How Does The Media Influence Young Women?

How Does The Media Influence Young Women? There are many programs and magazines, such as Americas next top model and Seventeen magazine, that are watched and read by many teenage girls. These girls are insecure and want to be popular, handsome and well-liked. The young women are therefore easily influenced by the information they receive from the media. An average teenage girl hides herself using tons of make-up and beautiful clothes, because she is insecure about her outer appearance. Every morning she has to get herself prepared for the day. She decides to skip her breakfast, an extra hour of sleep, or even her first lesson. She takes a shower, puts on enough make-up and dresses herself well. These girls are influenced by the beautiful and perfect women, whose pictures are showed in advertisements and on TV. A variety of programs show us public images of how you should dress, look and act. The young girls wish that they are also perfect, with the perfect dress and with the perfect make-up; so that they are attractive to boys and that they look like the girls and women on TV. Well known make-up artists such as Rimmel London and Max Factor present their make-up with skinny girls, who have the perfect skin and the perfect look. So the question is, are they selling the product, the make-up, or are they selling the beautiful woman? The advertisements are indeed selling the product, but they are also selling the image of the ideal woman. They emphasize thinness as part of the females beauty. These women, who are on the covers of the magazines, serve as an example for the teenage girls. They also want to be thin, have big boobs, and a beautiful skin. These images affect the girls own self-image. Not only the models have a great influence on the girls, also the articles written in the popular teenage magazines have a great influence on the young women. The articles explain the girls about the ideal appearance. Articles like How to look attractive to boys and How to achieve the perfect look, hair and face are extremely normal. An article on the website of Seventeen magazine gives you the perfect example of such an article, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¾New Makeup Promise to Boost Your Mood! This article is about a new make-up that promises to make you happy. It explains about the ingredients, such as Euphoryl, Murumuru Seed Butter and Theobroma Grandiflorum, whatever they are, and I am sure that girls, who read this article, think about buying this make-up, without realising if these ingredients really work! Outer appearance has become very important throughout the years for everyone, because of the media. They emphasize the importance of the physical appearance and that is the way advertisers sell beauty products such as day and night creams and make-up. Women and teenage girls therefore strive to achieve the ideal outer appearance presented by the media. They are not satisfied with their own body and are doing anything to become beautiful. Do you recognize these young women? I bet that almost two third of the teenage girls could be compared to the average teenage girl who has been influenced by the media. These girls are boring and not outstanding. Thus, the media should stop offering false information to young women about the perfect body. The media encourages the girls to have a negative self-image. In fact, a person who is fat and walks like a duck has probably a more beautiful personality than the other girls. Although these girls are not to blame, the media is. By writing an opinion column, I wanted to express my opinion about how the media influences young women, because advertisements, commercials, TV programs and magazines are all influencing the teenage girls by giving them false information. An opinion column should not be written in a particular style. As a columnist you are free to write in your own style, although it still has to be worth reading. So my first objective was to write a convincing opinion column that would be easy to read for most people. Therefore I didnt use many difficult words and tried to be convincing by giving the reader important information about the influence of the media. My second objective was to inform the people about the influence of the media on teenage girls. I explained the average, insecure teenage girl who can be easily influenced by beautiful models printed on the cover of the popular teenage magazines. As an example I described a daily morning of an average teenage girl. Every morning she has to get herself prepared for the day (paragraph 2). The girls strive for having the perfect face; therefore they skip their breakfast to prepare for school. To support my opinion about the influence of media I used another example. On the website of Seventeen magazine, an American magazine for teenagers, I found an article that was called: New Makeup Promise to Boost Your Mood! (see stimulus material). This article is about a special make-up that would make the girls happier. Young teenage girls are easily influenced by this text and by the convincing title, because the title makes a certain promise to you. The Happy Booster Glow Mood Boosting Blush and Face Powder by Physicians Formula promises to lift your spirits. Its the first-ever makeup line developed to stimulate happy thoughts through mood-enhancing ingredients, color therapy, aroma therapy, and texture therapy. Basically, it copies the effect of endorphins, aka happy molecules, which produce a sense of well-being. (Your body releases endorphins during exercise, which is what makes you feel great afterward.) Other ingredients include Euphoryl, which is an anti-depressant packed with Omega-3, as well as Murumuru Seed Butter and Theobroma Grandiflorum Seed Butter, which make skin feel silky-smooth and appear luminous. Finally, its blend of floral scents refreshes your mood. And how cute is this packaging?! All this happiness is contained in a heart-shaped plastic compact with a pink metallic base. It comes in a face powder (see above), blush, and bronzer, and each is a variety of overlapping different-colored hearts. So, the big question: can you buy happiness? For $11.95-13.95 at select drugstores, you just might come close!

