Sunday, December 29, 2019

Tracking Pba Schedule - 692 Words

INTRODUCTORY SUMMARY In the past two years, our company has consistently missed the release dates for our PBA (printed board assembly) products. These missed releases have resulted in fines to the company, and extreme customer dissatisfaction. We have had to reduce our workforce considerably over the past year, and in the process, we have lost experienced employee talent. Middle management has accepted the challenge to develop a PBA Design to Release Spreadsheet. This spreadsheet process will assist our Research and Development organization in achieving the company’s goal to honor its contractual obligations to customers. Since budget cuts are in place, the spreadsheet will be developed based on existing resources and work force.†¦show more content†¦Once each group has agreed upon their responsibilities, the Team Lead will present the list to the Core Team. In the past, when this kind of information has been collected, the biggest concern expressed from all of the groups is the limited amount of time they have to complete their job efficiently. Their main concern is limited personnel and resources. This spreadsheet tracking process will present a â€Å"work culture† challenge in the way our teams approach their tasks. CORE TEAM REVIEWS EACH GROUP’S DEFINITION OF DUTIES After each group has completed their list of tasks and timelines, the Core Team reviews the combined results. The Core Team’s goal is to evaluate the lists, and incorporate them into the final spreadsheet. The spreadsheet will define the fundamental duties and timelines to complete for each group. The ultimate goal is to get the product to the customer within eight months. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS The logical approach is to start to perform the design work in â€Å"parallel† across groups, when practical. This practice of â€Å"concurrent engineering† is commonly used by understaffed, schedule-driven companies. Using this method, each group can be working on their portion of the design, without having to wait for the previous group to complete their portion. When the schedule of the PBA release has been established, an excel spreadsheet is generated with each participant’s responsibilities and timelines.Show MoreRelatedPremuim Hair Care Llc Business Plan8525 Words   |  35 PagesPerformance Indicators - KPIs Branding Marketing Brand Positioning Marketing Financial Structure Organization Deal Structure Assumptions Financial Model Proforma Return Exit Strategy Next Steps Appendix Store Investment Store Proforma Store Opening Schedule by Market Financial Proforma (Sources and Uses) Master Franchise Agreement Options Agreement PHC Operating Agreement PPM 3 4 5 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 12 13 14 14 15 16 17 20 21 22 23 23 24 26 27 27 29 30 31 31 32 32 II. III. IV. V. IV

Saturday, December 21, 2019

Graduation Speech Essay examples - 885 Words

To the County High School Class of 2012: As you sit in front of me, I know what most of you are thinking at the moment. There are those who are already pondering about what life without high school will be like; those who are debating whether or not to tell your crush tonight about your whispers of adoration you’ve secretly held for four years; some simply want to get out of that ungodly chair, get that thing that isn’t really a diploma but only tells you when to pick up the thing, and then be the first one on the green bus to the grad party — you know who you are. And the rest, well, the rest aren’t even paying attention, you’re thinking, â€Å"Great, here comes one of the valedictorian speakers. Next up: a boring speech straight out of the†¦show more content†¦For the moment, please do not dwell on the past or even look into the future, there’s time for that later. Instead, I ask that you give up a few minutes of your lives to sit back, let that gown flow and enjoy the final curtain call of your high school career. Enjoy the sights and sounds of today, right now; and be aware of the mindfulness opening your senses and releasing your inhibitions can summon. Feel the tingle on your eyes; it is trying to tell you something so pay attention to it. Look, do you see it? That’s anxiety, a thick and pulsating anxiety that is flowing through the air right now from person to person. It is a stream of consciousness that is multiplied in this medium only because we all have the same questions: Do I have time to go to the bathroom? When will this Asian fool shut up? Who is this guy sitting next to me and why is he so ugly? The anxiety will not die. Capture the anxiety in your mind as a visual aspect of tonight. Remember it. Let the twitch in your ear awake your emotions. Listen carefully. It’s the sound of a gloomy day. What is usually a dismal tune is now replaced with the bittersweet melody of our graduation ceremony under the clouds. Ask yourself, when was the last time you realized the song, instead of the sight of a day? Capture the drizzle as an audio aspect of tonight. Remember it. Allow the pads of your fingers to feelShow MoreRelatedGraduation Speech : My Graduation Essay1022 Words   |  5 Pages My Graduation A Graduation ceremony is one of the major steps in life, it marks the start of new changes in our lives. It ushers us into growing up and be responsible for our actions. It marks a new dawn of embracing life experiences, cultivation of good work ethics and eventually culminates in chasing our dreams. On my graduation day, I woke up to the sweet aroma of the breakfast my sister was making. I sat down to eat when the food was ready. It took me about 2 hours to finishRead MoreGraduation Speech1128 Words   |  5 PagesSasenarine Tomby Graduation Speech 2011 Good afternoon [name of members of the head table], teachers, parents, students, fellow graduates and distinguished guests. I must first and foremost thank God for this blessing and honor to stand before you today as Valedictorian of the Class of 2011. Yet, today is not only my day to shine. Every graduate present here is deserving of high praise and recognition and I would like to