My Reality Check Essay examples -- Personal Narrative

My Reality Check Two things didn't mix well in my life. One was being a full time student and the other an athlete. It was great not having parents around telling you to do your homework or to go to class, of which I never did. I had a choice, which was more important, playing lacrosse or studying. Like any first year college student I picked lacrosse. At that point I didn't realize what I was getting myself into. Who at that age would know either? My worst nightmare came true in the summer of 1989. I was academically dismissed from the university. I thought to myself "no way, this could never happen to me, I played lacrosse, had a girlfriend, and I was popular, how could this have happened". The worst part of the whole experience was the car ride home from the post office. The feeling of emptiness overwhelmed me, I felt as if I had nothing inside my body. I thought, "what am I going to do?" Then I had to face my parents, boy was I scared. What was I going to tell them? Sorry mom and dad but I wasted your money; I had no excuses so I told them the truth. What happened after that changed my life forever. It was either the military or go to a community college and try to redeem myself. I wanted to do neither, but I had to choose. The military was off my list and going to a community college sounded o.k. So I registered and the rest of that summer I had to deal with the fact that I had not accomplished anything in the past year and this was wake up call an...

Keeping Close to Home by bell hooks Essay -- Class and Education

Because it is very credible, emotionally appealing, and slightly academically based, bell hooks's essay "Keeping Close to Home: Class and Education" is an essay that I consider to be very touching. While arguing in her essay that the rich class and the working-class should come to respect and understand each other, bell hooks employs three elements of argument: ethos, pathos, and logos. With her usage of ethos, hooks relates her experience as an undergraduate at Stanford. Providing an experience from a time before she went to Stanford, hooks uses pathos to inspire the audience. However, hooks uses logos by appealing to the readers' logic. These readers are the working-class and the privileged, the audience of her book: "Ain't I a Woman: black women and feminism." Relying mostly on ethos, hooks uses the three elements of argument to express her belief that students should not feel the pressure to replace their values with others' values. Because hooks feels strongly about h er belief, she argues that a university should help students maintain the connection with their values, so people of different communities will feel neither inferior nor superior to others but equal. When using ethos, hooks demonstrates her knowledge of values by relating her experience at Stanford where she met many privileged whites who had values that contradicted her own. For example, many of the white students appeared to lack respect for their parents. However, hooks's parents always taught her to show them respect. hooks even says in her essay, "I was profoundly shocked and disturbed when peers would talk about their parents without respect, or would even say that they hated their parents" (88). Also, everyone looked down upon the ... ... much easier when we were all in segregated communities sharing common experiences in relation to social institutions. Without this grounding, we must work to maintain ties, connection" (hooks 95). As hooks hints, maintaining ties may not be easy, but it is definitely possible. hooks establishes common ground with people who have these questions, and she gives the answer in her experience of hard work. Having worked hard on handling harsh criticism and pressure without losing ties with her background, bell hooks, in my opinion, is an example of a strong individual. So, if you need proof that the answer to these questions is yes, bell hooks is all the proof you need! Works Cited hooks, bell. "Keeping Close to Home: Class and Education." The Presence of Others. 2nd ed. Andrea Lunsford and John J. Ruszkiewicz. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997. 85-95.

