Respond to a Letter of Complaint

To: [email  protected] co. uk From: [email  protected] dk Subject: I feel sorry to hear that your family trip to Tivoli turned out to be a disappointing one. It is true that only 11 of the 24 various entertainment rides were running on that day unfortunately due to the technical failures of the machines. By further checking the entertainment rides we found that we could not risk using the machine that day and had to change some parts for the machine to run again.We couldnot inform at the entrance as the technicians were still working on the machines(you may probably have noticed people working to fix the machines) and there was a hope that we could run the machine that day. But on late afternoon, we found out that the machine could not be repaired that day so we informed at the gate. we are hearing a little bit of problems at some of the food outlets. And we came to know about your story from one of the co-worker of that outlet. I again apologise for the inconvenience that you ha d to suffer due to some technical problems and the bad customer service.After reading through your letter and knowing the circumstances I had conversation with managers of Tivoli and we decided to give your family free tickets to enter and play all the entertainment games with a free dinner in any of the restaurants for your family when Tivoli opens again next summer. I have enclosed the free passes to enter and play the entertainment ride along with the FREE DINNER FOR YOUR FAMILY IN ANY OF THE OUTLETS. We aim to satisfy our customers with quality in entertainment, food and service. I am looking forward seeing you again next summer in Tivoli and enjoying with your family.

Linux Security Final Review

Allows the connection of hub to hub or switch without having to use a special cable 2. Which data speed and maximum cable length is not used for Category e/6 cabling? Anything other than mezzo/mobcaps (Caste) and up to mezzo, class E/mobcaps, Gossips but at a distance less than 100 meters (Cat) both up to 100 meters. (Page 59. ) 3. What do the links lights on a hub or switch represent? That the transmit and receive pairs are properly aligned and the connected devices are communicating . 4. What does the link light on a NICE present?Connectivity to the network. 5. What is an echo request relative to computer networking? It Is part of the IGMP protocol that requests a reply from a computer. (Page 40) 6. What Is the command used on a PC to display the MAC address? Upcoming/all 7. What is the command used on a Linux machine to display the IP address? Facing 8. What is the maximum length of a horizontal cable run that still allows for the length of the patch cables and extra cabling on ea ch end? 90 meters 9. A data problem is reported to the network administrator. The problem Is found to be tit the HTTP network connection.What would the network administrator do to isolate the problem. Test the link, perform a traceries command, depends on what type of problem is occurring with the cabling. 10. Describes interconnection of Lana within a limited geographic area. MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) (page 5) 1 1 . Which describes an Ethernet system operating at 100 Mbps? Fast Ethernet or Bassett (page 32) 12. What is another term for network congestion? Bottleneck (page 59) 13. A network address of 192. 168. 6. 0 and a subnet mask of 255. 255. 254. 0 can be Ritter In CIDER as? 92. 168. 168. 0/3 (page 180) 14. The three packets exchanged at the beginning of a TCP connection between two ports are: SYNC, SYNC*JACK, & JACK (page 1 59) 15. IP addresses are assigned by which of the following? ARIN (American Registry for Internet Numbers (page 173) 16. The connection to a router's console port input is typically which of the following? RSI-232 serial communications port using an RAJA-45 lack to connect to Its Interface (page 201 ) 17. What is the help command In the CISCO ISO? â€Å"? † is the universal help command (page 207) 18.AAU stands for: Attachment unit Interface (page 141) 19. The router interface most commonly used to Interconnect Lana to a campus network Is: Fast Ethernet (Chapter 9) 20. Serial Interfaces on a router are typically used to: used to interface to other serial devices (page 214) 21 . Clocking on the serial port of a router is set at the DATE end: False, it is DCE (page 215) 22. The purpose of a gateway is to allow data to enter and exit a LANA. True (page 145) 23. The command for saving the router's running-configuration to non-volatile memory Is: copy run start page 235) 24.The administrative distance of a static route is: 1 (page 246) 25. EIGRP is classified as which of the following: link-state protocol (page 257) 26. What a rea ID should be used for the Network backbone? Area O (page 251) 27. What does OSPF use to verify that two router links are communicating? â€Å"Hello Packets† (page 251 ) 28. Which file allocation table system Is best for very large multi gigabit drives today? NETS (New Technology File System (page 1 1 5) 29. Which of the following bus types 1 OFF roving similar services including server functions identifies which type of network?Peer-to-peer (page 510) 31 . Dynamically assigns IP addresses to machines as needed: DDCD Server (page 513) 32. A red â€Å"x† on a users account in Windows 2003/2000 indicates which of the following The user is locked out for having too many login attempt failures (page 553) 33. This server is used to service information requests from clients. Proxy Server (page 513) 34. Computer Viruses and Worms cause all of the following except: Virus causes annoyance, clogging up the mail server, denial of revive, data loss, open holes for others to acc ess your machine.Worms attack computers and can deny service to networks, they establish a â€Å"back door† in the infected computer enabling an attacker to access someone's computer (page 393) 35. â€Å"War Driving† is a term used to describe: someone driving with an antenna out the door of a vehicle, connected to a mobile device running Windows or Linux (page 394) 36. A true Firewall â€Å"Access Control List† is used to: Access list can be configured on a router, on a true dedicated firewall, or on the host computer (page 396) 37. AnIntrusion Detection system is designed to look for: (Select 2) looks for signatures and probing (page 404) 38. Telephony identifies which of the following technologies? Poi (Voice over ‘P) (page 488) 39. Which of the following have the greatest wireless data rate? 802. 1 In provides rates over 200+ Mbps (page 420) 40. What are the two North American and International optical standards? (Select two) SONNET (Synchronous Optica l network and SAD (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) (page 468) 41 . What is the meaning of the â€Å"2-Deep† rule?That the distribution in a building should only have he main distribution and the intermediate distribution that feeds the horizontal distribution to the work area (page 472) 42. True or False: Voice Over IP and Telephony are synonymous with each other. True (page 488) 43. Which Poi protocol provides for end-to-end secure communications by requiring user authentication: SIP (Secure Session Initiation Protocol) (page 489) 44. The following are all So concerns for Poi except: These are concerns: Jitter, Network latency and packet loss, & Queuing (page 495) 45.Using Linux, the command that lists the basic files in a rectory is: Is (page 565) 46. Using Linux, the command that deletes a files is: arm (page 571) 47. To display the previously entered commands stored in the Linux history buffer you would use: history (page 583) 48. Using Linux, the command that is similar t o the find or search command in Windows is: Greg (page 585) 49. The three major differences between industrial and commercial networks are: Hierarchy, Redundancy, & Determinism (page 619) 50. The Ethernet protocol developed for large industrial use is: Ethernet/IP or UDP or TCP (page 629)

Cinderella and Fairy God Mother Essay

Cinderella’s story portrays a perfect example of that GOD is with those with whom no one is. Poor Cinderella grew up without her mother, and then later was raised fatherless in an abusive environment by her wicked stepmother and two stepsisters. Deprived of her possessions, rights, and dignity, she is forced to toil daily in the house her family once owned but although she lost a lot but she never loses hope. Cinderella is shown as a good hearted young lady. She is hard working and does her best to make her dreams true. She is loyal to her friends and her work, she never lets her friends down. She is also good in studies and fulfills all of her duties without negligence which shows that she is responsible. She is smart and sensible. Her character displays her kind nature, she is very obedient she has been emotionally and physically tortured by her step mother and step sisters but still she respects and obeys them and does her best to keep them happy. She is just like a normal high school girl, with large hopes and ambitions. She quietly searches for her prince charming to find peace of heart. She gets her heart broken again and again but yet she never lets herself get broke. She is not evil and avoids being in conflicts at school, even while being bullied she does not react back which shows that she is very decent. She tries to make others happy by putting others ahead of her own self. THE ROLE OF FAIRY GOD MOTHER: Without fairy God Mother cinderella’s story would not have been complete, fairy god mother in the form of her friend helps her through out her journey. She is very good towards cinderella she Supports Cinderella both verbally and practically, shows her the right path through the darkest of times and guides her to meet her unknown friend. Fairy Godmother always appears in the right place at the right time. Fairy God mother is a god’s gift to Cinderella. Cinderellas good character and the role of fairy god mother in her life are the only reasons that in the end she gets what she truly deserves.

Explain the differences between national income or gross domestic Essay

Explain the differences between national income or gross domestic product and what the state of bhutan in the himalayas calls gr - Essay Example More recently the King of Bhutan has promoted a policy of Gross National Happiness (GNH) in opposition to GDP, arguing that the latter did not reflect the important intangible aspects of society and culture such as religious belief, harmony with nature, spiritual peace, and transcendent wisdom. In using GDP only as a measure of national worth and as a guide for planning risks the deterioration of these important intangible aspects globally, and this is most harshly reflected in the destruction of indigenous cultures with philosophical foundations and beliefs different from Western capitalism. II. National Income & GDP Institutions such as the World Bank, IMF, and UN agencies frequently use GDP statistics to determine international aid, finance for development projects, and in the calculation of the distribution of wealth within a society for analysis. These records are drawn from tax accounts primarily as recorded income, leading to the question of differences in accounting standards between nations and the variance of business standards between cultures. Yet, a larger question has developed as to whether GDP as calculated includes the subtle economic and social factors that are important to community welfare. â€Å"Simon Kuznets is best known for his studies of national income and its components. Prior to World War I, measures of GNP were rough guesses, at best. No government agency collected data to compute GNP, and no private economic researcher did so systematically, either. Kuznets changed all that. With work that began in the 1930s and stretched over decades, Kuznets computed national income back to 1869. He broke it down by industry, by final product, and by use. He also measured the distribution of income between rich and poor.† (Econlib, 2011) GDP provides a portrait of the economic activity of a nation by measuring the sum of all economic activity within the sovereign during a given time frame, generally annually. Weight is given to each sector by the total amount of commercial activity involved, but this does not inherently coincide with the hierarchy of values within a society. Instead, it promotes the economic and commercial criteria to the determinant force of national development by defining material prosperity, ever increasing, as the key to a higher standard of living. While in most instances this correlation of economic activity does reflect advanced technological development, improvements in medicine, architecture, public utilities, and the comfort level of society, some critics claim it is not complete or balanced in reflecting the overall values of a culture empirically. Whether or not this can be done is reflected in the debate around Gross National Happiness (GNH), a term instituted by the Bhutanese King Jigme Singye Wangchuck in his coronation address in 1972. III. Gross National Happiness Gross National Happiness is developed from a Buddhist view of the interconnectedness of all life and the need for renunc iation of selfishness and ego in order to cultivate enlightenment. The Buddha taught an Eightfold Path that included interrelated tenets on awareness, morality, behavior, etc. intended to bring about the perfection

