Improved communication technology and transport Essay

Individuals can live and work anyplace they need to pick, due to improved correspondence innovation and transport, do the upside of this advancement exceed detriments? Until a couple of decades prior, most of laborers drove to their work submits in request to play out their activity capacities. As data innovation has gotten increasingly regular in our life, this wonder has changed. Rather than burning through employees’ important time on driving to and from corporates, a lot of organizations are setting up and offering an opportunity of remote attempting to their workers. In this exposition, focal points and impediments in regards to this progressing pattern is presented with some material backings. In the first place, remote work gives openings for work to double salary guardians who have little youngsters to take care of, and it would evacuate topographical limits which permit corporates to enrolling profoundly talented experts or generally modest laborers from abroad. Also, there would be a noteworthy increment in employees’ efficiency. As indicated by a report from the USA, various specialists have battled that an expansion of 20 percent in workers’ efficiency can be required because of less time spending in driving and progressively adaptable working hours. Also, since there would be less requirement for having a gigantic office that requires costly lease and charges for offices, cost decrease is relied upon to corporates. Ultimately, because of an utilization of non-renewable energy source is the primary driver of a worldwide temperature alteration and air contamination, telecommuting can lessens gas-concentrated drives, and vitality utilizing in structures. Nevertheless, there are a few downsides have additionally been accounted for. A specialist from IT industry has contended that diminished human contact can prompt sentiments of depression and disconnection because of an absence of up close and personal collaboration. Moreover, error can happen among representatives and there would be troubles for chiefs to regulate employees’ work execution when individuals just impart and work through on the web. At last, the advantages which the organization creates because of working from home can be counterbalanced by an expansion in employees’ home office costs for remote work.

The Soap Opera For Men Essay Research free essay sample

The Soap Opera For Men Essay, Research Paper The Soap Opera for Men Kaaaaplllowww! was the solitary sound heard as the Undertaker fell straightforwardly to the canvas. While the ref was caught up with puttering with an uncovered, impeccable steel turnbuckle on the correct side of the ring, little did he perceive what was going on in the lucifer. In the couple of moments that the ref was engrossed, Stone Cold Steve Austin figured out how to acquire a dark, metal divert uping seat from the edges of the ring and beat the Undertaker over the caput with it. The group was voyaging completely amuck and there was non an individual in the crowd that was plunking down any more. Undeniable, feeling that the terminal was close, concluded that it was clasp to finish the lucifer. He lifted the Undertaker up from the canvas and situated him in the in the middle of ring. The Undertaker, ledge ignorant to anything going on around him, remained there ineptly enticing his weaponries in edginess. We will compose a custom paper test on The Soap Opera For Men Essay Research or on the other hand any comparable theme explicitly for you Don't WasteYour Time Recruit WRITER Just 13.90/page Seconds in this way, Stone Cold squashed his caput with his finishing move known as The Stunner. Undeniable so got onto the canvas with the Undertaker and put his hugely strong arm over the Undertaker s chest signalizing a pin. For those of you who are new to names, for example, Stone Cold Steve Austin or The Undertaker, these are two of the most commended grapplers in proficient wrestle. The World Wrestling Federation is one of the more well known wrestle associations and is typically alluded to as the WWF. A scene, for example, the one delineated above is a somewhat normal happening that has kept fans bolted at the fringe of their seats for mature ages and keeps on making so. Despite the fact that non each lucifer follows such a heart-beating walk or have the most great realized grapplers included ; the WWF itself is a mind boggling association with numerous areas of impact. The story lines in the midst of the blood surging activity are a worked in part of the WWF. For the enthusiasm of straightforwardness, the WWF can be thought to be a gathering of people ( some having a place with an exceptional gathering or intrigue ) all looking to win one of six title belts. The unchanging revamp of intra bunch confederations is an irreplaceable constituent to the ever-changing mystery plan. A single, who you may attempt to be your companion one moment, may betray you the next second and help with your annihilation. A delineation of such is evident when Vince McMahon ( previous WWF official ) unexpectedly turned on The Rock in a scene of Monday Night Raw. Vince McMahon, The Rock s assumed partner, should help The Rock as he went for WWF title belt against Hunter Hearst Helmsly. In any case, just something contrary to such stayed to be valid. Vince McMahon supported Hunter Hearst Helmsly and the crowd was in a region of absolute surprise and bewilderment. Plot turns , for example, this keep the story line new and fans just craving for additional. Strife among people other than keeps the account line engaging. Undeniable Steve Austin and Rikishi have an on-going clash at this very moment and fans (, for example, myself ) flawlessly love it. Rikishi purportedly was the originator behind Stone Cold s crippling leg hurt. Undeniable has come back to the ring inside the past team of hebdomads and he s determined to raise a ruckus and counter no undertaking what the impacts potentially. What goes about comes to fruition and all Rikishi s got coming his way is my clench hand down his pharynx, and that s the primary concern since Stone Cold said as much! is an ongoing quote from Stone Cold comparable to what he anticipates making to Rakishi. Plot turns and battle are worked in constituents to the account line and the WWF would non even remotely take after what it is today without it. A single appreciates the mind boggling and various account lines of the WWF for some grounds. A similarity of such can be contrasted with foam shows for grown-up females. A great many grown-up females tune in each twenty-four hours to see whether John or Michael is the male parent of Melissa s darling or whether Mrs. Jones really did hold a make a difference with her foreman. Men appreciate play just every piece much as grown-up females do, yet how one characterizes the word play is the thing that isolates one sexual orientation signifier the other. For coevalss, work powers have delighted in viewing fierce rivalry and rivalry. The WWF envelops both of those by themselves characteristics and makes a rather fascinating play as the characters play out their few capacities in endeavors to win the ideal WWF title belts. The 100s of differing characters are another feature of the WWF I love. Running from the foolish jokes of Stone Cold Steve Austin to the blasting pushiness of The Rock, the WWF has everything. Undeniable Steve Austin is the American awful hindquarters that covers up inside us all. He is the individual that speaks to what we all may want to make yet make non hold the testicular strength to make so. He speaks to choler, hostility, and non-congruity. The Rock is a greater amount of the individuals s title-holder. Continually hoping to charm his fans and progress his situation among different grapplers. He speaks to VIP, karma, and riches. The Undertaker, on the different manus, is an agent of the clouded side. He speaks to expire and the great beyond. The assorted variety of characters in the WWF keeps the activity from going equivalent with one another and that is something any full-hearted WWF fan will appreciate. The WWF has in any event one character that we would all be able to agree with or pull for. The ground for such a variety of characters can be seen when expert wrestle was non each piece famous as it is today. It the late 1970ss and mid 1880ss, there were only a twelve or so grapplers and individuals at long last got world-fatigued viewing similar individuals battle over and again. Dreariness is a neer something worth being thankful for in the entertainment business and the WWF found that in the blink of an eye bounty. The covering moves are the most energizing segment of the exhibition of expert wrestle. When the resistance is worn out and fatigued, a completing move might be applied to finish the lucifer in way. Three of the most oculus beginning moves are The Stunner, The Rock Bottom, and The Tombstone. The Stunner is ascribed to Stone Cold Steve Austin. The primary constituent of the move comprises of Stone Cold savagely kicking his resistance in belly. At that point, while standing up to a similar the way as his resistance, he catches his restriction s head while set over and wraps his sweat-soaked arm over it as he tumbles to the land while keeping his resistance s caput behind him. The power of the harvest time makes the restriction go oblivious and the lucifer is regularly over each piece in the blink of an eye as Stone Cold goes for the pin. The People s Elbow, other than known as the most exciting move in games s history, is ascribed to The Rock. This move comprises of The Rock puting his restriction in the focal point of the ring. The Rock so runs from one of the terminal ring to the next lastly workss his cubitus directly on his resistance s chest as his full natural structure plunges to the canvas with the work stoppage of perish. Last, The Tombstone is handed out by The Undertaker. This move comprises of The Undertaker hurling his restriction topsy turvy while keeping him. The Undertaker so holds his resistance in this unsloped spot as the blood anxiously races to the caput to expand the greatness of the moving toward blow. The Undertaker so puts his resistance s caput ( which is still upside by the way ) between his thighs and blast his articulatio genuss to the land. Once more, the resistance is settled and the fan most loved adds another triumph to his repertory. The numerous constituents to a completing move are what make them so energizing to look for individuals the whole way across America. I d love to see the mean Joe endeavor to get another grown-up male who is around 300 lbs and toss him about like a pack of wash. The grapplers that play out these amazing tricks put mature ages of planning in their demonstration and that simply is non something that can just look nightlong. Physicality and timing are other than irreplaceable to drawing the move away right. These devoted muscle heads put mature ages of troublesome work in the rec center and in the ring to execute their few moves to faultlessness. Genuine aficionados of the WWF acknowledge what troublesome work goes into these particular moves and luxuriate them for these truly grounds. The ubiquity of expert wrestle is at all clasp high and the justification for such an event are evident. The WWF is an opportunity for us all to relax up and loll the lives of others, as our own may non be at the ideal territory of continuum. The mind boggling story line, astounding exhibit of characters, and finishing moves all ascribe to its deathless achievement. For those of you who some time or another make up ones psyche to try known to mankind of expert wresting, keep up this one spot of exhortation in head as you progress up the chain of importance to winning the WWF Championship belt. Utilize a steel seat at whatever point conceivable on the grounds that it would be deplorable if individual like the Rock needed to take you to Know Your Roll Boulevard, walk you down Jabroni Drive, and investigate you legitimately into the Smackdown Hotel! 1.2.3 the arbitrator hollered so anyone can hear as he beat his manus on the canvas while numbering each back to back figure. The lucifer was finished and Stone Cold Steve Austin again left the ring winning.

