Certainty vs Doubt Essay Essay

The argument between certainty and doubt is highly controversial. Despite the side that people have accustomed themselves to, there are still pros and cons to both. A person’s doubt can easily distract them from reaching their full potential, while it can also aide in making a more realistic and achievable decision because with doubt they are able to question their abilities and eliminate the options that aren’t as feasible. Whereas certainty can misguide someone into the delusion of great powers, it can also assist them in attaining a massive success because they are giving themselves the option of fathoming an idea so great that initiates a surge of passion that tells them they can achieve such greatness. Despite the seemingly equivalent pros and cons between doubt and certainty, certainty is definitely the best mindset to have when trying to find triumph in one’s life. Isaiah Stock, an APLAC student at University of North Carolina, said, â€Å"Think of certai nty and doubt as parts of an automobile. Certainty is considered to be the accelerator, while doubt is the steering wheel. You can get nowhere without driving –certainty—but without steering through the impediments in your way –doubt—, you will surely crash and burn.† Again, emphasizing the crucial balance between doubt and certainty, this metaphor is an almost acceptable depiction of how they work together because yes, without certainty one is likely not going to get very far in life and without doubt an individual is likely to fail. This metaphor is accurate in all its parts, but it is missing one important aspect and that is that failure is not the end and can only help to guide someone to make better fitted decisions. So with that in view, having the mindset of certainty is clearly a more efficient way of finding success. One could say that â€Å"having doubt is a part of human nature, that from birth we are curios [and that] to question anything and everything that we want to know more about is perfectly acceptable† (Christen, Nicole â€Å"Certainty vs Doubt†). This is only partly true due to the fact that just because doubt is part of human nature, it does not mean that it is not controllable or that it is, in a sense, the best choice between certainty and doubt because all that this idea supports  is how we as humans have to make decisions. It does not support the idea that having doubt is a better way to live one’s life than having certainty. In conclusion, despite the contradictive and also supportive qualities that both doubt and certainty have when compared to one another, believing that one can reach for something that will likely be more challenging to grasp is and will always be more gratifying in the end, even if the individual fails because it allows growth in decision making skills and one’s knowledge of their maximum abilities. Doubt does not allow an individual to reach their untapped potential because they do not find it feasibly possible and thus never attempt to see if may just be.

Diet and Nutrition

Overweight and obesity are among the most topical health related problems of our modern society. They are primarily associated with high risk for many terrible diseases, including heart attack, diabetes, etc. Recently, overwhelming majority of women and increasing amount of men are forced to pay serious attention on the meals they eat, to count the calories or to keep to some diet. There is a great deal of information about dieting and following healthy nutrition-style available in contemporary mass media.There are special TV and radio programs, in which medical doctors or other specialists speculate about different diets and give valuable pieces of advice. It is possible to find special magazines and other editions, presenting one or another type of diets or weigh-loss programs for the general audience. Finally, there is abundance of Internet sites, dedicated to the problems of obesity and overweight.As a rule, the most of the recommendations, connected with dieting and putting off weight, are quite individual and must be specifically given for any particular person, taking into consideration his/her health and psychological conditions, present life-style, marital status and so on. But there are some common points and tips, which can be suggested to anyone, who is thinking about starting a new healthy nutrition and life-style. Speaking about diet, first of all, it is necessary to reduce the amount of highly caloric meals in daily ration. Primarily, those are baked and fried foods.Many diet specialists suggest total refusal of eating all sorts of bread and bakery, made from white refined wheat powder. At the same time, it is necessary to include some small amounts of household bread or graham crackers, because bread has some important rare nutrients, essential for human organism. Also, any type of fried food is considered to be dangerous and caloric. Fried and fatty meals are direct contribution into fat deposits, which are drastically increasing weigh of the b ody. The same can be said about sweet foods, especially sugar and its products.These foodstuffs are rich with glucose, which is a perfect source of energy, but, at the same time, can be easily conversed to fat. That is why one of the easiest and most common recommendations for fatty people is to lover the consumption of sugar, sweets and chocolate. Second important suggestion is decreasing the amount of junk food. Contemporary life is making us very busy and tired of our problems, children, offices, schools and all the things. That is why it is a good solution in many situations to use ready meals in fast food restaurants, or to prepare ready-to-cook products.At the same time, our favorite pizza, Big Mac or Whopper are simply caloric bombs. They are usually prepared on extremely dangerous fats or oils and have a lot of fat-containing ingredients, like cheese, sausages, etc. The third tip on improving nutritional habits is to avoid overeating and eating late at night. Dietologists su ggest eating three-four times a day, serving a number of different meals in small portions. If hunger appears before the scheduled meal-time, some light yogurt, piece of fruit or tomato juice can be the best solution for handling it.Also, it is better to have dinner at least in two-three hours before going to bed. Certainly, not everything is based on correct nutrition and healthy food consumption in the program on putting off weight. Such activities like doing REGULAR physical exercises, being always moving and dynamic during the day, spending a lot of time outdoors and preferring active rest, are milestone points for people with extra weight. Besides, such spiritual practices, like yoga, proved to be very effective and supportive for those, who are trying to decrease own weight.If a woman is 5'4†³ tall and has 158 pounds of weight, she can find out (using some Internet resources or special comparative tables) that she is quite overweight, but, fortunately, not obese. That is why she does not need to keep to a strict exhausting diet, but some urgent steps must be done in order to put off her extra pounds. To do so, she needs to make some changes in her nutritional habits and establish some new rules of maintaining healthy life-style. To start with, she can adopt above mentioned recommendations, trying to lower the amount of fat and sugar in her daily meals and avoiding eating late at night.It would be necessary to learn cooking healthy meals, using as much as possible vegetables, cereals, fruit, meat, fish and other natural products. It would be healthy for all the family to give up eating macaroni or fried potatoes and enjoy delicious boiled or stewed foods, which are much more healthy and useful. Besides, she needs to re-schedule her daily routine and find more time for additional physical activity. For example, dieting can be perfectly supported by regular strolls or jogging.At the workplace it is better not to sit for long, or (if the work is connect ed with sitting) to do some frequent refreshing physical exercises. On the way home it is better to walk as much as possible, at least from the further parking place. Of course, it is good to use the opportunity of having active rest on weekends, like going out of the city, hiking, swimming, etc. The most important moment is: healthy nutrition and physical activity have to be regular. This will never work for people, who always put the things off until tomorrow and look for reasons to give up.Only doing regular exercises and always keeping away from unhealthy meals will work for good. This way, maintaining healthy life-style has to grow into a habit and work for keeping the body in normal weight for long time. That is why, in addition to everything above mentioned, it is also extremely important to get psychologically ready for the hard work on weight-loss plan. It will take enormous efforts to refuse some favorite meals, like cakes, hamburgers or fries; to follow the schedule of ha ving meals; to learn how to cook new dishes; to find some time to do physical exercises or jogging, etc.It is necessary to remain focused on the goal and be ready to do everything possible to achieve it. Undoubtedly, dieting and following healthy life-style will bring some certain changes into daily activity of the woman. For instance, it may take some more time to cook more healthy meals, or some extra time will be required for doing exercises and outdoors activity. That’s why in the beginning her husband and children may feel lack of her attention; she may have no time for doing something she used to do; she can feel more tired and have lack of rest, etc.Nevertheless, in three or four months the first results will take place and the first pounds will disappear. By that time, the woman will definitely get into the swing of her new life-style and feel less pressure from the things to be done. Therefore, the first outcomes of her efforts will become clear. She’ll feel l ighter and healthier, her self-esteem will rise and her capabilities will increase. This everything will immediately reflect on her family and bring to numerous positive reactions.

Evaluation †produce proposals for the possible re-branding of my school Essay

My design brief was to produce proposals for the possible re-branding of my school. When doing this I researched what the faculties wanted and needed and so I designed a questionnaire to gather the information I required. I also researched different graphic designers, their work and various design movements throughout history such as Abram Games who is a British mid-twentieth century designer and official war artist during world war two. His style of design is very patriotic as in most of his work he uses red, white and blue; the colours of the union jack. He incorporates them very well and subtlety. I like his work because it’s very classic, memorable and simple. His work is landmark. I did this because it gave me inspiration, an influence and it offered a look at how previous designers worked. I did web searches on the images connected to different faculties and just asked people what images came to mind when I said a faculty name this provided me with many logo ideas. In addition I looked at existing logo designs in books wherein designers explored many different techniques, which I could use in my designs. I had many specifications that determined what my final design would look like. * Such as my target group, which was the staff, pupils and parents because of this I had to select designs that satisfy and do not displease them. * In my specification I had a running theme or image that I worked around; a smart, scholastic, classic yet modern image and I tried to portray this in my designs. I had a variety of different design ideas and when deciding on my final design I had many factors, which would govern what I would choose. For example how complicated the designs were, or how much colour was used. Such as when I had a large design dominated by black, I could not use this because of the expenses and issues that may arise with such a vast amount of ink. I don’t think I did much planning that ensured success and a quality product but I did research different colours on the colour wheel and their effects and what they represent. In this project I don’t think I used many new tools or materials however I did use Photoshop, Microsoft Publisher, Paint, the internet, printers, scanners and general sketching that was stressed as important by my teacher and did prove so. I did not fully answer my design brief as I was not on schedule but I did produce some sort of proposal. I have not shown my logo to the head of faculty but overall I feel it is a strong and bold logo, which is pleasing to the eye. The considerations I had were.

Tishman Speyer Property Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Tishman Speyer Property - Research Paper Example In times gone by, gooseneck fixtures, large vents, and deck chairs were fitted on the 70th floor for purposes of giving the center a resemblance of stacks 0n the decks of a ship. The original architectural elements, panels of cast-aluminum fleur, and limestone shot-sawn were included in the restoration undertaken in the twenty-first century. The Gabellini Associates LLP architectural firm was retained by Tishman Speyer Properties for purposes of achieving the rejuvenation as well as the design of the observatory, making sure that the historical veracity of the location remains in one piece. The design adopted by Gabellini involved contemporary forms blending with reference to the 1930’s building Art Deco tradition. The company offers a multi-level top of the rock art features, for instance, a viewing area which is completely indoor, multi-media exhibits, panels of safety glass that are transparent and which allows a magnificent view of various landmarks in the city such as statue of liberty, East and Hudson Rivers, the central park, Chrysler Building among others. Individuals visiting the Top of the Rock at the Rockefeller Center observation desk can enter the complex using the storefronts which are located on the 50th street which is neighboring the well-known marquee. Top of the Rock at the Rockefeller Center opens on a daily basis from 8:30 in the morning to around midnight. Each night at about 11 PM, the sky ferry make a final run. The ticket prices are categorized into three: those for children aged between 6-11 years cost 9 dollars, for seniors cost 12 dollars, and those for adults cost 14 dollars. Visitors at the Top of the Rock are provided with a rare opportunity to appreciate and celebrate the architecture found at Rockefeller Center, as well as appreciate the importance of such architecture in the development of New York City.