Final part Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Final part - Essay Example My 1st day at the organization began with the formal signing of wavier forms to indicate that I was indeed working there. My supervisor then enlightened me on the tools that were available as well as the duties that I would carry out during the day. My first role was helping him on putting up frames for a house that had been set up in the locality. This involved putting up exterior wood panels so as to cover the already put up frames by nailing them together. Through combined efforts, we were also able to put up ladder blocking in the walls. I also joined another team of workers at the construction site and helped them the top wooden stud of the house in its appropriate place. On the 2nd day, my supervisor assigned me and other volunteers to work on putting up the roof. I assisted in laying of shingles as a base set up for the roof. There was a roofing professional on site to guide on how to properly roof the house in order to avoid any leakages in times of rain. He guided us through proper alignment and nailing of tar papers as well as layering of the shingles in their proper places. We were then required to install the aluminum roof side covers, a process that required effective teamwork to ensure that each nail was properly nailed in its rightful place. Afterwards, we were required to go round the house confirming that the wall panels were all nailed down properly. I was able to identify and rectify a few of errors all by myself by applying what I had previously learnt. In the course of my volunteer ship, I was able to gain 1st hand experience of what I had orally learnt at school. The basis safety guidelines while constructing a house made more sense now that I had carried the out practically. The idea of teamwork during the construction of a house made more sense to me at that time than when it was being taught in class. I was also able to analyze the principles of construction that I had been taught earlier. This was in

Data structures and algorithms for social media Essay

Data structures and algorithms for social media - Essay Example This treatise discusses how the choice of data structures and algorithms affect social media. The paper also focuses on the differences in security procedures when it comes to large data sets as found in social media sites as compared to simpler and Java-driven websites. Social media are a group of websites that aid in social interaction, and consist of voluminous databases. In understanding data structures, one should take into account that they mostly define the memory mechanisms. In a computer, data is conveyed in chunks from the Random Access Memory (RAM) to the hard disk. The running time of this transfer is determined by the blocks/chunks. Data structures enhance efficiency in computing. The more powerful a computer is enables it to handle more complex applications, which lead to more complex calculations (Bender & Kuszmaul, 2014). The choices applied in the selection of data structures and algorithms determine whether a particular calculation will be carried out in many days or in just a few seconds. In social media, the information is stored in large database; hence, computations that result in searching of different information need to be performed at a very fast rate. This calls for keen choice of data structures and algorithms. In enhancing efficiency, a given solution will be termed efficient once it solves the problems assigned to it within the confines of the resource constraints (Shaffer, 2014). In deciding the data structure to use in a social media site, some of the steps to consider include; an analysis of the problem for determination of the applicable resource constrains, determination of the operation to be supported against the resource constrains, and selection of the most appropriate data structure for the given problem. In selecting a data structure, it is always good to consider the cost of the solution, which is a factor of the resources used,

The Great Depression in Canada Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Great Depression in Canada - Essay Example One of the examples of a depression is often regarded to be the great depression witnessed by Canada. The period of depression was recorded to instigate during the summer of 1929 and extended till the spring of 1933. For the Canadian citizens, the depression period of the 1930s is still considered to be the most devastating decade of the century2. The major cause for this was the crash in the stock market, which is often considered to be the consequence of the wheat crop crash in Canada. With due consideration to the notion of a depression and its emergence in the Canadian economy, the main objective of this paper will be to understand the major causes of the economic turmoil and also to describe the aftermath of the depression. A brief description of the total scenario of Canada in the historical context of the great depression will be presented in this paper. Historical Background The great depression of Canada existed during the 1930s as an era of economic poverty. The reasons for this depression in Canada can be related with various economic factors such as economic dependency, poverty, and unemployment among others. The period of depression initially was recorded in the year 1929, when United States discontinued purchasing goods from the Canadian market. This resulted in lockouts in many of the Canadian industries and thus contributed to the financial crisis. A huge number of Canadians became jobless and homeless lacking the basic amenities required to lead a healthy life. Even after getting a job, the Canadians were often paid at extremely low rates, which were not enough to fulfill their basic needs. The remaining unemployed Canadians used to move across the country in search of jobs and thus increased the liabilities of the government through inbound migration trends3. In Canada, the financial crisis was first observed in 1928 after the wheat crop crash had emerged resulting in the crash of the Wall Street Stock Market that later took the form of the gr eat depression. One of the major causes of the depression in Canada was the over-production and over-expansion in the industrial sectors. During the 1920s, almost every industry in Canada was expanding and many new industries came into existence. As a result of this, the factory owners generally used to pile up huge stocks of goods. Consequently, after the crash of the stock market, these owners panicked and in order to slow down the production they laid off a huge number of workers. This resulted in a huge unemployment problem within the economy, which fuelled up a financial crisis in Canada. Therefore, the sale also went down causing an economic misbalance4. Furthermore, the Canadian economy remained entirely dependent upon a few primary products such as wheat, minerals and fish. Accordingly, the economy could not bear the loss from financial crisis as the demand for these goods went down after the unemployment problem. The economy of Canada was also related closely with the econo my of the United States. Hence, with the emergence of a crisis within the American economy, the economic conditions of Canada also deterioted by a considerable extent. All through the 1920s, credit purchase became more and more favored in Canada. The added interest payments with the principle amount made many families go under huge debts4. Another very popular trend in the Canadian market at

The Business Environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

The Business Environment - Essay Example Businesses also aid in settling economic requirement of more than 70% of Kenyan citizens through the provision of employment opportunities. Through these employments, the government is able to involve the large population in the day to day national economic activities. Business organizations are able to produce significant quantities of goods at reduced cost. The economies of the scale are achieved; business organizations incur lower costs per unit of output because they operate on a large scale thus lower price of their products (Wang, 2009). In fact, large-scale account for over 60 per cent of all the private sector’s production. A substantial output in the gross domestic product (GDP) is thus achieved nationally due to this high percentage. Business has also enhanced economic development through encouraging competitive innovation. It is through competitive innovation that the nature of products and services Improves on a daily basis. A good example is the banking industries , initially they had only over the counter transaction, later came the automated teller machines and now mobile banking that are developments that were brought about by innovation. It is also through this that the consumers get to use the up to standard goods and services. Businesses also give chances to entrepreneurship which greatly help in the development of the economy (Haraf & Willett, 1990). Both for-profit and nonprofit profit has their share of contribution to the economy. The for-profit organizations participate actively through payment of revenues, employment creation, service provision, and production of goods and services that to the public. On the other hand, nonprofit organizations might be exempted from tax payment, but still do play a significant role in a country’s economy through involvement in activities like, provision of education, health services, voluntary provision of professional services like counseling, community services and quite a variety of serv ices essential to the sustenance of the economy. Nonprofit organizations always have it rough when it comes to capital acquisition. This is clearly portrayed by their depend on donors, well wisher and in some cases grants from the government. On the other hand, the for-profit organizations always have more option ranging from selling shares to investors, liquidating of assets, and credit from banks and profit from a business transaction. Another difference crop up when we view how the assets are handled. In the nonprofit organizations, the assets are considered nobody’s property, thus in the case of dissolution, the assets might be considered for donation to another organization of the same nature. Unlike the non-profit organizations, the for-profit organizations have their assets owned by the owners of the business (Doole & Lowe, 2008). Monetary policy can be described as the procedure through which a country control the supply of its currency while fiscal policy can be desc ribed as the use of taxes and expenditures by the government to manipulate the economy. There are majorly two forms of monetary policy programs: expansionary (easy) monetary policy and restrictive monetary policy (Wang, 2009). The expansionary monetary policy lowers the domestic currency exchange rate thus weakening the current account and ultimately improving the financial account. Vise versa

Ulrich Zwingli - A Religious Reformer Research Paper

Ulrich Zwingli - A Religious Reformer - Research Paper Example Nor was it by the ancient Church of the Swiss, until convents turned missionaries into monks, and monks turned the gospel into fables, and these fables led the people to believe that the pope was the Vicar of Christ, and that Mary should be adored as the Virgin and as the guardian of the Church (REV. WM. M. BLACKBURN 1868, 12-20) It is by this lie, that Ulrich Zwingli stretched his dowel in the direction of reformation of the church. The flagrant corruption, and â€Å"the lie of celibacy† were a constant thorn in the belief that Ulrich held in his conviction to the true cause of Christ; But not without the controversy of expulsion and severing of the ties with Rome. In this period, and in the periods that had passed, there had been Turmoil in the church, of the celebrations and the Book of Christ. Many reformers of the time questioned the role of these celebrations and the controversy of them not being found in the Bible. The statement he makes in his works clearly indicates his feelings towards the papal conclave;That Christ is the only eternal high priest, wherefrom it follows that those who have called themselves high priests have opposed the honor and power of Christ, yea, cast it out. (Meyer 1912, 2007 , 2007) By no means did he shy away from controversy, but in his belief in ‘truth’ and his understanding of humanity, did he engage in writings of change, and politics, and distributed them commonly even in Rome, where his works were proscribed, the prelates still treasured his books, devoid of true acquaintance that he indeed authored those works they so loved. 1.1 WHO WAS HE? ‘God has granted me,’ said he, ‘f rom my boyhood to devote myself to the acquirement of knowledge, both human and divine. ... I acknowledge myself to be a great sinner before God, though I have not lived an immoral life, and on no occasion has discipline been exercised upon me.’ (REV. WM. M. BLACKBURN 1868) Born in the Year 1484, in January at Wildhaus, Switzerland, Ulrich was named after his ‘Ammann’1 Father, Ulrich the senior. His Uncle Bartholomew Zwingli also the Dean of Wesen, came and baptized him. Ulrich was born in a family of eight sons and one daughter. Ulrich was the third. As a young boy, living in the mountains, and had the chance to feel the presence of God in his surroundings. He would watch the animals and the people, and listen to tales from his grandmother, until at nine, from a suggestion by his Uncles, his father took him to Wesen, and laid him in the hands of his Uncle Bartholomew with the words; â€Å"You have put lofty ideas into Ulrich s head, and now I have brought him, so that you may try What he can do† (REV. WM. M. BLACKBURN 1868) In the spirit of the school of the times in Wesen, Bartholomew Zwingli, seeing that the education at the common schools was not good enough, contacted his friend the master of St. Theodore George Binzli, at Basle. Here, Ulrich grew faster in knowledge that he made new enemies in the older boys, at the age of thirteen, he was sent to Berne, where later after there was a trial by the monks of Dominica to convert the young bright mind, he was sent to Vienna In Austria, where he met two new friends that would help him grow in leaps and bounds. In such dedication, Ulrich Grew a devoted catholic, raised in the values and commissions of the church, and it can be said that he never really faced the world of corruption and sin in such a way that salvation would to him make a big impact than another reformer, born only a few weeks earlier, Mr. Martin Luther of the Lutheran reformation. There is no saying, that in his †Å"safety† at Basel, Bern and Vienna, from where upon receiving his qualification in Arts, he joined the service of the Roman Catholic Church, Ulrich was far protected from facing the temptations of this world in so much that his tilt towards the ‘females’ was strong enough when he faced the sleaze. This was one of the conflict points that Ulrich had with the

