Progeria Essay -- miscellaneous

Progeria Progeria is one of the least known genetic disorders. There are two types of Progeria, the only difference being the age group that it affects. The Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome is commonly called Childhood Progeria. The second type of Progeria is Werner’s Syndrome, which is the adult form of Progeria. What basically happens in this disorder is that age is accelerated seven times faster than that of a normal person. For example, for Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome, a child could look like he is fifty when he is actually five years old. A twenty year old with Werner’s Syndrome could look similar to a sixty or seventy year old person. There is, even now, not much information known about this genetic disorder because of the scarcity of people with this disorder, not to mention the short life period that they have. The gene for Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome was discovered quite recently on April 16, 2003. Researchers confirmed that the gene, HGPS, is not an inherited disorder because neither parent carries or express the mutation. The mutations to the gene LMNA, which encodes for the Lamin-A protein, causes Progeria. The Lamin-A protein is what provides the framework that holds the nucleus together. Researchers believe that an unstable nucleus caused by a faulty Lamin-A protein brings about Progeria. This gene is located in chromosome 1, but the exact locus has not been announced yet. Researchers say that Progeria is point autosomal point mutation. This misspelling among 25,000 base pairs causes the shortage of the protein made by Lamin-A. This is also a dominant mutation because it is expressed equally in girls and boys. As in other dominant gene mutations, there is a â€Å"paternal age effect†, meaning that the mother is, on the average, four or five years younger than the fathe r at the time of conception. The symptoms of a child with the HGPS gene are very noticeable. Although they appear normal at birth, their age begins to accelerate by they time they are 18 to 24 months old. Bones soften and become more fragile, and the even the skin takes the appearance of the very old because it becomes thinner. If the bones break, they usually do not heal properly. Children with Progeria often have a crinkled and beaklike nose, and fat under the skin is nonexistent to them. The muscles becoming flaccid, hips being dislocated, and joints... ...es, Venezuela, and Vietnam. What has also been noticed of those with Progeria, is that the progeriacs are born with abnormally short telomeres, which are caps of the chromosomes. By they time they turn five, these are as long as a very elderly person. Telomeres reach a certain point of division before they began shortening, making the person old. Currently, there are no cures for this genetic disorder. Dr. Francis Collin who is the head of the National Human genome Research Institute said that the â€Å"the next step is to find a drug that corrects the mutated LMNA gene, and it may be possible to correct the gene itself,† as stated by the Washington Post. Furthermore, mutation in a yeast protein that is similar to the human WRN protein called SGS1 causes the yeast to have a shorter lifespan than the yeast cells that are devoid of the mutation. Another fact that was noted was that nucleolus was enlarged and fragmented in the cells with SGS1, which are typical signs of aging in yeast. Yeast could be a helpful model for human aging because it may give the means to be knowledgeable about more about Werner’s Syndrome, Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome, and other related diseases.

Keats’ grandfather Essay

I liked ‘Death of a Naturalist’, although it wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t nice. Sometimes it wasn’t even like a poem, more like a story that I can relate to, for I used to gather frogspawn and watch the small tadpoles develop into frogs.  I like the fact that it is a modern poem, that Heaney lived in N. Ireland and that this is probably a personal memory. It makes it interesting for me; I often wonder where that flax-dam is, or if it is still around, or if it looks as I imagine. I like the way there are no specific rules followed by this poet, that Heaney doesn’t allow them to rule his poem, and that we get that precious bit of child information. That is what makes the poem different, unique and special. Then the change in atmosphere alters the poem, makes it frightening, and I can laugh at the child here because that never happened to me.  Comparison of Keats’ and Heaney’s different attitudes and techniques  Keats lived in 19th century England and Heaney lived in 20th century N. Ireland, so their outlooks on life are bound to be different, reflecting on their poetry. Keats lived at a time when ‘poets were born, not made’, and those who were poets tended to be upper class gentlemen who did not need to earn an income. So the odds were stacked against him from the start. He was born in 1795 and came from a lower class family and when he was ten the first of many tragedies struck him, changing his personality forever. His father was thrown from his horse, killing him, then Keats’ mother remarried, and almost immediately after Keats’ grandfather died. While Keats and his siblings moved in with their grandmother his mother disappeared, and then reappeared a few years later, ill with tuberculosis. Keats nursed her until she died and after that his attitude to the world changed. He then trained to be an apothecary and passed the exam in 1816  It was at this time that Keats started to write poetry. Although Keats was considered a Romantic poet Romanticism at that time was a rebellion, the lead figures being Coleridge and Wordsworth, who were under heavy criticism. In 1818 the tuberculosis that would kill Keats showed itself, probably contracted from his brother Tom who Keats had nursed. While under the strain of his illness he met Fanny Brawne, with whom he fell in love with, and in September 1819 Keats wrote many odes including ‘Ode to Autumn’, despite his sickness.  He died in 1821 when he was just 26. Keats had a short, intense life, and his poetry reflected that. He was passionate, and never did anything by halves; he put all his effort into it. In ‘Ode to Autumn’ Keats writes fervently about his autumn as he sees it. However Heaney was born almost 145 years after Keats in 1939. He lived at the family farm in Mossbawn. In 1961 he took a first in English at Queen’s College, and two yr. later took up a position as an English lecturer there.  His poetry began under the guidance of Philip Hobsbaum, an English poet whose work involved his interest in natural imagery, with occasional violence filtered through. Heaney used these ideas in his work, and was also influenced by Ted Hughes, a personal friend and fellow poet. Heaney’s poem is about nature turning nasty, and at time Heaney had already lived through World War II, so the world seemed like a dark place at that time. This poem may be Heaney echoing this thought.  Keats and Heaney both see things passionately, and paint a vivid intense picture of it, they microscope what they see, like that they are similar, but the similarities end there as what they do see is very different. Keats sees the beautiful cover of nature and Heaney to the bare basic of nature. The most obvious differences in these two poems are the techniques, as Keats and Heaney are far apart in years their language and various techniques differ. Keats uses old language, which was probably common in those days, while some of Heaney’s words are very close to speech. Keats language accompanies his classic English style of poem, uses the traditional metre in conjunction with that customary style of English poem. Heaney’s poem uses the metre along with alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, punctuation and scatological words to get his message across; Heaney’s often strong words mean that your throat even moves like a frog. In ‘Ode to Autumn’ Keats writes as if he is removed from the autumn scene, watching from afar. An air of calm detachment surrounds it, and it is more of an expression of ‘This is how it is’ than ‘I feel’. Keats’ autumn is a picture frozen in time, beautiful and undying; ageless for him. He sees it as it is then, and not the decay, which will eventually take over. Keats refuses to see that, and is an idealist, thinking that things stay as you see them, but in a way they do for Keats because we see it in the poem and he sees it in his head the same forever, and the poem is a way of forever preserving it. Heaney’s nature has a darker meaning, beneath the surface there is many layers to nature, this is just one, one of the many. However the same is not true for Keats as his nature is more simple and idealistic. Heaney chooses to show us that nature is splendid, but underneath the cover it is also frightening. He is looking for answers because we only ever see part of the story (like in the poem, we only ever see the story from the child’s point of view), because we don’t know everything. We have to grow and learn from our experiences, and this is Heaney’s experience, and there is a change in the child from being a child emotionally and being protected from things like that, and being an adult, as he grows and learns. Heaney allows us to feel and see the full force of nature, the horror, and see that we cannot control it, but that the decay can. The decay equals the change in nature, and is a metaphor for the change in the child. We are part of nature and while we are not controlled by the change caused by decay what we see and feel and thus learn from changes us.  Keats’ nature is a divine force, nothing, not even decay can change it for Keats. The power of this poem is supposed to bring alive for us autumn as Keats sees it. That’s what Romanticism is about, turning something that an ordinary person would see as perhaps disgusting, into something beautiful and wonderful. For Keats art cures everything, it didn’t matter that he was dying of tuberculosis but it did matter that he wrote this poem. I think Heaney is trying to show that maybe we are taught to see things by society, and nature is the untamed truth e.g. the child is taught at school about the frogspawn but not how it is made, not mentioning the sexual reproduction involved. Nature is a better teacher than man, it teaches about that, it teaches about recycling in the decay.  It is not enough for Heaney to just watch nature like Keats does. He must be involved in nature. He gets his wellington boots out and gets stuck in. This most likely comes from having lived on a farm, and having all the experiences he did. Keats’ poem came from his ultimately dreamy heart, forever impractical on looking at things as they are.

