Chaos In The Currency Markets : Currency Crisis Of The EMS :: essays research papers

Chaos in The Currency Markets : Currency Crisis of The EMS 1. What does the crisis of September 1992 tell you about the relative abilities of currency markets and national governments to influence exchange rates?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The currency markets and national governments both have abilities to influence exchange rates. Like other financial markets, foreign exchange markets react to any news that may have a future effect. Speculators are the part of the currency markets that take currency positions based on anticipated interest rate movements in various countries. Day-to-day speculation on future exchange rate movements is commonly driven by signals of future interest rate movements. By using the signal, speculators usually take the position before the things actually occurred. Sometime, if high power enough, the speculators position can influence the exchange rate movement. The government controls is one of the factors affecting exchange rate. The government can influence the equilibrium exchange rate in many way, including direct intervening (buying and selling currencies) in the foreign exchange markets and indirect intervening by affecting macro variables such as interest rates. 2. What does the crisis of September 1992 tell you about the weakness of fixed exchange rate regimes?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  From European currency crisis of September 1992, it shows us that there are weakness of the fixed exchange rate system. When exchange rate are tied, a high interest rate in one country has a strong influence on interest rates in the other countries. Funds will flow to the country with a more attractive interest rate, which reduces the supply of fund in the other countries and places upward pressure on their interest rates. The flow of fund would continue until the interest rate differential has been eliminated or reduced. This process would not necessarily apply to countries outside ERM that do not in the fixed exchange rate system, because the exchange rate risk may discourage the flow of funds to the countries with relatively high interest rate. However, since the ERM requires central banks to maintain the exchange rates between currencies within specified boundaries, investors moving funds among the participating European countries are less concerned about exchange rate risk. 3. Assess the impact of the events of September 1992 on the EU 's ability to establish a common currency by 1999.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A major concern of a common currency is based on the concept of a single European monetary policy. Each country's government may prefer to implement its own monetary policy. It would have to adapt to a system in which it had only partial input to the European monetary policy that would be implemented in all European countries, including its own. Chaos In The Currency Markets : Currency Crisis Of The EMS :: essays research papers Chaos in The Currency Markets : Currency Crisis of The EMS 1. What does the crisis of September 1992 tell you about the relative abilities of currency markets and national governments to influence exchange rates?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The currency markets and national governments both have abilities to influence exchange rates. Like other financial markets, foreign exchange markets react to any news that may have a future effect. Speculators are the part of the currency markets that take currency positions based on anticipated interest rate movements in various countries. Day-to-day speculation on future exchange rate movements is commonly driven by signals of future interest rate movements. By using the signal, speculators usually take the position before the things actually occurred. Sometime, if high power enough, the speculators position can influence the exchange rate movement. The government controls is one of the factors affecting exchange rate. The government can influence the equilibrium exchange rate in many way, including direct intervening (buying and selling currencies) in the foreign exchange markets and indirect intervening by affecting macro variables such as interest rates. 2. What does the crisis of September 1992 tell you about the weakness of fixed exchange rate regimes?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  From European currency crisis of September 1992, it shows us that there are weakness of the fixed exchange rate system. When exchange rate are tied, a high interest rate in one country has a strong influence on interest rates in the other countries. Funds will flow to the country with a more attractive interest rate, which reduces the supply of fund in the other countries and places upward pressure on their interest rates. The flow of fund would continue until the interest rate differential has been eliminated or reduced. This process would not necessarily apply to countries outside ERM that do not in the fixed exchange rate system, because the exchange rate risk may discourage the flow of funds to the countries with relatively high interest rate. However, since the ERM requires central banks to maintain the exchange rates between currencies within specified boundaries, investors moving funds among the participating European countries are less concerned about exchange rate risk. 3. Assess the impact of the events of September 1992 on the EU 's ability to establish a common currency by 1999.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A major concern of a common currency is based on the concept of a single European monetary policy. Each country's government may prefer to implement its own monetary policy. It would have to adapt to a system in which it had only partial input to the European monetary policy that would be implemented in all European countries, including its own.

