Reflection on Concussions

I learned many things from the completion of my senior exit project. My research has taught me the most because it furthered my thesis statement. The research proved that if the padding was reorganized and strategically placed into the helmet, that more protection would be offered to players and the severity of the injuries would be significantly less. When I discuss this topic with my teammates, they strongly agree with my new placement of the padding because they themselves have suffered concussions and other serious injuries due to the poor choice of padding placement in helmets.I have also suffered many injuries myself due to the lack of properly placed padding, but I have never had a concussion. I learned many things about myself throughout this project. I learned that I can manage my time a lot better than I thought and stick to scheduling in order to complete this project without getting distracted. I demonstrated that I am able to do extensive research on a topic that I am in terested in as well as being involved with by being an athlete, without getting bored.Lastly, I learned I can push myself to strive to be my best. In the past I have struggled with staying on task and battled Attention Deficit Disorder which I thought would have hindered my progress, but to my surprise, I was able to finish this project with confidence. I feel that I possess the qualities needed to succeed later in life because my confidence has risen. The research developed, gathered, analyzed, and studied from this project has helped me to gain a new perspective of myself when it comes to studying and working hard.

The Knowledge Taught in Vain

If you were to ask a teenager today if he or she would rather study or watch television, what do you think the answer would be? From what I have seen in myself when I was a teenager and in almost everyone that I meet, nobody would rather study. Today's fast food culture has sucked the beauty out of individual thought and the acquirement of knowledge. Schools give an insufficient amount of knowledge on a variety of different topics and sub-topics without any encouragement of critical thought and analysis on the knowledge. Indeed, if schools required children to do so as a part of their education then the politicians, people of elite status, and teachers would be shown that the way they have been doing things, and they way they are doing things, is wrong. Some people who do actually think about things and disagree are rare not only because it's hard to find interest in something public education has made arbitrary but because doing so results in being a social outcast. Some still disagree anyway. It is not allowed in the classrooms so they drop out of schools, die their hair black, get body piercings, become pessimists, and become stereotyped as trash to express their rebellion against being trained to think in a way that does nothing but confuse thought itself. The simple fact is that if young people were encouraged to change our current situation instead of being cast out and beaten down, these same tattooed drug addict losers would be Nobel Prize winners. Its not these rebels that are causing environmental problems, sucking up all the available resources at the expense of people living in poverty, and sending American jobs across the Mexican border for the sake of a greasy buck. It is not the individualist envisionary artists we call elements of a demoralized young generation that are over taxing the people to build machinery for wars that, most of time, are none of our damn business. It is not the gun carrying gangsters that are engaging in the politics of deception and manipulation to lie to the majority of â€Å"honest† people in this country and take their money to fulfill their bloodthirsty wallets at the cost of peoples lives. These proprietary social outcasts are defense mechanisms that result from the disgusting maginalization of the current system. Where does it all begin? In the public schools are the roots of the problem. What helps it? The media with its advertisement propaganda waters those roots. There are many problems in our society that spring from one thing: the miseducation of our children. There are many problems in the education of our children that spring from one thing: students are being taught what to think instead of how to think. The core of our education of children should not be the amount of material covered but the encouragement of thinking about the material which should be presented with a high degree of honesty with emphasis on awareness and responsibility. On many occasions in public school I can remember inquiring on the importance of material only to be laughed at by the class. In eleventh grade English, designed for vocational students, we read â€Å"To Kill a Mockingbird† by Harper Lee. We read during class and each Friday had tests on the material without any discussion of our purpose for learning it. One day when I questioned why we needed to learn it and the class laughed at me. The teacher told me that it was just part of the curriculum required by the state. I can remember that adding to the anger and frustration of my already rebellious attitude. The rebellion that I felt at the time was against everything that I was being taught. I at the time, like most people, had grown repulsed by learning since the knowledge had been distributed in a way that made it seem like it was a waste of my time. There were seven class periods a day. Each class was less than an hour long and there was little time to go over the things of real importance. When things of real importance were â€Å"taught,† I had six other classes crowding in trying to choke any desire that might have been there to investigate the matters further. Consequently, books and knowledge brought to mind nothing but the meaningless boredom of the manner in which they were presented in school. Whether in school or out, reading books sucked. When that last bell rang it always sparked the conditioned thought of myself hanging out with friends, watching television, listening to music, smoking pot, and doing anything but being productive. Being productive seemed like something that old people do because they need to survive, not