How instrumental are parents in the development of their children Essay

How instrumental are parents in the development of their children - Essay Example The extent to which this is the case, though, continues to be a source of vigorous contention as each side argues that the personality is shaped more by one influence than the other. While the argument that genetics plays a significant role in the development of a personality, it seems clear that the parents play a much greater role in establishing the tools and skills the child will need to function within their particular society. The idea that nurturing plays a more significant role in the development of a child is found in these children’s increased ability to function in society as adults thanks to what they learned from their parents’ actions. From birth, parents play a large role in the life of the child, teaching the child everything they will need to know to function within the society in which the parents find themselves. Through consistent close contact with the child, the parent is able to instill their own ideas, beliefs, practices and behaviors in the child while providing the child with the socialization skills he or she will need for interaction with others. As the first and most persistent contact, the relationship with the parent is thus the starting point from which all children enter the world. According to Jerome Kagan of Harvard University, â€Å"Parents who regularly talk and read to their children usually produce children with the largest vocabularies, the highest intellig ence scores, and the best academic grades †¦ Parents who reason with their children while making requests for obedience usually end up with more civil children† (101). The importance of this association is further highlighted in studies that have been conducted on young orphans who have undergone periods of neglect or privation as a result of their family tragedy. When these children were placed in nurturing homes, they were often able to overcome their early

Poem To Elsie Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Poem To Elsie - Essay Example The diction is often general and seemingly flaccid; "devil-may-care men who have taken / to railroading / out of sheer lust of adventure," or "young slatterns, bathed / in filth." Its major focus is the speaker himself, who sums up in swift, passionate, and broken utterance the human condition in which he participates. (Axelrod, Roman, Travisano, 86-87) Along the texture of the development of the poem the gradual ascendancy evokes enlightened pastures when it says "some doctor's family, some Elsie/voluptuous water/expressing with broken/brain the truth about us/her great ungainly hips and flipping breasts/addressed to cheap /jewelry/and rich young men with fine eyes/ as if the earth under our feet/were/an excrement of some sky", the poem describes Elsie's body and alert us that the female body linked to the hierarchies of the country, the class and the gender in the culture. (Axelrod, Roman, Travisano, 86-87) Like most of William Carlos Williams's poems 'To Elsie' is revealed in a formation of translucent transparency which in retrospect is represented in the most punctual truthfulness to the point of honesty. In this context it should be remembered that the Williams poems are uniquely honest towards itself and they reveal everything that is possibly expressible though words. This honesty in words is deeply felt when Williams narrates in the last lines of the poem almost in a circumstantial detached mood. "It is only in isolate flecks that / something / is given off / No one / to witness / and adjust, no one to drive the car. (Axelrod, Roman, Travisano, 87) It is so evident in these lines that the poet is viewing the whole scenario as a circumspect manner with a mood of watching the whole expressions as a passive watcher. Going through the lines of the poem 'To Elisie' I was able to feel the pain of the poet is transmitted into the readers' mind through a contour of expressions expressed not only in an honest but in an extremely informative manner. This is because the poet is willing to take himself away from the present scenario as if as a mode of protest against the then present situation which was far from his socialist sense of utopia. (Matterson, 29) This formation of the poem and the way it builds up from a rather unemotional scenario into words describing the common plight as Americans, at least the America of his time reflects the psyche of the poet time and again throughout the poem with such line that says "as if the earth under our feet/were/an excrement of some sky". It could be found that these are the things which destroy the American dream of the poet's time. Until he can force his imagination to take account of and establish his contact with his own, local, instead of letting himself strain after the other where of "deer / going by fields of goldenrod," until such a time, the American is doomed to go crazy. (Axelrod, Roman, Travisano, 86-87) Structurally speaking, I felt the form is directly derived from the optimistic philosophy of the life itself thereby placing the entire poem in a simplistic format that blends flawlessly with the apparent simplicity of the poem. To me, theoretically, Williams's poems are placed in the other side of the coin that is used by the poets like T.S.

Heracles In Euripides Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Heracles In Euripides - Essay Example Hatred allowed the violence that followed toward Lycus. The madness that overtook Heracles is a weakness of the mind. The mentally ill today are treated like villains for having a mental condition. The killing of his family certainly would make Heracles a villain by current standards. Finally, Heracles was a villain for threatening to commit suicide, but then backing out. No one likes a quitter. Today’s standards would paint Heracles as a villain. Heracles put the needs of Theseus over his family allowed Lycus an opportunity to attack. Today, more marriages suffer from either the man or woman’s friends coming in between them. Theseus was rescued from Hades, but Heracles unknowingly sacrificed his family. Being with a friend, instead of a spouse or family is selfish. When an individual is out helping a friend, but tragedy strikes their family the man can be considered a villain then and now. During the setting of this play, Heracles can been seen as a hero. He saved Theseus from Hades. It is heroic to save a friend from hell, figuratively and literally. Heracles battled for his friend’s soul. Sacrifice for one’s friend is a virtuous act. For saving a friend during the play’s setting, Heracles was a hero at that time. The sight of Heracles’ family in death masks were overwhelming for him emotionally. Love for his family incapacitated him. After finding out Lycus took power and captured his family hatred took over. Love made Heracles act quickly without thinking. The first thought of killing Lycus was barbaric. Violence should never be the answer. If this had happened today, Heracles would have been put in jail. Villains use violence. Sometimes it takes a hero to stop the violence. Heracles was not that hero. A long time ago Heracles would have been considered a hero for killing his family’s attempted assassin. Justice was given by men, not courts back then. Protecting his father and wife would have been a

Perfect Personal Statements Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Perfect Personal Statements - Essay Example I have always been charmed by advancements in technology, which have facilitated progress in terms of the development of electronics. My interest in electronics began when I received a Gameboy gift from my parents. Since then, my desire to learn more about anything concerning electronics has grown by leaps and bounds. I believe I am profoundly suitable to study electronics since challenges, which a normal domain of the Gameboy world, typically bring out the best in my abilities. I relish the opportunity to think creatively and imaginatively and take immense pleasure in learning the intricacies of how electronics function. Since my childhood, I have been satisfied with my level of intelligence and constantly establish new goals and objectives to help stretch my mind and imagination in a better manner than previously. I always allow my experiences to shape my thoughts, while simultaneously holding on firmly to my convictions and what I have learned in the past. This continues to be my way of life. In order to supplement my interest in electronics, I took quite a number of computer courses in the high school curriculum over the years. In addition to my enhanced knowledge of computer, I took an English 4 course during which I grew exceedingly passionate regarding photography, as well as video editing. In my spare time, I love playing video games, watching quizzes and shows on technology gadgets, discovery channels and science. These games and shows enable me keep up with the latest trends in the electronics world, as well as appreciate the latest and greatest technologies and gadgets from across the globe. When I first came to the US, I loved listening to classic rock, which played a pivotal role in enhancing my knowledge of the English language.

Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome - Essay Example t the weather at that time in March was unusually cold followed by above normal temperatures in April, which stimulated rapid plant growth and concurrent increase in the number of eastern tent caterpillars. Wild Cherry trees were the principal source of food for these caterpillars. Lack of abortion in areas where these caterpillars did not exist and later experimental intragastric inoculation of pregnant mares with caterpillar extracts confirmed the reason for these abortions (merckvetmanual.com). The MRLS syndrome in addition to early/late fetal loss is characterized by uveitis, pericarditis and encephalitis and occurs due to tissue penetration by barbed setal fragments from Eastern tent caterpillars, Malacosoma americanum (Tobin et al, 2004). After ingestion the barbed setal fragments migrate through moving tissues followed by rapid spread of bacteria, bacterial emboli and septic fragments of setae, collectively known as septic materials (Tobin et al, 2004). A number of bacteria are carried by the setal fragments in moving tissues, blood, uterus and fetal membranes of pregnant mares. Pharmacokinetic studies and studies on the structure of the setae revealed barbs on them which facilitated the rapid spread of bacteria as hitchhikers. Clinically affected tissues show a poor antibacterial response as bacterial contamination of tissues and extracellular fluids is very rapid. It has been proposed that MRLS also includes an immunosuppressive mechanism which predisposes the affect ed horses to opportunistic bacterial infection (Flaminio et al, 2005). Pathological lesions when MRLS is suspected are consistent with bacterial infection as the cause. Streptococcus, Actinobacillus species and Serratia were some of the prominent bacterial species isolated from horses suffering from MRLS. Sebastian M.M. et al (2008) propose two hypotheses for MRLS. According to one, the syndrome is produced due to an Eastern tent caterpillar toxin complicated with secondary bacterial

The Second Treatise of Civil Government Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Second Treatise of Civil Government - Essay Example This is an indication that freedom has its own limitations based on the activities that individuals are involved in. Freedom is important in ensuring that the individuals are able to carry out their activities without the fear of being arrested or harassed . Different forms of freedom exist in the current world. The different types of freedoms are recognized by the government in the United States of America and it based on theses freedoms that the individuals are allowed to carry out certain activities and restrained from carrying out other activities.   Freedom also comes with a sense of responsibility and the individuals are supposed to be responsible when carrying out different activities.   The issues of slavery have also been highlighted in the article. Slavery has negative impacts on the freedom of the individuals. This is because a slave does not have any freedom and cannot make any decision. The master decides everything for the slave which puts their life at the mercy of their master. Freedom is therefore important to the society in enabling the individuals to be involved in different political, social and economic activity. The freedom that the individuals enjoy in the society determines the levels of democracy.   The theory of John Locke considers freedom as one of the most important aspect in the society. It is through freedom that the members of the society can make decisions on how they should be governed.   The limitation of the freedom in the society in most cases results to dictatorship.

HRM in Context Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

HRM in Context - Essay Example Employee relationship management (ERM) has over the years emerged as one of the vital constituents of HRM which signifies to managing and establishing the inter-relationship between the varied employees in an organisation. These relationships can occur between the employer and employees and amid employees belonging to a particular level in an organisation. In this context, employment relationship is determined as the lawful association between employees and employers. This association prevails when an individual executes a particular work service or work within certain specified condition in response for remuneration. Employment relationship facilitates to establish the reciprocal obligations along with rights in between the employee and employee. This relationship largely facilitates workers to derive access to their fundamental benefits as well as rights related to their employment (International Labour Organization, 2011). In this regard, it is observed that within the periphery o f employment relationship, HRM’s responsibility is to ensure that the employees are always efficient, effective and productive. A few of the employment relationships facets include drafting the best procedure for the recruitment and selection process, preparing job classification inculcating motivation, training and development for the betterment of the employees and organisation, scaling a payment status, performance appraisal along with ensuring sustained guidance to the staff. In relation to the context of motivation, it is observed that employees generally work to fulfil its psychological needs, but they also need to take care of their relationship with the superiors or the employers, which forms one of the crux elements of employment relationships in the contemporary scenario (Budd & Bhave, 2006). With these considerations, the essay intends to discuss the antecedents and functions belonging to contemporary HRM in facilitating organisations to manage employment relations hips. Theories on Employment Relationship Management The notion of employment relationships is broadening day-by-day and has become a key factor to ensure that both employees and employers are contented with each other in terms of prevailing work process conditions. The approach of employment relationships actually has been developed from various subjects including economics, sociology, psychology, political science and history. It constitutes certain levels namely international, national, industry, organisational or corporate, workplace and individual (Rasmussen & Lamm, 2002). Within the aspect of employment relationships, the notion of hard and soft HRM needs to be specified. Hard HRM significantly incorporates elements within the aspect of employment relations focusing emphasis on workers’ compliance and quantitative output of the organisation. Similarly, soft HRM is a more long-standing and strategic perspective which supports flexibility, quality, performance, recognitio n, negotiation and rights in terms of employment rel

Personal Finance Concepts Investing Essay Example for Free

Personal Finance Concepts Investing Essay According to the finance researchers a portfolio refers to an appropriate collection of investments for an institution or a single individual. An investment portfolio is constructed by financial advisors or a retainer their main task involves investment analysis that are useful; during purchasing of stocks and bonds, and other business assets. . Cliff uses his present finances to determine his future holding and finance position. Cliff financial statement seems to spread in many fields, he invests in fixed assets and even before he could fully exploit his new investment strategy he is already investing in shares and bonds. Basically this is diversification and investing assets such as bonds and shares in such a scenario is exposing a high percentage of ones investment at risk (Grant 2005). Cliff is a risk taker hence he is more likely to invest in income securities and unwarranted investment such as the equities. Hence Cliff will tend to have very low cash holding and shares, in addition he is not expected to hold high levels of securities as savings since his age is allows him to have a long time to invest in most cases age is a great determinate in an individuals saving amount and investment, though Cliff will tend to save for his future plans such as his wedding plans, his marginal propensity to save will still be quite low. Since Cliff is earning an approximate of $340000 he I expected to distribute his earning to his present and future expenses, A great source of cliff’s finances is in terms of bonds and shares which are a good way to invest but the shortcoming with Cliff’s investment is the fact that he did not take a good research before imposing a big sum of his money into the investment, the investment in bonds and shares involve a high percentage of risk and for that reason if they are not carefully researched on they bring high degrees of losses or very little profits. In that light they are not included in the construction of a portfolio, instead the items that can be included in the construction of a portfolio are savings, cash at hand and revenue that is already attained or the degree of risk is not too high. Using Cliff’s example he can spread his earning such 30% of his total earnings is equities, 40% income securities, 20% sundry expenses and 10 % as savings. The assumption is that cliff is a young risk taker hence his securities will tend to be and also his savings and cash. Â  Below is an example of Cliff’s portfolio: References Frasca , R, (2006) – Personal Finances: An Integrated Planning Approach, 7th Ed – Pearson Prentiss Hall Grant, R (2005) Contemporary Strategy Analysis Blackwell Publishing Karnani, A (1981) – Business Portfolio: an analytical Approach – Harvard Publishing .

