Unit9englassignm Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Unit9englassignm - Essay Example Initially not intended to house non-violent criminal offenders, current trends indicate that youths convicted of crimes, even very minor offenses, are being increasingly committed to detention centers in preference to the implementation of less stringent methods of punishment and rehabilitation (Foley, 2001). However, the large-scale use of detention centers as the sole method of deterring youth crime is insufficient to the purpose as it increases the familiarity and acceptance of criminal attitudes and behaviors, has a negative impact on the mental condition of detainees, and hinders both education and the healthy development of acceptable social behaviors. The detention of minors who have exhibited criminal tendencies and/or engaged in illegal activities within this type of large, secure holding facility does not result in a direct, significant level of discouragement to future crime. On the contrary, communal youth housing practices used in such detention facilities has been proven to create an atmosphere which aggravates the rate of recidivism among minors. Studies based on information compiled from multiple states suggest that as many as 60 percent of young offenders sentenced to time in a juvenile detention center have later been required to return, often to the same facility, following the commission of new criminal offense(s) (Sander, Sharkey, Tanigawa, and Mauseth, 2010). Such an excessively high rate of recidivism does little to support the notion of rehabilitation through detention. Though many factors have been blamed for the high rate of recidivist practices among delinquent youths, one influential element of this recurring criminality is the reinforcement of negative behaviors and attitudes within detention facilities themselves. Statistics concerning a seeming reduction in youth crime rates fail to consider this

Define an SLA and state why it is required in a risk adverse organization Essay Example for Free

Define an SLA and state why it is required in a risk adverse organization Essay 1. This is a closed-book, closed-notes quiz. No reference material (including assignments and labs) will be permitted for use during the quiz session. 2. The quiz contains the following types of questions: * Short essay type 3. Place your answers in the space immediately following each question. Quiz Questions 1. Define an SLA and state why it is required in a risk adverse organization. A SLA is a service level agreement, which is a contract between the ISP and the company. A SLA gives the company an idea of how much time they will be without services, should something happen with the ISP. A SLA is important to a company in making recovery plans, knowing what critical systems need to be available for a continuance of business and formulation of disaster recovery. 2. Using the user domain, define risks associated with users and explain what can be done to mitigate them. The user domain has several risk’s involved, as people are involved and there is no way employees can be monitored without the use of CCTV. Social engineering a person trying to obtain information through malicious means. The greatest tool in mitigating risk in the user domain is training and reminders for users to be aware of their surroundings. No acceptable user’s policy, AUP, or lack of training employees on the correct usage of the network. User accounts left active, if the employee is terminated, and another employee has the log on credentials. Mitigation would to be disabling all user accounts upon termination. . 3. Using the workstation domain, define risks associated within that domain and explain what can be done to reduce risks in that domain. The use of USB’s or disk, the files could contain viruses and infect other files or applications on the network. No acceptable user’s policy, AUP, or lack of training employees on the correct usage of the network. The users staying signed into their accounts when leaving their desk. Session timeout would help with this risk, but training and follow up with need to be done as well. 4. List four compliance laws or regulations or mandates, and explain them. HIPAA- covers all healthcare industries and states all patient information must be encrypted in storage, transmissions, and restrictions on access to the information. SOX- cover all publically traded companies and require auditing of the accounting procedures of the business. The reports required by SOX are reported to the SEC. Access to the financial information is restricted and based on need to know. FISMA- covers government agencies and is to ensure all assets of the government are protected. Assets like information, operations and actual machinery are protected from hackers or internal threats. Guidelines to develop a security guideline for government agencies, requires regular audits. CIPA-Child Internet Protection Act- covers federally funded entities’ than provide internet services to individuals, schools and libraries. The Act requires content filters to be used to prevent children from being exposed to harmful content, pornography and illicit sites on the internet. 5. Define risk with a formula. Explain what each variable means. Risk= Threat x Vulnerability- Threat is any compromise in the network that can be used for malicious behavior, an example worm, or Trojan horse. Vulnerability- is a weakness in the software or OS of a network that can be exploited for malicious intent. The two multiplied equals a risk to the information, assets or intellectual property of a business.

