Who Invented Karaoke

For those looking for a good time, karaoke is right up there with other popular pastimes such as bowling, billiards, and dancing. Yet it was only as recently as around the turn of the century that the concept started to catch on in the U.S. It was a somewhat similar situation in Japan, where the very first karaoke machine was introduced exactly 45 years ago. While the Japanese have customarily enjoyed entertaining dinner guests by singing songs, the notion of using a jukebox that simply played back background recordings, rather than a live band, seemed a bit odd. Not to mention that choosing a song was equivalent to the price of two meals, a tad pricey for most. The Invention of Karaoke Even the idea itself was born out of unusual circumstances. Japanese inventor Daisuke Inoue was working at coffeehouses as a backup musician when a client requested that he accompany him on a visit to see some business colleagues. â€Å"Daisuke, your keyboard playing is the only music that I can sing to! You know how my voice is and what it needs to sound good,† the client told him. Unfortunately, Daisuke couldn’t make the trip, so he did the next best thing and supplied the client with a custom recording of his performances to sing along to. It obviously worked out because when the client returned he asked for more cassettes. That’s when inspiration struck. He decided soon after to build a machine with a microphone, speaker and amplifier that played music people can sing along to. The Karaoke Machine Is Produced Inoue, along with his technologically savvy friends, initially assembled eleven 8 Juke machines, as they were originally called, and started renting them out to small drinking establishments in nearby Kobe to see if people would take to them. As I mentioned earlier, the systems were seen mostly as a novel alternative to live bands and appealed mainly to wealthy, affluent businessmen. That all changed after two club owners from the area bought the machines for venues that were opening locally. Demand shot up as word quickly spread, with orders coming all the way from Tokyo. Some businesses were even setting aside entire spaces so that customers can rent out private singing booths. Referred to as karaoke boxes, these establishments typically offered multiple rooms as well as a main karaoke bar. The Craze Spreads Through Asia By the ’90s, karaoke, which in Japanese means empty orchestra, would grow into a full-blown craze that was sweeping across Asia. During this time, there were several innovations such as improved sound technology and laser disc video players that allowed users to enrich the experience with visuals and lyrics that were displayed on screen -- all in the comfort of their own homes. As for Inoue, he didn’t make off as handsomely as many would have expected due to having committed the cardinal sin of not making the effort to patent his invention. Obviously this opened him up to rivals who would copy his idea, which cut into the company’s potential profits. Consequently, by the time laser disc players debuted, production of the 8 Juke was halted altogether. This despite having manufactured as many as 25,000 machines. But if you’re assuming he feels any remorse over the decision you’d be gravely mistaken. In an interview published in Topic Magazine and re-published online at The Appendix, an online â€Å"journal of experimental and narrative history, Inoue reasoned that patent protection would have likely hindered the evolution of the technology. Heres the excerpt: â€Å"When I made the first Juke 8s, a brother-in-law suggested I take out a patent. But at the time, I didn’t think anything would come of it. I was just hoping the drinking places in the Kobe area would use my machine, so I could live a comfortable life and still have something to do with music. Most people don’t believe me when I say this, but I don’t think karaoke would have grown like it did if there had been a patent on the first machine. Besides, I didn’t build the thing from scratch.† At the very least, though, Inoue has begun receiving recognition rightfully as the father of the karaoke machine, after his story was reported by Singaporean TV. And in 1999, the Asian edition of Time Magazine published a profile naming him as among The Most Influential Asians of the Century. He also went on to invent a cockroach-killing machine. He currently lives on a mountain in Kobe, Japan, with his wife, daughter, three grandchildren, and eight dogs.

The Gold Mining Industry in South Africa Essay - 1011 Words

Gold mining in South Africa has a large impact on the environment, the economy and social structure in South Africa. The environmental impact of gold mining on the environment includes water, air and noise pollution. The mining industry in South Africa is one of the largest in the world. It provides jobs for hundreds of thousands of people in the mining industry alone. The mining industry also indirectly provides jobs for about 400 000 with the goods and services that the mines require to run successfully. Some of the typical impacts that mining in South Africa has on the environment are that it can lead to a loss of biodiversity because of a transformation in the natural habitats and ecosystems. The mining industry also usually requires†¦show more content†¦The environmental damage a mine causes lasts for a long time, even after the mine has been closed for long the effects can still be seen for example the places where rock has been dumped, the tailings (the material that is left over after the valuable part of the ore from the worthless part.) dams, and the old shafts that have not been removed are likely to have long-term effects. Other side effects of mining such polluted water and solid waste can continue damaging the environment long after the mine has been shut down. Mining can also cause the loss of productive land, air pollution from harmful chemicals released into the air as well as general safety risks that are associated with mining. It can also negatively affect the people living in settlements near the mines. As harmful as gold mining is to everything and everyone around it, it is very important for the economy. South Africa has a large amount of mineral resources and is one of the leading countries when it comes to exporting raw materials. Gold is one of the biggest raw material exports and it makes up a third of all of South Africa’s exports. For over a century South Africa produced more gold than any other country in the world, but in 2007 China took over as the leading gold producer. Gold was once the foundation of South Africa economy, but as the economy has grown it has become less dependent on gold mining. In the 1970’s and 1980’s gold mining was very important to the South African economy, itShow MoreRelatedHeading East From The Netherlands, Dutch Traders (Afrikaners)1149 Words   |  5 Pagesheaded north taking land from indigenous inhabitants and founding their own republics. With the discovery of diamonds and gold, immigration intensified and indigenous inhabitants were expelled from the country now known as South Africa. 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Research Essay on Being Pro Abortion Free Essays

Research Essay on Pro-Abortion Every woman should have the opportunity to determine if they would want to keep their child or abort it. Growing up in today’s society, I find myself in an environment where kids are having kids, parents who aren’t capable to raise a child are having kids, and victims of sexual assault are having kids. And in most cases, the child ends up living a life that isn’t too well. We will write a custom essay sample on Research Essay on Being Pro Abortion or any similar topic only for you Order Now This leads to children being neglected, abused, homeless, hungry and more importantly unloved. Imagine a woman not being allowed to have an abortion. Abortions eliminate the risks of all of those tragedies happening. The problem shouldn’t be killing an egg that isn’t fully yet involved into a baby. The problem should be having children but later neglecting or mistreating them to the point where they can’t be a happy child. Sometimes you hear parents saying, â€Å"I wish I would have waited. † or even worse â€Å"I don’t think I can do this. † For a lot of pregnancies, they aren’t planned. If we don’t allow for abortions to continue to be legal that simply means we are allowing for unfit parents to have kids and by doing this we are failing our children. I was taught to eliminate a problem before it escalates or before it becomes too late. We often hear stories about parents harming their children because the child might have cried too much or whined too much. Why should the child have to suffer? Why should a child be harmed in the first place? We can’t justify abortions not being legal. I feel that a human is born. Until then, you should be allowed to make the decision on whether or not you want to abort your child until it is too late. It’s a women’s right. A father can run away from his child but the mother will be there forever. The grandma might not care or the uncle might not be there but the mother will always be around. When we actually think about it, abortion isn’t as bad as we make it seem. It’s simply an alternative for a lifestyle that a person is trying to avoid. A person can’t raise a child to their best abilities if they never wanted the child to begin with. There will never be true happiness or true love for that child. This is why I take the stand for pro-abortion. Every woman should have the right to decide what they want to do with their body. With shows like â€Å"16 and Pregnant† or â€Å"Teen Mom†, we’re showed the struggles of being a teen mother but, we also notice that most of the mothers on Teen Mom are well off. Not only are they getting paid for being on the show but they have the assistance of others- most of them. But that’s not the case for many teens in the real world. USA Today reported that, â€Å"About 7% of teen girls got pregnant in 2006, a rate of 71. 5 pregnancies per 1,000 teens. That’s up slightly from 69. 5 in 2005, Guttmacher says. In 1990, when rates peaked, about 12% got pregnant. USATODAY)† Teen pregnancies are on the rise whether we can accept the fact or not. We shouldn’t be allowed to push a child into becoming a mother by eliminating abortions. Not only are we risking an unfit life for the child, we are also telling our teens that once you get pregnant having the bay is the only option when that is certainly not true. Amongst the group of teen pregnancies, we can’t forget about the minority group that isn’t lucky enough to get help from their parent. Prochoice states, â€Å"Low-income women and women in diverse communities are more adversely affected by limited access. For example, low-income women often lack the funds necessary for an abortion, which can delay their care(prochoice). † These teens have to rely on government assistance and fast money(stripping, drug dealing, prostituting, stealing, etc). The odds are already against them for the simple fact that they are minorities, they don’t have it all and they have to work harder than the next person. Having a child that they wouldn’t want makes the situation worse for both the child and the mother. Struggling to pay for an abortion beats struggling to raise a child for eighteen years. USA Today also states that, â€Å"The issue here is clearly that we have a lot of teenagers who are having sex, but they aren’t careful enough at contraception to avoid pregnancy,† says Sarah Brown, executive director of the nonprofit National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, who has seen Guttmacher’s numbers. (USATODAY)† If teens aren’t wise enough to practice safe sex, how can we assume that that they will be wise enough to make the right decisions when raising their child. If we become anti-abortion, we’re sealing the deal for teens to have kids whether they want too or not. With the issue of abortion, one’s attitude toward it is going to be based on many things such as religious background and personal morals. There is no black and white answer to the abortion issue. Luckily we live in a country where we are able to decide for ourselves whether something is morally right or wrong. Thus, ultimately, the choice is ours. As with the many other ethical issues which we are faced with in our society, it is hard to come to a concrete answer until we are personally faced with that issue. All we can do is make an effort to know all of the aspects which are involved so that we may be able to make a sound decision if we were faced with this problem in our own lives. In conclusion, it is clear that although some things are important in order to save a life, I truly believe a woman should have the right to end the life of her unborn child if it’s any inconvenience at all. Even though it is stopping a beating heart, and the baby can feel pain at 20 weeks, I feel the convenience of the irresponsible mother is WAY more important. How to cite Research Essay on Being Pro Abortion, Essays

