Judaism And Judaism - 2022 Words

I am writing my research paper over Judaism and the Holocaust. I think that Jewish religion is very interesting and I love learning about the Holocaust. I am going to start out by explaining the overview of some Jewish history and the four main branches. Judaism is known to be one of the oldest religions in the world today. Jewish history extends back though the ancient Israelite and Hebrew people to Abraham. The basic facts of Judaism are found in beliefs, history, and practices. Jewish beliefs begin with the conviction that there is only one God, who not only created the universe, but with whom every Jew can have an individual and personal relationship. This important truth is revealed through the sacred writings of men like Moses and the prophets, the most important of which is the Torah. In Judaism, religion isn’t one aspect of life, it is life. There are holidays and celebrations year round, like Passover and bar mitzvahs, to commemorate what God has done in the past and is doing in people’s lives today. In the beginning of the 21st century, around 14 million people identify themselves as Jews. And there are four main branches or denominations in Judaism, each of which has a different approaches to religious life. In North America today, the four main branches of Judaism are Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist. Within these denominations themselves, there is a great degree of variation in practice and observance. Orthodoxy is the modern classificationShow MoreRelatedJudaism And The Temple Of Judaism Essay2349 Words   |  10 Pagestopic of Judaism may come with stereotypical opinions and â€Å"Christian Judgement† that are without merit or understanding. Judaism, by a Christian worldview, had to change after Pentecost, since the animal sacrifice to atone for sin Christ completed on the Cross. However, Judaism does not accept this truth of Christ and His work on the cross, but Judaism remains in the world. So, what wa s this change in Judaism and when did it take place? There have been numerous fluctuations within Judaism, only theRead MoreJudaism : The Dynamic Nature Of Judaism957 Words   |  4 PagesJudaism The dynamic nature of Judaism offers a successful living religion as a result of its strongly withheld characteristics. Through essential characteristics such as central beliefs, sacred texts, writings, ethical teachings and rituals and ceremonies, Judaism offers a dynamic nature and liveable religion that connects an individual and society with its roots. The way this living religion advances and grows is because of its dynamic characteristics as a whole. Importantly, these characteristicsRead MoreJudaism s Views On Judaism949 Words   |  4 PagesJUDAISM First of all, before I begin with my research on Judaism, I did not consider that the Jews only believes in God. I thought that they accepted every word from the bible and that even though they have a Jewish calendar and different practices, that the bible that I use was quite similar with them with both Old Testament and New Testament. I knew that Judaism was the one of the oldest religions in the world that still exists today and was recorded in the bible. I had no indication that tellsRead MoreJudaism Vs. Christianity And Judaism1303 Words   |  6 PagesSherri Hollingsworth Archie Fugate ANT 130, 75Z1 November 10, 1015 Judaism vs. Christianity Christianity and Judaism are two religions that have similarities as well as differences. I plan to explore beliefs, religious ceremonies, and religious authorities in both Christianity and Judaism. Judaism originates from the time of Abraham and God made a covenant with Abraham promising him to make his ancestry a sacred people and provide them with a holy land. Meanwhile, Christianity derivesRead MoreModern Judaism And Traditional Judaism Essay2018 Words   |  9 Pages There is a fair amount of differences between modern and traditional Judaism. As this is the case, it is only natural that many well-known people in all walks of life can be considered â€Å"modern Jews.† This distinction is very important because as more famous people practice a more modern Jewish culture and lifestyle, more of the younger generations of the world quickly follow suit. Not only is modern Judaism accommodating towards modern scholarship, science, culture and a general modernity of theRead MoreModern Judaism And Traditional Judaism Essay2020 Words   |  9 Pages There are a fair amount of differences between modern and traditional Judaism. As this is the case it is only natural that many well-known people in all walks of life can be considered â€Å"modern Jews.† This distinction is very important because as more famous people practice a more modern Jewish culture and lifestyle, more of the younger generations of the world quickly follow suit. Not only is modern Judaism accommodating towards modern scholarship, science, culture and a general modernity of theRead MoreChristianity And Judaism : Christianity Vs. Judaism Essay1706 Words   |  7 PagesChristianity vs. Judaism â€Å"If you take away the Jewish contribution to Christianity, there would be no Christianity. Judaism does not need Christianity to explain its existence; Christianity, however, cannot explain its existence without Judaism.† – John Hagee This quote synthesizes that Judaism was a foundation of Christianity. This is the fundamental reason they are the same; however, there are numerous reasons Judaism and Christianity are different. Comparing how these two religions justify theRead MoreJudaism Essay943 Words   |  4 Pagesrise to Judaism after the destruction of the temple and the exile of Judah in 586 BC. The term Jew, in its biblical use, is almost exclusively postexilic. The Jewish religion of the biblical period evolved through such historical stages as the intertestamental, rabbinic, and medieval to the modern period of the nineteenth century with Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Judaism. Along the way Jewish religion took on new teachings and practices. But with the lengthy development of Judaism and itsRead MoreJudaism and Christianity1462 Words   |  6 Pages In a tree of monotheistic religions, Judaism and Christianity, despite sharing common roots and spiritual tradition associated with Abraham, for many centuries diverged and developed in their own distinct ways. The partition, based on different theological doctrines, evolves around the idea of the nature of human relationships with God, which in case of Judaism are based on the Law of Torah, and in Christianity stem from the belief in Jesus Christ and its cornerstone – the doctrine of TrinityRead MoreReform Judaism As Liberal And Progressive Judaism1837 Words   |  8 PagesReform Judaism also known as Liberal and Progressive Judaism is the large institutionalized religion that I chose. The locations that Reform Judaism is practiced in are 43 countries around the world and started in the Levant. They also have a headquarters in New York City, New York the Union for Reform Judaism, Central Conference of American Rabbis. â€Å"Reform Judaism emerged following the emancipati on from ghetto life in the late 18 th century. It sought to modernize Judaism and thus stem the tide

The Tyger By William Blake - 1168 Words

The coexistence of good and evil has caused many people throughout time to question their God and the way the world is. William Blake’s compilation of poems called the Songs of Innocence and Experience questions the good and evil in the daily lives of human beings. This collection of poems includes The Tyger, a partnered poem in the series with The Lamb. Blake offers a new way of interpreting God through His creations in The Tyger. Blake demonstrates the fierceness of the tyger’s creator throughout the poem. The tyger is viewed as a vicious creature that people view as a threat to their lives in many cases. A creature so evil to be created by a God depicted as loving baffles many people, Blake included it would seem. The narrator asks, â€Å"What immortal hand or eye / Could frame thy fearful symmetry?† (3, 4) This question is asked throughout Blake’s poem with the answer alluded to at the end. Blake wonders how the same God who made such a gentle lamb cou ld make such a frightening and blood thirsty creature like that of the evil tiger. The narrator uses imagery of the tiger being forged like one would forge a weapon. â€Å"What the hammer? what the chain? / In what furnace was thy brain?† (13, 14) These lines give an idea of the tiger being used as a weapon forged by God to show the power and fierceness that he holds. One may assume he forged such evil to strike fear and obedience in his followers. The image given to the reader is God as a blacksmith, hammering his creation in toShow MoreRelatedThe Tyger By William Blake Essay969 Words   |  4 PagesThe Tyger is a six-stanza poem written by an American poet, William Blake. This poem has many interpretation, in a way you could say it is a biblical as well as a symbolic poem, as ‘The Tyger’ is actually the contrast to one of Blake s other poem, The Lamb, both poems are from the book of â€Å"Songs of Innocence and Experience†. If you are familiar with the Christian Bible, it states â€Å"Jesus is the Lamb of God.