Thoreau And Transcendentalism Essays - Lecturers, Civil Disobedience

Thoreau and Transcendentalism The beauty in the strength of mere words and the immense impact they have on the soul of man has been the inspiration to many of the greatest poets and writers. The ability to combine elegance with knowledge and thereupon affect the thoughts of others using only paper and pen has intrigued men for centuries. Each generation produces those who vehemently speak out against injustices by their written words. Henry David Thoreau proved to be the voice of his people and thus changed history by expressing the ideals he believed to be correct, though the majority of the people did not always understand these ideals. "I should have told them at once that I was a transcendentalist. That would have been the shortest way of telling them that they would not understand my explanations" (H. D. Thoreau). He believed in the oneness of individual souls with nature and with God, which gave dignity and importance to human activity and made possible a belief in the power to effect social change in harm ony with God's purposes (Richardson 81). Thoreau tore the veil of conventional thought away from societies clouded eyes. Born on a calm, mid-summer night of 1817 to a family of neither wealth nor importance, Thoreau became exposed to the reality of life at a relatively young age. His father made pencils in a small shop, while his mother took in boarders. During the bleak winter of 1842, Henry lost his beloved brother John Thoreau, Jr. to a terrible case of lockjaw brought on by a slight, but unattended wound. His death profoundly affected Henry who then resolved to eulogize his brother's death in a book based on a vacation the two had taken on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. By July 1845, Henry left civilization to live in a cabin he had built on the shore of Walden Pond, where he proceeded to write his tribute to his brother's life, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. However, the work which developed as a result of Henry's experiences at Walden Pond, entitled Walden, proved to be more original and exciting than Henry's first book. After graduating from Harvard in 1837, Thoreau met his acquaintance and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson. It was Emerson who first introduced Henry to the concept of Transcendentalism, which drastically changed Thoreau's view of life from that moment on. Transcendentalism, which places emphasis of mysticism and individuality, gave Thoreau the platform he needed to express his thoughts. Emerson then employed Thoreau as a gardener and a handyman. During their spare time, they would freely converse over the concepts and beauty of Transcendentalism. Their lives were shaped and bonded together by their desire for understanding of this philosophy. Reality exists only in the world of the spirit. What a person observes in the physical world are only appearances of impermanent reflections of the world of the spirit (World Book 470). Transcendentalism opposes the philosophy of empiricism, which states that knowledge comes from experience. According to Thoreau, knowledge is not limited to or solely derived from experience and observation. He taught that the solution to human problems lies in the free development of individual emotions (Harding 18). Man must increase his understanding of himself in order to change the outside world. Transcendentalism arose partly as a reaction to society's growing love for material possessions and the dehumanization of man's emotions. It was also a response to what some felt was a spiritual inadequacy of established religion (Richardson 126). Thoreau's journey to Walden Pond was his first chance to test the idealism of this philosophy in the real world. In the chapter entitled "Where I Lived" of Wal den, Thoreau wrote, "Men esteem truth remote, in the outskirts of the system, behind the farthest star...In eternity there is indeed something true and sublime. But all these times and places and occasions are now and here. God himself culminates in the present moment...And we are enabled to apprehend at all what is sublime and noble only by the perpetual instilling and drenching of the reality that surrounds us"(Walden 'What I Lived For). By living closely with nature at Walden, Thoreau attempted and succeeded at attaining a higher truth. Transcendentalism earned a

The Body Farm

The Body Farm The University of Tennessee Forensic Anthropology Facility, otherwise known as the Body Farm, was created to analyze the decomposition process and see what takes place after death. The facility aids in teaching and exploring areas of death that were once unknown to forensic science. Without the body farm, many questions would still remain unanswered in the world of forensics.Dr. William Bass founded the establishment in 1971 after realizing that there were not any other institutions investigating the science of body decomposition. This began almost eleven years before he founded the institute. Bass worked in Kansas primarily dealing with skeletal remains. Skeletal remains were found more often in Kansas because of the low population level; or in other words, it took longer for people to find deceased bodies. It wasn't until he relocated to Tennessee, a more densely populated area, that he began dealing with bodies that were less exposed to the elements.English: Roma Khan doing prelim inary work on decom...Once given the chance to deal with more evidential remains, he saw the need for investigating the process of decomposition. He propositioned the dean of the University of Tennessee to the idea, and was initially granted an acre of land, that was formerly used as a pig farm, about 45 minutes outside the university. The institute has since grown to three acres of land and is now surrounded by razor-wire.The body farm is home to about forty dead bodies all subjected to different theoretical physical environments that decomposition can take place. The cadavers arrive from two sources; unclaimed bodies left at the medical examiner's office and people who have chosen to donate themselves. Surprisingly, over 300 people have willed their bodies to the farm- in personal efforts to help further scientific advancements. The number of bodies donated increases every year, with surges of popularity created...

Network Virtualization in Cloud Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Network Virtualization in Cloud - Research Paper Example The physical servers that are originally installed at the back end are incorporated for the purpose of providing original data and reference connection. The virtual system though established on the concept of virtualization and cloud computing, necessarily requires the presence of physical layer architectural support to run the system smoothly. Hypervisor comes as an essential feature of the virtual operating system. This particular function is the sole identifying and differentiating factor between the two which allows for gaining the remote presence without being identified in a cloud environment. The mechanism and process of establishing the cloud computing is similar to creating a computer system machine. It also requires installing firewalls, software applications along with the switches, hubs and other basic elements that are essential for the purpose of establishing online operations. Further dissection within the networks include options such as De militarization Zone (D-M-Z) which ensures protecting and dissecting the overall network for the purpose of reduced system damages and reduced chances of system breach. Various security measures such as Iaas also allows protecting against the migration threat and other associated features and damages that are possibly and likely to take place in the virtual networks (Franceschetti and Grossi, p. 78). Cloud computer is also based on the feature of being compatible with the different software platforms and operating system units. This enables broader operations and multiple platforms support. Cloud computing enables off site installation of online support and also enhances the availability system with minimum chances of system breaking and other considerations. Using the Iaas Service in contrast to the conventional Saas infrastructure supported function also enable the cloud computing based

