Few Certain Details Remain About The Life Of Antiquitys Greates

Few certain details remain about the life of antiquitys greatest mathematician, Archimedes. We know he was born in 287 B.C.E. around Syracuse from a report about 1400 years after the fact. Archimedes tells about his father, Pheidias, in his book The Sandreckoner. Pheidias was an astronomer, who was famous for being the author of a treatise on the diameters of the sun and the moon. Historians speculate that Pheidias profession explains why Archimedes chose his career. Some scholars have characterized Archimedes as an aristocrat who actively participated in the Syracusan court and may have been related to the ruler of Syracuse, King Hieron II. We also know Archimedes died in 212 B.C.E. at the age of 75 in Syracuse. It is said that he was killed by a Roman soldier, who was offended by Achimedes, while the Romans seized Syracuse. Archimedes had a wide variety of interests, which included encompassing statics, hydrostatics, optics, astronomy, engineering, geometry, and arithmetic. Archimedes had more stories passed down through history about his clever inventions than his mathematical theorems. This is believed to be so because the average mind of that period would have no interest in the Archimedean spiral, but would pay attention to an invention that could move the earth. Archimedes most famous story is attributed to a Roman architect under Emperor Augustus, named Vitruvius. Vitruvius asked Archimedes to devise some way to test the weight of a gold wreath. Archimedes was unsuccessful until one day as he entered a full bath, he noticed that the deeper he submerged into the tub, the more water flowed out of the tub. This made him realize that the amount of water that flowed out of the tub was equal to the volume of the object being submerged. Therefore by putting the wreath into the water, he could tell by the rise in water level the volume of the wreath, despite its irregular shape. This discovery marked the Law of Hydrostatics, which states that a body immersed in fluid loses weight equal to the weight of the amount of fluid it displaces. There are three main mechanical inventions credited to Archimedes. The first one is the Archimedean screw which supposedly could serve as a water pump. The second invention was the compound pulley. The third invention was the way of finding the volume of something by displacement as demonstrated in the story above. Most historians would agree that more important than his great mechanical inventions were his mathematical discoveries. The mathematical works that have been presented to us by Archimedes could be classified into three groups. The first group consists of works that have as their major objective the proof of theorems relative to the areas and volumes of figures bounded by curved lines and surfaces. The second category contains works that lead to a geometrical analysis of statical and hydrostatical problems and the use of statics in geometry. Miscellaneous mathematical works make up the third group. Toward the end of Archimedes life, the political situation around him became worse as the years went by. After the death of Hieron II, Syracuse fell into the hands of his grandson, Hieronymus, who changed from the alliance of Rome to the alliance of Carthage. After the Romans heard of this revelation they sent a fleet of ships to capture Syracuse. Archimedes was a key factor to the Syracusians ability to hold off the Romans for so long. He is said to have created catapults to hurl rocks and used compound pulleys with giant hooks to rip the Roman ships apart. The most well known invention to ward off the Romans was the construction of a series of giant lenses used to magnify the suns rays and set Roman ships a blaze. The theorems that Archimedes discovered and worked on raised Greek mathematics to a whole new level. He undertook difficult problems in both mechanics and mathematics with great preserverence. Archimedes theorems, postulates, and inventions are still part of society today. These are some of the reasons that some scolars rank him with the greatest mathematicians in history.

