The Golden Ass by Apuleius free essay sample

Critiques 2nd Cent. A.D. bawdy, satirical odyssey of hero worshiper of goddess Isis. Apuleius was a North African Roman citizen of the second century A.D.; he was a pagan. He firmly believed that his worship of the goddess Isis was valid pursuit of the One True Faith. In his classic picaresque adventure, The Golden Tale of the Ass (aka The Golden Ass), Apuleius contrived to present a comic odyssey with a moral purpose designed to convince readers of Isis value as a goddess deserving of devotion. All odysseys lead to home eventually. In The Golden Ass, Apuleius designs a spiritual odyssey for his hero, the man-turned-ass Lucius; all of Lucius beastly travails lead, eventually, to the homecoming of its hero into the mindful love of the Goddess (248): O Lucius, what a happy and blessed man are you, whom the august deity has selected for such direct honors . . . the day that you have so constantly desired is

JET Task 3 Essay

JET Task 3 Essay JET Task 3 Essay JET 2 Task 3 Competition Bikes is considering expanding to Canada and possibly acquiring Canadian Biking Inc. or merging with the company. Competition Bikes needs to make sure that the demand is high in Canada for the products being sold. Competition Bikes needs to ensure that Canadian Biking is financially stable and has future potential for growth without risking bankruptcy. Competition Bikes would also need to research capital structure, working capital and capital budget to determine if there is possibility in profitability of expanding, or merging with Canadian Biking or even acquiring the Canadian company. A1. Capital Structure â€Å"Is a mix of a company's long-term debt, specific short-term debt, common equity and preferred equity. The capital structure is how a firm finances its overall operations and growth by using different sources of funds (Investopedia, 2015).† Competitions Bikes equity is considered common or preferred stocks, and its debt is considered long term loans and bonds. If Competition Bikes is looking to expand it has to ensure that they have the proper capital structure allowing the company to maximize return on investment, maximize cash flow, and be able to pay of accrued debts. Competition Bikes should consider five options of capital structure that will allow that company to produce the highest earnings per share, ensuring that shareholders will continue to invest and be satisfied with the outcome. Supporting a reliable net income will allow the company to keep the interest of shareholders. Earnings per share will used to monitor the capital structure of the company, this metho d will allow the company to show its financial decisions and how they can impact stockholders and shareholders. That’s why it is important to have strong earnings per share to keep shareholders interested in continuing investing in Competition Bikes. If shareholders are happy and seeing profits made on their shares they will most likely keep investing in the company. Another aspect the Competition Bikes needs to consider is the inherent risks associated with capital structure. The first option for capital structure is the consideration of using bonds which are fixed at a 9% interest. Although using bonds can be a risky avenue of approach due to having to pay the full amount loaned by a specific date. If the company is facing financial struggles it will still have to make it’s payments on the bonds loaned. Having fixed interest rates on the bonds is not always good due to interest rates being high and the company generally pays out its interest semi-annually, which can affect the company’s income. The benefits of using bonds are that companies can use them as a tax deductible. This would be a benefit for smaller companies that would rather not use equity and find it easier to manage the payments over the year. What Competition Bikes needs to consider is that they want to expand with a company that is already in the market and not wanting to start a new company in the market. With the new expansion Competition Bikes will not guarantee that thei r profits will increase exponentially in the future. With this option Competition Bikes will be creating more debt to fund the expansion and may be potentially using its new source of income to pay its debt and not being able to use its additional source of income to their likings. If Competition Bikes does decide to use this capital structure option it will break down as follows: Year 9 0.016 Year 10 0.031 Year 11 0.046 Year 12 0.062 Year 13 0.071 Shareholders will be experiencing a total of 0.226 earnings per share over a 5 year period. This calculation was utilized using earnings before interest & tax (EBIT), (Investopedia, 2015). Even though the earnings per share show potential Competition Bikes has several other options it can utilize that have less risk and higher earnings per share. The second option for capital structure is that Competition Bikes uses stocks to