congratulate each of you on reaching this milestone in life. IRead MoreGraduation Speech650 Words   |  3 PagesCongratulations everyone, congratulations. If youre participating in this graduation ceremony, youve taken the next step toward your future goals and dreams. For those of you that just finished your transfer degrees, congratulations. To those of you that came back to school after a few years off to get a better education, congratulations. To those of you that came to get a certificate or learn IT or computer programming so you can get a better job, congratulations. Now that youre moving onRead More Graduation Speech Essay1010 Words   |  5 PagesLadies, gentlemen, parents, friends, family, staff, fellow students: Instead of taking up more time and reading my speech, it is available to you at http://www.olen’s_speech.com. Thank you. No, just kidding. But seriously folks... Today we are gathered here to celebrate our graduation from 12 long years of schooling. The education granted to us has been a privilege. One so graciously given to us by the citizens of our state, by our community, and by our parents. Today would not beRead More Graduation Speech Essay1009 Words   |  5 Pagesyou might ever sit through. Most of us, though, and I regret that I am in this group, will sit through many more ceremonies -- ceremonies longer and more tedious that this or anything else you can imagine. If you think this is bad, try a college graduation. Think, that is, attend a wedding. And, if just for a moment you think that that is bad, just be thankful you have never attended or will attend a Bar Mitzvah. The only ceremony I think anybody would truly enjoy attending is a funeral. But, onlyRead MoreEssay on Graduation Speech830 Words   |  4 Pagesthe senior class president. A few weeks ago, I was told that I would be speaking at graduation. I was asked to put together a speech for tonight -- Ive become experienced at speech writing over the past couple of weeks. The speech that you are hearing is the fourth one Ive written, the recycle bin needs to be emptied at home and I need a new highlighter. Thank you, Mr. Mier, you get an A+ for your help as my speech teacher but an F for saving trees. Tonight Id like to talk to three groupsRead MoreAn Example of a Graduation Speech653 Words   |  3 Pageswriting papers, doing homework, taking an occasional pop quiz, and of course taking countless exams, it is that time that we all anticipate†¦Graduation! Purpose Statement: Since the majority of us are seniors, and graduation is a little less than a month away, I am going to provide you with some historical background information and some fun facts about graduation in order to make the occasion even more meaningful than it already is. Road Map: Most of you could probably agree that high school wasRead More Graduation Speech Essay1516 Words   |  7 Pagesstudy abroad, and with the great help of the Turner family, Ms. Joy Fitzpatrick who is the international student program coordinator, and my parents, I entered America as an international student on March 11, 2001, only one week after my high school graduation in Japan. It seems as though yesterday when I saw my host mom crying at the airport to see me landed to America safely, as if she were welcoming back her own daughter. I still recall the very first class I took. I was so scared and nervous thatRead More Graduation Speech Essay1115 Words   |  5 Pagesthis graduation speech, several people suggested including a profound quote offering â€Å"encouraging advice to the young graduates†, and then there were others who said, â€Å"eh don’t worry about it, no one listens to those anyway.† Fortunately, I was actually able to take from both suggestions and found a happy balance. You see, I won’t tell you today to: â€Å"Dare to dream† or â€Å"Find your own vision† or even to â€Å"Strive for excellence,† or any trite clichà © that’s ever been said in a graduation speech. SoRead More Graduation Speech Essay560 Words   |  3 PagesWhen they were trying to find someone to give this speech they first asked the most intelligent, smart person they could find. But she turned them down. So then they asked the most beautiful, lovely, attractive person they could find. She also turned them down. Next they asked the nicest, sweetest, kindest, most sincere person they could find. Then I decided it would be rude to turn them down three times in a row, so here I am. How many people here like tomato soup? Come on, raise your hand if

Friday, December 13, 2019

Angels Demons Chapter 113-117 Free Essays

string(23) " worked the next lock\." 113 Something was wrong. Lieutenant Chartrand stood outside the Pope’s office and sensed in the uneasy stance of the soldier standing with him that they shared the same anxiety. The private meeting they were shielding, Rocher had said, could save the Vatican from destruction. We will write a custom essay sample on Angels Demons Chapter 113-117 or any similar topic only for you Order Now So Chartrand wondered why his protective instincts were tingling. And why was Rocher acting so strangely? Something definitely was awry. Captain Rocher stood to Chartrand’s right, staring dead ahead, his sharp gaze uncharacteristically distant. Chartrand barely recognized the captain. Rocher had not been himself in the last hour. His decisions made no sense. Someone should be present inside this meeting! Chartrand thought. He had heard Maximilian Kohler bolt the door after he entered. Why had Rocher permitted this? But there was so much more bothering Chartrand. The cardinals. The cardinals were still locked in the Sistine Chapel. This was absolute insanity. The camerlegno had wanted them evacuated fifteen minutes ago! Rocher had overruled the decision and not informed the camerlegno. Chartrand had expressed concern, and Rocher had almost taken off his head. Chain of command was never questioned in the Swiss Guard, and Rocher was now top dog. Half an hour, Rocher thought, discreetly checking his Swiss chronometer in the dim light of the candelabra lighting the hall. Please hurry. Chartrand wished he could hear what was happening on the