Sysytems and Operations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Sysytems and Operations - Essay Example Sweden’s main focus is to have an increase in the information technology in order to have a stronger digital economy. Everyday life in Sweden is based completely on technology. Starting from waking up in the morning to sleeping at night every single activity by citizens involves technology. Transportation, medical, banking, educational sector all are concerned with having maximum technology so that best quality service can be provided to the citizens of the country. This is being done so that maximum number of people can be facilitated and the services provided would be equal for everyone. In this manner the quality of service being provided has also improved. This shows that the society has moved towards modernization along with innovation and good. The country has been changing and this can been shown in a manner that the three major sectors (individual, business and government) are benefitting from this shift to digital economy. The change can be seen in a example that at the grocery store in Sweden the shop keeper is selling medicine without prescription. All the customer need is their bank card and identity number in order to purchase the medicine. People in Sweden are working on everything through the touch screen from seeking advices of health experts to purchasing products everything is done through touch screens. The list of examples keep growing as Sweden is a digital economy and most of the things are now digital. The government is overwhelmed by the performance of this system as it has been providing services to people in medical sector that people are benefitting from it. This system is also helping them in banking, parking lots, paying bills, education facilities that there has been a boom in these sectors. Due to this the government is now having goals to export the medical system to different countries to gain from this system. By

Interpersonal and Transferable Skills Essay Example for Free

Interpersonal and Transferable Skills Essay Youre probably familiar with the phrase ‘what gets measured gets done. Defining and measuring effectiveness – especially the performance of workers – is a critical part of your job as a manager. The question is: How do you define the skills, behaviors, and attitudes that workers need to perform their roles effectively? How do you know theyre qualified for the job? In other words, how do you know what to measure? Some people think formal education is a reliable measure. Others believe more in on-the-job training, and years of experience. Still others might argue that personal characteristics hold the key to effective work behavior. All of these are important, but none seems sufficient to describe an ideal set of behaviors and traits needed for any particular role. Nor do they guarantee that individuals will perform to the standards and levels required by the organization. A more complete way of approaching this is to link individual performance to the goals of the business. To do this, many companies use ‘competencies. These are the integrated knowledge, skills, judgment, and attributes that people need to perform a job effectively. By having a defined set of competencies for each role in your business, it shows workers the kind of behaviors the organization values, and which it requires to help achieve its objectives. Not only can your team members work more effectively and achieve their potential, but there are many business benefits to be had from linking personal performance with corporate goals and values. Defining which competencies are necessary for success in your organization can help you do the following: †¢ Ensure that your people demonstrate sufficient expertise. †¢ Recruit and select new staff more effectively. †¢ Evaluate performance more effectively. †¢ Identify skill and competency gaps more efficiently. †¢ Provide more customized training and professional development. †¢ Plan sufficiently for succession. †¢ Make change management processes work more efficiently. How can you define the set of practices needed for effective performance? You can do this by adding a competency framework to your talent management program. By collecting and combining competency information, you can create a standardized approach to performance thats clear and accessible to everyone in the company. The framework outlines specifically what people need to do to be effective in their roles, and it clearly establishes how their roles relate to organizational goals and success. This article outlines the steps you need to take to develop a competency framework in your organization. Design Principles of a Competency Framework A competency framework defines the knowledge, skills, and attributes needed for people within an organization. Each individual role will have its own set of competencies needed to perform the job effectively. To develop this framework, you need to have an in-depth understanding of the roles within your business. To do this, you can take a few different approaches: †¢ Use a pre-set list of common, standard competencies, and then customize it to the specific needs of your organization. †¢ Use outside consultants to develop the framework for you. †¢ Create a general organizational framework, and use it as the basis for other frameworks as needed. Developing a competency framework can take considerable effort. To make sure the framework is actually used as needed, its important to make it relevant to the people wholl be using it – and so they can take ownership of it. The following three principles are critical when designing a competency framework: 1. Involve the people doing the work – These frameworks should not be developed solely by HR people, who dont always know what each job actually involves. Nor should they be left to managers, who dont always understand exactly what each member of their staff does every day. To understand a role fully, you have to go to the source – the person doing the job – as well as getting a variety of other inputs into what makes someone successful in that job. 2. Communicate – People tend to get nervous about performance issues. Let them know why youre developing the framework, how it will be created, and how youll use it. The more you communicate in advance, the easier your implementation will be. 3. Use relevant competencies – Ensure that the competencies you include apply to all roles covered by the framework. If you include irrelevant competencies, people will probably have a hard time relating to the framework in general. For example, if you created a framework to cover the whole organization, then financial management would not be included unless every worker had to demonstrate that skill. However, a framework covering management roles would almost certainly involve the financial management competency. Developing the Framework There are four main steps in the competency framework development process. Each steps has key actions that will encourage people to accept and use the final product. Step One: Prepare †¢ Define the purpose – Before you start analyzing jobs, and figuring out what each role needs for success, make sure you look at the purpose for creating the framework. How you plan to use it will impact whom you involve in preparing it, and how you determine its scope. For example, a framework for filling a job vacancy will be very specific, whereas a framework for evaluating compensation will need to cover a wide range of roles. †¢ Create a competency framework team – Include people from all areas of your business that will use the framework. Where possible, aim to represent the diversity of your organization. Its also important to think about long-term needs, so that you can keep the framework updated and relevant. Step Two: Collect Information This is the main part of the framework. Generally, the better the data you collect, the more accurate your framework will be. For this reason, its a good idea to consider which techniques youll use to collect information about the roles, and the work involved in each one. You may want to use the following: †¢ Observe – Watch people while theyre performing their roles. This is especially useful for jobs that involve hands-on labor that you can physically observe. †¢ Interview people – Talk to every person individually, choose a sample of people to interview, or conduct a group interview. You may also want to interview the supervisor of the job youre assessing. This helps you learn what a wide variety of people believe is needed for the roles success. †¢ Create a questionnaire – A survey is an efficient way to gather data. Spend time making sure you ask the right questions, and consider the issues of reliability and validity. If you prefer, there are standardized job analysis questionnaires you can buy, rather than attempting to create your own. †¢ Analyze the work – Which behaviors are used to perform the jobs covered by the framework? You may want to consider the following: †¢ Business plans, strategies, and objectives. †¢ Organizational principles. †¢ Job descriptions. †¢ Regulatory or other compliance issues. †¢ Predictions for the future of the organization or industry. †¢ Customer and supplier requirements. Job analysis that includes a variety of techniques and considerations will give you the most comprehensive and accurate results. If you create a framework for the entire organization, make sure you use a sample of roles from across the company. This will help you capture the widest range of competencies that are still relevant to the whole business. †¢ As you gather information about each role, record what you learn in separate behavioral statements. For example, if you learn that Paul from accounting is involved in bookkeeping, you might break that down into these behavioral statements: handles petty cash, maintains floats, pays vendors according to policy, and analyzes cash books each month. You might find that other roles also have similar tasks – and therefore bookkeeping will be a competency within that framework. †¢ When you move on to Step Three, youll be organizing the information into larger competencies, so it helps if you can analyze and group your raw data effectively. Step Three: Build the Framework This stage involves grouping all of the behaviors and skill sets into competencies. Follow these steps to help you with this task: †¢ Group the statements – Ask your team members to read through the behavior statements, and group them into piles. The goal is to have three or four piles at first – for instance, manual skills, decision-making and judgment skills, and interpersonal skills. †¢ Create subgroups – Break down each of the larger piles into subcategories of related behaviors. Typically, there will be three or four subgroupings for each larger category. This provides the basic structure of the competency framework. †¢ Refine the subgroups – For each of the larger categories, define the subgroups even further. Ask yourself why and how the behaviors relate, or dont relate, to one another, and revise your groupings as necessary. †¢ Indentify and name the competencies – Ask your team to identify a specific competency to represent each of the smaller subgroups of behaviors. Then they can also name the larger category. †¢ Heres an example of groupings and subgroupings for general management competencies: †¢ Supervising and leading teams. †¢ Provide ongoing direction and support to staff. †¢ Take initiative to provide direction. †¢ Communicate direction to staff. †¢ Monitor performance of staff. †¢ Motivate staff. †¢ Develop succession plan. †¢ Ensure that company standards are met. †¢ Recruiting and staffing. †¢ Prepare job descriptions and role specifications. †¢ Participate in selection interviews. †¢ Identify individuals training needs. †¢ Implement disciplinary and grievance procedures. †¢ Ensure that legal obligations are met. †¢ Develop staff contracts. †¢ Develop salary scales and compensation packages. †¢ Develop personnel management procedures. †¢ Make sure staff resources meet organizational needs. †¢ Training and development. †¢ Deliver training to junior staff. †¢ Deliver training to senior staff. †¢ Identify training needs. †¢ Support personal development. †¢ Develop training materials and methodology. †¢ Managing projects/programs †¢ Prepare detailed operational plans. †¢ Manage financial and human resources. †¢ Monitor overall performance against objectives. †¢ Write reports, project proposals, and amendments. †¢ Understand external funding environment. †¢ Develop project/program strategy. You may need to add levels for each competency. This is particularly useful when using the framework for compensation or performance reviews. To do so, take each competency, and divide the related behaviors into measurement scales according to complexity, responsibility, scope, or other relevant criteria. These levels may already exist if you have job grading in place. †¢ Validate and revise the competencies as necessary – For each item, ask these questions: †¢ Is this behavior demonstrated by people who perform the work most effectively? In other words, are people who dont demonstrate this behavior ineffective in the role? †¢ Is this behavior relevant and necessary for effective work performance? These questions are often asked in the form of a survey. Its important to look for consensus among the people doing the job, as well as areas where theres little agreement. Also, look for possible issues with language, or the way the competencies are described, and refine those as well. Step Four: Implement As you roll out the finalized competency framework, remember the principle of communication that we mentioned earlier. To help get buy-in from members of staff at all levels of the organization, its important to explain to them why the framework was developed, and how youd like it to be used. Discuss how it will be updated, and which procedures youve put in place to accommodate changes. Here are some tips for implementing the framework: †¢ Link to business objectives – Make connections between individual competencies and organizational goals and values as much as possible. †¢ Reward the competencies – Check that your policies and practices support and reward the competencies identified. †¢ Provide coaching and training – Make sure theres adequate coaching and training available. People need to know that their efforts will be supported. †¢ Keep it simple – Make the framework as simple as possible. You want the document to be used, not filed away and forgotten. †¢ Communicate – Most importantly, treat the implementation as you would any other change initiative. The more open and honest you are throughout the process, the better the end result – and the better the chances of the project achieving your objectives. [pic] Key Points Creating a competency framework is an effective method to assess, maintain, and monitor the knowledge, skills, and attributes of people in your organization. The framework allows you to measure current competency levels to make sure your staff members have the expertise needed to add value to the business. It also helps managers make informed decisions about talent recruitment, retention, and succession strategies. And, by identifying the specific behaviors and skills needed for each role, it enables you to budget and plan for the training and development your company really needs. The process of creating a competency framework is long and complex. To ensure a successful outcome, involve people actually doing carrying out the roles to evaluate real jobs, and describe real behaviors.

