Child beauty pageants Essay

One of the main issues people have with child beauty pageants is that the children’s childhood gets taken from them. Children shouldn’t be wearing fake tan, false eyelashes and make up. France is looking to ban beauty pageants for children under 16 and anyone who organises a pageant would face up to 2 years in jail and a fine of about â‚ ¬40,000. The senate in France states â€Å"If we stop child beauty pageants now, these little girls will grow up to have self-respect and respect for others too, all these pageants do is destroy their self-esteem.† People also argue that these little girls attend pageants because they enjoy it and it’s a hobby, nothing dangerous will come of it. But what harm will banning them do? Child beauty pageants should be banned because they cause little girls, to be artificial to boost their self-esteem. The parents of these children put so much stress and pressure onto these children to look and be a certain way. Beauty pageants make children believe they have to be fake to be beautiful. I feel it can completely lower a girl’s self-esteem if they don’t win. Children of such a young age shouldn’t have to be worrying about the way they look or being judged at all. When we think of beauty pageants we tend to think of the society’s idea of perfect little girls competing to see who the judges think is the most beautiful. Also, we think of crazy moms who push their children too hard and will do anything so that their child will win. All of this is true but there are more issues with beauty pageants, some that are more concerning. Beauty pageants are judged based on physical appearance, yet haven’t we always been told not to judge based on looks? They aren’t healthy for kids- they take away their childhood. Lastly, beauty pageants do not set a good example for kids; they do many things that we are told not to do. One of the largest issues that deals with Child hood beauty pageants is the problem of little children being forced to be dressed in sexualising costumes, that ruins their innocence and such. However i would like to point out that a childhood beauty pageant ranges til the age of 18 years old. A 18 year old girl is allowed to choose to do a beauty pageant and if she wishes to wear something revealing. By placing all the problems of childhood beauty pageants is seen in a brief window of a child’s younger years. What will we achieve by banning the pageants other than a huge amount of protest and disapproval? Just because showing off may not be the best thing in the world why should we ban it? It is wrong to ban something because people look up to it and think they are not as good. Most people are intelligent enough to not do crazy things when they see someone prettier than them. These shows are for entertainment anyway. It is crazy to get rid of things because some people dislike them. People that don’t like the pageants shouldn’t watch them and shouldn’t ruin the fun for others. If people want to show off and get money for it, why shouldn’t they? In the professional pageants showing off is another form of advertising anyway. We shouldn’t ban something while we still encourage other things such as the tour de France, boxing and some legal drugs. Many people enjoy watching and participating in beauty pageants. Just because some people dislike them doesn’t mean we should eradicate all pageants of all types forever. In fact lots of people like them and that is why we have them. The competitors have fun hearing the audience applaud, dressing up, showing off and hearing that they are one of the prettiest, most talented or best dressed competitors. Most of the prizes for beauty pageants are scholarships or savings for the future by banning the pageants we are depriving the talented winners of a decent prize. Beauty pageants do not involve illegal activities, unlike sports. In some sports athletes use illegal drugs to help them perform better and win. We do not ban the Tour de France even when certain people use illegal stimulants. Eddy Merks, a famous cyclist, who was a winner of the tour de France had been caught using illegal drugs 5 times, in fact huge amounts of competitors have been found doping! Do I have to even have to mention Lance Armstrong? So why should we ban beauty pageants if we don’t ban things such as the tour de France? Why should it be illegal to dress up and compete to see who looks better? It is not illegal to have or use makeup, lipstick, eyelash thickener, and fake tans.

