Tesco in Chinese Market Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Tesco in Chinese Market - Essay Example Question 2: To consider the risk and additional difficulties involved when a UK based retail supermarket expands its outlet to include wider Europe and Central Asia. The aim of the question is to get suitable answers that will aid in the reduction of some particular risks. The discussion will flow in the direction by first providing evidence of research which inform regarding the implications of expanding business in the said geographies and especially expanding in foreign markets. An analysis of the possible risks and steps involved to mitigate such risks will also be mentioned. Question 1: The proceedings of the RICS foundation construction and building research conference stated the following with regards to the client and stake holder briefing during the pre design phase of construction. "Client briefing is considered to be one of the most important stages in the life of a project .. Research in the UK has identified the need for the clients and advisers to be aware of the importance of what can be commonly termed, the strategic level of decision making."(Smith 2002) The research resulted in indicating that client briefing at the strategic level had the most potential for cost savings in the project. The outcome of the briefing can be maximized positively if client advisers at the time of meeting place high priority on: 1. Understanding the project priorities and business objectives 2. Providing advice which assist clients to gain competitive advantage. 3. Being client oriented rather than focusing too much on the details of the project to the detriment of the broader issues and objectives. (Hapanova et. al 2005) The briefing at the pre design stage should no doubt be one that is wholesome and involve all the participants in an active manner. This can be achieved only if the needs and concerns of everyone are addressed. Eventually there arises a need for the development of a process that will systematically solve issues and clarify doubts raised. The process must be useful well organized and sensitive to client and stakeholder needs. Thus any briefing process designed must have the following essentials in order to improve outcomes for the client, the stake holder and the members in the design team. 1. Create various strategic options for the future direction of the organization 2. Actively involve a range and number if different types of stake holder; 3. adopt fair and rigorous means of decision making 4. To allow each participant (the client, stakeholder and the members in the design team) to contribute to the decision making process irrespective of their position and their role in the organizational hierarchy. 5. Involve external stakeholders so that they can contribute to the development of a strategic decision. 6. Provide commitment to decisions made to improve their chances of implementation. 7. be supported by senior management in the process and through the decision makin

Bermuda triangle Essay Example for Free

Bermuda triangle Essay The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devils triangle is said to be one of the most dangerous and mysterious areas of the ocean known to man. It has been held responsible for the disappearances of over 2000 vessels, 75 airplanes and many innocent lives in the past 3 centuries. But the question is how? What really happened in this deadly body of water? There are many theories about what is going on in the Bermuda Triangle. From human error, to the lost city of Atlantis all the way to paranormal activity and Extra Terrestrials. Today I will be talking to you about the mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle. The Bermuda Triangle is located between three main points in the Atlantic Ocean, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Miami, Florida and the Island of Bermuda. The triangle is formed by connecting an imaginary line between these three points with an area of the about 500,000 to 1,000,000 square miles. Flight 19 is said to be one of the first known flights to go down in the Bermuda triangle. The aircraft was filled with US naw avenger bombers on a training mission. When the plane went down, it was said that the flight leader was heard saying We are entering white water, nothing seems to be right. We dont know where we are, the water is reen, no white. This raised suspicion about whats really going on in the so called Devils Triangle. It is very possible that the plane had Just run into some bad weather, but some believe weather is not the cause of these vanishing planes. Im not saying I have come up with the answer to what is going on in the Bermuda triangle, but here are some reasonable answers I have come across; 1. Bad weather. The part of the Atlantic in which the Triangle is located is very close to the Caribbean Sea which tends to get many tropical storms. This could be the cause to all of these strange disappearances. Intense storms may be causing ships to sink or planes to crash. But bad weather is only one of the many theories people have come up with. 2. Human error and amateur sailors. The coast guards are said to get over 8000 distress calls a year, thats more than 20 a day! But most of the time, the issue is minor, running into a rough patch of water or a shortage of gas. . Traffic. There are many planes and boats that go through the Bermuda triangle every day. Because its so busy, vessels and planes could be crashing into each other and falling into the ocean below. 4. Underwater earthquakes. In shallow water, underwater earthquakes can cause sunamis in the far east of the triangle. (and) 5. The gas bubble theory. Scientists say that a high concentration of gas hydrates have been fou nd in the Bermuda area which causes the water to become less dense in small patches. This could cause ships to sink quickly without and trace. Believe it or not,some think the tragedies are caused by the lost city of Atlantis. Some even say that government is behind it. The government supposedly runs an underwater base called A. U. T. E. C. It stands for Atlantic Undersea test and evaluation center. It is located in the middle of the triangle where the naw tests new ubmarines, weapons and sonar. Some people think the government has been working with extraterrestrials and that A. U. T. E. C. is actually used for testing reverse engineered alien technology. Some also say the mythical lost city of Atlantis is causing these mysterious disappearances because ot a stone trail called Bimini road. Its supposedly part of the lost city and possesses advanced technology that is interfering with radio signals in vessels and aircrafts. These theories are more farfetched than earthquakes and amateurs but some think this could be the reason to the mysteries in the triangle.