The topic about reading A Thousand Splendid Suns Essay

The topic about reading A Thousand Splendid Suns - Essay Example Miriam becomes an orphan sometimes later in life when she tried to visit her father prompting her mother to commit suicide. She is later forced to marry a widower in Kabul when she goes to stay with her father Jalil. Laila also a character in the story is a beautiful girl and a daughter to the ethnic Tajiks. Her parents pass on when she is still little and at the same time realizes she is expecting Tariq’s child. Laila is adopted by Rasheed and Mariam who afterwards made her his second wife. The thesis of the paper is therefore to show the way in which Laila meets the definition of a heroine because of her courage and the noble purpose she serves in the society. Laila fits the definition of being a heroine because of the courage that she shows in her deeds. Laila gives birth to her second child without using drugs to comfort herself. Contrary to the birth of Aziza her first child, her second experience is something that can be said to be of a courageous person. To date, any woman on the verge of undergoing a caesarian operation needs to be sedated so as to help abate the pain that comes with it. The courageous act of Laila however was when she refused to lose her child and thus accepted to be operated on without an aesthetic. â€Å"Tell me what’s going on! Laila said, she had propped herself up on her elbows. The doctor took a breath, then told Laila that the hospital had no anesthetic. But if we delay, you will lose your baby. Then cut me open, Laila said. She had dropped back on the bed and drew up her knees. Cut me open and give my baby.† (Hosseini pg.174). Another act of courage from Laila was when she was preparing to escape her marriage which had only lasted a few years. One is considered a hero or a heroine if he or she does things which the rest of the people cannot dare to do. Many at times most women in marriages are mistreated by their partners but because of the fear they have they decide not to do anything to change

Nullfication crisis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Nullfication crisis - Essay Example discussion, but more specifically, it will concern the Southern and South-western States, most notably South Carolina, who felt that the Tariff of 1828 was unjust. It is interesting to question precisely how this crisis came about and how it affected these Southern states, exploring the events lending up to 1832, and reflecting upon the results of the compromising measures that attempted to solve the crisis. Moreover, my purpose in what follows is to explore how South Carolina was involved in the Nullification Crisis more than her sister Southern states. Nullification was first introduced in 1789 by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, in which both states defied the Alien and Sedition Act, claiming they should have the right to nullify the law. However, regarding the issues surrounding South Carolina, it was John Calhoun who again brought up idea of nullification in 1832, as an alternative to the state’s threat to secede. The reason for South Carolina to call a state convention to nullify certain laws was due to the issue of a protection tariff, and the fact that the federal government ignored their protest and continued to collect these tariff duties. As maintained by John G. Van Deusen; ‘in 1832, the tariff question was most prominent in the minds of South Carolinians,’ but they also ‘complained of sectional discrimination in federal appropriations.’1 To understand how the tariff bill came to be a leading problem in the Nullification Crisis, what accounted f or the gradual build of opposition between the North and the South, and how it involved the former Vice-President, Calhoun, the events leading up 1832 must be explored. The protective tariff was a tax on imports, a high duty that was advocated on all goods that could be produced in sufficient quantity in the United States. In the tariff bill of 1816, protection was admitted as an incidental feature only, and the raising of revenue made the predominant

What have your experiences with writing been like Do you enjoy writing Essay

What have your experiences with writing been like Do you enjoy writing Why or why not Write a few paragraphs about your thoughts - Essay Example this stage became crucial in the sense that writing journal entries has developed my interest to explore with insights as drawn from personal experiences. Gradually I have gotten accustomed to noting down stories or encounters I suppose are worth my precious whiles and record, taking plenty of concrete and accurate details into account. In the process, I have felt a significant degree of improvement as I proceed writing with spontaneous fluidity of thoughts. Since I typically make it a point to use a thesaurus and acquire constant engagement in reading literature, I keep discovering ways to write in a more creative manner. With an increased level of creativity and enriched vocabulary, I observe being capable of effective self-expression when conveying sentiments and ideas through writing. Such joy and fascination leads me to establish writing as a hobby or a form of diversion by which to escape into a world of wonders and possibilities yet unknown. To an extent, it has even brought me to find delight in composing essays and poems I savor reading as well. If my own wealth had the capacity to afford a sauna house or facility for therapeutic spa then I would certainly buy one. Given a blank check, I would think of putting up a flower garden of my own design and choice of exotic flowers on the ground that besides love of nature, I believe that such remarkable setting fosters a stimulating atmosphere for the mind to indulge in tranquility and happy thoughts. It is essential for an individual to be able to generate a positive outlook in life especially in dealing with an unstable state of economy and technology-driven social affairs and one would only attain to this objective by deriving an inspiration from the beauty that is seen and felt inside and out. Finding a way out of complications is necessary indeed particularly whenever this situation in its complicatedness affects not only a person but even those around him who may be highly impacted by the negative vibes

