Monday, September 30, 2019

Macbeth Essay: Is Macbeth a sympathetic character? Essay

In Shakespeare’s screenplay, tragedies usually arouse feelings of pity and fear. Yet is the gradual breakdown of Macbeth enough for the audience to feel sympathetic for him? Macbeth is taken place in Scotland. It explores themes like power, desires, ambition and gender etc.. In the story, Macbeth is a general that, due to three witches’ prophecies, fell from a hero into the trap of dark desires for power. An interesting point to note is the relationship between man and woman in the story. Unlike classic views, Macbeth is a rather weak man at home and is dominated and influenced by his wife. I think that there are three points that prove Macbeth to be a sympathetic character. To begin with, Macbeth has never been treated fairly since the beginning. Firstly, the prophecies of the witches have never been fully true. They have hidden some of the truth and consequences just to spur Macbeth on. The prophecies is the reason to his thirst for throne and power. Macbeth believes everything the witches said is true as one of the prophecies has already been fulfilled. Because of the partial-lies, Macbeth thinks of himself undefeatable. His moral conscience allows him to doubt if he shall trust them. Second of all, Lady Macbeth is one of the main reason that pushes Macbeth’s mind to murder. As Lady Macbeth craves for power, she entices Macbeth to listen to her through asking him to strive for money and power. She also threatens and mocks Macbeth’s manhood and courage as a â€Å"coward†, telling him to â€Å"screw [his] courage to the sticking place†. During the murders, she even supports and supervises Macbeth in the murders by asking him to â€Å"leave all the rest to [her]†. Hence, Macbeth has so many outside influences, that it is much likely that he will not have continued with his thoughts to kill Duncan without the influence other characters made on him. Moreover, I believe that Macbeth suffers a lot more than what deserves. He may have hurted a lot of innocent people, but the consequences he faces is  much worse. First, he has been haunted by guilt ever since the first murder. He keeps on having hallucinations: the bloody daggers, Banquo’s ghost†¦ These all marks Macbeth’s guilt and remorse that will permanently stain him for the rest of his life. Secondly, he is slowly becoming more and more isolated. He first loses King Duncan, a man that puts in a lot of trust in him, after murdering him with his own hands. He then kills Banquo, his â€Å"friend† and â€Å"companion-in-arms†, because of the threats he poses to him. Near the end, he even loses his wife Lady Macbeth, who died from illness. At this point, Macbeth has already went from an isolated couple with Lady Macbeth to a totally isolated individual. He has nobody to confront with, nobody to talk to, he is all lonely. Third, his murders even cost his own life. The murders of Macduff’s family and Duncan eventually led to the revenge of Macduff and Malcolm. Therefore, we can see that Macbeth already has to face a lot of consequences due to his murders. Finally, Macbeth has always been portrayed as a real hero in the public’s eyes. In the beginning of the plot, it is mentioned that Macbeth fights a lot of wars for King Duncan and has gained the title of the Thane of Cawdor. He fights so tremendously like â€Å"a giant of fury and courage† that â€Å"he made killing almost holy†. His bravery and success is even described as â€Å"supernatural†. Even when he knows that he is finally going to lose, he still says that he â€Å"cannot fly, but bear-like [he] must fight the course.† He feels like a baited bear, chained to be attacked just for pure pleasure of audience, trapped and lonely, yet there is no going back, he has no chance to win this battle or even go back to where he once is. Yet he never once give up and still continue to fight and be courageous in such hard situations. Therefore, we can see that Macbeth is a real hero. Although some might say that although Macbeth is in grief and guilt, he continue to step further and murder more innocents. Even when Lady Macbeth repents, he never stopped to think what went wrong. In my opinion, Macbeth only did what a normal person would do. He only continued with the murders because there is no turning back. As he says, â€Å"I am in blood stepped in so far, †¦ returning were as tedious as go o’er.’ His mistakes has left him no other choices, even if he admit his wrongs, not much can be done. To him,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"another crime, another murder†¦ but did it matter any more?†. He cannot turn back time. What done is done. He have to face the consequences of his faults. In conclusion, Macbeth is a sympathetic character. He has a strong sense of honour and loyalty, even during the murders of Duncan, he is very resistant and faces a lot of guilt afterwards. It was only because of influence from others that turned him to his dark desires. The story would have turned out to be a lot different if Lady Macbeth is a typical woman. Macbeth will not have been motivated by so much without Lady Macbeth. Even so, when he found the witches to be a fraud, he still acts like a hero, faces the fact and fight with Macduff. Macbeth is a character that took in a lot of hits — from depression to conscience and psychological conflicts to loneliness and isolation. Therefore, no matter how much wrong Macbeth did, he already paid back through the consequences that hit him, he is a sympathetic character.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Justifying The State Essay

Q1 If the state is not a voluntary organisation, how can one be under any obligation to obey its commands? This is a question about justifying the state. What D. D. Raphael calls † the grounds of political obligation.1 If the state can be justified somehow then so can the commands it makes, whether it is voluntary or not. This would be a state built on individual consent; obligation to the commands of the state would flow from that consent. This essay will discuss the possibility of justifying of the state through the idea of a social contract. The state when it creates a law draws a line one cannot cross without consequences. For clarity I am talking about a serious law, specifically one that obviously has a moral base, the law against murder for example. An individualist might say ‘I have no intention of crossing that line anyway because I believe it would be morally wrong to do so’. The law in his case may as well not exist. Just by not breaking a law it can appear as though he supports it. When what he might agree with is what the law defends/upholds /represents, and that is the moral principle behind it. This is one reason why some people appear to uphold the law when in fact all they may be doing is following a personal moral code. or simply agreeing with the basic rational belief shared by most people that ‘murder is wrong or (maybe) tax for the NHS is good’ for example. I suggest this analogy can be applied when questioning many commands of the state. When I obey the state by paying taxes, I may not be doing so because I am obligated too by law but for other reasons including moral ones. Socialists (as do many others) might argue that they are happy to pay more tax in return for a wider societal benefit that includes all, i.e. as in the National Health Service. Therefore a socialist might argue that she paid her National Insurance not because the law obligates her too, but because it ‘fits her moral attitudes and outlook anyway’. The fact that she has no legal right to refuse to pay becomes relevant in this case only if she actually doesn’t. The above argument is Lockean to the extent that it â€Å"appeal[s] to the idea of individual consent.†2 It is also in part my own view, which is (I think) essentially individualist in nature, though not libertarian. The relevance of my own view to this essay is that when thinking about this question, I realised that I had no idea what my own moral position was regarding some of the most crucial problems and contradictions of political philosophy. Many of these questions require (I think) a moral stance in order to be able to make sense of them. This may seem like a non-academic approach as if I am personalising or reducing this essay to subjective notions, however the questions and issues of political philosophy are in large part moral questions and issues that therefore have as a basis, personal moral opinions. Locke’s view according to Wolff is that obligations to the institutions of the state â€Å"must be justified in terms of the will, choices or decisions of those over whom they have authority.†3 Justification of the institutions of the state that enforce obligation then is reliant on the idea that personal autonomy is of premier value. Will Kymlicka defines this as the belief that the individual is ‘morally prior’ to the community. One objection to this is the communitarian argument that the individual is not ‘morally prior’ to the community instead individuals are a ‘product of the community.’4 There are other objectors to Locke’s idea that autonomy is the primary value. Wolff writes that Bentham considered â€Å"the primary value is not autonomy but happiness †¦ whether we consent to the state is irrelevant.† 5 This utilitarian argument is that the ‘happiness’ of society, as a whole is of more value than personal autonomy or the happiness of the few or one. And that therefore one has a duty to obey the commands of the state as it pursues this goal. So if the state decides that having nuclear weapons is for the greater good (happiness) then I would be obligated to pay my share of tax for them whatever I thought. I may be against nuclear weapons or the military in general for moral reasons (pacifism for example) but my moral objection is sacrificed for the greater happiness. The problem political philosopher’s face is finding ways to solve issues like the one above. Just how does one justify the state? One theory is the idea of ‘the social contract.’ Wolff here defines the ‘project of the social contract theory.’ â€Å"The project of showing that individuals consent to the state lies behind the idea of social contract theory. If, somehow or other, it can be shown that every individual has consented to the state, or formed a contract with the state, or made a contract with each other to create a state, then the problem appears to be solved.†6 It is difficult to support the idea that the state, and thereby its commands and responding obligations, can be justified by the theory of a social contract. â€Å"The theory of a social contract tries to justify political obligation as being based on an implicit promise, like the obligation to obey the rules of a voluntary association.†7 If there were such a contract (based on the idea that the state is a voluntary organisation) the problem of individual obligation to the state would be solved. One could join (or leave) institutions of the state at will, and not be subject to state penalties. This is clearly not so. To clarify this further I can ask a different question: how much like a voluntary association is the state? The consensus among political philosophers is I think that the state is not a voluntary organisation. To be born is to be joined to it. As Raphael says â€Å"the universality of the states jurisdiction makes its compulsory character more pervasive and more evident. â€Å"8 Individuals are inextricably linked to it in many ways, for example through the financial/legal institutions. Neither of these institutions are voluntary, they both carry obligations that are enforceable by law. For a comparison I will examine what I think a voluntary organisation is. The obligations I have to the UEA regarding my degree, I agreed to honour. They were stated, I accepted. This does not mean I think the UEA is perfect. Just because I am obligated, (I agreed to the UEA rules) does not mean I cannot criticise the parking problem. What is important is that I chose to join. My obligations to the UEA are voluntary, and I can withdraw from them voluntarily and leave the university should I choose. This is not possible in the case of the state. â€Å"[I] am subject to the rules whether I like it or not.†9 As a general philosophical attitude I am ‘nervous’ or sceptical of organisations people are forced to join or have to remain joined to, this includes the idea of a state. This could be framed as, (if this sentence makes sense) ‘I do not like the idea that there is a group I am unable not to join’. These reasons might help to explain why I am ‘generally sceptical’ of some of the motives of our own state. So where does this leave us? The above contentions highlight some of the problems of the social contract theory. The central objection to it is that the state is not voluntary therefore there can be no ‘mutually agreed contract.’ Nor has there historically ever been one. As Wolff observes, if there ever was a social contract â€Å"What is the evidence? Which museum is it in?†10 The idea of a hypothetical contract is an attempt to solve this problem. It does not rely on any formal notion of â€Å"actual consent, be it historical, express, or tacit.†11 The hypothetical contract relies on hypothetical consent. If hypothetical consent were possible it would provide a moral reason for political obligation. That is the ingredient the question this essay is discussing implicitly implies is missing. The idea asks us to imagine a position from where we could successfully negotiate a social contract. Rawl’s idea is a very complex one that effects many issues. In his Theory of Justice, Rawls sets out primarily to establish â€Å"what moral principles should govern the basic structure of a just society.†12 Rawls Theory of Justice suggests a set of specific moral principles that he hopes will achieve this consensus view. It is these principles that critics of the theory in the main object to. What they are concerned with is the kind of society that would emerge from behind any veil of ignorance whatever its character. For the purpose of this essay the idea of a ‘veil of ignorance’ which is subject to many conditions, is the device Rawls uses to argue for consent. If people can agree on what would be just, (which he argues is possible using the principles he suggests) from behind a ‘veil of ignorance’ the consent reached would be a voluntary contract. Again the problem remains, what principles really constitute a ‘just society’ are not clear. Objections to Rawls ideas include the ‘libertarian critique.’ Kukathas and Pettit13 argue that for principled libertarians like Nozick the state that would emerge from Rawls’s theory â€Å"is bound to seem inherently evil.†14 Nozick’s objections are based on his libertarian view that â€Å"Individuals have rights, and there are things no person or group may do to them (without violating their rights)†15 To conclude is this essay is very difficult; the argument I have tried to demonstrate is that one cannot be under any obligation to obey the commands of the state using the social contract model. I have argued that the social contract fails because it is not consensual. I have also tried to show that the idea of hypothetical contract cannot work because the ‘veil of ignorance’ still does not produce consent because people cannot agree on what the principles of a just state are. One can only be obligated to obey the commands of the state (I think) when its principles are consensual. Bibliography Chandran Kukathas and Philip Pettit, Rawls, A Theory of Justice and its Critics, (Polity Press 1990) Kymlicka, Will, Contemporary Political philosophy. Raphael, D D, Problems of Political Philosophy, (Macmillan press 1990) Wolff, Jonathan, An Introduction to Political Philosophy, (oxford University Press 1996) Colin Dunlop His II Political Philosophy Dr Kathleen Stock 04-04-03 Q1 If the state is not a voluntary organisation, how can one be under any obligation to obey its commands? 1 Raphael, D D, Problems of Political Philosophy, p175 2 Wolff, Jonathan, An Introduction to Political Philosophy, p38 3 Ibid.p38 4 See Kymlicka, Will, Contemporary Political philosophy, Ch5 (I think) his discussion â€Å"multiculturalism and communitarianism.† 5 Ibid.p38 6 Ibid.p43 7 Raphael, D D, Problems of Political Philosophy, p182 8 Ibid.p181 9 Ibid.p181 10 Wolff, Jonathan, An Introduction to Political Philosophy, p44 11 Ibid.p44 12 Chandran Kukathas and Philip Pettit, Rawls, A Theory of Justice and its Critics, p36 13 Ibid. See chapter 5 † The Libertarian Critique† 14 Ibid.p74 15 Robert Nozick quoted by Chandran Kukathas and Philip Pettit in, Rawls, A Theory of Justice and its Critics, p76

