5 Most Important Things You Can Do for the Environment

5 Most Important Things You Can Do for the Environment If you feel you’re not doing enough for the environment by replacing your incandescent light bulbs with LED lights and composting your kitchen scraps, maybe you’re ready to make a deeper commitment to environmental stewardship. Some of these strategies may seem a little radical, but they are among the most valuable actions you can take to protect and preserve Earth’s environment. Have Fewer Children- Or None Overpopulation is arguably the world’s most serious environmental problem because it exacerbates all of the others. The global population grew from 3 billion in 1959 to 6 billion in 1999, an increase of 100 percent in just 40 years. According to current projections, the world population will expand to 9 billion by 2040. This represents a slower growth rate than that of the last half of the 20th century, but it will nevertheless leave us with many more people to accommodate. Planet Earth is a closed system with limited resources- only so much fresh water and clean air and only so many acres of land for growing food. As the world population grows, our finite resources must stretch to serve more and more people. At some point, that will no longer be possible. Some scientists believe we have already passed that point. Ultimately, we need to reverse this growth trend by gradually bringing the human population of our planet back down to a more manageable size. This means more people must decide to have fewer children. This may sound pretty simple on the surface, but the drive to reproduce is fundamental in all species. The decision to limit or forgo the experience is a difficult one for many people because of emotional, cultural, and religious traditions and pressures. In many developing countries, large families can be a matter of survival. Parents often have as many children as possible to ensure that some will live to help with farming or other work and to care for the parents when they are old. For people in cultures like these, lower birth rates will only come after other serious issues such as poverty, hunger, poor sanitation, and freedom from disease have been adequately addressed. In addition to keeping your own family small, consider supporting programs that fight hunger and poverty, improve sanitation and hygiene, or promote education, family planning, and reproductive health in developing nations. Use Less Water- And Keep It Clean Fresh, clean water is essential to life- no one can live long without it- yet it is one of the scarcest and most endangered resources in our increasingly fragile biosphere. Water covers more than 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, but most of that is salt water. Freshwater supplies are much more limited and today a third of the world’s people lack access to clean drinking water. According to the United Nations, 95 percent of the cities worldwide still dump raw sewage into their water supplies. Not surprisingly, 80 percent of all illnesses in developing countries can be linked to unsanitary water. Especially if you live in a dry climate, you should use only as much water as you need, avoid wasting the water used, and strive to protect  water supplies. Eat Responsibly Eating locally grown food supports local farmers and merchants in your own community as well as reducing the amount of fuel, air pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions required to move the food you eat from the farm to your table. Eating organic meat and produce keeps pesticides and chemical fertilizers off your plate and out of rivers and streams. Eating responsibly also means eating less meat and fewer animal products such as eggs and dairy products, or perhaps none at all. Eating less meat is a matter of good stewardship of our finite resources. Farm animals emit methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming, and raising animals for food requires many times more land and water than growing food crops. Livestock now uses 30 percent of the planet’s land surface, including 33 percent of farmland worldwide, which is used to produce animal feed. Every time you sit down to a plant-based meal instead of an animal-based meal, you save about 280 gallons of water and protect anywhere from 12 to 50 square feet of land from deforestation, overgrazing, and pesticide and fertilizer pollution. Conserve Energy- And Switch to Renewable Energy Walk, bike, and use public transportation more. Drive less. Not only will you be healthier and help to preserve precious energy resources, but you’ll also save money. According to a study by the American Public Transportation Association, families that use public transportation can reduce their household expenses by $6,200 annually, more than the average U.S. household spends on food every year. There are dozens of other ways you can conserve energy. You can turn off lights and unplug appliances when they are not in use and substitute cold water for hot whenever practical. Other small steps you can take include weather stripping your doors and windows and not overheating or overcooling your home and office. One way to start is to get a free energy audit from your local utility. Whenever possible, choose renewable energy over fossil fuels. For example, many municipal utilities now offer green energy alternatives so that you can get some or all of your electricity from wind, solar, or other renewable energy sources. Reduce Your Carbon Footprint Many human activities- from using coal-fired power plants to generate electricity to driving gasoline-powered vehicles- cause greenhouse gas emissions that heat the atmosphere and contribute to climate change. Scientists are already seeing significant climate changes that point to the likelihood of serious consequences. Some scenarios foresee increasing drought that could further reduce food and water supplies and, at the same time, rising sea levels that will submerge islands and coastal regions and create millions of environmental refugees. Online calculators can help you measure and reduce your personal carbon footprint, but climate change is a global problem that requires global solutions and, so far, the world’s nations have been slow to find common ground on this issue. In addition to lowering your own carbon footprint, let your government officials know that you expect them to take action on this issue- and keep the pressure on until they do. Edited by Frederic Beaudry