Project on Budgetary Control Essay

1. A budget is concerned for a definite future period. 2. A budget is a written document. 3. A budget is a detailed plan of all the economic activities of a business. 4. All the departments of a business unit co-operate for the preparation of a business budget. 5. Budget is a mean to achieve business and it is not an end in itself. 6. Budget needs to be updated, corrected and controlled every time when circumstances changes. Therefore it is a continuous process. 7. Budget helps in planning, coordination and control. 8. Different types of budgets are prepared by industries according to business requirements. 9. A budget acts a business barometer. 10. Budget is usually prepared in the light of Past Experience. 11. Budget is a constant endeavor of the Management. 2 PREPARATION OF BUDGETS 1. Definition of objectives: A budget being a plan for the achievement of certain operational objectives, it is desirable that the same are defined precisely. The objectives should be written out; the areas of control demarcated; and items of revenue and expenditure to be covered by the budget stated. This will give a clear understanding of the plan and its scope to all those who must cooperate to make it a success. 2. Location of the key (or budget) factor: There is usually one factor (sometimes there may be more than one) which sets a limit to the total activity. For instance, in India today sometimes non-availability of power does not allow production to increase inspite of heavy demand. Similarly, lack of demand may limit production. Such a factor is known as key factor. For proper budgeting, it must be located and estimated properly. 3. Appointment of controller: Formulation of a budget usually requires whole time services of a senior executive; he must be assisted in this work by a Budget Committee, consisting of all the heads of department along with the Managing Director as the Chairman. The Controller is responsible for co-ordinating and development of budget programmes and preparing the manual of instruction, known as Budget manual. The Budget manual is a schedule, document or booklet which shows, in written forms the budgeting organisation and procedures. The manual should be well written and indexed so that a copy thereof may be given to each departmental head for guidance. 3 4. Budget period: The period covered by a budget is known as budget period. There is no general rule governing the selection of the budget period. In practice the Budget Committee determines the length of the budget period suitable for the business. Normally, a calendar year or a period coterminous with the financial year is adopted. The budget period is then sub-divided into shorter periods—it may be months or quarters or such periods as coincide with period of trading activity. 5. Standard of activity or output: For preparing budgets for the future, past statistics cannot be completely relied upon, for the past usually represents a combination of good and bad factors. Therefore, though results of the past should be studied but these should only be applied when there is a likelihood of similar conditions repeating in the future. Also, while setting the targets for the future, it must be remembered that in a progressive business, the achievement of a year must exceed those of earlier years. Therefore what was good in the past is only fair for the current year. In budgeting, fixing the budget of sales and of capital expenditure are most important since these budgets determine the extent of development activity. For budgeting sales, one must consider the trend of economic activity of the country, reactions of salesmen, customers and employees, effect of price changes on sales, the provision for advertisement campaign plan capacity etc. 4 Meaning of Budgetary Control: The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants of England and Wales has defined the terms ‘budgetary control’ as â€Å"Budgetary control is the establishment of budgets relating to the responsibilities of executives of a policy and the continuous comparison of the actual with the budgeted results, either to secure by individual action the objective of the policy or to provide a basis for its revision.† It is the system of management control and accounting in which all the operations are forecasted and planned in advance to the extent possible and the actual results compared with the forecasted and planned ones. Budgetary Control Involves: 1. Establishment of budgets 2. Continuous comparison of actuals with budgets for achievement of targets 3. Revision of budgets after considering changed circumstances 4. Placing the responsibility for failure to achieve the budget targets. The salient features of Budgetary Control System are as follows: 1. Determining the objectives to be achieved, over the budget period, and the policy or policies that might be adopted for the achievement of these ends. 2. Determining the variety of activities that should be undertaken for the achievement of the objectives. 3. Drawing up a plan or a scheme of operation in respect of each class of activity, in physical as well as monetary terms for the full budget period and its parts. 5 4. Laying out a system of comparison of actual performance by each person, section or department with the relevant budget and determination of causes for the discrepancies, if any. 5. Ensuring that corrective action will be taken where the plan is not being achieved and, if that be not possible, for the revision of the plan. In brief, it is a system to assist management in the allocation of responsibility and authority, to provide it with aid for making, estimating and planning for the future and to facilitate the analysis of the variation between estimated and actual performance. In order that budgetary control may function effectively, it is necessary that the concern should develop proper basis of measurement or standards with which to evaluate the efficiency of operations, i.e., it should have in operation a system of standard costing. Besides this, the organization of the concern should be so integrated that all lines of authority and responsibility are laid, allocated and defin ed. This is essential since the system of budgetary control postulates separation of functions and division of responsibilities and thus requires that the organization shall be planned in such a manner that everyone, from the Managing Director down to the Shop Foreman, will have his duties properly defined. Objectives of Budgetary Control System: 1. Portraying with precision the overall aims of the business and determining targets of performance for each section or department of the business. 2. Laying down the responsibilities of each of the executives and other personnel so that everyone knows what is expected of him and how he will be judged. Budgetary control is 6 one of the few ways in which an objective assessment of executives or department is possible. 3. Providing a basis for the comparison of actual performance with the predetermined targets and investigation of deviation, if any, of actual performance and expenses from the budgeted figures. This naturally helps in adopting corrective measures. 4. Ensuring the best use of all available resources to maximize profit or production, subject to the limiting factors. Since budgets cannot be properly drawn up without considering all aspects usually there is good co-ordination when a system of budgetary control operates. 5. Co-coordinating the various activities of the business, and centralizing control and yet enabling management to decentralize responsibility and delegate authority in the overall interest of the business. 6. Engendering a spirit of careful forethought, assessment of what is possible and an attempt at it. It leads to dynamism without recklessness. Of course, much depends on the objectives of the firm and the vigour of its management. 7. Providing a basis for revision of current and future policies. 8. Drawing up long range plans with a fair measure of accuracy. 9. Providing a yardstick against which actual results can be compared. Working of a budgetary control system: The responsibility for successfully introducing and implementing a Budgetary Control System rests with the Budget Committee acting through the Budget Officer. The Budget Committee would be composed of all functional heads and a member from the Board to 7 preside over and guide the deliberations. The main responsibilities of the Budget Officer are: 1. To assist in the preparation of the various budgets by coordinating the work of the accounts department which is normally responsible to compile the budgets—with the relevant functional departments like Sales, Production, Plant maintenance etc.; 2. To forward the budget to the individuals who are responsible to adhere to them, and to guide them in overcoming any practical difficulties in its working; 3. To prepare the periodical budget reports for circulation to the individuals concerned; 4. To follow-up action to be taken on the budget reports; 5. To prepare an overall budget working report for discussion at the Budget Committee meetings and to ensure follow-up on the lines of action suggested by the Committee; 6. To prepare periodical reports for the Board meeting. Comparing the budgeted Profit and Loss Account and the Balance Sheet with the actual results attained. It is necessary that every budget should be thoroughly discussed with the functional head before it is finalized. It is the duty of the Budget Officer to see that the periodical budget reports are supplied to the recipients at frequent intervals as far as possible. The efficiency of the Budget Officer, and through him of the Budget Committee, will be judged more by the smooth working of the system and the agreement between the actual figures and the budgeted figures. Budgets are primarily an incentive and a challenge for better performance; it is up to the 8 Budget Officer to see that attention of the different functional heads is drawn to it to face the challenge in a successful manner. Advantages of Budgetary Control System: 1. The use of budgetary control system enables the management of a business concern to conduct its business activities in the efficient manner. 