The Count of Monte Cristo and King Lear

It is man’s path to struggle with his destiny and writers have long written about such a battle in a man’s inner soul. In the works of Alexandre Dumas and William Shakespeare such a battle is best described in their comparable works, â€Å"The Count of Monte Cristo† and â€Å"King Lear†. It is the purpose of this paper to present either novel, and the main male protagonists in the stories and pit them against each other as well as have them share in their twined destiny of faults, failures and eventual redemption.Dumas weaves a story about a man, Edmond Dantes whose life becomes entangled in another man’s vengeance and is subsequently doomed to life imprisonment. These actions are out of the protagonist’s control as he is neither aware of the person for whom the letter is intended that he is carrying to Paris (it is actually supposed to be given to Bonapartist father) nor of the rival against him, Danglars. It would thus appear as though Dant es is allowing his destiny to be overtaken from his free will.In Shakespeare’s â€Å"King Lear† Lear also allows to be a rather flotsam figure on his own path, being lead this way and that, not from a guidance of reason but by happenstance, bad luck, and fate. Blindness is recognized in the play by Lear’s grotesque nature and how he cannot stand to see the world, or kingdom he created. In King Lear’s distrust of his daughters he one by one makes himself disowned by them I prithee, daughter, do not make me mad. I will not trouble thee, my child; farewell.We'll no more meet, no more see one another. But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter; Or rather a disease that's in my flesh, Which I must needs call mine. Thou art a boil, A plague sore, an embossed carbuncle In my corrupted blood. But I'll not chide thee. Let shame come when it will, I do not call it. I do not bid the Thunder-bearer shoot Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove. Mend when th ou canst; be better at thy leisure; I can be patient, I can stay with Regan, I and my hundred knights.† (Shakespeare II. iv. 1514). Blindness is a factor in either author’s tale. For Dumas, he allows his character to remain faithful to himself but also he makes him blind to the events and circumstances surrounding him. Dantes is sent to prison, but it is in prison where he finds Abbe Faria, who teaches his about philosophy, languages, music, history, and it is in this knowledge that Dumas allows the hero to gain self confidence that he would not have otherwise come to had he not been imprisoned.It seems that either author depends a great deal upon unusual circumstances and luck (either perceived as good or bad luck) to progress the plot forward for the characters. Both characters have to face where their loyalties lie, or where the people’s loyalties lie who surround them. In â€Å"King Lear† the focus of the married daughters who are proven to be evil and usurpers of their fathers power while the younger daughter, the innocent unmarried one proves to be the only supporter King Lear has although he blindingly distrusts her from act one.The theme of â€Å"King Lear† is suitably that of loyalty from the female caste whether in faithfulness or disloyalty. With the theme of loyalty there must also be a theme of vengeance as these two factors often walk hand in hand. It is proper for Dantes to want to seek vengeance on an unjust act done to him out of jealousy from Danglars. Although it takes Dantes nine years for his plan to put into action, it takes Lear merely three acts for his vengeance to take shape on Cordelia’s life and Lear’s blindness. For, what is the purpose of having a protagonist who does not learn anything?Lear learns of his mistakes with distrusting his daughter Cordelia and by trusting his other daughters- therefore, because he was blind to this distrust in a metaphorical sense he must be made blind p hysically in order to find redemption for his actions. Dumas takes a different approach in his protagonist’s story. Dumas gives Dantes an education as well as a treasure but the idea of vengeance swallows any joy he may have gleaned from his newly found position in life as the Count of Monte Cristo. It is with a heavy heart (after finding out about his father’s death) that Dantes goes to Marseilles and then on to other European cities.Despite this occupying thought of revenge, Dantes does manage to try and save Caderousse, but is unable to help the man because Caderousse's greed is his downfall. Although he is given two chances of redemption from Dantes he falls into a life of crime and is killed. Both authors need to have progression, change or punishment in their works in order for the reader to find the humanity in the protagonists, for, without their humanity Dantes’ revenge would be a fool’s errand and Lear would not have blinded himself after seeing the error of his ways.The parallels of greed in political power (another form of the grotesque in Shakespeare’s play) are presented in how Goneril and Regan seek political power by their ability to strip the King of all his train of followers, by rejecting the King’s title, and turning him out into the storm, â€Å"†¦entreat him by no means to stay† (III. 1. 297). Also, Edmund has high political aspirations by allowing Gloucester to be blinded for his own political gain, â€Å"Hang him instantly [Regan]†¦Pluck out his eyes [Goneril]† (III. 7. 4-5), and he usurps Edgar’s legitimate title as the future Earl of Gloucester.Furthermore, Kent and Edgar both lose their nobility, the Earl of Kent is banished for his honest defense of Cordelia, and Edgar loses his claim to nobility through the deceit and trickery of Edmund. Political greed was also seen with Caderousse as well as Dantes’ other enemies who have grown wealthy and more corrup t since he has been in prison. Both author’s hinge their characters on the edge of redemption and give them each a scenario in which they can either grasp this ultimate gift and be free of blame or hate, or they can become criminals of love and honor.The authors are the same in this account, they allow their protagonists to find their redemption: For Lear, it is blindness, for Dantes it is shown in the mercy he gives to his enemy Danglars. In their redemption either man finds love again: Cordelia’s for her father Lear and Haydee for Dantes. Bibliography Dumas, Alexandre. â€Å"The Count of Monte Cristo†. Penguin Classic. 1992. Shakespeare, William. â€Å"King Lear†. Penguin Classic. 1998.

Critiquing Internet Sources Essay

The internet is filled with information. Podcasts, videos, and blogs are the most used forms of information on the internet. Three factors that need to be used when evaluating internet sources for use in research are authority, can the speaker be authenticated, and is he qualified to speak on the subject, accuracy, can the information be found in other credible sources, and currency is the information current or when was the last revision to the page? The topic is Elder Abuse, a blog, video, and podcast, have been evaluated pertaining to the subject to show the credibility and reliability of the sources. A blog is a website containing a writer’s or group of writers’ own experiences, observations, opinions, etc., and often having images and links to other websites (Oxford Dictionaries, 2015). The blog Elder Care and Technology is written by a group of writers’ in the Walton Law Firm. The blog explains in detail the impact of modern technology on Elder Abuse. The law firm based in San Diego, California specializes in court cases representing abused elders and their families. The Law firm can be authenticated and has been successful in prosecuting and retaining damages against nursing homes and personal care homes for years (Walton Law Firm, 2014). The blog does show some bias against people and organizations accused of elder abuse. The information in the blog is accurate and valid, because there are links to the law firm site that confirm the blog’s content. The information is current and applicable to the topic of Elder Abuse. A video is the recording, reproducing, or broadcasting of moving visual images (Oxford Dictionaries, 2015). The video Elder Abuse: the Crime of the Twenty-First Century, was produced by The Stein Institute for Research on Aging. The guest speaker is Deputy District Attorney of San Diego County; Paul Greenwood J.D. Attorney Greenwood has prosecuted over  four-hundred felony cases of Elder Abuse, both physic al and financial. The video gives a detailed explanation of what is being done in the state of California to combat Elder Abuse. The speaker is biased towards the prosecuting of those who mistreat the elderly. Attorney Greenwood is a valid source and the information he shares in the video is applicable to this research. The video shares information that can be found in other resources and is just one in a series offered by The Stein Institute for Research on Aging to show the new ideas that the state of California is implementing to fight elder abuse. District Attorney Greenwood is a credible source for information because of his background in the fight against elder abuse. The video is informative and the speaker is clear and concise in his reporting of the facts. A podcast is a digital audio file made available on the internet for downloading to a computer or portable media player, typically as a series, new installments of which can be received by subscribers automatically (Oxford Dictionaries, 201 5). The New York City Elder Abuse center has a series of podcasts about Elder Justice. The center was erected in 2009 to improve professional, organizational, and system responses to elder abuse (NYCEAC, 2013). The most current podcast in the aging series is Ageism, Elder Justice, and The Legacy Project, each podcast has a guest speaker and the speaker on this podcast is Professor Karl Pillemer, a noted author, Director of Bronfenbrenner’s Center for Translational Research, Hazel E. Reed Professor in the Department of Human Development, Professor of Gerontology in Medicine at the Weill Cornell Medical Center, and a collaborator on the Legacy Project (Cornell University, 2015). Professor Pillemer is an expert on the issues of the elderly, and his qualified to express his opinions though somewhat biased in favor of the elderly. He uses his bias in a way that expresses the deep concern for the elderly and their treatment, which tends to sway one to favor his arguments. The podcast is one in a series of valid podcasts and the information is easily applied to this research. The information can also be found in other credible sources on the internet. The information given in blogs, videos, and podcasts are great examples of web-based information. Web-based information has a major influence on how students gather information for research, global citizenship, and multicultural understanding. Web-based information helps develop intercultural literacies that students, parents,  educators, and leadership groups need to live and work as a diverse and globalized population. Web-based information gives the user awareness of the interconnectedness with people and environments around the globe (Department of Education, 2013). Web-based information is being infused in today’s global history classroom curriculum to enable students to have access to the global network of multimedia information while being engaged in self-directed learning activities (Scheidel, 2003). Web-based information influences the understanding of global citizenship and multicultural understanding, because people are able to put themselves in the position of the citizens of foreign countries, which helps them broaden their understanding of the different cultures that they meet right here in the United States, and helps us understand the complexities of ethnicity and culture (Hickling, 2012). Elder Abuse is a subject that has recently been raised by different organizations and advocates that fight for the elderly and their rights. The different blogs, videos, and podcasts, are ways that a researcher can find the relevant information they need to learn more about the subject and the policies being used to combat elder abuse. The internet is the leading source of information in society today. The information by way of blogs, videos, and podcasts are all perfect ways to get and exchange information. The credibility and relevance of the information should be easy to prove and sh ould always be authenticated when using these methods for research. References Ageism, Elder Justice & The Legacy Project (April 22, 2014). Retrieved from: http://podgallery.org/elder-justice-podcast-series/ January10, 2015 Cornell University College of Human Ecology (2015). Karl Pillemer-Bio Retrieved from: http://www.human.cornell.edu/bio.cfm?netid=kap6 January 11, 2015 Department of Education and Early Childhood Development Education for Global and Multicultural Citizenship: A Strategy for Victorian Government Schools 2009-2013. Retrieved from: http://www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/programs/multicultural/default.htm. January 11, 2015. Elder Abuse: The Crime of the Twenty-First Century? – Research on Aging MAY 5, 2014 University of California Television (UCTV) Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JoUapRfjZw January 10, 2015. Elder Care and Technology By Walton Law Firm http://www.nursinghomeabuselawyerblog.com/2014/05/elder-care-technology.html Hickling, F.W. (2012). Understanding Patients in Multicultural Settings: A Personal Reflection on Ethnicity and Culture in Clinical Practice. Ethnicity & Health, 17(1/2), 203-216. Doi:10. 1080/ 13557858.2012 655266. Retrieved from: Ashford University Library, January 14, 2015. Oxford University Press (2015) http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/ Scheidet, R.A. (2003). Improving Student Achievement by Infusing a Web-Based Curriculum into Global History. Journal Of Research on Technology in Education. International Society for Technology in Education, 36(1), 77-94. Retrieved from: Ashford University Library, January 14, 2015.

