Issues on Paying College Athletes

For several years amateurism has posed a big controversy in college sports. Being a professional athlete is making the final cut, this is when athletes get paid for their talents for the use of entertainment. The athletes are given contracts due to their level of skill and performance. College is for students to get an education and prepare for a career. Most athletes attend college to get an education just in case they don†t make it to a professional sport level. College athleticism could be considered a stepping stone, it is a preparation stage for student athletes hoping to move on to the professional level. Many athletes attend college and play sports, but when they get to the professional level, they still aren†t capable of performing as well as expected. This is not the case with every athlete though, some of these young amateurs hit the professional league and explode and achieve beyond their expectations. Some of the collegiate athletes hit the professionals and perform better than experienced veterans. In the light of these facts, the question: â€Å"Should college players be paid? † is often posed. This question has been tossed around for a good number of years. It has probably been discussed since before college basketball players began to leave school early to become pro. As a college athlete I often feel that I deserve something extra, but every time I feel this way I always end up re-evaluating the situation. Once I†ve actually thought through the situation, I usually come to the conclusion that college athletes are already being paid. The education we receive and the experience of earning a college degree has no price value. This is the same thing South Florida coach Seth Greenberg stated when he was asked: â€Å"should college basketball players be paid? † in a series of questions asked by The Tampa Tribune (available at tampabayonline. net/final4/q&a. htm). It is a fact that college athletes generate millions of dollars of revenue for universities, but despite the question, there are very important facts that are overlooked when it comes to discussing this issue. As I stated earlier, it is fact that college athletic programs produce a large sum of money. This money usually comes through television rights fees, bowl games, ticket sales and other means. In light of these facts, many believe that student athletes deserve more than just a scholarship or grant for their efforts. These facts could bring one to conclusion that the financial arrangements between universities and student-athletes are unfairly balanced in the favor of the college institutions. There are many hidden facts that explain the impossibilities to pay our student athletes. At Notre Dame, for example, grants-in-aid to student-athletes are worth about $5 million a annually. Add that to the millions of dollars spent on travel, housing, equipment, health care and several other cost and pretty soon, you are talking about big time money. So, while athletes generate millions of dollars for universities, there are also millions of dollars in expenses, most of which directly assist the student-athletes. Even at smaller colleges that do not generate as much money as the universities, the money generated through the sporting events usually invested in equipment and other necessities for the student-athletes. In other words, it is a two-way street, college athletes are well compensated, in other words well paid already. Without college most of America†s young athletes wouldn†t even get the exposure needed to make an impression on for the professional leagues. The system has been around and working for many years now, the thought of changing the rules to enable college athletes to be paid seems to me as a total act of greed. As stated by Mark ([email  protected] net) in an article found at www. mhoops. com: â€Å"the whole stinking show is rift of greed in my opinion. It is a fact that CBS forks over $3 billion, this is proof (in their minds) that they don†t need to change anything. I feel that if this money were cut, they would change things as quickly as possible. I see athletes being paid in college as a disadvantage, not only to the less wealthy schools who wouldn†t be able to afford the better players, but to the student/athletes as well. I feel that the colleges with the most money, and the wealthiest alumni†s will always have the very best teams in college sports if this happens, this will leave the less wealthy colleges with the bottom of the barrel players. How could you expect the less wealthy schools to ever win? How fair could this rule transition be? Paying players to attend a school is cheating them of the education they would have gotten better at another school to give them a better chance at winning a game of football, basketball, or what ever kind of sport they play. Sports are not promising, any athlete could have a career ending injury at anytime; however, the education they receive will always be able to open doors for them. Another reason why I feel that college athletes shouldn†t be paid is because it is too expensive. Many colleges are not on the best budget. Some barely make enough money to support their team sports. CBS college basketball analyst Bill Packer, in the same Tampa Tribune question series listed above states: â€Å"It†s a moot question (Should college athletes be paid? ). Under Title IX, what colleges do for one sport it has to do for all. Because of that, the funds aren†t available to pay students from each of a school†s athletic programs. Paying [basketball players] is thrown out a lot in discussion, but if people understood the process of Title IX, they would realize paying players would be an impossibility. This is something easily understandable, if colleges could afford this kind of money then they should be able to afford more and better scholarships. College is a place for education. Many people look at the money generated by college sports and start to imply that the athletes bringing this money in should benefit from it. These same people never seem to see that the college athletes already are. If these students were never given scholarships to attend these colleges then they probably wouldn†t be there. The same athletes you see playing the many different sports they play in college, would more than likely be playing these same sports back home in the neighborhood just for fun if they weren†t attending college. This makes you wonder: â€Å"why can†t they play sports in college without being paid? † there isn†t much of a difference. The opportunity to get an education should be enough, too many people get caught up in the money though. The world of sports has changed enormously because of greed. Professionalism is the level when athletes get paid. Paying college players would completely eliminate amateurism. That would make college players professional, but professionals are supposed to be the best of the best, the cream of the crop and all college athletes are not amongst the best: â€Å"so why should they be paid? † Under the article of Title IX, paying one player means paying them all, and paying one sport means paying all sports in an institution, since all collegiate athletes aren†t the best players it seems to be a waist of money. The idea of paying college athletes is very demeaning. Since it is a known fact that many athletes do not go to class, and stay involved in many mix-ups, the idea would only bring forth more comodity. I think paying college athletes would bring in more students who have no purpose in college besides playing sports. This would also affect the population at many schools. I also feel that this would be asking for more incidents and to occur. As many athletes get involved in violations at universities with partying, drinking, and drugs, one would think that these rates would rise with several students who have no intentions on becoming educated on campus. This matter could be stereotypical, but at the same time it is a fact that several athletes drop out, flunk out, or are kicked out of school. My position is to keep them out, and not paying college athletes is one of the major ways to do so. If college athletes begin to get paid everyone will want to attend and for many that would be the only reason. This is not what college is designed for. College is a task, an opportunity, not a job, but it will prepare you for one in the future, if you prove yourself there then you will be paid. The principle is that the only way to eliminate this question would be to pay the college athletes, but that would produce a great decline in the population of education. To perform a task such as; colleges would have to drop all â€Å"scholarship† college sports and allow colleges either to run Division III programs or own minor league teams where the players are paid (under some salary cap) but they wouldn†t need to be college students. That would bring forth the problem of distinguishing: getting the best students in a college and getting the best players. . I think that would take away from our society and economics, leaving us with fewer professionals. College athletes should not be paid, this would eliminate the sole purpose of attending college. Who would attend class.

