Tarnished gold Some of the great Olympics cheat Essays - Sports

Tarnished gold: Some of the 'great' Olympics cheats Faster, higher, farther...sneakier? From non-disabled Paralympians to rigged fencing foils and badminton players intent on losing - here's our guide to the Olympians who fell far short of the high Olympic ideals... Guy Adams @ guyadams Wednesday 1 August 2012 11:00 BST Tarnished gold: Some of the 'great' Olympics cheats An official threatens Greysia Polii and Meiliana Jauhari of Indonesia and Jung Eun Ha and Min Jung Kim of Korea with a 'black card' disqualification In the long history of Olympic cheating last night's effort (or rather lack of it) by badminton players at Wembley Arena is a little unusual. Rather than attempting to win through the employing of devious methods the players from China and South Korea, in fact, appeared to be attempting to lose in order to manipulate a draw. The farcical scenes that saw players booed, jeered, disqualified and then reinstated - have today led to the launching of disciplinary proceedings against the four players. The fiasco began when Chinese top seeds Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang started to show little interest in beating Koreans Jung Kyung- eun and Kim Ha- na to finish top of Group A. Coming second would have meant avoiding compatriots and second seeds Tian Qing and Zhao Yunlei at least until the final. Tian and Zhao had been sent off their natural path to the final as second seeds by defeat to Denmark's Kamilla Rytter Juhl and Christinna Pedersen earlier in the day. The Koreans responded to China's antics by copying them and referee Thorsten Berg emerged to warn all the players and subsequently disqualify and reinstate them. Though the desire to lose may have been unusual, mendacity, manipulation and outright cheating at the Olympic games are nothing new... Ben Johnson, Seoul, 1988 There were drug cheats before, and there have been drug cheats since. But it took the downfall of Ben Johnson to demonstrate the apparent ubiquity of banned substances at the very highest level of sport. On the evening of 24 September, the Canadian sprinter set a new world record of 9.79 seconds in the men's 100m final, lifting his hand in triumph as he crossed the finish line ahead of arch rival Carl Lewis and Britain's Linford Christie, in what a BBC commentator declared "the greatest sprint race in history". Three days later, it became the most tarnished. Johnson was stripped of his medal, and had his record expunged after a sample of his urine tested positive for stanozolol , an illegal steroid. He initially denied cheating, but later confessed - arguing that drug use was endemic in top-tier athletics. In a way, he had a point: six of the eight finalists in that famous 100m race were at some point in their careers tainted by association with "juicing", and several, like him, served bans. But no one fell further, or harder, or more publicly than Ben Johnson. And somehow, the Olympic ideal would never feel quite the same. Boris Onischenko , Montreal, 1976 At the height of the Cold War, when Olympic sports were a cipher for political clashes between East and West, the heavily- favoured Russians took on second- favourites , Great Britain, in the fencing leg of the Modern Pentathlon. Onischenko , who had won silver in the previous two Games, and was desperate to go one better, easily dispatched the UK's Danny Parker. Then he won a baffling bout against Adrian Parker, in which the electronic scoreboard registered a hit, despite an apparent lack of contact between Onischenko's epee and Parker's body. Next up was Jim Fox, a British Army captain. Early in their bout, the scoreboard once more lit up, suggesting a Soviet triumph. But Fox, who was sure he'd taken evasive action, was having none of it - and demanded an examination of his opponent's sword. "I thought the weapon was faulty," he later recalled. That was only the half of it. Buried beneath the leather handle, judges discovered an intricate wiring system designed to register a "hit" when a small button was pressed. "It was a real engineering job," said Mike Proudfoot , the British team manager. "Not just a ham amateur's effort. They had