Credit risks in financial markets prior to credit crisis The WritePass Journal

Credit risks in financial markets prior to credit crisis Introduction Credit risks in financial markets prior to credit crisis IntroductionCredit risks in financial marketsLiquidity risks in financial marketsExtreme uncertainty and volatility in financial marketsThe effect of the crisis and the way aheadConclusionRelated Introduction In the last 25 years, the world suffered boom-bust economical recycling .What impressed us was the serious financial crisis happened in 1930, however, the credit crunch in 2008 was even worse. It   crisis is the culmination of a super boom that has lasted for more than twenty-five years and seems a sign of the end of an era of credit expansion based on the dollar as the international reserve currency. It might be formed because of the bursting of the Internet bubble in late 2000.The Fed responded by cutting the federal funds rate from 6.5% to 3.5% within space of just a few months. Occasionally, came with the terrorist attack of September 11,2001.To counteract the disruption of the economy, the Fed continued to lower rates in half a century, where it stayed for a full year. For thirty-one consecutive months the base inflation-adjusted short-term interest rate was negative. These consequent activities remain the interest rate in a low level for years that the rational lender will ke ep on lending until there is no one else to lend to, when money is free, an explosion of leveraged buyouts, and other excesses became conventional. Meanwhile, an endangered supper housing bubble is growing silently. According to the national statistic in the U.S., from 2000 until mid-2005, the market value of existing homes grew by more than 50%, and there was a frenzy of new construction. A shocking discovery by Merrill was that about half of all American GDP growth in the first half of 2005 was housing related, either directly, through home building and housing-related purchases like new furniture, or indirectly, by spending the cash generated from the refinancing of mortgages. This means, starting around 2005, securitization became a mania. It was easy and fast to create â€Å"synthetic† securities that mimicked the risks of real securities but did not carry the expense of buying and assembling actual loans. Therefore, Risky paper could be multiplied well beyond the actual supply in the market. Conversely, this activity led to an enormous increase in the use of leverage. To hold ordinary bonds requires a margin of 10%; synthetic bonds created by credit default swaps can be traded on a margin of 1.5%. It turned to be an opportunity for those hedge funds to show good profits by exploiting risk differentials on a leveraged basis, driving down risk premiums. Credit risks in financial markets The story began in early 2007, signs of trouble started to multiply. On February 22, HSBC fired the head of its U.S mortgage lending business, recognizing losses reaching $10.8 billion. Later on, DR Horton, the biggest homebuilder, warned of losses from subprime mortgages on March 9. Three days after, New Century Financial, one of the biggest subprime lenders, had its shares suspended from trading amid fears that the company was headed for bankruptcy. Then it was reported that late payments on mortgages and home foreclosures rose to new highs. What`s more , Accredited Home Lenders Holding put up $2.7 billion of its subprime loan book for sale , on March 16, at a heavy discount to generate cash for business operations. Even worse on April 2, New Century Financial filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after it was forced to repurchase billions of dollars which were worth of bad loans. The effects of sub-prime problems were gradually spread across banks around the world when many of the mortgages had been bundled up and sold on to banks and investors. In July, investment bank Bear Stearns tells investors they will get little, if any, of the money invested in two of its hedge funds after rival banks refuse to help it bail them out. On 9 August 2007, investment bank BNP Paribas tells investors they will not be able to take money out of two of its funds because it cannot value the assets in them, for an excuse of a complete evaporation of liquidity in the market. Obviously, banks are refusing to do business with each other. On June 15, 2007, two large mortgage hedge funds of Bears stern were having trouble meeting margin calls. To cope with this, Bear grudgingly created a $3.2 billion credit line to bail out one fund and let the other collapse which indicated that investors` equity of $1.5 billion was mostly wiped out. As late as July 2007, Bernanke still estimated subprime losses at only about $100 billion. When Merrill Lynch and Citigroup took big write-down on in-house collateralized debt obligations, the markets actually staged a relief rallyThe SP 500 hit a new high in mid-July. People release and think it naively finished. Somehow, it was only at the beginning of August that financial markets really took fright. Shockingly, Bear Stearns filed for bankruptcy protection for two hedge funds exposed to subprime loans and stopped clients from withdrawing cash from a third fund. Though it was useless, Bear Stearns had tried to save these entities by injecting $3.2 billion of additional funding. Liquidity risks in financial markets Everything that could go wrong, once the crisis erupted, financial markets unraveled with remarkable dramatically. Investment banks with large positions of CDOs to keep off balance sheet in so-called structured investment vehicles (SIVs). By issuing asset backed commercial paper, the investment banks financed their positions by SIVs. As the value of CDOs came into trouble, the asset-backed commercial paper market dried up, in order to keep the market liquid, the investment banks were forced to bail out their SIVs. Most investment banks took the SIVs into their balance sheet and surrendered to commit that large losses were in the process. Consequently, Investment banks were sitting on large loan commitments to finance leveraged buyouts. Normally, they would package these loans as collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) and sell them off, but the CLO market came to a standstill together with the CDO market, and the banks were left holding a bag worth about $250 billion. Some banks allow ed their SIVs to go bust, and some reneged on their leveraged buyout obligations. This, together with the size of the losses incurred by the banks, served to unnerve the stock market, and price movements became chaotic. So-called market-neutral hedge funds, which exploit small discrepancies in market prices by using very high leverage, ceased to be market neutral and incurred unusual losses. A few highly leveraged ones were wiped out, damaging the reputation of their sponsors and unleashing lawsuits. The banking system suffered all this pressures. They had to put additional items on their balance sheets at a time when their capital base was impaired by unexpected losses. Banks had difficulty assessing their exposure and even greater difficulties estimating the exposure of their counterparts. Similarly, they were reluctant to lend to each other and eager to save their liquidity. At the very beginning, central banks found it difficult to inject enough liquidity due to commercial banks avoiding used any of the facilities which had a responsible to attach them, and they were also ignored to deal with each other, meanwhile, these obstacles were overcome .After all, if there is one thing central banks know how to do, that is to provide liquidity. Only the Bank of England suffered a major debacle when it attempted to rescue Northern Rock, an overextended mortgage lender. Its rescue effort resulted in a run on the bank. Eventually Northern Rock was nationalized and its obligations added to the national debt, pushing the United Kingdom beyond the limits imposed by the Maastricht Treaty. Extreme uncertainty and volatility in financial markets The banking sector tended to filled with liquidity, however, the crisis refused to abate. Credit spreads continued to widen. Correlated that almost all the major banksCitigroup, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Bank of America, Wachovia, UBS, Credit Suisseannounced major write-downs in the final quarter of the year, and most have signaled continued write-downs , separately, most others have signaled continued write-downs in 2008. Both AIG and Credit Suisse made preliminary fourth-quarter write-down announcements that they repeatedly revised, conveying the doubtless accurate impression that they had lost control of their balance sheets. A failed with   $7.2 billion trading at Societe Generale announced in January 2008, coincided with a selling climax in the stock market and an extraordinary 75 basis point cut in the federal funds rate eight days before the regularly scheduled meeting, when the rate was cut a further 50 basis points. This was unprecedented. Distress spread from residential real estate to credit card debt, auto debt, and commercial real estate. Trouble at the monocline insurance companies, which traditionally specialized in municipal bonds but ventured into insuring structured and synthetic products, caused the municipal bond market to be disrupted. With the intension of credit market, numourous of entities went bankruptcy. This called for large amount of compensation by the insurance companies.   No doubt that an even larger unresolved problem is looming in the credit default swaps market (CDSs). Changing in structure of financial landscape The effect of the crisis and the way ahead Over the past several decades the United States has weathered several major financial crises, like the international lending crisis of the 1980s and the savings and loan crisis of the early 1990s.But the current crisis is of an entirely different character. It has spread from one segment of the market to others, particularly those which employ newly created structured and synthetic instruments. Both the exposure and the capital base of the major financial institutions have been brought into question, and the uncertainties are likely to remain unresolved for an extended period of time. This is impeding the normal functioning of the financial system and is liable to have far-reaching consequences for the real economy. Conclusion Both the financial markets and the financial authorities have been very slow to recognize that the real economy is bound to be affected. It is hard to understand why this should be so. The real economy was stimulated by credit expansion. Why should it not be negatively affected by credit contraction? One cannot escape the conclusion that both the financial authorities and market participants harbor fundamental misconceptions about the way financial markets function. These misconceptions have manifested themselves not only in a failure to understand what is going on; they have given rise to the excesses which are at the root of the current market turmoil.