other side of the doors. Still, he knew there was no one he would rather have handling this crisis than the camerlegno. The man had been tested beyond reason tonight, and he had not flinched. He had confronted the problem head-on†¦ truthful, candid, shining like an example to all. Chartrand felt proud right now to be a Catholic. The Illuminati had made a mistake when they challenged Camerlegno Ventresca. At that moment, however, Chartrand’s thoughts were jolted by an unexpected sound. A banging. It was coming from down the hall. The pounding was distant and muffled, but incessant. Rocher looked up. The captain turned to Chartrand and motioned down the hall. Chartrand understood. He turned on his flashlight and took off to investigate. The banging was more desperate now. Chartrand ran thirty yards down the corridor to an intersection. The noise seemed to be coming from around the corner, beyond the Sala Clementina. Chartrand felt perplexed. There was only one room back there – the Pope’s private library. His Holiness’s private library had been locked since the Pope’s death. Nobody could possibly be in there! Chartrand hurried down the second corridor, turned another corner, and rushed to the library door. The wooden portico was diminutive, but it stood in the dark like a dour sentinel. The banging was coming from somewhere inside. Chartrand hesitated. He had never been inside the private library. Few had. No one was allowed in without an escort by the Pope himself. Tentatively, Chartrand reached for the doorknob and turned. As he had imagined, the door was locked. He put his ear to the door. The banging was louder. Then he heard something else. Voices! Someone calling out! He could not make out the words, but he could hear the panic in their shouts. Was someone trapped in the library? Had the Swiss Guard not properly evacuated the building? Chartrand hesitated, wondering if he should go back and consult Rocher. The hell with that. Chartrand had been trained to make decisions, and he would make one now. He pulled out his side arm and fired a single shot into the door latch. The wood exploded, and the door swung open. Beyond the threshold Chartrand saw nothing but blackness. He shone his flashlight. The room was rectangular – oriental carpets, high oak shelves packed with books, a stitched leather couch, and a marble fireplace. Chartrand had heard stories of this place – three thousand ancient volumes side by side with hundreds of current magazines and periodicals, anything His Holiness requested. The coffee table was covered with journals of science and politics. The banging was clearer now. Chartrand shone his light across the room toward the sound. On the far wall, beyond the sitting area, was a huge door made of iron. It looked impenetrable as a vault. It had four mammoth locks. The tiny etched letters dead center of the door took Chartrand’s breath away. IL PASSETTO Chartrand stared. The Pope’s secret escape route! Chartrand had certainly heard of Il Passetto, and he had even heard rumors that it had once had an entrance here in the library, but the tunnel had not been used in ages! Who could be banging on the other side? Chartrand took his flashlight and rapped on the door. There was a muffled exultation from the other side. The banging stopped, and the voices yelled louder. Chartrand could barely make out their words through the barricade. â€Å"†¦ Kohler†¦ lie†¦ camerlegno†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Who is that?† Chartrand yelled. â€Å"†¦ ert Langdon†¦ Vittoria Ve†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Chartrand understood enough to be confused. I thought you were dead! â€Å"†¦ the door,† the voices yelled. â€Å"Open†¦!† Chartrand looked at the iron barrier and knew he would need dynamite to get through there. â€Å"Impossible!† he yelled. â€Å"Too thick!† â€Å"†¦ meeting†¦ stop†¦ erlegno†¦ danger†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Despite his training on the hazards of panic, Chartrand felt a sudden rush of fear at the last few words. Had he understood correctly? Heart pounding, he turned to run back to the office. As he turned, though, he stalled. His gaze had fallen to something on the door†¦ something more shocking even than the message coming from beyond it. Emerging from the keyholes of each of the door’s massive locks were keys. Chartrand stared. The keys were here? He blinked in disbelief. The keys to this door were supposed to be in a vault someplace! This passage was never used – not for centuries! Chartrand dropped his flashlight on the floor. He grabbed the first key and turned. The mechanism was rusted and stiff, but it still worked. Someone had opened it recently. Chartrand worked the next lock. You read "Angels Demons Chapter 113-117" in category "Essay examples" And the next. When the last bolt slid aside, Chartrand pulled. The slab of iron creaked open. He grabbed his light and shone it into the passage. Robert Langdon and Vittoria Vetra looked like apparitions as they staggered into the library. Both were ragged and tired, but they were very much alive. â€Å"What is this!† Chartrand demanded. â€Å"What’s going on! Where did you come from?† â€Å"Where’s Max Kohler?† Langdon demanded. Chartrand pointed. â€Å"In a private meeting with the camer – â€Å" Langdon and Vittoria pushed past him and ran down the darkened hall. Chartrand turned, instinctively raising his gun at their backs. He quickly lowered it and ran after them. Rocher apparently heard them coming, because as they arrived outside the Pope’s office, Rocher had spread his legs in a protective stance and was leveling his gun at them. â€Å"Alt!† â€Å"The camerlegno is in danger!† Langdon yelled, raising his arms in surrender as he slid to a stop. â€Å"Open the door! Max Kohler is going to kill the camerlegno!† Rocher looked angry. â€Å"Open the door!† Vittoria said. â€Å"Hurry!† But it was too late. From inside the Pope’s office came a bloodcurdling scream. It was the camerlegno. 