Different Difficulties in Learning Children Essay

Different Difficulties in Learning Children - Essay Example In fact, he elaborates that such children need help in learning to do their own chores or paying closer attention to something important. Gates (2008) provides a more practical explanation of learning disability by saying that children with such difficulties cannot understand, learn, and communicate in comparison to other children. The normal procedure in which our brain processes information is extremely complex. In situations such as viewing an image or speaking, the brain has to process several tasks including retrieving information from memory, recognizing the data to transmit and processing the information to either store in memory or invoke the auditory parts for communication. Most of these activities occur at various locations in the brain, sometimes in a simultaneous fashion. The task of linking up and associating these various segments is the responsibility of our brain. In the case of people with learning disabilities, the only difference is with regards to the different m anner in which their brains process information unlike the case with other individuals. Thomas (2003) says that people with learning disabilities are not handicapped or lazy. Instead, he contends that they tend to have at least an average level of intelligence. Their difficulties simply arise from the different ways in which their brains process information. A broader scientific explanation to this phenomenon is explained by the four stages of information processing (Input, Integration, Storage and Output) under which learning disabilities are categorized. While people with input disabilities have problems with visual and auditory perception, individuals with integration difficulties are unable to categorize and interpret information from the input stage based on previous learning. Some learning difficulties occur in the later stages due to issues in retaining long-term memory.  Several cases of learning disability occur much later during the information-processing scenario due to factors like muscle inhibition and lack of necessary motor skills.

Good Communicator Essay Example for Free

Good Communicator Essay Effective communication begins when a specific message is conveyed to people and that your idea is being received and people understand what you are saying to them. This is especially important in the healthcare industry because proper interpretation from patients is critical in them receiving the utmost care and proper diagnosis. Interaction between healthcare workers, doctors and patients is critical in communicating symptoms, diagnosis and test results and treatment of patients. When workers are able to communicate with each other it makes it easier to interact with the patients by having all the needed information, whether it was symptoms relayed from patient, test results relayed from lab or diagnosis relayed from the doctor. There are six characteristics of both supportive and defensive relationships, where one set of characteristics focus on compassion and empathy and defensive characteristics are to the point and abrupt without any interpersonal communication between parties involved. Supportive relationships would seem to be the better choice for the healthcare industry because like a broken wheel halts forward progress, so does non-communication among professionals and patients. When there is no empathy present with a patient they feel like no one understands their problem and feel like they are not getting the help that they deserve. Assertive communication allows an idea to be brought up and talked about but making sure all parties are respected. By being assertive is a learned technique to use and if not done correctly can cause conflicts among the workplace because people do not like abrupt changes in the workplace. Once changes are felt by all and are eventually practiced, it becomes part of a daily routine in the office and there are no longer conflicts having to be resolved. When being assertive one must not become aggressive also or a person would become known as a â€Å"bully† in the workplace and doesn’t care what the consequences of actions will entail. Not only can assertive behavior be bad if not utilized correctly, it may also cause undue stress on the coronary system and could ultimately lead to a heart attack or stroke. When using an assertive style in the workplace, one must be aware of negative reactions that could occur and be able to be ready with additional information to sway the receiver. One must not be too aggressive with tone and pitch of the voice and it will send off the wrong impression to receivers and not sway them to understand what is being said. When faced with aggression most people react negatively and this would not be advisable in a healthcare setting. An example would be when a medical coder has a question on what a doctor has documented in a patients file that doesn’t seem appropriate for the diagnosis so a doctor must be spoken to get more information to code correctly but without pointing fingers at the doctor. If the coder inquires aggressively then the doctor would become irate over being questioned but if the coder were to inquire assertively they would seem more like they just wanted more information to properly code the patient’s records. I fall under the type B personality because I am very easy going, but I do want to be heard when needed. I don’t feel that aggression is the answer but I do feel that one can be assertive and get a point across without being viewed as being too aggressive. Assertiveness takes into account what others feel and say and aggressiveness is all about what â€Å"I† want and need and not what â€Å"they† want or need. Previous positions that I’ve worked, I had many supervisors that used very assertive behavior and they really didn’t get good feedback. When workers became assertive about their needs for specific things at work, then supervisors are more likely to hear what they want and react appropriately. I do have a hard time getting my point across because I know what I want to say in my brain but when it comes out of my mouth it becomes all jumbled and does not make sense. I’m trying to work on my communication skills and am hoping that this course will increase my skills so that I can speak more clear and concise and have people understand what I want to accomplish in the workplace.

AIDS :: AIDS Essays

Scientists have concluded, based on mathematical research, that the virus that lead to the epidemic of AIDS can be traced all the way back to 1930, somewhere around Central Africa. Bette Korber, of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, presented this conclusion at the Conference of Retroviruses. The notion that HIV was introduced in contaminated oral polio vaccines in Africa between the years of 1957 and 1961 has been often debated and challenged. The results presented by Korber, not only refute the before mentioned allegations, but also move us toward finding out where the virus really came from and in which direction it is heading in the future. The first sample discovered in 1959 comes from a man in Congo, who died as a member of the M class of HIV, the type that most people are infected with today. However old the virus was, it was evident that it wasn’t the first of its kind. The reason that the virus was ever connected to polio is because in the same year of 1959, the introduction of oral polio vaccines, supposedly tested on chimpanzees, came to the continent of Africa. However in reality, states Stanley Plotkin of the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, â€Å"the introduction of HIV in chimpanzees occurred well before the polio vaccine.† The machine used in the process of determination is the Los Alamos Nirvana Machine, which is capable of making one trillion calculations per second. After plugging in dates, formulas and locations, the Nirvana located the origin of the HIV virus as being 1930, however the range of error shows that it could have been anywhere from 1915 to 1942. The Nirvana was also able to determine that the virus appeared in the Caribbean Islands such as Haiti, in the 1960’s, while it came to America more than ten years later. It is quite definite that the virus came from chimpanzees in the area around Gabon, Cameroon, and the Central African rainforest. It most probably passed onto the hunters while they were butchering the animals. After that, the virus has taken on six different strands, and is spread in humans mostly through sexual intercourse. Issue The matter being discussed here is the AIDS epidemic. AIDS and the HIV virus are very real issues in the world and especially in America. Whether it is the needle of the syringe of a junkie, a blood transfusion or the exchange of bodily fluids, people are getting infected and dying every day with this disease, and there is no remedy.

Chemistry Experiment Essay

How did your proposed procedures or flow charts at the beginning of this experiment compare to the actual procedures of this lab exercise? I had to change the process I did things a little to allow adequate time for the sand and the benzoic acid crystals to dry on the paper towels, and for the water in the paper cup to evaporate from the salt. 2. Discuss potential advantages or disadvantages of your proposed procedure compared to the one actually used. The advantage of my original proposed procedure was less time consuming. see more:chemistry matriculation notes semester 1 The disadvantage compared to the one actually used would be the reliability of the information. Giving adequate drying time on an experiment in which you are weighing something is crucial. 3. How would you explain a sand recovery percentage that is higher than the original sand percentage? The sand absorbed some of the water and expanded, or some of the components in the sand is part of another mixture and you did not extract all the components from the original sand correctly. 4. What were potential sources of error in the experiment? Several things could go wrong with this experiment. I think the hardest part and biggest source of error is extracting each substance from the mixture and weighing it by itself. You have to be careful to extract each substance correctly or you will get the wrong weight. Conclusion: Weighing all the substances as one should weight the same as weighing them each separate and adding them together.

