Ecological Evaluation of Environmental Problems Essay

Biodiversity refers to the abundance of life forms (bio means life, diversity means variety or assortment). This includes different animals, plants and micro-organisms. The ecosystem where these living organisms belong, as well as their genetic make-up, is also part of biodiversity. Wide biodiversity is advantageous to species development as there will be various interactions going on among the different species. Among the most bio-diverse ecosystems are rainforests and aquatic ecosystems. Both land and water species can be found in these habitats. The existence, however, of these ecosystems are becoming endangered as a lot of human activities negatively impact these ecosystems. Forest destruction has been an existing issue for the longest time. Pollution – air and water – is also one of the most common problems different ecosystems and the environment itself are facing. Human activities also cause global warming which is not healthy for all living creatures. These things that people do to our environment can definitely be prevented and avoided. We can start by stopping the use of substances with chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) which were identified as harmful to the ozone layer. This simple deed can help decrease the effects of global warming to the environment. Local governments should also enforce strict laws against forest destruction. Environmentalists can also start a campaign on reforestation to help rebuild destroyed forests and natural habitats. Maintaining biodiversity is important in human sustainability. Each life form is beneficial to one another. Plants are the producers in the food chain. Some primary and secondary consumers are also taken by humans as food, which is our main source of energy. Continuous destruction of the ecosystems leads to the decrease in these food sources. Thus, preserving the ecosystems and maintaining biodiversity should be seriously considered by everyone. Acid deposition starts with the combustion of fossil fuels such as coal and oil. Burning of these fuels produces nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide which are considered air pollutants. Volcanic eruptions can also emit these pollutants. When the nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxides get released to the atmosphere, chemical transformation happens and sulfuric and nitric acid compounds are produced. These compounds make the air acidic. Eventually, these acidic compounds fall to the surface of the Earth – the process called â€Å"acid deposition†. Deposition can happen in wet or dry form. Wet deposition occurs when the nitric acid and sulfuric acid compounds are transported with rain, fog, or snow. When these compounds are carried as fine particles by the wind, it is called dry deposition. Acid deposition cause severe damages to the ecosystem. Fish species found in lakes affected by acid deposition tend to disappear. Other aquatic resources in lakes and rivers tend to either disappear or die which creates an imbalance to aquatic ecosystems. Acidification also changes phytoplankton composition. Likewise, acid deposition also affects forests by killing a lot of trees due to the acidic compounds settling onto these life forms. This is evident in most forests where there are copper and nickel refineries nearby. This environmental problem can also trigger asthma and some bronchial infections to humans. The effect may not be seen immediately and may take years before it can be realized. In order for us to minimize the cases of acid deposition is to have a global initiative of reducing emission of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides which cause air pollution. Educating the entire world population of this phenomenon can be a good start. Factories and industrial plants burning fossil fuels should try to research and find other earth-friendly alternatives to those harmful chemicals. Cultural eutrophication is the accelerated aging of aquatic ecosystems, especially lakes, through man-made activities. Eutrophication is the natural process of aging of lakes which is characterized by an increase in the growth of algae and aquatic weeds. Eutrophication rate is determined by how fast the lake gets sediments and nutrients from the watershed, and this naturally occurs over a long period of time. However, if the lake is located in an urbanized area or developed region, eutrophication speeds as there is definitely higher number of sediments and nutrients getting into the lake. This is when natural eutrophication becomes cultural eutrophication. The increased sediments and nutrients, which are mainly phosphorous, usually come from road sand, oil, lawn fertilizers, gas, salt and organic matter being transported to the lake through stormwater or groundwater. Inefficient septic systems can also cause cultural eutrophication. This environmental phenomenon can be prevented through continuous monitoring of the local government. Environmental officials should identify the cause of the cultural eutrophication and determine where the increased sediments are coming from. Once this is identified, measures to prevent these nutrients and sediments from getting into the lake could be placed and enforced. Global warming, from the term itself, is the continuous increase in the temperature of our planet. Global warming is mainly caused by increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, water vapor, ozone and methane forms a gaseous blanket around the Earth. This blanket traps the heat which is responsible for making the Earth warm; else our planet’s temperature would be well over 60 degrees colder. Global warming becomes an environmental issue because the gaseous blanket is getting thicker and thicker over the years which make the Earth’s temperature extra hot. The increase in greenhouse gases which causes global warming is due to burning of fossil fuels, agricultural byproducts, industrial processes, waste disposal and treatment among others. By the year 2100, Earth’s temperature will rise by 3 °C to 5 °C and sea levels will rise by 25 meters, at least, because of global warming. This would mean an increase in the occurrence of heat waves, floods, tornadoes and drought. Agricultural yields will be low due to these extreme weather conditions. Diseases will also spread easily. Global warming is already a known issue. The only thing that we have to do is to make significant changes in the way we do things like the use of fuels contributing to the increase of greenhouse gases. Little things can help curtail the effects of global warming such as changing filament light bulbs to fluorescent bulbs, making sure the refrigerator and freezer doors are always shut properly, and other measures of conserving electricity. This will not only help save the Earth from global warming, it will also help you save money due to less electricity consumption. Electricity is the most common form of energy people use daily. Currently, electricity is being generated mainly by burning fossil fuels. We all know from the above discussions that fossil fuel combustion creates air pollutants that contribute to acid deposition and global warming – in short, environmental destruction. If this way of using energy continuous, we would be in danger of losing a healthy planet to live in a hundred years. Another danger of this is not having enough fossil fuels to use in the future as this is not a renewable source of energy. Fossil fuels such as coal and oil can be depleted because there can only be as much of them in our planet. In order for us to prevent global environmental destruction, we should all try to use sustainable energy in order for us to have reserves in the future. Examples of sustainable energy are renewable sources such as wind, solar, geothermal, tidal and wave power among others. Power plants and electric companies should slowly convert their electricity generating processes to one of these in order to lessen the waste pollutants of fuel combustion. Big companies may also want to initiate a study if its facilities and offices would run on self-built solar power. Other than the big savings, it will definitely help in reducing the number of fossil fuel electricity consumers.

Oryx And Crake Essay Real One

Drawing parallels to modern society, Tattoo's three main concerns are the negative side of globalization, the loss of a middle class, the negative side of libations and excessive human exploitation for personal gain. Furthermore, the limited omniscient point of view and a metaphor helps to highlight the dark aspects of increasing globalization. In a globalizes world with endless flow Of information, people are exposed to excessive amounts Of negative data which makes everyone afraid. Atwood even gives the impression that she is not in favor of this trend: â€Å"too much hardware, too much software, too many performs† (34).This growing fear makes people realize the possibility of more threats. Therefore, groups of individuals, specially those inside the Compounds such as Organic, tend to isolate themselves within the safety and comfort of the Compound walls to avoid â€Å"too much envy, fanaticism and bad faith† (34) out in the Planeloads. Ultimately, the vast majority p rize their privacy more than ever since globalization not only benefits people by making it easier for them to connect together, but also leaves people more susceptible to bad influence from their surroundings.In this case, the limited omniscient point of view points out the limited social contact that the people of the Compounds have with the Planeloads. Although globalization might bring some groups closer, the profound effect actually divides society apart. Moreover, a metaphor is used to describe how the relationship between the Crackers and normal human beings relate to that of developed nations and developing nations. As the Crackers came into existence, humans are left behind as they lack the physical attributes and survivability in the midst of a pandemic apocalypse.In a similar way, less developed countries are cut off and are not receiving the plus side from the globalization of developed countries: eke the door of a great vault shutting' (50). Both literary devices stress the imminent occurrence of a more isolated world. Atwood examines the disappearance of the middle class by emphasizing the dichotomy of the upper and lower class through the usage of juxtaposition or contrast. The comparison is first made by describing the physical layout of the communities.Members of the elite live in heavily gated communities known as Compounds while the majority of the poor reside in the Planeloads or the cities in which public security is low. People of the Compounds are inconsiderably better off, possessing luxuries with the likes of ‘the house, the pool, the furniture† (33), as opposed to â€Å"the addicts, the muggers, the paupers, the crazies† (33) of the Planeloads roaming about the city wreaking havoc in the streets. Both classes have developed mistrust due to the seclusion and a lack of interaction: â€Å"Compound people didn't go to the cities unless they had to and then never alone† (33).From the noticeable segregation, a sens e of unity between the two is slowly slipping away with the possibility of causing disastrous consequences. Therefore, the elite have more power of taking advantage of the Planeloads for their own betterment. As one example of exploitation, corporations in the compound continuously create diseases targeted towards the Planeloads, thus making immense profit by forcing them to buy their medications, which often worsens their health.Without the middle class acting as a stabilizer, members of the upper class are more susceptible to immoral behavior towards the lower class, leading to extreme social imbalance. By using hyperbole and irony, Atwood argues that there will always be the exploitation of the poor and weak in society. Similar to Jimmies father, many medical workers Of the compound are always discovering new alternatives to gain profit from the poor: â€Å"The rewards in the case of success would be enormous† (65).Knowing that these people are desperate for sustenance and financial aid, they take advantage of their vulnerability and deceive them by using them as test subjects to test the deadly effects of their newly created diseases. These tests often have detrimental consequences to the test subjects, leading to physical impairment and sometimes death. The destitute individuals are compensated very little for their services and are mostly unaware of the deadly consequences that may arise.

