Health and Safety Roles Essay

Prepare to discuss the differences in the roles and responsibilities of the manager, employer, employee and owner of an organisation of your choice in respect of health and safety. Note: it is essential that you identify the differences and similarities between these roles / titles) Suggested sources: HSE SUCCESSFUL HEALTH AND SAFETY MANAGEMENT HMSO HSE website Any Health and Safety Book http://www.forbes.com/sites/gcaptain/2012/01/19/a-captains-responsibility-by-a-former-norwegian-cruise-lines-safety-manager-and-ship-master/ FORBES Cruise ships, as well as all vessels plying the Navigable waters of the world are subject to strict Maritime Rules and regulations including, Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) regulations, Standards of Training Certification and Watch keeping (STCW), The International Safety Management (ISM) rules, and most importantly, the Rule of the Sea whereby the Master and officers and crew never abandon the ship until all passengers and crew are accounted for, and everything possible has been done to save them. HSE.GOV HSE Executive Responsibilities The Executive: †¢ensures that a member of the Executive is available for out-of-hours notifications of major incidents †¢decides if the incident should be categorised as ‘major’ by consulting with relevant head(s) of Division/Directorate, the Chair of the HSC, the Commission and Ministers, as appropriate, on the nature of the incident and the proposed action When considering whether to declare a major incident, the Executive will consider the following points: †¢the significance of the event †¢any separate investigations by other regulatory bodies †¢the involvement of other regulatory bodies in the investigation †¢the  effect of the investigation on HSE as a whole and the Directorate’s/Division’s programme of work †¢the concerns of the Commission, ministers, other government departments, devolved administrations and regulatory bodies. Once a major incident is declared, the Executive: †¢agrees which of the major incident arrangements should be invoked for the investigation – in the case of a HSWA Section 14(2)(a) investigation, in conjunction with the HSC Chair †¢decides the scope of the investigation appropriate to the scale and complexity of the incident †¢determines whether a policy and procedure review should take place & its timing, in consultation with relevant stakeholders, and sets the terms of reference – in the case of a HSWA Section 14(2)(a) investigation, in conjunction with the HSC Chair †¢ensures that contact with the Secretariat and all members of the Executive is maintained during the response to the major incident †¢monitors and as necessary approves briefing for the Commission Chair, the Commission and Ministers †¢oversees the investigation and any policy and procedure review process, altering the terms of reference of the investigation/review process if appropriate †¢approves publication of t he reportfollowing a major incident investigation and considers whether to publish interim technical reports if broader health and safety lessons emerge †¢agrees decisions on the timing of the release of information to the public. †¢considers the policy and procedure review report and ensures that any appropriate response to the recommendations is taken. The office safety company http://www.officesafety.co.uk/quick-guides/whos-responsible.html †¢The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 †¢Requires employers to be responsible for ensuring the health and safety of workers and for reducing risks to others affected by work activities. †¢Health and safety functions should be delegated and health and safety risk management legally requires the active participation of the company’s workers. However the legal responsibility for health and safety rests with the employer. †¢Employers need to prepare, and make sure their workers know about, a written statement of the health and safety policy and the  arrangements in place to put it into effect. †¢Where a ‘body corporate’ commits a health and safety offence, and the offence was committed with the consent or connivance of, or was attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate, then that person (as well as the body corporate) is liable to be proceeded against and punished. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 These regulations include requirements for employers to: †¢Assess the work-related risks faced by employees, and by people not in their employment †¢Have effective arrangements in place for planning, organising, controlling, monitoring and reviewing preventive and protective measures †¢Appoint one or more competent persons to help in undertaking the measures needed to comply with health and safety law †¢Provide employees with comprehensible and relevant information on the risks they face and the preventive and protective measures that control those risks HSE.GOV http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/hse40.pdf Most employers are required by the law to insure against liability for injury or disease to their employees arising out of their employment. This guide is intended to help you to understand what is required. It is not a legal interpretation of the Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act and it has no formal legal status. You should be aware that only the courts can authoritatively interpret the law. Compare safety officer and Captain Safety Officer In this role you delegate and oversee safety drills. The safety drills include abandon ship procedures, fire drills and maintenance of the ship’s tenders. In addition this role is responsible for instructing the crew on safety issues and drills. Responsibilities: †¢he Safety Officer is responsible for monitoring and assessing hazardous and unsafe situations and developing measures to assure personnel safety. †¢The Safety Officer will correct unsafe acts or conditions through the regular line of authority, although the †¢Safety Officer may exercise emergency authority to prevent or stop unsafe acts when immediateaction is required. †¢The Safety Officer maintains awareness of active and developing situations. †¢The Safety Officer ensures the Site Safety and Health Plan is prepared and implemented. †¢The Safety Officer ensures there are safety messages in each Incident Action Plan. Captain – must have liability insurance The Captain is the highest ranking officer on the ship with the most perks, it definitely pays to be Captain. However, this title comes with a lot of responsibility such as the care of all the crew and passengers aboard the ship. In cases of emergency the Captain makes all executive decisions. Additionally, the Captain is in charge of navigation and operations. Regulates company policies, environmental policies such as pollution effects as well as national and international maritime laws http://www.ehow.com/list_5977262_duties-ship-captain.html †¢The captain’s first duty is become the leader of their ship. They are trusted and respected among their peers because they are chosen as the leader of their ship. †¢On a ship, the captain is the highest rank you can get. Think of them as the President of their ship. They have to keep the crew safe and make life-or-death decisions that can affect everyone on the ship.

Footnote to Youth Reaction Paper Essay

â€Å"The youth is the hope of motherland.† It has always been said that we, the youth, is the hope of our country. This has been the mentality of almost everybody in the society. I, myself had this mentality strongly rooted in my mind before I had read the story, â€Å"Footnote to Youth.† Yes, the youth could possibly be the hope of our country or even of the world. As many have said, we are creative, dynamic, good thinkers, marvelous doers and a lot more. All these positive things also have corresponding negative thoughts from those who don’t believe in our capacity. They say we are lazy, dependent, coward, apathetic and a lot more. I think it is neither laziness nor dependence that drives us youth into somebody useless in the society. We never wanted to become just a piece of crap of course. We always have wanted to do something extraordinary not just for ourselves’ sake. We have always wanted to be something the older and younger generation would be proud of. For me, the dilemma is not within us. It is on how our parents and the people around us treat us and affects us. I admit our minds are not as weak as the minds of the little children. We cannot be easily manipulated. But we’re not also as fixed-minded as the older people. We need guidance. How can we be the hope of the country if our parents themselves don’t lead us to the right path? How can we be the hope if our parents themselves don’t believe that there is real hope from within us? How can we be the hope if our parents themselves cannot correct the mistakes we do? Just like Dodong and Blas, we are preoccupied of the thinking that we can do everything we want to; that we are ready to do the things that the older people can; that what we think is always right. Yes we can do everything if we really insist to but without the guidance of our parents or the older people who know better, we will never know if we are making the right steps toward the right road. They hold the key that runs the engine of hope within the youth. I still believe that we, the youth, is the hope of the motherland but this will just come to reality if the older generation, especially our parents know how to bring out the best in us. -Jogie Rodriguez Torres, BST- IV June 25, 2013

We pursue pleasure and avoid pain. Critically evaluate this statement Essay

We pursue pleasure and avoid pain. Critically evaluate this statement and examine how it relates to at least two different theories of motivation and emotion - Essay Example While the Social Cognitive Theory considers both internal and external factors as sources of motivation, the Humanist perspective takes the internal forces of motivation to be stronger than outside motivation. The pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain can come across the central motivation of nearly everything human beings do in their lives. However, a critical examination of the statement in question shows that while the majority of cases will hold true under it, some situations will not (Higgins, 1997). This is because the definition of pain and pleasure may change from person to person depending on the nuances and influences of individual personality. Therefore, the statement is applicable in a general sense for the majority of individuals but for some the pursuit of pain may hold more pleasure than anything else. To better understand the statement and critically evaluate the same, two different theories of motivation and personality will be examined along with how they relate to the question. The theories selected for this paper are the social cognitive theory and the humanistic theory as they apply to motivation and personality. Of course a few definitions have to be laid out before the theories and their applications can be discussed. The two most important definitions for this purpose are personality and motivation. Personality itself can be defined as the collective emotional, thinking, and action patterns which are exhibited by an individual which are more or less consistent over a period of time (Miner & Dachler, 1973). Psychologists and those who study human personality have defined types of personalities and presented theories which help in placing individuals on certain scales of personality (Joy, 2004). Motivation can be defined as the internal desires, needs or wishes which are unique to all individuals in shaping their behavior to meet certain goals or objectives (Grotstein, 2001). Undoubtedly, both of these terms are related at a

