Why Reed free essay sample

Perhaps, it was a sign from the heavens. â€Å"Ne plus ultra,† my Latin teacher repeated. I put down my pen and looked up the meaning of the Latin phrase in the handout. The phrase means â€Å"nothing more beyond† or â€Å"perfection.† I have long been trying to find a way to describe Reed so that I could explain to my parents of my intent to apply to this college. I finally found it. After being given the opportunity to attend the Reed Overnight Multicultural Experience (ROME), I now know that Reed is truly the ne plus ultra of liberal arts education. More than that, I understood that Reed is the right place for me. I know that I want to be challenged, and the intense academic environment of Reed will satisfy my intellectual curiosity. I was especially enamored by the Humanities 110 Conference, which is equivalent to the seminar classes I have taken in my high school. We will write a custom essay sample on Why Reed? or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page I like talking, arguing, debating, analyzing, and criticizing different types of literature and art. I also like to be around people who are similar to me not because we think alike but because we all have our own convictions and ideas and we are all ready to defend our side. Reed students have a voice, and this voice stems from their passion for what they are learning and their curiosity to understand the world around them. I believe that when you combine this with professors who are primarily dedicated to teaching undergraduates, you get a college that stimulates interesting discussions and the desire to learn for learning’s sake. When I sat in a Junior Seminar class, I also became interested with the teaching tactics of one Professor Pancho Savery as he led the class to the themes presented in Ralph Ellison’s book, â€Å"The Invisible Man.† During the afternoon tea with the Reed faculty, I talked with Prof. Pancho about the intertextuality of Frederick Dougl ass’ â€Å"Narrative† in â€Å"The Invisible Man.† He acknowledged the connections I had made and even told me that if I go to Reed, I will find intertextuality ten times more than the average college student†¦and I will love it. Prof. Pancho was very engaging, and I would really love to work with him someday, preferably at Reed. The unique Honor Principle that guides the students’ motivations at Reed also fascinates me and draws me towards the college. People are very accepting of each other’s differences culturally, philosophically, socio-economically, etc. Furthermore, people do not judge you for your appearance, but rather they judge you for your character. I believe that Reed is the place where I can grow both as a student and as a human being. After all, I want to go through an intense, yet fulfilling college experience that will last a lifetime. I see Reed as something I can be part of and something that can be part of me. Ultimately, I believe my answer to the question â€Å"Why Reed?† can be summed up in just two words: why not?

The Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean Overview

The Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean Overview The Gulf Stream is a strong, fast moving, warm ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and flows into the Atlantic Ocean. It makes up a portion of the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre. The majority of the Gulf Stream is classified as a western boundary current. This means that it is a current with behavior determined by the presence of a coastline - in this case, the eastern United States and Canada - and is found on the western edge of an oceanic basin. Western boundary currents are normally very warm, deep, and narrow currents that carry water from the tropics to the poles. The Gulf Stream was first discovered in 1513 by the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon and was then used extensively by Spanish ships as they traveled from the Caribbean to Spain. In 1786, Benjamin Franklin mapped the current, further increasing its usage. Path of the Gulf Stream Because these areas are often very narrow, the current is able to compress and gather strength. As it does so, it begins circulating in the Gulf of Mexico’s warm waters. It is here that the Gulf Stream becomes officially visible on satellite images so it is said that the current originates in this area. Once it gains enough strength after circulating in the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf Stream then moves east, rejoins the Antilles Current, and exits the area through the Straits of Florida. Here, the Gulf Stream is a powerful underwater river that transports water at a rate of 30 million cubic meters per second (or 30 Sverdrups). It then flows parallel to the east coast of the United States and later flows into the open ocean near Cape Hatteras but continues moving north. While flowing in this deeper ocean water, the Gulf Stream is its most powerful (at about 150 Sverdrups), forms large meanders, and splits into several currents, the largest of which is the North Atlantic Current. The North Atlantic Current then flows further north and feeds the Norwegian Current and moves the relatively warm water along the west coast of Europe. The rest of the Gulf Stream flows into the Canary Current which moves along the eastern side of the Atlantic Ocean and back south to the equator. Causes of the Gulf Stream The northern branch of the Gulf Stream, the North Atlantic Current, is deeper and is caused by thermohaline circulation resulting from density differences in the water. Impacts of the Gulf Stream The greatest impact the Gulf Stream has on climate is found in Europe. Since it flows into the North Atlantic Current, it too is warmed (though at this latitude the sea surface temperatures are cooled considerably), and it is believed that it helps keep places like Ireland and England much warmer than they would otherwise be at such a high latitude. For example, the average low in London in December is 42Â °F (5Â °C) while in St. John’s, Newfoundland, the average is 27Â °F (-3Â °C). The Gulf Stream and its warm winds are also responsible for keeping northern Norway’s coast free of ice and snow. As well as keeping many places mild, the Gulf Stream’s warm sea surface temperatures also aid in the formation and strengthening of many of the hurricanes that move through the Gulf of Mexico. Additionally, the Gulf Stream is important to the distribution of wildlife in the Atlantic. The waters off of Nantucket, Massachusetts, for example, are incredibly biodiverse because the presence of the Gulf Stream makes it the northern limit for southern species varieties and the southern limit for northern species. The Future of the Gulf Stream There has been evidence that the Gulf Stream is weakening and slowing and there is growing concern about what impacts such a change would have on the world’s climate. Some reports suggest that without the Gulf Stream, temperatures in England and northwestern Europe could drop by 4-6Â °C. These are the most dramatic of the predictions for the future of the Gulf Stream but they, as well as today’s climate patterns surrounding the current, show its importance to life in many places around the world.

