Service Operations Management Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Service Operations Management - Case Study Example Using the processes described by Lovelock and Wirtz (2004), the customer support processes of British Airways were blueprinted. Specifically, this blueprint addresses services provided by British Airways from purchasing a ticket through the flight process. The customer segment refers to the three methods of buying a ticket: online, over the telephone or at the airport. Customer actions are clearly outlined along the top row of the blueprint - beginning with 'purchase ticket' through to 'claim baggage'. The contacts that customers have with employees are also identified in the blueprint, both onstage and backstage. Support processes are listed near the bottom of the blueprint, just above the physical evidence. Finally, links connecting customer to employee activities and to support functions are also clearly identified in the blueprint. Defining service as a process has considerable implications from a service operations management perspective in view of the fact that the process-view is seen as the foremost model in operations management (Ponsignon, Smart and Maull, 2007). ... Introduction Defining service as a process has considerable implications from a service operations management perspective in view of the fact that the process-view is seen as the foremost model in operations management (Ponsignon, Smart and Maull, 2007). Additionally, according to Roth and Menor (2003) service operations management as a field of study is important to the design, delivery and assessment of services. They further noted that the design of services is instrumental for allowing an organisation to make sure that its strategy can translate into operations. In other words, mistakes made at the design level will result in mistakes made in operations as well. Based on their understanding, Roth and Menor (2003) proposed that, in order to be effective, a service design must consider how services are delivered, what the concept of service is, and identify the right customers. This is illustrated in Figure 1. Figure 1: Looking at the big picture: the service strategy triad Source: Roth and Menor, 2003 Other authors and studies have indicated the importance of understanding the needs and expectations of customers which is vital to success in service design (Goldstein et al., 2002; Roth and Menor, 2003). By and large, the dominant purpose of such a design is to create a service that meets or exceeds customer expectations (Slack, Chambers and Johnston, 2004). A successful design is one that guarantees that both the service outcome and the process of delivering that service are such that will produce customer satisfaction (Dabholkar and Overby, 2005), which in turn drives customer retention. Indeed, service that is designed properly and is effectively carried out will provide an organisation with competitive advantage in its sector (Verma et al., 2002). A

Comparison of the discrimination Essay Example for Free

Comparison of the discrimination Essay To conclude this comparison of these two groups, the Dalits in India and the Indigenous Australians, I believe their situations can be linked and related to. The Dalits in India are regarded as the lowest of the low and are treated like rats. They are not given proper education and healthcare and not allowed to mix with non-Dalits. The IA on the other hand had there numbers decline mostly due to the European diseases brought to the country and also due to cultural genocide (the process of taking the aboriginal children and breeding them with non IAs, thus killing off the IA population). These two groups are closely related however in the case of the IAs they were the first natural inhabitants of Australia. This is the opposite to the Dalits, they were originally from India however the caste system in India has forced them into poverty. What has forced IA into poverty is the massive presence of the white population and has made the IA into a minority. However there have been recent apologies by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of Australia to the indigenous Australians, which I would say is respectful. However there has been no sympathy towards the Dalits from the upper classes, they want the Dalits to stay in this low status for as long as possible. To conclude I believe the Dalits suffer more than the IAs, not just because of the way they are treated but the sheer number of them as a whole. Bibliography: Research on Dalits: Internet (www.wiki.com, www.dalitnetwork.org) Research on IAs: Internet (www.wiki.com, www.indigenous.gov.au, www.pm.gov.au/media/Speech/2008/speech_0073.cfm Research using class notes on IAs and Dalits.

Troubled Years :: English Literature Essays

Troubled Years When William Shakespeare first started writing, He had problems with two fires that almost wiped out his house. He was forced to get married quickly.He had problems finding good actors, and later experienced writer's block. Even though Shakespeare was a great writer, he had many problems, which got in the way of his writing. William and his family have had problems with fires and other disasters. In 1554, part of Stratford was burned down. Shakespeare's house was almost burnt down but because there was a creek near the house it was saved (Levi 145). In 1555 there was another fire, even though fires were common then many houses and buildings were burnt down, but his house was not harmed (Levi 145). When William was about twelve, his father's fortunes began to take a dive. Though the reason for this is debated, many think that John Shakespeare neglected his family business and was involved in many lawsuits. As a result of their debt, John had to transfer land and mortgage his wife's estate. By 1578, the family became so poor that they didn't have to pay the local taxes. William left school at thirteen to help on the farm (Quennell 133). When he was older and first started writing his plays, many people did not like them, because of this, he became very discouraged and almost stopped (Halliday 158). Once Sh akespeare got started his performances nearly doubled. He had trouble keeping up on all the work and he could not write as much as he had before (Halliday 164). Throughout Shakespeare's career, he had many problems with actors. When Shakespeare hit it big, he had to find a lot of good actors to fill in the parts of his plays. He had many problems finding enough actors that were good enough. Also, when he had to do plays like Romeo and Juliet, he had to find a young man who could play a 14-year-old girl. This was very hard to do (Levi 148). When Shakespeare was known, he had almost no competition so he was able to not write as much and still be successful (Levi 144). Sometimes the inns that the players were meant to stay at were full; the actors were forced to sleep outside and on dirty floors (Ordish 422). In January 1593, the plague forced many London theaters to close because of the fear that the disease would spread.

Family Power Debate

Affirmative for egalitarian sharing of the family power base. The family has consensus over who has the ultimate say on the day to day decisions. Present day family has very complex type of structure which affects the powerbase determination. A family consisting of a mother (female), father (male), and a child or two will have a very different power base than a family consisting of two same gender parents or a family that has a single parent. Age of the parents and the children also contributes toward power base; when the children are very young, the parents have the power and when the children grow they have their own control.Different cultures have varied family structure based on what they have learned from their parents and grandparents. Socioeconomic status and educational level also contributes to the powerbase in a family. Even though all these factors contribute toward the powerbase, it makes a difference, especially in regard to health care management and family wellness. An adult family member remains to be the traditional base of power in several families which the whole family must accept to make the authority effective.For example, according to Hoffman as cited by Friedman et al (2003), in a traditional nuclear family the husband still maintains more decision-making power over his wife and that â€Å"parents almost always have more power than children † (p. 299). The following statement challenges that this idea is not the healthiest balance in today’s diverse family environment.Affirmative StatementI propose that an egalitarian sharing of power in today’s environment will create healthier family functioning. â€Å"No change in the American Family is mentioned more often than the gradual shift from one-sided male authority to the sharing of family power by the husband and wife. Declining sex role traditionalism, like many social changes, correlates with increasing complexity and conflict in family decision making† (Fried man, 2003). It is often hard in today’s time to get two individuals to agree to the same values. With the economy the way it is currently it takes two incomes to keep a family a float.With two incomes needed this often times leads to the husband and wife sharing the power; in other words and egalitarian system of  power sharing. This sharing of power results from the husband and wife working different hours to provide care for the children at all times. Another reason this sharing of power occurs is that the females in today’s society want to feel equal in their relationships, fueling the need for recognition and equal sharing of power in a family structure. An advantage to this view is that structure must be carefully assessed and recognized prior to distinguishing powerbase.Family function –the intimate, interactive and interdependent sharing of values, decisions, and commitment over time† (Kaakinen, Gedaly-Duff, Coehlo, Harmon-Hanson, 2010, p. 22) det ermines structure and therefore establishes powerbase. In the healthy family, with an equal powerbase is not only perception but a reflection of these values and consideration of leadership and justice. In a family whose perceptions are based on bullying, domineering leadership or abuse, powerbase is reflected by actions committed in fear of punishment and retribution.The opposite is true when the structure of the power is based on equal sharing of decisions and actions as a result of this family interaction structure. This view considers the positive or negative family interactions (structure) to affect the behavior of family members and that powerbase derives recognition from these interactions. What may be considered as perception of the power-holder(s) in family is actually the result of the positive or negative family behavior in response to structure. In a study done by Schoppe, Mangelsdorf, & Frosch, (2001), powerbase is determined by family structure.SolutionPowerbase can co nnote failed impressions as well. Outward assessment of inward mutual support processes are the family system as it exists and as it functions. Changes in what is occurring are changes in support processes as well as actual changes in how individuals exist and experience. Powerbase within the family in a healthy or non-healthy environment is determined by family structure, if the powerbase is shared equally by the adults a better example will be demonstrated and mimicked by the children ( Kaakinen, 2012).

Arthur Millar Essay

In this essay I am going to analyse the dramatic techniques that Arthur Millar uses in his 20th century drama called, ‘A View From The Bridge. ‘ The play is set in Brooklyn in the 1940’s when the Italians were immigrating to America to find work as they were poor and they needed to get away from Italy to find work to feed their families in Italy. Many of these immigrants entered America Illegally. The play is about a skilled docks worker in Brooklyn named Eddie Carbone. Eddie lives with his wife Beatrice and their niece, Catherine. Beatrice’s cousins named Marco and Rodolfo come to America from Italy to find work to feed Marco’s family in Italy, as they are very poor. They plan to enter illegally. Eddie has feelings for his niece Catherine that he should not have. Meanwhile Catherine falls in love with Rodolfo and Eddie hates him because he is jealous as he loves her and he cannot stand any other man looking at her and touching her. As a result Eddie decides to let the Immigration Bureau know that there are illegal immigrants in his building. In the play, Arthur Miller uses a number of dramatic devices many of which are seen in the first act but their significance only becomes apparent to the audience in the second act. These dramatic devices are: use of language, dialogue and its sub textual meanings, stage directions, characters’ actions, props and lighting. The first dramatic technique I am going to analyse is the use of language in Alfieri’s speech at the start of the play. Miller has put this at the start of the play to prepare the audience for what will happen later on in the play. The speech starts to develop tension because there are a lot of negative and violent words used. For example, Alfieri uses terms such as ‘Machine Gun. ‘ The effect of using a term like this is to create tension for the audience, as they now know that something bad is going to happen later on in the play. As the play progresses the audience realise that this is the only time when Alfieri uses negative and violent language. So his words take on a deeper meaning when the audience realises this. I am now going to look at Eddie’s language in the first act. His speech is simple but at the start of the play his words are more vibrant towards Catherine as he tells he that she is â€Å"walking wavy. † At the same time he also refers to her as a â€Å"Madonna. † This gives the audience the idea that she is pure and she is a virgin and Eddie wants her to stay as she is. † Listen, B. , she’ll be with a lot of plumbers? And sailors up and down the street? † This illustrates Eddie’s feelings for Catherine and it can also mean that he does not want any other men looking at Catherine or marrying her. Eddie’s dialogue changes when the cousins arrive. He uses working class American colloquial words, such as â€Å"Yiz have a nice trip? † when he asks the cousins Marco and Rodolfo about their journey. Eddie wants to make it clear that he is the man of the house and that he is in charge. These expressions are only used in the first act when he is speaking to Marco and Rodolfo. This builds tension because the audience know that Eddie is going to start trouble with Marco and Rodolfo later on.