The Cons of Drilling for Gas by Hydraulic Fracturing Essay - 1

The Cons of Drilling for Gas by Hydraulic Fracturing - Essay Example The essay "The Cons of Drilling for Gas by Hydraulic Fracturing" talks about the hydraulic fracturing, an industrial process which is water intensive and is used to collect natural gas. And with the examples of multiple basins, the papers will present the environmental implications of hydrofracking in shale gas reservoirs. Before the man could reach the lower part of the crust, shallow wells were dug so as to get the gas. Hydrofracking is the latest method of extracting the gas and it has led to a lot of problems. First, the gases that come out are very poisonous and harmful to human consumption. The ecological imbalance that comes with the drilling process is also very harmful to nature and can lead to the imbalance of nature and all its recourses. Shale gas is the gas that is produced by the shale and there are two functions of the shale. It functions as the reservoir and as the source rock for the natural gas. Due to hydrofracking, many of the shale rocks are known to fracture and this leads to an imbalance in the ecosystem. Hydrofracking involves a lot of pressure that is used so as to bring the gas upwards. The high pressure is of importance and causes the gas to flow upwards, however, the high pressure also has a lot of environmental impacts. It weakens the rocks that are underground when this happens; the result is a weak underground rock structure. This can cause it to sink and hence lead to an earthquake. The main question here is the effect of hydrofracking on the environment.