because it is something that they loved to do, and its perquisite implied hours of monotonous dedication to memorizing conceptual relics from a former epoch that have no relevant applicability to my modern life. Watching television consumed most of my out of school time since that was mostly what people in my surroundings talked about. Why was it important? It provided for my parents a relief from doing work that they do not enjoy all day. It provided for me and my fellow students an automatic identity and purpose since school had degraded the idea of constructing one from history, science, literature, and philosophy to meaningless syllables that invoked sleep. If a public school student were to actually pay attention in school and manage to get an A, lets say, in history class, that person might be able to tell you that Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. That person might be able to tell you that the Declaration of Independence says we are all created equal, but if you told him the truth that Jefferson had slaves and that he cheated on his wife with a slave for the better part of twenty years, she would either think you are dumb, laugh at you, or both. When I was riding the bus to school in the twelfth grade, I saw that a girl with a calculus textbook. I tried to talk to her about it and told her that Kempler, one of the fathers of calculus, developed the subject for the study of astronomical bodies. She was an honors student, smart enough to be in calculus, but she did not believe that what I was saying was true. â€Å"Calculus has nothing to do with astronomy! † she said. All I could think was how boring this subject was because its history and meaning had been negated. It made me angry that the teacher never described exactly what happened in history or how much depth and beauty is in mathematics just because â€Å"it's not a part of the curriculum. † Most people think of mathematics and reading books as boring. This is a direct result of people being showed things like geometrical shapes, the battle of Gettysburg, and the periodic table of elements without indicating their significance at the time that these things were discovered or occurred, or their significance in modern day life. When most people think of school they see one subject, instead of a vast array of topics and interests, and they think of that subject as dreadful, boring, and a waste of time. For instance, Mike Rose wrote about the public education experience in his book â€Å"I Just Wanna Be Average†: The particulars will vary, but in essence this is what a number of students go through, especially those in the so-called remedial classes. They open their textbooks and see once again the familiar and impenetrable formulas and diagrams and terms that have stumped them for years. There is no excitement here. No excitement. Regardless of what the teacher says, this is not a new challenge. There is, rather embarrassment and frustration and, not suprisingly, some anger in being reminded once again of long-standing inadequacies. No wonder so many students finally attribute their difficulties to something inborn, organic: â€Å"That part of my brain just doesn't work. † Given the troubling histories many of these students have, it's miraculous that any of them can lift the shroud of hopelessness sufficiently to make deliverance from these classes possible. This situation is not just applicable to this particular case, but is a good generalization of the majority of people who experience public schools first hand. Put simply, the government designs a curriculum. In that curriculum it is set up for students to cover a certain amount of material; however, I cannot remember one class in public school where we finished a text book. It appears like the government sets unreachable curricular goals because there is no desire for them to invoke critical thought in the minds of the students. They know that if a student were taught to think about too much, the things that are wrong in our government, socioculture, and environmental ecology would be criticized. That would mean a major change in the way that we are doing things, and all those who are taking advantage of the system for their own greed would be brought to light. Many people would lose their status, power, control, and luxuries. So, while people are trained, in a sense, to see education and knowledge acquirement as monotonous and boring, they are being prevented from being able to do anything about the wrongs in our world. To aid in this suppression, â€Å"the powers that be† also use television to inform, and misinform, the masses of the problems and solutions. As a result, people are being spoon-fed what to think without having to think, because thinking is something that is not of primary importance whatsoever, for the reasons above. The few people who do are such a small amount that it is hard to convince the masses who are being â€Å"zombified† that that is in fact what is happening to them. There are a few wonderful exceptions. Some public school teachers deviate from the curriculum because their passion over-rides their fear of not accomplishing their job requirements. For instance, Jonathan Kozol wrote about a teacher in the city of Chicago in his essay â€Å"Corla Hawkins†. She did her best to teach her kids how to think about what they learned, how to teach each other what they learned, and how what they learned applies to their life. The thirty children in her fifth and sixth grade class were seated in groups of six or five called â€Å"departments†. Each department was composed of six desks pushed together to created a table. One of the groups did math, another something they describe as â€Å"mathematics art†Ã¢â‚¬â€œpainting composites of geometric shapes–and the other is studying â€Å"careers,† which on this particular morning in the essay were writing about successful business leaders who began their lives in poverty. Then, they all switched groups while one stayed behind to teach the rest the ropes of that department. This teacher, Mrs. Hawkins, was showing them how to communicate intrapersonally and interpersonally information that would be of use to them. The essay made it clear she cared more about the way her children thought and less