Hr Strategies And Management When A Corporation Becomes Multinational Business Essay Essay Example

Hr Strategies And Management When A Corporation Becomes Multinational Business Essay Essay Example Hr Strategies And Management When A Corporation Becomes Multinational Business Essay Essay Hr Strategies And Management When A Corporation Becomes Multinational Business Essay Essay Q1 Changes in HR schemes and direction when a corporation becomes transnational and the impact of globalisation on a house s success and challenges. Ans1. The organisations may hold different grounds and motivations when they expand globally but most of them focus on increasing their net incomes with a larger turnover. The organisation has to equilibrate its concern schemes with the direction of human resources. This globalisation consequences in more foreign direct investings, helps them to gain foreign currency, have entree to more beforehand technological and direction patterns which may give a new way to their concern and operations. The corporations sometimes need to alter or transform their current patterns and manners while come ining a complete new and different country/ part. Hence the function of Human Resource section becomes critical while covering with such conditions. They may be following a peculiar scheme in their host state but the new state may coerce them to move otherwise so as to last in the market. This require HR section to construct a strong model to enroll local/ international employees, engaging, pull of fing a new work force together holding different civilization and penchants with the bing employees. It besides needs to understand the legal issues and complexnesss of different regulating manner. Therefore HR section needs to come up with a cohesive scheme to keep good image in the foreign market without impacting its operations in other parts. The corporation may follow the familiar patterns or the new patterns, whichever appears to be more profitable. The chief schemes that are adopted by the corporations may be loosely classified into following classs: Ethnocentric Polycentric Regiocentric Geocentric Ethnocentric: This HR scheme favors the house control of the parent organisation on its different subordinate units and franchisee. This scheme involves an upper manus of the traditional patterns of the organisation instead than exchanging to new local schemes. Here the new subordinates resemble their parent company. The company instead than using local people prefers the direction of cardinal places by the exiles ( i.e. the indigens of other states ) . This is by and large followed in the organisations which require proficient accomplishments that are hard to happen in the local people or necessitate clip for the preparation the local people. The foreign employment issues by and large restrict the smooth operation of the corporation in the host state. The company follows its traditional working and direction manner. This is by and large practiced when an established corporation tries new ventures in a less competitory market. Here the cost of operation is by and large high as all th e cardinal employees do non belong to the host state. This is fundamentally the central offices controlled methodological analysis which is besides known as planetary scheme. Polycentric: In this HR scheme the chief work force is of the host state where the corporation has merely established. All the places and work is managed and controlled by local employees instead than corporation A ; acirc ; ˆâ„ ¢s typical direction manner. This consequences in cost decrease in the wages and the traveling and lodging disbursals. Here the cultural barrier job and that of local linguistic communication is greatly reduced. This scheme lacks the migration among employees of the parent and the host state. This is based on local reactivity of the host state. In other words it is the multi domestic scheme. This besides provides better employment chances to the local people. But sometime this complete alteration in the direction may adversely impact the operations of the corporation. Regiocentric: This is similar to polycentric in which the host state subjects are employed. Here the direction construction is based on the regional unity and civilization. This allows easy migration of employees within the part but non to the parent state. For case a European state runing in Asia may let easy transportation or motion among the Asian Pacific employees but non with those of the European Union. Here an advanced web system is required to command the different parts. Geocentric: This is a span between the central offices controlled and part reactivity based scheme. This is a complex scheme where the places and stations are filled depending on the ability of an person instead than based on host/parent state nationality. This requires a strong and efficient communicating channel between the offices in different parts besides within the office because the employees of different states need to work together without know aparting on the racial or cultural evidences. The employees get to hold a better apprehension of different working civilizations and supply an chance to larn from each other. This besides allows motion of employees to different states, therefore assisting them to hold a better apprehension of the corporation. This scheme helps the organisation to do the best usage of its past experience and schemes in concurrence with the best chances of the new host states. Generally geocentric scheme is considered to be the ideal as balances both th eoretical ( traditional ) and practical ( local ) facets. This is besides called translational scheme. The above explained schemes can besides be classified into Adaptive Exportive Integrative Impact of globalisation on house A ; acirc ; ˆâ„ ¢s success Overlooking few exclusions, globalisation when applied with proper schemes largely has a positive impact on the net incomes and success of a corporation. It helps an organisation to follow advanced engineering and direction patterns of the host state. It motivates the employees to be more competitory and efficient. As a consequence of globalisation a corporation can seek new experiments in its merchandises and services. These experiments if successful allow the house to switch to these better methods. All these factors help the organisation to gain planetary acknowledgment and do fine-looking net incomes. The challenges being faced in different parts besides provide the competitory border to the organisation. Q2.The function of Enterprise Resource Planning ( e.g. SAP ) in Human Resource Management and the analysis of a cognition direction program that impacts on a house s public presentation. Ans2. The cervix interrupting competition in the market demands the organisation to be every bit efficient as possible which straight or indirectly inquiries efficiency of the Human Resource Management of any organisation. Thus a proper direction of human resources becomes really of import for the organisation. This requires the right rating and analysis of all the information related to the human resources of the organisation. With the growing of any organisation the information and information related to the employees and workers besides increases so the direction of this becomes hard. ERP ( known as Enterprise Resource Planning ) is a system that integrates the usage of computing machine in managing these informations in an efficient manner. This allows HR section to concentrate on the direction of the resources instead than blowing clip on the aggregation of them. Therefore ERP is a tool that uses different faculties to enter the behaviour and inside informations of the employees and links it with the aims of the company, therefore supplying better analysis platform. The faculties associating ERP and Human Resource are better known as HR faculties which narrow the spread between the usage of Information Technology and the direction of Human Resources. ERP allows easy flow of information between the different degrees of direction within and outside the organisation. ERP can do usage of a centralised database or may be divided into a figure of little faculties that allows the integrating of different section on individual computing machine system. The information collected through these separated faculties may be combined to give a broader and clear image to the assorted sections of the organisation. The ERP had different faculties for commanding different activities like fabrication, finance, supply concatenation, human resources, client relationship etc. The human resource faculty manages preparation, paysheet, clip, benefits, attending etc of the Human resources of the organisation. ERP provides a computing machine based machine-controlled system to command all these activities feeding and pulling informations into assorted faculties and so runing on a common platform. This allows entree to reliable and consistent informations together will finish transparence in its operation. Execution of ERP in Human Resource Management and its Role ERP consists of a figure of typical faculties known as the functional units. The execution of ERP requires trained professionals giving proficient accomplishments required to understand and implement ERP. Therefore by and large some experts supplying these services ( like SAP ) are required for implementing an ERP system in an organisation. The size of the corporation, extent of zombi and the construction of the organisation play a important function in make up ones minding the scheme for implementing ERP as different faculties at different degrees. ERP helps executives, directors, employees to utilize the accomplishments of their work force in an efficient mode by better planning, prediction and appropriate determination devising. Automation can be done for different functions like: Recruitment and Choice Employee Administration Payroll Cardinal Database Legal Reporting Different faculties can be developed for managing these activities at individually. Besides the combination of or more of these can be used together for better direction. Before really implementing ERP in any concern certain guidelines should be setup before manus like what information is to migrated, which is to be digitalized. Besides different sellers have different working scheme in implementing ERP, hence the chief motivations and aims of the industry should be taken proper consideration before implementing ERP. Now the function of ERP as different faculties in the direction of: Recruitment and Choice: This is one of the most of import maps of the HR section of any organisation at it forms the base for advancement of the organisation. Therefore deploying ERP in this procedure will assist greatly as it will do the undertaking of choosing campaigners easy based on certain pre-decided factors. Besides a separate ERP faculty may be developed for easing undertakings like readying of different inquiry sets for campaigners and so a transparent and fast judgment procedure. Employee Administration: This faculty deals with the direction of the information of the employees of the corporation. This includes hive awaying all the basic inside informations like name, appellation, experience, salary, address etc. This includes the storing of all the basic information in a separate faculty that can be used at different degrees of disposal if required. This truly facilitates the handling of informations, now alternatively of keeping separate printed or handwritten paperss ; a individual faculty on a computing machine will pull off all informtaion. Payroll: Management of different paysheet for different employees besides becomes a cumbrous undertaking with the addition in the strength of employees in the organisation. Therefore implementing ERP faculty in such an activity greatly reduces the feverish work. Cardinal Database: All these separate faculties can either be stored individually or alternatively they can be maintained as a individual database, with different employees holding entree to particular faculties merely depending on their stations. This saves the redundancy as now data is being stored on a individual database. This allows easy entree to the information which reduces the clip required to work out different jobs and questions of the organisation. Legal Coverage: Management of all the legal issues related to an organisation is besides really of import. ERP modules play a important function in the direction of all the contracts, duties, bonds etc. This makes the undertaking of the HR section in covering with employees and their duties trouble-free. Impact of Knowledge Management on Firms Performance: The definition of Knowledge Management varies from one organisation to another. Some organisations believe in the best usage of cognition direction for maximal productiveness and net income while other focal points on the usage of cognition of direction for strategic promotions. Therefore a sound and efficient usage truly helps in the success of an organisation. The impact of cognition direction can be seen straight in the better hazard direction of the financess and assets, besides minimising the hazard of people go forthing the organizing, handling of exigency state of affairss, strategic acquisition and amalgamation etc. Thus cognition direction has a really important impact on a house A ; acirc ; ˆâ„ ¢s success. Q3. How houses can use knowledge direction schemes to surpass competition ( for illustration, how does Wal-Mart outperform other planetary retail merchants through its logistics direction? ) and choosing appropriate HR patterns for guaranting work force public presentation. Ans3. Knowledge direction is besides one of the most debated subjects that play a major function in make up ones minding the success of an organisation. It is a scheme that exploits the intangible resources of an organisation in the best possible mode. Knowledge Management is the proper cognition of the information and communicating demands of an employee. Knowledge Management allows the qualitative survey of organisational direction system which for case aid in early and efficient completion of the different undertakings and run intoing the deadlines. This cognition can be applied at the undermentioned different degrees to accomplish success of the organisation as a whole. ARTIFACT LEVEL INDIVIDUAL LEVEL TEAM LEVEL ORGANIZATIONAL LEVEL INTERORGANIZATIONAL LEVEL ARTIFACT LEVEL: This includes the direction of paperss, pull offing informations which farther provides information about other informations, pull offing assorted semantics and algorithms etc. INDIVIDUAL Degree: At single degree this cognition system is used to keep profiles of each single employee and besides of the pull offing commission. This besides includes a proper direction of the silent cognition. TEAM Degree: At squad degree it manages the work flows of the complete construction of the organisation, happening all the possibilities of collaborative working environment, and the direction of the squad. ORGANIZATIONAL Degree: It includes managing of cognition related to the development of best suited schemes, pull offing competence among the employees and actuating them clip to clip. This besides covers developing of the direction manner of the organisation. INTER ORGANIZATIONAL Degree: At this degree it is used to pull off web with other organisations, direction of undertakings and future programs of the organisation. Therefore the application of all these schemes at different degrees will transform the complete on the job construction of the organisation in a better manner, therefore assisting to accomplish the ends easy and good structured mode. Thus a proper Knowledge Management System helps an organisation to place their countries of failing and so working on those losing countries. It besides improves the rational capital of a corporation and encourages the free flow of thoughts in the organisation which finally leads to greater productiveness. Logisticss Management at Walmart: The chief factor that allows Walmart to surpass its rivals its ability to cut down cost of their complete supply concatenation by managing it in an efficient mode. The benefits in the supply concatenation direction besides increase its other fiscal net incomes, therefore leting it to spread out more and more. The cardinal factor that distinguishes Walmart from other is the efficient usage of the cognition direction in make up ones minding its schemes. For illustration the denseness and site-to- shop logistic schemes have benefited it mostly. In the denseness scheme the Walmart shops are located comparatively close to each other, which allow a individual truck to do several cargos in a individual unit of ammunition. Thus the dense web of shops reduces the supply concatenation direction cost significantly. The site-to-store scheme is chiefly aimed at monetary value medium sophisticated consumers. This allows consumers to see the merchandise on the web site, together with its specification and pricing construction. After the consumer chooses the merchandise, it is being delivered to the desired location and that excessively at a really nominal monetary value. This attracts a big figure of new clients. Thus Walmart through its strong Knowledge Management system decides which scheme to follow in which part and so using it in a really efficient direction system in concurrence with proficient support if needed. The appropriate HR patterns include cover a really big sphere. Write from enrolling and choosing the most suited campaigner to the proper direction of the work force are the most of import activities of the HR section which lay the footing of development for any organisation. The public presentation of the employees mostly depends on the working environment inside the organisation. Thus it becomes of import for the HR section to keep a harmoniousness among the workers of the organisation, besides actuating them from clip to clip. The efficient direction of the available work force may take an organisation to make new highs by bettering the productiveness significantly.