Dances with Wolves essays

Dances with Wolves essays Without question Kevin Costner is one of the most astute directors when it comes to the use of open space. He has a way of making a viewer feel small in the large scale of the location. Several of the cameras pans of the wide open prairie territory with its long, yellow grass and rolling hills makes a person feel fully enraptured in the scenery. Where the Cowboy Rides Away: Mythic Places for Western Film by Gary Hausladen discusses just such a landscape. He says, And the setting for these stories was the American West, those particular, picturesque American landscapes that enhance the confrontations and transformations that take place. Dances with Wolves is a perfect representation of man versus nature in that it shows a city boy who is forced to learn how to survive on the frontier, and he tames it as is symbolized by his befriending of the wolf. Also symbolized by this friendship is mans ability to have harmony with nature, instead of conquering it. This idea is vanquished with the death of the wolf at the hands of a soldier. Somewhat evident as well is man versus technology in that the Indians are eventually killed off by a technology that they neither have nor embrace-that of the gun. What was formally enough to protect oneself, such as arrows and knives, has now become null and void considering you can be enumerable feet away from a man and still shoot him. Another way that this is addressed is through Costners mental breakdown while in the army, a situation that eventually pushes him in the opposite direction of technology-the frontier. There is a huge message encoded throughout this film, and I read it as saying, Technology is the death of true civilization. Most of all though, the movie is a sadly truthful perspective on the colonization that occurred in America during and after our revolt against the suppression of ...

Music for the Stage (Wagner-Die Walkre) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Music for the Stage (Wagner-Die Walkre) - Essay Example Every author who have studied this work have noticed the rpesence of a number of leitmotifs which are short, melodious and harmonic in general through which the work gains its expressiveness and dramatic form. (Richard Wagner website, http://www.trell.org/wagner/motifs.html). Though Wagner had never used the word leitmotif, his critics had been somewhat paranoid in attributing a number of leitmotifs distributed in the entire stretch of this work. Wagner had called them ‘melodic moments’ and described them as created â€Å" by the orchestra into a kind of guides-to-feeling through the whole labyrinthine building of the drama† (Richard Wagner website, http://www.trell.org/wagner/motifs.html). He (Richard Wagner website, http://www.trell.org/wagner/motifs.html) also has added that, â€Å"at their(melodious moments) hand, we become the fellow-knowers of the proufoundest secret of the poet’s aim, the immediate partners of its realisement.† Apart from â₠¬Å"communicating the emotional nuances†, leitmotifs in Die Walkure are also perceived by critics as â€Å"the building blocks of a symphonic composition† (Richard Wagner website, http://www.trell.org/wagner/motifs.html).

A Journal Review of the American Historical Review Assignment

A Journal Review of the American Historical Review - Assignment Example Since the mid 1995, the journal has had many publications handling issues of global concern. The issues handled depict many developments in different fields. The journals explore the fields of commerce, science, numbers, history and even religion. The journal has had many developments, issues and diversities concerning the occurrences in the world. In February1995, the American review journal handled issues on race, discrimination and racism in the US. Race is an exceedingly sensitive issue that affects many people around the globe. In the US, racism was one of the issues affecting the US. Racism is inequitable treatment directed to people with prejudice on the coloration of their skin. The journal was trying to sensitize the US about the need for treating all people equally. Therefore, the journal served as a revelation to the citizens of the US. In April the 1995, the journal further explored on the issues of gender in Gilberto. It explained that gender did not have to be a basis f or people to treat people with favor. This is because no person chose his gender. During the month of August the 1995, the journal publicized issues on democracy. It explained that all persons and states had the right to democracy .This meant that they could act without fear of intimidation by any person. During the same month, the publication handled the issue of Equality. It insisted that all persons ought to endure fair treatment regardless of their color and origin. As time went by, more publications talking about diverse topics hit the headlines. The publication of February the 1996, spoke about the topic of literature. The publication gave a detailed analysis of literature by explaining about the origin of literature. The origin explained about the history facing the world of literature. The fact that the journal could handle different topics revealed the developments evident in the journal. The journal has developments in handling different matters apart from the ones in its first years of publication. These developments show that the journal keeps abreast with emerging issues in the world. This is meant to show that the world is dynamic and that the issues posted in the American Journal keep changing. Still on the year 1996, the American journal review talked about the reason as to why the Indians were red. This topic touched on the topic of mythology and delusions. The journal criticized the idea that the world was full of misconceptions and that many people were living on a lie. The journal insisted that the Americans were in another century where myths and misconceptions were unheard of. Other topics discussed there after included such things as the issue of missionaries. This was during the 1997 when many missionaries spread across the globe in order to spread the gospel. The missionaries were said to be people who had different objectives. One of the objectives was that they wanted to instill western culture to the people living in the regions tha t they visited. The American review journal discussed the topic of missionary activities with a lot of intensity. The journal also explained that missionaries explored different countries with the aim of paving way for the colonizers. This is because the missionaries brought many developments in the areas that they went to carry out their work. The American review journal of the August 1997 dealt with the issue of imperialism. Imperialism referred to the activities of acquiring territories around the globe.