Pay It Forward - We Can Change the World :: Film Movies Films Movie Essays

Pay It Forward - We Can Change the World If someone did you a favor, something big, something that you could not do on your own, and instead of paying it back, you paid it forward to three people. Imagine the next day, they each paid it forward to three more people. And imagine the day after, those 27 people each paid it forward to another three people. Then each day afterwards, everyone in turn paid it forward to three more people; in two weeks that comes to 4,782,969 people. This is the idea that gives the movie Pay It Forward such persuasive appeal. The specific persuasive purpose is to get people to think how such a simple idea can make a big difference. Another persuasive goal of the movie was to get people to not be afraid to help others, and tell those people to help other like they were helped. The idea must follow these three rules: First, It has to be something that really helps people. Second, It has to be something they can't do by themselves. Lastly, if I do it for them, they do it for three other people (Pay It Forward 2000). The title of the movie is Pay It Forward; it was released into the theatre on October 20, 2000 nationwide. The director was Mimi Leder who did other films such as Peacemaker and Deep Impact. The screenwriter was Leslie Dixon, known for Overboard, That Old Feeling, Mrs. Doubtfire, Look Who's Talking Now; co writer of The Thomas Crown Affair and Smoke & Mirrors. The basis of this movie is from the best-selling novel Pay It Forward written by Catherine Ryan Hyde. The movie received mixed reviews from film critics the most common was the one written by www.rottentomatoes.com, which said, â€Å"Pay It Forward has strong performances from Spacey, Hunt, and Osment, but the movie itself is too emotionally manipulative and the ending is bad.† This is not to say the movie is bad at being persuasive just because the movie is emotionally manipulative, and the fact that the ending is bad is purely opinionative. This shows the movie’s good use of pathos by using strong acting and a p ersuasive plot. The plot of the movie is a school social studies assignment leads to acts of kindness that spread from city-to-city. When assigned to come up with some idea that will improve the world, a seventh grader boy Trevor McKinney (Haley Joel Osment) decides that if he can do three good deeds for someone and they in turn can "pay it forward" and so forth, then the world might be a better place.

Compare Contrast Perfect Compettiton Essay

A market is any place where the sellers of a particular good or service can meet with the buyers of that goods and service where there is a potential for a transaction to take place. The buyers must have something they can offer in exchange for there to be a potential transaction. Market structure: Market structure refers to the factors, such as size of the market, technological, cost and demand conditions and the barriers to entry and exit, that would affect the effectiveness of managerial decisions. We can also consider the market structure as describing the state of the market with respect to competition. Market structures Monopoly Perfect competition Imperfect competition Monopolistic competition c Oligopoly Overview: Perfect competition is a theoretical market structure. It is primarily used as a benchmark against which other market structures are  compared. The industry  that best reflects perfect competition in real life is the agricultural industry. For example , As there are millions of farmers who would produce rice & there are millions of consumers who would consume rice. In this case not a single buyer or seller could influence the price of rice. Perfect competition is a competitive market. Economist uses the term† competitive market â€Å"to describe a market in which there are so many buyers & so many sellers that each has a negligible impact on the market price. Characteristics of perfectly competitive market- 1. Large number of buyers & sellers: In perfect competition, there must be large number of buyers and sellers. Each buyer buys a small quantity of the total amount. Each seller is so large that no single buyer or seller can influence the price and affect the market. According to Scitovsky buyers and sellers are price takers in the purely competitive market. Each seller (or firm) sells its products at the price determined by the market. Similarly, each buyer buys the commodity at the price determined by the market. 2. Homogeneous product: Under perfect competition, the product offered for sale by all sellers must be identical in every respect. The goods offered for sale are perfect substitutes of one another. Buyers have no special preference for the product of a particular seller. No seller can raise the price above the prevailing price or lower the price below the prevailing price. 