John Ronald Reuel Tolkein Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

John Ronald Reuel Tolkein - Essay Example Tolkien asserted his creation of Middle-earth occurred a long time prior to the October Revolution of 1917. Tolkien's mother taught him Latin, French, and German, and in school he picked up Old and Middle English as well as Finnish, Greek, Italian, and Spanish. Furthermore, J. R. R. learned some Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Russian, Swedish, among a list of other dialects. In his honor, certain things have been named after J. R. R. Tolkien. One is the Tolkien Road in Eastbourne, East Sussex, and another is an asteroid named in 1982. A doctoral position at Oxford also bares his name. John Ronald Reuel (J. R. R.) Tolkien has become one of the most celebrated English authors of our time. Investigating details about him helps us better appreciate the accomplishments of this writer. In so doing, it is helpful to review his life and work. Many are familiar with his literary work, but who was J. R. R. Tolkien as a person J. R. R. Tolkien was born January 3, 1892 in Bloemfontein, South Africa (Carpenter 14). His father, Arthur Reuel Tolkien was an English bank manager who moved to South Africa with his wife Mabel for a promotion (Carpenter 14). When J. R. R. was small, a baboon spider bit him in the garden. That moment is represented in The Hobbit as the giant spider (Carpenter 13). When J. R. R. ... When J. R. R. was three years old, he and his mother went on an extended visit to England. While they were there, his father died of fever in Africa. Summary, p. 24 Card 11: Family Carpenter When he was only 12, Tolkien's mother died of diabetes. She was only 34 but insulin had not been discovered yet and at she could not be treated. Paraphrase, p. 31 Card 12 Racism "Racism" Some of Tolkien's critics accused him of racist undertones n his early writings. As a result, he deliberately mitigated these interpretations in later works. Paraphrase, p. 557 Card 13 Friendship Carpenter Tolkien was known to have been good friends with C. S. Lewis. Tolkien even convinced Lewis to turn from Atheism to Christianity. Summary, p. 119 Card 14 Views New Line Cinema Tolkien disliked the dangers and licentious nature of the modern world. He saw them as a scourge upon the environment and rode a bike instead of driving a car most of his life as an adult. Paraphrase Card 15 Views New Line Cinema This attitude was much apparent in the forced mechanization of the Shire from Lord of the Rings. It was one of the more serious undertones of the epic. Summary Card 16 Religion Bofetti Tolkien admitted to being deeply influenced by the Catholic Church. It is evident in much of his imagery and style. Summary, p. 32 Card 17 Spiders Carpenter When J. R. R. was small, a baboon spider bit him in the garden. That moment is represented in The Hobbit as the giant spider. Summary, p. 13 Card 18 Books Carpenter Tolkien did not like Treasure Island . To him, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was amusingly distressing. Paraphrase, p. 22 Card 19 Wife Carpenter Tolkien met Edith Mary Bratt when he moved into the rooming house where she

In your professional judgment, what is an example of an outstanding Term Paper

In your professional judgment, what is an example of an outstanding strategic decision or what is an example of a failed strateg - Term Paper Example Include the source(s) of your information within your contribution in the sentences. Be very specific. Use  single  space block form for your contribution with double spacing between paragraphs.   In explaining the strategic approach that you consider a success or a failure, you should answer the following questions:   1. Which of the stages of strategic management in action (page 30 of Coulter) initiated the success or failure of the strategy? Was it a good/bad idea from the beginning?   2. What does the organization perceive as its competitive advantage (page 31 of Coulter)? How was this affected by the strategy in question?   3. What driving force or which driving forces of the new business environment (pages 36-44 of Coulter) assisted or helped defeat the strategy in question?   4. How did external opportunities and threats affect the success or failure of the strategy in question (Chapter 3 of Coulter)?   You may decide to choose a public organization (e.g. unive rsity such as Northwest or a public hospital center). Whether you choose a for-profit organization or a not-for-profit organization, explain the situation clearly and completely as possible. Refer to the Coulter text in your explanation.   This particular instance, the focus was on to find inquisitive insight about a strategy decision that a company had to implement in order to survive in the fast-paced environment of the corporate world. One of the interesting issues relating to this was the decision of Blue Cross Blue Shield demanding a hospital to cut its overhead cost. Without prior knowledge and being subjective, one would think that the insurance company is at fault. However, one cannot make that judgment without understanding the complexity of the issue at hand. Blue Cross Blue Shield was faced with a dilemma. As an insurance business, the company must made essential strategy decisions that impact its future growth. In this particular scenario, the company did benchmark tes ting and determined that the rate the hospital charges the company is too high within the hospitals at its region. Blue Cross determined that the hospital should cut its cost by 10% through any means possible. This is partly due to the fact that the company was losing money as it had an obligation to pay its patient’s premiums. Undoubtedly, the hospital responded by adequately cutting its costs. This was beneficial for both companies as it not only build a solid relationship and enabled the companies to diminish unnecessary costs. Moreover, it enabled Blue Cross Blue shield to give better discount rates to hospitals, doctor groups, members and enabled them to compete in a very competitive environment. If the company did not make the strategic decision, it would have given hospital the leverage to go in a market and attract another insurance company. Since Blue Cross Blue Shield targets large groups, it seemed sufficient for the company to challenge the traditional rates of th e hospital. If it failed to do so, it would have lost a small majority of its members in the network which would have made the company suffer in overall long-term profits. Strategic decision making is defined as set of alternate decisions that affect key factors which impacts the success of an organization’s strategy. Strategic decisions differ from Tactical decisions because tactical decisions are based on day to day implementation which requires several steps to reach a particular strategy. Blue Cross Blue s

