Homeland Security Organization and Administration Case Study

Homeland Security Organization and Administration - Case Study Example The attacks provided the realization of the need to integrate and unify efforts towards defending the country from security threats and identify all the lapses in protecting the nation against terrorist attacks. As such, the DHS was formed with the following purpose, to wit: â€Å"by largely transforming and realigning the current confusing patchwork of government activities into a single department whose primary mission is to protect our homeland. The creation of a Department of Homeland Security is one more key step in the President’s national strategy for homeland security† (Department of Homeland Security, 2002, p. 1). The creation of the DHS through the Homeland Security Advisory System (HSAS) was therefore instituted with the aim of enhancing and duly communicating awareness to impending threats through a system of color codes, according to potential risks and levels of terrorist attacks – from yellow, orange to red (DHS, n.d.). Likewise, on April 20, 2011, it was announced that this system was replaced by the â€Å"National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS)—a robust terrorism advisory system that provides timely information to the public about credible terrorist threats and replaces the former color-coded alert system† (DHS, n.d., p. 1). It was likewise emphasized that â€Å"the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were far more elaborate, precise, and destructive than any of these earlier assaults. But by September 2001, the executive branch of the U.S. government, the Congress, the news media, and the American public had received a clear warning that Islamist terrorists meant to kill Americans in high numbers† (National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, 2004, par. 16). The seemingly isolated terrorist incidents should have been closely evaluated in terms of potential links and relatedness to future terrorist  plots.The Oklahoma City attack and the 1993 World Trade Center bombings reported far lesser casualties; as compared to those noted with the 9/11 attacks.

