..."Discuss with reference to this BP case study the problems of corporate risk and liability entailed by the factors of uncertainty and lack of reliability of equipment. (in this case the blow-out preventer) State other examples and analyse them. How can companies plan for such contingencies and manage a major disaster when it arises in a damage limitation exercise?" The Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 22 April 2010 is perhaps the most striking example of a corporate disaster due to a company’s lack of certainty regarding some of its operations. First, it is the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of oil industry, then it took the authorities and the companies almost three months to stop the leak and finally the spill caused extensive damage to wildlife and marine habitats and to the Gulf’s tourism and fishing industry, leading to one of the most complex trial of the US. And even more important, this accident was not caused by a natural disaster like Fukushima’s nuclear disaster was. What is more is that the responsible for this disaster are said to be BP and Transocean, hence companies with the means and power to prevent and stop such a disaster from happening. One might expect from a firm like BP to have efficient and safe equipment, especially when one knows how dreadful an oil spill can be. It seemed however that building oil gusher at such depths made it almost impossible for them to be absolutely sure of their equipment safety, a problem combined to a series...
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...packet is to be forwarded or dropped. An example of a hardware firewalls are Linksys and Cisco routers. Anti-virus software is software used to prevent, detect and remove malware such as worms, Trojan horses, computer viruses and hijackers. Examples include Microsoft Security Essentials and Windows Defender. Disaster recovery is a process, policy, and/or procedure related to preparing for recovery or continuation of the technology infrastructure. This is vital to an organization after a natural or human-induced disaster. It is a subset of business continuity, focuses on the IT or technology systems that support business functions. The most common strategies for data protection are: 1. Backup recorded to a tape and sent off-site at regular intervals. 2. Backups make to a disk on site and automatically copied to offsite disks or made directly to offsite disks. 3. Replication of data to an offsite location, which overcomes the need to restore the data, often making use of storage area network technology. 4. Use of high availability systems which keep both the data and system replicated offsite. This enables continuous access to systems and data even after a disaster. Periodic testing of backup restores...
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...Case Scenario of Natural Disaster Paper By: Teresa McCullough University of Phoenix June 18, 2012 Instructor: Michael Solomon Introduction: The privacy and security of patient’s health information is an important challenge and responsibility for every healthcare organization and a concern for every United States citizen. To receive healthcare, patients must reveal information that is very personal and often sensitive in nature. Most of the patient-physician relationships depend on very high levels of trust at the same time they also trust that the healthcare organization will protect their confidential healthcare information with belief of security and privacy. It is an ethical and legal responsibility for every healthcare organization to protect patient’s health information and should make a management plan for security and privacy of this confidential health information. “Disasters and security incidents may threaten the organization’s ability to carry out its mission as well as other operational functions. Advance planning and preparation will allow the organization to continue serving its patients and community to ensure the availability of patient protected health information as well as business information” (MHC IT Disaster Recovery Plan, 2006). If access to data is not safe and precise during a natural disaster, there are bound to be many privacy concerns. The purpose of this paper is to describe and discuss the natural disaster case scenario...
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...there is a legal and ethical responsibility binding health care organization to protect and to develop a plan within the organization to protect patients’ medical records. There is always a privacy concern when patients’ medical data information are not protected and secured during a natural disaster. In this paper natural disaster scenario case of a small town on Gulf Coast that was struck by a hurricane will be discuss, also management detailed plan for patients’ medical record privacy and security will be discussed. The implementation of management plan for staff training and code of conduct will be discussed. A disaster is an adverse event as a result of natural processes of the Earth. It can cause losses of life, property damage, and electronic damage. Examples of natural disaster are flood, volcanic eruption, earthquakes, tsunamis, and other geologic processes. Actions to take when patients ask for their records Patients health care records serves many purposes to patients, it provides patients with accurate summary of patient’s health, patients have legal right to demand for his or her medical records at any time, but in a situation when an unexpected natural disaster destroyed patient files, and patients are requesting for his or her medical records, the actions to take is to contact water, fire, damage storm restorative company, and data recovery via electronic will be considered .The damage restoration services must be performed according to...
