Picture Of Dorian Gray By Oscar Wilde Essays -

Picture Of Dorian Gray By Oscar Wilde In the early chapters of The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, we are introduced to a young and na?ve character, Dorian Gray. Wildes descriptions of the young man create a picture of an innocent yet easily influenced Dorian, who is just beginning to learn what the adult world is all about. He is happy and handsome, yet when he is introduced to Lord Henry, he begins to experiment a little bit more on the side of sin. He becomes obsessed with youth and beauty, and he says that he would give everything, even [his] very soul to remain attractive and young. After this declaration, the reader is introduced to a changed Dorian Gray and his new philosophies about life, which begin to sound a lot like Lord Henrys thoughts. Dorian falls in love, and then he breaks a girls heart, causing her to end her life. His beautiful portrait begins to alter, and to keep others from witnessing this, he locks the picture away. At this point in the novel, the reader is brought forward in time, and Dorian is now closer to middle age. Oscar Wilde uses very dark words to set a dreary mood and also a very different sort of image than from the beginning of he novel. Dorians life over the past years is described in detail, marking his drastic change and the hold the Devil has over him. It appears that Dorians conscience and his very soul have left his body forever, leaving him a sinful and very conceited person. People despise him, and some even leave a room when he enters. It is very clear that Dorian Gray has morphed into someone who is his opposite from earlier in his life. The rest of the novel has the same eerie tone and feeling to it. Oscar Wilde makes the reader feel utter despair, because it seems that Dorian has changed far too much to be able to change for the better. Near the end, hope seems to surface, only to disappear into sadness when Wilde has Dorian stab the painting, therefore stabbing his very soul, and killing himself. Book Reports

Quipu - South Americas Undeciphered Writing System

Quipu - South Americas Undeciphered Writing System Quipu is the Spanish form of the Inca (Quechua language) word khipu (also spelled quipo), a unique form of ancient communication and information storage used by the Inca Empire, their competition and their predecessors in South America. Scholars believe that quipus record information in the same way as a cuneiform tablet or a painted symbol on papyrus do. But rather than using painted or impressed symbols to convey a message, the ideas in quipus are expressed by colors and knot patterns, cord twist directions and directionality, in cotton and wool threads. The first western report of quipus was from the Spanish conquistadors including Francisco Pizarro and the clerics who attended him. According to Spanish records, quipus were kept and maintained by specialists (called quipucamayocs or khipukamayuq), and shamans who trained for years to master the intricacies of the multi-layered codes. This was not a technology shared by everyone in the Inca community. According to 16th-century historians such as Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, quipus  were carried throughout the empire by relay riders, called chasquis, who brought the coded information along the Inca road system, keeping the Inca rulers up to date with the news around their far-flung empire. The Spanish destroyed thousands of quipus in the 16th century. An estimated 600 remain today, stored in museums, found in recent excavations, or preserved in local Andean communities. Quipu Meaning Although the process of deciphering the quipu system is still just beginning, scholars surmise (at least) that information is stored in cord color, cord length, knot type, knot location, and cord twist direction. Quipu cords are often plaited in combined colors like a barber pole; cords sometimes have single threads of distinctively dyed cotton or wool woven in. Cords are connected mostly from a single horizontal strand, but on some elaborate examples, multiple subsidiary cords lead off from the horizontal base in vertical or oblique directions. What information is stored in a quipu? Based on historical reports, they were certainly used for administrative tracking of tributes and records of the production levels of farmers and artisans throughout the Inca empire. Some quipu may have represented maps of the pilgrimage road network known as the ceque system and/or they may have been mnemonic devices to help oral historians remember ancient legends or the genealogical relationships so important to Inca society. American anthropologist Frank Salomon has noted that the physicality of quipus seems to suggest that the medium was exceptionally strong in encoding discrete categories, hierarchy, numbers, and grouping. Whether quipus have narratives embedded in them as well, the likelihood that well ever be able to translate story-telling quipus is very small. Evidence for the Quipu Use Archaeological evidence indicates that quipus have been in use in South America at least since ~AD 770, and they continue to be used by Andean pastoralists today. The following is a brief description of evidence supporting quipu use throughout Andean history. Caral-Supe culture (possible, ca 2500 BC). The oldest possible quipu comes from the Caral-Supe civilization, a preceramic (Archaic) culture in South America made up of at least 18 villages and enormous pyramidal architecture. In 2005, researchers reported a collection of strings twisted around small sticks from a context dated to approximately 4,000-4,500 years ago. Further information has not been published to date, and the interpretation of this as a quipu is somewhat controversial.Middle Horizon Wari (AD 600-1000). The strongest evidence for the  pre-Inca use of quipu record keeping is from the Middle Horizon Wari (or Huari) empire, an early urban and perhaps state level Andean society centered at the capital city of Huari, Peru. The competing and contemporary Tiwanaku state also had a cord device called a chino, but little information is available about its technology or characteristics to date.Late Horizon Inca (1450-1532). The best-known and largest number of surviving quipus are dated to the Inca period (1450-Spanish conquest in 1532). These are known both from the archaeological record and from historical reports- hundreds are in museums around the world, with data on 450 of them residing in the Khipu Database Project at Harvard University. Quipu Usage After the Spanish Arrival At first, the Spanish encouraged the use of quipu for various colonial enterprises, from recording the amount of collected tribute to keeping track of sins in the confessional. The converted Inca peasant was supposed to bring a quipu to the priest to confess his sins and read those sins during that confession. That stopped when the priests realized that most of the people couldnt actually use a quipu in that manner: the converts had to return to the quipu specialists to obtain a quipu and a list of sins that corresponded to the knots. After that, the Spanish worked to suppress the use of the quipu. After the suppression, much Inca information was stored in written versions of the Quechua and Spanish  languages, but quipu use continued in local, intracommunity records. The historian  Garcilaso de la Vega based his reports of the downfall of the last Inca king Atahualpa on both quipu and Spanish sources. It might have been at the same time that quipu technology began to spread outside of the quipucamayocs and Inca rulers: some Andean herders today still use quipu to keep track of their llama and alpaca herds. Salomon also found that in some provinces, local governments use historical quipu as patrimonial symbols of their past, although they do not claim competence in reading them. Administrative Uses: Santa River Valley Census Archaeologists Michael Medrano and Gary Urton compared six quipus said to have been recovered from a burial in the Santa River Valley of coastal Peru, to data from a Spanish colonial administrative census conducted in 1670. Medrano and Urton found striking pattern similarities between the quipu and census, leading them to argue that they hold some of the same data. The Spanish census reported information about the Recuay Indians who lived in several settlements near what is today the town of San Pedro de Corongo. The census was split into administrative units (pachacas) which usually coincided with Incan clan group or ayllu. The census lists 132 people by name, each of whom paid taxes to the colonial government. At the end of the census, a statement said the tribute assessment was to be read out to the natives and entered into a quipu. The six quipus were in the collection of the Peruvian-Italian quipu scholar Carlos Radicati de Primeglio at the time of his death in 1990. Together the six quipus contain a total of 133 six-cord color-coded groups. Medrano and Urton suggest that each cord group represents a person on the census, containing information about each individual. What the Quipu Say The Santa River cord groups are patterned, by color banding, knot direction, and ply: and Medrano and Urton believe that it is possible that the name, moiety affiliation, ayllu, and amount of tax owed or paid by an individual taxpayer could well be stored among those different cord characteristics. They believe they have so far identified the way the moiety is coded into the cord group, as well as the amount of tribute paid or owed by each individual. Not every individual paid the same tribute. And they have identified possible ways that proper names might have been recorded as well. The implications of the research are that Medrano and Urban have identified evidence supporting the contention that quipu store a great deal of information about the rural Inca societies, including not just the amount of tribute paid, but family connections, social status, and language. Inca Quipu Characteristics Quipus made during the Inca Empire are decorated in at least 52 different colors, either as a single solid color, twisted into two-color barber poles, or as an unpatterned mottled group of colors. They have three kinds of knots, a single/overhand knot, a long knot of multiple twists of the overhand style, and an elaborate figure-of-eight knot. The knots are tied in tiered clusters, which have been identified as recording the numbers of objects in a base-10 system. German archaeologist Max Uhle interviewed a shepherd in 1894, who told him that the figure-of-eight knots on his quipu stood for 100 animals, the long knots were 10s and single overhand knots represented a single animal. Inca quipus were made from strings of spun and plied threads of cotton or camelid (alpaca and llama) wool fibers. They were typically arranged in only one organized form: primary cord and pendant. The surviving single primary cords are of widely variable length but are typically about a half centimeter (about two-tenths of an inch) in diameter. The number of pendant cords varies between two and 1,500: the average in the Harvard database is 84. In about 25 percent of the quipus, the pendant cords have subsidiary pendant cords. One sample from Chile contained six levels. Some quipus were recently found in an Inca-period archaeological site  right next to plant remains of chili peppers, black beans, and peanuts (Urton and Chu 2015). Examining the quipus, Urton and Chu think they have discovered a recurring pattern of a number- 15- that may represent the amount of tax due to the empire on each of these foodstuffs. This is the first time that archaeology has been able to explicitly connect quipus to accounting practices. Wari Quipu Characteristics American archaeologist Gary Urton (2014) collected data on 17 quipus which date to the Wari period, several of which have been radiocarbon-dated. The oldest so far is dated to cal AD 777-981, from a collection stored in the American Museum of Natural History. Wari quipus are made of cords of white cotton, which were then wrapped with elaborately dyed threads made from the wool of camelids (alpaca and llama). Knot styles found incorporated in the cords are simple overhand knots, and they are predominantly plied in a Z-twist  fashion. The Wari quipus are organized in two main formats: primary cord and pendant, and loop and branch. The primary cord of a quipu is a long horizontal cord, from which hangs a number of thinner cords. Some of those descending cords also have pendants, called subsidiary cords. The loop and branch type has an elliptical loop for a primary cord; pendant cords descend from it in series of loops and branches. Researcher Urton believes that the main organizational counting system may have been base 5 (that of the Inca quipus has been determined to be base 10) or the Wari may not have used such a representation. Sources Hyland, Sabine. Ply, Markedness, and Redundancy: New Evidence for How Andean Quipus Encoded Information. American Anthropologist 116.3 (2014): 643-48. Print.Kenney, Amanda. Encoding Authority: Navigating the Uses of Khipu in Colonial Peru. Traversea 3 (2013). Print.Medrano, Manuel, and Gary Urton. Toward the Decipherment of a Set of Mid-Colonial Khipus from the Santa Valley, Coastal Peru. Ethnohistory 65.1 (2018): 1-23. Print.Pilgaonkar, Sneha. The Khipu-Based Numeration System. ArcXiv arXiv:1405.6093 (2014). Print.Saez-Rodrà ­guez, Alberto. An Ethnomathematics Exercise for Analyzing a Khipu Sample from Pachacamac (Perà º). Revista Latinoamericana de Ethnomatemtica 5.1 (2012): 62-88. Print.Salomon, Frank. The Twisting Paths of Recall: Khipu (Andean Cord Notation) as Artifact. Writing as Material Practice: Substance, Surface and Medium. Eds. Piquette, Kathryn E. and Ruth D. Whitehouse. London: Ubiquity Press, 2013. 15-44. Print.Tun, Molly, and Miguel Angel Diaz Sotelo. Recovering An dean Historical Memory and Mathematics. Revista Latinoamericana de Etnomatemtica 8.1 (2015): 67-86. Print. Urton, Gary. From Middle Horizon Cord-Keeping to the Rise of Inka Khipus in the Central Andes. Antiquity 88.339 (2014): 205-21. Print.Urton, Gary, and Alejandro Chu. Accounting in the Kings Storehouse: The Inkawasi Khipu Archive. Latin American Antiquity 26.4 (2015): 512-29. Print.