Checklist For Evaluating Internal Controls Essay Example for Free

Checklist For Evaluating Internal Controls Essay For publicly traded companies, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires an audit of internal controls. The purpose of an internal control evaluation is to evaluate risk, which offers auditors a basis for audit planning and provides useful information to management (Sox Law, 2006). Auditors typically use the five basic components of internal control to approve the entire system. According to Louwers, Ramsay, Sinason, and Strawser (2007) the five components to internal controls include control environment, risk assessment, control activities, monitoring, and information and communication. Control environment involves the tone of the organization and includes â€Å"the integrity, ethical values, and competence of the companys people† (Louwers, Ramsay, Sinason, Strawser, 2007). Risk assessment involves a thorough assessment which â€Å"identify(s) risks, estimate their significance and likelihood, and consider how to manage the risks† (Louwers, Ramsay, Sinason, Strawser, 2007). Control activities involve specific actions which help ensure that management’s goals and projections are met. Monitoring involves the continuous assessment of internal controls. Information and communication relates to the efficiency and reliability of information and communication regarding how the information is presented and communicated to users. Internal controls protect the financial information and operations of a business. The development and implementation of these controls are typically the responsibility of the business owners. Internal or external audits may be used to gauge the efficiency of internal controls. This audit generally takes place following a standard process of risk measurement regarding the business operations and financial information. The measurement data is most effectively determined by using an internal control checklist. Checklist Phase One: Understand and Document the Client’s Internal Control Obtaining an Understanding Control Environment Evaluation Risk Assessment Evaluation Information and Communication Assessment Phase Two: Assess the Control Risk Phase Three: Test Controls and Review Control Risk Reassess Controls Direction of the Test of Controls Reassess the Control Risk

Essay --

The Organizational Structure of Nike Nike is the number one innovator in the world in athletic footwear, apparel, equipment, and accessories. This worldwide company operates in an extremely different organizational structure than other companies, such as Reebok and Adidas. Nike operates tremendous marketing strategies and develops inventive designs to inspire athletes around the world. This company is one of the largest suppliers in the world in athletic footwear and apparel, main producer of sports equipment, and making Nike the most valuable brand among sports companies. The task for Nike is to join diversity and inclusion to encourage ideas and innovation. Around the world, this company is a popular brand. Organizational Structure Nike is made up as a matrix organizational structure, which consist of several specialists and some individuals report to at a minimum of two managers. In the company, the staff informs to a crew of managers who dispatches the development report to the manager of the department. Each product within the company includes of it is own section and has its own department who performs independently of the CEO. The managers and employees of Nike decide concerning design and manufacture while the department managers concentrate mainly on ethical issues. In addition, the managers are completely accountable for the employees. While operating a matrix structure, Nike makes choices and responds quicker than any other department. Unlike Nike, Microsoft uses a divisional structure because it offers various separations within the company that functions almost as their own separate entities. However, this does not mean that they do not collaborate on projects or cross reference with each other. The divisi... ...ials to make their products rather than using materials that carries hazardous materials. There widespread of products help expand the company all around the world, and inspire the world with great performance and design. Conclusion Nevertheless, Nike is an extremely diverse company with outstanding organizational structure, impressive marketing strategy, and innovative products. The organizational structure of the Nike Corporation helped them become a leading innovator for the world with creative apparels and shoes. Their intelligent marketing strategies assist them in advertising their products to motive their customers and sell them. Their innovative product motivates customers with great performance footwear and quality designs to take on any obstacles. The Nike Corporation discovers various ways to improve their organizational structure to inspire the world.