Aestheticism: Philosophy of Beauty Essay

Aestheticism is presently defined by the Encyclopedia Britannica as â€Å"intended to designate a scientific doctrine or account of beauty, in nature and art, and for the enjoyment and originating beauty which exists in man†. In other words, aestheticism is a philosophy of beauty. An Aesthete has a great appreciation for nature. One may look at an object, place, or person and perceive it a different way than another person may perceive it. For an Aesthete to obtain pleasure, â€Å"it is the perspectives of perception that is necessary to an understanding of both appreciation and creation†. Aestheticism is a very deep and meaningful philosophy whose meaning has been changed and interpreted by many historical figures such as Alexander Baumgarten, Immanuel Kant, and Oscar Wilde. The philosophical discipline of aesthetics did not receive its name until 1735, when the twenty-one year old Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten introduced it in his Halle master’s thesis to mean episteme aisthetike, or the science of what is sensed and imagined. Initially, the focus of aestheticism was not so much on art as it was on the experience of, and judgments about, beauty in all its forms. Aesthetics is necessarily interdisciplinary and may be interpretive, prescriptive, descriptive, or a combination of these. The younger Baumgarten started at the university at sixteen (in 1730), and studied theology, philology, poetry, rhetoric, and philosophy, especially Leibniz, whose philosophy was not banned. He began teaching there himself in 1735, upon the acceptance of his thesis on poetry, and published his Metaphysics in 1739. In 1740, the same year as he published his Ethics, he was called to a professorship — or more precisely, ordered to accept it — at another Prussian university, in Frankfurt an der Oder. The first volume of his Aesthetica appeared in 1750. It was written in Latin, like Baumgarten’s other works, and was the first work ever to use the name of the new discipline as a title. The next year, however, Baumgarten’s health began to decline and a second volume of the Aestheticacame out only in 1758, under pressure from the publisher. Baumgarten’s Meditations on Poetry conclude with his famous introduction of the term â€Å"aesthetics†: â€Å"The Greek philosophers and the Church fathers have always carefully distinguished between the aistheta and the noeta,†that is, between objects of sense and objects of thought, and while the latter, that is, â€Å"what can be cognized through the higher faculty† of mind, are â€Å"the object of logic, the aistheta are the subject of the episteme aisthetike or AESTHETICS,† the science of perception. However, in the 18th century, the German philosopher Immanuel Kant defined aestheticism as both â€Å"the analysis of taste† and â€Å"the analysis of sensible cognition or intuition†. Immanuel Kant was a Prussian philosopher who is widely considered to be a central figure of modern philosophy. He argued that human concepts and categories structure our view of the world and its laws, and that reason is the source of morality. One part Kant’s philosophy of aestheticism was the â€Å"Deduction of Taste†, which instilled that everything interesting and fundamental happened in the formation of concepts, or in the receiving of intuitions. But now Kant argues that judgment itself, as a faculty, has an fundamental principle that governs it. This principle asserts the purposiveness of all phenomena with respect to our judgment. In other words, it assumes in advance that everything we experience can be tackled by our powers of judgment. Normally, we don’t even notice that this assumption is being made, we just apply concepts, and be done with it. But in the case of the beautiful, we do notice. This is because the beautiful draws particular attention to its purposiveness; but also because the beautiful has no concept of a purpose available, so that we cannot just apply a concept and be done with it. Instead, the beautiful forces us to grope for concepts that we can never find. And yet, nevertheless, the beautiful is not an alien and disturbing experience – on the contrary, it is pleasurable. The principle of purposiveness is satisfied, but in a new and unique way. For Kant, the other basic type of aesthetic experience is the sublime. The sublime names experiences like violent storms or huge buildings which seem to overwhelm us; that is, we feel we ‘cannot get our head around them’. This is either mainly ‘mathematical’ – if our ability to intuit is overwhelmed by size (the huge building) – or ‘dynamical’ – if our ability to will or resist is overwhelmed by force (e. g. the storm). The problem for Kant here is that this experience seems to directly contradict the principle of the purposiveness of nature for our judgment. And yet, Kant notes, one would expect the feeling of being overwhelmed to also be accompanied by a feeling of fear or at least discomfort, whereas, the sublime can be a pleasurable experience. In contrast, Oscar Wilde prefaced his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, with a reflection on art, the artist, and the utility of both. After careful scrutiny, he concludes: â€Å"All art is quite useless† (Wilde 4). In this one sentence, Wilde encapsulates the complete principles of the Aesthetic Movement popular in Victorian England. That is to say, real art takes no part in molding the social or moral identities of society, nor should it. Art should be beautiful and