Best Self Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Best Self - Essay Example I am also ambitious and can imagine things on my own. As far as my hobbies and pastimes are concerned, I write poetry as I believe this is something that holds a lot of value for me. I also indulge in photography and love traveling around new places and destinations. This excites me endlessly. Also reading is something that comes very naturally to me. My qualities include leadership skills, efficiency and skills to take on any job at any time. In addition, I am unselfish and take very little stress. I like to acquaint new places and explore buildings and architectures. I also have a liking for seas and water in essence. I am a firm believer of the green architecture and how this has shaped up the world in this day and age. Sunset and sunrise are some of the most significant pleasures that I derive from the different moments happening in a day. What others think of me is also important to me. My mother believes in me and she knows that I am an honest individual. She knows that I yearn for family and the relationships that hold me with all of them at all times. One of my friends (Ahmed) is a Director in a bank. He asserts that I am respectable and have a dignity of my own. He knows that I can come up with all sorts of creative ideas.

Philosophy-Contemporary Ethical Theory4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Philosophy-Contemporary Ethical Theory4 - Essay Example The ethical realist believes that ethical statements are descriptions of the states of the world, hence are like other fact-stating assertions, true or false independently of the beliefs of the speaker (O’ Neill: 163). According to G.E. Moore’s (1873-1958) intuitionism, good is a simple, unanalysable property similar to a primary colour. Adapting a version of Utilitarianism, Moore believed that right acts are those that produce the most good; but he stated that goodness cannot be defined or identified with a natural property such as pleasure. Moore, an ethical intuitionist believed that good could be understood directly, through moral intuition, so that it is possible to say whether a moral statement is true or false. The simple notion of describing goodness when it is seen, is like trying to define the colour yellow. It is not possible to define the color yellow, but only by showing someone an example can the color yellow or similarly the concept of goodness be explained (Oliphant & Mayled: 10). W.D. Ross’ (1877-1971) intuitionism also believed, like Moore that â€Å"right† and â€Å"obligatory† are as indefinable as â€Å"good†, and stated that certain types of actions called prima facie duties were right. Ross’ seven classes of prima facie duties were: duties of fidelity, reparation when we have done something wrong, gratitude, justice, beneficence or helping others, self-improvement, and duties of non-maleficence or not harming others. When these prima facie duties, which mean duties at first sight, oppose each other, it is essential to follow the one which is right for the situation. Hence, one prima facie duty may have to give way to another. However, deciding on which one to obey in cases of conflict, depended on a person’s moral maturity, realization of self-evident truths and intuition (Oliphant & Mayled: 12). Some criticisms of intuitionism are that if value

Goldman Sachs Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Goldman Sachs - Term Paper Example 2.A.i. Key Products and Services 7 2.A.ii.Function of Products and Services in the World of Investments 7 2.A.iii. Goldman Sachs’ Role in IPOs 8 2.B. Goldman Sachs’ Influence on the Capital Markets 8 2.B.i. Positive Influences 8 2.B.ii. Debated Influences Among Investors and other Firms/Companies 9 3. Role of Goldman Sachs in China 10 3.A. Key Investment Areas in China 10 3.A.i. Key Areas of Interest of Goldman Sachs in China 10 3.A.ii. Successful Cases/Engagements in China 11 3.B. Valuing China’s Present Economic Situation 11 3.B.i. Current Investment Climate in China- Views 11 3.B.ii. Forecasts for Future Prospects in China 11 4. Conclusion 12 4.A. Goldman Sachs’ Performance in the World of Investments 12 4.B. Goldman Sachs’ Role in China 12 References 13 1. Introduction to Goldman Sachs 1.A. Goldman Sachs History Goldman Sachs is an American investment bank that has its roots in Manhattan in New York City, having been founded there in 1869, with its key competencies being in general investment banking, financial services, the management of investments, and securities. It leads the world in the management of mergers and acquisitions, the provision of services tied to underwriting, the management of assets, as well as prime brokerage services that it is able to provide to individuals, companies, and countries. Once unassailable and with a pristine reputation built over its lifetime, the bank had seen its reputation and standing in the banking community tarnished as a result of its actuations during the financial crisis that erupted from 2007 and whose after effects are still being felt up to the present day. From its founding by Marcus Goldman in 1869, the firm emerged by the early part of the 20th century as one of the premier banking entities in the US, with expertise and market leadership in the establishment of the market for initial public offerings or IPOs. It was during the time after that, however, that the firm evolved from a trading company to an investment banking entity. The firm further evolved and developed into the 1999’s, to the point where it was able to launch its IPO of its own shares in 1999, transferring about 12 percent ownership of the firm into the hands of the investing public. Throughout this time and after, key personnel in Goldman Sachs went on to become key public officials managing the nation’s finances, as well as key executives in some of the country’s and the world’s major financial institutions, including Merrill Lynch and Citigroup. On the other hand, the controversies surrounding the alleged role of Goldman Sachs in inducing the financial crisis in 2007 and of aggravating the crisis have largely resulted in the reputation and fortunes of the investment bank being heavily hit in recent years, putting into doub t even its future prospects as a going concern and as a bastion of the capitalist system (Answers Corporation, 2012; Google, 2012; Thomson Reuters, 2012; Goldman Sachs, 2012; Taibbi, 2011; Taibbi, 2009; Smith, 2012). 1.B. Goldman Sachs Background The key activities of Goldman Sachs worldwide revolve around the management of investments, investment banking and securities management, as well as the provision of related financial services to countries, rich people, individuals, as well as corporations and other related entities. Its four business segments reflect its core businesses, which are Investment Management, Lending and Investing, Investment Banking, and Institutional Client Services. It has presence in key financial centers all over the world by way of vital offices, while being present likewise in a total of 30 countries Its key officers are the following (Google, 2012; Reuters Thomson, 2012): Lloyd C. Blankfein Chairman of the Board, Chief