The Historic Fight over the Mountain of Light

The Historic Fight over the Mountain of Light Its only a hard lump of carbon, after all, yet the Koh-i-Noor diamond exerts a magnetic pull on those who behold it. Once the largest diamond in the world, it has passed from one famous ruling family to another as the tides of war and fortune have turned one way and another over the past 800 or more years. Today, it is held by the British, a spoil of their colonial wars, but the descendant states of all its previous owners claim this controversial stone as their own. Origins of the Koh i Noor Indian legend holds that the Koh-i-Noors history stretches back an incredible 5,000 years, and that the gem has been part of royal hoards since around the year 3,000 BCE.   It seems more likely, however, that these legends conflate various royal gems from different millennia, and that the Koh-i-Noor itself was probably discovered in the 1200s CE. Most scholars believe that the Koh-i-Noor was discovered during the reign of the Kakatiya Dynasty in the Deccan Plateau of southern India (1163 - 1323).   A precursor to the Vijayanagara Empire, Kakatiya ruled over much of present-day Andhra Pradesh, site of the Kollur Mine.   It was from this mine that the Koh-i-Noor, or Mountain of Light, likely came.    In 1310, the Khilji Dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate invaded the Kakatiya kingdom, and demanded various items as tribute payments.   Kakatiyas doomed ruler Prataparudra was forced to send tribute north, including 100 elephants, 20,000 horses - and the Koh-i-Noor diamond.   Thus, the Kakatiya lost their most stunning jewel after less than 100 years of ownership, in all likelihood, and their entire kingdom would fall just 13 years later. The Khilji family did not enjoy this particular spoil of war for long, however.   In 1320, they were overthrown by the Tughluq clan, the third of five families that would rule the Delhi Sultanate. Each of the succeeding Delhi Sultanate clans would possess the Koh-i-Noor, but none of them held power for long. This account of the stones origins and early history is the most widely accepted today, but there are other theories as well. The Mughal emperor Babur, for one, states in his memoir, the  Baburnama,  that during the 13th century the stone was the property of the Raja of Gwalior, who ruled a district of Madhya Pradesh in central India.   To this day, we are not entirely certain if the stone came from Andhra Pradesh, from Madhya Pradesh, or from Andhra Pradesh via Madhya Pradesh. The Diamond of Babur A prince from a Turco-Mongol family in what is now Uzbekistan, Babur defeated the Delhi Sultanate and conquered northern India in 1526.   He founded the great Mughal Dynasty, which ruled northern India until 1857.   Along with the Delhi Sultanates lands, the magnificent diamond passed to him, and he modestly named it the Diamond of Babur.   His family would keep the gem for just over two hundred rather tumultuous years. The fifth Mughal emperor was Shah Jahan, justly famous for ordering the construction of the Taj Mahal.   Shah Jahan also had an elaborate jeweled gold throne built, called the Peacock Throne. Crusted with countless diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and pearls, the throne contained a significant portion of the Mughal Empires fabulous wealth.   Two golden peacocks adorned the throne; one peacocks eye was the Koh-i-Noor or Diamond of Babur; the other was the Akbar Shah Diamond. Shah Jahans son and successor, Aurangzeb (reigned 1661-1707), was persuaded during his reign to allow a Venetian carver called Hortenso Borgia to cut the Diamond of Babur.   Borgia made a complete hash of the job, reducing what had been the worlds largest diamond from 793 carats to 186 carats. The finished product was quite irregular in shape and did not shine to anything like its full potential.   Furious, Aurangzeb fined the Venetian 10,000 rupees for spoiling the stone. Aurangzeb was the last of the Great Mughals; his successors were lesser men, and Mughal power began its slow fade. One weak emperor after another sit on the Peacock Throne for a month or a year before being assassinated or deposed. Mughal India and all of its wealth were vulnerable, including the Diamond of Babur, a tempting target for neighboring nations. Persia Takes the Diamond In 1739, the Shah of Persia, Nader Shah, invaded India and won a great victory over Mughal forces at the Battle of Karnal. He and his army then sacked Delhi, raiding the treasury and stealing the Peacock Throne.   Its not entirely clear where the Diamond of Babur was at the time, but it may have been in the Badshahi Mosque, where Aurangzeb had deposited it after Borgia cut it. When the Shah saw the Diamond of Babur, he is supposed to have cried out, Koh-i-Noor! or Mountain of Light!, giving the stone its current name.   In all, the Persians seized plunder estimated at the equivalent of 18.4 billions dollars US in todays money from India.   Of all the loot, Nader Shah seems to have loved the Koh-i-Noor the most. Afghanistan Gets the Diamond Like others before him, though, the Shah did not get to enjoy his diamond for long.   He was assassinated in 1747, and the Koh-i-Noor passed to one of his generals, Ahmad Shah Durrani.   The general would go on to conquer Afghanistan later that same year, founding the Durrani Dynasty and ruling as its first emir. Zaman Shah Durrani, the third Durrani king, was overthrown and imprisoned in 1801 by his younger brother, Shah Shuja.   Shah Shuja was infuriated when he inspected his brothers treasury, and realized that the Durranis most prized possession, the Koh-i-Noor, was missing.   Zaman had taken the stone to prison with him, and hollowed out a hiding place for it in the wall of his cell.   Shah Shuja offered him his freedom in return for the stone, and Zaman Shah took the deal. This magnificent stone first came to British attention in 1808, when Mountstuart Elphinstone visited the court of Shah Shujah Durrani in Peshawar.   The British were in Afghanistan to negotiate an alliance against Russia, as part of the Great Game.   Shah Shujah wore the Koh-i-Noor embedded in a bracelet during the negotiations, and Sir Herbert Edwardes noted that, It seemed as if the Koh-i-noor carried with it the sovereignty of Hindostan, because whichever family that possessed it so often prevailed in battle. I would argue that in fact, causation flowed in the opposite direction - whoever was winning the most battles usually nabbed the diamond.   It would not be long before yet another ruler would take the Koh-i-Noor for his own. The Sikhs Grab the Diamond In 1809, Shah Shujah Durrani got overthrown in turn by another brother, Mahmud Shah Durrani.   Shah Shujah had to flee into exile in India, but he managed to escape with the Koh-i-Noor.   He ended up a prisoner of the Sikh ruler Maharaja Ranjit Singh, known as the Lion of the Punjab.   Singh ruled from the city of Lahore, in what is now Pakistan. Ranjit Singh soon learned that his royal prisoner had the diamond. Shah Shujah was stubborn, and did not want to relinquish his treasure.   However, by 1814, he felt that the time was ripe for him to escape from the Sikh kingdom, raise an army, and try to retake the Afghan throne.   He agreed to give Ranjit Singh the Koh-i-Noor in return for his freedom. Britain Seizes the Mountain of Light After Ranjit Singhs death in 1839, the Koh-i-Noor was passed from one person to another in his family for about a decade. It ended up as the property of the child king Maharaja Dulip Singh.   In 1849, the British East India Company prevailed in the Second Angol-Sikh War and seized control of the Punjab from the young king, handing all political power to the British Resident.    In the Last Treaty of Lahore (1849), it specifies that the Koh-i-Noor Diamond is to be presented to Queen Victoria, not as a gift from the East India Company, but as a spoil of war.   The British also took 13-year-old Dulip Singh to Britain, where he was raised as a ward of Queen Victoria.   He reportedly once asked to have the diamond returned, but received no answer from the Queen. The Koh-i-Noor was a star attraction of Londons Great Exhibition in 1851.   Despite the fact that its display case prevented any light from striking its facets, so it essentially looked like a lump of dull glass, thousands of people waited patiently for a chance to gaze at the diamond each day.   The stone received such poor reviews that Prince Albert, Queen Victorias husband, decided to have it recut in 1852.    The British government appointed Dutch master diamond-cutter, Levie Benjamin Voorzanger, to recut the famous stone.   Once again, the cutter drastically reduced the size of the stone, this time from 186 carats to 105.6 carats.   Voorzanger had not planned to cut away so much of the diamond, but discovered flaws that needed to be excised in order to achieve maximum sparkle.    Prior to Victorias death, the diamond was her personal property; after her lifetime, it became part of the Crown Jewels.   Victoria wore it in a brooch, but later queens wore it as the front piece of their crowns.   The British superstitiously believed that the Koh-i-Noor brought bad fortune to any male who possessed it (given its history), so only female royals have worn it.   It was set into the coronation crown of Queen Alexandra in 1902, then was moved into Queen Marys crown in 1911.   In 1937, it was added to the coronation crown of Elizabeth, the mother of the current monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.   It remains in the Queen Mothers crown to this day, and was on display during her funeral in 2002. Modern-Day Ownership Dispute Today, the Koh-i-Noor diamond is still a spoil of Britains colonial wars.   It rests in the Tower of London along with the other Crown Jewels.    As soon as India gained its independence in 1947, the new government made its first request for the return of the Koh-i-Noor. It renewed its request in 1953, when Queen Elizabeth II was crowned. Indias parliament once again asked for the gem in 2000. Britain has refused to consider Indias claims. In 1976, Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto asked that Britain return the diamond to Pakistan, since it had been taken from the Maharaja of Lahore.   This prompted Iran to assert its own claim.   In 2000, Afghanistans Taliban regime noted that the gem had come from Afghanistan to British India, and asked to have it returned to them instead of Iran, India, or Pakistan. Britain responds that because so many other nations have claimed the Koh-i-Noor, none of them have a better claim to it than Britains.   However, it seems pretty clear to me that the stone originated in India, spent most of its history in India, and really should belong to that nation.