Effortless Cooking Every Day Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Effortless Cooking Every Day - Essay Example The second step is to drain meat. During this step, the cook should reserve sieved marinating liquid and dry meat with paper towel. It is possible to use glass or ceramic plates preparing meat. During the next step, the cook adds 1 T. butter to preheated browning skillet. Then, it is important to swirl skillet to coat bottom with melted butter. The next step is to add meat and cook it uncovered 4 minutes until meat is no longer pink. This step is very important because the quality and taste of meat will determine the taste and flavor of the finished dish (Barham, 2000).  The second step is to drain meat. During this step, the cook should reserve sieved marinating liquid and dry meat with paper towel. It is possible to use glass or ceramic plates preparing meat. During the next step, the cook adds 1 T. butter to preheated browning skillet. Then, it is important to swirl skillet to coat bottom with melted butter. The next step is to add meat and cook it uncovered 4 minutes until meat is no longer pink. This step is very important because the quality and taste of meat will determine the taste and flavor of the finished dish (Barham, 2000).   The next step is to choose a bowl for rice. To prevent boil-overs, it is better to choose large enough bowls. During this step, the addition of oil to cooking water will prevent boil-overs. It is very important to cook rice in a covered dish. A small secret is that rice requires virtually no stirring during cooking. In fact, less stirring is better since over-stirring can cause a ‘mushy’ texture.   In order to add a delicious taste to the dish, the cook can add sieved marinating liquid to rice while cooking. It is important to remember that the amount of rice should be equal to the amount of water. The cook should choose a bowl twice as large as the water amount. The next step is to heat water, add salt and stir the rice. The amount of time recommended is 15 minutes, but it depends upon the quality and the a mount of rice. If you are not sure about the exact time of cooking, it is possible to cook rice the amount of time recommended on the package.

ON WHAT BASIS DOES A MULTINATIONAL FIRM CHOOSE PEOPLE FOR Essay

ON WHAT BASIS DOES A MULTINATIONAL FIRM CHOOSE PEOPLE FOR INTERNATIONAL ASSIGNMENT IDENTIFY, AND DISCUSS AT LEAST TWO - Essay Example ves acquainted with the ever changing role of Information Technology and the like within the business quarters as well as learn for their own betterment the different mechanisms through which they can make use of the business processes and management activities in a steady and quick manner. This means that they must align themselves with the advanced technological applications and that too in a quick way because the corporate world of present times is on the move. Thus the training needs are very much required within any organization since the same would ensure that all the employees understand what they are doing and there are as such no hiccups in the office place so to speak. (Cappelli, 1999) More than anything else, the workers must know what the end goal for the business is like and on what parameters success is measured as far as the top management of the organization is concerned. There must be unison in their working mechanisms so that they are all on the same wavelength no m atter how trying or tough the circumstances turn out to be. One of the most essential training programs is to make sure that all the employees learn to make use of the Information Technology tools and methodologies that are in line with the present day regimes. This would guarantee them success right away since they would all be on the same level as far as understanding of the IT world is concerned. Then they must be trained about the different sales force mechanisms like Sales Force Automation (SFA) methodologies and the like. If the workers hail from the procurement and business development side, then there should be training in the Just In Time (JIT) and Business Development Re-engineering modules. (Taylor, 1999) In an office place, there are certain instances when it is best to choose different people for the various jobs that are assigned in the working environment. This holds true for the rationale that a single person cannot and will not be able to do his work as well as the

Country Differences in Accounting Standards Essay

Country Differences in Accounting Standards - Essay Example The United States of America perform its accounting and the respective financial statements utilizing the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). In the United Kingdom a different set of financial standards is being utilized called the financial reporting international standards. The platform utilized in Europe is an international project to standardize the financial reporting standards of corporation across the world. In Europe any company selling its stocks in any registered stock exchange such as the London Stock Exchange (LSE) must release financial standards prepared following the international reporting financial standards. Canada is a nation that is evaluating a transition from Canadian GAAP to IFRS. The new international financial reporting standards are geared towards providing a simple system with flexibility to personalize the system since it is not a rigorous as GAAP. Simplicity allows corporations to achieve savings in their administrative function. There are differences and similarities in the way a company using generally accepted accounting principles or international financial reporting standards are prepared. The GAAP required the financial statements to follow an exact format which the company can not deviate from, while the IFRS has multiple formats. The valuation of investments is performed in GAAP at the cost of the investment and earnings or losses are registered once the investment is sold. In the IFRS the value of the investment goes at fair market value. The investment segment of a GAAP prepared statement is very detailed and illustrates the value of each individual investment. In the international financial reporting standards investment are included at the discretion of the accountants responsible for preparing the financial statements. The consolidated financial statements of GAAP financial statements include subsidiary information only

Website Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Website Analysis - Essay Example It is through downloading or liking of the posts that earn the owner of the posts a specified amount of money. Artists prefer using this website as it is reliable and commonly used by a majority of people worldwide. After the news broadcast on any channel in the world, it is possible to obtain the news at youtube at any time for example KBC news from Kenya is obtainable in this website at any time. However, entertainment items cover a major section of the site. Music and movies from all over the world are available at the website. Youtube contains parental control application that helps in blocking any information that is not necessary for view in underage individuals. It encourages the flow of information to relevant individuals without leaking any information to unnecessary viewers. There are various goals in association with youtube the main purpose being simplifying share of videos from all over the world quickly. The video materials may be movies, music, pranks or motivational speeches from different regions of the globe. In addition, it serves as a medium of interaction among the members of the website that mainly contain various cultural values beliefs and norms. Just like another interaction sites like Facebook, Youtube provides the chance to it members to create more friends along the globe. All the above goals are in achievement as the site has offered the opportunity to make the goals come true. The writings on the website give directions to the users on how to maximize the use of the site. However, the writings simplify the search of items for the users to avoid wastage of time and complications in using it. The textual designs in this website give the viewers a center of attraction as the designs serve the purpose of making the website beautiful and attractive. It provides different colors and images that attract personnel encouraging more users to join the site. The primary visual

Financial Statement Analysis-Final Project-LULULEMON ATHLETICA INC Research Paper

Financial Statement Analysis-Final Project-LULULEMON ATHLETICA INC. and the RetailApparel Industry - Research Paper Example historical data of stock price of the company and stock price data of market; future predictions about the stock price movement of the Lululemon has been estimated. The report also analyzes the forecasted financial statement and earning per share of the company. Also the report recommends investors whether they should invest in the company and industry or not. Valuation of the company has been done in order to identify the value of Lululemon. Also it has been revealed that the performance of the company would improve in the years to come as the forecasted financial statements state the company would be able to increase its assets as well as improve its profitability in the years to come. Also the expected returns of the company’s stock are estimated to be higher than the average market return. Apparel industry is one of the most attractive industries for investors to invest because the demand of such industry has always been high. The industry also suffered because of financial crisis in the year 2007 and right now the industry is improving its position with the passage of time. The industry is very competitive with lots of brand names operating in the market like PVH, V.F. Corporation, Lululemon, Polo Ralph Lauren and Liz Claiborne and many others. This report analyses the current scenario of the industry and its future outlook. The second part of the report covers analysis of one of the key players in the apparel industry, Lululemon. Lululemon financial strength and position have been analyzed and its stock price movement has been observed to estimate the future stock price of the company. In addition to this, in the report contains valuation of the Lululemon and recommends investors whether the company is profitable or not. The performance of apparel industry has been ordinary in the second quarter of 2011. The performance of firms in the industry during first quarter showed mixed results as there were some firms like PVH and V.F. Corporation which were

Brainstorming Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Brainstorming - Assignment Example l events such as essays, debates in their various forms and norms had somehow lost their sheen and it was time for interesting and innovative activities to enter Elite. I guess we had overdone it with the traditional ones. The willful participation and the pure desire to achieve something for the greater good of the student community was exhilarating! Well! In the two hours session that we had, all the boys and girls shared an enthusiastic vibe and the hall echoed with charming and smart ideas pulled out form many corners. The diverse experiences we had in our life and the many backgrounds that we hail from – all started giving results. A fun list was arrived at that included ‘Rhyming Couplets’, Mismatch Story’, ‘Air Crash’, ‘Wake up as a Celebrity, ‘I am stranded on an unknown island’, ‘Translate yourself’ etc. If literary events were meant to strengthen one’s speaking, listening, understanding and analyz ing abilities in a language, why not have some decent fun along? Not only was the effort worth its pain, it in fact gave a certain confidence to the participating members, which reflected in their expressions glowing with satisfaction, when the Convener approved

