Greek Art – Continuity/Change over Time

Over time, a culture’s art will change or improve in some way. Some characteristics may remain the same while other characteristics change drastically. Art in the Archaic era and the Classical era had no emotion and unrealistic features, but the Classical era brought a sense of anatomy and movement to its art. In the Archaic era and Classical era, emotion was not present in art. Characters had plain expressions on their faces; their eyes told nothing, regardless of what they were doing. The Discobolus sculpture from the Classical era depicts a man who about to throw a disc, which was a common Greek sport. However, instead of competitive or determined look on his face, he is emotionless. The man’s face is blank, as if bored or tired. Another characteristic that remained constant throughout the Archaic era and Classical era was unrealistic features. Kouros, from the Archaic era, is an excellent example of the unnatural features from the two eras. Kouros is a statue of a man with stylized hair and blank eyes. During this time period, hair did not look natural and flowing, but stiff and dramatically detailed. Also, the eyes are blank and do not look as realistic as the eyes seen in later works of art. During the Classical era came around, art began to change and improve. First, the art of the Classical era showed some sense of anatomy. The Three-Seated Goddesses sculpture from the Classical era depicts this sense of anatomy. Although not perfect, the bodies of the goddesses portray the form of a woman through their dresses. Before the Classical era, art from the Archaic era did not exhibit any form such as this. Another change the Classical era brought to art was a sense of movement. During the Archaic era, sculptures portrayed people in stiff, unrealistic poses. In the Classical era, the body became more relaxed and had a more normal position. The Three-Seated Goddesses sculpture shows not only the enhanced sense of anatomy, but also the improvement in movement in the Classical era. The goddesses lounge on a seat, which looks more natural compared to the Kouros sculpture, where the man is standing rigidly with one foot in front of the other. Around the same time as the Archaic and Classical eras, the Zhou Dynasty of China was creating works of art. In 433 B. C. E. , the Bronze Bells were created. The Bronze Bells were created through bronze casting, a significant achievement at this time. Also, each bell can produce two different sounds, one from being hit in the center and one from being hit on the rim. These bells were thought to be used in rituals to communicate with supernatural forces. In conclusion, styles of art continue and change over time. Characteristics such as stylized features and emotionless faces remained constant between the Archaic era and the Classical era. However, in the Classical era, a sense of movement and anatomy was introduced to art. Time will continue to change cultures and their art, just as it influenced the changes and constants of Greek art between the Archaic era and the Classical era.