Crowdsourcing: Human-based Computation and Amazon Mechanical Turk

In a companion blog post to his June 2006 Wired magazine article, Jeff Howe posited the first definition of crowdsourcing:â€Å"Simply defined, crowdsourcing represents the act of a company or institution taking a function once performed by employees and outsourcing it to an undefined (and generally large) network of people in the form of an open call. This can take the form of peer-production (when the job is performed collaboratively), but is also often undertaken by sole individuals. The crucial prerequisite is the use of the open call format and the large network of potential laborers.†Daren C. Brabham was the first to define â€Å"crowdsourcing† in the scientific literature in a February 1, 2008, article:â€Å"Crowdsourcing is an online, distributed problem-solving and production model.†In the classic use of the term, problems are broadcast to an unknown group of solvers in the form of an open call for solutions. Users—also known as the crowd—s ubmit solutions which are then owned by the entity that broadcasted the problem—the crowdsourcer. In some cases, the contributor of the solution is compensated monetarily, with prizes, or with recognition. In other cases, the only rewards may be kudos or intellectual satisfaction. Crowdsourcing may produce solutions from amateurs or volunteers working in their spare time, or from experts or small businesses which were unknown to the initiating organization.Crowdsourcers are primarily motivated by its benefits. One of these includes the ability to gather large numbers of solutions and information at a relatively inexpensive cost. Users are motivated to contribute to crowdsourced tasks by both intrinsic motivations, such as social contact,  intellectual stimulation, and passing time, and by extrinsic motivations, such as financial gain.Due to the blurred limits of crowdsourcing, many collaborative activities are considered crowdsourcing even when they are not. Another consequ ence of this situation is the proliferation of definitions in the scientific literature. Different authors give different definitions of crowdsourcing according to their specialties, losing in this way the global picture of the term.After studying more than 40 definitions of crowdsourcing in the scientific and popular literature, Enrique Estellà ©s-Arolas and Fernando Gonzà ¡lez Ladrà ³n-de-Guevara developed a new integrating definition:â€Å"Crowdsourcing is a type of participative online activity in which an individual, an institution, a non-profit organization, or company proposes to a group of individuals of varying knowledge, heterogeneity, and number, via a flexible open call, the voluntary undertaking of a task. The undertaking of the task, of variable complexity and modularity, and in which the crowd should participate bringing their work, money, knowledge and/or experience, always entails mutual benefit. The user will receive the satisfaction of a given type of need, be it economic, social recognition, self-esteem, or the development of individual skills, while the crowdsourcer will obtain and utilize to their advantage that what the user has brought to the venture, whose form will depend on the type of activity undertaken†.Henk van Ess emphasizes the need to â€Å"give back† the crowdsourced results to the public on ethical grounds. His non-scientific, non-commercial definition is widely cited in the popular press:â€Å"Crowdsourcing is channeling the experts’ desire to solve a problem and then freely sharing the answer with everyone†Crowdsourcing systems are used to accomplish a variety of tasks. For example, the crowd may be invited to develop a new technology, carry out a design task (also known as community-based design or distributed participatory  design), refine or carry out the steps of an algorithm (see human-based computation), or help capture, systematize, or analyze large amounts of data (see also citizen science).HistoryThe term â€Å"crowdsourcing† is a portmanteau of â€Å"crowd† and â€Å"outsourcing,† coined by Jeff Howe in a June 2006 Wired magazine article â€Å"The Rise of Crowdsourcing†. It has been argued that crowdsourcing can only exist on the Internet and is thus a relatively recent phenomenon., however, long before modern crowdsourcing systems were developed, there were a number of notable examples of projects that utilized distributed people to help accomplish tasks.Historical examples The Oxford English DictionaryThe Oxford English Dictionary (OED) may provide one of the earliest examples of crowdsourcing. An open call was made to the community for contributions by volunteers to index all words in the English language and example quotations of their usages for each one. They received over 6 million submissions over a period of 70 years. The making of the OED is detailed in The Surgeon of Crow Thorne by Simon Winchester.Crowdsourcing in gene alogy researchGenealogical research was using crowdsourcing techniques long before computers were common. Beginning in 1942 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (also known as the Mormon church) encouraged members to submit information about their ancestors. The submitted information was gathered together into a single collection. In 1969 in order to encourage more people to participate in gathering genealogical information about their ancestors, the church started the three-generation program. In this program church members were asked to prepare documented family group record forms for the first three generations. The program was later expanded to encourage members to research at least 4 generations, and became known as the four-generation program.Institutes that have records of interest to genealogical research have used crowds of volunteers to create catalogs and indexes to records.Early crowdsourcing competitionsCrowdsourcing has often been used in the past as a competition in order to discover a solution. The French government proposed several of these competitions, often rewarded with Montyon Prizes, created for poor Frenchmen who had done virtuous acts. These included the Leblanc process, or the Alkali Prize, where a reward was provided for separating the salt from the alkali, and the Fourneyron's Turbine, when the first hydraulic commercial turbine was developed.In response to a challenge from the French government, Nicholas Appert won a prize for inventing a new way of food preservation that involved sealing food in air-tight jars. The British government provided a similar reward to find an easy way to determine a ship’s longitude in the The Longitude Prize. During the Great Depression, out-of-work clerks tabulated higher mathematical functions in the Mathematical Tables Project as an outreach project.Modern methodsToday, crowdsourcing has transferred mainly to the Internet. The Internet provides a particularly good venue for crowdsourcing since individuals tend to be more open in web-based projects where they are not being physically judged or scrutinized and thus can feel more comfortable sharing. This ultimately allows for well-designed artistic projects because individuals are less conscious, or maybe even less aware, of scrutiny towards their work. In an online atmosphere more attention is given to the project rather than communication with other individuals.Crowdsourcing can either take an explicit or an implicit route. Explicit crowdsourcing lets users work together to evaluate, share, and build different specific tasks, while implicit crowdsourcing means that users solve a problem as a side effect of something else they are doing.With explicit crowdsourcing, users can evaluate particular items like books or webpages, or share by posting products or items. Users can also build artifacts by providing information and editing other people's work.Implicit crowdsourcing can take two forms: standalo ne and piggyback. Standalone allows people to solve problems as a side effect of the task they are actually doing, whereas piggyback takes users' information from a third-party website to gather information.Types of crowdsourcingIn coining the term of â€Å"crowdsourcing†, Jeff Howe has also indicated some common categories of crowdsourcing that can be used effectively in the commercial world. Some of these web-based crowdsourcing efforts include crowdvoting, wisdom of the crowd, crowdfunding, microwork, creative crowdsourcing and inducement prize contests. Although these may not be an exhaustive list, they cover the current major ways in which people use crowds to perform tasks.According to definition by Henk van Ess that has been widely cited in the popular press,â€Å"The crowdsourced problem can be huge (epic tasks like finding alien life or mapping earthquake zones) or very small (‘where can I skate safely?'). Some examples of successful crowdsourcing themes are p roblems that bug people, things that make people feel good about themselves, projects that tap into niche knowledge of proud experts, subjects that people find sympathetic or any form of injustice.†Crowd votingCrowd voting occurs when a website gathers a large group's opinions and judgment on a certain topic. The Iowa Electronic Market is a prediction market that gathers crowds' views on politics and tries to ensure accuracy by having participants pay money to buy and sell contracts based on political outcomes.Threadless.com selects the t-shirts it sells by having users provide designs and vote on the ones they like, which are then printed and available for purchase. Despite the small nature of the company, thousands of members provide designs and vote on them, making the website’s products truly created and selected by the crowd, rather than the company. Some of the most famous examples have made use of social media channels: Domino's Pizza, Coca Cola, Heineken and Sam Adams have thus crowdsourced a new pizza, song, bottle design or beer, respectively.Crowdsourcing creative workCreative crowdsourcing spans sourcing creative projects such as graphic design, architecture, apparel design, writing, illustration. etc. Some of the better known creative domains that use the Crowdsourcing model include 99designs, DesignCrowd, crowdspring, Jade Magnet, Threadless, Poptent, GeniusRocket and TongalCrowdfundingCrowdfunding is the process of funding your projects by a multitude of people contributing a small amount in order to attain a certain monetary goal. Goals may be for donations or for equity in a project. The dilemma right now for equity crowdfunding in the USA is how the SEC is going to regulate the entire process. As it stands rules and regulations are being refined by the SEC and they will have until Jan. 1st, 2013 to tweak the fundraising methods. The regulators are on edge because they are already overwhelmed trying to regulate Dodd – Frank and all the other rules and regulations involving public companies and the way they trade. Advocates of regulation claim that crowdfunding will open up the flood gates for fraud, have called it the â€Å"wild west† of fundraising, and have compared it to the 1980s days of penny stock â€Å"cold-call cowboys.†The process allows for up to 1 million dollars to be raised without a lot of the regulations being involved. Companies under the current proposal will have a lot of exemptions available and be able to raise capital from a larger pool of persons which can include a lot lower thresholds for investor criteria whereas the old rules required that the person be an â€Å"accredited† investor. These people are often recruited from social networks, where the funds can be acquired from an  equity purchase, loan, donation, or pre-ordering. The amounts collected have become quite high, with requests that are over a million dollars for software like Trampoline Systems , which used it to finance the commercialization of their new software.A well-known crowdfunding tool is Kickstarter, which is the biggest website for funding creative projects. It has raised over $100 million, despite its all-or-nothing model which requires one to reach the proposed monetary goal in order to acquire the money. UInvest is another example of a crowdfunding platform that was started in Kiev, Ukraine in 2007. Crowdrise brings together volunteers to fundraise in an online environment.Most recently, the adult industry gained its own site in the way of Offbeatr. Offbeatr allows the community to cast votes on projects they would like to see make it to the funding phase. â€Å"Wisdom of the crowd†Wisdom of the crowd is another type of crowdsourcing that collects large amounts of information and aggregates them to gain a complete and accurate picture of a topic, based on the idea that a group of people is on average more intelligent than an individual. This idea of co llective intelligence proves particularly effective on the web because people from diverse backgrounds can contribute in real-time within the same forums.iStockPhoto provides a platform for people to upload photos and purchase them for low prices. Clients can purchase photos through credits, giving photographers a small profit. Again, the photo collection is determined by the crowd's voice for very low prices.In February 2012, a stock picking game called Ticker Picker Pro was launched, using crowdsourcing to create a hedge fund that would buy and sell stocks based on the ideas coming out of the game. These crowdsourced ideas, coming from so many people, could help one pick the best stocks based on this idea that collective ideas are better than individual ones.MicroworkMicrowork is a crowdsourcing platform where users do small tasks for which computers lack aptitude for low amounts of money. Amazon’s popular Mechanical Turk has created many different projects for users to par ticipate in, where each task requires very little time and offers a very small amount in payment. The Chinese versions of this, commonly called Witkey, are similar and include such sites as Taskcn.com and k68.cn. When choosing tasks, since only certain users â€Å"win†, users learn to submit later and pick less popular tasks in order to increase the likelihood of getting their work chosen. An example of a Mechanical Turk project is when users searched satellite images for images of a boat in order to find lost researcher Jim Gray. Inducement prize contestsWeb-based idea competitions, or inducement prize contests often consist of generic ideas, cash prizes, and an Internet-based platform to facilitate easy idea generation and discussion. An example of these competitions includes an event like IBM’s 2006 â€Å"Innovation Jam†, attended by over 140,000 international participants and yielding around 46,000 ideas. Another example is Netflix Prize in 2009. The idea wa s to ask crowd to come up with a recommendation algorithm which was more accurate than Netflix's own algorithm. It had a grand prize of US$1,000,000 and it was given to the BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos team which bested Netflix's own algorithm for predicting ratings by 10.06%Another example of competition-based crowdsourcing is the 2009 DARPA experiment, where DARPA placed 10 balloon markers across the United States and challenged teams to compete to be the first to report the location of all the balloons. A collaboration of efforts was required to complete the challenge quickly and in addition to the competitive motivation of the contest as a whole, the winning team (MIT, in less than nine hours) established its own â€Å"collaborapetitive† environment to generate participation in their team. A similar challenge was the Tag Challenge, funded by the US State Department, which required locating and photographing individuals in 5 cities in the US and Europe within 12 hours based o nly on a single photograph. The winning team managed to locate 3 suspects by mobilizing volunteers world-wide using a similar incentive scheme to the one  used in the Balloon Challenge.Open innovation platforms are a very effective way of crowdsourcing people’s thoughts and ideas to do research and development. The company InnoCentive is a crowdsourcing platform for corporate research and development where difficult scientific problems are posted for crowds of solvers to discover the answer and win a cash prize, which can range from $10,000 to $100,000 per challenge. InnoCentive, of Waltham, MA and London, England is the leader in providing access to millions of scientific and technical experts from around the world. The company has provided expert crowdsourcing to international Fortune 1000 companies in the US and Europe as well as government agencies and nonprofits.The company claims a success rate of 50% in providing successful solutions to previously unsolved scientific and technical problems. IdeaConnection.com challenges people to come up with new inventions and innovations and Ninesigma.com connects clients with experts in various fields. The X PRIZE Foundation creates and runs incentive competitions where one can win between $1 million and $30 million for solving challenges. Local Motors is another example of crowdsourcing. A community of 20,000 automotive engineers, designers and enthusiasts competes to build offroad rally trucks. Implicit crowdsourcingImplicit crowdsourcing is less obvious because users do not necessarily know they are contributing, yet can still be very effective in completing certain tasks. Rather than users actively participating in solving a problem or providing information, implicit crowdsourcing involves users doing another task entirely where a third party gains information for another topic based on the user’s actions.A good example of implicit crowdsourcing is the ESP game, where users guess what images are a nd then these labels are used to tag Google images. Another popular use of implicit crowdsourcing is through reCAPTCHA, which asks people to solve Captchas in order to prove they are human, and then provides Captchas from old books that cannot be deciphered by computers in order to try and digitize them for the web. Like Mechanical Turk, this task is simple for humans but would be incredibly difficult for computers.Piggyback crowdsourcing can be seen most frequently by websites such as Google that mine one’s search history and websites in order to discover keywords for ads, spelling corrections, and finding synonyms. In this way, users are unintentionally helping to modify existing systems, such as Google’s ad words.CrowdsourcersThere are a number of motivations for businesses to use crowdsourcing to accomplish tasks, find solutions for problems, or to gather information. These include the ability to offload peak demand, access cheap labor and information, generate bet ter results, access a wider array of talent than might be present in one organization, and undertake problems that would have been too difficult to solve internally. Crowdsourcing allows businesses to submit problems on which contributors can work, such as problems in science, manufacturing, biotech, and medicine, with monetary rewards for successful solutions. Although it can be difficult to crowdsource complicated tasks, simple work tasks can be crowdsourced cheaply and effectively.Crowdsourcing also has the potential to be a problem-solving mechanism for government and nonprofit use. Urban and transit planning are prime areas for crowdsourcing. One project to test crowdsourcing's public participation process for transit planning in Salt Lake City has been underway from 2008 to 2009, funded by a U.S. Federal Transit Administration grant. Another notable application of crowdsourcing to government problem solving is the Peer to Patent Community Patent Review project for the U.S. Pat ent and Trademark Office.Researchers have used crowdsourcing systems, in particular Mechanical Turk, to aid with research projects by crowdsourcing aspects of the research process such as data collection, parsing, and evaluation. Notable examples include using the crowd to create speech and language databases,and using the crowd to conduct user studies. Crowdsourcing systems provide these researchers with the ability to gather large amount of data. Additionally, using crowdsourcing, researchers can collect data from populations and  demographics they may not have had access to locally, but that improve the validity and value of their work.Artists have also utilized crowdsourcing systems. In his project the Sheep Market, Aaron Koblin used Mechanical Turk to collect 10,000 drawings of sheep from contributors around the world. Sam Brown (artist) leverages the crowd by asking visitors of his website explodingdog to send him sentences that he uses as inspirations for paintings. Art cur ator Andrea Grover argues that individuals tend to be more open in crowdsourced projects because they are not being physically judged or scrutinized. As with other crowdsourcers, artists use crowdsourcing systems to generate and collect data. The crowd also can be used to provide inspiration and to collect financial support for an artist’s work.Additionally, crowdsourcing from 100 million drivers is being used by INRIX to collect users' driving times to provide better GPS routing and real-time traffic updates.DemographicsThe crowd is an umbrella term for people who contribute to crowdsourcing efforts. Though it is sometimes difficult to gather data about the demographics of the crowd, a study by Ross et al. surveyed the demographics of a sample of the more than 400,000 registered crowdworkers using Amazon Mechanical Turk to complete tasks for pay.While a previous study in 2008 by Ipeirotis found that users at that time were primarily American, young, female, and well-educated , with 40% having incomes >$40,000/yr, in 2009 Ross found a very different population. By Nov. 2009, 36% of the surveyed Mechanical Turk workforce was Indian. Of Indian workers were male, and 66% had at least a Bachelor’s degree. ? had annual incomes less than $10,000/yr, with 27% sometimes or always depending on income from Mechanical Turk to make ends meet.The average US user of Mechanical Turk earned $2.30 per hour for tasks in 2009, versus $1.58 for the average Indian worker. While the majority of users worked less than 5 hours per week, 18% worked 15 hours per week or more. This is less than minimum wage in either country, which Ross suggests raises ethical questions for researchers who use crowdsourcing.The demographics of http://microworkers.com/ differ from Mechanical Turk in that the US and India together account for only 25% of workers. 197 countries are represented among users, with Indonesia (18%) and Bangladesh (17%) contributing the largest share. However, 28% o f employers are from the US.Another study of the demographics of the crowd at iStockphoto found a crowd that was largely white, middle- to upper-class, higher educated, worked in a so-called â€Å"white collar job,† and had a high-speed Internet connection at home.Studies have also found that crowds are not simply collections of amateurs or hobbyists. Rather, crowds are often professionally trained in a discipline relevant to a given crowdsourcing task and sometimes hold advanced degrees and many years of experience in the profession.Claiming that crowds are amateurs, rather than professionals, is both factually untrue and may lead to marginalization of crowd labor rights.MotivationsMany scholars of crowdsourcing suggest that there are both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations that cause people to contribute to crowdsourced tasks, and that these factors influence different types of contributors.For example, students and people employed full-time rate Human Capital Advancement as less important than part-time workers do, while women rate Social Contact as more important than men do.Intrinsic motivations are broken down into two categories, enjoyment-based and community-based motivations. Enjoyment-based motivations refer to motivations related to the fun and enjoyment that the contributor experiences through their participation. These motivations include: skill variety, task identity, task autonomy, direct feedback from the job, and pastime. Community-based motivations refer to motivations related to community participation, and include community identification and social contact.Extrinsic motivations are broken down into three categories, immediate payoffs, delayed payoffs, and social motivations. Immediate payoffs, through monetary payment, are the immediately received compensations given to those who complete tasks. Delayed payoffs are benefits that can be used to generate future advantages, such as training skills and being noticed by potential employ ers. Social motivations are the rewards of behaving pro-socially, such as altruistic motivations. Chandler and Kapelner found that US users of the Amazon Mechanical Turk were more likely to complete a task when told they were going to â€Å"help researchers identify tumor cells,† than when they were not told the purpose of their task. However, of those who completed the task, quality of output did not depend on the framing of the task.Another form of social motivation is prestige or status. The International Children's Digital Library recruits volunteers to translate and review books. Because all translators receive public acknowledgment for their contribution, Kaufman and Schulz cite this as a reputation-based strategy to motivate individuals who want to be associated with institutions that have prestige. The Amazon Mechanical Turk uses reputation as a motivator in a different sense, as a form of quality control. Crowdworkers who frequently complete tasks in ways judged to b e inadequate can be denied access to future tasks, providing motivation to produce high-quality work. CriticismsThere are two major categories of criticisms about crowdsourcing, (1) the value and impact of the work received from the crowd and (2) the ethical implications of low wages paid to crowdworkers. Most of these criticisms are directed towards crowdsourcing systems that provide extrinsic monetary rewards to contributors, though some apply more generally to all crowdsourcing systems. Impact of crowdsourcing on product qualitySusceptibility to faulty results caused by targeted, malicious work efforts. Since crowdworkers completing microtasks are paid per task, there is often a financial incentive to complete tasks quickly rather than well. Verifying responses is time consuming, and so requesters often depend on having  multiple workers complete the same task to correct errors. However, having each task completed multiple times increases time and monetary costs.Crowdworkers ar e a nonrandom sample of the population. Many researchers use crowdsourcing in order to quickly and cheaply conduct studies with larger sample sizes than would be otherwise achievable. However, due to low worker pay, participant pools are skewed towards poor users in developing countries.Increased likelihood that a crowdsourced project will fail due to lack of monetary motivation or too few participants. Crowdsourcing markets are not a first-in-first-out queue. Tasks that are not completed quickly may be forgotten, buried by filters and search procedures so that workers do not see them. This results in a long tail power law distribution of completion times. Additionally, low-paying research studies online have higher rates of attrition, with participants not completing the study once started. Even when tasks are completed, crowdsourcing doesn't always produce quality results. When Facebook began its localization program in 2008, it encountered criticism for the low quality of its cro wdsourced translations.One of the problems of crowdsourcing products is the lack of interaction between the crowd and the client. Usually there is little information about the final desired product and there is often very limited interaction with the final client. This can decrease the quality of product as client interaction is a vital part of the design process.It is usually expected from a crowdsourced project to be unbiased by incorporating a large population of participants with a diverse background. However, most of the crowdsourcing works are done by people who are paid or directly benefit from the outcome (e.g. most of open source projects working on Linux). In many other cases, the resulted product is the outcome of a single person's endeavour who creates the majority of the product while the crowd only participates in minor details.Concerns for crowdsourcersEthical concerns. Because crowdworkers are considered independent contractors  rather than employees, they are not guaranteed a minimum wage. In practice, workers using the Amazon Mechanical Turk generally earn less than the minimum wage, even in India. Some researchers considering using Mechanical Turk to get participants for studies have argued that this may be unethical.Below-market wages. The average US user of Mechanical Turk earned $2.30 per hour for tasks in 2009, versus $1.58 for the average Indian worker. While the majority of users worked less than 5 hours per week, 18% worked 15 hours per week or more, and 27% of Indian users said income from Mechanical Turk is sometimes or always necessary for them to make ends meet. This is less than minimum wage in either country, which Ross et al. suggest raises ethical questions for researchers who use crowdsourcing.[ When Facebook began its localization program in 2008, it received criticism for using crowdsourcing to obtain free labor.Typically, no written contracts, non-disclosure agreements, or employee agreements are made with crowdsourced e mployees. For users of the Amazon Mechanical Turk, this means that requestors have final say over whether users’ work is acceptable; if not, they will not be paid. Critics claim that crowdsourcing arrangements exploit individuals in the crowd, and there has been a call for crowds to organize for their labor rights.Difficulties in collaboration of crowd members, especially in the context of competitive crowd sourcing. Crowdsourcing site InnoCentive allows organizations to solicit solutions to scientific and technological problems; only 10.6% of respondents report working in a team on their submission.