Business Report: SimVenture

Business Report: SimVenture This report is based on the engagement with SimVenture a business simulation which allows us as a team to setup and run our virtual company and learn about business and being an entrepreneur. This report evaluates team performance and decision making within the perspective of results achieved in the simulation at the end of three virtual years. This report also reflects the use of relevant entrepreneurial theories into practise while making decisions in the business and clearly stating the financial achievements at the end of it. The report takes you through the initial six months of the business in details where the crucial strategies were developed; thereafter the illustration is only on a half yearly basis. A question with many answers is that what drives people to turn into entrepreneurs to begin companies? Frequently we as individuals are not completely sure ourselves, and the answers to the questions are apt to change over time as our perception keeps changing. The reasons can be divided into two broad categories. First, the reactive reasons being things those are objectionable about working for others. They are the negatives that push us out. And secondly, the active reasons being things that are attractive about having our own business. They are positives that pull us out. Starting a new company is an immense challenge and to those with entrepreneurial impulse, it is very appealing (Kurtako et al, 2001). The attributes that a successful entrepreneur should possess while the start-up of a business is a competitive mind-set, one in which flexibility, speed, innovation, and strategic leadership are valued highly. With this mind set, firms can identify and completely exploit opportunit ies that emerge in a new competitive landscape. These opportunities surface primarily because of the disequilibrium that is created by continuous change. More specifically, although uncertainty and disequilibrium often result in seemingly hostile and intensely rivalrous conditions, these conditions may simultaneously yield significant product driven growth opportunities. Through effective entrepreneurial leadership, growth firms can adapt their behaviours and exploit such opportunities (Kurtako et al, 2001). It is interesting to see the differences between mind-set of an Entrepreneur, Manager and a Bureaucrat from the self explanatory Fig 1. Scenarios and assumptions at the beginning of the game Prior to the beginning of our business, we assumed to have a finance of  £10,000 for start up. The business was supposed to commence with a one man show by our virtual entrepreneur, who had already been working for 40 hours a week in another business. But as a team we had decided each individual to take the decision making responsibility of a particular department, with me being the one in charge of marketing. We initially decided to get our entrepreneur working part time for this new venture at a monthly salary of 500 £. He had been selling computers to friends and families for the past few years and always had a knack towards technology and assembling computers. Having only one sales order in hand for the first month, our entrepreneur intended to begin his business from home so as to maintain his costs as low as possible. At this stage the aspects which are of utmost concern are that he has limited knowledge in sales, marketing and about his local competitors. Our new business was inspired by the venture development stages, namely: New Venture Development, Start-Up Activities, Growth, Business Stabilization, and Innovation (Kurtako et al, 2001). Of these five stages the first stage consisted of activities associated to initial formulation of the venture, which has been mentioned above. The stages into which our business activities over the 3 years of simulation could be split into are Start-Up Activities and Growth. Start-Up Activities Stage The Start-Up Activity encompasses the foundation work needed in searching for capital, carrying marketing activities, taking up competitor analysis and developing effective entrepreneurial skills. This stage is typified by strategic and operational planning steps designed to identify the firms competitive advantage and uncover funding sources. With the availability of limited skills and working hours, in the first month we decided to outsource our firms competitor analysis and market research activities to specialized external agencies, the primary intention behind outsourcing being to get expert and skilled services efficiently. A legal advisor had been hired to specify the terms of a customer contract, not only keeping in mind the benefits of detailing the scope of work and means and methods of payment, but also with a future view to gain trust from prospective clients (a contract can also be seen as a marketing tool) and establishing a strong relationship with them while negotiati ng the terms of the contract. Other major customer awareness activities of the first month were to publish a press release for the launch of the company; joining a business networking group; and creating a standard website, designed and supported in-house to balance time and expenses of our working entrepreneur. Apart from these we had planned to take up a book based writing skills training course for our virtual entrepreneur, to provide him with the expertise of business communications which most small business owners lack in. And we planned to invest on a distributor research, because it is difficult and very expensive to reach a market with many customers with a directly employed sales force. Moreover distributors by and large aim to win business on sales rather than technical services. And our core competence being technical expertise we decided to use distributors to enhance our sales, although they bought products from us at a lower rate. After evaluating the suppliers on the criteria of their prices and flexibility to pay on account, we decided to choose ProSupply as our supplier because of its 60 days credit offering, at an additional expense of 0.5 £ per component. Apart from the legal liabilities of a limited company to maintain accurate information on its financial transaction which includes sales, purchases, income and payments by an organization, book keeping assists any entrepreneur to maintain the business on top of its competition by easily watching how the business is performing. Thus having a small scale start up business we decided to keep this particular activity in house. The second month of our business started on a positive note as we received two grants disbursed by the government,  £500 each: one was for training and the other was for research activities to be conducted. Although we had invested time on