Globalization Issue according toThomas L. Freidman and William J Essay

Globalization Issue according toThomas L. Freidman and William J. Duiker - Essay Example The book portrays a scenario where untimely flattening of the opponents of globalization is inevitable. William (2009:340-344) shares his sentiments in his book ’The contemporary world History’. He feels that the forces of fragmentation are too strong to allow globalization to gain a stable footing. Critical analysis of the thoughts of the two writers tempts an individual to take a position. Although William presents steep challenges to globalization, the basis of his arguments and speculation are on uncertainties. The past global trends have shown that globalization has received positive attention all over the world. Although some nations may not appear in public to support globalization, researches have shown that it remains a hot subject in their boardroom meetings. This shows that globalization is live and soon the world will be a global village. Thomas explicitly lays out the benefits of globalization. However, he does not overlook the possible challenges that glob alization might be faced with. This makes Thomas’s convictions correct, more sensible, and real in the current world. The Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention which Thomas subscribes to affirms that there cannot be disagreement between countries, which share a common interest. He emphasizes that globalization is the sole solution to the most conflicts in the world. In essence, Thomas signifies that the nations that embrace globalization have reaped benefits and not enmity. Globalization is the only safe platform to enrich cultural, economic, technological, and political ties while appreciating diversity. Thomas points out that there are still impediments to globalization. He argues that overcoming anti-global forces must be at the heart of its proponents. Freidman (580-604) highlights some of the issues which include poor education systems, weak economic powers, diseases, and bad infrastructure. Compromised education system negatively affects globalization. This is evident in t he third world countries where only the privileged in society acquire quality education and skills.

Cultural Diversity and Diverse Sacred Spaces Assignment

Cultural Diversity and Diverse Sacred Spaces - Assignment Example These are all sacred places with spiritual significance to their believers, although their exact functions and related rituals somewhat vary for each religion.The Ka’ba in Mecca, the Wailing Wall, and the Bodhi Tree are the holiest sites because of what they represent to the history of these religions. The Wailing Wall, also called the Western Wall, is the holiest site for Judaism because it is the last remaining wall of the Second Temple. The First Temple refers to Solomon's Temple. This temple, however, was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The Jews rebuilt the Temple, which the Romans destroyed in 70 CE. For several centuries, the Jews went to the Wailing Wall to cry over the destruction of their Second Temple. The Ka’ba is the holiest place for Islam. It is the heart of their hajj, or spiritual pilgrimage, and is located inside the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Muslims believe in the centrality of the Ka’ba as a sacred place of their faith – it is the space inside it, rather than Mecca itself, which is seen as consecrated (Morgan, 2010). Many Muslims think that Adam had built the original Ka’ba but it then was ruined by the Great Flood (Morgan, 2010). The Bodhi Tree is also the holiest place for Buddhists because it is the tree where Buddha attained enlightenment (Harvey, 1990). The original Bodhi tree and its progeny are treated as relics because they symbolize Buddha’s enlightenment (Harvey, 1990). Enlightenment, or being awakened, is also called the wisdom of emptiness. It means that individual existence is not possible since everything is interconnected (Harvey, 1990). The importance of enlightenment to Buddhism portrays the role of the Bodhi Tree in the attainment of this process. The Ka’ba and the Bodhi Tree have mystical origins that the Wailing Wall does not possess. The Ka’ba contains the sacred black stone that Abraham and Ishmael placed there (Morgan, 2010). Pre-Islamic worship believes that the stones of the Ka’ba came from heaven (Morgan, 2010). The Bodhi Tree has miraculous qualities. It is believed to be cut before and to have grown again miraculously the next night (Harvey, 1990). The Wailing Wall does not have any mythical source because it is a man-made creation. Its importance lies in its historical and social functions. These sacred places are centers of prayer or spiritual meditation, although they also serve social purposes. The Wailing Wall enhances the attachment of the people to their Jewish history and identity. It signifies their â€Å"displaced sense of persecution and religious compensation† (Heyd, 1999, p.22). The Western Wall acts as a place of prayer and community activities. The Jews have commonly inserted prayers into the wall cracks because of the belief that they will come true. The custom of inserting written prayers into the wall is so extensive that some American-Jewish newspapers take advertisements of services of putting in s uch prayers for sick Jews. Moreover, Jewish families often gather near the wall to celebrate social events, such as their children’s bar mitzvah, which is a party for boys who turned thirteen. The Ka’ba and the Bodhi Tree are distinct places of worship. Muslims and Buddhists go to these places as part of their pilgrimage. People go there to pray, to assert their faith, and to strengthen their religious communities. Like the Wailing Wall, these sacred sites reinforce the connection between believers and their relationship to their faith. Similar rituals are conducted around the Ka’

Belle Gunness-A Female Serial Killer Research Paper

Belle Gunness-A Female Serial Killer - Research Paper Example Little is known of the early life of Gunness, and reports that do exist are conflicted. Some report that Belle Gunness was born Bella Poulsdatter in Trondhjeim, Norway (Geringer). Other reports have Belle Gunness born as Brynhild Poulsdatter Storset in Selbu, Norway (Gibson 36). Most biographers, according to author Dirk Cameron Gibson, agree that her date of birth was November 11, 1859, in or around Lake Selbu, Norway, as well as the fact that she was raised without much money (36). It is also agreed that Belle, then Bella, emigrated from Norway to the United States between 1881 and 1884 by courtesy of her elder sister, who sent her money for passage as well as offered her houseroom upon her arrival in Illinois (36). It does appear that the first few years in America were happy ones. She Americanized her name to Belle and married her first husband, Mads Sorenson, along with bearing him four children, with only two living past infancy (Jones 157). The couple owned a candy store, but the popular saying goes that â€Å"it only turned a profit after it burned to the ground† (Jones 158). In addition, two of the houses the couple owned also burned (Geringer). All carried insurance policies, which the couple collected, as the insurance companies were never able to find exactly what started the fires (Jones 158). They were also unable to prove that the fires had been started intentionally (Jones 158). Gunness once again had reason to collect insurance in 1900. Mads Sorenson suddenly died on July 30, 1900 in a â€Å"convulsive agony† (Schechter 177). When he was examined by the coroner, he was found to have an enlarged heart, which was noted as his cause of death (Jones 158). Before the cash was finished being counted into her hands, Belle took the insurance money of $8,500 and moved to La Porte, Indiana, with her three children (Geringer). Once in La Porte, it was not long before love, or at least another husband, found