Change your lense and change your world Essays

Change your lense and change your world Essays Change your lense and change your world Essay Change your lense and change your world Essay Change Your Lens and Change Your World The book starts with the story of the writer Facie Seal himself. The story concludes how a boy of sixteen years started supporting himself by teaching the primary classes and after getting married at the age of Just 17 with nothing in his hand to support him, he struggles very hard to fulfill his promise. Then he moves abroad for higher education for his family and come back after completing his education to serve his country. Still he was feeling something missing despite of having a good job. Then after extensive soul search and self-analysis he finds that he was made for mom other purpose so he started guiding, leading, motivating people through different books, seminars, coaching classes and counseling. The story itself is very motivating and gives a lesson that one must continue his struggle in any condition and have faith in the Almighty. Then the writer clears a few myths about success by explaining the examples of successful people , how they faced problems and difficulties through their Journey to attain success. In the first chapter writer focuses on accepting the responsibility of ones life. He believes hat the prime cause of failure is not accepting the responsibility of life and whatever good or bad the life of a person is; it is all due to the choices he has made. One must challenge the status and believe that he deserves the best, as he is unique. He should stop blaming and complaining and tell himself that I am consciously and willingly choosing the response to any situation or event. He must consider a fact that whatever response he chooses will have a major impact on his life. As a whole an individual must totally accept the responsibility for his career, health, happiness, mime, past, present and future etc. In the second chapter the writer emphasizes that a person must know himself. Knowing oneself nears that a person must know who he is, why is he created and what are his preferences, liking and disliking in his life. He must understand the contribution that he can make towards his own life. Facie explain that one should never be a copycat and he must have a belief that I am unique and special and no one in this universe is like me. One easy way to choose the career as well as a life purpose statement is to develop a hierarchy of preference. These preferences might include money, respect, appreciation, recognition and many more. In the third chapter the writer suggest that after soul searching and self-analysis the next step towards successful life is to define and develop a mission and a vision. One must understand that life without aim and vision is Just like a boy without soul and a flower without fragrance. He believes that the successful people go to their love not to their work. Lives without dreams and vision will not be motivated enough to achieve something. Facie suggest that for define preferences one should list down activities that he enjoys. Then using these preferences and activities one should Attlee Nils Nilsson statement. Tater Tie Nilsson statement one must Attlee a career for him. After assuming the responsibility of life,discovering the purpose of life and setting up the vision, the forth chapter involves starting to think positively. One thing common in successful people is that they are extremely positive thinkers (optimistic). Even after extreme sever condition they still believed that there is always sunshine after the thunderstorm. One must believe that there is some benefit from even each disaster. Always a high self-image can help a person thinking positively so developing a self image is crucial. The writer suggest that one must program himself for success by learning the vocabulary of success by using big positive words to express himself. One must keep believe in himself, his missions dreams no matter what others think about him. In the fifth chapter writer explain that no matter how good the plan might be how motivated a person is. Nothing is going to happen unless a person takes some vital decision convert his plans into action. For a start one person must developed a detailed plan for his mission. The detailed plan includes weekly/monthly activities goals. One must take thoughtful decision then he should stay very committed to his decision. For attaining success one vital thing is to bear pain a sacrifice. A person must decide against a short-term benefits in contrast with the long-term benefits. One must save time for important vitiates stay committed to make progress towards ones mission. To achieve success one must leave the comfort expose himself to new challenges in the every field of life. The sixth chapter is all about facing the set backs failures mainly. One must understand that the set backs failures are Gods way of teaching a lesson to make a person strong. There is always a hidden Opportunity in every disaster. The writer believes that there is no ultimate setback there is always a silver lining after a cloudy night that a person never fails unless he accept failure stop trying. One must remember that major decisions of life are taken at the time of set backs failure, not success. Successful people bounce back stronger like a ball after hit by a wall. A person must see the set backs as a learning process. One should understand that he can never change the wind but can always adjust his sales according to the wind. The seventh chapter focuses that one should keep a strong focus on goals, staying determined persisting with patience. Facie believes that focus towards goals should be strong enough to make him get out of bed early in the morning and going till late at night, a person must posses a strong will determination to do what he wants to do in life. So the patience presence are the keys to success as the road o success is never easy. The writer believes that good relationship with people are the asset of successful people. One must learn to be social live with people in a way that they love your presence. Spreading an idea making a team of people who share your similar thoughts beliefs will also help in the Journey. Considering people at your own level status will also make a person a very acceptable member of the community. The eighth chapter is all about living with character. Character is the foremost thing that will help a person in the society. There is a big preference in what is right and what we like, one must understand that difference. Honesty is the best policy so one must be honest to himself as well as to the others. Yale suggest Tanat one must Attlee certain principles AT Tie teen en snouts always follow these principles, no matter what the situation might be and what people comment about them. One must be more concern about his obligations then his rights before taking any decision a person must put himself in others boots. The ninth chapter is all about living with a service attitude. The service attitude is to river the society by contributing in the welfare of it. Facie suggest that one should practice law of giving I. E more you want of something, more you give away of that. He believes that a lot of problems prevailing in the society are only due to the reason of lack of service one should tallest spend 10 % of his income in welfare act. One should stop all the actions that are painful cause discomfort to others. Those who are unable to help the society in monetary terms, they can contribute in the term of other services. The last tenth chapter is all about living in the way Allah Almighty has described. The writer says that you must believe that you need a very sincere friend to live a happy peaceful life that friend can be no better then Allah Almighty. Live in the way God has designed for you leave the rest to him. No one has seen the future except Allah Almighty so one must involves him in decisions to have proper guidance have blind faith in him. One must remember Allah Almighty in good times so that he can remember him in bad times too. Never forget that a person prays for himself not for Allah, so always seek his guidance and be handful at achievements as well as failures The best thing I found about the book is its convincing style. The writer through different quotations lives of successful people clear the myths about success pathway to success in an excellent manner. The deep study of Facie about Islam and its preaching has also added elegance to this book. Each chapter of the book is very comprehensive. The book is written in a very easy language. As a whole the book is a perfect blend of Islam its implications and a must read for everyone.