Fast Food and Traditional Filipino Way Essay

Statement of the Problem Both Franchise offer almost have the same product. McDonalds Philippines, an American fast food company they offer burgers, spaghetti, fries and fried chicken. they also have deserts Mcflurry, sundae, vanilla ice cream on a cone, apple pie, and coke float. Jollibee deserts are mango pie, sundae, vanilla cone twirl, chocolate krunch ice cream, and coke float. Almost the same as McDonalds. Causes of the Problem SWOT ANALYSIS of Jollibee Strengths: – Jollibee has grown exponentially on all aspects on operation. – Superior menu line-up. -Creative marketing programs. – Efficient manufacturing and logistics facilities. – It is a stronghold of heritage and monument of Filipino victory. Weakness: – The existence of other competitors. -still needs expansion to widen its sales Opportunities: – Employees received extensive training so that they could learn the corporate values of integrity and humility. Threats: -The rivalry between Jollibee and McDonald. -Jollibee was reported to have been using earthworms in its beef patties for many years to get customers ‘addicted’ to certain so-called chemical elements in earthworms. Alternative Courses of Action I think Jollibee should offer dish which is popular in the Philippines so that they could have a different perspective from the target customers. This is evident as they are constantly adding its product range on top of their already popular favorite menu, in order to allow its local customers to experience the traditional Filipino way of having local flavored taste in a comfortable setting. The main draw for customers into Jollibee’s restaurants is the appeal for local styled food offered to Filipinos’ preferences. This is evident as they are constantly adding its product range on top of their already popular favorites menu, in order to allow its local customers to experience the traditional Filipino way of having local flavored taste in a comfortable setting. Advantages and Disadvantages Advantages -continue to improve services to have an edge to the competitors -the company originated in the Philippines Compared to McDonalds -it is more known to Filipinos -affordable Disadvantages -the target market is mostly kids only -some foods were made from unhealthy ingredient like MSG Recommendation Jollibee should involve itself as being closer to Filipino families as compared to its competitors. There is already widespread awareness locally that Jollibee is a local Filipino establishment, which in turn appealed to the mass population whom felt more comfortable in a familiar setting. Tailoring its menu towards the Filipino taste, it positioned itself as the favourite destination for family outings as compared to its similar competitors. Conclusion Based on the information, therefore I conclude that Jollibee will make the company survive for a long period of time without being interrupted by its competitors if they will make their business closer to the hearts of the Filipino.

Human Resource Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Human Resource Management - Essay Example To achieve positive outcomes for both the organization and the individual employee, many an organization have resorted to the application of Employee Involvement (EI). Ulrich (1996, pp. 12) notes that EI has helped many organizations respond to business challenges besides improving their economic performances. Such organizations have adopted many strategies, ranging from customer satisfaction, quality circles, teamwork, participatory decision making, consultative committees, work life quality, total quality management, and many more. The most important pre-requisite in copping with these strategies is the employees’ and managers’ willingness to change the manner in which work in their organizations was traditionally done . EI has increased processes and practices that are being utilized by organizations. However, despite EI programs being available from a long time, their contributions in improving the performance of organizations has not yet been clearly recognized or understood. Employee Involvement and Participation Employee involvement involves exerting an upward and countervailing pressure on management by employees. Additionally, it is associated with the adversarial model of relations in a workplace. Employee participation can either be direct or indirect. Employee involvement engages the consideration of common interests between employees and management. The information communication, financial involvement, consultations, problem solving, worker directors, among others are all aimed at influencing the behavior of employees and changing organizational culture. Organizations mainly introduce EI for three main reasons: economic, moral and behavioral. Indirect employee participation and consultation makes use of employees’ potential benefits in the process of decision making. The major impediments to employee participation are attitudes of trade unions and management. EI is a participative process that makes use of the entire employee’s capacity. Legge (2004, pp 43) encourages org anizations to employ employee management because it increases employees’ commitment for the success of the business. In distinguishing EI from employee participation, Robins by observing that EI tends to be more encompassing as employees utilize all their capacity in the organizational success. This view is further supported by Wilkinson (1988, pp98) as he defines EI as the participative process that utilizes workers’ entire capacity, designed to encourage commitment among all employees. On the other hand, employee participation does not specifically seek that individual commitment degree and hence, it is only seen as a subset of employee involvement. For example, participation by employees can only be limited to their participation in the circles of quality and their outcomes. However, employee involvement links quality circles to organizational success and therefore is acts as a strategy to improve performance. Importance of Employee Involvement EI refers to the crea tion of an environment in which the employees have an impact on the actions and decisions that affect their work. EI is neither a tool nor a goal. As

A Research of How health and safety affect employees productivity and Essay

A Research of How health and safety affect employees productivity and company profits in Koh Brothers Group - Essay Example Literature Review 4 2.1 Introduction to Literature Review 4 2.2 Importance of Health & Safety at Workplace 5 2.3 Health & Safety at Koh Brothers 6 3. Research Methodology 7 4. Conclusion 10 References 12 1. Introduction 1.1 Background of the Company Koh Brothers is a well established construction, property development and specialist engineering provider in Singapore. The company was started by Mr Koh Tiat Meng in the year 1966. They have various milestone projects under them such as flood alleviation, counting Rochor Canal and Kallang River to name a few. The group has wide-ranging construction services and 40 subsidiaries, joint ventures and associated companies which are spread over Singapore, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. Apart from construction, they have diversified business in building materials, real estate, leisure & hospitality. The company has received A1 grading by Building and Construction Authority (BCA) which enabled them to undertake various civil engineering projects and building projects over the years. Koh Brothers is currently the highest grade for contractor’s registration in this category. 1.2 Research title, Research Question, Research Objectives The report mainly focuses into the health and safety standards maintained by the company and how it can affect an employee’s productivity and company profits. ... Moreover, high number of accidents and employee sickness may result in company’s declining profit. Therefore, health and safety regulations should be improved and well implemented in order to increase company’s profits and employee’s morale in which lead to further productivity. This can increase company profits as it increase company’s reputations in the eyes of investors and stakeholders. 2. Literature Review 2.1 Introduction to Literature Review Our focus of study is to look into the health and safety standards maintained by Koh Brothers and how it has helped them to boost the employee performance and also boost the company profits. According to EANPC â€Å"Productivity is an expression of how efficiently and effectively goods and services (i.e. goods and services which are demanded by users) are being produced. Thus, its key characteristics are that it is expressed in physical or economic units - in quantities or values (money) - based on measurements which are made at different levels: on the level of the economy overall, that of a sector or branch of the economy, that of the enterprise and its individual plants/units and that of individuals† (EANPC, 2005). Being a construction company, Koh Brothers put a lot of stress on Human Resource. They believe that their people are behind the success of their company. Lot of health and safety measures are taken by them to ensure their protection and care. Their staff under-go through consistent upgrading course to make sure that they can develop their new-found skills, determine new efficiencies for their professional development, and achieve better satisfaction in their work. 2.2 Importance of Health & Safety at Workplace Research has shown that satisfied and happy employees