Saving the Environment and the Bottom Line Term Paper

Saving the Environment and the Bottom Line - Term Paper Example The labor usage in replacement should be sourced internally to prevent further expenditure Assuming the cost of the showerhead is 50 dollars total saving per showerhead will be the number of guestrooms and the product of the rte of occupants, i.e. 375* 67/100 this will give an approximate figure of 251 rooms. The participant indicates a rate of 1.4 persons per room. The occupant will amount to 251*1.4 which is approximately 352 persons. Assuming each person spends 15 minutes in the shower daily thus his daily gallons will be 1.8*15 minutes which sums at 27 gallons per person daily to give an overall usage of 9504 gallons (351*27). The previous usage stood at 17901 gallons (3.4*15*351). The overall savings will stand at 8397 gallons (17901-9504). The cost will amount to $48.03(5.72*8397/1000) cost savings on showers. The yearly savings will amount to $17520 (48.03*365 days). The savings on toilet gallons will 218416 (1.7*352*365), the cost in savings $1250. The total savings as a result of the proposed measures will be $ 18770(17520 + 1250) annual savings due to reduced wa stage. Xavier hotel needs to redesign its main switch and electric control unit. The lighting bulb needs to be replaced by LED bulbs that consume less energy than the current florescent. Each room needs to be checked after a visitor checks out. The efforts will ensure that bulbs and electric appliances in the empty rooms are disconnected and electricity switched off. The efforts will reduce the electric consumption by more than 10 percent. The heating systems needs to be adjusted and solar powered heaters introduced. Thermostat in each room needs to be checked and its temperature reduced by 50C in every single room at the hotel. Each appliance needs to be checked and worn out equipment in each room repaired and replaced (Todd& Rebecca, 2002). Worn out electric appliances consume more energy as compared to those new ones. In matters heating automated switches should

Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 23

Philosophy - Essay Example These tactics forced the slaves to adopt survival tactics of living, reinforcing the beliefs of white people that menial labor was all the slaves were capable of – higher thought was clearly beyond the capacity of their more primitive brains. Making the situation even worse, this societal attitude was successful in convincing many of the slaves that these assumptions were correct. Proving that this was not the case, though, was Frederick Douglass. An escaped slave from Maryland, he was the first black man to appear on a presidential ticket in America. Douglass told the world his story revealing in the process how literacy changed him deeply to transform him from a masterless slave to a freethinking human being. These ideas are also revealed in his early narrative Frederick Douglass: Life of an American Slave. Although his exact birth date is unknown, Douglass believed he was born sometime in February of 1818. He died on February 20, 1895. Today’s common perception is that slavery, at least the brutal form of it, was confined mostly in the south on the big plantations yet Douglass witnessed many brutal beatings on his master’s Maryland farm where he lived for his first seven years. As a child, he was often required to endure cold and hunger because the master kept most of the slave-generated products, including food and fuel, for his own comfort and well-being. Normally a very traumatic event for a child, when 7-year-old Douglass’ mother died, he felt almost no grief. â€Å"Never having enjoyed, to any considerable extent, her soothing presence, her tender and watchful care, I received the tidings of [my mother’s] death with much the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger† (Ch. 1). The important lesson Douglass tries to conv ey in these early chapters is how the slave is created from birth. He is separated from his family to destroy any natural human feelings of

