Does God cause bad things to happen to His children? Essay

As one goes through life, tragedy and misfortune seem inevitable. One may be afflicted by diseases, involved in an accident or one’s child could die. Some people may consider this as purely bad luck. Others yet may consider it as karma coming back to haunt them for their past wrongdoings and transgressions. Nevertheless, it is common for people to question if God is the force behind the bad things. The question then arises, does God indeed cause bad things to happen to his children, or is there some force behind it? As long as one has faith and belief in God, the question is inevitable at certain points in life. However, the question as to whether God really does cause bad things to happen to his people is openly debatable. On the one hand, believers and non-believers alike would like to think that God punishes us and causes bad things to happen. To this group of people, God is trying to teach His children a lesson in addition to bringing them back to glory. On the other hand, others are of the opinion that God causes bad things to happen to them just to get their attention or to get His point across. The Book of Romans, 8: 28 – And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose, forms the basis of this argument (Nelson, 1982). Free will. It would be safe to argue that God does not in any way cause bad things to happen to his children. In John 3: 16, the Bible talks of the undying love that God has for his earthly children that he gave his only son to die so that they could be saved from eternal damnation (Nelson, 1982). Accordingly, God has accorded human beings with the necessary freedom to act as they wish on earth but has also provided the rules that are to guide their action. More over, the consequences for disobedience have clearly been stated. The Good Book, the Bible, contains the Ten Commandments that God’s children are to abide by. Flouting the rules results in tragedy and misfortune. When people misuse their freedom, they cause bad things to happen to them. Too much of anything is poisonous. Concomitantly, too much freedom is harmful. Out of free will or freedom, men commit murder and even genocide (McLarty, N. d. ). When people err and disobey his rules and commandments they are separated from God love. This is what is referred to as falling from grace in the Bible. Thus, the same freedom accorded us by God is the same freedom that separates men from the love of God and also causes bad things to happen. It is worth noting that faith does not in any way qualify as some kind of insurance policy. On the contrary, it can only be described as a mantle of assurance (Riverpower. org, 2008). Consequently, there is no way that God causes bad things to happen to his children because He has assured in His Holy Word that He will be with us no matter what we encounter or go through in this life. This is because He is considered to be an all caring all loving God. He hurts when His children hurt which then means that there is no way that God would then cause suffering, tragedy and death. However, one can then ask the question. Since God is all loving, all caring and does not want his people to suffer, how is it that he does not stop bad things from happening? This takes us back to the point that God has accorded his children with free will that they are to apply accordingly. One has the option to do good or evil, both of which have consequences. It is openly clear that God operates under certain rules. Unlike humans who openly flout the rules provided for them, God does indeed respect his own rules. He keeps his end of the bargain as long as his children keep theirs. He will rescue those who call out to him and ask for his help because he is all loving and caring (Riverpower. org, 2008). If God was the cause of both good and bad things happening to his children, it would be tantamount to control. This would then make nonsense of the freedom/free will he has given to His people. Again, control would only serve to make them like puppets. God does not in any way seem to supersede human free will to choose their best course of action and enjoy the benefits or suffer the consequences after ward. The first evidence that God does not override the free will/freedom he has accorded his children is in the Book of Genesis. In the Garden of Eden, He had provided Adam and Eve with the necessities plus he also put rules in place that they were to adhere to; not to eat from the tree at the centre of the Garden (Nelson, 1982). He then let them choose their own actions. Consequently, he decided not to interfere with Eve even when she chose to eat from the forbidden tree. Ultimately, God does not in any way cause bad things to happen to his children rather they bring it upon themselves.