† The Tyger is comprised of unanswered questions as to who could have created a terrifyingRead MoreWilliam Blake : The Tyger900 Words   |  4 PagesFerociously Created (Favorite Poem Written by William Blake: The Tyger) Poetry often has a way of speaking to certain people. Maybe not everyone can connect to every poem, but more so a specific poem. Maybe they can relate something that happened to them in their life that is similar to that in the poetry. Many times that is the case, sometimes others just simply like poems as well. They hear the words that it is saying and get exactly what it is trying to say and it speaks to them. This is a greatRead MoreThe Tyger By William Blake1290 Words   |  6 Pageswould place their trust in the blacksmith to forge high quality armour and weapons. The blacksmith was held in high regard for a lower-class citizen, and became a sort of anomaly in the hierarchy of a kingdom. William Blake evokes the image of a blacksmith as creator in his poem â€Å"The Tyger† to comment on the social and political situations of the times. He chooses a rough, rude and labour-driven artist as a way of rejecting the aesthetic features of art for more practical, albeit destruct ive formsRead MoreThe poem The Tyger by William Blake877 Words   |  3 PagesThese wise words of King James verse (1:5) of the bible portrays an underlying message that although we should follow in God’s path, we are not expected to follow blindly. Likewise, in the poem â€Å"The Tyger† by William Blake, it’s theme is a reflection of what this quote implies. Throughout this poem, Blake explores the possibility of questioning God while using the structure of the poem, as well as the irony of God’s character, and several sound devices in hopes of communicating a message, that to questionRead MoreThe Lamb And The Tyger By William Blake1330 Words   |  6 PagesWilliam Blake is an English poet, painter, and printmaker from the eighteenth century. With his unique way with words and mastery craftsmanship, he created an illustration collection of poems called Songs of Innocence and Experience in 1789. His most famous poems from Songs of Innocence and Experie nce are â€Å"The Lamb and The Tyger†. These poems use animals to attest to God’s role as the Creator, yet they possess contrasting tones and language of the speaker and present conflicting views of God’s powerRead MoreWilliam Blake s The Tyger1132 Words   |  5 PagesWilliam Blake’s â€Å"The Tyger† and Tragedies William Blake wrote a set of poems in his collection Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. Some of the poems in each collection were meant to be read together to show the difference between innocence and experience. Many people question why Blake wrote a two part series to his poems and what they could actually mean. Two specific poems, â€Å"The Lamb† and â€Å"The Tyger,† were meant to be read together. â€Å"The Lamb† is a part of Blake’s Songs of Innocence andRead MoreThe Lamb And The Tyger By William Blake996 Words   |  4 Pagescreated, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible† (Colossians 1:16). William Blake wrote poems about this very subject. In his twin poems, â€Å"The Lamb† and â€Å"The Tyger†, Blake uses different literary techniques such as sound, imagery and symbolism to echo the common theme of creation along with how it is viewed differently. William Blake’s use of sound in his poems, â€Å"The Lamb† and â€Å"The Tyger†, enhance the central idea of creation and the question of how one God can create such differentRead MoreSymbolism In The Tyger By William Blake901 Words   |  4 Pagespower must be brought into question. William Blake’s poem â€Å"The Tyger† accurately portrays this reality and brings this thinking of God into the light with his poem. In â€Å"The Tyger†, William Blake uses rhyme scheme, figurative language, and symbolism to convey the question of why God would allow for there to be evil, and create evil Himself. Blake’s use of rhyme scheme throughout the poem adds a rhythm and set pattern in the poem. For example, in â€Å"The Tyger†, Blake uses the rhyme scheme AABB throughoutRead MoreThe Tyger And The Lamb By William Blake991 Words   |  4 Pagesand event that has ever existed may have had bad effects in one situation, but good effects for another situation. And every human, by extension, has aspects about them that can be viewed as both good and evil. In his poems, â€Å"The Tyger† and, â€Å"The Lamb†, author William Blake explores the ideas of duality, and how each thing must have an equal opposite. He uses both these poems to further ruminate on this dichotomy and brings up many questions in the context of religion. He seeks to point out that inRead MoreThe Lamb and The Tyger by William Blake Essay1758 Words   |  8 Pages William Blake, a unique poet of the literary canon, is one of the most critiqued poets of all time. Having a rather unique stylistic approach to topics, especially religion, Blake seems to contradict himself in his own writing and, therefore, sparks questions in the readers’ minds on specific subjects. Two of his poems in particular have been widely critiqued and viewed in various lights. â€Å"The Tyger,† written in 1774, and â€Å"The Lamb,† written five years later in 1789, are considered companion poems

The Return Midnight Chapter 15 Free Essays

string(142) " girls were marched into another building, this one fil ed with pal ets, smal er and not so comfortable-looking as Bonnie’s at the inn\." Bonnie woke slowly, coming up from some dark place. Then she wished she hadn’t. She was in some out-of-doors place – only buildings blocked the horizon where the sun hung forever. We will write a custom essay sample on The Return: Midnight Chapter 15 or any similar topic only for you Order Now Around her were a lot of other girls, al approximately her own age. That was puzzling, first of al . If you took a random sampling of females off the street there would be little girls crying for their mothers, and there would be mother-aged women taking care of them. There might be a few older women. This place looked more like – – oh, God, it looked like one of those slave warehouse places that they had had to pass the last time they had come to the Dark Dimension. The ones that Elena had ordered them not to look at or listen to. But now Bonnie felt sure she was inside one herself, and there was no way not to look at the Stillfaces, at the terrified eyes, at the quivering mouths around her. She wanted to speak, to find the way – there would have to be a way, Elena would insist – to get out. But first she gathered al the Power at her command, wrapped it into a cry, and soundlessly screamed Damon! Damon! Help! I really need you! Al she heard in return was silence. Damon! It’s Bonnie! I’m at a slave warehouse! Help! Suddenly she had a hunch, and lowered her psychic barriers. She was instantly crushed. Even here, at the edge of the city, the air was choked ful of long messages and short: cries of impatience, or camaraderie, of greeting, of solicitation. Longer, less impatient conversations about things, instructions, teasings, stories. She couldn’t keep up with it. It turned into a menacing wave of psychic sound that was curled like a wave about to break over her head, to crush her into a mil ion pieces. And then, all of a sudden, the telepathic melee vanished. Bonnie was able to focus her eyes on a blond girl, a little older than her and about four inches taller. â€Å"I said, are you okay?†the girl was repeating – obviously she’d been saying it for a while. â€Å"Yes,†Bonnie said automatically. No! Bonnie thought. â€Å"You might want to get ready to move. They’ve sounded the first dinnertime whistle, but you looked so out of it, I waited for the second one.† What am I supposed to say? Thank you seemed safest. â€Å"Thanks,†Bonnie said. Then her mouth said all on its own, â€Å"Where am I?† The blond girl looked surprised. â€Å"The depot for runaway slaves, of course.† Well, that was that. â€Å"But I didn’t run away,†she protested. â€Å"I was going right back after I got a sugarplum.† â€Å"I don’t know about that. I was trying to run away, but they finally caught me.†The girl slammed one fist into an open hand. â€Å"I knew I shouldn’t have trusted that litter carrier. Carried me right to the authorities and me blind and without a clue.† â€Å"You mean you had the litter curtains down – ?†Bonnie was asking, when a shril whistle interrupted her. The blond girl took hold of her arm and began dragging her away from the fence. â€Å"That’s the second service dinnertime whistle – we don’t want to miss that, because after that they shut us up for the night. I’m Eren. Who’re you?† â€Å"Bonnie.† Eren snorted and grinned. â€Å"All right by me.† Bonnie allowed herself to be led up a dirty stairway and into a dirty cafeteria. The blond girl, who seemed to regard herself as Bonnie’s keeper, handed her a tray, and pushed her along. Bonnie didn’t get any choice in what she was to have, not even to veto the noodles that were squirming slightly, but she did manage to snatch an extra bread rol in the end. Damon! Nobody was tel ing her not to send a message, so she kept on doing it. If she was going to be punished, she thought defiantly, she was going to be punished for trying to get out of here. Damon, I’m in a slave warehouse! Help me! Blond Eren grabbed a spork, so Bonnie did too. There were no knives. There were thin napkins, which relieved Bonnie, because that was where the Squirmy Noodles were going to end up. Without Eren, Bonnie would never have found a place at the tables, which were crammed with young girls eating. â€Å"Shove over, shove over,†Eren kept saying, until there was room for Bonnie and her. Dinner was a test of Bonnie’s courage – and also of how loud she could scream. â€Å"Why are you doing all this for me?†she shouted into Eren’s ear, when a lul in the deafening conversation gave her a chance. â€Å"Oh, Well, you being a redhead and all – it put me in mind of Aliana’s message, you know. To the reall Bonny.†She pronounced it oddly, sort of swall owing the y, but at least it wasn’t Bonna. â€Å"Which of them? Which message, I mean?