Keystone species - Sea stars Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Keystone species - Sea stars - Essay Example It may increase population of a species or limit it through direct competition for resources or through predation. The sea stars are considered a keystone species in the rocky intertidal habitat because it determines the habitat’s composition. One of its significant effects is its control over the population of mussel. It dictates the population of mussels within the intertidal region that it inhabits. Even though it can predate many other invertebrates in the middle intertidal, its preference of mussels determines the prey’s population in the habitat. This has secondary effects on populations of other species in the middle intertidal. In the absence of sea stars, mussels grow and colonize the middle intertidal. This leads to extinction of other species such as barnacles and large algae in the locality. This means that sea stars control population of different biotic factors and allows for establishment and sustainability of different species in the middle intertidal, a factor that identifies its supreme influence. Sustainable biodiversity is important to an ecosystem. Sea stars affect biodiversity in rocky intertidal by ensuring a fair environment for survival of all factors in the ecosystem. Sea stars achieve this by controlling population of mussels that is a threat to other species in the habitat. By preferring the prey and by overwhelming it in the middle intertidal, sea stars allows for existence of other organisms that mussels would otherwise disadvantage and eliminate from the habitat. Removal of sea stars threatens biodiversity of the rocky intertidal habitat through facilitating dominance of mussels over other species. It allows mussels into the lower zones and this leads to extinction of other species in the region. Sea stars control population of mussels and their removal leads to extensive dominance of mussel that then disadvantages other

An Interpretation of John Keats’ To Autumn Essay Example for Free

An Interpretation of John Keats’ To Autumn Essay Introduction Poems by John Keats are a source of inspiration. He plays with his readers and takes them to places and times with his words. What inspiration does Keats bring? He inspire his readers to go beyond his words and discover a new world he creates. He makes his words so colorful and alive it is almost musical to the ear. When one reads Keats, he wonders what’s in his heart when he wrote his particular poem and makes him want to be in Keats world and senses. In this particular review, I tried to see Keats world of autumn from afar. A world detached, to objectively examine and look at autumn as Keats paints it with his words. I also wanted to get a perspective of Keat’s style with words, of how he uses them as a vehicle for others to journey to his world. In this same review, I tried to experience the world that Keats created and feel both the experience of his symbols and my comprehension of what he symbolizes autumn to be. The formal and thematic aspect of the poem will be commented on but this interpretation will be candid as I believe Keats wanted his poem read. 1 2 Throughout the three stanzas of the poem, Keats has maintained the ten syllable measure of each line, although, the foot measure of syllable stressed is a little slacked. As in the lines, â€Å"Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store? Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find† and some more. Reading aloud the verse, Drowsd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook spares the next swath and all its twined flowers: I could not quite place the stress of the syllables to create a rhythmic sound. I call it literary license, Keats permit his reader to make a decision and choose the way to vocalize his poem. The first stanza is vibrant and tells us of bounty. It is a direct contradiction of autumn or fall as the season is the time when trees begin to bare its leaves and fruits are scarce. But in this poem, Keats describes autumn as the climax of summer, †Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;† mist and mellow here are used as a welcoming scenario to a world filled with life and produce. The last word of the first line fruitfulness rhyming with bless on the third line and sustaining the rhythmic scale throughout the stanza gives a musical air as one reads the poem aloud. The stanza tells us also of a promise of continuity. â€Å"To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells with a sweet kernel; to set budding more, and still more, later flowers for the bees,† true to the rhythm of his verses, Keats described autumn as a time when seeds are planted for life to continue. It tells as of a beginning of a season, fresh and ready for a new experience in a manner where the season before it, which is summer, in the festivities of plenty and not as a dying season ready to be forgotten and left behind. Autumn in Keats† dedication receives Summer’s gift of plenty, it began as a climax of summer and therefore, promise to be a season 3 of new discoveries and not as bleak as shedding away the leaves of trees to forgetfulness. In the second stanza, the word flowers does not rhyme with any other words at the end of each line. I need to read the poem aloud and discover a rhythm for it to make the poem alive, it gets into a perfect rhyme with the word â€Å"spares’ if that’s where I put the measure at the end of the first line, thus, â€Å" Drowsd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook Spares / the next swath and all its twined flowers.† The same with the last two lines of the second stanza, â€Å"Or by a cyder-press, with patient look, Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours,† by simply repeating the word, the seemingly ignored rhyme is captured. This is my personal preference of setting the rhythmic pattern of vocalizing the poem, although, the rhyme pattern of the three stanzas comes out to be ababacacaaa, ababcdecdde, and ababcdecdde, in this particular order. It can be observed that the first stanza follows an independent rhyme pattern from the other two stanzas. Keats may have done it intentionally to stress the change of tone of the second stanza that is presented as a question. Why could Keats have done this? As I get absorbed in the autumn scenario of the first stanza, feeling the cool air and seeing laden apple trees bend, the mossed cottage, the vines and more, feeling the climax of summer shared into the start of autumn, and as I get lost to the world that Keats painted with his words, somebody shoots a question like, †Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?