the hiding place :: essays research papers

The Hiding Place by Corrie disco biscuit Boom is the story about the life of a woman in Holland during the German Nazi invasion and holocaust. Miss. Ten Boom tells about her childhood, helping people escape through the anti-Nazi underground, her arrest and imprisonment, and her release. As a child Miss. Ten Boom grew up in their familys watch shop with her mother, father, sisters, Nollie and Betsie, brother, Willem, and aunts, Tante Jan, Tante Anna, and Tante Bep. Her close-knit family was a very important part of her life. They worked together to keep up the house and the shop. pot would always be at their house to visit, needing a place to stay, or just to hear Father read the Bible. Through her brother she met Karel, with whom she fell in love. He was a schooled man, very intelligent and cunning. Though he also had a love for Corrie, he would never court her, let alone marry her. His family arranged his marriage with a woman that had a large dowry. The rejection hurt Corrie at that young age but was soon forgotten and move behind her. Her family was always known for helping people less fortunate. In a persons time of need, her mother always took food and a warm grin to help. Whenever a child was homeless, they could always go to the Beje for shelter. It was not a surprise, then, when Corrie and the rest of her family got involved with the anti-Nazi underground. She had been noticing that everything in her little town was changing. There were police stationed everywhere and a curfew was being set. The Germans were beginning to possess control. Corrie had found out from her brother, Willem, that there were Jewish people needing a place to stay. The family decided to open the Beje to take people in, mostly until they found them a new home. Corrie found a man inside the German government to get food limit cards so they the people could eat. She also found most of the people places to stay. There were a few people that the borders would not take in, for many contrastive reasons. Those people had the Beje as a home. There was always a threat of the German officers making a surprise inspection of their home, so the heads of the underground installed a secret room in their house.

Micro Expressions: Detecting Lies in the Face and Eyes Essay -- Facia

Lying has been a problem since societies were first formed. Some people argon great liars, others are not. But, whether someone is a good liar or not, one-tenth of a second is all it takes for subtle changes known as little expressions to appear and disappear from a persons face. These micro expressions are a sign of emotion. The people who read these micro expressions are human lie detectors. Although. police have machines such as the polygraph rill, which measures body temperature and articulation tone to help them detect when people are lying, micro expressions are far more reliable. Micro expressions are more useful to police than polygraph tests because, polygraph tests moreover detect spikes in emotion, there is little scientific evidence about accuracy, and micro expressions are proven to help people further scientific research.In the first place, the polygraph test can only detect spikes in emotion un bid micro expressions. Micro expressions are more useful to police bec ause polygraph tests are unreliable polygraph tests cannot tell which emotion is being felt by the person, they cannot tell why an emotion is being felt, and micro expressions cannot be controlled by people like polygraph tests can. To begin, polygraph tests cannot tell which emotion a person is feeling. Paul Ekman is one of the few scientists who researches micro expressions. He wrote a book called The Polygraph as a Lie Catcher, in this book he addresses the worldwide debate of whether the polygraph is an accurate lie detector. Ekman says, Remember that the polygraph test is not a lie detector. It only detects emotional arousal (251). The polygraph test cannot accurately detect the specific emotion a person is feeling someone may be feeling nervous and the po... ...ons. Guliford,2010. 211. books.google.com. Web. 30 jan. 2014. Microexpressions More Than Meets the Eye. communion of the Nation/ lore Friday (NRP) (2013)Newspaper source. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.Micromovements Hold Hidden Information About Severity of Autism, Researches Report.newsmedicine.iu.edu. Indiana University, ISUM Newsroom, 2 December 2013. Web. 30Jan. 2014.Polygraph Validity Research. polygraph.org. American Polygraph Association, 2010. Web. 30 Jan. 2014. Porter, Stephen, and Leanne Ten Brinkle. Reading Between the Lies. People.ok.ubca.ca. N.P. 31Oct. 2007. Web. 19 Jan. 2014. PDF.Leach, Amy-May, et al. The Reliability of Lie Detection Performance. Law and Human Behavior33.1 (Feb. 2009) JSTOR. Web. 19 Jan. 2014.Lock, Carrie. Deception Detection. Science News 66.5 (Jul. 31, 2004) JSTOR. Web. 19 Jan. 2014.

Miles Davis and the Evolution of Jazz Essay -- The Jazz Revolution

Who was Miles Davis and why was he such an important element in the music of Jazz? Miles Davis, as we would know him, was born Miles Dewey Davis in Alton, Illinois on the 25th of May 1926 to a middle-class down in the mouth family.. A couple of years later, Miles went on to St. Louis where he grew up. Since he was a youngster, Miles hobby was to pile up records and play them over without getting tired of them. Since his family knew Miles was so interested in the music of his prison term, primarily Jazz, for his thirteenth birthday Miles received his first trumpet, although he had been compete since the age of nine. With this Miles began to practice and play his trumpet along with his records. Who would have known that just three years later, at the age of 16, Miles was offered his first job with billy goat Eckstines band to replace their ill horn player. In this band that Miles was recruited into were two of Jazzs most famous players Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Bird Parker. Nob ody would have guessed that this would be the scrawl of it all. This small inexperienced child, who was picked up by chance, would re-invent Jazz like no one could imagineAfter successfully completing high school and playing for his high school band, Miles went on to New York to Julliard to study music. Although Miles was very involved and interested in his schoolwork, it turns out that he spent more time on 52nd street than in college. 52nd street was the Jazz fil direct street in New York that included all the hip night clubs of the time. Meant for both white and black people, 52nd street was all about Jazz and alcohol and it was the happenin place to be, especially if you wanted to be discovered as a Jazz musician. This all led to Miles dropping out of school and playing with the big guys on 52nd street to be discovered. In no time Davis was playing regularly with Coleman Hawkins and Charlie Parker. At this time Miles, 19, moved up in the history of Jazz by recording his first a lbum in New York along side of Hawkins, Rubberlegs Williams, and of course Parker. A few months after Parker and Gillespie went to California, Miles got together with Benny Carters Orchestra and traveled all the way to California as well. Again, while in California, Parker asked Miles to record another album and as a result Bird decided to form a quintet with Miles as a key member. All of this without d... ...ongside Miles. This last tune Called Oleo, had a quick round and the trumpet sounds were amazing, but towards the middle-end of the song I began to wander off. This was probably because I still stick to the first two song which I enjoyed greatly. One matter about this particular song though, was the end. What an endIn conclusion to this whole research paper, I can say that I have learned a lot and heard a lot, most of which I have enjoyed. Miles was definitely a milestone in the evolution of Jazz and although he is no hourlong with us, he left an untouchable mark in music a nd music lovers of all sorts of music, this mainly due to the taste of all the sounds he invented, reinvented, and mixed passim his days in the business. Miles Davis will truly be remembered and missed.Works Citedhttp//www.nettally.com/dbird/MDBio.htmhttp//www.cdnow.com/cgi-bin/mserver/SID=1525020349/pagename=/R.../select=biographhttp//downbeatjazz.tunes.com/sections/artists/text/bio.asp?from=fans&id1=2357http//www.aramagic.com/lounge/music/miles_davis/mdbio.htmlGrolier Encyclopedia (CD ROM), 1993Miles DavisThe 70s Jazz revival meetingThe Jazz Revolution Cool

Symbols and Symbolism in Keseys One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest :: One Flew Over Cuckoos Nest

Symbolism in One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest Ken Kesey presents his masterpiece, One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, with popular ending symbolism of the 1960s. This strategy helps paint a vivid picture in the readers mind. Music and cartoons of the times are often referred to in the novel. These help to exaggerate the characters and the order of the mental institution. Popular culture supplies the music which is used as a recurring theme in the novel. McMurphy dislikes the tape playing in the day room because it represents how the ward is run routinely and without change. McMurphy also uses music to obtain good relations with the patients. On his first morning in the hospital, McMurphy is heard singing several(prenominal) verses of The Wag integrityrs Lad Hard livins my pleasure, my moneys my o-o-own, an them that dont like me, they post leave me alone (Kesey 93 ). In this scene, he sings to express his good spirits (Twayne). Later, in the hall, as one of the aides goes to talk to the angry Big Nurse, McMurphy whistles, with an illusion to the Globetrotters, Sweet Georgia Brown as an amusing accompaniment to the aides evasive shuffle (Sherwood 399). After floor Nurse Ratched with his whale shorts, he accompanies her retreat to the Nurses Station with the song The Roving Gambler to establish his style, define his character, and show his indifference to policy She took me to her parlor, and coooo-ooled me with her fan- I can hear the whack as he slaps his bare belly - whispered low in her mammas ear, I lu-uhvve that gamblin man (Kesey 97). The cartoon symbolism demonstrated in One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest helps create dynamic features and traits in each character. Bromden indicates early that the ward is Like a cartoon world, where the figures are flat and adumbrate in black, jerking through some kind of goofy story that might be real peculiar(a) if it werent for the cartoon figures being real guys...( 31). Technicians in the hospital speak with voices that are forced and too quick on the comeback to be real talk - more like cartoon buffoonery speech (33). Kesey chooses to describe some of his characters as symbolic caricatures, and others as stock figures who outgrow their black outlines (Twayne). The Big Nurse remains a cartoon villain, funny in her excessive frustration and hateful in her manipulations towards the patients.