pleasure its observer, but to imply further-reaching influence would be a mistake. The explosion of aesthetic philosophy in fin-de-siecle English society, as exemplified by Oscar Wilde, was not confined to merely art, however. Rather, the proponents of this philosophy extended it to life itself. Here, aestheticism advocated whatever behavior was likely to maximize the beauty and happiness in one’s life, in the tradition of hedonism. To the aesthete, the ideal life mimics art; it is beautiful, but quite useless beyond its beauty, concerned only with the individual living it. Aesthetics found that through their great interest in beauty, pleasure that is derived from objects of art is more beautiful than other pleasures. Overall, many philosophers have interpreted the principle of aestheticism in their own ways. Without aestheticism, the deep understanding we now have of the connection of our lives with all forms of art would not be possible. Therefore, after centuries of conceptual making, aestheticism remains as a very complex subject which any poetic heart would be delighted to learn for the benefit of further understanding the purpose for the existence of art. Art through music, paintings, dance, and performance are all unique, but alike in one way: they are products of an artist’s ability, and desire, to create beauty. Works Cited Burnham, Douglas. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Immanuel Kant: Aesthetics. n. d. 9 February 2014 . Duggan, Patrick. The Conflict Between Aestheticism and Morality in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Darian Gray. n. d. 9 February 2014 . Guyer, Paul. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: 18th Century German Aesthetics. 16 January 2007. 9 February 2014 . Rohlf, Michael. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Immanuel Kant. 20 May 2010. 9 February 2014 .

Prison Healthcare Essay

In researching healthcare in the prison system there seemed to be a definite difference in the type of regulated health care being given or even offered to prisoners. Prisons have state and federal laws that they must abide by in delivering health care services to their inmates. Therefore this paper will discuss the Federal Bureau of Prisons which came about in 1930 and was put together to deliver compassionate and open-minded care for Federal prisoners. In addition, the BOP (Federal Bureau of Prisoners) was implemented to change the prison health care services to be able to offer a more professional type of care. The government agency being discussed in this paper is known as the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The BOP’s head office is located in Washington D.C. and is part of the U.S. Justice Department. The Federal Bureau of Prisons is held accountable for the operation and administration of the federal prison organization. The main reasoning behind the BOP is to deliver a neutr al and sympathetic type of treatment for federal inmates in the United States penitentiary system. The BOP also provides inmates with any health care they may need in agreement with any Federal and State laws. The BOP is in charge of the protection and upkeep of roughly 200,000 centralized prisoners and is accountable for setting the standard for federal prisons dispersed through the U.S. The BOP starts out by deciding where a prisoner should be placed such as; what facility? The next thing BOP would then assess is the level of security needed for the prisoner and what type of counseling he or she may need while serving their time in prison? In addition to counseling services the prisoner will be assessed for any mental health issues at this time as well. After many of these types of questions are answered concerning the inmate the BOP will then assess what type of health care services the prisoner is in need of and too what degree they are needed. An example of this could be if a p risoner is in need of some type of Prison Health Care Agency 3 immediate surgery, then he or she would be put at the top priority level for care needed. These types of questions are quickly reviewed along with administration to determine where the inmate will need to serve his or her time. The reason for this statement is a prison’s inmate capacity along with the level of treatment able to be offered at a specific prison may influence a decision to place an offender at one location over another. According to the United States Department of Justice (2013), â€Å"the Federal Bureau of Prisons are responsible for confining federal offenders in prisons that are safe, humane, cost-efficient, and secure† (Agencies). According to the Federal Bureau of Prison’s (2008), â€Å"as part of these duties, the BOP is able to control health care in prisons by being responsible for the delivery of medically necessary health care to inmates in accordance with applicable standards of care† (Executive Summary). The American Correctional Association has established nationwide principles connected to the safe, effective and professional operation of corrections facilities. These values are vital leaders in regards to the policies and procedures that defend the wellbeing and security of employees and inmates of the prison. These principles are frequently reviewed by a group looking over the standards. The amendments are grounded on decisions based by the court, practice sessions, and constitutional organizations. In order to comply with both federal and state laws, medical facilities or health care services must be provided at