The Green Mile Essay Example For Students

The Green Mile Essay This movie is about an inmate, John Coffey, who has special healing powers. He is charged with killing 2 girls. While awaiting his execution he heals some kind of cancer from Tom Hanks character and heals the wardens wife who is gravely ill. He does this by touching them and then he coughs up the illness. He even heals a dead mice. After bringing back the mice, I assumed that he didnt kill the girls but instead was trying to bring them back to life. It ends up another inmate in the next cell killed them. He shows Toms character this by touching the other inmates hand then touching Toms hand.So the dilemma is whether to kill John or not. I think that John should not have been executed. There was no evidence that he did do this. We will write a custom essay on The Green Mile specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now This takes place in a southern jail in times where black people werent widely accepted. They were able to take him out of prison the first time to heal the wardens wife so they couldve taken him out again. This guy saved two live. Morally they should have spared him. I would have spared his life. My conscience would not have allowed me to execute someone I knew was not guilty.

Getting a feel for the female

Getting a feel for the female Slaughterhouse Five Logan Varnell Expository Writing 1010-089The fictional novel, Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, is innovative to its genre because even though it has fantasy events listed throughout the novel, it also has genuine events in it too. The events help tell the story of Billy Pilgrim, which also helped with the time traveling, because of the different events that happened throughout the 20th century. In the novel, it lists events such as the bombing of Dresden that actually happened at the end of WWII. The bombing is brought up several times throughout the novel, which leads back to the time traveling. The time traveling back and forth through the actual events make the novel innovative to its genre because while it's listed as a fictional novel, the actual events that happen could create an argument that the genre could be misleading which is rather unique for a fictional novel.English: This is a photo of architect Bernard Vonn...The genre conventions throughout t he novel consist of distant space traveling and extraterrestrials. These events clearly make the novel fictional because from what us as humans know, none of that exists or is even possible. The Tralfamadorians that kidnap Billy Pilgrim, take him to their planet, and make him a slave/zoo animal do not exist, so that could never happen. That would make the novel fictional by default. That would then back up the genre conventions that are presented in this novel. Another genre convention in the novel is time traveling. Throughout the novel, Billy jumps from one event to the other in a matter of seconds. The book is not written chronologically, and so you just have to assume that Billy is time traveling. The process of time travel does not exist and so therefore, you would have to categorize the genre of this book...

Sun Rise Foods Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Sun Rise Foods - Case Study Example The company produces snack products, pies , pastries and sandwiches. These products are then supplied by the company to leading retailers under the retailer's brand but it also sells to pubs, cafes and catering supply companies under its own brand name. It uses local suppliers for its food products where ever it is possible to do so. The main focus of the case study is on the customer service department of the company. The job of a customer service officer in the company is to answer enquires about the food products of the company, ingredients being used in the food products and the quality issues which customers might have faced regarding the food products. Recently management has been highly concerned about the quality of customer service that is being provided to customers and has shifted its focus to achieving high customer satisfaction. The manager has also brought about new performance resolution program which focuses on quality, speed, dependability, flexibility and cost as the method of ensuring that customers are satisfied with the response achieved from the customer service officers of the company. Six months have passed since the new control model was floated by the company. However there has not been sufficient increase in performance on the 5 parameters of customer service which the management wanted improved upon. However it has led to employees being dissatisfied with the management and a oppressive management style emerging in the organization. The company's CEO has grand expansion plans for the company. He wants to expand the company's reach in to the European markets; particularly Holland and Scotland. He also wants to concentrate on premier range of products which will provide him greater margin and thus increase the profits of the company. However consumers of premier products are very quality conscious and want good quality products as well as high quality customer service for the price they are paying. There is thus a gap between the strategic mission of the company's CEO and the functional aspects of the company. This case deals with the problems that are being faced by Sunrise foods and tries to provide reasonable solutions to the above problems. Literature Review Operations management was confined only to the management of processes of products till 1980s.It was primarily because of the reason that operations management has grown from the concept of factory management. It was only in 1980s when the