† and I was reminded that I am not alone. It was not even a question in the sense that Keats emphasized the beauty of the season being one that cannot be ignored. If he likened autumn as a stage of life’s journey and we choose the paths that we travel on, in the roads we took as we travel in this world, we met people to keep us company, 4 sometimes partway, the greatest thing maybe is to find beauty in life that keeps us company all through the journey. Reading the second stanza brings another question to my mind. What do I really seek for in this life? Why does Keats made me ask this when he wrote, â€Å"Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,† What Keats said in this line is that there are people who sought for things in this life away from where they really are and in fact, what they are seeking for is just within reach. Very clearly he meant happiness, he meant beauty of living, the beauty of living in the here and now. Keats wanted to tell his readers that we need not wait for what we can achieve in the future to experience the joy of being alive. We need only to be aware of the blessings we could find in the present to feel that joy that we seek for in our journey. The third stanza is a validation of the second stanza both in form and interpretation. I noticed that both have the same rhyme pattern and both starts with a question. It tells us of men looking out for joy too far out as in spring in autumn failing to notice that joy is just within reach. â€Å":Where are the songs of spring? Ay, where are they?†, Keats wanted us to know that in this life’s journey, happiness is not about the things we reap in the future but of finding happiness in every endeavor that we do without waiting for whatever fruits or rewards we earned as a result of our works. He tells us that like spring or summer or winter, autumn carries within itself its own music like the wailful choir of small gnats, the loud bleats of full-grown lambs, the songs of crickets, the whistles from garden croft, the twitter of the swallows. Keats wanted his readers to discover them. The choice of the word â€Å"wailful†, the reader can almost hear the liquid fall of tears of the gnats† mournful music. Sad, yet in Keats world of words 5 they represented life’s emotions that eventually gives meaning to everyone’s existence. He pictures autumn’s soft dying day with rosy hue and not with the bleak grey or the dying blackness of the welcoming dark, but of shades of the rose, full of life, full of promise, perhaps of another day ahead, a goodnights sleep, a beautiful dream, a walk in the moon? Or whatever the good life brings in the third part of man’ life. The poem is not necessarily strict with the academic form of the poem although as much as possible Keats wanted to adhere to the scholarly it dictates. In this form, the poem creates a character of free spirit and that refused to be tamed. The three stanzas o f the poem expresses a discipline. It follows a form respecting rhyme, measure, rhythm, color, and all the constituents of this form of literature. Yet, it does hesitate to lay away the conventional to express the soul of his expression as Keats diversion from the rhyming pattern to the rhyming pattern he followed on the second and third stanza. The syllabic measure of the words spares and flowers are left to the decision of the reader, making the reader an active participant to the interpretation of the poem. The three parts of the poem suggest the three stages of man’s life at a point of view, being at birth and early life, maturity and finally at the golden old age of man. But Keats only suggest, because all three speaks of seeking the joy of finding the beauty that life brings. The poem itself, as a form, is music to the ears. His play of rhythm, rhyme, and choice of words, in the context of emotionally attaching the self during its vocalization is like listening to the music of nature. The poem vividly expressed the colors of autumn using nature’s characters as in â€Å"rosy hue†. It does not boast with lengthy lines, numerous stanzas, academic words to express the simplicity of enjoying life, in life’s term. 6 Conclusion The poem â€Å"To Autumn† is a metaphor. Keats represented the season as man’s objects of his endeavors. In the same manner, the times of the seasons’ days represented man’s three stages in life. Why has Keats chosen autumn to represent ingredients of life’s journey? Maybe because of the colors it creates as the season journeys towards another. Maybe because autumn carries with itself the fruitful harvest of summer and links itself to the preparation winter does for a new life in spring. All these are speculations, and these speculations made me look into my life and my attitudes towards life as a journey. A lot of interpretations had considered â€Å"To Autumn† as one of the greatest odes that Keats had written. â€Å"Written in September of 1819, this piece is regarded as his most achieved ode.† 1. If all forms of writing, in different degrees of exertions aims to manipulate the reader’s mind to a certain mode of thoughtfulness, then Keats’ has manipulated mine into a romantic mode of communing with nature as a tool of reflection. He has vividly painted a picture of a season with words so successfully so that its form takes life and invited its readers to experience the joys of the season. It invited everyone to forget about worrying so much about future and take the joys of life in the here and now. 1 Analysis of Keats’ Poem To Autumn Essay. http://exampleesays.com/viewpaper/?wid=1795

Resistance of wire :: essays research papers

IF YOU INCREASE THE VOLTAGE - MORE CURRENT WILL FLOW. IF YOU INCREASE THE RESISTANCE - LESS CURRENT WILL FLOW (UNLESS YOU INCREASE THE VOLTAGE).' Ã ³`In Metals The Current Is Carried By Electrons 1. Electric current will only flow if there are charges, which can freely move. 2. Metals contain a sea of "Free Electrons" (which are negatively charged). And flow throughout the metal if they are given energy. 3. This is what allows electric current to flow so well in materials.' Ã ³`Resistance Resistance is anything that causes an opposition to the flow of electricity in a circuit. It is used to control the amount of voltage and /or amperage in a circuit. Everything in a circuit causes a resistance (even wire). It is measured in OHMS (Ω). Resistance occurs when the electrons travelling along the wire collide with the atoms of the wire. These collisions slow down the flow of electrons causing resistance. Resistance is a measure of how hard it is to move the electrons through the wire. The resistance of a wire depends on the number of collisions the electrons have with the atoms there will a larger number of collisions which will increase the resistance of the wire. If a length of a wire contains a certain number of atoms, when that length is increased the number of atoms will also increase. E.g. If there is a wire that is half the length of another wire it would also have half the number of atoms, this means that the electrons will collide with the atoms half the amount of times. Also if the length of the wire is trebled or quadrupled then the resistance would also treble or quadrupled.' My prediction was derived from this information. All of this information I collected originated from the Website, "www.studentcentral.co.uk" from encyclopaedias such as "The Oxford Children's Encyclopaedia" and computer encyclopaedias such as "Encarta". Ã ³This scientific information relates to my experiment by stating that the longer the lengths of wire the higher the resistance. Ã ³Preliminary Results Length Of Wire (mm): Voltage (V): Current (A): Resistance (Ω): Ã ³Therefore this information supports my prediction that the longer the length of wire the higher the resistance. Obtaining Evidence: Ã ³The variables I kept the same are: Ã ´The same material used for the wire, Ã ´The same cross-sectional area of wire, Ã ´And the same temperature of the wire. Ã ³The potential difference from the power pack: 2V.

