Free Essays on Chivalry

Chivalry What was chivalry? In researching this paper, it is not hard to see that the concept of chivalry that we have today is a drastic change from the concept the knights’ held. It is not hard to see how it has changed throughout the generations. The word chivalry is derived from the French word cheval which is from the Latin caballus. It is a concept is to be considered from three points of view: the military, the social, and the religious. By military standards during the Middle Ages, chivalry was actually another name for the cavalry, and the knight was the professional soldier of the time. At this time the infantry was in decline, and the cavalry was the mainstay of the armies. A chivalrous knight was characterized in battle by the fact that he had at least three horses, four or more attendants, and flags portraying his family crest. The squires, or the knight’s attendants in training, always went with the knight into battle. It is through training for battle and service to the knight that a young squire would learn the code of chivalry and eventually become a knight. There are 36 points to the code of chivalry, and there are ten commandments of chivalry followed by knights. Among them include: â€Å"Thou shalt believe all that the Church teaches, and shalt observe all its directions. Thou shalt defend the Church. Thou shalt respect all weaknesses, and shalt constitute thyself the defender of them. Thou shalt love the country in which thou wast born. Thou shalt not recoil before thine enemy. Live to serve King and Country. Live to defend Crown and Country and all it holds dear. Live one's life so that it is worthy of respect and honor. Live for freedom, justice and all that is good. Never attack an unarmed foe. Never use a weapon on an opponent not equal to the attack. Never attack from behind. Avoid lying to your fellow man. Avoid cheating. Avoid torture.† (Chivalry by Leon Gautier and From the Rifts: The England Su... Free Essays on Chivalry Free Essays on Chivalry Chivalry What was chivalry? In researching this paper, it is not hard to see that the concept of chivalry that we have today is a drastic change from the concept the knights’ held. It is not hard to see how it has changed throughout the generations. The word chivalry is derived from the French word cheval which is from the Latin caballus. It is a concept is to be considered from three points of view: the military, the social, and the religious. By military standards during the Middle Ages, chivalry was actually another name for the cavalry, and the knight was the professional soldier of the time. At this time the infantry was in decline, and the cavalry was the mainstay of the armies. A chivalrous knight was characterized in battle by the fact that he had at least three horses, four or more attendants, and flags portraying his family crest. The squires, or the knight’s attendants in training, always went with the knight into battle. It is through training for battle and service to the knight that a young squire would learn the code of chivalry and eventually become a knight. There are 36 points to the code of chivalry, and there are ten commandments of chivalry followed by knights. Among them include: â€Å"Thou shalt believe all that the Church teaches, and shalt observe all its directions. Thou shalt defend the Church. Thou shalt respect all weaknesses, and shalt constitute thyself the defender of them. Thou shalt love the country in which thou wast born. Thou shalt not recoil before thine enemy. Live to serve King and Country. Live to defend Crown and Country and all it holds dear. Live one's life so that it is worthy of respect and honor. Live for freedom, justice and all that is good. Never attack an unarmed foe. Never use a weapon on an opponent not equal to the attack. Never attack from behind. Avoid lying to your fellow man. Avoid cheating. Avoid torture.† (Chivalry by Leon Gautier and From the Rifts: The England Su...

Free sample - First half of Forecasting and Second Half of Forecasting. translation missing