Cemeteries and Robots free essay sample

After seventh grade, I learned I would be transferring to a small school settled across the street from one of the oldest and largest cemeteries in the United States. How fitting. The gloomy and eerie atmosphere of the cemetery was an implication of the foredoom I’d face inside the building. Initially, I wondered why all the other students were so restrained and robotic. Promising myself not conform with my insensate peers, but my efforts proved useless. It was impossible to express myself or have any original thoughts. Unconventional ideas and methods were frowned upon. The austere administration reprimanded those who didn’t abide by the rules or caused disturbances of any kind. Do not dare inform the math teacher he spelled logarithm incorrectly, or you would be his prime victim of targeted sarcastic remarks for the next few weeks. Moreover, the small size and dull personalities didnt sanction many friends, and I decided Id rather be solitary and focus on my work than pretend to like my environment. We will write a custom essay sample on Cemeteries and Robots or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Having plenty of alone time allowed me to truly get to know myself. I turned to books and music to fill the empty human contact and fell in love with fictional characters who had the exciting lives I craved like Alex DeLarge from the novel A Clockwork Orange. Incidentally, during my sophomore year we miraculously reaped a new, young English teacher. Unfamiliar to the schools strict, G-Rated standards, (one had to skip word breast if reading Emily Dickinson’s Her breast is fit for pearls,† out loud in class) my new savior encouraged me to rev up my abandoned motorcycle of creativity in the tool shed that had become dusty. We were allowed to speak freely, initiate debates, and not be afraid to test our analytical abilities. English class became the only class period where I could think for myself. I began to heavily dissect a myriad of literature pieces, from the contradicting phrases of Charles Dickens to the neurotic sanity of Chuck Palahniuk novels. As my independent studies sunk me deeper into a literary world, everything in my daily life took a new route. It was amazing to unveil all the subtle things I had bluntly ignored before. I noticed how companies exaggerated and mislead the public on advertisements by cleverly wording certain phrases. My mother used polar statements to trick me into agreeing to things she wanted me to do: â€Å"Do you want to not visit Uncle Jimmy?† (Huh?). I hated that my school’s inadequate library carried books that were so horribly detailed in their plots that I wondered how on earth they got published in the first place. I noted how my physics textbook used metaphors to explain difficult concepts. History came to be just one long nonfiction story about important events. On uneventful days, I’d write fictional stories and news articles, pretending to be the editor of a prestigious magazine. Later, I didn’t have to pretend. I had so many ideas built up inside and became an active contributor to online teen magazines. In my senior year (after transferring schools), I became the editor-in-chief for the school’s newsletter. Writing manifested to be my greatest passion. I had forgotten what it was like to engage in creative activities outside of a suffocating environment. My new enthusiasm for learning left me with an aura of positivity that spread through my schoolwork and interactions with family and friends. It was at the end of this odyssey that I learned the importance of connecting my mind with the minds of others. It has given me the combination to the safe of life. If only the authors Ive studied knew how much of a difference their writing has made in my life. I want the chance to impact someone else’s mind with my own literature. As much as I loathed the obstinate school, I do not have any regrets about the experiences I went through. Each school year allowed me to mature into a rational thinking adolescent. Although I was not able to choose my dream high school, I am ultimately able to have the choice for my college academics. College is my gateway to finally doing what I want to do, because a college education isn’t simply learning a set of facts. You are your own person and must utilize skills that go beyond a textbook by learning to be resourceful and creative. Coming from a school where my cultivation was limited, I will certainly not take for granted the freedom and opportunities college can offer.

30+ Writing Podcasts You Should Be Listening To

30+ Writing Podcasts You Should Be Listening To 30+ Writing Podcasts You Should Be Listening To Well†¦ don’t try to listen to all these writing podcasts - or you’ll never get any writing done!With the massive popularity of audiobooks and podcasts, you could easily say that we’re in an era of ‘peak audio content’ - and for book fans and budding writers, there’s never been a better time to get intimate advice from a range of voices. To celebrate the second season of Reedsy's Bestseller podcast, we’re giving you the skinny on some of the best writing podcasts around.Publishing and Self-PublishingPublishing a book is no easy feat. And if you choose to do it yourself by going down the independent publishing route, there’s a lot you’ll need to learn about marketing, design, and distribution. Thankfully, you won’t be short on great advice from those who have done it before.Bestseller by Reedsyâ€Å"The definitive insider's guide to our current golden age of television.†Ben Blacker of The Thrilling Adven ture Hour lets his listeners eavesdrop into conversation with some of the biggest names in television writing. If you dream of writing TV drama, or are just a Netflix addict, you’ll want to tune in for his talks with the likes of Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad), Amy Sherman-Palladino (Gilmore Girls and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) and Damon Lindelof (Lost).Have we missed out your favorite podcast? Drop a message in the comments below and let us know!

Rocking-Horse Winner essays

Rocking-Horse Winner essays The Rocking-Horse Winner by D. H. Lawrence is a story of a boy named Paul who grows up in a family that is down on its luck and haunted by an unspoken phrase There must be more money! After a talk with his mother, he becomes convinced that he can become lucky, and not only end the haunting phrase, but also gain the love from his mother that is missing. He begins to bet on horse races and picks a winner by riding on an old rocking horse intensely for hours until he gets there. It is then when he knows who the winner of the horse race will be. Paul then partners up with the gardener and his uncle and soon begins winning a lot of money. He decides to give his mother a thousand pounds every birthday for five years, but upon seeing this she decides that she wants it all now. She spends all the money and the voices in the house only grow louder and more intense. Paul is even more determined now and his last shot at winning money is at the Derby. As the Derby grows closer, he grows more and more tense and rides his rocking horse non-stop. His mother starts to worry about him, and when she goes to check in on him, he gets there and blurts out the winner. His mother has just become richer than she could ever imagine, though her son is passed out from exhaustion and later dies. What is the meaning of greed for an understanding of this story? These "unspoken" haunted words may very well be a representation of the great sense of greed that has made its presence throughout the house, especially within the mother. What it does, is it causes Paul to experience a great sense of frustration. Therefore, he feels it is necessary to help his mother retrieve more money and put an end to this unexplainable madness. Paul is determined to become lucky, and feels that he can pick a winner every time by riding his rocking horse extremely hard until he gets there. But Even after Pa ...

The Straight Path, by John Esposito Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Straight Path, by John Esposito - Essay Example Subsequent chapters deal with various themes, from the political and religious structure of Muslim communities in history, to the theological interpretations and disagreements between the religions's leading jurists, to the nineteenth and twentieth century reformists and neo-reformists and, finally, contemporary issues and trends within the religion. Through a critical analysis of Islam: The Straight Path, this review shall seek to determine whether or not Esposito satisfied his expressed aim in writing this book and if, indeed, he has provided the non-academic, introductory reader with a non-biased and solid understanding of Islam. The first three chapters focus on the earlier historical aspects of Islam, from the rise of the religion to the evolution of divisions within the Muslim community. The first chapter is particularly informative and understandable. Not only does it provide a historical account of the Quranic revelations and the life of Mohammed within that context but it explains the interrelationship between Mohammed and the Quran. ... Interestingly, and in an attempt to make the teachings of the Quran more understandable and accessible to his Western, non-academic audience, Esposito draws upon contrasts between Islam and Christianity, Islam and Judaism. The second and third chapters present an overview of the political, social and sectarian history of Islam. The rise of the Islamic empires, the development of the caliphate system of governance and the spread of the religion beyond Arabia are all discussed within the context of an accessible historical capsule. Primarily dealing with Islam following the death of Mohammed, these chapters also explain the emergence of divisions within Islamic theology, eventually leading to the evolution of various sects, from the Shia to the Mutazila to the Kharijites. In addition, the development of the various schools of theological and legal interpretation is discussed and differences between them are clarified. The second and third chapters, even though they are a continuation of the first, contrast with it in a very important way. In brief, while the first chapter gave readers a sense of Islam as a unifying force and presented it as a religion whose interpretation, as exemplified by Mohammed's lifestyle and words, was relatively clear cut, the second and third chapters indirectly dispute this assumption. The rise of sects and the different schools of theological interpretation lead the reader to believe that the unifying force was the Prophet of Islam, himself and upon his death, unification died as well. This belief is further confirmed by Esposito's statement that the Murjia "position provided a justification for Umayyad legitimacy and rule" (Esposito, 1991, 70). The implication here is that while earlier theological interpretations, as in

The Wire Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words - 1

The Wire - Research Paper Example The â€Å"Dickensian aspect† as an aspect in the series, The Wire is a writing from the previous weeks of the current situation and issue of the series. It is extracted for season 1-4/episode 6 of the series and it majorly dwells on an explanation as to the mystery behind the survival of Omar in the three stories that falls from the three main actors of the series, Snoop, Chris and Michael. It further goes ahead to give an explanation on the bizarre around the interference on the tap of Marlo’s cell phone. In the series, this aspect plays a critical part to the future development of the series and this informs my choice to discuss it as the subject of this paper ("The Dickensian Aspect" | The Wire | TV Club | TV | The A.V. Club."). In the first instance, Omar is involved in the crew by Marlo a group which is involved in providing a way of bringing together a scene; the scene later becomes the most fatal injury to a man who is future oriented. Snoop goes ahead to do an inquiry as a concerned individual about the resultant aforementioned injury to Omar a situation which would have resulted to their own doubts even in the case where Omar was actually at the hospitals leave alone now that he is not there and that it is a mere stage managed scenario. The actor, Omar as it turns out is hidden under the noses of the individuals purporting to be looking for the supposed injured Omar. Since Omar fell and his legs got shattered, he finds himself inside janitor’s closet of the same building from which he leapt and this enables the character to hide away from the view of the majority or public. From the episode in the week before this setting a spider man shit is reported to have vanished to avoid keeping up with O mar’s legendary act. This is a highly commendable act as less of the times do we witness such forms of acts taking place in the real world settings. Even though there is more to what we just saw,