The soccer team Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

The soccer team - Essay Example the chosen group is indeed a discourse community when the characteristics are presented and qualified through the lens being used which is the aforementioned six characteristics. One can never know all the necessary information just by observing the group because there might still be other information that are not observable. Therefore, in addition to observing, this writer also used interview to gather the necessary information used in the analysis. The interview was done with a member of the group, Sharon Simons. Swales says that, â€Å"A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals† (471). The interviewee says that as a team, their goal is to win the Atlantic 10 Season, the Atlantic 10 championship and the National Collegiate Athletic Association Women’s Soccer Championship. Obviously, the group does not just exist to perform or play but they have a goal that they are trying to reach. Secondly, â€Å"A discourse community has mechanism of intercommunication among its members† (471). Asked about this, the interviewee says that thee team does not communicate in the field only but the members also talk off field to bridge the gap in their communications. She also claims that they do their planning during practices which often happen two to three times a week. Moreover, they do immediate planning during games and half-time breaks or whenever there are substitutes in the game. They do the talking and planning throughout the game because as it is observ ed in soccer games, there may be changes that might affect what could have been planned before the game or accidents that may cause change in plans. The third characteristic mentioned by Swales is, â€Å"A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback† (472). True enough, the soccer team reflects this. As mentioned earlier, the team meets for practice, two to three times a week which is a fairly good number of times for good communication to

A Policy Evaluation Study of the Indian Economic Reforms and their Essay

A Policy Evaluation Study of the Indian Economic Reforms and their affects on the Indian Economy over the last two decades and the outlook for the future and wh - Essay Example The examination of key events and reforms juxtaposed alongside performance data provides a framework for evaluating how successful the reform policies have been in aiding India to emerge and become a global economic superpower, attracting huge amounts of FDI to capitalise on the large pool of low cost talented labour which has and will help organisations remain competitive in the global marketplace. The findings indicate that although the reforms have greatly benefited the economy there is a need for further reform in the agricultural and other sectors, which are explored in this study to ensure the current rate of economic growth is sustainable and the GDP per capita increase. The Indian Economic reforms refer generically to the changes introduced in July 1991 in all major sets of policies in the face of a looming Balance of Payments (BOP) crisis and substantial macroeconomic instability. These changes mark a significant paradigm shift in the Indian development strategy. The Indian economy had adopted the path of centrally planned development since its independence in 1947. The socialist framework of the erstwhile USSR was a major motivation and the basic growth model that was adopted was in essence a variant of the Feldman model that was followed in the USSR (Nayyar, 1997). The Indian economy at that time was predominantly agrarian with an almost non-existent industrial base. The objective of the planned development strategy was to attain rapid industrialisation and in pursuit priority was accorded to developing the capital goods sector. Large public sector investments went in to the development of the heavy industries like iron and steel and capital goo ds machinery and the private sector was restricted from entering this sector. Heavy regulatory controls were administered to restrict the private sector and the market

Phase Separation Solution Company Market Alternatives Assignment - 25

Phase Separation Solution Company Market Alternatives - Assignment Example Normally, the core and the fundamental motive to become a multinational firm is to gain access to new sources of revenue. Entities that have saturated and exhausted their local markets share and have consequently dried up growth and expansion opportunities close to their local home can turn to multinational expansion to grow and expand their arena of business. Efficient and effective navigation in multiple national markets operation provides a much broader customer and market base from which an organization can quickly generate business. This ensures a company can create new revenue while minimizing costs that are essential to earning profits. It’s of paramount importance and essence for Phase Separation Solution company to venture into the international market, through the Chinese opportunity. This will enable the company diversifies its market from a national level to an international platform. Consequently, as a result of the increased market, it's capital base will rise significantly (International Trade, 2012). The fact that the Chinese inquiries about the possible market opportunities were sincere, venturing into the new market for Phase Separation Solution Company is a real deal, It’s important to note that China is the most populated country, and hence the company can take advantage of cheap labor in the market. This way, the company will arguably go a long way in saving on its operational cost. The operational scale of the newly formed partnership with Chinese enterprises and size of the new corporations will inevitably give Phase Separation Solution Company a chance of benefiting from the vast economies of scale that provides the way to lower average prices and costs for its new consumers in the Chinese market. It is of particularly essential and important for those business organizations that carry extremely high fixed costs, just like in the case of airlines and car manufacturing.

Research Methods Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 3

Research Methods - Essay Example The questions were prepared in such a manner that it can clearly depict whether changes are required in an organisation and whether the managers are well aware and responsive to those changes. It is observed that about 80 questionnaires were duly filled while the 20 questionnaires are not taken for the analysis; within these 14 questionnaires were not dully filled and 6 were missing. Hence, 80/100 = 80% of the sample is considered for the analysis (Hair and Money, 2011; Gulati, 2009). Convenience sampling is employed in this case as the respondents are chosen because of proximity and accessibility. Here, the respondents are chosen randomly and the emails are sent along with the online link, where they will get the questionnaires. The questionnaires are sent to those managers and employees, who can be easily reached and does not have to go through an intermediary. Both descriptive and statistical analysis has been done for determining whether changes are encouraged in both the organizations. The analysis is divided into segments: Organization 1 and Organization 2. 50 respondents were chosen from each organization. The figure states that the managers, who are aware of the term change management, have the ability to identify the need for changes, which will improve the productivity Department of Culture and Information in Sharjah. However, few of the employees have stated that managers have resisted the changes and have not cooperated with the expectations and suggestions of the employees. Through the interview the managers of Sharjah Department of Information and Culture has depicted that they are concerned with the productivity of the organisations and individuals and does not concentrate on rating the efforts of the employees as they do not receive any holiday except the Ramadan. Hence, if changes are needed for the betterment of the organisations, the managers are positive about it (Hesse-Biber, 2010). According to the

1918 Flu Pandemic Brings Higher Fatalities than World War 1 Research Paper - 1

1918 Flu Pandemic Brings Higher Fatalities than World War 1 - Research Paper Example The third section investigates the public health and medical issues at the times of the outbreak. Medical response to the pandemic is investigated in the fourth section and finally, the lessons learned from the outbreak are discussed in the fifth and final section. According to CDC (2006), the 1918 flu pandemic killed 2% of the world’s human population because of lack of sufficient knowledge about the virus and ineffective medical response. The 1918 flu pandemic provides important lessons for effective monitoring and management of flu outbreaks. Flu pandemics are serious threat to human existence, because of viral antigenic drift that produces new variant strains in every two to three years (Michael, 1998). Introduction The world today remains under serious threat of influenza pandemics. The last ten years have been characterized by outbreak of flu in different parts of the world causing deaths and widespread panic. Although the scale of the recent flu outbreaks do not compare with 1918 pandemic in terms of infections and fatalities, it is evident that the world population remains highly vulnerable to the infection. The United States Department of Health and Human Services (2006) classifies influenza into three different categories. These include seasonal flu, avian flu and pandemic flu. Seasonal flu also called common flu is a respiratory infection that affects people frequently. Although there is a vaccine for seasonal flu, the immune system of most people is capable of fighting the infection. Bird or avian flu is a zoonotic infection transmitted from wild birds to human beings. The H5NI virus that causes avian flu is extremely infectious and fatal to domestic birds. The main medical concern of the avian flu is that currently, there is no effective vaccine against the infection and people do not have immunity. Finally, pandemic flu is highly infectious ailment affecting human beings and it has the potential of causing global outbreak and severe disease s (United States Department of Health And Human Services, 2006). People have minimal immunity against flu infection and therefore the disease is transmitted quickly across an expansive geographic area. In the last century, devastating flu pandemics were reported in different parts of the globe. CDC (2006) estimated that over 43 million people in the world died from flu pandemics in the last 20th century alone. Some of the major flu pandemics included the 1918 Spanish flu, the Asian flu pandemic in 1957 and the Hong Kong Flu of 1968. Historical Perspective of the 1918 â€Å"Spanish Flu† Pandemic Before investigating the historical background of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, it is important to interrogate the meanings of pandemic and influenza. Michael (1998;51) defines pandemic as an â€Å"epidemic of human ailment that occurs over a wide geographical area, crossing international boundaries and affecting large number of people†. There are different forms of pathogens t hat cause pandemics, including the current HIV/AIDS virus, influenza and in the past, the plague that infected and killed numerous people in the world around 14th century. Flu is the short form of influenza and it causes respiratory disorders in human beings. According to Barry (2004), the common symptoms of flu infection includes fever, muscle aches, cough and in rare circumstances, opportunistic infections such as pneumonia occurs in patients infected with the virus. Flu virus is one of the major causes of death and it affects people of all ages. Human beings are the primary hosts of the virus but it can also spread to domestic animals including horses, pigs and

Peace-Building Challenges in East Timor Essay Example for Free

Peace-Building Challenges in East Timor Essay For a country that was under the tyranny of a more powerful country for so long, independence, more often than not, is a word that entails and carries a better and promising future. Most countries enjoyed the benefits of having independence like gaining total control over their lands and most of all the whole population. Timor-Leste (East Timor’s official name), on the other hand, is a country that has a different scenario. Although the actual date of independence was around November of 1975, East Timor was touted to be the first independent country of the 21st century. But this fact didn’t give them enough time to prepare for an independent way of life. The reason behind this was the three hundred and more years of influence and oppression of the Portuguese empire. No wonder that even the culture and the way of thinking of most of the Timorese were a lot different compared to the time when the Portuguese did not rule them. Then after exactly nine days of independence from the Portuguese, East Timor was taken off guard by the invasion of their neighboring country, Indonesia1. Obviously, this was one of the immediate problems that confronted the newly independent country. In fact the invasion became their greatest problem that East Timor sought the help of their former invader. Portugal then turned to the UN and the Security Council to do something about the situation. In response to Portugal’s appeal, the UN gave the Indonesian army a resolution condemning their actions but they were hesitant to do anything else. It was only after twenty-four years did the Timorese people gained back their complete independence. The 24-year military occupation of the Indonesian troop was a brutal experience for the East Timor people. In September 1999, the world witnessed the war between the Indonesian Army and the East Timorese militant after voting for the Independency of the country2. Even though more than a decade had passed since their independence and more than five years since they were self-governing, it will take more than just mere decades to remove the trauma, patterns of criminality and violence, injustice and isolation in the people’s system3. This is one of the immediate problems that East Timor is facing. The nature of the East Timor’s long-term problem falls under the category of standing on it’s own foot. Governing the whole country while enduring the effects of the precedent events is taking its toll on the administration. Scheiner notes that, ‘National visions, shared struggles and promises of prosperity no longer suffice to unify the one million citizens of one of the world’s least developed countries. ’ East Timor endured its past problems with the help of other countries. It is due time to stand up on its own. The problem now lies in the midst of the country and between its people.