First half of Forecasting and Second Half of Forecasting. First half of Forecasting and Second Half of ForecastingIntroduction Hard Rock Cafe- from one pub in London in 1971 to more than 110 restaurants in more than 40 countries today, became a corporate-wide demand for better forecasting. Hard Rock uses long-range forecasting in setting a capacity plan and intermediate-term forecasting for locking in contracts for leather goods (used in jackets) and for such food items as beef, chicken, and pork. Its short-term sales forecasts are conducted each month, by cafe, and then aggregated for a headquarters view. Designing forecast system Before using forecasting techniques to analyze operations management problems, a manager must make three decisions: (1) what to forecast, (2) what type of forecasting technique to use, and (3) what type of tool to use. We discuss each of these decisions before examining specific forecasting techniques. Deciding the area of forecasting Although some sort of demand estimate is needed for the individual goods or services produced by a company, forecasting total demand for groups or clusters and then deriving individual product or service forecasts may be easiest. Also, selecting the correct unit of measurement (e.g., product or service units or machine-hours) for forecasting may be as important as choosing the best method. Different forecasting applications used at Hard Rock The forecaster's objective is to develop a useful forecast from the information at hand with the technique appropriate for the different characteristics of demand. This choice sometimes involves a trade-off between forecast accuracy and costs, such as software purchases, the time required to develop a forecast, and personnel, training. Two general types of forecasting techniques are used for demand forecasting: qualitative methods and quantitative methods. Lucent's CDP process uses a combination of both methods. Qualitative methods include judgment methods, which translate the opinions of man ­agers, expert opinions, consumer surveys, and sales-force estimates into quantitative estimates. Quantitative methods include causal methods and time-series analysis. Causal methods use historical data on independent variables, such as promotional campaigns, economic conditions, and competitors' actions, to predict demand. Time-series analysis is a statistical approach that relies heavily on historical demand data to project the future size of demand and recognizes trends and seasonal patterns. Hsiao.J.C. and D.SCleaver, 1982 Management Science, Houghton Mufflin Company, Boston.    A key factor in choosing the proper forecasting approach is the time horizon for the decision requiring forecasts. Forecasts can be made for the short term, medium term, and long term. SHORT TERM: In the short term managers typ ­ically are interested in forecasts of demand for individual products or services. There is little time to react to errors in demand forecasts, so forecasts need to be as accurate as possible for planning purposes. Time-series analysis is the method most often used for short-term forecasting. It is a relatively inexpensive and accurate way to generate the large number of forecasts required. Although causal models can be used for short-term forecasts, they are not used extensively for this purpose because they are much more costly than time-series analysis and require more time to develop. In the short term, operations managers rarely can wait for development of causal models, even though they may be more accurate than time-series models. Finally, managers use judgment methods for short-term forecasts when historical data are not available for a specific item, such as a new product. However, these forecast techniques also are more expensive than forecasts generated from time-series analysis. MEDIUM TERM: The time horizon for the medium term is three months to two years into the future. The need for medium-term forecasts relates to capacity planning. The level of forecast detail required is not as great as for the short term. Managers typically forecast total sales demand in dollars or in the number of units of a group (or family) of similar products or services. Causal models are commonly used for medium-term fore ­casts. These models typically do a good job of estimating the timing of turning points, as when slow sales growth will turn into rapid decline, which is useful to operations managers in both the medium and the long term. Some judgment methods of forecasting also are helpful in identifying turning points. As we mentioned earlier, however, they are most often used when no historical data exist. Time-series analysis typically does not yield accurate results in the medium or long term primarily because it assumes that existing patterns will continue in the future. Although this assumption may be valid for the short term, it is less accurate over longer time horizons. LONG TERM: For time horizons exceeding two years, forecasts usually are developed for total sales demand in dollars or some other common unit of measurement (e.g., barrels, pounds, or kilowatts). Accurate long-term forecasts of demand for individual products or services not only are very difficult to make but also are too detailed for long-range planning purposes. Three types of decisions- facility location, capacity planning, and process choice- require market demand estimates for an extended period into the future. Causal models and judgment methods are the primary techniques used for long-term forecasting. However, even mathematically derived causal-model forecasts have to be tempered by managerial experience and judgment because of the time horizon involved and the potential consequences of decisions based on them. POS system in forecasting at Hard Rock JUDGMENT METHODS When adequate historical data are lacking, as when a new product is introduced or technology is expected to change, firms rely on managerial judgment and experience to generate forecasts. Judgment methods can also be used to modify forecasts generated by quantitative methods, as is done with Lucent's forecasting process. In this section, we discuss four of the more successful methods currently in use: sales-force estimates, executive opinion, market research, and the Delphi method. SALES-FORCE ESTIMATES Sometimes the best information about future demand comes from the people closest to the customer. Sales-force estimates are forecasts compiled from estimates of future demands made periodically by members of a company's sales force. This approach has several advantages. The sales force is the group most likely to know which products or services customers will be buying in the near future, and in what quantities. Sales territories often are divided by district or region. The forecasts of individual sales-force members can be combined easily to get regional or national sales.  Ã‚   Salespeople may not always be able to detect the difference between what a customer "wants" (a wish list) and what a customer "needs" (a necessary purchase).   If the firm uses individual sales as a performance measure, salespeople may underestimate their forecasts so that their performance will look good when they exceed their projections or may work hard only until they reach then-required minimum sales. Name several variables that would be good predictors of daily sales and how could this information be gathered and used at each cafà © CAUSAL METHODS; LINEAR REGRESSION  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Causal methods are used when historical data are available and the relationship between the factor to be forecasted and other external or internal factors can be identified. These relationships are expressed in math ­ematical terms and can be very complex. Causal methods provide the most sophisticated forecasting tools and are very good for predicting turning points in demand and preparing long-range forecasts. Although many causal methods are available, we focus here on lin ­ear regression, one of the best-known and most commonly used causal methods. In linear regression, one variable, called a dependent variable, is related to one or more independent variables by a linear equation. The dependent variable, such as demand for doorknobs, is the one the manager wants to forecast. The independent variables, such as advertising expenditures and new housing starts, are assumed to affect the dependent variable and thereby "cause" the results observed in the past. A linear regression line relates to the data. In technical terms, the regression line minimizes the squared deviations from the actual data. In the simplest linear regression models, the dependent variable is a function of only one independent variable, and therefore the theoretical relationship is a straight line: Y = a + bX  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   ';-':  Ã‚  Ã‚   ' Y = dependent variable X = independent variable a = Y-intercept of the line b = slope of the line The objective of linear regression analysis is to find values of a and b that minimize the sum of the squared deviations of the actual data points from the graphed line. Computer programs are used for this purpose. For any set of matched observations for Y and X, the program computes the values of a and b and provides measures of fore ­cast accuracy. Three measures commonly reported are the sample correlation coeffi ­cient, the sample coefficient of determination, and the standard error of the estimate. The sample correlation coefficient, r, measures the direction and strength of the relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable. The value of r varies from -1.00 to +1.00. A correlation coefficient of +1.00 implies that period-by-period changes in direction (increases or decreases) of the independent variable are always accompanied by changes in the same direction by the dependent variable. How is forecasting carried out as an effective weapon in a company? Executive opinion- It is a fore ­casting method in which the opinions, experience, and technical knowledge of one or more managers are summarized to arrive at a single forecast. EXECUTIVE OPINION When a new product or service is contemplated, the sales force may not be able make accurate demand estimates. Executive opinion is a forecasting method in w the opinions, experience, and technical knowledge of one or more managers are summarized to arrive at a single forecast. As we discuss later, executive opinion can be use to modify an existing sales forecast to account for unusual circumstances, such as a new sales promotion or unexpected international events. Executive opinion can ate be used for technological forecasting. The quick pace of technological change make keeping abreast of the latest advances difficult Executive opinion can I costly because it takes valuable executive time. When actual sales are much lower than the forecasts, everyone blames someone else for the extra inventory that was created. Hence, the key to effective use of executive opinion is to ensure that the forecast reflects not a series of independent modifications but consensus among executives on a si ngle forecast. MARKET RESEARCH Market research is a systematic approach to determine consumer interest in a product or service by creating and testing hypotheses through data-gathering surveys. Market research may be used to forecast demand for the short, medium, and long term. Accuracy is excellent for the short term, good for the medium term, and only fair for the long term. Although market research yields important information, one short ­coming is the numerous qualifications and hedges typically included in the findings. For example, a finding might be "The new diet burger product received good customer acceptance in our survey; however, we were unable to assess its longer-term acceptance once other competitor products make their appearance." Another is that the typical response rate for mailed questionnaires is poor. Yet another shortcoming is the possibility that the survey results do not reflect the opinions of the market. Finally, the survey might produce imitative, rather than innova ­tive, ideas because the customer's reference point is often limited. T.F. Dodd, 1974, Sales Forecasting, Gower Press, England DELPHI METHOD This form of forecasting is useful when there are no his ­torical data from which to develop statistical models and when managers inside the firm have no experience on which to base informed projections. A coordinator sends a question to each member of the group of outside experts, who may not even know who else, is participating. Anonymity is important when some members of the group tend to dominate discussion or command a high degree of respect in their fields. In an anonymous group, the members tend to respond to the questions and support their responses freely. The coordinator prepares a statistical summary of the responses along with a summary of arguments for particular responses. The report is sent to the same group for another round, and the participants may choose to modify their previous responses. The Delphi method can be used to develop long-range forecasts of product demand and new-product sales projections. It can also be used for technological forecasting. The Delphi method can be used to obtain a consensus from a panel of experts who can devote their attention to following scientific advances, changes in society, governmental regulations, and the competitive environment. The results can provide direction for a firm's research and development staff. The Delphi method has some shortcomings, including the following major ones: The process can take a long time (sometimes a year or more). During that time, the panel of people considered to be experts may change, confounding the results or at least further lengthening the process.   Responses may be less meaningful than if experts were accountable for their responses.   There is little evidence that Delphi forecasts achieve high degrees of accuracy. However, they are known to be fair to good in identifying turning points in new-product demand. How is forecasting carried out in your organization (be sure to specify the level you are discussing)? 2) How does that relate to product development and services it offers? 3) What are the difficulties your organization faces most in coming up with accurate forecasts? Could they improve their forecasts by using different methods? GUIDELINES FOR USING JUDGMENT FORECASTS Judgment forecasting is clearly needed when no quantitative data are available to use quantitative forecasting approaches. However, judgment approaches can be used in concert with quantitative approaches to improve forecast quality. Among the guide ­lines for the use of judgment to adjust the results of quantitative forecasts are the fol ­lowing - Adjust Quantitative Forecasts When Their Track Record Is Poor and the Decision Maker Has Important Contextual Knowledge.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Contextual knowledge is knowledge that practitioners gain through experience, such as cause-and-effect relationships, environmental cues, and organizational information, that may have an effect on the variable being forecast. Often, these factors cannot be incorporated into quantitative forecasting approaches. The quality of forecasts generated by quantitative approaches also deteriorates as the variability of the data increases, particularly for time series. The more variable the data, the more likely it is that judgment forecasting will improve the forecasts. Consequently, the decision maker can bring valuable contextual information to the forecasting process when the quantitative approaches alone are inadequate. Make Adjustments to Quantitative Forecasts to Compensate for Specific Events.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Specific events such as advertising campaigns, the actions of competitors, or international developments often are not recognized in quantitative forecasting and should be acknowledged when a final forecast is being made. In the remainder of this chapter, we focus on the commonly used quantitative fore ­casting approaches. Conclusion Since Hard Rock Cafà © is a company founded at the end of 1971 based at a single site in London,   its growth is awesome. Within a very short time, the company has come to a great summit of success. From this modest start in 1971, the number and geographical spread of the customers have increased rapidly in part as a result of the company’s effective marketing strategies. These are very evident sources that the company has come through these desired objectives mentioned.       References 1. John C Chambers, Satinder K. Mullick and Donald. D. Smith, 1971, How to choose the right forecasting technique, Harvard business Review, July-August2. T.F. Dodd, 1974, Sales Forecasting, Gower Press, England.3. David .M. Georgoff and Robert Gmrdick, 1986, Manager’s Guide to forecasting, Harvard Business Review, January - February.4. Dunn, R. And K.D.Ramasingh, 1981, Management Science, Macmillan Publishing Co. Inc. Bombay.5. J.L.Riggs, Engineering Economics, McGraw-Hill.N.Y.2nd ed., 1982.Ch.3.6. Burns.T. and Stalker.G,The Management of Innovations, London : Tavistock Publications,1961.7. Foster, Douglas, 1982, Mastering Marketing, The Macmillan Press Ltd.8. Goldhar.J.D.MJelinek,1983 Plan for Economics for Scope, in Harvard Business Review, December.

