Coursework 1 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

1 - Coursework Example 3. Using the data from the Venn Diagram below, 7 movies on DVD had fights but not explosions or car crashes. ( U = {movies on DVD collection}, C = {movies with car crashes}, F = {movies with fights}, E = {movies with explosions}) 4. (a) Since we have 3 sets in discussion, the membership table that we shall be using requires 23=8 rows. Each of these rows represents a unique combination of possible membership values. (1 = the element is a member of the corresponding set, 0 = the element is not a member) To find out if the two sets A U (B ∠© C) and A ∠© (B U C) are equal, we look at their corresponding columns and see if corresponding rows have the same values. The membership table clearly shows that the 5th and 7th columns do not have the same entries in corresponding rows, thus the two sets are not equal. This example seems to contradict the previous conjecture that A U (B ∠© C) and A ∠© (B U C) are not equal. However, as we can see from the membership table, this example simply illustrates one of the cases when the two sets are

Price Discrimination Essay Example for Free

Price Discrimination Essay A seller charging competing buyers different prices for the same commodity or discriminating in the provision of allowances — compensation for advertising and other services — may be violating the Robinson-Patman Act. This kind of price discrimination may give favored customers an edge in the market that has nothing to do with their superior efficiency. Price discriminations are generally lawful, particularly if they reflect the different costs of dealing with different buyers or are the result of a sellers attempts to meet a competitors offering. The Supreme Court has ruled that price discrimination claims under the Robinson-Patman Act should be evaluated consistent with broader antitrust policies. In practice, Robinson-Patman claims must meet several specific legal tests: 1.The Act applies to commodities, but not to services, and to purchases, but not to leases. 2.The goods must be of like grade and quality. 3.There must be likely injury to competition (that is, a private plaintiff must also show actual harm to his or her business). 4.Normally, the sales must be in interstate commerce (that is, the sale must be across a state line). Competitive injury may occur in one of two ways. Primary line injury occurs when one manufacturer reduces its prices in a specific geographic market and causes injury to its competitors in the same market. For example, it may be illegal for a manufacturer to sell below cost in a local market over a sustained period. Businesses may also be concerned about secondary line violations, which occur when favored customers of a supplier are given a price advantage over competing customers. Here, the injury is at the buyers level. The necessary harm to competition at the buyer level can be inferred from the existence of significant price discrimination over time. Courts may be starting to limit this inference to situations in which either the buyer or the seller has m arket power, on the theory that, for example, lasting competitive harm is unlikely if alternative sources of supply are available. There are two legal defenses to these types of alleged Robinson-Patman violations: (1) the price difference is justified by different costs in manufacture, sale, or delivery (e.g., volume discounts), or (2) the price concession was given in good faith to meet a competitors price. The Robinson-Patman Act also forbids certain discriminatory allowances or services furnished or paid to customers. In  general, it requires that a seller treat all competing customers in a proportionately equal manner. Services or facilities covered include payment for or furnishing advertising or promotional allowances, handbills, catalogues, signs, demonstrations, display and storage cabinets, special packaging, warehousing facilities, credit returns, and prizes or free merchandise for promotional contests. The cost justification does not apply if the discrimination is in allowances or services furnished. The seller must inform all of its competing customers if any services or allowances are available. The seller must allow all types of competing customers to receive the services and allowances involved in a particular plan or provide some other reasonable means of participation for those who cannot use the basic plan. A more detailed discussion of these promotional issues can be found in the FTCs Fred Meyer Guides. Under certain circumstances, a buyer who benefits from the discrimination may also be found to have violated the Act, along with the seller who grants the discrimination, if the buyer forced, or induced, the seller to grant a discriminatory price. Although proof of a violation of the Robinson-Patman Act often involves complex legal questions, businesses should keep in mind some of the basic practices that may be illegal under the Act. These include: †¢below-cost sales by a firm that charges higher prices in different localities, and that has a plan of recoupment; †¢price differences in the sale of identical goods that cannot be justified on the basis of cost s avings or meeting a competitors prices; or †¢promotional allowances or services that are not practically available to all customers on proportionately equal terms. Under the Nonprofit Institutions Act, eligible nonprofit entities may purchase — and vendors may sell to them — supplies at reduced prices for the nonprofits own use, without violating the Robinson-Patman Act. The Health Care Services Products Division issued a recent advisory opinion discussing the application of this exemption to pharmaceutical purchases by a nonprofit health maintenance organization. Q: I operate two stores that sell compact discs. My business is being ruined by giant discount chains that sell their products for less than my wholesale cost. What can I do? A: Discount chains may be able to buy compact discs at a lower wholesale price because it costs the manufacturer less, on a per-unit basis, to deal with large-volume customers. If so, the manufacturer may have a cost justification defense  to the differential pricing and the policy would not violate the Robinson-Patman Act. Q: One of my suppliers is selling parts at its company-owned store at retail prices that are below the wholesale price that it charges me for the parts. Isnt this illegal? A: The transfer of parts from a parent to its subsidiary generally is not considered a sale under the Robinson-Patman Act. Thus, this situation would not have the required element of sales to two or more purchasers at different prices. †¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. Definition of Price Discrimination A pricing strategy that charges customers different prices for the same product or service. In pure price discrimination, the seller will charge each customer the maximum price that he or she is willing to pay. In more common forms of price discrimination, the seller places customers in groups based on certain attributes and charges each group a different price. Investopedia explains Price Discrimination Price discrimination allows a company to earn higher profits than standard pricing because it allows firms to capture every last dollar of revenue available from each of its customers. While perfect price discrimination is illegal, when the optimal price is set for every customer, imperfect price discrimination exists. For example, movie theaters usually charge three different prices for a show. The prices target various age groups, including youth, adults and seniors. The prices fluctuate with the expected income of each age bracket, with the highest charge going to the adult population. Price Discrimination When you were young, did you ever order from the childrens menu in a restaurant? When a family with small children goes to a restaurant, they are often given a childrens menu in addition to the regular menu. If they order two similar items, one from each menu, they will find that the item ordered from the childrens menu will be a bit smaller, but its price will be much smaller. In fact, it would often be worthwhile for the entire family to order from the childrens menu, but they cannot. Restaurants usually only allow children to order from it.1 Why do restaurants use childrens menus?  Economists doubt that restaurant owners have a special love for children; they suspect that the owners find offering childrens menus to be profitable. It can be profitable if adults who come to restaurants with children are, on the average, more sensitive to prices on menus than adults who come to restaurants without children. Children often do not appreciate restaurant food and service, and often waste a large part of their food. Parents know this and do not want to pay a lot for their childs meal. If restaurants treat children like adults, the restaurants may lose customers as families switch to fast-food restaurants. If this explanation is correct, then restaurants price discriminate.2 A seller price discriminates when it charges different prices to different buyers. The ideal form of price discrimination, from the sellers point of view, is to charge each buyer the maximum that the buyer is willing to pay. If the seller in our monopoly example could do this, it could charge the first buyer $7.01, the second buyer $6.51, etc. In this case the marginal revenue curve becomes identical with the demand curve. The seller will sell the economically efficient amount, it would capture the entire consumers surplus, and it would substantially increase profits. The Simple Analytics of Monopoly-Repeated OutputMarginal CostMarginal Benefit Every seller would price discriminate if there were not two major obstacles standing in the way. First, the seller must be able to distinguish between those buyers who are willing to pay a high price from those who are not. Second, there must be substantial difficulty for a low-price buyer to resell to those willing to buy at a high price.3 Because price discrimination is potentially profitable, businesses have found many ways to do it. Theaters often charge younger customers less than adults. Doctors sometimes charge  the rich or insured patient more for services than they charge the poor or uninsured. Grocery stores have a lower price for people who bother to check the newspaper and clip coupons. Some companies, such as firms selling alcoholic beverages, produce similar products but try to promote one as a prestige brand with a much higher price. Electric utilities usually charge lower rates to people who use a lot of electricity (and thus probably have electric stoves and water heaters) than they do to those who use only a little electricity (and who probably have gas stoves and water heaters). Banks offer special interest rates on Certificates of Deposit (CDs) that will not be obtained when one lets a CD roll over. People who are more sensitive to interest rates will take the time and effort to personally renew each maturing CD. To the extent that businesses find ways to price discriminate, they eliminate the triangle of welfare loss and approach the economically efficient amount of production. Thus, the mere existence of monopoly does not prove there is economic inefficiency.