How P&G Brought the Diaper Revolution to China Essay

When Procter & Gamble set out to sell Pampers in China more than a decade ago, it faced a daunting marketing challenge: P&G didn’t just have to persuade parents that its diapers were the best. It had to persuade many of them that they needed diapers at all. The disposable diaper — a throwaway commodity in the West — just wasn’t part of the cultural norm in the Chinese nursery. Babies wore cloth diapers, or in many cases, no diaper at all. And that, says Bruce Brown, who’s in charge of P&G’s $2 billion R&D budget, is why China presented — and still presents — such a huge opportunity. Today, after years of exhaustive research and plenty of missteps, Pampers is the No. 1-selling diaper in China and the company, in many ways, is just getting started there. The diaper market in China is booming. It stands at $1. 4 billion — roughly a quarter the size of the U. S. market — and is projected to grow 40 percent over the next few years, according to research firm Datamonitor. P&G’s success in China has helped CEO Bob McDonald set some bold goals. Last October, he laid out a plan to add one billion customers over the next five years by promoting P&G brands throughout some of the poorest corners of the world. How will P&G go about doing that? To get a sense, just look at the way it cracked — and to a large degree created — the market for disposable diapers in China. Learning From Failure When P&G first launched Pampers in China in 1998, the effort flopped. Instead of developing a unique product for the market, P&G made a lower-quality version of U. S. and European diapers, wrongly assuming that parents would buy them if they were cheap enough. â€Å"It just didn’t work,† Brown says. Chinese split-pants, or kaidangku. Photo by The Wu’s Photo Land on Flickr It didn’t help that Chinese families had always gotten along just fine without disposable diapers. There, potty training often begins as early as six months, and children wear what’s called kaidangku — colorful open-crotch pants that let them squat and relieve themselves in open areas. Pampers’ pitch wasn’t compelling people to try something new — and neither was the product itself. â€Å"We scrimped on the softness in the earlier versions,† says Kelly Anchrum, director of global baby care, external relations, and sustainability. â€Å"It had a more plasticky feel. It took us awhile to figure out that softness was just as important to moms in a developing market. † P&G had tried a similarly watered-down approach earlier in the decade, when it launched laundry and hair-care brands in several emerging markets. Those products also failed, Brown says. After these experiences, the company in 2001 came up with a new approach to product development: â€Å"Delight, don’t dilute. † In other words, the diaper needed to be cheap, but it also had to do what other cheap diapers didn’t — keep a baby dry for 10 hours and be as comfortable as cloth. So P&G added softness, dialed down the plastic feel, and increased the absorption capability of the diaper. To bring down the cost, the company developed more efficient technology platforms and moved manufacturing operations to China to eliminate shipping costs. The revamped diaper, Pampers Cloth Like & Dry, hit retail shelves in China’s largest cities in 2006, selling for the equivalent of 10 cents in local currency, less than half the cost of a Pampers diaper in the United States. The Universal Pitch P&G had the right diaper and the right price point. Now it faced the bigger challenge. â€Å"You have to convince someone that they need this thing,† says Ali Dibadj, an analyst who covers P&G at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. For Frances Roberts, global brand franchise leader for Pampers, every trip to China was (and still is) an opportunity to learn more about Chinese nursery habits. It’s part of the P&G ethos that brand leaders visit consumers in their own homes — something Roberts has done in dozens of countries, including Germany, Russia, and Jakarta. The goal is to uncover the nuances of each market, and early on in its diaper research P&G discovered a universal need. â€Å"Moms say the same things over and over,† Roberts says. Their cry: We want more sleep. With the help of the Beijing Children’s Hospital’s Sleep Research Center, P&G researchers conducted two exhaustive studies between 2005 and 2006, involving 6,800 home visits, and more than 1,000 babies throughout eight cities in China. Instead of cloth, the research subjects were tucked into bed with Pampers. The results: P&G reported that the babies who wore the disposables fell asleep 30 percent faster and slept an extra 30 minutes every night. The study even linked the extra sleep to improved cognitive development, a compelling point in a society obsessed with academic achievement. P&G then put its marketing machine into motion. Pampers launched the â€Å"Golden Sleep† campaign in 2007, which included mass carnivals and in-store campaigns in China’s biggest urban areas. A viral campaign on the Pampers Chinese web site asked parents to upload photos of their sleeping babies to drive home the study’s sleep message. The response was impressive: 200,000 photos, which P&G used to create a 660-square-meter photomontage at a retail store in Shanghai. The ad campaign boasted â€Å"scientific† results, such as â€Å"Baby Sleeps with 50% Less Disruption† and â€Å"Baby Falls Asleep 30% Faster. No diaper brand, not even rival Kimberly-Clark, maker of Huggies, has come close to spending as much on advertising in China, according to CTR Market Research, the China-based division of American media researcher TNS Media Intelligence. Since 2006, Pampers’ measured media spend topped 3. 2 billion yuan, or about $476 million — more than three times as much as any other brand. In 2009 alone, P&G spent $69 million, compared to Kimberly-Clark’s $12 million spend for Huggies. Ruling the Nursery — in China and Around the World Today, Pampers is the top-selling brand in China, a country where about a decade ago the disposable diaper category hardly existed. P&G does not release sales figures for specific countries, but Datamonitor estimates that the company has captured more than 30 percent of the $1. 