2. It is a powerful instrument used by business houses for the control of their expenditure. It in fact provides a yardstick for measuring and evaluating the performance of individuals and their departments. 3. It reveals the deviations to management, from the budgeted figures after making a comparison with actual figures. 4. Effective utilization of various resources like—men, material, machinery and money is made possible, as the production is planned after taking them into account. 5. It helps in the review of current trends and framing of future policies. 6. It creates suitable conditions for the implementation of standard costing system in a business organization. 7. It inculcates the feeling of cost consciousness among workers. 8. It helps the principal of management by exception to apply. 9. Management which has developed a well ordered budget plans and which operate accordingly, receive greater favour from credit agencies. 9 Limitations of Budgetary Control System: 1. Based on Estimates: Budgets may or may not be true, as they are based on estimates. 2. Time factor: Budgets cannot be executed automatically. Accuracy in budgeting comes through experience. Management must not expect too much during the development period. 3. Cooperation Required: Staff co-operation is usually not available during budgetary control exercise. The success of the budgetary control depends upon willing co-operation and teamwork, 4. Expensive: Its implementation is quite expensive. No budgetary programme can be successful unless adequate arrangements are made for supervision and administration. 5. Not a substitute for management: Budget is only a managerial tool. It cannot substitute management. 6. Rigid document: Budgets are considered as rigid document. But in reality, firm’s affairs continuously change under inflationary pressure and changing government policies. 10 ZERO BASE BUDGETS The technique of zero base budgeting suggests that an organisation should not only make decisions about the proposed new programmes, but should also review the appropriateness of the existing programmes from time to time. Such a review should particularly be done of such responsibility centres where there is relatively high proportion of discretionary costs. Costs of this type depend on the discretion or policies of the responsibility centre or top managers. These costs have no direct relation to volume of activity. Hence, management discretion typically determines the amount budgeted. Some examples are: expenditure on research and development, personnel administration, legal advisory services. Zero base budgeting, as the term suggests, examines or reviews a programme or function or responsibility from ‘scratch’. The reviewer proceeds on the assumption that nothing is to be allowed. The manager proposing the activity has, therefore, to justify that the activity is essential and the various amounts asked for are reasonable taking into account the outputs or results or volume of activity envisaged. No activity or expense is allowed simply because it was being allowed or done in the past. Thus according to this technique each programme, whether new or existing, must be justified in its entirety each time a new budget is formulated. It involves: 1. Dealing with particularly all elements of mangers’ budget requests 2. Critical examination of ongoing activities along with the newly proposed activities 3. Providing each manger a range of choice in setting priorities in respect of different activities and in allocating resources. 11 Process of Zero Base Budgeting: The following steps are involved in Zero base budgeting: Determining the objectives of budgeting: The objective may be ‘to effect cost reduction in staff overheads or it may be to drop, after careful analysis, projects which do not fit into achievement of the organizations objectives etc. Deciding on scope of application: The extent to which zero base budgeting is to be introduced has to be decided, i.e. whether it will be introduced in all areas of the organisation’s activities or only in a few selected areas on trial basis. Developing decision units Decision units for which cost-benefit analysis is proposed have to be developed so as to arrive at decisions whether they should be allowed to continue or to be dropped. Each decision unit, as far as possible should be independent of other units so that it can be dropped if the cost analysis proves to be unfavourable for it. Developing decision packages : A decision package for each unit shou ld be developed. While developing a decision package, answers to the following questions would be desirable: †¢ Is it necessary to perform a particular activity at all? If the answer is in the negative, there is no need to proceed further. †¢ How much has been the actual cost of the activity and what has been the actual benefit both in tangible as well as intangible forms? †¢ What should be the estimated cost of the level of activity and the estimated benefit from 12 such activity? †¢ Should the activity be performed in the way in which it is being performed, and what should be the cost? †¢ If the project or activity is dropped, can the unit be replaced by an outside agency? After completing decision packages for each unit, the units are ranked according to the findings of cost benefit analysis. Essential projects are identified and given the highest ranks. The last stage is that of implementing the decision taken in the light of the study made. It involves the selection and acceptance of those projects which have a positive cost-benefit analysis or which are capable of meeting the objectives of the organization. The above analysis shows that zero base budgeting is in a way an extension of the method of cost benefit analysis to the area of the corporate budgeting. Advantages of Zero Base Budgeting: †¢ It provides the organization with systematic way to evaluate different operations and programmes undertaken. It enables management t o allocate resources according to priority of the programmes. †¢ It ensures that each and every programme undertaken by managers is really essential for the organization, and is being performed in the best possible way. †¢ It enables the management to approve departmental budgets on the basis of cost-benefit analysis. No arbitrary cuts or increase in budget estimates are made. †¢ It links budgets with the corporate objectives. Nothing will be allowed simply because it was being done in the past. An activity may be shelved if it does not help in achieving the goals of the enterprises. 13 †¢ It helps in identifying areas of wasteful expenditure and, if desired, it can also be used for suggesting alternative courses of action. †¢ It facilitates the introduction and implementation of the system of `management by objectives’. Thus it can be used not only for fulfillment of the objectives of traditional budgeting, but also for a variety of other purposes. It is contended that zero base budgeting is time consuming. Of course, it is true, but it happens only in the initial stages when decision units have to be identified and decision packages have to be developed or completed. Once this is done, and the methodology is clear, zero base budgeting is likely to take less time than the traditional budgeting. In any case, till such time the organization is properly acclimatized to the technique of zero base budgeting, it may be done in a way that all responsibility centre’s are covered at least once in three or four years. Zero base budgeting as a concept has become quite popular these days. The technique was first used by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1962. Texas Instruments, a multinational company, pioneered its use in the private sector. Today, a number of major companies such as Zerox, BASF, International Harvester and Easter Airlines in the United State are using the system. Some departments of the Government of India have recently introduced zero base budgeting with a view to making the system of budgetary control more effective. 