Consumer Behaviour Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 1

Consumer Behaviour - Essay Example Consumer behaviour, hence, entails understanding different attitude and behaviour of the consumers along with exploring factors having impact on these attitude and behaviours (Peter and Olson, 2008). For the purpose, various theories and models have been derived to somewhat provide generalised guideline impact of these factors on consumer buying behaviour (Hawkins & Mothersbaugh, 2009). Businesses to influence the buying behaviour uses various tactics such as advertising, promotions and other market tactics that increases probabilities of consumer purchasing company’s product. Designing and devising these tactics are guided by the understanding of factors that are capable of influencing of consumer attitude and behaviour and direct purchase decision (Neal, Quester, & Hawkins, 2004). To develop insight about aforesaid mentioned factors, this paper develops research to explore activities an organisation undertakes in relation with different consumer behaviour models and theories . Organisation’s undertakes many activities to direct consumer behaviour. For instance, marketing mix used to generate favourable response include product, brand, advertisement, packaging, point of purchase display etc in an integrated manner (East, Wright, and Vanhuele, 2008). Since these entire stimulus generators carry complete information and extensive detail in itself, the scope of this research has been limited to case study based analysis of advertisement campaign of L’Oreal’s product ‘Elvive’. L’Oreal has been in operations since years with recognition of being global cosmetic provider. L’Oreal’s target market in general has been female and while specifying its market comprising of females with urge to look good and beautiful; an ultimate desire of every woman. For the purpose, L’Oreal has several product offerings within various ranges; however, every product campaign from all mediums communicates the same messag e. This research in order to analyse abovementioned advertisement has picked print advertisements, storyboards and/ or screenshots of the television advertisements to investigate if message from these medium are on same page as referred by different consumer behaviour models and theories to target consumer behaviour. STIMULUS GENERATORS IN L’OREAL’S ADVERTISMENT L’OREAL’s advertisement campaigns are mainly formed of the similar technique to develop customer attention. This technique is also the most common form of advertisement and has following components: 1. Celebrity endorsement 2. Beauty appeal 3. Benefit communication 4. Scientific support to claimed benefits 5. Iconography 1- CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT Message conveyed by celebrity usually has greater appeal; claim based on general perception and observation. Product endorsed by more popular or liked personality is able to gain more rating on the evaluation phase. In evaluation phase consumer analyses an d rates the quality and benefits of the product. This phase is known as surrogate indicator (Neal, Quester, & Hawkins, 2004). L’Oreal has been using celebrating endorsement in its advertisement campaigns to fetch higher rating and hence, influence the purchase decision. 2- BEAUTY APPEAL Beauty appeal has been well accepted to be one of the basic features of the product capable to attract women. L’Oreal targetting women has been using this appeal in almost its every adverstisemnet. Hence, L’Oreal advertisements to cater the social need strongly develops

The story of Everyman Essay Example for Free

The story of Everyman Essay Every human being is destined to have something in their lives, as a matter of fact, there were great expectations in everyone’s existence here on earth and it is absolutely in the hands of an individual to excel in his own abilities. Doing what is good and what is bad is an unending chronicle as we grasp the path of life. Accordingly, the life that has been given by us should be well taken good care of and it is imperative to not waste time just juggling with the fuzz of life and that is just proliferating ourselves in material things alone. Uplifting a certain persona cannot quantify by having luxurious things at hand or achieving a great award or even have the position everyone else is dreaming of, it is about enlightenment of our inner self. To be able to make our lives lavish, we must coordinate with what our creator thought and expected of us. Indeed, it is not easy to perfectly follow his will but practically, in our own way, we can meet what is essential in our lives. In the story of Everyman, it was very open how life should be dealt. Parallel to this, the presence of challenges that God has given us was truly an eye opener to each and every one of us. Given death as the primary element of the challenges, it truly adds spice to the sleeping conscience that we have, â€Å"Death: Lord, I will in the world go run over all, and currently out search both great and small. Everyman will I beset that liveth beastly, out of God’s laws and dreadeth not folly†. The journey that we have to come across was not that easy but in everyman, it tremendously makes available all the possible outcomes of a person’s decision. The choices that he’ll wish to bear would reflect on what kind of future in store for him. It was also exemplified in the story of Everyman how our present life may change instantly and at the same all the things that we possess could easily flushed away, â€Å"God: I perceive here in my majesty, how that all the creatures be to me unkind. Living without dread in worldly prosperity, of ghostly sight the people so blind, drowned in sin, they know me not for their God, and in worldly riches are all in mind†. In one way or another, we fail to comprehend the very essence of prioritizing things and we come to the point wherein we value the most the goods that we have and what we possess at the moment. In this particular scenario, what was elucidated in Everyman was the central issue of choosing what is essential in our character. It is so important to value the life that God has given us. In addition to this, the very heartrending part of all this was the thought that when we are in our deepest part of hopelessness and despair, those we dearly expect to be with us would also be blown away by the unfortunate circumstance in our lives. What we perceived to be our friends would turn out to be just our acquaintances that in any moment they will perish. This was another note on Everyman, that every one should have the conviction to defend what we truly believed in as well as to stand with what we have despite the challenges that comes our way. These are the real essence of the story and this was what Everyman wanted to embark within us. On the other hand, Dante’s Inferno gives us the picture of what life after death may be if we did not convey the real meaning of living on earth, â€Å"Midway upon the journey of our life, I found myself within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost† (Dante). The detrimental factors in a person’s life would actually have an effect to the life after death. The presence of the evil forces would take effect in dealing with death and this was truly what Inferno put into words. The relation between the story of Everyman and Inferno truly depicts the essentiality of life. Differentiate what is good and evil is ultimately the focal point of both echelons. The journey of death helps us to visualize the very nature of living life to the fullest and acquiring all important facet of being good. The upshot of what we do will absolutely continue to our life after death. The presence of the core ideas of the circle of hell would enlighten us on the threats that it could bring in a person’s personality. The central values of medieval people revolve in the religion where they are being brought up to. The norms that they posses were truly in accordance to what they believed in. The centeredness in the church was intensely practiced in this age. It was very evident on how they adhere to what their creator bequeath on them. Thus, in this way, doing the good possible way was strictly their very nature. As regards to the creative manner of the medieval people, they still adhere to their religion. The music, the arts and even literature was purely intended to serve the church. We could clearly grasp the devotion that they have in their personalities which is extremely a positive note. The determination will be put into account as well given that they have strong adherence with their religion. On another note, The Roman Republic focuses on their Gods which have the most powerful element. Their ultimate role is to stipulate and protect. The uncompromising set of standards that they put into account truly creates discipline to its people. Since they were not focused on a church enthusiasm, there is no formal priesthood but there is a role for the aristocrats, thus, these are the ones who set the ground for policies. Without a doubt, the exaltation of intangible moral qualities rests a demarcation line apart from the medieval set of values.