Developing Leadership Skills Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Developing Leadership Skills - Essay Example For this assignment, I observed my friend Carl who is a soccer captain and Jenny who is the head pharmacist at my local drug store. On this day, Carl had fallen out with his teammate Mark and it had escalated to a physical fight. Tensions had been brewing between the two because Mark had consistently challenged the captain’s decisions in front of his teammates. Mark is a very talented and hardworking player but has a high temper and is generally stubborn. He could have actually made captain but his mean tempered streak and sense of individualism stood in the way. Carl is also a talented player and a team player but is generally passive aggressive. He barely shows any emotion and has generally ignored Mark’s negative comments and public jabs to avoid fueling his anger. However, Carl had resulted to benching Mark during practice when the coach was not around to alienate him, decision that Mark had not taken kindly after missing out on several practice sessions. Constant a rguments had a cold war had gone on between the two till Mark finally confronted Carl and a fight ensued. The two now sat before the coach pleading their case and explaining what happened. Carl argued that Mark had constantly disrespected him and did not heed the advice of his peers during practice. Therefore he had been forced to make him sit out during practice and work with teammates who followed his lead. Mark on the other hand argued that he did not mean to be disrespectful and was only trying to have his voice heard. Being a good player and an avid reader on how to improve the way they played was only trying to get the captain to incorporate a few plays during practice. Carl interpreted this as a threat to his authority and hit back by alienating him from the team. Mark kept insisting that even though he has a short temper and sometimes speaks his mind in an assertive manner, he did not mean to fuel a feud between him and the captain. Carl appeared insecure about his abilities as a leader and did not act objectively. As a leader, he had identified that there was a problem based on how Mark behaved towards him. However, he did not deal with it effectively. Alienating him only fueled a feud between them and drove the team to take sides making it harder to work as a team. They had never evened out their differences and sat to talk about how they felt about each other. Luckily, this was an avenue to settle old scores and agree to work together as a team. Carl accepted that as the captain he could have stimulated participation and teamwork and allowed Mark to try some plays. Accepting Mark’s suggestions was not a threat to his authority. Carl used the paternalism leadership approach where anyone appearing question his authority was punished by being forced to sit out, a leadership style which drew the team apart and let to a physical fight. Jenny is the head pharmacist at the largest local retail pharmacy and has been lauded for her management and lead ership skills over the years. As the head of the largest pharmacy she has earned respect and is considered a mentor and role model among professional women. However, it has not always been an easy task as pharmacists can easily fall prey to the lure of money due to conflict of interest. On this day jenny sat before the owners of the pharmacy after a decision she had made to change drug suppliers from Hadleys pharmaceuticals to Clavam pharmaceuticals led to a crisis. The suppliers enjoyed a cordial relationship with the store owners and had been supplying drugs to the store since its inception. Jenny had recently signed a new contract with a different drug supplier and the old suppliers had reached out to the store owners to

Lobbying and Legislative Red Tape Impacting Reform Research Paper

Lobbying and Legislative Red Tape Impacting Reform - Research Paper Example Governments have been working on reducing red tape especially in America and Europe. Red tape hinders competition and productivity in any organization. Companies and citizens find it difficult to comply with the overburdening requirements by the government. These rules have become a burden to businesses and society at large (Nova Scotia, 10). This is why controlling of policies and guidelines is exceedingly significant. However, the advocating for reduction in red tape could impose more harm to the businesses by adding more regulations. Some researchers argue that only green lobbying can prevail over red tape. This green lobbying will ensure that only the relevant regulations concerning taxation and other significant issues will be stemmed out. The regulations which most affect businesses are to be stemmed out to allow for the growth of businesses. These green tactics can improve the economy of the country and, therefore, the quality of life. There has been massive lobbying involving non-governmental and governmental groups. These groups have been fighting for few rules and regulations which involve the economy and especially small enterprises (OECD). These measures prohibit the existing obligations and are also working to simplify the obligations. The simplification of the red tape regulations largely depends on the problems that are facing the society at large. Simplification also includes simplification of licenses and reducing the procedures involved in obtaining the licenses. The setting up of new procedures a ccording to the lobbyists is extremely significant. These new procedures have to be incorporated in the institutional setting of strategy creation. Red tape causes an increase in problems connected with excessive government regulations of businesses. Campaigns regarding bureaucracy will be of use if they entail efforts by individuals both in the inside and outside of red tape. The people on the inside

Decisionmaking behavior of the president during a major international Essay

Decisionmaking behavior of the president during a major international or domestic crisis - Essay Example For a time, the airline industry encountered severe economic difficulties. Analysis – Reagan’s decision may be due to his strong work ethics that he developed as a result of his childhood experiences. It was marked by poverty, an alcoholic father and a long-suffering, â€Å"do-gooder† mother. Despite said hardship, Reagan maintained an optimistic outlook that often defied the reality around him. He believed of hardship and that hard work will help people improve their economic standing. When the air controllers refused to abide his bidding, he might have thought of the consequence that time was wasted and that many under privilege would grab the chance to work for the government. Specially, since the time was marked with high unemployment rate. Another thought that must be considered was that his decision was not actually his idea. It could be influenced by his advisers and staff. For one thing known about President Reagan, he is constantly in conference with his government officials. It is good though that he was firm with his decision because it manifested strength as being the leader of the U.S. During the term of President Reagan, the country was in deep recession. To describe the U.S. economy, it was marked with peaked energy prices, high inflation rate and high rate of unemployment. Reagan entered his term with clear goals to change the existing system. From liberal social policy, Reagan wanted to reduce both the size and role of government in the country.1 His domestic policy agenda was concentrated on cutting taxes, balancing the budget, withdrawing support for social welfare programs, and returning powers to state government. He believed that if these can be done by the U.S., the federal government will be able to save billions of dollars and stimulate the economy at the same time.2 He then supported the Reaganomics which was the most ambitious reform effort of the Reagan government since the New

Dishonesty in the law of crime Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Dishonesty in the law of crime - Essay Example This research aims to evaluate and present dishonesty in the law of crime. a defendant can be deemed to have acted dishonestly if he knows that his doing is dishonest from the perspective of ordinary people. The use of this criterion, whereby honesty is determined by the standards of honest and reasonable people, can be criticised since it can lead to inconsistency given that various juries can reach different decisions on similar cases. Williams states that given the low levels of self-discipline that is prevailing in the society, he advises that the query of dishonesty should not be left to the jury. Therefore, the ghosh test has its basis on the assumption that there is a single standard of honesty that is universal and members of the society that are thinking right are the ones who hold it. This standard is seen to be so high that it can place a line between what is honest and what is unlawful (dishonest). The satisfactory and workable test about dishonesty should specify when co nduct is to be viewed as dishonest. Conduct should be viewed as dishonest if the one finding facts decides that reasonable and ordinary people would view the conduct as dishonest. This test is a fully objective assessment of dishonesty that is criminal and it contradicts the ghosh test to some extent, but it retains a little reference to the ordinary standards of the community. An individual is guilty of theft if he appropriates another person’s property dishonestly and intends to keep it away from him or her permanently. (Clarkson 87). It is not material whether this appropriation takes place for the gain of the thief. This act does not give the definition of dishonesty; instead, it only gives some specific situations where an individual is considered as not dishonest (Williams and Waller 157). The Ghosh Test of Dishonesty This is the current test for dishonesty, it is a test brought forward by the court of appeal, and is a two-stage objective/substantive test (Molan 17). Th is test is somewhat good because the decision as to whether the accused is guilty or not is left for the jury. The ghosh test has a number of criticisms because in this world there is no single standard of honesty held by the reasonable people of the society. Justices Toohey and Gaudron also criticised Ghosh as having practical problems. They also felt that, not all offences involving dishonesty were similar (Haplin 97). Subsequently, there is a need for the judge conducting the trial to stipulate the clear explicit meaning of dishonest to the jury. This is a peculiar test for dishonest

Leadership and Motivation Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Leadership and Motivation - Research Paper Example Through the study, I will try to reciprocate my viewpoints with the theoretical argument presented by various research scholars and academic sources. I will take conjectural view rather being subjective about the research topic hence the argument will be backed by academic sources. In the last section of the paper, I will discuss my career goals and necessary leadership skills that I need to develop in order to go beyond my current skill set. Key essence of this report will be to prepare a road map which will not only guide me throughout the life and increase level of knowledge through learning. My Idea about Leadership According to me, for any student doing graduation, the subject called leadership offers a lot than what he/she realizes. As I am having double in Business and Computer Science during graduation hence I got the chance to go through some invaluable research work regarding leadership. To be honest, I hardly have any idea about role of leadership in our life prior to joining the graduate degree program but it was the sincere teaching and pedagogy of teachers of university which has helped me to understand certain aspect of leadership. During my study in the graduate program, I was greatly influenced by the research work of Vardiman, Houghston and Jinkerson which was published in the year 2006. For example, as Vardiman, Houghston and Jinkerson (2006) argued that capable leaders do not have superhuman capability but they have the capability to motivate people and encourage subordinates to move in his/her direction. I believe that leadership is not a mere skill and neither can it be develop ed among people overnight. Day (2002) rightly defined leadership as inherent characteristics of person which encourages others to follow that person. I also agree with the argument presented by researcher scholars that person must have some characteristics in order to become a leaders. To be precise, I will not go to the discussion about types of leadership styles rather I will try to stick to four leadership and motivational style that I am currently best at. Leadership & Motivational Skills Ability to Take Responsibilities & Showing Respect I am fortunate due to the fact that none of my friends and relatives have blamed me for lack of courage to take responsibilities. I am not person who falters when it comes to taking responsibility in contingent period. Argument may arise that how taking responsibility in complex situation is related to leadership skill but my answer is that responsibility taking ability is the special characteristics of leaders which differentiate him/her from followers. To justify my viewpoint, I will share the empirical findings of research work of Maxwell (2012), that states that leaders need to take responsibilities of their decision in emergent situation which in order to earn respect and trust from followers. Maxwell (2012) pointed out that ability to take responsibilities comes from self belief of leaders and such beliefs help them to encourage and motivate others to work under his/her direction. In modern business world, we have seen plenty of examples where business leaders take the responsibility to bring change in the organization. During my graduation, in many occasions, I took the responsibilit

