The Opal Gem - 1951 Words

Compared to the night sky, holiday fireworks, and the power of erupting volcanoes, opals contain a majesty incomparable to other precious gemstones. One opal can display a vast amount of color with intense display. Extreme color variations in an opal can challenge even the most expensive gems, such as rubies, emeralds, and even diamonds. The birthstone for October and for a couple’s fourteenth wedding anniversary has a unique history and a list of characteristics that make it stand apart from other gemstones and solidifies itself among the best of all gems. The opal gem has a rich history that spans across many cultures and locations throughout the world. Its name is derived from the Sanskrit word â€Å"upala† meaning cloud or precious stone (Sanskirt Dictionary). Eventually this word was absorbed into the Roman language; their word â€Å"opalus† means precious stone. The Greek language also contains the word â€Å"opallios† meaning to see color change. Definitions such as these fit the opal gem quite well because both the Roman and Greek civilizations saw the opal as the most valuable gem, only second to emerald. Opal was treasured to the Romans to such an extent that the scholar Pliney praised the opal, saying: For among them the gentler fire of the ruby, there is the rich purple of the amethyst, there is the sea-green of the emerald, and all shining together in an indescribable union. Others, by an excessive heightening of their hues equal all the colors of the painter, others theShow MoreRelatedRocks, Gems And Minerals1098 Words   |  5 PagesFrom the time I can remember I have been fascinated by Rocks, Gems and minerals. Over the years in my spare time I learn about the different kinds; Where they are from, what they can be used for. Each rock, mineral and gem has energy and many are used for meditation and healing I am going to start by going over the three main groups of rocks; Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic. Igneous Rocks come form deep within our Earth where the magma is. Magma is made from molten gasses and minerals. WhenRead MoreBirthstones9275 Words   |  38 Pagesï » ¿Birth Stones The first association of a special gem with each month was recorded in the Bible, in Exodus 28 and 39. An original breastplate of the High Priest of the Hebrews was said to be made by Moses in 1250 BC, according to instructions he received during 40 days in the mountains. The 12 gems in the breastplate were later linked with the signs of the zodiac, and later still associated with the months in the year. Different cultures have different lists. Jewelers’ lists are often inconsistentRead MoreOpal Mining Of Australi The Mining Capital Of The World2223 Words   |  9 PagesOpal Mining in Australia Australia contains a lot of opal, especially in South Australia producing an estimated 95-97% of the world’s opal supply. All of the opal mines in Australia are located in the Artesian Basin which contains many mining towns such as Lightning Ridge, Andamooka, White Cliffs and Coober Pedy, which has been called the mining capital of the world. All of these towns are situated in Australia’s outback, the land mostly consisting of barren dry rock and dirt. But hiding in theRead MoreAstrology : A Constant War Between Ancient And Modern Methodology963 Words   |  4 Pagesin Hindu mythology that when the demon king Bali was killed, gems came out of his body as a symbol of victory of gods over demons. Diamonds were found from his bones, pearls from his teeth, ruby from his blood drops, emerald from his gall bladder, blue sapphires from his eyes, lapiz lazuli from the juice of his heart, cat s eye from his nails, coral from his flesh, and yellow sapphire from his skin. The story continues. From these gems, the sun took away the rubies, the moon picked up the pearlsRead MoreEssay about Birthstones Have Been Around Since Prehistoric Times1024 Words   |  5 Pagesin to the future, giving them an almost psychedelic, magical of glory. These fiery green gemstones are wonderful to look at, and can be originate in a wide range of cuts and shapes. The gorgeousness and richness of this gemstone makes it the perfect gem for birthstone jewelry, and is something that the wearer can lead and take pride in for a forever. June birthstone the magnificent Pearl birthstone is for the month of June, and this gemstone has been connected with modesty and chastity, making itRead MoreWhy Egyptians Use Jewelry And Its Effects On Society1316 Words   |  6 Pagesalways occurred in nature, but only within the past few centuries have people began to manipulate these precious stones to show off their beauty through lapidary- the art of working or engraving in stone, and even more recently with gem cutting. Lapidary and other forms of gem cutting have greatly impacted the evolution of jewelry across cultures. The continued fascination with gemstones and jewelry has withstood the test of time and has left people for centuries curious about how gemstones form in natureRead MoreDistinctive Visuals in Run Lola Run Essay1190 Words   |  5 Pagesbelonging to Australia. The poem captures the diversity and colours of the Australian landscape through descriptive language and colour imagery. The word â€Å"sunburnt† is suggestive of red, earthy tones while â€Å"jewel sea†, â€Å"sapphire misted† and â€Å"opal-hearted† uses gems to illustrate the broad spectrum of colours characteristic of the Australian landscape. Personification captures the power, beauty, and temperament of the land, â€Å"Her beauty and her terror†, ‘tragic ringbarked forests’ and â€Å"pitiless blue sky†Read MoreJewellery3808 Words   |  16 Pagesto the exact nature of the stone he referred to as  Adamas;  In 2005,  Australia,  Botswana,  Russia  and  Canada  ranked among the primary sources of gemstone diamond production. The  British crown jewels  contain the  Cullinan Diamond, part of the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever found (1905), at 3,106.75  carats (621.35 g). Now popular in  engagement rings, this usage dates back to the marriage of  Maximilian I  to  Mary of Burgundy  in 1477 Amber Amber, an ancient organic gemstone, is composedRead MoreDifferent Kinds of Love in William Shakespeares Twelfth Night5635 Words   |  23 Pagessuperficiality of love. In addition, Feste can see through him, and tells Orsino, â€Å"the tailor make thy doublet of changeable taffeta, for thy mind is a very opal†. Feste is implying that Orsino is quick in changing his mind, from, â€Å"doublet of changeable taffeta, and that he is very fickle-minded, from, â€Å"mind is a very opal†, as the opal is a symbol of changeability because of its iridescent qualities. All these show that Orsino, being very fickle, is also easily changed with regardsRead MoreObject Oriented Database5341 Words   |  22 Pagesextensions. GemStone merges object-oriented language concepts with those of database systems. And provides an object-oriented database language called OPAL which is used for data definition, data manipulation and general computation. Architecture The GemStone system exhibits client/server architecture, and is distributed over two processes: the Gem and the Stone processes. The Stone process, running on the server, delivers the data management capabilities performing disk I/O, concurrency control

The Single Life Free Essays

Adult Development and career Life Assessment Jan. 21, 2010 With the internet implemented worldwide the dating scene has revolutionized. The single lifestyle in my opinion is slowly becoming a thing of the past, especially with social networking sites such as e-harmony, match. We will write a custom essay sample on The Single Life or any similar topic only for you Order Now com, my-space, or even facebook. How can one define the single life? It depends on who you ask on what kind of definition you will get. In the dictionary single is defined as a relating to the unmarried state or no longer living with. I define being single as being someone who is not actively participating in a relationship with a like minded individual. I have been single for the most part of my life. My very first relationship was my sophomore year in high school. I was only about fifthteen or sixteen years old. Her name was Carla, she and I met in the cafeteria one morning while we were having breakfast before homeroom period started. Even though our high school was very small, I cannot recall ever seeing her before. Once we became friends, we started to date. We would attend school functions, basketball games, choir concerts, basketball games and track meets; as time progressed a little we both got our driver licenses and jobs. This at first was a really good thing for the relationship, due to the fact that we could attend and participate in other functions and activities outside the ones that were primarily school related, for example: the movies, or the fair. One side effect that I noticed from my new experience was that of a wondering mind. I would often find myself not focused on school work or any task for that matter. I would always become distracted when trying to accomplish anything; my attention would immediately be directed to Carla’s and I relationship. This was not benefiting me in anyway. My grades dropped, I became less and less productive at work and didn’t get much rest. Finally I made the decision that if a relationship would cause me not to maintain my focus and career goal that is was not for me at that time. Carla was my first and last serious relationship, and I have made the judgment to remain single until I have reached my educational aspirations. I would like to think that there is no pressure and is a personal choice on staying single or to get married, but it is not like that. Once a person can whole heartedly accept the fact that they are living the single life, it becomes somewhat easier for that individual to interact with others on a daily bases. For example, when a person really and truly feels as if they need to be in a relationship or cannot understand why they are not, that individual could have some problems dealing with others who are in a relationship or someone who is content with the single lifestyle. In my opinion â€Å"coming from personal experience† a person is more likely to find themselves when single as opposed to being in a committed relationship. Being a person who has been in a relationship and single, I can see some pros and cons in both being single and being in a relationship. Attached you will find a diagram with some of the pros and cons. ? ? Pros SINGLE IN A RELATIONSHIP Freedom Someone to share More friendsShared experiences Self-Sufficiency Can Depend on someone Prioritizing Career Two incomes Cons ? SINGLE IN A RELATIONSHIP Lonely Arguments No one to talk toJoint bank accounts One incomeLess time to work Having to cookLess time to focus on school In conclusion I’ve express my view and thought on the single life base on information obtain from personal experiences and article and information researched via the internet. Base on the information presented in my paper I have concluded that being single is conducive to the hectic lifestyle of a young, working college student. I do feel as if everyone needs and deserves someone. Which is why I do not wish to remain single for the remainder of my life, I can honestly say I am at the point in my life where being single is ok and works for me. How to cite The Single Life, Papers

