Organic Foods Can Be Dangerous Essay

Do you know about the food that you are eating or how it is being grown? Genetically modified foods is the way scientists can make food crops stay fresher, grow bigger, and have the crops create their own pesticide. Sounds good right? Wrong! Genetically modified foods need to be monitored and removed from everyday agriculture because of the threat they pose to human health, the environment, and the impact on the global economy. Organic food can be a hazard to human’s health. There are three natural chemical’s contained in some organically grown foods that can cause a risk of cancer to people. DDT, DDE, or Alar, these are 3 pesticides that are banned in the U. S. and other countries (Silver, 2006). Rotenone is a neurotoxin that is used by organic farmers that has been known to be used to kill fish and it has been linked to Parkinson’s disease. Another pesticide used by organic farmers, pyrenthrin, it is known to be used on the day crops are being harvested, can result in breathing problems when it is inhaled (Silver, 2006). In 1989 it was reported that dozens of Americans died and several thousand were impaired by a genetically modified food supplement known as L-trptophan and it created an ailment known as (EMS) eosinophilia myalgia syndrome. The GMO was released without being tested. A settlement of 2 billion dollars was paid out by the manufacturer (Batalion ND, 2009). Planting organic crops can be very damaging to the environment. People would think that because the food is organic it would mean less chemicals and it would be better for the environment but that is wrong because the natural pesticide rotenone-pyrethnin is very toxic and it is dangerous to our aquatic life and fish. It is also said that not all organic soil additives and pest-controls are non-toxic and that toxic residues remain on the organic food. In my research I also found that genetically modified Bt endotoxin remains in the soil for at least 18 months and it can be transported to wild plants causing super weeds that are resistant to such organisms as butterflies, moths, and beetle pests which will disturb the balance of nature. By carrying genetically modified pollen by wind, rain, birds, bees, insects, fungus, bacteria- the entire chain of life becomes involved. What needs to be known is that once it is released, there is no recall or cleanup possible. Whenever delivering organic foods to the market it can cause higher food prices as well as causing some countries to have more assets than others. One of the reasons it is so expensive to deliver organic foods to the market is because of post-handling of small quantities of organic foods causes higher prices because of the mandatory segregation of organic and conventional produce. Marketing and the distribution of organic foods is inefficient and volumes are small and that is another reason for higher costs. As for why rich countries profit more from organic foods than poor countries do, there seems to be numerous reasons. The world’s richest nations, especially America and Europe, deliberately pay their farmers to produce too far much food at low prices to prevent the world’s poorest farmers from being able to compete. Did you know that the average family pays $1000 each year in taxes to the world’s most wealthy farmers, while farmers in poor countries suffer in poverty? Another disadvantage of organic foods is that most organic food have a shorter shelf life than non-organic food products. Preservatives are not used in the processing of the organic foods, so it spoils more quickly. Organics have a shorter shelf life and retailers often take huge losses by having to trim organic produce, adding more to the final consumer price. With organic foods not having anti-bacterial agents, the pathogens have already started to multiply in organic foods and invading the cell walls of the plants tissues within hours of harvesting. The inevitable signs of organic foods having a shorter shelf life is the diminishing quality such as shrinking, fading, drying and changes in the texture and the color that make the foods look less appealing to the customer. Even though organic foods have their disadvantages, there are still some advantages to using organic foods. I personally think that by planting organic foods that there would be a chance to help third world countries feed their own. If organic farming can produce super foods and make larger yields of crops and make crops grow faster then I believe it would be what we need to stop world hunger. It would require a lot of experimentation I am sure but, would it not be worth it if it would stop some of the world hunger that is starving people to death? Another advantage of organic foods is that they help people from ingesting regular amounts of pesticides and insecticides commonly found in commercial products. Organic foods also protect the planet. Organic farming ensures that bio-diversity remains available in the foods we eat. Organic farming is considered to be sustainable farming. The farmers and workers are not exposed to dangerous toxins or bad living or working conditions. Sustainable farming protects humans, animals, and the environment. Increasing the demand for organic products will help people to want to use this type of farming and by using organic we are ensuring that the food our children are eating is healthy. With healthy foods there is a chance of stopping the obesity epidemic that is all over the world today. In conclusion, the environmental issue of organic foods is a very complex one. Organic foods can cause possible risks and harm on human’s health as well as the environment, furthermore it brings an impact on the global economy, and for these three reasons, organic food should be researched further or completely banned. If it could be researched further and organic farming could help with world hunger then it would be something that could help our third world countries and then it would be considered to be an advantage.