4 billion market. Karl Gerth, an Oxford professor who researches the spread of consumerism in China, says P&G’s marketing campaigns strike the right tone. â€Å"You don’t want to come off as paternalistic,† says Gerth, who wrote the book â€Å"China Made: Consumer Culture and the Creation of the Nation. â€Å"The idea that Pampers brings a scientific backing and gives children an edge in their environment — that’s a brilliant way to stand out from the competition. † You could argue that it’s easy being No. 1 when the market is still small. But P&G still has a lot of work to do. The company faces challenges from private-label and domestic brands, including the No. 2 market leader, Hengan International Group, which has steadily grown its market share to 20 percent. Local brands, meantime, are catching up with better products, marketing, and distribution. Chinese consumers are going to want to root for the home team,† Gerth says. And there’s still the challenge of making disposables a habit. On average, diaper use still amounts to less than one a day. â€Å"We’ve only just begun to scratch the surface [in China],† Dimitri Panayotopoulos, vice chairman of global household care, told investors in a 2008 analyst meeting. There’s even bigger potential in India, where the birth rate is almost double that of China but the diaper market remains tiny at about $43. 4 million. (Pampers is the top-selling brand there, too. So now, P&G plans to take the sleep argument throughout rural and poor areas in India and elsewhere. The company also makes its case by positioning itself as a baby-care educator. Pampers sponsors healthcare-outreach programs such as a rural immunization program in China and mobile medical-care vans in Pakistan and Morocco. In India, there’s a door-to-door program that offers baby-care tips and diaper samples for moms. Of course, P&G tweaks the sales pitch to fit different markets; that’s what the company is known for. In India, for instance, the convenience of disposable diapers doesn’t resonate with parents. The company’s consumer research found that many Indian mothers think that only lazy moms put their babies in disposable diapers that last a full night. As Pampers brand manager Vidya Ramachandran reported in an internal video shown to employees, â€Å"We really had to change that mindset and educate [mothers] that using a diaper is not about convenience for you — it’s about your baby’s development. †

The Role of Christianity in the Restoration and Remaking of State Power

The last centuries of the Roman Empire was marked with chaos and bloodshed. Rival claimants to the imperial throne constantly waged war with one another, disrupting all aspects of Roman life in the process. Barbaric tribes from neighboring regions took advantage of this situation by invading the countryside, stealing crops and livestock, burning entire towns to the ground and killing or enslaving Roman peasants. In the cities, ambitious praetorians and senators often led rebellions, paralyzing economic activity as a result. The tragic end of the Roman Empire eroded confidence in human reason and shattered the hope of attaining happiness in this world. Desperate, impoverished and fearful for their lives, people during this period were searching for an escape from the oppression that they were experiencing. This need, in turn, prompted the evolution and expansion of Christianity. Christianity’s otherworldliness and promise of personal immortality gave a spiritually disillusioned Greco-Roman world a reason to continue living. Furthermore, the triumph of Christianity in the Greco-Roman world marked the end of classical antiquity and the beginning of the medieval period (Perry, Chase, Jacob, Jacob, Von Laue 171). A Palestinian Jew named Jesus Christ (4 BC-29 AD) was the founder of Christianity. Prior to his ministry, most Palestinian Jews were followers of Judaism, a religion that was based on Mosaic Law (Torah). Apart from religious rituals, Judaism was also composed of many laws that governed daily life. Christ himself was taught Jewish religious-ethical thought in his formative years (Perry, Chase, Jacob, Jacob, Von Laue 174). Christ, however, was distressed over the manner in which Jewish leaders implemented the teachings of Judaism. He felt that their focus â€Å"shifted from prophetic values to obedience to rules and prohibitions regulating the smallest details of daily life† (Perry, Chase, Jacob, Jacob, Von Laue 174). For Christ, detailed regulations governing everyday activities dealt only with a person’s visible behavior but not with his or her inner being. Such a superficial manner of enforcing Jewish law produced individuals who mechanically followed rules and prohibitions but whose hearts remained impure (Perry, Chase, Jacob, Jacob, Von Laue 174). He believed that true morality meant doing away with vices such as fornication, adultery, murder and avarice. The Jewish scribes and priests, as a result, viewed Christ as a threat to ancient traditions and to their authority over the Jews. The Romans, meanwhile, regarded him as a political agitator who would incite a rebellion against Rome (Perry, Chase, Jacob, Jacob, Von Laue 175). Jewish leaders therefore had him arrested for high treason and turned him over to Pontius Pilate, who sentenced him to death by crucifixion. But Christ underwent resurrection three days after his demise and later ascended into heaven. His followers then traveled to various parts of the world in order to spread his teachings. The early years of Christianity were not easy for its followers. Christians during the Roman Empire, for instance, were brutally persecuted because they were seen as â€Å"subversives (who) preached allegiance to God and not to Rome† (Perry, Chase, Jacob, Jacob, Von Laue 180). They were imprisoned, beaten, starved, burned alive, crucified and torn apart by wild animals in the arena for the amusement of the Roman public (Perry, Chase, Jacob, Jacob, Von Laue 181). In order to escape harassment, Christians clandestinely met and held worship services in venues such as catacombs. But Christianity’s aforementioned situation was reversed with the fall of the Roman Empire. The appeal of Christianity was based mainly on the common knowledge that religion is more capable of stirring human hearts than reason. The Roman Empire’s staunch belief in science and philosophy did not save it from total destruction. Neither was it able to provide comforting solutions to the existential problems