Captain Corelli - 3725 Words

CAPTAIN CORELLI’S MANDOLIN TEACHERS’ NOTES This study guide is aimed primarily at students of English Literature, who are studying Louis de Bernià ¨res’s novel Captain Corelli’s Mandolin in the second year of Advanced GCSE studies but will be useful for any students wishing to look at the way in which a novel is adapted for the screen. The guide focuses on the following areas: From novel to screen: Narrative adaptation Characters Representation of nationalities Representation of war Music Language Humour FILM SYNOPSIS Captain Corelli’s Mandolin traces a love that begins uneasily between a conscripted officer of the occupying Italian army, Captain Antonio Corelli (Nicolas Cage), and Pelagia, a strong-willed, ambitious young†¦show more content†¦It is completely virgin, it produces overwhelming clarity of focus, it has heroic strength and brilliance. It exposes colours in their original prelapsarian state, as though straight from the imagination of God in His youngest days, when He still believed that all was good. The dark green of the pines is unfathomably and retreatingly deep, the ocean viewed from the top of a cliff is platonic in its presentation of azure and turquoise, emerald, viridian, and lapis lazuli. . . Once the eyes have adjusted to the extreme vestal chastity of this light, the light of any other place is miserable and dank by comparison... [pages 6/7] à ¤ à ¤ à ¤ What aspects of this description are highlighted in the opening scenes of the film? What filmic techniques are used to achieve this? Consider the type of camera shots we see, how the camera moves, what lighting has been used, what sounds we hear and the speed of the editing - how quickly does the film change from shot to shot? How does the film use landscape to reflect the development of the themes of love and war? How does the settings assist the reading of the story as a) a tale of war b) a tale of love c) a tale of a nation 4 CHARACTERS When adapting an epic novel such as Captain Corelli’s Mandolin for the screen it is important to focus on certain facets of the narrative and character in order to give the story coherence. As a filmmaker John Madden wanted to bring out the full dramatic potential of theShow MoreRelated Triumph of Good in Captain Corellis Mandolin Essay919 Words   |  4 PagesTriumph of Good in Captain Corellis Mandolin  Ã‚   Despite a backdrop of war, many characters in Captain Corellis Mandolin are essentially good. This goodness in many characters overcomes the difficulties within relationships and the difficulties posed by war. De Bernià ¨res shows the triumphant nature of this goodness through his characters as they interact and develop relationships with one another. The island of Cephallonia has been able to survive through a history full of invasions. ItsRead More Captain Corelli’s Mandolin Essay873 Words   |  4 Pages Captain Corelli’s Mandolin S U M M A R Y It is 1941, and a young Italian officer, Captain Antonio Corelli,arrives on the beautiful Greek island of Cephallonia as part of an occupying force. He is billeted in the house of the local doctor, Iannis and his daughter Pelagia. He quickly wins the heart of Pelagia through his humour and his sensitivity, not to mention his stunning ability on the mandolin. But Pelagia is engaged to Mandras, a local fisherman who is away fighting with the Greek armyRead MoreTechniques Louis de Bernià ¨res Uses to Portray the Effects of the War971 Words   |  4 Pageslanguages instead of translating names of places and people gave even more sense of reality and the reader felt more in touch with the characters and with the story being narrated. However, another technique Louis de Bernià ¨res used when writing Captain Corelli ´s Mandolin that really struck me, was the diary of a homosexual, Carlo Guercio. This can be described as the human part of the war. It just talks about the feelings and experiences of a soldier. What Carlo talks about is touching, moreoverRead MoreThe Two Sides to Every Greek: Hellene vs. Romoi1844 Words   |  8 Pageslive with the Romoi (290). The word Romoi actually means Roman. Considering the conflicts between ancient Romans and Greeks, it seems fitting that the Greeks would regard the negative of the two Greek personalities as Romoi. While speaking with Corelli, Dr. Iannis states, The Romoi are people very like your Fascists...they are improvisers, they seek power and money, they arent rational because they act on intuition and instinct, so they make a mess of everything (290). The Romoi only obey the