Evolution of E-Commerce to M-Commerce Dissertation

Evolution of E-Commerce to M-Commerce - Dissertation Example It is also surprising that the pattern of m-commerce is not diverting the focus of sales away from e-commerce; it is adding more value to its operations. Studies reveal that about 90 percent of clients use their smart devices in order to make inquiries about products, their features and their prices (Lee, 2013:19). The on-the-go convenience and ease allows consumers to compare and contrast various products as easily as they would do it in a physical store that they walk into any time they want to. Further, besides pre-shopping activities, consumers make use of smart devices while shopping in outlets. The fact is that m-commerce is improving the general in-store experience and enabling companies to connect with their clients more closely. Businesses can develop more intimate connections with their customers when it comes to understanding them and meeting their needs. This, in turn, drives and will continue driving sales in the foreseeable future. Considering these facts, the biggest q uestion arising is now whether businesses are paying enough attention to their mobile platforms or not. Based on a study of a number of small enterprises in the United States, the findings show that 60 percent of them lack a plan to replicate their businesses online. In addition, commercialisation does not form part of their strategy because they feel that their companies and resources are not enough to support such expansion. The crux of this analysis is that no matter the size of a business, m-commerce is slowly replacing e-commerce.

Case Study: Mattel Toy Recall, 2007

Case Study: Mattel Toy Recall, 2007 I. Introduction : Mattel Toy Recall 2007 Case Study About Mattel In 1945, Ruth and Elliot Handler and Harold Matt Matson form a partnership called Mattel Creations in Southern California in a garage workshop that manufactured picture frames and dollhouse furniture. The worlds largest toy company, Mattel, Inc., also known as â€Å"the worlds premiere toy company today and tomorrow,† designs, manufactures, markets, and distributes a variety of toy products all over the world. The companys products include a number of core toy lines, including Barbie dolls (which eventually became the best-selling toy ever), clothing, and accessories; Hot Wheels vehicles; Harry Potter, Batman, Superman, and Looney Tunes products; the American Girls Collection of books, dolls, clothing, and accessories; Fisher-Price infant and preschool toys, and toys based on Disney and Sesame Street characters; and games such as Scrabble and UNO. Mattels toys are produced in company-owned manufacturing facilities in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Thailand, and independe nt contractors located in the United States, Europe, Mexico, the Far East, and Australia. The companys three main retail customers include Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Toys R Us, Inc., and Target Corporation. Throughout the years, Mattel continued to create and market popular toys such as Hot Wheels, merge with profitable manufacturers Fisher Price in 1993 and Tyco Toys, Inc. in 1997, partner with Disney, Sesame Street, and Nickelodeon, obtain licenses and rights to manufacture Cabbage Patch Dolls and Harry Potter merchandise, and acquire Pleasant Company (maker of American Girl brand) in 1997.Since 1945, the Mattel Company works hard to ensure it is considered a trustworthy company for children and the community. Mattel established the Mattel Childrens Foundation to make â€Å"a meaningful difference in the lives of children in need globally.† In 1997, the corporation formed the Global Manufacturing Principles (GMP), establishing Mattel as the first company to create a framework to ensure responsible manufacturing, assembly, and distribution is conducted through consistent standards on a global level. In 1998, Mattel began a unique $25 million multi-year donation partnership to th e UCLA childrens hospital, renamed the Mattel Childrens Hospital at UCLA to assist and serve children from around the world with nationally recognized health care. With so much positive philanthropy projects, Mattel has not always been able to maintain an image of child-like and trustworthy purity. Mattel has experienced many criticisms for stealing ideas for toy-lines from children competing in toy invention competitions. In 1974, investigators revealed that company officials produced and issued false and misleading financial information to make it appear as if the company was continuing to successfully grow. And of course, Mattel has also had its share of recalls (the accurate number of recalls is debatable but it ranges from 17 to 28 recalls). But in August 1997, Mattel faced the biggest recall in the companys history. Brief Background There are two separate reasons why Mattel recalled 19 million toys from August to September of 2007. The fact that both recalls occurred at the same time makes this the biggest recall in the companys history. The first toy recall was due to defective magnets. The design of the toy magnets included parts with high-energy magnets typically used for industrial purposes that easily come loose and posed a threat to young children and infants who could easily swallow the magnets which could then adhere together in the digestive tract and rupture the stomach tissue. The strength of the magnets combined with Mattels poor design of the toys made the products a critical hazard for young children. Mattels website (http://corporate.mattel.com) lists 71 models and makes of toys that were recalled because of faulty magnets. The second toy recall was due to high levels of lead-based paint found on the surface of many toys. Mattel had previously given manufacturers in China a list of eight approved paint suppliers to use, but in order to reduce costs, subcontractors decided to employ unapproved suppliers. In some cases, the lead content was over 180 times the legal limit. Lead-based paint is dangerous for children because elevated levels create learning and behavioral problems, slow muscle and bone growth, hearing loss, anemia, brain damage, seizures, coma, and in some rare cases, death. Mattel recalled 91 models and makes of toys because of harmful levels of lead paint. China Since 1997, China has experienced many tribulations with the quality and standards of the products manufactured within the country. For instance, pet food, toothpaste, seafood, tires, and toys are just a few of the products recalled from homes in the United States because of serious, sometimes deadly, manufacturing inaccuracies. The business relationship between Mattel and China seemed to be a strong partnership. Mattel manufactured 65 percent of its toys in China, and before the recall, was a company others used as a model for successful global manufacturing. Mattel was criticized for placing too much faith in the partnership with China as well as careless inspections on the quality of the manufacturing sites abroad. TimelineIn November of 2006, Mattel recalled Polly Pocket sets sold with magnets that posed a threat to children. In July 2007, a European retailer discovered high levels of lead content on various Mattel toys. Once notified, Mattel began an investigation and closed operations at the factories producing the toys. During the investigation, Mattel discovered millions of products available since 2003 that did not pass safety standards. On August 1, 2007, Fisher-Price recalled 1.5 million toys due to high levels of lead-based paint 60% of which were all manufactured in China. After further investigation, Mattel recalled 18 million more products on August 14, 2007 because of the possible hazards of children swallowing faulty magnets. And on September 4, 2007, Mattel recalled another 848,000 toys due to high levels of lead-based paint. The U.S. Senate Committee began scrutinizing American safety standards for childrens toys and clothing and stated the possibility of creating new legislation to keep hazardous toys and clothing from children. Despite the fact that a larger number of toys were recalled because of faulty magnets and not lead-based paint, the framed communication made China appear culpable for the recalls in order to reduce reputational damage and the Chinese media stated that Mattel should be accountable for the mistakes rather than blame China. Mattel eventually listened and on September 21, the company issued an apology to China taking full blame for the recall crisis. Mattel also posted news releases and video interviews on the company website to keep the public informed. June 8, 2007 Mattel receives information on possible lead paint contamination June 9, 2007 CPSC deadline to report the problem June 10, 2007 Mattel fails to report problem to CPSC July 26, 2007 Mattel files full report to CPSC August 14, 2007 Mattel voluntarily recalls 17.4 million products September 4, 2007 Mattel voluntarily recalls 850,000 toys with lead paint October 25, 2007 Mattel voluntarily recalls Go Diego Go! Rescue boats coated in hazardous lead paint November 6, 2007 Mattel voluntarily recalls 155,000 choking hazard toys manufactured in Mexico OBJECTIVES Mattels management has expressed the overall company vision as â€Å"The Worlds Premier Toy BrandsToday and Tomorrow.† Management set five key company strategies: 1. improve execution of the existing toy business 2. globalize the brands 3. extend the brands 4. catch new trends 5. develop people The company also adapts its definition of truthfulness by:  · Collecting and disseminating all information about the recall to the public accurately, quickly, and efficiently.  · Reassuring the public, especially parents and retailers, that the company is devoted to producing safe toys and improving honest communication.  · Taking responsibility for the recall, solving the crisis, and maintaining a working relationship with China. CRISIS PLAN Mattel is known for their 100-page crisis plan and a well-planned crisis response infrastructure tested from 28 recalls since 2000. Mattel speaks with one voice, communicates consistently through a crisis, acts quickly, and responds with public apology and any other expectations. All steps of the plan are code of a successful crisis plan and response. When Mattel realized the company was facing a serious crisis, their first act was to contact the federal agency overseeing toy issues and product safety. When federal officials publicized the first Mattel recall, Mattels crisis management team instantly arranged for open communication channels with reporters from the top media outlets. The team sent e-mail alerts with the recall press release, invited reporters to a teleconference with company executives, and arranged for the media to interview key personnel employed with Mattel. The day of the recall, Robert Eckert, CEO of Mattel, met with reporters for television and phone interviews. Mattel established a help line, answered over 300 media requests in the United States, and placed full page ads in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal by the end of the week. Mattel also started an online movement to notify consumers about the recall with updates posted on a regular basis, chat rooms, message boards, and social media. Mattel has consistently been open with the media and consumers testifying new company policies with very high standards and quality and safety testing procedures, although carefully stating â€Å"no system can be perfect.† Mattel also made it clear that they are doing all that they can to assess the situation on the manufacturing level. Apology to China Mattel prematurely placed disproportionate blame on Chinese manufacturers encouraging China bashing in the media across the world damaging Chinas reputation. On September 20, 2007, Mattel issued an apology to China in a meeting with Li Changjiang, the Chinese product safety chief. In the apology, Debrowski states â€Å"Mattel takes full responsibility for these recalls and apologizes personally to you, the Chinese people, and all of our customers who received the toys.† China accepted the apology saying â€Å"Mattel should value our cooperation. I really hope that Mattel can learn lessons and gain experience from these incidents, [and they should] improve their control measures† and anticipates that China will restore consumer confidence in products â€Å"made in China.