Is there a crisis of meaning in the contemporary world Essay Example

Is there a crisis of meaning in the contemporary world Essay In modern day society, an increasing number of people question their purpose, their meaning, and their very existence on this earth. The questioning stems from either a lack of faith, a lack of understanding, lack of knowledge, or the general belief that human life pales in insignificance to the universe, and that, as described in Humanism: A Very Short Introduction, humanity amounts to nothing more then a dirty smudge on a ball of rock lost in an incomprehensively vast universe'(page 119)1. We must ask ourselves, what causes humanity to constantly question itself? Can it be solely be attributed to the rise of modern day science, which casts itself directly opposite the might and meaning of religion? Or it may be the fact that humans, are a race are more aware of the Earths small role in the vast universe; a parallel with humanities own insecurities about their own role in the colossal size of the universe. Personal situations, such as the heartbreak of unrequited love, the despair of losing your job, can evaporate all meaning in an individuals life, thus leading towards a crisis of value. In the Western world especially, the rise of atheism has also contributed towards an individuals lack of belief and sense of meaning; as one turned to religion and the belief that there was a higher power, which was substantial enough to give the individual meaning and a place in society. However, the rise of atheism, has led people to question the idea of an all powerful God. We will write a custom essay sample on Is there a crisis of meaning in the contemporary world specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Is there a crisis of meaning in the contemporary world specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Is there a crisis of meaning in the contemporary world specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The seeds of modern day atheism were sown by Karl Marx, who felt that religion was a form of control, and that the idea of a God was an illusion. He also stated that Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the feelings of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of unspiritual conditions. It is the opium of the people. 2 This school of thought gained popularity, as more and more people started to think outside of the institutionalized, rigid ideas of religion. It was thought that the idea of an all loving God, whom people had to worship did not satisfy the developing curiosity of the masses, who still wonder, how an omniscient, omnipotent higher being, can allow atrocities such as the Nazis slaughter of millions of Jews in World War 2 occur without trying to stop it, or lets natural disasters such as the Japanese earthquake and tsunami of 2011 take place. Surely if a loving God exists, such pain and suffering cannot be piled on so many people? Certain religions, such as Hinduism, go to great lengths to explain the suffering inflicted upon so many. It is a belief in Hinduism, and various other religions such as Buddhism and Sikhism, that our physical beings are just a shell for our soul, which is derived directly from God itself. This soul is reincarnated within various lifetimes, as punishment for our past sins. This means that the agony and pain undergone by so many is a direct result of our past actions, in previous lives, thus taking the absence of an intervention of God, out of the equation. The lack of a definitive answer however, leads individuals to lose faith in a God, and a religious system, as these questions eventually cannot be answered by anybody, all but leaving either a feeling of emptiness or content inside the person; as they either are satisfied with knowing theres nothing more to life, or are depressed by the thought that there is no meaning to their existence. Albert Schopenhauer, a philosopher in the 18th century rejected the idea of a God, and that suffering and loss is all of our own making, and not determined by a higher power. An existential crisis is in most cases triggered by a significant event which provokes a turning point in an individuals life. These can range from cases involving the loss of a loved one, to an individuals own sense of isolation and detachment from the modern world. Looking back on my own experience of being in the position of one who has lost faith and ultimately questioned the purpose of life, the ultimate answer is that each person must come to their own conclusion, and find their own path in life. For me, after going through the pain of unrequited love, I was lead to question God, and the reason why I had been going such heartache, while others around me were so happy, and for a period of time I felt isolated and found no reason strong enough to justify why human beings are here. For me, being brought up in a religious household, this was a radical way of thinking, and had no idea how to deal with it. My way of life had been threatened by a new way of thinking, and questioning whether all I believed in was a lie. Now I realize it was my lack underlying lack of faith which subsequently led me to question my existence and purpose on this earth. I discovered that the worst thing about questioning one selfs meaning and purpose, is that there is no definitive answer. The quest for meaning led me to research several philosophers and religious figures, including a prominent Indian philosopher, Swami Vivekananda. Swami Vivekananda enabled me to understand the meaning of our existence, by stating that human beings were like the bee who came to sip the honey, but found its feet stuck to the honey-pot, and could not get it away. Again and again we find ourselves in that state. That is the whole secret of existence. . This is further explained when he questions Why are we here? We came to sip the honey, and we find our hands and feet stuck to it3. This for me implies that human beings are never satisfied with what we have, and always seem to question more and more, without finding any satisfactory answer. The breakthroughs and discoveries in science further destroyed peoples ideas of a higher purpose, as it moved to dissolve the idea of a creator figure. Charles Darwin was a leading figure in challenging Creationism and the Great Chain of Being. His studies and new ideas such as Succession of types, Representative species, and the distribution of species were important in radically altering peoples outlook on life. His theory of evolution, ascertaining that man was essentially once a Neanderthal opposed the idea that we were created for a purpose. It challenged the idea that humanity was the center of the world, and that the hierarchy must be rejected, and that man is just a consequence of nature, which moved to dissolve many peoples belief in a higher power, thus leading them to query their existence, as Darwins theories suggested that we were not put on this planet for any specific reason by a God; we are just a consequence of natural selection and biology. Darwins theories were challenged by Karl Popper, a philosopher who claimed that scientific theories could be falsified and replaced. The problem with science however, is that it does not provide a moral code, or ascertain what is wrong and right to feel, leaving the individual in a quandary about what to believe. In conclusion, it can be said that a higher number of people fail to find meaning in their life, or at least question it at some point in their lifetime. This is due to a combination of a lack of faith in a God/religion , the emergence of science and Darwins theory of natural selection/ evolution and the consequence of suffering caused by events such as the Rwanda genocide and global AIDs crisis. The fundamental problem is that there is no definitive answer, and no solution to the questioning of an individuals purpose, leaving us to the only answer, that each individual must find their own path in life.