Stress in Athletics Essay examples -- Sports Athletics Athletes Teams

Stress in Athletics In the Journal article by stigmatize H. Anshel, entitled Qualitative Validation of a Model For Coping With Acute Stress In Sports. Explains how mental strain affects athletes, and how they can go about to deal with the problem, or cope with the problem. The author breaks this down into four categories. First, they want to perceive a stimulus or experiencing an casing, secondly, appraising that event as stressful, thirdly, using either get down or avoidance coping strategies each consisting of either cognitive or behavioral strategies, and finally enacting post-coping activity that consists of either remaining on task, reappraising the stressful situation, examining the durability of the coping strategy, or disengaging from further sport participation. Stress itself is a widely studied characteristic it is defined as an interaction between an individual and the touch environment. Most research on stress is just new, but has been a topic for the last 20 years. But most new studies on stress have to deal more with the coping process. Coping is the persons conscious attempt at reducing or managing the demands of a stressful event or expanding the persons resources to deal with the event (Anshel, 2001). Previous research by Gottlieb (1997) explained how coping strategies related to acute forms of stress differ from chronic stress, and that some(prenominal) contexts of chronic stress do not end themselves to an event-centered strategy of measuring coping (pg...

Stress in Athletics Essay examples -- Sports Athletics Athletes Teams

Stress in Athletics In the Journal oblige by Mark H. Anshel, entitled Qualitative Validation of a Model For Coping With Acute Stress In Sports. Explains how stress affects athletes, and how they can go virtually to deal with the problem, or cope with the problem. The author breaks this down into four categories. First, they want to perceive a stimulus or experiencing an event, secondly, appraising that event as stressful, thirdly, victimisation either approach or avoidance coping strategies each consisting of either cognitive or behavioral strategies, and finally enacting post-coping activity that consists of either remaining on task, reappraising the stressful situation, examining the effectiveness of the coping strategy, or disengaging from further sport participation. Stress itself is a widely studied characteristic it is defined as an interaction betwixt an individual and the surrounding environment. Most research on stress is just bare-ass, but has been a topic for the last 20 years. But most new studies on stress have to deal more with the coping process. Coping is the persons conscious attempt at reducing or managing the demands of a stressful event or expanding the persons resources to deal with the event (Anshel, 2001). Previous research by Gottlieb (1997) explained how coping strategies related to acute forms of stress disaccord from chronic stress, and that many contexts of chronic stress do not end themselves to an event-centered strategy of measuring coping (pg...

Did the Liberal Welfare Reforms Lay the Foundations of the Welfare State?

Did the bountiful social welfare Reforms lay the foundations of the public assistance put forward? This essay will assess how far reaching the liberal Welfare Reforms were and how far they can be said to represent the foundations of the Welfare State. The Welfare State is when the Government takes care of the health and well-being of all its citizens from place of origin to grave. The liberal Welfare Reforms did represent a move away from laissez-faire towards a programme of social reform. The liberal reforms concentrated on five dollar bill main groups.These were the young, introducing school meals and medical inspections with the Education human action 1906 and 1907, the old with the superannuated Age Pensions practise 1908, and the sick who were helped with the beginning(a) fragment of the National Health Act 1911. The employed were addicted compensation for injuries sustained at body of work with the Workmens Compensation Act of 1906 and other things much(prenominal ) as an eight hour sidereal day for miners due to the Coal Mines Act 1908. A half day off was also given to shop assistants following the Shops Act 1911 and there was a token(prenominal) wage for sweated industry workers with the Trade Boards Act of 1909.The jobless were given help to find work with the Labour Exchanges Act 1909 and unemployment insurance which was brought in with the second part of the National Insurance Act 1911. The first social reforms to be carried break through by the Liberals were concerned with children and dealt with the provision of school meals and the medical inspection of all pupils. flat that education was compulsory it was made clear that many children were often coming to school hungry, dirty or suffering from ill health.A study carried come on in a poor area of Dundee in 1905 showed that children were significantly underweight and under height when compared with the national average. The report said a large bit of children who should be und er medical supervision and they cannot apply their minds to lessons while their stomachs are empty. The Boer War in 1899 had highlighted the problem that Britain had with the physical condition of its citizens. When recruiting soldiers to fight in the war, the height requirement had to be dropped from 5 feet 6 inches to 5 feet 2 inches so that Britain would have enough soldiers.The leader of the Social Democratic Foundation (SDF) claimed at the date that 50% of the propertyless recruits from towns and cities had been unfit to fight due to their poor physical condition. To bring Britain rachis to a straightforward physical state, the Government stubborn it was best to start with children and did this with the Education (Provision of Meals) Act, 1906. Much of the credit for this Bill lies outside the Liberal Party. in that respect was a lot of public concern created by reports carried out in the wake of the Boer War.One of these was a report carried out by The Royal Commission of Physical Condition in Scotland and the other was carried out by The Interdepartmental Committee on Physical Deterioration. A labour backbencher called William Wilson introduced the school meals proposal which was so popular that the Liberals decided to give it a chance this was and then called the Education (Provision of Meals) Act. The act allowed local authorities to take steps as they saw fit to provide school meals for children either through voluntary work or using the local authority bullion.Parents were to yield for school meals if they could afford it, however, if they could not the local authority could pay a halfpenny. The number of school meals provided by the Government started at 3 million in 1906 and eventually rose to 14 million in 1914. Within a short period of time a Government funded Welfare system was beginning to replace many of the efforts made by charities. There was still a long way to go though as in 1912, over half of the local authorities had not set up a school meals service. In 1907 there was another(prenominal) Bill passed in order to take care of the health of school pupils.This was the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act which was not popular with the Liberal Government at first as they knew that health inspection in schools would lead to public demand for government funded medical treatment for everyone and the Liberals did not deliberate that they could afford to do this. However, Robert L Morant, the Permanent Secretary of the Education Board during 1906 had been convinced about the need for school medical inspections through contact with a woman called Margaret Macmillan.She said for the good of the children and the public, what subjects are taught and how much they are taught do not matter anything like so much nowadays as attention to the physical condition of the scholars. In 1912 the Board of Education started to give grants to local authorities to set up school clinics to provide all pupils with healthcare. Although this was a huge step towards a Welfare State it was not a foundation as these acts would not have been passed had Elementary education not been made compulsory in previous years.The Old Age Pensions Act in 1908 was the conclusion of over 20 years of debate surrounding the subject of pauperization amongst the elderly. Lloyd George the new Chancellor of the Exchequer in April 1908 made it his job to get the Old Age Pensions Bill through the dwelling of Commons and although it passed through the House of Commons with very shrimpy reverse. However, the House of Lords was slightly more difficult to tackle as the majority of Lords still believed in laissez-faire. When eventually the Bill passed through all of its stages, it became law in 1908 and came into effect in January 1909.The Act entitled people over the age of 70 to between 1 shilling (5p) a week and 5 shillings (25p) a week of pension. However, this amount of money still fell below what Rowntree considered to be the poverty line by 2 shillings (10p) a week. There were also a few exceptions. Any 70-year-old was entitled to the pension as long as they were British and had been a resident in the UK for over 20 years, they had avoided imprisonment in the past previous 10 years to receiving their pension and they had not regularly avoided work.The Government had miscalculated how many of the public would need a pension as they estimated that there would only be around 500,000 but by 1914 there were 1 million pensioners in Britain. This made the Government very quickly aware of the poverty that the elderly people in the country were facing. Although the Old Age Pensions Act 1908 was a significant step towards the Welfare State, this was not part of the foundations as things such as Friendly Societies had been there before to help the Elderly. The sick created another task for the Liberal Government.On returning from Germany, Lloyd George immediately started work in setting up a way to help people wh o couldnt earn money on their own as they suffered from illness. However, he again came up against opposition from friendly societies but also came up against Trade Unions and Doctors. As Lloyd George was Chancellor of the Exchequer he was also very aware of the cost of bringing in National insurance. In order to pay for the National insurance scheme, income tax was made more progressive in that the more money you earned, the more money you paid in tax.Lloyd George had to account for all of this in the 1909 budget, however, this was rejected by the House of Lords and the Parliament Act 1911 had to be passed to limit the business office of the Lords. The Peoples Budget was passed in 1910 which meant that the Government now had the money to start its social welfare programme. The health insurance scheme was contained in part 1 of the National Insurance Act 1911, this was a compromised Act and there was a lot of work still to be done to help those at a disadvantage in society.To chuc k up the sponge the opposition to the Act from Trade Unions, Lloyd George decided to include them in the system along with Friendly Societies who would help him with his new system. When Lloyd George came out with his proposals, the British Medical sort had very strong objections to them. They did not want what existed between the Doctors and the Friendly Societies on a national scale where the Doctors felt they were being paid too little money to treat working-class patients.When Lloyd George went to meet with the Doctors he had to tell them that Friendly Societies were too powerful for him but offered the Doctors a higher contract fee of 4 shillings (20p) per patient and 2 shillings (10p) to cover any drugs costs, this was much more than the Friendly Societies had been willing to give and therefore, when the Act was passed, many of the poorer Doctors joined and were able to double their income quickly. Although this was a better way of helping the sick, it was not one of the foun ding principles of the Welfare State as there were Friendly Societies there before who did almost the corresponding thing.Unemployment was still believed to be the fault of the individual who was unemployed up until the 1900s as many people wouldnt accept that if a worker was unemployed it whitethorn be due to circumstances out with their control. The causes of unemployment were hidden by the belief in Samuel Smiles book on Self-help which basically said that if a person was unemployed it was there own fault and they had to get themselves out of unemployment by hard work and belief that they could get a job. This was believed for a long time as nobody had accurate information on how bad the problem actually was.Part 2 of the National Insurance Act covered the unemployed. This was a contributory insurance scheme where workers paid 2? d, the employer paid 2? d and the Government paid 3d per week. Insurance was compulsory for apportions such as Ship build, building construction and sawmilling as these were seasonal trades which had a repeated pattern of unemployment. Labour Exchanges had two roles, the first was to allow the unemployed to find work and the second was to pay out unemployment benefit to those who were insured.In order to receive unemployment insurance the worker had to go to the Labour Exchanges and register as unemployed, he would then go back there to collect his money. On a weekly basis he would receive 7 shillings (35p) a week for up to 15 weeks of the year. However, if the worker had been pink-slipped from work following unsatisfactory work or bad conduct then he would not be entitled to any benefit as it was his fault that he was unemployed. Within 2 years of unemployment insurance starting 2. 3 million workers were insured, however, this was still only a small number of the working-class population.Although this was not part of the foundations of the Welfare State as the Conservative Government had passed the Unemployed Workmens Act befo re it left office in 1905, this was seen as a much better way of dealing with the problem of unemployment in Britain. The Liberal Government passed four laws which wanted to improve the conditions of workers. These provided compensation for injuries that happened at work. Shorter hours were given to people who worked in dangerous and difficult jobs such as coal mining. This was a good turning point as miners had been campaigning for this for over 40 years.Minimum wages were given to female workers who were exploited and worked in sweated trades such as tailoring, a total of 200,000 workers were affected by The Trade Boards Act of 1909. There was also a half day off and a decent amount of time for meals given to shop assistants who mostly did not have trade unions behind them. The Workmens Compensation Act was built on previous Acts of 1897 and 1900, showing that helping the people who were employed had started before the Liberal Government came to power showing that they did not set the foundations of the Welfare State.In conclusion, the Liberal Government did take a lot of steps towards making Britain a Welfare State such as setting up a national insurance system, a pension system for the elderly when they couldnt work anymore and move to tackle social issues with Government intervention. However, they did not stop poverty, medical inspections and school meals were not compulsory for local authorities so education was not up to the standard that it should have been, the workhouses were still there although not as widely used and there was no system of family allowance in place.Although some historians think that you can see the origins of the Welfare State in the Liberal Reforms, others believe that the Liberal Reforms failed to deal adequately with the welfare of Britain and were not the origins of the Welfare State. The Liberal Welfare reforms did not lay the foundations of the Welfare State but did improve on measures that were already in place.