Australian law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Australian law - Essay Example If a professional adviser is found to knowingly having provided or failed to provide information that exposes the advisee to incur any losses or damages on their part, this considered to be a breach of duty. All professionals are generally held to an established and reasonable standard of basic care and professionalism. Professionals are generally required to have the necessary learning and skill that is seen to be commonly processed by members who happen to be held in good standing within their basic profession.2 However, any lack of the proper degree of training, failure by the professional to attempt to follow up on a client’s progress, failure to remain appropriately conversant with any new emerging discoveries in the field, or failure to refer to a specialist in the event that it proves to be necessary can all be seen to constitute of negligence.3 As exemplified in the line of reasoning followed in the Hedley Byrne ruling, when an adviser communicates information to an ad visee in order that the information might be used for a generally described or particularly specified purpose, and the advisee acts on this advice to his detriment, the adviser is found to fundamentally be guilty of negligence.4 Effects of Donoghue V Stevenson (1932) A decision by the British house of commons in 1932 concerning the alleged presence of a snail inside a ginger beer bottle is commonly perceived to be the best known judgment in the entire common law world. It is widely regarded as the primary foundation law of negligence throughout the entire British Commonwealth.5 Although the ruling of Donoghue V Stevenson (1932), was initially mostly applied to judgments pertaining to manufacturers and the duty of care that they happened to owe the various consumers of their products it was eventually seen to have wider relevance beyond manufacturer liability. In the ruling, Atkins was seen to assert that a duty to exercise case was actually owed to all persons who might be directly affected by one’s actions or omissions that happen to be called in question.6 This is seen to critically affect the liability of all professional advisers as in their event that they provide questionable information that eventually proves to be detrimental to the advisee, they are then effectively held viable for court action. The Effects of Hedley Byrne v. Heller (1963) The Hedley Byrne v. Heller (1963) greatly impacted the overall liability of professional advisers as it was the first decision to recognize the possibility of there being a liability for want can be perceived to be purely economic loss that is not dependent on there being a contractual relationship, for negligent statements. This was seen to affect advisers as any information that they may happen to give while not bound to any contractual agreement can also be seen to create duty of care as it might be relied upon by the advisee in determining whether to enter into a contract.7 Recent Developments in Australi an High Court There have been a number of recent developments in Australia pertaining to the case of professional negligence, in Astley v Austrust Ltd,

Intro to humanities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Intro to humanities - Essay Example This construction was designed to be harmonically ordered so that it reflected the harmony of life. Beyond this type of geometric design comes the combination of practical and aesthetic qualities as the Acropolis (which literally means "high city") was placed on the highest spot in Athens so that its people could retreat there in the case of invasion from the outside. It was a place of both literal and metaphoric sanctuary. Much of the design of the Acropolis is massive in nature, but there are also smaller buildings which may be seen as a form of decoration. For example, there is the Temple to Nike Athena (the Athena of Victory) which commemorates a vital victory over the Persians. It is small in size, but perfect in proportion, as if the Greeks were attempting to show that it is the quality, in geometric perfection, that is more important than its size. The various works of art which once existed in the Acropolis, few of which are still there in their original form, show that the Acropolis was designed as a kind of living history of the mythology of Greece. For example, the porch of the maidens commemorates the mythological contest between Athena and Poseidon over who would be the patron of the new city that had sprung up there. It is perhaps a suitable commentary upon the difficulties involved with keeping the Classical Humanist ideals alive that much of the surviving works of ar

School Life in the 1950s Essay Example for Free

School Life in the 1950s Essay School Life in the 1950’s was harder than today because the facilities were few and inadequate. Teachers were stricter and corporal punishment was still in use. They had fewer subjects and wealth, discrimination, sexism and racism meant they could only do certain subjects. After World War 2 there was a baby boom and as a result in the 1950’s schools were quickly filling up as the children enrolled. The enrolments increased as much as 30% over the ‘baby-boomers’ decade. In the year 1950 there were 166 437 existing elementary and secondary schools in the USA to educate over 29 million students. As the amount of students increased, the schools and resources declined. It was reported by the Office of Education in 1953 that there was a shortage of 345 000 classrooms, meaning overcrowding in 60% of America’s classrooms and up to 20% of schools failed to meet basic safety standards (statistics- www. encyclopedia. com/doc/1G2-3468301830. html 6/08/2013) School facilities were even more unpleasant for the coloured people of America. Their schools were separate from the white people and they were poorly funded by the government. â€Å"By 1950, the inequality in educational achievement between white students and minority students had increased since 1900, when very few Americans or and race or gender attended high schools, and formal education was only marginally a factor in national economic and social life†- historians Mondale and Patton. (www. illinoishistory. gov/Illinois%20History/Jan05-21Vargas. pdf 14/08/2013). This all changed in 1954; when a father named Mr Brown took his case to the United States Supreme Court declaring his daughter should be allowed to go to school with white children. â€Å"Mr Brown was upset that his daughter had to walk over a mile through railroad yards to get to a black school when a white one was only seven blocks away† (www. livinghistoryfarm. org/farminginthe50’s/life_12. html 14/08/2013). The United States Supreme Court declared a â€Å"Separate but equal† system (desegregation) in schools and made a start on ending discrimination in other institutions. The country school buildings were usually â€Å"made of wood with weatherboards outside and tongue-and-groove timber for the interior walls. Most schools were elevated on stumps to provide a rudimentary play area underneath, which was usually concreted. The rough-hewn stumps would be painted with tar to deter white ants, and constant checking of stumps, walls, toilets and even toilet seats for termites was part of the head teacher’s job†. Up the front of the classroom there were â€Å"two large blackboards, almost square in shape, fixed to the wall. Sometimes an extra blackboard would stand on an easel as well. A wooden cupboard with doors, known as a ‘press’, held all the class books and teaching materials. There was usually no other shelving† (www.starfieldobservatory. com/Nambour/Schooling. html 14/08/2013). The school facilities in 1950 were basic and inadequate and the students and teachers had to make do with what they had. The schools of 1950 were lacking equipment but one piece of equipment was most certainly not lacking in most schools and that was the cane or ruler. Teachers used the cane to spank the disobedient and troublesome students and it was usually very effective – â€Å"I really can’t remember kids sort of stepping out of line very much because they knew that they would be getting disciplined severely. There was very little leeway, but then again, there were very little problems† – Student in 1950 (www. angelfire. com/falcon/hist232/interviews%20l. html 14/08/2013). The main reason students got spanked were: â€Å"talking or being disruptive in class, not lining up properly or being rambunctious either inside or outside the school† (www. angelfire. com/falcon/hist232/interviews%20l. html 14/08/2013). Teachers could cane across the hand or across the buttocks or often slap around the head without fear of punishment, as the offence was â€Å"caused† by the child. If the offence was viewed serious enough the student went to the headmaster for ‘6 of the best’ with a heavy cane. â€Å"They used the cane a lot, usually first resort not last. She said it was normal for girls to get the cane in front of all the class with skirt, or as it was for her, gymslip raised up. They could get 2, 3, 4 strokes in front of class, occasionally some got 6 strokes. But if it was thought serious they were sent to the headmaster. Always bare off headmaster, skirt up knickers down. Six minimum, could be up to 12. She said it was normal to see someone being caned† (http://www.experienceproject. com/stories/Used-To-Get-The-Cane-At-School/2211915 16/08/2013). There was no appeal against that system of punishment and many parents believed the teacher was acting in the child’s best interests. Other methods of punishment were intimidation, strapping, removal from class, loss of privilege, writing lines and verbal put-downs were all regularly used. As stated before, the class numbers were increasing so teachers had to teach more students, meaning discipline was becoming more stringent as the teacher tried to keep the class in control. The 1950’s was the time of the cold war and there was a great tear of nuclear war. In certain areas of America the ‘fallout’ tests were being brought in where the students were required to go through a fake atomic bomb attack and they would find refuge under their desks (little did they know this wouldn’t protect them from radiation! ). It was more for the teacher and parent’s piece of mind. Teachers of 1950 were sterner and more stringent than today, corporal punishment was in use making sure students did all their work and behaved in the right manner. The main subjects taught to high school students in the 1950’s were reading, writing, arithmetic, history, biology, domestic science or home economics and woodwork, â€Å"Social sciences, history, geography, sociology, economics, political science, and psychology† (http://www. viu. ca/homeroom/content/topics/programs/Curriclm/ss1950. htm 16/08/2013). Some more advanced subjects like music, trigonometry, Latin or Spanish and algebra, were added to the richer schools as it was rare to find a decent and qualified teachers. In nearly all schools it was â€Å"necessary† for girls to do domestic science and learn the skills of cooking and needlework. For the boys it was â€Å"necessary† for them to do woodwork or woodshop and learn the skills of craftsmanship. Girls couldn’t do the ‘boy’ subjects and vice versa. Science was taught theoretically and there was rarely a chance for them to do experiments. Subjects were taught in a ‘chalk and talk’ system where the teacher would stand up at the front of the classroom and talk to the class and write the topic information on the chalkboard. The students would listen and copy the work into their books. It wasn’t very common for students to do practical work and field trips were very basic. In the out of the way country schools teachers had to teach many subjects and most didn’t just have their certain subject they specialised in, meaning the teachers most of the time weren’t fully trained to be teaching some subjects and were giving out false information. (http://www. livinghistoryfarm. org/farminginthe50s/life_12. html 16/08/2013). The black people schools had limited teachers and facilities. Most of their schools just had the basic subjects and it was only after 1954 when the Supreme Court announced desegregation did this change and the black people were allowed to go to school with the white people and have access to their assortment of subjects. â€Å"The subjects taught in elementary school were maths, reading, social studies, science, art and music† (http://library. thinkquest. org/J002606/1950-60S. html 14/08/2013). Although music was usually just a basic sing-a-long with the teacher and it would happen once, maybe twice a week. The schools in the 1950’s didn’t have the variety of subjects we have today and it was limited even more because of many social issues such as racism, sexism and families wealth. School life was harder in the 1950’s because of the lack of facilities and their poor conditions, the students had to cram into overcrowded dingy classrooms and the coloured children had to walk miles to get to their black people schools. Schools were stricter and corporal punishment meant teachers were allowed to hit the students on the hand or over the head and parents let this happen as they believed it was good for the their child. The assortment of subjects choices available to the students in the 1950’s was limited and became even less as social issues such as racism, sexism, wealth and discrimination got in the way. The children and teens of 1950’s had to put up with an inadequate education system nevertheless many went on to become successful in business and life. Bibliography Anali Vargas, ‘Some Major Differences Between High School in the 1950’s and Now’-Page 4, www. illinoishistory. gov/Illinois%20History/Jan05-21Vargas. pdf, August, 2013 Going to school in the 1940’s and 50’s, www. starfieldobservatory. com/Nambour/Schooling. html, August, 2013 The 1950’s: Education: Overview. â€Å"American Decades† http://www. encyclopedia. com/doc/1G2-3468301830. html, August 13, 2013 Farming in the 1950’s: Education in rural America http://www. livinghistoryfarm. org/farminginthe50s/life_12. html, August 2013 Vanessa Lockstein, Ontario School discipline, 1950-Present www. angelfire. com/falcon/hist232/interviews%20l. html, August 2013 Schooling in the 1950’s. http://library. thinkquest. org/J002606/1950-60S. html, August 2013 Senior High School: 1950 http://www. viu. ca/homeroom/content/topics/programs/Curriclm/ss1950. htm, April 2005.