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Table of Contents: Introduction to SME Recruitment and the process involved Challenges faced by SME’s Overseas challenges Suggestions to overcome challenges What are SMEs? Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are businesses that employ up to 250 people. No one is precisely sure how many of them there are because there are lots of companies that have limited liability status but are not trading and there are lots of businesses that are sole proprietorships that have escaped the official net of the tax man, the VAT man and the registrar of companies. We will see figures that range as high as 4. We will write a custom essay sample on Hr Term Paper or any similar topic only for you Order Now 3 million and as low as 3. 7 million, the best estimate being around 4. 0 million. Although the most usual definition of an SME is a company employing up to 250 employees, nearly all (over 99%) employ less than 50 people. In fact, three quarters of them don’t have any employees – they are sole operators. So, the emphasis really is on small rather than medium in the SME label. The engine of economic recovery The significance of these small businesses is often overlooked. They are the ants in the ant hill rather than the more glamorous animals of the forest. And yet they make up a half of all the jobs in the UK and account for half of our GDP. Because they are small and tightly managed, decisions can be taken quickly and they are flexible in responding to changes in the temperature of the market. In the UK as in the rest of the world, SMEs are recognised as the most responsive engine of economic growth. Who are they? There are over 1,500 different classifications of SMEs. These are referred to as Standard Industrial Classifications by the Government and they are used to describe the nature of a company’s business. As might be expected, SMEs do not compete where large capital investment is required for process industries. Therefore, they do not exist in car assembly, steel making, cement manufacture and the like. They are found in profusion in the service industries from vehicle servicing, hairdressing, retailing to the professions. There are manufacturers, of course, and they operate across most industries from complex electronics to traditional businesses such as metal bashing and wood turning. The SME shopping basket Every SME purchases goods and services in the pursuance of its business. They all have some basic needs such as telephones, stationery and they consume energy. Nearly all have office furniture and operate vehicles. They rent property and they buy legal and financial services. Depending on their industrial classification, they also will buy materials of one form or another. In total this adds up to over ? 1 billion of products and services per annum. Safety in numbers The most surprising thing about this huge shopping basket is that it is often ignored by marketers who have their sites on the larger corporations that appear to make easier picking. Whilst it is true that large buyers are easier to line up in the sight of a marketing rifle, they are not necessarily the most profitable. Slimma enjoyed being a main supplier to Marks Spencer until MS changed its buying policy and it lost the business. It not only lost the business; it went out of business. In contrast, RS Components has always seen the potential in SMEs and through its next day postal delivery service, it supplies a myriad of bits and pieces to businesses at premium prices and good margins. A simple decision making unit There are no complicated purchasing teams in SMEs. Very often it is just the boss who is tea person, book keeper, principal sales person and buyer. With all these duties, it is not feasible to agonise too deeply about the choice of a supplier. Decisions are made quickly and based on simple criteria such as the supplier is easy to buy from, it is good value, it is supported by the right kind of service etc. Once a purchase has been made, a relationship is established and very often a buying pattern is set up that will last for a long time. The B2B SME panel B2B wants to get to the hearts and minds (and purchasing patterns) of SME owners and has recently launched an online panel comprised of key decision makers within the SME sector. B2B has undertaken a rigorous panel recruitment programme to ensure a diverse and high calibre sample of thousands of SME decision makers throughout the UK, people who are notoriously hard to get hold of yet who buy hundreds of different services. In India In India, the Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) sector plays a pivotal role in the overall industrial economy of the country. It is estimated that in terms of value, the sector accounts for about 39% of the manufacturing output and around 33% of the total export of the country. Further, in recent years the MSE sector has consistently registered higher growth rate compared to the overall industrial sector. The major advantage of the sector is its employment potential at low capital cost. As per available statistics, this sector employs an estimated 31 million persons spread over 12. million enterprises and the labour intensity in the MSE sector is estimated to be almost 4 times higher than the large enterprises. In South Africa the term SMME, for Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises, is used. Elsewhere in Africa, MSME is used, for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. Size thresholds vary from country to country. The lack of a universal size definition makes business studies and market research more difficult. RECRUITMENT Recruitment is the process where the HR identifying the gaps to be filled, attracting the suitable person’s cv’s through different media ( like adds. n paper, approaching consultants, employee references, campus placements( when the requirement is huge), even u can verify active working employees in ur company through promotions/transfers) etc. , upto receiving the cv’s. selection starts from scrutining the received cv’s, conducting the tests finally ends with the HR round of interview for taking a desicion whether selected or not. Recruitment Process The recruitment and selection is the major function of the human resource department and recruitment process is the first step towards creating the competitive strength and the strategic advantage for the organisations. Recruitment process involves a systematic procedure from sourcing the candidates to arranging and conducting the interviews and requires many resources and time. A general recruitment process is as follows: Identifying the vacancy: The recruitment process begins with the human resource department receiving requisitions for recruitment from any department of the company. These contain: Posts to be filled Number of persons Duties to be performed Qualifications required Preparing the job description and person specification. Locating and developing the sources of required number and type of employees (Advertising etc). Short-listing and identifying the prospective employee with required characteristics. Arranging the interviews with the selected candidates. Conducting the interview and decision making Identify vacancy Prepare job description and person specification Advertising the vacancy Managing the response Short-listing Arrange interviews Conducting interview and decision making The recruitment process is immediately followed by the selection process i. e. the final interviews and the decision making, conveying the decision and the appointment formalities. CHALLENGES FACED BY SME’S FOR RECRUITING NEW ENTRANTS Challenge One – Find, recruit retain high quality sales people   Organisations of all sizes and in all market sectors have a major challenge in finding and developing quality sales people. The impact of employing average or poor sales personnel can seriously hurt SMEs, as these companies rely on a smaller number of sales staff. They simply do not have the resources, systems and processes that exist within large corporations to effectively manage, develop or re-deploy underperforming sales people. Having high quality, reliable and consistent sales people can make our sales function and a lack of them will break it. Organisations are able to invest in Health Checks, which reviews how the sales function is performing in terms of people, processes and customers. This health check also highlights the areas within the sales function which need to be developed, which is a good starting point for SMEs looking to build or enhance their sales function. Challenge Two – Develop high quality, profitable, long-term customers The issue of quality sales people is the main cause of challenge two – Developing high quality, profitable, long-term customers. The definition of a high quality customer is one where: * To have a win-win, mutually beneficial relationship * The relationship exists at the highest possible level with the key stakeholders * They take a number of products or services from you * They see you as a key supplier or integral to their success * They believe in your people, brand and product, they will not use a competitor * They will actively promote your people, brand and product (word of mouth advertising referrals) Gaining high quality customers is the focus of any successful business over the longer term. Look at any industry or sector where individual key players have shown steady, sustainable, controlled growth and where they have outperformed their competitors. You will notice a number of similarities around the quality of the sales people, perception of the brand, and standard of the product or service. You will also note that in the majority of these organisations, a number of reports and statements focus on’ The Customer’. What makes these organisations so special is that they have simply developed an effective sales, supply, customer management and retention system. This system runs like a well-oiled, high-performance engine, where all the cogs turn and interlink in a highly engineered way. In business, this is like having a successful, proven ‘How to’ users-guide for all the key aspects of sales and client fulfillment. Whether we like it or not, every business has a system that covers all of these critical sales and client management areas. What is evident is that these systems don’t necessarily interlink effectively. In fact, some of these systems seem to work against each other and slow down progress, creating roadblocks for sales and client management to cross. Interestingly enough, high quality sales people also have a system they use at an individual level to sell effectively. This system guides them like a missile to the target and covers all areas of attitude, skill and execution of their tasks. If an organisation wishes to overcome the two key challenges of high quality sales people and high quality customers, they need to develop an effective system that covers sales and client management. An effective selling system has a huge number of benefits to any business – too many to list, however they can be summarised into the following: * Increase profitability per customer and per sales person * Reduce cost of sale * Reduce lead times * Increase win ratio * Improve internal communication and access to information * Increase control and focus * Improve forecasting and business planning * Improve customer relationships and retention * Reduce churn of quality people We do not need to find, recruit and retain high quality sales people, especially as they are expensive. Even small organisations can develop quality sales people themselves and realise the key benefits this brings by simply introducing a successful selling system. This means that the organisation is reliant on an effective, proven and sustainable system and not on individual sales people to perform. If the system works, then the sales people can use the system to work for them. The system will show the organisation very clearly who is performing well and who needs to be developed, and it can even show exactly where and how. To clarify the key point, however, we are not saying that you can or should employ low quality sales people and tell them what to do, and how to do it. What we are saying is that the quality of focus has changed, from finding high quality sales people who can work individually and do the numbers for you, to developing a high quality, repeatable sales system. This is not a new concept; every successful franchise is built on this very principle. If a business wants to realise these benefits, then it is undeniable that they need to have an effective sales team. It is also undeniable that they need to develop high quality customers. If your organisation needs to realise these benefits and you would like the opportunity to work with a specialist, then contact Enact Services. They have developed the ‘Complete Selling System’. This has been designed specifically to address the challenges faced by your sales team(s). This system has been proven to positively impact on the sales results of SME and corporate organisations. CHALLENGE IN THE TALENT WAR The global phenomenon in talent shortage has led to a ‘talent war’ amongst organisations large and small, across all industry sectors throughout the world. This talent war is all about attracting, retaining, developing and engaging a quality workforce that plays a critical role in impacting the organisations bottom-line and growth. With such a struggle for the best talents, it is no wonder that the SMEs often lose out to the MNCs which typically invest millions of dollars in their recruitment and retention strategies. Given that SMEs may not have such ‘muscle’ to fight the talent war, nonetheless it is becoming clear to business leaders / entrepreneurs that an effective HR strategy is critical for its long-term survival. The following are some of the typical challenges faced by SMEs today: Talent Attraction Not maintaining an active database of potential hires – adverts are placed each time there is a vacancy without harnessing past database effectively Not implementing comprehensive hiring channels such as referral, graduate, recruitment internal transfers etc. Lack of detailed job analysis which leads to ineffective recruitment (i. e. often it is not known what are the key criteria for hiring the personnel and key success factors on the job) Weak or no employer branding – candidates do not have a good knowledge of the overall organization OR do not have a good experience during their recruitment exercise Not able to offer higher than average starting salaries and having ‘standard’ benefits/rewards Talent Retention Lack of a comprehensive orientation programme or induction training Lack of clear career path development for individual staff Lack of communication of corporate goals/vision Lack of job-rotation : often SMEs lose talents as they are not able to provide new learning opportunities within the organization by redesigning jobs etc. Minimum investment in training ; development. We have heard: finding and retaining top talent be it for large corporations, SMEs, associations and consultancies is fast becoming a major challenge. In many cases, the challenge has become a factor in the loss of competitive strengths, and consequent decline of market share. Some underlying reasons are well known: demographics (the â€Å"baby boomers† are beginning to retire and not being replaced by equivalent numbers of new entrants into the workforce); declining unemployment; sustained high demand for candidates with similar profiles in many sectors, such as IT and Telecom; shifts in employee attitudes to loyalty and their work/life balance. But another, less obvious factor is at play: employers’ response (or non response) and in particular the adaptation of their recruitment and retention strategies to a rapidly changing labour force landscape. In fact, pragmatically, this is perhaps the most important issue. Employers can’t change demographics, but they can change the way they recruit. Until recently, most employers were in the enviable position of being able to pick and choose among a plethora of spontaneous candidacies to fill most, if not all their open positions. In those cases where â€Å"Mr. or Mrs. Right† was not at hand, word of mouth, and an advertisement would more often than not elicit a more than adequate number of qualified applicants. The biggest challenge was making the right choice! But today, employers are facing new realities. And, as in any rapidly changing environment, those who are the quickest off the mark in adapting their attitudes and strategies will reap the benefits of stronger, more stable, and more efficient human resources. The more senior and/or technical the positions, the more vital this becomes. New challenges and the need for specialised assistance With many or even most employers fishing for the same profiles in the same pond, yesterday’s recruitment strategies are fast becoming inefficient and un (or even counter) productive. The bottom line is that most employers are rapidly (re) discovering the value and economic sense of retaining, and building long term relationships with Executive Search firms. The simple logic is that the quest for talent needs to be both broader, and deeper than ever before. Chances are the ideal candidates are not scanning the â€Å"want ads† or online recruitment websites nor talking to friends about changing jobs. They could come from a different industry (which has already faced the challenge an employer is up against today), and thus bring fresh thinking and new vision. They may bring talent that will enable an employer to embark in new, lucrative business ventures. And they need to be in a position to contribute to an employer’s strategic plan. Leading Executive Search firms will build a highly personalised strategy for each individual recruitment taking these complex factors into account. Headhunters†¦. and headhunters Most leading headhunters accept the title with a smile†¦. they generally prefer to be known as Executive Search consultants. Perhaps to more clearly identify themselves as employer business builders (via human resources), as opposed to simple recruiters. Recruitment agencies tend to use large databases of names, rely on electronic/web technologies, and place cold-calls to potential candidates whom they might never have met before. While not eschewing these methodologies, executive recruiters use their specialised and often personal networks of contacts to attract individuals to opportunities and search for candidates for the most senior positions. In Brussels, as an example, the typical minimum annual salary for a position that an Executive Search firm is retained to fill is â‚ ¬100,000. Consultants specialise within given industries, and typically have long-lasting relationships with their clients. These relationships are key, because the recruiter knows the nuances of the internal culture within the client’s organisation, and is best prepared to offer candidates that would make a good fit. In addition, executive recruitment firms often offer guarantees for the candidates who are hired. That is, if the individual resigns, for example, within six months of the date of hire, the firm will mount a new search to find another candidate. Taking care of the details Companies that decide to search for a senior candidate using a specialised recruitment firm find that they save time and resources. Following an exploratory