Leadership models Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Leadership models - Essay Example Leadership Models or theories have been a central part of organizational management for many years. These help to make or break the workforce, and hence, the business. In this paper, four leadership models will be discussed thoroughly first. They will then be compared for any similarities and differences. Finally, their concentration on contemporary leadership issues and challenges will be analyzed, along with their implications for organizations today.The term 'leadership style' defines the "leadership model'. Style of leadership has been explained as how a person takes his team forward to achieve goals. This is the simplest definition of a layman. Good leadership is what makes effective management (Murugun, pg. 329). A model which defines this is, then, a 'Leadership Model'.Leadership has many functions that bring the team closer to their goals to carry out .The significance of leadership is reflected in the following functions: providing inspiration to employees, securing cooperat ion in the team, creating confidence among individuals, providing a conducive environment for employees, implementing changes, maintaining discipline among the members, representing them, and setting goals. (Murugun, pg.328)There are many factors that affect how a manager exerts leadership. The most important and the first one that comes to mind is his personality. The Leadership model largely depends on the nature of a manager. Moreover, the experiences of a manager also define his leadership style. He may lead in a certain way because his practices and situations in the past expect him to go forward in that manner. In addition to that, it is also based on the beliefs and values of the leader. He will also manage and lead his team according to the organization's environment, culture and needs. To get to the point, there are a number of leadership models, defined by a number of individuals. For example, Likert's leadership theories describe four kinds of leadership styles: Exploitative authoritative, Benevolent authoritative, Consultative and Participative styles (Likert 1967). Or , for example, Goleman's, Boyatzis' and McKee's (2004) six emotional leadership models: The Visionary Leader, the Coaching Leader, the Affiliative Leader, the Democratic Leader, the Pace-setting Leader and the Commanding Leader. But in this paper, we will only go over the four most common ones. The Charismatic Model adopts the Charismatic Style of Leadership, which is a style taken up by a leader who has a personality so charming and "charismatic" that he uses this to take the team forward. According to Max Weber, the term 'charisma' is used in the sense of an 'extraordinary quality' possessed by persons or objects, and is thought to give these persons a unique, magical power (Bendix 1977, pg.299). This leader is like an organizational hero who the subordinates look up to and follow strongly. They focus on making their team very different than the others. The charismatic model will only work with the kind of charismatic leader described above. The model sounds almost too good to be true, or practical. Which is the case, it is good but also not practical. The benefits of this model are apparent. Only by using pleasant phrases and appealing words and gestures, the leader can make the team get closer to his and their goals. Furthermore, he can make them believe and this belief is what fuels motivation. It could increase productivity of the workers and create a decorous, respectable environment. However, this doesn't always lead to successful results or achievement of goals, depending on the kind of team and the morale of its members. An "organizational hero" is more appreciated when the spirits of the individuals are low than when they are extremely self-confident. Moreover, according to Weber, a charismatic leader might not always be positive, for example, Adolf Hitler. In such situations this style is perceived as unethical by some because control is exercised on

Is the Criminal Justice System Fair and Functional Essay

Is the Criminal Justice System Fair and Functional - Essay Example For any act to be considered a crime, its actus reus must be shown. Actus reus can be in any of the following forms: â€Å"An act, or a failure to act (an omission), or a state of affairs† (Challenge College 2013, p. 2). In the first form above, an act, it must be shown that an act committed violates the law and if this cannot be shown then there cannot be any liability. For instance, in the crime of murder the actus reus is the unlawful killing of a person. Another way of assigning liability is through showing that an undesirable or otherwise incident took place because of a failure to act. The case of Pittwood (1902) bests illustrates how a failure to act may result in criminal liability (Challenge College 2013, p. 8). Lastly, crime liability can be proved through showing the state of affairs. Proof of a state of affairs that is declared wrong is enough to assign crime liability. Mens Rea This is another condition which has to be proven for a person to be considered liable f or a crime committed. Mens rea is considered to be a state of mind in which a person is fully aware of the consequences of his actions thus the doer is assumed to have an intention of the end result of whatever he or she does. There are two ways in which mens rea is assessed in England and Wales – subjectivism and objectivism. ... On the other hand, objectivism is thought to be too broad because it fails to consider defendants with lower than average IQ, that is, those who lack the capacity to reason as an average person would (Furey 2010, p. 1). An illustration of mens rea application can be seen in the case of R v Molony (1985) AC 905 whereby the defendant shot his step father dead but was acquitted of murder charges and instead charged with manslaughter. The intention to shoot was found not to be connected to killing (e-Law Resources 2013). Question 2: The Criminal Justice System Its function The criminal justice system is meant to ensure that every person under the law has access to justice. Having access to justice means being punished for wrongs accomplished, giving protection to those who are innocent and making it possible for those convicted of wrongs to stop offending. The system aims at â€Å"delivering an efficient, effective, accountable and fair justice process for the public† (Garside 201 3, p. 1). It is further noted that the system must sieve among potential, alleged and actual criminal activities and ensure that treatment adjudicated on persons is rightful. Its Working The criminal justice system is composed of many agencies which work in unity to ensure that justice is availed to all. The agencies involved in this system include â€Å"the Crown Prosecution Service, the police, the courts and the National Offender Management Service† (Criminal Justice System 2013, p. 1). The three government departments which oversee the criminal justice system are â€Å"the Ministry of Justice, the Home office and the Attorney General’s Office† (Criminal Justice System 2013, p. 1). The Ministry of

HRM-Behavior and Management in Organisations Research Paper

HRM-Behavior and Management in Organisations - Research Paper Example Weber has defined charisma as, ‘a certain quality of an individual personality, by virtue of which s/he is set apart from ordinary people and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities. These are such as are not accessible to the ordinary person but are regarded as of divine origin or as exemplary, and on the basis of them the individual concerned is treated as a leader’. Weber also explains, ‘resting on devotion to the exceptional sanctity, heroism or exemplary character of an individual person, and of the normative patterns or order revealed or ordained by him’ (Beer, Lawrence, Quinn Mills and Walton, 1985).Leaders irrespective of their styles i.e. charismatic, authoritative or even a transformational requires having a team and followers to be able to lead them. Hence it is clear that a leader only leads the way and helps the others to follow him and meet the goals of the organization. In situ ations where the leaders require having the complete support of the followers, the most effective form of leadership again is the charismatic leadership (House & Shamir 1993). A few of the best examples of charismatic leaders include Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill, Joseph Smith and also Wener Erhard. The contributions of these leaders have been very high and have impacted their organizations in a number of positive manners. It is clear from the above discussion that the charismatic leaders are very effective irrespective of how big or small the problem is. Also, the impact of the actions of these leaders is very high on the overall business. It is also important to understand that there are a number of similarities between the transformational leaders and the charismatic leaders. One of the major differences is the focus of these leaders.  

Analyzing Direct Costs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Analyzing Direct Costs - Essay Example And lastly, Quality Control and Testing has a labor rate of $10.00. When multiplied by the projected 500 labor hours this give you a total of $5,000. Adding the totals of these five jobs together we have $3,625 + $16,400 + $11,250 + $6,750 + $5,000, which is an estimated total labor cost of 43,025. I then divided this total by the total projected labor hours of 5000 to come up with the weighted average cost of $8.61 (rounded up). The direct manufacturing labor cost objective (Question 2) would be this weighted average time projected hours which is a cost objective of $43,015. To estimate the material cost for the Far-Out Products task (Question 1), I took the proposed labor hours figure of 1800 and multiplied by the $41 simple average, which comes from the total material dollars expended divided by the total labor hours for the last five projects, for a total of $73,800. Using the regression analysis (Question 2), I put the 1800 labor hours into the equation, which was determined as $24,117 + $25.74 multiplied by the labor hours. and the estimate I came up with was $70,449. To answer Question 3, the first estimate appears more accurate in relation to the data from past projects. This could be due to the fact that the r2 of .988 is not necessarily a perfect fit for the regression model, since the r2 does not equal 1, though it is very close to 1. I would use the first estimate because it is based on the average of the last five projects. In the Material Sampling case, since the item is overpriced by $20,000 (Question 1), I reduced the estimate of $620,000 for the 20 high-cost items down to $600,000. And because the sample of the other 480 items is overpriced by 6 percent (Question 2), I took the total of $180,200 and added a 106% increase, giving a total of $191,012. So the estimate for total material cost (Question 3) would be $600,000 plus $191,012; which is a total material cost estimate of $791,012. Even with the 106% increase for the 480 smaller items, this estimate is still less than the original estimate $800,200. This is because the one high-cost item was overpriced by $20,000. For the DeLoan Corporation, the 6-month moving average estimated scrap rate (Question 1) equals scrap for the month divided by material for the month. Dividing these for each month gives you 5.5% for February + 6.09% for March + 6.19% for April + 6.52% for May + 6.02% for June + 5.72% for July. We don’t have to factor in the January scrap rate since that was 7 months ago and we are only concerned with the last six months. So dividing these percentages by 6, we come up with a 6-month moving average scrap rate of 6.0133%. Using this scrap rate to figure out how much total product is needed if the finished product is $90,000 (Question 2), I took 106.0133%, which is 100% plus the rate calculated from question 1, and multiplied it by that $90,000, coming up with a total material estimate of $95,412 (rounded up). To answer Question 3, yes this is a reasonab le estimate since it is based on the average scrap metal rate of the previous six months and one could expect that the actual number will be close to this estimate. FIFO stands for First-In, First-Out, meaning that inventory is calculated as first-come, first-serve. The product that is produced first goes out first using this method. For the Mason Inventory data, the FIFO inventory value charged (Question 1) would be the first value listed, which is $10. I took this rate and multiplied it

Bioterorrism Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Bioterorrism - Research Paper Example It is important to point out that the use of biological warfare comes with disastrous results, just like other weapons of mass of destruction. Despite nations devising tactical approaches, meant to stop the threat posed by biological weapons, the simple nature in manufacturing the weapons puts nations such as the United States at a risk of an imminent attack from terrorists. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), â€Å"A bioterrorism attack is the deliberate release of viruses, bacteria, or other germs (agents) used to cause illness or death in people, animals, or plants.† Based on the foregoing, it is evident that these are natural agents of causing diseases. Nevertheless, terrorists change these agents by increasing their ability to cause diseases, increasing their capability to resist drugs, or even escalating their capacity to spread widely in the environment, which is often with catastrophic effects. The CDC further noted the possibility of terrorists to use biological agents since their detection is not simple, and the biological agents have the ability of concealing illness for several hours or even days, which enhances their spread to other people and to the environment. However, it is important to point out that there is a tendency to collocate biological agents with nuclear weapons and lethal chemical weapons as potential weapons of mass destruction. However, there are discernible differences between these other weapons and bioweapons. In this regard, pathogens are living things, which is not the case with the other weapons. In effect, biological weapons are able to reproduce and independently engage in adaptive behavior, which is not the case with the other weapons (Steinbruner 87). Therefore, these contrasting characteristics of biological weapons enhance the potency of bioweapons in comparison to the other weapons. Vogel noted, â€Å"A commonly held belief is that the technology behind biological weapons is re latively simple and therefore, one could argue, less dependent on tacit knowledge than nuclear weapons† (660). In this case, this emphasizes the ease with which terrorists can acquire these weapons and even manufacture them easily by acquiring the essential ingredients that are readily available. It is common knowledge that experts and the media have made the widespread belief that the requirements for biological weapons are chicken soup, a bathtub, and seed culture (Vogel 660). This effectively puts emphasis on the ease of making biological weapons. To support this argument, Steinbruner noted, â€Å"A small home-brewery is all that it would be required to a potent threat of major proportions† (86). On the other hand, there is an argument that the inherent dual-usage of biotechnology renders previous tacit knowledge in bioweapons explicit (Vogel 660). In effect, this poses challenges to policymakers regarding protecting civilians against attacks that result from the use of the biological weapons. In support of this line of thought on the ease of manufacturing biological weapons, Steinbruner noted, â€Å"As potential instruments of destruction, biological agents are inexpensive, readily available, and usually dangerous† (85). In this case, various pathogens affect human beings with some of these pathogens having the potential of causing massive destruction. Indeed, Streinbruner pointed that some biological agents