Is Halls Encoding Decoding Model Still Useful Media Essay

Is Halls Encoding Decoding Model Still Useful Media Essay Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse was written by Stuart Hall in 1974, which was critically acclaimed in mass communications research and paved the way for many academics to build upon the theoretical model of encoding and decoding between audience and receiver. Messages are sent and received between the audience and the receiver, but the meaning of the text is dependent on the audiences cultural background, to accept, reject or negotiate the text with a margin of understanding, (Hall: 1974). This analysis of the model of research will examine the usefulness of Halls theory on contemporary mass communications research, and will follow the next generations of audience research and the application of the model in current media today. Firstly it is necessary to recognise that the encoding decoding model has much older theoretical roots. One of the main theoretical roots of the model (critical theory) referred to the post 1933 emigration of scholars from the Marxist school of applied Social Research in Frankfurt to the United States (Mcquail: 2000). The school was established to understand the failures of Marxism, and Stuart Halls essay examined the mass media as central to the culture of capitalism with meaningful discourse, this is relevant to the success of the model which appears critically popular in looking at capitalism with a predominant media. Secondly the theory readdressed the themes of the Use and Gratifications theory examining audience power over the media rather then mediated effects on the audience (Katz: 1959). The theoretical study later concluded that audiences use the media to fulfil there own needs and gratifications (Katz, E., Blumler, J. G., Gurevitch, M.: 1974). Halls theory represents a similar model with elegant simplicity, to make it a key text, (Mcquail: 2002). Importantly Halls model focuses on groups rather then the individual which is more useful for looking at mass communications dominance due to social class and cultural heritage. Both the political and theoretical foundations of the model have implications on its relevance today as its usefulness is paramount to a mass media dominated society and the driving relationship between audience and media. The model itself described by Hall is, The institution -societal relations of production must pass into and through modes of language for its products to be realised. This initiates a further differentiated moment, in which the formal rules of discourse and language operate. Before this message can have an effect it must first be meaningfully decoded. It is the set of decoded meaning which have an effect, influence entertain, instruct or persuade with complex perceptual cognitive, ideological or behavioural consequences (Hall, 1974: 3). Hall (1974) suggests four decoded meanings from this model, the dominant code of preferred meanings, the professional code transmitting a message signified within in a hegemonic manner, the negotiated code of adapted and oppositional elements and the oppositional code, clear understanding but with a connotative inflection and rejection for audience, (Mcqual: 2002). This segregation of groups was tested by David Morleys The Nationwide Audience in 1980 which complimented Halls research but importantly gave birth to second generation ethnographic research. This was praised by Morley (1992) where he described how Halls model gave rise to decode media messages and sparked emphasis toward a new phase of qualitative audience research, gender realities and media consumption. Ethnographic research predominant in the 80s examined how television was a social resource in family dynamics and the relation of media in everyday life, rather then decoding one programme through a single medium. Fish wrote that one studies the every day life of a group, and relates the use of (a reception of) a programme or a medium to it (1979: 329). This quality of research transcends further into areas such as gender and communities in which Halls model can not disseminate. Third generation audience research offers a constructionist analysis of contemporary media in the sense of how we are aware and conceive our roles with the audience and reflexivity of our understanding of ourselves as the audience. Radway (1998) emphasized the audience point of departure subjected to television and our self reflection of the media and our knowledgeable participation is where audience research lies. Essentially second and third generation research explored more deeply into social constructivism, which compliments audience media relationships. Although Hall was praised by Nightingale (1996) for the model researched media linguistics and social semiotics to combine research methods and genre in new ways. The audience understanding of linguistics and there self representation through genre is a critical area of contemporary audience research. After the third generation of audience research, Schroder (1994) described the turn towards ethnography and the everyday, as a threat to write the media as the focus of research out of existence. Political research addressed later, will demonstrate this to be untrue and encoding/decoding remains useful in social and cultural class on a broad scale. Nightingale (1996) criticized the model for the assumption that only dominant culture is produced through television and the modernity of the model should recognise the cultural hegemony distributed through society. Fiske (1997) described, the characterization of the television text as a site of a struggle between dominant ideologies working to produce a closed text by closing off the opportunities it offers to resistive readings, and the diversity of audiences who, if they are to make the text popular, are constantly working to open it up to their readings. Audience participation has increased dramatically in contemporary television, addressing the dominant reading and offering opportunities for varied outcomes. The rising popularity of reality TV shows is a good example of a larger audience participation, which will be addressed later on. Before looking at the changing media landscape and the issues that affect the use of the decoding model in the close present. It is first necessary to pay attention to David Morley. In The Study of the Nationwide Audience, Morley (1980) described members of a given sub-culture tend to share a cultural orientation towards decoding messages in certain ways, similarly Hall (1981b) described individual readings of messages will be framed by shared cultural formations and practices (p.51). This study used Stuart Halls encoding model and successfully identified dominant, negotiated and oppositional readings based on cultural background. The limitations of this were later noted by David Morley (1992) in his critical postscript in Television Audiences and Cultural Studies where he acknowledged his terms of class (middle and lower) are descriptive labels that do not divulge the detailed ethnography of the people studied. He also describes The Nationwide Audience as scratching the surface of c ultural practises that could range from religion to biology. Therefore we can acknowledge that the model lacks the detail desired to penetrate the cultural depth of the audience, but the model can disseminate by social and cultural class on a broad scale. The Nationwide Audience was defined in relation to texts rather then mediums (Holmes: 2005) but audience medium interaction was also examined in Morleys postscript. Critically the audience medium changes the way the audience receives the text. The internet has been the largest rising social medium in contemporary technology and is very different from television. Television is considered to be an acoustic medium like radio, in which sound represents the privately experienced equivalent of a social world characterized from all directions ( Holmes: 2005, p.114). The Internet presents a world of information, a virtual reality linked with broadcast networks, interactive communication, and a definitive need for the audience to participate. The internet and online broadcasting were not present at the time of the original study forming an argument that Halls model is outdated as it does not account for changing mediums and New Media content consumed by the audience. New genre has allowed reflection on old mediums acquainted to their ontological power (Holmes: 2005). An example is the spectacular increase in active audience participation in reality TV, founded on a principle of imaginary substitution; and audiences viewing a representation of themselves. Using Nightingales assumption that the model assumes only dominant culture is produced through television; reality TV rebuffs a dominant understanding through the audience participation. Critically as Halls model arguably only accounts for a dominant ideology, it has extremely limited use in looking at audience participation and influence. The ITVs X factor audience has an estimated 10 million viewers, and there are various reality TV voting shows such as big brother, that arent just primetime TV, but can dominate the front page of many tabloid magazines reaching a predominantly larger circulation of people then television. Third generation audience research best describes the audience participation, in there active role in the media in determining the outcome of the represented. Social constructivism defines reality TV, and a dominant hegemony is arguable defeated. Halls model integrates determination and freedom via the producer and consumer, but arguably disappoints in its linearity. Murdock (1989) criticizes the models overemphasis of the rational dimension of the response. Comparing the basic nature of the model to Lasswells comment (known as the Lasswell model) Who (says) What (to) Whom (in) What Channel (with) What Effect recited before Hall, accounts for the medium and the effects within research, justifiably explaining the linear nature of the encoding mode in comparison. Modern communication research needs further consideration of the medium. Although Lasswells model can be seen as a transmission of communication as opposed to mass communication it is arguably more useful then that of Halls in allowing for current new media interactivity and the medium. Murdocks description of the overemphasis of unilateral response is justifiably irrelevant in large groups, in which it is useful to examine mass communication from a political perspecti ve. We previously mentioned Halls model can penetrate social and cultural class on a broad scale and mediated politics can theoretically be applied to the encoding model. The conservative government will have most support from the upper social class; typically bankers and businesses that support the privatization and socio-economic freedom of the individual agreeing with the dominant message delivered through the media. This message would understandably be rejected be trade unionists and the lower class that live in less privileged economic conditions. The middle classs are the negotiable reading, and are essentially the battleground for government votes. Thatcherism and the conservatives long stint in power from 1979- 1996 can be examined in relation to encoding and decoding the mass audience, similarly to Tony Blairs acknowledgement of the model in Labours reign from 1997-2010. During Margaret Thatchers reign the traditionalist capitalist ideology, family values and patriotism presented through the media were a success in cultural hegemony. It can be argued that Thatcherism was successful due to its ability to address the concerns of ordinary people through its articulation of right wing politics The study of this is described by Gauntlett (2000) who says In studying the media and gender, one could use this approach to see how the media might make certain formulations of masculinity, femininity and sexuality to be natural, inevitable and sexy (p.30), Certainly Margaret Thatchers formulation of ideology expressed certain values onto the British public that permeated their culture. Recapping on the value of Halls model in mass communication as a meaningful discourse in capitalist culture, the application to politics and the media is evidence of its use. Hall (1996) also argues Thatcherism successfully maintained support of the working class through popular authoritarianism. It can be seen the British people submitted to the psychological message of the driving capitalist machine and arbitrary nature of political power. The Falklands War is a great example of how the hegemonic embodied populism to remain in power. The ability to be able to look back and examine governmental power, political strategy and articulation of the people is vitally important for understanding the nature of our media, culture and public and can be used by government and historians to shape future policies and projections. A large amount of credit must go to Halls model that can textualize and open up the coding used between audience and public and represents an important academic angle f rom which to do so. Although Stuart Halls model is based around theories of mass communication, Dicks (2000) applied Halls encoding/decoding model to a local heritage museum based in South Wales with the understanding that heritage and the museum visitors can be studied as a form of social communication. Heritage is examined as a cultural communicative practise, linked to the vernacular aesthetic of the people. The social model of communication looks at the practises of production and consumption in relation to politics, economics and culture, (drawn from the framework of Stuart Hall). Initially the heritage site, (which was being built in the early 90s) dedicated to the miners strikes felt the Conservative government had projected a Disney model of narration to the heritage site that didnt reflect the community feel, thus as local historian was able to get involved in the development process, outlining the encoding element. When the public visited the museum they were asked a series of questions before , and after there interactivity with the museum. Generalising the findings presents Hallss theory in accurate modern context of dominant, oppositional and negotiated responses to the decoding of the information presented due to economic and cultural heritage. However they should not be simplified into this manner as the detail of the answers given, present a larger scope of negotiation from the public, due to the museum not actually presenting a dominant hegemonic view of the miners strikes. In this sense, the question is how did the visitors negotiate with the negotiation? Essentially using there own social-cultural class to deconstruct the narrative. Concluding the findings of the article, the encoding aspect of the museum content presented a clear divide between the government and local idea of the aesthetic and values of the museum, and decoding is representative of cultural and economic means but does not necessarily descend from hegemonic measures passing scope for more negoti ation. The article has clearly used the model to an intelligently critical viewpoint of an audience subject to heritage with large significance thus cementing its usefulness in this element of modern society. If the model can be used to deconstruct our perseverance of heritage and reveal political and cultural means of the audience, it has another credible use. Importantly the model was able to be adapted to reflect more audience freedom and negotiation reflected in contemporary audience theory today. It is now necessary to revisit many aspects of Halls model, tying in the theoretical, alongside politics, the changing media landscape and the wider scope of knowledge. Firstly, taking a political stance, the continuities between Thatcherism and New Labours political projection were documented by Hall (1998), as the authoritarian populism of Britain was echoed in the New Labour rhetoric under Tony Blair. As we previously covered the theoretical roots of the encoding model stem from emigration of scholars from the Marxist school of applied Social Research, and Labour learnt a lot with its affiliation with Marxism. Tony Blairs contribution to the magazine almost certainly contributed to his understanding of how to modernise his party and use the media effectively as a dominant mass communication tool. Where the Use and Gratifications model failed in Marxist academia, Halls model successfully justifies mass media dominance. If we revisit the third generation audience research we can see a link between the constructionist viewpoint and the findings from the heritage museum. Participants in the heritage museum research were able to self identify there role in the research and offer a more negotiated viewpoint, as such there is greater audience understanding of there identity in shaping the outcome, and the ability to use the encoding model with more modern research giving it greater use. Referring back to Nightingales criticism of the model, that it assumed only dominant culture is produced through television. The heritage site had no dominant message and yet the model was able to be used to negotiate readings and audience understanding. The model was able to do this because it still posed relevant for disseminating social and cultural class but its real findings and the examination of further audience negotiation compliments its ability to embrace the audience understanding of third generation research. Whilst it was concluded modern television such as reality TV produced flaws in Halls model, one would assume there would be new documented research on the progression of New Media and the distribution of programmes through changing mediums and a diverse virtual world of information. There is not such a wealth of information out there which asks larger questions as to whether the encoding/decoding model has been cast aside with changing media dynamics. One of the most important recent media developments is the rise of social media. One of largest and most predominant media campaigns in western politics was Barack Obamas presidential campaign in 2008. Meerman Scott (2007) believes this was won due to Obama being the candidate that mostly strongly embraced social media. The encoding model does fall short of being able to connect to interactive media, user generated content and networking that is not subject to a mass dominated message, but instead the articulation and communication of m any individuals independent of thought. Obama didnt pursue an authoritarian message with his campaign to be mediated across the web, but many individuals wrote multiples blogs raising awareness online. This has given me the viewpoint that mediated liberalism and the freedom of audience control has rapidly increased due to social media. Halls model is relevant in predominant media, it will not transcend into the online social forum. Similarly the role that the audience plays online is very much what people do with the media, (echoing the Use and Gratification model) and attempts to cast aside dominant ideology or reading. Social Media is technically the most recent revolutionary form of media in which the encoding model appears to fall short in its application of audience understanding. It can however be concluded that there is very little academic research on this topic thus far to determine the model in this form. Conclusively, Stuart Halls model has taught me, in regards to politics and the media, it is best applied in context of the media dominance of society and has clear use and purpose in analysing recent UK governments and can contextualise the relationship we have with the autonomous power above us. The model has limited use in modern television such as reality TV and the changing media landscape, and falls short of the social media revolution and the powerful nature of the audience online. The model itself though, does transcend the ethnography and constructionist nature of the research that followed the model, and its ability to be applied to a local heritage site and successful disseminate an audience, proves it can still be useful in modern society. Similarly the social and cultural decodings of the model in mass audience research have been justified and complimented by various researches undertaken.