All Pro Workout Faq

BASIC POINTS THAT PEOPLE KEEP MISSING: The program uses STIFF LEG DEAD LIFTS! It does not use dead lifts! There are TWO warm-up sets and TWO work sets making FOUR sets per exercise in total! You will start with EIGHT reps of your ten rep max weight! Not ten. This program splits gains between strength and size. You increase the reps every week, you do not increase the weights until completing a 5 week cycle. STARTING WEIGHT What weight should I start with? The correct starting weight is about a 10 rep max (75% of your 1 rep maximum).If that happens to be 150 pounds then the first set would be 35 pounds and the second set would be 75 pounds. Then 2 work sets at 150 pounds. WHEN IN DOUBT START LIGHT! Do I use the same weight for every exercise? NO! Each exercise will be different. REPLACEMENT EXERCISES (These should ONLY to be used if an injury prevents you doing one of the recommended ones! ) Squat: You can sub leg presses or dumbbell squats but they suck compared to what barbell squat s can do. Doing squats even with a very low weight is preferable to any other exercise. Bench Press: ?Overhead Press: Tricep press and standing rows. SLDL: Weighted hyper extensions and hamstring curls. . GENERAL WORKOUT QUESTIONS I’m very weak. Would it be wise to build some strength before doing this program? Nope. This program was designed with YOU in mind. Does this program optimise strength gains? This program will split the gains between size and strength. For more strength or if you’re training for power for a sport I'd use Bill Starr's 5Ãâ€"5. Do I do all 7 exercises every day or split them up into 3 days? You do all 7 exercises 3 times per weekCan I change the order of the exercises? The first four exercises should be done in the order I listed them. Do all of the squats then all of the bench presses and so forth. I didn't put it together to be supersetted or run in a circuit. I could have but then it wouldn't be a ‘SIMPLE' beginners program. If I'm sti ll sore, do I need to wait another day to work out? No, in fact after the medium work out you'll feel better and after the light work out you'll feel better still. Can an increase the number of reps if I get the desired number rather than wait until the next week? No!The reason for the â€Å"easy† weeks will become apparent when you repeat the cycle. It has a built in deload. By increasing the reps sooner you will stall sooner. That means your gains will be cut short because you'll have to deload to get out of it. Can I use regular deadlifts instead of stiff-leg deadlifts? DO NOT USE REGULAR DEAD LIFTS WITH THIS PROGRAM! The combination of heavy dead lifts and heavy squats in the same work out is a recipe for disaster. The stiff leg dead lifts are there to work lower back and ham strings with 1 exercise rather than splitting them up and adding more volume to the work out.How long should I take between sets? You need to rest for a minute and a half between the work sets. It ta kes about 3 minutes for ATP levels to be restored to 100%. In about 2 minutes they're at about 90%. This program is using a combination of ATP and glycogen as a fuel source that's why I choose the 1:30 rest. My usual routine is to do my first warm up set, change the weight and rest 30 seconds. I'll do my second warm up set, change the weight and rest 1 minute. Do the first work set and for this program rest a minute and a half. Can I add other exercises in at the end of my workout?Try the workout as it is first. Give it a chance. But you may add ONE set of pull overs or stiff armed pull downs or pull ups/chin ups. Follow the rep scheme and the heavy, medium, light set up. If that seems to be working well after a 5 week cycle then add the second set. Why can’t I just do 3 heavy workouts in a week instead of heavy, medium and light? Without the heavy, medium, light set-up you will peak out sooner and stall sooner. Google dual factor programming and you'll understand better. Suf fice it to say that with insufficient rest and recovery the program will stall.I couldn't squeeze out all of my reps for curls on the last week. Does that mean I have to keep the weight for every exercise the same for my next cycle? No! Add weight to every exercise that you pass. In the above exercise, everything would move forward but the curls. How long should I keep doing this work out? Simply keep going until you stop progressing with it. Do I need to do the warm-ups? You need the warm up sets for squats, bench press, military press and bent over rows. Warm ups for the other three are recommended but can be cut to save time.CARDIO AND ABS How much cardio should I do? With a 3 times per week full body program you won’t need more than 2 hours of cardio total for the week. If you want to bulk then do much less. Break it up however you want but don't do it before weight training. Do it on off days or after weight training. When should I do cardio? Do it on off days or after w eight training. What sort of cardio should I do? I use HIIT. High intensity interval training. That's just a series of all out sprints and mobility drills. I use a 40 minute, 30 minute and 20 minute set up.The problem with slow cardio is that you are encouraging the fast and medium fibres that you are weight training to convert to a slower type. It can be vary frustrating if that happens. What ab work should I do? It's a matter of what kind of equipment you have and what you respond to. Pull overs, pull downs and knee ups work for me. Crunches, even weighted crunches weren't as effective for me. Typically I use 1 set of 10-20 reps. In other words I use a periodized set up for them also. So starting from work out 1, 10, work out 2, 15, work out 3, 20. Add weight if I can get them all.Usually just 5 pounds. Or repeat the cycle if I can't get them all. Some people need more volume then what I use but I would start with 1 set and do them last or on off days. USING DUMBELLS Can you use d umbbells instead? If you have adjustable dumbbells so that you can get the correct weight then that's fine. The only problem with dumb bells happens when you can't adjust the weight or when you don't have 1 1/4 pound plates. Except for squats. Dumbbells won’t work well with squats because your grip will give out when you progress to heavier weights. Can I do seated shoulder press instead?If possible you should do it standing. In the case of a low ceiling or your gym not allowing it then doing it seated is fine. DIET AND SUPPLEMENTS What supplements should I use? Don't waste a small fortune on magic beans. Get a good diet plan set up and add fish oil, multi mineral/ multi vitamin, creatine and a simple, basic protein powder. Start with simple basic stuff and add things as you go being careful to keep track of what's working for you and what isn't. Should I use protein shakes? Protein shakes are a quick, convenient source of nutrition and you know exactly what you're getting.Th ey are NOT required but I would highly recommend using them post work out. 40 grams of protein and 40 grams of carbs within an hour of completing the work out. Is this routine suitable for cutting? Yes! It works well on a cut because it's self correcting. If you lose too much strength during the cut the worst that happens is that you have to repeat the cycle a time or 2 with the same weight. How much should I eat? This depends on your goals. Total calories: To gain weight: multiply body weight in lbs by 20 To maintain weight: body weight x 15 To lose weight: body weight x 10E. g. if you weigh 200lbs you should aim for 3000 calories per day to maintain that weight. 40% protein, 40% carbohydrate, 20% fat Will this routine work at all for someone training a number of years? It isn't that it won’t work at all†¦ because it will. But the rate of progression would have to be slowed down. After a while you won’t be able to increase by 10% every 5 weeks. At the very least you'd have to reduce that to 5% and drop it to twice per week with 2 heavy work outs. Your recovery doesn't improve as fast as your ability to do damage.

Salamander Surgery Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Salamander Surgery - Essay Example Utilitarian philosophy upholds the principle of equal consideration of interests such that all things being equal utmost consideration should be given to that which would bring the most happiness and benefit and would cause less pain and suffering. This assumes that creatures of equal characteristics should be given equal consideration. Australian philosopher Professor Peter Singer in 1975 in a landmark article "All Animals are Equal" (475) argues that discriminating against animals as different from humans is nothing different from racism and sexism. There is a lack of consideration for others who may be different in some aspects but are similar in some. He calls this "speciesism", originally quoting Dr. Richard Ryder, referring to the attitude of bias towards the interest of members of one's own species and against those members other species. Citing Jeremy Bentham, founder of the reforming utilitarian school of moral philosophy, Singer contends that the capacity for suffering and enjoyment forms the basis for equal consideration of humans and animals. ... If racists violates the principle of equality by their prejudice against those of other races, and a sexist violates this same principle by favoring the interests of the members of the same sex, similarly speciesists, without considering that both animals and humans are capable of experiencing pain and suffering, allows the exploitation of other species for their own species' benefit. However, the utilitarian perspective may also be used to justify the use of animals in research to some extent. This opinion considers the benefit of animal research in the scientific field over the cost imposed on animals. Ironically as opposed to anti-speciesist stance of Singer, it is the significant differences between humans and animals such as higher cognition and language ability that forms the basis of this justification. Critics of this variation of utilitarian view maintain that it is unjust to justify animal research with that argument as it supposes that animals are willing participants in research oblivious of the real costs of their involvement (Kimmel, 251). The Rights Argument The main argument against the use of animals in research as articulated by Tom Regan in his article "The Case for Animal Rights" (1985) is that all beings "equally" share an "inherent value" as living creatures. Recognition of this inherent value as individuals can lead to recognition of animals of their right to be treated with respect and not inflicted with any pain or anguish. Regan as a self confessed animal rights advocate calls for the following goals (481): The total abolition of the use of animals in science; The total dissolution of commercial animal agriculture; The total elimination of commercial and sport hunting and trapping; Regan attacks the

Nitric Oxide Production in Cytokine Activated Macrophages Lab Report

Nitric Oxide Production in Cytokine Activated Macrophages - Lab Report Example Apoptosis plays an important role in maintaining homeostasis in a number of physiological systems. NO can cause apoptosis to be induced in various cells including immune cells and tumor cells. Excessive and prolonged production of NO can trigger secondary damage of normal tissues. Therefore, the NO-secreting and activate macrophages needs to die or revert back to a resting state in order to prevent damaging of normal tissues (Tsujimoto, & Shimizu, 2005). Activation – induced apoptosis is the mechanism involving the removal of immunologically stimulated cells to help limit injury of normal tissues and to promote immunologic tolerance. IL-2, one of the major cytokine, which is secreted from an activated lymphocyte during inflammatory or immune responses, can trigger various immune cells such as macrophages and lymphocytes to produce a plethora of cytokines including TNF-ÃŽ ², TNF-ÃŽ ±, IL-1ÃŽ ², IL-6, and IL-1ÃŽ ±. (Tsujimoto, & Shimizu, 2005). These cytokines can potentially in duce responding cells for instance macrophages to synthesize and produce high NO nitrite levels from l-arginine through the action of the enzyme called inducible nitric oxide synthase. In this study, the focus was ascertaining the impact of the cytokines on the rate of synthesis and production of NO from macrophages (Hu, & Brindle, 2005). In relating the optical density to the levels of nitrite, volumes of standardized sodium nitrite solution 50Â µg/ml) was added to culture medium. It was observed that increase in the volume of Volume of 50Â µg/ml standard added to 0.5ml culture medium caused a corresponding increase in Optical density (OD) as depicted in table 01 and graph 01. The results of this experiment indicate that cytokines have an impact on the production of NO by macrophages. The higher the number of cytokines used the higher the Optical density values hence the higher production of NO. The value for OD was lowest (OD=0.057)

Challenges of International Banks Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Challenges of International Banks - Essay Example Banks have been in competition and have been making efforts to become larger either by organic growth or by mergers and acquisitions and international banking have largely become associated with thinking big with an Economist survey analyzing how size of banks matter although banks go through various structural and functional changes and with their shifting shapes and sizes, the volatility of banks may be a factor in winning markets and market share (Economist, 2006). Ten commercial banks in America control 49% of the country's banking assets and mergers have been the buzz word in the US with removal of barriers between banks and insurance companies. Using strategy as the relevant point of discussion here, I will suggest how strategy focused on matching an organization's assets and capabilities with the external relationships and environment. Here the course models from B820 and concepts could be used to show how by placing strategy at the centre of analysis a clear relationship coul d be drawn between banks/financial organisations and the external environment. The questions of size and ownership have been taken by the Economist survey to suggest that big banks tend to get bigger with mergers, acquisitions and organic growth. However it is worthwhile to ask what are the limitations to this process, and big banks tend to have bigger shares in the market and commercial banking around the world remain preoccupied with matters of size and ownership. The Economist article referred here asks whether the future bank is expected to be ten times bigger than HSBC or the Citibank. However some of the recent bank mergers in the financial environment have destroyed shareholder value and usually the medium sized banks are prized highly by stock markets. Procurement, systems, operations, research and marketing are some of the areas on which the banking industry seems to depend on (Economist, 2006). However when diseconomies of scale creep in, there are also concealed risks and failure of internal controls, however related lines of business can create opp ortunities for each other. Usually banking companies are affected by external environment to the extent that the global economy calls for merger and acquisitions to help the bank gain a larger size in the market. This all relate to the B820 models and theories studied. Survival and prosperity depend on the solutions to questions such as: which products or services to offer; whether to pursue single or multiple lines of business; which markets or clients to aim for; whether to limit activities to local markets or expand internationally; how to acquire appropriate technologies, knowledge, finance and human resources; and which skills and capabilities to develop that will be relevant to your competitive strengths now and in the

Strategy For Successful Incorporation of New Believers Into the Church Essay

Strategy For Successful Incorporation of New Believers Into the Church - Essay Example The researcher of this essay discusses a strategy, that s needed in order to ensure that more and more Christians become part of the Church and live a more integrated life within the congregation. Firstly, it is important to develop a practical strategy which can attract more Christians towards the Church. Any strategy to include more members in the Church must be Church centric in nature and should take care of enhancing the role of Church in the lives of those who enter for the first time. In order to further strengthen the relationship of Church with the new members, it is critical to introduce and develop new friendship opportunities. By increasing the number of close friends of the new members, church can actually increase the stay of the members with the Church. It is also important to understand new groups will be started within the Church to address to the different concerns of the new members. These groups will be actually responsible for ensuring that all the concerns of th e new members are taken care of and members are further facilitated to improve their knowledge about the Church. In order to increase the number of new members within the Church, it is important to redefine the roles and responsibilities of the existing members. The researcher also describes these new roles and responsibilities. However, the researcher also concluds that it should be target oriented and will be responsible for ensuring that the objective of increasing the incorporation of new members is increased.