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...Task 1 1. The Cisco RV220W Firewall is a hardware firewall that doubles as a router. It has VPN security to allow safe access from remote computers and offices. It also protects against cloud based threats. ZoneAlarm is a software two-way firewall and also comes with backup software. It monitors your programs constantly and should a virus or malicious program make it through it catches it immediately. Task 2 1. Panda, Norton, and Kapersky all offer free trial versions of their products. AVG is the only full-fledged free anti-virus software in the group. McAfee does not offer trial versions or a free version, only purchasable options. 2. A Trojan horse is an application that appears benign but is really a destructive program. A user will think they are downloading something beneficial to their computer and when they do the Trojan horse begins to corrupt their system. Phishing is when a person receives an email that directs them to a false website that appears to be legit and then has the user enter sensitive personal information such as credit card numbers, social security number, etc. A drive-by download occurs when a user visits a website, doesn’t have to click any links or anything, and malicious software automatically begins to download in the background without the users knowledge. Task 3 1. A full backup backs up all the files and folders on a specific drive every time you use that file set. It takes longer and uses up more file space. An incremental back...
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...Pacific Island that is facing hardship and has many challenges that need to be met in order for the residence to grow. They have asked A & E disaster corporation help in the process. The company I work for will determine how it will build this disaster stricken country. We will identify the problems; define criteria, goals, and objectives. In this paper I will discuss the problems that we will encounter during the decision making process and how to resolve them. I will also discuss organizational processes, human resources, and ethics within the company. Decision making is important for A& E Recovery Corporation and there are many tools, techniques, and knowledge that can apply when making choices on decisions and alternatives. Within two weeks of finishing my degree in business management, I was hired at A& E Disaster Corporation as an assistant to director of strategic planning. The director of strategic planning is Alex. The company requires me to travel for my first assignment. Upon arriving in Kava I noticed the community was a mess. I meet my supervisor Alex; he told me that Kava was in great need of assistance. I have identified the following problems. The island is located in the path of many potential natural disasters that threaten the infrastructure, crops, and livelihood of the people. The disasters include hurricanes, typhoons, earthquakes, and even H.I.V. The population is also a problem; fifty percent of the population is under fifteen...
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...Decisions in Paradise, Part 1 Not every vacation dreamland is what it is all cracked up to be. The Kava Island is one of these places that I am talking about. The inhabitants on the island of Kava are going through very tough times right now. The company with whom I am now working with works in the pharmaceutical field, and I will help them come up with how they as a company can help in the restructuring area on the island of Kava. Identifying problems of the Kava people as well as coming up with a criterion to do so will help build our goals as well as our objectives. We will also evaluate the causes and effects of all of the trials and tribulations that have hit the Kava Island. Two weeks after achieving my degree in business in the management field, I was hired by a pharmaceutical company in Japan. I was to be an assistant to the strategic planning director with their company. As I knew when I took this job it would require me to travel all over the world, and in this case to the island of Kava located in the South Pacific region of the world. I researched the Kava Island as I had never heard of I before, and after researching information on the background and what the island had to offer, it excited me and I very much so looked forward to working with great people and helping out as much as I could for the good of the Kava cause. The island had to be beautiful, I figured, because of its location. I was thrilled to embark on this new chapter in my life and see what I could...
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...D1- Each of the three institutions have in some way help to uphold the stated human rights. The humanitarian aid programme help to provide the vital and basic human needs during a stage of sever poverty, disaster relief and post or present war. Their main intention is to deploy medical and rescue teams to minimise any potential suffering. UN agencies are fully responsible for all the aiding programmes and personnel exported and the UN office coordinates the humanitarian affairs. Disaster relief is similar to the humanitarian aid, yet disaster relief is more specialist personnel. Such as; specific teams to supply food, shelter, water and various other resources. The EU, for example donated over $600 million towards disaster relief to the 2004 tsunami in Sri Lanka. The UN and NATO are heavily involved in peacekeeping operations. Security and peace though- out the world is one of the main goals for the international institutions. The UN currently has 16 peacekeeping missions active. In countries such as Sudan and Cyprus. And NATO is involved in three countries, Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo. Reconstruction provides humanitarian aid to the rebuilding of the country/ region. It’s to give post reconstruction of a country which has been damaged by conflict or natural disasters. The EU, UN and NATO were involved in the reconstruction of Haiti, hurricane Katrina and the Pakistan earthquake in 2005. The organisations provide support and assistance to asylum seekers and refugees....