114 The confrontation lasted only seconds. Camerlegno Ventresca was still screaming when Chartrand stepped past Rocher and blew open the door of the Pope’s office. The guards dashed in. Langdon and Vittoria ran in behind them. The scene before them was staggering. The chamber was lit only by candlelight and a dying fire. Kohler was near the fireplace, standing awkwardly in front of his wheelchair. He brandished a pistol, aimed at the camerlegno, who lay on the floor at his feet, writhing in agony. The camerlegno’s cassock was torn open, and his bare chest was seared black. Langdon could not make out the symbol from across the room, but a large, square brand lay on the floor near Kohler. The metal still glowed red. Two of the Swiss Guards acted without hesitation. They opened fire. The bullets smashed into Kohler’s chest, driving him backward. Kohler collapsed into his wheelchair, his chest gurgling blood. His gun went skittering across the floor. Langdon stood stunned in the doorway. Vittoria seemed paralyzed. â€Å"Max†¦Ã¢â‚¬  she whispered. The camerlegno, still twisting on the floor, rolled toward Rocher, and with the trancelike terror of the early witch hunts, pointed his index finger at Rocher and yelled a single word. â€Å"ILLUMINATUS!† â€Å"You bastard,† Rocher said, running at him. â€Å"You sanctimonious bas – â€Å" This time it was Chartrand who reacted on instinct, putting three bullets in Rocher’s back. The captain fell face first on the tile floor and slid lifeless through his own blood. Chartrand and the guards dashed immediately to the camerlegno, who lay clutching himself, convulsing in pain. Both guards let out exclamations of horror when they saw the symbol seared on the camerlegno’s chest. The second guard saw the brand upside down and immediately staggered backward with fear in his eyes. Chartrand, looking equally overwhelmed by the symbol, pulled the camerlegno’s torn cassock up over the burn, shielding it from view. Langdon felt delirious as he moved across the room. Through a mist of insanity and violence, he tried to make sense of what he was seeing. A crippled scientist, in a final act of symbolic dominance, had flown into Vatican City and branded the church’s highest official. Some things are worth dying for, the Hassassin had said. Langdon wondered how a handicapped man could possibly have overpowered the camerlegno. Then again, Kohler had a gun. It doesn’t matter how he did it! Kohler accomplished his mission! Langdon moved toward the gruesome scene. The camerlegno was being attended, and Langdon felt himself drawn toward the smoking brand on the floor near Kohler’s wheelchair. The sixth brand? The closer Langdon got, the more confused he became. The brand seemed to be a perfect square, quite large, and had obviously come from the sacred center compartment of the chest in the Illuminati Lair. A sixth and final brand, the Hassassin had said. The most brilliant of all. Langdon knelt beside Kohler and reached for the object. The metal still radiated heat. Grasping the wooden handle, Langdon picked it up. He was not sure what he expected to see, but it most certainly was not this. Angels Demons Langdon stared a long, confused moment. Nothing was making sense. Why had the guards cried out in horror when they saw this? It was a square of meaningless squiggles. The most brilliant of all? It was symmetrical, Langdon could tell as he rotated it in his hand, but it was gibberish. When he felt a hand on his shoulder, Langdon looked up, expecting Vittoria. The hand, however, was covered with blood. It belonged to Maximilian Kohler, who was reaching out from his wheelchair. Langdon dropped the brand and staggered to his feet. Kohler’s still alive! Slumped in his wheelchair, the dying director was still breathing, albeit barely, sucking in sputtering gasps. Kohler’s eyes met Langdon’s, and it was the same stony gaze that had greeted Langdon at CERN earlier that day. The eyes looked even harder in death, the loathing and enmity rising to the surface. The scientist’s body quivered, and Langdon sensed he was trying to move. Everyone else in the room was focused on the camerlegno, and Langdon wanted to call out, but he could not react. He was transfixed by the intensity radiating from Kohler in these final seconds of his life. The director, with tremulous effort, lifted his arm and pulled a small device off the arm of his wheelchair. It was the size of a matchbox. He held it out, quivering. For an instant, Langdon feared Kohler had a weapon. But it was something else. â€Å"G-give†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Kohler’s final words were a gurgling whisper. â€Å"G-give this†¦ to the m-media.† Kohler collapsed motionless, and the device fell in his lap. Shocked, Langdon stared at the device. It was electronic. The words SONY RUVI were printed across the front. Langdon recognized it as one of those new ultraminiature, palm-held camcorders. The balls on this guy! he thought. Kohler had apparently recorded some sort of final suicide message he wanted the media to broadcast†¦ no doubt some sermon about the importance of science and the evils of religion. Langdon decided he had done enough for this man’s cause tonight. Before Chartrand saw Kohler’s camcorder, Langdon slipped it into his deepest jacket pocket. Kohler’s final message can rot in hell! It was the voice of the camerlegno that broke the silence. He was trying to sit up. â€Å"The cardinals,† he gasped to Chartrand. â€Å"Still in the Sistine Chapel!† Chartrand exclaimed. â€Å"Captain Rocher ordered – † â€Å"Evacuate†¦ now. Everyone.† Chartrand sent one of the other guards running off to let the cardinals out. The camerlegno grimaced in pain. â€Å"Helicopter†¦ out front†¦ get me to a hospital.