Importance of Teamwork in Nursing Essay Example for Free

Importance of Teamwork in Nursing Essay Teamwork involves the merging of members of the same or different professions or domains to work towards a common goal. This group compliments the skills of each member who are consequently committed to one purpose. Teamwork is therefore challenging and at the same time rewarding. It is coupled with a lot of enthusiasm, hope and a share of its own setbacks. Teamwork is initially formed in any particular group with an aim of dividing the effort of accomplishing a particular task while at the same instance multiplying the effect. Any positive work experience usually has an aspect of teamwork in it. Nurses make up the largest care-provider in a hospital setting thus nursing is a job that requires a lot of teamwork. This involves a nurse to nurse or a nurse to physician teamwork. In most cases, the nursing workforce is neglected by the administration involved due to the anticipation of the patients’ recuperation and recovery, thus nurturing a form of autonomy among the workforce. This serves in downsizing the emphasis on teamwork and this happens at the very expense of the same patients. Service delivery is paramount in the field of nursing and teamwork is one of the core determiners of good service delivery. Teamwork among any group, on the other hand, is determined by various factors. These include openness, responsibility, honesty, accountability, reliability, dialogue and understanding. All this factors have to be put to consideration while putting together a coherent team. A slight disregard of any would see to the failure of the team to deliver as expected. Teamwork does come with its own set of challenges that inhibit the delivery of good service by the team. These mainly occur as a result of conflict among the members of the team which is in turn rooted on differences pertaining distribution of duty, sharing, priority and unnecessary competition. Poor handling of such issues often leads to the occurrence of many mistakes, mistrust among the team members, confusion, wastage of resources, lack of motivation, time wastage and lots of arguments that hold no water. More often than not, it is the patients who bear the yoke of such disagreements as the service rendered to them is henceforth substandard and this plunges their lives into jeopardy. Fallouts are common at this stage since the restructuring of these nursing teams would mean loss of time and complete loss of motivation among the team members. Precautions are therefore very necessary to avoid such grave situations as they do put the lives of others at stake. Adjustments should be made at the slightest sign of unrest among the team members. Sharing responsibility equally is usually the first major leap by any group. Matters pertaining age, seniority and level of experience should not be used to condescend against some members. On the contrary, the members should maximize on the potential that comes with these various facets of diversity and others like gender, socio-cultural and economic backgrounds. Put together, all this facets can give rise to a whole new of teamwork with a lot of diversity which would lead to the conception of new ideas. The approach of issues proactively rather than reactively is also a worthwhile measure to counter these challenges. Prevention has always worked better than cure and this is also the same convention with proactive action. The team members are charged with the task of ensuring that any prevailing or looming predicaments are brought to the light before they turn ugly and cause rifts within the team. This serves in ensuring that little or no time is lost in the process of solving problems. Letting the issues accrue and the procrastination of dealing with them ends up in the wastage of time and patients bearing the lion’s share of these problems due to the poor service delivery. Cultivating a culture of dialogue is another way of avoiding conflict in the course of teamwork. When a team embraces dialogue, prevalent issues are addressed and solved amicably. Positive criticism ensures that everyone can correct each other without any hard feelings. When criticism is directed towards a person positively, he or she is bound to make the amends wherever the error occurs. Gradual technological enhancement and restructuring the team every now and then is necessary in order to avoid monotony. This reignites the team with zeal thus ensuring a rise in quality service delivery. Clarity on the roles of each team member would also do some good. This would help in avoiding the confusion especially if the team has numerous members. Morale on the side of the administration would also improve the team’s service delivery. This could be done through the formation of some form of healthy inter-teams competitions that would see the appreciation of the team that is best at service delivery. Incentives can also be brought to the picture. This would actually ensure that the teams work hard to outdo each other and thus better their teamwork in this process. An improvement in the teamwork among the nurses would have some major effects in service to the patients. There would be definitely be an improved client-service delivery, improved relationships between team members and consequently with the administration. These healthcare institutions would also unveil a wider range of services due to the time efficient system. In conclusion, teamwork in nursing is sacrosanct since it is a profession that deals with lives of people. An improvement in service delivery therefore means that the clients are in safer hands. Reference: Institute for Innovation and Improvement, (March, 2007): Developing and sustaining effective teams. ISBN 9781904114482, Royal College of Nursing, Retrieved on 3rd April 2009 from: http://www. rcn. org. uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/78735/003115. pdf,