of life and death (Perry, Chase, Jacob, Jacob, Von Laue 178). Christianity, in sharp contrast, gave the assurance that all earthly torments were â€Å"the will of God† – God made human beings undergo suffering in order to test their faithfulness to him. As Christianity became increasingly popular among the Romans, emperors realized that crushing the religion through persecution was already futile. They instead decided to obtain the support of the empire’s Christian population. Constantine, for instance, issued in 313 AD the Edict of Milan – a law that granted toleration to Christians. This directive was followed by other legislations which was favorable to the church – Theodosius I had made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire and outlawed the worship of pagan gods by 392 AD (Perry, Chase, Jacob, Jacob, Von Laue 181). It would be fair to say that these laws transformed Christianity into an apparatus for the restoration and remaking of state power. Fanatic clergy took advantage of their newly-empowered status by persuading Roman emperors to issue decrees that persecuted pagans, Jews and Christians with unorthodox views. Consequently, many followers of pagan cults were fined, imprisoned, tortured and executed. In addition, Christian mobs burned non-Christian writings, destroyed pagan altars and sacred images and squelched pagan rites and festivals (Perry, Chase, Jacob, Jacob, Von Laue 181). In the process, the Roman Empire was slowly being replaced with a theocracy – Roman emperors were reduced to puppets that the Christian clergy controlled at the strings. Christianity further gained political clout when it started amassing material wealth. Many wealthy Christians died leaving almost all of their fortune to the church. Some Christian leaders in the 4th century were therefore able to build monasteries or communities of people committed to prayer and asceticism (Hastings 43). Monasteries played a crucial role in the spread of Christianity – they served as training grounds for missionaries. Monasteries were likewise vital to social and economic development, as they established schools and libraries and served as landlords and organizers of economic wealth (McManners 119). The Christian Church, through the monasteries, amassed so much wealth in donated lands, money and priceless church furnishings. Thus, the Christian Church eventually became richer and more powerful than most lay monarchies. The pope, previously a spiritual leader alone, also became a temporal power in the process (Bausch, Cannon and Obach 120). By the 9th century, the Christian Church was already powerful enough to establish its own empire – Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 800 (MSN Encarta n. pag. ). The Middle Ages was characterized with constant power struggles between the pope and the monarchs. In 1075, for instance, Pope Gregory VII and Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV fought over the right of the sovereign to appoint bishops in his realm (lay investiture). Henry refused to acknowledge Gregory’s papacy, while the pope excommunicated the emperor. Lay investiture is said to be the most persistent source of clashes between the Christian Church and the nobility – bishops and abbots refused to have the king exercise control over their lands and other wealth. But it was necessary for the king to do it in order to assert his authority over his secular nobility (MSN Encarta n. pag. ). The Crusades was one of the rare instances wherein the monarchy and the Christian Church joined forces. The Muslim conquest of Jerusalem spawned meant that the sacred places associated with the life of Christ would fall into the hands of a non-Christian power. West European Christians therefore launched the Crusades, a series of wars from 1095 to 1204 that were intended to recapture Jerusalem from Muslim rule. But the Crusades proved to be a failure – Jerusalem returned to Islamic rule a century after the Fourth Crusade of 1202-1204 (MSN Encarta n. pag. ). After the Crusades, the Christian Church was plagued with even more problems. Moral laxity and financial corruption were very rampant (MSN Encarta n. pag. ). The clergy lived luxuriously, while ordinary people starved. Another anomaly that took place within the Christian Church was the selling of indulgences. Priests would sell people relics (hair or bones of saints) at very expensive prices. They would convince people into buying by claiming that possessing relics would immediately take them to Heaven upon their death. Some priests and religious leaders openly criticized the aforementioned irregularities in the Christian Church, a phenomenon which was later known as the Reformation. On October 31, 1517, German theologian Martin Luther published the Ninety-five Theses, a criticism on the selling of indulgences in order to raise funds for the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. His excommunication by Pope Leo X led to the formation of Protestantism. Others, such as Huldreich Zwingli and John Calvin, soon came up with their own Protestant sects (MSN Encarta n. pag. ). The emergence of Protestantism prompted the Catholic Church to stage the Counterreformation in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Council of Trent (1545-1563), for one, clarified controversial doctrines and established guidelines on liturgy, church administration and education. The Catholic Church likewise came up with the Index of Forbidden Books and a new Inquisition. Missionaries were then sent to the Far East and North and South America in order to draw more converts to Roman Catholicism (MSN Encarta n. pag. ). Christianity’s otherworldliness and promise of personal immortality made it appear as a suitable alternative to the chaotic Roman Empire. As a result, people wholeheartedly supported the Christian Church. Apart from being faithful followers, they invested time and resources on the religion. The Christian Church, in the process, became even more powerful than secular nobility. But if power corrupts, then absolute power corrupts absolutely. Later Catholic leaders became morally decadent and corrupt. Consequently, concerned parties from the clergy established Protestantism. It is indeed very ironic that Christianity, once regarded as an alternative to a corrupt status quo, ended up being a corrupt institution itself.