The difference between Project Finance and Corporate Finance

The difference between Project Finance and Corporate Finance Companies across the world frequently employ Project Finance for their large investments. Their importance is underscored by the following fact: Though US corporations used Project Finance less often than their overseas counterpart, 1 their savings of $34 billion in Project Finance in 2004 exceed the $25 billion that business enterprise capital funds invested in startups in that year, and was concerning half the $73 billion raise by US companies from side to side IPOs in the similar year (Esty, 2005). While academic research in finance has provided a lot of insight into business enterprise assets financing and IPOs, Project Finance has conventional scant notice.2 an obvious query arises: What factor drive the option of Project Finance vs Corporate Finance? 3 As Esty (2003a) points out, Project Finance involve important costs compare to Corporate Finance.4 What are the offsetting payback then of Project Finance vs Corporate Finance? Why 64% of huge investments were finance through Pro ject Finance in the French lawful source countries while this proportion was 26% in the English legal origin country? In other terms, how do the lawful and institutional surroundings in a country shape this option of Project Finance vs. Corporate Finance? This paper attempt to fill a number of these gaps in our in sequence. Two major contributions We create two major contributions. First, to our information, our paper is the primary to formally examine and empirically document the reimbursement of Project Finance vs Corporate Finance. Second, we supplement the law and finance journalism (see references below) by presentation a micro channel from side to side which lawful origin could have an effect on economic outcome from side to side the stipulation of saver defense to decrease decision-making agency outlay. Esty (2003b) argues casually that Project Finance reduce the group costs of free cash flow encounter in Corporate Finance:The first incentive to use Project Finance, the agency cost motivation, recognize Those sure assets, namely large, tangible possessions with high free cash flows, are susceptible to costly agency conflicts. The creations of a project company provide a chance to create a new, asset-specific ascendancy system to lecture to the disagreement between possession and control. . . Project Company utilizes co mbined possession and high influence to dishearten costly organization conflicts in the middle of participant. Two distinguishing characteristics of Project Finance vs Corporate Finance However, it is indistinct precisely how Project Finance operates to alleviate these association costs while other shape of finance cannot. For example, why cannot corporations affect domination systems particular to the nature of their property, or utilize joint possession and influence to alleviate these agency expenses? What is it about Project Finance as different to Corporate Finance that reduce agency conflict? We build up a simple replica to shed light on this query. We emphasize two distinguishing characteristics of Project Finance vs Corporate Finance: (a) improved verifiability of cash flow, and (b) lack of option to sponsors cash flows and assets. We quarrel that the verifiability of cash flow in Project Finance stem from contractual preparations made probable because of a solitary, discrete project that is lawfully alienated from the sponsor, and the resultant nonattendance of future growth opportunity in the Project finance Company. Since Corporate Finance involves multiple present and future projects, the similar contractual preparations cannot be effect in Corporate Finance. Therefore, cash flow is less demonstrable in Corporate Finance than in Project Finance, chiefly in countries where the protection against executive self-dealing is weaker. Project money due is also non-recourse: the lender does not have alternative to the sponsors property or cash flow. Corporate Finance Thus, in Corporate Finance, the lender has a potentially improved pool of cash flows from which to get paid. Since Project Finance company are first and leading debt economics (Esty, 2005), we implant the choice Of Project Finance versus Corporate Finance in a reproduction of debt financing comparable to that in Hart (1995). Since the pool of property and cash flows is better, but less provable, in Corporate Finance, creditors human rights play a more important role in Corporate Finance. Specifically, the lenders believable threat to seize security matters more with Corporate Finance, where cash flow are less demonstrable and borrower opportunism is therefore more probable. The threat of insolvency serves to deter this opportunism. Furthermore, Project Company invests in solitary, discrete property. Therefore, tradeoffs between inefficient continuance versus unproductive liquidation that arise from the attendance of future increase opportunities and typify bankruptcy in Corporate Fin ance (see Gartner and Scharfstein, 1991) are not present in Project Finance. Thus, ex-post inefficiencies created in insolvency affect Corporate Finance additional than Project Finance. Given these two reasons, i.e., the higher probability of opportunistic non-payment and the assistant inefficiencies from bankruptcy, we model non-payment in Corporate Finance but theoretical from the same in Project Finance. Of course, the lenders threat to pay debt assets is credible only if the insolvency laws in the country allow the lender to seize the security assets. Therefore, we take for granted that the lender can seize possessions with a higher likelihood if the bankruptcy laws give creditors stronger human rights. Further, we take for decided that insolvency values in bankruptcy are lower if the burden costs in bankruptcy are senior. Given this setup, we get hold of the subsequent result. In countries where insiders can confiscate minority investor more easily, Project Finance is more probable than Corporate Finance. In exacting, in such countries, Project Finance is excessively more probable than Corporate Finance in industry where Free Cash Flow is higher. To appreciate better this difference-in-difference prediction, think two industries: Drugs and Cement. Given the lack of important investment 2 opportunity in Cement when contrast to Drugs, the organization price of free cash flows would be higher in Cement than in Drugs (Jensen and Heckling, 1976, Jensen, 1986 and Blanchard, Loped- Silanes and Shleifer, 1994). Since Project Finance mitigates these organization costs by making cash flows demonstrable, ceteris paribus, the dissimilarity in the use of Project Finance in Cement versus that in Drugs would be better in Venezuela than this dissimilarity in the United States since the laws defensive managerial self-dealing is stronger in the United States than in Venezuela. Project Finance loans We give empirical confirmation supporting this forecast by comparing, across forty country,Project Finance loans next to Corporate Finance loans from the Loan Pricing Corporations Dealscan database. To limit our analysis to those Corporate Finance investments where scheme Finance is a viable option, we comprise loans to corporations under the category of equipment Purchases, capital expenditures, gaining of assets or company, and takeover. To capture differences crossways countries in the protection provided to investors against managerial self-dealing, we use the index of confidential control of self-dealing construct by Djankov, LaPorta, Lopez-de- Silanes and Shleifer (2006) (hereafter, DLLS) . These directory events the hurdles that the controlling saver in a firm must bound in order to indulge in a self-dealing business. In the spirit of our reproduction where ex-ante financing outcome are affected by the ex-post probability of a sponsor/manager being wedged self-dealing, we focu s on DLLSs gauge of ex-post confidential manage of self-dealing. We go after Opler and Titman (1993) and Lang, Stulz, and on foot (1999) in proxying agency expenses of free cash flow by means of the ratio of Free Cash Flow to Assets. Since our most inclusive disaggregated data is at the 4-digit SIC business level, we build this calculate for the middle firm in a 4-digit SIC manufacturing in a country. We use several empirical stipulations: controls for the legal source of state, fixed effects at the country, manufacturing, and year levels, and chance effects at the height of each industry in each country. We discover that in country that provides weak defense to alternative investors against expropriation by insiders, Project Finance is moderately more probable than Corporate Finance in industries where the ratio of Free Cash Flow to Assets is superior. If we contrast two industries for which the ratio of Free Cash Flow to Assets is one normal deviation apart, then a one standard deviation diminish in the ex-post personal control of self-dealing increase the probability of Project Finance in the industry with superior free cash flow by 5% more than in the manufacturing with lower free cash current. Since Project Finance is 25% probable on standard in our example, this 5% increase in the dissimilarity in likelihood of Project Finance represent a 20% change over the model average. W e also find that Project Finance is more possible in countries with weak guard against executive self-dealing; a one standard difference decrease in the ex-post confidential control of self-dealing increase the probability of Project Finance in a country by 14.5%, which represent more than a 50% enlarge over the example average of 25%. Project financial mode: Fig 1: Project finance model (Estry, 1999). Capital Structure theory The effect is economically significant too: A one point increase in the strength of creditor rights decreases the marginal effect of weaker protection against self-dealing by 32 %. We investigate further as to which component of the creditor rights index affects this choice between Corporate Finance and Project Finance. In line with our model, we find that in countries with no automatic stay imposed on the collateral assets in bankruptcy, the effect of managerial self dealing is mitigated. The other components of the DMS creditor rights index do not matter here. In the strongest piece of evidence supporting our theory, we consider this interaction effect between creditor rights and managerial self-dealing for the treatment sample of countries where creditor rights underwent a change during our sample period, and the control sample of other countries. As predicted by our model, we find that the decrease in the rights provided to creditors in our treatment sample enhanced the marginal effect of ex-post private control of self-dealing on the choice of Project Finance. Thus, we infer from our cross-country evidence and from the within country changes in creditor rights that laws protecting minority equity holders from managerial self-dealing and rights provided to creditors in bankruptcy are marginal substitutes in mitigating agency conflicts. Finally, our model predicts that larger deadweight costs incurred in bankruptcy increase the likelihood of Project Finance. As argued above, bankruptcy costs are lower in Project Finance than in Corporate Finance since project companies invest in single, discrete assets. Features of project Finance To examine the robustness of our above result to various source of endogeneity at the industrylevel, we go after Rajan and Zingales (1998) in employ the center Free Cash present to Assets for US firm at the 4-digit SIC urbanized level as an tool for our cross-country measure. The profusion of a business and the resulting level of free cash current is partially a purpose of the technical aspect of the developed as well as the life-cycle phase of the manufacturing. Therefore, we wait for the free of charge cash run for US business to be linked with the cross-country calculate.6 Furthermore; the practice of Project Finance is 19% in the US in dissimilarity to 53% for the obtain it easy of the earth. Therefore, the US developed level compute of Free Cash run to Assets make happy the two supplies needed to serve as an active uneven. As physically influential evidence of our theorys forecast, we obtain the identical consequences to the higher than by means of this caught up changeable. A second forecast of our model is that the creditors skill to seize the firms property upon Default, as well as those placed with him as security, mitigates the consequence of weak protection against administrative self-dealing, since the lender can resort to the assets ex-post in the face of self-dealing. Therefore, when stronger protection is provide to creditors, the effect of weaker defense against decision-making self-dealing in hopeful Project Finance is excessively lower. To proxy the legal rights of creditors across the world, we use the creditor rights directory (a score between 0 and 4) construct in Djankov, McLiesh and Shleifer (2005) (hereafter, DMS). A senior value for the DMS creditor rights index indicates stronger rights to creditors. Across our entire rider, which include chance effects at the country level, and fixed possessions at the year level, we find that the coefficient of communication between guard against self-dealing and creditor rights to be optimistic.