Crickets :: essays research papers fc

Insects have been a nuisance to man since the beginning of time, up until the present. One of the plagues that struck Egypt was swarms of crickets, and locusts, which destroyed crops, and ate entire fields. Swarms of Crickets can cover up to 210 km. There have been cases of up to 100,000,000,000 insects in a swarm (one hundred billion). In these huge masses, they can completely destroy the land and everything on a farm. I chose to do this experiment because when I am at camp I am constantly woken up by the loud chirping of these annoying insects. There are three types of crickets: Mole Crickets, Field Crickets, and House Crickets. The Mole Cricket’s body is designed for digging subterranean tunnels. This Cricket’s body is well adapted to digging. The Mole Cricket usually lives in hot dry areas, and are extremely harmful to plants such as barley, and flax The Field Cricket has had a history in ancient China. This cricket’s beautiful song was held in particularly high esteem. These crickets were often kept in exquisitely ornamented cages made of sandalwood, ivory or jade. The Most common cricket is the house cricket. The house cricket’s body is more slender than that of the field cricket. It is also generally lighter in color. This crickets appears in abundance in central Europe, such as cellars, houses, bakeries, and so on. Procedure Problem: How do I make a cricket deterrent that is environmentally friendly? Hypothesis: If I use a deterrent that has a strong odor, then it will deter the crickets from that area. 2 I started my experiment by first buying 60 crickets. The crickets were stored in bags until they were ready to be used. I purchased a clear plastic box with holes in the top for breathing. I made a divider out of cardboard and secured it in the center of the box, making four equal sections. One section was the control, and in the others I put a deterrent. Two tests were made that were thrown out because they were irrelevant. In the first case, the crickets were not deterred at all by any of the substances. The test was done outside, and the crickets seemed to simply move their position depending on the location of the sun. The crickets seemed only deterred by the sun. They all moved to wherever the shadow of the sun seemed the darkest. I concluded that crickets are deterred, to some extent, by sunlight. The other test seemed erroneous because all of the crickets died very quickly. In this test, the crickets all died within 15 minutes, in whichever substance they went in first. There was too much of liquid in each

Malware Discussion Essay

The use of malware is a way for attackers to gain access to person information from a personal computer or company information from an organization. There are several types of malware which include virus, rootkits, and worms. Each malware serves different purposes to achieve the goal of an attacker. An attacker could be envious of a past lover and could send a virus to their email to shutdown the operations of their computer. A disgruntle employee could send a worm to their old company and slow down production of the company. A random person looking for a thrill could set up a rootkit on a company’s network to gain access to company secrets. Each malware is given a name specified for its cause, for example the Trojan Worm. The name is given to this virus because of the activity that happens once it is executed. Viruses are named by antivirus companies who avoid using proper names. The Melissa virus was named by its creator, David Smith, for a Miami stripper. This paper will discuss 5 different types of malware and inform the targets for these attacks. Discussion of Malware The first malware that will be discussed is the Melissa Virus. This virus was detected on the 26th of March 1999. This virus is a Microsoft Word macro virus that is delivered as an E-mail attachment. The virus is activated when an attachment named, list. doc is opened. When it is activated, the Melissa virus searches the Microsoft Outlook address book and sends a message to the first 50 names. This virus proliferates itself as users open the attachment. Melissa doesn’t work on Outlook Express, just Outlook. The message appears to come from the person just infected, which means that the message will seem to come from a recognizable email address. Melissa doesn’t destroy files or other resources, but has the possibility to immobilize corporate and other mails servers. The origin of the Melissa virus is from an Internet alt. sex newsgroup and contains a list of passwords for various Web sites that require memberships. Melissa also has the ability to disable some security safeguards. Users of Microsoft Word 97 or 2000 with Microsoft Outlook 97, 98, or 200 are most likely to be affected. When the virus attacks, it can infect the copy of Microsoft Word that is installed as well as any following Word documents that are created. It can also change the setting of Microsoft Word to make it easier for the computer to become infected by it and succeeding macro viruses. Users of Word 97 or 2000 containing any other E-mail programs can be affected also; the difference is that Melissa will not automatically redistribute itself to the contacts through other E-mail programs. It can still however infect the copy of Microsoft installed on the machine. This infected copy can still be shared with others if a document is created in the infected copy and distributed through E-mail, floppy disk, or FTP. Although the virus won’t appeal to the mailout on a Mac system, it can be stored and resent from Macs. To avoid this virus, it is suggested to not double-click any file, such as an E-mail attachment, without scanning it first with antivirus software, regardless of who it is from. The next malware to be discussed is SQL injection which is an attack where malicious code is placed in within strings that are shortly passed on to an example of SQL Server for parsing and implementation. A form of SQL injection consists of direct placing of code into user-input variables that link with SQL commands and executed. An attack that is not as direct, inserts malicious code into strings that are intended for storage in a table or as metadata. The malicious code is executed once the stored strings are linked into a dynamic SQL command. In SQL Injection, the hacker uses SQL queries and ingenuity to get to the database of susceptible corporate data through the web application. Websites with features as login pages, support and product request forms, feedback forms, search pages, shopping carts and the general delivery of dynamic content, shape modern websites and provide businesses with the means necessary to communicate with prospects and customers are all vulnerable to SQL Injection attacks. The reason behind this is because the fields available for user input allow SQL statements to pass through and query the database directly. SQL Injection flaws are introduced when software developers create dynamic database queries that include user supplied input. There have been several reports of SQL attacks, dating back to 2005. The websites that have became victim to these attacks range from Microsoft U. K. to Lady GaGa’s website. To avoid SQL injection flaws, it is suggested that developers need to either: a) stop writing dynamic queries; and/or b) prevent user supplied input which contains malicious SQL from affecting the logic of the executed query. The next malware discussed will be Stuxnet. Stuxnet is a computer worm that targets Siemens industrial software and equipment running Microsoft Windows, and was discovered in June 2010. Although Stuxnet isn’t the first attack to target industrial systems, it is however the first discovered malware that actually moles on and weakens industrial systems. Stuxnet is also the first malware to include a programmable logic controller rootkit. Stuxnet is designed to target specifically Siemens supervisory control and data acquisition systems that are configured to control and monitor specific industrial processes. The PLCs are infected by Stuxnet weakening the Step-7 software application that is used to reprogram these devices. Stuxnet is different from other malware as it only attacks computers and networks that meet a specific configuration requirement. Stuxnet contains a safeguard and if Siemens software isn’t discovered on the infected computer will prevent each infected computer from spreading the worm to more than three others, and to erase itself on June 24, 2012. Along with other things for its victims, Stuxnets contains code for a man-in-the-middle attack. Stuxnet will spread through removable devices such as an USB drive in a Windows operating system by using a four zero-day attack. After it has infected the removable drive, it uses other utilizations and techniques to infect and update other computers inside private networks. Stuxnet infects Step 7 software by infecting project files belong to Siemen’s WinCC/PCS 7 SCADA control software and weakens a key communication library of WinCC called s7otbxdx. dll. It is recommended by Siemens to contact customer support if and infection is detected and advises installing Microsoft patches for security vulnerabilities and prohibiting the use of third-party USB flash drives. Next, Zeus, also known as Zbot virus will be discussed. This virus is geared toward financial institutions such as banks. Zeus was first discovered in July 2007 after being used to steal information from the US DOT. Zeus is set up to infect a consumers PC, and wait until the log onto a list of targeted banks and financial institutions and steal their credentials and sends them to a remote server in real time. Zeus can also inject HTML into a page that is provided by the browser, this displays its own content instead of the actual page from the bank’s web server. By doing this, it is able to obtain users information such card numbers and pins. According to SecureWorks, ZeuS is sold in the criminal underground as a kit for around $3000-4000, and is likely the one malware most utilized by criminals specializing in financial fraud. According to Lucian Constantin, Zeus is one of the oldest and most popular crimeware toolkits available on the underground market. Up until this year the Trojan could only be acquired for significant sums of money from its original author. However, a few months ago the source code leaked online and now anyone with the proper knowledge can create variations of the malware. Also according to SecureWorks, The latest version of Zeus as of this date is 1. 3. 4. x and is privately sold. The author has gone to great lengths to protect this version using a Hardware-based Licensing System. The author of Zeus has created a hardware-based licensing system for the Zeus Builder kit that you can only run on one computer. Once you run it, you get a code from the specific computer, and then the author gives you a key just for that computer. This is the first time they have seen this level of control for malware. The CTU recommends that businesses and home users carry out online banking and financial transactions on isolated workstations that are not used for general Internet activities, such as web browsing and reading email which could increase the risk of infection. The last malware that will be discussed is the Blaster worm also known as Lovsan, Lovesan, or MSBlast. The Blaster worm spreads on computers that have Windows XP and Windows 2000 as an operating system and was detected in August of 2003. The creator of the B variant of the Blaster worm, Jeffrey Lee Parson was an 18 year old from Hopkins, Minnesota. He was arrested on August 29, 2003, admitted to the creation of the B variant, and was sentenced to 18-months in prison in January 2005. A Windows component known as the DCOM (Distributed Component Object Model) interface which is a known vulnerability of Windows is taken advantage of by Blaster. The DCOM handles messages sent using the RPC (Remote Procedure Call) protocol. Vulnerable systems can be compromised without any interaction from a user, according to Johannes Ullrich, chief technology officer at the SANS Internet Storm Center, which monitors threats to the Internet infrastructure. According to Mikko Hypponen, manager of antivirus research at F-Secure in Helsinki, Blaster unlike the Code Red worm, which contained code for a similar attack against the IP address of White House’s main Web server, targets the windowsupdate. microsoft. com domain, which prevents Microsoft from changing the address of the domain to sidestep the attack. Blaster’s code is small and can be quickly removed using free tools provided by F-Secure as well as other antivirus vendors, Hypponen said. However, customers should patch their systems before removing Blaster to prevent from getting infected again from the worm, he said.