Animal Species essays

Animal Species essays Living creatures on Earth need three basic things in order to survive: the ability to eat, breath, and reproduce. All animals are able to do so. Animals are divided into species, among these species are: Mammals, Reptiles, Arthropods, and Aves. Mammals, also known as Mammalia, come from Latin meaning mamma breast. They are called this due to the fact that Mammals are the only animals which have mammary glands, which enable them to nourish their young solely on milk secreted from these glands. Mammals are warm blooded, and all, except for marine mammals, are mostly or completely covered with hair. Mammals give birth to live young, however, there are a few rare exceptions to this rule. A few mammals, such as the platypus, lay eggs instead of having live young. Yet once the eggs are hatched the females do have mammary glands, and produce milk for their young. Another feature of mammals is that their heart has four chambers and a muscular diaphragm that separates their chest and abdominal cavity. The mammal class includes: Dogs, cats, horses, beavers, dolphins, bats and humans. Another animal species are Reptiles, also known as Reptil which is Latin for Reptus, meaning to crawl. Reptiles are usually hairless with dry, scaly skin. They are cold-blooded, which means in order for them to maintain a stable body temperature, they must be exposed to some heat source, such as the sun, or a rock warmed by the heat of the day. Due to the need for warmth, Reptiles are naturally found in warm, dry climates. All reptiles, except for snakes, have low slung bodies with long tails, balanced on four awkwardly small limbs. Although there are a few aquatic Reptiles (Reptiles who live mainly in water), they all must come up to the surface for oxygen. Reptiles do not give birth to live young. Instead, they lay eggs on land. The female usually buries t ...

Use Modal Verbs With Care

Use Modal Verbs With Care Use Modal Verbs With Care Use Modal Verbs With Care By Maeve Maddox English, like other Germanic languages, makes use of a special class of verbs called modals: can, dare, may, must , need, ought, shall, will. Modals serve useful functions in expressing various tenses, moods, and conditions, but they can have an insidious effect on ones writing. The topics I write about mostEnglish usage and educationare modal minefields. Its difficult to express opinions about these topics without falling prey to words like must, should, need, and ought. Ex. Politicians must do this. Teachers ought to do that. Speakers should say this. Modals tend to cut off discussion. They close the subject. They create resentment and hostility. Consciously or unconsciously the reader wonders, Why must I? Why should I? Why ought I? Few people enjoy being told what to do in an imperious manner. Modals leap onto the page when we feel strongly about a subject. The challenge to the writer is to find words that will convey the importance of an idea without hitting the reader over the head with modals. Instead of telling your readers what they ought to do, look for words that lead them to embrace the ideas you are presenting. Conclusion: Writers should avoid modal verbs in their writing. OOPS! Writers achieve greater clarity and offend fewer readers by avoiding modal verbs in their writing. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:50 Rhetorical Devices for Rational Writing40 Synonyms for â€Å"Different†Wood vs. Wooden

Advanced Portfolio Management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Advanced Portfolio Management - Research Paper Example Efficient market hypothesis works on the assumption that on the average the investors have rational expectation. With available information individual investor’s reactions are random and follow a normal distribution pattern. This in turn implies that no individual investor can outperform the market on a consistent basis. Individual investors may over or under react; individual investors may outperform or underperform for a short period. But all the deviations are random in nature and will self-correct in a short period. Thus market will always be right (Copeland and Weston, 1988). Among the three forms of efficiency, the weak form efficiency hypothesizes that the current market price does not reflect fair value and only reflects the past prices. Since it does not adapt to a change in current information, the future price cannot be predicted from past or current prices. Empirical evidence does not always support weak form efficiency of a market. There have been noted differences between stock market behavior in developed and developing countries. However research findings in different markets are not universally accepted (Elango & Hussein, 2010). Many comparative studies have been done to examine performances of many different stocks and variables results have been observed (Solink, 1973; Cooper, 1982; Urrutia, 1995; Dahel & Laabas, 1999; Rao & Shankaraiah, 2003). To compare the performance of stock markets in a rapidly changing economic scenario worldwide, it was decided to check for weak form efficiency in two developed countries and in two countries belonging to Gulf Co-operation Council for a considerably long period of time in very recent past. Four countries, the names of their stock indices considered and time periods chosen given below. Every week trades take place on 5 days of the week and the other two days are excluded from the analysis. However, given that the countries have different customs,

Management Principles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Management Principles - Essay Example This leader is actively involved in coaching, training, directing and supervising the team members’ performance. The team leader appreciates and recognizes good performance on a regular basis. Moreover, he provides feedback to the people that do not perform well or achieve the required targets. This team leader reports to a manager. The manager provides targets and directs what tasks to be performed. Very often, the manager takes all decisions related to work and staff members. The monthly and yearly targets and goals are decided by the manager. Although the manager monitors the work, he is not proactive in appreciating or rewarding good performance. The manager holds all authority in distribution and control of stationery and other facilities related stuff. Keen observation reveals that the team leader follows situational leadership style, as proposed by Hersey and Blanchard (Schermerhorn, 2009). The team leader keeps changing his style according to the situation. For example , he trains and coaches team members on the job and continuously monitors and encourages so that they achieve the required targets. He appreciates those that achieve or exceed their performance targets. He also delegates extra responsibilities to the good performers so that they are motivated. He involves all team members in important discussions related to work and/or tasks assigned by the manager.