Interpersonal Relationships in the Work Place Essay Example for Free

Interpersonal Relationships in the Work Place Essay In todays world, there is a need for work to be done as quickly as possible. And for this purpose, working professionals need to have good relations between each other. Healthy professional relations can be maintained by effective workplace communication and teamwork. Interpersonal relationships at work gradually develop with good team participation and communication with other members. You can say that everything at the office depends on good relationships between employees and the management. Interpersonal relationships at work are absolutely essential, as they help workers to have a mutual understanding between themselves. I believe that that strong interpersonal relationships at work lead to motivation among employees. The main benefit of having interpersonal relationships at work is that they work in a team. If there are healthy interpersonal relationships in the team members, they certainly tend to work collectively towards the prescribed goal. Teamwork also contributes a lot to a healthy work environment. Employees feel good to work if there is a favorable environment at the workplace. If employees have a mutual understanding with each other, there are very less chances of any kind of workplace conflicts. Communication is one of the most crucial interpersonal skills to be practiced at the workplace. Without effective interpersonal communication, there will not be a smooth and clear flow of ideas, resulting in confusion. A true professional will always talk to other executives, with looking directly into the eyes. Always smile when you speak with others, in a face to face talk or even on the phone. The smile will make others comfortable and it will also be apparent in the tone while on the phone. I believe that an effective supervisor needs to refrain from showing favoritism; make difficult, sometimes unpopular, decisions; show concern for subordinates without appearing to pry; and avoid misusing supervisorial power. Supervisors need to strike the right note in their interpersonal relations with workers. About three month ago there was an incident at my place of employment. My manager pulled me into her office and closed the door. Immediately I replied did I do something wrong? She replied no you actually did something so right. She said one of our patient’s family members over heard a conversation that you and another employee had. I knew exactly what she was talking about. A coworker of mines came up to me while I was in a patient’s room and yelled out â€Å"why didn’t you sign off the water log yesterday. I politely said im sorry but it may have been a mistake. If you give me a minute to finish what I am doing here I will come over and take care of it. She said â€Å"what ever, we will see†. The visitor looked at me and said that was very rude but you handled that professionally. With a smile on my face I said thank you very much and left the room. I immediately went to my coworker and politely explained how rude and disrespectful she was to the patient and her visitors. She understood what I was saying, she then apologized to me the patient and the visitors. My manager knows how rude my coworker can be on a daily basis. So she then pulled her in the office and asked us both how us we work the incident out. We both gave our side of the story and we both told the truth. My manager then presented me with a Starbucks gift card for being employee of the week. When communicating with other employees, it is fine if you add a bit of humor to the scene, just to release the stress and tension involved. Make sure you do not get involved in the blame game. Always ensure that you stick to what you said. It is a good idea to share what you recently accomplished and found out. This creates a feeling of openness among the team members.

