Sunday, October 13, 2019
Nobody Ever Dies :: Essays Papers
Nobody Ever Dies ââ¬Å"The Complete Short Stories of Earnest Hemingwayâ⬠contains many kinds of stories, with themes ranging from the comic to the serious and the macabre, among which ââ¬Å"Nobody Ever Diesâ⬠is my favorite one. The story is about a young man named Enrique, who had been away at war for 15 months. His comrades-in-arms secretly sent him back to a house, without knowing it was being watched. Enrique was all the time listening. Someone was trying the two doors. Keeping himself out of sight, Enrique carefully looked around the house. There was no one but a Negro walking along the sidewalk. When the dark came, the Negro was still there. Suddenly, a siren on the radio from the next house gave him a false alarm. Soon afterwards, two stones fell on the tiling floor of the porch one after the other. Enrique went downstairs to the back door. The one outside gave the password correctly, and Enrique opened the door. It was his girlfriend Maria. She had waited until it was dark to come to send him food. Enrique shut the door again. They went up to the porch and looked out. The Negro was gone. Maria learned from Enrique that many soldiers had died, including Vicente, her only brother and the flower of their party. She couldnââ¬â¢t accept it. Enrique finished his meal and talked about the lessons he had learned from the war and his attitude toward his companionsââ¬â¢ sacrifice. But she said he talked like a book with a dry heart. Enrique was hurt and showed her the severe wound on his lower back. She cried. Enrique suggested their leaving the house immediately. Just then, two real sirens came both ways up the street. Enrique ordered Maria to leave at once, but she insisted he should go first. Finally, they ran out of the back door and took two ways, diving into the weeds surrounding the lot and crawling. Enrique was almost to the edge of the lot now and must make a dash across the road. But as he started to run, the searchlight caught him, which was from the police car that had come silently, without siren, and posted itself at one back corner of the lot. Enrique fell to the gun from the car.
Saturday, October 12, 2019
Edgar Allan Poe :: Essays Papers
Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and lived in six Eastern cities. His father was David Poe, a Baltimore actor. His mother, Elizabeth, also in the acting business came to the United States as a kid. The parents were not that talented; they played small roles in rather third-rate theatrical companies. They both had small parts, and barely managed to make a living. Edgar was the second of three children. When the third child was born, the father died, or disappeared, and Mrs. Poe went to Richmond with the two youngest children. The oldest boy, William Henry, had already been left with relatives in Baltimore. Mrs. Poe was in the last stages of tuberculosis. Weakened by the disease and worn out with the struggle to support her children, she died. Edgar, two years old, and the infant, Rosalie, were left as orphans. It was pure luck that Mrs. Frances Allan, the wife of a merchant in Richmond learned about the Poe babies. She had no children of her own and liked handsome little Edgar a lot more than his sister. She took him home with her, and another family took his little sister Rosalie. Mrs. Allan would have liked to adopt Edgar, but her husband was unwilling to commit himself. At that time people thought acting was immoral. John Allan could not help regarding the little son of actor parents as a questionable person to inherit his name and the fortune he was busy accumulating. He was willing however, to support the child, and in time came to be proud of Edgar's good looks and intelligence. When Edgar was six years old, Mr. Allen's business took him to Scotland, the country from which he had come originally. The family stayed in Scotland and England for five years. Edgar was eleven when the Allans returned to Richmond. Richmond in back then in the 1820's was a good place for a boy to live. It was still a small enough town for the fields, swamps, and woods to be close by. Boys swam in the river and in the little creeks, they fished, they tramped through the thick woods, looking for wild muscadines and chinquapins.