† Result of Crisis Mattel appeared to handle the crisis by appearing to be up-front and open about the massive toy recall. Mattels homepage contains a dedicated bold red link to toy recalls containing information about recalls affecting all countries, what toys are being recalled, where to bring recalled toys, and defining Mattels three-point safety check system: 1. Mattel will make sure that manufactures only use paint from certified suppliers and they will test every single batch of paint from all vendors. If the paint isnt up to Mattels standards, it wont be used. 2. Mattel is increasing control on every level of the production process and conducting random inspections at all vender facilities. 3. Mattel pledges to test all finished toys vigorously before they reach the consumer. The toys must meet a series of strict safety standards before they are put on the market. Mattel assures customers that all venders are aware of these new procedures and Mattels strict enforcement of them. ANALYSIS Applying SCCT * Good o Public apology from CEO o Coupons offered o Stressed stringent inspection processes and company improvement * Bad o Placed initial blame on China, later making an apology to China o Stated media and government escalated the crisis Media Coverage Most of the media information that covered the Mattel toy recall discussed the lead-based paint recall and did not include the magnetic toy design flaw crisis which led to the China bashing products replying â€Å"Made In China should be viewed as a warning label.† Many media outlets reported the importance of China creating strict safety standards before putting more lives in danger.Media coverage of Mattel was very different since the focus was on Mattels timely apology and quick release of recall information. The fact that key Mattel executives spoke with the media provided a favorable reputation for the company. What China Has Done China continues to build manufacturing trust with the United States while improving problems within the country. US Regulatory Structure after the crisis The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission is â€Å"charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from thousands of types of consumer products under the agencys jurisdiction. â€Å" In order to ensure the safety of childrens toys, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) stopped the use of lead paint in toy manufacturing. CPSC Chairman stated that the Work Plans â€Å"show significant forward progress in the agencys efforts to bring Chinese-made consumer products into line with the U.S. safety rules. This is an important signal from the Chinese government that it is serious about working with CPSC to keep dangerous products out of American homes. We will be looking for meaningful cooperation on the ground that means not just with the Chinese government, but also with industry at both ends of the supply chain.† The CPSC also plans to increase consumer product inspections manufactured for the United States and will review the plans effectiveness after one year to discuss and implement improvements. The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act includes strict guidelines of Childrens product safety for: * Sec. 101. Childrens products containing lead; lead paint rule. * Sec. 102. Mandatory third party testing for certain childrens products. * Sec. 103. Tracking labels for childrens products. * Sec. 104. Standards and consumer registration of durable nursery products. * Sec. 105. Labeling requirement for advertising toys and games. * Sec. 106. Mandatory toy safety standards. * Sec. 107. Study of preventable injuries and deaths in minority children related to consumer products. * Sec. 108. Prohibition on sale of certain products containing specified phthalates. Personal interest as a mother During the Mattel toy recall crisis, I was in my third trimester with my first child. Imagine what went through my mind as a soon-to-be-new-mother already filled with angst. And so, a new Fleenor rule was born all products made in China were not welcomed and banned from our home. Easy enough I thought. Our son would have toys, clothing, food, and furniture made in the USA only easy enough I thought. So we discussed our decision with family and friends that all items with the â€Å"Made in China† label would be returned. Shopping became a difficult task because about 80 percent of toys, clothing, and furniture sold in America are made in China. I soon realized that I needed to shop online for specialty â€Å"Made in the USA† stores, find local artisans to build furniture and toys, and plan on entertaining my child myself with books, funny faces, and outdoor adventures. While I am still cautious of â€Å"Made in China† products, I am much more relaxed as I take responsibility in becoming an informed consumer through product recall email alerts from cpsc.gov, maintaining open communication with my childrens pediatrician, and still acting as the main entertainment source for my two children. What we learned Mattel dealt with the toy recall crisis precisely the way Coombs recommends companies to deal with image damaging crises. Mattels experience with recalls definitely ensured precise and smooth execution of their well documented crisis management plan. The company and CEO were visible, available, and publicly apologetic. And more importantly, Mattel told the truth and took immediate action to fix the problem allowing the company to focus on a positive solution and restoring the companys dependable reputation. It is often difficult to know exactly where and how consumer products are manufactured and how products are inspected in todays ever-changing global economy. The toy recall crisis also allowed us to realize that we are also facing an economic crisis with global manufacturing. While the United States is doing the best to ensure our safety through strict product regulations, we need to realize the difficult challenges we face when heavily relying on outside countries to manufacture such large quantities. â€Å"It would be far to easy to attribute this summers recalls to Chinas poorly regulated export manufacturers. Regulatory deficiencies, shoddy business practices, and the forces of globalization all play a substantial role in this catastrophe. There is enough blame to go around,† Representative John Dingell (D-Mich.) said during the Sept. 19, 2007 hearings. Similar recalls The RC2 Corporation of Oakbrook, Ill. recalled approximately 1.5 million Thomas and Friends train sets on June 13, 2007 because of high levels of lead-based paint used by Chinese contractors. The R2C Corporations recall was not as grand in scale as Mattels, but the company quickly posted an apology to consumers on the company website, terminated business contracts with manufacturers not complying with RC2 paint specifications, and employed a six-point safety check system. On February 6, 2007, Hasbro recalled 985,000 Easy-bake Ovens because young children could easily insert their hands in the over and get their hands caught and burned. Summary â€Å"I think Mattel handled the problem very well overall. Its a problem that isnt unusual for them to have. Product defects and difficulty with suppliers are pretty typical in their line of work and they took responsibility. They were willing to talk about it and understood the ramifications,† stated Paul A. Argenti, Professor of Corporate Communications at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. What should Mattel do now? Plan for tomorrow and be more conscientious using domestic and international manufacturers. Again, Mattel took responsibility for the entire recall, which not many companies are willing to be held accountable for Toyota is the best example today. Owning up takes courage and actions in good times and bad should express the companys character. Mattel should continue to identify possible problems, enforce strict manufacturing regulations to produce safe toys, reassure consumers that child safety and product safety is the bottom line, and collaborate with i nternational suppliers and government agencies to ensure public well-being. Mattel has to be prepared for other problems and continue risk management audits. â€Å"There are always going to be problems. But if Mattel can lead the change for toy manufacturers to create a more responsible industry, they could become the hero.† Bibliography AudraAng, â€Å"China Calls for More Testing of Exports,† June 6, 2007 Brian Hartman, â€Å"Thomas Friends Wooden Railway Toys Recalled, â€Å"http://abcnews.go.com, June 13, 2007 Brief Review of China Toy Industry in 2006. (2006). Retrieved February 2010, from China Toy Association: http://www.toy-cta.org/mail/en/7/ Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection (BSMI). (2007). Retrieved February 2010, from Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection (BSMI): http://www.bsmi.gov.tw/wSite/mp?mp=2 Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. (2010). Retrieved from CPSC: http://www.cpsc.gov/ CPSC Chairman Inez M. Tenenbaum Keynote Address via Video Recording, APEC Toy Safety Initiative Open Dialogue on Toy Safety. (2010, January 12). Retrieved February 2010, from CPSC: http://www.cpsc.gov/PR/tenenbaum01122010.html Ebenkamp, B. (2007). Toymakers Plotting New Game Plans After Recalls. Brandweek, 48(30), 9. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier Database Eric Lipton, David Barboza, â€Å"As More Toys Are Recalled, Trail Ends in China,† The New York Times, June 19, 2007 Laws and Regulations. (2007). Retrieved February 2010, from General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the Peoples Republic of China: http://english.aqsiq.gov.cn/ Mattel Consumer Relations Answer Center. (2010, February). Retrieved from Mattel: http://service.mattel.com/us/recall.asp Orey, M. (2009). Taking on Toy Safety. BusinessWeek Online, 20. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database Palmeri, C. (2007). Mattel Takes the Blame for Toy Recalls. BusinessWeek Online, 17. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier Database Recalls. (2010). Retrieved from Recalls.gov: http://www.recalls.gov/ â€Å"Toys Made in China Set Recall Record, Alarming Parents and Regulators,† http://www.mercurynews.com, June 19, 2007 U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. (2006). Handbook for Manufacturing Safer Consumer Products. Bethesda: U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Nikes Marketing Campaign: JUST DO IT :: Just Don’t Overdo It

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   When I learned that I had to write this research paper, instead of procrastinating, I convinced myself to JUST DO IT. This phrase also happens to be one of the signature phrases of the leading athletic apparel company, Nike. The JUST DO IT campaign has been very successful for Nike, but it is not he sole reason for their success. Nike’s campaign has definitely persuaded me to go out and buy a few Nike products. So what exactly does Nike’s persuasive campaign consist of? This paper will discuss all aspects of Nike’s persuasive campaign. Some of the campaign’s strategies, goals, and techniques will be revealed. Some persuasive theories that can be applied to the Nike advertising campaign will be identified and explained. After discussing these theories, the specific arguments of the campaign will be validated. Overall, the entire campaign will be analyzed and it will be determined whether the campaign is a success or a failure.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The purpose of a campaign is to deliver a prospective consumer to the point of sale. Nike uses what is classified as a product oriented advertising campaign. Nike’s entire campaign is centered on convincing the consumer to purchase their product. The goal of most product campaigns is to educate and prepare the consumer to exhibit purchasing behavior, so that their company may become the leader in its market. Since Nike is already the leading athletic apparel company, their goal is probably to stay on top. Some of the major strategies used to achieve this goal are the use of television, magazine, and Internet advertisements.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The developmental stages of a successful campaign help to establish the product in the audience’s mind or consciousness. The stages of the Nike campaign can be described by using the Yale Five-Stage Developmental Model. Yale researchers developed this model while observing the growth of national identity. The first stage of this model is identification. Our text states that â€Å"Many products and causes develop a graphic symbol or logotype to create identification in the audience’s mind† (p. 264, Larson). The logo Nike is most famous for is â€Å"The Swoosh.† This is the term given to the symbol of winged victory that appears on Nike products. â€Å"The design of the swoosh logo was inspired by the wing from the Greek goddess Nike† (p. 3, http://shrike.depaul.edu /~mcoscino/word.html). The Nike logo’s presence can be noted in almost every aspect of the athletic world.