Amazon Database Essay Example for Free

Amazon Database Essay Amazon.com is developing a system to gather and keep massive amounts of intimate information about its millions of shoppers, including their religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity and income. The database, which would combine information disclosed voluntarily by customers with facts gleaned from public databases, conceivably would give Amazon a larger or more detailed profile of its customers than any other retailer. The Seattle-based company, with 59 million active customers, said it has no immediate plan to implement such a program. Its ability to do so emerged in a detailed patent application with the U. S. Patent Trademark Office, disclosed Thursday. A privacy expert said customers should be wary about Amazon having the capability to gather such a large amount of detailed information. She said the data could end up in the hands of the myriad retailers that do business with the company, or with government officials or hackers. Amazon never ceases to amaze me, said Lillie Coney, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C. If they create this database, it will be used for other purposes. They are really creating something worth a great deal of value that will help their company. The patent disclosure comes at a time of heightened awareness over online security and a rash of recent security breaches. AOL recently published a list of more than 650,000 user queries that revealed names, addresses and Social Security numbers, and the company this week apologized and removed the data, but its unknown how many copies of the sensitive information were made. Amazons pending patent, which would bar competitors from replicating the companys process for gathering information, details how it could compile data from customers to create a profile of products that a person might want to buy. Such a database would include the gender, date of birth, interests, occupation, education, income level, residence, race and ethnicity of customers for Amazons gift clustering program. Customers already willingly disclose some personal information on the site to create a wish list of desired products, for example. The larger potential database would go beyond that. Even if a customer does not know demographic information or interests of a possible recipient, the system may be able to access such informatio n from a user profile for the recipient, from past ordering patterns of the recipient, or from publicly accessible databases, the patent application said. Company spokeswoman Patty Smith said Amazon.com has no current plans to implement such a system. Not every company uses a patent it has in its name, but it may have a patent in portfolio, Smith said. Who knows 10 years down the road or five years down the road? It might be good to implement. We want to protect our intellectual property. Smith said the document released Thursday is an addendum to a patent Amazon sought in October 2000 and received in February of this year. She said much of what was in the original patent was also disclosed Thursday, but she didnt have details on what was new. Smith said that six years ago Amazon was trying to figure out ways to make it easier for customers to find information on the companys wish list feature for gifts. Amazon is always careful how it uses customer data so the customer experience will be as good as it can be, she said. The system described in the patent would give shoppers, with the click of a mouse, additional detailed information at the discretion of the gift recipient. Amazon already groups or clusters gifts, such as camping items or back-to-school goods, and then suggests them to buyers based on generic factors such as price, the relationship between the giver and receiver or the recipients age or gender. The patent disclosure also comes at a time when Amazon, originally an online bookseller in 1995, is moving into new ventures to boost profits. The companys stock took a huge hit last month after Amazon reported disappointing second-quarter earnings and company executives said there would be continual heavy spending on technology. Amazon recently started its own toy and food stores. The patent application, filed Dec. 9, 2005, by Amazon inventor Amit Agarwal but made public Thursday, could take years to be approved, according to Brigid Quinn, a Patent Trademark Office spokeswoman. Quinn said theres a backlog of more than 700,000 patent applications, and the agency reviews about 300,000 a year. Its in the early stages. Its not even on an examiners desk yet, Quinn said. But they could use it without it being patented. The patent only prevents others from using it. Greg Linden, a former technology team leader at Amazon, said it sounds to him like Amazon is just protecting its wish list feature. Linden, founder of Findory.com, an online news site, also warned not to read too much into a patent application because lawyers throw in everything they can think of to keep competitors from copying an idea. Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/Amazon-database-would-put-shoppers-intimate-1211419.php#ixzz24rlGoBic http://aws.amazon.com/solutions/case-studies/amazon-oracle/ AWS Case Study: Amazon.com Oracle DB Backup to Amazon S3 Amazon.com is the world’s largest online retailer. In 2011, Amazon.com switched from tape backup to using Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for backing up the majority of its Oracle databases. This strategy reduces complexity and capital expenditures, provides faster backup and restore performance, eliminates tape capacity planning for backup and archive, and frees up administrative staff for higher value operations. They were able to replace their backup tape infrastructure with Cloud-based Amazon S3 storage, eliminate backup software, and experienced a 12X performance improvement, reducing restore time from around 15 hours to 2.5 hours in select scenarios. The Business Challenges As Amazon.com grows larger, the sizes of their Oracle databases continue to grow, and so does the sheer number of databases they maintain. This has caused growing pains related to backing up legacy Oracle databases to tape and led to the consideration of alternate strategies including the use of Cloud services of Amazon Web Services (AWS), a subsidiary of Amazon.com. Some of the business challenges Amazon.com faced included: Utilization and capacity planning is complex, and time and capital expense budget are at a premium. Significant capital expenditures were required over the years for tape hardware, data center space for this hardware, and enterprise licensing fees for tape software. During that time, managing tape infrastructure required highly skilled staff to spend time with setup, certification and engineering archive planning instead of on higher value projects. And at the end of every fiscal year, projecting future capacity requirements required time consuming audits, forecasting, and budgeting. The cost of backup software required to support multiple tape devices sneaks up on you. Tape robots provide basic read/write capability, but in order to fully utilize them, you must invest in proprietary tape backup software. For Amazon.com, the cost of the software had been high, and added significantly to overall backup costs. The cost of this software was an ongoing budgeting pain point, but one that was difficult to address as long as backups needed to be written to tape devices. Maintaining reliable