Existentialistic Analysis of the Epilog of The Tempest :: Shakespeare Tempest

Existentialistic Analysis of the Epilog of The Tempest      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   One may find it ridiculous to contrast between Shakespeare and existentialism in its 20th century form, however one must keep in mind, that existentialism does not appear as a single philosophical system. It is more an attitude of life, a general vision - existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre is known to have stated that existentialism was never invented, it has always existed as the ultimate foundation. Upon that light, why not seek the foundations from the work of the forefather of all dramatists? It is above all naà ¯ve to claim Prospero’s Epilogue in Shakespeare’s play The Tempest a mere conventional appeal for applause or the stripping of the imaginary glamour built up by the plays magic. Even the greatest of artists would rather give away his life than surrender his art to be judged solely by the public. Art for an artistic genius is practised for its own sake; art for the purpose of art. Existence for the sake of existence itself - stripped of meaning, of value and of subjective interpretation. In its bear meaningless form, something still remains: the necessary Natural Law, a philosophical concept considered the basis of human well-being, a system of the values that determine human existence. Throughout The Tempest Prospero’s character portrays an image of a nearly Nietzchean superhuman capable of disclaiming authority, killing God. He is in control of every situation and event as if the chain of causes and effects would be a conductible melody waiting for an artist’s touch. On the other hand he is very human: a wronged duke and a father, a symbiosis which Shakespeare displayed with the use of Prospero’s garment as a theatrical tool. An artist is the creator, the maker of realities yet he remains human, an animal with feelings and urges, ties only waiting to be cut. The view implied is not far from the ideologies that emerged from the great suffering of the second world war: a man is capable of constructing himself a framework of personal and social meaning, but his true animal nature remains unchanged. In the heart of existence, life has no predefined meaning, it is a mere passage of survival from necessary birth to necessary death. Prospero's and hi s daughter's situation on the island was hopeless, however Prospero had chosen a function for his life - revenge. Prospero created a meaning for his life, built a synthetic reality to keep him sane on the path towards the finality of human death.