Cisco Case Study Essay

Cisco Systems is an industry leader in network technology. Their primary business is technology that is used to enable communication with people all over the world with multiple functions. Whether it be email, voice video or general applications these service are transported over Cisco Networks. The current CEO is John Chambers who has held the position since 1995. This case study focuses on his vision and strategy over the past 17 years. Cisco is a market leader in networking technology. Financial Information: www. Bloomberg.com (1) Sales 2012 Sales/Revenue/Turnover: Total Operating Revenues. $46,681,000,000 Gross Profit $28,558,000,00 Net income $ 8,356,000,000 Key Milestones in Cisco’s History (2) 1997 All in One: Data/Voice/Video 2000 Network of Networks 2006 Network as Platform 2008-Current Collaboration/ Web 2.0 SWOT ANALYSIS Cisco’s’ internal strengths are its people. They have a built a corporation with over 70,000 employees. 1/3 of those are Engineering people who develop Cisco’s solutions. (2). These solutions come from internal design or from acquisitions. There weakness is the size of the corporation compared to when they were in there early days. They challenges adapting to customer demands at the rapid pace the technology industry changes. The opportunities have come with the use of acquisitions. When they want to add a piece of technology to their portfolio they at times bypass the development process and acquire a company with the needed expertise. The major threats to the business are the number of employees who leave and go to competitors. Many of Cisco’s competitors are run by former Cisco employees. See Juniper.com(7) ANALYSIS VIA PORTER’S FIVE FORCES MODEL Analyze the competitive environment by listing the threat of new entrants, the bargaining power of buyers, the bargaining power of suppliers, the threat of substitute products and services, and the intensity of rivalry among competitors in the industry (Chapter 2). Summarize your key points in a Figure. (25 points) Cisco’s’ threat of new entrants is limited due to Cisco’s market cap on network Switching: Modular/Fixed (2) . They currently hold a 69% market cap sue to their design and build of these devices. Their competitors have copied and duplicated these products and there are only handful that compete. The bargaining power as a buyer based on thre volume allows them to keep manufacturing costs low. There suppliers in turn have strong bargaining power with their silicon and chip manufactures. New Chipsets are developed rapidly and suppliers can gain a competitive advantage over the manufacturers. The threat of substitute products is a common theme with Cisco. An example was a Chinese company stole Cisco’s design and started producing replica hardware. Years of litigation was later settled however the cost to do so was a major impact. (3)This caused an intense rivalry with its competitor 3Com who partnered with the Chinese company (4). The other issue with its competitors is its talent pool. Many of Cisco’s engineers leave for competitor with hopes of creating the next generation of technology. STRATEGY USED Cisco’s competitive advantage in the switching market has led them into being market leaders in other sectors. Having the market share of the core network as the base layer of Infrastructure allows them to see the need of its customers. These sectors have all been supplicants that utilize the Cisco core networking products that today has brought them an industry market share in the following area. The core strategy used is there overall cost leadership to create this competitive advantage Performance Market share per sector Security 31% Digital Video: IPTV-64% Switching: Modular/Fixed- 69% Voice-37% Wireless: LAN-54% Storage: Area Networks-44% Routing: Edge/Core/Access-53% Networked Home-23% Web Conferencing-38% (2) One core strategy they used in the area of differentiation was the introduction of Voice over the network. Voice is a legacy technology created over 100 years ago and up until recently was run with the same original design concepts. Cisco changed that system buy running voice over the IP network. Today VOIP phone systems are a standard and the original POTS (plain old pots lines) are now considered legacy. They used acquisitions to buy phone providers and break down there core fundamental and produce them on IP networks., allowing today the use of voice over your PC Email Text. They were very successful in this space however not all companies can use this strategy for this particular technology. There install base is so strong the market is saturated and would not be cost effective. This strategy however is now in the maturity stage of the industry life cycle. They contain 69% of the voice market and they are continued to grow. The core installations will eventually decline however the service to maintain the phones systems will continue to remain in the maturity stage. Cisco’s strategy is based on catching market transitions—the market transitions that affect our customers. With the proliferation of video and collaborative Web 2.0 technologies, the network continues to evolve from the plumbing of the Internet—providing connectivity—to the platform that will change the way we work, live, play and learn.â€â€" John Chambers, Chairman and CEO, Cisco THE ISSUES AND CHALLENGES FACING THIS COMPANY Cisco’s’ competitive advantage in some sectors can be maintained. The overall progress should continue however weaker sectors where they have lost focus on have declined. In the example of the home Networked sector they maintain a low 23% market share. This has not been inline what the projections were when they entered these markets. Recently they have announced they are moving away from the home based market with a sale of their Linksys lien to Belkin (5) I believe the companies’ competitive advantage can be maintained if they focus on areas where they have control on market share. Shedding unprofitable business such as Linksys is a step in the right direction. This product is clearly on the decline side and Cisco should focus on growth areas such as storage area networks. The companies’ culture is changing from when they were a smaller enterprise they were able to maneuver with market needs more quickly. The fierce competition in the home market was one of the company problems. I believe that they are an enterprises corporation provider of services and do not understand the needs of home based users. COURSE OF ACTION RECOMMENDED I would advise Cisco to focus on server storage sectors. They are not a market leader in servers such as HP but have new products that are changing the way we companies utilize servers. This is a differentiation strategy that will change the industry if done correctly. They created a virtual server solution called UCS that if markets correctly could achieve future growth in the server storage sector. (6) I would use my market power and customer to base to provide these solutions at a low cost and this will expose a broad customer base to the product OPINION What do you think of this case study? Describe what you believe are the lessons learned from this case. (10 points) I think this case study showed me new concepts in strategic management. By studying Cisco’s market dominance based on 46 billion in revenues I now understand that having a competitive advantage must be maintained. Seeing Cisco now leaving markets is a new direction for them and these concepts have brought me to understand that. REFERENCES When you have completed the paper using the above sections, insert a page break and have a separate references page. The references should be listed in accordance with the APA guidelines as shown in the tutorial. (5 points) http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/CSCO:AR (1) http://newsroom.cisco.com/documents/10157/0/Corporate+Overview+-+Q2FY12.pdf (2) http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/29/cisco_huawei_case_ends/ (3) http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/07/09/3com_welcome_to_join_ciscohuawei/(4) http://www.dailytech.com/Belkin+Plans+to+Purchase+Ciscos+Linksys+Home+Networking+Business+Unit/article29747.htm(5) http://www.cisco.com/assets/global/europe/powerofu/ucs_vs_hp_deployment.pdf(6) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juniper_Networks(7)

Practice in Correcting Errors in Subject-Verb Agreement

Practice in Correcting Errors in Subject-Verb Agreement Complete the editing exercise below after you have reviewed how to correct errors in subject-verb agreement, including tricky cases. Instructions Several (but not all) of the following sentences contain errors in subject-verb agreement. When you spot an error, correct it. If a sentence is free of errors, identify it as correct. When youre done, compare your responses with the answers below. Example Sentences Music soothe me.Billy bake brownies every Halloween.Peggy and Grace is arguing again.Elsie never takes the bus to work.The people who own that house has no insurance.One of these mechanics have a set of jumper cables.Felix and his brother is mending the wings of butterflies.Both of my essays is brilliant.The pulses emitted by a neutron star recurs at precise intervals.One of my uncles dances at the Rainbow Cafe.Phil and Jeremy has gone to the concert.Both of my daughters are professional dancers.Every one of the workers receive the same benefits.There is two gerbils in my bathroom.This box of toys belong in the attic. Answers Here are the answers below, with the corrected words in bold. Music  soothes  me.Billy  bakes  brownies every Halloween.Peggy and Grace  are  arguing again.CorrectThe people who own that house  have  no insurance.One of these mechanics  has  a set of jumper cables.Felix and his brother  are  mending the wings of butterflies.Both of my essays  are  brilliant.The pulses emitted by a neutron star  recur  at precise intervals.CorrectPhil and Jeremy  have  gone to the concert.CorrectEvery one of the workers  receives  the same benefits.There  are  two gerbils in my bathroom.This box of toys  belongs  in the attic.

Hungover vs. Hung Over

Hungover vs. Hung Over Hungover vs. Hung Over Hungover vs. Hung Over By Maeve Maddox A reader feels that the adjective to describe the state of experiencing the effects of too much alcohol should be an open compound: I would be really grateful if you would address whether or not the compound noun hangover retains its closed form when used as an adjective (she was hungover). I feel irked when it does, and that it should become open (she was hung over) but because I cant define hung or over in the context of suffering from the after-effects of alcohol, I havent been able to force my case. A tedious (if not particularly scientific) inquiry has led me to conclude that its every man for himself when it comes to choosing between hung over and hungover. The adjective is hyphenated as hung-over in the OED. Merriam-Webster prefers the closed compound hungover, but allows hung over as an alternative. The Oxford Australian dictionary gives hung-over, and the Oxford Canadian dictionary gives hungover. The spelling and grammar feature in Microsoft Word recommends either hung-over or hung over. Searching for the terms was hungover and was hung over, I found that the open compound seems to be more common than the closed. Corpus of American English was hung over twice as common as was hungover Google Search was hungover about 128,000 hits was hung over about 138,000 hits Ngram Viewer was hung over on the graph from 1800-2000. was hungover first appears in 1928, begins to rise in the 1960s, but remains much less common than was hung over. Here are some examples from around the English-speaking world: Australia Hung-over Beale was OConnors booze buddy- Brisbane Times Tony Abbott accused of being hungover- Brisbane Times Canada At least Rob was drunk, high or hung over much of the time.- The Star (Toronto). The hungover prime minister of Canada and his stumblebum cabinet members dont know- Ifpress (Ontario) UK A new survey by Macmillan Cancer Support suggests that Britons spend 315 days- nearly a year of their lives- hungover.- The Guardian. Welcome to the glamorous world of James McAvoy, extremely hungover movie star.- London Times. Pilot jailed after flying executive jet from Spain while hungover from three-day drinking binge- London Evening Standard. USA Woody Harrelson Was So Hung Over He Could Barely Stand At A Recent Movie Premier- Huffington Post. Of course, if you are truly hung-over, there is simply no way youre going to work.- New York Magazine. Come on, commanded the CIA station chief of the hungover prime minister, weve got a lot of work to do.- Book about the CIA published by Simon and Schuster, 2012. My advice to the reader is to save his feelings of irritation for something that matters and spell the adjective for â€Å"suffering from the after-effects of alcohol† as two words when it follows a being verb and as one word when it precedes a noun. Or not. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Writing Prompts 1013 Cases of Complicated HyphenationWhen to Spell Out Numbers