prisons and state-run correctional facilities. This type of task would require the combined efforts of several sections within the American Correctional Association which is primarily associated with the Administrative Services, Offender Operations, Support Services, and Health Services. In addition, things such as making financial arrangements for the construction and upkeep of medical faciliti es would fall to the obligation of Administrative Services and the Offender Prison Health Care Agency 4 Operations. In addition the Health Services at a prison are those responsible for the day to day procedures of the prison’s medical treatment centers. To make sure that the health care being provided to prisoners is meeting a high level of quality the American Correctional Association has required and expects accreditation and certification from any agencies regarding the National Commission on Correctional Health Care. The NCCHC healthcare principles and standards are intended to assist things such as; prison healthcare clinics meet international and national standards of basic human rights. By November 29, 2007, the BOP had held 166,794 inmates in approximately 114 BOP prisons at 93 different sites (The Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2008). Also, throughout 2007 the Federal Bureau of Prisons was indebted around $736 million for health care being offered to prisoners in the United States. The Federal Bureau of Prisons continues to deliver health care services to prisoners chiefly by internal medicinal providers working by the BOP or allocated to the BOP from the Public Health Service, and ultimately constricted health care physicians which were the ones’ that delivered wide-ranging treatment or separate health care services offered for a single person (The Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2008). Then with adjusting or controlling the growing prices regarding health care and the various other services the Federal Bureau of Prisons executed resources that were intended to offer additional competent health care to prisoners. The Federal Bureau of Prisons exertions to get some type of control on health care in prisons began by learning the various steps a prisoner must go through before he or she is transferred or sent to their assigned penitentiary. To start off prisoners are sent to a prison established around the level of treatment that is needed by this particular inmate. According to the Federal Bureau of Prison’s (2008) â€Å"the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (OIG) initiated an Prison Health Care Agency 5 audit to determine whether the BOP was appropriately containing health care costs in the provision of necessary medical, dental, and mental health care services; as well as effectively administering its medical services contracts and effectively monitored its medical services providers† (Executive Summary). To make sure that federal and state laws are being followed regarding health care facilities being offered at penitentiaries as well as state-run correctional facilities. For something like this assignment to take place would entail the joint efforts of numerous subdivisions inside the ADC, primarily Administrative Services, Offender Operations, Support Services, and Health Services. When it comes to planning and budgeting for the construction and maintenance of health care centers this is ultimately the obligation of the Administrative Services and Offender Operations. Therefore, the health care that is being provided to prisoners must be of a high quality and acceptable. In order to ensure that the quality of healthcare being provided to inmates is of a high quality and above criticism the ADC received certification from a self-governing agency to receive their accreditation which was the National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC). The healthcare standards that are in place by the NCCHC were envisioned to assist prisons with health care centers for their inmates as well as making sure to meet and follow the international and national principles regarding basic human rights. Inmates of all ages, race, color, creed and nationali ty are able to receive an equivalent standard level of treatment regarding ones’ health that is offered to the public that are not be held behind bars. According to Health Care in Prison (2013), â€Å"This general principle is outlined in Prison Service Order 3200, which states: The Prison Service in partnership with the NHS has a responsibility to ensure that prisoners have access to health services that are broadly equivalent Prison Health Care Agency 6 to those the general public receives from the NHS† (What Healthcare Services is Prisoners Entitled to). This means that prisons already provide health education, patient education, prevention and other health promotion interventions in that general context.† In addition, it is a requirement that each and every prisoner be able to find the penitentiaries’ policy statement regarding the health care services that are offered. In this policy statement it must be able to be viewed in a noticeable spot that is in an accessible location for all inmates. The policy statement must explain in detail what specific primary care, dental and specialist clinical services are available to prisoners, along with who is responsible for providing them (Health Care in Prison, 2013). All prisons must provide the policy statement to any prisoner who requests this information regarding the health care services available to them within a particular time frame. Prison Health Care Agency 7 References: Chen, S. (2009, November). Prison health-care costs rise as inmates grow older and sicker. CNN Justice, (), 1-3. Retrieved from http://articles.cnn.com/2009-11- 13/justice/aging.inmates_1_prison-inmate-largest-prison-systems-medical-costs? Health care in prison. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.aidsmap.com/Health-care-in- prison/page/1503575/ The Federal Bureau of Prisons. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/BOP/a0808/final.pdf The United States Department of Justice. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.justice.gov/ag/