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... Humanitarian Crisis and Reconciliation To understand the impact of humanitarian crises and how international politics play a role, a common definition of such crises must be understood. In his book “Humanitarian Crises and the International Politics of Selectivity” Martin Binder defines a humanitarian crisis as a “large scale human suffering resulting from the violation or the destruction of the physical integrity of a large number of people” (pg. 332). There are quite a few causes of these events that include natural disasters-earthquakes floods, winds, landslides, avalanches, cyclones, tsunamis, locust infestations, drought, volcanic eruptions, changes in weather or tidal patterns. Human factors include political corruption, embargoes or blockades, lack of planning or foresight, and not to mention demographic and geographic characteristics like population density. Of the major causes, the majority of them come from natural disasters but the one cause that can arguably be the most devastating is that of political corruption. As Robert Rothberg pointed out in his book, From Massacres to Genocide “before corruption of any kind can be dealt with, both local and international parties must be aware of and notified about the condition of their neighboring countries” (pg. 18). Rothberg discussed how, in recent years the internet has played an undeniable role in spreading...
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...Natural Disasters and the Decisions That Follow Jeff Rommel's introduction to Florida could be described as trial by hurricane. Rommel took over Florida operations for Nationwide Insurance in 2004. Over a 2-month period that year, Florida experienced its worst hurricane season in history�four major hurricanes (Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne) slammed the state, causing an estimated $40 billion in damage. In the hurricanes' wake, Nationwide received more than 119,000 claims, collectively worth $850 million. Although dealing with those claims was difficult, even more difficult was Rommel's later decision to cancel approximately 40,000 homeowners' policies. Nationwide received a huge amount of media attention as a result, almost all negative. In reflecting on the decision, Rommel said, "Pulling out was a sound business decision. Was it good for the individual customer? No, I can't say it was. But the rationale was sound." Hurricanes aren't the only weapons in nature's arsenal, and the insurance industry is hardly the only industry affected by nature. Consider the airline industry. American Airlines has 80,000 employees, 4 of whom make decisions to cancel flights. One of them is Danny Burgin. When a weather system approaches, Burgin needs to consider a host of factors in deciding which flights to cancel and how to reroute affected passengers. He argues that of two major weather factors, winter snowstorms and summer thunderstorms, snowstorms are easier to handle because they are...
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...Decisions in Paradise, Part II Veronica Evaristo MGT/350 December 5, 2011 Ken Rath Decisions in Paradise, Part II The community of Kava is presented with various environmental challenges that affect the progress of the economy. As an organization in this location, running a business also poses a complex trial to be profitable and successful. ANZ Guam, Inc. (ANZ), a new banking institution in Kava, realizes these challenges to be grow its business and simultaneously provide to the community. Considering most people from Kava would not appeal to the products of a bank, ANZ hopes to provide adequate financial education to the community. With a general banking knowledge in the people’s hands, they will understand how banking products can benefit their financial needs. Collaborative Decision-Making In Kava, there are many natural disasters that occur compromising the country’s key elements that help stimulate the economy. Disaster threats like tsunamis, typhoons, floods, and earthquakes destroy the processing and plantations of coffee, cocoa, spices, banana, and sugar. How do the people and business owners recover from these catastrophes? The community can receive financial gain by learning the bank’s benefits of saving money and borrowing money to assist through these hard times. The plan for this organization is to market deposit accounts for the people and businesses in Kava and provide the education of saving and managing money. In addition, the bank hopes...