7 YouTube Channels to Replenish the Stock of Your Essay Writing Music

7 YouTube Channels to Replenish the Stock of Your Essay Writing Music 7 YouTube Channels to Replenish the Stock of Your Essay Writing Music Music is a great thing to have when you are working. Music in the background can truly be beneficial for you when writing. The reason for this is that the brain does not actually tell time on a regular basis; it tells time based on the surroundings and environment. It is for this reason that listening to a boring lecture can literally feel as though it made time slow down, or when you are having fun with a loved one, time seems to speed up. Music plays a big part in this. Music can dictate to the brain whether time is going by quickly or slowly. Below is a list of great YouTube channels for music you can enjoy while writing your essay: Study Music Club Relax Channel EnjoyStudying Study Music StudyMusicProject Classical Music Compilation Relaxing Study Music Upbeat music with a fast tempo tells the brain that time is moving quickly. This is a great choice for those evenings where you have been working for hours and you are trying to combat sleepiness. Having happier, uplifting and fast music will make you think the work is going by slowly. This is best reserved for those times when you are handling administrative tasks like printing papers, stapling them together, emailing copies to yourself and your teacher, etc†¦ Slow, classical music will convince your mind that time is slowing down. This is ideal for when you need to relax and focus solely on your reading or writing. With calming and relaxing music in the background, your mind and subsequently your body will naturally relax. This is a great thing to have in the background as you are reading over multiple texts for research or trying to calmly put together a well-organized paper. It is very important to remember though that music with lyrics will prove distracting. So if you are trying to write a creative paper, you will likely find it harder to do if the music you have playing (slow or fast) has lyrics. The reason for this is that the brain is listening to the lyrics and going back and forth between focusing on the writing and focusing on the lyrics. This causes many distractions and delays. This is exacerbated by songs to which you have memorized lyrics. If you have memorized a song, or have heard it enough to subconsciously memorize it, then your mind will focus on that instead. When you are writing an essay, it is good to have essay writing music to help you stay motivated, but remember that music plays an interesting role in our level of production. So if you want to slow your mind down, pick something that is relaxing. If you want to speed things up and make a list of mundane actions seem interesting, then pick something fast paced. Just remember to avoid the music with lyrics you know quite well or you will end up distracted more often than not.

Nelson Mandela Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Nelson Mandela - Research Paper Example ‘Long walk to freedom† is his autobiography in which he explains the hard facts of his life. Tenure of his imprisonment and his personal life style is clear to understand in his book. Hardships and finally the victory and attainment of his aim became known to the world through his autobiography. Mandela’s father was a councilor to tribal chiefs in Transkei. Due to shortage of resources and non-availability of basic facilities, Mandela played games of young boys made of natural materials. He was the first one in his family to attend school. His life was dramatically changed after the death of his father from a disease when he was only 9 (Mandela 37). His circumcision ceremony was held when he was 16 years old. It was a tradition in South Africa as a symbol of manhood. According to rules, a boy cannot have his father’s wealth unless the individual is converted to manhood. Even than the land of his father was in the custody of white people (Bezdrob 78). Mandela joined the university college after completion of basic studies. This was the only institutes for black people to seek higher education. Finally, he was expelled from college for protesting against food and lack of power in student representative council (SRC) (Villa 45). Mandela entered in politics by joining the African national congress in 1942. Mandela joined the group of young Africans during Second World War that was finally converted to African national congress youth league (ANCYL). His dedication and work for racial rights earned him the secretary ship of council in 1947. This movement aimed at complete citizen rights and parliamentary representation of all Africans. ANCYL launched its campaign against unjust laws of 1952 under the directions of Mandela as volunteer in chief. Mandela was trailed for mass involvement in anti government campaigns. After the trails, he was prohibited to attend any gathering and was

MARKETING Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 4

MARKETING - Essay Example Which is why we attend colleges and vocational education? A career is a journey not a destination. It is made up of a series of job profiles that a person has to fulfil before he attains his goal. Therefore, it is very important for a person to have a clear idea about what he wants to accomplish. Every job includes certain tasks, duties and responsibilities. In order to execute a job one needs to have certain skill sets. Through a reflective commentary one can analyse the skill sets that a person has to inculcate in order to reach his career goal. This can be done through a proper analysis of one’s skills and abilities. First and foremost, a person should define clearly what his career goal is. No analysis is complete without accurate determination of one’s career goal. Then one should know exactly the skill sets that are needed to achieve that goal. After that a person should do an introspection of his skills and abilities. If he has the required skills matching his ca reer goal, he should look for avenues for its development. If he does not have the skills he should look for developing them through self development, training and counselling. I am a student of Westminster University which is located at London in the United Kingdom. I am studying International Business with Spanish. I have certain strengths and weaknesses. My strengths are self confidence, the ability to think high, the ability to work in a team. The area of my weakness has been my introvert nature. Also, at times I get confused under pressure. I believe that my educational background and also my attitude provide me certain opportunities in life. I believe in learning from others and acquiring experience. Experience can also help me to acquire more ideas and knowledge. Besides knowledge of International Business, I am also well versed in the maintenance of aircraft. I have got a rich and vivid work experience. I have worked in Saudi Airlines along

Critical thinking in management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Critical thinking in management - Essay Example Moreover, it is significant to understand that employees because play a great role among other defining factors. The question will be answered by including all the main arguments, the theories, authors who have contributed in their knowledge and understanding and case examples to illustrate the above arguments. Further, the question requires annotated bibliography and it will be provided at the end of the essay. Essay body Organisational behavior is a field which studies how people think, act and feel within a setting of an organisation (Sapru 2008). Outstanding managers have been identified and they possess four types of skills, which allow them to handle the process of behavior management effectively (Sapru 2008: 276). These steps include; being familiar with behavioral challenge, the ability to pick out the causes of current behavior, identifying a strategy for attaining behavioral goals, and the ability to implement and adjust the chosen strategy as required (Parler & Ritson 2005 : 1276). These are the pillars of management theory as discussed by Hartley (2006), Tsukamoto-Wagner (2008), and Brownlie et al (2008). On the other hand, guru theory is based on the assumption that the gurus promote maxims, which specify the behavior rules, but they never increase the managers’ competence as in the works of Bos & Heusinkveld (2007), Collins (2001), Parler and Ritson (2005), and Barabba et al (2002). However, the theory is significant when applied from the manager’s side. Organizational behavior in management is best handled using behavioral theories that are well discussed by Bucklin et al (2000) and Baron and Greenberg (2008). This field of study was created around 1900 and its major perspectives have included scientific management (Tsukamoto-Wagner 2008: 361), human relations approach (Van de Ven 2003), and contingency approach as the latest (MANAGE 2012: 1). According to the analyses of Wallach (1983: 32), Alvero et al. (2000: 43), and Tompkins (20 05: 398), the contingency approach recognises organisational behavior as a complex field of study, driven by different characters. Managers in organisations need to understand this and develop their personal answers to some extent. Fayol’s theory of competitive strategy is said to be advocated by foyol for management education, both as a profession and a discipline. In this case, Yoo et al (2006: 360), Wright (2006) Williams (2003), The Wisest (2011), Collins (2003), and Black et al. (1992) approached the competative strategy theory from different perspectives. The diversity of this theory makes it compartible with many other approaches and when blended, any organisation will be able to achieve a working successful behavior. Findings A combination of Organisational behavior management with the other theories is the best aspect of managing organisations (Wallach 1983: 32). This is significant because there is no signle theory that can be said to solve all managerial challenges or to be applied successfully in managerial behavior. Therefore, the approach requires application of psychological principles of organisational be

Islam in America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Islam in America - Essay Example To begin with, it must be noted that there are several scenes when Muslim inmates are shown praying. Indeed, a prayer is an important element of Islam: the believers are supposed to start praying as soon as they hear a spiritual leader. However â€Å"if they are too far from a mosque to hear the call to prayer, they have to rely on a time table† (Wood 12). This is quite peculiar since it shows that even in prison the Muslims were willing to follow their spiritual tradition. In other words, the people who violated rule and regulations that were imposed by the society want to adhere to the religious rules instead. Some might suggest that this shows that spiritual law has more power for some people than secular. In addition to that, there is a peculiar scene at the end of the movie. One of the supporting characters, Javed, was shot and agreed to sacrifice himself so that the main characters would escape. When he is finally defeated and is about to be killed, he looks straight in the eyes of his future killer and says â€Å"Allahu Akbar†. What is surprising is that â€Å"’Allahu Akbar’ a phrase that many Americans associate with Muslim terrorists†. Nevertheless, this movie shows that even a criminal who is a Muslim is willing to make these words his last. Therefore, the movie wanted to imply that people may be wrong while thinking of it as a chant of terrorism.So, the movie in question also makes some important remarks about the role that religion plays in the American society.

(AP STYLE) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

(AP STYLE) - Essay Example Many have included it as a popular destination and metaphor for the social issues. This paper delves into how the ‘cradle of life’ has been depicted in different films. One of the many popular movies is Edward Zwick’s Blood Diamond. Zwick commented: â€Å"[w]hen I first read about Sierra Leone, I was shocked. I’d read books about the colonial scramble for Africa, about the exploitation of its ivory, rubber and gold, but to learn the history of diamonds was to learn the history of Africa all over again† (2006, p.1). The story shows meaningful concepts on the continent’s background, human rights violations, and rich natural resources. Included in its themes is the violence that has been happening in the territories of Africa. For instance, the main character (Danny Archer) states â€Å"[o]ut here, people kill each other as a way of life. It’s always been like that†. The story line shows that many Africans may have already accepted the cruel nature of humanity. Their history has been perforated with subjugations from different oppressors. The aforementioned line of Archer may represent several ruthless mortalities, such as the genocide in Rwanda, slaughter of Muslims in Godhra, and the tribal cleansing in Bosnia. Furthermore, some acts from the picture exhibited hands being hacked off to stop people from practicing their right to vote. The scenes have shown gory details on how Africans get hurt and mercilessly killed. Comparably, White Material is a drama that centers on a French woman who chose to stay in Africa. The director Claire Denis utilized artistic imagery in revealing the nation as ravaged by war. The protagonist, Maria, is an owner of a coffee plantation amidst a civil war. In the story the continent was regarded as a very unpleasant place. This is particularly intuited when Maria’s son gazed at a vat full of blood-red coffee beans. Consequently, he looked at his mother. This scene implies th e young man’s hatred toward his mother for choosing to stay in such an iniquitous environment. Probably, Denis wanted to show that the land can be both hated and loved. The violence in Africa has also been presented in other pictures, such as Cry Freetown, Tsotsi, and Battle of Algiers. The first is a 1999 documentary film by Sorious Samura. It was quite informative regarding the brutal civil war in Sierra Leone. Similarly, Tsotsi is a 2005 picture set in the locale of Soweto, South Africa. It became well known especially when it won an Oscar award for best foreign film. It is about one of the crime infested towns. Battle of Algiers is a 1965 movie that depicts the fight for independence in Algeria during the 1950s. It was banned in France for 5 years after its release. These films showcase guerilla revolutions, mass-killing by authorities, and coups. Peoples in different nations have perceived Africa as a very troublesome place. Numerous of them have come to this conclusion because of the bloody and pugnacious scenes in big screens and in the news. However, as compared to the present and actual situations, vicious local conflict is not that much of an everyday occurrence. Though there are indeed some territories that have gone through civil wars, most of the borders were established without ferocious social unrest. The most usual kind of struggle is amongst government militias and rebels. In contrast to the general conception, wars between state armies are quite rare. The vast continent is composed of 54 states. With