Analysis Of The Poem Babi Yar Essays - The Holocaust In Ukraine

Analysis Of The Poem Babi Yar Essays - The Holocaust In Ukraine Analysis of the Poem "Babi Yar" In the poem, Babi Yar, Yevgeny Yevtushenko does a wonderful job of paying tribute to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. He does this by portraying the history of the Jewish people. Yevtushenko also uses various literary devices to heighten the sentiment of the poem. The poem is told in the first person, by the author of the poem. In the poem it is also apparent that he is addressing all Russian citizens when he writes "O Russian people". In this manner Yevtushenko is able to eulogize the Jewish victims of the Holocaust in front of a wide audience. This technique also allows him to speak directly to the Russian people and tell them of their wrongs at the end of the poem. Through usage of the first person he is able to place himself in the various situations of anti-Semitism in history. He takes us from Egypt, to the cross; from the Dryfus affair to the pogroms; from Anne Frank's dark room to the massacre of Babi Yar. Through all this Yevtushenko proclaims that "I" was there. This gives the reader a sense of being trapped in the middle of these horrifying events. The first person gives an eerie description that a third person description could not give. After he finishes his recitation of past events he begins addressing the Russian people of the present. He tells them that in general the Russians are a good hearted people. But, he goes on to say that there are a minority of Russians who ruin the good name of the whole. Yevtushenko contends that these people call themselves "The union of the Russian people". However, he then goes on to directly contradict their self-proclaimed name with clever uses of diction. He claims that the Internationale, or the Russian "union" song, will only be sung after these same anti-Semites are dead. In the last lines of the poem he admits that although he is not a Jew he demands to "let me be a Jew". Only when he is a Jew can he then go on to "call myself a Russian". What he means by all this is that the Russian people are not a group of Jew-haters, but rather a country of people who feel for the sorrows of the Jewish people. The first ezza is an introduction that tells us the occasion of the poem. It claims that "There are no monuments on Babi Yar, A steep ravine is all, a rough memorial." He then goes on to devote the rest of the poem as a eulogy to the Jews killed by the Russians. Therefore, this first ezza gives us the reason why he wrote the poem. This poem would in fact be the memorial for Babi Yar. The first ezza also does a terrific job of setting the gloomy tone for the rest of the poem. He also seems to hint at the fact that the anti-Semitism that began with the Christians is the same exact anti-Semitism that has continued to the present date. The anti-Semitism of Egypt remained in "her ancient days", but he insists that "I perish on the cross, and even now I bear the red marks of nails." His usage of the words "even now" contend that that specific anti-Semitism continues to the present date. In the next few ezzas sound plays a critical role. In the first line of the second ezza there is a repetition of the letter "d" in "Dryfus, detested, denounced". This sound conjures something approaching from behind you, like a march. Although, this ezza only affects one man, Dryfus, but there is the image of something approaching in the "d" sound. The second line of the third ezza reads "I seam to see blood spurt and spread". Here we have the repetition of the "s" sound. This sounds like air escaping from something, getting ready to explode. Then all of a sudden there are "The rampant pogrom roars". Things are getting worse. In the following ezza is a "translucent twig". The repeated "t" sound is like the ticking of a time bomb. Immediately after this one reads of the "pounding", or the final explosion. The explosion creates a "silent" sound and

D-Day

D-Day What Was D-Day? In the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, the Allies launched an attack by sea, landing on the beaches of Normandy on the northern coast of Nazi-occupied France.   