Marketing Strategies of Colgate Palmolive Ltd

Project Report A STUDY ON MARKETING STRATEGIES OF COLGATE PALMOLIVE LTD. Submitted to: Dr. D. K. Agarwal Submitted by: DINESH CHAUHAN[62014] VIVEK DHAR [62066] FORE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT NEW DELHI Contents ? Introduction1 ? Objective2 ? Methodology3 ? Company Profile4 ? Company Strategy6 ? Marketing Mix15 ? SWOT Analysis26 ? Survey Findings28 ? Retailers Survey34 ? Conclusion37 ? Suggestions39 ? Consumer Questionnaire ? Retailer Questionnaire ? Bibliography INTRODUCTION As early as 3000 B. C. Egyptians used toothbrushes fashioned from twigs. In the 20th century a major design advance occurred in 1938 with the launch of Dr. West’s Miracle Tuft toothbrush, the first nylon bristle brush. Until the late 1970’s toothbrushes were widely viewed by consumer as a commodity and were primarily purchases on price. The involvement remained low and the companies also treated their toothbrushes as an extension, to get their consumers to use their toothpastes. Typically in the Indian market the percentage of toothbrush users has slowly inched upwards. As it has always been associated by the non-users as a non-essential item more so because of their fierce loyalty to the margosa twigg(Datun) and the index finger. The market of late has been the entry of several foreign players and the marketing game has assumed a totally new dimension. Companies are trying to shift to â€Å"PULL† strategy of long term returns and the inclination of consumers to shell out a few rupees extra to ensure a more wholesome care of their teeth and gum. This has resulted in rapid growth in value terms. Added to this is the initiative of the companies to focus on expanding the market by bringing the over 65% non-users in their consumer fold. With such vast potential to be exploited, the entry of several new players with their innovative ideas and experience in similar developing markets, the industry is likely to see a lot of action in the immediate future. OBJECTIVE The above of the project was manifold. ? First of all a general idea of the toothbrush industry – its competitiveness, volume and potential was to be adjudged. Next was to go on to analysis of the attitudes of a typical consumer and his/her idea/perception of this low involvement category product. ? This was to be followed up with the study of Colgate Plus toothbrush, as a typical product of the company, Colgate Palmolive and its standing in the market vis-a-vis other players, especially new entrants. ? To amalgamate all above to conclude as to what was to be the future/probable course of the toothbrush industry and Colgate Plus tooth brush in particular. METHODOLOGY 1. To get an idea of the industry, I went through all the relevant literature we could lay my hands upon. This included A & M’s, Business Today’s. 2. For consumer attitudes, I prepared a questionnaire that was circulated among 70 odd people, well spread out across the whole of Delhi. The same was done with the retailers to try and see the conformity in findings in some specific attributes. 3. The questionnaire was to structured that an idea of brand image and relative studying of various brand could also be elicited. 4. The findings were synthesized, and keeping in mind the new entrants, their potential and the potential of the market, projections were made and conclusions were drawn. COMPANY PROFILE A household name for paste and tooth powder, Colgate Palmolive (India) was established on 23rd September 1937 as a private limited company in Bombay, as a wholly owned subsidiary of Colgate Palmolive Co. Of USA Initially it started with trading activity and later set up manufacturing operations in 1949 at Sewry (Bombay). The company became a public limited company on 5th October 1978. In 1990-91 the company commissioned facilities for fatty acid and toilet soap at Waluj (Aurangabad). The plants at Sewri and Waluj manufacture oral care products like dental creams, tooth powder tooth brushes and personal care products like toilet soaps, shampoo, which are marketed under various brand names such as Colgate, Palmolive, Halo, Protex and Charmis. The company’s distribution network covers 1700 stockists and 4,50,000 retailers with ware house facilities in Mumbai, Calcutta, Delhi, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Madras ( and a new addition at Faridabad). The company has its own Research and development facilities and had also been getting the R&D benefits of the parent company. It has a well established quality Control Department at Sewri & Waluj. For 40 years, since inception till 1978, Colgate was carrying on its business in India with a paid up capital of Rs. 1. 5 lakh made up of 1500 equity shares of Rs. 100 each, when it was increases to Rs. 1. 96 crore, by a bonus issue in the ratio of 130:1. To comply with the FERA regulations, Colgate Palmolive, USA diluted its share holding to 40% in the Indian company, through an offer of sale to the Indian public in October 1978. Following FERA relaxation, the foreign shareholding was increased from 40% to 51% in September 1993. Colgate Palmolive (CP) is a global leader in household and personal care products. In 1991, it had sales of $ 6. 06 billion and a gross profit of $ 2. 76 billion, its world wide R&D expenditures were $ 114 million and media advertising expenditure totalled $ 428 million. Colgate Palmolive’s five year plan for 1991 to 1995 emphasized new product launches and entry into new Geographic markets, along with improved efficiencies in manufacturing and distribution and a continuing focus on core consumer products. In 1921 $ 243 million was spend to upgrade 25 of Colgate Palmolive’s 91 manufacturing plants, 275 new products were introduced world-wide; several strategic acquisitions (e. g. of the Mennen men’s toiletries company) were completed and manufacturing began in China and Eastern Europe. Since 1985, gross margins had climbed from 39% to 45% while annual volume growth since 1986 had averaged 5% International sales Colgate Palmolive’s strong unit, accounted for 64% of sales and 6% of profits in 1991. COMPANY STRATEGY – ORAL CARE AND TOOTHBRUSH INDUSTRY IN PARTICULAR Volume is the key† says Richard Usuquen, VP Marketing Colgate Palmolive (India) Ltd. To expand the market in all ranges, CP has an ongoing RURAL VAN PROGRAMME and SCHOOL PROGRAMME covering 14 million villages and 80 million consumers, teaching people brush or even clean their teeth with the fingers. CP’s action centring around finely balancing the urban market – (59. 5%) and rural markets (68% share) . So while the company has introduced such premium packaging as stand up toothpaste tubes with flip-up caps in the urban market, it is also selling sachets of Colgate dental cream at low prices. This focus on volumes is also evident in the toothbrush market, estimated at 400 million units per annum. C-P is the toothbrush leader in India with an approximately 60% market share, but since ‘95 it is facing challenges from HLL which has already garnered 8% market share. Usuquen says â€Å"The penetration of brushes in India is very low, so more than market share, it is important to grow the market†. To that end CP has actively introduced line extensions across all three segments – economy, middle and premium since last year. At the entry level it has adopted the sleeve packaging, with no individual cases. The focus is on driving volumes through the price-sensitive segment. The mid-price market has been the introduction of the HIGH KLEEN range, while the upper end has seen the zig – zag and Double – Action launches. For the economy segment, a price focus has been adopted. On offer are five toothbrushes each from the CP and Cibacca stables to rural consumers, at prices low enough to generate trial. For the urban market, the focus is on maintaining novelty value by introducing new variants and added features. Whatever is new, people buy. So the idea is to accelerate choice through a variety of product features†. CP’s perception of the Indian market is of one where people welcome change but clamour for high end products at cheaply prices. The answer to this conundrum as per the company’s strategy is to â€Å"†¦.. Optimise cost and formulation and the proceses and come up with efficient manufacturing to answer this â€Å". CP’s strategy is to pour in a lot of investment in the Indian market in terms of capital expenditure and organizational support and each out to the deepest interiors. SEGMENTATION The toothbrush industry can be regarded as a component of the Oral Care industry which broadly comprises tooth paste, mouth wash and floss, besides tooth brushes and a large unorganized naturally available cleaning mediums viz. Index Finger, Neem twigs etc. But Colgate Plus need not to bothered about latter as it operates in a different category. The tooth brush industry can be segmented in the basis of social class & income group (Demographic Segmentation ), price (Product segmentation), benefit (behavioural segmentation), the last being the most important. DEMOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION ACCORDING TO PRICE |Segment |Category |Brands |Characteristic | |Low income rural class |Economy |Promise, Cibaca |Looking for low price | |Middle income group semi urban |Standard |Colgate Classic Pepsodent popular | Value for money | |consumer | | | |Upper middle income urban |Premium |Colgate Plus, Classic, Ajay, Royal |High quality cleaning efficiency | |consumers | | | | |Upper class urban sophisticate |Super Premium |Oral B, Aquafresh, Jordan, Close Up|Unique, attribute, dentists | | | | |recommendation | The last two categories merge, since Colgate Plus is intelligently positioned in between the two to maintain a high quality in age as well as encourage switches from standard category to up grade PSYCHOGRAPHICS |Variations in Product |Jazzy looks, Transparent handle|Simpleton looks, Modest |Mix of the two : transparent | | |Flashy colours Superior Packing|packaging, Solid colours |handle but not very flash | | | | |packaging. |Urban sophisticate |Chooses with care, sports it as|Abhors |Abhors | | |a status symbol while | | | | |interacting in group travels | | | |Semi urban Non Chalant User |Aspires for it, but finds it |Very often goes for this as it |Some times this | | |difficult to afford; tries it |serves is purpose without much | | | |seldom |expenditure | | |Rural User |Does not have access/can’t | Is the only option Datun |Generally can’t afford this | | |think of | |either | |Tooth brushes brands |Oral B, Jordan, Aqua fresh etc. |Promise, Forhans etc. |Cibaca, Ajanta, Ajay etc. | The overall response reflects a gradual move in the direction of the premium to super premium segment as it is once in three months/four months purchase, thus being successful in luring all customers (except the rural user who are a small minority of the Market) to try out the ones that are places at a higher price on account of their trendy looks and overall appeal of style and splendor. BENEFIT SEGMENTATION |User Characteristic |Invalid oral health consumer |Involved oral health Consumer |Uninvolved Oral Health Consumer| | |Therapeutic Brushers |Cosmetic Brushers |Non-chalant Brushers | |Product Differentiater |Search functionally superior |Search for product that |Views products as same Lack of | | |product with many attributes. effectively delivers cosmetic |interest | | | |benefits | | |Advertising appeal |Put off by hardsell Prefers |Influenced by promotion, |Relatively unaware of ads can | | |dentist recommendation or |hammering on a USP |at most be influenced by price | | |in formed opinion | |offs, package deals | |Buying behaviour |Buys for himself, will go to a |Buys and uses for himself. |Buys for family. , will pick up| | |specialised store |Will not go beyond a large |any brand available. | | | |shop, supermarket | | |Regularity of usage |Brushes after every meal |Brushes mostly once, sometimes |At most once a day | | | |twice | | |Brand loyalty High |Low |Nil | |Price (Willing to pay) |>20 |15-20 | Rs. 20 |3. 0 |25. 0 |7. 5 | |ASCRIBED TO | | | | |No specific reason |59. 4 |33. 3 |50. 0 | |word of mouth |15. 6 |16. 7 |19. 1 | |impressed with advt. |9. 3 |20. |11. 9 | |shopkeeper insisted |15. 6 |20. 8 |14. 3 | |dentists advice |6. 3 |8. 3 |4. 8 | |REPLACEMENT FREQUENCY | | | | |0-1 MONTHS |23. 5 |12. 5 |17. 4 | |1-2 MONTHS |26. 5 |29. |28. 3 | |2-3 MONTHS |23. 5 |29. 2 |30. 4 | |3-4 MONTHS |23. 5 |16. 7 |19. 6 | |> 4 MONTHS |2. 9 |16. 7 |4. 3 | |FREQ. OF BRUSHING | | | | |Once (per day) |50. 0 |28. |46. 7 | |Twice |44. 2 |68. 0 |46. 8 | |after eve ry meal |2. 9 |4. 0 |2. 2 | |Not very particular |2. 9 |0. 0 |2. 2 | |pressed with Advertisement | | | | |YES |11. 1 |22. 2 |12. | |NO |88. 9 |78. 0 |87. 1 | RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF ATTRIBUTES | |MALES |FEMALES |TOTAL |RANK | |PRICE |62. 7 |57. 3 |61. 2 |5 | |PACKAGING |40. 2 |49. 3 |44. 6 |8 | |DURABILITY |74. 5 |74. 7 |75. |2 | |LONG HANDLE |51. 9 |60. 0 |57. 0 |6 | |FLEXIBLE NECK |52. 9 |60. 0 |57. 1 |6 | |COMFY. ANGLE |68. 6 |78. 7 |73. 7 |3 | |SOFT BRISTLES |78. 4 |86. 7 |82. 9 |1 | |LOOKS |46. 1 |40. 0 |44. 9 | |DIAMOND HEAD |36. 3 |41. 3 |38. 9 |10 | |GRIP |58. 8 |68. 0 |63. 4 |4 | |INDICATOR |28. 4 |41. 3 |34. 3 |11 | COLGATE PLUS USERS RESPONSE | |Males |Females |Total | | |v. Good | |COLGATE PLUS |30. 96 | |CIBACA |14. 28 | |ORAL-B |16. 66 | |CLOSE-UP |9. 52 | |PEPSODENT POPULAR |7. 14 | |JORDAN |9. 2 | |OTHERS |11. 90 | BRAND RECALL |BRANDS |PERCENTAGE | |COLGATE PLUS |20. 47 | |PEPSODENT POPULAR |11. 02 | |CIBACA |10. 4 | |ORAL-B |9. 54 | |AQUA-FRESH |7. 59 | |AJANTA |7. 09 | |OTHERS |28. 35 | Only about 5% of the respondents could not remember which toothbrush they were presently using which were excluded from the above computing. RETAILER’S SURVEY FEATURES |No. f Respondents |: |20 | |Areas covered |: |Defence Colony, South Avenue, Khan Market, North Campus, Sarojini| | | |Nagar | |Nature of survey |: |Structured Questionnaire | |Objective |: |a) To gather the respond to new entrants vis-a-vis Colgate Plus | | | |as perceived by retailers. | | | |B) Retailers favorite brand(s) | | | |Margins offered | |Limitations |: |Given the areas covered, the response was bound to be asked in | | | |favour of the upper class users. | F INDINGS |A. Availability | | | |Easy |: |Classic, Aqua-Fresh, Oral-B, Pepsodent, Colgate Plus | |Not Easy |: |Royal, Forhans, Cibaca, Jordan, Prudent. | |B. Sales | | | |High |: |Colgate Plus, Cibaca, Classic, Pepsodent, Oral-B | |Satisfactory |: |Close-up, Ajanta, Ajay, Jordan, Aqua-Fresh | |C. Profit Margins | | | |Highest |: |Classic, Royal | |High |: |Jordan | |Medium |: |Oral-B, Aqua-Fresh, Reach, Cibaca | |Low |: |Colgate Plus, Pepsodent, Close-up | * Highest Margin : 35-40%Lowest Margin – 10-15% N. B. Colgate Plus features in the lowest level of margin and yet commands the highest market share. The low margin was however denied by the Sales Office of Colgate-Palmolive at Delhi, who claimed to offer equal to that of the industry standards. Colgate Plus was not backed up by any appraisal system whatsoever. Supply is kept regular on weekly basis. D. Retailer’s Perception Of Preferences |BY BRAND NAME |36. % | |CHEAP BRUSH |9. 3% | |SPECIFY PRICE RANGE |15. 9% | |EXPENSIVE |21. 5% | |TRY NEW ONESE |16. 8 | E. Retails insisted on â€Å"Pushing† Classic as it was moderately priced and yet offered a very good margin. * The â€Å"D† above was also substantiated by our consumer survey. CONCLUSION The present day brushing habits of the Indian society as a whole leaves a lot to be desired – 41 toothbrushes are sold for every 100 persons per year! Total units sold add u to a little over 400 million, growing at the rate of 10% p. a in volume terms and 25% in value terms (difference explained by the shift to upper end of the market). This implies not much inroad has been made into the rural and semi-urban market. Non-users constitute about 65% of total population. While the global brands try to create new markets and add new dimensions, there is much greater latent demand. Out of their stable of marketing strategies, advertising till now had been low priority for the players (this was confirmed in our survey as 88. % of respondents don’t recall the ads). This indicates companies find it formidable to change the low involvement level psyche of consumers and the route of aggressive sales promotion by way of price offs, POP displays, tied sales and generous trade margin s still hold the key to increasing off take of toothbrushes. No one has made a serious attempt in the virgin territory of 65% non-users (CP’s Rural Van Programme is a recent drive). The thought of doing a Nirma to the toothbrush market has escaped everyone. Despite packaging constituting a substantial (upto 40%) of the cost of a toothbrush it has found to have influenced the purchasing decisions of the buyers. In our survey consumers corroborated to this effect (refer to the survey findings). Companies could rethink their strategy of increasing differentiability by packaging and instead invest in product development for the same. SUGGESTIONS Some possible product improvisations Attached straight tongue cleaner cased in the toothbrush handle. Cartoons character printed on the handle to attract kids. Padding on the handle end to massage the gums. Casing the toothbrush (for kids) in a toy form. Neck with adjustable handle. Get a certificate by the Indian Dental Association (IDA) for the toothbrush, like the Colgate Calciguard Toothpaste. Segregate the toothbrush types for different age groups, e. g. , Children – Thicker handle for better grip, bright colours and cartoons printed on the handle. Young People of Teenager – more trendy colours and designs, like stripes or polka dotted, more vibrant colours. Adults – Simple designs and sober and decent colours. For the new entrant Introduce the product with the offer of one free toothbrush with the purchase of a brush which will help in blocking and prepointing the purchase of the buyer. As the target segment is the premium segment therefore, premium pricing of the product is necessary. Price the product at Rs. 251 -* or at Rs. 301- and not at Rs. 361 or Rs. 221- because the shopkeepers face a problem in returning small changes of Rs. 31 or Rs. 31- and Rs. 1 so they sometimes avoid the product as confessed by the shopkeeper. Add value to the product by giving tips on taking good oral care, in the back side of the package or a free pamphlet with the purchase of a brush, like brushing twice a day, flossing, polishing , regular dental check-up by your dentist, this shows a caring and concerned attitude by the company. With the purchase of a toothbrush, give a free coupons which is to be filled in by the consumer and can be used by him or her for getting a free dental check-up as when and where specified in the advertisement in the newspaper. This kind of scheme can be implemented by the company once in two three months. However, these suggestions can be used by the big players in the market or the new entrant, who has to be a big player because a large investment is needed for such heavy sales promotion and also an attempt should be made to convert this low involvement product into a high involvement as it is concerned with personal card and hygiene and a product of daily use. CONSUMER QUESTIONNAIRE 1. AGE : ( 15-30 Years ( 30-40 Years ( 40-50 years (Above 50 years 2. SEX : ( Male ( Female 3. OCCUPATION : ( Govt. Service( Self-employed ( Corporate Executive ( Student ( Others (specify __________________) 4. MARITAL STATUS 🙠 Single ( Married with children ( Married without children 5. AVERAGE MONTHLY INCOME/ALLOWANCE ( Rs. 20000 6. Which toothbrush do you generally use? 7. Name any other five toothbrushes that you can recall 12345 8. Who purchases your toothbrush? ( Myself( A family member( A Subordinate 9. Do you ask for a toothbrush by name? ( Yes ( No 10. How much are you ready to spend on a toothbrush? ( Rs. 5-10( Rs. 10-15( Rs. 15-20( > Rs. 20 11. What prompted you to purchase your current toothbrush? ( Dentist’s advice ( Impressed with the advertisement ( Shopkeeper gave it to me ( A well-wisher recommended it to me ( Just bought it no specific reason. 12. How often do you replace your toothbrush? (0-1 month( 1-2 months( 2-3 months( 3-4 months ( > 4 months 13. How often do you brush your teeth a day? ( Once ( Twice ( After every meal( Not particular 14. What according to you are the relative importances of the following? | |V. Imp |Imp. |Not so Imp. Doesn’t matter | |PRICE | | | | | |PACKAGING | | | | | |DURABILITY | | | | | |FLEXIBLE NECK | | | | | |COMFORTABLE ANGLE | | | | | |SOFTNESS OF BRISTLES | | | | | |LOOKS (TRANSPARENT HANDLE ETC. ) | | | | | |DIAMOND HEAD | | | | | |GRIP | | | | | |INDICATOR | | | | | 15. Has any toothbrush ad (seen on TV/in a magazine) made an impact on you? |YES |NO |IF YES, THEN WHY | |ORAL-B | | | | |AQUA FRESH | | | | |ROYAL | | | | |COLGATE PLUS | | | | 16. Kindly answer the following in case you have used Colgate Plus/Aqua Fresh toothbrushes: | |AQUA FRESH |COLGATE PLUS | |QUALITY |*V. GOOD * GOOD |* V. GOOD * GOOD | | |* MODERATE |* MODERATE | | |* NO GOOD |* NO GOOD | |AVAILABILITY |* EASY * NOT SO EASY * DIFFICULT |* EASY * NOT SO EASY * DIFFICULT | |IF IT WORTH THE PRICE |* YES *NO |* YES * NO | | |* CAN’T SAY |*CAN’T SAY | |IF THE BRAND IS NOT AVAILABLE, THEN I |* WILL WAIT |* WILL WAIT | | |* WILL NOT WAIT |* WILL NOT WAIT | THANK YOU FOR SPARING YOUR VALUABLE TIME!! RETAILER QUESTIONNAIRE 1. Location of the store : 2. Selling toothbrushes since 3. Brands stocked ( Colgate Plus( Cibaca Supreme( Aqua Fresh ( Jordan( Oral-B( Royal ( Pepsodent( Promise( Ajay ( Ajanta( Classic 4. Which are the top three toothbrushes in terms of exist sales? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. In case not covered above. What is the status of: 1. Aquafresh( Good( Picking up Moderate( Poor 2. Colgate Plus( Good( Picking up Moderate( Poor 6. How do consumers ask for a tooth brush? (Rank them) (a) Ask by brand name(b) Ask for a cheap brush (c) Specify a price range(d) Go for an expensive brush (e) Keep trying newer ones 7. Which of these two companies make it a point to: (a) Get a regular feedback Aquafresh( Yes( No Colgate Plus( Yes( No (b) Maintain regular supply Aquafresh( Yes( No Colgate Plus( Yes( No 8. Rank your profit margin for the following brands: 1. Cibaca Supreme2. Colgate Plus 3. Oral-B4. Aqua Fresh 5. Classic 6. Ajanta 7. Pepsodent 8. Jordan 9. What is your a) Highest Margin b) Lowest Margin 10. If the consumer does not ask for a specific toothbrush then which one would you offer him? Why? BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Business Today Library 2. A&M Issues of June ‘05, June ‘05, April ‘2006 3. CII Library 4. FORE Library 5. Kotler Philip (Principles of Marketing) 6. Kotler, Philip (Marketing Management). ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my sincere thanks to Prof. N. S. Uppal for entrusting me with a challenging project and along with it, his help and encouragement has been exemplary. I wish to place my sincere gratitude to the officials of concerned organization and libraries who in spite of their busy schedule always spared their time whenever needed. ———————– [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic]