Leadership Styles Research Methodology

Leadership Styles Research Methodology CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This chapter primarily outlines the overall research methodology. Detailed development of hypotheses, sampling procedure used for this survey and sources of data will be described. Method that was used to collect data to run statistical analysis will be discussed further in this chapter. Hypotheses of Study The variables identified for this research are leadership style, leadership behavior and employees job satisfaction. Hypotheses below are proposed for this study: H1a: Transformational leadership has a significant influence on employees job satisfaction. H1b: Transactional leadership has a significant influence on employees job satisfaction. H2a: Supportive leadership has a significant influence on employees job satisfaction. H2b: Directive leadership has a significant influence on employees job satisfaction. H2c: Participative leadership has a significant influence on employees job satisfaction. Research Framework The association among all the proposed variables can be described in a research framework. Figure 3-1 illustrates the research model. Figure 3-1: The proposed research framework for influences of leadership on employees job satisfaction Leadership Style Transformational Leadership H1a Transactional Leadership H1b Job Satisfaction Leadership Behavior H2a H2b Supportive Leadership H2c Directive Leadership Participative Leadership Measures of construct in the Questionnaire The survey questionnaire used in this research consists of four parts. Part A consists of the measurement items for leadership style which is further divided to two sections, transformational and transactional leadership. Part B of the questionnaire consists of the measurement items for leadership behavior and three subsections that is participative, supportive and directive leadership. In Part C, the section measures on employees job satisfaction. Finally in Part D, the respondents demographic data is collected on their age, gender, education level, marital status, job position, and number of years of experience in the organization, years of establishment of respective organization, number of employees in organization and nature of the organization. The literature review has helped to provide a number of measurement items for leadership style, leadership behaviour and job satisfaction in the questionnaire. Survey respondents were asked to state their level of agreement for all the six constructs discussed previously. The survey questionnaire has adopted the five-point Likert scale which ranges from 1(strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) as indicated in Table 3-1. Table 3-1: Instrument used in the questionnaire Strongly disagree 1 Disagree 2 Neither agree nor disagree 3 Agree 4 Strongly agree 5 The measurement items used to operationalize the constructs for the purpose of this study were adapted from relevant previous literature with necessary changes. A summary of the past research measures that is used in this study is indicated in Table 3-2. Table 3-2: Research variables and measurement Construct Source Job Satisfaction Milliman, Czaplewski and Ferguson (2003) Transformational Gadot (2006) Transactional Gadot (2006) Supportive Lee and Kamarul (2008) Directive Lee and Kamarul (2008) Participative Lee and Kamarul (2008) Job Satisfaction The items for job satisfaction were adopted from Milliman, Czaplewski and Ferguson (2003). The questionnaire used four items to access respondents satisfaction on their job. Table 3-3 shows the list of questions used for job satisfaction. Table 3-3: Job Satisfaction Diagnostic Survey Instruments How satisfied are you with your job currently? How satisfied are you with the overall chances of advancement in your organization? How satisfied are you with the career opportunities offered in your organization? How satisfied are you with the nature of the work in your organization? Source: Milliman, Czaplewski and Ferguson (2003), Workplace spirituality and employee work attitudes, An exploratory empirical assessment Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 16 No.4, 2003, pp. 426-447. Leadership style The measurement items for leadership style were adapted from the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ). This measure was first introduced by Bass (1985) and then was further improved by Bass and Avolio (1993). It is used to gauge two leadership style scales, namely transformational and transactional. Respondents were asked on which particular leadership style their supervisor closely relates to. MLQ has been widely adapted by past researchers in examining the leadership styles. Table 3-4: Leadership Style Items Transformational Leadership My supervisor instills pride because of their association with the subordinates. My supervisor has gained trust in myself to avoid any obstacles. My supervisor inspires myself to be like him or her. My supervisor goes beyond his individual interest and focuses on the interest of his or her subordinates. My supervisor talks enthusiastically about what needs to be accomplished. My supervisor sets realistic vision and guides on achieving them. My supervisor is a symbol of success and accomplishment. My supervisor constantly views the future optimistically. My supervisor constantly suggests new ways to accomplish things. My supervisor always introduces new challenges and new assignments. My supervisor encourages to think in new ways to solve problems. My supervisor encourages to think creatively and innovatively to solve problems. My supervisor constantly provides coaching to improve my productivity. My supervisor always listens to my concern and helps me to improve. My supervisor always updates me with my performance and does the necessary to develop me. My supervisor treats each individual uniquely and attempts to satisfy subordinates current needs. Transactional Leadership My supervisor rewards performance when his or her expectations are fulfilled. My supervisor always sets the right expectation with me on what is offered when performance goals are met. Prior to any tasks, my supervisor states clear on the performance objectives, clarify rewards, and punishment when the correct output is received. My supervisor considers their relationship with subordinates as a series of contract, deals, or service and reward tradeoffs. My supervisor sets his focus on irregularities, mistakes, exceptions and deviations from standards. My supervisor keeps track on all the error, mistakes and wrong doing by the subordinates. My supervisor urges the subordinates to perform functions strictly according to positions requirement and nothing more. My supervisor is stringent about the rules and regulation of the organization and will take the necessary action if one were to not adhere. My supervisor does not interfere until the problem becomes serious. My supervisor always fire fights when taking corrective measures. My supervisor will only step in once the problems are chronic. My supervisor will not fix a problem until it is broken. Source: Gadot (2006), Leadership style, organizational politics, and employees performance, An empirical examination of two competing models, Personal Review Vol. 36 No. 5, 2007 pp. 661-683. Leadership Behavior In this research, a 13-item was adopted from Lee and Kamarul, (2008). It is used to measure three dimensions of leadership behavior, namely supportive, directive and participative behavior. Same as discussed above, survey respondents are requested to rate how closely his or her supervisor relate to the statements provided in the questionnaire. Likert scales was adopted for the respondents to rate the measurement items with (1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree). There are four items used for supportive leadership, four items used for directive leadership behavior and five items used for participative leadership. Table 3-5 shows the questions adopted for leadership behavior. Table 3-5: Leadership Behavior Items Supportive Leadership My supervisor rewards performance when his or her expectations are fulfilled. Supervisor cares for the subordinates welfare. Supervisor does very little to make things pleasant. Supervisor treats all group members as equal. Directive Leadership Supervisor gives clear guidance and explains on how a work needs to be done. Supervisor decides what and how things should be done. Supervisor maintains definite standards of performance. Supervisor follows a schedule to get work accomplished. Participative Leadership Prior to making any decisions, supervisor considers the subordinates thoughts and what they have to say. Prior to making any decisions, supervisor consults with the subordinates. When a problem arises, supervisor consults with the subordinates. Supervisor asks subordinates for their suggestions and feedback. Supervisor listens to subordinates advice on which assignments should be made/taken. Source: Lee and Kamarul (2008), The moderating effects of organizational culture on the relationships between leadership behavior and organizational commitment and between organizational commitment and job satisfaction and performance, Leadership and Organization Development Journal Vol.30 No.1, 2009 pp.53-86. Sampling and population The goal of this study is to understand the relationship between leadership style and behavior on employees job satisfaction in the context of IT industries in Klang Valley and Selangor, the first step was to note down all the listed IT companies in Selangor and Klang Valley. This information was obtained through observation and information provided through colleagues and friends. The population of this research is all individuals who are employees, managers, stakeholders in IT companies in Klang Valley and Selangor. Convenience sampling was used for the purpose of this study. This is due to time constraint, quick responses and it is inexpensive compared to alternate sampling procedures. 3.6 Sources of Data Two methods were used to collect the data, namely primary and secondary data. Primary data for this survey was obtained by means of a survey questionnaire. Quantitative approach was used in the survey questionnaire to be able to measure the relationship between the variables that helps in statistical analysis. Secondary data collection was used to gather information through findings by past researchers using the qualitative approach. Journal sources from Emerald, Proquest, Science Direct related to this topic was studied to get an understanding on the variables. Besides, online journal sources, books related to this topic provides exploratory information that is used for this research. 3.7 Data Collection From the secondary data resources, a set of predetermined questions were created.. Three methods were used to collect data which is personally administered questionnaire, questionnaires attached with emails and online survey questionnaire. 3.7.1 Personally Administered Questionnaire Personally administered questionnaires were sent to all employees and colleagues that are attached with IT Companies in the Klang Valley and Selangor. This method ensured to receive back all the number of questionnaire sent within a short period of time. The advantage of this method is that it avoided any unusable surveys as if the respondents had any questions they were able to get the answers immediately. Personally administered questionnaire is where most of the survey responses were obtained for this research. A sample of personally administered questionnaire is attached in the Appendix. Questionnaires Attached with Emails The availability of internet has helped to send and receive data with a very minimal cost and quicker time span. Questionnaires attached to emails were sent to those who were not easily accessible geographically to pass the questionnaire. Questionnaires are mailed to the target respondents by providing an introduction on the objective of the research and clear guidelines on how to fill the survey and respond back. Although reminders were sent to respondents to increase the survey response, the questionnaires attached to emails received through this method was only 13 (6.5%) out of the overall survey responses. The disadvantage of mail questionnaires attached to emails is, one may not have the time to do the survey immediately at the point that they receive it and have the tendency to forget to response once it is being left for some time in their mailbox. 3.7.3 Online questionnaire An online questionnaire was first used to obtain data for this study. The www.surveyshare.com site was used to create the online questionnaire. The web based tool had the advantage of exporting the survey responses to Microsoft Excel format which is useful for inputting the responses in a structured manner. The automation of data exportation has helped data collection quickly. It is also cheaper to use the online tool as no paper and printing cost is involved. Data can be analysed as and when survey response is received since it automatically provides a summary and overview of all the survey responses received to date. Statistical Procedures The statistical software SPSS version 16 was used to analyse all the data obtained from the survey. Frequencies, means, percentage, reliability test (Cronbach coefficient) and multiple regressions were computed using the tool. To analyse the demographic details of the survey respondents, descriptive statistics which includes frequencies and percentages were done. To meet the research objective, multiple regressions were applied to study the significance between the variables as outlined in the research framework. Reliability Test of the Survey Instrument Table 3-5 presents the reliability measures for the 6 constructs discussed previously. The Cronbachs alpha value was determined from a pilot test with a sample of 30 respondents. The intention of the pilot test is to understand the ease of respondents answering the survey questions. At the same time, the reliability of the survey instrument is determined. The Cronbachs alpha value for job satisfaction, transformational leadership, transactional leadership, participative leadership and directive leadership exceeded 0.70. As for supportive leadership the Cronbachs alpha value is 0.637. Therefore, one of the items for measuring supportive leadership was removed to raise the Cronbachs alpha value to 0.788. Table 3-6: Cronbachs alpha value for six construct from pilot study. Construct Alpha No. of items Job Satisfaction 0.806 4 Transformational leadership 0.918 16 Transactional leadership 0.871 12 Participative leadership 0.915 5 Supportive leadership 0.637 4 Directive leadership 0.824 4

Things They Carried Essay: Strength in The Things They Carried

Strength in The Things They Carried  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Everybody has to deal with adversity at some point in their lives. The adversity that they go through varies from person to person. For First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, he had to make it through the Vietnam War alive. In the short story, "The Things They Carried," where Cross draws his strength from is somewhat unclear. He seems strong at the beginning of the story, but then again, he also seems to be gaining strength towards the end of the story. This paper shows two different points of view. It discusses whether Jimmy Cross is a stronger person at the beginning of the story or at the end of the story. One opinion is that First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is stronger before he burns the pictures of Martha. His strength comes from his connections to the outside world. Martha is his link to life away from the war. This is why it is important that "Martha never mentioned the war, except to say, Jimmy, take care of yourself. She wasn't involved" (O'Brien 403-404). She symbolizes all that he left behind, and all that he hopes to someday return to: innocence, comfort, love, and hope. These hopes and dreams are the things that keep him sane; they keep him more human and less of a war machine. He shows his strength by attaching himself to these things and by keeping himself partly detached from the violence surrounding him. He has the amazing ability to admit to himself that, "he was just a kid at war, in love. He was twenty-two years old. He couldn't help it" (397). By having the strength to see this reality, he fights against war's power to consume a person's whole identity. However, by deciding that, "henceforth, when he thought about Martha, it would be only to think that she belonged... ...do, to a man who now realizes his job, and will make damn sure to get it done right. Both of the points of view are valid arguments. Both are well thought out and have good evidence to back them up. So which one is the right one? Well, that's the great thing about short stories like "The Things They Carried," they are open to interpretation. The reader is the one to decide what it means to them. The point of this paper was to present two different arguments from two different readers. These points of view were both able to answer the question, was Jimmy Cross stronger at the beginning of the story or at the end of the story, in their own way. Work Cited O'Brien, Tim. "The Things They Carried." Literature and Its Writers: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 2nd ed. Ed. Ann Charters and Samuel Charters. Boston: Bedford, 2001. Pg. 392-405.   

Global Competition

This week, the emphasis was on global competition and in what way this can influence an establishment’s strategy to boost profits and how to utilize global competition to examine the outcome of relationships among employees and management. These dual topics were fairly straightforward for all team associates to comprehend and might be able to relate to their trades. All team associates were able to convey the topics to their trades and recognize how global competition can influence their specific industry. The topic that we deemed the most affluent with this week was the effect of global competition on an organization’s strategies for maximizing profits. utilizing global competition as a process for maximizing profits is comparatively simple to comprehend because it is simple to see how a business can glance at their competitors internationally to realize where they are deficient or where they are exceling. Benefiting from another businesses marketing strategies or product ideas can help a boost a business’s product sales and can heighten their business. We all concur we should take a step back to see the big picture. Looking at each of our respective trades we often get stuck within the boundaries of our companies. This can limit our abilities to utilize the information gathered from our competition. Examining the result of global competition on the relationship between management and labor was a slight more problematic to understand due to the fact that some employers do not use global competition in order to gauge the relationship between employees and the management group in some of our respective trades. We have never first hand had to use this tool to center on the relationships among employees because the individuals in our departments were hired by Human Resources based upon the circumstance that they understand there will be a good working relationship among everyone. After discussing this issue we as a group find it is important to protect and evolve this relationship between labor and management based on global competition. Sometimes the scale of competition may be between countries, regions, states, or even on much smaller scale cities. Important things we find must not be left out when analyzing this relationship are simple. For example, economics, technology, political, and traditions can lead to a success. Increase wages steadily and keeping benefits for workers is crucial. Working from within to achieve competitive advantages goes hand in hand with improvements for your employees. 3 key points are protecting wages, job security, and benefit gains. Our group now has a better understanding on how global completion can affect companies. This can be in a positive or negative way. Reaching international customers is the main goal. Maintain access to customers, communication, improve service, and the reduction of barriers is very important.