3. Free entry and exit: Under perfect competition, there will be no restriction on the entry and exit of both buyers and sellers. If the existing sellers start making abnormal profits, new sellers should be able to enter the market freely. This will bring down the abnormal profits to the normal level. Similarly, when losses will occur existing sellers may leave the market. However, such free entry or free exit is possible only in the long run, but not in the short-run. 4. Perfect knowledge: Perfect competition implies perfect knowledge on the part of buyers and sellers regarding the market conditions. As results, no buyer will be prepared to pay a price higher than the prevailing price. Sellers will not charge a price higher or lower than the prevailing price. In this market, advertisement has no scope. 5. Perfect mobility of factors of production: The second perfection mobility of factors of production from one use to another use. This feature ensures that all sellers or firms get equal advantages so far as services of factors of production are concerned. This is essential to enable the firms and industry to achieve equilibrium 6. Absence of transport cost: Under perfect competition transport, cost does not exist. Since commodities have, the same price it logically follows that there will be no transport cost. In the event of the presence of cost of transport, there will be no single price in the market. Transport cost occurs when there is no perfect knowledge of the market conditions on the part of buyers and sellers. . No attachment: There is no attachment between the buyers and sellers under perfect competition. Since products of all sellers are identical and their prices are the same a buyer is free to buy the commodity from any seller he likes. He has no special inclination for the product of any seller as in case of monopolistic competition or oligopoly. Theoretically, perfect competition is irrelevant. In reality, it does not exist. So it is a myth Profit maximization for a competitive firm: The goal of any competitive firm is to make profit. Three general rules for profit maximization under perfect competition are stated as follows: -If the marginal revenue is greater then marginal cost the firm should increase the output -If marginal cost is greater then greater then marginal cost the firm should decrease output -At profit maximizing level of output, marginal revenue & marginal cost are exactly same Example: Profit maximization for a perfectly competitive market.

Agenda Setting Essay

Agenda Setting Patricia Wigington Grand Canyon University COM 126 Introduction The mass media today, no longer reports public opinion, it drives it. This paper discusses how mass media sets the agenda, and what impact this had on the issues that emerged during the 2008 presidential election. According to Donald Shaw and Maxwell Combs, agenda is a theory to describe now the newsmedia can have a considerable impact on shaping the publics opinion of a social reality, on influencing what people believe are important issues. (Shaw&McCombs, 1977) Agenda Setting Media consolidation is one thing that contributes to agenda-setting. As the number of newspapers dwindles and radio and TV stations are sold to one or two conglomerates, the news is in effect being censored because it reflect only the viewpoint of a single organization. If conflicting views are never even mentioned, the public is never aware that there is an entirely different side to the issue than the one being presented. It requires persistence to find out the facts of an issue, and people may not make the effort. Then too, the media itself has changed dramatically in recent years. Many people now get their news from digital media including the Internet, but the flood of electronic information may not make them more knowledgeable, just more informed about issues they may not consider important. Marshall McLuhan once famously argued that the medium is the message; David Considine twists it slightly, to the idea that the â€Å"medium is the massage,† and that we are all being worked over by the media, in particular younger people (Considine, 2009, p. 65). Today’s technology, people using several electronic devices simultaneously,practice widely known as multitasking (Considine, 2009). Time Magazine wondered, however, if people are â€Å"too wired for their own good,† and whether modern media were contributing to â€Å"students’ reduced attention spans, making it harder for educators to reach and teach them† (Considine, 2009, p. 65). There is a legitimate question as to whether this environment of electronic noise and constant co mmunication makes them â€Å"active and informed citizens† or merely â€Å"spectators moving from one distraction to another† (Considine, 2009, p. 65). The answer seems clear when Considine reveals that despite the fact that in 2006, the number of young people ages 18-29 in the U. S. was 50 million, only seven million voted in the mid-term election (Considine, 2009). In other words, they have access to information but don’t transform that information into knowledge or political action. Younger people are a volatile population when it comes to voting. They become wildly enthusiastic for a particular candidate