Processes of manufacturing Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Processes of manufacturing - Assignment Example 3. In casting, the grain structures are not aligned parallel to one another, but are random in alignment. In forming, the grains are aligned to one direction and are closely packed, which impacts greater strength. 4. Forging techniques used are open forging that involves heating the material and hammering it on an anvil; drop forging which involves forging material in a die using a hammer or impacting force; press forging, which involves the use of pressure to force materials into a die; roll forging, which requires the use of rollers and cold forging, which is best suited for smaller objects and involves extrusion through a die. 8. Pipe forming may be achieved through ram style bending, which involves resting the pipe at two internal points and having a rim pressing on the central axis to deform. Rotary draw bending involves drawing the pipe through stationery counter die into the required radius. Ring roll bending involves bending pipes to a large radius or circumferences. 4. Machines for bending angles include rotary-draw for tubes and pipes, push-roll machines, which accommodate roll formed and rotary –draw bends in a single operation and compression machines for heavy materials. 8. Deep drawing involves a work piece deforming in a larger dimension than its diameter. In shallow drawing, the depth of draw is much less than the smallest measurement of the opening. In flexible die, a flexible material replaces one of the dies. The method involves the use of materials such as rubber as the flexible material. 1. Injection and extrusion moulding used for small items, vacuum forming used to form thin sheets of plastic, press forming which uses positive and negative moulds with a plastic sheet between and blow moulding for bottles. 4. Advantages. It involves high speeds production, versatile in producing a wide range of products, good dimensional stability. Disadvantages. Delicate to

Macroeconomics II Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Macroeconomics II - Essay Example Macroeconomics is the big picture of a country. The rate of inflation measured by the Consumer price index, Growth measured by the GDP rate, and the rate of unemployment, which denotes the country’s full employment potential. On the other hand, Microeconomics is study of the behavior of firms workers, markets and households. The primary goal of the government and the Bank of England is to keep inflation and unemployment as low as possible in the process of maximizing growth. To achieve this goal a monetary and fiscal policy is formulated. A monetary policy is the altering of lending rates to banks this in turn releases or curbs money supply in the financial market. An increase in the prime lending rate by the Bank of England to other banks pushes them to raise the interest paid on deposits to consumers and the interest on loan to borrowers. A fiscal policy is the change in the taxation structure and public spending. Public spending in other words is the government spending on defense, infrastructure and welfare schemes for the country. (Source:Mathew Bishop ’Economist’ Essentials of Economics, Macroeconomic policy.) Inflation is caused when demand for goods and services exceed supply or a rise in the price of oil, which most countries around the globe are facing right now. An increase in the prime lending rate will encourage saving, and discourage borrowing due to the high rate of interest on loans and in turn bring down consumption spending by giving the common person, lower disposable income, Therefore lower demand and this controls price rise. Now the reduction in consumption spending decreases the demand for goods and services, and businesses will cut cost as they worry about inventory pile up and future sales. This results in low wages and unemployment. So what do we do? What we see here is ironical. In the attempts to

Divergent Suggested Essays Essay Example for Free

Divergent Suggested Essays Essay Suggested Essay Questions 1.In what ways does Triss identity develop over the course of the novel? Tris began the novel timid and unsure of herself and her desires, which was characteristic of her Abnegation upbringing: she was never allowed to focus on herself, so she never knew exactly what she wanted. Upon choosing Dauntless her bravery obviously begins to blossom, but she experiences some other changes as well. She forges friendships and relationships central to her identity, with people who bring out the best in her. And she learns that though she has chosen another faction, she can still be selfless; and indeed she is, time and time again. By the end of the novel, she is fully aware of herself as Divergent someone who does not fit in, but who cannot be controlled. The events of the end of the novel reinforce who she has been selfless and who she wants to become brave. There are many significant experiences to discuss, both good and bad, that shaped Tris as a person throughout her time in Dauntless. 2.Compare and contrast this rigidly structured society with our own. What are the pros and cons of each? Does one provide a more effective lifestyle than the other? The distinctions between Triss society and our own are very apparent; their idea of becoming a good person involves selecting one virtue to cultivate their entire lives, while for us, being good and morally sound involves a mixture of all of their faction virtues and more. Socially, we have much more freedom of choice, but is that freedom always a good thing? Studying any of the five virtues of Triss world can indeed have positive effects on ones life. It all depends on perspective; either could be seen as the more effective lifestyle, depending on how you look at it, but the faction system certainly makes some significant missteps in trying to control and direct a persons identity and humanity. 