Anti-Abortion Statement

Anti-Abortion Statement Jai-lan Ewell The Murder of the Innocent Abortion is the murder of innocent children. Abortion has been performed for thousands of years, and has been studied in every society. These unborn humans do not deserve to die. There have been many debates on whether or not abortion should be illegal. Most doctors allow this process because its the familys choice. Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy (fetus), not a baby (lifenews). However, this process is the killing of innocent, unborn humans. An honorable innocent child has never harmed a fly in this world. Killing babies that are little bundles of joy, is just wrong on all levels. Abortion should be made illegal in the United States because of the trauma it causes to those who are involved. Abortion should be illegal after a certain point. Abortion is legal all the way up to 6 months. This should not be allowed to happen. The government has a limit on how long you can wait before you have an abortion. The bad thing about having abortion all the way up to 6 months is that a baby already has a heart beat and can feel pain. Imagine you as a baby and was aborted, you wouldnt be here right now. Abortion should be made illegal after anything past 2 months. The baby has not developed as much and it wouldnt be as harsh on the baby because the baby cant feel pain up to this point. The time you can wait before you have an abortion should be lowered significantly. Abortion violates the rights of the unborn children that are involved in this terrible act. These babys are already alive and have rights just like everybody else in the world. They shouldnt be deprived of their lives (Abortion). Unborn children have civil rights even before they come out of their mothers womb. Killing these non guilty children is a discriminatory, inhuman, and cruel act. The most basic civil right in this world is the right to live. If you keep abortion legal, youre leaving behind this civil right. In this world nobody should be allowed to take a innocent life away. Abortion has claimed the lives of over 58 million unborn children (Sierra Club). People in the world know abortion is wrong. Every day an abortion happens it is a tragedy for the babies that are dieing and for the mothers. Innocent, unborn children should not have their basic rights to live taken away. Women who have abortions are emotionally, physically, and mentally harmed. Some women in the world actually die during having an abortion. They can also experience the loss of their fertility or an increase in miscarriages after an abortion.(Natural abortion federation). On the other hand some women feel a sense of relief after an abortion. Emotionally some women feel guilt and loneliness after a abortion. They can physically have pain also. They can experience abdominal pain, vomiting, and they can have damage to some of their organs after an abortion. Some women mentally have suicidal thoughts and feelings. They have depression and can start to use drugs after an abortion. Abortions causes numerous problems for the women and especially for the baby. Abortion is an ongoing problem in the world today and should be made illegal because it takes innocent lives, it violates civil rights, and can emotionally and mentally harm women. Abortion kills unguilty babies and may harm the women also. Nobody in the world deserves to die. Unborn babies shouldnt die either. Abortion should be made illegal because it is unhuman and hurts everybody involved with it. Allowing abortion to remain legal cause more and more babies to die due to irresponsible people. Having abortion causes a lot of trauma for everybody. Abortions should be made illegal to stop the killing of innocent babies. Work Cited History of Abortion National Abortion Federation. National Abortion Federation, prochoice.org/education-and-advocacy/about-abortion/history-of-abortion/. Accessed 21 Mar. 2017. Sierra Club Pushes Abortion to Reach Sustainable Population Goals. NaturalNews.com, www.naturalnews.com/2017-02-08-sierra-club-pushes-abortion-to-reach-sustainable-population-goals.html. Accessed 21 Mar. 2017. Abortion: A Violation of Human Rights Haven Bradford Gow. Abortion: A Violation of Human Rights Haven Bradford Gow, www.tparents.org/Library/Unification/Talks/Gow/Gow_Abortion.htm. Accessed 21 Mar. 2017. 58,586,256 Abortions in America Since Roe v. Wade in 1973. LifeNews.com, 18 Jan. 2016, www.lifenews.com/2016/01/14/58586256-abortions-in-america-since-roe-v-wade-in-1973/. Accessed 21 Mar. 2017.