such as Ron Paul or Howard Dean, but fail to show up at the polls (Considine, 2009). Barack Obama was able to energize this group on his own behalf and that of other Democratic candidates: â€Å"Exit polling from the January 2008 Iowa caucus for the Democratic candidates showed a record turnout among eighteen-to twenty-nine year olds, who heavily supported the theme of change promoted by Senator Barack Obama† (Considine, 2009, p. 66). Now of course they seem to have disengaged again and organizations such as Democracy for America and Moveon. org are actively working to re-energize them and get them to the polls in November. Part of Barack Obama’s success in the 2008 election was due to his savvy use of electronic media (Considine, 2009). He was able to â€Å"use new technology to reach and energize voters; his campaign built a substantial database and achieved record-breaking fundraising† (Considine, 2009, p. 66). It also seems logical that part of his appeal is that he does know how to use Twitter and FaceBook, and that he tweets personal messages; his electronic presence immediately makes his opponent look old and out of touch. He further endeared himself to young voters and â€Å"reaffirmed his commitment to communication technology when he insisted on keeping his personal Blackberry† (Considine, 2009,p. 66) The tendency of the media to set agendas was clearly shown in the summer of 2009, when electronic forums such as YouTube and Twitter, along with traditional outlets such as newspaper columns, took up the health-care debate and buzzed about such ludicrous and inaccurate items as â€Å"’death panels,’ socialism, Hitler and fascism† (Jones & McBeth, 2010, p. 29). These scare tactics, which are all completely false, were used to try and discredit both the reform effort and the President, and are a clear example of the way the media sets an agenda. Picking up on the hysteria of the far right, the media repeated the lies without doing any fact checking, leading commentators to wonder â€Å"how these ideas rationally relate to the debate over reform† (Jones & McBeth, 2010, p . 329). The fact that these crazy notions were not only given credence but reported widely, and continue to appear in the media, show how powerful such things can be â€Å"in shaping public opinion and ultimately in shaping governmental action† (Jones & McBeth, 2010, p. 329). The misleading claims about â€Å"death panels,† the idea of Obama being Hitler and leading the country into a Socialist government are all â€Å"elements of larger policy tall-tales that were intentionally used by opponents of health-care reform attempting to derail President Obama’s reform. Obama’s supporters countered these lies with stories of their own: personal accounts from Americans who, for various reasons, were priced out of the heath care system or even denied care (Jones & McBeth, 2010). The use of narratives is a powerful tool in setting the political agenda in the United States. One study found that although TV and internet users had a common agenda (the use of electronic media), their â€Å"ranked agendas† differed greatly from the ranked agendas of the media themselves (Brubaker, 2008). That is, the TV watchers and internet users were not interested in the programming or information that was being presented to them: â€Å"The overall general media audience ranked 10 or the 11 public affairs issues significantly different than presented by the media† (Brubaker, 2008). TV watchers and internet users were interested in â€Å"important public affairs issues,† but the agenda they were following â€Å"significantly differed from the agenda that medium was showing them’ (Brubaker, 2008). This implies that the media â€Å"are not powerful in setting the agenda of important public affairs or political issues. People have particular issues they feel are important, regardless of what the media present† (Brubaker, 2008). This seems to be at odds with the idea that the media sets the agenda. and people simply put up with it. With regard to the 2008 Presidential election, the agenda presented by the media was that of the war in Iraq, but it was quickly displaced by concern about the economy; an agenda driven by consumers’ interests, not those of the media (Agenda setting and the Obama election, 2010). But this source claims that the media set another agenda, a highly visible but totally unnecessary one, that of race. Barack Obama is black, and that became a major issue in the election: â€Å"The measurement of Obama’s potential success didn’t lie in whether or not voters were willing to vote for a black candidate, but whether or not voters, more specifically white voters, could view Obama, or blacks in general, as leaders (Agenda setting and the Obama election, 2010). Had the media been more concerned about Obama’s positions and qualifications and less about the color of his skin, the entire election would have been conducted on a much higher level. This source also notes that the racial issues was studied in swing states like Ohio, where it was deemed to be extremely