Friday, October 11, 2019
Love has to look like something
As for my opinion, most of the people know will say that love is an action. And for me it it's the most appropriate meaning then for me. Love can be felt, yes love but love is also the action you need to do to show reciprocity to what others show to you or has done for you. As to Mr.. Dye, love started from loneliness, but as for what I have been taught. Love comes from God. And because he loves us first, we are able to love him back and his example of love has been our model as to how should we love others. According to Mr.. Dye, loneliness started the experience of being love.I know I ant question him right there because every individual has his own say but as for me, it isn't. Because love is the most beautiful thing that God has given us. Because without his love, we are maybe not here anymore. But I know some will tell me that because of love u became broke. But we can only be victorious because of Jesus. Although we have different backgrounds and different time frames with Jesu s, one thing that we find that remains the same is God's love for us. His love never changes, His love remains the same, and His love never fails.So if you feel like someone betrayed you, why not eve him first. Sometimes love can be taken for granted and the word used over and over. For example, you might say, ââ¬Å"l love my car, or I love the smell, or love ice cream. In our minds though, love has to look like something. But when the words ââ¬Å"l love youâ⬠come to mind, we become scared of it because of our past. Maybe someone you loved left you and so you want to guard your heart and don't really want to believe those words anymore. What then is God's definition of love?In 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 it says that, ââ¬Å"love is long sufferingâ⬠(patient). That's the first definition. The second is, ââ¬Å"Love is kind. â⬠Then continuing it says, ââ¬Å"Love does not envy, does not parade itself, is not puffed up, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in inequity but rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, and love never fails. â⬠I might emphasized the words LOVE NEVER FAILS. Yes, true love, it does not fails.So you're probably thinking then now that why that many relationships has to be end, and families come to be ruined, say, it is cause they don't have the right foundation of love. I have read this note which I rephrased that ââ¬Å"most of the reasons why we commit mistakes and doomed ourselves, is because we were not willing to wait, that we were not been patient. It might be true right. Because according to statistics, each year, the number of teenage pregnancies are rampantly going higher each time, many relationships has been broken because they were not patient to each other.And according to the bible, the very first definition is ââ¬Å"long-sufferingâ⬠. Jesus is a perfect example of that love, he has suff ered a lot of insults, he has en accused of many things and yet he has given us patience just so we can see his purpose here unto this earth. He suffered and bore all the pain because he loves us and he doesn't want us to be lost again and because he knows that through him, we can be redeemed and we can be accepted as God's children again.. Love should not be over busy with other things.In Luke Chapter 10 -it is when Jesus visited Mary and Martha household. Martha was so concerned with the things that had to be done so she asked Jesus to send Mary to help her. But Jesus said to her that Mary chose the good part by listening to His words, and t shall not be taken away from her. In the Bible, Paul says that we must rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us and not on our own human efforts; because our human efforts, our achievements, and our possessions are simply garbage when comparing to what we have In Jesus.There are times when we don't understand what is happening in our lives. W e feel, we hope, we trust, we get let down, and we get burned. But God in His sovereignty says to you who are spiritually mature to keep pressing on. He has something better for you but you need to go through this in order to obtain it. That's the race you're on. When you get there you will understand. But in the process, love has to look like something. Otherwise, who will the unsaved look for in love? How are they going to know what love is?Thus, we need to be the light to show the world what love looks like. In 1 Core. 14:1 it says, ââ¬Å"Eagerly pursue and seek to acquire his love. â⬠Furthermore, the Bible says in John 15:2 to be glad that, ââ¬Å"He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. â⬠This just means that we should row the thing that brings out the best in us and prune those we think that will put us into ruin. Love cannot be over busy.One day I remember God talk to me and he revealed something to me, some people think that they are unworthy, they are dirty, they were ashamed to approach people because they were afraid that you'll goanna judge the, most of this people felt unloved and so, that is why, our love shouldn't be busy overlooking into things that it felt like weave filled them with much attention already, there are lots of people who needs to be love. And because I am filled with love by God and by the people rounds me, why not share my love to this people.Why not share a glimpse of how God filled you with much enthusiasm and joy in your heart. They were all just like us, Jesus came to the world so he could love everyone, and when he went up to heaven, he has given us the authority to love his people. Just by merely talking to them could give them a hint how much loved you're filled with. Because when they can see the passion that resides in you, they will then reflect the light you've given them. John 15:4-5 says, ââ¬Å"Remain in me, and I will remain in you for a branch cannot reduce fruit if it is severed from the vine.And you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes, I am the vine. You are the branches. Those who remain in me and in them will produce much fruit for apart from me, you can do nothing. â⬠All the energies we have when we're investing in the Lord, sitting at His feet, don't know how many times we continuously say devotions, devotions, devotions. We sit at His feet, listen to His voice, but don't you close the book and say that we're done. Devotions begin our time with the Lord, but it doesn't end when we close the book. He says for you to look like love in this hurting world.