Biometric Cryptosystem :: Technology, Encryption

As stated in ISO/IEC JTC1 SC37 biometrics is defined as the automated recognition of individuals based on their behavioural; and biological characteristics. As discussed in section-------(Intro to biometrics) the main process involved in biometric recognition are Enrollment and Verification or Identification in general called as recognition. During the Enrollment process features of the captured biometric entity are converted to template, to be stored in database for further matching. At the stage of recognition , template obtained from the features of the realtime biometric entity are compared against the stored template. The result of matching process involved in recognition is either accept or reject[1]. It has been a long time belief that the biometric signals or data cannot be reconstructed from the stored templates but Cappelli et.al and Ross et.al[2][3] has proven that the belief of biometric data reconstruction from the templates is possible. In order to protect the biometric data , several standard encryption algorithms has been used. But, this attempt leaves the biometric templates exposed during every authentication attempt[4]. Even homomorphic and asymmetric encryption schmes [5][6][7] represent some exceptions. Conventional cryptosystems is based on the possession of secret keys and key management is performed using second layer authentication entity like password[8]. Decryption keys in this scheme could be obtained by using the password. To overcome the drawbacks of the existing schemes, biometric template protection schemes which are commonly called as biometric cryptosystems also referred to as Helper data-based scheme are proposed. Two major requirements of biometric information protection as per ISO/IEC FCD 24745 standard are, †¢ Irreversibility Reconstruction of original biometric template from the stored template should be made difficult whereas construction of protected biometric template from the stored template should be made easy. †¢ Unlinkability Several different versions of protected biometric templates can be generated based on the same biometric data, which is referred to as renewability whereas the protected templates should not cross-match, which is referred to as diversity. Biometric cryptosystems herein after referred to as BCS are designed to securely bind a digital key to a biometric or generate a digital key [9]. BCS paves way for the growth of biometric dependant key-release and biometric template protection [10][11]. BCS is more difficult to forge, copy, share and distribute biometric data when compared to that of passwords [1]. Conventional biometric cryptosystems perform fuzzy comparisons by applying decision thresholds. Decision thresholds are obtained based on the score distributions between genuine and imposter subjects, whereas BCS gives only stable keys as output , which are required for matching at the authentication stage.

Isaac’s Storm Character Analysis Essay

After reading about Isaac Cline and the examples that demonstrate his character and distinct personality, I’ve realized that he is a very strong, independent, and knowledgeable man who sometimes appeared to be arrogant and narrow-minded. Isaac Cline was very intelligent and adventurous at a young age with a raving passion to reach his dreams of performing something that would â€Å"give results beneficial to mankind.† Sometimes though, his confidence got a little out of control and made him appear a bit cocky about himself and the intelligence about the weather and the world around him that he supplied. By the time Cline had reached his early twenties, Cline’s eyes had seen many horrific events that scarred his memory forever. Despite his hardships, I believe Cline is a very talented man in a numerous ways and uses his talents in a very resourceful and rewarding way. I also believe that Cline has many sides to him that others, and himself, are not aware even exist. When trying prove himself, he reveals his strong, determined side. When singing to his wife, he reveals his romantic side. When training new recruits to perform cavalry assaults, he reveals a dedicated and serious side. Isaac hides a strong, hard backbone behind a welcoming smile and sweet eyes. In all, I believe that Isaac carries many different sides of his character with him and enjoys displaying his intelligent and determined side most of the time in order to prove to others and himself that he is very talented. He is a very strong, respectful, intelligent, opinionated, and absolutely talented man who sets his goals and chases after them wholeheartedly.