Financial Report Analysis of a Jute Mill Essay Example for Free

Financial Report Analysis of a Jute Mill Essay Market opportunity is big factor in shaping a company’s strategy. Opportunities may be plentiful or scarce. The may range from widely alternative to marginally interesting. A company is well advised to pass on particular market opportunity unless it has th e resource capabilities most relevant to a company are: i) ii) Those that offer important avenues for profitable growth Those where a company has the most potential for completive. Threats: Certain factors in a company extend environment may pose threats to i ts profitability and competitive well-being. Revels introduction of new product New government regulations that is more burdensome to a company than is competitors Vulnerability to a raise in interest rates Political upheaval and the like. It is management job to identify the threats to the company’s future well-being and to evaluate what strategic actions can be taken to neutralize or lesson their impact. Opportunities and threats point to the need for strategic action. Managers need to i. ii. Pursue market opportunities well suited to the company’s resources capabilities, and Take action to defend against internal threats to the company’ business. Why SWOT analysis? ? It involves evaluating the strengths, weakness opportunities and threats and drawing conclusions about the attractiveness of the company’s situation and the need for strategic action. From a strategy marking perspective strengths are significant because they can be used as the cornerstones of strategy and the basis on which to build competitive advantages. ? Management should build strategy around what the company dose best on the basis of the strengths and should avoid strategies whose success depends heavily on areas where the company is weak. A strategy also needs to aim at correcting competitive weakness that make the company vulnerable, hurt its importance of disqualify it from pursuing an attractive opportunity. ? Strategy must be aimed at pursuing opportunities well suited to the company’s capabilities and provide a defense against internal threats. Mashriqui Jute Mills Ltd. Consolidated profit and loss account For the year ended 30th June, 2 008 Revenue Cost of revenue Gross Profit Operating Expenses Administrative Expenses Distribution (selling) Expenses Profit before Interest, Tax Depreciation Depreciation Net Profit/Loss before Tax Theoretical Illustration Concepts relating to ratio analysis 3. 1 Liquidity Ratio o Liquidity refers to the ability of a firm to meet its short -term financial obligations when and as they fall due. o The main concern of liquidity ratio is to measure the ability of the firms to meet their short-term maturing obligations. Failure to do this will result in the total failure of the business, as it would be forced into liquidation. i) Current Ratio The current ratio expresses the relationship between the firm’s current assets and its current liabilities. Current assets normally include cash, marketable securities, accounts receivable and inventories. Current liabilities consist of accounts payable, short-term notes payable, short-term loans, current maturities of long term debt, accrued in come taxes and other accrued expenses (wages). The rule of thumb says that the current ratio should be at least 2 that are the current assets should meet current liabilities at least twice. (ii) Quick Ratio Measures assets that are quickly converted into cash and they are compared with current liabilities. This ratio realizes that some of current assets are not easily convertible to cash e. g. inventories. The quick ratio, also referred to as acid test ratio, examines the ability of the business to cover its sh ort-term obligations from its â€Å"quick† assets only (i. e. it ignores stock). The quick ratio is calculated as follows clearly this ratio will be lower than the current ratio, but the difference between the two (the gap) will indicate the extent to which current assets consist of stock. 3. 2 Profitability Ratio Profitability is the ability of a business to earn profit over a period of time. Although the profit figure is the starting point for any calculation of cash flow, as already pointed out, profitable companies can still fail for a lack of cash. Note: Without profit, there is no cash and therefore profitability must be seen as a critical success factors. o A company should earn profits to survive and grow over a long period of time. o Profits are essential, but it would be wrong to assume that every action initiated by management of a company should be aimed at maximizing profits, irrespective of social consequences.

The Importance Of Teaching And Learning Vocabulary English Language Essay

The Importance Of Teaching And Learning Vocabulary English Language Essay Vocabulary represents one of most important skills necessary for teaching and learning a foreign language. It is the basis for the development of all the other skills: reading comprehension, listening comprehension, speaking, writing, spelling and pronunciation. Vocabulary is the main tool for the students in their attempt to use English effectively. When confronted with a native English speaker, when watching a movie without subtitle or when listening to a favorite English song, when reading a text or when writing a letter to a friend, students will always need to operate with words. In what follows, the focus of this introductory chapter will be on why vocabulary is important, on what makes words difficult, on the main reasons for which students often forget the words they learn and on some techniques which help them remember the vocabulary. Why is Vocabulary Important? Talking about the importance of vocabulary, the linguist David Wilkins argued that: without grammar little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed. Indeed, people need to use words in order to express themselves in any language. Most learners, too, acknowledge the importance of vocabulary acquisition. In my experience as a teacher, I noticed the fact that students usually find it difficult to speak English fluently. They usually consider speaking and writing activities exhausting because they keep on using the same expressions and words and very soon their conversation is abruptly interrupted due to missing words. And the main reason for such communication problems is the lack of vocabulary. Other students are confronted with the problem of forgetting the words immediately after the teacher has elicited their meaning or after they have looked them in the dictionary, and this also a cause of the lack of vocabulary. The more words students learn, the easier they mem orize them. The teacher has an essential role in helping students to improve their vocabulary. Unfortunately, vocabulary teaching has not been enough responsive to such problems, and teachers have not recognized the tremendous importance of helping their students to develop an extensive vocabulary. If we look back in the past, we discover that for a long time, English used teaching approaches such as Direct Method and Audiolingualism which emphasized the primary importance of teaching grammatical structures. Since the accent was on grammar, few words were introduced in such courses and most often, they were limited and related to the grammar structures taught. By the beginning of 1970s, there was a major change in teaching English. The focus turned from the Direct Method and Audiolingualism to the Communicative Approach which emphasized the importance of teaching vocabulary. Students were exposed to diverse vocabulary and speaking activities. Many words began being introduced during such courses and students were encouraged to express themselves as much as possible. Nowadays, there is more freedom in choosing the methods to be used during English classes. The English syllabus is organized around both vocabulary and grammar structures. Since there is a certain number of classes allotted for each item in the syllabus, teachers usually have the necessary time to insist on teaching and practising vocabulary. Vocabulary is no longer treated as an add-on and teachers become more aware of the importance of vocabulary and attention is paid to the grammar of words, to collocations and to word frequency. Nevertheless, students still have difficulties in expressing themselves fluently and still consider speaking tasks exhausting. What Makes English Vocabulary Difficult In English, like in any other foreign language, some words are easier to learn than others. Easiest of all are the words more or less identical to the students native language, like, for instance, the word vocabulary. However, students might be trapped in their confidence with which they memorize such identical words, since English has a list of some problematic words, called false friends. These false friends are words identical in form to certain Romanian words, but completely different in meaning. An example of this would be sensible. While many students might confidently translate this word simply sensibil, they will be astonished to find out that, the Romanian equivalent for sensible is in fact rational, while the English equivalent for sensibil is sensitive. This demonstrates the crucial importance of allotting a special lesson for these false friends and of encouraging students to practise them as often as possible. Another aspect that makes English vocabulary difficult is the pronunciation of certain words. Research shows that words that are difficult to pronounce are more difficult to learn. Many learners find that words with clusters of consonants such as health or crisps are problematic. Length or complexity of the words is another characteristic of the difficulty of English vocabulary. A long word will be more difficult to memorize than a short one. Also, variable stress of words such as necessary and necessity can add to their difficulty. The meaning of the words is another controversial feature of the English vocabulary. When two words overlap in meaning, students are likely to confuse them. An example in this case would be the difference between make and do. These words have the same meaning, but are used in different expressions. You make a decision, but you do homework. Students might find the use of these two words confusing. Main Reasons Why Students Forget the Vocabulary Acquired It is important that teachers insist on the practice of vocabulary because with all their best will, students forget the words they learn. Jeremy Harmer identifies two main reasons that cause forgetting: interference from subsequent learning and insufficient recycling. Most teachers are aware of the fact that introducing a new vocabulary may imply forgetting the old one. This happens most frequently when words are taught that are very similar to the ones recently acquired because, according to Harmer, the new words have the effect of overwriting the previously learnt material. This is the reason why teachers should avoid teaching lexical sets containing words that have similar meanings to the previously ones. The second cause that triggers forgetting is insufficient recycling of the vocabulary acquired. Research shows that frequent review of learnt material can dramatically reduce the rate of forgetting. Nevertheless, it is not enough to simply repeat words and to reencounter them in their original context. What really helps is to recycle the words in different ways and at equal levels of depth. Research argues that if learners use or encounter the words in a different way from that in which they first met them, then better learning is likely to be achieved. Another important aspect when recycling certain words is for students to make sure that they really understand the meaning and the use of those words. Students might also try to apply the new words to their real life events or activities. Techniques for Memorizing Vocabulary In order to be able to have a rich vocabulary, not only do students need to learn as many words as possible, but they also need to remember them because, in fact, learning is remembering. Unlike grammar learning which is based on a system of rules, vocabulary knowledge implies accumulating individual items. It is a learning process that relies primarily on memory. Learners are different in terms of how easily they memorize vocabulary. According to Jeremy Harmer, researchers into the domain of memory distinguish three types of memory: short-term store, working memory, and long-term memory. The short-term store is the brains capacity to hold a limited number of information items for periods of time up to a few seconds (Harmer 23). Thus, it is the kind of memory that does not help students too much in their attempt to learn vocabulary items, because successful vocabulary learning involves something more than just holding words in your memory for some seconds. The working memory focuses on holding words long enough in your memory so that to be able to operate with them. It is the kind of memory that relies on reasoning and logic. Thus, if a student comes across a new word such as to acknowledge which means a recunoaste meritul cuiva, he will be able to easily memorize it by comparing it with another word from his long-term memory, for example, kno wledge meaning cunoastere. Using such an association will certainly help students keeping words in their memory for longer periods of time. Finally, the long-term store is the most trustworthy kind of memory. Unlike the working memory which has a limited capacity of holding words in the brain, the long-term memory has a tremendous capacity and its contents are durable over time. However, the fact that students forget vocabulary from one lesson to another, demonstrates the fact that it is not enough to have a long-term memory. It implies students efforts and teachers witty techniques when learning and teaching vocabulary. The great challenge for language learners and teachers is to transform the material from quickly forgotten to the never forgotten. It has been designed a number of techniques meant to help learners efficiently memorize words and to help teachers make the process of learning easier for their students. Repetition is an important technique in learning vocabulary. In order for the words to be kept as long as possible in the memory, it is necessary that they be repeated at frequent periods of time. However, repetition alone will not be effective. It must be accompanied by the understanding of the meaning of those particular words and by correlation with other similar already learnt words. Another important technique is using the newly learn words. In this case, the teachers role is also valuable. In the classroom, teachers should insist on pracising the news vocabulary by encouraging students to speak as much as possible and by designing vocabulary-centered activities and games. At home, students need to be motivated to individually keep on using the new words until they are stored in the long-term memory. Practising vocabulary is strongly connected to applying vocabulary to students real life events. Learners will acquire vocabulary easily if they practise it by associating words with events from their daily life. Considering that students are presented a new word list related to the topic entitled travelling. Learners will successfully memorize the word list by creating a real life event, for instance going to Italy and then performing a situation in which all the words can be included. This can be done in classroom as well as at home and will certainly entertain students and have positive results. Another witty technique to be taken into consideration when both learning and teaching vocabulary is imaging. Students will easily learn new words if they are taught to associate them with their picture. If, for example, students associate travel agency with the image of the particular building where we go to ask information about travelling, they are likely to keep that word in their mind for longer time. Thus, it is extremely important for the students to visualize the words they must learn. This will help the learning process and will keep the words in the long-term memory. In conclusion, vocabulary is the most required skill when learning a foreign language. It is on vocabulary that all the other skills, reading, writing, speaking, and listening are based and developed. This chapter has shown why it is important to learn new words and why English vocabulary is difficult to memorize. Moreover, it dealt with two main reasons for which most of the students permanently forget the words acquired. And finally, it has suggested methods and techniques that help to understand the new vocabulary by using the working memory and to transfer it in the long-term memory.