Thursday, October 10, 2019
Contribution Margin and Break Even Analysis
Many factors come into play in determining business success. One of them is the financial factor. For a company to set financial goals it is crucial that its management know in detail the products or services they sale or provide. This is the analysis of two different scenarios at Aunt Connie's Cookies Simulation (University of Phoenix, 2011) and the financial performance of Jamestown Electric Supply Company (Heiter, et. al. 2008). During both analysis I applied concepts like fixed and variable costs, contribution margin, break-even point, indifference point, and operating leverage. Aunt Connie's Cookies Scenario Simulationà The Aunt Connie's brand grew successfully producing Lemon Creme and Mint cookies. Maria Villanueva is the current chief executive officer of this family-owned company (University of Phoenix, 2011). She faces critical decisions to make because both the lemon creme and mint cookies prices increased and sales volume decreased. Maria should apply several accounting concepts to reach her goal of increasing sales and revenue for the company. Some opportunities and challenges lined up for Aunt Connie's Cookies like large bulk orders and the buyout of a competitor's factory (University of Phoenix, 2011). A confectioner commissioned Aunt Connie's Cookies to fill a bulk order of one million packages of the Real Mint cookies delivered in one month's time. The stipulations of the order weights greatly on the company as the confectioner will only pay $1. 20 per package, which is much cheaper than the mass market selling at $1. 50 per packet. Rejecting the order may seem foolish as Aunt Connie's Cookies has the capacity to produce the order, and could be missing out on a good opportunity if she declines to fill the order (University of Phoenix, 2011). In deciding which cookie's production to reduce, Maria took into account the concepts of contribution margin, unit contribution margin, and operating profits. This decision was necessary to create sufficient capacity to accommodate the mint cookies bulk order. The contribution margin is the amount of money that remians from the revenue obtained after sales to pay for fixed expenses and to contribute to the operating profits after deducting variable expenses. Alternatively, the unit contribution margin of each unit sales, in this case each pack of cookies adds to profit. Finally, operating profit is the profit earned from a company's core business operations, also known as earnings before interest and tax (EBIT). Maria calculated the contribution margin and the unit contribution margin for each type of cookie, determined to reduce the production of lemon creme cookies and to increase the production capacity for the bulk order of real mint cookies. Maria can sell mint cookies at $1. 20 per package, below the selling price of $1. 50 because the real mint cookies provide a greater total contribution margin and that the lemon cream cookies provides a greater unit contribution margin. Maria knew that Aunt Connie's Cookies should produce more of the cookies with the greater contribution margin per unit to maximize the shop's operating profit. If the scenario changed, and the bulk order was for lemon cookies, Maria would have to turn over the order to the confectioner. The unit contribution margin for the lemon cookies is smaller and Maria would have to increase the production capacity to make the same operating profit as for the mint cookies, to the point of going beyond the factory's production capacity. Maria faced the opportunity to buy a peanut butter cookie plant. She could use this plant to make more lemon creme cookies because the near-term demand exceeded 600,000 packs. The challenge for Maria is to make a decision about going forward or not with this business (University of Phoenix, 2011). If the new plant has a break-even volume of creme cookies of 650,000 packs, Maria must ensure that Aunt Connie's Cookie shop sales the same amount of packs or more. If the business sales less, it will make a loss, if it sells more, it will be a profit. The break-even point in volume is the point where the plant's fixed expenses are covered. In the case that Maria considers Aunt Connie's Cookie shop cannot sell that much, she may ensure viability of the plant by (1) trying to reduce the fixed costs (e. g. renegotiating rent, reducing telephone bills, insurance, etc. ), (2) trying to reduce variable costs (e. g. purchasing at lower cost the ingredients used to make cookies), or (3) increasing the selling price of the cookies. Any of these strategies can reduce the break-even point in volume. In the worst of the scenarios, Maria should not buy the peanut butter cookie plant. Key Learning Points. During the simulation I applied several concepts such as contribution margin, break-even point, fixed and variable costs, indifference point, and operating leverage. All these concepts interrelate and form part of the cost volume profit analysis tool. The application of these concepts by managers help organizations attain good financial performance. Cost volume profit analysis (CVP analysis) is a powerful tool that can help managers in understanding better the relationship that exists among the cost, the volume, and the profit in a business. Managers can make good business decision if they concentrate in trying to understand the interaction that exists among (1) the prices of product or services, (2) the level of activity, (3) the volume of product , (4) the variable cost per unit, (4) the total fixed costs and (5) and the mixture of the product or services. Business decision may be about changes to company's pricing policy, selection of a marketing strategy to use, choosing which products to manufacture or services to provide, and even about the acquision of new companies. The break-even point (BEP) is one element of CVP analysis. BEP is the level of output at which the profit is zero. Break even analysis helps managers determine how far sales can decline before their companies start to lose money. The indifference point is the volume at which costs for both labor-intensive operations and equipment intensive operations are equal. When volumes increase, revenues increase. However, the presence of lower variable costs per unit in equipment-intensive operations ensures that the operating profits increase more significantly when compared to labor-intensive operations. Equipment-intensive operations have higher fixed costs and lower variable costs per until when compared to labor -intensive operations. Jamestown Electric Supply Company. Jamestown Electric Supply Company has been in business for 45 years. The