Simple Écouter Verb Conjugations in French

When you want to say to listen to in French, use the verb  Ãƒ ©couter. In order to change it to the past tense listened to or the future tense will listen to, a simple verb conjugation is required. A short lesson in the most common forms of this useful verb will show you how thats done. Conjugating the French Verb  Ãƒâ€°couter Écouter  is a  regular -ER verb  and it follows a very common conjugation pattern. This is good news for students who find these challenging because you can apply the infinitive endings you learn here to many other verbs. These include  assister  (to assist) and  donner  (to give). To change  Ãƒ ©couter  to the present, future, or imperfect past tense, simply match the appropriate subject pronoun to the tense. For instance, I listen to is jà ©coute and we listen to is nous à ©couterons. Subject Present Future Imperfect j coute couterai coutais tu coutes couteras coutais il coute coutera coutait nous coutons couterons coutions vous coutez couterez coutiez ils coutent couteront coutaient The Present Participle of  Ãƒâ€°couter The  present participle  also builds off the verb stem with the -ant  ending to form  Ãƒ ©coutant. This is an adjective, gerund, or noun in some circumstances as well as a verb. The Past Participle and Passà © Composà © The  passà © composà ©Ã‚  is a familiar way to express the past tense listened to in French. To construct it, conjugate the  auxiliary verb  avoir  to fit the subject pronoun, then attach the  past participle  Ãƒ ©coutà ©. For example, I listened to becomes jai à ©coutà © and we listened to is nous avons à ©coutà ©. More Simple Écouter  Conjugations Should you wish to express that the action of listening is questionable or not guaranteed, use the subjunctive verb mood. Similarly, when the action is dependent on something else happening, the conditional verb mood is employed. In formal writing, you will come across either the passà © simple or the imperfect subjunctive forms of  Ãƒ ©couter. Recognizing these will improve your reading comprehension. Subject Subjunctive Conditional Pass Simple Imperfect Subjunctive j coute couterais coutai coutasse tu coutes couterais coutas coutasses il coute couterait couta coutt nous coutions couterions coutmes coutassions vous coutiez couteriez couttes coutassiez ils coutent couteraient coutrent coutassent The imperative verb mood is used in short and often assertive statements. When using it, theres no need to include the subject pronoun: use à ©coute rather than tu à ©coute. Imperative (tu)           Ã‚  Ãƒ ©coute (nous)     Ãƒ ©coutons (vous)     Ãƒ ©coutez

Palm Essay example - 604 Words

Hawkins is an inventor, and he walked away from PDA’s because he saw cell phones were everywhere and wanted to invent the best voice based application. He new there was a need for an application that could combine all the features of the mobile communication and organization tools in the market today. I believe he was not only creative, but very smart about the market place, because, he foresaw that PDA’s were becoming commodities. The price, at which PDA’s were being sold, would severely cramped margins of any company expecting large returns from these devices. Every person on the block could now knock off a version of a Palm Handheld, Hawkins found a complimentary market, and handspring was nimble enough to beat all the big players to†¦show more content†¦Handspring needed the extra financial stability that Palm could bring, while Palm needed the Treo to help diversify their product line. The two companies together would be able to provide more efficie nt distribution, marketing, and production for the Treo. PalmOne still has to a lot of work ahead of them to survive. They have to fix production and distribution issues with the Treo. They must maintain their lead and market share, and then deliver the margins needed to drive continuous Ramp;D. Palm has to find a way to persistently innovate in the smart phone market. Eventually the other players in the Treo market will catch up. When they finally do, Palm better have the next great thing ready to role. I expect that the Treo market will become like the PDA market and the device will become a simple commodity, everyone has one, and prices will fall. I believe PalmOne can always â€Å"one up† the big companies if they stick to their roots of being a nimble company. They must remain visionary, and be able to shift products quickly based on technological advances developed through research. 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Brick By Boring Brick by Paramore free essay sample

I used to like Justin Bieber. Used to love him, actually. Now, Im not saying you cant love him, everybody is entitled to their own opinions and as long as we agree to disagree, its all good. Anyway, I hung posters of my favorite singer prominently on the walls of my room. I was quite swept away by his swoop-ty-doop hair and his chocolate-y soulful eyes. I sang his songs, all of them, both popular and obscure (I don’t do things like fandom halfway), until my family was sick of my off-key interpretations. What does this have to do with Paramore? Maybe if you don’t interrupt with prying questions you’ll be able to find out before nightfall. So one day, whilst I was avidly scouring YouTube for an excuse not to focus on math, I came across a song and music video. The exact words and phrases and songs typed in the search box are beyond my memory, but somehow or other I ended up with this song at the top of the suggestions page. We will write a custom essay sample on Brick By Boring Brick by Paramore or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page I had not heard of the band before, but for some reason I was drawn to the bright colors and beckoning images caught in the video still. This song I was so sporadically drawn into was none other than â€Å"Brick By Boring Brick†, by Paramore. The music video is amazing, all interesting twists and fairy-tale references. But the songthe song pretty much changed my definition of music, with its lyrics that seemed to burst forth directly to me. And Paramore quickly rose to the top of my All Time Favorite-Changing Songs Is Not Allowed list and remains so to this day. And Brick By Boring Brick? Lets just say that all my friends know it forwards and backwards. What is it—exactly—that made this song so important to me? I would say the lyrics, and the deeper meanings that lay behind them (no, YouTube commenters, I highly doubt this song is about the illuminati. Because wherever I go I find comments about this â€Å"secret† group, and I am starting to worry about your sanity). The song describes what I would call growing up—realizing that the worlds and fantasies believed in as children are not true, and the way we try to hold onto them only to find ourselves way in over our heads with new responsibilities and slowly, we have to let go. The way we all act when we’re â€Å"going through that phase,† where we pretend to run away to distant places and dream up imaginary friends to help make all the bad stuff running through our lives go away is described in the song, and the eventual epiphany we have that causes us to come out and face the real world. The few months or years or maybe just moments where we have to decide whether to stay in fairy-land or stand up to our fears; that’s â€Å"Brick By Boring Brick,† to me. As for dear young Justin Bieber? About ten minutes after discovering Paramore, the posters I had hung with such delicacy and care were crumpled up in the wastebasket, their new neighbors moldy chewed gum and sharp-smelling pencil shavings. The moral of my story (review?)? Go check â€Å"Brick By Boring Brick† out. It may convert you in ways you didn’t know you could be converted. Notable quotations from the song: If its not real, you cant hold it in your hands, you cant feel it with your heart/ and I wont believe it/ but if its true you can see it with your eyes/ oh even in the dark. Well you built up a world of magic/ because your real life is tragic It’s all about the exposure/ the lens, I told her/ the angles are all wrong now shes ripping wings off of butterflies Go get your shovel, and well dig a deep hole/ and bury the castle/ bury the castle But it was a trick and the clock struck twelve/ make sure to build your heart brick by boring brick or the wolfs gonna blow it down Keep youre feet on the ground/ when youre heads in the clouds And, my personal favorite: ba da ba ba da ba da da/ ba da ba ba ba ba da ba ba