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Law statement of purpose Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Law statement of purpose - Essay Example eveloped an interest in law during my elementary school years, following an interesting legal argument at the United States Supreme Court, I aligned my interest to studying law and was already biased to law related subjects during my high school. This further influenced my decision to study Islamic law at the undergraduate level. Studying law at the graduate level will also offer me an opportunity to work with my former University. In addition, my interest in human rights has motivated my intention to study law at the graduate level for a better understanding of laws on the rights and possible gaps that exists in the laws for improvements. My experience in law includes internships with law firms and volunteer work with human rights based nongovernmental organizations. Upon completing the graduate program, I will establish myself in the legal profession and use my professional and social position to inform legal policies and to advocate for greater recognition of human rights, especially rights of marginalized populations. Besides my intrinsic motivation into the graduate program and my academic background in law, I have availed resources and planned my schedule to ensure successful completion of the program. I look forward to your

Friday, September 27, 2019

Argumentative paper Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Argumentative paper - Assignment Example However, an objective observation of this issue and ready commonsense do indicate that Etzioni is highly misplaced in his beliefs. McDonald’s and other fast food outlets are actually safe and viable platforms for encouraging values like hard work and discipline amongst youngsters, while allowing them to earn money for investing in education and other value addition activities. One single belief that rings throughout the article written by Etzioni is his disbelief in the capabilities, decision making capacities and commitment of the contemporary teenagers. Perhaps, Etzioni is totally oblivious of the fact that these so called â€Å"young, yet uninformed individuals (2)† he is so doubtful of could be much more informed and ambition driven than he expects them to be. Yes, it is true that some teenagers earning money from fast food chains may spend it in an irresponsible way. However, this fact could not be transposed on all the teenagers working with fast food chains in a much generalized context. Fast food chains only provide an avenue for earning money and acquiring skills to the teenagers. They simply cannot have such a pervasive impact on the academic and career choices of the teenagers, if they are well placed in the basic values, which are mostly imparted at school and at home. So, fast food chains are in a sense neutral. If the parents and the schools do take pains to impart the right values to the kids and have confidence in them, there is nothing much to fear. The second peculiarity of Etzioni’s approach towards the issue is that the vantage point from which he tends to observe it is utterly distant from an understanding of the contemporary realities in which the teenagers live and grow. Etzioni is still hovering in the era of â€Å"newspaper route and sidewalk lemonade stand (1)†, while the world has moved on into the realm of the internet and satellite TV. The teenagers today are much more informed and are introduced to the r ealities of life at quiet an early age as compared to what it was a few decades ago. The careers they aspire to pursue in the future mostly require an insight into and grounding in the way organized corporations work and operate. Besides, considering the rising cost of education, good earning opportunities during school days could somewhat cushion their college expenses at a later stage. Fast food chains like McDonald’s facilitate the teenagers with both these requisites, and that too in a safe and regulated environment. Some critics of the teenage employment opportunities provided by fast food chains may seem right in suggesting that engaging in relatively high paid and comfortable jobs, with no opportunities for skill enhancement, at such a tender age may dilute the sense of ambition and aspiration in the teenagers. One thing that such individuals and groups need to realize is that fast food outlets are never supposed to inculcate ambition and drive in school going kids. Th ey are simply running a business, which extends an opportunity to the teenagers to work and earn. The work ethics and aspirations of the teenagers are influenced by a much larger environment, which includes the guidance, support and expectations extended by the family, the education and skills imparted by the schools, the extracurricular activities accessible to the teenagers,

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Environmental Auditing Strategy Proposal for Household Waste Recycling Assignment

Environmental Auditing Strategy Proposal for Household Waste Recycling Centres - Assignment Example This incorporates employing various strategies, which embraces recycling of the available used resources. The strategies employed are more effective when they are cost cutting and conservative. Introduction Household waste recycling involves recovering useful materials, such as metals, glass, plastic and paper from trash and used to make new products thus reducing the amount of raw materials required. This helps in waste prevention; that is designing products to reduce the level of waste that is thrown away later hence making the resulting waste less toxic. Therefore, an environmental auditing strategy enables the client to adopt a cost effective and proportional to environment management. The environment audit process provides a substantial reduction in risk and improves compliance records. It is also used by the audit company in provision of data so that corporate headquarters and client’s company respond to environmental targets and pressures its resources appropriately (Be nita, 2008). Proper management of environmental issues is significant to the success of the client’s company. Therefore, if household waste is properly, a project can derive substantial benefits through enhanced corporate reputation, improved efficiency and risk reduction. If there is ignorance, or ineffective management of environmental issues brings about adverse publicity, wasted money and also prosecution by the authority, as a result of abuse of opportunities. Environment audit includes mitigating your organization’s reputation and legal risks, reducing operational inefficiencies, achieving the certification required and improving the environmental performance of your organization. It also incorporates risk mitigation. Audits carried out in the environment act as an appropriate risk management tool in assessing compliance with legislating the environment hence, assisting your organization in avoiding risk of prosecution by the authority, and fines arising from pot ential environmental breaches. This is normally true in those circumstances where there exist hazardous polluting industries in the surrounding. Conducting an environmental audit will help in reassuring the client’s company and ensure that it is living up to the environmental standards. Environmental issues are both complex and varied and hence, for effective management it will need a combination of an effective, practical, understanding and an environmental technical expertise of the processes, practices and plans relates with the environment, economic and social factors. Therefore, environmental auditing is a form of environmental assessment and is a vital tool in determining and benchmarking environmental performances and risks. It is necessarily undertaken as part of risk management process, hence able to help the client in examining their current operations associated with environmental aspects, as well as taking note of the future trends so that they exploit them effect ively. The overall aim of the study was to provide a clear view of how a city can meet the requirements of the waste option of its plan and hence, there should be a development of waste management plan. Research question/solution The proposal examines whether the audit company has a segregation procedure, employee awareness of the procedure used, and analysis of records regarding the