Findyourdeal.com Thesis Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Findyourdeal.com - Thesis Proposal Example Specifications for all these components are standardized and are available off the shelf in any computer store or an e-commerce website. We will extensively use open source software applications to run our IS resources. Most of the open source software applications are royalty free, and hence will shoot down our costs. Some examples of free and open source applications will be Ubuntu as the operating system, Open Office as the general productivity suite, Mozilla Firefox/Google Chrome as the browser, GIMP as photo editor. We will outsource annual maintenance contracts to local hardware providers, thereby nullifying the requirement of any dedicated manpower for maintenance of hardware resources at out office. We will also employ freelance technical help personnel from lower cost economies to drive down our software maintenance costs. 1. Aggregate deals from companies: To keep costs down in the initial phase, we will use the internet to scout for deals being offered by companies. Sourcing of deals may be done through 3 distinct processes: E-commerce businesses range from a multibillion dollar business like Amazon, to really small mom-and-pop-managed kind of a website that generates not more than$5000 revenues in a month. The set of features required in an e-commerce website obviously depends on the present status of an e-commerce business, and also perhaps on the future growth potential. While the initial two components are common place, it selecting appropriate e-commerce software that will be a critical activity. Available e-commerce systems may be categorized using a whole lot of parameters like, Open source / Proprietary, Off-she Shelf/Custom made, Microsoft Technologies/LAMP based or Product/SaaS. Every available e-commerce component have its own utility and caters to a specific set of customers, we have chosen to use LAMP based open source e-commerce systems for our business. LAMP is an acronym for Linux, Apache, MySQL and

Emo Culture Essay Example for Free

Emo Culture Essay Like the social and fashion trends of eras long gone, emo is not simply about the way you dress it is a lifestyle. It culminates in your clothing, shoes, hairstyle, attitude and most importantly musical selection. This section describes the emo lifestyle and attitudes. People do tend to adopt at least the attitudes of the music they listen to most even if they dont admit it. This is because a lot of people are not able to separate themselves from the ideas that are expressed. Music is different from other art-forms in that it penetrates the soul in a way something visual cannot. People seem to like to group together for some reason, its in our nature, and emo is just another group or sub-culture. People join it because they might agree with some, most or all of what the group is generally about. Being Emo is just another way that people are trying to express themselves, really the same as other street styles, just with a different soundtrack. In the end, each of the people who have chosen to follow the scene is their own person- they are just part of a scene that is tipped as being defiant and unacceptable- something most young people are drawn to. [To the Top!] What are Emos like? Firstly, labeling someone as an emo based on their hair style is a poor way to interpret personal expression, just as calling someone a goth based on their preference for black clothing. Whether or not a person listens to emo music, writes emo poetry, or adopts an alternative lifestyle is a personal decision that does not automatically have anything to do with the colour or cut of their hair. Emo styles are unique, individual looks that say a lot about the persons style, but the emotions behind them may never be understood by anyone else. When referring to a persons personality and attitude, most definitions of emo include a number of the following terms: sensitive, shy, quiet, sad, introverted, glum, self-pitying, mysterious and angst ridden. Depression and broken-heartedness are sometimes used to describe the emo personality. Emos feel society doesnt accept them, they are outcasts and nobody understands them! This is generalising and it is important to note those into the emo / scene culture can obviously also be the opposite of the personality traits listed above as with anyone. At its core, emo is all about being upfront with your emotions. Hot Topic even issued a patch that read, cheer up, emo kid! These personality traits are often identified by his/her music and fashion (generalising here). For example the emo band Hawthorne Heights contains multiple references to unrequited love, emotional and relationship problems. Many of these traits are present in most teenagers and not just emos! The courting of misery and death is a long-established teenage tradition. When death is a long way off, you can afford to be more morbid about it. In particular, Goths and Emos are a rebellion against sporty, manly cultures. Frailness, which conveys a sense of vulnerability has been associated with the male emos in particular, but from what I know this isnt particularly valid. Finally touching on the term scene that has become popular since the emo subculture kicked off. Scene kids I believe are more about the style and looking like an emo without the personality of it all. In other words, scene kids are the ones that dress emo, but only because its a trend or you could say Scene is Emo without the emotion. The term is subject to significant debate like emo though.

