How to write a case study for a bid - Emphasis

How to write a case study for a bid How to write a case study for a bid Most of a bid is dedicated to projecting the future – how you will help your prospect if youre chosen to work with them. In contrast, a case study lets you base your argument on something more concrete – what youve proven you can do in the past. And few things establish your reputation more effectively than reliable, relevant information about your past actions. Think of a boxer being announced with the record of their previous matches. An introduction like 38 wins, ten by knockout leaves a big impression in very little time. But to make a case study as persuasive as possible, you cant just describe what you did. You need to show off your organisations strengths and achievements in a way that will resonate with your prospect. This article will show you how. How to begin writing a case study The best way to get started is to get your research and planning done before you begin. Itll make the writing process much more straightforward. Getting relevant information about your previous client is key. If youre not client facing yourself, its a good idea to talk to someone who is (eg someone in sales or account management). Ask them why the previous client liked the work you did. If they liked it, theres a good chance it will resonate with your new prospect, too (as long as youve picked a suitably similar organisation for your case study). Your client-facing colleagues should also have access to the relevant facts and figures that illustrate the benefits of the work. Basic information to include Make sure to give your case study a specific title, such as Training 100 people in technical writing at HP. This immediately gives your readers an idea of what youve done before, even if they dont go on to read the rest of the case study. After the title, give basic information such as the name of the contract, whom it was for, what it delivered, its value and when you did the work. (You can set this out as a list.) And if youre using the case study as a reference – as some PQQs (pre-qualification questionnaires) require – then include some contact details for the previous client. (Obviously always ask permission of your previous client before you name them as a referee.) Giving your case study a logical structure There are lots of ways of structuring a case study. And, of course, if youre writing to a short word count, or to a particular bid or tender template, youll have to adapt to that. That said, a common and logical structure is to explain how you helped a client, step by step (if youre a regular reader, you may notice this is similar to the best structure for executive summaries). Begin with a short, factual background. Dont put too much detail here. You just need to make sure your prospect understands the basics of what you were doing. Include information like whom you worked for, and what the contract was for. Outlining the problems Then you can talk about any particular challenges or problems that your previous client had. This is where you can really emphasise the similarities between your previous client and your current prospect. With the problems sketched out, youre well placed to talk about the actions you took to solve those problems. Many case studies fall down at this point, because they become just a description of facts. But to make your case study stand out, you need to show what benefits your work had for your previous client. Remember to spell out these benefits. Did your previous client become more efficient because of your work? If so, how much time did they save? Or were you able to make them more profitable? If so, how much more profitable and over what amount of time? Which benefits you need to detail will depend on the sector and the kind of work youre doing. But the main thing to keep in mind is that you do need to highlight the benefits of your work and provide good evidence to support them. Finally, there are some other things you can include to make your case study really stand out. A good testimonial quote from your previous client can make your case study seem much more authentic (again, ask permission to use this). You can also consider using a particularly compelling graphic or image if it illustrates a key benefit of your work with your previous client. Things to avoid Try to avoid writing case studies at the last minute. It can take time to put all the relevant information together – and that may not be time you have when youre actively writing to a deadline. Be careful as well about putting in too much irrelevant detail (this is all too common). Youve got to ask why your prospect would care about whatever it is youre telling them. Do they really need to know when you first responded to the ITT or RFP? Or how many of your staff worked on part of the project? When you have detail youre sure will be relevant to your prospect, use it. Avoid being vague. Dont write general statements like, We dramatically improved conversion rate on PPC campaigns and boosted sales. Instead say, We increased conversion rate on PPC campaigns by 50 per cent – while reducing the overall ad spend by 10 per cent. This resulted in over  £10,000 in net profit for our client. (You may also want to highlight these key benefits by setting them out in bullet points.) Showing your strengths Above all, remember that the person reading the case study is trying to find evidence that youre the best organisation for the job. Make it as easy as possible for them to do this. If you keep the reader in mind throughout your writing, youll be much more likely to write a case study that resonates with them. And that could be the extra nudge you need to win them over. If youd like to improve your own case studies – and the proposal they accompany – have a look at our bid, tender and sales proposal writing courses for teams and for individuals. Image credit: ArtFamily / Shutterstock