External Essay

A 12 Mitch Albom use of symbolism to portray his message†¦. to simply live life Extended Essay Alisha Waldron IB# 000-848-005 December 5, 2012 Abstract This essay is an examination of the Novel â€Å"Tuesdays with Morrie†, written by Mitch Albom in the mid-1990 and published in 1997. The research question that will be spoke upon in this essay is: How does Mitch Albom use symbolism to portray his message, to simply live life? There are many instances where Mitch, has Morrie Portray the theme to simply live life.There are many quotes that help answer my question throughout this essay. Examples of symbols used through the novel are the pink hibiscus plant, Morrie’s Bed, and the Waves on the ocean. This is the thesis of the easy that will help answer â€Å"How does Mitch Albom use symbolism to portray his message, to simply live life. Albom uses different symbols to show his message. For the pink hibiscus plant, its life a symbol that is supposed to mimic Morrie, the weaker Morrie becomes the weaker the plant becomes. He never gave up who he was and continued to â€Å"do him†.The waves on the ocean showed to never give up, because once you believe something then it will come true. He might as well just live life to the fullest. Morrie bed is the biggest symbol in the novel. He believes that once you lie in bed then you are dead. This shows foreshadowing. He avoids his bed throughout the whole story, but eventually becomes too weak and gives up. This is where he took his last breath. Word Count: 242 Table of Contents Introduction4 pink hibiscus plant6 Waves on the ocean7 Morrie’s Bed8 Conclusion. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 11 Works Cited†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 12 Introduction Authors use sy mbolism because it makes their readers actually think about their themes. It is used to give the characters or the incidents a second meaning hidden behind the visible meaning so the books are not boring, but engaging for entertainment and seriousness and pushes your mind to interact with the novel which makes it more interesting  another thing. Another reason for symbolism is to present ideas that the author is afraid to expose clearly.Saying one thing directly as is, straight forward is totally different from describing what you mean, it puts emphasis in the plot and help reading engage in the novel. Symbolism will either be associated as an object, a personality, an action or a state of affairs that gives a deeper message, rather than just blurting out the message. The author might use totally diverse matter, compare characters or things or will repeatedly use constant circumstances of affairs or object to express crucial plots, principal mood or way of thinking. Symbolism will either be refined or deliberate.It can even be used to some extent or significantly used throughout the text. Authors use symbolism after they wish to convey their messages and feeling to their story while not blurting it out directly typically this can be often be intrigued by story writers because it offers them enough area to express what they need to mention, persecute in less words. Symbols are used all throughout the whole story to help Mitch basically get his point across in a more enjoyable manner for the reader. Symbols are significant to â€Å"Tuesday’s with Morrie†, it gives the readers a since of suspense.This story takes the reader through various steps as to how to understand life itself, and by reading Mitch’s book one begins to reflect on their own life. In most cases people see death as a sad time in a person life. If you went to the doctor and you were told that there was no way that you would make it, that you only had about 2 years to live, it would be a rough time for you and your family. The last two years of your life would be hard. Every day, of the last two years of you waking up would be full of sorrow and pain.Tuesdays with Morrie is the concluding lesson between a sociology professor at Brandeis University, and also the main character, Morrie Schwartz, and one of his students that he previously taught at his college before the illness, which is additionally the author of the book, Mitch Albom. Mitch saw his professor in an interview on the broadcast â€Å"Nightline,† Mitch before long remembered of a promise he created sixteen years in the past that he wouldn’t forget him; that he would continuously imprison a connection with him.Morrie was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which â€Å"is an illness of the nerve cells within the brain and neural structure that manages the voluntary muscle movement. Symptoms usually do not develop until after age 50, but they can start in younger people. A person with ALS have a loss of muscle strength and coordination that eventually gets worse and makes it impossible to do routine tasks† such as going up a flight of stairs, getting up, out of a chair, swallowing, including juice and food, or in Morries case, â€Å"Whip [his] own ass†. â€Å"Breathing or swallowing muscles may be the first muscles affected.As the disease gets worse, more muscle groups develop problems. This does not affect the senses (sight, smell, taste, hearing, touch). It only rarely affects bladder or bowel function, eye movement,  or a person's ability to think or reason. † He soon realizes that the disease is catching up to him swiftly, and that he needs to share his perception on â€Å"The Meaning of Life† with the world before his time on earth ends. His time to be on this earth as a living human being is restricted and Mitch becomes responsive to this situation. Mitch leaves Michigan to travel to Massachusetts to show Morrie a visit after the viewing the show.Previously after having this one fantastic visit, Mitch had a desire to go to Morrie’s place once per week. Clearly this one random day was a Tuesday. Ever single Tuesday Mitch went back to see his old professor. Hebdomadally till Morrie’s death. Every week they spoke on a few totally different topics. Each topic that was said had to do with life, things that occur in one’s life. Death, love, culture, regret and also the world we have a tendency to board, among several other themes, were all enclosed in the content during this book to portray Mitch Albom’s message to straightforwardly live life.The reader feels several emotions whereas reading this book, starting from happiness to unhappiness, most likely trying to hold back the tears once reached the end of the book. Although it takes Morrie a significant amount of time to eventually pass away, this offers the book some suspense and provides readers to engage wit hin the plot. It makes the reader believe their own life and be a sign of on getting old, mercy, people, sympathy, and mentors in life, even as Mitch Albom will throughout the novel. Mitch Albom will use the symbols hibiscus plant, the waves of the ocean, and Morries bed to portray the theme to simply live life.Pink hibiscus plant An example of a symbol used in the book is the â€Å"pink hibiscus plant† As Morrie's body continues to expire; at the same time as the disease is attacking Morrie’s body, eating away, weakening his muscles, the condition of the hibiscus plant continues to die as well. The plant represents to decay of Morries insides within his body. The plant's pink petals began to dry out, and wrinkle up. The petals eventually fall off the plant leaving the plant Old, dried out, and plain. Meanwhile, Morrie’s disease continues to get worse spreading to different parts of his body.He then has no choice but to come more dependent of his me medical assi stants and on the oxygen tubes he has to be put on. Morrie can no longer live alone, but has to be assisted with just about everything he does. As his death approaches, just right around the corner, the pink hibiscus plant Morrie is becoming deceased. The death of the plant is quickly occurring just like how Morrie’s body is dying. The plant is constantly mentioned in reference of Morrie's life and for life in general. Like the plant, humans, Morrie in particular, experience a natural life cycle, this unavoidably ends in death.Morrie must accept this anticipated outcome, and Mitch must do the same. â€Å"Take my condition. The things I am supposed to be embarrassed about now — not being able to walk, not being able to wipe my ass, waking up some mornings wanting to cry — there is nothing innately embarrassing about them. It's the same for women not being thin enough, or men not being rich enough. It's just what our culture would have you believe. Don't believe it. † The words above are spoken to Mitch as some words of advice, by Morrie during one of their normal Tuesday visits. During this visit they specifically speak upon society.Slowly but surely, Morrie has grown to accept his physical inability, in the same way he has grown to accept his awaiting death. He complains that the society is wrong to believe in ordinary physical needs as a social embarrassment, and as a result he will not believe that he being handicap is discreditable. In rejecting the values of the population, Morrie creates his own society, which accommodates the physical shortcomings people in today’s society are faced with each and every day, that others find disgraceful and embarrassing. As Morrie sees it, popular culture is a dictator under which the human community must suffer.Morrie feels as though he has suffered enough already from his disease and do not understand see why he should search for social acceptance if it is not contributing to to his pe rsonal happiness. Through the novel, society is portrayed as an enormous device that removes everything from the minds of the public, and replacing the natural kindheartedness they gain at birth with a brutal greed and selfish focus. Waves on the ocean Another symbol that is used in Tuesday’s with Morrie is the waves on the ocean. I believe Mitch Albom chooses for Morrie to remember this story about the ocean to connect the waves with life itself.Morrie heard about a llttle wave. But seeing the waves in front of him collide on the shore, vanishing into nothing made the little wave seems more significant than just a wave. He is suddenly filled with fear upon the realization that he also will soon ‘crash on the shore' and, die as the wave fears he will. There becomes two waves that seems to contradict each other. It’s like one wave have confidence, or is just by his side to give him the strength to say â€Å"you will not crash, or turn in to nothing† but wil l instead return to become a small part of the larger ocean.This story gives Morrie a relief. This small wave is symbolic of Morrie, as he too is on the brink of crashing into a theoretical shore, a symbolic personification of his death. Like the wave, Morrie is comforted by the knowledge that he will soon return to something larger in the afterlife. Morrie's resemblance for the parable denotes his belief in a form of reincarnation, which he understands as fundamental part of the natural life cycle. â€Å"You see†¦ You close your eyes. That was the difference. Sometimes you cannot believe what you see; you have to believe what you feel.And if you are ever going to have people trust you, you must feel that you can trust them, too even when you're in the dark, even when you're falling. † These words are spoken to his class while in a flash back on one of the Tuesdays. His class was asked to demonstrate a trust fall exercise; this is when one student falls in to the arms of another student where that student must catch the student fallin. This shows if the student trusts the other student. â€Å"One student will fall straight backwards and must rely on another student to catch them. NO one can really trust anyone until on pair finnaly does the exercise without nervousness. Morrie notices that the student that completed this exercise had her eyes shut, and says that â€Å"this exercise serves as a metaphor for the secret to trust in relationships†; sometimes it takes one to close there eyes, to be blind to a situation to trust; only relying on their emotions to direct them in their final decision. The exercise was used to explain how two people in a relationship trust eachother and the two partners take risks in letting them hold their heart. There is no getting around this risk, it is required.Morrie teaches his students that â€Å"trust is blind; one can only judge whether