The Siege of Veracruz

The Siege of Veracruz The Siege of Veracruz: The siege of Veracruz was an important event during the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). The Americans, determined to take the city, landed their forces and began a bombardment of the city and its forts. The American artillery did great damage, and the city surrendered on March 27, 1847 after a 20-day siege. Capturing Veracruz allowed the Americans to support their army with supplies and reinforcements, and led to the capture of Mexico City and Mexicos surrender. The Mexican-American War: After years of tension, war had broken out between Mexico and the USA in 1846. Mexico was still angry about the loss of Texas, and the USA coveted Mexicos northwestern lands, such as California and New Mexico. At first, General Zachary Taylor invaded Mexico from the north, hoping Mexico would surrender or sue for peace after a few battles. When Mexico kept fighting, the USA decided to open another front and sent an invasion force led by General Winfield Scott to take Mexico City from the east. Veracruz would be an important first step. Landing at Veracruz: Veracruz was guarded by four forts: San Juan de Ulà ºa, which covered the harbor, Concepcià ³n, which guarded the northern approach of the city, and San Fernando and Santa Barbara, which guarded the city from the land. The fort at San Juan was particularly formidable. Scott decided to leave it alone: he instead landed his forces a few miles south of the city at Collada beach. Scott had thousands of men on dozens of warships and transports: the landing was complicated but began on March 9, 1847. The amphibious landing was barely contested by the Mexicans, who preferred to remain in their fortresses and behind the high walls of Veracruz. The Siege of Veracruz: Scotts first aim was to cut off the city. He did so by keeping the fleet near the harbor but out of reach of the guns of San Juan. Then he spread his men out in a rough semi-circle around the city: within a few days of the landing the city was basically cut off. Using his own artillery and some massive borrowed cannons from the warships, Scott began pounding the city walls and fortifications on March 22. He had selected a fine position for his guns, where he could hit the city but the city’s guns were ineffective. The warships in the harbor also opened fire. The Surrender of Veracruz: Late in the day on March 26, the people of Veracruz (including the consuls of Great Britain, Spain, France and Prussia, who had not been allowed to leave the city) convinced the ranking military officer, General Morales, to surrender (Morales escaped and had a subordinate surrender in his stead). After some haggling (and the threat of renewed bombardment) the two sides signed an agreement on March 27. It was fairly generous to the Mexicans: the soldiers were disarmed and set free although made to promise not to take up arms again against the Americans. The property and religion of civilians was to be respected. The Occupation of Veracruz: Scott made a great effort to win the hearts and minds of the citizens of Veracruz: he even dressed up in his best uniform to attend mass at the cathedral. The port was re-opened with American customs officers, attempting to re-coup some of the costs of war. Those soldiers who stepped out of line were punished harshly: one man was hanged for rape. Still, it was an uneasy occupation. Scott was in a hurry to get inland before Yellow Fever season could begin. He left a garrison at each of the forts and began his march: before long, he would meet General Santa Anna at the Battle of Cerro Gordo. Results of the Siege of Veracruz: At the time, the assault on Veracruz was the largest amphibious attack in history. It is a credit to Scotts planning that it went as smoothly as it did. In the end, he took the city with fewer than 70 casualties, killed and injured. Mexican figures are unknown, but estimated to be 400 soldiers and 400 civilians killed, with countless more injured. For the invasion of Mexico, Veracruz was a crucial first step. It was an auspicious beginning to an invasion and had many positive effects on the American war effort. It gave Scott the prestige and confidence he would need to march to Mexico City and made the soldiers believe that winning was possible. For the Mexicans, the loss of Veracruz was a disaster. It was probably a foregone conclusion - the Mexican defenders were outgunned - but to have any hopes of successfully defending their homeland they needed to make the landing and capture of Veracruz costly for the invaders. This they failed to do, giving the invaders control of an important port. Sources: Eisenhower, John S.D. So Far from God: the U.S. War with Mexico, 1846-1848. Norman: the University of Oklahoma Press, 1989 Scheina, Robert L. Latin Americas Wars, Volume 1: The Age of the Caudillo 1791-1899 Washington, D.C.: Brasseys Inc., 2003. Wheelan, Joseph. Invading Mexico: Americas Continental Dream and the Mexican War, 1846-1848. New York: Carroll and Graf, 2007.

A GIS process to select a suitable site for locating a hospital in Literature review

A GIS process to select a suitable site for locating a hospital in London where ambulances can reach people within 10 minutes - Literature review Example The site should be big enough to accommodate a hospital with about 7000 rooms where about 800 beds can be placed and more than fifty two thousand hospital equipment and furniture. The stated rooms can appear to be incredibly many but with rooms needed for emergencies, offices, rehabilitations, outpatient and inpatient services; they cannot be enough. A site accommodating such a hospital ought to be as big as forty football pitches to ensure that there is even available space for hospital employees and patients’ families parking. Additionally, the hospital prospected has to have a number of towers to save on cost and land. Currently, most hospitals have to deal with congestion and extreme struggling incase more facilities are needed. Having a lot of land like that stated above ensures that the hospital can build all facilities required. Expansion of hospitals after their construction is always an unavoidable act. For this reason, there is a need of buying land as big as the one stated above to cater for expansion in the later years1. London has four major parts that include the southwest London, southeast London, northeast London and north central London. According to statistics, there are about twenty hospitals in each stated part but most are not newly build. Among these hospitals, a number are faced with difficulties of managing cleanliness. In choosing a site for constructing a hospital, it is essential to ensure that the site is near to multiple sources of water and power. It is essential to realize most hospitals around the London town centre are faced with problems related to water shortages since they did not take precaution during construction. Some locations may have all the other qualities but lack water. This should not be such a major problem since there are artificial build wells and boreholes that can supply the hospital with enough water.

U5 Case Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

U5 Case - Coursework Example A second utility is NPM (Orion Network Performance Monitor), a network management solution suitable for company networks. I would use NPM after Spiceworks to get an in-depth view of Badger Tools Inc.’s network problems and setbacks brought about by updating manually. NPM should provide me with a detailed list of hosted VMs within the network, as well as an outline of the server’s physical and virtual conditions (Rux, 2012). I can run NPM while offline and online to get a spatial idea of the full potential of the network. The first recommendation is connecting the servers and updating while online. An online update should provide new data and program components essential to the clients’ desktops, data, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Vista Enterprise. Secondly, Badger Tools Inc. should install Hotfix in Windows Vista Enterprise as a solution to GPU-oriented programs ran by the clients’ desktops. Lastly, the company can make all its servers ECN supportive. This means Badger Tools Inc. should enable the routers that experience high traffic to mark loads so that peers who get these loads can decrease their speeds of transmission (Rux,

Success of Chick-fil-a and how it relates to management Essay

Success of Chick-fil-a and how it relates to management - Essay Example 3). Truett unveiled his entrepreneurial skills at an early age of 8 years by opening and successfully operating a stand of Coca-cola at his family’s front yard on 1929 (Cathy 1). Six years later in 1935, Truett’s family relocated to Atlanta’s downtown due to financial strains. He started a paper delivery service to his neighbors, which enhanced his customer service and relations. In 1946 Truett started a small restaurant called Dwarf Grill with the support of his brother Ben Cathy (Cathy 1). This business adventure led to the opening or a second Dwarf House in Forest Park, which unfortunately burnt to the ground leading to massive loss of profit and property. A strong Christian character and business oriented attitude prompted Truett to rebuild the burnt restaurant and started using a home-made chicken recipe for a boneless chicken breast in a sandwich (Cathy 1). This recipe was from his mother’s kitchen, and Truett called it Chick-fil-A. In 1967, the bone less chicken breast recipe attracted many loyal customers which led to the opening of Chick-fil-A first restaurant in a shopping mall in Atlanta (Cathy par. 3). Truett continued to inspire his employees by offering scholarships for further education and housing for the less fortunate teenage boys. Chick-fil-A’s customers enjoy the delicious boneless chicken at affordable prices, which has contributed to 1,605 other restaurants in a total of 39 states in America (Cathy par. 4). As the CEO of Chick-fil-A, Truett has displayed his management and leadership skills by operating the chain of restaurants for 44 years with an upsurge of sales and charity donations (Cathy 4). Employees and youths in local communities benefit from the scholarships offered by Truett to acquire the best education and skills. Management practices Effective management practices in a company ensure that stakeholders, shareholders, employees and customers achieve their personal goals. Good management practic es are directed towards the following departments in a company: human resources, company product, marketing, technology development and process controls. Customer satisfaction is significant in increasing sales while improvement of employees’ working conditions, competency and confidence ensures a high performance output. Interpersonal relations with customers Chick-fil-A chain restaurants are currently under the management of Truett Cathy’s son called Dan Cathy. Cathy is the president and Chief of Operations (COO) of Chick-fil-A restaurants across the U.S. (Zikza 3). Mr. Cathy has power and authority that allows him to sit behind a desk in a closed office and issue orders, but his charismatic character leads him to abandon his office and attend to his customers personally (Carter par. 6). He further explains that Dan Cathy shakes his customers’ hands, serves them the tasty food, clears food trays and helps in cleaning up after his customers. One of Cathyâ€℠¢s foremost and memorable activities in his restaurants is giving kids free ice cream while they are all shouting in joy (Carter par. 8). In the contemporary knowledge-driven markets, many leaders forget the strong customer relationships and services and focus all their time, energy and resources on making profits only. Businesses thrive on demand and

Effects of global warming on the weather(climate) in Europe Essay

Effects of global warming on the weather(climate) in Europe - Essay Example The TAR (Third Assessment report) also reported on a range of evidence of qualitative consistencies between observed climatic changes and model responses to anthropogenic forcing, including global temperature rise, increasing land - ocean temperature contrast, diminishing article sea ice extent, glacial retreat and increase in precipitation at high northern latitude. The main findings of the IPCC TAR (McMichael et al., 2001) were as follows: -Any regional increases in climate extremes (e.g., storms, floods, cyclones, droughts) associated with climate change would cause deaths and injuries, population displacement, and adverse effects on food production, freshwater availability and quality, and would increase the risks of infectious disease, particularly in low-income countries. -In some settings, the impacts of climate change may cause social disruption, economic decline, and displacement of populations. The health impacts associated with such socioeconomic dislocation and population displacement are substantial. - Changes in climate, including changes in climate variability, would affect many vector-borne infections. Populations at the margins of the current distribution of diseases might be particularly affected. -Climate change represents an additional... This would increase the number of undernourished people in the low-income world, unless there was a major redistribution of food around the world. -Assuming that current emission levels continue, air quality in many large urban areas will deteriorate. Increases in exposure to ozone and other air pollutants (e.g., particulates) could increase morbidity and mortality. Since the beginning of the 20th century the earth's climate has changed rapidly and experienced 0.7oC increase in temperature overall and 0.95oC in Europe (climate Research unit CRU, _ 2003). These changes are unusual in terms of both magnitude and rate of temperature change. The 1990's were seen as the warmest decade and temperature is expected to increase even further. There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming is the result of human activities especially the emission of green house gases (IPCC, 2001 a). Significant increase in green house gases results in the substantial increase in temperature. The main green house gas to human activities is carbon dioxide. Anthropogenic emission has increased the atmospheric concentration of CO2 from 280 PPM to 375 PPP at present. Due to increase in the concentration level of GHG, it has been estimated that global average surface temperature by 2100 will be between 1.4oC to 5.8oC more than the 1990 level. Due to unp0recedented increase in temperature the following potential future singular events may occur: " a shut down of the thermohaline circulation in the North Atlantic (the so called North Atlantic current). This may lead to considerable cooling in northern and western Europe- emission of large amounts of methane from natural gas hydrates in the ocean, deep lakes and polar sediments which could accelerate