the application process for this funding, as a new company with limited finances this allowance was much needed to us. We also happened to receive our customer research report, following which we decided to choose our target customers to be Corporation. This decision was completely based on a few factors from our customer research report: market size, order size, order frequency and typical price. These four factors provided us inputs to calculate the average orders generated per year and the probable sales for each segment. Analysing our market research report (Fig 3) closely we noticed that there were much similarities in the product preferences sections of Corporations and ICT Businesses and both customers catered to a similar typical price ra nge of  £630-680. This made us decide to build a product with preferences that would suffice both the customer segments providing each one of them differentiation on certain product attributes. Referring to Porters generic strategies framework, we were serving a narrow market which demanded product uniqueness, thus we decided to use a differentiation focus strategy to increase our market share rapidly. Also a firm using a differentiation focus strategy enjoys a high level of customer loyalty which discourages other firms to compete directly. Analysing the competition and market report together, we designed our product offering to cater for both the target segments with the following attributes: extreme features, good quality, extreme performance, good style. Thus the product was differentiated for the Corporations with extreme performance, where they had demanded only for a good performance, and for the ICT Businesses with good quality and good style, where they had demanded for above average quality and above average style only. The unit cost of the product was  £452.62 and it was priced to the customers at  £679 initially, which was pretty high as compared to what our competitors were offering. I individually thought for market penetration a lower price was required. The marketing activities for this month were placing an advert in a local newspaper and joining a business community network where we could make our target customers aware of our unique selling points. Apart from this we spent our entrepreneurs remaining time in negotiating contracts with our distributors, namely: Norman, Harton Brothers, Rad, and Aztak, and manufacturing three product units in-house anticipating the future demand. We negotiated with our distributors in terms of size of orders per month, price of each unit of product and the methods of payments. The rationale behind choosing three of them as our distributors was because Normans had the maximum share in ICT Businesses followed by Solo Businesses and Corporations, Harton Brothers had 20% share in ICT Businesses and Rad captured 30%market share for ICT and Solo Businesses. Although Aztak held very little market share with ICT Businesses or Corporations but we still went with them, which I personally feel might not have been an appropriate move. Since at the end of the previous month, the number of enquiries were too low to sustain our business, thus the third month was very crucial for us where we had to take our strategic moves very carefully. Therefore we intended to hire a consultant to carry on a customer research, which we thought would help us find the reason behind the low number of enquiries. Along with a lucky break which resulted in good publicity for our company in the local media, this month we planned to go for a direct marketing campaign with 3000 basic leads bought as a database and promotional materials being designed in house. In the remaining time we planned manufacturing 9 products for future sales. On the fourth month of our business, we received the customer research results which provided us with the statistics of what our customers thought about our product and how did they hear about us. We used this information to fine tune our product design, work out the best marketing approach and get the price right with respect to our competitors. We understood that previously we had set up a very high price for our product to maximise short term profits, which was the reason for us to receive lower number of enquiries which hardly turned into orders. As quoted by Dolgui and Proth (2010), High price is accepted if it agrees with the value of the product perceived by the customers, otherwise such a strategy leads to commercial failure. While a low price can lead to a commercial success depending on the number of clients attracted by the product, but a low margin should be compensated by a higher number of items sold. Moreover with a high or a low price strategy the image of the items s old by the company is somewhat frozen and a long term price expectation is established, which can reduce the flexibility of the decision-making system. Thus justifying the aforesaid analysis we had to set the unit price of our product neither too high nor too low, at  £660, while we were operating in a range where customers were ready to pay from  £630- £680. On the marketing front we managed to attend the monthly business club meeting and exhibit ourselves at the Business2Business matters along with a direct marketing campaign to 3000 leads. Since by now our entrepreneur was overdoing his hours every month which was gradually making him tired, thus we decided to increase his part time working hours to 51 hrs a week and increasing his salary by  £100 to keep him happy. This was the fifth month of our business where we already had sales of 4 products from our last month and another new order for 4 products to be sold this month. The business was gradually taking its pace, but there were financial hurdles in front of us. Due to lack of cash in our account we were unable to pay our suppliers on time. The options we had to borrow money were either through bank loans or friends and family or overdraft or by selling equity. We thought the most viable option we had was to take a loan of  £50,000 for three years at an interest rate of 13% from the bank. Our monthly instalment to the bank summed up to  £1684.70 for three years which was lesser than our monthly estimated profit after selling units to distributors (refer Appendix 1). I individually thought we should have taken our first loan from friends and family instead of a bank because the interest rate was only 5.25%. Eventually in the next month we could have taken a bank loan. There was a business exhibition which was supposed to be held in the month of February, the next year. Having considered the fact that such events would provide us a platform to bring our product in front of the targeted customers and make them aware of it, we booked a place for our entrepreneur in