Child Protection Enquiry UK | Policy and History

Child Protection Enquiry UK | Policy and History The purpose of the essay is to discuss and explain the child protection enquiry, its process, purpose legislation and critical issues. An accompanying leaflet has been designed to highlight the Child Protection enquiry taking into account age, diversity, oppression and anti-discriminatory practices incorporated. The age group focused on the leaflet is Young Persons aged 11-19. In addition, a commentary to justify the rationale for the design, content and structure will be carried out. Finally, an evaluation of how the issues discussed in the leaflet and essay have contributed to learning and relevance to future practice. The focus of the new millennium according to DfES (2005) is safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the child which by definition is the process of protecting children from abuse or neglect, preventing impairment of their health and development, and ensuring they are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care which is undertaken so as to enable children to have optimum life chances and enter adulthood successfully (DfES 2005a, p11). Wilson and James (2007) citing Working together to safeguard children (HM Government 2005a p 19 Para. 1.19) define child protection as the activity which is undertaken to protect specific children who are suffering or at risk of suffering significant harm. In her view Gil (1970) considers that Child abuse consists of anything which individuals, institutions or processes do or fail to do which directly harms children or damages their prospects of safe, healthy development into adulthood. This definition was adapted by the National Commission of Inquiry into the Prevention of Child Abuse. Bentovim (1998) sustain that there is strong association between significant harm and insecure attachments, citing Carlson et al (1989) who found out that more than 80% of significantly harmed infants had disorganised attachments compared to less than 20% in a non maltreated comparison group. Jones et al 1999 further supports that all disturbances in case of child maltreatment are linked to the relationship with parents own experiences. Attachment difficulties are associated with parental childhood experiences of Abuse and Deprivation, Parental Personality Difficulties as well as Functional Illnesses such as Depression. It is important to identify parent child attachment difficulties to make sound intervention where there is evidence in literature that persisting Parent/ Child attachment combined with evidence of psychological maltreatment on follow up is a consistent finding. Additionally Wilczynski (1997) cited in Wilson and James (2007) ascertain that the most consequence of child maltreatment is death which indicates the necessity for early intervention to prevent the deaths of young children. It was estimated in 2003 that in the UK that the occurance of maltreatment leading to death is nine per 1 million children and as high as 24 per 1 million in USA. UNICEF (2003). The main perpetrators in most cases it was revealed were biological parents and the most affected age group was children under five years particularly babies under one year, (Brown and Lynch (1995), UNICEF (2003). This suggested that there is need to predict , prevent and protect children from birth, Axford and Bullock (2005) and the Assessment of children and families (DOH et al 2000, Brown et al 2006). As a necessity to prevent deaths and severe consequences intervention should take into account the family structure and normally comes in after a fatal consequence or maltreatment has alr eady occurred. Protective factors need to be put in place as a deterent to raising family standards, resilience to social and environmental stress Brown and Herbert (1997). Essentially it is through assessment that the needs of such children are identified that the needs of such children are identified as the starting point of intervention. Assessment as defined by Wilson and James (2007) is identifying the needs of children at risk of encountering significant harm so as to put in place safeguarding measures that will promote their welfare and wellbeing. Reder et al (1993), Munro (1999) and Buckley (2003) cited in Howarth (2005b) observed that in cases of maltreatment effective assessment is essential as the basis to inform meaningful planning/ intervention which will promote better outcomes for children and families. This depends on professional knowledge, skills and ability to engage in multi-disciplinary team work, the child and the family to identify family needs. Additionally practitioners need to be aware of challenges and factors that can distort assessment such as perception of abuse, their values and beliefs and the application of theory to pra ctice. Parton (1991) cited in Scourfield (2003) argue that one of the most contested social issue is child protection. The main reason being that the state is seen to intervene with families so as to protect vulnerable children, at the same time giving respect to the family unit structure. This has raised public scrutiny with concerns that the state has not intervened enough to protect children or social workers have been accused to negligent and not having identified significant harm. On the other hand they are accused to have intervened too much and unnecessarily impacting on families. Typical examples highlighting the controversy are (the inquiries into the deaths of Jasmine Beckford, Kimberly carlile, Ricky Nearve, Victoria Climbe and baby P. On the other hand too much intervention was cited in child abuse investigations in Cleveland 1987, Pooch dale and Orkney) just to name a few Scourfield (2003). These contradictions and dilemmas are believed to originate from the increasing recognition that child abuse is socially constructed. This is dependent on different commentators perspectives of abuse and harm. Obviously this perspective will raise the argument whether the intervention to be carried is supportive or authoritative and reactive. Munro (2002) believes abuse is ways of treating a child in a harmful and morally wrong manner that impacts on their socio-psycho wellbeing. In trying to define abuse variations from different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds/values is to be considered. However article 19 of the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) agreed on an International formulation to condemn child abuse. This defined abuse as all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation including sexual abuse. Furthermore it is important to acknowledge the British national commissi on of inquiry into the prevention of child abuse which broadened its scope outside the family. They hold that child abuse consists of anything which individuals, institutions, or processes to or fail to do which directly or indirectly harms children or damages their prospects of safe and healthy development into adulthood National Commission, (1996:2). All the above definitions mention harm as a result of actions, omissions or exploitation. As mentioned earlier individual societies in conjunction with their legal systems supply more detailed definitions and guidelines. The UK society through the department of health and social security 1988 categorised the following specifications as guidelines and standards. These are physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse and neglect. Explain these or not see word count? Munro (2002). The Children Act (1989) was set up as a measure to encourage partnership working between families and the state. It also encouraged the provision of family support to reduce the risk of severe consequences resulting in coercive state intervention. Prevention was expanded from simply to prevent children coming into care but to focus on providing services that helped and promoted families to up bring their children within their families Munro (2007). According to the Act family preservation is paramount and fundamental as well as partnership working with parents. Nevertheless it is not always the case that some parents who are neglectful and abusive sometimes see or have no capacity to constructively and systematically engage with social service intervention which try to help them. Some it is suggested become hostile, aggressive and abusive clearly not entertaining any advise or any interference with their family life. With such a contest going on the child will continue to be affected and further significant harm may occur during this contest. As said earlier social workers need to be aware of such parents and situations and act accordingly in this case in the best interest of the child who will be the focal point Bell and Wilson (2003). In the early 1990s a number of cases involving organised and institutional abuse were revealed which were outside the family context. The most prominent one being the Orkney incident in which children were taken into care following allegations of organised sexual abuse. The court hearing dismissed the case after five weeks leading the children to be returned home. Media coverage concluded injustice on caring parents fighting injustice inflicted by intolerant inconsistent social workers. This enquiry led to the selling up of regulations and procedures for dealing with organised abuse Bell (1999). Messages from research (1995) published and summarised the functioning of the child welfare system. It revealed cumulative effect of adverse publicity and policy changes that pinpointed professionals especially social workers as prioritising abuse concerns over other types of referrals. There was a division between child protection and child abuse and revealed an emphasis on tackling immediat e risks to the child and ignoring the wider social and psychological needs. There was a call to refocus of child protection in a holistic child in need context not just protection from abuse. Messages from Research (1995). (Bell 1999, Thoburn, Lewis and Shemmings 1995) revealed that the emotional impact of investigation on families whether guilty or innocent is traumatic and intrusive. Professionals need to be aware of this impact on families and seek to minimise it. The death of Victoria Climbe was a shocking event that revealed abuse and inconsistencies within professionals who had seen her. A public inquiry led by Lord Lamming (2003) also revealed that the voice of the child was ignored despite so many professionals being involved. Laming Report (2003). Gough (1997) assets that research revealed that not too often children are ignored as a active participants either as a source of knowledge/ information about their family situation/ circumstances or a reliable source of opinion on what needs to be done. Laming Report (2003). Contrary to this shortcoming one of the Childrens Act 1989 is to respect the childrens views and wishes about key decisions affecting their lives. The Act guarantees that childrens wishes and feelings must be taken into account in any matter that affects or involve them be it in court hearings, reviews and conferences. This also applies to Looked after children by local authorities, they have greater rights and voice on th e quality and care they receive. Coby (2006) The death of Victoria Climbe prompted the safeguarding agenda and policy Every Child Matters: Change for the Children Treasury (2003). The agenda proposed a radical transformation of both the organisation and culture of practice from a reactive service for a few to a more pro-active approach where all childrens needs are identified addressed at grass roots level before escalating to major serious problems. Innovative ideas such as the integrated childrens services would be essential tools. The every child matters agenda highlighted 5 outcomes for children i.e. are healthy, staying safe, enjoy contribution, and achieve economic wellbeing. Every Child Matters (2003). Working together to safeguard children DFES (2006b) highlighted the new arrangements to be implemented by different agencies to promote inter-agency co-operation to safeguarding and respond to the concerns that a child might be at risk of significant harm. The child protection policy and practice begins when a concern has been raised that a child may be at risk of abuse through neglect, physical, emotional, sexual harm. A number of sources could raise such a concern ranging from NSPCC, police, social services, a parent, neighbours, health worker, or nurse or teacher from school/nursery. It might be the case that some concerns are made anonymously or malicious. At times some anonymous concerns turn out to be true and this call that they are treated seriously. As soon as any concern is raised Social services will act as soon as possible Buckley (2003). The first response at the early stage is to make enquiries about the family concerned with other agencies linked to it such as schools, hospitals, GP, nursery or health services by carrying out an initial assessment following LSCB procedures. Initial assessment as defined by the Framework for the Assessment of Children in need and their families (DH 2000) is a brief assessment of each chil d referred to social services with a request for services to be provided. If the core assessment concludes that a child is in need of further support they will be classified as a child in need as defined by Section 17 of the Childrens Act 1989. The section mentions that it is the duty of the local authority to provide services to safeguard and promote the childs welfare and needs. If no harm is suffered the case is closed. If need be that the child needs to be seen by a S/W or police this is usually done within 24 hours after the allegation has been reported. When these initial enquiries are complete a decision is made as to whether there is need to pursue the matter or no further action required it is the duty of social workers to inform parents of any developments as soon as possible. Information such as the source of the allegation will be given to parents as long as it does not put the investigation into jeopardy or put anyone at risk. If for instance the allegation came from an institutional source like nursery, hospital or school it will be revealed . Members of the public names or identities are not revealed. During questioning or inquiries if it becomes necessary to ask a child/ the victim parents may be allowed to be present or may not be allowed if they are the perpetrators mainly or for any other reason. Depending on circumstances, Social Worker will work with both parents and child but in the best interest of the child. This is the time when parents can explain their views, concerns and what actions to be taken to address the concerns. Parents are also interviewed with their language if they dont speak English an interpreter will be available by social worker. If the need be the child may be seen by a doctor or paediatrician to ascertain what happened, treat the injuries or to seek clarity on injuries. Parents need to give permission for this if they refuse a court order will be sought for permission to have a medical examination. If a parent does not agree with proceedings they may seek legal advice. If a child is old enough to understand they may agree to be examined themselves if it is proved that they are old enough to, make such a judgement. All this is dependent on how well a child understands what is happening Merrick (1996). The medical examination is dependent on the nature of alleged abuse. It is important for the doctor to have a full understanding of the childs health and development. The examination forms part of the enquiry process as it is a way of gathering evidence and preserve any evidence to understand the abuse. The examination will reassure the parent and child that they will recover. The child may have preferences of who conducts the exam and who should be present. Social worker will also accompany or be present. If the results of the examination convince social workers that injuries were accidental not abuse no further action is taken. If the results conclude that there is likely to be significant harm or abuse further enquiries will be carried out. This may also involve enquiries regarding other family members so as to ensure that no harm has happened to them. A video recording interview may follow conducted by Social Worker and police if maybe they want to sue. This will also help if pol ice want to pursue criminal proceedings. This is done by trained officers who specialise in these procedures. It may be the case that the police need to remove the child from parents care to safeguard their protection and welfare. All necessary arrangements will be made in line with the intention of keeping the child within their family. If necessary Social Services may call a child protection conference if there is evidence of significant harm. Parents are invited and all the professionals involved with the child as well. These include social workers, police officers, doctors and other people interested in the welfare of the child. If the child is classified as having suffered or at risk of significant harm a strategy discussion meeting is pursued. A meeting consisting of all professionals from relevant agencies will meet to decide whether to proceed with a section 47 inquiry under the Children Act 1989. Under section 47 the Local Authority will investigate the case of a child in their area. Serious case review is conducted by the Local Safeguarding Children Board when a child dies or seriously injured, abused or neglected. This is an inter agency forum set up by Local Authorities to define and agree how best professional groups co-operate to safeguard children and also to ensure good outcomes for children are in place and achieved . Working Together to Safeguard Children Guidance (2010) Buckley (2003) identifies Child protection conference as a meeting arranged by social services if people are worried about a childs Safety. Child Protection Conference is carried out to decide whether a child is still at risk of continuous significant harm. The purpose of child protection conference is to bring under one roof all concerned and interested parties who are key to the welfare /wellbeing of the child. These include care professionals, medical professionals, lawyers, police, teachers and nursery practitioners. An independent child protection advisor chairs the conference and will meet the parents before the conference to explain all procedures and objectives of the meeting. Previously it was observed before the conference was introduced that the Child Protection system was regarded as inefficient and lacking since all stakeholders were not united and did not communicate effectively amongst themselves exposing a child to further harm and creating opportunity for further har m by not addressing potential risks or communicating concerns. All professionals who attend the conference are required to evaluate the welfare of the child, determine if there is potential danger and decide whether to put the child on the protection register. Care professionals will also decide course of action, such as upholding legal proceedings or criminal investigation if a decision to put the child on the protection register. A child protection plan is designed to control future proceedings regarding safety/welfare of child. The plan will highlight roles within the inter agency and enhance productive communication between individual agencies. After three months a further meeting is held to review and monitor progress. Every six months review child protection conferences are carried out. If any concerns or any of the elements in the plan are not working well they can be altered. There will also be discussion on every conference whether your child needs to remain on the Child Pr otection register. Access to file, confidentiality and complaints procedures will be adhered to. A number of legislation is relevant to the Child Protection agenda. The Childrens Act 1989 believes Children are generally best looked after within the family, with both parents playing a full and without resorting to legal proceedings. The welfare of the child is significant and their wishes should be taken into account seriously. The act seeks where possible to protect children within their families. A number of provisions were designed to improve the family and home environment to protect children. Inter communication between multi disciplinary agencies was encouraged to indentify/ address risks to a child/children so as to safeguard and protect children. Sections 17. 