† 115 In St. Peter’s Square, the Swiss Guard pilot sat in the cockpit of the parked Vatican helicopter and rubbed his temples. The chaos in the square around him was so loud that it drowned out the sound of his idling rotors. This was no solemn candlelight vigil. He was amazed a riot had not broken out yet. With less than twenty-five minutes left until midnight, the people were still packed together, some praying, some weeping for the church, others screaming obscenities and proclaiming that this was what the church deserved, still others chanting apocalyptic Bible verses. The pilot’s head pounded as the media lights glinted off his windshield. He squinted out at the clamorous masses. Banners waved over the crowd. Antimatter is the Antichrist! Scientist=Satanist Where is your God now? The pilot groaned, his headache worsening. He half considered grabbing the windshield’s vinyl covering and putting it up so he wouldn’t have to watch, but he knew he would be airborne in a matter of minutes. Lieutenant Chartrand had just radioed with terrible news. The camerlegno had been attacked by Maximilian Kohler and seriously injured. Chartrand, the American, and the woman were carrying the camerlegno out now so he could be evacuated to a hospital. The pilot felt personally responsible for the attack. He reprimanded himself for not acting on his gut. Earlier, when he had picked up Kohler at the airport, he had sensed something in the scientist’s dead eyes. He couldn’t place it, but he didn’t like it. Not that it mattered. Rocher was running the show, and Rocher insisted this was the guy. Rocher had apparently been wrong. A new clamor arose from the crowd, and the pilot looked over to see a line of cardinals processing solemnly out of the Vatican onto St. Peter’s Square. The cardinals’ relief to be leaving ground zero seemed to be quickly overcome by looks of bewilderment at the spectacle now going on outside the church. The crowd noise intensified yet again. The pilot’s head pounded. He needed an aspirin. Maybe three. He didn’t like to fly on medication, but a few aspirin would certainly be less debilitating than this raging headache. He reached for the first-aid kit, kept with assorted maps and manuals in a cargo box bolted between the two front seats. When he tried to open the box, though, he found it locked. He looked around for the key and then finally gave up. Tonight was clearly not his lucky night. He went back to massaging his temples. Inside the darkened basilica, Langdon, Vittoria, and the two guards strained breathlessly toward the main exit. Unable to find anything more suitable, the four of them were transporting the wounded camerlegno on a narrow table, balancing the inert body between them as though on a stretcher. Outside the doors, the faint roar of human chaos was now audible. The camerlegno teetered on the brink of unconsciousness. Time was running out. 116 It was 11:39 P.M. when Langdon stepped with the others from St. Peter’s Basilica. The glare that hit his eyes was searing. The media lights shone off the white marble like sunlight off a snowy tundra. Langdon squinted, trying to find refuge behind the faà §ade’s enormous columns, but the light came from all directions. In front of him, a collage of massive video screens rose above the crowd. Standing there atop the magnificent stairs that spilled down to the piazza below, Langdon felt like a reluctant player on the world’s biggest stage. Somewhere beyond the glaring lights, Langdon heard an idling helicopter and the roar of a hundred thousand voices. To their left, a procession of cardinals was now evacuating onto the square. They all stopped in apparent distress to see the scene now unfolding on the staircase. â€Å"Careful now,† Chartrand urged, sounding focused as the group began descending the stairs toward the helicopter. Langdon felt like they were moving underwater. His arms ached from the weight of the camerlegno and the table. He wondered how the moment could get much less dignified. Then he saw the answer. The two BBC reporters had apparently been crossing the open square on their way back to the press area. But now, with the roar of the crowd, they had turned. Glick and Macri were now running back toward them. Macri’s camera was raised and rolling. Here come the vultures, Langdon thought. â€Å"Alt!† Chartrand yelled. â€Å"Get back!† But the reporters kept coming. Langdon guessed the other networks would take about six seconds to pick up this live BBC feed again. He was wrong. They took two. As if connected by some sort of universal consciousness, every last media screen in the piazza cut away from their countdown clocks and their Vatican experts and began transmitting the same picture – a jiggling action footage swooping up the Vatican stairs. Now, everywhere Langdon looked, he saw the camerlegno’s limp body in a Technicolor close-up. This is wrong! Langdon thought. He wanted to run down the stairs and interfere, but he could not. It wouldn’t have helped anyway. Whether it was the roar of the crowd or the cool night air that caused it, Langdon would never know, but at that moment, the inconceivable occurred. Like a man awakening from a nightmare, the camerlegno’s eyes shot open and he sat bolt upright. Taken entirely by surprise, Langdon and the others fumbled with the shifting weight. The front of the table dipped. The camerlegno began to slide. They tried to recover by setting the table down, but it was too late. The camerlegno slid off the front. Incredibly, he did not fall. His feet hit the marble, and he swayed upright. He stood a moment, looking disoriented, and then, before anyone could stop him, he lurched forward, staggering down the stairs toward Macri. â€Å"No!† Langdon screamed. Chartrand rushed forward, trying to reign in the camerlegno. But the camerlegno turned on him, wild-eyed, crazed. â€Å"Leave me!† Chartrand jumped back. The scene went from bad to worse. The camerlegno’s torn cassock, having been only laid over his chest by Chartrand, began to slip lower. For a moment, Langdon thought the garment might hold, but that moment passed. The cassock let go, sliding off his shoulders down around his waist. The gasp that went up from the crowd seemed to travel around the globe and back in an instant. Cameras rolled, flashbulbs exploded. On media screens everywhere, the image of the camerlegno’s branded chest was projected, towering and in grisly detail. Some screens were even freezing the image and rotating it 180 degrees. The ultimate Illuminati victory. Langdon stared at the brand on the screens. Although it was the imprint of the square brand he had held earlier, the symbol now made sense. Perfect sense. The marking’s awesome power hit Langdon like a train. Orientation. Langdon had forgotten the first rule of symbology. When is a square not a square? He had also forgotten that iron brands, just like rubber stamps, never looked like their imprints. They were in reverse. Langdon had been looking at the brand’s negative! As the chaos grew, an old Illuminati quote echoed with new meaning: â€Å"A flawless diamond, born of the ancient elements with such perfection that all those who saw it could only stare in wonder.