Week 11 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Week 11 - Essay Example I believe government resources are for the benefit of every ones use, and by protecting them, it gives me an opportunity to contribute to the aspect of nation building. Another reason for my interest in the profession is that I am knowledgeable of the American constitution and the various laws operating within different states of America. I want to apply this knowledge into serving my country. Finally, the job provides a stable income, which is lucrative. The estimated average salary of a state trooper is $ 48,000 (Lim and Kirsten, 12). Ten years from now, I am planning to serve the government as a FBI agent. This is a national duty, as I will be serving the Federal government (Lim and Kirsten, 32). My reason for an interest in this job is to apply the skills I gained as a state trooper, in ensuring that there is law and order to the citizens of the country. My short term goals are to advance my studies, and acquire a master’s degree in criminology. I believe this degree will give me sufficient skills that will help in ensuring that I discharge my duties, as a state trooper and FBI agent efficiently, and effectively. My long term goals, is to one day head a security organ within the state level of the national level. This can either be the State police unit, the FBI unit, or even the States intelligence units. To achieve these goals, I need to work hard, not only in attaining my graduate degree in criminology, but also in while discharging my duties. This will ensure that I get positive performance appraisals, and thereby giving me an opportunity to move up the

Social Media and Social Bonds Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Social Media and Social Bonds - Essay Example Shawn Ghuman in his essay â€Å"Is Technology Destroying Social Bonds?† notes how social media has led to the reduction of inter-person interaction in a real way. The argument is against the decline of what the author perceives as real relationships and conversations. For instance, he says, While chatting with friends, reading statuses, and skimming tweets, I wonder what happened to traditional communication in the current tech-savvy era. Our lives seemingly revolve around receiving digital messages, as we spend countless hours staring at screens and communicating with people online even though they are geographically close (110). While the author does have a point in the case of certain sections of people who may have had problems communicating even before the advent of social media, in the case of others, their extroversion may have merely transposed itself onto a virtual space. In many instances, plans for real interactions may even materialize on social media before they h appen in a real space. Thus, social media, while it is a virtual reality, may even in its nascent stages, facilitate rather than debilitate real interactions. The author also speaks of the relevance of social media in improving social bonds, albeit in a few lines. ... This was orchestrated through messages and short texts in order to escape the mechanism of surveillance. Through the course of the essay, the author reiterates at numerous points that contrary to the popular notion that social networking and modern technology have widened the scope of human communication, there is ample reason to believe the reverse. He uses persuasive reasoning by posing certain rhetorical questions to the readers urging them to reassess the role of technology in their lives. The most significant of these is the one where the reader is asked to think of instances where he/she may have connected with a person on Facebook or other similar social networking websites but upon meeting the individual in per son may be discovered that they are in fact incompatible. This stems from the larger point of social media allowing individuals to create virtual personalities for themselves which may not be reflective of who they truly are. Consequently, their social lives become limited largely confined to the virtual world as factors such as social awkwardness and introversion which may otherwise inhibit a person’s socialization are absent here. The writer also problematizes the idea that technology has simplified our lives. The argument here is that this seeming pursuit for simplicity and comfort may have actually resulted in oversimplification and sloth. This is seen in the lines â€Å"We can make ourselves sound intelligent, meaningful, or witty. Cellphones have become the faces of their users, and messages have become direct reflections of our personalities.†Ã‚  

Derrick Bell - the Founder of Critical Race Theory Case Study

Derrick Bell - the Founder of Critical Race Theory - Case Study Example The objective of this paper is to extensively examine the life and revolutionary work of Derrick Bell. Derrick had success at law school just like a number of his white colleagues at a time when a race was still a fundamental issue in the United States. Still, he was not able to find a job at any of those big firms in the country due to his race. This never deterred derrick who immediately embarked on a different path. This formed the commencement of a life of service to people who underwent tough social times due to their lives as minority groups and for those who believed in liberty and social justice (Bell 1). Years down the line, beneficiaries of this path that he took today are countless and continue to enjoy these liberties in an environment where those who were considered minorities can now prosper (Bell). As one of those who led the way as civil rights lawyers operating on the vanguard of Civil Rights Movement, this exceptional man oversaw more than three hundred school desegregation cases. At this point, he was also working together with the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. While flourishing in these previous services to the people, he realized his true calling teaching law. Described by many as their mentor and best professor including the current President of America, President Barrack Obama, it is essential also to mention that he was the first Harvard Law School Professor of the African-American origin. In this part of his career, he also made history by renouncing this position in protest of the institution’s resistance to absorb women of colour. He argued that the need for faculty diversity was essential without discrimination of any single group (Dewart 2). He also briefly served at the Oregon Law School that was dominated by white staff. Here, he became the firs t person of colour to hold a deanship position in the history of America. At this institution too, he bowed out of his position after an incident where the institution exhibited reluctance to hire an exceedingly competent Asian-American woman (Dewart 2).  

