Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Treasure of the Sierra Madre Book versus Film Essay

Treasure of the Sierra Madre Book versus Film - Essay Example This makes the storyline more interesting as it captures the viewers’ attention more. Many screen adaptations and ancillary elements are also culled for the movie (Huston). The elements which are regarded as the factors which led to the oppression of the native Mexicans, establishes and provides a persuasive and unifying theme that is more intense than it is in the novel. This gives an interesting and enriching counterpoint to the story of the main and central characters. The novel depicts a more forceful, unpretentious and sophisticated political awareness than the film. This is because the film mainly focuses on the adventures and forgets about the finer details of the situation. The novel is also easier and more interesting because of Traven’s writing style. He is very straight forward and keen on giving details. This makes the novel to be more convincing and moving than the movie. The detailed portrayal of the Mexican society seemed to be accurate in the novel than in the movie. The parallel between the Mexican oil field workers and the gold prospectors gets shown more clearly in the book. Also in the book one gets an understanding how they came to exist. In the movie’s train robbery scene, the bandits led by Hat, attack the train but they were fought off by the passengers including Howard, Curtin and Dobbs. In the book, Howard, Dobbs and Curtin never met Hat until where he said, â€Å"I don’t have to show you any badges† (Traven 205). When McCormick cheated Curtin and Dobbs of their wages they confronted him. In the novel he pays them without a fight after he discovered that they had intentions to beat him up if he failed to pay up. In the movie they attacked and beat him up before taking the amount of money that he owed them (Huston). This proved that they were honest men as they could have taken whole the money that McCormick had. This scene was the one that made the movie more eventful and interesting.

Monday, October 14, 2019

Plastic Bag Usage Essay Example for Free

Plastic Bag Usage Essay Plastic bags should be banned because they affect the environment in many ways. There are many reason why they should be banned some of the reasons are because sea animals environment died because of this and it makes are oceans dirty. And I am going to tell you why plastic bags should be banned. Plastic bags disrupt the environment in a serious way. They get into soil and slowly release toxic chemicals. Plastic bags are affecting the environment because animals eat them and often choke and die. Plastic bags end up in landfills or floating around in the environment. It takes hundreds of years for plastic bags to decompose and while they do they release toxins into our soil, lakes, rivers, and oceans. A way to reduce plastic use is to never litter and always dispose of trash properly. Plastic absorb, toxic chemicals, which can be dangerous to fish and other sea life that ingest them. Plastic bags pollute our oceans and kill sea turtles in particular. They are often mistaken for food by dolphins, whales, and sea birds. Plastic bags cause over 100,000 sea turtles and other animal deaths every year nearly 90 % of the debris in our ocean is plastic. We could reduce plastic usage by recycling plastics whenever possible. Plastic debris affects wildlife, human health, and the environment. Petroleum is required to produce plastic bags. Petroleum produce are diminishing and getting more expensive because we have used this non-renewable resource increasingly. Plastic bags are a huge waist and a huge polluter to our oceans. Some cities have taxed plastic bags or even banned them. People want plastic bags to get banned because they are polluting the ocean. People think that banning plastic bags will make oceans cleaner. Plastic bags should be banned because they affect the environment and many ways. They should be banned because sea animals choke on them. They should be banned because animals are going extinct. I think if plastic bags are banned there will be less extinct to sea animals and the oceans will be cleaner.

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Collective Responsibility For Learning And Education