or not to trust another based on an instinctive feeling, not because of any rational judgment or method of thinking. † Trusting someone only takes for one to shut their eyes fall back, having faith in that person to catch them. Morrie’s Bed Morrie’s bed is a symbol that is used in the story. Morrie's cliche is, â€Å"When you're in bed, you're dead. † Ironically, his saying in the end happens. During Morrie's struggle with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), he didn’t want to be in his bed, since his perception of the bed is so harsh.He believes the bed is a form of surrender. He feels he is being defeated the more time that he spends in the bed and instead, he decides to sleep on his chair located in his study. Every heard of the expression â€Å"Live Life to the Fullest? † Morrie has every intention to live his last couple of days to the fullest, but he knows that if he stays in his bed, he will be giving himself up to death by surrendering the simple happiness he gets from lounging around in his study. Mor rie refuses to let his disease defeat him. There where many memories in that were all around him in his study, like friends and loved ones pictures and books.In his study he can peek out the window. Even thiough he cannot go outside, the beauty of mother nature makes him happy. During Morrie’s final days he laid in his bed after he had accepted the fact that it was his time to go, and he prepared himself for the death that awaited him. The media is continually portrayed in  Tuesdays with Morrie  as being fundamentally evil, sucking Mitch dry, literally, of his passion and ambition, and feeding the public stories of murder and hatred that have completely wrecked the goodness of the world's general community.Even though Morrie agrees to do the show and put his story in the newspaper, it is still draining the little bit of energy that he do have. I feel like he is trying to prove to everyone that, even though on the edge of death, he is still alive and he will continue to si mply live life. Mitch, who is out of work due to a utilized strike at the Detroit newspaper he writes for, continually notices the horrific events reported by the media he for a long time has been a part of.He reads about homicides, torture,  theft, and a dozen other frightening crimes that serve to contrast the evil of the popular culture with the goodness of the world Morrie has created for himself. The O. J. Simpson murder trial also makes multiple appearances throughout the book, and provides Mitch with evidence to support  his claim that the general heavily population has become dependent on, and somewhat addicted to, media coverage of relatively meaningless stories, stories that contribute nothing to personal development or goodness as a human being.These stories are used within the Novel as motifs to pursue the evil that is surrounded around Morrie. This shows, in my opinion, how strong, mentally, Morrie really is. Even though Morrie is not as strong physically he is stil l strong mentally. He ignores all of the ignorance that is going on around him. He only focuses on one thing, which is to simply live life â€Å"The truth is . . . once you learn how to die, you learn how to live. † Morrie says this on one of the Tuesday’s to respond to Mitch's question â€Å"how one can prepare for death. His response was that every day, a person must ask the angel on his shoulder if today will be m day, my last breathes and my last words. His thinking serves as a symbol for his awareness that his death may come at any moment. The angel itself is symbolic of Morrie's awareness that his death is quickly arriving, and he needs to be prepared to accept it when it finally arrives. He hopes that Mitch will realize that this angel is on every persons shoulder during every inute of their lives, regardless of how young or old that person might be. When he tells Mitch that â€Å"one must know how to die before one can know how to live,† in other words he means that one must accept the likelihood of one's own death before he can truly appreciate what he has on earth, it will all be out of reach, giving the urge to appreciate and value what a person can have only for a limited period of time, and to use every moment of that time doing something that one will not regret when the angel sings its last note.In his quest to accept his awaiting, death, Morrie deliberately â€Å"detaches himself from the experience† when he suffers his violent coughing spells, all of which come loaded with the possibility of his last breath. Morrie looks past the fact that his death date is quickly approaching. Morrie knows that the time is coming. He is aware of his deceasing body, as his famous statement â€Å"I will eventually have to whip my own ass†. Morrie derives his method of detachment from the Buddhist philosophy that â€Å"one should not attach themselves to things, as everything that exists is temporary. In detaching, Morrie is able to step out of his tangible surroundings and into his own state of consciousness, namely for the sake of gaining perspective and composure in a stressful situation. Morrie does not intend to stop feeling or experiencing in his detachment, but instead, wants to experience wholly, for it is only then that he is able to let go, to detach from a life-threatening experience which renders him fearful and tense. He tries to look past the fact that he has been diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and simply live life.He makes little changes to his life after the new was delivered to him. He does not want to die feeling upset, and in these frightening moments, detaches himself so that he may accept the impermanence of his life and embrace his death, which he knows may come at any moment. â€Å"As you grow, you learn more. If you stayed as ignorant as you were at twenty- two, you'd always be twenty-two. Aging is not just decay, you know. It's growth. It's more than the negative that you're going to die, it's the positive that you understand  you're going to die, and that you live a better life because of it. Each of Morrie's lessons contributes to a larger, all-encompassing message that each individual, Mitch especially, should reject society’s values, but develop his own. As Morrie sees it, society is a dictator under which the human community must suffer. In his own life, Morrie has fled this socirty dictatorship in favor of creating his own culture founded on love, acceptance, and open communication. He develops his own culture as a revolt against the media-driven greed, violence and superficiality which has tarnished the mores promoted by popular culture.Morrie encourages Mitch to free  himself of this corrupt, dictatorial culture in favor of his own, and it is only when he does that he begins to reassess his life and rediscover fulfillment. Morrie reads  a quote  by one of his favorite poets, W. H. Auden, to include one of his important lessons to Mitch:† in the absence of love, there is a void that can be filled only by loving human relationships. † When love gathers, Morrie says, â€Å"a person can experience no higher sense of fulfillment. During all fourteen Tuesday visits lessons with Mitch, Morrie tells him that â€Å"love is the essence of every person, and every relationship, and that to live without it, as Auden says, is to live with nothing. † The appreciation of love, in Morrie’s eyes, in particular, as he is abiut to decease, for without the careful care of those he loves, and who love him, he would perish. Morrie has one wish before he isn’t on this earth anymore, and that is to share his story with Mitch so the world can hear it.Morrie fights for his life long enough to finish telling Mitch all the storys, and lessons to Mitch so he can share them to the world. Soon as he has completed his dying wish he surrenders and faces death, leaving Mitch to tell the world that â€Å"love brings meaning to experience, and that without it, one may as well be dead. † Conclusion In conclusion with examining the Novel â€Å"Tuesday’s with Morrie† I have found a lot of evidence from the novel that helps support my question to â€Å"how does Albom use symbolism to portray his message to simply live life? Morrie and his disease Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis didn’t not stop him from doing the things is had a passion for. When diagnosed he taught his students until he was weak. He didn’t just give up on life, even though he knew, soon to come, he was going to die. I have never heard of someone being happy to die. As you can see there were many symbol used throughout the novel to promote the theme to simply live life. The plant was basically Morrie through the novel. The weaker Morrie became the more flimsy the plant became.The waves on the ocean seem to stand out to me because it is a connection between the two and the wave. Mit ch realizes that one day he will be a wave. He will eventually crash and vanish in to nothing. Meaning his time to die off just like every one of us is approaching and just like that, he will be gone. This symbol is important to me because it shows that everyone’s time will come, some sooner than others. No matter your condition, health, or your actions. When it’s your time, then it’s you time, no changing.Mitch begins to realize that by the end of the waves of the ocean memory ends. The most important symbol used in Novel and in the essay is Morrie’s bed. It’s funny how the author uses foreshadowing in the novel this gave anyone a little hit of where Morrie would eventually die. Morrie believed that his bed was the evil that believed he had given up. Once you have lied in the bed then you are died. Morrie basically refused to lie in his bed simply because he didn’t want to feel defeated. To conclude the whole examination, after examining de ep into this book Morrie is not a quitter.At the end you goes down, everyone saw it coming, But he don’t go down without a fight. I have proved the Mitch Albom uses symbols in Tuesdays with Morrie to portray his message to simply live life through The Bed, The Ocean, and the plant. Word Count: 3,656 Works Cited Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson. New York: Doubleday, 1997. Print. Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie. Grand Haven, MI: Brilliance, 1997. Print. Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie. Rockland, MA: Wheeler Pub. , 1998. Print. Board, A. D. A. M. Editorial. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. † Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. U. S. National Library of Medicine, 18 Nov. 2012. Web. 18 Dec. 2012. Albom, Mitch. â€Å"Tuesdays with Morrie. † Tuesdays with Morrie. N. p. , n. d. Web. 11 Dec. 2012. â€Å"Tuesdays with Morrie. † Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 13 Dec. 2012. Web. 19 Dec. 2012. â€Å"Tuesdays With Morrie | Mitchalbom. com. † Tuesdays With Morrie | Mitchalbom. com. N. p. , n. d. Web. 19 Dec. 2012. Board, A. D. A. M. Editorial. â€Å"Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. † Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. U. S. National Library of Medicine, n. . Web. 11 Dec. 2012. ——————————————– [ 1 ]. Board, A. D. A. M. Editorial. â€Å"Tuesday's With Morrie. †Ã‚  Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. U. S. National Library of Medicine, n. d. Web. 10 Dec. 2012. [ 2 ]. Board, A. D. A. M. Editorial. â€Å"Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. †Ã‚  Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. U. S. National Library of Medicine, 18 Nov. 2012. Web. 18 Dec. 2012. [ 3 ]. Board, A. D. A. M. Editorial. â€Å"Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. †Ã‚  Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. U. S. National Library of Medicine, n. d. Web. 11 Dec. 2012. [ 4 ].Albom, Mitch. â€Å"Tuesdays With Morrie. †Ã‚  Tuesday s With Morrie. N. p. , n. d. Web. 11 Dec. 2012. [ 5 ]. Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie. Rockland, MA: Wheeler Pub. , 1998. Print. [ 6 ]. Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie. Grand Haven, MI: Brilliance, 1997. Print. [ 7 ]. Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie. Rockland, MA: Wheeler Pub. , 1998. Print. [ 8 ]. Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson. New York: Doubleday, 1997. Print. [ 9 ]. Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie. Grand Haven, MI: Brilliance, 1997. Print.