Symptoms of Dementia

Symptoms of Dementia 1.1 1.2 a) Dementia and Delirium †¢Ã‚  Alertness: In dementia customers their sharpness is general, they are generally ordinary. In insanity customers the readiness vacillates, depleted and hyper vigilant. †¢Ã‚  Emotion: In dementia customers they are shallow, thoughtless and shallow. In insanity customers they are Irritable, forceful and dreadful. Sleep: In dementia customers they frequently have exasperates rest in throughout the night. They are wanderings all over and befuddled around evening time once in a while. In insanity customers the perplexity exasperates slumber or may have store rest. b) Dementia and Depression †¢Ã‚  Memory and Comprehension: In dementia, customers memory and comprehension are hindered. As infection advancement, long haul memory additionally influenced or lost. In gloom the customers’ memory in some cases weakened. Long haul memory by and large in place and poor consideration. †¢Ã‚  Perception In dementia customers observation is typical; their pipedreams are roughly 30-40%. In gloom the customers recognition is sound-related; their pipedreams are roughly 20%. †¢Ã‚  Emotions: In dementia customers they are shallow, fractious and lax. In gloom: the patients are level, miserable, dreadful and touchy. 1.3 a) Alzheimers Disease Loss of memory is aftereffect of plaques and tangles in the mind that cause the passing of nerve cells. Loss of memory influence the everyday life exercises, for example, correspondence, exercises and security danger. Loss of weight may happen with Alzheimers malady. Case in point: a few patients overlook how to bite and how to swallow sustenance. There is less cerebral cortex which recollect this controls the cerebrum including memory, cognizance, and discourse in Alzheimers patient. The surfaces of the cerebrum adjust and mind cells shrink. There are more plaques looked at inside the typical more seasoned individuals. The liquid filled spaces of the mind increment in size. People with Alzheimers illness have change in their character. For instance: an individual who was obliging and cordial when he has infection will get to be forceful, irate and upset. b) Vascular dementia Vascular dementia is brought about when a vascular occurrence happens denying cerebrum of a sufficient supply of blood and oxygen, bringing about the passing of cerebral tissue. The patients with vascular dementia have passionate switch all over. The patients change in discourse. They talk slower and experience issues in talking. The Patients have disturbance to transient memory, association of contemplations and state of mind. Vascular dementia patients experience issues in strolling. c) Lewy Body Disease 1. This is brought about by a strange vicinity of cerebral cells called Lewy bodies which found all through the mind what creates inside nerve cells. It is believed that these may help the demise of the cerebrum cells. 2. They have tremors and solidness like Parkinsons illness. 3. Memory misfortune: likes other dementia infections. The patients with lewy body illness have influence to short- term and long haul memory. 4. The patients experience issues with fixation and consideration. 5. The patients experience issues judging separations, regularly bringing about falls. The most noteworthy danger element is age. The number individuals found with dementia the age of sixty-five. As the nerve cells got harmed in the mind. Other component can from way of life, for example, hypertension and coronary conduit ailment. The patients have a conceivable hereditary connection that inherited from past era. Case in point if a guardian or kin has a dementia then the persons 1.5 Cognitive effects cognitive impacts lead to dementia patients experience issues with transient memory which can impacts both to individual living with dementia and the individuals around them, for example, a few patients are troublesome after discussion and helping. They are likewise experience issues thinking and are effectively diverted. the patients will have poor ability to know east from west or off and on again loses their ability to know east from west: they experience issues to discover the courses (go to lavatory, can). Functional effects The practical capacity of the customer changes like they experience issues in dressing and different capacities. They need to remind to consume, wash, dress and utilize the latrine and in addition needs help overseeing every day tasks. Behavioral effects They experience difficulty with level of individual cleanliness and dress sense lead to other individuals may be humiliated with somebodys close to home cleanliness or dress sense and would prefer not to be seen with the individual. Their verbal relational abilities are likewise influenced that makes the individuals living with dementia hard to express the things so they begin communicating their needs in some different ways. Psychological effects psychological impacts prompts the patients have changes in their conduct, for example, they get outrage and dissatisfaction and melancholy and in addition they detach themselves and abstain from going out as they discover it excessively hard to deal with the clamor and the other individuals. They lose the inspiration for all exercises of every day living, additionally they feel bore and may have visual mental trips. 2.1 1. Relationship: Dementia patients ought to dependably have associations with relative, companions and help suppliers that is in charge of the social, profound and passionate prosperity. Relationship has an essential part for supporting the dementia patients and it can be produced amid consistently minds and in addition amid sorted out exercises. Help supplier ought to admiration and comprehend dementia conduct. Help supplier and relatives of patients need to keep up their association with dementia customer so that the customer will adapt better and feel valued. 2. Correspondence: Correspondence helps the customer to express about their needs, in the same way as or abhorrence. At the point when speaking with the individual with dementia, compelling relational abilities and non-verbal communication need to be utilized. Help supplier ought to talk obviously, utilizing eyes contact, dont hurry. As an issue with dementia encounters a progressive abatement in capacity to convey. 3. Individuality: Help supplier ought to treat customers exclusively that implies help supplier help every customer similarly and regard them. Case in point, help supplier ought to give customer decision about what they like, for example, garments they need to wear, which exercises they like to do or take an interest. In addition empower the customers freedom however much as could be expected. 4. Feeling: Help supplier need to concentrate on the uniqueness and the rich scope of sentiments and feelings of the individuals living with dementia. Guardians ought to invest time with customers and sway them to discuss their emotions and comprehend them. Anyway dependably utilize a cool methodology to recognize customer’s emotions. 5. Abilities Retained From consideration arrangement, help supplier ought to recognize what exercises they used to like previously. Despite the fact that they are not ready to do the exercises yet the guardians ought to urge the customers to be as autonomous as would be prudent and inspire them to join the exercises of the rest home. Likewise they ought to fare thee well that the customers are getting a charge out of the exercises. 6. Needs of the person with dementia: Physical needs: Person with dementia need guarantee physical needs, for example, consuming, shower, dressing or wear glasses on the grounds that they are not ready to help themselves. Psychological needs: Person with dementia need somebody can convey and comprehend their inclination. Somebody can converse with them and offer with dementia patients. 2.2 Individuality influences PCC of dementia patients. Help supplier ought to take a gander at forethought arrange and realize what they can do, what they like to do and provide for them. Help supplier ought to provide for them what exercises they like to do. Relationship has a part essential for dementia patients. The dementia patients ought to stay in great association with relatives, help suppliers and companions. Relationship for an individual with dementia needs to be minding and trusting on the grounds that just with connections they can adapt better to their malady and feel esteemed and adored. Following the consideration arrangement, help suppliers need to verify that they comprehend and have learning about quiets inclination. Help supplier ought to know how to adapt to customers when they get irate or steamed, cool off patients and fulfill them feel. 2.3 Genuine movement makes opportunities for individuals living with dementia to react fittingly notice use their capacities. Importance exercises will develop with feeling, relationship and feelings. Compelling exercises can trigger memory and capacities. Genuine exercises may be not quite the same as one patient to other patient. 1. Verbal: The customers with dementia have diminishes the correspondence capacities that gets to be most noticeably bad with the progression of time as they are not by any means ready to talk or talk legitimately. They have hard to discover the right word or stuck on the words. They may rehash the same word or expression again and again. They may experience issues in communicating feelings. 2. Vocalization: The customers with dementia cant talk so they convey what needs be by the method for tedious discourse, groaning, creaming and singing. For instance if the customer feels torment then they were shouting or vocalizing. Vocalizations may be troublesome and offensive for others. 3. Gestures: Dementia customers they utilize signals for consideration or say something to help laborer by the motions, for example, tapping, indicating, waving or nodding. The motions of every customer have an alternate significance. For instance when the customer needs to strive for latrine they are tapping on the seat and on the off chance that they need to consume something then they utilize the motion with hands and development of the mouth. 4.Communication aids Communication helps is things helping correspondence in the middle of guardian and customer with dementia, for example, picture book, music, blaze cards. Case in point: a few customers utilize the cards with where they need to strive for visit. Picture book can indicate what they need. In addition, if an individual is not ready to talk that individual may utilize a board to compose words on. 3.2 1. Sensory losses The lost of sight and listening to prompt trouble in correspondence with dementia patients. They will misfortune association with other individuals. Case in point: without glasses, they are cant see non-verbal communication and not able to get significance of correspondence. 2. Communication accomplice: The correspondence accomplices are the individuals who help the dementia customers in correspondence and may be they are not accessible at constantly. The correspondence accomplices may be life partner, relative or companions. 3. Health status: Infections and sicknesses will have a terrible impact on correspondence capacity of dementia patients, for example, Parkinsons ailment and stroke, the patients will have hard to talk obviously. 4. Environment: Environment can be a correspondence obstruction as it influences the correspondence of the individuals with dementia, for example, extensive loud environment, individuals in a room or close-by talking excessively boisterous or excessively quick, and absence of powerful correspondence expertise among human services help laborers. 5. Culture: Society is a variable that additionally influences to correspondence, for example, stress, utilization of motions. Frequently, dementia patients talk their dialect or help laborers dont comprehend the dialect of customers. For instance: Arabic individual conversing with help laborer in it dialect. 6. Age: Now and again its truly hard to comprehend the needs of dementia customers for the more youthful parental figures when the dementia customer chatting with more youthful individual. As some of more youthful they talk quick or talk in more youthful statement consequently the dementia customer misjudged. Elderly age can relate with tangible misfortune and influence to correspondence. 7. Gender: Sexual orientation additionally has impact on correspondence as some male patient use distinctive words with female. This could be a sex boundary like Female patients can without much of a stretch impart their story and issues than male patients. 8. Reverting to original language: At times an individual with dementia talk will return to unique dialect and may review words that others dont comprehend which can be a boundary there would be an issue if no translator is accessible. 9. Expressive and reciptive correspondence issue: The patients with dementia cant discover words to convey. They are not able to express what they need. Open is the point at which they dont comprehend what impart to them, verbal and non-verbal correspondence. 3.3 1. Communication partner Help laborer ought to peruse consideration arrange and verify accomplices are presented with patient. In addition, help specialist verify that patient with dementia are agreeable with correspondence accomplices. 2. Environment: Verify customer with dementia they are agreeable and commonplace questions in their room. In the event that he/she feels good then put sign and images which can be helpful like on the off chance that he needs to go can then he put the finger on the sign. Verify give the sufficient lighting and proper space for moving the customer. 3. Verbal and non-verbal: Help specialist verify that they talk gradually, obviously to patients with dementia to comprehend the non-verbal correspondence, help laborer ought to utilize eyes contacts. 4. Singing: Singing is a system to empower patients with dementia correspondence. Help specialist ought to search for a few melodies in the past which help dementia patient to bring the gorgeous memory. Singing help to quiet down patient with tension and bring back cheerful memory. 5. Music: Music sways dementia patient to impart. Music can lessen tension, unsettling and cool off dementia understanding. Some music can be utilized with fundamental activity of arms or legs that likewise amuse them and urge them to do exercise. 6. Activities: Exercises in day by day living can sway dementia patient to correspond with others. Exercises help communicating their inclination, diminishing uneasiness, provide for them upbeat time. It can provide for them compelling things to discuss and can help to determination unfinished business. 7. Communication helps: Photos, new paper cuttings, memory books all energize correspondence on the grounds that dementia patient can utilize straightforward signs structure them to impart. Checking vision and portable hearing assistants are likewise paramount. PUSHPINDER KAUR

See I Told You So :: essays research papers

It is not very often that a person has his own national television show, radio show, and two books that have been on the "New York Times Best Seller List." Rush Limbaugh happens to be one of these unique people, his radio show is popular, his television show has the largest audience for a program of its type and his new book is one of the best of its kind. Limbaugh always backed up his comments with facts or statistics. While the book was informative and factual, it was also very humorous. See, I Told You So was definitely a conservative use of 363 pages.Without question, Rush Limbaugh is a spokesperson for a conservative majority within the United States. His book follows what he says on his radio and television programs, which is a conservative and republican view on issues. A few of the things he stresses in his book are that conservatives are the silent majority and President Clinton cannot ruin this country in four years. Although he stresses that conservatives are the majority, he says that liberals are trying to regain control by forcing the public schools get rid good things like the Bible and competition, and replace them with "Outcome-Based Education". Most importantly, we need to motivate people to pursue excellence and not feel sorry, pity and coddle underachievers.While the purpose of his book is to express these views, he also covers many other topics from the environment, to Dan's Bake Sale. "The spectacle was enough to drive a stake through the heart of liberalism (p.101)," says Rush Limbaugh about Dan's Bake Sale. Sixty-five thousand people flocked to Fort Collins, Colorado for what was called "Rushstock '93." This all started as a quest for Dan Kay to make $29.95 for a subscription to The Limbaugh Letter and escalated to a full day event that even Limbaugh attended.While Rush Limbaugh discusses many different controversial and serious issues, he manages to make it entertaining. He makes these serious issues amusing by sarcastic comments and pionting out the irony in government today. Parts of the book are made for just entertainment like the Politically Correct Liberal Dictionary and the Lies, Lies chapter in which Limbaugh backs up his theory that, the Clinton administration, has cataloged an "avalanche of false hoods" with 7 pages of Clinton's major contradictions.Rush Limbaugh makes many controversial comments throughout his book, but instead of just commenting, he supports what he says.