Collective Responsibility For Learning And Education It is often heard that two brains are better than one. And the idea of such makes perfect sense. One would suppose that by working together, more will be accomplished. But does this apply to a school, its administrators and teachers, and its students? As stated in this article, data was provided, hypotheses were assumed, and studies were completed to see if, in fact, collective responsibility does have promising impacts. Throughout the course of this essay, the importance of collective responsibility within a school and its effects on gains in achievement for early secondary school students will be examined, tested, and discussed. What is collective responsibility? The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy refers to collective responsibility as a shared responsibility (Smiley, 2005). This definition is displayed similarly in a school. Collective responsibility is all members of the school (including but not limited to administrators, teachers, counselors) accepting responsibility for the students success or lack thereof. Authors Valerie E. Lee (an associate professor of education at the University of Michigan) and Julia B. Smith (an assistant professor of education administration and school reform at the University of Rochester) conducted an experiment to determine if the organization of teachers work influences students. (Lee and Smith, 1996). This study focused on three theories: the before mentioned collective responsibility for student learning, staff cooperation, and control over classroom and school work conditions (Lee and Smith, 1996). The article states that it is important for a secondary school to bur eaucratically distribute knowledge into partitions with each group having its own set of experts. For example, teachers would undertake the role of knowledge experts. With this, teachers will be cooperating amongst one another in order to improve upon past teaching methods in hopes gaining student achievement. These educators will not only benefit from face to face interaction with their colleagues, but they will also take part in teamwork. (Lee and Smith, 1996). Lastly, the authors of this article believe that distributing control will produce more effective decision makers as teachers. This idea of empowerment suggests that decision making over resources, technical skills, and curriculum knowledge be handled properly by administrators and teachers. While there is no known relationship between teacher control and student outcome, there is a connection between teacher control and his or her attitude about his or her efficiency in the classroom. (Lee and Smith, 1996). The article sta tes, empowering teachers would induce commitment, and commitment would in turn influence student learning (Lee and Smith, 1996). To understand more about collective responsibility, a study was completed to focus on the shared boundary between teachers, students, and schools (Lee and Smith, 1996). The purpose of this research was to study the correlation between teachers work lives and the extent to which their students learn. Three hypotheses were presumed relating to the following subjects: responsibility and demographics, the teacher and his or her work life, and the teachers work life and equity. (Lee and Smith, 1996). The first hypothesis suggested that schools where teachers assume responsibility for learning enroll students who typically do better in school (Lee and Smith, 1996). These schools are said to be those with more privileged students according to their race, social class, or ability. Understandably, teachers would be more likely to accept acknowledgment for their students achievements if they are learning well. Conversely, teachers would be less like to accept blame for their students failures and pass the responsibility onto the children and their families. (Lee and Smith, 1996). The second hypothesis theorized that in schools where teachers take more respons ibility for the results of the teaching students learn more. In schools characterized by high levels of staff collaboration and teacher control, students also learn more. (Lee and Smith, 1996). And the third hypothesis suggested that features of teachers work live may either facilitate or debilitate the learning of disadvantaged students. Specificallyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ high levels of responsibility for learning are associated with learning that is equitably distributed within the school according to students social background. (Lee and Smith, 1996). These hypotheses were tested. Following are detailed descriptions of the method used to conduct this study. The sampling design was derived from a sample used in the first and second waves of the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) (Lee and Smith, 1996). NELS:88 was sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and is an all-purpose analysis of United States students and schools. The article discloses that one thousand middle grade schools (about 25 students in the eighth grade from each school) were tested in 1988. These same students (tracked through questionnaires) were tested again in 1990. (Lee and Smith, 1996). This sample included all NELS sophomores the fit the following criteria: Students must have full cognitive test data from the base year and the first follow up, Data must be available from their high schools and their teachers, Students had to be enrolled in public, Catholic, or elite private high schools, and Students must have been attending high school with at least four other NELS sampled students. (Lee and Smith, 1996). After the conditions were applied, 11,692 students from 820 different schools were studied. These schools consisted of 650 public schools, 68 Catholic schools, and 47 independent schools. (Lee and Smith, 1996). There were also certain criteria for the teachers of the students. In the base year the teacher sample was comprised of either the eighth graders mathematics or science teacher and either the English or social studies teacher (Lee and Smith, 1996). The teachers were subject-matched when the students reached the tenth grade in the first follow up according to the base year. Below is a pie chart of how the subjects mathematics, science, English, and social studies were distributed as a major subject area amongst the teachers. (Lee and Smith, 1996). Four measures were assessed as part of the teachers professional community. They are 1) collective responsibility for student learning, 2) the standard deviation of teachers responsibility for student learning, 3) cooperation and support among teachers and administrators, and 4) teacher control. (Lee and Smith, 1996). The outcomes from the base test and the follow up test were altered with item response theory (IRT) methods and ultimately compared to see the difference between the two tests. This difference was referred to as the gain score.. In science and social studies, the outcomes were equal from the base test to the follow up test. However, in mathematics and English, the follow up tests had to be adjusted to fit the students capabilities. Demographic measures included the students social class, minority status, and gender and the schools average social class, minority concentration, ability level, academic emphasis, and sector. (Lee and Smith, 1996). The analytic approach provided a descriptive analysis of teachers work lives. The schools were grouped into three categories: 1) high levels of collective responsibility for learning, 2) average levels of collective responsibility for learning, and 3) low levels of collective responsibilities for learning, based on the standard deviation above, within, or below the mean. (Lee and Smith, 1996). After the research had been completed, the results were presented. To understand the results, one must observe the tables presented in the article. When considering the descriptive differences among students in schools with differing levels of collective responsibility for student learning, note that the students are categorized into three groups based upon the levels of collective responsibility structure throughout the school they are attending: high-responsibility, average responsibility, and low responsibility (Lee and Smith, 1996). The students attending high responsibility schools calculate to a total of 1,226 students, or 10.5%, while the students attending average responsibility schools is a much greater total of 8,801 students, or 75.3%. Lastly, students attending low responsibility schools fall between high responsibility schools and average responsibility schools with 1,665 students, or 14.2%. (Lee and Smith, 1996). These outcomes can be found in table one in the article. Table two in the article display information regarding descriptive differences among schools with differing levels of collective responsibility for learning (Lee and Smith, 1996). Again, the levels of collective responsibility are sorted into three groups: schools with high levels of collective responsibility, schools with average levels of collective responsibility, and schools with low levels of collective responsibility. The number of schools filed in the high levels of collective responsibility is 134, or 16.3%, whereas the number of schools sorted into the average levels of collective responsibility is a significantly larger number of 548 schools, or 66.9%. The schools with low levels of collective responsibility rest slightly higher than those with high levels but considerably lower than those with average levels of collective responsibility at 138 schools, or 16.8%. The tables go on to show that