The Dream is now Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Dream is now - Essay Example One of my friends has completed his university studies last year but up to date he is unable to secure any job of his dream in the government or high ranking agencies in this country. This is because his status of being undocumented. Hence, end up settling for less than what all through he has worked hard and smart to do in life, which is quite a disappointing. In most cases, this has prompted him to struggle financially as he tries to cater for varied expenses, which if he was employed like any other said documented citizens life to him would have been quite easy. Based on my experience and what I have learnt through this 30-minutes video, undocumented immigrants face utter segregation when it comes to employment opportunities. This is despite having gone through extremely demanding learning process entailing not only financial commitments but also one’s time. It is quite demoralizing especially when one all through has studied and excelled but he or she cannot manage to secure a good employment opportunity with the government as well as its agencies. This is despite both the regime and its agencies having such openings for fresh graduates but those recruit cannot dare think of undocumented candidates having the required skills and expertise. In addition, these undocumented immigrants despite having excelled well in high school, higher institutions cannot take them. Hence, end up making them undergo extremely tedious and demoralizing processes if they ever secure a chance in those institutions. In most cases, this goes to the extent of some candidates giving up in life if they are not strong willed. After watching this film, I learnt those in high offices especially from both sides of the influential political parties only careless about the undocumented. This is by coming into a consensus of what ought to be done in