Succubus Shadows Chapter 21

Maddie claimed that even Seth's family didn't know where he was. According to her, he'd really just†¦vanished. He wasn't answering his phone. He wasn't showing up at the bookstore. When people disappeared, I immediately jumped to supernatural conclusions, but Maddie then added – through more tears – that she used her key to get her belongings from Seth's place and found a suitcase and some clothing missing. Feeling guilty about having the key anymore, she then shoved it into my hand and told me to return it. Or throw it away. I did my best to comfort her some more and then offered to take her over to Doug's. Roman shot me a warning look as we were about to leave. â€Å"Don't do anything stupid,† he said out of Maddie's hearing. â€Å"I knew your nice bedside manner wouldn't last,† I returned. Despite Doug's slacker rocker-boy lifestyle, I knew Maddie'd be in good hands with him. I dropped her off there and found Doug a mixture of personas. To Maddie, he was astonishingly kind and gentle – the caring brother as opposed to the usual teasing brother. Once she was lying down in the other room, he made sure I knew exactly what he thought of Seth in very explicit detail. There wasn't much I could say to that except that they should call me if they needed anything. I left. In spite of Maddie's words, I drove to Terry and Andrea's anyway. Seth ending things with Maddie so abruptly was crazy – almost crazier than him proposing to her in the first place. But him disappearing without telling his family? No. He wouldn't do that. He was too responsible. Most likely he'd told them not to tell Maddie where he was. Kendall opened the door when I arrived, her face lighting up like Christmas morning. â€Å"Georgina! Georgina's here!† Morgan and McKenna, who had been watching cartoons, came tearing over and each wrapped themselves around a leg. â€Å"Nice to see you guys too,† I laughed. Terry had been sitting on the couch near the twins and came over to me with a little less zeal. â€Å"Hey, Georgina,† he said, face typically friendly. He was shorter than Seth and a few years older, but overall, they bore a notable resemblance. â€Å"Sorry for the mass assault.† â€Å"No problem.† I unwound Morgan from me, but McKenna proved a little more resistant. Glancing back at Terry, I said hesitantly, â€Å"I was wondering if I could talk to you, uh, about something.† Terry wasn't stupid. None of the Mortensens were. â€Å"Sure,† he said. â€Å"Girls, let go of Georgina and go back to the cartoons. We're going to go into the kitchen.† â€Å"But we want her to watch TV with us!† â€Å"Can we come?† Terry laid down firm but friendly fatherly law, and with great reluctance, the girls returned to the couch. I was impressed. I wasn't sure I could have refused that group anything. He led me to the kitchen, but before either of us could say anything, Andrea came in from down the hall, smiling in surprise when she saw me. I smiled in surprise right back at her, but it was more from her appearance than anything else. It was the middle of the day, but she wore a robe over pajamas. Her mussed blond hair and dark eye circles suggested she'd been sleeping. Terry had been leaning against the counter but jumped up when he saw her. â€Å"Oh, honey, you should go back to bed.† She shrugged him off. â€Å"I wanted to see who's here. How's it going?† â€Å"Fine,† I said. Then, unable to resist: â€Å"Are you feeling okay?† â€Å"A little under the weather. Fortunately, Terry's manning up today. He does almost as good a job as me with the girls.† I laughed politely at the joke, but it soon faded. We stood awkwardly for a moment, everyone knowing why I was here but no one doing anything about it. Finally, I took a deep breath. â€Å"I've come to ask you where Seth is.† â€Å"Funny,† said Andrea. â€Å"We were going to ask you the same thing.† I was taken aback. â€Å"How would I know?† They both just stared. â€Å"I don't!† â€Å"When this happened a couple days ago†¦this thing with Maddie†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Terry glanced uneasily at his wife before continuing. â€Å"We just assumed, well, that it was because of you.† â€Å"Why would it be because of me? I just found out about this today.† â€Å"It's always been because of you,† said Andrea gently. â€Å"There was never anyone else. We like Maddie. He likes her. But that's the problem. Throughout it all, we could just tell that you were always the one. Now, whatever happened between you guys to make it go bad isn't any of our business. We're just not that surprised to see this new development.† â€Å"We would, however, like to know where he is,† said Terry more pragmatically. â€Å"I don't know,† I said helplessly, still a little stunned by Andrea's words. â€Å"Maddie said he'd packed up, and I figured you guys were keeping his location a secret from her.† I eyed them suspiciously. â€Å"And me?† â€Å"No,† said Terry. â€Å"We really don't know.† I didn't have an angel's talent, but I believed he was telling the truth. Andrea nodded in agreement. â€Å"He just called us a couple days ago and said he'd ended things. Didn't give any explanation – but well, you know how he is. He doesn't explain much anyway. Then, when Maddie and no one else had seen him, we started to get worried.† A couple days ago. Seth had ended things with her a couple days ago – when the whole soul retrieval gig had gone down. â€Å"We actually tried calling you,† added Terry. â€Å"But never got an answer.† â€Å"Ah, yeah. I've been sick this week too.† Eyeing Andrea – who looked exhausted – I suddenly felt bad for taking up any more of their time. â€Å"Look, I should go. Thanks for the info. Will you†¦let me know if you hear from him?† Andrea smiled again. â€Å"Something tells me you'll hear from him before we do.† I wasn't as confident. Leaving the house was a little tricky since the other girls didn't want me to go, but I managed to escape their adorable clutches at last and make a break for it. I was walking toward my car when a voice said, â€Å"She's sick, you know.† I turned, startled, and saw Brandy standing near a gate that led to their backyard. She had the same sullen look about her she'd had for so long. â€Å"Hey,† I said in greeting. â€Å"Where'd you come from?† â€Å"I was around. I heard you talking to Mom and Dad.† I replayed Brandy's initial words. â€Å"Your mom†¦you mean she's sick, right? I could tell.† â€Å"No, I mean she's really sick. She's really sick, and they won't talk about it.† Brandy gave a nod toward the front door. â€Å"No one else knows. Not even Uncle Seth knows just how sick she is.† A chilly breeze stirred dried leaves around my feet, but it was nothing compared to the cold starting to fill me. â€Å"Just how sick are we talking, Brandy?† Brandy scuffed her feet against the driveway, eyes averted. â€Å"She has ovarian cancer. It's bad†¦but they're still trying to figure out just how bad it is.† â€Å"She was going to the doctor that day I was here,† I recalled aloud. Andrea had been so bright and cheery, I'd assumed something routine was going on. I also realized I hadn't technically been here; I'd seen it in a dream. Fortunately, Brandy was too distracted to notice my slip. â€Å"She's been at the doctor a lot. Dad's missing tons of work. Uncle Seth's helped out sometimes, and I've been babysitting all the time.† I suddenly felt incredibly selfish. I'd been assuming Brandy's moodiness was all over me and Seth breaking up. But that was only a symptom of the larger problem. Her mother was dangerously ill, and every part of her world was destabilizing. Her own life was probably being put on hold to watch her sisters, and even something like her uncle's romantic life could ripple what she'd regarded as the norm. All the constants in her world were disappearing. â€Å"Brandy, I – â€Å" â€Å"I have to go,† she interrupted, heading back toward the gate, face stony. â€Å"Kayla'll be up from her nap soon. I'm supposed to keep an eye on her today.† Brandy disappeared around the corner before I could say anything. I stood there, feeling lost. I didn't know who I felt worse for: Brandy and Terry for knowing what was going on or the little girls for being oblivious. I felt bad enough for myself because there was nothing I could do. There was never anything I could do. I had powers beyond human imaginings, but they were nothing that could actually help humans. I drove downtown with a heavy heart, trying hard – and failing – not to overreact. Brandy herself had said things were bad but that they were still learning the extent of it. Surely there were more tests, tests that would give some hope. And surely there was treatment. Humans could do that much on their own. Jerome was where I'd hoped he'd be. Really, I decided, the Cellar was nearly as good as him having an office. Carter was by his side at the back table, both of them doing shots from a bottle of Jà ¤germeister. Those two didn't discriminate among their liquor. I wondered if they were drinking away the hardships of the other day or toasting their success over it. It must have been the latter because Jerome almost smiled when he saw me. â€Å"Georgie, out among the living and back to your petite self. Yet†¦so blue. Blue like always.† Yes, they'd been drinking. Angels and demons could sober up at will, and he was apparently indulging in the full effects. â€Å"I got some bad news,† I said, sitting opposite them. â€Å"What, about losing Mortensen?† asked Jerome. â€Å"How do you know about that?† â€Å"I talked to Roman. He recapped your day – the old man checking in, you comforting your romantic rival†¦it was quite moving.† I scowled. â€Å"Great. You have Roman spying on me.† â€Å"It's not spying. I just demand answers from him. If it makes you feel better, he's never very happy to give up those answers.† â€Å"How often do you do it?† I asked incredulously. â€Å"Not that often.† A waiter set down a new bottle. â€Å"Mostly I wanted to see how you were recovering post-dream.† â€Å"Fine. I'm fine.† I glanced at Carter. â€Å"No comments from you today?† â€Å"Leave me out of this,† he replied. â€Å"I'm just drinking.† So he said, but he was also watching and listening very carefully. He was not letting the alcohol affect him. I turned back to Jerome. â€Å"I've come to call in my favor.† The dark amusement in his eyes turned to suspicion. â€Å"What favor?† â€Å"The one you promised me for helping save you from Grace, remember?† Yes, no amusement at all anymore. â€Å"I just rescued you from another plane of existence from creatures who were torturing your mind.† I flinched but pushed on with my words. â€Å"You promised a favor, and I didn't call it in for that. Besides, you would have done it anyway so that you wouldn't get in trouble.† â€Å"That favor offer was brought on by the drama at the time,† he countered. â€Å"I probably said all sorts of things.† â€Å"You promised,† I repeated. â€Å"I can understand you just fine without putting italics in your voice, Georgie,† he snapped. â€Å"You did, though,† pointed out Carter. Demons could lie – and did – but certain deals they were bound to. Jerome had said he'd grant me a favor out on the beach, and it had been a true promise. â€Å"Fine,† he said irritably, gesturing for another shot. â€Å"What is it you want? And I don't have to grant it if it's something totally unreasonable.† â€Å"I want to know – â€Å" â€Å"Careful,† interrupted Carter. I paused, and Jerome glared at the angel. Carter offered no other insight, but those gray eyes were still watchful – and cautious. Which was what I needed to be. Jerome had promised me a favor, and like all demons, he would try to find as many loopholes in it as possible. I had been about to ask where Seth was, but that wouldn't necessarily do me any good. I wouldn't be able to get to Seth. â€Å"I want you to send me to Seth so I can spend a few days with him.† Jerome studied me, expression shrewd. â€Å"There's a couple problems. One is that you've kind of asked for two things. The other is that I'm not omniscient. I don't know where he is.† â€Å"You can find out,† I said. â€Å"At least, if he's flown anywhere, you can find out.† Seth packing indicated serious travel. Maddie had said his car was still at the house, meaning he hadn't driven somewhere. If he had, he'd be harder to track. But airports had records, and Hell had its hand in that kind of thing. Jerome could easily get an imp or lesser demon to access Sea-Tac's records this week and see where Seth had gone. I probably could have asked Hugh to do it, but that wouldn't have gotten me leave to actually go to Seth, hence my wording. â€Å"And we both know it'd be stupid for you to send me right there and right back. Asking for a few days makes it worthwhile or else it's a shitty favor.† â€Å"Debatable,† Jerome replied. â€Å"It could be worse,† said Carter. â€Å"She didn't ask for world peace or anything.† â€Å"Stay out of this,† returned the demon. â€Å"I know what you want.† Carter shrugged and ordered another drink. â€Å"Fine,† said Jerome at last. â€Å"I'll have Hugh check travel records. You know there might not be a paper trail.† â€Å"I know. But if you find him?† â€Å"Then you can go to him. For now, go home. You're ruining my good mood. I'll find you if there's news.† I didn't need to be told twice. â€Å"Soon,† I said. â€Å"You have to search soon.† Jerome's lips quirked. â€Å"You didn't put that into the wording.† Carter elbowed him, and I had to take it on faith that Jerome would act in a timely manner. My words had implied that I wanted to be where Seth was now. One could argue that waiting meant Seth would change locations, meaning I couldn't have what I wanted. I also had to believe that Carter had a point in saying this was a relatively easy favor. I could have demanded more. Simple or not, it was hard to wait to hear back. Roman was gone when I returned to my condo, and I had nothing to do but ruminate. I'd given myself a leave of absence at work and didn't regret it. Still, being alone with my thoughts was never a good thing, and I had far too many to trouble me: the Oneroi, Seth, Andrea†¦ â€Å"Okay, Georgie.† It was four hours later when Jerome appeared in my living room with a pop. I sagged in relief. â€Å"You found him?† â€Å"I did.† â€Å"And you'll send me to him – for a worthwhile amount of time?† â€Å"Three days,† the demon said. He sounded irritable and impatient. I'd wondered if he'd been drinking this entire time and was angry at the interruption. â€Å"I want you back here in seventy-two hours, and you're on your own as to how you do it. Do you understand?† â€Å"Yes,† I said eagerly. â€Å"Just send me to him.† I had to talk to him. I had to find out exactly what had happened. I had to make sure he was okay. â€Å"And that settles the favor. Agreed?† â€Å"Agreed,† I said. There was power in that word, just as there had been in Jerome's initial promise. I could ask for nothing else. â€Å"Then go,† he said. I vanished from my living room†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦and reappeared on a busy sidewalk. People swarmed around me, none of them seeming to notice I'd appeared out of thin air. The sun was on its way down, but the sky was bright and clear – and hot. Very hot. The masses around me were dressed in beach clothes and had the feel of tourists. I stepped out of their path and found myself standing in front of a large, resort-type hotel. The abrupt change in location – and discomfort of teleportation – had left me disoriented, and I needed to get my bearings. Taking in more of my surroundings, I could hear people speaking in both Spanish and English. I turned to the closest person near me, a short, deeply tanned man in a hotel uniform who was directing taxis around the building's driveway. I started to ask where I was and decided that would be a little too stupid sounding. I pointed at the hotel and asked him what its name was. I knew tons of languages perfectly, and Spanish rolled off my lips easily. â€Å"El Grande Mazatln, seà ±orita,† he replied. Mazatln? This time, I did ask a stupid question: â€Å" ¿Estoy in M? ¦xico?† He nodded, giving me the are-you-crazy look I'd expected. It was probably made worse by my jaw dropping. Well, I supposed if you were going to run away, you should run away somewhere warm.