27 and 47 (cite) the Childrens Act 2004 highlights the need for increased accountability, integrated planning, multi- disciplinary planning and delivery of services and above all providing for children with special needs. The Human Rights Act 1998 embraces the European Convention on human Rights into UK law. Although it does not specifically mention children because they are treated as persons in the eyes of the law just as adults. The adoption and Childrens Act 2002 amends the Childrens Act 1989 by recognising the definition of harm to include witnessing domestic violence. Following Victoria Climbes death at the age of eight Lord Laming was asked to conduct an inquiry to establish whether a new legislation was needed or any other recommendations to improve the Child Protection in England. As a response keeping child safe report (Dfes 2003) and the Every Child Matters Green Paper DEFS (2003) which later became Childrens Act (2004). The Childrens Act (2004) does not add/ subtract anything from Childerens Act 1989 instead it sets out an approach to integrate services to children so that every child matters meets the five outcomes: being safe, healthy, achieve, enjoy, make a positive contribution and achieve economic wellbeing. The Childrens Act further places a duty to Local Authorities to appoint childrens Commissioner for England who is accountable for the delivery of service. Local authorities and their partners (police, health services and the youth justice system) have a duty to co-operate in promoting the wellbeing of children and young people and to make necessary arrangements to promote childrens welfare and wellbeing. As required in the lay out working together to safeguard children statutory guidance, non statutory ( area in protecting committees are replaced by the new local safeguarding children bears. They are trusted with further functions of reviewing and investigating (section 14) which they use to review all child deaths in their area. It also revises legislation regarding physical punishment by making it an offence to hit a child to an extent of causing mental harm on the skin (section 58) which repeats the defence provided to parents on reasonable chastisement of the children and Young P ersons Act 1993. The 2006 Children and Adoption Act enforces contact / contact orders when separated parents are in dispute giving more flexible powers to facilitate contact. As recommended in the Care Matters White Paper (Dfes 2007) the children and Young Persons Act is expected to give and provide high quality care and services for children in care and places a duty on registrars to notify local safeguarding board on all deaths Daniel and Ivatts (1998). The Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 requires UK Border Agency to recognise and promote safedguarding childrens welfare section 55 in line with other public organisations that have contact with children. The apprenticeships,skills, children and Leaarning Act 2009 requires two local lay community members sitting on each local safeguarding children board. Some of the provisions in the Act have been targeted for repealing by the coalition government including the duty on schools to promote the wellbeing of children and the requirement to set up childrens trust and draw up children and Young Peoples plans (Dfe 2010) There is also legislation that has been set up to protect children by monitoring adults who pose a risk,creating offences which they can be charged and stopping them from working with children. These are the sex offenders Act 1997, Sexual Offences Act 2003, Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003, Domestic Violence , Crime and Victims Act 2004 guidance on offences against children,the serious organisational crime and police Act 2005, the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 after the death of Holly and Jessica. The forced marriages Act Civil Protection 2007 and the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. Out of all the legislation it is important to mention that they do not cover the minimum age at which a child may be left alone and how old a baby sitter should be. Having explored the child protection system and legislation it is important to address one of the critical debates in the topic which is: Does child protection work in all communities especially the ethnic minority and disabled groups? Most recent research carried out has revealed so far some of the issues which are far reaching as shortcomings. It has been suggested that new research shold explore the family structures and values on how different ethnic minority groups slip into situations requiring child protection. Highly focused studies are neede to focus and understand how some practices and beliefs in specific minority groups such as genital mutilation or the racial abuses of mixed heritage children brought up in white families. Qualitative studies into attitudes towards sexuality in different cultural and faith groups. Maybe the time limits regulating initial assessment s into culturally sensitive work re impacting on complex work to be properly carried out (such as refugee fa milies) The courts , conbferences and social work practice must be aware and pay attention to the needs of ethnic minoritoies . If these are addressed then the child protection system will be ethnically tolerant and culturally competent in the best of the chid and as hood practice. Thoburn et al (2006). Disabled children are more still likely to be abused and neglected because they rely on institutions which have a history of failing over the past decades. The institutions either lack the resources, capacity and transparency in addressing abuse/neglect and also inefficient procedures to guarantee disclosure to assist disabled children to overcome the communication barrier especially on abuse. Worse still there is more vulnerability to children whose parents are disabled. There is more likelihood of them being taken into care on the grounds of neglect than those children whose parents are not disabled. Organisations and local authorities need more structures in place and transparency to help vulnerable children and families to be able to communicate and express their worries, fears and anxieties Corby (2006). LEAFLET COMMENTARY 500 WORDS NEGLECT AND EMOTIONAL ABUSE. WHY THIS AREA? It has been a neglected area since the death of Maria Colwell Professionals focused on physical and sexual abuse. This meant the neglect and emotionally abused children and their families were not adequately represented thus getting limited resources and being filtered out of the Child protection system. When the Childrens Act 1989 was introduced it tried to address these issues and further went on to introduce registrations in the neglect/ emotional abuse category. This commitment is of great significance to practitioners whose objective is to tackle any form of child maltreatment as resources became available. Development of Identity as a Blogger | Proposal Development of Identity as a Blogger | Proposal Piyas Roy FORMATION AND TRANSFORMATION OF BLOGGER AS AN IDENTITY IN BANGLADESH INTRODUCTION General Overview As first evolved, the idea of being a blogger, always been counted as someone being technologically advanced, as long as a socially aware person with a good knowledge on contemporary reality with a good sense of expression through different forms of text. The identity of a blogger in the early days was so influential that, creative thinkers having least knowledge on blogging got huge interest over it and started to introduce themselves as a blogger, instead of just a creative fellow or a writer or anything else. But a single incident took place in the year of 2013 has drastically changed the scenario. Peoples of Bangladesh, where the country’s population is Muslim majority, started treating the bloggers in a generalized way as Islam hater atheists in general. Not only the disparity in ideology, but the situation turned so awful that holding the religious agenda, incidences like assassination of bloggers started taking place in the history of Bangladesh. In this study, I will t ry to find the formation and reformation of blogger, as an identity in Bangladesh thorough its impact on socio-religious ideology and how the ideology of freethinker bloggers get perceived by the members of different stakeholders. Background of the Study Being introduced in the year or 1996, the initial use of VSAT and dial-up based internet brought first change in Bangladeshi computing with the world wide web while the cyber space gathering was mostly based on yahoo groups (Sabir, 2015). On the other hand Justin Hall’s created the first ever blog in the internet history opened a new dimension which has been categorized and titled by Weblog by online diarist Jorn Barger in December 1997. As the technology got improved Blogger introduced the first ever free blogging platform in August 1999 which was a revolution for the blogger community, though that blogging was in an individualistic manner for each blogger to writing blog post separately onto their own platform (Thompson, 2006). For Bangladeshi bloggers the first revolutionary attempt was somewhereinblog.net which started the community Bengali blogging platform from 15 December of 2005. Bloggers of which platform later on diversified in some other platforms like amarblog.com, sachalayatan.com, mukto-mona.com and so on, turning blogging as a trend for the people of new generation. The trend of blogging turned so popular that some mainstream newspapers online version and online newspapers like the Daily Prothom Alo, introduced blogging facility as a scope of citizen journalists for inviting bloggers to become voice for the voiceless citizens. The first generation bloggers have not bounded within the lines of blogs only, but also widened their blogging in social network platforms also, mostly in Facebook. In February 6 2013, The International Crimes Tribunal-2 sentenced Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdul Quader Mollah to life in prison for his against humanity role during the liberation war of Bangladesh. To raise voice against that unfair verdict Bloggers and Activist Network initiated the protest by organizing a human chain in front of the National Museum, which ignited the huge nationalist movement of Shahbagh, demanding the death penalty of war criminals or Liberation war of 1971. When the rebellion movement was at its pick, a blogger and one of the initiator of Shahbagh movement Ahmed Rajib Haidar, was found dead by stabbing on February 15 near his house. From investigation, it was found that Rajib was threatened by some Islamic Fundamentalists for his involvement with Shahbagh movement and his online activities in against of Islamic sentiment. That particular assassination has started the series of killing in Bangladesh, targeting the bloggers and online activists. The next victim was another blogger Mamun Hossain, who has been hacked to death in Dhaka with the same acquisition of spreading hate speeches in against of Islamic religious sentiment. Another private university student and online activist Ashraful Islam also found dead in his flat in Savar, having a deep cut injury in throat. Islamic fundamentalists got accused for this case also. Some of those attacks got failed, such as in case of blogger Asif Mohiuddin, later who has to leave country and started living in United Kingdom, as provided Asylum by the government for his life threat in Bangladesh. In March 2013, in a meeting with Prime Minister’s Office Allama Muhammad Mahbub Alam, Editor of Dainik Al Ihsan accompanied with a group of Islamic fundamentalists suggested repentance (‘tauba’) for the bloggers who are accused of making offensive statements against Islam and its Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) enclosing a list of 84 bloggers acting in that objectionable norms and a request to the government to shut down all those blog sites including somewhereinblog.net, amarblog.com, mukto-mona.com, sachalayaton.com and some others which are severely used by claimed atheists for spreading anti Islamic ideology, according to their claim. It was also found that the series or killing was miraculously following that list of 84 provided by Islamist leaders. That series killing has got an update this year on February 26, by the brutal assassination of freethinker, founder for Muktomona blog and science writer Avijit Roy near Ekushey Book Fair. Avijit’s wife and another blogger Rafida Ahmed Bonya got severely wounded during that same attack after recovering has to leave country and fly back to USA alone, from where those two came to Bangladesh to visit this year’s book fair few days ago. Prime suspect Farabi Shafiur Rahman got arrested by law enforcement agencies few days later, as he was accused for threatening Avijit over social networks for last few years d ue to his pro thinking and writings. On the contrary a miscreant cyber group Ansarullah Bengali Team claims their success in murdering Blogger Avijit through their Twitter Account. Here is not the end. Till date the latest incident took place with blogger Washiqur Rahman, on March 30 in Dhaka for the same acquisition of anti Islamist writing and practicing atheism in public sphere. Analyzing the total series of killing, the acquisition comes in front referring the bloggers and online activists being atheist and anti Islamist. Basically that identity of bloggers was used as an effective weapon by the Jamaat-e-Islami to divert the attention of people from the revolutionary demand of punishing the war criminals of 1971 with maximum penalty. On the contrary either the bloggers are being threatened of killing, leaving the country for securing their life, or started leading a new life leaving the unforgotten blogger identity aside, for the sake of security. Operational Definition Blog The word blog is a shortened form of the word Weblog, which refers to some websites, easily counted as the digital version of diary, where the publisher write posts in regular basis with identical date stamps for the posts for each days separately. Though firstly blog writing was and individual task for each blogger, later on community blogging platforms like forums or community blog sites evolved with the feature of all the bloggers to gather in a single space so share their thoughts and to place opinion on each other’s ideas. Blogger In general, the people who writes blog regularly, is known as blogger. But in case of Bangladeshi people someone who has the authority to write something over cyberspace either in blogs or in social media platforms, be counted as blogger. Research Question Throughout this research, I will try to find out the possible answers for the following questions: How the identity of blogger in different blog sites is formulated in Bangladesh? How the ideological warfare between bloggers in real space has been provoked by that of the virtual space? How the ideology of blogger has been perceived by different stakeholders/groups? Research Objectives After the successful completion of this study we will be able To understand the building blocks of blogger identity in Bangladesh and its changing form as time passes due to several socio-religious factors. To know how stakeholders from different classes of the society perceive the concept of blogging and the ideology the bloggers promote. To understand the view of blogger community members regarding the current trend of blogging and online activity in Bangladesh. To have a clear scenario of blogging in Bangladesh and to assume its future trend. Rationale of the project For last two years the issue of bloggers has been emerged with high importance. In one side, group of miscreants backed by the fundamentalist are constantly threatening the bloggers to stop their activities against the religious believe. On the contrary, in spite of having the fear of death in front, the bloggers are continuing their activities using different blog sites even in Facebook as platform. To take a control over it, government introduced The Information and Communication Technology Act, 2006, having a very few impact on the bloggers activity. On the contrary the series death incidents of the bloggers turned the government’s role under fire on ensuring citizen’s life security. More specifically the after the brutal death of Avijit Roy, a Bangladeshi American blogger and write known for pioneering Bengali freethinkers has put Bangladeshi law and order system under question in the international periphery. As long as the bloggers, the involved Islamic fundamental forces can be perceived having related to the international Islamic terrorist movement, which can also be a threat to Bangladesh’s global image and its diplomatic relation with other countries. So undoubtedly the issue regarding bloggers is a highly emerged one among the contemporary Bangladeshi social issues. Significance of the Research Till date, some blogs post, articles have been worked on bloggers’ identity formation and reformation in Bangladesh, in a scattered manner in different platforms from online publications, social media to newspapers. But no academic research has been done yet on such important topic. I hope this research can focus on the subjected topic immensely to have a better idea about the bloggers identity issues along with the ideological warfare of virtual world, impacting on the rage of fundamentalist in against of blogger community as a whole. Scopes and Limitations General purpose To determine the way how different stakeholders perceive the identity of a blogger, how that identity can come across evolution influenced by social factors and finally how the identity of virtual space can impact in real world. Subject matter Blogger identity, ideological clash with fundamentalism and its acceptance and denial in different categories of stakeholders in the society. Limitation of study This research will focus on the identity formation of only the Bangladeshi bloggers. Bloggers from other countries will not be accountable in this research. Also in different social issues bloggers often got involved in creating public opinion and awareness, even getting opposing with the governmental or any other influential forces. But all the ideological conflict issue will not be covered in this research. Instead of only bloggers ideological clash with the fundamentalist Islamic force, their ideological warfare will be counted as the matter to discuss about throughout this research work. Population or universe Bloggers and online activists playing the role of acting force of fundamentalist movement, Stakeholders from different phase of society. Locale of the study Bloggers and associated different stakeholders originated in Bangladesh. Period of the study: From the historical point from where journey of community blogging started its journey to 2016. Bibliography Sabir, S. A. (2015, February 04). History Evolution of Bangladesh Internet. Retrieved April 19, 2015, from Bangladesh Network Operators Group: http://www.bdnog.org/v2/conference_paper/Bangaldesh-Internet.pdf Thompson, C. (2006, February 20). The Early Years: A Timeline of How Blogging All Began. Retrieved April 19, 2015, from NYMag: http://nymag.com/news/media/15971/