this event, bearing in mind that Corporations were our primary target segment. Apart from this we also booked two more exhibitions for our entrepreneur to attend during the next month. One was an exhibition at New Ventures and the other was at Sparks. We heavily started relying on exhibitions primarily as a mean of marketing and advertisement for our business. We had a very clear marketing plan as a start-up company, which was the process of determining a comprehensive approach to the creation of customers. For developing this plan, the following elements were critical to us: Marketing research: determining who the customers were, what they want and how they buy. Sales research: promoting and distributing products according to market research finding. Sales forecasting: coordinating personal judgement with reliable personal information. Marketing plan: formulating plan for achieving long term marketing and sales goal. Evaluation: identifying and assessing deviations from marketing plans. (Kuratko and Hodgetts, 2007) As a marketing mix (refer Fig 5) for our Product offering we were having a strategy of focus differentiation to targeting only two business client segments. Our Price was set neither too high nor too low and was rationalized by setting it to  £660. We Placed our product through distribution channels, direct and indirect selling and also had a retail shop in place from the sixth month. And for Promotion we used individual communication channels like word of mouth, networking, public relations and direct marketing, and mass communication channels like exhibition, website and advertising. The sixth month was a fortune turner for us when we received 9 orders for the next month. Anticipating this huge number of orders, we already had been manufacturing products from the previous few months, even though at times we didnt have a single order to deliver. Our application for bank loan had been approved and we were able to successfully raise  £50,000 to clear all our pending bills. Having the right communication and marketing skills because of our previous training in the relevant departments this month we decided to create a small advert in-house, for a trade magazine. Since our business was growing bigger, this was the time when we had to decide relocating to a retail unit from the next month which was 100 sq. ft and  £208 of rent per month. Also convenience is an issue for most shoppers, whether its business or individual shoppers, and so sales location can have a major bearing on sales performance. Since we were only operating in a B2B environment we developed the fo llowing business model (refer Fig 6) where our products were reached to our customers either buy the distributors (which gave us less profit but large number of sales) or through our retail shop (which gave us higher profit but lesser number of sales). Because of the sudden rise in sales, hereafter we had to follow a model where most of our manufacturing had to be outsources and the remaining was to be built in-house. This month onwards we transited from the Start-Up Activities stage to the Growth Stage of our business. Growth Stage The Growth stage often requires major changes in entrepreneurial strategies, which is reformulated because of competition and other marketing forces (Kurtako et al, 2001). Thus now onwards our primary focus became the management of various departments involved in our business including the various stakeholders: direct customers, distributors, suppliers etc. The planning of operations was a major part of our start up venture. From the self explanatory Fig 7, we had adopted the bottom-up and the market requirements perspectives to design our operational strategy. The bottom-up view of operations strategy was to see strategic decision making as an accumulation of practical experiences. After all, our business would find it difficult to invent strategies in a total vacuum. Our ideas were formed from our previous months experience of dealing with customers, suppliers and their own processes. These were strategic ideas which emerged over time as our organisation begun to understand the realities of the situation. The market requirements perspective begun from the commonsense notion that our operations strategy should reflect what our business was trying to do in its markets. Our competitors competed in different ways; some competed primarily on cost, others on the excellence of their products or services, others on high levels of customer ser vice, others on customising their products and services to individual customer needs, and so on. Our operations function therefore had to respond to this by providing the capabilities which allowed us perform in an appropriate manner to satisfy the requirements of our market (Slack et al, 2007). After the initial breakthrough in the sixth month of our business, the next six months were more or less running at a constant pace, with 7-9 orders every month on an average. We did have to improve our product design based on the Customer Research results and by comparing our offerings with that of our competitors. We attended a marketing exhibition and carried out marketing campaigns with other sales activities almost every month to keep our enquiries and order numbers high. Apart from that, instead of failing to cater to our increased order rate every month, we kept manufacturing products by primarily outsourcing the major bulk of it at ( £452.62+ £80)  £432.62 per unit and partially building it in-house. By the end of the first year our business had again dried up in cash, thus making us unable to pay suppliers on time. It was time to consider a funding option again to cater to our growing business needs. As overwork was making our entrepreneur tired, this affected the sche duled tasks being incomplete in few of the months during this span of six months. We had the option of recruiting an employee for our business which I individually thought as the wisest option, but as a group we thought it wouldnt have been affordable for our entrepreneur in terms of time and money to opt for a new employee at this stage of our business. Thus we increased his part-time working hours and paid him a larger salary, doing our best to keep him happy and motivated. Previously and in future we not only did motivate him with only extrinsic factors like money but also encouraged him with intrinsic motivational factors like relevant training in various departments, namely: Production, writing skills, design and development, basic finance, business management, IT, communications skills, marketing and sales which helped him build a entrepreneurial identity of his own (enhancing his business qualities as an entrepreneur). In the first six months of the second year our main focus was