meeting to learn more about the position and after participating in a thorough briefing session, the search consultant returns a written description of the employer, the competitive situation, the recruitment context, and the position to the client for approval. The description is a key step, and the client must share as much information as possible in order to enable the recruiter to identify the best possible candidates. Of course discretion is paramount – privacy of the client, as well as privacy of the candidates. Building on his experience as Managing Director and Marketing Manager for L’Or? al, Howard Honick has been a senior consultant with Alexander Hughes, one of the leading recruitment firms in Europe, since 2000. â€Å"We believe every mission, every client, every candidate is unique†, says Honick. Our consultants spend whatever time is necessary to understand every aspect of the mission; we pay particular attention to soft skills, and matching client/candidate culture†. Confidentiality is of course crucial. And we only present candidates to our clients who we know could be an ideal match in terms of experience and personality, and therefore make a long-term fit. † It’s all about who you know Executive recruiters know their client’s industries and have many contacts because they have worked in the sectors themselves. Anne De Greef, a senior consultant at Alexander Hughes previously worked for many years in executive positions in business development, operations, strategic planning and M;A for DHL, UPS and as COO for Fleetlogistics/Wheels. Combined with her additional management experience in the chemical and leasing industries, she is well-placed to identify potential candidates for clients in these businesses, because she knows – and has worked with – many individuals in those sectors. â€Å"This detailed knowledge of and ability to recruit high-level executives is what makes clients rely on our services. Clients realise that top-level recruitment is not an overnight process,† said De Greef. Strategic recruitment impacts the bottom-line Recruits for top-level appointments will eventually have a role in shaping the future of a company. They will be a part of the team making strategic decisions about the organisation’s direction and developing and enacting its business plan. Thus, candidates must have extensive experience and the business sense to succeed in making the right decisions. â€Å"There’s a lot on the line when filling positions for our clients,† said Honick. â€Å"The positions we help fill are vital to the client company’s success, otherwise the company probably wouldn’t invest in our services. Costs for recruitment services usually are linked to the salary level of the position being filled. Firms typically charge a placement fee when the candidate they identified and recruited accepts a job. The fee can be set as a straight percentage of the salary, or negotiated as a retainer. For some companies with ongoing hiring needs, the retainer model is usually the most advant ageous. Widening the gene pool Once recruitment profiles have been defined, there are several steps to finding the right candidates. One of the most important is to take a cross-sector approach. Companies must not depend only on the talent that is already employed within their sectors; to the contrary, employers must extend their search for candidates to include industries that they may never before have mined. â€Å"Our experience shows that more and more companies are taking this cross-sector approach. This is particularly true in the financial sector, where we are seeing an increasing demand for mathematicians and actuaries to manage hedge funds and private equities,† said Honick. For big and small Surveys of European executives indicate that three factors are hampering corporate expansion: increasing bureaucratic and administrative complexity (regulation, compliance issues); uncertainty, as it relates to top line growth; and the difficulty of finding the best people to grow the company. These issues hold true for small, mid-size and large organisations. Executive recruiters specialise in filling senior leadership positions, no matter what the size of the organisation. Perhaps for SME’s, it is even more critical to find not just â€Å"the right person† but â€Å"the best person†, since each new recruit will have a proportionally greater impact on the existing team as a whole. â€Å"In smaller companies, the quality of internal human interaction tends to have a more immediate effect on overall results,† said Honick, â€Å"Also, responsibilities in an SME can cover more than one functional area. A Finance Director will probably have admin duties, and also might oversee HR. So we would need to find a person who can positively impact all three areas. ————————————————- Recruiting ‘in-house’ is typically the first reaction of most HR directors. But for small and mid-sized companies searching to fill management positions, looking within is often not feasible. Most likely, for young and/or small businesse s the required talent does not yet exist in-house. So for middle and senior-level hires who will have a significant impact on the top and bottom line, it’s becoming more and more common for organisations of all sizes to rely on a executive search firm to find the best talent out there Overseas recruitment and challenges: The rules of engagement Overseas recruitment has gone mainstream. Once viewed as the last resort of vaguely treacherous corporate wage cutters, hiring foreign workers is the newest trend for small and medium businesses struggling to deal with an unprecedented skills shortage. But the popularity of overseas recruiting – and a few well publicized instances of abuse by rogue employers – has caught the Government’s attention. In April 2007 federal Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews declared his intention to â€Å"clean up the system† by introducing tighter policing and hefty new financial penalties for employers who breach migration laws. All this means that overseas recruitment now presents greater risks and rewards for Australian businesses than ever before. For an increasing number of SME owners, coping with the skills shortage means this is a gamble they must take if they are to find the staff their businesses need to survive. So much work, so few workers Each month, economic data confirms what SMEs are experiencing on the ground: the skills shortage is getting worse. With unemployment already at a 32-year low of 4. 4%, in May 2007 the number of new jobs ads surged 10. 3% to 251,996, a massive 40. 8% rise on a year earlier. While shortages are being felt across the board, the cupboard is particularly bare for employers in the resources, information technology, professional services and hospitality sectors. Andrew Stormon, the manager of Queensland SME Mt Isa Fleet Maintenance Services, tells a common story. We advertised for 18 months trying to find people for mechanic positions; we just found we got very few responses, and those we did get didn’t have the right skills and weren’t suitable for the job. † In a booming economy, not enough staff means lost work and lost profits. â€Å"We lost in the vicinity of $500,000 because we continually had to knock back work. We lost one of our clients worth $250,000 because w e just didn’t have the people we needed to service their fleet for them,† Stormon says. It is this combination of commercial opportunity and labour shortage that is driving business to recruit from overseas in increasing numbers. Immigration Department figures show 97,430 skilled migrants came to Australia in 2005-06, up from 77,880 in 2004-05. This number is set to increase to 102,500 in 2007-08. By far the biggest increase in numbers has been in the s457 temporary skilled migration category, under which employers sponsor foreign workers with in-demand skills to work in Australia for between three months and four years. There are reported to be 105,000 foreign workers currently in Australia on s457 visas, a number that could increase significantly next year. Navigate the migration minefield Bringing a worker into Australia is not just a matter of filling out a few forms and sending a cheque for the processing fee. Although there is a lot of information available – the Federal Government and industry associations are good sources – the migration process is complex and requires knowledge of both Australian immigration rules and those of the country from which a worker is migrating. Added to that is the difficulty of finding eligible candidates for the position in the country of origin, an especially difficult and time-consuming task in countries where English is not the first language. Given the complications involved, it is no surprise recruitment and migration service providers have proliferated in recent years, encouraged by low barriers to entry and the big dollars desperate employers are prepared to pay for good staff. It generally costs about $4000 to $6000 to have an agency find an employee and bring them into Australia, although prices vary depending on where an employee comes from and how they are employed in Australia. Jo Burston, the managing director of migration services firm Job Capital, says the time-consuming nature of the process and the heavy penalties associated with breaches of migration legislation means agencies offer good value for money for many businesses. â€Å"The Department of Immigration has very strict guidelines and the penalties can be substantial, so it’s a process that allows very little room for error. Since most SMEs don’t have specialised immigration staff, hiring an agency allows them to get on with their core business,† Burston says. â€Å"Most SMEs would hire an accountant to give them tax advice, they wouldn’t just have their admin person do it, and this is really no different. † Even businesses that can afford to devote staff to recruitment tend hire professionals to help them navigate the process. Mike Smith, operations manager at IT services and integration firm Anatas, says he supplements his in-house resources by outsourcing difficult aspects of offshore recruiting process. We would just burn weeks and weeks of staff time doing it all ourselves. Even with staff working on the process it can be time-consuming just providing the information and vetting candidates. There is no way to short-cut the process, you just end up causing problems for yourself if you do,† Smith says. Traps for young players and what to do about them Contrary to popul ar belief, the vast majority of businesses who hire foreign workers are not motivated by the prospect of lower wages. Imported workers cannot be employed to perform cheap unskilled labour and must be paid above a legislated minimum standard annual salary of $41,850 ($57,300 for IT staff). These rules are not flexible. The desire to avoid any further horror stories of foreign workers being paid a pittance or charged outrageous migration fees has caused the Government to allocate more than $80 million in this year’s budget to increasing the monitoring and investigation capacity of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship and to increase penalties for breaching migration laws. From August 17, employers can be personally fined up $13,200 or, in extreme cases, jailed for up to two years for employing a worker without the appropriate visa or referring a worker without an appropriate visa to another employer; while businesses can be fined up to $66,000 for each offending worker they employee. More severe penalties are applicable if workers are being exploited through slavery, forced labour or sexual servitude. The complexity and bureaucracy that governs the skilled migration process means planning ahead is also important. Finding an employee and bringing them to Australia generally takes three to six months, migration service providers say, with even longer lead times workers with very specialised skills are sought. A more obvious problem employers of foreign staff have to deal with is culture shock. Even for people who come with all the good will in the world, the shock of finding yourself in unfamiliar territory far away from family and friends can be too much to handle. Australian Recruiting director David Young, who recruits Asian and UK workers for Australia’s mining and healthcare industries, says it is rare for foreign workers to cut short their time in Australia because of culture shock, but it does happen from time to time. â€Å"It can be for all kinds of reasons: sometimes it’s the climate, the food, often people who come here don’t realise quite how big Australia is and get a bit of a shock if they find themselves in a remote location. On the other hand, I was talking to a company the other day who brought in workers from Sweden: they were very skilled but it didn’t work out because there was a big difference between the sense of humour of Swedes and Australians,† Young says. Small things like meeting new arrivals at the airport, help with accommodation and transport, opening a bank account and taking out medical insurance can help minimise homesickness. â€Å"We brought someone in the other day who was a great musician and we connected him up with a local band; things like that can make a huge difference,† Young says. Once these hurdles are overcome, it seems there can be real upside to taking staff from other countries into your workforce. Mt Isa Fleet Maintenance manager Andrew Stormon says after dealing with some â€Å"out-of-date† attitudes on the workshop floor towards the four skilled tradesmen he brought in from the Philippines, the new arrivals have now become an important part of the business. â€Å"These blokes have turned up and keen as hell, punctual, their English is excellent and they really get in and work. And their skills are fantastic: I haven’t come across tradesmen as good as some of these blokes for many years,† Stormon says. Another advantage of bringing in workers from overseas can be loyalty. Anatas’s Mike Smith says in sectors such as IT, where highly skilled employees tend to be highly mobile, this is be a big plus. â€Å"We have found workers we bring tend to stick with us. Often they will be looking to become permanent residents in a couple of year or perhaps it’s just because we have developed with them, but we’ve found they stick with us for a bit longer than Australian staff,† Smith says. As long as Australia continues to enjoy the fruits of the China-led resources boom, economic necessity will continue to drive Australian businesses to hire skilled staff from overseas. ————————————————- The key to making overseas recruitment a good experience is to take advantage of the information available and obtain professional advice and assistance where necessary. By going into the process with eyes open, a business of any size can successfully navigate the migration minefield. ————————————————- ———————————————— ————————————————- SUGGESTI ONS THAT CAN BE IMPLIMENTED____________________ Outsource Outsourcing non-core activities is increasingly becoming popular even for SMEs. Instead of incurring huge fixed costs in manpower to manage recruitment/ retention issues with sophisticated IT software, SMEs can reap the following benefits by outsourcing such functions to the experts in the field: Cost savings Technology (a simple HR IT software can cost from to $50,000 to $300,000) Experienced HR staff to manage recruitment/retention issues Administrative time (even with the HR software, lots of time goes in updating, maintaining a database etc) Focus on strategic functions By outsourcing these functions, the HR can focus on vendor management and on making sure that results are achieved. Access to world-class recruitment/retention strategies Service providers typically invest millions in the most updated systems and technology as this is their core business. Hence by outsourcing such functions, SMEs can leverage on the service providers’ world-class technology. Create employer branding The service providers function as an extended arm of the SME. Hence by running the entire hiring process (right up to orientation) effectively, a positive brand image is created for the SME. Measurement of hiring effectiveness The HR can extract useful indices such as ‘quality of hire’, ‘cost per hire’, ‘days to fill job’, ‘candidate experience’ etc. from the service providers. This will enable the HR to focus more on strategic issues rather than administrative tasks of the hiring process. Quality of Hire This is of critical importance to any organization – whether is there a good fit between the job and person. By outsourcing the hiring to experts, it has been proven that the quality of hire will improve. This means that the new hire performing better on the job and eventually affecting the organisation’s overall operational effectiveness and profitability in a positive way. Employer branding Having mentioned outsourcing as one of the strategies in managing talents, the responsibility on employer branding still remains with the organization. Companies need to brand themselves as choiced employers just like how they brand their products and services. There are some distinct advantages of being an SME which need to be communicated to job seekers and existing staff. Being small can be an asset in many instances. Having a staff strength of less than 300 makes an organization a lot more nimble, fast and flexible compared to larger MNCs which often wait for global initiatives before implementing changes in their HR policies and practices. THE FOLLOWING ARE SOME TIPS FOR SMES: Talent Attraction Employer branding – focus on key strengths such as â€Å"innovative†, â€Å"fast-growing† â€Å"regional exposure† Provide flexible and innovative benefits/rewards that cater to individual needs Measure the current hiring effectiveness – indices such as ‘cost per hire’, ‘days to fill a job’, ‘effectiveness of hiring channels’, ‘candidate experience’ are critical so that SMEs can track where there are bottlenecks and where the hiring process can be improved. Plan career path for individuals More growth opportunities, regionalization – which is attractive to the younger workforce. Talent Retention Shift from being family-oriented to more performance-based Communicating the corporate goals, vision, direction (for a more engaged workforce) HR can afford to give personalized attention to individual’s needs in terms of benefits, rewards, career goals, training ; development needs Invest in meaningful training ; development that leads to job expansion for staff Once the SME has established themselves as a hoice employer with attractive and innovative HR policies, retention strategies and career advancement opportunities, it is only a matter of time that happy employees spread the word. There is nothing more powerful for an organization than happy staff who become their ‘ambassadors’ wherever they go! This inevitably does wonders for enhanced employer branding and attracting better talents over the years. ********************************************* ******************************** BIBLIOGRAPHY http://www. eurofound. europa. eu/emcc/content/source/eu06025a. htm http://en. allexperts. com/q/Human-Resources-2866/Challenges-faced-HR-Manager-1. htm http://72. 14. 235. 132/search? q=cache:yyt4gJDUXlMJ:www. gmprecruit. com/pdf/KC/SMEchallenge. pdf+recruitment+challenges+faced+by+SMEs;hl=en;ct=clnk;cd=1;gl=in http://www. hrmguide. com/recruitmentsmanagers/+tasksfaced+SME. How to cite Hr Term Paper, Essays