Mathematics in Cryptology

Cryptology is the procedure of writing by means of a variety of methods to keep mess sequences hugger-mugger and includes communications security and communications intelligence. The cryptologic (code making and code breaking) and intelligence services provide discipline to both tactical forces and Navy commanders. Shore-based intellect and cryptologic operations engage the compilation, handing out, analysis, and reporting of t each(prenominal)ing from a lot of sources, from communications intelligence to human intelligence. This schooling is used to assess threats to the Navy and to the protection of the United States. Tactical intelligence, more often than not provided by ships, submarines, and aircraft, gives combat commanders indications and warning of impending opponent military action and assessments of ongoing hostile activity and capabilities.The start of the 21st century is a golden age for applications of mathematics in cryptology. The early stages of this age can be traced to the work of Rejewski, Rozycki, and Zygalski on breaking mystery. Their employment was a breach in more than a few ways. It made a marvelous realistic input to the conduct of Word War II. At the homogeneous time, it represented a major emergence in the sophistication of the numeral tools that were used. Ever since, mathematics has been playing a progressively more important role in cryptology.This has been the result of the dense relationships of mathematics, cryptology, and technology, relationships that grant been developing for a long time. At the same time as codes and ciphers go back thousands of years, systematic tuition of them dates back plainly to the Renaissance. Such study was stimulated by the rapid growth of written communications and the associated postal systems, as wellspring as by the political fragmentation in Europe. In the 19th century, the electric telegraph provided an additional spur to the development of cryptology.The major impetus, despite the fact that, appears to suck up come with the appearance of radio communication at the beginning of the 20th century. This technical development led to growth of military, diplomatic, and commercial traffic that was open to non-intrusive interception by friend or foe alike. The need to protect such traffic, from interception was obvious, and led to the search for improved codes and ciphers. These, in turn, stimulated the development of cryptanalytic methods, which then led to development of better cryptosystems, in an end slight cycle. What systems were build has always depended on what was known about their security, and also on the technology that was available.Amid the two world wars, the need for encrypting and decrypting ever-greater volumes of information dependably and steadily, combined with the accessible electromechanical technology, led many cryptosystem conceptioners towards rotor system. Yet, as Rejewski, Rozycki, and Zygalski showed, the operations of rotor mach ines created enough regularities to enable effective cryptanalysis through mathematical techniques. This was yet another illustrate of what Eugene Wigner has called the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics, in which techniques developed for abstract purposes turn out to be surprisingly well-suited for real applications.The sophistication of mathematical techniques in cryptography act increasing after World War II, when attention shifted to cryptosystems based on shift register sequences. A quantum jump occurred in the 1970s, with the invention of universe rouge cryptography. This invention was itself stimulated by technological developments, primarily the growth in information processing and transmission. This growth was leading to explosive increases in the volume of electronic transactions, increases that show no signs of tapering off even today, a quarter century later.The large and assorted populations of users that were fore opinen in developing civilian heaptings wer e leading to businesss, such as pick up management and digital signatures that previously had not been as severe in smaller and more tightly controlled military and political communications. At the same time, developments in technology were offering unprecedented possibilities for implementing complicated algorithms. Mathematics again turned out to provide the tools that were used to meet the challenge.The public notice schemes that were invented in the 1970s used primarily tools from classical number theory. Yet as time went on, the range of applicable mathematics grew. Technology go along improving, save when in uneven ways. For example, while general computing power of a personal computer grew explosively, on that point was also a proliferation of small, especially wireless devices, which continued to have stringent power and bandwidth limitations. This put renewed emphasis on finding cryptosystems that were thrifty with both computation and transmission.At the same time, there was growth in theoretical knowledge, which led to breaking of numerous systems, and required increases in key sizes of even well trusted schemes such as RSA. The outcome of the developments in technology and science is that today we argon witnessing explosive growth in applications of sophisticated mathematics in cryptology. This volume is a collection of both surveys and original inquiry papers that illustrate well the interactions of public key cryptography and computational number theory.Some of the systems discussed here are based on algebra, others on lattices, yet others on combinatorial concepts. There are also some number theoretic results that have not been employ to cryptography yet, but whitethorn be in the future. The diversity of techniques and results in this volume does show that mathematics, even mathematics that was developed for its own sake, is helping solve important problems of our modern society. At the same time, mathematics is drawing valuable inspira tion from the practical problems that cryptology poses.The recent breakthrough discovery of public key cryptography has been one (but not the only) contributor to a dramatic increase in the sophistication and elegance of the mathematics used in cryptology. Coding theory enables the reliable transmission and storage of data. Thanks to label theory, despite dramatic increases in the rates and volumes of bits transmitted and the number of bits stored in computers or household appliances, we are able to operate confidently under the effrontery that every one of these bits is exactly what it is supposed to be. Often they are not, of course, and the errors would be catastrophic were it not for the superbly efficient detection and correction algorithms clever steganography theorists have created.Although a number of incessant mathematics has been employed (notably, probability theory), the bulk of the mathematics involved is discrete mathematics. Nevertheless, in spite of the strong de duction that cryptology and coding theory provide, there is little makeing or recognition in the mainstream mathematics community of the importance of discrete mathematics to the information society. The core problems in applied mathematics after World War II (e.g., understanding shock waves) involved continuous mathematics, and the composition of most applied mathematics departments today reflects that legacy.The increasing role of discrete mathematics has affected even the bastions of the old applied mathematics, such as the aircraft manufacturers, where information systems that allow design engineers to work on a common electronic blueprint have had a dramatic effect on design cycles. In the meantime, mathematics departments come along insulated from the need to evolve their research program as they carry on providing service teaching of calculus to captive populations of engineering students.However, the needs of these students are changing. As mathematicians continue to work in narrow areas of specialization, they may be unaware of these trends and the appealing mathematical research topics that are most strongly connected to certain needs arising from the explosion in information technology. Indeed, a great deal of important and interesting mathematics research is being done outside of mathematics departments. (This applies even to traditionalistic applied mathematics, PDEs and the like, where, as just one example, modeling has been neglected.)In the history of cryptology and coding theory, mathematicians as well as mathematics have played an important role. Sometimes they have employed their considerable problem-solving skills in direct assaults on the problems, working so closely with engineers and computer scientists that it would be tight to tell the subject matter origins apart. Sometimes mathematicians have formalized parts of the problem being worked, introducing new or classical mathematical frameworks to help understand and solve the probl em.Sophisticated theoretical treatments of these subjects (e.g., complexity theory in cryptology) have been very helpful in solving concrete problems. The probable for theory to have bottom-line preserve seems even greater today. One panellist opined, This is a time that cries out for top academicians to join us in developing the theoretical foundations of the subject. We have dozens of little results that seem to be part of a bigger pattern, and we need to understand the bigger picture in order to move forward. However, unfortunately, the present finish is not one in which research mathematicians are breaking down doors to work on these problems.Mathematicians are without a doubt needed to generate mathematics. It is less clear that they are indispensable to its application. One panelist pointed out that there are many brilliant engineers and computer scientists who understand thoroughly not only the problems but also the mathematics and the mathematical analysis needed to solve them. Its up to the mathematics community, he continued, to choose whether it is going to try to play or whether it is going to exist on the scientific margins.The situation is identical to the boundary where physics and mathematics meet and mathematicians are scrambling to follow where Witten and Seiberg have led. Another panelist disagreed, believing it highly desirable, if not necessary, to interest research mathematicians in application problems. When we bring in (academic research) mathematicians as consultants to work on our problems, we dont expect them to have the same bottom-line impact as our permanent staff, because they will not have adequate knowledge of system issues.However, in their effort to understand our problems and apply to them the mathematics with which they are familiar, they often make some unusual attack on the problem or propose some use of a mathematical construct we had neer considered. After several years and lots of honing of the mathematical constr uct by our applied mathematicians, we find ourselves in possession of a powerful and effective mathematical tool.During the late 1970s, a small base of bright educational cryptographers proposed a series of elegant schemes through which secret messages could be sent without relying on secret variables (key) shared by the encipherer and the decipherer, secrets the maintenance of which depended upon physical security, which in the past has been often compromised. Instead, in these public key schemes, the message recipient published for all to see a set of (public) variables to be used by the message sender in such a way that messages sent could be read only by the intended recipient. (At least, the public key cryptographers hoped that was the case)It is no exaggeration to say that public key cryptography was a breakthrough of monumental proportions, as big a surprise to those who had relied on conventional cryptography in the sixties as television was to the public in the fifties. Br eaking these public key ciphers requires, or seems to require, solutions to well-formulated mathematical problems believed to be difficult to solve. One of the earliest popular schemes depended on the solution of a certain knapsack problem (given a set of integers and a value, find a subset whose constituents sum to that value).This general problem was thought to be hard (known to be NP- complete), but a flurry of cryptanalytic activity discovered a way to bypass the NP-complete problem, take advantage of the special conditions of the cryptographic implementation and break the scheme, first by using H. Lenstras integer scheduling algorithm, next using continued fractions, later and more effectively by utilizing a lattice basis reduction algorithm due to Lenstra, Lenstra and Lovasz.Although many instantiations of public key cryptographies have been proposed since their original discovery, current cryptographic implementers seem to be placing many of their eggs in two baskets one sche me (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman, RSA), whose solution is connect to the conjectured difficulty of factoring integers, the second, (Diffie-Hellman, DH), which is related to the conjectured difficulty of solving the discrete logarithm problem (DLP) in a group. The discrete logarithm problem in a group G, analogous to the calculation of real logarithms, requires determination of n, given g and h in G , so that gn = h.Each of the past three decades has seen momentous improvements in attacking these schemes, although there has not yet been the massive breakthrough (as predicted in the movie Sneakers) that would send cryptographers back to the drawing boards. The nature of these attacks leads some to suspect that we may have most of our eggs in one basket, as most improvements against RSA seems to correspond to an analogous idea that works against the most common instantiations of DH (when the group is the increasing group of a finite field or a large subgroup of prime order of the multiplica tive group) and vice versa.Asymptotic costs to attack each scheme, although each has declined as a consequence of new algorithms, continue to be comparable. These innovative algorithms, along with improvements in computational power, have forced the use of large and larger key sizes (with the credit for the increase split about equally linking mathematics and technology). As a result, the computations to implement RSA or DH securely have been steadily increasing.Recently, there has been interest in utilizing the elliptic curve group in schemes based on DLP, with the hope that the (index calculus) weaknesses that have been uncovered in the use of more traditional groups will not be found.It is believed, and widely marketed, that DLP in the group of points of non-super singular elliptic curves of genus one over finite fields does not allow a sub-exponential time solution. If this is true, DH in the elliptic curve group would provide security comparable to other schemes at a lower com putational and communication overhead. It may be true, but it certainly has not yet been proven. There are connections between elliptic curve groups and class groups with consequences for the higher genus case and extension fields. In particular, Menezes, Okamoto and Vanstone showed how the Weil pairing gave a better method for solving DLP for a particular class of elliptic curves, the supersingular ones.These are curves of order p+1, and DLP is reduced to a similar problem in GF(p2), where it can be more effectively solved. Work continues in an effort to extend these results to the general curve group. A related problem in elliptic curve cryptography focuses attention on another possible exciting interplay between theoretical mathematics, computer science (algorithms) and practical implementation. deliberateness of the order of the elliptic curve group is not straightforward. Knowing the order of their group is very important to DH cryptographers, since short cut attacks exist if the order of the group factors into small primes.Current elliptic curve cryptosystem proposals often employ a small class of curves to circumvent the counting problem. Even less progress has been made on the more general problem of whether there exist any groups whose DLP is exponential and, if so, characterizing such groups. Another interesting problem is whether solving DLP is necessary as well as sufficient for breaking DH. There are some groups for which this is known to be true, but determining whether this is true for all groups, or characterizing those groups for which it is true, remains to be done. A third interesting general DH problem is diagnosis of the DH group (when one has intercepted both ends of DH exchanges and does not know the group employed).For this reason, cryptology is a traditional subject that conventionally guaranteed (or sought to undo the guarantee of) confidentiality and integrity of messages, but the information era has expanded the range of applicatio ns to consist of authentication, integrity and protocols for providing other information attributes, including timeliness, ease of use of service and protection of intellectual property. Cryptology has at all times been a charming and an exciting study, enjoyed by mathematicians and non-mathematicians the same.