Free Essays on “Hidden Genocide”

â€Å"Crimes against Humanity† by Ward Churchill is a powerful essay that brings to light a very interesting point about the natives of our country. Ward begins this essay with an offending attitude which acts as a very effective attention getter. It is meant to show how distasteful the names of these sports team’s really are to the natives. After he has your attention and knows his point has been made clear, he goes into show the true meaning behind his essay, his main focus, the gradual and hidden genocide being committed. This was a particularly interesting essay to me, maybe even an eye-opener you might say. As I began to read it, I looked at it as a crabby, complaining piece of writing but by the end I saw exactly what he was saying and now have a different attitude altogether. It did not offend me, more like put things in perspective. I now agree with what he was saying, and feel ignorant for feeling as I did before. I never saw all of these things the way Churchill does. It’s true that we, as a society, look at Indians as more of a whining joke. But it is in fact offensive to call a team the redskins, just as it would be to call a team the â€Å"niggers†. We put so much into trying to be â€Å"politically correct† towards blacks, Mexicans, whites, and so on, all the while, our own natives we look at as a joke. Maybe we, Americans, should take some focus off of all these other groups and look at the nation’s attitude towards our own native people.... Free Essays on â€Å"Hidden Genocide† Free Essays on â€Å"Hidden Genocide† â€Å"Crimes against Humanity† by Ward Churchill is a powerful essay that brings to light a very interesting point about the natives of our country. Ward begins this essay with an offending attitude which acts as a very effective attention getter. It is meant to show how distasteful the names of these sports team’s really are to the natives. After he has your attention and knows his point has been made clear, he goes into show the true meaning behind his essay, his main focus, the gradual and hidden genocide being committed. This was a particularly interesting essay to me, maybe even an eye-opener you might say. As I began to read it, I looked at it as a crabby, complaining piece of writing but by the end I saw exactly what he was saying and now have a different attitude altogether. It did not offend me, more like put things in perspective. I now agree with what he was saying, and feel ignorant for feeling as I did before. I never saw all of these things the way Churchill does. It’s true that we, as a society, look at Indians as more of a whining joke. But it is in fact offensive to call a team the redskins, just as it would be to call a team the â€Å"niggers†. We put so much into trying to be â€Å"politically correct† towards blacks, Mexicans, whites, and so on, all the while, our own natives we look at as a joke. Maybe we, Americans, should take some focus off of all these other groups and look at the nation’s attitude towards our own native people....

Globalization Coca Cola Essay Example

Globalization Coca Cola Essay Example Globalization Coca Cola Essay Globalization Coca Cola Essay Globalization describes the proliferate synthesis of the world’s economic, political, technological and socio-cultural systems through the liberalization of international trade and investment or the reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, import quotas and other related import and export restrictions. Globalization has allowed a greater establishment of goods, services, wealth and society development throughout the world, however, its implications such as the unequal distributions of income and employment opportunities due to outsourcing methods to derive relative unit labour costs and the constant company and government power struggles is becoming an increasing cause for concern. Nevertheless, companies continue to expand and develop and take advantage of globalization, which is considered to be an historic trend and an inevitable evolution process. The Coca Cola Company is a prominent, American Multinational beverage company that constitutes its own product manufacturing, distributing and marketing efforts in over 200 countries worldwide. The company that is best known for its bellwether beverage, Coca Cola, was established as The Coca Cola Company in 1889 by Asa Candler and has presently, collaborated with approximately 300 bottling partners throughout the world. It offers 500 brands of products including of diet beverages, sports drinks, teas coffees and juices. : Coca Cola is considered to be one of the biggest brands in the world and the company, one of the world’s first global companies. The influence and impact of globalization on The Coca Cola Company was crucial for the company’s success as statistics prove that presently, 70 percent of the company’s income is propagated through non local operating territories. As a consequence of globalization, the Coca Company has capitalized on many opportunities and experienced many backlashes. When the Coca Cola syrup was created by pharmacist, John Pemberton in 1886, citizens of the United States were delighted and enthusiastic by the new product that was distributed from a cola fountain. As the demand for the product grew John sold the exclusive rights for the product to salesman, Asa Griggs Candler, who began developing the product as a brand. Asa Candler began to introduce Coca Cola throughout the United States by developing marketing strategies such as offering coupons and merchandise with the Coca Cola logo. This strategy soon made coca cola to be available and consumed in every state of the United States. Subsequently, because of the exceedingly increasing demand for the beverage new measures had to be established to distribute the product to reach all their customers. In the year 1894 coca cola was put into bottles that allowed the product portability. Large scale bottle manufacturing activities was then initiated after statistics had proven that the bottled coca cola sales surpassed the fountain sales. The new bottling innovation along with continuous marketing strategies took the company to the global stage and the coca cola beverage was now bottled in Cuba, Panama and Canada. The exclusive right to sell the product was then sold to lawyers, Benjamin F. Thomas and Joseph B. Whitehead whom had to please their exceedingly expanding consumer base as the company was now an international company. Globalization of Coca Cola’s operations allowed the organization to serve a greater variety of consumers that contributed to a great increase in demand however it also affected the company negatively as it also spurred competition. Joseph and Benjamin began implementing and delegating new methods to safeguard their product such as advertising to consumers to demand the authentic coca cola and to refuse substitutes. They also gave the coca cola beverage a new feature, they distributed the beverage in a contour glass bottle that can be recognized anywhere by consumers and this advancement brought new life to the company. The new design allowed the company to further expand globally. The company was also able to utilize outsourcing methods to achieve cheaper labour and machinery costs to enhance the company’s profitability. The company then began distributing its flagship product to Puerto Rico, France and other foreign countries. By the year 1900-1920 the Coca Cola Company had established about 1000 plants worldwide from only 2 plants initially. One can observe how the competitive forces and increasing demand, as a result of globalization, basically forced the company to become more innovative and creative subsequently resulting in better and reinforced marketing strategies as well as an new and more appealing and distinctive image for the product that positively impacted the profitability of the company. However if the company did not respond to the new pressures of