Old Spice case studey Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Old Spice studey - Case Study Example h of â€Å"The Man Your Man Could Smell Like’ campaign which involved a former NFL player whose role was to convince women to buy the products so that their partners would be like him or smell like him (Rowe, n.d). Although this advertisement was a success after realizing more than 26 million views on YouTube, the company devised the most successful advert incorporating social media so as to make the brand more successful. Through â€Å"the Response Campaign†, the organization was able to engage with the potential customers on a more personal level (Rowe, n.d). In this campaign, the organization made a post on the two main social media websites, Facebook and Twitter, which sparked responses and questions that were answered through videos. Creativity was used in response videos that were at least 180. Between these alternatives, the â€Å"the Response Campaign† would still have been the best. This is because of the strategies involved in its creation and communication to the potential customers. The aspect of being personal contributed to its success, as the customers require prompt reply. This was fulfilled by the many short videos released in a span of two days answering the questions and replying to the comments from the customers. In addition, the extensive usage of the social media was a way of boosting the campaign because social media comprises the group of the population that the company was targeting; the young generation. Furthermore, active involvement was a key aspect towards the success of the campaign. This is because it got the customers invested in the brand while not including direct advertising to the customers. Such strategies made sure that the campaign was a success leading to increase in sales and the brand name was saved. From a personal perspective, I would have taken a similar approach in the implementation of the solution. As a golden rule, a company should ensure that customer involvement is taken seriously for a brand name to remain

The Negative Impacts of Credential Inflation Essay Example for Free

The Negative Impacts of Credential Inflation Essay The Negative Impacts of Credential Inflation A market that is flooded with credential laden workers vying for a small number of jobs could tip the economy into a recession (Collins, 2002). This idea put forth by Collins seems prophetic when the current state of the economy is taken into account, and brings to light an underlying additional cause of the slow recovery being witnessed in the job market, credential inflation. This is the process by which educational or academic credentials lose value over time, partnered with lowered expectations of holding a degree in the job market. Credential inflation is increasing rapidly, causing larger debt among the workforce due to over-schooling, leaving college educated individuals with fewer jobs upon graduation, and resulting in employers requiring degrees for jobs where they were once not needed. This weakening of the belief in credentials has been a persistent trend in the last century in higher education, and has come to the forefront in recent decades due to technical job refinement, making its mark upon the job market as well. As students take on higher amounts of student loan debt because of the perceived advantages a degree warrants, the economic burden upon younger generations increases. Even with degrees in hand, students after graduation are continuing to find less well paying jobs that require a bachelors degree. More and more individuals are faced with the choice to gain additional education and incur more debt, or settle for a lower paying job and remain in student loan debt longer. Employers that at one time required high school diplomas now only hire individuals with bachelor’s or even graduate degrees. If this is the direction America’s economic and educational culture is heading without pause and reflections of outcome, than a resulting catastrophe is not just chance, but a real probability. The growth in credential inflation over the last twenty years, has accelerated, and when a moment is reached where higher education is commonplace, it becomes a vicious contest to receive the most amount of credentialing possible If a degree is seen as influential, and is depended upon to get the same jobs as previous non-degree holders, it follows that more education and a degree would benefit the individual in the future. Many studies show this ever increasing trend of the acquisition of higher education. In an analysis by The National Center for Educational Statistics (â€Å"Fast Facts,† 2011) on enrollment numbers in secondary education, † he percentage increase in the number of students age 25 and over has been larger than the percentage increase in the number of younger students, and this pattern is expected to continue. † The students in the 25 and over group between 2000 and 2009 saw an increase of 43 percent and in the next nine years can expect another 23 percent increase in college enrollment. This prevailing situation is compounded by the fact the more of the total population are seeking degrees, and that job creation has stagnated (NECS, â€Å"Fast Facts,† 2011). With an ever increasing number of degree holders entering the workforce with higher credentials, the number of actual jobs available to a credentialed workers declines. The prevailing thought is that an increase in education coupled with higher job entry requirements is necessary, because of heightened job complexity. Contrary to this is that, there is no evidence that the more educated the worker is, the more competent they will be (Collins, 1979). Brown’s argument is that students may simply be getting degrees to increase their chances of landing a job, rather than gaining the expertise, through a degree program, to do the job (2004). The evidence for this rears its ugly head, when degrees are fabricated by individuals to simply gain entrance into a job; a job they would not get without the proper credentials. Experts agree that credential inflation will continue, and the trend that started in the early Eighties and has increased ever since, is now the prevailing norm. Collins, states in his â€Å"Credentials Inflation and the Future of Universities†, that it could continue to increase, and in the future we will have a socialized system supporting education(2002). The expansion of credential inflation as an enduring trend cannot be denied, and the impacts upon the people and institutions influenced are threefold. The debt incurred by students upon graduation, is greater now then ever before. With increasing costs of higher education, compiled with the necessity of a degree to enter the workforce, recent students upon graduation are heavily laden with student load debt that vastly outweighs the debts incurred by the generations that preceded them. This debt, for the student, can be crippling personally, but is also a burden for the country. Collins (2002) writes that economic hardship because of the system, and its negative feedback loop, have become very expensive, both for the individual and for the nation. With student loan debt estimated at over a trillion dollars in the United States, it has surpassed even credit card debt. The average student leaving college after graduation possesses $25,000 in debt, and their parents an average of $34,000, with parental loaning up 75 percent since 2006 ( â€Å"Fast Facts,† 2011). Also reported is an 81 percent jump in people looking for student loan debt relief, for which there is little help. Devoting too much money and time to further education, seems to be digging a hole that people cannot pull themselves out of financially, and the resulting credentials one gains, are no longer the sure fire way to a successful career. A degree is not the guarantee of economic security it once was, and the amount in salaries among those with a higher level of education is less proportionate than those without, now more than in the past. This prevailing notion that an individuals success in their careers over the coarse of their lives hinge upon the certificates of school achievement, is part of what drives the whole process of credential inflation. A statistic on the rate of return of a degree holder over their life is of little consequence to those graduates who can’t find a job now. Put simply, if education is worth less, people are less likely to invest in it (Van de Werfhorst, Andersen, 2005), but the counter is also true. When education is seen as being worth more, people are more likely to invest in it. Whether or not this â€Å"being worth more† is true, the perception that one will indeed garner a higher wage as an outcome, is the prevailing notion at the present, and continues to drive up enrollment in secondary education. If achievement in finding a job and ultimate financial success revolves around education, and the cost increase becomes unbearable for the non-affluent, only the rich will have the availability to outpace credential inflation. As students in secondary education graduate from college at a faster and aster rate, they continue to find an ever decreasing amount of jobs available to them after graduation. The high school diploma, which once carried with it the credentials to secure a decent paying job, now has become a stepping stone to getting into college, and itself not used as a credential for jobs at all. Indeed, only 10 percent of the population in the United States does not carry a high school diploma. A market saturated with a certain credential sees that credential as a necessary step, but ultimately worthless. Is this the road a college degree is headed down, a worthless piece of paper that has strapped the holder with a debt they cannot pay back? As more people earn more degrees or educational levels increase, the inherent properties of that degree are proportionally lower. Not everyone who holds a similar certification will receive the same level of job. Take for example, if jobs for a hundred teachers holding bachelor’s degrees were needed, it stands to reason only a hundred people will receive jobs. Let’s say one hundred and fifty individuals receive teaching degrees, only one hundred of those will get hired. Competition among applicants will surely follow, and only people who can show they are above the fray will win out. To be successful in getting hired, many will invest in further education, and go on to earn a Master’s in Education. With this newly awarded credential in hand, they will then be able to apply with a considerable asset, which puts them ahead of those applicants with only the minimal job requirements. Incrementally, the Master’s graduates will obtain more of the jobs, while the displaced fifty will try to gain a foothold by earning their own Master’s degrees. The end result of this sequence of events is that every job, over time, will require a Master’s degree, as there will be no reason to hire a person who has a bachelor’s, if an over abundance of Master’s degree holding individuals are available. As credential inflation marches on, even MBA’s will find it harder to find jobs because of increasing job market saturation by like minded degree holders. Connolly states that the recent downturn of the economy has left fewer jobs upon graduation, and the salary premium for M. B. A. ’s has also taken a hit (2003). There are two opposing schools of thought that have tried to explain the recent upturn in educational expansion among the work force seen in recent years. Human capital theorists state that the growing complexity in the workplace has caused the growth of those seeking higher education. Theorists of social exclusion counter that the expanding intensive competitiveness between rivaling job market participants has caused credential inflation (McLean, Rollwagen, 2010). Either way, credential inflation is moving forward and fewer jobs are becoming available to those with less education. As more individuals become â€Å"educated,† employers are pushed to expand initial job requirements, even in jobs where such requirements were never needed before. Taking a deeper look into this trend, Vaisey (2006, p. 835) states that, â€Å"Using the 1972-2002 General Social Survey, I find that the incidence of over-qualification has increased substantially † He also hypothesizes that workers who have more educational attainments than needed for their jobs will be less satisfied with their jobs. Kariya (2011), sees a similar pattern and adds that as countries aim for higher levels of education for their populations, there is a persistent trend in the global markets to find cheaper labor. Phillip Brown, a lecturer in Sociology at the University of Kent at Canterbury, agrees, showing that the acquisition of higher education and the thought that it leads to greater individual and national prosperity keeps it at the forefront of developed countries’ agendas in their quest for global relevance (1995). Countries are pushing citizens to further education, and like the United States, through financial aid programs, making the costs deferred to the future, while trying to secure credentials in the present. As costs for education go up along with an increasing education of the populace, a financial burden is attached to the individual to find a job to pay for such schooling. Unfortunately for these individuals, employers are looking for ways to find cheaper and cheaper labor, and not the reverse. Payroll being the number one controllable expense in a company, makes the ability to hire individuals with higher credentials at lower wages, because of credential inflation, optimal. If an overabundance of degree holders are available at lower wages, why would a company seek to hire less educated workers for the same cost? To save time and resources, companies will simply thin out the applicants by making a certain credentials necessary to even apply, no matter the job. The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides evidence that as a country the United States has produced too many degree holding graduates. The promise made to people about the success of those with a bachelor’s degree falls upon deaf ears when graduates find themselves employed where they could have gone without attending college at all. Not many graduates attended college with dreams of becoming a bartender or a bellhop, though statistics show both of these professions employ individuals with degrees in 16 percent and 17. 4 percent of their positions, respectively. As Brown, Lauder, and Ashton write in their book,. The global auction: The broken promises of education, jobs, and incomes,† even education alone will not be enough to escape unemployment, and individuals should weigh the costs and benefits of higher education carefully (2010). With credential inflation continuing on, we will see a time in the future where even the lowliest of jobs will be filled with college graduates. The future of credentialism paints a bleak picture for potential degree holders and future employees As credential inflation co ntinues to grow, its effects upon the debt of graduates and the amount of jobs available to them, has become more apparent.