Review Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Review - Research Paper Example With a sound Quality Assurance in place, customers and end users of products and services of a particular company is guaranteed that its output conforms with the required quality of such product and service that will meet and exceed the customer’s need. Kaizen is a Japanese Quality Assurance system of continuous improvement in quality, technology, processes, company culture, productivity, safety and leadership. It is a system that involves every employee - from upper management to the cleaning crew. Everyone is encouraged to come up with small improvement suggestions on a regular basis. This is not a once a month or once a year activity. It is continuous quality improvement process. Japanese companies, such as Toyota and Canon receive a total of 60 to 70 suggestions per employee per year which are written down, shared and implemented (Anon., 2011). The limitation of Kaizen is that it is dependent on communication due to the nature of its system improvement coming from suggestions. Any breakdown in communication will impair its efficacy. TQM on the other hand is a comprehensive and structured approach to organizational management that seeks to improve the quality of products and services through ongoing refinements in response to continuous feedback (Anon., 2011). TQM requirements may be defined separately for a particular organization or may be in adherence to established standards, such as the International Organization for Standardizations  ISO 9000  series. At its core, Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management approach to long-term success through customer satisfaction. In a TQM effort, all members of an organization participate in improving processes, products, services and the culture in which they work (Anon., 2011). TQM as a matter of quality principle is not known to have limitation but only the employees who are implementing it. C. The main

Philosophy Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Philosophy - Assignment Example For Kant, experience perfects knowledge and argued that experience alone is purely subjective if not processed by reason. While reason in itself is a mere theoretical illusion if not applied to experience. With regard to empiricist philosophers such as Locke and Hume, they consider experience and feeling as the sole bedrock of the source of knowledge. For them, a human mind started as empty and only evolves with experience and learning. Lockes theory of mind defines the self as a conscous thinking thing and is capable of sensing. It is capable of sensibilities like pain and happiness, pleasure and misery. In Lockes theory of the self, the self is a self-reflective consciousness present within us. It continuously evolves with experience, learning and sensation which are the sources of our ideas. Hume agreed with Locke that all knowledge are derived from experience. But he did not recognize every idea-forming operation that Locke presupposes. Hume also did not accept the possibility of any necessary connection between simple ideas, where Locke does and so some ideas which count as simple for Locke-extension and space, for example are complex for