Social Perspectives on Witch Hunting

Social Perspectives on Witch Hunting The Case that the witch-hunt was a woman-hunt is a strong one (Larner) discuss? The witch-hunts across Europe saw the mass slaughter of nine million women who were thought to be witches. These women were killed over a period of three hundred years, with the most concentrated killings in places such as Germany, Spain and Italy.[1] The story of witchcraft is primarily the story of women and this has caused much fascination and a certain elusiveness when approaching the subject.[2] The organised persecution of the witches began officially on December 9th 1484 when Pope Innocent VIII asked Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger to define witchcraft, isolate the modus operandi of the witches and to standardise the trial procedures and sentencing.[3] It was as a result that Kramer and Sprenger produced a text called â€Å"Malleus Maleficarum† which would become a hugely influential text in the events of witch persecution and in these gender-specific views of witchcraft. Due to the gender-specificity that surrounds the subject of witchcraft we are confronted with id eas about women, fears about women and the place of women in society during these times. Scholars such as Carol Kerslen, Lyndal Roper and Christina Larner gradually moved gender, and to some extent sexuality, to the centre of the analysis of witchcraft, which influenced interests in artists such as Baldung, for whom gender and sexuality were critical themes.[4]Many feminists jump to conclusions of gender-specific genocide due to what they believe was a woman-hating crime. However, it is important also to focus on the socio-economic context in which these trials took place in order to make a fair judgement on the gender-specificity that is so often associated with witchcraft. The Malleus Maleficarum is often the focus of many studies into witchcraft due to its important influence during the period. This demonological treatise was written by Kramer and Sprenger, it is often used as evidence by radical feminists of the misogyny among elites, who are seen as the driving force behind the top-down persecutions of witches.[5] The title of the work itself is female-specific, with the term maleficarum translating as women evil-doers. This feminine possessive in the Latin title shows it’s focus on the female gender, if the book were to have focused on both males and females then ‘maleficarum’ would have been replaced by ‘maleficorum’.[6] Throughout the text it is women who are specifically referred to, in the book men are most often described as accomplices rather than witches themselves. When asked why there is more harmful magic found in the female sex than in the male sex Kramer answered â€Å"because of the fleshly lust, which in [women] is never satisfied.†[7] It is clear that there was a gender-bias or a gender-specificity around the notions of witchcraft, and this dominated its surrounding ideology and the main literature upon the subject. The Malleus Maleficarum was of great influence during the period, it was high Catholic theology and working catholic jurisprudence.[8] The work had been issued for creation by the Pope himself and so held great importance. In the dark ages few people could read and books were hard to come by, the printing press has only been developed 34 years previously in 1850 Germany. This meant that literacy rates and the availability of prints for those in the lower sectors of society were not still readily available or improved at this point. However, the Malleus was printed in numerous editions and had been read by almost every judge in Europe, it appeared that the Malleus Maleficarum had more currency then the bible.[9] What made this piece of literature regarding the definitions of witchcraft so influential is the power and authority it held due to its lawful reinforcement. Anyone who challenged the Malleus Maleficarum, anyone who refuted its authority or questioned its credibility on any level was guilty of heresy, a capital crime.[10] The Malleus Maleficarum was probably the most influential piece written on witchcraft, it was the most widely spread, the most lawfully and religiously backed, but it was also extremely gender-specific towards women. This literary work helped to instil a stereotype of the witch, the stereotype being woman. The definition of woman, in common with the pornographic definition, is her carnality; the essence of her character, in common with the fairy-tale definition, is her malice and avarice.[11]In fact the stereotype of a witch in Christian Europe has always been that of a woman. For example, in twelfth-century Russia the authorities in one district became so anxious about the prevalence of witchcraft that they began to round up the entire female population.[12] Ideas of female evil-doers as suggested in the title of the Malleus Maleficarum stemmed back to the religious creation of the world. A women was believed to be more carnal than a man, this carnality originated from eve’s very own creation, she was formed from a bent rib, and also caused the fall of Eden.[13] As a result, women have suffered, forever being painted with the same religious brush of being a source of evil and carnality. A witch was seen as an independent adult women who does not conform to the male idea of proper female behaviour.