Essay --

James and Descartes William James and Rene Descartes are both philosophers who created methods on how to find the truth in life. James created the pragmatic method and Descartes used reason. I think that these two methods are somewhat dissimilar for several reasons. The first reason, is because Descartes used his method to find proof in himself and urged others to use it to find truth in themselves as well whereas William James used the pragmatic method to help find the truth in two sides of an argument. In James’ first essay, he tries to explain what pragmatism is with a story about a camping trip he took with a few of his friends. The friends began to argue about whether a man and a squirrel pass each other while going around a tree but do not see one another. Pragmatism seems to be a little confusing at first. I had to reread the argument about the squirrel and the human a couple of times to understand what the argument was about. I personally agreed with the group who said the man did not go around the squirrel simply because physically, he did not pass the animal while going around the tree. When James explained what the pragmatic method was, I interpreted it as basically trying to find correctness in both arguments depending on how you’re looking at it. Descartes’ method is ultimately about finding the truth within yourself. He says that there are two types of people that would not benefit from his method: those who think they know more than they do and who lack the patience for such careful work, and those who are modest enough to think that they are more capable of finding out the truth if they follow a teacher. Descartes also creates a three to four maxim moral code to guide his behavior while he experiences his period... ...uire that â€Å"vital good†, if religion is true. I think that this is why I can’t fully agree with Descartes philosophy because I’m not a religious person. The majority of the time, I need physical evidence to believe in something. I don’t really feed into the â€Å"I think, therefore I am† philosophy because I wouldn’t want my religion/ my beliefs to be everything that I am. I do consider that humans have free will and are more than able to find the truth in something, but only if they are looking for it and doing anything whatsoever that is required to get the result you want, regardless of the methods used. It does not matter whether these methods are legal or illegal, fair or foul, kind or cruel, truth or lies, democratic or dictatorial, good or evil; we see this on an everyday basis in people’s actions which coincides with James’ statement â€Å"the end justifies the means†.

Racial Ideologies in Frederick Douglass and Linda Brents Narratives Es

Racial Ideologies in Frederick Douglass and Linda Brent's Narratives 4) Slavery was justified by racial ideology. Consider three texts, including one that was written by a former slave. How do the authors either replicate or refute racial ideologies common in the nineteenth century? I am going to focus on the narratives of Frederick Douglass and Linda Brent as examples of a refusal of racial ideologies and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin as an example of replicating (although attempting to refute) racial ideologies of the day. Douglass’s Narrative and Brent’s Incidents follow them from ignorance to knowledge; knowledge and freedom gained through their own doing. I think that Stowe is in a way both trying to write an anti-slavery novel, however, I can’t see her as anti-racist because Romantic Racialism is what grounds her arguments. In all three, I am going to prove that the relationship between and the representations of the body and the mind are what either refuse or support racial ideologies of the nineteenth century. First, Frederick Douglass’s Narrative introduces the reader to a young Douglass who is ignorant in terms of book knowledge and also lacks practical life experience. He even lacks the knowledge of his own age. But the fact that Douglass is able to educate himself refutes the idea of the time that African Americans were intellectually inferior. By the end of the narrative, he is more educated than someone like Covey, one of his former masters. Kimberly Drake claims that [t]he ability to utilize language, especially written language or literacy, is also portrayed by many ex-slaves as crucial to their quest for freedom, a freedom which in large part is the ability to allow ... ...impulse. All three of these books have really helped me to gain an understanding of what the racial ideologies of the period in which they were written were: Douglass and Brent, through their refusal of these ideologies and Stowe through her inadvertent reinforcement of them. Bibliography: Works Cited Brent, Linda. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Ed. L. Maria Child. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1973. Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1995. Drake, Kimberly. â€Å"Rewriting the American Self: Race, Gender, and Identity in the Autobiographies of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs.† MELUS 22 (Winter 97): 91-109. MacFarlane, Lisa Watt. â€Å"’If Ever I Get to Where I Can’: The Competing Rhetorics of Social Reform in Uncle Tom’s Cabin.† ATQ 2 (June 90): 135-148. Racial Ideologies in Frederick Douglass and Linda Brent's Narratives Es Racial Ideologies in Frederick Douglass and Linda Brent's Narratives 4) Slavery was justified by racial ideology. Consider three texts, including one that was written by a former slave. How do the authors either replicate or refute racial ideologies common in the nineteenth century? I am going to focus on the narratives of Frederick Douglass and Linda Brent as examples of a refusal of racial ideologies and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin as an example of replicating (although attempting to refute) racial ideologies of the day. Douglass’s Narrative and Brent’s Incidents follow them from ignorance to knowledge; knowledge and freedom gained through their own doing. I think that Stowe is in a way both trying to write an anti-slavery novel, however, I can’t see her as anti-racist because Romantic Racialism is what grounds her arguments. In all three, I am going to prove that the relationship between and the representations of the body and the mind are what either refuse or support racial ideologies of the nineteenth century. First, Frederick Douglass’s Narrative introduces the reader to a young Douglass who is ignorant in terms of book knowledge and also lacks practical life experience. He even lacks the knowledge of his own age. But the fact that Douglass is able to educate himself refutes the idea of the time that African Americans were intellectually inferior. By the end of the narrative, he is more educated than someone like Covey, one of his former masters. Kimberly Drake claims that [t]he ability to utilize language, especially written language or literacy, is also portrayed by many ex-slaves as crucial to their quest for freedom, a freedom which in large part is the ability to allow ... ...impulse. All three of these books have really helped me to gain an understanding of what the racial ideologies of the period in which they were written were: Douglass and Brent, through their refusal of these ideologies and Stowe through her inadvertent reinforcement of them. Bibliography: Works Cited Brent, Linda. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Ed. L. Maria Child. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1973. Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1995. Drake, Kimberly. â€Å"Rewriting the American Self: Race, Gender, and Identity in the Autobiographies of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs.† MELUS 22 (Winter 97): 91-109. MacFarlane, Lisa Watt. â€Å"’If Ever I Get to Where I Can’: The Competing Rhetorics of Social Reform in Uncle Tom’s Cabin.† ATQ 2 (June 90): 135-148.