Examination of historical context Research Paper

Examination of historical context - Research Paper Example But above all these, the question of the status of Jerusalem is perhaps the most complex and intractable. Placing this modern problem in a historical context can help us to understand why this city is at the heart of any talk of Middle East peace. The establishment of Jerusalem as the capital of a united Jewish state is a great source of nationalistic pride for secular and religious Jews alike. David the King made it his seat of power and it remained as such for nearly 1,000 years. In addition to this national pride felt for this place, the sacred nature of Jerusalem binds the Jews to his place as well. Jerusalem was the site of the first temple built by Solomon. The remaining wall of the second, reconstructed temple still stands and is considered a sacred site for modern orthodox Jews. For reasons both nationalistic and religious, Jerusalem is a vital place for Jewish identity. This is clear from the sacred writing found in the Nev’im where it states, â€Å"Rejoice for Jerusalem and be glad for her, All you who love her! Join in her Jubilation, All you who mourned over her [for]†¦I will extend to her Prosperity like a stream, The wealth of nations like a wadi in flood.† (Isaiah 66:10,12). It may be this fe rvor for controlling Jerusalem that led the Israelis to declare Jerusalem as the capital of their new nation in 1949, just two years after agreeing that it should be a divided, internationally controlled heritage city. In 1980, Israel did away with any partitioning, declaring Jerusalem a unified city. Christians look with a religious attachment to Jerusalem because so much of the life of Jesus Christ occurred there. Sacred sites such as the hill of Golgotha and the Garden of Gethsemane have long attracted pilgrims from all over the world. The attachment to Jerusalem took a decidedly political turn for Christians after its annexation by Muslims. In 1095, at the urging of Pope Urban II, Christians took up arms to