3.Discuss the soundness of a government run only by a single faction. Is Jeanine Matthews truly wrong for calling for greater representation, or is it better to keep administration in the hands of the selfless? This is certainly a far cry from our system of democracy. While having the innately selfless run the government seems like a respectable idea in theory, in practice it may fall short. Abnegation do not have the same goals in life as Erudite, Candor, Amity, or Dauntless, so therefore it is natural that their administration is called into question. Perhaps a system with equal representation from every faction would be a better strategy; though policy would not consist of extremely selfless acts, sometimes representatives do have to be selfish advocates for their people. And with everyone having a say, there would be much less chance of a rebellion the size of Erudites. Jeanine wasnt entirely wrong in what she preached, but she certainly went about it the wrong way, and Abnegation wasnt to blame for a system that had been flawed from the start. 4.What are the benefits of sorting people into social groups the way the factions are sorted? What are the drawbacks? We tend to subconsciously sort ourselves into groups regardless; we gravitate towards people with similar interests as us, people with similar backgrounds, people who look like us. With a society organized into groups, citizens are always surrounded by like-minded people, and there is a much greater chance of getting along with those who think like you. On the other hand, though, that separation can promote intolerance and prejudice, which is obviously apparent in the novel; all the factions shunned the values of their competitors, promoting a far too separated way of life. 5.There are only five factions; are there any other human virtues missing from the list? Why would these be necessary in well-rounded citizens? Valuing only honesty, selflessness, peacefulness, bravery, and intelligence seems like a very small slice of the vast majority of honorable human virtues. Another faction could exist based on loyalty; many of the problems  in Triss world (and our own) are caused by betrayal and distrust. A faction based on diligence could ensure that all its citizens are hardworking and productive. And there could also be a faction based on creativity, which shapes the mind in many ways the other factions do not. 6.Discuss Tris Prior as our protagonist. Is she a reliable narrator? Does she always tell the truth? Are we constrained by her point of view? Tris is typically a very straightforward narrator, though perhaps her point of view is often clouded by her own personal prejudices. We do not get a good sense of Peters character, for instance, because she is always so determined to hate him; perhaps there is more to him than meets the eye. Were certainly constrained by her perspective, only knowing what she knows at any given time. We solve the mysteries of Four, her mother, and the Erudite-Abnegation feud only as soon as she does, because the story is told only from her first person perspective. The limits of this perspective does allow for some mystery and tension, though, as well as the strong impression of Tris as a hero. 7.What significance do Triss relationships have in her life? Various relationships begin to blossom for Tris only after shes left Abnegation. Her family is broken apart, but at a distance she seems to get even closer to her mother, learning more about her past than she ever knew before. In Abnegation, Tris never had true friendships, but in Dauntless she becomes close to Will, Christina, Al, Uriah, and some of the other initiates. Without them, she wouldnt have had the support she needed to get through initiation. And finally, her relationship with Four has changed her in many ways; shes been given someone to open up to, who in turn opens up to her, and for a person with as much to deal with as Tris, this is absolutely essential. 8.Compare and contrast Peter and Jeanine Matthews as antagonists. Who would be considered the central antagonist? Both Peter and Jeanine serve as Triss enemies, but in very different ways. Peter is more present throughout the novel, causing trouble for Tris during initiation, her most immediate concern. But Jeanine is an antagonist on a larger scale; though she doesnt make an actual appearance until late in the novel, we know shes been behind the growing rebellion of the Erudite and the hunt for Divergent. Jeanines aims and the reach of her grasp lead to something much, much larger than a struggle for ranking during initiation. For this reason, only Jeanine can be considered the central antagonist. 9.In what ways is the brewing war between Abnegation and Erudite reminiscent of our societal power struggles? Though the battle at the culmination of the novel is fought with high-tech innovations like simulations, the circumstances that caused it can be easily compared to the power struggles in our own society. It starts with a group of people believing theyve been treated unjustly, with an unfairly small amount of say in government, and ends with a bloody battle to determine who stays and who goes. Revolutions and major modern-day wars begin in much the same way. Jeanine Matthews is representative of the persuasive, charismatic, and intelligent leader who is able to convince her people to rally against another group; in this case, Abnegation. Jeanines method of manipulation through propaganda (false claims about Abnegation) and disrespect for others based on a perceived difference or lack mirrors fascist leaders from history. 10.Which theme in the novel would you consider the most significant, and why? Though many major themes in Divergent are prevalent, the one that constantly comes into play is the theme of identity and how ones choices determine self. Tris is constantly making choices that define who she is, starting with the major one on Choosing Day and continuing throughout initiation, ending with her decision not to shoot Tobias in the control room in order to stop the simulation. Her identity develops further with every decision, and eventually she learns that she can truly be brave and selfless at the same time. This theme applies to other characters as well; Caleb, for instance, chose to switch to Erudite in order to stay true to his own identity, but  eventually returns to Abnegation because he decides that Erudites plans were wrong, and he could not be a part of it. Each and every character in the novel makes at least one choice that aids in determining their identity; therefore, this theme is extremely significant.