Travel and Tourism component industries and their organisations Essay

Types of Tourism There are three types of tourism: domestic, outbound and inbound. Domestic tourism is when you travel within the country normally for a day trip; for example, someone traveling from London to Brighton for the day would be a domestic tourist. An outbound tourist is when someone travels outside the country. So someone travelling from the UK to France would be an outbound tourist to the UK. An Inbound tourist is when someone travels to another country; for example, someone travelling to Spain from France would be an inbound tourist to France. However these three categories have been split further into another three sub-categories stating the purposes for travel, these are: leisure, business and visiting friends and relatives (VFR). Someone travelling for holiday, cultural events, recreation, sport, religion and study would be classed as travelling for leisure. Someone travelling for business would be if they were meeting with an overseas client, meetings, conferences and exhibitions. Vi siting friends and family accounts for many trips especially within the UK. Accommodation Accommodation can be both serviced: your meals are on offer and you room is cleaned, or non-serviced: you look after yourself which includes cleaning, shopping and cooking. Hotels Hotels can be both independently owned or chain owned. The chain hotels tend to have the same layout and offer the same facilities no matter where you are because they are more impersonal but provide high quality consistently around the world, such as the Mercure Hotel in London and Paris. Also, hotels tend to cater for both business and leisure customers with a large range of products, such as a conference room for the business tourists, and activities for the leisure customers. Domestic tourism tends to be better independently owned hotels as the tourists will probably be visiting family and friends or staying for a limited time so they don’t need a wide range of facilities available, just the basics. However a chain hotel may also be used such as a travel lodge as this may be cheap and it offers the minimum products. Except for if the tourist is travelling for business purposes, as  it is most likely that the company will be paying for the hotel so the person may upgrade themselves and stay in luxury rather than a travel lodge. Inbound tourism is better for hotels that are part of a large chain as they will be well known to people from other countries; most of the time, whether the tourist is travelling for leisure or business, they will want to stay in a luxury hotel over a hotel with less available to them. Independently owned hotels usually reflect the countries own style whereas chain owned hotels look the same in every country and make the customers feel more at home. Outbound tourism tends to benefit independently owned hotels within the home country as some tourists stay over in a hotel near the airport so that they don’t have to travel far the next day or get up as early as some tourist’s class this as their holiday starting early. As they are staying there for normally 1 night they will just stay at an independent hotel as it will normally be cheaper but sometimes a chain hotel such as a travel lodge or a premier inn will be cheaper. Guest accommodation Guest accommodation is normally extra space that homeowners have and want to earn money for; this includes guesthouses, farmhouses and bed and breakfast accommodation. Moreover, there is also the option for self-catering, this normally occurs when people rent out there apartments or holiday cottages however this is also available at holiday parks. Kitchens and appliances are provided for the self-catering option. Many tourists consider guest accommodation as it is seen as charming and an opportunity to experience local culture. Domestic tourists enjoy guest accommodation as it gives them the opportunity to experience local culture within the town they are visiting, and most of the time they will probably be eating out at restaurants or pubs so they won’t need to be given 3 meals a day at their accommodation. Bed and breakfasts are a good option for domestic tourists as they won’t have to go out for breakfast but it gives them the chance to look around the town, eat out and enjoy their time. Inbound tourists may stay at guest accommodation if they are staying in a small town or village and want to see what the local culture is like. This would give them the opportunity to experience more than if they were to stay in a hotel as hotels can be quite impersonal, so by staying in guest accommodation they will feel more included and like they are getting a one-to-one experience with the staff of  the accommodation. Outbound tourists may stay at guest accommodation if they are traveling to the airport as it can be cheaper than a hotel. They would also not need the set meal times like you get at a hotel as they would probably be leaving early and would only be there for one meal. By this logic it would seem more appropriate if outbound tourists stayed at a bed and breakfast the day befor e travelling to a different country. Transport-road Cars Most cars in the UK are privately owned and are used for domestic day trip travel. This allows people to travel at their own pace and take their own route than if they were to take a coach or train. In addition, many people choose to hire a car when abroad, leading to the growth in the hire-car sector. Popular hire- car groups in UK include Hertz, Avis and Europcar have all expanded overseas and now have international operations. As the car-hire sector grows, the technology along with it does too. This means that it has now become easier and more convenient for customers as you can now pre-book by telephone or on-line. You also have the option for airport pick-up and drop-off and you also don’t need to drop it off at the same place that you picked it up (one way rental). There is also a wide range of vehicles available to suit a range of people and all insurances are included within a fixed price meaning that there are no hidden costs. Domestic tourists are most likely to use their own private car for travel as they will most likely be taking day trips and don’t want to have to limit themselves to what they can do because they have to be somewhere at a certain time to get home. Moreover, if they are spending longer in one place, for example a week, then they would also want their own private car so that they can go and do what they want and aren’t restricted to certain times due to public travel. Inbound tourists would hire a car if they wanted to travel and take small day trips during their visit to certain places and didn’t want to have to change bus or train to get to where they are going and take more time out of their day travelling rather than doing the things they want to. They may have brought their own car over from their home country if they travelled by ferry, such as from France. People travelling for business purposes might hire a car as their company would pay for it and they wouldn’t have to wait  for public transport or a taxi. Outbound tourists may use their own car if they are travelling by ferry and want to use a private car rather than use coaches with other people. However they may also use a hire car when travelling to the airport as they could drop it off at the car centre and won’t have to pay for their own car to be kept in the car park whilst they are away. Coaches Coaches today are very luxurious as they now can come with comfortable toilets, refreshments and DVD facilities. They have also adapted to meet customers changing needs, for example, a fly-coach option is now available so as to reduce the initial journey time, but have the benefit of coach travel for touring. There are several coach networks all over the UK for people to travel to different towns and cities and also into Europe; National express is a good example of this. By travelling by coach customers have the opportunity to see places that wouldn’t have seen if they travelling within a private car. Domestic tourists may use this option if they are not able to drive (pensioners) or unable to afford to drive (students). A coach option can be relatively cheap and you may not want to use your car whilst you are visiting another town so by travelling by coach you would spend less than if you were to travel by train, however it will take longer to travel by coach. Inbound tourists may use a coach so that they can go on tours and see more of the country or town that you are visiting. They may also use a coach to travel to their hotel or accommodation as this will be cheaper than taking a taxi. Moreover, they would also get more information about where they are staying and the places that they see than if you were to travel in a private hire-car. Outbound tourists would use a coach when travelling to the airport or their port that they are leaving by ferry as this means that they would not have to pay for their car to stay in a car park whilst they are away. They would also not have to pay for diesel or petrol bringing down their costs of travel even more. This would appeal to more people that lived far away from their travelling destination. Transport- rail The national network rail is own and run by Network Rail whose job it is to maintain the train lines and lay new tracks when needed. There are 29 Train-operating systems (TOCs) in the UK who lease their trains from rolling-stock companies and who compete for franchises to run each passenger service. The department of transport issues the franchises and also monitors the TOCs to make sure that everything is running well and that passengers are safe; they are also able to fine the TOCs if they don’t meet the agreed standards. TOCs are commercial companies and aim to make a profit such as Virgin Trains and South West Trains. However they do still receive grants from the government. Other aspects of the rail system are the London Underground, Docklands Light Railway and the Eurostar. Eurostar operates from St Pancras International in London and Ashford in Kent to Paris, Lille and Brussels transporting passengers through the channel tunnel. Eurostar is owned by London and Continental Railways, and run by a management company. Domestic tourists use the railway service when travelling either to a place quite far away as the train is the quickest land public transportation or when travelling through densely populated areas such as London as the streets can be too busy to use the roads and there is a congestion charge when using your car within central London. Travelling by train is a good option if you want to spend a day trip somewhere and it will take a while to get to if you uses the roads. Depending on where in the country you take the train and at what time (peak times) the price will vary so it can be relatively cheap if travelling from somewhere such as North Devon to Exeter on a Saturday morning, but quite expensive if travelling from London to Liverpool at 5 o’clock on a weekday. However the time it takes to travel by train is a lot less than by road so this option does appeal to people despite the price. Inbound tourists will not usually have a car or bus pass so the next option is to travel by train. If inbound tourists are travelling around somewhere like London, they have the option of travelling to almost anywhere in central and greater London. During the day prices can be quite cheap and a day ticket to use the London Underground for an adult is  £8.80, this relatively cheap to be able to travel at any time as many times needed in one day. Outbound tourists might use the rail service when travelling to the airport as it is the quickest way to travel there by land, this would decrease the initial travel time as travelling by road takes longer. There are many trains travelling all over the country making it easy for anyone to get to anywhere they need by taking multiple train lines, this makes it  easier for people that are travelling from quite far to reach the airport or ship port. Outbound tourists from the UK may also use the Eurostar to travel from London to France as it is cheaper than flying. The Eurostar is quite luxurious as there are comfy chairs, a bar to get food and drink and comfortable toilets seats. Travel-sea The UK is an island surrounded by water so transport by sea as always been an important art of the travel and tourism industry. Ferries The English Channel used to be the main mode of transport to the continent cross the sea; however 50% of the market was taken by the channel tunnel, but passenger ferries have also had some of the market taken by low-cost airlines offering cheap fares. It is often cheaper to fly and hire a car rather than taking your own vehicle. Dover is the biggest port in the UK and in 1997 over 21 million passengers passed through it; however, by 2003 numbers had declined to just under 15 million and have not since increased. Other ferry operators within the Channel include Sea France and Brittany Ferries. Brittany Ferries operates on longer routes to France and Spain, for example Poole to Cherbourg, Plymouth to Santander and Portsmouth to Caen, St Malo or Cherbourg. Ferries also travel to the Channel Islands, for example Jersey and Guernsey. One of the main companies offering transport across the Channel is P&O, as some operators such as Hoverspeed and Speedferries have ceased operating. Not all ferry travel is across the Channel, some other are: Stranraer to Belfast Fleetwood to Larne Fishguard to Rosslare Holyhead to Dun Laoghaire Hull to Zeebrugge Hull to Rotterdam Holyhead to Dublin Pemboke to Rosslare Douglas to Liverpool Ryde to Portsmouth Domestic tourists would use ferries when travelling within their own country,  for example if you live within the UK you may take a ferry from St Mawes to Falmouth or Liverpool to London. A ferry may be used as it can be quicker than travelling by car and you have the option of taking your vehicle with you. Ferries are a good way to travel if taking a day trip if you are travelling to a small island off the coast. They can also be a way of cutting time off of your travel if you are travelling by car as you may need to get from one end of the coast to another and the mouth of a river is in the way, for example if you are travelling from Falmouth to St Mawes. Inbond tourists might use ferries as a way of travelling around the country when travelling close to water. They could also be used when giving tours, for example: if an inbound tourists visiting the UK wanted to go on a tour of london and see some of the sights, they might take a ferry as this would give a tour of all of the attractions by the river Thames; this is considered a scenic route as you wouldn’t have to worry about the congestion on the roads. Outbound touristsmight use ferries to travel to a different country; such as someone travelling from the UK to France, they would use the channel ferry to travel from the country. A ferry might also be used by outbound tourists when travelling to the airport or dock to leave the country. This would mostly be used by people who are travelling by public transport in areas surrounded by water as this would not be applicable to someone who lived in greater London travelling to heathrow airport, however this would be an option for someone who lived on an island or across a large river, for example: if you live on the isle of wight. Cruises The cruise industry is enjoying steady growth and as a result of this companies are investing in new liners. Some of the new ships include the Azura, Queen Elizabethand Seabourn Odyssey introduced in 2010. May cruise companiesyou may have heard of are P&O Cruises, Cunard, Royal Caribbean and Princess. In 2008 the number of Europeans taking cruise holiday reached an all-time high, with the UK topping the list with the greatest number of cruise passengers, reaching 1.5 million.Cruise companies are doing their best to reach new markets, such as families and younger people, rather than just the older age groups who traditionally take cruises. If there is a business failure then the Passenger Shipping Association (PSA) provides finanicial protection to their customers. River cruises are also growing in  popularity especially those on the rivers Rhine, Moselle, Danube and the Nile. Domestic tourists may use cruises when travelling around their own country and wanting to see other places along the coast. This would seem a more appealing option than travelling by coach or car as they would have activities to do on board whilst traveling to the next destination rather than being stuck in one position, they would also have somewhere to sleep on board whilst still travelling rather thyan having to stop at night and finding somewhere to stay. This would also cut time off of the trip as a whole. Inbound tourists may use a cruise when visiting another country to visit more places during their trip rather than staying in one place. This would be a good option for anyone who wants to see lots of different sights and visit different places. Cruises will also allow people to relax whilst travelling usually by a swimming pool or doing activities, this is a good option for families as sometimes the children want to just play rather than looking around a town, so it is a good way for families to have the option. Outbound tourist may use a cruise when leaving the country to travel to another country. People will travel to a dockland around the UK such as in Portsmouth, Liverpool or Dover and pick up a cruise ship to start their journey. They would visit different countries and leave those countries on the ship, most of the tourists time would be spent on the ship as all of their possessions are on the ship as well as a room and catering. However when visiting another country a day or two would be spent exploring the towns and experiencing the local culture and then returing to the ship at a certain time I order to leave and visit the next destination. Transport-Air Airports The major organisation in airport ownership in the UK is the British Airport Authority (BAA); it is owned by Airport Development and Investment (ADI) Limited. BAA owns the airports at: London Heathrow London Stansted Glasgow Edinburgh Aberdeen Southampton Naples (65% stake) Over 140 million people travel through the six BAA airports every year in the UK. They also have stakes in other airports outside the UK, plus retail management contracts at two airports in the USA. Regional airports have grown in popularitywith airports such as Leeds Bradford and East Midlands offering many short-haul flights. An airport provides products and services to various groups of people and businesses, this can be complex but profitable. Some examples of the products and services provided by an airport are: Airlines are provided with the space and services to operate their flights. Customers are provided facilites such as restaurants and shops. Other businesses are provided with a location in which they can operate, for example, car hire,retailing or groung handling. The airports work hard to keep all of its groups and customers happy whilst earning revenue. Domestic tourists may use an airport when wanting to travel to a different destination by using a range of airlines, coach, bus or train. There are a range of travel options from an airport as they all interlink to make travelling easier for tourists, this is because airports are one of the most popular destinations within a country where tourists from the same country and internationally meet making it the perfect place to have a range of travelling options available at the tourists’ disposal. Inbound tourists use an airport when entering another country; this is where they gain entry to that country by going through immergration and having their passports checked. There is also the option for partaking in some duty free shopping, having something to eat or continuing on the tourists’ travels. There is the option for joining a conecting flight, taking a train, hiring a car or using another form of transport. Outbound tourists may use an airport when traveling out of the country by airplane. Here they are checked in with their chosen airline and have the opportunity to do some duty free shopping just