The Russian revolution Essays

The Russian revolution Essays The Russian revolution Essay The Russian revolution Essay no other sources mention this.This is a big effect on the death of the remaining members. Source J also mentions there being 5 bodies identified as being from the tsar, his wife and 3 daughters. This information tells us that a son and a daughter were missing. No sources said about them being the 2 people missing. Others sources such as in source I it says His wife and son had been sent off to a secure place. This source does not make sense to source J because the two people dont fit in with the 2 missing bodies. They both get it the same qbout the son but the wife is claimed to be a missing member althought source J says it was one of the daughters. All the sources say different things about what had happened and how the bodies were destroyed. None I dont think agree with source J, but I think this source may be a lot more reliable and a lot different because a lot more evidence had been discovered by then and it has evidence to back it up with the discovered bodies and they ahd been identified.

Definition and Examples of an Implied Author

Definition and Examples of an Implied Author In reading, an implied author is the version of a writer that a reader constructs based on the text in its entirety. Also called a  model author, an abstract author, or an inferred author. The concept of the implied author was introduced by American literary critic Wayne C. Booth in his book  The Rhetoric of Fiction  (1961): However impersonal [an author] may try to be, his reader will inevitably construct a picture of the official scribe who writes in this manner. Examples and Observations [I]t is a curious fact that we have no terms either for this created second self or our relationship with him. None of our terms for various aspects of the narrator is quite accurate. Persona, mask, and narrator are sometimes used, but they more commonly refer to the speaker in the work who is after all only one of the elements created by the implied author and who may be separated from him by large ironies. Narrator is usually taken to mean the I of the work, but the I is seldom if ever identical with the implied image of the artist.(Wayne Booth, The Rhetoric of Fiction. University of Chicago Press, 1961)Too often in my early work, I suggested a total communion between two utterly confident, secure, correct, and wise human beings at the top of the human heap: the implied author and me. Now I see an implied author who is manifold.(Wayne C. Booth, The Struggle to Tell the Story of the Struggle to Get the Story Told. Narrative, January 1997) Implied Author and Implied Reader A classic example of mismatching in kind is The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair. The implied author intends that the implied reader will react to the horrifying account of the Chicago meatpacking industry by taking socialist action to improve the workers lives. In other words, the implied reader of The Jungle already cares about workers in general, and the implied author intends that building on that old value, the reader will primarily be motivated to adopt a new valuesocialist commitment to helping Chicago meat workers. But, because most actual American readers lacked sufficient concern for workers, a mismatch occurred, and they failed to react as intended; The Jungle ended up moving them only to agitate for improved sanitation in meatpacking.(Ellen Susan Peel, Politics, Persuasion, and Pragmatism: A Rhetoric of Feminist Utopian Fiction. Ohio State University. Press, 2002) Controversies As our study of implied author reception will show, there is no consistent correlation between the contexts in which the concept has been used and the opinions that have been put forward regarding its usefulness. In interpretive contexts, both supporting and opposing voices have made themselves heard; in descriptive contexts, meanwhile, the implied author has met with near-universal hostility, but even here its relevance to textual interpretation occasionally attracts a more positive response.(Tom Kindt and Hans-Harald Mà ¼ller, The Implied Author: Concept and Controversy. Trans. by Alastair Matthews. Walter de Gruyter, 2006)

The eNotes Blog Joseph Brodskys Reading List for EssentialConversations

Joseph Brodskys Reading List for EssentialConversations Nobel Prize-winning poet, essayist, and professor Joseph Brodsky In 1972, poet Joseph Brodsky angered government officials in his native Russia and was expelled from the country.   With the help of fellow poet  W.H. Auden, Brodsky settled in the United States, found a position at Yale and taught classes at Mount Holyoke as well.   Later, he accepted professorships at both Cambridge and the University of Michigan.   (Not bad for an autodidact!) Of the many opinions Brodsky espoused to his students was that they could not carry on intelligent conversations unless they had done fundamental reading in what he considered influential texts. He passed out a list of these works to everyone in his classes. Monica Partridge, a former student at Mount Holyoke recalls an early class meeting with Brodsky.   On the Brodsky Reading Group blog, Partridge wrote that Shortly after the class began, he passed out a handwritten list of books that he said every person should have read in order to have a basic conversation.   At the time I was thinking, ‘Conversation about what?’ I knew I’d never be able to have a conversation with him, because I never thought I’d ever get through the list. Now that I’ve had a little living, I understand what he was talking about. Intelligent conversation is good. In fact, maybe we all need a little more.† Here are the books or works on that list. Im proud to say that unless the conversation turns to Icelandic Sagas I could pretty well hold my own at a Brodsky cocktail party    (SOURCE)

Food and Culture watch the vedio, answer question Assignment

Food and Culture watch the vedio, answer question - Assignment Example Due to many ethnic groupings in the region, there are also different cuisine dishes in different areas. In the video Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, there is an exclusive analysis and documentary of Andrews’ journey in Philippines and the various hotels he toured. He visits the city of Manila, where he finds the street vendors, restaurants and hotels selling all sort of meals along the beach. He is amazed at the different types of foods on sale, some of which he had not even had a taste in his life. He is attracted to some exotic food such as chicken fetuses, coconut grubs, mangrove worms, water crickets and whole baby chickens. To him such food is weird and he has never had anticipation to eat it. Such food papers so appetizing, and would eat them should I go to Philippines. Ayurvedic medicine remains one of the oldest medical systems in India. It is strong in promoting aspects of health, diet through utilization of the herbal complexes. Ayurveda puts it that food is medicine and medicine is food. Therefore, one should always eat correctly since food can act as a healing

Andy Warhol as Designer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Andy Warhol as Designer - Essay Example The essay "Andy Warhol as Designer" analyzes an American artist, Andy Warhol. Pop art is classified as postmodernism type of art. As a pop artist, Warhol was capable of using different art techniques including: blotted-line ink style or monoprints, hand-painting with paint drips, silk-screens, oxidation paintings, and Rorschach blots among others. Because of his personal desire to become a successful business artist, Warhol eventually concentrated on the use of silk-screen in mass producing his work of art. Discussing the differences in the motivating techniques adopted by the modernist and postmodernist artists is useful in terms of determining how Warhol is unique from other famous artists. The personality of an artist could affect the art technique used in a given art design. Knowing that Warhol has a strong detachment over emotional feelings to his environment, it is easier on the part of the readers to understand the factors that triggered Warhol to come up with a creative way o f reproducing a piece of art design. As part of the modern art movement which took place in England and America during the late 20th century, pop art involved using the popular imagery of the time as subject a matter for art. The movement was contemptuous and mocked many aspects of the modern world such as: comic strips, consumer products, and advertising through the use of celebrities. Andy Warhol – an American painter, printmaker and filmmaker earned the title â€Å"Pope of Pop Art† for playing an important role in pop art.

Administrative Challenges Employers can expect with Current Health Research Paper

Administrative Challenges Employers can expect with Current Health Exchanges - Research Paper Example Heath exchanges are significantly important despite the cost and implementation challenges. Despite the positive contributions of the health exchange, employers face administrative challenges including training needs for employees, cost control challenges, compliance complexity and procedural difficulties. Employers need to train their employees on how to use the health exchange marketplace to suit the health insurance needs of their families, including how to use the price calculator to determine the amount of subsidies (HealthCare.gov, 2015). Employers also expect cost control challenges because the healthcare exchange will require them to provide medical benefits and attempt to reduce the cost burden associated with the current health exchange (Kingsdale & Bertko, 2015).Complying with the health exchange is also complex for employers because they need to monitor their health insurance plan to ensure that they achieve compliance with minimum standards of the health exchange (Pauly and Herring, 2007). The procedure for obtaining coverage for several employees through the health exchange marketplace is also challenging because it takes time and may be costly. Employers can, therefore, expect several challenges with the current health exchange including training needs for employees, cost control challenges, compliance complexity, and procedural difficulties. These challenges are experienced because the health exchange brings new methods of complying with insurance requirements for employees. The implementation of the Affordable Care Act continues to burden the administration of employees’ processes for a greater part of employers. In fact, the likelihood of the Supreme Court to uphold a ruling by a lower court opposing the legitimacy of the federal marketplaces is taking the place of state managed. According to Sally Doubet King and James McEllgot, who have a partnership at McGuire Woods LLP,

Health Care in America, the Incurable Debate Essay

Health Care in America, the Incurable Debate - Essay Example (Klein, 2012). Republicans question the figures but can pretty much live with the rest or watered-down versions of it. The individual mandate is at the heart of the debate. It is this part that sent the law to the High Court and, depending on which side characterizes it, is an egregious infringement on liberty or a fair and necessary part of the legislation. The individual mandate, which legally obliges all who can afford it to buy health care insurance based on a sliding income scale, was conceived during the 1990’s version of the health care debate. First Lady Hillary Clinton was tasked with the immense issue of health care reform in an attempt to design a bill that would cover more people while curbing costs. During this contentious, highly partisan debate the Republicans demanded that individual responsibility was written into the law and favored the individual mandate. Democrats hesitated at first but relented in an effort to pass something, even a much smaller version th an they initially envisioned. Fast forward 15 years. Tea Party Republicans have made the mandate a centerpiece of their argument against reforming the overly costly system. They claim the ACA is a â€Å"government takeover of health care.† (Goozner, 2010). Republicans also claim the mandate is unconstitutional. They contend states have the authority but not the federal government. That’s why people can be forced to carry auto insurance. It’s a state requirement. Democrats might say they didn’t take that position when they conceived it themselves just a few years ago and point to the Interstate Commerce Clause as legal justification for the mandate. Americans’ opinion of the mandate has changed along party lines, of course,... Health care reform is literally a life and death issue both for people and the economy. The present system, prior to the full implementation of the ACA, is costing citizens their health and contributing to the National Debt. Something must be done. If not the ACA then what? If the country is waiting on Republicans to fix the system they have a long wait. Health care is not their priority as evidenced by the previous administrations complete failure to address the topic at all. It is difficult for Washington to tackle a complex issue such as health care and seldom politically advantageous. The Democrats tried but failed during the 1990’s and have tried again, each time struggling to pass a bill against a concerted and organized campaign to defeat it, a campaign of obvious lies and propaganda, the â€Å"death panels’ to kill your grandmother misinformation for example. Because of this scare tactic health care reform, so essential to people and the nation, may again go do wn in defeat and must wait for another Democratic administration to try yet another time.

