Chinas Space Program Essays - Human Spaceflight, Spaceflight

Chinas Space Program CHINA CITES 'GREAT PROGRESS' IN MANNED SPACE PROGRAM By Daniel Southerland (c) 1986, The Washington Post PEKING - China has made "great progress" in developing a manned space program and the day it launches a man in space for the first time is "not far off," an official newspaper said Sunday. The overseas edition of the People's Daily, the leading Communist Party newspaper, said China has "already begun the work of choosing its first team of astronauts." Although it gave few details, the article made it sound as though China is preparing to launch its first men into space much sooner than many foreign observers had thought possible. "We have already succeeded in producing life-support systems and in solving the problems of controlling gas composition and pressure in the cabin and the level of heat and humidity," the report said. The report, published Sunday, said the Chinese have developed the largest centrifuge of its kind in Asia and Europe to simulate cabin conditions created by the launching of a spaceship. "The day when a Chinese goes roaming through space is not far off," the report said. On June 5 of this year, Sun Jiadong, vice minister of astronautics, told reporters that China would put a man into space but that such a program "must be worked out gradually in keeping with our needs and capabilities." A foreign observer who has followed the Chinese space program said it could still be a few years before China puts a man into orbit. The People's Daily report did not say how many astronauts are being trained or exactly when they might go into space. The Chinese have appeared to be working for several years on problems associated with building a space shuttle. A high-ranking official of China's national defense, science and technology commission confirmed last May that there had been debate over the feasibility of deploying a space shuttle. According to the China Business Review, a magazine published in Washington, D.C., China has been experimenting f or more than 10 years with the thermal problems associated with spacecraft re-entry. The Chinese also have been developing space food and space suits for at least seven years, according to published reports. The first publicity about the astronauts began to appear in Chinese magazines in 1980. In early 1980, Science Life magazine, published in Shanghai, described a group of astronauts undergoing fairly sophisticated training, including use of a high-speed centrifuge and a simulated spaceship. Trainees were reported to be wearing airtight spacesuits designed for use on the moon. ===============================================================================

5 Warning Signs You Should NOT Take The Job

5 Warning Signs You Should NOT Take The Job You’ve been looking for a long time and you’ve finally landed an interview. You think to yourself: This is the job. I have to get this job. And then it looks as though you might actually be hired. Trouble is, there are some red flags. Failure to spot these warning signs might result in you ending up right back where you started, looking for a job. Here are five things to watch for before accepting an offer, even when you’re desperate.1. Herky jerky interview processYou get called in, you interview, and then you don’t hear anything for weeks. Then maybe they call you in again, you do another interview, and†¦ radio silence. If your hiring process is this erratic- without some suitable explanation (some crisis at the company, or an unexpected leave of absence by your supervisor), then it’s time to ask yourself 1: whether you can be bothered being treated this way, and 2: what would it be like to actually work for a company that treated potential h ires this way? If you really really want the job, it’s okay to give them a second chance (though maybe not a third). Just keep your eyes open and your feelers out for other opportunities.2. They’re all about themThere’s a constant stream of requests. We need this from you. And we need that. First a writing sample, then a project on spec, then a statement, then a test. They don’t seem to have any respect for your effort or your time. You’re not given space to ask your interviewers any questions. Sound familiar? Run away.The interview process should be just as much about them recruiting you. If they start to get really demanding and ask for really in-depth work, suggest an hourly consulting rate for that work. Until you have a guarantee of employment, make sure you get paid.3. They’re shadyBy the end of the interview, you’re not sure exactly what your position entails, who you’d report to, what the compensation and benefits would be. You note a lack of any real leadership in the team, and you can’t discern any real structure. Most importantly, if you’ve asked questions and fewer than half of them have been answered to your satisfaction, that’s a sign of major disorganization, even chaos. Run away.4. They’re nosyYou start getting questions about your past position, your past salary, your personal financial details. None of this is really relevant to your potentially being hired. They only need to know what your target salary range is now. Nothing more. And even that you shouldn’t tell them until they’ve specified their range for the position first.5. They give you an ultimatumYou get an offer letter out of nowhere. First of all, that letter should really be a phone call or an email from the person you’ve been speaking with, suggesting they’re ready to make an offer and opening negotiations with you. And if they make it clear there will be no negotiation s (â€Å"We have a dozen other candidates who will take this offer as it stands†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ), then you should probably turn your back and wait for a company that will respect both you and the process of bringing a new employee on board.