William Wilkie Collins :: Essays Papers

William Wilkie Collins William Wilkie Collins was born in London on January 8 1824, the son of the renowned painter William Collins (1788-1847). His father was a religious man, who was disappointed by his son's freethinking nature: Collins refused to conform to parental expectation, failing to make a career at the tea-merchants Antrobus and Co., to which he was apprenticed at the age of seventeen, and at the law, which he entered as a student in 1846. Collins was twenty-two when his father died, and was now determined to become a professional writer. His first book, published in November 1948, was Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, R.A., but, as Julian Symons comments, "he settled after this act of piety to a life of which his father would strongly have disapproved" (8). In a writing career that lasted from 1843, when he published his first story in The Illuminated Magazine, until his death in 1889, Wilkie Collins wrote thirty-three books, and numerous plays and short stories. Although he was already an established writer with the publication of the memoir of his father and his first novel Antonina, it was when he met Charles Dickens in 1851 that his literary career began to take off. Collins regularly contributed to Dickens's magazine Household Words, and the writers even collaborated on a story called "The Perils of Certain English Prisoners" published in the Christmas 1857 number. Collins's first major success was The Woman in White which was published serially in Dickens's new journal All the Year Round from November 1859. In the decade that followed Collins produced the remainder of his best work: the novels No Name (1862), Armadale (1866), and The Moonstone(1868). Although he continued to write for another twenty years his reputation fell into decline as his choice of subject matter veered to the sensational: for example Poor Miss Finch (1872) is the story of a blind girl who falls in love with one of a pair of identical twins whose skin is dyed blue by a cure for epilepsy. Collins himself believed The Woman in White to be his finest work, and stipulated that the inscription on his tombstone should simply read: "'Author of The Woman in White and other works of fiction'" (Symons, 7). Collins and Marriage Collins's personal life was scandalous from the point of view of the bourgeois English society into which he was born. In 1858 he set up home with a woman called Caroline Graves and her young daughter.

Beowulf Cheat Sheet Essays -- Epic of Beowulf Essays

1. Weapons serve as the tools that the soldiers must use > to do their job: killing beasts or men without getting > killed. As a artist may be fond of his paintbrush, the > soldiers greatly cherish their weapons. Often a weapon is > valued for its pedigree. The author often interrupts action > to delve into a weaponà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s previous owners and its history. > In the introduction, Burton Raffel states, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“The important > tools, in this poem, are weapons: proven swords and helmets > are handed down from father to son, like the vital > treasures they were. Swords have personalities, and names: > à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? (xi) > Beowulf uses Hrothgarà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s helmet and armor to protect > him from serpentsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ claws while he descends into the lake to > meet Grendelà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s mother. The helmet is said to à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“ block all > battle swords, stop all blades from cutting at > himà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?(1451-53) However, the monster bites holes in it. > Grendelsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ mother is frustrated by the almost impenetrable > armor. She à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“tried to work her fingers through the tight > ring-woven mail on his breast, but tore and scratched in > vain.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? (1503-05) > Hrunting is the sword that Unferth lends Beowulf for > the battle against Grendelà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s mother. Hrunting is a lucky > sword, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“No one whoà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢d worn it into battle, swung it in > dangerous places, daring and brave, had ever been > deserted-à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?(1459-1461) However, Hrunting is useless against > Grendelà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s mother, although no swords made by mortals would > have pierced the monsterà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s skin. It takes a sword à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“hammered > by giants, strong and blessed with their magicà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? (1557-1559) > that Beowulf finds hanging on the wall to cut through the > monsterà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s neck. The monsterà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s blood melts the sword but > Beowulf brings the sword hilt to Hrothgar as a gift. > In the battle against the dragon Beowulf uses a sword > named Nagling. It first cracks against the tough dragon > skin and then breaks to pieces against the dragonà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s head. > Once again, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“his weapon had failed him, deserted him, now > when he needed it mostà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. Although the iron shield is > somewhat effective against the dragonà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s scalding breath, > throughout the poem Beowulf is little aided in battle by a > weapon. The author suggests that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“his hands were too > strong, the hardest blade could not help him, th... ...m hilde-deor > hearpan wynneà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. In the translated edition Burton Raffel > uses a more subtle style, although alliteration can still > be easily found on every page. An example is the > description of Hrothgar playing a harp and how he à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“stroked > its silvery stringsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? (2108) > Kenning is the use of figurative phrases instead of a > simple noun. Instead of just saying ship the author might > use à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“the ringed prowà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?, the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“sea-farerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?, or à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“the bent-necked > woodà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. The dragon is refered to as a à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“twilight-spoilerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? and > à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“whale-roadà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? is an ocean. A king or important noble is > called a à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“ring-giverà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? many times throughout the poem. > There are several similes is the poem. One example is > the description of Grendelà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s claws as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“nails as hard as > bright steelà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? (985) Another simile poetically depicts the > Geats journey stating, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“The ship foamed through the sea > like a birdà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? (218). > An Epithet is an identifying repeating adjective used > to take the place of a personà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s name. The kenning term > ring-giver is an epithet. Patronymics, a specific type of > Epithet, is the naming of people in terms

Malcolm X Essay -- rights of African Americans

A black militant, Malcolm X championed the rights of African Americans and urged them to develop racial unity. He was known for his association first with the Nation of Islam, sometimes known as the Black Muslims, and later with the Organization of Afro-American Unity, which he founded after breaking with the Nation of Islam. Malcolm Little was born in Omaha, Neb., on May 19, 1925, the seventh of eleven children. The family soon moved to Lansing, Mich. There they were harassed by whites who resented the black nationalist views of the father, Earl Little, an organizer for Marcus Garvey's "back-to-Africa" movement. When Malcolm was 6 his father was murdered. His mother later suffered a nervous breakdown, and the family was separated by welfare agencies. Later in his life Malcolm came to believe that white people had destroyed his family. Placed in a series of schools and boardinghouses, Malcolm became a fine student and dreamed of becoming a lawyer. A teacher, however, told him that because he was black he should learn carpentry instead. Discouraged, he left school after the eighth grade to live with a relative in Boston, Mass.Malcolm shined shoes and worked at a soda fountain, in a restaurant, and on a railroad kitchen crew. In 1942 he moved to the black Harlem section of New York City. He lived as a hustler, cheating to make money. He was wary of the police. A pusher, he sold drugs and became an addict himself. Pursued by a riva...

