Friday, November 29, 2019

5 Essential Resume Tips for Recent Graduates

5 Essential Resume Tips for Recent Graduates If you’re a recent graduate or are about to graduate, chances are you’ve been giving your resume a lot of thought. And with so much contradicting information in the marketplace about how to write a proper resume, it can be confusing. The reality is that resume advice that pertains to a mid-level professional or senior executive may not apply to a new grad. So, with that in mind, the team at ResumeSpice has put together a list of essential resume tips for new grads. Consider this list your recent grad resume starter kit. Nail these five things and you’ll be in great shape.Start with your educationMost resumes should begin with work experience – the exception is a new grad resume. Since a new grad’s education is the activity that has been taking up most of their time and energy in the recent past, it’s important to highlight it up front. If you had a high GPA, be sure to include that as well. What is considered high varies from school to school and major to major, so ask around. A professor, other recent grads, and counselors can all provide input. All 3.2 GPA’s were not created equally.List all internships, work studies, honors or awards, study abroad programs, as well as other relevant activities that show your experience outside of school. In lieu of full-time jobs, internships are typically considered the most valuable extra-curricular activity, as they help demonstrate real world skills and value that you can immediately bring to an employer. Treat an internship like you would any other job, by listing out your responsibilities and accomplishments in bullet form.Include all work experience, even if it seems irrelevantSure, managing a shoe store may not have been your dream job, nor does is exactly match the career path you’ve chosen, but when you’re a recent graduate, all experience matters.When you’re applying for an entry-level position, it’s about translating the duties and skill s from your current or past positions to a language that speaks to the hiring manager.For example, if you’re applying to a marketing coordinator role and you managed a retail store, use relevant marketing experience from the store and intertwine it with the job requirements for the role you’re seeking. It’s likely that you staged store fronts, placed signage around the store, or made sure every customer received a flyer of the upcoming promotions. That’s all relevant; you just have to use the right language.List extracurricular activities or volunteer experienceUnder your work experience section, you should include extracurricular or volunteer work that is professionally relevant. If you participated in student government activities and/or volunteered your skills to an organization, it will not only help fill out your resume, but it will also give the recruiter a glimpse of who you are and how well you will fit within the organization.If you’ve bee n volunteering your time to a cause you care about, that’s great! Do be aware that some causes / organizations may alienate some prospective employers, so be careful about religious or political affiliations, for example – unless you don’t mind potentially turning off a group of employers. Only you can make that call.Keep it cleanWe’re talking about the format here. It’s tempting to want to put together a highly-stylized, unique, or pretty resume, but the reality is that recruiters value clarity and simplicity over design.The reality is that due to the volume of resumes they receive, most recruiters and hiring managers don’t read resumes – they skim them. And a lot of stylizing can make your information hard to read. So you’ll want to make sure all the fat is cut away (graphics, lines, too much formatting, etc.) and that what’s left is the lean takeaway that recruiters really care about (experience, education, tenure, et c.)The only exception is if you’re a creative professional, such as a designer. In that case, a little creative leeway is appropriate, but we also recommend focusing most of your creative energy on putting together a great online portfolio and providing the link to it on your resume. That will get you a lot further in the process than over formatting your resume.Write a great cover letterWe know that applying for jobs can be tedious and time-consuming, so the last thing you want to do is submit a cover letter when one isn’t required, but we urge you to view it through a different lens.Writing a great cover letter can set you apart. It gives you more space to talk about your background, why you’re interested in the role, and what makes you uniquely qualified. Just be sure you’re tying everything back to the job.For example, if one of the job requirements is attending tradeshows on behalf of the company, you can write something along the lines of, â€Å"Du ring my three years as treasurer within the student government organization, I represented the university during summits and competitions.†There are, of course, many ways to write a resume. But when you’re a recent graduate, writing the resume that will get you hired can sometimes feel impossible. Use these five pointers as a way to guide your approach. If you’re still stumped, you can check with your university to see if they offer resume critiques or you could consider hiring a professional service such as ResumeSpice.  Savannah Ober is a resume writer and career consultant at ResumeSpice. In addition to being a resume expert, Savannah is also an experienced corporate communications professional, working with one of the world’s largest global companies. Savannah has written recruiting advertisements for trade publications, created marketing collateral, written press releases and blogs, and developed social media content. Savannah holds a BA in English, creative writing.