Purpose And History Of SWAT Essay -- SWAT team S.W.A.T.

The History and Purpose of S.W.A.T. SWAT. The acronym invokes so many thoughts - danger, fighting crime, shootings, heavily artillery, TV, movies and more. The reality of SWAT is that it is all of that and more. When the acronym is fully expanded it translates to "special weapons and tactics" or as it was originally developed, "special weapons assault team". SWAT is a specialized, elite police unit trained to execute dangerous and specific operations that basic and even intermediate police training is not intended to handle. Commonly, many assume from knowledge gained from TV and movies about SWAT. These assumptions are often skewed because what happens on real missions is not always as entertaining as what is seen on the silver screen. The history, purpose, requirements, training, equipment, and tactics used during missions are all separate and important aspects in understanding SWAT. To completely understand why SWAT teams were developed, one must look at this history of swat, where it began, why it began, and how it progressed to be where modern teams are today. The first SWAT squad was established in Delano, California, where the local department was having difficulties containing the uprisings of local farm workers. This squad was established by training the entire department in crowd control along with sniper and anti-sniper tactics. At the same time, Los Angeles police units were experiencing difficulties in handling situations in which riots and snipers were terrorizing basic police units. In response to these difficulties, LAPD officer John Nelson presented the concept of a squad which was specially trained to handle such situations to Inspector Darryl F. Gates. Gates approved the concept of a "highly disciplined" ... ....). About the SORT Unit. Delaware State Police Special Operations Response Team. Retrieved April 1, 2006. From http://www.state.de.us/dsp/sort.htm. 2. (n.d.). SWAT/Tactical Teams. SWAT/Tactical Teams. Retrieved March 29, 2006. http://www.fema.gov/preparedness/resources/law_enforcement/swat_tactical_teams.htm 3. (n.d.). History of S.W.A.T. Official Website of the Los Angeles Police Department. Retrieved April 3, 2006. http://www.lapdonline.org/metropolitan_division/content_basic_view/849 4. (n.d.). S.W.A.T. Team Ââ€" Overview and History. The Albeline Police Department. Retrieved April 4, 2006. http://www.abilenepolice.com/swat/history.html 5. (n.d.). SWAT. Wickpedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved April 5, 2006. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWAT 6. (n.d.). SWAT Team. Bay County's Sheriff's Department. Retrieved April 2, 2006. http://www.bayso.org/swat.htm.