like if you were travelling from Heathrow airport from terminal 5. Here, the customer would have access to over 40 stores with duty free shopping along with a selection of restaurants and cafes before boarding their British Airways flight to wherever they are travelling to. Airlines All UK airlines are privately owned. British Airways (BA) is one of the most famous airlines in the world and is the largestin the UK and in terms of  international scheduled services. It flies to more than 200 worldwide , however, in 2009 its passenger numbers had fallen by 4.3% due to the recession. British Airways main bases are at the London airports Gatwick and Heathrow terminal 5. The airline’s products include four different types of cabin service ranging from Economy to Club World. Other major UK airlines include British Midland and Virgin Atlantic, these are scheduled airlines; there are also many charter airlines such as Monarch and Thompson, however, Monarch also operates a a sechuled service. Hundreds of other airlines from all over the world fly in and out of UK airports, paying for the services they use. Domestic tourists may use airlines if they want to travel within the same country but want a fast alternative to driving. Such as traveling within the UK from london to Edingburgh with Virgin Atlantic from  £90 return ticket. By travelling by plane the use of a vehicle to travel to their destination would not be needed. With the cost of petrol/deisel to travel by car, plus food and other neccessities when travelling this would cost almost the same as flying, therefore if someone wants to spend more time in edingburgh for their trip rather then travelling then this is a good option. Inbound tourists would use an airline when entering another country by plane. They would have had the option to purchase food or products on the plane when flying to their destination. They would of also received a good level of customer service when flying to the country to make sure that the customer has had the best experience possible and will hopefully fly again with that airline. Outbound tourists would use an airline when leaving a country to visit another. The first point of contact for them would be at check-in inside the airport, they would not have contact with that airline staff again until boarding where they will take their seats on the plane. A safety presentation will be given to the passengers on board the plane, they will then be offered food and products to purchase on the aircraft. The whole time they have contact with any of the staff from the airline they will be judging them on their customer service skills and their overall experience flying with that company, this will determine if the airline gets repeat customers or not, how popular they are to consumers and their market share within the airline industry. Low-cost airlines The idea behind low-cost airlines is too keep costs as low as possible, with  few or no ‘extras’ on offer to the customer without further charge, this is so the low-cost operators can offer cheap flights. The low-cost airlines are scheduled airlines, for example easyjet and Ryanair. Domestic tourists may use a low-cost airline if they are taking a short-haul flight as they wouldn’t need any extras, eliminating most or all hidden costs. Most of the time holdall baggage would not be needed cutting down the time spent at the airport. This is a good option for people travelling for business purposes as it is quicker with less hassle to claim baggage when entering arrivals at the customers destination. Inbound tourists would use a low-cost airline if they wanted to pay less for flights. By doing this more money can be spent on accommodation or used for spending on their trip. Also with less baggage in the holdall there will be less people trying to get their bags at baggage claim making it easier for inbound tourists to get their bags and leave. Outbound tourist may use a low-cost airline as they would spend less time at the airport as the airline want to keep costs down. This means that the waiting time to board the plane would be cut down resulting in the travel time being cut down. Regulation of air travel Te Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is an independent statutory body who regulates the UK aviation sector. The Air Travel Users Council (AUC) is the UK’s consumer council for air travellers; it recieves its funding from the CAA. Its job is to act as the independent representative for air passengers and aims to assist the CAA in helping the interests of passengers. National Air Traffic Services (NATS) is responsible for air traffic control. It is a public/private partnership owned by the government and looks after the UK airspace, but also the eastern part of the North Atlantic. NATS handles more than 2 million flights a yea, carrying over 220 million passengers. The major air traffic control centres are at Swanick in Hampshire and Prestwick in Ayrshire, but there are also contrl services at the country’s major airports. Domestic tourists, inbound tourists and domestic tourists would all be interested with the AUC as they look out for air passengers and make sure that the CAA are keeping an interest with their assengers no matter where they are traveling from or visiting. Attractions The UK officially has 6500 visitor attractions which are important to both the domestic tourism market and the inbound tourism market. There are hundreds of different types of attractions, however they can be divided as follows. Natural Attractions These include beaches, lakes and landscapes; in order to protect them some are designated Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs), National Parks or Heritage Coasts. Domestic tourists visit these natural attractions as day trips because it is a cheap way to have a day out. These attractions are a good way to spend time with the family as you would only need to pay for petrol/deisel and food whereas with other attractions you have to pay for entry, food, drinks and travel. It is also a way to experience nature at its best as when living in a city or town natural attractions are hard to come by. Inbound tourists may visit natural attractions as a way to experience the culture, countryside and the nature at a low cost. Outbound tourists wuld not visit a natural attraction if they were leaving the country, however they might visit one before they leave the country. Heritage Attractions In the UK there is a range of historic houses, often cared for by the National Trust or English Heritage. There are also museums and galleries such as Tate Britain and Tate Modern, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the National History Museum in London and the National Media Museum in Bradford. Domestic tourists visit heritage attractions as a way to see the history within their own country. Most museums are free and are a great learner resource for schools and people who have an interest within a certain subject matter. Inbound tourists would visit heritage attractions to learn about that countries history and culture. Most are free or charge a small fee but it is a great day out and is a popular option for most tourists. Domestic tourists would only visit a heritage attraction before they left to travel to a different country. Purpose-built Attractions Purpose-built attractions can be historic also, such as museums as most are purpose-built. Some popular purpose-built attractions include theme parks, for example the theme park Thorpe Park. Domestic tourists may visit a theme park for a day out with friends and family as a treat as some can be really expensive to visit. However, most theme parks give you special deals such as a child under a certain age/height can enter for free, for example, thorpe park offers you a bounce back pass where you visit the park one day at full price but can purchase a pass to get to in the following day at a reduced rate. They also offer you the chance to purchase a merlin pass that can get you into a range of attractions around the UK for free when you purchase the pass. Inbound may visit a theme park for a day trip with children a a special day ouut. However some people visit a country just to go to a theme park such as Disney World or Disney Land. These holidays can cost a lot but are a good source of income for the parks. Outbound tourists may visit a purpose-built attraction before they leave a country to visit another. Events Events such as the Edingburgh Festival and the Notting Hill Carnivalnattract many visitors. There are events in the business tourism sector too, such as the World Travel Market. Domestic tourists visit festivals and carnivals as they enjoy the atmosphere that surrounds the event and is a great day out. Some events are a great way to raise money to a certain cause or even to produce revenue. The Notting Hill Carnival is very famous for bringing together lots of different ethnicities to one event as celebrating how diverse London is, this attracts many tourists both Domestic and Inbound. Domestic tourists may visit an event before leaving the country. Associations The British Association of Leisure Parks, Piers and Attractions (BALPPA) was founded in 1936, it is non-profit-making whose role is to represent the interests of owners, managers, suppliers and developers in the UK’s commercialleisure parks, piers, zoosand static attractions sector. The international Association of Amusements Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) is a similar organisation to BALPPA, but it is an international association and has members all over the world. The association promotes safe operations, global development, proffesional growth and commercial success in the amusement industry. Domestic, Inbound and Outbound tourists would all be interested in the IAAPA as this effects attractions all over the world, but only tourists who visit attractions in the UK would be interested with the BALPPA. Tour Operators The role of tour operator is to put together all the different components that make up a holiday and sell them to the consumer as package deals. They make contracts with hoteliers, airlines and other transport companies to produce these package deals, these are then described in a brochure which is distributed either to travel agents or directly to customers. Mass-market tour operators Mass-market tour operators dominated the outbound market for years, these include: Thomson, First Choice and Thomas Cook. Thomson and First Choice both belong t the parent company TUI. These major tour operators were considered to be mass-market tour operators as they sold similar holidays in packages that appealed to the majority of holidaymakers. However, specialist tour opperators sold more individually tailored holidays or specialised in one destination or activity, but today, many large tour operators also offer many specialist products. TUI AG is the largest travel group in the world, which does not just include tour operators. Thomson, for example, is also a travel agency brand and an airline; First Choice has a major travel agent in its portfolio and its own branded airline. First choice offers holidays in destinations such as Majorca, Menorca, the Canaries, Spain, Turkey, Greece and the Caribbean. Winter sports destinations include France, Austria, Italy, Andorra, Bulgaria a nd Switzerland. Thomas Cook also has travel agencies, airlines and hotels as well as tour operator brands. Tour perators that offer air-inclusive packages are required by law to have Air Travel Organisers’ Licence (ATOL). This scheme protects air travellers and package holiday makers from losing money or being stranded abroad if air travel firms go out of business. When a tourist books a holiday the cost of this financial protection is included in the price. Any package firm that includes a flight should by law hold a licence. Domestic tourists may use a tour operator when visiting a part of their own country that they have never seen before. They could then have a guided tour around an area that they want to visit and know more about. Inbound tourists may use a tour operator to help with their arrival to a new country, helping them to settle into their accommodation. They would also be given a tour of the local sights giving tourists an idea of things to do during their visit. Outbound  tourists may use tour operators when travelling to their destination to leave the country as they would not have to find their own travel to the airport or docklands. Specialist tour operators Some tour operators specialise in particular destination, or a product, such as a diving holiday. Specialist tour operators respond well to the trend for tailor-made holidays with their specialist products. Some tour operators specialise in a certain destination, for example, Anatolian Sky specialises in holidays in Turkey. Inbound tour operators cater for the needs of overseas visitors to the UK, an example is British Tours Ltd, which claims to be the longest-established inbound operator. It offers tours for different group sizes and has a ide variety of products icluding a Harry Potter tour. These tours are available in many languages. Domestic tour operators specialise in holidays within the UK for Uk residents, they include coach companies which place advertisments in the local newspapers. Similar to outbound operators they offer beach, city, touring and special-interest holidays. Tour operators association UKinbound is the trade body which represents tour operators and tourism suppliers to the UK. It was founded in 1977 to represent the commercial and political interests of incoming tour operators and suppliers to British inbound tourism industry. It is a non-profit-making body governed by an elected council and funded by its members and from revenue-generating activities. The Assocciation of Independent Tour Operators (AITO) is an organisation which represents 160 of the UK’s specialist tour operators. AITO members are independent companies, most of which are owner-managed, specialising in particular destinations or types of holiday. The Federation of Tour Operators (FTO) is an organisation for outbound tour operators, its aim is to ensure the long term success of the air-inclusive holiday. Members pay annual subscribtion based on the size of their organisation. The FTO produces health and safty guidelines for tour operators. The FTO has always worked very closely with ABTA and the two organisation merged in 2008 to become ABTA- The Travel Association. Travel agents The role of a travel agent is to give advice and information to sell bookings  for a number of tour operators. They also sell flights, ferry bookings, car hire, insurance and accommodation as separate products. Travel agents may operate through: Retail shops Business shops A call centre The internet Most travel agents are part of a multiple chain and these dominate the market. Chains such as Thomson and Thomas Cook are linked to tour operators and may try to prioritise their own company’s products. ABTA- The travel assocciation has operators as members, in 3009 it had over 900 members and represented over 5000 travel agencies. There has been a reduction in the amount of agency branches in the past few years as customers choose to buy travel and tourism products through other means, particularly through travel websites. Business travel agents Business travel agents specialise in the business market, they aim to handle all travel arrangements for large companies. ‘Implants’ are travel agents located within another business, they set up office within a company so that they are on hand to deal with travel arrangements for the company’s personnel. Doomestic, inbound and outbound tourists would only use a business travel agent if their was one within the company that they worked for and they were travelling for business needs. Call centres More and more customers are booking holidays over the telephone or online rather than bu visiting a travel agent. Call centres are normaly in out-of-town areas where the rent and labour is cheaper, some companies have relocated to India to take advantage of the low costs.Some call centres are operator or airline owned and sell on behalf of that company only, others are specialist call centres and handle calls and bookings for many companies. Call centres rely on high staff productivity to be successful, they motivate staff through incentives such as bonuses on sales targets reached. Call answering time, call durations, sales and complaints ratios are carefully monitored. Domestic, Inbound and Outbound tourists would all use a call centre when booking a holiday as it can be less hassle then going  into a travel agents centre. On-line travel agents Websites are the most up-to-date means of distributing travel and tourism products and services. Domestic, Inbound aand Outbound tourists would all use on-line travel agents as, similar to call centres, it can be less hassle than going into travel agents centre. It is also easier to compare prices and deals. Tourism development and promotion The development and promotion of tourism in the UK is mostly undertaken by organisations in the public sector such as VisitBritain and VisitWales. Within the public sector in the UK, the Developmet for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is responsible for supporting the tourism industry at a national level. The Department for Transport looks after avition, railways, roads and the London Underground. The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) has responsibility for sector skills councils and training organisations. The department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is responsible for issues affecting the countryside, wildlife and waterways. The UK has four tourist boards: VisitBritain, VisitScotland, the Northern Ireland Tourist Board (NITB) and VisitWales. VisitBritain reports to the DCMS; VisitWales reports to the National Assembly for Wales and VisitScotland reports to the Scottish Executive. The NITB reports to the Northern Ireland Assembly. The overseas offices work closely with British diplomatic and cultural staff, the local travel trade and media, to stimulate interest in the UK. Another example of the role of VisitBritain is its campaign to persuade high-spending tourists to come to the UK, it is imortant that inbound tourists spend money and boost the UK economy. Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) RDA’s have responsibility for tourism in their regions and usually work closely with Regional Delivery Partners (RDPs). There are nine RDAs in England; an RDA has a regional economic and regional economic and regional tourism strategy. RDPs are responsible for delivering the strategies, sometime the partners are tourists boards with a different name to explain what they do. An example is VisitManchester, an organisation that looks  after tourism development, business tourism, leisure touriism and isitor services in Manchester. The government replaced RDAs with local economic partnerships (LEPs), this happened in March 2012 with the LEPsto cover smaller areas than the RDAs. Local Authority tourism development Local Authorities play an important part in supporting the tourism industry because tourism is a major contributor towards the economy. Most towns have have a Tourist Inormation Centre (TIC) subsidised by the local council. The TIC provies a full information service for both residents and visitors, it gives information on visitor attractions and on accommodations. It usually provides a booking service for accommodation and often incorporates a shop selling localy made crafts and gifts, as well as books of local interest. The shop is a way of generating funds for the local community. Trade associations and regulatory bodies The Association of Independent Tour Operations (AITO), and other trade associations and regulatory bodies have a role to play in development and promotion. They represent the interests of their members and help them operate successfully in business. Ancillary services This term refers to organisations that do not have a direct role in travel and tourism, but play a supporting role. Examples include insurance companies that offer travel insurance and car parks operators that provide parking facilities at airports as well as in other locations.