Unemployment_Statis Example

Unemployment_Statis Example Unemployment_Statis – Assignment Example number Publish Interpreting Unemployment Statistics Unemployment may be ified using a number of different classifications including structural unemployment and cyclical unemployment. Structural unemployment comes about as the skills of the available labor do not match the skills required for the available jobs. Essentially in such a case labor is available but it is unable to fulfill the requirements of the available job positions. In contrast, cyclical unemployment results from the Keynesian stand point that economies tend to vary between high and low points. In such situations, when the economic equilibrium is disturbed such that the demand for labor is lower than the available labor, a cyclical unemployment situation is created. There is the possibility that structural unemployment may come about as a result of prolonged cyclical unemployment (OSullivan and Sheffrin). Following the recent global economic crisis, various economists in the United States are blaming structural and cyclical unemployment for current economic woes. Calabrese suggests that unemployment is still out of control in the United States even though the gross domestic product (GDP) is picking up. Unemployment is proposed as being structural in nature though the data presented by Calabrese is not consistent with this proposition. Figure 1 - Unemployment and Labor Trends sourced from (Calabrese) In order to classify the labor and unemployment situation as being structural in nature, it is essential that available labor and demand for labor are segregated into occupational specialties before comparison. Structural comparisons require that demand and supply of labor be looked into detail to see the actual gap between demand and supply. In contrast, the graph above presented by Calabrese to support his proposition does not provide such classifications. Instead, Calabrese’s work merely provides the demand and supply gap for general labor in the United States which fails to prove anything. Cyclical unemployment can turn into structural unemployment over a sizable amount of time such as during the seventies and eighties under Margaret Thatcher’s government in Great Britain (OSullivan and Sheffrin). If Calabrese’s assumption was tested in this regard, it would become clear that there are large gaps in labor supply and demand. Gaps in labor demand and supply are amplified in the post 2002 period to reach a localized peak in late 2003. The gap tends to shrink up to 2007. This gap emerges sharply in the post 2008 period and persists well into 2010 where some slowdown occurs. The total data presented by Calabrese is for around a decade with localized peaks and troughs which fail to meet the criteria for cyclical unemployment to transform into structural unemployment. In the case presented above, if cyclical unemployment were to transform into structural unemployment, it would require the labor demand and supply gap to widen consistently over the entire period o f time being presented. The presence of little data (between 2008 and 2010) signifies that cyclical unemployment is in its infancy as yet and cannot be classified for transformation into structural unemployment as yet. Overall, the data presented by Calabrese to support his argument is irrelevant to the overall argument being made. References Calabrese, Anthony. Data Show Wide Gap Between Numbers of Jobs and the Jobless. 12 August 2010. 26 October 2012 . OSullivan, Arthur and Steven M. Sheffrin. Economics: Principles in Action. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2003.

The Bell Jar Review essays

The Bell Jar Review essays The bell jar is a considerably powerful novel. It is a poignant account of an American girls beak down and treatment during the late fifties in America. The Bell Jar constantly displays Sylvia Plaths tremendous magic with words. The book takes the reader on a journey from the heights of urban glamour to the terror of feeling imprisoned within one's own mind. Interlaced through out the book are Plaths real life experiences and feelings. We are shown a mirror between fact and fiction. In this loosely autobiographical novel, Plath's protagonist, Esther Greenwood, sinks into a profound depression during the summer after her third year of college. Esther spends the month of June interning at a ladies' fashion magazine in Manhattan, but despite her initial expectations, is uninterested in the work and increasingly unsure of her own prospects in life. Esther begins her spiraling deterioration into an utterly depressing state of mind. She is confused, fed up and depressed about life itself. Esther grows increasingly dissatisfied with the way society works and she no longer seems herself fitting in anywhere. She has a dream which sums up her predicament in the book, and this predicament is something that young people today unfortunately can relate to well. Esther imagines herself in a fig tree: all around her, she sees figs that represent the various things she could do with her life, such as become a writer, or an editor, or marry Buddy, and so on. She is paralysed by choice, and as she tries to decide, the figs wither and rot and fall from the tree. This is the beginning of her breakdown. Esther cannot keep the airless bell jar of depression and despair from descending over her. Suddenly, Esther finds herself in a nightmare. Unable to sleep write or concentrate; she can see no point in life. Taken to a psychiatrist, Dr. Gordon, who performs terrifying electroshock therapy on her, I thought my bones would bre...