Solid State Hard drive Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Solid State Hard drive - Research Paper Example Thus, it offers faster access time than a disk since the data can be randomly accessed and does not depend upon a read/write interface head synchronizing with a moving disk. In addition, it also offers better material flexibility to physical vibration, noise and excessive temperature change/variation. However, there is a problem with it that is its higher cost per MB of storage (StorageSearch) and (Crothers). Kyrnin (2009) states that fundamental principle of solid state drive’s working is that there should be no circulating or moving disk parts. In other words, these disks have no moving heads or spinning platters. Additionally, in solid state hard drive data is spread over numerous word length pieces and stored in memory. In addition, the data from the hard drive is accessed instantly using a technique unique system-wide addresses searching. Moreover, this action has been employed in computer RAM (Random Access Memory) for several years, however for a long time it was too costly for companies that manufacture SSD (Kyrnin). According to Rankin (2009), the solid state disks employ either SDRAM (volatile and non-volatile storage respectively) or NAND flash. Though, NAND flash is acknowledged as the NAND-gate technology that is widely used in USB flash drives as well as in a lot of different memory cards. Additionally, the NAND flash is based on the drives that are persistent as well as are able to successfully replicate a hard disk drive. On the other hand, SDRAM (synchronous dynamic random access memory) is a volatile memory and needs an additional power source if it is to function separately from a computer (Rankin). According to Kyrnin (2009), the solid state hard drive basically looks similar to the traditional hard drive and has no apparent difference from traditional hard drive. On the other hand, the new solid state hard

Major Educational Challenges Assessment for Kenya Education System Essay Example for Free