Survey Paper of open-source software and it's use in enterprise and Essay

Survey Paper of open-source software and it's use in enterprise and government - Essay Example Open source software enables businesses and government institutions to access and offer certain services that otherwise would have cost lots money to install and use. This survey paper aims to conduct an in depth analysis of past research literatures on the use of open source servers by enterprises and government organizations. Further, the paper analyzes how these organizations use the open source servers to efficiently perform their activities. Objectively, this survey paper seeks to relate elementary analysis of open source servers in business and government institutions as studied by other researchers in the past. Finally, the paper puts into context all the exclusion as well as inclusion results of the analyzed literature reviews about open source usage in businesses.   As a result of the widely and broad technological improvement and innovations, businesses and government organizations all over the world are in the rash to cope with these changes. It should be noted that the basic aim of any business is to maximize profit while minimizing cost. However, a successful business should also consider long term growth plans through installing an effective business operations system. On the other hand, government institutions may also want to put into place effective service delivery systems to its citizens (Bitzer & Schroder, 2006). The later considerations bring about the importance of integrating computing system into these organizations. There are different types of computer systems and some of them are more sophisticated than others. In addition, some of them have strong variance in their functionalities while others are more or less related. While business and government institutions may afford to use premium computing systems, there has been a growing demand and usage of open source servers. This reality could be attributed to the fact that some of these computing systems are free or cost effective as

Write a complete laboratory report that covers all three experiments Essay - 1

Write a complete laboratory report that covers all three experiments for Lab 2 Water Quality and Contamination - Essay Example ater comprises at least 70% of the earth, only about 1% percent of this water is fresh water, and the rest 99% of the water is non-usable salty water. The process of purifying salty water to make it usable fresh water is extremely complicated and expensive and as such, people, many animals, and plants have to survive on the 1%. There are three sources of fresh water used by people and animals; ground water, surface water, and aquifers. Surface water includes water that collects on the ground through the process of precipitation and which does not evaporate back to the atmosphere or even infiltrates to the ground. This water collects in such places such as rivers, lakes, among others. Ground water on the other hand settles underneath the ground, and is stored in pores, fractures, or solid rock underneath the earth surface. This water collects in these places through the infiltration process. Aquifers on the other hand are areas where water collects such as in sand, gravel or permeable rock. Although rainwater is pure, it gets contaminated very fast, especially after it touches the ground through man made, natural and animal pollutants. Ground pollutants travel from one place to another through streams, rivers, or ground water while others are available in the air. Man-made pollutants include motor oil, petrol and diesel, acidic chemicals, among others. There are many dangers of consuming contaminated water, especially the potential of these impurities in causing diseases. Poisons, disease causing agents and toxins can reside in water, and adversely affect people. Medics believe that contaminated water such as toxins and lead acid chemicals are responsible for majority of cancers affecting many people today. It is because of these impurities and dangers associated with contaminated water that water purification becomes