Simulation of Personal Emotion Experience

Reeves & NAS (1996) showed that humans like to communicate with computers as they do with people. Software applications which include models of emotional processes are needed to model the social and emotional aspects of human-machine interaction. Extending classic AAA and logic by adding simulated emotions can be useful to improve the user's experience in many ways. This chapter will provide a brief overview of existing solutions and models used for artificial emotions (AWE) and present a novel model of emotion simulation (SIMPLEX).Empirical data will be reported on its performance, especially the occurrence of emotions, in a game environment. This chapter concludes with a comment on the usefulness of separating AAA and AWE engendering recent advances in cognitive neuroscience. 2. Models for artificial emotions 2. 1 Historical roots The ass saw what might have been the first debate about emotions and artificial intelligence. The main and – as we know now – most importan t point was that purely cognitive systems lacked emotions, which strongly influence human thought processes.. Two of the models that emerged at that time will be described here.Simony's interrupt system Herbert Simon was the first to propose that emotions should be part of a model of cognitive processes (Simon, 1967). His intention was to provide a theoretical inundation for a system incorporating emotions and multiple goals. Within this system, important processes could be interrupted so that more attention went into satisfying important needs (e. G. Hunger, safety). Herbert Simon imagined two parallel systems, one designed to achieve goals (cognition, planning) and one observing the environment for events that require immediate attention (emotions).Indeed, the possibility of interrupting current cognitive processes is 2 Name of the book (Header position 1,5) vital for survival, as it makes it possible to react to threats, but also to pay more attention to one's surroundings when a threat is expected. Today's Fungus Eater Another step towards a theory for the computer modeling of emotions was made by the psychologist Mason Toad (Toad, 1982) between 1961 and 1980, with a model called the Fungus Eater. This model resulted in the design of an autonomous robot system and partial implementations.At first, Toad only wanted to create a scenario for a cognitive system that would require concentrating on multiple issues at the same time. In this scenario, the task was collecting as much ore as possible with the help of a mining robot. Operating his robot required energy that could only be gained by collecting a special fungus. Additionally, different Fungus Eaters were competing for the same resources, thus making the scenario more complicated. Toad came to the conclusion that in order to survive on their own, these Fungus Eaters would need to have emotions and to be partially controlled by them.However, Toad named them â€Å"urges† instead of emotions and on c loser examination, it is apparent that some of these are actual emotions like joy or anger, while others are needs, goals or motives (e. G. Hunger). 2. 2 Theoretical approach and recent models There are roughly three areas where emotion models are applied. Artificial emotions (AWE) can be used to improve problem-solving in complex environments, as in the early approaches mentioned above. Emotion models can also be used to test psychological emotion theories in experiments using controlled scenarios.Finally, emotions are essential to make computer characters more believable. Emotion models which synthesize and express emotions are necessary to make AAA characters more human- like. These models will be the focus of the next sections as they have inspired our own emotional model. The most influential theoretical approach, COCO, will be presented in detail, as it is the basis of many computational models of emotion. Then, three interesting recent models are briefly described.COCO â€⠀œ a theoretical approach to simulate emotions The COCO model by Retort, Color and Collins is an emotion theory based on appraisal which was explicitly developed to offer a foundation for artificial emotion systems (Retort, Color, & Collins, 1988). Its authors succeeded as it inspired many modern models and approaches to artificial emotions. The basis of the model is that emotions are reactions to the attributes of objects, to vents or to actions. Note that internal events (like bodily sensations or memories) which are a part of most modern emotion theories are neglected in the COCO approach.Objects, events and actions are evaluated in an appraisal process based on specific criteria, and result in multiple emotions of different intensities. Figure 1 gives an overview of the COCO approach. Appraising the aspects of objects requires the agent to have attitudes (tastes or preferences) in order to decide whether the object is appealing or not. This appraisal process results in either lo ve or hate. Chapter Title (Header position 1,5) 3 Fig. 1. The COCO model Events, or rather consequences of events, are appraised by analyzing their impact on the agent's goals. This determines the desirability of events.The degree of desirability depends on how much closer to or further away from achieving the goal the agent will be after the event. The emotions of Joy and distress are direct results of desirable and undesirable events, considering the consequences they have for the agent himself. Some emotions, like for example pity, are triggered when processing events that have consequences for other agents. An open issue is whether this appraisal should be based upon the agent's own goals or rather the other agent's goals. How much should an agent be empathic if another one looses something that is not important to the first agent?In an attempt to solve this issue, abstract goals were introduced (such as for example, not losing property). It eventually became clear that it is ve ry important to keep the goals general and abstract, to avoid having to define too many specific goals. The emotions triggered by reacting to other agents' good or bad fortune depend on how well-liked they are. Another agent's bad fortune can trigger pity or gloating, while happy events can result in either feeling of happiness or of resentment, depending on the relationship between the agents.Appraising an event also means evaluating its prospects – hoping or fearing that something will or will not occur. Prospect-based emotions include disappointment and relief. The intensity of these emotions is usually based on the intensity of the preceding hope or fear. The criterion used to appraise the actions of agents is their praiseworthiness, which is based on the agent's standards. Generally, praiseworthy actions cause pride and blameworthy actions cause shame, if the agent himself is the one acting.When the actions of other agents are 4 appraised, the emotions triggered are admi ration or reproach. Standards can be as complex as attitudes (aspects of objects) and goals (consequences of events), and are almost as subjective and individual. Again, the problem of listing them was solved by describing actions in an abstract way. An interesting phenomenon is the ability of feeling proud or ashamed of someone else's actions. Simply put, the closer an agent feels related to the acting agent(s), the more he will identify with him in appraising is actions.Examples of this phenomenon (called the strength of the cognitive unit) can range from parents being proud of their child to soccer fans being ashamed of their team's performance. One of the many practical implementations of COCO is the model by Stapler & PETA (1999). They constructed a virtual agent which emotion architecture links discrete emotions categories to 14 action response categories, comprising a large range of individual actions. The COCO emotion model is also partly congruent with Nice Fried's renewed theory of emotions (Afraid, 1986). For more details on emotion theory, see Trace & Kessler (2003).Artificial Emotion Engine The aim of the Emotion Engine (E) is to control the behavior of an artificial agent in complex scenarios. It is made of three layers- emotions, mood and personality (Wilson, 2000). If an emotion is triggered, the actions will be based on this emotion. When emotions are not triggered, the engine bases its actions on the current mood; when no mood is activated, then personality serves as a basis for behavior. The emotion engine is based on the FEE model, which is a three-dimensional space, describing personality traits in terms of Extroversion, Fear and Aggression.Within this space, an area around the point representing an artificial agent's personality is determined and all traits located inside this area are considered to be available to the specific character. For Wilson, the FEE is congruent with the three central systems of the human brain which according to Gray (Gray & McLaughlin, 1996) determine behavior: the Approach system, the Behavior Inhibition system and the Fight/Flight system. These three basic dimensions are intuitive, which makes programming easy. Different personalities trigger some moods more frequently than others: extroversion s linked to good moods, and fear to negative moods.Aggression affects the speed of mood changes. Reward and punishment signals work as the main inputs, and this is comparable with the desirability of events in COCO. Inputs are adjusted based on personality, but also on how often this input occurred before. An agent can get used to a certain input, and this lowers the impact it will eventually have (habituation). On the contrary, a rare or unprecedented input will have more effect (novelty). Needs are organized hierarchically. Physiological needs, such as hunger, thirst, and the need for warmth and energy are the most important.Each of these needs can become a priority, as when for example a very hungry agent will consider eating as his most important goal. Safety, affiliation and esteem needs are the remaining layers. While physiological needs are the most important, the order of the other layers can vary, depending on what is more important to the agent. Memory is very limited; an agent only remembers how much he likes the other agents. In the same way, in COCO, sympathy is used to cause different emotions for liked and disliked entities. Only the six basic emotions of fear, anger, Joy, sadness, disgust and surprise can be triggered.This might appear like a limited selection compared to the 24 emotions of COCO, but given the reactive nature of emotions in this model (working without inner events and 5 triggers) and since some emotion theorists consider the broad spectrum of emotions as mixtures of these basic emotions, this is quite a sensible choice. Personality is used to adjust the intensity or the frequency of the occurrence of emotions, so that a character with person ality that is â€Å"low in Fear† will simply not experience as much fear as others.FLAME The Fuzzy Logic Adaptive Model of Emotion (FLAME) is partially based on COCO, but hat differentiates FLAME from other models is the use of fuzzy logic. This results in a relatively simple appraisal process. FLAME can integrate multiple emotions at the same time (in a process called emotional filtering), as emotions at times inhibit one another. For example, imagine an agent feeling Joy and pride because he Just obtained a new position, but who at the same time feels anger, because a relative of the boss of the company was given a higher position than himself. At this point, his anger may prevent him from feeling joy any longer.When opposite emotions occur, FLAME lets the stronger emotion inhibit the weaker one(s), giving a slightly stronger weight to negative emotions. Another way to handle conflicting emotions is through mood, which is determined by comparing the intensities of positive and negative emotions over the last few steps. If the summed up intensities of positive emotions are higher than that of the negative emotions, then the mood will be positive. If a positive and a negative emotion of comparable intensities occur at the same time, the mood determines which of these emotions will inhibit the other one.As there is little research about the decay of emotions, FLAME uses a simple constant cay, though positive emotions decay faster than negative emotions. FLAME does not make it possible to implement an agent's personality; instead, differences in behavior are created through learning. For example, an agent may learn that reacting in an angry way will enable him to reach his goals, thus enticing him to be more choleric. FLAME implements multiple types of learning, such as classical conditioning (associating expectations with objects) which occurs in many situations, triggering fear or hope.Another type of learning is learning about consequences of actions o r events. This is simple whenever an action directly causes a result. For example, learning that eating will result in feeling less hungry is rather trivial. In the case of more complex causal relations over time, FLAME is using Q-learning, a form of reinforcement learning. Another form of learning, quite similar to model learning, is the ability to recognize patterns in the behavior of a user by observing sequences of actions. For this type of learning, FLAME simply counts the occurrences of sequences.The last type of learning in FLAME, but one of the most important, is learning about the value of actions. Remember that COCO relies on the praiseworthiness of actions, which is based on the agent's standards. In FLAME, these standards are not predefined knowledge, but they are learned from the interaction between users. Using learning instead of predefined knowledge seems like a very sensible way to avoid most of the troubling issues that come with using COCO. Additionally, learning allows agents to adjust, which makes them all the more believable.ALMA The intention in designing A Layered Model of Affect (ALMA) was to control agents in conversational scenarios. In interactive game or learning environments, the artificial harassers display facial expressions of emotions and moods through their postures to 6 appear more believable. Emotions, moods and personalities are implemented and interact with each other. Events and actions are described in terms of abstract tags which are then evaluated during the appraisal process and describe things like for example the expressed emotion or gesture accompanying an action or simply if something is a good or bad event.As ALMA is aimed at conversations, an action is often a statement. Hence, there are tags to describe the kind of statement, for example if it was an insult or a compliment. In addition, ALMA requires defining personality profiles for each agent. Essentially, these profiles already contain the desirability and praiseworthiness the agent assigns to certain tags. Since our own emotion model shares some features with ALMA (see below) a key difference should be pointed out. In SIMPLEX we considered it impractical to explicitly specify this information, as this would have limited the model to a small number of agents.So instead of using tags, our model requires to specify goals and their priorities for an agent, where generic goals can be used for all agents. Events still need to be scribed in a special way, but this is reduced too relatively objective list of which agents goals are affected and in which way. All other information like praiseworthiness is automatically derived from this and the agent's personality. Although this approach is providing less control over an agent's appraisal process, it is better suited for a generic system meant to be used with minimal extra effort. 