8 Eroding Inflectional Endings

8 Eroding Inflectional Endings 8 Eroding Inflectional Endings 8 Eroding Inflectional Endings By Mark Nichol English once, like many other languages, laden with inflectional endings experienced an erosion of inflection hundreds of years ago, but sometimes it seems as if shaving influences are at work again. Here are eight examples of words that are part of standing phrases that are, at least in colloquial usage, undergoing alteration. 1. Barbed wire Many people, mishearing or not paying attention to this phrase when it is spoken aloud, or hearing it mispronounced, write or call it â€Å"barb wire.† The fencing material consists of wires with barbs, yes, but the default format for expressing that wire is barbed is to write or say â€Å"barbed wire.† 2. Corned beef The same truncation occurs with this name for beef that is corned. Corned, in this case, refers to the fact that corns, or large grains, of salt are used to preserve the meat. (Corn originally referred to any small, hard particle, then to grains, and then, in the United States, to a specific grain formerly called maize.) As the meaning of the adjective slips into obscurity, however, the meaningless â€Å"corn beef† may prevail. 3. Dome/domed stadium These references to roofed athletic facilities are interchangeably correct; one refers to the type of stadium, the other to the manner in which they are built. 4. Fine-tooth/fine-toothed comb Both descriptors for a comb with fine, or small, closely spaced, teeth are valid; surprisingly, however, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary and Merriam-Webster Online list only â€Å"fine-tooth comb,† though the other form would appear to be the â€Å"proper† one. Other resources list â€Å"fine-toothed comb,† but that usage seems to be in the minority. 5. Iced tea As with the mispronunciation or mishearing of â€Å"barbed wire† and corned beef† as â€Å"barb wire† and â€Å"corn beef† and their resulting misspelling, â€Å"iced tea† is often clipped to â€Å"ice tea,† which makes no sense; ice is been added to the tea, so it has been iced. (This name clarifies that the tea is not being served hot, as is traditional.) 6. Long-stemmed roses Yet again, a misunderstanding results in a variant of a standard description. Roses cut with long stems have long been called long-stemmed roses, but â€Å"long-stem roses† is also seen. Either way, because â€Å"long† and â€Å"stem(med)† do not constitute a standing phrase, the two words should be hyphenated together. 7. Stained glass window â€Å"Stain glass window† is a rare erroneous usage; the window is made of stained glass, not stain glass, so the -ed ending is required. However, because â€Å"stained glass† is a standing phrase (found in the dictionary), the words need not be hyphenated before the noun. 8. Skim milk/skimmed milk Like the preference of â€Å"fine-tooth comb† over â€Å"fine-toothed comb,† the ascendancy of â€Å"skim milk† over â€Å"skimmed milk† (at least in the United States; the latter form is preferred in British English) is anomalous but well attested. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:25 Subordinating ConjunctionsThe Six Spellings of "Long E"Show, Don't Tell

Saul, First King of Israel Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Saul, First King of Israel - Essay Example Following Elwell (1991, p. 54) Saul understand a new fact interpreted the Cross. Christians are Christians and speak with conviction of the immense meaning of the Cross solely because another fact has come into the picture, a fact which reverses the apparent meaning of the Cross and enables the believer to see its real place in God's redemptive work. Saul the persecutor of the church illustrates the difference. Before his conversion he knew that Jesus had been crucified, and he took it to prove that Jesus has been disowned by God and rightly rejected by Jewish leaders. Once converted, he saw in the Cross a quite different meaning; in the light of the Resurrection it had a positive and central place in a message that claimed the faith of men ( I Cor. 2:2). But it had that place and meaning only because the Resurrection supplied the interpreting fact that gave the Cross its true place in the Christian message. The Bible mentions this event as "Saul, who is also called Paul" (Acts 13:9). It is possible to say that a new name means a new life for this person. It means a new destiny and mentality. It is important to note the role of the human mind in the guidance of the Spirit. The Spirit comes into a life, the mind must abdicate.

Micro Economics in the Real World Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Micro Economics in the Real World - Term Paper Example The unrestricted mobility of resources and factors of production has made the unbalanced economic performance worse as the developed countries control and regulate economic activities of the lower tier economies at their benefits (Kunz, 56). As reported by the World Bank, the economic performance of India and Germany significantly vary. This can be measured by focusing on GDP, inflation, rate of employment and poverty index. HOW THE GPD OF INDIA COMPARE TO THAT OF GERMANY Being the largest economy in Europe, Germany benefits from a pool of technically gifted labour force, hence her dominance in chemical and machinery industry. GDP which is the key determinant of growth and development is defined as the â€Å"the total market value of all goods and services produced in a country during a given year† The GDP of Germany has been positive over a couple of decades. However, following the 2008-2010 global financial contagion, the steady gross domestic production of Germany significa ntly declined. In the first quarter of 2012, the GDP of Germany increased by 0.5%, while in the second quarter, it increased by 0.3%. Over the same period, government and household expenditure and exports increased. On the contrary, fixed investments reported a decline in real value. Private investment and consumption fell following the Euro financial crisis. Amid the global financial and economic crisis, in 2009 Germany posted purchasing power parity (PPP) of $2.182 trillion (Oecd Economic Surveys: Germany, 23). Even during the recession, Germany’s economy recorded positive returns with its GDP ranking sixth globally. 2009 reported the worst economic performance for Germany after posting a GDP of -5%. The economic growth rate and development (2007-2009) are as graphically represented above. Over the same period (2007-2011), India’s economy posted a positive return with a 5.5% GDP in 2011 and 4.1% in 2007. A report by the KPMG’s executive in India stated,  "Whether it (GDP growth) is 5-5.5 per cent or 7-8 per cent, the most important part is that the country is still growing. If you look at the rest of the world...India is still growing at 5-5.5 per cent, it’s a slower growth but it’s a growth† (Kajal, and Moore, 67) In the first quarter of 2012, the performance of the Indian economy slipped because of decline in mining, quarrying, and manufacturing sectors. This performance was much better than that of the world’s largest economy, United States which posted an economic growth of approximately 1.5% in the gross domestic production (Oecd Economic Surveys: Germany, 87). Measured in purchasing power parity (PPP), the GDP of India was US $2.996 trillion during the 2008 financial period. In official exchange rates, this represented $1.099 trillion. The real economic growth rate for 2008-2009 was approximated to be 9%. INFLATION RATE IN GERMANY AND INDIA Inflation is the persistent rise in the general price level of goods and services in economy measured as a proportion of the base period records. Inflation is measured using the consumer price index (CPI), which is the critical indicator of inflation. It therefore represents the changes in retail prices of commodities for a specific consumer basket. It is the measure of the purchasing power of the local

Humanities Ethics Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Humanities Ethics - Coursework Example This statement fits with Hospers larger arguments on the rights that all persons have including the right to life, liberty, and property. He suggests that even the government cannot infringe on these rights but rather should protect them. In particular, Hospers suggests that governments are prone to violating citizens’ property rights. Question 2: Discuss the legal and moral implications of outlawing the use of drugs that seem not to harm others. Compare this to other laws, e.g., requiring even a lone driver to wear a seatbelt. Excessive drug use in society remains one of the most challenging issues to governments. In addition, prohibiting drug use particularly of those that do not harm others presents legal implications. It is notable that the less a drug is harmless the fewer the legal legislations designed to tame their use. However, outlawing the use of harmless drugs presents legal scenarios such as inability to enforce such legal frameworks. Furthermore, the prohibition of such drugs presents moral implications in that the society will eventually use the medication under cover. Central to the efforts to tame drug use is the notion of society and pubic protection from harm. The laws requiring lone drivers also emerged because of the need to protect the public. Question 3: Some First Amendment free-speech advocates say that cyberporn cannot be restricted. The Supreme Court unanimously agreed (Reno v. ACLU 1997), making it the responsibility of Internet users to protect themselves and their children from obscene or indecent material. Defend, logically and specifically, the rationale for one or the other position. Cyberporn is a challenging phenomenon to the society because of its potential dangers and I oppose the views of the First Amendment free speech advocates because the vice can be restricted. The Supreme Court tasking the public with the responsibility of protecting themselves appears as the most neutral and workable solution. The internet user s are in a position of employing certain technological or programming steps protect users from accessing such content while in the internet. This is a workable solution and the United Nations and major organizations have implemented such initiatives to bar people from accessing pornographic content. Question 4: State J. S. Mill’s harm principle, critiquing it in light of Lynn’s reasoning that â€Å"we should punish harmful behavior, not harmful thoughts.† Szasz (a la Mill) further says, â€Å"The individual is sovereign,† and has the right to use drugs even if they harm him/her. Wilson disagrees. For the 25 million U.S. cocaine users, is drug use just a private/civil rights issue? Is it harmful to others? Give a studied explanation of your response. Individuals have rights and they must be left alone to enjoy those rights including the liberty to choose the life they want to live. However, in the context of drug use, these individuals observe that the leg al instruments that seek to outlaw and curb users infringe their private and civil rights. Drugs are highly harmful to other people especially passive users. The effects of drugs on the social functioning cannot be overemphasized. Drug use is harmful to others in the sense that people who do not use the drugs suffer a great deal because of their relationship with consumers. Question 5: Singer introduces two moral principles, the second of which has a strong version and a

Promotion in Marketing Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Promotion in Marketing - Research Paper Example The research paper "Promotion in Marketing" talks about the promotion strategy, advertisement, promotion mix (TV advertisement, direct selling, sales promotion and publicity) for Wal-Mart. This paper also discusses the Wal-Mart’s social marketing and promotion strategy for Nordstrom. Wal-Mart seeks to attract the middle and low-income group people. The brand sells itself towards consumer as much inexpensive compared to other brands. In advertising, the key message of Wal-Mart is â€Å"We have lower prices than anyone else†. To promote the brand the company puts a high-velocity product in a high visibility area in every division. It develops a perception that since the first product is inexpensive, the other products will be inexpensive as well. Wal-Mart focuses on advertisement through the website and in-store TV Network. The in-store network displays a continuous stream of product advertisement. Wal-Mart TV has almost 130 million observers which make it the fifth biggest television broadcasting network in America. The network of Wal-Mart can be found in almost 2600 sites. The advertisers pay 137,000 USD– 292,000 USD to place a single business advertisement. The expense of advertising is based on the length and total stores where the advertisement w ill be displayed. Wal-Mart seeks to fit the broadcasting more distinctively according to the field of store depending on regional preferences and conditions. The TV network of Wal-Mart is very sophisticated and an internet oriented system.