Analysis of Optimal Conditional Heteroskedasticity Model

Analysis of Optimal Conditional Heteroskedasticity Model Abstract: Recently cryptocurrency markets have seen an immense growth. Bitcoin is one of the most popular cryptocurrencies accounting for the highest share of all cryptocurrency markets, even though it still remains rather unclear whether it resembles more to a currency, a commodity or an asset. Previous research has shown that Bitcoin is often used for investment purposes, a fact that suggests the importance of analysing its volatility. In this article, we examine the optimal conditional heteroskedasticity model, not only in terms of goodness-of-fit, but also in terms of forecasting performance, an area which has been underexplored in the case of Bitcoin. According to the results, the optimal conditional heteroskedasticity model that can fit the series is not the same as the one that can forecast it better. As modelling GARCH effects in Bitcoin market effectively is crucial for appropriate portfolio management, our results can help investors and other decision makers make more informed decisions. Keywords: Bitcoin, Cryptocurrencies, GARCH, Volatility, Forecasting JEL classification: C22, C5, G1 1. Introduction Over the last few years, the analysis of Bitcoin has drawn a lot of both public and academic attention. Bitcoin is the first implementation of a concept called â€Å"cryptocurrency†, which was first described in 1998 by Wei Dai on the cypherpunks mailing list, suggesting the idea of a new form of money that uses cryptography to control its creation and transactions, rather than a central authority, but the first Bitcoin specification was published in 2009 in a cryptography mailing list by Satoshi Nakamoto ( Bitcoin.org 2017 ). The market of cryptocurrencies has grown remarkably with Bitcoin being considered the most famous cryptocurrency, with an estimated market capitalisation of $ 19.6 billion (coinmarketcap.com accessed on 8th March 2017), which currently accounts for around 84.4% of the total estimated cryptocurrency cap italisation. An overview of Bitcoin can be found in, e.g., Becker et al. (2013), Dwyer (2015), Frisby (2014), Bà ¶hme et al. (2015) and Selgin (2015). Hence, Bitcoin is only briefly introduced here. It has been previously argued that Bitcoin shares some elements of currencies. However, recent fluctuations in Bitcoin prices (see Figure 1) have resulted in unpredictable volatility undermining the role Bitcoin plays as a unit of account (Cheah and Fry 2015), while users have adopted Bitcoin not only as a currency but also for investment purposes. In fact, new users tend to trade Bitcoin on a speculative investment intention basis and have low intention to rely on the underlying network as means for paying goods or services (Glaser et al. 2014). The Bitcoin market is thus highly speculative at present, and therefore Bitcoin may be mostly used as an asset rather than a currency (Baek and Elbeck 2015; Dyhrberg 2016a). Moreover, recent studies have examined the hedging capabilitie s of the Bitcoin (see, e.g., Dyhrberg (2016a, b), justifying the view of it as an asset, as well as the role of different exchanges in the price discovery process of Bitcoin (Brandvold et al. 2015), while it has also been previously shown that cryptocurrency markets share some stylised empirical facts with other markets, e.g., a vulnerability to speculative bubbles (Cheah and Fry 2015). Consequently, Bitcoin has a place in the financial markets and in portfolio management (Dyhrberg 2016a). Bitcoin has posed great challenges and opportunities for policy makers, economists, entrepreneurs, and consumers since its introduction (Dyhrberg 2016b), while Bitcoin price volatility seems to be a major concern for most of the general public at this time (Bouoiyour and Selmi 2016). As a result, studying Bitcoin price volatility is of high importance. Following the extensive literature on modelling financial asset prices using the family of Generalised Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskeda sticity (GARCH) models, recently there has also been an increased interest in modelling Bitcoin price volatility using similar methods. Previous studies have used different types of GARCH models when examining the Bitcoin price volatility.For example, the simple GARCH model has been employed by Glaser et al. (2014), Gronwald (2014) and Dyhrberg (2016a). On the other hand, other studies have considered extensions to the GARCH model in order to study asymmetries in Bitcoin price volatility. For instance, the Exponential GARCH (EGARCH) model has been used by Dyhrberg (2016a) and Bouoiyour and Selmi (2015, 2016), the Threshold GARCH (TGARCH) ( GJR-GARCH ) model has been employed by Dyhrberg (2016b), Bouoiyour and Selmi (2015, 2016) and Bouri et al. (2017), while the Asymmetric Power ARCH (APARCH) and Component with Multiple Threshold-GARCH (CMT-GARCH) models have been used by Bouoiyour and Selmi (2015, 2016). Nevertheless, it is rather unclear which conditional heteroskedasticity mo del should be used when studying the Bitcoin price volatility. Previous studies of the Bitcoin price volatility have focused mainly on the use of a single conditional heteroskedasticity model, without comparing different GARCH-type models , though , with the only exceptions being the studies of Bouoiyour and Selmi (2015, 2016), which have split [PK1] the sample into different sub-periods, though , and the study of Katsiampa (2017/forthcomng?), which has not considered the risk-return relationships, though [PK2] . In addition, little attention has been paid to forecasting the volatility of the Bitcoin prices. To the best of the author’s knowledge only the study of Bouoiyour and Selmi (2016) has examined the forecasting performance of the CMT-GARCH and APARCH models, but no study has compared the predictive ability of different GARCH models with regards to Bitcoin. Consequently, we aim to contribute to the literature by investigating which conditional heteroskedasticity mode l can describe and forecast the Bitcoin prices better. The remainder of the article is organised as follows: The next section presents the models employed in this study. The data and methodology used in the study are discussed in the third section, while the fourth section details our empirical results. Finally, the conclusions drawn and the implications are presented in section five. 2. Models In this section, the models used in this research are introduced. The models consist of an Autoregressive model for the conditional mean and a first-order GARCH-type or a GARCH-in-Mean-type model for the conditional variance [1] , as follows , , , where is the Bitcoin price return on day , is the error term, is a white noise process, is the conditional standard deviation, and hence is the conditional variance. When is equal to zero, the resulting model is the autoregressive model with a GARCH-type specification for the conditional variance, while when is different from zero a GARCH-in-Mean-type specification for the conditional variance is obtained. Adding the standard deviation to the mean equation measures the risk and helps with the identification and measurement of any risk-return relationship. The conventional GARCH(1,1) model is represented by , with , and . The GARCH model (Bollerslev 1986) is undoubtedly one of the most popular models for describing the conditional variance of financial returns. Nevertheless, since its introduction, there have been proposed many extensions of the GARCH model and there have been a lot of advances in modelling the conditional variance. Hence in this study, we also consider five extensions to the linear GARCH model, namely the EGARCH model of Nelson (1991), the TGARCH model introduced by Glosten et al. (1993), the APARCH model proposed by Ding et al. (1993), the Component GARCH (CGARCH) model of Engle and Lee (1999) and the Asymmetric CGARCH (ACGARCH) model. All these models constitute example s of extensions of the simple GARCH model and have attempted to describe the conditional variance more accurately. Moreover, compared with the simple GARCH model, the EGARCH, TGARCH and APARCH models allow for different volatility responses to opposite signs of the previous shocks. More specifically, the EGARCH model is defined as , and considers the asymmetric volatility responses to negative news, that is , and positive news, , as given by the sign of , if is different from zero. The TGARCH model is given by , where is the indicator function, with if and 0 otherwise, suggesting that positive shocks and negative shocks have again different effects on the volatility, if is different from 0. On the other hand, the APARCH model is defined as , where , , , and . This model imposes a Box-Cox power transformation of the conditional standard deviation process and the asymmetric absolute residuals (Ding et al. 1993). Furthermore, in contrast with the G ARCH model, the conditional variance of which shows mean reversion to , which is a constant for all time, the CGARCH model allows for both a long-run component of conditional variance, , which is time varying and slowly mean-reverting, and a short-run component, , and is defined as . Christoffersen et al. (2008) demonstrated that by including both a short-run and a long-run component allows the CGARCH model to outperform the GARCH model. Finally, the Asymmetric Component GARCH (ACGARCH) model combines the CGARCH model with the TGARCH model, introducing asymmetric effects in the transitory equation, and takes the following form , where is a dummy variable which indicates negative shocks, while positive values of suggest the presence of transitory leverage effects in the conditional variance. 3. Data and methodology The data consists of daily closing prices for the Bitcoin Coindesk Index from 19 th July 2010 to 10 th January 2017. The estimation sample cover s the period between 19 th July 2017 and 31 st December 2017 leading to a total number of 2357 observations, while the remaining ten observations are used in the forecasting sample. The Bitcoin CoinDesk Index is listed in USD and the data are publicly available online at http://www.coindesk.com/price. The data are converted to natural logarithms, and then the returns are defined as , where is the logarithmic Bitcoin price index change and is the daily Bitcoin price index on day . Figures 1 and 2 illustrate the Bitcoin prices and price returns, respectively, in the estimation period. We start the empirical analysis by producing descriptive statistics for the Bitcoin price returns, while the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) and Phillips-Perron (PP) unit-root tests are also performed to examine the stationarity of the returns. As will be seen in the next section, the results show that the series is stationary. In order to choose the best model in terms of fitting to d ata, three information criteria, namely Akaike (AIC), Bayesian (BIC) and Hannan-Quinn (HQ), are employed. For given data sets, all of these information criteria consider both how good the fitting of the model is and how many parameters there are in the model, rewarding a better fitting and penalising an increased number of parameters. The preferred model is the one with the respective minimum criterion value. However, since model selection is often not only based on a model’s goodness-of-fit to data, but also on forecasting performance, it is important to also check the models’ predictive ability, as a better fitting model does not always lead to better forecasts. Hence, the best model specification in terms of forecasting is selected according to the Root Mean Squared Forecasting Error (RMSE), Mean Absolute Forecasting Error (MAE) and Mean Absolute Percentage Forecasting Error (MAPE), all of which are used as measures of forecasting performance. Although the RMSE is one of the most commonly used measures of predictive ability, the additional measures have been used in order to verify the results. [2] The models’ forecasting performance is evaluated based on out-of-sample forecasts, and model selection is examined in terms of both multi-step-ahead and multiple 1-step-ahead forecasting. The preferred model is the one with the lowest values of the measures of predictive ability. Fig. 1 . Daily closing prices of the Coindesk Bitcoin Index (US Dollars). Fig. 2 . Daily Bitcoin price returns. 4. Results Table 1 reports the descriptive statistics for the daily returns of the Bitcoin price index. The daily average closing return is positive and equal to 0.5805% with a standard deviation of 0.0606. Moreover, the returns are positively skewed, indicating that it is more likely to observe large positive returns, and leptokurtic as a result of significant excess kurtosis. The Jarque-Bera (JB) test confirms the departure from normality, while the results of the ARCH(5) test for conditional heteroskedasticity show evidence of ARCH effects in the returns of the Bitcoin price index. Therefore the Autoregressive model for the conditional mean needs to be combined with an Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity process to model the conditional variance. It can be noticed that the ARCH effects can also be observed from Figure 2 where large (small) price changes tend to be followed by large (small) price changes over time. Furthermore, the results from both the Augmented Dickey-Fuller and Phillips-Perron unit root tests indicate that stationarity is ensured. Table 1. Descriptive statistics and unit roots tests. Panel A: Descriptive statistics Observations 2357 Mean 0.005805 Median 0.000741 Maximum 0.528947 Minimum -0.388309 Std. Dev. 0.060607 Skewness 0.873024 Kurtosis 15.64823 JB 16010.55*** ARCH(5) 56.56059*** Panel B: Unit root test statistics ADF -46.90888*** PP -47.56848*** Note: *** indicates the rejection of the null hypotheses at the 1% level. Next, the estimation results of the GARCH-type models are discussed. The conditional mean equation includes a constant and an autoregressive term, while the conditional variance is modelled by various competing GARCH models. The model parameters are estimated by using the maximum likelihood approach under the Gaussian distribution. Table 2 presents the estimation results of each model. These include the model parameter estimates, the log-likelihood values and the three information criteria values. In addition, the ARCH(5) test to check whether the conditional heteroskedasticity is eliminated and the Ljung-Box test for autocorrelation with 10 lags applied to squared residuals, as well as the Jarque-Bera (JB) test of norm ality of the residuals have been used as diagnostic tests, the results of which are also reported in Table 2. According to the results, both the AIC and HQ information criteria select the AR(1)-ACGARCH(1,1) model as the preferred model in terms of fitting to data, followed by the AR(1)-CGARCH(1,1)-M and AR(1)-CGARCH(1,1) models, suggesting the important role of having both long-run and short-run components of conditional variance. The log-likelihood is also maximised under the AR(1)-ACGARCH(1,1) model. On the other hand, the preferred model according to the BIC is the AR(1)-CGARCH(1,1), followed by the AR(1)-ACGARCH(1,1) model. The latter result could be explained, though, by the fact that the BIC penalises more a higher number of model parameters, and hence the selection of the AR(1)-ACGARCH(1,1) model seems appropriate. It can also be noticed that for the AR(1)-ACGARCH(1,1) model all the parameter estimates are statistically significant. Moreover, the results of the ARCH(5) an d tests applied to the squared residuals of the AR(1)-ACGARCH(1,1) model indicate that the selected AR(1)-ACGARCH(1,1) model with Gaussian distribution is correctly specified because the hypotheses of no remaining ARCH effects and no autocorrelation cannot be rejected. Furthermore, despite the fact that the residuals still depart from normality, the value of the Jarque-Bera statistic associated with the residuals of the AR(1)-ACGARCH(1,1) model is much lower than the corresponding value for the raw returns. Consequently, the AR-ACGARCH model seems to be useful to describe the volatility of the returns of the Bitcoin price index. This result seems to be consistent with the study of Bouoiyour and Selmi (2016) [PK3] who found that the best model for the period from December 2010 to December 2014 is the CMT-GARCH model, which also includes both transitory and permanent components as well as thresholds related to positive and negative shocks. With regards to the out-of-sample for ecasting performance, the five- and ten-day-ahead forecasts as well as the five and ten 1-day-ahead forecasts of the twelve competing GARCH-type models were generated. We then compared the models’ forecasting performance based on the three mean loss functions (RMSE, MAE and MAPE). Table 3 reports the obtained results, while the bold numbers indicate the best model in terms of forecast accuracy. An interesting finding is that overall the information criteria for model selection in terms of goodness-of-fit do not agree with the measures of predictive ability. Even though the minimum RMSE values of the 10-step-ahead and ten 1-step-ahead forecasts were both given for the AR-CGARCH model, a result which is consistent with the Bayesian Information Criterion, the results of the other two measures of predictive ability (MAE and MAPE) showed that there are other models that perform better than the AR-ACGARCH and AR-CGARCH models when it comes to forecasting. More specifically, the minimum RMSE values of the 5-step-ahead and five 1-step-ahead forecasts were both given for the AR-EGARCH-M model. On the other hand, the lowest MAE and MAPE values of the 5- and 10-step-ahead forecasting as well as those of the five 1-step-ahead forecasting were all given for the AR-EGARCH model. The lowest MAE value of the ten 1-step-ahead forecasting was also given for the AR-EGARCH model, while the lowest MAPE value of the ten 1-step-ahead forecasting was given for the AR-APARCH-M model. In summary, according to our estimation results the AR-ACGARCH model is preferred to the other competing models in terms of volatility estimates for the returns. However, the preferred model in terms of forecasting is overall the AR-EGARCH. This result is crucial for portfolio management and decision making in general by individuals who use Bitcoin for speculative purposes. Finally, it should be noted that the model parameters were estimated under the Student- t and GED distributions as well, but as there was no improvement in either the goodness-of-fit or forecasting performance, the results are not reported here. [3] This is in contrast with the results of the study of Bouri et al. (2017) who found that the TGARCH(1,1) model under the GED density is the best fit. 5. Conclusions Over the last few years cryptocurrency markets have grown to a great extent, with Bitcoin having attracted a lot of attention from both the public and researchers. This article aimed to offer a discussion into Bitcoin price volatility by selecting an optimal GARCH-type model in terms of both goodness-of-fit to data and forecasting performance chosen among several extensions. It was found that even though the best model in terms of goodness-of-fit is the AR-ACGARCH, a result which is consistent with previous studies [PK4] , with regards to forecasting performance the best model seems to be overall the AR-EGARCH. Consequently, if the objective is to find the best model in terms of pr edictive ability, model selection based on information criteria only might not be adequate. As Bitcoin can combine some of the advantages of both commodities and currencies in the financial markets (Dyhrberg 2016a), it can be a useful tool for portfolio analysis and risk management. Hence, individuals in portfolio and risk management need to get a more detailed view of the Bitcoin price volatility. Our results may thus have important implications mainly for investors but also for other decision makers, such as policymakers, as they can enable them to make more informed decisions.