3. SIMPLEX – Simulation of Personal Emotion Experience 3. Overview SIMPLEX is a context-independent module to create emotions as a result of primary application (environment) events. Goals, emotions, mood-states, personality, memory and relationships between agents have been modeled so they could interact as in real life. Figure 2 shows an overview of the model. SIMPLEX is based on the COCO model by Retort, Color and Collins (1988) in that it creates discrete emotions by appraising events based on the desirability of their consequences and the praiseworthiness of the actions of agents. The appraisal process was modified by including the personality of virtual agents.The personality component is based on the Five Factor Model (FM) introduced by psychologists McCrae & Costa (1987), which includes extroversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, neurotics and openness. The personality module influences the emotion module on multiple levels during appraisal processes and in the development of mood-states. Other important aspects of the model are mood-states and relationships. Mood- states are represented in a three-dimensional space which dimensions are pleasure, arousal and dominance (Bradley & Lang, 1994), and they are based on active or recently experienced emotions (implemented by pull-functions).In the absence of motions, a mood state will slowly gravitate back to a default mood-state based on the agent's personality. A mood-state also functions as a threshold to determine whether an emotion is strong enough to become active at a given time. Relationships are handled as if they were mood-states towards other agents (for instance a player in a game scenario): they are based on emotions caused by other agents and they can be considered as a simplified way to store memories of experiences with these agents.They are used as thresholds as well; for example, an agent will be more likely to become angry at another agent towards when their legislation is in the range of negative valence. 7 Fig. 2. The emotion module SIMPLEX Personality (long-term), mood-state (mid-term) an d emotions (short-term) thus represent three levels of the emotion module that interact with each other in order to create believable agents. Events from the scenario serve as the model's inputs. They are appraised according to the COCO algorithm (see figure 1).This appraisal is influenced by the agent's goals, his personality and his relationships with other agents. At the end of an appraisal one or several discrete emotions are generated. These emotions and the current mood-state are represented in the same three- dimensional PAD space: on the one hand, the emotion(s) serve(s) as an attractor for the recent mood-state position (pull function). On the other hand, the closer an emotion is located to the current mood-state, the more probable it will be that the emotion will be activated.The speed at which the mood-state changes, is influenced by the agent's neurotics (a personality variable). Additionally, emotions that are caused by other agents will influence another mood-state rep resentation (stored on another PAD space) representing the relationship with that agent. Thus, every agent has specific relationships with other agents, which influences his behavior towards others. Emotions, mood-states and relationships with other agents are the outputs of the model and can be used by the AAA application.Originally, the PAD space was designed to represent emotions in a dimensional rather than a discrete way (Russell, 1978). In our model, PAD is used as a common space where three different constructs (discrete COCO emotions, continuous mood- states and personality), are represented in order to be handled together by the SIMPLEX algorithm. An agent's current mood-state is thus the result of a mathematical function which takes into account the default mood (defined by personality), the pulling behavior of COCO emotion(s) triggered by appraisals, and weighed factors influencing movement speed (see equation 1).Mood-state = f(PADDED, Paternosters, Filter) 8 3. 2 Basic c omponents Mood-state represented in the PAD-Space (Pleasure-Arousal-Dominance) Beyond discrete emotions, which are typically short-term, mood-states are a powerful way to model emotional shifts and explain affective influences over longer periods of time. To implement mood-states in our model, we chose to use Russell three-dimensional space to describe emotions (Russell, 1978) and Meridian's concept of how emotions are linked to personality traits (Meridian, 1996).The dimension of Pleasure encompasses valence ranging from very positive to very negative. Arousal is an indicator of how intensely something is perceived, or of how much it affects the organism. Dominance is a measure of experienced control over the situation. For example, a different degree of dominance can make the difference between fear and anger. Both of these emotions are states of negative valence and sigh arousal, but not feeling in control is what differentiates fear from anger. When an agent is angry, it is beca use he believes he can have a potential influence.Although emotions are triggered by COCO appraisals and are therefore discrete, they are handled in a continuous three-dimensional space by SIMPLEX. The advantage of treating emotions in this way and not Just as a fixed set of possible emotions is that it makes it possible to represent emotions that do not even have a name. It also creates the possibility to combine emotions, mood-state and personality in one space. First, a ordinate in PAD space can obviously represent an agent's mood-state. But emotions and personalities can also be described in terms of Pleasure, Arousal and Dominance values.For example, the value of arousal can be not only the degree of arousal associated with a specific emotion, but also the restorability of a person. Meridian (1996) gives specific names to the resulting different octants in PAD-space and describes the diagonally opposite octants as Exuberant/Bored, Dependent/ Disdainful, Relaxed/Anxious, Docile/ Hostile. Thus mood-states are not points but octants of the Bedspread. However, positioning a personality (based on FM) within a PAD-space could have been a rather difficult task, since there is no mathematically- correct way to make the conversion.Luckily, this transformation can be based upon empirical data. Meridian provided such a conversion table from FM to PAD after correlation analyses of questionnaires measuring both constructs in healthy subjects (Meridian, 1996). Five Factor Model of Personality (FM) The implementation of personality is a key factor when creating believable agents that differ from each other. COCO already offers a few possibilities: different goals, tankards and attitudes automatically result in differences during the appraisal process.However, since personality goes beyond preferences, it was necessary to find a model of personality that made it possible to adjust the appraisal process, to shift the agent's perception and to influence mood-states. The mod el chosen for SIMPLEX was the Five Factor Model (McCrae & Costa, 1987). After years of research, an agreement emerged that five groups of traits are sufficient to describe a personality. Using self-report questionnaires with multiple items, a personality profile can be provided for each individual scoring high or low in each of he five factors (this approach is called â€Å"dimensional†).In the case of our model, the value for each factor can be typed in when defining the artificial agent. 9 Agreeableness refers to a tendency to cooperate and to compromise, in order to interact with others in an agreeable way. High agreeableness often means having a positive outlook on human nature, assuming people to be good rather than bad. Low agreeableness is essentially selfishness, putting your own needs above the needs of others and not caring about the consequences your actions might have for others. Conscientiousness is usually high in people who plan a lot, who think everything thro ugh, and who are very tidy or achievers.Extreme cases can appear to be compulsive or pedantic. The opposite personality trait includes sloppiness or ignoring one's duties. Extroversion can be a measure of how much people experience positive emotions. An enthusiastic and active person that enjoys company and attention is extroverted, while a quiet individual who needs to spend more time alone is introverted. Neurotics is partly an opposite of Extroversion in being a tendency to experience negative emotions. However, being neurotic also means being more sensitive in general, and reacting emotionally to unimportant events that wouldn't usually trigger a response.Neurotics can be prone to mood swings and tend to be more negative in their interpretation of situations. Low neurotics means high emotional stability and describes calm people who are not easily upset. Finally, those scoring high on Openness to Experience are creative and curious individuals, interested in art and more in touc h with their own emotions than others. Those scoring low on that dimension are conservative persons with few interests, hey prefer straight and simple things rather than fancy ones, and they do not care about art or science.It is suspected that Openness can be influenced by education. 3. 3 Technical implementation The appraisal process and the generation of emotions There are three categories of inputs to the appraisal process of the emotion model: consequences of events, actions of agents and objects (see the COCO model in figure 1). The following section will describe the respective mechanisms applied when mapping each type of input to emotions. Each event handled by a character is first adjusted according to the agent's rationality.First, the consequences are adjusted based on the agent's neurotics. As neurotic people tend to see things more negatively, consequences are rated worse than what they actually are. The factor by which neurotics can reduce the desirability of events is adjustable. Note that all personality traits are in the range [-1; 1], so that negative neurotics actually makes consequences more positive. In real life, positive people could think â€Å"it could have been worse†. The desirability of events is determined by (predefined) goals during the event appraisal.A goal consists of two aspects: relevance [O; 1] and state of realization [O; 1], which means to which percentage the goal is already achieved. Afterwards, the praiseworthiness of actions is determined. Basically, the more positive consequences an action has, the more praiseworthy it is considered to be. Sympathy plays a role in this process, as it is added to positive values and subtracted from negative ones. Consequences for self are considered to be more important than consequences for others, which are currently factored in at 50% of their value. 0 After the adjusted values for all consequences have been summed up, unconsciousness is used to obtain the final result, by b eing scaled and subtracted. Thus the more conscientious an agent is, the harder it will be to commit an action positive enough to be deemed praiseworthy. This applies to both actions of other agents and actions of the agent himself. Agreeableness works the opposite way, but only for the actions of others. This is based on the psychological notion that agreeable people tend to be more forgiving in order to get along with others.Apart from having a different weight, factoring in agreeableness has the same results as active conscientiousness. The remaining factors serving as parameters for the action (responsibility, unexpectedness, publicizes) are averaged and used to scale the result of the above calculations. Finally, as cost is attempted to be derived from consequences for self, it is subtracted, before the calculated praiseworthiness is averaged over the number of consequences or rather the number of affected agents. The resulting value of praiseworthiness is used as the intensity for admiration or reproach, depending on whether it is positive or negative.If the agent is appraising his own actions, the motions are pride or shame instead of admiration and reproach. Once the praiseworthiness has been calculated, a search is conducted through the list of prospects for all the ones that are active and that match the name of the event. For each, the prospect appraisal function is called, which determines the net desirability by multiplying it with the affected goal's relevance. This value will be compared to the expected desirability for this event. The simplest situation is when a positive consequence was expected but a negative one occurs.This would obviously cause disappointment. However, this is also the case if a very high desirability was hoped for and the actual consequences are less positive, but still not negative. Having a hope fulfilled results in satisfaction. If an event has exactly the expected consequences, it results in the full intensity for the emotion. The intensity of emotions is the product of the determined quality of the event and of the intensity of the prospects. For example, if there was very little hope, there cannot be strong satisfaction. Which emotion is created depends on the kind of prospect and on the sign of the quality value.Hope and positive quality result in satisfaction, hope and negative quality in disappointment, fear and positive quality in fears-confirmed and fear and negative quality in relief. After the prospect appraisal is done, short term or one-shot prospects (only valid for one round) are removed. Appraisal concerning Joy and distress is done for each consequence affecting the agent himself, while appraisal for pity/gloating and happy-for/resentment is done for the remaining consequences.