A Data Warehouse Appliance Can Have a Huge Positive Impact on Businesses and Organizations Essay

Businesses and organizations of all sizes are becoming increasingly dependent on data analytics, and data warehouses or business analytic infrastructure has become a business critical application for many (if not most) companies. Indeed, these companies have always searched for better ways to understand their customers, and anticipate their needs. They have longed to improve the speed and accuracy of operational decision-making. Equally important as timeliness is the depth of the data analysis. Generally, the companies want to decipher all secrets hidden within the massive amounts of ever-increasing data. A data warehouse appliance, which is an integrated collection of hardware and software designed for a specific purpose typically involving the high throughput of data and analytic functions, can be used by organizations to optimize various areas of data processing. Its main intent is to supplant conventional business intelligence functions, such as warehousing, extract-transform-load (ETL), analysis and reporting. Due to its cost-effectiveness and efficiency, the data warehouse appliance has become an important segment of the data warehousing market. In this paper, I will examine the data warehouse appliances and describe its positive impact on business enterprises. Introduction Since introduced in the early 1990s, data warehouse (DW) has proven to be the key platform for strategic and tactical decision support systems in the competitive business environment today. See more: Analysis of Starbucks coffee company employees essay It has become a major technology for building data management infrastructure, and resulted in many benefits for various organizations, including providing â€Å"a single version of the truth, better data analysis and time savings for users, reductions in head count, facilitation of the development of new applications, better data, and support for customer-focused business strategies† (Rahman, 2007). The technology has become extremely important in an environment where increasing competition, unpredictable market fluctuations, and changing regulatory environments are putting pressure on business organizations. Data warehouses are also becoming the central repositories of organization/company information for data, which is obtained from a variety of operational data sources. Business applications will find data warehouses more beneficial and rely on them as the main source of information as they progress. These applications are able to perform all sorts of data analysis, with increasing customer demands for having the most up-to-date information available in data warehouses. Improving data freshness within short time frames is essential to meeting such demands. According to Hong et al, virtually all Fortune 1000 companies, today, have data warehouses, and many medium and small sized firms are developing them. The desire to improve decision-making and organizational performance is the fundamental business driver behind data warehouses. DW help managers easily discover problems and opportunities sooner, and widen the scope of their analysis. Hong also mentions that data warehouse is user-driven, meaning that users are allowed to be in control of the data and will have the responsibility of determining and finding the data they need. But however, the data warehouses have to be designed and evaluated from the user perspective in order to motivate users to be responsible for finding the data they need. Data warehouse is said to be â€Å"one of the most powerful decision-support tools to have emerged in the last decade† (Ramamurthy, 2008). They are developed by firms to help managers answer important business questions which require analytics including data slicing and dicing, pivoting, drill-downs, roll-ups and aggregations. And these analytics are best supported by online-analytical processing (OLAP) tools. A data warehouse appliance, which is the main topic of discussion in this research, is referred to as an integrated collection of hardware and software designed for specific purposes involving the high throughput of data and analytic functions. Data warehouse appliance has become an important segment of the data warehousing market, due to its cost-effectiveness and efficiency. A business or organization can use a data warehouse appliance to optimize various areas of data processing. In general, the main purpose of the DW appliance is to supplant conventional business intelligence (BI) functions including warehousing, extract, transform, load (ETL), analysis, and reporting. A data warehouse appliance can have a huge positive impact on a business enterprise. Large organizations are able to staff their data warehouse more efficiently, while assisting mid-level companies in solving business intelligence challenges. Data warehouse is fundamentally changing the way the businesses operate, as they are increasingly adopted across various companies. The purpose of this paper is to present the data warehouse appliances and how they impact businesses and organizations. In the next sections, I present a brief overview of data warehousing and the current state of BI, then I define and discuss DW appliances including its benefits, after which I describe the positive impact of DW appliances on businesses. Data Warehousing A data warehouse can basically be defined a subject-oriented, integrated, non-volatile, and time-variant collection of data in support of management’s decisions. Unlike the on-line transaction processing (OLTP) database systems, data warehouses are organized around subjects storing historical/summarized data for business requirement purposes. According to O’Brien and Marakas, a data warehouse is a central source of data which have been cleaned, transformed and cataloged so they are usable by managers/business professionals for data mining, online analytical processing, market research, and decision support. These stored data are usually extracted from various operational, external, and other database management system of an organization. DW can be sub-divided into data marts, holding subsets of data from the warehouse that focus on specific aspects, such as department, of a company. In general all data warehouse systems comprises of the following layers; data source, data extraction, staging area, ETL, data storage, data logic, data presentation, metadata, and system operations layer. But the four major components include the multi-dimensional database, ETL, OLAP, and metadata. The dimensional database applies the concept of standard star-schema including dimension and fact tables, hierarchies for drill-down, role models, aggregates and snow flaking. It optimizes database design for better performance. The ETL process involves the extraction, transformation and loading of data with appropriate ETL tools. Data integration is one of the most important aspects of data warehouse, whereby data is extracted from multiple heterogeneous source systems and placed in a staging area where it is cleaned, transformed, pruned, reformatted, standardized, combined, and summarized before loading into the warehouse. OLAP (online analytical processing) tool provides the front-end analytical capabilities including slice and dice, drill up, drill down, drill across, pivoting, and trend analysis across time. And metadata stores information (or data) about the data in the warehouse system. The components of a complete data warehouse architectural system are illustrated in Figure 1 below. Figure 1 An important characteristic about the data in a data warehouse is that they are static, unlike a typical database with constant changes. Once the data are gathered up, formatted for storage, and stored in the data warehouse, they will never change. The restriction is such that complex patterns or historical trends can be searched for, and analyzed, by queries. Data warehouses are also non-volatile in the sense that end-users cannot update the data directly, thereby being able to maintain a history of the data. A major use of the data warehouse databases is data mining, in which the data are analyzed to reveal hidden patterns and trends in historical business activity. Such analysis could be used to help managers make decisions about strategic changes in business operations in order to gain competitive advantages in the marketplace. Data warehousing is a relatively new technology that â€Å"brings the vision of an entirely new (customer-centric) way of conducting business to reality†, and can provide â€Å"environments promising a revolution in organizational creativity and innovation† (Ramamurthy, 2008). Ramamurthy also mentioned that data warehouse generally serves as an IT infrastructure technology, focused on data architecture, as it provides a foundation for integrating a diverse set of internal and external data sources, enabling enterprise-wide data access and sharing, enforcing data quality standards, providing answers to business questions, and promoting strategic thinking through CRM, data mining, and other front-end BI applications. Users of the data warehouses are from virtually every business unit, amongst which information systems, marketing and sales, finance, production and operations, are the heaviest users. Current State of Business Intelligence Business Intelligence are computer based techniques used in identifying, extracting and analyzing business data. Sales revenue by products, department, time, region or income are such examples. The BI technologies provide historical, current and predictive views of business operations. Some common functions of BI technologies include reporting, online analytical processing, analytics, data mining, text-mining and predictive analytics. As BI aims to support better business decision-making, they can also be referred to as a decision support system. BI applications often use data gathered from data warehouses or data marts, however, not all BI applications require a data warehouse. With sources from Wikipedia, business intelligence can be applied to business purposes in order to drive business value. Amongst these business purposes include measurement, analytics, reporting, collaboration, and knowledge management. BI is widely used today, mainly to describe analytic applications. According to Watson, BI is currently the top-most priority of many chief information officers. In a survey of 1,400 CIOs, from Gartner Group, it was discovered that BI projects were the number one technology priority for 2007. Watson further informs that the BI is a process which basically consists of two primary activities; â€Å"getting data in and getting data out†. Getting data in, also referred to as data ware housing, delivers limited value to a business enterprise. Organizations realize the full value of data from data warehouses only when users and applications access the data and use it to make decisions. Getting data out receives the most attention, as it consists of business users/applications accessing data from DW to perform enterprise reporting, OLAP, querying and analytics. The business intelligence framework is depicted in figure 2. Current BI infrastructure is a patchwork of hardware, software and storage that is growing ever more complex. Figure 2 – BI framework BI is continuing to evolve, and several recent developments are generating widespread interest, including real-time BI, business performance management, and pervasive BI. Data Warehousing Appliance A data warehouse is developed to support a broad range of organizational tasks. It can be referred to as an organized collection of large amounts of structured data, designed and intended to support decision making in organizations. The import of information and knowledge from a data warehouse is a complex process that requires understanding of the logical schema structure and the underlying business environment. According to Hinshaw, a data warehouse appliance, applied to business intelligence, â€Å"is a machine capable of retrieving valuable decision-aiding intelligence from terabytes of data in seconds or minutes versus hours or days†. The appliances represent the difference between decision-making using either stale data or the freshest information possible. With sources from Wikipedia, a more standard definition of the data warehouse appliance is an integrated collection of hardware and software designed for a specific purpose that typically involves the high throughput of data and analytic functions. It typically consists of integrated set of servers, operating systems, data storage facilities, database management systems (DBMS), and software that is pre-installed and pre-optimized for data warehousing. DW appliances provide solutions for the mid-to-large volume data warehouse market, offering low-cost performance usually on data volumes within the terabyte range. Due to its cost-effectiveness and efficiency, the data warehouse appliance has become a critical segment of the data warehousing market. A business or an