Amazons Business Model: A Case Study

Amazons Business Model: A Case Study Discussion of Amazon’s business model, and the impact of information technology for the internal organisation of work. What is their business model? Many academics believe that Amazon’s outstanding success as an Internet retailer compared with many of its rivals has been due largely to its ideal business model and swift response to the changing market since its inception. (Global Market Information Database, 2003) To begin with, Amazon chose the perfect product lines for e-commerce, with products that consumers did not need to handle in person before making a purchase: initially books, but then spreading to DVDs, music and other media. Furthermore, consumers in the book and music categories tend to desire information when they shop online, which Amazon was able to provide on its sites through reviews and recommendations. Amazon consumers appeared willing to pay a little extra for this convenience, although the recent competitiveness of the market has forced the company to cut prices or use other promotional techniques, and shift the focus of its business model from pure quality driven back towards price driven. Amazon then turned to diversification, and extending its product offer in order to widen its customer base and improve margins, with the result being that the company has focused strongly on building up its product portfolio to offer customers more choice. In 2001, Amazon increased its range of electronics and tripled its kitchen selection, as well as launching computer and magazine subscriptions stores, and set up strategic partnerships with retailers such as Target and Circuit City. In November 2002 Amazon.com announced the launch of a new online apparel store with items from retailers including The Gap, Old Navy, Lands End, Nordstroms, Cole Hahn, Osh Kosh, Spiegel, Eddie Bauer, and Foot Locker, amongst others. This diverse business model has enabled Amazon to grow both its market capitalisation and profitability, and become largely accepted as the world’s leading online retailer (Global Market Information Database, 2003) The company also concentrates on improving convenience with new features, such as the recently launched ‘Instant Order Update’, which warns customers if they are about to buy the same item twice. Marketing itself as offering Earth’s Biggest Selection, the company aims to be the world’s â€Å"most customer-centric company†, operating through its three basic businesses: Online Retail; Marketplace and Other; and Third-party Sellers. Amazon also recently began to target the institutional market as well as consumers expanding its business model in order to drive a new source of revenue: renting out its site-building services to other companies. It owes much of its relative financial well-being, compared with other pure Internet retailers to the site-building and hosting services it has sold to clients such as Borders and Toys â€Å"R† Us. (Global Market Information Database, 2003) Indeed, a recent article by Sutton (2005) focuses on Sears Canada Inc., which has recently stated that it will turn over the technology component of its online retail presence to Amazon to capitalize on Amazon’s years of expertise in customer-facing Web sites. â€Å"Sears.ca will remain very much a Sears brand,† according to spokesperson Vincent Power, (Sutton, 2005) with little to indicate Amazons involvement from a customers perspective, and Sears will continue to host the site, using the same internal fulfilment house that handles customer orders from the site and from the Sears catalogues. Amazon Services Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon.com Inc., will handle the arrangement which is only the latest in a series that Amazon has struck with other retailers recently. The idea of retailers, both huge and small, outsourcing their Web sites has gathered momentum in recent years, said retail analyst Jim Okamura with Chicago-based J.C. Williams Group (Sutton, 2005), and Amazonà ¢â‚¬â„¢s business model is now aligning itself to take full advantage of this fact. Strategic alliances are another integral part of Amazon’s business model, and the company has entered into a number of agreements to expand its range of products and services by allowing selected strategic partners to sell products and services under co-branded sections on the Amazon.com website. These alliances have generally consisted of Amazon making, or having the future right to make, a minority investment in the companies, and the entry into commercial agreements, which vary in scope, from customer advertising activities and links, to recently announced deals involving the sale of products and services on co-branded sections of the Amazon.com website. These alliances have developed from the successful alliances the company forged in 2001, with such companies as America Online and Target in the US, and Virgin Wines in the UK. Amazon also expanded its product offering under its Toysrus.com strategic alliance to include Babiesrus.com and Imaginarium.com co-branded stores at www.amazon.com. In addition, the company entered into strategic alliances with Expedia, Hotwire and National Leisure Group to create its travel store, further fulfilling its diversification aims. Amazon’s marketing strategy is one of the most typical parts of its business model, being focused on strengthening and broadening the Amazon brand name, increasing customer traffic to its websites, building customer loyalty, encouraging repeat purchases and developing incremental product and service revenue opportunities. However, the unique part of this section of its business is that in order to accomplish this, the company employs tactics such as delivering personalised pages and services and using a variety of other media, business development activities and promotional methods. Amazon also relies on public relations activities, as well as online and traditional advertising, including radio, television and print media, and direct marketing, however one of the primary ways the company directs customers to its websites is through its â€Å"Associates Program†. This enables associated websites to make products available to their customers with fulfilment performed by A mazon, and is remarkably successful: by 2001, more than 700,000 websites had enrolled in the Associates Program. (Global Market Information Database, 2003) What many consider to be the defining characteristic of Amazon’s business model is that the firm has no physical retailing activities, operating only via the Internet. However, its virtual operation is very much underpinned by administrative and service facilities, and in 2001, these consisted of US fulfilment facilities in New Castle, Delaware; Coffeyville, Kansas; Campbellsville and Lexington, Kentucky; Fernley, Nevada; and Grand Forks, North Dakota; as well as a seasonal fulfilment centre, used as necessary, in Seattle, Washington. The company also leases and operates three European fulfilment centres located in the UK, France and Germany and, in Japan, the courier company Nippon Express provides fulfilment services for orders from www.amazon.co.jp. These fulfilment centres comprise in total around four million sq ft of warehouse space, and in addition, Amazon leases four off-site facilities that fluctuate from 340,000 to 710,000 sq ft of space, which support the storage an d fulfilment functions of the US centres. (Global Market Information Database, 2003) What are the technologies used by the organisation in pursuit of competitive advantage? In Hamid’s (2005) article, he focuses strongly on the fact that Amazon offers many interesting variations on the strategic applications of Internet technology, in order to enhance customer relationship and acquire customer loyalty. Obviously, Amazon’s offerings of personalised services, confirmation of orders in real time and other value added activities substantiated the ability of the Internet as a competitive tool. As the number of internet users is growing rapidly around the world, retailers are under great pressure to take advantage of this huge online market potential. However the challenge is whether online retailers can match up with other, â€Å"bricks and mortar† competitors worldwide in terms of services rendered on the Internet. Hamid investigated the level of Internet technology applied by web sites in view of global electronic marketplace competition, finding that many Internet retailers are still lagging behind in fully utilizing the strategic pote ntial of the Internet particularly in enhancing customer relations. However, Amazon is already way ahead of this, using some of the technologies described above, and plans to cement its lead further in the next five to ten years and, in doing so, revolutionise the book business yet again. Curtis (2005) analyse Amazon’s recent acquisitions of on-demand book printer ‘BookSurge’ and e-book company ‘MobiPocket’, claiming that they may signal a coming transformation of the publishing business, one that includes an end to the industrys biggest problem: that of returns. Since practical ‘print on demand’ (POD) technology became available in 1998, it offered retailers the vision of a book business driven by demand-and-supply, rather than the current consignment model, and Amazon is ideally placed to turn that vision into reality (Curtis, 2005) Given that the retailer owns or leases well over four million square feet of warehouse space, no small portion of which is devoted to books, and employs 9,000 people to process orders, it would benefit immensely if it could forward orders to a printer to drop-ship books directly to customers. Not only would this benefit Amazon itself, but also potentially the publishers, helping Amazon develop strong relationships with yet another stakeholder group. One strategy might be for Amazon to print pre-sold books in its own plant which, aside from shifting printing and shipping costs from publishers to the retailer, would also sharply reduce the guesswork for publishers setting print runs. Given current economies of scale for large print runs of big books, its likely publishers would, at least for the foreseeable future, continue to print books the traditional way for brick-and-mortar accounts. However, Curtis (2005) claims that even a mix of POD and traditional printing makes more sense than the current reasoning that you can make more money by printing a million copies and selling half of them than you can by printing half a million and selling all of them. Though POD manufacturing costs are currently far higher than those of traditional long print runs, longer POD print runs, and lower unit costs, will become more common if the number of pre orders on the site continues to rise, and as the technology continues to improve, especially given Amazon’s access to detailed customer data which it can use to predict future retail trends. Equally, Amazons acquisition of the e-book retailer, ‘MobiPocket’, enables the company to contemplate developing virtual publishing in its purest form: eliminating hard copies and delivering virtual books electronically to customers at a fraction of the current cost. As Amazon masters these technologies and delivery systems in the coming years, perhaps even becoming a publisher in its own right, it will be harder and harder for traditional publishers to support the outdated consignment model, and potentially giving Amazon its highest ever level of competitive advantage. Indeed, trade publish ers may find themselves shifting to a system in which most books are pre-sold, regardless of the channel, further increasing Amazon’s advantage over the traditional stores. Curtis, R. (2005) What are the implications of this technology on the internal organisation of work? One of the key implications of the importance of technology to Amazon is that the company has to maintain its edge in technology: an edge that is more critical than ever as Amazon increasingly squares off against sophisticated e-commerce survivors like eBay, whilst controlling the potentially massive costs of said technology. Just two and a half years ago, Amazon spent 11 cents on tech for every $1 in sales, but now the company spends only about 6 cents. All told, Amazons tech spending has fallen 25 percent from its September 2000 peak, even as the company added nine new categories to its retail lineup and signed on dozens of new corporate partners. However, despite the need to slash unnecessary costs, at other times, its much better to invest your way to efficiency and, as Amazon’s head of technological development claims: â€Å"You cant be cheap for the wrong reasons.† (Thomas, 2003) As such, Amazon’s internal staff have embraced open-source coding, replacing Sun servers with Linux boxes from Hewlett-Packard, and necessitating a whole new organisational structure for the technological development staff. For every $1 spent on the new hardware, the company saved $10 in license fees, maintenance, and expected hardware upgrades, but also has to learn and adapt to the new processes and systems. The company has also been willing to spend to save, maintaining its own warehouse-management software, which has to be built and maintained by internal staff, even though ready-made alternatives like Logility might cost as little as $375,000. However, with its own software, Amazon can tweak inventory algorithms whenever it wants so that, for example, a book isnt shipped to New York from a Nevada warehouse when it could be sent faster and cheaper from Delaware, and managers can have greater control over their own warehouse staff. (Thomas, 2003) Equally, although Amazon’s partners are primarily intended to generate revenue, they are also used to help control internal costs: the company has recently began to invest in Web services and tools that make it easy for partners to hook into applications Amazon had developed for its own use. Now retailers like Nordstrom and Gap can feed their inventory into Amazons new apparel store without a lot of custom coding, and freelance programmers can build their own online stores using Amazons payment, fulfilment, and customer services, meaning that Amazon’s internal staff only need track these stores and ensure they are using the services correctly, rather than have to handle all the marketing and coding themselves. For example, a Romanian coder created www.simplest-shop.com, which uses Amazons Web services tools to extract product data from Amazon and then fashions side by side comparison tables, which is a feature not available on Amazon.com, essentially doing Amazonâ€℠¢s marketing and retailing for it. (Thomas, 2003) Amazon’s recent shift towards cutting costs has also has an effect on its internal organisation of work: in 2001, Amazon embarked on a restructuring plan which would lead to a reduction in its personnel numbers by some 1,300, or 15% of its workforce. This also involved: the consolidation of Amazon’s corporate office locations in Seattle; the closure of its fulfilment centre in McDonough, Georgia; the operation of its Seattle fulfilment centre on a seasonal basis; the closure of its customer service centres in Seattle, Washington and the Netherlands; and the migration of a large portion of its technology infrastructure to a new hardware and software platform. The company estimated that the restructuring would result in costs during the first half of 2001 exceeding US$150 million relating primarily to severance, fixed asset impairments, continuing lease obligations and other exit costs related to the restructuring. The restructuring has also lead to fundamental changes in the roles of its staff, and the organisational structures within which they work, with many staff taking over greater responsibilities and a greater scope of work. (Global Market Information Database, 2003) References: Curtis, R. (2005) Gone Today, Gone Tomorrow? Publishers Weekly; Vol. 252, Issue 30, p. 74. Global Market Information Database (2003) Amazon.Com, Inc. Euromonitor International. Hamid, N. R. A. (2005) E-CRM: Are we there yet? Journal of American Academy of Business, Cambridge; Vol. 6, Issue 1, p. 51. Sutton, N. (2005) Sears Canada turns over Web management to Amazon. Computing Canada; Vol. 31, Issue 7, p. 11. Thomas, O. (2003) Amazon’s Tightwad of Tech. Business 2.0; Vol. 4, Issue 1, p. 104.