Orgnizational behiviour and Human Resources Dissertation

Orgnizational behiviour and Human Resources - Dissertation Example This area is of particular interest to me, as the traditional theory of viewing firms as mere machines and employees as part of the machinery, does not hold water anymore. Instead, the new theories now place more stress on the underlying interrelationships between employees, and between the employer and employees, in order to achieve greater market success. These new theories bring in the sociological perspective that adds another interesting dimension to the concept of work and organisational behaviour and human resources. Study of human nature, character, behavioural attitudes, within the realms of the workplace, form an interesting study, where one gets to examine the various facets and complexities of the human mind and thought, and the social influences on the human mind, while finally connecting these aspects to the market achievement of a business firm. Contents Abstract 6 1 Introduction 7 1.1 Problem statement 9 1.2 Aims and objectives 10 1.3 Significance of the study 10 Bibl iography 11 Abstract A majority of the workplaces reflect certain major characteristics that as sum total, tend to constitute incompatible or inconsistent organizational behaviour, which is evident when observed through an aggressive and realistic theory of market ef?ciency as seen in the various theories of economics. Many US and UK workplaces (and elsewhere in the world) reflect, a largely prevalent, work related dissatisfaction, a sense of scepticism, and detachment. Many researches into this line give evidences that suggest that these problems are increasing with negative implications for the organisation as a whole, which includes both employers and employees. These researches also show that the manners in which the organisation manages its people and the latters’ level of job satisfaction and attitude towards work can signi?cantly foresee various aspects pertaining to organizational achievement, thus clearly establishing a link between a firm’s human resources an d its overall effectiveness in the competitive market. My research paper proposes to closely examine the factor of organisational behaviour and its association with managements of human resources, while studying the close relationship between the two factors

Power and Knowledge In Edward Said's Orientalism Essay

Power and Knowledge In Edward Said's Orientalism - Essay Example Basically, E. Said proposed to view the western policy towards the East as colonial, imperial discourse created by means of manipulating knowledge - that is why the problem of interrelation between knowledge and power in Said's work is very important. All in all, Edward Said's views may be called unique because he is not only interested in politics from a scientific viewpoint - he, in fact, makes politics use the results of research, that is - scientific knowledge. He clearly shows that he is far from both politicization of thinking and ensuring the "neutrality" of scientists. His intellectual is politicized, yet it happens not because he makes science a servant of politics, but - and this is important for the understanding of the scholar's system of beliefs - because politics for Said is the ally of science as far as the freedom of thinking and autonomy of scientific activity are concerned. The core of E. Said's approach is to de-crown the myth of Orientalism being a homogenous theory based on clearly defined concepts. According to him, Orientalism "is a style of thought based upon ontological and epistemological distinction made between 'the Orient' and (most of the time) 'the Occident'. Thus a very large mass of writers, among who are poet, novelists, philosophers, political theorists, economists, and imperial administrators, have accepted the basic distinction between East and West as the starting point for elaborate accounts concerning the Orient, its people, customs, 'mind', destiny, and so on". Said interprets events rather than openly states his opinion, and this certainly correlates with "the death of the author" theory proclaimed by post-modernism. The minimised role of author ensures the collision and interrelation between different, often polar opinions, in E. Said's Orientalism; and it is a great step towards "polylogic" knowledge as opposed to monologic. For Said, monologic knowledge is associated, above all, with the West, but at the same time with the Eastern counter-attack against this monologism using the same monologic principles. That is why, the western expansion towards the East, which is obviously the embodiment of power and domination, is inseparable from knowledge. Said proves that metaphysically, comprehension (the process of intellectual capturing) is related to occupation, and personal enrichment in the form of becoming more open-minded and widening of one's scope - to imperialistic ambitions of the West. My contention is that Orientalism is fundamentally a political doctrine willed over the Orient because the Orient was weaker than the West, which elided the Orient's difference with its weakness. . . . As a cultural apparatus Orientalism is all aggression, activity, judgment, will-to-truth, and knowledge (Said 1995, p. 204) It is not a coincidence that we mentioned Said's idea about the interrelations between science and politics. In his Orientalism, science, and at the first place the science that serves political needs of the country, is associated with the West, same as power. He therefore attempts to discover a complicated system of ties existing between science (knowledge) and power, and to show to what extent power may need knowledge, and at the same time to what extent knowledge may be a form of power. This

Impacts of MIS on Aramex Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Impacts of MIS on Aramex - Assignment Example As the discussion stresses  the managers will have to train and educate the employees on the various impacts MIS has on the entire organization’s operations, especially if they are to achieve competitive advantage. For Aramex, the way they implement their MIS will determine whether IT will drive their business or whether it will become a function to be absorbed by business lines as their managers become more versed with the systems. For this reason, this paper will seek to determine the impact of MIS on Aramex’s decision-making, organizational structure, data security, as well as the impact that future trends are likely to have on Aramex’s strategy.  This paper highlights that  Aramex has an abundance of data at their disposal that they can draw on when making decisions. Aramex can use many tools in the analysis of data to improve on their decision-making. According to Mr. Iyad Kamal, Aramex COO, they use the Performance Planning Value Chain to enhance thei r decision making. Through this, they are able to bring a vast collection of analytical tools to focus efforts and extract data value in adding value to the organization.  MIS aids in the process of value extraction from data, such as the development of a hypothesis, data gathering, data analysis, data interpretation, communication of insights, and making decisions that are informed to take action.  At Aramex, their MIS framework compares to the Plan Do Check Act cycle, which is an almost modern quality control.

Business Law #1 Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Business Law #1 - Case Study Example The California Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals dismissed the charges against the respondents on the authority of People v Krivade that was decided by the California Supreme Court. In the said case, the California Supreme Court held that warrantless trash searches violate the Fourth Amendment and the California Constitution. The State law of California provides that Californians have the right to privacy in their garbage and cannot be inspected without warrant. The U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari and reversed the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals. It concluded in accordance with the vast majority of lower courts that have addressed the issue that the Fourth Amendment does not prohibit warrantless search and seizure of garbage left for collection outside the curtilage of a home. The U.S. Supreme Court based its decision on a number of similar cases that were already decided. It said that the warrantless seizure of garbage bags left at the curb outside the Greenwood house would violate the Fourth Amendment only if respondents manifested a subjective expectation of privacy in their garbage that society accepts as objectively reasonable. What a person knowingly exposes to the public, even in his own home or office, is not a subject of Fourth Amendment provisions. The U.S.