Jhon Barleycorn by Jack London Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Jhon Barleycorn by Jack London - Essay Example a dimension which is free from any rules or obligations. Probably the one who is under the influence, sees things clearly, well at least from a different angle. This angle is far from the norm or what people are used to. The way first chapter of the book begins, it speaks volumes about the mental state of the man. He is going to vote for something very important and he’s drunk. Probably logic doesn’t do justice when it comes to voting. He votes for women suffrage amendment. The popular vote is probably a fabrication, a concoction, and people who craft the ballet box and the election system, design it in such way so that it gets picked up by the majority. It is equivalent to giving a person a set of choices and when he’s done choosing his favorite, he feels liberated as he used his freedom of choice to get what he liked but little does he know that all choices were acceptable by the person who gave him the choice. The interesting thing about the state of mind (of the protagonist) is when he’s under the influence, he gets more indignant while explaining or talking about something. He explains why he voted for the woman suffrage amendment. Although he claims that he was not under the influence but probably he was. He gives his reason that he ride his way back from the polling station on the back of the wildest horse. No one can ride it drunk, that’s why he couldn’t be drunk. Nice explanation but it doesn’t prove he wasn’t under the influence. People consider Jack’s book his autobiography. There is no doubt that he was an alcoholic himself. And this book probably is a preaching book towards alcoholism. What a man feels when he’s drunk is something a man can’t understand unless he’s drunk. Some strange wisdom, which is â€Å"beyond life’s wisdom† starts flowing as the rum goes in the body. The question is what kind of explanation is that? On the surface it might seem

The human resource system in the accounting profession Term Paper

The human resource system in the accounting profession - Term Paper Example Working in a small organization gives a person an opportunity to share ideas and issues that might be affecting his/her performance. This reduces the need for having a human resource department. On the other hand, working in a small organization exposes an employee to exploitation because such organization does not require human resource to run the affairs of the organization. Therefore challenges that an employee goes through are not well adressed (Rothwell, Taylor, & Prescott, 2010). Working in a large organization creates harmony and togetherness due to teamwork. This reduces the need for human resource to use rewarding system in order to motivate the employees. In addition, one can be able to further his/her training due to different training programs that are suggested by human resource department (Hopper, Uddin, & Tsamenyi, 2012). As a result one is able to diversify his/her skills. On the other hand, working in a large organization reduces management concentration on a single individual. A large organization deals with many people therefore becoming hard to understand individual’s problem and challenges that might be affecting the performance (Daft,

Jhon Barleycorn by Jack London Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Jhon Barleycorn by Jack London - Essay Example a dimension which is free from any rules or obligations. Probably the one who is under the influence, sees things clearly, well at least from a different angle. This angle is far from the norm or what people are used to. The way first chapter of the book begins, it speaks volumes about the mental state of the man. He is going to vote for something very important and he’s drunk. Probably logic doesn’t do justice when it comes to voting. He votes for women suffrage amendment. The popular vote is probably a fabrication, a concoction, and people who craft the ballet box and the election system, design it in such way so that it gets picked up by the majority. It is equivalent to giving a person a set of choices and when he’s done choosing his favorite, he feels liberated as he used his freedom of choice to get what he liked but little does he know that all choices were acceptable by the person who gave him the choice. The interesting thing about the state of mind (of the protagonist) is when he’s under the influence, he gets more indignant while explaining or talking about something. He explains why he voted for the woman suffrage amendment. Although he claims that he was not under the influence but probably he was. He gives his reason that he ride his way back from the polling station on the back of the wildest horse. No one can ride it drunk, that’s why he couldn’t be drunk. Nice explanation but it doesn’t prove he wasn’t under the influence. People consider Jack’s book his autobiography. There is no doubt that he was an alcoholic himself. And this book probably is a preaching book towards alcoholism. What a man feels when he’s drunk is something a man can’t understand unless he’s drunk. Some strange wisdom, which is â€Å"beyond life’s wisdom† starts flowing as the rum goes in the body. The question is what kind of explanation is that? On the surface it might seem

Long-Term Investment Decision Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Long-Term Investment Decision - Essay Example The following sections provide an outline of ways to meets the price problem and other issues such as, government intervention in the industry. Price elasticity of demand assesses sensitivity of quantity demanded with respect to change in price. Price elasticity is being considered in decision-making process of the company because with rise in price of food ingredients (raw material), it is naturally assumed that price of the final product will also increase. In this situation, managers need to analyze the impact of price change on product demand. The demand can be either elastic or inelastic. Elastic demand will alter with the price change, while inelastic demand tends to be static with price change. The demand of necessity product is usually inelastic in nature (Fibich, Gavious & Lowengart, 2005). For example, if the company is operating in a location where individuals are extremely busy, have no time to cook at home and are highly healthy conscious, then demand of the products of Fitness Food will be inelastic, unless the price change is unreasonably high. On the contrary, areas where fresh food is easily available and i ndividuals have access to home-made food and fresh fruits, the demand will be negatively elastic in case of price change (Senauer, 2001). Keeping in view the problem that management is facing, application of a customized pricing strategy is essential to resolve problems related to price elasticity. Optimal pricing policy is otherwise known as perfect price discrimination; implementation of this policy would mean that Fitness Food will have to segment its consumer market in different groups and have to research the amount that consumers are willing to pay for packaged food. The company has to determine optimal price and volume, which is also referred as the price and volume of the product that will maximize its profit. Fitness Food has to determine preference of its consumers and their price sensitiveness with the help of distributors and

Sample random Essay Example for Free

Sample random Essay Was the sample random? How many brands were in the race? Were the brands ranked? These are the unknowns based on the advertisement. The claim does not state what does #1 actually means. In comparison to what: price, size, or pleasant smell. Some numbers can be valid, but used in different ways such as the mean, median, mode and midrange. This is not the case for this ad because we do not have the data to either validate or disclaim this ad. This ad is misleading and lends its self to consumer’s impulse buying. The consumer must be aware of such claims and do their research before buying products, items or food. 14. â€Å"How often do you run red lights? † This question is a manipulating one because of how it is asked; it is a faulty survey question. It wants to know how often you run red lights and does not ask a yes or no question. The question forces you to select an answer among scripted choices identified by the surveyor. The answers would be: once a day, once a week, twice a week, or more than 3 times a week. This is a bias question, especially if it does not offer an answer of â€Å"none† or â€Å"never†. The data collected can influence the amount of fines for running red lights, installing red light cameras, or have an effect on car insurance rates. This question does not take into account people without a driver license or people who take public transportation. It is all in how a question is asked because most surveys do not want a â€Å"yes† or â€Å"no† answer. They cannot perform the needed analysis to get an answer. Some of the answers force people to choose the closest one that fits, but this causes bias and would not define the most accurate results. So the question and answers will steer the results toward what they want. The misuse of statistics should be against the law and the company or manufacturer should be held accountable for their misrepresentation. Also survey questions and answers should be more accurate and not bias. After going over this chapter it proves the saying â€Å"buyer beware† and do your own research. References Bluman, (2011), Mathematics in Our World