†Bonnie screamed. Eren gave her an are you kidding look. â€Å"Help when you can, shelter when you have room, guide when you know where to go,†she said in a sort of impatient chant, then looked chagrined and added, â€Å"And be patient with the slow.†She attacked her food with an air of having said everything there was to say. Oh, boy, Bonnie thought. Somebody had really taken the balland run with it. Elena had never said any of those things. Yeah, but – but maybe she’d lived them, Bonnie thought, a tingling breaking out all over her body. And maybe somebody had seen her and made up the words. For instance, that crazy-looking guy she’d given her ring or bracelet or something to. She’d given her earrings away to people with signs, too. Signs that said: POETRY FOR FOOD. The rest of dinner was a matter of picking up food with the spork and not looking at it, crunching it once, and then deciding whether to spit into her Still-writhing napkin, or to try to swallow without tasting. Afterward the girls were marched into another building, this one fil ed with pal ets, smal er and not so comfortable-looking as Bonnie’s at the inn. You read "The Return: Midnight Chapter 15" in category "Essay examples" She was now horrified at herself for leaving that room. There she had had safety, she had had food that she could actual y eat, she had had entertainment – even the Dustbins were clothed in a golden glow of remembrance now – and she had had the chance of Damon finding her. Here she had nothing. But Eren seemed to have some mesmeric influence on the girls around, or else they al were Aliana-ites too, because when she shouted â€Å"Where’s a pal et? I’ve got a new girl in my bedroom. Think she’s gonna sleep on the bare floor?†And eventual y, a dusty pal et was passed hand over hand into Eren’s â€Å"bedroom† – a group of pal ets al spread with the heads together in the middle. In exchange, Eren handed over the wriggling napkin Bonnie had given her. â€Å"Share and share alike,†she said firmly, and Bonnie wondered if she thought Aliana had said that, too. A whistle shril ed. â€Å"Ten minutes until lights-out,†a hoarse voice shouted. â€Å"Every girl not on her pal et in ten minutes wil be punished. Tomorrow section C goes up.† â€Å"All right! We’re going to be bloody deaf before we’re sold,†Eren muttered. â€Å"Before we’re sold?†Bonnie repeated stupidly, even though she had known what would happen from the first moment she had recognized this as a warehouse for slaves. Eren turned and spat. â€Å"Yeah,†she said. â€Å"So you can have one more breakdown and then that’s it. Only two per customer, and by tomorrow you may wish you’d saved one up.† â€Å"I wasn’t going to have a breakdown,†Bonnie said, with al the courage at her command. â€Å"I was going to ask how we’re going to be sold. Is it at one of those horrible public places, where you have to stand in front of a crowd in just a shift?† â€Å"Yeah, that’s what most of us wil be doing,†a young girl, who had been crying quietly through dinner and the pal et-arranging time, spoke up in a soft voice. â€Å"But the ones they pick out as special items wil have to wait. They’l give us a bath and special clothes, but it’s al just so we look more presentable for the clients. So the clients can inspect us more closely.†She shuddered. â€Å"You’re frightening the new girl, Mouse,†Eren scolded. â€Å"We cal her Mouse, because she’s always so scared,†she told Bonnie. Bonnie silently screamed, Damon! Damon was decked out in his new captain of the guard suit. It was nice, being black on black, with lighter black piping (even Damon recognized the necessity of contrast). It had a cloak. And he was a ful vampire again, as powerful and prestigious as even he could have imagined. For a moment he simply luxuriated in the feeling of a job well done. Then he flexed his vampire muscles more strongly, urging Jessalyn, who was upstairs, into deeper sleep, while he sent tendrils of Power al over the Dark Dimension, sampling what was going on in different districts. Jessalyn†¦now there was a dilemma. Damon had the feeling that he should leave her a note or something, but he wasn’t quite sure what to say. What could he tel her? That he was gone? She would see that for herself. That he was sorry? Well, obviously he wasn’t so sorry that he’d chosen not to go. That he had duties elsewhere? Wait. That might actual y work. He could tel her that he needed to check up on her territory and that if he were to stay here in the castle he doubted he’d ever get anything done. He could tel her he’d be back†¦soon. Soonish. Soonishly. Damon pressed his tongue against a canine and felt the prompt rewarding sharpness and length. He real y wanted to try out those legendary Black Ops vs. vampires programs. He wanted to hunt, period. Of course, there was so much Black Magic wine about the place that when he stopped a male servant and asked for some, the servant had brought a magnum. Damon had been having flutes every now and then, but what he real y wanted was to go hunting. And not to hunt a slave and certainly not an animal, and it hardly seemed fair to wander the streets on the chance that there was a noblewoman to get to know better. It was at that moment that he remembered Bonnie. In a matter of three more minutes he had everything he needed to do wrapped up, including the annual delivery of dozens of roses to the princess in his name. Jessalyn had given him a very liberal al owance, and already advanced for the first month. In a matter of five minutes he was flying, though that was very bad manners on the street, and doubly so in a market district. In a matter of fifteen minutes he had his hands around the landlady’s neck, the one whom he had paid very well to make sure that exactly what had happened never happened. In sixteen minutes, the landlady was grimly offering him the life of her young and not very intel igent slave as recompense. He was Stillwearing his captain of guard suit. He could have the boy to kil , to torture, whatever†¦he could have the money back†¦ â€Å"I don’t want your filthy slave,†he snarled. â€Å"I want my own back! She’s worth†¦Ã¢â‚¬ Here he came to a stop, trying to calculate how many ordinary girls Bonnie was worth. A hundred? A thousand? â€Å"She is worth infinitely more – â€Å"he began, when the landlady surprised him by interrupting. â€Å"Why’d you leave her in a dump like this, then?†she said. â€Å"Oh, yes, I know what my own lodgings are like. If she was so damn precious, why’d you leave her here?† Why had he left her in this place? Damon couldn’t think now. He’d been panicked, half out of his mind – that was what being human had done to him. He’d been thinking only about himself, while little Bonnie – fragile Bonnie, his little redbird – had been shut up in this filthy place. He didn’t want to keep thinking about it. It made him feel searing hot and icy cold at once. He demanded that a search be made of al the neighborhood buildings. Someone had to have seen something. Bonnie had been awakened too early and parted from Eren and Mouse. She immediately had an urge to lose control, to have a breakdown at once. She was shivering al over. Damon! Help me! Then she saw a girl who couldn’t seem to get up off her pal et and saw a woman with arms like a man’s go over with a white ash rod to administer punishment. And then something seemed to go blank in Bonnie’s mind. Elena or Meredith might have tried to stop the woman, or even this huge machine they were caught in, but Bonnie couldn’t. The only thing she could do was try not to have a breakdown. She had a song stuck in her head, not even a song she liked, but it repeated endlessly over and over as the slaves around her were dehumanized, broken into mechanical, but clean, mindless bodies. She was being scrubbed mercilessly by two muscular women whose whole life doubtless consisted of scrubbing grimy street girls into pink cleanliness – at least for a night. But final y her protests led the women to actual y look at her – with her fair, almost translucent skin scrubbed raw – and concentrate instead on washing her hair, which felt as if it were being pul ed out at the roots. Final y, though, she was done and was given an adequate towel with which to dry off. Next, in what she was realizing was a giant assembly line, were kinder plump women who stripped off the towel and proceeded to put her on a couch and massage her with oil. Just when she was starting to feel better she was hustled up to have the oil removed, except that which had soaked into her skin. Women then appeared who measured her, cal ing out the numbers as they did, and by the time Bonnie had tramped to the wardrobe station, three dresses were waiting for her on a bar. There was a black one, a green one, and a gray one. I’l get the green for sure because of my hair, Bonnie thought blankly, but after she had tried al three on, a woman took the green and gray away, leaving Bonnie in a little black bubble dress, strapless, with a glittery touch of white material at the neck. Next was a giant sanitary room, where her dress was careful y covered with a white paper robe that kept ripping. She was led to a chair with a hair dryer and the rudiments of makeup, which a white-shirted woman used to put too much on Bonnie’s face. Then the hair dryer was swung over her head, and Bonnie, with a stolen tissue, took off as much makeup as she dared. She didn’t want to look good, didn’t want to be sold. When she finished she had silvery eyelids, a touch of blush, and velvety rose-red lipstick that wouldn’t wipe off. After that she just sat and finger-combed her hair until it was dry, which the ancient machine announced with a ping. The next station was a bit like the day after Thanksgiving at a big shoe store. The stronger or more determined girls managed to wrench shoes away from their weaker sisters and jammed them on one foot, only to start the process again the next minute. Bonnie was lucky. She saw a tiny black shoe that had a faintly silvery bow coming down the ramp and kept her eye on it while it passed from girl to girl until someone dropped it and then she swooped in and tried it on. She didn’t know what she would have done if it hadn’t fit. But it did fit, and she went to the next station to get its mate. As she sat waiting, other girls were trying on perfume. Bonnie saw two entire bottles go down the bodices of girls and wondered if they meant to sel them or try to poison themselves with them. There were also flowers. Bonnie was already dizzy with perfume and had decided not to wear any, but a tal woman bel owed over her head and a garland of freesia was pinned to frame her curls, without anyone asking her permission. The last station was the hardest to bear. She had on no jewelry and would have worn only one bracelet with the dress. But she was given two: slim unbreakable plastic bracelets, each with a number on it – her identity from now on, she was told. Slave bracelets. She had now been washed, packaged, and stamped, so that she could be conveniently sold. Damon! she cried voicelessly, but something had died inside her, and she knew now that her cal s would not be answered. â€Å"She was picked up as a runaway slave and confiscated,†the sweetshop man told Damon impatiently. â€Å"And that’s al I know.