About the Chilean Poet Pablo Neruda

About the Chilean Poet Pablo Neruda Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) was known as a poet and emissary of the Chilean people. During a time of social upheaval, he traveled the world as a diplomat and an exile, served as a Senator for the Chilean Communist Party, and published more than 35,000 pages of poetry in his native Spanish. In 1971, Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature, for a poetry that with the action of an elemental force brings alive a continents destiny and dreams. Nerudas words and politics were forever intertwined, and his activism may have led to his death. Recent forensic tests have stirred speculation that Neruda was murdered.   Early Life in Poetry Pablo Neruda is the pen name of Ricardo Eliezer Neftali Reyes y Basoalto. He was born in Parral, Chile on July 12, 1904. While he was still an infant, Nerudas mother died of tuberculosis. He grew up in the remote town of Temuco with a stepmother, a half-brother, and a half-sister. From his earliest years, Neruda experimented with language. In his teens, he began publishing poems and articles in school magazines and local newspapers. His father disapproved, so the teenager decided to publish under a pseudonym. Why Pablo Neruda? Later, he speculated that hed been inspired by Czech writer Jan Neruda. In his Memoirs, Neruda praised the poet Gabriela Mistral for helping him discover his voice as a writer. A teacher and headmistress of a girls school near Temuco, Mistral took an interest in the talented youth. She introduced Neruda to Russian literature and stirred his interest in social causes. Both Neruda and his mentor eventually became Nobel Laureates, Mistral in 1945 and Neruda twenty-six years later. After high school, Neruda moved to the capital city of Santiago and enrolled in the University of Chile. He planned to become a French teacher, as his father wished. Instead, Neruda strolled the streets in a black cape and wrote passionate, melancholy poems inspired by French symbolist literature. His father stopped sending him money, so the teenaged Neruda sold his belongings to self-publish his first book, Crepusculario (Twilight). At age 20, he completed and found a publisher for the book that would make him famous, Veinte poemas de amor y una cancion desesperada (Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair).  Rhapsodic and sorrowful, the books poems mingled adolescent thoughts of love and sex with descriptions of the Chilean wilderness. There was thirst and hunger, and you were the fruit. / There were grief and ruin, and you were the miracle, Neruda wrote in the concluding poem, A Song of Despair. Diplomat and Poet Like most Latin American countries, Chile customarily honored their poets with diplomatic posts. At age 23, Pablo Neruda became an honorary consul in Burma, now Myanmar, in Southeast Asia. Over the next decade, his assignments took him to many places, including Buenos Aires, Sri Lanka, Java, Singapore, Barcelona, and Madrid. While in South Asia, he experimented with surrealism and began writing Residencia en la tierra   (Residence on Earth). Published in 1933, this was the first of a three-volume work that described the social upheaval and human suffering Neruda witnessed during his years of diplomatic travel and social activism. Residencia was, he said in his Memoirs, a dark and gloomy but essential book within my work. The third volume in Residencia, the 1937 Espaà ±a en el corazà ³n (Spain in our Hearts), was Nerudas strident response to the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War, the rise of fascism, and the political execution of his friend, the Spanish poet Federico Garcà ­a Lorca in 1936. In the nights of Spain, Neruda wrote in the poem Tradition, through the old gardens, / tradition, covered with dead snot, / spouting pus and pestilence, strolled / with its tail in the fog, ghostly and fantastic. The political leanings expressed in Espaà ±a en el corazà ³n cost Neruda his consular post in Madrid, Spain. He moved to Paris, founded a literary magazine, and helped the refugees who glutted the road out of Spain. After a stint as Consul-General in Mexico City, the poet returned to Chile. He joined the Communist Party, and, in 1945, was elected to the Chilean Senate. Nerudas rousing ballad Canto a Stalingrado (Song to Stalingrad) voiced a cry of love to Stalingrad. His pro-Communist poems and rhetoric stirred outrage with the Chilean President, who had renounced Communism for a more political alignment with the United States. Neruda continued to defend Joseph Stalins Soviet Union and the working class of his own homeland, but it was Nerudas scathing 1948 Yo acuso (I Accuse) speech that finally provoked the Chilean government to take action against him. Facing arrest, Neruda spent a year in hiding, and then in 1949 fled on horseback over the Andes Mountains into Buenos Aires, Argentina. Dramatic Exile The poets dramatic escape became the subject of the film Neruda (2016) by Chilean director Pablo Larraà ­n. Part history, part fantasy, the film follows a fictional Neruda as he dodges a fascist investigator and smuggles revolutionary poems to peasants who memorize passages. One part of this romantic re-imagining is true. While in hiding, Pablo Neruda completed his most ambitious project, Canto