Jean-Baptiste Lully Essay -- essays research papers fc

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Giovanni Battista Lulli was born on November 28, 1632. His father, Lorenzo di Maldo, was a miller and his mother, Caterina del Sera, was a miller’s daughter. Lully was born in Florence, Italy and lived there until age 11. While in Italy he studied dance and music; he played violin and guitar. In March of 1646 he moved to France to tutor Mlle de Montpensier in Italian. There he studied composition and harpsichord. Lully was able to hear the King’s grande bande perform, witness balls where the best French dance music was played. When Mlle de Montpensier was exiled from Paris, Lully was released from her service and gained the attention of King Louis XIV. In February 1653 he danced in â€Å"Ballet de la nuit† with the King and less than a month later was appointed the King’s â€Å"composituer de la musique instrumentale de Roi.† Over the next ten years Lully gained control over all the royal family’s court music. This is when he began experimenting with performance practices and changing the basic stylistic features of orchestral music. Lully’s â€Å"petits violons† brought him international fame. At this point Lully focused his career on ballets. They brought together Lully’s two favorite expressions of art: dance and music. The dances he composed shaped what is now known as â€Å"French music.† Between 1658 and 1671 Lully wrote thirty ballets. During this ballet frenzy he received his French citizenship and changed his name from Lulli to Lully. He also elevated his father’s status to â€Å"gentilhomme Florentin.† Also in 1661 Lully was appointed the composer of chamber music for the King. In 1664 Lully collaborated with Jean-Baptiste Molià ¨re and started composing comà ©dies-ballets. He didn’t thing the French language was appropriate for large works but was good for ballets. Perrin, a French composer, introduced opera around this time and Lully thought it was absurd. However, when Perrin’s â€Å"Promone† succeeded, Lully changed his mind. Perrin ended up in prison over a money dispute and Lully bought the opera patent from him. This gave him complete control of French operatic performances. Then in 1673 Molià ¨re died and the King granted the patent for the Royal Theater to Lylly also. Lully’s new operatic style grew out of his popular ballets. He kept the overture, entry music for the dancers, atmosphere and action symphonies, and some of the dances themselv... ...ed. Instrumentalists would only be used in scenes where an instrumentalist would normally be found in life: weddings, festivals, etc. Lully’s influence on the orchestra cannot be overstressed. He dramatically affected its style and importance. His orchestra was emulated all over Europe. Many of the characteristics that Lully developed are still in use today. Bibliography Anthony, James R., â€Å"Lully.† The New Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 1980 ed., vol. 14, p. 315-326. Anthony, James R., H. Wiley Hitchcock, Edward Higginbottom, Graham Sadler, Albert Cohen. â€Å"French Baroque Masters.† The New Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians. W.W. Norton and Company, 1986. p. 1-63 Buelow, George J., â€Å"Music and Society in the Late Baroque Era.† Music and Society in the Late Baroque Era. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1994. p. 1-38 Harman, Alec and Anthony Milner. Late Renaissance and Baroque Music. Fairlawn: Essential Books, 1957. Heyer, John Hadju. Lully Studies. Cambridge Universal Press, 2000. Lewis, W. H., The Splendid Century: Life in the France of Louis XIV. Waveland Press, 1997 Newman, Joyce. Jean-Baptiste de Lully and His Tragà ©dies Lyrique. UMI Research Press, 1979.

Cordell Hull: The hero of peace behind the scene Essay

Cordell Hull, a Tennessee native, October 2, 1871; son of William and Elizabeth (Riley) Hull; was considered one of America’s greatest Secretary of States. Prior to becoming Secretary of State in President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s cabinet, where he served during the very critical years of the Great Depression and World War II, 1933 to 1944, he was a U.S. Senator and congressman for 24 years. As a young army captain he fought in the Spanish-American War of 1898. Cordell Hull’s most remarkable achievements were in the area of international economics where his special knowledge in that field left a lasting impact on the United States’ relations with other countries for many years after he died. He had dealt with the threats of war with the axis powers, the merit of the U.S. assuming the role of an isolationist nation by avoiding foreign entanglements, and the conciliation of aggressive nations in Europe and Asia. Hull advocated the revival of world trade as a key means for lifting the country out of the depression and as a way to attain global peace. His influence upon Congress to do away with high protective tariffs were enormous and he lobbied for the passage of Reciprocal Trade Agreements in 1934. Tariffs were reduced on certain goods up to 50% through special treaties, granting â€Å"most-favored-nation† terms with friendly nation anxious to do business with the U.S. Hull also created the Export-Import Bank, a government agency that allowed nations to borrow money in order to buy American products. In the interest of peace he helped start the United Nations. Franklin D. Roosevelt called him the â€Å"Father of the United Nations.† (Resnick 70) The man of peace Cordell Hull has devoted his entire life to the stabilization of international relations, best known to the public as his untiring efforts in the field of commercial policy, efforts inspired by his desire to counteract autarchic tendencies both in the U.S.A. and abroad. Of these efforts, which considerably influenced national policies during the period between the wars and especially at the end of the twenties, he says: â€Å"there can be no real progress toward confidence or peace or permanent trade recovery while retaliations and bitter trade controversies rage.† Confidence and peace between nations have constituted his goal in all spheres of his activity. This is the driving spirit behind this fight against isolationism at home, his efforts to create a peace bloc of States on the American continents, and his work for the United Nation Organization.   Hull reopened the question of taxation, after the victory of the democrats in 1912, managed to secure the introduction of income tax. He certainly saw it as a means of increasing federal income, but his first concern was with the effects of this tax as against those of the tariffs. He was convinced that protectionism created monopoly and enriched the few at the expense of the many, and that such system could not be reconciled with the free competition in which he believed. By the end of the war, his view on economic policy could be expressed as follows: High tariffs are barriers obstructing the development of trade and friendship between nations, thereby becoming barriers also to lasting international peace. As early as 1917, he put forward the idea of an international agreement to govern the methods employed in commercial competition. The task of reducing trade restrictions was taken up in the League of Nations and the basis for the work of the following years established at the great world conference in 1927 at Geneva. The culmination of these efforts was the World Economic Conference in London in 1933 which Hull himself attended, this time as secretary of state which ended as failure. It may think it was a mistake to lay so much stress on the question of stabilization of currency form the very beginning; it was then that led to Roosevelt’s famous telegram in which he rejected the plan for currency stabilization on the grounds that, a nation’s prosperity depends more upon a healthy internal economic structure than it does upon the price of its currency in relation to the price of currencies of other nations. This attitude, which prevailed in the United States, brought Hull’s work in this direction to a halt. Yet Hull did not give up, even though the London conference was a setback for his ideas. Despite this failure, in November of that year he headed the American Delegation to the Seventh Pan-American Conference, held in Montevideo, and won the trust of the Latin American diplomats, laying the foundation for the â€Å"Good Neighbor† Policy, followed up in the Inter-American Conference for the Maintenance of Peace held in Buenos Aires (1936) , the eighth Pan- American Conference in Lima (1938), the second consecutive Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the American Republics in Havana (1940) (Haberman 289). Father of income tax Cordell Hull was the principal architect of the Income Tax of 1913. In structuring this tax, he used as his prototype the Income Tax of 1894. He believed that a tax on consumption unjustly burdened the working people. He aspired to create an institutional structure that would shift the burden from those citizens with the least ability to pay with the ones with the most. Given authority through the Trade Agreements Act of 1934, he negotiated reciprocal trade agreements with numerous countries, lowering tariffs and stimulating trade. He secured the passage of a bill empowering the president to lower tariffs by fifty percent and to reduce import restrictions for countries prepared to grant similar concessions to the United States. He was eventually able to conclude no fewer than twenty-seven trade agreements on the basis of this bill (Joseph 187). This law, which was subject to a time limitation, was last renewed in 1945 and authorized the president to reduce tariffs by forty-five percent. This was, of course, materialized after Hull had retired, but it represented nevertheless a victory for his policy. All of this marked a radical change in the economic policy of the United States; it is an affirmation of England’s policy during the free trade period, taking as a model the Cobden Treaty of 1860 of which the most favored nation clause formed an integral part. Although the change is partly due to the acceptance of the United States as a creditor nation, it signifies something more profound for Hull: it is his immutable belief that it will clear the way for improved international relations and remove one of the causes of war . Hull attacked not only the tariff bill but the whole theory of protection. In particular, he attempted to point out what he considered to be the fallacy of protection for the American farmer. He told the House that 334,000,000 acres of land in the United States were planted, in 1928, to crops valued at $7,000,000,000, which actually got some benefit form tariff protection. The conclusion he drew from these statistics was that, under any system of tariffs designed to protect the farmer against foreign competition, only an infinitesimal percentage of American agriculture could benefit, by the very nature of American production, consisting so largely, in acreage and value, of commodities such as corn, wheat, oats, barley, rye, cotton, tobacco, and fruits, of which large surpluses were exported every year and which had nothing to fear from competitive imports. Hulls claimed that the general tariff rates, which the Republicans were trying to boost, were already higher that those of any country except Spain and that the United States stood twelfth among the nations of the world in per capita exports and only fourteenth in per capita imports .   The principles of Montevideo, including the abrogation of the Platt Amendment, the new treaty with Panama, the withdrawal of the marines from Haiti, and progress on the inter-American highway. The sum total of the accomplishments was among the contribution of the greatest nation in the world to the maintenance and promotion of peace throughout a world which gave every evidence of tottering on the brick of war (Hinton 187). Father of United Nation After World War II broke out in Europe he asked for support to the Allies and recommended the revision of the Neutrality Act, which kept the United States out of being involved in the warfare. After U.S. involvement in war, he worked to develop cooperation among the Allies, through his visits in Moscow in 1943, and started to create a peace plan that supported the establishment of a world organization to maintain peace. Knowing that Woodrow Wilson’s League of Nations did not succeed, in part, because of political partisanship in the United States, Hull led successful conventions on the formulation of a new international organization and submitted the â€Å"Charter of the United Nations† in August, 1943. Before the Charter could even be approved in 1944 in San Francisco, Hull had to resign office due to weakening health. Tuberculosis and heart disease were his hindrance for him to continue his work to which Hull was used to. The Roosevelt administration received much of the attention and praise for the establishment of the United Nations, owed and giving much of the credit to Hull. Before Hull resigned in November of 1944, Roosevelt offered Hull the opportunity to run as his vice president, which Hull declined because of his health condition. Roosevelt was so grateful to Hull that he nominated his Secretary of State for the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1945, the Nobel Committee awarded Cordell Hull the Prize for his work in the Western Hemispheres, for his remarkable work on International Trade Agreements, and for his hard work in establishing the United Nations (â€Å"Cordell Hull: 1945†). Works Cited Cordell Hull 1945. 1 December 2007 http://www.cordellhullmuseum.com/about.htm Haberman, Frederick W. Nobel Lectures in Peace. World Scientific, 1999. Hinton, Harold B. Cordell Hull – a Biography. READ BOOKS, 2007. Joseph, Richard J. The Origins of the American Income Tax: The Revenue Act of 1894 and Its Aftermath. Syracuse University Press, 2004. Resnick, Abraham. They Too Influenced a Nation’s History: The Unique Contributions of 105 Lesser-Known Americans. iUniverse, 2003.