Espn Is The Leader In Sports News Media Essay

Espn Is The Leader In Sports News Media Essay ESPN is the leader in sports news and entertainment across the globe, providing the most comprehensive coverage of sports and the events occurring around them. ESPN dominates the sports and sports news genre of the cable network with a total of six different channels to choose from, and their flagship program Sportscenter, which averages up to 115 million viewers a month (ESPN Corporate). ESPN also dominates the sports world online, with ESPN.com capturing 30 percent of all minutes spent on sports websites in 2010 and introducing five local ESPN web pages to major cities across the United States. Although ESPN has dominated the sports world in terms of news, analysis, and coverage of current events, they still have not claimed dominance concerning historical data. In 2009, ESPN unveiled their solution to this lack of leadership by introducing ESPNDB. ESPNDB is an acronym for Entertain and Sports Programming Network Database. ESPN took it upon themselves to combine archived and current data, articles, and media and create a specialized database for this collection. This specialized database was then made accessible to the largest network available, the World Wide Web. This is not only a collaboration of a database with a network, but the database itself is a collaboration of text, video, and audio. The database sets itself apart from other databases in similar fields not only through its collaboration of text, video, and audio, but its accurate and certifiable information. Web based databases such as Wikipedia, let users add information to their database. This interaction can be useful but also harmful. It was noted in a study by Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery determined that 11 percent of Wikipedia articles have been vandalized at some point in their life (Potash). ESPNDB uses information that is certified by its experts to ensure that all information presented in their database is accurate and verifiable. This accuracy attracts the average sports fan that is searching for information to utilized ESPNDB rather than taking their chance with information from a database with a history of questionable information posted as valid facts. Although ESPNDB was not created to allow any common individual add information to the database, which ensures its accuracy, it still was designed to be an interactive tool. The database was built to allow users an opportunity to post their thoughts, opinions, and their counter arguments to any statistics, videos, audio files, or columns posted in the database. This interactive section of ESPNDB allows the experts to review any disputed information, and search for the most accurate response possible. The creation of ESPNDB was a milestone for the ESPN company. ESPN brought their resources together to create a comprehensive, certifiable, and interactive database. This database, with proper time and focus put into updating and inserting new information topics, has the possibility to become the one and only sports database any sports fan or individual may every need to use. The rise of a two-click solution for finding sports information online via a search on Google and then a click-through to Wikipedia cannot be understated as an impetus for ESPNDB (Goetzl). ESPNDB is potentially a web based database that could have the power to overtake other websites, such as SI Vault, and become the most valuable tool for journalists, bloggers, and other types of sports reporters across the nation, perhaps someday the world. The only thing that could stop ESPNDB from becoming the dominant force of all sports based databases across the internet is itself. As stated, ESPNDB is undoubtedly the most comprehensive sports database available. Not only does ESPNDB cover a topic by providing current statistics, statistics from the recent past, and historical statistics, but ESPNDB digs deeper into topics than any database has before. With ESPNs vast collection of archived video analysis and interviews, archived audio files of both analysis and interviews as well as actual game casts, and their vast collection of images ranging from the most historic events in sporting history to images of players warming up in the bull pen, the database compiles every possible resource ESPN offers that relates to the topic and includes that resource in the database. This complexity of the ESPN database is a timely and exhausting process that has limited the production of the database, thus creating ESPNDBs major boundary of their own thoroughness. The same item that is a boundary to ESPNDB is the same item that makes this database such an important and useful asset to its users. This database allows any user of the internet the access to the immense collection of information that ESPN has to offer on particular topics. The average sports fan can benefit from this database by relying on its accurate information while researching a topic, but also see what commentators, columnists, and experts in that particular field had to say about the topic beyond just the statistical numbers. Journalists, bloggers and other sports writers now have an information database to retrieve data from when researching for articles and columns that they do not have to question and can rely upon. Also, they will have the capabilities of seeing what their colleagues have said about that particular topic in the past with the collaboration of media types in the ESPN database. Also, the common sports fan will be able to use the database to understand the basis and history behind particular sports or sporting events in a more useful manner. It was written that understanding new topics has become problematic with the increasing bits of information accumulating in every field of knowledge making comprehensive understanding difficult if not impossible to achieveà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦we must depend more and more on specialists (Finn). ESPNDB will offer that average fan an in-depth look at the history of sporting events with explanations and analysis from specialist and experts across the sporting world. This new, easy to access, understandable and comprehensible information database is a valuable asset to ESPN because it will peak the interest of the common fan, which will in turn promote the ESPN family as a whole. ESPNDB being introduced to the sports database world through the network of the internet has allowed the possibility of ESPN becoming the most valuable asset to any individual, professional or amateur, researching a sports topic. Its interactive nature and collaboration of media with text, and certifiable information make it different from all databases surrounding it, and put ESPNDB at the forefront of the sports database world. History Ever since ESPNs humble beginnings in 1979, they have continually had great success and prosperity within the sports world. As of 