Saturday, October 12, 2019

Duties of Fidelity Essay -- Business, Duties of Reparation

Ross prima facie duties speak of fidelity, reparation, gratitude, justice, beneficence, non- maleficence and self-improvement. Even though Ross has explained each duties, it is still uncertain that how these duties can be implied in marketing activities. If we look at each duty, it is not easy to implement every duty in a situation unless it demands so. One has a prima facie duty (not) to do a certain action if and only if there is some moral demand for one (not) to do it (Baumrin, 1965). Therefore in order to execute these duties, understanding the circumstances is very important. It is understood that prima facie duties are expressions referring to a characteristic by certain individual act-tokens rather than by certain act-types (Atwell, 1978). A sense of which duties are towards the bottom of the scale and which duties are towards the top is to be made sure in order to achieve every duty (Robinson, 2010). Duties of fidelity are the duty of keeping up promises. The company should not promise anything to their customers that they cannot execute. Promise can be anything related to product quality, size, etc. Breaking a promise can bring down the value for the products as there will be no trust for the products in the market. Keeping up promises will encourage the customers to buy the product. According to prima facie duties, one cannot be blamed if he undertakes to make the right choice but it does not produce a good act (Meyers, 2009). Duties of reparation are only essential when one cannot keep up the promise or when unintentional mistakes happened. If the product is damaged then the product is to be recalled and repaired or new products have to be issued to the customers. Cash Payments can also be made fo... ...tilitarian can increase the costs for the company but they are responsible to do so because, the fault is not caused by customers. Whether a person’s action is morally justifiable, is a deontological question; whether the act is good is ultimately a consequentiality question (Meyers, 2009). According to my point of view what Maruti Suzuki did was correct but these faults are not supposed to be happened from a company like these. Instead of repairing faulty cars new cars is to be provided immediately when they recalled faulty ones. Also they should have taken additional efforts to help customers when they were waiting for their car to get repaired. They should have given bonus packages to their customers for the mistake happened. Even though it can add total cost for the company, it can support them in maintaining their customers and good will in the market.