Behavioval Science and Human Relations Term Paper

Behavioval Science and Human Relations - Term Paper Example It is considered that each of these internal systems possess specific control behaviors. It is assumed that the probabilities of transition between these internal states predict human behaviors in varying social contexts. The trends in these interstate transitions are calibrated and hierarchically organized by behavioral scientists to understand long term and short term human behaviors. It is these two ranges of behaviors which makes the foundation for human behavior and human relations. Such a modeling of human behavior can be helpful in many ways. These models can be used to develop human-machine systems which can assess and recognize human behavior. This could even be used to predict human behavior. Here the requirement is to have inputs for this system on the internal human states. However, the challenge here is that these human states are not readily observable. These internal states are to be estimated through an indirect estimation process. There are several researches on beha vioral science which has led to the designing of models which can estimate these internal human states. For instance, Pentland & Liu (199) has used a model termed Hidden Markov Model (HDD) to undertake this assessment and were able to recognize human driving behaviors and predict the pattern of human control states. It has been claimed that they were able to do accurate predictions and anticipate human behavior even up to few seconds in future. Behavioral science uses several human systems to analyze human behavior and relations. It has been recorded that human behaviors like speech, handwriting and hand gestures can be precisely recognized through some of the assessment models(Pentland & Liu, 1999). However, very detailed properties like smoothness and continuity are required to go up to the level of accurate simulation and prediction. Sharper models are required to capture the additional properties of smoothness and continuity. The application of these behavioral models in managem ent is based on the basic theory that every employee moves within his own unique system of human behavior. These are further influenced by the cultural, environmental and the experience based conditioning of each individual. It is important to understand these factors as it is these factors which make an individual to react in a particular when it comes to human relations. Thus it is important in management to understand these factors. It is these factors which constitutes that particular individual’s behavioral system. Thus if one could identify the factors within the behavioral system of an individual, the management will be in a position to predict that individual’s response in a given situation. The Human Relations approach The consideration of human behavior and elementary drivers of human behaviors in management has evolved as different school of thought in management, which is termed to be the human relations approach (Likert, 1961). This school of thought is ho wever, contradictory to the conventional management concepts. While the conventional management theories rely on rationalizing of management processes, the human relations approach leaves ample space for human behavior and emotions within in management. In simpler words, classical theories of management quantify work and work routines through tangible markers whereas the human relations approach accommodates emotional and relational needs of individuals

Effects of global warming on the weather(climate) in Europe Essay

Effects of global warming on the weather(climate) in Europe - Essay Example The TAR (Third Assessment report) also reported on a range of evidence of qualitative consistencies between observed climatic changes and model responses to anthropogenic forcing, including global temperature rise, increasing land - ocean temperature contrast, diminishing article sea ice extent, glacial retreat and increase in precipitation at high northern latitude. The main findings of the IPCC TAR (McMichael et al., 2001) were as follows: -Any regional increases in climate extremes (e.g., storms, floods, cyclones, droughts) associated with climate change would cause deaths and injuries, population displacement, and adverse effects on food production, freshwater availability and quality, and would increase the risks of infectious disease, particularly in low-income countries. -In some settings, the impacts of climate change may cause social disruption, economic decline, and displacement of populations. The health impacts associated with such socioeconomic dislocation and population displacement are substantial. - Changes in climate, including changes in climate variability, would affect many vector-borne infections. Populations at the margins of the current distribution of diseases might be particularly affected. -Climate change represents an additional... This would increase the number of undernourished people in the low-income world, unless there was a major redistribution of food around the world. -Assuming that current emission levels continue, air quality in many large urban areas will deteriorate. Increases in exposure to ozone and other air pollutants (e.g., particulates) could increase morbidity and mortality. Since the beginning of the 20th century the earth's climate has changed rapidly and experienced 0.7oC increase in temperature overall and 0.95oC in Europe (climate Research unit CRU, _ 2003). These changes are unusual in terms of both magnitude and rate of temperature change. The 1990's were seen as the warmest decade and temperature is expected to increase even further. There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming is the result of human activities especially the emission of green house gases (IPCC, 2001 a). Significant increase in green house gases results in the substantial increase in temperature. The main green house gas to human activities is carbon dioxide. Anthropogenic emission has increased the atmospheric concentration of CO2 from 280 PPM to 375 PPP at present. Due to increase in the concentration level of GHG, it has been estimated that global average surface temperature by 2100 will be between 1.4oC to 5.8oC more than the 1990 level. Due to unp0recedented increase in temperature the following potential future singular events may occur: " a shut down of the thermohaline circulation in the North Atlantic (the so called North Atlantic current). This may lead to considerable cooling in northern and western Europe- emission of large amounts of methane from natural gas hydrates in the ocean, deep lakes and polar sediments which could accelerate

Debate on Allowing Homosexuals to Adopt Children Essay

Debate on Allowing Homosexuals to Adopt Children - Essay Example This essay highlights that  the debate, in the public view, has less gay rights sympathizers with the majority, under churches and other conservative institutions, being against the idea of gays adopting children. The judiciary, however, has, by requirement, seemingly inclining to the side of favoring the push by LGBTQ since it relies on subjectivity. It does not take into account public opinion. Since empirical data does not suggest conclusively that children raised up by gay couples disadvantages them in their development, the judiciary has made the majority of its rulings to the favor of the LGBTQ. In Legislative bodies, the majority oppose the motion. The debate is however still balanced since such matters demand constitutional changes that require big numbers. The debate will in the Parliamentary context require an overwhelming argument to sway total consensus.From this discussion it is clear that there have been judicial and legislative manifestations of the debate as well as media publicity too. Initially, the Catholic Church and the society, in general, reacted murderously to homosexuality. It was illegal under the law, and one would be convicted for merely confessing love to a person of the same sex. The clerk denied the application and the couple sued him. The trial court sided with the clerk and even after appealing, the appellate court did not find the favor of the couple.

The elderly †a group apart Essay Example for Free

The elderly – a group apart Essay One of the largest groups that are routinely dismissed or ignored is the part of the population known as the elderly. Because of their age, some people think that their ways or knowledge may be outdated, no longer of use to the technological present. Other people dismiss the elderly because of their own issues regarding aging. Being around a person who is 85 or 90 makes them face the reality that they will also be that age someday, and they are not ready to admit that. This is evident by the enormous amounts of money spent on anti-aging products and the increasingly busy plastic surgery industry. Unfortunately, when the general society ignores this section of the population, they fail to realize just what they are losing. If people dont attempt to learn from those who have learned the important lessons of life, then they are doomed to make the same mistakes. What the general public does not recognize is the amount of wisdom that the elderly have. They have seen the world change before their eyes, and have so many stories to tell. Generally, the elderly are thought of as boring, and tired. Yet, when one takes the time to really listen to them, friendships can be created, and knowledge exchanged. Just because an elderly person may not know what an i-pod is, does not mean that they cant teach something new. The elderly are the same people that they were when they were young. The only difference is the wisdom and life-knowledge that they have gained on the way. Their humor, personalities, likes and dislikes are the same, as is their need of love and acceptance, a need that we all possess. Aging is a stage that is part of life, and just because someone is aged, does not make them less important.