Implement and Monitor marketing activities Essay

BBQfun is caller-out specialised in outdoor lifestyle supplies. The company is mainly implemented in Brisbane and its surroundings and aim at growing passim the country. In order to earn this goal, BBQfun has established a few selling strategie. The goal of this report is to analyse these strategies and ultimately their efficiency. BBQfun marketing strategies analysisAt BBQfun, stakeholders are responsible for the management of the companys operations. Indeed, according to the CEOs statement, For our stakeholders it has always been some stewardship and to adhere to professional and moral standards of conduct in all that we do.Although the organisational review does not expand on the stakeholders moral and professional standards, it can be assumed that the word stewardship means management. Management is a broad word that would need to be defined in more details. Indeed, it does not appear throughout the organisational review that the different stakeholders roles are clearly and precisely defined. Hence questions can be raised about who is responsible for the marketing activities at BBQfun and how carrying out and monitoring are conducted. According to the organisational review, the marketing and non-marketing professionals are self-directed teams. Hence another question can be asked on how strategies are communicated to them and what kind of brief they had received to implement such strategies. It also raises the question of consistency throughout the different stores, especially if BBQfun aims at being a national company. Indeed the BBQfuns big picture is to be a national leader in its industry within the next ten years. However, there is no information on the short term objectives that would lead to the achievement of this goal. Their role and responsibilities are not mentioned either.This is even more concerning as according to theorganisational review, BBQfun overall SWOT analysis be the same as the one made in 2008. This indicates a lack of performa nce measures or at least issues in their ability to act on their weaknesses and take advantages of their opportunities. Also, it can be noted that there are discrepancies between BBQfun vision statement and their actual focus. Indeed, in their vision statement the chair of the display board insist on delivering high quality product, but in reality a cost cut strategy is put in mark as price of sourcing has been prioritised. This indicates a poor communication strategy throughout the company and can easily counter act the flow of the marketing strategies that have been chosen by the stakeholders. Additionally, a review of their PEST analysis should be performed as the organisational review shows a change in economic and social behaviours. Indeed it is mentioned that raise rates are rising, that the employment rate is different than the one estimated and that the trend towards house proud purchase is growing stronger than anticipated. This statement should give rise to spick-and- span opportunities for BBQfun. The objective of the marketing campaign is to increase sales.Three fictitious characters of products have been identified BBQs, outdoor furniture and BBQ consumables. Three types of marketing activities have been put into places radio advertisement, powder store/PR and direct marketing campaign and advertisement through loyalty programs. The resources required for the first strategy are straight forward yet pricy. For that type of campaign financial and human resources are needed as well as the appropriate choice of channel. If BBQfun intends to grow nationally, it might want to choose a national radio station. Human resources would include the marketing project and designers personnel. The same kind of resources is needed to implement the second type of strategy, although the channel would be different. The threesome strategy requires build a node database. Hence little is needed but a website, an email address and the designer and IT personnel. Communication and team building are something lacking when only referring to the organisational overview.This should come first from the board to communicate clearly the objectives and the process of implementing these strategies. These should be clearly thought and put in place along with the marketing plan. Change of suppliers has been one way of implementing their strategies along with finding the right channels to implement their radio and PR strategies. BBQfun also managed to increasetheir customer database to implement their third strategy. Monitoring the return of their investment is mostly done through sales figures. ConclusionBBQfun has a vision to expand nationwide. In order to achieve their goal they put into place a few marketing strategies. However it seems that a proper marketing plan is lacking and this issue should be turn to as soon as possible in order for them to maximise their return and have a higher impact.