The Current Economic Climate Essay Example

The Current Economic Climate Essay 3. 0The Current Economic Climate * Our research clearly shows that retailers believe consumer spending will continue to be constricted throughout 2012. The fear of unemployment, particularly for those working in the public sector, will continue to depress consumer sentiment. Combined with inflation rates that will outstrip wage increases, and consumers continuing to pay down debt, it makes top-line growth difficult. RW 2012) * While the figure continues to tick up, and unemployment among the young particularly impacts on the retailers who serve them, the threat of unemploy- ment depresses the spending of many more. (RW 2012) * Several forces at play are making life difficult for those who want to promote high streets; not least the continued growth of online sales, plus the total costs of high street property compared with footfall and sales densities. (RW 2012) (RW 2012) * Inflation has squeezed disposable incomes, particularly among the C2DE socioeconomic groups. RW 2012) * 32% The percentage of British shoppers who feel they have no cash to spare, according to the BRC and Nielsen in August 2011 (RW 2012) * Coming at a time of squeezed income by heightened inflation in essentials such as food and petrol, one might have expected consumers to cut their cloth. Yet, a number of sources including the Office for National Statistics confirm consumer spending on clothing increased by more than the rate of inflation in 2011: Mintel estimates total clothing spend grew by 4. 7%, well outpacing CPI for the clothing category. Despite the economic context, consumers therefore grew their clothing spend significantly in real terms in 2011, suggesting an underlying resilience in the market: clothes shoppers may be deterred by rain, but they are very unwilling to cut their purchases in response to a deterioration in their spending power. (Mintel 2012, clothing retailing). * Economy slowly recovering falling headline inflation and recent falls in the number of people unemployed suggests the economy is showing signs of recovery since the start of 2012. Mintel 2012, clothing retailing). * Double-dip recession * export * The UK economy is officially back in recession. The erratic economic growth seen in 2011 up 0. 5% in the first quarter, down 0. 1% in the second quarter, up 0. 6% in the third quarter – ended down 0. 4% in the final quarter of 2011. This year the downward trend has been more sustained. Firstly, contracting 0. 3% in the first quarter and then by 0. 5% between April and June. It is the same story for year-on-year GDP growth, which has fallen from 1. % in the first quarter of 2011 to -0. 5% in the second quarter of 2012. Attempts to stimulate economic growth have been largely thwarted, despite a sustained period of historically low interest rates and quantitative easing measures. The unresolved euro-zone debt crisis continues to impact on the UK economy, hitting both jobs and growth. * (Mintel 2012, clothing retailing). * 3. 1 The UK retail environment. * after many years of erosion, neglect and mismanagement, something I felt was destined to disappear forever. (MP, 2011). out-of-town retail has drained the traffic and retail offer from our town centres, (MP, 2011) * With town centre vacancy rates doubling over the last two years and total consumer spend away from our high streets now over 50%,(MP, 2011). * †¢ The number of town centre stores fell by almost 15,000 between 2000 and 2009 with an estimated further 10,000 losses over the past couple of years;2 (MP, 20 11). * †¢ Nearly one in six shops stands vacant;3 (MP, 2011). * †¢ Excluding Central London, high street footfall has fallen by around 10% in the last three years;4(MP, 2011). the overarching strategy for most retailers in 2012 is going to be presenting a great customer experience and its successful execution will depend on delivering a pitch perfect performance in all areas of the business. (RW 2012) * One operations director suggests that the Portas report is too late to reverse the decline: â€Å"I think the secondary high streets are finished, because you can’t sustain a store in a market where nobody wants to shop. What could happen in a low-rent high street is that new forms of retail entertainment will spring up. † (RW 2012) The operations director of a major retailer explains: â€Å"I think the secondary high streets are finished, because you can’t sustain a store in a market where nobody wants to shop. What could happen in a low rent high str eet is that new forms of retail entertainment will spring up. † (RW 2012) * â€Å"Research I have seen shows that even by 2020, 87% of all customers’ journeys will involve a store at some stage So I think talk of the high street’s demise is nonsense,† says the chief executive of a department store. (RW 2012) * â€Å"Change isn’t coming; it’s come and moved on† (Sibun, 2012). We will write a custom essay sample on The Current Economic Climate specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Current Economic Climate specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Current Economic Climate specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer RMR * In the UK, several forces at play are making life difficult for those who want to promote high streets, not least the continued growth of online sales, plus the total costs of high street property compared with footfall and sales densities. (RW 2012, P. 58) * One operations director suggests the Portas report is too late to reverse the decline: I think the secondary high streets are finished, because you cant sustain a store in a market where nobody wants to shop. What could happen in a low-rent high street is that new forms of retail entertainment will spring up. (RW 2012, P. 58) â€Å"High-profile retail failures cannot be taken as indicative of the sector’s health. Consumers may be under pressure financially, but there is little sign of them cutting their spending on clothing. Retailing is a remarkably robust sector – and any retailer’s failure to secure growth is by consequence down to their own failings. † * – John Mercer, Senior Retail Analyst (Mintel 2012, clothing retailing). * Figure 1: Clothing specialists’ sales (? m, incl. VAT), 2007-17 * * * In-store technology designed to enhance the multichannel shopping experience is a key theme among major retailers’ innovations: (Mintel 2012, lothing retailing). * Marks Spencer is reportedly investing ? 100 million on improving its digital offering to encourage customers to browse and learn more about products. The retailer’s new 151,000 sq ft outlet at Cheshire Oaks in Ellesmere Port includes a host of in-store innovation including HD display screen showcasing product, browse-and-order screens, and staff equipped with iPads. (Mintel 2012, clothing retailing). * Oasis has introduced an in-store iPad shopping facility enabling customers to order clothes from the store’s fitting room and have them delivered to their home. Shop staff equipped with iPads can check garment availability from anywhere on the shop floor. (Mintel 2012, clothing retailing). * Debenhams is launching free wifi in its 167 shops. Customers will be able to use their smartphones and mobile devices to access Debenhams information and special deals as they walk around the shop. Customers can check for sizes and availability and if it isn’t in store, scan the barcode to order it for home delivery. (Mintel 2012, clothing retailing). * 3. 2Threat of the internet. * But new technological developments now mean that the internet is one of the key threats to retail on our high streets. Although internet sales currently account for less than 10% of all retail sales some estimates suggest that e-commerce accounted for nearly half of all retail sales growth in the UK between 2003 and 2010, as internet access has become more widespread And we have seen dramatic growth in ‘m-commerce’ – sales over mobile devices – of more than 500% in the last two years. (MP, 2011). * De Kare Silver argues that this is, â€Å"gradually ceasing to be a bricks and mortar world†9 and shows that a 15% drop in store sales of most high street retailers pushes them below break even and into loss. It’s not just the small retailers; many businesses on the high street are feeling the pinch. De Kare Silver M (2011) e-shock 2020: How the Digital Technology Revolution is Changing Business and All Our Lives(MP, 2011). mp 2011 * One retailer comments that if you want customers to come into store then you have to treat them really well, otherwise why wouldn’t they just go and buy from Amazon. (RW 2012) * * RW 2012 – Shows that the focus is moving away from purely focusing on new channel, looking to utilise existing channels too aka stores. It’s perhaps easy to blame the high street’s problems on the continued growth in online sales. But actually as retailers have begun to deliver more integrated multichannel services they have found that online and mobile channels benefit stores. Industry body IMRG estimates that 10. 4% of all UK online retail sales in August to October 2011 were fulfilled through click-and-collect services. At the top end of the sca le, retailers such as Halfords say click and collect is driving 85% of web customers to store. (RW 2012) * Mintel 2012, forecast that the total UK expenditure on clothing and footwear via the internet will rise 86% to ? . 4bn by 2016. (Past Disso, SJG) * VM will become even more important as retailers will have to excite and entertain customers who are being distracted through a forest of other media (Glen Folley, Head of VM T. M. Lewin. VM 2020). * Growth of online sales will prove a challenge to VM in capturing the customer in store. (Sarah Bailey LCF, VM 2020). * Stores currency will be rooted in providing spectacle, wonder and kinship as well as authority and expertise beyond what can be found online (Lorna Hall, Retail Editior WGSN) 2D will never be as fulfilling as 3D (Andi Grant, Creative Director SFD Inspired Retail Design. ) * The latest challenge is the internet, shopping from home is easier, price competitive, price of parking (Tony Morgan VM) * With the rise of online sh opping and consumer’s spending less time in store (Bell and Ternus, 2006), (RMR) * â€Å"The latest challenge to in store retailers is the internet with online shopping. Shopping from home is easier and price competitive. Retailers are under more pressure than ever to insure customers return and spend. † (Morgan, 2008, p. 15). RMR) * Despite what we are being told about significant growth online, conversion rates online still tend to be substantially lower than in traditional bricks and mortar stores. Retailers believe this is due to the customer’s inability to physically interact with an item online. (Retail Week, 2012a). RMR â€Å"20 percent of people never buy fashion online, while 40 percent do so once a month or more. † (Retail Week, 2012a)RMR * Primark is a good example of a brand that is incorporating technology within their stores rather than â€Å"jumping onto the multichannel band wagon† (Pert, 2012). Primark is yet to have a transactional website because it wouldn’t fit within their brand ethos. Primark has a highly successful model and its choosing technology that helps support, enhance and replicate this model (Pert, 2012), rather than going fully online. RMR * * Peter Cross, business partner of Mary Portas – and manager of one half of her retail consultancy – Yellow Door, said: Retail theatre is not a new thing, but the sheer power of the internet and its efficiency means that so much transactional retailing can happen online, so shops have to up their game. ttp://www. independent. co. uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/retailtainment-the-future-of-shopping-2303942. html * * Offline shops have realised they have to do something else other than simply sell you stuff. http://www. independent. co. uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/retailtainment-the-future-of-shopping-2303942. html * Karl Lagerfeld Prefers Bricks over Clicks * Published: Feb 13, 09 References: nymag * Karl Lagerfeld prefers the physical part of shopping in person vs. the visual part of shopping online. Lagerfeld was meeting with the EU competition commissioner to discuss the loosening of restrictions of selling luxury goods—read: anything designed by Karl Lagerfeld—online. * Lagerfeld extolls the pleasure of buying where one can feel the fabric and see colors in natural light. Lagerfeld is not a Luddite; with the help of his assistant, bodyguard and sometimes model Sebastien Jondeau he will sometimes buy CDs and books from Amazon. com. But â€Å"And I still like bookshops, and not because I have one,† he said. (Lagerfeld’s store 7L sells photobooks. * http://www. trendhunter. com/trends/karl-lagerfeld-embraces-bricks-over-clicks * Figure 3: Main shops used for clothing in the last 12 months, instore or online, July 2012 * Base: 1,968 internet users aged 16+ who have bought clothing in last 12 months * * (Mintel 2012, clothing retailing). * How are online and in-store working together? We have argued that consumers make less and less distinction between t he two. Even so, the message of the next figure is that they treat shopping trips separately. Overall, however, the results tie in with the fact that only around 10% of clothing is sold online and that buying in-store is much the most popular route. * Figure 4: How consumers made their most recent clothing purchase, July 2012 * Base: 2,000 internet users aged 16+ * * (Mintel 2012, clothing retailing). * Our consumer research found nearly half of Next and M;S shoppers had bought online – yet, clearly, their online sales make up a far lower proportion of their total revenues, suggesting their customers are selectively mixing in-store and online shopping. Meanwhile, overall, 18% of womenswear shoppers and 19% of menswear shoppers had used the internet as part of the browsing or purchase process, but a large proportion of this was in conjunction with store-based browsing and shopping. * Indeed, it tends only to be struggling retailers that are using the justification of a migration to online shopping for planned or mooted store closures: French Connection, New Look, and some of Arcadia’s fashion fascia, for example. * (Mintel 2012, clothing retailing). * * * (Mintel 2012, clothing retailing). Key analysis: It is already obvious that consumers use in-store and online interchangeably as buying media. But there is still a bias to the young when it comes to researching online first. (Mintel 2012, clothing retailing). * Retailers who ignore a channel of distribution do so at their peril. A store based retailer must have a complementary online offer. But purchasers of branded goods from an online only retailer have probably seen the p roduct first in a store. The online retailer only makes a sale because the customer has decided not to buy it in-store immediately. Mintel 2012, clothing retailing). * * Mintel estimates online clothing sales increased 18% to ? 4. 6 billion in 2011, and we expect growth of 14% for 2012 taking the online market size to ? 5. 2 billion, equivalent to 13% of consumer spending on clothing. * Mintel’s consumer research for our Fashion Online report found that consumers are buying online more frequently and the popularity of internet shopping is gaining ground on in-store shopping. Over a fifth (22%) of consumers now buy more clothes online than they do in-store, compared to just over one in ten (12%) in 2010. For full consumer research findings, and market size data for online fashion including footwear, see Mintel’s report, Fashion Online – UK, March 2012. * think with the nature of the high street and the amount of companies going into administration Online is the way forward. Independents are being hit with high rents for bricks and mortar and are having to close after just a short period. (Surfdome Interview) * 3. Are surfdome purposely an online brand or is it because it is cheaper to trade online. would they branch out to having a highstreet presence). We wouldn’t branch out to open on the high street. We are already seeing amazing growth online, 2012 finished +76% vs 2011 (Surfdome Interview) * * 3. 3 Store Closures * Where retailers used to need 400 or 500 shops to touch the length and breadth of Britain, with the sheer power of the internet they now need far less. For example, as I write Sir Philip Green, CEO of Arcadia Group, has announced the reduction of h is own retail estate as leases expire(MP, 2011). At the time of writing, Barratts Priceless had just fallen into administration, and HMV had issued results alongside a warning that the future of the business was open to question. (RW 2012) mp 2011 * Retailers at the value end of fashion have particularly found themselves exposed to the problem of too many stores in places where footfall can’t achieve the sales they need to cover their costs. Several we spoke to warned that their store portfolios will likely shrink during the year, and other retailers said they would reposition stores and look for better rent deals even if they don’t intend to shrink store numbers overall. RW 2012) * The businesses named as those in trouble are the ones likely to have too many stores. But property costs aren’t the only reasons mainstream fashion retailers are struggling to adapt to the realities of the market. Some are still running their buying operations as though it is the boo m years. (RW 2012) * But retailers outside of these four struggling sectors are not immune from problems And indeed any business with too many stores, poor cash flow and large debts to service will face challenges to survive the year. RW 2012) * UK stores have become more important, and as later chapters of this report show, despite the fact retailers are reviewing the number of stores they need in a multichannel world, they are prepared to invest in those they keep open. (RW 2012) * The rate of highstreet shop closures is increasing due to rises in VAT, income tax and rent, high levels of inflation, and lower wage growth, meaning that consumers particulary in the middle class sector have less disposable income and are changing their spending habits. Past Disso, SJG) * The ‘Economist Intelligence Unit’, predict e-sales will make up a third of all retail sales in Britain in ten years time (Sibun, 2012). With online retailing proving such a success, many individuals have voiced concerns that the â€Å"Highstreet is dying† when faced with the â€Å"virtual onslaught† (Pert, 2012). It has been reported that a slew of shops have been closing stores to focus on their online offering (Blackden, 2012). RMR * RW 2012 * However, it’s clear that there is a space shift on the cards. The chairman of a fashion retailer says his business may close 100 stores in 2012, as it wants fewer, larger stores; which he says are difficult to find. â€Å"We will only open stores in exceptional locations such as Westfield We have far too many expensive leases and we are having negotiations with landlords at the moment. † (RW 2012) * Another fashion chief executive, who is happy with most of his stores which are in prime locations, adds: â€Å"There are a few sites in difficulty. But when a shop is in trouble we run it on a cash-for-cash basis. If the property is taking more cash than it is costing, then the store stays open. If not, it closes. We may look at the lease renewal and then take a view as to whether to close, to renegotiate or to resite. † (RW 2012) * Retailers are falling into administration with the total number of retailers in England and wales increasing by 11% from 165 to 183 in 2011. (Past Disso, SJG) * Web retailing will have taken it’s toll by the year 2020, leaving highstreets and malls vacant of many of todays recognised brands. (Tanya Reynolds, Creative Director. Proportion London. VM 2020). * recorded 32 stores closing per day in the UK. (Sibun, 2012). RMR) * On Monday, clothes chain Jane Norman became the latest high street casualty of the recession, as it moved into administration. And as the internet threatens to guzzle up the profits of remaining high street retailers, perhaps it may take an outstanding shopping experience to stir droves of people from their chairs and into the shops. Various phrases have been used over the years to describe the enhancing of shoppi ng stores: retailtainment and entertailment are obvious word plays. http://www. independent. co. uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/retailtainment-the-future-of-shopping-2303942. tml * Failures expected to decline, but will rise in retail sector * The number of business failures will fall over the coming three years but remain above pre-recession levels, according to a forecast by the accounting firm BDO. * It estimates that the number of failures will fall to 20,536 a year by 2015, from a peak of 26,196 in 2009. BDO identifies a squeeze on the disposable income of UK households as one of the primary reasons for the slow recovery and concludes that retail and personal services companies are likely to be the most severely affected. BDO predicts that the number of retail sector failures will rise by 12. 5 per cent to 3,104 in 2011 from 2,759 in 2010. It expects the personal services sector, such as hair, beauty and consumer goods repairs, to see an increase in failures of 2. 8 per cent to 1,288 in 2011, up from 1,252 in 2010. * http://www. independent. co. uk/news/business/news/failures-expected-to-decline-but-will-rise-in-retail-sector-2364863. html * The store will remain your key asset, use it to showcase your brand and generate maximum profitability by addressing issues at   individual store level (RW 2012, P. 58) * 3. 3UK brands vs US brands financials (The need for UK stores) MP 2011 * adapt to reap the major benefits from localising their product offers. (RW 2012) * Again, this is a trend where UK retailers can be proud of what they’ve achieved, as their private-label developments are among the finest in the world, and in some cases give manufacturers a run for their money (RW 2012) (RW 2012) * Retailers with international appeal are asking themselves how much of a return they’ll get from opening one more store in the UK compared with one abroad, especially one in the fast-growing emerging markets. RW 2012) * I would say not, we are a global brand on a global stage, we see ourselves as retail leaders, but would be influenced by any great retail idea not just from the USA. (Selfridges interview) * 1. Yes, Ted Baker is portrayed as a very British brand. Ted Baker is still considered out of the ordinary with strong UK roots. (Ted Baker Interview) * 3. 4upper middle market retailers. (lack of british brands in this sector) * The fact is that the major supermarkets and malls have delivered highly convenient, needs-based retailing, which serves today’s consumers well. MP, 2011). * Woolworths is a prime example. They simply hadn’t realised how to talk to the new value-conscious consumer and allowed the pound shops, many of which are seeing astronomic levels of growth, to pile in and steal their market share. A fact made all the more painful when one knows that Woolworths was in fact the original pound shop offering all its merchandise at a fixed single price. (MP, 2011). * Primarily this is 16-25 year olds . They are faced with much greater higher education costs than previous generations and rising unemployment. And also C2DE socioeconomic groups; those on benefits, the elderly and low-paid have been at the sharp end of rising inflation during 2011. Even if, as many predict, inflation slows during 2012 the damage to their spending power has already been done. (RW 2012) * And the director of a premium fashion retailer is mindful that her competition is likely to grow, so it’s not a time for the business to scrimp on what makes it attractive to customers, as the new competition sure won’t be. â€Å"The international brands that are coming in from the US, France and Australia have got quite a bit of money to invest,† she says. RW 2012) * Unemployment stands at 8. 3%. Both the rate and level of youth unemployment stands at the highest it has ever been, with 22% – or around one million – economically active 16 to 25 year olds not in employment. (RW 2012) * Clothes buying still a priority for under-25s 61% of under-25s a key market for clothing retailers still include clothing and footwear within their top five biggest areas of expenditure, with fashion the ultimate spending priority for 15-19-year-olds, according to Mintel’s Youth Fashion UK December 2011 report. Mintel 2012, clothing retailing). * Under-25s demographic group shrinking The number of under-25s a key market for clothing retailers is contracting as a percentage of the population. The UK’s ageing population means the number of 15-19-year-olds is predicted to shrink by 7. 1% between 2012 and 2017, while the number of 20-24-year-olds is expected to fall to 5. 3% during the same period. (Mintel 2012, clothing