Research of Bottled Water Essay

1.0 Introduction Water is one of the people basic needs. All people need water to survive and no one can live without it. So, they are willing to pay the money to purchase water. From the secondary data market research, most of the American consumers drink bottled water more than tap water because they feel that tap water not safe. Many companies are reputation have filtered water until pure. So, the bottled water will bring safe and attractive package that make very people when drink something that is healthy for their body (Department of Health, 2006). Besides, in order to let consumer more convenience, most of the company will provide bottled water in everywhere. Hence, all consumers will pay the attention about the bottled water. This report is to investigate attitudes towards three leading brands in a bottled water product. This is because the most important attributes in the bottled water product category, their relative influence on consumer decision making and consumer perception of the leading brands. According Ajzen (1988) and Werner (2004), Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) is an attempt to provide consistency in studies of the relationship between behaviour, beliefs, intentions and attitudes (Ajzen 1988; Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975; Werner 2004). In TRA, there are 2 main concepts which are â€Å"principles of compatibility† and â€Å"behavioural intention† (Ajzen 1988; Fishbein&Ajzen, 1975). The principles of compatibility will require that in order to forecast a specific behaviour directed to a specific target in a given circumstance and period, specific attitudes that identify to the specific target, time and circumstance should be assessed. For the concept of behaviour intention states that a personal’s motivation to engage in behaviour is defined by the attitudes that influence the behaviour. Behaviour intention indicates how much achievement an individual would like to commit to complete such behaviour. Higher commitment which means that behaviour performs will more likely. Behaviour intention is determined by attitudes and subjective norms (Ajzen1988; Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). An attitude refers to an individual’s perception toward specific behaviour (Werner, 2004). ‘Subjective norm’ refers to the individual’s subjective judgment regarding others’ preference and support for a behaviour (Werner, 2004). 2.1 Research Objectives The objective of this research is to investigate attitudes towards three leading brands in a bottled water product category. Besides this research also determine which of the brands in a bottled water product category that most of the consumers interested because different brands provide bottled water will affect the choices of consumers. 2.2 Research Questions During this research, there are find out the factors that affect choosing the bottled water. Besides, this research also can find out how to promoting the brands of bottled water to consumers. Furthermore, this research finds out the effective way to success the brands provide bottled water. 2.3 Significance of the Research The major significance of the study regarding the â€Å"Attitudes towards three leading brands in a bottled water product category† is hope through the research to identify the most important attributes in the particular category, their relative influence on consumer’s decision making and consumer’s perception of the three leading brands performance in term of those attributes. Attributes in the bottled water category is an important that can impact on consumer’s buying decision making. This is because the between brand’s price of bottled water is only a bit different, so most of the consumers will choose the best quality brand. Besides, the research will examined the three leading brands company able to improve their performance in order to attract more people to buy their product. 2.0 Review of Literature 3.4 Issues of using bottled water The main issues of using bottled water is because convenience. When the consumer driving in the car or hiking in the mountain, bottled water is very comfortable to supply drinking of water for them. The size of bottled water will make it easy to suitable let consumer carry to everywhere. Furthermore, bottled water can be purchase at anywhere. The consumer can buy the bottled water at convenience store, supermarket, hypermarket and grocery store. In some countries, the tap water is unsafe to drink due to water pollution and contaminants. Therefore, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) controls the production of bottled water in order to let all people can be sure the water in the bottle is safety, cleaner and free of contaminants. In addition, the taste of bottled water is better than tap water because bottled water does not have chlorine (Melanie, N.D). When the natural disasters, it may be cause water pollution, which mean that the water supply into people home will pollute or completely non-existent. So, in these cases, bottled water will become a lifesaver for those people. As the secondary data market researcher, the tendency in bottled water consumption in the global keep increase almost ten successive years now (Rodwan, 2009). Furthermore, the price of bottled water is very cheap. Most of the consumers also can afford it. For example like the 500ml size of bottled water is about RM1.00 and 1.5 litre size of bottled water is about RM2.00. Compare with soft drink, there are more expensive than bottled water and unhealthy for consumer body. Therefore, this is a reason why most of the consumer will purchase bottled water. Lastly, the bottled water can be reduce, reuse and recycle (3R). Therefore, the bottled water can save the environment and clean. Most of the shopping centres, they will put a recycle bin in order to let consumer convenience to drop their bottled water when they are finish their water. Besides, most of the consumers will purchase bottled water and refill it from the tap water in order to save cost and the environment. 3.5 Consumer buying behaviour The consumer buying decision is very important. Understanding the consumer buying behaviour is not very easy. Consumer buying behaviour is referring the people make the decision buying process of the end consumers like personal and household who buy goods and services for own consumption(Kotler, Armstrong, Wong & Saunders, 2008). According to marketing guru Philip Kolter (2008), consumer will pass through several stages before buy the goods and services. Some consumers will vary their decision making is because in age, education level, tastes, income, and other factors. Some consumers will vary their decision making is because the brand name, quality, reputation, and price. Consumer behaviour will cause the consumer characteristics and the consumer buying decision process. There are 4 main factors in consumer characteristics such as cultural, social, personal and psychological. The culture is the most basic cause the consumer wants and behaviour. Every group or society also have a culture and cultural to cause on buying behaviour decision may vary greatly from country to country. Furthermore, each culture has contains subculture such as racial group, religion, nationalities and geographic region. Most of the subculture will emphasize the market segments. Therefore, the marketer must often to design product in order to fulfil their needs. Moreover, social class is also one of the factors to influence consumer buying behaviour. For the social class, there are contain high class, medium class and lower class. The marketer must to understand which social class is their target market. This is because when the product is high price, lower class people won’t purchase it. For the social factors, there are include small groups, family and social roles and status. The social factors are one of the factors to influence consumer behaviour. Most of the small groups influence consumer behaviour. The marketer should identify the group of their target market. Furthermore, family is strongly affecting consumer behaviour. The marketer must to make husband, wife, and children interested on the product in order to increase rate of success. Besides, the position of person in each group can be defined to roles and status. The personal factors also are one of the factors to influence consumer behaviour. The personal characteristics like age, lifestyle and occupation. The buyer age will related with tastes in food, cloth and recreation. The marketer must to develop marketing plan for them. Moreover, the lifestyle will vary is because the age. Some consumer will like to eat McDonald, but changes along with age, the consumer will change their lifestyle and dislike to eat McDonald. Besides, the marketer must to focus on occupation factor. This is because a buyer occupation will influence the goods and services purchase. The marketer must to know which occupation will more purchase which product. Furthermore, psychological factors also can influence consumer buying decision which is motivation, perception, learning and beliefs and attitudes. For the consumer perception, they are obtained information through their 5 senses such as touch, sight, smell, taste and hearing. Therefore, they will follow their perception do a final decision. Besides, some of the consumer will do a decision making through learning. For example once the consumer has tried Starbucks coffee, they will consider their next purchase based on the first experience. The consumer buying decision process have 5 stages which is need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision and post purchase behaviour. For example like the people recognition want to buy something. Then the people will do information search. They will obtain information from other people such as family, friend and neighbours. Besides, they also will obtain information from commercial sources like advertising, salesperson and websites. All of information will be used to evaluate of alternative which brand should to choose. After evaluation, the people already have purchase decision. After purchase the product, the people will be satisfaction or dissatisfaction post purchase behaviour of the marketer. If the marketer have given the people after sales services, the people will satisfaction when purchase that product. 3.0 Methodology 4.6 Problem Statement In this research, the marketers should identify the factor influence choosing the shampoo. Furthermore, the marketers also should identify the consumer buying behaviour process when buying shampoo. Lastly, the marketers should identify the effective way to improve quality of shampoo. 4.7 Sampling Technique Adopt a good sampling technique, it is one of the important cannot be overemphasized. The non-probability sampling technique is used when the individual members of the population do not have an equal likelihood of being selected to be a member of the sampling. Normally, this technique is used is because it tends to be less expensive, fast, easier and the respondents were readily available (Castillo, 2009). Furthermore, the convenience sampling involves getting participants wherever the individual can find them and typically wherever is convenient (Sherri, 2008). This research wants a sample of 150 respondents, so the individual should stand at outside of the shopping centres and asks people who pass by to participate. 4.8 Questionnaire Questionnaire on Appendix 1 were used in this research to collect data from respondents. This research was divided into four sections at where Section 1 is respondent’s detail, Section 2 is brands, Section 3 is buying behaviour and Section 4 is quality improves. In Section 1, respondents will required to fill in their personal demographics which is gender, age, race, religion, academic qualification, occupation and income level. In Section 2, the research examined the attitudes towards three leading brands in bottled water, what are the factors that affect choosing the bottled water. In Section 3, the research will examined the consumer buying behaviour when choose the brands of bottled water, how to promoting the brands of bottled water to consumers. In Section 4, the research will examined the consumer do some quality improves, what the effective way to success the brands provide bottled water. 4.9 Method of data collection The method of data collection is used by paper based survey and face-to-face questionnaire. For the paper based survey, it will be sent to a large number of people in order to save time and cost. Most of the people are more truthful when responding to the questionnaires about controversial issues in particular due to the fact that their responses are anonymous. 4.10 Limitation of the research As the research, it is limit to the Malaysian consumer who between the age of 18 to 58 years old, because different part of world may be have different cultural factors. Besides, this research that show all the data information and result are only available in Malaysia. Furthermore, this research is only identifying the consumer buying behaviour of bottled water, because different product may different consumption pattern. Lastly, this research only selects some demographic and psychological factors. Even other types of factors also will influence consumer buying behaviour, but this research only limit two type to be investigation. 