Enlightenment in Western and Islamic Traditions

Enlightenment in Western and Islamic Traditions Which tradition provides greater Enlightenment? In the world we live, we are always faced with conflicting ideologies that influence our thinking. This is certainly true about Islam and secularism. In my case and in the case of most Muslim individuals who live in a modern society, society sometimes demands us to reject secular Western values and follow Islamic values and vice versa. Due to such conflicting influences on our thinking, we are sometimes confused as to which tradition to adopt as a transcendental decision: the Islamic tradition or the Western tradition? To help decide which tradition to follow, I am going to investigate which tradition provides greater enlightenmen. I will do this by breaking the paper into the following parts: General concept and definition of the word enlightenment. The Age of Enlightenment in the West. Enlightenment in Islam. Successes and Failures of enlightenment in the West. Why Islam is more enlightened than the Western ideology of enlightenment and should be promoted? General concept and definition of the word enlightenment The word ‘enlightenment has many different meanings depending on the context in which it is used. If we look at the literal meaning of the word enlightenment, we will find that it comes from the verb to lighten. The prefix ‘en means to make or become and the suffix ‘ment means a state of being. Therefore if we join the components of the word ‘enlightenment together, we will find that it literally means to become brightened. However the broad definition of the word ‘enlightenment according to most cultures and societies is â€Å"the acquisition of new wisdom or understanding† (Wikipedia, 2006, Enlightenment (concept) section,  ¶1). If we look at this definition, we will find it is very similar to the literal definition of enlightenment. When we say a person has become brightened, we mean he has become wiser (more intelligent) or has acquired new wisdom. In general, there are two different concepts of enlightenment: religious/spiritual enlightenment and intellectual/secular enlightenment. Both concepts of enlightenment are strong opposites of each other. This is why most people that believe in secular enlightenment often reject religious enlightenment and vice versa. Secular enlightenment is enlightenment that is not regarded as religious, spiritual or sacred, whereas religious enlightenment is the opposite. According to Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher of the enlightenment, the Enlightenment was the period in the development of European civilization when â€Å"Mankind grew out of its self-inflicted immaturity† (as cited in Davies, 1996, p.596) or it is â€Å"mans release from his self-incurred tutelage.† (as cited in Duprà ©, 2004, p.1). The concept of Secular enlightenment was important in Europe during the 18th century, because it caused a dramatic change in the everyday thinking of Europeans. The characteristics of Secular enlightenment were the rejection of old dogmatic beliefs, which were replaced with the belief in reason as a measure over all things. The Enlightenment was in fact the intellectual movement that advocated this concept. The Age of Enlightenment in the West The Age of Enlightenment refers to the 18th century in American and European philosophy or according to some scholars it also includes the seventeenth century and the Age of Reason. This was the period where innovative and intellectual ideas were being propagated so as to challenge traditional dogmatic ideas and beliefs. During this period an intellectual movement known as The Enlightenment advocated reason as a method to investigate and study all the various scientific fields, which included the social sciences (aesthetics, ethics, philosophy, logic, economics), literature and natural sciences (physics, biology, chemistry). They believed this would allow human beings to obtain objective truth about the universe.The main figures of the enlightenment were Descartes, Pascal, Bayle, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot, and Rousseau. Among them Denis Diderot was one of the first people to propose the six fundamental principles on which enlightenment are based in his Encyclopedie. The first principle was strong belief in human reasoning to the point, where it was considered the best measure over everything. The second principle was the belief in a Supreme Being (God), who is exalted over everything. However these enlightened thinkers also believed that God did not intervene with nature. The third principle was the rejection or less significance given to religious values and metaphysics. The fourth principle was the belief that secularism, which is the separation of the church and state, is better. The fifth principle was the strong belief in the scientific method, which lead to extreme materialism. The last principle was the expectation of unlimited progress. Enlightenment in Islam Even though in Islam there is no concept of enlightenment, Islam came as an enlightened religion and way of life for the whole humanity. During the time the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was born, which was in the year 570 A.D., the whole world lived in the Dark Ages. Belief in superstitions, myths, common practices of black magic, idolatry (polytheism) and paganism was common. One of the major concerns of that time was the loss and alteration of the original Holy Scriptures such as the Bible and Torah and the increased power of the Church, which dictated its own version of religion and was mainly responsible for altering the Holy Scriptures. In Arabia polytheism and paganism was the dominant religion of the Arabs. Ignorance towards science and illiteracy were rampant among the people. The Holy Kaabah, which was built by Prophet Abraham and Ishmael was filled with hundreds of idols. Also dark customs and traditions such as the female infanticide and ritual gambling (Maysir) on camels were common. When the Prophet Muhammad started his mission of preaching Islam, which was propagating the Oneness and Unity of God (monotheism), he was met with extreme resistance. However as he kept his preaching consistent with the same rigor, the number of his followers increased dramatically till they were able to completely change the cultures of Arabia and the rest of the world. Islam brought enlightenment in the Arab world by positively changing the dark customs and attitudes of society such as abolishing female infanticide, slavery, gambling and alcohol addiction. Islam also brought justice and provided human rights for each individual. In Islam, the life and property of all citizens in an Islamic state are considered sacred, whether Muslim or not. Islam also protects the honor of every individual. It does not allow insulting or making fun of others. The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) had said: â€Å"Truly your blood, your property, and your honor are inviolable† (as cited in Ibrahim, 1997, p.61). Islam also abolished Racism and brought human equality. The Quraan speaks of human equality in the following words: â€Å"O mankind, We have created you from a male and a female and have made you into nations and tribes for you to know one another. Truly, the noblest of you with God is the most pious. Truly, God is All-Knowing, All-Aware† (1997, p.61). Islam rejects that an individual is superior to another individual by his wealth, power or race. God created human beings as equal to one another. One is only better than the other if he has greater faith or piety (taqwa). A person who greater taqwa is one who prevents himself from all types of sins, performs good deeds that God commands us to do, and fears and loves God. Concerning equality our Prophet Muhammad also said: â€Å"O people! Your God is one and your forefather (Adam) is one. An Arab is not better than a non-Arab and a non-Arab is not better than an Arab, and a red (i.e. white tinged with red) person is not better than a black person and a black person is not better than a red person, except in piety† (1997, p.62). Concerning the status of women, Islam has from the very beginning given women equal rights as men. In the Holy Quraan, God says â€Å"O Mankind, keep your duty to your Lord who created you from a single soul and from it created its mate (of same kind) and from them twain has spread a multitude of men and women† (as cited in Badawi, 1971, p.11). El-Khouly Al-Bahiy, a scholar who pondered about this verse states: â€Å"It is believed that there is no text, old or new, that deals with the humanity of the women from all aspects with such amazing brevity, eloquence, depth, and originality as this divine decree† (1971, p.11). In other verses, the Quraan also expresses clear-cut evidence about the equality of women such as: â€Å"†¦So their Lord accepted their prayers, (saying): I will not suffer to be lost the work of any of you whether male or female. You will proceed one from another†¦.† (1971, p.13). Also, according to the Quraan, woman is not solely blame d for Adams mistake of eating from the forbidden tree in Paradise. Both Adam and Eve jointly committed the mistake, repented and were forgiven by God. Concerning religious obligations in Islam such as praying, fasting, giving charity and pilgrimage, women are no different than men. In fact, in some cases women are more exempted from obligatory duties than men. When a woman has menstrual periods or is pregnant during the past forty days, she is exempted from fasting and prayers. Concerning the pre-Islamic custom of burying female infants alive at birth, the Quraan clearly forbids it and considers it a crime like murder. It is said in the Quraan concerning this crime: â€Å"When news is brought to one of them, of (the Birth of) a female (child), his face darkens and he is filled with inward grief! With shame does he hide himself from his people because of the bad news he has had! Shall he retain her on (sufferance) and contempt, or bury her in the dust? Ah! What an evil (choice) they decide on?† (1971, p. 15). Another reason why Islam is an enlightened religion is because of the greatness of the Quraan in terms of its scientific soundness and being the best masterpiece of Arabic literature. The Quraan was not authored by the Prophet as he was illiterate and did not possess the intelligence shown by the Quraan. The Holy Quraan was only authored by God. The Prophet Muhammad only received divine revelation from God and then communicated it to his people. Concerning the soundness of scientific facts, the Quraan mentions some scientific miracles that have been discovered recently in the past 100 years, even though the Quraan was revealed 1400 years ago. For example, the Quraan speaks about the stages of embryonic development: â€Å"We have created man from an extract of clay, Then made him as a drop in a place of settlement, firmly fixed. Then We made the drop into an alaqah (leech, suspended thing, and blood clot), then We made the alaqah into a mudghah (chewed substance)†¦.† (as cited in Ibrahim, 1997, p.6). The scientific details expressed in this verse were put forward to Professor Emeritus Keith L.Moore. Dr. Keith Moore is one of the worlds most leading scientists in the field of anatomy and embryology. He was impressed after studying and conducting scientific research on them and when present at the Seventh Medical Conference in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, he said â€Å"It has been a great pleasure for me to help clarify s tatements in the Quraan about human development. It is clear to me that these statements must have come to Muhammad from God, because almost all of this knowledge was not discovered until many centuries later. This proves to me that Muhammad must have been a messenger of God† (1997, p.10). He also said that the Quraan must be the word of God and proposed that a new system of classification could be developed on embryonic knowledge using the Quraan and Sunnah (traditions). Other scientific miracles that the Quraan mentions are about the origins of the universe, that the heavens and earth were one connected entity, that there is a barrier between two different seas when they meet, that the mountains are pegs that stabilize the crust of the earth and that as you go deeper down the sea it gets darker. Successes and Failures of Enlightenment in the West The successes of enlightenment were of great benefit to humanity. The enlightenments principle of using reason (logos), observation and experience to explain phenomena around us contributed to the rapid advancement of the natural sciences such as the discovery of physical laws (e.g. gravity) that govern the universe, space exploration and genetic engineering. The advancement in the natural sciences in turn led to a better standard of living for mankind for example: the invention of fractional distillation led to a greater production of petrol and gasoline which led to more efficient and convenient means of transport such as cars. Enlightenment also led to advancement in the social sciences such as Economics. The concept that free markets maximize welfare in an economy and determine the best allocation of resources, as proposed by Adam Smith in his book The Wealth of Nations, was an example of the successes resulting from enlightenment. Some of the other fruits of enlightenment were the rule of law and liberal democracies. Despite all these successes that resulted from enlightenment, there were even greater failures resulting from enlightenment. Most of the six elements of enlightenment led to some failure. The principle that logos (reason) is a measure over all things was overestimated as reasoning could not comprehend what is the divine or unseen. Reasoning cannot explain for example black magic that goes on in some countries such as Oman. Reasoning also cannot fully explain the existence of God. This is because we cannot see or hear God. Until we do not physically see God, we will not be able to know about his existence. Another failure of overestimating reasoning was it led to a general decline in religion. While all the main figures of the eighteenth century enlightenment were Deists, who believed in a non-interventionist cloud-maker God, their nineteenth century successors became atheists or at least agnostics. Another failure of concept of enlightenment in Europe was the lawlessness produced from fascism and communism. This lawlessness was produced as the concept of enlightenment rejected the concept of divine law and believed that the basis of law can be found in nature. As what was called the natural law was actually made by the people, it was under the influence of either the majorities in a democratic country or brutal totalitarian rulers. The Enlightenments sense of unlimited progress also had negative effects. Tradition, which is the basis of all major religions including Islam, was completely abandoned. The concept of sacredness was also neglected. Rather any change was welcomed. By the end of the nineteenth century many people anticipated that the earth will become a paradise once all scientific discoveries would take place. In the twentieth century the real failures of enlightenment showed up. The results were two world wars that destroyed most of Europe and America. The use of chemical and nuclear weapons in these wars killed tens of millions of people. In between these two world wars the fanatic totalitarian systems of communism (Russia, Eastern Europe, China, Cambodia, Congo, Vietnam and Algeria) and fascism (Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and Greece) arouse. These one-party systems strongly discriminated against other parties and ethnic groups. They killed millions of people as a result of ethnic cleansing and class warfare. Examples of such brutalities include the Holocast, which was carried by the Nazis against the Jews. All these brutalities were a consequence of the inhumane rationalism that contradicted the discipline of ethics in philosophy, which in turn contradicted the ideas of the early philosophers and founders of enlightenment. Such disasters including the possibility of a World War Three are ahead of us. However, the present negative results of enlightenment are unnecessarily high consumption patterns in Western countries, a further decline in religiosity, wide scale environmental degradation, increased inequality between the poor and rich and the negative results of globalization, which include the widening gap between rich and poor countries in terms of national income and standard of living. Why Islam is more enlightened than the Western ideology of enlightenment and should be promoted? When analyzing the successes and failures of Islam, I found that Islam has no failures and is a perfect way of life, which is why it is such an enlightened religion. However when I studied the successes and failures of enlightenment in the West, I noticed that there were a lot of major failures that resulted from enlightenment even though there were some great successes such as the advancement in technology. The successes achieved from enlightenment in the West could have also been achieved by the Muslims if they had not deviated from the path of the Prophet Muhammad, which is the Quraan and traditions (Sunnah) of the Prophet. If we look the earlier eras in Islamic history, the Muslims were much ahead of the West in technology and sciences. The Muslims also had their own empire which extended from China to Southern France. At that time the West lived in the Dark Ages and were inspired by the Muslim philosophers and sociologists such as Averroes (Ibn Rushd), Ibn Khaldun and Avicenna (Ibn Sina). A lot of words in English and French were borrowed from Arabic such as alcohol (al-Kohol), algebra (al-Jabr), assassin (hashshashiyeen) and coffee (kahva). Also if we look at the time period (between the 19th and 20th century), when the enlightenment was causing devastation in the West such as the two world wars and the Holocast, we will find that there were no such major conflicts in the Islam world. The Islamic countries were at peace with each other. Also if we study the Quraan we will find that it provides a great deal of enlightenment even during the present day. It is sound in accordance with the latest discoveries in science. In fact the Quraan has been a leading guide to enlightenment for 1400 years since it begun. Since the time of the Prophet, it has been by far the best piece of Arabic literature and had a tremendous influence on the Arabic language particularly in secular (prose) and religious writing. During the time of the Prophet it challenged the best poets in Arabia to write even one verse as eloquent as the Quraan. Many of these poets (such as Kaab Ibn Zuhayr) accepted Islam due to the Quraans eloquence and originality. In the present world, the Quraan is serving as a guide to scientific research and jurisprudence. References Badawi, J.A. (1980). The Status of Women in Islam. Al-Ittihad, 8(2), 1-28. Davies, N. (1996). Europe, A History: Enlightenment And Absolutism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Duprà ©, L. (2004). The Enlightenment the Intellectual Foundations of Modern Culture: A Definition and a Provisional Justification. Yale: Yale University Press. Enlightenment (concept). (n.d.). Retrieved December 6, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlightenment_%28concept%29 Hofmann, M.W. (2002, Summer). Has Islam Missed Its Enlightenment? American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, 19(3), 1-10. Ibrahim, I.A. (1997). A Brief Illustrated Guide To Understanding Islam (2nd ed.). Houston: Darussalam , Publishers and Distributors.