Toyota Strategic Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Toyota Strategic Management - Essay Example By delivering quality products to customers, the company is able to increase loyalty of the customers towards the brand and this is one of the reasons why the company has large number of satisfied customers around the world (Berger, 2011). Adoption of Innovative strategies and new technology Toyota focuses on innovations and bringing in new technologies to cater customers’ rising needs and to meet customers’ demands (Ghemawat, 2007). Company has analyzed the need of hybrid-cars in United States; therefore coming up with those cars was strategic choice as it has increased customer loyalty and increasing customer value. More focus on HR than before Toyota’s focus on human resource than before has achieved them to come up with more innovative products. Toyota believes in kaizen (continuous learning) has enabled its employees to be more productive than ever before. Toyota takes its employees as an ultimate source to value generation and long-term profit. The company analyzes how important the idea of career development is for employees and makes sure that employees do believe that they have a successful career at Toyota (Latham, Winters, and Locke, 1994). The company also invests in its human resource by providing different kinds of trainings to improve their productivity and this has allowed the company to achieve lower cost in comparison to competing firms like Honda. So Toyota’s more focus to HR has enabled it stay competitive for long-run Honda (Berger, 2011). Optimizing cost by kaizen (High quality with an affordable price, niche) Toyota’s decision to focus on the niche who demands for low priced quality cars and to cater the needs of this segment the Toyota team has come up with high quality automobiles with an affordable price (Steger, 2009). With the Kaizen strategy followed and implemented well at Toyota, the company has been able to manufacture automobiles at a lower cost than other firms including Honda (Berger, 2011). Firm’s decision to focus on CSR Toyota has decided to be more environmental friendly by fulfilling social corporate responsibilities which has allowed them to increase their brand’s image in the eyes of customers and other stake holders. This has helped them to increase their customer base and to meet all environmental obligations (Kotler, Wong, Saunders, and Armstrong, 2005). categorize these choices using Porter's four generic strategies Cost focus Toyota’s focus on training and development to increase skills and abilities of its employees has increased their productivity and reduced damages in the work environment which has allowed Toyota to be more cost-effective. This ensures the adoption of cost focus Porter’s generic strategy by Toyota. Differentiation strategy Toyota’s continuous research to bring in timely innovations to cater customer’s rising needs and desires has allowed them to create a point of difference among other automobile manufactures. This shows implementation of differentiation strategy to increase long-run profits. Market segmentation Toyota has adopted market segmentation strategy by segmenting its target market on the basis of customers’ needs and affordability. SWOT Perspective Well above discussed Porter’s generic strategies have enabled the company to convert its many weaknesses such as cost optimization to its biggest strength, well the above adopted strategies has allowed the Toyota to

English Only Movement in New York State Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

English Only Movement in New York State - Essay Example Senate voted on two separate amendments to make English the national language and to make it the common unifying language of the country. U.S. English, an advocate group for "Official English" summarizes their belief that "the passage of English as the official language will help to expand opportunities for immigrants to learn and speak English, the single greatest empowering tool that immigrants must have to succeed". Even though many states in the United states have passed legislations stating english as official language, New york does not seem to have one yet. Thus, it can be seen that there are several advocates of this movement. However, there are several ill-effects of this on the education of language minority students, besides others. In this essay, we will first examine the ideologies underlying the English-Only movement, then review the consequences of it on the education in New York. The advisability of legislation mandating an official language policy is hardly a new issue, but one that has been debated throughout the history of the United States. Crawford (1992) in his book, Language Loyalties, summarizes the opposing views on this topic, as follows: "For supporters, the case is obvious: English has always been our common language, a means of resolving conflicts in a nation of diverse racial, ethnic, and religious groups. The Reaffirming the preeminence of English means reaffirming of a unifying force in American life. Moreover, English is an essential tool of social mobility and economic advancement. The English Language Amendment would "send a message" to immigrants, encouraging them to join in rather than remain apart, and to government, cautioning against policies which could retard English acquisition. For opponents, Official English is synonymous with English-Only: a mean-spirited attempt to coerce Anglo-conformity by terminating essential services in other languages. The amendment poses a threat to civil rights, educational opportunities and free speech, even in the private sector. It is an insult to the heritage of cultural minorities, including groups whose roots in this country go deeper than English speakers Mexican A mericans, Puerto Ricans, and American Indians. Worst of all, the English-Only movement serves to justify racist and nativity biases under the cover of American patriotism". THE SCENARIO OF EDUCATION IN NEW YORK By the year 2010, over thirty percent of all school-age children will come from homes in which the primary language is not English. Though we tend to think of immigrants settling in primarily urban areas, large numbers of recently arrived families live in rural and suburban communities. In New York City alone, there are more than one hundred languages represented in public school classrooms. The same phenomenon is the norm in many areas of the country. In Rochester, Minnesota schools serve students speaking over 60 different languages. Some of the most common languages spoken by students in these classrooms include Spanish, Korean, Cantonese, Mandarin, and other dialects of Chinese, Haitian-Creole, and Russian. The educational predicament of students of limited English proficiency has been a focus of policymakers and the courts for almost 30 years. According to federal law, and under many state laws, if students cannot participate meaningfully and

Black Feminism and The Beyonce Wars Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Black Feminism and The Beyonce Wars - Essay Example The first article ‘Ugly Internal Clash: Why Its Future Is Not Up To White Women’ talks about feminism especially for black women and how they can form a gender inclusive group to deal with racism, sexual harassment, and work discrimination against women. The article provides a name that helps women to describe the issues they go through during discrimination Brittney (Cooper 2015). Feminism is the name, and it helps many women to discuss their issues without language challenges. Black women use the internet feminism to air their troubles and discuss the discrimination that they experience. The women also express their power through it phenomena that make the white women extremely uncomfortable. The writers opinion is that the future of feminism should not be left with the white women as most of the issues center around gender equality. For white women, equality was achieved a long time ago, but for the black women, it is still a big issue. Most of the black women in the US do not fully access some of the benefits, such as the Obamacare in some states (Cooper 2015). Understanding feminist and black women oppression will help women fight for their rights in foreign countries, such s the United States. The second article ‘Black Feminist Blogger Speaks The Truth by Goldstein, Rich talks about how important issues contributed by black women in the media get ignored by many readers and viewers. The writer focuses on blogs on issues of life for black women instead of focusing on wealthy and glamorous women in power (Goldstein 2015). According to the blog, there are many interesting things about black women, such as their unique talents, although there are few people who recognize them. Racism is real and classifies women according to their place of origin, and the blog help many to have some attention on racism, sexism, and ableism. The writer admires the work of Beyonce for focusing on feminism, especially the one touching on black women. Black women

Managing and leading people 01 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

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The Tempest - William Shakespeare Essay Essay Example for Free

The Tempest William Shakespeare Essay Essay Although William Shakespeare’s The Tempest is often categorized as his late romance, its plots reflect the major social movement of that time—the Europeans settling in the New World. As the Europeans eagerly set out to find the New World, they left behind hopeful citizens pondering over what they would find. In The Tempest, through the characters, we can infer that the Europeans’ intentions ranged from creating the perfect government to interacting with the inhabitants. They discovered that their idea of the perfect government in which everyone is equal failed to exist. Nonetheless, they were correct in their anticipation that the New World would already be settled—by savage ‘Native Americans’. They eventually integrated the Native Americans into their society as slaves. In their journey to the New World, the Europeans failed to establish an ideal government, yet succeeded in incorporating the natives into their own society. One of the Europeans’ expectations of the New World was a perfect government in which everyone would be equal. In The Tempest, Shakespeare’s character Gonzalo describes it as a government where there would be â€Å"no occupation; all men idle, all;/And women too, but innocent and pure;/No sovereignty. † (II. 1, ll. 154-156) Even as his comrades ridiculed him, he is steadfast in his belief, and simply labels them as â€Å"gentlemen of brave mettle. † (II. 1, l. 181). This would seem like the ideal government, and would work in theory. In European society in the early seventeenth century, much emphasis was placed on class. The lower class faced many restrictions, and many citizens were infuriated with the class system. To the lower class, the hope of a perfect government in which everyone was equal was ideal. Another one of their hopes was that the natives, although barbaric, would be of great use to them when they first settled. They hoped to incorporate the Native Americans into their own society. In The Tempest, Caliban, the original native of the island, originally greeted Prospero with respect: â€Å"When thou cam’st first,/Thou strok’st me and made much of me†¦then I loved thee/And showed thee all the qualities o’ th’ isle,/The fresh springs, brine pits, barren place and fertile. † (I. 2, ll. 333-338) When Prospero first came to the island, Caliban went through the trouble of finding him the best food and water sources. Because of Caliban’s kindness, this shows that the Europeans believed that the Native Americans would be easy to manipulate, and thus, easy to control. They hoped to be in command of the Native Americans so that the task of controlling North America would be easier. To gradually incorporate the natives into their own society as slaves was one of the hopes of the Europeans. However, their hopes and predetermined ideas were found to be inaccurate. The reality was that the utopian government that the Europeans dreamed about did not exist. In fact, Gonzalo’s government was impractical. There would always be conflict, and if everyone was equal, they would feel equally poor. This would call for a sovereign, which would defeat the purpose of everyone being equal. Hierarchy will always exist simply because it is human nature to strive for the best. For example, in The New World, this was reflected in the colony of Jamestown. There was always a captain in charge. A chain of order was important in order to prevent chaos in times of distress. Conversely, one of their expectations became a reality. They believed that the natives would be savages. The Europeans looked down upon the Native Americans because they appeared in many ways to be subhuman. This was due to non-Christianity, a primitive dress style, and a sense of filth: â€Å"Their hair is usually black, but few have any beards. The men wear half their heads shaven, the other half long†¦some are of disposition fearful, some bold, most wary. All Savage†¦For their apparel, they are some time covered with the skins of wild [beasts]†¦There is yet in Virginia no place discovered to be so Savage in which Savages have not a religion†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The Europeans viewed the Native Americans as inferior beings. At first, the Native Americans were inclined to incorporate the Europeans as an intermediary: â€Å"Americans sought to incorporate the newcomers into their universe. † (Kupperman 175) They also concluded that the Europeans would be of great use to trade with. As time progressed, both the Native Americans and the Europeans strived to merge the other into their own hierarchy. (Kupperman 174) However, this attempt at incorporating the other soon proved to be futile. In The Tempest, Caliban is always plotting to overthrow Prospero (conversation with Trinculo and Stephano). This is paralleled in the Europeans’ constant, underlying worry that the natives would revolt against them: â€Å"Both the Roanoke and Jamestown  colonists reported that conspiracies against them were planned. † (Kupperman 175) The Native Americans knew their territory, and gradually developed tactics to fend off attackers. The Native Americans were highly skilled warriors, yet lacked the technology that the Europeans had. (Barbour) In addition, the Europeans had resistance to disease that overwhelmed the Native Americans. Eventually, the Europeans managed to seize power in their settlements, and incorporated the Native Americans into their civilization as slaves. Although the Europeans failed to establish a utopian government, their efforts to merge the Native Americans into their society were successful. Their ideal failed to exist simply because of human nature. Nonetheless, they integrated the Native Americans into their society as slaves. Albeit unconventional, the expectations of the Europeans were portrayed to some degree. Through The Tempest, the Europeans’ hope of establishing an model government did not become a reality, yet they managed to incorporate the natives.