Balancing Family & Work Life Essay

I. Introduction A. Thesis Statement Attending school as an adult, and maintaining a source of employment can be a daunting task, as many adults who had to delay their college education must know. One of the most challenging aspects of adult life consists of learning how to adjust accordingly to the rigors of life at home as well as the workplace. Failure to do so can lead to a life of complete disarray, stress, illness and exhaustion. II. Body Paragraph #1 – Topic Sentence #1 Traditionally the typical age group for freshmen in college was between 18 to 19 years of age. That reality has slowly changed as more young adults are finding their way back in the classroom, while holding down a job. The information I found in P.14 of the ebrary book: Families and Work: New Directions in the Twenty-First Century, by Fredriksen-Goldsen, Karen I. states: â€Å"Of the more than 69 million American parents with children under the age of 18 (Famighetti, 1998), almost 90 percent are employed (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1998).† At the same time, there are working professionals attempting to achieve a college education in order to refine their skills, or to gain new ones. Among those working adults, young couples typically tend to have a harder time with managing the broad aspects of life, especially those who are in the early stages of their relationship, which has the potential to result in a lot of growing pains. A. Supporting evidence The information found in an article from the following website; http://pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-2421/T-2233web.pdf states: â€Å"Family and work settings have a built-in potential for conflict. Adults may get overwhelmed with the excessive demands that are required of them from either end of the spectrum, leaving them with the feeling of having very little time to accomplish those tasks.† Finding a balance between work and home involves finding ways of accomplishing the tasks at home as well as duties at work. Those responsibilities are often shared among couples in a healthy relationship. The equality of the shared house  chores, however, is up or debate. It has long been stated that the task of maintaining the home primarily fell on the woman’s shoulders, while the man focuses mainly on duties in the workplace. For some married couples, trying to get their husband to help with the housework typically led to domestic disputes. In recent years however, men have been getting more involved with parenting than ever before. A passage from (Giraffe 2011) states: â€Å"The recession of 2008 contributed to this arrangement because increased unemployment left more fathers available to care for their children and the reduced family income made outside childcare services unaffordable.† The traditional view of the American household should change because of an increase in the number of two-parent families entering the labor force. One of the primary services built around that change in society is the daycare system. Many of those two-parent families, as well as single parents may not have direct support from their families to take care of the children while they’re away at work. While some of the household work, such as childcare and housekeeping, has transitioned to outside providers, many working mothers cannot afford to employ these services (Giraffe, 2011). Unfortunately a big portion of their income goes to high daycare fees. III. Body Paragraph #2 – Topic Sentence #2 When the constants demands of life are far too much to bear, employees tend to feel the need to escape, and seek an alternate reality. We must look at the adverse effects that those long work hours have on the human body. Overworked individuals can suffer from work related illnesses as a result of excessive stress. Work related stress can result from extended hours due to mandatory overtime in some case. An employer’s rigid work hours which can prevent employees from tending to occasional issues at home can also be blamed for stress on the job. Employees suffering the effects of stress in the workplace tend to have bouts of absenteeism. A. Supporting evidence Absenteeism in the workplace is a major issue, with tangible and intangible costs. Although the absentee loses wages in the process, the major loss is at the expense of the employer. The ebrary book by Lynn  Tylczak, (Attacking absenteeism 1990), describes the intangible costs of absenteeism as follows: â€Å"Absentee costs are difficult to quantify. Experts estimate direct wage loses of more than $30 billion per year, and that’s just the beginning. Employers also need to consider the costs of supplementary or replacement workers. These costs include: Regular wages, overtime wages, and company benefits Supplementary benefits, such as Social Security, worker’s compensation, and unemployment compensation Administration of recruitment, selection orientation, and training Penalty costs resulting from delays.† The author (Lynn T. 1990) also gives the following explanation from the tangible cost of absenteeism: â€Å"It forces managers to deal with problems of morale, discipline, job dissatisfaction, job stress, team spirit, productivity, turnover, production quality, additional administration and overhead.† Many employers have become more cognizant of the disastrous effects of having stressful employees in the workplace. This is not only calculated in monetary losses based on productivity, but also in the valuable asset (the employee) which could potentially offset those losses. IV. Body Paragraph #3 Topic sentence # 3 Those who value their time with their families certainly appreciate the value of being away from work. This is particularly why a lot of us look forward to our vacation time. It us the opportunity to recharge our batteries and gives us the courage to return to our regular lives. Many employers have adapted to the changes in society by implementing new ways for employees to earn vacation time from work. A. Supporting evidence While some of us are comfortable being â€Å"working stiffs†, most people would rather look forward to their time away from work. An ebrary book by ANDERSON, NELS titled Work and Leisure states: â€Å"Although leisure reflects and supplements work, it is also used as a release from work. Some are of the view that unless a man has worked he cannot really enjoy leisure. They hold that while a man is working to earn a wage or salary, he also ‘earns’ leisure.† It is absolutely true that in order to fully enjoy our vacation time, we must work hard for it. That time of leisure can then be considered our reward for achieving the demands required of us in the workplace. Those who properly plan their vacation can benefit from sights  rarely seen in everyday life. Most people find it more beneficial to take their vacation in some exotic location. The topic on how to enjoy a proper vacation will vary from one employee to the next. V. Body Paragraph #4 Topic sentence # 4 Employers have devised lots of ways to keep valuable talent within their workforce, while allowing them time to accomplish their house work. Those arrangements can be profitable to the employer as well as the employee in some cases. Some of the sensible ways employers provide to employees are flextime, teleworking, and employee incentive just to name a few. A. Supporting evidence Flextime is highly valuable to employees because it allows them to have more control over the balancing act of work and home life. It also provides them the option of choosing when to complete their work. Flextime allows employees to handle personal business such as doctor appointments or school functions without having to take sick leave or vacation time. Employers’ personnel needs are met and they get employees at their best. In highly skilled positions where competition for employees is fierce and employee turnover costly, flexible schedules can also reduce attrition by making employees more content with their jobs (Giraffe, 2011). Teleworking provides some lucky employees the opportunity to work remotely. With this system employees can either work from home or in some shared work spaces. In most cases employees would prefer to work from home because it is the ideal place to work from. This reduces the work commute, and the amount stress to the employee. It takes an especially disciplined employee to work from home, because of the constant distractions from home can cause the employee’s work performance to suffer. Employers must be careful when considering the type of employees they provide that opportunity to. Through teleworking, some employees do get to achieve balance between family and work life.