See me, feel me, milq me, heal me

See me, feel me, milq me, heal me I have a lot of free time tonight after finishing my 21F.401: German I listening assignments, courtesy of the LLARC. Im still not very good at it; I transcribed one line of dictation as Wen essen Sie? which I think is a grammatically proper question, but not a socially proper one. So, you get two blog entries tonight, one of them all text and one of them all pictures. Smile, you buggers. Pretend its Christmas. Also, remember in the summer when you used to get nice, well-cropped color pictures in immaculately-high resolution? Thats all over now. Theres an official MITblogs digital camera that I was babysitting this summer, but Laura is gonna be taking care of it for a while. Its way too long of a walk across the floor to ask her to borrow it. Pretty much, the majority of what youre going to get is going to be camera-phone pictures. I think itll give my blog a homemade, Blair-Witch-esque feel. If you have a dialup connection and your computer is powered by, like, a hamster with a little wheel or your little brother peddling an exercise bike, please dont read any further. Just enjoy my witty repartee in the September 20 entry. There arent any pictures there, but I promise it will still be real good time. On Saturday, I went to the Taste of Boston. It was kind of not good; the food was mostly catering, not fancy restaurants, and the prices were a little high. Still, this establishment did sell us an excellent slice of chocolate moose cake (homonym for chocolate mousse cake) for a mere two dollars. Really, Im just posting this picture to embarass Mitra. I have no other excuse. Saturday night, Ruth 07 and I went out to dinner at the Porter Exchange in Cambridge with a bunch of 08s. Despite being three T stops away from campus, Porter Square still used to be a pretty popular hangout when it was home to the Annas Taqueria closest to MIT. Now that theres an Annas in the student center, nobody goes there anymore. Anyway, its still a pretty cool placethe mall itself has kind of been taken over by Japanese restaurants and is home to this strange little market, which sells Japanese snack items and sushi-grade seafood, as seen above. We did not eat the octopus tentacle for dinner. Nor did we drinq this Milq. Rather, we waited for reservations at a sushi restaurant for 15 minutes before Gloria talked to some people working at the mall in Mandarin and discovered that the chef was the same as at a cafeteria fifty feet away, which had prices that were about one-third in magnitude. So, we went over there. Sushi makes me throw up in my mouth a little, but luckily theres a full Japanese food court there, so I was able to get a lovely chicken and egg dish, much like the one that inspired the Paul Simon song Mother and Child Reunion. Sunday I dragged Joe 08 over to the List Visual Arts Center (LVAC!) to enter the Student Loan Art Program (SLAP!), which Matt eloquently described in an earlier entry. The key to winning art in this program is to select things that are really creepy that nobody else will want. This extra-creepy print by Nara, Ocean Child, has found a comfortable home in my room. Monday, a most resplendent day, I walked over to the BSO with Mitra and Gabe 08 to pick up our college cards. These puppies are fully subsidized by MIT and let you get into about 20 concerts every year totally free. Unfortunately, they dont go on sale until tomorrow. How disappointing. Then we got lost in the woods, I found a bloody knapsack with some of Gabes teeth in it, and I ran and ran around with my handheld camera and then cried for a while while snot came out of my nose, as seen above. Just playin. The falafel truck at 77 Massachusetts Avenue makes a decent-tasting, unbelievably large sandwich for only $3 and has a buy 7, get 1 free deal where you get this cool card that they stamp. Its a good price for lunch, and you can get a baklava and a diet SODA for a dollar extra. Anyway, Tuesday I was very excited because I had finally earned my free falafel after a month of hard work. I wondered how the truck possibly make money, since falafel is pretty expensive to make, but then I realized that I would probably never patronize this truck if not for the buy 7, get 1 free promotion. Well, Im not Course XIV. Tomorrow I will go back over to get my third card of the year. Wednesday, Burton-Conner had a bake sale to benefit victims of Hurricane Katrina. I baked this Jewish Apple Cake based on a recipe that my across-the-street neighbor Dot gave me (or as Mitra calls her, my Aunt Dottie). It turned out incredibly well. I may have to try it again sometime. I think Ill cover it with apples foster and homemade whipped cream and serve it in our dorms apple bake competition. Wednesday night I joined the MIT Marching Band. Now, in high school I was kind of an accomplished mellophonist in my school band. However, I never owned my own instrument, and all they had for me to borrow at MIT was this old, disused trumpet with a mouthpiece that cant be removed. So, Ill learn trumpet. Turns out I suck eggs at trumpet. Its the same fingerings, but you get different pitches when you play them. Very confusing! Oh well. We only rehearse once a week (really!) and the first rehearsal was a ton of fun. The director is always very positive. I wanted to practice for the game on Saturday but they didnt give me any music to take home. I really missed playing an instrument. Well see where this leads me. Isnt this an artistic photograph? This is a pecan pie that Ruth baked. It was also excellent. It was also excellent when she helped resolve a budget crisis this evening. The dorm has an IFAF, which is basically a $3000 fund to sponsor different floors in the dorm to hang out together. Can you guess what it stands for? Well, we had originally requested over 150% of the IFAF money, but with a little common sense an a lot of free Bertuccis pizza, we were able to reach a great compromise that worked out spendidly for all parties involved. Except Burton Third, whos paying a lot more for a cabin in Maine than they had originally expected. Sorry, guys. At least you got pizza. Today I fell in love with Pamela Wood and Jean-Francois Hamel. I want to marry both of them. Better yet, I want them to marry each other and become my adoptive aunt and uncle. They are both so amazing. Professor Wood speaks in a whisper, says it matters not non-ironically and yet never sounds pretentious at all. Professor Hamel, speaking in his adorable French lisp, his one gray streak shining against his unkempt brown hair, today asked me as I was watching glassware, Are you enjoying yourself? Are you leaning a lot and at the same time uh, uh, having fun? Sigh And tomorrow youll hear all about the life of a chemical engineer, at the request of an anonymous commenter. Wow, a week in the life.

Recycling Informative Speech - 947 Words

Is Recycling Important? Attention Getter: According to epa.gov, â€Å"Each person in the United States produces an average of 4 pounds of household hazardous waste each year for a total of about 530,000 tons/year.† Background: Trash continues to increase, as the world continues to last. Easy disposable products such as water bottles and soda cans has led to increasing amount of pollution around the world. Audience Relevance: Recycling is something most people choose to ignore. Recycling helps the world by reusing trash to make new products. As a result, this helps reduce the amount of trash that rot in landfills and pollution. Speaker Credibility: My family has recycle for over the past 10 years. I believe it is something important that†¦show more content†¦Recently, oceanographers and ecologists discovered that about 70% of marine debris actually sinks to the bottom of the ocean. As a result, not recycling hurts the marine life as it leaves leftovers behind to rot. This is important because it affects the whole world we live in. Our mess our the result of our world. Transition to 2nd Main Point: I have just finished talking about the problem. Next I will talk about the causes of not recycling. Main Point2: Robert Orben, a comedian writer states â€Å"There s so much pollution in the air now that if it weren t for our lungs there d be no place to put it all†. As a result, we should we should start recycling and stop leaving trash behind. This is significant because the problem of not recycling causes pollution. Pollution we create is harming the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink. Sub-point A: With plastic being everywhere, everytime it gets thrown away or washed down, the toxic pollutants enter the environment and do harm. Trash dumps and landfills are also major problems as they allow pollutants to affect the land and water. It sends chemicals everywhere to harm the environment. The landfills are taking too much space and releases greenhouse gas, methane. It is 25 more times potent than carbon dioxide. Sub-point B: The causes of not recycling, leaves pollution. With pollution is that it wrecks the natural environment. Pollution becomesShow MoreRelatedInformative Speech : Recycling And Recycling882 Words   |  4 PagesPersuasive Speech Students Name: Starr Gibbs SUBJECT: Recycling GENERAL PURPOSE: To persuade SPECIFIC PURPOSE: To persuade the audience to become more active in the community to recycle. Specifically, to convince the audience to begin recycling household products and buying recycled goods. 1. SUPPORTING MATERIALS: Documented Sources: 1. A Feasibility Study for Recycling Used Automotive Oil Filters In A Blast Furnace. (2002). Idaho Falls, Idaho: United States. Dept. of Energy. Idaho Operations OfficeRead MoreInformative Speech: Recycling May Be Bad For the Environment Essay565 Words   |  3 PagesSpecific Purpose: To inform the audience that recycling may be bad for the environment Attention Getter:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Most of the people present here today probably recycle; some more than others. And probably, most people assume that they are saving natural resources and helping the environment. However, this is not always true. Thesis:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are many myths about recycling. Preview:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Today in my speech, I will give you facts that may surprise you and that youve probably never heard aboutRead MorePeer Pressure2910 Words   |  12 Pagesbe a welcome break from citing Mark Anthony s oft quoted, Friends, Romans, Countrymen... speech. A good debate topic does not necessarily need to be a political topic. It can be funny, informative, contemplative, social, economical - the categories are endless. Debate topics for students need to be chosen keeping in mind the maturity level and understanding that they may be expected to have about the speech topic at hand. Always make a shortlist of topics that will seem interesting to the targetRead MoreSochi 2014 Olympics3393 Words   |  14 PagesI have read the informative booklets and the official 2014 website, which are both very rich and informative, and used the information given for my paper. Nearly all the â€Å"positive† thoughts about Sochi are listed in this website, though press articles, testimonials, quotes, and lots of information and data. The rest of my research presented doubt or controversy. So I used controversial quotes and thesis I have found to contrast every aspect of the Sochi organizing committee speech. Observations/Discussion/Validation/Results Read MoreSochi 2014 Olympics3379 Words   |  14 Pageshave read the informative booklets and the official 2014 website, which are both very rich and informative, and used the information given for my paper. Nearly all the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“positiveà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  thoughts about Sochi are listed in this website, though press articles, testimonials, quotes, and lots of information and data. The rest of my research presented doubt or controversy. So I used controversial quotes and thesis I have found to contrast every aspect of the Sochi organizing committee speech. Observations/Discussion/Validation/Results Read MoreEthical Companies12021 Words   |  49 PagesCategory: Business Leadership Australia-based Woolworth’s Limited has a strong focus on ethics, which continued in 2010. In 2010, under Luscombe’s leadership, notable initiatives from Woolworths include the company’s Water Wise Project, various recycling programs and multimillion dollar investments in local community programs. Back to List 34. Robert Chatwani – Director Global Citizenship, eBay Category: Business Leadership eBay has been a leader in sustainability for some time and recentlyRead MoreSociology and Group41984 Words   |  168 Pagesam. d. I create. e. I accuse. Answer: a. I believe. . All of the following principles of ethical communication are included in the National Communication Association s Credo for Ethical Communication EXCEPT a. We endorse freedom of speech only when the truth does not cause detrimental results or harm others. b. We advocate truthfulness, accuracy, honesty, and reason as essential to the integrity of communication. c. We strive to understand and respect other communicators beforeRead MoreMultiple Intelligences Seminar and Workshop14464 Words   |  58 Pagescapconnect.com/ The Chariho Regional School District (Rhode Island) http://www.chariho.k12.ri.us Family Education.com http:// www.familyeducation.com/ quiz/0,1399,3-2740,00.html On this site, parents test their childs intelligence. Results are informative and concise. Harvard Project Zero http://pzweb.harvard.edu/ This site provides information about Project Zero, an educational research group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, led by Howard Gardner and his colleagues. Project Zero seeksRead MoreCsr Communication in the Pharma Industry35538 Words   |  143 Pagesstakeholder groups (e.g. surveys, conferences, intranet, etc.). Websites are one more of the many channels pharmaceuticals use when establishing a CSR communication strategy. However, it is important to recognize the value of the websites as an informative tool for reaching the external stakeholders. Originality/value: This research proposes an analysis based on the examination of the CSR engagement of pharmaceutical wholesalers and service providers within the pharmaceutical industry. Little researchRead MoreDeveloping Management Skills404131 Words   |  1617 Pagesmanagement textbook, it is important that you understand its distinctive learner-focused features especially th e five-step learning model: Skill Assessment, Skill Learning, Skill Analysis, Skill Practice, and Skill Application. You’ll also find informative research on how much managers’ actions impact individual and organizational performance, and the characteristics of effective managers. †¢ Thoughtfully complete the Skill Assessment surveys in each chapter. These diagnostic tools are designed to