General (General Song). Composed of more than 15,000 lines, Canto General is both a sweeping history of the Western hemisphere and an ode to the common man. What were humans? Neruda asks. In what part of their unguarded conversations / in department stores and among sirens, in which of their metallic movements / did what in life is indestructible and imperishable live? Return to Chile Pablo Nerudas return to Chile in 1953 marked a transition away from political poetry- for a short time. Writing in green ink (reportedly his favorite color), Neruda composed soulful poems about love, nature, and daily life. I could live or not live; it does not matter / to be one stone more, the dark stone, / the pure stone which the river bears away, Neruda wrote in Oh Earth, Wait for Me. Nevertheless, the passionate poet remained consumed by Communism and social causes. He gave public readings and never spoke out against Stalins war crimes. Nerudas 1969 book-length poem Fin de Mundo (World’s End) includes a defiant statement against the US role in Vietnam: Why were they compelled to kill / innocents so far from home, / while the crimes pour cream / into the pockets of Chicago? / Why go so far to kill / Why go so far to die? In 1970, the Chilean Communist party nominated the poet/diplomat for president, but he withdrew from the campaign after reaching an agreement with the Marxist candidate Salvador Allende, who ultimately won the close election. Neruda, at the height of his literary career, was serving as Chiles ambassador in Paris, France, when he received the 1971 Nobel Prize for Literature. Personal Life Pablo Neruda lived a life of whats been called passionate engagement by the Los Angeles Times. For Neruda, poetry meant much more than the expression of emotion and personality, they write. It was a sacred way of being and came with duties. His was also a life of surprising contradictions. Although his poetry was musical, Neruda claimed that his ear could never recognize any but the most obvious melodies, and even then, only with difficulty.  He chronicled atrocities, yet he had a sense of fun. Neruda collected hats and liked to dress up for parties. He enjoyed cooking and wine. Enamored by the ocean, he filled his three homes in Chile with seashells, seascapes, and nautical artifacts. While many poets seek solitude to write, Neruda seemed to thrive on social interaction. His Memoirs describe friendships with famous figures like Pablo Picasso, Garcia Lorca, Gandhi, Mao Tse-tung, and Fidel Castro. Nerudas infamous love affairs were tangled and often overlapping. In 1930 the Spanish-speaking Neruda married Marà ­a Antonieta Hagenaar, an Indonesia-born Dutch woman who spoke no Spanish. Their only child, a daughter, died at age 9 from hydrocephalus. Soon after marrying Hagenaar, Neruda began an affair with Delia del Carril, a painter from Argentina, whom he eventually married. While in exile, he began a secret relationship with Matilde Urrutia, a Chilean singer with curly red hair. Urrutia became Nerudas third wife and inspired some of his most celebrated love poetry. In dedicating the 1959 Cien Sonetos de Amor (One Hundred Love Sonnets) to Urrutia, Neruda wrote, I made these sonnets out of wood; I gave them the sound of that opaque pure substance, and that is how they should reach your ears†¦Now that I have declared the foundations of my love, I surrender this century to you: wooden sonnets that rise only because you gave them life. The poems are some of his most popular- I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair, he writes in Sonnet XI; I love you as one loves certain obscure things, he writes in Sonnet XVII, secretly, between the shadow and the soul. Nerudas Death While the United States marks 9/11 as the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks, this date has another significance in Chile. On September 11, 1973, soldiers surrounded Chiles presidential palace. Rather than surrender, President Salvador Allende shot himself. The anti-Communist coup dà ©tat, supported by the United States CIA, launched the brutal dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. Pablo Neruda planned to flee to Mexico, speak out against the Pinochet regime, and publish a large body of new work. The only weapons you will find in this place are words, he told soldiers who ransacked his home and dug up his garden in Isla Negra, Chile. However, on September 23, 1973, Neruda died in a Santiago medical clinic. In her memoirs, Matilde Urrutia said his final words were, They are shooting them! They are shooting them! The poet was 69. The official diagnosis was prostate cancer, but many Chileans believed that Neruda was murdered. In October 2017, forensic tests confirmed that Neruda did not die of cancer. Further tests are underway to identify toxins found in his body. Why Is Pablo Neruda Important? I have never thought of my life as divided between poetry and politics, Pablo Neruda said when he accepted his presidential candidacy from the Chilean Communist Party. He was a prolific writer whose works ranged from sensual love poems to historical epics. Hailed as a poet for the common man, Neruda believed that poetry should capture the human condition. In his essay  Toward an Impure Poetry, he equates the imperfect human condition with poetry, impure as the clothing we wear, or our bodies, soup-stained, soiled with our shameful behaviour, our wrinkles and vigils and dreams, observations and prophecies, declarations of loathing and love, idylls and beasts, the shocks of encounter, political loyalties, denials and doubts, affirmations and taxes. What kind of poetry should we