A Tragic Hero in Aristotle Definition Essay

The word tragedy is when an event ends in misfortune. However, when the word tragedy is put in context within a play or a story it is a story circling around a protagonist who is of high power and stature. A tragedy is usually the development of a protagonist whose in conflict with a more superior force; the superior forces that the protagonist could be faced with is his destiny, free will and the Gods that rule over them. The end of a tragedy is usually the protagonist whose in a state of deterioration in which he loses everything. A tragic hero is meant to define his fate by himself, usually by actions that he inflicts on himself which then lead him to wreck his own life. Aristotle is considered as one of the many ancient influential philosophers there is and therefore his view of Oedipus being an ideal tragic hero is considered as highly powerful in the world of literature. Aristotle defines tragedy as the conflict between humans being good yet being defeated by reality as their actions done with good intentions can actually bring back outcomes that were not initially wanted. In the play Oedipus by Sophocles, Oedipus is classed as a classic tragic hero by Aristotle for many of the characteristics he possesses. According to Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero; the tragic hero has to be realistic, true to life, consistent and true to themselves, consistent within the context of the narrative and has to make errors of judgement throughout the play but the results of what has been done should be the opposite of what was initially intended. A tragic hero should be able to arouse feelings of pity and fear; this is because, the feeling of pity is aroused by our deep sympathy for someone whose life is falling out of place whereas that person is neither too good nor too evil to have deserved such a misfortune, and the feeling of fear is aroused by the sheer horror that such a tragedy can fall upon anyone regardless of their stature. According to Aristotle’s definition Oedipus is a tragic hero because he is a man of great power and influence over the city he rules and his life begins to deteriorate in front of everyone’s eyes as he goes on a quest to find out who he is. Aristotle says that a tragic hero must be the one to cause their own downfall in which Oedipus persistently decides to carry on asking questions about his origins. Also, the tragic hero’s fate is not deserved and his punishment exceeds his wrongdoings and  that a tragic hero must be someone important and influential and he must be someo ne who makes an error of judgement. This error of judgement is seen when Oedipus forces Tiresias in anger to answer his questions of who his parents are, â€Å"Who? Wait; who are my parents?†, it is Oedipus’s own mistake in forcing answers in which he does not wish to hear or know.

Homeland Security #5 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Homeland Security #5 - Essay Example Lastly, we will have in place a team, specially picked to tackle cyber security issues. Such a team will collaborate with other teams so as to ensure that there is proper information sharing among various levels. A team of fire personnel will have the responsibility of accessing and reporting buildings and areas containing hazardous materials. Besides, they will undertake the detection of weapons of mass destruction, observing and detecting symptoms of exposure. They will also do evaluation of physical integrity of buildings (Gartenstein-Ross & Kyle). The team of police officers will be responsible for development of community policing philosophy and training of officers to support these efforts, analysis of terror issues, and development of partnerships with other external bodies to enhance security and the collaboration with the department of homeland security (Docobo). The mayors will be the ones to take command of any incident reported via 911, coordinate the warning or evacuation of affected areas, assessment of the situation and putting out any request for help to the state and federal agencies (Federal Emergency Management Agency 23). They will also ensure that local agencies are harnessed to coordinate the rescue efforts. Health workers will have the responsibility of monitoring various aspects of health of a given area, diagnosing and investigating any health or environmental health issues and educating and empowering people on specific health issues. They will also ensure that the state and local partnerships are mobilized to identify and solve issues before, during and after the event. The monitoring phase will be preceded by emergency planning. This will help in ensuring that each team is aware of their responsibility in the event of an emergency. The teams should also be prepared to perform their functions and this will necessitate a range of training activities (Gartenstein-Ross & Kyle) so as to give them the required

Project Management 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Project Management 2 - Essay Example When cell phones go off due to battery issues, important lines of communication are broken, which, in turn influences our economy negatively. The human charger will not only mitigate but also eliminate the problem. In addition, the human charger will be cheaper as the only requirement for its operation is the body of a human being. The second project I will bring to the fore is the flying car. Many a times, a lot of time is wasted in unending traffic jams that would rather have been used more creatively to build the economy. The flying car will revolutionize air travel by saving on costs for traveling by planes. The third project that I would wish to bring to the front line and ensure its growth and implementation is the intelligent window. The intelligent window employs an electrical glaze on windows that can be converted into heat energy to warm houses during the winter season. This revolutionary project will help save on the sumptuous sums of money spent on warming homes during the winter season. Additionally, the glazing darkens significantly during the summer to reduce the amount of heat getting into houses. My fourth project that I would like to see prosper is the eye tracking system pioneered in Sweden. The eye tracking system lets users control computers using only their eyes. This system makes the computer mouse a redundant tool to use when it comes to controlling computers. In addition, it makes it easy for someone to control a computer without physically having to move which saves on time. In conclusion, all the projects I wish to actualize are workable and achievable if succinct measures are taken in their execution. These projects, once executed, will make work much hassle-free for humans thus ensuring that time is expended on other more important

OnTyme - professional personnel engaged in medicine, technical support Research Proposal