Monday, November 25, 2019

Invention of the Push Pin

Invention of the Push Pin The push pin was invented and patented in 1900 by Edwin Moore, in Newark, New Jersey. Moore founded the Moore Push-Pin Company with only $112.60. He rented a room and devoted each afternoon and evening to making push pins, an invention he described as a pin with a handle. In his original patent application, Moore described push pins as pins whose body portion can be firmly held by the operator when inserting the device, all liability of the operators fingers slipping and tearing or marring the film being removed. In the mornings, he sold what he had made the night before. His first sale was one gross (a dozen dozens) of push-pins for $2.00. The next memorable order was for $75.00, and his first major sale was for $1,000 worth of push pins, to the Eastman Kodak Company. Moore made his push pins from glass and steel.   Today push pins, also known as thumbtacks or drawing pins, are used widely in offices across the word. Moore Push-Pin Company As soon as he was well established, Edwin Moore began advertising. In 1903, his first national advertisement appeared in The Ladies Home Journal at a cost of $168.00. The company continued to grow and was incorporated on July 19, 1904, as the Moore Push-Pin Company. Over the next few years, Edwin Moore invented and patented many other items, such as picture hangers and map tacks. From 1912 through 1977, the Moore Push-Pin Company was located on Berkeley Street in Germantown, Philadelphia. Today, the Moore Push-Pin Company occupies a large, well-equipped plant in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. The business is still exclusively devoted to the manufacturing and packaging of little things.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Animal Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Animal - Assignment Example The Cycopus Bear is a hairy mammal, in the family of Ursidae. Its body is not large as the common bear. The male bear has brown grey hairy skin with a white strip on the rib sides along the stomach, the tip of the tail, ears and two ticks like white marks on the cheeks below the nose. The female Cycopus bear is dark grey and is more hairy compared to the male (( Hill & Gordon, Pg. 67). The Cycopus bear does not have horns. They have slightly a stocky leg that enables them to sometimes stand on the back two legs. Their paws have claw like nails. A mature Cycopus bear can weight to about 50 - 55 Kg. The lifespan of theses bear extends to even 45 years in a favorable habitant. Just like most mammals, the Cycopus bear gives birth to young ones, within a gestation period of 3 months, and feed their young ones by mammary glands (Kingsolver, 45). This mammal creature is a vertebra. Its body is proportional, with two fore limbs and two back limbs. Standing at a fairly flat ground, this animal will appear to be slightly slanting from the head backwards. This body formationtentatively assists the animal to stand and even walk at its back limps especially when tracing an enemy from a distance ( Hill & Gordon, Pg. 43). This kind of bear has a closed circulatory system, where blood flows in veins and arteries. It has four chambered heart, with all parts of the body connected to the circulatory system by veins, arteries and capillaries which assist in the transportation of blood and oxygen fort respiration. The Cycopus bear also undergo hibernation, where their pulse rate drops below the normal rate. This is done especially in dry season, with diverse conditions enabling the animal to survive comfortably for about 15 days without feeding. This kind of animal, being a mammal has a digestive system closely similar to that of a human being. Cycopus bear is an omnivore which can both feed of soft leaves or grass, and even hunt small animals like insects, worms and flies. It

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Designing for organizational Effectiveness Essay

Designing for organizational Effectiveness - Essay Example Companies can adopt organization effectiveness technique as a parameter to assess growth and the rate at which goals are attained. There are numerous methods that can be used to conceptualize how organizations work. For instance, Gareth Morgan described a model that can be used to study organization effectiveness. In the model, Gareth uses metaphors to study organizational effectiveness; that is, machine, organism and brain (Morgan 17). Machine in used as a metaphor for explaining the mechanical aspect of organizational effectiveness. It seeks to investigate issues such as complexity in structure, competition and random changes that take place in the organization’s external environment. It is important to identify that the system of command within an organization influences its effectiveness. In addition, the functioning of an organization is dependent on its structure. Complex structures and systems of command are sometimes confusing and, therefore, result in dismal performance of an organization (Daft 79). Structures within an organization should be simple and easy to work with in order to boost efficiency and performance. In essence, research has shown that bureaucracy in organizational structure is a core determinate of performance in any enterprise. Organization structures that facilitate good customer relations and conducive working environment have proved to be the best in management. However, different organizational structures fit different organizations. In this regard, enterprises should conduct comprehensive research when deciding the type of structure to adopt. Competition in the market highly influences the performance of an enterprise. For an organization to survive in a competitive environment, certain measures must be put in place to ensure that operations are not interrupted. It is essential for an organization to study the surrou nding environment cognitively in order

Monday, November 18, 2019

Trade Unions and High Performance Working Essay

Trade Unions and High Performance Working - Essay Example The government also has not been left behind in passing legislations that ensure protection of worker’s rights. High performance working involves employee involvement and participation, learning and development, teamwork, information sharing, and other HR practices such as talent management, and performance management among others (Cox et al. 2006). The role of trade unions has been declining over the past two decades which bring us to the question as to whether trade union presence enables the British management to develop high performance. To answer this question, the paper will discuss the various high performances work practices in British organisations today and assess their effectiveness in absence of union representation. This is to try to show that despite declining union influence in organisations today, most of the practices require the presence of the union for them to be effective. Another issue of importance is whether an extended coverage of employee rights to of fer protection to workers can be a replacement for union representation given the nature of British laws which allow discretion to management in enforcement. Over the years, women participation in employment has increased but women have yet to achieve equal treatment as their male counterparts, does this require the intervention of unions? Another key debate is the work-life balance. HRM friendly practices claim to enable workers to have flexible working so as to balance work and family life and so are legislations passed to that effect such as the Working Time Regulations, but the question is, â€Å"are workers having a satisfactory work-life balance and what is the role of the union in this matter?† Another issue worthy noting is the current revitalisation efforts by the unions especially through advocacy for lifelong learning. The paper will first give a short history of trade unions to include the structure and changing legal framework of employment relations. The paper w ill then cover the alternative forms of voice both individual and collective and their effectiveness as well as the legal institutions and regulation of workplaces. The increasing role of women in trade union will be discussed and finally the paper will discuss the strategies used to revitalise unions such as use of learning representatives. History of Trade Unions Trade unions in Britain can be traced back to 17th century during the time of crafts trade whereby craftsmen formed guilds to guard their trade. The system of employment relations in place at that time was voluntarism characterised by low regulation or non government intervention in employment issues. The craftspeople carried out their trades at home and engaged the services of family members as apprentices and therefore there was no need for intervention. However, industrialisation changed the nature of employment relations as work turned to the factory system where labour was impersonal. The trade unions became more org anised as various guilds from different parts of the country joined to form unions so as to protect themselves from the effects of the factory system (Hyman, 2001). The role of the earliest unions was to offer mutual assistance to members and to defend their jobs and wages. As crafts trade was wiped out by