seek? Verse that is steeped in sweat and in smoke, smelling of the lilies and urine. Neruda won many awards, including an International Peace Prize (1950), a Stalin Peace Prize (1953), a Lenin Peace Prize (1953), and a Nobel Prize for Literature (1971). However, some critics have attacked Neruda for his Stalinist rhetoric and his unrestrained, often militant, writings. He was called a bourgeois imperialist and a great bad poet. In their announcement, the Nobel committee said theyd given the award to a contentious author who is not only debated but for many is also debatable. In his book The Western Canon, literary critic Harold Bloom named Neruda one of the most significant writers in Western culture, placing him alongside literary giants like Shakespeare, Tolstoy, and Virginia Woolf. All paths lead to the same goal, Neruda declared in his Nobel Lecture: to convey to others what we are. And we must pass through solitude and difficulty, isolation and silence in order to reach forth to the enchanted place where we can dance our clumsy dance and sing our sorrowful song.... Recommended Reading Neruda wrote in Spanish, and English translations of his work are hotly debated. Some translations aspire for literal meaning while others strive to capture nuances. Thirty-six translators, including Martin Espada, Jane Hirshfield, W. S. Merwin, and Mark Strand, contributed to The Poetry of Pablo Neruda compiled by literary critic Ilan Stavans. The volume has 600 poems representing the scope of Nerudas career, along with notes on the poets life and critical commentary. Several poems are presented in both Spanish and English. The Poetry of Pablo Neruda edited by Ilan Stavans, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005Listen to Neruda read Las Alturas de Machu Picchu from Canto GeneralHow the Library of Congress Helped Get Pablo Nerudas Poetry Translated into English by Peter Armenti, LOC July 31, 2015Canto General, 50th Anniversary Edition, by Pablo Neruda (trans. Jack Schmitt), University of California Press, 2000Worlds End (English and Spanish Edition) by Pablo Neruda (trans. William ODaly), Copper Canyon Press; 2009Pablo Neruda: A Passion for Life by Adam Feinstein, 2004Memoirs by Pablo Neruda (trans. Hardie St. Martin), 2001The poets own reflections on his life, from student years to the coup dà ©tat dà ©tat that toppled Chiles government just days before Nerudas death.The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages by Harold BloomMy Life with Pablo Neruda (Mi vida junto a Pablo Neruda) by Matilde Urrutia (trans. Alexandria Giardino), 2004Pablo Nerudas widow reveals details about the poet in her memoir. Al though not lyrically written, the book became a best-seller in Chile. For ages 6 to 9, Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People by Monica Brown (illus. Julie Paschkis), Holt, 2011 Sources: Memoirs by Pablo Neruda (trans. Hardie St. Martin), Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001; The Nobel Prize in Literature 1971 at Nobelprize.org; Biography of Pablo Neruda, The Chile Cultural Society; Worlds End by Pablo Neruda by Richard Rayner, Los Angeles Times, March 29, 2009; How did Chilean poet Pablo Neruda die? Experts open new probe, Associated Press, Miami Herald, February 24, 2016; Pablo Neruda Nobel Lecture Towards the Splendid City at Nobelprize.org [accessed March 5, 2017]

Italian Renaissance Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Italian Renaissance Art - Essay Example The models given by early buildings and works performed by the art also stimulated the expansion of new imaginative techniques and the desire to re-build the forms and styles of classical art (Joost & Christiane, 47). The main development of Renaissance art was the emergence of the artist as a maker, required after, and appreciated for his erudition and imagination. Art became treasured not only as a medium for spiritual and communal didacticism, but also more as a mode of personal, illustration appearance. Even though the development of Italian Renaissance art was a nonstop progress, it is divided into three major phases: Early, High, and Late Renaissance. The last stage has been the focus in new existence of multifaceted interpretation that identifies many contending and complementary trends. Some scholars mark the start of the Italian Renaissance from Giotto di Bondone’s appearance, in the initial years of the 14th century, while others stare his abnormal success in naturalistic art as an remote occurrence (Campbell & Cole, 54). The major members of the first generation of Renaissance artists were Donatello in statue, Filippop Brunelleschi in structural design, and Masaccio in painting. They had common significant characteristics necessary to their philosophy, a faith in the hypothetical foundations of art and the confidence that growth and advancement were not only likely but important to the life and worth of the paintings. Ancient art was valued, not only as a stirring replica but also as a documentation of test and fault that could disclose the successes of former great artists. Intending to repeat the imaginative method, Early Renaissance artists required to make art forms reliable with the appearance of the normal world and with their knowledge of human personality and behavior. By the late 15th century, the innovation of the first volatile advances of Renaissance style had given way to a general receipt of such basic ideas as amount,