Internal and External environment analysis for Mcdonalds

Internal and External environment analysis for Mcdonalds McDonalds has been a thriving business since 1955 and 20 of the top 50 corporate staff employees started as a restaurant level employee. In addition, 67,000 McDonalds restaurant managers and assistant managers were promoted from restaurant staff. Fortune Magazine 2005 listed McDonalds as the Best Place to Work for Minorities. McDonalds invests more than $1 billion annually in training its staff, and every year more than 250,000 employees graduate from McDonalds training facility, Hamburger University. The business is ranked number one in Fortune Magazines 2008 list of most admired food service companies. One of the worlds most recognizable logos (the Golden Arches) and spokes character (Ronald McDonald the clown). According to the Packard Childrens Hospitals Center for Healthy Weight children age 3 to 5 were given food in the McDonalds packaging and then given the same food without the packaging, and they preferred the food in the McDonalds packaging every single time. McDonalds is a community oriented, socially responsible company. They run Ronald McDonald House facilities, which provide room and board, food and sibling support at a cost of only $10 a day for families with children needing extensive hospital care. Ronald McDonald Houses are located in more than 259 local communities worldwide, and Ronald McDonald Care Mobile programs offers cost effective medical, dental and education services to children. They also sponsor Olympic athletes. They are a global company operating more than 23,500 restaurants in 109 countries. By being spread out in different regions, this gives them the ability to weather economic fluctuations which are localized by country. They can also operate effectively in an economic downturn due to the social need to seek out comfort foods. They successfully and easily adapt their global restaurants to appeal to the cultural differences. For example, they serve lamb burgers in India and in the Middle East, they provide separate entrances for families and single women. Approximately 85% of McDonalds restaurant businesses world-wide are owned and operated by franchisees. All franchisees are independent, full-time operators and McDonalds was named Entrepreneurs number-one franchise in 1997. They have global locations in all major airports, and cities, along the highways, tourist locations, theme parks and inside Wal-Mart. They have an efficient, assembly line style of food preparation. In addition they have a systemization and duplication of all their food prep processes in every restaurant. McDonalds uses only 100% pure USDA inspected beef, no fillers or additives. Additionally the produce is farm fresh. McDonalds serves 100% farm raised chicken no fillers or additives and only grade-A eggs. McDonalds foods are purchased from only certified and inspected suppliers. McDonalds works closely with ranchers, growers and suppliers to ensure food quality and freshness. McDonalds only serves name brand processed items such as Dannon Yogurt, Kraft Cheese, Nestle Chocolate, Dasani Water, Newmans Own Salad Dressings, Heinz Ketchup, Minute Maid Juice. McDonalds takes food safety very seriously. More than 2000 inspections checks are performed at every stage of the food process. McDonalds are required to run through 72 safety protocols every day to ensure the food is maintained in a clean contaminate free environment. McDonalds was the first restaurant of its type to provide consumers with nutrition information. Nutrition information is printed on all packaging and more recently added to the McDonalds Internet site. McDonalds offers salads, fruit, roasted chicken, bottled water and other low fat and calorie conscious alternatives. It has branded menu items e.g. Big Mac, Chicken McNuggets, which further promote McDonalds. McDonalds Egypt: Has the second largest market share in Egypt with branches exceeding 60. Fastest delivery service provided in Egypt. Nutrition information is printed on all packaging Safety protocols and quality assurance to serve best quality food. More than 92% of suppliers are Egyptian (Halal) Efficient assembly line to serve food as fast as possible with maintaining high quality. Charity works. McDonalds is the first restaurant in Egypt to provide drive through in 7 branches. Has a joint venture with shell petroleum. Sponsors many events and football teams. Cares about the environment by recycling the oil used in cooking for delivery motorcycles. (SWOT) McDonalds Worldwide: High employee turnover in their restaurants leads to more money being spent on training. Their test marketing for pizza failed to yield a substantial product. Leaving them much less able to compete with fast food pizza chains. The companys ability to increase revenue is small due to many competitors to keep prices down. It uses advertising that mostly targets children. Lack of innovative products. McDonalds Egypt: No innovation in products that could serve the culture taste due to consistency in their menu. Prices McDonalds Structure: McDonalds has a functional structure which serve many product lines in the same industry. Its chain of command is as follow: Chief Executive Operations Development Finance Marketing Human Resources McDonalds are structured along functional lines. Their Chief Executive oversees five major areas of activity: Operations (equipment and franchising) Development (property and construction) Finance (supply chain and new product development) Marketing (sales marketing) Human Resources (customer services, personnel, hygiene and safety) Culture: McDonalds is all about corporate culture. From its Hamburger University (where managers and assistant managers are trained) to its vision statement of Quality, Service, Convenience, and Value (QSCV), McDonalds corporate culture is a shared value system that forms the basis of all company decisions. A relatively enduring, interdependent symbolic system of values, beliefs, and assumptions evolving from and imperfectly shared by interacting organizational members that allows them to ascribe common meanings to stimuli encountered in the organizational context; these functions are accomplished through the mediation of implicitly and explicitly rules that act as cultural warrants. McDonalds vision statement creates the values by which are made all managerial and corporate decisions. These guiding values are exhibited in all aspects of business, from social responsibility and diversity to training and policies. McDonalds operates four Hamburger Universities in four countries. McDonalds has and provides the best employees-business relationship via providing an equal opportunity employer. As an equal opportunity employer McDonalds ensures that employees and job applicants are selected, trained, and promoted without discrimination to race, gender, sexual orientation, age or disability. The company promotes their employees based on their relevant skill, talents, and performance. In support of this McDonalds promotes and sustains a working environment, which is free from unlawful discrimination, harassment and bullying. Employees are regarded as members of a team where everyones opinion is valued and respected. The Human Resources department monitors the effectiveness of the discrimination policies at regular intervals and takes corrective action as necessary to ensure that they being complied with Employees who feel that they have been treated unfairly are encouraged to use the remedies outlined in the Companys handbooks. The Ronald McDonald House charity offers thousands of sick children in approximately 48 countries hope and it inspires courage. They say laughter is the best medicine and nothing makes people smile more than a Happy Meal.ourworld-policy-hero At McDonalds we recognize our responsibilities to protect and preserve the environment for future generations to come Our goal is simple, is achieving a continuous environmental improvement across all areas of our business. ourworld-prp btn-show-your-support images (9) Litter McDonalds provides trash cans outside every store all around the world. food-fries Waste Used cooking oil represents 10% of the restaurant total waste, and is recycled into biodiesel, which our delivery bikes runs on. food-saladsplus Packaging For the salads containers McDonalds replaced them with a paper card base; saving nearly 69 tones of plastic purchased by the firm. Energy All our restaurants uses low energy lampsrestaurants-whatson Resources Suppliers: Meat: from Brazil in bulks and then processed in Egypt. Potato: Farm frites Vegetable: Egyptian farms Dairy: Egyptian farms Bread: Egyptian suppliers Assets: 60 restaurants Delivery Motorcycles Office equipment Manufacturing plants Restaurant equipments Skills Knowledge: Employees are trained on the same values and are given the required skills to achieve companys success. (Hamburger University) External environment: (SWOT) Worldwide: In todays health conscious societies the introduction of a healthy hamburger is a great opportunity. They would be the first QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) to have FDA approval on marketing a low fat low calorie hamburger with low calorie combo alternatives. Currently McDonalds and its competition health choice items do not include hamburgers. Provide optional allergen free food items, such as gluten free and peanut free. In 2008 the business directed efforts at the breakfast, chicken, beverage and convenience categories. For example, hot specialist coffees not only secure sales, but also mean that restaurants get increasing numbers of customer visits. In 2009 McDonalds saw the full benefits of a venture into beverages. It can adapt to the needs of the societies and undergo an innovative product line. It can adapt to the needs of the societies and undergo an innovative product line. It can research ways to use green energy and packaging which will work as a part of their promotional effort as well as fulfill their social responsibility. It can create new product offerings, use mobile text messaging to offer services that appeal to consumers. It can upscale some of its restaurant settings at luxurious locations to attract more customers. It can provide optional items that are regarded to be the basis of allergy for some. It can slow down the level of expansion in order to increase the profitability of the organization. McDonalds Egypt: Introduce new products that satisfy the culture needs Reduce expansion to generate more revenue Use new home ordering techniques Care more about green environment (SWOT) Worldwide: The recession negatively impacts the holding position of the firm regarding its revenue streams, even though they are quite diversified. Foreign currency fluctuations are regarded to be a major problem as it uses standard pricing for its food items. More restaurants that are increasing their food offering and declining the price. Health issues regarding the fast food chain. Heavy investments on promotional campaigns which decrease the gaining of market share. Some parents criticize the firms cradle to grave marketing strategy that focuses on kids, who later on take it as a trend to their adulthood. Sued various times for unhealthy food, usually with addictive additives. Emergence of major fast food competitors: Burger King, Starbucks, Wendys, Taco Bell, KFC. The expansion has