14 PERFORMANCE BUDGETS Performance budgeting (or programme budgeting) has been designed to correct the shortcomings of traditional budgeting by emphasizing management’s considerations/ approaches. Both the financial and physical aspects are incorporated into the budget. A performance budget presents the operations of an organisation in terms of functions, programmes, activities, and projects. In performance budgeting, precise detainment of job to be performed or services to be rendered is done. Secondly, the budget is prepared in terms of functional categories and their sub-division into programmes, activities, and projects. Thirdly, the budget becomes a comprehensive document. Since the financial and physical results are interwoven, it facilitates management control. The Main objectives of Performance Budgeting are: (i) to coordinate the physical and financial aspects; (ii) to improve the budget formulation, review and decision-making at all levels of management (iii) to facilit ate better appreciation and review by controlling authorities (legislature, Board of Trustees or Governors, etc) as the presentation is more purposeful and intelligible; (iv) to make more effective performance audit possible; and (v) to measure progress towards long-term objectives which are envisaged in a development plan. Performance budgeting involves evaluation of the performance of the organisation in the context of both specific, as well as, overall objectives of the organisation. It presupposes a crystal clear perception of organisational objectives in general, and short-term business objectives as stipulated in the budget, in particular by each employee of the organisation, irrespective of his level. It thus, provides a definite direction to each employee and also a control mechanism to higher management. 15 Performance budgeting requires preparation of periodic performance reports. Such reports compare budget and actual data, and show variances. Their preparation is greatly facilitated if the authority and responsibility for the incurrence of each cost element is clearly defined within the firm’s organisational structure. In addition, the accounting system should be sufficiently detailed and coordinated to provide necessary data for reports designed for the particular use of the individuals or cost centres having primary responsibility for specific cost. The responsibility for preparing the performance budget of each department lies on the respective Department Head. Each Department Head will be supplied with a copy of the section of the master budget appropriate to his sphere. For example, the chief buyer will be supplied with the copy of the materials purchase budget so that he may arrange for purchase of necessary materials. Periodic reports from various sections of a departme nt will be received by the departmental head that will submit a summary report about his department to the budget committee. The report may be daily, weekly or monthly, depending upon the size of business and the budget period. These reports will be in the form of comparison of budgeted and actual figures, both periodic and cumulative. The purpose of preparing these reports is to promptly inform about the deviations in actual and budgeted activity to the person who has the necessary authority and responsibility to take necessary action to correct the deviations from the budget. 16 FUNCTIONAL BUDGET A functional budget is one which is related to function of the business as for example, production budget relating to the manufacturing function. Functional budgets are prepared for each function and they are subsidiary to the master budget of the business. The various types of functional budgets to be prepared will vary according to the size and nature of the business. The various commonly used functional budgets are: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Sales budget Production budget Plant utilisation budget Direct-material usage budget Direct-material purchase budget Direct-labour (personnel) budget Factory overhead budget Production cost budget Ending-inventory budget Cost-of-goods-sold budget Selling and distribution cost budget Administration expenses budget Research and development cost budget (xiv) Capital expenditure budget Cash budget 17 Illustration: Sales Budget: Sales forecast is the commencement of budgeting and hence sales budget assumes primary importance. The quantity which can be sold may be the principal budget factor in many business undertakings. In any case in order to chalk out a realistic budget programme, there must be an accurate sales forecast. The sales budget indicates for each product: 1. The quantity of estimated sales and 2. The expected unit selling price. These data are often reported by regions or by sales representatives. In estimating the quantity of sales for each product, past sales volumes are often used as a starting point. These amounts are revised for factors that are expected to affect future sales, such as the factors listed below. 1. Backlog of unfilled sales orders 2. Planned advertising and promotion 3. Expected industry and general economic conditions 4. Productive capacity 5. Projected pricing 6. Findings of market research studies 7. Relative product profitability. 8. Competition. 18 Once an estimate of the sales volume is obtained, the expected sales revenue can be determined by multiplying the volume by the expected unit sales price, the sales budget represents the total sales in physical quantities and values for a future budget period. Sales managers are constantly faced with problem like anticipation of customer requirements, new product needs, competitor strategies and various changes in distribution methods or promotional techniques. The purposes of sales budget is not to attempt to estimate or guess what the actual sales will be, but rather to develop a plan with clearly defined objectives towards which the operational effort is directed in order to attain or exceed the objective. Hence, sales budget is not merely a sales forecast. A budget is a planning and control document which shows what the management intends to accomplish. Thus, the sales budget is active rather than passive. A sales forecast, however, is a projection or estimate of the available customer demand. A forecast reflects the environmental or competitive situation facing the company whereas the sales budget shows how the management intends to react to this environmental and competitive situation. A good budget hinges on aggressive management control rather than on passive acceptance of what the market appears to offer. If the company fails to make this distinction, the budget will remain more a figure-work exercise than a working tool of dynamic management cont rol. 19 The sales budget may be prepared under the following classification or combination of classifications: 1. Products or groups of products. 2. Areas, towns, salesmen and agents. 3. Types of customers as for example: (i) Government, (ii) Export, (iii) Home sales, (iv) Retail depots. 4. Period—months, weeks, etc Example of Sales Budget: XYZ Ltd. Sales Budget for the Year Ended 31 March XXXX Particulars Units Selling Price (P.U) Total Sales Value (Rs.) Product A Product B Total 5000 10000 75 80 375000 800000 1175000 20 LEADING TO THE PREPARATION OF THE MASTER BUDGET When all the necessary functional budgets have been prepared, the budget officer will prepare the master budget which may consist of budgeted profit and loss account and budgeted balance sheet. These are in fact the budget summaries. When the master budget is approved by the board of directors, it represents a standard for the achievement of which all the departments will work. On the basis of the various budgets (schedules) prepared earlier in this study, we prepare below budgeted income statement and budgeted balance sheet. Illustration: Floatglass Manufacturing Company requires you to present the Master budget for the 31 March 2012 from the following information: Sales: Toughened Glass Bent Glass Direct Material Cost Direct Wages Factory Overheads: Indirect Labour Works Manager Foreman Rs. 500 per month Rs. 400 per month 2.5% on Sales Rs. 600000 Rs. 200000 60% of Sales 20 workers @ Rs. 150 per month 21 Stores and Spares Depreciation on Machinery Repairs and Maintenance Other Sundries Administration, selling and Distribution Expenses Rs. 12600 Rs. 3000 Rs. 8000 10% on Direct Wages Rs. 36000 per year Solution: Master Budget for the Year Ending 31 March 2012 Particulars Amount (Rs.) Sales: Toughened Glass Bent Glass Total Sales Less: Cost of Production: Direct Material Direct Wages Prime Cost (A) Fixed Factory Overhead: 480000 36000 516000 600000 200000 800000 Amount (Rs.) 22 Works Manager’s Salary Foreman’s Salary Depreciation Light and Power Total Fixed Factory Overhead (B) Variable Factory Overhead: Stores and Spares Repairs and Maintenance Sundry Expenses Total Variable Factory Overhead (C) Works Cost (A+B+C) Gross Profit (Sales- Works Cost) Less: Administration, Selling and Distribution Expenses Net Profit 6000 4800 12600 3000 26400 20000 8000 3600 31600 574000 226000 36000 190000 23 CAPITAL EXPENDITURE BUDGET: The capital expenditure budget represents the planned outlay on fixed assets like land, building, plant and machinery, etc. during the budget period. This budget is subject to strict management control because it entails large amount of expenditure. The budget is prepared to cover a long period of years and it projects the capital costs over the period in which the expenditure is to be incurred and the expected earnings. The preparation of this budget is based on the following considerations: 1. Overhead on production facilities of certain departments as indicated by the plant utilization budget. 2. Future development plans to increase output by expansion of plant facilities. 