International organisations in global politics Essay

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Summary - Essay Example In the same manner, ESL students are likely to acquire English with difficulty if the lessons are overly focused on grammar skills development at the expense of content. For music study to be worthwhile, therefore, students must study sheet music and at the same time actually play the instrument that interests them. For ESL students, the musical keys and notes are the language while the actual playing of the musical instrument is the content. Language and content must go together for a more efficient ESL teaching, especially in countries being swept by globalization like Korea where interest in English is growing but where the first or native language has an alphabet with wide phonetic distance and the popular ESL teaching method is characterized by rote memorization. This sums up the whole content of the paper, which argues that content-based instruction (CBI) can push ESL instruction in Korea to a higher level. It says that by shifting its language-centered practice of ESL instruction with one that integrates language and content, Korea will keep in step with the modern trend in this field and make ESL study in the country more efficient.

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Week 2 discussion - Assignment Example 239), as well as balancing its flexibility. One of the methods of creating a balance between the need of flexibility with the need for stringent order for purposes of creating a culture of innovation is for an organization to reconsider its main aim of operation, and define its corporate objectives (Shehabuddeen, 2007). As the company experiences growth in its operations, it tends to employ new people, who come with a different mindset. This people have a higher tolerance of risk, as opposed to the old employees, who are stable and familiar with the business operations. To reconcile this people, the company must define its objectives, and create mechanisms that will ensure employees adhere to the rules and objectives of the organizations. The organization must restructure its goals, and its culture, and redefine the responsibility of older members of the organization, for purposes of encouraging innovation and flexibility in the business set up (Frankline et al, 2009). To create a balance between the need for flexibility and the need for stringent measures of a business organization, the organization needs to initiate a change in its recruitment process (Patel and Patel, 2008). It must create new methods of assigning duties, and change the manner of interaction within the organization. It must create a new reward policy that encourages innovation, as well as the need of stringency in the business set up. The traits to look for in recruitment are people with a right mind set, people willing to challenge the status quo, and individuals willing to learn and adapt a challenging environment. Finally, the organization needs review its internal and external operations. This is by creating a managerial group whose role and purpose is to communicate the expectations of the company to its employees (Shehabuddeen, 2007). This group will encourage innovation, and develop ways and methods of balancing the need of

Study of Cylindrical Sails for Large Ships Essay

Study of Cylindrical Sails for Large Ships - Essay Example For instance, the estimate for 2007 was 60,000 deaths. The use of the ships also has had a negative impact on global warming, and this is a growing concern for environmentalists. Because the world is being impacted to the point of people dying, resolving this issue has become very important. Furthermore, C02 emitted from ships is only increasing, up about 3 percent from 2007, because of the growing use of more and more ships on the ocean. Therefore, the shipping industry realizes the threat this negative environmental impact has on its industry, as people and politicians both do want to see a change. The shipping industry reportedly put out 847 tonnes in 2007 (this was actually one of the lower estimates; some organizations claim that the rate was much higher). The shipping industry is therefore being put under increasingly pressure to act. Therefore, the researcher proposes that the use of wind tunnels combined with cylindrical sails will help to address this problem. There have been several studies done, which will be discussed, involving the use of cylindrical sails. By combining the cylindrical sails with the use of the wind tunnels, the ships should be able to go faster than those that just traveled with the cylindrical sails, thus making this option more feasible for the shipping industry, which does have time limitations when traveling. Research Objectives Quantitative methods of research will include the calculations of the ship's traveled distance and the ship's length. Wind tunnel data will also be used to determine the success of the study. By using these calculations, it can be determined if the voyages using the new types of sail are correct. Qualitative methods will include researching the actual comments of the researchers, and obtaining information regarding their thoughts and feelings about the ships. Fig.1 The researcher plans to use cylindrical sail with air suction, utilizing dodger support structures and power of air intake. The wind tunnel will not be used as the sail, but the model the researcher tests will be conducted in wind tunnel to grasp the order of possible saving as well as the mechanism of flow around the sail. Research Design There are five various wind assistance devices that can be used for ships, and will be discussed here. Schematic drawing of different wind rigs for ships. There is a wide choice of various rigs that can be used for hull and superstructure configurations, making comparisons difficult; however, when considering wind-assisted motor cargo ships, options are more limited. The main groups to consider in this category are as follows. 1. Square Rig-This concept is often used to improve aerodynamics of sails and allows for clean lines through the use of cantilever masts, for, and aft stay-sails. This setup can be counted on during long voyages when the wind is fairly predictable. However, in this day and age, not as much cargo is shipped via long voyage as it was in historical times. Thus, a second application of this idea can be used for shorter routes where the wind is also not predictable. The fore and aft sails can be modified so that they can sail close to the wind. Soft sails can also be used at sea and are fairly cheap as well, although keeping them up to date can cost the company (Clayton 57). 2.