Financial Reporting Master Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4250 words

Financial Reporting Master - Research Paper Example The observance of accounting standards in reporting is mandatory in all countries as per the direction of Accounting Standard Board (ASB). All countries have developed their own accounting standards and in the absence of a standard in any occasion, Generally Accepted Accounting Standards (GAAP) can be followed. This report has four sections, namely A, B, C, and D. Section 'A' deals with the specific accounting policies adopted by Tesco, Sainsbury and Morrison, followed by the comparison of the same between one another. It also throws light on whether there are any differences in the accounting policies followed by these companies and if any, what are they. Section B is meant to present the financial analysis of all the three companies' financial statements for a 5 year period using profitability ratios, liquidity ratios, debt ratios, activity ratios, gearing. Section C is for detailing the major limitations of ratio analysis in the light of given companies. Section D provides a repor t on the performance of a company of Morrison Plc. Based on the ratios calculated in Section B. The company prepares and presents it financial statements comprising of income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement in accordance with applicable accounting standards, under the historical cost convention, and are in accordance with the Companies Act 1985 (Accounting... Basis of Consolidation The company prepares its consolidated financial statements comprising of statements of parent company and that of its subsidiaries. It has been made mandatory for the Continental European companies to prepare financial statements prior to the preparation of the same of the group so as to ensure timely preparation and reporting. As regards the excess/deficiency of purchase consideration is concerned, it shall be adjusted in reserves. It is therefore necessary for all subsidiaries to adhere to the accounting policies of the group with the aim of attaining consistency in the accounting policies. Stocks Stocks in stores are calculated at retail prices and reduced by appropriate margins to the lower of cost and net realizable value. Money market investments Money market investments are shown at cost price. All income received from these investments is included in the profit and loss account. Fixed assets and depreciation Depreciation is provided on an equal annual installment basis over the anticipated useful working lives of the assets, after they have been brought into use, at the following rates: Leasing items such as plant, equipment and fixtures and fittings are shown in the financial statements as tangible assets. These assets are subject to depreciation as per the depreciation policy of the firm. Sainsbury Plc. International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Sainsbury will follow IFRS for financial reporting though it will have a small adverse impact on reported profit after tax. This impact excludes the effect of IAS 32 and IAS 39 - the Group has elected to take a one-year exemption in implementing these standards as allowed under IFRS. Morrison Plc. Basis of

Geomorphology Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Geomorphology - Lab Report Example Why did you choose this angle? (5 pts) 4. A local business informs you they have a 1 m-thick rock slab with a density of 1000 kg m-3 lying in their backyard that slopes at 25 degrees. Given normal weather conditions and unsaturated soils, will this rock slide and potentially destroy their business? Justify your answer in terms of angle, Driving and Resisting forces. (5 pts) Normal forces or resting forces on a boulder cliff tends to restrict the movement of an object. The angle of the slope is a contributing factor to the movement of a boulder along a hill slope. Additionally, the stability of the slope also affects the movement of an object. In this case, factors such as friction and cohesion determine how fast an object moves (Lemke). 2. Based on your scatter plot and knowledge acquired from your textbook, what is the critical angle, in degrees, that determines if the boulder would move, or not? Why did you choose this angle? (5 pts) The critical angle for determining whether the boulder would move, or not is 45.840 degrees. At this point, the boulder would assume a stationery motion. The value is arrived by observing the point of intersection between the curves of shear and normal stress. 4. A local business informs you they have a 1 m-thick rock slab with a density of 1000 kg m-3 lying in their backyard that slopes at 25 degrees. Given normal weather conditions and unsaturated soils, will this rock slide and potentially destroy their business? Justify your answer in terms of angle, Driving and Resisting forces. (5 pts) At 25 degrees, the sheer force on the rock will be 984.807753 while the normal stress will be 173.6481777 (in the opposite direction). This means that the forces propelling the rock slab downwards are greater than the resisting forces. Assuming that the weather conditions remain at normal levels it is highly