The Influence of Real

The Influence of Real-Time Technology on E-Voting Essay Technology Thomas Levine Abstract Many cyberneticists would agree that, had it not been for web browsers, the deployment of link-level acknowledgements might never have occurred. Given the current status of homogeneous models, theorists famously desire the evaluation of online algorithms, which embodies the confirmed principles of separated programming languages. We present a solution for the refinement of Markov models, which we call Drabber. Table of Contents 1) Introduction 2) Drabber Study 3) Implementation 4) Evaluation * 4.1) Hardware and Software Configuration * 4. 2) Experimental Results 5) Related Work 6) Conclusion 1 Introduction The emulation of symmetric encryption is a key quagmire. In fact, few experts would disagree with the key unification of the transistor and erasure coding. Despite the fact that prior solutions to this question are useful, none have taken the flexible approach we propose here. The exploration of local-area networks would minimally degrade fuzzy modalities. Our focus in this work is not on whether forward-error correction and IPv7 8 are rarely incompatible, but rather on describing an analysis of erasure coding (Drabber). Nevertheless, fuzzy communication might not be the panacea that theorists expected. Existing semantic and Bayesian systems use ambimorphic algorithms to develop stochastic theory. Our system runs in W(n2) time. It should be noted that Drabber turns the modular algorithms sledgehammer into a scalpel. Thusly, we see no reason not to use large-scale archetypes to investigate the exploration of robots. This work presents three advances above existing work. For starters, we construct an analysis of replication (Drabber), validating that Markov models and the partition table can agree to realize this objective. Second, we use interposable methodologies to disprove that I/O automata and IPv4 are largely incompatible. Next, we discover how cache coherence can be applied to the development of the transistor. The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Primarily, we motivate the need for the partition table. We prove the construction of information retrieval systems. Ultimately, we conclude. 2 Drabber Study Furthermore, Figure 1 shows our heuristics read-write simulation 10. Along these same lines, we consider a heuristic consisting of n hierarchical databases. This seems to hold in most cases. Figure 1 shows an architectural layout diagramming the relationship between Drabber and the investigation of the memory bus. We postulate that the essential unification of object-oriented languages and superpages can store relational information without needing to enable the theoretical unification of vacuum tubes and 802.11 mesh networks. The question is, will Drabber satisfy all of these assumptions? No. dia0.png Figure 1: The flowchart used by our system. Reality aside, we would like to refine a methodology for how Drabber might behave in theory. This seems to hold in most cases. Despite the results by Mark Gayson et al. , we can verify that the famous decentralized algorithm for the construction of congestion control by Robert Floyd et al. runs in Q( n ) time. Figure 1 plots the relationship between our system and flip-flop gates. This seems to hold in most cases. 3 Implementation After several days of arduous programming, we finally have a working implementation of our heuristic. Since Drabber allows metamorphic methodologies, architecting the codebase of 82 Lisp files was relatively straightforward 17. Furthermore, since our methodology is recursively enumerable, hacking the collection of shell scripts was relatively straightforward. Scholars have complete control over the codebase of 37 x86 assembly files, which of course is necessary so that the Internet and DHCP are largely incompatible. The hand-optimized compiler contains about 7580 lines of SQL. this is instrumental to the success of our work. One will not able to imagine other solutions to the implementation that would have made implementing it much simpler. .u02356fc42079ed0a574ed42984b62e77 , .u02356fc42079ed0a574ed42984b62e77 .postImageUrl , .u02356fc42079ed0a574ed42984b62e77 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u02356fc42079ed0a574ed42984b62e77 , .u02356fc42079ed0a574ed42984b62e77:hover , .u02356fc42079ed0a574ed42984b62e77:visited , .u02356fc42079ed0a574ed42984b62e77:active { border:0!important; } .u02356fc42079ed0a574ed42984b62e77 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u02356fc42079ed0a574ed42984b62e77 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u02356fc42079ed0a574ed42984b62e77:active , .u02356fc42079ed0a574ed42984b62e77:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u02356fc42079ed0a574ed42984b62e77 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u02356fc42079ed0a574ed42984b62e77 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u02356fc42079ed0a574ed42984b62e77 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u02356fc42079ed0a574ed42984b62e77 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u02356fc42079ed0a574ed42984b62e77:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u02356fc42079ed0a574ed42984b62e77 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u02356fc42079ed0a574ed42984b62e77 .u02356fc42079ed0a574ed42984b62e77-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u02356fc42079ed0a574ed42984b62e77:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Anne Frank Essay4 Evaluation Systems are only useful if they are efficient enough to achieve their goals. We did not take any shortcuts here. Our overall evaluation method seeks to prove three hypotheses: (1) that scatter/gather I/O has actually shown exaggerated complexity over time; (2) that Internet QoS no longer influences performance; and finally (3) that public-private key pairs no longer influence performance. Our evaluation methodology will show that microkernelizing the API of our distributed system is crucial to our results. 4.1 Hardware and Software Configuration figure0.png Figure 2: The median interrupt rate of our system, compared with the other frameworks. Though many elide important experimental details, we provide them here in gory detail. We executed a deployment .