Pairs Trading And Strategies And The CAPM Dissertation

Pairs Trading And Strategies And The CAPM - Dissertation Example Besides testing a model, this study will also be testing market efficiency and using use Cointegration as a decision rule for pair selection, try to ascertain whether different and more efficient rules may be implemented. In order to calculate asset returns we need the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) which gives predictions on how to measure risk and the relationship between risk and return. The relationship of expected return is linear and is necessary to explain differences in returns among securities. Introduction Pairs trading include tested methods used to identify and invest in pairs. This was developed by Morgan Stanley in the 1980’s and is today one of the most commonly used strategies in the finance and trading industry. Using this strategy, an investor looks at two assets, whose prices have moved together in the past. As the price spread widens, the investor takes a short position in the outperforming asset and a long position in the underperforming asset hoping t hat the spread will move back again, thereby generating profits. If history then repeats itself, prices will congregate and the arbitrageur will earn revenue. For example, if the U.S. equity markets were efficient at all times, risk-adjusted returns from pairs trading would never be positive. The Morgan Stanley group disbanded in 1989 after a couple of bad years of performance, pairs trading has since then become an progressively more well known market-neutral investment strategy used by investors as well as hedge funds. The increased popularity of quantitative based statistical arbitrage strategies has also been affecting the profits. The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) is a vital area of financial management that has contributed to finance becoming a scientific and fully fledged discipline of study. There abounds criticism that the Capital Asset Pricing Model is somewhat unrealistic due to the assumptions that it is based upon. This includes the assumption that investors would only require returns on the systematic risking of their portfolios, due to the removal of the unsystematic risk which can hence be ignored. The market neutral portfolios are constructed using just two securities, consisting of a long position in one and a short position in the other, in a predetermined ratio. The two versions of pairs trading in the equity markets are statistical arbitrage pairs and risk arbitrage pairs. A Statistical arbitrage pair trading is based on the idea of relative pricing. The underlying premise in relative pricing is that stocks with similar characteristics must be priced more or less the same. The spread in the case may be thought of as a degree of mutual mispricing, so the greater the spread, the higher the magnitude of mispricing and hence a greater scope of profit. The strategy involves assuming a long-short position when the spread is substantially away from the mean. It is expected that the mispricing will be correct. The position is then reversed an d profits are made when the spread reverts. The pairs trading strategy might be justified within an equilibrium asset-pricing framework with non-stationary common factors as noted in Fund & Hsieh (1999). Asset returns can be computed by Capital Asset Pri

(AP STYLE) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

(AP STYLE) - Essay Example Many have included it as a popular destination and metaphor for the social issues. This paper delves into how the ‘cradle of life’ has been depicted in different films. One of the many popular movies is Edward Zwick’s Blood Diamond. Zwick commented: â€Å"[w]hen I first read about Sierra Leone, I was shocked. I’d read books about the colonial scramble for Africa, about the exploitation of its ivory, rubber and gold, but to learn the history of diamonds was to learn the history of Africa all over again† (2006, p.1). The story shows meaningful concepts on the continent’s background, human rights violations, and rich natural resources. Included in its themes is the violence that has been happening in the territories of Africa. For instance, the main character (Danny Archer) states â€Å"[o]ut here, people kill each other as a way of life. It’s always been like that†. The story line shows that many Africans may have already accepted the cruel nature of humanity. Their history has been perforated with subjugations from different oppressors. The aforementioned line of Archer may represent several ruthless mortalities, such as the genocide in Rwanda, slaughter of Muslims in Godhra, and the tribal cleansing in Bosnia. Furthermore, some acts from the picture exhibited hands being hacked off to stop people from practicing their right to vote. The scenes have shown gory details on how Africans get hurt and mercilessly killed. Comparably, White Material is a drama that centers on a French woman who chose to stay in Africa. The director Claire Denis utilized artistic imagery in revealing the nation as ravaged by war. The protagonist, Maria, is an owner of a coffee plantation amidst a civil war. In the story the continent was regarded as a very unpleasant place. This is particularly intuited when Maria’s son gazed at a vat full of blood-red coffee beans. Consequently, he looked at his mother. This scene implies th e young man’s hatred toward his mother for choosing to stay in such an iniquitous environment. Probably, Denis wanted to show that the land can be both hated and loved. The violence in Africa has also been presented in other pictures, such as Cry Freetown, Tsotsi, and Battle of Algiers. The first is a 1999 documentary film by Sorious Samura. It was quite informative regarding the brutal civil war in Sierra Leone. Similarly, Tsotsi is a 2005 picture set in the locale of Soweto, South Africa. It became well known especially when it won an Oscar award for best foreign film. It is about one of the crime infested towns. Battle of Algiers is a 1965 movie that depicts the fight for independence in Algeria during the 1950s. It was banned in France for 5 years after its release. These films showcase guerilla revolutions, mass-killing by authorities, and coups. Peoples in different nations have perceived Africa as a very troublesome place. Numerous of them have come to this conclusion because of the bloody and pugnacious scenes in big screens and in the news. However, as compared to the present and actual situations, vicious local conflict is not that much of an everyday occurrence. Though there are indeed some territories that have gone through civil wars, most of the borders were established without ferocious social unrest. The most usual kind of struggle is amongst government militias and rebels. In contrast to the general conception, wars between state armies are quite rare. The vast continent is composed of 54 states. With

Term Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Term Paper - Essay Example Here, we are talking about US. It is said that GDP grows with time. This is because of the reason that the needs of a country are rising day by day due to an increase in the population. Therefore, it becomes necessary to fulfill those needs, and manufacture products and offer services so that the lives of people are made better. Obviously, there has to be a specific number of people working to undergo this process and they would be paid as well. The overall demand would be met and supply would be increased. The bigger picture would then show that the gross domestic product would definitely increase. It is clearly understood from the above process that when GDP grows, the unemployment rate falls. The reason is that more people would be hired to fulfill a country’s needs and those employees would be paid for their services in the end. It can be said that both these factors, GDP and unemployment rate, are indirectly related to each; when one rises, the other falls. If we look at the World Bank data and make some cross country comparisons, we can better understand how US has been performing when these three major macroeconomic factors are concerned. According to the data presented in 2009, if the whole world’s GDP is taken to be 100 percent, then out of that US takes the second place after Europe. Europe has 22 percent of the GDP’s proportion while US 20 percent of it. (Suranovic, 2013) Similarly, if we look at the unemployment and inflation rates then US has 10 percent unemployment while Europe has 9.8 percent. The inflation rates for both of the countries are positive but relatively stable. Europe has 0.5 percent inflation rate while US has 1.8 percent till year 2009. It is said about the inflation rate that if they are too high, the situation can have bad impacts on the economy while if they are too low, the situation can deflate the economy. Moreover, if the unemployment rates are too low they will create problems as well. The aggregate

Intro To Teen Pregnancy Essay Essay Example for Free

Intro To Teen Pregnancy Essay Essay Teen pregnancy is one of the biggest problems in this country. Childbearing teenagers cost American taxpayers nearly 10.9 billion dollars each year. Also children who are born from teen mothers also experienced a wide range of problems such as higher risk for low birth weight and infant mortality, have fewer skills and be less prepared to learn when they enter kindergarten and have behavioral problems and chronic medical conditions. Whereas only 50 percent of teen mothers have received a high school diploma and only 30 percent have earned a General Education Development (GED) certificate. From 1996 to 2006 Arizona teenagers were an average of 21.5 percent over the national average in childbirths. Currently there are three main solutions, have parents and schools talk about safe sex, make abortion pills more accessible through the planned parenthood program, tell pregnant teens to consider abortion. The National Campaign reports that teens say their parents influence their decisions about sex, love and relationships the most; even more than the media or their peers. Starting a conversation about sex early and often may prove beneficial. This conversation should ideally begin well before a childs teen years. In fact, the National Campaign encourages parents to talk early and become askable parents. Remember, this is ideally an 18-year conversation, not just one talk. The good news is that teen birth rates in the United States have declined almost continuously since the early 1990s — including a ten percent drop from 2012 to 2013 — further decreasing from 2012s historic lows. Between 1991 and 2013, the teen birth rate decreased by more than half in the United States (from 61.8 to 26.5 per 1,000 teens). Despite this decline, the U.S. teen birth rate is still higher than that of many other developing countries, including Canada and the United Kingdom. Expanding access to Medicaid family planning services, and utilizing mass media campaigns to promote safe sex may reduce teen pregnancy and save taxpayer dollars eloped countries. Unintended pregnancies account for more than 90 percent of all abortions—and a substantial majority of Americans of all political stripes support the goal of reducing abortions. If this is true then why not make birth control pills more accessible through this by making it cost less. If we can do this then taxpayers can avoid the later issue that cost billions of dollars.