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Managing Intelligence in National Security

Managing Intelligence in National Security At which stage of the intelligence cycle is failure most likely to occur, and why? The most common, traditional paradigm for managing intelligence ‘flow’ is a cycle of four components: direction, collection, processing, and dissemination. Direction comes from policymakers: heads of government agencies, heads of state, senior government officials tasked with overseeing intelligence, and the like, who provide both specific and general roadmaps to intelligence agencies as to how they should apply their resources to defend national interests both at home and abroad. Collection is the process by which intelligence is gathered in a variety of fashions: via HUMINT – intelligence data collected by personal, human effort ‘on the ground’; electronically, e.g. SIGINT (interception of signals), IMINT (satellite, photographic imagining intelligence), etc. Processing is the analysis of the data obtained in the collection component, the means by which the nature, relevance and relative importance of the collected intelligence is ascertained by mea ns both scientific and intuitive. (Arguably, processing is the most important component of the cycle, but the least amount of money is often budgeted to this component of the cycle.) Dissemination refers to the process by which the relevant information is channeled to the appropriate decision-making party within a timetable commensurate with the importance of the information collected and the results of the processing/analysis. Each of the four components of the cycle is fraught with peril for failure and failure in any one component can be catastrophic. The two arenas where failure is most likely to occur, however, are collection and analysis. Failures in collection are often due to lack of applied resources, whether technological or human. The debate has raged for decades over whether HUMINT is superior to intelligence data gathered by increasingly advancing technological wizardry. Most likely, a healthy application of and symbiosis between the two is critical. There is no substitute for the personal presence of agents, operatives, and contacts on the ground, substantially integrated with useful components of whichever society in which they are placed. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was woefully lacking in human collection efforts in Afghanistan in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, and in Iraq during the same time period (though to a lesser extent). Compounding matters was the dearth of CIA field operatives or domestically-based personnel who spoke the common languages of the Middle East – Arabic, Farsi, Pashtun, etc. However, rapid advances in computer technology have enabled the collection of vast quantities o f raw intelligence data – telephone calls, e-mails, radio transmissions, etc., and intelligence agencies who lack such technology will invariably be at a massive disadvantage. Failures in processing/analysis can occur when the collection apparatus has delivered all of the puzzle pieces, usually due to either a collective/institutional, or individual inability to connect the proverbial dots and turn raw data into actionable intelligence conclusions. The 9/11 attacks are a regrettably perfect example of failures in analysis. Discrete entities in the U.S. intelligence community – the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and CIA, as well as other government agencies (the Immigration and Naturalization Service and Federal Aviation Administration) – all possessed nuggets of raw data which if analyzed properly, would clearly have indicated (in fact, some say did definitively indicate) that an Al-Qaida attack on the U.S. using airplanes was imminent. However, these entities failed to share this data and collaborate cooperatively to analyze it. Turf warfare, egos, bureaucratic inertia, and competing political agendas can easily cause fatal paralysis in intelligence processing. The costs of covert action tend to outweigh its benefits. Discuss. The question of whether the costs of covert action outweigh its benefits depend greatly on the context of the covert action; is it an ongoing, multi-year low-intensity campaign involving numerous agendas, or is it an urgent, high-priority single mission designed to achieve a massive single strategic goal? Also, the notion of costs must be defined in relative terms – monetary costs, human costs, opportunity costs; indirect costs (unintended consequences); other abstract and intangible costs such as ethics, legal ramifications, etc. The CIA has long been involved in low-intensity covert actions in a variety of nations, with varying degrees of success. The Iran-Contra affair, in which Reagan administration officials diverted proceeds from the sale of arms to Iran to anti-Marxist Nicaraguan rebels in the mid-1980s, was costly in both monetary terms (hundreds of millions of pounds) and legal terms – a number of Reagan administration officials were subjected to criminal charg es for their roles in facilitating both the operation itself and the cover-up of the operation (the American Congress had passed a law forbidding U.S. government direct aid to the Contras). However, in the wake of 9/11, when the U.S. government concluded that decisive force was required to respond to Al-Qaida’s attack on U.S. soil, the CIA and DoD (Department of Defense) were authorized by President Bush to spend whatever was necessary to execute some of the most bold covert actions – particularly in HUMINT undertaken by American intelligence agencies in decades. HUMINT capacity at the CIA eroded as, ironically, the moral excesses of covert activities of the 1960s-1970s caused a backlash that choked off HUMINT funding priority; also, the end of the Cold War led many policymakers to conclude that the CIA’s resources were better spent on electronic means of collection, as covert action can be prohibitively expensive in both time and money. However, the CIA was authorized and ordered to act boldly and within a matter of weeks, had substantial HUMINT on the ground in Afghanistan both collecting data and coordinating with DoD military planners to levera ge intelligence into actionable military plans. The goal: to defeat the Taliban, who had hosted Al-Qaida in a darkly symbiotic relationship which held the country in a repressive stranglehold and provided safe haven for the training of thousands of would-be terrorists. Mindful of the failure of the Soviet Union’s 1979 invasion of Afghanistan, CIA realized that only an asymmetrical application of covert power (mirroring Al-Qaida’s approach to the 9/11 attacks, ironically) would be effective, as a conventional ground war could be too costly in both manpower and lives on both sides. A shrewd application of HUMINT, technology, and good old-fashioned money engineered the relatively rapid American triumph in Afghanistan in 2001. CIA operatives on the ground descended into Afghanistan with little support, made contact with sympathetic Afghan warlords, dispensed hundreds of millions of dollars to other warlords and tribal leaders, in some cases simply to bribe them into switching sides and fight against the Taliban and Al-Qaida. These same operatives also used hand-held laser GPS equipment to target enemy strongholds and transmit this location data directly to U.S. aircraft, who in turn dropped laser-guided bombs with deadly efficiency. The cost was in the billions, but the victory was swift, decisive, and – given the ramifications of the triumph – extremely inexpensive, relatively speaking. As such, not all covert operations are too costly to make them worthwhile. Discuss the importance of open sources collection in comparison to clandestine collection. Is clandestine collection indeed more valuable? Open-source(s) collection refers to the collection of actionable or otherwise valuable/relevant intelligence data from publicly available sources. Prior to the advent of the Internet, this methodology was not without value, but in many cases prohibitively time-intensive, and less prone to yield results. Though the type of information available to the public at a local library might surprise a layperson, it is dwarfed by what is now available on the Internet to anyone with a personal computer. In some cases, an intelligence analyst sitting at a desk in London can gather valuable, reliable information about conditions on the ground in a city halfway across the globe – weather conditions, local news, political and business developments, cultural idiosyncracies. Other sources of OSINT, as it is termed, include diverse sources as consultations with experts in various fields within academia or the business world, professional associations, professional conventions, to simple thought ful Google searches and reading of blogs. The trend globally is towards an ever-increasing amount of openness of information exchange thanks to the Internet. Increasingly sophisticated ‘sweeper’ data-mining software technology, which is often used to collect and in some cases process large volumes of conventional communication traffic, are being utilized by the CIA to scan millions of websites, searching for key terms, phrases, contexts, which might indicate that human review would be advantageous or essential. Instructions to make improvised explosive devices can easily be posted on websites, and 21st century intelligence collection must conform to this new reality. In comparison, the best use of clandestine intelligence vis-à  -vis OSINT efforts is to obtain highly specialized or esoteric intelligence information that is either intentionally kept confidential (classified government secrets, for example). OISINT processing and analysis can help frame and answer a number of general questions and/or analyze larger patterns and trends, whereas clandestine intelligence can help answer targeted, specific questions that cannot be ascertained by either human or computer OSINT efforts. For example, in response to the intelligence reforms demanded in the wake of the failure to anticipate and prevent the 9/11 attacks, the CIA formed an â€Å"Open Source Center† (OSC) to focus specifically on OSINT. In 2004, OSC used OSINT technology to discover that a new, powerful Chinese submarine had been constructed in an underground location heretofore unknown to the American military and intelligence community. The tip-off? Chinese military bloggers, one of whom posted a photograph of the impressive new Chinese submarine (the Yuan-class attack submarine) on a publicly viewable website. CIA in turn employed HUMINT and electronic surveillance to ascertain where the submarine had been constructed and what its operational abilities might be. In a less dramatic example, OSC searched Iraqi websites for postings related to the use of IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices), in some cases gathering actionable data which helped avert the use of these deadly terrorist tools. (The inad vertent destruction of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999 by NATO bombs might have been averted by some of the most rudimentary OSINT – having a human operative walk down the street to make sure the military target’s address was correct.) Clandestine collection activities, particularly HUMINT efforts, will always have their place, but in a world where information is available anywhere, anytime, at the click of a mouse, intelligence agencies must dedicate significant resources to OSINT.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