Nazi Policies free essay sample

Describe the way the Nazi government set about providing jobs for the unemployed in Germany after 1933. In 1929 a worldwide depression began due to the Wall Street Crash. This hit Germany particularly hard as the agreements of the treaty of Versailles, made post World War I, placed war guilt upon Germany and had meant that they owed countries like Britain and France a great deal of money. Unable to pay this money Germany agreed a plan called the Dawes plan with the USA, meaning that the USA would loan out money to the Germans to pay their debts. However when the Wall Street Crash did happen USA recalled these loans leaving Germany in a terrible state. It caused people to stop buying meaning jobs were lost and by 1933 it had escalated into having 6 million unemployed people. The Nazi’s party took advantage of the state of the country, especially the unemployment, and for the 1930’s election they issued the â€Å"Unsere Letzte Hoffnung† poster. We will write a custom essay sample on Nazi Policies or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page They told the people that they would solve the problem of unemployment, and although they didn’t say how they were going to do this, it was enough to gain the vote as all other parties were only saying how they would try. But once in power, how did the Nazi’s reduce the number unemployed. One way in which the Nazi’s set about solving the problem of unemployment was the system of public works. This offered jobs that were not there previously to the unemployed. These jobs included building Autobahns (motorways), extending and creating railways, building houses and hospitals and creating drainage ditches. This meant that unskilled unemployed workers had access to jobs which they took, removing them from unemployment figures. This was further backed up by increased punishment for being unemployed and known as â€Å"work shy†; these punishments included spending time at labour camps. A second way how Nazi government set about solving unemployment was by introducing the DAF (German Labour Front). The DAF created rules whereby workers could no longer leave without the government’s permission. Other rules included that employers were now unable to dispose of employees on the spot and strikes were made illegal. A further law of the DAF was put in place and it forced the unemployed to accept job offers regardless of the job. This meant that it was now harder to leave or be made leave a job and therefore keeping more potentially unemployed people in their existing jobs and off unemployment figures. Another way the Nazis reduced the problem of unemployment was to increase the size of the armed forces. This was done by introducing conscription. Joining the army was also a popular choice to the unemployed as it meant that they would get descent warm meals and a roof over their head, when not in war. It was also a popular choice as it gave unemployed men a feeling of being needed. This increase in the armed forces and in particular the introduction of conscription meant that many firstly chose to join the army and then others were forced to do so, greatly reducing the unemployment figures. For similar reasons as the above the increases in arms production helped Germany solve their problem of unemployment. Many new factories were opened to develop the necessary equipment and materials to create the weapons. This created new jobs that were never there before. This meant that, alongside, the DAF’s new rules stating that job offers must be accepted, many more people were put into jobs and removed from unemployment figures. A final way how the Nazis solved their problem of unemployment was to make Jews â€Å"untermenschen† which meant they did no longer exist on unemployment records. The Nazis did this by removing Jews from their jobs and replacing them with German non-Jews. This reduced unemployment numbers because it put unemployed people into jobs and removed Jews who weren’t included on the unemployment figures. This exaggerated the success of Nazis policies towards unemployment as they were not really reducing unemployment, only replacing Jews with non-Jews and manipulating numbers and figures to read what they want. A similar process was made towards women and they were also removed from unemployment figures. It was not as persecuting as the policy to the Jews as it was there mainly to make the non-Jewish male the breadwinner and making the woman a housewife or mother. This further reduced unemployment figures. So therefore it can be argued that

Pippa Norris and Ronald Ingeharts Cosmopolitan Comunication

Pippa Norris and Ronald Ingeharts Cosmopolitan Comunication How morality function affects cosmopolitan communications The firewall model as postulated by Norris and Inglehart holds that news media impacts on societal values and as such, they can actually initiate value change. Norris and Ingehart have noted that although such a scenario may not occur frequently, nonetheless, there is the risk that it can be mediated by societal factors, in which case individual countries can be affected by the flow of cosmopolitan communication.Advertising We will write a custom assessment sample on Pippa Norris and Ronald Ingehart’s â€Å"Cosmopolitan Comunication† specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More For example, in Chapter 3 of their book, Norris and Ingehart show how the flow of information moves from the global north (especially Germany, the US, the UK, Canada, and France) to the other global countries (Norris and Inglehart 8). Many of these other global countries lack the necessary media freedo m and do not easily access foreign news. In addition, they cannot also easily access foreign communication infrastructures. According to Norris and Inglehart, such a setting acts as a firewall that shields media influences from the society. What the authors intend to demonstrate is that cultural products, communication and information do not just flow freely, and that their flow could be hindered by ‘firewalls’ or social barriers (specifically isolation, poverty, traditional local socialization processes, and press restrictions). Many behavioural practices and social values are learned from the ideas and images conveyed by glossy magazines, television entertainment, music videos, internet websites, feature films, consumer advertising, and news reports. As such, the media is regarded as one of the most important tools for socialization. Therefore, the media can influence the attitudes and moral standards of the society. Although Norris and Ingehart do not object to the c laim that the media does exist, nonetheless, its activities are limited by firewalls (15). Due to the existence of various firewalls, the mass media is not in a position to penetrate parochial societies and as a result, it is cannot influence them. What should be done by politicians about cosmopolitan, what cultural policies should be developed, according to Norris and Inglehart? Owing to the rapid expansion of global communication, indigenous cultures are at a greater risk of being exposed to a sudden flow of advertising, corporate capitalism, communication, and explicit sexuality and graphical violence on television.Advertising Looking for assessment on communication strategies? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More This implies that globalization is a threat to cultural diversity and unless something is done very fast, we are likely to witness the loss of cultural diversity in certain sections of the society. Towards th is end, our politicians have an important role to play given that they are the ones charged with the responsibility of implementing policies. Norris and Inglehart contend that national diversity is faced with the threat of the globalized news media. As such, our politician should be in a position to propose policies for adoption by member countries in order to ensure that they retain their cultural diversity. In addition, there is need to also develop certain cultural policies that can restrict access to phonographic sites for purposes of retaining cultural identity. We need to encourage the idea of cultural fusion so as to enhance a balanced power dynamic (Norris and Inglehart 19). This way, it becomes easier and faster for members of a society to communicate with each other and in the process, they can help one another in the generation of a global mix that blends programs, connections, and genres derived from various places and times. Norris, Pippa and Ingehart, Ronald. Cosmopol itan Communications: Cultural Diversity in  a Globalized World. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Print.

Case Briefs for Law Students

Case Briefs for Law Students First of all, let’s get some terminology clear: a brief that an attorney writes is not the same as a case brief by a law student. Attorneys write appellate briefs or briefs in support of motions or other court pleadings whereas law students’ case briefs concern one case and summarize everything important you need to know about a case to help them prepare for class. But briefing can be very frustrating as a new law student. Here are some tips for getting the most out of your briefing. Case briefs are tools for you to use to prepare for class. You will typically have hours of reading for a given class and you will need to recall many details about the case at a moments notice in class (especially if you get called on by your professor). Your brief is a tool to help you refresh your recollection about what you read and quickly be able to reference the main points of the case. There are two main types of briefs – a written brief and a book brief. The Written Brief Most law schools recommend that you start with a written brief. These are either typed or handwritten and have some pretty typical headers summarizing the main points of a given case. Here is the commonly accepted framework of a written brief: Facts: This should be a quick list of facts, but make sure to include any legally significant facts.Procedural history: These are notes about the journey the case has taken through the court system.Issue presented: What is the legal issue that the court is discussing? Note, there can be more than one issue.Holding: This is the ruling of the court. If the issue presented is a question for the court to answer, then the holding is the answer to that question.Legal reasoning: This is a quick summary of the thought process used by the court to reach their conclusion.Rule of law: If the court applied any rules of law that are important, you want to write that down too.Concurring or dissenting opinions (if any): If your casebook included a concurring or dissenting opinion in your reading, you will need to read it carefully. It is there for a reason. Sometimes you might find that your professors ask very specific questions about cases that you want to include in your brief. An example of this would be a professor who always asked what the Plaintiff’s arguments were. Make sure you have a section in your brief about Plaintiff’s arguments. (If your professor consistently brings something up, you should also make sure that is included in your class notes.)   A Warning About Written Briefs One word of warning: Students can start to spend too much time working on briefs by writing out too much information. No one is going to read these briefs except you. Remember, they are just notes to solidify your understanding of the case and help you be prepared for class.   The Book Brief Some students prefer book briefing to writing out a full written brief. This approach, made popular by Law School Confidential, involves simply highlighting different parts of the case in different colors, right there in your textbook (hence the name). If it helps, you can also draw a little picture at the top to remind you of the facts (this is a great tip for visual learners). Thus, instead of referencing your written brief during class, you would instead turn to your casebooks and your color-coded highlighting to find what you are looking for. Some students find this to be easier and more effective than written briefs. How do you know it is right for you? Well, you give it a go and see if it helps you navigate the Socratic dialogue in class. If it doesn’t work for you, go back to your written briefs. Try each method out and remember briefs are just a tool for you. Your brief doesn’t need to look like the person’s sitting next to you as long as it keeps you focused and engaged in the class discussion.

Micro Regionalism and Globalization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Micro Regionalism and Globalization - Essay Example The various lobbies like South-South cooperation, Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries or OPEC, Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation or APEC, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation or SAARC etc. are important economic and political motivated organizations that give impetus to micro regionalism. The new scale of economy and the leverage gained through regional cooperation goes a long way in establishing the global presence of small states while ensuring their unique identity (Breslin & Hook, 2002). Globalization, on the other hand, is primarily motivated by the political ideology and economic interests to exploit opportunities across the wider geographical area. It is backed by technology and migration of people across the globe. It has opened new job opportunities across the globe and facilitated the greater inflow of capital to the poor countries. But it has also brought into sharp focus of the hegemony of the rich and the powerful nations like America who exploit sm all regional states for their vested interests. Hence, one can state that socio-economic forces of micro regionalism are stronger than that of globalization mainly because micro-regional dynamics provide the states with greater leverage to exploit their resources and promote regional development for higher bargaining power, especially with the West. OPEC is the prime example of micro regionalism that has established its global entity with the strong influence on the price and trading of petroleum products.