The first day of this major undertaking was known as D-Day; it was the first day of the Battle of Normandy (code-named Operation Overlord) in World War II. On D-day, an armada of approximately 5,000 ships secretly crossed the English Channel and unloaded 156,000 Allied soldiers and nearly 30,000 vehicles in a single day on five, well-defended beaches (Omaha, Utah, Pluto, Gold, and Sword). By the end of the day, 2,500 Allied soldiers had been killed and another 6,500 wounded, but the Allies had succeeded, for they had broken through the German defenses and created a second front in World War II. Dates:   June 6, 1944 Planning a Second Front By 1944, World War II had already been raging for five years and most of Europe was under Nazi control. The Soviet Union was having some success on the Eastern Front but the other Allies, specifically the United States and the United Kingdom, had not yet made a full-fledged attack on the European mainland. It was time to create a second front. The questions of where and when to start this second front were difficult ones. The northern coast of Europe was an obvious choice, since the invasion force would be coming from Great Britain. A location that already had a port would be ideal in order to unload the millions of tons of supplies and soldiers needed. Also required was a location that would be within range of Allied fighter planes taking off from Great Britain. Unfortunately, the Nazis knew all this as well. To add an element of surprise and to avoid the bloodbath of trying to take a well-defended port, the Allied High Command decided on a location that met the other criteria but that did not have a port the beaches of Normandy in northern France. Once a location had been chosen, deciding upon a date was next. There needed to be enough time to collect the supplies and equipment, gather the planes and vehicles, and train the soldiers. This whole process would take a year. The specific date also depended on the timing of low tide and a full moon. All of this led to a specific day – June 5, 1944. Rather than continually refer to the actual date, the military used the term â€Å"D-Day† for the day of attack. What the Nazis Expected The Nazis knew the Allies were planning an invasion. In preparation, they had fortified all northern ports, especially the one at Pas de Calais, which was the shortest distance from southern Britain. But that was not all. As early as 1942, Nazi Fà ¼hrer Adolf Hitler ordered the creation of an Atlantic Wall to protect the northern coast of Europe from an Allied invasion. This was not literally a wall; instead, it was a collection of defenses, such as barbed wire and minefields, that stretched across 3,000 miles of coastline. In December 1943, when highly-regarded Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (known as the â€Å"Desert Fox†) was put in charge of these defenses, he found them completely inadequate. Rommel immediately ordered the creation of additional â€Å"pillboxes† (concrete bunkers fitted with machine guns and artillery), millions of additional mines, and a half million metal obstacles and stakes placed on the beaches that could rip open the bottom of landing craft. To hinder paratroopers and gliders, Rommel ordered many of the fields behind the beaches to be flooded and covered with protruding wooden poles (known as â€Å"Rommel’s asparagus†). Many of these had mines fitted on top. Rommel knew that these defenses would not be enough to stop an invading army, but he hoped it would slow them down long enough for him to bring reinforcements. He needed to stop the Allied invasion on the beach, before they gained a foothold. Secrecy The Allies desperately worried about German reinforcements. An amphibious attack against an entrenched enemy would already be incredibly difficult; however, if the Germans ever found out where and when the invasion was to take place and thus reinforced the area, well, the attack might end disastrously. That was the exact reason for the need of absolute secrecy. To help keep this secret, the Allies launched Operation Fortitude, an intricate plan to deceive the Germans. This plan included false radio signals, double agents, and fake armies that included life-size balloon tanks. A macabre plan to drop a dead body with false top-secret papers off the coast of Spain was also used. Anything and everything was used to deceive the Germans, to make them think that the Allied invasion was to occur somewhere else and not Normandy. A Delay All was set for D-Day being on June 5, even the equipment and soldiers had already been loaded onto the ships. Then, the weather changed. A massive storm hit, with 45-mile-an-hour wind gusts and lots of rain. After much contemplation, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, postponed D-Day just one day. Any longer of a postponement and the low tides and full moon wouldn’t be right and they’d have to wait another whole month. Also, it was uncertain they could keep the invasion secret for that much longer. The invasion would begin on June 6, 1944. Rommel also paid notice to the massive storm and believed that the Allies would never invade in such inclement weather. Thus, he made the fateful decision to go out of town on June 5 to celebrate his wife’s 50th birthday. By the time he was informed of the invasion, it was too late. In Darkness: Paratroopers Begin D-Day Although D-Day is famous for being an amphibious operation, it actually started with thousands of brave paratroopers. Under the cover of darkness, the first wave of 180 paratroopers arrived in Normandy. They rode in six gliders that had been pulled and then released by British bombers.   Upon landing, the paratroopers grabbed their equipment, left their gliders, and worked as a team to take control of two, very important bridges: the one over the Orne River and the other over the Caen Canal. Control of these would both hinder German reinforcements along these paths as well as enable the Allies access to inland France once they were off the beaches. The second wave of 13,000 paratroopers had a very difficult arrival in Normandy. Flying in approximately 900 C-47 airplanes, the Nazis spotted the planes and started shooting. The planes drifted apart; thus, when the paratroopers jumped, they were scattered far and wide.    