Eid vs Christmas Essay Example for Free

Eid vs Christmas Essay In the building with the blue windows and the diamond shaped roof tops, children dressed in red and green with rosy cheeks, were gaily singing: â€Å"Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way! Oh what fun it is to ride in a one more hoppin’ slay! Hey! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! † In the building across the street, with the pink windows and the mosque behind it, families were visiting each other in their newly bought clothes and shining shoes, wishing each other: Eid Mubarak, Dear Brother, Dear Sister May Allah’s blessings be bestowed upon you and your family! † The year 2008 is host to Christmas and Eid al Adha during the same month, only a few days apart. One would notice that decorations and celebrations favour one of the Religious Holidays over the other. Why have we chosen to commercialise Christmas and not the Islamic event of Eid? How is it that worldwide Christmas is rejoiced at an extreme point of merriment, whereas Eid al Adha is commemorated only within its Islamic communities? The historical references of the birth of Christ (As) and the sacrifice of Ibrahim(As) and his son are known within both religions and are testimonies of social gatherings. Actually, in our Islamic religion we learn that Ibrahim (As) would sacrifice his son Ismael (As) in Makah, while among the Christians, they believe that Ibrahim (As) would sacrifice his son Isaac (As), not Ismael (As), in Palestine. Artists painted the scenes, poets rhymed the stories, authors researched the history, all in tribute to the religious aspect of the culture of their upbringings. So, why is Christmas the prize of the globalization of the market, and not Eid al Adha? Why is Christmas more widely accepted as a commercial Holiday and not Eid? Throughout history, religion has been a battleground for the survival of cultures and traditions. Territory was fought for based on religion, international communications broke down because of different convictions. Yet, the holidays seem to unite even people who are the farthest apart. Thanksgiving, Easter, Ramadan, Eid al Fitr, Eid al Adha and Christmas are celebrations that should be known worldwide; and for the most part they are. In the United States and Canada they honour Thanksgiving, also most westren countries have Easter and Christmas holidays; the Orient celebrate with some of these holidays. However, come Ramadan or Eid, and only the immediate Islamic based countries, like the Middle East and the South-Asian countries, know the details of the holiday. Abu Dhabi is an example of a multi-tradition and multi-cultural city. Every year, Ramadan is noticed and felt all over the city, even its peripheries. Usually, both Eids are just as important as Ramadan is. Nonetheless, this year, because Christmas and Eid al Adha are so close to each other, the shopping malls, hotels and other retail outlets are decorated with the spirit of Christmas and not the joy of Eid al Adha. The controversy is that this is an Islamic country, yet the atmosphere feels very occidental. There are Islamic countries that allow a one-day or two-day holiday scheme for Christmas, whereas Western countries don’t instigate the notion of respecting the religion of others in their society. This demonstrates the respect Islamic based governments have towards their inhabitants, what does it say about the Occident? The Islamic goverments does no justice to the foundation of its roots. It is quite disappointing when the nation’s leaders are not intervening and stating that Eid is as important as Christmas; maybe even more so! This is a country whose laws and government regulations are born from the Quran itself. True, Jesus’ (As) birth is a belief amongst Muslims, but so is the sacrificial symbol of the Adha a belief amongst the Christians and other religions in the world. Why can’t all cultures adopt the Islamic tradition of gifting children with new clothes and taking them out to restaurants and amusement parks? The government does not encourage Eid as much as it allows public places to be enveloped in Christmas decorations. In France, the Arab communities hold visitations and share in Islamic customs within their brotherhood, whilst around them Christmas carols are sung and the city is embellished in tinsel and goblins, awaiting the arrival of â€Å"Santa Claus†, or in their terms â€Å"Pere Noel. In Dubai, much like Abu Dhabi, hotels and restaurants have special Christmas luncheons. Shops and Malls give away special offers during the ‘Festive Season’. There is yet to be established an Eid theme blanketing the cities where Islam is the religion of base, like that of Christmas. What is even more upsetting is that Christmas is in itself less religious and more commercial than it was 500 years ago. Christmas has a face, a fi gure one can imagine when thinking of the Holiday: a jolly man, with a red suit and a white beard. He did not always look like this. â€Å"Santa Claus† acquired his red suit and the big belly through a Coca Cola advertisement in 1931. His image changed, distorted almost, into what we know now as â€Å"Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas! † by many cartoonists. â€Å"Through the centuries, Santa Claus has been depicted as everything from a tall gaunt man to an elf. He has worn a bishops robe and a Norse huntsmans animal skin. The modern-day Santa Claus is a combination of a number of the stories from a variety of countries†*. (Coca-cola. om) Children stop believing in him at a very early age, whereas before, they would reach the age of maturity and only then learn that â€Å"Santa Claus† is a spirit of St. Nicholas. Eid al Adha, was, is and always will be the same. The story never changes. The facts are facts, not subject to individual interpretation. Families pass on the same heritage that remains untouched, untainted, unpenetrated by social reform. In conclusi on, I strongly believe that the injustice the Islamic governors does, the discrimination between religions should be educated to a halt. Eid al Adha is my upbringing. Within my family, an uncle has a Christian wife, their house is always decorated with Christmas twinkles during the season; this year, they waited with the decorations until after Eid al Adha. As a Muslim in an Islamic society, I have been brought up to respect all religions and beliefs by our Islamic governments; so why now can’t the Islamic governments respect their religion that they take oath to respect, protect, and maintain it?