backups and being fast and efficient when retrieving data requires a lot of time and effort with tape. When data needs to be durably stored on tape, multiple copies are required. When everything is working correctly, and there is minimal contention for tape resources, the tape robots and backup software can easily find the required data. However, if there is a hardware failure, human intervention is necessary to restore from tape. Contention for tape drives resulting from multiple users’ tape requests slows down restore processes even more. This adds to the recovery time objective (RTO) and makes achieving it more challenging compared to backing up to Cloud storage. Advantages with Amazon Web Services Amazon.com initiated the evaluation of Amazon S3 for economic and performance improvements related to data backup. As part of that evaluation, they considered security, availability, and performance aspects of Amazon S3 backups. Amazon.com also executed a cost-benefit analysis to ensure that a migration to Amazon S3 would be financially worthwhile. That cost benefit analysis included the following elements: Performance advantage and cost competitiveness. It was important that the overall costs of the backups did not increase. At the same time, Amazon.com required faster backup and recovery performance. The time and effort required for backup and for recovery operations proved to be a significant improvement over tape, with restoring from Amazon S3 running from two to twelve times faster than a similar restore from tape. Amazon.com required any new backup medium to provide improved performance while maintaining or reducing overall costs. Backing up to on-premises disk based storage would have improved performance, but missed on cost competitiveness. Amazon S3 Cloud based storage met both criteria. Greater durability and availability. Amazon S3 is designed to provide 99.999999999% durability and 99.99% availability of objects over a given year. Amazon.com compared these figures with those observed from their tape infrastructure, and determined that Amazon S3 offered significant improvement. Less operational friction. Amazon.com DBAs had to evaluate whether Amazon S3 backups would be viable for their database backups. They determined that using Amazon S3 for backups was easy to implement because it worked seamlessly with Oracle RMAN. Strong data security. Amazon.com found that AWS met all of their requirements for physical security, security accreditations, and security processes, protecting data in flight, data at rest, and utilizing suitable encryption standards. The Business Benefits With the migration to Amazon S3 well along the way to completion, Amazon.com has realized several benefits, including: Elimination of complex and time-consuming tape capacity planning. Amazon.com is growing larger and more dynamic each year, both organically and as a result of acquisitions. AWS has enabled Amazon.com to keep pace with this rapid expansion, and to do so seamlessly. Historically, Amazon.com business groups have had to write annual backup plans, quantifying the amount of tape storage that they plan to use for the year and the frequency with which they will use the tape resources. These plans are then used to charge each organization for their tape usage, spreading the cost among many teams. With Amazon S3, teams simply pay for what they use, and are billed for their usage as they go. There are virtually no upper limits as to how much data can be stored in Amazon S3, and so there are no worries about running out of resources. For teams adopting Amazon S3 backups, the need for formal planning has been all but eliminated. Reduced capital expenditures. Amazon.com no longer needs to acquire tape robots, tape drives, tape inventory, data center space, networking gear, enterprise backup software, or predict future tape consumption. This eliminates the burden of budgeting for capital equipment well in advance as well as the capital expense. Immediate availability of data for restoring – no need to locate or retrieve physical tapes. Whenever a DBA needs to restore data from tape, they face delays. The tape backup software needs to read the tape catalog to find the correct files to restore, locate the correct tape, mount the tape, and read the data from it. In almost all cases the data is spread across multiple tapes, resulting in further delays. This, combined with contention for tape drives resulting from multiple users’ tape requests, slows the process down even more. This is especially severe during critical events such as a data center outage, when many databases must be restored simultaneously and as soon as possible. None of these problems occur with Amazon S3. Data restores can begin immediately, with no waiting or tape queuing – and that means the database can be recovered much faster. Backing up a database to Amazon S3 can be two to twelve times faster than with tape drives. As one example, in a benchmark test a DBA was able to restore 3.8 terabytes in 2.5 hours over gigabit Ethernet. This amounts to 25 gigabytes per minute, or 422MB per second. In addition, since Amazon.com uses RMAN data compression, the effective restore rate was 3.37 gigabytes per second. This 2.5 hours compares to, conservatively, 10-15 hours that would be required to restore from tape. Easy implementation of Oracle RMAN backups to Amazon S3. The DBAs found it easy to start backing up their databases to Amazon S3. Directing Oracle RMAN backups to Amazon S3 requires only a configuration of the Oracle Secure Backup Cloud (SBC) module. The effort required to configure the Oracle SBC module amounted to an hour or less per database. After this one-time setup, the database backups were transparently redirected to Amazon S3. Durable data storage provided by Amazon S3, which is designed for 11 nines durability. On occasion, Amazon.com has experienced hardware failures with tape infrastructure – tapes that break, tape drives that fail, and robotic components that fail. Sometimes this happens when a DBA is trying to restore a database, and dramatically increases the mean time to recover (MTTR). With the durability and availability of Amazon S3, these issues are no longe r a concern. Freeing up valuable human resources. With tape infrastructure, Amazon.com had to seek out engineers who were experienced with very large tape backup installations – a specialized, vendor-specific skill set that is difficult to find. They also needed to hire data center technicians and dedicate them to problem-solving and troubleshooting hardware issues – replacing drives, shuffling tapes around, shipping and tracking tapes, and so on. Amazon S3 allowed them to free up these specialists from day-to-day operations so that they can work on more valuable, business-critical engineering tasks. Elimination of physical tape transport to off-site location. Any company that has been storing Oracle backup data offsite should take a hard look at the costs involved in transporting, securing and storing their tapes offsite – these costs can be reduced or possibly eliminated by storing the data in Amazon S3. As the world’s largest online retailer, Amazon.com continuously innovates in order to provide improved customer experience and offer products at the lowest possible prices. One such innovation has been to replace tape with Amazon S3 storage for database backups. This innovation is one that can be easily replicated by other organizations that back up their Oracle databases to tape.