A Rose for Emily Essay -- essays papers

A Rose for Emily Emily is a woman that has had a hard life. Her family made it so that she was held in high regard in the public eye. She was not suppose to encounter relationships that were below her stature. The town, being the antagonist, drives Emily to her insanity because they will not allow her to lead a normal life. They liked the â€Å"show† they were watching a refused to give it up. The narrator explores how Emily is defined in her position in the town by her name and her father. â€Å"People in our town, [. . .], believed the Griersons held themselves a little too high for what they really were.† (pg.83) Emily’s father had been controlling during her early life and had stopped all suitors from visiting her. â€Å" we had all remembered all the young men her father had driven away, [. . . ]† Emily is forced to live in a house were her father will is paramount to her own. When he dies we understand this lose is almost to much for her to bear. â€Å" Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual with no trace of grief on her face. She told them her father was not...

Monday, November 11, 2019

Review of The Drunkard’s Walk †How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Mlodinow Essay

Read the book â€Å"The Drunkard’s Walk – How Randomness Rules Our Lives† by Mlodinow and pay special attend to the following questions. Some of these questions may appear on quizzes and exams. Chapter 1 Peering through the Eyepiece of Randomness 1. Explain the phenomenon â€Å"regression toward the mean.† In any series of random events an extraordinary event is most likely to be followed, due purely to chance, by a more ordinary one. 2. What factors determine whether a person will be successful in career, investment, etc.? Success in our careers, in our investments, and in our life decisions, both major and minor—is as much the result of random factors as the result of skill, preparedness, and hard work. 3. Was Paramount’s firing of Lansing the correct decision? After she was fired, Paramount films market share rebounded. No, Lansing was fired because of industry’s misunderstanding of randomness and not because of her own flawed decision making. Lansing had good luck at the beginning and bad luck at the end. Chapter 2 The Laws of Truths and Half-Truths 1. What coined the term probability, or probabilis? (Latin: probabilis credible) Cicero’s principal legacy in the field of randomness is the term he used, probabilis, which is the origin of the term we employ today. But it is one part of the Roman code of law, the Digest, compiled by Emperor Justinian in the sixth century, that is the first document in which probability appears as an everyday term of art 2. What is the rule for compounding probabilities? How to compute probability that one event and another event both happening? According to the correct manner of compounding probabilities, not only do two half proofs yield less than a whole certainty, but no finite number of partial proofs will ever add up to a certainty because to compound probabilities, you don’t  add them; you multiply. That brings us to our next law, the rule for compounding probabilities: If two possible events, A and B, are independent, then the probability that both A and B will occur is equal to the product of their individual probabilities. 3. Is the Roman rule of half proofs: two half proofs constitute a whole proof, correct? What do two half proofs constitute by the rule of compounding probabilities? 4. Suppose an airline has 1 seat left on a flight and 2 passengers have yet to show up. If there is a 2 in 3 chance a passenger who books a seat will arrive to claim it, what is the probability that the airline will have to deal with an unhappy customer? What is the probability that neither customer will show up? What is the assumption? What is the probability that either both passengers or neither passenger will show up? 5. In DNA testing for legal trial, there is 1 in 1 billion accidental match and 1 in 100 laberror match. What is the probability that there is both an accidental match and a lab error? What is the probability that one error or the other occurred? Which probability is more relevant? Chapter 3 Finding Your Way through a Space of Possibilities 1. What is â€Å"sample space†? 2. What is Cardano’s law of the sample space? (P. 62) 3. In the Monty Hall problem, why should the player switch after the host’s intervention? Chapter 4 Tracking the Pathways to Success 1. The grand duke of Tuscany’s problem: what is the probability of obtaining 10 when you throw three dice? What about 9? 2. What is Cardano’s law of the sample space? 3. What is the application of Pascal’s triangle? 4. For the Yankees-Braves World Series example, for the remaining 5 games, what is the probability that the Yankees win 2 games? 1 game? 5. What is mathematical expectation? 6. Explain why a state lottery is equivalent to: Of all those who pay the dollar or two to enter, most will receive nothing, one person will receive a fortune, and one person will be put to death in a violent manner? Chapter 5 The Dueling Laws of Large and Small Numbers? 1. What is Benford’s law? Discuss some applications in business. 2. Explain the difference between the frequency interpretation and the subjective interpretation of randomness. 3. Do psychics exist? 4. What is tolerance of error, tolerance of uncertainty, statistical significance? 5. Describe some applications from the book of the law of large numbers and the law of small numbers. Chapter 6 Bayes’s Theory 1. Two-daughter problem In a family with two children, what are the chances that both children are girls? Ans: 25% In a family with two children, what are the chances, if one of the children is a girl, that both children are girls? Ans 33% In a family with two children, what are the chances, if one of the children is a girl named Florida, that both children are girls? Ans: 50% 2. How to apply Bayes’s Theory to determine car insurance rates? Ans : Models employed to determine car insurance rates include a mathematical function describing, per unit of driving time, your personal probability of having zero, one, or more accidents. Consider, for our purposes, a simplified model that places everyone in one of two categories: high risk, which includes drivers who average at least one accident each year, and low risk, which includes drivers who average less than one. If, when you apply for insurance, you have a driving record that stretches back twenty years without an accident or one that goes back twenty years with thirty-seven accidents, the insurance company can be pretty sure which category to place you in. But if you are a new driver, should you be classified as low risk (a kid who obeys the speed limit and volunteers to be the designated driver) or high risk (a kid who races down Main Street swigging from a half-empty $2 bottle of Boone’s Farm apple wine)? Since the company has no data on you—no idea of the â€Å"position of the first ball†Ã¢â‚¬â€it might