Breaking Out free essay sample

My grandmother used to say, Women are nothing but trouble. Some might agree with this ancient Chinese saying, but it simply reflected the patriarchy society I grew up in. Even though Taiwan is a developed country, its cultural ties are nowhere far from mainland China. Growing up in a society and a family full of elders that carelessly emphasize the importance of sons over daughters, I learned to do everything better for myself. Perhaps I wanted to prove all the patriarchy societies in this world wrong, but mostly I wanted my family to recognize the equality between me and my brother. One of my first profound memories was when my mother was pregnant with my brother. I asked her if the family was in the same felicity when my sister and I were born. She told me that people were happy that my sister was born because she was the first child, but my birth was less celebrated in comparison to my older sisters birth. We will write a custom essay sample on Breaking Out or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page I began to doubt my existence and the sincerity of my familys love towards me. I was further put into doubt when my mother went on and said, When you were born, no one came to visit; not even one soul. Your father came late from work, and your grandmother only made a phone call to ask for your gender. She sighed and said, When your grandmother found out what you were, she hung up the phone and never paid me and you one visit in the hospital. Although I knew that my parents loved me regardless my sex, I felt constantly shadowed by my older sister and often ignored by my parents over my brother. I was never as outgoing as my sister in front of adults, nor was I as successful as she was in elementary school. Not only did she get As on tests and quizzes, she also played the piano brilliantly; she even won multiple English speech competitions. While she succeeded in almost everything, I struggled to break out of her shadow. I said ‘yes’ to almost everything my parents asked me to do. From picking up the violin at the age of four, entering a speech contest unprepared, doing chores that I hated, watching basketball games that I didnt understand, to finally becoming the nice, obedient child that my parents wanted me to be. For almost eleven years of my life, I never knew what I really wanted, what I was capable of doing, and who I really was. Things took a gradual turn shortly after I turned eleven. The second semester of fifth grade, our family moved back to Taiwan after one and a half year of business venturing in Canton, China. I entered a new school, but soon enough I was just one of the faces in the crowd. I never saw my potentials in anything until my teacher asked me to enter a Chinese improvisation speech competition of the City of Taichung in the elementary division. I, without any hesitation, accepted her offer, because I got tired of seeing other people return with their awards and honors. The day of competition, I was given the topic: What would you do if you were a magician? I didnt plan anything out in my head, not even the second before I went on the stage. To my surprise, I won first place – I was finally recognized for something. I ran out the classroom right when the dismissal bell rung through the school. Before my father greeted me, I squeaked in excitement, Dad! Dad! Dad! You would not believe this! I entered the competition and guess which place I won?, before he answered me, I went on, First place! Can you believe it? Can you believe your daughter won FIRST PLACE!? He smiled and said, Of course I believe you won first place, in fact, I knew you were going to win. All my children are smart. No, I am not surprised, but I am happy for you. On our way home, I was too busy wearing a big fat smile on my face to have a conversation with my father. Before we entered the house, I asked my father again, You really knew I was going to win? He replied, Well I never thought you were going to get first place, but I knew that you can do anything you wanted and be good at it. Those words meant more than anything in the world to me. For the first time, I felt capable of doing anything, and most importantly, for myself and not for anyone else.

Twelfth Night Essays (1981 words) - Twelfth Night, Entertainment

Twelfth Night Comedic Conflict and Love in Trevor Nunn's ?Twelfth Night? Trevor Nunn's direction of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night takes away some of the confusion present in the reading of the text, which begins with the complicated love interests of the main characters. Having been the artistic director for the world famous Royal Shakespeare Company for eighteen years, Nunn is vastly familiar with adaptations of Shakespeare's plays. Part of the comedy of this film develops from the first three acts of the play, which allow for a complex circle of interaction to develop within the film. Nunn's use of the prologue at the beginning of the film presents crucial information in an easy to understand, witty way. The film's prologue makes clear much of the play's primary confusion, and establishes the foundation on which the rest of the film may balance upon. Nunn's adaptation of Twelfth Night begins with the founding relationship in the play, the designs that Orsino expresses for Olivia. It is clear that this first interaction is the basis for others that occur, and it is also clear that both Shakespeare and Nunn utilize this interaction to create the comedic effects that happen because of the subsequent love interests. Orsino is not just an average courtly love, he is the Duke, and has considerable stature and respectability in his community. It is expected that his love for the Countess Olivia will be reciprocated, even in the midst of her grieving the loss of her brother. However, Duke Orsino's attempts at contact are met with disdain, but Olivia's lack of interest does not dissuade Orsino from continuing his pursuit. Duke Orsino is not a skilled romantic. His belief that he can compel Olivia into marriage through the expression of his feelings in messages demonstrates his lack of real passion in the situation and shows that he is of great stature, perhaps to belittle himself with courting. He is not Romeo hiding in the bushes for his Juliet, and this is one of the elements of separation that cause the comedic conflict to occur. If Orsino had taken it upon himself to persuade Olivia personally, instead of sending messengers, the outcome of the film would have been significantly altered. Both Shakespeare and Nunn support the importance of Malvolio's role through the love that he has for himself, as well as his love for Olivia. While Malvolio's love for Olivia creates a sub plot, including the actions manipulated by Maria's deception, this only builds on the comedic effect that is created by the other loves that develop. The comedic conflict is further developed in Malvolio's ?Puritanesque? wardrobe of his suit and shoes. This comedy seen in Malvolio's wardrobe is extended to the end of the film when Malvolio appears wearing bright yellow tights and cross belts. Malvolio's character is significant because he at first attempts to bring an air of respectability and chastity to the whole film, though his essential flaws and his inability to recognize the reality of people's feelings, including Olivia's, removes him from the position of moral overseer to a simple player in the game of love. Malvolio's error is related to his self-perceptions and his consideration of his own self-importance, rather than his caring and compassion for his mistress Olivia. The other character of significance is Viola, and she is important in the development of the comedic conflict that occurs. She is a noblewoman who disguises herself as a boy, and becomes a servant of Orsino. Orsino uses Viola as a messenger to persuade the steadfast Olivia to hear his pleas of love. The problem with this scenario is that in the process of winning a position with Orsino, Viola falls in love with him, thus her voice as a messenger for Orsino is complicated by her own feelings. The comedic conflict of love occurs primarily within this love triangle of Olivia, Orsino and Viola. Olivia falls in love with a girl pretending to be a boy, as Orsino subsequently falls for a ?boy?, who, fortunately for him, is in actuality a girl. Instead of persuading Olivia on Orsino's behalf, Viola, who is called Cesario as a boy, attacks the love of Olivia, complicating the film. Viola does not immediately recognize the affections