Douglas Stuart and Gordon Essay

People may believe that they do not need any hermeneutical training, but a general reading of the book How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth by Fee and Stuart is essential for Christians who have any inclination towards scripture. The guidelines and rules outlined in the book are very good and some of them are very well developed from the point of view of interpreting and understanding scripture. For the Bible student and the inquiry seekers, the book is an excellent tool for teaching. Douglas Stuart and Gordon Fee have displayed their competencies in making the interpretation of the principles of the Bible available to present day readers. While Gordon Fee is an Old Testament scholar, Douglas Stuart is a student of the New Testament and they have covered in the book matters relating to translations, the legendry genres of poetry, parable, narratives and epistles and the meanings conveyed in the writings that were presented to their original audiences. The authors have shown how the right interpretations require different ways of exegesis as per the literary texts being studied in terms of Wisdom, Apocalypse, law and Wisdom. When considering New Testament Epistles, it is realized upon reading the book that the authors have given excellent advices in saying that the book should be treated as letters. This implies that individuals must read the book several times just as they would read letters from their close ones and then try to understand the meaning conveyed in them. It is very important to understand that the text aims at revealing the concept that the book was written to address a specific audience in order to make them understand the intricacies of Christianity. It is not possible for a reader to be extra subjective in trying to apply the different passages from the scripture to his or her own life particularly when a specific passage does not connote the meaning as believed by the reader. The book has lot of positive components and attributes that make it an excellent piece of reading. It effectively describes the complication and difficulty faced in translation and provides general principles and rules of effective interpretation. It endorses the consideration of the cultural and historical perspective and observes the writing styles and genres used in the books, and also suggests being cautious against any kind of misinterpretations. The authors have presented an easy to understand style which brings forth the art of biblical interpretations within the reach of the normal human being in a way that make the study of the Bible very rewarding and interesting. The book provides recommendation for the use of bible translations, concordances and dictionaries as facilitation to the studies. The back cover has clearly explained about the book, â€Å"In clear, simple language, it helps you accurately understand the different parts of the Bible—their meaning for ancient audiences and their implications for you today—so you can uncover the inexhaustible worth that is in God’s Word. † The authors have exhibited certain negative attributes especially in regard to some specific viewpoints which every reader may not agree with. For example, the material available in Acts and the Epistles was more relevant during the days when the texts were written and is considered a much lesser positive aspect in the viewpoint of King James and New King James Bible. The present day international version of the Bible is known to be much influenced by feminism while the translation versions of the Bible, especially the English Standard Version, are not much influenced by feminism. This is considered as being more sought after as the Dynamic Equivalence way of translation. Some scholars have come to believe that all hermeneutic theories have not been adequately dealt with by the authors. Since one of the authors is said to be an associate of the Assemblies of God Church, he has made some critics to point that the hermeneutics have been presented in his style. There have been several allegations of the flow of content being difficult while the style of writing has not been up to the mark. How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth guides the reader in a way that he or she can handle the Scripture in a better way, and teaches how misinterpretations can be avoided by using the context properly. The entire book emphasizes the importance of holistic reading of passages as per the over all substance of Scripture. Quirky doctrines and bad exegesis are the result of instances when passage and biblical statements are taken out from the theological, historical or cultural contexts and focused on aspects that are away from the whole of the revelation. In this context the introduction in the books has aptly explained that, â€Å"The aim of good interpretation is not uniqueness; one is not trying to discover what no one else has ever seen before. Interpretation that aims at, or thrives on, uniqueness can usually be attributed to pride (an attempt to ‘out clever’ the rest of the world), a false understanding of spirituality (wherein the Bible is full of deeply buried truths waiting to be mined by the spiritually sensitive person with special insight), or vested interests (the need to support a theological bias, especially dealing with texts that seem to go against that bias). † It is realized that the authors have made powerful points when one tries to understand the historic tests of the Old and New Testaments. They firstly make a case in favour of reading these books in order to see the activities of God in the matters pertaining to His Church and Israel. Hence these books are better understood if they are divided into separate sections that should be read as a successive account of deliverance history. Additionally the authors have warned that the passages should not be decontextualized and allegorized since such actions become tempting while reading historical narratives which do not appear to have much spiritual and theological importance. Significant points have been made by the authors in enhancing the awareness of the gospels. It is initially affirmed that some knowledge of the historical texts is important and crucial and that one is at a disadvantage if he or she is not conversant with Mediterranean culture of the 1st century. Secondly, it helps to read accounts of similar gospels and understand the minor differences which can enhance the understanding in regard to the audiences that the gospels intend to address and the kind of message that the authors are aiming to convey in those instances. It is established in the entire book that, as a rule, one must think and read in paragraph form to make the best and most meaningful use of the books. The treatment of the legal books of Hebrews is very impressive. The authors make a strong point that the given laws were specified for Israel in order to make them get benefits by understanding and applying them to the Israeli people. This point is considered valid by the authors but they also point out that there needs to be a precise way of teaching that the law did not emphasize upon. Moreover, the New Testament is no longer binding on the people today and is not considered by the authors as a strong argument. The laws that condemned rape, incest, homosexuality and bestiality were not specifically stated by Jesus, but they are believed to be true and applicable today also. The book is concluded in dealing with revelation, wisdom literature and psalms. However there is nothing new or revolutionary in these narrations which include strong and sound advice in regard to some negligible points of contention. Although the book cannot be considered exhaustive as a guide it is undoubtedly the best in enabling the understanding and reading of the Scripture. In essence, the book has aptly demonstrated how the Bible should be read theologically through the eyes of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ instead of the overtly idealistic and literalistic methods. Bible reading is revealed as being not only informative but also resulting in the positive transformation of human beings. Bibliography Fee Gordon D and Stuart Douglas, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, 2003, Zondervan