Short Story Example | Extreme Kidnap

Short Story Example | Extreme Kidnap Something clicked and my senses turned on; heart pounding, mind wide awake, fists ready for action as I started to hear the rush of wind and a propeller outside, a 12 seater Cessna Caravan. I could see two of my best friends with duct tape around their feet and seated at the back of the cabin next to the luggage compartment. I turned around towards the front of the plane. I could see blood on the ground; I felt the back of my head, and it was wet, sticky wet. I looked further past the blood. My eyes stung from the concentration, but I saw a man lounging on a red seat next to the aisle with a pistol pointed at me. I wiped my eyes to lessen the sting; it helped a little bit. I thought this was all a dream as I attempted to stand. I dragged a knee up, levering myself into vertical. I swayed as I looked at the mans face. It was dirty with red rings under his eyelids. His black hair was lank and greasy. He stood up and waved his gun towards the back of the plane. I continued to stagger to wards him, but something stopped me as I tried to take another step. I looked down to see my friend prostrate on the ground with his hand on my ankle. Tears were forming in his eyes. What was I doing? Im in a plane with people who have guns and two friends who have duct tape around their feet and I am walking towards my death? As I turned around, someone grabbed me from behind and forced me towards the back of the plane. Pain snaked across my upper arm and shoulder. My body was screaming out in agony as I tried to twist away, but all that happened was more pain. A blond haired man with a huge freckle of his chin forced me to sit with my back against the cargo door. Not too far away was the door that was used for exiting the plane. It had a simple red handled lever that was used to open the door. I glanced outside to see if there were any houses down on the ground but no, there was still only the Australian desert. From what I could see there were only small shrub bushes with occasional gum trees. There was no hope of escape. Another man appeared from the cabin carrying three items of baggage; they were a backpack of a sort. He approached us and calmly stated Thank you for being our experiment. We have some clients that want some fun with guns. They are placed on the ground and if they find you or see you they will shoot you. I began to panic. My heart was beating faster. As I looked across at my friends and they were trembling I began to realise what the backpacks were. They were parachutes. I told myself to remain strong and I gave my friends a reassuring pat on the shoulder. The blond haired freckle man spoke this time, Simple as this, you put on these backpacks and jump. I was shoved out the plane with barley enough time to put my parachute on. . It felt nice to be outside putting aside the fact that I was falling towards the ground at an astonishing rate. My lungs lurched out of their normal place right into my mouth, or so it felt like it. It was the biggest whoopsy I have ever had. I pulled the straps tight around me, and then I pulled the rip cord at the front. A small chute about the size of a kids plastic swimming pool opened up. My heart sank and I had the worst feeling in my life. I heard a tearing sound. I looked up and thought the mini-chute was tearing apart, but no, something forced its way out of the bag and pushed against my back. I saw a huge black object about the size of an Olympic swimming pool open up. I slowed down to a steady pace and all was calm, surprisingly. I scanned the sky for my friends, there was nothing except for the wispy white clouds and WHOA!! I exclaimed out aloud, as a large dark object whistled in front of me. It was Jake. I realised he didnt know how to open the chute. I screamed out, Pull the strings! It appeared that he didnt hear me, but after what seemed an eternity a parachute opened. I breathed a sigh of relief. I looked around, beneath, above and beside me. There was no one else, other than Jake, to be found. Could Frankie have fallen past me and crashed on the carpet of brown and green spots? I refused to belief that, and squinted my eyes to look across the sky where the plane was. I focused harder and thought I could see my friend. To confirm my thoughts a mushroom blew up in the sky. How on earth are Jake and I going to find Frankie now? Jake and I had levelled with each other in flight. As we neared the ground, which was about 50metres away, I tensed up for a hard landing. Jake glanced across at me, a nervous look on his face. I shouted out Aim for the clear patch and run when you hit the ground! Jake held up his hand and put his thumbs up. I looked up at the inside of the parachute to see if everything was fine, landing spot was okay, head still pounding but okay, legs sore and stiff; I was ready. In the last few seconds as I came down I started to run in mid air, Jake was doing the same. 4 metres, 3 metres, 2, 1, 0, SMASH, pain shot up my legs, but I continued to run. I slowed down, my parachute folding in on itself, scratches starting to bleed, dust blowing everywhere and legs collapsing under me. I lay there for a moment thinking over what had happened today or yesterday. Bike riding with my friends, kidnapped, drugged, woke up in a plane, forced to jump and now, apparently, prey in the middle of the Australian desert. I dragged myself up and dropped the parachute on the ground. I limped over to Jake who was lying face down on the dark red ground. Checking his breathing, I rolled him over. He had blood dripping out of a cut, just under his chin, but otherwise was okay. I went over to the parachute and tore a strip of fabric of it. As I wrapped the cloth under his chin and over his head, I had to chuckle a little bit. He looked a little like red riding hood. Jake sat up and said, I dont think I will ever do parachuting again in my life. Same here, I replied. I continued in a more serious manner, Okay lets move out, we have no idea how many people are trying to kill us and we have to find Frankie. We got up and began to walk away from the landing site, towards Frankie. The terrain was flat but it was not desirable. There were small knee height bushes covering every bit of land, we couldnt see the ground and I was afraid of being bitten by a snake. There were a few taller shrubs that were my height, but were sparsely spaced out. There were also a few gum trees that I could see in the distance and nothing else of importance. There was an eerie silence; there were no birds, cars engines, horns or people yelling. The silence was totally opposite to the sound of Perth, where I live. We continued our journey towards Frankies landing spot. Both of us had walked 2miles all ready. We came upon a gum tree, it was a large tree and it provided a lot of shade. We stopped and sat for a rest, my throat was dry as parchment and it hurt. My legs were also shaky from lack of food. The sun was getting hotter. It must be near midday I thought. All of a sudden we heard leaves rustling, Jake and I jumped into the nearest bush, because we thought it was someone with a gun. My heart pounded, and prickles went all over my body and started pressing into my skin. Out of the surrounding a voice yelled. Oi! up here. Sweat was pouring out of all my sweat glands, I lay down as flat as I could, it was uncomfortable and I was really scared. I couldnt see my friend and wished the best for him. Then the voice yelled out again, Help me Im stuck in this tree. I looked up without getting out of my hiding spot. In the gum tree I saw Frankie dangling with his parachute snagged on the higher branches. I crawled out of the bush, being careful not to cut myself again. I hoped to my feet and yelled in a happy voice, Frankie! Frankie yelled back, Of all the open shrub land I landed in a tree. I began to laugh and say, Well we landed in the only spot where it has clear ground. Jake came across to where I was standing and glared up and said, How are you going to get down? You are about 2 stories high, dangling in the air with no branches nearby. Frankie shouted back, Ill jump, but first Ill drop this down to you. He reached around and grabbed the zip on his bag and yanked it down, he pulled out a grey plastic shopping bag. He carefully dropped it to the ground; it went clunk and a crackle. I went over and picked the bag up, I glanced inside and there was three one litre mount Franklin bottles. I moved the bottles around and saw a flash of bright red; I reached in more and pulled out three big mars bars. About time I got some good news, I said aloud. Look at below said Frankie as he released the strap and jumped. He landed on the heavy side but was okay. We all sat down and pulled out the water bottles and had a drink. It felt nice, clean crisp cold water running down my dry throat. I had already drunk more than half of the water, but I stopped because we had to ration the water. We got up and walked west. According to Frankies watch by lining the hour hand with the sun, and halfway between the minute hand and the hour hand was north. Head for the ocean was our thinking. We walked for ages, my legs are sore and sweat is pouring out of my back. The terrain was changing there were more mounds in the dirt and uneven ground. There were more trees with greener leaves. While we were walking along taking sips of our water we came across a small gravel cliff. We all began to climb down, however I slipped on the gravel and tried to grab the nearest plants, but I ripped them out as I fell. I clawed my hands against the edge of the rock face, but I couldnt grab anything. I was increasing my speed; it was a 3 story building drop and I was approaching the bottom. I looked down it rounded of a little bit. It flashed through my head as if it were less than a second. I hit the bottom, my legs skidded out from the soft sloping gravel and I hit my head after my hands tried to lessen the impact. I cried out in pain as I yelled for my friends to help me. I lay on the ground with pain coming from my leg, ankle and head. I felt giddy and the world spun around me. Then a supporting hand lifted my head and propped me against a tree nearby. My friends came into view; there were tears in their eyes. I reached over to touch my leg which I couldnt feel. I couldnt see that well so I was going by touch. I ran my hand from my hip down to my knee, over the knee cap, halfway down my lower leg then I reached a bump in my leg, I continued to run my hand down but it wasnt just bent it was broken. It was lucky that I couldnt feel much pain because I would be crying out if I did.