OnTyme - professional personnel engaged in medicine, technical support services or emergency services - Research Proposal Example To succeed, it needs to attract and retain a growing base of satisfied customers. Marketing is the tool to bring in customers to a business and has two important principles. All company policies and activities should be tailored towards customer needs and profitable sales volume is more important than maximum sales volume. An appropriate marketing plan will aim at trying to get visibility for its existing brand of "OnTyme" watches as well as the new teenage brand of watches named "Wotch" it. It is common knowledge that no one product will satisfy all kinds of consumers. Therefore, information about the market is invaluable and timely relevant information needs to be obtained. It is impossible to sell products or services that customers do not want. Learning what customers want, and how to present it attractively, drives the need for marketing research. Market research will also demonstrate trends that may show the necessity to enhance an existing product or create a new one. Demographics, Population shifts, legislation passed, and the economic conditions of a market often determine the purchasing power of the buyer in the market place. Market research may also be employed to ascertain the value of a competitor's product and its associated value so that a comparative perceived value could be created for "OnTyme"s product as well. Most business owners ... Analyzing returned items, asking former customers for their feedback, and looking at competitor's prices are all examples of such research. Formal marketing research provides a framework to organize market information. Conducting survey of a sample population to determine their views on the "OnTyme" and competitor brands, Collecting primary data through mail surveys and email questionnaires Personal surveys in high traffic areas like malls, supermarkets etc Probability sampling that identifies who will be interested in purchase of wristwatches, the teen targeted "wotch" brand and the watch with the built in pager based on age, income and gender preferences. Identifying the target segment The target segment for the "OnTyme" might be adults purchasing a watch for their own use, buying it as a gift for someone else, for the "Wotch It" it would be the teenagers and youth, or adults purchasing it for the younger group as a gift. The watch with the built in pager may look at a different segment that is employed and needs to be on call and reachable at all times or parents of teenagers and youth, because the teenagers are now locatable, thanks to their pagers and is a great relief for the adults. Marketing Strategy Once a wider customer base is identified, "OnTyme" needs to formulate a marketing strategy to serve its customers better and align the product to the identified needs of the customer. Ideally, the strategy should address niche needs of the customer especially if there are gaps that need to be filled. This would ensure potential profitability. A good strategy helps a business focus on the target markets it can serve best. Target Marketing Target Marketing helps the concentration of the efforts in the key market

Air and Water Pollution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Air and Water Pollution - Essay Example For example, carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, sulfur oxide etc are some of the primary pollutants whereas ozone, sulfuric acid etc are some of the secondary pollutants. Pollutants which cause direct damages to air and water are called primary pollutants whereas pollutants which act through other objects are called secondary pollutants. This paper analyses the action of pollutants on air and water, taking two air pollutants and two water pollutants as examples. Air Pollutants Carbon monoxide gas emitted by automobiles is one of the major primary air pollutants. In fact automobiles account for more than 60% of the carbon monoxide production. Oxygen is required for the burning of any objects. If the burning or combustion process faces shortage of oxygen, carbon monoxide will be formed. Automobiles emit carbon monoxide because of the problems in the fossil fuel combustion process or the shortage of oxygen inside the engines. It is a serious poison gas which can kill living things qui ckly if inhaled high concentration of it. When Carbon Monoxide is inhaled, the CO combines with the hemoglobin to form carboxyhemoglobin (COHb). CO displaces oxygen attached to the carrier molecule, hemoglobin. The COHb bond is over 200 times stronger than oxygen's bond with hemoglobin. The strong COHb bond makes it difficult for the body to eliminate CO from the blood (Indoor Air Quality --- Carbon monoxide (CO), n. d) â€Å"Visual impairment, reduced work capacity, reduced manual dexterity, poor learning ability and difficulty in performing complex tasks etc are some other health problems associated with exposure to carbon monoxide†( Carbon monoxide, n. d). Carbon monoxide is present in the lower atmospheric layers only because of its short life. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom and it is not a stable gas. It quickly accepts one oxygen atom from its neighborhood and converts itself into carbon dioxide which is a stable gas. Ozone (O3) is one o f the major secondary air pollutants. In fact ozone layer in the atmosphere protects us from the harmful UV radiations emitted by sun. Ozone normally presents in two layers of atmosphere; one near the ground level and the other high up in the atmosphere. Even though, ozone layer high up in the atmosphere acts as a protective shield for us, the ground level presence of ozone causes major health problems to us. Ground level Ozone is produced when some substances undergoes chemical reaction in the presence of sun light. The destructive ability of ground level ozone cannot be predicted since ozone has the ability to travel longer distances. â€Å"Short-term exposure to ozone peaks can temporarily affect the lungs, the respiratory tract, and the eyes. It can also increase the susceptibility to inhaledallergens. Long-term exposure to relatively low concentrations of ozone can reduce lung function† (Scientific Facts on Air Pollution Ozone, 2011) Water Pollutants Sewage is one of the major primary pollutants of water. Sewage normally consists of organic matters including solid and liquid particles. It normally consists of industrial waste, human and animal wastes etc. It encourages the growth of microorganisms which can raise severe health threats to both marine life and land life because of its abilities to cause and spread different kinds of diseases. Sewage decomposes using the dissolved oxygen content in the water. When more solid particles present in

Cultural studies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Cultural studies - Essay Example Saddam’s death also brought to the fore the long and protracted problem that is the US-Iraq war, now fast losing popularity because of the failure of the Bush administration to locate weapons of mass destruction. These weapons they claimed, are the reason they launched an attack against Saddam a few years ago. But most importantly, the death sentence should provoke reflections on fundamental conceptual differences between peoples. We in the West take human rights for granted; we believe these are cherished ideals to be fought for, as they are the foundation of a robust democracy. On the other hand, in Islamic countries, libertarian values may not be as important. Order and religion is primordial, and individual rights must bend in favor of the stability of the State. We ask, which paradigm is more correct? But perhaps the more crucial question to ask is: who is to say which paradigm is the more correct? In a sense, the quotation â€Å"One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter† does not necessarily have to refer to a particular man. In its broad sense, it refers to divergent paradigms and disparate value systems, and to take it one step further, the tragedy that is wrought when these systems collide. This paper will discuss the conflict between Western perspective and Eastern perspective with regard to the crucial issue of human rights. Indeed, we have been quick to label those who advocate measures that to our minds are repressive, as dictators or terrorists or right wing conservatives, when in fact, they are merely acting in accordance with the cultural norms of their community. The converse of that, of course, is that far too many leaders justify brazen acts of oppression and injustice as a cultural norm and should thus fall outside the scrutiny of the international community. How indeed does one balance these competing interests? The concept

Letter to the editor Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Letter to the editor - Assignment Example And here is how professor’s lottery suggestion is both unrealistic and unsystematic. Professor’s Karabel’s suggestion is, indeed, self-undermining. How, given a lottery program applied randomly to students who have shown academic merit, should such a program guarantee all underprivileged students are represented? Put differently, professor’s Karabel’s suggestion is meant to erase underlying biases in admission process at selective colleges. Thanks to good intentions. Yet, how could all – at least in theory – underprivileged applicants be represented based on a randomized selection? I do believe admission into colleges, selective or not, should by no means be left to chance and lottery. Why should a student be admitted into her college of choice because she has been, well, lucky enough in a lottery withdrawal, whereas another student who has achieved a similar academic merit be denied admission? This is not even constitutional! In his very own words, professor Karabel himself seems unsure of what such a lottery program might lead to: â€Å"Such a lottery would permit the college to determine whether its traditional selection criteria did any better than chance in predicting success in school and in later life; my own guess is that lottery admits would be amply — perhaps equally — represented among the institution’s most distinguished graduates.† True, our current system of admission at colleges and universities is one, as qualified by professor Karabel, that is skewed. However, undermining a faulty system that tends to enhance – rather than erase – existing hierarchies of privilege in our educational system cannot be achieved by a replace which is subject to guessing and uncertain outcomes. After all, how could a collegiate lottery program based on a randomized selection guarantee all underprivileged applicants are adequately represented? That is, how could, say, students of

Geography writing assignment Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Geography writing assignment - Research Paper Example Series of Quakes Rattles South West China, Killing at least 64† (McDonald) examined multiple occurrences of quakes and aftershocks within a 5.6 magnitude strength causing more damage to property, displacing 100,000 people and killing at least 64 civilians. In the month before that, the Reuters news agency reported â€Å"Two Earthquakes in Iran Kill 300 and injure 5,000† near the towns of Ahar, Varzaghan and Harees. (Torbati) Earthquakes are naturally occurring phenomena that are beyond human control. People can however initiate early warning systems to help them escape the rather deadly effects of the earthquakes. Faulting and earthquake effects that must be taken into consideration during planning and in design for the restitution of the coastal lands around the world are always overlooked. This should always include the construction as well as the maintenance of the coastal infrastructure. The continued shifting and adjustment of the plates has a dramatic effect on the landscape. These range from the development of large depressions on the surface caused by the subsidence and tilting of the land surfaces due to down throwing of adjacent fault blocks. The effects of all these are experienced both in the human-economic spheres as well as on the physical landscape. The huge geographical components of the Asian-Pacific region has worst cases of natural hazards occasioned by frequent earthquakes, eruptions, and yearly monsoons due to its relative position on the ‘Pacific ring of fire.’ Moreover, the region harbors the highest number of mega-cities with more than over 8million populace exposed to the effects of natural hazards. Foregoing research further suggests that developing countries are highly exposed to risks of natural disasters as opposed to developed nations. At the same time, the high number of natural disasters experienced along the Asian-Pacific region is largely attributed to urbanization, increased population pressure on natural resources and the

Happening Truth Essay Example for Free

Happening Truth Essay I was wearing white, sparkly Skechers and those pants that swoosh together every time you take a step. Fourth grade was a tough year as my class moved to Proctor Elementary school and hit my awkward stage. I was taller than all my friends and my chubby cheeks overwhelmed my face. My self confidence was very low being fairly heavy for my age, I felt as if I had not excelled at anything so far. Gym class was my least favorite class because I was slower than most of the class and the year started with a dreaded test. Sit-ups, push-ups, pull-ups, and the timed mile were in my very near future. After I made it through that week we played games and I most significantly remember playing soccer hockey. After Mrs. Magner chose the teams it was up to us 10 year-olds to choose positions. I had my back turned to him when he said it. Rachel should be goalie because she is so fat! he yelled to the class. I felt my face overcome with hotness and my heart seemed to fall into my stomach. I turned to the rest of the class and looked down at the floor but still felt their eyes on my growing body. My eyes began to water but I still took my position in the net. On the bus ride home I saw people whispering about the days events and when I got off the bus I broke down. My mom tried to comfort me with compliments but I knew those were just things she had to say. School the next day was terrifying for me and when I opened my lunch the Yodels were replaced with carrots and dip. It is hard to believe that I was so affected by this event that seems ridiculous to some. I dont hold a grudge against the boy who humiliated me that day but I am actually grateful for the experience. Today I am confident in class and I enjoy going to school with my peers. I am comfortable with my body and dont feel self conscious because I know there are more important things than a simple body type. From that day I learned that others opinions should not affect your personal outlook on life. My sister is in fifth grade and is going through the same stage I experienced so I do my best to relay what I have learned so she never needs to fear school or classmates. As a high school junior, I believe I have grasped this concept by becoming involved and improving the outlook I have on myself. Self confidence is so important coming into high school and throughout life so not one person, or minute comment like the one I heard, should interfere with that.