Marx, Wallerstein and Baudrillard

Marx, Wallerstein and Baudrillard Karl Marx and Marxism Marxism can be defined as a method social inquiry which looks at economic, socio- economic and socio-political aspects of a society. In its attempt to explain social change, the method relies on the concept of historical materialism, the rise and development of capitalism as a mode of production and the study of opposites (dialectical view).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Marx, Wallerstein and Baudrillard specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Marxism was founded by two Germany scholars namely Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels from the start of the 19th century to mid-19th century. They rejected the ideas of realism, liberalism but focused on class struggle as the basis of international relations. However, Karl Marx is seen as the most influential in the foundation and development of Marxism, thus the name of Marxism which was derived from his name. Marx was mostly interested in the study of society in terms of what he referred to as class struggle, which he argued was responsible for social change. On his part, Friedrich Engels based his argument on the study of opposites, arguing that social change was as a result of conflicting ideas, which influence the actions of people in the society, the argument being that the idea which is more dominant over the others shapes social change within a given society (Marx 87). Karl Marx sees people as both producers and products of the society in which they live. According to him, society is made up of different parts which influence each other but the economic part has the greatest influence. He argues that the history of human society is the history of tension and conflict. As per the manifesto written by him and Friedrich Engels in 1848, ‘the history of all existing societies is the history of class struggle, that of free men and slaves, lords and serfs who stand in a relationship of an oppressor and oppressed and thus are always in constant oppositions to one another. The conflict between the oppressor and oppressed is sometimes hidden or open war and at the end, they always have a reconstituted society. In the manifesto, Marx stated that ‘you do not have to be poor, nobody was born poor but the conditions that made man poor were created by man himself, and therefore can be changed by man’.Advertising Looking for essay on political sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Karl Marx gave more attention to the economy, which he argued formed the base of society while the superstructure which comprises things like culture, religion, social life and media were a reflection of the economic mode of production of the society. Karl Marx presented two class models of society namely the bourgeoisie and proletariat. The bourgeoisie are the capitalists who are few in number and are the owners of capital. They are also rich, powerful, oppresso rs, exploiters and they always win elections in democratic countries. On the other hand, the proletariats are the workers, owners of labor and they are the majority in numbers but are powerless since they are oppressed and exploited by the rich and they always lose in elections in democratic nations. The proletariat can be described as a class in itself in the sense that they share same objectives and relationships to the means of production, that is, they are laborers who are paid in wages. The two classes are always in conflict with each other because their interests are incompatible. While the bourgeoisie have the interests of maintaining the status quo which ensures their dominance, the proletariats are interested in changing the status quo which deprives them of good life. However, the two classes are not aware of the nature of the circumstances which they live in but assume that the situations which they find themselves in are natural and nothing can be done to change them. Th is is what Karl Marx calls a false class consciousness. The bourgeoisie are not aware that they are the exploiters while the proletariats are not aware that they are exploited or oppressed; they are also not aware that they are poor but assume that they are naturally supposed to be poor. However; when the proletariats become aware of the reality, that is, when they know that they are exploited by the bourgeoisie, what follows is a revolution. Marx argues that the Russian revolution of 1917 was as a result of the realization of the proletariats that they were being oppressed by the bourgeoisie.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Marx, Wallerstein and Baudrillard specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More According to Karl Marx, the defining features of social class are the ownership or lack of ownership of the means of production. He argued that those who owned the means of production were able to exploit those who did own them. Marx was of the view that both labor and capital were very essential in the stability of the economy. This is because the capital cannot transform itself into wealth without the labor while the labor cannot create wealth without the capital. It therefore follows that both the bourgeoisie and the proletariat must work together, because none can exist independently of the other. What this means is that both the bourgeoisie and the proletariat are equal shareholders in the wealth which is created through their interaction. However, this is not always the case. This is because at the end of the production process, the sharing of the profits is not fair since the supply value is more appropriated by the bourgeoisie at the expense of the proletariat, who produces more labor which is not paid for. According to Karl Marx therefore, the levels of profits made by organizations was inversely proportional to the level of exploitation of the proletariat. That is, the more the companies make prof its, the higher the levels of exploitation and vice versa. In other words, what Karl Marx was arguing was that profit was synonymous with surplus value, which is labor that is not paid for. Unfortunately, the proletariats are not aware of this and they even go to the extent of celebrating when they hear that the companies which they work for have made significant increment in the amounts of profits. Karl Marx understood work as alienating. His argument was based on the capitalistic mode of production which has its roots in the industrial revolution of 1600. This mode of production is characterized by two groups of people namely the capitalists and the proletariats. According to Karl Marx, the proletariats own nothing except their labor, which they sale at cheap price to the capitalists. Karl Marx also explained the concept of alienation which simply means the existence of some dividing forces between things which are essentially supposed to be in harmony with each other.Advertising Looking for essay on political sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More For example, man created and discovered religion, but the same man subjects himself to uncomfortable religious beliefs or practices like refusing to take medicine due to religious beliefs. In this situation, religion makes man uneasy, yet it is the same man who creates the religion. Marx argued that the ideal purpose of work was to make man happy by enabling him move towards the actualization levels in his life. But due to the capitalistic economy, work is no longer playing its primary function in man, but rather, it is alienating him. According to Marx, man can be alienated in three major ways namely the alienation from the results of labor, alienation from the other workers and alienation of the worker from him or herself. Alienation from the results of labor happens when man works but he does not have a stake in the products of his labor and only gets his wages, which are way below the worth of the products of his labor. This is what Karl Marx calls exploitation, which creates pr ofits in form of surplus. Paradoxically, the surplus is not attributed to the workers but rather to the capitalists. Alienation from other workers takes place when the worker is transformed into a commodity to be used in the competitive capitalist economy. In this situation, the worker is not viewed as a social being but is tied to his or her work, in which he or she is paid as per his or her output. Alienation of the worker from himself takes place when the worker is robbed of his ability or opportunity to enjoy the intrinsic value of work. In the capitalistic economy, personal life is separated from work, meaning that the worker is transformed into a machine. This makes him or her to work for the sake of working, but not as a way of serving humanity or quenching his passion to work in a certain field. Immanuel Wallerstein He writes about post capitalism and agrees that Marx’s description of capitalism was accurate in the 19th century but out-dated in the 20th century. This is because major changes took place in Western Europe and North America which are now post-capitalists. Instead of the two social classes getting polarized as Marx had argued, the opposite has happened. For example, population of skilled workers has grown tremendously; inequalities in income and wealth have been reduced due to changes in social structure and the intervention by the State (Wallerstein 26). Social mobility is now more common and he link between ownership and control have been broken. In the organizational context for example, managers, but not the owners of the business exercise day to day control of the organizations as well as over the means of production. Under these circumstances, Marx’s argument that conflict was based on the concept of ownership of the means of production is therefore not valid today because there is no longer any close association between wealth and power. Wallerstein went ahead to argue that conflict therefore was not about the control over the means of production but over authority, which according to him was a legitimate power attached to a particular social role. For example, a manager or a teacher has a right to make decisions in an organization or classroom regardless of the wishes of the workers or students respectively. In all organizations, there are positions of dominance and subjection, some make decisions legitimately, others do not and this is the basis of conflict in post capitalism society. Those in the subject positions have the interest of changing the social structure that deprives them of authority and those in dominant positions have the interest of maintaining dominant structure in many social situations not just economic ones and so nobody is confined to dominant or subject positions and therefore society presents a picture of plurality of competing dominant and subject positions. Just like Marx, Wallerstein argued that there is a possibility of capitalism being replaced by socialism. Accordin g to him, false class consciousness may come to an end thus triggering revolutions which would eventually bring capitalism to an end. Jean Baudrillard His main ideas were centered on consumerism. He is one of the few scholars who loosely associated themselves with Marxism. One of his main points of departure from Marxism in regard to capitalism is that while Marx saw production as the key force behind capitalism, Baudrillard considered consumption as the key force behind capitalism (Tormey 73). He also differed significantly with Marx in regard to the issue of use-value. While Marx saw needs as genuine and innate, Baudrillard saw them as being constructed by people and therefore, the needs preceded the production of goods. In this sense therefore, consumption was more important than production because the desire to consume certain goods comes before the goods are produced. In his later works, Baudrillard completely rejected the ideas of Marx especially with regard to sign value of c ommodities. His argument was that commodities had a sign value which was one of the determinants of why people preferred certain commodities to others. To him therefore, the cost of a commodity was not as much important as the sign value of the same commodity. On his part, Marx had argued that the cost of production was the key determinant of the value of commodities in the market economy. Marx, Karl. Theories of Surplus Value Vols. 1-3, Amherst, N.Y, Prometheus Books, 2000. Print. Tormey, Simon. Anticapitalism: A Beginners Guide, Oxford, Oneworld BeginnersGuides, 2004.Print. Wallerstein, Immanuel. Geopolitics and Geoculture: Essays on the Changing World-System, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991. Print.

Womens Rights in America and How They Fought For Them essays

Women's Rights in America and How They Fought For Them essays During the early history of the United States there was little, if any respect for the principle of women's rights. In an intensely patriarchal society a man " virtually owned his wife and children as he did his material possessions. If a poor man chose to send his children to the poorhouse, the mother was legally defenseless to object". [1] The history of the women's movements in the United States is largely a reaction to this system of exclusion and male-dominance. The start of the history of the fight for women's rights begins with a tea party hosted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, in New York. Mrs. Stanton expressed her feelings of discontent at the situation of women in society, Stanton poured out her discontent with the limitations placed on her own situation under America's new democracy. Hadn't the American Revolution been fought just 70 years earlier to win the patriots freedom from tyranny' But women had not gained freedom even though they'd taken equally tremendous risks through those dangerous years. Surely the new republic would benefit from having its women play more active roles throughout society. Stanton's friends agreed with her, This meeting led to the first Convention on Women's Rights, which took place at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls in 1848. While this was a comparatively small meeting it was to have repercussions and affect the future of women in America. In an insightful move Stanton used the principles of the Declaration of Independence as a framework for her "Declaration of Sentiments." In so doing she succeeded in giving the idea of women's right legitimacy by associating these rights with a powerful symbol of freedom and liberty. In her declaration Stanton mentions eighteen areas of dis...

Geographical and Historical Overview of Poland

Geographical and Historical Overview of Poland Poland is a country located in central Europe to the east of Germany. It lies along the Baltic Sea and today has a growing economy centered on industry and the service sector. Population: 38,482,919 (July 2009 estimate)Capital: WarsawArea: 120,728 square miles (312,685 sq km)Bordering Countries: Belarus, Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, Russia, Slovakia, UkraineCoastline: 273 miles (440 km)Highest Point: Rysy at 8,034 feet (2,449 m)Lowest Point: Raczki Elblaskie at -6.51 feet (-2 m) History of Poland The first people to inhabit Poland were the Polanie from southern Europe in the 7th and 8th centuries. In the 10th century, Poland became Catholic. Shortly thereafter, Poland was invaded by Prussia and divided. Poland remained divided among many different peoples until the 14th century. At this time it grew due to a union by marriage with Lithuania in 1386. This created a strong Polish-Lithuanian state. Poland maintained this unification until the 1700s when Russia, Prussia and Austria again divided the country several times. By the 19th century however, the Polish had a revolt due to the foreign control of the country and in 1918, Poland became an independent nation after World War I. In 1919, Ignace Paderewski became Polands first prime minister. During World War II, Poland was attacked by Germany and Russia and in 1941 it was taken over by Germany. During Germanys occupation of Poland much of its culture was destroyed and there were mass executions of its Jewish citizens. In 1944, the government of Poland was replaced with the communist Polish Committee of National Liberation by the Soviet Union. The Provisional Government was then established in Lublin and members of Polands former government later joined to form the Polish Government of National Unity. In August 1945, U.S. President Harry S. Truman, Joseph Stalin, and Britains Prime Minister Clement Attlee worked to shift Polands borders. On August 16, 1945, the Soviet Union and Poland signed a treaty which shifted Polands borders west. In total Poland lost 69,860 square miles (180,934 square kilometers) in the east and in the west it gained 38,986 square miles (100,973 square kilometers). Until 1989, Poland maintained a close relationship with the Soviet Union. Throughout the 1980s, Poland also experienced a large amount of civil unrest and strikes by industrial workers. In 1989, the trade union Solidarity was granted permission contest government elections and in 1991, under the first free elections in Poland, Lech Walesa became the countrys first president. Government of Poland Today Poland is a democratic republic with two legislative bodies. These bodies are the upper Senate or Senat and a lower house called the Sejm. Each of the members for these legislative bodies are elected by the public. Polands executive branch consists of a chief of state and a head of government. The chief of state is the president, while the head of government is the prime minister. The legislative branch of Polands government is the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Tribunal. Poland is divided into 16 provinces for local administration. Economics and Land Use in Poland Poland currently has a successfully growing economy and has practiced a transition to more economic freedom since 1990. The largest economies in Poland are machine building, iron, steel, coal mining, chemicals, shipbuilding, food processing, glass, beverages and textiles. Poland also has a large agricultural sector with products that include potatoes, fruits, vegetables, wheat, poultry, eggs, pork and dairy products. Geography and Climate of Poland Most of Polands topography is low lying and makes up a part of the North European Plain. There are many rivers throughout the country and the largest is Vistula. The northern part of Poland has a more varied topography and features many lakes and hilly areas. Polands climate is temperate with cold, wet winters and mild, rainy summers. Warsaw, Polands capital, has an average January high temperature of 32 F (0.1 C) and a July average high of 75 F (23.8 C). More Facts about Poland Polands life expectancy is 74.4 years The literacy rate in Poland is 99.8 percent Poland is 90 percent Catholic Resources and Further Reading Central Intelligence Agency. (2010, April 22). CIA - The World Factbook - Poland. Retrieved from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/pl.htmlInfoplease (n.d.) Poland: History, Geography, Government, and Culture - Infoplease.com. Retrieved from: infoplease.com/ipa/A0107891.htmlUllman, H.F. 1999. Geographica World Atlas Encyclopedia. Random House Australia.United States Department of State. (2009, October). Poland (10/09). Retrieved from: state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2875.htm