Geely Holding? Group? Marketing Essay

Markets,? Marketing? and? Strategy? Essay? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Strategy? This? essay? will? attempt? to? identify,? analyze? and? discuss? the? strategic? issues? in? Geely? Holding? Group? using? industry? structure? and? dynamics.? There? are? five? competitive? forces? that? shape? the? strategy? of? a? company,? threat? of? new? entrants,? bargaining? power? of? supplier,? bargaining? power? of? buyers,? threat? of? substitute? and? rivalry? among? current? competitors.? However,? as? covering? all? five? forces? will? be? beyond? the? scoop? of? this? essay,? it? will? be? focusing? on? threat? of? ew? entrants? and? rivalry. Even? though? Geely? Holding? Group? exports? cars? on? top? of? selling? in? its? local? market,? its? main? market? is? the? China’s? automobile? industry1.? With? China’s? automobile? market? growing? rapidly? in? the? last? few? years,? it? has? become? one? of? the? biggest? automobile? markets? in? the? world,? this? mean? that? t he? existing? firms? in? the? industry? will? have? to? be? aware? of? new? entrants? into? the? industry.? Gerenally,? barriers? are? high? in? an? automobile? industry,? and? there? are? several? main? factors? contributing? to? this.? One? of? he? factors? is? supply? side? economics? of? scale.? When? firms? have? high? output,? it? allows? them? to? cut? cost? in? production? by? buying? in? bulk? and? because? they? have? huge? buying? power,? supplier? will? not? want? to? lose? them? as? customers? and? give? them? better? deals.? They? will? also? be? able? to? spread? cost? over? more? units? for? their? marketing,? research,? services? and? distribution.? This? means? that? new? entrant? will? have? a? much? higher? cost? of? production? unless? they? are? able? to? come? in? on? a? large? scale.? With? 1. 2? million? Geely? cars? on? the? oad? globally 2,? this? is? certainly? an? advantage? that? Geely? has? over? smaller? new? entrants. Established? firms? also? enjoy? demand? side? benefits? of? scale.? When? more? people? use? the? product,? it? will? assure? people? that? the? product? is? trustable,? causing? even? more? people? to? be? willing? to? pay? for? the? product.? With? products? like? automobiles,? quality? is? important.? Incumbents? have? the? advantage? of? having? experience,? acquiring? technology? and? building? customer? loyalty? over? the? years? thus,? unlike? entrants,? they? do? not? have? to? spend? as? much? on? arketing? and? advertising? to? prove? that? they? are? trustable.? In? 2010,? Geely’s? sales? surpassed? target? by? 15,000? units3.? It? sales? will? be? a? testimony? of? its? reliability? to? new? customers? who? would? be? more? willing? to? buy? from? a? company? that? is? doing? well? than? to? take? a? risk? with? a? newcomer.? All? these? will? discourage? entry,? as? entrants? will? have? to? keep? their? prices? much? lower? to? compete? for? customers.? To? enter? the? automobile? industry,? there? is? a? high? capital? requirement.? The? high? level? of? investment? sometimes? will? keep? entrants? ut? because? it? means? that? risk? is? high.? Entrants? will? need? not? only? to? invest? in? fixed? facilities,? they? will? need? to? invest? in? advertising? and? research,? which? are? mostly? unrecoverable? cost,? if? they? 1? Geely? Automobile? Holdings? Limited? Annual? Report? 2009? [ONLINE].? Available? 2? Geely? Holding? Group? [ONLINE].? Avilable? from:? from: http://hmdatalink. com/PDF/C00530/e00175(116). pdf http://www. geely. com/english/1? 6. html 3? Geely? Auto? sales? surpass? 2010? target.? (January,? 2011)? [ONLINE].? Avaliable?