Ectothermic Animals

Ectothermic Animals An ectothermic animal, also commonly known  as a cold-blooded animal, is one who cannot regulate its own body temperature, so its body temperature fluctuates according to its surroundings. The term ectotherm comes from the Greek  ektos, meaning outside, and thermos, which means heat.   While common colloquially, the term cold-blooded is misleading because ectotherms blood isnt actually cold. Rather, ectotherms  rely on external or outside sources to regulate their body heat.  Examples of ectotherms include  reptiles,  amphibians,  crabs, and fish. Ectothermic Heating and Cooling Many ectotherms live in environments where very little regulation is needed, like the ocean, because the ambient temperature tends to stay the same. When necessary, crabs and other ocean-dwelling ectotherms will migrate toward preferred temperatures. Ectotherms who live mainly on land will use basking in the sun or cooling off in the shade to regulate their temperature. Some insects use the vibration of the muscles that control their wings to warm themselves without actually flapping their wings.   Due to ectotherms dependence on environmental conditions, many are sluggish during the night and early in the morning. Many  ectotherms need to heat up before they can become active.   Ectotherms in the Winter During the winter months or when food is scarce, many ectotherms enter torpor, a state where  their metabolism slows or  stops. Torpor is basically a short-term hibernation, which might last from a few hours to overnight. The  metabolic rate for torpid  animals can decrease up to 95 percent of its resting rate.   Ectotherms can also hibernate, which can occur for a season and for some species like the burrowing frog, for years. The metabolic rate for hibernating ectotherms falls to between one and two percent of the animals resting rate. Tropical lizards have not adapted to cold weather so they do not hibernate.

the punk experience essays

the punk experience essays In 1994, director Oliver Stone and storywriter Quentin Tarantino created the epitome of the American masterpiece: Natural Born Killers. This incredible movie was made to portray the 1990s as a whole, and to tell the story of a modern day Romeo and Juliet. Today, it is a classic and should be a standard for all movie making, as well as film critiquing. Natural Born Killers is about two people, Mickey (Woody Harrelson) and Mallory (Juliet Lewis) Knox, who meet, fall madly in love, and travel the west while on a three week killing spree until they are apprehended by the police and imprisoned. The movie continues one year later, when Wayne Gayle (a media icon who hosts a TV series documenting serial killers and mass murderers) conducts an interview with Mickey live on network-TV inside the prison. During this interview, Mickey makes a statement setting off the entire inmate population, which then causes a horrifically violent riot. When Mickey realizes he has an opportunity to reunite with his love, he seizes it, and the formerly separated couple resumes their previous habits inside the prison during the riot. This movie vividly portrays the 1990s with its incredibly chaotic setting. The brilliant makers of this film use techniques such as including two different perspectives (visually) in one scene. For example, in the beginning scene, Mickey and Mallory are in a redneck diner. While in the diner, Mallory is dancing by herself to the music on the jukebox, when two men come into the establishment, and each immediately begin to sexually refer to Mallory in a very derogatory manner. This heavily ticks Mallory, so she beats one of the men to a bloody pulp, and Mickey slashes up the other. When Mallory is sitting on top of the man jumping on his back and pounding his head on the floor, there are two perspectives. The first is that of the man, which shows Mallory completely st...

News Corporation Strategic Management Case Study

News Corporation Strategic Management - Case Study Example In the 1920s, News Corporation started out as an Australia-based chain of newspapers. Its growth has been driven mainly by an aggressive acquisition strategy, with large stakes in the film, television, publishing, and several other industries. Today, the company operates and owns, among others, Twentieth Century Fox, Star TV, British Sky Broadcasting, DirecTV, and several joint ventures worldwide. In 2004, it reincorporated in the US. Corporate strategy is used to set "the purpose of the organisation and the plans and actions to achieve that purpose" (qtd. in Lynch, 2006). It pertains to scope, which is always depicted along three dimensions: geography, product market, and value chain or vertical integration (Figure 1). For instance, which industries and markets are most suitable for the company Or, considering the various competing forces surrounding the firm, which direction would deliver the most value: diversification, vertical integration, mergers, or acquisitions Perhaps, it could be a combination of these approaches or a new business venture altogether. In the last century, industry has become increasingly internationalised, due to three main drivers of change: economic growth, fewer barriers to multinational expansion, and technological developments (Leontiades, 1987, 5). Once a company takes its operations beyond national borders, it grows not only in size but impact, making strategic decisions even more critical. Moreover, the meaning of strategy shifts as the corporate purpose is localised and translated at the business level. As the company operationalises its blueprint, it is faced with competitive pressures and so, to succeed, it must be able to match its strengths with the various opportunities available in the environment. At the same time, it must stay flexible and dynamic, since the market landscape is never static. In other words, business strategy deals with continuously building comparative advantage over its rivals (Grant, 2002, 23). The Rise of the Transnational Media Corporation Perhaps more than any other type of organisation, mass media companies have established worldwide operations of the widest scale, thus, giving rise to the "transnational media corporation" (TNMC). But as internationalisation spread, trends of privatisation and consolidation also arose - especially after the 1980s, when mergers, acquisitions, and strategic alliances were negotiated worldwide at an unprecedented pace - not just in mass media but also in finance, aviation, and other fronts. The massive realignment of industries intensified further when information and communication technologies (ICTs) were widely adopted by businesses and, later, entered the consumer mainstream. Besides News Corporation - one of the more iconic examples in the industry of an internationalised company - these TNMCs also include Time Warner, Walt Disney, Sony Inc., and Bertelsmann A.G. According to Gershon (1996, 6), these entities have engaged in the TNMC strategy for at least one of five reasons: proprietary assets and natural resources, foreign market penetration, production and distribution efficiencies, overcoming regulatory barriers to entry, and empire building. The Role of Leadership While Murdoch may have been motivated by a