Think Before You Act - 871 Words

All my life I have been taught to think before I act, in order to prevent myself from making a mistake. Yet, I have learned through my many errors in life not to duplicate my unfortunate actions. Many times I have been told to consider the consequences of my actions prior to acting. I have found, though, that this may not always be the best approach. I would not argue this to be true in every situation, however. What is to be said, for example, of those who have acted on their emotions, only to find themselves in prison? One must be able to know instinctively which situations are appropriate to be dealt with solely on emotions, and which are to require a certain amount of development. Nevertheless, as von Kleist states, in â€Å"On†¦show more content†¦This, in many ways, is how we train ourselves as we mature. After much practice, we perfect the skill of thinking and acting in unison, rather than just acting alone, without any thought or planning involved. Had Der ek Fisher, for example, in the 2004 playoffs, with 0.4 seconds left in the game and the team down by one, taken the time to think through the shot rather than acting solely on impulse and thinking as he went along, the Lakers may not have had the same outcome on that crucial night. As von Kleist may have put it, one who takes the time to think prior to acting â€Å"will always draw the short straw.† In other words, procrastination is never successful, quite the opposite in fact. According to Hemingway, â€Å"Grace under pressure is the key to success.† Whether the antagonist be an emotion, yourself, or one of life’s many curveballs, we must always be prepared to think quickly yet thoroughly. Very similar to von Kleist’s belief, that the proper time for reflection is after an act, is Marvell’s viewpoint. In the poem â€Å"To His Coy Mistress,† Marvell shows his belief towards the idea of Carpe diem. The Latin phrase meaning ‘seize the day,’ is closely paralleled to von Kleist’s advice to his son. The poem is essentially about a man and a woman who do not have time to waste, because before long their youth will have been spent. Although this takes von Kleist’s ideology to a much larger level,Show MoreRelatedThink Before You Act763 Words   |  4 PagesThink Before You Act Everyday someone loses a person dear to them. You never know if it will be your last day here in this world. We all just live day to day and don’t realize tomorrow could be our last. It’s even worse when it could have been prevented. Choices we make can impact our lives and individuals around us. People say things happen for a reason, and that God has a plan for all of us. We won’t know the truth until something tragic happens each of us. June 24, 2011 was the dayRead MoreGreen Marketing : Think Before You Act Essay1326 Words   |  6 Pages3.3 Case 3: Green Marketing; Think Before You Act 3.3.1 Introduction The report entitled Green Marketing: Think Before You Act; a primer for businesses ready to share their sustainability story is taken from Strategic Sustainability Consulting published in April 2012 which is written by Davinder Aulakh. The paper mainly focuses on green marketing and associated risks of greenwashing. It also provides the important role of different standards and certifications in green marketing. It offers an analyticalRead MoreUS Involvement Around The World: Think Before You Act995 Words   |  4 Pageswith North Korea and soldiers still in Afghanistan and Iraq the President is always quite busy. Even though the President has lots of ad-visors to help him make decisions some advice that would really aid the president is the lesson that â€Å"Think before you act, be sure not to overreact† Some examples from the Cold War era that support this lesson are The Cuban Missile Crisis, The My Lai Massacre (involving napalm and agent orange) and the incident at Kent State. First off, Kennedy was under aRead MoreLife As A Contest With Fate By Heinrich Von Kleist954 Words   |  4 PagesWhen is the proper moment to think? Is it better to think before, during, or after an action? The writer, Heinrich von Kleist, argues that one should think after an act. He uses the example of a wrestler, â€Å"The athlete, at that moment when he is holding his opponent in his grip, simply has no recourse but to act spontaneously, on inspiration; and if he begins to calculate which muscles to contract and which limbs to move in order to throw him, he will always draw the short straw and be thrown himself†Read MoreSummary Of The Short Story Confession728 Words   |  3 Pages Rough Draft â€Å"We didn’t mean to hurt anyone, honest. We just wanted to make the hood better, safer. Honest. I’m sorry.† (Gallo 111). This theme is think before you act, in the short story Confession. You genuinely need to think before you do anything in dangerous situations. In the short story, the theme shows up when they decided to burn drugs in members of the gangs lockers. Also, when Lacey needed to keep the Protectors secret so no one finds out its them. Then again, when they concludedRead MoreThe Crucible By Arthur Miller1108 Words   |  5 Pagesabout himself and ruin his reputations. He also doesn’t want people to think he is a bad person by confessing a lie just to save his life. John Proctor knew that if he confessed he would make himself look guilty and his friends who didn’t do anything would look guilty. â€Å"I speak my own sins, I cannot judge another I have no tongue for it†(Act IV,#148). â€Å"They think to go like saints, I like not to spoil their name†(Act IV,#148).â€Å"Then who will judge me? God in heaven, what is John Proctor, whoRead MoreMadness; Real or Fake?747 Words   |  3 Pagesbut twice. He also has control over his madness, being able to switch from sane to insane in different situations. Lastly, acting impulsively could be a symptom of madness; yet, Hamlet thinks before every move. Considering how Hamlet visibly has control over his madness as well as his reasoning for wanting to act mad, it is beyond a doubt that it is faked. Hamlet is very good at playing with his words, and turning them around to define something completely different. Throughout the play, using hisRead MoreEnglish Speech: Terrorism Essay example506 Words   |  3 Pages English Speech: Terrorism Good (morning/afternoon) and welcome to my speech. Today I would like to enlighten you with a subject that I feel strongly about. That subject is terrorism and what it has done to the world. My personal opinion is that terrorism is something that is causing havoc in this place called earth and it should stopped before it gets out of our hands. The word terrorism in the English dictionary means violent action for political purposes.Read MoreThe Digital Music Industry Is Forever Evolving999 Words   |  4 Pageswork hard to produce their music. They try and sell their music in order to make a living. Pirating is illegal, but in this digital age, there are so many ways around it. Producers are having to work with advertising agencies to combat this illegal act from taking place. A study done by three professors from Syracuse and Marquette University looked at how this could take place. They came up with a creative way to solve this problem. The study showed a way to prevent piracy and how to keep collegeRead MoreUSA Patriot Act Essay1210 Words   |  5 Pageswiretapping, surveillance for e-mails, and other forms of surveillance tools that were before a violation of peoples right to privacy, are now allowed to be used without probable cause. These tools now allow the FBI to find terrorists before they commit their act of violence. These surveillance tools that are now allowed to be used by the FBI were passed under the USA Patriot Act. Given that the USA Patriot Act now allows the FBI to look through what many people may consider private, many questions

