Statement of problem, opportunity, objectives Essay Example for Free

Statement of problem, opportunity, objectives Essay Alan Baird, the founding figure of Stitch it, a primarily mall based service provider which officers alteration services to the private and public sector, was now the company’s CEO. In 1990, Baird sold Stitch it to a business group after sales and income had begun to slow. After selling his company and having stayed on as CEO, he oversaw the growth of the company and overall expansion form the initial 3 stores under Baird’s direct leadership, to today’s 84 stores throughout Canada and the United States. Now having the opportunity to buy back his business venture, his daughter, Jennifer Baird has expressed her interest I becoming an executive in the Stitch It Group. Analysis of situation Although Jennifer Baird has graduated from The University of Western Ontario with a bachelor’s degree in the administrative and commercial studies program in 2000, she lacks real-time experience to go into the Stitch It Group and lead as an executive. She would have a difficult time attempting to adjust to the fast paced environment in addition to having the support from her peers or the respect from her employees without having earned her â€Å"stripes.† To address the concern, Alain Baird proposed a plan of attack to expose his daughter to the much needed experience by completing a 10-year plan. The plan called for her to assume the role of a local store moving up to managing operations to various stores and then rotating thru positions in business operations, accounting department, marketing and human resources before heading into an executive position Identification and evaluation of alternatives Alternative #1: Jennifer Baird can continue with her education and her goal to be a top executive by taking courses and earning a degree in business management. Advantage: She would take this education into a tentative 10-year program her father will develop and expose her to real-life situations with the day-to-day operations of the group. Disadvantage: This option might deter her father from purchasing the group in the manner that it would be up to an additional four years of schooling before she can accompany and assist him the business operations. Alternative #2: Alan Baird takes his daughter, Jennifer Baird, under his wing and shows her â€Å"the ropes† after completing her education at The University of Western Ontario and assigns her to and extended internship program after he accepts the offer to buy back his previous business group. Advantage: Alan Baird fulfills his dream to operate a family business; in addition he assures himself his daughter obtains the necessary exposure to the successes and failure of running the business. Disadvantage: Within time, Alan Baird might not have the physical stamina to run the family business and keep up with his daughter’s training. Decision, course of action, implementation Alternative #2 is the best course of action available to Alan Baird. By taking his daughter under his leadership, he can share first-hand experience and knowledge to overcome and continue in the groups’ success and he can have the family business he always sought after.

Hamlet and Ophelia :: Essays Papers

Hamlet and Ophelia 1. Plays have foils to help the audience understand important characters in the play. Foils are minor characters that have similarities and differences with a more important character in the play. Sometimes the minor character is just there for the character to talk to; this is the basis for being a foil. In the play "Hamlet," [Titles] by William Shakespeare, the character Ophelia is a foil to Hamlet. 2. Similarities are an important part of being a foil. One similarity that Hamlet and Ophelia share are that they both are children of controlling parents. [SV - 1] Hamlet's father, who is murdered[,] comes back as a ghost to tell him who his murderer is. This news is his father's way of controlling him from the grave. Hamlet's mother and stepfather are also controlling him by presuading [persuading] Hamlet not to go to Wittenburg. Men in those days went away to get an education. There was no need for Hamlet to do so because he was a prince. [As a Prince, he might have been even more likely to go abroad for his education.] Ophelia is controlled by her father also. She tells him how Hamlet has tried many times to express his affections for her. Ophelia's father does not believe Hamlet is sincere and orders her to stay away from him. Ophelia obeys her father[']s wishes. Women were expected to do as they were told and believed what they were told to be true. 3. Another similarity between Hamlet and Ophelia is their [the] feelings they have for each other. In the beginning of the play[,] we are lead [led] to believe that Hamlet loves Ophelia. This frightens Ophelia, but that does not mean she does not have feelings for him also. It is her father who discourages [encourages] her to suppress any feelings she may have then. Later in the play Ophelia confesses her love for Hamlet[,] and he then hides his feelings and denies that he loved her. He suggests that she goes [go] to a nunnery. This makes Ophelia feel worthless and not wanted. 4. Finally the reactions that the characters have to their fathers' deaths are also similar. When Hamlet learns that his father was murdered and that his stepfather is the killer[,] it is more than he can handle.