A Supermarket Marketing Strategy for Expanding its Store Essay

A Supermarket Marketing Strategy for Expanding its Store - Essay Example This essay covers fully developed marketing plan for a small wine company Castlegate Wines Ltd. In every organisation, there are some key marketing management decisions which play a pivotal role in determining the performance of an organisation. These include the product, price, distribution and management. In every day operations of an organisation, the total number of sales it makes plays a very important role in determining the overall performance. The main target in every organisation is to sell all what it produces in the shortest period possible. However, it requires an organisation to invest in and be able to come up with best marketing strategies which would help in maximizing sales. In the current business world, the market has become extremely competitive due to entrant of many players in the market. In the wine industry, the level of competition has increased significantly over the past. In order for any organisation to be successful in the market, they need to have a good marketing strategy on top of their retail wine stores. This will help an organisation to reach as many customers as possible hence maximizing its sales. Marketing plan in this essay is divided by such parts as: background and arguments, public relations, advantages of selling through supermarkets, impact and effectiveness of a supermarket strategy for expanding, effects of the strategy to Castlegate Wines Ltd, other necessary marketing measures, difficulties, opposition & barriers and recommendations.

One page reflection essay based on experience Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

One page reflection based on experience - Essay Example ompetition instilled in us an aspect of self-confidence in all we did thus winning every match besides developing additional skills due to practising harder. This is because we aimed at ensuring retaining our position as the leading team during all games we played. Sometimes we lost, but instead of being discouraged, losing to our competitors made us go back to the drawing board to examine and analyse our weak points. By understanding where we went wrong, it became much easier to find the way forward. Competition built teamwork, which uninterruptedly lead to the success of the team. Basketball involves passing of the ball from one player to another whereby without teamwork this will not be effective because there will be aspects of unselfishness. The healthy competition in basketball instilled a winning attitude in us besides discouraging us to be out of our comfort zones. Determination and perseverance enabled us to achieve the victory we badly needed. However, initially it was not that easy on my part to join an already strong team. I had to prove my worth but with persistence not only I made it but turned to be a reliable player. Extending this aggressiveness in life, competition has always encouraged me to set higher goals than that of my competitors. Through the early sport, I learnt to admire my competitors and strive harder to beat them. Not by copying them, but by being more creative and innovative to outdo them. We should therefore embrace competition for the good values it creates in