A critique of a film Free Essays

Day by day, it is increasingly more difficult to maintain safety in our society, since interactions between people create dangers, either at ‘high’ political level, or on the daily basis. We live not in the no-man’s-land, so people adjust to new conditions and changing situations. Still, there are those, who cannot accept this environment and who, probably, cannot be accepted. We will write a custom essay sample on A critique of a film or any similar topic only for you Order Now Being busy with our education and careers, we simply have no time to think carefully about the hidden threats of the environment, which can be really aggressive, and even destruct our bodies. In the movie ‘Safe’, Carol White (Julianne Moore) lives with her husband and stepson in a comfortable suburban home in California.   Her life is completely predictable, and in spite of the fact that she has ‘relationship’ with her husband, she begins feeling isolated and then – drained and depressed. Mysteriously, she falls ill with weird symptoms: she experiences nose bleedings, dizziness and allergies, and doctor attributes it to stress. Having passed different tests, she understand that there is nothing physically wrong with her, but nevertheless she takes medication and changes her diet, getting of the all-fruit diet and cutting back diary products. When her condition doesn’t go away, she gets a recommendation to visit psychiatrist. The problem with her mind is a reason for the illness. Carol finally understands the necessity, which requires of her to go to a place, where people who suffer from toxic allergies and those with AIDS can ‘clean’ themselves, and, probably, the only place where she can feel safe. As the plot develops, it becomes clear that the treatment, received at hospital, is improper and probably, only worsens the situation. Haynes’s idea was to show the powerlessness of traditional medical science against new illnesses, caused by external irritants, but destroy humans from inside. In the film, Carol combats a real ten-headed hydra, which responds to the new treatment courses with new painful fits of allergy. Carol drives her car – and endures a coughing fir; she breathes in her new perfumes –and feels lightheadedness. Aerobic classes, which pursue a goal of helping her relax, are initially doomed to be unsuccessful: she has never had tension in her life, she has never had close relations, so there was no ground for either extremely positive or extremely negative emotions in her life. Thus, she cannot relax, because she never experiences stresses in pure medical meaning. Moreover, the medicaments Carol receives are irritants, as they also consist of toxins or other synthetic substances. On the contrary, Dunning chooses a different direction and creates some kind of cult, or community with certain beliefs, values and philosophy. People living there find there attachment and new system of coordinates, in which it is possible to consider their illness and cope with related inner problems. It is possible to notice that by the end of the movie, she becomes increasingly more shattered, and probably her sickness breaks her and makes her re-evaluate the relationships which had existed in her life before she fell ill. She has a husband, bad hasn’t given birth to children, because Carol ‘endures’ the existence of a domestic plant, which should be carefully watered and supplied with the necessary nourishment, but whose opinion weighs like any plant’s opinion. It is possible to note that her first steps were determined (or, at least, highly influenced) by her husband. To my view, her sickness is a force which makes her re-think her existence and understand that she had had only ‘mechanical’ relationship with her husband, who even doesn’t try to understand her and empty conversations with her friends, carpenter and drycleaner. The scene, which reinforce her sense ‘of nobodiness’ is one where she looks at her husband from the bed and asks ‘Where am I? At the moment?’. He answers that she is in Carol and Greg’s house, but she begins to cry, because this lush house has never belonged to her as well as her own life. How to cite A critique of a film, Papers

Labour Welfare Synopsis free essay sample

Controlling, motivating and integrating the personnel employed; (v) Managing trade unionism, industrial relations wages, welfare activities; and (vi) Foster a climate of productivity, team work and healthy labour management relations for the accomplishment of organizational objectives. Labour Welfare,’ any thing done for intellectual, physical, moral and economic betterment of the workers, whether by employers, by government or by other agencies, or over and above what is normally expected on the part of the contractual benefits for which workers may have bargained. Dr. Panandikar defines it as â€Å"work for improving the health, safety and general well-being and the industrial efficiency of the workers beyond the minimum standard laid down by the labour legislation. Encyclopedia of Social Sciences defines welfare work as â€Å"voluntary efforts of an employer to establish within the existing industrial limits, working and sometimes living and cultural conditions of his emp loyees industry and the condition of the market. † I. L. O. report refers with regard to Labour Welfare as â€Å"such services, facilities, and amenities which may be established in or in the vicinity of undertakings to enable the persons employed in them to perform their work in healthy, congenial surroundings and provided with amenities conducive to good health and high morale. † The quantity and quality of labour are both a cause and consequence of economic development. Welfare includes anything that is done for the comfort and improvement of employees and is provided over and above the wages. It helps in keeping the morale and motivation of the employees high so as to retain the employees for longer duration. The concept of welfare is necessarily elastic in character which vary in interpretations from country to country and time to time, depending on different social systems, degree of industrialization and general level of social and economic developments. The need and importance of labour welfare is being increasingly appreciated throughout the civilized world. In its inert sense it is more or less synonymous with labour condition as a whole, including labour legislations and social insurance. Another focus of interpretation centers round the voluntary or statutory nature of welfare for the working class. The labour policy in India derives its strength from the ‘Directive Principles of State policy’ and evolving in response to the socio-economic and political development. To ensure the fulfillment of the aforesaid constitutional provisions, various legislations viz.

Racial Discrimination, Deviance, and Redemption in “Crash” Essay Example

Racial Discrimination, Deviance, and Redemption in â€Å"Crash† Paper Paul Haggis’ (2004) movie â€Å"Crash† is a powerful portrayal on the way in which racial discrimination as a complex social problem affects the lives of people. Set in Los Angeles, the movie shows how different people often â€Å"crash† into each other’s lives and unconsciously create ripples in these interactions. The effectivity of Higgis’ depiction lies on the utter simplicity by which the movie is able to show the nuances of interlocking problems from multiple perspectives. Interestingly, the movie also poses the problem of coping in a multi-cultural society where racism is almost a norm in itself and shows how gender and socio-economic gaps contribute to and reinforce racial stereotypes and biases. The film’s exploration on the barriers erected by racial, gender, and income disparities is perhaps best portrayed by Matt Dillon who plays the character John Ryan, a police officer who has been working for seventeen years with the Los Angeles Police Department. Ryan is a single, white, male who lives with and takes care of his aging father off-duty and who spends most of the time in the movie demanding a better doctor from his father’s healthcare company. Ryan is both a dutiful son to his father and the police force, however, his character harbors the frustration resulting from the conflicts of his status as a male Caucasian in the lower rungs of the economic ladder which prevents him from providing better quality of healthcare to his ailing father. It is from thses conflicting roles that his bitterness and disdain towards privileged people of color arises. We will write a custom essay sample on Racial Discrimination, Deviance, and Redemption in â€Å"Crash† specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Racial Discrimination, Deviance, and Redemption in â€Å"Crash† specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Racial Discrimination, Deviance, and Redemption in â€Å"Crash† specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Most of the poignant scenes which emphasize his bitterness and his attempt to compensate for his disadvantaged position show Ryan attempting to get back at his perceived tormentors either by physically or verbally harassing them using his position as a police officer and his status as a Caucasian. In the early part of the film, for instance, he is the stereotypical white, racist cop who stops an SUV driven for no apparent reason than the fact that it is driven by a black American and proceeds to create false charges against him. Clearly a case of selective perception where people are almost always quick to prejudge other people based on the color of their skin or other stereotypes, Ryan treats the man, a film director, like a common criminal. Unfortunately, the man’s wife, played by Thandie Newton, sees the cop’s real agenda for stopping them and protests arrogantly that â€Å"You thought you saw a white woman performing fellatio on a black man? †¦ †¦? that’s why you stopped us. † (Haggis, 2004) This visibly enrages Ryan who, not wanting to show weakness and lose his power in front of his much younger police partner, retaliates by subjecting the woman to a body search and sexually offending her. The act is both an offense and an insult against the woman and her husband, who are forced to endure the harassment and even apologize to the police officer for a supposed crime. In another scene, Ryan pays Shaniqua a personal visit to discuss his father’s deteriorating health and painful condition which expectedly ends in conflict when he subjects her to racial slurs in an attempt to compel her to do more for his father. He tells her of his father’s effort to provide employment in his business and of the loss he suffered when the Government started adopting a preference for companies owned by racial minorities. She is not moved by Ryan’s tirade of his father’s contribution to the African-American community, however, because of Ryan’s racist remarks and instead tells him that she would have signed the necessary papers if Ryan had been nicer.

5 Cases of Excessive Commas

5 Cases of Excessive Commas 5 Cases of Excessive Commas 5 Cases of Excessive Commas By Mark Nichol The rules about commas can seem so complicated and contradictory that writers can (almost) be forgiven for tossing in an extra one or two. Here are several examples of overly generous deployment of commas. 1. â€Å"If a killer asteroid was, indeed, incoming, a spacecraft could, in theory, be launched to nudge the asteroid out of Earth’s way, changing its speed and the point of intersection.† This thirty-word sentence is littered with six commas one for every five words five of them appearing before the halfway point. By simply bending the rule about bracketing interjections with commas a rule that advocates of open punctuation flout routinely anyway the number is reduced by two, rendering the sentence more free flowing: â€Å"If a killer asteroid was indeed incoming, a spacecraft could, in theory, be launched to nudge the asteroid out of Earth’s way, changing its speed and the point of intersection.† One more comma can be eliminated by relocating the parenthetical phrase â€Å"in theory† to an earlier position in the sentence, so that the comma after incoming does double duty: â€Å"If a killer asteroid was indeed incoming, in theory, a spacecraft could be launched to nudge the asteroid out of Earth’s way, changing its speed and the point of intersection.† 2. â€Å"The metaphor, ‘The world is a machine,’ began to replace the metaphor, ‘The world is a living organism.’† In this sentence, the comma preceding each instance of metaphor implies that that metaphor is the only one not just in the sentence, but anywhere. (But two metaphors are expressed here, and innumerable others exist.) Metaphor, appearing in apposition to the two brief quotations, should not be set off from them: â€Å"The metaphor ‘The world is a machine’ began to replace the metaphor ‘The world is a living organism.’† 3. â€Å"The event is part of a catchy, public health message about the importance of emergency preparedness.† Catchy and â€Å"public health† are not coordinate adjectives. The point is not that the message is catchy and public health; it’s that the public health message is catchy. Therefore, no comma is necessary: â€Å"The event is part of a catchy public health message about the importance of emergency preparedness.† If, by contrast, the sentence read, for example, â€Å"The event is part of a catchy, quirky message about the importance of emergency preparedness,† note that because catchy and quirky are parallel they are coordinate adjectives a comma should separate them. 4. â€Å"The report was completed in December, 2012.† A comma is necessary between a month and a year only if a date is specified (â€Å"The report was completed on December 1, 2012†): â€Å"The report was completed in December 2012.† (The same rule applies when the name of a season appears in place of the name of a month: â€Å"The report was completed in fall 2012.†) 5. â€Å"Jones traveled by boxcar from California to New York with fellow fledgling artist, John Smith, sketching the American landscape along the way.† Commas are necessary with this type of apposition only if the epithet is preceded by an article (â€Å"Jones traveled by boxcar from California to New York with a fellow fledgling artist, John Smith, sketching the American landscape along the way†): â€Å"Jones traveled by boxcar from California to New York with fellow fledgling artist John Smith sketching the American landscape along the way.† Unfortunately, this type of error has gone viral its ubiquity is mistaken for propriety and is seemingly ineradicable. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Punctuation category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:"Because Of" and "Due To" 8 Types of Parenthetical Phrases7 Sound Techniques for Effective Writing