Humor as a Form of Cultural Expression Essay -- Culture

Humor as a Form of Cultural Expression How can one look at a culture and understand its origins, its values, its accomplishments and failures? Through art, poetry, or other literary, or scientific advances? Maybe even in its political standpoints? All of these methods are acceptable. There is one I did not mention in the above list however. It can be considered trivial by some, but I think it is also important. Perhaps we can understand a culture by its humor. Even on the surface the jokes of a country generally reflect its habitat, attitude, and its people. In the US for instance, most jokes you hear on late-night television would probably be political ones, bashing this political figure or the next. Why is this so? Perhaps because Americans have strong feelings about the politics in their country, and have the right of free speech. Because of the former the jokes come about, and because of the latter they are aired on national television. As for reflecting the environment, another popular collection of American jokes usually starts with the words â€Å"A guy walks into a bar ...† Just by looking at this â€Å"prefix† we can see that many Americans spend a lot of time in bars. Thus we see the usual â€Å"environment† of all important occurrences in the daily life of an American. In the USSR, most jokes would take place in a store or marketplace, because that is where people spent most of their time -- waiting in line s. A joke is as much of a national expression as folk stories, tales and legends. Except those three talk about past times, and the joke is current. I originally come from the former Soviet Union, and there the joke was an even more popular media than television, art or books. It was not censored by the government, whi... ...es in both cultures. For example : â€Å"In the meat department of a supermarket, a customer is asking : ‘Don’t you have any fish?’ The reply is : ‘No. We don’t have any meat. They don’t have fish in aisle 7’.† This type of joke would not travel very far in the US because not many people would understand it. It was much more effective when there actually was no fish or meat in the stores at the time I heard it. You wouldn’t have this problem in the US (unless there was some terrible war or another such calamity). This joke never came about in the US. It (hopefully) never will. What’s more, it doesn’t catch on, because it takes special conditions to understand this type of sarcasm. They are funny. At times also sad. But jokes have to get credit for the benefit, and insight they can provide. We cannot overlook them. But on the other hand, don’t take it too seriously.

Sunspots Essay -- Essays Papers

Sunspots Our Sun continuously converts hydrogen into helium and with this process it provides the essentials for life processes. In doing this it controls â€Å"our climate, provides light, raises tides, and drives the food chain† (Schaefer 34). Our Sun also has influenced many beliefs now and in the past. History has documented Sun worshipping religions while many current societies use solar calendars (Schaefer 34). Because the Sun is so influential, imperfections of the Sun, such as sunspots will continue to impact life on Earth. The discovery of sunspots is correlated with the invention of the telescope in 1608, although there are earlier recordings of sunspot like activity from China (Schaefer 35). Galileo was one of the astronomers who decided to publish his findings and use sunspots in one of his theories of Chief World Systems (Schaefer 35-6). Today many patterns including real estate sales to fluctuations in the climate have been attributed to the cycle of sunspots. These fluctuations may be an explanation of the decline of Sun worship in India due the increased sunspot activity during the time of the Medieval Maximum. Throughtout history these fluctuations have been omens (e.g. a slave revolutionists incited a riot when he interpreted the site of a large black area on the Sun as the black taking over the white) (Schaefer 38). There are also modern examples of solar fluctuations affecting the Earth like the delayed launch of the Hubble Telescope (Schaefer 38) and the disruptions in electrical and radio technology during solar flares due to increased activity of sunspots at the last solar maximum in 1989. Sunspots are the most apparent features on the Sun’s surface or photosphere. Anyone could use a filter such as a welder’s helmet to observe groups of sunspots. A sunspot consists of two regions, the umbra and the penumbra. The temperature of the umbra can be as low as 4,000 K and the penumbra that surrounds the umbra has a temperature of about 5,500 K which contrasts to the photospheric temperature of 6,000 K. The difference in temperatures makes the sunspots appear dark against the brightness of the photosphere (Nicolson 123). A sunspot’s average size is comparable with the Earth. They form in regions of concentrated magnetic fields. These fields hamper the flow of energyn to the affected area. The magnetic fields on... .... This project will hopefully enable scientists to learn more about sunspots and other properties of the Sun. Understanding more about sunspots, their cycle, radiation, and magnetic properties will facilitate scientists to unlock the mysterious workings of the Sun. With today’s technology this understanding will come more quickly. Knowledge of sunspots may lead us to be able to predict when solar activity could affect the Earth like it did during the solar max in 1989. Information like this could eventually allow us to be able to protect ourselves from solar radiation. Works Cited â€Å"Analyzing Variation in the Sun’s Radiation†. USA Today. 26 2637 (1998) : 11-12. Nehru, K.V.K. Glimpses Into the Structure of the Sun—Part 1 The Nature of Stellar Matter. March 22, 2001. . Nehru, K.V.K. Glimpses Into the Structure of the Sun—Part 2 The Solar Interior and the Sunspot. March 22, 2001. Nicolson, Iain. Unfolding Our Universe. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. 123-4; 276+ Philips, Tony Dr. â€Å"The Sun Does a Flip.† SpaceScience. Feb. 15, 2001. March 19, 2001. . Schaefer, Bradley E. â€Å"Sunspots that changed the World.† Sky & Telescope. 93.4 (1997). 34-38.

Dna Structure

Associate Program Material DNA Worksheet Answer the following in at least 100 words: 1. Describe the structure of DNA. DNA molecules are composed of two strands that form a helical ascending spiral. They fit together like the opposing teeth of a zipper and are held together by weak interactions called hydrogen bonds. These two strands is a long string of subunits called nucleotides, each attached to the one immediately about it and the one immediately below it to form a long chain. Each nucleotide contains a five-carbon sugar.The five-carbon sugar contains a five-membered ring with an oxygen atom as one of the vertices. Each nucleotide also features a phosphate group and a nitrogen-containing base; these bases are typically represented by adenine, cytosine, thymine, and guanine. The base is attached to carbon 1 of the sugar, biologist denote each of the carbons in the sugar using a number from 1 through 5, where 1 represents the carbon to which the base is attached. 2. How does an or ganism’s genotype determine its phenotype? The genotype of an organism is the sum total of all the genes that it inherits.It is sort of like a blue print that is designed to serve as a guide in the development of the organism, so that it will become the same kind of creature as the parent or parents that it came from. The phenotype, the organism’s physical trait arises from the actions of a wide variety of proteins. For example structural proteins help make up the body of an organism, and enzymes catalyze its metabolic activity. A gene does not build a protein directly, but rather dispatched instructions in the form of RNA, which in turn programs protein synthesis.The molecular chain of command is from DNA in the nucleus to RNA to protein in the cytoplasm. 3. Describe each stage of the flow of information starting with DNA and ending with a trait. DNA and RNA are long linear polymers, called nucleic acids that carry information in a form that can be passed from one gen eration to the next. These macromolecules consist of one large number of linked nucleotides, each composed of a sugar, a phosphate, and a base. Sugar is linked by phosphates from a common backbone, whereas the bases vary among four kinds.Genetic information is stored in the sequence of bases along a nucleic acid chain. The bases from a specific pair with one another that are stabilized by hydrogen bonds. The base pairing results I the formation of a double helix a helix structure consisting of two strands. Genetic information in DNA is transcribed into RNA and then translated into polypeptides. These processes occur through transcription and translation when a segment of DNA is transcribed, the results is an RNA molecule.Transcription is taken placed because the nucleic acid language of DNA has simply been rewritten as a sequence of bases of RNA; the language is still that of nucleic acids. The nucleotide bases of the RNA molecules are complementary to those on the DNA strand. Trans lation is the conversion of the nucleic acids language to the polypeptide language. Like nucleic acids polypeptides are polymers, but the monomers that make them up are the 20 amino acids common to all organisms. The genetic instructions for the amino acid sequence of a polypeptide chain are written in DNA and RNA as a series of three-base word codons.Codons are the DNA is transcribed in the RNA, and then the RNA codons are translated into amino acids that form polypeptides. Codons in mRNA are read sequentially by tRNA molecules, which serve as adaptors in protein synthesis. References: Berg J. M, Tymoczko, J. L, Stryer, L Bio Chemistry. 5th edition. New York: W. H Freeman; 2002 Chapter 5, DNA, RNA, and the Flow of Genetic Information retrieved from http://www. ncbi. nlm. gov/books/NBK21171 2012 Miller, C. Forms of Genotypes retrieved from http://www. ehow. com/info_8678611_forms-genetics