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Business Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Business Management - Essay Example The present discourse is an in-depth evaluation of operations management from a strategic operations management perspective. Hence, establishing a link between operations strategy and corporate strategy will help in analyzing how and what competitive priorities are chosen by organisations. Further, key management functions such as planning, controlling, coordinating, and leadership are applied to operations management. These aspects of operations management are studied taking the example of the Toyota Production System. Operations refer to all the activities performed by an organisation in order to produce products or services. Management of these activities directly related to the production of goods and services is termed as operations management. For example, activities related to banking, transportation, shipping, and manufacturing of goods or products such as automobiles, food items, textiles etc all constitute operations management (Chase Jacobs & Aquilano, 2005). ... roduction, planning and designing production processes of goods and services, and also effective integration of marketing, finance, human resources management and strategy which facilitate the business to enter the market and also compete with both new and existing organisations in the market. In other words, operations management helps the firm to establish itself and also provide operational capabilities that promote its success and sustainability. Operations management involves complex processes that are interdependent; the core processes involve capacity planning, supply management, inventory management, quality and efficiency, technology and systems and human resources management. Theoretical aspects of operations management in manufacturing and service industries constitute a combination of three distinct functions, strategic functions, tactical functions and operational planning and control functions (Chase et al, 2005). The main management functions such as planning, organisi ng, controlling and leadership are applicable to operations management. Main operational processes in operations management include planning, production, purchasing or inventory management, supply chain management, distribution and marketing. All operations functions are strategically aligned to its larger or strategic business goals. Thus, operations functions are designed based on strategic decisions that match the organisational strategies (Heizer & Render, 2008). These strategic decisions are referred to as operations strategies. These strategic decisions define the conditions in which operations will be carried out in short and long terms. Operations strategies are the total pattern of decisions which shape the long-term capabilities of an operation and their contribution to overall

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants Essay

If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants - Essay Example Leonardo’s father was one of the traders who traded in Bugia; a Mediterranean port found in North Eastern Algeria. He always accompanied his father on his journeys across North Africa, and through travelling, he gained valuable knowledge of the mathematical systems that were popular in the countries they visited. After travelling for fifteen years, he quit his long travels and went back to his hometown (Robertson & O’Connor, www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk). While in Pisa, his hometown; Leonardo decided to write books based on his mathematical foundation. Examples of these books include; Liber Abaci, Practica Geometricae, Flos, Liber Quadratorum, among others. Influences from Indian, Arabian and Greek mathematicians can be detected in his methods. Therefore, it is correct to say that Leonardo’s works represents the developments of results he acquired from his predecessors. Leonardo’s published his first work, Liber Abaci (Book of Abacus), in 1202. The Book of Abacus was based on algebra and calculations that he accumulated during his several voyages. The book introduced the use of Arabic numerals and the Hindu-Arabic place value system into Europe: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0 (Robertson & O’Connor, www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk). Prior to this time, Roman numerals were being used in Europe, and they were extremely awkward for arithmetic. For example, I =1, V=5, X =10, among others. Leonardo also described in Latin the rules being learnt at elementary schools for subtracting, adding, dividing and multiplying numbers. Several arithmetic problems handled in the book were similar to the ones that appeared in the Arab sources. Liber Abaci’s second section contained several mathematical problems faced by merchants. These problems related to the pricing of goods, how profit calculations were to be conducted, how currencies used in the Mediterranean countries were to be converted, and problems that had originated from China. The third section

Monday, September 23, 2019

Literature Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Literature - Essay Example But when the stories of Oedipus and Othello are examined, we see that though both had defective understanding, their lack of insight lay in different circumstances and character traits. When faced with the scourge of plague, the Chorus in Oedipus Rex reacts with trepidation and indecisiveness: "My fearful heart twists on the rack and shakes with fear./ O Delian healer, for whom we cry aloud/ in holy awe, what obligation/ will you demand from me, a thing unknown/ or now renewed with the revolving years/ Immortal voice, O child of golden Hope, speak to me"! (Sophocles,185-191) But Oedipus is decisive and brave, and decides that he would find a solution for the crisis, and takes it upon himself to solve the whole problem almost single-handedly: " I will begin again; I'll find the truth./The dead man's cause has found a true defender/In Phoebus, and in you. And I will join you/ In seeking vengeance on behalf of Thebes/And Phoebus too; indeed, I must: if I/Remove this taint, it is not for a stranger,/ But for myself:...". (Sophocles,131,137)We see here the number of times the term "I" figures in this verse, and can measure the brash self-confidence of this King. And in this blind self-belief, Oedipus places a curse on the murderer, and though he spells out very closely the possibility that it might be someone from his own household, he makes an open declaration nevertheless: "I lay this curse upon him, that the wretch/In wretchedness and misery may live./And more: if with my knowledge he be found/ To share my hearth and home, then upon me/ Descend that doom that I invoke on him". (Sophocles, 248-252). He thus aggravates his future distress by laying the curse so stridently in public, not acknowledging to himself that he himself may be the murderer he is searching for. To any other person, the similarity of the old prediction about his own fate and the way this murderer is supposed to have acted, would have rung a bell. By now the situation is beyond remedy, of course, because he has unknowingly fulfilled the prophecy, and merely lacks the insight to see it. And at the moment he sees the truth, he blinds himself, quite literally. His uncertain vision lies in the fact that on one hand he heeds the voice of the Gods when they tell him about the plague, but not the one when he hears the dire prediction about himself, in his youth. One wonders what would have happened if Oedipus had not run from those he thought to be his parents, thus trying to avoid the prediction, or stayed his hand at murdering someone over a trifling dispute, or not married an older woman. In avoiding the prediction and not paying heed to it, he made it true, blind self-belief causes his uncertain vision. Shakespeare's Othello on the other hand is trusting, straight and impulsive, which causes his natural judgment to fail in his personal life. As Bradley puts it in extremely specific terms: "Othello's mind, for all its poetry, is very simple. He is not observant. His nature tends outward. He is quite free from introspection, and is not given to reflection. Emotion excites his imagination, but it confuses and dulls his intellect...... His trust, where he trusts, is absolute. Hesitation is almost impossible to him. He is extremely self-reliant, and decides and acts instantaneously. If stirred to indignation, as 'in Aleppo once,' he answers with one lightning stroke. Love, if he loves, must be to him the heaven where

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Geothermal energy (ethical issues) Research Paper

Geothermal energy (ethical issues) - Research Paper Example Interview: Ormat: Engineer Lucien Bronicki, who is the chairman and chief technology officer and his wife Yehudit Dita Bronicki, the cheif executive officer. ORMAT was established in 1965, formally known as Ormat Turbines Ltd. Lucien Bronicki worked in a physics laboratory which was funded by the government in the late 1950s. Here, he developed a turbine which would be used for electricity production from a wide range of energy sources which includes solar energy (Bronicki (c)). Later on he retired to exploit his ideas commercially where he set up the Ormat together with his wife. Ormat’s early years only focused exclusively with the manufacture of power generating equipment (Bronicki (a) 3). During the 1970s the Israeli government gave Ormat technology financial assistance, and also raised additional capital from the private sector investors. All this was for the building of the world’s first power station to produce electricity from solar energy. However this power station did not meet its target as far as economy was concerned so it was abandoned in 1988. In the 1980s, Ormat began to build systems which generated electricity using heat that would be emitted in industries during industrial processes also known as recovered energy. Later in the year the company ventured into geothermal where they used the company’s technology to generate electricity. In the 1990s Ormat decided to own and be involved with the management of alternative and renewable power station instead of relying on the provision of power generating equipment. The main product that Ormat technology provides is geothermal power solutions and energy recovery solutions. However, it is involved in the design of turbines, heat exchangers, pumps as well as organic fluids that do not degrade the ozone layer done originally by their designers. The company is also involved with the construction of combined cycle geothermal power plants in which power in a back pressure steam turbine is produces first by steam. The bottom of the vapour turbo generator does the condensing of the vapour. This produces additional power. It also provides services which are related to procurement, construction, engineering, maintenance and operations of recovery energy and geothermal plants. Ormat technologies operates and also owns geothermal power plants in Nevada, Nicaragua, New Zealand, Kenya, California, Hawaii, Indonesia and Guatemala. Worldwide, Ormat has 1069 employees in their Reno headquarters in the United States and the other figures distributed in their othe r stations in other countries. Below is the ranking of the Ormat technologies from the chief technology officer to the independent director. It is in this order; name, age, since and the current position. Name Age since Current position Lucien  Bronicki 77 2004 Chairman of the board, chief technology officer Yehudit  Bronicki 70 2007 Chief executive officer, director Yoram  Bronicki 45 2007 President, chief operating officer, director Joseph  Tenne 56 2005 Chief financial officer Nadav  Amir 61 2009 Executive vice president -operations Zvi  Krieger 56 2009 Executive vice President- geothermal resources Zvi  Reiss 61 2004 Executive vice President- Project Management Joseph  Shiloah 66 2010 Executive vice President- Business Development, Special Project, Rest of the World Etty  Rosner 56 2007 Executive vice President- Contract Management, Corporate Secretary Shimon  Hatzir 50 2009 senior vice President- Engineering Nir  Wolf 46 2010 vice President- Business devel opment, marketing and sales, rest of the world Robert  Clarke 69 2007 Independent Director Dan  Falk 67 2004 Independent Director Roger  Gale 65 2005 Independent Director David  Wagener 57 2010 Independent Director As of the year 2011 Ormat geothermal provider and technology provider had an increase of 17% to $437 million in total revenues. Their product revenue increase is 39% which accounts for 25% of their total revenues. There was an increase of 11% to $323.8 million in electricity revenues from