Gold investment: An overview

Gold investment: An overview Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Overview Since prehistoric time, human are using the gold in trading and value keeping asset. Even current financial activities are always surrounding by the gold issue. The ancient treated the gold as the true form of wealth. Gold has been using early in 4000 B.C as a fashion decorative object in where today Eastern Europe is centred. In 1500 B.C the gigantic gold-bearing regions of Nubia made Egypt a wealthy nation (National Mining Association). By the time the gold has widely recognize as the standard form of medium of exchange for international trade. Gold is represented the royal and honourable in different religious and cultural area. Its aesthetic appearance is the finest ornament above all other metal. Gold play the role in all aspect around us, such as religious customs, reward system, ornament, jewellery, and even the component of industrial product. Gold exist and be using for decade, its intrinsic value is still maintain high and irreplaceable. Investing in gold has been seen as the supreme way of safe haven investment. Gold investment is booming in recent year and the reasons behind this incident can be explained as the investor become more aware of the benefit of the gold and its special features. Gold demand for investment purpose accounted one-thirds of gold demand all over the world which is substantial influential (World Gold Council, 2009). Investment demand for gold has shown as significant increase in the last seven years as investor seeking the fashion to balance their investment portfolio and safeguard against the economy and political uncertainty Generally gold demand can be divided into three main types, which included the Jewellery demand, gold investment demand, and industrial demand. The gold investment can be further divided into physically and non-physically holding the gold. In Malaysia, there are several ways to participate in gold investment and this will be studied in chapter two. 1.2 Benefit of gold investment In portfolio management, prudent investor will have different sort of investment vehicle. The reason for holding diverse investment is to safeguard the portfolio against fluctuations or uncertainty that occurs in the economy system. Gold investment has been studied by many of professional toward its ability to protect the wealth of investors against the overwhelming global financial crisis and economic uncertainty. Generally, the group of similar asset will react correspondingly among each other during the transformation of the economy and financial system. Diversification will reduce investors risk in portfolio investment. Besides the common investment vehicle like company share, bond, and mutual fund, gold investment is an option for investor to diversify their investment portfolio. Portfolio that contains gold investment is generally more robust and less risky as compared other investment vehicle. The inflationary hedging ability of gold is prominent especially during the economic uncertainty period. Gold price react quickly that other commodities when there is any change in the market condition. Conversely, price of the CPI-basket is adjusted slowly to the change of market condition ((Mahdavi Zhou, 1997). Risk factors that may affect the gold price are quite different in nature from those that affect other assets. Purchasing power of gold is maintain even the transformation of the era is remarkably significant (Greer, 2005). In addition, gold is one of the examples of safety investment instrument that have very limited amount of risk associated with it. The credit risk is the possibilities that the debtor unable to repay the loan. Gold is unique which do not involve such repayment relationship. The profitability of gold investment is operating in the accrual basis. The liquidity risk which means the possibilities that the asset cannot be sold as the buyer in the market may not be available during the time of reselling. However the gold market has high demand rate from the individual consumer, jewellery sector, financial institution and manufacturing of industrial product. Thus its liquidity risk of gold investment is very low (World Gold Council, 2009). 1.3 Problem statement Gold investment in Malaysia is less well known by investor, even though it is a superior investment vehicle. Generally, most of the elderly will save their money in fixed deposit. Some of them may invest their money into mutual fund and government bond. The rate of return from the fixed deposit is very low and the intrinsic value of the saving will be overwhelmed by the wave of inflation during financial crisis or recession. The purpose of this study is to find out what are the reasons that affect the intention to adopt gold investment in investors portfolio. In early 2008, the inflation rate surge high, most of the investor who invests in share market suffers a huge loss in the market. The collapse of Lehman brother and many giant corporations in 2008 raised the vigilance of the investors. Many of investors seek for the immunity to keep their capital away from the threat of inflation and downward movement of stock prices. According to World gold council (2009) stated that there is significant increase in the demand of gold investment. Current financial recession and anxiety toward future uncertainty have urge the political and finance officer unearth the solution to withstand the inflation problem. Some professors have suggests the gold investment to investor as the safe haven to protect their wealth against the inflation shock. Gold investment has the special feature of inflationary hedge which have been study by a number of researchers and professionals. Malaysian investors should add the gold investment into their portfolio and hence reduce the risk of investment. However, gold investment in Malaysia is still not widely adopted as compared to other counties such as Singapore, Thailand, China, United state and India. Some investors are eager to make the quick profit from the speculating activities such as short-selling the share and the commodities future. However the speculating activities will create the bubble in the market and finally it will turn into another financial turmoil. The gold price seen not stable in short and is more volatile than other commodities. However the gold price in long-run shown an upward shifting trend and the value of gold is appreciated over the past 30 years. In Malaysia, the gold investment opportunity is very limited and the public are hard to find the advertisement of the gold investment account or the gold investment seminar. The lack of public awareness toward the gold investment is one of the problems in Malaysia. It is imperative to enhance the public awareness to the gold investment and adoption of gold investment in the investors portfolio. Gold investment is very popular in other country such as china and India during the recent years. Based on the statement from the World Gold Council (2009) the investment demand hit high at 656 tones which account for 16 per cent of total gold demand. James Burton, the CEO of the WGC has announced the investment demand for the gold market has a striking increase in the last six years. The rising demand of gold investment is due to the investors seek to further diversified their portfolio and safeguard against economic uncertainty and political instability. However this tide is not yet hit the Malaysia Investment market as compared to other country. As we can see the method of gold investment in Malaysia is enormously limited. This thesis may help the local investment institution to identify the factors that affect the adoption of the gold investment. Thus the local institution can come out with the absolute plan special cater for the local investor. It may help to establish the sound financial investment structure in Malaysia. Besides, investors are furnished to more options of investment and enhance the ability to diversify their investment portfolio. Development of a country required the liberalization of the Malaysia market so that to attract the multinational corporation expand their business locally. Generally, Malaysias local investment institution is lack of competitive advantage as compared to giant foreign investment institution. Hence government always exercise its authority to prevent the foreign institution enter into Malaysia financial market. This will be an obstacle to the government in their liberalization plan. In order to increase the competitiveness of the local investment institution, the research on perception of local investor is indispensable. It would assist the local investment institution to compete with the strong forces from overseas. In the evolution of the world monetary system, the gold is increasingly been esteemed as the new form of currency after the abandoned of the Bretton Woods System in year 1973. The loss of confident towards the paper notes and some professionals have pointed out gold as a true form of medium of exchange. Greer (2005) has defined the money is backed by nothing other than the confidence that its holders place in the issuing bank. The paper notes will be able to exchange for goods and as way to store their wealth. However, it depends on the ability of that government to keep inflation under control. The problem of the fiat money have cause the Zimbabwe nation suffer from the hyperinflation due to the excessive money supply. Malaysian should employ some inflationary hedging instrument to avoid the unwanted event. The rising demand for gold in the countries such as china, India, United state and Australia in gold investment have significantly drive the gold investment as part the portfolio investment tools worldwide. Malaysia is still on the developing stage of this form of investment instrument. Thus we are rarely seen the Malaysian investors holding their portfolio with the portion of gold investment. Even gold is superior and have been widely adopted in other countries. 1.4 Objective of study The General objective of this research is to examine the perception of Malaysian toward gold investment. Investor perception toward gold investment is extremely important when come to the promotion of the gold investment. Here is to study what is investor view on the gold investment. What investor perceive the gold investment and what is image of gold investment that in the eye of investor. Special objectives: 1. To determine the adoption of gold investment in Malaysia There some relevant cause and effect relationship of the low adoption of the gold investment. Why gold investment is not popular and widely adopt by the investor as compare to other investment or saving plan. One of the objectives of this thesis is to discover the factors that associate with the degree of espousal to gold investment. 2. To determine the factor affect the gold investment among Malaysian Gold investment is prominent investment vehicle and is widely embraced. The factors affect the gold investment adoption in Malaysia provide insight to the investment institution to cater local investors need. 3. To determine the relationship between perception and adoption of gold investment Is the Malaysians perception toward gold investment having significant relationship with the adoption of gold investment? The perception is the behavioural aspect of human thinking and the adoption is the actual action takes by the Malaysian. Hence, the relationship will be examined in this research. 1.5 Significant of study Based on the investor perception toward gold investment, bank and the investment institution can formulate the gold investment plan to gratify the local investor needs. Malaysia is gradually moving to the liberalization era in different area especially banking area. Due to the open forces from the foreign financial institution, local banks and investment branches are increasingly focus on the customer services and their facilities improvement. By understanding the local investor perception toward the gold investment, local banks or other local investment institution will be able to compete with other foreign giant finance and investment institution. The local investment institution professionalism and customer service is improved if the research and development are increasingly focused on the development of facilities. In addition, government will be eased when implementing the liberalization plan if the local financial institutions are employed with the strong competitive advantages . Malaysia evolves to a resilient nation as we moving deeply into the liberalization era. Thus the local banking system needs to have more inputs to renovate the investment structure in Malaysia. This research enhances the ability to attract the foreign direct investment due to the liberalization of the market. The demand of Malaysia currency is indirectly driven by the foreign direct investment. Hence it will strengthen the Malaysia currency to other nations currencies rate. This research contributes to the Malaysia financial market stability and development while the losses of the investors had been minimized due to the â€Å"safe haven† protection of gold investment. It enhances the resiliency and stability to country financial market, because the losses of investor is been reduced. In addition, local consumers and market players are given the opportunity to variety of choices and enjoy the privilege in term of banking products and services from the open force of the liberalization. Hence it boosts the local investor and market player confident toward the local banking and finance institution. Gold investment in Malaysia is not well known investment vehicle to investors even though there are rising demand of the gold investment from the global perspective. Thus, analyze Malaysia perception toward the gold investment is a vital driver which directly influences the gold investment demand in Malaysia. During the economy difficulties, the consumer are generally suffer from the rising price of the necessities. The decrease of the consumer spending will detain the recovery of the local economy system. If Malaysians engage in some sort of inflationary hedging instrument, the situation will be ease. The inflation problem will not distress the nation seriously as the investors are protected against inflation. From the gold investment facilities provided in Malaysia, we can draw the conclusion of the Malaysia gold investment industry is not well-crafted as compared to other foreign country. There is the need to produce more research topic related to the Malaysia gold investment industry. The research can extend the investor knowledge toward Malaysia gold investment market and also create the awareness to the gold investment opportunity. Malaysia aims to establish a knowledge-based society which is stated in the National Vision Policy (NVP). Hence, in order to consistent with National Vision Policy the extension of the knowledge in gold investment is one of the significant of study in this research. Diversification enables investor to minimize their risk in their portfolio. Investors are given more option to diversify their investment portfolio instead of the current common type of investment vehicle. The inflation rate surge high every year, the real wealth of the investor is diminish over time if they do not involve in the inflationary hedging activities. Among the inflationary hedging activities, gold investment is the safer form of instrument. It is because gold have the high demand and high intrinsic value instead of the legal tender given by the authorities. In addition, the gold is durable and imperishable even for thousands of years. Thus, it acts as a superb value storing asset among others. Risk adverse investors such as elderly will be able to keep their wealth more efficiently and withstand the uncertainty in future. This study provides the important feature of the gold investment which can benefit investor especially during the economic uncertainty period. 