what her children thought. â€Å"This is the point of it,† she says. â€Å"I am teaching them three things. Number one: self-motivation. Number two: self-esteem. Number three: you help your sister and brother. I tell them they're responsible for one another. I give no grades in the first marking period because I do not want them to be too competitive. Second marking period, I team them two-and-two. You get the same grade as your partner. Fourth marking period, I tell them ‘Every fish swims on its own. But I wait a while for that. The most important thing for me is that they teach each other†¦ † (178) This is an awesome example of teaching the kids how to think. Sadly, though, these kids are most likely being suppressed outside of school. Although education is something they probably look forward to every day, the society around them does not place much importance on education a t all. In a textbook, â€Å"Invitation to Psychology†, I read the work of psychological researchers Harold Sevenson, Chuanshen Chen, and Shin-Ying Lee. They compared children from 20 schools in Chicago and 11 schools in Beijing. The study, ironically, was on fifth graders, as in the class stated above and eleventh graders who were compared ten years earlier. Their results can show us much on the cultivation of intellect. On computations and word problems, the lowest scoring Beijing schools did better than the highest scoring Chicago schools! Only 4 percent of the Chinese children had scores as low as the average American child. Interestingly, the Chinese had worse facilities and larger classes! The Chinese parents were also poorer and less educated than the American parents! In this case, the government propagates to its society the importance of education because it benefits them. Since it is a Communist society, people who are more productive and intelligent benefit the high ranking political parties. Because of this, Chinese students are expected to devote themselves to their studies, but American students are expected to be â€Å"well-rounded†Ã¢â‚¬â€œto have after school jobs (74 percent of them did, compared to only 21 percent of the Chinese), to have dates and an active social life (85 percent to 37 percent), and to have time for sports and other activities. Contrary to the stereotype of the stressed and overworked Asian student, it is American students who are most likely to report that school is a source of stress and academic anxiety. Asians actually had the lowest incidents of stress, depression, insomnia, aggression, and physical symptoms. American students do not value education as much as Asian students do. They are also more complacent about mediocre work. When asked what they would wish for if a wizard could give them anything they wanted, more than sixty percent of the Chinese fifth-graders named something that related to their education. Can you guess what the American children wanted? A majority said money or possessions. (216) It is not an absurd notion to think that the US government and the economical superpowers of this country propagate materialism, simply because it fills their pockets continuously. The solution to many of our world's social and economic problems would surface rather quickly if we changed our curriculum to promote critical individual thought. Right now the current system may not be intended to fill the pockets of the wealthy and the polititions, but that is sure what it does. Rather than keep filling their pockets with money, lets fill our global, national, and communal problems with solutions. The best way to do this, clearly, is to stop over feeding our children's minds with the water of knowledge and to start planting there more seeds of thought. A very prolific man, Neale Donald Walsch, makes a great suggestion of how to do this in â€Å"Conversations with God†: I am talking about focusing your children's attention as much on understanding the core concepts and the theoretical structures around which their value system may be constructed as you now do on dates and facts and statistics. In your society you have created a system in which little Johnnie has learned how to read before getting out of pre-school, but still hasn't learned how to stop biting his brother. And Susie has perfected her multiplication tables, using flash cards and rote memory, in ever earlier and earlier grades, but has not learned that there is nothing shameful or embarrassing about her body. Right now your schools exist primarily to provide answers. It would be far more beneficial if their primary function was to ask questions. What does it mean to be honest, or responsible, or â€Å"fair†? What are the implications? For that matter, what does it mean that 2+2=4? What are the implications? A highly evolved society would encourage all children to discover and create those answers for themselves. Present Data should not be the basis of Present Truth. Data from a prior time or experience should always and only be the basis for new questions. Always the treasure should be in the question, not in the answer. And always the questions are the same. With regard to this past data which we have shown you, do you agree, or do you disagree? What do you think? Always, this is the key question. Always this is the focus. What do you think? What do you think? (127-128) Through out life I have been fortunate to know very intelligent, charismatic, â€Å"thoughtful† people. The best of them all combine to form the ideal role model. The actualization of their thoughts, each with a distinctive power, wonder, grace, is nothing less than an amazing vision of beauty that cannot be described on paper, only felt in observing. The public school system, if anything, has attacked my comprehension of and capability of contributing to this beauty. The struggle that I call my past could have been a plethora of aesthetics if I had been shown the ways of the thinker instead of the ways of a zombie. Anyone who has felt a personal feeling of deep contemplation would agree that its goodness could not be replaced or taken away by anything external or material. Those people are the ones who evolve the current system. Instead of these people loving themselves through their students, they will love their students through wisdom.