Sigmund Freud Biography Essay Example for Free

Sigmund Freud Biography Essay Sigmund Freud believed that the unconcious is the motivation for all simple desires. He believed that an organism is special because of its need to reproduce, and its need to survive. He thought that they are guided towards their needs by hunger, thirst, and avoidance of pain and sex. Freud was born in Frieberg, Moravia. He lived there until the age of four, and afterwards, he and his family moved to Vienna. Later, he enrolled in the medical school in Vienna, and learned much about Biology, and Psychology. Freud learned much about psychology by watching the development of children and people. With his observations, he developed a theory of how people change, and the ways that people think. Freuds goal was to understand a persons instincts and drives, and to see what motivated people to do certain things. His beliefs were based upon the ID, which were a persons instincts or drives. The ID works with the pleasure principle, which is the demand to take care of things immediately. He believed that the pleasure principle could be so strong that it could force a person to only think about one thing. Freud believed that the ID soon becomes the ego, which relates to an organisms consciousness, and its search for its desires. This is a way of problem solving which is alernately known as the secondary process. The ego works on the reality principle, which is the motivation to take care of ones needs when there is an opportunity. The ego competes with the ID, to keep the organism happy, and occasionally, it achieves its goals in the world. They keep a record of the things to avoid, and strategies to fulfill desires, and soon becomes something known as the superego. There are two parts to the superego: the conscience, and the ego ideal. The conscience is a warning message of punishments and consequences. The ego ideal grows through rewards and positive role models for the child. Some of the instincts that are involved with a humans nature are called the life instinct, and the death instinct. These are the drives, which cause the desire for food, water and other necessary things for survival. Freud had also came up with something called the libido. The libido is the motivational energy for the life instincts. Throught Freuds research, the  term libido was generally associated with the sex drive. The death instinct was the drive that every person has the desire to die as well. Most people did not understand his theory of people wanting to die, but Freud explained that some people saw that death could end all of their hardship and suffering that they encountered in life, because sometimes, life can be troublesome and tiring. Freud believed that for some people, death promised the release from the struggle of life. Freuds theories were very complicated and are not accepted everywhere. It has caused huge debates and contraversy all over the world. Some saw his work as brilliant, while others saw his work as garbage. But psychiatric evaluation is still an experimental field, one in which no one is sure of the therapeutic effectiveness.