Genesis Computers: Project Management and Cost Control

Genesis Computers: Project Management and Cost Control Executive Summary Genesis is engaged in supply of PCs to the home market and in development of software. During the past year, project costs of the company have tended to go beyond projections and have become a matter of grave concern. The project management team has been given the task of analysing the situation and devising measures to control costs. This report contains a detailed analysis of the problems facing the company and provides recommendations to bring project costs under control. It is structured into separate sections and after beginning with a small introductory write up, takes up the various factors involved in project cost control, along with recommended measures and suggestions. 1. Introduction Genesis Computers is in the business of selling and maintaining personal computers for home use. The company also develops software solutions for its clients. The customers of the company buy PCs, as well as bespoke software. Clients can be segregated into customers who buy computers, customers who buy software and those who buy both. All customers are provided with free warranty periods for both hardware and software. Many of them prefer to enter into annual maintenance contracts at the end of the warranty period. In consonance with customer expectations, Genesis sells only branded computers. In addition to PCs, some customers also need printers and scanners, which the company provides. As the market of the company is limited to customers who need PCs for home use, the number of computers sold to individual clients remains restricted. Some clients who run small businesses from their homes occasionally place larger orders, along with bespoke software. The company is experiencing overruns in project costs. Cost escalations are occurring regularly in both hardware and software components, with resultant erosions in profitability, delays in project completion and decrease in customer satisfaction. It has now become imperative to ensure that cost budgets are maintained and customer expectations with regard to quality and delivery met appropriately. It is the objective of this assignment to investigate the reasons for cost overruns and develop appropriate measures to control identified problems. Consideration has to be given to the small size of the company. The recommendations should thus be simple, logical and convenient to implement. 2. Cost Overruns Measures to control project costs need to account not only for the costs incurred for procurement of hardware and development of software, but also for those incurred for maintenance and rework during the warranty period. Apart from these expenses, project costs need to incorporate all direct or indirect expenses attributable to the project. As warranty costs for hardware are protected by back to back arrangements with hardware vendors, this assignment will focus on the other cost elements involved in project execution. Cost control must necessarily be a multi disciplinary exercise. This fact needs to be conveyed to all departmental heads and their cooperation obtained. It needs to be recognised that cost reduction exercises that happen without the full cooperation of all departments will probably be stillborn and doomed to failure. a. Estimation and Quotations: In many cases the genesis (!) of cost overruns lies in improper preparation of estimates and quotations. Preparation of estimates is often the preserve of sales and marketing functions. The sales department in Genesis reports directly to the CEO and its eagerness to clinch deals occasionally results in inadequate cost estimation and low quotations. It is recommended that the estimating exercise be converted into a multidisciplinary function for an initial period of six months. During this period managers from projects, procurement, software development, finance and sales departments should take part in the estimation function. Managers drafted for this exercise will need to be informed of the urgency of the exercise, the necessity of carrying out detailed estimation exercises and the need for speed in preparing estimates. It must be ensured that sales response times do not get diluted due to the necessity of carrying out estimation exercises. It is also essential to ensure that the p rocedure for estimation be in line with the methodology used by the company for preparing project budgets. The estimation exercise, while incorporating direct and indirect costs, must provide for accurate forecasting of time required for software development. It needs to be emphasised that most software development costs are functions of time and labour and the underestimation of time is a causal factor behind preparation of incorrect estimates and subsequent overruns. b. Budgeting: The budgeting exercise takes place only after receipt of the order; with budgets sometimes being very different from original estimates. It is important to prepare the budget, de novo, after receipt of the order on the basis of the order specifications for hardware and software. The hardware requirements and prices agreed upon need to be checked with procurement prices to ensure the presence of determined margins. A software development process consists of specific steps e.g. analysis of software, elements, architecture, implementation, testing, documentation, training, support and maintenance. The budgeting process must necessarily account for the time required for separate processes, incorporation of buffers and slacks, application of accurate costing rates and incorporation of other direct and applicable indirect costs, including the apportionment of overheads. c. Supply Chain Management: Efficient control of costs relating to the hardware component in projects will be best served by improving the supply chain management of the machines, peripherals and accessories, traded by the company. Most projects contain both software and hardware elements. As such, they also have a delivery time framework that is in consonance with software development time. This factor, fortunately, provides enough time to the purchase department for procurement of hardware, even after receipt of the order. Genesis must take advantage of this slack in hardware procurement time to ensure minimum stocking and reduced inventory levels. The project managers need to coordinate with the staff of the procurement department and the vendors, thereby ensuring that while low inventories do not lead to delays in receipt of material, ordered supplies are received â€Å"just in time† to ensure timely delivery. Introduction of this practice will lead to reduction in inventory, freeing of inventory car rying costs, more careful buying and sharper project execution practices. d. Project Monitoring and Execution: Improvement in any aspect of project management; be it cost, delivery or quality, essentially starts with project managers. Each order, as soon as it is signed, must be allotted to a suitable project manager. The choice of project managers is important in order to ensure that chosen managers are competent enough to handle allotted projects and moreover, have enough time to devote to the execution of their projects. Overloading project managers or allotting projects to unsuitable managers is the surest way to invite problems in project execution. Improper project management can lead to costs going over budget or to late deliveries, with problems getting compounded when large number of projects come up for parallel execution. There are three basic dimensions to successful project management, control of time, scope and cost. These dimensions work like three sides of a triangle, with a change in any one parameter affecting the other two. Research shows that less than 10 percent of all projects are delivered to their original cost and schedule estimates. One reason associated with this failure rate lies in the tracking of effort and cost – estimates should be tracked over time comparing planned to actual outcomes.(McManus, 2006) Project managers must control the scope and time of the project and ensure that they comply with originally laid out plans. It is generally seen that this approach, if implemented sincerely solves many of the problems that lead to cost overruns. Project managers are responsible for a number of issues, the main ones being planning, designing objectives, controlling risk, estimating and allocating resources, organising work, acquiring resources, assigning and directing activities, controlling execution, monitoring and analysing progress, implementing route corrections, ensuring compliance with cost, time, quality and delivery norms and managing issues. Execution of many software projects also involves the utilisation of outside experts who are paid in line with the time expended by them while working on the project. Outside experts need to be monitored with more care because of their distant location and other commitments. Specific attention needs to be given to monitoring the various phases of different projects. If estimation and budgeting are done with a fair degree of comprehensiveness and accuracy, proper monitoring and route corrections procedures help greatly in keeping projects on track. Project monitoring involves a number of variables. It is recommended, in the first instance, that all mangers use standard software like MS Project to monitor and control projects. In addition to use of standard project monitoring tools, monthly financial reviews also help in controlling project costs. It is recommended that these financial reviews should be regularly held and attended by project managers, finance personnel and the CEO. The focus of these reviews should be on cost and time overruns. These reviews will help enormously, not just in locating reasons for overruns but also in quantifying the costs that remain to be incurred. It is imperative that reporting of costing data, at this stage, should draw only upon the information available within the existing finance function. Changes in systems relating to collecting and recording of costing data should be looked at only after the present recommendations are implemented and followed, for at least one year. It would be premature to do otherwise. 3. Closing Review and Conclusion: The conclusion of any project must necessarily be accompanied by a detailed closing review focussing on time, scope, cost, and customer satisfaction. The review should deal not just with negative variances but also with areas where good project execution practices have been able to achieve savings in time and costs. This will enable project managers to focus and localise practices that have worked favourably during project implementation. The project management team must use these completed reviews as major information sources for designing project cost control measures. They must draw from the lessons learnt and conclusions reached to prepare a detailed manual outlining company practices for monitoring and controlling project costs. The CEO and the finance department should keep the issue of project cost control alive during the year and design a reward system for staff responsible for executing very successful projects. It is suggested that these measures be implemented immediately and quarterly reviews be held thereafter to assess their effectiveness in achieving project cost control. Bibliography Ho, M, 2005, Managing Project Quality: Cost, Control and Justification, DM Review, Retrieved December 23, 2006 from www.dmreview.com/article_sub.cfm?articleID=1040055 Hormozi, A. M., Dube, L. F. (1999). Establishing Project Control: Schedule, Cost, and Quality. SAM Advanced Management Journal, 64(4), 32. Relkin, J, 2006, 10 ways to effectively estimate and control project costs, Tech Republic, Retrieved December 23, 2006 from articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878-6078705.html