Essays --

Throwing a ball over the net is not all there is to volleyball. It might seem like an easy physical activity, but it has its complications like any other sport. The beginnings of volleyball go down in history. For being one of the youngest and widely known sports in the world it still thrives today. It all started with the creation of the sport, what it came to be, and how it grew into what it is today. As always, the inventor of the sport comes first. William G. Morgan created volleyball in the Holyoke, Massachusetts’s gymnasium in 1895 (Jenson 8). He wanted to combine some skills of baseball, basketball, handball, and tennis into a whole different sport (History). He believed that taking aspects of multiple sports and putting them into one, would have a good affect in the sport’s world. In addition, Morgan originally gave the sport the name of â€Å"Mintonette† after badminton (history-of-volleyball). Although; he later realized that in the game, players volley the ball back and forth, so he created the name â€Å"Volleyball.† The ball used in volleyball is the same name as the sport and the first special designed ball was created in 1900. Furthermore, because basketball had already been invented he chose to create a less violent and intense game for older students. Even though volleyball isn’t a fierce game, a lot of your energy is used. In fact, average volleyball players jump about 300 times in a match. Within volleyball, contact is not permitted between teams, because players are divided by a net anyways. Together with playing the game, there are rules and pointers that need to be followed. As well as any other sport, volleyball has its basic rules and way to play. Volleyball is played by two teams of six players on a court divided by... ...held in 1949 and 1952 for woman. Moreover, in most high schools around the world, there is most likely to be a girl’s volleyball team than a boy’s. In addition, volleyball is the second most played and popular sport in the world. An interesting factoid is that the sport was 100 years old in 1995 (history-of-volleyball)! In final consideration, I believe that volleyball is a phenomenal sport. It creates team work, skills, and the confidence to win the game! It has a long history, but it has created something great today. Surely, volleyball will just get better and better as the years go by. The inventor, its basic rules, a different type, and the growth of the sport have all contributed to its beginnings. A volleyball quote says, â€Å"Either it is in your heart, or in your face.† So if I were you, I would head out to the court, and enjoy a game of this fascinating sport!