Friday, October 11, 2019

Chinese government Essay

Ai WeiWei blurred the lines between the aesthetic and the political. According to the internet, aesthetic is defined as concerned with beauty or the appreciation of beauty. Ai WeiWei used art to â€Å"protest† against the Chinese government. Ai Weiwei was a creative man who thought of ideas how to represent the names of all the children who were killed in a deadly earthquake. A commentator in the movie claimed that Ai WeiWei was doing a job that the government should be doing. A deadly earthquake collapsed many buildings including homes and schools. Thousands of children were killed and were left unrecognized. Ai WeiWei wasn’t going to let this go. He assembled a project, full of volunteers to help him search for the names of the children who were killed in the disaster. He placed every individual name on his wall. The project inspired him to create more pieces of art work to revolt against the Chinese government. Ai WeiWei was a fearless man. Ai WeiWei was very involved with social media. He used twitter to share to the world how corrupt China’s government was. He left China when he said â€Å"Fuck You Mother Land. † Cameras are sometimes forbidden in China. Ai WeiWei was assaulted by a police officer, but that did not stop him from taking pictures in front court houses or of an officer who was at the scene when he was attacked. Ai WeiWei created a wall full of back packs to make other individuals aware of the children that died in the earthquake. During the 2nd anniversary, Ai WeiWei asked his followers to pick a name and record it on tape and share it to the world. Ai WeiWei was sharing his experience in China of the corrupt government with thousands of people around the world. Ai WeiWei made people aware of what was going on in China. Ai WeiWei became well-known through his work of art. He expressed his ideas through his work. Not only did his art make him well-known, Ai WeiWei captured many supporters to revolt against the corrupt system. Ai WeiWei was a man with no selfishness. He looked out for others and he was always looking and searching for ideas that would help him and his followers. Ai WeiWei was not afraid of the consequences, as long as he knew it was for the good.

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Sales Management and Personal Selling Essay

To address your immediate need from Kendrick Foundation Company (‘KFC’) for a price quote on Curl Metal Cushion Pads (Cushion pads or ‘CMCP’), it would be beneficial to establish a proper pricing strategy. It may also be beneficial to not only consider the short term, but also the potential long term pricing strategy for future consumers as well. To estimate the value price or price premium, it is advisable to keep in mind perceived value added propositions for your consumer. Also, as with most products, it is meaningful to perform a margin analysis based on potential pricing to customers to determine profitability of the overall product venture. Last but not least, external competition should also be considered as a factor on your product price. First, based on the information given, relative pricing analysis can be performed utilizing information from consumer purchases of conventional pads. Based on the price paid for the conventional pads for each projec t, it can be assumed the customer is willing and able to pay comparable pricing for CMCP (assuming the same benefits are created for users). A higher value price can be created by emphasizing the additional features or benefits of utilizing CMCP versus the conventional pads. The main additional features include more efficient pile driving time and less required time for change (overall less labor utilized), this value proposition can be estimated based on labor cost savings. In addition, CMCP are generally safer than the conventional pad, while the measurement of this value/benefit may be harder to measure, it is yet another selling point that could increase the price premium the customer is willing to pay for CMCP. For purposes of having a measurable pricing strategy, the focus of this analysis is on labor time savings. Assuming the average cost per Real Hour is $63/Hour for labor (HBS – Curled Metal Inc – Table A), and the willingness to pay for the material itself is same as what the customer paid for the conventional pads, the additional benefit from labor time saved (utilizing conventional pad as bench mark) can be considered cost savings to customers therefore, addition to customer perceived value. Table 1 – Revenue Analysis exhibits the cost to customer  for purchases of conventional padding (project based), this cost plus the labor cost savings switching from conventional pads to CMCP translates to an estimated per unit customer value price for CMCP. With comparable data collected for the two test customers, the estimated value pricing is $765/pad (based on selling 6 pad sets) and $1,392/pad (based on selling 5 pad sets) for size 11  ½, and $339/pad (based on selling 6 pad sets) for size >11  ½ Inch. This is evident of the upward price we can charge the customers, also, a differentiated price can be based on volume sold per set. To continue the flow of the discussion and to be conservative, we will assume the remaining discussion pertains to selling sets of 6 or at the $765/Unit (11  ½ Inch pad price) and $339/Unit (>11 1/2 Inch pad price). Second, margin analysis is necessary to determine profitability based on the aforementioned customer value pricing. Table 2 – Cost/Margin Analysis calculates the profitability per unit for short term (250 Units Production) and long term (500 Units Production), this analysis utilizes the estimated perceived value calculation along with prior information provided (HBS – Curled Metal Inc – Exhibit 6). Analysis is performed for the most popular sizing – 11  ½ inch pad, along with two other product lines to expand the production consideration. Result of the analysis concludes the 11  ½ product is most profitable among the three products. In regards to your consideration of whether to expend $150K on permanent tooling, based on our analysis, it does result in higher profit margin than using your original equipment. However, this is given that there is enough customer demand to cover the cost of the additional tooling. Lastly, based on the analysis, COGS will also decrease as production increases even with the additional spend for equipment (comparison of 500 units vs. 250 units produced). With uncertainty on market demand, and with limited resources on marketing research efforts, I would advise you to hold off on permanent tooling purchase until demand is more certain. Third, competitors and substitutable products could have an impact on product price. Since CMCP is the first of its kind to enter the market, you will have first mover advantage, however, competitors could enter the market with a similar product and additional pricing strategies, such as rebates/discounts or changes to list price may need to be considered. While it is not a huge concern during product launch period, it should something to be cognizant of  in case the product proves to be profitable. Further analysis should be performed to ensure maximum customer price value is captured. Based on the aforementioned information, I would suggest focusing efforts on the 11  ½ inch CMCP and charging the customers upwards of $765/Unit (based on selling sets of 6 pads) and $1,392/Unit (based on selling sets of 5 pads). In the short run, I would advise not to purchase the additional permanent tooling cost until there is more certainty around the demand for the product. In the long run, with proven sales records, the company can benefit from additional operational efficiencies from higher volume production. If you have any further questions regarding this, please do not hesitate to reach out to me.