Career Exploration Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Career Exploration Assignment - Essay Example Having been brought up in a business environment, my father played a gigantic role in helping me determine my career interest. I chose this career path because I believe that I have good communication and negotiation skills. I can also manage my personal records and supervise the work of others with much ease. Additionally, I am empathetic yet firm so I can handle business related challenges with ease. After I travelled to Riyadh, curiosity made me explore one of the colleges there. To my surprise, the courses offered there were in English which I was not familiar with. Upon asking for further guidance, I was advised to study the language because it is very instrumental in the world of business. Globalization has made the world a village and the majority of people communicate in English. Seeing that the language would boost y career, I decided to study it with much encouragement from friends and relatives. The desire to get the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission (SACM) scholarship also made me work harder because students who get the chance get to study in the United Kingdom where the primary language is English. In part, I still wanted to achieve my childhood dream because I have an uncle who studied Information Technology and his career life is impressive so far. I enquired about his educational background from which I discovered that he studied at the Rochester Institute of Technology under a scholarship as well. I decided to apply for the same without much thought. Luckily for me, things did not go as desired because I was not offered the scholarship. The rejection opened my eyes and made me become more open to other courses. After much soul searching and consultations with my parents who were very supportive, I chose to study Entrepreneurship. From the information I got from my father and his colleagues, it was apparent that the business sector is one that is very promising. In fact, most of them stated that the positions of business

Financial Statement Analysis Project Research Paper

Financial Statement Analysis Project - Research Paper Example In 2011 the cash and investment balances of the company rose to $125 million due to the initial public offering made in the year 1997. Financial Information of Company The company’s performance in case of the operating activities has been good enough but the same cannot be said as far as Amazon’s financial and investing activities are concerned because the company is showing a negative return of $482 million (financing activities) and $1930 million (investing activities) in 2011. This decrease was mainly the affect of the capital expenditures and the changes in the working capital over the year. Rising net sales of the company which by approximately 41% than the last year due to the effect of the exchange rates. But the effect of the rising sales were diluted due to the increase in the operating expenses of the company which resulted in the net income of Amazon to dip from $1152 million (2010) to $631 million (2011). Summary of the Firm Markets Market of operation for A mazon is mainly in North America, US and Canada. The common stock of Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) is dealt in Nasdaq Global Select Market. In 2010 amazon.com has witnessed a high of $185.65 in the fourth quarter and a low of $105.80 in the third quarter whereas in 2011 Amazon witnessed a high of $246.71 in the fourth quarter and a low of $160.59 in the first quarter. ... cation where the Amazon.com makes most of its business is North America, US, Canada, UK, France Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, China and soon is going to launch websites in Poland, Sweden and Netherlands. Amazon.com has its services stations in prime areas of North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia. The global headquarters of Amason.com is situated in Seattle in Washington. Partners The main strategic partners of Amazon.com were America Online, Yahoo, Netscape, GeoCities, AltaVista, @Home and Prodigy maintaining a long-term relationship since the year 2007. Competitors The main competitors in the field of online trading in comparison to Amazon.com, Inc. are Apple Inc., Barnes & Noble, Inc. As the gross profit of Amazon is 22.76% whereas in case of Apple Inc. is 43.95% and Barnes & Noble’s, Inc. is 26.52%. Comparative Analysis The company chosen for the comparative analysis with the Amazon.com, Inc. are EBay, Inc. and Google, Inc. because both the companies of comparison b elong to the same industry (Catalogue and Mail Order Houses) dealing in the Nasdaq market. Net Income of Amazon.com, Inc. is $560 million whereas that of EBay, Inc. is $3.32 billion and Google, Inc. is $10.83 million. Thus being a giant in the field of online trading Amazon.com is a clear winner. The higher the price earnings ratio of the company higher is its growth rate. Price earnings ratio of Amazon.com, Inc. is 180.41, in comparison to EBay, Inc. which has a P/E ratio of 16.15 and Google, Inc. with a P/E ratio of 17.59. This proved that the stocks of Amazon.com, Inc. are much more preferable in comparison to EBay, Inc. and Google, Inc. The price to sales ratio of a company projects that lower the P/S ratio of the company the better it is as the investor has to pay less. Price to sales ratio

The Split between the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Church Research Paper