Reflective paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Reflective paper - Essay Example Moreover, the nurse’s functions include the various challenges in the provision of care, including the ethical considerations, the various issues in the expansion of roles and the need to secure adequate communication tools with the clients (Johns and Freshwater, 2005). Communication barriers are some of the issues which can make the health care delivery process particularly challenging for nurses and other health professionals. This paper aims to evaluate the management of challenging communication interactions in association with cultural issues. It shall focus on my encounter with a Chinese client who spoke little English. This assessment shall use Johns structured reflective framework model by considering critical reflection based on the main issues of the incident and the possible improvements which could have been implemented to ensure better patient outcomes (Johns, 2009). During my placement in the mental health unit, I was assigned various patients and was subsequently informed that one of my patients spoke little English and was suffering from major depressive disorder. She was under antidepressants and was also under suicide watch because she recently attempted suicide. She is 65 years old and recently lost her home and her business in China to a fire. She was brought to Australia by one of her children and was now living with them, but was having a hard time adjusting to life in Australia. In one of the encounters with her, I went in to her room to keep her company as she was on suicide watch and she turned aggressive, she wanted to push me out of the door because she wanted to be alone. I managed to convince her that I would just be sitting with her, but even with my attempts to speak to her, she refused to communicate with me. Our language barrier failed to reassure her or provide her any comfort. She had a

Sufism & Its Effects On Islamic Culture Essay Example for Free

Sufism Its Effects On Islamic Culture Essay â€Å"Sufism is the journey and the realization of truth, and a Sufi, is the seeker of truthâ€Å" (Janghda, 144). Therefore, in order to understand the lives of Sufis and their contribution to Islam, one must first comprehend the meaning of Sufism. â€Å"Sufism is the spiritual practice by which one can achieve ultimate spiritual gratification. The term ‘Sufism’ has been derived from various words, such as ‘Safa’ which means ‘pure’ and ‘Saff’ which means high in rank† (All About Religion). All these meanings have one thing in common which is also apparent by the looks of a Sufi, uniqueness. That Sufis do not fit the general perception of a man or woman, they were people who gave up the world’s material belongings and it’s luxuries to explore the inner self. â€Å"One must live in the world, not be of the world†, Jamal ad-Din al-Rumi. Love is the basis of Sufism, like most of the religions of this world and the core objective of Sufism is to find the oneness. A Sufi must realize that God exists everywhere, as the creator and the creation. Tasawwuf is a practice in Sufism in which one purifies oneself by the remembrance and obedience of God. It is the complete detachment from the worldly issues and devoting your mind, body and soul to God. This practice is similar to conventional Islamic practices such as zikr and prayer. Thus to achieve a status of a Sufi, one must go through many levels, such as killing your ego, breaking away from the material wants and loving everything, as all is created by God. Sufism has no boundaries as it a spiritual religion; it seeks truth through divinity and not sections. Instead of mentors or preachers who have learned about religion through people, a Sufi seeks his own answers. There are no value of favoritism and preference, all creations are equal. Sufism is not just a religion, it is a way of thinking and a lifestyle, and thus one must be open-minded, tolerant and humble to start the journey. Without these traits one cannot achieve spiritual enlightenment. â€Å"Therefore, most of the well known Sufis that have passed have known to not conform to the society they reside in, providing knowledge about Islamic mysticism to their people through poems, stories and various texts which are still enchanting and informing people till this day† (Arbery, 15). Farid ud-Din Attar was a similar mystic, born in the city of Nishapur in Iran and also buried in a tomb in Nishapur (The Free Dictionary). Although he lived over centuries ago but some of Attar’s works are still read and appreciated even now. His name Attar, meant herbalist who was also his profession, as he was a well-known medic. He would see hundreds of patients daily, prescribing herbal medicines that he himself prepared to his patients. In his days of youth, he travelled comprehensively through Egypt, Damascus and even performed pilgrimage at Mecca in search for wisdom. After a long journey, Attar came back to his hometown and embarked on his Sufi journey. During this time, Attar wrote tremendous texts but his most well known is Maqamat-e Toyur (The Conference of the Birds). Attar’s ability to look beyond the texts and find a deeper meaning in not just readings but in every daily doings made him a better author and poet, his teachings and poems still are relevant for that alone reason. Attar passed away in old age, even though the details of his death are weary but a traditional tale does narrate the demise of Attar. In this folk tale, Attar had been made a prisoner by the Mongol when they invaded Nishapur. During that time, an unknown person came to the Mongol king and offered a thousand pieces of silver in turn of Attar’s freedom. When Attar heard this, he recommended the king to not take such a ransom, and the king did just that in greed. Later, another man came to the emperor and offered him a bundle of straws in exchange of Attar’s freedom, to which Attar advised the king to take the offer, as that is what he was worth. When the Mongol king heard this, he decapitated Attar in anger (Arbery, 74). The authenticity of this tale is not important but the message it has is very valuable. It shows that a man of such knowledge of religion, mysticism and medicine, thought of himself as only worthy of a bundle of straws rather than thousand pieces of silver. Therefore, a Sufi must be self-less to attain the truth. The truth is that the body of a person is just a shell, in which the soul resides, a soul that mirrors God. Even if you kill the body, which is of no value, the soul will live on forever.

Digital Piracy: A Problem Without an Effective Solution Essay

Digital piracy is making up profit from illegal copying and reselling music, videos, software videogames and other digital media which requires genuine. In 2005, loses of legal media and software industry from digital piracy was $200 billion (DSTI/IND (2007). Also, Oberholzer-Gee (2010) indicates that 60% of world wide web broadband busy by consumers’ video, game and music sharing. To avoid this issue intellectual proprietors use various methods. In this paper is shown methods to dodge problem of digital piracy. There are two ways to protect legal digital content from piracy. Firstly, there is indirectly impact to society, where manufacturers are producing additional equipment like guitars for game â€Å"Guitar Hero† and forwarding special social services where people can play with each other via internet, so while people playing, system is checking license (Goel, 2010). In addition, companies perform free software with fewer options than paid software. Moreover, some organizations such as Free Software Association and Open Source agitation, which advert spreading software for free have helped to grapple with problem of expensive software and companies that gain from this, for example, Microsoft (Hill, 2007). Secondly, there is direct impact on users, where companies and internet providers use methods which impacts directly on users such as blocking peer-to-peer connections between users and web-sites where users can download pirated software. Furthermore, closing the sources of piracy is supported by governments of countries such as China (Tong, 2008). In this paper is shown methods to protect against piracy such as copy-protected software, closing sources of piracy, legislation and distribution of free soft. Each of solution will b... ...hich are gratuitous, freeness to change and freeness to make copies. For instance, Keating (2003) confirms that in DiaDexus inc., California bioinformatics scientists use open source software in their researches and researchers say that free software helps to save money and have additional properties. For example, in this institution some experts explore source code and make add-ons and patches for areas which they need. Next, free software becomes more popular. For example, The Linux Counter (2006) estimates that there were 18 million users of freely available Linux operating system in 2001 and there were 29 million users after 4 years in 2005. Also, Wade Roush (2004) confirms that in IBM more than 7000 programmers design software for Linux, because of many consumers think that as more beneficial and more protected from viruses than Microsoft’s operating systems.