† Damon was left with a feeling he didn’t often have. Sickening terror. He was real y beginning to believe that this time he had cut it too fine; that he would be too late to save his redbird. That any of several dreadful scenarios might have played out before he got to her. He couldn’t stand to visualize them in detail. What he would do if he didn’t find her in time†¦ He reached out and without the slightest effort gripped the sweetshop man around the throat, lifting him off the floor. â€Å"We need to have a little chat,†he said, turning the ful force of his menacing dark eyes on the bulging ones of his prey. â€Å"About just how she got confiscated. Don’t struggle. If you haven’t hurt the girl, you’ve got nothing to fear. If you have†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He pul ed the terrified man completely across the counter and said very softly, â€Å"If you have, then, by al means struggle. It won’t make any difference in the end – if you know what I mean?† The girls were put into the largest carriages Bonnie had yet seen in the Dark Dimension, three slim girls to a seat and two sets of seats in a carriage. She got a nasty jolt, though, when instead of going forward like a carriage, the whole thing was lifted straight up by sweaty male slaves straining at poles. It was a giant litter and Bonnie immediately snatched off her freesia garland and buried her nose in it. It had the added function of hiding her tears. â€Å"Do you have any idea of how many homes and dancing rooms and hal s and theaters there are where girls are being sold tonight?†The golden-haired Guardian looked at him sardonical y. â€Å"If I knew that,†Damon said with a cold and ominous smile, â€Å"I wouldn’t be here asking you.† The Guardian shrugged. â€Å"Our job is real y only to try to keep the peace here – and you can see how well we succeed. It’s a matter of too few of us; we’re insanely understaffed. But I can give you a list of the venues where girls are being sold. Still, as I said, I doubt you’l be able to find your runaway before morning. And by the way, we’l have an eye on you, because of your little query. If your runaway wasn’t a slave, she’s Imperial property – no humans are free here. If she was, and you freed her, as reported by the baker across the street – â€Å" â€Å"Sweet-sel er.† â€Å"Whatever. Then he had a right to use a stun gun when she ran. Better for her, real y, than being Imperial property; they tend to char, if you get my drift. That level’s a long way down.† â€Å"But if she was a slave – my slave†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Then you can have her. But there’s a certain mandatory punishment set before you can have her. We want to discourage this kind of thing.† Damon looked at her with eyes that made her shrink and look away, abruptly losing her authority. â€Å"Why?†he demanded. â€Å"I thought you claimed to be from the other Court. You know. The Celestial one?† â€Å"We want to discourage runaways because there’ve been so many since some girl named Alianna came around,†the Guardian said, her frightened pulse visible in her temple. â€Å"And then they get caught and have even more reason to try it again†¦and it wears out the girl, eventual y.† There was no one in the Great Hal when Bonnie and the others were hustled off the giant litter and into the building. â€Å"It’s a new one, so it’s not on the lists,†Mouse said, unexpectedly at her shoulder. â€Å"Not that many people wil know about it, so it doesn’t fil up til late, when the music gets loud.† Mouse seemed to be clinging to her for comfort. That was fine, but Bonnie needed some comfort of her own. The next minute she saw Eren and, dragging Mouse behind her, headed for the blond girl. Eren was standing with her back against the wal . â€Å"Well, we can stand around like wal flowers,†she said, as a few men came in, â€Å"or we can look like we’re having the best time of any of them right here by ourselves. Who knows a story?† â€Å"Oh, I do,†Bonnie said absently, thinking of the star bal with its Five Hundred Stories for Young Ones. Instantly there was a clamor. â€Å"Tel it!†Ã¢â‚¬ Yes, please tel !† Bonnie tried to think of the fairy tales that she had experienced. Of course. The one about the kitsune treasure. How to cite The Return: Midnight Chapter 15, Essay examples

The History, Effect, and Cost of Drug Trafficking on Society Research Paper Example

The History, Effect, and Cost of Drug Trafficking on Society Paper When one hears the term drug trafficking, the image of guns, goons, and gold immediately enter the imagination. This is the image portrayed in Hollywood films regarding the trade and it carries a semblance of truth. Drug trafficking does have varied meanings though. I could mean the illegal smuggling of drugs from one country to another or the illegal sale of a controlled substance. In truth, the word carries a more intricate and expansive meaning. Drug trafficking covers the manufacture, sale, as well as the importation and exportation the illegal or controlled substances between national borders or countries. These are the areas covered by the national agencies of various countries enjoined in the fight to end global drug trafficking. Drug trafficking is a multi billion dollar industry that covers the entire globe. There is no possibility of totally eradicating a problem that has the all the nations in the world cooperating in a concerted effort to end the drug trade. It is an admitted fact that drugs are an important part of the evolution and lengthening of mans life. All prescription and over the counter drugs are regulated by government screening agencies in order to protect the patients, it is this protection that disappears when illegal drugs are bought and sold in the drug market. We even have legal yet harmless drugs such as caffeine readily available for that instant buzz when we need it anywhere in the world. In order to understand how and why the problem of drug trafficking has gotten out of hand, we must first understand the history of the problem. Some of the earliest recorded historical data on legalized drug trafficking can be traced back to 19th century Britain. We will write a custom essay sample on The History, Effect, and Cost of Drug Trafficking on Society specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The History, Effect, and Cost of Drug Trafficking on Society specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The History, Effect, and Cost of Drug Trafficking on Society specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer This was a time in their history when they used Opium as a trading commodity with China. In exchange for Opium, the Chinese would give them tea and silk. By the 20th century, certain countries, such as the United States, and again, Great Britain, redefined their positions on drug use although it still had not evolved into the definition as we know it to be today. From this point on, the international drug trade began its evolution into the system that we recognize today with its fastest changes happening between 1970-1980. Due to the vast network of the drug trade and various monetary denominations used in paying for it, it is really impossible to have a definite declaration as to how much is really involved in this type of trading. It is, however, safe to assume that it is a multi-billion dollar industry spanning the globe. Illegal drugs are mostly developed in the third world countries and exported under the cover of darkness to the more developed counterparts for distribution. An example of this scenario would be drugs developed in Mexico and other Latin American countries like Costa Rica, would find its way into the United States. Due to the complexity of the global drug cartel, drug trafficking has become a problem that each country affected by the problem deals with on a country to country basis. This has been the situation for some time now because of the way countries view their drug problem. To quote an article from Parliamentary Information and Research service (Library of Parliament, 2003) A number of politicians in Latin America and elsewhere have argued that close international cooperation to address the drug trade would endanger national â€Å"sovereignty. † Because Europeans have long claimed that most drugs