The Mise-en-Scne of a Film Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

The Mise-en-Scne of a Film - Essay Example Bazin believed that a film should represent a director's personal vision. His writings focused on a new emphasis, with attention to more than just the usual exploration of story-performance-theme that discussion of films routinely limited itself to or focused on. His criticisms were deep and focused on the entire message, including such things as the role of the set and props, camera movement, and the use of deep focus to depict the personality of a character. He was keen to notice how Chaplin's Tramp kicks backward instead of forward. Bazin ushered in new dimensions to film discourse. His explanation in cinema discourse was understandable by the ordinary folks at the time. These views on montage or editing and deep focus were embodied in a chapter titled "Montage Interdit" in his collection of writings, where he prefers longer takes, explaining it, and "questioned the suitability of montage as a cinematic attempt to mimic literary simile." Because of its relationship to shot blocking, mise en scene is also a term sometimes used to indicate descriptive (action) paragraphs between the dialogues. The concentration on objective reality, deep focus, and lack of montage are linked to Bazin's belief that the interpretation of a film or scene should be left to the spectator. (2) What does the term Iconography mean in relation to film, and in particular, film genres Cinema appeals to the general public and tends to depend on familiar styles and structures, what people feel or idolize, and what is the trend. Tradition and culture also play a key role in the kind of genre that is in vogue, what is popular, and appeal to a larger audience. Box office appeals are influenced by idols of the masses, and this particular type of iconography maybe on the actors, the roles they play, the setting, the plot, what they wear, and the way the film is being shot. There are many ways to present iconography in films. Actors are idolized according to the role they play in movies. Sometimes typecasting is one. Teenage stars are seen on movies sometimes not because of the role they play but because they are simply teenage idols. But various factors influence the formation of a genre. Sometimes a genre just happens or evolve out of people's continuing viewing of almost similar kind of film setting or plot, with the same kind of actors. Variations occur only on how the director or filmmaker presents the films.

Power from the play Freakshow by Carson Kreitzer Essay

Power from the play Freakshow by Carson Kreitzer - Essay Example Flip, but lacking any ability to escape from their situation lacking other viable options in society. As Francine Russo of the Village Voice writes in her review of the play: â€Å"Playwright Carson Kreitzer gets Freakshow off to a ripping start. She plunges the audience immediately into the intrigues of a turn-of-the-century sideshow— tales of freaks born and made, of the genuine article and gaff, of the ‘shame of exhibition’ and the terrible need to be seen. She sketches the liaisons among Amalia; her muck-covered lover Matthew; the idiot Pinhead; Aquaboy, the human salamander; the Girl, a pert runaway; Judith, the dog-faced woman; and Mr. Flip, the operation's unctuous barker, promoter, and paterfamilias.† (Russo, 1999) Most symbolic of the enslavement of the circus slideshow performers is the way that Pinhead is kept in a cage on the stage. Whereas the mental capacity or genetic defect of Pinhead is deformed, it is important that this type of handicap w ould generally be better treated in a mental hospital or care facility. The symbol of the cage is ironic, in that the cage is equally present for the other members of the freakshow, only invisible. The key difference between the other freakshow members and Pinhead is their amazing wit, intelligence, and irony fuses to form a type of wisdom about life and society that only the truly excluded outsiders can possess. The intellect of Judith the Dog Faced Woman and Amalia the Amputee is also displayed as an aspect of sexuality that transgresses the barriers and boundaries of the disability and attracts the audience in a seductive manner. The humor of the characters creates a beauty born of understanding life from its worst positions of fate. On the contrary, the slavemaster mentality of Mr. Flip is merely a hyper-exaggerated example of typical modern management styles, and the circus itself a parody of capitalism in the extreme. Where the mainstream society operates on norms and stereoty pes of beauty in media advertising, the circus beauties are the hideous bottom of what would be considered opposite to that ideal popularly. Yet, in this extreme, the fascination and attraction of the public is nearly as great. The difference is that Mr. Flip is more likely to profit from the attraction of the public and their admission fees, while the freakshow cast is only given reprieve from having to exist without a role in society. As Damien Jaques writes: â€Å"Often using monologs, ‘Freakshow’ darkly speaks to the contradictions, anomalies and paradoxes that reside beneath the surface in all of our personalities. It reminds us to not make assumptions about people or situations, and it sheds light on the dependencies that often shape the lives of seemingly ordinary people. An undercurrent of primal sexuality insistently flows through the piece.† (Jaques, 2010) The Ringmaster is the most normal of the â€Å"Freakshow† cast in many ways, a simple salar y-man broken by time and the weight of futility like so many others in his situation in the mainstream industrial landscape. His love of the freakshow in many ways operates on the same pattern of the public, and is related to his own depravity as a human being. Just as in Dostoevsky’s novels the characters seem fated to walk a path of self-destruction, all the while knowing that

HITECH Legislation Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

HITECH Legislation - Research Paper Example nimum requirements for transmitting EHRs as well as auditing and storage of health care records in enhancing efficiency of healthcare systems (Murray et al., 2011). The 2011 study on the use of EHR in respiratory care revealed that the use of Bridge Tech’s Medical Connectivity Solution streams data directly to the EHR interface staging for fast and reliable patient care (Hanlon, 2011). In this regard, the meaningful use of EHR devices facilitates the acquisition and utilization of EHRs in healthcare delivery in organizations. The adoption and implementation of EHRs in respiratory care impacts positively to healthcare service delivery provided in hospitals. The use of Bridge Tech’s plug and play Connectivity Solution acquires data and sends it directly to the clinical validation application thereby facilitating point of care verification of data and signing off by the practitioner. The availability of various kinds of EHR devices stimulates fast and reliable bedside patient care delivery of services. EHR devices with in-built calculations facilitate lung protective strategy calculation, weaning assessment, documentation and record progress in spontaneous breathing trials (SBT). The availability of diverse workflow specific modules addressing various needs in respiratory care such as MediLinks improves health care delivery (Hanlon, 2011). Other positive impacts of using EHRs in hospitals include improved portability of medical information relating to patients as well as efficient delivery of health care services. EHR systems reduce medical errors in relation to the manual keyboarding and transcription of patients’ medical data. Similarly, the use of computerized practitioner order entry (CPOE) as an aspect of health information technology also reduces medical errors on dosage and use of drugs. They also encourage significant savings on cost due to the installation of wireless devices and new software rather than the costly wired interface devices,

Humans and the Environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Humans and the Environment - Essay Example The irony of it all is that even the human beings themselves are threatened by their own actions. In agriculture for instance, human beings have embraced technological developments in farming some of which have devastating effects on the soil. Developments such as the use of modern engineered pesticides have proved efficient in dealing with pests but the resultant effect on the survival of the other organisms in the soil is rarely taken into consideration. The pesticides end up killing the worms in the soil which play a very crucial role in ensuring that the soil is well aerated. This development in modes of farming has a short-lived benefit on the farming practice since it may result in improved farming of a given crop species in a given season but in the long run results in the depletion of soil quality (Berry, 2002). There has also been an improvement in farming by producing genetically engineered crops which flourish well during cultivation but most of them cannot produce viable seeds for replanting. This therefore means that the crop generation is limited to one since it can only be planted once. The genetically engineered crops have been recommended as one of the most efficient ways of attaining food sufficiency in countries faced with the food shortage as a result of small farming lands available or due to unfavorable climatic conditions in the countries affected. It has been claimed that the genetically engineered crops are responsible fro the many cancers reported in most people nowadays. In some countries where genetically modified products have been allowed on large scale such as in South Africa there was a substantial increase of cancer cases reported a few years afterwards. The human beings’ activities in the energy sector are one of the major causes of pollution in the world. In the 19th century the use of horses and oxen to produce power was common. The horses would then be fed and would then be ready to be used another day. This represent ed a basic description of renewable energy. It is from this that the term ‘horsepower’ was coined. Human beings have through time developed machines that no longer require the power of the horse to run but instead they rely on the petroleum related fuels which are fossil fuels. Petroleum results after a process that takes millions of years. The rate of use is therefore higher than the rate of regeneration which renders petroleum as one of the sources of non-renewable energy. In addition the exploration of petroleum results into fields of land that is not suitable for agricultural activities. This is contrary to the use of horses as sources of energy since horses produce cow dung that can be used as manure for cultivating agricultural crops in the farms. In addition horses used to graze on abandoned fields that were not being used for any agricultural activities (Courteau, 2007). In order to minimize on the land pollution associated with the exploration of the fossil fue ls, some countries have embarked on trying to use other sources of the fuel from what previously used to be considered as petroleum waste. In Canada for example, there are massive investments in place to try and process petroleum fuel from the tar sands (Kolbert, 2007). The other negative aspect of the fossil fuels is the poisonous emissions associated with their use. These fuels produce a lot of carbon while undergoing combustion which in turn