Procurement route Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Procurement route - Essay Example The clients specify the budgetary constraints to the consultant who are then supposed to determine the targets and requirements from the business case prepared by the client. As the requirements and specification are prepared by different entities, certain amount of time is spent in the transformation and is hence slow in comparison to other approaches. This approach has also not been found to be suitable for complex construction projects due to a lack of prolonged involvement of the client in the design and build, due to which there is a gap between desired outcomes and the actual implementation. There is a greater degree of sub-contracting of certain aspects of the construction to specialized sub contractors due to which work progresses on numerous fronts simultaneously, which is why it is suitable for fast-track and complex projects. An additional management contractor is employed to maintain correspondence with all elements connected with the project involved in the project. This way, the management contractor has full freedom to choose specialized companies to handle specific works of the project qualitatively and at a brisk pace. This approach also provides less cost certainty as both design and construction commence at the same time, which means adjustments and modifications to cost, budget and raw materials always take place. The preceding paragraphs have described the various procurement routes that have evolved as part of the process of procurement. However, not all are suitable in the current context of the issue surrounding the Conlon’s Chemicals site. As such, it is deemed appropriate to evaluate each procurement approach with the given problem and arrive at the most suitable procurement route. The client in this case has only specified the budget and has made it clear that the cost of the two projects have to stay within the specified budget. When considering the traditional

Project Management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Project Management - Assignment Example The parties involved hereto acting with appropriate authority by their related firms. [Client name]  [agency information  Company name Company name Full name Full name Title Title Signature Signature Date Date Assignment 2 An Invitation for Bid (IFB) is a request made when submitting a bid to provide certain services or goods in order to fulfill a bid that a firm has identified. RFP is converted to an IFB when there is a considering the lowest price in making an award. Moreover, it is usually done when the services and goods are fairly simple and also when the need is standard. In converting RFP to IFB requirements would need to be adjusted then the government and the contractors will submit their offers again. Moreover, the other evaluation factors that were in the RFP would be removed. Assignment 3 contracts and procurement (supply bid for popcorns) Submitted by: Milano Suppliers Ltd. Street City, State, Zip Type of Business: good suppliers Title of Proposal: bid to supply popc orn kernels Proposed Amount: 30cts per pound of kernel Period of Performance: over 5 years Business Point of Contact: Name Telephone No. e-mail address Our clients include: Name Telephone No. e-mail address Name Telephone No. e-mail address Name Telephone No. ... with—the submission of this data, Puffy Pop shall have the right to duplicate, use, or disclose the data to the extent provided in the resulting contract. This restriction does not limit Puffy Pop's right to use information contained in this data if it is obtained from another source without restriction. Assignment 4 contracts and procurement A fixed price contract will be effective for the order of a pencil manufacturer to produce 20 000 pencils. This is because the product can be explicitly defined as there is enough data to accurately calculate approximately the cost. Moreover, the requirement for the order is well defined and the contractors have vast experience in ensuring the order is met. Therefore, the financial risks are insignificant. Cost plus contracts will be effective in the other three contracts. In the construction of a 300-meter bridge a cost plus contract is suitable due the risks attached to it. The contract is characterized by uncertain labor hours and spec ulative material required in the construction of the bridge. The design of a circuit board and the small factory are both long-term projects, which is likely to put the contractor in unforeseeable exposure to market uncertainties. This protects the Government and contractor in the case of labor or material fluctuations in price. Therefore, a fixed price convention is inappropriate Advantages CPAF contacts are widely used as it results in better communication and enhances motivation to achieve a better contract performance. Evaluation and motivation flexibility is advantageous in instances that require cost-reimbursement contracts. Moreover, it encourages efficient communication between the parties. Hence, the approach is an effective management tool. The disadvantage with this mode of contract

Negative Impact of Social Websites Essay Example for Free

Negative Impact of Social Websites Essay Social networking has greatly impacted society, especially when it comes down to common sites such as Facebook, My space, or even Twitter. It has been noticed to have both a negative and positive effect on society. Although social networks can have good and positive effect on people but unfortunately it has plenty of negative effects on students. Through reports its evaluated that social networking sites has formed a new kind of addiction which we call the social media addiction and it is quite true in using Facebook,twitter,hi5 etc. Are you addicted to Facebook? Twitter? hi5? (etc. Some students would say yes and some would say no. It depends on the level of cravings. But it was found that a lot of students are by now addicted to it, to the extent that their school performance is affected. Children who spend much of their time online find it harder to focus in class and have short attention span, Researchers have found it out through the samples that 7 out of 10 teachers said that their students are becoming addicted with social websites such as Facebook or twitter. Their students tend to study while using Facebook or twitter and it shows that they got 20% lower grades. Social sites using students even perform study related task without completion for the reason that they spend more time looking on their updates about their friends and look up for their notifications rather than finishing their school tasks. Aside that Facebook affects student’s academic performance; it also has an effect on student’s emotional health. Students feel connected to others but study shows that they manifest depression through seeing their status updates. Some would utilize the site to express what they feel towards their rival in school or even outside the campus. They would blurt out through posting status that would target their opponent just to hurt their feelings. 1. Teenagers who use Facebook more often show more narcissistic tendencies while young adults who have a strong Facebook presence show more signs of other psychological disorders, including antisocial behaviors, mania and aggressive tendencies. 2. Daily overuse of media and technology has a negative effect on the health of all children, preteens and teenagers by making them more prone to depression, and other psychological disorders, as well as by making them more susceptible to future health problems. . Students mostly use slang words or shortened forms of words on social networking sites. They start relying on the computer grammar and spelling check features. This reduces their command over the language and their creative writing skills. 4. The student’s motivational level reduces due to the use of these social networking sites. They rely on the virtual environment inste ad of gaining practical knowledge from the real world. 5. The more time the students spend on these social media sites, the less time they will spend socializing in person with others. This reduces their communication skills. They will not be able to communicate and socialize effectively in person with others. The employers are getting more and more unsatisfied with the communication skills of the fresh graduates due to this reason. The effective communication skills are a key to success in the real world. 6. Facebook and other sites can be very distracting for students and can impact negatively on their learning, reports have proved that the students who check their Facebook or social account at least once is a study time of 15 minutes has scored lower grades in their studies. For sure there can be many other reasons for a student’s inattention in studies. But somehow social networks like Facebook, Orkut, and Twitter etc. have a negative impact on the education of some students. Facebook could make students vain for better or for worse and it is the parent’s and teacher’s duty to watch and guide their children to get the utmost good benefits from Social networking website. GOOD MIND ALWAYS GOOD FIND