Analysis of the Louisiana Purchase Treaty

Analysis of the Louisiana Purchase Treaty The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 represented the time when the United States expanded to the West by buying an area previously owned by France for the price of 15 million dollars.[2] The purchase represented the major diplomatic success of a young nation and an opportunity to double its size and become a leading power. The area purchased would later become â€Å"the states of Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, almost all of Oklahoma and Kansas, and large portions of what is now North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Minnesota, Colorado, and Louisiana.†[3] The treaty represented an interesting view of the relations between France and the US that promoted the sale of Louisiana by Napoleon Bonaparte. Additionally, the treaty also served to bring in a major political battlefield between the Federalists and Republicans concerning Article III of the treaty, raising the questions of whether the president can sign treaties and incorporate new people of a gained territory into th e union. This research paper will analyze the treaty and delve into the context behind the purchase of Louisiana by dividing it into three parts: the first part devoted to the relations between France and the US, the second to the provision of the treaty and the third to the consequences of the treaty on the constitution and its interpretation. The Relations between France and the USA Prior to the Louisiana Purchase Treaty, the relations between France and the United States of America in deep rift and experienced setbacks that led the two nations to be at war with each other unofficially. In the American side, it is known that the US received a great help in its war against Britain during the American Revolution, funding and weapons for the revolutionary warrior came directly from France. For instance, one of the major battles of the American Revolution in which America won was Yorktown, a battle that would not have been won without the help of the French navy.[4] This help did not come for free but was transformed into debt which the US agreed to pay to the kingdom of France. However, by 1792 France no longer was a monarchy but a republic exemplified by the execution of the last Bourbon king, Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette in 1793.[5] Acting on this political novelty, the US chose to neutralize its country regarding the English-French war by abrogating the Alliance Treaty of Mutual Support between the kingdom of France and the United States of America. Then the US canceled paying the debt that was owed to the kingdom of France and not to the newly formed republic.[6] These two policies angered France and thus induced the two countries to be under unofficial war that was called the Quasi-War. Under these circumstances the Americans were wary when the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso of 1800 retroceded the territory of Louisiana from Spain, under King Charles IV, to the republic of France. What made the Americans feel anxious upon hearing about the secret treaty, was the possibility that French might refuse American access to the Port of New Orleans, which is of utmost importance to the Americans as it is the only way planters in the Ohio valley area could transport their goods to the American cities in the Atlantic coast. Therefore, many voices in the US such as Alexander Hamilton were asking for a military action to seize the port o f New Orleans.[7] Because Thomas Jefferson occupied the post of the American ambassador in France from 1785 to 1789, he was intending to solve the issue peacefully with France. Jefferson found an opportunity to address his fears of the French presence in the Louisiana territory through playing two sides as he accepted to help France during the slave revolution in Santo Domingo[8] to stop trading with the leader of the rebellion of Toussaint LOuverture, or at least prevent the slaves from getting any goods and at the same time abandoning his promise in a diplomatic way without igniting any conflict between the two countries. Jefferson`s decision to help France during its struggle can be explained through the fear of the Southerners from a spillover of the slave revolt.[9] However, Jefferson changed his mind when a large French army was noticed in the vicinity of Santo Domingo. As it is stated by Thomas Fleming: When Pichon (a French diplomat in The US) sought help from Secretary of State Madison, he found himself answering difficult questions: Why was the French army so large? Shouldnt Paris have explained the first consuls plans before the expedition sailed? He also mentioned the report from Tobias Lear that part of the army was destined for Louisiana†¦He asked Madison to cooperate with France by allowing him to publish a letter announcing that trade with Santo Domingo was henceforth limited to ports controlled by France. He hoped Madison would publish a statement in support of this policy. Madisons answer was a masterpiece of evasion. He said it was very difficult to control the â€Å"national spirit† of a nation as commercially minded as the United States. The Southern states might support such an embargo because they feared the rebellious message LOuverture personified. But the Northern states, already rather hostile to the South, would violate it with impunity to sell their products to LOuvertures regime[10] Secretary of State James Madison found a clever of way of both keeping good relations with France and at the same time making sure that the revolt in Santo Domingo would eventually exhaust the French soldiers and prevent them from making their way to Louisiana. The United States of America at the beginning was not intending to buy the area of Louisiana, on the other hand the basic aim of Jefferson was to convince Napoleon Bonaparte to sell him the city of New Orleans. Jefferson was moved by the fear that foreign countries were intending to obtain the city hence, as the city serves to control the river of Mississippi, would jeopardize the right of America in the river. With Spain refusing to give access to Americans to use the river of Mississippi and access the port of New Orleans in 1798, due to a conflict between the US and Spain even though America signed the Pinckney Treaty, also known as San Lorenzo treaty, with Spain in 1795. Jefferson needed a way to let Americans gain access to the Mississippi River without being compelled to the desires of a foreign country. When Jefferson`s emissary, James Monroe, and Robert Livingston, proposed to Napoleon selling the city of New Orleans to the US, Bonaparte was ready to give not only the city b ut the whole area of Louisiana. The argument of Bonaparte was according to Thomas Fleming: I can hardly say I cede it to them,† Napoleon admitted. â€Å"For it is not yet in our possession. [But] If I leave the least time to our enemies, I will transmit only an empty title to those republicans whose friendship I seek. They ask for only one town of Louisiana [New Orleans]; but I consider the whole colony as completely lost, and it seems to me that in the hands of that growing power, it will be more useful to the policy and even the commerce of France than if I should try to keep it.[11] The readiness of Napoleon Bonaparte to not only sell New Orleans but also the whole territory of Louisiana surprised Jefferson and made him interested in buying the land. To his utmost astonishment, Robert Livingston was instructed by Thomas Jefferson to bargain a deal with Napoleon regarding the city of New Orleans and Florida with the price of 10 million dollars. At least, in case the deal was repudiated by Napoleon to at least obtain an agreement on the access to the port of New Orleans and the Mississippi river.[12] France`s Minister of the Treasury, Franà §ois Barbà ©-Marbois, played a pivotal role in convincing Bonaparte to sell the territory by pointing to its uselessness without the colony of Santo Domingo. Jefferson as well as Bonaparte were keen on signing the treaty as soon as possible, because Jefferson needed access to the land before any foreign country contesting the treaty, mainly Britain and Spain, would try to invade the territory. While Bonaparte was eager to ha ve money as soon as possible to finance his war adventures in Europe. Both Leaders were aware of the lack of legality in the Louisiana Purchase treaty due to Article III of the Treaty of San Ildefonso which states: His Catholic Majesty promises and undertakes on his part to retrocede to the French Republic, six months after the full and entire execution of the above conditions and provisions regarding His Royal Highness the Duke of Parma, the colony or province of Louisiana, with the same extent that it now has in the hands of Spain and that it had when France possessed it, and such as it ought to be according to the treaties subsequently concluded between Spain and other states.[13] The legal issue concerned the phrase that France will not cede the Louisiana territory to any foreign country. However, practicality won over legality and the legal issue was ignored, mainly due to the need of French empire for fund to cover its war expenses. As the United States could not summon the amount of 15 million dollars, Americans propose instead to sell their bonds to France and thanks to Baring and Company of London and Hope and Company of Amsterdam America was able issue 11.25 million dollars to cover its wars and empire building expenses.[14] The Provisions of the Treaty The Louisiana Purchase Treaty was signed on April 30, 1803. The treaty includes 10 articles and the audience was the Americana and French public. The treaty begin by mentioning that the misunderstanding, embedded in Article III and Article V of the Convention of 1800 between the French Republic and the United States of America regarding the US claims based on the Treaty of Friendship Between Spain and The United States in October 27, 1795, would be solved upon the signature of the treaty. The American delegated to Robert R. Livingston and James Monroe the task of signing the treaty with Francis Marbois Minister of the public treasury from the French side. Article I specified the right of France in the territory regardless of the provisions of Article III of St Ildefonso as France was the former owner of Louisiana territory before it was given to Spain. In Article I, France used the adjective â€Å"incontestable title†[15] to describe its ownership of the territory. Thus, Spain cannot compel France to not sell the land to any third party or dispute its title to the area. In addition, the treaty is seen as strong proof of his (Napoleon) friendship[16] to the United States. Therefore, the territory to be given to the US is the same one given to France by Spain as it was stipulated in the treaty of St Ildefonso with with all its rights and appurtenances.[17] Nevertheless, The Louisiana Purchase Treaty angered the Spaniards during its ratification by France and The US. First, because it violated Article III of the Treaty of San Ildefonso, and second, because Spain was not interested in seeing Louisiana under the hands of Americans as it will divert their attention to the silver mines in New Spain[18]. However, due to the military weakness of Spain, it eventually and reluctantly accepted the situation. Article II stipulates that all the islands and territories, unless they are private property, are going to be in the possession of the US. Article III postulates the right of the inhabitants of Louisiana Territory to be given full rights just like the US citizens, based on the US constitution the federal government will protect the rights of freedom, respect of their property and religion. The fear from the mistreatment of the Louisiana inhabitants, who were predominantly Catholic, was generated from the fact that since the US is predominantly Protestant the right of Catholics will be transgressed. Furthermore, there is also the issue of private property of the inhabitants of the territory once it will be transferred to the US, the concern that the US might usurp them of their rights. In order to make sure that the points agreed on by both the government of France and the US are respected, Article IV states that France will send a Commissary[19] to the area of Louisiana to make sure that the provision of the treaty are all done without any problem. Article V addresses the issue of the soldiers of both Spain and France that are already in the territory during the signature of the treaty. Upon signature of the treaty they will be under the command of the commissary appointed by Thomas Jefferson with the idea that they will be embarked to their countries in the period of three months. The purpose of lingering the stay of both Spanish and French soldiers was issued on the grounds of practicality, as the US did not know the whole region and the deployment of those soldiers will take time to prevent any conflict between the three militaries. Article VI addresses the right of Indians that live in the territory and asking the US to abide by the treaties signed between Spain and Indians. Although France describes its title to the Louisiana territory as â€Å"incontestable,†[20] it is worth mentioning that France did not literally sell the land of Louisiana to the US but instead sold its claims to it, as the area was already inhabited by Indians.[21] The French Foreign Minister, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, did not even know the exact boundaries of the territory it was just speculated that the area covers â€Å"from the Canadian border to the mouth of the Mississippi, and from the western bank of the great river to â€Å"the Shining Mountains,† the Indian name for the Rockies.†[22] Article VII stipulates that both France and Spain have the right to access the port of New Orleans without paying any duties other the one being paid by US citizens in the period of 12 years. At the same time, no other nation other than Spain and France would have the same privileges to the port of New Orleans. The bottom line was to not disturb the economic activities that were already in the territory by the treaty and to allow the people who did business in the area to adjust to the provisions of the treaty without losing their economic activities and protect their way of living. The period of 12 years will start after three months from the ratification of the Louisiana Purchase Treaty. Nonetheless, even after the period of 12 years, France will still be treated as the footing of the most favored nations[23] in New Orleans port according to the words of Article VIII. Besides the issue of US neutrality during France-England war, the major problem that prompted the Quasi-War, the question over the future of US debt towards France was addressed in the Louisiana Purchase Treaty under Article IX: The particular Convention Signed this day by the respective Ministers, having for its object to provide for the payment of debts due to the Citizens of the United States by the French Republic prior to the 30th Sept. 1800 is approved and to have its execution in the Same manner as if it had been inserted in this present treaty, and it Shall be ratified in the same form and in the Same time So that the one Shall not be ratified distinct from the other.[24] Article IX abides the US to continue paying its debt, prior to 1800, to France even though the regime in France has changed from a monarchy to a republic, thus solving a major issue as it was the reason behind the rift in the relations between the two countries after the French revolution took place in France. The agreement reached regarding the debt was of utmost importance to the French as they emphasized that the ratification of the treaty goes hand in hand with the ratification of the debt by making them two face of one coin. Article X, points to the fact that the treaty shall be ratified in the Space of Six months[25] after the signature of the treaty, while bearing in mind that the original treaty is the French version which is understandable as the French are the ones who were selling the land. The treaty was eventually signed by Robert Livingston, James Monroe and Barba Marbois, while the exact date of signature is April 30 in the French version it was written as the tenth of Floreal.[26] Regarding the English version of The Louisiana Purchase Treaty and apart from the difference in terms of French Republican Calendar, Article I included an excerpt from Article III of the Treaty of San Ildefonso in which the English verb â€Å"cede† was the equivalent of â€Å"rà ©trocà ©der† in the French version of the treaty.[27] The verb retrocede implies that the area of Louisiana was in prior possession of France whereby the verb â€Å"retrocede† means return back while the verb cede overlooks the fact that Louisiana was a French territory in the beginning, and instead deems it as a transfer of Spanish territory. In fact, the first settlers in Louisiana were the French, however due to the defeat of France and its allies (Spain) in the Seven Years War against England between 1756 and 1763. France decided to give the area to Spain under the Treaty of Paris in 1783 to compensate for the Spains loss of Florida.[28] The use of the word â€Å"cede† by Am ericans implies that Americans were not interested in allowing the French to one day come and ask for the territory again, they had with Spain. The Consequences of the Treaty on the US Constitution and its Interpretation Thomas Jefferson might have won the battle over the illegality of the treaty as it transgressed Article III of San Ildefonso Treaty. However a battle was awaiting him internally over the constitutionality of the treaty. The interpretation of constitution was a major issue that divided the two parties in congress. The Republicans were saying that anything that was not included in the constitution is unconstitutional while the Federalists wanted to broaden the constitution to give more influence to the central government. This line of reasoning changed with the Federalist resorting to a narrow and limitless interpretation of the constitution in contrast with the Republicans who were aiming for a broad interpretation of the constitution to allow the integration of Louisiana territory into the union. The origin of the sudden change of both parties has to do with the concern of New England that allowing the US to grow West would hurt its electoral power.[29] They were not against the inq uisition of Louisiana as a territory as they were also hoping to enlist Canada into the union but for political reasons the Louisiana Purchase was threatening to the Federalist Party. Ironically, it was the states of New England who paid for the Louisiana Purchase due to its high import duties compared to the South.[30] Jefferson was faced with a dilemma: he is republican who is strict to label any policy that is not described in the constitution as unconstitutional and simultaneously wanting to find a loophole for the treaty to be constitutional. Basically, Thomas Jefferson wanted to buy the Louisiana territory without the need to ferret the constitution for any provision that would make the purchase legal. President Jefferson faced two options either to search for a constitutional provision that would allow him to make the purchase or sign the treaty without the need of a backup from the constitution. In the end, President Thomas Jefferson opted for the latter choice under the advice of Attorney General Levi Lincoln by playing on words, which is instead of saying adding a new territory the USA, would say expand its territory that already existed.[31] In his eighth Congress speech, President Thomas Jefferson avoided talking about the constitutionality of the Purchase, and as there were more Republ icans than Federalists in the house the treaty was signed by the congress. Conversely, many Federalist congressmen opposed the treaty such as Gaylord Griswold who not only tackled the issue of constitutionality of the treaty but also asked for proof that the territory was under French rule and not the Spanish one. Federalists were trying to find any loophole about the treaty as they were afraid that America would be overwhelmed by Louisiana which would result in the loss of their political and economic power. Nevertheless, the Republicans consolidated their case with two arguments: first, if the constitution does not specify the right of the state to sign treaties then not only is The Louisiana Purchase Treaty illegal but also all the treaties that America signed in the past. Second, it is true that the US constitution never stated the expansion of America, yet the constitution cannot be confined to the instance when the constitution was drafted, as the Northwest and South expansion were not settled, thus the illegality of the treaty cannot be viewed from a narrow understanding of the constitution. Article III of the Louisiana Purchase Treaty stated: The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated in the Union of the United States and admitted as soon as possible according to the principles of the federal Constitution to the enjoyment of all these rights, advantages and immunities of citizens of the United States, and in the mean time they shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property and the Religion which they profess. [32] The constitutional problem of the treaty rested in this Article as it talked about including new people into the Union. The problem of including the population of Louisiana into the Union was based on the fact that America, for the first time in its history, included an area that is diversified in terms of language (French), religion (Catholicism) and race (Creoles) in contrast with the Anglo-Saxon-protestant character of the US.[33] Under Article III of the treaty, the population of Louisiana had the â€Å"rights, advantages and immunities of citizens of the United States.†[34] However, Jefferson did not keep the promise of the Treaty of Louisiana Purchase to treat them like Americans. What is surprising is that Napoleon did not use this pretext to get Louisiana back as it is stated by Thomas Fleming: â€Å"no one seemed to give any thought to the way the legislation violated the treaty with France, which had guaranteed the inhabitants all the rights of U.S. citizens. The J effersonians were giving Napoleon a perfect pretext to declare the sale of Louisiana invalid whenever it suited him.†[35] The way the rulers were appointed by Jefferson in Louisiana raised the issue not only of the constitutionality of Article III but also the lack of submission to Article III in the first place. As it is stated by Thomas Fleming: In New Orleans†¦the new U.S. rulers were facing a hostile populace†¦It contained not a trace of democracy. Every official, from the governor to judges, was appointed by the president. There was no provision for trial by jury. Jefferson had decided that the French Creoles lacked the education and experience to participate in democracy.[36] Therefore, Article III faced two problems: was it constitutional? And was it fulfilled? Eventually, Thomas Jefferson would abide by the provision of Article III when the congress passed an act in March 2, 1805 that would allow the state of Louisiana to have an elective body of 25 members.[37] Conclusion The Louisiana Purchase treaty was a major treaty that allowed the US to double its size and become a strong power as well as empowering the central government. Jefferson was a pragmatic person who in spite of his strict definition of the constitution, thought it was for the best interest of the United States of America to seize the opportunity of acquiring a vast land. The constitution issue of the treaty paved the way for the Supreme Court under the chief justice John Marshal in 1828 to regard the powers of the president to sign treaties as a constitutional right, thus ending the issue of illegality of the treaty as both acquiring new territories is allowed in the constitution either by conquest or treaty.[38] In addition to solving the constitutional dilemma, the treaty was a major build-up for peaceful relations between France and the US or to be more accurate the return of the relations between the two countries to be normal in spite of the regime change in France. Bibliography