4.0 Finding Table 4.1: Demographic Factors of 150 respondents In this research, the 150 respondents have 21% female and 79% male. Besides, the age between 18-28 years old have 57%, 29-39 year old have 23%, 40-50 year old have 18% and 51-58 year old have 2%. So, from this data information can know more teenagers are like do survey. For race of respondents, Chinese respondents have occupied about half of percentage, Malay respondents have 33%, and Indian respondents have 17%. The religion of Buddha has 43%, Islam has 33%, Hindu have 17% and Christian have 7%. For academic qualification, SPM respondents have 30%, certificate respondents have 5%, diploma respondents have 29%, degree respondents have 25%, postgraduate have 8%, and others have 3%.About occupation of respondents, student occupied 63%, non-executive have 16%, executive have 11% and professional have 10%. Most of the respondents are student. Therefore, the income level less than RM1500 respondents have 63%, RM1501-RM2500 respondents have 29%, RM2501-3500 respondents have 6%, and above RM3500 have 4%. Figure 4.2: Percentage Brands Bottled Water choose by 150 respondents Figure 4.3: What type of Bottled Water normally purchased by respondents? In this research, there are 3 brands bottled water to investigate which are Sea Master, Dasani and Spritzer. In figure 4.2, the most respondents to purchase brand is Sea Master which is 55%. The Dasani brand is 24% and Spritzer is only 21%. Besides, from the figure 4.3 show most of the respondents will purchase mineral water more than drinking water. This is because they think mineral water is nature water and more healthy for their body. Figure 4.4: Factors boost respondents purchase Bottled Water The figure 4.4 show which factor will affect respondents to purchase bottled water. Bottle design have 36% is the main factor to influence respondents to purchase bottled water. Brand reputation has 21%, bottle quality has 14%, brand name has 13%, taste has 11%, and price have 5%. Therefore, the bottle design will influence consumer buying behaviour. The marketer must understand the bottle design to attract their target market in order to increase sales. Figure 4.5: Where respondents purchase bottled water? The figure 4.5 shows where the respondent will buy bottled water. Place is the one of the factors to influence consumer buying decision. In order to become successful marketer, the marketer must put their product at the right place and at the right time. From the figure 4.5, the convenience store which is 44% is most popular to purchase bottled water. The grocery store has 22%, hypermarkets have 19% and supermarkets have 15%. Therefore, convenience will affect consumer buying behaviour. Figure 4.6: Which factors will cause respondents switch cost? The figure 4.6 shows the factors affect respondents switch cost. From the figure 4.4, bottle design will affect consumer buying behaviour. Hence, bottle design also will affect respondents to switch cost. Besides, some respondents will choose bottle quality. This is because some respondents will reuse their bottle when finish water. Therefore, the marketer must understand consumer needs and wants in order to prevent customer to switching to competitor product. Figure 4.7: What respondents expected from Bottled Water? The figure 4.7 shows what are the respondents expected. Most of the respondents will purchase bottled water is because healthy. This is because most of the respondents will care their body health. Besides, some respondents will like do sport, so they need some energy come from bottled water. Figure 4.8: Pay extra for increase quality of Bottled Water Figure 4.9: Increase consumption for Quality of Packaging The figure 4.8 shows how many respondents will agree pay extra to increase quality of bottled water. 74% of respondents will agree to pay extra to increase quality. This is because the respondents will care about their health. In addition, the respondents will think money important than healthy. On the other hand, some respondents will increase consumption because the quality of bottled water. The figure 4.9 shows how many respondents will increase consumption because the quality of bottled water. The result show only 25% will choose yes. 75% respondents choose no is because quality of bottled water is only can reuse. Therefore, it doesn’t increase consumption is because the quality of bottled water. Figure 4.10: Re-use and Recycle Bottled Water The figure 4.10 shows the percentage of respondents to reuse and recycle of bottled water. As the result, most of the respondents will reuse and recycle the bottled water. This mean most of the respondents will know 3R reuse, recycle and reduce. This is because all people have responsible to protect earth. 3R will help everyone have a healthy environment and happiness. Figure 4.11: Consumption household of Bottle Water The figure 4.11 shows the consumption household of bottle water. As the result shows 33% of respondents will purchase bottled water more than their family. Besides, mother have 25%. This may be because she take care their health of family. Some respondents comment their mother will purchase 15litre per day. It is because one person at least must drink 8 cup of mineral water (Peter 2005). Therefore, respondents will purchase more water is because they take care their own body. Figure 4.12: Spokesperson will impact decision making of respondents? The figure 4.12 shows spokesperson influence decision making of respondents. 85% have agreed spokesperson will agree because respondents will think can same healthy and happiness with the spokesperson in the future. So, the marketer must hire spokesperson to help them create awareness and increase sales. Besides, spokesperson also can attract and convince more consumers to buy their company product. Figure 4.13: Recommend to friends or family The figure 4.13 shows the respondents would recommend their friends or family purchase bottled water. The result shows 84% of respondents will recommend their friends and family. This is because sharing is caring. So when the respondents caring their friends and family body health and happiness, they will share their knowledge and own perception to them. On the other hand, 16% of respondents would not recommend to their friends or family is because they think bottled water is only low involvement product. Therefore, they would not waste their precious of time to share information. Figure: 4.14: Advertisements influence Decision Making The figure 4.14 shows advertisement would impact the respondent’s decision making. In this result, most of the respondent will agree and strongly agree advertisement will influence their decision making when purchase bottled water. The advertisements will be use such as TV, radio, newspaper, magazine and broadcasting. Most of the respondents comment TV is main factors influence their buying decision. This is because the advertising of bottled water is creative and attractive. Therefore, total 62% of respondents have agreed advertisement will cause their decision making. Figure 4.15: Event and Activities impact Consumers Behaviour The figure 4.15 shows event and activities influence respondent’s decision making. As the result, there are total 56% agree some event and activities will influence their decision making. For example like promotion, role play, and some competition. The promotions such as buy 1 get one free (BOGOF), free gift and free sample. Some respondents comment sometimes the free gift and sample will impact their switch cost and influence decision making. Therefore, the marketer must create some promotional and advertising in order to increase rate of sale. Furthermore, promotional and advertising also can help company to crease brand image and long term relationship (Wayne, 1983). 5.0 Conclusion & Recommendations In this research, it can investigate the attitudes towards three leading brands in a bottled water product category which is Sea Master, Dasani and Spritzer. Besides, this research will determine which factors will impact the consumer buying behaviour. This is because the consumer buying behaviour is one of the important to increase the company sales. The marketer must understand their target market needs and wants. They need to create a business plan in order to fulfil their target market needs and wants. Therefore, the marketer wants to use consumer buying decision process which is need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision and post purchase behaviour to determining the consumer. Moreover, the Fishbein model also is one of the important factors. According Ajzen (1988) and Werner (2004), Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) is an attempt to provide consistency in studies of the relationship between behaviour, beliefs, intentions and attitudes. For the recommendation, the marketer must provide more promotion and advertising to create awareness and brand image. This is because most of the respondents will switch cost is because the promotional. Besides, water quality is also important. The marketer must improve their water quality and make sure their water is filter until pure. This is because most of respondents want healthy life. Lastly, the marketer must use the stainless steel to do bottle water. This is because 3R reuse, recycle and reduce is all people responsible. In addition, the consumers purchase will reuse and refill water again in order to save cost and reduce pollution. Finally, all bottlers of water should be controlled by a separate institute to guarantee the quality of the product and prevent misleading advertisement. 6.0 List of References 1. Ajzen, I. & Fishbein, M., 1980, Understanding attitudes and predicting social behaviour, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. 2. Ajzen, I. 1988, Attitudes, Personality, and Behavior, Open University Press, Milton-Keynes. 3. Ajzen, I. 1991, ‘The Theory of Planned Behavior’, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, vol. 50, no. 2, pp. 179-211. 4. B, G.D & James, J.P. 1999. Quality costing. 3rd Edition. Gower Publishing, Ltd. 5. Davis. L., 2004, Consumer Perception on Tap water, Bottle water and Filtration Devices, IWA Publishing, London. 6. Dillman, D.A., 1978, Mail and telephone surveys: The total design method, Wiley, New York. 7. Edwards, W., 1966, Some Theory of Sampling, John Wiley & Son. Inc, New York 8. Fishbein, M. & Ajzen, I. 1975, Belief, attitude, intention, and behaviour: Am introduction to theory and research. Englewood Cliff, NJ: Prentice-Hall. 9. Graham & Skinner, 1991, Handbook for Research Students in the Social Sciences, The Falmer Press: London. 10. Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Wong,V., Saunders, J. (2008). Principles of Marketing. (5th ed.). England: Pearson Education Limited. 11. Malcolm. J., 1998, How to Collect Data: Measurement & Evaluation, ASTD Press, United States 12. Miller, K. 2005, Communications theories: perspectives, processes, and contexts. New York: McGraw-Hill. 13. Nicosia, F., 1966, Consumer Decision Processes, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs. 14. Peter, T. 2005. Introduction to radar target recognition. IET 15. PeterH. Glrick, 2007, The World’s water 2008-2009: The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources, Pacific Institute, Washington. 16. Robert, B., 1982, A Handbook of Social Science Methods, Volume 3. Prayer: New York. 17. Sherri, L., 2008, Research Methods and Statistics: A Critical Thinking Approach, 3rd Edition, Cengage Learning, p. 96 18. Simon, H. 1947, 2nd Edition, Administrative behaviour, Macmillan, New York. 19. Subhash, J. & David, G. 2012. Handbook of Research in International Marketing. 2rd Edition. Edward Elgar Publishing 20. Wayne, C.B. 1983. The rhetoric of fiction. 2rd Edition. University of Chicago Press 21. Werner, P. 2004, ‘Reasoned Action and Planned Behavior’, in S.J. Peterson & T.S. Bredow (eds), Middle range Theories: Application to Nursing Research, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia, pp. 125-147. 22. Sustainabletable., 2009, The issues water, Available on: http://sustainabletable.org/issues/water/, ac cessed on 23rd March 2012 23. Anonymous, 2007, Market Research Society Malaysia, Available on: http://www.mrsm.org.my/home.html, accessed on 23rd March 2012 24. Anonymous, 2011, Water Quality, Available on: http://www.chem.duke.edu/~jds/cruise_chem/water/wattap.html, accessed on 23rd March 2012 25. Castillo, J., 2009, Convenience Sampling. Experiment Resources, Available on: http://www.experiment-resoucres.com/convenience-sampling.html, accessed on 23rd March 2012 26. Department of Health, New York State, 2006, Bottled water frequently-asked questions, Available on: http://www.health.state.ny.us/, accessed on 23rd March 2012 27. Melanie, C., N.D, Advantages of Bottled Water, Available on: http://www.ideamarketers.com/?Advantages_of_Bottled_Water&articleid=235600&from=PROFILE, accessed on 23rd March 2012 28. Peter Y., 2010, Marketing Research, Available on: http://www.slideshare.net/marcelobrescia/marketing-research-evian, accessed on 23rd March 2012 29. Rodwan, J., 2009, Confronting Challenges; U.S. and International Bottled Water Developments and Statistics for 2008. Available on: http://www.bottledwater.org/public/2008%20Market%20Report%20Findings%20reported%20in%20April%202009.pdf, accessed on 23rd March 2012 30. Sean, G., 2011, Bottled Water Scorecard, Available on: http://static.ewg.org/report/2010/bottledwater2010/pdf/2011-bottledwater-scorecard-report.pdf, accessed on 23rd March 2012 7.0 Appendices Appendix 7.1 Theory of Reasoned Action (adopted from Fishbein & Ajzen 1975) Source: http://systemscraft.wordpress.com/2009/12/30/theory-of-reasoned-action-tra-and-theory-of-planned-behavior-tpb/ (Accessed on 23rd March 2012) Appendix 7.2 Consumer Buying Decision Process Source: http://marketingfaq.net/2011/12/consumer-buying-decision-process/ (Accessed on 23rd March 2012)