company designs, manufactures, and delivers electrical supplies in various forms to different type of businesses. Jamestown invested heavily in research and development of automotive electronic technology to provide its customers with modern functionality, safety, and performance. Jamestown products have outstanding features that create competitive advantage to commodities that customers regard as standard features on all automobiles. Jamestown has hundreds of diverse contracts with different divisions and plants of each of the major automobile manufacturers. Most of the contracts show good gross profit margin on sales, but others do not show acceptable bottom-line profits or show no profit. Although Jamestown's sales, continue to rise, profit declined in the period under analysis from 2003 to 2007 as showed on Exhibit One. Jamestown top managers believe that if sales growth remained positive, the problems with the profit would resolve. Warehousing and shipping managers think that customer service expenses are out of control and causing significant cost increases for the company. Jamestown customer services include overnight delivery of electronic component products, just-in-time inventory deliveries to client's plants, warehousing of client parts, special part support services, and many other customer services designed to gain and maintain clients. Exhibit One. Jamestown Electric Supply Company Income Statements for 2003 to 2007. Electric Supply Company financial performance is in jeopardy and top management have to change its customer service policy and marketing strategy after carefully analyzing the information obtained after performing a CVP analysis. The focus of the analysis should be in understanding the relationship between product price, volume, per unit variable cost, and the mix of products sold by Jamestown Electric. Calculating the contribution margin on the products which Jamestown Electric sales will allow management to know more in detail how much each unit sale will contribute to the company profit. Calculating the break-even point will provide information about which products do not bring either profit or loss, and about how far sales can decrease before Jamestown Electric starts to lose money. James Electric product cost structure has a higher percentage of variable costs than in fixed costs, which involves less operating leverage or risk. One of he options management should consider is to closely monitor the variable expenses incurred by customer service in order to increase the company profits. Jamestown Electrical Supply Company management will definitely benefit from setting a regular schedule to analyze contribution margins either monthly or quarterly to track product margin performance more accurately. Conclusion Managers can help their organizations achieve a good financial performance when they apply basic accounting concepts in their business strategic plans. Knowing the existing relationship between these concepts contribute to ensure their organization's financial success.
Wednesday, October 9, 2019
Advantages and Disadvantages of Free International Trade
Advantages and Disadvantages of Free International Trade à Title of Coursework (please provide whole question) 2(a) Explain why free international trade can be good for countriesââ¬â¢ economies, and examine the attempts to reduce trade barriers in the past decade. (maximum 1,000 words) 2 (b) What negative effects might free international trade have upon countriesââ¬â¢ economies, and why might counties adopt protectionist policies? (maximum 1,000 words) à Question 2a, Explain why free international trade can be good for countriesââ¬â¢ economies, and examine the attempts to reduce trade barriers in the past decade. Trade is a major engine of growth, both in developed and developing countries. Correspondingly, the opening of markets to allow for free trade internationally has been cited as a key factor boosting trade and economic growth globally over the years (OECD, 1999; 2003). There are a number of theories that highlight the reasons why countries should engage in international trade, and which cons equently enhance support for the argument for free trade. These include Adam Smithââ¬â¢s theory of absolute advantage, the theory of comparative advantage by David Ricardo, and other more recent theories (Mankiw, 2010). The theory of comparative advantage which is one of the most popular theories advocating free trade, posits that nations should specialise in the production of goods for which they have relative/comparative advantage, and exchange them for products from other countries with relative advantage in other products (Reuvid and Sherlock, 2011). Although this theory has some flaws, one of them being that it ignores limits in international demand that may exist for the specialised outputs of some countries (Reuvid and Sherlock, 2011), it nevertheless provides a strong argument for the promotion of free trade. Beyond theoretical reasons, statistics lend further support to the benefits of engaging in international trade. Sachs and Warner (1995), in a study to determine whet her nations open to trade are more prosperous, over a period from 1970 to 1989, reported that for developed countries, the rate of growth for open economies was 2.3% per year, and compared with 0.7% for closed economies. In developing countries, the gains were even higher, with a growth rate of 4.5% for open countries, as against 0.7% for closed countries. The OECD (2003) highlights other potential benefits of removing barriers to trade. They state that removing all tariffs on merchandise trade, and reducing the costs of trade by 1% of global trade value will boost overall welfare globally by over $170 billion a year, and this could add the equivalent of up to 2% to the current GDP of some regions. Other advantages of promoting free international trade through the removal of barriers are as follows: It gives customers greater choice by making available a wider variety of products, and also access to potentially cheaper and/or better quality goods. Removing price distortions encourag es the use of resources in a way that maximises the advantages offered by a countryââ¬â¢s strengths/resources. In developing countries, these improvements in resource allocation and increased revenue from exports contribute to the national income and increase the resources available for further investments in development. It also enhances a countryââ¬â¢s productivity and wealth (Love and Lattimore, 2009; Reuvid and Sherlock, 2011; The Economist, 2013b). These benefits have led to considerable attempts to reduce trade barriers, some of which shall be discussed subsequently.