Where is Cole Group vulnerable? What should it watch out for?

Question 2: Where is Cole Group vulnerable? What should it watch out for? As a company with millions of customer throughout 2, 900 stores, The Coles Group certainly be one of the top companies in Australia and New Zealand. However, it has lost its market share to the more enhanced and focused Woolworths company. The loyalty program battleground between two companies seemed more advantages over the Woolworths side since it gained 40% of market share with less on 50% advertising spending. There are some possible problems the Coles Group has to consider while managing its broad relationship marketing programs.First, their customer may find it very difficult to understand and remember all the complexity of saving points promotion. Second, it may cost even more in advertising and marketing to inform the customer all the benefits they can get from the diverse collection of Coles Group promotions. People are confused to count all the points, discount, actual value they can get from the FlyB uys card. On the other hand, The Woolworths offered the simple, logical program of discounts points via WoolworthsCredit Card, so the Woolworths can deliver these loyalty programs to the customer better. Moreover, with millions of members through FlyBuys and Coles Group Source MasterCard, the system may misreport the reward points for the customer and cause some serious customer complaints.References:Bianca Hartge-Hazelman. (2012, 11 July). The loyalty program battle ground .The Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 11 July 2012 from http://www.afr.com/p/personal_finance/portfolio/the_loyalty_program_battle_ground_4hwbD00hKdMWP6verYnLpN Madeleine Ross(2012, 7 Dec). Coles vs Woolworths: Who's winning?. Bandt.com.au. Retrieved 11 July 2012 from http://www.bandt.com.au/features/coles-vs-woolworths-the-battle-of-the-mega-marts http://wps.pearsoned.com.au/au_be_kotler_mktgmgt_1/85/21977/5626312.cw/-/5626314/index.html References cá » §a Case Coles Group. (2007). Welcome to Coles Group Limited. 1 November 2007, from http://www.colesgroup.com.au/Home/ Fenner, R. (2006, 31 July). Coles plans comeback to recoup market share [Electronic Version]. Retrieved 3 November 2007 from http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/07/31/bloomberg/sxcoles.php. Fenner, R., & Choudhury, A. (2006, 13 March). Coles Myer to offload its department stores [Electronic Version]. International Herald Tribune. Retrieved 1 November 2007 from http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/03/13/bloomberg/sxcoles.php. FlyBuys. (2007). Frequent Questions [Electronic Version]. Retrieved 1 November 2007 from https://www.flybuys.com.au/flybuys/content/information/faq.html. Howarth, B. (2007, 3 October). Beer and nappies and so much more [Electronic Version]. The Age. Retrieved 1 November 2007 from http://www.smh.com.au/news/businessinnovations/beer-and-nappies-and-so-much-more/2007/10/22/1192941044453.html. smh.com.au. (2004, 19 July). Woolworths reports $27.9b annual sales [Electronic Version]. Retrieved 1 November 2007 from http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/19/1090089068573.html?from=storylhs. Woolworths. (2007). The fresh food people. Retrieved 3 November, 2007, from http://www.woolworths.com.au/

Tune in to business-writing radio - Emphasis

Tune in to business-writing radio Tune in to business-writing radio Now, we know its not considered good form to blow ones own trumpet, but just this once we hope youll forgive us a little toot. Weve produced something we think youll want to hear. Weve produced a podcast. And by gum, were really rather proud of it. Firstly (unlike some podcasts) it doesnt sound like it was recorded in someones bedroom. Plus, it must be said: its got great credentials presented by 6 Musics Clare McDonnell, and produced by Melissa Da Silva, who spent 13 years working in BBC radio (and now also runs courses for us). But the main reason for us polishing up our brass is that our podcast is actually (gasp) useful. For example, in Octobers edition alone youll hear about how to get the best out of your emails, tips on defining your reports core message, the low-down on the success of the Governments swine flu leaflets and how to win a place on one of our courses. Phew. Speaking of useful items, our podcast is just one aspect of our new support section on our recently souped up website. Check out the rest here.