Reflective Practice Report Essay Example

Reflective Practice Report Essay Example Reflective Practice Report Essay Reflective Practice Report Essay Essay Topic: Reflective Reflective Report Term 1 Primary School, Alderman Davies When I arrived at the Primary school placement, Alderman Davies I met with one of my supervisors in Reception and gave her my details and showed her my CRB. I then went into the reception classroom with her and we had a chat about what the school expected of me and things I would be doing with the children, the times I start and finish. She discussed the polices and procedures with me but explained they do not give them out because they have too many students and would cost them too much money to print for everyone. She asked me if I had any questions for her and explained who I needed to see if I had any problems. She then took me on a quick tour of the school because I knew where a lot of things were because it was the school I attended when I was at primary school. I went to be introduced to some of the new staff and was introduced to my class teacher and the class I would be working with. There I was given my first task of helping the children draw flowers for harvest to be put up as decorations in the church. Whilst I have been in this placement and in the class I was in with mixed ages I have learned a lot about the children and their needs. I have learned that some children in the class who are the same age may need some more support than others. I have learned to judge when children need help or are just being lazy and done really need it, and I have learned to be a lot more patient. I have also learned that it the children trust you very quick and are very venerable, and copy things they see other people doing. Since being at Alderman Davies’ I have enjoyed every minute of working with the children. They all have completely different personality and can be very cheeky if you let them be. They each of them have began to trust me and trust me to do work with them and to look after them during the day. I have loved doing activities with the children that I had been set to do in college and I know the children enjoyed them too. I had so much fun helping prepare the Christmas concert, helping sort out costumes and helping the children learn all the songs. Making Christmas things with the children was very enjoyable and watching them enjoy themselves made me very happy that I helped put the smile on their faces. The thing I dislike the most about this placement is that Teaching assistants didn’t respect me as much as the teachers did. And it knocked my confidence a bit when I was near them, and the some of the children took it as a cue that they could disrespect me to. However I did not let it ruin my time there and I enjoyed it as much as I possibly could. However I disliked seeing the children upset and thought that some of the dinner time supervisors didn’t deal with some of the problems well enough. My strengths during this placement have been that I could turn up on time and I was very creative in thinking of idea’s for helping the children learn and coming up with games for them to play witch they were learning through doing too. Another strength was that I could build good relationships with the children and staff because I was very confident from the beginning and am easy to talk to. This helped me a lot and made me enjoy my time more. I also encourage children to join in with activities and helped them build their confidence be when they say they couldn’t do something took the time to tell them they can do it and helped them to do it and made sure they were able to before I left them. My only weakness was at the beginning I was very nervous of doing activities with the children because I didn’t know them and had never done it before. With help from kind staff and just gave it my best short and my confidence grew even more and I am now able to explain tasks to the children with confidence. If I was to do this placement again I would do it all the same because I absolutely enjoyed everything and all my time there. However I would not worry about anything and have more confidence at the beginning. Information I would give to students coming behind me would be is have a brilliant time and enjoy every minute because it goes so fast. I would recommend to have confidence because the teachers know how you feel because they were in your position once before. I would advise to be patient and take time to listen to the children and to stay on top of the work because it could mount high on top of you and its worth doing. Ill be sad to leave this placement so enjoy everything.