Kant’s Approach to Resolving War in Iraq Essay

Five years after the Iraq war had begun, policymakers are still looking for answers on how to bring about a resolution to that particular conflict. It has been a hot election topic among candidates of both the Republican and Democratic parties in the United States. Some of the policy options presented range from a short term commitment stay in Iraq to a long term commitment of about a hundred years of occupation. It is in this light that this paper would like to argue that conflict resolution strategies based on Kantian ideals provides the best hope for long term peace in Iraq and the rest of the world. In this paper, two well-known works of Immanuel Kant will be utilized in order to provide the theoretical justification for possible conflict resolution strategies. These works include his classic â€Å"Was ist Aufklarung? † or â€Å"What is Enlightenment? † and Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch. These works have generated much consequent discourses and interpretations. It will be argued here that these works provide an incisive critique regarding initial United States policy before the war in Iraq as well as the US’s subsequent policy in trying to democratize Iraq. This paper also suggests that a utilization of Kant’s concept of republicanism and its proper application can create the desired changes in the political systems in the Middle East. Such knowledge claims warrant a discussion of the ideas presented in Kant’s essays. Focault (1978) viewed Kant’s idea of enlightenment as a form of freedom. Immaturity is the condition upon which man must break free. Immaturity takes place when we do not use our powers of reason on how to deal with issues and instead become lazy and substitute our duty to think with a reliance on figures of authority for their interpretation of the truth. Kant believes that it is the duty of an individual to seek enlightenment. According to Focault, Kant challenges each and everyone to become truly aware of the realities that surround us. This challenge is embodied in Kant’s famous motto â€Å"Aude sapere† which literally means have the courage to know. Analyzing the actions of the American government and its decision to wage war in Iraq and its subsequent involvement in the civil war that has ensued, one can argue that this happened that Kant himself would be dismayed that the road to peace that he envisioned was not followed by the Americans. For one, they lack enlightenment. Many of them did not challenge themselves to know the reality of the situation they were about to get themselves into. Many had just accepted the version of the truth that was foisted by the Bush Administration. When the US government said that they have solid evidence that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, politicians from the two major parties accepted this and supported the decision to go to war in Iraq. Another thing is that they violated Kant’s preliminary article on perpetual peace that explicitly prohibited interference in the internal affairs of another government. The only exception to this rule according to Kant is if the country had been split into two during a period of anarchy. Such was obviously not the initial case in Iraq prior to the second gulf war. Years later, no weapons of mass destruction were ever found while the war has claimed thousands of military and civilian casualties. The war continues with almost daily incidents of bombings by militia forces. Such consequences could probably have been avoided had more people exhibited greater skepticism and not readily surrendered their capacity for judgment to a government that wanted to act so hastily. The American people cannot simply blame their government for misleading them towards becoming involved in the war in Iraq. If they think that the problem in Iraq is due only to the blunders committed by the present US government, they have to rethink that idea. Kant himself implies that if one is faced with such public situations, one must have the audacity to know the real situation and exert all possible efforts to achieve this enlightenment. Kant was convinced that one cannot evade one’s responsibility to exercise his power of reason. The only time that a person can be allowed limited use of his reason is if he was part of a system that sets limitations on the things that he can do. One example would be that of a soldier who cannot exercise his power of reasoning vis-a-vis his commander because the organization that he belongs to circumscribes the questioning that he can do. His ability to exercise courage to know the rationality behind his orders is therefore restricted. This distinction was made explicit by Kant when he described this situation as the submissive use of reason because the person is considered as a cog in a machine. This is not the case with the debate and subsequent actions on Iraq. This is because the situation can be considered as public in nature. When this happens, an individual must take advantage of the free exercise of reason. One must question the pronouncements made in order to distill the truth that is often obfuscated by partisan political interests. The failure to find weapons of mass destruction has been overshadowed by the now more pronounced goal of transforming Iraq into a viable democracy. Here again we can find useful the concept of enlightenment as espoused by Kant. The US government is trying to convince its citizens and people around the world that democracy can take root in Iraq even though it has for all intents and purposes externally imposed democracy upon the Iraqis. The US government points to the cases of post war Germany and Japan as examples of successful democratization efforts. Many American do not question if the conditions that were conducive to the democratization efforts at that time are present or if not could be replicated in the situation in Iraq. Politicians try to peddle the idea that if they were successful before they could do it again in the case of Iraq. Again people around the world bear witness to the immaturity being exhibited by many people in America. There must also be a realization that the achievement of peace in Iraq cannot be achieved in the short run. This is because it takes sometime for effort to move towards a republican idea to gain currency and become ingrained in the consciousness of individuals. The process of consolidating efforts toward achieving republicanism is likely to last for several decades. By all indications, this is the likely trajectory of the political situation in Iraq; yet a lot of Americans are thinking that they should just get out rather quickly from the mess that they themselves started. This type of thinking I argue is another form of surrender to the ideas being peddled by some notable politicians without the benefit of subjecting such ideas to a rigorous theoretical and empirical analysis. It can be deduced from Kant’s â€Å"Perpetual Peace† that the solution to the war in Iraq lies in the adoption of republicanism. Republicanism is defined here as a form of government that is representative in character. The idea is that the representative character of a republican government makes it very difficulty to wage war upon another country. Peace is therefore guaranteed under this new political set-up. Thus, in a society that is plagued by civil war, often times it becomes expedient to resort to quick fixes for attaining temporary peace. The imposition of a political system is one such quick fix. This is what Kant warns us that â€Å"methods of expediency omitting all reference to the pure practical reason, can only bring about a re-arrangement of circumstances in the mechanical course of nature. They can never guarantee the attainment of their ends†. Sorli et al (2005) warns that the American strategy in Iraq is not about to significantly improve the political conditions in the Middle East as the Bush Administration envisions it to be. This issue becomes even more salient if you look at the double standard that the current American government seems to apply in case of Iraq where it demands democracy while continuously supporting authoritarian regimes in the region that support their foreign policy (Sorli et. al, 2005,160). Americans think that just because Iraq now has a semblance of a democratic government because of the creation of the US -sponsored parliamentary election, the Iraqis would immediately become partners in creating a world that is safe and that is bereft of war. This is a grossly mistaken concept because the process of becoming a democracy with a representative form of government has not been accepted by a significant portion of the population in that developing country. This view is also supported by Gartzke (2005) who issued a word of caution that pushing countries to become democracies does not help create a stable and peaceful international community. Gartzke further adds that a multi-faceted approach is needed in order to generate the stability needed in a country that is undergoing regime change (Gartzke,2005,29). If there is to be peace in Iraq and for that country is to become a partner in fostering peace around the world, the initiative must come from its citizens to view the achievement of peace as their duty. The reason why it is so important that the sense of duty must come from the Iraqi citizens is because of the likelihood of obedience to the principle of perpetual peace can be greatly increased if this were the case. If the Iraqi people see perpetual peace as their ultimate objective and if the government has the same ultimate objective then this would guarantee the obedience of the Iraqi citizens. Challenges to the new democratic government could be drastically reduced if such a shared vision of the future can be achieved among the different stakeholders in the situation in Iraq. Moreover, Kant also believed that the republican set-up prevented wars from erupting between states. The reason for this was because the systemic structure of the republican government makes it difficult for people to be convinced to wage war especially if they have to bear the some of the costs that Kant himself identified namely cost of waging war, reconstructing after the war and limiting the capacity of the victor state for maintaining peace (Kant, 1795, accessed from www. constitution. org). It is also important the Iraqis view this goal as something that is realizable. Despite of the difficulties that may come along the way on the road towards improving their country, they must not waver. The benefits of republicanism go beyond the maintenance of peace and well into improving economic relations with similar countries. It has been suggested by Cox and Drury (2006) that the democratic peace also pays economic dividends for countries that have fully embraced the concept of republicanism. References References Cox, D. G and Drury, C. A. (2006) Democratic Sanctions: Connecting the Democratic Peace and Economic Sanctions in Journal of Peace Research 43 (6): 709-722. Gartzke, Erik (2005). Economic Freedom and Peace in Economic Freedom of the World: 2005 Annual Report chapter 2. Sorli, Mirjam E. Nils Petter Gledistch and Havard Strand (2005) Why is there so much conflict in the Middle East in Journal of Conflict Resolution 49 (1): 141-165. Kant, Immanuel (1795) Perpetual Peace: A Philoshophical Sketch. Retrieved April 01, 2008 from http://www. constitution. org/kant/perpeace. htm. Focault, Michel (1978). What is Enlightenment? Retrieved April 01, 2008 from http://philosophy. eserver. org/foucault/what-is-enlightenment. html.

Net Promoter Score for Books Build Relationships with Your Readers

Net Promoter Score for Books Build Relationships with Your Readers How To Create Deeper Relationships with Your Readers through Surveys Last updated 2017/07/07At Reedsy, we feel it’s important to let authors know about different startups and tech tools that could make their life easier. Today, we’re happy to welcome a guest post by Chad Keck, founder of Promoter.io, a Net Promoter Score startup that you can use to build your author platform and find your  Ã¢â‚¬Å"insider group†.Do you have an author mailing list? If yes, congratulations, you are among the elite group of authors who understand that the relationships you build with your readers are what’s going to drive most sales in the long run.But let me guess: do you send out emails every week or every month updating your readers on your progress and wonder what they are really thinking? You rarely hear back from them unless you are asking for feedback on a book cover or title, right?Figuring out out ways to engage with your readers is no easy thing, especially if you’re trying to create meaningful, lasting relationships that will guide your writing efforts.If you are like most authors, you might be afraid of asking your readers to take a survey because you have an inner belief that it will drive your readers away. But like most things in life, the best things come to people who won’t let their fears hold them back.So what do you do if you want to try sending a survey, but you have never tried them before?Find out your book's Net Promoter ScoreOf all survey methods, the Net Promoter Score is one of the least assuming and best to start out with. In a book called The Ultimate Question, Fred Reichheld came up with this interesting survey technique which addresses some of the biggest problems of sending surveys.The technique is called Net Promoter Score (NPS), and revolves around one key concept: bringing your surveys down to a single key question: How likely from 0-10 are you to recommend my book to a friend or colleague?Here is exactly what it might look like as an email your readers would receive that an non-fiction author recently sent through Promoter.io:Building a great author platform comes down to one thing: creating the most value possible for your readers. Whenever you want higher engagement with your audience, just keep asking yourself the same thing: â€Å"What’s in it for them?† If you keep raising the stakes and providing true value over and over again, everything else will take care of itself.Have any questions for Chad? Leave them in the comments below!

Panofskys views on Van Eyck essays

Panofskys views on Van Eyck essays Panofskys purpose in writing this article was to identify a painting discovered in Brussels in 1815 (referred to as the London portrait) as the portrait of Geovanni Arnolfimi and his wife Jeanne de Cename, painted in 1434. Panofsky uses historical documentation and iconography to prove his point. Because a paintings value can be enhanced by its historical significance, it is important to discover its background. Identifying a painting from several centuries ago is not easy. Because there is no photocopy available, we must depend on physical descriptions provided by others for recognition. Only paintings possessed by rich or historically significant people would be described in inventories or letters saved over hundreds of years. Wars often brought destruction and chaos, destroying historical documentation. Panofsky traces the provenance of this picture to provide a logical argument that the London portrait could be the Arnolfimi painting. He carefully documents the historical journey of the Arnolfimi painting, providing a continuous list of ownership from Don Diego de Guevara of Spain in the 1500s to Charles III in 1789. This careful documentation is to prove that the Amolfimi painting was still listed as being in Madrid in 1789. The timing of its disappearance and the subsequent discovery of the London portrait in Brussels in 1815 could easily be attributed to the chaos caused by Napoleons conquering of Spain during the lost time period. Since written documentation is often used as proof of historical happenings, it is very important that the content be interpreted correctly, within its historical context. Because a language translation can easily twist the contents meaning, scholars usually provide a quote in the language of its origin. In Panofskys era, most research scholars were fluent in German, French, and Latin. Today fluency in English is ...