Project Estimation Techniques in Software Engineering

Project Estimation Techniques in Software Engineering The four major parameters that control the software projects are time, requirements, resources people, infrastructure/materials and money, and risks. This is one of the reasons why making good estimates of these variables like time and resources required for a project is very critical. But if the estimation is lower than the project needs it will affect the progress of the project due to the lack of enough time, money, infrastructure/materials, or people. At the same time even if the estimation is over estimated then the company will have to face losses due to the extra expenses or even if the project is sanctioned other projects dont go on since there is less to go around. For any successful project management, estimation is a vital part of project methodology. Estimation has numerous applications like justification of project which has to be applied in the initial stages of the project where in we need to anticipate the benefits which is compared with the costs incurred as well as to decipher comparisons and conclusions that has to be made with technical and functional teams involved in the project. Also, estimation plays a vital role in project management to implement the disciplines required. Estimates help in sharing the resources required to complete the project deliverables successfully. Estimation process: Definition: Project estimation is a process of forecasting or approximating the project parameters like cost, time, effort etc., for a successful completion of the project deliverables [4]. Overview of the Estimation Process: The first point to be remembered about estimation is that it does not finish until the completion of project and is a process of a slow and gradual refinement. For many software projects a project manager can assist the team to create successful estimates by using sound techniques and understanding about what makes estimate more accurate. Staff required for a project estimation are taken from a pool of people who has some prior knowledge of the domain in which the new project is being developed. When we want to start a project we need to know basic parameters required in advance like how long it will take, how many people it will require, how much effort it will require. In such cases it is hard to estimate because in many cases projects overrun or project would go over budget. Always a good estimation practices keep the project on track. In many cases, project estimation can be classified into three categories, Expert opinion: Opinion from Qualified experts from within the organization or service partners is taken into account for estimation. Analogy: A database where tasks previously completed are stored is taken into account. The new project would be decomposed into components/tasks, and compared with the corresponding tasks in the database. Ratios: Whole project will be decomposed into Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), and estimating each component individually to produce an overall estimate. When to estimate: A rough estimate is needed at the initial stage of the project or probably even before the actual project starts. This is because, the final negotiations should be made with the customer, which needs the rough estimate of the cost, time and quality of the project. Also, Estimation is a process of gradual refinement [2]. It should be performed in parallel with the project development, in several phases. Each estimate will be refined to give a converged estimate towards the end of the project. Estimation should be carried out until the completion of project deliverables. There are basically two approaches for estimating project parameters [4]. They are: Top-down estimation approach Bottom-up estimation approach Top-down estimation approach: Top-down estimation approach is usually used at the initial stages of the project. This estimation is usually carried out by the top managers who have little knowledge of the processes involved in the completion of the project. The input to this estimation is either information or the experience of the manager carrying out the estimation. These top-down estimation methods are often used to evaluate the project proposal. In most cases, the best results can be achieved in estimation only when one used both top-down and bottom-up estimation methods. However, it is practically not possible to carry out bottom-up methods until the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) are clearly defined. In such cases, top-down estimates are used until the WBS becomes available. There are many methods in top-down approach listed below [4]: Consensus methods: This estimation method uses experience of a group of people to estimate the project parameters. This method involves project meetings, a place where these people can discuss, argue and finally come to a conclusion from their best guess estimate. The Delphi method comes under this category. Ratio methods: These estimation methods use ratios to estimate project times and costs. For example, in a construction work, the total cost of the project can be estimated by knowing the number of square feet. Likewise, a software project is estimated by its complexity and its features. Approximation methods: This estimation method is very useful when the project to be estimated is closely related to any of the previous projects in terms of its features and costs. By using the historical data of the estimates, good estimates can be approximated with very little effort. Function point methods: Many software projects are usually estimated using weighted macro variables called function points. Function points can be number of inputs, number of outputs, number of inquiries, number of data files, and number of interfaces. These function points are weighted again with a complexity level and summed up to get the total cost or duration estimates of the project. Bottom-up estimation approach: Top-down estimation approach can usually be put in practice once the project is defined or once there is some progress in the project. This means, this estimation is more into work package level, which are responsible for low-cost estimates and efficient methods. It is often recommended that this estimation is usually carried out by people most knowledgeable about the estimate needed. The cost, time, resource estimates from the work packages can be checked with the associated accounts to major deliverables. Also, these estimates in later stages can be consolidated into phased networks, resource schedules, and budgets that used for control. Additionally, customer will get an opportunity to compare the low-cost, efficient method with any imposed restrictions, using bottom-up approach [4]. There are many methods in top-down approach listed below [4]: Template methods: If the project to be estimated is similar to any of the past projects, then estimates of the past projects can be used as starting point estimates for the new project. This is similar to approximation estimation in top-down approach. Parametric procedures: These parametric procedures are same like ratio methods in top-down approach. However, here the parametric procedures are applied on specific tasks. Detailed estimates for WBS work packages: This is usually most reliable method of all estimation methods. The reason for this is that here the estimates are performed by people responsible for the work packages in Work Breakdown Structure. These people have prior knowledge or experience upon the tasks they perform specified in WBS, because of which the estimates are usually most reliable. In addition to the top-down and bottom-up approaches, there is another kind of estimating which is a hybrid of the above two approaches. This is called as Phase Estimating. When there is unusual amount of uncertainty is surrounded by the project, people go for phase estimating. In this approach, two-estimate system is used over the life-cycle of the project. The whole project is initially divided into phases. Then a detailed estimate is developed for the immediate phase, and a macro-estimate is mode for the remaining phases of the project. Difficulties in Estimation: There are two major cases where Estimation problems almost always boil down to estimates that are either too high or too low. Padded estimates, where the team members intentionally over estimates in order to give themselves extra time to work, are a chronic source of estimates that are too high. In such case, the project will take at least as long as it had been estimated even though it was originally overestimated. According to Parkinsons Law, Work expands to fill available time[1]. Other case arises when senior managers give unrealistic deadlines that are a chronic source of estimates that are too low. In such cases, the staff in the project development can burnout and produce low quality components. Also the credibility will be lost because, the deadlines would be missed. Both the cases can lead to morale problems. Estimation Tools: Software tools are very important for estimation. Estimation tools are the software packages implemented using any of the estimation methods as its algorithm, to make project managers life easy. These estimation tools help from skipping important tasks in a method. These tools are useful to organise, update and store the results of the estimates. Also, Estimation Tools are useful to [2]: Estimate project size using Function Points or other metrics. Derive effort and schedule from the project estimates using various algorithms and techniques. Perform analysis with staffing, duration etc. and appreciate how realistic they are. Produce and update results like Gantt charts and other tables easily. Maintain and exploit a database of historic data. Import data from other projects run in organisations with which you have no connection. However, one should very carefully select the estimation tools for a particular project. Principle: Required functional capabilities of estimation tools should match the needs and desired capabilities specific to the project. In selecting an estimation tool, one should match the available tools with the overall requirements of the project. In general, estimation tools should: Be very adaptive to any projects development environment, so that one can customize the tool according to the project needs. Be comparatively easy to understand, learn and use. Be able to produce some early project estimates without waiting for the whole project to be completely defined designed. Be able to provide estimates for different phases and activities in the project, if it is classified so. Understand and support wide range of languages and applications, as it is really important for a tool to provide estimates specific to the applications. Be able to provide accurate schedule estimates, whose purpose is not only to predict task completion given task sequence and available resources, but also to establish starting and ending dates for the associated work packages and life-cycle phases. Be able to provide maintenance estimates separately, which includes correcting errors, modifying the software to accommodate changes in requirements, and extending and enhancing software performance. Evaluation of the estimation tools: There are many tools in the market for project estimation. However, I am investigating a few and very efficient tools in the current market. PROBE: The name PROBE is derived from Proxy Based Estimating, introduced by Watts Humphrey (of the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University) [1]. Principle: If a component being built is similar to one built previously, then the effort it takes would be about the same as it did in the past. It mainly helps individual software engineers monitor, test, and improve their own work. Each component in the database is assigned a type (calculation, data, logic, etc.) and a size (from very small to very large). Also, a database is used to store history of size and effort details of these individual components. Later on, when a new project must be estimated, it is broken down into tasks that correspond to these types and sizes. A formula based on linear regression is used to calculate the estimate for each task [1]. COCOMO: The COCOMO is the most used estimation tool in the market for cost and schedule estimating. The COCOMO is derived from Constructive Cost Model, developed by Barry Boehm in the early 1980s [1]. Principle: The model developed empirically by running a study of many software development projects and statistically analyzing their results. There by developing a database of the analysed details. Boehm developed COCOMO empirically by running a study of 63 software development projects and statistically analyzing their results. COCOMO II was developed in the 1990s as an updated version for modern development life cycles, and it is based on a broader set of data [1]. The COCOMO calculation incorporates 15 cost drivers, variables that must be provided as input for a model that is based on the results of those studied projects. These variables cover software, computer, personnel, and project attributes. The output of the model is a set of size and effort estimates that can be developed into a project schedule [1]. The Planning Game: The Planning Game is the software project planning method from Extreme Programming (XP), a lightweight development methodology developed by Kent Beck in the 1990s at Chrysler [1]. It is a method used to manage the negotiation between the engineering team (Development) and the stakeholders (Business). It gains some emotional distance from the planning process by treating it as a game, where the playing pieces are user stories written on index cards and the goal is to assign value to stories and put them into production over time [1]. Unlike PROBE, COCOMO and Delphi, the Planning Game does not require a documented description of the scope of the project to be estimated [1]. Rather, it is a full planning process that combines estimation with identifying the scope of the project and the tasks required to complete the software. Like much of XP, the planning process is highly iterative. The scope is established by having Development and Business work together to interactively write the stories. Then, each story is given an estimate of 1, 2, or 3 weeks. Stories that are larger than that are split up into multiple iterations. Business is given an opportunity to steer the project between iterations. The estimates themselves are created by the programmers, based on the stories that are created. Finally, commitments are agreed upon. This is repeated until the next iteration of the project is planned. Critical analysis: In order to have the best estimates of a project, it is better to make some rough top-down estimates initially, develop the WBS, using which make bottom-up estimates, and develop schedules and estimates and finally, reconcile the differences between top-down and bottom-up approaches. Also for ideal results, the project manager should allow some time to carry out top-down and bottom-up estimates, there by reliable estimates can be offered to the customer. This will in turn reduce the false expectations for stakeholders. If we compare estimation approaches, there are some uses to use some approaches depending on the context of the estimation. Top-down approaches are preferable over bottom-up approaches in case of highly uncertain projects, whose scope is also unstable. Also, in case of internal and small projects, it is not worth spending lots of time and effort to go for bottom-top estimates. Therefore, in such cases, top-down approaches are preferable. Also, at the initial stages of the project when the decisions and negotiations should be made with the customer, top down is mandatory, due to lack of WBS to that particular project. However, in case of cost and time estimates are really important and plays vital role in the project development, one should go for bottom-up estimates. In case of fixed-price contracts and when the customer demands for exact details of the project development, one should go for bottom-up estimation methods, due to its highly reliable results. Also, Phase estimation approach is much useful in the projects, whose final nature (shape, size, features) is highly uncertain. However, both these methods largely depend on experts opinions. In case if the experts knowledge in a particular domain is insufficient to estimate, one should go for analytical estimation technique which is used in estimation tools like PROBE. In case of estimation tools, PROBE is useful to the early engineers who are in their learning stage. They can perform wide range of experiments and gain knowledge of the previous projects, thereby gaining the real-time experience in Estimation. However, COCOMO series of tools are more of professional kind because of its complex and wide range of applications. COCOMO is useful in many decision making situations including, all kinds of estimates, like cost, time, effort, maintenance. Also, using these estimates COCOMO can produce budgets and schedules. Conclusion: Project estimation plays a vital role in the planning of any project. Estimation of project cost, time, effort and quality act like input for project scheduling and budgeting. Therefore, the domain of the project to be developed should be initially studied carefully to make a decision in selecting the right methods and tools for a good project estimation. In this document, an investigation report on project estimation is explained in detail. Also, all types of estimation methods and estimation tools are critically evaluated and analysed. Therefore, this document could be helpful in the selection of good estimation methods and tools for successful project estimation, in order to make a good project planning for a successful project management.