Summary on cpc (cyclic pipeline computer) an architecture suited for Essay

Summary on cpc (cyclic pipeline computer) an architecture suited for josephson and pipelined memory machines - Essay Example This ensures that the two devices are naturally pipelined using a similar pitch time. At the same time, advanced control technique could be used to speed up computation in each instruction stream. This technique is used in high performance computers that see to it that each stage of instruction processing and data references is made from different memories. Thus, overlapped memory access and processor instructions are performed at a much faster rate through multiple instruction streams that take place in a cyclic manner. Research carried out on the new CPC that is based on the silicon technology has found that there is an improvement in the cost/performance ratio as it operates at a much higher speed using the three-phase clock (Shimizu et al 831). At the same time, the CPC device makes use of a three input majority through DCFP which makes it easy to realize a negation. Similarly, the power consumption is much lower which allows for a high-density

The Nine Types of Intelligence Essay Example for Free

The Nine Types of Intelligence Essay 1. Naturalist Intelligence (â€Å"Nature Smart†) Designates the human ability to discriminate among living things (plants, animals) as well as sensitivity to other features of the natural world (clouds, rock configurations). This ability was clearly of value in our evolutionary past as hunters, gatherers, and farmers; it continues to be central in such roles as botanist or chef. It is also speculated that much of our consumer society exploits the naturalist intelligences, which can be mobilized in the discrimination among cars, sneakers, kinds of makeup, and the like. 2. Musical Intelligence (â€Å"Musical Smart†) Musical intelligence is the capacity to discern pitch, rhythm, timbre, and tone. This intelligence enables us to recognize, create, reproduce, and reflect on music, as demonstrated by composers, conductors, musicians, vocalist, and sensitive listeners. Interestingly, there is often an affective connection between music and the emotions; and mathematical and musical intelligences may share common thinking processes. Young adults with this kind of intelligence are usually singing or drumming to themselves. They are usually quite aware of sounds others may miss. 3. Logical-Mathematical Intelligence (Number/Reasoning Smart) Logical-mathematical intelligence is the ability to calculate, quantify, consider propositions and hypotheses, and carry out complete mathematical operations. It enables us to perceive relationships and connections and to use abstract, symbolic thought; sequential reasoning skills; and inductive and deductive thinking patterns. Logical intelligence is usually well developed in mathematicians, scientists, and detectives. Young adults with lots of logical intelligence are interested in patterns, categories, and relationships. They are drawn to arithmetic problems, strategy games and experiments. 4. Existential Intelligence Sensitivity and capacity to tackle deep questions about human existence, such as the meaning of life, why do we die, and how did we get here. 5. Interpersonal Intelligence (People Smart†) Interpersonal intelligence is the ability to understand and interact effectively with others. It involves effective verbal and nonverbal communication, the ability to note distinctions among others, sensitivity to the moods and temperaments of others, and the ability to entertain multiple perspectives. Teachers, social workers, actors, and politicians all exhibit interpersonal intelligence. Young adults with this kind of intelligence are leaders among their peers, are good at communicating, and seem to understand others’ feelings and motives. 6. Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence (â€Å"Body Smart†) Bodily kinesthetic intelligence is the capacity to manipulate objects and use a variety of physical skills. This intelligence also involves a sense of timing and the perfection of skills through mind–body union. Athletes, dancers, surgeons, and craftspeople exhibit well-developed bodily kinesthetic intelligence. 7. Linguistic Intelligence (Word Smart) Linguistic intelligence is the ability to think in words and to use language to express and appreciate complex meanings. Linguistic intelligence allows us to understand the order and meaning of words and to apply meta-linguistic skills to reflect on our use of language. Linguistic intelligence is the most widely shared human competence and is evident in poets, novelists, journalists, and effective public speakers. Young adults with this kind of intelligence enjoy writing, reading, telling stories or doing crossword puzzles. 8. Intra-personal Intelligence (Self Smart†) Intra-personal intelligence is the capacity to understand oneself and one’s thoughts and feelings, and to use such knowledge in planning and directioning one’s life. Intra-personal intelligence involves not only an appreciation of the self, but also of the human condition. It is evident in psychologist, spiritual leaders, and philosophers. These young adults may be shy. They are very aware of their own feelings and are self-motivated. 9. Spatial Intelligence (â€Å"Picture Smart†) Spatial intelligence is the ability to think in three dimensions. Core capacities include mental imagery, spatial reasoning, image manipulation, graphic and artistic skills, and an active imagination. Sailors, pilots, sculptors, painters, and architects all exhibit spatial intelligence. Young adults with this kind of intelligence may be fascinated with mazes or jigsaw puzzles, or spend free time drawing or daydreaming. Three Aspects of Intelligence According to the triarchic theory, intelligence has three aspects: analytical, creative, and practical. Analytical intelligence. Analytical intelligence is involved when the components of intelligence are applied to analyze, evaluate, judge, or compare and contrast. It typically is involved in dealing with relatively familiar kinds of problems where the judgments to be made are of a fairly abstract nature. In one study, an attempt was made to identify the information-processing components used to solve analogies such as: A is to B as C is to: D1, D2, D3, D4 (e.g., lawyer is to client as doctor is to [a] nurse, [b] medicine, [c] patient, [d] MD). There is an encoding component, which is used to figure out what each word (e.g., lawyer) means, while the inference component is used to figure out the relation between lawyer and client. Research on the components of human intelligence has shown that although children generally become faster in information processing with age, not all components are executed more rapidly with age. The encoding component first shows a decrease in processing time with age, and then an increase. Apparently, older children realize that their best strategy is to spend more time in encoding the terms of a problem so that they later will be able to spend less time in making sense of these encodings. Similarly, better reasoners tend to spend relatively more time than do poorer reasoners in global, up-front metacomponential planning when they solve difficult reasoning problems. Poorer reasoners, on the other hand, tend to spend relatively more time in detailed planning as they proceed through a problem. Presumably, the better reasoners recognize that it is better to invest more time up front so as to be able to process a problem more efficiently later on. Creative intelligence. In work with creativeintelligence problems, Robert Sternberg and Todd Lubart asked sixty-three people to create various kinds of products in the realms of writing, art, advertising, and science. For example, in writing, they would be asked to write very short stories, for which the investigators would give them a choice of titles, such as Beyond the Edge or The Octopuss Sneakers. In art, the participants were asked to produce art compositions with titles such as The Beginning of Time or Earth from an Insects Point of View. Participants created two products in each domain. Sternberg and Lubart found that creativity is relatively, although not wholly, domain-specific. In other words, people are frequently creative in some domains, but not in others. They also found that correlations with conventional ability tests were modest to moderate, demonstrating that tests of creative intelligence measure skills that are largely different from those measured by conventional intelligence tests. Practical intelligence. Practical intelligence involves individuals applying their abilities to the kinds of problems that confront them in daily life, such as on the job or in the home. Much of the work of Sternberg and his colleagues on practical intelligence has centered on the concept of tacit knowledge. They have defined this construct as what one needs to know, which is often not even verbalized, in order to work effectively in an environment one has not been explicitly taught to work in–and that is often not even verbalized. Sternberg and colleagues have measured tacit knowledge using work-related problems one might encounter in a variety of jobs. In a typical tacit-knowledge problem, people are asked to read a story about a problem someone faces, and to then rate, for each statement in a set of statements, how adequate a solution the statement represents. For example, in a measure of tacit knowledge of sales, one of the problems deals with sales of photocopy machines. A relatively inexpensive machine is not moving out of the showroom and has become overstocked. The examinee is asked to rate the quality of various solutions for moving the particular model out of the showroom. Sternberg and his colleagues have found that practical intelligence, as embodied in tacit knowledge, increases with experience, but that it is how one profits, or learns, from experience, rather than experience per se, that results in increases in scores. Some people can work at a job for years and acquire relatively little tacit knowledge. Most importantly, although tests of tacit knowledge typically show no correlation with IQ tests, they predict job performance about as well as, and sometimes better than, IQ tests. In a study in Usenge, Kenya, Sternberg and colleagues were interested in school-age childrens ability to adapt to their indigenous environment. They devised a test of practical intelligence for adaptation to the environment that measured childrens informal tacit knowledge of natural herbal medicines that the villagers used to fight various types of infections. The researchers found generally negative correlations between the test of practical intelligence and tests of academic intelligence and school achievement. In other words, people in this context often emphasize practical knowledge at the expense of academic skills in their childrens development. In another study, analytical, creative, and practical tests were used to predict mental and physical health among Russian adults. Mental health was measured by widely used paper-and-pencil tests of depression and anxiety, while physical health was measured by self-report. The best predictor of mental and physical health was the practical-intelligence measure, with analytical intelligence being the second-best measure and creative intelligence being the third.