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) - Essay Example It is achieved when a company is able to provide similar benefits as their competitors but at a lesser cost, or deliver benefits that are better than those of the competing products. The two types of competitive advantage therefore are cost advantage, which offers lower cost and differentiation advantage, which offers better benefits. Competitive advantage helps the company gain higher profits and aids it in creating superior or excellent value for its customers. Companies offer products to customers with the aim of continuous and growing patronage and positive feedback directed to possible customers. They aspire to maintain a solid customer base while aiming to increase that number by active marketing and selling of the products. Products may be classified into different kinds. Products may be physical objects or tangible goods, people, services, ideas or concepts, places, organizations and activities. All these material and non-material products are offered by the companies to their existing and prospective customers with the promise that the customers will benefit from their products in greater ways than if they support the competition. In order for the companies to offer the appropriate products to specific customers, they have to first identify the needs and wants of the customers. No two customers are exactly alike in their preferences. Each person differs from another. Focusing on the individual needs and wants of a multitude of customers is not feasible and practical fro companies. The cost will be too much to handle. The strategy used is to segment or group customers into clusters. Members of clusters share common characteristics which may be concluded as leaning towards a support, need or want of specific products. This way companies may determine the approaches they need to apply for specific customer groups or clusters. Aside from the actual selling techniques of companies, marketing strategies propel organizations to higher profits and bigger market share. According to the American Marketing Association, "Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders" (AMA Adopts New Definition of Marketing). Marketing revolves around the theory that customers use a product or a service because they have a need or a want for it or the product offers a perceived benefit. Thus, determining the actual needs of customers is the very basic strategy for marketing. Markets today are very competitive in that the players more often than not have products of the same quality and similar sales and marketing strategies. This homogenous quality of markets makes it difficult for customers to choose a preferred company and establish loyalty with that company. Since the kinds and qualities of products are similar, prices of goods and services are often at the same level. Same levels of pricing do not give the companies cost advantage, so they resort to gaining differentiation advantage. They gain differentiation advantage by the provision of excellent customer service which translates to customer loyalty and creation of customer value. Customer Relationship Management is a vital element in the provision of

Patriot Act Essay Example for Free

Patriot Act Essay In her article, Cathy Zeljak maintains that the Patriot Act has infringed on Americans’ civil liberties, particularly the Fourth Amendment’s protections against illegal searches and surveillance. Using the recent history of legal decisions on law enforcement agencies’ information-gathering practices, the author argues that the Patriot Act strips citizens of the legal protections they received in the late 1970s. Throughout the piece, she asks, â€Å"Are we sacrificing essential liberties in the fight against terrorism? (Zeljak, 2004, p. 69), and her answer (the overriding thesis of this article) is â€Å"yes. † Zeljak argues that the Patriot Act undermines both the Fourth Amendment and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) Act, which was passed in 1978 to impose guidelines on government surveillance of private citizens. Before then, government surveillance of citizens lacked clear guidelines, and government agencies behaved arbitrarily as a result. Supposed â€Å"threats,† like antiwar activists and civil-rights leaders like Martin Luther King, were frequently monitored and harassed. The FISA Act aimed to curb these abuses and placed more legal guidelines on federal surveillance, requiring that foreign intelligence had to be a primary cause for issuing a warrant to conduct surveillance on an individual. However, the Patriot Act has removed many of the FISA Act’s protections, now allowing warrants to be issued with foreign intelligence purposes as only a tangential reason, not a primary cause. In addition, law enforcement officials may now seize a wider array of records, using the broad definition â€Å"any tangible thing† (Zeljak, 2004, p. 70) instead of the narrow lists specified by the FISA Act. The Patriot Act also allows government agencies to spy on innocent third parties as a means of obtaining information about primary suspects, further weakening the Fourth Amendment’s protections, and it allows agencies to share information more freely, without letting accused individuals known what evidence exists against them. In March 2002, FISC rejected John Ashcroft’s proposals to allow law enforcement officials broader access to (and use of) information gathered under the Patriot Act. In effect, says Zeljak, this â€Å"transferred fundamental rights away from individual citizens, greatly increasing the authority of intelligence and investigative agencies† (Zeljak, 2004, p. 70). FISA warrants can thus be used for criminal investigations without clear probable cause. Zeljak also claims that, despite two court defeats on this issue, the Bush administration hopes to further expand its surveillance and prosecutory powers with Patriot Act II, which would automatically grant federal agents who conduct illegal searches complete immunity and allow the government to deport American citizens found guilty of helping terrorist organizations. Basically, she maintains, such an expansion of the Patriot Act would allow the government near-total freedom to conduct investigations with few legal guidelines, and would considerably curtail citizens’ protections and civil liberties. Zeljak concludes the article by stating that â€Å"Americans must wonder whether we are sacrificing essential liberties in the fight against terrorism,† and ends with a provocative question: â€Å". . . have the terrorists already won the opening round? † (Zeljak, 2004, p. 0) Zeljak takes a clear stance against the Patriot Act, considering it a flagrant violation of American citizens’ constitutionally-guaranteed rights against illegal surveillance. She asserts that the FISA Act has essentially been gutted and that plans to widen the Patriot Act would further deprive citizens of legal protection, making their rights meaningless in the name of intelligence gathering. Her concluding question implies that, with the Patriot Act, democracy has been undermined.