HTML Cheat Sheet For Content Marketers - CoSchedule

HTML Cheat Sheet For Content Marketers In todays economy, youve probably heard something about the importance of developing coding skills. However, not all bloggers or content marketers are familiar with HTML. Even among those of us who know a little bit of code, theres always more we can learn. In your job, you probably dont need to know how to build an entire site from the ground up with nothing more than a text editor and your wits. However, if any part of your job involves working in WordPress or another content management system, knowing a little bit of code can be immensely helpful. Here are a few reasons why: Understanding HTML can help you learn  how your blog or website is structured. Knowing even a little bit of code can help you become more self-sufficient (and it may help you save time asking for help). You'll be able to fix stubborn WordPress formatting issues  more easily and with less yelling at your computer. In this post, we'll cover the most essential basics for  blogging-focused readers. If you've never worked with HTML before,  this will be a perfectly paced primer to get you started. Learn #HTML basics to improve your #blog formatting skills. #bloggingIf you have a bit of experience with web coding, you'll still likely pick up a new tip or two (plus, be sure to download the free HTML cheat sheet to use for future reference). If you're a marketer or blogger working with WordPress, and you're intimidated by the mass of "who-knows-what" you see when you click into the Text editor in your CMS, this post is for you. While you can accomplish most of the tasks outlined in this post using the standard WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) WordPress editing controls, knowing how to do things the old-fashioned way is still beneficial (especially when things go wrong and those editing controls seem powerless to help). The standard WordPress kitchen sink offers a lot of power. It isn't always perfect, however, and sometimes it's faster to edit your content's formatting manually.  That's where some basic HTML knowledge comes in handy. What Is HTML? HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language.  It forms the structure of a  website and  has been the backbone of the Internet since the dawn of time (or at least the dawn of the modern  Internet). HTML is used in conjunction with  CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), which is used to control the appearance of a website.  For the purposes of this post, we'll focus just on HTML, and only on a small handful of tags  any beginner can put to use. This video provides  a simple overview of how HTML documents are created (watch this before you proceed): It's okay if that seemed like a lot to wrap your head around. We'll walk through much of the information here in a bit. Pro Tip: You can view a website's source code in most browsers. This can be useful for seeing how websites are built by observing the code itself. Here's how to do this using several popular web browsers: Google Chrome: Right-click and select View Page Source. Firefox: Right-click and select View Page Source Safari: Open Preferences, select Advanced, and click "Show Develop Menu In Menu Bar" at the bottom. Then, go to the Develop menu and select Show Page Source. Internet Explorer: Right-click and select View Source, or press the F12 key on your keyboard. Microsoft Edge: Right-click and select View Source, or press the F12 key on your keyboard. Here is an example of Google's home page with the Show Page Source option selected in Safari on Mac OS X. Why Do Bloggers And Content Marketers Need To Know HTML? If you've ever tried to edit content in WordPress, then you know the formatting functions fail to work the way  you want them to sometimes.  That's because WYSIWYG editors  don't always work as well as intended.  For example, a bulleted list may appear with extra spaces. Your text might not copy and paste correctly. You might want to change the color of your blog theme, but you might not know how. Content marketers should know basic #HTML. Get started here:These are just a few issues you're likely to run into. However, if you know a little HTML, they're issues you can fix. You'll become a more capable marketer  and a more valuable employee. What Are Some Things I Can Do With HTML? In general, you'll gain more control over your content's structure and appearance. Here are some specific tasks bloggers and marketers can tackle with HTML: Create and edit text links. Control paragraph structure. Fix broken lists. Build tables. Remove unwanted spacing. These are just a handful  of helpful things you're about to learn how to do. If you've never touched the Text view section of your WordPress posts, you'll probably feel a bit more confident in your skills too. Words Of Encouragement: Learning HTML isn't as difficult as it may sound. As a blogger or marketer, you don't necessarily need to know how to build an entire website from scratch. By the time you reach the end of this post, you'll likely learn as much as you'll need to know. Why Do I Need An HTML Cheat Sheet? If you haven't yet, we highly recommend downloading the HTML cheat sheet that accompanies this post. It's useful for you to have on hand so that all the common HTML tags are readily accessible. Learning #HTML? Use this #cheatsheet!How To Write HTML  With Text Files And A Browser Ready to write and edit some HTML yourself?  You could get started now using the Text editor in any WordPress post.  However, you can also  use  Notepad (Windows), TextEdit (Mac), or Sublime Text (Mac, Windows, Linux) and your web browser of choice. Pro Tip: If you've never heard of Sublime Text, it's an extremely useful plain text editor that offers more features than Notepad or TextEdit. It's especially handy for writing HTML because it automatically color-codes different portions of your coding, making things a bit easier to read. If you'd like to try it out, download it here. Follow these steps to create a simple HTML file: 1) Create a blank file .txt file. Write your HTML. Then, save your document as an HTML file. Here is an example of a quick HTML file we created: 2)  Click File in your top navigation bar. Then, scroll down to Open File: 3) Select your HTML file and click Open. It'll look something like this: Pro Tip: Remember your .txt document needs to be saved as a .html file. Basic HTML Tutorials For Beginners Now that you have some understanding of what HTML is and how it works (and you've downloaded the HTML cheat sheet, right?), let's  get started on some basic HTML tutorials. How To Format Text Using HTML Let's start with some basic text formatting. How To Create Headings HTML uses six different levels of section headings. They are structured like this: Here's what they look like on the blog: A few things to note about header tags: It's generally considered best practices to include only one  H1 tag (this is important for SEO). Generally, WordPress themes use H1 tags for  blog post headlines. Keep this in mind when formatting headings. You'll likely use multiple H2, H3, etc. tags per post. It's okay if you use heading tags "out of order" (ex: your H2 is lower on the page than an H3). Here's a useful explanation about heading tags from Matt Cutts: How To Make Text Bold If you'd like to make text bold, use this tag: Strong: strongInsert Text/strong In the past, you may have seen bolded text created using the bInsert Bolded Text/b tag. While the b/b tag still works, it's considered outdated. For this post, we'll stick with best practices and recommend the strong/strong tag instead. How To Make Text Italicized Similar to making text bold, there are two different tags you can use to create italics. The emphasis tag is the best one to use: Emphasis: emInsert Text/em You may have seen italicized text using the iInsert Text/i tag, but once again, this tag is considered outdated. How To Create A Paragraph To create a text paragraph, use pInsert Text/p. Here's an example: How To Create A Line  Break If you'd like to force a space between two lines of content, consider using a page break. Simply add the br tag between lines of content, like this: We don't actually think we're geniuses, and I'm certainly no Shakespeare. We just wanted to make sure you were still paying attention. How To Create A Block Quote If you have a quote that's a few lines long (or more),  it should be formatted in a block quote. You could do this in WordPress by clicking here: Or, you can wrap your text using this tag: blockquoteInsert Text/blockquote. Here's how block quotes appear on our blog: How To Create And Edit Links Using HTML You're probably thinking, "WordPress makes it easy to create links, doesn't it?" However, there is still value in knowing how to manually create links. Plus, there are some things WordPress can't do when it comes to links, that need to be performed manually. Let's go over how links are built in HTML, how to link between different sections of an individual post (this is a handy way to build a table of contents), and how to add no-follow attributes (which are potentially powerful for SEO). How To Manually Build An A Href To create a text link, you'll need to use the "href" tag. It looks like this: Place your desired URL (this will be the page you link to) and anchor text (the linked text a reader will click) where noted. Pro Tip:  Internal links (links that direct to other pages or posts on your site) and external links (links that direct to other sites) are created the same way. Here's an example: Here's what the end result looks like: How To Manually Edit Link Anchor Text Let's say we want to change the anchor text in the example link shown above. In this case, simply open the Text view option in WordPress. Then, delete the existing anchor text, and rewrite it: That's all it takes. Pro Tip:  You've now heard us mention anchor text a few times. If you're unfamiliar with what this is referring to, it's simply the clickable text used to create a link. How To Add A No-Follow Attribute To A Link If you know a little bit about search engine optimization, then you likely understand follow versus no-follow links. In short, search engines use links to determine  the importance of web pages. When a site links to another site, they see this as a vote or an endorsement saying, "This content is useful, and related to the web page linking to it." However, there may be times you don't  a link to pass authority to another website. Here are a few examples: You're linking to a page that isn't reputable (but may be related to your blog post). You're writing a sponsored post (buying or selling links is SPAM, and search engines may consider sponsored content links to be paid for). You're writing a guest blog post  or hosting a guest post on your own blog. It's important that links in author bio boxes in guest posts be labelled no-follow, because these were once commonly abused for SEO benefits. The more high-quality website links that you have, the more likely you are to rank in search engines. However, because of this, there are people out there who try to spam search engines with manipulative linking practices (including buying links and writing junk blog posts just to get backlinks without regard for content quality). For more information straight from Google on why you should use no-follow links for guest blog posts specifically, watch this video from Matt Cutts, former head of Google's web spam team: To add a no-follow attribute to a text link, add  the code rel="nofollow" to your href HTML: It's as simple as that. How To Deep Link To A Specific Blog Post Section Now you know how to add a link to another web page or website. However, how do you link to another section within a single blog post? Follow these steps: Switch to the Text view tab in WordPress, and add this tag:  a name="NAME"/a. Delete the NAME placeholder text and write your desired anchor text. Add  a href="#NAME"/a to the location you would like linked. Here is what this code looks like in WordPress (we've used Lorem Ipsum filler text, just for demonstration purposes): Here's what the end result looks like: Now, we can navigate from the top of the page to the next section in one click. However, there is one problem: we can't get as easily. Fortunately, there is an easy solution. We'll add a "Back to Top" link underneath the "Here's Something About Lorem Ipsum" section. We will also add a destination anchor at the top of the page with no anchor text (this way, the link will direct to the top of the page, but no unwanted text will appear to readers). Here's how the link appears: Since we did not specify anchor text for this link destination, nothing appears to the reader. However, clicking "" still directs to the top of the blog post. How To Build Lists In HTML There are two different types of lists you can create using HTML. These are bulleted (or unordered) and numbered (or ordered) lists. Here's how to create each one (knowing how to build these manually can help you edit them more easily by hand in case WordPress messes up their formatting). How To Create A Bulleted List It's easy to create a bulleted list (or an "unordered list") using the appropriate button in your WordPress tool bar: You can also build one manually: Here's what this code looks like in a web browser: Why Are You Telling Me This? Have you ever tried creating a bulleted list, only for WordPress to somehow mess up your formatting? Sometimes, minor formatting issues are easy to fix using the WYSIWYG editing bar. However, sometimes it feels a little bit more like this: In cases where WordPress won't cooperate, it's probably faster to edit your list HTML  manually. How To Create A Numbered List To create a numbered list (or an "ordered list"), follow the same directions as shown above, but change the ul and /ul tags to ol and /ol. Here's what this list looks like: How To Build A Table Of Contents In HTML The deep linking technique described above can be used to build a table of contents. Let's walk through how to do this, using another recent post on our blog as an example: Create a list in the section where you would normally add your text. Make each list item a link. Add links between each section in your post back to its respective table of contents position. When complete, your code should look something like this: This looks something like this on our blog: IMPORTANT NOTE: In the screenshot at the beginning of this section, you may have noticed code that reads div class="callout". This is a piece of CSS that creates a red background box (like the one in this tip, and in the table of contents we just created). If you're creating your own table of contents, you can ignore this line of code and the TOC will still work (it just won't have a background color). Then, the end of this section features a link back to the table of contents. This process is repeated throughout the post to build a working table of contents. To see how this table of contents works in action, visit  our post on time management strategies and try clicking around. How To Build  Tables In HTML Tables are useful for many different purposes, such as building simple image galleries or creating comparison charts. While WordPress doesn't provide a built-in means of quickly creating tables, they're easy to build on your own. This image illustrates how tables are constructed using HTML: Here is what the end result looks like: If you'd like to adjust the alignment or  appearance of your table, it's best to use CSS. Since we're sticking to HTML in  this post, we'll have to cover this topic at another time. Pro Tip: While WordPress doesn't have built-in table functionality, you can  use a plugin to create tables too. This may be faster and more convenient than building them yourself. Although it's still important to understand how they're constructed. How To Add Images In HTML You now know how to format text and build tables in HTML. If you want to add an image, use the HTML image and the Alt Tag attributes: img src="Insert Image URL" alt="Insert Alt Text" Let's try adding an image to our table. Follow these steps: 1.) Add an image to WordPress and find the image file URL: 2.) Paste the image HTML tag into your table in WordPress. Then, paste your URL and write your alt tag in the appropriate spots until you have something that looks like the following: 3.) Here's what the end result looks like: Armed with this knowledge, we think you can probably create something more interesting than a repeating logo. This is just a quick test to walk you through the process. How To Clean Up Common Copy And Paste Issues In WordPress Have you ever tried pasting text from a Word document into WordPress, only to have your formatting get screwed up?  That's because copying and pasting from Word (or another similar word processor) will usually include a lot of hidden formatting. There are three ways to get around copy and paste issues in WordPress: Paste your content into a plain text document in TextEdit (Mac) or Notepad (Windows) before pasting it into WordPress. This will strip out hidden formatting that would otherwise get turned into stubborn HTML. Paste your text straight from Word into WordPress and clean up the formatting manually. Write your posts directly in WordPress. We recommend doing this the easy way (option 1 or option 3), but we'll show you how to do it the hard way too (option 2), in order to best explain what happens when you paste text from Word into WordPress. Ever wonder why copying and pasting from Word never looks right in #WordPress? Read this.Understanding  Non-Breaking Spaces Copying and pasting text from WordPress into the Visual editor in WordPress will add non-breaking spaces to your text. This is probably one of the most common sources of headaches for bloggers when pasting text from Word. Let's dig into what these are and what to do about them. How To Remove Non-Breaking Spaces In HTML Here is some sample text we'll try pasting directly into the Visual view in WordPress: Now, we'll copy and paste this directly into the Visual view in WordPress: Hmm. That doesn't look quite right. Odds are, you've encountered an issue like this at some point. Let's switch to Text view to see what's going on here: See the weird nbsp; tag? This is called a non-breaking space. It forces a space to appear and prevents the formation of another line of text in its place. The issue with copying and pasting from Word is that the text carries non-breaking spaces along with it.  This causes an additional space to appear. Sometimes you can delete these spaces in the Visual editor, but when that fails,  you can delete them manually in the Text editor. Now if you notice weird and seemingly unmovable spaces in your WordPress text, you'll know what to do. TIP: If you don't want to write posts directly in WordPress and prefer writing posts in Evernote or Google Docs, makes it easy to convert Evernote and Google Docs files into WordPress posts. You'll still need to format your headings and formatting, but it's an easy way to save time writing in your preferred word processing tool. Additional HTML Learning Resources You've read through this post. You've downloaded your HTML cheat sheet. You've started experimenting with troubleshooting common WordPress formatting issues. If you're interested in taking your HTML knowledge to the next level here are some recommend resources to continue your learning: Websites: W3 Schools: This is considered by many to be the ultimate resource for learning HTML (and CSS and Javascript) on the web. Mozilla Developer Network: This resource from Mozilla (the folks that make Firefox) is another alternative to W3 Schools that provides in-depth HTML tutorials. Codecademy: This website features tons of useful coding lessons and resources. Lynda: While not free, Lynda features plenty of training courses on HTML (as well as other coding and computing topics). Books: HTML CSS: How To Build Websites: There are a lot of books on HTML out there. However, we recommend this one the most. It's clearly written, accessible to beginners, and well suited to writers and editors who just want a good grasp of how HTML and CSS work. Head First HTML 5 Programming: The Head First series is another great option for learning coding languages in an accessible and straightforward manner. Videos: 30 Days To Learn HTML CSS: If you prefer  learning from videos, this is a great place to start. Remember, everyone learns differently, and some people learn more easily from different types of content.  While this post may provide you with a good starting point, you might find a book or video series more helpful for your purposes. Now Put Your New HTML Skills To Use! There's a lot to learn when it comes to HTML. However, we hope this HTML cheat sheet and step-by-step guide has provided you with just enough tips to make your  blogging life a little bit easier. You now know how to do basic blog formatting with HTML. You know you can create and edit text links, control paragraph structure, fix broken links, build tables, and remove unwanted spacing. Knowing these HTML tips are going to help you tons and you'll be super thankful for the cheat sheet.