Essay --

There was once a point in time when people fought for the right to do what people in this day and age would an everyday ritual. They had to live with the day to day struggle of having to sneak to pray to their God. The ability to express your thoughts and concerns verbally could cost you your life. Decisions were made without the input of citizens. Like a child, citizens were to be seen and not heard. Independence and freedom was craved so badly, it drove people to leave the place they once called home. Men gathered together collaborating ideas on what would soon be our Constitution. July 4, 1776, life was no longer as some new it. American people were as happy as a child on Christmas. Freedom is something many of us take for granted. To them, freedom was more than just a right. It was the privilege to your opinion out loud. It was the privilege to walk in the building to worship God. It was the privilege to have the ability to make decisions that could impact your country. People lo nged for that right and it was appreciated. America was now a place where people could live freely. There were no strict rules that bounded you from life. Now, according to G.Gordon Liddy, America is no longer this way. According to him and his novel, when he was a kid this was a free country. In the book, "When I Was a Kid, This Was a Free Country," by G.Gordon Liddy, Liddy tells the reader how America has made a drastic change from the 1930's. Using reflections from his childhood, Liddy compares life styles of today's time period to life styles during the time period of his childhood. According to Liddy, his generation is the last generation to remember what the country was like when it was free. Through his years of radio programming, Liddy says "... ...d have the mental stability to take on the world. My thoughts on this book vary. I think that Liddy's expectations of the world is ridiculous. It may be my Democratic beliefs kicking in, but to compare the world to then and now isn't logically to me. Liddy should not be shocked to see such changes in the world. Things change. The world is more advanced now. You can't do things you could do in the 30's. Technology is more advanced, Children are being forced to grow up quicker, educational systems have now raised their standards, and views on life aren't seen eye to eye anymore. To me, For Liddy to even compare the world to his childhood is like comparing a child to its behavior when it's one, to the behavior of the child when it's 18. I presume that the purpose of Liddy's book was to inform the readers how America may seem is not how she once was. He wanted to adv Essay -- There was once a point in time when people fought for the right to do what people in this day and age would an everyday ritual. They had to live with the day to day struggle of having to sneak to pray to their God. The ability to express your thoughts and concerns verbally could cost you your life. Decisions were made without the input of citizens. Like a child, citizens were to be seen and not heard. Independence and freedom was craved so badly, it drove people to leave the place they once called home. Men gathered together collaborating ideas on what would soon be our Constitution. July 4, 1776, life was no longer as some new it. American people were as happy as a child on Christmas. Freedom is something many of us take for granted. To them, freedom was more than just a right. It was the privilege to your opinion out loud. It was the privilege to walk in the building to worship God. It was the privilege to have the ability to make decisions that could impact your country. People lo nged for that right and it was appreciated. America was now a place where people could live freely. There were no strict rules that bounded you from life. Now, according to G.Gordon Liddy, America is no longer this way. According to him and his novel, when he was a kid this was a free country. In the book, "When I Was a Kid, This Was a Free Country," by G.Gordon Liddy, Liddy tells the reader how America has made a drastic change from the 1930's. Using reflections from his childhood, Liddy compares life styles of today's time period to life styles during the time period of his childhood. According to Liddy, his generation is the last generation to remember what the country was like when it was free. Through his years of radio programming, Liddy says "... ...d have the mental stability to take on the world. My thoughts on this book vary. I think that Liddy's expectations of the world is ridiculous. It may be my Democratic beliefs kicking in, but to compare the world to then and now isn't logically to me. Liddy should not be shocked to see such changes in the world. Things change. The world is more advanced now. You can't do things you could do in the 30's. Technology is more advanced, Children are being forced to grow up quicker, educational systems have now raised their standards, and views on life aren't seen eye to eye anymore. To me, For Liddy to even compare the world to his childhood is like comparing a child to its behavior when it's one, to the behavior of the child when it's 18. I presume that the purpose of Liddy's book was to inform the readers how America may seem is not how she once was. He wanted to adv

perfectly Imperfect: The Shakespeare Story :: essays research papers fc

"Perfectly Imperfect: The Shakespeare Story" Few authors today write with such universal understanding that their works will be popular with all types of people, and so successfully that their work survives centuries. These authors posses qualities we can seldom identify in their lifetimes. Yet we do know this -- William Shakespeare was one of them. William Shakespeare's parents were John Shakespeare and Mary Arden. John Shakespeare was born in 1529. His father was a small tenant farmer in Snitterfield, near Stratford-upon-Avon. He became a successful glover and trader, and owned civic office in Stratford. He was not born to the nobility, but he did have some authority in the town. In 1596 he was given by the College of Arms the right to a coat of arms and a crest. Doing that advanced his status to that of a country gentleman. He would belong to the upper class of rural society. That was the class just under the knights and the nobility to which the country gentleman could be promoted if he made money in trade or the law and had influence at court. His rise in authority began the year after he was married. He became constable of Stratford, in charge of keeping the town safe. From 1561 to 1565, he was Chamberlain, responsible for the oversight and maintenance of Corporation of Stratford property. In 1564, his name appeared on the list of Capital Burgesses. He was likely a member for a number of years, just without his name on the list. Capital Burgesses were the main English parliament representatives for towns or boroughs. Later on, he was bailiff of the town, and held many important positions throughout his life. William Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden, was born to nobility, a wealthy family. She was the youngest daughter of Robert Arden, also a country gentleman, of Wilmcote. He left in his will to Mary the estate of Asbies in Wilmcote and six pounds, thirteen shillings, and sixpence. Within a year of her father's death, in 1557, Mary married John Shakespeare. William Shakespeare was the third child, born after Joan and Margaret Shakespeare. Margaret died before William was born, and Joan died sometime before 1569. William was born in 1564. His exact birth date is not known, though it is known that he was baptized on April 26 in the Holy Trinity Church of Stratford. His birthday could have been any of the four or five days before that day. Traditionally, it has been said that he was born on the 23 of April, the same day of his death and St.