were only â€Å"passing through,† stopping the traffic was given a low priority. The United States considers itself the victim country in this scenario. This is why the country has always tried to set the path towards dealing with the problem. This is usually accomplished using bilateral agreements between nations. In their report for the Parliamentary Information and Research Service titled Illegal Drugs and Trafficking, authors Diane Leduc and James Lee (Leduc Lee. 2002) both noted that as of February 2002, President Bush had unveiled a new National Drug Control Strategy, based on three core principles: (1) stopping drug use before it starts; (2) healing America’s drug users; and (3) disrupting the market [for illegal drugs]. They further say that this strategy was set into motion in order to emphasize a balance between supply and demand reduction efforts. † Meaning that the U. S. will try to reduce the demand for drugs by preventing its entry and providing treatment for existing addicts while concentrating on stopping the inflow of the drugs into the country. The United Nations itself has been at the forefront of addressing the problem of drug trafficking by enacting various anti drug trafficking agreements since the 1960s. The founding of the United Nations Fund for Drug Abuse Control (UNFDAC) in 1971, with the support of United States, Germany, Sweden and Norway. Before World War II became a major battle, the United States saw its first battle when there was a surge of a drug epidemic at the start of the 20th century. This caused the government to take action by instructing domestic law enforcement to prevent the spread of opium and coca crops throughout the states. Due to the turbulent times during the sixties, the youth of that generation began dabbling in drugs like marijuana, amphetamines, and psychedelics. Due to the rising levels of drug use and emergence of new designer drugs like cocaine and crack, a drug culture came to being and in 1973 the creation of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration hoped to squash this underground society that dwelled on substance abuse. The mission objective of this agency was to enforce federal drug laws. The DEA as the agency came to known has had to face challenge after challenge in its quest to end drug trafficking. Drug trafficking has evolved into an arm of organized crime backed before by American criminals, into organizations that take their orders from overseas bosses who have a finger in the drug trade in the United States. The United States faces the biggest problem in dealing with the problem of drug trafficking due to the problem they have when it comes to protecting the border from Mexico. According to the statement made by DEA Administrator Donnie R. Marshall before the U. S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime (DEA Statement, 2001) dated March 29, 2001 Illicit drugs are smuggled in record levels into the United States via the 2,000-mile U. S. /Mexico border. Over the past few years, Mexican based trafficking organizations have succeeded in establishing themselves as the preeminent poly-drug traffickers of the world, using our shared border to smuggle illicit drugs into the United States. These organizations present an increasing threat to the national security of this country, with voluminous amount of drugs, violent crime, and the associated corruption of public officials in Mexico. Mexico is the largest transshipment point of South American cocaine destined for the United States, and 65% of this cocaine reaches American cities via the U. S. /Mexico border. Mexico also remains a major source country for heroin and marijuana, and many of these Mexican based trafficking organizations are utilized by Colombian Cartels to transship drugs destined for the United States. It is difficult to control the entrance of illegal drugs into the country because the drug traffickers can camouflage their illegal substances in any of the container loads legally entering the country. There are various ways that drug traffickers can use in order to get their drugs into the country. According to the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA, 2004) Criminal groups operating from South America smuggle cocaine and heroin into the United States via a variety of routes, including land routes through Mexico, maritime routes along Mexicos east and west coasts, sea routes through the Caribbean, and international air corridors. Furthermore, criminal groups operating from neighboring Mexico smuggle cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, amphetamine, and marijuana into the United States. These criminal groups have smuggled heroin and marijuana across the Southwest Border and distributed them throughout the United States since the 1970s. In addition to distributing cocaine and methamphetamine in the West and Midwest, these Mexico-based groups now are attempting to expand the distribution of those drugs into eastern U. S. markets. Drugs manufactured in Western Europe such as Ecstasy get smuggled in via carriers on commercial flights or courier services. New York City is also a well-known distribution hub for drugs coming from Southeast and Southwest Asia. There is also a domestic drug developing market within the United States that produces marijuana, methamphetamine, PCP, and LSD. These backyard traffickers usually cater to the less moneyed high school and college crowds. In areas where drug use is rampant, such as the smaller cities and suburbs, there is an equivalent rise in criminal activities of the youth in that sector. It is believed that 65 % of cocaine orders get smuggled into the United States via the U. S. Mexico border. This supply is usually sourced from Colombia, the country that controls the supply of cocaine worldwide and has the capability to move the product by any means necessary. The Colombian cartel directly runs their US operations through a vast network of connections that sometimes include money laundering. The Colombian dealers have seemingly increased their confidence and support for their Mexican counterparts though and have, over some time, allowed Mexican cartels to make their presence felt in the drug trafficking world, specifically, in the United States. Basically though, the Colombians and Mexicans have divided their drug trafficking kingdom in the United States as they realized that by dividing the market, they lessened the danger of being discovered through their financial dealings with their distributors. Colombia now controls the eastern seaboard composed of Boston, Miami, Newark, New York, and Philadelphia. On the other side, Mexico controls the western and midwestern United States composed of Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle. According to research by Turning Point, a social care organization featured in the article Hunting Britains Mister Cocaine, written by Tim Bouquet (Boquet, 2007) , In Colombia one kilo of Coca leaves costs a shade over $2. Turned into Cocaine it costs $2000 a kilogram. In Asia one gram of crack in the streets retails for about $120-200. The street name for Cocaine is Crack, taken from the sound the substance makes once it is smoked. It leaves users with an immediate but short-lived high. Users try to extend the high by using more of the drug in increasing amounts until the addiction becomes an uncontrollable urge. Of all the drugs in the streets of the United States, the illegal substance whose propagation has become harder and harder to control over the decades has to be Cocaine. This is because of the entrance of the Dominican drug traffickers into the market with the support of their Colombian counterparts. Street-level distribution of that specific drug is solely the Colombian cartels area. This cartel is proven to be controlling mostly the areas from New England to New York City with the Mexicans being the moving force behind the regular supply transported to New York since the 1990s. Exactly how much does Cocaine cost? Mexico is slowly coming into its own as a country with its own organized crime syndicates. Their drug cartels are regularly gaining more responsibility for the drug trafficking trade into the U. S. as their Colombian counterparts slowly shy away from the U. S. market. The reason for the shift is believed to be the law passed in 1997 by the Colombian National Assembly that imposes repercussions such as the prospect of extradition for overt acts committed on or after the date (December 17, 1997) that the extradition amendment went into effect. With that law in place in their own country, the Colombian drug cartel had to hedge their bets and let someone else take over the market for them. The drug cartels now faced the reality that they had to lessen the chances of the U. S. government gathering any evidences against them that could support an extradition request on the part of the United States government. I am sure that by now, you are already wondering as to how the cocaine manages to make it into the United States then. The travel of cocaine from Columbia to the United States all starts at the Eastern Pacific Ocean. An estimation by various law enforcement agencies in the United States indicates that about 65 % of Cocaine passes through the Central American Mexico border via fishing ships in the area of the Eastern Pacific. The route used is most likely Columbia Mexico or Yucatan Peninsula. There are also some minor routes that can be used which pass through Caribbean; Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti. Haiti is also a fast growing drug trafficking area due to the unsecured political and social situation that exists in the country and continues to get worse every day. Usually though, Haiti serves as a mid shipment point for any cocaine heading for the eastern markets in the United States. Aside from Haiti, other growing threats to the drug trafficking trade and route are the Jamaicans, whose primary market are the Canadian, European, and a portion of the U. S. market. With all of these known facts, one will be led to ponder the question, What can we as a people or as a government do to end drug trafficking in our country? This is a cliche but it is the sad truth that pertains to drug trafficking, ending drug trafficking is easier said than done. This is not to say though that the government of the Unites States has not taken steps to try to lessen, if not eradicate the drug trafficking on American shores.