[14] However, it was not just female sexuality that made them evil, but also female knowledge, many feminists claim that anything that made a women something other than helpless was perceived as threatening and labelled evil.[15] Perhaps a strong case for witch-hunting being parallel to women-hunting, is the idea that women were labelled witches, and could not prove themselves innocent by any means. This meant that women were doomed to persecution because of their gender and its gender-specific associated stereotypes. Women finds herself entirely defined by her sexuality. It was believed that sexuality makes women evil, therefore virginity/chastity is glorified in women as it is the opposite of sexuality.[16] However, it is ironic that while all witchcraft comes from carnal lust which is in women insatiable – this carnal lust, this desire for sex, is what populates the world. If all women are evil-doers, if Eve is the basis for all women stereotypes then why is it that women are the exclusive holders of bearing life? Other indicators that are described in the Malleus Maleficarum also guide us to the interpretation that women were inevitably doomed to persecution. A women’s virtue is seen to be silence, and yet in a witchcraft trial, if the women remains silence she is condemned for withholding her confession, yet it she confesses then she is condemning herself.[17] There is a similar paradox in the women’s ability to bear pain, if she breaks down through pain of torture and confesses she is condemned, however if she remains strong and recovers she is condemn also. Still further, if a women weeps under torture it is interpreted as a sign of her sins and so condemns her, yet if her eyes do not weep she is condemned for witchcraft.[18] This suggests that once put to trial for partaking in witchcraft the women is entirely at the mercy of the educated men who judge, torture and condemn her, almost without escape. Feminists take this inescapability as evidence of patriarchy exerting its control over women in order to curb the perceived threat to men’s dominance that is caused through women’s allegedly rapacious sexuality.[19] It is believed that as soon as a women transitions from ‘virgin’ to ‘sexual’, there is a potential for power over a man[20], and so she becomes a symbol of demonology, of relations with the devil. Radical feminists also suggest that society believed that all women threaten male hegemony with their exclusive power to give life; and so social order depends on women conforming to male ideals of female behaviour.[21] Threats to social order, threats of women’s sexuality are usually blamed for the persecutions of women during the witch-hunts in Europe. Most of the ideas put forward as to why women posed a threat to man, and why the witch-hunts could be seen as gender-specific are put forward by feminists. First wave feminists ( su ch as the American Suffragist Matilda Joslyn Gage) asserted that nine million people were executed as witches, with old women, wise women and the priestesses of anti-Christian cults being particular targets.[22] However, second wave feminists further in their ideas of the witch-hunts, painting them as a ‘gendercide’, a female targeted death hunt. They believed that witch-hunting was an egregious example, not just of patriarchal oppression, but also of genocide and it was in fact the deliberate killing of women.[23] This deliberate killing of women is made acceptable and almost encouraged by the Malleus Maleficarum due to its emphasis on the female gender and their witchcraft qualities. However, it is important to understand that women were not just persecuted, they also acted as the accusers. Women often accused other women of witchcraft and were often the ‘chief witnesses in the courts’.[24] This suggests that while witch-hunts were related to the female g ender, they were not gender-exclusive. Women could accuse other women, and men could be persecuted. Yet, feminists disregard this evidence that goes against that misogyny of witch-hunting. Instead they believe that this line of reasoning is based on a failure to recognise that a patriarchal structure divides women, and that their livelihood is dependent on the goodwill of men.[25] Therefore, women would accuse other women, not to satisfy themselves, but to protect the livelihood of conformist women against non-conformist women, they would also do so under the pressures of their husbands and fathers. This huge split in the ideology of witch-hunting and its gender relations is caused by the lack of concrete evidence to support either side. Facts and figures from the period, from all over Europe, are at best good estimates of the real numbers of those persecuted. Figures range from thousands to millions when talking about the amount that died from persecutions, and the gender ratios are no more accurate. However, in spite of this, the evidence provided is used in the debate of gender-specificity surrounding the witch-hunts and therefore must be looked at and discussed. Figures suggest that in areas at the centre of the witch-hunt, places such as Germany, France, Switzerland and Scotland, 80% of those persecuted were females, with figures reached an estimate of 95-100% in the areas on the periphery such as England and Russia.