Gender Stereotypes in the Australian Media Essay

Gender Stereotypes in the Australian Media - Essay Example Women become over-zealous in their attempt to mirror the body image of the fashion models seen on television and in advertisements. The consumer is literally caught inside a media pinball machine as they are sold the latest 'fat-burger' and are left with a guilty conscious. Fashion, sports, entertainment, advertising, and society all conspire to push our ideal of the perfect body to an unobtainable position. There has been a substantial amount of research concerning the media's unrealistic and stereotypical portrayal of the body image. While much of the research has taken place in the US, other Western cultures including Australia, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, and the Netherlands have noted similar results and have found women "living with near constant exposure to narrowly defined and highly unrealistic beauty ideals".1 Television and print advertising are at the core of the drive to sustain a connection between the public and a structure that is acceptable to the members of an in-group. Verri et al. (1997) and Tiggermann (1996) found a direct correlation between the amount of, and the dependence upon, television viewing and the vulnerability to developing an eating disorder.2 In addition, Sanders et al. (1995) found a direct correlation between the numbers of magazines read by 12-year-old girls and the probability that they would consider themselves overweight.3 However, this p henomenon is not unique to females, as men also suffer from poor body image. Bergstrom and Neighbors state, "Body dissatisfaction among men is influenced by many of the same factors as that among women. Significant research has focused on various sociocultural influences on the male ideal body figure, which may contribute to body dissatisfaction" and an unrealistic obsession with muscularity.4 Likewise, the research has also shown that this problem is pervasive from a very young age on through adulthood. Children as young as six are affected by the stereotyping of ideal body image, as are the elderly, though the effect is mediated by older age.5, 6 The media's influence on body image begins early in childhood and continues through the later stages of life for both genders. Most people are dissatisfied with some aspect of their body, and many people have a distorted view of it or an unrealistic evaluation. There are two types of body image distortions that lead to dissatisfaction. The first, known as body-size distortion, is a perception that is distorted where the individual "misperceives his or her body size, or the size of various body parts, as being larger than they objectively are".7 This distortion is often a precursor and a marker for the eating disorders of anorexia or bulimia. According to Bergstrom and Neighbors, "The second type of body image disturbance, termed body dissatisfaction, refers to the cognitive, affective, or attitudinal nature of negative body image".8 This dissatisfaction is more likely to lead to unhealthy dieting practices, extreme bodybuilding, or cosmetic surgery that may be unnecessary and have long lasting negative effects. Whether people have a distorted image or are simply dissatisfied with their body, the media fuels the problem and people are motivated to take actions that may have negative consequences. This research will focus on the attention that the media places on a

Corporate governance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words - 1

Corporate governance - Essay Example A staff of executives used of the American energy company. This prompted the adoption of the Corporate and Auditing Accountability, Responsibility and Transparency Act (commonly known as the SOX). Essentially, the Act was to mandate reforms that would fight corporate accounting fraud by enhancing corporate responsibility and financial disclosures. Further, for the sake of overseeing auditors, the Public Companies Accounting Oversight Board was also created by the Act. This paper will discuss the Enron case and research academic literature to evaluate the amendments to the code/legislation and determine whether they will resolve the issues of corporate governance as well as assessing the effectiveness of the changes. For the purpose of discussion, an overview of the Enron Scandal and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act will be given, followed by the evaluation of amendments to the code/legislation. The most notable causes of Enron’s downfall were associated with corporate governance, revenue recognition, special purpose entities and mark-to-market accounting. When the sale of natural gas was deregulated via legislation passed by Congress, Enron increased its prices and soon became the North America’s largest seller by 1992, earning $122 million before taxes and interest. However, poor financial reporting and accounting loopholes were used by the chief executive officer and the chief financial officer to conceal billions of dollars that had accrued as debt from projects and deals that had failed. Eventually, this led to the bankruptcy as the company executives continuously misled the audit committee and board of directors on matters concerning high-risk practices of accounting. Further, they also pressured their auditors, Arthur Andersen, to ignore such matters. Enron reported the entire value of all trades it conducted as revenue as opposed to reporting the cost of the products as the cost of goods sold and selling price as revenue (Salter 2008, p. 104). This aggressive