† Langdon knew now the myth was true. Earth, Air, Fire, Water. The Illuminati Diamond. Angels Demons 117 Robert Langdon had little doubt that the chaos and hysteria coursing through St. Peter’s Square at this very instant exceeded anything Vatican Hill had ever witnessed. No battle, no crucifixion, no pilgrimage, no mystical vision†¦ nothing in the shrine’s 2,000-year history could possibly match the scope and drama of this very moment. As the tragedy unfolded, Langdon felt oddly separate, as if hovering there beside Vittoria at the top of the stairs. The action seemed to distend, as if in a time warp, all the insanity slowing to a crawl†¦ The branded camerlegno†¦ raving for the world to see†¦ The Illuminati Diamond†¦ unveiled in its diabolical genius†¦ The countdown clock registering the final twenty minutes of Vatican history†¦ The drama, however, had only just begun. The camerlegno, as if in some sort of post-traumatic trance, seemed suddenly puissant, possessed by demons. He began babbling, whispering to unseen spirits, looking up at the sky and raising his arms to God. â€Å"Speak!† the camerlegno yelled to the heavens. â€Å"Yes, I hear you!† In that moment, Langdon understood. His heart dropped like a rock. Vittoria apparently understood too. She went white. â€Å"He’s in shock,† she said. â€Å"He’s hallucinating. He thinks he’s talking to God!† Somebody’s got to stop this, Langdon thought. It was a wretched and embarrassing end. Get this man to a hospital! Below them on the stairs, Chinita Macri was poised and filming, apparently having located her ideal vantage point. The images she filmed appeared instantly across the square behind her on media screens†¦ like endless drive-in movies all playing the same grisly tragedy. The whole scene felt epic. The camerlegno, in his torn cassock, with the scorched brand on his chest, looked like some sort of battered champion who had overcome the rings of hell for this one moment of revelation. He bellowed to the heavens. â€Å"Ti sento, Dio! I hear you, God!† Chartrand backed off, a look of awe on his face. The hush that fell across the crowd was instant and absolute. For a moment it was as if the silence had fallen across the entire planet†¦ everyone in front of their TVs rigid, a communal holding of breath. The camerlegno stood on the stairs, before the world, and held out his arms. He looked almost Christlike, bare and wounded before the world. He raised his arms to the heavens and, looking up, exclaimed, â€Å"Grazie! Grazie, Dio!† The silence of the masses never broke. â€Å"Grazie, Dio!† the camerlegno cried out again. Like the sun breaking through a stormy sky, a look of joy spread across his face. â€Å"Grazie, Dio!† Thank you, God? Langdon stared in wonder. The camerlegno was radiant now, his eerie transformation complete. He looked up at the sky, still nodding furiously. He shouted to the heavens, â€Å"Upon this rock I will build my church!† Langdon knew the words, but he had no idea why the camerlegno could possibly be shouting them. The camerlegno turned back to the crowd and bellowed again into the night. â€Å"Upon this rock I will build my church!† Then he raised his hands to the sky and laughed out loud. â€Å"Grazie, Dio! Grazie!† The man had clearly gone mad. The world watched, spellbound. The culmination, however, was something no one expected. With a final joyous exultation, the camerlegno turned and dashed back into St. Peter’s Basilica. How to cite Angels Demons Chapter 113-117, Essay examples

Thursday, December 5, 2019

Compare and Contrast Mayo with Taylor free essay sample

Frederick Winslow Taylor also known as F. W. Taylor and George Elton Mayo have given some important definitions to the management work in the past. F. W. Taylor the Father of Scientific Management opposed the rule of thumb and said that there is only ‘one best way of doing work’ where as Elton Mayo proposed that the importance of groups affects the behaviour of individuals at work. As the topic suggests, there are many contrasts between Taylor and Mayo but the only similarity between these is that they both wanted to that more production can be possible only through more efficiency by the workers but Taylor explained it through the superior – subordinate relationship and Mayo by the informal organization. Before writing about the contrasts let’s look in detail about Taylor and Mayo and then define their contrasts. Frederick Winslow Taylor (20th March 1856 – 21st March 1915) Also known as F. W.Taylor, wan an American mechanical engineer who sought to improve industrial efficiency. We will write a custom essay sample on Compare and Contrast Mayo with Taylor or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Taylor is regarded as the father of scientific management, and was one of the first management consultants. He was one of the intellectual leaders of the Efficiency Movement and his ideas, broadly conceived, were highly influential in the Progressive Era. Taylor was born in 1856 to a wealthy Quaker family in Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Taylor became an industrial apprentice patternmaker, gaining shop-floor experience at a pump-manufacturing company Enterprise Hydraulic Works, Philadelphia. Taylors career progressed in 1878 when he became a machine shop laborer at Midvale Steel Works. Taylor was promoted to chief engineer at Midvale. Taylor took night study at Stevens Institute of Technology and in 1883 obtained a degree in Mechanical Engineering. 