Know Your Eschatology

Know Your Eschatology Know Your Eschatology Know Your Eschatology By Maeve Maddox Political discussion these days often slips into the area of religion, particularly a belief in something called the Rapture. This might be a good time to look at some Christian theological terms and their definitions. eschatology [Ä•skÉ™-tÃ… lÉ™-jÄ“] 1844, from Gk. eskhatos last, furthest, remote. As a theological term it means the study of last things, i.e. death, judgment, heaven, and hell. parousia [prÃ… «-sÄ“É™, pÉ™-rÃ… «zÄ“-É™] -A Greek term that means arrival or coming. It is usually used to mean the Second Coming of Christ. Millennium [mÉ™-lÄ•nÄ“-É™m] from L. mille thousand + annus year, hence a period of 1,000 years. In Christian theology it denotes a period of 1,000 years during which Christ rules on Earth, a golden age, a time of universal peace. Amillennialism The a is a negative. This is the teaching that there is no literal 1,000 year reign of Christ as referenced in Revelation 20. Instead, it teaches that we are in the Millennium now. At the end of this millennium Christ will return. The final judgment will take place and the heavens and the earth will then be destroyed and remade. Antichrist a figure who opposes God. The word is used to describe a spirit of rebellion against God. Taken literally it refers to a specific future person who actively opposes Christ. He is able to perform miracles. Some believe he will be an incarnation of Satan. Christ will defeat him in a final battle. Armageddon [rmÉ™-gÄ•dn] the battle in which Christ destroys Satan, hence any complete disaster resulting in the end of the world. Tribulation a seven-year interval when a world religious-political leader called the Antichrist takes power. Rapture from Medieval Latin raptura, seizure, rape, kidnapping from Latin raptus a carrying off. An eschatological event in which true Christians are caught up in the air to meet the returning Christ. NOTE: There is disagreement as to whether the Rapture will take place before, after, or during the Tribulation. Historical Premillennialism a belief held by a large percentage of Christians during the first three centuries of Christianity. It is the belief that the Antichrist appears on earth and sets off the seven-year Tribulation. At the end of the seven years Christ comes, the saved are raptured, and his Church rules the Earth for a Millennium. During this thousand years of peace the faithful live in Jerusalem, occupying spiritual bodies. After this period, all people are judged. The faithful will spend eternity on a new earth, not in heaven. NOTE: After Christianity became the official religion of Rome in the fourth century CE, this belief was declared a heresy and suppressed. The belief reappeared in the 19th century and, with several variations, has again become widespread. Post-millennialism [pÃ… stmÉ™-lÄ•nÄ“-É™-lÄ ­zÉ™m] the belief that Jesus established the Kingdom of God in the first century and that we are already in the Millennium (not an exact 1,000 years, but a very long time). The Second Coming will occur after (post) this current Millennium. Pre-millennialism [prÄ“mÄ ­-lÄ•nÄ“-É™-lÄ ­zÉ™m] (1844) the belief that the Millennium lies in the future. Christ will come, bind Satan and his helpers, and rule over a peaceful earth for 1,000 years. At the end of that time Christ will release Satan and his angels who will raise an army which Jesus will destroy in the Battle of Armageddon. The Last Judgment will occur and a new heaven and new earth created. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:30 Religious Terms You Should KnowComma Before But12 Misunderstood and Misquoted Shakespearean Expressions

Megacities of Asia-Korea Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Megacities of Asia-Korea - Assignment Example clock to also eliminate competition because with the increasing growth of technology in the country, business is bound to get better and competition steeper. Profits will also increase as everyone will be scrambling to get the latest technology and devices. Yes it is. This is so because with the increase in technology development and technological devices in Korea, the market will need to expand internationally. This therefore means that people in other nations will get the latest in technology same as the Koreans and in large quantities as the production will be a lot in Korea (Dong-hyung, 2005). The prices of the other technology which had previously enjoyed having competitive advantage as well as some form of monopoly will have to reduce their prices meaning many people will be able to afford to stay connected at a cheaper cost and at a faster rate than before. Some like the marketers may not see this as an advantage but they are few and the consumers who are many have the last say and they are always right as the saying

Cultural Differences of Brazil, China and Nigeria Essay - 4

Cultural Differences of Brazil, China and Nigeria - Essay Example Like any other company, Stipel Marketing has to prepare itself for this process and this reports highlights some of the factors that need to be considered to enable a smooth transition. Human resource is very important to any organization. This is because it provides the organization with skilled manpower that helps it to achieve its objectives. Our organization provides an open type of communication platform where employees and their supervisors get to interact freely and share their thoughts and ideas. Given that we are a marketing company, communication is core in our business and this must be enhanced at all costs. At the United Kingdom head office, the staff has adapted to this open plan network and it has proved beneficial to the company so far (Green, 2011). As the company seeks to expand and explore other business opportunities around the globe it is important for the company to analyze the communities in these target markets so as to know which approach to use to get the best talent. In some areas around the globe, workers are not allowed to mingle freely with their supervisors and this is what will make them perform optimally. However, in other parts of t he globe, employees are free to interact with their superiors (Gordon-Reed, 2008). This gives them a sense of togetherness and they are able to perform more efficiently. All these factors are to be considered if the organization is to establish sustainable and rewarding working relationships with these colleagues from other countries. The countries that are in focus in this report are Nigeria, China and Brazil, each of which has its own distinct culture. The role of this report is to showcase the opportunities and the challenges that may arise as the organization tries to establish cross cultural operations (Golden, 2005).

The Creature in the light of this argument Essay Example for Free

The Creature in the light of this argument Essay When I reflected that they had spurned and deserted me, anger returned, a rage of anger. Shelley had very open religious beliefs, and it is notable that alienation happens in society because of religion. At the time the novel was written Catholicism was a very oppressive faith, and Shelley was very strongly opposed to the idea. I think that Shelley is making an important point about oppressive faiths: Victor plays God, and as a result, his people (the creature) are miserable and unfortunate. Also, as ideas such as the principle of life were arising at the time, Shelley is voicing a remarkable argument: Because technology was fast approaching before humans had developed enough to know how use it, it was extremely worrying that any faith or religion which survives the mechanization of the world, provides no moral code for science. The creature is isolated by his behaviour. He is alone in the world and lives like primitive man. He eats berries from the trees and seeks shelter from trees and caves, and other natural forms. He later realises that the embers he discovers produce fire, which in turn provides him with the three necessities of life: light, heat and food. It is essential for the sustenance of life on earth. Before this discovery, the daemon was isolated by his means of living and his primitive behaviour. In this instance, he is like the elderly today. They are uneducated, or not well enough informed of new techniques that improve the standard of living. Many dont have anybody to help them or to explain new concepts and discoveries, just as the creature doesnt have a parental figure for guidance. I think Shelley is informing us of the ongoing problem of alienation in any society, whatever age. The creature has no nurturing and no teacher, but above all, Frankenstein fashioned him repellently different from all humans so he is solitary in his appearance. Blindly, Frankenstein introduces an unsightly being into a discriminative world. On reflection of the creation of the daemon, Frankenstein says: I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! When confronted by his reflection, the creature says: I had admired the perfect forms of my cottagers their grace, beauty, and delicate complexions; but how was I terrified when I viewed myself in a transparent pool! Alas, I did not yet entirely know the fatal effects of this deformity. The fact that individuals are alienated by their looks is timeless. Discrimination is apparent in all time periods. This element in the novel of the creatures isolation is unchanging and significant to all who read it. By incorporating this narrative, Shelley is successfully portraying the ageless theme of alienation, and touching upon the discrimination always found in the world. I believe that this strong sense of loss exemplified in the creature portrays Mary Shelleys own losses throughout her life. Growing up motherless, at the age of sixteen she ran away to live with the twenty-one year old Percy Shelley, the unhappily married heir to a wealthy baronetcy. She was cast out of society, even by her father. Shelley also lost her sister to suicide, as well as losing three of her own children to miscarriage and early childhood deaths. In 1822 her husband drowned in the Gulf of Spezzia, and she was left, twenty-five years old, with only one remaining son. She remained unmarried and died in London in 1851. The creature is also a victim of alienation due to social class. This is also a common problem today; however his is much worse, as he has no place in society whatsoever: Was I then, a monster, a blot upon the earth? He is solitary in looks, stature, and endurance. He is stronger than man, and more agile: When I looked around I saw and heard of none like me. This is utterly devastating to the daemon, who longs for companionship. Yet another of todays causes of alienation is a difference in learning abilities. The family in the cottage teach him civilisation what his father should have taught him he masters the science of words alone, by watching, listening and learning the things a new born child does for a long time before he eventually speaks. The creatures development is very rapid, yet he is cut off from society whilst learning this difficult task: I easily perceived that, although I eagerly longed to discover myself to the cottagers, I ought not to make the attempt until I had first become master of their language. He realises that he must be able to communicate with the family fluently for him to have a chance of describing his feelings, and this urges him to push on with his learning. I agree that Mary Shelleys Frankenstein is indeed a study of alienation; the concept is reflected in all characters and with all problems described in the book. I think the gothic typicality in the novel made her aim acceptable at the time: it fitted in with the literary requirements. The gothic descriptions also compliment the real fear of alienation it makes Shelleys point more terrifyingly real. I think Frankenstein is a very moralistic novel. Shelley has made her point very clear and we must be more aware that no matter how scientifically advanced society gets, there will always be those who are left behind and alienated from the rest because of the ignorance of others; whether because of social class, religion, behaviour, learning abilities or looks some things will never change.