3. Replacement requests from the concerned departments 4. Factors like sales potential to absorb the increased output, possibility of price reductions, increased costs of advertising and sales promotion to absorb increased output, etc. Merits/Advantages: 1. It outlines the capital development programme and estimated capital expenditure during the budget per iod. 2. It enables the company to establish a system of priorities. When there is a shortage of funds, capital rationing becomes necessary. 3. It serves as a tool for controlling expenditure. 4. It provides the amount of expenditure to be incorporated in the future budget 24 summaries for calculation of estimated return on capital employed. 5. This enables the cash budget to be completed. With other cash commitments capital expenditure commitment should also be considered for the completion of the budget. 6. It facilitates cost reduction programme, particularly when modernization and renovation is covered by this budget. 25 FIXED AND FLEXIBLE BUDGETS Fixed Budget: According to Chartered Institute of Management Accountants of England, â€Å"a fixed budget is a budget designed to remain unchanged irrespective of the level of activity actually attained†. A fixed budget shows the expected results of a responsibility center for only one activity level. Once the budget has been determined, it is not changed, even if the activity changes. Fixed budgeting is used by many service companies and for some administrative functions of manufacturing companies, such as purchasing, engineering, and accounting. Fixed Budget is used as an effective tool of cost control. In case, the level of activity attained is different from the level of activity for budgeting purposes, the fixed budget becomes ineffective. Such a budget is quite suitable for fixed expenses. It is also known as a static budget. Essential conditions: 1. When the nature of business is not seasonal. 2. There is no impact of external factors on the business activities 3. The demand of the product is certain and stable. 4. Supply orders are issued regularly. 5. The market of the product should be domestic rather than foreign. 6. There is no need of special labour or material in the production of the products. 7. Supply of production inputs is regular. 8. There is a trend of price stability. Generally, all above conditions are not found in practice. Hence fixed budget is not important 26 in business concerns. Merits/advantages: 1. Very simple to understand 2. Less time consuming Demerits/Disadvantages: 1. It is misleading. A poor performance may remain undetected and a good performance may go unrealized. 2. It is not suitable for long period. 3. It is also found unsuitable particularly when the business conditions are changing constantly. 4. Accurate estimates are not possible. Flexible Budget According to Chartered Institute of Management Accountants of England,†a flexible budget is defined as a budget which, by recognizing the difference between fixed, semi-variable and variable costs is designed to change in relation to the level of activity attained.† Unlike static (fixed) budgets, flexible budgets show the expected results of a responsibility center for several activity levels. You can think of a flexible budget as a series of static budgets for different levels of activity. Such budgets are especially useful in estimating and controlling factory cos ts and operating expenses. It is more realistic and practicable because it gives due consideration 27 to cost behaviour at different levels of activity. While preparing a flexible budget the expenses are classified into three categories viz. 1. Fixed, 2. Variable, and 3. Semi-variable. Semi-variable expenses are further segregated into fixed and variable expenses. Flexible budgeting may be resorted to under following situations: 1. In the case of new business venture due to its typical nature it may be difficult to forecast the demand of a product accurately. 2. Where the business is dependent upon the mercy of nature e.g., a person dealing in wool trade may have enough market if temperature goes below the freezing point. 3. In the case of labour intensive industry where the production of the concern is dependent upon the availability of labour. Merits/ Advantages: 1. With the help of flexible budget, the sales, costs and profit may be calculated easily by the business at various levels of production capacity. 2. In flexible budget, adjustment is very simple according to change in business conditions. 3. It also helps in determination of production level as it shows budgeted costs with classification at various levels of activity along with sales. Hence the management can easily select the level of production which shows the profit predetermined by the owners of the bu siness. 4. It also shows the quantity of product to be produced to earn determined profit. 28 Demerits/Disadvantages: 1. The formulation of flexible budget is possible only when there is proper accounting system maintained, perfect knowledge about the factors of production and various business circumstances is available. 2. Flexible Budget also requires the system of standard costing in business. 3. It is very expensive and labour oriented. Need for flexible budget: 1. Seasonal fluctuations in sales and/or production, for example in soft drinks industry; 2. A company which keeps on introducing new products or makes changes in the design of its products frequently; 3. Industries engaged in make-to-order business like ship building; 4. An industry which is influenced by changes in fashion; and 5. General changes in sales. 29 Illustration: A factory which expects to operate 7,000 hours, i.e., at 70% level of activity, furnishes details of expenses as under: Particulars Variable Expenses Amount (Rs.) 1260 Semi- Variable Expenses 1200 Fixed Expenses 1800 The semi-variable expenses go up by 10% between 85% and 95% activity and by 20% above 95% activity. Construct a flexible budget for 80, 90 and 100 per cent activities. Solution: Particulars Budgeted Hours Variable Expenses Semi-Variable Expenses Fixed Expenses Total Expenses Recovery Rate Per Hour 70% 7000 1260 1200 1800 4260 0.61 80% 8000 1440 1200 1800 4440 0.55 90% 9000 1620 1320 1800 4740 0.53 100% 10000 1800 1440 1800 5040 0.50 30 Difference between Fixed and Flexible Budget: Fixed Budget Flexible Budget It does not change with actual volume of It can be recasted on the basis of activity activity achieved. Thus it is known as rigid level to be achieved. Thus it is not rigid. or inflexible budget. It operates on one level of activity and under It consists of various budgets for one set of conditions. It assumes that there different levels of activity. will be no change in the prevailing conditions, which is unrealistic. Here as all costs like – fixed, variable and Here analysis of variance provides useful semi-variable are related to only one level information as each cost is analyzed of activity so variance analysis does give useful information. If the budgeted and actual activity levels differ Flexible budgeting at different levels of significantly, then the aspects like cost activity facilitates the ascertainment of ascertainment and price fixation do not give a cost, fixation of selling price and tendering correct picture. of quotations. a meaningful basis of not according to its behaviour. Comparison of actual performance with It provides budgeted targets will be meaningless comparison of the actual performance with specially when there is a difference the budgeted targets. between the two activity levels. 31 BIBLIOGRAPHY 1 ICAI Module on Cost Accounting 2 Newsletters and opinions published by ICAI 3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget 4 www.icai.org

Mussloini essays

Mussloini essays Benito Mussolini was born on July 29th 1883 in northeast Italy, he was named after Benito Juarez, a famous Mexican patriot and hero. His Father was a Blacksmith and his mother was a schoolteacher. Mussolini had one younger brother and one younger sister. The Mussolinis were a very poor family. When Mussolini was old enough, he helped his father out in his workshop, working together gave the two time to talk. Mussolinis Father was a socialist and a republican. He believed in communism and was thrown in jail for his thoughts. He didnt like the system that his son would have to follow the king. Many Italians had the same views as Mussolinis father. Mussolini grew up in an environment when everyone talked about socialism, republicanism and nationalism. He believed that the Roman Catholic Church was an enemy of Italy. Mussolini was a clever child at school, and he learned very quickly. He had a huge dislike for richer students and was nearly expelled for stabbing one with a knife. Mussolini was a bad tempered man, and very intelligent. He became a primary school teacher in 1902, and after sitting an exam in French he was qualified to teach in secondary schools. Every teaching job he did he ran into trouble with the pupils parents because of the bad example he set the children as a gambler, a heavy drinker and a womaniser. Mussolini spent two years of his life working in Switzerland, in many types of jobs, he got into trouble because of his beliefs, and was kicked out of Switzerland, a police man over there described him as a impulsive and violent young man. Mussolini had many visions for Italy, one of his goals was to create an Italian Empire in North Africa. In 1912 they managed to take over Libya and in 1935 they took over Ethiopia. Mussolini invented the political belief called fascism. He said, Fascism would end political corruption and labour s ...