The Split between the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Church - Research Paper Example It continually gained a significant number of converts and eventually became one of the world’s strongest religions. During the postclassical civilization, Christianity took the centre stage as it played a vital role both in Western and Eastern parts of Europe. Christianity is believed to have begun as part of Jewish reform movement. Even before the birth of Jesus, some Jews had begun to preach about the coming messiah. The Jews had the belief that the birth of Jesus would bring salvation to mankind, and judgement as well to those who failed to honour salvation. Christianity transformed from the persecuted group of believers over a long period of time, alongside the harsh and vastly changing political environment in Europe. During the fourth and the fifth century, the Roman Empire collapsed. This enhanced the growth of a very powerful church that remained on course for a very long time. All this collapse resulted in subjugation of the church. The early followers of Christ began to spread the gospel throughout the Roman Empire. It began with one the earliest converts like Saul, who was converted to Paul, and his major task was an assignment to take the Christ’s message around the Mediterranean region. Wherever he went, he created churches and constantly wrote letters to them. The early churches shared their common belief in Christ and were united in their worship; they usually met together, shared the scriptures and listened to one another. They were very caring and were usually bonded together. However, as time went by â€Å"Christians began to disagree as to who should lead the groups, the form the worship should take, and how Christian beliefs should be understood. This led to splits within the Christian church† (Jordan 5). It has been observed that the early churches enhanced their unity through faith. They had unity of the doctrine and the traditions that existed in the churches, and this led to