assign you an equal prior  probability of being in either group, or it might use what it knows about the general population of new drivers and start you off by guessing that the chances you are a high risk are, say, 1 in 3. In that case the company would model you as a hybrid—one-third high risk and two-thirds low risk—and charge you one-third the price it charges high-risk drivers plus two-thirds the price it charges low risk drivers. Then, after a year of observation—that is, after one of Bayes’s second balls has been thrown—the company can employ the new datum to reevaluat e its model, adjust the one-third and two-third proportions it previously assigned, and recalculate what it ought to charge. If you have had no accidents, the proportion of low risk and low price it assigns you will increase; if you have had two accidents, it will decrease. The precise size of the adjustment is given by Bayes’s theory. In the same manner the insurance company can periodically adjust its assessments in later years to reflect the fact that you were accident-free or that you twice had an accident while driving the wrong way down a one way street, holding a cell phone with your left hand and a doughnut with your right. That is why insurance companies can give out â€Å"good driver† discounts: the absence of accidents elevates the posterior probability that a driver belongs in a low-risk group. 3. Probability of correct diagnosis Suppose in 1989, statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show about 1 in 10,000 heterosexual non-IV-drug-abusing white male Americans who got tested were infected with HIV. Also suppose about 1 person out of every 10,000 will test positive due to the presence of the infection. Suppose 1 in 1,000 will test positive even if not infected with HIV (false positive). What is the probability that a patient who tested positive is in fact healthy? Ans: So if you test 10 000 people you will have 11 positives – 1 who is really infected, 10 are false positives. Of the 11 positive testees, only 1 has HIV, that is, 1/11. Therefore the probability that a positive testee is healthy = 10 / 11 = 90.9% 4. O. J. Simpson trial According to FBI statistics, 4 million women are battered annually by husbands and boyfriends in U.S. and in 1992 1,432 or 1 in 2500 were killed by their husbands or boyfriends. The probability that a man who batters his wife will go on to kill her is 1 in 2500. The probability that a battered wife who was murdered was murdered by her abuser is 90%. Which probability is relevant to the O. J. trial? What is the fundamental difference between probability and statistics? Ans: 1) Relevant one is the probability that a battered wife who was murdered was murdered by her abuser = 90%. 2)the fundamental difference between probability and statistics: the former concerns predictions based on fixed probabilities; the latter concerns the inference of those probabilities based on observed data. Chapter 7 Measurement and the Law of Errors 1. Election Why did the author argue that â€Å"when elections come out extremely close, perhaps we ought to accept them as is, or flip a coin, rather than conducting recount after recount?† Ans: (pg= 127 and 128) Elections, like all measurements, are imprecise, and so are the recounts, so when elections come out extremely close, perhaps we ought to accept them as is, or flip a coin, rather than conducting recount after recount. 2. What is mathematical statistics? Ans: Mathematical statistics, provides a set of tools for the interpretation of the data that arise from observation and experimentation. Statisticians sometimes view the growth of modern science as revolving around that development, the creation of a theory of measurement. But statistics also provides tools to address real-world issues, such as the effectiveness of drugs or the popularity of politicians, so a proper understanding of statistical reasoning is as useful in everyday life as it is in science. 3. Wine tasting Should we believe in wine ratings from those â€Å"wine experts†? Why or why not? Two groups wine tasting experts produce the following results: (a) 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 (b) 80 81 82 87 89 89 90 90 90 91 91 94 97 99 100 Compare the two groups of data. (pg 134) From the theoretical viewpoint, there are many reasons to question the significance of wine ratings. For one thing, taste perception depends on a complex interaction between taste and olfactory stimulation. Strictly speaking, the sense of taste comes from five types of receptor cells on the tongue: salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami. The last responds to certain amino acid compounds (prevalent, for example, in soy sauce). But if that were all there was to taste perception, you could mimic everything—your favorite steak, baked potato, and apple pie feast or a nice spaghetti Bolognese—employing only table salt, sugar, vinegar, quinine, and monosodium glutamate. Fortunately there is more to gluttony than that, and that is where the sense of smell comes in. The sense of smell explains why, if you take two identical solutions of sugar water and add to one a (sugar-free) essence of strawberry, it will taste sweeter than the other.15 The perceived taste of wine arises from the effects of a stew of between 600 and 800 volatile organic compounds on both the tongue and the nose.16 That’s a problem, given that studies have shown that even flavor-trained professionals can rarely reliably identify more than three or four components in a mixture 4. Can professional mutual fund managers (stock pickers) beat students who pick stocks by tossing coins? 5. What is the margin of error in a poll? Should variation within the margin of error be ignored in a poll? Ans: < 5% (or 3.5%). Yes, any variation within the margin of error should be ignored in a poll 6. What is the central limit theorem? Ans: The probability that the sum of a large number of independent random factors will take on any given value is distributed according to the normal distribution. Chapter 8 The Order in Chaos 1. Who are the founders of statistics? Graunt and his friend William Petty have been called the founders of statistics, a field sometimes considered lowbrow by those in pure mathematics owing to its focus on mundane practical issues, and in that sense John Graunt in particular makes a fitting founder. 2. How did Graunt estimate the population of London in 1662? What is Graunt’s legacy? From the bills of mortality, Graunt knew the number of births. Since he had a rough idea of the fertility rate, he could infer how many women were of childbearing age. That datum allowed him to guess the total number of families and, using his own observations of the mean size of a London family, thereby estimate the city’s population. He came up with 384,000— previously it was believed to be 2 million. Graunt’s legacy was to demonstrate that inferences about a population as a whole could be made by carefully examining a limited sample of data. But though Graunt and others made valiant efforts to learn from the data through the application of simple logic, most of the data’s secrets awaited the development of the tools created by Gauss, Laplace, and others in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. 