Best Summary and Analysis The Great Gatsby, Chapter 8

Best Summary and Analysis The Great Gatsby, Chapter 8 SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips In Great GatsbyChapter 8, things go from very bad to much, much worse. There’s an elegiac tone to half of the story in Chapter 8, as Nick tells us about Gatsby giving up on his dreams of Daisy and reminiscing about his time with her five years before. The other half of the chapter is all police thriller, as we hear Michaelis describe Wilson coming unglued and deciding to take bloody revenge for Myrtle’s death. Get ready for bittersweetness and gory shock, in thisThe Great GatsbyChapter 8 summary. Quick Note on Our Citations Our citation format in this guide is (chapter.paragraph). We're using this system since there are many editions of Gatsby, so using page numbers would only work for students with our copy of the book. To find a quotation we cite via chapter and paragraph in your book, you can either eyeball it (Paragraph 1-50: beginning of chapter; 50-100: middle of chapter; 100-on: end of chapter), or use the search function if you're using an online or eReader version of the text. The Great Gatsby: Chapter 8 Summary That night Nick has trouble sleeping. He feels like he needs to warn Gatsby about something. When he meets up with Gatsby at dawn, Gatsby tells Nick nothing happened outside Daisy’s house all night.Gatsby’s house feels strangely enormous. It’s also poorly kept - dusty, unaired, and unusually dark. Nick advises Gatsby to lay low somewhere else so that his car isn’t found and linked to the accident. But Gatsby is unwilling to leave his lingering hopes for Daisy.Instead, Gatsby tells Nick about his background - the information Nick told us in Chapter 6. Gatsby's narrative begins with the description of Daisy as the first wealthy, upper-class girl Gatsby had ever met. He loved her huge beautiful house and the fact that many men had loved her before him. All of this made him see her as a prize. He knew that since he was poor, he shouldn’t really have been wooing her, but he slept with her anyway, under the false pretenses that he and she were in the same social class. Gatsby realized that he was in love with Daisy and was surprised to see that Daisy fell in love with him too.They were together for a month before Gatsby had to leave for the war in Europe. He was successful in the army, becoming a major. After the war he ended up at Oxford, unable to return to Daisy. Meanwhile, Daisy re-entered the normal rhythm of life: lavish living, snobbery, lots of dates, and all-night parties. Gatsby sensed from her letters that she was annoyed at having to wait for him, and instead wanted to finalize what her life would be like. The person who finalized her life in a practical way that made sense was Tom. Gatsby interrupts his narrative to again say that there’s no way that Daisy ever loved Tom - well, maybe for a second right after the wedding, tops, but that’s it. Then he goes back to his story, which concludes after Daisy's wedding to Tom.When Gatsbycame back from Oxford, Daisy and Tom were still on their honeymoon. Gatsby felt like the best thing in his life had disappeared forever. After breakfast, Gatsby’s gardener suggests draining the pool, but Gatsby wants to keep it filled since he hasn’t yet used it. Gatsby still hopes that Daisy will call him. Nick thanks Gatsby for the hospitality, pays him the backhanded compliment of saying that he is better than the â€Å"rotten crowd† of upper-class people (backhanded because it's setting the bar pretty low to be better than "rotten" people), and leaves to go to work. At work, Nick gets a phone call from Jordan, who is upset that Nick didn’t pay sufficient attention to her the night before. Nick is floored by this selfishness - after all, someone died, so how could Jordan be so self-involved!They hang up on each other, clearly broken up. Nick tries to call Gatsby, but is told by the operator that the line is being kept free for a phone call from Detroit (which might actually be Gatsby's way of clearing the line in case Daisy calls? It's unclear).On the way back from the city, Nick purposefully sits on the side of the train car that won’t face Wilson’s garage. Nick now tells us what happened at the garage after he, Tom, and Jordan drove away the day before. Since he wasn't there, he's most likely recapping Michaelis's inquest statement. They found Myrtle’s sister too drunk to understand what had happened to Myrtle. Then she fainted and had to be taken away. Michaelis sat with Wilson until dawn, listening to Wilson talk about the yellow car that had run Myrtle over, and how to find it. Michaelis suggested that Wilson talk to a priest, but Wilson showed Michaelis an expensive dog leash that he found. To him, this was incontrovertible proof of her affair and the fact that her lover killed Myrtle on purpose. Wilson said that Myrtle was trying to run out to talk to the man in the car, while Michaelis believed that she had been trying to flee the house where Wilson had locked her up. Wilson had told Myrtle that God could see everything she was doing. The God he’s talking about? The eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburgon the billboard near the garage. Wilson seemed calm, so Michaelis went home to sleep. By the time he came back to the garage, Wilson was gone. Wilson walked all the way to West Egg, asking about the yellow car. That afternoon, Gatsby gets in his pool for the first time that summer. He is still waiting for a call from Daisy. Nick tries to imagine what it must have been like to be Gatsby and know that your dream was lost. Gatsby’s chauffeur hears gunshots just as Nick pulls up to the house. In the pool, they see Gatsby’s dead body, and a little way off in the grass, they see Wilson’s body. Wilson has shot Gatsby and then himself. So the moral of the story is, if you have a nice pool, try to use it more often. Key Chapter 8 Quotes She was the first "nice" girl he had ever known. In various unrevealed capacities he had come in contact with such people but always with indiscernible barbed wire between. He found her excitingly desirable. He went to her house, at first with other officers from Camp Taylor, then alone. It amazed himhe had never been in such a beautiful house before. But what gave it an air of breathless intensity was that Daisy lived thereit was as casual a thing to her as his tent out at camp was to him. There was a ripe mystery about it, a hint of bedrooms upstairs more beautiful and cool than other bedrooms, of gay and radiant activities taking place through its corridors and of romances that were not musty and laid away already in lavender but fresh and breathing and redolent of this year's shining motor cars and of dances whose flowers were scarcely withered. It excited him too that many men had already loved Daisyit increased her value in his eyes. He felt their presence all about the house, pervading the air with the shades and echoes of still vibrant emotions. (8.10) The reason the word â€Å"nice† is in quotation marks is that Gatsby does not mean that Daisy is the first pleasant or amiable girl that he has met. Instead, the word â€Å"nice† here means refined, having elegant and elevated taste, picky and fastidious. In other words, from the very beginning what Gatsby most values about Daisy is that she belongs to that set of society that he is desperately trying to get into: the wealthy, upper echelon. Just like when he noted the Daisy’s voice has money in it, here Gatsby almost cannot separate Daisy herself from the beautiful house that he falls in love with. Notice also how much he values quantity of any kind – it’s wonderful that the house has many bedrooms and corridors, and it’s also wonderful that many men want Daisy. Either way, it’s the quantity itself that â€Å"increases value.† It’s almost like Gatsby’s love is operating in a market economy– the more demand there is for a particular good, the higher the worth of that good. Of course, thinking in this way makes it easy to understand why Gatsby is able to discard Daisy’s humanity and inner life when he idealizes her. For Daisy was young and her artificial world was redolent of orchids and pleasant, cheerful snobbery and orchestras which set the rhythm of the year, summing up the sadness and suggestiveness of life in new tunes. All night the saxophones wailed the hopeless comment of the "Beale Street Blues" while a hundred pairs of golden and silver slippers shuffled the shining dust. At the grey tea hour there were always rooms that throbbed incessantly with this low sweet fever, while fresh faces drifted here and therelike rose petals blown by the sad horns around the floor. Through this twilight universe Daisy began to move again with the season; suddenly she was again keeping half a dozen dates a day with half a dozen men and drowsing asleep at dawn with the beads and chiffon of an evening dress tangled among dying orchids on the floor beside her bed. And all the time something within her was crying for a decision. She wanted her life shaped now, immediately-and the decision must be made by some force-of love, of money, of unquestionable practicality-that was close at hand. (8.18-19) This description of Daisy’s life apart from Gatsby clarifies why she picks Tom in the end and goes back to her hopeless ennui and passive boredom: this is what she has grown up doing and is used to. Daisy’s life seems fancy. After all, there are orchids and orchestras and golden shoes. But already, even for the young people of high society, death and decay loom large. In this passage for example, not only is the orchestra’s rhythm full of sadness, but the orchids are dying, and the people themselves look like flowers past their prime. In the midst of this stagnation, Daisy longs