Britannia Industries Problems

Britannia Industries Problems Britannia begins with the business producing electricity. Britannia mechanized its operations, and in 1921, it became the first company in Asia using imported gas ovens. Britannias business was growing. Britannia acquired a reputation for quality and value very fast. During the World War II, the Government rewarded Britannia by contracting it to supply service biscuits to Armed Forces. And therefore the company was incorporated in 1918 as Britannia Biscuits Co. Ltd. in Calcutta and in 1924, Peek Frean UK acquired a controlling stake in the company, which was later passed on to Associated Biscuits International UK (ABI). During the 1950s and 1960s, Britannia expanded its operations beyond Calcutta to Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai. In the year 1978 company went for public issues and Indian shareholding crossed 60%, firmly establishing the Indian ness of the firm and formed Britannia Industries Limited (BIL). It crossed the Rs100 crores revenue mark in next four years (in 1983). In 1987, Nabisco acquired ABI. Then in 1989, JM Pillai, a Singapore-based non-resident Indian (NRI) businessman, and Grouped Danone acquired Asian operations of Nabisco and the controlling stake in Britannia. Later, Danone and Nusli Wadia took over Mr. Pillais holdings. Britannia has been jointly owned by Danone and Wadia Group since 1997. The two along with five other companies form a holding company called Associated Biscuits International Ltd., which owns a 51% share of Britannia. The remaining 49% share is held by the public and financial institutions. On the operations front, In 1997, the company unveiled its new corporate identity Eat Healthy, Think Better and made its first foray into the dairy products market. In 1999, the Britannia Khao, World Cup Jao promotion further fortified the affinity consumers Britannia emerged as one of Indias biggest brands in 21st century in the country. It is equally recognized for taking innovative approach to its products and unique marketing concepts: the Lagaan Match was voted Indias most successful promotional activity of the year 2001 while the delicious Britannia 50-50 Maska-Chaska became Indias most successful product launch. In 2002, Britannias New Business Division formed a joint venture with Fonterra, the worlds second largest Dairy Company, and Britannia New Zealand Foods Pvt. Ltd. was born. In recognition of its vision and accelerating graph, Forbes Global rated Britannia One amongst the Top 200 Small Companies of the World, and The Economic Times pegged Britannia Indias 2nd Most trusted brand. Having succeeded in garnering the trust of almost one-third of Indias one billion populations and a strong management at the helm means Britannia will continue to dream big on its path of innovation and quality. And millions of consumers will savor the results, happily ever after. Britannia puts a lot of emphasis on its primary biscuit brands including Tiger, Good Day, Marie, Milk Bikis, 50:50 and Treat. Biscuits make up more than 80% of the companys production bread, cakes and dairy constitute the remaining 20%. Its brands are considered to be an excellent value by Indias price-conscious consumers. BIL is the first company to introduce the several varieties of biscuits in India, such as 50:50, glucose biscuits for children, chocolate biscuits, butter biscuits and became the household name of the country. In fact some of these brands are bigger than several multinationals in the food business in India. The Tiger brand biscuit, one of the most well-known, is extremely popular among rural consumers with almost 50% of the brands value sales coming in from rural areas. Market of Britannia According to Euromonitor International, Britannia continues to have a strong presence in Indias bakery products industry. In 2001, the company had 18.9% market share for all bakery products; that number rose to 19.9% by 2004. As for the biscuit portion of the business, Britannia had 41.2% market share in 2001 and 43.6% in 2004 when Britannia was the national leader in biscuit sales. Currently Britannia Industries Ltd, accounts for about 38% in value and 32% in volume of the organized biscuits market in India. Bakery product sales increased from 13.9 billion Rupees (US$295.6 million) in 2001 to 17.2 billion Rupees (US$368.1 million) in 2004, a 7.6% compound annual growth rate. Biscuits made up 82% of Britannias bakery products value sales in 2001 and rose to 85% in 2004. Of Britannias total biscuit value sales, 82% are from sweet biscuits and 18% are from savory biscuits and crackers. In the companys baked foods category, 87% consist of bread products, 13% are cakes. The entire biscuit market is estimated to be around 1.1 million tones per annum, totaling to around Rs 50 billion. The biscuit segments enjoy the most developed markets for any item having mass consumption, It covers over 90% of the overall potential market. This means over 900 million Indians consumes biscuits, with varying frequency in a year. From the supply side the market is highly competitive, with many small scale manufactures and the organized large scale sectors. [Source http://www.superbrandsindia.com/images/superbrands_book_2004/britannia/index.htm] After the 1997 Britannia changed its strategies from product oriented to opportunity oriented. Earlier Britannia has narrow lined products mainly for kids but when the trends. Preferences and taste of common man changed Britannia also added number of varieties in its products and they in real sense used the opportunity in making the products, Britannia widen its product line which follows the STP. They served the products for all the categories of people, now biscuit is not only meant for guest but also for the individuals by introducing tiger biscuits in small packs. Britannia holds about 46% of market share (Note1) by value in the fiercely competitive market. Targeting the key consumers and and changing the products with opportunity has worked for the Britannia and thats why they are the leader in the biscuit range. Note 1 Source http://www.superbrandsindia.com/images/superbrands_book_2004/britannia/index.htm Product Portfolio of Britannia Britannias entire product offering derive their premium qualities from the principles of health and taste. This key premise has led to the evolution of a lifetime menu where Britannia product exists for every stage in a persons life. The highest consumption group for biscuit are children; here Britannia offers milk bikis with all the goodness of milk required by younger kids. While the tiger brand is aimed for 7-14 year olds and provides them with the exuberant health required by winners of tomorrow. Treat a range of delicious cream biscuit- is meant as a treat for children during fun times. A particularly notable success has been little hearts, meant for teenagers and kids, which has completely dispelled an erstwhile industry axiom that this target group did not snack on sweet biscuit. Moving on other age groups, Britannia created 50-50 as a biscuit snack for young adults. The savory time pass brand is targeted at the same age group as well, Britannia mariegold, is regared as a tea-time offering, packed with wheat energy with health conscious urban adults. Good day, a cookie filled with rich ingredients is a healthy everyday treat for entire family. Britannia has a range of cakes and bread entrenched in the bakery segment. These products allow the consumers a better interactions with the brand and maintains continuity of the taste with health promise. In 2004, the company was extremely active in rolling out new products. It introduced its Little Hearts brand, which are referred to as melt in the mouth biscuits. Little Hearts Orange (orange-flavored biscuits) and Classic retail for 10 Rupees. Britannia also added Blackcurrant Treat, Jam Treat, Good Day Gingernut and Good Day Choco-Nut to its growing biscuit line in 2004. For the bread and dairy markets, Britannia introduced NutriChoice vitamin-enriched bread and Milk Man low-fat cheese slices. There were no new product launches in 2005, instead the company worked on strengthening existing brands. It released Premium Assorted Exotic Creme Biscuits, which feature varieties of some of the most popular biscuits Pure Magic Chocolate, Pure Magic Vanilla, Pure Magic Strawberry Vanilla and Jam Treat. The pack retails for 100 Rupees. The company also reformulated its 50:50 Maska Chaska biscuits. Sourcing Strategy: Outsourcing Vs Manufacturing With only four plants located in the country, its hard to imagine how Britannia Industries Ltd. became one of the largest food companies in India. But thanks to the companys system of outsourcing a significant quantity of products, Britannia is able to offer more than 13 brands and more than 200 SKUs for its customers in India and around the world. The companys plants are located in Indias four major metropolitan cities Kolkata in eastern India, Chennai in southern India and Delhi and Uttaranchal in northern India. Combined, these facilities employ more than 4,300 people and yet only make 30% of the companys products. Sixty-one other contracted factories produce the remaining 70% of Britannias product line. Its a distributed manufacturing strategy in Britannia Industries Limited designed to optimize the delivered cost to the consumer. Outsourcing manufacturing is a model used by many other companies in India, both in the consumer packaged and durable goods segment in such companies Britannia Industries Limited and Hindustan Unilever limited are effectively using this strategy. The 61 factories contracted to produce Britannia products do not produce any other products at their locations. Certain brands and product varieties are made at particular facilities. Even though the contracted facilities are not owned by Britannia, they are monitored by company representatives to ensure quality control. For example in the northern region of India there are eight manufacturing units including Britannia Industries limited New Delhi, where Britannia has outsourced its manufacturing. And for the quality control there is a Quality Assurance Team guided by Quality Assurance Manager Mr. Dev Raj Dabas. A brief introduction of these eight is given below: French Foods Faridabad Gokul Foods Kanpur RKM Foods Kandrori BIL New Delhi Delta Foods Biscuits Gaziabad Delta Foods Cake Gaziabad JB Managaram Gawalior Super Snacks Gaziabad Britannia generally launches products that offer the company good returns, supporting these through brand building and leveraging on its nationwide supply chain. Sales and Distribution of Britannia Britannia two different kinds of distribution networks one is for dairy products and other one is Bakery products. Here distribution network of bakery products has been discussed. In Bakery products Britannia applies two kind of distribution system. These are given below: Mass Distribution Selective Distribution 1. Mass Distribution Britannia use to produce general FMCG products which are in form of packaged food and which need not to have very special kind of distribution strategy. Like other FMCG companies Britannia also use mass distribution system. Since all almost all the products of Britannia are of low price, repeat purchase items, and does not require much of effort from customer side. So ultimately these products are sold on mass distribution basis. Mass Distribution Structure of Britannia for Bakery Products: CF Distributor 1 Retailers Consumers Distributor 2 Distributor 3 Factory There are four CF of Britannia in NCR region: Mudka Bahadurgarh Bakoli Gaziabad Kundali- Sonipat 49 distributors are working under these four CF. The distribution network of Britannias products from top to bottom is given below: First of all stock is sent to these CF, and then this stock is sent to the various distribution canters of Britannia. All of these distribution centers do not contain products of any other brand. Now this supply of stock is based on full e-network. This system has been provided a particular terminology i.e. UDAAN PACKAGE. In this system the accountant who is in distribution center submits an online order to the CF. Then in CF the order for a particular distribution center is automatically generated and further fulfills by CF. Britannia has established these CF at very appropriate locations. As soon as there is a demand generated in any distribution centre These CF are able to fulfill the demand within four to six hours. So it is clear that CF provides quick delivery to the distribution centre. But in order to meet this demand the CF also has to keep some inventory with it. Now if we talk according to the distribution point of view we will find that Distribution Centre has to also make some inventory in order to meet any kind of scarcity or instant demand. According to Mr. Randhir Kumar, (Territory Sales Incharge, Britannia Industries Limited), the distribution center has to maintain inventory of three days. Now the distribution of stock from the distributor to retailer can be further explained by taking a distributor Keshav Enterprises. Keshav Enterprises is the distributor near Kishan Garh Vasant Kunj; handles 850-1000 outlets. The area which a distributor covers is also very large. E.g. Keshav Enterprises handles Munirka, R.K. Puram, South Moti Bagh, Vasant Kunj, Sataya Niketan, Mahipal Pur, Kapashera Border, Bijwasan, Nangal Dairy and Vasant Vihar. There are 49 such distributors of Britannia in Delhi. Under this distributor five sales men work and they cover the entire area which is mentioned above. Here the distribution is again divided into two parts i.e. distribution for General Shops Key Account Outlets (KAT) 1). General Shops Distribution to general shops is done by two sales men. They cover 30 to 40 outlets every day. Now the number of these outlets is not content, it varies time by time as they are not very loyal to the company and also does not contribute to very prominent sale. 2). Key Account Outlets (KAT) These outlets are covered by two sales men and they take order from these outlets biweekly. These sales men visit twenty to twenty five outlets every day. These outlets are very much loyal to the company and provide prominent business to the company. So from the sales point of view these outlets are very important. Now the stock is moved from distributor to the retailers. For selling the stock on the retail outlets there are two processes: Order Booking Ready Stock 1). Order Booking There are separate sales teams who perform this task. For example one sales team has to go for order booking. In this process the salesman first go to shop to shop and book the orders from there. On the other day or some times on the same day the delivery van goes every where in order to fulfill the orders. Now due to this method distributor not only gains the sales as well as looses the sale. Order booking process is done in Britannia on Biweekly or Weekly basis. Some times Order Booking and Ready Stock both the task are performed by the same sales man. Benefits of Order Booking In this process the distributor always remains in better position to forecast the demand. As the sales man has already an order list. This helps not only to the distributors but also to the CF as well as finally to the factory in order to make more realistic demand. Since the sales man does not have to do more but to book the order, it enables the sales man to search out the new opportunities in the market. It helps not only to the company but also to the sales man as sales man gets special rewards from the company side. Since during this process the sales man gets extra time in which he/she gets enough time to interact with the retailer which is again very important. Actually the retailer does not want only profit but also a better respect and courtesy from the salesman. So in such situations if the retailer is getting good time with the salesman, surely he will be more loyal to the company. Also during this period the sales man could increase the visibility of its products in the shelves of the shop keeper. Drawbacks of Order Booking Along with all these benefits there are some drawbacks also involved in this advance booking process. Some times sales man takes orders from the shopkeeper and assures him that the order will be fulfilled on next day. But during this period the sales man of other company comes and provides the same product at some discounts or with some schemes in this condition the shopkeeper takes the stock from that sales man. 2). Ready Stock In this process the sales man carry the team along with him which contain a delivery van, a driver, and one or two helpers. The sales man takes order from the shops and also places the order at the spot. There are following benefits and drawbacks of this method. Almost thirty to forty outlets are visited by this way. Benefits of Ready Stock The retailer gets stock on the spot without any delay. The sales man does not give a chance to the retailer to switch any other brand. The defected stock is replaced on the spot. Drawbacks of Ready Stock The sales man does not get enough time; he simply dumps the stock and moves from one store to another store. Even then he does not cover many retailers, as the delivery process takes a lot of time. What amount of stock should be carried by the sales man is also can not be predicted. The sales man moves to pre decided path and could not find new shops, so the market penetration by the sales man is also very rare in this case. 2. Selective Distribution Selective distribution is done for premium products of Britannia. There are eight SKUs, for which Britannia uses selective distribution. These brands are: Chochlor Intoxication Almond Addiction Chocolus Addiction These products are very costly and lie between the prices ranges of Rs. 150 to Rs. 200. Now these products are not supplied by the distribution centre but directly from CF. These distributions are done through the Merchandiser Team. Merchandiser Team is elaborated in further pages. Merchandiser takes order from these exclusive shops and transfers this order to the CF. Now CF sends the stock and the billing is done by the respective distribution centre. Selective Distribution Structure of Britannia for Bakery Products Exclusive Retail Outlet Exclusive Retail Outlet Exclusive Retail Outlet Exclusive Retail Outlet CF CF Factory The Challenges To compete effectively, Britannia found that it was essential to get sales people out in front of customers yet this isolated them from their ordering systems. Managers wanted to enable remote working to allow more time to be spent with customers, while providing easier access to ordering and production management tools. The Solution Use of ERP based solution in Supply Chain It is recommended that Britannia implement mySAP ERP applications for the high performance and highly scalable IBM technologies. The mySAP ERP software enables full access to companys inventory, production planning, sales order systems accessed through a simple Web browser and SAP client. The Benefits: Britannia can expect to achieve around 30 per cent lower database administration costs, with better technical performance leading to increased productivity . Sales team can complete orders quickly without waiting to return to the office; Britannia can provide information on pricing of the existing product and stock-availability in real time; lower software license fees for remote systems and reduced administrative and maintenance workload means a significant reduction in TCO. The ERP functions from the perspective of supply chain optimization are shown in following flowchart. Overall process optimization Expense optimization Revenue and Profit optimization Logistics optimization Knowledge optimization ERP optimization at various stages of supply chain The business value of the ERP system includes: Streamlined supply chain and accurate information. Reduced supply chain costs. Increased sales through accurate product availability. The following figure highlights IT components in ERP, IT infrastructure and resources in SCM. The SCM planning is the input for ERP. Operating system Data warehouse Retail Link Data, account, analysis Forecast Inventory plan ERP SCM Manufacturing planning Feedback S E R V E R S Intelligent Systems Internet ERP, IT Infrastructure and resources in SCM Key Solution Components Industry: Foods Applications: mySAPà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ ERP ECC 6.0 Hardware: IBM System p5à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ 570, p5-520, IBM System Storage ® DS4300à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢, IBM TotalStorage ® 3580 tape drives Software: IBM AIX ® 5.3, IBM DB2 ®

cars :: essays research papers

It's been all too long since a new American sedan created anything more than an apathetic yawn from consumers. Between relentless Japanese competition and America's seemingly endless obsession with trucks and SUVs, the idea that a domestic four-door could be the "it" car of the year seemed laughable. Then along came Chrysler's new 300 sedan, a car so unabashedly nontraditional in both its style and its substance that it makes the competition look hopelessly bland in comparison. Chrysler veered from the usual route of designing a car that would appeal to the broadest swath of the general public and instead went for a look that's original at best and polarizing at worst. Like it or not, there's no denying that it has a presence on the road that no Camry or Taurus could ever hope to duplicate. Backing up its sinister looks is the performance of a rear-wheel-drive chassis and a suspension design shared with some of its more expensive Mercedes cousins. And not only does the outrageous exterior look good, it surrounds a cavernous, well-trimmed interior that's as spacious as any sedan on the road. Built to straddle the lines between upscale family car and entry-level luxury sport sedan, the 300 offers both a base V6 (190 horsepower) and a midlevel V6 (250 hp), depending on your budget. As surprisingly adept as these V6s are at getting the big sedan up to speed, it's the top-of-the-line Hemi-engined 300C that gives the car its star power. With 340 horses running through a five-speed automatic transmission, the 300C is in a class of its own. And if that's not enough, you can always step up to the high-performance SRT-8 version that packs a 425-hp Hemi under the hood along with larger wheels and a lowered stance. Chrysler took a chance when it decided on such a radical design for the 300 and the results speak for themselves.