Controversy impacts the community and community policing Research Paper

Controversy impacts the community and community policing - Research Paper Example Since its establishment, NYPD has done a lot to ensure that New York City is safe for all its residents. In particular, the department has been very effective since 1994 when William Bratton became the commissioner of the department. He introduced one of the policing strategies; proactive policing or otherwise publicly called the Stop and Frisk policy, which has improved security in the city vis-Ã  -vis a lot of criticism from citizens (Ron, 2009). With the proactive policy, Bratton focused on combating crime in all crime hotspots and taking care of victims. This operation entailed the use of police undercover, decoys, relying on informants, raiding, shadowing offenders, and saturating streets with police officers. Note that criminal acts are not evenly distributed with the city (Ferreira, 1996). To handle this challenge, Bratton ordered police officers to patrol certain areas more than the other areas. Another key factor that proactive policy used is encouraging good relationship b etween the police department and the people. This strategy incorporates the people into security issues. Citizens were encouraged to call the police using the public number; 911. Although many citizens are of the opinion that the presence of police officers in the streets cannot deter crime, but proactive policy has proved that aggressive patrol makes a lot of difference. However, the citizens seem to like this policy but object the way the police officers stop and frisk them yet they are not crime suspects (Franklin, 2012). The credits of Stop and Frisk policy can be justified by the tremendous reduction in crime incidence in the city. In January 2013, Ray Kelly the New York police commissioner reported that the strategies used in proactive policy has helped the police department to keep crime cases in New York at very low rates. In addition, this policy

Computerisation in a business like Craven Plc Essay Example for Free

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If there is too little memory then more frequent access to the hard disk is required and this will slow down the overall system performance. Therefore many computer applications require quick, direct access to individual records within a file. For this reason, we need backing storage. Backing storage comes in various forms for example compact disks and floppy disks. Backing storage is a portable and convenient way of saving information. To reduce the risk of data loss it is wise to save information on the computers hard drive and make a copy onto a disk or another type of backing storage for insurance purposes. Types of backing storage:   Floppy disks: The most common storage device available, these provide extremely cheap storage and have a capacity of 1. 5 Mb.   Compact Disk (CD-ROM): These have been used for some years as storage devices for computer software. It only accesses information which is already stored on it and is able to store 650 Mb of information.   Zip Drives: A storage device that has become popular over the last few years because it offers the convenience and portability of a floppy disk, combined with a 100 Mb capacity. CD-R and CD-RW:The difference being that CD-R disks can only have data saved to them once, While CD-RW can be used in the same manner as other storage devices having data saved to them on a re-usable basis.   DVD (digital versatile disc) using the same basic principles as the CD, DVD packs the data more densely and can store 4. 7Gb compared with the CDs 650Mg, can hold 133 minutes of video, with Dolby surround sound. Data pens: A new storage device that plugs into the computers USP drive. These are small and compact and have a capacity of 80Mb. Magnetic Tape: Convenient and cheap medium for backing up hard disks onto computers. Mostly used for mainframe computers for storing information for a long duration. Magnetic tapes will not be suitable for a small company like Craven Plc. Data Protection: Craven Plc must comply with the data protection act in order to hold personal information of customers. The data protection act works in two ways. It gives you certain rights. It also says those who record and use personal information must be open about how the information is used and must follow the eight principles for good handling. The eight principles were put in place to make sure that your information is handled properly. They say that data must be: 1. Fairly and lawfully processed. 2. Processed for limited purposes. 3. Adequate, relevant and not excessive. 4. Accurate. 5. Not kept for longer than is necessary. 6. Processed in line with your rights. 7. Secure, and 8. Not transferred to countries without adequate protection. Micro computers: Micro computers include personal computers and laptop computers, they are usually equipped with hard disk, floppy disk drive, between 1 and 32 megabytes of memory, a keyboard and a VDU unit. Microcomputers will be suitable to fulfil the needs of Craven Plc. Mainframe Computers: These are large systems that can hold vast amounts of data. Mainframe computers occupy a whole floor of a fair sized building. These powerful mainframe computers are present in very large companies storing huge amounts of data on to disk. Mainframe computers cost tens of thousands of pounds, therefore they are not suitable for a small business like Craven Plc. File Server: This is a specially configured microcomputer to control the exchange of files between network users. A file server also has more memory and disk storage than normal microcomputers. These classifications of computers are usually based on physical size, speed, processing capabilities, memory size, disc storage, capacities and cost. Direct and Sequential Access: Direct access devices can go directly to the file or record. For example a CD can go directly to track number 10. Sequential access devices have to run through the file sequentially, for instance, if we want track 10 on a cassette, The cassette moves from the beginning from track 1 to 9 until it comes to track 10. 4) Proposed purchases and prices of equipment 2x Sony Intel 2. 6GHZ DVD CDRW Laptop   256Mb RAM, 40Gb Hard Drive   DVD/CDRW Drive   15 inch TPT screen i 899 each = i 1798 4x Packard Bell 6111 Intel Pentium 42. 8GHZ processor and 15 TFT monitor   Intel P4 2. 8 GHz processor 512 Mb RAM   160 GHb Hard Drive i 1199 each =i 4796 4x PacKard Bell 5050 and Xp2600+ PC and 17 CRT monitor   Athlon Xp 2600 processor   256Mb RAM. 60 Gb hard Drive i 549 each =i 2196 4x Hewlet Packard DJ 9300 A3 Desktop printer i 279 each =i 1116 3x Hewlet Packard scanner i 99 each =i 396 Network- Windows 2000 professional i 3449 Web Designer Approx 3000to4000 Training costs i 2000 Specialist soft ware Sage Accounts i 2000 Web Train Video Conferencing i 1000 Total cost i 22751 5) Proposed method of change over from manual to the new computerised systems Before the change over can take place an extensive training programme needs to take place. This may take several months to train the current workforce in the correct operating procedures of the new system. To ensure information will not be lost in transition the old manual method needs to be in place for the first 2 months along side the new computerised system. In the unlikely case of system collapse information and data will still be on hand. This change over will inevitably endure a small cost of training and staff development. 6) Procedure to transfer the payroll from the old to the new system Payroll is something Craven Plc cannot afford to get wrong. Therefore manual systems need to be in place for 3-4 months along side the new computerised sage accounts system. This will again ensure against loss of data.