1.6 Organization of study In this research project, there are total of five chapters and the title for this research is â€Å"the perception of Malaysian toward gold investment; an empirical study. In chapter one, the overview of the gold investment and benefit of gold investment is included in this research. Besides, the problem statements give an illustration of the problem of gold investment in Malaysia. After that objective of study and significant is study is developed and explained briefly. Chapter two is the literature review; the information is obtained from various sources such as the, research journal, bank catalogue, newspaper, book, and website. In this chapter, the variables are studied clearly and the independent variables are further justified. Chapter two included the study of gold supply and demand, characteristics of gold and gold investment opportunity in Malaysia. After that, the independent variable is studied accordingly. In chapter three, the Research Framework and model specification is developed. Theory of reasoned action has been employed in this study. After that, the hypothesis is established for ten independent variables. Research design is stated in this chapter and it provides detailed information for the method of study. Research sample, questionnaire design, data analysis method is included in this chapter. Chapter four is about the result analysis which the data will be analyzed and interpreted. Finally, chapter five is the recommendation and conclusion of the study. Chapter 2: literature review 2.1 Gold supply and demand Precious metal has the feature of the currency and it possesses the intrinsic value besides the legal tender given by government (Greer, 2005). Hence, investor tend to put their money in gold during time of uncertainty and when they loss confident toward the paper currency (Rusell, 2009). Recent years, there is an increase demand in this real asset due to the loss of confidence toward the paper currency (Willie, 2009). Gold price is demand on the demand and supply mechanism in short-run. Gold demand is high in the country such as East Asia, India and Middle East. In addition, China, India, USA, Italy, and Turkey accounted 55% of the total gold demand of the world. The gold demand can be divided into the jewellery demand, investment demand and industrial demand (Lutter, 2009). Jewellery demand has a highest percentage to the total gold demand. India is the largest jewellery demand due the cultural and religious tradition which is independent to the economic variable. The investment demand which is the primary consideration in this research mean the gold is been traded over-the-counter market. The investment demand has a dramatically increase over last five year which shown a 412% in term of value (World gold council, 2009). More investors seeking gold as protection against the instability of numerous macro-economic variables such as inflation, currency exchange rate, and interest rate (Levin and Wright, 2006). In industrial demand, gold has been use as the thermal and electrical conductor, the demand arises from the use as an electrical components. On the supply side, it is come from the mine production, central bank holding, recycled gold and gold production. The mine production is inelastic to the changes in price and demand due to the long mining process. Recycled gold is from the process of extract and melt down of the jewellery and electrical components (World Gold Council, 2009). 2.2 The characteristic of gold Gold have variety of characteristics besides the independent variable stated in this research. For example, gold possess the characteristics of liquidity, store of value, durability, unit of account and Malleable. The characteristics of the gold provide strong foundation of the demand for the gold especially during the recession or economic uncertainty period. According to world gold Council (2009), the liquidity risk of the gold is relatively low as compare to other investment vehicle especially during the economic hardship. Murray (2004) said that the gold market provide high liquidity to investor when they are in the need of the fund. According to Sathye (2003), the collateral is a second source of repayment to the loan. The Marketability of the asset is an important consideration to the lending decision. The Marketability of the asset depends on the acceptability of the particular asset. Gold has the characteristic of acceptability. Levin Wright (2006) stated that gold is widely acceptable and investor can sell the gold whenever they need the liquidity of the fund. The According to Harmston (1998), gold can uphold its real purchasing power in long run. He claim that gold have consistent value storing ability even at the economic instability. Sjaastad, Larry and Scacciavillani (1996) claimed that when world inflation is surging higher, gold is performance its remarkable function as a value storing instrument. Dubey, Geanakoplos Shubik, (2003) said that gold is a form of commodity money and it can store the value. However gold is durable as compare to other commodities. Besides, the durability of the gold is prominent as a value storing asset. In chemical term, gold is a chemical element with symbol Au and atomic number of 79. This metal has the high thermal and electrical conductivity, resistance of corrosion and malleable characteristics (Wikipedia, 2009). Gold has an atomic number of 79 and atomic weight of 196.967. Gold has high melting point which at 1064.43 °C. Beside, gravity of gold is 19.3 and can be explained as 19.3 times weight than equal volume of water (National Mining Association, 2004). 2.3 Gold investment prospect in Malaysia Gold is an efficient investment vehicle for preservation of wealth and a store of value during the economy volatility especially the high inflationary period. The special features of gold such as diversifier, safe haven, inflationary hedge, universal acceptance, and transportability have make the gold demand the superior choice for investment purpose. In Malaysia, investors have some ways to participate in the gold investment market either physically and non-physically holding of gold. Firstly, we discuss the physically holding of the gold in Malaysia. The Commercial bank investment branches have contributes some fine-tuning gold investment account such as Maybank, Public Bank, Standard Charter Bank, and Bank Negara Malaysia. Maybank offers their gold investment account which called Gold Savings Passbook Account (GSPA). The minimum first purchase is 5 grams only. The weight of gold holdings can be converted to Ringgit Malaysia at the prevailing market gold price and the selling price will be update at the Maybank website from time to time (Maybank, 2008) Public Bank provides the Public Bank Gold Investment Account for investor to participate at the gold market. Public Bank Gold Investment Account having the similar concept with the Maybank Gold Saving Passbook Account. The only difference is the minimum first purchase is 20 gram. Bank can make available the physical gold upon customer require physical withdrawal of gold. A minimum quantity of 2 grams of gold should be maintained by the customer as an assurance of the account is in active mode (Public Bank, 2008). Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia Berhad offered its retail investment gold to investor with the launch of Premium Currency Investment Gold (PCi Gold). PCI Gold is a dual currency investment which means that contain both USD and gold. However the minimum amount of 250,000 is required to operate the account with the possession ranging from one week, two week and one month (Standard Chartered Bank). For the gold investment passbook provided by the Public Bank and Maybank is quite similar, the trading record for the gold investment is recorded in a passbook provided to investor. This type of gold investment in generally back by the real gold. However the disadvantage of the gold investment passbook is the investor will not be given any interest and dividend. Investors just make a profit when they sell the gold at higher price. In addition, the bank will charges the gold investment passbo ok holder when the convert or sell their gold holding. When investor buy the gold through the gold investment passbook the price will be slightly higher that the prevailing world gold price. Bank Negara offers the Kijang Emas Gold Bullion Coins. By issue the Kijang Emas Gold Bullion Coins, Malaysia become the 12th country issue its own gold bullion coins. The Kijang Emas Gold Bullion Coin purchase and reselling price is determined by the prevailing international gold market price (BNM, 2002). Investor can buy other bullion coins in some international company such as the Canadian Maple Leaf, American Eagle, and Australian Kangaroo Nugget. The gold investment that involve in non-physically holding of the gold in Malaysia includes gold fund, gold related fund and units trust that involve gold as a core element. The exchange trade fund (ETFs) which is trade similarly as stock or bond. ETFs track the index movement and performance and it is listed on stock exchange (Bursa Malaysia, 2009). Gold exchange trade fund (ETF) is another option for investors and it is listed and traded just as the stock exchange. ETFs enable investor to take part in gold market without investors physically own the gold because it tracks the price performance of the gold bullion. However gold exchange trade fund is still not available in Malaysia. Investor can invest in ETF in Singapore through foreign trading account offered by a local securities firm and investor is subject to the currency risk Gold fund and gold-related funds can be defined as unit trust funds that pool investor fund for investment in gold and other precious metals and investor vary from individuals, corporations to government institutions with common investment objectives. Investor can benefit from the expertise of fund manager who administer the pool fund investment rather that do internal data collection by themselves. There are only one gold fund is available in Malaysia with the minimum investment set at US$150,000 which equivalent to RM513, 000. For gold related fund, investor can just invest minimum of RM 1, 000 to diversify their investment portfolio. (New Straits Times, 2009) The above information provides an insight and general idea to the way to participate in gold investment industry in Malaysia. Investors need the timely information to make their decision on selecting the proper way go investment and investment instrument. According to Lutter (2008), investor will search for the particular investment vehicle before they add the instrument into their investment portfolio. Investor will normally seek information for these four categories, individual, salesperson and advertisement, public communication instruments and personal observation. 2.4 The independent variables of the intention to adopt gold investment among Malaysian In this chapter, the independent variables that are expected to have significant relationship toward the intention to adopt gold investment will be examined. The dependent variable is the intention that Malaysian investor employ the gold investment as part of their investment portfolio. The potential independent variables are the inflationary hedge, currency rate, diversifier and safe haven, time horizon, third party influences, cultural influences, risk averse, advertisement, and professionalism. The independent variable is grouped according to Maheran, Nursuzila and Aspiyati (2008) which adopt the theory of reasoned action. Besides, some mortification is made to tally with this research special requirement. The advertisement and professionalism is common type of independent variable that influences the adoption of some products or services. Advertisements play an important role to persuade consumer intention to accept the products and services. Professionalism is needed especially for the investment sector; investors are generally employs less information than the agent and the professional in the field. 2.5 Economic Factor and gold investment Purchasing power of gold is maintain even the transformation of the era is remarkably significant and the purchasing power of the contemporary currency is diminished gradually (Greer, 2005). In year 1945, Breton wood agreement which endorse by the United States Congress was set the gold exchange standard. The standard involves setting par values for currencies in term of gold and the member countries is required to convert foreign official holdings of their currencies into gold at the prevailing par value. Breton wood system had fixed the 35 US dollar equivalent to 1 ounce of gold to establish the global currency standard (Dammasch, 2005). According to world gold council (2009), the current gold price is increase sharply and currently one ounce of gold is approximately equivalent to 1079 US dollar per ounce. From the above , we can notice that the purchasing power of US currencies has generally declined due to the impact of rising prices for goods and services. Consequently, gold is always in pursuit by the investor when there is fluctuation in the currencies and economy. According to World gold council (2006), the robust growth of the gold investment demand recent year can be attributed to the factors such as macro-economic and the political instability. Economic factors have high contribution to the gold investment demand and the US dollar plays a crucial role in this aspect. According to Levin and Wright (2006), gold is prominent for its inverse relationship with the US dollar. During the drop in the currency rate of the US dollar recently, the gold price had shown a robust upward shift in the price. The currency factor contributes to investor decision making framework in adoption of gold investment (Boye, 2005). The inflationary hedging ability of gold and currency rate volatility is the key independent variable in this research and it is widely study by many of the professors (eg. Lutter, Sjaastad, Larry Scacciavillani, Worthington Pahlavani and Greer) 2.5.1. Inflationary hedge and gold investment Under the overwhelming financial emergency in 2008, investors are alert to the predictable inflation in the coming future; they realize the advantage of possessing gold, this drive the gold investment demand in China (China research and intelligence, 2009). In consistent with the china research and intelligences finding, world gold council researcher shown that the gold price remains high and stable at around US$ 989/oz in the first quarter of 2009. The scenario is driven by the anxious of investors toward the stability of the financial system, risk aversion, future possibility of inflation and as well as deflation (WGC, 2009). The World gold Council and China researcher predict the gold demand increase during the late 2008 is driven by the inflation and economy uncertainty. In Lutter (2008) study he shown that investor treat gold investment as the superior investment instrument and belief it will give the return which is higher that the inflation rate. Thus investor will demand gold during the inflationary period. According to Worthington and Pahlavani (2007), they claimed that commodities are the best way to hedge against rising prices which reduce the returns of purely financial assets like stocks and bonds. Worthington and Pahlavani point out that gold is special which unlike most commodities; gold is durable, relatively transportable, universally acceptable and easily authenticated. The commodities hedging ability is supported by Ranson and Wainwright (2005)