organization can use a data warehouse appliance to optimize various areas of data processing. The main purpose of a DW appliance, in general, is to supplant conventional business intelligence functions, such as warehousing, extract, transform, load (ETL), analysis, and reporting. A true DW appliance is defined as one that does not require fine-tuning, indexing, partitioning, or aggregating, whereas, some other DW appliances use languages such as SQL to facilitate interaction with the appliance at a database request level. With reference to Wikipedia, most data warehouse appliance vendors use massive parallel processing (MPP) architectures to provide high query performance and platform scalability. The MPP architectures consist of independent processors or servers executing in parallel, implementing a â€Å"shared nothing architecture† which provides an effective way to combine multiple nodes within a highly parallel environment. A DW appliance is capable of deploying up to thousands of query processing nodes in one ppliance package, compared to traditional solutions where the cost and complexity of each additional node prevents a high level of hardware parallelism. Leveraging fully integrated data warehouse architecture, a data warehouse appliance can deliver a significant performance advantage, performing up to 100 times faster than general-purpose data warehousing systems. Maturation With reference to Hinshaw, data warehouse appliance is specifically designed for the streaming workload of business intelligence and is built based on commodity components. It integrates hardware, DBMS and storage into one opaque device and combines the best elements of SMP and massively parallel processing (MPP) approaches into one that allows a query to be processed in the best possible optimized way. A data warehouse appliance is fully compatible with existing BI applications, tools and data, through standard interfaces. It is simple to use and has an extremely low cost of ownership. The development of standardized interfaces, protocols and functionality is one of the most important trends in BI. In comparison to about a decade ago, there are a wealth of tools and applications using these standardized interfaces including MicroStrategy, Business Objects, Cognos, SAS and SPSS. And these are coupled with ETL tools having standardized interfaces such as Ab Initio, Ascential and Informatica. The appliances work seamlessly with these tools and other in-house applications. A data warehouse appliance is truly scalable. The bottlenecks are the speeds of the internal buses, internal networks, and disk transfer in BI, whereas in transactional workloads, scalability is limited primarily by CPU. Reliability, which is provided by the homogenous nature of an appliance – all parts of the system coming from a vendor, is also critical. A data warehouse appliance also provides simplicity for the administrators, in that it allows administrators spend a more productive time in troubleshooting complex database systems. And DBAs can be deployed to assist end users doing real-time BI. A data warehouse appliance offers the lowest cost of ownership as it has one source and one vendor, thereby reducing costs associated with support. Businesses and organizations will run more efficiently with the simple, efficient solution provided by a data warehouse appliance. Benefits Data warehouse appliances provide freedom to the business user. With patch-work systems, users are limited in the queries they can run due to the time required to run them. And with the time required to run a complex query reduced to seconds, users can not only run their old analysis with more iterations, but have the time to devise and run entirely new sets of analysis on granular data. With sources from Wikipedia, some researched benefits of DW appliance are briefly discussed as follows; Reduction in costs – As a data warehouse grows, the total cost of ownership of the data warehouse consists of initial entry costs, maintenance costs, and the cost of changing capacity. DW appliances offer low entry and maintenance cost. Parallel performance – DW appliances provide a compelling price/performance ratio. The vendors use several distribution and partitioning methods to provide parallel performance. With high performance on highly granular data, DW appliances can address analytics that could previously not meet performance requirements. Reduced Administration – DW appliances can provide a single vendor solution, taking ownership for optimizing the parts and software within the appliance, thereby eliminating the customer’s costs for integration and regression testing of the DBMS, OS and storage on a terabyte scale. DW appliance reduces administration via automated space-allocation, reduced index-maintenance and reduced tuning and performance analysis. Scalability – DW appliances scale for both capacity and performance. In massive parallel processing architectures, adding servers increases performance as well as capacity. Built-in high availability – Massive parallel processing DW appliance vendors provide built-in high availability via redundancy on components within the appliance. Warm-standby servers, dual networks, dual power-supplies, disk mirroring with fail-over and solutions for server failure are offered by many. Increasingly, business analytics are expected to be used to improve the current cycle, and DW appliances provide quick implementations without the need for regression and integration testing. Also, DW appliances provide solutions for many analytic application uses. Some of these applications include; enterprise data warehousing, super-sized sandboxes isolating power users with resource intensive queries, pilot projects, off-loading projects from the enterprise data warehouse, applications with specific performance or loading requirements, data marts that have outgrown their present environment, turnkey data warehouses, solutions for applications with high data growth and high performance requirements, and applications needing data warehouse encryption. Impact of Data Warehouse Appliances on Businesses and Organization Demand for data warehouse appliances is increasing, and businesses taking advantage of the benefits of this hardware range from a world-wide large-scale business to the smallest individual business. Data virtualization could be a useful partner to appliances, providing a single view of information across multiple appliances. Data virtualization is also useful because it provides a stable reporting layer during normal migration exercises, such as the circumstances during addition of data warehouse appliances to the information infrastructure. As businesses today continue to process extremely large volumes of data, there is always the need to keep data warehousing costs under control while ensuring a superior BI and application performance. Scalability, flexibility, and affordability are essential requirements for designing an infrastructure capable of supporting next-generation BI performance. When asked why the demand for data warehouse appliance is increasing, during an interview, Robert Eve (executive vice president of marketing for Composite Software Inc. ) stated that it is the confluence of three primary drivers at the macro level. The first is â€Å"the well-reported information explosion, and the technical challenges involved in making this information accessible in forms that business decision-makers can easily use†. Secondly, data warehouse appliances are more affordable and appealing, as the costs per terabyte and for support are coming down. And finally, recent advancements in analytics technology, notably in predictive analytics, promise to concur with the massive data volumes. Data warehouse appliances offer numerous advantages some of which are similar to benefits. Amongst the advantages include; more reporting and analytical capabilities – data warehouse appliance are able to handle bigger and more complex query workload, if it executes queries, Cost reductions – data warehouse appliance requires a minimal amount of tuning and optimization of the database server and database design. It is also able to run most queries with a quick speed, Flexibility – it will be easier to implement new user requests if less tuning and optimization is needed. With other database servers, a new query might lead to quite a number of technical changes, such as creating and dropping indexes, repartitioning tables, etc. Sometimes, decision is made not to implement the new request at all, due to the overwhelming work. The need for these additional technical changes is less with a data warehouse appliance. Data warehouse appliances helps support impressive BI deployments. With reference to Hinshaw, real world application examples of the positive impact of DW appliance on businesses are discussed. The rapid growth of call detail records, in the telecommunications industry, creates an imposing amount of data, which makes it difficult for companies to quickly and efficiently analyze customer and call plan information. And traditional approaches have been inefficient in processing queries on even a month’s data, seriously hampering an organization’s ability to perform trend analysis to reduce customer churn and generate timely reports. However, with a DW appliance, the telecom user can analyze customer activity down to the call detail record level over a full year’s worth of detailed data. Another industry where data warehouse appliances have begun to prove their worth, and are poised to play a bigger role in the future, is the retail. Hinshaw states that Brick-and-mortar and online retailers are capturing great amounts of customer transaction and supply chain information, creating a data explosion that threatens to overwhelm an average retail organization and its current IT infrastructure. But data warehouse appliances enable these retailers to manage and analyze the terabytes of information in near-real time. They are able to use the information to effectively forecast buying patterns, quickly generate targeted promotions and optimize their inventory and supply chain. Business intelligence remains the foundation for the success of decision making in any company. And BI, itself, relies on the underlying database architecture. Eve also presents other real world examples of positive business impact among a broad range of industries. A leading worldwide convenience foods business uses data warehouse appliances and analytic applications to acquire major business benefits in two specific areas. One of which the company optimizes its international network of delivery routes, making the system more efficient and ensuring timely delivery of its products. Secondly, it continuously refines its merchandizing mix daily, on a retail basis, in order to maximize sales and margins. Major League Baseball captures information about every pitch, at-bat, and fielding play within a data warehouse appliance, using this data to predict players’ future on-field performance. This can help teams to evaluate current and free-agent talent, refine coaching and development methods, and determine salaries, hence maximizing their wins. Also, a global freight, transportation, and logistics company uses data warehouse appliances to identify behavioral patterns that indicate potential dissatisfaction within its existing customer base. The customer care group then proactively takes steps to improve satisfaction before they lose their customers. Currently, smaller data warehouse appliance vendors seem to be focusing on adding functionality to their products in order to compete with the mega-vendors. However, it is anticipated that all appliance vendors will be impacted by the trend toward an inexpensive, high-performance, and scalable virtualized data warehouse implementations which use regular hardware and open source software. Conclusion In general, data warehouse appliance is a combination hardware and software product specifically designed for analytical processing. In a traditional data warehouse implementation, the database administrator can spend a significant amount of time tuning and putting structures around the data to get the database to perform well for large sets of users. But with a data warehouse appliance, it is the vendor who is responsible for simplifying the physical database design layer and making sure that the software is tuned for the hardware. In this research, a comprehensive examination/review of the data warehouse appliances, their benefits, and how they positively impact businesses and organizations, was presented. Based on this research, the negative impact of DW appliances on businesses are negligible compared to its positive impact. And there is an increasing demand for DW appliances. I believe that, in the near future, the DW appliances will become the sole platform for all business intelligence applications and requirements. I gained much knowledge and insights from researching this topic, and I intend to further my research on future impacts of DW appliance on businesses.