The Only Person You Have to Please is You

The Only Person You Have to Please is You Yeah, thats hard for us to swallow sometimes. We write to be read. Eager to please, were like kids asking what are the rules so we can play the game well enough to win. We want people on the sidelines to root for us and tell us how well we did. We want the prize. Along the way, when times are rough, we remind ourselves that we are our best and worst critic. We might even say we only have to please ourselves, but we dont mean it. We get sad. Sometimes we cry. A few get mad and bash the publishing world as an evil, heartless machine that gobbles up the good and spits on the rest, stomping out the soul of art. But in the end, when were alone in our room staring at a screen that wont produce the right words, we have to face the fact we write for ourselves first, foremost, and last. Without our own love infused into our stories, they read dry. And to give love to something means to sacrifice and take risks. Remember, love can be unrequited. Many things we do in our lives we do for self-pleasure. While its a joy to be complimented for our efforts, the bottom line is we shouldnt perform without enjoying the experience of the performance. When you do, you shortchange the audience. Write a story that makes you smile, cry, or feel proud. Be truthful with yourself when trying to make it your best. Be thrilled when others enjoy the experience you worked so hard to produce, but try not to measure your success on the judgment of others. While its tempting to beg for the judgment, and shoved in our faces that success comes in terms of sales to others, nothing we do gets off the ground written in a vacuum with only an Amazon ranking representing the goal. Its like finding a friend. Not everyone likes you, and you dont like everyone. Only certain people connect with who you are. You have to be the best you to be the best for someone else. Without pleasing yourself first, you lose all hope of pleasing others. Have fun writing.

Coca Cola Promoting cocaine Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Coca Cola Promoting cocaine - Essay Example Focus has also been given upon how the company had dealt with different allegations arising out of its controversial advertisements and the messages which it was actually trying to put across. The paper analyses the advertisements from the perspective of who, when, where, what and why. Additionally some of the marketing characteristics associated with the advertisements have also been analysed vividly. Diet cokes new ad campaign featuring the tag line â€Å"You are on Diet Coke† is seen to be drawing much criticism as many claim that the ad is seen to be promoting cocaine and is in reference to the drug (US magazine, 2014). However, the company officials dismiss the claim and states that The Coca-Cola Company in no way endorses any kind of drugs. Diet coke has been receiving a number of such viewer criticisms since its inception into the American market. Consumers feel that the manner in which Coca-Cola promotes Diet Coke is supportive of illegal drugs such as cocaine. The tag line â€Å"You are on Diet Coke† is depicted in a manner such that the word â€Å"Diet† is less visible. The line appears more like â€Å"You are on Coke†. Consumers claim that the advertisement refers more to cocaine rather than the drink itself. Many debates were aroused in respect of this advertising campaign. Critics claim that the company’s promotional tactics misdirec ted consumers (US magazine, 2014). The Coca-Cola Company was also very recently caught up in a controversy relating to its recent Super Bowl advertisement. Viewers claim that the advertisement sends across a message which is racist in nature as it was broadcasted in multilingual versions. The advertisement’s tagline is â€Å"America is Beautiful†. The company responds to such controversies by stating that the motive of the advertisement was to send across the message that America is beautiful because of its rich diversity. The advertisement has also

Texas Decision to Refuse to Expand Medicaid Essay

Texas Decision to Refuse to Expand Medicaid - Essay Example As the paper stresses texas decision of rejection has protected the private insurance and encouraged its growth. Therefore, private insurance in Texas are affordable, and the number of people with insurance is increasing. Rejection of the Medicaid has affected the country negatively in that the country spending in the country funded health care programs for the uninsured is increasing. Once the expenditure increases the government increases tax thus causing an increase in price on different commodities. According to the research findings the Medicaid program harms the people though it is intended to serve. Expanding Medicaid means that patients who are already enrolled in the program many of whom have nowhere else to go for coverage will be competing for medical services with up to 20 million more people being added to the program. Moreover, the most vulnerable patients who have the greatest needs are likely to have the hardest time getting care. Texas rejecting the expanded Medicaid has protected its people from this problem. The expanded Medicaid under the Affordable federal Act provides a strong health care system. Provision of quality health care increases the number of residents with health insurance reducing the uncompensated care cost. In addition, healthy resident is a sign of productivity in that state. Medicaid emphasis more on coverage and not to care provided to the patients.

Project management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 14

Project management - Essay Example Interaction between departments tends to favor relationship creation between various interfaces and hence bolsters chances of project success. Worker motivation determines employee commitment to the project’s overall aims and objectives. The more committed the employees, the greater the effort input to the project and its success. Moreover, the planning process for projects should involve as many vertical levels and interfaces as possible. The involvement of various project elements in planning allows a greater understanding of the overall picture and solicits appropriate cooperation. The involvement of various elements in the project environment in planning also ensures that realizable deadlines and costs are provided. In order to gauge the success of the project at any stage, performance evaluation needs to be carried out at various levels. Effective performance evaluation allows the project managers to adopt effective strategies for coping. Rewards must also be provided con summate with project objectives. Any organization that plans to transform its culture from adversarial to cooperation needs to take into account a pervasive vision that allows for various elements in the organization to participate, tolerate and cooperate together. Employees must be motivated to help each other out and there ought to be a reward system to encourage such designs. Moreover, policies regarding hierarchical communication, authority and responsibility need to be clearly defined for effective and accountable action (Project Management

Conflict in Ivory Coast of 2011 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Conflict in Ivory Coast of 2011 - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that the Ivory Coast conflict resulted from grave cleavages grounded in religion, nationality, and ethnicity. In their attempt to strengthen their monopoly upon power, politicians get caught into these differences and along the way, paved way for the outbreak of the civil war. In December 2010, a dispute of election ignited violence among the followers of the President Laurent Gbagbo and supporters of Alassane Ouattara, the opposition leader. The electoral commission’s announcement of the results that declared Ouattara as a winner of the presidency’s second voting round became the cause of the dispute. Gbagbo rejected the results with his stronghold in the country’s south and accused that Outtara’s votes were inflated as a result of rigging in the northern Ivory Coast’s opposition home base. This threw the Ivory Coast into a political deadlock. Gbagbo and Ouattara both took oath as presidents of the countr y and both appointed their own cabinets, though Gbagbo had to face the pressure from the international community to step down as the international community had accepted only Ouattara as president. Many lives were lost, a lot of property got destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of people were displaced during the course of the clashes between the supporters of the two presidents. As a result of the violence that had erupted, the country was divided into two parts; the south controlled by Gbagbo’s army and the north governed by Ouattara’s rebels.... The plantations of coffee and cocoa were run by the immigrant laborers brought first by the French colonialists into the country. To ensure their sustenance in the Ivory Coast after independence, Houphouet-Boigny enhanced the immigrant laborers’ right to live as well as work in the country. Although the policies of Houphouet-Boigny were quite progressive, yet they could not remove the inequalities between north and south. The disparity mainly arose because of the fact that most plantations of coffee and cocoa were located in the south whereas north only had a small share of plantations. Houphouet-Boigny attempted to address this issue by commencing the production of food on commercial scale in the north. Circumstances changed for the worse when the prices of coffee and cocoa dropped in the 1980s on the world markets (â€Å"Ivory Coast – Economy†). This certainly had unfavorable consequences for the economy of the Ivory Coast. Plummeting living standards and risin g petroleum prices spurred student riots and civil unrest. Vanishing job opportunities and declining income caused the young people to seek work in the informal sector but the immigrant workers had already occupied most of the best areas. This strengthened the negative feelings of the Ivorians toward the immigrants (Collier). The economic difficulties that resulted increased the differences between the immigrants and the indigenous Ivorians as well as between the southerners and the northerners. Since the northerner indigenous Ivorians had settled in the south in large numbers, conflicts between the northerners and the southerners ensued. Differences of ethnicity and religion

The Concept Knowledge Transfer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Concept Knowledge Transfer - Essay Example The researcher states that knowledge management defines what is important and vital and enables a firm to create a knowledge transfer system that ensures that workers acquire that grasp of the knowledge and understand how to apply it for improved results. This implies that knowledge transfer is a system through which workers are given guided knowledge upgrade and made to become more productive in their capacities within an organization. Many authoritative writers in the field of human resource management argue that human capital is a tool for competitive advantage and the ability to improve human capital through knowledge transfer ensures a firm remains a leader in the industry. Linda Argote and Paul Ingram in their preliminary study also stated that the creation and transfer of knowledge is the basis of competitive advantage in firms. In building on this premise, they go further to investigate the various facades of knowledge transfer. Knowledge transfer is done on the level of a un it in an organization in the collective sense and also done on an individual basis. For all practical purposes and to attain effectiveness, Argote and Ingram argue that there is the need for firms to identify â€Å"reservoirs† of knowledge in organizations to better focus their efforts and also optimize their resources in knowledge transfers. Through this, they can define the real needs of that unit and streamline it with the overall strategic objectives of the firm. This brings about better results and enhances the planning process and implementation of knowledge transfer activities. The creation and definition of knowledge reservoirs lead to member-member networks and member-task networks that gives significance and meanings to knowledge and its essence in making a firm competitive in outlook. With that background, a firm can streamline its affairs to impart knowledge and also make the best of the knowledge transferred to staff members in their operations.