made the firm vulnerable to the slow economies of the other countries. Swine Flu McDonalds Egypt: Rumors such as an Americanized brand that supports Israel. Egyptians are starting to care more about diet and health Economy recession Swine Flu McDonalds vs. KFC vs. Momen The SWOT analysis of KFC showed that it has the largest market share of the fast food industry and 24 stores more than McDonalds. Its weaknesses turned out to be lack of consistence of standards and moderate rates of dissatisfaction by the customers. For the threats and opportunities of KFC, they are no different from those of McDonalds or any other fast food restaurant in the industry. Similarly, the SWOT analysis of Momen showed that its main strengths are in their diversified menus and reasonably more competitive and affordable prices. Its weaknesses are much more lack of consistency than that of KFC and customers perceive their taste to be less than both McDonalds and KFC as well as any other fast food restaurant in the market. Its opportunities are the incorrect believe of customers that Momen is Egyptian and halal while McDonalds and KFC are not. However, the threats of Momen are that they are only spread over the main areas of the Egyptian market so they do not serve all the customers unlike what McDonalds and KFC do. Natural environment: McDonalds doesnt supply its franchises from the headquarters in fact it treats every franchise as its own operating business that will order its supplies from the suppliers they want taking into consideration the quality assurance this could be based on the country itself or from imported goods. For McDonalds Egypt they order nearly 92% of their supplies from Egyptian producers whom produce the supplies in Egyptian land because Egypt is considered to be a good agriculture region for its good climate and having the Nile River. Potato: Farm frites Vegetable: Egyptian farms Dairy: Egyptian farms Bread: Egyptian suppliers Societal: Political: Taxes before 2005 were 40%, after 2005 and until now it is reduced to 20% this encouraged McDonalds to expand into what it is now 60 Branches and rising. Economical: Inflation has a very huge impact on McDonalds Egypt as prices are increasing and people have low income this leads them to spend money on cheap products, McDonalds has to increase its prices because its supplies are becoming more expensive. The economic crises has also affected McDonalds because people are saving more and spending less and as McDonalds is not considered as a need and people have many other cheap substitutes such as Amo Hosney and Momen, McDonalds sales are reduced. As McDonalds has a high unemployment rate it is not hard to find employees because McDonalds has a training center that trains them and candidates dont need to have special skills or certificates to work at McDonalds. Socio-culture: As McDonalds operate in many different countries it has to take into consideration their beliefs and traditions. It introduces new products besides the standard menu that suits every culture for e.g. in the Middle East MC Arabia and in India Mc Panton. McDonalds also cares about the factors that could offend each culture for e.g. a state in USA considers the red color in McDonalds logo as evil therefore McDonalds has introduced the BLUE color in the logo. Technological: McDonalds uses new technology in cooking and preparing the food to reduce the fats and cholesterol in nutrition. It has also introduced new technology to reduce costs (waste) and increase production efficiency. Task: (Porter 5 Forces) Threat of new entrants: McDonalds was not frightened a single bit when it first noticed that Burger King is going to start up in the Egyptian market for several reasons. First, they were well aware of their position in the market and how customers perceive them. Second, Burger King is not well positioned yet and the customers do not really know anything about it as well as not many customers in Egypt like it. Third, in order for Burger King to catch quickly with McDonalds it needs to open 10 stores every 2 months which is impossible and even if it was possible Burger King would still need a year for it to catch up. McDonalds main concern is for new small entrants such as Amo Hosney who offers low price products with more quantity but the difference comes in quality and not quantity. Rivalry among existing firms: McDonalds does not really see Hardees or consider it a main competitor. Kentucky Fried Chicken and Momen are the main competitors of McDonalds in the fast foods industry or business. KFC has the largest market share of the fast food industry with 84 stores (24 stores more than McDonalds) and Momen has the third largest share of the industry. McDonalds is counting on coming up with creative and appealing ideas to beat the competition which is the main strategy that McDonalds is adopting against competition. Threat of substitutes: Instead of buying McDonalds people can prepare food at home and it will be more healthy and will cost less therefore it is considered to be a threat to McDonalds because people will buy less causing loss in revenue. Power of buyer: McDonalds consumers can influence its prices because there are many competitors and substitutes that consumers can switch to such as Momen and KFC therefore the consumers have the power in purchasing the product of not and can influence it. Power of supplier: McDonalds has the power over suppliers because there are many suppliers available whom wish to work with McDonalds because it is a well recognized organization worldwide. The only problem is that McDonalds needs to follow some quality measurements in providing the food which might not be easily taught to new suppliers.