Effective and Efficient Methods of Background Investigation and Reference Checking

A great business relies on talented, highly skilled, and hardworking employees that continue target goals and surpass them. Hiring the best employees for a business however, is not a simple task. It requires sifting through the vast workforce and getting only the best of the best for the production results one desires. Intelligent and effective human resources management involves two practices that guarantee the people hired fit their positions to a T: background investigation and reference checking.The three most effective ways of background investigation and reference checking are mail, by telephone, and in person. In the world of human resources management today, there is no universal agreement on what the terms â€Å"background investigation† and â€Å"reference checking† mean (Barada and McLaughlin 1). The term â€Å"background check† may mean the same thing as a â€Å"background investigation,† but there are also some people who interchange the terms with each other. It may be important to distinguish between â€Å"background investigation† and â€Å"reference checking† however, to clarify the following discussion.Background investigation involves verifying the accuracy of the information provided by a job applicant through his resume or cover letter. In a way, it serves as the company’s first defense against potential fraud from job candidates. The person or group assigned the task of background investigation makes sure that a particular job applicant has not deceived the company about the details of his cover letter or resume. As an initial screening device, a background check also serves the purpose of decreasing the number of resumes and cover letters on the prospective employer’s table.Through the careful elimination of job applicants who seem to provide doubtful information on their job applications, the prospective employer can arrive at a shorter list of candidates to consider. These candidat es’ job applications are theoretically more credible than the others that have been discarded. Background investigation though, strictly speaking, is very different from reference checking. The prospective employer doesn’t evaluate a candidate’s past job performance during a background investigation.However, background investigation does involve tasks such as verification of current and former job positions, dates of employment, educational information, and professional licenses claimed, if any (Barada and McLaughlin 4). There are many ways to conduct background investigations, including by phone, through the Internet, and by hiring a background investigation firm. The simplest way would be to phone institutions mentioned by the candidate in his resume. For example, if a candidate claims that he has an MA in business management from a particular university, the investigator could phone that university and verify the information.Background investigation by phone is very effective and efficient because the investigator consumes little time and effort in confirming the details on the resume. The people concerned can also answer any questions the investigator may have regarding the candidate’s background. Another way to conduct background investigation is to use Internet resources to verify the information on the candidate’s resume and cover letter. Many schools today provide information on their websites regarding their students and programs.Some may have downloadable newsletters that the investigator could sift through to confirm the candidate’s information. The investigator may also send an e-mail to people concerned, asking them to reply when it’s most convenient to them. There are companies today who hand over the task of background checking to specialized background investigation firms. These firms help their clients to hire better employees by steering them clear of candidates who lie on their resumes. Indust ry experts estimate that thirty percent of all resumes contain falsifications or misrepresentations.Most of these are located in the education section of a resume. A background investigation firm can help their clients enhance their workplace security, reduce turnover, minimize the risk of employee theft, and provide assurance to the prospective employer’s decision regarding hiring a candidate or not (Falcone 122). Reference checking, in contrast with background investigation, is an objective assessment of an applicant’s past job performance based on information collected from the applicant’s previous employers (Barada and McLauglin 2).Prospective employers usually do reference checks during the final stages of the hiring process to assess applicants on their list of job finalists (Kleiman 163). Among the many uses of reference checking is the collection of clear testimonials that support a prospective employer’s decision to hire an applicant, and the rev elation of factors that the employer and applicant may have not discussed during the interview (Andler and Herbst 157). Reference checking has many other benefits, which will be discussed later.The three most effective ways to conduct reference checks is in person, by telephone, and by mail. Among these, the most effective way to gather information is through a face-to-face discussion with a character reference. This method has several advantages over others. First, you can verify if such a person does exist and that the character didn’t deceivingly asked a friend of his to