Upton Sinclairs The Jungle - It’s a Jungle Out There :: Upton Sinclair The Jungle

The Jungle  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It’s a Jungle Out There      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle (1906) gives an in depth look at the lives of the immigrant workers here in America.   In fact the look was so in depth that the Pure Food and Drug Act was created as a result.   Many people tend to focus purely on the unsanitary conditions instead of the hardships faced by the workers.   Actually I think that Sinclair doesn’t want the focus on the meatpacking, but on overcoming obstacles, especially through Socialism.   Sinclair was himself very outspoken when it came to Socialism.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The story takes place in Chicago with a group of immigrants.   They have come to the United States only to discover that it is a cruel, harsh world, and the land of shattered dreams.   The group first goes through many difficult trials and tribulations.   The first big problem faced by the group is a marriage, which costs a great deal of money.   The second ordeal is a very tragic death.   After these one couple buys a house that is sold to them for three times its value.   The parents and other groups then move into the house.   One of the characters goes into the meat packing industry and this is where we find out all of the unsanitary details of the factory.   Another character is a musician who is struggling to find work so his wife takes a job.   After a while the character at the meat packing plant breaks his arm and is not received back once he heals.   He learns at this that the owners do not care for their work ers and will take you if you are new, but as soon as something happens they throw you out.   It is at this point that the character talks to a Socialist ad he inspires him to begin traveling to the meetings.   He returns to his job and becomes the manager immediately.   After his first Socialist rally, he listens to mainly two people; one an ex-professor who has become a philosopher and the other an evangelist who has become a traveler.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Jungle had a great deal to do about socialism.   Upton disliked Communism and Capitalism a great deal and thought that Socialism was the answer.   Sinclair was brought up in Baltimore and his family was considerably poor.   His father was very unsuccessful at hi job and it is believed that for this reason Sinclair became a Socialist because in communist countries all people are treated equal.

Essay --

Located in central Java in present day Indonesia, The Great Stupa of Borobudur is the world’s largest Buddhist monument. It was constructed sometime around AD 800 as a way of displaying visual teachings of Mahayana Buddhism. The Great Stupa of Borobudur is essentially a symbolic form of both a stupa, a sacred mound of earth with holy relics of the Buddha buried beneath, and a mandala, a mystic Buddhist symbol of the universe. Or as Catherine Albanese describes it â€Å"†¦the mandala meant a circle which signifies the wholeness of the self.† The architectural design of this stupa was different from anything that had come before it and every part of it had some significance in the world of Buddhism. The overall structure of Borobudur is made up of a square foundation along with a total of nine platforms. Of those nine platforms six of them are squared while the remaining three are circular. The structure can be further divided into three main levels: a base, a body, and the top. Each of these levels symbolize the three realms of Buddhist cosmology. The base symbolizes the realm of Kamadhatu; the six squared platforms symbolize the realm of Rupadhatu; and the three circular platforms at the top symbolize the realm of Arupadhatu. The realm of Kamadhatu is also known as the world of desires and it is the lowest level of the three realms. This is where ordinary sentient individuals live out their lives with desires and suffering. The next realm, the realm of Rupadhatu is known as the world of forms and it is the second level of the three realms. This realm is accessed by those who have gotten rid of their desires through meditation, but still have a name and form. It is said that you have to advance up through multiple stages in thi... ...design of Borobudur and the ritual that it entails. The reliefs located on the base and body were there in order to teach initiates the sacred texts as the ascended the mountain in Pradakshina. The elliptical and circular terraces represented the summit of Mt Meru and the central stupa located in the center represented the center of the universe. Through this ritual the state of Nirvana is attained through gradual processes and transitions, not drastic jumps. The architecture of Borobudur would also signify a gradual process as it starts off square in the lower terraces, transitions to elliptical with the first two upper terraces and finally becomes circular in the third upper terrace. People may only speculate as to what things may mean or represent, but one thing for certain is that The Great Stupa of Borobudur was designed and built the way it was for a reason.

The Doors :: essays research papers

Poet William Blake once said "If The Doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite" (Gilmore 34). From this quote arose a band that even over 20 years after its disbanding still is played and remembered. The Doors started as a little garage band in California back in the early sixties. They were extremely popular due to their lead singer, Jim Morrison. Morrison himself was a real character. Morrison is considered by many critics a modern day poet. Others view him in a different light, George Will wrote "Morrison resembled Byron in one aspect, they both were mad, bad, and dangerous to know" (Will 64). Still others view him as a hero of the 'counterculture'. He was a sort of 'Peter Pan', one of those boys who never grew up. Morrison basically was The Doors. His blatant disregard for law and order made him a very well known figure. He was arrested on a few occasions for charges ranging from inciting riots to indecent exposure. He was also notorious for his drug use and alcohol abuse. His poetry though, justified his lifestyle. There were also three other members of the band: Ray Manzarak (keyboards), John Densmore (drummer), and Robby Krieger (guitarist). They all made up The Doors, but after the death of the lead singer Jim Morrison, the band's popularity dropped significantly. They did though produce three albums after Morrison's untimely demise (all of which were not very popular). Jim Morrison died on July 4th, 1971, in Paris, France. He was 27 years old at the time of death (the same age Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin died at also). He was found in his bathtub with a cute smirk on his face. He had finally "broke through to the other side"(Gilmore 35). The Doors were known for their style of rebellious, psychedelic rock. Their music is poetry (written by Jim Morrison) set to music. Morrison also had many books published just of his poetry. Although not all of The Doors music was written by Morrison, ninety percent of it was. The band was considered a guru by the youngsters of the sixties, and a scourge by the public. The band seemed to fuse music, drugs, and idealism as a way to reform and even redeem a troubled society (Gilmore 34). They were much like the other bands that were emerging in the sixties, but different in one major way.