Thoreau and King, Jr. :: American America History

Thoreau and King, Jr. There are times throughout the history of the United States when its citizens have felt the need to revolt against the government. There were such cases during the time of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Henry David Thoreau, when there was unfair discrimination against the Afro-American community and Americans refusing to pay poll taxes to support the Mexican War. They used civil disobedience to eventually get legislation to stop the injustice brought against them and their nation. Civil disobedience is defined as refusal to obey civil laws or decrees, which usually takes the form of passive resistance. People practicing civil disobedience break a law because they consider the law unjust, and want to call attention to its injustice, hoping to bring about its withdrawal. Thoreau wrote "Civil Disobedience" in 1849 after spending a night in the Walden town jail for refusing to pay a poll tax that supported the Mexican War. He recommended passive resistance as a form of tension that could lead to reform of unjust laws practiced by the government. He voiced civil disobedience as "An expression of the individual's liberty to create change" (Thoreau 530). Thoreau felt that the government had established order that resisted reform and change. "Action from principle, the perception and the performance of right, changes things and relations; it is essentially revolutionary" (Thoreau 531). Thoreau refused to pay the poll tax because the money was being used to finance the Mexican War. Not only was Thoreau against the war itself but the war was over Texas which was to be used as a slave state. His friend Staples offered to pay the tax for him, but to Thoreau it wasn't the tax he was objected to, it was how the money would be used. He believed strongly against paying money to a war he did not support, and would rather end up in jail than go against his will. A certain passage shows how strong he felt when he said "Your money is your life, why should I haste to give it my money?" (Thoreau 538). It was important to Thoreau to get the public informed about the War, and make people think why it was wrong to support it. Thoreau didn't rally hundreds and thousands of people together to get reactions. Instead he went to jail to protest and wrote his essay "Civil Disobedience". His statements were to get people to think and take their own approach to the situation.