impersonate a boss for example who he claims to be extremely proud of his work. When conducting a reference check in person, it is a good strategy to talk to the character reference first through the telephone.It may be more appropriate to do this when considering a candidate for an executive position which may have a huge impact on the company’s overall performance. The reference should be asked if he is willing to meet the human resources representative at his office for a brief conversation about his previous employer. The representative could also ask the previous employer if he is willing to talk over lunch or a cup of coffee. The important thing is not to pressure the character reference into agreeing to the meeting. He should agree wholeheartedly about the proposition.It’s also not right to deceive the character reference about the meeting. He should be clearly informed of what the meeting will be all about. During the meeting, he should not be pressured to reveal information on the candidate. It is best to have a ready list of questions to ask the character reference, so the conversation will not venture off to unnecessary topics, consuming the reference’s precious time. While face-to-face reference checks are extremely informative about the job candidate, it is very obvious that it also consumes too much time, energy, and money to execute.A human resourc e representative would have to travel from one place to another just to secure interviews from the character references. He would also have to spend the company’s money during these short conversations. It is therefore not that efficient as a means of checking character references. The most efficient method of reference checking is by telephone. The human resources representative in this case doesn’t have to go anywhere and can remain in the office while checking character references. There are many ways by which a representative can do reference checking by phone.One effective method is called the â€Å"exact-time method† (Andler and Herbst 186). In this method, the representative first calls the character reference asking him what time would be convenient for him to talk a little bit about his previous employee, for example. The representative then establishes an exact-time by which he would call the person again, and then proceeds to call him exactly at the t ime specified. According to experiments done by Andler and Herbst, the exact-time method has an interesting effect on character references.Once the representative tells a person that he’ll be calling again at a particular time, the person somehow is induced to sit all day beside the telephone waiting for the call. In their experiments, some were even annoyed because they waited for the phone to ring at the time specified. This works to the prospective employer’s advantage because interviews with character references are then easier to secure. The possibility of missing them because they’ve just had lunch or went to another place is lessened, making the reference check more efficient.References may also be pleased by the professionalism of the representative through this method since he shows that he is willing to work with their schedules (Andler and Herbst 187). The oldest way of checking references is by mail. Although the method is still being used today by n ew and old companies, it is obvious that checking references by mail is both time-consuming and ineffective as a means of gathering information. There are many difficulties associated with reference checking, including choosing the right people to do the job, dealing with the references themselves, and making sure no law is transgressed in the process.While reference checking is an essential part of the hiring process, some companies that are more administrative than results-oriented avoid reference checks by telephone or in person to cut risks (Andler and Herbst 187). This is not advisable to prospective employers because investing in the most credible candidates is an important way to secure the future of any business. Reference checking through snail mail is virtually futile. Previous employers could be expected to be slow in answering questions that the prospective employer sent them. Many of them many not answer at all.Research shows that the return rate of reference checking b y mail can be as high as fifty-six percent and as low as eighteen percent. One reason for the very low return rate is that previous employers are afraid that their employees may sue them for revealing information in written form (Andler and Herbst 187-188). When checking references by mail, it is advisable that e-mail be used rather than snail mail. This would make the character reference more comfortable with writing the information that he knows because he doesn’t have to write it on a tangible piece of paper.He’ll just type all the necessary bits of information on the e-mail and then send it back. The questionnaire should be written as to assure the character reference that they’re violating no law in the activity and that records of the prospective employee will be competently guarded. Whether by phone, by mail or in person, there are many ways to conduct reference checks. Some companies hire other agencies to do reference checks and background investigation for them. Others though, use their own human resources departments to do the job.One good strategy though is for the manager for whom the job applicant will work to call the previous employers