Conflict in Ivory Coast of 2011 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Conflict in Ivory Coast of 2011 - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that the Ivory Coast conflict resulted from grave cleavages grounded in religion, nationality, and ethnicity. In their attempt to strengthen their monopoly upon power, politicians get caught into these differences and along the way, paved way for the outbreak of the civil war. In December 2010, a dispute of election ignited violence among the followers of the President Laurent Gbagbo and supporters of Alassane Ouattara, the opposition leader. The electoral commission’s announcement of the results that declared Ouattara as a winner of the presidency’s second voting round became the cause of the dispute. Gbagbo rejected the results with his stronghold in the country’s south and accused that Outtara’s votes were inflated as a result of rigging in the northern Ivory Coast’s opposition home base. This threw the Ivory Coast into a political deadlock. Gbagbo and Ouattara both took oath as presidents of the countr y and both appointed their own cabinets, though Gbagbo had to face the pressure from the international community to step down as the international community had accepted only Ouattara as president. Many lives were lost, a lot of property got destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of people were displaced during the course of the clashes between the supporters of the two presidents. As a result of the violence that had erupted, the country was divided into two parts; the south controlled by Gbagbo’s army and the north governed by Ouattara’s rebels.... The plantations of coffee and cocoa were run by the immigrant laborers brought first by the French colonialists into the country. To ensure their sustenance in the Ivory Coast after independence, Houphouet-Boigny enhanced the immigrant laborers’ right to live as well as work in the country. Although the policies of Houphouet-Boigny were quite progressive, yet they could not remove the inequalities between north and south. The disparity mainly arose because of the fact that most plantations of coffee and cocoa were located in the south whereas north only had a small share of plantations. Houphouet-Boigny attempted to address this issue by commencing the production of food on commercial scale in the north. Circumstances changed for the worse when the prices of coffee and cocoa dropped in the 1980s on the world markets (â€Å"Ivory Coast – Economy†). This certainly had unfavorable consequences for the economy of the Ivory Coast. Plummeting living standards and risin g petroleum prices spurred student riots and civil unrest. Vanishing job opportunities and declining income caused the young people to seek work in the informal sector but the immigrant workers had already occupied most of the best areas. This strengthened the negative feelings of the Ivorians toward the immigrants (Collier). The economic difficulties that resulted increased the differences between the immigrants and the indigenous Ivorians as well as between the southerners and the northerners. Since the northerner indigenous Ivorians had settled in the south in large numbers, conflicts between the northerners and the southerners ensued. Differences of ethnicity and religion

Investigate Curriculum Mapping Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Investigate Curriculum Mapping - Essay Example Figure 1: Curriculum Mapping's Directionality Image courtesy of the University of Connecticut When the mapping is done, the outcomes and philosophies of the institution (e.g. whether the school has a science focus, a vocational focus, a Deweyan learned experience focus) and the learning outcomes of the academic program (e.g. the major or the grade year or whether it's elective or main track) determine the nature of the course. The course itself is then mapped into units and individual lessons. Like any good architect, curriculum mappers start with the blueprint at the highest level then build from the lowest level, from the foundation up, brick by brick. Students may be told about the objectives and design approach, but they will experience it lesson by lesson up until the final outcomes of the institution (graduation) are achieved. Hale and Dunlap (2010, p. 2) liken it to looking at a city from a high vantage point first, getting a broad sense of its flow and design, then going down to the ground level and interacting with the individual citizens. This is all fairly intuitive thus far, but the University of Connecticut (2011) also argues for program objective-to-individual program matrices. If the institution values diversity, for example, that claim is fairly hollow unless diversity is actually represented in any classes (language classes, multicultural studies, social studies, etc.) Using the matrix design, they'd code all of the institutional goals and match them to each class: In the case of diversity, they'd match the diversity objective to social studies classes. This process is iterative and can occur multiple times: The class can in turn be broken down into objective matrices, with units and lessons mapped to make sure that there is even and full coverage of all primary objectives. The individual social studies classes, knowing that they're supposed to fulfill a diversity requirement, can orient their units and lessons appropriately. Curriculum mapping is not just a design tool: It can also be a data-collection tool as well (Kentucky Department of Education, 2011). It's difficult to collect data that's not systematized. By making systematic the way curricula are designed and taught, it's possible for teachers, instructors and administrators to quantify performance and interest and begin to adjust or improve the relevant and practicality of institutional goals. And when performance results have been achieved, it's possible to quantify why and where the improvement took place. Curriculum mapping also allows all relevant stakeholders to participate (Rubicon, 2010; Dunlap and Hale, 2010). Since the curriculum map allows the entire curriculum to be coordinated and designed, it allows instructors to make sure their efforts aren't excessively overlapping, allows parents and students to insure they're getting what they deserve and value, etc. Good curriculum mapping is flexible (Rubicon, 2010). It can be changed on the spot as teachers, students and administrators discover problems and holes. But unlike change that occurs in a more conventional way, curriculum mapping can be systematic, with a change or reduction in one classroom being offset by other changes elsewhere. If one class' diversity require

Fascism Essay Example for Free

Fascism Essay Fascism is â€Å"a form of extreme right-wing ideology† (Lyons, 2007) that promotes nationalism or the staging of own race as the superior in the world. It urges the people of a country to unite for nation-building after times of downfall and destruction, and scrap traces of individualism, materialistic attitudes, and foreigners. It especially believes in the capability of violence to change the landscape of the country and let it grow for the better. This form of government was established by Benito Mussolini of Italy, and later influencing Adolf Hitler of Germany. King Victor Emmauel III of Italy feared the occurrence of civil war in the country if the next prime minister was not a Socialist or a Fascist. This was the reason why Mussolini was given seat in the government to be the head of the Council Ministers. However, after two years, he established himself as the new â€Å"head of the government† taking over several ministries and headed on his way to start dictatorship. He kept power in his hands and prevented resistance by starting a police state. He created an imaginary free press by not allowing people who did not have certificate of approval from the Fascist Party to practice journalism, and that all editors were personally chosen by himself. He privatized several institutions to keep up with his financiers. He also commenced the invasion of some countries of the world, especially the Mediterranean region. Hitler, on the other hand, gained respect and salutation from many politicians including the then President Paul von Hinderburg. He appealed largely to the farmers, war veterans and the rest of middle class for a reconstruction of the economy and military components of the country, and simultaneously promoting nationalism and anti-communism, like what Mussolini did. Though lost in presidential election in 1932, he established himself as a good alternative for a new and more stable government, clamoured by the people. It was in 1933 when he was appointed by the President as the new Chancellor of the country. When the President died in 1934, all the roles and tasks of the head of the state was transferred to him. This made him supreme and do whatever he wanted. With the continuing growth in the number of believers of fascism, they had moved up to be the controller of their country during their time. Both have used the common people to start a massive base of supporters. Both of them were also endorsed and seated to their high positions by higher ranking officials: the King of Italy for Mussolini; while the President of Germany for Hitler. With their hold on the primary ministries of their respective countries, they were able to deploy their military components to bring war against Britain and France, which also declared war against them when they tried to get additional states for their country. When Hitler annexed Austria to Germany, and defeated several other countries, Mussolini was convinced to campaign for war against the Allied Powers of France and Britain. Their team-up led to further outrage by the other powerful nations in the world like the United States of America and the Soviet Union. Both of their dreams of expanding their territories led to failures because they chose to stage war against more powerful countries. Mussolini failed on making Italy self-sustaining because the country lacks the basic resources. Hitler failed in building the country he dreamed of because of the multiple counts of human rights violation, most notably exemplified in the Holocaust.