Media History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Media History - Essay Example As the report declares the mention of history should not be construed as a mirror of the past in totality for various reasons, and there are various points that anyone studying history in media or any other field should be aware about when trying to unveil it’s the two meanings. One of the matters concerning history is that there are epistemological as well as philosophical assumptions that many historians make with regards to the proper way in which history should be done. One of those assumptions is where we are meant to believe that history can correspond with reality in the past by reading its contents. The misconception that history is a true reflection of the past is thus worth noting in media studies out of knowledge that the history presented to us entails many life philosophies in its construction. According to the research findings history is always made for someone and thus it has a purpose as opposed to ‘the past’, which remains just as ‘the past’. It is through this understanding that one learning media history is able to know that every historian gives an account concerning something with the chief intent that someone in later time will get to read or go through their documentation unlike the past. In addition, history is ideological and not innocent as it appears unlike ‘the past’ in that, its construction encompasses a historian’s moral judgment concerning the wrong and the good as well as depending on how they perceive the world.

Ancient Egyptian Greek and Roman Stele Essay -- essays papers

Ancient Egyptian Greek and Roman Stele Just as we use tombstones to mark graves and commemorate our dead, so too did ancient civilizations. One way to do so in the ancient world was through the use of steles. A stele is a stone slab, usually decorated in relief and inscribed, that honored the death of a person. Three of the ancient cultures that had implemented the use of the stele were the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. In comparing an example from each civilization, it is possible to see the evolution of the stele from one period to another and the different influences each civilization had on a single element. The Egyptians had many ways to honor their dead, including the stele. Wealthy Egyptians, especially officials and priest, often had stele placed near their tombs. These steles usually told of the name, position/rank, and the epithets of the deceased along with a funerary prayer. (Gee 224) One such example is the Funerary Stele from Dendereh from the First Intermediate Period (ca. 2150 BCE). (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology) This stele belongs to a man named Tjaunty, an official during the First Intermediate Period. The stele depicts Tjaunty on the far left of the rectangular slab. The other two-thirds of the stele are reserved for inscriptions of hieroglyphs. The depiction of Tjaunty is characteristic of the Egyptian style. The purpose of the Egyptian style was to represent the human form in the clearest and most complete way. The head is shown in profile but with the eye in a frontal position. The reason for this is that the head is more distinct from the profile position; the eyes, on the other hand, are more representative from the frontal view. The shoulders are presented frontally with the waist, hips, legs, and feet in profile. (Gee 18) In Tjaunty's funerary stele, Tjaunty is presented in this very distinct way. He is also shown with the symbols of his position as an official. This is known because Tjaunty's right hand is holding the same staff as in Hesy-ra's right hand in the Portrait Panel of Hesy-ra. (Janson and Janson 44) As for the inscriptions to the right of Tjaunty, this author is not able to definitively identify the meaning. It is assumed that it tells of Tjaunty's name, rank, and offers a funerary prayer. The Greeks were also another ancient civilization that i... ...d gives only a summed-up version of information about the owner. Granted, it is certain that a more glorified nature would be found in such as that of a pharaoh, but not so in those below the pharaoh. The Egyptian stele seems to represent an attitude of straight-forwardness (in keeping with the clarity and complete representation of the Egyptian style). As for the Greek stele, it is more intimate, a glance into a moment of that person's life (very naturalistic). The Roman stele is, without a doubt, glorifying. The Romans most certainly had an egotistical attitude about them. Why should it surprise anyone to see it within the art that was meant to memorialize them? Comparing these three civilizations has shown that a single element, used in different civilizations, may have the same intended use but the way each civilization goes about using this element can be quite different from one another. Bibliography: Gee, Robert. Egyptian Sculpture. Oxford: Blackwell, 1994. Janson, H.W. and A.F. Janson. History of Art: the Western Tradition. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 2001. Rothermel, Johnathan Albert. The Art of Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

Is Privacy in the 21st Century Possible Essay