Why Education Is Important to Me?

Desiree Johnson AC1208297 Achieving Academic Excellence EN110 Writing Assessment 5_06 January 13, 2013 â€Å"Why college education is important to me† Being a teacher is the first step to changing the youth of today’s minds one brain at a time. I feel education is the key in making a career driven person. I know many say education begins in the home but that’s just the foundation to a college ready child teachers are often the second source of this very important foundation. We are the tools used to make a child ready for future they are going to have.It gets even better with all the new ways you can be college ready or even attend colleges around the world. Not just the old fashion paper and pencil deal we can use the technology today to be a college graduate. Even so it still needs the knowledge of an instructor who is educated to lead a college student to a career. You just don’t want someone with lack of experience trying to educate you about something they absolutely know nothing about. That’s you I know college is important to me because I want children to succeed and dream the most spontaneous dream.I want children to walk away and feel the difference I made in the their life. That’s the joy of being an educator but to get there I have to get a college degree to teach. It’s my dream and it maybe a far aim but I’m shooting for it and hoping not to miss. I knew I wanted to work with as a teacher since high school but not just any teacher. I want to teach in special education field with the pre-school. College was the only way to reach my dream of being an educator. As we all know life as a whole different way of letting you reach your goals.This made me decided to do online it would be my only option because we both have to work to support the family and we got married so young. I took and interest in our local Pre- school and as Childcare workers article says, â€Å"Often, these positions require ad ditional training such as a bachelor's or master's degree. † To many Pre- School teachers need help in opening another center and I love to lead the classes. To teach the special needs student on how to live a normal life as possible with build the stable foundation they we; need in the future.They face a difficult world out there and I know they need as much help as they can get. I currently work with them and I enjoy coming to work seeing the big difference some of us make. So I thought what better way then to help them as early as pre-k. â€Å"Why college education is important to me† With this economy down fall jobs are a little hard to find. I found that schools are always in need of educators with experience or a degree. As a Pre school aide we have tons of trainings to keep up to date on laws and requirements.In addition, teachers are always in training or going back to college to gain more knowledge of the changing world around us. I always think there is always room for improvement big or small. I know as an educator there is training almost every weekend to train on a new program to introduce to the classrooms. I know a good degree means hard work and dedication to getting to my goal. Even passing all exams and the state tests requirements. It’s going to be all worth it when I have the paper in my hand saying I can teach and accomplish my big dream.My reasons why to go to college can often be answered in simple one word â€Å"money†. As the BIG PAY OFF says,† Average earnings ranged from $18,900 for high school dropouts to $25,900 for high school graduates, $45,400 for college graduates, and $99,30 for workers with professional degrees (M. D. J. D, D. D. S, OR D. V. M. â€Å". Lets face it with kids and household needs are not getting any cheaper. Even as a family of four we still living pay check to pay check with both us working and even taking up extra activities to make a little extra income.Every cent counts whe n you don't know what’s going to be your next check. That’s why I know a steady job that’s always going to be in need no matter where we go is what I need. This education degree will give me just what I’m looking for a job that is successful. As of now my job is paying well but there is always a chance that I can be let go due to budget cuts. As pre-k teacher I can move to another district but as a health aide it’s a rarely any job openings. I know teachers are always need at any district you go to.That’s also a big factor in why being an educator is a good growing field and it has some great opportunities. Someone taught us and inspired us. No one really wakes-up one day and says I want to go to college to fail. We go for a reason or a deeper thought of earning a better life. We are all eager to learn. Rather it is in education or in our careers. With this in mind, technology just makes it easier to accomplish our dreams of a better life an d career for our future in college. In my eyes the teacher is one of the most important people in a young child’s life.More than often it’s where a lot of life lessons are learned at in school. A teacher shapes a student into being a future educator or help to reach their dreams. Even now technology is a big part of our teaching. Even now some high schools are using laptops and other forms of technology as a source of teaching. So education and technology lay the foundation for a child to see dreams and look for the possible future too come. Bibliography â€Å"Often, these positions require additional training such as a bachelor's or master's degree. † (2008). Highest paying jobs without college.MyPlan. com, LLC, 2009; Bureau of Labor Statistics, U. S. Department of Labor, 2008. Retrieved on 2/10/13 from http://www. myplan. com/careers/top-ten/highest-paying-without-college. php † Average earnings ranged from $18,900 for high school dropouts to $25,900 for high school graduates, $45,400 for college graduates, and $99,30 for workers with professional degrees (M. D. J. D, D. D. S, OR D. V. M. † Day, J. C. , Newburger, E. C. , The Big Payoff: Educational attainment and Synthetic Estimates of Work-Life Earnings, U. S. Department of Commerce, 2002. Retrieved on 2/15/13 from