Religious Beliefs and Practices In A New Era Essay

Assess the view that religious beliefs and practices are changing to reflect a new era of diversity and choice. Current religious beliefs and practices are very different in Britain from 100 years ago. No longer do the masses attend the established church, attendance is down to 6% of the population and the 2001 Census identified 170 distinct religions in Britain. 72% claim to be Christian but less than half of the population believe in God and only 18% claim to be a practicing member of an organised religion. Clearly today’s patterns are very different from those of the past. How then to explain them? There are two fields of thought here. Secularists take the simple opinion: lack of attendance and reduction of belief means a lack of interest and a decline in interest and influence of religion. However, opponents of secularisation claim it is not as simple as that. Society itself has changed dramatically in recent years but that does not mean a decline in society, just a change. Religion, therefore, can not be expected to stagnate in a changing society but must also change with the times. Religion then must met the needs of a late modern or postmodern society which offer levels of diversity and choice which have not existed before and can not do this by behaving as it did in a modern or pre-industrial society. Grace Davie is a proponent of this point of view. For her, religion has simply become more privatised, that is: it is now a private matter of personal preference. This is more appropriate for a society which emphasises individualism and simply echoes what is happening in other institutions in society: the family, for example, is no longer a simple traditional nuclear family, other groupings are now widely accepted. People are then free to decide whether they wish to attend church, worship on their own or even use modern technologies to help them worship, whereas in the past the norm was to attend church and people felt obliged to do so. Davie describes this new pattern as believing without belonging and believes it is a new form of religion. As evidence of this, she points to wider attendance or reliance on religion in times of crisis. People are content to practice vicarious religion where a small number of professional clergy practise religion on behalf of a much larger number of p eople until times of national or personal tragedy. However, if Davies is correct then this would mean high levels of belief and low attendance which Voas and Crockett point out is not the case. Bruce argues that if people are not willing to get involved then their belief must not be sincere or strong so Davie’s defence is unrealistic. Hervieu-Leger points to an increase in individualism and a decline of tradition in society, ideas associated with late modernity, as reasons for a decline in institutional religion. Parents are reluctant to tell their children what to believe so traditional ideas can not be passed down, what Hervieu-Leger calls cultural amnesia. Churches can not be authoritarian and impose beliefs. This leaves people without a fixed religious identity or knowledge of traditional beliefs and thus they are forced to choose or create new religious beliefs and practices for themselves, whereas their ancestors simply repeated patterns of their forebearers. Fortunately having to select one’s own religion is not too demanding for people living in a postmodern society as one of its defining characteristics is consumerism, where we construct our identities through what we consume. H-L describes us now as ‘spiritual shoppers’: without a traditional fixed identity, we must select our own and we do this to best suit ourselves, choosing the beliefs which give most meaning to our lives and suit our interests and aspirations – an individualised religion. Thus instead of merely going to the church our parents went to, today we can take our own personal journey and this explains the wide range of organisations we can join from church to sect to cult. Some H-L describes as pilgrims focusing on self-discovery who join NAMs that concentrate on personal development and others are converts who want a religious group which offers a strong sense of belonging, to re-create a sense of community. Lyon, a postmodernist, supports the idea that traditional religion is giving way to a variety of new religious beliefs and practices because we are living in a postmodern society. In this society globalisation, the increased importance of the media and communications and the growth of consumerism all create a new era of diversity and choice in all aspects of life. Lyon demonstrates how these have affected religion. We are now exposed to a wider range of religious ideas than ever before and these have become ‘disembedded’ from their original local contexts so we can now adapt ideas and beliefs to suit our own purposes. Much new religious belief is simply a watered down version of Eastern religions, adapted to suit Western tastes. Practice of worship is also different because it is no longer necessary to attend a local church. Instead the ‘electronic church’ on the internet and televangelism allow us to stay at home. However, if it is difficult to get convincing statistics of how many people attend church and what effect this has on them, it is even more difficult to research the numbers involved in and the influence of this new form of worship. The very diversity of religions on offer forces a change in religious belief. People become sceptical that any one religion can offer the truth and are, therefore, willing to ‘sample’ any of the new NRMs on offer. Again this is a reflection of postmodern society where we no longer trust in any kind of expert, and have rejected ‘meta-narratives’ which seek to explain the world. This can even be seen in politics where the old certainties of left and right politics have been reduced to the centre ground – one could argue here that their beliefs have also become less strict. This means that new ideas will continue to flourish as we become increasingly disenchanted with the world.