Asian Society Lived Experience And Asian Food History Essay

Asian Society Lived Experience And Asian Food History Essay Asian society is comprised of the broad range of land, different weather and geographical environment has resulted in the different food accordingly, in the mean time, the development of the Asian countries has placed the serious effect on the constitution of local food as well. And it provides a series of lived experience of the society through the food as well. In the following section, the reflection on the lived experience from the food would be described in detail. In first section, it is mainly focus on the eastern Asian countries such as China, Japan and Korea, and then the south Asia and South Asia has been analyzed with the typical countries such as India and Thailand, furthermore, the Meddle Asian country such as Kazakhstan has been described, in the end, the western Asian country and Arab country such as Turkey and Saudi has been discussed as the typical representative to be discussed. Main section In China, the people in North China prefer to each noodle, the people in South China prefers to eat rice. It is linked deeply with the different geography environment in China (Tang and Fong, 2004). The boundary line between North China and South China is the Huai River and Qinling Mountains, in the South of the area, the weather is relatively warm and rains much, it is appropriate to cultivate rice, and in the North of the area, the weather is relative cold and dry, they have to cultivate the wheat which need little water and cold-resistant. In the daily life, people in the South area would prepare the dish and eat rice with the dish, but in North of China, they usually make the food with wheat flour and eat directly without dish. In China, with the development of the daily life level, people not only focus on the obtainment on the energy, but also the dish appearance as well as the dinner atmosphere (Halbrendt, 1994). Take radish for example, either the red radish or the white radish, the different shape would created, and different name would be created, even it can be decorated in the upper class dinner as well, in other words, it has reflected the rich life experience of the people as well. With the food cultural development, the dinner in China has been requested on the strict requirement, even the color, flavor and taste has been requested further. Even the dinner has the further development on the dish name, taste pattern, entertainment during the dinner. It is confirmed that the name of the dish has reflected the historical experience, such as Dongpo meat, it is said that it is the favorite food by the famous poem poet in Song dynasty-Su Dongpo. In Japan, the dish can be named as Japanese Cooking, the cooking style is very special. In fact, it is descended from the Chinese food. Japanese food is comprised of rice, Japanese soup and seasonal vegetable. The same as China, Japan food is focus on the dish shape as well, probably the taste is very common, but the shape of dish would easily inspire the appetite. Japan is the island country, the warm weather and typical season has enriched the seafood. In the daily life of Japan, they are interested in the peaceful and simple life, in the dish, they manage to put less oil in the dish in order to foster the insipidity food. In the mean time, the humility and harmony is the main rhythm in the daily life. Thus they would not like to slaughter the big dumb in order to save the animal life, and the little plain is difficult to cultivate dumb in large quantity. Thus the beef and pork is not the key food before 1950s (Novotny and Boushey, 2003). Generally speaking, the food culture in Japan has been affected by the Chinese culture deeply, they are focus on the family dinner in the weekend, and the family members would sit behind the big table, the soup is also packed in the big bowl, and decorated with sushi and sashimi, the dish would be usually prepared by the females, which reflects the social status of the females in Japan society. But in the recent years, the family dinner preparation has been reduced gradually, in the one hand, the western fact food culture has placed the serious effect on Japan society, more and more Japanese has become interested in the fast food from the western countries, it is linked deeply with the quickened life rhythm in Japan, the other aspect is that with the development of Japan economy and the aging population, it requires more people to finish the task in fluency, more and more females in Japanese family has gone out of the home and contributes to Japanese economy. Thus they would not have more relaxed time to prepare the delicious food for the family all the time. Korea has been under the agricultural society for a long time. Thus their main food is the rice. And the country is near the sea, fish is the main food for Korea as well. Pickled vegetable, Hoisin and Soybean paste are the typical ferment food, which is for the nutrition value and special odor (Beghin and Park, 2003). The pickle vegetable in Korea is famous in the world. In the earlier time, the economy in Korea is not very developed, the society is the agricultural society at the time, due to the poor technology of agriculture and the limited land resources, the people in Korea cannot have enough food after their hard work on the land. They have to adopt the more economic way to save the limited food. And the pickled vegetable is just appropriate for their daily life. The pickled vegetable is mainly the cabbage, they wash it clearly and pickle it with the salt, and then put it into one big tank, and the cabbage would be able to storage for several months, they usually consider it as the important food when they last the time of food shortage. After the years descendent, the daily life of Korea have been improved greatly, they would not be afraid of food shortage any more, but the pickled vegetable has become the delicious food in the table of Korea. In addition, the people in Korea are very focus on the traditional family. They usually hold the large size family dinner party in order to emphasis the sense of family. Probably the family members would be consisted of grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters. The females in the family would positively take the private traditional delicious food on the table to be spilt to other family member in order to link the positive family emotions well. Even in Korea society, the government would also make measures to encourage the people who cooked well, for example, one famous TV play named Da ChangJIn has described the story that one female from the very poor family has worked very hard on the cooking, in the end, she has been approved by the Korea government and been prized for the top honor, in some sense, it has reflected the food culture of Korea as well. In Thailand, the country is near the sea and in the tropic zone, the broad plain is rich in rice, vegetable and coco, the endless sea line has brought a lot of seafood for Thailand, thus Thailand food is consisted of seafood, fruit and vegetable. It is focus on the taste, it is the rich flour with the