The Legacy and Works of Lu Xun

The Legacy and Works of Lu Xun Lu Xun (é ² Ã¨ ¿â€¦) was the pen name of Zhou Shuren (å‘ ¨Ã¦  â€˜Ã¤ º º), one of China’s most famous fiction authors, poets, and essayists. He is considered by many to be the father of modern Chinese literature because he was the first serious author to write using modern colloquial language. Lu Xun  died on October 19, 1936, but his works have remained prominent over the years in Chinese culture. Early Life Born on September 25,  1881, in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, Lu Xun was born into a wealthy and well-educated family. However, his grandfather was caught and nearly executed for bribery when Lu Xun was still a child, which sent his family tumbling down the social ladder. This fall from grace and the way once-friendly neighbors treated his family after they had lost their status had a profound effect on the young Lu Xun. When traditional Chinese remedies failed to save his fathers life from an illness, most likely tuberculosis, Lu Xun vowed to study Western medicine and become a doctor. His studies took him to Japan, where one day after class he saw a slide of a Chinese prisoner being executed by Japanese soldiers while other Chinese people were gathered around happily taking in the spectacle. Appalled at his countrymen’s apparent callousness, Lu Xun abandoned his study of medicine and vowed to take up writing with the idea that was no point in curing diseases in Chinese people’s bodies if there was a more fundamental problem in their minds that needed curing. Socio-Political Beliefs The beginning of Lu Xun’s writing career coincided with the beginning of the May 4th Movement, a social and political movement of mostly young intellectuals who were determined to modernize China by importing and adapting Western ideas, literary theories, and medical practices. Through his writing, which was extremely critical of Chinese tradition and strongly advocated modernization, Lu Xun became one of the leaders of this movement. Impact on the Communist Party Lu Xun’s work has been embraced and to a certain extent co-opted by  China’s Communist Party. Mao Zedong held him in very high esteem, although Mao also worked hard to prevent people from taking Lu Xun’s sharp-tongued critical approach when it came to writing about the Party. Lu Xun himself died well before the communist revolution and it’s difficult to say what he would have thought of it. National and International Influence Widely recognized as one of China’s best and most influential authors, Lu Xun remains strikingly relevant to modern China. His socially-critical work is still widely read and discussed in China and references to his stories, characters, and essays abound in everyday speech as well as academia. Many Chinese people can quote from several of his stories verbatim, as they are still taught as part of China’s national curriculum. His work also continues to influence modern Chinese authors  and writers around the world.  Nobel-prize-winning author KenzaburÃ…  Ã…Å'e  reportedly called him the greatest writer Asia produced in the twentieth century. Noted Works His first short story, â€Å"A Madman’s Diary†, made a huge splash in China’s literary world when it was published in 1918 for its clever use of colloquial language juxtaposed with the stilted, hard-to-read classical language that â€Å"serious† authors were meant to write in at the time. The story also turned heads for its extremely critical take on Chinas dependence on tradition, which Lu Xun uses metaphors to compare to cannibalism. A short, satirical novella called â€Å"The True Story of Ah-Q† was published a few years later. In this work, Lu Xun condemns the Chinese psyche through the titular character Ah-Q, a bumbling peasant who constantly considers himself superior to others even as he is relentlessly humiliated and ultimately executed by them. This characterization was on-the-nose enough that the phrase â€Å"the Ah-Q spirit† remains widely used even today, nearly 100 years after the story was first published. Although his early short fiction is among his most memorable work, Lu Xun was a prolific writer and he produced a wide variety of pieces including a large number of translations of Western works, many significant critical essays, and even a number of poems. Though he only lived to be 55, his complete collected works  fill 20 volumes and weigh over 60 pounds. Selected Translated Works The two works mentioned above,  A Madman’s Diary† (ç‹‚ä º ºÃ¦â€" ¥Ã¨ ® °)  and â€Å"The True Story of Ah-Q† (é˜ ¿Qæ ­ £Ã¤ ¼  )  are available to read as translated works.   Other translated works include  The New Year’s Sacrifice,  a powerful short story about women’s rights and, more broadly, the dangers of complacency. Also available is  My Old Home,  a more reflective tale about memory and the ways in which we relate to the past.

Current Australian Issues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Current Australian Issues - Essay Example They try to persuade the computer novices, who barely have any idea of their computer system and are alarmed by such calls and due to their limited knowledge are inclined towards believing on such scams. The technician asks the consumer to log on to a third party website for the purpose of remote access troubleshooting to the consumer’s PC. The telemarketers go to such extents that they claim they belong to reputed computer organizations such as â€Å"Microsoft† and â€Å"Windows†. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) are looking forward into investigating towards this matter and warning the consumers to remain attentive about such scams (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission). The calls come at all odd times of the day, due to the fact that the telemarketers are not from Australia. A new trend in the type of PC-related scam calls have been observed, in which the caller falsely claims to belong to some foreign government, or from the consumer’s bank and they try to convince the consumers to recover their money that they have lost in previous scams, in return for a moderate fee. This is again a fraud and the consumer ends up paying more money, without any retrieval. PC scam calls are just one genre of the telemarketing abuse. Retrieving consumer’s personal identification details also helps these scammers to provide language-specific calls. The consumer is dealt with the telemarketer of the same foreign language, in the hope of optimized persuasion strategies. Lately consumers have complained of calls by telemarketers for enrolling their kids in tuition centers for specific subjects. Another genre of scam calls relate to the religious preferences of the consumers. Consumers have been asked to join religious centers that preach certain beliefs. The idea behind these telemarketers is to scrape out as much money as they can from the consumers, by stealing their identification details, in order to

Dimensions of Community Environmental Health Essay

Dimensions of Community Environmental Health - Essay Example Alcohol intake is a personal choice and the character exhibits the effect of this poison on his physical strength as well as his personality. Steady drinking of alcohol for a long period of time results in the dependence of the brain and also leads to withdrawal manifestation during episodes of abstinence. Alcoholism is a major health hazard and affects normal brain’s chemistry, blood flow to frontal lobes and the nerve cells. Over time, neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine is depleted leading to mood problems, physical weakness, liver pathologies and increasing dependence (A.D.A.M) Smoking is another example of a voluntary source of health hazard that has an effect both on the environment and public health. The tobacco smoke contains 43 carcinogens which are known out of the thousands of chemicals present in it. Although, smokers are exposed to high incidence of lung cancer, voice changes, and other health hazards, but the people who are exposed to the smoke are also at risk. Lung cancer can also occur in non-smokers who are exposed to the tobacco smoke, and it can lead to childhood disorder such as bronchitis and heart disease (Brownson, Eriksen, Davis and Warner 163). Because of the very strong carcinogenic effects, public health measures have progressed over the years. This has resulted in workplace restrictions to smoking, bans on public smoking and even voluntary measures taken in private industries.