Isaac Asimov Essay Example for Free

Isaac Asimov Essay Isaac Asimov, the pre-eminent popular-science writer of the day and for more than 40 years one of the best and best-known writers of science fiction, died yesterday at New York University Hospital. He was 72 years old and lived in Manhattan. He died of heart and kidney failure, said his brother, Stanley. Mr. Asimov was amazingly prolific, writing nearly 500 books on a wide range of subjects, from works for preschoolers to college textbooks. He was perhaps best known for his science fiction and was a pioneer in elevating the genre from pulp-magazine adventure to a more intellectual level that dealt with sociology, history, mathematics and science. But he also wrote mysteries, as well as critically acclaimed books about the Bible, physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, limericks, humor, Shakespeare, Gilbert and Sullivan, ancient and modern history, and many other subjects. Mr. Asimovs first book, Pebble in the Sky (Ballantine), a science-fiction novel, was published in 1950. His first 100 books took him 237 months, or almost 20 years, until October 1969, to write. His second 100, a milestone he reached in March 1979, took 113 months, or about 9 1/2 years a rate of more than 10 books a year. His third 100 took only 69 months, until December 1984, or less than 6 years. Writing is more fun than ever, he said in a 1984 interview. The longer I write, the easier it gets. He once explained how he came to write Asimovs Guide to Shakespeare (Crown). It began, he said, with a book called Words of Science. Science led to Words on the Map, he remarked, which took me to The Greeks, which led me to The Roman Republic, The Roman Empire, The Egyptians, The Near East, The Dark Ages, The Shaping of England and then Words From History. It was an easy jump to Words in Genesis, which brought on Words From the Exodus. That led me to Asimovs Guide to the Old Testament, and then The New Testament. So what was left except Shakespeare? His usual routine was to awake at 6 A.M., sit down at the typewriter by 7:30 and work until 10 P.M. In In Memory Yet Green, the first volume of his autobiography, published in 1979, he explained how he became a compulsive writer. His Russian-born father owned a succession of candy stores in Brooklyn that were open from 6 A.M. to 1 A.M. seven days a week. Young Isaac got up at 6 oclock every morning to deliver papers and rushed home from school to help out in the store every afternoon. If he was even a few minutes late, his father yelled at him for being a folyack, Yiddish for sluggard. Even more than 50 years later, he wrote: It is a point of pride with me that though I have an alarm clock, I never set it, but get up at 6 A.M. anyway. I am still showing my father Im not a folyack. He Learns to Read, Then Teaches Sister Isaac Asimov was born Jan. 2, 1920, in the Soviet Union, near Smolensk, the son of Judah and Anna Rachel Berman Asimov. He was brought to the United States in 1923 and was naturalized in 1928. He taught himself to read before he was 5 years old, using the signs on his Brooklyn street. A couple of years later, with a little help from his father, he taught himself to read Yiddish. When he was 7, he taught his younger sister to read. He skipped several grades and received a high-school diploma when he was 15. After discovering science fiction on the magazine rack in his fathers store and overcoming his fathers objections to fanciful subject matter he tried writing science fiction himself and sold his first story when he was 18. The story, Marooned Off Vesta, ran in the October 1938 issue of Amazing Stories. Three years later, in 1941, he sold a story called Nightfall to Astounding Science Fiction, then the top magazine in the field. It was edited by John W. Campbell Jr., whose ability to find talented writers was largely responsible for what is considered the Golden Age of science fiction in the 1930s and 40s. Almost 30 years after Nightfall was published, the Science Fiction Writers of America voted it the best science-fiction short story ever written. Astounding Science paid a cent a word, Mr. Asimov once recalled. So for a 12,000-word story I expected $120. I got a check for $150 and thought Mr. Campbell had made a mistake. But when Mr. Asimov called to tell him, he said the story had seemed so good to him he gave me a bonus of one-quarter cent a word. Mr. Asimov graduated from Columbia University in 1939 with a bachelor of science degree, and earned an M.A. in 1941 and a Ph.D. in chemistry there in 1948. The next year, he accepted an offer from Boston Universitys School of Medicine to teach biochemistry. I didnt feel impelled to tell them that Id never had any biochemistry, he recalled in a 1969 interview. By 1951 I was writing a textbook on biochemistry, and I finally realized the only thing I really wanted to be was a writer. He was made an associate professor of biochemistry in 1955 and a professor in 1979, although he stopped teaching in 1958 and only occasionally went back to the university to lecture. A Science Fiction Of Verve and Clarity Mr. Asimovs science-fiction novels and stories won many awards: five Hugos, given by the fans, and three Nebula Awards, given by his fellow writers. His Foundation Trilogy (all published by Doubleday) which takes place in a future galactic empire and consists of Foundation (1951), Foundation and Empire (1952) and Second Foundation (1953) was given a Hugo in 1966 as Best All-Time Science-Fiction Series. Among his nonfiction works, Asimovs New Guide to Science is considered one of the best books about science for the layman. Reviewing Foundations Edge (Doubleday), a sequel to the trilogy and the first of Mr. Asimovs books to make the New York Times best-seller list, the critic Gerald Jonas said in The New York Times Book Review in 1982: He writes much better than he did 33 years ago yet he has lost none of the verve he brought to this series when he and the galaxy were much younger. What more could one ask? Foundations Edge won a Hugo in 1983 as the best science-fiction novel of the year. In recent years, Mr. Asimov wrote Foundation and Earth (1986) and Prelude to Foundation (1988). A final novel, Forward the Foundation, is to be published by Bantam Books later this year. Mr. Asimov himself made no great claims for his work. I make no effort to write poetically or in a high literary style, he said in 1984. I try only to write clearly and I have the very good fortune to think clearly so that the writing comes out as I think, in satisfactory shape. I never read Hemingway or Fitzgerald or Joyce or Kafka, he once wrote. To this day I am a stranger to 20th-century fiction and poetry, and I have no doubt that it shows in my writing. No Typist or Agent, And No Airplanes He wrote his first drafts on his typewriter, and short articles and final drafts on a word processor, and he rewrote everything only once. Its not out of conceit, he said. But I have lots of stuff Im committed to write and if I linger lovingly I wont be able to write at all. Not everything, however, fell into place easily. He once did a childrens book in a day, but the Shakespeare book took two years. The book he considered his favorite, Murder at the A.B.A. (1976), a mystery novel in which he himself was a character, took seven weeks; The Gods Themselves (1972), a science-fiction novel that won both the Hugo and the Nebula awards, took seven months. I do all my own typing, my own research, answer my own mail, Mr. Asimov once said. I dont even have a literary agent. This way there are no arguments, no instructions, no misunderstandings. I work every day. Sunday is my best day: no mail, no telephones. Writing is my only interest. Even speaking is an interruption. Although he wrote about space travel through countless universes and light years, Mr. Asimov himself refused to fly. Isaac says that he loves to fly into space and span the galaxies, the editor Ben Bova once remarked. But only in his imagination. Among Mr. Asimovs other well-known science-fiction works were I, Robot (1950), in which he invented his famous Three Laws of Robotics, which govern the relation of robots to their human masters: robots may not injure a human or, by inaction, allow a human to be harmed; robots must obey humans orders unless doing so conflicts with the first law; robots must protect their own existence unless doing so conflicts with the first two l aws. Robot and galactic-empire themes eventually expanded and intertwined in 14 novels. Secret of Success: Its All in the Genes He also wrote many nonfiction works and magazine articles on a wide range of subjects and was the editorial director of a magazine named after him Isaac Asimovs Science Fiction Magazine for which he wrote the editorials in each issue. He received the James T. Grady Award of the American Chemical Society in 1965 and the American Association for the Advancement of Science-Westinghouse Science Writing Award in 1967. Recently Mr. Asimov said he had had a prostate operation and was cutting back on his writing. He suspended his monthly column in Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine, to which he had contributed some 400 columns and articles over 33 years. Writing 10 or more books a year was standard procedure for Mr. Asimov, and he continued his busy pace after a heart attack in 1977 and triple bypass surgery in 1983. I have been fortunate to be born with a restless and efficient brain, with a capacity for clear thought and an ability to put that thought into words, he once remarked. None of this is to my credit. I am the beneficiary of a lucky break in the genetic sweepstakes. Mr. Asimov once told an interviewer about sadly contemplating death and the end of conscious thought. But, he said, he cheered himself with the thought that I dont have to worry about that, because there isnt an idea Ive ever had that I havent put down on paper.