Herman Miller

HERMAN MILLER 1. Describe Herman Miller’s strategy. Is there evidence it has produced a competitive advantage and good financial performance? Explain. They focus on a growth strategy, through innovative products and production processes. Reinvention and renewal. They survived the Great Depression and multiple recessions, recovered from the dot-com bust and were able to continue expanding overseas. They adapted to save the company, by introducing new designs. In 1996, Herman Miller began an aggressive drive to reinvent its operations and established a fruitful relationship with the Toyota Supplier Support Center. Unique to the office furniture industry, the relationship enabled the company to adopt and implement world-class, lean manufacturing processes based on the Toyota Production System principles. Through the Herman Miller Production System (HMPS), the company dramatically reduced manufacturing square footage and inventories, cut lead times for standard product from 8 weeks to as little as 10 days, and significantly grew sales and profitability. Another component of the HMPS lean initiative focuses on the company’s people and their development, complementing Herman Miller’s long history of employee participation. Herman Miller believes its success in achieving operational excellence depends on the motivation and thinking of its people to solve problems and drive improvement. -They focus more on high quality products that is why they were not dramatically hit by competition from overseas, also because they were already in some of these markets. They’re manufacturing strategy limited fixed production costs by outsourcing component parts from strategic suppliers, which increased variable nature of its cost structure, which is their competitive advantage, which is reflected in their financial performance, from 2006-2010 their gross profit margin remained relatively constant. Top to bottom it works/ demonstrate their business in their own office. All employees are cross trained. Flexible manufacturing where a production line can do multiple jobs Both differentiation and low cost provider increase their margins . How have the company’s values shaped its strategy and approach to strategy execution? Provide illustrations of how these values are reflected in company policies. They treat all workers as individuals with special talent and potential. They respect all employees, which fuelled the quest to tap the diversity of gifts and skills held by all, in an environment where people felt comfortable taking risks. In 19 50, developed a Scanlon Plan (productivity incentive plan), which reflects values, equity and justice for everyone in the company. Employees felt empowered a new manager took his safety glasses off and an employee yelled at him to put his safety glasses back on. The company’s beliefs were also reinforced through the employee gift committee and environment quality action team, which distributed funds and other resources based on employee involvement. They became a responsible corporate citizen through minimizing their waste which was both environmentally friendly and cost-effective. Shared gains and pains. Top executives took 10% pay cuts consecutively to avoid letting staff go, received less than competing firms top executives, which shows their commitment to the â€Å"team†. They have committees for sharing ideas on improvements and how to increase profitability. Even through project purple, one out 1000 companies would do that, increasing spending for the sake of tomorrow while cutting back to survive today, they worked as a team for a common goal, leadership and decision making was shared within the team and across the organization. Their values carried over to all functional areas of business. 3. What is your evaluation of HMI’s financial performance? How does its performance compare to prior years? the competition? Their financial performance is not bad, considering they were able to recover from many recessions. From 2006-2010 their gross profit margin remained relatively constant, however during hard times when sales dropped by 19% in 08 and 09 current liabilities were a little higher than usual and net profit margins began falling from 7. 6% to 4. 17% and 2. 15% in 2010. Which the whole industry took a hit with external trends on the rise: telecommuting which decreased the need for office equipment for all employees, increase toward ergonomically correct office furniture, competition from overseas cost of raw materials. Revenues are falling 4. Until 2003, HMI offered lifelong employment. How did this practice affect the company’s ability to staff the organization with managers and employees capable of executing the strategy? How did this practice build the organizational capabilities required for successful strategy execution? It enabled them to hire people that had talents and skills that match the needs and wants of the commercial enterprise, they redesigned benefit plans to be more portable, to decrease the cost of changing jobs for employees whose gifts and talents no longer matched customer needs. Its bundled capabilities are yielding a sustainable competitive advantage, by retaining employees. 5. Do non-monetary incentives facilitate strategy execution at HMI? Explain. Yes, it becomes engrained in the employees, part of their values and beliefs. The concierge services’ goal is to provide employees with assistance and help to be successful balancing responsibilities—at work and home. 6. Describe the culture at HMI. Would you characterize HMI’s culture as healthy and largely supportive of good strategy execution? Explain. Yes as, Herman Miller instituted a formal program of participative management. An organization of employee-owners, the company is committed to problem-solving design, uncompromising quality, and customer satisfaction. Herman Miller instituted an employee stock ownership program in 1983. To aid the decision-making process, Herman Miller uses a performance indicator, measurement, and compensation system called â€Å"Economic Value Added†. EVA is an internal measurement of operating and financial performance that is linked to incentive compensation for all employee-owners, allowing the company to shift its focus from budget performance to long-term continuous improvements and the creation of economic value. The result is a highly motivated and business literate workforce that challenges convention and strives to create increasingly greater value for both customers and owners. Every month the company and all employees review performance in terms of EVA, which has proven to be a strong corollary to shareholder value. The responsibility of employee ownership requires capable people to meet high expectations. Herman Miller believes that inclusiveness is critical to the company’s success—today and for the future. 7. What recommendations would you make to Herman Miller’s CEO Brian Walker to improve the company’s current financial performance? Does the company need to radically alter its strategy because of poor economic conditions? Should it improve its approach to implementing the strategy to reduce costs and improve efficiency? Explain. I would recommend maintaining the current strategy of being the most innovative company, however reduce costs and improve efficiency as they did to weather the storm in the previous recession. Open new market by providing products at a lower cost same quality though and target schools hospital and nursing homes.

Environmental Factors Essay

(A) Selection of an Organization –   Ã‚  M/S GE Tractors M/s GE Tractors produces tractors, and dairy machines. Tractors are allotted to the Michigan unit in view of its location in the natural market zone for tractors. To supplement GE tractor production, a second tractor assembly line for 45 HP and 59 HP tractors has been in operation since 1985 at Michigan to meet the requirements of tractors in that area. It diversified its product range to provide cushion for the cyclical variations in the market and position itself globally. Besides supplying its products all over USA it has made its position globally. It is exporting tractors and related dairy machines to Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, most of the European countries, Africa and Asian continent.   A specific goal of 7,000 tractors worth $50 million in the coming 1-3 years is targeted so that there is a sustained growth in volume say 5% per annum. (B)High-level domestic and global environmental factors that may impact the organization marketing decision Business planning is basically concerned with the structuring of the relationship between a business and its environment. The environment in which business operates has a greater influence on their successes or failures. There is a strong linkage between the changing environment, the strategic response of the business to such changes and the performance. It is important to understand the forces of environment the way they influence this linkage. The environment which is dynamic and changing holds both opportunities and threats for the organizations. The organizations while attempting at strategic realignments, try to capture these opportunities and avoid the emerging threats. At the same time the changes in the environment affect the attractiveness or risk levels of various investments of the organizations or the investors. The environment in which the business operates broadly consist of the  Ã‚   Political, Ethical, Social, Cultural aspects, Technological and the Ecological related issues like pollution, sustainability etc. The Technological temper and its progress has been the key driver behind the major changes witnessed in the environment making it increasingly complex. These factors often overlap and the developments in one area may influence developments in other. Careful analysis of the above factors helps in identifying major trends for different industries.   Changes in these external forces affect the changes in consumer demand for both industrial and consumer products and services. These external forces affect the above company i.e. M/s GE Tractors regarding the types of products produced, the nature of positioning them and market segmentation strategies, the types of services offered and choice of business. Therefore, it becomes important for the organizations to identify and evaluate environmental opportunities and threats so as to develop a clear mission, designing strategies to achieve long-term objectives and develop policies to achieve short-term goals. (C) Technology impacts the organizations marketing decisions Technological factors represent major opportunities and threats which must be taken into account while formulating strategies. Technological breakthroughs can dramatically influence the organization’s products, services markets, suppliers, distributors, competitors, customers, manufacturing processes, marketing practices and competitive position. M/s GE Tractors is investing heavily in R& D projects to bring out new models   hence Technological advancements can open up new markets, change the relative position of an industry and render existing products and services obsolete. Technological changes can reduce or eliminate cost barriers between businesses, create shorter production runs, create shortages in technical skills and result in changing values and expectations of customers and employees. changing The impact of information technology (IT) which combines fruits of both telecommunications and computers has been revolutionary in every field. Not only has it opened up new vistas of business but also has changed the way the businesses are done. IT has specifically brought in another dimension Speed which organizations recognize as the additional source of competitive advantage beyond low cost and differentiation. Manufacturers, bankers and retailers have used IT to carry out their traditional tasks at lower costs and deliver higher value added products and services. (D)Importance of social responsibility and ethics as related to organizations marketing Social: Demographic characteristics such as population, age distribution, literacy levels, inter-state migration, rural-urban mobility, income distribution etc. are the key indicators for understanding the demographic impact on environment.   The growing number of senior citizens and their livelihood needs have been highlighted and the government is being forced to pay more attention in the form of social security benefits etc. Social attitudes, values, customs, beliefs, rituals and practices also influence business practices in a major way. Social values and beliefs are important as they affect the buying behavior. The spread of consumerism, the rise of the middle class with high disposable income, the flashy lifestyles of people working in software, telecom, media and multinational companies seem to have changed the socio-cultural scenario and these needs to be understood deeply. Values in society also determine the work culture, approach towards stakeholders and the various responsibilities the organization thinks of owing to its stockholders and the society. Ethics: Considering Literacy and the composition of literates in the country creates opportunities for particular type of industries and type of jobs. For example on one hand , the presence of multimillionaires in middle east countries encouraged many software giants to set up shops and on the other , the availability of cheap labor ,those countries have become a destination of labor intensive projects. Large labor mobility across different occupations and regions has cut down wage differentials and this has an impact for business to take the proper course. Understanding of the environment in which an organization operates is the foremost pre-requisite towards strategy formulation. The six broad dimensions which the framework provides of the environment are capable of giving a comprehensive overview of how things may be unfolding. The objective of the analysis should not only restrict to the present and past but the real focus should be on projecting the trends into future in order to get the real feel of the environment. This shall enable the firm to proactively strategize for future considering the environment it is going to face and the issues which will be of importance.