Case Study Analyses Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Case Study Analyses - Essay Example Wal-Mart is a business which over the years has empowered the employees to be able to live a better life, this was especially so in the earlier days when Wal-Mart was in its full glory. To begin with, being a large organisation helped the employees to have job security because it was harder to lose their job in a large organisation such as Wal-Mart. However, it is necessary to note that this seems to have changed since in the recent days, Wal-Mart has had various issues with its employees where many employees complain of being overworked, underpaid and that they don’t have job security anymore. The Wal-Mart Way is the strategy which Wal-Mart uses in doing its retail business. The Wal-Mart way has helped the firms to become a colossal success and this success in turn affects the employees and the associates by empowering them. The absence of Sam has however meant that the employees and the associates are no longer as advantaged as they used to be. Wal-Mart can be seen as the pi oneer in corporate social responsibility. Sam had a genuine sense of responsibility towards the stakeholders and especially the communities in which his business operated. These early stances on corporate social responsibility can indicate that Wal-Mart’s core values are geared towards responsible business which looks at the interests of all the stakeholders. The Buy American stance for instance is a good example because by implementing this idea, Wal-Mart was getting a disadvantage because it had to buy more expensive goods from the local manufacturers while its competitors continued buying cheaper goods from overseas manufacturers. If Wal-Mart was doing this just to entice the customers, it could have given up later but instead of that, it stuck on its policy. The effect of Wal-Mart on the smaller merchants does not neutralise the advantages of the firm’s corporate responsibility because Wal-Mart does not owe anything to these merchant as long as it applies ethical r ules of competition. With regard to the closure of the stores, Wal-Mart, just like any other employer, owes it to the employees to provide safe and secure employment. There is no employee who doesn’t want to know that their jobs are secure and that they will not wake up one day and find that they no longer have any their jobs. In this regard, Wal-Mart owes it to the employees to make sure that their jobs are secured and that they will not suffer trying to look for other jobs. With regard to the loyal customers, Wal-Mart also has a responsibility because these customers were used to getting the services of Wal-Mart. In a modern world, customers’ lives are moulded by the services they get from businesses like Wal-Mart and when they receive these services for long enough, their lives are highly dependent on these services and if these services are removed, the customers are affected. This is why firms like Wal-Mart have the responsibility to do whatever it takes to ensure the continuity of these services and therefore Wal-Mart owes it to these customers to continue offering the services. The competitors in some cities have secretly hired consultants to block Wal-Mart from entering these cities. This is not fair business and it breaks all rules of business competition ethics. This is very

The development of measurement systems that align with the objectives Thesis Proposal

The development of measurement systems that align with the objectives of public sector organisations - Thesis Proposal Example On the other hand, Hamza (2008) mentioned that performance management process is used for enhancing the productivity of the firm and develop a better brand equity in the market. Combing both these definitions, it can be assessed that performance management processes are mainly used to organise the operational activities of a firm in order to develop a better brand reflection and a competitive advantage to the stakeholders. However, Abu-Musa (2007) stated that performance management processes are initiated in an organisation to help in achieving the business goals but often managing the work processes derails the performance management processes from its original objectives. This brings in the aspect of including the strategic management process in the performance management system of a company. Focusing on the public sector organisations, Issa-Salwe et al. (2010) mentioned that operational process of public sector organisations are mostly managed in a centralised manner which reduces the efficiency of the performance management system. One of the most common problems being faced by the public sector firms is that of resource utilisation and resource management. Braz, Scavarda and Martins (2011) argued that resource wastage is a frequent problem being faced by the public sector organisations. Again pointing out these specific problems may change the direction of the performance management system in context of assisting the business in achieving its objective. Thus the question remains is how to set up a performance management process that supports the organisational mission and objectives. Based on evaluations of the performance of different public sector organisations Issa-Salwe et al. (2010) stated that it has to be considered that there is not set framework for performan ce management and thus comparison among various public sector organisations may not always be valid. This sentiment has also been mentioned by Braz, Scavarda and