Forensic Analysis of Personal Data Leakage on Android Phone

Forensic Analysis of Personal Data Leakage on Android Phone Sheriff Drammeh  Ã‚   RESEARCH STATEMENT The proposed research will explore personal data leakage on the android mobile application platform through forensic analysis of volatile and non-volatile memory. PROPOSAL SUMMARY The proposed research will employ both volatile memory forensic techniques and traditional disk forensic techniques to the android platform in order to identify privacy breaches primarily in android mobile applications [1]. The proposed research also aims to demonstrate that forensic artifacts can be found both in the disk drive (non-volatile) and memory (volatile). AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH 1. Acquire non-volatile data from an android device using the traditional forensic approach and the memory dump, analyse the acquired data for any forensic artifacts and make a comparative analysis of both approaches. This will be achieve by conducting an experimental simulation of both approaches. 2. Develop an effective methodology to improve the detection of personal data leakages and sensitive information from android mobile applications. RESOURCES The major part of this proposed research will be conducting an experiment, hence few equipments are essential to be in place in order to carry out the experiment. The proposed research is mainly memory dumping and disk drive imaging for forensic analysis. Some open source tools will be highly utilize during the course of this proposed research, such as android studio SDK, Odin, ADB and mem. Additionally, books on android forensics, mobile forensics, journals and YouTube video tutorials will also be utilize. As the research progresses more resources might be needed. The following is a non-exhaustive list of resources currently available for use: à ¢-  Window 10 OS with processor Intel (R) Core(TM)i7, install memory of 16.0GB is the host operating system and forensic workstation for disk image analysis à ¢-  Linux Ubuntu 15.10 x32 with kernel v2.6 is our forensic workstation for memory analysis à ¢-  VMware Virtual Machine v11.1.2: Will be used to install guest operating system à ¢-  Physical android phone Samsung galaxy S3: Is the subject of the experiment à ¢-  Android SDK developer tool for Linux x32: Is a software development tool used for application development and analysis. à ¢-  mem is an open source tool for dumping running process on android phone à ¢-  Odin3.-v3.10 is open source tool that enable us to rooted android phone à ¢-  Samsung usb drive for mobile phone used to enable debugging bridge between android phone and forensic workstation à ¢-  CF-Auto-Root-2dcan-2dvl-sghi747m is used to update firmware during rooting process. à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ · AccessData Forensic tool kit version 3.4.2 ( Download FTK Imager 3.4.2) is forensic software tool used to analysis disk image file 3 | P a g e CONNECTION TO THE COURSES OF MISSM PROGRAM This proposed research is closely related to Digital forensic course (ISSM536), which is one of the course we had covered in our Information Systems and Security Management program. The proposed research used the techniques learned from this class and applied them in the android environment to reveal several types of personal information such as username, password, date of birth, postal addresses contact, photos, account number, messages etc. The comparative analysis method used covers the principles of digital evidence collection learned in Information Technology Security Laws and Ethics course (ISSM561). The proposed research has a beginning and ending, as a result it need to be managed in order to deliver the end result. Therefore, the knowledge learned from (ISSM545) System Development and Project Management. REVIEW OF RELATED RESEARCHS Fuchs, et al., [2] presented the first analysis tool for android called SCanDroid, a framework for Android to perform information flow analysis on applications in order to understand the flow of information from one component to another component. Consider a case where an application request permission to access multiple data stores i.e., public data store and private data store. The application requires permission for reading the data from the private store and writing data to the public store. SCanDriod analyzes the information flow of the application and reports whether the application will transfer the information in the private store to the public store or not. However, SCanDroid also suffers from the same limitation of security policy expressibility. In order to consider some information flow to be dangerous, the policy writers must define certain constraints prior to executing the policy. Similarly, if an information flow is not explicitly added to the set of constraints the f ramework will consider it to be safe. In 2012, C. Gibler, et al., presented AndroidLeaks, a static analysis framework for automatically finding potential leaks of sensitive information in Android applications on a massive scale[4]. It informed the user if applications are leaking their personal information. AndroidLeaks drastically reduces the number of applications and the number of traces that a security auditor has to verify manually. To secure privacy information, they set up a mappings between Android API methods and the required permissions as the sources and sinks of private data for data flow analysis. However, AndroidLeaks does not yet analyze Android-specific control and data flows. This includes Intents, which are used for communication between Android and application components, and content providers, which provide access to database-like structures managed by other components. Sasa Mrdovic et al., [3] proposed a combination of static and live analysis for memory image, which is obtained by hibernation mode (power management feature that exists in most portable computers). After they obtained the physical memory image, they used it to boot the investigated system in the virtual machine (live view) to resume the system to the same state before it went into hibernation mode. Their proposal of using hibernating feature was to obtain the memory contents without violating the evidence integrity, but during their analysis they found out that they lost all the information about network connections because hibernation mode terminates the network connections before it starts in Windows environment. As one of best well-known analysis approaches, Taint Droid detects privacy leaks using dynamic taint tracking [5]. Enck et al. built a modified Android operating system to add taint tracking information to data from privacy-sensitive sources. They track private data as it propagates through applications during execution. If private data is leaked from the phone, the taint tracker records the event in a log which can be audited by the user. In 2015,Young ho Kim et al., proposed a methodology and an architecture for measuring user awareness of sensitive data leakage, which features runtime application analysis over timing distance between the user input event and actual privacy data leak[6]. 4 | P a g e Nai-Wei Lo, Kuo-Hui Yeh, and Chuan-Yen Fan present a user privacy analysis framework called LRPdroid[7]. LRPdroid has been proposed for an Android platform to offer a user privacy management model. In the LRPdroid framework, they defined required models to achieve user privacy management: App execution data flow, user perception, leakage awareness, information leakage detection, privacy disclosure evaluation, and privacy risk assessment. To support the proposed privacy analysis model, two information capture modules for LRPdroid were designed to acquire incoming data inputted by a mobile user and outgoing data transmitted from a targeted App. A system prototype based on the LRPdroid framework was developed to evaluate the feasibility and practicability of LRPdroid. Two general App usage scenarios were adopted during the usage of Line App to evaluate the effectiveness of LRPdroid on user privacy disclosure by social engineering attack, user information leakage from normal operations o f a running App, and privacy risk assessment of targeted running App. In 2015[10], Pasquale Stirparo, Igor Nai Fovino, and Ioannis Kounelis developed a novel methodology called MobiLeak, for analysis of security and privacy level of mobile applications, which focuses more on user data instead of application code and its architecture. Their research work addressed and solved the problems related to the following three research questions for mobile environment and applications: (1)what are data and where can such data exist? (2) How is personal data handled? (3)How can one properly assess the security and privacy of mobile applications? They start their research work with a fundamental prerequisite in order to be able to properly treat them, which is studying and identifying every possibility state at which data can exist. After this step, they analyzed how real life mobile applications and operating systems handle users personal data for each of the states previously identified. Based on these steps they developed MobiLeak, which also combined concepts and principles from the digital forensics discipline. DESCRIPTION OF PROPOSED RESEARCH THE FOCUS OF THE RESEARCH The aim of this proposed research is to examine user data storage mechanism on a mobile application in a context of android platform. Analyzing mobile application for personal data leakage require extensive analysis and in-depth understanding of both the OS and application architecture. The analysis is expected to be conduct to data at rest and data in motion. The result of this proposed research will help to create awareness to both application developers and the android community that users personal data information such as username, password and other sensitive information are at risk both in volatile and non-volatile memory. Finding user sensitive data on android smart phone could be in three (3) locations: disk drive, memory and app server. Our research is limited to two out of the three application data store which is disk drive and memory, both storage areas could prove strategic locations for finding vital information for android smart phone users. The motive of this research is to examine whether applications encrypt user sensitive information both in the memory and the disk drive. This pose the following questions: 1. Does user credentials are encrypted on a memory ? 2. Among the two method which one is more forensically sound? 3. What information could be found in disk drive and not in memory? During the experimental phase of the proposed research certain applications will be examining, such as VOIP applications, social media applications, financial applications and telecom applications. I chose this samples of android application from various categories. Because these applications are fairly popular and are used by millions of people around the globe. For each application I will look at how user sensitive data, such as user name, password, date of birth and account number are store both in the disk drive and the memory. 5 | P a g e The rest of the proposed research section is divided into 4 parts: First I am going talk about my methodology, next I will present the series of preliminary result both in the memory analysis and disk analysis, third I give the highlight of the expected result and finally, I will discuss about certain obstacles that may arise. METHODOLOGY The method used in carrying out the experiment of the proposed research consist of four phases. Phase One: Gather the require tool both in term of hardware and software As the proposed research required memory dump and disk drive imaging analysis a physical android phone is needed to conduct our experiment. 1. Window Host OS and Ubuntu Guest OS as our forensic workstation 2. Android phone Samsung Galaxy S3 3. Installing Odin3.-v3 which will allow us to root our android phone 4. Install android SDK tool for using ADB(Android Debug Bridge) to get shell access on our android Phone 5. Mem application software loaded into our android phone through ADB which allow us to dump the running process from the Phone Phase Two: Installation and configuration of experimental environment At this phase all the required tools, such as the hardware and software are installed and configured. Pre-experiment of memory dump and disk imaging is performed, and tools are verified. Phase Three: Acquisition of disk image and memory dump At this phase the disk image drive is acquired using dd command tool from the internal memory to internal SDcard of the phone and ADB pull is utilize to pull/copy the disk partitions to our forensic work station. Mem program software is utilize, this allow us to dump the running process. We used ADB to install mem application into our phone in order to dump the desired running application process. Phase Four: Preservation and analysis of acquired data The purpose of this phase is to examine acquired application data both in the memory and disk drive. For example, we will check if the application is encrypting users credential both data at rest and data in transit? MEMORY DUMPING ANALYSIS This section provide detail steps taken to analysis the dumped memory of certain applications selected for this proposed research. The result shows that users credential are not properly handle by the application, which can result in personal data leakage. A program called mem was used to facilities the process dump, ABD was also used to install mem program into our android phone. List the running process and dump them into the internal SDcard and finally pull it to our forensic workstation for further analysis. Strings and sqlite3 command were utilized to look for ASCII text format from the dumped memory to understand the output result. Interestingly, the result showed that users credential are not encrypted at all. The applications analyse in this proposed research are as follows: A) Africallshop App Africallshop is a VOIP application which allows customers to buy credit online to make national and international calls and send text message worldwide to friends and family at a cheap rate. The application is 6 | P a g e rated about 4.4 in the android play store and was downloaded by five thousand (5000) customers during the time of this proposed research. The prominent outcome of this application are as follow: The username, password, caller id and user account balance are not encrypted. We ran the sqlite3 and string command on the dumped memory, which produce the result below: sip.africallshop.com XXXXXXX 0017802986780 CANADA 12590 xxxxxxxxx yes CAD proxy.africallshop.com:443 574b690276bc5 [emailprotected] 0,434 B) EHarmony App EHarmony is an online dating site for singles. Those using this app can communicate freely, share picture, video and text. During the time of this proposed research the application was downloaded by five million people and rated 3.1 in the app store. The prominent outcome of this application analysis are as follow: The user credential, such as username, password and device information are all in plaintext. The result below: POST /singles/servlet/login/mobile HTTP/1.1 j_username=sdramme1%40student.concordia.ab.caj_password=123qazplatform=androidj0r1D7fg4ArJ2uSVPgSti5zcEnltO919mHUV88E%2FKUWcan9NEMgT820MygiKsWf0Sg1147vdZbXIo tLS HTTP/1.1 User-Agent: eHarmony-Android/3.1 (SGH-I747M; Android OS 4.4.2; en_CA; id f9d8a2acfec7b901) X-eharmony-device-id: f9d8a2acfec7b901 X-eharmony-device-os: Android X-eharmony-device-os-version: 19 X-eharmony-device-type: 1 X-eharmony-client: eHarmony X-eharmony-client-version: 3.1 Accept: application/json lBxp c_te j_username=sdramme1%40student.concordia.ab.caj_password=123qazplatform=android 8KTB stevedocwra on 7 | P a g e C) Virgin Mobile My account App Virgin mobile is GSM mobile application that allow user to manage their account features and usage. Users can make payment and add a buddy to their list. This application was downloaded by five hundred thousand (500,000) people during the time of this proposed research and was rated 3.4 in the app store. The prominent outcome of this application are as follow: Sim sequence number, cell phone number, UMTS number, activation date, user data of birth, subscribe date, user e-mail address, initial password, pin unlock code and account number. all this information are not encrypted. [emailprotected]:~/android-sdk-linux/platform-tools$ strings virginmobile | grep [emailprotected] We run the ps and string command on the dumped memory, which produced the result below: imeioriginal:null,simsequenceNumber:174392323,esnequipmentType:null,imeiequipmentType:{value:LTEDevice,code:T},simequipmentType:{value:USimVal,code:U}},telephoneNumber:7802356780,networkType:{value:UMTS,code:85},language:{value:EN,code:E},isBillSixty:false,isTab:false,commitmentStartDate:null,commitmentEndDate:null,commitmentTerm:0,contractType:{value:OFF_COMMITMENT,code:O},paccPinStatus:{value:NOT_ENROLLED,code:78},padPinStatus:{value:NOT_ENROLLED,code:78},initialActivationDate:1463112000000,accountCommPref:{value:BILL_INSERTS,code:66},isAccountSMSPerm:true,birthDate:512197200000,lastUpdateDate:1464062400000,lastUpdateStamp:9863,lastHardwareUpgradeDate:null,daysSinceLastHWUpgrade:null,subscriberEstablishDate:1463112000000,daysSinceActivation:16,nextTopupDate:1465704000000,cancelledSubStatusDate:1463371200000,initialPassword:5069,isCallDisplayAllowed:false,pricePlan:VHV226,portInidicator:null,primeMateInidicator:{value:UNKNOWN,code:R},primeSubNumber:null,subMarket:{value:UAC,code:UAC },telcoId:MOBL,pinUnlockKey:[36761817,63094923],manitobaIndicator:O,thunderBayIndicator:O,portabilityIndicator:O,serviceArea:N,hasOrderInProgress:false,isWCoCSubscriber:true,hasDomesticDataServices:false,hasRoamingDataServices:false,domesticDSBlockedUntil:null,roamingDSBlockedUntil:null,isAccessible:false,promotionGroupCode:null,emailAddress:[emailprotected],wcoCDate:1463112000000}]},emailAddress:[emailprotected],arbalance:{name:{http://bside.int.bell.ca/customer/profile/types}ARBalance,declaredType:java.lang.Double,scope:ca.bell._int.bside.customer.profile.types.MobilityAccountType,value:0,nil:false,globalScope:false,typeSubstituted:false},ebillInfo:{isEBillEnrolled:true,isEBillNotifyEnabled:true,ebillStartDate:1463112000000,ebillEndDate:null},siowner:{value:BELL_MOBILITY,code:MOBL},arpuamount:19.13}]},wirelineAccounts:null,internetAccounts:null,tvaccounts:null},activeHouseholdOrders:null,emailAddress:[emailprotected]},username:7802986780,guid:SCP9O0ELLDDUN2J,profileType:BUP,savedT imeStamp:2016-05-29T01:30:38.458-04:00,profilebanNumbers:[{accountType:Legacy,ban:527566075,profileSaveTime:1463945744000}],accountType:,paymentData:[[{paymentInfoList:{billAvailable:true,lastPaymentAmount:40.18,totalAmountDue:40.18,lastPaymentDate:2016-05-22T00:00:00.000-04:00,paymentDueDate:2016-06-06T00:00:00.000-04:00,billEnddate:2016-05-14T00:00:00.000-04:00,balanceForward:0,bankAccountNumber:null,creditCardNum:null,customerId:null,ban:527566075,mdn:52756607UAV580,eligibilityInd:Y}}]]}` DISK IMAGING ANALYSIS This section provided detail steps taken to conduct traditional forensic technique for non-volatile memory acquisition and analysis. During this phase the acquired memory will be examine and the primary concern will be user data stored, in particular share_pref folder. Share_pref folder is a storage location for key-value in side application database. Android application store user data within /dev/block[8]. With the use of common forensic command, such as dd, will be utilize to image disk drive partition. For this proposed research the following partitions are imaged for analysis: System file Cache file 8 | P a g e User data Persist But our proposed research experiment will be focus on user data folder, as it is consider to be the storage location for application data. To image disk drive, shell access is need through android SDK, we then look for mount file on the disk drive before executing dd commands to copy the partition from the internal memory to internal SDcard and finally pulling it to our forensic work station using adb pull command. 1. Checking the mounted file on the disk drive mount /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/userdata /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/cache /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/system /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/persist 2. Copying the user date partition and pull it to forensic work station dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/userdata of=/mnt/sdcard/test1 17399538+0 records in 17399537+0 records out 8908562944 bytes transferred in 1934.464 secs (4605184 bytes/sec) adb pull /mnt/sdcard/test1 3. Imaging the cache partition to internal SDcard dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/cache of=/mnt/sdcard/cachefile1.img 1720320+0 records in 1720320+0 records out 880803840 bytes transferred in 118.669 secs (7422358 bytes/sec) 4. Copying the system partition dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/system of=/mnt/sdcard/systemfile.img 3072000+0 records in 3072000+0 records out 1572864000 bytes transferred in 255.874 secs (6147025 bytes/sec) [emailprotected]:/ # 5. Copying the persist partition dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/persist of=/mnt/sdcard/persist.img 16384+0 records in 16384+0 records out 8388608 bytes transferred in 0.865 secs (9697812 bytes/sec) The above command will image each partition of the mounted file of dev/block with the default block size of 512 byte during bit-by-bit copy of the file and direct the output file to internal SDcard. Finally, copy it to our forensic workstation, Which can be analysis using forensic tool called AccessData FTK imager version 3.4.2. FTK is recommended forensic tool for disk image analysis by both forensic and legal community for its powerful carving capability, stability and ease of use. AccessData FTK ANALYSIS 1. PayPal App PayPal is an online payment system that allows its member to transfer funds locally and globally. Members can receive, send money and buy or pay for goods and services online. The application was downloaded by 10 million people at the time of this research and rated as a good app in the app store. We added evidence item to 9 | P a g e FTK navigate to data and com.paypal.android.p2pmobile then share_pref folder. The folder share_pref/PresentationAccount.RememberedUsersta../ reveal user data information such as user first and last name, cell phone number, and email address. 2. AfricallShop App Africallshop is a VOIP application that allow the users to make cheap international call worldwide, user can purchase credit online to communicate with peer by text message and voice call. After adding user data partition to FTK imager, navigate to com.v2.africallshop folder, expand the folder view share_pref folder. In sher_pref folder an xml file called com.v2.africallshop-prefrences.xml was view and contain user sensitive data such as app domain name, caller ID, country, ID, user password, username and account balance all in plain text. 10 | P a g e 3. Keku App Keku is a VOIP application which facilitate call or text through Wi-Fi or mobile data. User buy credit online to make local and internationally calls. The package of the application contain probative information about the user. App database store was reveal through FTK analysis and the share_pref folder contain sensitive information about the user. In share_pref folder a file called Org.keku_preferences.xml, this file contain users sensitive data and device information such as, password, username, device-mac address and user phone number. 11 | P a g e EXPECTED RESULTS During the experimental phase of the proposed research, aim and objective of the experiment is to demonstrate or show that users personnel data information are at risk during application data process in transit and at rest. The research has observe the dumped process and disk drive imaged to reveal personal data leakage and has successfully uncover vital information about App users, such as username, password, date of birth etc. OBSTACLE The obstacles encountered during the experimental phase of the proposed research as follow: 1) Lack of enough material regarding android forensic as the field is immature 2) Unable to image the whole memory of the actual phone, as the system configuration file is missing and couldnt be found to compile it with LiMe in order to acquire the whole memory. 3) Lack of enough analysis tool to cross examine or evaluate both the dumped and disk drive memory, Ubuntu Linux tool was used to do our analysis. CONTRIBUTION TO KNOWLEDGE The proposed research show that application developers are far less careful with user sensitive data when it being stored both in the disk drive and memory in running applications. Using very simple forensic investigation techniques running strings and sqlite3 on dumped memory and disk drive imaging analysis on FTK show quite a lot of private information. OUTLINE OF FINAL RESEARCH PAPER ISSM 580/581 The final research document will be structure as follows [9]: Section 1, will be the abstract then the Introduction to the paper. Section 2, will discuss memory analysis technique. Section 3, will discuss disk imaging analysis 12 | P a g e technique. Section 4, will discusses the forensic artifacts unveil during the analysis . Section 5, related work. Section 6, the result summary. Section 7; conclusion and future work. . RESEARCH DELIVERABLES This research will be conduct in Fall Semester 2016, from September 2016 to December 2016. Nevertheless, some major preliminary steps have already being taken. Most of the required tools both hardware and software for the proposed research have already being obtained and implemented. Spring 2016 April Researching the Topic of Interest Week 1 2 Finalize the Topic with Primary Advisor Week 3 4 Read the Area/Topic of Interest May Week 1 2 Read relevant Journal or Article related to the topic of interest Week 3 4 Gathering and installation of test Environment, Conducting and Experiment. June Week 1 Writing First Draft proposal and submit Week 2 -3 Edit and Improve proposal based on advisor guidance, Further Experiment and literature review read. Week 4 Final Proposal and Submit.