Plow and Cyrus Essay Example for Free

Plow and Cyrus Essay John Deere’s Steel-Tipped Plow and Cyrus McCormicks’s Mechanical Reaper – Deere invented a steel-tipped plow that halved the labor to clear acres to till. Timber for housing and fencing was available in nearby woods, and settlements spread rapidly. McCormick developed the mechanical reaper which harvested grain seven times faster than traditional methods with half the work force and guaranteed that wheat would dominate the Midwestern prairies. American System of Manufacturing, or Interchangeable Parts – Europeans had started to refer to manufacture by interchangeable parts as the â€Å"American System of Manufacturing. The system had many advantages. Traditionally, damage to any part of something ruined the whole thing and no new part would fit. With interchangeable parts, however, replacement parts could be obtained and mass production also occurred. Samuel F. B. Morse – Morse was an American inventor. He contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph system bases on European telegraphs. He was also co-inventor of the Morse code, and also an accomplished painter. Catharine Beecher, A Treatise on Domestic Economy – In her widely popular Treatise on Domestic Economy, Beecher told women that technological advances made it their duty to make every house a â€Å"glorious temple† by utilizing space more efficiently. Contagion Theory versus Miasma Theory – The inability of physicians to explain the diseases led to these theories. No one understood that bacteria cause cholera and yellow fever. The contagion theory was that epidemic diseases were spread by touch, whereas the miasmas theory was it resulted from air carried gases from rotten vegetation or dead animals. But neither theory worked. Crawford Long and William T. G. Morton – Long employed sulfuric ether during a surgical operation. Long failed to follow up on his discovery, but four years later, Morton, a dentist, successfully employed sulfuric ether during an operation at MA General Hospital in Boston. Within a few years, ether came into wide use in American surgery. Hydropathy – Hydropathy was known as the â€Å"water cure,† which filtered into the United States from Europe. By the mid-1850s the United States had twenty-seven hydropathic sanatoriums, which used cold baths and wet packs. It helped relieve the pain associated with childbirth and menstruation. Sylvester Graham – Graham propounded a health system that anyone could adopt. Alarmed by the cholera epidemic, Graham counseled changes in dies and regimen as well as total abstinence from alcohol. Soon, he added sexual â€Å"excess† to his list of forbidden indulgences. Phrenology – The belief that each person was master of his or her own destiny underlay not only evangelical religion and popular health movements but also the most popular of the antebellum scientific fads: phrenology. It rested on the idea that the human mind comprised thirty-seven distinct organs, each located in the different part of the brain. James Gordon Bennett, the New York Herald, and the Penny Press – Bennett applied new technology to introduce the penny press. Newspapers could now rely on vast circulations rather than on political subsidies to turn a profit. The New York Sun became America’s first penny newspaper, and Bennett’s New York Herald followed in 1835. Horace Greeley and the New York Tribune Greeley’s New York Tribune pioneered modern financial and political reporting. The relentless snooping of the Tribune’s Washington reporters outrages politicians. In 1848, Tribune correspondents were temporarily barred from the House floor for reporting about Representative Sawyer of Ohio. Astor Place Riot – In 1849, a long-running feud between the leading American actor, Edwin Forrest, and popular British actor William Macready ended with the Astor Place riot in New York City, which left twenty-two people dead. This riot demonstrated the broad popularity of the theater. Minstrel Shows – These shows arose in northern cities when white men in blackface took to the stage to present and evening of songs, dances, and humorous sketches. Minstrelsy borrowed some authentic elements of African-American culture, especially dances. P. T. Barnum and the American Museum – Barnum purchased a run-down museum in NYC, rechristened it the American Museum, and opened a new chapter in the history of popular entertainment. The founders of earlier museums had educational purposes. Barnum, in contrast, made pricking public curiosity the main goal. Washington Irving – When British questioned â€Å"Who ever reads an American book? ,† Americans responded by pointing to Irving, whose Sketch Book contained two famous stories, â€Å"Rip Van Winkle† and â€Å"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. † Naming hotels and steamboats after Irving, Americans soaked him in applause, but they had to concede that Irving had done much of his best writing while living in England. James Fenimore Cooper – Cooper was the first important figure in this literary upsurge. His most significant innovation was to introduce a distinctively American fictional character, the frontiersman Natty Bumppo. Edgar Allan Poe – Poe wrote both fictional and poetry and was a major contributor to the American Renaissance. He set several of his short stories in Europe; as one critic has noted, â€Å"His art could have been produced as easily had he been born in Europe. † American Renaissance – The Renaissance was a flowering of literature. In 1800, American authors accounted for a negligible proportion of the output of American publishers. By 1830, 40 percent of the books published in the United States were written by Americans; by 1850 this had increased to 75 percent. Not only were Americans writing more books; increasingly, they sought to depict the features of their nation in literature and art. Henry David Thoreau – Thoreau was representative of the younger Emersonians. He was more of a doer and was adventurous in action. At one point, he went to jail rather than to pay his poll tax. This revenue, he knew, would support the war in Mexico, which he viewed as part of a southern conspiracy to extend slavery. The experience led Thoreau to write â€Å"Civil Disobedience† in which he defended a citizen’s right to disobey unjust laws. Ralph Waldo Emerson and â€Å"The American Scholar† – Emerson emerged in the late 1830s as the most influential spokesman for American literary nationalism. He announced his address â€Å"The American Scholar. † The time had come for Americans to trust themselves. Let â€Å"the single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts and there abide,† he proclaimed. Transcendentalism – It’s a philosophical movement that developed in the 1830s and 1840s in the Eastern region of the United States as a protest to the general state of culture and society. Among their core beliefs was the inherent goodness of both man and nature. They believed that society and its institutions ultimately corrupted the purity of the individual. Margaret Fuller – Her status as an intellectual woman distanced her from conventional society. Disappointed that his first child was not a boy, her Harvard educated father determined to give Margaret the sort of education young men would have acquired at Harvard. Fuller turned transcendentalism into an occupation of sorts. Nathaniel Hawthorne – Hawthorne was a major contributor to the American Renaissance. He wrote the famous novel, The Scarlett Letter along with The House of the Seven Gables and The Marble Faun in Rome. He ignored Emerson’s call to write about everyday experiences of their fellow Americans. Ironically, their conviction that the lives of ordinary Americans provided inadequate materials for fiction led them to create a uniquely American fiction marked less by the description of the complex social relationships of ordinary life than by the analysis or moral dilemmas and psychological states. Walt Whitman – Self-taught and in love with virtually everything about America except slavery, Whitman left school at eleven and became a printer’s apprentice and later a journalist and editor for various newspapers in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and New Orleans. A familiar figure at Democratic Party functions, he marched in party parades and put his pen to the service of its antislavery wing. Herman Melville – Melville was another key contributor to the American Renaissance who primarily wrote fiction. He did draw materials and themes from his own experiences as a sailor and from the lore of the New England whaling industry, but for his novels, be picked the exotic setting of islands in the South Seas. He wrote the famous Moby-Dick. Thomas Cole, Asher Durand, Frederic Church, and the Hudson River School – The Hudson River School flourished from the 1820s to the 1870s. Cole, Durand, and Church best represented more than fifty painters. They painted scenes of the region around the Hudson River, a waterway that Americans compared in majesty to the Rhine. Lyceums – This is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies between countries; usually it is a type of secondary school. Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux – In 1858, New York City chose a plan drawn by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux for its proposed Central Park. Olmstead eventually became the park’s chief architect. They both wanted the park to look as much like the countryside as possible, showing nothing of the surrounding city.

The Use of Recombinant DNA :: Papers

The Use of Recombinant DNA I agree that recombinant DNA benefits humans only to a certain extent though. During the late 1960s and early 1970s a series of independent discoveries made in rapid succession yielded a new technology whereby humans have the capability to manipulate and direct the very evolution of life itself. This is accomplished through the process of gene splicing (Recombinant DNA). There are four essential elements of the process: a method of breaking and joining DNA molecules from different sources, a gene carrier that can replicate both itself and the foreign DNA, a means of introducing the foreign DNA into a functional bacteria cell, and a method of selecting from a large population the cells which carry the foreign DNA. Using procedures like recombinant DNA, many human genes have been cloned in E. coli or in yeast. This was made possible for the first time to produce unlimited amounts of human proteins. Cultured cells (E. coli, yeast, mammalian cells) transformed with the human gene are being used to manufacture: insulin for diabetics, human growth hormone (GH) GH from domestic mammals like cows and pigs does not work in humans. So for many years, the only source of GH for therapy was that taken out from the glands of human cadavers. But this supply was shut off when several patients died from a rare neurological disease attributed to contaminated glands. Now, thanks to recombinant DNA technology, recombinant human GH is available. While a great benefit to patients suffering form GH deficiency, there has also been pressure to use it to stimulate growth in youngsters who have no deficiency but whose parents want them to grow up tall, erythropoietin (EPO) People with failing kidneys can be kept alive by dialysis. But dialysis only cleanses the blood of wastes. Without a source of EPO, these patients suffer from anaemia. Now, thanks to recombinant DNA technology, recombinant human EPO is available to treat these patients, for treating anaemia, tissue plasminogen activator (TPA) for dissolving blood clots, angiostatin and endostatin for trials as anti-cancer

African American Injustice Essay

â€Å"In the eyes of white Americans, being black encapsulates your identity. † In reading and researching the African American cultural group, this quote seemed to identify exactly the way the race continues to still be treated today after many injustices in the past. It is astonishing to me that African Americans can still stand to be treated differently in today’s society. In reading â€Å"Blacks in America†, Andrew Hacker states that â€Å"being black in America has consequences in areas of: wealth, identity, raising children, occupational opportunities, place of residence, and treatment in the criminal justice system. † To be honest, and I feel bad saying that I already knew this was happening to African Americans. I have heard stories of blacks not getting jobs; regardless of how qualified they are for the position, because of the color of their skin. I have heard stories, and even witness black children getting picked on in school because of the simple fact that they are black. I watched a video in school where a black family moved into a white neighborhood, and before long all the white families had moved out because they didn’t want a black family in their neighborhood. This was confirmed by Hacker in my research in the quote, â€Å"Almost all residential areas are entirely black or white. † I have also seen videos of African American men getting beaten by white arresting officers, and have heard stories of many black men being stereotyped by policemen. This must be why Hacker states â€Å"When white people hear the cry, â€Å"the police are coming! † it almost always means, â€Å"Help is on the way. † However blacks cannot make the same assumption. † These are all reports and events that I think the average American has seen before, but yet most people, including myself, continue to just shrug of and ignore. I guess it’s something that I might have subconsciously accepted, or maybe refused to think more deeply about. In reading and researching, I reaffirmed knowledge that I refused to take a greater note of. I wouldn’t say I learned anything new, because I knew what I wanted to focus on. A quote from Andrew Hacker’s article summarizes the above best, â€Å"In the eyes of white Americans, being black encapsulates your identity. † It may be easy to tell how I am going to focus this anthology. I am going to focus it on the injustices that African Americans continue to face in the United States today. That being, I know exactly what I need to get out of my interviewees, but it is probably a sensitive subject for some of the people I need to interview. I am not black, and I don’t know what it feels like to face this discrimination in everyday life. I can understand the tenderness that African Americans must feel then, when revealing and talking about their experiences with discrimination. I would think then, that it must be especially sensitive to talk about with a person from the race that they receive this everyday discrimination. It will be interesting to hear all the different types of prejudice that my interviewees have received throughout their lives. I would imagine that it ranges from just a look, or the way white Americans act around them, to voiced and physical altercations between themselves and white Americans. Hacker at times seems to be speaking directly to African Americans as he describes these altercations, â€Å"So many of the contacts you have with them (white Americans) are stiff and uneasy, hardly worth the effort. † But to me, that is exactly what the problem is. Why would it not be worth the effort? The first step to take for the uneasiness between the two races to cease to exist is for us (all people) to stop seeing color because once we act differently around the other is where all the problems seem to start. The second step is to make these contacts worth the effort. If we choose to continue to stay in our own comfortable circle of race, when is the problem ever going to end? The answer is never. My opinion as a white 18 year old is that most of the blame lies on the white race. Imagine being eyed every time you go into a store, having your car searched for no reason, or greeted warily at restaurants all because the color of your skin is different. We ignore this daily discrimination because no cares enough anymore to take notice that it happens every hour, every day somewhere in the United States. Will it ever stop? Not until we each take the steps to make it. A recent census commercial I’ve seen said â€Å"We (United States) can’t move forward until you mail it back. † I believe that our country can’t move forward and truly be great until we make sure these daily discriminations are eliminated from our society. In this project, I will interview African Americans on their personal experiences with discrimination, how they handle it, and if they think anything can be done about this problem. Sources: Andrew. 1999. â€Å"Blacks in America. † Pp. 160-168 in The Meaning of Sociology, 6th ed. , edited by Joel Charon. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. A Time to Kill. Dir. Joel Schumacher. 1996. â€Å"African American History. † University of Washington Libraries. Web. 02 Apr. 2010. .