to look out for the most feasible source of finance to our business. With the various options available in simventure, a bank loan of  £30,000 was the most viable option, which got approved within a span of three months. There was a noticeable increase in number of orders, the average being around 11 orders monthly, but on a couple of occasions the count had spiked to 16 and 17 orders which resulted in generating cash inflow for our business in the later months. During this period we also realised that the insufficiency of cash in our account was due to the fact that some of our customers did not clear their bills on time. Thus we had to take on the Credit Control strategy to closely observe all our customers who owed us money. A process was implemented which adhered to three steps. The first step was to send our customers a written reminder to clear their dues. If this didnt work the second step was to give them a phone call in the same regards. And if the first two steps failed then the final step was to take a legal action against the defaulter by hiring a third party agency who charged us 20% of the recovered money. In this process we had to compromise on shedding off a part of our profits rather than agonising our suppliers by failing to pay them on time, which could have lead to termination of our contract with them. During the last six months of our second year we had an average of 13 orders which was more than before. There had also been a dip in orders to 9 in number during the month of November and December. During this period we also decided to hire a few resources (namely: Premium Equipments, Premium Furniture, Premium Tools, Premium Transport) for our retail space to cater to the smooth running of the business as we were constantly growing. The marketing, advertising and sales activities were more or less similar to the previous half of the year, with our entrepreneur planning to attend more number of exhibitions for ICT Businesses apart from Corporations. The first six months of the third year saw a little decrease in orders, with the average being 11 orders a month. Because of this our entrepreneur had more time than the previous six months, which he decided to invest in an aggressive marketing campaign to create a base for the last six months of the third year of our business. He had also suffered from illness for 5 days during this period. The last six months of our third year was the span in our business where we received the most number of orders, the highest being 19 in the month of August. Our business had an added advantage, i.e. the economy became stronger resulting in rising of customers confidence in us. With Net Assets of  £240,077.47, Fig 8 depicts the financial health of our business at the end of the third year. And Fig 9 highlights the sales vs. Profit for the 3 years showing that although there had been continuous increase in sales over the three years, but the profit maximization was only achieved in the 2nd year of our business. This is because of the fact that with the increase in cost of sales in the third year of our business we didnt increase the product price, which resulted in decrease of profit margins, when compared to the previous year. Conclusion Throughout the span of this report we have been focussing on the competitive and entrepreneurial mindset of a start-up business owner, by recognizing and exploiting the opportunities that came across. We have been discussing about the entrepreneurs engagement in key areas of strategy, marketing, operations, finance and HR which enhanced the performance of our organization. The critical evaluation of decisions taken over the three years span of our business has given us an understanding of how differently various obstacle could be tackled. We begun from the star-up activity stage of a business simulation and happened to reach the growth stage in our business, by developing and nurturing our abilities as an entrepreneur while taking vital decisions at various junctures across the span of three years of entrepreneurship. Appendix 1 Distributor Order size Price / unit Fixed cost / unit Overhead Cost* Profit / unit Cost of total sale Profit per month per distributor Normans 10  £599  £452.62  £90  £56.38  £5,426.20  £563.80 Harton Bros 15  £594  £452.62  £90  £51.38  £8,139.30  £770.70 Aztek 5  £604  £452.62  £90  £61.38  £2,713.10  £306.90 Rad 25  £589  £452.62  £90  £46.38  £13,565.50  £1,159.50 Total 55  £2,386  £1,810.48  £360  £215.52  £29,844.10  £2,800.90 *Note: Overhead cost is estimated by adding Manufacturing cost (i.e.  £80 for any order above 25 units) and miscellaneous cost ( i.e.  £10 kept as a margin) Table : Distributor Analysis Source: Adopted from SimVenture

Student Protest :: Student Smoking

For years it has been a hot topic. What can students do and what can they not do? What is considered going to far? For many this is a question that has no true and legal answer. To many students, that is. In fact I happen to be one of the many. Now it would be wrong for me to write this paper and not put in my â€Å"two sense†. In my opinion this student protest bullshit has no limit. Students should not be restricted to what they can and cannot do. They like everyone else are American citizens and should not have their rights as American citizens stripped from them when they enter a building teaching them all about the rights they possess. To me that is the very hypocritical. To teach one thing, and practice another! I mean come on doesn’t that come a cross as more than a tad bit wrong. There are a number of court cases that cover the matter of student protest. Like always though I choose not to follow the norm, if you will. I would much rather take you on a trip through my mind and my opinions. As for student protest I am all for it. I would take it to the highest degree if it has to go that far. I see school as a place to come and socialize. The stuff that is taught is all boring to me. It always seems as if I already know what is going to be said. So what is the point? To go and get a diploma that in all actuality is nothing but a piece of paper that could easily be made by me. Perhaps that is why I get myself in so much trouble here. I am not the only one students just get bored and try to heighten the learning experience. Try to make it more fun for everyone. Even though there may be those who don’t quite comprehend what is going on, they still enjoy the laughter. Who knows maybe they even learn a thing or two from the student that the obviously more intelligent teacher couldn’t get them to understand. I am not saying that the student is smarter than the teacher but in some cases the yelling and screaming of a teacher to get through can be substituted by t he subtle sarcasm of the student.