Three Major Categories Of Software

Three Major Categories Of Software Software can be divided into three major categories according to popularity: application software, system software, and web applications. Within each category there are dozens, if not hundreds, of specialized software types, but for the purpose of this study, we will concentrate on the most popular software type of each category. Software applications refer to programs on a client machine which are written to perform specific tasks. Nowadays, there is a wide range of software applications being developed including word processing programs, database management tools, photo editing software, etc. But during the last decade the web has become the new deployment environment for software applications. Software applications that were previously built for specific operating systems and devices are now being designed specifically for the web (web-enabled). Because of this new movement, and as the web becomes increasingly a universal interface for software development, the software industry is experiencing a major evolution toward web-related software applications (Festa 2001). For example, the recent release of Googles Chrome web browser which was specifically designed to enable the execution of web applications and services in the web browser confirms this trend. As the web evolves, the surrounding and supporting technologies are becoming more complex. This is especially relevant in web-enabled applications such as web browsers, email/news clients, VoIP and chat clients which allow the interaction with the web from the client side. Web browsers specifically have become the doorway to the Internet and are currently the most widely used applications and the standard tool for consuming Internet services. This evolution toward web-related applications had a direct impact on the security of such applications. For instance, vulnerabilities and attacks against web browsers became more popular as such attacks compromise the security and privacy and have serious implications for web users. Once a web-related software is infected, the users web interaction can be fully exposed to the attacker. For instance, an infected web browser can expose the victims web addresses, data typed into forms, user sessions and cookies. Moreover, vulnerability risks in a web browser can have a serious implication for intranets (Anupam and Mayer 1998). Most users use the same browser to access information on the intranet as well as the Internet. A user who has been attacked through vulnerable web browser has compromised his or her firewall for the duration of the browsing session (c). Examples of such vulnerability risks against web browsers include key loggers. Key loggers are a form of spyware which can be installed through vulnerability in a web browser and then logs all pressed keys whenever a user visits a certain online banking web site. The increase in vulnerability risks in web-related software is related to the exponential growth of the Internet. As we enter through the second decade of the 21st century, the rapid adoption of the Internet market along its ubiquitous presence will continue to make Internet technologies such as web-related applications a prime target for attackers as they constitute the largest mass of victims. Hypothesis 1a: Vulnerability type will be highly positively related to web-related software applications Hypothesis 1b: Frequency of vulnerability will be highly positively related to web-related software applications Hypothesis 1c: Severity of vulnerability will be highly positively related to web-related software applications System Software: System software refers to the set of computer programs which are required to support the execution of application programs and maintain system hardware. Operating systems, utilities, drivers and compilers are among the major components of system software. Such components are the enablers and service providers to software applications. Among these components, the operating system is the most popular and important one. The operating system market for client PCs has evolved along the lines predicted by theories of increasing returns and network externalities (Shapiro and Varian 1999). But with this increase in network externality, there has been a dramatic increase in vulnerabilities (cite xxx). For instance, between 2007 and 2009, the number of operating system vulnerabilities almost doubled from 220 to 420 vulnerabilities (CVE 2010). Such increase in vulnerabilities can be caused by several reasons. First, network externality implies larger user base which makes operating systems an a ttractive target for hackers. In addition to that, viruses and worms can spread more rapidly because of the large installed user base and network effect. Second, the architecture of some operating systems like Windows allows vulnerabilities to gain a direct access to the operating system files through external scripts; meaning that if malicious scripts are sophisticated enough, they can exploit system files through software applications or through system software directly. And last, the fame factor for discovering vulnerabilities in systems with significant installed user base make them potentially significant target for hackers. Lately, new technologies such as web-based cloud computing, virtualization and Just enough Operating System (JeOS) have been gradually diminishing the importance of the traditional operating system (Geer 2009). With cloud computing technologies, users can access web applications through their web browser; meaning that an OS like Google Chrome will only be needed to run the web-browser. Moreover, with virtualization technology a personal computer or a server is capable of running multiple operating systems or multiple sessions of a single OS at anytime without having the user rely on a single OS. Similarly, Just enough Operating System (JeOS) focuses on running applications which require minimal OS. As these technologies are gaining popularity and becoming more adopted by users, the role of an OS is starting to decrease so does its network externality. With this is mind, we hypothesize that attackers interests and vulnerability risks will gradually shift to other technologies as they become more popular. Hypothesis 1d: Vulnerability type will be positively related to system software Hypothesis 1e: Frequency of vulnerability will be positively related to system software Hypothesis 1f: Severity of vulnerability will be positively related to system software Web Applications: The remarkable reach of web applications into all areas of the Internet makes this field among the largest and most important parts of the software industry. As of today, the Internet consists of hundreds of thousands of small and large-scale web applications ranging from e-Commerce applications to social networking sites to online gaming. This popularity has attracted large user base which made web applications lucrative targets for attackers to exploit vulnerabilities. Web applications are currently subject to a plenty of vulnerabilities and attacks, such as cross-site scripting (XSS), session riding (CSRF) and browser hijacking (Mansfield-Devine 2008). Hence, the landscape of vulnerabilities has changed significantly during the first decade of the 21st century. Previously, buffer overflow and format string vulnerabilities accounted for a large fraction of all vulnerabilities during the 1990s, but as web applications became more popular, new vulnerabilities and attacks such as SQL injections and XSS attacks exceeded earlier vulnerabilities. According to CVE surveys, security issues in web applications are the most commonly reported vulnerabilities nowadays. In response, web application vendors dedicated more resources towards securing their products as they tend to receive more attention as potential targets because of their large pool of possible victims (Mercuri 2003). The problem of web application vulnerabilities is becoming more complicated with the recent movement towards Web 2.0 technologies. The landscape of Web 2.0 enables new avenue of vulnerabilities by using sophisticated scripts on the client side. Moreover, Web 2.0 websites are becoming riskier than traditional websites because they use more scripting capabilities to allow users to upload content, share information and gain more control. Despite the growth of web applications and Web 2.0, these technologies are still limited by the available resources such as network bandwidth, latency, memory and processing power. More specifically, its argued that web applications are constrained by the capabilities of the web browser they are running in. With this drawback, web application users will ultimately have to rely on their own resources to accomplish magnitudes of tasks. Compared to system and software applications, we hypothesize that web applications will continue to experience vulnerability risks but at a lower rate than other popular software. Hypothesis 1g: Vulnerability type will be least positively related to web applications Hypothesis 1h: Frequency of vulnerability will be least positively related to web applications Hypothesis 1i: Severity of vulnerability will be least positively related to web applications Targeted Operating System Software producers often create applications to run on a single or a combination of operating systems (OS). From a software viewpoint, maintaining security is the obligation of both the OS and the software program. But since computer hardware such as the CPU, memory and input/output channels are accessible to a software programs only by making calls to the OS, therefore, the OS bears a tremendous burden in achieving system security by allocating, controlling and supervising all system resources. For the most part, each of todays streamlines OSs has a main weakness. For instance, earlier OSs such as Windows NT, UNIX and Macintosh had a weakness in their access control policies (Krsul 1998). Such OSs didnt specify access control policies very clearly which meant that applications that ran by users inherited all the privileges that the access control mechanisms of the OS provided to those users (Wurster 2010). An access control policy requires an OS to give a program or a user the minimum set of access rights necessary to perform a task. In his work, Denning (1983) illustrated the working of an access control policy which typically consists of three entities namely, subjects, objects and access rights matrix. Subjects refer to users or domains whereas objects are files, services, or other resources and access rights matrix specifies different kinds of privileges including read, write and execute which are assigned to subjects over objects. A configuration of the access matrix d escribes what subjects are authorized to do. Vulnerabilities in OSs tend to rely on weaknesses in configuration of access control matrices to gain access to software applications and system software. This creates a serious problem since vulnerabilities can exploit software applications through the OS gain access and ultimately take over the system. An example of an access control policy failure is Java virtual application. The Java virtual machine was among the applications which defined, and enforced its own access control matrix. Its sandbox was compromised of a number of OS components which ensured that a malicious application cannot gain access to system resources. But once the access control mechanism of the virtual machine fails, a malicious applet can be given access beyond the sandbox (McGraw and Felten 1997). Meaning that the OS can allow a malicious applet full access to the users files because to the OS there is no difference between the virtual machine and the applet. Moreover, even with an access control policy in place, consideration must be given to system design. The OSs which are in use today have different architectures and are designed with different kernels without considering security and controlled accessibility as significant design criteria. For instance, a large portion of UNIX and Linux vulnerabilities result from boundary condition errors which are commonly known as buffer overflow (cite xxx). These boundary conditions result from a failure to properly check the bound sizes of buffers, arrays, strings. Attackers tend to exploit this weakness in UNIX and Linux OSs to gain access to system software and software applications. On the other hand, vulnerabilities in Windows OS tend to be evenly divided among exceptional conditions, boundary conditions and access control validations (cite xxx). With these types of vulnerabilities root break-in and execution of arbitrary code are common types of attacks. When it comes to writing software for different platforms, programmers must acknowledge the potential vulnerabilities and threats targeting their software. Since different OSs have different vulnerabilities, the task of designing a secure application tend to become much difficult since they have to consider vulnerability risks of each OS. Therefore we hypothesize that: Hypothesis 5a: Vulnerability type will be positively related to software which target more operating systems Hypothesis 5b: Frequency of vulnerability will be positively related to software which target more operating systems Hypothesis 5c: Severity of vulnerability will be positively related to software which target more operating systems Software Free Trial Free trial strategy is used by many vendors to promote and sell their goods. This strategy is especially popular and found to be effective to promote and sell digital goods such as software and music. Unlike physical goods, the intangibility of digital products prevents consumers from assessing the products before the consumption and adoption (Heiman and Muller 1996). Such uncertainty of product functionality reduces consumers motivation to adopt the product and is considered a source of market failure. Nowadays, offering software free trial at a low marginal production cost has resulted in the prevalence of free trials strategy. For the software market, there are two strategies of free trial, namely a fully functional free version with limited trial period (time locked version) and a limited functional version (demo version). Each of these strategies has its own advantages and disadvantages. For instance a demo version has an advantage of capturing the network effect from both trial users and the buyers. In contrast, some consumers may find it adequate to use only the limited functionalities provided in the demo version rather than purchasing the full version software. Similarly, offering time locked software version can negatively affect the software vendor as consumers with limited usage can utilize this short-term to fully take advantage of the free trial without buying the full software product. Based on these trial strategies, there have been numerous studies regarding the effect of free trial on software learning curve (Heiman and Muller 1996), software piracy (Chellappa and Shivendu 2005) and software performance (Lee and Tan 2007). For this study, we are interested in measuring the effect of free trial strategies on software vulnerabilities. Although software vendors often release demo or time locked versions, such versions can still contain good source of information for the attackers. Attackers typically misuse the trial versions to look for, find and exploit vulnerabilities. Furthermore, attackers can reverse engineer the limited code and find vulnerabilities (Sutherland et al. 2006). This technique has become particularly important as the attacker can apply vulnerabilities found in free trial versions to exploit full version software. Moreover, there are many hacker groups on the internet who specialize in cracking free trial and full versions software and releasing them on the internet under what is known as warez. Such groups usually compete with one another to be the first to crack and release the new software. These cracked versions (warez) can also serve as potential targets for attackers looking for vulnerabilities. Hence, while providing free trial versions of software by software vendors is a marketing strategy, vendors should also expect such free versions can become targets for vulnerabilities and early exploits. Hypothesis 6a: Vulnerability type will be positively related to software which offer trial versions Hypothesis 6b: Frequency of vulnerability will be positively to software which offer trial versions Hypothesis 6c: Severity of vulnerability will be positively to software which offer trial versions Software License The diversity of the software business model drives the need for different types of software licenses. A software license is a legal agreement forming a binding contract (relationship) between the vendor and the user of a software product and its considered an essential part in the evolution of the software to a market product. Software license is regarded as one of the fundamentals of OSS as there are currently close to 73 different licenses (Perens 2009). Most OSS licenses are classified based on the restrictions they impose on any derivative work (Lerner and Tirole, 2005). Examples of OSS licenses include GPL, LGPL and BSD. General Public License (GPL) is currently the most popular OSS license which states that any derived work from other GPL software has to be distributed under the same licensing terms. The Lesser GPL (LGPL) and the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) are other popular alternatives to GPL with similar characteristics. OSS projects rely heavily on code reuse as shown by DrDobbs (2009). In their work, 1311 OSS projects were analyzed and 365000 instances were found of code reuse among those projects. In principle, most of the OSS licenses allow programmers to modify and reuse existing code. This degree of code inheritance can have positive and negative effects on the security of the software. In their work, Brown and Booch (2002) discussed how reuse of OSS code can inherent insecurities and talked about the concerns which companies have regarding OSS code and how it was developed and in particular the origins and the reuse of its code. Indeed an analysis study by Pham et al. (2010) suggested that one of the key causes of vulnerabilities is due to software reuse in code, algorithms/standards, or shared libraries/APIs. They proposed the use of new model which uses algorithm to map similar vulnerable code across different systems, and use the model to trace and report vulnerabilities to software vendors . Reuse of OSS software has caused concerns as developers might inherent vulnerabilities from existing code but regardless of the open source community or software vendors positions on this debate, the possibility of security issues by reusing OSS code has been sufficient to the point where some vendors stopped reusing OSS code in their software. From a security perspective and when it comes to reusing OSS, vendors tend to follow one of the following approaches. Abandon OSS software; only reuse code which has been extensively reviewed; or maintain a relationship with the OSS community and get involved with the development process (Brown and Booch 2002). Its our belief that licenses which allow developers to reuse source code will be more susceptible to vulnerabilities than closed source proprietary licenses. Meaning that software licenses which allow code reuse are more likely to inherit or contaminate derivate work. In contrast, commercial licenses which dont share or allow code reuse are less susceptible to inherit or contaminate vulnerabilities. Hypothesis 4a: Vulnerability type will be positively related to open source software licenses Hypothesis 4b: Frequency of vulnerability will be positively related to open source licenses Hypothesis 4c: Severity of vulnerability will be positively related to open source licenses Source Code Availability Security of open source software (OSS) and closed source software has been a hot topic with many arguments repeatedly presented. Advocates of OSS argue that more reviewers strengthen the security of the software as it eases the process of finding bugs and speeds it up given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow (Raymond and Young 2000). Opponents of this idea disagree and claim that not all code reviewers and testers have enough skills and experience compared to code reviewers at companies who are more skilled at finding flaws. The argument is that oftentimes code reviewers and testers need to have further skills other than programming such as cryptography, stenography and networking. Moreover, proponents of closed source software claim that security by obscurity is the main strength of closed source software since its harder to find vulnerabilities when the code is not accessible. However, proponents of OSS argue that its possible to gain access to closed source code through publicl y available patches and disassembling software (Tevis 2005). Its important to note that the impact of the availability of source code on security depends on the open source development model. For instance, the open source cathedral model allows everyone to view the source code, detect flaws/bugs/vulnerabilities and open reports; but they are not permitted to release patches unless they are approved by project owners. OSS projects are typically regulated by project administrators who require some time to review and approve patches. Attackers can take advantage of the availability of source code and published vulnerability reports to exploit them (Payne 2002). However, proponents of OSS argue that vulnerabilities in OSS projects can be fixed faster than those in closed source software because the OSS community is not dependent on a companys schedule to release a patch. Despite the continuous debate on OSS security, advocates from both sides agree that having access to the source code makes it easier to find vulnerabilities but they differ about the impact of vulnerabilities on software security. First of all, keeping the source code open provides attackers with easy access to information that may be helpful to successfully launch an attack. Publically available source code gives attackers the ability to search for vulnerabilities and flaws and thus increase the exposure of the system. Second, making the source code publicly available doesnt guarantee that a qualified person will look at the source and evaluate it. In the bazaar style environment, malicious code such as backdoors may be sneaked into the source by attackers posing as trustful contributors. For instance, in 2003 Linux kernel developers discovered an attempt to include a backdoor in the kernel code (Poulsen 2003). Finally, for many OSS projects there is no a priori selection of program mers based on their skills; project owners tend to accept any help without checking for qualifications or coding skills. Given the issues surrounding source code availability in OSS, we hypothesize that making source code publically available will induce attackers and increase vulnerability risks. Hypothesis 1a: Vulnerability type will be positively related to source code availability Hypothesis 1b: Frequency of vulnerability will be positively related to source code availability Hypothesis 1c: Severity of vulnerability will be positively related to source code availability Software Programming Language Selecting a suitable programming language is one of the most important decisions which have to be made during software planning and design. A chosen programming language has direct effect on how software ought to be created and what means must be used to guarantee that the software functions properly and securely. Software programs which are written using an insecure language may cause system dependent errors which are known to be difficult to find and fix (Hoare 1973). For example, buffer overflows vulnerabilities and other low-level errors are well known issues in C and C++ languages (Cowan 1999). As of today, there exist numerous programming languages but the topic of security in programming languages has been widely disregarded as its believed that programming errors and flaws should be eliminated by the programmers themselves. Current approaches to this issue are essentially ad hoc where best programming practices and secure programming techniques are implemented during or after the design stage. Although this approach helps in preventing coding errors and flaws by relying on programmers skills and experience, it is difficult to say with any certainty what vulnerabilities are prevented and to what extent. More importantly, the ad hoc approach doesnt protect against new and evolving vulnerabilities as it only handles known vulnerabilities and specific coding flaws. In his paper, Hoare (1974) stated that a programming language is secure only if the compiler and run time support are capable of detecting flaws and violations of the language rules. The main issue with this statement is that current compilers and debugging tools are not reliable since they parse code differently; therefore, its impossible to guarantee the same results for programs. Additionally, such tools dont help the programmer in finding vulnerabilities or flaws as they only report syntax errors. Typically, compilers and debugging tools dont allow for security checks on debugging runs, therefore no trust can be put in the results. An evolving trend in secure programming has been the use of formal language semantics. Formal language semantics try to reason with and prove security properties of the code. For example, in their paper, Leroy and Rouaix (1998) developed a formal technique to validate a typed functional language to ensure that memory locations always contain appropriate values to avoid buffer overflow vulnerabilities. Although the use of formal language semantics has been advocated (Dean et al. 1996, Meseguer and Talcott 1997, Volpano 1997), it wasnt widely adopted among programmers. When it comes to software languages, security is essentially dependent on numerous factors such as language developers, programmers and debugging tools. With so many factors, we believe that correlating software language with vulnerability risks will be insignificant. Hypothesis 2a: Vulnerability type will be insignificantly correlated with software language Hypothesis 2b: Frequency of vulnerability will be insignificantly correlated with software language Hypothesis 2c: Severity of vulnerability will be insignificantly correlated with software language Targeted Software Users There are many different types of computer users with a wide range of background, skills, and learning habits. Computer users are typically classified into two distinct groups, namely sophisticated and novice (unsophisticated) users. Sophisticated users have an advanced understanding of computer and Internet technologies; they tend to be more security-aware. Novice users refer to non-technical personnel who are not experienced with computers and the Internet; they rely on computers for simple tasks such as word-processing, spreadsheets, and occasional web surfing. Such users are more prone to security issues due to their inexperience. For instance ignoring software updates and security patches, failing to run essential protection utilities such as an anti-virus or firewall applications are typical security issues with novice users. Because of differences in experience level between both groups, some argue that vulnerabilities affect novice users more than sophisticated ones. Although this might be true for viruses and worms and old vulnerabilities, but when it comes to dealing with zero-day vulnerabilities everyone becomes a victim regardless of their sophistication level. Zero day vulnerabilities refer to unreported exploitable vulnerabilities for which a patch is not available from software vendors (cite xxx). Moreover, when it comes to attackers and potential targets, eventually everyone is a target. Despite the type of computer users, the objective of vulnerability attacks is to hack as many computers as possible with the least amount of effort (Spitzer 2002). Attackers tend to focus on a single vulnerability and use automated scanning tools to search for as many systems as possible for that vulnerability. Such automated tools are often called autorooters and can be designed to scan a specific network for vulnerable machines or scan a range of IP addresses until a victim is found. Its important to note that these tools dont distinguish between software user s as they look for any vulnerable target in sight. Hypothesis 8a: Vulnerability type will be insignificantly correlated with to targeted software users Hypothesis 8b: Frequency of vulnerability will be insignificantly correlated with to targeted software users Hypothesis 8c: Severity of vulnerability will be insignificantly correlated with to targeted software users Software Price Software price plays an important role in modifying the individuals attitude toward the software in many ways. For example, research studies which looked at software piracy found that software price to be a significant factor (incentive) which influenced the intention to pirate (Gopal and Sanders 2000). In their work, Peace et al. (2003) conducted a survey of 201 respondents and found that software price was among the major reasons for illegally copying software. Following the same analogy, studies have shown that attackers attitudes and hackers motivations for finding vulnerabilities are associated with several factors such as: peer approval, self esteem, politics, publicity, financial gains, curiosity and sabotage (Shaw et al. 1999). Within the hackers community, hacking achievements typically help individuals gain higher and more respectable status as it refers to the persons skills and mastery level. Reaching a higher status is oftentimes associated with noteworthy achievements such as hacking popular software. For those hackers who seek publicity or peer approval, they tend to target software with large user base due to their significant reach. So despite software price, hackers look for vulnerabilities in open source and proprietary software as long as there is a significant user base. Similarly, infamous social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace are constant vulnerability targets regardless of their service cost. Outside the hackers community, hackers incentives tend to vary among political reasons (example: Google-China Hacking 2010), financial gains (example: ransom money attacks), self esteem and sabotage. Again, by analyzing each incentive, we find that software price doesnt play any role in v ulnerability risks. We therefore hypothesize that: Hypothesis 7a: Vulnerability type will be insignificantly correlated with to software price Hypothesis 7b: Frequency of vulnerability will be insignificantly correlated with to software price Hypothesis 7c: Severity of vulnerability will be insignificantly correlated with to software price