Analysis of the Macro and Micro Environment at British Airways Essay

British Airways is the largest international scheduled airline in the UK. The company was founded in 1919, and has continued to grow and expand since privatisation in 1987, until the global recession hit in 2008. On 23rd January 2009 the UK was officially declared to be in recession following two consecutive quarters in 2008 during which economic growth dropped (BBC, 2009). Many businesses, including British Airways, have found it increasingly difficult to survive in the resulting testing macroeconomic environment. The Recession  A recession will often occur when inflation grows rapidly; goods become more expensive at a time when consumers have less money to spend. As consumers spend less money, supply begins to exceed demand within the markets. This causes businesses to produce less of their goods, and so require less staff. The unemployment that results from this creates a situation whereby people do not trust the markets and have less money, so stop spending, thus creating a vicious circle. UK unemployment figures up to March 2010 show that unemployment has risen to 8%, the highest figure since 1996. For many people, air travel is a luxury good. This means that in times of hardship, where the consumer is reducing their spending, air travel will be an area that is very hard hit, as many people are not taking holidays. For some consumers, air travel is for business purposes, as opposed to recreational. This area of the market has not been hit as hard, although many people are now flying in economy class, where they might previously have flown in business or first class. Business and first class passengers have played a large part in BA’s profitability, as they account for a large proportion of the company’s profit. Low-cost, budget airlines such as Ryan Air have done comparatively well, producing profits in a market where very few businesses have been able to. Budget airlines are supplying an â€Å"inferior good†. This means that as consumer income decreases, a demand for the service will increase as the service is seen to be more affordable. Production Costs Over recent years the cost of fuel has increased dramatically, and as each airport has only one fuel supplier, BA is working within a limited market, where there is a lack of price competition to drive the price of fuel down. With demand continuing to exceed the supply of fuel the equilibrium point of the supply and demand curve is continually changing, this allows the fuel suppliers to increase their costs. As demand for air travel has dropped and production costs have increased, BA has found that an increasing number of flights are running with too few passengers to make the flight profitable. However, if BA were to decrease the number of flights they would risk losing their slots at the major airports, which would be disastrous when the market begins to pick up and demand for flights increases again. Willie Walsh, chief executive of BA, believes that a compromise must be found between surviving throughout this difficult climate, and growing the business so that it can prosper once the economy has recovered. Iberia Merger BA has recently signed a merger with Spain’s Iberian Airlines. This will promote the business to being one of the largest international providers of air travel. It is predicted that the merger will allow the two companies to save around ? 50 million per year, which will greatly benefit shareholders as the profit will be seen to increase, and also benefit customers as the synergy between the routes and aircraft used should offer more choice at a more competitive price (Price, 2010). Government Policy As a result of the recent recession, the government has taken steps to increase consumer spending. Increased consumer spending is necessary in order to increase the UK’s GDP (gross domestic product) and so ensure that the recovery from the recent recessi on will continue. Some of these policy responses from the government included lowering VAT from 17. 5% to 15% as of December 1st 2008 (Finch, 2008). This was a move which was aimed at lowering the price of goods and so encouraging the public to spend more. This would start to regain consumer trust, and also start to put money back into the market. The major downside to this policy change is that due to a lower governmental income from VAT, the government has been forced to increase the UK’s national debt and run a larger budget deficit in order to keep national services running. There has been considerable debate as to how much this policy actually helped to bring the UK out of the recession, but it did encourage consumers to have more faith in the government and the economy and to spend more money. By encouraging a higher rate of consumer spending, the economy is starting to recover; this is a positive sign for British Airways as it means that customers are beginning to increase again. As the consumer is regaining faith in the economy they are becoming more likely to pre-book a holiday as they have more money available to them. This cut in VAT has also allowed companies such as BA to either increase their profit margins slightly or lower their prices slightly (BBC, 2009). The Bank of England Since the start of the recent recession, the pound has weakened considerably. With the UK economy struggling and consumers having borrowed heavily before the recession, currency traders have flooded the market with sterling, resulting in the pound dropping in value. In an attempt to maintain monetary stability the Bank of England dropped the national interest rates from 5% down to as low as 0. 5% (Bank of England, no date). This also caused currency traders to attempt to trade their sterling to a currency returning a higher profitability, such as the Euro (Bank of England, 2010). However, this move was needed in order to attempt to keep inflation low and encourage banks to continue to supply loans, overdrafts and mortgages. This was a move which was needed in order to try and maintain consumer trust, but the weakening pound has made business increasingly difficult for international companies as importing goods needed to provide their surface has increased thus increasing their production costs, although it does make the service cheaper for foreign consumers. Leadership Theories Willie Walsh became CEO of British Airways in 2005; since then he has faced numerous challenges as the global economy has been hit hard by the recent recession. Walsh was brought in by British Airways as CEO following his success as CEO of Aer Lingus, where he helped to bring the company out of the financial difficulty that it suffered as a result of the terrorist attacks in 2001, by cutting 2000 jobs and finding new ways to cut costs (Saunders, 2008). In the current economic climate, where the industry has been severely hit by the recent recession, a leader is needed who is able to react to an ever-changing dynamic environment. Walsh has proved his ability to do this, and has been quick to react with BA by cutting many jobs as the recession hit, and working out new ways in which the company can be run more efficiently, such as by reducing the number of aircraft and raising the efficiency of staff. This style of leadership is known as transformational leadership; it relies upon a leader who has a concept of the direction he wishes the business to take, and has the ability to motivate and inspire his employees in order to attain this goal. Motivation – Content and Process Theories Motivation theories have been developed so that leaders and managers can understand the theory behind the different methods of motivating their workforce and thus work out the most productive and efficient of these methods. It is a common belief that leaders are born and not made; this is supported to some extent by motivation theories as the best leaders will be more perceptive as to how change is affecting his workforce, and the areas in which improvements could be made, as they will have a natural empathy. The best leaders will also be able to use this to the advantage of their company; they will be able to motivate their workforce to a higher work capacity level and so promote productivity. Motivation theories work on the basis that employees carry out work for a variety of reasons, which are weighted in terms of their importance. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need (shown in the diagram below) suggests that there are 5 levels at which a person must be fulfilled before they will perform at their optimal capacity, with the lower levels being the first to be fulfilled and the most important. BA has recently asked its employees to consider working unpaid for up to one month, in a bid to keep the company afloat. Many employees have resisted this change, with only 800 out of 40,000 staff asked agreeing to this. Other options were also put forward to staff, including the option to take unpaid leave or to work part-time; these proved more popular with employees. A reduction in salary would affect employees at the bottom two levels on Maslow’s Hierarchy as with reduced income some may struggle to provide for their physiological needs. This in turn will affect the employee at several levels up the hierarchy; they will feel less secure within their job and society, and consequently on a higher more emotional level. Content theories of motivation suggest that there are three main components which motivate people; these are direction (what they want), intensity (how much they want it) and persistence (how far they will go to attain this). Following on from his, it is assumed that people will work for rewards. These rewards can then be split into two main areas; intrinsic and extrinsic. Content theories place a higher emphasis upon the intrinsic factors, such as the internal drives which motivate people to work. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need is one example of this, and Herzberg’s 2-factor theory is another. Herzberg’s theory relies upon hygiene (extrinsic) and motivators (intrinsic) and suggests that extrinsic factors are important in preventing job dissatisfaction, whereas intrinsic factors are more concerned with self-respect and achievement, thus promoting job satisfaction. Process theories such as J Stacy Adam’s Equity theory, suggest that people are more productive when they perceive that they are receiving fair treatment, and will tend to act if they believe they are being unfairly treated when they compare themselves to others within their social network. Vroom’s Expectancy theory also works upon a basis of fair treatment, but focuses upon the worker’s belief that if they put more effort in, their performance will improve, and their manager will reward them fairly, with a reward that is of value to the individual worker. Managers must therefore identify the rewards that workers will place a high value upon, and attempt to minimise any undesirable outcomes. British Airways needs to focus more upon employee satisfaction, particularly within this economic climate, as this will encourage workers to perform at a higher capacity and thus increase efficiency of the company. Threat of future redundancies is a big motivating factor for many employees; if process theory is applied, so that employees believe increased effort will lead to fair reward (ie. keeping their job) they may be more likely to perform better. Management of Change Theories regarding management of change focus on minimising resistance to change, as this is more likely to make the proposed change viable. Force field analysis requires managers to assess the pro’s and con’s of change, and the movement that will be needed to effect this change. For example, with BA’s pay freeze and request for unpaid work, there will be resistance to this change, based upon a fear of lower income, but, for some, the fear of redundancies and dismissal will outweigh the risk of a month unpaid (BBC, 2009). Resistance to change is often natural due to a fear of the unknown; employees often fear that if they work at a higher capacity this will become the expected normality, which may be difficult to sustain, and can encourage workers to thus work at a lower performance level. Lewin’s 3-step change process identifies unfreezing (where the status quo is disturbed), movement (where new behaviour is adopted) and refreezing (where the new patterns are established as normal) as the three stages. Unfreezing is perceived to be the most difficult to implement, as this is where a fear of the unknown will have the greatest impact. For managers to overcome this they must show empathy, communication and participation. Willie Walsh shows an example of this as he has ensured that all BA employees are kept well informed of all plans towards cost-cutting and voluntarily agreed to work for July without receiving his ? 61,000 monthly salary in a bid to encourage workers to do the same. This also uses process theories of motivation, as it encourages workers to feel that they are receiving fair treatment. Unfortunately for BA, many employees feel that they are being treated unfairly, leading to numerous recent strikes, which have caused massive further losses to the company.