Ap European History Essay Example for Free

Ap European History Essay After reading and studying this chapter, you should be able to discuss the meanings of the term renaissance. You should be able to explain the economic context for the Renaissance, the new status of the artist in Renaissance Italy, and the meanings of the terms humanism, secularism, and individualism as applied by scholars to the Renaissance. Also, you should be able to explain how the Italian Renaissance affected politics, the economy, and society. Finally, be able to elaborate on the evolution of medieval kingdoms into early modern nation-states, and the spread of Renaissance humanism northward. Chapter Outline I. The Evolution of the Italian Renaissance A. Economic Growth as the Basis of the Renaissance 1. Venice, Genoa, and Milan grew rich on commerce between 1050 and 1300. 2. Florence, where the Renaissance originated, was an important banking center by the fourteenth century. B. Communes and Republics 1. In northern Italy the larger cities won independence from local nobles and became self-governing communes of free men in the twelfth century. 2. Local nobles moved into the cities and married into wealthy merchant families. This new class set up property requirements for citizenship. . The excluded, the popolo, rebelled and in some cities set up republics. 5. By 1300 the republics had collapsed, and despots or oligarchies governed most Italian cities. C. The Balance of Power among the Italian City-States 1. City patriotism and constant competition for power among cities prevented political centralization on the Italian peninsula. 2. As cities strove to maintain the balance of power among themselves, they invented the apparatus of modern diplomacy. 3. In 1494 the city of Milan invited intervention by the French King Charles VIII. 4. Italy became a battleground as France, Spain, and the Holy Roman Emperor vied for dominance. 5. In 1527 the forces of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V sacked Rome. II. Intellectual Hallmarks of the Renaissance A. Individualism 1. Renaissance writers stressed individual personality, greatness, and achievement, in contrast to the medieval ideal of Christian humility. B. Humanism 1. The revival of antiquity took the form of interest in archaeology, recovery of ancient manuscripts, and study of the Latin classics. 2. The study of the classics became known as the â€Å"new learning,† or humanism. 3. Humanist scholars studied antiquity not so much to find God as to know human nature and understand a different historical context. 4. Humanists derided what they viewed as the debased Latin of the medieval churchmen. C. Secular Spirit 1. The secular way of thinking focuses on the world as experienced rather than on the spiritual and/or eternal. 2. Renaissance thinkers came to see life as an opportunity rather than a painful pilgrimage toward God. 3. Lorenzo Valla argued that sense pleasures were the highest good. 4. Giovanni Boccaccio wrote about an acquisitive, sensual, worldly society. Renaissance popes expended much money on new buildings, a new cathedral (St. Peter’s), and on patronizing artists and men of letters. III. Art and the Artist A. Art and Power 1. In the early Renaissance, corporate groups such as guilds sponsored religious art. 2. By the late fifteenth century individual princes, merchants, and bankers sponsored art to glorify themselves and their families. Their urban palaces were full of expensive furnishings as well as art. 3. Classical themes, individual portraits, and realistic style characterized Renaissance art. 4. Renaissance artists invented perspective and portrayed the human body in a more natural and scientific manner than previous artists did. B. The Status of the Artist 1. Medieval masons were viewed as mechanical workers/artisans. Renaissance artists were seen as intellectual workers. 2. The princes and merchants who patronized artists paid them well. 3. Artists themselves gloried in their achievements. During the Renaissance, the concept of artist as genius was born. 4. Renaissance culture was only the culture of a very wealthy mercantile elite; it did not affect the lives of the urban middle classes or the poor. IV. Social Change A. Education and Political Thought 1. Humanist writers were preoccupied with education for morality and virtue. 2. Baldassare Castiglione’s The Courtier (1528) presented an image of the ideal man as master of dance, music, the arts, warfare, mathematics, and so on. 3. Daughters of the elite received an education similar to sons and a few went on to become renowned painters or scholars. 4. In The Prince (1513), Niccolo Machiavelli argued that politics could not follow simple rules of virtue and morality—that it ought in fact to be studied as a science. B. The Printed Word 1. Around 1455 in the German city of Mainz, Johan Gutenberg and two other men invented the movable type printing press. 2. Methods of paper production had reached Europe in the twelfth century from China through the Near East. 3. Printing made government and Church propaganda much more practical, created an invisible â€Å"public† of readers, and stimulated literacy among laypeople. C. Clocks 1. City people involved in commerce had a need to measure time. 2. By the early fourteenth century mechanical clocks were widespread in Europe. . Mechanical clocks and precise measurement of time contributed to the development of a conception of the universe in measurable, quantitative terms. D. Women and Work 1. Early modern culture identified women with marriage and the domestic virtues. 2. Women were involved with all economic activity connected with the care and nurturing of the family, as well as working outside the home. 3. Women during the Renaissance worked in a variety of businesses—for example, sailmaking—and even in a few isolated cases managed large enterprises. Wealthy women were usually excluded from the public arena and instead managed their households. E. Culture and Sexuality 1. Women’s status in the realm of love, romance, and sex declined during the Renaissance. 2. Writers such as Castiglione created the â€Å"double standard†? women were to be faithful in marriage, while men need not be. 3. Penalties for rape in Renaissance Italy were very light. 4. In spite of statutes against â€Å"sodomy,† generally referring to male homosexuality, Florentine records from the fifteenth century show a lot of homosexual activity going on, usually relations between an adult male and a boy. F. Slavery and Ethnicity 1. In medieval and Renaissance Europe many Slavic, Tartar, Circassian, Greek, and Hungarian slaves were imported. 2. Beginning in the fifteenth century the Portuguese brought many black African slaves into Europe. 3. Within Africa the economic motives of rulers and merchants trumped any cultural/ethnic/racial hostility toward Europeans. They sold fellow Africans into slavery apparently without qualms. 4. Africans did not identify themselves as â€Å"black,† but as members of more than 600 different tribal and ethnic groups. 5. Black slaves were an object of curiosity at European courts. 6. The Renaissance concept of people from sub-Saharan Africa was shaped by Christian symbology of light and darkness? blacks represented the Devil. Race did not emerge as a concept until the late seventeenth century. V. The Renaissance in the North A. Northern Humanists 1. In the late fifteenth century students from northern Europe studied in Italy and brought the Renaissance home. 2. Thomas More (1478–1535) of England argued that reform of social institutions could reduce or eliminate corruption and war. 3. The Dutchman Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536) was an expert in the Bible and Greek language who believed that all Christians should read the Bible. 4. Francois Rabelais (1490–1553) ridiculed established institutions such as the clergy with gross humor in Gargantua. 5. Flemish artists came to rival the Italian Renaissance painters. VI. Politics and the State in the Renaissance (ca 1450–1521) A. Centralization of Power 1. Some scholars have viewed Renaissance kingship as a new form, citing the dependence of the monarch on urban wealth and the ideology of the â€Å"strong king. In France Charles VII (r. 1422–1461) created the first permanent royal army, set up new taxes on salt and land, and allowed increased influence in his bureaucracy from middle-class men. He also asserted his right to appoint bishops in the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges. 3. Charles’s son Louis XI (r. 1461–1483) fostered industry from artisans, taxed it, and used the funds to build up his army. He brought much new territory under direct Crown rule. 4. In England Edward IV ended the War of the Roses between rival baronial houses. 5. Henry VII ruled largely without Parliament, using as his advisers men with lower-level gentry origins. 6. Henry’s Court of the Star Chamber tried cases involving aristocrats and did so with methods contradicting common law, such as torture. 7. Although Spain remained a confederation of kingdoms until 1700, the wedding of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon did lead to some centralization. Ferdinand and Isabella stopped violence among the nobles, recruited â€Å"middle-class† advisers onto their royal council, and secured the right to appoint bishops in Spain and in the Spanish empire in America. . Popular anti-Semitism increased in fourteenth-century Spain. In 1478 Ferdinand and Isabella invited the Inquisition into Spain to search out and punish Jewish converts to Christianity who secretly continued Jewish religious practices. 9. To persecute converts, Inquisitors and others formulated a racial theory? that conversos were suspect not because of their beliefs, but because of who they were racially. 10. In 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella expelled the Jews from Spain.