Choclate Happiness :: Happiness Essays

A smile, a laugh, a quick thought, starry nights, walking in warm rain storms, playing soccer, chocolate; these are all things that make me happy. It may be different for the person sitting next to me in my advanced composition class, but everyone feels it. Happiness is an emotion that is the product of an object or an event. It is something that makes a man in his years of aged wisdom stop, smile, and think of happy times. To me happiness is like a piece of chocolate, it is something that everyone wants, something that we sometimes have to work hard for, and something that is always worth the risk of acting in order to have it.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Everyone wants chocolate. The food of the gods! Chocolate covered cherries, chocolate cake, chocolate mints, white chocolate, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate. It is plain to see chocolate is a happiness for me. For those who don’t like chocolate it is the same concept. There is something out there that an individual person just can’t get enough of, just one of those little things that make them enormously happy. It doesn’t matter if that be chocolate, playing football, or holding the hand of a loved one, everyone has something out there that makes him or her happy, and everyone desires to have that feeling. Bear with me for a moment and participate in a little experiment. Think of something that makes you as an individual happier then anything else in the world. Think of the number one thing on that incredibly long list of nouns that describe happiness, and ponder it for a moment. what emotion are you feeling righ t now, and can it be called happiness? Now think of what it would be like to lose that number one item. No how do you feel? The fact is we all want to have that feeling, that emotion of happiness. â€Å"We all live with the objective of being happy, out lives our different and yet the same† Anne Frank. Everyone wants happiness, everyone wants chocolate.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The best chocolate is the homemade kind; the best happiness is the kind that is worked for. The best kind of chocolate is ‘real’ chocolate. Something that I have often been told is that if you are going to do something then it is worth doing the best that you can.