2010, ESPN had over one hundred million subscribers in the U.S. alone along with more than six thousand employees. Also, they own over fifty television channels, featuring almost every sport imaginable, and they have a global presence, as they have viewers in all seven continents. If that was not enough, ESPN airs hundreds of radio shows, has multiple website links, and even has its own magazine (ESPN Perspective). Even though ESPN already has its name staked to many things, they decided to expand their horizons to a whole new level when in 2009 they created ESPNDB. This database was created by ESPN editors to try and accompany and enhance ESPNs presence within the global sporting world. In order to stay up to date with Wikipedia and other sports websites, ESPNDB knew that they had to create a database that they could place onto the internet. They needed s omewhere, where they could place all of their historical data and information without it interfering with their current website; ESPNDB can be found through ESPNs search tab, but it also comes up as a separate website when using a search engine. They began testing the waters by placing information regarding only the NFL draft and NBA finals on the website. Many everyday users commented on the effectiveness of the website, most notably regarding their struggle in navigating and finding information time efficiently in the website. These comments hurt the credibility of the nationally recognized organization and led ESPN to begin by doing revisions and changes that are still being done to this date. At the current time, ESPNDB is still a work in progress website and only contains the two parts mentioned above. Editors and programmers are working hard to build a system that can one day hold its own with regards to sports data. With the aid of advertising and social networking websites, along with the needed attention from the ESPN staff, ESPNDB has the potential to take over the sports database world and become a strong supporting website. As EPSNDB began their website, they had multiple contributions from their own affiliate, ESPN. To begin with, probably the biggest advantage that ESPNDB has is that it has its name associated directly with the biggest name in sports media. While it would be easy to take this fact for granted and forget about it, this may actually be what makes or breaks ESPNDB. As long as ESPN continues to provide reliable information and has such a large presence globally, ESPNDB has an improved chance of having a respected and well received website. Instead of taking months or even years to get started and have a strong viewing community, ESPNDB should be able to start off with many viewers who will check out its website, because they have heard its name through the ESPN grapevine of fans. Having its name staked with ESPN, should also help bring advertisers that will help ensure the profitability and success of ESPNDB. Knowing that ESPN has helped companies advertise with success, many companies wi ll be willing to sacrifice their advertising dollars on a relatively new website. ESPN brings well trained and qualified professionals to help build and upkeep the ESPNDB website. Since many of these professionals have helped with the design of ESPN, ESPNDB will be lucky because their content will be thoroughly fact-checked and will come from professionals (Beutler 1). The development of this website is unlike many others, because ESPNDB will have the ability to use the past experiences and hardships of ESPN to better shape their website. ESPNs website designers will know what works well together and what does not, without having to go through all of the trial and error to figure it out. The ESPNDB can pick and choose what they like from ESPN, including features like the visual appearance, the social networking interaction, and the account signup, to give them an edge over many websites that are forced to start from nothing. ESPNs contributions to ESPNDB cannot be expressed with wor ds, as their nationally known name will have a strong positive effect on the future of ESPNDB. While ESPN had a strong role in contributing to ESPNDB, it would also be beneficial to look at some of the limitations that ESPN has and the ways that ESPNDB will seek to fix them. One clear negative to ESPNs website is their lack of historical data. When searching throughout their website, it is evident that information is only recorded back to 2002. While for the average sports fan this amount of information is acceptable, it would be more beneficial to all sports fans and bloggers if there was a way that they could access data dating back to the start of each professional sport. Therefore, EPSNDB plans to use their industry-best Stats and Information Group to provide fans with information dating back to the beginnings of every major sport (Beutler). While this idea has not been put into play yet, it is the hope and plan of ESPNDB to be the leader in providing quality data dating back many years. Also, ESPN lacks the in depth coverage of certain players, teams, coaches, and games t hat is necessary to dominant the competing companies. ESPN does have statistics on these but does not go into enough detail with them. ESPNDB will provide ways to compare players, teams, and coaches so that an individual can see how their favorite player compares to another player from the present or past. ESPNDB will also give more space to remember the greatest games and moments in the past; they will provide articles, discussions, and videos. ESPN realizes that it contains limitations and therefore has created ESPNDB to give more detail and precision to the areas of historical data and more in depth player, team, coaches, and game statistics. Along with ESPN there are numerous other sports databases that have their limitations. Sports Illustrated is another big name sports website that tries to compete within the areas of professional sports. Unlike ESPN, Sports Illustrated does have a historical section that dates back to 1908. Unfortunately, this section is only limited to Major League Baseball and does not apply to every other major sport. Also, Sports Illustrated is limited in its videos, articles, and journals about certain players. Whereas ESPN has a whole page with multiple links dedicated to each player, Sports Illustrated only has one single page that contains statistics of each season and game played, as it pertains to that individual player. Similar to ESPN, Sports Illustrated does not give any space on its website to talk about individual coaches and specific games or playoffs. This is a huge hole that can be filled by ESPNDB. Finally, Sports Illustrated has a limitation in that it gives information on a large number of professional sports, which hurts them in their ability to relate a lot of information about each sport. Sports Illustrated prides itself on offering a wide variety of information but not necessary a large quantity of it. Therefore, ESPNDB