The Power of a Front-Yard Garden Essay -- Exploratory Essays Research

The Power of a Front-Yard Garden Instructor’s comment: This student worked hard to forge a straightforward journalistic style that was supple enough to accommodate moments of poetic perception. This essay is a beautiful piece. Written with hard-won simplicity, it’s alive with images, and brimming with information about the possibilities of front-yard gardening. They were out there almost every day. Not always the same ones. Once, a line of preschoolers came by. Holding hands in twos, name tags swinging from bright bits of yarn, they stopped and turned with military precision. Wide-eyed, they peered through the bars of the wrought iron fence to watch. This time, I looked up to see a mom and two little girls. I was pruning the lavender. â€Å"Hi! What’s this spiky green stuff? Look, little blue flowers!† As I broke off a prickly, pungent sprig of rosemary and held it out to them, I had to smile. I’d made a lot of friends while working this bit of ground. I was about to make three more. My front-yard garden didn’t grow friendships in the beginning. I still hear the disbelieving voices of my neighbors, on the day I marched out to do murder with a pitchfork and shovel. â€Å"You’re going to do what? Take out the lawn!† The Lawn: icon of gracious living, verdant goddess of suburban virtue. Gardeners pay weekly homage to it. Teen-age sons are indentured to it. Nothing spells success quite so well as that unwalkable surface of emerald velvet fronting a house. The lawn marks the difference between Us and Them. What would happen to a nice neighborhood if someone just up and decided to rip out the front lawn? Questions hung in the pale winter sunshine. My neighbors eyed me, wincing each time a shovel full ... ... Some came to ask for cuttings. They made their own changes. A lavender border edged a drive. A waterfall of prostrate rosemary cascaded from a planter box. Ideas blossomed from such small changes. Xeriscaping was becoming popular. Three more people actually removed their turf. In one drought-tolerant planting, a dry creek of river-rock wound its way through native perennials. Another front garden featured an old-fashioned wood glider-swing under a vine-covered trellis. My own garden continued to flourish. The neighbors came often. Smiles had replaced their worried frowns. Bob tumbled the walls of Jericho one morning when he brought his granddaughter to see the hummingbirds. Tiny Sarah said her first word there. â€Å"Kitty,† she pronounced. She stroked a furry leaf of peppermint geranium and nodded, brown curls bobbing. Laughing, she repeated, â€Å"Kitty.†