Write summary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Write summary - Essay Example Threats from white American ensure and the find themselves targets of threats from the violence. Forasmuch as Anne accomplished the goals of demonstrating for blacks, she however concludes that the movement and demonstration had not brought any transformation to the lives of people in Mississippi. The movement had focused too much on how voters were going to register and some other political issues like, such as Freedom Vote, which is a vote intended to bring freedom to blacks (Moody, 253). Anne desired that the sole purpose of demonstration would be centered on economic empowerment for instance, demonstrating so that black farmers are given lands where they can either live of farm. Before the book ends, Anne meets with her allies, Bob, in a bus, going to Washington. The bus is occupied with volunteers who all seem far more enthusiastic and younger than she. All in one accord they sung a â€Å"We Shall Overcome,† chorus. The notion of whether blacks will ever conquer racism gr ips the mind of Anne all the way to Washington. The information provided in this chapter is very relevant to US history. The chapter majorly talks of how black American fight for their freedom and rights. This is clearly illustrated by their act of voting and activism (Moody, 255). Whites argued that black were genetically inferior. The chapter is a wakeup call to end racism and live in harmony as one nation one people. The book Making America is enriched with a clear evolution of events pertaining to politics. The book also zoom into various experiences from different individuals and cultures that make up the society of America. Historical topics are clearly dealt with and analyzed. This makes it interesting and enticing for students to read the book. For teachers whose classrooms reflects the variety of college students of our current world and society, the book is arrange in a orderly sequence that make it easier for the teacher to teach. It is rich in

Historical analysis of recent events Research Paper

Historical analysis of recent events - Research Paper Example Once the protests were successful in Tunisia, all other North African Countries in the vicinity of the Arab League joined protests in their nations to protest over similar demands. Specifically, the demonstrators were successful to remove from office presidents in countries such as Libya, Egypt, Algeria, Yemen, Tunisia, Morocco, Kuwait, Jordan and Iraq. Strong protests had since been recorded in areas such as Syria, Sudan, Palestine and Oman. It is safe to mention that there was some coercion and influence in the way in which people strove and joined the protests. It is important to contextualize the causes so as to understand the reasons which made the countries take up arms against their governments. Firstly, it was held and believed that there was some level and degree of dissatisfaction by young people and labour unions due to disparities in the levels of incomes and poverty. The youths were the backbone of the protests due to unemployment and the varying gap that existed between the level of wealth between them and the ruling class. Equally of interest was the issue of mass or grave violations of human rights, monarchy and exclusivity of power concentrated to the hands of a few people and corruption or misuse of public resources. The youths and the Arabs nations by extension were particularly concerned by the extravagance of the ruling elites yet they did not have even jobs or any meaningful source of income. Equally unsettling to the protestors was the fact that there was no room for dissent or difference of opinion from the ruling autocrats. The word of the ruling autocrats became rule and law without following any due process of legislation or constitutionalism. A practical case and instance in this respect and line of thought was the Libya case where there so many political prisoners. The prisoners in Libya

Health Care in America, the Incurable Debate Essay

Health Care in America, the Incurable Debate - Essay Example (Klein, 2012). Republicans question the figures but can pretty much live with the rest or watered-down versions of it. The individual mandate is at the heart of the debate. It is this part that sent the law to the High Court and, depending on which side characterizes it, is an egregious infringement on liberty or a fair and necessary part of the legislation. The individual mandate, which legally obliges all who can afford it to buy health care insurance based on a sliding income scale, was conceived during the 1990’s version of the health care debate. First Lady Hillary Clinton was tasked with the immense issue of health care reform in an attempt to design a bill that would cover more people while curbing costs. During this contentious, highly partisan debate the Republicans demanded that individual responsibility was written into the law and favored the individual mandate. Democrats hesitated at first but relented in an effort to pass something, even a much smaller version th an they initially envisioned. Fast forward 15 years. Tea Party Republicans have made the mandate a centerpiece of their argument against reforming the overly costly system. They claim the ACA is a â€Å"government takeover of health care.† (Goozner, 2010). Republicans also claim the mandate is unconstitutional. They contend states have the authority but not the federal government. That’s why people can be forced to carry auto insurance. It’s a state requirement. Democrats might say they didn’t take that position when they conceived it themselves just a few years ago and point to the Interstate Commerce Clause as legal justification for the mandate. Americans’ opinion of the mandate has changed along party lines, of course,... Health care reform is literally a life and death issue both for people and the economy. The present system, prior to the full implementation of the ACA, is costing citizens their health and contributing to the National Debt. Something must be done. If not the ACA then what? If the country is waiting on Republicans to fix the system they have a long wait. Health care is not their priority as evidenced by the previous administrations complete failure to address the topic at all. It is difficult for Washington to tackle a complex issue such as health care and seldom politically advantageous. The Democrats tried but failed during the 1990’s and have tried again, each time struggling to pass a bill against a concerted and organized campaign to defeat it, a campaign of obvious lies and propaganda, the â€Å"death panels’ to kill your grandmother misinformation for example. Because of this scare tactic health care reform, so essential to people and the nation, may again go do wn in defeat and must wait for another Democratic administration to try yet another time.

Historical analysis of recent events Research Paper

Historical analysis of recent events - Research Paper Example Once the protests were successful in Tunisia, all other North African Countries in the vicinity of the Arab League joined protests in their nations to protest over similar demands. Specifically, the demonstrators were successful to remove from office presidents in countries such as Libya, Egypt, Algeria, Yemen, Tunisia, Morocco, Kuwait, Jordan and Iraq. Strong protests had since been recorded in areas such as Syria, Sudan, Palestine and Oman. It is safe to mention that there was some coercion and influence in the way in which people strove and joined the protests. It is important to contextualize the causes so as to understand the reasons which made the countries take up arms against their governments. Firstly, it was held and believed that there was some level and degree of dissatisfaction by young people and labour unions due to disparities in the levels of incomes and poverty. The youths were the backbone of the protests due to unemployment and the varying gap that existed between the level of wealth between them and the ruling class. Equally of interest was the issue of mass or grave violations of human rights, monarchy and exclusivity of power concentrated to the hands of a few people and corruption or misuse of public resources. The youths and the Arabs nations by extension were particularly concerned by the extravagance of the ruling elites yet they did not have even jobs or any meaningful source of income. Equally unsettling to the protestors was the fact that there was no room for dissent or difference of opinion from the ruling autocrats. The word of the ruling autocrats became rule and law without following any due process of legislation or constitutionalism. A practical case and instance in this respect and line of thought was the Libya case where there so many political prisoners. The prisoners in Libya