The Scope Of Carbon Trading In India Environmental Sciences Essay

The Scope Of Carbon Trading In India Environmental Sciences Essay Carbon Trading: Carbon trading is a practice which is designed to reduce overall emissions of carbon dioxide, along with other greenhouse gases, by providing a regulatory and economic incentive. In fact, the term carbon trading is a bit misleading, as a number of greenhouse emissions can be regulated under what are known as cap and trade systems. For this reason, some people prefer the term emission trading, to emphasize the fact that far more than just carbon is being traded. This practice is part of a system which is colloquially referred to as a cap and trade. Under a cap and trade system, a government sets a national goal for total greenhouse gas emissions over a set period of time, such as a quarter or a year, and then allocates credits to companies which allow them to emit a certain amount of greenhouse gases. If a company is unable to use all of its credits, it can sell or trade those credits with a company which is afraid of exceeding its allowance. Carbon trading provides a very obvious incentive for companies to improve their efficiency and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, by turning such reductions into a physical cash benefit. In addition, it is a disincentive for being inefficient, as companies are effectively penalized for failing to meet emissions goals. In this way, regulation is accomplished largely through economic means, rather than through draconian government measures, encouraging people to engage in carbon trading because its potentially profitable. As a general rule, carbon trading is paired with an overall attempt to reduce carbon emissions in a country over an extended period of time, which means that each year, the number of available credits will be reduced. By encouraging companies to become more efficient ahead of time, a government can often more easily meet emissions reduction goals, as companies will not be expected to change practices overnight, and the carbon trading system creates far more flexibility than setting blanket baseline levels. In some countries, carbon exchanges have opened up, operating much like stock exchanges. These organizations facilitate the exchange of carbon credits, ensuring that they flow smoothly through the market, and they provide standard set prices for credits, based on market demand and general economic health. In some cases, individual citizens can also participate in carbon trading, purchasing credits to offset their own greenhouse gas emissions, and some advocates have suggested that carbon trading should be formally expanded to all citizens, encouraging global and individual involvement in reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Scope of Carbon Trading in India: Indian Market of Carbon Trading: The carbon market is divided into two parts-that which is compliance driven and the other being the voluntary market. The more dominant and lucrative compliance market only accepts carbon credits under the CDM programme, while there are various regional non UN administered voluntary programs worldwide. For carbon credit trading, India follows a scheme called Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) or more commonly, carbon trading. CDM is an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol allowing industrialized countries with a greenhouse gas reduction commitment to invest in emission reducing projects in developing countries as an alternative to what is generally considered more costly emission reductions in their own countries. Under CDM, a developed country can take up a greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction project activity in a developing country where the cost of GHG reduction project activities is usually much lower. The developed country would be given carbon credits for meeting its emission reduction targets, while the developing country would receive the capital and clean technology to implement the project. Carbon credits are certificates issued to countries that reduce their emission of GHG, which causes global warming. Developed countries that have exceeded the levels can either cut down emis sions, or borrow or buy carbon credits from developing countries. The Indian market is extremely receptive to CDM. Having cornered more than half of the global total in tradable certified emission reduction (CERs), Indias dominance in carbon trading under the CDM of the UN Convention on climate change is beginning to influence business dynamics in the country. Carbon credits are measured in units of CERs, which is equivalent to one tonne of carbon dioxide reduction. Future scope: Indias huge potential for generation and sale of CERs needs to be harnessed especially to tap the huge opportunity in the European Union Emission Trading System (EU-ETS). Hence, in order to bring vibrancy to the emission market in the country, there is a need for a transparent platform that will help buyers and sellers get a fair deal and reduce the margins of the intermediaries to reflect the economic value-addition. With technology at Indias side, it is time the country leveraged it for a sustained growth of the carbon credit market. Indian industries, which looked at CDM implementation in their process have failed to realize fair prices in most cases due to the currently thriving OTC (over-the-counter) markets that have fleeced most sellers by buying at prices much lower than that provided by buyers. The MCX-CCX (Chicago Climate Exchange) tie-up is expected to ensure better price discovery of carbon credits besides helping the participants cover the risks associated with selling and buying of carbon credits. Further, the exchange, with its various ways of educating the eco-system participants, would enhance the benefits accruing to them in its endeavor to make India a major global commodity-trading hub. Objectives: The objectives for study are as follows: To know what is carbon trading and its impact on atmosphere. To know world market of Carbon trading. To know about the Carbon trading market in India To know future growth and scope in India in carbon trading. Review of Literature: According to Shilpa Shanbhag,[Dataquest the business of InfoTech] India needs to put a price on carbon, since true leaders do not wait for international climate mandates. There is nothing stopping India from setting up a domestic environmental exchange based on the guidelines of the international carbon market and converting air and water pollutants such as CO2, SO2, NOx and BoD into tradable instruments. NOx and SOx trading schemes in the US have shown that it is possible to reduce emissions and acid rain under an environmental trading scheme. Later she add instead of switching off light bulbs for an hour each year or holding concerts to raise climate change awareness, it would be much sensible to invest in a wind mill, which produces clean power. This mill would offer two-fold benefits of supplying power to the state grid for the next 25 years and it would also earn carbon credits. A 2007 study by the Financial Times discovered the following:   * Widespread instances of people and organizations buying worthless credits that do not yield any reductions in carbon emissions. * Industrial companies profiting from doing very littleor from gaining carbon credits on the basis of efficiency gains from which they have already benefited substantially. * Brokers providing services of questionable or no value. * A shortage of verification, making it difficult for buyers to assess the true value of carbon credits (Industry Caught in Carbon Smokescreen, Financial Times, April 25, 2007) Accordind to Ecosecuriites ,The highest price projection found in the survey resulted from the ACCF/NAM model, estimating that a carbon price of $257 would be needed by 2025 to accomplish the emissions reduction objective in its High Cost scenario. This models High Cost scenario assumed that only 14% of GHG emissions could be offset, while the remaining emissions had to be internally mitigated. This scenario also strictly limited the rate at which technologies are developed and implemented, including a constraint on nuclear by allowing only 10-25 GW of additional capacity by 2030.The lower price projections profiled in this report resulted from the PACE model, estimating that a carbon price of only $0.41 would be needed by 2025 to accomplish the emissions reduction objective in its Multigas scenario, and the MERGE and MiniCAM models, estimating a required carbon price of only $0.30 in 2020 for the 6.7 W/m2 scenario. The PACE model gave low values partially as a result of assuming a r elatively low GHG emissions baseline and emissions growth over time. Analysis: The Carbon trading is one of the fastest growing financial markets in the world. It is the most visible result of early regulatory efforts to mitigate climate change, and grew out of the Kyoto Protocol, which was adopted in 1997. The protocol requires that by 2012, developed countries will achieve greenhouse gas emission reductions of at least 5% against baseline levels of 1990. To help countries achieve that goal it established the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which promotes sustainable development in developing countries while spurring cost-effective reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in the more polluting developed countries. India offers a large potential for CDM because of its inherent dependence on fossil fuels for development. So countries with relatively low abatement and transaction costs like India are a major attraction for CDM projects. The market is emerging strongly despite various global factors, according to the World Bank. Regulation that caps greenhouse gas emissions has spawned an emerging carbon trade that was valued at US $64 billion (à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬47 billion) in 2007. For the third consecutive year, China was the world leader in CDM supply with a 73% market share in terms of 2007 transacted volume. Brazil and India, at 6% market share each, transacted the highest volumes after China. Africa followed with 5% of the market. India is the fourth largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world in absolute terms. But its per capita emission of 1.2 tons per person per year is much lower than the Wests figure of 20 tons, or than the global average of 8 tons. If India has to realize its ambitions of economic growth and take large sections of its population out of the low income trap, it must grow. That means greenhouse gas emission reductions will CLEAN DEVELPOMENT MECHANISM (CDM) AND CARBON TRADING IN INDIA CLEAN DEVELOPMENT MECHANISM GLOBAL WARMING- THE ISSUE The Earth has an atmosphere of the proper depth and chemical composition. About 30% of incoming energy from the sun is reflected back to space while the rest reaches the earth, resulting in warming the air, oceans, and land, and maintaining an average surface temperature of about 15  °C. The chemical composition of the atmosphere is also responsible for nurturing life on our planet. Most of it is nitrogen (78%); about 21% is oxygen, which all animals need to survive; and only a small percentage (0.036%) is made up of carbon dioxide which plants require for photosynthesis. The atmosphere carries out the critical function of maintaining life-sustaining conditions on Earth, in the following way: each day, energy from the sun is absorbed by the land, seas, mountains, etc. If all this energy were to be absorbed completely, the earth would gradually become hotter and hotter. But actually, the earth both absorbs and, simultaneously releases it in the form of infra red waves (which cannot be seen by our eyes but can be felt as heat, for example the heat that you can feel with your hands over a heated car engine). All this rising heat is not lost to space, but is partly absorbed by some gases present in very small (or trace) quantities in the atmosphere, called greenhouse gases (GHGs). Greenhouse gases (for example, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), water vapour), re-emit some of this heat to the earths surface. If they did not perform this useful function, most of the heat energy would escape, leaving the earth cold (about -18  °C) and unfit to support life. However, ever since the Industrial Revolution began about 150 years ago, man-made activities have added significant quantities of GHGs to the atmosphere. The atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) have grown by about 31%, 151% and 17%, respectively, between 1750 and 2000 (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC 2001). As the GHGs are transparent to incoming solar radiation, but opaque to outgoing longwave radiation, an increase in the levels of GHGs could lead to greater warming, which, in turn, could have an impact on the worlds climate, leading to the phenomenon known as climate change. Indeed, scientists have observed that over the 20th century, the mean global surface temperature increased by 0.6 °C (IPCC 2001). They also observed that since 1860 (the year temperature began to be recorded systematically using a thermometer), the 1990s have been the warmest decade. Important greenhouse gases are: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFC), perfluorocarbons (PFC), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6). Water vapor is also an important greenhouse gas, but since humans do not generally have a direct affect on water vapor concentration in the atmosphere, it is not included in this paper. Because each greenhouse gas traps different amounts of heat and stays in the atmosphere for different lengths of time, studies use measures of global warming potential (GWP) to compare between gases. Carbon dioxide is used as the benchmark, so all other gases are measured in carbon dioxide equivalence (CO2e)2. Table 1: The global warming potential of six major greenhouse gases (This measure takes into account the heat trapping abilities and the time the gas stays in the atmosphere (IPCC 2001a, 2001b)) Gas Global Warming Potential Atmospheric Life (years) CO2 1 5 to 200 CH4 21 12 N2O 310 114 HFC 140 to 11,700 1.4 to 260 PFC 6,500 to 9,200 10,000 to 50,000+ SF6 23,900 3200 NATURAL AND ANTHROPOGENIC CAUSES OF GLOBAL WARMING Another IPCC publication states that there is a very high confidence that human activities have caused a net warming of the planet (IPCC 2007a). KYOTO PROTOCOL Presently, a variety of approaches are being implemented to reduce carbon emissions. These range from efforts by individuals and firms to reduce their climate footprints to initiatives at city, state, regional and global levels. Among these are the commitments of governments to reduce emissions through the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its 1997 Kyoto Protocol. In 1992 famous Rio earth summit, United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted with an objective to