Data Mining in CRM Framework Essay

Data Mining in CRM Framework Essay Data Mining in CRM Framework Management Essay Data Mining in CRM Framework Management Essay Data mining can be used to enhance customer relation management. The technique can be used to identify the trends in key business indicators. To do this, the customers will be classified into several clusters using the RFM model in order to identify high value customers. Data mining will be undertaken through association rules algorithms. Data Mining in CRM Framework for a Health Insurance Company We will thereafter measure the similarity, differences and modified differences for the mined data and base them into three sets, that is, emerging pattern rule, the unexpected change rule and added rule. We will utilize matching rule thresholds to derive all the types of possible rules and further explore the rules that exhibit significant change based on the degree of change under measurement. Current paper shall utilize data mining techniques to discover the spending patterns and the prevailing trends of behavior change. It will help the management to identify the potential changes in customer preferences. Identifying customer trends will help the company in decision making especially with regard to the policy preferred by the customers or will offer crucial insights with regard to the possible changes to policies, or the introduction of new product or services in line with the customer preferences identified through the data mining process. Data mining is a computational process aimed at discovering the prevailing patterns from large data set. This approach is very vital in analyzing critical activities for a firm based on the data available from various sources. This project seeks to analyze data mining applications in customer relations management specifically for health insurance company (Rai, 6). Rationale for Choosing the Topic Customer relation management is a management technique that utilizes company’s data banks to identify the preferences exhibited by their customers. This enables companies to better offer services by aligning their product offering to the customer preferences. For instance,health insurance company can utilize data mining techniques to identify key trends such as customer’s preferred insurance policy among other trends. Identifying this crucial trend is critical to a company’s survival. Selling insurance policy is the main business for insurance companies. Therefore, identifying the right insurance policies is directly influential to company survival. This, therefore, necessitates that clear customer relation management strategies are designed (Levy 6). Numerous research findings have shown that utilizing company data banks by deducing critical information about customers and identifying the underlying trends using classification algorithms and other data mining te chniques is the best technique to manage the existing and or prospecting customers. Problem Statement This paper seeks to identify key customer trends in health care insurance company. Specifically, the paper will use data mining techniques to identify preferred insurance policy and customer spending patterns. Further, the paper will show how health insurance company can utilize information obtained through data mining techniques to enhance customer relation management. Finally, the paper will show how this process can be used to ensure the company, not just survives but also succeeds. Customer Relationship Management Customer relation management is a strategy of customer management that integrates data from sales, marketing and other services. The strategy makes use of procedures and technology to help companies understand their customers better. In addition, the available information can be used to show the customer from different perspectives. Rai (4) identified customer relationship management as a customer centric approach that can help identify customer lifecycle. Rai (34) argued that is the best approach that a company can engage in order to retain customers and achieve customer satisfaction. Customer relation management is a concept that has been used for quite a long time now (Rai, 14). Evolution of data Mining Techniques in Customer Relation Management A huge number of businesses in very diverse industries have used this approach albeit, not in the same form as is done today according to Chorianopoulos and Tsiptsis (23). In the past, companies had to identify and keep customer background, spending habits in unconventional ways for instance memorizing by small businesses or keeping hard copy data for large companies. These companies would thereafter choose promotion strategies among other customer related decision based on this information. This is the same principal today. However, the methods of obtaining information and classifying such information have drastically improved. For instance, companies have a lot of information about their customer obtained from various sources which is stored in company’s data banks. This information can further be classified using specialized computer algorithms (Chorianopoulos and Tsiptsis 46). Using RFM models to Select and Segment Data RFM (Recency, Frequency and Money Value) is the most used model for selection and segmentation of collected data in order to make analysis easy according to Chorianopoulos and Tsiptsis (35). A firm can use RFM models to sort out the customers targeted from a huge list of customers to enable informed decision making. RFM models of data mining have the ability to make huge influences on a company’s success if the information made available is utilized well by a firm. Sung and Sang used the non-transformed RFM values as direct input variables for building models and then categorized customers into groups using cluster analysis. From the corresponding information marketing strategies and other customer, related activities can be planned based on the different customer clusters identified. On the other hand, Goldman argued that using data mining techniques, for instance using the RFM model of data mining has the effect of avoiding the time wasting and helps companies conserve †˜energy’ by pursuing the customers that the company who would offer the company little or no profits. By doing so, companies can generate better returns by focusing all their resources on the segments of customers who would give the companies better profit margins (Chorianopoulos and Tsiptsis 78). Role of Information in Fuelling Business Growth Information plays a very critical in the growth and development of businesses according to research finding by Levy (24). Consequently, the information in businesses databases can be very helpful in ensuring the success of the company. However, this information can only if it is utilized, so trends are deduced from the huge amounts of data. The information in the data bases is obsolete unless elaborate measures are put in place to ensure that it is accessed and grouped such that it shows important indicators and trends in relation to customer experiences and preferences. Once the indicators and trends have been identified, a company can use the information to design strategies that ensure they keep the customers and keep them satisfied too. The success in keeping customers loyal to a brand and satisfied has a direct positive relation with a company’s survival and success regardless of the industry in which the company operates (Levy 23). Proposed Project and Purpose The project that I have chosen involves the use of neural networks to predict the customer retention rate and also give the customer insight. The main aim of this because one of the most significant indicators of the marketing campaign is consumer behavior. This project is aimed at studying the behaviors of the customers so as to predict the retention rate. The project is also meant to give the company a model through which it can judge its market position in the future. This calculation gives the company a chance to calculate the profitability margin of all the portfolios that they have invested in. The process involved will be collecting data and then testing the data collected with data mining tools that will be installed in the system of the Java system used. Criterion Used Neural networks will be the process used to calculate the probability of the customer terminating his or her policy. Once the calculation is done, the results will then be categorized depending on the threshold. The calculation that is most significant result in this process is the ability of the project giving an accurate calculation. For the success of this project to be achieved, the project must give accurate results on the probability. This gives the company an accurate calculation of the performance of the portfolio. The performance of the portfolio then helps the company calculates the profit that is expected (Rai 56). I choose Neural networks over decision trees mainly because