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Reading Strategy Essay Example for Free

Reading Strategy Essay What Is It? To aid their comprehension, skillful readers ask themselves questions before, during, and after they read. You can help students become more proficient by modeling this process for them and encouraging them to use it when they read independently. Why Is It Important? Dolores Durkins research in 1979 showed that most teachers asked students questions after they had read, as opposed to questioning to improve comprehension before or while they read. In the late 1990s, further research (Pressley, et al. 1998) Revealed that despite the abundance of research supporting questioning before, during, and after reading to help comprehension, teachers still favored post-reading comprehension questions. Researchers have also found that when adult readers are asked to think aloud as they read, they employ a wide variety of comprehension strategies, including asking and answering questions before, during, and after reading (Pressley and Afflerbach 1995). Proficient adult readers: Are aware of why they are reading the text Preview and make predictions Read selectively Make connections and associations with the text based on what they already know. Refine predictions and expectations Use context to identify unfamiliar words Reread and make notes Evaluate the quality of the text Review important points in the text Consider how the information might be used in the future Successful reading is not simply the mechanical process of decoding text. Rather, it is a process of active inquiry. Good readers approach a text with questions and develop new questions as they read, for example: What is this story about? What does the main character want? Will she get it? If so, how? Even after reading, engaged readers still ask questions: What is the meaning of what I have read? Why did the author end the paragraph (or chapter, or book) in this way? What was the authors purpose in writing this? Good authors anticipate the readers questions and plant questions in the readers mind (think of a title such as, Are You My Mother? by P. D. Eastman). In this way, reading becomes a collaboration between the reader and the author. The authors job is to raise questions and then answer them – or provide several possible answers. Readers cooperate by asking the right questions, paying careful attention to the authors answers, and asking questions of their own. HOW CAN YOU MAKE IT HAPPEN? To help readers learn to ask questions before, during, and after reading, think aloud the next time you are reading a book, article, or set of directions. Write each question on a post-it note and stick it on the text you have the question about. You may be surprised at how many typically unspoken questions you ponder, ask, and answer as you read. You may wonder as you read or after you read at the authors choice of title, at a vocabulary word, or about how you will use this information in the future. You should begin to model these kinds of questions in the primary grades during read-aloud times, when you can say out loud what you are thinking and asking. Read a book or text to the class, and model your thinking and questioning. Emphasize that even though you are an adult reader, questions before, during, and after reading continue to help you gain an understanding of the text you are reading. Ask questions such as: What clues does the title give me about the story? Is this a real or imaginary story? Why am I reading this? What do I already know about___? What predictions can I make? Pre-select several stopping points within the text to ask and answer reading questions. Stopping points should not be so frequent that they hinder comprehension or fluid reading of a text. This is also an excellent time to model repair strategies to correct miscomprehension. Start reading the text, and ask yourself questions while reading: What do I understand from what I just read? What is the main idea? What picture is the author painting in my head? Do I need to reread so that I understand? Then reread the text, asking the following questions when you are finished: Which of my predictions were right? What information from the text tells me that I am correct? What were the main ideas? What connections can I make to the text? How do I feel about it? Encourage students to ask their own questions after you have modeled this strategy, and write all their questions on chart paper. Students can be grouped to answer one anothers questions and generate new ones based on discussions. Be sure the focus is not on finding the correct answers, because many questions may be subjective, but on curiosity, wondering, and asking thoughtful questions. After students become aware of the best times to ask questions during the reading process, be sure to ask them a variety of questions that: Can be used to gain a deeper understanding of the text Have answers that might be different for everyone Have answers that can be found in the text Clarify the authors intent Can help clarify meaning Help them make inferences Help them make predictions Help them make connections to other texts or prior knowledge As students begin to read text independently, you should continue to model the questioning process and encourage students to use it often. In the upper elementary and middle school grades, a framework for questions to ask before, during, and after reading can serve as a guide as students work with more challenging texts and begin to internalize comprehension strategies. You can use an overhead projector to jot notes on the framework as you think aloud while reading a text. As students become comfortable with the questioning strategy, they may use the guide independently while reading, with the goal of generating questions before, during, and after reading to increase comprehension. How Can You Stretch Students Thinking? The best way to stretch students thinking about a text is to help them ask increasingly challenging questions. Some of the most challenging questions are Why? questions about the authors intentions and the design of the text. For example: Why do you think the author chose this particular setting? Why do you think the author ended the story in this way? Why do you think the author chose to tell the story from the point of view of the daughter? What does the author seem to be assuming about the readers political beliefs? Another way to challenge readers is to ask them open-ended question that require evidence from the text to answer. For example: What does Huck think about girls? What is your evidence? Which character in the story is most unlike Anna? Explain your reasons, based on evidence from the novel? What is the authors opinion about affirmative action in higher education? How do you know? Be sure to explicitly model your own challenging questions while reading aloud a variety of texts, including novels, subject-area textbooks, articles, and nonfiction. Help students see that answering challenging questions can help them understand text at a deeper level, ultimately making reading a more enjoyable and valuable experience. As students become proficient in generating challenging questions, have them group the questions the time they were asked (before, during or after reading). Students can determine their own categories, justify their reasons for placing questions into the categories, and determine how this can help their reading comprehension. When Can You Use It? Reading/English Students who have similar interests can read the same text and meet to discuss their thoughts in a book club. Members can be given a set of sticky notes to mark questions they have before, during, and after reading the text. Members can then share their question with one another to clarify understanding within their group. Since students reading level may not necessarily determine which book club they choose to join, accommodations may need to be made, including buddy reading, audio recordings of the text, or the use of computer-aided reading systems. Writing  Good writers anticipate their readers questions. Have students jot down the questions they will attempt to answer in an essay or short story before they write it, in the order that they plan to answer them. Stress that this should not be a mechanical process – as students write they probably will think of additional questions to ask and answer. The key point is to have students think of themselves as having a conversation with the reader – and a big part of this is knowing what questions the reader is likely to ask. Math Students can ask questions before, during, and after solving a math problem. Have students think aloud or write in groups to generate questions to complete performance tasks related to mathematics. Social Studies Use before, during, and after questions when beginning a new chapter or unit of study in any social studies topic. Select a piece of text, and have students generate questions related to the topic. At the end of the unit of study, refer back to the questions and discuss how the questions helped students to understand the content. Science Use before, during, and after questions to review an article or science text. You can discuss articles related to a recent scientific discovery with students and then generate questions that would help them to focus their attention on important information. Lesson Plans Lesson Plan: Questioning, The Mitten This lesson is designed to introduce primary students to the importance of asking questions before, during, and after listening to a story. In this lesson, using the story The Mitten by Jan Brett, students learn how to become good readers by asking questions. This is the first lesson in a set of questioning lessons designed for primary grades. Lesson Plan: Questioning, Grandfathers Journey. This lesson is for intermediate students using the strategy with the book, Grandfathers Journey, by Allen Say. Lesson Plan: Questioning, Kokos Kitten This lesson is designed to establish primary students skills in asking questions before, during, and after they listen to a story. You can help students learn to become better readers by modeling how and when you ask questions while reading aloud the true story, Kokos Kitten, by Dr. Francine Patterson. This is the second lesson in a set of questioning lessons designed for primary grades. Lesson Plan: Asking Pre-Reading Questions This is a language arts lesson for students in grades 3-5. Students will learn about asking questions before reading and will make predictions based on the discussion of the questions. Lesson Plan: Asking Questions When Reading In this lesson, the teacher will read The Wall by Eve Bunting with the purpose of focusing on asking important questions. The students and the teacher will then categorize the questions according to the criteria for each.  © 2000-2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Original URL: http://www. teachervision. fen. com/lesson-plan/reading-comprehension/48698. html Asking Questions When Reading Grade Levels: 4 8 Lesson Summary. Generating questions plays a key role in the process of learning how to read, and then again in learning how to read better. There are so many question that students may have about the text that they encounter – questions about the authors style or purpose, questions about new vocabulary, questions about what might happen, etc. Students need to first begin to feel comfortable asking questions, then learn to ask the vital questions that will direct their focus and clear up confusion. In this lesson, the teacher will read The Wall by Eve Bunting with the purpose of focusing on asking important questions. The students and the teacher will then categorize the questions according to the criteria for each. Materials When you read the story ahead of time, write any questions that pop into your head on post-it notes and have them available. Provide large pieces of paper and post-its for students, and locate enough copies of the book The Wall for partners. Provide a piece of paper for each group of four students. Prepare a piece of chart paper titled QUESTIONS with different columns of categories: Questions that are answered in the text Questions that I have to make an inference to answer Questions that are not important to understanding the story. Questions that require research to answer Questions about the authors style Questions that clear up confusion Objectives: Students will ask questions before, during, and after reading. Students will categorize important vs. interesting questions with a focus on important questions. Procedure Explain that good readers ask questions before, during, and after reading to help them understand a story better. Today, were going to focus on asking questions. Present the book The Wall to the students and say, I will read the title, and the back cover and look at the illustrations and think of as many questions as I can. These are the questions that I have before reading. Read your prepared post-it notes to the students. Read the story to the children and think aloud, asking questions while reading. Stress that these are the questions you have during reading. Read your prepared post-it notes to the students. When you have finished reading the story, ask questions that pop into your head and stress that these are the questions that you have after reading. Read your prepared post-it notes to the students. Take your questions on post-its, think aloud, and categorize them in the appropriate column according to the type of question that you asked. The students partner-read and use post-its on pages where they have a question. Have partners narrow their questions down to two questions. Then have the partners share their questions with another paired group. The groups of four students choose one of their questions and write it on a larger piece of paper. Gather all students and have them share their questions. With help from the class, have students categorize their questions. Discuss the questions that are important vs. interesting, and have students focus on the important questions.  © 2000-2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Original URL: http://www. teachervision. fen. com/lesson-plan/reading-comprehension/48697. html Asking Pre-Reading Questions Grade Levels: 3 5 Lesson Summary This is a language arts lesson for students in grades 3-5. Students will learn about asking questions before reading and will make predictions based on the discussion of the questions. Students should be able to differentiate between a question and a statement, generate questions, and work in cooperative, heterogeneous groups. Objectives Students will brainstorm prior knowledge about the topic of a text Students will make predictions about the text by asking effective before reading questions in order to improve our reading comprehension. Key Understandings Asking and discussing questions will improve our comprehension of the text. Good readers ask questions before they read. Materials Two narrative texts Pre-reading Show Rubric Pledge Procedure Select two narrative texts, one will be used to demonstrate the before reading questioning strategy, the other will be used for guided practice. It may be easier to choose two texts by the same author or two texts of the same genre. Discuss the ways in which a pre-game show and asking questions before, during, and after reading are similar. Good readers are like sports casters. Just as sports casters discuss the sports event before, during, and after the game, good readers ask and discuss questions before, during, and after reading. This improves comprehension, or understanding, of the text. You may say something such as, Who has watched a football, basketball, or baseball game on television? Sports casters help us understand the game by discussing it. They discuss the game with us before the game, during the game and after the game. Before the game, there is a pre-game analysis. That means that the announcer gives us background information about the game, teams, players, and coaches. This information can be used to make predictions about the outcome of the game. During the game, the announcers provide play-by-play coverage. They discuss important or controversial plays to help us understand whats going on in the game and to explain how certain plays may affect the outcome of the game. They even provide replays of the most important events of the game to make sure we remember them. Finally, after the game, announcers interview the coaches and players to get different perspectives about how the game was played. They review the highlights of the game, confirm or disprove their predictions, and discuss the implications of the outcome of the game. Tell students they are going to focus on asking questions before they begin reading a text. If possible, show a video clip of a pre-game sports cast. Use the analogy of a pre-game show and before reading questions to help students ask effective before reading questions. As you generate questions for each topic. Spend some time wondering about the answers and making predictions about the book. Write your predictions about the book in a separate column. Identify a purpose for reading the text. Narrative = for literary experience/enjoyment Expository = for information Functional = to perform a task/follow directions. Examine the cover illustration and read the title, modeling how to ask questions. Write the questions on chart paper or on an overhead projector. Look at the author and model how to generate questions. Activate background knowledge by taking a picture walk with students. Cover the print with sticky notes, and think aloud as you model how to generate questions, make predictions, and build vocabulary by carefully examining and discussing the illustrations in the text. Ask questions about the setting, characters, events, and genre of the book. Pre-Game Show Questions Before Reading Predictions Team A vs. Team B What teams are playing? What do we know about these teams? Where are they from? Have we ever seen either team play? In your opinion, are they skilled? Is one team better than the other? Title of Story/Cover What topic might this story be about? What do we already know about this topic? Have we read any other books about this topic? Do we have any experience related to this topic? Where and when did we have the experience? Coach Who is the coach? What do we know about the coach? What teams has he/she coached in the past? What is his/her coaching style? Author Who is the author? Who is the illustrator? What books have he/she written or illustrated in the past? Can we describe the style of the author/illustrator? Have I ever read other texts by this author? If so, what do I remember about those texts? Stadium Where is the game being played? Who has the home field advantage? What are the current weather conditions? How will the weather conditions affect the game? Setting Where and when does the story take place? Is the place/time familiar or unfamiliar to us? Have we read any other stories with a similar setting? Players Who are the key players? What positions do they play? What are their skills? Characters Who are the main characters? What role might they play in the story? Can we predict some of their character traits by examining the illustrations? Plays What plays are the coaches likely to run? Events What events may take place in this story? Rules/Principles of Game What are the rules of the game? What are winning strategies? Genre of Text What genre of story is this? (fairytale, folktale) Have we read other stories of the same genre? What are the characteristics of this genre? Tell students that the class will read the story together tomorrow, and learn to ask new questions while they are reading to help understand the story. Guided practice Give students the opportunity to practice writing and discussing some before reading questions for a new story. Place students in 6 groups and have each group record or role play a pre-reading show for the new book, just as sports casters broadcast a pre-game show. 1. title/cover 2. author/illustrator 3. setting 4. characters 5. events 6. genre of literature Select student leaders to guide each groups through the process of examining the cover of the new story and taking a picture walk. Allow groups to discuss their topic. Students should generate two of their own before reading questions on their topic, and then share their questions and provide feedback to each other. Have groups include information from their prior knowledge and personal experience as they discuss the before reading questions, and have them discuss the possible answers and make predictions about the book. After each student has had the opportunity to formulate and write two questions, jigsaw the groups to form TV crews for a pre-reading show. Each TV crew should have six students, one student from each group, 1-6. Review the parts of the rubric. Provide a time limit for each TV show, and tell students that each show should include: an introduction of the members of the TV crew slogan, jingle, or music a discussion of their prior knowledge about the topic a discussion of each members questions predictions about the book from each member Give groups the opportunity to practice asking and discussing their questions before role playing or videotaping their show. If time permits, allow students to make larger visual aids to display during the discussion. Microphones can be made quickly from rolling paper into tubes. Sharing Ideas Distribute rubrics to the class. Allow students to score each TV crew as they present. Independent Practice Have students think of a younger child that they will spend time with this week. Have them think of a book that they can read to the child. Have students use some of the before reading questioning strategies they learned to help the younger child understand the story. Students can use this questions framework worksheet to help them with questions to ask before reading, and help the child make predictions. The worksheet reminds students to ask questions about the title and cover, author and illustrator, setting, characters, events and genre. Assessment Each group will be assessed using the scores from the presentation rubric, scored by their peers and teacher.  © 2000-2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Running Records Page Description: A running record is a way to assess a students reading progress by systematically evaluating a students oral reading and identifying error patterns. This template will help you track your students oral reading accuracy. Take advantages from kids that love harry potter Book Covers from Around the World: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Page Description: Enjoy comparing and contrasting colorful cover art for J. K. Rowlings Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban with this printable handout. Discuss the differences in interpretations from around the world with your students. Grade Levels: 2 7 Analyzing a Book Character Page Description: This chart of questions will help students analyze the cover art of a book. Use this worksheet when talking about the different cover art on each international edition of the Harry Potter books. Grade Levels: 3 – 8 Literacy Glossary Page 1 of 2 Accuracy Rate: This is the rate, shown as a percent, at which students accurately read the text. Concept Map: A concept map is a type of graphic organizer which allows students to consider relationships among various concepts. Often students are encouraged to draw arrows between related concepts enclosed in oval or other shapes. Error Rate: This is a ratio of errors to words in the text. Fluency: The rate and accuracy with which a person reads. Fluency results from practicing reading skills often and with a high rate of success. Formative Assessment: These tests are ongoing and based on the curriculum, providing a way to monitor student progress. They can be used to place students in groups, based on instructional needs. Frustrational Level: This is the level at which students are unable to read with adequate comprehension. Genre: A genre is a particular type of literature, such as narratives, poetry, dramas, or fables. Independent Level: This is the level at which students can read without assistance. Materials at this level should be chosen for independent reading, or fluency practice. Independent Reading Inventories: An informal formative assessment that provides graded word lists and passages designed to assess the oral reading and listening comprehension. Insertion: In a running record or informal reading inventory, this is a miscue in which students add another word when reading printed text. For example, if the sentence is: The dog played, the student reads: The happy dog played. Instructional Level: This is the level at which students can read with assistance from the teacher. Materials at this level should be chosen for reading instruction. Metacognition: This is thinking about ones own thinking, or being aware of ones own learning. When students are aware of how they think and learn, they can be taught to regulate their thought and learning processes. Omission: In a running record or informal reading inventory, this is a miscue in which students do not read a word or words in the printed text. For example, if the sentence is: The sky was bright blue, the student reads: The sky was blue. Onset: The part of a syllable that comes before the vowel of a syllable. The onset of the word box is /b/. Phoneme: the smallest unit of sound. It distinguishes one word from another (e. g. , man and fan are distinguished by the initial phoneme). Phonemic Awareness: This is a type of phonological awareness that involves the awareness and manipulation of individual sounds. Phonological Awareness: The auditory awareness of sounds, words, and sentences. The understanding that speech is composed of sentences made up of words. Words are comprised of syllables, and syllables are comprised of phonemes. Qualitative Data: Qualitative data consist of verbal or graphic descriptions of behavior and experience resulting from processes of observation, interpretation, and analysis. It is often comprehensive, holistic, and expansive. Qualitative Tools: These are tools that produce qualitative data consisting of verbal or graphic descriptions of behavior and experience resulting from processes of observation, interpretation, and analysis. Quantitative Data: Quantitative data consist of information represented in the form of numbers that can be analyzed by means of descriptive or inferential statistics. It is often precise and narrow data. Reading Conferences: Conferences conducted by teachers during independent reading time provide an opportunity to meet with a student to assess progress, to note reading strategies that are being used, monitor books being read, and to provide guidance in developing reading strategies. Rime: The part of a syllable that consists of its vowel and any consonant sounds that come after it. The rime of the word box is /ox/. Scaffolding: A scaffold is a supporting framework. Scaffolded learning is a teaching strategy that helps support students in their learning when they may have difficulties. A goal of scaffolded learning is to have students use a particular strategy independently. Screening Tests: These tests provide information that serves as a baseline. They are usually given to determine the appropriate starting place for instruction. Self-Correction: In a running record or informal reading inventory, this is a miscue in which students do not read a word or words correctly, but return to the text and read the word or words correctly. Self-Correction Rate: This is the ratio of self-corrections to errors when reading the text. Sound-Print Connection: Understanding the relationship between print and sound. Substitution: In a running record or informal reading inventory, this is a miscue in which students replace the printed word with another word. For example, if the sentence is: She said, No,' the student reads: She shouted, No. Summative Assessment: These tests are usually given at the end of a unit or at the end of the year. They assess a students strengths and weaknesses over a period of time.