stabilize atmospheric concentration of GHG at levels that would prevent dangerous humane interference with climate system. The UNFCCC came into effect on 21st March, 1994 according to which industrialized countries shall have the main responsibility to mitigate climate change. Such countries are listed a s Annex- I countries. Under UNFCCC all the member countries were to report on their national GHG emissions inventories and propose climate change mitigation strategies. After two and half years of intense negotiation between Annex-I countries, an agreement was struck at the now famous Kyoto protocol on 11 December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan. Born in the 1997 World Earth Summit held at Kyoto, Japan, this Protocol is making miracles in society today. The convention, participated by 160 countries of the world, was to negotiate binding limitations on greenhouse gases for the developed nations pursuant to the objective of the Framework Convention on Climate Change of 1992. Under the Kyoto Protocol, emission caps were set for each Annex-I countries, amounting in total to an average reduction of 5.2% below the aggregate emission level in 1990. Each country has a predetermined target of emission reduction as compared to 1990 level. No emission cap is imposed on Non Annex I countries. However, to encourage the participation of Non-Annex I in emission reduction process a mechanism known as Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) has been provided. The carbon markets are a prominent part of the response to climate change and have an opportunity to demonstrate that they can be a credible and central tool for future climate mitigation. The outcome was the Kyoto Protocol, in which the developed nations agreed to limit their greenhouse gas emissions, relative to the levels emitted in 1990 or pay a price to those that do. At this point comes the carbon trading. CARBON CREDITS The primary purpose of the Protocol was to make developed countries pay for their ways with e missions while at the same time monetarily rewarding countries with good behaviour in this regard. Since developing countries can start with clean technologies, they will be rewarded by those stuck with à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¾dirtyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸ ones. This system poises to become a big machine for partially transferring wealth from wealthy, industrialised countries to poor, undeveloped countries. A CER or carbon Credit is defined as the unit related to reduction of 1 tonne of CO2 emission from the baseline of the project activity. Let us say that India decided to invest in a new power station, and has decided on a particular technology at the cost of X crore. An entity from an industrialised country (which could even be a company) offers to provide India with slightly better technology, which costs more (say Y crore), but will result in lower emissions. The industrialised country will only pay the incremental cost of the project viz. Y minus X. In return, the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¾investingà ¢Ã ¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸ country will get certified emission reductionsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸ (CERs), or credits, which it can use to meet its Kyoto commitments. This is a very good deal indeed but for the investing country. Not only do they sell developing countries their technology, but they also meet their Kyoto commitments without lifting a finger to reduce their domestic emissions. Countries like the US can continue to pollute at home, so long as it makes the reductions elsewhere. The World Bank has built itself a role in this market as a referee, broker and macro-manager of international fund flows. The scheme has been entitled Clean Development Mechanism, or more commonly, Carbon Trading. CDM PROJECT TYPES Carbon Credits are sold to entities in Annex-I countries, like power utilities, who have emission reduction targets to achieve find it cheaper to buy à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¾offsettingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸ certificate rather than do a clean-up in their backyard. Type of projects, which are being applied for CDM and which can be of valuable potential, are: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Energy efficiency projects Increasing building efficiency (Concept of Green Building/LEED Rating), eg. Technopolis Building Kolkata Increasing commercial/industrial energy efficiency (Renovation Modernization of old power plants) Fuel switching from more carbon intensive fuels to less carbon intensive fuels; and Also includes re-powering, upgrading instrumentation, controls, and/or equipment à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Transport Improvements in vehicle fuel efficiency by the introduction of new technologies Changes in vehicles and/or fuel type, for example, switch to electric cars or fuel cell vehicles (CNG/Bio fuels) Switch of transport mode, e.g. changing to less carbon intensive means of transport like trains (Metro in Delhi); and Reducing the frequency of the transport activity à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Methane recovery Animal waste methane recovery utilization à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Installing an anaerobic digester utilizing methane to produce energy Coal mine methane recovery à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Collection utilization of fugitive methane from coal mining; Capture of biogas à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Landfill methane recovery and utilization Capture utilization of fugitive gas from gas pipelines; Methane collection and utilization from sewage/industrial waste treatment facilities à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Industrial process changes Any industrial process change resulting in the reduction of any category greenhouse gas emissions à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Cogeneration Use of waste heat from electric generation, such as exhaust from gas turbines, for industrial purposes or heating (e.g. Distillery-Molasses/ bagasse) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Agricultural sector Energy efficiency improvements or switching to less carbon intensive energy sources for water pumps (irrigation) Methane reductions in rice cultivation Reducing animal waste or using produced animal waste for energy generation (see also under methane recovery) and Any other changes in an agricultural practices resulting in reduction of any category of greenhouse gas emissions INDIAN SCENARIO- FAVOURING POINTS India comes under the third category of signatories to UNFCCC. India signed and ratified the Protocol in August, 2002 and has emerged as a world leader in reduction of greenhouse gases by adopting Clean Development Mechanisms (CDMs) in the past few years. According to Report on National Action Plan for operationalising Clean Development Mechanism(CDM) by Planning Commission, Govt.of India, the total CO2-equivalent emissions in 1990 were 10, 01, 352 Gg (Gigagrams), which was approximately 3% of global emissions. If India can capture a 10% share of the global CDM market, annual CER revenues to the country could range from US$ 10 million to 300 million (assuming that CDM is used to meet 10-50% of the global demand for GHG emission reduction of roughly 1 billion tonnes CO2, and prices range from US$ 3.5-5.5 per tonne of CO2). As the deadline for meeting the Kyoto Protocol targets draws nearer, prices can be expected to rise, as countries/companies save carbon credits to meet strict targe ts in the future. India is well ahead in establishing a full-fledged system in operationalising CDM, through the Designated National Authority (DNA).Other than Industries and transportation,the major sources of GHGs emission in India are as follows : à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Paddy fields à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Enteric fermentation from cattle and buffaloes à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Municipal Solid Waste Of the above three sources the emissions from the paddy fields can be reduced through special irrigation strategy and appropriate choice of cultivars; whereas enteric fermentation emission can also be reduced through proper feed management. In recent days the third source of emission i.e. Municipal Solid Waste Dumping Grounds are emerging as a potential CDM activity despite being provided least attention till date. Present status of dumping grounds in India: In India, due to increased population commercial development, cities are facing probles of SW (Municipal Solid Waste) disposal. The urban population in larger towns and cities in India is increasing at a decadal growth rate of above 40%. There are no Sanitary Landfill sites in India at present. Municipal Solid Waste is simply dumped without any treatment into land (depressions, ditches, soaked ponds) or on the outskirts of the city in an unscientific manner with no compliance of regulations. The existing dumping grounds in India are full and overflowing beyond capacity. It is difficult to get new dumping yards and if at all available, they are far away from the city and this adds to the exorbitant cost of transportation Various processes/technologies available to reduce the amount of Municipal Solid Waste are as follows. 1. Physical (a. Pelletisation) 2. Biochemical (a. Aerobic Composting b. Anaerobic Digestion) 3. Thermal (a. Incineration b. Gasification) Among the above options/technologies following are considered as favorable to implement in India. 1. Pelletisation, 2. Anaerobic digestion using bio-methanation technology for production of power, 3. Production of organic manure using controlled aerobic composting. a) India high potential of carbon credits b) India can capture 10% of Global CDM market c) Annual revenue estimated range from US$10 million to 330 million d) Wide spectrum of projects with different sizes e) Vast technical human resource f) Strong industrial base g) Dynamic, transparent speedy processing by Indian DNA (NCDMA) for host country approval h) MoU Signed between MoP and GTZ (Oct 2006)- Indo German Energy program (IGEN) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Baseline CO2 Emissions from Power Sector already in place- first CDM country à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Improvement in EE à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ CDM in Power Sector CDM POTENTIAL FOR INDIA POLICIES AND WAY AHEAD Greenhouse gas abatement policy design is exceedingly difficult because GHG emissions result from nearly all modern human activities. It involves every sector of the economy as well as habits and choices of individuals. Economics is more than just a study of business, it is the science which studies human behavior as a relationship between aspirations and the scarce means to reach those goals. Individuals make decisions every day that influence the amount of greenhouse gases that enter the atmosphere. If a stable climate is one objective among the many to which society aspires, then economics is a tool well-suited to understand how those decisions are made and how efficient and effective outcomes can be reached. Indian Forum India is a Party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the objective of the Convention is to achieve stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interfe rence with the climate system. To strengthen the developed country commitments under the Convention, the Parties adopted Kyoto Protocol in 1997, which commits developed country Parties to return their emissions of greenhouse gases to an average of approximately 5.2% below 1990 levels over the period 2008-12. The Seventh Conference of Parties (COP-7) to the UNFCCC decided that Parties participating in CDM should designate a National Authority for the CDM and as per the CDM project cycle, a project proposal should include written approval of voluntary participation from the Designated National Authority of each country and confirmation that the project activity assists the host country in achieving sustainable development. Accordingly the Central Government constituted the National Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Authority for the purpose of protecting and improving the quality of environment in terms of the Kyoto Protocol. The CDM Authority has the powers: (a) to invite officials a nd experts from Government, financial institutions, consultancy organizations, non-governmental organizations, civil society, legal profession, industry and commerce, as it may deem necessary for technical and professional inputs and may co-opt other members depending upon need. (b) to interact with concerned authorities, institutions, individual stakeholders for matters relating to CDM. (c) to take up any environmental issues pertaining to CDM or Sustainable Development projects as may be referred to it by the Central Government, and (d) to recommend guidelines to the Central Government for consideration of projects and principles to be followed for according host country approval. As discussed above, India has a vast opportunity to explore in terms of CDM and carbon-credits. Through its giant ongoing Infrastructure projects and projects on non-conventional energy sources, a new phase of development is still to be observed, moderate start of which has already begun. Conclusion There is a great opportunity awaiting India in carbon trading which is estimated to go up to $100 billion by 2010. In the new regime, the country could emerge as one of the largest beneficiaries accounting for 25 per cent of the total world carbon trade, says a recent World Bank report. The countries like US, Germany, Japan and China are likely to be the biggest buyers of carbon credits which are beneficial for India to a great extent. The Indian market is extremely receptive to Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Having cornered more than half of the global total in tradable certified emission reduction (CERs), Indias dominance in carbon trading under the clean development mechanism (CDM) of the UN Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is beginning to influence business dynamics in the country. India Inc pocketed Rs 1,500 crores in he year 2005 just by selling carbon credits to developed-country clients. Various projects would create up to 306 million tradable CERs. Analysts claim if more companies absorb clean technologies, total CERs with India could touch 500 million. Of the 391 projects sanctioned, the UNFCCC has registered 114 from India, the highest for any country. Indias average annual CERs stand at 12.6% or 11.5 million. Hence, MSW dumping grounds can be a huge prospect for CDM projects in India. These types of projects would not only be beneficial for the Government bodies and stakeholders but also for general public.