1898, Taylor joined Bethlehem Steel. Taylor was forced to leave Bethlehem Steel in 1901 after antagonisms with other managers. Taylor eventually became a professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Late winter of 1915 Taylor caught pneumonia and one day after his fifty-ninth birthday, on March 21, he died. He was buried in West Laurel Hill Cemetery, in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. Scientific management (also called Taylorism, the Taylor system, or the Classical Perspective) is a theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflow processes, improving labor productivity. The core ideas of the theory were developed in the 1880s and 1890s. Followers of Taylor include Gnatt, Frank and Lillian Gillberth and Emerson (Agarwal 1982). Taylor made contributions in the form of 4 scientific principles and 7 techniques. Let’s elaborate on them:- Scientific Principles of Management 1)Science not Rule of Thumb: He believed that there was only one best method to maximise efficiency and the method could be developed through study and analysis. The method so developed should substitute ‘Rule of Thumb’. Scientific method involved investigation of traditional methods through work – study, unifying the best practices and developing a standard method, which would be followed throughout the organisation. 2)Harmony, Not Discord: Factory system implied that managers served as a link between owners and the workers. The managers had the mandate to ‘get work done’ from the workers but Taylor was in the belief that there always existed the possibility of a kind of class – conflict. He recognised that this conflict helped none, the workers, the managers or the factory owners. He emphasised that three should be complete harmony between the management and workers. Both should realise that each one is important. Taylor called for a complete mental revolution on the part of both management and workers. )Cooperation, Not Individualism: There should be complete cooperation between the labour and the management instead of individualism. Competition should be replaced by cooperation. Both should realise that they need each other. For this, management should not close it ears to any constructive suggestions made by the employees. If any important decisions are taken, workers should be taken into confidence. At the same time workers should desist from going on strike and making unreasona ble demands on management. According to Taylor, there should be an almost equal division of work and responsibility between workers and management. 4)Development of each and every person to His or Her Greatest Efficiency and Prosperity: Taylor was of the view that the concern for efficiency could be built in right from the process of employee selection. Each person should be scientifically selected. The work assigned should suit her/his physical, mental and intellectual capabilities. To increase efficiency, they should be given the required training. Efficient employees would produce more and earn more. This will ensure their greatest efficiency and prosperity for both company and workers. Techniques of Scientific Management 1)Functional Foremanship: Taylor concentrated on improving the performance of the foreman who represents the managerial figure with whom the workers are in face – to – face contact on daily basis. He identified a list of qualities of a good foreman/supervisor and found that no single person could fit them all. Thus, he promoted functional foremanship through eight persons. Under the factory manager there was a planning incharge and a production incharge. The former had four personnel namely card clerk, route clerk, time and cost clerk and disciplinarian whereas the latter had personnel who would work were speed boss, gang boss, repair boss and inspector. 2)Standardisation and Simplification of Work: Standardisation refers to the process of setting standards for every business activity; it can be standardisation of process, raw material, time, product, machinery, methods or working conditions. These standards are benchmarks, which must be adhered to during productions. Simplifications aim at eliminating superfluous varieties, sizes and dimensions. It results in savings of cost of labour, machines, fuller utilisation of equipment and increasing turnover. 3)Method study: The objective of method study is to find out one best way of doing the job. The objective of the whole exercise is to minimise the cost of production and maximise the quality and satisfaction of the customer. 4)Motion Study: Refers to the study of movements like lifting, putting objects, sitting and changing positions etc. which are undertaken while doing a typical job. Unnecessary movements are sought to be eliminated so that it takes less time to complete the job efficiently. Taylor used stopwatches and various symbols and colours to identify different motions. 5)Time Study: It determines the standard time taken to perform a well-defined job. Time measuring devices are used for each element of task. 6)Fatigue Study: It seeks to determine the amount and frequency of rest interva ls in completing tasks. Rest intervals will help one to regain stamina and work again with the same capacity which will result in increased productivity. 7)Differential Piece Wage System: Taylor was a strong advocate of piece wage system and wanted to differentiate between efficient and inefficient workers. He wanted to reward the efficient workers and so introduced different rate of wage payment for those who performed above standard and for those who preformed below standard. According to him the inefficient worker will be motivated to perform better due to the difference in rewards. Elements †¢Labor is defined and authority/responsibility is legitimised/official †¢Positions placed in hierarchy and under authority of higher level †¢Selection is based upon technical competence, training or experience †¢Actions and decisions are recorded to allow continuity and memory †¢Management is different from ownership of the organization †¢Managers follow rules/procedures to enable reliable/predictable behaviour Taylor believed that scientific management cannot work unless the worker benefits. In his view work