important (Agenda setting and the Obama election, 2010). In one study, Ohio was measured for â€Å"favorability between candidates in the areas of republicans, democrats, independents, men, women, whites and blacks;† it was found that a vast majority of black voters, as many as 90%, favored Obama, no matter what their previous voting record or party affiliation was (Agenda setting and the Obama election, 2010). The question raised by this result is whether our society â€Å"is the way it is because of the media, or is the media a direct reflection of the way society is †¦ In the case of Obama for President, the media clearly allowed race to chase to the top of the list of exaggerated issues that never should have been a part of the presidential election in the first place† (Agenda setting and the Obama election, 2010). In response to the popularity of Obama, the Republicans tried to set the media agenda to focus on issues such as Iraq and health care, arguing that race should not be consuming the attention focused on it (Agenda setting and the Obama election, 2010). But Republicans also tried to set an agenda favorable to them by introducing Sarah Palin as their vice presidential candidate to appeal to women voters; setting the agenda worked in Ohio, where pollsters noted a shift among women of all races who were not previously affiliated with a particular party (Agenda setting and the Obama election, 2010).

Cathys Marketing Strategy

Cathys Marketing Strategy Executive Summary Cathy’s problem is how to increase her website revenue. Cathy’s main problem is the failure to generate advertising revenue and blog membership revenue. The advertisers find Cathy’s advertising fee unrealistically higher than other alternative advertising sites. Likewise, the prospective blog membership clients find the $20 annual fee too high. Cathy’s current advertising strategy failed to increase advertising revenues.Advertising We will write a custom case study sample on Cathy’s Marketing Strategy specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More To increase her website’s advertising and blog membership revenues, Cathy ponders on several alternative solutions. The alternatives focus on implementing the marketing mix principles. The principles include offering lower advertising and blog membership prices, offering prospective customers more website benefits, advertising her website in news papers to generate more customers, and keeping her website open 24 hours a day to accept more website customers. Introduction. Marketing strategy spells the difference between financial success and failure. The research centers on Cathy’s current marketing strategy. The research veers towards recommending a complete revision of Cathy’s unsuccessful marketing strategy. Implementing the marketing mix principles, including the required survey, will improve Cathy’s current marketing and financial performance. Problem Statement. Cathy’s problem is how to increase website membership and advertising revenue. Cathy’s high advertising prices failed to generate expected advertising revenues. Cathy’s high blog membership dissuaded people from paying the high $20 membership fee. Analysis and evaluation. Cathy Newsome is disappointed with her low advertising revenue output and low blog membership output. The advertising prospects found her annual website advertising price of $ 2,400 is similar to a 1/16 page advertisement in the Raleigh Yellow pages. However, the Raleigh advertisement is a financially alternative when compared to advertising in Cathy’s website. Further, Cathy contributes lesser time to her internet business. Cathy’s strategy. Cathy’s main strategy is to set her internet business, Splendid Wedding.com. Cathy advertises her website to generate more local advertising customers and sponsors. The website offered wedding services to people who are planning to get married. Cathy offered a blog site at $ 20 annual membership fee. However, her attempts were unsuccessful. Cathy’s website, SplendidWedding.Com focused on helping people plan their wedding. She was encouraged by a recently held bridal fair held in Raleigh, North Carolina. She was thrilled by the wedding companies’ contributions to help the wedding couples. The business entities included the florists. The wedding fair included a wedding gift register. There were many companies joining the wedding fair.Advertising Looking for case study on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The companies included Home Depot. Home Depot sells home furniture to the newly weds. Further, the wedding fair gave Cathy a new business idea. Cathy informed here fiancà © that people will be happy with an improved wedding service. The improvement included registering gift choices in a major or centralized website. The suggestion was better than offering many wedding-related stores a parcel or some fraction of the entire information database. Cathy insists that registering in the major or centralized website would make the job of the gift-givers less burdensome. Cathy discovered