Psychic ability :: essays papers

Psychic ability Abstract The purpose of this study was to prove that the human mind has telepathic ability. To prove this, the subjects were asked to guess the suit of each card from a standard playing deck. The subjects were tested in a cozy, quiet environment inside their house. The first data recorded were the percentage of cards the subjects would randomly guess right. There are 52 cards in a deck and thirteen of each suit, so that would give someone a 13 out of 52 chance of merely guessing right or one-fourth. During the test, the subjects were instructed to take time and concentrate before giving an answer. The idea was that if the subject concentrated hard enough, the suit of the card would be revealed by the psychic ability of the mind. The results of the study showed that telepathic ability just might be a reality Psychic ability has been a subject that has interested me every since I saw the movie Maverick. In the movie, the main character, played by Mel Gibson, believes that if he thinks of a card and concentrates hard enough then he will draw that card. He starts out thinking of the card he needs. The character played by Gibson thinks long and hard to the point of almost exhaustion. He then draws the card, hoping that the card he is thinkin g of will be the card he draws. It never quite works out for him because I believe that he is not concentrating hard enough. At the end of the movie, however, when he is in the finals of a poker tournament, he tries it again. This time, his mind is in the zone, and it works. I have never been one to believe in telepathy, but one time I tried to give it a chance. One time, I was home alone and extremely bored, so I decided to try out what I had learned from Maverick. I was alone in my room, and I sat and thought about the ace of spades for what seemed like fifteen minutes. Concentrating and thinking only of the ace of spades, I drew a card and held it so I couldn’t see it. I said to myself, over and over again, this is the ace of spades.

Balance Scorecard method used in Cattaraugus Country ReHabilitation Center

Cattaraugus County ReHabilitation Center had done an effective job of implementing a balance scorecard approach in a fashion that reflects their organizational mission and vision MAIN BODY: Although the BSC method has been used in the for-profit organizations for many years I believe that ReHabilitation Center has made it work for their organization.There was a lot of push back from the people who work at the center when it was first introduced, they believed it was just another fly-by-night approach that would just fail but as the new Director of Strategic Management slow got the upper management to take a closer look and to start helping adapt the BSC method to their organization. Since the BSC wasn’t designed for the not-for-profit ReHabilitation Center had to do a bit of work to get everything working right and after a while they were able to get the BSC to work for their organization.There are four score card quadrants that ReHabilitation Center uses they are; Perspective , Strategy, Operations, Core Indicators/Measures. They then broke that down to five different parts of the organization under Perspective, there is; consumers, financial, operational, learning, and one that isn’t defined but seems to be consumer relations and customer service. ReHabilitation Center has seen great benefits from adapting the BSC to the center but the greatest benefit maybe that the personnel within the center has noticed how much more encompassing process that strategic planning is and not merely looking at a long-term plan.They now understand that is it necessary to align each are of the Center with the overall strategic objectives. Another benefit is that the Center has been able to develop metrics and link them to the strategic plan. The Center has begun to focus on the importance of interrelationships among the perspectives in the BSC and has enabled worker in the Center to see things they had not thought about in the past and relate them to the BSC.Every y ear they update the BSC they have set into place to and make sure they are still following along with it and making any necessary changes to either the scorecard or to the organization. With everyone being involved within the organization of the strategic planning they have the ability to make sure that the strategic plan is being followed or seeing what changes need to be made on a consistent bases.CONCLUSION:â€Å"The conceptual framework of the Balanced Scorecard has been implemented and utilized effectively for years in a large number of for-profit organizations. More recently, the model has been effectively utilized in not-for-profit organizations as well. In this paper the authors have described how the Balanced Scorecard approach has been implemented in a ReHabilitation Center. In implementing the Balanced Scorecard approach, the ReHabilitation Center has placed equal emphasis on the consumer perspective and the financial perspective.This equal focus is based upon the necess ity of the Center to carry out its primary mission for its consumers (individuals with developmental disabilities) as well as the necessity to maintain financial stability within the Center. The emphasis on both of these perspectives has become a necessity in order for the Center to efficiently and effectively serve its customers. While the use of the Balanced Scorecard in the long range planning process for the Center is relatively new, the process has been accepted by the management of the organization.The challenge ahead for the Center is to continue to develop outcome measures for the individual departments within the Center and tie these outcome measures to the strategic objectives of the Center. It is recognized this is an extremely difficult process as real outcomes are not easily measurable. The formulation of outcome measures is a continuous development process. It is felt this process will definitely enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the ReHabilitation Center in the long run (Martello, 2008). †

Customer relationship management

Customer relationship is not a new concept; companies have been interacting and dealing with customers since the inception of trade. Earlier more focus and attention was on product and services instead of customer centric. With increase in competition because of globalization and usage of internet changed the picture of business. Customers have variety to choose from, more knowledge about the companies and products surely has titled power at customers’ side. With this scenario, companies realize the need of treating customers with utmost care. Therefore, searching for innovative ways to manage relationships effectively, not only to acquire new customers but also to retain the existing one. â€Å"CRM is the process of managing detailed information about individual customers and carefully managing all the customer ‘touch points’ with an aim of maximum customer loyalty† Acquiring new customers can cost five times more than costs involved in satisfying and retaining current customers. More companies are recognizing the importance of satisfying and retaining customers, which constitute the company’s relationship capital To retain the customers’ better approach is to deliver high customer satisfaction. Customer relationship management is about taking a long term approach to building relationships with customers. In olden days, business people and organizations would know their customer base from seeing them on a daily basis and learning their preference based on the relationship they shared with the customers. CRM is emerged as critical for organization in 1960’s where marketers found that 4p’s of marketing framework-product, price, place and promotion were less valuable without ongoing relationships with customers. Companies started putting customers in the middle of marketing program. In early days of CRM, there was no technology to support what companies were doing. CRM is not new, over the years companies has had to figure out how to build relationships with customers and lead to brand loyalty. The goal in CRM is to evolve from a mass marketing model, which was on product centric market structure to customer centric structure. Managing customer relationships successfully means learning about the habits and needs of your customers anticipating future buying patterns, finding new opportunities to add value to the relationship. Successful companies make the relationship something the customer values more than anything else they could receive from the competition. Company experience with customer not only with transactions but also with interaction like website visit, phone, call center and by direct mail. CRM helps in developing marketing programs that make sense to each customer segment, support cross-selling and customer retention programs, help to maximize the value of each customer’s interaction and deliver a consistent branding message by aligning products and services within each channel. CRM provides an integrated view of a company’s customer to every one in the organization so that customer can be serviced effectively. CRM helps companies to gather and access information about the customers’ buying histories, preferences, complaints. It allows tracing the needs of the customers and means to satisfy them effectively. The following are the aims of CRM: †¢ Increase efficiency of the organization †¢ Ability to provide quicker response to customer queries and complaints †¢ Getting insight of customer needs †¢ Providing more cross-selling opportunities †¢ Organized information to manage and lead †¢ Reduction in cost and increase in productivity †¢ Receiving customer feedback †¢ Providing common platform for customer communication and interaction. Today consumers are more educated, more and better informed, more technology savvy coupled with increase competition in the market. Organization needs to build a system which allows you to track, capture and analyze the millions of customer activities, both interactions and transactions, over a long period of time. This helps in creating promotions, developing new products and designing communication programs to attract and retain customers. By 1980s â€Å"relationship marketing â€Å"was used to describe this new focus of understanding customer segments, delivering ongoing quality service and high customer satisfaction. In 1990s computer systems were deployed to support sales and service process. Sales force automation system evolved while customer service and support systems became backbone of automated call centers. By late 1990s increase in internet usage supported e-business applications to manage online customer and partner relationships, called as e-CRM and partner relationship management. CRM emerged as discipline of set of discrete software and technologies that focus on automating and improving the business processes associated with and improving the business processes associated with managing customer relationships in the areas of sales, marketing, customer-service and support. Customer relationship management applications are most active software available to the organizations. Three converging trends have enabled the emergence of CRM applications as a major force in the market place. The fist trend is the availability of robust, scale decision support technology. This helps companies collect vast quantities of data from multiple, heterogeneous sources, such as accounting, manufacturing, human resources, sales force automation, and customer service applications. This provides the technological foundation for building a consolidated enterprise wide view of the customer. The second trend is the emergence of front-office applications. This focus on the sales and the marketing departments, and essentially transactional in nature. The third trend is the emergence of the one-to-one marketing phenomenon has helped companies to have their marketing activities focus on customer, rather than on their products, distributors, sales force or suppliers. Now â€Å"Multi channel CRM† systems available to support direct, internet and partner channels, while allowing users to use whatever mode of communication they are pleased. CRM started with marketing era focusing on customer needs and wants and satisfying it effectively which drive changes in the organization and work processes. It must start with a business strategy. CRM is really about using tools not only to achieve the personal relationships business but even to predict and serve the future needs. Major support and change came for CRM is technology break through since two decade which played a significant part in not only managing good relationship with customers but also with the partners of the organizations.

A fortunate Life - Albert Facey essays

A fortunate Life - Albert Facey essays Personal Response A Fortunate Life by A.B. Facey Albert Faceys autobiography, A Fortunate Life, is the story of an ordinary man who survived against extraordinary odds. From becoming a farmhand at the age of eight, to boxing professionally, to returning from WWI after almost a year of combat and raising a family, Bert Facey has achieved some truly remarkable things in his life. In this essay, I will discuss Bert Faceys attitude to others, the similarities between my life and his, and some of the qualities he possesses. Bert Facey was a remarkable man who achieved many amazing things in his life. But I cannot honestly say that I enjoyed reading his life story. It lacked the descriptive writing that I have come to love in my favourite authors. It seemed as though it was a very fulfilling life, albeit very different to my own. I found that I was unable to relate to Bert, because we have lived such different lives. I didnt feel any sympathy for him because I did not enjoy his style of writing. I believe that we make our own luck and had Bert wanted to lead a different, perhaps better, life it would have been possible to change his stars. Bert Facey has many very admirable qualities. One of the most evident of these is his courage. Courage is defined as the ability to face danger or pain without fear. Bert Facey demonstrated this in many of the adventures he described in his book. One of the episodes in which he showed amazing courage was the well incident when he was working with Jock McKay and Bentley in Jubuck. The gangs task was to clean the buckets out of the bottom of a very deep well. Bert was assigned the task to go down to the bottom of the well and retrieve the buckets. While he was at the bottom of the one hundred and forty foot well, it began to collapse. Bert was trapped and thought for sure he was a goner. But he was courageous, and managed to find a way out of the well wh...