3. How did Poincare show the baker was shortchanging customers? French mathematician Jules-Henri Poincarà © employed Quà ©telet’s method to nab a baker who was shortchanging his customers. At first, Poincarà ©, who made a habit of picking up a loaf of bread each day, noticed after weighing his loaves that they averaged about 950 grams instead of the 1,000 grams advertised. He complained to the authorities and afterward received bigger loaves. Still he had a hunch that something about his bread wasn’t kosher. And so with the patience only a famous—or at least tenured—scholar can afford, he carefully weighed his bread every day for the next year. Though his bread now averaged closer to 1,000 grams, if the baker had been honestly handing him random loaves, the number of loaves heavier and lighter than the mean should have  diminished following the bellshaped pattern of the error law. Instead, Poincarà © found that there were too few light loaves and a surplus of heavy ones. He concluded that the baker had not ceased baking underweight loaves but instead was seeking to placate him by always giving him the largest loaf he had on hand. 4. Are all data in society such as financial realm normal? (Yes) Are film revenue data normal? (No) For one thing, not all that happens in society, especially in the financial realm, is governed by the normal distribution. For example, if film revenue were normally distributed, most films would earn near some average amount, and two-thirds of all film revenue would fall within a standard deviation of that number. But in the film business, 20 percent of the movies bring in 80 percent of the revenue. Such hit-driven businesses, though thoroughly unpredictable, follow a far different distribution, one for which the concepts of mean and standard deviation have no meaning because there is no â€Å"typical† performance, and megahit outliers, which in an ordinary business might occur only once every few centuries, happen every few years. 5. Who dubbed the phenomenon â€Å"regression toward the mean†? Explain its meaning. Galton dubbed the phenomenon—that in linked measurements, if one measured quantity is far from its mean, the other will be closer to its mean—regression toward the mean. 6. Who coined the term â€Å"the coefficient of correlation†? Explain its meaning. Galton coined the term â€Å"the coefficient of correlation â€Å".The coefficient of correlation is a number between −1 and 1; if it is near  ±1, it indicates that two variables are linearly related; a coefficient of 0 means there is no relation. 7. Discuss the applications of the chi-square test?(Pg 165 166 167) Pearson invented a method, called the chi-square test, by which you can determine whether a set of data actually conforms to the distribution you believe it conforms to. 8. What is statistical physics? James Clerk Maxwell and Ludwig Boltzmann, two of the founders of statistical physics. Statistical physics was aimed at explaining a phenomenon called Brownian motion. Statistical physics is the branch of physics that uses methods of probability theory and statistics, and particularly the mathematical tools for dealing with large populations and approximations, in solving physical problems. 9. What is a drunkard’s walk or random walk? The random motion of molecules in a fluid can be viewed, as a metaphor for our own paths through life, and so it is worthwhile to take a little time to give Einstein’s work a closer look. According to the atomic picture, the fundamental motion of water molecules is chaotic. The molecules fly first this way, then that, moving in a straight line only until deflected by an encounter with one of their sisters. As mentioned in the Prologue, this type of path—in which at various points the direction changes randomly—is often called a drunkard’s walk, for reasons obvious to anyone who has ever enjoyed a few too many martinis (more sober mathematicians and scientists sometimes call it a random walk). Chapter 9 Illusions of Patterns and Patterns of Illusion 1. What caused the table to move, spirit? not a direct consequence of reality but rather an act of imagination. 2. What is significance testing? Significance testing, was developed in the 1920s by R. A. Fisher, one of the greatest statistician for scientific research. It is a formal procedure for calculating the probability of our having observed what we observed if the hypothesis we are testing is true. If the probability is low, we reject the hypothesis. If it is high, we accept it. 3. Why did Apple founder Steve Jobs made the ipod’s shuffling feature â€Å"less random to make it feel more random†? Spencer-Brown’s point was that there is a difference between a process being random and the product of that process appearing to be random. Apple ran into that issue with the random shuffling method it initially employed in its iPod music players: true randomness sometimes produces repetition, but when users heard the same song or songs by the same artist played back-to-back, they believed the shuffling wasn’t random. And so the company made the feature â€Å"less random to make it feel more random,† said Apple founder Steve Jobs. 4. Suppose there are 1000 mutual fund managers picking stock for 15 consecutive years by each tossing a coin once a year. If a head is obtained, he/she beats the market (a fund manager either beats the market average or not). What is the probability that someone among the 1000 who would toss a head in each of the 15 years? From Nobel Prize-winning economist Merton Miller: â€Å"If there are 10,000 people looking at the stocks and trying to pick winners, one in 10,000 is going score, by chance alone, and that’s all that’s going on. It’s a game, it’s a chance operation, and people think they are doing something purposeful but they’re really not.† Ans: The chances that, after fifteen years, a particular coin tosser would have tossed all heads are then 1 in 32,768. But the chances that someone among the 1,000 who had started tossing coins in 1991 would have tossed all heads are much higher, about 3 percent. 5. What is confirmation bias? When we are in the grasp of an illusion—or, for that matter, whenever we have a new idea—instead of searching for ways to prove our ideas wrong, we usually attempt to prove them correct. Psychologists call this the confirmation bias, and it presents a major impediment to our ability to break free from the misinterpretation of randomness. Chapter 10 The Drunkard’s Walk 1. What is the butterfly effect? The butterfly effect, based on the implication that atmospheric changes so small they could have been caused by a butterfly flapping its wings can have a large effect on subsequent global weather patterns. 2. Can past performance of mutual fund managers predict future performance? No.