Michael Jackson Essay Example for Free

Michael Jackson Essay The king of Pop is the person who made me look at the world with different eyes. Michael was the embodiment of goodness, innocence and purity, he gave everything he had. A sentimental man, childish and loving as you can not meet everywhere. He had curly black hair and in his dark eyes you could read the fear of being himself. He created his own style of clothing, unique, always in fashion. He was and he will always be the best singer and dancer who will ever exist. He also had many hobbies: he liked to read, to watch movies, to paint. He wanted to become a stage director, but his life was too busy. He lived at Neverland, he named the property after a magic island of the story of Peter Pan, a boy who never grows up. Michaels home contained an amusement park, a floral clock, numerous statues, a cinema and a zoo. The amusement park included a Ferris wheel, Carousel, Octopus, Pirate Ship, Wave Swinger, Super Slide, Dragon wagon, Roller Coaster. Over the years Michael has done a lot of good things, he donated money to humanitarian associations and all he got in return were insults from people who believed all the stupidities from the media. The bad things he made were that: he let himself trampled by people and he had trusted the people around him who manipulated him. Michael suffered a lot, because he was lonely and misunderstood. He loved very much children, in their presence he felt good, happy because in his soul he was still a child. I admire Michael for his boundless love, through his music he tried to convince people that they should make a change and we must save the planet together. He became one of the greatest artists of all time. Therefore I can say that I love him and I will always dance his songs with a smile.

Detailed Analysis Of Silent Hill Two Media Essay

Detailed Analysis Of Silent Hill Two Media Essay Silent Hill 2 is a 2001 survival horror/puzzle game released for the playstation 2 by Konami. It is the sequel to the first Silent Hill game released in 1999 for the original playstation. Silent Hill 2 is seen by many as landmark game, which capitalised on elements of game design previously ignored or seen as of secondary importance. It is difficult to categorise the appeal of Silent Hill 2, as at first glance its gameplay could appear primitive or certainly repetitive, while its subject matter and storyline are nothing new to the horror genre. To put it in more prosaic terms Silent Hill 2 is very much more than the sum of its parts, and this makes it a particularly interesting candidate for in depth analysis. For the greatest part of this essay I will refer to the game via the shorthand reference: SH2. Gameplay in SH2 revolves around a mixture of puzzle solving and simple combat. As the main protagonist progresses through the town of Silent Hill, he must fight various monsters using a variety of weapons. These range from a simple plank to a hunting rifle. In keeping with the survival horror nature of the game, ammunition is quite scarce as are the supplies necessary for healing, and individual enemies can take significant time and effort to kill. The player will find him/herself conserving ammunition for the stronger enemies and bosses, and thus any encounter with a monster brings with it a sense of trepidation and anxiety. Even the least powerful of the monsters becomes formidable if the players health and ammo is low, and he/she is forced to use the wooden plank. This is compounded by the fact that the enemies in SH2 are extremely resistant to damage and take a considerable time to kill outright (though they may be knocked to the ground for a temporary immobilisation). All of the se elements combine to nurture a sense of extreme reluctance to progress through the towns environs, and help create a fear of the unknown path ahead. Unfortunately the game fails to find the right balance between challenge and enjoyability with its combat. Defeating the monsters in Silent Hill is far more tedious than it is gripping. There is far too little variety in the methods of attack and too much time is required to kill each one that soon combat becomes a slow and repetitive affair of repeatedly swinging the iron bar at low powered enemies in order to conserve ammo. Furthermore once an enemy locks into combat with the player, it no longer becomes necessary to reposition the main character, resulting in gameplay requiring no more input than holding down the attack button. There is no heads up display in SH2, and the player must access the start menu to see how much ammo or health remains. When the player has taken excessive damage the playstation controller will subtly vibrate alerting him/her to the condition they are in. This merely adds to the frustrating nature of the combat in SH2, as no clear indication of how much damage can be taken against an enemy is ever given. This results in the player frequently dying while fighting the numerous minor enemies, even with plenty of health packs in reserve. Attacks given and received in combat are accompanied by a vibration of the controller which masks the warning vibrations when close to death and further jeopardises health management. This is a grave shortcoming which detracts from the rather well designed puzzle element of SH2. Puzzles range from fairly untaxing instances of collecting and combining items to extremely cryptic riddles requiring a good deal of thought to solve. The riddles show imagination in their intricacy and leave the player with a sense of achievement for having solved them. Unfortunately instances of these riddles are far less frequent than the occurrence of monsters in silent hill. SH2 is the story of James Sunderland, a man looking for his deceased wife after receiving a letter from her which says that she is waiting for him in the town of Silent Hill, a place where they used to holiday when she was alive. James wife was named Mary, and he begins the game with a photograph of her along with the letter signed by her in his inventory. The game begins with James having driven to Silent Hill only to find the entrance road blocked. He stops at a highway toilet , examines his own reflection in the bathroom mirror, reads the letter from his wife again and decides to enter the town on foot. James commences walking through the woods. The games atmosphere is established early on by thick fog and strange disconcerting noises as he makes his way. James eventually comes upon a graveyard and we are introduced to the games first non-playable character: Angela. As James finds her she is sitting among the tombstones. The conversation between the two seems disjointed. This sets the tone for the dialogue in the game. Much of what Angela says makes little sense, James asks her questions but she seems incapable of giving him a straight answer, as though her thoughts are not fully in the present. We gather enough from what she says to learn that she is looking for her mama in Silent Hill. At a later point in the game we learn that Angela had an abusive childhood and that this has left her with a desire to end her own life. Her father was killed (it seems likely by Angela), and the family home burned down. James proceeds to enter the town proper. Everything is covered in a thick fog. The town looks for the most part normal except that it is utterly deserted and the cars, signage, and architecture have an outdated feel. We soon meet our first enemy- a non descript grotesque humanoid shape which James dispatches with the aid of a wooden plank. Soon James finds himself in an apartment building. The building is in an appalling state of repair, displaying many signs of decay with walls stained horribly with rust, mildew and blood. Here we meet our second character, Eddie. The room we find Eddie in does not display such advanced decay. Eddie is in the process of vomiting into the toilet when we meet him, and the body of a human can be seen in the kitchen unit. This is not overly remarkable in light of the monsters roaming the apartment, but Eddie is instantly defensive in his conversation with James, and his frequent uncalled for denials that he murdered the man in the kitchen lead us to suspect that he in fact did. It is noteworthy that Eddie never mentions the monsters, which would conveniently explain the body. Eddie appears to be a man of limited intelligence- coarse, with a cruel side to his nature. When James finds his way out of the apartment he discovers a little girl named Laura wandering the streets by herself. Laura tells James that she shared a ward with Mary in the hospital during Marys illness. This strikes James as highly suspect, Mary was supposed to have died three years ago, when Laura would have been very young indeed. He tries to question Laura on the matter but just like the previous conversations with Angela and Eddie, it bears little fruit. James continues on towards Rosewater Park, one of the places which would fit Marys description of a special place from her letter. Instead of Mary James meets a woman who calls herself Maria. James is astounded at Marias appearance, as she looks almost identical to his dead wife Mary. Their personalities are less similar however; Mary is extraverted and bawdy whereas Mary was reserved and ladylike. Maria is dressed in a suggestively low cut outfit with a mini skirt and an incident later on in Heavens Night strip club infers that she works as a stripper. Maria says she doesnt know Mary and takes James confusing of the two women badly. It is significant that James should meet Maria in the place he expected Mary, not to mention the similarities in appearance. Maria resolves to join James in his search for Mary. After an episode in the hospital Maria is violently killed on front of James by a sinister pyramid headed monster which is seemingly impervious to attack. Later on he finds her i nexplicably alive and well before she is again killed on front of him. This pattern repeats itself three times in the game, as James is forced to witness his dead wifes doppelganger murdered in front of him. James receives no explanation for this, or the manner in which Maria seems to share memories of Mary with James; and though she becomes angry when James confuses the two women, it seems that even she confuses herself with Mary. James surmises that Marys special place must be the hotel by the lake and makes his way there. He encounters Laura and Eddie at various times but their conversations reveal little apart from the extent of their mutual confusion. In a prison on the way to the Hotel James meets Eddie in a room full of recently murdered human corpses. This is strange as Silent Hill appears to have been deserted for some time. Eddie has lost his mind, and starts talking about having to kill people for making fun of him. Eddie becomes convinced James is just like all the rest and tries to kill James but fails, losing his own life in the process. James finally reaches the Hotel. A look in the games inventory screen reveals that Marys note has gone blank. This raises the question of whether or not it ever existed. James reaches the room where he and Mary stayed. The room is in perfect condition and is empty apart from a vcr and a television. James inserts a video he found elsewhere in the Hotel and watches in horror at footage of himself putting a pillow over Marys face in her hospital bed. It finally becomes clear- James killed Mary. He sits with his head bowed for some time until Laura enters. We wonder how she made it into the hotel past all of the monsters and traps. James tells Laura he killed Mary. At this point the player realises the origin of James confusion. Mary was dying and James killed her and subsequently blocked out the memory. Now the chronology of the game makes more sense; Mary didnt die but merely got sick three years ago and James killed her much more recently. This explains how Laura had met her not long ago. It transpires that Marys illness badly affected her appearance and demeanour, causing her to lash out at James. This goes some way to explaining why James did what he did. Just before the final boss James again meets Angela. She is consumed by despair and James can do nothing to dissuade her from suicide. James is forced to witness the death of Maria at the hands of pyramid head one last time before proceeding to the roof of the Hotel where an evil incarnation of either Mary or Maria (depending on the players actions during the game) awaits. There are four endings to SH2: 1: In the Leave ending, the woman on the roof is Maria yet again, disguised as Mary in an attempt to trick James. James refuses her and Maria transforms into a monster. After James defeats this Boss Maria, he finds himself by Marys bedside once again. He explains to Mary that he killed her to end her suffering but also selfishly to end his own difficulty in having to care for her. He reads Marys letter in full and then leaves the town with Laura. 2: The in water ending is the same as above except instead of leaving with Laura we hear the sounds of James car driving into a lake. We surmise that he could not live without Mary and chose to drown himself. Marys letter scrolls across a screen with a watery background. 3: In the Maria ending James is reunited with Maria after the fight and the pair leave town together. As he helps her into his car she begins coughing. It seems likely that Maria will fall ill just like Mary did. It could be construed as a punishment for James, or perhaps even a chance of salvation if he sees Marias illness to the end, the way he never did for Mary. 4: The rebirth ending, which can only be unlocked during a replay sees James killing boss Maria, and then taking Marys body out to an island in Toluca Lake via boat. It appears as though he intends to resurrect Mary using various talismans he found in game at the church on the island. SH2, with its multiple endings and abundant ambiguity has no single reading or interpretation. Just as James discovers his own true past after watching the video the player must assemble his/her own definitive narrative based on the events they have witnessed. Many of the events negate each other, or have causes and consequences which are mutually exclusive. These include Marys note which disappears partway through the game, or Marias frequent resurrections. It becomes apparent after some reflection that if SH2 provides an account of these inconsistencies it is not made explicit and its left up to the player to make sense of events. The one theme each one of the endings have in common is that someone along the line in the story, be it Maria or Mary, turns out to be a figment of James imagination. Given that each ending allows for this possibility it seems likely that much of what James has experienced in Silent Hill was a product of his own mind. This reasoning is the only way to bui ld a logical picture of the events of SH2. The best way to examine this theory is to look closer at James encounters with the other characters in the game. The characters in SH2 converse with each other in a disjointed way, as though each inhabits a separate reality which only they have access to. It appears as though the town presents a subjective reality to each person who visits it. It also makes sense to think that each characters reality can only be observed when they meet face to face. The evidence for this is quite strong when one examines how the characters interact. Eddie never once mentions the monsters that threaten James, for him Silent Hill is a place full of people who make fun of him. James never sees any of these people except lying dead in and around Eddie. The town is less dilapidated when we meet Eddie, such as in the apartment room, where sports posters adorn the wall. It is uncertain why Silent Hill drew Eddie to it but his experience there is a failure, he loses his mind and commences slaughtering everyone. His experience of Silent Hill ends when he meets a real person- James, who kills him. Angela provides an even more dramatic example. When James rescues her she is being threatened by a monster that she refers to as daddy. This scene provides a good insight into how the town manifests itself to different people. The room is full of the decor of a domestic living room, even though it occurs in an underground labyrinth. Angela apparently sees Silent Hill through the eyes of her childhood. She saw her father while all James saw was a monster. The last time James meets Angela it is in the burning hallway. This seems to be a representation of how her childhood home burned down. James remarks that its hot as hell in here, while Angela replies You see it too? For me its always like this. The fire only exists when Angela is near; when James leaves the room, the Hotel is back to its damp rotting self. The town seems perfectly normal in the presence of Laura, and this explains how an eight year old girl could run from place to place without being harassed by monsters. In the bowling alley we find Laura and Eddie together eating a pizza. This too is revealing. The silent Hill James experiences is far too old and unsanitary a place to find food in, whereas for Laura and Eddie it appears just ordinary enough to find a pizza. Now we have some idea of how the town works for different people we can make more sense of James experiences. Firstly the chances of Maria being a real person seam dubious. Unlike the other characters in the game Maria is the only one who shares James experiences and can witness the things he can. This is evidence against her existence outside of James imagination, as none of the other characters seem to have any idea what James means when he talks of monsters. Furthermore none of the other characters ever see Maria, and when she and James arrive at the bowling alley she stays outside, away from Laura and Eddie so as not to reveal her illusory nature by appearing on front of people who cannot see her. There is also the more obvious discrepancy of her many deaths and resurrections; the other characters seem much more conventional in this regard. Finally there are the comparisons between Maria and Mary. She has the same body, and appears in the same spot James expects to see Mary- all suggestive of an imaginary Maria hypotheses; a construct of James mind composed of elements of his dead wife. Pyramid head, like all the monsters in SH2, is a further construct of James imagination. He plays a role in that he forces James to face his own guilt by killing the image of his wife before his eyes again and again. James admits this to himself before the final fight with the twin pyramid heads: thats why I needed you, needed someone to punish me for my sins. Interestingly James never actually harms pyramid head during combat. All the encounters with him are survived by endurance rather than by beating him. In the end it is pyramid head that kills himself. So the definitive narrative of SH2 is thus: James, forced to care for what was left of his sick wife, decided to kill her rather than have either of them suffer any longer. Once he had killed her however, he was filled with feelings of guilt and began living in denial, telling himself and others that she had died three years ago. In fact however; he hated himself, and needed to face the truth of what he had done, and so he was drawn to the town of Silent Hill where the forces of the town led him on a journey to face himself. Aesthetically SH2 has a very unified and clear vision of itself. As an audio visual experience the different elements tie together very well and form quite a cohesive feeling game of seamless stylistic integrity. Particular attention was given to the design of the monsters which reflect the nature of James inner turmoil. Apart from pyramid head every monster in SH2 is feminine in nature. Even the indistinguishable humanoid shapes that spit acid have high pitched female voices and long legs. Some of the monster designs have sexual overtones such as the mannequins or the nurses. It seems plausible to read this as a manifestation of James relationship towards womankind since he murdered his wife. It could even be said that the form of the monsters are derived from the nature of Marys disfiguring illness. The sense of atmosphere in SH2 is superbly well crafted. To this end the designers have employed prolific use of heavy fog and darkness to create a fear of progressing forward into the unknown. This is coupled with the use of a noise grain filter that lends an organic feel to the textures and ties in with the static motif reflected in the radio. The noise filter plays tricks on the eye, making walls appear to crawl and adding to the sense of chaos and unease. Every area exhibits a very high level of detail, with various bits of rubbish, graffiti, and detritus creating a thoroughly believable, lived in, (though abandoned) town. The minimal soundtrack is no less appropriate, with Akira Yamaoka opting more for industrial or ambient soundscapes than a conventional soundtrack (although a conventional song was also composed for the game). The imagination displayed in the composition of the soundtrack is impressive. Yamaoka employed very few conventional instruments, instead creating deeply unsettling otherworldly cacophonies of banging iron, bee-hives, saws, miscellaneous improvised percussion, sirens, wild animals, and heavy machinery. It is unfortunate therefore considering the quality of SH2 as an aesthetic experience, to find it marred by the camera. SH2 uses a third person viewpoint at all times with only a miniscule degree of control afforded to the player. The game has a very cinematic attitude to camera placement and as a result the camera is tyrannical in its inflexibility. Examination of the detail in the graphics is forbidden at all times by the camera, which will change position at the drop of a hat to the other side of a room. Though the camera positions are clearly deliberately chosen to lend the game an avant-garde and cinematic veneer they succeed only in hampering movement, increasing combat difficulty and generally detracting from SH2s enjoyment on every level. In conclusion the strength of Silent Hill 2 lies in its ability to tell a compelling and intriguing story while successfully evoking a palpably uneasy atmosphere. SH2 represents an advance in the video game as form, as it redefines the areas in which a game succeeds at entertaining. By all traditional standards the gameplay is uninspired, even tedious at times, yet SH2 remains a deeply affecting and compelling experience. The attention to detail in the feel of the game, along with the subtle, mature, and ambiguous storyline create a game of tremendous artistic unity, which represents a true formal leap in video games. .