Why Do We Lose Hair Cultural Studies Essay

Why Do We Lose Hair Cultural Studies Essay On average people shed about 100 hairs a day. More than that can cause bold patches. Many men and women experiences hair loss at various stages in their lives. Hormonal changes, poor nutrition and scalp damage are few causes of the hair loss. Some reasons for hair loss are reversible and some are permanent. There are many treatments for hair loss. There are alternatives before turning to expensive hair transplant and medications. For those who are troubled by the problem of hair fall, there is a credible shampoo that can be used as an adjunct treatment for the purpose of stopping hair fall. Its known as the Progaine shampoo and has been especially formulated to be used with the much famous Rogaine hair fall control treatment. Progaine shampoo is designed for anyone suffering from hair loss and is using Rogaine to treat thinning hair. Progaine shampoo is designed for finer hair types , unlike most other products which can weigh the hair down. The specialist shampoo cleanses the scalp and removes environmental buildup for example chlorine and pollution) from the hair which are the main cause of hair loss. Penetrating right to the core from root to tip. The Progaine shampoo nourishing ingredients like wheat protein and keratin. Which are very good to cleans the scalp thoroughly and gently. Progaine shampoo can be used on thinner hair types with confidence unlike many other products, which will leave your hair bouncy and give them extra volume. It doesnt wilt them down like most other common shampoos. The finest ingredients are used to make the product. The shampoo is designed for both men and women and for all hair types. Upjohn the manufacturers of the shampoo do not claim that progaine alone will re grow hair. However it works well as a supplement to Rogaine and other topical hair loss treatments by getting your s calp clean and healthy for hair loss treatments to work. Rogaine and progaine treatments works most effectively on early stages of the hair loss but has had surprising effects even for those who have noticeable thinning. Many people who used Progaine shampoo said that along with Rogaine, the product really made a difference to their appearance and boosted their confidence. If you have hair loss or concern about thinning hair, choosing to add Rogaine and Progaine shampoo to your hair care regime could be life changing. The amazing product does not contain monoxidil. The unique formula of this product works in conjunction with Rogaine treatment to give the best chance possible for improved hair growth. People who combined the Rogaine treatment with progaine shampoo said they had noticeable results in as little as 4 to 6 weeks. The progaine shampoo is available in many selected stores and also online. What is conditioner and its benefits The term hair conditioner is vague. Hair conditioners fall into groups according to what you want to accomplish with your hair. People with thin hair need a specific kind of conditioner; people with thick, dry hair need another. A conditioner is something that will improve quality of another thing. For centuries oils have been used to condition human hair. These natural ingredients are still in use today, such as essential oils, jojoba oil. Modern hair conditioner was created at the turn of twentieth century when well known perfumer ED Pinaud presented a product he called brilliantine at the 1900 exposition universelle in paris. His product was meant to soften hair. Since the invention of Pinauds early product, modern science has advanced the hair conditioner industry. The best product now days are Progaine shampoo and conditioner. The product is best for its natural ingredients. Progaine shampoo and conditioner coats the cuticle of the hair itself so healthy, shiny and bouncy hair c an be obtained. There are six categories in conditioner. Moisturizers are concentrated with humectants. Humectants are compounds that attract and hold moisture into the hair. They may not contain botanicals or protein (they often do contain it). Reconstructors normally contain protein. Hydrolyzed human hair keratin protein is the best source because it contains 19 amino acids found in the hair. Human hair protein has a low molecular weight. This enables it to penetrate the hair shaft. The main purpose of a reconstructor is to strengthen the hair. Acidfiers the key word is acid. When a product carries pH of 2.5 to 3.5 it is normally termed as acidifier. The pH will compact the cuticle layer of the hair. The result is shiny, bouncy hair. Acidifiers do not weight the hair. They do create shine and add elasticity. Detanglers are acidifiers too. They close the cuticle of the hair, which cause tangles. Some shield the hair shaft with polymers (polymers are strings of molecules a chain). Thermal protectors safeguard the hair against heat. Using thermal protectors are one of the best things you can do to your hair if u blow dry, use curling irons, or hot rollers. They normally use heat absorbing polymers that distribute the heat. So your hair does not get heat damage. Glossers are cosmetic. Most glossers contain dimethicone or cyclomethicone (very light oils derived from silicone). Used in small amounts they reflect light. Also they are one of best products to control the frizzies. Hair loss can be devastating in its normal effects. People suffering from hair loss, lose confidence because of their appearance changes and feel unattractive. Premature hair loss can be blamed on a wide number of contributing factors. These incluse skin conditions, hormone levels, stress and poor health. There are number of treatments for hair loss and many products are developed to reduce the hair loss. One of the most popular products is progaine shampoo and conditioner. progaine shampoo and conditioner are aimed at people with thinning hair or premature hair loss who want to take good hair of their scalp. Progaine shampoo and conditioner do not contain minoxidil, and for this reason do not claim to make new growth of hair. Instead the philosophy behind it is a clean healthy scalp helps promote follicle rejuvenation providing an optimum environment for new hair growth. progaine shampoo and conditioner contain a range of ingredients which does help in nourishing the hair from inside and make the hair less likely to snap or break off all together. The vitamins in the product help in removing the environmental build up from scalp and cleans the hair very gently which results in stronger and long lasting hair. The proteins added to the product includes soy protein, wheat protein, keratin and jojoba seed oil. All these ingredients have been proven to have excellent effects of the appearance and quality if hair in shortest period of time. The products can be used and purchased together and separately. Progaine shampoo and conditioner is available online and in many selected stores and chemists. Volumizing products and its benefits Progaine volumizing shampoo is great for thin and fine hair.designed to cleanse and condition the hair. The product optomize and volumize your hair with progaine products. The ingrediants in the progaine volumizing shampoo are deionized water , sodium laureth sulfate , cocamidopropyl hydroxysultaine , polyquaternium-11 , glycol stearate , hydrolyzed wheat protein, cocamide MEA , guar hydroxypropyltrimonium chloride , steardimonium hydroxypropyl hydrolyzed wheart prote , panteneol , fragrance , iodopropnyl butylcarbamate , DMDM hydantion , wheat amino acids , cinnamidopropyl trimonium chloride. The product is especilly formulated to gently clean and thicken fine or thinning hair. It helps fighting againts weigh down hair. Most shampoo contains silicone which make the hair feel softer. However this silicone can often make the hair feel thinner. In addition , silicone can coat the scalp and this stops treatments from reaching the roots of the hair. The unique formula penetrates each hair as it strengthens from the inside out, providing each strand more volume. This is important factor as some build up such as DHT , a hormone , have been shown to cause hair loss , and inhabit new growth. Midly formulated, progaine volumizing shampoo contains a whole host of nurishing ingrediants which are known as to aid strengthen and condition the hair. The experts explains that using using ingrediants such as in progaine volumizing shampoo help to give strength the hair by penetrating deep to the core. Vitamins help feed he hair , making it shine with health and vitality. It is also safe to use on colour treated hair. The shampoo is desinged for both men and women. The reviews for progaine volumizing shampoo from the users show that results are eye oppening and amazing. This is true texturing shampoo that will raise the cuticles and give each atrand of hair some real texture so they ll get a little air between them and fluff up on your head, this is the shampoo you are lookin for. The users who were unconvinced by the product claims were impressed right from the first use. And which shows excellent results achieved by the manufacturers of the product. Progaine volumizing shampoo use 100% natural ingredients and is therefore very safe to use on any type of hair. The product is available online and in many selected stores in very reasonable and compatible price. Styling products and their benefits Progaine volumizing foam is styling product. It is excellent product for anyone wants to add more volume to their hair. It contains mousse like formula and is creamy and rich and most important gives extra volume where it is needed. It gives you great hold which makes styling your hair as u wish.it is suitable for both wet and dry hair. The hair looks clean and natural when progaine volumizing foam is applied. The ingredients are specially formulated for the thinning hair, not weighing it down or making it look dull or dry. All the bad ingreadents which can damage the sclap or irrate it are excluded, and ingredients suuch as weight protein and amino acids help to build hair strength. The product brings end to uninspired hair even if youre suffering hair loss or thinning hair problems. Progaine volumizing foam is a moisture rich mousse that builds adds volume and body to wavy hair with rich botanicals and vitamins. The pure selected and natural ingredients keep the hair in their healthy form for longer period of time. Regular use of the product also prevents from future hair lose and dull hair. Reviews for the progaine volumizing foam are in general very positive. Most users say the product give them more flexibility with the hair styles they could try and worked very well as a part of progaine range of hair treatments. The product is available to purchase online or in many selected stores. The price is very reasonable and affordable. The progaine volumizing foam gives you the styling hold you desire. This airy foam creates volume and control the hair. Adding staying power to style .The ingredients in the progaine volumizing foam are deionized water, acrylates copolymer, methacryloyl ethyl betaine, acrylates copolymer, cocotrimonium methosulfate, PEG-40 hydrogenated castor oil, PVP, dimethicone copolyol meadowfoamate, aminomethyl propanol, panthenyl hydroxypropyl steardimonium choloride, cocodimonium hydrolyzed hair keratin, panthenol, fragrance, DMDM hydantion, iodopropynyl butylcarbamate, hydrolyzed wheat protein, wheat amino acids, octyl mathoxycinnamate. 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Essay --

Of mice and men is a novella written by Steinbeck in the 1930’s at the time of the American great depression. Two migrant workers George and Lennie are the protagonists; through these characters Steinbeck highlights many themes. The themes presented in this novel can be compared with those in the ‘Moon on the Tides’ Anthology poems for example ‘Brothers’, ‘Farmer’s Bride’ and ‘In Paris with You’. ‘Brothers’ written by Andrew Forster is an autobiographical poem and is written in three stanzas which account for three different stages in the narrators’ afternoon. This poem explores the relationship between two siblings which can subsequently be compared with George and Lennie’s relationship. The ‘Farmers Bride’ is another poem which can be compared with ‘Of Mice and Men’ this poem explores the nature of the famers ‘bride’ and can also be interpreted to indicate that the poem is a metaphor for the way women are treated in Mews society? Charlotte Mew lived through the First World War and the women suffrage therefore it can be collated that her writing was influenced by the events in her time both historically and socially. In addition to this her personal life has an impact too as she made a pact never to marry because her family went through a tough time- they were mentally ill. Therefore she did not want insanity to be passed on to her children. Nonetheless Mew was bisexual and in her time period homosexuality was illegal, these things in her time period could be considered a source of stimulation for the deception in the poem. The third poem which links with ‘Of Mice and Men’ is ‘Hour’ by Carol Ann Duffy which explores the nature of love not typical richness of love but how spending time with a loved one is priceless and valuable. ... ...traditional desires of love, the narrator portrays the idea that nature is more valuable than typical materialistic things eg; ‘spend it not on flowers...but.. Sky and a grass ditch’ many similes, oxymoron’s, metaphors are used in the poem alongside enjaments to suggest that the narrator hasn’t enough time, her treasure is time. The short sentences used are pauses to perhaps show how the narrator is stressing time. ‘like treasure.. limbs gold’ is a simile used which refers to the richness of spending time with someone. Compared with ‘Of Mice and Men’ George and Lennie don’t have the luxuries of being good friends but make the most of things ‘guys like us.. no family...you got me.. i got you...’ however oppositely Lennie is overwhelmed by his dream to have rabbits and the alfalfa-materialistic things he thinks by achieving this dream himself and George can be happy.