Heres the One of the Oldest Peace Treaties from the Ancient World

Here's the One of the Oldest Peace Treaties from the Ancient World columbia.edu/cu/arthistory/faculty/Bahrani.htmlLets head back to the Early Dynastic Period in ancient Mesopotamia: more specifically, the southern part, a.k.a. Sumer. Around 2500 B.C., the predominant polities, resulting from consolidation of power in small areas, were city-states; they began compete for domination of local resources and influence. Two in particular, Umma and Lagash, battled particularly hard, resulting in the Stele of the Vultures, one of the oldest historiographical monuments. Pretty epic.   There are seven remaining fragments of the Stele of Vultures, now in the Louvre. Found on what was once the town of Girsu, part of Lagashs sphere of influence, it was erected by one Eannatum, ruler of Lagash, around 2460 B.C. The stele depicts Eannatums version of his conflict with the neighboring city-state of Umma over a tract of land bordering both territories. The inscription on the stele is quite long, longer than most votive plaques, indicating that this is a new type of monument. One of the first monuments we know to be intended for public view, its also one the first example historians have of ancient rules of war. The stele has two sides: one historical and one mythological. The first features several different registers, most of which depict the military campaign waged by Lagash against Umma. A chronological narrative is divided into an easily readable tripartite story. One register depicts Eannatum, clad in a fleecy garment worn by kings (here, we see the development of the image of the warrior-king), and marches with tons of fierce soldiers with pikes. Lagash tramples its enemies into the ground. The second register shows a victory parade, soldiers marching behind their king, the next register brings to life funerary proceedings, in which the men of Lagash bury their massacred enemies. On the reverse of the stele, we get the mythological story of how the divine forces intervened on behalf of Lagash. Its in direct contrast to the historiographic narrative featured on the previous side of the stele. According to Eannatum, he was the son of his citys patron god, Ningirsu. Its on behalf of Ningursu that Eannatum claims he went to war; after all, the city of Lagash and its boundaries belonged to the god himself, and it was sacrilege to transgress upon his land. Vultures swarm around the bodies, giving the stele its name. Depicted most prominently on this side is Ningursu, holding the enemy soldiers of Umma in a giant net, the ​shushgal  net.  In one hand he holds the net; in the other is a mace, with which he smacks nude soldiers  in  the net. On top of the net sits a symbol of Ningursu, the mythical  imdugud  bird. Made up of an eagle body and a lion head, the hybrid creature personified the power of rainstorms. As Ningursu, shown as bigger than any human, single-handedly dominates these soldiers, we see the god as a wielder of power on his own; the king served the god of his city (and his putative father), not the other way around. So this imagery is great, but what about the actual treaty between the kings of Lagash and Umma? Placed on the boundary between the two cities, this monument involved oaths to half a dozen really important Sumerian deities, who were always invoked in treaties as witnesses. The men of Umma were supposed to swear by Enlil, another important god, that theyd respect the boundary and the stele. In exchange for Umma giving up its claim to Lagashs land, though, Eannatum promised to rent another tract of territory to Umma. Later, though, it was revealed that Umma never paid rent, so the cities went to war again. Eannatums successor, Enmetena, had to push his enemies back again. In addition to creating a new treaty, Eannatum showed himself a restorer of old monuments, reaffirming himself as a builder-king in the vein of his predecessors, as he rebuilt a stele put up there by King Mesalim of Kish years earlier.   Sources include Zainab Bahranis classes at Columbia University.

Dwarf Planet Haumea and the Outer Solar System

Dwarf Planet Haumea and the Outer Solar System Theres an odd little world in the outer solar system called 136108 Haumea, or Haumea (for short). It orbits the Sun as part of the Kuiper Belt, far beyond the orbit of Neptune and in the same general region as Pluto. Planet searchers have been observing that region for years now, looking for other worlds. It turns out there are many of them out there, but none have been found - yet - as weird as Haumea. Its less like a sedately orbiting planet and more like a wildly spinning top. It lopes around the Sun once every 285 years, whirling madly, end over end. That motion tells planetary scientists that Haumea was sent into that propeller-like orbit by a collision with another body sometime in the past. Stats For a tiny world out in the middle of nowhere, Haumea presents some striking statistics. Its not very big and its shape is oblong, like a fat cigar that is 1920 kilometers long, about 1,500 km wide and 990 kilometers thick. It spins on its axis once every four hours. Its mass is about a third of Plutos, and planetary scientists classify it as a dwarf planet - similar to Pluto. Its more properly listed as a plutoid due to its ice-rock composition and its position in the solar system in the same region as Pluto. It has been observed for decades, although not recognized as a world until its official discovery in 2004 and the announcement in 2005. Mike Brown, of CalTech, was set to announce his teams discovery when they were beaten to the punch by a Spanish team who claimed to have seen it first. However, the Spanish team apparently accessed Browns observing logs just before Brown was set to make his announcement, and they claim to have discovered Haumea first.   The IAU credited the observatory in Spain for the discovery, but not the Spanish team. Brown was given the right to name Haumea and its moons (which is team discovered later).   Collision Family   The fast spinning motion that flips Haumea around as it orbits the Sun is the result of a long-ago collision between at least two objects. Its actually a member of whats called a collisional family which contains objects all created in an impact that took place very early in the solar systems history. The impact shattered the colliding objects and might also have removed much of primordial Haumeas ice, leaving it a largely rocky body with a thin layer of ice. Some measurements indicate that theres water ice on the surface. It appears to be fresh ice, meaning it was deposited within the past 100 million years or so. Ices in the outer solar system are darkened by ultraviolet bombardment, so fresh ice on Haumea implies some kind of activity. However, no one is sure what that would be. More studies are needed to understand this spinning world and its bright surface. Moons and Possible Rings Small as Haumea is, its large enough to have moons (satellites that orbit around it). Astronomers spotted two of them, called 136108 Haumea I Hiiaka and 136108 Hamuea II Namaka. They were found in 2005 by Mike Brown and his team using the Keck Observatory on Maunakea in Hawaii. Hiiaka is the outermost of the two moons and is only 310 kilometers across. It appears to have an icy surface and it might be a fragment of the original Haumea. The other moon, Namaka, orbits closer to Haumea. Its only about 170 kilometers across. Hiiaka orbits Haumea in 49 days, while Namaka takes only 18 days to go once around its parent body. In addition to the small moons, Haumea is thought to have at least one ring surrounding it. No observations have conclusively confirmed this, but eventually astronomers should be able to detect traces of it.   Etymology Astronomer who discover objects get the pleasure of naming them, according to guidelines set up by the International Astronomical Union. In the case of these distant worlds, the IAUs rules suggest that objects in the Kuiper Belt and beyond should be named after mythological beings associated with creation. So, the Brown team went to Hawaiian mythology and selected Haumea, who is the goddess of the island of Hawaii (from where the object was discovered using the Keck telescope). The moons are named after Haumeas daughters. Further Exploration   Its not too likely that a spacecraft would be sent to Haumea in the near future, so planetary scientists will continue to study it using ground-based telescopes and space-based observatories such as Hubble Space Telescope. There have been some preliminary studies aimed at developing a mission to this distant world. It would take a mission nearly 15 years to arrive there. One idea is to have it settle into orbit around Haumea and send back high-resolution images and data. So far, there are no concrete plans for a Haumea mission, although it would certainly be an interesting world to study up-close!

Clinical epidemiology 2 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Clinical epidemiology 2 - Assignment Example Breast cancer cells may be hormone-dependent while some can lie dormant in tissues for a very long time, as long as thirty years, after removal of the primary tumor (Lipkus et al, 2001). Some illnesses may act as catalysts in the progression of the disease in the body (Gail & Rimer, 1998). Consequently, this implies that even with earlier detection and treatment, there can be a risk of recurrence during the entire life of the patient. However, with early screening, it is possible to detect these cells before they start causing symptoms (Schonberg   et al, 2014; Siegel et al, 2012). Once the disease symptoms start showing, the tumors are mostly larger and will have likely spread to other parts beyond the breast. In contrast, breast cancer cells found earlier through screening are likely smaller and their presence is still limited to the breasts thus their spread is much easier to curtail, for example, through prophylactic surgery (Freedman, 2010; Nelson,  2012). At the point of detection, it is easier to estimate the prognosis of breast cancer. The size of the tumor and how far it has spread are vital indicators of predicting prognosis and are almost entirely dependent on the time of detection of the cancer (Siegel et al, 2012). Screening enables detection of the disease in early stages and hence it is possible to reverse the spread of the disease. Consequently, screening improves survival rates among breast cancer patients. The proportion of the population affected by breast cancer is a pointer to the importance of screening the at-risk population. According to studies, breast cancer is the most common form of cancer and causes the second highest number of deaths in the US (Smith et al, 2013). Health statistics indicate that out of every 8 women, one will develop a severe form of breast cancer over the course of her lifetime. In 2014 alone, close to quarter million cases of new breast cancer cases were expected to

Anselm's Proslogion, Chapter II--The Ontological Proof of God Essay

Anselm's Proslogion, Chapter II--The Ontological Proof of God - Essay Example However, to maintain the position, the atheist would have to add another attribute, that of â€Å"existing in reality,† to supposedly make it the â€Å"greatest possible being†. It is just as if someone had claimed 7 to be the â€Å"largest possible number†; you could always add a number to make it greater. And when an atheist does add the attribute of existence, then he is no longer an atheist. This is a brief summary of the ontological argument. The immediate response this argument received was from Gaunilo of Marmoutiers, a Benedictine monk, who predictably flipped the tables and applied the same set of arguments to prove the existence of the Lost Island, in order to demonstrate how the argument is fundamentally flawed. However, the argument was critiqued on the grounds that the very concept of â€Å"the greatest conceivable being† does not apply to Islands, or any objects as such, and that it applies to God alone. One of the popular criticisms of St. Anselm’s argument is theological, proposed by St. Thomas Aquinas in Summa Theologica, who questioned the soundness of the initial premise of Anselm’s argument, stating one cannot possibly know the essence of God; ergo it is beyond humanly possible to adequately consider that premise. He also strikes a major blow to the first premise, pointing out that not everyone necessarily conceives God to be the ‘greatest possible being’, seeing that some have believed God to be a body. The criticism leveled by St. Thomas Aquinas was so strong, that it was said to have laid the argument dormant for centuries. David Hume also leveled a criticism against cosmological argument in his work Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, which broadly applies to the Ontological Argument as well. Hume stated that existence of something cannott be established based on a priori reasoning. And whatever we