Stock Track Simulation Sample

PART1-Investment Policy Statement Purpose of Policy Statement The purpose of the Policy Statement is to create an agreement between XXXX, YYY, and ZZZ to collectively manage a mock $1,000,000 portfolio during the 2011 fall semester. It will define the investment objectives, strategies, and risks associated with this portfolio. Investment Objectives The objective of our team is to seek capital appreciation of portfolio in three months.Moreover, given the little risk tolerance of the team, our nominal return should exceeds the rate of inflation over some period of the time through capital gains, and increase the purchase power of our group. The chosen benchmark to beat is the S&P index. Investment Strategies Our investment strategies are somewhere in between to maximize expected returns and to minimize risks. We use Market timing as one of our strategies to maximum our returns. The market timing strategy is to making buy or sell decisions of financial assets by attempting to predict fu ture market price movements.The prediction is based on an outlook of market or economic conditions resulting from technical or fundamental analysis. Also we another strategy is to analysis base on performance of a particular financial asset. The start-up fund was divided into six parts: 10% cash, 5% mutual funds, 55% stocks, 30% bonds, and may vary by+/-5%. Given the short time frame, liquidity is a concern and as such long-term speculative investments such as real estate, art and antiques, and collectibles will be avoided.Only those investments than can be traded on a short-term notice will be used. Taxes and trading costs will not be considered since this is a simulation. Investment Risk On the grounds of strong risk aversion expressed within the team, risk bearing in excess of general market risk is not tolerated. Moreover, the team strives to mitigate the inevitable share of market risk as much as possible. As to the weight assigned to each stock that is central to risk control, there is a cap of 25% of the fund that is available to each stock.No extra use of fund is allowed on single stock basis. PART2-Methodology 1. Well-Diversified & Best Risk-Return Trade-off Portfolios After we established the investment policy that specified our investment objectives, risk tolerance, allocation of different types of securities in details, we then sought for the best selections of securities. Generally, our first methodology was very simple but useful: maintain an appropriate level of portfolio diversification, and maximize the total return on our investment meanwhile limit the total risk.According to this basic approach, firstly, we divided our bond investment into four portions equally in Treasury Bonds and different corporate bonds, which enjoyed good credits, rated above A, and operated stable and profitable in the long-run: |Table1 Bond Selections | | |Coupon Rate/Maturity |Rating | |T-Note |3. 75%/15-Feb-2013 |AAA | |MetLife Inc. |5. 000%/15-Jun-2015 |A | |Morg an Stanley |5. 250%/02-Feb-2012 |A | |Merck & Co Inc. |4. 000%/30-Jun-2015 |AA | Secondly, with respect to the reserved attitude for mutual funds, our team decided to only invest in two of them, taking up 5% of our whole portfolio value totally.The following table provides summary information on these two funds: |Table2 Mutual Fund Selections | | |Blackrock Aggressive Prepared P (BCAPX) |Goldman Sachs Trust Equity Growth (GAPAX) | |Category |Large Blend |World Stock | |YTD Return |-3. 94% |-5. 30% | |Morningstar Overall Rating | | |Beta |1. 01 |0. 96 | |Mean Annual Return |1. 02 |1. 00 | |R-squared |96. 63 |95. 10 | |Standard Deviation |20. 05 |22. 64 | |Sharp Ratio |0. 0 |0. 52 | |Treynor Ratio |10. 53 |10. 21 | |Source: www. yahoo. com/finance | |www. reuters. com/finance | |All information are based on 3 years performance of the mutual funds |Finally, we would invest into two major kinds of stocks with different risk-return trade-offs. We would buy and hold value stocks from well-known, high-credited and strong firms with the attempt to diversify our portfolio and gain a stable growth. On the other hand, we would also choose some other growth stocks, which were generally characterized as higher-risky, non-US and more volatile, aiming at buying them low and selling them high to â€Å"speculate† or â€Å"gamble† the extraordinary gains in a relatively short period.Due to the complex and crucial features for stock selection, we thereafter developed a comprehensive procedure particularly, called a blend of â€Å"Specific Analysis† and â€Å"Overall Analysis† by our own, to help us select our portfolio wisely. 2. Specific Fundamental Analysis When choosing the value stocks, we primarily applied the fundamental analysis including different kinds of analyses for sectors, firm’s specific potentials, cash flows, earnings, and dividends. This procedure had approximate four steps: To begin with, we would view the sector and firm ’s overall ability because we were buying a business, not a stock.Generally, corporates in prosperous industries and growing stages would likely take our prior consideration. An important indicator to show whether a corporate has potential ability was the historical prices of its stock. Therefore, a long-run descend stock price usually implied the decline of the firm, which largely against our favor. Then we needed more fundamental analysis for a firm’s earning ability in depth, such as earning per share that shows how well earning support its shareholders’ benefits and the P/E ratio that indicates how investors expect its future earning power.General speaking, we preferred earning growth at least 7% annually and P/E ratios at the lowest 10% of all equity securities when selecting the growth stocks. After viewing a firm’s possible return, we next looked into another important factor-the risks along with the firm. Basically we would like to know the firmâ €™s Beta that measures how much the systematic risk affects the firm’s stock and the leverage ratio that discloses its financial stability and stress. Thus we were looking for firms having low Beta and D/E ratio of no more than 1.Finally, we would use the discounted cash flow model to find out the reasonable market value for the firm’s stock and to see whether it is incorrectly undervalued by the market. The following table provided the summary of our holding-oriented equity securities: |Table3 Stock Selections | | | |Google Inc. (GOOG) | |New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc. EDU) | 3. Overall Performance Analysis After well knowing the firms and their stocks we chosen from the comprehensive selection procedure, we took one more step to mix then together and see how much our portfolio’s overall proposition fits our objectives and expectations. We decided to combine all equity securities, bonds and mutual funds, which we would like to hold for a rel atively long time span and calculate the overall expected rate of return and risk using Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). 4.Tracking and Monitoring Process While the efficient market hypothesis (EMH) claimed that the stock prices were reflecting all relevant news and information and always showing the inherent value of the company, valuing a stock was just a vain attempt. Our team members, however, were more inclined to believe that the EMH was honestly set up in the academic wonderland. Thus, beside the stock valuation analysis addressed above, we also made the agreement that paying attention to both whole market and firm specific news on daily basis and making appropriate adjustments according to the news in time.In addition, we would keep tracking and recording our portfolio’s overall performance and rating on a week basis meanwhile monitoring the growth stock’s specific performance on daily basis because day-time monitoring and trading could enable us to avoid th e big loss due to the high volatility of them and grab the best time to gain the extraordinary profits. PART3-Microanalysis of the Market During this stock simulation, our group has learned that it’s quite instrumental to analyze and, if possible, follow the market trend for the sake of wise investment.Hence, microanalysis of the market is equally, and sometimes more important as the number analysis. Since the stock simulation only lasted for three months, out group mainly did the short-term analysis. Depending on our analysis, world’s financial market has become more volatile and unpredictable for the short run, primarily because the global economy grows sluggishly and involves more risky events. Several reasons are illustrated as follows. The euro zone debt crisis is the number one big headache. The debt problem in Europe has become persistent and pervasive. Greece experienced the most serious situation.Simply, Greece has borrowed much more money than they can pay ba ck. Italy is in better financial shape, but still risky since investors continued demand high interest rate of its bond. Other countries, such as Spain and even France, the second largest euro zone economy, have also been under pressure as investors question the creditworthiness of every euro zone government. Consequently, the global stocks, especially European and American Stocks have caught the euro zone flu. Investors have become super sensitive about each piece of information associated with the term, euro zone.Our group has recorded that the Dow Jones Industry Average index fluctuated mostly following the euro zone policy changes. It soared rapidly when European Union announced the Greek rescue plan and plumped immediately when the Greek government announced the Greek referendum the next day. â€Å"Markets always want short, sharp, simple solutions. † said Bob Janjuah, fixed income analyst at Nomura Securities (‘The eurozone†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢, 2011). † In additi on, the future of U. S. economy is ambiguous. U. S. has been through a tough time since the subprime mortgage crisis. Analysts share different point of views about whether U.S. is experiencing a recovery or recession. First, the macroeconomic data tells an unclear story. The growth rate of real GDP (As illustrated by the figure below) in the third quarter is 2. 0%, higher than the previous two quarters. While compared to the previous year, we can see the U. S. economy has slowed down. Though the U. S. economy has jumped out of the mire in 2008, it remains unstable. While we focusing on the recent year data, we can see no big signal of an up-coming boom or bust. As showed below, the unemployment rate has remained above 9 percent.New jobs are created, but not sufficient. Average Hourly Earnings remains the same. CPI and PPI both declined on October, primarily due to the decline of energy price. In addition, the 2011 U. S. fiscal policy remains neutral. The market is unlikely to get fu rther stimulus. Also we can forecast an increase in the rate of fiscal tightening at the federal level over the next period of time. Overall, U. S. economy still remains unsustainable and U. S. financial market is highly sensitive, which can be immediately shocked by each piece of up-coming information, whether positive or negative. Table4 United States – Monthly Data | |Data Series | | |Our Value |Rank |S&P500 |Comparison with peers | | | | | |Google |Kraft |BRK-B |BP | |09/13/2011 |529. 2 |34. 23 |68. 85 |36. 45 | |09/20/2011 |546. 63 |34. 52 |69. 72 |38. 77 | |09/27/2011 |539. 34 |34. 93 |72. 07 |37. 94 | |10/4/2011 |501. 90 |32. 86 |73. 17 |35. 42 | |10/11/2011 |543. 8 |34. 40 |73. 41 |38. 36 | |10/18/2011 |590. 51 |35. 24 |75. 07 |41. 11 | |10/25/2011 |583. 16 |34. 93 |75. 74 |43. 52 | |11/1/2011 |578. 65 |34. 56 |75. 52 |42. 72 | |11/8/2011 |612. 4 |35. 48 |78. 16 |44. 70 | |11/15/2011 |616. 56 |35. 48 |75. 93 |43. 70 | |11/18/2011 |594. 88 |34. 77 |75. 37 |42. 48 | |To tal Return |12. 34% |1. 58% |9. 47% |16. 54% | Source: www. google. com/financeFrom the table and graph above, we could clearly see that the best performer in our portfolio was BP with a 16. 54% total return, while the worst one was Kraft with a total return of 1. 58% during the holding period. Among all of the four holding-oriented securities, the only one underperformed than the benchmark, namely S&P500, was Kraft. All other three stocks had much better return than the S&P500 of 3. 64%. Overall, these observe actually proved that our selection approach for holding-oriented stocks was successful. PART5-Conclusion What we did successfully:Generally speaking, the first class we learned from this three-month stock simulation is how to select stocks and establish a portfolio wisely and systematically. From initially setting up the investment policy, we explored how to select and allocate the individual securities, how to diversify our portfolio to minimize the risks, and how to find th e best return-risk trade-off for our portfolio. Through this procedure, we really needed to use all financial knowledge we have learned before, including fundamental analysis, ratio analysis, technical analysis, free cash flow analysis and so on.Another significant difference is that we did pay a lot attention to follow macroeconomic and financial news, as well as particular news about our securities. It brought us more quickly and sensitive observe ability to what happened all over the world than before. In addition, we did well on diversifying our portfolio and minimize the systematic risks. Since we established an investment policy in details that we strictly implemented, we had everything under control and didn’t expose to any extraordinary risks out of our expectation.What we would improve in the future: Unfortunately, we did beat the benchmark performance finally, although we once did well and ranked better during the trading period. Firstly, we had to admit that someti mes we have delayed trading and tracking our portfolio, resulting in great losses on some particular stocks. Besides, we had limited experience on daytime trading and using on-time information, so we sometimes encounter unexpected results. For example, we sold Apple’s stocks immediately after we got the news about its CEO, Steven Jobs’s death.However, as we all know, the Apple’s price wasn’t affected a lot in the next trading date. In the way that was expected, unlike our holding-oriented stocks, our gambling-oriented stocks general performances were typically unsatisfied. Therefore, we concluded that wisely selecting stocks according to the macroeconomics and fundamental analysis and then holding them for a relatively long period would be the best way to gain profit from security market.Interestingly, we also found that people might not that know themselves on risk tolerance. Whatever from our investment policy or our trading strategy and results, our po rtfolio is somewhat risk-averse, so we well diversified our investment and always holding a relatively high level of bonds and mutual funds, as well as some excess cash. Interesting finding is that, however, our group members got all high-risk-tolerance ranking in the survey that we finished on class. Appendix1 Ratio Calculation Spreadsheet pic] Appendix2 Class Ratings [pic] References â€Å"The eurozone debt crisis just won't quit†, retrospect from: http://finance. yahoo. com/news/eurozone-debt-crisis-just-wont-211300837. html â€Å"StanChart warns on China’s local-government debt†, retrospect from: http://www. marketwatch. com/story/stanchart-warns-on-chinas-local-government-debt-2011-09-20 Data, retrospect from www. yahoo. com/finance Data, retrospect from www. reuters. com/finance Data, retrospect from www. google. com/finance