Friday, November 8, 2019

Baroque music

Baroque music was something to imitate the idea of Baroque art. Painters like Bernini, Rubens and Rembrandt sought to create totally structured worlds. The Baroque style was influenced by many different groups of people. The aristocracy, the church as well as the middle class. Baroque art is a mixture of nationalism, sensuality and, materialism. Other events also took place during the Baroque era, the development of the scientific method and other advances in science for example medicine; mining and navigational advances were made. These changes allowed for more freedom of expression within society. No longer was life controlled by the church, people were now free to do what they really wanted to do. Since the church didnt have to support all forms of music now, secular music was able to develop more. The Scientific Revolution brought a new way of questioning ideas and principles. The revolution effected many areas of life including government, religion, as well as music. The music of the Baroque period contained a certain dramatic flair. The melodic lines imitated rhythms of speech. During the early Baroque period composers favored homophonic texture to that of polyphonic. They used only one main melody with chordal accompaniment. But homophonic texture is only characteristic of the early Baroque period. In the Late Baroque period polyphonic texture returned to favor. Also used heavily during the Baroque period was dissonance. Never before were such unstable chords so prominent. New ways of showing contrasts between timbres was shown, voice against orchestra, solo vocalist against chorus. In Early Baroque melodic lines were written for instruments to accompany voices. By 1680 major and minor scales had become the tonal basis for most pieces of music. The Late Baroque period began in 1680 and ended in 1750 with Bachs death. For the first time in musical history instrumental music was just as important if not mor...