A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner Essay -- A Rose for Emily by Will

â€Å"A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner Respect, admiration, and fame from the general public can come at somewhat of a cost. The cost can be anything from a decrease in privacy to an actual effect on ones mental state. In this essay I will use the short story â€Å"A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner to describe how general fame, no matter how large or small can be uplifting, but at the same time extremely destructive. Emily is the most renowned lady in the town. Since she carries this type of status there is a strict reputation she must keep. As with today’s celebrities, they not only represent themselves, but there town as well. Ms. Emily is no exception. Since she was closely â€Å"guarded† by her father, she was rarely seen outside of the house and could never find a spouse suitable eno...

Morfosintaxis

The absence of l. It is and it cannot be confused with the finite I O for all persons in the present except for 3rd peers. Sing. The distinction of the bare infinitive in English main clauses is as follows: the verb immediately after a modal whether the verb is an auxiliary or a lexical verb, will always show absence of l. She might pass the test similarly, the verb after dummy do will also always show absence of l.They do like white coffee Simple(x) sentence : the sentence that consist of Just one clause, which means that there is only one lexical or main verb (V), though V can of course be preceded by Auxiliaries. Simple sentence is thus synonymous with 1 main clause. The Department rejected the proposal Complex sentence: the sentence that consist of 1 main clause, plus 1 or more subordinate clauses. A complex sentence contains therefore several lexical or main verbs (V), one for each clause that actually occurs, and in turn each of these verbs can aka its own Auxiliaries.One of th ese verbs (V) will be the main verb of the overall structure, and the other verbs (V) will be subordinated to the former. They all liked the way he behaved The first verbal form of a main clause (whether it is V or Qua is obligatorily a finite verb. By contrast, the verbal form of a subordinate clause can be finite or non-finite. Four basic types of simple(x) sentences: declarative sentences negative affirmative interrogative sentences exclamation sentences imperative sentences (typically) affirmative.

Break Up of Soviet Union essays

Break Up of Soviet Union essays In this essay I am going to talk about the breakup of the Soviet Union and all of the events that took place before, during, and after the split up. I will look into the C.I.S (Commonwealth of Independent States), the Government, economy and the conflicts of the former U.S.S.R. In July of 1991, President Mikhail Gorbachev and ten other Repulic leaders all met and signed a treaty giving each Republic more self-government. Five more leaders were to sign the treaty on August 20, but on the 19th of the month Communist leaders, led by Boris Yeltsin planned a coup against Gorbachev's Government. They trapped him and his family in their vacation home just as they were preparing to return from their vacation in Crimea for the first signing of the union treaty. He was placed under house arrest but he refused to give in to the demands. While this was going on, protesters held demonstrations and strikes broke out all over the country. The Commuist party was suspended in many republics, including the Russian Federation. A few days after the coup, Gorbacev resigned from the party leadership. In the aftermath of the coup , Yeltsin emerged as the strongest political figure in the country. In September 1991 an interim government was set up until a new treaty could be worked out . This government included Gorbachev and the leaders of the On December 8th Russia proclaimed itself the Soviet Union's successor. Boris Yeltsin and the Presidents of Ukraine and Belarus announced the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States and that the U.S.S.R had no longer existed. The Commonwealth of Independent States was an association of nations that were formerly republics of the Soviet Union. They encouraged all others to join with them. On December 21, eleven republics joined, Armenia, Belarus. Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyztan, Moldova, Russia, Tajistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Georgia became a m ...