for stability, financial security, and routine. Tom offered that then, and he continues to offer it now. "Of course she might have loved him, just for a minute, when they were first marriedand loved me more even then, do you see?" Suddenly he came out with a curious remark: "In any case," he said, "it was just personal." What could you make of that, except to suspect some intensity in his conception of the affair that couldn't be measured? (8.24-27) Even though he can now no longer be an absolutist about Daisy’s love, Gatsby is still trying to think about her feelings on his own terms. After admitting that the fact that many men loved Daisy before him is a positive, Gatsby is willing to admit that maybe Daisy had feelings for Tomafter all, just as long as her love for Gatsby was supreme. Gatsby is ambiguous admission that â€Å"it was just personal† carries several potential meanings: Nick assumes that the word â€Å"it† refers to Gatsby’s love, which Gatsby is describing as â€Å"personal† as a way of emphasizing how deep and inexplicable his feelings for Daisy are. But of course, the word â€Å"it† could just as easily be referring to Daisy’s decision to marry Tom. In this case, what is â€Å"personal† are Daisy’s reasons (the desire for status and money), which are hers alone, and have no bearing on the love that she and Gatsby feel for each other. He stretched out his hand desperately as if to snatch only a wisp of air, to save a fragment of the spot that she had made lovely for him. But it was all going by too fast now for his blurred eyes and he knew that he had lost that part of it, the freshest and the best, forever. (8.30) Once again Gatsby is trying to reach something that is just out of grasp, a gestural motif that recurs frequently in this novel. Here already, even as a young man, he is trying to grab hold of an ephemeral memory. "They're a rotten crowd," I shouted across the lawn. "You're worth the whole damn bunch put together." I've always been glad I said that. It was the only compliment I ever gave him, because I disapproved of him from beginning to end. First he nodded politely, and then his face broke into that radiant and understanding smile, as if we'd been in ecstatic cahoots on that fact all the time. His gorgeous pink rag of a suit made a bright spot of color against the white steps and I thought of the night when I first came to his ancestral home three months before. The lawn and drive had been crowded with the faces of those who guessed at his corruptionand he had stood on those steps, concealing his incorruptible dream, as he waved them goodbye. (8.45-46) It’s interesting that here Nick suddenly tells us that he disapproves of Gatsby. One way to interpret this is that during that fateful summer, Nickdid indeed disapprove of what he saw, but has since come to admire and respect Gatsby, and it is that respect and admiration that come through in the way he tells the story most of the time. It’s also telling that Nick sees the comment he makes to Gatsby as a compliment. At best, it is a backhanded one – he is saying that Gatsby is better than a rotten crowd, but that is a bar set very low (if you think about it, it’s like saying â€Å"you’re so much smarter than that chipmunk!† and calling that high praise). Nick’s description of Gatsby’s outfit as both â€Å"gorgeous† and a â€Å"rag† underscores this sense of condescension. The reason Nick thinks that he is praising Gatsby by saying this is that suddenly, in this moment, Nick is able to look past his deeply and sincerely held snobbery, and to admit that Jordan, Tom, and Daisy are all horrible people despite being upper crust. Still, backhanded as it is, this compliment also meant to genuinely make Gatsby feel a bit better. Since Gatsby cares so, so much about entering the old money world, it makes Nick glad to be able to tell Gatsby that he is so much better than the crowd he's desperate to join. Usually her voice came over the wire as something fresh and cool as if a divot from a green golf links had come sailing in at the office window but this morning it seemed harsh and dry. "I've left Daisy's house," she said. "I'm at Hempstead and I'm going down to Southampton this afternoon." Probably it had been tactful to leave Daisy's house, but the act annoyed me and her next remark made me rigid. "You weren't so nice to me last night." "How could it have mattered then?" (8.49-53) Jordan’s pragmatic opportunism, which has so far been a positive foil to Daisy’s listless inactivity, is suddenly revealed to be an amoral and self-involved way of going through life. Instead of being affected one way or another by Myrtle’s horrible death, Jordan’s takeaway from the previous day is that Nick simply wasn’t as attentive to her as she would like. Nick is staggered by the revelation that the cool aloofness that he liked so much throughout the summer - possibly because it was a nice contrast to the girl back home that Nick thought was overly attached to their non-engagement - is not actually an act. Jordan really doesn’t care about other people, and she really can just shrug off seeing Myrtle’s mutilated corpse and focus on whether Nick was treating her right. Nick, who has been trying to assimilate this kind of thinking all summer long, finds himself shocked back into his Middle West morality here. "I spoke to her," he muttered, after a long silence. "I told her she might fool me but she couldn't fool God. I took her to the window" With an effort he got up and walked to the rear window and leaned with his face pressed against it, "and I said 'God knows what you've been doing, everything you've been doing. You may fool me but you can't fool God!' " Standing behind him Michaelis saw with a shock that he was looking at the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg which had just emerged pale and enormous from the dissolving night. "God sees everything," repeated Wilson. "That's an advertisement," Michaelis assured him. Something made him turn away from the window and look back into the room. But Wilson stood there a long time, his face close to the window pane, nodding into the twilight. (8.102-105) Clearly Wilson has been psychologically shaken first by Myrtle’s affair and then by her death - he is seeing the giant eyes of the optometrist billboardas a stand-in for God. But this delusion underlines the absence of any higher power in the novel. In the lawless, materialistic East, there is no moral center which could rein in people’s darker, immoral impulses. The motif of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg’s eyes runs through the novel, as Nick notes them watching whatever goes on in the ashheaps. Here, that motif comes to a crescendo. Arguably, when Michaelis dispels Wilson’s delusion about the eyes, he takes away the final barrier to Wilson’s unhinged revenge plot. If there is no moral authority watching, anything goes. No telephone message arrived but the butler went without his sleep and waited for it until four o'clockuntil long after there was any one to give it to if it came. I have an idea that Gatsby himself didn't believe it would come and perhaps he no longer cared. If that was true he must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream. He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass. A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about . . . like that ashen, fantastic figure gliding toward him through the amorphous trees. (8.0) Nick tries to imagine what it might be like to be Gatsby, but a Gatsby without the activating dream that has spurred him throughout his life. For Nick, this would be the loss of the aesthetic sense - an inability to perceive beauty in roses or sunlight. Theideaof fall as a new, but horrifying, world of ghosts and unreal material contrasts nicely with Jordan’s earlier idea that fall brings with it rebirth. For Jordan, fall is a time of reinvention and possibility - but for Gatsby, it is literally the season of death. The Great GatsbyChapter 8 Analysis Now let's comb through this chapter to tease apart the themes that connect it to the rest of the novel. Themes and Symbols Unreliable Narrator. However much Nick has been backgrounding himself as a narrative force in the novel, in this chapter, we suddenly start to feel the heavy hand of his narration. Rather than the completely objective, nonjudgmental reporter that he has set out to be, Nick begins to edit and editorialize. First, he introduces a sense of foreboding, foreshadowing Gatsby’s death with bad dreams and ominous dread. Then, he talks about his decision to reveal Gatsby’s background not in the chronological order when he learned it, but before we heard about the argument in the hotel room. The novel is a long eulogy for a man Nick found himself admiring despite many reasons not to, so this choice to contextualize and mitigate Tom’s revelations by giving Gatsby the chance to provide context makes perfect sense. However, it calls into question Nick’s version of events, and his interpretation of the motivations of the people around him. He is a fundamentally unreliable narrator. Symbols: The Eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg. The absence of a church or religious figure in Wilson’s life, and his delusion that the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg are a higher power, underscores how little moral clarity or prescription there is in the novel’s world. Characters are driven by emotional or material greed, by selfishness, and by a complete lack of concern about others. The people who thrive - from Wolfshiem to Jordan - do so because they are moral relativists. The people who fail - like Nick, or Gatsby, or Wilson - fail because they can’t put aside an absolutist ideal that drives their actions. The American Dream. Remember discussing variously