Measuring weak-form market efficiency

Measuring weak-form market efficiency Measuring Weak-form Market Efficiency ABSTRACT This paper tests weak-form efficiency in the U.S. market. Both daily and monthly returns are employed for autocorrelation analysis, variance ratio tests and delay tests. Three conclusions are reached. Firstly, security returns are predictable to some extent. While individual stock returns are weakly negatively correlated and difficult to predict, market-wide indices with outstanding recent performance show a positive autocorrelation and offer more predictable profit opportunities. Secondly, monthly returns follow random walk better than daily returns and are thus more weak-form efficient. Finally, weak-form inefficiency is not necessarily bad. Investors should be rewarded a certain degree of predictability for bearing risks. Efficient market hypothesis (EMH), also known as information efficiency, refers to the extent to which stock prices incorporate all available information. The notion is important in helping investors to understand security behaviour so as to make wise investment decisions. According to Fama (1970), there are three versions of market efficiency: the weak, semistrong, and strong form. They differ with respect to the information that is incorporated in the stock prices. The weak form efficiency assumes that stock prices already incorporate all past trading information. Therefore, technical analysis on past stock prices will not be helpful in gaining abnormal returns. The semistrong form efficiency extends the information set to all publicly available information including not only past trading information but also fundamental data on firm prospects. Therefore, neither technical analysis nor fundamental analysis will be able to produce abnormal returns. Strong form efficiency differs fro m the above two in stating that stock prices not only reflect publicly available information but also private inside information. However, this form of market efficiency is always rejected by empirical evidence. If weak-form efficiency holds true, the information contained in past stock price will be completely and instantly reflected in the current price. Under such condition, no pattern can be observed in stock prices. In other words, stock prices tend to follow a random walk model. Therefore, the test of weak-form market efficiency is actually a test of random walk but not vice versa. The more efficient the market is, the more random are the stock prices, and efforts by fund managers to exploit past price history will not be profitable since future prices are completely unpredictable. Therefore, measuring weak-form efficiency is crucial not only in academic research but also in practice because it affects trading strategies. This paper primarily tests the weak-form efficiency for three stocks-Faro Technologies Inc. (FARO), FEI Company (FEIC) and Fidelity Southern Corporation (LION) and two decile indices-the NYSE/AMEX/NASDAQ Index capitalisation based Deciles 1 and 10 (NAN D1 and NAN D10). Both daily and monthly data are employed here to detect any violation of the random walk hypothesis. The remainder of the paper is structured in the following way. Section I provides a brief introduction of the three firms and two decile indices. Section II describes the data and discusses the methodology used. Section III presents descriptive statistics. Section IV is the result based on empirical analysis. Finally, section V concludes the paper. I. The Companies[1] A. Faro Technologies Inc (FARO) FARO Technologies is an instrument company whose principle activities include design and develop portable 3-D electronic systems for industrial applications in the manufacturing system. The companys principal products include the Faro Arm, Faro Scan Arm and Faro Gage articulated measuring devices. It mainly operates in the United States and Europe. B. FEI Company (FEI) FEI is a leading scientific instruments company which develops and manufactures diversified semiconductor equipments including electron microscopes and beam systems. It operates in four segments: NanoElectronics, NanoResearch and Industry, NanoBiology and Service and Components. With a 60-year history, it now has approximately 1800 employees and sells products to more than 50 countries around the world. C. Fidelity Southern Corp. (LION) Fidelity Southern Corp. is one of the largest community banks in metro Atlanta which provides a wide range of financial services including commercial and mortgage services to both corporate and personal customers. It also provides international trade services, trust services, credit card loans, and merchant services. The company provides financial products and services for business and retail customers primarily through branches and via internet. D. NYSE/AMEX/NASDAQ Index It is an index taken from the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) which includes all common stocks listed on the NYSE, Amex, and NASDAQ National Market. The index is constructed by ranking all NYSE companies according to their market capitalization in the first place. They are then divided into 10 decile portfolios. Amex and NASDAQ stocks are then placed into the deciles based on NYSE breakpoints. The smallest and the largest firms based on market capitalization are placed into Decile 1 and Decile 10, respectively. II. Data and Methodology A. Data Data for the three stocks and two decile indices in our study are all obtained from the Center for Research in Securities Prices database (CRSP) on both daily and monthly basis from January 2000 to December 2005. Returns are then computed on both basis, generating a total of 1507 daily observations and 71 monthly observations. The NYSE/AMEX/NASDAQ Index is CRSP Capitalisation-based so that Decile 1 and 10 represent the smallest and largest firms, respectively, based on market capitalisation. In addition, The Standard and Poors 500 Index (SP 500) is used as a proxy for the market index. It is a valued-weighted index which incorporates the largest 500 stocks in US market. For comparison purposes, both continuously compounded (log) returns and simple returns are reported, although the analysis is based on the result of the first one. B. Methods B.1. Autocorrelation Tests One of the most intuitive and simple tests of random walk is to test for serial dependence, i.e. autocorrelation. The autocorrelation is a time-series phenomenon, which implies the serial correlation between certain lagged values in a time series. The first-order autocorrelation, for instance, indicates to what extent neighboring observations are correlated. The autocorrelation test is always used to test RW3, which is a less restrictive version of random walk model, allowing the existence of dependent but uncorrelated increments in return data. The formula of autocorrelation at lag k is given by: (1) where is the autocorrelation at lag ; is the log-return on stock at time; and is the log-return on stock at time. A greater than zero indicates a positive serial correlation whereas a less than zero indicates a negative serial correlation. Both positive and negative autocorrelation represent departures from the random walk model. If is significantly different from zero, the null hypothesis of a random walk is rejected. The autocorrelation coefficients up to 5 lags for daily data and 3 lags for monthly data are reported in our test. Results of the Ljung-Box test for all lags up to the above mentioned for both daily and monthly data are also reported. The Ljung-Box test is a more powerful test by summing the squared autocorrelations. It provides evidence for whether departure for zero autocorrelation is observed at all lags up to certain lags in either direction. The Q-statistic up to a certain lag m is given by: (2) B.2. Variance Ratio Tests We follow Lo and MacKinlays (1988) single variance ratio (VR) test in our study. The test is based on a very important assumption of random walk that variance of increments is a linear function of the time interval. In other words, if the random walk holds, the variance of the qth differed value should be equal to q times the variance of the first differed value. For example, the variance of a two-period return should be equal to twice the variance of the one-period return. According to its definition, the formula of variance ratio is denoted by: (3) where q is any positive integer. Under the null hypothesis of a random walk, VR(q) should be equal to one at all lags. If VR(q) is greater than one, there is positive serial correlation which indicates a persistence in prices, corresponding to the momentum effect. If VR(q) is less than one, there is negative serial correlation which indicates a reversal in prices, corresponding to the mean-reverting process. Note that the above two test are also tests of how stock prices react to publicly available information in the past. If market efficiency holds true, information from past prices should be immediately and fully reflected in the current stock price. Therefore, future stock price change conditioned on past prices should be equal to zero. B.3. Griffin-Kelly-Nardari DELAY Tests As defined by Griffin, Kelly and Nardari (2007), delay is a measure of sensitivity of current returns to past market-wide information.[2] Speaking differently, delay measures how quickly stock returns can react to market returns. The logic behind this is that a stock which is slow to incorporate market information is less efficient than a stock which responds quickly to market movements. SP 500 index is employed in delay test to examine the sensitivity of stock returns to market information. For each stock and decile index, both restricted and unrestricted models are estimated from January 2000 to December 2005. The unrestricted model is given by: (4) where is the log-return on stock i at time t; is the market log-return (return for SP 500 index) at time t; is the lagged market return; is the coefficient on the lagged market return; and is the lag which is 1, 2, 3, 4 for the daily data and 1, 2, 3 for the monthly data. The restricted model is as follows which sets all to be zero: (5) Delay is then calculated based on adjusted R-squares from above regressions as follows: (6) An alternative scaled measure of delay is given by: (7) Both measures are reported in a way that the larger the calculated delay value, the more return variation is explained by lagged market returns and thus the more delayed response to the market information. III. Descriptive Statistics A. Daily frequencies Table I shows the summary statistic of daily returns for the three stocks and two decile indices. The highest mean return is for FARO (0.0012), whereas the lowest mean return is for NAN D10 (0.0000). In terms of median return, NAN D1 (0.0015) outperforms all the other stocks. Both the highest maximum return and the lowest minimum return (0.2998 and -0.2184, respectively) are for FARO, corresponding to its highest standard deviation (0.0485) among all, indicating that FARO is the most volatile in returns. On the other hand, both the lowest maximum return and highest minimum return (0.0543 and -0.0675, respectively) are for NAN D10. However NAN D10 is only the second least volatile, while the lowest standard deviation is for NAN D1 (0.0108). Figure 1 and 2 presents the price level of the most and least volatile index (stock). All the above observations remain true if we change from log-return basis to a simple return basis. In terms of the degree of asymmetry of the return distributions, all stocks and indices are positively skewed, with the only exception of NAN D1. The positive skewness implies that more extreme values are in the right tail of the distribution, i.e. stocks are more likely to have times when performance is extremely good. On the other hand, NAN D1 is slightly negatively skewed, which means that returns are more likely to be lower that what is expected by normal distribution. In measuring the peakedness of return distributions, positive excess kurtosis is observed in all stocks and indices, also known as a leptokurtic distribution, which means that returns either cluster around the mean or disperse in the two ends of the distribution. All the above observations can be used to conclusively reject the null hypothesis that daily returns are normally distributed. What more, results from Jarque-Bera test provide supportive evidence for rejection of the normality hypothesis at all significant levels for all stocks and indices. B. Monthly frequencies Descriptive statistics of monthly returns are likewise presented in Table II. Most of the above conclusions reached for daily returns are also valid in the context of monthly returns. In other words, what is the highest (lowest) value for daily returns is also the highest (lowest) for monthly returns in most cases. The only exceptions are for the highest value in median returns and the lowest value and standard deviation in minimum returns. In this situation, NAN D10 (0.0460) and FARO (0.1944) have the least and most dispersion according to their standard deviations, compared with NAN D1 and FARO in daily case. From above observation, we can see that decile indices are more stable than individual stocks in terms of returns. Whats more, monthly returns have larger magnitude in most values than daily returns. Coming to the measurement of asymmetry and peakedness of return distributions, only NAN D10 (-0.4531) is negatively skewed. However, the degree of skewness is not far from 0. Other stocks and index are all positively skewed with both FEIC (0.0395) and LION (0.0320) having a skewness value very close to 0. Almost all stocks and index have a degree of kurtosis similar to that of normal distribution, except that NAN D1 (8.6623) is highly peaked. This is also consistent with the results of JB p-values, based on which we conclude that FEIC, LION and NAN D10 are approximately normal because we fail to reject the hypothesis that they are normally distributed at 5% or higher levels (see Figure 3 and 4 for reference). However when simple return basis is used, FEIC is no longer normally distributed even at the 1% significant level. Except this, using simple return produces similar results. IV. Results A. Autocorrelation Tests A.1. Tests for Log-Returns The results of autocorrelation tests for up to 5 lags of daily log-returns and up to 3 lags of monthly log-returns for three stocks and two decile indices from January 2000 to December 2005 are summarised in Table III. Both the autocorrelation (AC) and partial autocorrelation (PAC) are examined in our tests. As is shown in Panel A, all 5 lags of FARO, FEIC and NAN D10 for both AC and PAC are insignificant at 5% level, except for the fourth-order PAC coefficient of FARO (-0.052), which is slightly negatively significant. On the contrary, NAN D1 has significant positive AC and PAC at almost all lags except in the fourth order, its PAC (0.050) is barely within the 5% significance level. The significant AC and PAC coefficients reject the null hypothesis of no serial correlation in NAN D1, thereby rejecting the weak-form efficiency. In terms of LION, significant negative autocorrelation coefficients are only observed in the first two orders and its higher-order coefficients are not statistically significant. Besides that, we find that all the stocks and indices have negative autocorrelation coefficients at most of their lags, with