[26] The ratio of women to men burned is variously estimated at 20 to 1 for women and 100 to 1 for men.[27] Those men who were persecuted were often the family of convicted women witches, or were in positions of civil power with political ambitions that conflicted with those of the church or monarch.[28] In fact, witchcraft which is seen as the ultimate human evil was sex-specific in just the same proportion as sanctity which is seen as the ultimate human good was sex-specific to males during the ‘sanctity epidemic’ of the later Middle Ages.[29] Most works conclude that witches were scapegoats for hostilities and tensions that had little to do with sex or gender.[30] Radical feminist writings have had a significant influence on the perceptions of witchcraft outside academia, its emphasis on witches being gender-specific to women had become a strong stereotype when one thinks of the witch-hunts. However, academic historians are dismissive of such interpretations, criticising radical feminists for their assumptions that witch-hunting was ‘woman-hunting’, their over reliance on the Malleus, their unwillingness to engage with manuscript records or witch trials and their ahistorical use of the terms misogyny and patriarchy which downplays the historical specificity of early modern culture and society.[31] Christina Larner herself is reluctant to suggest that witch-hunting was gender-specific because of this academic dismissiveness. Instead she concludes that the witch-hunts were ‘sex-related not sex-specificâ⠂¬â„¢[32] , however she strongly backs the argument that witch-hunting was still in fact women-hunting because of this relation. This leaves the distinction between sex-related and sex-specific unclear, if both inevitably lead to the assumption that the hunt was still a hunt on women. This dismissiveness between historian and feminist is causing a problem when it comes to the clarity of sex relations between women and witchcraft. The antipathy many academic historians feel towards feminism in general and radical feminism in particular can be counterproductive as it discourages them from engaging with any helpful insights feminism has to offer into the gendering of witchcraft prosecutions, particularly in relation to the analysis of patriarchy.[33] Those few historians who have seriously addressed the question of women and witchcraft only briefly discuss misogyny of the period, but focus more on the social and economic reasons for the high percentage of women that were persecuted. Ho wever, most radical feminist interpretation of witch-hunting emerged in the context of feminist’s political activism outside academia, and were thus polemically and historically inaccurate.[34] There is a huge correlation between women and witchcraft persecutions, and this is to do with the age-old stereotypes of women evildoers that stem from eve. Women were more likely to be persecuted because they were more likely to believe to be witches, had men been acting in the same way it is very much doubtful that they would have been accused to be a witch to the same majority in comparison. Therefore the witch-hunts were women-hunts in the sense that women were targeted substantially more than men, whether they were accused other women or not, they were still the distinct majority of the witch-hunts. [1] Andrea Dworkin, Our Blood : Prophecies and Discourses on Sexual Politics, ( New York : G.P Putnam Sons, 1967). [2] Carol F. Karlsen, The Devil in the Shape of a Woman, (New York : W. W. Norton Company, 1987). [3] Andrea Dworkin, Our Blood. [4] Brian P. Levack, The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America, (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2013). [5] Ibid. [6] Sister Trinity, ‘Gynocide : The Holocaust of Women’, http://passtheflamingsword.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/gynocide-the-holocaust-of-women/ [7] Brian P. Levack, The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft. [8] Andrea Dworkin, Our Blood. [9] Andrea Dworkin, Woman Hating, (New York : Penguin Group, 1974). [10] Andrea Dworkin, Our Blood. [11] Andrea Dworkin, Woman Hating. [12] Darren Oldridge, The Witchcraft Reader, (London : Routledge, 2002). [13] Andrea Dworkin, Our Blood. [14] Darren Oldridge, The Witchcraft Reader. [15] Sister Trinity, ‘Gynocide : The Holocaust of Women’. [16] Ibid. [17] Sister Prudence Allen, The concept of Woman : The early humanist reformation 1250-1500, (Cambridge: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, 2002), [18] Ibid. [19] Brian P. Levack, The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft. [20] Sister Trinity, ‘Gynocide : The Holocaust of Women. [21] Darren Oldridge, The Witchcraft Reader. [22] Brian P. Levack, The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft. [23] Ibid. [24] Darren Oldridge, The Witchcraft Reader. [25] Ibid. [26] Darren Oldridge, The Witchcraft Reader. [27] Andrea Dworkin, Our Blood. [28] Andrea Dworkin, Woman Hating. [29] Darren Oldridge, The Witchcraft Reader. [30] Carol F. Karlsen, The Devil in the Shape of a Woman. [31] Brian P. Levack, The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft. [32] Darren Oldridge, The Witchcraft Reader. [33] Brian P. Levack, The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft. [34] Brian P. Levack, The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft.