Learning Support System Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Learning Support System - Assignment Example 3. Pay for goods f. Sell Learning Package 1. Book appointment with parent 2. Assess child's needs 3. Work out starting level on the learning program 4. Fill order form with parent g. Order Learning Material 1. Receive information about LSS services 2. Send interest form to LSS branch office 3. Book appointment with consultant 4. Fill order form 5. Pay for learning package 6. Receive learning package h. Administer Stage Test 1. Send assessment request to LSS 2. Receive stage test 3. Supervise stage test 4. Send test for marking i. Study 1. Study video and workbook 2. Do stage exam 3. Advance to next stage on passing Alternative: Last stage of level 3a. Advance to the next level if current stage is the last stage in the current level Alternative: Last stage of last level 3a. Finish learning program j. Manage Sales and Stock 1. Record customer details, where leads come from, consultant who made the sale and child's progress 2. Update stock level 3. Re-order automatically if reorder level is reached iii) For Process Assessment the primary scenario would be 1. Receive request for assessment by phone or by Assessment Request Form from parents 2. Send stage test 3. Receive and mark test 4. Send letter of congratulations and stage certificate The secondary scenario would be: 1. Receive request for assessment by phone or by Assessment Request Form from parents 2. Send stage test 3. Receive and mark test 4. Send letter of congratulations and stage certificate Also send level certificate along with a request for consultant to visit family if this is the last stage of a level. 1. A use case enables a systems developer to capture the functional requirements of systems. It does this by providing one of more scenarios that map to how the users interact with...It provides a divide-and-conquer approach to requirements analysis since the developer can focus on one part of a system at a time. A use case meets a specific business goal and thus the use case allows the developer to analyze requirement, one business goal at a time. An example is the use case "Buy Learning Materials". This use case spells out clearly the steps a Parent role takes to acquire learning materials for a Child role. Therefore, a use case provides a clear direction to a system developer. A use case is reusable because of the rich view it provides. A use case will therefore help systems developer not only during requirements gathering but also as a guideline during development. It can also form the basis of systems documentation much latter. The use case diagram for LSS above reveals the different components of the system under development allowing the systems developer to develop the system in a modular manner. He can start with the use cases that are considered more urgent/important by the users. Use cases provide alternative scenarios thus enabling a systems developer to accommodate many behaviors of a system.