Britain In a Global Society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Britain In a Global Society - Essay Example Political system of UK is multi-party system- the political system in which more than one party is involved. Labour party, conservative party and liberal democrats are the parties of UK. Political system of the UK under the constitution is unmodified. Parliament has the responsibility to select the prime minister. Prime minister is basically the head of the majority party. UK is a constitutional monarchy which is the form of a government in which Queen is head of the state. The Members of Parliament are elected by the common citizen of UK. But the members of House of Lords are not elected. House of Lords member inherit sit from their fathers. The United Kingdom works on diversified economy. Diversified economy of UK is one of the largest in the world. The UK economy system follows mixed economy like many other nations. In mixed economy, both public and state sector direct the economy. Due to this private firms are free and can enable to produce and sell commodities and goods but it would be controlled by the government. UK is a trading nation. Domestic market of UK is limited that results to find more companies from outside of the country. One of the world’s largest importers is UK. United Kingdom’s mixed economy enables government to own stake of certain industries which are socialist characteristics (Branch, 2006, p.546). But mixed economy of United Kingdom has almost free market features. UK was one of the most stable economy countries before 2007. But after 2008 GDP growth rate of UK fell to 0.7%. UK is always renowned for its strong economy and rich blend of science and art. UK is the major centre for multinational companies. UK is the sixth largest importer in the world and tenth largest exporter in the world. In the year 2009, UK was one of the largest producers of natural gas in the world. And it is largest in the EU. UK has the third largest aerospace industry in the world. Foreign aerospace companies