An Evaluation of Amazon.Com

Many companies which embarked in e-commerce had failed especially during the period of the â€Å"dot. Com bubble†. The failure of these dot-comes were due to the fact that many of these companies do not have a viable business model and they were focus mainly on increasing their market share at the expense of their bottoming. Amazon. Com is one of those companies which had survived and grown to become the world's biggest online store. Several critical success factors have been identified which had played an Important role In Amazon's achievement. These can be summarized under Turban et. L's major SF, of which developing a good technical infrastructure and user friendly web interface, cultivating customer acceptance and Improving the level of trust between buyers and sellers through constant focus to satisfy customers' needs and expectations, understanding the market situation and competition and finding ways to overcome these external threats stands out amongst others as being practiced by Amazon. Amazon's success story can also be attributed to their adopting of Eisenhower and Gull's (2001) second strategy of nurturing and leveraging on unique resources and competencies.There is also an element of the first strategy recommended by Eisenhower and Soul lee to establish a position (build a fortress) and defend it. Amazon has managed to create a global brand name within the e-community, to the extent that whenever anyone wants to purchase any goods through the web, they will seek out Amazon's website without any hesitation. The burst of the dot. Com bubble that started on March 10, 2000 to October 2002 had wiped out $5 trillion in market value of technology companies and caused the failure of many e-commerce companies.Amazon. Com had managed to survive due to the strategies adopted, especially their strategy to nurture and leverage unique resources and competencies as recommended by Eisenhower and Soul. Other critical success factors of Amazon. Com are as li sted by Turban et al (2000), which states that for e-commerce to succeed, companies should provide user-friendly web interface, ensuring customer acceptance and high level of trust between buyers and toys sellers, creating new partners Ana alliance, mass customization.Amazon Ana always placed priority on ensuring customer satisfaction, and due to this are constantly reengineering their processes in marketing, sales and order management, customer service and procurement in order to provide the best value to customers. The fall of internet-based companies during the era of the dot. Com bubble can be attributed to the fact that many of these companies were not guided by proper strategies to succeed in e-commerce. Many do not have viable business models in place but were focused mainly on increasing their market share at the expense of their bottoming (Wisteria's article on â€Å"Dot. Mom bubble†). While Amazon had remained frugal, many of these failed dot-comes had spent lavishl y and used up most of their investor's funds for advertising and promotion purposes. Too much emphasis was placed on increasing stock-valuations and going public, instead of building a sound business that focus on strong customer relations (Gleaners, 2000). When the returns on their investments were low or not attractive enough, the investors started to pull out causing the collapse of these companies. I would like to take the example of Boo. Mom as one of the famous dot. Com failures. Boo. Com was launched in the Autumn of 1999, to sell branded fashion wear online. Within a short span of 18 months, the company had been placed into receivership after spending $188 million of venture capitalists' funds. The fundamental problem was that the company had been too ambitious and embarked on an extremely aggressive growth plan which is not sustainable. The company targeted itself to become a global company and simultaneously launched in multiple European countries.Its founders had relied o n the ready availability of venture capital money to see the company through the first few years of trading until sales caught up with operating expenses. From the 2nd quarter of 2000, such capital ceased to be available after dramatic falls in the NASDAQ and this affected the company very badly Boo. Com failed to follow the most important critical success factors recommended by Turban et. L ii to provide a user-friendly web interface and technical infrastructure. According to Wisped, the boo. Mom website was â€Å"widely criticized as poorly designed for its target audience, going against many usability conventions†. The article went on to elaborate that â€Å"The site relied heavily on JavaScript and Flash technology to display pseudo-AD views of wares as well as Miss Boo, a sales- assistant-style avatar. † Its interface was also very non user friendly, and required the user to answer four or five different questions before revealing that there were no products in st ock in a particular sub-section. The same basic questions then had to be answered again until results were found.During that time, dial up internet connections was the norm and when the web pages take too long to load, or too cumbersome to navigate on the site, visitors will be discouraged from visiting the site. Another critical success Doctor Is tenure must De a level AT trust Detente Dryers Ana sellers. Rejection and return rate of products sold was high. Although delivery for return of goods was free, confidence level of customers became low and affected the sales for the company. Due to the lack of confidence, customer acceptance is badly effected.Severe competition is another factor faced by many BBC companies and affected their chances to survive. Competition for market share is stiff amongst these dot- comes, and they also had to compete with existing brick-and-mortar companies which already had a dedicated and loyal customer base and trusted store names (Duncan, 2000). Thin gs worsened when the brick-and-mortars started going online. Robbing (2001) added that the dot-comes then had to spend more on advertising in order to gain brand recognition and this further strained their financial resources and caused their downfall.From its inception, Amazon. Com had in place various strategies which have helped it survive the dot. Com bust. In many ways, we can relate the strategies adopted by Amazon to the three distinct ways to compete in the marketplace as recommended by Eisenhower & Soul. In fact, Amazon has adopted a good mix of all the three approaches. Its first strategy was to establish a clear vision, ‘e to be the world's most customer-centric company and to establish a place where customers could buy anything.They have managed to build a fortress and positioned itself as the world's biggest online bookstore, and eve now become the world's most popular online store for almost any type of goods. Another strategy was to leverage on available resourc es especially from their technology standpoint. As the company had already incurred high fixed costs to develop the software for their online storefronts, it makes sense to expand into other product categories in order to reach out to a wider market, and share out the costs amongst the various product segments.By offering a bigger variety of products, the company can tap into a bigger market, while spreading out its risks as well as their axed costs amongst a large category of products, in order to generate more profits. In this instance, it has an advantage over specialty stores like Pets. Com, an online pet supplies store. It may not be practical to order products like pet food or other needs and have to wait several days for the goods to arrive, or in the case of Furniture. Com which sells basically furniture items, it does not make sense when the shipping costs may be more than the cost of the item itself.Amazon. Com was also mindful of the critical success factors expounded by Turban et. L by forming powerful alliances with other companies in order to increase their market share. Examples are their collaboration with rival Borders, the introduction of the Amazon's Associates and Affiliates Program, and partnerships with many other companies. I Nell alma to tall inelegance In e-commerce as tenet performance goal (Eisenhower and Soul) was evident from the numerous partnerships and strategic alliances formed with other BBC enterprises.In order to attract customers, the website must be user-friendly and easy to navigate, which Amazon had taken action to ensure. This is another critical success factor commended by Turban et. Al which Amazon had taken heed of, which makes them succeed where Boo. Com had failed. Amazon also offer personalized shopping recommendations, which add value to customers' shopping experience. On the other hand, Boo. Com operated a complicated Web site which relied heavily on JavaScript and Flash, and their web page was very slow to load . This became a distinct disadvantage especially during the time when Internet connection was usually dial-up.For many of the failed companies, the focus was not on creating value for customers but more to establish the company's worth. Amazon on the other hand placed priority on enhancing customer experience and trust which ultimately will translate to customer loyalty and repeat purchases. This strategy has always been in place since its early days and is articulated in their annual reports. According to their tradition, the annual reports will always carry a reprint of their 1997 Letter to Shareholders, in which they had stated their commitment to this mission.As Jeff Bozos stated in their 2008 Annual Report, their pricing objective is to earn customer's trust (Appendix – Message from Jeff Bozos to shareholders of Amazon. Com). Amazon. Mom has already established its dominance in the BBC sector and is now one of the biggest and most popular online store in the world. Their success can be attributed to the fact that they have strong strategies in place. In order to maintain their position as the leader in e-commerce, Amazon must ensure that all these strategies continue to be adopted and further enhanced.Amazon will have to constantly upgrade their website to keep abreast of technology development. Amazon has one of the most easy-to-use e-commerce platform in the world. They are constantly improving on their technology base with the aim to enhance customer experience and meet customers' expectations. They are able to provide personalized recommendations for customers, based on feedback provided by the customers on their likes and dislikes, tracks customer's browsing history and viewing records.They even track a visitor's recently viewed items even though the person was not a member at that point in time, or signed on to the account earlier. That is how customer-centric the company is, and how they make use of technology to enhance customer experience. Another example of the use of technology to meet customer needs is their launch of Kindle 2†³, which is an improved version of Kindle, a wireless reading device that is capable of holding 1,500 books and weighs a mere 10. 2 ounce.Digital books purchased are delivered within 60 seconds, and customers can enjoy their reading anywhere, anytime wilt ten mainly module evolve. Having learnt from the experience of those failed dot-comes which did not possess viable business models unlike Amazon, new players in e-commerce must now ensure that they draw up an effective marketing strategy so that they can attract customers to their site to generate sales. To become successful, companies embarking in the BBC business must reengineering their business process to suit the needs of the changing environment and business rules.While a viable business model is important, its successful implementation can only be possible through process re-engineering that covers various aspects of the value c hain. The fundamental area that needs to be targeted for process reengineering is in Sales and order management. In Amazon's case, customers can track the delivery of their orders, and this creates a sense of trust in the customers when they know the exact location in the shipment of the goods ordered. Amazon has always placed priority and strong values on developing top class customer service so that customers remain loyal to them, as this will generate repeat orders.Customer satisfaction can be achieved when the company is able provide a variety of products and services that meets their expectation. While the company expands its coverage and market reach, it must be able to develop a good distribution channel so that customers can expect to receive their goods in the shortest possible time. This will be possible through leveraging on the network of suppliers, business customers, partners and even their competitors. Amazon. Com has now become an icon of the e-commerce community.