Tuesday, October 8, 2019
HR Management in the Small Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words
HR Management in the Small Business - Essay Example In both small and large businesses, the major functions of HR management are recruitment, selection, training, and compensation of employees (Longenecker et al., 2011). However, not all-small businesses are able to have a full functioning HR management system that can handle the above-mentioned activities in formal and efficient ways. As a result, small businesses are forced to choose to either run these activities informally or outsource them to another organization. The small businesses due to their size and level of income are in most cases not able to adapt new technologies that have been developing to improve efficiency in managing human resources. One of such technologies is the Human Resource Management System that can provide information necessary for effective decision-making (Mathis & Jackson, 2011). As a result, small business is forced to employ the outdated method of decision making which can be inefficient in our current era. Another reason that makes small business not to use such technologies is that they do not prioritize the management of human resources. Majorities of the small businesses are not able to maintain an HR department with fully qualified HR professionals necessary for effective and formal HR management. In such organizations, the owner of the business or a clerical employee who is employed to do so carries out the HR roles. Moreover, in case of new employees who are hired, the supervisors and managers do the recruiting, selecting and training (Mathis & Jackson, 2011). Due to the limitation in the HR knowledge of the people tasked with HR management mandate in small businesses, it is always found out that in most cases they fail to meet standards required. Some of these HR activities are time consuming and, thus, they largely reduce the time the people assigned to undertake them have to focus on their main role in the business. Most of these small businesses decide to outsource most of their HR activities to another organization. The outsourcing process means that a business contracts or hires another business or organization to undertake certain activities in the business on its behalf (Mathis & Jackson, 2011). The outsourced activities might be recruiting, selecting and training of employees as well as managing its HR records and employees compensations. In such a case, this helps the people involved in running the business to focus mainly on their area of specialization and, thus, makes them to be more efficient in their roles. Furthermore, it enables the business to acquire services of HR specialist in undertaking its HR activities that can result in more efficiency despite their size. The major reason why most of the small business chooses not to have an HR department to handle HR activities and issues is the relatively low interest in human resource management in their different stages of operation (Cornelius, 2001). In most cases, it is very difficult to convince a manager or owner about the fundament al contributions of an HR department in the success of their business. This makes them not to prioritize it and most of them only plan to introduce them when their businesses grow to become large corporate. However, these individuals should be convinced about the role that properly managed human resources can play in resolving their
Monday, October 7, 2019
Managing Radical Changes in an Organization Essay
Managing Radical Changes in an Organization - Essay Example The use of organizational teams by most organizations to implement radical changes has been a core recommendation by most scholars however, the requirements for these teams to be successful in the change implementation are not clear. However, the composition of the change teams and how they are selected, their motivation and influence of engaging with the employees on the need to make changing to the company, are critical to the success of the change implementation. In this study several theories are put in place to identify the strategies that any team carrying out change must observe for it to be successful. Nevertheless, the adoption-innovation theory, and the ability based theory of emotional intelligence proposes that the teams that observe the views of the employees, the team that uses the cognitive style will no fact be successful in the implementation of any form of change. Moreover, the leader of the team has a direct effect on the success of radical change implementation (A ntonakis 2009). ... While there might be several factors behind these failures, there is the underestimation of the quantity of time and the energy required that would create a new organizational culture so that the employees might be accepted and feel this change in the organization. Without employee engaging in any type of change, there is little realization of the profits or the required results. The organizational change is therefore a slow and dynamic process that needs careful planning. The external forces in the present economic and social environment have made many organizations to seek the best ways in which to adapt and implement the changes they need in the organization. Nevertheless, the need to maintain the legitimacy of the company and the need to maintain the viability of the resources (Armenakis 1999). Thus therefore, there is a need to focus on radical change initiatives for the organizations to benefit from any form of change they are about to implement. The radical changes in the mobi le banking industry are often associated with some form of risk and difficult to implement. Change Process Models According to Baron (1997), change is a slow and dynamic process in an organization. It consists of several phases that need to be successive. These he referred successive phases as ââ¬Å"unfreezing, moving, and refreezingâ⬠(Barbuto 2006). Several other recent studies have based their ideas on this phase model and come up with related models that aim to show the practical aspect of the implementation of the radical changes by an organization. Baron (1997) asserts that the implementation of the radical changes in an organization is a daunting task and therefore throughout the
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