the global environment they may have experienced a lesser demand for their product and lose competitive advantage due to the fact that fellow competitors would be given an opportunity to move in on their market share. This would have severely impacted the success of the companies in a negative way as the company would be losing customers thereby losing revenue and profits. So it can be said that a global business environment requires a company that must be able to survive susceptible changes. These susceptible changes are triggered because of the continuous change in consumer needs and wants that is mainly generated by advance the continuous progression of globalization. To survive these susceptible changes companies must consistently derive new innovations and new ideas to keep up with their constantly changing consumer needs. As the world began interconnecting more globally because of technological, political, educational and corporate advancement mainly because of social and cultural preferences beginning to become more similar, new doors began to open for the corporate world to strategize their global operations and recognition. In 1923 Robert Woodruff who was then the president of the company utilized the Olympic Games as an international foundation for the company. The company sponsored the United States team which allowed coca cola to further be recognized on highly publicized international stage. During this event, Robert Woodruff began to introduce new inventions, these inventions were the six pack carrier case, a vending machine and new fountain dispensers with a bell shaped glasses. The games assisted to spur new innovations within the global environment on a more recognized stage thereby further impacting the success and growth of the company. Again as globalization progressed changes in innovations were needed inorder to secure and expand market share, reinforce competitive advantage and please the changing demands of international consumers. Becoming an international company means that one would be serving an international market therefore consumers will have different preferences and with coca cola continuing to derive new methods to distribute their product in different ways consumers will now have a variety of ways to enjoy the product, subsequently this would allow more options for consumer to be pleased therefore attracting more customers and expanding market share. The Coca Cola Company continued to reinvent its marketing strategies to grasp international attention and appeal. They added a new shorter trademark name entitled ‘coke’ to the beverage. This new ‘name’ was responded to with mix reviews as some international bodies slammed the name because it was the same shortened name used for the illicit substance cocaine. Being a growing international success, the changes conducted by company would be more highlighted in the global spotlight due to organizations watchdogs and similar corporations, therefore a greater reaction would be accompanied by the change. In this case the reaction was a controversial one that can negatively affect the image of the company . Consumers were now hesitant to use the new ‘name’ nevertheless, coca cola responded to this matter by creating a young character entitled the ‘Sprite boy’ to promote the new trademark for the product, and even though the criticism pursued statistics have proven that the word ‘coke’ presently is one of the most popular words utilized in the English vocabulary today, so obviously the marketing tactics devised and implemented by the company was victorious. By devising this strategy consumers felt more comfortable with the change and therefore acknowledged the new innovation at ease. As the international success of the company expanded, Woodruff continued to use the arising global opportunities to his advantage. World War 2 had now commenced and Woodruff made the beverage available to all service people in uniform at a cheaper price this allowed the beverage to be purchased in massive amounts during the war which then allowed the company to the opportunity to create 64 additional bottling plants inorder to provide for United States military and service personnel in international countries. This laid the most important international foundation that increased the international market of the company. Most people got to experience their first taste of the beverage for the first time ever this led to business boom after the war for the company. When the war subsided the company capitalized on its new foundation by using advertisements that promoted coca cola as the beverage that can suit any lifestyle and that can bring happiness to one’s life and relieve post war stress. This once again led to a desire for more innovative measures to be established to distribute its product to its consumers and as a result this led to the invention of the ‘coke in cans’. Coke in cans further extended the company’s market share and with the company’s global success progressing substantially, more coca cola manufacturing plants were established in other foreign countries. Globalization also allowed more varied beverage manufacturing companies to penetrate the beverage market. Consumers therefore developed a need for a variety of beverages such as juices, coffees, teas, sports and health drinks etc. This new demand was necessitated by new companies who influenced the desires of the customers by creating further beverage innovations. Coke therefore decided to develop other brands and types of beverages besides its bellwether beverage to reinforce its competitiveness and increase its consumer base in the beverage manufacturing market. The company began producing a carbonated beverage called Sprite, a diet drink called Tab and a coffee entitled Georgia Coffee Original. These new products allowed the enterprise to establish plants in China. The company was the first company ever permitted to sell packaged cold drinks in China bringing the total number of countries that Coca Cola distributes its products to 163. In the 1980’s the CEO of coca cola decided to further strategize the operations of the company in order to improve and extend its operations in a methodology that would increase profitability by organizing the various United States bottling organizations into a public company entitled Coca Cola Enterprises international. The company also introduced another successful beverage on the market, ‘diet coke’ to appease the needs of health conscious consumers. With globalization becoming more persistent throughout years, Coca Cola Company decided to reconstruct the taste of its product coca cola to establish a competitive advantage. Consumers responded to this change negatively and the company had to revert to its original recipe. However its success was not halted as the company continued to collaborate with more international sporting events such as the Fifa World Cup and the Rugby World Cup. The company also started producing other beverages such as Powerade sports drink, Vitamin Water, Fanta and Dasani bottled water. The company also bought the popular juice manufacturing company, Minute Maid and extended its product line. Proceeding into the early 2000’s coke began to experience severe global backlashes. The ingredients utilized in the company’s product recipe became a major concern to consumers, mainly the high fructose corn syrup, as researchers linked lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, dental erosion, strokes, hypertension and osteoporosis to the prolong use of coke’s products. Activists also accused coke’s products of being addictive because of the level of caffeine and other chemicals utilized in the recipe along with the aggressive marketing strategies, researchers even linked the advertisement schedule of the company to the cause for the increase in child obesity. The advertisements for the organizations Vitamin Water product was lso slammed as being misleading as the recipe utilized