Examining The Business Sectors Of Projects Information Technology Essay

Examining The Business Sectors Of Projects Information Technology Essay This project is done individually and it is a research project. In this project we will look at two different large organisations and compare them with each other. The two companies I have chosen are part of the SATRIX top 40 on the JSE list. I have chosen the two most popular Cell phone providers in whole South Africa, VODACOM and MTN. Over the past years, these two companies became very successful and they grow more and more everyday. They both have been fighting against each other on who is the better and more successful provider in South Africa. I have researched a lot about the two companies and they both have a lot of differences. I made research on the shareholders of each business, the Corporate Social Responsibilities and Environmental Sustainability, the BBBEE Compliance and the Companies Performance of each business. This project will also show you which company complies more with the King 11 Report and Triple Bottom Line Reporting as well as the company which will be the best proposition for a prospective investor. CSR related Issues in South Africa The needs of our society in South Africa are called the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). Social Responsibilities are not only important in South Africa but also in the rest of our world. Social Responsibility is a very important part in many spheres of any business; examples are poor working conditions, dumping of waste or abuse peoples savings to enrich them. CSR addresses the legal, ethical, commercial and other expectations society has for business. The CSR needs to deal with shareholders, customers, suppliers, employees and other communities. Major issues are: Human rights Labour conditions Environmental impacts Operations Products and services In South Africa, growing demands are imposed on any type of society. Business needs to contribute to a huge extend to solve any problems which accrue in the business. In South Africa, CSR refers to operate and organize everything in a good manner. It can be measured be performance indicators, which include: less operating costs, advanced brand image, higher salary and employee retention. Environmental Issues In South Africa Environmental issues in South Africa are mainly caused by us humans who dont look after our environment and just do what they want to. People like that, dont really care about our nature and they just dont follow the rules which help our country to be cleaner and healthier. Most of those issues have a huge impact on us humans. Issues like that include; safer water supplies, population explosion and depletion. The problem with South Africa is that it is to over populate and the population needs to be cut down by quite a lot in order to have a better environment. There are many types of issues which we have in South Africa. Issues like climate change, land use, farming, nuclear issues and pollution are the most common issues in South Africa. But you get many other issues which affect our environment everyday. Stakeholders Stakeholders are the most important people in any business. Without them, its not possible to run any type of business. Every business has to have stakeholders. Stakeholders are the members of a business. You get 2 different types of Stakeholders, namely internal and external stakeholders. Internal Stakeholders: Employees Manager Owners External Stakeholders: Suppliers Society Government Creditors Shareholders Customers Social CSR Issues Different forms of CSR have been found in South Africa over the couple of years. Apartheid played a huge role in it to shape these programmes and to run them successfully. After the 1990s, South Africa ranked into the global economy and new dynamics and programmes have been added to the CSR. The CSR works its way though many policy debates and corporate agendas. The CSRs issues are very important to any type of business, because it helps you to be more successful and improve the working condition of each member. Major issues are: Human rights Labour conditions Environmental impacts Operations Products and services Yes, there are many more issues but those are the most important ones I have found and chosen. These issues are very important for each business doesnt matter what type of business it is. It helps to make your employees happier and make them feel comfortable at their working place. Environmental CSR Issues An environmental issue is the way how a human treats and looks after our environment. Its the humans who dont look after our environment and because of that; our environment is not in a great shape at the moment. Nature dies and animals are starting too die because us humans dirty the nature and environment. Environmental issues in South Africa are mainly caused by us humans who dont look after our environment and just do what they want to. Issues like that include; safer water supplies, population explosion and depletion. The problem with South Africa is that it is to over populate and the population needs to be cut down by quite a lot in order to have a better environment. More types of issues are; Climate change Dams Energy Land use Farming Nuclear issues Pollution If most of the people in South Africa would look after our environment a lot, we would have a great environment and the nature would be cleaner. But unfortunately, most of the population in South Africa dont care about their environment. They destroy our environment more and more day after day. BBBEE BBBEE (Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment) is a form of empowerment created by the South African government in order to make it even for blacks and whites. As you know, in South Africa we have Whites, Blacks, Coloureds and Indians. Most of the people in South Africa think that the white people should be supported more in getting a job. They think whites are the highest race in South Africa; they are at the top and think they better than the blacks or Indians. But its so not true. Every human, doesnt matter what colour their skin has every human should be treated the same in any way. Thats why the BBBEE plays a huge role in South Africa and its very often used by a lot of companies around South Africa. Every year, the country sets a vision statement by reaching some goals. Some of the goals include; 50% of management is black 40% of the total staff are woman I think that the BBBEE plays a huge role in South African businesses and it helps the business to have an equal amount of employees. They should have different races and genders and I mean a business is only going to be successful when there are different types of people in it. More ideas will come and the business will be more successful. Stakeholders The companies I have chosen are very large and they have a lot of stakeholders which work for the company. Vodacom Stakeholders Employees Shareholders Communities Business partners Regulators Customers Government Shareholders analysis Shareholder No of shareholders % No of shares 1-100 65798 69.14 2334687 101-1000 26016 27.34 7631889 1001-10000 2553 2.68 7206854 10001-50000 409 0.43 9814621 50001-100000 148 0.16 10787017 100001-1000000 204 0.21 59739289 1000001 and over 35 0.04 1390439643 Totals 95163 100.00 1487954000 The price of a share changes a couple of times per day. Share Current price % Change Time 5465 1.20 4.March The dividend a shareholder will receive is 36.00 cents per share. MTN Stakeholders Employees Regulators Shareholders Customers Communities Government Business partners Shares Current price % Change Time 11510 -0.77 3.March The dividend a shareholder will receive is 65.00 cents per share. Comment: Ive researched the different stakeholders the 2 companies have and the shares they each charge. At the end, it was MTN who sells his shares for much more money. The dividend MTN shareholders will get is more than double the amount you get from Vodacom. So, it is better at the moment to buy shares from MTN rather then from Vodacom. Responsibility towards Stakeholders Vodacom: Communities: Vodacom plans to improve the engagement processes further this year. Suppliers: Vodacom improved its BBBEE score from 55.2% to 68.0%, according to DTI Codes. Employees: Vodacom invested over R70 Million on training employees only. Vodacom tries his best to make it the most comfortable for their employees by improving the working conditions. HIV tests are regularly done. MTN: Employees: Created an awareness training 5 years ago, this improves year by year. Makes sure the employees are comfortable at their working place, so they will be able to work the best they can. HIV tests are made every month. Government: Government focuses on creating small groups to make it easier to work. Annual interviews conducted. Communities: Press conferences are held every week. Annual interviews conducted. Good education. Most Credible Policy Both companies, Vodacom and MTN, have very good policies which they follow all the time and try too improve them as much as they can. A big role in both companies is HIV/AIDS. They both test all their employees nearly every month and thats good to hear. It gives other workers more confident to work now that they cant get sick or infected by any viruses. But when I go more into detail, Vodacom has impressed me more. Theyve spent so much money on training employees and making their working place comfortable for them. Policy Projects of each Company Vodacom: Education project Health project Security project Penryn Mobile Lab Schola Amoris School Committee for Crime prevention Mahumani Empowerment centre Reagona Disability Unit SAICA NMMU Scholarship Cities of Africa Wits centre of Excellence Vodacom Education Project- the Company invests money to equip and educate young people with the skills they will need when they go out to the big world. Vodacom Health Project- the company invests quality health initiatives to develop to their full potential. It focuses on surgery, HIV/AIDS and feeding schemes. Vodacom Security Project- security is the secondary focus of the whole Vodacom foundation. Projects like Men against child abuse or committee for crime prevention were created. MTN: Yello Care South African Red Cross Fifa World Cup Cancer Research Centre Yello Care programme- a volunteer campaign that involves every employee in community building projects in addition to the MTN Foundation initiatives. Fifa world cup- MTN supports the fifa world cup 2010. A lot of money will be donated to the cancer research centre. At the last years qualification, every goal a team made, R10000 were donated to the cancer centre. Cancer Research Centre- MTN has made an agreement with United Nations Development programme to fight against cancer. Most Sustainable projects: Vodacom and MTN, both have a lot of projects created and most of them were really successful. But again, Vodacom has better projects and all of them were successful. Vodacom helped South Africa a lot more than MTN. Vodacom helped kids to have an education and get work. They also have created a health project which runs since 2008. BBBEE Policies Vodacom: Equity ownership Management control Employment equity Skills development Enterprise development Socioeconomic development Preferential procurement Management control- Black representation rose very high. More black people have joined the management team. Employment equity- Vodacom are adding hundreds of employees to their team every month. Year after year, more black people come and work at vodacom with the right education. Skills Development- over R90 million has vodacom spent on training employees only. R68 million were spent on Black Designated Groups. MTN: Increasing access to MTN procurement for blacks Increasing human resource and skill development Encouraging partnerships between Black enterprises Promoting economic transformation MTN has a license to promote Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment within South Africa through its procurement procedures. Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment was integrated with the tender rules and policies to assist disadvantaged communities. Companies Performance Vodacom: Group highlights: 16.5% growth in group customers to 39.6 million 10.5% growth in group EBITDA to R18.2 billion 28.8% growth in group data revenue to R6.4 billion BBBEE transaction completed in South Africa in October 2008 Acquired Gateway on 30 December 2008 Listed on the JSE Limited on 18 May 2009 R500 million spend by Vodacom Foundation in its first ten years Financial Information Summary of Vodacom MTN: Highlights: 90,7 million subscribers up 48% from December 2007 R102,5 billion up 40% from December 2007 R43,2 billion up 36% from December 2007 R904,4 cents up 33% from December 2007 Financial Information Summary of MTN Vodacom: Balance Sheet of Vodacom as at 31.March.2009 MTN: Balanced Sheet of MTN as at 30.April.2009 Conclusion The 2 companies I have chosen are South Africas biggest cell phone providers. Ive done a lot of research and came to a final conclusion. Both, Vodacom and MTN have positives and negatives but for me Vodacom is a better provide between the 2. Vodacom is more reliable, I can trust it more, it has many more projects done than MTN and its more successful. For me, Vodacom is the best cell phone provider in whole South Africa.

