear to have effective measures of each business process within the supply chain or information systems which readily produce the data necessary to drive improvement forward. Within the supply chain, logistics are considered to be the link between production/purchasing and marketing. Controlling logistics performance is a major concern for management. This is mainly because of the constantly changing environment and unforeseen events which may affect forecast performance levels. (Anonymous 1997) Three major reasons for measuring logistics performance: Reduce their operating costs Drive their revenue growth Enhance their shareholder value Example: By using the latest logistics performance indicators Dell has successfully become the dominant market player in the personal computer industry. It derives its growth because of mass customization, efficient supply chain management and reduced delivery time. In the era of global supply chains and mass customization, Dell has maintained close linkage of logistics. Dells performance measurement, manufacturing, logistics and shipping and strategies make it possible to customize computers for individual consumers at a low cost. It has successfully implemented low cost strategy through its efficient manufacturing operations, better supply chain management, reduced cycle time and direct sales model. orders are directly taken from its customers; either on phone or online. Thus, this reduces the cost of intermediaries that would otherwise add up to the total cost of PC for the customer. Dell also saves time on processing orders that other companies normally incur in their sales and distribution system by having latest performance measurement tools. Moreover, dell is able to get a clearer indication of market trends by directly dealing with customers. A two-to-three point cost advantage is also obtained by delaying assembly until a customers order is received (King, 2005). Three or four days finished inventory is kept on hand versus 30 to 45 days worth at some competitors. Parts inventory is replenished as often as every 90 minutes. an additional four or five points cost edge is brought by supply chain efficiencies derived from lean inventory management.(William Hoffman, 2005) Conclusion In todays severe competitive market place, product or service differentiation separates the winners from the losers. Mostly, the service differentiation is achieved by managing the logistics process efficiently and effectively. To achieve excellence in logistics, successful firms have to ensure that the firms business strategy is aligned with the key logistics processes and they are measured against predetermined performance objective The approach that a firm takes in establishing logistics measurements system does not matters a lot as the real value come when the information is acted upon to align the effectiveness and efficiency of the logistics process performance to value the customers. The role 3PL can have in your success is dependent on when you start measuring your logistics performance (james S. Keebler and David A. Durtsche 2007).

Literature Review :: essays research papers

Evaluation of a Mental Health Treatment Court with Assertive Community Treatment 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This article studied the effect of Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) versus Treatment as Usual (TAU) on the life satisfaction ratings, psychological distress, level of functioning, substance use issues, and criminal activity of mentally ill residents of the Santa Barbara County Jail. The study administered four instruments to measure these variables. They used the Behavioral and Symptom Identification scale, the Lehman Quality of Life Scale, the Addiction Severity Index and the Global Assessment of Functioning to measure the effects of treatment. They also viewed arrest records to obtain criminal activity information. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A true experimental design was used. Participants who met the criteria for the study where randomly assigned to a control group, which received Treatment as Usual and a treatment group that was provided Assertive Community Treatment. Assessments were given at the start of the program, in six-month intervals, and then at the end of the program. This indicates a time trial type of method, but a pre-test and post-test were conducted. 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Repeat offenders in the county jail who had been diagnosed with mental illnesses where the population studied. 4.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The study indicated that inmates who received ACT and TAU both showed improvement in all areas studied. They found however, that participants in the ACT group reported higher levels of success in reducing drug problems and gaining independent living skills. This would help me in my profession, as I may be able to work in a jail and help repeat offenders become more independent and have fewer drug problems by providing them with Assertive Community Treatment. Effectiveness of Brief Counseling in Reducing HIV Risk Behavior in Injecting Drug Users†¦ 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This article studied the effect of Brief Counseling on the risk behavior of injection drug users entering heroin detoxification treatment. Participants were recruited based on counselor availability, were given a pre-test, randomly assigned to receive either a 50-minute counseling or a packet of educational brochures. A post-test was then administered after three months to see if the individuals had participated in less HIV risk behavior. HIV risk behavior was measured using a questionnaire at pretest and again at subsequent follow-up interviews. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This study was a true experimental design and used the pre-test/post-test format. The subjects were randomly assigned to two groups, given a treatment, and then post-tested. 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As mentioned above, the population studied was heroin users entering a detoxification clinic in San Francisco. 4.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The study did not find significant differences between those assigned to counseling or those who received educational brochures in the reduction of risk behavior.