that most wedding websites like www.weddingchannel.com offered lackluster service to the current and prospective wedding customers. Recommendations . Cathy must revise her curr ent marketing strategy. Cathy should enhance her current marketing strategy of offering wedding services to the current and prospective customers. Cathy should focus on improving her currently unprofitable marketing strategy. Specifically, Cathy must lower her annual advertising fee to $ 999 per year. The lower rate will generate more advertising customers. Further, Cathy must reduce the membership fee to $ 4 a year. The price reduction will increase blog membership customers. In turn, Cathy will advertise her website in national newspapers, radio and television. Cathy’s website will continue focusing on helping people prepare their wedding celebrations. Cathy’s prospective customers are the wedding companies. The wedding companies sell wedding flowers, insurances, wedding reception programs and other related services. In turn, the current and prospective wedding customers can open Cathy’s centralized wedding database website. Cathy’s website customers ca n choose from a large list of competitors. Cathy’s website customers can pick the best offer from among the flower companies listed in the website. Based on the company’s offers, Cathy’s online clients can choose their preferred company. Some customers prefer companies offering the best wedding plans. Searching through Cathy’s website, the prospective customers can pick the company offering the best floral designs, floral decoration prices being equal. Lastly, the current and prospective customers can buy an insurance plan offering the most benefits (Fifield, 2012).Advertising We will write a custom case study sample on Cathy’s Marketing Strategy specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More To ensure Cathy can move forward, Cathy should spend more time implementing a different marketing strategy (Kerin, R., Peterson, R., 2010). Cathy’s new marketing strategy should include implementing the marketing mix principles. Implementing the marketing strategy, Cathy should price her product reasonably at $999 annual advertising fee and $4 blog membership fee. Cathy will conduct a survey that will serve as the basis for adjusting the recommended $ 999 advertising fee and $ 5 blog membership fee (Fifield, 2012). Fundamentally, Cathy should offer a high quality website product. The product will cater for the needs of the current and prospective customers. Cathy should conduct a survey to determine the prevailing needs of the community. The survey results will indicate Cathy’s perception of what the wedding couples need may not be all that true. The survey will aid Cathy’s business decisions (Capon, 2007). Further, Cathy should also offer her website service to the community (place). Cathy is successful in this area of the marketing mix. The prospective customers can easily open her website. The prospective customers can pick their company choices from the home, office, in school, or during a baseball game. He advertising is good (Sandhusen, 2008). Lastly, Cathy should advertise her website in national newspaper to generate more website customers. Cathy should advertise her website in the television and radio spots. Advertising the advantages of her website in the community newspaper, television, and radio will trigger a higher demand for Cathy’s website. Currently, Cathy’s financial goal does not seem realistic. Her current advertising efforts only produced two customers. The two customers are not enough to generate a profit from Cathy’s website business. To be realistic, Cathy’s current marketing strategy should be revised (Sandhusen, 2008). Conclusion. Based on the above discussion, implementing marketing strategy will make or break Cathy’s financial and marketing performance. Cathy’s current marketing strategy proved to be financially unsuccessful. Cathy’s current advertising procedure fails to generate mo re advertising customers and blog membership customers. Cathy’s only hope to extricate herself from her financial crisis is to immediately implement the marketing mix principles and conduct surveys. The surveys will serve as basis for Cathy’s new pricing schemes. The principles include lowering the current website advertising price and blog membership price, offering more benefits to customers, advertising the website in newspapers and ensuring Cathy’s wedding website is open 24 hours a day will increase Cathy’s advertising revenues and blog membership revenues. Indeed, Cathy’s setting into motion the marketing mix principles will increase Cathy’s website revenues.Advertising Looking for case study on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More References Capon, N. (2007). Managing Marketing in the 21st Century. New York: Wessex Press. Fifield, P. (2012). Marketing Strategy. New York: Routledge Press. Kerin, R., Peterson, R. (2010). Strategic Marketing Problems. New York: Prentice Hall Sandhusen, R. (2008). Marketing. New York: Barrons Press.