The Egoistic Friend :: essays research papers

<a href="http://www.geocities.com/vaksam/">Sam Vaknin's Psychology, Philosophy, Economics and Foreign Affairs Web Sites What are friends for and how can a friendship be tested? By behaving altruistically, would be the most common answer and by sacrificing one's interests in favour of one's friends. Friendship implies the converse of egoism, both psychologically and ethically. But then we say that the dog is "man's best friend". After all, it is characterized by unconditional love, by unselfish behaviour, by sacrifice, when necessary. Isn't this the epitome of friendship? Apparently not. On the one hand, the dog's friendship seems to be unaffected by long term calculations of personal benefit. But that is not to say that it is not affected by calculations of a short-term nature. The owner, after all, looks after the dog and is the source of its subsistence and security. People – and dogs – have been known to have sacrificed their lives for less. The dog is selfish – it clings and protects what it regards to be its territory and its property (including – and especia lly so - the owner). Thus, the first condition, seemingly not satisfied by canine attachment is that it be reasonably unselfish. There are, however, more important conditions: a. For a real friendship to exist – at least one of the friends must be a conscious and intelligent entity, possessed of mental states. It can be an individual, or a collective of individuals, but in both cases this requirement will similarly apply. b. There must be a minimal level of identical mental states between the terms of the equation of friendship. A human being cannot be friends with a tree (at least not in the fullest sense of the word). c. The behaviour must not be deterministic, lest it be interpreted as instinct driven. A conscious choice must be involved. This is a very surprising conclusion: the more "reliable", the more "predictable" – the less appreciated. Someone who reacts identically to similar situations, without dedicating a first, let alone a second thought to it – his acts would be depreciated as "automatic responses". For a pattern of behaviour to be described as "friendship", these four conditions must be met: diminished egoism, conscious and intelligent agents, identical mental states (allowing for the communication of the friendship) and non-deterministic behaviour, the result of constant decision making. A friendship can be – and often is – tested in view of these criteria.