Joyas Voladoras Essay

Brian Doyle Joyas Volardores Analysis Brian Doyle’s work, Joyas Voladoras, is about humming birds, a whale, worms, and a cat dragging itself into the forest to die. He uses a lot of metaphors and anthropomorphism in his style to grab your attention. By describing the life we live and how we love, Doyle compares and contrasts differences and similarities between the Hummingbird, Tortoise, Blue whale, small insects and humans. He talks about love and emotion, insecurities and loneliness, and childhood memories. Doyle emphasizes that life is precious and that there are different ways to live your life. In the beginning of the story Doyle reveals the meaning of â€Å"Joyas Voladoras†, meaning â€Å"Flying Jewels†. He brings to the reader, in vivid detail, the Hummingbird. With each following description, the reader is fed an informative education about this fascinating bird. Doyle describes the humming birds heart by saying that the humming bird has a, â€Å"thunderous wild heart the size of an infants fingernail† (147). Joyas Voladoras Meaning He gradually elongates his ideas, simply giving the reader a moment to reflect before elucidating the humming bird’s many talents. He says that humming birds can fly â€Å"backwards [or] fly more than five hundred miles without pausing to rest.† (147) â€Å"But when they rest they come close to death.† (147) Doyle is grabbing the reader and explaining how fragile life is. You could live every day not knowing that today could be your last. Just like the Hummingbird with, â€Å"their hearts slugging nearly to a halt, barely beating.†(147) Doyle cites the numerous variations of Hummingbirds to our own beating hearts. He says that when a humming bird dies â€Å"each mad heart silent, a brilliant music stilled.†(147) Just as that of our own heart. Joyas Voladoras may seem as if it has no real significance. Yet, given Doyle’s backstory, I came to understand that his son was born with only three out four chambers in his heart. Through this experience, Doyle is writing about how precious life really is. And, by conveying this experience he had with his son, through the hummingbird as a metaphor, it allows us to reflect on our own lives. Doyle suggests that hummingbirds live their lives quickly. He says we each have â€Å"approximately two billion heartbeats to spend in a lifetime† (148). You can live your life many ways. You can live you life like that of a tortoise, â€Å"slowly [and] live to be two hundred years old.† (148) Or, you can life your life like that of  a hummingbird, in the fast lane and live for only two years. Same two billion heartbeats in a lifetime, yet two different pathways of life. â€Å"As big as a room. It is a room, with four chambers. A child could walk around in.†(148) Doyle introduces the blue whale, the biggest heart in the world. I believe that in this metaphor, Doyle wants you to visualize the vast difference in size between the humming birds heart, the size of a pencil eraser and the blue whale’s heart so large a child could walk around in it. A heart is a heart. No matter what animal, it is what keeps us all alive. However, it’s through our different life styles, that we chose the longevity of our own life. â€Å"There are perhaps ten thousand blue whales in the world, living in every ocean on earth, and of the largest mammal who ever lived we know nearly nothing. But we know the animals with the largest hearts in the world generally travel in pairs.† (148) They know how to live life and love. By living and loving together as a pair they take care of each other every day. Something we all want in life, to love and be loved. â€Å"So much held in a heart in a lifetime. So much held in a heart in a day, an hour, a moment.† (148) Here Doyle is saying how important life is. He compares that to a house in which we all live alone. â€Å"We are utterly open with no one.†(148) We choose who comes into our heart, but are always still living alone. We live like this because we are afraid to of a â€Å"constantly harrowed heart†. (148) As we age our hearts become â€Å" bruised and scarred, scorned and torn, repaired by time and will.† (148) As we live our lives we love. We get hurt through all of life’s heartbreaks, but with time we become whole and â€Å"repaired† but we continue to remain fragile. You can continue to let people in your heart, but each person you let in your heart can be loved or be hurt. You can make â€Å"your heart as stout and tight and hard and cold and impregnable as you possibly can and down it comes in an instant.†(148) He brings you in with tantric imagery we can all relate too, as that of â€Å"a child’s apple breath. The word’s I have something to tell you, a cat with a broken spine dragging himself into the woods to die†¦ [or] the memory of your father’s voice early in the morning making pancakes for his children.† (148-149) I personally have an emotional connection with this story. My sister was born with a severe heart condition. Just like Doyle’s son. But instead of three chambers, she has only two. Having seven open-heart surgeries since infancy and Twenty-Six years of worry and heartache, I can say it’s definitely been  a long journey for my sister. To live everyday not knowing what to expect has really enlightened me, and my family. It’s taught me to live everyday graciously and cherish those around you, because you never know what the next minute will bring. Doyle’s work is a beautiful examination of the human heart. He uses an infinite array of metaphors of the heart, explaining the lost passages of life and love. Seeming so insignificant, these memories bring back emotions from past experiences. Through his work he encourages us to see that life is precious and that there are different ways to live your life In general, live every moment of your life. Joyas Voladoras.. â€Å"Flying jewel.† Works Cited DiYanni, Robert. One Hundred Great Essays. New York, Pearson Longman, 2008. Hochstetler, J. M. Native Son. Grand Rapids, MI, Zondervan, 2005. â€Å"‘Joyas Voladoras’ by Brian Doyle.† â€Å"Joyas Voladoras† by Brian Doyle – HCC Learning Web, https://theamericanscholar.org/joyas-volardores/#.V7yq-FsrK9I.