Friday, September 20, 2019

Positive Accounting Theory

Positive Accounting Theory INTRODUCTION Purpose The purpose of this report is to analyse the effect of adopting AASB 2 Share-based Payments. Besides, this report will also provide discussions about the reaction of some parties related to this adoption. Background In July 2004, there is a significant change in the accounting requirements for share-based payments. The previous standard that governs share-based payment was AASB 1046 Director and Executive Disclosures by Disclosing Entities, which then supersede by AASB 2 Share-based Payments. Under AASB 1046, share-based payments only required to be disclosed. However, AASB 2 requires an entity to reflect on its profit or loss and balance sheet the effects of share-based payment transactions at fair value (Accounting Handbook 2008). Scope This analysis is done by applying Positive Accounting Theory (PAT). The report covers three main areas, impact of adoption on companies, on managers, and motivation of regulators in developing standards Limitations Since AASB 2 is still new, research papers used in this reports may not Positive Accounting Theory (PAT) that popularized by Watts and Zimmerman is one of positive theory accounting. PAT is concerned with explaining accounting practices. It is designed to explain and predict which firms will not use a particular method. It does not say something as to which method a firm should use. This is what differentiates positive and normative theories. Normative theories prescribe how a particular practice should be undertaken and this prescription might be a significant departure from existing practice. PAT focuses on the relationship between the various individuals involved in providing resources to an organisation and how accounting is used to assist in functioning of these relationships. PAT is based on the central economics-based assumption that all individuals actions are driven by self-interest and that individuals will always act in an opportunistic manner to the extent that the actions will increase their wealth. From an efficiency perspective, why could the introduction of new rules on share option accounting be costly for an organization? Share-based payments have been widely used by many organizations as an incentive tool attracting and retaining employees, and compensate senior executives. Because there was a significant change in the accounting requirements on share-based payments, this will then affect quite numbers of organizations. The effect on organization can be explained by an efficiency perspective. Efficiency perspective, which also known as ex-ante perspective, is one of perspective under the PAT umbrella. It considers up-front mechanisms in order to minimize future agency and contracting costs (TB p. 274). Theorists of efficiency perspective argued that companies adopt particular accounting methods which best reflect their underlying economic performance. By choosing the best methods, it is being argued that investors and other parties will need not to gather as much additional information from other sources. This will consequently lead to cost saving and reducing the risks of investors, which will then increase the value of the company (TB p. 274). Another effect on the implementation of AASB 2 is that it will reduce the profit of the company, thus the performance of the company will seems to be not so attractive to the potential investors. Unattractive performance of the company may cause the investors to assume that the company has higher risks of default. Thus investors become reluctant to invest in the company or, the investors will require higher return. In other words, the company will be facing a hard time to gain investors confidence or the company will be facing a high cost of capital (TB p. 275). Since PAT theorists believe that companies will choose the methods best reflect the companies performance, this means that there will be no need for regulations to be in place anti regulation perspective. PAT theorists argued that regulation of financial accounting imposes unwarranted costs on reporting entities (TB p. 275). In the case of share-based payments, by superseding AASB 1046 with AASB 2, this provides restrictions to the company as to limited methods available to choose from. This will create inefficiencies the companies may not able to choose the method that best reflect their performance. Besides, by expensing share-based payments, this would harm start-up companies and decrease the entrepreneurial activity of growing companies (Sacho Wingard 2004). The reason behind this is that both new and growing companies usually do not always have enough cash to be used as incentive tool attract and retain skillful employees. Thus, in order to attract and retain talented employees, such companies use share options instead of giving cash incentives. Under the previous standard, whereby share options do not need to be recorded as an expense in the profit and loss statement, this will result in higher profitability which may be assumed as a good performance by investors. Besides, this will result in higher returns from investment (ROI). Thus, this makes the financial position statement of those companies look better (stronger) which then allow them to access greater capital than they would had if they have to expensed share option. Debt covenants, which also known as banking or financial covenants, are agreements between a company and its lenders that the company should operate within certain limits (Pietersz 2009). The limits set by the lenders are usually expressed in accounting numbers (i.e. level of gearing ratios). Besides set the limits, lenders will also impose obligations if the company breaches the agreement. Thus, if the company has to expense-off the share-based payments transactions, this will affect the bottom line of its financial statement which then will affect some accounting ratios. This will create difficulties for the company to operate within the limit written in the debt covenant. Company will need to re-examine the debt covenants and need to consider how to communicate this adverse impact on reported profits and key performance ratios to the market. In a worse case, company may wants to renegotiate the terms and conditions of the agreements (Chalmers Godfrey 2005). Both re-examine and re negotiate are not easy tasks, it takes a lot of efforts, considerable amount of time, and it is costly. Since AASB 2 requires companies to record share-based payments transactions as an expense, which then leads to lower profit, this will discourage companies to use share options as a compensation tool. This may cause managers to lose their motivation to improve the performance of the company, because share option is a method that widely used and most benefiting to the managers. Sacho and Wingard (2004) argued that expensing share-based payments would hurt companies like Apple, Intel and Microsoft (information technology companies) due to earnings pressures caused by share-based payments. Expensing share options will also distort earning per share (EPS). Distortion may occur due to inclusion of expense for employee stock options in the profit and loss statement will result in an inaccurate double charge in the financial statement (BIO 2004). When the employees exercise their options, it will be recorded as an expense and increase in the number of share issued. Thus, EPS will be diluted. In compliance to AASB 2, companies have to determine the fair value of the stock options. However, it is complicated to determine the fair value of stock options at grant date, due to difficulties in predicting future movement of share prices. Thus, mathematical models, such as lattice model are often used to predict the future movement in the share price and therefore to derive the value of the stock options. However, to apply this model, expertise is required. Thus, companies have to hire external experts. Besides, additional internal compliance costs, costs of external audit will also increases (BIO 2004). Why could the introduction of new rules on share option accounting be costly for manager A new set of regulation regime in the share option accounting will lead to a different treatment of accounting method to adopt in the company. The complex changes in the new treatments will increase administration and reporting requirements. According to Miles, manager will need to employ accounting industry specialist to assist them in order to comply with the latest regulatory changes. The additional administration requirement will burden the managers with extra costs. This is because managers will have to put in a lot of effort, allocate more time and money in order to familiarize and adopt the new set of the regulation which is generally called as bonding cost (Deegan). These extra allocations will go into training the existing staffs to get used to the new regulations. In addition to that, in certain cases, managers will have to employ new staff; specialists will cost even more money, to deal with the new accounting method which will ultimately result in an increase in the opera tional cost of the company. Besides time consuming and increase in operational cost, the new set of share option accounting rules will limit the managers option in applying different accounting methods. The new set of rule forces managers to be more transparent in preparing the financial report. Managers will lose the opportunity to construct a financial report that best indicate the companys performance. This is because, AASB 2 requires manager to recognize expenses that are related to services or goods received or acquired in the share based payment transaction. As a result, by expensing the items mentioned will significantly reduce the profit in the income statement. In the case of companies relying on profit based performance, managers are directly affected by the diminished profit. Low profit indicates low bonuses for the managers. On the other hand, for companies relying on share-price based performance, manager has to bear indirect impact of the huge deduction in the profit. This is because investors are the ones who are influential in regards to the movement of share prices. Investors are acting based on the information provided in the financial statement. Unexpected decline in the profit will lead to a negative sentiment; as a consequence, the investors are not convinced in either purchasing or retaining the companys share (Deegan pg. 262). Instead of increase in the share price, it will drop the share price. Ultimately the value of share options will drop in line with the drop in share prices. What would motivate the regulators to develop the new rules? Big organizations represent large visible blocks of wealth and the government possesses the ultimate authority; through legislation and through court decisions. Politicians, bureaucrats, and special interest groups are interested in expanding their welfare, supporting rules that would work to their own benefit (Jensen, 1976). Generally, the regulators are controlled; if not, influenced by the government in power. Regulators might be motivated in developing new rules; in the scope of self-interest, that would benefit the government. For example, the majority of the public demands the government to solve discrimination and poverty or to be stricter with issues in regards to the environment. In order for the government to stay as the popular choice of the public, the regulators can develop rules that will have these big organizations to serve as a vehicle for social reform (social responsibility); by mitigation of discrimination and poverty, and the establishment of training and polluti on prevention programs (Jensen, 1976). This will work in favor of the governments self-interest by addressing the publics interest. Likewise, the regulators can also develop rules that would benefit big organizations; ultimately the government in ways of getting sponsorship The inefficiency of the ESOs would be a reason for regulators to develop the new rules; because inefficiency of ESOs can lead to abuses and frauds. Frauds that are related to ESOs may crop up from the managerial power doctrine, negotiation and execution of ESO agreements, award and implementation of ESO plans, re-pricing, and disclosure of ESOs; as exampled in the recent corporate crimes at Enron, Tyco and Arthur Anderson (Nwogugu, 2006 pg 9). What happened with the big three companies showed that there was over-reliance on companys internal governance mechanisms for prevention of corporate crime. In order to prevent abuses on ESOs, it is paramount for the regulators to develop new rules; i.e. to enhance transparency and corporate governance, criminalize the misconduct which was formerly regulated by corporate governance mechanisms. Often ESOs in large organizations can result in over-compensation which is substantial to opportunity costs. The costs to cover over-compensation will directly impinge on other areas of a business (opportunity costs) such as capital expenditures and limiting expansion. Establishing proper compensation is difficult; according to Nwogugu (2006 pg 11) the business judgement rule cannot eliminate over-compensation because of the difficulty in determining and applying the reasonableness standard. This is when the regulators come in. There is a potential for regulators to develop an optimal compensation structure to avoid companies from practicing over-compensation, thus encouraging regulators to lay down new rules. Other inefficiencies and abuses of the ESOs that might encourage the regulators to develop new rules include the potential usage of ESOs as a device for taxation avoidance and as device to prevent a takeover (Lenne, Mitchell, and Ramsay, 2004 pg 10). Taxation concessions related to ESO schemes are introduced with the objective of promoting the practice of ESO. But there are concerns of abuse of the concessions given in the form of tax relief for private equity ownership (Lenne, Mitchell, and Ramsay, 2004 pg 19). This will result in people who are not qualified, able to take advantage of the tax incentives. In the scope of takeover prevention, companies might extend their ESO. By doing so, the company is able to redistribute control among its own management which makes a takeover seem unappealing. There is also an issue of companies making trade-offs with their employee by offering ESOs in exchange with wages. It is suggested that ESOs should be a supplement to the employees income rather than being a substitute for wages instead (Lenne, Mitchell, and Ramsay, 2004 pg 10). New regulations are needed in order to monitor and prevent these issues from taking place in the future. Another factor that should prompt the regulators into developing new rules in regards to ESOs is to achieve consistency and comparability. According to a research by Lenne, Mitchell, and Ramsay (2004 pg 14), 513 annual reports of ASX-listed public companies for the financial year ending 2001 was conducted in regards to ESO disclosures. In the research, theyve identified that the disclosure practices varied significantly between companies. Some annual reports disclosed noteworthy detail on the companys various ESO schemes while some, basic information such as the scope of the scheme of their ESOs are not even provided (Lenne, Mitchell, and Ramsay, 2004 pg 14), making comparability impossible because of the inconsistency of the disclosures. Last and most important factor that will motivate regulators to develop new rules is related to ESOs being expensed. ESO plans did not require any expense recognition in terms of the prevailing accounting standards (Sacho and Wingard, 2004 pg 155). This resulted in investors forecasting the value of companies with misleading information as exampled in the 2001 share market bubble burst. Investors get a false impression in regards to the reality of the value of the related transactions which ended up in billions of dollars lost due to the fall of share prices. Markets can only allocate resources efficiently when prices accurately reflect underlying values; which can only be achieved by expensing ESOs (Sacho and Wingard, 2004 pg 155). By expensing ESOs, investors are able to obtain the true input costs of generating corporate revenues, enabling them to efficiently allocate capital and undertake the best possible investment decisions. In addition to that, expensing ESOs will lead to imp rovements in corporate performance and reduction in abuses of the ESOs (Sacho and Wingard, 2004 pg 158). CONCLUSION REFERENCE LIST http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/science?_ob=MImg_imagekey=B6W58-4H68T8F-2-1_cdi=6564_user=170565_orig=browse_coverDate=12%2F31%2F2005_sk=999859997view=cwchp=dGLzVtz-zSkWzmd5=72a8e05e8f6a0ee2f4bea25809e2b586ie=/sdarticle.pdf Shying, M Ngiam, J (eds) 2008, CPA Australia: Accounting Handbook, 2008 edition, Pearson Australia Group Pty Limited, Australia.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Call of the wild report Essay -- English Literature