All Hail the Weirdos

The places the make me content are the endless rows of books at a library, a whimsical town in a Sarah Addison Allen novel, and a multitude of other places. There is not just one place that makes me content, the world is filled with amazing places from the Parthenon to Buckingham Palace. How could I choose just one? In these places I experience a rush of happiness that keeps my soul warm for a moment of bliss. The only thing that can keep that warmth and content pulsing through my veins are my friends. Wherever they are I will always be. Half the time, my hands begin to twitch with anger and annoyance when my friends come around, ready at a moments notice to slap them silly. But that annoyance easily gives away to laughter and smiles. Its because we CAN annoy and poke fun at each other that we are close friends. After all, its when my friends are not making fun of me that I need to worry. However, there is a second layer to my group of lovable morons which makes me want keep them in my arms for eternity. My friends were raised in chaotic households that could even make the most hardened criminal grimace. We often laugh and joke about the peculiar experiences weve had because of the deranged families we were born into. But, sometimes those laughs turn to faces stained with tears and heartache, this is when the meaning behind my friendships clearly emerges. We have been brought together through hell and high water to pick up the pieces of each others lives when we fall apart, we are the sticky glue that holds each other together. That and loads of inappropriate jokes fueled by plenty of Swedish Fish. I am perfectly content in any place as long as my friends are there as well. We always help each other through every strange problem and we always make each other laugh until our sides hurt at every strange joke. None of our lives are even close to perfect, and I would nev er want it any other way.

Trade Theories assignment How Trade Shaped the World

Trade Theories How Trade Shaped the World - Assignment Example The policies that government made to protect business came in many forms and in varying degrees. State could use their power to finance new business, permit or disable monopolies, impose tariffs, prohibit a wide range of contraband, control labour, and if necessary blockade competing nation. The Europeans, the Asians and the Arabs all recognized the importance of shipping as a means to promote and protect export, though none took it as such an extreme as the European powers. On export power, the mercantilist policies were based on the notion that if a nation could expand its imports of gold by exporting goods, it would thereby deprive its rival nation of gold needed to protect a nation commerce, gold simply bought more protection. The argument persisted in Europe into 18th century until the convincing argument of Adam Smith and David Ricardo demonstrated the values of specialization and comparative economic advantage. A number of factors led to the decline and end of the great period of mercantilism. By 1860, England had dismantled its mercantilist legal structure and risen to power as the undisputed ruler of both the newly industrialized world and its seas. In the modern age, the mercantilist spirit has re-emerged in the form of numerous non-tariff barriers that the free market nation employ to protect very specific industries. The export/import licensing, quarantines, and trading blocs are now manifesting as mercantile protectionism. In many of the closed and semi closed economies of the world e.g. Cuba and China protection of domestic producers is still very strong (Bernstein, 2012) Free trade principles were broadly appealing in an export-driven colonial economy long before publication of Adams Smiths Wealth of Nation revolutionary patriot who mobilized against British imperial trade regulation. Dismantling colonial monopoly would

Joint venture paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Joint venture - Research Paper Example One of the benefits of forming a joint venture therefore is to gain access to the new markets as two entities; one foreign and one domestic and as such foreign entity often bring in new technologies which can benefit the domestic entities due to technology transfer. In US, Joint ventures are mostly regulated by Partnership laws, Contract Act as well as commercial transaction laws. In order to successfully formulate a joint venture, it is really important to consider due diligence, business plan as well as the allocation of the income must be decided before formation of the joint venture contract. This report will present an analysis of the joint venture between NIKE and Adidas, the business potential and the international aspects of NIKE as well as performing a due diligence of the potential joint venture between the two. 1. Nike own and operate various retail stores, ecommerce, independent distributors as well as franchisers across the United States and World. Nike has one of the unique business models in place where it manufactures its products through its contract centers located across the world. This provides NIKE necessary cost advantage over its competitors. 2. Nike manufactures and sells branded footwear, apparel as well as equipment and different accessories. This range includes various brands offered across the world either supplied locally or through franchising. 3. Make its supply chain more competitive as well as efficient through strong operational discipline. NIKE’s supply chain is truly a global supply chain due to the fact that it involves different stakeholders at different points in the supply chain. Besides, these stakeholders are spread across the world. 4. Achieving strong cost advantage through adoptive lean manufacturing philosophy. NIKE has adapted a very unique manufacturing philosophy

Leadership assessmnet Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Leadership assessmnet - Essay Example However, in many occasions, the management has failed to achieve these needs, resulting to poor leadership. Through these poor leadership and relations to workers, organizations have not been able to work well towards their set objectives as workers are reluctant to respond as required by the management. Therefore, there is need for this problem to be eradicated for the realization of better performance and development of the organization. Various leaders have different styles of leadership that would help them to achieve their mandates as per the objectives of the organization. These styles of leadership are always based on the strategies developed by these leaders. Based on the approach these leaders may take for the effectiveness of their leadership style, it may have either positive or negative impact to the workers (Hoffman & Shipper, 2012). For instance, although our Chief Executive Officers always have good leadership styles as compared to bad leadership in his management, there are some of the negative impacts of these kinds of leadership styles that affect us negatively. One of the styles that affect us workers negatively is poor response to workers grievances. Within our working premises, workers are required to write an official letter to the Chief Executive Officer on issues that affect workers. This move is important for workers because we have the chance of delivering these letters to his office directly without following any channel but the manager hardly response to these grievances by claiming to have been in some official duties. In the process, we are unable to solve these grievances, hence, affects us negatively. In order for the organizational activities to run as planned, leaders need to ensure that they create good relations between themselves and the workers. Moreover, they must also ensure there are good relations among the workers themselves to enhance better coordination of the organizational