Fraudulent Elections: A Look at Russia, Iran and Nigeria Essay

Despite the governments’ attempts to portray a democratic front, the obvious corruption and fraud involved in the presidential elections over the last few years in Russia, Iran, and Nigeria expose the reality of the situations. In examining the election processes of these three countries, one can clearly see that the electoral body is not independent of the party in power. The poor electoral processes have snowballed into a legitimacy crisis in Nigeria and full-fledged riots in Russia and Iran; though the authorities were able to repress these public demonstrations, the governments’ legitimacy continues to be challenged. The considerable public outcry against the results shows that the elections do not accurately reflect the intentions of the voters, that there was widespread fraud in which the vote counts for the winning candidate were significantly augmented. In addition, the cycle of fraudulent elections in these nations has created a lack of social capital and great ly hindered the pace of democratization within each of the states. Nigeria has a long history of corruption and violence marring the process of electing the country’s leaders. Assassination, voter intimidation, and ballot tampering have all been common factors of past elections; rather than focusing on the pressing issues facing Nigerians, the elections have been centered on the acquisition of power. The 2007 elections â€Å"marked the first time in the†¦postindependence history of [Nigeria]†¦that one civilian government would hand over power to another,† and what should have been a milestone for democracy was instead â€Å"riddled with corruption and malfeasance.† What could have been a break in the long chain of violence and corruption involved with the election process, c... ... (2012): 1-11. Alexanian, Janet A. â€Å"Eyewitness Accounts and Political Claims: Transnational Responses to the 2009 Postelection Protests in Iran.† Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 31, no. 2 (2011): 425-427. Ashore, Reza. â€Å"A Historic Moment in Iran.† Human Rights Quarterly 31 (2009): 843-854. Giddy, Clifford, and Andrew Kuchins. â€Å"Putin’s Plan.† The Washington Quarterly 31, no. 2 (2008): 117-127. Lewis, Peter M. â€Å"Nigeria Votes: More Openness, More Conflict.† Journal of Democracy 22, no. 4 (2011): 60-74. Nichol, Jim. â€Å"Russia’s March 2012 Presidential Election: Outcome and Implications.† Congressional Research Service (2012): 1-11. Powell, Bingham G. and others, Comparative Politics Today: A World View, New York: Longman, 2009. Subaru, Rotimi T. â€Å"Nigeria’s Muddled Elections.† Journal of Democracy 18, no. 4 (2007): 95-104.

An Obese South Africa

AN OBESE SOUTH AFRICA South Africa records the highest rates of obesity in Africa with statistics that dsindicate that 29% of men and 56% of women are either obese or overweight, according to the World Health Organisation (Morris, 2011). The increase in prevalence of obesity has seen it become a primary risk factor for sedentary lifestyle related diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. Obesity as a health issue in South Africa will be discussed. Rates of obesity in South Africa have progressively increased.Obesity has been defined as the presence of excess body weight in an individual (Brannon & Feist, 2006). In terms of the biomedical view on obesity, obesity is measured in terms of Body Mass Index (BMI). The BMI has been found to be useful in identifying excess body weight as it tracks the percentage of body fat and gives a an estimate of the health risk as a result of any excess weight (Morris, 2011). BMI values > 30kg/ m? are considered or recognised as obesity (Morris, 2011 ).Obesity is characterised by alterations in metabolic functions that result from an increase in total body fat mass as well as the accumulation of visceral adipose tissue (van der Merwe & Pepper, 2006). The metabolic alterations are strongly associated with the development of comorbid diseases such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease (van der Merwe & Pepper, 2006). Obesity has been associated with certain forms of chronic diseases namely sleep apnoea, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes (type 2) (Du Toit & Van der Walt, 2009). These are the most common diseases associated with obesity.In terms of the South African context, impacting contributing factors for obesity include low exercise levels, consuming unhealthy fatty foods and high dietary energy (van der Merwe & Pepper, 2006). These risk factors are relevant mainly to people who live in urban areas, however, these are by no means the only factors that impact on obesity levels. Low weight at birth has be en linked to obesity (van der Merwe & Pepper, 2006). In South Africa there is a view that malnourished children and therefore stunted, are more prone to gain a lot of weight when fed empty alories (Du Toit & Van der Walt, 2009). Therefore this contributes to alarming obesity rates in South Africa. This is a predominant case in South Africa due to high rates of poverty, unemployment and low socioeconomic status (Du Toit & Van der Walt, 2009). Coupled with this predisposition, unhealthy (junk) food is made cheaper and thus more readily available to the masses for consumption. It is estimated that 19% of children are stunted from malnutrition due to many people living below the breadline (Du Toit & Van der Walt, 2009).Obesity is also connected with genetics and has been found to be inheritable (Brannon & Feist, 2006; van der Merwe & Pepper, 2006). As far as psychosocial views are concerned, different ethnic groups in South Africa have been shown to perceive obesity differently. In a st udy conducted by Morris (2011), few African women subjects (16%) viewed themselves as obese yet the BMI results indicated that 59% actually were overweight and obese. In the same study, 54% of white women perceived themselves to be overweight yet 49% of the sample was actually overweight.South African men and women have inaccurate perceptions of their body weight (van der Merwe & Pepper, 2006). 9. 7% of men and 22. 1% of women perceive themselves as overweight, while 29. 2% of men and 56. 6% of women actually are overweight. Only 16% of black South African women perceived themselves as overweight compared to 31% of Indian women, and 54% of white women (van der Merwe & Pepper, 2006). It would appear from the outset that there is disparity about obesity amongst white and African people.In terms of racial groups in South Africa, of women, black women showed the highest rates of obesity and for men white men showed higher rates of obesity (van der Merwe & Pepper, 2006). A misperception of ‘healthy or benign obesity’ exists amongst the black ethnic African racial group in South Africa (van der Merwe & Pepper, 2006). Obesity is assumed to not have any consequence on health yet results show that of black patients in clinics with type 2 diabetes, obesity is prevalent in 35-47% of women and 15. 5% in men.Although heart disease is seen as an uncommon disorder for black people, results or statistics show that more black people die of heart disease than do whites (van der Merwe & Pepper, 2006). Obesity is considered to be a doubtful atherogenic factor within the black ethnic group. The high prevalence rate of obesity in Black women is perpetuated by many misperceptions about obesity as a health risk. The notion that increased body mass or weight is seen as a token of wealth, wellbeing, happiness and an indication that their husband is able to care for his wife and family (van der Merwe & Pepper, 2006).Overweight children are also seen as a positive state of h ealth and sustenance (Du Toit & Van der Walt, 2009). Obesity has also been found to be prevalent amongst HIV patients from Soweto as obesity helps to lower the risk of contraction tuberculosis (Du Toit & Van der Walt, 2009). Obesity has been recognised as a chronic disease by the World Health Organisation thus it needs to be treated (van der Merwe & Pepper, 2006). In terms of culture, obesity is highly prevalent and ‘normalised’ in the black ethnic group most notably to black women (van der Merwe & Pepper, 2006).As the black ethnic group represent a major set of the South African population, the myth of a healthy obesity and the biomedical facts need to be relayed to them in order to prevent obesity levels and the various other diseased that are associated with the obesity (diabetes and heart disease). The media has been cited as the main source for nutritional information to Black South African women, health professionals need to act and use the media as a tool to reac h out to counter misperceptions and to provide accurate health information about obesity (van der Merwe & Pepper, 2006).In conclusion, it can be seen that obesity is a health issue in South Africa. The prevalence rate can be reduced provided culturally accepted false perceptions of obesity and nutrition are changed based on reporting and spreading of accurate biomedical information to the many people that deem obesity as either healthy or without any adverse health consequences. References Brannon, L. & Feist, J. (2006) An Introduction to Behaviour and Health.Cengage Learning. Du Toit, D. D. , & Van der Walt, J. L. (2009). Childhood overweight and obesity patterns in South Africa: a review: health. African Journal For Physical, Health Education, Recreation And Dance,  15(1), 15-31. Morris, A. G. (2011). Fatter and fatter: South Africa's rise in body mass index. South African Journal Of Science,  107(3/4), 12. van der Merwe, M. , & Pepper, M. (2006). Obesity in South Africa. Obes ity Reviews,  7(4), 315-322. [pic]

Qualitative Research Methodologies Essay

Veal (2000) has described research a â€Å"systematic and careful inquiry ands search for the truth† or an investigation into a subject to discover facts. Research is collection of methods, tools and techniques for acquiring knowledge. The nature of research is to discover and explain and answer the unanswered questions. Qualitative methodology focuses on â€Å"quality† a term referring to the essence or ambience of something (Anastas, 1999). Qualitative methods are used to understand complex social phenomena. They are suitable to seek knowledge about the fundamental characteristics of a phenomenon under study. Types of Qualitative Methodologies Case-Study Research Methodology Case study as a â€Å"realistic† methodology, which deals with solid and specific questions. Case study translates research question into more researchable problems, and provides rich examples, which are easy to comprehend. The significance of case studies is its revealing meaning of a phenomenon. Observation Research Methodology Scott (2001) has described observation an effective way of finding out about people in their particular environment. Observational research method provides understanding of interaction between marketers and users, exploring members interaction in an organisation and understanding norms in a community. Ethnographic Research Methodology According to Garson (1998) ethnography is the study of cultural groupings. It concentrates on close field observation of socio-cultural phenomena. Ethnographic research is a holistic approach that tries to understand a culture through the members of given culture. Quantitative Research Methodologies Quantitative research is gathering data in quantity. The goal of the quantitative research approach is to find out the truth by using statistical procedure. Hara (1995) has pointed out that quantitative methodology allows readers to understand facts easily by looking at charts and graphs. The use of statistics reduces contradictions, which may exist in research. Morgan (2000) has mentioned that â€Å"quantification† allows accuracy of statements by providing facts and figures with precision. Absence of one will make the other incomprehensible. It is assumed that quantitative methodologies are more logical and more comprehensible than qualitative methodology for this reason. descriptive, experimental, quasi-experimental Methodologies. Data Collection However for this research the most appropriate method for this study is case study as this study is comparison of these two cities based on the data and facts obtained from different libraries, books, journals, newspapers and census department to answer the questions below. †¢ How history and geographical location influence their development? †¢ What are the current economic figures of the cities? †¢ How much progress these cities have made in trade, commerce health education and sanitation systems? †¢ What is the role of geography and location in the development of urban cities?