Huckleberry Finn - Summary for chapters 1-10. :: English Literature

Huckleberry Finn - Summary for chapters 1-10. The book has just begun, but so far you have been introduced to quite a few characters. The most important being Huckleberry Finn of course. Huckleberry Finn now lives with the Widow, she took him in after he and Tom Sawyer found $6,000 a piece, to civilize him. Huckleberry prefers to be in rags though, and live outdoors. Huckleberry and everyone else where he lives are all very superstitious, they are also racist and have slaves so you know that it is set in a past time. Tom and Huckleberry made a gang with a few other boys from around the town. They were a gang of robbers and murders, although they never really did either. Huckleberrys' father was presumed dead, although Huckleberry knew that he wasn't dead at all. When Huckleberry's father Pap, came back to town and hears that Huckleberry is now rich, Huckleberry knows that his father will be coming for him soon, so Huckleberry gives the money to the man who was investing it all for him. Pap sure enough came for him though, and at first he took it to the courts to get Huckleberry back, and he did. Pap took Huckleberry out to the woods to a small wooden cabin, and at first Tom hated it, but after he began to get used to it, and didn't mind it so much after, he actually really liked it because he was back outside where he liked to be. He just didn't like to be out there with his father. One day when Pap went to town and locked Huckleberry in the cabin as he always did when he left, Huckleberry sawed his way out. Huckleberry stole all of the food and water, and the gun, and he killed a wild pig and put it's blood everywhere and he ripped out his own hair so it would appear that he was murdered. Huckleberry jumped in the canoe that he had hidden from his father in the trees, and started off down the river. He landed on a little island and hid his canoe again. There were lots of people looking for Huckleberry and he watched them as they searched from boats. They all looked very upset, because they all assumed him murdered. When Huckleberry was out exploring he saw Miss. Watson's slave Jim. He had left because Miss. Watson was going to sell him. Huckleberry was happy to have the company and so was Jim. They began to live together and stayed together all the time.

Fed and Interest Rates Essay example -- essays research papers

The Fed and Interest Rates Dave Pettit of The Wall Street Journal writes a daily column that appears inside the first page of the journal's Money & Investment section. If the headlines of Mr. Pettit's daily column are any accurate record of economic concerns and current issues in the business world, the late weeks of March and the early weeks of April in 1994 were intensely concerned with interest rates. To quote, "Industrials Edge Up 4.32 Points Amid Caution on Interest Rates," and "Industrials Track On 13.53 Points Despite Interest-Rate Concerns." Why such a concern with interest rates? A week before, in the last week of March, the Fed had pushed up the short-term rates. This being the first increase in almost five years, it caused quite a stir. When the Fed decides the economy is growing at too quick a pace, or inflation is getting out of hand, it can take actions to slow spending and decrease the money supply. This corresponding with the money equation MV = PY, by lowering both M and V, P and Y can stabilize if they are increasing too rapidly. The Fed does this by selling securities on the open market. This, in turn, reduces bank's reserves and forces the interest rate to rise so the banks can afford to make loans. People seeing these rises in rates will tend to sell their low interest assets, in order to acquire additional money, they tend move toward higher yielding accounts, also further increasing the rate. Soon this small change by the Fed affects all aspects of business, from the price level to interest rates on credit cards. Rises and falls in the interest rate can reflect many changes in an economy. When the economy is in a recession and needs a type of stimulus package, the Fed may attempt to decrease the interest rates to encourage growth and spending in the markets. This was the case from 1989 until last month, during which the nation's economy was generally considered to be in a slight to moderate recession. During this period the Fed tried to keep interest rates low to facilitate growth and spending in hard times. However, when inflation is increasing too quickly and the economy is gaining strength, the Fed will attempt to raise rates, as it did late last March. This can be considered a sign that we are pulling out of the r... ..."slight" increase as opposed to one of "somewhat greater" magnitude. This article is interesting because it shows that even the Fed can be uncertain about what is best for the economy, but it still focuses on the power of Allen Greenspan, as well as the committee as a whole. It compares the two arguments of each method, and shows a weakness in the Fed that may have been unknown to the reader before. The Wall Street Journal (Mon. April 11, 1994) - "Fed Moved Too Slow On Increasing Rates" This recent article criticizes the Fed's actions in raising the interest rate, and complains that the Fed has fallen behind in it's job. It discusses the plan for a "Neutral" policy and what the Fed has tried to do and not do to maintain this so called policy. It argues the motives and reasons for wanting a lower interest rate and compares past decades to today's standings. Overall it focuses deeply on the need to check inflation and if it is valid. It shows that the Fed tends to take a more conservative approach to the economy than some analysts would prefer, but that the Fed will probably continue to raise interest rates.

Human Memory Organization. :: essays research papers

Human Memory Organization. Human memory organization, from the outside, seems to be quite a difficult thing to analyse, and even more difficult to explain in black and white. This is because of one main reason, no two humans are the same, and from this it follows that no two brains are the same. However, after saying that, it must be true that everyone's memory works in roughly the same way, otherwise we would not be the race called humans. The way the memory is arranged, is probably the most important part of our bodies, as it is our memory that controls us. I think that it is reasonable to suggest that our memory is ordered in some way, and it is probably easy to think of it as three different sections : short term, medium term, and long term memory. Short Term :  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   This is where all of the perceptions we get come to. From the eyes, nose, ears, nerves etc. They come in at such a rate, that there needs to be a part of memory that is fast, and can sift through all of these signals, and then pass them down the line for use, or storage. Short term memory probably has no real capacity for storage. Medium Term :  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This is where all of the information from the short term memory comes to be processed. It analyses it, and then decides what to do with it (use it, or store it). Here also is where stored information is called to for processing when needed. This kind of memory has some kind of limited storage space, which is used when processing information, however the trade-off is that is slower than Short term memory. Long Term :  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Long term memory is the dumping ground for all of the used information. Here is where the Medium term memory puts, and takes it's information to and from. It has a large amount of space, but is relatively slow in comparison with the other kinds of memory, and the way that the memory is stored is dubious as we are all knows to forget things. There is quite a good analogy in Sommerfield (forth edition p24-p25). Short term memory is comparable to computers registers, medium term (Working memory) is like a volatile storage place for information, and long term memory is like hard disk storage. I think that this is quite a good way of describing our own memory hierarchy. It seems that when information is being processed, and then in turn stored, it is not being stored as raw information such as black, round etc.