pepper, garlic, caraway, curcuma, lemon-glass, coconut and other plant from the tropic zone, the rich flour is linked with the Thailand food would be extended into more types of Thailand special food. The Thailand Soup, Garlic and toast are the representative food of Thailand. The key food is the rice in Thailand, and decorated with the garlic, fish or soup. They usually use the sword and fork to get the food, the local specialties such as seasonal fruit or snack made from flour, egg, coco milk and palm sugar. One special snack is the stew, in Thailand, the lemon shrimp soup is the positive food to maintain the family harmony as well as the couple emotion, the females in the family woul d be proud of preparing the delicious stew for the husband. Thailand s not good at utilize china, thus in the earlier time, the people in Thailand would like to pack the rice with the local plantain leaf, and obtain the food with the hand directly, the traditional dinner pattern in Thailand has not much tools. Till now, the dish wares in Thailand is still very simple, it is comprised of soup spoon, chopstick and a plate, in some sense, the dinner patterns has been affected by China as well, but the taste is much different from China, in fact, the local special taste of food has attracted a lot of customers in the world. The middle Asian food is popular in the five countries in middle Asia. Kazakhstan is famous on the mixed noodle, toast, horse meat, horse milk and so on. Uzbekistan owns toast and fruits. Kazakhstan owns toast fish and types of milk bean curd. Kyrgyzstan is the typical middle Asian country in the Asian area. The country is mainly comprised of mountain and grassland, the agricultural and pastoral is developed. Thus a lot of live stock has enriched their food, the milk from the animals is their main drink such as purified yoghurt and yoghurt cheese. The horse meat, beef, camel meat is their main food. Considering that the local handicraft industry is not developed in the past time, they have no technology to produce iron tools, thus till now their stewed meat has still deserved the traditional way, they usually killed the horse at first, and then break it down, and the iron pan is the boiled water, the bone would be put into the iron pan at first, the bunch of meat would put into the i ron later, people would sit in a circle to enjoy the meat in the pan. It is the very typical life experience in the society of Kyrgyzstan. In India, people would like to adopt the flavor as the decoration, even they has applied the flavor into the dish as well, which is one special on the Indian food (Derrickson, Fisher and Anderson, 2000). Considering that peopleà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s preference on the flavor is different, thus the flavor ratio in the dish is different accordingly. And it is the Hinduism popular country, a series of religion custom has placed the serious effect on the Indian food (Adhikari, 2000). The cow is considered as the holy animal in India, they would not eat any food with the beef, in addition, Moslem would not allow the drink with any alcohol. The food is linked deeply with the religion in India, which is the greatest characteristic in India (Hamlett, Bailey, Alexander and Shaw, 2008). In addition, the hot weather in India has requested the food hot flavor. A lot of garlic would be use into the rich and dish in order to encourage the appetite under the hot weather. Since that the excessive restri ction on the meat in religion, the mead cooking in India is not developed, and not to be the key dish as well, the vegetable with the garlic is the market of Indian food (Joshi and Lamb, 2000). For Turkey, the special geographical location has decided the food has mixed the oriental food an d western food. The historical empire in Turkey has included the western Asia, North Africa and South Europe, the huge land area has mixed the variety of food and gradually become the special food culture in Turkey. And the local resident is comprised of Christ, Islam and so on. The intricate nation and broad land areas in the past time has provided the enough room to cultivate the local food culture. The people from the oriental countries has enriched the dinner with rice and noodle, the people from the western countries has enriched the dinner with cheese and bread, even the people from the nomadism had brought the fresh milk, the rich types of plant and descended palace cooking from the empire time has placed the deep effect on the Turkey cooking. The dish usually includes the cereal food with soy sauce, vegetables, meat soup and olive. Their breakfast is similar with the western coun tries due to the cultural effect. They usually adopt the cheese, bread and fresh fruit such as olive or tomato as the food, in noon, they prefer the stew and salad, and in the evening, the dinner is very grand, most of time the family member would sit together to have the dinner in order to increase the family emotion. And more dishes would be enriched in the dinner as well, a lot of appetite snack and delicious fruit would be prepared and the tea would be adopted as the drink, in fact, the people in Turkey is good at enjoying the life. The intricate area distribution had made the food very diversified, the fresh fish from the Mediterranean is thanks to the hard work of fisher, and the delicious grape juice is the favorite drink which is cultivated in the plain of Turkey. The Turkey hamburger with the meat is from the grassland of Turkey. In other words, western sea line has constitutes the daily life of fisher, and the plain near the sea had resulted in the daily life of famers, the north grass land has confirmed the daily life of herder, the intricate environment has enriched the Turkey food. Saudi Arab is the typical countries in the western Asia, desert, torridity, gale wind and drought has been comprised of the local environment (Palaniswamy, 2001). It places the important impact on the rough and open characteristic of the people in Saudi. Their food is simple as well. The desert and black tea is their favorite. The poor geographical environment has requested the local people to prefer the food with less water, because Saudi is the country with little drink water, thus the Arab big bread cake is the main food in Saudi, it is toasted by the special stove, and the price is cheap, thus most of Arab families prefer it as the important food (Musaiger and Abuirmeileh, 1998). Conclusion After the serious discussion in the section above, it is confirmed that Asian food is diversifies, and the lived experience of Asian countries is different as well. Different countries lived experience can be reflected from local food as well. Based on the section, the geographical gap has made the countries constitutes the local special food culture. The Confucianists culture and religion culture had put the different food culture on the society. It is confirmed that China, Japan and Koreas is much different from India, Turkey and Saudi on the item. But different food in these countries has just reflected their real lived experience of the society, it would be highly beneficial to make they further research on Asian culture as well.