Pre-1600 Styles in European Art Music :: essays research papers

Pre-1600 Styles in European Art Music The "old" European attitude, and the attitude that attracts many modern performers to early music, is exactly the opposite of the modern attitude: 1. Music is a strictly local expression, rich in variety since each culture expresses affective differences through art, 2. Music is a poetic process--complex, vague, and irrational--based upon borrowed traditional musical materials (melodies, rhythms, forms, etc.), 3. Music is for a religious, elitist-class performer who can understand and appreciate its mysterious nature and power, 4. Music is played softly in intimate gatherings, 5. Music making is the activity of Everyman, exacting the talents of variously trained amateurs who, with industry and practice, decorate their recreation and leisure in moments of social intercourse. In terms of the technical differences between the art music of early times and that of the modern period (i.e., after 1600) we can identify five specific features that make post-1600 styles in music sound more or less "familiar." 1. Wide-ranging, dynamically expressive tonal melodies are played in equal temperament and generated from logical tonal harmonic progressions. 2. A simple, isometric, and restricted rhythmic range is used. 3. The texture is homophonic, that is, a principal melody line with accompaniment. 4. Clear periodic formal structure is favored. 5. The instrumentarium is restricted and standardized. On the other hand, the pre-1600 styles in European art music are based upon the following features: 1. Narrow-ranging, dynamically restrained modal melodies are played in a variety of tuning temperaments that generate an "illogical" modal harmonic succession. 2. An unrestricted range of multimeters, polymeters, and complex rhythms are used. 3. A texture of two or more independent and equally important melodies accompany one another (i.e., polyphony). 4. The formal construction is often vague and unclear. 5. The instrumentarium is unrestricted and nonstandardized. Early music is chamber music par excellence. Superstar conductors, dramatic symphonic music, and large-scale virtuosic genres such as the concerto, opera, oratorio, and ballet belong to a later period and a different aesthetic. Early music involves a decidedly intimate approach to music making: the performers are equal partners who understand the science of composition and do much more than merely interpret the music of others--they recompose it during rehearsals and performances. In this regard, early music may be considered performer oriented (similar to jazz or Indian classical music). The performer thinks of himself or herself as a "student" (a Liebhaber, i.e., "lover") of music, and must be able to play several different instruments as well as sing.

The Worst Jobs in the World :: essays research papers

The Worst Jobs in the World TURD DIVER - cleans the grate at the sewer treatment plant HOG SLAUGHTERHOUSE PROCESSOR - I work in a slaughterhouse where we process hogs. They come in by the truckload and sometimes I have to lead them to the killing pen and kill them with a bullet in the head. Usually this job means that the technician ends up covered with blood. The hog is then placed upon meat hooks by its hind legs. After the hog is lifted into position, its neck is slit so that blood can drain into a large vat. Sometimes it seems that gallons of blood pours out. One benefit, though, is cheap hams and bacon. We get to buy meat at very low cost. Too bad we don't make enough money to buy very much. $9.00 as processor. It's a living. BURNT POTATO CHIP PICKER - For minimum wage you get to watch cooked potato chips quickly fly by on a conveyor belt and you have to pick out the burnt ones. This is done in 90+ degree temperature, with a thick coating of oil in the air. With these three ingredients, it isn't long before motion sickness (watching the chips fly by) increases with the smell and temperature causing you to want to barf. And you know how it is having a minimum wage job, you don't get a break and have to keep your nose to the grindstone. Needless to say I turned down overtime. GAY BAR JANITOR - Think about it . . . Cleaning a bar is a bad enough thought. In a gay bar some of the things you see, hear and find can be very confusing and leave you not wanting to touch anything! Ever!!! ARMPIT SNIFFER in a deodorant factory. The World's Worst Jobs - Nuclear Warhead Sensitivity Technician - Circus Elephant Clean Up Specialist - Rotten Sardine Taste Detector - Assistant To The Boss's Nephew - Shark Baiter - Hurricane Photographer - Director Of Public Relations, Chernobyl Nuclear Facility - Prison Glee Club President - Road Kill Removal Crew Worst Jobs 1.Lumberjack 2.Fisherman 3.Cowboy 4.Ironworker 5.Seaman 6.Taxi driver 7.Construction worker 8.Farmer 9.Roofer 10.Stevedore World's Worst Jobs Do you think your job stinks? You could be a Flatus Odor Judge. That's just one of several of the Worst Jobs in Science according to the editors of "Popular Science" magazine, who just compiled the list for the latest issue. Topping the chart for worst jobs are the odor judges at a Minneapolis gastroenterologist -- they're are paid to smell people's farts to determine potentially critical medical symptoms.

Malcolm X :: essays research papers

Malcolm X is born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska. His life is full of discrimination and racial violence. When Malcolm as a child he moved to Michigan with his family where they continue to experience persecution and violence. White people murder Malcolm’s father and forced his mother into a mental hospital. Malcolm moves to Boston, to live with his half-sister, Ella. In Boston Malcolm quickly becomes involved in urban nightlife. Malcolm was into gambling, drinking, doing drugs, and dating an older white woman, Sophia. He then moves to New York, where he begins working as a hustler in Harlem. Malcolm’s various jobs there include running numbers, selling drugs, and steering white people to black brothels. When life becomes too dangerous is Harlem, he returns to Boston, where he becomes a house burglar and is eventually arrested. In prison, Malcolm transforms himself, converting to the branch of Islam promoted by the Nation of Islam. Inspired by faith, Malcolm stops us ing drugs, he reads voraciously, prays, and studies English and Latin. The prison releases Malcolm on parole. Malcolm rises quickly from the rank of temple assistant in Detroit to the Nation’s first national minister. Malcolm X becomes known throughout the United States, even outside of Muslim circles, as a fiery advocate for black unity and militancy. The Nation of Islam’s leaders resent and fear Malcolm despite his allegiance to their cause, and they suspend him from the organization. The Nation of Islam’s frustration with Malcolm intensifies, and Malcolm begins receiving death threats. After a divisive argument with Elijah Muhammad the leader of Nation of Islam, Malcolm leaves organisation.

Being a Good Parent

there are a million ways to describe being a good parent. Some of the most important are unconditional love, being able to listen and understand, and being involved in things your child does. Showing your child that you love them is just as important at telling them. A simple hug or words of encouragement can mean the world to a child. Having your child know that even if they make a mistake you'll always love them.For an example after losing a basketball game in high school I went up to my mom and she hugged me without saying a word, when she did that I felt the love she had for me. Listening and understanding your child is another important characteristic of a good parent. When your child has a problem it could be helpful for them to know that you are available to talk to and offer advice. I'm currently debating on transferring college's, I like being able to talk to my mom about my plans and my future and getting her feedback.Going to a little league game, or baking cookies for the ir class bake sale are ways of being involved in things your child does. Helping your child with things like homework, or a big science project are other ways. There’s so many aspects of being a good parent it would be hard to describe in an essay. I just described the basics, unconditional love, the ability to listen, and being involved with your children.