Case Analysis: Michael Eisner has More Problems than He Can Face

Eisner's Mousetrap Disney's CEO says the company has a lot of varied problems he can fix. But what if the real issue is something he can't face? By Marc Gunther Reporter Associate Carol Vinzant September 6, 1999 FORTUNE Magazine) – Michael Eisner, the famously hands-on CEO of Walt Disney, is up to his old tricks. Last night he screened a rough cut of Dinosaurs, Disney's big animated movie for next summer; he loved the story but complained that some jokes were stale. Today he's holding a four-hour brainstorming session about Mickey Mouse, looking for ways to keep the 71-year-old rodent relevant. One idea: a skateboarding Mickey. ) Later, he'll watch Peter Jennings' newscast on Disney-owned ABC and surf the Internet to see how the company's Websites stack up. Is this any way to run the world's most troubled entertainment giant? After all, as Eisner sweats the details, earnings are dropping, top executives are defecting, and Disney stock is plunging like a ride down Splash Mounta in. â€Å"Maybe I'm crazy,† Eisner says, â€Å"but I don't consider this a crisis. I don't think our problems are in the fabric of our company. And I don't have my head in the sand. Sitting down for a two-hour interview, he admits mistakes. He says, for instance, that he should have settled former studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg's suit against the company earlier to avoid a â€Å"parade of horrors† (see box). And he concedes that the company has sustained real damage: â€Å"It's like a train wreck, only nobody got killed. † But Eisner denies that he has lost his touch. â€Å"The criticisms of me and Disney today,† says the 57-year-old chief executive, â€Å"are as shortsighted as were the praises of me and Disney in the high economic times. Sunday nights on ABC, Michael Eisner–celebrated CEO, business magazine cover boy, and author of his own life story–still hosts The Wonderful World of Disney. The rest of the week, life is not so sweet i n the Magic Kingdom. Certainly shareholders have reason to feel grumpy, with the stock trading at about 37% below last year's high. There's no quick fix in sight either. Tarzan, the $160 million summer blockbuster, won't have much impact on earnings; the movie cost too much to make and isn't selling enough T-shirts and toys because the market's glutted with Star Wars stuff. That's one of the scary things about today's Disney: The company has grown so big and its problems are so far-reaching–ranging from the phenomenon of â€Å"age compression† to the explosion of media choices–that they can't be fixed by a couple of hit movies or TV shows or more Disney stores. The other scary thing is this: Disney seems less able than ever to cope with adversity. That's because Eisner, for all his creativity and charisma and grand plans, presides over an insular–some say arrogant–corporate culture where decision-making is hierarchical, centralized, and slow. It's an utter mismatch for the Internet age. â€Å"This isn't Mickey's house anymore,† says a former Disney insider. â€Å"It's a multibillion-dollar company. † Eisner does have a plan. He is cutting costs and reengineering a company that got bloated with success. He's making overseas growth a top priority. He wants Disney to be an Internet giant, taking on Yahoo and America Online. And, yes, he'll keep on tweaking theme park rides and screening ABC pilots and driving subordinates up the wall with his meddling, because he fervently believes that if you demand high quality and develop synergy, financial results will follow. The interesting thing about our company,† Eisner says, â€Å"which I think is extremely flattering, is that everybody takes for granted that we make good products. They think, Oh, the Disney cruise ship, they take a wand and a little pixie dust and all of a sudden you revolutionize the cruise industry from floating Vegas hotels to romantic ocea n liners. There are zoos all over the world, and up comes the Animal Kingdom. Or Tarzan, or the Lion King on Broadway–people say, ‘They have no trouble with the creative thing. Well, it's the creative thing that turns the company around. † Besides, he declares, a bit impatiently: â€Å"We are the most profitable media company in the world. We're being buried a little prematurely here. † He's right about the bottom line. Last year Disney reported revenue of $23 billion, operating income of $4 billion, and net income of $1. 9 billion–its net was far more than that of Time Warner (owner of FORTUNE's parent), News Corp. , and Viacom combined. For the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 0, Disney's revenue is expected to reach $24 billion. But all other key indicators are down, some shockingly so. For the first nine months of fiscal 1999, excluding a one-time gain from an asset sale, Disney reported declines in operating income of 17%, net income of 26% , and earnings per share of 27%. Some Wall Street analysts have cut their fiscal 1999 earnings estimates as many as five times since last summer, and 13 of 25 analysts have a â€Å"hold† on the stock, according to Zacks Investment Research. The company has simply stopped growing, and it isn't a momentary dip either: Operating income fell slightly last year too, and Disney isn't expected to match its fiscal 1997 earnings until 2001 at the earliest–a startling comedown for a company that, for a decade after Eisner took over in 1984, delivered annual profit increases of 20% and a return on equity of 20%. Return on equity, a key benchmark that has been sliding ever since Disney's 1996 merger with Capital Cities/ABC, has slipped below 10%, estimates analyst Laura Martin of Credit Suisse First Boston. Some people have the impression that Disney still is what it was–an animation company that generated great returns on capital,† Martin says. â€Å"But that may be over. † Until recently Disney was propelled by a handful of big ideas that were executed almost flawlessly. First, Disney released its library of beloved animated films on video just as VCRs took off; nine of the ten bestselling titles of all time are Disney movies, and most, like Snow White and Cinderella, were paid for long ago. Second, Eisner and Katzenberg revived Disney animation with instant classics like Aladdin and The Lion King, which made big profits at the box office and on video and spawned even bigger ancillary revenues from licensing and merchandising. Third, Disney built more than 700 retail stores in the U. S. , Europe, and Asia. Finally, the company embarked on a vast expansion of Walt Disney World, creating and updating dozens of attractions and building an astonishing 15,000 hotel rooms since 1988. (They called the strategy â€Å"Put the heads in the beds. ) Disney's market capitalization soared from about $2 billion before the Eisner era to $85 billion at its peak in April 1998. Thanks to the rising stock price, Eisner got fabulously rich too, exercising accumulated stock options that gave him pretax gains of more than $500 million since 1992. He still holds 12. 7 million shares, according to Disney's latest SEC filings, worth about $330 million at today's prices. So what's gone wrong? Sta rt with the fact that all the businesses that powered Disney, with the exception of the theme parks, are slumping. Home-video earnings have tumbled, partly because consumers now have shelves filled with Disney animation. Revenues from licensing and merchandising are down, partly because of the economic downturn in Asia, and sales and profits from the Disney Stores have declined because product lines have grown stale. â€Å"How many Mickey Mouse T-shirts can you sell? † asks Christopher Dixon, entertainment industry analyst for Paine Webber. Altogether, Disney's all-important Creative Content segment, which includes movie and TV production, home video, licensing, merchandising, and the stores, saw its operating income fall from $1. billion in 1997 to $1. 4 billion in 1998; it decreased by another 42% during the first nine months of fiscal 1999. If that were a movie, they'd call it Honey, I Shrunk the Earnings. In Eisner's view, the problems are unrelated. â€Å"A lot of things happened together to make our earnings slide,† he says. Disney is attacking each concern, slashing costly pr oduction deals in the movie business, releasing fewer live-action movies, resting its classic video titles longer between releases to rekindle demand, and merging overseas distribution forces for film and video. To boost demand for consumer goods, the company will try to coordinate marketing in big retailers such as Wal-Mart. â€Å"We'd like to have a Disney boutique to sell the T-shirt, the lunchbox, the sheets and towels,† says Peter Murphy, Disney's self-assured 36-year-old head of strategic planning. Suppose, though, that the declining sales of videos and merchandise reflect a more fundamental issue–weakness in the Disney brand. This notion is such heresy inside Disney that everyone, including Eisner, dismisses it out of hand. We have research on our brand in 20 or 30 countries, and we are almost without exception the No. 1 or No. 2 brand,† Eisner says. Disney executives say that if the brand were in trouble, Disney's theme parks would be suffering along with the rest of the company; as it is, they're thriving–even the one in France. In the theme parks and resorts segment, revenues and operating income grew by 10% and 13%, respectively, in 1998, and they've gro wn by 14% and 13% so far this year. â€Å"We have as many kids lining up to see Mickey Mouse as ever,† says Paul Pressler, 43, the president of Walt Disney Attractions. And our merchandise has done great. † Disney World has reached beyond its core audience of young families to beckon convention-goers, older people, and â€Å"pre-families,† which is Disney-speak for single people. And it's capturing more money from visitors who stay in all those new hotels. Sure, Disney's theme parks rule–it's parents who decide on family vacations–but the brand isn't holding up as well in crowded arenas like videogames and cable TV, where kids are more autonomous. Disney's interactive unit is an also-ran in the booming videogame business. On cable, the Disney Channel ranks a poor third in viewing among kids ages 2 to 11, behind market leader Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network. Both Nick and Cartoon, relative newcomers to the kids' business, exploited Disney's vulnerabilities. â€Å"The Nickelodeon opportunity was to get inside the lives of today's kids,† says Nickelodeon President Herb Scannell. â€Å"We've been contemporary. They've been traditional. † While Disney characters are drawn from myths, history, and storybooks–just about every big Disney animated feature could begin with the phrase â€Å"long ago and far away†Ã¢â‚¬â€œNickelodeon's TV shows and movies tell stories about real kids. Today the Viacom unit captures more than 50% of the audience of all children's TV programming. When Disney tries to exude a hipper aura–think of the bestselling Phil Collins soundtrack from Tarzan–the company is more likely to speak to baby-boomer parents than to their offspring. Here's where that idea of â€Å"age compression† comes into play. Kids grow up faster these days, the experts say, and start emulating teenage behavior when they're 9 or 10. They rebel against their parents and shy away from a â€Å"good for you† brand like Disney. Ten-year-old boys who watch wrestling or South Park on cable and 9-year-old girls who love Ricky Martin think Disney is for little kids. â€Å"They've never gotten past the problem that their core audience is girls 2 to 8 and their moms,† says a former Disney executive. And even among young kids, the hot properties lately are Nickelodeon's Blues Clues, PBS's Tele-tubbies and Nintendo's Pokemon, now a hit TV show on the kids' WB, yet another new kid-vid network. The cluttered kids' marketplace points to another fundamental problem facing Disney–competition on a scale the company hasn't faced before, across all its businesses. Warner, Dreamworks, and Fox do feature animation. Universal just opened a second Florida theme park. Fox Sports is taking on ESPN. Can you begin to see why managing Disney today is harder than it was a decade ago? What changed everything, of course, was Eisner's boldest stroke as CEO: his $19 billion merger with Cap Cities. That deal, cheered at the time, still appears strategically sound–the idea was to marry Disney content with ABC's broadcast and cable distribution. The problem has been execution. While ESPN and other cable properties have grown, no unit of the company is as besieged as ABC. It will lose money this year for the first time in a decade, despite a fantastic advertising marketplace, because audiences are splintering and programming costs keep climbing. (Disney agreed under competitive pressure to spend $9. 