Alexander The Great Essay -- miscellaneuos

Alexander The Great Alexander the Great was a man with no equal in History. He was one of the most important forces known to man. Alexander the Great then crossed the Hellespoint, which is now called the Dardanelles and, as head of a Greek army undertook the war on Persia that his father had been planning. The march he had begun was to be one of the greatest in history. Alexander was one of the biggest influenced on people of all time and one of the most powerful personalities. He really molded people into acting the correct way. He brought people together and showed them how to live better. He defiantly changed the lives of many. Alexander the Great was born in 356 BC Philip his father was the brother of Perdiccas III king of Macedonia. His mother’s name was Olympia’s. Olympia’s was the daughter of King Neoptolemus I. He was known wide to be a great powerful man. Alexander had a younger sister named Cleopatra. The whole family had a lot of very important background. It was a fact t hat Alexander and Cleopatra’s parents did not get along. At this time it was a Macedonian tradition to have many wives. Philip had several and Olympia’s hated them all. She felt much hate towards them. When one of her rivals gave birth to a retarded son Arridaeus, there were many rumors that Olympia’s poisoned him. Olympia’s told Alexander that Philip wasn't his real father although he was. He made sure the boy was well educated, even the great philosopher Aristotle was one of Alexander's tutors. Even thought he though him well Philip wasn’t a very good father. He always discouraged Alexander and made him feel worthless. When Alexander the great was 3 his father’s son King Perdiccas died. His young son Amyntas was supposed to take his place as ruler. Philip was supposed to help him but he made his way above him making himself King Philip II. He proved to be a strong ruler, and in a few decades he conquered most of Greece. As a teenager Alexander became friends wit a boy around his age named Hephaestion. It was rumored that they were lovers. At this time Homosexuality was accepted in Greece. Even Alexander's father had many male lovers. Till this day no one really knows the relationship between the two but it is said that throughout their lives they stood by each other. When Alexander turned his father went away to war, leaving Alexander to serve as leader of Macedon. During t... ...me ill, and on June 13 he died in Babylon. He was 32. Historians have said that he died from malaria, but recently it has been said that he died of typhoid fever. The empire was soon torn apart by the struggles that Alexander the Great's advisors and generals had. This was now called the Diadochi. Diadochi is Greek for successors. In 319 the â€Å"Antipater† died and was succeeded as regent by Polyperchon, whom did Antipater’s son Cassander quickly oust. In time Roxanne and her son were also killed by Cassander, who became the king of Macedon in 305 BC. Alexander Aegus was thirteen when he died. He left his empire in his own words, "to the strongest. Whether or not Alexander had plans for any world conquering cannot be determined but he had accomplished greater conquests than any before him. He was one of the greatest generals of all time and one of the most powerful personalities of antiquity. He influenced the spread of Hellenism throughout the Middle East and into Asia; establishing city-states modeled on Greek institutions that flourished long after his death. Alexander will never be superior to any man and will remain forever as "the Great" in the pages of History as we know it.

Computer Hackers :: essays research papers

What is the definition of the term â€Å"hacker?† Is it someone that terrorizes companies by shutting down computers and satellites otherwise rendering them helpless? Or is it merely someone that is curious as to how technology works? The United States Government doesn’t agree at all with the latter of the two. It is almost frightful that the Government of the United States, the most powerful force in the world, can be so discriminative. You think that they would be the ones with some sort of understanding. This is not the case. Although the government believes that computer hackers are an enormous threat to our country, I believe that if they came to an understanding with hacker ethics they would comprehend the fact that computer hackers are not terrorists.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It is the government’s belief that if a crime is committed and it involves a computer, hackers are the cause. No questions asked. Since when was the term â€Å"hacker† conceived as a person involved in malicious actions on a computer? A true hacker will cause no damage through any means. Hackers merely explore technology to figure out how things work so that they may share their findings as a protection from cyber terrorism and other potential harms. It has been stated that â€Å"Knowledge Is Power.† How is it that this power has become such a threat to our government? Former President Thomas Jefferson once wrote that â€Å"Ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density at any point, and like th e air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement of exclusive appropriation. Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property. Ideas and discoveries should be shared and known by all. Only then will we not suffer the fate of what has happened in history. This is how we learn not to do wrong; by doing wrong and realizing it was wrong (Goldstein 4). As humans we have the ability to learn this. A hot pan isn’t touched over and over again. Once it is learned that the pan is hot the necessity to touch it again becomes superfluous. All success comes from the failure of either the individual or someone that the individual has followed.