Arnolfini Wedding Portrai

In 1434, Flemish artist Jan van Eyck painted, signed, and dated his piece, the â€Å"Arnolfini Wedding Portrait. † This painting is believed to be of Giovanni di Arrigo Arnolflnl, an Italian merchant, and his wife Giovanna Cenaml and Is thought to stand as documentation of their marriage. While It may seem Ilke a simple dual-portrait, there are many subtle symbols Incorporated In the scene that enhance the portrayal of this couple. use of symbolism within the painting explains Its purpose, shows what this Renaissance couple values, displays social norms of the era, and relates to universal ymbols and basic human nature.The artwork hints towards its purpose through intricate symbolic meaning to be found within the details of the scene. A quite plausible interpretation of the painting is that it is an image of a wedding ceremony and it serves as verification of said marriage. In fifteenth century Flanders, marriages could easily have taken place in private locations, instead of in a church with an elaborate ceremony, and van Eycks signature on the painting is more than his name, it reads â€Å"Jan van Eyck was present† with the date of the painting, which indicates he ook the extra step to ensure that his presence was known.The eloquent handwriting of the signature, usually seen on formal documents, In addltlon to the fact that there Is an unnamed man accompanying van Eyck In the mirror's reflection whom Is likely the other, more official witness to this marriage which further proves this interpretation. Secondly, in the bottom left corner is a pair of shoes that have been slipped off, probably out of respect for being in a holy place or in the presence of a holy event, such as a wedding ceremony.Furthermore, the companion dog was not n there by accident, but instead represents faithfulness, fidelity, and love which are 3 immensely important qualities of a successful marriage. Lastly, on the intricate chandelier there burns only one solitary candle. A single flame burning in bright daylight symbolizes a bridal or possibly a devotional candle, a part of marriage ceremonies. The artist used symbols in the painting to subtly explain the purpose of the portrait, Just as other parts of this piece of artwork reflect the general era of the Renaissance.The style of the art and the way this painting was created embodies arts of the artlstlc Renaissance In Europe. Renaissance usually refers to the renewed interest in the classical arts and culture that sprouted from Italy. However, the Northern Renaissance (which van Eyck was a part of) was characterized by people's interest in observing the nature of our world and humans fit within that world. Northern artists had more focus on detail and this is very evident in van Eyck's painting. There is intense detail in this picture, from the scruff of the dog's fur to the flame of the candle.Another characteristic of the Northern Renaissance art was that there was emphasis on religious intensity . Within this painting, there are several religious symbols such as; the removed shoes (representing sanctity), the crystal prayer beads on the wall, and the Image of Saint Margaret (protector of women In childbirth) carved Into a high back chair near the bedside. These things skillfully represent the piety of the couple and Incorporate religious undertones Into a simple portrait. This portrait also contains details that allude to the fifteenth century ideas concerning marriage.Just the placement of the two figures within the room says sometnlng aoout tne value 0T gender roles aurlng tnls era. I ne woman, positioned slightly further into the room, towards the bed, symbolizes her role as a caretaker of the household. Ideas of women's rights during the this time were that the wives should support their husbands, while still living domestic, demure, stay-at- home lives. With the placement of Giovanni near an open window, the painting represents how a man's duties are outside the home, working and living with more freedom than women were allowed.Even their hand position gives information on their relationship. His hand being raised vertically represents a commanding position f authority, whilst she has her hand in a lower, horizontal pose which shows her as more submissive. However, the wife looks directly towards her husband, rather than down at the floor as lower class women would have. In the court life system that they are a part of, she is his equal, not his subordinate, and she displays it with her confident gaze. The man looks directly out at the viewer, stoic and calm, displaying his control.As a wealthy merchant, Arnolflni had the ability to have symbols of his wealth placed within the portrait; this allows people to understand the attitude of the ealthy and the part of the economic state during the Renaissance. Placed under the window is an orange which, without context, could mean nothing at all. However, fruit was expensive at this time and oranges wer e especially uncommon in the Netherlands, the setting of this portrait. The orange was likely placed there to be a symbol of this couple's wealth.Furthermore, the small dog, while also representing loyalty and faithfulness, is also an extremely rare breed of dog. It must have cost a fair amount for them to purchase that dog and placing it in their painting is practically showing it off. In addition, both people are dressed lavishly, even though the painting was done during the summer time, as indicated by cherry fruit on the tree outside. Despite the season both of their outer garments, Giovanni's thick tabard and his wife's a long flowing dress, are trimmed and fully lined with expensive furs.Having commissioned art in general displays a great amount of wealth. Here, they have taken things a step further by donning their most regal outfits and placing other symbols of their wealth and status within their portrait to enhance it further. The attitude of this merchant is really to dis play as much of his money as he possibly ould because your economic security at this time affected your social standing. The idea that money is a sense of power, and that displaying your wealth is important to your social standing is still present in modern society.The size of your house, what car you drive, what clothes you wear, what devices you own are the things people will base your social status upon. A celebrity with millions of dollars and a beautiful mansion can be Just as idolized as a strong political leader or national hero and people with spend their money however they need to in order to gain social standing. Another ideology is the social norm of growing up, getting married, and starting a family.Symbols within the painting representing loyalty, faithfulness, and most of all hope for fertility, show the couple's intent on staying together and having children. Most children grow up to believe that the socially acceptable thing to do is find someone you love and start a family. Even though it is perfectly accepted in todays society for a woman to remained unmarried, it is almost expected for people to want to have a family. One could argue that it is human nature for people to want to be married.Instinctively, humans' main goal is to survive and thrive, and in order for tnat to nappen It Is Key tnat people reproduce. It Is commonly Dellevea you snou10 D married before you have children so, logically; it is a part of human nature to want to have a successful marriage and for the woman to be fertile. The â€Å"Arnolflni Wedding Portrait† is a complicated and insightful piece of artwork that allows for people to observe details of the Renaissance era as well as discover parallels between that time and ours. Jan van Eyck effectively uses symbolism to tell a story about the couple without a single word.