will have the benefit of focusing on just a few major sports and having an enormous and detailed amount of information for each one. Like ESPN, Sports Illustrated has a few weaknesses pertaining to their historical and detailed information of players, coaches, and games, along with their small amount of information relating to each sport. SportsDatabase.com is the second website that an individual comes upon, when searching for sports databases through the Google search engine. Sportsdatabase.com is unlike ESPN and Sports Illustrated in that it does not have a widely known name. This is a huge disadvantage, because many times people use what they know of, instead of considering switching to a different website for their information. This website is widely used for individuals who gamble and contains trends and data that will mostly help someone as they choose who will win a game or how a player will do during a game. Consequently, the website does not contain much information that would be relevant or helpful for the average fan or writer. Sportsdatabase.com is also extremely unappealing and does not contain graphics or color that would help grab the viewers attention. This website does a poor job in the area of appearance and usability, both of which should be strong characteristics in ESPNDB. One of the largest database websites to come about in the last decade has been Wikipedia. While is not normally known for its sports information, it does contain it and should therefore be examined. The biggest limitation with Wikipedia is that it is not credible in the information that it contains, since anyone can place or edit information on the website. This is a disadvantage that EPSNDB has considered, when they decided to have professionals only input data. ESPNDB has allowed fans to comment and blog on their information and articles, but it will not allow users to alter the data. Wikipedia also does not give the option to search or compare multiple players at one time, which is a huge downside for many fans. Another limitation to Wikipedia is that it does not contain much information on its site, but rather gives links and references to go to other sites for more information. This can be time consuming and will lead to many people not taking the time to further pursue their se arch interest. State of the Art ESPNDB has created a very complex, but comprehensive database to allow any user of the internet easy access to credible information. ESPNDB will combine the far-reaching resources of ESPN with the unique output of the companys industry-best Stats Information Group to give fans an immersive experience and make use of technologies that harness the collective knowledge of the worlds sports fans (ESPNDB). Because of this vast amount of data and information combined into this database, the production has occurred relatively slowly. Currently, there are only two sections of ESPNDB. There is a NFL Draft section and a NBA Finals section. The NFL Draft section of ESPNDB provides an in-depth historical analysis of draft classes dating back to 1964, which exceeds other sports databases by a great extent. Because ESPN was not developed until 1979, there are only draft logs and statistical breakdowns of the players and teams that were involved in drafts between 1964 and 1979. Every draft since that period, however, is composed of statistics, draft logs, and analyses. The analyses provided are a combination of articles and columns, as well as audio and visual pieces. There are also feature sections of the NFL Draft section. These subsections provide direct comparisons of players as well as experts opinions and analysis of the draft choices, draft classes, and teams overall draft grade. The section also provides a draft tracker. This draft tracker provides real time coverage of each years draft. As players as selected in the draft, they are removed from the pool of prospects and placed in the selecting teams draft log, and their statistics from their college football career are posted beside their profile. The draft tracker allows ESPNDB to not only be a comprehensive historical database, but also a real time tracking device for the NFL draft. The NFL Draft section also allows the common individual without any prior knowledge of the NFL draft to become familiarized through numerous other subsections. One of these sections is a history section, which provides a brief history of the drafts inception and the reason for its creation. There are also subsections describing the format of the draft, eligibility requirements of the draft, and the supplemental draft. Besides the countless sections, each filled with data and media beyond the means of any other sports database, there is a discussion board connected to the NFL Draft section. This discussion board allows experts and fans to interact, making ESPNDB not only the most broad and informative database in the sports genre, but also an interactive database. The discussion board allows fans to post questions and comments, giving experts the chance to respond with educated and edifying answers. This interactive tool is just another reason for fans and internet users to utilize ESPNDB as their source for sports related information. The second section of ESPNDB is the NBA Finals section. This section is formatted very much like the NFL Draft section. Each NBA championship, since 1947, is broken down by year, teams involved in the championship series, coaches involved in the championship series, and players involved in the championship series. Each coach and player who was involved in that years NBA Finals is provided a profile page with their biography, historical statistics, and their statistics from their performance in the championship series. Each championship series from 1979 to present is also accompanied by media relating to the series. There are interviews with experts and players, analyses by experts, and video clips of game casts for each Finals year. There are also subsections connected to the NBA Finals section. These subsections allow users to explore the debate between experts, retired players, current players, and celebrities connected to the NBA over comparing players side by side, comparing past players with present players, comparing past teams with present teams, and comparing decades of basketball against each other. These subsections are filled with video, audio, statistics, and columns relating to these topics, and are accompanied by a discussion board giving the user the opportunity to interact and voice their thoughts and opinions about the topics. The NBA Finals section has revolutionized the way journalists, historians, and fans will retrieve information regarding the topic. This section of ESPNDB only adds to the marvel of ESPNs collaboration of resources into a deep and complex database, a database connected to the largest network in existence, thus an asset of great importance to any user. Though ESPNDB has master the art of