himself. Thus, reference checking is not done through the human resources department or any other agency but directly (Rosenberg 241). It is very advantageous to conduct a reference check through the manager than the human resources department because the candidate will eventually have to answer to the manager when he gets hired, not to the human resources department. The manager will know what questions about job performance to ask the character references.A human resources representative wouldn’t have this kind of knowledge and would likely only be concerned with the legal issues the company might face in conducting the reference check (Rosenberg 241). The manager can talk to character references by phone, mail or in person, but it is most recommended that he talks to them by phone f or efficiency and more results. One problem with any kind of reference check is that the character references may want to withhold or change information regarding a candidate.Former employers are usually reluctant to reveal information, sometimes only providing the candidate’s date of employment and job title. Some of them may also want to reveal only information that’s favorable to the candidate even if it’s not true (Kleiman 164). The reason why previous employers and other character references are usually reluctant to share information on a candidate is because they fear they could be sued for defamation by the candidate.Some candidates do sue their character references, blaming them for their failure to secure a job position. It’s easy to get around this problem though, by clearly explaining to the character reference that he can defend himself against any defamation suits by only revealing information that is factual and objective. He should also onl y share the information to interested parties and not anyone outside of the transaction. The interview must also completely revolve around topics that are job-related and nothing else (Kleiman 164).While there are companies today who skip reference checking because of legal concerns and the belief that references would only reveal information favorable to the candidate, reference checking is still essential as an investment for the company’s future. Reference checking is an effective strategy to predict the future job performance and behavior of a candidate based on the testimonials of other parties that have seen his work before (Kleiman 163). There’s always a risk in hiring people, and reference checking supports a prospective employer’s decision to hire a particular candidate.Conducting a reference check makes a prospective employer feel better about the decision he made regarding hiring a candidate. Reference checks may also reveal information that has not b een revealed before during the candidate’s interview. That information may be helpful or disadvantageous to the candidate’s application, but it is ultimately the prospective employer that benefits from the supplementary information. Information like the candidate is a very good mother, very health conscious, or that she’s pleasant to work with may be revealed during a reference check.The character reference may also give some advice on where the candidate excels best. You can then consider his advice and put him in a position where he’ll likely perform in the best way possible (Andler and Herbst 157). Whatever means you choose to conduct a reference check, it is absolutely necessary to keep the conversation about the job position the candidate is applying for. Common topics addressed during a reference check include the candidate’s dates of employment, job titles he held, rate of pay, attendance, and performance evaluations.The prospective employer may also ask the reference about the candidate’s behavior, what character traits he possesses or if he has any discipline problems. It’s also important to inquire about the candidate’s ability to get along with his colleagues and his general strengths and weaknesses. The prospective employer may also inquire about the candidate’s reason for leaving if the character reference knows anything about it and is willing to share that information. Finally, he could also ask him whether he’s willing to rehire the candidate or not.In our opinion, it is not only prospective and previous employers who should be conscious of the necessity of background investigations and reference checks. All employees and job applicants should also recognize that an efficient and successful company relies on credible, talented and hardworking people to accomplish goals and targets. Instead of being too wary of background investigation and reference checks, and thinking about suing their former employers for revealing information about them, they must accept the fact that both procedures are essential to ensure the health of their industry.They must act on their own and provide only truthful information on their job applications. Background investigation and reference checking will always be essential to the performance of a company. Both of these procedures can now be more efficiently and effectively done with the use of modern resources like the Internet. While employers, both prospective and previous, may continue to confront lawsuits from employees or job applicants, it is necessary to continue the practices of background investigation and reference checking for the benefit of any industry.Without these procedures, industries will perform poorly because of the increased chance of hiring the wrong people for important positions. Whether by phone, by mail, in person, through the Internet or through a private investigation firm, it is advisable for any company to conduct background investigations and reference checks for improved performance in the future. Works Cited Ades, Leslie J. Managing Mavericks: the Art of Sales Management. Dubuqe: McGraw-Hill Professional, 2004. Adler, Lou. Hire with Your Head: Using Performance-Based Hiring to Build Great Teams. Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons, 2007.Andler, Edward C. and Herbst, Dara. The Complete Reference Checking Handbook: The Proven (and Legal) Way to Prevent Hiring Mistakes. Atlanta: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn, 2002. Barada, Paul William J. and McLaughlin, Michael. Reference Checking for Everyone: What You Need to Know to Protect yourself, your Business, and your Family. Dubuqe: McGraw-Hill Professional, 2004. Berman, Evan M. , et al. Human Resource Management in Public Service: Paradoxes, Processes, and Problems. Thousand Oaks: SAGE, 2005. Branham, Leigh. Keeping the People who Keep you in Business: 24 Ways to Hang On to your Most Valuable Talent.Atlanta: AMACOM Div American Mgmt A ssn, 2001. Dinteman, Walter Anthony. Zero Defect Hiring: a Quick Guide to the Most Important Decisions Managers Have to Make. Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons, 2003. Enos, Darryl D. Performance Improvement: Making it Happen, Second Edition. New York: CRC Press, 2007. Falcone, Paul. The Hiring and Firing Question and Answer Book. Atlanta: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn, 2001. Fischer, Robert J. and Gion Green. Introduction to Society. Saint Louis: Elsevier, 1998. Herman, Susan J. Hiring right: a practical guide. Thousand Oaks: SAGE, 1993. Kleiman, Lawrence.Human Resource Management: A Managerial Tool for Competitive Advantage Third Edition. Daryaganj: Wiley-India, 2003. Loen, Raymond O. Superior Supervision: the 10% Solution. Lanham: Lexington Books, 1994. Marshall, Don R. The Four Elements of Successful Management: Select, Direct, Evaluate, Reward. Atlanta: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn, 1998. Moran, Greg and Patrick Longo. Hire, Fire, and the Walking Dead: Recruiter's Guide to Hiring th e Best. El Monte: Academic Learning Company LLC, 2006. Pritchard, Christopher W. 101 Strategies for Recruiting Success: Where, When, and How to Find the Right People Every Time.Atlanta: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn, 2006. Rosenberg, DeAnne. A Manager’s Guide to Hiring the Best Person for Every Job. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2000. Stone, Florence M. The Manager's Question and Answer Book. Atlanta: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn, 2003. Voros, Sharon and Philippe De Backer. The Road to Ceo: The World's Leading Executive Recruiters Identify the Traits You Need to Make It to the Top. Cincinnati: Adams Media, 2002. Widmann, Nancy C. , et al. I Didn't See It Coming: The Only Book You'll Ever Need to Avoid Being Blindsided in Business. Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons, 2007.

Natural Resources and energy paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Natural Resources and energy paper - Essay Example However, although there are benefits of extracting water for use as energy, there are certain risks and challenges as well that are associated with the extraction of this source of renewable energy (NRCan’s Role and Freshwater, 2010). Fresh water is one of the prime necessities for all living beings and in particular for human beings. Human beings living in the cities, or for the purposes of farming and agriculture, and in the industries, require freshwater which is the main cause for extraction of freshwater from the aquatic ecosystems. Freshwater systems provide control of floods, transportation facilities, recreation, as well as waste purification (Baron et al, 2003, pp.1-15). Extraction of freshwater includes benefits for the landscapes on earth. Freshwater aquatic ecosystems are comprised of such organisms that form the food web for other living beings. These organisms available in the freshwater are both ecologically and economically important as they are diverse in form and nature. Benthic communities refer to the lives available at the bottom of the freshwater systems constituting organisms like algae, bacteria, fungi, and other invertebrates that are capable of transforming substance and energy into livi ng forms, thus proving to be sources of food and energy of living beings on earth (Benefits of Freshwater Systems, 2013). However there are certain risks associated with such extraction of freshwater from the aquatic ecosystems as well. The benefits for the society has led to overlooking the benefits that freshwater has for the aquatic ecosystems and the living organisms present in there. With more and more extraction of this source of life and energy the quantity of freshwater required for the aquatic systems as well as for human beings is becoming limited. There is a huge demand for freshwater while the

Business Systems Development and Implementation Essay