Privacy in the 21st century will affect every human beings life as we know it in the future. Is privacy in the 21st century possible? No. Whether we are talking about issues like video surveillance detecting our every move or computer hackers stealing identities, privacy is dead as we know it. The only way to bring more privacy back is if we all come together and demand the privacy we deserve. Making correct decisions at home, work, and church, about who we vote for and the groups of people we support, will greatly impact our world around us and the freedoms we strive to keep for our children and generations to come. Three areas of concern for many people are having a government with too much information and too much control, having less and less privacy as the years go by, and how some religions are responding to certain privacy issues that some say are talked about in the bible. These three topics or issues are some of the most controversial areas of concern and is also growing at an exponential rate. When studying the fourth amendment and what our forefathers were trying to preserve and protect, we realize that we have been given the right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures, and that is why we need to make sound educated decisions when trying to correct the negative problems in our world. Rights and freedoms do not need to be sacrificed. Having many wonderful rights and freedoms is one of the main reasons this country has become such an inventive and successful country, like the world has never seen before. As we venture into the 21st century, our freedoms and the way we are â€Å"supposed† to live and act, has changed dramatically. It seems that every time we turn around we have less privacy and government has more control. When it comes to our rights and freedoms, the government’s ability to make us feel safer and more secure has made us except policies and procedures that normally would not even been thought about in the past. Not all the â€Å"spy† technology that humans create is going to cause harm though. Biometrics is a technology that applies a person’s unique physical traits to a sophisticated electronic device or system to confirm identity. This kind of technology has its upsides and downsides. Facial recognition is one aspect or system of biometrics. Facial recognition biometric systems are everywhere today. We can find them in many places throughout large cities. Places like transit vehicles, city streets, casinos, banks, hospitals, and many other common places people are found have facial recognition technology. The upside to having this type of technology is that it would be a good crime deterrent. Crime is probably the number one reason having this type of technology would be a huge benefit. Law enforcement departments would be able to sometimes prevent crimes before they happen and definitely have concrete evidence if the crime is not stopped beforehand. Recently, after the Boston Marathon bomb exploded, the different law enforcement agencies used the cities video surveillance technologies to track down and find the criminals. Finding the bombers before they were able to do more damage would probably not have been possible without video surveillance. The downside to this technology is the assumption that people are secretly being videotaped. According to a study by the New York Civil Liberties Union, people in Manhattan are being secretly videotaped on public streets, outside buildings, and even in their backyard, by hidden surveillance cameras. Most hidden surveillance cameras are secured to rooftops, lampposts, and building entrances, but almost four hundred rotating cameras are hidden in light bulbs that look like street lights stated Dority (2001). People that are constantly in fear of crime will sometimes sacrifice freedoms to insure their family safety and security of the world around them. This could be the reason why so many are flocking to the idea of having security with video surveillance and other surveillance technologies without thinking about the consequences of what freedoms and rights might be given up. Video surveillance and other surveillance technologies are everywhere. We can find them at A. T. M.  machines, convenience stores, parking garages, corporate offices, hotels, storage facilities, amusement parks, supermarkets, and do not forget about all the webcams all over the world, stated Soat (2005). The political and commercial applications of invasive surveillance technologies, together with gathering large quantities of data made possible by the Internet and high-speed computers, have brought frightening scenarios uncomfortably close to the realm of possibility, according to Jasper (2003). When government  knows everything we say and do, including passport information, driver’s license information, etc, then what is to stop nefarious people from trying to carry out their own agendas? The right and the left wing people in this country will sometimes do anything to accomplish their goals, including attempting to use any type of technology at their disposal. These types of technology could be used on people that are behind on their taxes, having traffic violations, or people who just own gold and silver. In the past gold has been rounded up and confiscated said Jasper (2003). Tyrannical governments have been around since the beginning of time. Why would we not at least have some officials in our own government that have tyrannical tendencies and will do everything in their power to capitalize on new invasive technologies that will further their cause or propose? Talking to many people and researching the ways and means of some tyrannical governments in this world, one could only imagine what certain human beings will do for more money and power. The more privacy we give up empowers some government officials to use the system no matter how invasive on â€Å"we the people† to acquire their own agenda. Our forefathers fought very hard to protect the rights and freedoms that we are losing more and more of everyday. When too much money, power, and control is given to so few individuals, it seems they become corrupt. The old saying â€Å"Absolute power corrupts absolutely†. The bigger that our government becomes our freedoms disappear