neural networks are more accurate than decision trees. Neural networks enable the users to come up with a classification of the results obtained. This will be very important in Insurance as the clients of the company can be classified depending on their probability of cancelling their policy. Decision trees do not allow the user to classify the data depending on the results obtained. This means that the first intention of creating a classification has failed. It is also very easy to create decision trees from the results obtained from neural networks. This means that neural networks enable the user to create a further analysis if the need arises. Decision trees though easy to use have a weakness when it comes to accuracy that is why I chose neural networks. Advantages The main reason why am proposing this particular project is because it has been successfully applied in many applications. Neural networks have been applied in learning, supervised and unsupervised applications with excellent results. The project also has a time saving quality. Neural networks do not require excessive training to learn the algorithm. Once the algorithm is installed in the Java application being used, it does not require any too much training. The results obtained are also very comprehensible and do not require a lot of time to comprehend them. Overcoming Challenges It is expected that there may be an objection that may arise if once the project is explained. One objection that may arise will be associated with the cost implementing the project. Neural networks are more expensive to install than decision trees. This means that anyone who looks at the cost may object the project. The response to this will be to explain the limitations that come with decision trees. It will be on no use installing a program that does not meet the needs of the company (Levy 34). The response to this objection will be to explain that the costs of this project will be recoverable easily in the future. All the necessary research has been carried out. I have also considered all the emerging trends that one needs to consider before engaging in any project. Plan of Activities Major Activities There are a number of activities that will be undertaken as illustrated in the work plan below; Data Collection Before conducting the data mining process, we will first schedule an interview with a client attached to the insurance company headquarters in Boston. The aim of this interview will be lay ground work and assess the prevailing conditions of the company’s data. Data Preparation After laying the ground work, all the available data- all the data that is available and authorized by the company- will be integrated and explored to identify how useful it can be in identifying or predicting the indicators required. Building and Validating Models At this stage, the data mining techniques and models will be built based on the available data and the goals for the project. Deploying the Models This task will basically be involved with putting the selected models into practice. Assessing the Identified Trends This process will involve assessing the trends identified by the data mining techniques in order to aid in the decision making. As mentioned earlier, the main aim of the project is to identify how data mining can influence customer relationship management. At this stage, the trends outputted will be assessed by the management. Data Sources The data to be reviewed will be sourced from the health insurance company data bases. There are numerous sources of data for an insurance company. Any data collected and stored by the company is important and will be used for this project. This include all the data stored in the company’s data bases and any other data collected in other ways, for instance interviews for the purpose of this project (Levy, 34). Special Tasks and Needs System Software To establish patterns and trends in a large set of data, in this case from the huge data base of the health insurance company, software with comparatively complex algorithms and data handling techniques are required to be installed in order for them to monitor and highlight the trends. Such software is available in the different operating systems versions. Technical Experts Data mining is a very delicate operation. Its success relies on the ability to identify the critical variables in the data set and the design of the most effective strategies of utilizing these variables to show or predict trends and patterns. Data mining techniques experts will be required so as to help identify and design the best models for the process. Data Mining Modeling This is by far the most important event. Data mining models are the real value behind the whole process. Regardless of the technique used a good data mining models has the ability to provide user-specific solutions. To identify the best model to utilize, the data mining experts sourced earlier will help the health insurance company management to choose the model that best suits their requirements. Items to be Produced For the purpose of this project, illustrations covering various operations of the data mining process and test reports will be provided. Evaluation This project will be judged based on the applicability and the ability demonstrated to solve the problem identified. The main objective of this project is to demonstrate how data mining techniques and tools can be used by a health care insurance firm to manage its customer relation operations, specifically customer retention rates and offer customer insights. The project success will, therefore, be pegged on the ability to demonstrate ability to use data mining techniques to identify patterns and trends using the most effective models of data mining, the effective application of the model, and the successful use of the trends and patterns identified to influence customer relationship with the insurance company (Rai, 34). Features to be Assessed Data Mining Models The model choice is the most crucial part of the data mining process as identified earlier. The justification and the process of identifying the best model and the subsequent successful use of the model can be assessed as an indicator of the success of the project. The overall effectiveness and success of the project is determined by the success in using the best model. Deliverables The outcome of the project will be the production of neural networks with the capability to assess the customer retention rates for health insurance company. The networks will not only have the capability to predict the probability that a customer will continue or terminate a policy, but will also have the capability to indicate the same even with changes to the costs of the premium. Specifically, there will be two neural networks attached to the two clusters of data- the probability contract will be terminated, and the probability contract will not be terminated cluster. Technical Content live CHAT The CRM theory states that the cost of acquiring new customers is always expensive, therefore, the business will always retain their customers by offering them with favorable policies and benefits that are customer friendly. Therefore, the insurance company will use business intelligence theories to ensure minimal cost of operation with increase database of clients. The business intelligence theories help the insurance company to identify new opportunities by developing types of policy covers that ensure customer satisfaction (Provost and Tom, 109). Predicting Customer Retention Rates To predict the chances that the company will retain its customers, the neural networks will be programmed to output a number between zero and one. This will indicate the probability that the holder of a health insurance policy will terminate the contract or not. Data will then be categorized into different sets based on a predetermined threshold of 0.5. Any figure above the threshold will be categorized under a threat of termination while any figure below the threshold will be categorized under no threat of termination (Levy, 34). In this case, the concern is more on the maximization of profitability by selecting the portfolio with the highest returns while at the same time keeping a good market share. To achieve this, the threshold will be set where the predicted rates of termination will be equal to the actual rates of termination. A threshold of 0.204 is set to predict an actual termination rate of 14.7 percent. This will produce an accuracy of 85 %. Further, to enhance the ability of the neural networks to predict the termination rate when premiums are varied, individual clusters will be subdivided into different bands. On the other hand, to improve the accuracy of the predictions, clusters will be split at the point where accuracy starts to reduce. This will isolate the policy holders based on the significance of the increase in premiums. Two separate neural networks will be deployed for each of the clusters to improve the prediction accuracy. Data mining techniques can be successfully used to help the company manages its customer relations. The techniques utilize the huge amounts of raw data which is correlated and segmented using specialized computer software into clusters. From this, patterns and trends of consumer behaviors can be deducted. For this project, raw data from health care insurance company was utilized to identify the rates of customer retention as well as to give different insights into consumer behaviors. This information can then be used by management to design customer relation strategies. The successes of these strategies have a direct impact on the success of the business, in this case, the health insurance company.