Call of the wild report "Buck was no ordinary dog. He was bigger than a wolf and smarter than any other dog that ever lived." This book is mostly about a fairly big dog who was strong mentally and physically, even though he only starts off as a regular pet. His name was Buck. From the start everyone thought he was special. This book is set in America starting in California and moving to Alaska, and except for the very beginning its mostly about how buck learnt how to live the life of a working sleigh dog and how to sleep outside in the cold snow and having to work extremely hard each day. In this book I thought the author lacked description as I found it hard to picture the characters for myself and of those I could imagine were from the pictures that came up every now and again. This book is mostly about the adventures of Buck gradually becoming extremely strong and powerful after working so hard and almost acting like a real wolf, and he even would be strong enough to beat a wolf at a fight. "Every movement showed that he was prepared to be either fierce ...

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Law School Admissions Essay - The Spirit Lives -- Sample Law School Ad

"Hasta la victoria siempre." (Che Guevara) I want to study law so I can help people with problems in the workplace.   I am unhappy with the decrease in real wages, the huge increase in temporary and part-time employment that includes few or no fringe-benefits, and the continued existence of unsafe work places.   I believe that technological advances are going to continue to put people out of work, perhaps on a massive scale, in the next twenty to fifty years, and that government, business, and workers will have a new opportunity to share the gains in productivity that are to come.   I believe that people have the right to work at a job that allows them to afford to raise a family, live in a comfortable, safe home, and work in a safe environment.   I want to devote my work to improving workers' pay levels, assuring them access to health care, paid vacation time, fair treatment by their employers, and physical safety in the work place.   Increasing the number of safe, well-paid, secure jobs will go a long way towards helping alleviate many of the social ills that are associated with poverty.   Ã‚  Ã‚   I was involved with labor issues at my job at the San Francisco International Youth Hostel, where I worked from 1992 to 1996.   I helped organize a group of workers there to discuss our work place and to smooth out scheduling conflicts between management and our group of workers.   In September 1995, part-time staff's holiday pay was taken away without any discussion at all, and I called the Executive Director of the Company the (The Golden Gate Council) and persuaded her to re-institute it.   I was regularly consulted for my opinion on various wage, hour and working-condition matters.   Ã‚  Ã‚   I have seen how working people organize them... ...ing as a community organizer for a volunteer service-exchange program that benefits seniors and the disabled.   the work I am doing reinforces the goals I have of helping solve problems in the workplace.   At my job here in West and South Berkeley, I have again seen the poverty that a dearth of good jobs breeds in a community.   I want to help raise my community's living standards through a more equitable sharing of the resources we transform in our workplaces.   Ã‚  Ã‚   The last thing I can say about myself is that I am interested in almost everything and hope to learn much more about solutions to social problems, science, questions of spirituality and religion, history, visual arts, music, literature, and the list could go on for a while form there.   The curiosity and interest in knowing about the world is an asset that I will take into whatever endeavor I choose.   