General Electric Essay

The history of General Electric Company is a significant part of the history of technology in the United States. General Electric (GE) has evolved from Thomas Edison’s home laboratory into one of the largest companies in the world, following the evolution of electrical technology from the simplest early applications into the high-tech wizardry of the early 21st century. The company has also evolved into a conglomerate, with an increasing shift from technology to services, and with 11 main operating units: GE Advanced Materials, a specialist in high-performance engineered thermoplastics, silicon-based products, and fused quartz and ceramics used in a wide variety of industries; GE Consumer & Industrial, which is one of the world’s leading appliance manufacturers, stands as a preeminent global maker of lighting products for consumer, commercial, and industrial customers, and also provides integrated industrial equipment, systems, and services; GE Energy, one of the largest technology suppliers to the energy industry; GE Equipment Services, which offers leases, loans, and other services to medium and large businesses around the world to help them manage their business equipment; GE Healthcare, a world leader in medical diagnostic and interventional imaging technology and services; GE Infrastructure, which is involved in high-technology protectiv e and productivity solutions in such areas as water purification, facility safety, plant automation, and automatic environmental controls; GE Transportation, the largest producer of small and large jet engines for commercial and military aircraft in the world, as well as the number one maker of diesel freight locomotives in North America; NBC Universal (80 percent owned by GE), a global media and entertainment giant with a wide range of assets, including the NBC and Telemundo television networks, several cable channels, and the Universal Pictures film studio; GE Commercial Finance, which provides businesses, particularly in the mid-market segment, with an array of financial services and products, including loans, operating leases, and financing programs; GE Consumer Finance, a leading financial services provider, serving consumers, retailers, and auto dealer in about three dozen countries; and GE Insurance, which is involved in such areas as life insurance, asset management, mortgag e insurance, and reinsurance. The staggering size of GeneralElectric, which ranked fifth in the Fortune 500 in 2003, becomes even more evident through the revelation that each of the company’s 11 operating units, if listed separately, would qualify as a Fortune 500 company. GE operates in more than 100 countries worldwide and generates approximately 45 percent of its revenues outside the United States. Over the course of its 110-plus years of innovation, General Electric has amassed more than 67,500 patents, and the firm’s scientists have been awarded two Nobel Prizes and numerous other honors. Thomas Edison established himself in the 1870s as an inventor after devising, at the age of 23, an improved stock ticker. He subsequently began research on an electric light as a replacement for gas light, the standard method of illumination at the time. In 1876 Edison moved into a laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. Two years later, in 1878, Edison established, with the help of his friend Grosvenor Lowry, the Edison Electric Light Company with a capitalization of $300,000. Edison received half of the new company’s shares on the agreement that he work on developing an incandescent lighting system. The major problem Edison and his team of specialists faced was finding an easy-to-produce filament that would resist the passage of electrical current in the bulb for a long time. H e triumphed only a year after beginning research when he discovered that common sewing thread, once carbonized, worked in the laboratory. For practical applications, however, he switched to carbonized bamboo. Developing an electrical lighting system for a whole community involved more than merely developing an electric bulb; the devices that generated, transmitted, and controlled electric power also had to be invented. Accordingly, Edison organized research into all of these areas and in 1879, the same year that he produced an electric bulb, he also constructed the first dynamo, or direct-current (DC) generator. The original application of electric lighting was on the steamship Columbia in 1880. In that same year, Edison constructed a three-mile-long trial electric railroad at his Menlo Park laboratory. The first individual system of electric lighting came in 1881, in a printing plant. But the first full-scale public application of the Edison lighting system was actually made in Lon don, at the Holborn Viaduct. The first system in the United States came soon after when Pearl Street Station was opened in New York City. Components of the system were manufactured by different companies, some of which were organized by Edison; lamps came from theparent company, dynamos from the Edison Machine Works, and switches from Bergmann & Company of New York. In 1886 the Edison Machine Works was moved from New Jersey to Schenectady, New York. While these developments unfolded at Edison’s company, the Thomson-Houston Company was formed from the American Electric Company, founded by Elihu Thomson and Edwin Houston, who held several patents for their development of arc lighting. Some of their electrical systems differed from Edison’s through the use of alternating-current (AC) equipment, which can transmit over longer distances than DC systems. By the early 1890s the spread of electrification was threatened by the conflict between the two technologies and by patent deadlocks, which prevented further developments because of patent-infringement problems. By 1889, Edison had consolidated all of his companies under the name of Edison General Electric Company. Three years later, in 1892, this company was merged with the Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form the General Electric Company. Although this merger was the turning point in the electrification of the United States, it resulted in Edison’s resignati on from GE. He had been appointed to the board of directors but he attended only one board meeting, and sold all of his shares in 1894, though he remained a consultant to General Electric and continued to collect royalties on his patents. The president of the new company was Charles A. Coffin, a former shoe manufacturer who had been the leading figure at Thomson-Houston. Coffin remained president of General Electric until 1913, and was chairman thereafter until 1922. Meanwhile, also in 1892, GE’s stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1884 Frank Julian Sprague, an engineer who had worked on electric systems with Edison, resigned and formed the Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Company, which built the first large-scale electric streetcar system in the United States, in Richmond, Virginia. In 1889 Sprague’s company was purchased by Edison’s. In the meantime, the two other major electric-railway companies in the United States had merged with Thoms on-Houston, so that by the time General Electric was formed, it was the major supplier of electrified railway systems in the United States. One year after the formation of General Electric, the company won a bid for the construction of large AC motors in a textile mill in South Carolina. The motors were the largest manufactured by General Electric at the time and were so successful that orders soon beganto flow in from other industries such as cement, paper, and steel. In that same year, General Electric began its first venture into the field of power transmission with the opening of the Redlands-Mill Creek power line in California, and in 1894 the company constructed a massive power-transmission line at Niagara Falls. Meanwhile the company’s electric-railroad ventures produced an elevated electric train surrounding the fairgrounds of the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. Electrification of existing rail lines began two years later. By the turn of the century General Electric was manufacturing everything involved in the electrification of the United States: generators to produce electricity, transmission equipment to carry power, industrial electric motors, electric light bulbs, and electric locomotives. It is important to any understanding of the evolution of GE to realize that though it was diverse from the beginning, all of its enterprises centered on the electrification program. It is also worth noting that it operated in the virtual absence of competition. General Electric and the Westinghouse Electric Company had been competitors, but the companies entered into a patent pool in 1896. In 1900 GE established the first industrial laboratory in the United States. Up to that point, research had been carried out in universities or in private laboratories similar to Edison’s Menlo Park laboratory. Initially, the lab was set up in a barn behind the house of one of the researchers, but the lab was moved in 1 900 to Schenectady, New York, after it was destroyed in a fire. The head of the research division was a professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The importance of research at General Electric cannot be underestimated, for GE has been awarded more patents over the years than any other company in the United States. During the early decades of the 20th century General Electric made further progress in its established fields and also made its first major diversification. In 1903 General Electric bought the Stanley Electric Manufacturing Company of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, a manufacturer of transformers. Its founder, William Stanley, was the developer of the transformer. By this time GE’s first light bulbs were in obvious need of improvement. Edison’s bamboo filament was replaced in 1904 by metalized carbon developed by the company’s research lab. That filament, in turn, was replaced several years later by a tungsten-filament light bulb when Willia m Coolidge, a GE researcher, discovered a process to render the durable metal more pliable. This light bulb was so rugged and well suited for use in automobiles, railroad cars, and street cars that it was still employed in the early 2000s. In 1913, two other innovations came out of the GE labs: Irving Langmuir discovered that gas-filled bulbs were more efficient and reduced bulb blackening. To this day virtually all bulbs over 40 watts are gas-filled. The first high-vacuum, hot-cathode X-ray tube, known as the Coolidge tube, was also developed in 1913. Coolidge’s research into tungsten had played an important role in the development of the X-ray tube. The device, which combined a vacuum with a heated tungsten filament and tungsten target, has been the foundation of virtually all X-ray tubes produced ever since, and its development laid the foundation for medical technology operations at General Electric. Perhaps GE’s most important development in the early part of this century was its participation in the development of the high-speed steam turbine in conjunction with English, Swedish, and other inventors. Until this invention, all electricity (except hydroelectric) had been produced by generators that turned at no more than 100 rpm, which limited the amount of electricity a single unit could produce. An independent inventor had come up with a design for a very-high-speed steam turbine before the turn of the century, but it took five years of research before GE could construct a working model. By 1901, however, a 500-kilowatt, 1,200-rpm turbine generator was operating. Orders for the turbines followed almost immediately, and by 1903 a 5,000-kilowatt turbine was in use at Chicago’s Commonwealth Edison power company. Such rapid progress led to rapid obsolescence as well, and the Chicago units were replaced within six years. As a result, GE shops in Schenectady were soon overflowing with business. By 1910 the volume of the company’s trade in turbine generators had tripled and GE had sold almost one million kilowatts of power capacity. At the same time, General Electric scientists were also researching the gas turbine. Their investigations eventually resulted in the first flight of an airplane equipped with a turbine-powered supercharger. In the early days of electric power, electricity was produced only during evening hours, because electric lighting was not needed during the day and there were no other products to use electricity. GE, as the producer of both electricity-generating equipment and electricity-consuming devices, naturally sought to expand both ends of its markets. The first major expansion of the General Electric product line was made in the first decade of the 20th century. Before the turn of the century, light bulbs and electric fans were GE’s only consumer product. One of the first household appliances GE began to market was a toaster in 1905. The following year the company attempted to market an electric range. The unwieldy device consisted of a wooden table top equipped with electric griddles, pans, toasters, waffle irons, pots, and a coffeemaker, each with its own retractable cord to go into any one of 30 plugs. The range was followed by a commercial electric refrigerator in 1911 and by an experimental household refrigerator six years later. At the same time two other companies in the United States were producing electric devices for the home. The Pacific Electric Heating Company produced the first electric appliance to be readily accepted by the public: the Hotpoint iron. The Hughes Electric Heating Company produced and marketed an electric range. In 1918 all three companies were prospering, but to avoid competition with one another, they agreed upon a merger. The new company combined GE’s heating-device section with Hughes and Pacif ic to form the Edison Electric Appliance Company, whose products bore either the GE or the Hotpoint label. GE’s first diversification outside electricity came with its establishment of a research staff to investigate plastics. This occurred primarily at the prompting of Charles P. Steinmetz, a brilliant mathematician who had been with the company since the 1890s. All of the initial work by this group was devoted to coatings, varnishes, insulation, and other products related to electrical wiring, so that even this diversification was tied in to electrification. A more radical branching of GE’s activities occurred in 1912, when Ernst Alexanderson, a GE employee, was approached by a radio pioneer looking for a way to expand the range of wireless sets into higher frequencies. Alexanderson worked for almost a decade on the project before he succeeded in creating electromagnetic waves that could span continents, instead of the short distances to which radios had been limited . In 1922, General Electric introduced its own radio station, WGY, in Schenectady. In 1919, at the request of the government, GE formed, in partnership with AT&T and