The Pro and Cons of Qualitative Data Analysis Software :: QDA Software

Today the use of technology has become embedded into our daily lives. Most of western civilization has access to a piece of technology at any given point of time. In recent years, technology has started to play a significant role in the area of research. Quantitative research was quickly adapted and aided by technology due to the use of number variables, but the same was not true for qualitative research. In recent years, qualitative research was revolutionized by Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA) software. Although, QDA software has a great deal of positive aspect, there are drawbacks in the utilization. The use of QDA software can have a great impact on ones qualitative research. Because of the text base results of qualitative research it can be difficult for a researcher to break down or code the information and sort through all of his or her findings in a timely manner. QDA software allows for the researcher to code the text based data electronically which allow the data to be manipulated quickly. Dr. Vaishali Patel, and Dr. Anne Riley (2007) also found that QDA software increased the speed of their research and allowed for a more thorough examination of their research. Another advantage to using QDA software is the added ability to look at data analytically. QDA software is able to sort data into groups or queries which assists in looking a research data in different ways. In an article written by Seija Mahlamaki-Kultanen (2003), she finds that her students who used QDA software thought that the analytical data compiled by QDA software was more accessible than manipulating the da ta by hand. These findings further supports the positive impact that QDA software has on qualitative research. Although there are many positive aspects to using QDA software, there are some negative consequences or draw backs to using this type of software. QDA software can have some impact on the researchers experience. This phenomena could interfere with the results of the research. One draw back called tactile-digital divide, which means learning to work on a personal computer instead of paper, could make research more difficult for some (Gilbert, 2002). In a study conducted by Linda Gilbert (2002), she found that researchers had a difficult time making the transition from using paper. She also found that this phenomena usually occurs when an individual first make the transition to using QDA software, and that the symptoms seem to go away after some time has passed.

Econ 561 Profit Analysis Question 2 LO3 Essay

2-8(Key Question) With current technology, suppose a firm is producing 400 loaves of banana bread daily. Also, assume that the least-cost combination of resources in producing those loaves is 5 units of labor, 7 units of land, 2 units of capital, and 1 unit of entrepreneurial ability, selling at prices of $40, $60, $60, and $20, respectively. If the firm can sell these 400 units at $2 per unit, will it continue to produce banana bread? If this firm’s situation is typical for the other makers of banana bread, will resources flow to or away from this bakery good? Total Profits = Total Cost – Total Revenue Total Cost = Presource * Qresource and Total Revenue = Price * Qsold Total Cost = ($40 * 5 units of labor) + ($60 * 7 units of land) + ($60 * 2 units of capital) + ($20 * 1 unit of entrepreneurial ability) = $200 + $420 + $120 + $20 = $760. Total Revenue = $2 * 400 loaves of banana bread = $800. Total Profits = $800 – $760 = $40. The firm will continue to produce as it is earning economic profits. If this firm is typical of the banana bread industry, more resources will flow toward banana bread as other potential firms are attracted to the economic profits in the industry. 2-9 (Key Question) Assume that a business firm finds that its profit it greatest when it produces $40 worth of product A. Suppose also that each of the three techniques shown in the table on page 43 will produce the desired output. Resource Units Required Resource Price per unit of resource Technique 1 Technique 2 Technique 3 Labor Land Capital Entrepreneurial ability 4 a.With the resource prices shown, which technique will the firm choose? Why? Will production entail profit or losses? What will be the amount of profit or loss? Will the industry expand or contract? When will that expansion end? b.Assume now that a new technique, technique 4, is developed. It combines 2 units of labor, 2 of land, 6 of capital, and 3 of entrepreneurial ability. In view of the resource prices in the table, will the firm adopt the new technique? Explain your answer. c.Suppose that an increase in labor supply causes the price of labor to fall to $1.50 per unit, all other resource prices being unchanged. Which technique will the producer now choose? Explain. d.â€Å"The market system causes the economy to conserve most in the use of those resources that are particularly scarce in supply. Resources that are scarcest relative to the demand for them have  the highest prices. As a result, producers use these resources as sparingly as is possible.† Evaluate this state ment. Does your answer to part c, above, bear out this contention? Explain. (a)The firm will choose technique 2 because it produces the output at the least cost ($34 compared to $35 for techniques 1 and 3). Economic profit will be $6 (= $40 – $34), causing the industry to expand. Expansion in this industry will continue until prices decline to where total revenue equals total cost of $34 and no additional firms will want to enter the industry. (b)The firm will adopt technique 4 because its cost is now lowest at $32. (c)The firm will choose technique 1 because its cost is now lowest at $27.50. (d)The statement is logical. Increasing scarcity of a resource causes its price to rise. Firms ignoring higher resource prices will become high-cost producers. Firms switching to the less expensive inputs become lower-cost producers and earn higher profits than high-cost producers. The market system, therefore, forces producers to conserve on the use of highly scarce resources. Question 9c confirms this: Technique 1 was adopted because labor had become less expensive. 2‑10(Key Question) Some large hardware stores such as Home Depot boast of carrying as many as 20,000 different products in each store. What motivated the producers of those individuals to make them and offer them for sale? How did producers decide on the best combinations of resources to use? Who made these resources available, and why? Who decides whether these particular hardware products should continue to be produced and offered for sale? The quest for profit led firms to produce these goods. Producers looked for and found the least-cost combination of resources in producing their output. Resource suppliers, seeking income, made these resources available. Consumers, through their dollar votes, ultimately decide on what will continue to be produced.