Third Industrial Revolution

Third Industrial Revolution based on Offshoring and Education It’s no doubt that our economy is changing and so is the world we live in. The major changes in our society stared off with the First Industrial Revolution. Many jobs changed from farm to factory beginning in the late 18th century. This was the largest revolution because it shaped the way we live today. The second revolution was the shift from manufacturing jobs toward service jobs. It’s believed that we are still in this shift. Now we are on the brink of a third industrial revolution which is due to the increase of technology.Often called the Information Age, the third revolution will require change as the first and second have before. However, it seems as if little changes have been made to accommodate the changing world. We are now facing the struggle of keeping jobs in the country and along with that comes the need to enhance our educational system. The two may not seem to work together, but they do. Impr ovement in education may change the way we off shoring our jobs. There has been suggested a few ways that could help improve United States and keep us on top instead of having other countries take our jobs.Alan S. Blinder is the Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. He is the one that presented the idea of changing the way we educate our youngster to have them better prepared for the future. Researching his ideas and theories on how to solve the problem with education, I did agree with him on most of his theories. In the past the fight for our jobs was with computers and technology. Many jobs were being taken by computers, which resulted in many people being laid-off. We can’t deny that we do need computers and the improvement of technology makes our lives easier.We can’t â€Å"dumb down† our economy to keep jobs. People eventually had to accept the increase of computers and the facts that many jobs we needed to do, can now be do ne for us. We now have another force that’s taking our jobs, offshoring. Offshoring is taking over many companies and there is nothing we can do about it. The good deal of having someone do the same job for a lot less is too good of a deal for a company to pass up. For the heads of companies they love the idea, but for the average worker we have to compete with workers in India and Asia for jobs in our own country.Offshoring is no longer only limited to service jobs. It was thought that call centers and manufacturing companies were the jobs affected for foreigners taking their jobs, but with the increase in technology that is no longer the case. With the increase of offshoring, the jobs more aimed at leaving the country are impersonal jobs. By not needing face to face contact with customers, it makes it easier to have the job completed overseas. Offshoring is an event that we can prepare for, by better preparing the workforce for a new economy of work.Training the future need s to be different than in the past because we are emerging into a whole new era. The increase of computers causes an increase of impersonal jobs, which makes it easy to complete many services by electronic means. Blinder’s suggested, â€Å"We need to think about, plan, and probably redesign our educational system with the crucial distinction between personal service jobs and impersonal service jobs in mind. † Because many impersonal are the first ones being offshoring, the more personal jobs are the one staying in the country.We do need to help the future understand the change that is progressing around us. It does make sense that we need to change our educational system from one that was implemented over 50 years ago. Getting every school and college to change their curriculum will take time and work, but with an effective plan the need for change will eventually happen. The essential need for education needs to change. Learning about a careers that will be available years down the line, will help us be more prepared. Jobs that can’t be offshored or done by a machine will be the product of a new growing economy.Suggestions of ways to improve the educational system would be to include the following. To keep jobs we need to focus on the advancement of skills that cannot be outperformed by a computer or taken away by someone overseas. The thing that makes us American and different than any other culture is what we need to put emphasis on. Creativity, ingenuity, spontaneity, culture, interpersonal relations, etc. are factors that make us an individual and if these are applied into the education system it’s possible that we will gain more jobs back.Memorization seems to be something that many schools try to help develop, but that skill is something that a computer can very well accomplish better than the average worker could. Also by bringing in more group and interactive activities we could improve our personal skills. Just a few newer approaches to increasing the way we learn and information that we learn can help put us on the right track to keeping jobs that we could do better than a foreign country and we could be better prepared for jobs that won’t be offshored.Blinder stated as his main objective, â€Å"We need to focus on preparing more college students for the high-end jobs that are unlikely to move offshore, and on developing a creative workforce that will keep America incubating and developing new processes, new products, and entirely new industries. Offshoring is, after all, mostly about following and copying. Americans need to lead and innovate instead, just as we have in the past. Summary The increase of technology has Americans sending off our jobs overseas. We can compete with foreign countries and computers to keep more jobs in the U.S. One important factor to help us is to improve the way we are educating our future. We need to change the system implementing new ways to educate. We also n eed to change focus of the lesson and focus on new concepts that in the end can make us competitor with computers and foreign countries. Many people don’t know that change is needed and are perfectly fine with the system we have set up now. The ideas that Blinder suggested for us are just ideas that could possibly have us heading in the right direction for the future.Conclusions and Recommendations By using and implementing the information that Blinder has given will help to successfully keep the economy on track and not have it handed over to another country. The educational system we have now hasn’t been changed for many years and as the world is changing we also need to change along with it. Because sometimes it can be hard to adjust to change, and many people don’t like change getting the information publicized and persuading policy holders will speed up the progress for change.

Roman Fever Symbolism

Wharton’s â€Å"Roman Fever† In Edith Wharton’s â€Å"Roman Fever,† the setting takes place in the romantic city of Rome, on the balcony of a casual Roman restaurant. Two wealthy American widows, Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade, are sitting together carrying on a conversation from afternoon to evening. From the restaurant, the two women are overseeing the ruins of the ancient city of Rome. Grace Ansley and Alida Slade’s conversation from afternoon to evening, the colosseum, the ancient ruins, and Grace Ansley’s knitting all have important meanings. The afternoon light is the last hours of friendship and kindness that the two ladies display for each other.When the two ladies finally start getting deeper into their conversation they begin to build an envious relationship that takes place at dawn. The evening darkness is Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley’s entry to the dark secrets and rivalry that they have for each other. The colosseum is symbolic for the battlefield where Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade fought for the man that they loved. Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley continue the gladiatorial tradition. In this battle, Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley use their life of lies, daughters and husbands as weapons to criticize on each other.The ruins of the romantic city of Rome are also significant. The ruins is like Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade’s decaying relationship. In the end their friendship collapses. In â€Å"Roman Fever†, Grace Ansley is knitting with crimson silk throughout most of the story. There are many different ways in which knitting is used. Mrs. Ansley knitting is a way for her to cover up her agitation and the guilt of her past. The knitting represents the complicated, twisted relationship and life that these women have. The crimson silk is symbolic for passion and love.

How to Right a Paper

ppendix D: Individual Skills Assessment Questionnaire for the Instructor Directions: The following questionnaire contains the Individual Skills Assessment that must be administered to each student individually as a panel interview. Print enough copies of the ISA Questionnaire so that each interviewer has one copy per student before the panel interview begins. Please see the Instructor Guide section of this courseware for complete instructions on how to conduct the interviews. For each topic, start with Learning Level 3. Circle each of the response criteria that the student successfully includes in his or her response.You may use the scoring table at the end of the questionnaire to tally the student’s score. Note: Each topic includes questions at three levels: o Level 3: Synthesis/Evaluation (Most-challenging questions) o Level 2: Application/Analysis (Medium-level questions) o Level 1: Knowledge/Comprehension (Least-difficult questions) Appendix D: Individual Skills Assessment Questionnaire for the Instructor  ©ITT Educational Services, Inc. 104 Date: 01/12/2010 Individual Assessment Skills Questions with Correct Response Criteria Topic 1: HardwareLearning Level 3: Synthesis/Evaluation Question: 1. You are building a LAN in a company that develops insurance management software. What hardware requirements should be taken into consideration? (TB143, IT1220) Correct Response Criteria: The student addresses why each is important: PC resources needed: Memory, disk drive size, processor size Networking resources: Category 5e cable, hub, switch, bridge, router Learning Level 2: Application/Analysis Question: 1. Describe how the memory manager divides up and allocates memory. (TB143, IT103) Correct Response Criteria:The student identifies the following memory concepts and describes how each works: Virtual memory Shared memory Paged memory Contiguous memory Non-contiguous memory Multi-programming Learning Level 1: Knowledge/Comprehension Question: 1. Identify a ll of the different types of input ports is available on a modern computer? (TB143) Correct Response Criteria: The student identifies the following ports: USB Serial Parallel Video /audio RJ45 FireWire Appendix D: Individual Skills Assessment Questionnaire for the Instructor  ©ITT Educational Services, Inc. 05 Date: 01/12/2010 SCSI Topic 2: Programming Learning Level 3: Synthesis/Evaluation Question: 1. Explain the difference between passing a piece of data â€Å"by value† and passing a piece of data â€Å"by reference. † (IT104) Correct Response Criteria: The student identifies the following data types and describes how each piece of data is passed: Parameter Argument Parameter list Data type Compatibility Reference address Learning Level 2: Application/Analysis Question: 1. Explain the â€Å"scope† of a data statement. 2. What are the implications of misidentifying a l

Banning of Public Smoking

Banning of public smoking has become a controversial topic, with the supporters of both the groups putting forward their own arguments for and against banning public smoking. It is well known fact that passive smoking has contributed to the death of large numbers of people, thereby showing the negative consequences of smoking. Based on health reasons, one can suggest that smoking should be banned in the public areas.It has been argued by some scholars and people that smoking is the right of the individuals who should not be forced to quit smoking in the public areas although it is desirable to stop smoking in the places such as public vehicles so as not to affect the co-passengers. The supporters of smoking argue that by banning smoking in public places, the smoker’s right to relax in the places like pubs is taken away, thereby reducing customers to pubs and other places. This has negatively affected business of the pubs.Already, smoking has been banned in the places where the re is intimate contact between different individuals. These people also suggest that smokers are addicted to smoking, which gives them relaxation. It is not desirable to compel the smokers to give up their privilege of smoking without any legal problems. It is also suggested that ban on public smoking creates barriers between smokers and non smokers. (Atwell) Many other scholars have opposed the above argument put forward to support smoking in public places.It is found that passive smoking is the third major reason for the death of large numbers of people. It is unfortunate that so many people have to suffer because of the smoking behavior of the people who use different forms of tobacco. Cigarettes and other tobacco products can be dangerous not only to the smoker, but also to the non smokes who are around the smoker. Smoke contains more than 4000 chemicals, which can negatively affect the health of the individuals.Non smokers, due to public smoking, may suffer from health problems leading to lung, breast, cervical, nasal sinus cancers, strokes, and miscarriages. While many smokers argue that they have the right to enjoy their life by smoking, anti-smokers in the public places argue that they have the right to live without suffering from diseases due to second hand smoking. Therefore, it is argued that through public smoking banning, it is possible to improve the health of second hand smokers.In the absence of public smoke ban, the smokers will be encouraged to continue their habit of smoking in the public, thereby affecting the health of general public. The argument that this ban on public smoking will reduce the number of people visiting pubs and restaurants is also not accepted because studies have indicated that ban on public smoking does not lead to reduced number of customers to the pubs. This is due to the fact that majority of pub customers are non smokers. Ban on public smoking may encourage more number of people to go to bars because they can enjoy their drink in non-smoking environment.By banning public smoking, even the smokers are given an opportunity to leave smoking, thereby assisting them to improve their health. Ban on public smoking can improve the quality of life of individuals in the modern society. Supporters of public smoking contend that ban on public smoking negatively affects the right of the individuals to enjoy their smoke. They suggest that since already there is partial ban on smoking, there is no need to completely ban public smoking as this would decrease the number of people visiting pubs and other public places.However, anti-smokers suggest that many non smokers have suffered due to the consumption of nicotine. Since, large numbers of people are affected by smoking in the public places, this should be banned. Works Cited Atwell, Kate. â€Å"Should smoking be banned in public places? The no argument†. Online Science. 15 November, 2003. August 22, 2006. Available at Bethany, S. , and Minneapolis, M . N. â€Å"Ban Smoking in Public Areas†. Teen Ink. 2006. August 22, 2006. Available at