creating databases for the sports genre concerning both the NBA Finals and NFL Draft, the database is still trumped by other sports databases in regards to other sports topics. The task of researching Michael Jordans statistics in his first NBA Finals appearance, along with what reporters who were covering the series had to say about the performance, is a simple task that could be performed in a matter of minutes with the use of ESPNDB. A task to find statistics regarding the NHL season, or MLB season, while using ESPNDB is impossible. ESPNDB is a database that concentrates on a specific topic, and digs deeper into that topic than any other sports database has before. At the same time, their horizons are very narrow while other sports databases horizons are wide but the topics lack depth. The combination of resources used in ESPNDB provides a complex and time consuming task for the developers, and as stated before, this thoroughness and complexity has proven to be the largest boundary and limitation in ESPNDBs development and expansion. Though ESPNDB is currently experiencing a stalemate in development and expansion, the possibilities for providing fans the most comprehensive interactive database available through the internet is not a distant fantasy. ESPN is a company who, since its inception, has strived to be the one network needed to for any person to gain sports knowledge or view sporting events. The companys sports broadcasts reach 93 million homes from ESPNs headquartersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ESPN.comà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦gets about 18 million unique visitors a month (Boulton). The companys constant broadcasts are filled with content covering every major sport in the states, and now reaching sports across the world. This overflow of content produced through broadcasting and updating the ESPN primary website has the potential to be redirected and become the foundations of ESPNDB expanding its horizons to cover broad topics, such as the major sports leagues as a whole, but still with the same depth, accuracy, and usefulness as their current sections. Until this stalemate has dissipated, ESPNDB focuses on the concentrated topics at hand, the NFL draft and NBA Finals. The two specified sections in ESPNDBs database are being updated as new data and new media is created and released. The 2011 NFL draft is being updated with media, statistics and columns daily, and the draft tracker for this years draft is fully functional and ready for users to take advantage of. ESPNDB offers updated content of its two extraordinarily impressive sections constantly, which subdues the wait and anticipation for the expansion of the database. Current Applications There are a few professions that will be strongly interested in using ESPNDB to further their knowledge and understanding of sports. Sports historians are one group of individuals that may find ESPNDB to be very helpful in their research. According to Education-Portal.com, sports historians must have excellent research skills, as they search for historical professional sports data. ESPNDB will be a strong aid for these employees, as it will provide faster researching for them and give them more accurate data on past professional sports athletes and coaches. Another profession that it would highly benefit to use ESPNDB would be sports journalists or columnists. By using ESPNDB, their prewriting times will decrease dramatically, as they are able to search and contrast players easier and will be assured with more confidence of their results. Above all us, EPSNDB will be of extreme importance to the average fan and blogger, as they want to locate data and discuss it with other fans. They can be assured that all of the information that they want is on the one site, rather than searching all over the internet for different sites. This is a key idea for many individuals, as time is usually in their strongest interest. ESPNDB will help in many areas no doubt, but these are individuals that it should be of the greatest importance to. People The advent of online databases has revolutionized the way our society obtains and stores information. ESPNDB has had an enormous impact on the people who avidly follow sports and seek out more information about their favorite players, teams, and coaches. Jim Noel has equated the website to a competitor with Wikipedia by stating Wikipedia has experienced tremendous growth over the last five years and we believe that we can offer a better, more definitive, more credible resource for finding facts and figures and information than anybody else (http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticleart_aid=104294). This statement is a bold challenge to the juggernaut that is Wikipedia. ESPNDB still lacks key features which give Wikipedia a significant edge when it comes to user interaction. Unlike Wikipedia, which allows any user to alter information contained within the site, ESPNDB only allows ESPNDB paid employees to alter the websites content. This means that while the inform ation may be one hundred percent creditable, it will lack almost instantaneous updating of information that users enjoy on Wikipedia. This is a potentially serious problem for ESPNDB because they could fall seriously behind in content, and could become financially unsound because the employees are paid, unlike Wikipedia who enjoys an almost unending amount of users willing to update information for free. This factor could significantly affect the people who use online databases because the freedom of use does not exist within the ESPN database. ESPNDB also have a long way to go in developing the type of people driven database that Wikipedia enjoys. ESPNDB is striving to get all sports fans to go to their database to get the most information about all things sports. This will be a problem however because the site only contains only around 500 pages of information. Compared to their biggest competitor which is Wikipedia this could be severely debilitating, when it comes to getting peo ple interested in using ESPNDB exclusively. The chart below shows the vast scope of ESPNDBs largest competitor. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/AR_web_all-spreads_24mar11_72_FINAL.pdf When the chart above is considered it becomes very clear that for ESPNDB to have profound effects on people they must exceed the effects of sites such as Wikipedia. They must allow people from all different countries to come together to discuss the information provided and without allowing the users the power to edit the site, and without enough information uploaded to view this it will become impossible for ESPNDB. Process While the effects of ESPNDB will be very important to many different people, the effects on the current business processes of database competitors are even more important. One profound difference between ESPNDB and its competitors is the nature of the staffing involved with the database. ESPNDB only allows paid employees to alter the information and content of the online database. This means that they will have significantly higher costs associated with running the database as opposed to user ran databases on the web. Below is a chart which shows the salaries of these employees. ( http://www.simplyhired.com/a/salary/search/q-edito+espndb/lbristol,+ct) This chart clearly shows that if ESPNDB continues to only allow employees to edit the database then the company is going to incur significant amounts of payroll expense. This means that the database will have to find a way to either offset this cost or change the way their current business process to a cheaper way of operation, such as the user input system in conjunction with volunteer fact checkers that Wikipedia subscribes to. ESPNDB does exhibit a profound difference compared to a database site such as Wikipedia. ESPNDB has chosen specialization over generalization. On a database system such as Wikipedia a user can search any topic from Barry Bonds home town to the history of the royal family. ESPNDB has chosen a different way to build their site. They have chosen to specialize in their specific area of expertise, which is the data of sports. By choosing this particular way of building, they have ensured they can concentrate on providing the best and most accurate information bas ed on their area of focus. This will allow the database to spend significantly more time on the articles they generate and maintain, than a site such as Wikipedia. This also allows the user to more effectively find the information they are seeking, because there are less unrelated articles vying for their attention within the database. Below are pictures of each databases homepage. It is obvious that a user is more likely to go to the sports article they are interested in without being distracted by random articles on the ESPNDB site. While users of Wikipedia are faced with many more unrelated articles when trying to get to the article they seek. Technology ESPNDB will have a profound effect on how different people across the world use technology to access and use sports databases. ESPNDB allows users to access and view the web databases content through cell phones, Ipads, Ipods, computers, netbooks, and interactive televisions. This ease of access using the latest technology will have profound effects upon where and how the database is used and viewed. A popular way to access the database is through social media websites. Twitter allows patrons to post links from ESPNDB to your account and link any articles on the database to your tweets. This allows any Twitter user to have instant access to information that will allow them to prove their friends wrong, or display some kernel of knowledge about their favorite team or players. Below is a perfect example of a Twitter page with linked information. As you can see from the picture above Twitter allows easy access to the ESPN database. The actual link to the database will be located in the tweet that the user posts from the database. By linking the database to their tweet the user allows any of their followers the opportunity to click on the link in the tweet, which takes them directly to the articles location within the ESPN database. This allows the use of twitter, which uses technology that almost every person has access to on the internet, to showcase users favorite sports information and opinions. Even more important to ESPNDB is the use of Facebook. Facebook is available using almost every type of web accessible technology on the market today. This means that using Facebook as an access point to ESPNDB will allow any user to view the database content using all the different technologies that Facebook currently supports. This is very important because this will allow ESPNDB to reach many more people than they would reach just using Twitter. While both social networking sites are viewed through many of the same devices the use and access of Facebook is much more prevalent. The graph below shows that not only is Facebook more popular, but also shows that different people use Facebook than people who use Twitter. ESPNDB is marketing their database toward the teenage to young adult demographic much more than the older p

Down And Out In The Great Depression Essay -- Robert McElvaine

During the 1920’s, America was a prosperous nation going through the â€Å"Big Boom† and loving every second of it. However, this fortune didn’t last long, because with the 1930’s came a period of serious economic recession, a period called the Great Depression. By 1933, a quarter of the nation’s workers (about 40 million) were without jobs. The weekly income rate dropped from $24.76 per week in 1929 to $16.65 per week in 1933 (McElvaine, 8). After President Hoover failed to rectify the recession situation, Franklin D. Roosevelt began his term with the hopeful New Deal. In two installments, Roosevelt hoped to relieve short term suffering with the first, and redistribution of money amongst the poor with the second. Throughout these years of the depression, many Americans spoke their minds through pen and paper. Many criticized Hoover’s policies of the early Depression and praised the Roosevelts’ efforts. Each opinion about the causes an d solutions of the Great Depression are based upon economic, racial and social standing in America. At the start of the Depression, many letters (mostly discouraging) were sent to President Hoover. These letters came primarily from well-to-do citizens, however some leftist workers’ letters found their way in as well. The well-to-do citizens agreed that the ultimate cause of the lower classes’ depression was their laziness and incompetence. On top of that, these well-to-do citizens thanked Hoover, probably because their money had gone unscathed (McElvaine, 38). Some opinions weren’t as favorable for the Hoover administration, however. Some people believed that â€Å"engineers may be intelligent but poor presidents† (pp. 43). Finally, the leftist parties did not appreciate the endeavors of the Hoover presiden... ...for their misfortune. The rich blamed the poor, the poor blamed the rich, the middle class blamed the blacks, and no one took responsibility themselves. One complaint most of these classes (with exception to the few that benefited) was the lack of success of the New Deal and other relief efforts. Whether the blacks had too much employment, or the poor were too lazy to receive aid, very few Americans appeared to be happy with Roosevelt’s solution. This didn’t stop his popularity. Many Americans stood behind their president rain or shine, depression or big boom. Regardless of their positions, these citizens who turned to the President in their time of desperation proved that the pen is truly mightier. Works Cited McElvaine, Robert S, ed. Down and Out in the Great Depression: Letters from the Forgotten Man. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1983.