Claudius :: Ancient Rome Roman History

Claudius The emperor, Claudius, was a man with great integrity, individuality, common sense, patriotism and determination. From his struggles as a child to his death, was a remarkable journey. Many historians today and ancient Rome have placed him amongst the greats of all time. Despite his physical disabilities and background, Tiberius Claudius Nero contributed much to the greatness of the Roman Empire. Tiberius Claudius Nero is the youngest son of Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia (Daughter of Antony and Octavia), giving him royal blood. He was born on August 1st, 10BC, in the city of Comata, which is in the Region of Lugdunum (Modern Day Lyon, France). He was an unwanted child since birth. It is said that he had a sick and ugly appearance, with cerebral palsy. Yet, against the odds, he became an emperor, made many contributions to the benefit of the Roman society. According to many sources, Claudius was rejected from his own family due to his appearance; even his mother frequently mocked him. He would have been the normal choice to succeed Tiberius, had the monarchical family not thought him, unfit for the office. However, only Augustus thought Claudius as not stupid and granted Claudius a non-governmental priesthood position. Claudius was trained as a scholar, by the historian Livy and wrote several histories and literary works in Latin and Greek. (None of his work has survived, although there are inscriptions and fragments that provide some insight into his thinking). Claudius was considered a fool and kept out of public life until his insane nephew, Calligula, became emperor and appointed him as consul (alongside Calligula's horse) as a joke. After the assassination of Calligula, Claudius was found hiding in the palace, scared for his own life. The Praetorian Guards, interested in keeping their job as the Emperor's bodyguard, declared Claud ius as emperor and forced the Senate to do the same. The soldiers, courtiers, freedman and foreigners were his main followers. Nevertheless, they did not dream that Claudius would be known as one of the greats. Claudius' reign is marked with the expansion of the Roman Empire. He had great sympathy for the traditions of the old Roman Republic than previous rulers of the house of Caesar. But a futile revolt in the Senate, within a year after he became emperor, made him favour the army. In 43AD, he conquered Britain, where his troops accepted him as a god (Smith, Mahlon.

Love in The Taming of the Shrew Essay -- Taming of the Shrew Essays

Love in The Taming of the Shrew Wonder, for a moment, what Shakespeare means when he uses the word â€Å"love†, if it really does exist in any of the relationships in this play, particularly between Petruccio and Katherine. Is love not a certainty? Such winds scatters young men through the world To seek their fortunes farther than at home, Where small experience grows. But in in a few, Signor Hortensio, thus it stands with me: Antonio, my father, is deceased, And I have thrust myself into this maze Happily to wive and thriveas best I may. Crowns in my purse I have, and goods at home, And so I am come abroad to see the world. (1.2.47-55) Upon the death of his father who cared for him, he is in search of a wife so that he can live a desired lifestyle upon her fortunes. He is not desirous of love, or lust, or infatuation, b...

Essay --

When the Europeans discovered the New World, endless conflicts and issues were placed against the Indians who originally resided there. Their lands in America were taken away little by little by the settlers who were hungry for more territory. Their cultures were drastically changed and ruined because of the invading settlers who kept coming from different parts of the world. The first encounter between the Indians and Europeans was during the expedition led by the Spanish explorer, Hernando de Soto. He captured a majority of them and used them as slaves. The natives were abused and harassed because they were depicted as savages. On account of this harassment, the Europeans also brought deadly diseases that spread through the natives’ villages, decreasing Indian population. Proclamation of 1763 The French and Indian War also called the Seven Years’ War concluded with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The British victory led to the loss of land of not only the French but to the Native Americans as well. Conflicts arose between the British and the Native Americans over the fight...