Fraud Case

THE NATION’S NEWSPAPER BS2003-01b Collegiate Case Study Adelphia founder, 2 sons, 2 others arrested in fraud By David Lieberman and Greg Farrell www. usatodaycollege. com Accounting fraud Part II: The results â€Å"Creative accounting† is not a new technique, but it can certainly be a costly one. Businesses feel the pressure to appear profitable in order to attract investors and resources, but deceptive or fraudulent accounting practices often lead to drastic consequences. Are these so-called creative practices always illegal or can they ever be justified? This case study will present examples of companies who have used inappropriate accounting practices, the results of their deceptions and the government's plan to avoid future incidents. WorldCom scandal brings subpoenas, condmnation By Andrew Backover and Thor Vladmanis Andersen’s partners chart firm’s future today By Greg Farrell Client-starved Arthur Andersen cuts 7,000 jobs By Greg Farrell Dominoes hit WorldCom partners, clients By Michelle Kessler Adelphia plans to file Chapter 11 Cable firm expected to seek bankruptcy protection today NEW YORK — The waiting should be over today. Adelphia Communications plans to file for bankruptcy protection, nearly three months after the onceproud No. 6 cable operator first disclosed dealings with the family of founder John Rigas that turned it into a symbol of corporate scandal. The company is expected to announce that it has raised as much as $1. 5 billion from banks led by J. P. Morgan Chase and Citigroup to keep operating while a bankruptcy judge decides how creditors will be paid. A Chapter 11 filing — the biggest in cable history — could help efforts to find a buyer for some, or all, of Adelphia's systems, which serve 5. 7 million subscribers. The court can protect an acquirer from unexpected liabilities, including those stemming from several shareholder lawsuits and investigations into Adelphia's finances by two grand juries and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company could pay off its estimated $19 billion in debt if it can sell systems for $3,500 per subscriber, roughly the industr y norm. But stockholders could lose their entire investments. Adelphia shares closed Friday at 15 cents in over-the-counter trading. Case Study Expert: John D. Martin, Ph. D. Professor of Finance, Baylor University USA TODAY Snapshots ® Politicians role in monitoring business Opinion leaders1 say government should be more involved in oversight and regulation of private enterprise2: 52% 45% Agree Disagree Source: Edelman Public Relations Worldwide/ StrategyOne Research survey of 400 respondents. 1 – College educated 35- to 64-year-olds with household incomes of more than $100,000 2 – Does not add up to 100% due to rounding By Darryl Haralson Marcy E. E. Mullins, USA TODAY By Darryl Haralson andand Marcy Mullins, USA TODAY Reprinted with permission. All rights reser ved. AS SEEN IN USA TODAY MONEY SECTION, MONDAY, JUNE 24, 2002 And a sale may devastate Coudersport, Pa. , where Adelphia is headquartered. It's by far the largest employer in the rural, mountain town of 3,000. Meanwhile, Adelphia will tr y to reassure its subscribers. â€Å"Adelphia is committed to reversing its admittedly difficult present financial situation,† it wrote last week to 3,500 franchise officials. â€Å"Most importantly, there should be no change in service to Adelphia customers as a result of these developments. † Adelphia's downfall began on March 27, when it disclosed that a Rigas family partnership had borrowed $2. billion using company assets as collateral. The amount has since been raised to $3. 1 billion. That stunned analysts, who believed that the operator was already too deeply in debt. Barraged with questions, Adelphia put off release of its 2001 annual report. More questions were raised when it was confirmed that the SEC was investigating. As the stock plummeted, Nasdaq weighed delisting Adelphia shares. T hat took effect on June 3. After acknowledging that it would have to restate its earnings, Adelphia put several cable systems on the block. The company defaulted on bank loans and failed to make interest payments on bonds. And Rigas and sons Timothy, Michael and James were forced to relinquish their jobs and board seats. Then new interim CEO Erland Kailbourne stunned company watchers by disclosing a series of cases where the Rigas family allegedly used Adelphia for private gain. Among other things, the company paid for their apartments in New York, built a golf course on Rigas-owned land, helped the purchase of the Buffalo Sabres hockey team, created a Rigas-run investment firm and subsidized a documentary film. Cover story Adelphia founder, 2 sons, 2 others arrested in fraud Investigators say company was ‘personal piggy bank' By David Lieberman and Greg Farrell USA TODAY NEW YORK — For 50 years, John Rigas lived the American Dream. Half a century ago, the son of Greek immigrants left a job making TV picture tubes at Sylvania. The World War II veteran bought a small movie house and a newfangled business — a cable TV company — in the remote town of Coudersport, Pa. , and was on his way to making a fortune. But his oversized ambitions led him this week into an American Nightmare. Wednesday, Manhattan U. S. Attorney James Comey accused 77-year-old Rigas and two sons — Timothy and Michael — with â€Å"one of the largest and most egregious frauds ever perpetrated on investors and creditors. † Rigas attorneys were unavailable for comment. With TV cameras capturing the humiliating moment, the founder of Adelphia Communications, the No. 6 U. S. cable company, was led away in handcuffs here. He became the first CEO arrested in the latest wave of corporate accounting scandals and the most vivid symbol of whitecollar crime since Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky in the 1980s. Two other former Adelphia executives, James Brown and Michael Mulcahey, were picked up in Coudersport. Later in the day, Adelphia itself — which filed for bankruptcy-court protection last month — charged Rigas and his family with violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, in a filing in Federal Reprinted with permission. All rights reser ved. Page 2 AS SEEN IN USA TODAY MONEY SECTION, THURSDAY, JULY 25, 2002 Bankruptcy Court in New York. The Rigases could be forced to pay three times any damages the court finds. The lawsuit alleges about $1 billion in damages. Behind their â€Å"small-town facade,† the Adelphia lawsuit says, the Rigases â€Å"used their domination and control of Adelphia, and their isolation from the scrutiny of the outside world, to engage in one of the largest schemes of selfdealing and financial wrongdoing in American corporate history. † The Justice Department and the U. S. Postal Inspection Service charged the five executives with securities, wire and bank fraud, saying they â€Å"looted Adelphia on a massive scale† and used it as a â€Å"personal piggy bank. Rigas private funds sloshed with Adelphia's in the same cashmanagement system. A U. S. judge set bail for the Rigases at $10 million apiece, secured by cash and property. Allegations against the Rigases range from big schemes to hide financial problems at the cable company to relatively small-scale thievery. For example, Timothy was accused of using a company jet for an African safari vacation in 2000. Adelphia's lawsuit adds that John's daughter, Ellen, used company planes to bring guests to her wedding to Peter Venetis, who became an Adelphia board member. The couple's cozy position enabled them to save $150,000 since 1998: They lived rent-free in two Adelphia-owned apartments on Manhattan's swank Upper East Side, the lawsuit says. In less than four years, the Rigases â€Å"stole hundreds of millions of dollars, and through their fraud (and) caused losses to investors of more than $60 billion,† Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson says. The defendants could face jail time in the criminal case. By filing a complaint instead of a full-fledged indictment, the grand juries weighing evidence in the case can remain empaneled to approve charges against others. They have 10 days to indict those arrested, and 20 days to charge others. Also Wednesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil lawsuit in U. S. District Court that's similar to the criminal complaint, and includes a third Rigas son, James. The SEC would bar the defendants from serving any publicly owned company. It also wants them and Adelphia to pay restitution and fines. Adelphia said in a statement that the claim against it would â€Å"only have the effect of further penalizing the company's stakeholders who were the victims of the Rigas' improper conduct. The Adelphia cases are low-hanging fruit for prosecutors eager to show that they're getting tough on white-collar criminals. â€Å"This is an old fashioned hand-in-the-till case that's easier to prosecute than an esoteric fraud like Enron,† says Jack Coffee, who teaches securities law at Columbia University. â€Å"To prosecute Enron, you're going to have to teach the jury an intermediate college course i n accounting. † Jacob Frenkel of Smith Gambrell and Russell agrees. â€Å"This could be sexiest of all the cases,† he says. â€Å"Here, you're talking about corporate looting. Every guilty disposition arising out of this indictment should become a show-andtell in all business schools as the antithesis of public company management and stewardship. † Talking tough, getting tough The arrests came as House and Senate negotiators agreed on tough measures, including jail time, for executives convicted of fraud. And Wall Street was impressed after weeks of growing fearfulness about a possible tsunami of corporate scandals. The Dow Jones industrial average soared 489 points Wednesday. That's the second biggest one-day point gain ever. That contrasts with the 179-point drop on July 9, when President Bush called for a new era of corporate responsibility. The arrests aren't â€Å"about Democrats and Republicans,† says Lynn Turner, former chief accountant of the SEC under President Clinton. â€Å"This is about investors, and they like what they're seeing now. † Even people who aren't obsessed with stocks seem to like the idea of big shots getting a comeuppance. â€Å"We are angry, and we have every right to be angry,† says futurist and consumer expert Marian Salzman of Euro RSCG Worldwide. There's a feeling that we need to kick out the evil-doers in the industry. † But some might recoil at the image of a dignified old man being led before the cameras in handcuffs. â€Å"They're actually going to look sympathetic,† says Robin Cohn, author of The PR Crisis Bible. â€Å"Why would you Reprinted with permission. All rights reser ved. Page 3 AS SEEN IN USA TODAY MONEY SECTION, THURSDAY, JU LY 25, 2002 handcuff an old man? He's not a murderer and a rapist. That's not to say they aren't crooks. But I think the public would rather see somebody they know in handcuffs — like (former Enron CEO) Ken Lay. And the incident could make the government look somewhat silly, she says. â€Å"I can't imagine Saturday Night Live not doing anything with this. † Corporate crime is in the spotlight these days. Last month, federal prosecutors arrested former ImClone CEO Sam Waksal on charges of illegal trading on inside information and obstruction of justice. Their investigation has expanded to include friends and family of Waksal, who also might have illegally traded on inside information about ImClone last December. Investigators are trying to determine whether any inside information was passed to Waksal's friend Martha Stewart, who sold her ImClone stock just before a Food and Drug Administration announcement, denying an application to market a cancer-fighting drug, drove the stock price down. In coming months, the Justice Department is expected to charge top executives of Enron and WorldCom with fraud. The department's Enron Task Force won one court battle last month when a Houston jury found auditor Arthur Andersen criminally guilty of obstruction of justice. It appears, though, that officials wanted to start off with a bang as they arrested the Rigases. â€Å"What's unusual here is the level of detail included in the criminal complaint, and the number of defendants arrested simultaneously,† says former prosecutor Robert Mintz, now at McCarter & English. â€Å"Usually, the government builds a case slowly, with eventual defections among defendants. Here, it has leveled a wide range of allegations against upper management. That suggests that the government believes it has strong case and that they expect a rush to the prosecutor's door by defendants who will vie to strike deals. The cases build on information that began to come out in late March. Adelphia disclosed then that the Rigases had used assets of the already debt-heavy company to secure loans to private, family-run partnerships. That borrowing is now put at $3. 1 billion. Independent directors forced the Rigases out of their executive positions and board seats, installing f ormer banker Erland Kailbourne as interim CEO. When they investigated the company's condition, they found and disclosed case after case in which the Rigases made no distinction between their personal funds and businesses and Adelphia's. Bad news gets worse But Adelphia was already in a tailspin. Investors lost confidence. Auditors refused to certify the company's financial reports. And lenders cut it off, leading the company to miss interest and dividend payments. Among the charges leading to the Rigases' arrest: u That the family began using Adelphia as collateral for private loans in 1996, even though the company â€Å"was one of the largest junk bond issuers in the United States. † Investors weren't told. u That the Rigases secretly inflated Adelphia's cable TV subscription numbers to make investors think it was still growing at a healthy pace. In 2000 they began to count subscribers from systems in Brazil and Venezuela, where Adelphia owns a minority stake. In 2001, Adelphia began adding customers who just ordered high-speed Internet services from the Rigases' non-Adelphia systems. And earlier this year, they folded in people who ordered home security services from Adelphia. u That they used accounting legerdemain to disguise Adelphia's actual expenses for digital decoder boxes. In 2001 the company claimed that it sold 525,000 boxes for $101 million to an unaudited Rigas-owned company that has no cable systems. That, starting in 2000, Adelphia spent $13 million to build a golf club on land mostly owned by John Rigas. u That in 1999, they told analysts that Adelphia could provide two-way communications to 50% of its customers. The real number was 35%. u And that the Rigases took more than $252 million from Adelphia to pay for margin calls on their purchases as the company's stock price fell. Contributing: Michael McCarthy R eprinted with permission. All rights reser ved. Page 4 AS SEEN IN USA TODAY NEWS SECTION, FRIDAY, JUNE 28, 2002 WorldCom scandal brings subpoenas, condemnation Accounting rumors rattle Wall Street By Andrew Backover and Thor Valdmanis USA TODAY The accounting scandal that enveloped WorldCom reverberated through Wall Street and Washington on Thursday. u Congress subpoenaed top WorldCom executives. u President Bush and Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill separately railed at corporate wrongdoers. u Unfounded rumors of accounting problems hit stocks of other companies. WorldCom on Tuesday revealed what could be one of the biggest accounting frauds ever. Company officials said $3. billion in expenses had been hidden in financial statements, inflating profits in 2001 and the first quarter of 2002. The Securities and Exchange Commission has since charged WorldCom with fraud. Bush, at an economic summit in Canada, said he is concerned about the economic impact from â€Å"some corporate leaders who have not upheld their responsibility. † O'Neill, a former chief executive of Alcoa, said in an interv iew on ABC's Good Morning America that the people responsible should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. WorldCom has raised fears and rumors about more business accounting scandals. Trading was halted for General Motors stock Thursday afternoon because of rumors of accounting irregularities. GM said they were untrue. Broadcast giant Clear Channel Communications denied it is under an SEC investigation, yet its stock fell almost 13%. The House Financial Services Committee set a July 8 hearing into the WorldCom case. Subpoenas went to: u Current WorldCom CEO John Sidgmore. u Former chief financial officer Scott Sullivan, who was fired this week. * Former WorldCom chief executive Bernie Ebbers, who was ousted in April and who owes WorldCom $408 million for personal loans. Salomon Smith Barney telecom analyst Jack Grubman. Once one of WorldCom's most bullish supporters on Wall Street, he has been criticized for possible conflicts of interest. His firm collected millions of dollars in fees as a WorldCom financial adviser. WorldCom spokesman Brad Burns declined comment on whether Sidgmore would invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to testify. Ebbers and Sullivan couldn 't be reached. Salomon says Grubman â€Å"will fully cooperate. † And there could be more investigations. The House Energy and Commerce Committee told WorldCom to turn over financial records by July 11. WorldCom, strained by $30 billion in debt, will cut 17,000 jobs, or 21% of its workers, starting today. Workers will get severance pay, Burns says. Reprinted with permission. All rights reser ved. Page 5 AS SEEN IN USA TODAY MONEY SECTION, THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2002 Andersen's partners chart firm's future today By Greg Farrell USA TODAY NEW YORK — Arthur Andersen's U. S. partners will huddle in a nationwide teleconference today to determine the firm's immediate future. At issue: who should lead the firm's U. S. operations on an interim basis, and what steps Andersen should take to remain in business. According to senior partners briefed on the meeting's agenda, Andersen's 1,700 U. S. par tners will decide whether to ask Paul Volcker to assume control of Andersen's domestic operations. In February, Andersen CEO Joseph Berardino asked the former Federal Reserve chairman to head an oversight