Henry Cavendish: The Shy Scientist Essay -- Science, Biography

Henry Cavendish: The Shy Scientist Henry Cavendish was born October 10, 1731 in Nice, France. His mother, Lady Anne Grey was the daughter of the first Duke of Kent while his father Lord Charles Cavendish, was second Duke of Devonshire. His ancestry links back to many of the aristocratic families in Great Britain. The chemist/physicist is most accredited for the discovery of hydrogen, the â€Å"inflammable air† and measuring the Earth’s density, but he also researched and discovered many other important scientific revolutions. Henry was described as being a very silent and solitary individual. Many called him eccentric and some believe Asperger Syndrome was the root of his behavior. He was shy of strangers and especially shy of women, so much that he only conversed with his female servants by notes. At one point he had a back staircase added onto his house to avoid his housekeeper. This shyness did not allow him to have close or personal relationships to those outside of his family. He dressed from the previous century wearing an old faded velvet coat and a three-cornered hat. When he did talk he spoke in a squeaky voice and with difficulty. His single social outlet was his membership in the Royal Society Club, in which members dined together before their weekly meetings. Cavendish rarely missed these meetings and was highly respected by his colleagues. Although admired, those who sought his intelligence were often given a response of a mumble or a vacant reply as Cavendish dashed off to find a more peacef ul area. Henry Cavendish began attendance to the University of Cambridge in St. Pete’s College on November 24, 1749 at the age of 18. On February 23, 1753, four years later, he left the university without graduating. After ex... ... the church now named Derby Cathedral and was honored by having the road he lived on named after him. William Cavendish the 7th Duke of Devonshire, Henry Cavendish later relative, donated the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. Works Cited Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia. Henry Cavendish. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Cavendish; Dec. 1, 2011 Bruce Mattson. â€Å"Henry Cavendish 1731-1810†. History of Gas Chemistry. Updated September 25, 2001. Retrieved December 1, 2011 â€Å"Henry Cavendish†. Famous Scientists. http://www.famousscientists.org/henry-cavendish/. Retrieved Dec. 1, 2011 chemistry.mtu.edu/~pcharles/SCIHISTORY/HenryCavendish.html. Updated Oct. 30,1997. Retrieved Dec. 1, 2011 Eric Weisstein. â€Å"Cavendish, Henry (1731-1810†. Wolfram Research.1996-2007 Eric W. Weisstein. http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Cavendish.html

Southwest Airlines :: essays research papers

Southwest Airlines 1.)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Many changes have occurred and are occurring in the airline industry, which pose a potential threat to Southwest Airlines. The airline industry has traditionally had many airlines receive annual loses on their income statements. This trend is still continuing today as many airlines stand in financial trouble. Some of these financial troubles arise from changes brought upon them from the ever-changing governmental regulations. The most recent change in governmental regulations that will have the largest effect on Southwest Airlines is the change in the federal ticket tax in 1997 on flight routes that are one thousand plus miles. This new tax system replaces a percentage tax with a tax that includes a flat segment fee that will cause conflict with the low-fare carriers. This is causing Southwest to make some changes in their strategy, which will cause them to lose some of their cost advantage. Their largest cost advantage over their current rivals is in the fligh ts, which are five hundred miles (59% cost advantage). Their cost advantage is much smaller for the larger flights, which are one thousand five hundred miles (35% cost advantage). This already has caused Southwest to change their strategy by making their nonstop flights longer with over 16% of their flights longer than one thousand miles.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another threat that Southwest Airlines is facing is the mimicry by other airlines. Other airlines are copying Southwest’s strategy in order to enter the low-fare, short-haul market. Delta Airlines has built a low-fare regional carrier service and has acquired a minority stake in three regional airlines. United Airlines is also making a serious entry into the same market. United is doing this with United Express, which will feed passengers from regional carriers into the United system, and United Shuttle, which provides over 450 short-haul flights in the western states.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The opportunity for expansion is limitless for Southwest Airlines.