War is never justified Essay Example for Free

War is never justified Essay In this essay I shall give a review of the current war on Afghanistan and some of the theories behind it being either just or unjust war. In these time is can be difficult for people to give their honest and pure opinions on war, partly because of their countries allies, enemies and even their personal friends foes. People living in the United States of America will be influenced by their leaders getting them to go to a war against Afghanistan in which they call: War Against Terrorism. There is one problem with this and that is that you cannot wipe out all the wicked off the world as this is impossible. You may be able to stop a significant amount of it but not all of it, it is just physically impossible. I said at the beginning of this essay that I would go through some of the theories, so here they are: 1. Realism: no moral justification Realism is when the public do not get a decision to go to war, it is all up to the government to decide and work at their own interests on the war. 2. Consequentialism: Consequentialism is when a war is justified by the consequences on both sides. This prevents any possible tragedies happening. 3. Just War Theory: The Just War Theory has VERY strict conditions, in fact if a war is justified it must meet with seven conditions: 1.Just cause 2.Last Resort 3.Lawful Authority 4.Formal Declaration 5.Right Intention 6.Prospects of Success 7.Proportionality (good overall effects) 4. Pacifism: Pacifism is simply that war is never justified, this is what I believe. Now let me give you three questions that give a simple sum-up of what I have just said: 1. Is war allowed or not? Pacifism versus non-pacifism 2. If allowed, are any ethical limitations suitable? Realism versus ethics-of-war theories. 3. If moral constraints are appropriate, what should they be? Consequentialism, Just War Theory or Pacificism. Ill bet there are many more theories out there, but I have just picked these out because it gives a good range of different perspectives. I will now go through the seven conditions of the Just War Theory and apply them of the war against Afghanistan: 1.Just cause 2.Last Resort 3.Lawful Authority 4.Formal Declaration 5.Right Intention 6.Prospects of Success 7.Proportionality (good overall effects) Just Cause Just Cause means that you cannot just attack a random country for some poor reason, for example (this is imaginary): The USA attack Monte Carlo because they are jealous of a wonderfully complex and twisty racetrack they possess. This would be pathetic as the Americans have the Laguna Seca Raceway and it just seems so childish. Anyway, back to the point, this theory has to include two states, one being attacked and the other doing the attacking. The problem with this is that no state attacked America, it was an organisation. So this part of the Just Cause Test has been failed. Now for the second condition. Last Resort This condition states that if all other reasonable (in the eyes of the theory) options have been exhausted then the best option can be taken. It seems debatable that other options have not been exhausted, so another failure. Lawful Authority Formal Declaration The war must be formally declared to the public and the opposing state. Bin Laden has completely failed this test, but the USA has formally declared their war. This test has been passed with flying colours Right Intention Not only do states have to have a just cause, they must let the public know about it, not just some hidden intention like the imaginary example I gave earlier. If we look at American foreign policy since World War II it shows that the policy has been inconsistent throughout. Through their disobedience of justice we can positively say that the same has happened here, so this test is almost undoubtedly failed. Prospects of Success If there are no signs stating that this war will be won, then it will be a disastrous waste of life. The current War against Terrorism covers such a colossal span it is evident that the named battle will never be won. Another test failed. Proportionality (good overall effects) No war is justified unless the good effects gained by the war are better than the evil it inflicts. The war is causing starvation (including death of it), many casualties, and death because of protests. According to the just war theory two out of the seven conditions have been passed, so in this theory the war should not be continued. Realist View Nothing better will be gained for the Americans, so from this view the war should not have been started either. Utilitarian view The verdict is doubtful for utilitarianism, too. Whether the war has better consequences than any alternative approach depends not just on the last point of the Just War Theory, which itself makes it very doubtful that the war can be justified. Also, utilitarianism requires not just that the results of war be on balance but on the war being the alternative with the best results, which is even more doubtful. Completely failed. Consequentialism According to Consequentialists the key question is: Will the final strategy minimise the bad-effects compared to all the other options? You must consider that all lives are equal. So, if all lives count equally, then a military strategy that kills many more civilians for the sake of a smaller reduction in military casualties on one side cannot be justified on consequentialist justifications. But this is precisely the reason why the US and its allies have used massive air strikes in what they say is the first phase of the war. It seems likely that this strategy does not minimise the bad effects compared to all alternatives and so any consequentialist justification is doubtful. Summing up I believe that there is no such thing as a just war and countries should stop, tidy up and talk, it would save a lot of lives and be a lot more logical, even if it means translating!