and we are told how to live by someone else. There have always been, and there always will be people that have evil tendencies and motives. If they are able to create this type of power, they will use it for selfish and evil deeds. Clark (2009) stated â€Å"when large corporations and governments get together they become an entity that believes their way is the only way†. When we look at the history of privacy and the human race, it has only been in the last forty to sixty years that we have had to really protect our privacy rights as governments work with large corporations to gain more control over us. Even before the digital revolution, the ability of individuals to maintain control over the improper discovery, dissemination, or misuse of their identity was threatened by the potential for governments to wiretap telephone lines or impose overly broad restrictions or burdens on speech for businesses to misuse customer data and for thieves to steal personal information said Jasper (2003). Privacy today is definitely a more pressing issue than ever before. If we as people ever needed to think about and make the correct decisions, now is the time. If there was ever a time in the history of the world to protect ourselves from the hand of â€Å"Big Brother†, and all of the devious ways it is coming up with to grow bigger and control everything it can touch, now is the time. One issue that stands out when it comes to privacy is religious beliefs. Religious Beliefs and Privacy when it comes to implanting human computer chips has very much intensified in recent decades. Not only has putting computer chips into animals been a hot topic, computer chipping everything from humans to the products we buy is also an issue many are concerned about. According to Katherine Albrecht (2005), when it comes to implanting computer chips into humans, some very powerful people are pushing for this very technology. This issue is gaining momentum in the religious communities because of its resemblance to the â€Å"Mark of the Beast† in the bible. Ever since the introduction of the implantable computer chip, the issue has been gaining momentum in religious circles because many are worried about going to money less economic systems that can only be accessed by a implantable computer chip. There is quite a bit of evil that is involved with this topic in the bible. Bamford (2002) stated that when there is such a large religious base, and one looks at how passionate people can become over different issues, it is easy to see that these kinds of decisions need to be well thought out to prevent riots and wars. Just about every person in America has some kind of data file on them by one or more of the big private companies, let alone the databases compiled by the Government. When we lose privacy we are told it is for our own good, or our own protection, or to make our lives better. But is it worth it? With companies like Google reading all the contents that travel through their computers then, handing all of the information over to the government, what are we supposed to do? Technology is like a gun. A gun is neither good nor evil. It is who is using the technology, or gun, and what their intentions are for using it. If people do not stand up for their rights, big government will take more and more freedoms and rights away. Since the beginning of time governments have become large and then they destroy the country from within before anyone realizes what has happened. Technology is clashing with privacy. We need to figure out how to have the benefits of technology while keeping the privacy we need and deserve. There needs to be a happy medium. Could you imagine the freedoms we would lose if we had to obey a one world government? Most other leaders from other countries do not believe the average person deserves the rights and privacy that we as Americans have. Our forefathers understood that if you give the government unchecked powers, you were inviting abuse of power and tyranny. Whether we are talking about the decisions we make today affecting or our world in the future, when it comes to privacy issues, it is safe to say that looking out for our own privacy is just going to be normal. Life as we know it can change in a heartbeat if we as human beings cannot make the right decisions to impact our world in a positive way.

The History of the Olmec Site of La Venta

The Olmec capital of La Venta is located in the city of Huimanguillo, in the state of Tabasco, Mexico, 9 miles (15 kilometers) inland from the Gulf coast. The site is perched on a narrow natural elevation approximately 2.5 mi (4 km) long which rises above the wetland swamps on the coastal plain. La Venta was first occupied as early as 1750 BCE, becoming an Olmec temple-town complex between 1200 and 400 BCE. Key Takeaways La Venta is a capital of the Middle Formative Olmec civilization, located in Tabasco state, Mexico.  It was first occupied about 1750 BCE and became an important town between 1200–400 BCE.Its economy was based on maize agriculture, hunting and fishing, and trade networks.  