Provocation Through Comedy :: Movie Script Film Creative Writing Essays

Provocation Through Comedy If I were to write a film concerning women and sports, first of all I think I'd make it a comedy. I think sometimes it is easier to convey serious thoughts through a comedy, because the viewer doesn't feel so tangled up in the emotion of drama, leaving them laughing and in a good frame of mind to consider the points being made by the film after they watch the film. I think this idea is much akin to the idea that it is easier to discuss issues and problems of race and gender through a forum like film because a person can identify with an idea being expressed without having to take responsibility for the authorship of the idea. I think that a comedy is more capable of providing a powerful ending because the viewer isn't expecting it. Obviously if I were a screenwriter I would want to write a film that was unique and distinguishable from the other films made about women in sport. This might at first seem difficult, given the proliferation of films made on the subject, but they follow a lot of the same trends. One of these trends is the portrayal of the latent aggression in women that is released through sport. Women are not permitted by society to be aggressive in any area and still maintain their femininity. If I were to write a film I would include this theme and I would try to show that women can be aggressive in many areas. Their aggression can be in something other than sports, for example, business. I think a situation that would show this and also be comical could be perhaps a woman that owns a sports team. Another issue is the fact that all of the women in the films we watched were made to prove their femininity. I don't think that it is necessary to prove that a female athlete must stand up to an accepted level of femininity. There really is no reason to make a female athlete buy new dress shoes or learn to put on lipstick. I really don't think that it is necessary for any woman to prove their femininity whatsoever, especially not in these superficial, commercial ways. So if I were to write a film, she wouldn't go through that trouble. Her power suit could be pants and she wouldn't have to wear makeup.