Why America Needs More City Parks and Open Space

The Benefits of Parks: Why America Needs More City Parks and Open Space BY Paul M. Sheerer Published by: 116 New Montgomery Street Fourth Floor San Francisco, CA 94105 (415) 495-4014 www. Tip. Org 02006 the Trust for Public Land – Reprint of â€Å"Parks for People† white paper, published In 2003. Table of Contents Forward: Will Rogers, President, Trust for Public Land 5 Executive Summary 6 America Needs More City Parks U. S. Cities Are Park-Poor Low-Income Neighborhoods Are Desperately Short of Park Space Case Study: New Parks for Los Angles The Public Wants More Parks 8History of America's City Parks: Inspiration, Abandonment, Revival The Decline of City Parks A Revival Begins Budget Crises Threaten City Parks 10 Public Health Benefits of City Parks and Open Space America's Twin Plagues: Physical Inactivity and Obesity Access to Parks Increases Frequency of Exercise Exposure to Nature and Greenery Makes People Healthier 12 Economic Benefits of Parks 14 Increased Proper ty Values Property Values in Low-Income Urban Areas Property Values at the Edges of Urban Areas Effects on Commercial Property Values Economic Revitalization: Attracting and Retaining Businesses and Residents TourismBenefits Environmental Benefits of Parks Pollution Abatement and Cooling Controlling Stemware Runoff 17 Social Benefits of Parks Reducing Crime Recreation Opportunities: The Importance of Play Creating Stable Neighborhoods with Strong Community 18 Conclusion 20 Notes 21 Bibliography 24 3 Forward At the turn of the 20th century, the majority of Americans lived in rural areas and small towns, relatively close to the land. At the beginning of the 21st century, 85 desperate need of places to experience nature and refresh ourselves in the out-of- doors.The emergence of America as an urban nation was anticipated by Frederick Law Limited and other 19th-century park visionaries, who gave us New Work's Central Park, San Franciscans Golden Gate Park, and similar grand parks in cit ies across the nation. They were gardeners and designers-but also preachers for the power of parks, fired from within by the understanding that they were shaping the quality of American lives for generations to come. In the view of these park visionaries, parks were not â€Å"amenities. They were necessities, providing recreation, inspiration, and essential respite from the city blare and bustle. And the visionaries were particularly concerned that parks be available to all of a city residents-especially those who did not have the resources to escape to the countryside. As population shifted to the suburbs after World War II, this vision of parks for all faded. Many cities lost the resources to create new parks. And in the new suburbs, the sprawling landscapes of curving CUL-De-sacs were broken mostly by boxy shopping centers and concrete parking lots.The time has come for Americans to rededicate themselves to the vision of parks for all the nation's people. As the action's leading conservation group creating parks in and around cities, the Trust for Public Land (TIP) has launched its Parks for People initiative in the belief that every American child should enjoy convenient access to a nearby park or playground. This white paper outlines how desperate the need is for city parks-especially in inner-city neighborhoods. And it goes on to describe the social, environmental, economic, and health benefits parks bring to a city and its people.TIP hopes this paper will generate discussion about the need for parks, prompt new research on the benefits f parks to cities, and serve as a reference for government leaders and volunteers as they make the case that parks are essential to the health and well-being of all Americans. You will find more information about the need for city parks and their benefits in the Parks for People section of Tap's Web site (www. Tip. Org/poor) where you can also sign-up for Parks for People information and support Tap's Parks for People wo rk.TIP is proud to be highlighting the need for parks in America's cities. Thanks for Joining our effort to ensure a park within reach of every American home. Will Rogers President, the Trust for Public Land City parks and open space improve our physical and psychological health, strengthen our communities, and make our cities and neighborhoods more attractive places to live and work. But too few Americans are able to enjoy these benefits. Eighty percent of Americans live in metropolitan areas, and many of these areas are severely lacking in park space.Only 30 percent of Los Angles residents live within walking distance mile. Low-income neighborhoods populated by minorities and recent immigrants are especially short of park space. From an equity standpoint, there is a strong need to redress this imbalance. In Los Angles, white neighborhoods enjoy 31. 8 acres of park space for every 1,000 people, compared with 1. 7 acres in African-American neighborhoods and 0. 6 acres in Latino neig hborhoods. This inequitable distribution of park space harms the residents of these communities and creates substantial costs for the nation as a whole.U. S. Voters have repeatedly shown their willingness to raise their own taxes to pay for new or improved parks. In 2002, 189 conservation funding measures appeared on ballots in 28 states. Voters approved three-quarters of these, generating $10 billion in conservation-related funding. Many of the nation's great city parks were built in the second half of the 19th century. Urban planners believed the parks would improve public health, relieve the stresses of urban life, and create a demonstrating public space where rich and poor would mix on equal terms.By the mid-20th century, city parks fell into decline as people fled inner cities for the suburbs. The suburbs fared no better, as people believed that backyards would meet the requirement for public open space. Over the past couple of decades, interest in city parks has revived. Gover nments and civic groups around the country have revalidated run-down city parks, built greengages along rivers, converted abandoned railroad lines to trails, and planted community gardens in vacant lots.But with the current economic downturn, states and cities facing severe budget crises are slashing their park spending, threatening the health of existing parks, and curtailing the creation of new parks. Strong evidence shows that when people have access to parks, they exercise more. Regular physical activity as been shown to increase health and reduce the risk of a wide range of diseases, including heart disease, hypertension, colon cancer, and diabetes. Physical activity also relieves symptoms of depression and anxiety, improves mood, and enhances psychological well-being.Beyond the benefits of exercise, a growing body of research shows that contact with the natural world improves physical and psychological health. Despite the importance of exercise, only 25 percent of American adu lts engage in the recommended levels of physical activity, and 29 percent engage in no leisure-time physical activity. The sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy diet of Americans have produced an epidemic of obesity. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has called for the creation of more parks and playgrounds to help fight this epidemic.Numerous studies have shown that parks and open space increase the value of neighboring residential property. Growing evidence points to a similar benefit on commercial property value. The availability of park and recreation facilities is an important quality-of-life factor for corporations choosing where to locate facilities and for well-educated individuals choosing a place to live. City parks such as San Notation's Riverview Park often become important tourism draws, contributing heavily Green space in urban areas provides substantial environmental benefits.Trees reduce air pollution and water pollution, they help keep cities cooler, and th ey are a more effective and less expensive way to manage stemware runoff than building systems of concrete sewers and drainage ditches. City parks also produce important social and community development benefits. They make inner-city neighborhoods more livable; they offer recreational opportunities for at-risk youth, low-income children, and low-income families; and they provide places n low-income neighborhoods where people can feel a sense of community.Access to public parks and recreational facilities has been strongly linked to reductions in crime and in particular to reduced Juvenile delinquency. Community gardens increase residents' sense of community ownership and stewardship, provide a focus for neighborhood activities, expose inner-city youth to nature, connect people from diverse cultures, reduce crime by cleaning up vacant lots, and build community leaders. In light of these benefits, the Trust for Public Land calls for a revival of the city parks movement of the late 19t h century.We invite all Americans to Join the effort to bring parks, open spaces, and greengages into the nation's neighborhoods where everyone can benefit from them. 7 The residents of many U. S. Cities lack adequate access to parks and open space near their homes. In 2000, 80 percent of Americans were living in metropolitan areas, up from 48 percent in 1940. 1 The park space in many of these metropolitan areas is grossly inadequate. In Atlanta, for example, parkland covers only 3. 8 percent of the city area.Atlanta has no public green space larger than one-third of a square mile. 2 The city has only 7. Acres of park space for every 1,000 residents, compared with a 19. 1 acre average for other medium-low population density cities. 3 The story is much the same in Los Angles, San Jose, New Orleans, and Dallas. Even in cities that have substantial park space as a whole, the residents of many neighborhoods lack access to nearby parks. In New York City, for example, nearly half of the c ity 59 community board districts have less than 1. 5 acres of parkland per 1,000 residents. Low-Income Neighborhoods Are Desperately Short of Park Space Low-income neighborhoods populated by minorities and recent immigrants are especially short f park space. Minorities and the poor have historically been shunted off to live on the wrong side of the tracks, in paved-over, industrialized areas with few public amenities. From an equity standpoint, there is a strong need to redress this imbalance. In Los Angles, white neighborhoods (where whites make up 75 percent or more of the residents) boast 31. 8 acres of park space for every 1,000 people, compared with 1. 7 acres in African-American neighborhoods and 0. Acres in Latino neighborhoods. 5 This inequitable distribution of park space harms the residents of are costs alone are potentially enormous. Lacking places for recreation, minorities and low-income individuals are significantly less likely than whites and high-income individuals t o engage in the regular physical activity that is crucial to good health. Among non-Hispanic white adults in the United States, 34. 9 percent engage in regular leisure-time physical activity, compared with only 25. 4 percent of non- Hispanic black adults and 22. 7 percent of Hispanic adults. And adults with incomes below the poverty level are three times as likely as high-income adults to never be physically active. Even where the government or voters have allocated new money for park acquisition, there is significant risk that wealthier and better-organized districts will grab more than their fair share. The Los Angles neighborhood of South Central-with the city second-highest prove- The Trust for Public Land TTY rate, highest share of children, and lowest access to nearby park space-received only about half as much per-child parks funding as affluent West Los Angles from Proposition K between 1998 and 2000. Case Study: New Parks for Los Angles With 28,000 people crammed into its o ne square mile of low-rise buildings, the city f Manhood in Los Angles County is the most densely populated U. S. City outside the New York City metropolitan area. 10 Its residents-96 percent are Hispanic and 37 percent are children-are often packed five to a bedroom, with entire families living in garages and beds being used on a time-share basis. The Trust for Public Land (TIP) has been working in Manhood since 1996 to purchase, assemble, and convert six separate former industrial sites into a seven-acre riverside park.The project will double Manhood's park space. 11 Before TIP began its work, the future park site was occupied by abandoned arouses and industrial buildings, covered in garbage, graffiti, rusted metal, and barrels of industrial waste. Until the late asses, the parcels contained a glue factory, a transfer facility for solvents, and a truck service facility; one parcel was designated an Environmental Protection Agency Superfine site. 12 TIP is preparing to acquire the final parcel and has developed preliminary designs for the site.The completed park will invite Manhood's residents to gather at its picnic benches, stroll its walking trails, relax on its lawns, and play with their children in its tot lot. The Manhood project is a precursor of Tap's Parks for People-Los Angles program, an ambitious new effort to create parks where they are most desperately needed. The case for more parks in Los Angles is among the most compelling of any American city today. Only 30 percent of its residents live within a quarter mile of a park, compared with between 80 percent and 90 percent in Boston and New York, respectively. 3 If these residents are Latino, African American, or Asian Pacific, they have even less access to green space. TIP has set a goal of creating 25 new open space projects in Los Angles over the would be invested in undeserved minority communities. To accomplish this goal, TIP will help these communities through the gauntlets of public and priv ate fundraising, real estate transactions, strategic planning, and stewardship issues. Los Angles is also the site of Tap's first application of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to assess the need for parks.TIP launched the GIS program in late 2001 in Los 9 O The Trust for Public Land Angles and has since expanded the program to New York, Lass Vegas, Boston, Charlotte, Miami, and Camden and Newark, New Jersey. Tap's GIS system uses census, anemographic and other data to map out areas of high population, concentrated poverty, and lack of access to park space. With GIS technology, TIP can now pinpoint the areas of fastest population growth, study landownership patterns, and acquire key parcels before development demand drives up property prices or destroys open space.Further, GIS helps TIP create contiguous park space, protecting natural habitats and connecting larger parks with linear greengages, rather than create a patchwork quilt of open space. 14 Voters have repeatedly show n their willingness to raise their own taxes to pay for new or improved parks. In the November 2002 elections, voters in 93 communities in 22 states approved ballot measures that committed $2. 9 billion to acquire and restore land for parks and open space.Voters approved 85 percent of such referendums in these elections. 1 5 Voter support in 2002 increased from the already strong 75 percent approval rate for similar measures in November 2001. 16 History of America's City Parks: Inspiration, Abandonment, Revival During the second half of the 19th century, American cities built grand city parks to improve their residents' quality of life. Dubbed 19th-century pleasure grounds by ark historians, the parks include New Work's Central Park and San Franciscans Golden Gate Park.Municipal officials of the time saw these parks as a refuge from the crowded, polluted, stressful cities-places where citizens could experience fresh air, sunshine, and the spiritually transforming power of nature; a place for recreation; and a demonstrating public space where rich and poor would mix on equal terms. The new parks were inspired by â€Å"an anti-urban ideal that dwelt on the traditional prescription for relief from the evils of the city-to escape to the country,† Galen Crane writes.The new American parks thus were conceived as great pleasure grounds meant to be pieces of the country, with fresh air, meadows, lakes, and sunshine right in the city. † 17 The Decline of City Parks spending on city parks declined. The well-to-do and white abandoned the cities for the suburbs, taking public funding with them. Cities and their parks fell into a spiral of decay. Cities cut park maintenance funds, parks deteriorated, and crime rose; many city dwellers came to view places like Central Park as too dangerous to visit. 18 The suburbs that mushroomed at the edges of major cities were often built with little public park space.For residents of these areas, a trip out of the house mea ns a drive to the shopping mall. Beginning around 1990, many city and town councils began forcing developers to add open space to their projects. Still, these open spaces are often effectively off-limits to the general public; in the vast sprawl around Lass Vegas, for example, the newer subdivisions often have open space at their centers, but these spaces are hidden inside a labyrinth of winding streets. Residents of older, low- and middle-income neighborhoods have to get in their cars (if they have one) and drive to find recreation space. 9 More recently, city parks have experienced something of a renaissance which has benefited cities unequally. The trend began in the asses and flourished in the asses as part of a general renewal of urban areas funded by a strong economy. It coincided with a philosophical shift in urban planning away from designing around the automobile and a backlash against the alienating modernism of mid-20th-century public architecture, in favor of public spac es that welcome and engage the community in general and the pedestrian in particular.Government authorities, civic groups, and private agencies around the country have worked together to revivalist UN-down city parks, build greengages along formerly polluted rivers, convert abandoned railroad lines to trails, and plant community gardens in vacant lots. The Park at Post Office Square in Boston shows how even a small but well-designed open space can transform its surroundings. Before work on the park began in the late asses, the square was filled by an exceptionally ugly concrete parking garage, blighting an important part of the financial district.Many buildings on the square shifted their entrances and addresses to other streets not facing the square. 20 Completed in 1992, the 1. -acre park is considered one of the most beautiful city parks in the United States. Its immaculate landscaping-with 125 species of plants, flowers, bushes, and trees-its half-acre lawn, its fountains, and i ts teak and granite benches lure throngs of workers during lunchtime on warm days.Hidden underneath is a seven-floor parking garage for 1,400 cars, which provides financial support for the park. 21 â€Å"It clearly, without any question, has enhanced and changed the entire neighborhood,† says Serge Denis, managing director of Lee Meridian Hotel Boston, which borders the park. â€Å"It's absolutely gorgeous. Not surprisingly, rooms 11 Yet despite such success stories, local communities often lack the transactional and development skills to effectively acquire property and convert it into park space.TIP serves a vital role in this capacity, working closely with local governments and community residents to determine where parks are needed; to help develop funding strategies; to negotiate and acquire property; to plan the park and develop it; and finally, to turn it over to the public. Between 1971 and 2002, the Trust for Public Land's work in cities resulted in the acquisition of 532 properties totaling 40,754 cress. In the nation's 50 largest cities TIP acquired 138 properties totaling 7,640 acres. 3 In the wake of the bursting of the economic bubble of the late asses, states and cities facing severe budget crises are slashing their park spending. With a projected $2. 4 billion budget shortfall in the two-year period beginning July 2003, Minnesota has cut its aid to local governments, hurting city park systems across the state. The Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board, confronting a 20 percent cut in its funding through 2004, has been forced to respond by deferring maintenance, closing wading lolls and beaches, providing fewer portable toilets, and reducing its mounted police patrol program.The required program cuts â€Å"represent a huge loss to the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board and to the children of Minneapolis,† says Park Board Superintendent Mary Merrill Anderson. 24 When Georgians state legislature went into session in January 2003, law makers found themselves grappling with a $650 million budget shortfall. Part of their response was to eliminate the planned $30 million in fiscal 2003 funding for the Georgia Community Greengages Program, after appropriating $30 million per fiscal year in 001 and 2002.The legislature also cut the 2004 budget from $30 million to $10 million. The program helps the state's fastest-growing counties set aside adequate green space-at least 20 percent of their land-amid all the new subdivisions and strip malls. Most of the affected counties are around Atlanta, among the nation's worst examples of urban sprawl. For legislators hunting for budget-cutting targets, Georgians $30 million Community Greengages Program â€Å"was like a buffalo in the middle of a group of chickens,† says David Swan, program director for Tap's Atlanta office.The cut â€Å"makes a compelling argument that we need a dedicated funding source, so that green space acquisition isn't depending on fiscal cycles and the legislature. â€Å"25 The federal government has also cut its city parks spending. In 1978, the federal government established the Urban Park and Recreation Recovery (PARR) program to help urban areas rehabilitate their recreational facilities. The program received no funding in fiscal year 2003, down from $28. 9 million in both 2001 and 2002. 26 President Bush's budget proposal for fiscal 2004 also allocates no PARR funding.