Adriaen van de Venne’s “Moralizing Scene with an Old Woman and a Man”

Adriaen van de Venne is perhaps one of the more popular Dutch painters from the Baroque era. Although he was not formally trained as an artist, a number of Dutch artists have influenced Adriaen van de Venne’s style. Jan and Peter Brueghel are two of the artists whose styles have influenced van de Venne quite greatly, both employing their painting style and the over-all theme of their chosen subjects.His experiences as a book illustrator, painter and draftsman, and the time he spent learning art with local artists enabled Adriaen van de Venne to come up with his own signature style, of which the grisaille technique appears most commonly.His painting, Moralizing Scene with an Old Woman and a Man was painted by Adriaen van de Venne in 1631. The oil on paper painting measures 6 9/16 inches by 4  ½ inches and is quite characteristic of the artist’s later style, specifically the grisaille technique.The grisaille technique primarily makes use of different shades of gray for a monochromatic, more dramatic effect. Perhaps the most striking characteristic of the painting is the use of subtle tones of the only one color to depict the entire scene.An old woman carrying a cat is seen smoking an older man’s pipe, which he carries close enough for the woman to take a puff. Another old man who is partly hidden behind the old woman is seen tapping her shoulder, while a boy patting a dog is seen behind the old man with the pipe.Another significant element in the painting is the use of light. The old man with the pipe carries a lamp on his other hand which lights his face quite clearly, as well as his hands and also the old woman’s face. The light that the lamp gives off makes it possible to see the finer details of the painting such as the old man’s thick beard; the old woman’s wrinkled face and also their soiled hands.The crescent moon on the upper left corner of the painting also makes wise use of light in the painting itself, adding more flair and making the otherwise dull night more dramatic. Art enthusiasts believe that Adriaen van de Venne’s Moralizing Scene with an Old Woman and a Man is one of his works which makes the best use of light to highlight the features of the subjects on his painting.True to Adriaen van de Venne’s certain quality of painting scenes that depict normal people in their daily routine in a satirical, often symbolic light to warn against a number of unpleasant behavior. The particular painting might be suggestive of this particular characteristic; however, one cannot derive an absolute notion as to what the painting specifically depicts.Only inferences may be derived from the said painting as to which â€Å"immorality† it may warn people against, owing to the seemingly innocent act of the old woman smoking an old man’s pipe. Perhaps it talks about the immoral behavior that both the old man and woman exhibit especially during the period it was painted.The ol d woman smoking the pipe may suggest her unfounded extravagance, while the old man offering his pipe may suggest his unclear intentions for the woman. The man tapping the woman in the background may perhaps be suggesting that the woman should not be smoking from somebody else’s pipe in the first place while the child petting the dog provides a great contrast with the immoral behavior going on in the foreground.Personally the grisaille technique is not one of my favorite painting styles because of its subdued and monochromatic colors; however, having this particular painting of Adriaen van de Venne hung as part of my collection will surely be a delight because it will always serve as a reminder and a warning of the immorality that exists in society.The artist’s real intentions behind the painting may no longer be discovered but how one looks at it and interprets it may hold different significant meanings for different people.