Chinese and Western Culture

Chinese and Western Culture I am going to start a series of discussions on cultural differences between Chinese and Western culture. Please keep in mind that I am not saying that all Chinese are like this or all Westerners are like this; I am talking only in generalities, referring to broad patterns. Obviously, there are many differences in specific individuals; and particularly as the rapid pace of development and change continues in China, the younger generation will tend to have significant changes. Nor am I saying that one way is good, and the other is bad; I personally believe that both sides have their strengths and weaknesses. But I believe that these are interesting topics for discussion, and can improve understanding and communication on both sides. Different nations have different cultures during the long developing history. Various cultural factors resulted in different language forms. According to observation, analysis, and study, the discrepancies between the Chinese and Western culture include culture of allusions, of numbers, of colors, etc.. It is an important issue to understand and handle the relationship between culture and language while translating English idioms. Meanwhile, language is not only the cultures important content but also the carrier of culture, so culture and language are a whole. Since different culture gives rise to alternative language structures, while translating, you must know its fundamental cultural obstacles, and then you can do translation more correctly and suitably. I.What is cultural difference? There are many meanings of the word culture. Sometimes, we say that people who know about music, art, and literature are cultured. However, for anthropologist, the word culture has a different meaning. To an anthropologist the word culture means all the ways that a group of people think, feel, art, and dress. The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English gives such an explanation of culture: the customs, beliefs, art, music, and all the other products of human thought made by a particular group of people at a particular time. Different nations hold different cultures. For instance, full moon symbolizes jubilation and reunion in China, and a bright moon in the sky makes people feel quiet and at leisure. Ideas of beauty differ from one culture to another. For example, the Flathead Indian of North America used to bind the heads of babies between board so they would have long sloping foreheads. In the Flathead culture, long sloping foreheads were beautiful. Other cultures might think that they are strange-looking and unattractive. For another example, when people die, different cultures deals with their bodies in different ways. Sometimes bodies are buried. Sometimes bodies are buried under the ground. In many cultures in the past, people were buried with food, weapons, and other things that might be useful in the next life. For instance, the ancient Egyptians buried people with little human figures which were from clay. This clay figure were intended to work the death person in the other world. From these examples, we can see that cultures are quite different from one country to another. It is brief that different people do the same things or consider the same things in different ways. Every country own itself cultural, cultural is countrys soul and its place of origin. In order to establish a good international relationship with others countries, so we are need to understand their cultural and find their differences with our country. Because With China entry the WTO and will hold the Olympic Games in 2008, the relationship between China and Western in politics, economy, culture will become more and more close. It is undoubtedly that the etiquette will play an important role in this process. To the definition of etiquette, China and Western have a different understanding. As Chinese thinks that the etiquette is the common behavior standards that all the members must obey, and its purpose is to keep the normal living order of the society. In ancient China, a famous philosopher thinks that etiquette is a principal to deal with the relationship between man and supernatural beings, man and ghosts, man and men. There are also many words about etiquette in English, therefore we need to understand the Chinese and western cultural differences. Culture is an integrated development course, whose soul is the cultural concept or idea. The author tries to study the cultural difference between Western and Chinese culture from the perspective of economical ethics and draw the conclusion that Chinese should critically assimilate Western culture and inherit traditional Chinese culture to create a new culture which fits the needs of the new era. The differences between Chinese and Western social initiatives First, by the family of the impact of ethical conduct, the Chinese people always put yourself in a group (ethics groups) to look at themselves in order to determine their own initiatives, bad sequence style.Only targeted by Professor Fei Xiaotong said, in such a poor sequence style, the individuals behavior so self-centered, but it only shows the starting point of individual initiatives.Indeed the basis for such a move from the starting point is on the basis of ethical conduct.Therefore, in China, the individual is basically digestion among the group.Group is the purpose of individual existence, but not the means.Groups of ethical conduct ordered, probably that group of patriarchal order that is the absolute ethical order.By the abstraction of rational conduct and the resulting impact of character and independence in the West, people always put themselves as a separate entity, the individual for their own survival and growth needs to unite to create groups and join groupsactivity.Ind ividual and group are mutually exclusive, is a Zuoquan connected.Although the unity of the individual in the group, but individuals are free to the balance of payments pursuant to Zuoquan groups.Although in order to achieve the advantages of the individual, the individual in the enjoyment of community empowerment must be accompanied by the group seriously, the implementation of the mission of the individual pairs of groups. Secondly, the family as a starting point of the structure of the difference sequence initiative, blood related initiatives has become an important frame of reference, by the Chinese peoples social initiatives have been given a dark mood of color In the social interaction or correspondence of the people first of all think about is the emotional intimacy of sexual, to consider the feelings of others on a thoughtful, considerate, and admire, that is, pay attention to human.Emotion and the Chinese people are Nanshe hard to leave, became the first requirement of life.China does not conform to the most is the indifference to human connection.In between in which people not only value the sentiment, but also sub-fur sentiment a letter, as long as with the emotions related to the incident will be hard to get much easier to handle more.Insinuation sets of feelings the Chinese people have become just as normal dealings consistent with the essentials.The emotional life, so that the formation of Chinese society, a humane society, but this has to society in the public and a moderate yield growth has brought endless variables.In the eyes of the Chinese people, whether private or public events, can all be factoring in the emotional front or modification.Law enforcement, the rules of human development, though should be a human face.In the West, as the ancient Greek philosophers, the human abstract, or because people go beyond the Christian right, people in the community initiatives either a rational as a guideline, or succumb to the call of God.Where the family connected, blood related, emotional connection is not the main peoples social initiatives, the only all thinking.This is important because of their emotional and non emotional drew a clear-cut between the boundaries, and boundaries of the two sides do not have to replace nature.Sentiment in the West essentially has been compressed into a very cramped area where, it is important the family is now living in the table. Cross-cultural communication, cultural differences, cultural conflict With Chinas gradual opening-up level of depth, Western society more and more people and things into our field of vision, in this case, the cross-domain, cross-ethnic, cross-cultural economic and social contacts will be increasing This provides us with many opportunities for contact and exchanges between the West, which for deepening our understanding of Western society is a good thing, but this is not a simple matter, because we are facing from the unfamiliar cultures and countries, ways of thinking, habits and behavior patterns with our very different people, in the process of interaction with the inevitable phenomenon of cultural conflict occurs. Western cross-cultural communication in the cultural conflicts that often appear inCross-cultural Communication in Chinese and Western cultural conflict occurs there are many, here we have it is impossible to describe, only the more common are listed in several. 1.1 The privacy of the conflict The Chinese concept of privacy is relatively weak, that the individual should be vested in a collective, together pay attention to unity and friendship, mutual interest and therefore I understand the Chinese people are often very willing to other peoples ups and downs, the other party is willing to frankly say so. The Westerners are a very good personal privacy, pay attention to personal space, too many people are reluctant to mention their own affairs, but also reluctant to allow others to interfere. Therefore, privacy issues on the two sides are frequent conflicts, such as: Chinese people tend to ask first met each others age, marital status, children, occupation, or income, in the eyes of the Chinese people it is an act of courtesy, but in the West the eyes of the view that these questions violated their privacy. 1.2 concept of time in the conflict Western concept of time and money concept is linked, time is money, the concept of deep-rooted, so they are very much value his time and of time in their lives often have done a careful arrangements and plans, and develop a good time to meet this woman habits. In the West, to visit someone, you must give advance notice or agreement, and explain the purpose of visit, time and place, it was agreed upon to proceed. The Chinese people belonged to more time to get used to the country, the use of time has great randomness, as Westerners are generally not as stringent as those according to plan, Westerners have often uncomfortable. 1.3 polite language in the conflict The Chinese emphasis on humility, in communication with others, the habit of humble have respect, and this as a virtue, it is a rich Chinese cultural characteristics courtesy of the phenomenon. Others praised us, we tend to be self-deprecating about it, in order to form modest and polite. Western countries have no such cultural practices, when they were praised, there will always am happy to say Thank you accepted. As the differences between Chinese and Western cultures, we believe that Westerners are too self-confident, without modesty; and when Westerners learn that the Chinese people who do deny others their own praise, or to hear their own deny their own achievements, even when their own derogatory worth a penny , would be very surprised that the Chinese people dishonest. 1.4 dining customs in the conflict Is known hospitality of the Chinese nations fine traditions. In the communication occasions and feast on the warm toast the Chinese people offering each other cigarettes are often each other. The Chinese banquet, even if a table filled with delicious food, the owner, he always used to say a few words, excuse me and other polite words. Sometimes the owner will use chopsticks to guests bowl Jia Cai, using a variety of ways to persuade customers more Chi cai more drink. In Western countries, people emphasis on respect for individual rights and personal privacy, so they will not do an imposing task. Dinner time, you will not be hard to bowl Jia Cai, Eat what you own, they would not use a variety of ways to persuade guests to drink, do not insisted until you have drunk. 2. Causes of cultural conflict caused by the phenomenon of inquiry Of conflict caused by the phenomenon of Chinese and Western cultures a variety of reasons, study its fundamental, it is because the two sides have different Chinese and Western cultures, different historical backgrounds, will inevitably bring about peoples thinking, behavior, and many other differences, or even conflict, here we come specifically look at What are the main reason. 2.1 The differences in thinking patterns Culture will affect peoples views and understanding of the outside world of things, different countries have different cultures, so there must be differences in thinking patterns, which is in the Eastern and Western culture has been particularly evident among. Western cultures focus on logic and analytical thinking, while the Oriental culture of thinking is to show integrity intuition, which is also the characteristics of traditional Chinese culture and thinking. Because of this the impact of traditional culture, Chinese people are often special attention to intuition and pay attention to recognize the process of experience and feeling, often in exchanges of experience and feeling to this to have relieve people. Compared with the Western mode of thinking, the Chinese people of this mode of thinking has obvious broad and vague nature of the passage of time, will develop a mindset that can be interpreted as recognition and to simplify the classification of things outside the process of perception. In essence, mindset, often ignore the individual differences of things, exaggerate a particular social group associated with the other cognitive attitudes, often with emotional and accompanied by a fixed creed. In all the set, some fixed potential is correct, while others are wrong, will directly affect the cross-cultural communication, resulting in communication failures. The specific meaning of a code of conduct refers to socially accepted by the ethical standards and codes of conduct, simply, is to tell people what to do and not do as a norm. People of different cultural background in communication, we often occurs a phenomenon is to apply its own code of conduct for the society to determine the reasonableness of each others behavior, due to differences in norms of both sides, often misleading, offensive or even worse results. For example, tapping the Chinese people, said the head of a child in a friendly, while in Western countries, this is a great lack of respect for the practice of children, parents would have very angry. So, in a cross-cultural communication is able to correctly identify and apply a code of conduct is to ensure the smooth progress of cross-cultural communication an important factor. To safeguard the smooth progress of cross-cultural communication, we must understand each others codes of conduct, in particular, what conduct is pr ohibited, the best way is to follow the principle of Romans do. 2.3 The values of different Peoples communicative competence is the process of socialization produced inevitably and values together. Every culture has its own unique value system, this system can help people distinguish between beauty and ugliness, good and evil, this is the peoples philosophy of life, moral standards and code of conduct. But it can not be divorced from the specific culture of the existence of criteria for judging every culture is different, this culture that it is good, another culture may think that bad, but they are in their own culture, and their existence within the system is reasonable, must not be understood as a standard of value is advanced, while another standard of value behind. In Chinese and Western cultures, for example, in Chinese culture, people respected modest chirye, the pursuit of adaptable and do not like assertive or aggressive, and social trends are often blocked too prominent individuals, are the so-called line above the masses, people will be non of. In Chinese culture , the collective orientation of the dominant, the pursuit of personal development is seen as a serious individualism, is bound to be condemned. The Western culture is very much advocating individualism, adaptable is seen as a lack of entrepreneurial performance, are lazy, incompetent synonymous for society and individuals are not taken. Human-based thinking is rooted in their hearts, people advocating independent thinking, independent judgments, relying on their ability to achieve their personal interests, and that the supremacy of individual interests. 2. Comparison study from the perspective of Advertisement Language and culture are inseparable. Each nationals special culture mode comes out of the speech and behavior of that race by all means. They use their own language to record the things happened by them. The advertisement is a kind of manifestation of culture, its under the influence and restrict of local culture. National culture influences and restricts the development and expression of advertising language which is the core content of advertisement .advertising language contains and reflects the social culture. Language exists in the community and with the development of society and development, and culture among the definite role to play. A philosophy idea, thinking mode of race, the cultural mental state, moral concept, life style, customs and habits, social system, religion and faithetc, will produce a function to the advertisement language by all means. No matter how the advertising art develop, as long as it is a popular method of communication involved, it will never take p art from language , language will be the most important and effective communication tool. Advertisement through the performance function of language to describe the image of product, express the taste sensibility and make an introduction of related products knowledge lively and specifically. However, the current language is not merely the carrier of products; it adjusts tradition and modern culture factors to make them carry more contents richer than it. In fact, the advertisement language of the social culture reflection is easily comprehended and accepted by people, this can promote the effect of advertisement. Take cognizance of this, make great effort to discuss the inside relation of national culture and advertisement language, it has important function to create and design the advertisement language which matches the basic principle of advertisement expression and suites particular national cultural characteristic. Each advertisement language has its trace of social national c ulture, according to every nations thinking mode, mental characteristic, living custom, value judgment ,even the political belief, social system to consider an advertisement creation, in order to keep with native son taste, match native son mindset has already been earnestly practiced by numerous advertisement plan personnel. The influence of Chinese and Western culture on advertising language is various, The Chinese and Western advertising language also reflect the Chinese and Western culture in many ways. The company of American PG named its shampoo pert-plus in the United States, being named perjoice in the Asia, and its Chinese name is float soft to cater for Chinese market, and it can explain a problem very much. Owing to the differences of Chinese and Western culture, the representation form of Chinese and Western advertisement is diverse, advertising language also manifests different culture value and thinking mode. As the culture background, customs, behavior principle, life style of Chinese and Western have great distinction. Therefore, every countrys advertisement businessman will think over the culture background of consumers. The aim of the paper is to lay out the influences to by comparing Chinese and Western advertising languages. II. The relationship between culture and language 2.1 The concept of the language and culture Culture is the all and the one which consist by social behavior, art, beliefs, customs transmission through society conduct and all other products of human work and thinking .Language is accompanied by the creation of the human society, it is the direct manifestation of thinking. Language reflects the characteristics of a nation, which not only includes the nations historical and cultural backgrounds, but holds on the nations view of life, the way of life and thinking. Culture is diverse, language is also varied (Chen, 2000:20).When the nation as a language, living areas, economic life and psychological stability community appears in the history of mankind, language is deeply stamped with the brand of a nation; it is the most typical characterization of the nation and national culture. 2.2 The relations of language and culture Language can not separate from related culture to be independent. Some sociologists believe that the language is the cornerstone of culture-no language, no culture.From another aspect, language is affected by language and reflected the culture. Language is based on the historical and cultural aspects. The nations way of thinking, values, concepts, habits and behavior will affect aesthetic language development. The formation of a national culture, development and absorption ought to pass the language to achieve. Language and culture influence each other; we should try to understand language and culture and to learn them. Language is like a mirror which reflects the entire culture, and every nation has its own culture. Language as the carrier and idea of culture, its representation form is influenced and restricted by culture. Understand their unique cultural background to understand the language features. Only more exposure to foreign cultures, familiar with different language nationa l history amorous feelings, way of life, value and national psychology, open up their vision, learn more about the cultural and language differences. Culture promotes the development of advertising language, the language of advertising propagandize its culture. Chinese and Western advertising language has its own unique form of language which contain the beautiful scenery of language and culture. The charm of the language of instruction is fully displayed in the advertisement. Meanwhile, the Chinese and Western social and cultural knowledge which contained in language make us experience the infinitude delight .Chinese and Western advertising languages let us deepen our understanding of foreign countries, and bring to the world of cross-cultural exchanges 2.3 Culture of numbers and translation Numbers are used here and there so that culture of numbers has come into being. Cultures are carried by language, and there are differences between the English and Chinese languages. The differences her I will mention is not the one of the figures calculation or arrangement, but the different phenomenon of idioms composed of numbers displayed in the two different cultures. As far as Chinese culture is concerned, there are numerous Chinese idioms and idiomatic usages with numbers, we are familiar with them: ;;,;;;,( «Ã‚ »),etc. If you want to translate these Chinese idioms into English literally, the version will not be accepted by western culture. For example, translate into one eye sees it all clearly; into seven mouths and eight tongues; into three longs and two shorts; no one will understand what does it really mean. And in English culture, there exists culture of numbers everywhere, which deals with many fields, showing that culture of numbers should be paid attention to, too. seven is holy and mysterious number which is regarded as a lucky numbers, if seven or nine times any of the odd numbers, and your age is one of them: 21,27,35,45,49,63,81, you will be considered as the one who has a dangerous time. The seventh son of ones seventh son is always accepted as an outstanding. And what is more, there are many idiomatic usages with seven in English culture. For instance, how do you translate this sentence into Chinese: Seventy times seven did I take counsel with my soul. Some one will translate it like this: ,but the right one should like this: Here seventy times seven can be translated into which comes from the Bible: Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, until seven times: but, until seventy times seven. From the above examples we can see that, either Chinese or English idioms with numbers, we should translate them freely for cultural differences exist everywhere. ?.The features of Chinese and Western advertisement Advertising, a kind of war as a modern business strategy and weapons, their purpose is commercial in nature, but its manifestations is a cultural and artistic.Emergence and development of advertising is the inevitable product of social development, the same time, is also a product of culture. Advertisement is the special performance of modern culture spirit. As a means of reflecting the reality, advertising language also is the component of culture. Advertisements adjust peoples activity or bring the society effect into play. Advertisement is a multi-language arts conveying information to people and using language for the carrier .Therefore, the advertising language should be simple and easily understood, fluency and clear, we should also pay attention to the rhetoric manner at the same time. Chinese and Western advertisement cited a variety of rhetoric to achieve the effect of merchandise promotion, and consumers are not consciously deepened the impression of the product after gaini ng the spirit edifying and enjoying aesthetic feeling, arousing peoples desire to buy it , such as antithesis, Hyperbole, Parody, metaphor, rhyme and repeatedly. Etc Owing to the differences of Chinese and Western culture, the representation form is diverse. Advertising language also manifests different culture values and thinking mode. Chinese and Western culture has large different culture background, customs, behavior conduct and way of life. Thus, advertisers will no doubt consider the demands of consumer through their cultural background. There I list some examples of advertisement to compare and analyze how the Chinese and Western national culture influence their advertising language: 3.1 Different Philosophy concept The Chinese nation has insists that the heaven and human units as the harmonious one. For example: something unexpected may happen any time, I have life insurance (The Peoples Insurance Company of China).This ad indicates that people are not afraid of accident because the people have insurance. The accident and insurance is a unit and are dispensable. That the business loves customs is showed in this ad and it will come to an agreement between them. At last the goal of the ad comes into truth. . But in western culture they insist the standpoint of pluralistic. They pay attention to diversity and changes of material, emphasis specially on the change and difference of the nature ,stressed that personal freedom, self-development and personal enterprise. The biggest different between harmonious and pluralists if that the pluralists is not limited. Look at this English ad:Olympus, No limits. There is little you cant be with the Olympus Zoom Lens Reflex series. The all-in-X cameras that wont limit your creative ability. (Olympus camera). The camera have one more features make photographs produce different then to reflect individual creativity is in the continuing development and is not limited in this ad. The advertisements show the ultimate challenge and seek freedom can greatly stimulate consumer desire so enthusiastic consumption. 3.2 Different cultural values-oriented Chinese cultural has a long history and the alcohol cultural is significant. To illustrate the quality of goods, they attempt to explain how long the water life by quotating the history. For example: (1) Legend quality, Century ZHANG YU.( ZHANG YU Tokay) (2) Tang palace drink, JIAN NAN CHUN (JIAN NAN CHUN Drink) Those two alcohols long history were given expression to only sentences, showing the deep feeling toward consumers, narrowing the gap between the products and consumers. The Western countries insisted the short term oriented culture; the main reason is the history is shorter than China. They dont do the business like Chinese who often use the factors of history and tradition, but use the strong and direct marketing strategy (hard sale), a product of the immediate results as a selling point. For example: go and get it at once, buy it , fit it well, take action right now, call now etc. is the common use in foreign ads . Value is the different views and attitudes of people regarding the matter. China is a traditional agricultural economy society, it is said that Chinese cultural system emphasized the collectivism and authoritative character, using the natural value orientation. This ad is a manifestation of this feature of Chinese culture: HUA LI killing mosquito tool-silence without mosquito dedication. This ad was excellent for using the partial tone of mosquito and listen. It builds the image of unknown to public dedication of products and corporation. To praises of the heroes of our community who quietly worked hard, this identity arouses the resonance in the minds of vast consumers. But in the Western capital society, individualism?equality and the dominant natural were the orientation ,they stress personality differences. This can be seen from many American ads products, there are many differences trying to explain from, even in the absence of any differences as well. In the United States ads, there is a popular phrase, it would be: to create different. For example: One airline painted the vivid colors on the airframe in order to catch peoples eye. In fact, the plane and service of other airplane company are not much different. 3.3 Different cultural psychology Advertiser often reflecting takes me the psychology and tries to appear the customers. Ads reflected the cultural psychology of language is quite common. Such as:1?congratulate to make a pile to welcome new year, have long luck Goldlion (Goldlion wearing advertisement); 2?WEI LI washing machine, dedicated to a mother. (WEI LI washing machine); the advertising language cater to the cultural psychology of Chinese, has persuaded function. Good fortune?salary?longevity ?happy and wealth were the symbol of Chinese traditional culture. Chinese have the psychology of hearing nice words, so many products related to the common use show menu of the family affection. For example: A lot of good luck, a lot of satisfaction (FU MAN DUO instant noodles) and A bowl nice glue ball round and round , a good reunion after eating (a advertisement of Chinese glutinous rice flour) are two types examples which emphasis Chinese value. In contrast, the Western culture takes more emphasis on independence and i ndividuality; their ads pay more attention to character display, ideas and humor. Kodak film and your family happiness Is a popular advertisement in Chinas market, but its ads in U.S is a picture of one boy holding ponchos in one hand, and the other standing on a sword with the statements. He just killed his last dragon. Kodak keeps happiness for Chinese, keep the feat for American. The whole world has a common human emotion, such as kinship, friendship and love, but