Evidence for early Mesoamerican writing has been discovered within 3 miles of the main site. Architecture at La Venta La Venta was the primary center of the Olmec culture and likely the most important regional capital in non-Maya Mesoamerica during the Middle Formative period (approximately 800–400 BCE). In its heyday, La Ventas residential zone included an area of about 500 acres (~200 hectares), with a population numbering in the thousands. Most of the structures at La Venta were built of wattle-and-daub walls placed atop earthen or adobe mudbrick platforms or mounds  and covered with a thatched roof. Little natural stone was available, and, apart from the massive stone sculptures, the only stone used in public architecture was a few basalt, andesite and limestone foundational support or internal buttresses. The 1 mi (1.5 km) long civic-ceremonial core of La Venta includes over 30 earthen mounds and platforms. The core is dominated by a 100 foot (30 m) high clay pyramid (called Mound C-1), which has been heavily eroded  but was likely the largest single building at the time in Mesoamerica. Despite the lack of native stone, La Ventas artisans crafted sculptures including four colossal heads from massive blocks of stone quarried from the Tuxtla Mountains approximately 62 mi (100 km) to the west. Plan of La Venta. Yavidaxiu, MapMaster The most intensive archaeological investigations at La Venta were conducted in Complex A, a small group of low clay platform mounds and plazas within an area of about 3 ac (1.4 ha), located immediately north of the tallest pyramidal mound. Most of Complex A was destroyed shortly after the excavations in 1955, by a combination of looters and civic development. However, detailed maps of the area were made by the excavators and, due primarily to the efforts of U.S. archaeologist Susan Gillespie, a digital map of the buildings and construction events at Complex A has been made. Subsistence Methods Traditionally, scholars have attributed the rise of Olmec society to the development of maize agriculture. According to recent investigations, however, the people at La Venta subsisted on fish, shellfish and terrestrial faunal remains until about 800 BC, when maize, beans, cotton, palm, and other crops were grown in gardens on relict beach ridges, called tierra de primera by maize farmers today, perhaps fueled by long-distance trade networks. U.S. archaeologist Thomas W. Killion conducted a survey of paleobotanical data from several Olmec period sites including La Venta. He suggests that the initial founders at La Venta and other Early Formative sites such as San Lorenzo were not farmers, but rather were hunter-gatherer-fishers. That dependence on mixed hunting and gathering extends well into the Formative period. Killion suggests that the mixed subsistence worked in the well-watered lowland environments, but that a wetland environment was not suited to intensive agriculture. La Venta and the Cosmos La Venta is oriented 8 degrees west of north, like most Olmec sites, the significance of which is obscure to date. This alignment is echoed in Complex As central avenue, which points to the central mountain. The central bars of each of La Ventas mosaic pavements  and the four elements of the quincunxes in the mosaics are positioned at intercardinal points. Complex D at La Venta is an E-Group configuration, a specific layout of buildings identified at over 70 Maya sites and believed to have been designed to track movements of the sun. Writing A cylinder seal and a carved greenstone plaque discovered at the San Andres site 3 mi (5 km) from La Venta provided early evidence that writing in the Mesoamerican region had its start in the Mexican Gulf Coast region by about 650 BCE. These objects bear glyphs that are related to but different from the laster Isthmian, Mayan, and Oaxacan styles of writing. Archaeology La Venta was excavated by members of the Smithsonian Institution, including Matthew Stirling, Philip Drucker, Waldo Wedel, and Robert Heizer, in three major excavations between 1942 and 1955. Most of this work was focused on Complex A: and the finds from that work were published in popular texts and La Venta quickly became the type site for defining the Olmec culture. Shortly after the 1955 excavations, the site was badly damaged by looting and development, although a brief expedition did retrieve some stratigraphic data. Much was lost in Complex A, which was torn up by bulldozers. A map of Complex A made in 1955 formed the basis for digitizing the field records of the site. Gillespie and Volk worked together to create a three-dimensional map of Complex A, based on archived notes and drawings and published in 2014. The most recent archaeological studies have been undertaken by Rebecca Gonzà ¡lez Lauck at the Instituto Nacional de Antropologà ­a e Historia (INAH). Selected Sources Clark, John E., and Arlene Colman. Olmec Things and Identity: A Reassessment of Offerings and Burials at La Venta, Tabasco. Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association 23.1 (2013): 14–37.  Gillespie, Susan. Archaeological Drawings as Re-Presentations: The Maps of Complex a, La Venta, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 22.1 (2011): 3–36.  Gillespie, Susan D., and Michael Volk. A 3D Model of Complex a, La Venta, Mexico. Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage 1.3–4 (2014): 72–81.  Grove, David. Discovering the Olmecs: An Unconventional History. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2014.  Killion, Thomas W. Nonagricultural Cultivation and Social Complexity. Current Anthropology 54.5 (2013): 596–606.  Pohl, Mary E. D., Kevin O. Pope, and Christopher von Nagy. Olmec Origins of Mesoamerican Writing. Science 298.5600 (2002): 1984–87. Print.Reilly, F. Kent. Enclosed Ritual Spaces and the Watery Underworld in Formative Period Architecture: New Observations on the Function of La Venta Complex A. Seventh Palenque Round Table. Eds. Robertson, Merle Greene, and Virginia M. Fields. San Francisco: Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute, 1989.  Rust, William F., and Robert J. Sharer. Olmec Settlement Data from La Venta, Tabasco, Mexico. Science 242.4875 (1988): 102–04.