board dedicated to fixing the firm. A month later, a federal grand jur y indicted Andersen on a charge of obstruction of justice for its role in shredding Enron documents last October. Friday, in a last-ditch effort to stanch client depar tures and restore confidence in Andersen, Volcker offered to lead Andersen if its top par tners asked him. On Tuesday, Berardino resigned. Managing partner C. E. Andrews will meet with Volcker today to discuss his takeover plan. While many obser vers think Volcker's arrival could persuade the J ustice Depar tment to drop the indictment, some Andersen partners are wary of being the subject of an idealistic experiment in transforming the accounting industry. The partners will also discuss, and probably adopt, a â€Å"Renaissance† program aimed at returning Andersen to its roots as a highly regarded auditing firm. This proposal, supported by Andrews, has gained support among older partners who want to stay and rebuild the firm. In other developments: u At federal cour t in Houston, Contributing: Thor Valdmanis J ustice Depar tment lawyers will respond to Andersen's motion to halt further grand jury testimony prior to a May 6 trial. If Judge Melinda Harmon sides with Andersen, it will make the government's obstruction of justice case against Andersen more difficult to win. u Andersen's top global partners will meet Tuesday in London to pick an interim CEO. Andersen's global operations continue to fragment. Its Japanese affiliate, Asahi & Co. , announced plans to merge this fall with rival KPMG. Andersen has also discussed selling affiliates to Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. Wednesday night, Deloitte spokesman Matthew Batters suggested the firm was only interested in hiring individual Andersen partners and picking up clients leaving the firm. Reprinted with permission. All rights reser ved. Page 6 AS SEEN IN USA TODAY MONEY SECTION, TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2002 Client-starved Arthur Andersen cuts 7,000 jobs Long expected, layoffs offer first tangible sign of firm's distress By Greg Farrell USA TODAY WorldCom has engaged in what could be one of the bArthur Andersen fired one partner in January for his role in shredding Enron documents. On Monday, the auditing firm announced it will lay off 7,000 of its 26,000 U. S. employees because of the consequences of that shredding. The job cuts at Andersen have been expected for weeks, ever since the Justice Department unsealed an indictment against the firm for its role in destroying its paperwork just as a Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry into Enron was about to begin. Since the indictment, unsealed on March 14, scores of clients have deserted Andersen. As Andersen partners leave the firm for opportunities at other Big Five rivals, more clients are expected to migrate. So far, Andersen has weathered the crisis without filing for bankruptcy protection. But the layoffs, announced Monday, are the first tangible sign of financial distress at the firm. Of the 7,000 employees being let go, the vast majority are auditing staffers and managers, as well as administrative personnel. A small number of Andersen's 1,700 U. S. partners are also being let go. According to managing partner Grover Wray, most partners are still needed to serve Andersen's remaining clients. Rather than hand out severance checks to laid-off employees, Wray says Andersen is implementing a program called â€Å"salary continuation. † nder this plan, laid-off workers will continue to be paid for a certain number of weeks, depending on how long they've been with the firm. During that period, these employees will keep their benefits and be free to use their office space to search for new jobs. We are trying to treat our people with a level of dignity,† Wray says. In addition to client defections, Andersen also faces major liabilities for the role it played in Enron's collapse into bankruptcy last fall. Plaintiffs lawyer Bill Lerach filed an expanded complaint Monday against Andersen and former Enron managers in federal court in Houston. But the expanded lawsuit, on behalf of a major Enron shareholder — the Unive rsity of California system — adds nine Wall Street investment banks and two law firms to the list of defendants. Representatives from the banks — JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, CS First Boston, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, Barclays and Lehman Bros. — either declined comment on Monday or denied the complaint's allegations of complicity in Enron's collapse. Notably, Lerach's complaint leaves out two key players in Enron's demise — Michael Kopper, who headed some of the special purpose entities that kept Enron liabilities off the company's balance sheet, and Ben Glisan, the former Enron treasurer accused of facilitating some of Enron's dubious accounting practices. Glisan is now believed to be cooperating with the Justice Department probe of Enron's activities. Lerach would not comment on whether the pair supplied his investigators with information. But Larry Finder, a former U. S. Attorney now in private practice in Houston, doubts either is helping Lerach. Finder says that if either of them is providing information, it would be to the Justice Department first, where they face criminal liability. And the Justice Department wouldn't necessarily welcome a decision by a witness to cooperate in civil litigation. Reprinted with permission. All rights reser ved. Page 7 AS SEEN IN USA TODAY MONEY SECTION, TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2002 Dominoes hit WorldCom partners, clients Unpleasant ripple effect also spreads to vendors, charities, sponsored events By Michelle Kessler USA TODAY The WB television network, PGA Tour and Texas Parks and Wildlife service aren't in telecom, but they've already been hurt by the WorldCom scandal. That's because they all did business with WorldCom, as did thousands of other companies. Now they're all trying to figure out where they stand with the struggling giant — and coming up with backup plans. This is not going to be pleasant for a lot of companies,† says Kerry Adler, CEO of WorldCom customer Webhelp. Among those affected: u V e n d o r s . WorldCom repor ted that its capital expenditures dropped 42% to about $1. 3 billion in the first quarter from a year ago, yet it remained a big customer for many telecom equipment makers. While it's unclear how accurate WorldCom's numbers are becaus e of the accounting scandal, what is clear is that its spending has slowed. The hardest hit is Juniper Networks, says Banc of America Securities analyst Christopher Crespi. WorldCom provided about 10% of Juniper's annual revenue, including â€Å"less than $7 million† this quarter, Juniper says. If WorldCom stops buying, that could dampen Juniper's forecast for the year. â€Å"It could easily subtract $50 million or $60 million off their top line,† says Soundview Technology analyst Ryan Molloy. Customers Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks and Redback Networks could also get stung, but WorldCom accounts for just a small percentage of total sales, says U. S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray analyst Edward Jackson. All telecom equipment makers could be affected in coming months, even if they didn't do business directly with WorldCom, analysts say. WorldCom was known for buying the latest, most high-tech equipment, forcing competitors to do the same if they wanted to keep up. With WorldCom out of the picture, spending could lag. u Contractors. In 1999, when consulting firm EDS signed an 11-year, $6. 4 billion contract to provide technology services to WorldCom, telecom was a growing industry. EDS is stuck with the deal and a related pledge to buy $6 billion worth of telecom services during that period. Now, EDS says it no longer wants to spend that much with WorldCom. It's in talks to work out a deal. RMH Teleservices has a five-year contract to provide customer service for WorldCom's MCI division. That accounted for 19. 5% of RMH's revenue from October to March. â€Å"While we cannot predict the future . . . we expect to continue to provide these services for MCI,† RMH leader John Fellows said in a statement. u Business partners. Last year, WorldCom pledged to buy millions of dollars in advertising from AOL Time Warner over several years. The exact terms were not disclosed. Now, that deal could be off, meaning fewer ads for Time magazine, cable's TBS and the WB television network. WorldCom also provides service to the company's AOL Internet division. AOL says it has backup providers in case WorldCom service is disrupted. Satellite cable provider DirecTV is holding meetings to determine how to handle its 4-month-old partnership with WorldCom. WorldCom was to provide the underlying network for part of DirecTV's high-speed Internet access service. Similar questions are being asked at Internet Security Systems, a software company that agreed in May to provide security services to WorldCom customers. The value of the two deals was not disclosed. * Sponsored events. Last week's Fourth of July fireworks Reprinted with permission. All rights reser ved. Page 8 AS SEEN IN USA TODAY MONEY SECTION, TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2002 celebration on the Mall in Washington was supposed to be paid for by WorldCom, which has sponsored part of the festivities for five years. But the company pulled out. The National Parks Foundation scrambled to find new funding from AT. Also in Washington, the MCI Center arena might soon be looking for a new sponsor and name. The WorldCom Classic, an annual PGA Tour stop in Hilton Head, S. C. , is in the same situation. u Charities. Each month, about 10,000 teachers receive free training in math, science and the arts from the MarcoPolo project, which is sponsored by WorldCom's charity arm. Now, program administrators and partners — including the National Geographic Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science and The Kennedy Center — are tr ying to make the proj ect independent of the struggling company. Last week, they pulled WorldCom's logos from the MarcoPolo Web site. They're applying to make it a â€Å"public charity,† says Caleb Schutz, president of WorldCom Foundation. There's a lot to lose if the company . . . pulled the plug. † For now, WorldCom still funds MarcoPolo. u Customers. The Texas Parks and Wildlife department spent last week printing temporary fishing and hunting licenses as a quick contingency plan. The department relies on a WorldCom computer network to transmit license information to 2,500 vendors. †Å"We certainly have to consider what might happen to our contract,† says Suzy Whittenton, a wildlife director. Webhelp, which outsources customer service for companies such as Microsoft, uses WorldCom to connect its overseas technology specialists with help-seekers in the USA. Because of a contract, Webhelp can't switch providers but was forced to get a backup provider in case WorldCom fails. That means twice the bills. â€Å"It's expensive, and at the end of the day, our clients pay for that,† says CEO Adler. Reprinted with permission. All rights reser ved. Page 9 Behind the Story: A Reporter’s Notebook The collapse of Enron and WorldCom, precipitated by revelations that both companies had misrepresented how profitable they were, threatens the health of the the nation’s stock markets. If investors can’t believe earnings numbers issued by the biggest companies in the USA, they won’t put their money into the market. And when investors take their money out of the market, as they’ve been doing for more than two years, businesses suffer. They can’t invest, they can’t grow as quickly and they can’t afford to hire more people. Greg Farrell Money reporter USA TODAY As the Enron and WorldCom examples demonstrate, there’s no room in a public marketplace for â€Å"creative accounting. † Once a few cheaters are revealed, the integrity of the entire marketplace is open to question. Greg Farrell is a reporter in USA TODAY’s Money section. He writes about fraud and white collar crime. In the past year, he has been reporting on Enron, Arthur Andersen, Martha Stewart and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Page 10 For discussion ADELPHIA PLANS TO FILE CHAPTER 11; ADELPHIA FOUNDER, 2 SONS, 2 OTHERS ARRESTED IN FRAUD (LIEBERMAN AND FARRELL) 1. Adelphia Corporation was the sixth largest cable company at the time of its collapse. The company was accused of a number of fraudulent activities including the manipulation of its financial reports. Specifically, the firm was accused of misreporting its cable subscription numbers in order to give the impression that the firm was growing faster than it was. For example, they counted subscribers from systems in Brazil and Venezuela where the company owns a minority stake in the company’s total subscribers. They also counted customers who ordered high-speed Internet services from companies owned by the Rigas family and clients that ordered home security services from Adelphia. Why would Adelphia’s management engage in what appears to be blatant misrepresentation of their number of subscribers? 2. When CEO John Regas of Adelphia was led away in handcuffs on racketeering charges, some complained that the justice department was making too public a display of its tough stance on white-collar crime. This type of treatment is normally associated with murderers and rapists. How do you feel about the importance of making a public spectacle of white-collar criminals? 3. The Adelphia lawsuit stated that the Rigases â€Å"used their domination and control of Adelphia, and their isolation from the scrutiny of the outside world, to engage in one of the largest schemes of self-dealing and financial wrong doing in American corporate history. Financial economists refer to this type of behavior as an agency cost since corporate executives are the agents of the firm’s owners or principals. How can stockholders protect themselves from the potential for self-dealing by corporate executives? ANDERSEN’S PARTNERS CHART FIRM’S FUTURE TODAY (FARRELL) 1. Arthur Andersen was once the premier public accounting firm but a string of high profile financial reporting disasters that culminated with the failure of Enron caused the demise of the once proud firm. Andersen’s failure highlights the fact that the principal asset of a public accounting firm is the firm’s reputation. Once the firm’s â€Å"credibility† is challenged its clients are no longer willing to pay for its auditing services. What is it that a public accounting firm does that requires it to have a sterling reputation for honesty? 2. Anderson’s initial lay off was 7,000 of its 26,000 employees before the firm completely collapsed and all employees lost their jobs. However, all of Andersen’s clients still needed auditing services so in many instances the employees continued to audit the same firms they had audited for Andersen, just for another auditing firm. If the employees just moved from one firm to another, was there really a layoff? Did Andersen employees really suffer from the demise of Arthur Andersen? Isn’t this also true of the Adelphia, Enron, and WorldCom employees? For more information, log on to http://www. usatodaycollege. com Page 11 Future implications WORLDCOM SCANDAL BRINGS SUBPOENAS, CONDEMNATION (BACKOVER AND VALDMANIS); DOMINOS HIT WORLDCOM PARTNERS, CLIENTS (KESSLER) The financial press coverage of the failures of Adelphia, Enron, and WorldCom have focused principally on stockholders who have lost everything they invested and creditors who stand to lose a portion of what they have loaned the company. However, other important consequences of these high profile failures are often overlooked including: (1) the financial and emotional losses suffered by employees who lose their jobs and face the prospect of a lengthy period of unemployment and possibly the dislocation costs of moving to another community to find work, (2) the local community public services and school systems who lose valuable tax revenues, and (3) the budget crises created for local charities and the arts that depend on corporate contributions for their continued survival. Bankruptcy courts focus on the contractual obligations of the firm to creditors and suppliers. It has been argued that the corporation is a â€Å"guest† of the society and as such has obligations to the entire web of stakeholders that have a financial stake in the firm’s survival. Should the claims of these â€Å"silent stakeholders† also be considered when a firm fails? About The Expert John D. Martin,Ph. D. Professor of Finance Carr P. Collins Chair Hankamer School of Business Baylor University From 1980 until 1998 John Martin taught at the University of Texas at Austin where he was the Margaret and Eugene McDermott Centennial Professor of Finance. Currently holding the Carr P. Collins Chair in Finance at Baylor University in Waco, Dr. Martin teaches corporate finance and financial modeling. His research interests are in corporate governance, the evaluation of firm performance, and the design of incentive compensation programs. Dr. Martin publishes widely in both academic and professional journals. Included among his academic publications are papers in the Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Finance, Journal of Monetary Economics, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Financial Management, and Management Science. Professional publications include papers in Directors and Boards, Financial Analysts' Journal, Journal of Portfolio Management, and Bank of America Journal of Applied Corporate Finance. u Dr. Martin co-authors several books including the following: u Financial Management, 9th edition (Prentice Hall Publishing Company) u Foundations of Finance, 4th Edition (Prentice Hall Publishing Company) u Financial Analysis (McGraw Hill Publishing Company) u The Theory of Finance (Dryden Press) Dr. Martin consults with a number of firms including Citgo, Hewlett Packard, Shell Chemical, Shell E, Texas Instruments and The Associates. Additional resources Working Paper Series — Financial Engineering, Corporate Governance, and the Collapse of Enron http://www. be. udel. edu/ccg/research_files/CCGWP2002-1. pdf For more information, log on to http://www. usatodaycollege. com Page 12