Five Forces About Fast Food Chains

TETA? 2607Exercise2 PartI:briefintroductionoffastfoodrestaurants The industry I selected is fast food restaurants which are also named as quick service restaurants. As a special type of restaurant, fast food restaurant is characterized both by its fast food cuisine and by its self table service. The majority of fast food restaurants are part of a restaurant chain or franchise operation so that each branch could be provisioned by standardized ingredients and controlled by unified management. Within this industry, several leaders should be identified.Founded in 1940, McDonald’s Corporation is the world’s largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, daily serving around 68 million customers in 119 countries. (mcdonalds. com & burgerbusiness. com) In the year of 2011, the net income has reached 27 billion USD with net profit of 5. 5 billion USD. In the recent five years, McDonald’s revenue kept increasing and the average increase rate was 3. 1 %. ( McDonald†™s annual report,2011). Subway which is owned and operated by Doctor’s Associate is an American restaurant franchise which mainly sells sandwiches and salads.Subway, as the largest single-brand restaurant chain globally, keeps the fastest growing franchises in the world with 37000 restaurants in more than 100 countries. (subway. com) KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is the world’s largest chain of fried chicken fast food restaurants. It is also the second largest restaurant chain after McDonald’s, with over 17,000 outlets in 105 countries. (KFC. com) PartII:IndustryanalysisbyFiveForces In 1979, Michael Porter published â€Å"How Competitive Force Shapes Strategy† in the Harvard Business Review (HBR) which started a revolution in the strategic field.He proposed five competitive forces which could to great extent determine the profitability of an industry and strategy’s formulation. In this part, Five Forces will be utilized to analyze the fast food re staurant industry. [Typetext] Page1 TETA? 2607Exercise2 Threat of Suppliers The suppliers of fast food restaurant mostly are meat producer, vegetable retailers, beverage companies and bakeries food retailers. As meat and vegetable are hard to differentiated, it is difficult for such a supplier to stand out.Also, most of these suppliers are local and small-sized while the quick service restaurants are international and giant; hence, it is easy for the fast food chain to be the dominant player. As for the fast food restaurants, in general, the switching costs are not high if they want to change their supplier of meat and vegetables. However, some supplier brands are quite powerful such as beverage company—Coca cola because their product is unique in the market. It is also possible for a supplier to be integrated forward such like building up corporation relationship with fast food restaurant to enlarge their supply power.To sum up, the supplier power in the fast food restaurant is low relatively especially among non-differentiated good suppliers. Threat of Buyers There are many small operators in the fast food restaurant industry which means buyers have many alternatives to choose the most suitable quick service restaurant. Meanwhile, there is almost no switching cost for customers to change their tastes. Additionally, the buying information is also abundant and available for the customers to select the most satisfactory restaurant. It seems that buyer power in the fast food restaurant is relatively high.However, the volume of each customer generally is not extremely important to overall sales of the companies and hence, each individual customer may not be valued much by the company. That diminishes the power of the buyer to some extent. Also, there is no threat of backward integration which means it is almost impossible for customers to build up cooperative relationship with fast food chains. Hence, buyer power would lowered by lack of possibilities of i ntegration. The concentration of buyers is low which also reduce the power of buyer.As for the fast food chain, the brand identity also helps them to decrease the threats from customers. To sum up, the threat from buyer is at the moderate level according to the above [Typetext]    Page2 TETA? 2607Exercise2 analysis. Threat of new entrants As the threat from new entrants, the first thing to consider is cost. Obviously, the entrance costs are relatively low when compared to other industries such like mobile phone manufacturing and information technology industry. However, the cost of brand building also plays an important role as brand identity is perceived as a significant factor of fast food restaurant’s strategy.In the fast food industry, the existing brands are already powerful like McDonald’s and Burger Kings so it will take time and expenditure for a fast food store to stand out. All in all, the cost of new entrants is not as low as what we assume previously. Sec ondly, the access to supply channels is quite easy because those raw materials for the fast food restaurant are available normal goods. However, there may exist exclusive contracts with suppliers so that it may make hard for new companies to enter this industry. Thirdly, another barrier to enter fast food industry is the access of distribution.Fast food chain always signed exclusive contracts with the college, supermarket, fuel stations and others and hence, it is much difficult for a new entrant to build its own distribution channels. The economies of scale and the access of distribution are major barriers that firms face in this industry. Additionally, it is also difficult to differentiate your product in this industry because the product is fairly similar when we divided fast food into different categories (hamburgers, sandwiches, pizzas). To sum up, the threat of new entrants is moderate as we have to consider from all aspects. Threat of substitutesAlthough the switching costs o f customers are quite low, the threat from substitutes is still at low level. The main substitutes of fast food restaurant are pre-cooked food, mid-range restaurants or supermarket products. However, eating in a normal restaurant is much more expensive and time consuming. Pre-cooked food is cheap while the facilities to warm it up may not be available. Hence, fast food still held [Typetext]    Page3 TETA? 2607Exercise2 advantages no matter from the price or comfort level. Threat of rivalry The number of competitive rivals with similar products and service for the same customer group is high.As mentioned before, the initial expenditure to set up a fast food restaurant is not quite so high and hence, many small scale quick service restaurants may try to enter it. Also, there are no high exit barriers because it is easy to close restaurants as the relatively low fixed costs. Meanwhile, the market growth is limited because the market gets saturated with a certain amount of restaurants , fast food shop or delivery services. It seems that the threat of rivalry is relatively high in the fast food restaurant industry. All the above analysis is summarized in the following diagram. Figure 1) Figure  1 PartIII:Additionaldiscussionaboutcompetitivecondition Apart from the five forces that I have mentioned before, there are still some other [Typetext]    Page4 TETA? 2607Exercise2 forces which also affect competitive condition. In the first place, culture plays a more important part in deciding people’s food consumption than before. According to Maddock’s (2004) research, there is a correlational relationship between the number of residents per fast food restaurant and the square miles per fast food restaurants with state-level obesity prevalence.This result indicates that fast food restaurants do make a significant contribution to the people’s obesity level. The problem of obesity has already raised public’s attention and people concern more about the nutrition of the food rather than price and convenience. In addition, people also realize that fast food restaurant also to a great extent contribute to the problem of childhood obesity. Another research (Harris, Schwartz &Brownell, 2010) also reveals that Teens between the ages of 13 and 17 purchase 800 to 1,200 calories in an average fast food meal, including 30% or more of calories from sugar and saturated fat.As the obesity would threaten human’s health, more and more experts suggest that people especially children should eat fast food as little as possible. Hence, there is an overall trend that the consumer group of fast food is squeezing. As the market is declining, each company within this industry has to compete harder to win more consumers. In this way, external factors like culture, healthy reports also play an important force to decide the competition level of this industry. Another limitation of five force framework is that some companies in the same in dustry are cooperators unlike the original assumption that there are all competitors.For example, KFC, pizza hut and Taco Bell are operated by the same corporation—Yum!. If they are not pure competitors in the market, they increase the entry barrier through reallocating their resource and supply and distribution channels. For example, these three restaurants could share the same logistic center to enhance the efficiency of company and save the cost as well. This kind of corporation within the same industry was ignored by classic Five Force Analysis which emphasis the pure competition relationship between companies. PartIVConclusion [Typetext]    Page5 TETA? 2607Exercise2Let take McDonald’s as an example to analysis the whole industry. Although there is tense competition in this industry that many small fast food businesses fight with each other to improve their customer base, McDonald’s still held the absolute advantage in its customer scale. Just like the abo ve analysis, the enter barrier of this industry is not so high. But McDonald’s own strong brand identity and established network and hence, the new small entrants could not threaten to McDonald’s. The buyers still hold power to some extent as the switching cost is low and the buying information is abundant.However, McDonald’s still have an advantage in location and convenience. As McDonald’s has already established the strong network with suppliers, (e. g. cooperated with Coca-Cola), the threats from suppliers are not so intense. Under the current trend, the down-sizing of customer group is the major problem that McDonald’s has to face. McDonald’s have already implemented some strategies such like launching non-fried product and enclosed the detailed nutrition information of the food. After five forces analysis, McDonald’s still should be favorable in the next several years.However, if a new small business plan to enter this industry, it will face a large number of challenges such like establishing supply channels and distribution channels and building its own brand identity. All in all, fast food restaurant is still saturated and unfavorable for business which wants to entry. Reference: Harris, J. L. , Schwartz, M. B. & Brownell,K. D. (2010), Evaluating Fast Food Nutrition and Marketing to Youth. Fastfoodmarketing. org Maddock, J. 2004. The Relationship Between Obesity and the Prevalence of Fast Food Restaurants: State-Level Analysis. American Journal of Health Promotion: November/December 2004, Vol. 19, No. , pp. 137-143. [Typetext]    Page6 TETA? 2607Exercise2 Porter,M. E. 1978. How competitive forces shape strategy. Harvard Business Review Strategy: http://polisci2. ucsd. edu/snunnari/HBR_on_Strategy_23_41. pdf#page=25 McDonald’s official website: http://www. mcdonalds. com/us/en/home. html Burgerbusiness. com:http://www. burgerbusiness. com/? p=9168 McDonald’s 2011 annual report: http://www. aboutmcdonalds. com/content/dam/AboutMcDonalds/Investors/Investors %202012/2011%20Annual%20Report%20Final. pdf Subway official website: http://www. subway. com/subwayroot/default. aspx KFC’s official website: http://www. kfc. com/ [Typetext] Page7