Team sport refers to games or sports played

Team sports have been associated with the development of not only children but even adults. Still, some critics consider team sports as not always beneficial to children especially when â€Å"winning† is emphasized more than having fun (Hedstrom and Gould, 2004). Nevertheless, the importance of team sports in adolescent development is usually centered on the adaptive skills associated with adolescent team sport athletes.Team sport refers to games or sports played by groups of different teams, involving specific rules, to achieve a specific goal through interaction and collective effort among members of the same team.Although it also involves rules and the achievement of specific objectives, team sport is highly distinguishable from individual sports in terms of the collective effort required from its members. Unlike individual sports, team sports do not emphasize individual excellence. Examples of team sports include: soccer, basketball, football, baseball, hockey and volleyba ll. Individual sports include: tennis, swimming, boxing and martial arts (Team sport, 2006).It is important to note that different team sports are different from each other in terms of rules, which also makes each one different from another in terms of the activities involved and how winners are determined. In darts for example, the players and opponents do not necessarily have to play at the same time and at the same board (Team sport, 2006).In this game, players are not required to play simultaneously but as with all games, the score is what matters and winners are determined by the summation of scores of players of the same team. Any sport as long as it involves collective effort among team members is considered a team sport. This exact nature of team sports is believed to help in the development of its players.This paper aims to give an overview of how team sports contribute to the development of the middle school adolescent. In so doing, principles on middle school psychology a re integrated to better understand the relationship of team sports and development.The human environment, like the wild, involves so much conflict, chaos and problems which may arise by interrelationships between different factors that may or usually may not be controlled by man. But unlike the wild, whose inhabitants; main goal is basic survival, humans are equipped with reason which afforded them freedom.And with this freedom lies the responsibility and the requirement for the people to think creatively and more competitively, making survival more complex for humans. This can be seen in many different settings in man’s social environment such as the home, school and the workplace. In other words, the human environment is filled with stress and it is important for everyone to be able to handle it effectively (Sports and Teenagers: Can Parents Handle it Effectively? 2006).It is impossible for any one person not to experience stress in his entire life. Stress is natural and ub iquitous. A person, no matter how sheltered and protected he may be will experience being stressed at some point in his life.

College and Bennett Essay

Bennett, who had a Master_s degree in engineering, wanted to exploit an idea of his to combine a refrigerator, freezer, and 500-watt microwave oven into a single unit for sale to college students. Bennett was aware that many colleges had rigid policies against cooking in student dormitories because of the risk of fire posed by hot plates. According to the National Fire Protection Association, there were over 1,600 fires annually on college campuses. Bennett had devised electronic circuitry that shut off power to the refrigerator/freezer whenever the microwave oven was switched on. In this way, the unit would never pull more than 10 amps of current. By comparison, a hot plate in tandem with a refrigerator drew about 20 amps. His proposal (see illustration) was for a compact appliance weighing 87 pounds and under 4 feet in height. He approached General Electric, Amana and other domestic appliance manufacturers without success, but Samsung Electronics and Sanyo Electric were willing to discuss terms for offshore manufacture provided Bennett agreed to pay upfront for all specialized jigs, dies, and tools. Sanyo offered to supply him at a landed price of $263. 00 per unit, and estimated the upfront tooling payment at about $170,000. Bennett tentatively added a $300,000 budget to cover his first year of selling and administration, and $60,000 for incorporation, patents, and other start-up legal costs. He hoped to be able to set a price to the next level of the distribution channel that would earn him a return of 15% on the selling price, or $309 on Sanyo_s landed price. Early in his explorations, Bennett asked Boston_s Atlantic Research to conduct interviews with 200 Massachusetts college students. He found that, although most schools had rigid policies against cooking in dorm rooms, 90% of his respondents nevertheless used hot plates and other hazardous appliances. His research found that students liked the concept of the MicroFridge and would pay extra to have one. A majority (52%) said they would be _likely_ or _very likely_ to accept an increase of $75 per year in dorm rates to have the use of one, and at $50 per year the interest level was 90%. He met with college administrators at five local colleges, but initial responses were negative. One administrator feared that students would go off meal plans, and several pointed out that there was no student demand. The business manager at the University of Michigan commented, _We have not seen a group of students saying they want to have microwaves in their rooms. And that usually has to happen before we consider doing something like this. These days, we_re encouraging students to have computers. _ However, fires were a major concern to officials responsible for dormitories and, after administrators considered his data on students_ disregard for dorm rules, some attitudes softened. _You may have a good argument that a microwave can allow you some safe cooking in a student_s room,_ commented one. Bennett came away from the meetings hopeful that with the right approach he might persuade administrators to consider approving, or even adopting, his product. He wondered whether students were the market, or whether colleges would buy the units themselves, just as they bought dormitory furniture and fixtures. One administrator told him, _If we did bring in something like this, I_d be worried about buying from a new company like yours. You_ve got a refrigerator and a microwave that_s totally redesigned. You say the product life should be seven years, but this power switch has never been done before. Will this microwave last seven years or will it last three years? _ If dormitory administrators would not buy, the product seemed likely to have eye appeal and so sales through appliance retailers might be a possibility. Across the United States about 20 independent distributors sold appliances to retail stores, typically taking a margin of 15% of the price to the retailer. Retailers generally set a price to the consumer that earned them a margin of 30% on the retail price. One evening Bennett polled guests at a small Super 8 Motel at an isolated location along the Boston _ Providence freeway. Would they be willing to add $3 to their room rate to have a MicroFridge unit in the room? Most of those he spoke to said they would. Bennett sought out the advice of the general partner of a venture investing firm in Boston. The partner declined to invest. _You_ve no experience. And it_s quite different from the high-tech venture deals that we ordinarily look at. This is essentially a distributor business with inherently low margins and relatively high cash flow risks. It would require a fair amount of handholding if we got involved. Because of your lack of experience it makes a lot of sense to use only distributors and not keep house accounts [customers served directly by the manufacturer]. Any time you have house accounts you create problems with your distributors. You have enough other risks that you shouldn_t risk your distribution channels. _ Ms. Bennett, who worked as a financial manager at a major regional bank, was cool to her husband_s idea. _For this you want to give up a secure job and take on the headaches of meeting.

Summary Modigliani & Miller

L1 – Modigliani & Miller (1958) ‘The Cost of Capital, Corporation Finance and the Theory of Investment’ This article mainly discusses the cost of capital, the required return necessary to make a capital budgeting project worthwhile. Cost of capital includes the cost of debt and the cost of equity. Theorist conclude that the cost of capital to the owners of a firm is simply the rate of interest on bonds. In a world without uncertainty the rational approach would be (1) to maximize profits and (2) to maximize market value.When uncertainty arises, these statements vanish and change into a utility maximization. The goal is to get more insight in the effect of financial structure on market valuations. I. Valuation of Securities, Leverage and the Cost of Capital A. The Capitalization Rate for Uncertain Streams In the paper, M&M (1958) assume that firms can be divided into equivalent return classes such that the return on the shares issued by any firm in any given class is proportional to the return on shares issued by any other firm in the same class.This implies that various shares within the same class can differ at most by a scale factor. The significance of this assumption is that it permits us to clarify firms into groups where shares of different firms are homogeneous (perfect substitutes of each other). This again means that in equilibrium in a perfect capital market the price per dollars worth of expected return must be the same for all shares of any given class. This will result in the following formula’s: = pj = the price xj = expected return per share of the firm in class k k= expected rate of return of any share in class k 1/pk = the price which an investor has to pay for a dollars worth of expected return in the class k B. Debt Financing and its Effects on Security Prices In this case, shares will be subject to different degrees of financial risk or leverage and hence will no longer be perfect substitutes for each other. Compan ies will have different proportions of debt in their capital structure and gives a different probability distribution of returns.To exhibit the mechanism determining the relative price of shares under these conditions two assumption are made 1)all bonds yield a constant income per unit of time 2)bonds, like stocks, are trade in perfect market (perfect substitutes) Proposition 1 ‘The value of an unlevered firm is the same as the value of a levered firm’ V = value of the firm S = market value of common stock D = market value of the debts X = expected return on the assets owned by the company (cost of capital)The market value of any firm is independent of its capital structure and is given by capitalizing its expected return at the rate pk appropriate to its class. This shows that the average cost of capital to any firm is completely independent of its capital structure and is equal to the capitalisation rate of a pure equity stream of its class. Capitalization rate (or â €Å"cap rate†) is a measure of the ratio between the net operating income produced by an asset (usually real estate) and its capital cost (the original price paid to buy the asset) or alternatively its current market value.The pure equity stream is showed in the next example: If proposition 1 did not hold, an investor could buy and sell stocks and bonds in such a way as to exchange one income stream for another stream, but selling at a lower price. It would be corrected through arbitrage. Return on a levered portfolio can be written as: Y2 = return from this (levered) portfolio ? = fraction of the income available for the stockholders of the company/fraction total shares outstanding X = expected return rD2 = interest charge Return on a unlevered portfolio looks like this: 1 = fraction/amount invested in stocks S1 = total stocks outstanding To see why this should be true, suppose an investor is considering buying one of the two firms U or L. Instead of purchasing the shares of the levered firm L, he could purchase the shares of firm U and borrow the same amount of money D that firm L does. The eventual returns to either of these investments would be the same. Therefore, the price of L must be the same as the price of U minus the money borrowed D, which is the value of L's debt. Proposition 2 > re = ro + (ro – rd) x D/E = required rate of return on equity (cost of equity) pk = cost of capital for an all equity firm r = required rate of return on borrowings (i. e. , cost of debt or interest rate) D/S = debt to equity ratio That is, the expected yield of a share of stock is equal to the appropriate capitalization rate pk for a pure equity stream in the class, plus a premium related to financial risk equal to the debt-to-equity ratio time the spread between pk and r. C. Some Qualifications and Extensions of the Basic Propositions Effects of Present Method of Taxing CorporationsProposition 1 becomes (with taxes): ? = average rate of corporate income t ax ? = expected net income accruing to the common stock holder Proposition 2 becomes (with taxes): pk can no longer be indentified with the average cost of capital when taxes come into play. Yet, to simplify things the writers will still do this. Effects of a Plurality of Bonds and Interest Rates Economic theory and market experience both suggest that the yields demanded by lenders tend to increase with the debt-equity ratio of the borrowing firm (or individual).The increased cost of borrowed funds as leverage increases will tend to be offset by a corresponding reduction in the yield of common stock. Proposition 1 remains unaffected as long as the yield curve is the same for all borrowers. However, the relation between common stock yields and leverage will no longer be the strictly linear one given by the original Proposition 2. If r increases with leverage, the yield i will still tend to rise as D/S increases, but at a decreasing rather than a constant rate. Yield curve: D. The Rel ation of Propositions 1 en 2 to Current Doctrines.Proposition 1 asserts that the average cost of capital is a constant for all firms j in class k, independently of their financial structure. II. Implications of the Analysis for the Theory of Investments A. Capital Structure and Investment Policy Proposition 3 (Proposition 4 in lecture slides): A firm will exploit investment opportunities if and only if the rate of return on the investment p* is as large as or larger than pk . This will be completely unaffected by the type of security used to finance the investment (bonds or stocks).So the main conclusion is that companies should invest when . Capital structure is a matter of indifference and the problem of the optimal capital structure is no problem at all. B. Proposition 3 and Financial Planning by Firms Misinterpretation of the scope of Proposition 3 can be avoided by remembering that this Proposition 3 tells us only that the type of instrument used to finance an investment is irr elevant to the question of whether or not the investment is worth while.This does not mean that the owners (or managers) have no grounds whatever for preferring one financing plan to another; or that there are no other policy or technical issues in finance at that level. C. The Effect of the Corporate Income Tax on Investment Decisions The cost of capital now depends on the debt ratio, decreasing , as D/V rises, at the constant rate of . Thus with a corporate income tax under which interest is a deductible expense, gains can accrue to stockholders from having debt in the capital structure, even when capital markets are perfect. L1 – Fama & French (1998) ‘Taxes, Financin

How accurate is it to say that the causes of the demonstrations outside the Holy Cross Primary School in August 2001 date back to 1968?