Case Study for North Country Auto

Case Study for North Country Auto, Inc. North Country Auto, Inc. was a franchised dealer and factory-authorized service center for Ford, Saab, and Volkswagen. The company maintains its competitiveness by providing full services to its customers. For customers looking for a car, the North Country Auto not only provided options for new cars from those three brands, but also provided options to buy used cars from it. In addition, for customers with cars, the company can provide a variety of services to their car, such as service and repair under warranty or at the customers’ expenses. Example service and repair work are quick oil change, auto repair, the body shop work and auto parts supply. Recently, the company adapted a new control system as a strategy to improve its sales and increase its profit. There were five departments within North Country Auto: the new car department, the used car department, the service department, the parts department and the body shop. Originally, these five departments operated as part of one business. And the performance of each department was not individually evaluated. Under the new control system, all five departments operated as an individual profit center. The owner assumed that, by doing this, all managers of the five departments would be encouraged to increase their departments’ profit so as to have better evaluation and better income. However, under this new control system, there were still problems needed to be dealt with, because the business conducted by these departments affected each other. In this case, if one department tried to maximize its profit, it may affect the profit of other departments. For example, when the new car department manager tried to sell a new car, he would offer a very high trade-in price for the customer’s used car so as to attract the customer. If this high trade-in cost was allocated to other departments, it would be unavoidable that the cost of those departments would increase and their profit would decrease. Therefore, the questions raised from this case would be: should all departments be treated as an individual profit center; and how the transfer price should be set between the departments; as well as how to correctly allocate the cost among different departments. In my opinion, I think the parts department and the body shop should not be considered as the profit centers, since most demands for these two departments were from service department. If these two departments tried to maximize their profit, it would be very difficult for the service department to maintain high profit. In my opinion, the parts department and the body shop should be considered as cost centers. In addition, the transfer price among all departments should be the market price instead of another price determined internally. And any losses on inter-departmental business like trade-ins should be proportionally allocated to three profit centers: the new car department, the used car department and the service department. In addition, under the current control system, the year-end bonus of each department manager was based on his/her department’s performance. The profit to be evaluated was the department’s gross profit instead of its net profit. This evaluation method may encourage all managers to focus on selling activities only. They may ignore other important responsibilities such as cost control or reduction, as well as inventory control. Therefore, I think the evaluation for each department’s performance should be based on the net profit. This would encourage the managers to be responsible for overall cost control and profit-making.