should be arranged in such a way the more is produced by the worker and being paid more for the work done making use of more efficient procedures. George Elton Mayo (26th December 1880 – 7th September 1949) George Elton Mayo was an Australian psychologist, sociologist and organization theorist. He emigrated to the USA in 1922 and in1926 became the director of the Department of Industrial Research at Harvard University. His primary concern was to examine the human aspects of work Mayo is known as the founder of the Human Relations Movement, and is known for his research including the Hawthorne Studies, and his book The Human Problems of an Industrialized Civilization (1933). The research he conducted under the Hawthorne Studies of the 1930s showed the importance of groups in affecting the behavior of individuals at work. However it was not Mayo who conducted the practical experiments but his employees Roethlisberger and Dickinson. According to him work satisfaction depended to a large extent on the informal social pattern of the work group. Where norms of cooperation and higher output were established because of a feeling of importance. Physical conditions or financial incentives had little motivational value. People will form work groups and this can be used by management to benefit the organization. He concluded that peoples work performance is dependent on both social issues and job content. He suggested a tension between workers logic of sentiment and managers logic of cost and efficiency which could lead to conflict within organizations. The Hawthorne Experiments These studies were conducted between 1924 and 1932 at the Western Electric Company’s Hawthorne Plant near Chicago as they wanted to examine the relationship between worker output and workplace illumination. Group of researchers from American Academy of Sciences were invited. They ran a series of steps which manipulated illumination levels and recorded output. To their surprise the output seemed to increase both in control groups where illumination was constant and in experimental groups where illumination was lowered. This failure to relate illumination levels to output led in 1927 to the Company inviting the Harvard Industrial Research Team, under Mayo’s direction, to take over. The Harvard team assumed that the principal reason for the failure of the study was that the previous researchers had not been systematic enough, confining themselves to the study of a sole variable. They believed that it was imperative to select a small group of workers and place them in isolation, immune to disruption from other employees and departmental routine. The first series of experiments were carried out in the Relay Assembly Test Room also known as RAT Room Tests. The Relay Assembly Test Room experiments lasted for five years. A group of six female employees were selected and were happy to work together where they all had the same comparable skills. The task given to them required no use of machines and the women were placed in an observation room with one person, an observer, whose main task was to record output data and maintain a friendly atmosphere in the room. During this many changes were implemented like: a special group payment scheme; rest pauses; shorter hours and refreshment breaks. In all, more that ten changes were tried. Almost without expectation, after each adjustment was made, production output rose. After five years a return was made to the original conditions; a forty eight hour, six day week, no incentive, no rest pauses and no refreshments; output went up to the highest yet recorded. By this time it had become clear to Mayo and his team of researchers that none of the above variables commonly believed to have on effect o production could be used to explain the continual increase in output. The group had experienced an enormous increase in job satisfaction, partly due to the fact that they had a greater freedom in their working environment and partly because they had a certain amount of control over their own pace-setting. The fact that came into existence was a social system. The workers and supervisors developed a sense of participation, and as a result, established a completely new working pattern. The single most important discovery of the Hawthorne experiments was that workers had a strong need to co-operate and communicate with felloe workers. The significance of the Hawthorne investigation was in ‘discovering the informal organisation. Summary of Mayos Beliefs: †¢Individual workers cannot be treated in isolation, but must be seen as members of a group. †¢Monetary incentives and good working condition are less important to the individual than the need to belong to a group. †¢Informal or unofficial groups formed at work have a strong influence on the behavior of those workers in a group. †¢Managers must be aware of these social needs and cater for them to ensure that employees collaborate with he official organization rather than work against it. Criticism of Mayo: Adjusting men to machines, rather than with enlarging human capacity or freedom. As seen above, Taylor and Mayo have many contrasting facts but they do have one similarity between them but it differs just by on way of thought. Let’s first look at the contrasts between them: †¢Taylor had striven to minimise the scope for individuals to have any effect on the work group, in terms of altering the work pattern (informal organisation) while Mayo wished to harness individual effort to increase production. Taylor believed that planning should be separated from doing whereas Mayo believed in a far wider participation when it came to decision-making. †¢Taylor believed in application of authority while for Mayo it was the building of mutual confidence. †¢Taylor had rigid and external control on a workers performance while doing his tasks where as Mayo believed that individual growth within the organisation was important, the worker ideally attaining greater responsibility. The only similarity between Taylor and Mayo is that, they both focused mainly o n efficiency of worker which would lead to greater production.