Starbucks International Expansion

Starbucks International Expansion International Business Management I. Introduction In General, when international companies consider going into overseas markets, they adapt some strategies of entry modes such as licensing, franchising, joint venture and MA. For example, ‘Pierre Cardin extended their foreign business through a pure licensing and Mcdonalds was able to become the largest fast-food retailer on earth by taking advantage of its unique franchising strategy. Hence, the wise mix of entry modes can be regarded as a core factor for multinational enterprises to advance into new outer markets. As you know, Starbucks Corporation (hereafter, Starbucks) is the largest coffee retailer in the world. It has succeeded in globally by carrying out wise collaborative strategies. Therefore, in this study, Starbucks international performance would be covered at first and it would be followed by further discussions; market issues aboutIndian entry and strategic comparison with the competitors ‘The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf and ‘Hollys Coffee. II. Starbucks International Expansion Since Starbucks established its subsidiaries, â€Å"Starbucks Coffee international† in 1995[i], it has applied to flexible entry strategies; licensing and joint venture and whole ownership. While it is operating its US stores directly, Starbucks is largely running its cafà ©s outside US through joint venture and licensing with local retailers. In fiscal year of 2009, it has opened 3,439 licensed cafà ©s on earth representing 62 percents of entire stores. The main target of international business is Asia and Starbucks has operated 2,062 cafà ©s.[ii](Refer to Table.1) Besides, Starbucks is managing some overseas stores directly by acquiring local coffee retailers. In UK, Canada and some Asian market such as Thailand and Singapore, Starbucks owns 2,068 wholly-owned cafà ©s which account for 38 percents of entire overseas stores.[iii] A. Why Starbucks prefers direct investment to franchising and licensing? When Starbucks expanded its business outbound, â€Å"Coffee culture† has not existed in various countries including Asian nations. Therefore, it was imperative for Starbucks to spread coffee culture and Starbucks has implemented a marketing strategy called â€Å"Cult-duct†[1]. Hence, Starbucks thought that it was more appropriate for Starbucks to have taken advantage of direct investments; joint venture and wholly-owned companies rather than licensing and franchising so as not only to offer tangible products; coffee and cookies but also to deliver a fine coffee culture represented by urban and elegant image. Through this strategy, Starbucks effectively has managed to control its core competencies such as the high quality coffee, the quarterly employee training concerning customer service and store management know-how. B. Motivation of Joint Venture As mentioned above, the main target of Starbucks international is Asia and Starbucks has adapted joint venture as a main method for Asian market, although it has entered with licensing in several Asian regions including Middle East and Philippines. (Refer to table. 2) Above all, Starbucks could minimize risk of Asian operation by running businesses through joint venture with local retailers. At the beginning, since Starbucks did not hold both experience and expertise for Asian market, it is required for Starbucks to share local companies know-how and wide domestic networks to stably perform its Asian operation. Moreover, Starbucks has properly overcome the cultural gap with Asian nations and carried out the splendid market research. To demonstrate, local companies were involved in local staffing and analysis of regional customers taste and preference whereas Starbucks took responsibilities for employee training, coffee roasting and quality control. Besides, Starbucks could release localized products. For example, it is selling Korean traditional beverages such as ‘Sik-hye and ‘Sujungghwa in Insa-dong cafà © and offering sorts of Chinese traditional teas like â€Å"Oriental Beauty Tea† and â€Å"Fancy Black tea† in Taiwan. C. Motivation of Direct Operation Starbucks is also doing its international business with company-owned operation. . In UK, Canada and Australia, Starbucks did not have to worry about the huge gap of culture when it entered into these markets because they all belong to English language culture and there is no remarkable difference of organization culture. Whereas, Starbucks has finally acquired the entire equity of local manufacturers, Coffee Partners in Thailand and Bonstar in Singapore respectively, even if it initially entered those markets with the form of joint venture.[iv] These countries legitimately allowed the foreign capital to hold 100% equity of a company and Starbucks could not trust the marketing capabilities of these local retailers. D. A Key Growth Drive: Indian Entry In 2006, Starbucks decided to initiate its business in India and made a joint venture contract with the Indian local retailer, RPG Enterprises[v]. However, its offer was rejected by Indian government due to issues related to technique transition and strict regulation on ‘foreign retail companies'[vi]. To illustrate, Indian government did not allow direct control of foreign companies in Indian retail industry, even though foreign companies can possess up to 51% of equity. This is a big obstacle to Starbucks because strong control of business is the main principle of Starbucks overseas operation. In February 2009, Indian government made a decision to boost foreign investment owing to late contraction of FDI and then it has finally permitted outer retailers to own its business in case of holding 51% shares of a joint venture company.[vii] As a result, Starbucks reconsidered Indian entry and has begun a talk with ‘Jubiliant Group about the alliance.[viii] However, while Starbucks adheres to joint venture in the entry of India, competitors like Mcdonalds have already launched in India throug franchising and local brands â€Å"Barista† and â€Å"Coffee day† have been rapidly growing. In March 2010, the world largest PEF â€Å"KKR† also determined to invest 200 million US dollar in â€Å"Coffee Day† to compete with Starbucks.[ix] III. Comparison with the competitors A. The Coffee Bean Tea Leaf Some competitors of Starbucks have taken the different way in terms of international business. The representative example is â€Å"The Coffee Bean Tea Leaf† (hereafter, The Coffee Bean). The Coffee Bean has adapted franchising strategy for overseas expansion. As of 2008, The Coffee Bean has opened approximately 750 cafà ©s in 22 nations. Specifically, it has 288 cafà ©s under direct control while 444 cafà ©s are being operated by franchisees[x]. (Refer to Table. 3) When a company makes a licensing contract with licensor, it is able to use licensors patent, know-how, trade mark and technology. By comparison, franchising enables franchisee to get support from franchisor concerning operation and management, working principle and marketing. In other words, franchisor could be strongly involved in franchisees operation. 1. Motivation of Franchising The first reason that The Coffee Bean chose franchising is to expand its business into the outer market quickly. Since it began expanding far later than its competitors, it strived to take faster entry mode than FDI. By doing its international operation with franchising, The Coffee Bean could enter more than 20 countries including India without big trouble. In the meanwhile, Starbucks has struggled to enter India market by governmental and political intervention as we discussed above. Second, as mention above, while Starbucks wanted to provide customers with not only just coffee but also coffee culture at its foreign market entry, The Coffee Bean has more focused on the quality of coffee. As its strategy is to serve tasteful coffee to as many customers as it can, it is essential to motivate franchisee to serve more people. Franchising can provide high motivation to franchisees as they just need to pay fixed royalty. It means that more customers they serve customers, the more profit they can expect. The last reason is cost saving. If it had entered the overseas market as FDI, it would have born more cost such as rent and operating cost. By franchising, extra cost could be avoidable. 2. Disadvantage of franchising One remarkable problem which franchisor could face is that it can lose control of operation. As franchisor doesnt have authority on operating, it might be difficult to keep high quality of service and exerts a bad influence on its brand and image. For example, the coffee bean was uncovered by Korea Food and Drug Administration because it had used unsuitable ingredient. In addition to this, it did not implement a regular staff heath inspection program. The incident damaged the companys image and it can be referred to as a typical example of the disadvantage. B. Hollys Coffee Hollys Coffee is a well-known Korean coffee retailer founded in 1998 and it has developed into one of the domestic competitors of foreign coffee retailers such as Starbucks and The Coffee Bean Tea Leaf in Korea. Since 1998, Hollys Coffee has steadily increased its stores and the number of them has amounted to more than 200 recently. Not satisfied with the huge success in Korean domestic market, Hollys Coffee decided to go abroad and opened stores in Malaysia and Los Angeles in US in 2007. A few months ago, in December 2009, Hollys Coffee launched the third international store in Peru, one of the coffee bean-producing nations. Hollys Coffee announced it would achieve two goals in Peru; operating eight stores and sales up to 7 billion Korean won within a year. In order to realize these goals, Hollys Coffee entered into the Peru through ‘master franchising method that allows individuals or corporations to buy the rights to sub-franchise within some specific countries.[xi] The company usually adapts master franchising method so as to minimize risk when it enters the country where its brand is seldom familiar to the local community as well as it is difficult to attract investments. In Peru, There are a lot of its own domestic coffee retailers and Hollys Coffee is rarely well-known to local people. Thus, it is very important to make Peruvians aware of its brand and Hollys Coffee might be exposed to the financial risk linked with heavy marketing expenditure such as bra nd promotion and advertisement in the course of spreading its brand. There are two entry strategies of Hollys Coffee in Peru one is to introduce products that have Korean own characteristic, another is to differentiate with other coffee brands by focusing on side menus like waffle or patisserie. The Point is that it is hard to make certain whether these strategies are effective enough in Peruvian coffee market or not. Since it is tough to control operation when a company takes franchising, it appears to be difficult to introduce Korean traditional teas and foods properly. IV. Conclusion We have discussed about several entry modes regarding international business. We have looked into Starbucks choice, The Coffee beans strategy as well as Hollys Coffees one. Before completing our study, we would like to discuss two points of contention. Firstly, should Starbucks stick to FDI for India? As discussed above, it has struggled from red tapes. In the end, they still cannot enter Indian market whereas its competitors have expanded their business in India. Secondly, was it a good idea for Hollys Coffee to take franchising entry mode along with a strategy of providing Korean traditional beverages? Since it is not well known and not familiar with local environment, it is understandable not to take FDI entry mode. However, doesnt it seem to go well with two ill-assorted strategies? All entry modes have advantages and disadvantages. Hence, it is absolutely important to apply an entry mode appropriately according to each business format. However, it could be dangerous to enter every region with the single entry mode even though it is the same industry. Both the problem that Starbucks faced in India and the pitfall Hollys Coffee is likely to face can explain how risky it is. Therefore, even though a company wants to expand its identical business abroad, it is recommended to take different entry modes in accordance with each nations regulations, culture, politics, economic and social environment. V. Appendix The composition of retailers of Starbucks (2009.9) Entry mode Total U.S % in US Overseas % in overseas Company Owned 8,832 6,764 61% 2,068 38% Licensed Stores (Joint Venture) 7,803 4,364 39% 3,439 62% Total 16,635 11,128 100% 5,507 100% The Major Overseas Performance of Starbucks (Non- North America) Strategy Region Year Nation Local Partner # of stores Joint Venture Asia 1996 Japan Sazaby Inc. 875 1998 Taiwan President Chain Store 222 2000 S.Korea Shinsegae Department store 288 2000 China Cayman Holdings 283 2002 Mei-xin International 2005 Coffee Concepts 2004 Malaysia Berjaya Group 118 Europe 2002 Spain Sigla, S.A 76 2002 Greece Marinopoulos Bros. 69 2003 Switzerland Marinopoulos Bros. 47 2003 Austria Marinopoulos Bros. N/A 2003 Cyprus Marinopoulos Bros. N/A 2004 France Sigla, S.A 52 2007 Romania Marinopoulos Bros. N/A 2008 Czech AmRest N/A 2008 Portugal Grupo VIPS N/A Direct Operation Asia 2000 Thailand Coffee Partners 131 2002 Australia Local Entrepreneur 23 2004 Singapore Bonstar 64 2005 China Qingdao American Starbucks 191 2006 Mei Da Coffee Europe 1996 UK Seattle Coffee 666 2004 Germany KarlstadtQulle 144 Licensing Asia 1997 Philippines Rustan 160 1998 New Zealand Restaurant Brand 42 2002 Indonesia PT Mitra Adiperkasa 74 Middle East 1999 Kuwait M.H. Alshaya 62 1999 Lebanon M.H. Alshaya N/A 2000 U.A.E M.H. Alshaya 91 2000 Qatar M.H. Alshaya N/A 2000 Saudi Arabia M.H. Alshaya 68 2000 Bahrain M.H. Alshaya N/A 2002 Oman M.H. Alshaya N/A 2005 Jordan M.H. Alshaya N/A Europe 2003 Turkey M.H. Alshaya 123 2006 UK N/A 46 2007 Russia M.H. Alshaya N/A The Coffee Bean and Tea Leafs International Expansion (2008) Year 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Company-Owned 177 191 217 241 270 288 278 Franchise 46 68 87 137 230 347 444 Total 223 259 304 378 500 625 722 VI. Reference n Starbucks timeline-Asia, Starbucks Corporation, 2009. n Starbucks timeline-EMEA, Starbucks Corporation, 2009. n Starbucks timeline-China, Starbucks Corporation, 2009. n Annual Report of 2009 (Form 10-K), Starbucks Corporation, 2009 n Starbucks India Strategy Looks Promising, Seeking alpha, Oct 2, 2006. n Starbucks Delays Entry of India, Vccircle, Jul 21, 2007 n ì  ¸Ã« â€ž, ì™ ¸Ãª µ ­Ã¬  ¸ ì § Ã¬  â€˜Ã­Ë† ¬Ã¬Å¾  ê ·Å"ì  Å"완화, Yonhap news, Feb 12, 2009 n Starbucks brews a fresh strategy for India entry, The Economic Times, Jan 29, 2010 n KKR in $200m Indian Coffee shop deal, Financial Times, Mar 17, 2010 n Company Growth, The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (http://coffeebean.com/franchise/company.html) n What is a master franchising? (http://www.allbusiness.com/buying-exiting-businesses/franchising-franchises/2975165-1.html) [1] Cult-duct : A compound is formed from â€Å"culture† and â€Å"product†. It stands for selling a product with the companies culture and social values. Starbucks is a typical example of this. [i] Starbucks timeline-Asia, Starbucks Corporation, 2009 [ii] Annual Report of 2009 (Form 10-K) pp.4, Starbucks Corporation, 2009 [iii] Annual Report of 2009 (Form 10-K) pp.3, Starbucks Corporation, 2009 [iv] Starbucks timeline-Asia, Starbucks Corporation, 2009 [v] Starbucks India Strategy Looks Promising, Seeking alpha, Oct 2, 2006. [vi] Starbucks Delays Entry of India, Vccircle, Jul 21, 2007 [vii] ì  ¸Ã« â€ž, ì™ ¸Ãª µ ­Ã¬  ¸ ì § Ã¬  â€˜Ã­Ë† ¬Ã¬Å¾  ê ·Å"ì  Å"완화, Yonhap news, Feb 12, 2009 [viii] Starbucks brews a fresh strategy for India entry, The Economic Times, Jan 29, 2010 [ix] KKR in $200m Indian Coffee shop deal, Financial Times, Mar 17, 2010 [x] Company Growth, The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (http://coffeebean.com/franchise/company.html) [xi] What is a master franchising? (http://www.allbusiness.com/buying-exiting-businesses/franchising-franchises/2975165-1.html)

Our Town Analysis Essays -- essays research papers

Our Town is a play that takes place near the turn of the century in the small rural town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire. The playwright, Thornton Wilder is trying to convey the importance of the little, often unnoticed things in life. Throughout the first two acts he builds a scenario, which allows the third act to show that we as humans often run through life oblivious to what is actually happening. Wilder attempts to show life as something that we take for granted. We do not realize the true value of living until we are dead and gone. The through-line of the action seems to be attention to the details of life. Wilder builds up a plot that pays attention to great details of living. In the first act when Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs. Webb are stringing beans and passing the time, the reader continues on, not thinking that importance lies in the scene. As the play comes to an end, the reason for that scene becomes evident: the most trivial occurrence can be the most meaningful moment. We as humans, however, do not realize the greatness of these little points until it is too late. Near the end of the story, the deceased townspeople are stationed on chairs downstage, to imitate graves. They are still able to talk, yet only in a lackadaisical tone. They provide the audience, at the end, with a sense of guilt or loss. The fact that the people of Grover’s Corners did not realize the importance of life until it was gone, makes the audience feel as if they should be...