Irrational and Rational Decision Making

What is irrational and rational decision making? Well first to understand what each on is individually, I believe that you should know what each word means separately. So according to meriam-webster. com, rational means, â€Å"having reason or understanding† (Rational, 2009) while irrational means, â€Å"not endowed with reason or understanding. † (Irrational, 2009). Lastly but not least, from the Encarta. msn. com/dictionary, decision making, is â€Å"the process of making choices or reaching conclusions, especially on important political or business matters. † So what do all those definitions mean to you? To me, by these definitions, rational decision making is when a person has reason or understanding in reaching a certain conclusion and just the opposite of that is irrational decision making, when a person is not able to come to a conclusion without reason or understanding. The differences are clearly stated, such as not having any reasons. versus having a reason for a conclusion For example, if the tiles are muddy, the most rational thing to do is to mop the tiles. Your reason is that the tiles are muddy. I think that an irrational thing for a person to do is to sweep the tiles. If there is mud on tiles, it’s not the same as having sand on the tiles. The mud is wet therefore you would use a mop instead of a broom. With the broom, you could pick up dry particles such as sand. It would just make more sense, rather than using a broom to sweep mud when all you will be doing is pushing around something that is wet. Decision that was Once Reviewed to be â€Å"Rational† but Now is â€Å"Irrational† Back in the early 1700 and 1800’s, arranged marriages were part of the traditional and cultural beliefs that many families went through. Though arranged marriages happened in the United States, it was most likely to take place in the Southern States. Now, in the present day, though arranged marriages still happen in some cultures around the world, it is an irrational decision. (Decision, 2008) Explanation why it Would be Considered â€Å"Irrational† Today It was considered to be rational back then because it â€Å"was the thought to keep the blood lineage of an aristocratic family line to stay pure. † In order to make marriage agreements, there is sometimes certain business arrangements that were involved. Things such as, land, money, property, and or social status were used in order to make a marriage, other than what we presently do, which is to fall in love with a person. Now, in the present, most have the ability to choose the person they want to marry. (Arranged, n. d. ) Decision Theory Used I think the decision theory that was used in the original decision making is Satisficing. â€Å"The theory postulates that decision makers compare these calculations and choose the course of action that maximizes expected utility. (Plous, 1993). In the earlier years, parents of children, made the decision to arrange their future marriages in hopes of receiving or being able to make a deal with another family. They chose a path in their lives which would then satisfy their needs and wants. When doing so, their choice is far from being actually favorable. Instead of being able to marry someone you love and of your choice, back then, there were no opinions whether or not a person wanted to marry another. It was like you were born in order for the option of your parents to be able to make a deal with another family, just to get something out of having a child. Because arranged marriage is what was ideal for certain cultures, it turned into a custom that children soon taught their children and so on. Just because you were taught and brought up learning something, doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s always favorable for both you and your parents. To your parents, it could mean getting money, or being richer in a way, and to you, it could mean having nothing at all, no option. You are just put in a situation where you, as a child had no say in. References Arranged Marriage. (n. d. ). Retrieved February 18, 2009, from http://www. youth information. com/Templates/Internal. sp? NodeID=90221 Decision Making. (2008). Retrieved February 18, 2009, from http://encarta. msn. com/ dictionary_1861688906/decision-making. html Irrational. (2009). Retrieved February 18, 2009, from http://www. merriamwebster. com/dictionary/irrational Rational. (2009). Retrieved February 18, 2009, from http://www. merriamwebster. com/dictionary /rational Plous, S. (1993). The psychology of judgment & decision making, New York, McGraw Hill The History of Arranged Marriages in America. (2008). Retrieved February 18, 2009, from http://www. associatedcontent. com/article/787875/the_history_of_arranged

Economic and environmental costs Essay

Technology is the development of physical equipment, their processes, skills and knowledge to make effective use these advancements. However the innovation of new technology comes with its disadvantages. Externalities are the costs or benefits that a use of a technology creates for a third party. Consequently, due to the mix of costs and benefits, the philanthropist- Kranzberg famously said: â€Å"Technology is neither good nor bad, nor it is neutral. † The externalities that I will pay the most emphasis on, are the negative unforeseen consequences of technological innovation. With the exponential growth of the population and the demand for technology becoming greater by the day, we are now dependent on technology. However social factors such as health issues, economic factors such as the costs of fuel alternatives and environmental costs of a decrease in biodiversity make technological innovation a controversial subject. Technological innovation was sparked by the industrial revolution, and we are still reliant on the same fossil fuels today. Due to incomplete combustion of the fuel, carbon particulates are released into the air. This is seen in not only the production of technology, but in transport too. Despite more cars becoming more fuel efficient, 99. 99% of all cars (1. 2bn worldwide) run on fossil fuels. Although some cars have catalytic converters, carbon particulates are released in the older cars. When consumed these particles can cause serious health issues such as asthma and in some cases lung disease. Serious health problems that can sometimes lead to fatalities. The automotive industry is worth over $1. 6 trillion, and provides 7. 25 million jobs. It has few economic costs, but due to the rise of TNC’s leakage occurs at an astonishing rate. With Audi, Germany, Ford and Mercedes outsourcing in Mexico. Mexico receives on average 0. 