Westinghouse, the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) to develop radio technology. GE withdrew from the venture in 1930, when antitrust considerations came to the fore. General Electric also operated two experimental shortwave stations that had a global range. Other developments at General Electric contributed to the progress of the radio. Irving Langmuir had developed the electron tube. This tube, necessary for amplifying the signals in Alexanderson’s radio unit, was capable of operating at very high power. Other important developments by scientists at General Electric included the world’s first practical loudspeaker and a method for recording complex sound on film that is still in use today. Developments continued apace at GE in the electric motor field. In 1913 the U.S. Navy commissioned General Electric to build the first ship to be powered by turbine motors rather than steam. In 1915 the first turbine-propelled battleship sailed forth, and within a few years, all of the Navy’s large ships were equipped with electric power. General Electric also owned several utility companies that generated electrical power, but in 1924 GE left the utilities business when the federal government brought antitrust action against the company. During the Great Depression the company introduced a variety of consumer items such as mixers, vacuum cleaners, air conditioners, and washing machines. GE also introduced the first affordable electric refrigerator in the late 1920s. It was designed by a Danish toolmaker, Christian Steenstrup, who later supervised mechanical research at the GE plant in Schenectady. In addition, GE introduced its first electric dishwasher in 1932, the same year that consumer financing of personal appliances was introduced. Also in 1932 the first Nobel Prize ever awarded to a scientist not affiliated with a university went to Irving Langmuir for his work at GE on surface chemistry, research that had grown out of his earlier work on electron tubes. The years that followed witnessed a steady stream of inn ovation in electronics from the GE labs. These included the photoelectric-relay principle, rectifier tubes that eliminated batteries from home receivers, the cathode-ray tube, and glass-to-metal seals for vacuum tubes. Many of these developments in electronics were crucial to the growth of radio broadcasting. The broadcasting division of General Electric achieved a breakthrough in the late 1930s. The company had been developing a mode of transmission known as frequency modulation (FM) as an alternative to the prevailing amplitude modulation (AM). In 1939 a demonstration conducted for the Federal Communications Commission proved that FM had less static and noise. GE began broadcasting in FM the following year. Of course, the light bulb was not forgotten in this broadening of research activity at General Electric. The world’s first mercury-vapor lamp was introduced in 1934, followed four years later by the fluorescent lamp. The latter produced light using half the power of incandescent bulbs, with about twice the lifespan. Less than a year after the introduction of the fluorescent light, General Electric introduced the sealed-beam automotive headlight. Even though production of convenience items for the consumer halted during World War II, the war proved profitable for General Electric, whose revenues quadrupled during the war. The president of General Electric at the time, Charles Wilson, joined the War Production Board in 1942. GE produced more than 50 different types of radar for the armed forces and over 1,500 marine power plants for the Navy and merchant marine. The company, using technology developed by the Englishman Frank Whittle, also conducted research on jet engines for aircraft. The Bell XP-59, the first U.S. jet aircraft, flew in 1942 powered by General Electric engines. By the end of the war this technology helped General Electric develop the nation’s first turboprop engine. When production of consumer goods resumed immediately after the war, GE promptly found itself in another antitrust battle. The government discovered that GE controlled 85 percent of the light bulb industry–55 percent through its own output and the other 30 percent through licensees. In 1949 the court forced GE to release its patents to other companies. In this period the first true product diversifications ca me out of GE’s research labs. In the 1940s a GE scientist discovered a way to produce large quantities of silicone, a material GE had been investigating for a long time. In 1947 GE opened a plant to produce silicones, which allowed the introduction of many products using silicone as a sealant or lubricant. Meanwhile, as research innovation blossomed and postwar business boomed, the company began an employee relations policy known as â€Å"Boulwarism,† from Lemuel Boulware, the manager who established the policy. The policy, which eliminated much of the bargaining involved in labor-management relations, included the extension by GE to union leaders of a nonnegotiable contract offer. During the late 1940s General Electric embarked on a study of nuclear power and constructed a laboratory specifically for the task. Company scientists involved in an earlier attempt to separate U-235 from natural uranium were developing nuclear power plants for naval propulsion by 1946. In 1 955 the Navy launched the submarineSeawolf, the world’s first nuclear-powered vessel, with a reactor developed by General Electric. In 1957 the company received a license from the Atomic Energy Commission to operate a nuclear-power reactor, the first license granted in the United States for a privately owned generating station. That same year GE’s consumer appliance operations got a big boost when an enormous manufacturing site, Appliance Park, in Louisville, Kentucky, was completed. The flow of new GE products–hair dryers, skillets, electronic ovens, self-cleaning ovens, electric knives–continued. Other innovations to come from GE labs during the 1950s included an automatic pilot for jet aircraft, Lexan polycarbonate resin, the first all-transistor radio, jet turbine engines, gas turbines for electrical power generation, and a technique for fabricating diamonds. Antitrust problems continued to vex the company throughout the postwar years. In 1961 the Justice Department indicted 29 companies, of which GE was the biggest, for price fixing on electrical equipment. All the defendants pleaded gui lty. GE’s fine was almost half a million dollars, damages it paid to utilities who had purchased price-fixed equipment came to at least $50 million, and three GE managers received jail sentences and several others were forced to leave the company. During the 1960s and 1970s GE grew in all fields. In 1961 it opened a research center for aerospace projects, and by the end of the decade had more than 6,000 employees involved in 37 projects related to the moon landing. In the 1950s General Electric entered the computer business. This venture, however, proved to be such a drain on the company’s profits that GE sold its computer business to Honeywell in 1971. By the late 1960s, GE’s management began to feel that the company had become too large for its existing structures to accommodate. Accordingly, the company instituted a massive organizational restructuring. Under this restructuring program, the number of distinct operating units within the company was cut from more than 200 to 43. Each new section operated in a particular market and was headed by a manager who reported to management just beneath the corporate policy board. The sections were classified into one of three categories–growth, stability, or no-growth–to facilitate divestment of unprofitab le units. When this reorganization was complete, General Electric made what was at the time the largest corporate purchase ever. In December 1976 GE paid $2.2 billion for Utah International, a major coal, copper, uranium, and ironminer and a producer of natural gas and oil. The company did 80 percent of its business in foreign countries. Within a year Utah International was contributing 18 percent of GE’s total earnings. In the meantime, GE scientist Ivar Giaever was a corecipient of the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discoveries in the area of superconductive tunneling. Giaever became the second GE employee to be honored with a Nobel Prize. The divestiture of its computer business had left GE without any capacity for manufacturing integrated circuits and the high-technology products in which they are used. In 1975 a study of the company’s status concluded that GE, one of the first U.S. electrical companies, had fallen far behind in electronics. As a result, GE sp ent some $385 million to acquire Intersil, a semiconductor manufacturer; Calma, a producer of computer graphics equipment; and four software producers. The company also spent more than $100 million to expand its microelectronics facilities. Other fields in which GE excelled were in trouble by the mid-1970s, most notably nuclear power. As plant construction costs skyrocketed and environmental concerns grew, the company’s nuclear power division began to lose money. GE’s management, however, was convinced that the problem was temporary and that sales would pick up in the future. When by 1980 General Electric had received no new orders for plants in five years, nuclear power began to look more and more like a prime candidate for divestment. GE eventually pulled out of all aspects of the nuclear power business except for providing service and fuel to existing plants and conducting research on nuclear energy. Though General Electric’s growth was tremendous during the 1970s and earnings tripled between 1971 and 1981, the company’s stock performance was mediocre. GE had become so large and was involved in so many activities that some regarded its fortunes as capable only of following the fortunes of the country as a whole. GE’s economic problems were mirrored by its managerial reshuffling. When John F. (Jack) Welch, Jr., became chairman and CEO in 1981, General Electric entered a period of radical change. Over the next several years, GE bought 338 businesses and product lines for $11.1 billion and sold 232 for $5.9 billion. But Welch’s first order of business was to return much of the control of the company to the periphery. Although he decentralized management, he retained predecessor Reginald Jones’s system of classifying divisions according to their performance. His goal was to make GE number oneor two in every field of operation. One branch of GEâ€⠄¢s operations that came into its own during this period was the General Electric Credit Corporation, founded in 1943. Between 1979 and 1984, its assets doubled, to $16 billion, primarily because of expansion into such markets as the leasing and selling of heavy industrial goods, inventories, real estate, and insurance. In addition, the leasing operations provided the parent company with tax shelters from accelerated depreciation on equipment developed by GE and then leased by the credit corporation. Factory automation became a major activity at GE during the early 1980s. GE’s acquisitions of Calma and Intersil were essential to this program. In addition, GE entered into an agreement with Japan’s Hitachi, Ltd. to manufacture and market Hitachi’s industrial robots in the United States. GE itself spent $300 million to robotize its locomotive plant in Erie, Pennsylvania. Two years later GE’s aircraft engine business also participated in an air force plant-mo dernization program and GE later manufactured the engines for the controversial B-1B bomber. In 1986 General Electric made several extremely important purchases. The largest–in fact, the largest for the company to that date–was the $6.4 billion purchase of the Radio Corporation of American (RCA), the company GE had helped to found in 1919. RCA’s National Broadcasting Company (NBC), the leading U.S. television network, brought GE into the broadcasting business in full force. Although both RCA and GE were heavily involved in consumer electronics, the match was regarded by industry analysts as beneficial, because GE had been shifting from manufacturing into service and high technology. After the merger, almost 80 percent of GE’s earnings came from services and high technology, compared to 50 percent six years earlier. GE divested itself of RCA’s famous David Sarnoff Research Center, because GE’s labs made it redundant. In 1987 GE also sold its own and RCA’s television manufacturing businesses to the French company Thomson in exchange for Thomson’s medical diagnostics business. GE justified the merger by citing the need for size to compete effectively with large Japanese conglomerates. Critics, however, claimed that GE was running from foreign competition by increasing its defense contracts (to almost 20 percent of its total business) and its service business, both of which were insulated from foreign competition. In 1986 GE also purchased the Employers Reinsurance Corporation, a financial services company, from Texaco, for $1.1 billion,and an 80 percent interest in Kidder Peabody and Company, an investment banking firm, for $600 million, greatly broadening its financial services division. Although Employer’s Reinsurance contributed steadily to GE’s bottom line following its purchase, Kidder Peabody lost $48 million in 1987, in part because of the settlement of insider trading charges. Kidder Peabody did come back in 1988 to contribute $46 million in earnings, but the acquisition still troubled some analysts. GE owned 100 percent of Kidder Peabody by 1990. General Electric’s operations were divided into three business groups in the early 1990s: technology, service, and manufacturing. Its manufacturing operations, traditionally the core of the company, accounted for roughly one-third of the company’s earnings. Still, GE continued to pour more than $1 billion annually into research and development of manufactured goods. Much of that investment was directed at energy conservation–more efficient light bulbs, jet engines, and electrical power transmission methods, for example. In 1992 GE signaled its intent to step up overseas activity with the purchase of 50 percent of the European appliance business of Britainâ€℠¢s General Electric Company (GEC). The two companies also made agreements related to their medical, power systems, and electrical distribution businesses. Welch said that his aim was to make GE the nation’s largest company. To that end, General Electric continued to restructure its existing operations in an effort to become more competitive in all of its businesses. Most importantly, the company launched an aggressive campaign to become dominant in the growing financial services sector. GE’s aggressive initiatives related to financial services reflected the fact that the service sector represented more than three-quarters of the U.S. economy going into the mid-1990s. Furthermore, several service industries, including financial, were growing rapidly. GE’s revenues from its giant NBC and GE Capital divisions, for example, rose more than 12 percent annually from about $14.3 billion in 1988 to more than $25 billion in 1994. Encouraged by those gains, GE’s mer ger and acquisition activity intensified. For example, in 1994 the company offered a $2.2 billion bid for Kemper Corp., a diversified insurance and financial services company (it retracted the bid in 1995). GE’s sales from services as a percentage of total revenues increased from 30 percent in 1988 to nearly 45 percent in 1994, and neared 60 percent by 1996. The troubled Kidder Peabody unitremained a drag on GE’s services operations, leading to the company’s late 1994 decision to liquidate the unit. As part of the liquidation, GE sold some Kidder Peabody assets and operations to Paine Webber Group Inc. for $657 million. In contrast to its service businesses, GE’s total manufacturing receipts remained stagnant at about $35 billion. Nevertheless, restructuring was paying off in the form of fat profit margins in many of its major product divisions. Importantly, GE made significant strides with its Aircraft Engine Group. Sales fell from $8 billion in 1991 to less than $6 billion in 1995, but profit margins rose past 18 percent after dipping to just 12 percent in 1993. Reflective of restructuring efforts in other GE divisions, the company accomplished the profit growth by slashing the engineering workforce from 10,000 to 4,000 and reducing its overall Aircraft Engine Group payroll by about 50 percent, among other cost-cut ting moves. Despite a global economic downturn in the early 1990s, GE managed to keep aggregate sales from its technology, service, and manufacturing operations stable at about $60 billion annually. More importantly, net income surged steadily from $3.9 billion in 1989 to $5.9 billion in 1994, excluding losses in the latter year from Kidder Peabody operations. In 1994, in fact, General Electric was the most profitable of the largest 900 U.S. corporations, and was trailed by General Motors, Ford, and Exxon. Revenues reached $70 billion by 1995, the same year that the company’s market value exceeded $100 billion for the first time. The late 1990s saw General Electric reach a number of milestones. In 1996 the company celebrated its 100th year as part of the Dow Jones Index; GE was the only company remaining from the original list. That year, NBC joined with Microsoft Corporation in launching MSNBC, a 24-hour cable television news channel and Internet news service. Overall revenues exceeded the $100 billion mark for the first time in 1998, while the continuing stellar growth at GE Capital led that unit to generate nearly half of GE’s revenues by the end of the decade. Acquisitions in the late 1990s centered on two of the company’s growth initiatives: services and globalization. In 1996 the GE Appliances division acquired a 73 percent interest in DAKO S.A., the leading manufacturer of gas ranges in Brazil. GE Capital Services expanded in Japan through the 1996 purchase of an 80 percent stake in Marubeni Car System Co., an auto leasing firm; the 1998 acquisitions of Koei Credit and the consumer finance business of Lake Corporation; and the 1998 formation of GE Edison Life following the purchase of the sales operations of Toho Mutual Life Insurance, which made GE Capital the first foreign company involved in the Japanese life insurance market. In early 1999 GE Capital made its largest deal in Japan to date with the purchase of the leasing business of Japan Leasing Corporation, a business with $7 billion in leasing assets. Then in late 1999 GE Capital agreed to purchase the remaining assets of Toho Mutual for  ¥240 billion ($2.33 billion); Toho had collapsed during 1999 after suffering huge losses from the thousands of old, unprofitable policies in its portfolio, and a large portion of its liabilities were to be covered by Japan’s life insurance association. Expansion also continued in Europe for GE Capital, highlighted by the 1997 acquisition of Woodchester, one of the largest financial services companies in Ireland. Overall, GE spent some $30 billion during the 1990s in completing more tha n 130 European acquisitions. Under Welch’s leadership, General Electric in the late 1990s also adopted â€Å"six sigma,† a quality control and improvement initiative pioneered by Motorola, Inc. and AlliedSignal Inc. The program aimed to cut costs by reducing errors or defects. GE claimed that by 1998 six sigma was yielding $1 billion in annual savings. The company also continued to restructure as necessary, including taking a $2.3 billion charge in late 1997 to close redundant facilities and shift production to cheaper labor markets. During 1999 General Electric adopted a fourth growth initiative, e-business (globalization, services, and six sigma being the other three). Like many longstanding companies, GE reacted cautiously when the Internet began its late 1990s explosion. But once he was convinced of the new medium’s potential, Welch quickly adopted e-commerce as a key to the company’s future growth. Among the early ventures was a plan to begin selling appliances through Home Depot, Inc.’s web site, a move aimed at revitalizing lagging appliance sales. In late 1999 Welch announced that he planned to retire in April 2001, but he did not name a successor. At the time, General Electric was one of the world’s fastest growing and most profitable companies, and boasted a market capitalization of $505 billion, second only to Microsoft Corporation. Revenues for 1999 increased 11 percent to $111.63 billion while net income rose 15 percent to $10.72 billion. These figures also represented huge gains since Welch took over in 1981, when the company posted profits of $1.6 billion on sales of$27.2 billion. Welch was not done yet, however. In October 2000 he swooped in to break up a planned $40 billion merger of United Technologies Corporation and Honeywell International Inc. The Honeywell board accepted GE’s $45 billion bid, which was set to be the largest acquisition in the company’s history. Honeywell was coveted for its aerospace unit, a $9.9 billion business involved in flight-control systems, onboard environmental controls, and repair services. The addition of this unit was expected to significantly boost the GE Aircraft Engines unit, creating a global aerospace giant. Welch agreed to stay on at General Electric through the end of 2001 in order to see the acquisition through to fruition. He did, however, name a successor soon after this deal was announced. In November 2000 Jeffrey R. Immelt won the succession battle and wa s named president and chairman-elect. Immelt, who joined GE in 1982, had most recently served as president and CEO of GE Medical Systems, a unit with revenues of $12 billion. Immelt’s two chief rivals in the race to become only the ninth CEO in GE’s long history, W. James McNerney Jr., head of GE Aircraft Engines, and Robert L. Nardelli, head of GE Power Systems, soon left the company to become CEOs of 3M Company and Home Depot, respectively. Rather than serving as a capstone for a much admired reign of leadership, the Honeywell deal instead provided a sour ending for the Welch era. In the summer of 2001 the European Commission blocked the deal on antitrust grounds as 11th-hour negotiations between the European regulators and GE executives broke down. Welch finally retired soon thereafter, with Immelt taking over as chairman and CEO in September 2001. Meanwhile, one last major deal was initiated prior to the leadership handover. In July 2001 General Electric’s G E Capital unit agreed to pay $5.3 billion for Heller Financial Inc., a global commercial finance company based in Chicago that had total assets of about $19.5 billion. This deal, the second largest in GE history, behind only the 1986 deal for RCA, was consummated in October 2001. Also during 2001, GE Lighting had the largest product launch in its history when it introduced the GE Reveal line of light bulbs, which were touted as providing â€Å"a cleaner, crisper light† because the bulbs filtered out the duller yellow rays commonly produced by standard incandescent light bulbs. GE began feeling the effects of the economic downturn that year as revenues fell nearly 3 percent, to $125.68 billion; profits nevertheless increased 7.5percent, reaching $13.68 billion, though that was a far cry from the yearly 13 to 15 percent increases that Wall Street came to expect from GE during the Welch era. Immelt began to place his imprint in earnest on GE in 2002 through major restructurings and several significant acquisitions. Midyear he launched a reorganization of GE Capital. The financial services unit was divided into four separate units to streamline management, increase oversight, and improve transparency. The new units were: GE Commercial Finance, GE Consumer Finance, GE Equipment Management (involved in equipment leasing and loans), and GE Insurance. Also during 2002, the GE Appliances and GE Lighting units were combined into a new GE Consumer Products unit. On the acquisitions front, NBC widened its media holdings through the April 2002 acquisition of Hialeah, Florida-based Telemundo Communications Group Inc. for $2.7 billion and the $1.25 billion purchase of the Bravo cable network, completed in December of that year. Telemundo owned the second largest Spanish-language television network, as well as nine U.S. TV stations and the leading TV station in Puerto Rico. NBC hoped to tap into the growing Hispanic market via the deal. Bravo was known for its intelligent, arts-oriented programming such as Inside the Actors Studio, and it provided NBC with its first entertainment-oriented cable property. Also during 2002, GE Specialty Materials acquired BetzDearborn, a leading maker of water treatment chemicals, from Hercules Inc. for $1.8 billion. In addition, GE Industrial Systems spent about $777 million for Interlogix, Inc, an Austin, Texas-based manufacturer of electronic security products and systems for commercial, industrial, and residential use. All told, General Electric spent approximately $9 billion on industrial acquisitions alone during 2002. Concerns about whether the company could continue its stellar earnings performance and about its accounting practices sent GE’s stock sharply lower in 2002. The stock ended the year trading at $24.35 per share, less than half of the high price for 2001. Once again, profits rose modestly, to $14.12 billion, or about 3 percent. Taking advantage of the economic downturn to acquire desirable assets from distressed sellers, GE’s deal-making appetite grew only larger in 2003. That year was the company’s biggest acquisition year yet, with deals worth a collective $30 billion either completed or announced . In August the company agreed to buy Transamerica Finance Corporation’s commercial lending business from AegonN.V. of The Netherlands for $5.4 billion. The deal, which added about $8.5 billion in assets to the GE Commercial Finance unit, closed in January 2004. Also during the summer of 2003 GE sold three of its slower growing insurance businesses: Financial Guaranty Insurance Co., Tokyo-based GE Edison Life Insurance Co., and GE’s U.S.-based auto and homeowners insurance unit. About $4.5 billion was raised through these divestments. As part of its effort to shift emphasis to higher growth fields, General Electric completed two significant acquisitions in healthcare. In October 2003, Instrumentarium Corp. was acquired for $2.3 billion. Based in Finland, Instrumentarium was a major medical-equipment maker with a product line that featured devices for anesthesia, critical care, and patient monitoring. That same month, GE agreed to buy Amersham plc, a British firm specializing in diagnostics agents used during scans of the body for disease, gene-sequencing tools, and protein separation for high-tech drug development. Consummated in April 2004 and valued at about $9.5 billion, the purchase of Amersham stood, very briefly, as the largest acquisition in General Electric history. Following the Amersham acquisition, GE Medical Systems, now a $14 billion business, was renamed GE Healthcare. Based in the United Kingdom–the first GE unit to be headquartered outside the United States–GE Healthcare was headed by Amersham’s former chief executive, William Castell; Castell was also named a GE vice-chairman, the first outsider to be so named. Meanwhile, also in October 2003, General Electric announced an even larger deal, a $14 billion acquisition of Vivendi Universal Entertainment (VUE), the U.S. unit of the French group Vivendi Universal S.A. Among VUE’s assets wer e the Universal Pictures movie studio, the specialty film unit Focus Features, the Universal Television production outfit, cable channels USA Network and Sci-Fi Channel, and theme parks in California, Florida, Japan, and Spain. Upon completion of the deal in May 2004, NBC was merged with VUE to form NBC Universal, which was 80 percent owned by GE and 20 percent by Vivendi. This expansion into entertainment content mimicked earlier combinations involving the ABC and CBS television networks. Continuing his transformative leadership, Immelt reorganized GE’s 13 business units into 11 focused on specific markets and customers. The reorganization, effective at the beginning of 2004, brought similar businesses together in an effort to increase sales and cut costs. The most significant of the changes included combining the firm’s aircraftengines business and its rail-related operations in a new GE Transportation unit; merging most of GE Industrial Systems with GE Consumer Prod ucts to form GE Consumer & Industrial, which focused on lighting products, appliances, and integrated industrial equipment, systems, and services; and forming GE Infrastructure from certain operations of GE Industrial Systems and GE Specialty Materials. Also in January 2004, GE continued disposing of its insurance operations. That month, General Electric launched an initial public offering (IPO) of about one-third of the stock of the newly formed Genworth Financial, Inc., which consisted of the bulk of GE’s life and mortgage insurance businesses. The IPO was planned for completion by mid-2004, after which GE planned to make Genworth fully independent within three years. What was left of GE Insurance was mainly its reinsurance business, which was long rumored to be another candidate for divestment. Overall, through the myriad moves engineered during just a few years in charge, Immelt was seeking to cut General Electric’s reliance on financial services and mature industrial businesses in favor of such higher growth areas as healthcare and entertainment. He was also building operations in fast-growing economies such as China’s. By 2005, GE was aiming to outsource $5 billion of parts and services from China and simultaneously grow sales in China to a like figure. Further divestments were also expected, and there had long been speculation that the slow-growing lighting and appliances businesses were prime candidates. Through initiatives such as these, Immelt hoped to return General Electric to double-digit earnings growth by 2005. Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/general-electric-company#ixzz1c6xpDIo9