Microsoft Powerpoint and Organic Food Essay

Microsoft Powerpoint and Organic Food Essay Microsoft Powerpoint and Organic Food Essay Thesis: One idea can go a very long way. Opening line: I would like to speak to you all today about recycling. This is not the kind of recycling that involves bottles, cans, and paper. I’m talking about recycling opportunity. Explanation: Towards the end of high school I began to realize how often we are asked to do things over and over again. While applying to colleges in particular, we are asked to write the same essays on the same topic. How many people in this room sent the same essay to a different college? Now, how many people looked over those papers and tweaked them for each school? I know I didn’t. I recycled my papers and my recommendations and sent them off to different schools. Now, I know that the college boards are not stupid and are aware of what it is their future students are doing, though I thought I was being very clever. Later in my first semester of college I began to realize the advantage recycling ideas could have for me†¦ if I did it right. All-in-all recycling opportunity is a synonym for the verb bullshit. The negative connotation â€Å"B.S.-ing† gets is something that should be analyzed. I think it depends a lot upon what kind of BS-er we’re talking about, yes there are different kinds. There are some who are very smart and just uninterested in the current topic they are being forced to learn, these people are usually very good with words, and go into car dealership jobs. Then there are those who have partied too hard and have forgotten the presentation all together. Those people usually try to act very smooth as they make complete fools of themselves. You have the plagiarizers, the class clowns, and the idea recycle-est. the latter is not trying to get away with anything or blow off the class, they are simply salvaging a previous opportunity. I like to try to stay in the category of idea recycle-est. I’m not very good on the spot. For example, when I was trying to decide what to talk about for this speech I looked at a few of my previous presentations that I’ve done for other classes. I have a fifteen minute one on organic food, a ten minute one on massage therapy, and even a 20 minute one on the effects of institutionalization. Any one of these can be recycled. The power points and bullet point papers are right there on my computer ready for my disposal. However, I could not come up here and give the same presentation every time†¦ in most cases. The key to good recycling is to first make sure what you are recycling has already received a good grade. This is especially true if you’re looking to do the least work possible, you definitely want to have a firm standing B+ base. If you already know what went wrong with the presentation the first time, however, and you know how to fix it then, by-all-means, go right ahead and use