Philippine Noon Time Shows Essay

For over a decade now, noontime TV shows have captivated the Filipino public, colloquially known asâ€Å"the masa†. These shows run for 2 hours a day, 6 days a week, usually from around 2 to 4 o clock pm. Their immense popularity is shown by the long lines of people that wait outside the studio hours before the program starts. All of them, hoping to get a chance to participate in the festivities which include playing games, singing, and dancing. Millions more watch through their television. All this translates into high TV ratings, eventually generating billions in revenue for the producers and executives. The host himself earns around 1 to 2 million pesos everyday. The audience mostly consists of people from the D and E demographics. Butch Stuart in his article â€Å"Mr Willie† describes them as â€Å"those who come from near or far away, many with borrowed transportation money, coming from all walks of masa life. Some of the groups that he mentioned were featured in these shows include: farmers, fishermen, GROs, bus drivers, people with missing teeth, people with special talents, single mothers, gay, graduates who failed their licensing exams, girls who can dance, boys who can sing, bibingka vendors, and, even, young girls with great looking legs.† Overseas Filipino Workers are also given special mention in the show. Those present in the audience see it as a welcome home celebration, or a way to re-immerse themselves in the Filipino culture. A euphoric upbeat atmosphere underpins the event. Mr Stuart describes it as â€Å"120 minutes of mindless choreographed entertainment – games, dancing, singing and laughter with ample opportunities for ogling†. These events don’t require any complex thinking from the participants. They were designed to be visceral and to conjure a response of raw emotion. Girls in scantily clad outfits are the ones who facilitate the celebration. They serve two purposes in the event. Firstly to captivate and attract through their revealing outfits. But they also carry out logistical tasks like accompanying audience members to the stage and dancing the tunes for everyone to mimic. The host ensures that all elements of the show are put together. To keep everything lively, his dialogue must always be fast paced. At times he gives off the impression of a cheerleader – always rousing the audience into states of excitement. He will always crack jokes left and right, and will never miss any opportunity even it means making fun of himself. For the show to be successful, the host must understand the sensibilities of the majority lower class audience. The interactive environment can only exist if he can connect with the â€Å"masa’s† humor. In Philippine society, no one has been more successful in doing this than Willie Revillame. A household name in television, he has amassed a massive amount of wealth from his noon time shows Wowowee in ABS CBN and later on, Willing willie on TV 5. Noon time shows rely on the D and E classes as their target audience. When criticism is mounted against these shows, producers are quick to respond that these journalists do not understand the plight of the poor. Some argue that these shows give the poor false hope. They line up for months waiting to be called on stage. Waiting to tell their life story. Waiting to play for a million pesos with house and lot. But the reality is that most of those who line up for the show never even make it to the studio. RESEARCH QUESTION: We would like to find out why Filipinos from the class D end E brackets are captivated with these noon time shows. It is the poor’s endorsement that sustains them. Companies who want to reach out to this consumer market donate lump sums of money for their products to be advertised on air. They know that the millions of impoverished families watching these shows will see their products. But the poor do more than just endorse. Often they peg their aspirations and dreams to the show itself. Watch any full show and you are sure to come across someone sobbing on air, talking about how his dream was to meet Willie in person. To answer the question of why the poor are so captivated, we will need to address more specific inquiries. Media for instance, is never a neutral medium. It has the capacity to shape public perception through its different portrayals of reality. After acknowledging that the poor are interested in these shows, we will look into what techniques and strategies these shows use to sustain that interest. It is easy to understand that someone who stumbles across ABSCBN may be mesmerized by the glitz and glamour of the wowowee show girls. But how do the producers maintain that interest for long periods of time when the programs in these shows tend to be repetitive? Further inquiries may also be raised concerning how we perceive and understand poverty as a social ill. Subconsciously or not, these shows frame this issue in a biased way. Critics are quick to pounce on Willie Revillame for taking advantage of the poor. In return, he retaliates by calling them apathetic and claiming that he truly empathizes with them. Both assertions are possibly right. These shows may be both half empty and full. But perhaps a better way to resolve this conflict is to look into the assumptions about poverty that these shows espouse. Even more questions can be raised regarding the link between poverty and gender in Philippine society. We question how structures of patriarchy are reinforced and reflected in the arrangments of these shows. Willie Revillame is notorious for using blatantly sexist language. In one account by Butch Stuart, Willie comments on the obesity of a middle aged woman who came up to hug him by saying, â€Å"Mas masarap yapusin ang mga dalaga†. But the epitome of this sexism is seen in the dancing girls that liven the show. Mr Butch Stuart describes them as if they were tools to tingle one’s sensations: â€Å"Tall, Pretty, Scantily Clad,Jiggling their cleavage breasts, bending, grinding and humping their loins, the tassels and trimmings of their skimpy covers swaying with their dancing, as they blow kisses, seamlessly sequing from program segments to ads, teasing men to the edge of one particular cardinal sin†. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: The group will use Marxist analysis to understand the dynamics that exist between the audience and the TV producers in these noon time shows. The paper on Marxism and method talks about the central scientific goals of Marxist analysis. The first of these is to provide a well founded and logically derived description of the central institutional feature of a market based economic system. The second goal is to historicize and to determine how these features came to exist. The last is to determine the social implications of these arrangments. We like this kind of theoretical framework for its rigid empiricism. Many frameworks start from the universal towards the particular. That is to say they start with an established principle and then go on trying to rationalize the real world to try to fit that picture. In contrast, Marxist analysis begins from the ground up. It first takes a look at what is observable like the relationships of people across the social strata, the relationships of people to capital, or the relationships of people to instiutions which did not exist apriori, but instead have a historical basis to them. After making repeated observations, Marxist analysis will then see if recurring patterns, outcomes, and courses of action exist. Only then will a theory be produced to account for these similarities. The Marxist approach is a scientific one. As Daniel little writes that Marxist analysis explain real world phenomena in terms of underlying causal conditions rather than crude associations among observable va riables. This process of analysis is significant in our research in that it requires us to look at the tangible motivations of those watching these noon time TV shows. It is no mere coincidence or stroke of luck that these shows continue to remain prominent. There are financial incentives that make thousands of people skip their work just to watch them live. There are also practical ways to explain why the poor would rather sing and dance away their problems to the tune of â€Å"boom tarat tarat†. Finally, it is an undeniable fact that the elites- namely the business tycoons, the tv executives, the celebrity personalities and everyone else on the upper echelons of the media industry, continue to benefit from a capitalist system that produces massive amounts of inequality. The mode of production, in this instance the noon time tv shows that generate the income, will cease to exist if there were no poor people to delude. We will also use the Gramscian concept of hegemony to describe the process in which the poor are made to passively accept their positions of status. Hegemony, is the process with which the dominant class projects and reinforces its ideologies through the use of cultural institutions. Chandler states that this represents not only political and economic control, but also the ability of the dominant class to project its own way of seeing the world so that those who are subordinated by it accept it as ‘common sense’ and ‘natural’. Gramsci would find the institution of the family to be repressive. By belonging into the family unit, we are socialized into aspiring for specific life goals. One of this is to be productive citizens ing specialized skill sets that can be used to earn profit. We see this as obvious. However, the fulfillment of this goal ensures the preservation of our inequitable social structure. The family and educational system ensures that when one profit minded factory owner dies, another one takes its place. DEFINITION OF TERMS: Marxism Marxism is defined as the political, economic, and social principles and policies advocated by Marx; especially : a theory and practice of socialism including the labor theory of value, dialectical materialism, the class struggle, and dictatorship of the proletariat until the establishment of a classless society. A body of doctrine developed by Karl Marx and, to a lesser extent, by Friedrich Engels in the mid-19th century. It originally consisted of three related ideas: a philosophical anthropology, a theory of history, and an economic and political program. Rational Choice Theory Rational choice theory is defined as An economic principle that assumes that individuals always make prudent and logical decisions that provide them with the greatest benefit or satisfaction and that are in their highest self-interest. Noon Time Variety Show Variety shows are defined as Theatrical entertainment consisting of successive unrelated acts, such as songs, dances, and comedy skits. In the context of this paper they are performed using the medium of the television. SCOPE AND LIMITATION: Our study will focus solely on Noon time TV programs in the Philippines. Other countries have their own formats for variety shows. These will not be covered by this paper. Our goal is to understand poverty particularly in the Filipino context. Therefore our analysis will focus more on the cultural nuances of Filipino society reflected in local variety shows. We will also not consider other reality TV shows that do not fall under the category of a variety show. That is, an event consisting of successive acts of singing, dancing and, games. The reason for this is that differences in show arrangements will make it difficult to conduct a consistent analytical approach for all reality tv across the board. For instance, Marxists themes of class inequality to an extent are less evident in weight lost shows such as the biggest loser than they are in wowowee. The selection of participants for both these shows are also markedly different making it difficult to conduct a unified analysis of the demographics. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY: METHOD AND METHO http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/marxism http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/367344/Marxism http://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/rational-choice-theory.asp#axzz2JCDDzjcx