Many of these paratroopers were killed before they even hit the ground; others got caught in trees and were shot by German snipers. Still others drowned in Rommel’s flooded plains, weighed down by their heavy packs and tangled in weeds. Only 3,000 were able to join together; however, they did manage to capture the village of St. Mà ©re Eglise, an essential target. The scattering of the paratroopers had a benefit for the Allies – it confused the Germans. The Germans did not yet realize that a massive invasion was about to get underway. Loading the Landing Craft While the paratroopers were fighting their own battles, the Allied armada was making its way to Normandy. Approximately 5,000 ships including minesweepers, battleships, cruisers, destroyers, and others – arrived in the waters off France around 2 a.m. on June 6, 1944. Most of the soldiers on board these ships were seasick. Not only had they been on board, in extremely cramped quarters, for days, crossing the Channel had been stomach turning because of extremely choppy waters from the storm. The battle began with a bombardment, both from the armada’s artillery as well as 2,000 Allied aircraft that soared overhead and bombed the beach defenses. The bombardment turned out to be not as successful as had been hoped and a lot of German defenses remained intact. While this bombardment was under way, the soldiers were tasked with climbing into landing craft, 30 men per boat. This, in itself, was a difficult task as the men climbed down slippery rope ladders and had to drop into landing craft that were bobbing up and down in five-foot waves. A number of soldiers dropped into the water, unable to surface because they were weighted down by 88 pounds of gear. As each landing craft filled up, they rendezvoused with other landing craft in a designated zone just outside of German artillery range. In this zone, nicknamed â€Å"Piccadilly Circus,† the landing craft stayed in a circular holding pattern until it was time to attack. At 6:30 a.m., the naval gunfire stopped and the landing boats headed toward shore. The Five Beaches The Allied landing boats were headed to five beaches spread out over 50 miles of coastline.   These beaches had been code-named, from west to east, as Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. The Americans were to attack at Utah and Omaha, while the British struck at Gold and Sword. The Canadians headed toward Juno. In some ways, soldiers reaching these beaches had similar experiences. Their landing vehicles would get close to the beach and, if they were not ripped open by obstacles or blown up by mines, then the transport door would open and the soldiers would disembark, waist-deep in the water. Immediately, they faced machine-gun fire from the German pillboxes. Without cover, many in the first transports were simply mowed down. The beaches quickly became bloody and strewn with body parts. Debris from blown up transport ships floated in the water.   Injured soldiers that fell in the water usually did not survive – their heavy packs weighed them down and they drowned. Eventually, after wave after wave of transports dropped off soldiers and then even some armored vehicles, the Allies started making headway on the beaches. Some of these helpful vehicles included tanks, such as the newly designed Duplex Drive tank (DDs). DDs, sometimes called â€Å"swimming tanks,† were basically Sherman tanks that had been fitted with a flotation skirt that allowed them to float. Flails, a tank equipped with metal chains in front, was another helpful vehicle, offering a new way to clear mines ahead of the soldiers. Crocodiles, were tanks equipped with a large flame thrower. These specialized, armored vehicles greatly helped the soldiers on Gold and Sword beaches. By early afternoon, the soldiers on Gold, Sword, and Utah had succeeded in capturing their beaches and had even met up with some of the paratroopers on the other side. The attacks on Juno and Omaha, however, were not going as well. Problems at Juno and Omaha Beaches At Juno, the Canadian soldiers had a bloody landing. Their landing boats had been forced off course by currents and thus had arrived at Juno Beach a half hour late. This meant that the tide had risen and many of the mines and obstacles were thus hidden under water.   An estimated half of the landing boats were damaged, with almost a third completely destroyed. The Canadian troops eventually took control of the beach, but at a cost of more than 1,000 men. It was even worse at Omaha. Unlike the other beaches, at Omaha, American soldiers faced an enemy that was safely housed in pillboxes located on top of bluffs that soared 100 feet above them. The early-morning bombardment that was supposed to take out some of these pillboxes missed this area; thus, the German defenses were nearly intact. The were was one particular bluff, called Pointe du Hoc, that stuck out into the ocean  between Utah and Omaha Beaches, giving German artillery at the top the ability to shoot at both beaches. This was such an essential target that the Allies sent in a special Ranger unit, led by Lt. Col. James Rudder,  to take out the artillery on top. Although arriving a half hour late because of drifting from a strong tide, the Rangers were able to use grappling hooks to scale the sheer cliff. At the top, they  discovered that the guns had been temporarily replaced by telephone poles to fool the Allies and to keep the guns safe from the bombardment. Splitting up and searching the countryside behind the cliff, the Rangers  found the guns. With a group of German soldiers not far away, Rangers snuck in and detonated thermite grenades in the guns, destroying them.   