Summary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 219

Summary - Essay Example However, movies by Asian American are struggling to penetrate and segment the market. However, in comparison with the previous years, Asian American actors have made a remarkable improvement with several renowned films having attracted the attention of the moviegoers. The number of Asian characters in different movies that are being released into the market has also increased significantly. The increased level of globalization that has intensified the need for a diverse workforce and characters has opened up opportunities for these actors. Most of the Asian movies focus their attention on the local culture and the way people interact or deal with tough situation. In addition, they highlight significant activities such as marriage and vices in the society and how they affect individuals or a society at large. In addition, they enlighten people on current issues such as global terrorism. Therefore, the Asian and Asian American filmmakers are playing a significant role in complicating and enriching the changing dimension of the America on

Humans and the Environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Humans and the Environment - Essay Example The irony of it all is that even the human beings themselves are threatened by their own actions. In agriculture for instance, human beings have embraced technological developments in farming some of which have devastating effects on the soil. Developments such as the use of modern engineered pesticides have proved efficient in dealing with pests but the resultant effect on the survival of the other organisms in the soil is rarely taken into consideration. The pesticides end up killing the worms in the soil which play a very crucial role in ensuring that the soil is well aerated. This development in modes of farming has a short-lived benefit on the farming practice since it may result in improved farming of a given crop species in a given season but in the long run results in the depletion of soil quality (Berry, 2002). There has also been an improvement in farming by producing genetically engineered crops which flourish well during cultivation but most of them cannot produce viable seeds for replanting. This therefore means that the crop generation is limited to one since it can only be planted once. The genetically engineered crops have been recommended as one of the most efficient ways of attaining food sufficiency in countries faced with the food shortage as a result of small farming lands available or due to unfavorable climatic conditions in the countries affected. It has been claimed that the genetically engineered crops are responsible fro the many cancers reported in most people nowadays. In some countries where genetically modified products have been allowed on large scale such as in South Africa there was a substantial increase of cancer cases reported a few years afterwards. The human beings’ activities in the energy sector are one of the major causes of pollution in the world. In the 19th century the use of horses and oxen to produce power was common. The horses would then be fed and would then be ready to be used another day. This represent ed a basic description of renewable energy. It is from this that the term ‘horsepower’ was coined. Human beings have through time developed machines that no longer require the power of the horse to run but instead they rely on the petroleum related fuels which are fossil fuels. Petroleum results after a process that takes millions of years. The rate of use is therefore higher than the rate of regeneration which renders petroleum as one of the sources of non-renewable energy. In addition the exploration of petroleum results into fields of land that is not suitable for agricultural activities. This is contrary to the use of horses as sources of energy since horses produce cow dung that can be used as manure for cultivating agricultural crops in the farms. In addition horses used to graze on abandoned fields that were not being used for any agricultural activities (Courteau, 2007). In order to minimize on the land pollution associated with the exploration of the fossil fue ls, some countries have embarked on trying to use other sources of the fuel from what previously used to be considered as petroleum waste. In Canada for example, there are massive investments in place to try and process petroleum fuel from the tar sands (Kolbert, 2007). The other negative aspect of the fossil fuels is the poisonous emissions associated with their use. These fuels produce a lot of carbon while undergoing combustion which in turn

Managing for the future Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Managing for the future - Essay Example This fact can be analyzed by looking at the magazines who printed its success. "FT Global 500" by Financial Times, "The World's 2000 Biggest Public Companies" by Forbes magazine and by the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (Developing Telecoms | China Mobile | Sponsors Directory, 2012). According to its official website, Limited China Mobile Limited(2012), it has more than 34 subsidiaries like China Mobile Communication Company Limited (â€Å"CMC") , ZONG, China Mobile Group Guangdong Company Limited ("Guangdong Mobile"), Jiangsu Mobile and Hong Kong Mobile etc. The board of directors of China Mobile Ltd consists of Executive Directors and Independent Non-Executive Directors. The executive directors are seven in number whereas the Independent Non-Executive Directors are three in number (China Mobile Limited - About China Mobile > Board of Directors, 2012). 1.1 Milestones from 2006-2012 2006 marks some of the most important changes which came in the company. China Mobile Limited was f ormerly named as China Mobile (Hong Kong) Limited. The change in the company’s name came in the year 2006. This year also marks the privatization of China Resources Peoples Telephone Company Ltd. The privatization benefitted the company allot and gave a boost to its annual profits. In 2006, News Corp. and STAR Group Ltd. formed wireless media tactical association with China Mobile Ltd (China Mobile Limited - About China Mobile > Milestones, 2012). According to the company’s official website the year 2009 marks a share subscription agreement with the company Far EasTone. This increased the annual company profit (China Mobile Limited - About China Mobile > Milestones, 2012). Guangdong Mobile and SPD bank signed a share subscription agreement in the year 2010. This agreement increased the interest of both the subsidiaries of the company. It further strengthened the company’s e-commerce and mobile finance businesses (China Mobile Limited - About China Mobile > Miles tones, 2012). 2012 marks a lot of success news for the company. The company got a lot of awards for its performance and expansion. "Grand Award Winners -- Investor Relations" and three "iNova Awards 2012" serve as the most honorable achievements of the company. Moreover, the company is nominated for the Top favorite China Corporate Brand voted by China Consumer" and it was included in the Financial Times magazine again. It is the company which keeps it head high by coming up for the Millward Brown and Financial Times' "BRANDZâ„ ¢ Top 100" list for the seventh year uninterruptedly (China Mobile Limited - Media Centre > News Highlights, 2012). 1.2 What about the future? From the year 2006-2012, the company has been the most successful company in the wireless mobile services business. It has seen many success stories and good times. It is important for the company to maintain its reputation and image for the future as well. Be it Apple Inc. or Samsung, all the companies have been at the top because they keep on inventing new things for the future. They try to plan for the future and implement the strategies accordingly. China Mobile Limited has a lot of competition in the age of wireless technology. To remain the best it has to innovate and plan for its future. A company’s success lies in the people who work for it. The company’s biggest assets are people (Zolezzi, 2004. pp.41). 1.3 Management, Marketing and Understanding the Key Stakeholders Marketing is a tool to sell the product or service. It