Post WWI Poetry Essay :: English Literature

Post WWI Poetry Essay The poems that I will compare are Rupert Brooke – The Soldier, Seigfried Sassoon – ‘They’, and How Sleep the Brave – William Collins. Rupert Brooke - The Soldier The first few words that Brooke uses are ‘If I should die,’ He uses if as a possibility of death. He uses this because he thinks death is a possibility not a definite answer to war. The forth word he uses connects the Sestet and Octave together because ‘think’ is used in both stanza. At the end of the first line he says ‘me’. This means that he is a ‘patriotic soldier who has done his duty for his country’. ‘That there’s some corner of a foreign field’. This means where every he falls during the war, no matter if it is in a shell hole or on the edge of a river he will be able to die in a piece of England. This shows even more patriotism towards the war and his fellow soldiers. The line ‘in that rich earth a richer dust concealed’, means that the soldier’s ashes are held in the earth. They have been called ‘richer dust’ because the ashes of the people are the ashes of people who have dies for their country and their fellow countrymen. This also means that his body fertilizes the patriotism and honour of England’s people. ‘A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware’, means that the man who died was raised by England and educated. This personifies England as a mother nurturing a small child. The soldier’s body is said to be owned by England in the line, ‘A body of England’s’. In the poem the word ‘blest’ is used some this may have some religious significance. The lines 5 – 8 are describing the soldiers ‘Englishness’. It is patriotism at its most extreme. In the second stanza, the word ‘think’ arises again, joining the sestet and octave. ‘All evil shed away’, means that the person who has sacrificed their body for their country cannot sin any more because they are dead. This may also mean that they may have been forgiven for killing the enemy to protect their country and its rights of freedom. ‘A pulse in the eternal mind’ has a spiritual or religious meaning. It could mean that all of the people, who knew him in the war and his family, still remember him and will do forever. ‘Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given’, continues the patriotism and emphasizes his sacrifice for England. The last three lines describe the ‘Good of England’. The last line ‘In hearts at peace, under an

How annual report can be used to understand performance

A At he stop of each financial twelvemonth most of the companies make Documents supplying fiscal information such as blance sheets, income and cashflow statements and listing of company operations, calles one-year studies. The information included in the study is compared to the information of old old ages, looking besides at the consequences. This is a criticial portion of the dessision doing procedure of the company for future company tactics and schemes. There are two types of one-year studies depending on their contnents. The first is Annual study to the Securities and Exchange Comission, besides known as signifier 10-k. The 2nd is the stockholder one-year study or corporate one-year study. While the SEC one-year study provides really elaborate fiscal information, the sahreholder reoprt provides more generaized information indicating out the gross revenues and the selling information. To analyze the company ‘s market people should look at the corporate studies, but the user of the information must hold at least basic accounting knowedge, being familiar with company ‘s statements, cognizing where to happen utile information and how to analyze it. Annual studies are created by the direction of the company, so as the direction is responsible for the truth of the information presented in the study. The information is used chiefly by investors to analyze the company ‘s fiscal position and predict future way. To do happening information in the one-year studies easier, the one-year studies have similar construction, and include obligatory parts such as Management ‘s treatment and analysis of operating consequences. Annual studies basicly exhibit fiscal and statistical informations, so as to treat public presentation, markets and production. Puting together gross revenues, net incomes and other fiscal constituents for two or more old ages. This so called fiscal high spots have the intent to find the best attack to doing the company ‘s future scheme. However the one-year studies are composed by the direction, which purpose is to show the company in the best manner, overstating some information and suppress other. So every bit good as the one-year study is, it should n't be the lone beginning of garnering information for the investors to measure the productive and fiscal public presentation of the company. Another major factors for the truth of the information extracted from the one-year study is the ability to destinguish the of import facts and accomplishments of the extractor himself. In order to acquire information from the one-year study foremost must happen 1. All public-treaded companies are required to do one-year studies aviable for the Securities and Exchange Comission ( SEC ) , so to happen there one-year study is a possibility. Although most of the companies send digital coppies of their one-year study via electronic mails to users, or difficult coppies via mailing, normally free of charge. And for imediate obtaining one can ever download digital coppy straight from the company ‘s web site. Naturally the mean one-year study includes: missive to stockholders, Operational Overview ( Management Discussion and Analysis ) , Auditor ‘s study, amalgamate fiscal statements-including balancesheets ; income statements ; cashflow statements, Notes to amalgamate statements and some corporate information-for illustration: Board of managers, officers and stockholder information. In order to garner the needed information one must merely folow the stairss of analyzing the one-year study. First one must look into the last page of the study. It should be written on it: â€Å" Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm † or â€Å" Auditor ‘s Report. † If the one-year study does non hold this subdivision, it is non valid, so the information in it may be non authentical, intending that it is useless. To go on with the study ‘s security review than look into the portion â€Å" Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm † , it should be signed by an active reassuring house, the most celebrated are: Pricewaterhouse Coopers, KPMG, Ernst & A ; Young, Deloitte & A ; Touche. The house ‘s mark confirms that the study was created utilizing By and large Acepted Acounting Principles ( GAAP ) . Shoping through the study, the following portion coming is the â€Å" Letter to the stockholders † , incorporatin g summarised information about the company ‘s yesteryear, present and future. That could be utile for more basic determinations, based on more summarized information. Following are Notes To Consolidated Financial Statements, here is most of the neggative onformation about the company. Such as critical partnerships, cases and many other types of hazards that the company has taken. The following phase in analyzing the one-year study is reading the portion titled: â€Å" Management ‘s Discussion And Analysis. † Here all the information normally has the intent to show the company in a good manner, normally written by the PR experts, I ‘m non stating that this information is non valuable, but it may be distorted in some manner, so the reader must hold that one on head. The following portion of the study ca n't be manupalated, it is called Amalgamate Statements Of Financials. Incorporating merely unsmooth Numberss, it ca n't be influented. Looking at the Numberss, the reader makes his ain feeling based on his ain analysis. This portion of the study is divided by three chief parts. Firtst is balance sheet, showing a snapshot of the company ‘s state of affairs, but it may be changed many times from that past minute, so the information that contains may be non true any longer. The 2nd portion is the cashflow statement, demoing the monye flow in the company and it ‘s alteration during certain periods of clip. Very crutial portion of inspecting company ‘s statement, based on the fact that the monyeflow is one of the most of import factors organizing company ‘s position. The 3rd portion is based on the net income / loss dependance here is the most utile analyzis demoing if the house is passing more than it is gaining, howerver, the information may change due to some factors. The study besides includes an analysis of the Consolidated Statements of Financials, which is the undermentioned portion of the study. This analysis is basicly comparing balance sheets, or cashflows for different old ages ( one or more ) sing the tendencies. Tendencies are really utile sing any anticipations made about the company. The longer the period is the better the tendencies are distinged by the reader. The information compared for several old ages is evaluated in percantages, presuming 100 % as the index given in one of the old ages named basal twelvemonth, the other values in the other old ages could be higher or lower and in really rear instances being the same. This shows the existent alteration in the ammount for the different points. Than the sums of the similar points are expressed as a per centum of the basal twelvemonth ‘s ammount and that is how is formed the index or the tendency ratios. In order to susccesfully construe the information, the reader could seek specific information replying sepcific inquiries. For illustration an addition in the stock of the company, could be provoced by altering the whole st ock list policy. Increasing in revenue enhancement could be a consequence of really increased gross revenues, but somewhat altering net incomes. Monitoring he fixed assets and the long term debt besides could take to many concealed information about how these assets are being financed. That was the horizontal manner of analyzing Amalgamate Statements of Financials. The perpendicular method is for comparing statements of companies tha differ in size. For illustration in the perpendicular anlysis gross revenues woud be expressed as 100 % and every point in the income statement is expressed as a portion of this percantage. Sing the information that manner, the reader can examin the grounds of increasing the value of the current assets and stock. Sum uping the information given, I must state that analyzing company ‘s market, productive and fiscal public presentation is a long procedure, that requires more attending than it seems. To be the analysis every bit accurate as possible, the reader must detect the smallest item in the figures of the study and the histories. Because the slightest alteration in the tendencies of an facet of the company ‘s position, may be tantamount to a dramatic alteration in future. Reading the study and analyzing the histories is merely non plenty. It is required far more deep inspecting of the informations presented and separating the valuable information, straight related to the topic. Market and productive and fiscal public presentation are influenced by many factors and this is the ground why their analysis is so difficult to accomplish. And that every component of the studies and the histories has it ‘s immense part in this analysis. Following these stairss and passing the cli p required will likely take to an success analyzing the tendencies, that could reply the exact inquiry which response the analyser seeks, and replying that inquiry to construct up an full new scheme and maneuver over the topic.