Factory Overhead Allocation Method

Overhead Allocation [pic] Overhead Allocation Overview In many businesses, the cost of overhead is substantially greater than direct costs, so the cost accountant must expend considerable attention on the proper method of allocating overhead to inventory. There are two types of overhead, which are administrative overhead and manufacturing overhead. Administrative overhead includes those costs not involved in the development or production of goods or services, such as the costs of front office administration and sales; this is essentially all overhead that is not included in manufacturing overhead.Manufacturing overhead is all of the costs that a factory incurs, other than direct costs. You need to allocate the costs of manufacturing overhead to any inventory items that are classified as work-in-process or finished goods. Overhead is not allocated to raw materials inventory, since the operations giving rise to overhead costs only impact work-in-process and finished goods inventory.The following items are usually included in manufacturing overhead: |Depreciation of factory equipment |Quality control and inspection | |Factory administration expenses |Rent, facility and equipment | |Indirect labor and production supervisory wages |Repair expenses | |Indirect materials and supplies |Rework labor, scrap and spoilage | |Maintenance, factory and production equipment |Taxes related to production assets | |Officer salaries related to production |Uncapitalized tools and equipment | |Production employees’ benefits |Utilities | Definition of ‘Applied Overhead'A type of overhead that is recorded under the cost-accounting method. Applied overhead is a fixed charged to a specific production job or department within a company. Applied overhead stands in contrast to general overhead, such as utilities or rent. Other forms of applied overhead include depreciation and insurance Definition of Actual Overhead: The actual overhead refers to the indirect manufacturing c osts actually occurring and recorded. These include the manufacturing costs of electricity, gas, water, rent, property tax, production supervisors, depreciation, repairs, maintenance, and more. The applied overhead refers to the indirect manufacturing costs that have been assigned to the goods manufactured.Manufacturing overhead is usually applied, assigned, or allocated by using a predetermined annual overhead rate. For example, a manufacturer might estimate that in its upcoming accounting year there will be $2,000,000 of manufacturing overhead and 40,000 machine hours. As a result, this manufacturer sets its predetermined annual overhead rate at $50 per machine hour. Since the future overhead costs and future number of machine hours were not known with certainty, and since the actual machine hours will not occur uniformly throughout the year, there will always be a difference between the actual overhead costs incurred and the amount of overhead applied to the manufactured goods.Ho pefully, the differences will be minimal at the end of the accounting year. APPLIED Overhead is computed using the predetermined overhead rate and is the amount of costs applied (or estimated) to be allocated (needed) for specific jobs. ACTUAL Overhead is found after the manufacturing process is complete which gives the actual amount of used/consumed resources (or total costs) that it needed to complete the job. The two amounts can then be compared afterward which is known as Under- or Overapplied Manufacturing Overhead. When Manufacturing Overhead has a DEBIT balance, overhead is said to be UNDERAPPLIED, meaning that the overhead applied to work in process or to the certain job is LESS than the overhead incurred.On the contrary, when manufacturing overhead has a CREDIT balance, overhead is OVERAPPLIED, meaning that the overhead assigned to work in process or to the certain job is GREATER than the overhead incurred. The typical procedure for allocating overhead is to accumulate all manufacturing overhead costs into one or more cost pools, and to then use an activity measure to apportion the overhead costs in the cost pools to inventory. Thus, the overhead allocation formula is: Cost pool / Total activity measure = Overhead allocation per unit You can allocate overhead costs by any reasonable measure, as long as it is consistently applied across reporting periods. Common bases of allocation are direct labor hours charged against a product, or the amount of machine hours used during the production of a product.The amount of allocation charged per unit is known as the overhead rate. The overhead rate can be expressed as a proportion, if both the numerator and denominator are in dollars. For example, ABC Company has total indirect costs of $100,000 and it decides to use the cost of its direct labor as the allocation measure. ABC incurs $50,000 of direct labor costs, so the overhead rate is calculated as: $100,000 Indirect costs $50,000 Direct labor The result is a n overhead rate of 2. 0. Alternatively, if the denominator is not in dollars, then the overhead rate is expressed as a cost per allocation unit. For example, ABC Company decides to change its allocation measure to hours of machine time used.ABC has 10,000 hours of machine time usage, so the overhead rate is now calculated as: $100,000 Indirect costs 10,000 Machine hours The result is an overhead rate of $10. 00 per machine hour. If the basis of allocation does not appear correct for certain types of overhead costs, it may make more sense to split the overhead into two or more overhead cost pools, and allocate each cost pool using a different basis of allocation. For example, if warehouse costs are more appropriately allocated based on the square footage consumed by various products, then store warehouse costs in a warehouse overhead cost pool, and allocate these costs based on square footage used.Thus, far we have assumed that only actual overhead costs incurred are allocated. Howev er, it is also possible to set up a standard overhead rate that you continue to use for multiple reporting periods, based on long-term expectations regarding how much overhead will be incurred and how many units will be produced. If the difference between actual overhead costs incurred and overhead allocated is small, you can charge the difference to the cost of goods sold. If the amount is material, then allocate the difference to both the cost of goods sold and inventory. Definition of ‘Cost Of Goods Sold – COGS' The direct costs attributable to the production of the goods sold by a company.This amount includes the cost of the materials used in creating the good along with the direct labor costs used to produce the good. It excludes indirect expenses such as distribution costs and sales force costs. COGS appears on the income statement and can be deducted from revenue to calculate a company's gross margin. Also referred to as â€Å"cost of sales. † Our consent over The Topic: To determine the cost of goods we have to determine the factory overhead. Cost of goods are included all the costs occurred during the production including direct and indirect material, labor and all the factory overhead costs. We use allocation method to determine the factory overhead costs.If we can’t determine the factory overhead costs we can’t find out the actual cost of the goods those are produced and the sale value we can’t determine correctly. Because cost of a good is consisted with factory overhead costs. Factory overhead expenses should be determined otherwise understated rate of a good can occur. Because if we can’t determine the factory overhead costs we can’t actually determine the cost of a good that is prepared for sale. Allocation methods are used to determine factory overhead costs. Organizations use Applied or Actual factory overhead allocation methods to determine the Factory overhead costs. Cost of goods are li ed with these factory overhead costs.So if we need to determine the amount in which we need to sale a good we need to determine it’s total manufacturing costs. Otherwise loss will occur. Conclusion: Cost of Goods sold is actually related with sales. And Allocation method is used to determine the factory overhead costs which is necessary to determine the costs o a good. We need to determine the factory overhead before the goods are sold. Because without calculating the factory overhead we can’t determine the costs of a good and can’t determine the amount in which we need to sale that good. That’s why we use Allocation method to determine the factory overhead better than charging or crediting the difference to COGS.

Suez Crisis

Do you agree with the view that the Suez Crisis of 1956-57 did no damage to the fortunes of the Conservative party? The Suez Crisis which was aided by the French and Israelis wasn’t just a disaster for the Conservative party but Britain as a whole as it created lots of problems and tension internationally especially with the USA. To a certain extent the Conservative party did take some damage although the sources point out some other arguments which suggest it wasn’t just them who suffered. Source 5 & 6 both support the view that the Conservatives took no damage during the crisis.Lee states, ‘There was no internal split in the Conservative party’. Kilmuir agrees with this, and goes onto talk about, ‘Our most lost party workers, although dismayed by our handling of the situation were consumed with the hatred of the Labour party. ’ Which means even though they were going through a tough situation the Conservatives kept a strong front and were all in it together against Labour; even the media gave publicity in which spread the disgust to the public about the Labour party.Overall it shows Labour actually had it worse off; they weren’t popular with the public at the time, this later shows at the 1959 general election as Macmillan takes a victory for the Conservatives. On the other hand, Kilmuir was a member of the Conservatives at the time and he might have wanted to give the public the idea that the situation wasn’t as bad as it seemed as his party just caused a major international tensions with our allies.Although he does admit that, ‘Even the most hostile critics of the Conservative party’ had their doubtful moments in the party giving the idea that the party had nothing to hide and that its members knew there would be some slight internal tensions. Opposing the statement, in Source 4, Rowe tells us that after the Suez Crisis, ‘†¦there as a sharp economic crisis’ and that, Ã¢â‚¬Ë œPolitically, Eden was finished. ’. This was true about the economy as there was a international run on sterling, which threatened Britain with economic collapse with no hope of the USA willing to bale Britain out.There were further large withdrawals of deposits by international investors which lead to a major fall in Britain’s currency reserves. This of course damaged the Conservatives greatly as Britain was still trying to recover economically from WWII and this crisis set Britain back about 4 years economically according to an account from Gaitskell; being from the Labour party he may of exaggerated some of these numbers as he produced no evidence of his findings. It also did finish Eden apparently; as he was removed from the party but in Source 5 it says it was because of ‘ill health’ not because of the Crisis itself.People expected R. A. Butler to take over but as he wasn’t much help during the crisis when he took over from Eden. It was actuall y Macmillan who took control of the Conservatives. Showing the Conservatives they had to change their party structure because they had been damaged by leading Britain into this crisis. Overall, to a certain extent I disagree with the statement because I think that Eden was damaged significantly by the Suez Crisis as he lead Britain into some economic problems which left him politically finished.However, to a larger extent I agree with the statement that it did no damage to the fortunes of the Conservative party even though it had some short term damage at the beginning for example, Eden was removed and they had to shuffle the party leadership, Macmillan then saved the party and won the later 1959 General election with the increasing of public consumption resulting in a period of affluence whilst Labour was left in the gutter constantly in internal party feuds leaving the Conservatives victorious and prosperous.