2 billion–that's right, billion–for NFL rights for ABC and ESPN through 2008. ) Operating income for the company's broadcasting segment, which includes ABC, its TV stations, 80% of ESPN, the Disney Channel, ABC Radio, and stakes in Lifetime, A&E, the History Channel, and E! Entertainment, grew by just 3% last year; it's down 18% so far this year, mostly because of ABC. I'd be the first to say the results of the ABC television network, particularly in prime time, have been disappointing since the merger,† says Robert A. Iger, 48, the lifelong ABC executive who is chairman of ABC Inc. While Iger's bailiwick extends way beyond the network, he keeps a close watch on programming and told FORTUNE in 1997, â€Å"Prime time is my No. 1 priorit y. † Since then, ABC's ratings for its 18- to 49-year-old target demographic have fallen by another 13%, leaving the network No. 3, behind NBC and Fox. Oops. Wait, it gets worse. Remember how the merger was supposed to marry content and distribution? That's not working well either. Owning and broadcasting a hit, then selling the reruns, is the best way to make big money today in television. Just ask Rupert Murdoch, whose Twentieth Century Fox TV studio not only owns the biggest hits on Fox–The Simpsons, The X-Files, and Ally McBeal–but also produces The Practice and Dharma & Greg for ABC, as well as key shows for NBC, CBS, and the WB. By contrast, Disney's Touchstone Television production studio has failed to develop a prime-time hit for ABC or anyone else since creating Home Improvement in 1991. Out of sheer frustration, Eisner last month merged the Touchstone studio into ABC; the idea is to save money and force the two units to cooperate. â€Å"It's a fantastic opportunity to reengineer the way television is done,† says Lloyd Braun, the studio president who co-chairs the merged unit with ABC's Stu Bloomberg. Like a movie studio, ABC Entertainment now will develop, own, finance, and distribute more of its own content. The trouble is, the new model could seal ABC off from the rest of the television world. While ABC executives say they'll still buy shows from studios like Warner Bros. nd Fox, the studios worry about doing business with the new, vertically integrated ABC. â€Å"You're going to have to demonstrate to me in tangible ways that I'm going to get a fair shake,† says Sandy Grushow, president of Fox's Twentieth Century Television. The other networks, meanwhile, suspect that any show they get pitched by a Disney entity will be an ABC reject. Beyond that, t he merger adds another layer and the prospect of infighting at ABC Entertainment, now run by a posse that includes newcomer Braun, programmers Bloomberg and Jamie Tarses, network President Pat Fili-Krushel, ABC Inc. resident Steve Bornstein, and Bob Iger, who still reads scripts of key ABC shows on weekends. Nor is Eisner shy about weighing in; he helped shape the fall lineup and ordered ABC to negotiate tougher deals with its affiliates and program suppliers, which are not happy. This management by committee has never worked in television, and it's not working at Disney-ABC. There is much more at stake here than the unwieldy operation of the TV unit. The new ABC structure is emblematic of what may be Eisner's thorniest problem, if only because he doesn't seem to recognize it: It's Disney's corporate culture. Under Capital Cities, ABC was run in a determinedly decentralized way; executives were given authority and responsibility as long as they exercised fiscal discipline, and the company was generally well run. The Disney approach reflects different values: centralized control, an obsession with synergy at the expense of individual business units, a suspicion of outsiders, and a muddying of responsibility. The results speak for themselves. Writing about the Disney culture is tricky because knowledgeable critics are unwilling to speak on the record; the company's just too powerful. But talk to enough people and you hear similar complaints. One persistent theme: Eisner insists on making too many decisions himself, which clogs the decision-making process. So do the roomfuls of strategic planners who analyze everything. A second complaint: Eisner's too tough. Working with Disney is notoriously difficult, so much so that a group of partners, including Coca-Cola, AT;T, Delta, and Kodak, used to meet informally to trade tips on how to cope. A related point about Eisner: In spite of his affability, he doesn't really value other people. That's one reason the death of his longtime second-in-command, Frank Wells, in 1994, was a seminal event. Wells commanded Eisner's respect like no one else, told him when he was off-base, and deftly softened his edges. They were a great team. Eisner tried to replace him with Michael Ovitz, a crucial error at just the wrong moment. Ovitz's management got the ABC merger off to a dismal start, and his 16-month tenure scarred the company. Since then, strong executives have left, among them former CFOs Stephen Bollenbach and Richard Nanula, Internet guru Jake Winebaum, and former ABC executives Geraldine Laybourne and Steve Burke. Finally, the critics say, the company has simply grown too big to be run from the top down. Eisner's approach worked for the old Disney, where the focus was on a single brand; he could gather a cadre of executives at his Monday lunches and get things done. Now Disney must manage multiple brands in a world where speed counts and partnerships are vital. A respected ex-Disney executive told me, â€Å"The company has changed and the world has changed, but Michael hasn't changed. Now he's got to change. † Eisner and his lieutenants bristle at the criticism from unnamed sources, and you can't blame them. Yes, they say, Disney is tough, but so are GE and Microsoft–which, by the way, lose lots of executives, too, because they have an abundance of talent. To the charge that he meddles, Eisner pleads guilty with an explanation: He wants Disney to excel. (Even his detractors say he has great instincts. ) When he heard from a friend that the cast members at Disneyland Paris weren't as helpful as those at Walt Disney World, he recommended better training. â€Å"Is that meddling or is that insisting on a high standard of excellence? † Eisner asks. â€Å"If there's an area where I think I can add value, I dive in. Yes, at certain times I paralyze people. I'm never satisfied. It gets people crazy, I know that. † But Eisner also says he leaves his best executives, like theme park chief Pressler, alone. â€Å"There's no brain drain,† he says. â€Å"We have unbelievably strong management. † Eisner's turnaround strategy focuses not on Disney's culture but on operations, fiscal engineering, and growth. Consolidation and cost cutting are already under way across the board, with the movie division leading the way. Studio chief Joe Roth has already cut spending by about $550 million annually, by making fewer movies. It focuses everyone much more closely on the films at hand,† Roth says, â€Å"and ironically, I am quite sure that–for the fifth time in six years–we will be No. 1 in market share again this year. † Disney is also looking to sell Fairchild Publications, a magazine company. Sources say Disney also expects to write off a big chunk of the $9. 2 bi llion NFL deal. In a move that should please Wall Street, CFO Thomas O. Staggs is reworking Disney's compensation system so that executives will be evaluated on cash flow and return on equity as well as on reported earnings; that's designed to encourage business units to use capital more efficiently. The theme park segment, in particular, has been a huge consumer of capital, but it will use less after new parks open near Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland in 2001. Disney's best growth opportunity probably lies overseas. Right now, the company gets about 21% of its revenues from abroad, less than other global brands like Coca-Cola (63%) or McDonald's (61%). That's why Bob Iger's recent promotion to president of Walt Disney International puts him in a crucial role, spearheading what Eisner calls â€Å"a monumental change in the way the company is structured. Iger has begun to overhaul all of Disney's operations outside the U. S. , which grew up haphazardly as each business–film, TV, the stores, cable, or theme parks–built foreign outposts that reported back to the home office. Now those businesses will also report to regional executives in charge of continents or key countries; each territory will also get its own CFO and brand manager. That may sound like more Disney l ayering, but Iger says it offers major advantages. First, the company will save money through consolidation, whether in renting office space or buying advertising. Disney also expects to do a better job of tapping into local trends. Iger cites a revealing example: â€Å"It's having someone in Japan who would see the Pokemon phenomenon at an early stage and have the clout, really, through me, someone who has a seat at Michael's table, to be able to raise the consciousness level of the company about that potential quickly and effectively. † Interestingly, the idea is not to delegate authority but to shorten the distance between the rest of the world and Eisner. Eisner's other major focus is the Internet. Here, too, centralization is the watchword. Last month Disney agreed to combine its Internet assets with Infoseek, a search engine and portal company that it is buying outright; the properties, including the Go portal, ABCNews. com, ESPN. com, Disney. com, Family. com, and others scattered in five locations on both coasts, will operate as a single unit under a CEO to be named later. â€Å"This is to consolidate the Internet assets so that we can have them under common management with one agenda and one vision,† says CFO Staggs, the 38-year-old architect of Disney's Internet strategy. The company will then issue a tracking stock called go. com that can be used as acquisition currency and a way to compensate talent. Disney's assets should make it a force online. Its ESPN. com and Disney family sites are category leaders, and the company has unparalleled promotional platforms in ABC and ESPN. In a matter of months, they helped make Go the fifth-ranked portal, behind AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Lycos. And all the Disney Websites should sing when high-speed access makes it easier to watch video online. â€Å"As bandwidth expands,† Eisner says, â€Å"content becomes more important. You must have sports and news and entertainment, or you are going to be a Western Union messenger in a fax world. † He envisions a universe in which ABC News clips, ESPN game highlights, and movies like Aladdin are distributed online, cutting out middlemen like cable operators or Blockbuster Video. â€Å"I believe the entire company's product will mostly be distributed through the Internet,† Eisner says. He's a passionate Internet user too, peppering his web guys with suggestions. Says Staggs: â€Å"The only person I get more e-mail from than Michael is my mom. † The strategy sounds smart. Of course, buying ABC sounded smart too. Once again, it'll come down to execution. Patrick Keane, a Jupiter Communications analyst, likes Disney's web assets but worries that â€Å"diversified media companies move at glacial speed when it comes to the Internet. † Disney can't be as focused on new media as people at AOL and Yahoo are every day. And the straitlaced Mouseketeers will have to learn to live in an unbuttoned Internet culture, says new-media consultant Gary Arlen of Bethesda, Md. â€Å"Have you ever been to Disney World? † he asks. â€Å"You walk out of a ride and land in a place that sells souvenirs. They'd like to manage the Internet that way. Even with perfect execution, Disney's Internet investments need time to pay off; in the meantime, they'll dilute earnings. Time is what Eisner needs too. Time for the cable and phone companies to help make his broadband Internet vision a reality. Time to build overseas. Time for DVD to take hold and provide another chance to resell the library. Time to creat e the next Tarzan and a hit for ABC, time for new theme parks to open, time to reinvent Mickey once more. Time, perhaps, to appoint a strong second-in-command with clout, whether it's Bob Iger or Paul Pressler or a dark horse who has yet to emerge. Because he enjoys the support of the Disney board, Eisner can be patient. â€Å"We're in a transition period,† he says. â€Å"I would rather have every quarter be up. It was for 13 years. Everybody loves you. [But] you can't manage a company like ours quarter to quarter, maniacally, so that the media will write good things about you. † He likes to quote Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway, at last count, owned 51 million Disney shares: â€Å"I close my eyes and think about what a company's going to look like in ten years before I invest. Paine Webber's Chris Dixon says Disney's assets are top-notch: â€Å"It may take time, but we believe the values are there. † Other investors won't wait. They note that despite the earnings downturn, Disney is still priced as a growth stock; it trades at about 35 times this year's projected earnings, a 25% premium to the S;P 500. The Capital Research ; Management Group, whose entertainment industry investments are managed b y respected media analyst Gordon Crawford, used to be Disney's largest institutional shareholder, with 41 million shares as recently as last year. Crawford has sold them all. So be it, says Eisner. â€Å"You can always tell your friends through the rough times,† he says. He still gets to go to the movies, test-drive theme park rides, surf the Net, and call it work. And maybe it's just his turn to suffer in the media doghouse. After all, CEOs Gerald Levin of Time Warner and Sumner Redstone of Viacom fell out of favor when they struggled to get their arms around companies engorged by big acquisitions. Such mergers aren't easy. The challenge for Eisner is to learn from experience, show a little humility, seize the opportunity to shake up his company, and, perhaps, change his own stripes and let go a little. That's a lot to ask of anyone who's been as successful as he has for so long. But this isn't the old Disney. And the old Disney magic just isn't working anymore. REPORTER ASSOCIATE Carol Vinzant http://money. cnn. com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1999/09/06/265291/index. htm