Plastics :: essays research papers

Plastics are a product that is very common in our everday usage. We use plastics everywhere ranging for Tupperware to the cars that we drive. Although most everyone has accepted the fact that plastics make our lives easier and has become essential to us, there are people out there who are perhaps unaware of how important plastics are to our society, or people who just don't approve of plastics because of its environmental harm. An advertisement in a Health Care magazine tries to convince this audience why plastics are needed and the usefulness of plastics. The advertisement tries to show its audience that plastics play an important role in our everyday lives and tries to make the audience question where we would be without the use of plastics. This advertisement, directed towards people that do not realize the usefulness of plastics or who do not approve of the use of plastics, through the use of pathos, logos, and ethos tries to persuade its audience that, "Plastics make it possible." The pathos plays on the audience's sympathy of why we should use plastics, the logos gives reasons how plastics are useful and why they are used in our society, and the ethos makes the audience feel that if unconvinced by the advertisement alone, there is more information available to them.First and foremost seen in the advertisement is pathos. The advertisement grabs the audience's attention by showing a picture of a bunch of boys playing football. Knowing that the children are our future and that the children of today shape our tomorrow, many people are concerned with the problems of our younger generations and care a great deal about what happens to our younger generations. The advertisement does a good job of playing on the aud ience's emotions by involving children. Half of the advertisement is covered by the picture of a bunch of little boys playing football. The boys are wearing football helmets and look as though there is not one scratch on any one of them. The advertisement is trying to convey is that if it were not for the football helmets, which happens to be made out of plastic, then the boys would be hurt and all bruised up. This gives the image that the reason the boys can be rough with one another and not be hurt is do to the fact that they are all wearing plastic helmets.

Why Do so Many Professional Athletes Go Broke After Retirement?