MegaCities Essay Essay

Mega Cities are cities that have a population of more than 8 million and are characterised by the challenges they face, including issues involving the informal economy, unemployment, poor sanitation and shelter. These issues are largely prominent in these cities due to rapid urban growth and a lack of resources. In many cases action has been taken by national governments and non-governmental organisations (NGO’s) to combat and reduce the impact of these issues, however In order for these strategies to be effective they need to fit 3 primary criteria, the solution must be community based, cost effective and sustainable economically and environmentally. Strategies such as micro financing.. Etc. have been adopted to resolve these challenged. A primary challenge facing many mega cities is the population’s heavy reliance on the informal economy as a means of income. The informal economy is a sector of unregulated work and with this comes high unemployment rates and a lack of jobs to support the ever-increasing population. Jobs in the informal economy are particularly prominent in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where 65% of all jobs are found in this sector. Jobs in the informal economy pose a threat to mega cities and their population as workers are not protected and are open to exploitation (e.g. Child labour) and people employed informally pay no tax (e.g. Street vendors, rickshaw drivers) leading to a reduction in the governments revenue. A number of strategies have been undertaken in order to transform informal work into the formal economy, including Micro financing. Micro financing involves NGO’s giving out small loans (approximately $US200), which provide people with money to formalise their business. There are a number of NGO’s that undertake this strategy, including Opportunity International, which is an Australian charity, operating in manila, targeting particularly impoverished communities. Access to these loans is based on a persons standing in the community and once the business begins to sustain itself loans must be repaid. The outcome of this process is a formalised business, which then contributes to government  beneficially by providing it with revenue. This strategy to combat the prominence of the informal economy has been particularly successful, adheres to the three evaluation criteria and provides users with lifetime skills and an income, which could potentially improve their living standards/quality of life. Another challenge faced by a large majority of mega cities is access to shelter, due to population growth in mega cities being too extreme for sufficient supply of housing. This in turn leads to the creation of informal housing, such as squatter settlements, which are generally formed on unoccupied unwanted land, such as next to rail lines or sewerage systems. Informal housing is extremely prominent in developing countries such as India, where 500,000 people live on the pavement in Kolkata with at least 4 million more living in squatter settlements; as well as 1 million people living in cemeteries in Cairo, and  ¼ of the Philippines population residing in slums. This informal housing creates a number of problems for its residents and government; it lacks basic services (sewerage, electricity, water), leading to unsanitary living conditions. There is a lack of tenure, which is the legal right to occupy land, which stops residents from wanting to improve property, insecurity for people and also extremely high crime rates particularly in the Favelas of Rio de Janiero where the police are unable to patrol, due to extreme gang violence. NGO’s and governments have undertaken strategies to improve the issue of lack of access to shelter, including the Kolkata Bustee Improvement Project, a joint initiative between government and non-government organisations. This is a site and service program meaning that the project takes an existing site and provides it with necessary services, such as sanitation, electricity etc. This program in turn reduces the cost burden on local government and creates jobs by incorporating the local community into the work. This movement has tried to stop India’s slum clearance policy, which frees up NGO’s to be able to assist the extreme urban poor. This movement has proved to be extremely successful in improving the shelter situation in Kolkata as it improves the living standard of squatter settlement dwellers, provides jobs and skills to the local community (therefore adding to the formal not informal economy) and also allows NGO’s to be able to assist the poor as they were previously  restricted by government policies. Another benefit is that it is cost effective because it aims to improve existing settlements and creates tenure. Access to sanitation is another key challenge faced by many Mega Cities that is, providing safe food and drinking water and sewerage management. Due to increasing populations, inadequate and ancient sewerage systems and also lack of access to fresh water many Mega Cities face sanitation issues. This issue is particularly prominent in cities such as Manila, where only 11% of people have access to a sewerage system, Karachi at 20% and Dhaka at 18% of the population. Water Borne diseases are particularly prominent in megacities, such as Cholera, Dysentery and Typhoid. Furthermore the disposal of solid waste in Mega cities has lead to issues involving contamination of groundwater and creating Vernon, this is common of Jakarta where only  ¼ of all rubbish gets collected. To combat the issue of sanitation, local governments and NGO’s have established very effective, low-tech strategies, such as the Pour Flush Toilet. This initiative is a relatively cheap response to the needs of unplanned urban settlements in mega cities. A pour flush toilet has a water seal that avoids the problems associated with odour and insects. However its effectiveness is limited by the fact that the system is not suitable in cities where the groundwater table is close to the surface, which is the case in many mega cities, including Mumbai and Kolkata in India and Dhaka in Bangladesh. Also, pour flush toilets can produce substantial quantities of heavily contaminated wastewater which can require substantial downstream infrastructure to avoid severe environmental and public health problems. Despite the disadvantages of this strategy it has proved to be a very successful short term solution to the issue of sanitation and is widely used in Mega Cities around the world, due to the fact that they are simple to use and can be kept clean fairly easily. Mega Cities face many challenges; largely due to their high population increase rate. They therefore need to develop a number of solutions and strategies to combat these prominent issues, such as the informal economy, access to shelter and access to sanitation. If action is not taken to confront these issues they will only become more consequential, leading to more deaths and further environmental and land degradation. Governments and  NGO’s continually need to create strategies to solve these issues and their efforts so far have proved to be extremely beneficial in improving the quality of life of residents of Mega cities, as they fit the three primary criteria needed for solutions to be effective.

Rostows Stages of Economic Growth and Development

Rostow's Stages of Economic Growth and Development Geographers often seek to categorize places using a scale of development, frequently dividing nations into the developed and developing, first world and third world, or core and periphery. All of these labels are based on judging a countrys development, but this raises the question: what exactly does it mean to be developed, and why have some countries developed while others have not? Since the beginning of the twentieth century, geographers and those involved with the vast field of Development Studies have sought to answer this question, and in the process, have come up with many different models to explain this phenomenon. W.W. Rostow and the Stages of Economic Growth One of the key thinkers in twentieth-century Development Studies was W.W. Rostow, an American economist, and government official. Prior to Rostow, approaches to development had been based on the assumption that modernization was characterized by the Western world (wealthier, more powerful countries at the time), which were able to advance from the initial stages of underdevelopment. Accordingly, other countries should model themselves after the West, aspiring to a modern state of capitalism and liberal democracy. Using these ideas, Rostow penned his classic Stages of Economic Growth in 1960, which presented five steps through which all countries must pass to become developed: 1) traditional society, 2) preconditions to take-off, 3) take-off, 4) drive to maturity and 5) age of high mass consumption. The model asserted that all countries exist somewhere on this linear spectrum, and climb upward through each stage in the development process: Traditional Society: This stage is characterized by a subsistent, agricultural based economy, with intensive labor and low levels of trading, and a population that does not have a scientific perspective on the world and technology.Preconditions to Take-off: Here, a society begins to develop manufacturing, and a more national/international, as opposed to regional, outlook.Take-off: Rostow describes this stage as a short period of intensive growth, in which industrialization begins to occur, and workers and institutions become concentrated around a new industry.Drive to Maturity: This stage takes place over a long period of time, as standards of living rise, the use of technology increases, and the national economy grows and diversifies.Age of High Mass Consumption: At the time of writing, Rostow believed that Western countries, most notably the United States, occupied this last developed stage. Here, a countrys economy flourishes in a capitalist system, characterized by mass productio n and consumerism. Rostows Model in Context Rostows Stages of Growth model is one of the most influential development theories of the twentieth century. It was, however, also grounded in the historical and political context in which he wrote. Stages of Economic Growth was published in 1960, at the height of the Cold War, and with the subtitle A Non-Communist Manifesto, it was overtly political. Rostow was fiercely anti-communist and right-wing; he modeled his theory after western capitalist countries, which had industrialized and urbanized. As a staff member in President John F. Kennedys administration, Rostow promoted his development model as part of U.S. foreign policy. Rostows model illustrates a desire not only to assist lower-income countries in the development process but also to assert the United States influence over that of communist Russia. Stages of Economic Growth in Practice: Singapore Industrialization, urbanization, and trade in the vein of Rostows model are still seen by many as a roadmap for a countrys development. Singapore is one of the best examples of a country that grew in this way and is now a notable player in the global economy. Singapore is a southeast Asian country with a population of over five million, and when it became independent in 1965, it did not seem to have any exceptional prospects for growth. However, it industrialized early, developing profitable manufacturing and high-tech industries. Singapore is now highly urbanized, with 100% of the population considered urban. It is one of the most sought-after trade partners in the international market, with a higher per-capita income than many European countries. Criticisms of Rostows Model As the Singapore case shows, Rostows model still sheds light on a successful path to economic development for some countries. However, there are many criticisms of his model. While Rostow illustrates faith in a capitalist system, scholars have criticized his bias towards a western model as the only path towards development. Rostow lays out five succinct steps towards development and critics have cited that all countries do not develop in such a linear fashion; some skip steps or take different paths. Rostows theory can be classified as top-down, or one that emphasizes a trickle-down modernization effect from urban industry and western influence to develop a country as a whole. Later theorists have challenged this approach, emphasizing a bottom-up development paradigm, in which countries become self- sufficient through local efforts, and urban industry is not necessary. Rostow also assumes that all countries have a desire to develop in the same way, with the end goal of high mass cons umption, disregarding the diversity of priorities that each society holds and different measures of development. For example, while Singapore is one of the most economically prosperous countries, it also has one of the highest income disparities in the world. Finally, Rostow disregards one of the most fundamental geographical principals: site and situation. Rostow assumes that all countries have an equal chance to develop, without regard to population size, natural resources, or location. Singapore, for instance, has one of the worlds busiest trading ports, but this would not be possible without its advantageous geography as an island nation between Indonesia and Malaysia. In spite of the many critiques of Rostows model, it is still one of the most widely cited development theories and is a primary example of the intersection of geography, economics, and politics. Sources: Binns, Tony, et al. Geographies of Development: An Introduction to Development Studies, 3rd ed. Harlow: Pearson Education, 2008. Singapore. CIA World Factbook, 2012. Central Intelligence Agency. 21 August 2012.