Process Improvement Essay Example for Free

Process Improvement Essay ABSTRACT This document will be evaluating an existing process within Toyota during the time of their accelerator crisis. A problem statement will be defined around the process of internal communication of concerns and ideas between foreign-based Toyota employees and the authoritative management of Toyota based in Japan. PROBLEM ANALYSIS OF SELECTED PROCESS Problem framing is a very important, but easily overlooked, part of decision-making. Framing a problem can have a heavy influence on the decisions that are made. It isnt enough to frame the problem; it should be framed with the solution in mind. This helps to keep the end goal of the decision-making process in mind so that the correct choices are made. In the case of Toyota, at the highest level, they had a major problem with some of their products involving unintended acceleration and their handling of  customer reports of the problem led to a whole mess of other problems. So from the outside looking in, it seems that many processes internal to Toyota had room for improvement. Although there are many different business sections of Toyota with their own respective problems such as customer service, public relations, manufacturing, the problem I would like analyze and offer improvement on is internal communication process between management and foreign employees and how the breakdown in this process affected some of the business decisions made by Toyotas upper management. As Toyota grew into a global powerhouse in the auto industry, the organizational structure that emerged was a centralized design †¦that put key decision-making in the hands of executives in Japan†¦ Some believed that Toyotas structure in the U.S. ultimately impaired its ability to prevent the safety problems before they reached the crisis (Greto, Schotter Teagarden, 2010, pg. 7-8). A quality tool or method used to help with the identification and prioritization of the potential causes of quality problems in a process is cause-and-effect analysis. In a way, this is a reverse engineering method used to identify the elements of a specific quality problem and to identify the causes so that it can be corrected. The problem wasnt the unintended acceleration of certain vehicles; the problem was the internal management decision-making that impacted the engineering of those vehicles which created the engineering problem. For some background information, the defining and founding philosophy of Toyota, the Toyota Way, has been around for a long time but it wasnt until the late 1980s in which they began production of their vehicles in the U.S. Specifically the problem of ideas from U.S.-based employees has been largely ignored for almost 20 years when it comes to key engineering or financial-based decisions. Despite the global sales volume gain, Toyota reported revenues of US $211 billion for 2009, a decrease of 19% for the previous year (Greto, Schotter Teagarden, 2010, pg. 2). Even though Toyota has been making large profits throughout the past 20 years, they experienced a decrease in 2009 and part of this was related to the ambitious initiatives and business decisions made by Toyotas upper management. Japan is notoriously consensus oriented, and companies have a strong tendency to mediate differences among individuals rather than accentuate them (Porter, 1996, pg. 63). Japanese culture and Toyotas centralized decision-making structure made it difficult for U.S. based employees to offer ideas, suggestions for improvements, or to elevate critical problems to upper management in Japan. Toyotas upper management, in their minds, let the U.S. employees do what they do best, which is supposedly marketing and selling. The process used by Toyota to communicate foreign employees ideas to upper management was heard, but not listened to. Even the process of internal communication between management had its breakdowns because of the perception by family-oriented managers of nonfamily managers in that nonfamily members didnt have such thoughts as safety and quality in the forefront of their minds. Overall, the communication process seemed to be that ideas were submitted from employees, whether by Japanese or foreign employees, to management and ideas were reviewed and pushed up the management chain when it was appropriate. However, ideas that might have some bearing on engineering, manufacturing or financing were largely ignored when the source of the ideas were from U.S.-based employees and this violated the Toyota Way. To add to the complexity, the process for communicating ideas became more convoluted depending on the audience, nonfamily or family-based managers. To sum this up into a problem statement: Toyota has violated their founding philosophy of employee empowerment, especially for non-Japanese employees, and continues to make important business decisions without any regard to concerns or ideas from foreign employees when appropriate. Employees may have ideas that could be used in the decision-making process to achieve better quality solutions. Toyota needs a better mechanism or improvement to this internal communication process to capture the knowledge and ideas of all employees and to share these ideas across the organization. All in all, its to improve the internal communication process bet ween employees and management in order to support the idea of continuous improvement and quality. CONTEXT OF SELECTED PROCESS FOR IMPROVEMENT The _Toyota Way_ mandates planning for the long term; highlighting problems  instead of hiding them; encouraging team work with colleagues and suppliers; and, perhaps most importantly, instilling a self-critical culture that fosters continuous and unrelenting improvement (Greto, Schotter Teagarden, 2010, pg. 3). Two cores ideas from the statement above are the idea of team work and most importantly employee empowerment. These two values are what made Toyota into a successful global corporation during their fast rise in the 1980s. Employees were encouraged to offer ideas for improvement for any process within the organization and this helped with continuing the idea of continuous improvement. An important part of making business decisions is having real-time and critical information. The selected process for improvement: improving the communication of ideas and concerns and the sharing of foreign employees ideas to Toyotas Japanese management team needs to be addressed immediately. The process selected for improvement is the process used to capture the ideas of all employees, U.S.-based included, and to have these ideas be properly represented and presented to management for review in real-time. You know the joke that every bank branch has a president well, every Toyota facility has a president, and one cant tell another what to do (Greto, Schotter Teagarden, 2010, pg. 8). This statement touches the surface of why the internal management communication process needs improvement at Toyota. The way the process is currently being represented in Toyotas organization is a complete violation of their founding philosophy. During the 2000s, Toyota pushed for a lot of initiatives that in hindsight were either short-term profit driven or too ambitious. For example, despite the savings of more than US $10 billion over the six years since CC21s inception, Watanabe set out to achieve even more cost savings through the new VI (Value Innovation) strategy (Greto, Schotter Teagarden, 2010, pg. 5). This was a business decision made to further drive up profits despite the respectable amount of savings already made financially. If the knowledge, ideas and concerns of employees were properly captured and communicated to management, it could have prevented some of the poor business decision-making made and the impact of these decisions on engineering and manufacturing. Two impacts of the poor decision-making was the decision to become leaner with the manufacturing process and  overstretching existing resources in trying to supplant GM as number on in the automobile industry. Toyotas has employees in many different markets who most likely had concerns regarding these decisions or ideas on how to improve the ideas and _communicated_ these ideas but these ideas werent being heard in time or heard at all by management. To put this all into context, the process for communicating ideas and concerns internally is impacted by the culture and internal structure of Toyota. These are both tough things to change but the process used to capture and represent ideas to management is something easy to improve. IMPLICATIONS OF THE PROCESS If the current internal communication process continues as is, there will continue to be a breakdown in the communication of potentially important ideas and concerns from employees to management. If employees feel as if their input isnt listened to or even heard, they will become apathetic or not even bother trying to communicate important ideas or concerns. As a result, this can lead to the cycle of poor business decisions being made resulting in more damage to the company. Even worse, this will continue to cause Toyota to stray away from the core values of the Toyota Way that made them a successful global corporation. Already what has happened as a result of the ignoring of ideas and making business decisions with only the goal of short-term profits in mind is that Toyota during the oil sludge crisis had to pay millions of dollars as a result of class action lawsuits and took a hit to their business image. Fast forward to the accelerator crisis, Toyota experienced losing $2 billion dollars during the recall, had to pay a $16.4 million dollar civil penalty under U.S. law, experienced a customer relations nightmare and even had some of their car models dropped from Consumer Reports. The dollar amount lost due to the alienation of customers, lack of accountability at first by Toyota, and corporate reputation and image hit is immeasurable. Implementing some mechanism to improve the communication process between  employees and management and even management can be improved with the use of something such as a knowledge management system. Effective knowledge management tools can help firms reduce internal costs of maintaining electronic filing systems and reduce the administrative expense of locating documents. Second, just as efficiency can improve profitability, leverage can have the same effect where knowledge transfer enhances the quality of work performance, and therefore, its value. In this context, leverage is the ability to delegate work to the most cost-effective resource. The transfer of knowledge is, in fact, the essence of knowledge management (Martin, 2002, pg. 1). Although it is a large internal expense, the benefits of a KM system would have a great effect on the general business results and business relationships of Toyota with its employees, management and even their supply chain. POTENTIAL OUTCOMES OF IMPROVING THE PROCESS Improving the current internal communication process of ideas and concern helps to improve employee relations between management and their reports. It helps to re-establish a culture of knowledge sharing and representing that captured knowledge in such a way that it can help to improve the business decision-making by upper management. Any important business decisions made by upper management have a direct impact on the shareholders. So any improvement in the process that results in better business decisions being made will have a direct positive impact for the shareholders. The current decision-making and straying away from the founding principles of the Toyota Way has damaged the company and continuing down this path will only make the future worse for Toyota. So having an internal mechanism to capture ideas and improve communication such as a KM system can only improve the situation. Employees would feel like their ideas are being heard and will continue to offer suggestions for continual improvement. An improvement in communication can help to break down the false perceptions that family-oriented managers have of nonfamily managers. For example, a family-based manager might come across an idea from an unexpected source, a nonfamily manager, and come to respect that person for their knowledge. In a  way, this could help to improve the Japanese culture way of making decisions internally. Toyota is almost in the top of their market, so they are their own worst enemy when it comes to being competitive. So an improvement in their internal decision-making around all important financial, engineering and manufacturing decisions will only help to sustain and further their current competitive edge. Sometimes an organization has to make a large internal expense in order to position themselves differently from their competitors. Strategic positioning means performing _different_ activities from rivals or performing similar activities in _different_ ways (Porter, 1996, pg. 62). So collecting ideas internally and using them to make better business decisions will help Toyota to strategically position themselves even further away from their competition. SUMMARY Overall, Toyota is its own worst enemy with the current decision-making process they have in place internally. Even though the centralized decision-making structure is what Toyota currently has in place, the decision-making needs to take into account employee input, whether foreign or not. Employee input has been a cornerstone of the Toyota Way and Toyota has strayed from this founding principle. The implications of continuing down this path will result in more crises which in turn results in loss business, damaged business reputation, lawsuits and losing the competitive edge. Improving this process will result in better employee relations; establish a knowledge sharing culture which is needed for an environment that is striving for continual improvement and better business decisions being made. REFERENCES Greto, M., Schotter, A., Teagarden, M. (2010). Toyota: The accelerator crisis. Thunderbird School of Global Management. Martin, K. (2002). Features Show Me the Money Measuring the Return on Knowledge Management. LLRX. Retrieved from http://www.llrx.com/features/kmroi.htm Porter, M. E. (1996). What is strategy? _Harvard Business Review, 74_(6), 61-78. Russell, R.S., Taylor, B.W. (2011). _Operations management: Creating value along the supply chain_ (7th ed.)_._ Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley Sons. ISBN: 9780470525906