Effect of Technology and Network Security Support on Information Security Essay

Introduction Information security has become one of the challenges in ripping benefits of information technology. It has been found out that most people fear using modern information and communication technology due to fear of the privacy of their personal details. Information technology has supported the growth of online services like e-commerce, e-banking, e-governance, and many others which required people to give their sensitive personal details. However, practice like hacking and others which breach security of information have eroded personal confidence in use of ICT service. Information security can be described as the act of giving protection to information and systems by denying unauthorized access, use, disclosure or modification. The effect of Technology on information security The following are the technological methods that are used in ensuing information security; Authentication Authentication is the process through which a person or any other things undergoes through a verification process to determine whether it is the one. It is the way through which something or someone is confirmed to establish whether the claim made is actually true (McNab, 2004).   Authentication may involve confirmation of personal identity, origin of any artifact or basically making assurance that computer programs is trusted. Authentication is one of the commonly used methods of ensuring information security. It may be implemented through different methods including; Password A password can be defined as private information that is only known to the owner. A password assigns a user identity which is associated with the password. The password therefore becomes the gateway for the user to access that particular identity (Information Resources, 2009).   Passwords are personal and therefore the standard of the password is very important. Strong passwords are difficult to guess as compared to weak passwords and therefore they offer more security to private information. It is important that user safeguard their password and once they suspect that someone else has accessed their passwords they should consider changing them to ensure security. Token A security token is a hardware device that is used by the owner to authenticate their identity.   Once the device is recognized by the network, the user is given access to the system.   A token can be in different forms ranging from smart cards, key fob, and many others (Erin, 2005).   Tokens provide high level security through two-factor authentication method. First, the owner has a personal identification number or PIN which authorizes them to access the device. Second the device displays that PIN number of the user to the system which allows them to access the system. Unlike passwords, token are more secure since even if the device falls in wrong hands, it will be difficult to guess the PIN.   The four types of tokes include static password, synchronous dynamic password, asynchronous password, and challenge response. Biometrics Biometric is one of the most advance authentication techniques that are used when dealing with many people. It will be observed that today, everyone enters in a baseball match after their physical characteristics have been recorded in a system while in school kids use their thumb to access meals. These represent the commonly used biometric techniques where the emphasis is one authentication using personal physical characteristics (Down and Sands, 2004).   Biometric uses different physical characteristics including eye, face, voice, fingerprints, shape of the hand, and many others. These characteristics are quite unique to every individual and they are one of the strong proofs to the personal identity.   However, biometric authentication devices are very costly to buy and maintain and therefore they are used in very sensitive situations. One of the greatest weaknesses of this method is that it is very easy to attacked stored comparison images than to copy those physical traits.   In most cases, biometrics is used as a two factor authentication methods where a password is combined with personal physical appearance. Software There are a number of softwares that have been developed to protect information in any network. The following are common software used in information security; Antivirus Antivirus are software developed to protect information from virus, spy ware, and malware. Antiviruses are used mostly in internet connected network where there is a high risk of spread of virus (Dhillon, 2007). Antivirus software mostly used includes MacAfee, Karspasky, NOD32, and many others. Content filtering Content filtering is also known as information filtering.   It encompasses the use of software to screen information on computers. It is also used in internet firewall especially by corporations to guard some information considered private. Content filtering helps to include or to exclude some information which can be accessed by a person and excluding information which is deemed objectionable (Dhillon, 2007). Content filtering is also used at home and at school in order to filter information that can be accessed by children. In this case, it is used to filter out pornographic materials and violence oriented materials.   In the internet content filtering can be classified into web filtering where some WebPages are filtered out and e-mail filtering where e-mails are screened for spam. However, content filtering is criticized on the ground that some important information may be filtered out of the accessible content such that the information accessed does not really help the user. Encryption With the increased use of the internet, a great deal of sensitive personal information is sent from one person to another or to an organization. This raises serious questions regarding the safety of that information and the confidence that only the intended receiver receives and understands the information. To raise this level of confidence, data encryption method has been developed (Biham and Shamir, 1991). Although encryption has been used since the time of Roman Empire, it has become more complicated and with diverse use today. Encryption mainly involves conversion of a readable data to another form which can only be read and understood by a specified person or computer. This information is regarded as ciphered or encrypted data since it cannot be understood easily. It is recovered back to its original form through decryption. The level of protection and integrity in encryption is enforced by the use of message authentication code or digital signature. Message authentication code creates a secret key for the sender and receiver of the information which makes it more secure and authentic. Today, there are many softwares that are used in encrypting data. However, encryption is not one of the most secure methods of ensuring data security since there are various methods like traffic analysis, brute force, TEMPEST, and many others which can be used to crack the encrypted data (Biham and Shamir, 1991). It has been found that even some of the most complex algorithms like RSA, DES and others can be broken using these softwares. iii. Hardware Firewalls have also played an important role in enhancing information security.   They can be used either in hardware or in software or when the two are combined.   In day to day uses, firewalls are important in protection unauthorized access to a private network which is connected to the internet especially in the cases of intranets (Whitman and Mattord, 2007).   Firewalls filters all messaging entering and leaving the intranet to ensure that it blocks those messages which are devoid of the set security standards.   There are four major types of techniques used in implementing firewalls including Packet filter This is one of the most effective and transparent firewall techniques. Under this technique, each and every packet entering and leaving the network is filtered and only those which meet user defined criteria are allowed while the rest are blocked.   However, the technique is quite difficult to configure and is more susceptible to IP spoofing. Application gateway Application gateway applies a defined security mechanism to some specific applications like FTP, Telnet servers, and others.   Although it is quite effective, it can also lead to degradation of performance. Circuit level gateway This technique applies firewall security only when a TCP or UDP connected has been made. Once the connection is established, packets of data continue to flow without being checked since a secure connection has been made. Proxy server Proxy server technique intercepts in and out of a network. The server is quite effective in hiding the network addresses and hence cannot be obtained easily. The effect of Network Security Support on information security Although technology has been effective in deterring cyber crime, it is clear that technology alone cannot work. Even with the advanced technology and application of the various information security methods we have reviewed above, human support is still needed. There are various ways that have been employed in supporting technological method to fight cyber crimes. The following are some of these methods: Hacker Hunters Hacker hunters are special branches that have been set up in police department aimed at tracking down cyber criminals.   Hacker hunters are prowling cyberspace with an aim of tracking down and arresting professional cyber criminals who are motivated by big profits made online.   Hacker hunters are employing gumshoe techniques to track down cyber crime suspect (Grow and Bush, 2005). They are employing various methods including infiltration of hacker groups, monitoring the hackers through underground networks, and when possible, intercepting the hackers before they can cause any damage. Most important, hacker hunters are relying on intelligence in order to track cyber criminals. They are using informants inside hackers group to get vital information regarding their operation. For example in 2004, Hacker Hunters in Washington unleashed Operation Firewall in which they targeted members of the ShandowCrew tracking them through their website shandowcrew.com with the help of an informant from the group.   Hackers Hunters must therefore seek inside information from individuals in these groups in order to fight deter them. They are applying the same principles that were used in the 1960s to fight organized crime since both are similar in many aspects. Police Operations Police operations work in the same manner as hacker hunters.   In most cases, police operations are carried out by a special group within the police force and reinforce the work of hacker hunters.   For example in the above case, the Special Agents in the operation firewall got assistance from the local police forces.   Therefore police operations are important in pursuing cyber criminals to ensure security of information (Leyden, 2004). Unlike hacker hunters, police operations are carried out as fighting of routine crimes. This means that although there may be a special group carrying out police operations, it may not be entirely specialized in fighting cybercrime. In most countries, there are special internet police departments which are used in fighting internet crimes.   These police departments are entrusted with carrying out important functions like fighting cybercrime, censorship, propaganda, online scams, manipulation of online opinions, and others. However one of their most important duties is to work closely with hacker hunters in intervening and apprehending cyber criminals. Internet police departments also collaborate with other police departments in other countries in enforcing internet security laws and apprehending cyber criminals.   In the international front, Interpol has been important in enforcing international crimes. iii. Network Security Service Companies For many companies, proving information security is an expensive endeavor. Companies are not only required to install hardware and software devices, but they must also collaborate with authority to ensure information security. However, the growth of corporate resources in provision of secure business environment has made many information security methods inefficient and expensive (Lighthouse Security Group, 2009). For this reason, most companies are finding it appropriate to outsource comprehensive and streamlined network security services from Network Security Services Company. Network Security Service Companies have also become important in enforcing information security. These are companies which are specialized in providing services to enforce information security.   These companies offer Managed Security Services (MSS) which are security capabilities mostly outsourced by other companies. These services vary from supplementing of an existing security system to offering a complete new MSS where the Network Security Service Company is entrusted with information security. However, MSS is just one of the different types of managed services others including routing, hosting, LAN, VPN, and others.   Network Security Service Companies therefore offer specialized high quality network security services ensuring for many enterprises. Conclusion The increased incidence of breach of privacy of information has had negative impact on adoption of ICT services.   The emergence of e-commerce, e-banking, e-governance and other online services which required input of sensitive personal details have been affected by increased hacking of information. There are different methods that have been developed to increase information security mainly through the use of technology and network support on information security. Technological methods include authentication through password, token, biometrics; software including antivirus, content filtering, or encryption; and hardware through use of firewall techniques.   Network security support includes hacker hunters, police operations, and security services offered by network security service companies. Reference: Biham, E. & Shamir, A. (1991). Differential cryptanalysis of DES-like Cryptosystems. Journal of Cryptology, Vol. 4(1): 3-72 Dhillon, G. (2007). Principles of information systems security: text and cases. NY: John Wiley & Sons Down, M. P & Sands, R. (2004). Biometrics: An Overview of the Technology, Challenges and Control Considerations. Federal Computer Week, 21(13) Erin, B. (2005). Information security: Token. Boston, Technology Press Grow, B. & Bush, J. (2005). Hacker Hunters: An elite force takes on the dark side of computing.   Retrieved 28th April 2009 from http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_22/b3935001_mz001.htm Information Resources, (2009). Security tips: Password protection. Retrieved 28th April 2009 from http://www.utdallas.edu/ir/security/STpassword.htm Leyden, J. (2004). Enforcement is key in fighting cybercrime. Retrieved 28th April 2009 from http://www.crime-research.org/analytics/473/ Lighthouse Security Group, (2009). Enterprise security solutions. Retrieved 28th April 2009 http://www.lighthousecs.com/Practices/Enterprise-Security-Solutions/ McNab, C. (2004). Network Security Assessment. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Whitman, M. & Mattord, J. (2007). Management of information security. Boston, Technology Press