In addition to the bluffs, the crescent-shape of the beach made Omaha the most defensible of all the beaches. With these advantages, the Germans were able to mow down transports as soon as they arrived; the soldiers had little opportunity to run the 200 yards to the seawall for cover. The bloodbath earned this beach the nickname â€Å"Bloody Omaha.† The soldiers on Omaha were also essentially without armored help. Those in command had only requested DDs to accompany their soldiers, but nearly all of the swimming tanks headed toward Omaha drowned in the choppy waters. Eventually, with the help of naval artillery, small groups of men were able to make it across the beach and take out the German defenses, but it would cost 4,000 casualties to do so. The Break Out Despite a number of things not going to plan, D-Day was a success. The Allies had been able to keep the invasion a surprise and, with Rommel out of town and Hitler believing the landings at Normandy were a ruse for a real landing at Calais, the Germans never reinforced their position. After initial heavy fighting along the beaches, the Allied troops were able to secure their landings and break through German defenses to enter the interior of France. By June 7, the day after D-Day, the Allies were beginning the placement of two Mulberries, artificial harbors whose components had been pulled by tugboat across the Channel. These harbors would allow millions of tons of supplies to reach the invading Allied troops. The success of D-Day was the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany. Eleven months after D-Day, the war in Europe would be over.

Project management group project 5 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Project management group project 5 - Essay Example This paper compares how business organizations and education organization use of information system to assist them control their internal activities and to make decisions concerning their organizations. Businesses use of information system at all stages of organization procedure to obtain information, work on the information obtained and keep the information. Organization totals and publishes this information by presenting data needed for proper decision making within the organization (Lindsay, 2000). All individuals within the organization use information system to make decisions concerning the effectiveness of their organization. For example, a firm that vends automobiles might use information system to vend automobiles through the internet and can interact with different clients through the internet (Lindsay, 2000). In fact, most business organization advertises their products using information management systems (Lindsay, 2000). Experts in management system develop information systems used by organizations to store information, and analyze the information obtained to meet the needs of business organizations. By businesses using of management information system, they are usually in a position to modernize their activities into a consistent operative unit. Through it, several businesses obtain support in proper decision-making process (Lindsay, 2000). Similar, organization like education settings use information system to manage registration of learners, students absence, performance of students, organized studying, examination organization, construction of timetables, cover administration as well as other educational activities (Laudon and Laudon, 2010). Information system is used in education to maintain education information to help educationist to conduct frequent and complete evaluations, teaching and

Areas of Concern to Ensure Business Success Case Study

Areas of Concern to Ensure Business Success - Case Study Example Finally, they are often unable to raise sufficient funds as they only rely on their own ability. Â  Diversification is a method used in spreading risk. In the case of Jones Electrical Distribution, the business is only in operation during summer and spring when the weather is conducive for construction work. He should expand operations to ensure that business activity is not faced by seasonality. He should try other products that sell throughout. Â  Having a fewer supplier helps in cutting down distribution costs and the degree of logistics of the company. Consistency in the quality of materials supplied is also assured. This also reduces the number of customer complaints and establishes an intimate relationship with the supplier. In addition, the supplier aims at pleasing the customer because of the huge quantities by giving discounts. It’s not fit to have a single supplier though because if the supplier is adversely affected by an event, the business is also affected. The supplier might also become complacent since he knows you cannot get a better supplier than them. Â  The $350,000 line of credit is not enough money for the business. Looking at the 2007 balance sheet, the amount of financing required in more than $350,000. The business requires twice the amount in order to bring its liquidity to an acceptable level. Â  Alternatively, Jones can consider using profits of the business as a source of finance. Secondly, he can borrow from friends at agreeable interest rates.