A Study of Warfare in Europe Between 1300 and 1500 Essay

Since the introduction of gunpowder into Europe, it has gone on to dominate warfare into the twentieth century. With the development of the first European guns in the fourteenth century, armies were given use of a weapon which was to radically alter most of the ways of making war which had been established during the Middle Ages, and changes began to be seen within only a few years. It is, however, questionable whether the nature of these early changes constituted a revolution in the methods of war, and even more so whether guns had by 1500 made a great deal of impact on the character of war as it had existed in 1300. In assessing whether a revolution had taken place (or at least whether one was in the process of happening) by 1500, it is necessary to examine three areas: the effectiveness of guns during the period; the extent of their use in conflicts; and finally the changes which resulted from the employment of the new weapons in war. The first reliable sources which assert the existence of guns appeared in the 1320s, and from the late 1330s the number of references to them rose dramatically. The early guns were of large calibre and used almost exclusively for sieges, although as early as Crà ©cy in 1346, the English â€Å"fired off some cannons which they had brought to the battle to frighten the Genoese.† Guns were made in one of two ways. Firstly, there were cast metal guns, usually of bronze, which were made at the foundry. These were usually the better weapons because they were made of a single piece of metal and therefore were less likely to burst apart on firing. The second method was arranging wrought iron strips into tubes which were then bound together with iron hoops in much the same way as barrels were made. The advantage of these guns was that iron was a much cheaper metal than bronze (but could not be cast), but being made of many pieces faults were more likely to develop, causing either the release of explosive pressure through the sides of the barrel and therefore a reduction in the power of the shot, or even the complete bursting of the gun. This structural weakness was compounded by the inclusion of a detachable breech (such guns were far easier to build) which often detached itself on the discharging of the weapon. Despite their lack of quality, however, iron guns were the more numerous due to their comparative cheapness, although smaller guns tended to be made chiefly from bronze both because of the difficulties of constructing small guns from iron  strips, and because they required less metal than the great bombards. The sizes and types multiplied from their modest beginnings until there were guns ranging in size and type from great bombards used for reducing entire cities, to handguns used as anti-personnel weapons. The early role played by artillery was in sieges, where its effectiveness was soon widely appreciated. â€Å"Broadly speaking, the use of guns meant that sieges could be brought to a conclusion much more quickly.† Cannons, with the ability to throw stones with great force over a flatter trajectory and with more accuracy than the old siege engines, could bring an end to a siege in a few weeks where previously it might have taken several months. In 1437, the castle of Castelnau-de-Cernà ¨s was â€Å"broken down during the said siege by cannon and engines, and a great part of the walls of the same thrown to the ground, so that it was in no way defensible against the king’s enemies.† On occasion, the mere presence of bombards could be enough to induce swift surrender, cities preferring capitulation to large-scale destruction by cannon fire. As artillery was added to armies in increasing amounts during the 1400s, wars became far more fast-moving affairs. The French employed artillery on a large scale in reducing the English fortresses in Normandy and Gascony, while huge, cumbersome bombards were used to good effect by the Spanish in the Reconquista. Such was the effectiveness of artillery by 1500 that Machiavelli could declare that â€Å"No wall exists, however thick, that artillery cannot destroy in a few days.† The successes which the early guns had in siege warfare led to the bombard being a vital part of any country’s armoury. The use of the counterweight trà ©buchet, which had been in existence in Roman times, failed to decline until the 1380s and was still listed as an active weapon in some French arms inventories until the 1460s. This shows the gradual nature of the introduction of gunpowder artillery (perhaps caused by shortages of materials for the cannons or unwillingness to invest in them when a prince already owned trà ©buchets), but there was little doubt that guns were becoming by far the better siege weapons. Their importance gave rise to a kind of ‘arms race’ in France in particular, with cities in the contested areas of the Hundred Years War assigning the acquisition of guns a high  priority. Charles the Bold’s army included a substantial artillery element in his war with the Swiss (although he was perhaps not a good enough general to make effective use of it), while in 1494, Charles VIII invaded Italy with â€Å"†¦an army of 18,000 men and a horse-drawn siege-train of at least forty guns. Even contemporaries realised that this marked a new departure in warfare: in 1498 the Venetian Senate declared that ‘the wars of the present time are influenced more by the force of bombards and artillery than by men at arms’.† Despite their undoubted worth, however, artillery did have a number of disadvantages at this time. Perhaps the main one of these is the chronic difficulty of moving the heavy guns, especially over land. Philip the Good of Burgundy experienced such problems in his war with Ghent in 1452-3: â€Å"Such was the weight of a great bombard which he borrowed from the town of Mons that all the bridges between Mons and Lille had to be strengthened with iron supports for its passage. During the journey, the gun fell into a ditch, and took two days to be extricated by men using lifting equipment specially constructed for the purpose.† Transport was easier by river, but clearly this limited the movement of the artillery. It is partly because of these transport problems that artillery (with the exception of handguns) was used little during open field battles. Particularly when manoeuvring was of critical importance to an army, the last thing a commander would want would be to have to wait for the artillery, which would be slower than the rest of his force, and be unlikely to be able to move away from roads. Due to a lack of enthusiasm for such a cumbersome battlefield weapon, field artillery developed little in the early days of gunpowder, and the large cannons which were used on battlefields tended to be immobile siege guns which had been hastily adapted. Not only did the lack of mobility of cannons cause problems for armies on the march, but it also restricted their usefulness on the battlefield itself. The absence of effective gun carriages meant that artillery tended to be fixed rather than able to be aimed, the guns being mounted on wooden frames or simply positioned on mounds of earth. Their slow rate of fire (not only because of the time taken to load them, but because it took time for the  guns to cool down between shots) and their limited range at this time was another weakness, which led to them being easily overrun. Soldiers could wait at the limit of the guns’ range until the first salvo had been fired, then charge, reaching them well before the next shots could be fired, and disable the guns. The weaknesses of artillery on the battlefield were such that, â€Å"Even during the second half of the fifteenth century cannons were only used occasionally in pitched battles.† Handguns were of more use on the battlefield, having none of the transport problems of the heavy artillery and having a great deal in common with the crossbow, a weapon of proven worth. Like the crossbow, the handgun was a specialised anti-personnel weapon, and was ideal for firing at large exposed masses of soldiers where it could inflict considerable damage. The advantages which handguns had over crossbows was their superior hitting power, (of which Pope Pius II remarked, â€Å"No armour can withstand the blow of this torment, and even oaks are penetrated by it,†) and their relative cheapness due to the simplicity of their construction. As their accuracy improved and the numbers of trained marksmen increased, they came to supersede the crossbows in European armies, but by 1500 this process was by no means complete, the two weapons frequently working side-by-side in battles. While the slow rate of fire of handguns meant they could not stand independently in battle and needed the support of troops armed with close-combat weapons, they became an accepted auxiliary weapon in many armies. Despite the increased use of gunpowder weapons in battle, they were by no means always successful. Superiority in artillery was no guarantee of victory, as Charles the Bold discovered at Grandson and Morat in 1476. At Agincourt, the French gunners were pushed to one side by their own men at arms and played no significant role in the course of the battle. There are, however, examples of the successes of guns in battle, hinting at the success they were to achieve in the future. The Battle of Castillon in 1453 showed the devastating effects of crossfire: â€Å"Talbot imprudently attacked the [French] camp which led to the intervention of the French battery commanded by Giraud de Samian, a highly respected cannoneer. ‘He grievously injured  them because with each shot five or six fell dead to the ground’.† With the increased use of guns, deaths and injuries caused by them came to be recorded in greater number: â€Å"In 1442, John Payntour, an English esquire, was killed by a culverin shot at La Rà ©ole. Four years previously, Don Pedro, brother of the king of Castile, had been decapitated by a gunshot during the siege of the castle of Capuana at Naples†¦In April 1422, one Michael Bouyer, esquire, was languishing in prison at Meaux, ‘gravely ill and mutilated in one of his legs by a cannon shot, in such a way that he cannot aid himself’†¦It was becoming obvious that the gun could not only batter down fortifications, but could kill, and kill selectively from afar.† It is clear that by 1500, guns had come to be an everyday part of European armies. While the use of firearms on the battlefield tended to be limited to handguns, these were gradually replacing the older bows as the main auxiliary shot weapon. Cannons had made a huge impact on the conduct of siege warfare, bringing sieges to an end comparatively swiftly, and becoming indispensable in great armies. Although there were bound to be initial troubles with what was after all a relatively new weapon, notable successes were being recorded, especially in sieges, and the gun was definitely here to stay. To constitute a revolution, though, the growing use of such weapons would have to have changed not only the methods of making war, but also the outcome and the character of conflicts. What, then, were the consequences of the increased use of gunpowder? One of the largest series of changes happened in the area where the new guns were at their most effective, that of siege warfare. The advantages which a defending army could gain by hiding within fortifications had been understood for a long time. During the ‘High Middle Ages’, the war zones of Western Europe had become studded with castles and forts, and wars came to be characterised not by swift manoeuvre and open field battles, but more through long, drawn-out sieges. The failure of an attacking army to take a castle was likely to cause it a great deal of problems. If bypassed by an army, a defending garrison could retake control of the surrounding countryside from its secure central base and conduct raids on the enemy’s army and supplies (especially as fortifications tended to be located at  communications centres). Failure to take a large number of castles could result in their garrisons uniting to form an army capable of defeating the enemy force in the open field. In short, territory could not be conquered without gaining control of the fortifications within it. The effect of the introduction of effective siege guns with the capability of breaching the walls of castles was to bring the advantage in siege warfare away from defence and more towards the attacking force. With guns able to bring about the capitulation of fortresses within a few weeks or even a few days, there was a diminishing prospect of the defending country being able to organise an army in time to relieve the besieged. It would seem that the introduction of cannons had, for a time at least, called into question the efficacy of defence by small, dispersed garrisons defending fortifications. Had the use of siege guns not produced a defensive reaction, it seems possible that the castle could have been made redundant and defensive armies driven to do battle in the open field on equal terms with their adversaries. Attacking innovation, however, did produce defensive reaction, which in turn provoked counter-reaction from besiegers, and this greatly altered the nature of siege warfare during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Guns, of course, were not exclusively weapons of attack. Defensive firearms were an early experiment which had some effect in maintaining some sort of defensability of fortifications in two ways. Firstly, by firing at the besieging army from the castle walls, defensive marksmen and cannoneers could take advantage of the short range of early guns by making it very hard to position bombards close enough to the walls to cause damage. By refusing to give the besieging army the freedom to position guns wherever they liked, the defenders could in this way keep the enemy at ‘arms length’. The second way in which guns could be used to defend fortifications was not to defend the walls from destruction by cannon fire, but to provide crossfire against enemy troops when the time came for them to attempt to storm the castle, a function which crossbows were able to perform, but were of inferior effectiveness and more expensive than handguns. This use of defensive firearms caused changes in the way in which attackers  approached sieges. Guns being fired into the besiegers’ camp necessitated the greater use of cover, in particular for the bombards which were placed nearest to the castle walls for much of the siege. To this end, trenches were dug and wooden shields or hoardings were constructed to protect the soldiers and their guns. Trenches provided some degree of effective protection against most weapons, while the hoardings gave protection to the guns, which usually had to be positioned in more exposed locations in order that they could target the walls before them, against everything but powerful firearms. â€Å"Jean de Bueil could advocate the siting of a besieger’s camp before a beleaguered fortress on the model of the fortified entrenchments dug at Maulà ©on, Guissen, Cherbourg, Dax, and Castillon fifteen years before. Trenches, he wrote, were to be dug from one part of the siege to another, covered by hoardings. Ease of contact and movement between the units of the encircling forces could thus be ensured.† Further success could be gained by the besieging forces by employing not only large bombards to break down the walls, but also smaller guns to pick off individual defending troops. This would not only prevent defensive gunners from having the luxury of completely free shots at their enemies, but would limit the effectiveness of attempts to repair breaches in the walls. The use of guns in both attack and defence produced perhaps the biggest changes in siege warfare in the form of changes to the fortifications themselves. The castles which existed before the widespread use of cannons were ill-suited to withstand the accurate and powerful impact of cannonballs. Trebuchà ©ts had been of more use in lobbing stones over the walls to cause damage inside castles than in actually causing breaches, and so the walls were built tall and flat so as to be better able to resist being scaled by soldiers. Such walls provided a large target for cannon fire, and their flatness meant that the full force of the shot was directed straight into them. Rather than rebuild entire castles, lords were often forced through reasons of cost to opt for the next-best solution of adaptation. Scarping the walls with banks of earth or masonry was tried in an attempt both to thicken the walls, and to turn the blows of cannons into more glancing shots, with the added bonus that sloping walls meant that siege ladders became ineffective. While it was a sound theory to avoid  square-on impacts from cannonballs, scarping was of limited value, and where this was an adaptation to an older castle, in many cases it weakened the walls by placing extra weight on them. Gunports were a further adaptation to fortifications which occurred as a result of the introduction of guns. These were holes put in the walls of the castles, often where arrow slits had been, to allow small guns to be fired from a position of relative safety. They were frequently positioned in the towers or gatehouses of castles to provide flanking fire along the walls where it was anticipated any attacking soldiers would have to stop before being able to push on into the castle. This modification was quite cheap and easy to put in place, and was used across Europe. One method of improving the efficacy of defensive fire both against attacking troops and forces sitting back and besieging was the greater use of defensive outworks built of earth or masonry. Not only could this ‘forward defensive’ strategy force enemy guns further back from the castle proper, but it also provided a further opportunity to enfilade soldiers as they advanced. Boulevards or artillery towers could be built in ditches forward of the walls with a clear line of fire along the trench. As the enemy soldiers advanced, they would have to spend time negotiating the ditch during which the fire from the outworks could take its toll. â€Å"At Dax, Guissen and Cadillac, in 1449 and 1451, the French encountered heavy resistance from such outer works constructed by the defenders.† The ultimate defence against besiegers armed with guns, though, was the fortification based on the angled bastion. It was this defence which was coming increasingly into use by 1500 which decisively swung the balance of power back in favour of the defenders. The bastion was essentially a gun platform for siting heavy guns which needed the freedom to be turned and fired against the enemy camp wherever it was in relation to the castle, a freedom which could not be obtained firing through gunports. These towers were thrust forward of the walls to keep the enemy back and were built the same height as the rest of the castle (unlike traditional towers), perhaps to facilitate the movement of guns around the walls, or perhaps because of the high cost of taller towers. The entire structure was squat, making it a smaller target and allowing the guns at the top of the walls to maintain fire at targets close to the foot of the fortification, and scarped to produce more glancing blows from cannonballs. This last objective was also achieved by projecting the bastions at a different angle to the rest of the wall, so that in effect only the wall would receive square-on blows. It could be said that round castles and round towers would present no flat surfaces to be hit squarely, but to build such fortifications would make flanking fire along the walls at best difficult. Round bastions were built, but left dead ground where guns could not reach, while entire castles built on a circular model would need many projecting towers to provide fire along the walls. With the angled bastion, fire could be given along the entire base of the tower from guns positioned in the walls, while fire along the walls could be provided from gunports in alcoves in the bastion. It seemed for a while that the destructive power of cannons would lead to a decisive shift towards the attackers in siege warfare which would perhaps bring an end to the dominant role of fortifications in warfare. However, defensive tactics adapted to the situation in a number of ways, ensuring the survival of the castle and the siege. It can be said, though, that although the nature of warfare overall was not changed, the nature of sieges changed significantly as a result of the use by both attackers and defenders of gunpowder weapons, and because a new type of castle had been born. If guns provided a temporary revolution in the balance of sieges, then the bastion was equally as revolutionary in restoring the old balance. â€Å"By resisting the new artillery and providing platforms for heavy guns [the bastion] revolutionised the defensive-offensive pattern of warfare.† While cannons produced many changes in the conduct of sieges, changes of similar magnitude cannot be seen in open field warfare. Cannons, lacking effective carriages to allow them to keep pace with their armies and to manoeuvre on the battlefield, were little used until the late fifteenth century. Handguns, despite coming to be as accepted a weapon as the crossbow, failed to produce any noteworthy changes. Possessing greater hitting power than the crossbow, but similar weaknesses, including slow rate  of fire, they were unable to establish themselves as anything more than an auxiliary weapon. While the Swiss were to use handguns in their successful pike square formations, their role could be (and often was) performed equally well by crossbowmen, and European armies continued to be based on knightly cavalry and close-combat infantry. The handgun of the fifteenth century was simply another auxiliary shot weapon, and, â€Å"The arquebus, or match-lock musket, did not finally oust the crossbow from French armies until 1567.† Nonetheless, the importance of guns increased during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries until they became an essential part of major wars. One of the results of this was to make war a much more large-scale thing in terms of money, and to put serious warfare (involving conquest and therefore sieges) out of reach of the pockets of anybody but princes. Artillery was very expensive. â€Å"It was one thing, in accordance with ancient ways, to expect a man at arms to come to the host equipped with his own horses and armour, but no one, in the new conditions of war, expected a master of artillery to provide his own cannon.† On a national level, the introduction of guns further widened the gap in military potential between rich and poor countries, underlining the superiority of countries like France over countries like the Italian states. It can be asked to what extent gunpowder weapons revolutionised notions of chivalry and whether the attitudes of people altered as a result of their experiences of the new guns. There is a good deal of late mediaeval literature which shows that many people despised them. They were an indiscriminate weapon which had no respect for social status, meaning that princes could now be killed from afar by peasants and artisans. This went against the traditional chivalric notion of individual combat among equals. Guns were also seen as cowardly, because of the belief that the gunner, hiding behind the smoke from his gun, did not put himself in mortal danger by firing, yet could still take the lives of others. Many saw guns as being instruments of the devil, with the noise and fire created being seen as having come from Hell itself. A popular attitude during the early days of guns in Europe is shown by Cervantes when he wrote, blessed be those happy  ages that were strangers to the dreadful fury of these devilish instruments of artillery, whose inventor I am satisfied is now in Hell, receiving the reward of his cursed invention, which is cause that very often a cowardly base hand takes away the life of the bravest gentleman; and that in the midst of that vigour and resolution which animates and inflames the bold, a chance bullet (shot perhaps by one who fled, and was frightened by the very flash the mischievous piece gave, when it went off) coming nobody knows how, or from where, in a moment puts a period to the brave designs and the life of one that deserved to have survived many years†¦ It is unlikely, however, that this attitude was held by the majority of people at the time. Shot weapons were nothing new, and had been in existence and used on a large scale for many years. There was little difference between a knight being killed by an arquebus or by a longbow. The large-scale use of guns by most European armies demonstrates that while there might have been some degree of chauvinism against firearms, princes were still quite prepared to use them, and indeed the church positively encouraged their use at a time when the Turkish threat to Christendom was increasing. There is little evidence that captured gunners were treated any differently to any other captured commoners (and by 1500 it was by no means guaranteed that gunners would not in fact be noble), and overall, society had little difficulty in accepting the place of artillery in modern warfare. Guns were ‘domesticated’ and given names, taking on characters of their own, and, â€Å"By the end of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the early modern era, gunpowder weaponry had simply become a feature of everyday life. Guns had become so conventional that they began to be used in celebrations, in fashion, and in crime. Ultimately, guns even became virility symbols.† This growing acceptance represents in part a change in attitudes brought about by the realisation that guns were of considerable use, but mainly it is a result of the rather superficial nature of chivalry at that time. There was a tendency for people only to behave according to the rules of chivalry when either it suited them to or when they could afford to. Princes, when faced with an adversary armed with artillery could not afford to confine themselves to criticising such ‘bad sportsmanship’ but had to respond in kind, an option which they were more than willing to take. In assessing whether gunpowder’s introduction caused revolutionary changes in Europe before 1500, it is necessary not only to examine the specific changes which arose, but moreover to assess whether warfare in 1300 had significantly changed in character by 1500 as a result of the use of guns. The answer to this has to be a definite no. The armies of 1500 made extensive use of guns, but these had not revolutionised the makeup of armed forces. The dominance of cavalry had persisted throughout the two centuries, and its only serious challenge had come in the late fifteenth century with the pike square, which by no means relied on guns. While the use of cannons had transformed the methods used in conducting sieges, only temporarily had there been the prospect of altering the nature of war away from the innumerable fortress battles which characterised the period. Gunpowder weapons had failed to bring an end to the siege as an important aspect of war, and could only act as a supplem entary weapon on the battlefield. Overall, despite the numerous changes which the increasing use of guns had caused, it is possible to agree with J. R. Hale’s assertion: â€Å"Gunpowder, in short, revolutionised the conduct but not the outcome of wars.†