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Slavery and the Atlantic Trade :: Slavery Essays

The demand for agricultural goods in European countries created the Atlantic Economy. Europeans wanted certain things that were too expensive if bought from Asia, one of the most important of these being sugar. Other important trading commodities were tobacco, cotton, rice, cacao and coffee. Slaves were the number one commodity for trading. The slave trade started when European shops sailed to African ports. Through this, Africans (captured to be slaves) were taken to the New World and Forced to work. Britain, France, the Dutch Republic, Spain and Portugal all participated in the slave trade. These European empires created an Atlantic economy in which slave trade was a major feature. These five countries came into contact with each other through the want and demand for slaves. Political and religious ideas became intermingled and developed within new environments. Plantation owners in the New World needed slaves for agricultural labor of their plantations. The slaves became disciplined and were forced to work in bad conditions for long hours at young ages in harsh temperatures. Slavery has been used throughout history but the African slave trade of the seventeenth and eighteenth century is the most brutish known to history. It was unique in three major ways. The amount of slaves being traded was tremendous. More than eleven million African slaves were â€Å"shipped† to the New World between 1519 and 1867. Of these eleven million, only 9.5 million reached the sure because of disease and extremely poor traveling accommodations. Also, during this time, whites had an attitude of supreme superiority over the black people. The third major feature was commercial character. The whole purpose was to give slave trades a profit and slave owners the free labor they desired. African slaves were viewed as property, they were not seen as equal to the whites. A good example of this is Captain Collingwood who compared the slaves to horses in court, they were seen as just property. The slave trade became a competition between the five major powers. Each country tried to create a monopoly over certain trade routes. Slavery and the Atlantic Trade :: Slavery Essays The demand for agricultural goods in European countries created the Atlantic Economy. Europeans wanted certain things that were too expensive if bought from Asia, one of the most important of these being sugar. Other important trading commodities were tobacco, cotton, rice, cacao and coffee. Slaves were the number one commodity for trading. The slave trade started when European shops sailed to African ports. Through this, Africans (captured to be slaves) were taken to the New World and Forced to work. Britain, France, the Dutch Republic, Spain and Portugal all participated in the slave trade. These European empires created an Atlantic economy in which slave trade was a major feature. These five countries came into contact with each other through the want and demand for slaves. Political and religious ideas became intermingled and developed within new environments. Plantation owners in the New World needed slaves for agricultural labor of their plantations. The slaves became disciplined and were forced to work in bad conditions for long hours at young ages in harsh temperatures. Slavery has been used throughout history but the African slave trade of the seventeenth and eighteenth century is the most brutish known to history. It was unique in three major ways. The amount of slaves being traded was tremendous. More than eleven million African slaves were â€Å"shipped† to the New World between 1519 and 1867. Of these eleven million, only 9.5 million reached the sure because of disease and extremely poor traveling accommodations. Also, during this time, whites had an attitude of supreme superiority over the black people. The third major feature was commercial character. The whole purpose was to give slave trades a profit and slave owners the free labor they desired. African slaves were viewed as property, they were not seen as equal to the whites. A good example of this is Captain Collingwood who compared the slaves to horses in court, they were seen as just property. The slave trade became a competition between the five major powers. Each country tried to create a monopoly over certain trade routes.

Monday, September 16, 2019

The effects and implications of using ergogenic aids for exercise and sports performance

Throughout the history of sport, ergogenic aids have always been taken to enhance performance at sport. However, in more recent times physiological knowledge has improved and there are many more ergogenic aids becoming available for athletes. Some of these aids are legal and some are illegal. Therefore, when working as a coach, it is important to know which are legal and which are illegal so that you can avoid any risk of your athlete being prosecuted. One ergogenic aid that is prohibited is blood doping. This practice involves the athletes taking a certain amount of blood out of their body and frozen. Their bodies will then make up for this blood loss and after that process is complete, the blood that they took out is injected back into them. This process has a positive effect on sports performance as the number of red blood cells in your body is increased. Blood doping is most commonly used by endurance athletes, such as distance runners, skiers and cyclists. By increasing the number of red blood cells within the blood, higher volumes of haemoglobin are present. Haemoglobin binds to and carries Oxygen from the lungs and to the muscles where it can be used for aerobic respiration. Blood doping therefore allows extra Oxygen to be transported to the working muscles, resulting in a higher level of performance, without the use of the anaerobic energy systems. However, there are also many side effects to blood doping. Re injecting blood can cause many problems. Firstly it can easily cause infection to the athlete which can result in heart problems such as a heart attack. It can also cause blood clots in the body which can be fatal, jaundice which is the skin, eyes and body fluids turning yellow. One example of blood doping being used was at the winter Olympics. Six Austrian skiers had all been found to be using to using blood doping in an attempt to improve in the cross country skiing event. The skiers were called Wolfgang Perner and Wolfgang Rottmann and the cross-country skiers Martin Tauber, Jurgen Pinter, Johannes Eder, Roland Diethart and Christian Hoffmann. This particular event is an aerobic event as it lasts for a long time, with the competitors covering huge distances. Therefore the extra red blood cells in their bodies would have meant that they were able to go on much longer and faster than they would normally be able to. As a punishment, all six skiers were banned for life from the Olympics A second example of a prohibited ergogenic aid in sport is diuretics. Diuretics are banned in sports because they can help with weight loss and could also be used to speed up the elimination of drugs from the system. This can be very helpful to athletes competing in many different sports such as boxing, horse racing or rowing. One example would be a boxer that has put on weight between fights and is therefore too heavy for the weight category they are fighting in. Diuretics would help them to lose weight much more quickly than by natural means and they would be able to pass the weigh in. They help the sportsperson lose weight by increasing the volume of urine produced by promoting the excretion of salts and water from the kidney. This results in them losing a lot of water through urine, which causes them to lose weight very quickly. The second reason they are banned is, if you take a banned substance that is excreted through urine, it could speed up the elimination of drugs from the system. If it is being used in this way, it is not so much an aid to improve performance but could cover up for another prohibited aid. There are two main side effects to diuretics that damage a persons performance levels in sport. The first of these is dehydration. Diuretics work by removing all excess water and this means that dehydration often occurs. This will immediately have an effect on sports performance. Firstly, blood will become thicker and therefore more difficult to pump around the body, resulting in less oxygen being carried through the blood to the muscles. The body will then overheat due to an inability to sweat because of dehydration. Finally, Waste products such as lactic acid are not discreeted due to water conversation. A second effect on sports performance is muscles weakening, which is very important for sports people such as boxers. This is due to the poor blood supply to muscles. An example of the consequences that diuretics can cause is in boxers. They used to have the weigh in on the day of the fight. This meant that any boxer using diuretics would have to use them on the same day as they were fighting. The diuretics would get rid of any excess water in the body but the problem was that it took away the layer of water between the skull and the brain. This layer of liquid protects the brain from hitting the side of the skull when knocked. Therefore, without this protection, many boxers developed brain damage after years of boxing. Another prohibited ergogenic aid is beta blockers. Beta blockers are banned in many sports due to their ability to slow the heart rate. It is precision sports such as snooker, darts and diving that they improve performance in as they give you more control over slight movements. Beta blockers are normally given for the treatment of angina, high blood pressure, irregular heart beats or following a heart attack. They act by interfering and inhibiting certain nerve impulses being transmitted through the nervous system. They act by reducing the demand of oxygen required by the heart, lower heart rate and reduce the production of adrenalin. There are many possible side-effects of these drugs, but some people may not suffer from any. Possible effects include dizziness and fainting caused by the medications lowering heart rate too much and blood vessels can narrow causing cold and pale fingers and toes. On the other hand, there are also permitted ergogenic aids. This means that they can improve sports performance, but are still allowed by governing bodies of sports. One example of this is altitude training. Altitude training is very useful to any sports people that are competing in aerobic events. Many long distance runners either come from countries at high altitude or move there to train. Altitude training works because when the athlete trains at high altitude, there is very little oxygen in the air. The body soon adapts to this change of oxygen available and produces more red blood cells than normal. This means that there is increased haemoglobin levels in the blood that aren't lost when the athlete returns back to lower altitude to compete. These effects usually last for about two weeks after altitude training and result in much better endurance levels. There are very few side effects to altitude training as long as athletes do not over train themselves at altitude. It has been scientifically proven to have positive effects on performance. Altitude training is proven to have a positive effect on sporting performance b the Kenyan long distance runners. For years they have dominated all long distance running events. Kenya is at a very high altitude and the effects that the athletes get from training in their home country is proven in the times on the track. Another permitted ergogenic aid is psychological techniques. The increased stress of competitions can cause athletes to react both physically and mentally in a manner that can negatively affect their performance abilities. They may become tense, their heart rates race, break into sweat, worry about the outcome of the competition or find it hard to concentrate on the task in hand. There are many different psychological techniques that can be used to combat these effects on the body. These include imagery techniques, relaxation techniques and goal setting. There are three psychological factors which athletes must have control over to improve performance. These are confidence, control and commitment. Confidence is improved through mental imagery. Using imagery, the athlete is able to imagine a previous good performance, remembering how they felt and acted. It also allows you to imagine yourself winning at the end, feeling like you have already been in the same situation and improving confidence. Control is improved through relaxation techniques. An example of a relaxation technique is through meditation. If athletes complete meditation before competing, they will be able to be much more relaxed and have control over what they are doing. The final technique that athletes can use is goal setting, which can improve commitment in sport. If they are given something to aim for, with multiple small aims along the way, they are more likely to complete any objectives they have. There are no side effects to psychological techniques as long as they have the necessary skills to complete them. An example of psychological skills improving performance in sport is through Johnny Wilkinson. Whenever he is kicking a conversion, he pictures an elderly woman standing at the other side of the goal posts that catches the ball. This improves confidence and concentration as it makes the task at hand seem much simpler. One of the very few drugs that is allowed my governing bodies of all sports is paracetamol. These have been seen to not improve sporting performance and therefore are not banned. However, they could be used to help a performance in certain sports. Paracetamol work as pain killers. Therefore, any sport that requires its participants to go through pain may benefit from paracetamol. One example of a sport where athletes go through pain in is boxing. If boxers took some paracetamol before going out to fight, it is possible that it will help cover some of the pain when they are getting punched. They are most commonly used for aches such as head aches so they may also stop the boxers from getting head aches after being punched. It is not just contact sports however that deal with aches and pains. Nearly all sports at the top level require its participants to push their bodies to their absolute limit and through the pain barrier. A sport such as long distance running for example will cause a lot of aches on the athlete's body and paracetamol will help cover these. There are very few side effects to paracetamol as they are widely used by everyone to stop pains. This means that we know more about the dangers than we would of a new drug that may be illegal, as it is used by less people. The only danger would be if the athlete took an overdose which could cause serious problems or be fatal.