Fpl Harvard Business Casw Essay Example for Free

Fpl Harvard Business Casw Essay The fourth largest electric utility company in the United States and the largest electric utility in Florida is the FPL Group, which formed in 1925 from the consolidation of several gas and electric companies. FPL as a company continued to grow after 1925 because the ever increasing Florida population demanded more and more electricity. This trend continued until the 1970s when operating problems, and the rising cost of fuel and construction, caused a reduction of the company’s profitability. To address this issue, then Chairman Marshall McDonald, decided to make four major acquisitions: Colonial Penn Life Insurance Company, Telesat Cablevision Inc. , CBR Information Group Inc. , and Turner Foods Corporation. FPL also attempted to improve operations by employing 1,700 teams for quality control to find ways to improve operations. This notion lead FPL to be recognized as â€Å"one of the best-managed US corporations,† when the quality control teams found ways to improve efficiency within FPL by decreasing customer complaints by 60%, and decreasing downtime operations by 12%. Despite these enhancements, FPL still had company troubles to include: problems with a nuclear plant, demand was growing at a faster pace in the 1980s than expected, one of their acquisitions had lost $250 million since being acquired, and employee morale was low due to all the new management regulations. Kate Stark, the electric utilities analyst at First Equity Securities Corporation came across a decision involving this Florida electric utility company, FPL. The decision begins with the buzz that FPL may decide to freeze its dividend at $2. 8 per share or even potentially reduce the dividend at FPL’s annual meeting. Kate had previously valued FPL with a â€Å"hold† recommendation three weeks earlier with the belief that FPL will either keep its dividend payout at $2. 48 or slightly increase it. However, with the news of this new rumor about FPL dividends, FPL stock price fell by 6% because a freeze of the dividend would mean that FPL would end a 47-year streak of ann ual dividend increases. Now Kate is reconsidering her â€Å"hold† rating and contemplated issuing a new updated report to revise her investment recommendation. It is now to decided how a change, if any, to the current dividend policy would affect shareholders, which option would have the greatest benefit to the shareholders and FPL, and what should be advised to investors with regard to FPL stock. Two theories of dividends come up with the FPL Group. The first theory is the Signaling Hypothesis and the second theory would be the Clientele Effect. The Signaling Theory is essentially the theory that managers of a certain company have better information and are more informed internally about a firms future prospects than the public stockholders. Future dividends are paid out of future profits, so any change in dividends to be paid is viewed as an indication of what future profits are going to be. Thus, when dividends are increased or decreased, stock prices tend to increase or decrease. The second theory relevant to the FPL group dividend policy is the Clientele Effect. Different clienteles of stockholders favor diverse dividend payout ratios. Different firms also have altering ways of calculating and paying out dividends. Thus, when a firm switches its payout ratio a current clientele will leave and a different clientele will join. The rule of thumb is that if more investors leave or leave faster than a new clientele could replace them, then there could be a temporarily depressed share price. There are two important issues that are facing the FPL Group in the May of 1994. The first is the concerns of potential competition resulting from industry deregulation and the second is the reexamination of a high dividend payout ratio already previously noted. The arrival of retail wheeling from the National Energy Policy Act of 1992 threatens to change the shape of the entire electric utilities industry. The Florida Public Service Commission is not currently considering a retail wheeling proposal, but the current trend in the industry is to increase the competition. The implementation of such a proposal, however, would expose FPL to numerous competitors and possible losses, for example, as shown in California; California had already implemented a retail wheeling program and the program had a severe adverse effect on the three major utilities in that state. Competing with rival utilities must now be a primary concern of FPL and FPL now needs to ensure that it has the ability to meet the challenge of competition from both in state and out of state providers. The current payout ratio is too high from FPL’s perspective because they need the extra capital to be able to fund new projects if the new wheeling regulations were to be implemented. FPL just could not afford to pay out 90% of its earnings given the possible need to expand in the face of new competition. Although FPL has had success in the past and present, the threat of retail wheeling means FPL must hold on to cash. Continuing a high payout ratio just isn’t feasible because of the severe challenges FPL would face if the retail wheeling plans were put into action. FPL must be prepared for this eventuality, so FPL needs the funds to ensure financial stability while protecting future profitability. A lower payout ratio would allow FPL to have the capital necessary to hedge itself from losing big to increasing competition. The problem now lies in the confidence of investors if FPL were to cut dividends. It is to believe that FPL will indeed cut their dividends or freeze them at the least to insure financial stability in times where the future is uncertain. The additional retained earnings from a reduction or halt of dividend payout will open opportunities for FPL to compete in a new open market, reduce their debt ceiling for added cash to fund and expand new opportunities for growth and allow for a more industry standard payout ratio for future growth. This may not at first be what a shareholder would want to see, but the positive outlook for the long run, outweigh the negative impacts of the short run. As a result of this analysis, FPL looks to be a very reliable investment for the future with a positive upside for future growth potential; however the only drawback would be how much exactly a dividend cut would actually affect the initial stock price, which is hard to tell. Kate Stark should absolutely keep her â€Å"hold† recommendation on FPL stock for the previous conceived reasons. There are no notions to believe FPL is in any urgent financial trouble or that there will be a drastic dividend cut. FPL’s stock will fall with the announcement of a dividend freeze or reduction; it is just a matter of how much. There is an upside potential for FPL and there is evidence that they will be prepared for more competition. The FPL stock price again will drop initially with the announcement of a dividend freeze or reduction, but â€Å"hold† on to the stock to not take a loss, and continue to â€Å"hold† the stock because the FPL group provides sound evidence that the stock price will continue to rise in the near future. References: Welch, Jonathan B., and Anand Venkateswaran. The dual sustainability of wind energy. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 13.5 (2009): 1121-1126. Soosay, Claudine, Andrew Fearne, and Benjamin Dent. Sustainable value chain analysis–a case study of Oxford Landing from â€Å"vine to dine†. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal 17.1 (2012): 68-77. Pitman, Glen, et al. QFD application in an educational setting. International Journal of Quality ; Reliability Management (2013). Plant, Robert, Leslie Willcocks, and Nancy Olson. Measuring e-business performance: towards a revised balanced scorecard approach. Information Systems and e-business Management 1.3 (2003): 265-281. Evelyn, John J., and Neil J. DeCarlo. Customer focus helps utility see the light. Journal of Business Strategy 13.1 (1992): 8-12. Gupta, Neeraj J., and Christina C. Benson. Sustainability and competitive advantage: an empirical study of value creation. (2011). ;