Is knowledge management a fad? Essay

Abstract Knowledge management is a broad term that includes tools and theories from various fields. T.D. Wilson had been impeaching the need for knowledge management and he had come to the conclusion that knowledge management is just a fad started by consultancy companies and IT/ICT departments. This paper examines the righteousness of this proclamation and provides explanations and specifications of some conclusions that had T.D. Wilson provided in his work â€Å"The nonsense of ‘knowledge management’†. Is knowledge management a fad? 1 The need of KM in information society With the instantaneous global information sharing is arising the need of knowledge management. This is based on the evolution and transformation of society. Every year the amount of the whole human knowledge is doubled. The role of information in current organization has transferred from peripheral and incidental to central and fundamental. Management is no longer supervising their employees, but instead is prioritizing feedback from the employees and therefore the function of the manager has shifted from pure decision making to information processing (Brunet-Thorton, 2010). Information society is characterized by the interconnection of information sources, the ease of transferring categorizing and saving information with the help of applied use of data digitalization. In the definition of information society has the large importance the fact that inner telecommunication structures are more and more dependent on outer telecommunication systems. An example of this interconnectedness can be the internet, which is for our society nearly indispensable. And therefore is enabling the impressive growth of communicational and informational business organizations. With the beginning of the 21st century we can observe strong globalization tendencies – huge networks if users, which are able to communicate and share information without the presence of third persons. This way the volume and amount of knowledge information and data is astonishingly expanding. The communication infrastructure is slowly becoming the infrastructure used for knowledge sharing. The information society is indirectly enabling smaller companies and businesses to get involved in global trade market. For accomplishing their business objectives, these companies can get advantage in using new paths for trading such as on time production and delivery, online publishing, teleworking and network based virtual teams. The rapid evolution of information-globalized market is supporting the transformation to perfect market – from the economical perspective. New businesses opportunities are emerging form these technology shortcuts. Specific examples from the present can be Google or Facebook, which have so far used the information globalization most prospectively. Information society can bring new paths to advance the economy and contribute to increasing the number of highly skilled jobs, but at the expense of reducing the number of working positions with lower or no qualifications. A key factor is the role of education and retraining of unskilled workers, especially in government and public administration. This is closely related to other difficulties emerging from information society – safety and protection of information. You will need to modify the legislation together with the development and emergence of new information technologies. The fight against cyber-crimes, data protection, information privacy, i.e., to prevent fraud with the certification authorities and prevent the spread of malicious code should be a top priority in the developing information society. 2 Data, Information, Knowledge We can define data as a â€Å"crude facts relating to things and events that have not been processed or organised† (Thorton, 2010). An example can be database filled with numbers. Without knowing the context – what the abbreviations describing each column mean we cannot get any information from these data. Another example can be a text in a foreign language. Without knowing this language we are not able to transform data (characters) into any information (meaning of whole words and sentences) and consequently we are not able to obtain any knowledge from this text. Data become information, when they havebeen manipulated permitting its meaning to be understood. (Thorton, 2010) One of the tons of definitions of knowledge is: â€Å"Knowledge is directly related to understanding and is gained through the interpretation of information. Knowledge enables us to interpret information i.e. derive meaning from data. The interpretation of meaning is framed by the perceiver’s knowledge.â€Å" (Mark Sharratt & Abel Usoro, 2003, p.188). The definition of knowledge management becomes more interesting then definition of knowledge, because of the various views on this term as Wilson points out (Wilson, 2002, What is ‘knowledge management’?, para. 1). Despite the recent lack of agreement on what is meant by knowledge management, the definitions of knowledge management aim at three core components of knowledge management: knowledge/information repositories, communities and networks and experts and knowers. (Chatti & Jarke & Frosch-Wilke, 2007, page 406) 3 Tacit explicit and implicit knowledge Wilson has also raised the question about explicit knowledge. He is literally asking the reader â€Å"Does it make any difference to the argument if, in the diagram, we replace â€Å"tacit knowledge† with â€Å"knowledge† and â€Å"explicit knowledge† with â€Å"information†?† He is not answering his question, so it may seem unanswered, but while reading the whole paragraph, which is quite critical to the established distinction between explicit knowledge and information, I stopped looking for the answer, because it quite evident that this question is just rhetorical. Other authors are fairly more specific about the term of explicit knowledge. One of the views is offering Stenmark: The fact that routines, procedures, rules, manuals, books, blueprints, and all the other examples given above are useful does not make it knowledge. They all need knowledge to be decoded and are therefore not knowledge but information, albeit interwoven with the knowledge required to create it. Knowledge, which remains tacit, is also needed to interpret the information. Although some argue that â€Å"knowledge† may be embedded in a text (e.g., a balance sheet where columns and totals have predefined meanings), the reader cannot appreciate it without bringing the required personal knowledge (2002, page 6). As a conclusion I think a can say that the term explicit knowledge can be used synonymously with information. 4 Knowledge in VSE courses In order to show the importance and purport of knowledge management I am presenting here the syllabuses of few courses from The University of Economics, Prague that engaged with knowledge. 4IZ210 – Information and Knowledge Processing Aims of the course: To familiarize students with basic methods for both information storage and retrieval, as well as for acquisition and processing of formalized knowledge. Furthermore, the aim is to highlight the interrelationship of these areas and outline anticipated developments. Learning outcomes and competences: Find and process information about companies and present the processed information, especially for analysis of the competitive environment. The emphasis is put on working with electronic information resources. Apply the selected method for knowledge discovery in databases on a given data and publish acquired knowledge to an expert. The emphasis is put on working with association rules. Understand the basic methods selected for processing information and knowledge within presented subjects. Course contents: The method for storing and retrieving information, methods of obtaining and processing of formalized knowledge, solving practical problems. (4IZ210 syllabus, n.d.) This course is dealing with all free levels of intelligence produced by humans: data information and knowledge. Student should be able to distinguish between these three easily and they should also be capable of transforming one to another. 3MA661 – Management of Knowledge Workers Aims of the course:Introduce students to modern tools and methods of management convenient for management of knowledge workers. Demonstrate those tools and methods in real life corporate situations. Learning outcomes and competences: distinguish between tacit and explicit dimension of knowledge, use basic tools for work with explicit and tacit knowledge, identify knowledge workers in organization and classify them to groups in relation to their importance for organization and style of work, manage and develop knowledge workers in relation to their personality type, manage personal development of knowledge workers, initiate and manage process of knowledge sharing among knowledge workers, create visions and get the support of knowledge workers for them. Aims of the course:Explain importance of knowledge for business and management. Present key concepts and processes of knowledge management and demonstrate them on case studies. Explain the term tacit knowledge and teach students to work with it. (3MA661 syllabus, n.d.) This syllabus is quite unspecific about specifying knowledge management tools used for managing knowledge workers. It seems, just from the text of this syllabus that this course is overlapping with majority of the topics with the Knowledge management course. 4SA320 Information Management Basics Aims of the course: Course offers basic theoretical background as well as practical application of information management. It presents information management as multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary science, which integrates knowledge in three areas – modern management, system approach and informatics. The content of the course accents global overview of the information society, its development and presents main topics of managerial work in conditions of actual information society. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to know the legal frame of information society in conditions of the CR, work with components of Integrated Management System, actively know how to use basics of knowledge management in the area of enterprise informatics. (4SA320 syllabus, n.d.) I absolved this course last year. From the syllabus it seems that student will have to do lots of with knowledge. So thought I, and although I wasn’t really able to tell much difference between information and knowledge, my expectations were aimed on knowledge – from my today’s point of view. But this course is purely focused on Information management. It peeks more into technological and legal fields than in management of knowledge itself. And as the last I would like to present not a course of The University of Economics, Prague but a student’s site called vseborec.cz. It’s not primarily a knowledge management tool, but rather an information sharing site. But from simple sharing site for student’s notes to lectures it has developed to a ‘database of student knowledge’. It’s quite interesting that has expanded to today’s proportions thanks to the sharing and unselfish naturel of students on a school which aim is to teach its student to compete and not to share. You can find out what will be the professor and his lectures like even before enlisting in the course. 