Meaning of Life Essay

Here’s what a recent survey found: †¢ 25% of people say it is to seek truth and create meaning for yourself †¢ 22% think the meaning of life is to lovingly help others and make the world better †¢ 18% say there is no meaning †¢ 8% think it is to reproduce and continue your genes and the human race †¢ 8% say it is to find happiness †¢ 6% believe it is to learn how to serve and worship God, while †¢ 8% don’t know While it seems there are several purposes to life, science is beginning to reveal there is one fundamental purpose to all life. Every moment of your existence your body works to keep energy flowing. Every second you breathe air, you add food and water to replace the energy you use. Everything you sense or do is connected to the flow of energy in one form or another. You are so used to this energy flow that you hardly notice it. It is the ultimate process of your life. If your energy stops flowing you die: flowing energy differentiates living creatures from dead ones. While the purpose of all life might be to help energy flow, the same laws of energy indicate that a meaning of your own life is to find how your energy flows best. Is this science echoing those scriptures that suggest you have your own unique ‘gift’ that you should use? What does your energy enable you to do best? This can be as simple as determining what you are truly passionate about or what you do better than anyone else. Unfortunately, many of us are not aware of what this is. As such, the individual meaning of your life is for you to discover what makes your energy flow best and then how to do that. How you use energy best varies for everyone – therefore, everyone has a slightly different meaning to someone else. Ignoring this means your energy will be all mixed up and your life will be chaotic. This is what most scriptures and spiritual writings are trying to tell us, but just didn’t understand energy well enough. If you look at ancient scriptures and spiritual writings in terms of energy you start to realise that they, and modern science, are all saying something similar. In short, while the purpose of all life is about helping energy flow, spread and balance, your individual meaning is about determining how you do this best, what you do that helps your energies flow best.

Themes of The Crucbile essays

Themes of The Crucbile essays In Arthur Millers, The Crucible, many themes are expressed throughout the play. Themes are the undertone of the story. A theme of a book usually sets the mood and describes what is happening during the time that the story is written. The Crucible has many themes that show how everything was and how everyone acted in the year of 1692, in Salem, Massachusetts. Mass hysteria is the most obvious theme in the story. Mass hysteria is represented everywhere trouble was. One example is at the end of act one when the girls are screaming, crying, and starting to accuse people of being with the devil. When this happens, everyone gets scared and calls the marshal. The marshal begins to arrest people and brings them to court. The whole reason mass hysteria broke out is because of Abigail. One vengeful accusation from Abigail to her rival, Elizabeth Proctor, turns the whole village upside down. This confusion and madness is one of the main reasons so many lives were taken at the trials. This becomes a place where reasonable human beings can become released in an environment that allows little opportunity for relaxing. Another theme during the play is how much religion ruled these peoples lives. The court was the main ruling body of justice and was run by the church. The concept of justice in 1692 is shown when Arthur Miller dedicates the entire third act to the courtroom. Abigail pressures the girls to lie in court in order to accuse everyone that they didnt get along with of witchcraft. The separation of church and government didnt exist in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. Theocracy meant that Massachusetts was to be governed by God's laws. But this mixing up of the laws of God and the laws of government set up the chaos of the Salem witch trials. Greed and revenge was another major aspect that was shown in the story. Several characters find profit in this mass hysteria and try to change some events ...

Biological Influences Essay Example

Biological Influences Essay Example Biological Influences Paper Biological Influences Paper Of the four experiments that I conducted were presented, I decided to conduct experiments 1, 2 and 4. In experiment 1, I would rate the coarseness of the sandpaper as 7 (very coarse) but after the second time that I rubbed it, my fingers felt as if they were already numb from the coarseness of the sandpaper. In experiment 2, the taste of the fresh water surprised me because it tasted a little sweet, just like the taste of the cup with sugar on it. I tasted the freshwater a couple of times more and it tasted â€Å"normal† after five drinking. In the last experiment, the thought of submerging my hands into a hot bowl of water was actually scary so it took a few encouragements to do it. When I dipped my hands in the two bowls, I could not almost feel the cold water because my mind was preoccupied with the hot water. When the 3 minutes was over, I quickly dipped both hands into the bowl with lukewarm water and interestingly enough, both felt warm. It was if heat was disseminated all throughout the middle bowl. Both hands had a neutral lukewarm feeling. In all the three experiments, adaptation was observed and based from the observations that were gathered form the experiment, adaptation is an innate human ability to cope with the changes in his environment which is triggered by some stimuli. There are actually two types of adaptation in this case. The first one is the sensory adaptation. This kind of adaptation was observed in the first two experiments. Sensory adaptation is most likely felt by our senses- nose, ears, skin, etc. after our receptors has recovered from fatigue (Sensory adaptation, 2001). In the experiments where sensory adaptation occurred, the stimuli were capture/felt by our senses- namely sense of touch and taste. I first â€Å"conditioned† my senses and by doing such, I was able to â€Å"trick† my senses of sensations- whereas, causing them fatigue- when I was about to introduce them to a different stimulus, the after effect was still there. This means to say that the sensations that my receptors were able to gather is stuck in my brain and it still being processed. That is why, when I introduced a new stimulus, it took a little while before my nerves were able to adapt to the new sensations/stimulus. On the other hand, perceptual adaptation was observed in the last experiment that I conducted. Unlike sensory adaptation, perceptual adaptation is only perceived in our mind. It is us who sends a message to the brain if before the stimulus affects us. Hence, perceptual adaptation does not travel through our receptors and nerves but it is directly processed in our brain by external stimuli. (Steen, 2005) Both kinds of adaptations are stimulated by a stimulus and undergo a pathway- it just happened that their pathway is different. In perceptual adaptation, our senses are indirectly responsible for the sensations that our brain is processing whereas in sensory adaptation, sensations travel through our nerves and receptors before our brain processes it. Since there was no direct sensory system on which perceptual adaptation may travel, the brain therefore is the one responsible for it. It directly processes the information even before it can react to an external stimulus. The most prominent system that is involved is the reticular system by which it directs the focus of our attention somewhere else.