CNG- The only alternative essays

CNG- The only alternative essays Over the past hundred plus years the world has relied on oil as the mainstay fuel for vehicles, and this dependence has backed us into a corner. Many people have introduced solutions to this dependence, but unfortunately, none have been put into real world use. These solutions included Electricity, Hydrogen, Alcohol, and many others. All have been analyzed and scrutinized greatly since their introduction and many have great benefits over oil but none have been put into use on a large scale. This is the result mainly of large oil companies and auto manufacturers, which have heavy weight in politics, who are very complacent to make a large switch. This complacency has caused the world to continually use and process oil nonstop depleting nearly all reserves worldwide. Now the projected life span of oil has been changed to less than fifty years left before all oil has been consumed. People are finally realizing this fact and want to make a change but they do not know where to star t. CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) is another alternative to gas that has not been addressed nearly as much as other solutions. CNG has many benefits and nearly no negatives that give it perfect reason to be the next fuel for our world to rely on. The first alternative that received rave reviews but then lost steam quickly off was that of Electric Vehicles that ran solely on electricity. These cars sounded great for many reasons. The fuel was much cheaper and completely clean. The cars were also touted as the only vehicles that could, Plug into the Sun (John Felt, Ford Motor Company). People bought into this idea and felt they had finally found the solution to their energy needs, but unfortunately many cons showed up quickly. Electric engines did not produce much horsepower resulting in their use in only compact cars and nothing larger. This reason alone made many change their minds because electric vehicles could never be used as "...

Advanced applied quantitative methods in finance Essay

Advanced applied quantitative methods in finance - Essay Example Financial time series have features that are represented well by models with dynamic variances. In this part, we focus at modeling the financial time series of the Italian Stock market index as well as the Spanish stock market index. We thus intend to examine the volatility in the Italian Spanish markets by understanding the change in commodity prices over a period of time. Finally we aim to present the various processes through which financial decisions are taken by aid of volatility modeling. Uses regression to provide possible estimates of the disturbance variances at each sample point and the original relation is then re-estimated by the weighted least squares procedure that corrects for the heteroskedasticity. The data is a time series data that includes 4255 daily market index prices for the Italian stock market spanning over the period 12/31/1997-22/01/2014 we also have the Spanish stock market data that includes 7122 daily market index prices spanning from 1/5/1987 to 4/22/2014 The series are characterized by random, rapid changes and are said to be volatile. The volatility seems to change over time as well. There has been upward and downward effects in volatility for the Italian market while the time series plot for Spanish market shows somehow an upward increase with slight variations (decreases) in between the years. The variations in volatility could be as a result among other factors, political factors or the international market changes. The histograms of the empirical distribution of the series are given below. For both the two market indexes, we observe that the series are leptokurtic. That is, they have lots of observations around the average and a relatively large number of observations that are far from average; for the Italian market index, the centre of the histogram has a high peak and the tails

Short stories by Alice Walker Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Short stories by Alice Walker - Essay Example The setting occurs in the residence of mama and her daughters where they currently live with her younger daughter. With the expected homecoming of the elder daughter, Dee, they make preparations aimed at ensuring proper reception for expected visitors. The story remains total fiction, which is effectively utilised in delivering the desired message form the author. The author utilises fiction in depicting the meaning of culture and the power of education, while having humour and irony within the story. The story presents the difference in heritage within family members, who shared similar cultural values while residing together. The visiting daughter changes name from Dee to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo, a name which she cannot explain its origin. She claims that Dee is dead depicting the death of cultural heritage. Through the actions and behaviours displayed by the elder daughter, heritage becomes nullified and its existence ignored by the character. Mama explains the origins of the fa mily name, running through many generations, and appears hurt by the daughter’s failure to understand the importance and meaning of heritage within the setting of the story. Dee desires family quilts, which she views as artefacts of dead heritage. While desiring these articles, she intends to utilise them as wall hangings, which further displays her misunderstanding of meaning of family heritage. She even tries to speak a language she cannot understand.