Many Colleges Dont Require Students to Take Classes in Basic Areas

Many Colleges Don't Require Students to Take Classes in Basic Areas A report commissioned by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) reveals that colleges are not requiring students to take courses in several core areas. And as a result, these students are less prepared to be successful in life. The report, â€Å"What Will They Learn?† surveyed students in over 1,100 U.S. colleges and universities – public and private – and found that an alarming number of them were taking â€Å"lightweight† courses to satisfy general education requirements. The report also found the following about the colleges: 96.8% don’t require economics 87.3% don’t require an intermediate foreign language 81.0% don’t require a basic U.S. history or government 38.1% don’t require college-level math 65.0% don’t require literature The 7 Core Areas What are the core areas identified by ACTA that college students should take classes in – and why? Composition: writing-intensive classes that focus on grammar Literature: observant reading and reflection that develops critical thinking skills Foreign language: to understand different cultures U.S. Government or History: to be responsible, knowledgeable citizens Economics: to understand how resources are connected globally Mathematics: to gain numeracy skills applicable in the workplace and in life Natural Sciences: to develop skills in experimentation and observation   Even some of the most highly-rated and expensive schools are not requiring students to take classes in these core areas. For example, one school that charges almost $50,000 a year in tuition does not require students to take classes in any of the 7 core areas. In fact, the study notes that the schools that receive an â€Å"F† grade based on how many core classes they require charge 43% higher tuition rates than the schools that receive a grade of â€Å"A.† Core Deficiencies So what’s causing the shift? The report notes that some professors prefer to teach classes related to their particular research area. And as a result, students end up choosing from a wide-ranging selection of courses. For example, at one college, while students are not required to take U.S. History or U.S. Government, they have an Intercultural Domestic Studies requirement that may include such courses as â€Å"Rock ‘n’ Roll in Cinema.†   To fulfill the economics requirement, students at one school can take, â€Å"The Economics of Star Trek,† while â€Å"Pets in Society† qualifies as a Social Sciences requirement. At another school, students can take â€Å"Music in American Culture† or â€Å"America Through Baseball† to fulfill their requirements. At another college, English majors don’t have to take a class devoted to Shakespeare.   Some schools don’t have any core requirements at all. One school notes that it â€Å"does not impose a particular course or subject on all students.† On one hand, perhaps its commendable that some colleges are not forcing students to take certain classes. On the other hand, are freshmen really in a position to decide which courses would be most beneficial to them? According to the ACTA report, close to 80% of freshmen don’t know what they want to major in. And another study, by EAB, found that 75% of students will change majors before they graduate. Some critics advocate not letting students choose a major until their second year.   If students aren’t even sure what degree they plan to pursue, it might be unrealistic to expect them – especially as freshmen – to effectively gauge which core classes they need to be successful. Another problem is that schools don’t update their catalogs on a regular basis, and when students and their parents are trying to determine the requirements, they may not be viewing accurate information. Also, some colleges and universities don’t even list definite courses in same cases. Instead there is a vague introductory phrase â€Å"courses may include,† so the classes listed in the catalog may or may not be offered. However, the glaring lack of information gained from taking college-level core classes is evident. A Payscale survey asked managers to identify the skills that they thought college grads lack the most. Among the responses, writing skills are identified as the top skill missing in action among college grads. Public speaking skills are in second place. But both of these skills could be developed if students were required to take core courses. In other surveys, employers have lamented the fact that college graduates don’t have critical thinking, problem-solving, and analytical skills – all issues that would be addressed in a core curriculum. Other disturbing findings: 20% of students who graduated with a bachelor’s degree were unable to accurately calculate the costs of ordering office supplies, according to the National Survey of America’s College Students.   While schools, boards of trustees, and policy makers need to make the necessary adjustments to require a core curriculum, college students cannot wait for these changes. They (and their parents) must research schools as thoroughly as possible, and students must choose to take the classes they need instead of selecting lightweight courses.

Strategic Management of Human Resources Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6000 words

Strategic Management of Human Resources - Essay Example Its short communication chains and collegial workforce culture led to considerable flexibility in responding to changing market demands. Overall company lacking proper co-ordination, there is vertical communications communication hierarchy which was causing the main problems. The shift to horizontal communications should be an obvious one, especially as we see people not as turf owners but as knowledge resources within the network. There will still be vertical communications, of course, but the predominant communication will be horizontal in nature as the core teams leverage knowledge wherever it may be in the enterprise. Horizontal communication in a networked environment is freer and more flowing, with few bureaucratic barriers. It also facilitates providence, where key patterns can be unexpectedly discovered. Perhaps a request from one team to another will give a clue to the pattern the other team is trying to distinguish. If we see our work as information processing, we will stay open to discovery, view the interplay of multiple patterns, and achieve our visions (Chris Brewster, 2000). The emphasis on horizontal work processes in the innovative organization consequences in an emphasis on horizontal communications also. Work cannot become more horizontal unless communication also becomes more horizontal. Besides communication factor, we observed that bank has no appropriate hierarchy as in a collegial/partnership system where unit heads nominally report to the managing director. The management didn’t given an authority to its employees. While the majority of todays managers have been trained and have managed in the traditional hierarchical/autocratic style of management. They have learned to get things done using their authority through the distinct lines of the traditional hierarchy. If employee involvement is to succeed in the long run, that management style