the only exception of NAN D1, whose coefficients are all positive. The strictly positive AC and PAC indicates persistence in returns, i.e. a momentum effect for NAN D1, which means that good or bad performances in the past tend to continue over time. We also present the Ljung-Box (L-B) test statistic in order to see whether autocorrelation coefficients up to a specific lag are jointly significant. Since RW1 implies all autocorrelations are zero, the L-B test is more powerful because it tests the joint hypothesis. As is shown in the table, both LION and NAN D1 have significant Q values in all lags at all levels, while none of FARO, FEIC and NAN D10 has significant Q values. Based on above daily observations, we may conclude that the null hypothesis of no serial correlation is rejected at all levels for LION and NAN D1, but the null hypothesis cannot be rejected at either 5% level or 10% level for FARO, FEIC and NAN D10. This means that both LION and NAN D1 are weak-form inefficient. By looking at their past performance, we find that while NAN D1 outperformed the market in sample period, LION performed badly in the same period. Therefore, it seems that stocks or indices with best and worst recent performance have stronger autocorrelation. In particular, LION shows a positive autocorrelation in returns, suggesting that market-wide indices with outstanding recent performance have momentum in returns over short periods, which offer predictable opportunities to investors. When monthly returns are employed, no single stock or index has significant AC or PAC in any lag reported at 5% level. It is in contrast with daily returns, which means that monthly returns follow a random walk better than daily returns. More powerful L-B test confirms our conclusion by showing that Q statistics for all stocks and indices are statistically insignificant at either 5% or 10% level. Therefore, the L-B null hypothesis can be conclusively rejected for all stocks and indices up to 3 lags. When compared with daily returns, monthly returns seem to follow random walk better and are thus more weak-form efficient. A.2. Tests for Squared Log-Returns Even when returns are not correlated, their volatility may be correlated. Therefore, it is necessary for us to expand the study from returns to variances of returns. Squared log-returns and absolute value of log-returns are measures of variances and are thus useful in studying the serial dependence of return volatility. The results of autocorrelation analysis for daily squared log-returns for all three stocks and two decile indices are likewise reported in Table IV. In contrast to the results for log-returns, coefficients for FEIC, LION, NAN D1 and NAN D10 are significantly different from zero, except for the forth-order PAC coefficient (0.025) for FEIC, the fifth-order PAC coefficient for LION (-0.047) and third- and forth-order PAC coefficient for NAN D1 (-0.020 and -0.014, respectively). FARO has significant positive AC and PAC at the first lag and a significant AC at the third lag. The L-B test provides stronger evidence against the null hypothesis that sum of the squared autocorrelations up to 5 lags is zero for all stocks and indices at all significant levels, based on which we confirm our result that squared log-returns do not follow a random walk. Another contrasting result with that of log-returns is that almost all the autocorrelation coefficients are positive, indicating a stronger positive serial dependence in squared log-returns. In terms of monthly data, only FEIC and NAN D10 have significant positive third-order AC and PAC estimates. Other stocks and indices have coefficients not significantly different from zero. The result is supported by Ljung-Box test statistics showing that Q values are only statistically significant in the third lag for both FEIC and NAN D10. This is consistent with the result reached for log-returns above, which says that monthly returns appear to be more random than daily returns. A.3. Tests for the Absolute Values of Log-Returns Table V provides autocorrelation results for the absolute value of log-returns in similar manner. However, as will be discussed below, the results are even more contrasting than that in Table IV. In Panel A, all the stocks and indices have significant positive serial correlation while insignificant PAC estimates are only displayed in lag 5 for both FARO and LION. Supporting above result, Q values provide evidence against the null hypothesis of no autocorrelation. Therefore, absolute value of daily log-returns exhibit stronger serial dependence than in Table III and IV, and autocorrelations are strictly positive for all stocks and indices. Coming to the absolute value of monthly log-returns, only FEIC displays significant individual and joint serial correlation. NAN D1 also displays a significant Q value in lag 2 at 5% level, but it is insignificant at 1% level. Based on the above evidence, two consistent conclusions can be made at this point. First of all, by changing ingredients in our test from log-returns to squared log-returns and absolute value of log-returns, more positive serial correlation can be observed, especially in daily data. Therefore, return variances are more correlated. Secondly, monthly returns tend to follow a random walk model better than daily returns. A.4. Correlation Matrix of Stocks and Indices Table VI presents the correlation matrix for all stocks and indices. As is shown in Panel A for daily result, all of the correlations are positive, ranging from 0.0551 (LION-FARO) to 0.5299 (NAN D10-FEIC). Within individual stocks, correlation coefficients do not differ a lot. The highest correlation is between FEIC and FARO with only 0.1214, indicating a fairly weak relationship between individual stocks returns. However, in terms of stock-index relationships, they differ drastically from 0.0638 (NAN D10-FARO) to 0.5299 (NAN D10-FEIC). While the positive correlation implies that the three stocks follow the indices in the same direction, the extent to which they will move with the indices is quite different, indicating different levels of risk with regard to different stock. Finally, we find that the correlation between NAN D10 and NAN D1 is the second highest at 0.5052. Panel B provides the correlation matrix for monthly data. Similar to results for daily data, negative correlation is not observed. The highest correlation attributes to that between NAN D10 and FEIC (0.7109) once again, but the lowest is between LION and FEIC (0.1146) this time. Compared with results in Panel A, correlation within individual stocks is slightly higher on average. The improvement in correlation is even more obvious between stocks and indices. It implies that stock prices can change dramatically from day to day, but they tend to follow the movement of indices in a longer horizon. Finally, the correlation between two indices is once again the second highest at 0.5116, following that between NAN D10 and FEIC. It is also found that the correlation between indices improves only marginally when daily data are replaced by monthly data, indicating a relatively stable relationship between indices. B. Variance Ratio Tests The results of variance ratio tests are presented in Table VII for each of the three stocks and two decile indices. The test is designed to test for the null hypothesis of a random walk under both homoskedasticity and heteroskedasticity. Since the violation of a random walk can result either from changing variance, i.e. heteroskedasticity, or autocorrelation in returns, the test can help to discriminate reasons for deviation to some extent. The lag orders are 2, 4, 8 and 16. In Table VII, the variance ratio (VR(q)), the homoskedastic-consistent statistics (Z(q)) and the heteroskedastic-consistent statistics (Z*(q)) are presented for each lag. As is pointed out by Lo and MacKinlay (1988), the variance ratio statistic VR(2) is equal to one plus the first-order correlation coefficient. Since all the autocorrelations are zero under RW1, VR(2) should equal one. The conclusion can be generalised further to state that for all q, VR(q) should equal one. According to the first Panel in Table VII, of all stocks and indices, only LION and NAN D1 have variance ratios that are significantly different from one at all lags. Therefore, the null hypothesis of a random walk under both homoskedasticity and heteroskedasticity is rejected for LION and NAN D1, and thus they are not weak-form efficient because of autocorrelations. In terms of FARO, the null hypothesis of a homoskedastic random walk is rejected, while the hypothesis of a heteroskedastic random walk is not. This implies that the rejection of random walk under homoskedasticity could partly result from, if not entirely due to heteroskedasticity. On the other hand, both FEIC and NAN D10 follow random walk and turn out to be efficient in weak form, corresponding exactly to the autocorrelation results reached before in Table III. Panel B shows that when monthly data are used, the null hypothesis under both forms of random walk can only be rejected for FARO. As for FEIC, the random walk null hypothesis is rejected under homoskedasticity, but not under heteroskedasticity, indicating that rejection is not due to changing variances because Z*(q) is heteroskedasticity-consistent. As is shown in Panel A for daily data, all individual stocks have variance ratios less than one, implying negative autocorrelation. However, the autocorrelation for stocks is statistically insignificant except for LION. On the other hand, variance ratios for NAN D1 are greater than one and increasing in q. The above finding provides supplementary evidence to the results of autocorrelation tests. As Table III shows, NAN D1 has positive autocorrelation coefficients in all lags, suggesting a momentum effect in multiperiod returns. Both findings appear to be well supported by empirical evidence. While daily returns of individual stocks seem to be weakly negatively correlated (French and Roll (1986)), returns for best performing market indices such as NAN D1 show strong positive autocorrelation (Campbell, Lo, and MacKinlay (1997)). The fact that individual stocks have statistically insignificant autocorrelations is mainly due to the specific noise contained in company information, which m akes individual security returns unpredictable. On the contrary, while the positive serial correlation for NAN D1 violates the random walk, such deviation provides investors with confidence to forecast future prices and reliability to make profits. C. Griffin, Kelly and Nardari DELAY Tests The results of delay test for the three stocks and two decile indices over the January 2000 to December 2005 period are summarised in Table VIII. We use lag 1, 2, 3, 4 for the daily data and 1, 2, 3 for the monthly data. As is presented in Panel A for daily returns, Delay_1 value for NAN D10 is close to zero and hence not significant, while NAN D1 has the highest delay among all stocks and indices. The rank of delay within individual stocks seems to have a positive relationship between size and delay value, by showing that delay of LION, the stock with smallest market capitalization is lowest, while the delay of FEIC, the stock with largest market capitalization is highest. It seems to contradict with the Griffin, Kelly and Nardari (2006) study, which says that there is an inverse relationship between size and delay. One possible explanation for that is that delay calculated by daily data on individual firms is noisy. The scaled measure Delay_2 produces consistent conclusion but with higher magnitude in values. Delay_2 values are very different from zero for FARO, FEIC, LION and NAN D1. The largest increase in value is seen in FARO from 0.0067 for Delay_1 to 0.7901 for Delay_2. Therefore, Griffin, Kelly and Nardari delay measure is preferable, because the scaled version can result in large values without economic significance. As is displayed in Panel B, employing monthly data also leads to higher Delay_1 values, indicating that more variation of monthly returns are captured by lagged market returns and hence monthly returns are not as sensitive as daily returns to market-wide news. However, an inverse relationship is found this time between delay and market value of individual stocks. Therefore, monthly data provides consistent result to support Griffin, Kelly and Nardari (2006) result as one would normally expect larger stocks to be more efficient in responding to market. Similar to the result for daily data, scaled measure once again produces higher values than its alternative but it provides the same results. V. Conclusion The main objective of this paper is to test weak-form efficiency in the U.S. market. As is found by selected tests, NAN D10 and FEIC provide the most consistent evidence to show weak-form efficiency, while the deviation from random walk is suggested for other stocks and indices, especially for NAN D1 and LION. It indicates that security returns are predictable to some degree, especially for those having best and worst recent performance. The three autocorrelation tests provide different results in terms of daily returns. While the null hypothesis of random walk is rejected for NAN D1 and LION based on log-returns, it is rejected for all stocks and indices based on both squared and absolute value of log-returns, indicating that return variances are more correlated. On the other hand, results in the context of monthly returns are consistent. Monthly returns follow a random walk much better than daily returns in all three tests. Most evidently, the autocorrelation test fails to reject the presence of random walk for all stocks and indices when monthly log-returns are employed. The variance ratio tests provide supportive evidence for autocorrelation tests. Both tests find that in terms of daily return, NAN D1 and LION show a significant return dependence. In particular, variance ratios for NAN D1 are all above one, corresponding to its positive AC and PAC coefficients, thus implying positive autocorrelation in returns. Whats more, individual stocks have variance ratios less than one with FEIC and FARO both being insignificant. The above evidence conclusively suggest that while individual stock returns are weakly negatively related and difficult to predict, market-wide indices with outstanding recent performance such as NAN D1 tend to show a stronger positive serial correlation and thus offer predictable profit opportunities. The evidence regarding delay tests is consistent with earlier findings to a large extent. NAN D1 has highest delay in both daily and monthly cases, implying an inefficient response to market news. In the context of monthly log-returns, delay values for individual stocks rank inversely based on market capitalisation with larger cap stocks having lower delay, suggesting that small stocks do not capture past public information quickly and are thus inefficient. Finally, deviation from a random walk model and thus being weak-form inefficiency is not necessarily bad. In fact, investors should be rewarded a certain degree of predictability for bearing risks. Therefore, future research could be done by incorporating risk into the model. [1] Company information is mainly obtained from Thomson One Banker database. [2] Griffin, John M., Patrick J. Kelly, and Federico Nardari, 2006, Measuring short-term international stock market efficiency, Working Paper

What Is Time?

Since the very beginning of the human history and up to the present times, the question of time has been a matter of the major philosophical and mathematical concern. Where scientists sought to establish the single and universal definition of time as applied to astronomical and geometrical linear concepts, philosophers tried to reconsider the relevance of time through the prism of its relativity, instability, and its relation to eternity. Given the continuous evasiveness of time and its never-stopping nature, it is difficult to deny that the concept of time comprises numerous features that are not always readily visible to researchers. Simultaneously, our growing dependence on time turns the latter into the critical component of our daily functioning. In reality, and taking into account numerous ideas about time, time is an intangible category which in our world is directly associated with the movement of space bodies around the earth, and which also exemplifies a relative measure of events. Really, the whole history of mankind is associated with the continuous search for the single and universal definition of time. For years and centuries hundreds of scientists, archeologists, anthropologists, philosophers, and religious adherents sought to create a clearer vision of time. In the light of its evasiveness, and given the intangible nature of time, it was more and more difficult for humans to come to a simple and common agreement with regard to the definition of time. Now, as we find ourselves more and more dependent on time, we also find it more and more difficult to determine, what it is that we see through the clocks, alarms, and calendars. It would be fair to say that â€Å"time is represented through change, such as the circular motion of the moon around the earth. The passing of time is indeed closely connected to the concept of space† (Science Daily), but is it enough to say that time is nothing more but the motion of celestial bodies around the earth? Certainly, the concept of time extends far beyond the boundaries of space consciousness, and while individuals try to determine what time is, a whole set of considerations and criteria needs to be taken into account. Historical and philosophic wisdom may help clarify the major time controversies. To begin with, it is in the dialogue between Plato and Timaeus that we first encounter the growing ancient interest toward time. â€Å"He thought of making a certain movable image of eternity, and, at once with ordering heaven, he made an eternal image going according to number, that which we have named Time† (Reichenbach 43). Here, the definition of time comprises both physical and metaphysical understanding of continuous motion, and also confirms the cosmological nature of time on our planet. For Plato, the concept of time is nothing else but a unique combination of eternity and change. This uniqueness is justified by the growing confidence that time, on the one hand, exemplifies stability and a measure of everything, and on the other hand, works as a never-stopping evasive machine. Nevertheless, it is with Plato that scientists and philosophers have gradually come to realize the importance and role of space bodies in designing the vision of time and its relativity. It is with Plato that we view space bodies as the major divisions of circular time. Space bodies link the concept of time to the concept of motion. Through the dialogue between Plato and Timaeus we see stars and other planets as indicators of intangible time; ultimately, it is space that is associated both with eternity and continuous motion. Does that mean that time is a purely philosophical concept and has nothing to do with specific mathematical sciences? In reality, scientists in general, and physicists in particular truly believe that they can scientifically justify and ground the concept of time. Although the scientific side of time is still unclear, it is obvious that researchers and scholars in science will further use their mathematical and mechanical knowledge to develop new time theories. Einstein is well-known for his works about relativity and time, but before Einstein, Galileo and Isaac Barrow also tried to produce a single definition of time. For Barrow, â€Å"time denotes not an actual existence but a certain capacity or possibility for a continuity of existence; just as space denotes a capacity for intervening length. Time does not imply motion, as far as its absolute and intrinsic nature is concerned; [†¦] time implies motion to be measurable; without motion we do not perceive the passage of Time† (Whitrow, Fraser & Soulsby 76). Barrow identifies Time with slow and steady motion, but he concludes that it is impossible to define Time without linking it to the steady and continuous motion of stars, the Moon, and the Sun (Whitrow, Fraser & Soulsby 76). As a result, the motion of celestial bodies can looks like the common thread between different definitions of time. Certainly, Barrow was not unique in his desire to link time to space shifts, but he was one of the first to recognize time as a mathematical concept. For Barrow as well as for his followers, Time was a linear mathematical function. It was associated with a circular line. Barrow viewed time as the concept independent of everything else, and as the concept that flew regardless of economic, social, and environmental changes. However, Barrow was not the only one trying to discuss time from scientific viewpoint. Numerous scientific theories have been developed to prove or deny the relevance of different time definitions. For example, Newton viewed time not as motion but as a universal instrument of measurement; according to his theory, time was not a relative but an absolute category (Brann 49). His ideas were later rejected by Leibniz, who was confident that Time was nothing else but a predetermined sequence of events; for Leibniz, events were the fundamental components of Time (Brann 56). In the variety of visions and ideas, none of them could become the basis for creating an objective theory of time. Time was always surrounded by a realm of myths and subjective opinions that lacked comprehensibility. It was not before Einstein that all previous assumptions have been reduced to nonsense, and it was not before Einstein that a completely new philosophy of Time has been developed. â€Å"It might appear possible to overcome all the difficulties attending the definition of ‘time’ by substituting the position of the small hand of my watch for ‘time’† (Brann 80; Seeman 104). Why watch? The truth is that it is virtually impossible to avoid subjectivity and relativity, when determining Time by watch. Also, it is impossible to guarantee synchronicity of all clocks and watches on the planet. The choice of the watch as the instrument of Time is not accidental, as far as it exemplifies the dramatic differences in perceptions, which individuals hold with regard to Time. Einstein’s beliefs about time are rooted in earlier theories, which linked time to the motion of bodies in space. Simultaneously, Einstein was the first to link Time to the speed of light and the notion of simultaneity. Where the movement of watch had to denote the process or the motion of space bodies, this very watch had to denote the simultaneity of things. In other words, through the prism of Time, each event had to be linked to each particular moment of Time, or to each particular position of the watch hands (Whitrow, Fraser & Soulsby 87). The use of the watch as the measure of time, however, was only possible for the events that took place in close proximity. Thus, linking the concept of time to the concept of watch was possible only for the events that took place at close proximity. In case of events that took place at different locations, the concept of the watch immediately lost its relevance. Does that mean that we cannot reconsider the concept of Time without tying it to the concept of the speed of light? Or does that mean that Einstein’s vision of Time is the most convenient and applicable of all Time theories? In reality, all time theories and assumptions are not without their fallacies. Time equally comprises rational and irrational features. From the rational perspective, time can be explained through the prism of space movements, or their sequence. Irrationally, time looks like a predetermined order of things, or their sequence that divides our lives into â€Å"before† and â€Å"after† and flows independently regardless of the major environmental or physical changes. In the light of numerous theories and assumptions with regard to time, it is impossible to limit the concept of time to rational or irrational considerations. Moreover, it is the balance of rational and irrational that may help create the single and the most relevant theory of time. Leibniz wrote that â€Å"Time is the order of existence of those things which are not simultaneous. Thus time is the universal order of changes when we do not take into consideration the particular kinds of change† (Seeman 77). Unfortunately, time is far from being universal but is still a measure of the order of changes, regardless of the nature of each particular change. From the differences and commonalities between philosophic and rational beliefs about Time, the latter comes out as the concept, which is closely tied to cosmology and the motion of celestial bodies around the earth, as well as the relative (and never absolute) measure of events and their sequences, with this relativity being integrally linked to the notion of light. Conclusion Over the course of the human history, dozens of philosophers and scientists sought to determine what Time is and what changes it produces on our vision of reality. Where philosophers held irrational beliefs about Time, scientists tried to link Time to mathematical concepts. Despite the differences, most of them viewed Time through the prism of cosmology and the motion of celestial bodies. Simultaneously, it was not before Einstein that Time ceased to be an absolute concept. As a result, through the major commonalities and differences in individual beliefs about Time, the latter stands out as a relative measure of events and their sequences, closely linked to the concept of cosmology and the motion of celestial bodies.

Customer Service Supervisor Training Program Essay

KSA requirements  Ã‚   Program Objectives   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   At the program’s conclusion participants should: Knowledge   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   * be familiar with relevant university, state and federal policies, systems, procedures and regulations to ensure customer satisfaction Skill   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   * have all personal computer skills required to effectively work in the assigned work unit * be able to diffuse a variety of hostile and unpleasant customer situations * be competent in managing staff and the customer service work unit Ability * identify and adapt to different customer communication styles and cultural backgrounds and to recognize and resolve their needs      * adopt excellent time management procedures while adhering to relevant rules, processes and directives * assume effective problem solving procedures Program Agenda    Module and rationale Goals Training Methods 1. Policies and Procedures In order for a CSS to effectively operate within the work unit he/she must first be familiar and be able to work within   required polices and procedures. – understand and work within the constraints of relevant university, state and federal policies, systems, procedures and regulations 1 day workshop    PPT., individual, pair and group activities. (Participants will be provided with a folio all documentation for future reference.) 2. Personal Computer Skills In order for a CSS to effectively operate within the work unit he/she must be informed and able to use university information systems and databases, together with a number of software applications. – obtain a competent working knowledge of word processing, spreadsheets, university information systems and databases, software applications 1 day workshop    PPT, hands-on computer tuorial 4 ongoing weekly online tutorials 3. Understanding Customers and their needs Customers possess different styles of behaviour and learning how to adjust to those differing styles improves customer service and communication. – understand the process of communication and the cultural differences that prevail, develop skills in overcoming barriers to communication, understand the importance of body language in communication,  ½ day workshop PPT, individual, pair and group activities     ½ day in the work unit role plays 4. Action Leadership    To be an effective leader,   a CSS needs to develop their own leadership skills and personal authority, as well as investigate tactics for building a strong and supportive team, handle difficult problems competently, and take accountability for end results. – understand how to be an effective leader, understand how people are motivated, be better able to use the talents of individual members within the work unit, be able to develop realistic action plans 1 day workshop    PPT, individual, pair group activities Take home ‘action plan’ assignment’    5. Time Management    One of the biggest challenges a CSS has to face is managing their time.   They are often inundated with questions, queries and wants form all sides – staff, customers and management.   The ability to identify and focus their attention on the most important tasks is often the difference between a successful or unsuccessful CSS. – understand the importance of time in the role of CSS, identify priorities, allocate time between various activities, develop time schedules, deal with the unexpected .    1 day workshop    PPT, individual, pair and group activities 6. Managing Conflict and problem solving    Not all customers are easy to manage and an effective CSS must develop effective conflict management and resolution skills to ensure customer satisfaction. These skills will also carry across to conflict issues within the work unit. understand the approach to problem solving, encourage prompt problem-solving through prompt personal action, evaluate the choices and choose the optimum solutions, understand the principles of negotiation  ½ day workshop    PPT, individual, pair and group activities     ½ day in the work unit role plays       Evaluation    Participants will be given a series of scenarios, and at specific points they will be asked to indicate how they would respond. The scenarios will be realistic, using pictures, sound files, background information and video clips. In this was, a variety of behavioral measures will be gathered in a short period of time, and the process will not be dependent on the subjective judgments of examiners.