Major Educational Challenges Assessment for Kenya Education System Essay With a total population of over 43 million, Kenya is the biggest and most advanced economy in the east and central Africa. It is well-known for its natural resource and the vast variety of wildlife, which contribute a large proportion to Kenya’s GDP in agricultural and service sectors. It’s prosperous capital Nairobi is also given the name â€Å"East African Paris†. But behind the misleading impression of affluence left by a minority of urban population, Kenya is still a poor developing country with half of the population living in total poverty. Even though with a GINI index of 42. which is only medium, the economic status inequality of Kenyans is relatively high: The rich has a condo with four private cars and two maids while the poor in shabby clothes are living in slums just two miles away. The economy of the country also leads to problems in the education sector in Kenya. The objectives of this memo is to identify three most important issues that may be challenges for Kenyan Government and Kenyan education sector, and come up with potential solutions and strategies to address them. 1, Educational inequality between urban and rural areas There’s been a significant educational inequality between urban and rural Kenya. From the data provided by â€Å"Exploring Kenyan Education† site, School Location Density (2007), most schools distributes around big cities in the southern and southwestern Kenya where the majority of the population lives in. These cities includes Nairobi the Capital, Nakuru, Kericho, Kisumu, Eldoret, Kakamega, Meru and Mombasa. Since the school density does not show any problems because it follows the demography theory, but the enrollment rate and the educational investment may tell a part of the story. In big cities like Nairobi, the gross enrollment rate of primary education is as high as 103% and the net enrollment rate is 91% (2009). But as of northeastern and northwestern Kenya the ratio is as low as 35% or even 25%. Even though the primary education is free and uniform in Kenya, there are still extra costs. One that blocks the way of education for children is the school uniform. Students drop out of schools simply because they don’t have school uniform, the situation is even worse in those tribe territories and extreme poor areas. The school uniform costs almost a thousand Ksh that many families cannot afford. Even though there has been official regulation noting that no student ought to be turned away for not having uniform, uniform is such an ineradicable â€Å"culture† in Kenya schools that either schools or parents keep students away from school for not having schools uniforms. Lacking of resources becomes another. Lacking of sufficient textbooks and necessary stationaries makes students in rural areas hard to study. Students normally depend on what their teachers can provide to them and most of the time a textbook is shared by two plus students. Even there are articles saying lacking of teachers is another problem, but according to the data by Kenya Open Data, the Pupil-Teacher Ratio in rural areas is not significantly higher than that is in developed area) -Possible solutions Providing free school uniforms targeting economically challenged students (application by student or their parents). Education ministry should also take responsibility to make sure every single student can have the textbooks they need. Unified and organized studying necessities delivery should be arranged at the start of each semester. 2, Primary-to Secondary Bottleneck The primary education in Kenya is free and an average of over 90% of eligible school-age children are enrolled into primary schools, but the net enrollment rate only ranges from 3%-50%, that means even in the best conditioned area, nearly half of the students quit studying at the age of 15. Tuition Fees remains the largest barrier for going secondary school. Data shows that a primary student cost around 3,000 Ksh (32 USD) per household per year (2005), but surges to 25,000 Ksh (270 USD) for secondary education, which accounts for more than half of Annual income per household. Despite government subsidies for secondary schools, some national and top provincial schools charge fees as high as 73,600 Ksh for one year. Such excessive education expense may be totally fine for students from privileged families, but for kids from middle class or poor families who fight all the way to those schools, that becomes a disaster. The other factor that creates the bottleneck is the poor education quality in most of the public primary schools. Primary school students need to reach over 250 points in KCPE (Kenya Certificate of Primary Education) to be qualified to continue secondary education. There are better teachers teaching in private schools and students are receiving â€Å"elite† education. 77 percent of private primary school students (2007) score over 250 compared to only 45 percent among public school students. This really reveals the poor teaching quality which fails students in public schools, thus most economic privileged families send their children to private schools. -Possible solutions: More government subsidies Though the secondary education receives governmental subsidies, more subsidies are needed to help those students with economical difficulties. Document students who need tuition aid and set up foundation targeting those students. Thus the resource can be concentrated to those in need. Further more, more money should be invested for better teachers, better infrastructures in public schools. Strengthen subsidy usage supervision Kenyan Ministry of Education spends more than 10,000Ksh per secondary student annually. This amount of money is controlled by schools instead of directly by the students, and the tuition gets even higher each year. Many secondary schools charges suggested annual tuition standard by MOE for only one semester, and most of them cannot explain the subsidies usage. Having government nominated supervisor sent to schools regularly to make sure the subsidies are in proper use would be a potential solution. Heath problems that contribute to the dropout and poor education quality Health problem has been a huge challenge for students in Kenya and the country’s heath system has been always in a difficult time trying to provide accessible heath care for its population. Poor nutrition, underweight, intestinal worms, malaria, HIV, unexpected early pregnancies, etc. have greatly influenced students’ academic performance. In some areas such as Naivasha and Thika, own illness/disability becomes the biggest reason for not attending school. The ratio may be as high as over 70% and some time reaches over 90%. Also, early pregnancy is also a main contributor to the high dropout rate among girls. -Possible solution School heath program: a school based heath system should be set up to secure students’ health condition. Since families may not be able to provide enough food supply especially for those poor families, government should help schools provide at least one meal per day to ensure students’ nutrition supplement. Also, 3. 6 million children were dewormed in 2009 and continuing implementing deworming program has been proved to be an effective way to increase attendance. Then schools should also take responsibilities for sex knowledge education which most children could not receive at home.