Normative ethical subjectivism Essay Example for Free

Normative ethical subjectivism Essay Normative ethical subjectivism is an ethical stance that attempts to specify circumstances under which an action is morally right or wrong using four distinct arguments that try to prove this claim. Normative ethical subjectivism claims that an act is morally right if, and only if, the person judging the action approves of it. Stemming form this view on ethics a normative ethical theory has been made. An ethical theory is a theory of what is right and wrong. This stance on ethics is the opposite of another ethical stance called methethical antirealism. Methethical antirealism is centered on the idea that because there is no right and wrong actions, just personal preferences there is no such thing as morality. It also states that morals are just a personal preference. Normative ethical subjectivism makes its claim in four different arguments witch are democracy, tolerance, disagreement and atheism. The democracy argument makes the premise that if everyone has an equal right to have and voice moral opinions then everyones moral opinions are equally plausible. The next premise states that everyone does have an equal right to have and voice moral opinions. These two premises lead to the conclusion that everyones moral opinions are equally plausible. The first premise of the argument creates a problem because not everyones moral opinions are equally valid and plausible. I have lots of opinions like the location of LSU, how far away the moon is and, the speed limit on College Drive. My opinion is LSU is located in Arizona, the moon is 100 miles away and the speed limit on College Drive is 75 miles per hour. My opinions are all incorrect showing that the plausibility of an opinion really has nothing to do with ones right to hold it. Having a right to an opinion is one thing, the truth of that opinion quite another. This undermines the first premise of the argument causing me to reject a crucial part of the democracy argument. Consequently making the argument for democracy unstable and not a good foundation for supporting normative ethical subjectivism. The next argument for normative ethical subjectivism is the argument of disagreement. The first premise states that if there is a constant disagreement among educated, open-minded and, good-willed people about some subject matter, then that subject matter does not admit to an objective  truth. Followed by the premise there is persistent disagreement about ethical issues among educated, open-minded and, good-willed people. These two statements lead to the conclusion that there are no objective ethical truths. There is persistent disagreement among educated, open-minded and, good-willed physicists and mathematicians. We assume that their work is aimed at discovering objective facts. Physicists continue to disagree about that started the universe. But this is not evidence that their views are subjective, it is evidence that the facts they arrive at are merely expressions of personal opinion about some fact. This shows that a professions may deal in objective truths even if its open minded and educated deeply disagree with one another. In rebuttal to this, normative ethical subjectivist would state that objective truths dont exist, but for a finding to be true someone has to believe in it. Thus proving that the first premise of the argument of disagreement if false giving no support for normative ethical subjectivism. The tolerance argument of normative ethical subjectivism has two premises. The first premise states if normative subjectivism is true, then no ones deepest opinions are more plausible than anyone elses. The next premise states if no ones deepest opinions are more plausible than anyone elses, then we have to respect and tolerate the opinions of all others. Generating the conclusion that if normative subjectivism is true, then we have to respect and tolerate the opinions of all others. Tolerance is defined as the capacity for or the practice of recognizing and respecting the beliefs or practices of others (Websters Dictionary). In the normative ethical subjectivism argument tolerance is good thus making it good for others to respect the actions and beliefs of that other people. The tolerance argument is still not a persuasive argument for normative ethical subjectivism. The problem with tolerance argument is that we all have to be tolerance of peoples opinions if they truly believe in them, making their opinion morally right. If a person truly believes in intolerance and that intolerant behavior is acceptable then according to normative ethical subjectivism it is morally right. According to the tolerance argument if a racist feels that be does not what to be tolerant of other races and goes around killing them off but truly feels that that he is doing is right then to a normative  ethical subjectivist we must be tolerant of opinion. The tolerance argument does not seem to be helping persuade a person towards normal ethical subjectivism view. The final argument for normative ethical subjectivism is the atheism argument. The atheism arguments premise states if ethics are objective, then God must exist. Followed by the premise that God does not exist. Structuring the conclusion ethics is not objective. Since it cannot be proven through science and nature that God does exist, it validates the atheist argument. But lets suppose God does exist and he does issue commands on that is morally right and wrong. This brings up the euthyphro question, which asks are actions good because God commands them, or does God command them because they are good? The first part of the question, actions good because God commands them, makes Gods commands arbitrary and so if God commands us to throw our children into volcanoes, to rape, or to murder, then these actions would be good actions according to God. And for the next part of the question, God command them because they are good, seems to imply that there is a standard of goodness over God. It also leaves open the question who is the commander behind moral commands? These arguments against the euthyphro question create doubt in the atheism argument. The arguments for normal ethical subjectivism are not very strong and could deter persons away form relativism. The above arguments against normal ethical subjectivism are few in numbers. For the majority of moral values and situations, actions are not complete but are relative to the persons or groups holding them. Lets say there is an objective moral fact that lying was wrong for all cases and should never be done. Avery close friend of yours is on the edge and suicidal. He asks you if he is an attractive person. You are this persons only friend and every thing you tell him he takes very literally. He could be the most hideous person you have ever seen, but if you tell him he is ugly he will without doubt kill him self. According to the objective moral fact about lying that I have just made, you have to tell him the truth, that he is revolting. Or you could have a relativism stance and tell him he is an attractive person and stop him form killing him self. In this situation it would be ideal to save the persons  life and prevent the mental problems stemming for know you killed someone. Although normal ethical subjectivism and metaethical antirealism are different but there is a relationship between them. Both of these views on ethics are subjective and both have its problems convincing people to follow them. Facts are mentioned as not important in their arguments. In the atheist argument of normal ethical subjectivism, Gods commands are not to be taken as facts but as suggestions. A big part of metaethical antirealism is that moral facts dont exist but facts are just part of the role in making decisions. Normative ethical subjectivism is an ethical stance that attempts to establish the situations under which an action is morally right or wrong. It states an act is morally right if the person judging the act approves of it. Normative ethical subjectivism uses the arguments of democracy, tolerance, disagreement and atheism to try proving this claim. Methethical antirealism is an ethical stance that claims there are no right or wrong views or stances on ethical options. Methethical antirealism goes on to state that morals do not exist at all. Even thought normative ethical subjectivism failed make its calm a person can still be a relativist, but I still feel that every moral case must be taken on a base to base cineraria. Works Cited Tolerance. The New American Webster Handy College Dictionary. Revised and Expanded edition 1981.

Impact of Interstate Highway System

Impact of Interstate Highway System As the largest public works project in American history, the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways not only changed transportation methods in the United States, but systematically affected certain cultural landscapes across different regions of the country. When the act was signed into federal law in 1956, both the public and officials were unaware of the potential negative and positive influence of highways over urbanism and cityscape issues such as the creation of the idealized American Suburbia, the reduction of urban downtowns, and the destruction of scenic and tourist locations in the United States. These major highway-influenced landscape changes can be categorized into a term called roadscapes. In order to research adequately on what these roadscapes are, the history of the Interstate system must be examined in order to understand how it influences certain cultural and urban landscapes. Although invented years prior, the automobile was introduced into the American mainstream market in the early 1900s, mostly influenced by the invention of the mass production assembly line. As a direct byproduct of the use of automobiles, safer roadways became a concern for public officials across the United States, as most cities and rural infrastructures were still only suitable for horses and carriages. Most of these routes, which were generally unpaved, were created as a result of how the population moved within and between cities, with oftentimes major roads connecting nodal points in downtown districts. When the automobile became the primary use of transportation among most of these unpaved roadways, travel became dangerous due to inconsistent quality measures. During the 1920s, there were no uniform construction methods over these trails, leading to what Dan McNichol stated in his book, The Roads That Built America, chaos reigned over the road (Reid 3). From the 1920s until the mid 1950s, there were multiple factors that convinced public officials and engineers in establishing and constructing a federally controlled highway system that stretches from coast-to-coast America. During World War II, General Dwight D. Eisenhower moved his armies easily along routes in Nazi Germany, on expressways known as the autobahns. As his signature legislation when elected into office, Eisenhower decided that the United States was in need for a public highway infrastructure similar to that of Germany (Reid 4). Although the superhighways of America were marketed as a public use to boost automobile transportation, Congresss decision during the Eisenhower Administration to enact the law was driven by the ability to move convoys and infantry units much faster across the country than ever before. Another factor that played into the creation of the highway system were alarming anxieties about the Cold War, with the public fearing that Americans needed to q uickly be able to evacuate large cities under threat of nuclear attacks. These major possibilities allowed the highway system to be pushed as a defensive measure in Congress, as the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways (Blas 128). Within the first few years after the construction of the Interstate in some parts of the country, immediate impact on economic growth allowed certain industrial and manufacturing markets to grow, such as farming (Blas 129). However, the highway system led to long-term negative impacts on not only the natural landscape it is built upon, but the cultural and urban landscapes of the already existing cities and communities it connects, or does not connect, in some cases. Despite having numerous effects, the three significant changes further analyzed as part of the roadscape phenomena are the reductions of the importance of urban downtowns, the creation of idealized suburbia, and the lack of access to scenic routes and rural towns along previously existing Federal Routes. The first major roadscape is the Interstates general disregard for existing urban downtowns. Urban downtowns are generated by concentrated populations and also the connections within major points of such city. The determining factors of most urban downtowns and the growth of cities in America are credited to the location of rivers and railroads (Voss 33). However, population changes in most American cities followed the creation of the Interstate System, affecting the importance of urban downtowns. When the Federal Highway Act was being countered in Congress during the early 1950s, traffic was of major concern. One of the primary opposition to the Highway Act was that it should focus more on improving the conditions of the existing Federal Route system, which already generally connected cities and their urban areas. However, Eisenhower believed that with the rise of the automobile, about 5 million sold annually during the 1950s, the network of newly created superhighways should connect cities, but not into their downtown regions, to prevent escalation of traffic problems (Reid 4). Financially, though, the decision to not place the Interstate within highly concentrated urban areas were largely based upon the amount of buying out civilian properties to replace with the Interstate. Both rural areas and lower income districts surrounding downtown areas, which consisted of weaker opposition from the community, were cheaper locations to construct the highway. Therefore, constructing what is known as beltways around cities such as Houston and Washington D.C. led to the first major roadscape phenomena: the fall of urban downtowns and the rise of economy around these once previous rural locations, creating pseudo-urban forms. Houston is a primary example of having major Interstate routes existing as physical belts around the downtown district. Originally designed as a port city connecting to the Gulf of Mexico through the Houston Ship Channel, the downtown area faced economic downfall as the primary modes of industrial transportation shifted to the Interstate, located in the surrounding suburbs. This led to the rise of major pseudo-downtown business districts directly connected to the Interstate such as Southwest Houston and the Energy Corridor. While the beltway concept is used in demonstrating negative roadscapes around cities, two other city interstate systems were generally also constructed: the loop and the spur. The loop system, for ex ample, used in Philadelphia, is similar to a beltway; however, a loop is constructed to bypass the city entirely primarily for traffic concerns. Loops affect downtown areas in the same way beltways do. A spur, which is less common than all three, is constructed as a highway entering from a beltway into a downtown area and terminates into a standard roadway. While all three types of techniques yields different results, the introduction of the Interstate in these cities changed how the urban downtown functions and interacts with the rest of the city proper. Therefore, pseudo-downtowns are part of the roadscape phenomena. The second major roadscape analyzed is the role of the Interstate in the idealized American Suburbia. The notion of suburbia indirectly correlates to the rise of economic activity outside of the urbanized form. However, the idea of suburbs can be traced back to the 1920s, as a result of rapidly growing cities. Generally, civilians of inner-city areas did not move out to the suburbs because of the lack of ease of transport, even with the automobile. Suburbs were being slowly developed around World War I, but it was the introduction of the Interstate that greatly increased the suburbanization process, in relationship to the rise of automobile production. As the beltways around congested cities were constructed, businesses and job opportunities grew away from the inner-city (Blas 130). The idealized American Suburbia was then born, an area that was not densely populated, consisted rows of picturesque houses, and did not suffer congested physical conditions of the urban landscape. The major factor introduced in separating the ideal American Suburbs from the contextual meaning of 1920s suburb is the ability to access the interstate easily and travel to and from urban areas, which became locations not for living and culture but for working and business ventures. The interstate eventually would lead to the demise of the city as the center of life and culture (Cioc 676). Most Federal freeways are located in small-scale to medium-scale residential zones, which ties directly to suburban locations in larger cities. In fact, in most of the urban metropolitan areas in the United States, the interstate only accounts for 3% of all roadways within the urban landscape, yet they yield 40% of daily traffic (Brown 174). Highways also promoted the creation of entirely new suburban locations in the United States. In the early 1970’s, the interstate allowed people to move from older-created urban cities in the north and northeast states, such as Philadelphia and Boston, to generally newer states in the â€Å"Sunbelt† region, where climates were favored, such as Miami and Phoenix (Blas 130). Before the Interstate, migrating from Megalopolis to newer urban cities such as those in California were too costly and too timely. While the American Suburb is a unique type of roadscape, it can be seen as a direct correlation to the demise of urban downtowns and creation of pseudo-downtowns, as previously analyzed. However, the final and vastly different major roadscape phenomena involves the relationship of the Interstate and the once used scenic and tourist routes. Predating the creation of the Interstate Act in 1956, one chief proposal envisioned by Thomas MacDonald, the head of the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads, was that the US Route roadways, built in the mid 1920’s, should simply be repaved and improved with modern construction, in order to handle the ever increasing load of vehicular traffic. However, headed mostly by engineers, the proposal to build superhighways across the landscape and connect urban areas without increasing traffic on currently existing roadways, such as the US Route system, was eventually favored by the Eisenhower administration (Reid 3). However, since the 1920’s, the US Route system connected not only existing urban landscapes, but spurred scenic and tourist growth in rural towns and locations alongside these routes. When the Interstate paved way for the ability to drive over rivers and through mountains, some cities grew, but even more places declined economically as traffic passed further away (Blas 131). There are numerous cases in which cities became ghost towns due to the realignment of traffic due to the Interstate system, such as Route 66 and Highway 301. Route 66 was colloquially known as the Main Street of America, which connected Chicago, ran through Missouri and Arizona, and into Santa Monica, California. During the Dust Bowl, Route 66 grew in popularity as people migrated west. Most of the Scenic Route designations alongside Route 66 were located in New Mexico and Arizona, in the Sonoran Desert. However, when the Interstate was established, most of these towns, which were economically supported by gas, declined and eventually a few of these towns were deserted, such as Montoya, New Mexico, and Canyon Diablo, Arizona. Route 66 usually took two weeks during its heyday, whereas the trip from Chicago to Santa Monica on the Interstate can be completed in 29 hours. Another example is Highway 301, which caused similar fates in cities along the route, such as Starke, Florida. However, when the Interstate expanded even further away years after the traffic declined on Highway 301, Starke city officials did not object to the new proposal. They foresaw that despite lower traffic numbers, the economy of Starke would still strive on the charm of Highway 301, a scenic attraction (Blas 131). By the late 1970’s, it was clear that the accessibility of the Interstate system was greatly favored over scenic routes, causing Starke to essentially turn into a ghost town. This leads to the obvious difference that scenic highways, which were hampered by the lack of advanced civil engineering techniques during its construction in the 1920’s, are contoured by the landscape it sits on, whereas Interstates were simply tunneled through mountains and bridged over rivers and valleys where deemed necessary for shortage of travel time. As the third major phen omena, abandoned scenic routes and the disregard to small rural towns can be considered another type of roadscape. During the research of the Interstate system the United States, it became evident that even though it is one of the most, if not, the most innovative application of technology and systematic networking in the United States, it led to a different and new phenomena known as roadscapes. These roadscapes were changes in cultural and urban landscapes directly influenced by the establishment of the Federal Highway system, whether positive or negative. However, while it generated numerous ghost towns along scenic routes and toppled the organizational strategies of urban cities, it allowed the United States economy to succeed under the modern way of life, including the automobile and fast travel. References Blas, Elisheva. The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways: The Road to Success? The History Teacher 44.1 (2010): 127-42. Ebscohost. Web. 5 Feb. 2015. Brown, Jeffery, Eric Morris, and Brian Taylor. Planning for Cars in Cities. Journel of the American Planning Association 75.2 (2009): 161-71. Ebscohost. Web. 5 Feb. 2015. Cioc, Mark. The Culture of Highways. Environmental History 10.4 (2005): 675-76. JSTOR. Web. 5 Feb. 2015. Reid, Robert. Paving America From Coast to Coast. Special Report: Civil Engineering (2015): 1-9. Ebscohost. Web. 5 Feb. 2015. Voss, Paul R., and Guangqing Chi. Highways and Population Change. Rural Sociology 71.1 (2006): 33-58. Print.