Icebreaker Games for the First Day of Drama Class

Icebreaker Games for the First Day of Drama Class At the beginning of every semester, a drama teacher has a difficult challenge. How does one get twenty-three complete strangers to quickly become friends and colleagues? Circle icebreakers help students and teachers learn names, project voices, and express themselves. Each one of these activities provides an entertaining experience. The games may be simple enough for elementary students, but teens will have just as much fun, if not more! There are many variations of these activities, but the first and foremost step is to form a circle so that all of the participants can clearly see one another. Name Game This is an ideal first-day activity. Each person announces her name while stepping forward and striking a pose that reflects her personality. For example, Emily might hop out, angle her arms like an Egyptian hieroglyphic and joyously shout, â€Å"Emily!† Then, everyone else jumps forward and copies Emily’s voice and movement. Afterward, the circle returns to normal, and then it’s on to the next person. It’s a great way for everyone to introduce themselves. World's Greatest Sandwich In this fun memory game, the players sit in a circle. One person begins by saying his/her name and then states what ingredient goes on the sandwich. Example: My name is Kevin, and the worlds greatest sandwich has pickles. The next person in the circle announces their name and says Kevins ingredient as well as her own. Hi, my name is Sarah, and the worlds greatest sandwich has pickles and popcorn. If the instructor chooses, everyone can chant along as the sandwich grows. The last time I played this game, we ended up with a Pickle-popcorn-meatball-chocolate-syrup-grass-eyeball-lettuce-pixie dust sandwich. This activity helps the students build memorization skills. And finally, have the kids pantomime taking a bite. Whoozit For this game, one person is chosen to be the â€Å"Seeker.† After that person leaves the room, another person is chosen to be the â€Å"Whoozit.† This player makes constant rhythmic motions that change every twenty seconds or so. For example, first, the Whoozit might clap his hands, then snap fingers, then pat his head. The other circle members discretely follow along. The Seeker then enters, hoping to figure out which student is the Whoozit. Standing in the middle of the circle, she gets three guesses while the Whoozit tries his best to constantly switch actions without being noticed. [Note: this is essentially the same game as Indian Chief, though the name is more politically correct!] Rhyme Time In this fast-paced game, the instructor stands in the center of the circle. She names a setting and a situation. Then, she points to one of the players at random. Using improvisation skills, the player begins telling a story with a single sentence. For example, he might say, â€Å"I just found out I have a long: â€Å"I guess Mom tossed a coin and my Bro didn’t win.† The rhymes are couplets, so the next chosen player creates a new line of the story with a new sound. The improvised tale goes on until a student fails to produce a rhyme. Then he sits in the middle of the circle. This goes on until the circle shrinks down to one or two champions. Instructors should make certain to increase the speed as the game progresses. Players may want to prohibit tricky words like orange, purple and month.

Term project Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Term project - Assignment Example Kansas was first settled by European Americans in the 1830s, but the pace of settlement accelerated in the 1850s, in the midst of political wars over the slavery issue. When it was officially opened to settlement by the U.S. government in 1854, abolitionist Free-Staters from New England and pro-slavery settlers from neighboring Missouri rushed to the territory to determine if Kansas would become a free state or a slave state. Thus, the area was a hotbed of violence and chaos in its early days as these forces collided, and was known as Bleeding Kansas. The abolitionists eventually prevailed and on January 29, 1861, Kansas entered the Union as a free state. After the Civil War, the population of Kansas grew rapidly, when waves of immigrants turned the prairie into farmland. Today, Kansas is one of the most productive agricultural states, producing high yields of wheat, sorghum, and sunflowers. Kansas is the 15th most extensive and the 33rd most populous of the 50 United States. Kansas is bordered by Nebraska on the north; Missouri on the east; Oklahoma on the south; and Colorado on the west. The state is divided into 105 counties with 628 cities, and is located equidistant from the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The geographic center of the 48 contiguous states is located in Smith County near Lebanon. The geodetic center of North America was located in Meades Ranch, Kansas, Osborne County until 1983. This spot was used until that date as the central reference point for all maps of North America produced by the U.S. government. The geographic center of Kansas is located in Barton County. Kansas is underlain by a sequence of horizontal to gently westward dipping sedimentary rocks. A sequence of Mississippian, Pennsylvanian and Permian rocks outcrop in the eastern and southern part of the state. The western half of the state has exposures of Cretaceous through Tertiary sediments, the latter

Final Ethics Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Final Ethics - Assignment Example This is to mean that altruistic individuals live for the sake of the good of others. As seen in the research conducted by Albee (2014), the author also explains that individuals have the obligation to act not on their own needs but on the needs of others. On the other hand, utilitarianism works on the grounds that a good act is one that increases the satisfaction of individuals as well as the society at large (Albee, 2014). However, the individuals in question are expected to lead a happy life. A maximization of utility is the basis on utilitarianism such as individuals seeking to lead a successful life, having stability in life, minimize chances of them suffering (Albee, 2014; Braybrooke, 2004). This means that the ends substantiate the means for the case of utilitarianism. The proponents of utilitarianism include Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham. One of the major differences between altruism and utilitarianism is that altruism does not advocate for any form of individualism while utilitarianism advocates for general good, but the individual can to satisfy their needs. Utilitarianism produces happiness while altruism focuses on reducing any chance that unhappiness may occur in individuals (Albee, 2014; Braybrooke, 2004). Altruism and utilitarianism are similar in that both advocate for happiness as the end result of all actions of humans. Both ethical perspectives have some element of morality in them. The two also have some form of pain and satisfaction after an action (Albee, 2014; Braybrooke, 2004). The case of altruism can be well explained in the case of volunteering in a job as opposed to getting a job that would be well paying. When an individual forego a well-paying job to go for a volunteer job such as planting trees or caring for the elderly or sick patients, this may be termed as altruism since the individual has opted to sacrifice