Reversing The Aging Process, Should We? Essay -- essays research paper

Reversing The Aging Process, Should We? In the length of time measured as human lifetime one can expect to see a full range of differing events. It is assumed that during a lifetime a person will experience every possible different emotion. If one is particularly lucky, he will bear witness to, or affect some momentous change in humanity. However is it reasonable to ask what would be experienced by someone who lived two lifetimes? Up until recently the previous question would and could only be rhetorical. There is no answer, because no one has ever lived that long. Of course that was up until now. At McGill University, nematodes (tiny organisms) have experienced five lifetimes (Kluger). Through complex scientific experiments nematodes and fruit flies have had their lifespans increased not by fractions of life times, but by multiples of lifetimes (Kruger). Mankind is using the discovery of DNA as an opportunity to play G-d by changing the aging process. Man has a natural tendency to play the role of G-d. Man has a an inherent need to affect others, be it through the vises of war, power, manipulation or politics. However man’s natural tendency to play G-d has reached it’s final manifestation. By attempting to slow down the aging process man is using himself as the ultimate canvas, to play the role of the omnipotent. Research into the process of aging began in 1961(Rose, Technology Review:64). Since then a great deal of time, money and effort have been appropriated into discovering the causes of aging, it can therefore be inferred that humanity has an almost "personal" interest in aging. Of course the culmination of discovering how we age, is discovering how to stop it. An intrinsic characteristic of Man is His obsession with superficiality. Superficiality is equated with appearance. The appearance of beauty can be equated with youth. Therein lies man’s obsession with age, ceasing to age means being eternally beautiful. As usual man’s actions are dominated by ego and self-preservation. Within the confines of youth there lies a certain fountain of power. Power which cannot be accessed once one ages. Things like physical and sexual prowess. The time of youth is often refereed to as the "prime of your life". It is therefore not difficult to understand and conceive of man’s motivation to stay young and to wish that the immediate people surr... ...m control ling microscopic chemical reactions. Man is referred to as G-d’s ultimate creation, the universe his canvas. But what happens when humans steal the canvas and decide to redecorate, would you want to recolor your Picasso? Is there any justification for living that long, does there need to be? These are not easy questions, and there not intended to be, but should scientists prove successful in their endeavors, all of these questions will have to be resolved. How can certain establishments which frown on cosmetic plastic surgery frown on the reorganization of protein strands? There is no doubt that the people in charge of those organizations would take advantage of these technologies (Rose, Melatonin,: 6). How are the two things different? There are no possible answers to these questions for now they must remain rhetorical. It is increasingly obvious that the repercussions of these technologies stretch across the board. As always the horizon of the future stretches before us, only revealing a glimpse of that which is to come. The resounding questions that will soon confront us can only be concluded with the passage of time, something apparently humanity will have a lot of.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Most people believe that life ends after death, but what people don’t know is that death is a new beginning. The novel â€Å"The five people you meet in heaven† by Mitch Albom proves that. Eddie lived a peaceful life after the war. But Eddie still felt his life had no purpose after marguerite passed away. Eddie was also the second generation of family to work at the pier. When Eddie passed away, saving a little girl, on his eighty-third birthday, he discovers a second life. On his way through heaven Eddie will learn three of the most valuable lessons in life. â€Å"Lost love is still love†, â€Å"no sacrifice is too small†, and â€Å"all lives are connected†.â€Å"Lost love is still love† is one of the valuable lessons learned by Eddie. Eddie learned this from his fourth stop in heaven and meets marguerite, his wife for many years. Marguerite passed away to cancer at the age of forty. Eddie always loved the way marguerite threw parties for hi s birthday with the kids from the pier. Eddie never lost his love for Marguerite. Eddie spent his time loving and cuddling marguerite. The way I connect to this is in grade two my great grandpa passed away. I still miss him and wish I could hear some his stories now that I could understand what he was talking about.â€Å"No sacrifice is too small† is a lesson learned by Eddie at his second stop in heaven with the captain. Eddie lost all contact with the people from the war. Eddie was captured by Philippine’s and kept in a cell and forced to mine coal to help the Philippine’s win the war. The captain uses his example of going to scout ahead around a corner when he steps on a land mine. The way I relate to this is very unpractical but still had a use to my situation. I was playing air soft and sacrifice myself by going and scouting ahead and I ended up setting off a claymore and interrupted the ambush and my team was able to eliminate the other team and win. "All lives are connected† is a lesson learned by Eddie when he meets the blue man. Eddie is playing baseball with his friends when the ball crosses the road and Eddie runs to get it and cuts off a vehicle, who has to swerve and crashes, to grab the baseball. The blue man was blue from overdosing silver nitrate which turned him blue. When Eddie went to heaven he was confused and didn’t know who the blue man was. The way I connect to this is when I was playing baseball and I hit the ball over my fence and ran to get it and cut a car off and it slammed on the breaks and just about rolled.Overall the novel â€Å"the five people you meet in heaven† teaches many great lessons to its readers. The three most important lessons are â€Å"Lost love is still love†, â€Å"No sacrifice is too small†, and â€Å"All lives are connected†. The part about the story that I liked the most was when Eddie went to the captain in heaven and brought back the memories about the war. In the end, the novel taught me that heaven isn’t all what you think it is.