All About the Speed of Light and What It Measures

All About the Speed of Light and What It Measures Light moves through the universe at the fastest speed astronomers can measure. In fact, the speed of light is a cosmic speed limit, and nothing is known to move faster. How fast does light move? This limit can be measured and it also helps define our understanding of the universes size and age. What Is Light: Wave or Particle? Light travels fast, at a velocity of 299, 792, 458 meters per second. How can it do this? To understand that, its helpful to know what light actually is and thats largely a 20th-century discovery. The nature of light was a great mystery for centuries. Scientists had trouble grasping the concept of its wave and particle nature.  If it was a wave what did it propagate through? Why did it appear to travel at the same speed in all directions? And, what can the speed of light tell us about the cosmos?  It wasnt until Albert Einstein described this theory of special relativity in 1905 it all came into focus. Einstein argued that space and time were relative and that the speed of light was the constant that connected the two. What Is the Speed of Light? It is often stated that the speed of light is constant and that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. This isnt entirely accurate. The value of 299,792,458 meters per second (186,282 miles per second) is the speed of light in a vacuum.  However, light actually slows down as it passes through different media. For instance, when it moves through glass, it slows down to about two-thirds of its speed in a vacuum.  Even in air, which is nearly a vacuum, light slows down slightly. As it moves through space, it encounters clouds of gas and dust, as well as gravitational fields, and those can change the speed a tiny bit. The clouds of gas and dust also absorb some of the light as it passes through. This phenomenon has to do with the nature of light, which is an electromagnetic wave. As it propagates through a material its electric and magnetic fields disturb the charged particles that it comes in contact with. These disturbances then cause the particles to radiate light at the same frequency, but with a phase shift. The sum of all these waves produced by the disturbances will lead to an electromagnetic wave with the same frequency as the original light, but with a shorter wavelength and, hence a slower speed. Interesting, as fast as light moves, its path can be bent as it passes by regions in space with intense gravitational fields. This is fairly easily seen in galaxy clusters, which contain a lot of matter (including dark matter), which warps the path of light from more distant objects, such as quasars. Gravitational lensing and how it works. Light from a distant object passes by a closer object with a strong gravitational pull. The light is bent and distorted and that creates images of the more distant object.   NASA Lightspeed and Gravitational Waves Current theories of physics predict that gravitational waves also travel at the speed of light, but this is still being confirmed as scientists study the phenomenon of gravitational waves from colliding black holes and neutron stars. Otherwise, there are no other objects that travel that fast. Theoretically, they can get close to the speed of light, but not faster. One exception to this may be space-time itself. It appears that distant galaxies are moving away from us faster than the speed of light. This is a problem that scientists are still trying to understand. However, one interesting consequence of this is that a travel system based on the idea of a warp drive. In such a technology, a spacecraft is at rest relative to space and its actually space that moves, like a surfer riding a wave on the ocean. Theoretically, this might allow for superluminal travel. Of course, there are other practical and technological limitations that stand in the way, but its an interesting science-fiction idea that is getting some scientific interest.   Travel Times for Light One of the questions that astronomers get from members of the public is: how long would it take light to go from object X to Object Y? Light gives them a very accurate way to measure the size of the universe by defining distances. Here are a few of the common ones distance measurements: The Earth to the Moon: 1.255 secondsThe Sun to Earth: 8.3 minutesOur Sun to the next closest star: 4.24 yearsAcross our Milky Way  galaxy: 100,000 yearsTo the closest  spiral galaxy (Andromeda): 2.5 million yearsLimit of the observable universe to Earth: 13.8 billion years Interestingly, there are objects that are beyond our ability to see simply because the universe IS expanding, and some are over the horizon beyond which we cannot see. They will never come into our view, no matter how fast their light travels. This is one of the fascinating effects of living in an expanding universe.   Edited by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 25

Business - Essay Example The employees working in the campus has the facility that they can have free food any time they want, they can give their clothes for dry cleaning and can use the gym in order to maintain their health (Emerson, 2012). The employees have the facility that they can work on their own idea in the 20% of the time that is allocated for them to become innovative and do whatever they want so that they can expand as well. Google allows the employees to take leave for a year or two without being paid, but this way they can try to launch their own idea (Emerson, 2012). The company gives all the employees special attention and apart of basic benefits, some other benefits are also given to the employees that are on-site medical facility, Japanese washrooms, swimming pools, conference bike, free haircut, ball pits etc (Emerson, 2012) . Emerson, R. (2012, January 31). Googles Best Benefits: The Top 7 Perks Google Offers Employees. Retrieved June 30, 2012, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com:

Geographical information system and agriculture Research Paper

Geographical information system and agriculture - Research Paper Example In the long run, commonly referenced data can be superimposed to determine relationships between data components. Geographic information system (GIS) software applies relational database management technologies to consign a series of attributes to every spatial characteristic (Longley et al 86). Ordinary aspect identification keys are used to associate the spatial and attribute data among tables. For example, a soil polygon can be associated to a chain of database tables that explains chemical composition, its mineral, crop yield, slope, land use suitability, and other features. Another aspect of Geographic information system (GIS) is that it provides the capability to coalesce series of data into a multiple data layer that may later be a base layer in the database. For instance, demography, slope, wetlands, hydrography, soils and land use can be merged to develop a solitary layer of proper hazardous waste storage sites (Longley et al 140). These data, in turn, may be integrated into the listing database of local government and applied for regulatory and planning evaluations.GIS software normally allows for two kinds of data. Some use raster data i.e. satellite imagery while others use vectors to represent features on the surface of the earth. Most systems allow for complete integration of both types of data (Pierce and David, 11). A GIS can be used to explain basic locational questions such as what is positioned at a given level on the earth surface; or where is the exact element located? At the same time, soils data across the entire watershed can be asked to determine the distribution of regions with hydric soils of huge than 100 acres and are linked to key river system (Pierce and David, 15). Geographic information system (GIS) is becoming the dais of choice for mixing and analyzing enormous range of data in the field of agriculture due to the ability to analyze those data flow and display

National Criminal Justice Reference Service Research Paper

National Criminal Justice Reference Service - Research Paper Example History and General Overview of NCJRS The National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) was established in 1972. It is a federally funded resource offering justice and drug-related information to support research, policy, and program development worldwide. The NCJRS Federal Sponsors include the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Office of the Assistant Attorney General (OAAG), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), National Institute of Justice (NIJ), Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) and the National Institute of Corrections (NIC). It has such sections as About NCJRS, A-Z Publications/Products, Library/Abstracts, Search Q & A, Grants & Funding and Justice Events each with a distinct web link. (NCJRS Website) Its services and resources are available to anyone interested in crime, victim assistance, and public safety including policymakers, practitioners, re searchers, educators, community leaders, and the general public. NCJRS offers a range of services and resources, balancing the information needs of the field with the technological means to receive and access support. For instance, it offers extensive reference and referral services to help answer questions about crime and justice-related research, policy, and practice. Under the Search Questions & Answers section, one can access questions related to juvenile and criminal justice, victim assistance, substance abuse, and NCJRS services as found under the web link, https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/QA/SearchQA/aspx. (NCJRS Website) Further, it has an option for registering online to join the information network for receipt new publications, grants and funding opportunities, and other news and announcements. This can be accessed under the web link, https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Secure/Registration/Register/aspx. After registration one receives Justinfo, a bi-weekly electronic newsletter that inclu des links to full text publications, notices of upcoming trainings and conferences, funding announcements, and other resources. This is found under the web link, https://www.ncjrs.gov/justinfo/dates.html. In addition, the one receives E-mail notifications on new publications and resources, periodic mailings of publications and invitations to subscribe to other topical listservs based on one’s interest areas. The NCJRS also holds conferences and promotes the conferences of others, so people can use the NCJRS website to find out about events they may wish to attend. (NCJRS Website) The NCJRS sponsoring agencies publish hundreds of reports and other information products each year to share with the public. Most of the titles are available online for order through https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/AlphaList.aspx. It has an abstracts database which is one of the largest criminal justice libraries in the world and contains information from the 1970s to the present. Available bo oks, reports, articles, and audiovisual materials include congressional hearing transcripts, research findings, unpublished research, statistics, training materials and program descriptions. Topics covered in the materials in the abstracts database include juvenile justice, victims, law enforcement, courts, corrections, crime statistics, drugs and domestic preparedness. The NCJRS provides a subject-specific thesaurus and English