Micromax Mobile

A study report on the ‘Brand’ Micromax | | | | By Punyadeep Singh PRN 59, MBA 09-11, SIOM Introduction The mobile phone market in India is worth 130 million handsets annually. While the big boys like Nokia, Samsung, LG, Motorola and Sony Ericsson make up for 70% share, the market has of late seen a slew of domestic firms such as Micromax, Karbonn and Intex making large inroads and new established brands like Videocon and Onida entering the field. Among the domestic firms, one of the most promising brand is Micromax. Few years ago, when Vikas Jain’s firm was delivering computer printers and monitors across India, he saw first-hand how pervasive Nokia had become. Just as in Europe, where most people’s first mobile phone was made by the Finnish giant, it had repeated the trick of getting in first and carpeting the subcontinent with its no-frills handsets. Despite Nokia’s dominance, the Indian mobile-phone market was far from being saturated. Jain saw his chance. From a standing start two years ago, his company, Micromax, is now churning out 1 million phones a month. He believes that next month it could overtake Samsung, with 11% of the market, and seize second place in India. â€Å"When Nokia or Samsung roll out a new model they do so from its global portfolio rather than launching something specifically for India,† said Jain, who set up the company in 1990s along with three friends from engineering college–Rahul Sharma, Rajesh Agarwal and Sumeet Kumar, all of whom are in their mid-30s to early 40s. Micromax, started operations in 1991 as an embedded software design firm, but was incorporated as a company in 1998, when it branched out as a distributor of computer peripherals such as printers, monitors, scanners from manufacturers such as LG, Sony Inc. , Dell Corp. Today, Micromax  is one of the leading Indian Telecom Companies with 23 domestic offices across the country and international offices in Hong Kong, USA, Dubai and now in Nepal. With a futuristic vision and an exhaustive R&D at its helm,  Micromax  has successfully generated innovative technologies that have revolutionised the telecom consumer space. Micromax, as they claim on the company’s website, is on a mission to successfully overcome the technological barriers and constantly engender â€Å"life enhancing solutions†. Micromax’s first innovation was a handset with 30 days of standby battery life — crucial in a country like India where power failures are common. Next there was a dual memory card phone, priced at ? 26, for callers who like to juggle the cheapest tariffs. The company’s vision is to develop path-breaking technologies and efficient processes that incubate newer markets, enliven customer aspirations and to make  Micromax  a trusted market leader amongst people. Micromax  has a lot of interesting and thoughtful products to its credit on their versatile product portfolio. It was the first to introduce: 1. Handsets with 30 days battery backup 2. Handsets with Dual SIM / Dual Standby 3. Handsets Switching Networks (GSM – CDMA) using gravity sensors 4. Aspirational Qwerty Keypad Handsets 5. Operator Branded 3G Handsets 6. OMH CDMA Handsets,  etc. With a 360 degree advertising and marketing strategy sketched out, the company has an optimistic outlook for the telecom consumer space. Currently present in more than  40,000 stores  across the country, the company plans to have an aggressive market incursion to reach out to its customers through  70,000 operational stores  in the coming year. One of the major aspects that contribute towards the substantial monthly growth of Micromax is its 80% sales in the rural areas. After building a strong presence in the rural market, where the prominence of both subscribers and operators is rapidly increasing, Micromax is now progressively moving towards establishing its foothold in the competitive urban towns as well. Micromax  recently ventured into the telecommunication industry with an end-to-end solution of  Fixed Wireless Devices  and  Wireless Data Cards. In the year 2008, after delivering upon the technology of fixed wireless-powering desired products, the company forayed into one of the most predominant genres of telecommunication – Mobile handsets. Since then  Micromax  has received commendable response for its unique and interesting handsets. Innovation, Cost-Effective, Credible and an Insightful R&D are given high emphasis at Micromax  in the telecom vertical. Micromax as a ‘Brand’ in the Media Posted: Monday, February 8, 2010. 0:45 PM IST on livemint. com (website of the famous B-newspaper): â€Å"Micromax challenges Samsung, LG in mobile phone stakes†. The news further elaborates that Citigroup Global Markets Inc. has confirmed Jain’s assertion in a 3 February report, which said Micromax had a 10% market share, putting it at No. 3 behind Nokia and Samsung, which had 12-13%. The success of Micromax prompted US private equity group  TA Associates  to buy â€Å"less than 20%† of the firm for around $45 million (Rs210 crore today) in December, valuing it above $225 million and indicating confidence in its growth potential. Jain estimated that the firm will close the fiscal with sales at around Rs1,500 crore. The Brand Micromax has now started gaining acceptability not only with the consumers but also with the images, which now has started portraying it with a positive image. Whereas increased consumer sales support the acceptance among the consumes, following quoted are some extracts from the news reports that show that media is also looking up to this brand. â€Å"Micromax seems to have taken a breath of fresh air and totally remade their presence. From their previously drab website, they’ve moved into a much more vibrant state and there’s clearly a significant difference in their mobiles as well, at least cosmetically†, quotes www. tech2. in in a review for its newly launched model X360. Micromax has also tied up some pretty big brands like Yamaha for enhancing their audio experiences and the X360 comes with an MTV branding and exclusive content. Apart from the mobile handset market, Micromax was recently in the news for its alliance with BSNL. State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. ntered into an agreement with Micromax for sale and distribution of 3G data card to its subscribers. As per the agreement, Micromax would sell and distribute 3G data cards in the form of USB to the BSNL subscriber in various cities. In another venture, Micromax launched the India’s first operator branded  3G mobile phone H360, in association with MTNL. The H360, pre-loaded with applications to enable video calls, mobile TV, social networking, wireless  business solutions  through web browsing and other Internet-based services. Product Differentiation So, as listed Micromax has been quite effective in the marking a difference with almost every product that it launched. The range that they have covered varies quite a large variety. Right from the handsets with 30 days battery backup, dual SIM, handsets switching networks (GSM – CDMA) using gravity sensors, aspirational QWERTY keypad handsets to operator branded 3G handsets to the most exciting OMH CDMA Handsets,  etc. Every product of Micromax had the potential to grab the attention of media as well as the consumers in a market which is already flooded with mobile phone handsets and a launch is there in every day or two. Image Differentiation: From Rural to the Urban grounds Micromax specialized in entry-level and mid-segment handsets priced between Rs1,800 and Rs2,400 when it started selling the devices in 2008, confining itself to small towns and rural areas in the first 12-18 months. Encouraged by its success, the firm expanded to larger cities and now has a distribution network of 55,000 retailers, which it plans to scale up to 70,000 by the end of March as part of its strategy to raise sales to 1. 5 million handsets a month. The journey is also now spans through the wide range that Micromax plans to offer to its consumers in the coming period. Micromax is planning to expand its range in keeping with new market demands. It is readying several high-end handsets, including phones that will run on Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating systems. The handsets are expected to be available in â€Å"April or May†, Jain said. Micromax has also tied up with a Bollywood celebrity â€Å"who will be announced shortly† as brand ambassador, Jain said. Channel Differentiation Micromax has invested Rs100 crore to set up a plant in Baddi in Himachal Pradesh as it feels outsourcing manufacturing completely leaves the door open for supply-side uncertainties. Production will be scaled up from an initial 50,000 per month. â€Å"If everything goes right, by the third phase in March 2011, the Baddi plant will be making about 500,000 handsets,† Jain said. If the plant isn’t able to cope with the numbers, the fallback plan is to acquire a facility in South Korea, Taiwan or China, he added. Nokia has a plant in Chennai, established in 2006 at a cost of around $150 million, from where it also exports. Summary Till very recently, Micromax was seen as a second grade brand with hardly any brand value. But with the recent reports listing the figures in the company’s favour as well as the huge branding done by the company itself along with the interesting product portfolio has taken the brand to a respect position. And the position is still is very promising for the future. For a company which still has not been listed on any exchange, a turnover of about 1500 Cr. can be termed as huge. Certainly the company has the potential to be a threat to the foreign giant as it has been successful in studying the Indian mindset better. ———————– Micromax spent heavily on branding during the recent India v SA; Jaypee Infratech Cup A recent Economic Times report