Explanations for Criminal Behaviour

Compare two explanations for criminal behaviour. Crime is simply the behaviour that breaks the law. However, as Standen points out, â€Å"the understanding of what actually constitutes crime varies according to historical, cultural and power dimensions which may rule different behaviours as criminal at different times†, (n. d, p. 1). The most obvious example of this is when the law changes. For example from viewing the list of criminal offences by the Legal Services Commission, aiding suicide became a crime in 1961, yet causing death by dangerous driving did not become a crime until 1988.Criminal behaviour can then be explained as the violation of the criminal code. Usually to be convicted of a crime, an individual needs to have acted deliberately and without justification of their actions. Understanding why crime occurs is a big problem, yet there are certain explanations that can explain criminal behaviour. Modern theories that attempt to explain criminal behaviour emphasise the nature versus nurture debate; genes set the limits on behaviour while the environment forms developments in the limits (Standen n. d: p. 2).Some of these theories put an emphasis on physical features. Sheldon developed somatypes, suggesting that broad and muscular mesomorphs were more likely to be criminals. His findings support the fact that criminals are more likely to be muscular, yet to date it is still unclear what the link is between mesomorphy and crime (Standen n. d: p. 3). Out of the numerous theories that try to explain criminal behaviour, there are two which can explain it more effectively; sociological and psychological. Sociological criminology examines group variables to crime.Bartol and Bartol suggest these variables include age, gender, race, socioeconomic status, personal relationships and ethnic-cultural affiliation (Bartol and Bartol, 2005: p. 5). These variables have important relationships with categories and patterns of crime. For example sociological crim inology has determined that African American males from disadvantaged backgrounds are more represented as perpetrators of homicide. More black people are excluded from school, leading to the notion that young African American males are disproportionately involved in crime.Social class and poverty are involved in research on crime. Most sociological theories emphasise the lower a person’s social class; the more likely they are to display criminal behaviour. For example, a low class person who is living under poor economic conditions is more likely to commit a criminal offence such as burglary to survive. Schools in deprived areas have low academic achievement, which is a characteristic of many offenders. Schools in these areas can fail to engage with challenging pupils, causing them to truant and becoming involved in criminal behaviour.Standen suggests that challenging pupils will eventually fail to achieve the qualifications needed to escape having a criminal career (Standen, n. d: p. 9). Psychological criminology is the science of behaviour and mental processes of the criminal. Bartol and Bartol state that â€Å"whereas sociological criminology focuses on society and groups as a whole, psychological criminology focuses on individual criminal behaviour† (2005: p6). It centres on how criminal behaviour is acquired, maintained and modified.The â€Å"social and personality influences on criminal behaviour are considered along with the mental processes that mediate that behaviour† (Bartol and Bartol, 2005: p. 6). Eysenck developed a psychological theory of crime that suggests neuroticism and extroversion are linked to antisocial behaviour. Eysenck eventually developed the P variable, which was noticed by aggressive and impersonal behaviour. Individuals who score highly on the p variable scale are more likely to display criminal behaviour, for example if a person is abused as a child.Whether it is physically or mentally, the child will develop impersonal behaviour, detaching themselves from their social setting to cope with what is happening to them. Once the child has become detached, this can progress with them to adulthood and cause them to become violent and display criminal behaviour. William Glasser introduced rational choice theory which is seen as the most common reason why criminals do what they do. The theory suggests the offender is completely rational when they make the decision to commit a crime.Within choice theory there are three representations of criminal behaviour; the rational actor where individuals choose whether to do the crime; the predestined actor where criminals cannot control their urges causing them to commit crime and the victimised actor where the offender has been a victim of society. Choice theory therefore offers numerous explanations why a person could offend. Psychological and sociological theories are well represented and explain why criminal behaviour occurs.As suggested by Bartol and Bartol, crime occurs in a social context, so factors like race, ethnicity, gender and social class will always be involved in explaining criminal behaviour. Explaining criminal behaviour improves the understanding of why people commit crime. In the United Kingdom, the police force has been given more authority to tackle criminal behaviour with seizure measures (Whitehead 2011). This could help determine more in depth explanations as to why criminal behaviour occurs, especially in certain social divisions.