Culture Art and Technology Essay

Among figures of religion, Mahatma Gandhi, Mohammed, and Siddhartha Gautama are some of the prominent individuals who have shared before the world their religious experiences with respect to their own religion. Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism have all received a great amount of fundamental advancement from the ideas and actions of these important individuals. Not only did they help shape the very religion they are attached to—they established it like no other. Yet even though their beliefs and characters are particularly unique from one another being human examples of the tradition in which they are a part of, they still hold one common strand—they all had religious experiences that were influenced by their family ties, geographical location and cultural background to name a few. Through the course of the years, history tells us that the raids later evolved into a struggle motivated by religious grounding— believers against non-believers. This indicates the idea that the spiritual experiences and conquests of Mohammed hold a central position in defining the religious practices of Muslims. While Gandhi espouses peaceful and non-violent methods in attaining the causes of Hinduism, Mohammed and Islam’s concept of jihad adopts the idea that religion itself can be the primary reason for engaging in violent measures in order to further the goal of Islam. Nevertheless, the fact remains that Mohammed’s role in the development of Islam as an established religion in many countries separated by geographical boundaries is crucial inasmuch as it cannot be denied. The same holds true for Siddhartha Gautama whose reputation in the religion of Buddhism is greatly acknowledged as essential both by believers and academic scholars. As Herman Hesse suggests, Siddhartha espouses the idea that, for one to know one’s quest in life, it is imperative to find the source from within and not from without, like a â€Å"flowing river† that attracts â€Å"a deep love for this flowing water† (Hesse 100). Introspection, or an inner contemplation, is one of the main precepts being pushed forward by Siddhartha which further suggests the idea that each individual must take time to isolate one’s self from others in order to be able to focus and to introspect. This idea can be rooted from one of Siddhartha’s life-transforming moments. The religious experience of Siddhartha began after his encounter with a sick man, a poor man, a beggar and a corpse that revealed unto him the idea that humanity is filled with sorrow brought about by the sufferings in life . Being isolated away from the outside world after being confined within his home for almost the entire duration of his early years, Siddhartha began to realize the deeper side of life after the experience. He decided to leave behind his previous lifestyle and pursued, instead, a life of intense asceticism. However, Siddhartha realized that to live one’s life is to neither live in excessive abundance of wealth and material possessions nor in extreme plainness after overhearing a teacher discussing music. In the end, he pursed the Middle Way, or the way of life that takes the middle path instead of the extremes . These aspects hold the key to understanding the Buddhists’ primary religious experience which is significantly felt, at least in modern times, in the social context of teaching others the way of living life in the Middle Path through a life of internal contemplation or personal reflection. As Siddhartha dedicated his life to pursuing the Middle Path after his yogic meditations, followers of the Buddhist religion later on adopted this method as one of the cornerstones or identities of their group. This suggests the idea that the religious experience of Buddhists in general is strongly tied to a personal level as its most basic foundation. Manifested through yogic meditations, Buddhist monks of today incorporate in their daily lives these principles . Moreover, it can be observed that Islam calls for a life that is centered on Allah while Hinduism, as exemplified by the life of Gandhi, calls for a life that should be dedicated towards the lives of others . It is religious imperative in Islam that Muslims should direct their lives towards revering Allah in every thought and action and that, correspondingly, the religious experience of every Muslim should all the more reflect their strong attachment to Allah (Boyd 69). As Mohammed himself is the foremost Muslim who has been able to fully actualize this thought, it remained an integral part in the lives of the millions of Muslims all around the world. This incorporates the idea that the religious experience of a single individual—the prophet Mohammed—has greatly affected the succeeding generations that came to follow the same path. While Islam essentially requires the primordial importance of Allah, Hinduism has been closely attached to the sense that it is a religion that is centered on others. The same holds true for Buddhism although the religion reflects reverence to â€Å"the Awakened One† or Buddha and that Hinduism itself has its own versions of celestial entities or â€Å"Devas† as well as the concept of â€Å"Brahman† which refers to the greater Self or God. These things constitute the belief that, although Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam have parallel ideas of higher beings or divine entities, it appears that Islamic treatment for a higher being supersedes those of the other two. This can be rooted out from the fact that the scriptures of Islam and its religious followers and believers put Allah above everything else while Hinduism and Buddhism, through their yogic meditations, allow or give due importance to the self as well. This is not to say that Islam as a religion does not give due importance to its believers. It only entails the idea that Islam treats man as a being that should be placed under Allah and that Hinduism and Buddhism illustrate a rather more salient consideration for the welfare of man. Mahatma Gandhi, for example, showed his concern for others by teaching the poor exploited peasants in the region of Champaran in Bihar about the satyagraha, inquiring about their sufferings, educating them to fight for their rights and at the same time to carry out their obligations to the nation as a whole . Siddhartha, on the other hand, lived his forty-five years traveling along the country, finding sustenance on the alms given by other people after teaching the people the means that will liberate humanity from worldly sufferings . Moreover, one of the notable religious experiences of both Gandhi and Siddhartha is pegged on the idea that they both waged a â€Å"battle† in terms of forwarding their beliefs in the context of their religion. While Gandhi strived for peaceful measures—passive resistance, for example—in order to achieve his aim for a peaceful world with equality among religions and Siddhartha pushed his ideologies of liberating humanity from the worldly sufferings they experience through teaching them the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path, Mohammed took a rather different approach. The fact that Mohammed engaged in jihad or in battles through the â€Å"sword† reveals the idea that Mohammed will take up arms in defending the religion against aggressors or in forwarding Islamic tenets. Thus, it can be argued that the religious experience of Mohammed, or at least the part in which he waged battles in his religious life, is distinctively different from those of Gandhi and Siddhartha. The differences in the religious experiences among the three can be largely seen on their corresponding actions and exploits during their existence and the resulting consequences it created on their religions. This also affects these religions view on disasters. Jihad is indubitably a central part of Islam; Yogic meditations play a significant role in Buddhism and Hinduism with former embracing the Middle Path and the latter guiding the lives of its believers through its sacred texts. The Qur’an greatly emphasizes the idea that Allah should be above everything else; Hinduism seeks to treat everyone and every other religion their due recognition in the sense that to each is his own truth or, at the most, God; and Buddhism’s goal is to free human beings from suffering and the cycle of rebirth and make them know the â€Å"truth†. Conclusion The religious experiences of Mahatma Gandhi, Siddhartha Gautama, and Mohammed all have a great bearing on the religions they belong to. These individuals have a large sum of contributions not only to the expansion of the reaches of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam but on the very central precepts of these religions. Although each of them has their own specific religious experiences and beliefs, and that while it may be true that each of them forwards distinctive approaches in meeting their religious goals, they all nevertheless share the parallel idea that religion is a significant section of their lives. In essence, however, their respective cultural background, geographical location, and family ties among many others have strongly shaped their religious experiences which, as a consequence, influenced their religion. Above all these, by comparing and contrasting the lives of Mohammed, Siddhartha and Gandhi, one is able to better understand some of the main—and oftentimes subtle—differences between these religions view on disasters in life. References: Aly, A. â€Å"The Life of the Prophet Muhammad†. 1999. (October 3, 1999): AT&T Knowledge Ventures. April 2008. . Borman, William. â€Å"Life, the Chief Value: Wrong Aims and Methods, and False Views. † Boyd, Stephen Blake. â€Å"Malcolm X’s Religious Pilgrimage: From Black Separatism to a Universal Way. † Redeeming Men: Religion and Masculinities. Ed. Stephen Blake Boyd. Louisville, Ky: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996. 69. Gandhi and Non-Violence. Albany, N. Y. : State University of New York Press, 1986. 200. Gandhi, Mahatma. An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth. Long Island, N. Y. : Buccaneer Books Inc, 2007. Hesse, Hermann. Siddhartha. New York: Bantam Classics, 1981. Levine, Marvin. â€Å"The Story of Siddhartha. † The Positive Psychology of Buddhism and Yoga: Paths to a Mature Happiness: With a Special Application to Handling Anger. Mahwah, N. J. : Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. , 2000. 12. â€Å"Life of Siddhartha Gautama†. 2002. Human Ecology. April 2008. . Mahatma Gandhi: His Life in Pictures. New Delhi: The Central Electric Press, 1954. Neusner, Jacob, and Tamara Sonn. â€Å"Jihad (Islam). † Comparing Religions through Law: Judaism and Islam. New York: Routledge, 2002. 203. â€Å"Some Thoughts on the Power of Focused, Principled Hatred. † Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror. Washington, D. C. : Brassey’s Books, 2004. 6. Swenson, Don. â€Å"The Dilemma of Delimitation: The Study of Ethos. † Society, Spirituality, and the Sacred: A Social Scientific Introduction. Peterborough, Ont. , Canada: New York Broadview Press, 1999. 255. Yob, Iris M. â€Å"Growing up Buddhist. † Keys to Interfaith Parenting. Hauppauge, N. Y. : Barron’s, 1998. 79.