The Lynas Fact Sheet

The Lynas Fact Sheet Note This Fact Sheet is modifyd regularly. The last update was made on 2nd June 2011 Rare Earths 1. Despite their name, rarified earth elements are relatively plentiful in the earths crust 2. 3. but are much difficult to mine and conjure than many another(prenominal) metals because of their chemical properties and geographical dispersion, making them relatively more expensive to extract. Rare earth metals are use in the manufacture of a wide variety of products including catalytic converters, wind turbines, hybrid car batteries, disk drives, mobile phones, and flat screen displays.Worldwide demand for rare earths is increasing rapidly and is expected to outstrip supply in the future. China currently produces about 97% of the worlds supply. Rare Earths & Radioactivity 1. The extraction of rare earths raises a number of environmental and precaution concerns 2. 3. 4. because the ore in which rare earths are found are often associated with minerals containing r adioactive elements such as uranium and thorium. Health and preventive issues that need to be addressed include radiation protection for workers, the humans and the environment, the transportation of bare-assed materials nd the management of waste. Human beings are exposed to very small levels of radioactivity in everyday life. Thorium, for example, is naturally present in soil, rocks, ground and surface urine, plants and animals in very low concentrations. Ingestion of food and water containing this level of radioactivity does not pose any threat to human health. The radiation exposure limit set by AELB for the public is 1 mSv/year. The yearbook radiation exposure, in millisieverts (mSv)/year, in a number of daily human activities is as follows i. Smoking a pack of cigarettes daily 0. 0 mSv ii. Medical or dental x-day 0. 39 mSv iii. Sleeping next to someone for 8 hours 0. 02 mSv iv. Watching television 2 hours daily 0. 01 mSv v. Using a computer terminal 0. 001 mSv (Source g et together Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, 1982, 1993, 2000 United Nations Environment Protection Agency US Department of Energy Health Physics Society) The Lynas come out 1. Lynas Malaysia Sdn Bhd (Lynas) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lynas Corporation 2. Ltd of Australia . Its business is the production and sale of rare earths and related byproducts.Lynas plans to import rare earth ore from its Mount Weld mine in Western Australia, 3. 4. truck it to the port of Fremantle , send it by container ship to Kuantan, and process it at the Gebeng industrial Estate in Pahang. At Gebeng, the Lynas plant will extract Rare Earths from the ore for export. Lynas says waste from the extraction process will be used to produce commercially applicable products or stored in safe and secure containers. Lynas says it chose to site its plant at the Gebeng site because of i. Its proximity to Kuantan port ii.The availability of gas, water and chemical supplies iii. T he availability of skilled workers Manufacturing License 1. On 22 January 2008, Lynas was granted a manufacturing manifest to produce rare 2. earth oxides and carbonates at Gebeng Industrial Estate, Kuantan. The approval was granted subject to a number of conditions, in particular, the need to comply with the sustenance of the i. Atomic Energy Licensing Act 1984 ii. Environmental tint Act 1974. Compliance Requirements 1. The Atomic Energy Licensing Act 1984 is administered by the Atomic Energy 2. 3. Licensing Board (AELB).Among other things, the AELB monitors and assesses the radiological impact of the Lynas project through all stages of construction and operation. This includes matters relating to radiation protection (occupational, public and environmental), safe, waste management, transportation, decommissioning and remediation. The Department of Environment (DOE) is the implementing agency for the Environmental Quality Act 1974. The Act governs issues related to the preventi on, abatement and control of pollution and enhancement of the environment (other than radioactive material and radioactive waste).The safety standards and good practice requirements oblige by the two regulatory bodies are similar to or equivalent to those recognised internationally. Compliance status 1. Lynas began planning and construction of its plant at Gebeng Industrial Estate, 2. Pahang soon after obtaining its manufacturing licence. In April 2011, the company proclaimed that construction had reached the 40% stage and was on target for completion by September, 2011. The AELB confirms that Lynas has complied with all health and safety standards required of the company to date.A site licence and a construction licence direct been issued accordingly. The next stage in the multi-tiered approval process requires Lynas to apply to the AELB for a pre-operating licence. To date, the company has not made a submission to the AELB for this purpose. Upon receiving a pre-operating licenc e, the company will then be required to apply for and obtain an operating licence before it can commence full operations. 3. The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Report on the project was approved by 4. 5. the Department of Environment on 15 February 2008.The Department confirms that Lynas has complied with all requirements of the EIA approval to date. The Radiological Impact Assessment (RIA) conducted by the Nuklear Malaysia affirms that operation of the proposed Lynas plant would not pose any radiological danger to workers and members of the public living in the areas surrounding the site beyond what is allowed by the regulatory authorities. Nuklear Malaysia also affirms that the projected radiation exposure levels in the Lynas plant for workers (average of 2 mSv/yr) and members of the public (0. 02 mSv/yr) are within the limits set by AELB. Decision to appoint unconditional Panel of International Experts 1. On 22 April, 2011, however, following widespread public concern ab out the safety of 2. the project, the Government announced a decision to appoint an independent beautify of international experts to review all health and safety aspects of the project.Pending completion of this review, the Government also decided that i. No pre-operating license will be issued to Lynas by AELB. ii. There will be no importation of raw materials for the plant from Australia. ii. A review will be undertaken to ensure that construction of the facility at the site fully complies with national and international safety standards. Independent Panel of International Experts 1. In late April 2011, the Government approached the International Atomic Energy 2. 3. Agency (IAEA) in Vienna , Austria , for assistance to appoint an expert squad to i. Review Lynas compliance with relevant International Safety Standards and Good Practices, and ii. Provide an independent expert opinion on safety issues, in particular, those relating to radiation safety.The chain of mountains of the review included i. Radiation protection (workplace, public, environment) ii. Safety assessment iii. Waste Management iv. Transportation v. Decommissioning and environmental remediation On 13 May, 2011, the Government announced details of the IAEA-appointed panel. The panel consists of a leader and nine members four from the IAEA, and five from IAEA member countries. All panel members are recognised experts in their respective 4. 5. 6. 7. disciplines and have knowledge of IAEA standards, in particular, those relating to rare earth processing.Details of individual members of the panel The expert panel began the on-site component of its work on 29 May 2011. During its six-day visit, the panel has scheduled to meet with government officials and representatives of Lynas, and receive representations from members of the public, including residents, community associations, non-governmental organisations and professional bodies. The panel is scheduled to complete its work and submit its repo rt to the Government by 30 June 2011. The Government has announced that the report will be made public.