Lewis model as a model for structural change

Lewis model as a model for structural change Describe the Lewis model as a model for structural change. How does the Harris-Todaro model of rural-urban migration differ from the assumptions and outcomes of the Lewis model? The Lewis model is an early traditional model which seeks to explain how labour movement from one sector to another leads to economic development in a country, particularly developing countries. Whereas the Harris-Todaro model is a model used to address issues concerning rural-urban migration by analysing income differentials. These models are similar but are based on different assumptions which shape their outcomes. I will be analysing these assumptions outcomes and making comparisons between the two models. The Lewis model seeks to explain the growth of a developing country in terms of labour transition from a traditional agricultural sector to a modern industrial sector. This model (sometimes known as the Dual Sector Model) was initially developed by Sir Arthur Lewis in his article, Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour. This article was published in 1954. This article and model are instrumental in laying the foundation in this area of Economics. The Lewis Model is about how surplus labour  [1]  from the traditional agricultural sector is transferred to the modern industrial sector, whose growth over time absorbs the surplus labour. This is promotes industrialisation as well as encourage sustainable development  [2]  . In this model, the traditional agricultural sector is usually characterised by low wages, an abundance of labour and low productivity through a labour intensive production process. Whereas, the modern industrial sector or manufacturing sector is defined by higher wages, higher marginal productivity  [3]  , and initially a demand for more workers, compared to the agricultural sector. The manufacturing sector is also assumed to use a production process which is capital intensive, therefore, investment and capital restructuring in the manufacturing sector is possible over time as capitalists profits are reinvested in the capital stock  [4]  . The assumption is that there is low marginal productivity in the agricultural sector because it is believed to be low priority as the hypothetical developing nations investment is going towards the physical capital stock in the manufacturing sector. The agricultural sector has a limited amount of land to cultivate, so this means that the marginal product of an additional farmer is assumed to be zero as the law of diminishing marginal returns  [5]  takes place as a result of the fixed input, land. This means that the agricultural sector has a quantity of farm workers that are not contributing to output in agriculture because their marginal productivities are zero. These farmers that are not producing any output are termed as surplus labour as they can move to another with no impact on the agricultural sector. Due to the wage differential between the agricultural sector and the manufacturing sector, workers tend to leave agriculture to work in manufacturing sector over time to reap the reward of higher wages. The idea is that if the quantity of workers moves from the agricultural sector to the manufacturing sector equal to the surplus labour from the agricultural sector, regardless of who actually transfers, general welfare and productivity will improve. Total agricultural product will remain unchanged while total industrial product increases because of the additional labour; however, this additional labour drives down marginal productivity and wages in the manufacturing sector. Over time, as this transition continues and investment results increase in the capital stock, the marginal productivity of workers in manufacturing will be driven down by additional workers entering this sector. Eventually, the wage rates of the agricultural and manufacturing sectors will equalise as workers leave the agricultural sector for the manufacturing sector, which increases marginal productivity and wages in the agricultural sector whilst driving down productivity and wages in manufacturing. The end result of this transition process is that the agricultural wage equals the manufacturing wage; the agricultural marginal product of labour equals the manufacturing marginal product of labour, and no further enlargements in the manufacturing sector takes place as workers no longer have a monetary incentive to move. The Lewis Model of Modern-Sector Growth in a Two-Sector Surplus Labour Economy (Diagram 1) The Harris-Todaro Model is an economic model used in developmental economics and welfare economics. This model is used to explain some issues surrounding rural-urban migration. The main result of the model is that the migration decision is based on the income differentials between rural and urban areas, not wage differentials. Therefore, this implies that rural-urban migration, in the context of high urban unemployment, can be economically rational if it is expected that urban income exceeds rural income. The Harris-Todaro Model (Diagram 2) The model asserts that equilibrium will be reached when the expected wage in urban areas, adjusted for the unemployment rate  [6]  , is equal to the marginal product of an agricultural worker. The model assumes that unemployment is non-existent in the rural agricultural sector and that rural agricultural production and the subsequent labour market is perfectly competitive  [7]  . This means that the agricultural rural wage is equal to agricultural marginal productivity. In equilibrium, the rural-urban migration will be zero because the expected rural income equals the expected urban income. The formal statement of the equilibrium condition of the Harris-Todaro model is as follows: Wa = Lm (Wm) Lus In this formula, Wa stands for agricultural income, Lm stands for employment in the manufacturing sector, Lus stands for the total urban labour pool and Wm stands for the urban minimum wage. The equations illustrates that the expected agricultural wage rate equals the expected urban wage rate, which is the urban wage rate multiplied by the total number of jobs available in manufacturing divided by the total number of the urban labour pool. Rural-urban migration will take place if: Wa Ls On the other hand, urban-rural migration will take place if: Wa > Lm (Wm) Ls This suggests that migration from rural areas to urban areas will increase if urban wages (Wm) increase in the manufacturing sector (Lm), increasing the expected urban income. If agricultural productivity decreases, which lowers marginal productivity and wages in the agricultural sector (Wa), there will be a decrease in the expected rural income. This also leads to a rise in migration from rural to urban areas. Mega-cities: Cities with Ten Million or more inhabitants (Figure 1) Source: Data from United Nations Population Division, March 2002 Migration rates exceed urban job creation rates, this is because rural-urban migration causes overcrowding and unemployment in cities. This leads to many people ending up in unproductive or underproductive employment in the informal sector  [8]  . However, even though this migration causes such problems as in inducing informal sector growth and unemployment, this behaviour is economically rational and utility maximising in the context of this model. As long as the migrating economic agents have complete and accurate information concerning rural urban wage rates and the probability of obtaining employment, they will make an expected income-maximising decision. Estimated and Projected Urban and Rural Population of the More and Less Developed Regions, 1950-2030 (Figure 2) To summarise, the assumptions of the Lewis Model include the idea capitalists reinvest profits which leads to fast growth expansion in the modern sector. The level of wages in the modern industrial sector is assumed to be constant and determined as a given premium over a fixed average continuation level of wages in the traditional agricultural sector. The assumption that there is surplus labour in the sense that marginal product of labour is very important. It is partially because of this that workers will move as they are believed have no impact on the agricultural sector. Another assumption is all rural workers share equally in the output so that the rural real wage is determined by the average and not the marginal product of labour. Moreover, under the assumption of perfectly competitive labour markets in the modern sector, the marginal labour curves (Diagram 1) are actually demand curves for labour. Lewis also assumes that modern sector employers can hire as many surplus rural wo rkers as they like with out the fear of rising wages because urban wage is above rural income. Finally, it is assumed to employment expansion continue until all surplus labour is absorbed by the industrial sector. These assumptions shape the conclusion that labour transitions take place for workers who leave the traditional agricultural sector for the modern sector in search for a better wage. However, some of these assumptions do not hold in reality and changes the shape of the model. This model is complicated because of the fact that surplus labour is both generated by the introduction of new productivity enhancing technologies in the agricultural sector and intensification of work. Also, the migration of workers from the countryside to the cities is an incentive towards those two phenomena as the relative bargaining power of workers and employers varies and with this so does the cost of labour. The wage differential needs to be sufficient between industry and agriculture to incentivise movement between the sectors but the model assumes that any differential will result in a transfer. The assumption that surplus labour in rural areas and there is full employment in urban areas has been proved wrong by contemporary research indicators. These show that there is little general surplus labour in rural locations. The model also assumes diminishing returns in the modern sector, but there is much evidence that increasing returns exist in this sector. The Harris Todaro model is based on different assumptions compared to the Lewis model even though their models lead to similar conclusions. The Harris-Todaro model assumes that it is the difference in expected income earnings rather than actual wage differentials that causes workers to switch from rural areas to urban areas if expected income is higher. The model assumes potential migrants are risk neutral. This means they are indifferent between a certain expected rural income and an uncertain expected urban income of the same magnitude. This assumptions indication of economic realities is debatable. This is because poor migrants will more likely to be risk adverse and require a significantly larger expected urban income to migrate. However, the Harris-Todaro model can be adjusted to reflect risk aversion through alteration of the expected urban income calculation. Although, when the model assumes risk aversion instead of risk neutrality, the results are practically indistinguishabl e. The Lewis model uses a competitive model whereas the Harris-Model does not do this. This is seen because rural-urban migration acts as an equilibrating force that equates rural and urban expected incomes. (Figure 3) To conclude, the Lewis model and Harris-Todaro model have similar outcomes in the sense of labour moving from rural agricultural areas into urban areas in search of modern industrial work as an approach to earn more money and leave poverty. However, the assumptions of the two models are very different and maybe this is why each model has had different impacts in terms of economic development history. The Lewis model is an early traditional model. which in practical situations does not work properly because of the assumptions. Therefore, the extent of the model is rarely realised. Although, this model does provide a good general theory on labour transiting in developing economies. The Harris-Todaro model, on the other hand, even with its problems with the assumptions, has lead to policy implications such as ways to reduce inequalities and bias between rural areas and urban cities as an attempt to reduce this migration problem. Overall, both models have increased awareness of the growing issues surrounding rural-urban migration. As many countries like India, Singapore and China act as success stories of this type of migration and economic transition as a catalyst towards leaving poverty, there are many developing nations who have not had the same success, but have suffered from a rise in urban poverty, unemployment and fall in living standards (figure 3) and (figure 4). (Figure 4) References https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHD5jBp82LeSjlz0RL_5wVShZEBPD4dwEmiNnSBX9XXbpxhxvnQom2p5J9hsfEqwBTzMcXcWiMeE2NTpNqjvZqjAb5yEA1_pGRk3_AiL_z2OBLEQ9Hzkluilft1vX-Y-sObbHcLZHyEdSE/s400/WorstSlumPopulationsinSubSaharanAfrica-Graph.gif http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/EXTWDRS/EXTWDR2009/0,,contentMDK:21961509~pagePK:64167689~piPK:64167673~theSitePK:4231059,00.html http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/EXTWDRS/EXTWDR2009/0,,contentMDK:21963658~pagePK:64167689~piPK:64167673~theSitePK:4231059,00.html http://www.facsnet.org/index.php?option=com_contentview=articleid=190:journalists-guide-to-economic-terms-04-02catid=75:archives Harris J. and M. Todaro, Migration, Unemployment Development: A Two-Sector Analysis (American Economic Review, March 1970); 60(1):126-42 Todaro and Smith, Economic Development (Addison Wesley; 9th edition, July 2005) pg. 108-113, 339-343