Robotics Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Robotics - Research Paper Example This paper reviews the unethical implications related to the use of these lethal weaponry. It provides a platform of reasoning for the policy makers, the political class, military personnel, scientists and the general public on the impending consequences of replacing humans in war with robots. It evaluates both the adverse effects of rapid change from humans to remote controlled robots and lately, to automated robots capable of sensing, hearing, communicating, acting and the extend of their necessities. In the evaluation and analysis, the review attempts to center around the ethical implications surrounding usage of automated robots in the modern warfare. Introduction and background The use of automated robots has a long history which began in the late 1980s when researchers got involved in the investigations on the use of multiple mobile robot systems. Previously, most researchers have carried out research which mainly concentrated on distributed problem solving mechanism. The main areas of concern by then were multi- robot motion plan, architectures for multi- robot cooperation and cellular robot system. Humanoid robots were first used in factories. They were capable to carry out production work without human assistance. The use of mobile and remote controlled robots in the military began back during the World War II and the cold war. The Germans through Goliath tracked mines and Soviet teletanks (a soviet built robot tanker) were used. The predator planes or drones were first used by the CIA officials in collection of intelligence in a fantasy environment. The aerial robots could collect intelligence for the military officials. Traditionally, robots were regarded as a topic for fiction by scientists in warfare. The modern concept of use of robots in the warfare began to develop with the use of mechanics and the introduction of electrical power. As time went on and many soldiers lost their lives in the battle field, there arose need to automate robots so that they could take the role of humans. This was after the rise of issues of human rights in the 1920s, although with concern and focus on the aggressor. This is the time that humanoid machines were developed and the myth of use of robots forgotten. It was now a reality (Parker 1-10). Robots are now gaining momentum in the modern warfare, although their use dates far back in the 19th century. Automated robots are proving to be efficient in the battle field as they reduce human loses and can easily penetrate in dangerous zones and perform effective and efficient. It is now common that robots in form of unmanned air vehicles are widely used by the US in destroying their enemies. This is evident in the Middle East wars, for instance Iraq, Afghanistan and collection of intelligence in South Korea among other regions of the world. Today, the drones used in war are controlled by pilots on the ground but with technological advancement, the pilots will be able to dial in when needed by the rob ots to take a specific action. The officer would be like managers in the future as robots undertake their roles. This trend of deploying autonomous robots in the battled field is quite worrying with regard to the ethical use of these systems in conflicts. This technological advancement generates more questions that are unanswered. The central question rests on the principle of discrimination of the combatant, non combatants and the organizational structure of the

Dicken's and Wright Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Dicken's and Wright - Essay Example ld, hard facts in numerous treatises and injunctions that would have few readers and fewer active responders, Dickens opted to include these details within his fictional stories while Wright opted to present his own autobiography in story form. In approaching the subjects in this way, these authors engaged readers’ hearts, minds and souls in the issues of the day. This method, referred to as realism, was quite effective in making the public more aware of the problems still to be overcome in London and elsewhere in a modernizing society. While Dickens concentrated on life in England’s cities, Wright attempted to demonstrate the conditions under which millions of black people were forced to live in the Jim Crow era of the American South. Both Charles Dickens’ Old Curiosity Shop and Richard Wright’s The Ethics of Living Jim Crow are effective in demonstrating how realism can establish the case for social change. The tragedy of the Old Curiosity Shop is that Nell Trent and her grandfather are unable to break out of the poverty of their lives and suffer wasting death as a result. Examining an excerpt from the 45th chapter of the book illustrates how the narrative provides grisly details of the life of the masses as they existed beneath or behind the glitz of the new machinery and wealth of the age. In this chapter, Nell and her grandfather are seen to walk through a ‘dismal town’ characterized by ‘shrinking leaves’ and ‘rank flowers’ to give an overall impression of the town as ‘blighting and unwholesome’ (83). Rather than having the excitement and promise typically associated with moving to a new place, Nell and her grandfather experience â€Å"the dark, depressing influence stale upon their spirits† and feel the weight of their poverty and struggle (83). Through his use of imagery and sensual description of the dirty industrial town described in this chapter, Dickens enables his readers to almost feel the realty of the polluted

The five forces analysis for Morrisons Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The five forces analysis for Morrisons - Essay Example This research will begin with the description of bargaining power of buyers. Buyers have fairly strong bargaining power because they have a vast range of choices.   Prices are highly competitive so buyers can easily switch to other brands without any loss. The cost of switching is particularly low for products that are standardized and offer little differentiating features. Around 94% of the customers have a choice of at least three supermarkets at their disposal within a time frame of 15 minutes. Suppliers in this sector have fairly weak bargaining power due to strong brand presence of supermarkets. Suppliers fear the risk of losing their contracts with the large supermarkets, including Morrisons. Therefore, it is an easy task for such retailers to lock in suppliers at low costs. Furthermore, the industry is fragmented and retailers find themselves doing the role of middlemen and manage to rack up huge profits. Stores in convenience market may be substitutes; however, ever since t he retail stores have diversified into the convenience sector this threat is decreasing. There has been growing protest towards the use of hormonal or genetically modified products over the last few years. It is estimated that the market for organic foods in U.K is worth  £2 billion and is expected to grow in coming years. Hence, convenience stores as well as shops selling organic food may be potential substitutes but this risk is mitigated when large supermarkets buy these out. Morrisons, however, does not have any plan in expanding into this sector. Food experts such as butchers may also be substitutes; however, due to the ease of shopping and greater variety of grocery sector, this threat too is diminishing (Don Edwards & Associates Ltd., 2007). Overall, the threat of substitutes is fairly large for non-food offerings and fairly low for food offerings. 4. Competitive Rivalry Competition remains intense with the top 3 players including Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury’s. Me-too strategies have been widely adopted, such as that of Asda’s low price range strategy ( (Don Edwards & Associates Ltd., 2007). There is evidence of price wars between the top 4 players. Rivalry in the U.K supermarkets industry remains high although the industry itself is not growing. The U.K supermarkets industry is at the maturity stage of its lifecycle, growing at a rate far less than that of GDP and aggregate spending (Lancaster & Massingham, 2011). Fixed costs of this industry are high which can be potential barriers to entry of new firms (Lancaster & Massingham, 2011). Barriers to entry are potentially high with small retailers unable to compete. , unlike its three larger rivals Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's, Morrison’s does not have an internet home shopping business (Zentes et al., 2007). This could put the company on the backburner as e-commerce is an ever-growing business as it gives greater convenience to customers along with a potential to tap international mar kets. Also it does not have a loyalty card scheme such as Club card which Tesco has uses to track consumer trends and offer lapsing customers discounts (Thompson & Martin, 2010). Loyalty cards keep the regular customers coming back in that they use it to trace customer’s demographic profile which can go a long way in targeting the right products in advertising. Furthermore, by offering discounts the company has the opportunity to induce repeat purchases from its customers. Furthermore, unlike Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's, Morrison’s does not have a meaningful non-food offer (Thompson & Martin, 2010) . The company does not have enough diversification at present. Greater variety of products (non-food

Biotechnology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Biotechnology - Essay Example However, a more specific approach of the upstream processes will be adopted in this essay. Downstream processes refer to the processes that take place after the fermentation process of purification to the packaging of the Biopharmaceuticals. Moreover, the issue of quality control techniques in a bid to ensure successful product analysis will receive attention in this essay. One of the critical steps in the upstream processing is the choice of an effective culture and expression system.There are three types of culture systems that may be adopted in the fermentation process. One of them is the batch culture, which is the commonest culture system that used in many industries because of lack of complications. The fact that batch bioreactors are easily available explains why many companies have exhibited preference for it. Batch cultures need to be loaded with all the required nutrients and substrates, and then inoculated with the selected microorganism. Although it is commonly referred to a closed system, there is an evident need to maintain a measure of exerting control on factors such as pH and aeration. After fermentation runs to completion, product removal follows (Boudreau & McMillan, 2007). Although the batch system has been highly preferred, it presents certain challenges, especially because of the surging lack of constancy in the producing formation. In the initial phase when the microorganism is undergoing growth, there is no productivity. Moreover, accumulation of the product also limits further production (Buckel, 2001). In other cases, the presence of a high substrate concentration in the initial phase serves as a form of inhibition. In a bid to address this challenge, the development if fed batch where an inflow is introduced was a benchmark of success. Although the batch culture still has some of the outstanding disadvantages of the batch culture, the fed-batch