Sir Roger Penrose :: biographies biography bio

Sir Roger Penrose, was born in England, in Colchester, August 8, 1931. His parents were both highly educated. His mother Margaret Feathe was a doctor, and his father, Lionel Sharples Penrose, was a medical geneticist. He and his brothers Oliver and Jonathan all went into the sciences. Jonathan became a psychologist, while Oliver, the eldest, became a mathematician. Roger was groomed to be a doctor, but he swerved into another path when his school would not let him have biology, and mathematics as his focuses. He was allowed two, and he could not give up math. Needless to say, his parents were wroth with him for a time for disrupting their plans, but he went on to graduate from University College London with a bachellor of sciences in mathematics, winning First Class honors. He later became interested in physics, through the inspiration of Dirac, Turing and Godel. He attended their lectures at Cambridge and found them fascinating. However, he continued his works in mathematics, receiving a Ph.D in Algebraic Geometry. He is famous for his aperiodic tilings, his collaboration with Stephen Hawking on black holes, and especially for his books on consciousness such as The Emporer's New Mind. A less-well-known achievement on his part was the development of twistor geometry, a concept that will be explained in further depth later on. Queerly, everyone in mathematics and physics has heard of him, and every dabbler in puzzles and games has probably used his tilings. Many in England have probably even wiped with toilet paper bearing the pattern named after him. Yet he is not published in any standard biography of 20th century greats, he is known largely only by book reviews or in conjunction with Stephen Hawking. His personal life is closed off--all I found was some gossip that he had recently had a child with his wife (presumably, eh?) in his 60s, and that that wife's name was Vanessa Thomas, a consultant specializing in Mathematica teaching programs and how to use them. This after three hours searching newspapers, magazines, EBSCOhost and online resources. Yet he is regarded with awe in my circle of physics majors, his anti-AI books prompted ant anti-programming group based in Sweden to name themselves after him, and he has done research on fiundamental issues in physics today. Penrose is generally termed gentle. His handwriting is rounded and soft, similar to a childs loopy writing. An interview with him in Japan reveals a contemplative nature as he describes art that he and his wife encountered there.

Invent Your Own Technology :: Process Essays

Invent Your Own Technology â€Å"The first writing technology was writing itself (39 Baron).† -Dennis Baron, From Pencils to Pixels Re-introducing myself to a task that I have taken advantage of my entire life proved both frustrating and time consuming. Writing has always been done with at least a pencil hasn’t it? Apparently not, and I realized that as I set out to â€Å"create† a non-technological way to write. The new way of writing I created, although effective, took quite a bit longer than I had anticipated. Thinking of an idea for this project was easy; it was putting that abstract thought into concrete form that proved difficult. Armed with the best of intentions I set out to create a project equivalent to Egyptian hieroglyphics carved on the tops of pyramids. I soon realized that I set my goals a bit to high so I began scratching a few words into a piece of tree bark with a rock. When that proved not as interesting as I wanted, and certainly not as aesthetically pleasing, I moved to plan B: creating my own ink by boiling grape peals. The ink was a deep shade of purple (and smelled like w ine); I was sure it would write just like ink from a pen and I would have a beautiful project. However my ego got the better of me. As it turned out the fermented ink would not write on my bark surface. Instead it absorbed into the bark never to be seen again. I moved to plan C. Creating a smoother surface for my wonderful ink by mixing flour and water and spreading it over the bark-again unsuccessful. Plan D: stick with the flour and water mixture but carve into the surface, like clay, before it hardens completely. (I had utterly given up on the ink.) Success! I had finally created a new way to write. In just over three hours I had a ten-word document. It wasn’t profound; it wasn’t beautiful; but it was certainly permanent. My creation came to life. Through this inventing process I was not only able to make a new writing technology, but I also learned something very valuable about myself-I have surprisingly little patients.