Roots Of Our Faith Essays - Christology, Prophets Of Islam

Roots Of Our Faith Essays - Christology, Prophets Of Islam Roots of Our Faith As Christians, why do we need the Old Testament when we have the New Testament? This is a question often asked in modern day Christianity. This is also the question which seems to provoke the writing of The Old Testament Roots of Our Faith, by Paul and Elizabeth Achtemeier. The Achtemeiers point out in their book that in modern day thinking we view God as a loving father (pg. 1-2), rather than the God of the Old Testament who seems to act in jealousy over his own power with the destruction of everything. So why then do we read the Old Testament? The final reason is "We can?t understand the nature of Christians unless we understand Israel."(pg.5) according to the Achtemeiers, and Israel as pointed out throughout the book is the root of all Christianity today. The main purpose behind this book is to provide us with a rope which connects us and our New Testament thinking to the Old Testament. The single main theme that conveys this thinking is that throughout all God has k! ept his word with mercy and love. Achtemeier shows us this link by basically giving us an entire overview of the Old Testament in a form which ties to the coming of Jesus Christ as the Son of God. We can believe God?s link to Jesus Christ and the world today, by the point, through everything God has gone through he has remained true to his word or covenants. God?s greatest creation, man, rebelling against his own authority has been the cause for most of the problems in the Old Testament. In started with Adam and Eve wanting to be like God themselves which led them to sin and continued on to Israel where sin was evident everywhere. In Israel, David, although chosen as the anointed one or messiah, committed adultery and murder, yet God?s mercy and forgiveness stepped in. Israel as a whole was given the ten commandments to abide by, yet they couldn?t. Despite many prophet writings that the end of Israel would come, God instead gave salvation to them through a new spirit and heart in the form of Jesus Chri! st according to the Achtemeiers. The book is organized primarily as the bible is organized with certain points, when needed, taken from other passages in both the New and Old Testament. The way it is ordered makes the book almost read like a story on a timeline through each book of the bible, in telling us what God has gone through for us to believe in his faith. Certain times in the book the Achtemeiers put in what seem like their own beliefs about particular parts which throw the reader off a bit. For example when they arrive at the time of David being the King in Israel, they seem to believe that David wasn?t the right choice to be the Messiah or wasn?t the chosen one at all. They back this point up by saying, "Yahweh seems often curiously absent from the history of Israel?s greatest king." (pg. 77) The Achtemeiers are clear throughout the book proving that God has always been true to his word and that is why we were given Jesus. An example is when the judging of Israel comes, they show us that God ra! ther than destroying Israel for being full of corruption, gives them a new heart and spirit, which falls in line with his covenant with Israel. I completely agree with the Achtemeiers feelings, after reading this book, that Jesus "is the fulfillment of the Old Testament Story." This book has been extremely helpful to me since in the past I?ve studied the Old Testament as all separate pieces with no real logical answer to any question. Before reading this I too felt that the Old Testament seemed to be more so a collection of stories that give us a basic moral understanding of how God thinks we should all act. While I don?t feel that I understand the New Testament better, I do feel that I understand the roots of it better, like where and why it came about. By knowing the roots of it better, I feel in the future while studying