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Evidence that Support Brushing your Teeth in the Morning essay

Evidence that Support Brushing your Teeth in the Morning essay Evidence that Support Brushing your Teeth in the Morning essay Evidence that Support Brushing your Teeth in the Morning essayFrom the early childhood people know how important it is to take care of their teeth. On the one hand, healthy teeth are a pledge for a beautiful smile. On the other hand, brushing your teeth makes your breath fresh and does not alienate people from you. Bacteria develop in a sticky film called plaque; they release acids that can damage or even destroy tooth enamel and result in painful cavities. If the plaque with bacteria is not removed in time, it can then turn into tartar, also leading to various teeth and gum diseases. â€Å"Effective brushing and flossing unbind bacteria-laden plaque from the surface of teeth,† Schupak (2012) explains.As the main reason to brush your teeth is to get rid of food remains and prevent bacteria from reproduction, many people prefer to clean their teeth before going to sleep. They consider that in this way they cope with food and plaque that accumulate in the mouth during the day, a nd thus one time is enough to keep their teeth from danger.It goes without saying that cleaning your teeth at night is really important. However, brushing your teeth in the morning is significant as well, and here is the evidence.First of all, while you have a rest during the night, your body goes on working. Sometimes there may be specific problems with digestion that cause inflammation and result in unpleasant breath in the morning. It is rather hard to find out whether you have bad breath without asking someone else, therefore, if you care about your reputation, you’d better not leave home without brushing your teeth.In fact, many people stress that they do brush their teeth before going out, but they usually do it after having breakfast. Such a habit seems to be quite sound because in this way you take care of your teeth immediately after eating and keep your breath fresh until the next meal. However, brushing your teeth immediately after breakfast is a double-edged weapo n.Some of the products you eat contain acids that weaken tooth enamel. If you brush your teeth immediately after acidic drinks or food, toothpaste will add distress to your tooth enamel (Carr, 2013). In the meantime, brushing your teeth before the meal will be more effective because toothpaste is specially worked out to create a long-lasting protective coating for your teeth. Subsequent bacterial infection is prevented by antibiotic agents, which keep the toothpaste away from spoiling and provide additional effect for your health.What is more, in today fast-moving world many people have to eat out for breakfast, so they have no opportunity to brush their teeth after the meal. Therefore, protecting their teeth beforehand is the best way out to keep healthy and fresh. Herein, if you still do not like the idea to clean your teeth before the meal with acids, wait for 30 minutes and enjoy the procedure (Gordon, 2013).All in all, brushing your teeth in the morning is an extremely useful h abit. It is effective from both hygienic and aesthetic reasons. It is important to note that brushing your teeth in the morning does not mean you shouldn’t do it in the evening. On the contrary, if you clean your teeth twice a day, in the morning as well as in the evening, it will make the need to visit your dentist twice smaller.

Monday, November 4, 2019

Consumer Protection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4750 words

Consumer Protection - Essay Example This Project Plan suggests that it becomes necessary to consider pragmatic and appropriate research question and during the course of deliberations this needs to be translated into achievable ends. Also, the enlightenment gained from appropriately decided case laws also needs to be included to substantiate arguments and underline facts. Besides, various sections in which this subject is dealt with also need to form a part of this paper. (Press summary, 2009). â€Å"The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 (UTCCRs) protect consumers against unfair standard terms in contracts they make with traders. The Office of Fair Trading, together with certain other bodies, can take legal action to prevent the use of such terms.† (Unfair terms in consumer contracts, n.d.). It is necessary to conduct a study of this kind in order to assess the unfair terms that are often being enforced as pre-determined statements without being deliberated with the concerned consumers, who are thus placed at a detriment, due to the arbitrary and high handed dealings of producers of goods and services. Besides, it is also necessary to consider and apply necessary legal remedies if and when unfair terms are forced upon unwitting consumers. In order to understand these aspects in their proper perspectives, it is necessary to under the basics of these terms. According to the Unfair Terms in the CCR 99, if terms and conditions of business have not been individually dealt with and discussed and any decision has been reached without due negotiations with affected consumers; it could be said to be coming within the realms of being â€Å"unfair terms.† (Statutory instrument 1999 No. 2083. 1999). Besides this, the terms have been pre-determined without taking the concerned consumers into confidence. As a result of which the consumer may have to suffer detriment. It could correctly be said that unfair terms have been incorporated in the agreement which creates disadvantages for the consumers.

Saturday, November 2, 2019

Article _(Have Gun) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Article _(Have Gun) - Essay Example As said thesis points out, the crafting of government policies has become a sticky process of compromises and negotiations that involve the three major institutions in the American political system: congressional committees/subcommittees, executive branch agencies and interest groups. Sometimes called by various names as policy subsystems, issue networks and iron triangle, the three entities function essentially by staking out a claim over a specific area of public concern. Politics come into play when the executive branch agencies or bureaucracies go out to compete for scarce resources in the policy making arena in a bid to establish and maintain a â€Å"policy domain.† Apart from being specialists or technocrats, present realities thus require that the bureaucrats be also consummate politicians. It was believed to be the politicians more than the technocrats in CDC in action when the bureaucratic agency started to stake out a claim over gun-related violence as its administrative domain in the early 1990s. The agency found as window of opportunity the growing concern of Americans about the corrosive effects of escalating violence caused by firearms. 1) Firearm-related violence is a public health issue. As such, this kind of violence is CDC’s legitimate domain owing to its expert knowledge in the health care arena. The problem needs to identify risk factors, to develop, test and implement appropriate interventions. Violence was defined as â€Å"the intentional use of physical force against another person or against oneself, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury or death.† It encompassed such acts as suicide, homicide, rape, assault and child or elder abuse which are intentional. 2) CDC has the necessary expertise in this area. Gun-related violence causes an estimated 35,000 deaths yearly in the US which translates into tremendous health care costs,