5 Web searches analyse To support or refuse the formulation of Wilson that knowledge management is just a fad (2001, â€Å"Conclusion†, pa. 1) I made an analyse of web searches on Google in the period of the last six years. If the term ‘knowledge management’ is in the business world used just as a synonym for the term ‘information management’ the total amount of searches for the term’ knowledge management’ should be increasing to the prejudice of the term ‘information management’. The absolute amount of web searches for both, the information and knowledge management, has been obviously decreasing in the period of the years 2004 and 2007. The drop of searches is simultaneous for both of the terms, therefore we cannot say that knowledge management is replacing information management, at least in the sphere of web searching. Among the most popular places around the world for searching the term knowledge management in the period of last 12 months is leading South Africa followed by Kenya Malaysia and India. But in the year 2004 in the top ten places for web searching ‘Knowledge management’ we can find countries such as United Kingdom, Italy and Australia. The shift of popularity from western countries to African and Asian areas is evident. (Google Insights, 2010) Graph 1 Web search worldwide (Google Insights, 2010) This is the conclusion that has T.D. Wilson come up with: â€Å"The inescapable conclusion of this analysis of the ‘knowledge management’ idea is that it is, in large part, a management fad, promulgated mainly by certain consultancy companies, and the probability is that it will fade away like previous fads.†(Wilson, 2002, â€Å"Conclusion†, para. 1). And according to my web searches analysis it really looks like that knowledge management is just a fad. The interest in knowledge management has been decreasing for the last six years. But I think that this is only due to the acceptance of knowledge management as such in western cultures and the simultaneous inception of knowledge management awareness not just in business world but also at universities and in a public sector. And due to this conclusion I presume that the growth of interest in knowledge management in South Africa, Kenya, India, Malaysia and other south Asian and African countries is because of the lack of general awareness about knowledge management and not because of the late arrival of â€Å"fashionable knowledge management† to less developed countries. 6 Reasons of knowledge management popularity rocketing Wilson presented in his paper five arguments, why he thinks that knowledge management has been experiencing such a boom in the past decade. Here are they: First, and largely because of a fixation on internal organizational data, the term ‘information’ has become almost synonymous with data in the minds of organizational heads. For example, I’ve been told that the National Electronic Library for Health uses the term ‘Knowledge’ because in the NHS information=data and a different term was needed. We have to lay this, I think, at the feet of the information systems profession whose focus for years was data and data definitions, etc. In fact, they dealt not with information systems but with data systems. (Wilson, 2001, pa. 2) This is, of course, misinterpretation of data and information. If is somebody using this terms incorrectly in one organization, that doesn’t mean that everybody else should take these terms as synonyms. Information systems are by definition â€Å"computerized tools that assist people in transforming data into information† (DiBiase, 2008) but data systems are just groups of facts presented in a specific order (pixels forming a picture, radio waves broadcasted at one frequency). Secondly, and opportunely for the software houses and IT firms, ‘km’ came along just as they were being hit by the wave of scepticism over the possibility of IT ever delivering more than problems – and certainly never likely to deliver productivity and performance. ‘Whoops, we’ve cracked it!’ cried the IBMs and MSofts of this world – ‘We should have been dealing with ‘knowledge’ all along, and now we are – Lotus Notes is no l onger groupware and personal information management, it’s KnowledgeWare!’ So they are happily marketing the same product under a new name. (Wilson, 2001, pa. 3) As I mentioned earlier, the term knowledge management is on its raise, not because of marketing strategy of IT/ICT companies, but because of its popularity increasing with the needs for better entitlement of the information society. Thirdly, the organization and management boys finally began to realise that all this text that people were creating on word-processors, etc., needed to be managed effectively and, indeed, organized, shared and disseminated more effectively, but they couldn’t use ‘information management’ because that was ‘information systems’ and data, wasn’t it? So it must be ‘knowledge’, right? If we can only get people to share their ‘knowledge’ performance must improve because it is the communication barriers that are preventing the free flow of ‘knowledge’ (i.e., information). So, now, every aspect of organization and management theory has to have a ‘knowledge’ dimension, other wise you aren’t in the game. In the literature, of course, this amounts to the token use of the term ‘knowledge management’ and the use of ‘knowledge’ as a synonym for ‘information’. (Wilson, 2001, pa. 4) Knowledge shouldn’t be used synonymously with information and I hope that this is not happening, at least at academic level. Also Wilson is not differentiating between data and information system which definitions are noted above. Fourthly, at the forefront of all this were the management consultancies – why? Because BPR and Organizational Learning were running out of steam. Amusingly, all organizational learning work appears to come under the heading of ‘km’ – more search and replace marketing. So, the consultancies grabbed at km in order to have something to sell at the end of the 90s. (Wilson, 2001, pa. 5) The consultancies are always looking for the needs of business market and therefore they should be reflecting the needs of this market, at least to some point, so this point might be valid on a small extent of a scale. Finally, most (or at least many) departments of information management or information science, and departments of information systems in academia, are somewhat low on the totem pole in most of their institutions, and each needs to differentiate itself from the other in order to try to work its way up that greasy pole, so both have seized on km as an aid in the struggle. I foresee turf-wars over which department, where there is one of each, has the right to run degrees in km. Where only one of the kind exists, it will seek to make km all-embracing of management, computer science, information systems, etc., etc. – because the logic leads nowhere else 🙂 ‘If we deal with knowledge – then how can anyone else presume to do so?’ (Wilson, 2001, pa. 6) The logic of Wilson leads nowhere else, because that is exactly what knowledge management is about: people, culture, technology, processes. The knowledge management is closer with its aim to the management and organization and the departments of information management are rising from IT/ICT fields so the need to go up should be also emerging from management places and not from information management departments. 7 Conclusion With the development of new technologies in information and communication sector the new term ‘knowledge management’ has begun to be used in business sector. The term as such is not useless and meaning less as suggested by Wilson in his research. Wilson is asking the readers in the conclusion of his paper:†If getting promotion, or holding your job, or finding a new one is based on the knowledge you possess – what incentive is there to reveal that knowledge and share it?†(2002, â€Å"Conclusion†, pa. 2). And my answer to this probably rhetorical question is: Your working experience, your social and cultural background and most importantly your education. From all of these you can predict the amount of knowledge one possesses. Although it cannot be evaluated by any empirical measures, the existing society is surviving without these accurate measurements and surprisingly she is doing quite well. This is not to say that enabling people to contribute effectively to the management of organizations is impossible and that sharing knowledge and enabling people to use their creativity in innovative ways in organizations is impossible – simply that it is very difficult, and that it does not reduce to some simplistic concept of ‘knowledge management’! It demands a change in business culture, from the macho Harvard Business School model, to something more thoughtful and understanding of what motivates human beings. Organizations need to learn to think about problems, rather than grab at proffered ‘solutions’ – which often turn out to be expensive side-tracks away from the main issues (Wilson, 2002, â€Å"Conclusion†, pa. 3). And that’s why knowledge management isn’t just a simplistic concept. It includes tools from various fields such as and uses them for improvement of knowledge culture within the organization. The slight decrease in popularity of knowledge management in the last six years shows not the recess of knowledge management as a fad, but it rather shows the wide acceptance of knowledge management in the western society. The views presented by Wilson are shocking and very easy to understand and that’s why I find this view presented by Wilson too simplistic and demagogic to some extent. References 3MA661 – Management of Knowledge Workers FPH – WS 2010/2011 course syllabus, (n.d.), The University of Economics, Prague, Retrieved from: https://isis.vse.cz/auth/katalog/syllabus.pl?predmet=68577 4SA320 – Information Management – Basic FIS – WS 2010/2011 course syllabus, (n.d.), The University of Economics, Prague, Retrieved from: https://isis.vse.cz/auth/katalog/syllabus.pl?predmet=68886 4IZ210 – Information and Knowledge Processing FIS WS 2010/2011 course syllabus, (n.d.), The University of Economics, Prague, Retrieved from: https://isis.vse.cz/auth/katalog/syllabus.pl?predmet=69183 Brunet-Thorton, R. (2010) Knowledge management. Presented at The University of Economics, Prague 3MA624 Knowledge Mangement lecture. 11th November Chatti, M.A. and Jarke, M. and Frosch-Wilke, D (2007) The future of e-learning: a shift to knowledge networking and social software. Int. J. Knowledge and Learning, Vol. 3, Nos. 4/5, 2007 Retrieved from: http://cites eerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.141.3202&rep=rep1&type=pdf DiBiase, D. (2008) Pennsylvania Spatial Data Access Glossary. Retrieved from: http://www.pasda.psu.edu/tutorials%5Coutreachglossary.asp Google Insights (2010) Retrieved from: http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=knowledge%20management%2Cinformation%20management&cmpt=q Sharratt, M and Usoro, A. (2003). Understanding Knowledge-Sharing in Online communities of Practice. Page 188. Retrieved from: http://www.thestep.gr/trainmor/dat/%7B7a8f15e0-b7eb-404e-864a-ef0eb1403751%7D/article.pdf Stenmark, D. (2002), Information vs. Knowledge: The Role of intranets in Knowledge Management, Proceedings of the 35th Hawaii