for the product was not at all healthy. The increase of health conscious behavior was as a result of globalization. Despite coke having substantial experience with the susceptible changing global environment the company failed to establish efforts to appease the demands of t he ‘new’ health conscious era of consumers that ultimately led to this backlash. Consumers were also becoming more environmentally friendly and coke’s damaging environmental impacts such as the polluting of the atmosphere and destruction of agriculture became more prominent to the public eye. The enterprise responded to this new change in consumer behavior by establishing plastic, semi recycled bottles and utilizing transportation that was less destructive to the atmosphere. Coke already had formatted and practiced glass recycling that cut the company’s production costs but this practice only became recognized during this era. It is therefore understood, that with the cultural changes of consumer behaviors that consumers expect corporate establishments to also care about what they proclaim to be morally right. One consumer behavior also initiates a progressive change among society causing the society to adapt and expect the same care to be considered and assisted by corporations whom they purchase from. So businesses must take the concerns of customers into consideration to fully please their consumers. Allegations have also surfaced of questionable, practices constituted by the company. The company was believed to have been involved in a series of assassinations of trade union advocates. It is alleged that paramilitary personnel were hired by Coke to reprimand the advocates which ultimately resulted in their deaths. This allegation seriously affected the image of the company and market share was now on the verge of declining. Coca Cola was also accused of attempting to monopolize the beverage market and therefore incurred a lawsuit that in turn led to restructuring of the company’s competitive efforts that was not as successful as their previous efforts therefore decreasing their competitive advantage and allowing more competitors to capitalize on their market share. Consequently, these events resulted in multiple lawsuits being filed against the enterprise and motivated activists to implement boycotting actions. These activities received major international support and coca cola products were subsequently banned from several universities. The multinational organization responded to the boycotting activities by simply denying any wrongdoing on the company’s part and defending themselves in court. This was realistically a weak approach to such a serious situation that presently continues to negatively affect the company’s image. If boycotting actions prolong, this will negatively affect the company’s market share resulting in demand and profit declines. Ultimately, as the health conscious behaviors continue to develop an additional pressure would be exerted on the company and as discussed before if the company continues to deny the concerns of consumers the company would lose their customers and eventually have to eradicate its operations due to substantial losses. The Coca Cola Company being a beverage manufacturing company is governed and regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. As consumers concerns of the health risks associated with ingredients utilized by coke continues to accelerate, these concerns can influence the FDA to ban such ingredients thus affecting the company’s operations. Additionally, with environmental concerns persisting to exist the eventual, forbiddance of specific types of manufacturing plants such as smelters and glass refining plants in certain international territories can also impact the company. International environmental change will also allow further opportunities and threats to be uncovered by companies. Climate Change is an intensifying actualization that will continue to impact the entire world. It is estimated that the future will bring warmer temperatures, with a warmer climate there would be a greater demand for cold beverages and also for Corporate Social Responsibility efforts to save the wildlife and societies that thrives on colder temperatures. The economic recession may even get worst and new methods would have to be established to allow the company to reduce costs inorder to enhance profitability and provide affordable prices for consumers. The Coca Cola Company being the successful business venture can use its marketing strengths and international operating experience to enhance its operations and eliminate current difficulties. The company possesses strengths such as large financial bases and loyal consumers. The company however must first respond to boycotts by giving an international ambiguous and detailed briefing of the events that inspired the boycotts. The company must also include in their briefing, methods that would be establish to discontinue consumer health and environmental concerns associated with the company’s operations and products. The company must also meet with distraught trade unions and the murdered victims’ families to discuss the existing issues. This would allow the company to be respected and thereby contributing to the recovery of the company’s image. The company must then launch research activities to obtain healthier recipes that would allow the same great taste to please the consumers. To replace the high fructose corn syrup the company can outsource cane sugar from Indonesia at an affordable price that would not increase the cost of the company this would allow the exemption of the fructose syrup and replacing it with a healthier substitute. Other unhealthy ingredients can also be replaced with affordable outsourced substitutes that would provide the same taste. If the company refuses to change the formula, an invention that can reduce the effect of the unhealthy ingredients such as a simple powder to sprinkle in the beverage before consuming that would eliminate or decrease the effects of the caffeine and other health risky ingredients can be manufactured and made available to consumers this will bring additional revenue to the company and appease health conscious customers. The company can also capitalize on this health conscious effect by developing a new and affordable 100% healthy juice made from real fruit and vegetables to appease health conscious consumers. Increased labour outsourcing methods combined with ingredient outsourcing products may also derive a cheaper relative unit labour cost that can accommodate more affordable prices to consumers during the progression of the global recession. Coca Cola must also focus more on environmental friendly policies by installing filters in all smoke exhausts and contributing to agriculture by initiating a tree planting program and also educating the public on how to recycle appropriately. Their products must also be packaged and branded with ecofriendly packaging. Coke must also introduce and develop new methods to distribute its products in case of smelters and glass manufacturing processes being abolished in the future. Coke can invent new technologies such as portable product dispensers that are long lasting and ecofriendly. In the event of severe climate change, the organization can constitute donation funds that can allow its customers to donate to efforts to devise methods such as advertising educational programs that states the steps one can take to take a stand against decrease the process of climate change such as eliminating the use of products containing CFC’s and limiting burning isposal efforts and upgrading to ecofriendly products. These advertisements can also highlighlights the company’s engineered ecofriendly packaged products. The company should also pioneer new products that would provide a cooling comfort to societies experiencing a warmer climate and warmer products that would comfort societies experiencing c older climates.