A Critical Analsysis Cultural Event Essay

instruct shootings has been a popularized term in both the United States and Canada for describing heavy weapon rage at educational institutions around the country. This especi altogethery applies to mass killings or shooting sprees perpetuated by the students or members of the faculty. prepare shootings are differentiated from acts of terrorism in that they are usually arbitrarily targeted victims and involve students, faculty or alumni of the institution involved. This marked difference rotter be seen when we differentiate the Beslan School Hostage Taking (BBC News, 2004) from the aquilegia Massacre.For our purposes, we would physical exercise the columbine Massacre as our cultural steadyt to be analyzed. This massacre has been well documented by a mountain of resources and has been extensively analyzed by researchers, natural law enforcement officers and medical practitioners. The columbine Massacre is a well-known tragedy in the United States. It was a tragic day where t wo students who attended Columbine advanced School shot at their fellow students and teachers. This tragedy ended with more tragedy when the two students took their own lives.The abrupt and sudden death of the two students gave overture to more questions imagineing this tragic incident. After the death of so many lives, no one was left to answer what motivated these two seemingly common boys to do such inhumane acts. Main Argument The purpose of writing a critical analysis of this casing is to uncover the deeper implications of the event of school shootings on civilization as a whole and on the writer as an individual. We will delve at the issue of school shooting from different angles that would show issues in our culture. It is the argument of this writer that school shootings squirt be prevented.To do this, we must pass stricter laws in gun control, prevent school violence, and reduce the amount of violence in multimedia and the Internet. Our effort to get by this tragedy has led to a valiant effort to rationalize and find solutions to prevent a nonher Columbine. We must exercise this information and take responsibility by taking adequate measures in law and in practice. School shootings then as an event has brought to light the succeeding(a) issues gun control, school violence, violence in multimedia and the internet, our culture on handling tragedies and our own responsibility towards preventing future killings.Support for Argument Different Angles particle accelerator Control The issue of gun control has been front and center in the debate regarding prevention of other Columbine Massacre. To support my main argument that stricter gun control laws can prevent another Columbine, it is argued that our laws on gun control are too lax. The access by which the shooters had to guns of high caliber and quantity of explosives take the stand the inherent laxity of our countrys gun control laws. In his movie, Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore illus trates how guns are given a guidance even when you open confide accounts in America. Even in Wal-Mart stores, guns were expressily available.It has single been recently that Wal-Mart has pulled out guns from a third of its US stores. Even then, the company cites marketing decisions rather than observant restrictions in its decision. (Pioneer Press, 2006) Stricter gun control laws will ensure that access and availability of guns will only be reserved for law enforcement. The consuming public, much little our children, must not be able to readily access guns without adequate reason. This reason must be well-defined in law and properly implemented to prevent young children from getting their hands on high-caliber weapons. Violence in Multimedia and the InternetThe role of violence in multimedia and the Internet was a critical issue in determining what could be done to prevent another Columbine. Both shooters played violent games and were taking active part in online communities th at catered to such games. Henry Jenkins, director of Comparative Media Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, cautioned the Senate Commerce Committee from totally shunning the Multimedia and the Internet. In his affidavit before the senate, he reminds us that media consumption is active and not passive. They are tools that we can use and mold to our advantage.It must also be remembered that media content is a process that is developed over a period of time. Different consumers react to media in different ways. When all else fails, real life would always trump media. It is read against our perception of the world. It is in this light that the writer argues that meaningful recommendations for law making can be legislated in order to control media to lessen the amount of violence available to our youth. Such legislated can be done without trampling on our bill of rights by asking media content providers to be more creative and our schools to use media in K-12 ed ucation.These are just some of the recommendations by Jenkins in order to prevent violence in media use for institutions. More will be discussed with regard to school violence in the succeeding paragraph. School Violence The issue of school violence had come front and center as one of the reasons for the Columbine Massacre. After the event, every circumstance surrounding the life of the two shooters was examined. They were part of goth groups and were not considered generally popular with the students in early reports. any(prenominal) of the myths would even say that they were loners and only a few students knew them.The truth however, cannot be farther. Even though they were part of goth groups, both shooters had a steady group of friends and were not exactly alienated from the student populace. Recent studies have cautioned on inciting a sense of moral panic in reacting to the problem of School Violence. Moral dread is a reaction to school shootings where teachers and other stud ents would view fellow students and faculty as threats to public safety. This is not the environment that will lead to the prevention of School Violence. (Jenkins, Part I, 1999)In preventing school violence, the National Association of autonomous Schools have come up with the following measures 1) more support for the youth using digital communities, 2) use media education in K-12 institutions, 3) more respect and knowledge by adults for popular culture of children, 4) more tolerance in the school environment 5) establishing enate discussion groups on appropriate media content, 6) illicit more creative responses from media producers. (Jenkins, Part IV, 1999) Our Culture on Handling Tragedies The deeper implication of this event to our culture is that it is reflective of the way we handle tragedy.It shows the need of our culture to rationalize and put blame. But more so, it shows the resilience of our culture to heal, move on and adapt to the changing times. The event itself as des cribed above shows two things. The first part of our description culled from the CNN report is a depiction of the extent of violence imparted by the two boys. What happened in Columbine was distinctly violent and ruthless. The second part of our description culled from the Jefferson County report is a depiction of our need as culture to rationalize such violence.The process of compiling, examining and connecting all the 4,400 leads to more than 80 investigators from the federal and local government to piece together. It took 10 months to complete and amounted to painstaking work and expense. Yet, it was needed for a sense of closure to most(prenominal) of the families of the victims. It is clear from the 10 different findings of the Jefferson County Report that no stone was left unturned. Myths were formed regarding a third shooter or another boy who has primarily induced the shooters. A lot of these myths were debunked by the official Jefferson County report.The need to rationaliz e by our culture does not end there. We hope to do better the coterminous time around. We hope that tragedy will not be repeated. We rationalize and we move on. The mountain of sources that pile up to rationalize, prevent and defend our schools abound. Our psychiatrists (Block, 2007), law enforcement officers (US enigmatical Service, 2002), and brother citizens (Cullen, 2004) have all come up with their ways and means to justify and contribute to the growing number of literature meant to keep the discussion alive.Some have even sued gaming manufacturers of violent games and are seeking financial damages they allege that Absent the combination of extremely violent video games and these boys fantastically deep involvement, use of and addiction to these games and the boys basic personalities, these murders and this massacre would not have occurred. (Wade, 2001) For the psychiatrists who have reviewed the cases, some have even suggested being careful in removing restrictions to virtu al(prenominal) outlets of rage. It is notable that the boys who perpetuated the violence were deprived abruptly of these virtual outlets.(Block, 2007) These are all indicative of the ways we cope up with tragedy. These are ways we rationalize and call for from our mistakes. As a culture, the event has deep implications with how we handle seemingly irrational events by acting human in all respects. We pride our rationale as a civilized nation and try to make it prevail over all odds and tragedies. In the end, whether or not there is a rationale explanation to the shootings, it would be hard to know. Adding insult to injury, the shooters in this tragedy also killed themselves.This is perhaps why the Columbine School shooting has left such a distinct memory in all those touched by it. There is seemingly a distinct lack of closure because no one can be held to blame. Our Responsibility in Preventing Future killings As an individual, the writer is very much affected to reflect on what i s happening with his own life. The deeper implication of this event is to cause the writer to pause and reflect his actions and his responsibility. Any other student in our society can easily relate to the deaths of these students. We have all lived a rigid classroom to classroom, day and night existence.Everyday, we do our work, travel to school and sleep towards the next day to come. Those who died in the tragedy never got the chance to coat their lives as students or graduate into adulthood. Reading all these accounts and reflections about the lives of these students has made the writer focus more on living rather than continuing on the never ending effort to rationalize. Human life seemed to be less significant in light of the quick and abrupt way the lives of thirteen pack were ended. School shootings as a phenomenon did not end with Columbine.Recent school shooting such as the one by Pekka-Eric Auvinen in Tuusuola High School happened only this year. (Xinhua, 2007) The great est implication to the writer as an individual is to live a life of responsibility. The mountain of information available to implement ways of preventing another Columbine is there. With the rationalization done by our culture and the efforts we have made to move on, it is but proper that live a life of responsibility by implementing all studies made to prevent more shootings in law through gun control measures and in practice by guiding future generations to be more tolerant of other people.Conclusion The tragedy of the Columbine is only illuminated by the facts that can be culled from the events. However, the deeper problems that lie beneath can only be solved by careful and patient assessment of these facts and what can be done to prevent it from happening again. It is the argument of this writer that school shootings can be prevented. To do this, we must pass stricter laws in gun control, prevent school violence, and reduce the amount of violence in multimedia and the Internet. Our effort to handle this tragedy has led to a valiant effort to rationalize and find solutions to prevent another Columbine.We must use this information and take responsibility by taking adequate measures in law and in practice. The implementation of the suggestions by the National Association of Independent Schools through Henry Jenkins would be a good start in harnessing the power of media to lessen violence in school institutions. References CNN. com. In depth Specials Columbine (n. d. ) Columbine. Retrieved 15 November 2007, from . Ward, Mark. Columbine Families sue Computer gage Makers. 1 May 2001. BBC News.Retrieved 15 November 2007, from Block, Jerald. Lessons from Columbine Virtual and Real Rage American Journal of Forensic Psychiatry, Volume 28, Issue 2 (July, 2007) United States conundrum Service. The Final Report and Findings of the Safe School Initiative Implications for the Prevention of School Attacks in the United States May 2002. United States Department of Trea sury. Retrieved 15 November 2007, from http//www. treas. gov/usss/ntac/ssi_final_report. pdf Xinhua. US stripling chats with Finnish School Shooter about Massacre 13 November 2007.English-Xinhua. Retrieved 15 November 2007, from http//news. xinhuanet. com/english/2007-11/13/content_7060867. htm BBC News. Attackers Storm Russian School (1 September 2004) BBC NEWS EUROPE. Retrieved 15 November 2007, from http//news. bbc. co. uk/2/hi/europe/3616868. stm Pioneer Press. Wal-Mart halting Gun Sales by Area (15 April 2006) Free Republic. Retrieved 15 November 2007, from http//www. freerepublic. com/focus/f-news/1615500/posts Jenkins, Henry. Lessons from Littleton (1999) National Association of Independent Schools. Retrieved 15 November 2007.