Explain the problems of religious language Essay

Explain the problems of religious language. (30) Some words used within religious language may be viewed as contradictory to our inherent beliefs and logical view as human beings one example of this would be the story of the ‘virgin Mary’ as there is no logical explanation to how she gave birth. Many of the words used in religious language are also metaphysical and have no physical representation therefore it is very hard for us as humans to fully comprehend the ideas they are expressing. An example of this is ‘God is timeless’ as we as humans live in a world where time is very much present so humans’ attempting to understand the phrase causes problems as it is outside of our past experiences. Many of the metaphysical questions within religious language can be problematic as it can not be answered through science or our logic for example ‘why were we created? ’ or ‘how did we get here? ’. Some scholars argue that our human language is not enough to describe religion thus we are doing God an injustice by attempting to explain it in human language, and that we should not expect that applying worldly language to religion to be adequate for our understanding of it. Similarly some argue that we should not even attempt to understand language hence why synagogues have no pictures of God. It may be argued that by giving God human-esk characteristics we are athromorphising god. Another key factor to religious language causing problems is that it is very difficult to interpret whether something should be taken literally or non-literally one example of this is God turning water into wine some interpreters may view it in its literal form whilst others may state that he turned a simple resource into something much more complex. Even if somebodies interpretation is completely correct there is still no real way of proving this. Something else which also causes confusion within religious language is the same words having different contexts for example ‘spirit’ one context is alcohol the other is God (the holy SPIRIT) these are to very different things and would cause great confusion if interpreted incorrectly. Another inherent problem of religious language is the argument that Russell put forward when he stated we should not believe a statement which has no evidence to back itself up with and religious texts offer very little of this evidence. Ayer also stated that ‘if it is not analytical and cannot be tested, then best to call it cognitively meaningfulness’ this ideology would be problematic for religious believers as religion cannot be tested.

Conversion of Biblical Measurements

Conversion of Biblical Measurements One of comedian Bill Cosbys most hilarious routines features a conversation between God and Noah about building an ark. After getting detailed instructions, a puzzled Noah asks God: Whats a cubit? and God responds that He doesnt know either. Too bad they couldnt get help from archaeologists on how to count their cubits today. Learn the Modern Terms for Biblical Measurements Cubits, fingers, palms, spans, baths, homers, ephahs, and seahs are among ancient forms of biblical measurements. Thanks to decades of archaeological digs, scholars have been able to determine the approximate size of most of these measurements according to contemporary standards. Measure Noahs Ark in Cubits For example, in Genesis 6:14-15, God tells Noah to build the ark 300 cubits long, 30 cubits high and 50 cubits wide. By comparing various ancient artifacts, a cubit has been found to equal about 18 inches, according to National Geographics atlas, The Biblical World. So lets do the math: 300 X 18 5,400 inches, which amounts to 450 feet or a little more than 137 meters in length30 X 18 540 inches, or 37.5 feet or just under 11.5 meters in height50 X 18 900 inches, or 75 feet or slightly less than 23 meters So by converting biblical measurements, we end up with an ark thats 540 feet long, 37.5 feet high and 75 feet wide. Whether thats large enough to carry two of each species is a question for theologians, science fiction writers, or physicists who specialize in quantum state mechanics. Use Body Parts for Biblical Measurements As ancient civilizations progressed to the need for keeping account of things, people used parts of the body as the quickest and easiest way to measure something. After sizing up artifacts according to both ancient and contemporary measurements, theyve discovered that: A finger equals about three-quarters of an inch (roughly the width of an adult human finger)A palm equals about 3 inches or the size across a human handA span equals about 9 inches, or the width of an extended thumb and four fingers Calculate More Difficult, Biblical Measurements for Volume Length, width, and height have been calculated by scholars with some common agreement, but measures of the volume have eluded accuracy for some time. For example, in an essay titled Bible Weights, Measures, and Monetary Values, Tom Edwards writes about how many estimates exist for a dry measure known as a homer: For instance, a Homers liquid capacity (though normally seen as a dry measure) has been estimated at these various amounts: 120 gallons (calculated from footnote in New Jerusalem Bible); 90 gallons (Halley; I.S.B.E.); 84 gallons (Dummelow, One Volume Bible Commentary); 75 gallons (Unger, old edit.); 58.1 gallons (Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible); and about 45 gallons (Harpers Bible Dictionary). And we need to also realize that weights, measurements, and monetary values often varied from one place to the next, and from one time period to another. Ezekiel 45:11 describes an ephah as being one-tenth of a homer. But is that one-tenth of 120 gallons, or 90 or 84 or 75 or ...? In some translations of Genesis 18: 1-11, when three angels come to visit, Abraham instructs Sarah to make bread using three seahs of flour, which Edwards describes as one-third of an ephah, or 6.66 dry quarts. How to Use Ancient Pottery to Measure Volume Ancient pottery offers the best clues for archaeologists to determine some of these biblical volume capacities, according to Edwards and other sources. Pottery labeled bath (that was dug up in Tell Beit Mirsim in Jordan) has been found to hold about 5 gallons, comparable to similar containers of the Greco-Roman era with capacities of 5.68 gallons. Since Ezekiel 45:11 equates the bath (liquid measure) with the ephah (dry measure), the best estimate for this volume would be about 5.8 gallons (22 liters). Ergo, a homer equals roughly 58 gallons. So according to these measures, if Sarah mixed up three seahs of flour, she used nearly 5 gallons of flour to make bread for Abrahams three angelic visitors. There must have been plenty of leftovers to feed their family unless angels have literally bottomless appetites. Sources on Biblical Measurements The Biblical World: An Illustrated Atlas (National Geographic 2007).Biblical Weights, Measures, and Monetary Values, by Tom Edwards, Spirit Restoration.com, spiritrestoration.org/Church/Research%20History%20and%20Great%20Links/Biblical%20Weights%20Measure%20and%20Monetary%20System.htm Bible Passages Genesis 6:14-15 Make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. Ezekiel 45:11 The ephah and the bath shall be of the same measure, the bath containing one-tenth of a homer, and the ephah one-tenth of a homer; the homer shall be the standard measure. Source The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha, New Revised Standard Version (Oxford University Press). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Analyzing Pro forma Statements Essay Example for Free