Friendly Bank Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Friendly Bank - Coursework Example The case scenario involving the Friendly Bank gives a situation whereby the task force at the bank is organised in teams. The teams are made up of 14 team members with a team leader and an assistant team leader. The bank came into existence as an online arm of Parkers PLC that had undergone poor management that almost made it go bankrupt. Packers PLC had a kind of non-aggressive kind of organisational culture among its workers. This was expressed, by the way, its workers worked with a lot of reluctance without bothering anything. Several problems set in when most of the former workers at Parkers PLC are again employed at Friendly Bank as the Long Stays to head the customer advisor teams. The problems that set in include the different groups working at the bank not working well together, teams also not working as teams, members of teams have no common motivational factors and wants, a lot of tension between individuals and groups leading to absenteeism, poor performance and informal p ower games, and lack of proper leadership decision making. This paper it, therefore, aimed at providing an analysis of the case and at the same time addressing the problems faced by the bank by providing possible solutions that the management can apply. Friendly Bank is adversely affected by organisation design/culture problem. To begin with, most of the employees who were previous employees at the branches of Parkers PLC that were closed down, were eventually transferred to Friendly Bank. Such employees, like Sheila, display a particular culture that has been implanted in them since they were workers at Parkers PLC. This is quite evident as the so-called "Long stays" are depicted to have a particular character of not being bothered about meeting the weekly Sales Against Targets. Sheila, for instance, says, she feels the team members are doing enough given that they are always

Movie for Socioligical Prespective for SHawshank Redemption Review

For Socioligical Prespective for SHawshank Redemption - Movie Review Example During his stay in the prison, he would ask Red Redding to get him a rock hammer and later various posters of glamorous women – from Rita Hayworth to Raquel Welch. As a skilled accountant, he assisted one of the guards in resolving some tax issues. He would eventually go on to assist various guards and inmates in their tax and other investment issues. The jail warden Samuel Norton soon after procured his services in embezzling and corrupting prison funds. At close to 20 years in the prison, an inmate by the name of Tommy Williams would narrate how a previous jail term had him imprisoned with another inmate who confessed how he murdered a woman and her lover and how the husband was sent to jail for the crime. Andy narrated this confession to the warden who would later throw Andy into solitary confinement. Not wanting to have Andy’s case be reopened and fearing that Andy would expose the warden’s corrupt activities, he had Tommy shot by a prison guard while apparen tly trying to escape. After Andy was released from solitary confinement, he displayed a very glum demeanor which worried his friend Redding. Andy tells Red to do him a favor, that if he would ever be released, to retrieve a package for him at a hayfield in Buxton. He also expressed that he dreamed of living in a Mexican village called Zihuatanejo. The following day, Andy was nowhere to be found. Further search of his cell revealed a passageway which led up to the sewers and out of the prison. It appears that during Andy’s stay in the prison, he was gradually scraping out his concrete wall with his rock hammer and covering up the wall with the posters of the glamorous Hollywood women. By the time the guards pieced together what Andy did, Andy had already escaped and had closed out the bogus bank accounts which the jail warden used to hide his embezzlements. He also sent a letter, along with evidence of corruption in Shawshank to the media. In the wake of the Andy’s esca pe, the warden would later commit suicide and the abusive and murderous prison guard would be arrested by the authorities. Redding would later be released, would later find the package which contained money and a letter from Andy telling him where he might be found. Redding would soon pack up his things and follow his friend to Zihuatanejo. Analysis The plot of the movie supports the conflict sociological perspective. This conflict theory is supported in the story by the constant struggles between the different groups and characters in the movie. There are various groups which represented themes or elements present in society – the poor, the powerless, the guilty, the innocent, and the rich. The correctional institution represents a society by itself and this society is made up of diverse groups with conflicting interests. In this movie we see the representations of these diverse groups – very much present in the larger society as well. The rich and powerful are repres ented by the jail warden. He is powerful because of his position as jail warden; he is also powerful because he uses his influence and position to impose his power over the prison guards, the prisoners, and Andy Dufresne himself. He even uses his position to impose lesser wages for the inmates with the work contractors, making it possible for him to embezzle more funds. He used his power to control Andy and to manipulate one of the prison guards into