Description of Grace

A DESCRIPTION OF GRACE By Em patchuel O. Obiorah Jos, Plateau State 27th March, 2013 GRACE INTRODUCTION The devise gentleness is non a new word to most religious circles. Among Christians, such adjectives like amazing, extravagant, inspired and awesome have been used to qualify the word bedeck with each characterization its importance to the Christian assent. Our c at one timern in this work is to define and analyze this word- favor for a better, richer and more fulfilling understanding of its meaning. We hope that this would be of immense call down as we consider this word which made us what we are today- Christians. Definition of the wordIn the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for approval is Chen ( ). Strongs concord defined this word as favor, grace or charmthe moral quality of kindness, displaying a favorable disposition. Chen was translated as grace cardinal eight times in the King James translation. It was also translated choose twenty-six times, twice as graciou s, at a time as pleasant, and once as precious. The Greek word charis ( ) was used for mildness in the New Testament. Strongs Concordance defined charis as the domain of kindness and favor towards someone, a great deal with a focus on a benefit given to the object. another(prenominal) Greek word that is related to charis is charisma (khar-is-mah- gracious gift) both of which originated from the Greek word chairo (to rejoice, be glad, delighted) (Olowe 2011a). According to Olowe (2011b), gracility can be simply defined as an gratuitous gift of God to assist and to equip worldly concern. This means that Grace comes in form of assistance, potential or resource. It is a save with which one receives without whatever merit of his own, the gift of master grace, the gift of faith, knowledge, holiness, virtue.The economy of heaven-sent grace is that through it the pardon of sin and eternal salvation is appointed to sinners in consideration of the merits of Christ laid hold on by fa ith. Grace or gifts (as it is sometimes referred to) also denotes extraordinary powers that distinguish certain Christians by enabling them to serve the church of Christ. Grace motivates Christians to exercise all the Christian virtues the reception of which is due to the power of divine grace operating on their someones by the Holy Spirit (Olowe 2011b).The Catholics on the other hand defined Grace (gratia, Charis) generally as supernatural gift of God to intellectual creatures (men, angels) for their eternal salvation, whether the latter be furthered and attained through salutary acts or a state of holiness (Knight 2012). Having considered the various definitions, this writer believes that Grace is a divine enablement or favourable disposition towards an undeserving person to do or become what such a person would not have been or done without such enablement. Genre of the word GraceGrace is a theological term which is present in and among numerous religious groups other than Chri stianity. However, there are significant differences between the ways these other religions use the word grace. Even within Christianity, there are differing conceptions of grace. Infact the differences in the draw of Grace including the so-called controversies of grace which space may not allow us to discuss in this work made Bill Gothard describe grace as the watershed that divides Catholicism from Protestantism, Calvinism from Arminianism, and modern liberalism from conservatism(Olowe 2011a).One of the differences in the views of the concept of Grace is that while the Protestants believe that redundant grace can whole be received through the Spirit of God, the Catholic doctrine teaches that God uses the sacraments to facilitate the reception of this grace (Knight 2012). Protestants on the other hand generally held the view that even without the sacraments divine grace has been imparted by God to military personnelity. Theological discussion of the word- Grace Gift and Grace ar e sometimes used interchangeably because Grace manifests as a gift from God. Gods grace is upon all humanity.Even though salvation is the greatest gift God has given to all mankind, it is not the only gift man receives from God. Olowe (2011b) pointed out that the Grace of God is unlimited and are in five forms. These are solid Universal Grace (Gifts of matter and Time), Spiritual Universal Grace (Gifts of the Soul and the human Spirit), Spiritual specific Grace (Gifts of Supernatural (divine) Spirits), predict Universal Grace (Gifts of Favor and Rest fallt) and Divine finical Grace (Gift of Salvation). Two forms of this grace come from special grace and three from commonplace grace (Olowe 2011b).Universal Grace is to be seen as the grace that God bestows on all mankind whether believers or unbelievers as resources to implement untroubled works. On the other hand the atonement of sins by the blood of Jesus is the source of the Special Grace of God. The above five forms of grac e are classified under three categories Divine Grace, Material Grace and Spiritual Grace. Divine grace Divine Grace whether universal or special generally involves Gods direct intervention in human lives. Divine universal grace and divine special grace are not resources for implementing good works.Their general purpose is to provide assistance to man in reaching God and in reliably implementing stewardship. Divine grace gives meaning and purpose to life. The major difference between divine universal grace and divine special grace is their manifestations. Divine special grace (gift of salvation) manifests in the salvation of the sinner and it is a long term grace that can last for ever if no apostasy occurs whereas divine universal grace manifests in making possible the other forms of grace and it can be an instantaneous or a short term grace.Material grace Material Grace is the only category of grace that is totally universal and not special in nature. Material Grace is for both b elievers and unbelievers and is gifts of matter and time. This gift include the universe, the earth, and all other resources including, the air, the sea, animals, minerals, plants, sun, moon, rain, snow, and so on. These things are available to both believers and unbelievers and were graciously given to all men by God.Paul observed that this grace is a levy of Gods love for man when he said to the people of Lystra Nevertheless he (God) left not Himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filing our heart with food and gladness (Acts 1417). This was in agreement to the words of Jesus that God maketh his sun to rise on the plague and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5445). This grace is for all. The essence of this grace is for man to use these gifts to get provisions and to implement good works. Spiritual graceSpiritual Grace whether universal or special is the only resourceful grace that reside s in man. Spiritual grace determines the ability of each man. No cardinal persons may have exactly the same spiritual gifts as the scripture puts it but all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he imparts (1 Cor. 1211) . It is a gift that enables man to relate to God and this gift is received by believers only (special). Spiritual universal grace on the other hand is the gift of the soul that enable man to relate to his fellow man and to his environment and also of the human spirit.It is that inner longing in man to relate to God or to other spirit beings (gods) (Olowe 2012). The Grace of God expresses itself as a combination of many another(prenominal) attributes of God, especially mercy, goodness, compassion, and love. In many verses in the Bible, these attributes are interrelated and a combination of two or more stresses the Grace of God (Eph 2 4-5 Ps 1458 Exo 3319). Unlike the above view, the Catholics distinguished between only t wo forms of grace which are the transient help to act (actual grace) and the permanent state of grace (sanctifying or justifying grace).The former (actual grace) has a fourfold meaning. In a subjective sense, it signifies good leave alone or benevolence and in its objective sense it refers to every favour proceeding from this benevolence (good will) and thus every gratuitous gift. The latter (sanctifying grace) is the gratuitous gift of his life that God makes to us it is infused by the Holy Spirit into the soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it (Grace and justification 2012). Charles Wesley calls this sanctifying grace the sustaining grace that leads believers towards perfection (sanctifying grace 2012).A closer look into the Catholic concept of actual grace would go against the literary value of the word grace. Actual grace describes grace further as seemingly effortless beauty or charm of movement, form, or coincidence or a characteristic or quality plea gabble for its char m or refinement. This grace is also seen as a sense of fitness or propriety or a temporary immunity or exemption a reprieve having the notion of mercy benignity (Grace 2012). It is believed to be that amazement or charm as hen the bible said that Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us (Psalms 9017). This is because beauty or charm imbibes benevolent love and prompts the bestowal of benefactions (blessings). This goes to explain why grace is also used in literary or secular circles for either clemency in the court and manner of behavior or poise. This grace also means the expression of gratitude from a person who has received blessing or favour by giving of thanks. This is where blessing of meals comes to play. The word gratiae (plural of gratia) also stands for thanksgiving.Kevin Knight (2012) connected this beautifully when he said that Universality of grace does not conflict with its gratuity, if God, in virtue of his will to save all men, distributes with sovereign lib erty his graces to all adults without exception if the universality of grace is only a result of the Divine will to save all mankind, we must first turn our attention to the latter as the basis of the former. This goes to say that the universal grace that God gave to all human is to the effect that they be drawn closer to God by the salvation of their soul on the merit of Christs blood.Thus according to Knight, universal grace (actual grace) is the basis or foundation for special grace (sanctifying grace). One question that most theologians often ask about the matter of grace is the question of mans free will. The bible said that it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Phil. 213). The question therefore is if man needs grace to act or decide then where is his free-will to make choices on his own?Knight (2012) responded to this by observing that there is a grace which precedes the free determination of the will and another which follows this determ ination and co-operates with the will. He is of the opinion that grace does not destroy mans free will but co-operates with it. This grace helps the believer to make decisions that would glorify God and for the unbeliever, gives him an option to choose the right. The ultimate will of God for this grace is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 39) and to remain in the faith.Knight puts it well when he opined that this grace is a way of God defend the believer against fall into sin and with the final experience of a happy death (Knight 2012). Scripture text and its stand foration. Most times the particular meaning of Grace could be understood from the context in the passage in which the word is found. For instance, in Romans 51-2 Therefore being justified by faith, we have mollification with God through our Lord Jesus Christ By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand Grace in this context is something that is God-given and is made possible only through Jesus Christ. This is Gods gift of salvation granted to sinners for their salvation. This is the divine grace or as in the Catholic parlance the justifying grace. It is that unmerited mercy (favor) that God gave by sending his son to die on a cross and thus delivering eternal salvation to humanity. Another example is to be found in Luke 240 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him. In this example when using the definition of grace to mean unmerited favour it does not make sense. The reason is that the sinless Christ would not need the unmerited or undeserved favour of salvation. Thus grace in this context literally means favour or attractiveness. It could also mean divine enablement which does not necessarily bring one to salvation but as Olowe (2012b) puts it this grace is the resources to implement good works Also in Galatians 54 which reads Christ is become of no effect unto y ou, whosoever of you are justified by the law ye are fallen from grace. It would not make any sense to interpret grace in that context as unmerited favour for how can one fall short of grace through pride or attract grace through meekness (James 46 Galatians 54) if it is unmerited? Grace in this context is the empowering Presence of God enabling you to be who He created you to be, and the power that God gives us to do his will(Olowe 2011a). This suggests that the empowering is subject to being connected to the source (God). This then holds that sin could make one fall external from such empowerment.Any form of disobedience is rebelling against the will of God and thus a fall from grace (divine empowering). CONCLUSION John Newtons Amazing Grace remains the greatest hymn of all times. This song was written by a man who described himself as once an infidel and Libertine, a handmaiden of slavers in Africa. He testified that it was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that he was preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he once long labored to destroy. This story of Gods amazing grace shows the power of God in transforming lives.It is the story of hope for all men, sinners and saints alike. Hope that the sinner can still return to God and be accepted by Him. Hope that the saint need not depend on his strength for success over sin. Hope that we could be co-opted into the service of God and function effectively because grace is available. The challenge before the church therefore is not just to sing about this grace, but to be so motivated by its power that we would carry this message of Gods grace to the unsaved neighbours and friends around us. whitethorn this be our passion and mission REFERENCEAbi Olowe (2011). Grace of God. Houston Omega Publishers. http//www. graceti. com/books. asp? bkid=7. Abi Olowe (2011). The Five Forms of Grace. Houston Omega Publishers. http//www. graceti. com/books. asp? bkid=1 www. scborromeo. org/ccc/p3s1c3a2. htm. Grace and justification- St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church. www. olrl. org/Lessons/Lessons8. shtml Lesson 8 sanctifying grace. www. gbgm-umc. org/umw/Wesley/walk. stm. Grace Easton Bible Dictionary version 2. 0. 0 Vintech Systems (accessed 03 October, 2012) http//www. illumina. com/encyclopedia/hymns/amazing_Grace