Analyzing Pro forma Statements Essay This financial analysis will define an initiative of what to implement, that would increase sales over the next five years. It can either be, another market, product, or a corporate expansion. A pro forma will be created and used for the XYZ Manufacturing Company of a five year projections. Assumptions will be made to support each line item, to increase or decrease the forecasted statements. There will also be interpretation of the financials, in relation to the initiative. Recommendations are to made on the potential discretionary financing needs. This word analysis is the company’s short term and long term financing needs, and strategies to help the company manage their working capital (University of Phoenix, 2014). Pro forma statements are created by, forecasting and combining the income and balance into a financial statement format. This will determine how the account balances are forecasted by acquiring forces that will influence and project how the accounts will be influenced. These forces are recognizable as restrictive debt agreements, sales, and company policies The following illustrations below is the Pro forma’s process for a five-year projection. This information is based on historical data collected from the sample provide (UOPX, 2014)..There is acquired information of a increase in sales new product as the result of a new product introduction also an increase in the production capacity. The increase in sales will acquire fixed assets with the excess cash (Parrino, Kidwell, & Bates, 2012) Pro forma Balance Sheet for XYZ Company, INC. Total Liabilities and Stockholders’ Equity-$559,608 $649,251 $848,766 $1,,037,172 $1,183,541 In the above balance sheet the current assets and current liabilities has increased in the ratio of sales (Parrino,Kidwell, & Bates, 2012, p90,91. 92) There is also an additional increase in the fixed assets. The company to take out an additional loan to meet the capital expansion, and the working capital needs (Parrino, Kidwell, & Bates, 2012) I would recommend that the company The first step in this pro forma financial statements is the forecasting of sales. Sales always influence the current asset and current liability account balances. For example: the account receivable balances would need to become larger increased if the firm needs to carry more inventory. Through the profit margin, and the dividend payout ratio. There is much difficult in forecasting sales, but it is an essential, it only depend on the season of the year, economy and the industry There could also be many other factors as well. Reference Parrino, R., Kidwell, D. S., & Bates, T. W. (2012). Fundamentals of corporate finance (2nd ed.). Hoboken, N. J.: John Wiley & Sons. University of Phoenix material, (2013) â€Å"Analyzing Pro Forma Statements†

Vignette Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Vignette - Essay Example These workers who are mostly Mexicans and Hispanics have not been arriving to the north. It is pointed out from the article that the mass-production farms are feeling the crunch of the increase in local small farms. Because of the decrease in the source of cheap labor, their produce is becoming more expensive than the local farm produce which used to be more expensive. It is cited in the article that â€Å"local farm sales are becoming more stable, predictable and measurable† (Johnson, 2012). The growing trend is that the Hispanics, who used to be low-wage laborers, are now becoming farm entrepreneurs through the support of training programs for beginning farmers. These farmers are not only provided with the agricultural know-how but also given guidance with regards to the distribution and marketing of their produce. Several economic concepts and implications can be derived from this article about small-scale farmers. One concept is about the risk that an entrepreneur takes in making an investment (Adomait & Maranta, 2011). It can be observed that the low-wage Hispanic farm laborers are taking a risk in becoming an entrepreneur. They are investing their time and effort at farming although they are not sure if the investment is worth it. It is a risk to be working on one’s own when one has no experience at being an entrepreneur. The laborer is taking this risk in the hope that he can benefit from its expected return. Like the Hispanic farmer, Narendra Varma, the former Microsoft manager described in the article is also taking a risk. He invested $2 million from his savings to a 58-acre project of small plots and new farmer training near Portland. Since this venture may be a high risk investment for him, he obviously expects a higher rate of return, maybe higher than if he just invested his money in the bank. One thinks that if the trend towards entrepreneurship continues, the economy will be