Francis Scott Fitzgerald Essay examples -- essays papers

Francis Scott Fitzgerald Thesis: Francis S. Fitzgerald was a talented writer; his only flaw was that he liked the combination of alcohol and the night life. One of the most widely recognized writers of the 1920’s and 1930’s was Francis Scott Fitzgerald (Beebe 339). He followed his dreams of being a writer, until he finally succeeded. Francis Scott Fitzgerald was a talented writer; his only flaw was that he liked the combination of alcohol and the nightlife (Coale 190). He spent his life writing and trying to be happy with his wife, Zelda Sayre. His life served as a resource for his novels. Perhaps writing about his life helped him deal with his grief. Francis Scott Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on September 24, 1896. (Coale 190). Francis Scott was the only child of Edward Fitzgerald and Mary Mollie McQuillan (Beebe 339). Fitzgerald was named after a distant member of his father’s family (Beebe 339), who happened to be the author of â€Å"The Star Spangled Banner† (Bruccoli xix). Edward Fitzgerald was the father of Francis S. Fitzgerald. Edward’s business, the production of wicker furniture in St. Paul, Minnesota, failed. (Bruccoli xix). Due to this, his family moved to Buffalo, New York, in 1908 (Bruccoli xix). In New York he became a salesman for Procter & Gamble; in 1908 he was dismissed (Bruccoli xix). After his dismissal they returned to St. Paul and moved in with Mary Mollie McQuillan’s mother (Bruccoli xix). Her mother was an Irish immigrant who became wealthy as a wholesaler grocer in St. Paul, Minnesota (Bruccoli xix). When the family finally decided to stay in St. Paul, Minnesota, was when Fitzgerald was encouraged to study at the St. Paul Academy (Beebe 339). From 1911 to 191... ... characters of Dick Diver and Nicole Diver somehow resemble Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre. Dick Diver resembles Fitzgerald by being young and talented. Nicole Diver resembles Zelda Sayre by both being the force that held them back. Bibliography: Works Cited Beebe, Maurice. â€Å"Francis Scott Fitzgerald†. Encyclopedia Americana. Deluxe Library Ed. 1996. Bruccoli, Matthew J., and Judith Baughman. A Life in Letters: F. Scott Fitzgerald. New York. Simon & Schuster Inc. 1994. Coale, Samuel Chase. â€Å"Francis Scott Fitzgerald†. The World Book Encyclopedia. Scott Fetzer Company, 1996. Eble, Kenneth. F. Scott Fitzgerald. New York. Twayne Publishers Inc, 1963. Meyers, Jeffrey. Scott Fitzgerald: A Biography. New York. Harper Collins Publishers Inc, 1994.

Rodrigo Duterte’s Early Presidency

Christian B. Mendoza Speech 30 THX-3 2018 – 00308 Prof. Mary Jannette Pinzon A Duterte Reader: Critical Essays on Rodrigo Duterte's Early Presidency by Nicole Curato (editor) Philippine political landscape is always subject to change, with the emergence of conflicting political ideologies embodied and practiced by former and current political leaders. One of the defining beacons in the Philippine history was the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution––a nonviolent mass demonstration that sought to overthrow the dictatorial regime of Ferdinand Marcos. Since then, governance in the Philippines has been consistent with â€Å"the reformist, albeit elitist, narrative of the liberal democratic regime† (Teehankee, 2016), as opposed to the authoritarian regime of Marcos. A shift to another form of government, however, does not necessarily mean that the country's condition would be improved in all aspects. In fact, people in authority have failed to deliver on their promises of initiating much needed reforms to conceive remarkable socioeconomic and political transformations. Therefore, the public's petition to bring about drastic solutions to the ills of the country was fulfilled by the sweeping electoral triumph of a former prosecutor and long-time mayor of Davao City, Rodrigo Roa Duterte, who now serves as the 16th and current president of the republic. Written by several scholars in academic disciplines, A Duterte Reader endeavors to understand the type of regime that the country now faces under the Duterte administration. It seeks to establish the factors that led to Duterte's landslide electoral victory in the 2016 presidential elections, and to examine the origin and level of support that the public has for his deadly â€Å"war on drugs,† which he vehemently declared to be the most pressing issue in the country. Moreover, the book sheds light on the legacy of American Imperialism in the country, and how it became a catalyst or one of the immediate causes to ignite a revolution among Filipino people, who have long been subject to systemic oppressions triggered by the machinations of the ruling class and the culture of elitism that it has instituted. The most striking parts of the book are the obvious manifestations of Duterte's presidential campaign slogan: â€Å"Change is coming.† Since his inauguration as the 16th President of the Philippines last June 30, 2016, these manifestations have surfaced in ways that prompted the public to engage in political discourse over all forms of social media. The driving force behind the citizens' political participation is that there is someone who finally recognizes their repressed anger towards social, economic and political injustices from which they have been suffering since the prevalence of elitism emanating from liberal democracy. To counter these injustices, Duterte has acutely focused on the obliteration of the illegal drug trade in the country through his controversial â€Å"war on drugs.† The rampant extrajudicial killings executed by corrupt police officers and vigilantes, who have no regard for the victims' human rights, are being justified by Duterte's portrayal of drug trade as something that poses a major threat to society and national security. Meanwhile, a certain chapter in the book was interesting to read in a sense that it is constantly encountered by people who use various social media platforms. Written by Cabaà ±es and Cornelio, The Rise of Trolls in the Philippines discusses the emergence of online political trolls, and its impact to promoting a democratic media in the country. This chapter also introduces Mocha Uson, a key figure in contemporary Philippine social media, who has branded herself as the voice of the ordinary people. The opportunity to enumerate the times when she has deliberately spread ‘fake news' in social media (Arias, 2017) was neglected by these two contributors. A Duterte Reader enables the readers to be mindful and critical of the affairs unfolding before their very eyes, especially in an era where the proliferation of disinformation, or commonly referred to as â€Å"fake news,† has hindered netizens from objectively engaging in political discourse online (Bueno, 2017). The book gives a panoramic view of the Philippine political history, starting from the historic EDSA Revolution to an impending shift to a federal system of government under the Duterte regime, which would certainly leave a long-lasting impact to the country's political landscape. In addition, the book allows the readers to scrutinize the reasons why some people constantly extend their support for Duterte, or why they should not turn a blind eye to how Duterte intends to solve these issues. Between the pages of the book is a message––similar to the one that went viral online last March 2018––for the readers to ponder on: â€Å"Kapag namulat ka sa katotohanan, kasalanan na ang pumikit,† roughly translating to: Once you've opened your eyes to the truth, it's a mistake to close them again. Based from the plethora of insights that the contributors have provided in this book, the readers should be able to discern this message. The book was written from a third-person point of view since the contributors wanted to discuss the factors affecting the politics of Duterte in an objective manner; thus, presenting both sides of the matter accordingly. The readers could somehow agree with what the contributors have stated regarding the several affairs of the country. They could observe the relevance of the information contained in the book when Duterte delivered his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) last July 23, 2018. He discussed the topics about different sectors such as businesses, conditions of the OFWs, his â€Å"War on Drugs,† foreign relations, agrarian sector, and tax reforms (Ranada, 2018). Some of the root causes of the points highlighted in his speech––persistent intervention of the American government in domestic political and economic affairs, and the incompetence of the previous administrations––have been thoroughly analyzed by the contributors. Moreover, it is important to recognize the contribution that the book offers to the public since everything they have included in the book is a product of Duterte's persuasive public speeches, which hinge on the three primary elements of Aristotle's Model of Communication: ethos, pathos and logos (Timonera, 2018). As each chapter is written through comprehensive research, coupled with an array of trustworthy references, the book could be included in the auxiliary reading materials for students of various academic fields, specifically students of politics; or could be used by authors and researchers as their reference material when writing about certain issues that the book failed to include. Nevertheless, the book is certainly for anyone who wants to fathom this confounding event in the history of Philippine politics. References:Arias, J. (2017). A list of Mocha Uson's fake news posts. Preen. Retrieved from http://preen.inquirer.net/58185/a-list-of-mocha-usons-fake-news-postsBueno, A. (2017). The anatomy of ‘fake news.' CNN Philippines. Retrieved from http://cnnphilippines.com/life/culture/politics/2017/10/12/fake-news-anatomy.htmlRanada, P. (2018). Quick point-by-point summary of Duterte's SONA 2018. Rappler. Retrieved from https://www.rappler.com/nation/208050-duterte-sona-2018-philippines-summaryTeehankee, J. C. (2016). Weak state, strong presidents: Situating the Duterte presidency in Philippine political time. Journal of Developing Societies, 32(3), 1-29. doi: 10.1177/0169796X16654594Timonera, P. G. (2018). The rhetoric of President Duterte's speeches and the Aristotelian conception of the rhetoric and public sphere.Paper presented at 25th World Congress of Political Science, Brisbane, Australia. Retrieved from https://wc2018.ipsa.org/sites/default/files/ipsa-events/wc2018/papers/paper- 101491-2018-07-01t111647-0400.pdf