On September 3rd 2001 the students of Holy Cross Primary School were due to return back to school for the new term, however this was made difficult due to the Protestant protesters who had gathered outside of the school and the surrounding area to show their objection to the Catholic children and their parents walking down what was regarded to be a Protestant street on their way to school. These riots made it extremely difficult for the young Catholic girls to get to and from school every morning and afternoon; their parents faced a choice, to either take their children through the barricades hastily erected by the police and army, therefore showing the Protestants that they would not back down, or to take their children to school via the back entrance, which avoided the riots, but meant that the children and their parents had to walk a much longer, and more difficult route. The Catholic parents also felt that this meant that the Protestants were getting their way, and so many of the parents chose to take their children through the police barricades, even though this meant subjecting the young girls to the violence and abuse that the Protestant rioters hurled at them. These riots were not unprovoked. Tension had been growing in the surrounding area for some time and the events outside of Holy Cross were a result of the growing hostility that was felt between the two sides. Both the Protestants and the Catholics felt threatened by each other, and neither wanted to show any weakness. There were a number of short term causes for what happened outside of Holy Cross. The first of these was the fact that there were the two separate religious communities, the Protestants and the Catholics, living in such close proximity to each other, both communities felt threatened by each other, believing that the other community was taking liberties and trying to drive their community out of the area. Another of these short term causes was the fact that there was a very high rate of unemployment in the area, this meant that there were a lot of unemployed adult men with nothing to do all day, therefore they had too much time on their hands to object to everything that the other community did, and also many of them would purposefully try and antagonise the other side so that they could release some of their pent up energy and anger. One of the main short term causes however was the way in which the younger generations of both faiths were being brought up. Both Protestant and Catholic communities kept their children separated from children of the other religion, both by sending them to single faith schools such as Holy Cross, where only Catholic children attended, and by living in small communities of predominantly one religion families. Therefore these children did not get to know each other or become friends and so there was nothing stopping them from taking on their parents prejudices and political beliefs. However, as I mentioned earlier the events outside of Holy Cross were not only caused by short term causes, but long term causes as well. In 1171 the king of England Henry II visited Ireland and decided to name himself the ‘Lord of Ireland', this change made very little difference to the ruling of Ireland, and by 1500 English kings had little or no power over any of Ireland except a small area surrounding Dublin known at The Pale. This all changed in the 16th century when the English rulers started to take more of an interest in Ireland. As Ireland was still inhabited mainly by Catholics the English monarchs feared that it could be used as a useful base for invasion from surrounding Catholic countries such as France and Spain because by 1560 England was an entirely Protestant country and this was disliked by Catholic European countries. To take more control of Ireland Henry VIII of England changed his title from ‘Lord of Ireland' to ‘King of Ireland' and told Irish nobles they were to be his subjects. The Irish did not take this well, and in Elizabeth I's rule the provinces of Ulster and Munster rebelled. Elizabeth sent in her army to deal with the rebellion. In the 17th century the English Monarchy realised that the best way to gain control over Ireland was not by force, but by land. The main source of power in Ireland was held by Irish landowners. The English monarchy set about taking land from the rich Catholic nobles in Ireland and giving their land to English Protestants, these were known as plantations, and the aim of them was to take control over Ireland by giving the land to people who were loyal to the king. The main plantations were in Ulster which is now where the main conflict between Catholics and Protestants takes place. This created both economic and social reasons for what would later become the troubles in Northern Ireland and so for what happened outside Holy Cross Primary School. The economic reason was that taking a great deal of land off of people left them homeless, without a means of income and also introduced a lot more people into the communities and so therefore the communities had to deal with more people to support. The social reason was that taking the land off of the Catholics and giving it to the Protestants caused a great deal of resentment towards the Protestants. However, even though the Protestants now held a large proportion of the land in Ireland they did not have complete control, and when Catholic king James II became king of England in 1685. King James II lost his throne in 1688 but soon returned to Ireland with French troops intending to invade England. He was not successful and Protestant King William of Orange defeated James in the battle of the Boyne on the 1st of July 1690. This is a social reason for the prolonged fighting in Northern Ireland because the Protestants still celebrate their victory at the Battle of the Boyne by organising Orange Marches, these only increase the tension between the two communities and often end in violence. The Protestant victory now meant that they had complete control over Ireland and the Catholics, and they intended to keep this control, the Irish parliament introduced penal laws, which were in place to keep the Catholics out of power. These laws stated that Catholics could not own large amounts of land, be properly educated, become a member of parliament or own weapons. This therefore made it extremely hard, if not impossible for a Catholic to gain any power whatsoever. I think that this is both a religious and a political reason for the troubles in Northern Ireland because the Catholics were being discriminated against simply because of their religion and they were not able to gain any political power to help themselves to gain equal rights. Towards the end of the 18th century many of the Catholics in Ireland decided that it was time to do something about the British rule over Ireland. They called themselves Nationalists because they wanted Ireland to become a separate nation from Britain. They fight between the Catholic nationalists and the Protestant unionists, who want to keep Ireland part of Britain, is the fight which still continues today in Northern Ireland and cause the events outside of Holy Cross Primary School. During the 18th and 19th centuries the Catholic nationalist attempted 3 revolutions, all of which failed. Ireland was still controlled by Protestants. In 1905 a nationalist political party was set up by Catholics, it was named Sinn Fein. With the start of nationalists having a voice in parliament changes slowly started to come around. The political nationalist were not demanding that Ireland became a separate state from Britain, only that it had its own government which would be fair to both Protestants and Catholics. In 1918 the Irish people, both Protestant and Catholic voted on the future of Ireland, the outcome was that Ireland would have Home rule but stay part of the British empire. However, this did not please the predominantly Protestant province of Ulster where the majority of inhabitants were unionists and wanted Ireland to be entirely ruled by Britain. In 1921 a partition treaty was signed, this excluded Ulster the home rule, meaning that it was still ruled by Britain. However, this created a social problem in Northern Ireland because although Northern Ireland was mainly inhabited by Protestant thousands of Catholics were now left stranded in a country where they were the minority and very unfairly treated and most were unable to move. The Stormont Parliament was set up, this was intended to look after both Catholics and Protestants but was not successful in this because it was entirely controlled by Protestants, who did not want to give equal rights to Catholics in fear of the Catholics taking control. This meant that they gave Catholics poor council housing, few jobs and unfair treatment towards all Catholics, causing political, economic, and social problems. These past events show how the rivalry between the Catholics and the Protestants developed and grew. These events were long term reasons for what happened outside of Holy Cross Primary School because if it were not for the tension between the two religions and the segregation of Northern Ireland from the Republic of Ireland the short term events, such as what happened in 1968, would not have happened. In 1968 Catholics in Northern Ireland started peaceful marches to try and gain themselves equal rights. These peaceful marches only ever ended in violence, because the Protestants felt very threatened by the Catholics trying to regain equality. The Protestants did not want to give Catholics equal rights because they did not want to relinquish their control over Northern Ireland. The fighting which was started by the 1968 Catholic demonstrations continued for many years, calling a halt to any prospect of peace talks between the two religious groups. The fighting caused the resignation of the Protestant Prime minister Terence O'Neill, who had been so keen to install peace and equality into Northern Ireland. By August 1969 the British army had been sent in to try and control the fighting. This was intended to be a temporary measure, but the army have never left, and are still there today. At last the British Government managed to get unionist leaders of Northern Ireland to make changes in their policies to attempt to make things fairer to the Catholic communities in Northern Ireland. The things that were changed were: Elections, elections at the time were extremely biased in the Protestants favour as gerrymandering took place very often. Housing, The council housing had been unfairly given out by local Protestant councils and this was an attempt to give Catholics decent housing. Unemployment, the government promised to reduce the levels of unemployment in Northern Ireland, these promises were never fulfilled. Police, the police force in Northern Ireland was an entirely Protestant armed force, which naturally was biased against the Catholics. By 1970 Northern Ireland was in crisis, The British government had decided to suspend the Stormont government and take direct rule, meaning that Northern Ireland affairs were controlled directly from Westminster. This had little effect however as paramilitary groups started to take hold over the country. A new strand of the IRA had emerged calling themselves the provisional IRA, they took control of many of the Catholic areas. They were determined to rid Northern Ireland of British control, and would do so by force. However the Protestant paramilitary units, the Ulster Freedom Fighters, Ulster Defence Army and the Ulster Volunteers Force were equally as determined to keep Northern Ireland linked directly to Britain. Northern Ireland was in chaos, the fighting between Catholics and Protestants continued. I believe that this fighting is directly linked to the riots outside Holy Cross in 2001, such recent fighting meant that both sides were still angry and threatened by one another. The long term causes of the events outside Holy Cross demonstrate how the two religious sides became rivals, the introducing of Protestant plantations and the Protestants slowly gaining control over Ireland and the Catholics are what fuelled the fighting between the two communities for hundreds of years. However, I do not believe that the fighting in Northern Ireland, and in particular the rioting that occurred outside Holy Cross Primary School in 2001 was entirely about religious beliefs, I feel that the fighting was caused by the political situation in Northern Ireland, the fact that the minority Catholic group want more control over what happens in Northern Ireland and that the Protestants do not want to give up their level of control, which is why they did not want to let the Catholic families walk freely down their streets to get to Holy Cross Primary School. I think that the riots outside of Holy Cross where not entirely just about children walking down a street inhabited by a different religious community to get to school but about the fear the two communities have installed in each other during the short term causes such as the fighting. Both sides are scared that they will be driven out by the other. In conclusion I think that it is not accurate to say that the causes of the demonstrations outside the Holy Cross Primary School in August 2001 date back to 1968 because the causes of the conflict in Northern Ireland dates back many centuries. I believe that It would be correct to say that the troubles from 1968 onwards are a major factor in causing the demonstrations outside Holy Cross Primary School in August 2001 but that the actual cause dates back a lot further than 1968.