Gulliver’s Travels Essay -- Satire Satirical Essays

Gulliver’s Travels Gulliver’s Travels has set a standard for satirical writing for a long time, and Swift’s imaginative ability and talent can explain a lot of the text’s continued popularity. People can approach Gulliver’s Travels like a children’s book, and not search for deeper meaning. They read the story as a fantasy, and seek only to be entertained. Gulliver’s Travels is valuable and enjoyable for its plot and surface elements alone, but a deeper level of meaning and significance can be achieved if we take note of the satirical elements in the novel. Although to gain a full appreciation of the satire, the reader needs to be somewhat familiar with the events of Swift’s time. Taking the historical period in which Swift was writing into consideration, one of the major changes that was occurring was the shift to a more scientific, empirically-informed worldview (being advanced by the Royal Society of England and Francis Bacon). However, Swift and others were concerned that if this new scientific outlook could lead to disaster if it continued unchecked. Swift and other â€Å"nonconformists† argued that science without context could have widespread harmful consequences, and this position profoundly reveals itself in his satirical treatment of science and knowledge in Gulliver’s Travels. This paper will discuss Swift’s satirical treatment of these subjects in the novel. Several critics have pointed out that evidence exists that suggests that Swift was not uniformly opposed to all science (Phiddian 52). Therefore, it would seem unfair to read Swift’s satirical approach to science in Gulliver’s Travels as a full rejection of the science of his day-it would be overly simplistic and reductive. Swift was not an anti-Luddite. In fact, Swift was a proponent of science in some ways, but he reacted strongly against what he perceived as its abuse or exploitation. The satirical treatment of science in Gulliver’s Travels is more complex than an all-or-nothing rejection of the scientific mindset that was becoming increasingly popular in Swift’s time. Instead of objecting to the use of science in general, Swift seems to have had problems with a particular form of scientific research, and it is with this type of science/scientist that Swift is primarily concerned in Gulliver’s Travels. The type of science that Swift attacks is inapplicable science, or â€Å"pure... ...ss of the scientific worldview that was becoming more widespread during his lifetime. Swift himself was not opposed to all scientific endeavors, but Gulliver’s Travels provided a platform for him to explore the potential negative effects/affects of the â€Å"new science,† engaging in the exaggeration and absurdity that are essential to satire. Although Swift’s characterization of the Laputan scientists is distorted, it does successfully call into question the ultimate goal of science. Should scientific research be pursued because society has achieved the technology to perform them? My opinion is that Swift, through Gulliver’s Travels, argued that it should not automatically and necessarily be pursued. Works Cited Fitzgerald, Robert P. â€Å"Science and Politics in Swift’s Voyage to Laputa.† Journal of English and Germanic Philology 87: 213-29. Patey, Douglas Lane. â€Å"Swift’s Satire on ‘Science’ and the Structure of Gulliver’s Travels.† ELH 58.4: 809-39. Phiddian, Robert. â€Å"A Hopeless Project: Gulliver inside the Language of Science in Book III.† Eighteenth Century Life 22.1: 50-62. Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels. Ed. Greenberg, Robert A. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 1970.