20 Facts About the Chemical Element Silver

Silver is a precious metal that has been known since ancient times. But the element silver has many more uses today than just decoration or as a form of monetary exchange. Silver History 1. The word silver comes from the  Anglo-Saxon word  seolfor.  There is no word that rhymes with the English word silver. It is a transition metal element, with symbol Ag, atomic number 47, and atomic weight of 107.8682. 2. Silver has been known since antiquity. It was one of the first five metals to be discovered. Mankind learned to separate silver from lead in 3000 BCE. Silver  objects have been found dating from before 4000 BCE. It is believed the element was discovered around 5000 BCE. 3. The chemical symbol for silver, Ag, comes from the  Latin word for silver, argentum, which in turn derives from the Sanskit word  argunas, which means shining. 4. The words for silver and money are the same in at least 14 languages. 5. Coins minted in the United States before 1965 consist of about 90% silver. Kennedy half dollars  minted in the United States  between 1965 to 1969 contained 40% silver.   6. The price of silver currently is less than that of gold, varying according to demand, the discovery of sources, and the invention of methods of separating the metal from other elements. In ancient Egypt and Medieval European countries, silver was valued more highly than gold. 7. The primary source of silver today is the New World. Mexico is the leading producer, followed by Peru. The United States, Canada, Russia, and Australia also produce silver.  Around two-thirds of the silver obtained today is a by-product of copper, lead, and zinc mining. Silver mines in Mexico, such as this now-abandoned one, provided 18th century Spain with over one third of the silver sent out of the New World. Danny Lehman / Getty Images Chemistry of Silver 8. Silvers atomic number is 47, with an atomic weight of 107.8682. 9. Silver is stable in oxygen and water, but it  tarnishes in the air because of a reaction with sulfur compounds to form a black sulfide layer. 10. Silver can exist in its native state. In other words, nuggets or crystals of pure silver exist in nature. Silver also occurs as a natural alloy with gold that is called electrum. Silver commonly occurs in copper, lead, and zinc ores. 11. Silver metal is not toxic to humans. In fact, it can be used as a food decoration. However, most silver salts are toxic. Silver is germicidal, meaning it kills bacteria and other lower organisms. 12. Silver is the best electric conductor of the elements. It is used as the standard by which other conductors are measured. On a scale of  0 to 100, silver ranks 100 in terms of electrical conductivity. Copper ranks 97 and gold ranks 76. 13. Only gold is more ductile than silver. An ounce of silver can be drawn into a wire 8,000 feet long. 14. The most commonly encountered form of silver is sterling silver. Sterling silver consists of 92.5% silver, with the balance consists of other metals, usually copper. 15. A single grain of silver (about 65 mg) can be pressed into a sheet 150 times thinner than the average sheet of paper. 16. Silver is the best thermal conductor of any metal. The lines you see in the rear window of a car are made of silver, used to defrost ice in the winter. 17. Some silver compounds are highly explosive. Examples include silver fulminate, silver azide, silver(II) oxide, silver amide, silver acetylide, and silver oxalate. These are compounds in which silver forms a bond with nitrogen or oxygen. Although heat, drying, or pressure often ignite these compounds, sometimes all it takes is exposure to light. They may even explode spontaneously. Silvers Uses 18. Uses of silver metal include currency, silverware, jewelry, and dentistry. Its antimicrobial properties make it useful for air conditioning and water filtration. It is used to make mirror coatings, for solar energy applications, in electronics, and for photography. 19. Silver is exceptionally shiny. It is the most reflective element, which makes it useful in mirrors, telescopes, microscopes, and solar cells. Polished silver reflects 95% of the visible light spectrum. However, silver is a poor reflector of ultraviolet light. 20. The compound silver iodide has been used for cloud seeding, to cause clouds to produce rain and try to control hurricanes. Sources Greenwood, Norman N.; Earnshaw, Alan (1997). Chemistry of the Elements (2nd ed.). Butterworth-Heinemann. Amsterdam.Hammond, C. R. (2004). The Elements, in Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (81st ed.). Chemical Rubber Company Publishing. Boca Raton, Fla.Weast, Robert (1984). Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. Chemical Rubber Company Publishing. pp. E110. Boca Raton, Fla.