Albert Camus the Plague :: essays research papers

Albert Camus' "The Plague" The novel that I chose to do this report on was, "The Plague", by Albert Camus. It is about a plague that hit the European countries in the middle ages. I chose to describe the literary term of parallelism. Here are some following facts about the story's plot that involve parallelism through the novel. The novel begins at Oran where the plague becomes known. The main character, Dr. Gernard Rieux, is a doctor. In the beginning of the story he finds a dead rat on the floor. Even in those times rats were not found dead on the middle of the floor. This was unusual, but he threw out the rat and forgot about it. Eventually the dead rats began to pile into large masses and burned. Soon after there were some people that got very sick, which made Mr. Rieux very curious. These reports of these ill people and the death of the rats were the beginning of the parallelism for this story. Since Bernard was a doctor he was the first to actually attempt to help one of these sick people. Michael was his first patient in this matter. He was the sickest person that the doctor had ever seen. Michael was pale white and vomited often, he hurt so much from the vomiting that he seemed paralyzed. Mr. Rieux tried to help the man the best that he could, but he ended up dying. Michael was the first person to die of this illness. After his death, many cases of this illness were reported widespread. Again more details of sickness and death, this is the parallelism for this novel. As the reports of sickness and death came to inform Dr. Rieux, he tried to comfort and cure the plagued patients. About ninety percent of the people infected had died. He wanted a stop to this plague. Quickly he linked the rats with the people. He knew that the rats began to get sick before the people did. At this time many people had the plague, except for the Chinese visitors. They never were infected. As the plot moves on death, sickness and the plague are still relevant. He studied their behaviors and everyday tasks and learned that they do something that was never often done in these middle ages. Not many people in these days bathed. The doctor began to notice that the people that bathed never