Latitude Geography Overview

Latitude Geography Overview Latitude is the angular distance of any point on Earth measured north or south of the equator in degrees, minutes and seconds. The equator is a line going around Earth and is halfway between the North and South Poles, it is given a latitude of 0 °. Values increase north of the equator and are considered positive and values south of the equator decrease and are sometimes considered negative or have south attached to them. For example, if a latitude of 30 °N was given, this would mean that it was north of the equator. The latitude -30 ° or 30 °S is a location south of the equator. On a map, these are the lines running horizontally from east-west. Latitude lines are also sometimes called parallels because they are parallel and equidistant from each other. Each degree of latitude is about 69 miles (111 km) apart. The degree measure of latitude is the name of the angle from the equator while the parallel names the actual line along which degree points are measured. For example, 45 °N latitude is the angle of latitude between the equator and the 45th parallel (it is also halfway between the equator and the North Pole). The 45th parallel is the line along which all latitudinal values are 45 °. The line is also parallel to the 46th and 44th parallels. Like the equator, parallels are also considered circles of latitude or lines that circle the entire Earth. Since the equator divides the Earth into two equal halves and its center coincides with that of the Earth, it is the only line of latitude that is a great circle while all other parallels are small circles. Development of Latitudinal Measurements Since ancient times, people have tried to come up with reliable systems with which to measure their location on Earth. For centuries, both Greek and Chinese scientists attempted several different methods but a reliable one did not develop until the ancient Greek geographer, astronomer and mathematician, Ptolemy, created a grid system for the Earth. To do this, he divided a circle into 360 °. Each degree comprised 60 minutes (60) and each minute comprised 60 seconds (60). He then applied this method to Earths surface and located places with degrees, minutes and seconds and published the coordinates in his book Geography. Although this was the best attempt at defining the location of places on Earth at the time, the precise length of a degree of latitude was unresolved for around 17 centuries. In the middle ages, the system was finally fully developed and implemented with a degree being 69 miles (111 km) and with coordinates being written in degrees with the symbol  °. Minutes and seconds are written with , and , respectively. Measuring Latitude Today, latitude is still measured in degrees, minutes and seconds. A degree of latitude is still around 69 miles (111 km) while a minute is approximately 1.15 miles (1.85 km). A second of latitude is just over 100 feet (30 m). Paris, France for example, has a coordinate of 48 °5124N. The 48 ° indicates that it lies near the 48th parallel while the minutes and seconds indicate just how close it is to that line. The N shows that it is north of the equator. In addition to degrees, minutes and seconds, latitude can also be measured using decimal degrees. Paris location in this format looks like, 48.856 °. Both formats are correct, although degrees, minutes and seconds is the most common format for latitude. Both, however, can be converted between each other and allow people to locate places on Earth to within inches. One nautical mile, a mile type used by sailors and navigators in the shipping and aviation industries, represents one minute of latitude. Parallels of latitude are approximately 60 nautical (nm) apart. Finally, areas described as having low latitude are those with lower coordinates or are closer to the equator while those with high latitudes have high coordinates and are far. For example, the Arctic Circle, which has a high latitude is at 66 °32N. Bogota, Columbia with its latitude of 4 °3553N is at a low latitude. Important Lines of Latitude When studying latitude, there are three significant lines to remember. The first of these is the equator. The equator, located at 0 °, is the longest line of latitude on Earth at 24,901.55 miles (40,075.16 km). It is significant because it is the exact center of the Earth and it divides that Earth into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. It also receives the most direct sunlight on the two equinoxes. At 23.5 °N is the Tropic of Cancer. It runs through Mexico, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India and southern China. The Tropic of Capricorn is at 23.5 °S and it runs through Chile, Southern Brazil, South Africa, and Australia. These two parallels are significant because they receive direct sun on the two solstices. In addition, the area between the two lines is the area known as the tropics. This region does not experience seasons and is normally warm and wet in its climate. Finally, the Arctic Circle and Antarctic Circle are also important lines of latitude. They are at 66 °32N and 66 °32S. The climates of these locations are harsh and Antarctica is the largest desert in the world. These are also the only places that experience 24-hour sunlight and 24-hour darkness in the world. Importance of Latitude Besides making it easier for one to locate different places on Earth, latitude is important to geography because it helps navigation and researchers understand the various patterns seen on Earth. High latitudes for example, have very different climates than low latitudes. In the Arctic, it is much colder and drier than in the tropics. This is a direct result of the unequal distribution of solar insolation between the equator and the rest of the Earth. Increasingly, latitude also results in extreme seasonal differences in climate because sunlight and sun angle vary at different times of the year depending on latitude. This affects temperature and the types of flora and fauna that can live in an area. Tropical rainforests, for example, are the most biodiverse places in the world while harsh conditions in the Arctic and Antarctic make it difficult for many species to survive.

UK islamic funds performance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

UK islamic funds performance - Essay Example However, despite this permission, the development of Islamic banking sector could not take place and it was only during 20th century that it started to take its roots. It was only after some Middle Eastern countries took the lead when this sector started to develop. The real development of this sector started in later years of last century when countries like Malaysia started a parallel Islamic Banking system focusing on the need for having an alternative system of banking unlike traditional banking system which is based upon usury. UK is , nowadays, also considered as one of the leading markets for the Islamic banking and other financial products. This study therefore focused on the examination of the performance of UK based Islamic mutual funds between the period of 1999-2009 and comparison with the market benchmark. This study also attempted to explore the impact of financial crisis on the Islamic funds and made a comparison of the impact of crisis on other funds also. Some of the research questions probed under this study therefore include the assessment of under and over performance of Islamic funds, an assessment of the riskiness of Islamic funds as well as the key drivers of returns generated by Islamic funds. Different performance measures such as Sharpe Ratio, Jensen’s Alpha, Treynor’s ratio and information ratio were used to assess the performance of the funds. Results indicate that UK Islamic funds perform similarly as the market benchmarks with the exception of few which tend to outperform the performance index. Results also indicate that Islamic funds can serve as effective hedges for the equity investors because of their inherent nature of being risk averse. The overall results therefore indicate that Islamic funds do not offer any abnormal risk adjusted reward to the investors and can only provide good investment opportunity specially during bursting period

What is the cultural function of slasher films Essay

What is the cultural function of slasher films - Essay Example The societal issues tackled in slasher films can be quite varied indeed and the issues will project, criticize and open up for debate whatever it is that concerns society at the moment. Along this line, slasher films do serve a cultural purpose by expressing peoples fears and anxieties. Slasher films serve their cultural function of portraying the worst fears of the people such as those dealing with serial killers, sadistic murderers and incorrigible criminals. People go to theaters to see these films and expect some sort of poetic justice meted out to criminals that somehow vindicate the existence of slasher films. The graphic portrayal of the slaying, usually accomplished with a torture tool like a knife, chainsaw, hammer or whatever that will prolong death and impose the most agony and pain to the victims are intended to satiate the audience cravings for the macabre, the violent, the suspense and to show the mentality of the psychopathic killer and the mindsets of the victims as shown on these films. Slasher films in a way allow people to question social norms and their own personal values as they see it. The previous paragraphs introduced the rationale of why slasher films serve an aim in todays culture. A lot of people question why such â€Å"shallow† films are patronized by these moviegoers when there is already a hackneyed plot or storyline in these films, predictable to a degree but still people go and see them when they almost instinctively knew already what will happen in the film. The answer is that these â€Å"mad slasher† films are in the category of the so-called exploitation films which are considered money-makers despite having a poor storyline. People want to be entertained and movie producers latched unto these genre of films because they are proven to make them money at the box office as these are low-budget films. It it not a surprising development