67% of profits from those 4 companies. The leakage benefits the economy of the source country, damages the environment of the host country and its economy. Due to the fact that fossil fuels are a finite resource companies have started to find different fuel alternatives. However these are very expensive therefore damaging the company’s economic state, whereas its aim is to increase its shareholder value. Due to almost 100% of cars using fossil fuels, they release 4. 4bn tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere each year accelerating the enhanced greenhouse effect. As not only does this push us closer to the tipping point, but it also is absorbed by water, making it acidic threatening marine life. Overall the development of technology in the automotive industry generally benefits the economy, and with more and more cars implementing tech to produce less particulates there will be less breathing problems. However the environmental cost is huge, with the vast amounts of C02 emitted each year, the worlds climate is becoming unstable. The Gene Revolution has lead to the development of genetically modified (GM) crops. This has increased yields of the crop, makes them more resistant to tough climates and can make them more nutritious. Making the crops more resistant to extreme conditions makes people dependent on these plants. However as they are more expensive to source, there has been the socio-economic impact of social polarisation- this is where the divide between the rich and the poor becomes more apparent. This is because the poorer farmers get less business, as they don’t have the GM crop to sell on, furthermore the lack of money creates the secondary impact of not being able to afford healthcare or education for example. Monsanto is the one of the largest TNCs in the GM crop industry, and is now worth $15bn. Like the other automotive TNC’s mentioned in this assignment leakage occurs as they have a 45% premium on their employees, so most money goes back to the host country. The green revolution spreads technology that hasn’t been implemented outside industrialised nations. Using fertilisers and pesticides on crops has transformed the agriculture industry, it most of the work done is to introduce modern irrigation systems and add chemicals to improve crop varieties and improve yields. This has led to less famine and has also contributed to the population growth (Increased from 4bn in 1930s when it was first introduced to 7. 125bn now). It has also caused many issues. The main social consequence is again health related as the consumption of these chemicals has lead to 1mn cases of pesticide poisonings in 2015 with 20,000 of these cases turning out to be fatal. Due to the world grain production increasing by 230% between 1950 and 2015, clearing out 2 million acres of rainforests for grain. This in turn has decreased biodiversity in those areas by on average 2. 45% consequently unbalancing the local food web. In addition to this, biodiversity decreases, as only one type of crop is grown-Monoculture, as this is the crop with the highest yield. This limits the amount of animals that can situate themselves in that area. The use of agrochemicals has led to eutrophication, while over use of irrigation has created salinization of soils and droughts. However for crops such as HYV rice, yields are low without these chemicals creating a dependency. The green revolution has shown the economical benefits of using chemicals, however, it has lead to many health related issues and threatens the life in the area due to bioaccumulation. Nevertheless due to its success farmers are dependent on these agrochemicals to provide for their family. Speaking of something we are dependent on, here s something some teenagers can’t live without: Mobile phones. The mobile phone industry is the fastest growing industry worldwide, with its worth in 2013 being $200bn, this year it has surpassed $410bn. In the last 44 years we have gone from no mobiles being available to 5bn phones sold since. With the introduction of the smartphone, communication with business, friend and family has never been quicker and easier. Due to mobiles using microwave radiation to send and receive messages, they slightly warm areas of your body that they are in contact with, which could cause mutations. Although it is not proven, there are correlations with phone usage with brain tumours and low sperm counts. My generation will be the first generation that has had mobile phones throughout their whole lives, and therefore the data collected about these health issues will be unprecedented. The externalities from the rise of mobile phones go under the radar. With the introduction of the smart phone, which can now do almost anything, many businesses have seen a decrease in sales as the phone has zoned them out. An example of this is the toy company Mattel, which has seen a $20 decrease in share price from 2013 to 2016 which correlates with the development of mobile gaming. Another example of this knock on effect is the 70% decrease in digital camera sales since 2009, due to phone cameras becoming better and better. With the amount of mobile devices set to exceed the human population in the next 5 years, production is going to be faster than ever. In 2015 it was estimated that mobile production released 36mn tonnes of C02 into the atmosphere, due to the requirement of fossil fuels to work and make the machines for production. The versatility of the smartphone has changed our lives, and business’ across the globe. However with its built in obsolescence, and the materials being hard to recycle, many mobiles are finding themselves on landfill sites harming the environment. Overall the economic impact of technological innovation is the greater than the other unforeseen consequences. The externalities it caused by the genetic, and the green revolution led to the secondary impacts of having a lack of money for healthcare and education. By damaging the potential of the future these technological innovations cannot be seen as sustainable. As this development creates the social polarisation, between the rich and the poor, it also further increases the difference between the North South divide, as the money from the TNC’s such as Audi sees 99% of their money go back to Germany, and 1 % stays in Mexico. The environmental concerns are the second largest in my opinion due to the huge amounts of carbon dioxide emitted, and how close we are to the global temperatures tipping point and the further consequences this has. Finally I put social concerns last as they are mainly short term, and should be solved by new technology in the next decade or two.