Producing a compact disc called ‘Music 2 revise by’

I have decided to produce a compact disc called ‘Music 2 revise by', a poster and leaflet promoting the product for my media studies practical production. I will be working solo on this product. I am going to produce a CD, which will contain music that hopefully helps people revise. I have decided to do this because of personal preference to revise whilst listening to music, a large majority of people have also told me they revise better whilst listening to music and because of a current gap in the market for my CD. A lot of considerations need to be taken into account including the following: layout and design (both of the CD itself and the adverts) use of language as this is major when marketing and promoting the product to a specific audience and media technologies. I will also need to look at media audiences, representation and the values and ideology. These will make it clear who the product is going to be aimed at and how the values of the product imply the representations offered. I will think of various ideas for the CD and adverts and finally construct one finished idea for the CD and two separate ideas for the posters that will be aimed at varied target audiences. It is vital to obtain the correct target audience, as the audience should see clearly that the CD is aimed at them. To obtain a clear idea of the target audience I will carry out research. The research will include a survey of: whether people like listening to music whilst revising, what music people would like to revise to and the age of the interviewed. I will also try to carry the research out on other similar CD's and of varied people. The CD will obviously be aimed at people who revise. I'm going to find the specific target audience from my research I'll carry out, collect and analyse. Once I have found the target audience I can plan where to advertise it. The target gender does not matter as both male and female revise. The realistic possible age of the audience will be school pupils or college students. Therefore magazines such as more and bliss will be perfect for female school students and for female college student's magazines such as vogue and. The male college students are likely to read FHM and Front. These are fashion and lifestyle genre magazines and possibly even football magazines such as 442. The male school student targeted magazines will be very difficult to distinguish. This is because there does not seem to be any specific magazines for the age group of fourteen to sixteen at first look. I will carry out more research into what male school students that age read and include it as a question in my survey. The CD and adverts will need to be top quality to gain maximum exposure and will be advertised in many contrasting formats as possible although remaining realistic by placing it in appropriate media texts viewed by people who are likely to be interested in the CD. The initial design for CD will be a very colourful and flowing looking CD. It may even have connotations with a lava lamp, which is thought to be in fashion and used for calming and relaxation. This is because most people find revising tedious and boring so the colourful design and flowing looking CD may unconsciously denote to the audience that revising will flow along and actually be more enjoyable. The music will be in a certain genre that consists of relaxed and chilled out music in order to calm and relax the listener. The equipment I will be using is a PC equipped with ‘Adobe Photoshop' to design and produce my products. The Posters and CD will be printed out on a laser printer and very good paper that is most appropriate for the task. This will be important as the consumer always expects and wants good quality. The potential problems I may face are time restrictions, availability of equipment, collecting and analysing the research and also carrying it out over a varied age groups and the music chosen, is what consumers assume to be popular at this moment in time, might soon not be. To overcome these potential problems I will take action to make sure they do not affect my work. I will carefully plan what I will do stage-by-stage to overcome any possibility of the product not being finished in time. I will also make sure the equipment is readily available in abundance so the action plan I will make will not be disrupted. The research that is going to be carried out will be taken precisely and analysed carefully to be sure there are no data anomalies.

Course Project, Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements

Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements Note 1 Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Principles (10 items) Description of Business The Open-Road Motorcycle Company is the largest online retailer of salvage title motorcycles. We are focused on bringing the customer the best value on entry level motorcycles by providing lower prices than our competitors. Our motorcycles are sold all over the United States, and we currently have 30 stores all across the country. Property, Plant and Equipment All property, plant and equipment are stated at cost and depreciated over their useful lives.All depreciation expense incurred is derived using the straight line method. We do not depreciate our land. We estimate our useful life for our assets accordingly; buildings have a 40 year life, computer equipment has a 5 year life and the repair equipment a 15 year life. The estimated lives of our assets are reviewed periodically to determine if any impairment is present so the useful lives and depreciation can be adjusted for accuracy. Short-term Investments All of our investments are comprised of trading securities comprised of debt instruments in different industries.The securities are reported at fair value with any unrealized gains and losses stated on net income. Securities that are still held at the end of the fiscal year are evaluated and are adjusted if necessary. Inventory Valuation All of our merchandise on our website is recorded at cost or fair value, whichever is lower. The salvage motorcycle inventory is recorded at cost. We value our inventory using the average method. If the motorcycle is considered â€Å"unsellable†, it becomes disassembled and sold for parts.All parts received from motorcycles that have been disassembled are not recorded because the cost has already been recorded from the original purchase. The motorcycle would be written off as a loss on net income and all sales from the parts are considered gains and are stated on net income. Re fer to Note 2. Costs of Goods Sold Our Costs of goods sold is the cost of the motorcycles purchased, direct labor and depreciation expense. It includes all shipping and handling costs, air freight, train, and truck costs in received the merchandise and or motorcycles. Revenue RecognitionAll revenue generated from sales of inventory are realized when it has been earned. Generally when the item purchased arrives and the ownership transfers. All shipping and handling costs are included in the sales price. Revenues earned from sales are stated net of tax. Sales from disassembled motorcycles are listed as gains or losses on net income. Advertising Costs All costs associated with the marketing our website, which include television and internet ads, are expensed when incurred. Typically our advertising costs stay the same every year at $4 million, since our beginning in 2006. Accounts ReceivablesWe record accounts receivables at net realizable value. This value is the remainder of the amou nt due on sales on credit less estimated uncollectable amounts. We calculate our estimated amount based on past write-offs. Our company credit policy extends a 30 day period in which the full payment is due upon completion of sale. The item must have a prepayment of at-least 50% of the motorcycle sales price before it is shipped. We believe that because of this policy the amount of uncollectable revenue is reduces and sales have increased. Contingencies Our company is currently involved in a lawsuit pending a settlement agreement.A former employee was injured in an accident involving improper handling of the shipment. The settlement is considered probable and the estimated cost is $2 million. This amount is stated in current liabilities. Refer to Note 4. Pension and Other Postretirement Benefit Plans Our company contributes to pension and other postretirement health care plans for all of our employees. We contribute 3% of gross wages into a retirement fund specified by each employee . Refer to note 11. Note 2 Inventories Our inventory is comprised of salvaged motorcycles and fully repaired motorcycles.Inventories are valued at the lower of cost or market. We base our cost on the average cost method. Repaired motorcycles have title and labor costs included in the basis of valuation. Inventories consisted of the following (in millions): December 31, 2011 2010 Salvage motorcycle inventory $ 300 $310 Repaired motorcycle inventory $250 $200Total inventories $550 $510 Note 3 Property, Plant and Equipment The following table illustrates our property, plant and equipment (in millions): December 31, 2011 2010 Land $ 600 $ 550 Buildings and garages 900 700 Machinery, repair and computers 00 350 1,900 1,600 Less: accumulated depreciation 350 300 Property, plant and equipment – net $ 1,550 $ 1,300 Note 4 Contingencies and LiabilitiesOur company is currently involved in a lawsuit that is pending a settlement. The approximate amount of the settlement is $2 million. We have determined that the contingency is probable and the amount of the settlement is accurate. This amount is stated on the consolidated balance sheet for the current period. Note 5 Changes in Accounting Principles or Estimates We are currently using the average cost method for inventory valuation in place of LIFO.We have determined this method is more accurate for valuation because prices tend to fluctuate and may skew net income unfavorably. Note 6 Post Balance Sheet Events Our company continually evaluates its motorcycle inventory to determine cost and its ability to sell. If a significant amount of inventory is deemed obsolete or â€Å"unsellable,† it is adjusted in the next period. The amount is deducted from inventory and written off as a loss.The motorcycles then become disassembled and all revenue generate from the parts are considered a gain. Note 7 Mergers and Acquisitions We recently acquired Pristine Paint Jobs Company during the year for $50 million. We acqui red all buildings, land, equipment and certain patents on paint jobs. We have decided to expand our operations by completely restoring salvage motorcycles for a lower price. The following table illustrates the assets and liabilities received from the purchase (in millions):Cash $ 3 Inventory 10 Equipment 35 Property, plant and Equipment 45 Total assets acquired 93 Accounts payable 40 Long-term debt 40 Total liabilities acquired 80 Total net assets acquired $13 Note 8 Lease Obligations We currently lease a special modification machine that restores the engine and parts to 95%. The lease agreement is based on a 5 year term for $500,000 a year. The following table illustrates our payments for the term of the lease.Years ending December 31, Lease Payments 2011 $500,000 2012 $500,000 2013 $500,000 2014 $500,000 2015 $500,000 Total cost of the lease $2,500,000 Note 9 EPS Our company has 200,000 shares authorized with 100,000 outstanding. We have no preferred stock or treasury stock. The following table will illustrate the current and previous earnings per share. 2011 2010Net Income (in millions) $ 5 $ 4 Number of shares outstanding 100,000 100,000 EPS $50 $40 Note 10 Long-Term Debt With the acquisition of Pristine Paint Jobs, we acquired $40 million in long-term debt. Our long term debt prior to the acquisition was $25 million. Our long term debt consists of a $25 million note payable at a fixed interest rate of 1. 5 percent due December 31, 2040.The following illustrates the long term debts acquired from the purchase of Pristine Paint Jobs. * $20 million total principal amount of notes due November 20, 2035, at a fixed rate of 1 percent; and * $20 million total principal amount of notes due November 20, 2035, at a fixed rate of 1. 5 percent. Note 11 Employee Pension Obligations We continue to contribute to employee retirement plans for all of our employees. These pension plans are funded and are based on salaries and years of service. The total contri bution for the year is $10 million. In 2010 our total contribution was $9 million. We contribute 3% of employee wages into the plan. The increase in contribution is due to the increase of our workforce.