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...Infusions Handmade cold process soap and more Infusing Oils With Herbs: Moringa Soap I have been using herbal infusions for soaps since I began making soap. Using herbs as natural colorants is challenging as depending on the type of infusion you choose the finished soap can go from a great success to a downright disaster. I cannot forget how the color of the hibiscus infusion went from magnificent ruby to scary blue in the lye solution and to a nice but not so interesting beige in the finished soap. Another “accident” was using green tea powder. Adding it to the raw soap caused the batter to turn muddy (dirty may provide a better description though) brown and the finished soap was a dreadfully oily thing which I only kept to cure because of my husband’s advice to never give up on a batch of soap. Grateful I listened to him because, three months later, that dreadful log of oily something became one of the best soaps I have ever used. Since those (and a few other) disastrous trials with herbs I have done a lot of research and have come to the point of feeling confident about what I can achieve with certain herbs depending on the way of infusing them and using them in soap. Yet, with the great variety of botanicals out there, there is always a new herb to try and this time I am using moringa. I received a package of moringa powder from Silvia at SoapJam a couple of months ago and almost immediately decided that I would try infusing some oil with part of the powder...
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...THE STUDY Fiber- reinforced concrete contains fibrous materials which intensifies its structural integrity. Since concrete is weak in tension, the use of conventional steel bars reinforcement and to some extent by the mixing of a sufficient volume of certain fibers. Its fibers include steel, glass, synthetics or natural fibers which provide varying properties to concrete. Also, its character changes with varying concretes, fiber materials, geometries, distribution, orientation, and densities. Fibers have been used as a reinforcement since ancient times. In the 1900s, asbestos fibers were used in concrete. In the 1950s, the concept of composite materials came into being and fiber-reinforced concrete was one of the topics of interest. But due to health risks linked to asbestos, its substance in concrete and other building materials were replaced. Also, in the 1960’s, steel glass and synthetic fibers were used in concrete. Since then, new fiber-reinforced concretes are being researched to improve the tensile properties of concrete. FIBER REINFORCED CONCRETE ADVANTAGES PHILIPPINE ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS The Environment of the Philippines is prone to natural disasters, particularly typhoons, floods, landslides, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and tsunamis, lying as it does astride the typhoon belt, in the active volcanic region known as thePacific Ring of Fire, and in the geologicall suitable region. The Philippines also suffers major human-caused environmental degradation aggravated...
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...There is a significant difference between resilience and resistance. Resilience can be defined as a community’s ability to return to its former state after a disturbance. Resilience based approach to community development is founded on the belief that all citizens have the capability to rise above adversity and to thrive in spite of the adversity. Resilience theory is a strengths based model, which means attention is on giving the opportunities and supports that encourage life success, instead of attempting to get rid of the issues that promote failure. Sometimes resilience is confused with the idea of resistance. Resistance is an effort to stop or prevent disruptive events from occurring. Some strategies applied in resistance include physical countermeasures like creating firewalls to shield computer systems from attack. On the other hand, resilience presupposes that resistance might not always be an option and therefore incorporate the provision of or access to optional services and resources if the resistance approach fails. Resilience is not antithetical to resistance. Resilience encompasses resistance because if a society can resist an interruption, its resources are sufficient to prevent the interruption from reducing society functioning with no need for adaption. However, an approach that just directs resources towards resisting threats will almost surely be expensive, and maybe conflict with individual and societal liberties. Resilience is also much better...
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...* THALIDOMIDE * By: KAUSHIK DOWARAH * The thalidomide disaster is one of the darkest episodes in pharmaceutical research history. The drug was marketed as a mild sleeping pill safe even for pregnant women. However, it caused thousands of babies worldwide to be born with malformed limbs. The damage was revealed in 1962. Before then, every new drug was seen as beneficial. Now there was suspicion and rigorous testing. * SYNTHESIS AND EARLY USE * Thalidomide was developed in the 1950s by the West German pharmaceutical company Chemie Grünenthal GmbH to expand the company’s product range beyond antibiotics. It was an anticonvulsive drug, but instead it made users sleepy and relaxed. It seemed a perfect example of newly fashionable tranquilisers. The drug also reduced morning sickness, so it became popular with pregnant women. * First suspicions and the disaster * By 1960 doctors were concerned about possible side effects. Some patients had nerve damage in their limbs after long-term use. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s drug examiner Frances Oldham Kelsey did not approve the drug for use. * There was an increase in births of thalidomide-impaired children in Germany and elsewhere. However, no link with thalidomide was made until 1961. The drug was only taken off the market after the German Widukind Lenz and the Australian William McBride independently suggested the link. Over 10,000 children were born with thalidomide-related disabilities...
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