A Linguistic Look at Spanish

A Linguistic Look at Spanish Ask a linguist what kind of a language Spanish is, and the answer you get may depend on that linguists specialty. To some, Spanish is primarily a language derived from Latin. Another may tell you that Spanish is primarily an SVO language,  whatever that is, while others may refer to it as a fusional language. Spanish is classified as either an Indo-European or Romance language based on  its origins.Spanish is classified as a mostly SVO language because of its commonly used word order.Spanish is classified as somewhat inflectional because of the extensive use of word endings used to indicate attributes such as gender, number, and tense. All these classifications, and others, are important in linguistics, the study of language. As these examples show, linguists can classify languages according to their history, as well as according to the languages structure and according to how words are formed. Here are three common classifications that linguists use and how Spanish fits in with them: Genetic Classification of Spanish The genetic classification of languages is closely related to etymology, the study of the origins of words. Most of the worlds languages can be divided into about a dozen major families (depending on what is considered major) based on their origins. Spanish, like English, is part of the Indo-European family of languages, which includes the languages spoken by around half the worlds population. It includes most of the past and current languages of Europe (the Basque language being a major exception) as well as the traditional languages of Iran, Afghanistan, and the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. Some of the most common Indo-European languages today include French, German, Hindi, Bengali, Swedish, Russian, Italian, Persian, Kurdish and Serbo-Croatian. Among Indo-European languages, Spanish can be further classified as a Romance language, meaning that it is descended from Latin. Other major Romance languages include French, Portuguese, and Italian, all of which have strong similarities in vocabulary and grammar. Classification of Spanish by Word Order One common way of classifying languages is by the order of the basic sentence components, namely the subject, object, and verb. In this regard, Spanish can be thought of as a flexible subject-verb-object or SVO language, as is English. A simple sentence will typically follow that order, as in this example: Juanita lee el libro, where Juanita is the subject, lee (reads) is the verb and el libro (the book) is the object of the verb. It should be noted, however, that this structure is far from the only one possible, so Spanish cant be thought of as a strict SVO language. In Spanish, it is often possible to leave out the subject entirely if it can be understood from the context, and it also is common to change the word order to emphasize a different part of the sentence. Also, when pronouns are used as objects, the SOV order (subject-object-verb) is the norm in Spanish: Juanita lo lee. (Juanita reads it.) Classification of Spanish by Word Formation In terms of how words are formed, languages can be classified in at least three ways: As isolating or analytical, meaning  that words or word roots dont change based on how they are used in a sentence, and that the relationship of words to each other are conveyed primarily by the use of word order or by words known as particles to indicate the relationship among them.As inflectional or fusional, meaning that the forms of the words themselves change to indicate how they relate to the other words in a sentence.As  agglutinating or agglutinative, meaning that words are frequently formed by combining various combinations of morphemes, wordlike units with distinct meanings. Spanish is generally viewed as a somewhat inflectional language, although all three typologies exist to some extent. English is more isolating than Spanish, although English too has inflectional aspects. In Spanish, verbs are nearly always inflected, a process known as conjugation. In particular, each verb has a root (such as habl-)  to which endings are attached to indicate who is performing the action and the time period in which it occurs. Thus, hablà © and hablaron both have the same root, with the endings used to provide more information. By themselves, the verb endings have no meaning. Spanish also uses inflection for adjectives to indicate number and gender. As an example of the isolating aspect of Spanish, most nouns are inflected only to indicate whether they are plural or singular. In contrast, in some languages, such as Russian, a noun can be inflected to indicate, for example, that it is a direct object rather than a subject. Even names of people can be inflected. In Spanish, however, word order and prepositions are typically used to indicate the function of a noun in a sentence. In a sentence such as Pedro ama a Adriana (Pedro loves Adriana), the preposition a is used to indicate which person is the subject and which is the object. (In the English sentence, word order is used to inidicate who loves whom.) An example of an agglutinative aspect of Spanish (and of English) can be seen in its use of various prefixes and suffixes. For example, the difference between hacer (to do) and deshacer (to undo) is in its use of the morpheme (a unit of meaning) des-.

Ethical Use of Assessment Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Ethical Use of Assessment - Research Paper Example As a function of this, this particular analysis will seek to analyze the way in which school counselors are employing a new variety of risk assessment tools in order to draw inference on key levels of violent tendencies or anti-social behavior. Naturally, such models are not in and of themselves a perfect or all encompassing tool due to the fact that many individuals who have exhibited the type of sociopathic tendencies that have become the thing of nationwide news never exhibited any known or verifiable symptoms; however, it is nonetheless a key area of growth into which the high school counselor can seek to polish his/her skill level as a means of seeking to draw down the very real level of risks that currently exists within our current educational system. Naturally, one of the most important functions of this particular tool of violent risk assessment is to help to provide a level of information with regards to the propensity of a given student to display potentially harmful behav ior both to themselves, their loved ones, or those within the educational environment. As a means of reviewing the effectiveness of such an approach, a litany of studies has sought to measure such a determinant within the recent past. Several of these studies, such as the one Bernes and Bardick, indicated that school bullying was oftentimes a key determinant of violent behavior that is one of the few warning signs that the school counselor has the ability to be aware of (Bernes et al 2007). In such a way, seeking to implement the given assessment tools to both of the affected parties within a situation in which bullying takes place is a fundamental starting point in seeking to provide insight into one of the key and causal areas that affects upon the level of violence. Other studies have indicated that despite violence prevention efforts, one of the most powerful mechanisms in which school officials can seek to both deter and understand the existence of violent behavior and its prec ipitating factors is to ensure that the seriousness and extent of violent and pre-violent behavior within the student body is a determinant that is thoroughly and thoughtfully weighed by the shareholders within the process (McAdams 2011). With regards to the ethical concerns of enacting such an assessment tool, there are few if any that have been uncovered as a function of the research that has been employed within this brief analysis. Moreover, the fact of the matter is with regards to the application of the assessment tool, the ethical concerns that are presented with regards to utilizing such a tool are far outweighed by the ethical concerns of not implementing it at all. In other words, the dangers associated with not putting into place such a tool of analysis are far greater than the ethical concerns that might be endangered by putting one into place (Cawood 2010). Lastly, with respect to how such a tool of assessment would integrate with different ethnic and culturally diverse groups, the level of assessment and the individual assessment tools that have thus far been listed work across these groups and provide the same level of inference. This in and of itself is important to note due to the fact that few of the other assessment tools that could be put into place or utilized by a high school counselor would have the same level of