Making corporate boards more effective

Krishna Pale, Guan Submarines and Walter Salmon. Synopsis Presented by: Brent Lengthener, Chairman and CEO of Lengthener & Associates, Board Member of TAP Oil & Gas and Merit. Participants: Board members from various organizations. Half of the group was made up of international representatives with a strong contingent from Africa, Australia, the I-J and other destinations. This proved to be very interesting in that their insights were from a different perspective throughout.Preface: This is Part 2 of my notes and subsequent research performed from the week I spent with Jay Lowers and a handful of Harvard Business School faculty members discussing board effectiveness. I am trying to share this information to the best of my abilities so that others can gain additional insights for the companies they lead. Note, these are my notes but I do not necessarily agree with all of the comments and/or insights shared. Also note that these professors are all pro- business and serve on boards as w ell.In Part 1, we ended with Case Study 7-Bank of America and Merrill Lynch Case Study 8: Hewlett-Packard Company: The War Within This was a continuation of Case Studies 5 and 6. In September 2006, Haps Board of Directors was in despair. The acquisition of Compact (Case Study 5) had taken a toll. Board members were leaking confidential information and felony counts ensued. All of this marred what seemed to be a great turnaround for HP under Mark Hurt. Key Questions Included: 1. How and why did HP get into this situation? 2. What could have been done to prevent this? 3. How do we prevent this from happening to our boards?Key Takeaways on Board Dysfunction Mistrust Poor Communication No true team; too many â€Å"lone rangers† No consensus on strategy No boundaries between board oversight and management execution Putting personal agenda's first Independence. Integrity. Innovation. 2 Key Questions Included: 1 . Was Cancan Justified in attacking Target? 2. Who would you side with? Cancan or Target? Why? 3. Could Target's board have done anything differently to avoid the public conflict this created? 4. If Target can be attacked, then what are the implications for other boards, corporate governance, proxy access and more regulatory oversight?Key takeaways: Economic downturns create more stress, especially with investors. Rational thinking an quickly go out the door. Presently, think about anyone operating in the Gulf of Mexico and how the stress has increased. Target is one retail outlet that does not fear Wall-Mart. They have their own strategy and are very successful. They have no desire to be a copycat. They are proud of who they are. The board is constantly â€Å"revamping† itself and is considered excellent in governance. Even with all it had going for it, they still came under attack. Everyone is vulnerable- especially today with the new changes.The nominating process will become much more important going forward. Being prepared is ALWAYS key. Ad ditional Discussions: The day is coming when re-nominating boards will be very important. Investor Relations may want to aggressively share what board members are doing, press releases, website, etc, like they do with management. Companies should reach out to large and influential shareholders from time-time. Conference calls and shareholder meetings may need to be â€Å"rethought† so as to get more interaction. Make sure the board you have works well as a team. When crisis hits, they need to see themselves as a team versus individuals. Case Study 1 1: FL-CIO Office of Investment and Home Depot On January 3, 2007, Home Depot fired Robert Narrated, its CEO and Chairman, following controversy over his compensation package. Marinade's departure was partly the result of the focused efforts of the FL-Coo's Office of Investment. The office had executed a website and led an aggressive campaign focused on his pay. Narrated made $240 million in 6 years, but the stock had simply gone d own; even with a 19% buy back. Home Depot's number one competition (Low's) was beating them at every turn, including watching its market cap go from $16 billion to $47 billion.Key Questions: 1 . How can a company deal with a focused effort like this? 2. How did Marinade's compensation impact Home Depot? Key Takeaways: There can be a wide variety of different shareholder groups, all varying and all with different, and maybe opposing, agendas. It is important to think out compensation plans from beginning to end; not only the costs, but the reasoning, the optics, and the story. Make sure you proactively tell the â€Å"true story' regarding compensation versus letting someone else do it for you. Their perception can become other peoples' reality.Error as much as possible with performance based compensation versus fixed remunerates. Keep plans understandable and simple. For more good information on excellent pay practices, go to Case Study 4 (in Part 1) about Recruit Benchers PAL. Case Study 12: The Board of Directors at Morgan Stanley & Dean Witter On June 13, 2005, Phillip announced that he would retire as Chairman and CEO at Morgan Stanley & Dean Witter as soon as a successor was found. Morgan Stanley & Dean Witter had been performing poorly and was losing its key talent. His resignation raised two main problems for the board: 1 how to go about finding a new CEO; and 2. How to determine the future direction of the firm. 6 Key Questions: 1 . What is your assessment of how the board handled the situation? 2. How do you explain their decision? Terrible practices were in place and the company had become â€Å"institutionalized† Board became infatuated with a strong CEO personality or lost focus A possible successor being guaranteed the â€Å"CEO role† in five years is a terrible practice The board sacrificed the vision and mission of the company for friendship and interlocks Most did not understand the business, especially the huge difference between Morgan Stanley and Dean WitterTo remove the CEO, 75% of the board had to agree, which was virtually impossible The way they allowed the CEO to dictate any would-be successor cut them off from some great candidates Case Study 13: Citreous-Wichita-Wells Fargo On October 3, 2008, the CEO of Citreous, who had Just worked out an exclusive agreement to buy Wichita, received a call from Washout's CEO saying they had Just â€Å"cut a new deal† with Wells Fargo. Wells Farads offer was $7/share versus the $1 Citreous had offered. The matchmaker was the IBID. They first worked the deal with Citreous but later reworked a new deal with Wells Fargo.Even more interesting was new legislation that was being approved to let a profitable bank buy another bank and use its Net Operating Loss immediately. This, at the time, really only worked for Wells Fargo and is one of the reasons it could offer more. 1 . If you were on Agitprop's board and heard there was a new deal with Wells Fargo, what wou ld you do? 2. If you were on Washout's board, how would you handle the two opportunities? 3. If you were Wells Fargo, after the favorable tax law change, what would you do? 4. Evaluate what the IBID did by, in essence, brokering to both. Www. Lengthener. M 7 5. Key takeaways: Interestingly, we had one of Washout's negotiators in the room so he gave us some great insights: Citreous was going to â€Å"cherry-pick† Washout's assets and Wells Fargo was going to buy all. Citreous was not a cultural fit so chances that this would have worked were slim at best. Plus, Citreous did not know retail like Wells Fargo. Wichita believes Wells Fargo has been a â€Å"perfect fit. † The IBID Chair, Sheila Pair, brokered the deal first with Citreous and then, during the due diligence period, was working on a better deal with Wells Fargo. From a legal perspective: