The Philosophy of Cartesianism

â€Å"Cogito, ergo sum† (â€Å"I think, therefore I am. â€Å"), Descartes famous basis for his philosophy of Cartesianism, is also compelling evidence towards the defense of one of the most famous of the early Greek teachers, Socrates. In order to be, one must think. Socrates was a seeker of truth, and the highest knowledge is knowing what is best for oneself and one†s community. He was penalized and served the ultimate sentence for his belief in the true nature of education. He was blamed for opposing the authoritative belief that education had the sole purpose of transmitting social mores intact. He believed instead that education was meant to examine and re-evaluate social norms for the betterment of society. It was his re-evaluation of social norms that was perceived as dangerous by his society. This leads to the question, â€Å"Is it dangerous to think to much? † Is it sometimes better to let things be, in order to keep the peace? One of the many charges brought against Socrates was the charge of corrupting the youth with his teachings. Instead of letting the laws govern their lives, he was attempting to show his pupils ways of rationalizing their own world. God originally gave mankind free will so that we would not become a bunch of robots walking around doing his bidding, and yet this is what traditions were doing. The customs of early Athens were limiting on what a person could or could not believe. Socrates believed independent thought in itself could never be bad. It is what one does with this knowledge that determines its worth. Socrates believed that â€Å"self-knowledge† is different from the â€Å"knowledge of information† that had been handed down from generation to generation. Socrates was more concerned with ethical knowledge: self-understanding means self-improvement. Not only must one know what it means to be a human being and understand one's own character (and how it falls short of the ideal), but knowing better means doing better. Knowledge becomes a virtue. One must transform one's own character in the light of one's vision of what is best. Socrates believed true knowledge or human wisdom was not abstract information or facts that filled the brain. It is knowledge that transforms character, brings order to a disorderly life, refines attitude, and makes one better. This self-understanding that Socrates taught his pupils is actually beneficial to a community. When one has order in their lives, it is easier for them to bring order to the world around them. When you smile the world cannot help smiling too. Conversely, when one allows himself to be corrupted, he corrupts the society around them. Self-improvement equals social reform. At the same time, social reform requires knowledge of what is best for the community (as a whole). Thus, since self-improvement and social reform are interdependent, self-knowledge and knowledge of social justice are also interdependent. Ethics is inseparable from politics and individual good is inseparable from the common good. Therefore, by teaching the youth to think without worrying about following tradition, Socrates not only helps them enhances themselves, but he improves society in general. There still remains the question as to whether or not this constant inquiry into the world can be detrimental. Without pioneers of thought, pioneers of action would never exist. As science progresses through time, more and more of its theories are being put into development. Although the progress of science has greatly enhanced society and the world we live in, there are many cases where an invention or discovery managed to set society back. One of the best examples of this is weapons of mass destruction, more specifically, the A-bomb. No one would disagree that this was a terrible thing to create; even the inventor had hesitations when he figured out what he was doing. Still he made it, and as society progress, it progressively develops newer and more destructive weapons. The irony is that the leaders of society are the people pushing for the bigger and better weapons, for the sake a guaranteeing public safety. Yet as more and more weapons are created the inevitable mass destruction of all societies becomes evident. In this way, Socratic thought and the quest for knowledge is detrimental to a society. Pure Socratic belief is best summed up by his saying, â€Å"the unexamined life is not worth living. † Many of Socrates adversaries believed that this principle was an open invitation for anarchy. Examining life leads to new ideas that do not necessarily conform with the beliefs of society. This causes great movements of revolution. Socrates believed these movements were a great tool in the advancement of civilization. One great proof against this idea is the rise of Hitler and communism. Hitler examined his life and found that the Jews were the source of all his problems. He therefore decided to kill as many of them that he could. His ultimate goal was genocide. In this case the personal thoughts of an individual did not help the advancement of society. The new debate becomes, â€Å"Is it justifiable to condemn a person for Socratic behavior? † The answer is no. Everyone should be allowed to quest for knowledge. That is why the necessity for a college education in the modern world is so strong. Society needs thinkers. What is condemnable is the specific actions that are taken as a result of some of these thoughts. Hypothesizing about what a weapon of mass destruction can do and testing it out on innocent people and animals are two different things. Many people criticize Socrates for not being a man of action. All Socrates ever accomplished was questioning and probing the democratic beliefs of his day. He built nothing, and he wrote nothing, all he did was think, and a person cannot be condemned for their thoughts. In the big picture, people should be encouraged to think for themselves, to decide what they are going to believe and what they are going to dismiss as fiction. Society has the right to punish a man†s actions if they are causing harm to society, but expressing a view other than popular opinion is not harmful to society. In actuality, contemplation can help to resolve many of society†s problems. Meditation on a problem leads to possible solutions to the problem, and in essence, progress. By examining oneself, a person gains better insight into who they are, and where their place in society is. This allows them to become more secure with themselves and more efficient in the community. Socratic behavior is about examining everything in order to gain knowledge. The pursuit of knowledge is not condemnable as long as no one is getting hurt.

Difference between Festival in Europe and China

Festivals are said to define who we are. These are sets of traditions that we follow in a certain community. For China and Europe, their festivals are alike in such way that they all prepare extravagantly for the event with costumes, dishes and etcetera (Richardson, 2006). These festivals also commemorate a certain person or event that is of great importance for the people in the country or community. Some festivities like the Saint Valentines’ day and Christmas day are also alike in some ways. For instance, valentines day is the time were people express their love for the people that they care about just like in Christmas.Though Valentines Day connote lovers and couples it still gives the message of love in the same way as Christmas is the day of love and sharing(Pleck, 1999). The color red is also very popular during these festivities since it is the color of love. The atmosphere of the two festivals is the same since there is an air of love, sharing and compassion. People e xchange gifts and they have an icon that represents them. For valentines it is the cupid and for Christmas it is Santa(Elevale, 2007). However they vary in time since the former is on February 14 and Christmas is on December 25.New Year on the other hand is different from the festivals mentioned above. It is more related to other Chinese festivals since they ward off evil spirits through the use of fireworks. This festival is also not about love and sharing but of a fresh start. There are no figures or icons associated with it unlike that of Christmas and Valentines Day. Just like in the Dragon Boat Festival, the main focus is scaring away the evil in the home. The Dragon Boat festival in China is called â€Å"Duan Wu Jie† in Chinese and it is celebrated along with Mid-autumn festival and Chinese New year.It is one of the three major festivals celebrated on the fifth lunar month of the Chinese calendar and on its fifth day which normally falls on June 5. This is also known as the double fifth day. The fifth day of the month is believed by the Chinese to be the month of the devil since this is the time were disease become rampant. The Dragon Boat festival is done to drive away these evil spirits. This festival has the longest record in history because of its relevance to the lives of its citizens. Through the festival they are reminded to take care of their health and drive away evil spirits.This festival is highlighted by dragon boat races. Contestants ride in colorful boats with dragon designs and they row together with the rhythm of the drums. There are also special dishes that are associated with the festival. A few of these is the hsiung huan wine that adults drink to prevent evil from invading their body and to bring inner peace. Another dish is the tzung tzu which is a rice ball that was believed to e eaten by Chu Yuan before he drowned. Chu Yuan is a Poet who took his own life by jumping off the boat when he felt that there is nothing that he cou ld do to save his country from bad luck.He was known to be a good man y his neighbors so to prevent the fish from eating his body they threw food to the river to feed the fishes. They also right on boats with loud drums to scare the fishes. The fierce dragons are also added to the head of the boat. His neighbors rushed to the river to find his body and that is where the dragon race is said to have originated. It is said that the dragon festival is done to commemorate his death in 277 B. C. at the fifth day of the fifth lunar month (low, 2006).Since then the festival has evolved into eating the rice dumplings instead of throwing them to the fishes and because this festival also reminded them to take care of their health, they hanged herbs at their front doors. The most significant part of the festival is done at 12 noon where they try to balance and egg and make is stand. If they can do it, they will have a lucky year. The festival in Italy on the other hand is different of that in C hina. The focus is on the streets and not in the river. They decorate it with lights and vendors begin to line up the streets.The Festa della Madonna Bruna is a celebration of the people’s devotion to the brown madona (Foschino, 2002). This is where men in horses and costumes parade the streets and they guard the float of the brown madona. The brown Madona is used by knights to protect them in battles. They would paint her face on their shields and on their chariots(Lee, 2000). People try to get a piece of this paper mache ripping it into pieces. The float is then reduced into just chicken wire and a few paper since the devotees have already torn it apart.But this act is not just an extreme form of fanaticism but is supported by their faith. This means that by destroying the old they give way to the new(Bakerjian, 2003). It is rebirth. This festival happens on the 2nd of July. The history of this festival goes as far as 1389, not as old as that in China. They also don’ t have special dishes. The festival is just ended with an extravagant fireworks display at the church(Martin, 2000). These festivals reflect the values and the history of the people who celebrate it. Though some of them may seem a bit peculiar, they bear certain significance to the community.They are celebrated with zest and joyfulness that the entire community is caught up in preparation. It is also anticipated by many. These festivals are important to the lives of the people since they have beliefs that they find necessary for their daily lives. Though these festivals have certain differences, they are intended to celebrate or commemorate the events that are important for the people and their community. It is a way of reliving the history of a community that has paved way into what the community has become. These are the events that shaped the lives of the populace either through religion or common practices.

International Lega and Ethical Issues

International Legal and Ethical Issues Celina Garcia-Sanchez LAW/421 Gregory Martin What are the issues involved in resolving legal disputes in international transactions? The issues are what choice of law clause you are going to use in the contract in case of dispute or breach of contract. The other issue is what forum selection clause is going to be used if there’s ever an issue or dispute. Both are very important issues to address before getting into contract with a foreign business.You need to take in consideration in what part of the world you want legal action to take place if your business partner based in another country What are some practical considerations of taking legal action against a foreign business? The considerations would have to be how far do you want to take your legal action and how is it going to affect future business with the company. A consideration would be if arbitration is an option. It would be so much better and faster if the business would solv e their issues this way.What factors could work against CadMex’s decision to grant sublicensing agreements? If they grant sublicensing agreements to other companies, they will be losing money. But on the other hand they can put in a clause where they will collect a certain percentage of royalties for a long period of time and that can help balance the loss they are taking by sublicensing. But by doing so, it also makes them look more ethical with higher moral values. When the local customs and laws conflict with the customs and laws of an organization operating abroad, which should prevail?The customs where the business is being conducted, it makes more sense to do it this way due to the fact that the country where the business is being done has employees and the employees go by the laws of their own country. They are more familiar with them. How would you compare the issues in this simulation to the domestic legal issues discussed in your Week One readings? How should compan ies resolve domestic and international issues differently? I don’t think they should resolve issues differently, the way they are doing it right now by using CISG, WTO, OEDC, and IMF all those organizations help resolve any dispute they may have.

Talk about traffic jam Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Talk about traffic jam - Essay Example It is therefore not surprising that one encounters overcrowding on the highways with frequent traffic snarls and impatient, honking drivers. Traffic jams have even resulted in the emergence of a totally new phenomenon called road rage. The burgeoning population and economic prosperity in the last century made possession of a personal car desirable as well as mandatory in the developed countries. Combined with the traffic load of public transport vehicles, bikes, heavy trucks of all shapes and sizes, a typical road now is a veritable zoo of metallic monsters. Traffic jams not only result in public inconvenience, but cause psychological distress as well. Such jams often result in great economic loss to the organizations’ whose deliveries are delayed, loss of reputation for professionals who are unable to attend fixed appointments, and sometimes critical delay in getting a grievously injured patient to the hospital. Finding a solution to the problem is not a new phenomenon, as administrators’ and engineers’ have tried multiple tricks up their sleeves to organize traffic conditions on city roads as well as trans-state/trans-national highways. Availability of new technology like computer controlled traffic signals, closed-circuit camera observation, regulation of traffic by traffic-marshals and channeling traffic according to shape, kind and size of vehicles have all been tried. Building new roads, multi-lane highways and flyovers are some of the time tested strategies but they have failed to ebb the flow of the ever-increasing traffic. The limiting factor is the burgeoning population and the thrust on pushing up sales of newer models of vehicles by the automobile manufacturers. Despite the looming fear of extinction of fossil fuels and their increasing prices, automobile manufacturers are coming up with vehicles which run on alternate sources of fuel to feed the consumer demand. It seems that

Nursing research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 10

Nursing research - Essay Example Hence, this type of research leads to conclusive knowledge that provide solutions for the nursing practice and inform nurses’ decisions based on evidence from practice. Peer reviewed journals commonly appear in academic journals, and they undergo a lot of scrutiny from experts in the fields of research in order determine their accuracy, significance, and originality. In effect, the experts’ opinion informs the printing of articles by the editors of the journal. Hence, various ways determine whether the journals have undergone peer review. First, the journal in which an article appears determines whether the article underwent peer review. In this case, cross checking the journal with a list that contains peer-reviewed journals is crucial. Secondly, it is important to cross check whether an article appears in databases such as university libraries, ProQuest, JSTOR, and many databases that contain peer-reviewed articles. In effect, articles that appear in these databases have undergone peer review. Finally, some articles contain information regarding whether they appeared in peer-reviewed journals. Hence, such information present in an article indicates the presence of peer reviewed

Desktop Computing Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Desktop Computing - Assignment Example It also helps the smooth running of software like 3D Max and Maya extensively used for animation and modeling. Jean Jones needs to upgrade her OS from Windows XP Service Pack 2 to Win XP x64. Many might suggest Vista as a good alternative, however past records show that Vista slows Max viewport speed by a huge amount. The primary reason behind this is that Win XP takes less memory to run when Vista on the other hand takes up a lot more. Here comes the second parameter that is whether to consider 32 bit or 64 bit OS. The reason why 64 bit Win XP is being recommended to Jean Jones is that it will let her use a minimum 4GB of RAM. The basic components to look for while buying a PC for processing intensive activities are the processor, motherboard, RAM, graphics card and hard disk. For any PC to be fast, it should have a perfect combination of all these 4 components. In an unbalanced combination where one or more components are slower than the rest, then the slower components act as bottlenecks in the system, and the overall processing speed is determined by the slowest component. Hence, while identifying the configuration, it is imperative that all components are matching and high performance components. High performance components are higher priced, and hence they increase the overall cost of the PC. Given that there cannot be any compromise on performance, a high end PC can be made relatively inexpensive by cutting down on the peripheral costs. For example, by using low end casing/cabinets, speakers and data output devices like DVD combo packages, the overall prices can be kept with relatively lower budget. A processor is the 'brain' of the PC, and given other components are same, a PC with faster processor will perform faster. A quadcore, 64 bit processor, coupled with a suitably fast motherboard and 4 GB 800 MHz RAM will have sufficient computing speed to seamlessly execute the heaviest designing applications. (Ciao Shopping Intelligence, 2007A) While quad core processors give enormous processing speed, they are also highly expensive. Commercially available computers generally tend have

Using details and references from the material and answer 2 questions Essay

Using details and references from the material and answer 2 questions - Essay Example Thus people from all over the neighborhood would come together to play music, dance and sing(rap).This means that for them to be able to do the proper break-dance one has to have that feeling that they are coming from one place and that they are â€Å"keeping it real â€Å"For instance when one is performing in a jam(which is a place where people can come to dance and practice, and just mingle with other dancers in the community)there is usually no pressure to perform to anyone or anything as compared to when one is dancing in a competition in a big arena. This really creates a huge difference. Another type of reasoning that really affects how a person dances is when you are speaking about the music as the heart your culture. Thus when the break-dancers hold block parties it is all about a spontaneous response of the body to the music beats, and it is not about what move they did, but how they did it. This is actually the real foundation of the dance. Another important factor is the reasoning about where you come from; breakdance culture was predominantly practiced by lower class, ethnic minorities and the dancers here created it as a way to earn respect in society, since these kids find it hard to earn respect in mainstream society because of their lower habitus (Bourgois 2003).This was and still remains a big influence. 2. Culture can be somehow bought and sold. This becomes very clear in this particular article whereby in the 1970s the break-dance culture became highly globalized and the pioneers of break-dance lost their role as the sole educators and owners of the bboy culture. Since nowadays the dance may be viewed on television and the internet, people from all over the world can now†learn†the habitus from the comfort of their own home. Thus it is possible to pay for the internet and take part in online discussions, view tutorials and

Structure and Characteristics Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Structure and Characteristics - Research Paper Example The Chinese population during 1980s was around 1 billion. The slow growth rate o the population can be attributed to ‘one child policy’. In the next few decades, the population of china is expected to increase. Reasons for this expected increase are a decline in infant mortality rate and also a sudden decrease in death rate due to the improvement in national health. Though the population is expected to rise even more, however, around 2030s, it is anticipated to reach its peak level and then decline gradually. Another such country that I have taken up is Germany. Germany along with few other European countries have a substantially low growth rate of population. The German population has crossed 82 million long before. Since 1990s, population of Germany has increased considerably. The main reason behind this increase was immigration, i.e. entry of individuals in the country. Infact, it is also assumed that if Germany did not witness immigration, its population would have b een shrinking much like that of Czech Republic. However, in the near future, the total expected population of Germany is expected to decline. According to destatis.de, in the coming decades, the population will decline due to decline in birth rates and increase in birth rates. Life expectancy will increase and birth rate will continue to fall in future.

The Financial Collapse of General Motors Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

The Financial Collapse of General Motors - Essay Example Gm which has funded approximately $103billion towards employee-related obligations proved to be a disadvantage for the company. Not only legacy cost but also due to its poor business strategy. It relied on its old mode of thinking which resisted the offering, and manufacturing capacity. The business suffered decline where its market share fell from 45% to 22%. In addition, the deteriorating strength of the economy and the loss of purchasing power of its consumers resulted in bankruptcy for GM (Estrada, 2011). In 2009, GM announced that the cash reserves amounted to $14billion after losing $30.9billion in 2008. Thus GM was filed bankrupt and its assets were sold off to the new government-owned organization (The New York Times, 2010). It can be said that managerial finance was not applied by GM because if the financial manager would have made proper decisions with respect to cash flows and how much and the type of equity and debt to be used in order to finance the firm. Lack of proper managerial finance led GM to a debt of about $172.8billion as compare to it’s assess which was $82.3 at the time of bankruptcy petition (The New York Times, 2010). The economic impact with respect to the collapse of the auto industry has resulted to be dramatic. As per a survey conducted by Planning Perspectives Inc, reported that about 68% of the participants revealed that companies would downsize if GM declared bankruptcy, 12% of the respondent said that the business would likely to shut down. It was aid that if GM goes into bankruptcy business across the globe would be affected severely. As per the economic downturn, the American, during the financial crises bought few new cars. The collapse of any of the key players in the automotive industry had predicted a troubled economy. Almost about one-third of the suppliers of the automobile industry was deemed at the risk of bankruptcy  (Gray, 2008). The auto industry is an important employer and there are many related industries attached to it. The effect would not result in the collapse of the single company, not just America but all of Europe and Japan also.

Cognitive science and schema theory Research Proposal

Cognitive science and schema theory - Research Proposal Example With these concepts, I have analyzed the reason of failure of Guild wars game launched in Korea. Guild wars game which was successful in US failed to localize in Korea because of failure to design their product for users in a different culture. We are all aware that knowing something about a subject makes it easier to learn more about that subject: our prior knowledge serves as a framework which makes the new information more meaningful and easier to absorb (Huckin 1983). In other words, every interactants social world is usually constituted within a framework of familiar and pre-acquainted knowledge about various situations. This familiar and pre-acquainted knowledge is called schemas (or schemata). The concept of schemas is not new, but existed even in the 19th century: German philosopher Immanuel Kant developed the idea that each persons experiences are gathered together in memory, forming higher order concepts (Wolff 1963). In the last 25 years, the concept of schemas has been used and defined by quite a number of scholars. Cohen et al. (1993) for example, explain schemas as "packets of information stored in memory representing general knowledge about objects, situations, events, or actions" (p. 28). Schemas are classi fied into several types. Among them, cultural schema theory is "the familiar and pre-acquainted knowledge one uses when entering a familiar situation in his/her own culture. Cultural schemas for social interaction are cognitive structures that contain knowledge for face-to-face interactions in a persons cultural environment." (Nishida 1999) A concept of cultural schema theory is one of the most important achievements in cognitive science which deals with human thought process. In this concept, the difficulty of sharing a common understanding between designers and users, and the importance of eliminating the gulf between them are pointed out. It is the brain that keeps and stores any

History of Black Nurses Essay Example for Free

History of Black Nurses Essay Trained schools for students who wanted to pursue a career in nursing came about in the 1800s when Florence Nightingale advocated the idea. The only students that were accepted into these programs where white students, blacks were not allowed any education during this time. Blacks were not given equal rights as the white people, and were denied the right to have an education. There were many black young women who were very interested in nursing, and were dedicated to pursue their dream, and wouldnt stop trying until they were given equal rights and accepted into these nursing programs. Some black women would follow along with the black soldiers in the Civil War and provide care to these wounded soldiers, as well as provide food, and also teach them to read and right. The first school of nursing was formed after two black men in Chicago, Illinois won the support of their community, and made a hospital out of a small brick building. The black people also came together to form the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses, an organization formed to protect the black nursing profession, and to stop discrimination towards them. History of Black Nurses During the early 1800s nursing was mainly caring for the sick by family members or slaves. Nurses provided care in homes, and when World War I and II came about, nurses were sent off to provide care to the wounded soldiers. There was not a trained system for nurses to learn and gain experience in the profession, so all of the care that the sick were provided was by untrained nurses. It wasn’t until Florence Nightingale recognized the idea of providing a trained, organized system for nurses to learn before they worked as a professional nurse. Many schools arose out of her idea, however white students were only accepted into these nursing schools, blacks were not accepted. Black people were not given equal rights as the whites, and were denied the right for education and were therefore, denied acceptance into these nursing programs. Mary Eliza Mahoney was born to Charles and Mary Jane Mahoney in 1845, in Boston, Massachusetts. She began to show an interest in nursing when she was a teenager, and worked at the New England Hospital for Women and Children as an unofficial nurse aid, a cook, janitor, and washerwoman. When she was thirty-three years old, she was accepted to a nursing program. as one of forty-two, being the only black student, (Hines, 2004). Although she had to deal with racial discrimination and long hours of lectures and patient care, she made it to the end of the program as one of four. In 1879, she graduated from the New England Hospital for Women and Children in Boston, making her the first black professional nurse in the United States. After Mary Mahoney graduated from nursing school, she worked mainly as a private duty nurse for the next thirty years. Her work became widespread as a private duty nurse. Her patient’s loved her calmness, and professionalism, and she began receiving requests from different states, (Haltey, 2010). After working for private duty for thirty years, Mahoney opened a director of an orphanage in Long Island, New York, and remained there for the next ten years. In 1908, she became a cofounder to the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses, (Hines, 2004). Mary Mahoney became an inspiration to many black women wanting to pursue a career in nursing. She fought through discrimination, as well as the pressures of nursing school, and graduated with a nursing degree. She helped to open the door for the black population that wanted to become a professional nurse and put an end to the discrimination. Susie King Taylor was born a slave in 1848 on the Grest family farm in Georgia. When Susie was seven years old her owner, Mr. Grest, allowed her to move to Savannah with her Grandmother who had been previously freed by him, (MacLean, 2007). Susie was denied education because she was black , however, her Grandmother would not let this stop her from becoming educated. Susie was sent next door to the neighbor who taught her how to read and write for the next two years, and after she learned this, she was sent to a few other people to become educated. At 14 years old, Susie was taken by boat by Union Soldiers to St. Simon’s Island. Here she met her future husband, Edward King, an army sergeant. She worked with the First Regiment of South Carolina Volunteers, which was made up of slaves, who had been freed by the Union Army. Susie was asked to start a school for children on St. Simon’s Island, and she willingly agreed. Susie taught about forty children, and she also taught adults at night. (MacLean, 2007). In 1863, Susie traveled with her husband’s regiment. She became the first black nurse during the Civil War, and helped to care for wounded soldiers. During her off hours she taught the soldiers how to read and write, and also cooked and laundered for them. She wrote in her diary about the nursing shortages during the war, and was happy to provide nursing care to the sick soldiers. She continued to serve as a nurse until the war ended in 1865. (MacLean, 2007). When the war was over, her and her husband moved to Savannah, Georgie. In 1866 she opened a school for freed black children. Shortly after the school opened, and Susie gave birth to her son, her husband Edward King passed away. In the 1870s, Susie moved to Boston and remarried nine years later. She also joined and became president of the Women’s Relief Corps, which was an association for the Veterans of the Civil War. After being asked by the Women’s Relief Corps, as well as the Army, she agreed to write an autobiography about her experiences during the war. In 1902, Susie King Taylor published her autobiography, Reminiscneces of my Life in Camp: A Black Woman’s Civil War Memoirs, (MacLean, 2007). In 1902, Susie received a letter from the commanding officer in the First South Carolina volunteers stating, â€Å"I most sincerely regret that through a technicality you are barred from having your name placed on the roll of pensioners, as an Army nurse; for among all the number of heroic women whom the government is now rewarding, I know of no one more deserving than yourself,† (MacLean, 2007). Adah Thoms was born in 1870 in Richmond, Virginia. Before she pursued a nursing career, she attended school studying elocution and speech at Cooper Union. Shorty after, she attended the Women’s Infirmary and School of Therapeutic Massage and graduated in 1900. She was the only black woman of thirty students, (White, 2010). She also attended the Lincoln Hospital and Home School of Nursing. After graduating she became assistant superintendent of nurses at the Lincoln Hospital and Home School of Nursing for eighteen years. During her years there, she added another course to the nursing curriculum, public health, and made public health a recognized field of nursing, (White, 2010). Adah Thoms helped with Martha Franklin, and Mary Mahoney to organize the National Association for Colored Graduate Nurses, and was appointed as its first treasurer, and was later president of the organization for seven years. She was also very dedicated to ensuring equal opportunities for black nurses, and worked hard to try and achieve these rights. Thoms worked with the chairmen of the American Red Cross to convince the Surgeon General to allow black nurses to enroll in the Army Nurse Corps, (White, 2010). Black women would enlist to try and serve as nurses during World War I, however the Surgeon General refused to let any black nurses serve. Eighteen black women were eventually accepted to serve as nurses during WWI due to the nursing shortages, and were only allowed to provide care to black soldiers. (White, 2010). Thoms was recognized for her dedication to obtaining equal rights for black nurses. She added to the nursing curriculum, served in the NAGCN as treasurer and president, worked with the Red Cross to campaign for equal rights of black nurses, and opened the door for nurses to serve in the military. For her bravery and commitment, she was the first to receive the Mary Mahoney award when it was established in 1936, and was also inducted into the American Nursing Hall of Fame in 1976, (White, 2010) Mabel Keaton Staupers was born in 1890, in Barbados. In 1903 she moved with her family to the United States, and made a home in Harlem. She graduated from Freedman’s Hospital School of Nursing in Washington, DC in 1917, and began her nursing career as a private duty nurse. In 1920, she collaborated with Dr. Louis T. Wright, and Dr. James Wilson, to organize the Booker T. Washington Sanatorium, which was the first facility in Harlem where black doctors could treat black patients, (American Nurses Association, 2010). In 1922 she was assigned to create a survey for the Harlem area for the health needs of the community. With the results of this survey, the New York Tuberculosis and Health Association was organized, and Mabel Staupers was the first Executive Secretary, and kept this position for the next twelve years, (American Nurses Association, 2010). In 1934, Mabel was appointed as the first nurse executive of the NACGN. During this time she began a campaign for nurses to gain integration into the Armed Forces Nurses Corps, and by 1941 black nurses were allowed into the Army, but not with full integration, and the US navy continued to prevent black nurses from enrolling. Staupers gained the help of Eleanor Roosevelt, who was first lady at the time, and wrote a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt to recognize black nurses. With support from the public, the Army and Navy both accepted black nurses by January, 1945, (American Nurses Association, 2010). Mabel Staupers is recognized for ending the discrimination of colored nurses, and allowing the colored nurses full integration into the Armed Forces Nurses Corps. She was appointed president of the NACGN in 1949, and the association voted itself out in 1951, and merged with the American Nurses Association after their goal of full professional integration had been met. In 1951, Staupers was given the award for the Spingarn Medal from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and published an autobiography in 1961 called, No Time for Prejudice: A Story of the Integration of Negroes in Nursing in the United States, (American Nurses Association, 2010). The first school of nursing for blacks was formed in 1891 in Chicago Illinois, (Provident Hospital History, 2010). Emma Reynolds was a young black women trying to gain an education to pursue a career in nursing. She applied to nursing schools in Chicago, and had been denied by everyone, for the simple fact that she was a black woman. Her brother was Reverend Louis Reynolds, who felt that something should be done so that black women could be educated in nursing. He sought help from a respected black surgeon in Chicago, Dr. Daniel Hale Williams. The two of them gained support from their community, many blacks, and a few white citizens. They were given donations of supplies, equipment, and financial support. The Armour Meat Packing Company had secured a down payment on a three story brick house with twelve beds, that they turned into the first school of nursing for blacks, Provident Hospital, (Provident Hospital History, 2010). Many black nurses have made history as they were struggling for equal rights for their profession. During this struggle, the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses was formed in 1908, (Massey, 1993). The founder of this association was Martha Franklin, with cofounders Mary Eliza Mahoney, and Adah Thoms. This association was founded to fight discrimination towards black people who wanted an education in nursing, as well as being a part of the American Nurses Association. The association fought long and hard for their rights as equals, and led campaigns across the United States. One of its biggest achievements was successfully fighting for full integration of black nurses into the Armed Forces Nurses Corps. After black nurses were allowed to serve in the US Army and Navy, they were also allowed full integration into the ANA. After this association gained their right to become educated in nursing, be a part of the nurses in the US Army and Navy, and join the ANA, they voted their selves out and merged with the American Nurses Association in 1951, (Massey, 1993). The black population in the 1800s were not given equal rights as the white population. They were denied many rights, and education was one of them. Many brave women struggled to fight to put an end to discrimination, and to be able to pursue a career in the field that they loved, nursing. It took a lot of hard work and dedication, however they made it happened. These women opened the doors for other black people who wanted to become a professional nurse, and because of them all minorities are now welcome into the field of nursing.

Does “Assassin’s Creed” Influence a Teen’s Mind Essay Example for Free

Does â€Å"Assassin’s Creed† Influence a Teen’s Mind Essay Imagine a world where everything that happened was secretly controlled by a large organization of people. Every day you are constantly recorded and monitored. Everything that you do is secretly planned out in advance, yet you think that everything you’re doing is by your own free will. Everyone including your family, your friends, and the government are all controlled by this organization, and you can’t even tell. While you blithely and involuntarily follow the path planned out for you, another organization is secretly and quietly trying to put a stop to the evil plans of the organization that wants to control your every move. This is the plotline of a very popular videogame known as Assassin’s Creed. Assassin’s Creed is a great game that has influenced and challenged people’s view on government and democracy. The game Assassin’s Creed influences people’s minds by making them think more outside the box, and by aiding there curiosity of conspiracy theories. Assassin’s Creed take places in 2012, following the life of Desmond Miles, a bartender who is a descendant of several Assassins. Although Desmond was raised as an Assassin, he fled his nomadic family to seek out a more common lifestyle. While enjoying his freedom he is kidnapped by an evil company known as Abstergo Industries, the modern-day face of the Knights Templar who are aware of Desmonds ancestry. Templars want to control everyone, and they believe in absolute order similar to totalitarianism. Desmond is forced to use a device known as an Animus which allows him to experience his assassin ancestral memories. Abstergo is seeking to discover the location of several artifacts, known as Pieces of Eden, in order to obtain great power and control mankind and alter its fate, bringing humanity into a single unified group. Later Desmond escapes Abstergo due to the help of some modern-day Assassins who he later ends up working with. Desmond uses their version of the Animus (Animus 2.0) to continue to re-live the memories of his ancestors and discover the locations of the Pieces of Eden before Abstergo can do so. Desmond relives the events of his Assassin ancestors who live in worlds full of chaos, injustice, and indirect captivity. Doesn’t this seem similar to the way the world is today? Several countries have yet to establish a government system where people have a say in what they want the government to do for them. There are even more countries that have yet to abolish their governing laws on slavery. Our own government is hiding secrets from us (trying to protect us), yet causing more accidents and tragedies that could be avoided if only we had access to their classified information. Assassin’s Creed is a completely made up story, but it has a lot of interesting and intuitive facts to its plot. In fact, the majority of it seems plausible, and many others within my age group seem to think the sa me after playing this game. Along with the several games that my peers play that can relate to Assassin’s Creed, there are also several books that are similar. Assassin’s Creed got its inspiration from the novel Alamut written by a Slovenian writer Vladimir Bartol, which is what inspired most of the first game’s plot. Another story very similar to the plotline of Assassin’s Creed is The Traveler written by John Twelve Hawks. The book takes place in the future and lays out a world where the power lies not with people or governments, but in the hands of a secret organization who call themselves â€Å"the Brethren.† Their enemies refer to them as â€Å"the Tabula†. The Tabula are an ancient secret society who thinks that control and stability are an absolute necessity, similar to extreme Utilitarianism. The Tabula gets the majority of their influence from the ideas of philosopher Jeremy Bentham. The Tabula wish to enforce a Virtual Panopticon which is a society where all i ndividuals become accustomed to being watched and monitored and they act at all times as if they are being observed; making them more afraid to do immoral things. The Tabula’s sole objective is to kill all Travelers. Travelers are people with the special ability to â€Å"cross-over†, which is often inherited from an ancestor. Crossing-over can be defined as your spirit leaving your body and going off to another realm, and then returning. Upon this return, most Travelers would have experienced a different perspective of our world. Many Travelers become religious prophets, or enemies of the Tabula who have hunted them almost to extinction. Harlequins are a warrior group sworn to defend the Travelers from the Tabula. The Harlequins are opposed to the Tabula, and the two sides spent centuries fighting over control and power which allowed the Tabula to gain control and almost completely exterminate the Travelers and Harlequins. Despite the nobility and self-sacrifice of their cause, the Harlequins are cold and cruel figures who dedicate their lives to fighting and killing without remorse or hesitation. Sound familiar? Due to its graphic, plausible, and suspenseful storyline, Assassins Creed has become a big hit to gamers, historians, and conspiracy theorist alike; causing them to have a current series of five games in all, selling millions of copies worldwide. The series has been a big success and has won a number of awards. All of the Assassin’s Creeds make an adolescent see the world they live in differently. I wouldn’t even have considered governmental control, Templars Tabula, or Assassins Harlequins as being realistic, but now I’m starting to have second thoughts (I also know of several friends in the same state as me). Reading books similar to The Traveler and playing videogames similar to Assassin’s Creed makes one think a little more outside the box and take into consid eration other conspiracy theories and stories.

Business Operations Of Myer Holdings Limited

Business Operations Of Myer Holdings Limited Myer Holdings Limited possesses 66 stores across the Australia, being Australias largest non-discount department store chain. Myer provides customers a broad range of product categories and a wide selection of domestic and international brands at multiple price points. To maintain the dominance in the market, Myer has signed 14 lease agreements for new stores, redeveloped Melbourne flagship store to an international class standard; expand MYER one loyalty program, together with installation of a new point-of -sale system. On 2nd November 2009, Myer was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) after an initial public offering. Business Operation Nature of revenue resources Sales revenue grows up 0.7%  [1]  to $332.24 million in FY2010  [2]  . As shown in the Figure 1, 3.7 million MYER one members contribute 68% of sales. It is potential to grow top-line sales through existing and new members. Myer also generates more revenue predominantly through interest charges and annual fees, as 35,600 new Myer Visa cards signed up in FY2010. Total MYER one Gold card holders are now in excess of 20,000, who spend more than $7,500 per annum. Underlying earnings were supported by better margins from its growing line of exclusive brands, now accounting for 17 % of its business  [3]  . Concession operator sales are $103,712,000 for FY2010, which is made from providing store space for well-established brands, comprising of payments for floor space and/or a percentage of gross sales. Myers corporate and wedding services are another revenue streams. Myer Gifts and Myers online sales channel further support merchandising revenue, being anticipated to have a larger presence in the next 5 years. Conduct of Operations Myer is the largest multi-category department store chain in Australia. In order to stand out in the competitive industry, Myer employed a strong, clear growth strategy which is built on four key pillars: comparable store sales, gross margin improvement, new store opening and reductions in the cost. According to the financial annual reports, earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) increased significantly from $165 million to $236 million since 2007 and keep growing to between $265 million to $272 million in 2010. Myers vision of being an international class retail business has set up an iconic and reputable brand, together with Myer Loyalty program to retain and expand customer base in order to increase sales. Myer has opened 65 stores in prime retail locations in Australia and Bernie Brookes, and 14 new stores are planned to open over the next four years. Myer utilizes new store rollout to achieve a larger scale business. Chief Executive Officer points out that the investment in the implementation of CCTV is completed which is anticipated to reduce losses from theft. Myer also establish a new POS system to generate productivity and customer services improvements. Improve markdown management which is expected to be done by smart allocation of products and better sourcing is developed in order to reduce the operation costs and achieve a rising gross margin. Products services and markets Myer operates a consumer loyalty program and offers a large number of Australian households more than 600,000 product lines, comprising 2,400 brands sourced from over 800 international suppliers. Myers product consist of eleven core categories: womenswear, menswear, youth fashion, childrenswear, intimate apparel, beauty, fragrance and cosmetics, homewares, electrical goods, toys, fashion accessories, and general merchandise. Products are sold across a number of markets defined by their price points: Permanent Value, Attainable Fashion, Inspired Designs, Affordable Luxury and Premium Luxury, ensuring depth of range and broad customer appeal. Myer has a suite of services to support its business, partnering with Visa and QBE to provide credit facilities, such as the Myer Visa card and comprehensive MYER Insurance coverage for customers. There has also been focus on the expansion of Myers online store presence, gift cards, corporate services and bridal and gift registries in 2009, Myer entered a partnership with Red Balloon, Australias leading supplier of experiential gifts to further develop its gift registry business. Industry Conditions: Market and Competition Myer is Australias largest non-discount department store chain in retail industry. Supplies are vital to department stores success, with department stores clamouring to secure exclusive supplier agreements with popular brands. Regardless of increasing bargaining power of suppliers and lower switching costs, increasing entry barriers to this industry as a result of expansion of existing players, strong brand loyalty, high capital costs and high acquisition costs  [4]  have ensured the competitive environment remains high, yet steady. Despite the main rival, David Jones, Myer also competes with specialty stores, especially footwear and apparel, and discount department stores such as Target, Big W, and Kmart. Pharmacies present significant competition in fragrances and cosmetics. Regulatory Environment The Board of Myer Holdings Limited adopts corporate governance to improve performance of managers and employees to be consistent with shareholders expectations. The Myers code also provides legal guidelines of conducts and behaviours which must aware and comply with laws and regulations relevant to Myers operations, including occupational health and safety, fair-trading and dealing, privacy and employment practices. Considering of commercial leases is needed to open a new shopping centre, signing contracts and agreements require compliances with retail tenancy legislation. Additionally, Myer Holdings Limited needs to comply with the Corporations law which is established to provide rules and responsibilities to stakeholders. As Myer Holdings Limited is listed on the ASX, it is also required continuous and transparent disclosure of its financial reports and any significant events and transactions. Moreover, Myer should follow the Trade Practices Act supported by the Australian Competit ion and Consumer Commission (ACCC) with aim of protecting customer rights. Breaching this can be fined severely by Federal Court. PEST Analysis: Political In general Australia has a stable political environment and relatively low political risk. The Government is implementing economic reforms to strengthen and secure the economy. This will ensure Australia is well positioned to fully benefit from the opportunities created by strong growth in our region, and ensuring that all Australians share in the benefits of a strong economy  [5]  . The government is achieving this by means of closer relationships with emerging economies such as China, free trade agreements with China, Japan and Korea are currently under negotiation, and the Australian government has signed free trade agreements with New Zealand, Singapore and the United States  [6]  as Myer offers its customer both local and global brands by importing from all over the world. These free trade agreements assist Myer to achieve cost efficiency in its supply chain, however the potential conflict between Australian Standards and other countries standards for a same product may exists and affect Myers supply of these products to its customers. From 1 July 2010, the low income tax offset will increase from $1350 to $1500, the 30% threshold will increase from $35000 to $37000 and the 38% marginal tax rate will decrease to 37%  [7]  . Tax cuts will increase households disposable income which could motivate more expenditure. Myer will potentially benefit from the increasing of household expenditure. Economic Due to the Global financial crisis, Australia economic contracts in 2009, negatively impacting the retail industry and thereby generated an unfavourable environment for Myer. However, the Australian economy had rebounded fairly well. The unemployment rate decreased 0.2 percentage points over August 2010. Moreover, the seasonally adjusted GDP growth rate change from Jun quarter 2009 to Jun quarter 2010 is +3.3%  [8]  . These will enhance the consumer confidence and potentially increase the sales of Myer. Additionally, the consumer price index indicates that the level of inflation has decreased throughout the year (Mar 09 is 3.9, Dec 09 is 3.1, and Jun 10 is 2.7). It may be beneficial to Myer as rising purchasing power of consumers can increase consumption on products offered by Myer. Furthermore, the Australian dollar has appreciated substantially during the year. Myer can take advantage of it since the imported products are cheaper than before. On the other hand, according to the statistic from RBA, it is the fact that RBA has increased the cash rate 6 times for each time being 0.25% since 7 October 2009. The increase of the cash rate leads to a significant amount of interest Myer has to cover. Social Australia is an immigration country with a pluralistic society. In the 2006 Australian census, the most commonly nominated ancestry was Australian (37.13%) followed by English (31.65%), Irish (9.08%), Scottish (7.56%), Italian (4.29%), German (4.09%), Chinese (3.37%), and Greek (1.84%).  [9]  With the diversity in culture and background, the whole society has a positive attitude of welcoming foreign products and services. This is favourable to Myer since Myer provides international-brand products to its customers. Australia has a population of 22 million and centralized around the coasts as shown in Figure2. The geographic distribution of the Myers store portfolio is in line with Australias geographic population distribution, with the majority of stores located in the more densely populated eastern seaboard states  [10]  . Figure 2: Population density, Australia- June 2009  [11]   à ¦Ã…“ ªÃƒ ¥Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃ‚ ½Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ Ã‚ .jpg The Australian society promotes equality between men and women as both genders plays a critical role in the development of the society. Family and leisure are also valuable to Australians. Myers core offering include womens wear, mens wear, childs wear and home wares, and a fun shopping experience is promoted to encourage shopper to visit the department store on leisure time. Furthermore, social responsibility, sustainable development and green issues are praise highly in the Australian society. Myer takes its social responsibility through its community initiatives including donations to natural disasters such as the Victorias bushfire in 2009 and to cancer foundations. Supports of local community events are enhanced by Myers local area marketing program.  [12]   Technical Technology development in e-commerce has enabled electronically commercial transactions. Substantial business opportunities are presented by new technology, online direct marketing and online shopping that enables Myer to reach to a wide range of customers and provides customers convenience and quick responses. However, the increase of online shopping could negatively impact on sales of Myer as customers may purchase merchandises from other online sellers, such as sellers on EBay. Furthermore, information technology system enables company to integrate information across operations and different functional areas of the company, facilitates business process and improves efficiency. For instance, Myer operates merchandising system, MyMerch, on daily basis to deliver the service in the most efficient way. The new PoS and CCTV systems are introduced into Myers stores as well  [13]  . Although new ways of doing business may cause inconvenience or risks to department store shopping at the early stage, technology allows stores to conduct business processes more efficiently and maintain the competitive advantages. Critical Business Risk and Implication: Key Audit Risk: Overstate value of inventory Key Account at risk: Inventory Myer captures around 3.5 million customer visits per week in 2009, failure of its key information technology system such as CCTV results in an increase in the losses from theft. Due to the limitation amounts of attendants, it will pose an audit risk which will affect existence of inventory account. A great percentage of Myers revenue is related with fashion related products which keeps changing rapidly as customer preference is unpredictable. Myers product mixes do not match customer preference can leads to growing amount of the slow-moving, obsolete items in stock. In addition, Myer use MyMerch as its inventory management system. The function of this system also influent the efficiency of logistics. All this factors will have a significant influence on valuation and allocation of inventory account. Financial reports of Myer shows its inventory turnovers slightly declined from 4.0 in 2008 to 3.8 of current year. Considering of sales increased 0.7% since 2008, there may be risks of misstatement in inventory account. Key audit risk: Undervalued of interest expense Account at risk: finance costs The table above shows that RBA has increased cash rate from 3.00% to 4.5% since 8 Apr 2009, as the serious economic contraction in Australia has passed, and the Australian government willing to achieve an inflation rate of 2-3%. According to Myers financial report 2010, Myer has $118million capital expenditure invested  [14]  ; Myer has also dropped plans for fourteen stores which expected to open over the next four years. It is expected that 22% of capital will be financed using debt. The interest rate changing is essential to Myer, as finance cost is significant. In fact, the finance cost decreases from $87,626,000 to $44,570,000  [15]  as the borrowing decrease from $879,005,000 to $419,919,000. Both of the account figure dropped about 50%. That draws attention to the possibility that Myer misstate this account since interest rate has increased significantly. It poses an audit risk which can affect the completeness, accuracy and cut off of finance expense. Key Audit Risk: Overstatement of current year revenue Key Account at risk: Sales Revenue Key assertion at risk: Occurrence Accuracy The sales revenue increased from A$2,798,916,000 to A$2,825,034,000. Simultaneously, cash decreased from A$184,773,000 to A$105,834,000 with trade and other receivables decreased from A$32,897,000 to A$24,045,000. Myers introduces a variety of incentive and bonus programs to the management to improve sales and productivity across all levels and areas of the business. Managements have the incentive to meet the forecasted sales growth disclosed in the prospectus since 2010 is their first FY after listing. Hence, the audit risk relating to the inaccurate evaluation of sales revenue is relatively high. Occurrence and accuracy are considered as major assertions at risk of sales revenue account. Recorded sales invoice and order invoice should be carefully verified to the inventory documents and delivery documents. Nevertheless, cash decreases may due to the purchase of PPE, which increased from A$371,699 million to A$468,050 million. Key Audit Risk: Material error of overstate or understate Accounts Payable amount due to the fluctuation of exchange rate Key Account at risk: Trade payables Key assertion at risk: valuation and allocation Australia currently has a floating exchange rate system and as shown in the graph above the exchange rate is continuous fluctuating. Myer sources its merchandise from over 800 suppliers globally to provide customers with one of the broadest brand offerings by a single retailer in Australia. When Myer imports on credit with a foreign currency, the final payment will be different to the initial recognised amount due to the fluctuation of exchange rate, therefore the trade payable account is either understate or overstate and the valuation and allocation assertion is at the priority position that needs to be examined. The trade payable account decrease from $224,471,000 in 2009 to $216,588,000 in 2010, this might be a result of the high value of Australian Dollar, however with the rapidly expansion of opening new stores, it is expected Myer to purchase more and has a higher amount of trade payable, thus a potential audit risk exists. Key Audit Risk: Valuation of the existing PPE Key Account at risk: Non-current assets: property, plant and equipment Key assertion at risk: Valuation and Allocation For Myer, plant and equipment is stated at cost less depreciation. Myer is now operating 66, and on track to open another 14 new stores by 2014 with scope to grow beyond 80 stores supported by their existing supply chain. It is predictable that the depreciation expenses should increase with the additional depreciable assets. As it is shown in the 09-10 report, the PPE increased from A$371,699,000 to A$468,050,000 in FY2010, whereas, the depreciation of non-current assets PPE expenses decrease from A$47,200,000 to A$41,888,000 in FY10. For these reasons, it might be possible for Myer overstating its PPE account by using off balance sheet account and/or changing depreciation method. It needs more substantive tests in auditing process. Effects of listing on ASX With listing on the ASX, more regulations are imposed on Myer, such as higher standard of disclosures. Myers shareholders would expect a better performance which is reflected by share price and directly related to the dividend. Myer should enhance its performance to maintain at or above certain level, otherwise it will breach of the continuing listing rules of ASX. These would probably place heavy burden on management, hence there is high possibility to deliberately manipulate the accounting numbers to meet the expectations of shareholders and forecasted profits. Therefore, the risks associated with conducting audit of Myers financial statements increases. In order to present the true and fair financial performances and positions of Myer, some issues need to be concerned when preparing audit plan. It is important to make sure the consistency in financial statement throughout the entity. The depreciation and amortization methods must be consistent with previous years. For instance, Myer has been using the straight line depreciation for years; it should be still applied when calculating the depreciation expenses. Moreover, it is necessary to set a lower materiality threshold than previous years due to the higher audit risk. Myer as a publicly listed company, the materiality will be set at 5%-10% of the net profit after tax. However, the managers are motivated to do some creative accounting, that is to manipulate the figures to make the annual statements more attractive to existing and potential investors, involving reporting a higher profit through window dressing revenue and expenses. Therefore, revenues and expenses accounts should be carefully investigated. More substantive testing, particularly tests of details on occurrence, completeness and accuracy and for those accounts need to be employed to ensure that revenues and expenses actually occurred in 2010 truly exist and are recorded appropriately. Furthermore, based on the 2010 Myers annual report, Myer has a total liability over 1 billion. It is likely that managers hide some liabilities to make annual statement more attractive. It is important to test the completeness and valuation and allocation of liability account in details.

heroarms Frederick as a Code Hero in Ernest Hemingways A Farewell to Arms :: Hemingway A Farewell to Arms

Frederick as a Code Hero in Farewell to Arms It is the nature of the beast within that fuels our inclination towards conflict and destruction. During the surreal powers of war, life hangs in the balance setting the stage for an elite group of individuals who triumphantly rise above the rest amidst the chaos. As Ernest Hemingway illustrates in his book, Farewell to Arms, the character of Frederick Henry; an ambulance driver, is put to the ultimate test during the madness and atrocity of WWI. His experiences at the front pose a challenge only a Hemingway hero can affront successfully. As the epitome of a code hero, Frederick is a man of action, self-discipline, and one who maintains grace under pressure. Whenever the situation requires, Henry rises to the occasion taking control of potentially dangerous incidents with quick decision leaving no room for second thought. After Frederick is captured by the battle police, he foresees his inevitable death if no action was taken and instinctively escaped detainment. "I looked at the carabineri, they were looking at the newcomers. The others were looking a the colchel. I ducked down, pushed between two men, and ran for the river, my head down. I tripped at the edge and went in with a splash" (Hemingway, 214). Henry witnessed the gruesome executions of the officers before him and knew he was not going to die without a fight to preserve his precious existence. Being a man of action rather than words, was the determining factor which helped him survive this unfortunate confrontation with death. Regardless of the circumstances, Henry used his authoritative position to make sure others did not engage in any threatening positions that could jeopar dize their safety and the safety of others. When one of his ambulances got suck in the mud during a retreat, two sergeants simply tried to abandon the situation but Frederick stopped them in their tracks. "Halt, I said. They kept on down the muddy road, the hedge on either side. I order you to halt. I called. They went a little faster. I opened up my holster, took the pistol, aimed at the one who talked the most, and fired" (Hemingway, 195). The men were given an ample opportunity to obey Henry's commands and by ignoring them, it suggested that they were challenging their superior's authority. Such actions are not tolerated by Frederick as he was once again forced to take the initiative as his character is always compelled to do.

The rule of law :: essays research papers

other house are for the benefit of Australia rather than the government, and include no instances of discrimination. The judiciary also exercises the power to control legislation if it is deemed not in accordance with the ‘rule of law’. This was proven in the landmark case of Chu Keng Lim vs Minister for Immigration. Parliament had amended the migration act to provide for the compulsory detention of certain designated persons who could not be released from custody by an order of the court. The high court rejected this legislation stating that it was â€Å" beyond the legislative power of parliament to invest the executive with an arbitrary to detain citizens in custody not withstanding that the power was conferred in terms which sought to divorce such detention in custody from both punishment and criminal guilt. Putting to one side exceptional circumstances the involuntary detention of a citizen in custody by the state is penal or punitive in character and exists only as an incident of the exclusively judicial function of adjudging and punishing criminal guilt. Every citizen is â€Å" ruled by the law and the law alone† and may with us be punished for a breach of law but he can be punished for nothing else.† The judiciary also applies a system of precedent which allows for consistency in decisions but still provides for individual circumstances. This insures that there is no discrimination between people. Although all current conventions comply with the ‘rule of law’, the constitution does not guarantee it and provides for things such as the arbitrary exercise of power by the Governor General. However in Emy Hughes publication Australian Politics it states that â€Å" the court reasoned that that since the constitution could be presumed to authorise a system of

Movie Essays - Loncraines Film Production of Shakespeares Richard III :: Movie Film comparison compare contrast

Loncraine's Film Production of Shakespeare's Richard III Loncraine's film brilliantly furthers Richard III's role as the diabolical genius. His use of economy and symbolism in portraying Richard gives completeness to the character that the text in some ways lacks. The short but intriguing stable scene in the film makes this clear. The first thing I noticed about the stable scene in the film was the monochromatic color scheme. As Donaldson noted, the muted browns, grays, and beiges are reminiscent of the several death scenes. The colors befit the place where Richard meets Tyrrel, Clarence's murderer, and receives Tyrrel's vow of loyalty. Both characters' connections to the following death scene are foreshadowed by Loncraine's choice of color palate: Tyrrel as the murderer-for-hire, Richard as the instigator. Richard's reaction toward the animals in the stable gives glimpses of insight into his character. For instance, seeing the boar in the pen initially amuses Richard. He sees Tyrrel feeding the boar, looking on approvingly. As Richard moves away from the boar's pen, Tyrrel tosses an apple to the man accompanying Richard in a quick gesture of recognition and camaraderie. Richard proceeds to gently feed the apple to a horse; this is a direct prediction of Richard's need for a horse in the final battle: "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!" (V.iv.). Richard is feeding a useful and important animal, showing more sympathy and care than he does for the rest of the humans in the film. Conversely, Richard throws his apple at the boar after discerning Tyrrel's loyalty. The boar serves two purposes in the scene; it is both more useful when it is not alive (as food), and a symbol of Richard's family (Richard's crest contains the image of a boar, and Richard himself is often referred to as a boar in the text). Richard obviously has more use for the horse than he does the boar, alluding to his value of a creature or character based on its usefulness-he is quick to kill anything or anyone he finds opposing or challenging him. This includes his family, which is the boar's symbolic purpose. The boar, though penned and harmless, becomes the target of Richard's sadistic desire to bring harm to those around him. In the same way, Richard designs schemes to injure his family members for the more useful goal of gaining kingship. His family is no good to him while they are alive; they are more useful when they are dead and out of his way.

Create A Classic Detective Story Essay

In this assignment I will analyse the classic Sherlock Holmes detective story the â€Å"Speckled Band† and find out how sir Conan Doyle takes a basic idea from all detective stories, a murder and still create a classic story.  First off a detective story needs a murder and in this case it was the death of Sarah stoner that starts the story off, but no death in any detective story would be complete without a mysterious death and the way Sarah died was a mystery. And I think that most detective stories use mysterious deaths because this makes the story more interesting and more intriguing because if the death was straight forward then the reader might be able to predict the ending of the story before actually reading the end of the story. This story also has its fair shares of mysterious characters for instance Helen Stoner, who is Sarah stoners sister is as mysterious as they get, like when she first met Sherlock she was wearing black clothes like she just came from a funeral. But why use mysterious characters? Because it is these characters that keep the reader guessing as to who the suspects may be and sometimes the writer can use this as an advantage to create a huge twist in the end of the story. The story describes the atmosphere as well such in the case of Sarah’s death the atmosphere was described as dark, mysterious sounds etc and this is very important to use descriptions of certain atmospheres and locations because they will help the reader create a sort of picture of the scene in their heads therefore making them want to read more because it helps them get more involved with the story – and also makes them think about what’s going to happen next. The location of the story is also important and in this story most of the tension is created in the mansion of Helen stoner, which is owned by Dr Roylott. And in this mansion are a number of false clues such as in the room of Sarah stoner there’s an emergency bell that don’t work, her bed bolted to the ground, no windows and a ventilator that goes straight in to Dr Roylotts room. But the biggest false clue to me was the title itself the â€Å"Speckled Band† and it was pure genius for Conan Doyle to use a title like this because some people read the story purely out of curiosity to find out what the speckled band was. So by using mysterious deaths, mysterious characters, atmospheres, locations & false clues the writer is able to draw the reader in the story, use tension to create questions in the mind of the reader but it also helps the writer stay 5 steps ahead to create a classic detective story.

Smiling These Days

Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and How to Influence People is the veritable how-to guide of relationships, full of tips regarding interpersonal relationship ranging from how to appease the saleslady who has been on her feet all day into letting you see just one more box of shoes, to becoming a leader of your select group without raising any ire or offense, even the suspicion that you’re vying for that administrative spot. The book teaches the reader about handling people, to making them like you, and to swaying people to your thinking.Handed to me some years ago by a well-meaning adult, I thumbed through the book rather dubiously, nonetheless eager to get from it what I can. Dale Carnegie’s self-help book changed my life, in that it realized more than its promise of winning me friends and influencing people – the book allowed me to see, quite clearly, that people nowadays are not so open to your smiles and your and your interpersonal maneuvering, no ma tter how sincere and well-meaning you may be.Subliminal messages of kindness and camaraderie don’t go too well with people these days, compared to the in-text testimonials of people from fifty years before. To paraphrase a popular saying, the road to good intentions is paved with practiced smiles and the inevitable ire you’ll raise with all those smiles. Do not offend, says the book, be sincere about this. For example, the book encourages the reader to, well, smile, and do it with your heart and the purest of your intentions shining through.Take that saleslady for example: at the end of both your days, you give her a smile, and she forgets herself and scowls at you, perhaps thinking that you are another demanding customer, before she puts up the trained facade of fake cheerfulness and asks you, â€Å"What can I do for you, ma’am? † You attempt to finagle the cooperation of a colleague by underscoring his achievements, and then glossing over your own. Most ambitious individuals think of your praise as their right, and nod their acknowledgement, and move on, uninfluenced. It seems that any act of kindness will be misconstrued as one with dubious intentions.It becomes more apparent than ever before how cynical, jaded and world-weary human beings have become, until you smile at their direction for no apparent reason, with no agenda in mind. You are immediately treated with speculation and doubt, that with one smile, people see a wealth of malevolent planning and less-than-decent intentions behind it. And you can’t blame your skeptical audience. Practice the tenets of the book all you want, but then, you still end up following dictates regarding how to treat people better, mostly because you want something from them – be it friendship, agreement, respect or obedience.Ironically, in our desire to reach out to people with no malice, we do so motivated by our needs and demands from them. Basically, How to Win Friends and Influ ence People is the benevolent person’s guide to taking over the world, in his own way. And maybe therein lies the basic flaw in my character, and in all the other people I know who say that this book has â€Å"failed† them too, that perhaps I am not well-meaning enough for this, not considerate, not kind enough. And maybe, I, too, am far too cynical to believe that this book could actually work.But then the book can teach you to transcend this, as it claims to be a guide to making friends, to ensuring harmonious relationships between strangers, colleagues, friends and family. It enumerates and elaborates techniques and devices, from that sincere smile, to appreciation and praise, to downplaying your own merits in order to encourage the productivity of others – it is a self-help book about proper interaction with your fellow man. And perhaps that is the book’s ultimate failure, allowing us to see how cynical and jaded this world has become: that we actuall y need a self-help book to teach us how to be decent human beings.

Palmolive Case Analysis

PMPC BA 115 A Case Title: Palmolive Naturals shampoo: Connecting with the Consumers Point of View: Ms. Gigi Alvarez Senior Product Manager of Palmolive Shampoo The Problem: Ms. Gigi Alvarez, senior product manager of Palmolive Shampoo, need to prepare marketing plan for Palmolive Shampoo in five days to be presented to the Marketing Review. Objective: To prepare a marketing plan for Palmolive Shampoo in five days to be presented to the Marketing Review. Areas of Consideration: 1. )Company Background The present company, Colgate-Palmolive, is an $8. billion consumer products company that serves people around the world with well-known brands that make consumers’ lives healthier and more enjoyable. Truly global in scope, its sales come from its international operations. The company focuses on five core businesses: Oral Care, Personal Care, Household Surface Care, Fabric Care, and Pet Nutrition. Now, it has become a leading marketer if not a leader in most product categories it co mpetes in. The parent company has research and development (R&D) operations in Piscataway, New Jersey, but it also established a regional R&D base in the Philippines. . )The Shampoo industry In 1996, there were three major shampoo manufacturers in the Philippines. The category leader was Procter and Gamble with five shampoo brands (Pantene, Rejoice, Head & Shoulders, Ivory, and Vidal Sasson), Unilever (Sunsilk, Lux, and Organics), and Colgate-Palmolive (Palmolive Naturals, Palmolive Optima, and Gard). The three manufacturers control about 91 percent of the shampoo market. More than one hundred other shampoo brands compete for the remaining nine percent. The shampoo industry was long dominated by Colgate-Palmolive and Unilever.Colgate-Palmolive was very strong during the 1960’s-1970 while Unilever took over the leadership briefly during the late 1970’s. Procter and Gamble entered the shampoo market by introducing Prell, quit the market and then re-entered the market thr ough Rejoice in the late 1980’s. Palmolive was still the brand leader nationwide because of good distribution and popular pricing. However, in Metro Manila, Procter’s Pantene was number one in some studies. Procter with five shampoo brands became the shampoo category market leader in 1995. 3. )Marketing Mix ElementsIn 1996, there were five variants of Palmolive Naturals Shampoo each catering to a specific hair type. Palmolive Naturals utilized a translucent plastic bottle with a label and full fliptop cap. Each had unique label and closure cover. Palmolive Naturals is the mass market shampoo of Colgate-Palmolive and was positioned as a shampoo made from natural ingredients that are hiyang (roughly translated, compatible). In 1990, Palmolive Optima 2-in-1 shampoo plus conditioners was launched with a hair scientist demonstrating the conditioning benefits of the shampoo to hair. Colgate-Palmolive also had a strong antidandruff shampoo brand in Gard.Product life cycles fo r shampoo brands are becoming shorter and â€Å"news† about a brand must be had at least every two years. Just recently, Procter and Gamble started importing shampoos from its subsidiary in Thailand. Colgate-Palmolive and Unilever continued to manufacture shampoo in the Philippines. Colgate-Palmolive had a good distribution system that matched the capabilities of its two competitors. Its relationship with its wholesalers and big retailers was quite strong. Allowances and trade support were adequate and competitive. Wholesalers and big retailers then supply the smaller account, mostly sari-sari (provision) storeowners.To win the shampoo war the brand must have extensive coverage. To make a brand ubiquitous it must be carried by the sari-sari stores. However, company support for the small sari-sari- stores was weak and some regions in Visayas and Mindanao have poor coverage. Palmolive Naturals was priced 5 to 10 percent lower than Palmolive Otima and other brands of Procter and Unilever. The market can be divided into three pricing segments, namely: economy pricing, medium pricing, premium pricing. When Palmolive Naturals was launched, Lea Salonga was its image model and celebrity endorser. The first of the series of commercials was aired in December 1989.It was shot in London and it was one of Lea’s first television commercial appearances in the Philippines. The campaign highlighted Palmolive Shampoo as being specially formulated for Asia long, black hair and it was called the â€Å"Palmolive shampoo with Conditioner: Special Care for Asian Hair† campaign. Palmolive aired several commercials with Lea Salonga. The campaign was aired on television and radio, and printed in newspapers. These were supplemented by campus tours where Palmolive promo girls distributed free Palmolive shampoo and soap, and flyers and catalogues featuring Lea Salonga.Palmolive was not to be left behind in the hair salons. They obtained the services of hairdresser, Ri cky Reyes, as an endorser and also sponsored his â€Å"Beauty School Plus† educational television show. He was also featured in commercials cum public relations in caring for the Asian hair and the â€Å"Palmolive Hair Crime News† campaign. Alternative Courses of Action: †¢The first alternative is to make a marketing plan based on the Price Strategies of Palmolive Shampoo. Advantages: Taking pricing decision is one of the critical factors of business for Palmolive Shampoo.To take the pricing decision a proper research needs to be carried out such as on the product availability, competitor's pricing strategy, customer's perceived pricing, customer’s willingness to pay the price of the product, demand factor etc. The pricing decision influences the demand of the product in the market, the pricing strategy of the competitors, the profitability of the company and the most important is the customer decision on purchasing the product such as which brand product t o buy and which not, which will give the major satisfaction to the customer by rendering the higher value at the lesser price then the competitors.Palmolive Shampoo may indulge in skimming strategy, which allows the company to often start with a high price for their unique products. . For customers, who buy the product first, it is a status symbol & these customers are willing to pay a very high price. So the company can â€Å"skim† the market. Later, the company has to make a price reduction to get more customers. With this price reduction, Palmolive Shampoo can give different discounts to their customers. A customer who orders a large quantity on an item may receive a quantity discount.A distributor who gives marketing information to the company or takes on other tasks of the company, for example, the transport, may receive a trade discount. The company can give a patronage discount for a customer who buys at this company for a long time or it offers a bonus if the customer buy a large amount during one year. Customers who pay cash may be given a cash discount. And the company can also give an employee discount for its own employees. Part of the price policy of Palmolive Shampoo is to decide who receives a discount.This makes it difficult for customers to compare prices of different companies. If Palmolive Shampoo wants to penetrate a market, it starts with a low price. With this penetration strategy, Palmolive Shampoo wants to win a lot of customers and it often wants to beat the competitors with the low price. This is called a low-price strategy. Later Palmolive Shampoo tries to raise the prices to make more profit. After penetrating the market, Palmolive Shampoo, capturing strategy comes in; if a company offers products which are linked in some way it can use different prices strategies for the different products.Disadvantages: The primary disadvantage to the company that engages in competition based pricing is that they are not pricing based on th e value delivered to customers or–less optimally–on the basis of their costs. Thus, they are unable to effective manage revenue to a target, creating a chaotic income stream, with all the disruptions in management and customer experience that may entail. Additionally, competition based pricing is an efficient way to drive profit out of the entire industry.Once a single company responds to a competitor with a price change, it is very difficult for other companies not to respond with price changes of their own. Almost always, those price changes are discounts, and become a race to the bottom. Another disadvantage is that Palmolive Shampoo would have fixed cost. The concept of fixed costs means that these costs never change. Rent and salaries are fixed costs. If the company produces and sells a thousand more products one month and sells fewer the next months, the fixed costs don't change.That means if costs is the main factor in pricing, then the pricing should fluctuate from month to month. Raw materials and sales commission are variable costs or costs that change from period to period. Consumers can be sceptical of pricing fluctuations and it erodes brand trust. If costs of production decrease, cost plus pricing suggests that pricing should decrease. Then, you Palmolive Shampoo would lose on profits, this would mean that Palmolive Shampoo is not efficient in their pricing. It works the opposite if production costs increase. Cost plus pricing doesn't inspire efficiency.As long as customers are paying production costs you don't have any incentive to lower costs or find faster, cheaper and more effective ways of producing products. It's easy for a company to become complacent. Meanwhile, competitors are taking steps to produce a better product faster, which allows them to steal market share. †¢The second alternative is to make a marketing plan based on the Distribution (Place) Strategies of Palmolive Shampoo. Advantages: If selling directly from the manufacturer to the consumer was always the most efficient methodology for doing business, the need for channels of distribution would be obviated.Intermediaries, however, provide several benefits to both Palmolive Shampoo and consumers: improved efficiency, a better assortment of products, routinization of transactions, and easier searching for goods as well as customers. Intermediaries provide a second benefit by bridging the gap between the assortment of goods and services generated by Palmolive Shampoo and those in demand from consumers. Palmolive Shampoo typically produce large quantities of a few similar products, while consumers want small quantities of many different products.In order to smooth the flow of goods and services, intermediaries perform such functions as sorting, accumulation, allocation, and creating assortments. In sorting, intermediaries take a supply of different items and sort them into similar groupings, as exemplified by graded agricultural products. Accumulation means that intermediaries bring together items from a number of different sources to create a larger supply for their customers. Intermediaries allocate products by breaking down a homogeneous supply into smaller units for resale.A third benefit provided by intermediaries is that they help reduce the cost of distribution by making transactions routine. Exchange relationships can be standardized in terms of lot size, frequency of delivery and payment, and communications. Seller and buyer no longer have to bargain over every transaction. As transactions become more routine, the costs associated with those transactions are reduced. With these advantages, this could strengthen the distribution strategy of Palmolive Shampoo. And it would greatly improve the company’s poor market in the Visayas and Mondanao region.Disadvantages: The main disadvantage of direct distribution is that Palmolive Shampoo typically lack retailing expertise, this greatly contribute to the poor coverage of the company in Visayas and Mindanao areas. The Company with a good product to offer the market may not be good at marketing it. By using other distribution channels to distribute their product, they are able to make use of the expertise of dedicated retailers and wholesalers. Not only that, the time that a manufacturer spends in retailing activities is time that might be better spent on production-related activities.Another downside is the cost factor. Costs associated with selling directly to the consumers are high compared with using intermediaries for the same level of sales. This includes costs of hiring and training salespeople, travel and transportation, telephone and postage costs. In addition, the overheads of opening and maintaining retail outlets and hiring work force to look after such operations are high. With cost come to hand, time would be another factor. With Palmolive Shampoo researching on new customers and visiting them to sell the products consumes m uch time.The salespeople spend most of their time haggling with customers over the price. Additionally, time is also spent following up on the existing customers to ensure repeated buying in future. Palmolive shampoo will most likely focus on the sales volume rather than targeting customer needs and their satisfaction. Additionally, the salespeople are driven by the need to earn large bonuses at the expense of customer satisfaction. Customer loyalty and poor brand image will result leading to declining sales in the long run. †¢The third alternative is to make a marketing plan based on the Promotions Strategies of Palmolive Shampoo.Advantages: Promotion is a form of corporate communication that uses various methods to reach a targeted audience with a certain message in order to achieve specific organizational objectives. Nearly all organizations, whether for-profit or not-for-profit, in all types of industries, must engage in some form of promotion In the context of the marketin g mix, promotion represents the various aspects of marketing communication, that is, the communication of information about the product with the goal of generating a positive customer response.Marketing communication decisions include: Promotional strategy (push, pull, etc. ), Advertising, Personal selling & sales force, Sales promotions, Public relations & publicity, Marketing communications budget. New customers might learn to love Palmolive Shampoo’s product and become long-term clients. Such efforts may range from multinational firms spending large sums on securing high-profile celebrities to serve as corporate spokespersons; the benefit of using celebrities to endorse your brand is you can capitalize on the goodwill they elicit from the public.Palmolive Shampoo having Lea Salonga promote their Shampoo products, Ricky Reyes also an endorser to the company; there is no question why consumers’ purchases of Palmolive Shampoo went up. Disadvantages: An obvious disadvan tage to a promotional strategy is its potential for failure. Worse, the long-term benefits of Palmolive Shampoo might not offset the costs of the promotion. Careful research and expert advice from a marketing consultant can help maximize Palmolive Shampoo’s chances for success, but nothing’s guaranteed.The longer a sales promotion lasts, the more likely Palmolive Shampoo will decrease the perceived value of their product. For example, if a restaurant offers a steep discount for children’s shampoo to attract families, parents might balk at paying more after they get used to the low prices. Palmolive Shampoo should keep promotions short to prevent long-term damage to their overall pricing strategy. If Palmolive Shampoo promotions occur in a predictable pattern, potential customers might wait for a sale rather than buy the product or service at full price.For example, if a retail clothing store offers a sizable discount on most holidays, sales will be low between h olidays, and relatively few customers will ever pay full price. Another, consumer might abandon as soon as the promotion is over and continue to hunt for bargains. Converting bargain hunters to permanent customers depends on developing brand loyalty. For example, if your excellent customer service or high-quality products impress them, they are more likely to stay with you after prices return to normal levels. The fourth alternative is to make a marketing plan based on the Product Strategies of Palmolive Shampoo. Advantages: Product strategy marketing deals with the tools, technology and methodologies a business uses to distinguish its products. With sound marketing, Palmolive shampoo may receive more attention for its efforts to woo customers and make its Shampoo products more desirable. With Palmolive Shampoo consistently comes up with sound product outlines and adeptly markets its merchandise is the darling of investors and securities exchange players.Effective product strategy m arketing enables Palmolive Shampoo to estimate potential cost and performance attributes for their products, as well as determine which attributes could spur profitability down the road. The goal for Palmolive Shampoo is to find out features that customers like and how much it will cost to add them to products, while keeping in mind profitability goals top leadership has set. This concept helps a business chart a product strategy compatible with other parts of its marketing plan — meaning Palmolive Shampoo must make sure it designs goods it effectively can sell, promote and distribute.Disadvantages: One of the disadvantages that Palmolive Shampoo would encounter is the higher cost of products. Related to the increased staff requirements are higher costs commonly associated with a product specialization strategy. Not only are there usually increased labour costs, but costs to customize products and research particular needs of each given customer market are expensive as well. Salespeople that sell to multiple markets also typically have to travel farther, which increases time spent travelling and costs associated with making sales.These higher costs mean the companies must generate more sales and charge higher prices to net profit When Palmolive Shampoo uses a product specialization strategy, it is inherent for branding that the development and marketing of the product remains consistent across all customer markets. If the company fails to deliver an effective product solution to a particular market segment, the negative damage to the brand's image can have effects across all of the company's customer markets.Thus, Palmolive Shampoo needs to maintain a consistent standard of quality and durability to maintain brand image. Another challenge of a product specialization approach is that Palmolive Shampoo can be too focused on product research and development and fail to react promptly to changes in customer demand and interest. With more customer-centric ap proaches to targeting customers, Palmolive Shampoo is more likely to keep up with changes within the marketplace to know how to evolve products and market them in a way that satisfies marketplace expectations.Recommendation/Conclusion: I recommend the second alternative, which is to make a marketing plan based on the Distribution (Place) Strategies of Palmolive Shampoo. With the use of intermediaries to distribute the products, Palmolive Shampoo would increase its lead in the market over its competitors. This would help the company gain new market and new consumers. This also aids the search processes of both buyers and sellers. Palmolive Shampoo is searching to determine their customers' needs, while customers are searching for certain products and services.A degree of uncertainty in both search processes can be reduced by using channels of distribution. In addition, Palmolive Shampoo can make some of their commonly used products more widely available by placing them in many differ ent retail outlets, so that consumers are more likely to find them at the right time. Intermediaries, however, provide several benefits to both Palmolive Shampoo and consumers: improved efficiency, a better assortment of products, routinization of transactions, and easier searching for goods as well as customers.Intermediaries provide a second benefit by bridging the gap between the assortment of goods and services generated by Palmolive Shampoo and those in demand from consumers. A third benefit provided by intermediaries is that they help reduce the cost of distribution by making transactions routine. Exhibit 1: Visayas Distribution Plan – Cebu is the main distributor. Distributing to neighbouring cities and provinces in Visayas. : Exhibit2: Mindanao Distribution Plan – Davao city is the main distributor. Distributing to neighbouring cities and provinces in Mindanao.