Business Systems Development and Implementation - Essay Example Many of the projects became a failure due to lack of proper skills in order to undertake these projects successfully. On the other hand the companies which initiated and successfully implemented these projects enjoyed the hyper growth. In order to make these projects different tools and techniques were introduced by the management gurus in order to increase the success rate of these projects. The implementation cost of the new information system often have some hidden costs which cannot be calculated at the beginning of a project (Anderson and Dawes, 1991). Often workers are required to be trained to effectively use the technology being implemented but this training reduce the working hours. Currid (1995) states the same fact as: When a new system is introduced, it rocks day-to-day activity so much that some people don't adjust quickly. They stay less productive than they were without the new computer. And, if this situation goes unchecked, they may never recover. In Standish Group's CHAOS Report, the group analysed 8380 Information projects that were underway in 365 companies and reported failure and success rates. The report used some indicators and divided the companies into following three categories which are as follows: Resolution Type 2 is "Project Challenged." These were completed, but were over cost, over time, and/or lacking all of the features and functions that were originally specified. 52.7% of all studied projects fell into this Resolution Type 2 (Challenged) category. Resolution Type 3 is termed "Project Impaired/Failed." These projects were abandoned or cancelled at some point and thus became total losses. A disturbing 31.1% of all studied p

Neurotransmitters and Their Relation to Intelligence Essay

Neurotransmitters and Their Relation to Intelligence - Essay Example Wechsler (1944) sets the more widely accepted definition, as he describes intelligence as "the aggregate or global capacity of an individual to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with his environment". From a neurological perspective, the anatomical localization of the neurological processes that give rise to intelligence is generally considered to be the Wernicke's area, located in the superior temporal gyrus, an area of the brain not only related to language and speech, but also to logical and abstract thought. This was determined by research done on patients that have lost their higher intellectual functions when their Wernicke's area. Guyton claims that the prefrontal association area is also associated with intelligence, but not to a great extent. Neurotransmitters in essence represent chemical messengers of the neural circuits and pathways, and in combination with the synapses, represent the physiological method of communication between neurons. In the synapses, the neurotransmitter is released from a pre-synaptic neuron and bonds with receptors on the post-synaptic neuron. It should be noted that there are many types of neurotransmitters, each found in specific areas of the nervous system and therefore, each has a specific action.

The advent of internet Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

The advent of internet - Essay Example MD of the company told 'A' since she has done a module in IT Law, she can write an essay on legal issues related to practice or policies in the company. This will give 'A' working knowledge of the company and in case she detects any problems, then this can be raised with legal specialist. This company has a full order book designing and maintaining websites for small local businesses. But most work is put on its own website- StudentBar.com. The product aims to integrate successful product genres into an engaging virtual environment. Here online, past and present students can meet, reminisce and swap files, share music, mails, graphic files and chat. But when you look this site, you can notice quickly that there is active sharing of MP3 and adult files, and gossiping about their old lecturers and colleagues. There were also complaints from lecturers regarding these comments, asking for immediate removal of material and archve.There is also an issue of old assignment solutions being circulated to present students. The student Bar has a plethora of links to other sites including deep links well inside other sites providing up to date news, games, information, hacking resources, music, gossip, and academic cheat resources sites. Another main problem -Mr.' X 'one of the core development team member resigned over an argument over promotion. It was also found that he was selling the details of the subscribers to the site on to other agencies without the knowledge of the WWW. Now they are thinking of doing it themselves. Mr.'X' was taken, despite being renowned by his disposition to hacking, as he has worked previously in a similar site in the past. So he was considered for his expertise and he brought useful source code for the new project. There are also concerns that the recent viral attack on the site may have originated from this disgruntled employee, who is threatening to launch an identically themed site using no doubt the code he developed at WWW. The MD is aware there was no mention of intellectual property rights in the cursory job contract used for this employee. (MD notes in passing that he would welcome any idea of contract for his staff.) Some subscribers have complained that they have been approac hed by other organizations that appear to have information about them, which must have originated from the StudentBar.'X' who resigned over a payment and promotion row, is also demanding to see any file about him in the possession of WWW which give reasons why he was being, in his view, blocked from promotion. There