How to Write a Descriptive Essay on Food

How to Write a Descriptive Essay on Food Writing a descriptive essay on food can be a very interesting activity. This is particularly so because every person has a liking for a specific type of food. Therefore, one can decide to write an essay that describes the various methods of preparing a given food. In a similar way, a descriptive essay on food can focus on discussing what a balanced diet should include. Likewise, one can elect to focus his or her essay on organic foods, a topic that has generated substantial debate in the recent years. Whichever the topic one chooses, the descriptive essay should be highly informative. In general, the prime objective of a descriptive essay is to highlight the outstanding features of a particular concept. With reference to food, the descriptive essay must outline the key characteristics of a given food type, if this is the approach that the writer chooses to adopt. In order to inform the reader adequately, a person doing a descriptive essay must first conduct thorough research on the topic. It is well understood that food is a broad theme that cannot be explored logically in a broad sense. Accordingly, the duty of the writer is to narrow the scope and choose an appropriate subtopic that can sufficiently be tackled. Selecting a subtopic might require the writer to list a range of possible areas, and then choose the one that has sufficient research evidence to back it up. Consider the example of a descriptive essay that investigates organic foods. The writer will start by giving a short introduction, wherein he or she can report the increasing adoption of genetically modified foods in developed and developing economies. It is always advisable to formulate a thesis that captures the reader’s attention, making him/her want to read the entire essay. After so doing, the next step is to provide a concise definition of the term â€Å"organic foods.† This is crucial because not all readers will have an idea about organic foods. It is equally prudent to give a list of common foods, which the reader understands, that fall in the category of organic foods. The writer will then proceed to supply the reader with facts or features that distinguish natural foods from organic foods. As a writer, you should always keep in mind that a descriptive essay should contain as many facts as possible. However, the bottom-line is that the language used should be kept as simple as possible. The rationale behind this contention is that a person who does not fully understand the native language could use the essay. In such a scenario, complex terminologies in the essay could confuse the reader even more, hence negating the ultimate usefulness of the essay. Another useful concept to include when writing a descriptive essay on food is to incorporate natural foods that are better supplements of the organic foods listed. In doing so, the writer will make the reader comprehend that organic foods should at best be avoided. Do you need a custom descriptive essay on Food topics? Visit CustomWritings.com professional writing service now!

Neurosis essays

Neurosis essays Neurosis, (or psychoneurosis), are mental disorders that cause frequent feeling of anxiety, depression, or other general feeling of distress that are not normal to the circumstances of life. This can affect any and all areas of life, whether being everyday activities to relationships. Generally though, the conditions arent severe enough to completely remove the neurotic from a normal life. Those suffering usually dont lose sense with reality as is a symptom of the much more dire psychosis. During the mid 19th century the term neurosis was keyed to characterize disorders that were neurological in origin. However, some twenty-five to thirty years later, the prefix psycho was added when it was discovered that the symptoms were mental and emotional as well. Psychoanalytic tradition suggests that psychoneurosis is caused by intrapsychic conflicts, which are conflicts between drives, impulses, and or motives that are stored in different components of the mind. Sigmund Frued theorized that the postulated existence of some unconscious part of the mind amidst its other functions, suppresses certain thoughts memories, or feelings that are unacceptable to the conscious mind. These repressed items are generally sexual are aggressive desires or thoughts or painful emotions or feelings. They cause anxiety when these things try to enter the conscious mind. The mind then responds to the upcoming feeling by attempting to push them back into their suppressed state. The mind uses defense mechanisms such as repression, denial or reaction formation. Neurosis begins when these defense mechanisms fail and forbidden impulses begin to appear in the conscious mind once again. Some believe that neurosis is a learned response to stress that can be unlearned. This would mean that the neurotic arent sick necessarily, but have certain maladaptive habits based on self-conditioning and possibly observation of others...

CONFLICT RESOLUTION Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

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Case analysis Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Analysis - Case Study Example It provides financial benefits and rewards and fulfills the interest of its employees. It provides a unique training program and leads up to the expectation of the employees which is the most common and popular method of recruiting, retaining and empowering of the staff. The company has focused on exploration of new gas and oil reserves and also in the development of the main and important projects with the application of technology for adding value to the resource holders. The policy and procedures has been formulated for controlling the fluctuation in the price of natural gas and oil, minimizing the physical and environmental risk and for promoting legal, regulatory and financial developments. It has been striving hard to maintain its position of being considered as the largest integrated chemical and energy company and it is adopting the transformation program and development in technology for safeguarding the environment. Shell is involved in recruiting, training and rewarding its employees or the staff for developing the business capabilities which ensures that the business of the company has increased and developed the performance and the engagement level. The corporate culture that is adopted by the company has undergone remarkable changes in framing the culture of the organization. It has focused on the creation, research and development and utilization of the knowledge for building and developing corporate culture. The company mainly attempt to maintain leadership for innovation in case of the energy industry. The potentiality of the leader among the young workers is developed for maximizing the organizational culture. The strategy of corporate citizenship is mainly developed for understanding the positive and tangible influence in the United Kingdom and influencing the prosperity and economic growth of the company. And enhancing the efficiency and