The relationship between a Toucans beak and new materials Essay

The relationship between a Toucans beak and new materials - Essay Example An example of such natural inspirations is the toucan’s beak. This is a great natural phenomenon that has attracted much attention from material engineers as they try to study its properties and understand the factors behind its unique features. The toucan’s beak is long and thick, and is perceived to be heavy for the bird though it is relatively light despite its size (Seki, Kad Benson & Meyers, 2006). The toucan’s beak is a third of the bird’s length, about 1/20 it’s mass, and has been proven to possess great stiffness (Seki, Schneider & Meyers, 2005). A study of the bird’s beak found it to be made of a sandwich composite with keratin on its outside and close calcium cells rich proteins making a fibrous network (Seki, Schneider & Meyers, 2005). Moreover, the closed cell making the bird’s beak has fibers with a young modulus of more than twice as high as the keratin shell on the outside due to the calcium content. Therefore, such biological materials when well-studied inspires engineers to come up with materials that correspond to the beak, which incidentally would offer similar characteristics and qualities in engineering materials , resulting to superior materials for specific us age. For example the length of a toucan’s beak and its size in relation to its light weight inspire engineers to come up with martials with a keratin coating on the outside, fibrous networks on the inside, plus an added calcium layer to achieve the strength and flexibility portrayed by a toucan bird, but still meet the need to have such a large component with light weight. In the construction industry where flexible materials are essential, such toucan’s beak offers a great inspiration for engineers to come up with similar materials, which will offer more flexibility, will be much light compared to its size, will possess great strength, and which will absorb high impacts (Biomimicry Institute 2013). Such materials

Marthas Vineyard Essay Example for Free

Marthas Vineyard Essay Abstract I chose Martha’s Vineyard as the subject of my School Context Paper. Martha’s Vineyard is New England’s largest resort island and lies seven miles off the coast of Cape Cod in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is accessible by ferry or plane only. The island is roughly one hundred square miles with 124.6 miles of tidal shoreline. Martha’s Vineyard has a year-round population of about twenty thousand residents that grows to one hundred thousand in the summer with an additional twenty five thousand visitors coming and going on the ferries every day. There are six towns that makeup the island; Aquinnah, Chilmark, Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, West Tisbury and Vineyard Haven (also known as Tisbury). The island is best known for its miles of beautiful beaches, quaint villages and natural beauty. On the vineyard there is only one regional high school which offers a vocational program for its students along with five public elementary schools, one public charter school, several private pre- schools and an active home schooling network. The school system also provides for children with special needs from ages three to twenty two. Assignment 2: School Context Paper I chose Chilmark, a village located on Martha’s Vineyard to write my paper on. Martha’s Vineyard is located about seven miles off the coast of Cape Cod. It is a triangular shaped island that is nine miles wide and twenty three miles long with a total land area of approximately one hundred square miles and 124.6 miles of tidal shoreline. You can travel by ferry to reach the island, which takes about forty five minutes from the mainland, or you can take a plane that will fly you to the only airport on the island located in its center. It is New England’s largest resort island. There are six towns (or villages) on the island; Aquinnah, Chilmark, Edgar Town, Oak Bluff, West Tisbury and Vineyard Haven. There is one regional high school, one public charter school and five public elementary schools serving the Vineyard. These are administered through the office of the Superintendent of Schools. The All-Island School Committee is composed of members from all of the towns. The Up-Island Regional District committee hires the superintendent and oversees shared programs that serve all Island schools. These resources are available through Central Administration: Superintendent of Schools, Assistant Supt. for Curriculum Instruction, Director of Student Support Services, Assistant to the Superintendent for Business Affairs, Financial Administrative Assistants, Administrative Secretary, Business Secretaries, Treasurer, Grant Administrator, Receptionist/Clerk and Special Education Secretary. Special Services are available such as: Title 1 Coordinator, Early Childhood Coordinator/Consultant, Occupational Therapists, School Psychologists, Speech Pathologists, Autism Specialist and ELL Director. Chapter 766 provides for the educational needs of children with special needs. The school system provides for every child, regardless of handicap, between the ages of 3 and 22. The law requires parental involvement and a network of services including that of a school psychologist, occupational therapist, and psychiatric and nursing services under the direction of a special education administrator. The school system also operates a special needs preschool, called Project Headway (http://www.mvy.com/Vineyard_Community/Public_School.aspx August 2012). I chose Chilmark’s school system and the Up-island Regional District as my area of focus. The Population of Chilmark was eight hundred and ninety four as of July 2009 with the estimated median household income of fifty seven thousand, one hundred and eight dollars. The major business of Chilmark is construction with Carpentry being the most popular occupation. The Chilmark School serves students in grades K-5. Chilmark students in grades 6-8 attend the West Tisbury School and Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School serves grades 9-12 for the whole island. Students can also apply to The Vineyard Public Charter School. The enrollment indicators for these schools are as follows; Chilmark Elementary School enrolled fifty two students, W. Tisbury enrolled three hundred and twenty five students for grades pre k thru 8, Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School enrolled six hundred and sixty nine students and The Vineyard Public Charter School enrolled one hundred and eighty one students for the 2011-2012 school year. Chilmark’s Public Elementary/Middle School Mission Statement states that,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Chilmark Elementary School is committed to equipping students with the tools they need for academic, personal and social achievement. Chilmark Elementary School enables every student to reach their highest potential by establishing a curriculum that meets or exceeds government standards for education; providing extracurricular programs that develop children’s’ mental, physical and social skills; and partnering with parents and the community to create an environment geared to the success of all students†( http://massachusetts.webschoolpro.com/chilmark-elementary-school_MA00707740010/mission.htmlAugust 2012). West Tisbury’s School Mission Statement states that â€Å"The West Tisbury School staff strives to provide a solid academic foundation, to inspire a love of learning for the sake of learning, to foster an understanding of basic human values with a working knowledge of the rights and responsibilities associated with those values, and to promote independent thinking through cooperative and inclusive learning while maintaining the unique values of our diverse, rural island community. We strive: To teach solid academic skills, to instill a love of learning and to promote an understanding of human values† (http://wtisburyschool.org/modules/cms/pages.phtml?pageid=225325SID August 2012). Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School’s Mission Statement states that â€Å"Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School will provide a safe, active teaching and learning environment where students strive for academic excellence and endeavor to achieve the high level of intellectual and interpersonal skills needed for success in a culturally diverse society. Each student’s educational experience will prepare him/her to be a self-confident lifelong learner, able to set and achieve individual goals, and to become a contributing member of a humane and democratic society (http://www.mvrhs.org/pos/POS-2011-2-Eng.pdf1August 2012). The Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School is a K-12 public school. Families do not pay tuition. An application is filled out and then the student body is drawn from a lottery. The mission statement of the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School states that â€Å"It is the mission of The Martha’s Vineyard Public Carter School to create a public school that will  cultivate life-long learners in a multi-aged, project-based setting. To this  end, each student in the K-12 school works from a personal education plan that sets specific obtainable and challenging goals. In addition to meeting the state mandated curriculum frameworks, students experience a rich array of other educational arenas outside of the academic classroom. The entire Island serves as campus where an educational alliance of parents, educators, businesses, artisans and community services is formed† (http://www.mvy.com/Vineyard_Community/Marthas_Vineyard_Public_Charter_School.aspx August 2012). The chart below shows some of the MCAS ratings for the school year 2010-2011: Massachusetts Elementary School Rankings 3rd, 4th Grades Combined MCAS English Language Arts MCAS Mathematics 2010-2011 Rank* (of 895) School District City Tisbury Elementary Tisbury Vineyard Haven HighGrade Total students (2010) Student/ Teacher Ratio (2010) MCAS, avg Mathematics** (2011) 8 305 8.2 88.5 MCAS, avg English Language Arts** (2011) MCAS Combined Rank Change from 2011) 86.5 175.0 up 23 School District City W. Tisbury ElementaryUp island Regional West Tisbury HighGrade Total students (2010) Student/ Teacher Ratio (2010) MCAS, avg Mathematics** (2011) 8 276 7.8 79.5 MCAS, avg English Language Arts** (2011 MCAS Combined Rank Change from 2010 82.0 165.9 down 19 (http://www.schooldigger.com/go/MA/schoolrank.aspx August 2012 Reference List http://www.mvy.com/Vineyard_Community/Town_Information.aspx http://www.mvy.com/Vineyard_Community/Public_Schools.aspx http://www.mvy.com/Vineyard_Community/Education.aspx http://www.mvrhs.org/pos/POS-2011-2-Eng.pdf http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/state_report/enrollmentbygrade.aspx http://www.city –data.cim/city/Chilmark-Massachusetts.html http://massachusetts.webschoolpro.com/chilmark-elementary-school_MA00707740010/mission.html http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/mcas/performance_level.aspx?linkid=32orgcode=07740010orgtypecode=6 http://www.schooldigger.com/go/MA/schoolrank.aspx http://wtisburyschool.org/modules/cms/pages.phtml?pageid=225325SID http://www.mvy.com/Vineyard_Community/Marthas_Vineyard_Public_Charter_School.aspx