Rene Descartes Essay -- Biographies Bio Biography

Rene Descartes was a famous French mathematician, scientist and philosopher. He was arguably the first major philosopher in the modern era to make a serious effort to defeat skepticism. His views about knowledge and certainty, as well as his views about the relationship between mind and body have been very influential over the last three centuries. Descartes was born at La Haye (now called Descartes), and educated at the Jesuit College of La Flà ¨che between 1606 and 1614. Descartes later claimed that his education gave him little of substance and that only mathematics had given him certain knowledge. In this lament he joins a chorus of seventeenth century philosophers including Bacon, Hobbes and Locke. In 1618 he went to Holland to serve in the army of Prince Maurice of Nassau, in traveled to Germany with that army. On the night of November 10, he had a series of dreams which he interpreted as signs that he would found a universal science. The most important influence on Descartes at this time was the mathematician Issac Beeckman, who stimulated Descartes by posing a number of problems and discussing issues in physics and mathematics with him. His first substantial work was the Regulae or Rules for the Direction of Mind written in 1628-9 but not published until 1701. This work shows Descartes interest in method which he share d with many sixteenth and seventeenth century scientists, mathematicians and philosophers. One source of this interest in method was ancient mathematics. The thirteen books of Euclid's Elements was a model of knowledge and deductive method. But how had all this been achieved? Archimedes had made many remarkable discoveries. How had he come to make these discoveries? The method in which the results were pr... ...l could interact with the body in 1643. In response to Elisabeth's questions, Descartes wrote a short work which developed into the Passions of the Soul. The work is a combination of psychology, physiology and ethics, and contains Descartes' theory of two way causal interaction via the pineal gland. Two months before the publication of the Passions Descartes set sail for Stockholm, Sweden, at the invitation of Queen Christina of Sweden. Descartes' death in Stockholm of pneumonia, has regularly been attributed to the rigors of the Swedish climate and the fact that Descartes (no early riser) was sometimes required to give the Queen lessons as early as five in the morning. However unpleasant these conditions may have been, it seems plain that Descartes acquired his fatal malady as a result of nursing his friend the French ambassador (who had pneumonia) back to health. Rene Descartes Essay -- Biographies Bio Biography Rene Descartes was a famous French mathematician, scientist and philosopher. He was arguably the first major philosopher in the modern era to make a serious effort to defeat skepticism. His views about knowledge and certainty, as well as his views about the relationship between mind and body have been very influential over the last three centuries. Descartes was born at La Haye (now called Descartes), and educated at the Jesuit College of La Flà ¨che between 1606 and 1614. Descartes later claimed that his education gave him little of substance and that only mathematics had given him certain knowledge. In this lament he joins a chorus of seventeenth century philosophers including Bacon, Hobbes and Locke. In 1618 he went to Holland to serve in the army of Prince Maurice of Nassau, in traveled to Germany with that army. On the night of November 10, he had a series of dreams which he interpreted as signs that he would found a universal science. The most important influence on Descartes at this time was the mathematician Issac Beeckman, who stimulated Descartes by posing a number of problems and discussing issues in physics and mathematics with him. His first substantial work was the Regulae or Rules for the Direction of Mind written in 1628-9 but not published until 1701. This work shows Descartes interest in method which he share d with many sixteenth and seventeenth century scientists, mathematicians and philosophers. One source of this interest in method was ancient mathematics. The thirteen books of Euclid's Elements was a model of knowledge and deductive method. But how had all this been achieved? Archimedes had made many remarkable discoveries. How had he come to make these discoveries? The method in which the results were pr... ...l could interact with the body in 1643. In response to Elisabeth's questions, Descartes wrote a short work which developed into the Passions of the Soul. The work is a combination of psychology, physiology and ethics, and contains Descartes' theory of two way causal interaction via the pineal gland. Two months before the publication of the Passions Descartes set sail for Stockholm, Sweden, at the invitation of Queen Christina of Sweden. Descartes' death in Stockholm of pneumonia, has regularly been attributed to the rigors of the Swedish climate and the fact that Descartes (no early riser) was sometimes required to give the Queen lessons as early as five in the morning. However unpleasant these conditions may have been, it seems plain that Descartes acquired his fatal malady as a result of nursing his friend the French ambassador (who had pneumonia) back to health.