Perfect competition Essay

The focus todays lecture is the examination of how determine and widening is determined in a monopoly commercialize. Pure monopoly is a single flying producing a overlap for which in that location are no close replaces. It is important for us to understand pure monopoly since this form of stinting activity accounts for a large share of take and it set ups us with an insight into the much realistic market structure of monopoliseric opposition and oligopoly. It is characterised by a single seller producing a carrefour with no close substitutes. The faithful and the exertion are the resembling.The harvest-home is unique there is no close substitute for it. You either buy the product or go without. effective barriers to ledger launch into the market (legal, technological, stinting). These barriers block tender menages from entering the industry, blocking potential competition. the firm is a damage maker faces a downward slanted quest bow for its product (this posit curve is the market demand curve). The firm has considerable stamp down over charge since it controls the meter supplied and quite a little cause value to change by varying the summation supplied. effective barriers to entry One special type of monopoly is a natural monopoly, a monopoly that arises because of the endureence of economies of ordered series over the entire relevant range of yield and competition is impractical, e. g. , water, electricity. These industries are usually given grievous bodily harm rights by the authorities, with the proviso that government regulates the operations to prevent abuses of monopoly power. A bigger firm provide continuously be able to ready output at a subalterner court than could a small firm.The press of competition in such(prenominal) an industry would terminus in a foresighted-run labyrinthine sense in which barely a single firm endure survive (since the largest firm can produce at a lower cost and can even a mo netary value that is less than the ATC of little firms). Natural monopolies have low MC and it is to their advantage to expand output. Barriers to entry The absence of competition in an industry is due largely to barriers to entry. Barriers to entry whitethorn take dissimilar forms 1. economies of scale cost efficient, low cost producers are usually large firms operating under conditions of economies of scale, where AC waterfall over a range of output.2. Legal barriers Patents and Licences government creates legal barriers in giving patents and licences. Patents this is the exclusive right to control a product for a number of years, protecting the inventor from rival competitors who did not spend any currency and time in its development. Licences the issuing of licences by the government limits entry into an industry. 3. ownership of critical lancinating materials a firm that owns a critical raw material can block the creation of rival firms. 4. below the belt competition r ivals may be eliminated and the entry blocked by aggressive, cut-throat tactics such as pressure on resource suppliers and banks to withhold materials and credit, aggressive price cutting designed to bankrupt competitors. Unfair competition is illegal or borders on illegality. Under conditions of economies of scale, large firms can produce output at a lower cost than can littler firms. Assume that the ATC curve of all firms in the industry is ATCo however, wholeness firm has become larger than the others, thereby producing at a lower ATC.This larger firm can sell its output at a lower price (at P) at which point little firms pull up stakes experience economic losses. At Po, smaller firms would receive zero economic pelf. At P the larger firm will receive zero economic profit, but smaller firms would receive economic losses and so leave the industry or merge with others. This situation will continue until only one large firm remains. This gives us a natural monopoly. A large fir m can operate as a regulated monopoly in which the government regulated the prices that could be appointd for product/services. picA firm may acquire monopoly power by having sole ownership of a raw material. Firms can also raise the sink cost associated with entry into an industry to help discourage entry by new firms. Sunk costs are costs that cannot be recovered upon exit from an industry advertising expenditures. If firms know that theyd lose a large amount in the form of sunk costs, they may hesitate to enter an industry. Large sunk costs are also difficult to finance. Patents and licenses provide two types of barriers to entry that are created by the government.While patent protection is necessary to checker that there are sufficient incentives for firms to engage in research and development expenditures, it also provides the patent holder with slightly degree of monopoly power. A local monopoly is a monopoly that exists in a specific geographical area. Monopoly Demand, A R, MR, TR, and cinch The demand curve facing a monopoly firm is the market demand curve (firm is the market). Since the market demand curve is a downward sloping curve, bare(a) revenue will be less than the price of the good. The monopoliser can augment its sales only by lowering its price.This is different from the holyly agonistic firm which faces a perfectly flexile demand curve at the market price. Recall that MR is positive when demand is elastic, equal to zero when demand is unit of measurement elastic, and negative when demand is inelastic. We will examine the implications of a downward sloping demand curve. i) P MR the monopolist can only increase sales if price falls, this causes MR P (AR) for all output except the first. The falling MR means that TR will increase at a lessen rate. Since it must lower price to sell more, the firms MR lies below its demand curve.ii). Price elasticity Recall the TR test for price elasticity of demand. TR tests tells us that whe n demand is elastic (inelastic), a decline in price will increase (decrease) TR. A monopolist or other imperfectly competitive firm will not chose to lower price into the inelastic segment of its demand curve, this will reduce TR and increase production costs, thereby lowering kale. The relationships between demand, MR and TR curves are shown in the diagram below, TR is maximized at the take aim of output at which demand is unit elastic (and MR = 0).Since the objective is to maximize its profit, the firm will look at its costs and revenue in determining its output level. As retentive as TR is increasing, MR is positive. When TR is at its maximum, MR = 0 and when TR is decreasing, MR is negative. pic Note that, as in all other market structures, AR = P of the good. (AR = TR/Q = (PxQ)/Q = P. ) This means that the price given by the demand curve is the total revenue that the firm receives at each level of output. iii) Cost Data The price-quantity combination depends not only on the MR and demand data, but also on costs.Profit-maximising firms produce the level of output where MC = MR (as long as P AVC). For the monopoly firm, MR = MC at an output level of Qo and firm will charge Po. Since Po ATCo at this level of output, the firm receives economic profit. These monopoly profits, though, differ from those received by a perfectly competitive firm in that these profits will persist in the long run (due to the barriers to entry that characterize a monopoly industry). pic A monopoly firm may experience losses (see diagram below) if P ATC. The economic losses equal to the shaded area.Since price is supra AVC, it will continue operations in the short run, but will leave the industry in the long run. pic A monopoly firm will shut down in the short run if the price falls below AVC. pic It may be a widely held view that a monopolist can charge any price s/he wants, but the firm is constrained by the demand for its product. If a monopoly firm wishes to maximizes its profit, it must select the level of output at which MR = MC. An increase in the price above this level would reduce the profits received by the firm. virtually misconceptions about monopoly pricing i) One uncouth misconception is that the monopolist will charge the highest price it can get. This is not true. Monopolist may not seek high prices since these bring in smaller than maximum profit. Total profit = TR TC, and these depend on the quantity sold, price and unit cost. ii) The monopolist is more concerned with maximum total profit, not maximum unit profits. He accepts a lower than maximum per unit profit since additional sales will more than make up for the lower unit profits, e. g., willing to sell 5 units at a profit of $30 per unit (total profit = $150) than 4 units at a profit of $70 (total profit = $140). economical effects of monopoly It will be profitable for the monopolist to sell a smaller quantity and charge a higher price than would a competitive producer. The pro fit maximizing output will result in an under allocation of resources since the restricted output uses fewer resources. Given the same costs, a monopolist will find it profitable to charge a higher price, produce a smaller output and mis-allocate resources compared with a perfectly competitive industry.X-efficiency progresss when a firms actual costs of producing any output are greaterthan the minimum possible costs. Price discrimination and dumping Firms operating in markets other than those of perfect competition are able to increase their profits by engaging in price discrimination, where higher prices are charged to those customers who have the most inelastic demand for the product. It takes place when a given product is sold at more than one price and these price differences are not justified by cost differences.Necessary conditions for price discrimination include i) Monopoly power the firm control output and price (not be a price taker) ii) separation of buyers the firm mus t be able to sort customers match the their elasticity of demand or willingness to pay for the product, and iii) no reselling resale of the product must not be workable cannot buy low and sell high.. The diagram below illustrates how price discrimination may be employ in the market for airline travel.Vacation travelers are likely to have a more elastic demand than business travelers. The optimal price is higher for business travelers than for vacation travelers. Airlines engage in price discrimination by offering low price super saver fares that require a weekend stay and tickets to be purchased 2-4 weeks in advance. These conditions are much more likely to be satisfied by individuals traveling for vacation purposes. This helps to ensure that the customers with the most elastic demand pay the lowest price for this commodity. pic some other examples of price discrimination include daytime and evening telephone rates, child and senior citizen discounts at restaurants and image th eaters, and cents-off coupon in Sunday newspapers. When countries practice price discrimination by charging different prices in different countries, they are often accused of dumping in the low-price countries. Predatory dumping occurs if a country charges a low price initially in an attempt to drive out domestic competitors and then raises the price once the domestic industry is destroyed.Consequences of discrimination The monopolist will be able to increase profits by engaging in discriminatory price practices. Monopolist will produce a larger output than a non-discriminating monopolist. Comparison of perfect competition and monopoly The diagrams below show a perfectly competitive market and the loss in consumer and producer surplus that results when a perfectly competitive industry is replaced by a monopoly. The introduction of a monopoly firm causes the price to rise from P(pc) to P(m), while the quantity of output falls from Q(pc) to Q(m).The higher price and reduced quantity i n the monopoly industry causes consumer surplus to fall by the trapezoidal area ACBP(pc). This does not all represent a cost to society, though, since the rectangle P(m)CEP(pc) is transferred to the monopolist as additional producer surplus. The net cost to society is equal to the blue shaded triangle CBF. This net cost of a monopoly is called deadweight loss. It is a measure of the loss of consumer and producer surplus that results from the lower level of production that occurs in a monopoly industry. picSome economists argue that the threat of potential competition may encourage monopoly firms to produce more output at a lower price than the model presented above suggests. This argument suggests that the deadweight loss from a monopoly is smaller when barriers to entry are less effective. Fear of government intervention (in the form of price regulation or just action) may also keep prices lower in a monopoly industry than would otherwise be expected. A related point is that it is unreasonable to compare outcomes in a perfectly competitive market with outcomes in monopoly market that results from economies of scale.While competitive firms may produce more output than a monopoly firm with the same cost curves, a large monopoly firm produces output at a lower cost than could smaller firms when economies of scale are present. This reduces the amount of deadweight loss that might be expected to occur as a result of the existence of a monopoly. On the other hand, deadweight loss may understate the cost of monopoly as a result of either X-inefficiency or rent-seeking behavior on the part of monopolies.X-inefficiency occurs if monopolies have less incentive to produce output in a least-cost manner since they are not threatened with competitive pressures. Rent-seeking behavior occurs when firms expend resources to acquire monopoly power by hiring lawyers, lobbyists, etc. in an attempt to receive governmentally granted monopoly power. These rent-seeking activities do not benefit society as a whole and divert resources away from arable activity. Regulation of natural monopoly A monopoly firm can produce at a lower cost per unit of output than could any smaller firms in a natural monopoly industry.In this case, the government by and large regulates the price that a monopoly firm can charge. The diagram below illustrates alternative regulatory strategies in such an industry. If the government leaves the monopolist alone, it will maximize its profits by producing Q(m) units of output and charging a price of P(m). Suppose, instead, though, that the government attempts to emulate a perfectly competitive market by setting the price equal to marginal cost. This would occur at a price of P(mc) and a quantity of output of Q(mc).Since this is a natural monopoly, though, the median(a) cost curve declines over the relevant range of output. If average costs are declining, marginal costs must be less than average costs (this relationship between marginal and average costs was discussed in detail in Chapter 9). Thus, if the price equals marginal costs, the price will be less than average total costs and the monopoly firm will experience economic losses. This pricing strategy could only exist in the long run if the government subsidized the production of this good. picAn alternative pricing strategy is to ensure that the owners of the monopoly receive only a fair rate of return on their investment rather than monopoly profits. This would occur if the price were set at P(f). At this price, it would be optimal for the firm to produce Q(f) units of output. As long as the owners receive a fair rate of return, there would be no incentive for this firm to leave the industry. Roughly speaking, this is the pricing strategy that regulators use in establishing prices for utilities, cable services, and the prices of other services produced in regulated monopoly markets.