Jay Nicholls Economics of Sports Prof. Enz 4/5/13 Why do so many professional athletes go broke after retirement? After watching ESPN’s 30 for 30, Broke, my mind starting pondering this question of why and how so many professional athletes are blowing through the millions they make while playing their specific sport? It is amazing that someone can spend that much money so quickly. What are they buying and who are they buying things for? Where are they spending it? Where do they go wrong? When did this trend start and will it continue in the future?What are the league officials doing in order to prevent this tragedy from happening? These are some of the questions I will try to answer throughout this paper. In March of 2009 Pablo S. Torre wrote an article for Sports Illustrated titled, â€Å"How (and Why) Athletes Go Broke†. He explains how many athletes, especially minority ones, come from very humble beginnings often times growing up in poverty. Some of whom are the onl y ones in their family to reach college. Then some of them even start earning money while still in college through â€Å"illicit payments from agents† (Torre).Once these players hit the big leagues and start earning millions, much of it is invested blindly by people who appear to be trying to help but often times do not. Their fortune seemingly evaporates right before their eyes. If and when these athletes look at their bank accounts their reactions are usually similar, â€Å"What the †¦? †(Torre). The most common leagues that players go broke are the three most popular in the country, NFL, NBA, and MLB. Torre reported that â€Å"By the time they [the athletes] have been retired for two years, 78% of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress because of joblessness or divorce. (Torre). That is an astounding number of players looking at overdue credit card bills, child support payments and much more. Athletes who do get married and then ev entually divorced, in many cases, do not sign prenuptial agreements therefore losing at least half of what they worked so hard for. Another astonishing figure reported by Torre was that 60% of former NBA players are broke within five years of retirement. They typically run into many of the same problems as NFL players. The MLB is no different.High profile Major League Baseball players like Johnny Damon and Jacoby Ellsbury reported that some of their money is tied up in an $8 billion fraud scandal due to a shady financier named Robert Allen Stanford. It is hard to believe that someone of that celebrity status could be drained of their money but it’s true. Mike Pelfrey of the New York Mets was forced to ask the team for a salary advancement of $2 million after he admitted he was broke because 99 percent of his fortune is frozen in the same scandal (Torre).These athletes not only gave much of their wealth to Stanford, but also all of their trust and he essentially took their mon ey and ran with it. Uneducated athletes or ‘dumb jocks’ are an easy target for fraud because they may not read the fine print or even care to read it. Also they may not understand the investment fully and get taken for all that they are worth. The financial crisis of 2008 had a huge impact on many players’ wealth as their trusted financial advisors lost billions in the stock market crash.Money manager Michael Seymour, founder of the company UNI Private Wealth Strategies, was quoted saying, â€Å"Athletes have a different set of challenges from, say, entertainers. There’s a far shorter peak earnings period [in sports] than in any other profession, and in many cases they lack the time and desire to understand and monitor their investments. † (Torre). Many athletes don’t have time or the education to know where their money is going and who is handling it. A grueling 162 game baseball season doesn’t leave much time for a ball player to sit down with his financial advisor and talk numbers.Many players will say here is my money, invest it without surveying the risks involved or even realizing that there are risks involved. Coming into that much money so quickly may force a player to just pay someone to handle it because it is much easier that way. Seymour also brings up a good point that is often overlooked by people on the outside or the fans; this is the length of professional sports careers. There are very few athletes in any sport that can last long enough to retire and have enough money to not worry about the rest of their lives.Athletes such as Brett Favre, Cal Ripken, Chris Chelios and Gordie Howe are the rare exceptions to this rule. Howe played professional hockey throughout five decades spanning nearly fifty years. An article from quanthockey. com stated that the average NHL player will play between five and six seasons in the league no matter what position they were. On average that accounted for roughly 238 games played for skaters but far less for goaltenders (â€Å"Average Length of an NHL Player Career†). The numbers across the other three major leagues are very similar or lower.However hockey players, for the most part, are either good with their money or good at staying out the spotlight if they do go broke. The RAM Financial Group is a company that specializes in helping professional athletes manage their wealth. They refer to themselves as financial coaches that â€Å"help guide you to success† by planning for retirement, handling taxes, insurance, and budgeting along with many other services. In an article on their website they wrote that the average NFL career is 3. 5 years; the average NBA career is 4. years and the MLB had the longest career length of any of the four major sports leagues at 5. 6 years (â€Å"Athlete Services†). These three figures make sense too; that as the sports get less physical the career length gets longer. The baseball statistic did not include pitchers however, who are far more prone to injury and typically have much shorter careers than position players. Those figures are also the averages, meaning half of the players fall below that career length. Those players only lasting a season or two in most cases are not star players and are not earning large signing bonuses or special incentives.Chances are they are late round draft picks and sign for the league minimum. RAM Financial Group says that athletes must plan for nearly 50 years of retirement after sports. Since many athletes did not go to, or did not finish college, they do not have a degree to rely for help in the job search after their career has ended. There are only a select few athletes that can maintain a job in the sports world, such as a television announcer or analyst, coach, or scout et cetera; it requires a certain personality and intelligence.The article by Torre profiles a football player by the name of Raghib (Rocket) Ismail who was a sta r wide receiver for Notre Dame and was a potential number one draft pick for the NFL, but instead chose to sign an $18. 2 million contract over four years with the Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts. Why he chose the CFL over the NFL I will never know. He goes on to say that he started with a base salary of $4 million and he was so focused on football that by the time his first year was over his bank account was just about empty.Ed Butowsky was listening to Ismail speak and nodded his head as if to say, ‘I could have seen that coming’. Butowsky is a managing partner at Chapwood Investments which is a wealth management firm. He is used to managing very wealthy people’s fortunes in the business world but, not many professional athletes. Butowsky realized that broke athletes was a reoccurring theme throughout major league sports and he felt the need to do something about it. In 2005 Butowsky began inviting many prominent athletes to his so called fi nancial â€Å"boot camps†.Some of these athletes were well off and others were not. He taught them things about money from the very basics of what is a bond, to some more complicated topics such as insurance and retirement. These sessions were free of charge and the goal was to educate these young men so that they did not fall into financial ruin like so many athletes before them (Torre). An athlete’s wealth is† supposed to outlive their career† according to Bill Duffy, a veteran agent who manages players like Steve Nash and Carmelo Anthony. So where do most of them go wrong?The feature of Torre’s article, Rocket Ismail, talked about his investment portfolio over the years. It included lots of â€Å"dubious inventions and risky investments† (Torre). He mentioned pouring money into a religious movie that saw no return. He earned a reported $18 to $20 million over his career from salary alone in the CFL, and went broke through what he calls â₠¬Å"‘total ignorance’†. He was luckier than most broke athletes however, because he never filed for bankruptcy, had legal trouble or got divorced, and most importantly he had his degree from Notre Dame.But his lack of ‘luck’ with investments caused him to nearly lose it all (Torre). One of his worst investments came when he sank $300,000 into a theme restaurant called the Rock N’ Roll Cafe. It was similar to the idea of the Hard Rock Cafe. Ismail said the man who pitched him this idea talked about it as â€Å"fail-proof, with no downsides† (Torre). Ismail was never paid back anything at all and doesn’t even know if the restaurant ever existed. His lack of interest in the investment led him to lose a considerable amount of his money by writing a single check.If I were about to invest that much money I would want to see building plans, permits, other investors, revenue, and much more before I decided to invest anything at all. Whethe r he didn’t care or didn’t know, he is still at fault. One would think Ismail learned his lesson, but the opposite is true. He continually pumped thousands of dollars into sketchy investments that never took off. He was too trustworthy and easily persuaded by smooth talkers and promising business plans such as a music label, a cosmetics line, tourist shops, and a phone card dispensary company.All of which failed miserably and he saw no return on his investments. Some may call it bad luck but Butowsky sees it differently. According to the article, â€Å"Industry experts estimate that only one in 30 of the highest-caliber private investment deals works out as advertised† (Torre). I would not be willing to risk much money on a thirty three percent chance of making money. He also states, â€Å"Chronic overallocation into real estate and bad private equity is the Number 1 problem [for athletes] in terms of a financial meltdown† (Torre).The lure of tangible ite ms is so much greater than buying something intangible like a stock. Most athletes love the spotlight, and by saying so and so owns a bar or restaurant is a lot sexier and more intriguing than being a shareholder in a Fortune 500 company, even though it may be a safer investment. Risk-averse investors suggest allocating most of their investments to a mix of public securities which to most athletes are invisible and boring. The thrill of inventions and nightclubs are for more appealing but riskier.Disreputable people see athletes’ money as very easy to get a hold of according to NFL agent Steven Baker, who represents 20 NFL players (Torre). People seek to take advantage of them and as history shows it they have been extremely successful. Drew Bledsoe and a crew of other NFL retirees invested â€Å"at least $100,000 apiece in a †¦ Pay By Touch †¦ technology that would help replace credit cards with fingerprints† (Torre). Even though this company was dealing wit h several lawsuits from players and others, they still invested.The stories of athletes buying real estate to sell and rent are very common and their results are all too similar. The financial crisis put a huge damper on the housing market and caused many of the properties to be foreclosed on putting these athletes further into debt. Many properties are up for sale on EBay, far below their original asking prices and market values. Former major league infielder Junior Spivey is one of the many suffering from owning too many real estate properties that aren’t seeing a return on investment.He declares, â€Å"It’s very tough, especially for someone like me who’s not playing† (Torre). Young, rich athletes are similar to a lottery winner who comes into millions without knowing how to handle it. Some of them probably haven’t heard or learned of the basics of budgeting or keeping receipts for tax purposes according to Leigh Steinberg an NFL agent (Torre). Many athletes will admit they know nothing about the business and financial world after the fact they have made very costly investments without knowing all the details about where their money is actually going.Magic Johnson weighed in on this discussion, â€Å"by admitting he knew nothing about business† (Torre). He was a lucky one getting a trustworthy adviser. He went on to say that many athletes hire family and friends because it is a favor to them but these people are often times in over their heads when dealing with this much money. They can make risky and uneducated investments that may not be profitable. Johnson gets calls from stars all the time who ask him about hiring friends and he immediately says no because he knows they will more than likely fail.Many athletes will hire their friends because they simply do not know how to say no to them. Friends of rich athletes often expect financial help or jobs. The infamous Ron Artest had to dismiss six of his friends involv ed in his record label in 2007. They were doing odd jobs for him and living in a house he was paying for. His ‘entourage’ was less helpful than they were worth and Artest had to make that tough decision (Torre). Jerry Richardson, owner of the Carolina Panthers stated the most dangerous thing that could happen to an athlete financially is divorce.A lot of athletes get married young and by the time they retire realize they made a mistake. In Torre’s article, he refers to a survey put out a financial services firm by the name of Rothstein Kass. In the survey they polled 178 athletes – each with a minimum net worth of $5 million and most were under the age of thirty. It was reported that, â€Å"more than 80% of the 178 athletes polled†¦ [were] concerned about being involved in unjust lawsuits and/or divorce proceedings† (Torre). Athletes and agents’ common estimates today, show that the divorce rate for professional athletes is anywhere from sixty to eighty percent.Husbands routinely lose half of their net worth in these cases and most splits happen after the peak earnings period of their careers, or in retirement. This timing is no accident. Former NBA center Mark West commented, â€Å"There’s this huge lifestyle change†¦ you and your wife are suddenly always at home, bugging each other. Before you’d say ‘I gotta go to practice. ’ Now you don’t have practice† (Torre). If you don’t want to spend time with your wife clearly you aren’t ready to get married or you picked the wrong woman to spend the rest of your life with.I can see how many retired athletes would want to relax at home after their career is over. Some women are just gold diggers as well, just using the men’s money to go shopping and such. Other problems such as infidelity may arise as well. Celebrity status sometimes seems to bring out the worst in people and not many marriages can survive a cheating scandal. With all the pressures riding on a high profile marriage with an athlete, the prenuptial agreement is one security blanket to protect an athletes’ net worth.This is recommended by agent David Falk who represented Michael Jordan, but Jordan did not have one. The percentage of athletes who sign one is considerably lower than regular people of the same economic stature. Often times an athlete will marry his hometown sweetheart and they are so blinded by ‘love’ that they could not ever imagine a ruinous divorce in their future, but people change especially when there is lots of money at stake. Dikembe Mutombo set a great example for athletes when called off his marriage in 1994 after his fiance refused to sign a prenuptial agreement.It reportedly â€Å"cost him $250,000† to cancel the wedding ceremony but it could have been millions had they gone through with the marriage and gotten divorced later on (Torre); smart move by the big man. Chil dren are a large factor in a divorce settlement as well. They tend to make the decisions far more complicated. NBA player Travis Henry, who has nine children with nine different women, is a prime example of this. His fortune was demolished by child support payments in the â€Å"tens of thousands† (Torre).When athletes cannot afford to pay these ridiculous amounts of money they get treated no differently than regular citizens and are put in prison. Another factor leading to the demise of an athletes’ wealth is the notion that they want to impress the veterans on the team and get on their good side. Some rookies think that in order to do this they must buy a Lamborghini, a yacht or splurge on a million dollar house. You cannot live outside your means for too long. Soon enough the bills will come in and they will realize that swiping a credit card doesn’t mean you can keep that item forever. Young layers will look up to guys that have been in the league for many ye ars, and who have accumulated plenty of money. They try to emulate them and fail miserably. For example a rookie on say, Shaquille O’Neal’s team, might look at his many cars, clothes and large and say, ‘I want that’. However Shaq has money coming from not only his NBA salary, which was amongst the highest in the league, but also from numerous endorsement deals off the court. Professional athletes’ going broke has been an ongoing trend for many years and it will continue until education becomes an important part of turning pro.Fox news did a short story on this epidemic and in it Kathryn Buschman Vasel reported that, â€Å"The reasons for financial hardships vary, from lack of planning, over indulgence, bad investments and poor financial guidance. Or all of the above† (Vasel). These four mishaps have ruined lives of once millionaire athletes for so many years. With so many star athletes going broke and embarrassing not only themselves but the leagues they represent, what are the owners, general managers, and league officials doing to help prevent this trend from continuing?USA Today posted an article on this topic last year citing the Sports Illustrated article among others. Russ Wiles wrote, â€Å"The NFL conducts workshops for rookies covering topics such as substance abuse, sex education, gambling, domestic violence and personal finance† (Wiles). However their effectiveness remains in question. Many of the rookies will disregard these efforts to help them and wind up in the same situation as their counterparts before them. They hear the stories and statistics but think this could never happen to me I am going to be a millionaire, there’s no way I could blow that much money.Ignorance is not bliss in this situation. Many athletes â€Å"assume the money will keep flowing in for years, but that’s usually not the case† (Wiles). Contracts that teams offer are usually merit based with only a small percentage guaranteed no matter what. Many players don’t realize this or may not even know that. As an athlete myself I never think that maybe I will get hurt this year or what will happen if I do. Professional athletes have the same mentality. Even worse what if a rookie never pans out to be more than a backup?Bench players don’t make nearly as much as starters or star players. And as soon as a player gets cut or put on waivers their contract dwindles down to nothing. When the paychecks stop coming, the lavish lifestyles of athletes can no longer be sustained. Paychecks will stop eventually for everyone but bills never do. The banks and credit card companies don’t care if you get hurt playing a professional sport, they still want their money and will stop at nothing until they get all of it; whether that means foreclosing your home, car and yacht or seizing all other assets as collateral.Players can’t grasp the concept that their peak earnings period wi ll be short lived and their lifestyles must be planned accordingly. Unlike a corporate office job or a doctor where the potential salaries keep increasing based on good performance or experience in the field in which they work, Athletes make all or most of their income in a few short years. According to Wiles, â€Å"Even athletes who play professionally for many years will eventually need to downsize their finances†¦That makes them different from most workers† (Wiles). Colleges and universities are not off the hook either.These institutions that have high profile teams with the potential for their athletes to play professional sports should offer more courses on money and finance to their students. It should be a requirement for students not just student athletes to be financial literate so that nobody finds themselves in the red later on in life. Even if you are a history major or a science major, it is imperative to know how keep your head above water when it comes to personal finances. The only way these professional athletes will be able to lead successful lives after their playing days are over is through education.People above them need to stress the importance of saving, planning, and common sense because once you owe more money than you are able to pay back it may be impossible to get out of debt. Bibliography 1. â€Å"Athlete Services. † RAM Financial Group. RAM Financial Group, n. d. Web. 2 Apr 2013. . 2. â€Å"Average Length of an NHL Player Career. † Quanthockey. com. N. p. , n. d. Web. 2 Apr 2013. . 3. Torre, Pablo S.. â€Å"How (and Why) Athletes Go Broke. SI Vault. Sports Illustrated, 3 Mar 2009. Web. 1 Apr 2013. . 4. Vasel, Kathryn Buschman. â€Å"Why Athletes Go Broke. † Fox Business. Fox News, 01 FEBRU 2013. Web. 4 Apr 2013. . 5. Wiles, Russ. â€Å"Pro athletes aften fumble the financial ball. † USA TODAY Sports. USA TODAY, 22 APRIL 2012. Web. 4 Apr 2013. .