Job Offset in a CNC Milling Machine

Job Offset in a CNC Milling Machine (a) Introduction 3.1 This narrative is based on my final year project, completed as a part of my bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering at Rajiv Gandhi College of Engineering (Anna University affiliated) Tamil Nadu, India. The project on Job offset in a CNC milling machine was carried out at Tractors and Farm Equipment Private Limited (TAFE), Tamil Nadu, India and was performed between the months of Jan, 2014 to April, 2014. (b) Background The final year project is a mandatory unit for the bachelor of engineering degree which has to be completed in a group of four as a part of the curriculum. I did this along with three others who were with me during the last semester of my degree. During the course of the project, I presented several presentations and seminars according to the guidelines of Anna University. The project was done in order to reduce the defects during production at Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited (TAFE). With increasing competition in all fields and industries, the market demands zero defect products. In order to facilitate this, I implemented the poka-yoke scheme to reduce the production defects by using simple cost effective techniques. In a machine cell, the quality of machining should be inspected after each machining. After every machining, the quality of product gets reduced due to the formation of the burr which further leads to an offset in the next job. This offset causes the quality loss in machining and hence the product dimensions have a slight deviation from the actual dimension. The nature of my work was to design a pneumatic system which alerts the machine operator if an offset was detected. The project was supervised under Mr. Manoj Kumar Roy, the assistant professor in the department of Mechanical Engineering at Rajiv Gandhi College of Engineering. I also did extensive literature research on total quality management techniques and came up with this poka-yoke strategy for mistake proofing to prevent defects. Some of the core principle duties of this project incorporated the following: During the course of the project, I attended meetings with my project coordinator and my team mates to discuss the progress of our project. I also coordinated several formal and informal group meeting with my group members to discuss on any problems encountered during the course of the project. I presented seminars and reports as a part of my bachelors degree curriculum. I referred to a number of papers to collect information on the poka-yoke scheme. I performed a plant quality analysis to analyze the number of product defects in a particular year. I prepared a report on the observations made by each member of the team. (c) Personal Engineering Activity The ever increasing production demands for a zero defect product quality. This has given rise to various techniques for quality management. Among different techniques, I selected the poka-yoke technique which is a Japanese improvement strategy for mistake-proofing to prevent defects from arising during production processes. I selected this technique because of its simplicity and efficiency in a cost efficient manner. I performed an analysis to determine the major causes of defects in order to device ways to reduce or eliminate them. I found that, the errors are often due to the misunderstanding, incorrect identification, could be good intentions but improperly implemented such as processing errors, error in setting up the work piece, assembly omissions, a wrong part was included, wrong work piece, errors in preparation of tools, equipment maintenance errors, operational errors, dimensional errors, fixtures, blades. etc. All these errors was prevented by the application of the poka-yoke technique. I prepared a flow chart (figure 1) for the methodology to be followed for mistake proofing. I referred to a number of papers to learn more about the concept of poka-yoke. I found out that poka-yoke can be classified into three types as shutdown poka-yoke, warning poka-yoke and control poka-yoke. I analyzed the sales profile of the company for its various products: transmission casing, front axle line, centre housing line and differential casing line. Figure 1: Methodology of mistake proofing I applied the poka-yoke technique for the elimination of errors in a CNC milling, drilling and boring machines. A milling machine is a fully computer controlled vertical mill with the spindle moving vertically along the Z axis. The first equipment that I designed for the elimination of errors in the CNC milling machine was the pneumatic air filter. Figure 2: Pneumatic air filter In the compressed air system, hard particles tends to damage the equipment and piping. The result is damage to the system and more particles are generated. The pneumatic air filter helps eliminate these impurities. The next equipment which I suggested for the machine was the mist collector. The mist collector works on mechanism of inertial impaction, interception and Brownian diffusion. I also included the use of an air pressure regulator which is a valve that automatically cuts off the flow of a liquid or gas at a certain pressure. I designed an air micro switch which is a switching device used for detecting the displacement of work piece and is kept on a machine while machining. It applies the principle of air micrometers, and can detect the seating of the objects without contact. It is designed in such a way to work in any harsh conditions, so that it can be placed inside the drilling machine. The back pressure that is received from the sensed components was allowed to hit a diaphragm which then deforms to give the pressure output. If the pressure received was large enough to move the air switch upwards, it closed the circuit and hence the operator could be alerted. However, the output current that was produced by the sensor was very low and hence to amplify the output signal, I placed a PNP transistor inside the sensor. The transistor amplifies the current and sends it to the output. Figure 3: Circuit diagram and specification of PNP transistor Similarly, pneumatic coupler, pneumatic manifold, rest pad and relay circuits were also added. Figure 4: Schematic of the components used in the machine The project was mainly intended to alert the machine operator if a job was not seated correctly on the CNC machine. The clamps that hold the job in the CNC milling machine would not work unless the proper seating takes place. The minimal gap allowed was 10 microns. Beyond that the relay switches off the clamping circuit. The shut off valve cuts off the pneumatic circuit in case of any emergencies. The mist separator was used to absorb the moisture content present in the air. The purpose of air filter was to remove the impurities present in the air which could cause damage to the machine during operation. The air pressure is regulated by the regulator passing through the air filter. This prevents damage to the machine. The air micro switch acts as the sensor. If the pressure that was received from the device was not sufficient enough, then the clamping circuit would be disengaged. Pneumatic coupler connects the air supply with the pneumatic manifold. The purpose of the manifold was to divide the supply of air to multiple channels. Rest pads or Butt pads are the provisions provided on the machine for the job to be seated. The main objective of this project was to provide mistake proofing to a CNC machine. I was able to execute this by making changes to the existing horizontal milling machine. I analyzed the defective product after the implementation of the project. The implementation of the project leads to the decrease in rejection of the machined products by 3% and have considerably increased the production rate. Finally, a master report was submitted to our department head. I also underwent an oral viva voce examination where I had to present my part of the project briefly and answered questions about various aspects of the project. (d) Summary This project in my engineering career helped me comprehend valuable principles of working together as a team and presented me the opportunity to understand and implement my theoretical knowledge into practice. I understood the importance of working as team and the need to step up as a leader when necessary. I gained profound knowledge in total quality management, seminars and presentations which boosted my confidence during the course of the project. The project was completed in time and well within budget. It also provided me a great exposure with company personnel and I benefitted a great deal from the interactions with company superiors.

AI :: essays research papers

AI: Artificial Intelligence: The branch of computer science that deals with writing computer programs that can solve problems creatively; AI is used so computers can solve problems, learn and gain knowledge. AI is an attempt for computers to simulate human qualities. Areas of AI research: Learning, game theoretic methods, Reasoning, speech Intelligent agents, physical modeling Knowledge representation  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  natural language Logic programming  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  planning AI: Classification: AI can be classified into three different areas: Natural Language Processing which involves computers that can read, speak and understand natural language. Robotics which involves the development of intelligent robots. Expert Systems which is the simulation of the knowledge of human experts. Intelligence: The ability to use knowledge for our own purposes is called thinking and is the basis of intelligence. Ability to think and reason, To learn, To acquire knowledge, To adapt to new situations A person is intelligent when they can solve difficult problems using logical reasoning. Interactionism: States the mind is non-material, the body is material, and each can act on each other. Parallelism: Mind is spirit, body is material, and neither can act on each other. Materialism: Mind is, or a state of, part of the material body. The relevant part of the physical body is usually considered to be the central nervous system that is the brain and spinal cord. Idealism: The body, along with everything else, is just an idea of the mind. Natural Language Processing: Computers are able to perform natural language processing at the syntax level. (syntax refers to the way in which words are put together to form phrases and sentences) Style checkers are able to detect punctuation errors, double word usage, typographical errors, sexist language and more. A Machine Intelligence Test: A simple test which determines whether or not a machine is behaving intelligently: Would this behaviour be considered intelligent if a human was observed behaving in the same way? The difficulty experience by artificial intelligence researchers is translating this massive amount of knowledge into a form that can be used by computers is called the Feigenbaum bottleneck: Identification and analysis of the chunks of knowledge. Chunk is used for an item of knowledge to indicate that knowledge does not appear in precisely defined units. The translation of that knowledge into a form that can be processed by a machine.

The Alli Weight Loss Advertisement

Alli Weight Loss Plan Advertisement The â€Å"Alli Weight Loss Plan† advertisement in the January 18th 2010 issue of People magazine is effective because of the informational packed two-page spread, the vibrant multicolored picture, and the way the bold banner intertwines with the emotion in the picture. The â€Å"Alli Weight Loss Plan† advertisement is effective because of the informational packed two paged spread. The first page has six separate informative blocks, with breaks in between the different blocks, to give the reader a chance to interpret the information. The second page is completely covered in a vibrant colorful picture. Consequently, Attention is drawn to reading the six separate topics and viewing the colorful picture. The â€Å"Alli Weight Loss Plan† advertisement contains six informational blocks, each with different brilliant colored titles. Topics the advertisement covers consist of educational information, nutritional information, and governmental information. The first block written in red is titled, â€Å"you and food. The first block covers the relationship between the reader and food, whether or not that relationship is healthy. The first block also entices the reader and relates to the potential consumer, identifying the problem and offering them a solution. The second block is titled, â€Å"real hunger†, in green and describes symptoms of real hunger. Examples from the second block are: real hunger â€Å"grows gradually†, real hunger is when â€Å"you’ll eat anything†, and real hunger is when â€Å"you feel good after eating. The third block is titled â€Å"emotional hunger†, and is colored blue. The third block describes signs of emotional hunger; one example is: emotional hunger is when â€Å"you feel guilty after eating. † The fourth block is titled â€Å"you can eat healthier for life†, and is colored red. The fourth block explains that the Alli Weight Loss Plan can help learn the healthy way to eat and to lose weight. The fifth block is titled â€Å"you can lose weight without losing your love for food†, and is colored green. The fifth block describes how Alli Weight Loss Plan works to boost weight loss. The advertisement emphasizes that consumers taking Alli can still enjoy their favorite foods just in smaller portions. The final block is colored in yellow and is titled â€Å"you can lose weight easier with support. † The sixth block explains how Alli Weight Loss Plan users will be able to have personalized weight plans made for them on myali. com. There is also a small sub topic that states Alli is FDA- approved, which assures readers that the Alli Weight Loss Plan is safe and legitimate. All six blocks provide readers with plentiful amounts of educational, nutritional, and governmental information about the Alli Weight Loss Plan that helps readers decide if the product is for them. The second page of the Alli Weight Loss Plan advertisement is a vividly bright picture of a late twenties to early thirties brunette woman grocery shopping. The young lady has her head thrown way back and has a confident smile on her face. The young lady is pushing a grocery cart bursting at the seams with healthy foods, such as huge succulent pineapple. The background is blurred on the intense, colorful picture, but can still be interpreted as a grocery isle of a grocery store. The second page of the â€Å"Alli Weight Loss Plan† advertisement has an excellent picture, which gives the reader an insight of what the advertisement is about. The bold colorful banner intertwines with the emotion of the vibrant colorful picture. The banner is titled â€Å"eat healthier, live happier. † The vibrant picture shows the exact emotion of the banner. The young lady is extremely happy; she has her head thrown back and has a gigantic smile. The young lady is obviously eating healthy. The writers of the â€Å"Alli Weight Loss Plan† advertisement intertwine the emotion of the picture with the words of the banner, â€Å"eat healthier, live happier. † The â€Å"Alli Weight Loss Plan† Advertisement is directed towards the younger generation of women. Contemporary women are concerned about their appearance and weight. Most young women will do anything to lose weight. The â€Å"Alli Weight Loss Plan† advertisement features a late twenties to mid thirties young lady, who is very satisfied with her appearance. Most readers of People magazine are young women, which is why the â€Å"Alli Weight Loss Plan† advertisement appeals to them so much. Readers want to be as happy as the young lady in the â€Å"Alli Weight Loss Plan† advertisement. Potential customers will be drawn to read the advertisement thoroughly. In conclusion the â€Å"Alli Weight Loss Plan† advertisement is very effective because of the informational packed two-page layout, the vibrant colorful picture, and the way the writers of the advertisement intertwined the picture with the emotion of the banner.