Biometrics Security Essay -- Biometric Technology

Biometrics Security Biometrics uses personal characteristics to identify users. When it comes to security, mapping unique patterns and traits in fingerprints, irises or voices is considered light years ahead of forcing employees to memorize combination of letters and numbers -- which are easily compromised and easily forgotten. The technology works by taking measurements -- whether it is the weight and length of bones in the hand or the pattern of blood vessels inside the eye or the pattern of fingerprints -- and then storing the specifics, often called minutiae, in a database. When a user scans a hand or retina, the new mapping is compared with the stored data. Access is either granted or denied based on matching patterns that are unique to each individual. It's that ability to identify someone based on unique physical traits that is driving biometrics into the corporate enterprise. As more high-priced transactions are conducted over the Internet, businesses increasingly need ironclad authentication of someone's identity. Add to that the increasing amount of in"house security breaches and corporate espionage, and you'll find network and security administrators grappling for a better way to secure information from unauthorized eyes. "Somebody who is doing stock trades online wants security that is amazingly accurate," says Michael Thieme, a senior consultant for International Biometric Group in Manhattan, an independent biometrics consulting and integration firm." A lot of recent security incidents are making people aware that they have a lot of data that just isn't as secure as they thought it would be. . . . If biometrics can even be a small part of that, it will be a tremendous market." Costs are dropping Until recen... ...s fingerprint. That all amounts to an unlawful search." And that is bound to make some users uneasy or even unwilling to hand over their fingerprints. Grant Evans, vice president of Identix, calls it a small problem. "The fact is Big Brother has all the information he needs on you without your fingerprints," he says. Gail Koehler, vice president of technology for Purdue Employees Credit Union in West Lafayette, Ind., was worried that members would be upset when she first deployed fingerprint scanners in her automated branch kiosks. Koehler says 12,000 members have registered their fingerprints with the credit union. "We spent the majority of our marketing dollars preparing ourselves to convince members that this was secure and not an invasion of their privacy," she says. "It was wasted dollars. We've basically had no objections. Members prefer the security."

My Understanding of Feminism Essay

My understanding of feminism has increased greatly due to the material and discussions in this course. When this course first started I had a small general idea of what feminism was. I always assumed it had to deal with women’s rights and movement, mostly about the African-American movements. I had no idea that feminism tied into so many different subjects throughout history and even the present day. This course also had a broad overview with many different types of readings. The readings, along with the discussions generated a more in depth view n particular topics. Although I had a general knowledge of some of the topics, other topics were completely new to me and I found them very interesting. For example, the topic about the native settlers that were forced from their native land by the Europeans, specifically about the Beothuck people of Newfoundland. One unit that really sparked my interest was Unit 1 1: Advertising Culture and the Commodification of the body. I think that this unit was very intriguing, as I have always wondered bout how and why the media portrays women the way they do. This idea of â€Å"Fat† women has become such a profitable topic in the media. The article by Lisa Ayuso â€Å"l look Fat in this† portrayed an excellent view from women who often feel ashamed of their body because it is not the â€Å"perfect body’ that is plastered all over the media. Another unit that I thoroughly enjoyed was Unit 8: Diasporas. I enjoyed reading other students posts on how they feel about Newfoundland culture and its traditional items. Many students registered in this course are from Newfoundland, so the shared culture among us with the different viewpoints, I found really interesting. This course has not changed my view or position on a particular issue. I have increased my knowledge and have broadened my views on many topics. One particular issue that came to a complete shock to me was about the forced sterilization of young black women. Especially about the doctor that tricked the mother into signing a waiver to do this to her daughters, I was in disbelief. Also, the trials and tribulations the young women had to go through to get an abortion. Abortion is still a sensitive topic today, but the views of it have changed a lot from the past. One thing that I don’t quite understand is Liberalism. It has come up in many of the readings, but I still seem to fully understand exactly what it is. Can anyone elaborate more on this for me? But overall this course has provided me with a deeper insight about feminism. My Understanding of Feminism By SexyNewfle