described ambition in Chapter 6, when we saw a bunch of people on the make in different ways? In this chapter, that sense of forward momentum recurs, but in a twisted and darkly satiric way through the Terminator-like drive of Wilson to find the yellow car and its driver. He walks from Queens to West Egg for something like sixor sevenhours, finding evidence that can’t be reproduced, and using a route that can’t be retraced afterward. Unlike Gatsby, forever trying to grasp the thing out he knows well but can’t reach, Wilson homes in on a person he doesn’t know but unerringly reaches. Society and Class. By the end of this chapter, the rich and the poor are definitely separated - forever, by death. Every main character who isn’t from the upper class - Myrtle, Gatsby, and Wilson - is violently killed. On the other hand, those from the social elite - Jordan, Daisy, and Tom - can continue their lives totally unchanged. Jordan brushes these deaths off completely. Tom gets to hang on to his functionally dysfunctional marriage.AndDaisy literally gets away with murder (or at least manslaughter). Only Nick seems to be genuinely affected by what he has witnessed. He survives, but his retreat to his Midwest home marks a kind of death - the death of his romantic idea of achievement and success. Death and Failure. Rot, decay, and death are everywhere in this chapter: Gatsby’s house is in a state of almost supernatural disarray, with â€Å"inexplicable amount of dust everywhere† (8.4) after he fires his servants. Amidst the parties and gaiety of Daisy’s youth, her â€Å"dress tangled among dying orchids on the floor† (8.19). Nick’s phrase for the corruption and selfishness of the upper-class people he’s gotten to know is â€Å"rotten crowd† (8.45), people who are decomposing into garbage. Gatsby floats in a pool, trying to hang on to summer, but actually on the eve of fall, as nature around him turns â€Å"frightening,† â€Å"unfamiliar,† â€Å"grotesque,† and â€Å"raw† (8.0). This imagery culminates in figurative and literal cremation, as Wilson is described as â€Å"ashen† (8.0) and his murder-suicide as a â€Å"holocaust† (8.3). By the way, remember that when Fitzgerald uses the word â€Å"holocaust,† he isn’t talking about what happened in Nazi Germany - he is writing about 20 years before WWII. Instead, the word â€Å"holocaust† here means a sacrificial offering that is burned on an altar - unrooted to any specific religion, Wilson’s actions evoke an atavistic, pagan ritual sacrifice. Something is very rotten in the state of Denmark†¦ uh, Long Island. That rotten thing? The rich. Crucial Character Beats Nickhas a premonition that he wants to warn Gatsby about. Gatsby still holds out hope for Daisy and refuses to get out of town as Nick advises. Nick and Jordan break up - he is grossed out by her self-involvement and total lack of concern about the fact that Myrtle died the day before. Wilson goes somewhat crazy after Myrtle’s death, and slowly becomes convinced that the driver of the yellow car that killed her was also her lover, and that he killed her on purpose. He sets out to hunt the owner of the yellow car down. Wilson shoots Gatsby while Gatsby is waiting for Daisy’s phone call in his pool. Then Wilson shoots himself. What’s Next? Think about the novel’s connection to the motif of the seasonsby comparing the ways summer, fall, and winter are described and experienced by different characters. Get a handle on Gatsby’s revelations about his past by seeing all the events put into chronological order. Move on to the summary of Chapter 9, or revisit the summary of Chapter 7. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

The impact of economic globalization in the world Dissertation

The impact of economic globalization in the world - Dissertation Example The participation in the global market of countries is made possible by the reality of globalisation. Globalisation pertains to the removal of economic barriers existing among nations. By removing trade tariffs and other forms of taxes in international trade, freer movements of goods, services, and people have happened, thus establishing a more connected global society and interdependent global market. However, as economic growth and development are observed in countries who have integrated in the global market, it has also been observed that the widening gap between the rich and poor continues and this inequality permeates other interactions and relationships in society. With this perspective, it becomes essential that addressing the issue of the impact of economic globalisation is further clarified. Considering the current debate regarding the issue of economic globalisation, this research will address the question â€Å"what is the impact of economic globalisation?† This qu estion gives rise to two hypotheses. H0 Economic globalisation has a negative impact to countries. H1 Economic globalisation has a positive impact to the country. In order to address the issue of the research, a documentary research analysis was conducted. For the analysis of the collected data, comparative analysis, Pearson correlation, and thematic search were conducted. Some of the findings of the study include; (1) There is a need to redefine and reshape the boundaries of economic globalisation. (2) The impact of economic globalisation can only be ascertained for countries occupying the extreme positions in the spectrum of global integration. (3) Other variables have to be identified in order... However, as economic growth and development are observed in countries who have integrated in the global market, it has also been observed that the widening gap between the rich and poor continues and this inequality permeates other interactions and relationships in society. With this perspective, it becomes essential that addressing the issue of the impact of economic globalisation is further clarified. Considering the current debate regarding the issue of economic globalisation, this research will address the question â€Å"what is the impact of economic globalisation?† This question gives rise to two hypotheses. H0 Economic globalisation has a negative impact to countries. H1 Economic globalisation has a positive impact to the country. In order to address the issue of the research, a documentary research analysis was conducted. For the analysis of the collected data, comparative analysis, Pearson correlation, and thematic search were conducted. Some of the findings of the study include; (1) There is a need to redefine and reshape the boundaries of economic globalisation. (2) The impact of economic globalisation can only be ascertained for countries occupying the extreme positions in the spectrum of global integration. (3) Other variables have to be identified in order to guarantee the impact of economic globalisation to countries that are clustering or distributed at the centre of the spectrum of the impact of economic globalisation.

Outdoor Adventure Activities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Outdoor Adventure Activities - Essay Example (Leeuwen, 1996, P. 65) Caving is the act of visiting caves. Cave can be described as natural physical environment in which the rocks are arranged in a way that they appear like houses. Caves have been known as the home of traditional men when they were not civilized enough to construct houses. Caves have become one of the most attractive outdoor activities not only for leisure but also as a way of learning geography of a place and also the history of the people. They are important sites for archaeologist as they try to dig deep into the history of the people. Caves are important place to learn civilization as people go to explore the arts of painting on these caves which tell moir about the civilization of these people. However those who go for caving do so for leisure activity in the sense that they want to have an experience of those gone days. They want to feel link those old people felt when they stayed in the caves. Other just wants to have a relaxing atmosphere where they can relax in quietness with out disturbance in the unusual environment. On the other hand canoeing is a water based activity which involves travelling on the water in a canoe. This activity may be carried out for leisure or for the purpose of travelling. If used for leisure individuals will be c engaging in the activity for fun or for exploring water geography. (Rivkin, 1995, P. 21) Both of the above mentioned activities will have several environmental impacts. This arise form the fact that both outdoor activities involve a form of interaction with the environment. Let us look at each of the issue. Environmental effect of caving During caving there are various instances at which individuals are likely to interfere with the set up of the environment. First many of the caves are located secluded areas which are not always visited by people as a result as people go to these caves they interfere with the natural environmental set up. Fore example if the cave is located in deep forest as is the case with many caves individual are likely to interfere with the set up of natural environment. This may involve clearing of the forest in order to pave way for their entrant into these caves. Therefore tone of the environmental effect that caving may have is that it may lead to clearance of the environment in order to pave way for entrance into these caves. Caves also hold their own economical habitats. Apart from home of flying mammal like bats, they are also home to a variety of insects and other small rodents. Therefore as individuals go caving, there are likely to interfere with the natural life of these animals. This may have an effect of making the animal relocate to other areas which leads to loss to their natural ecology and therefore disruption of the food chain. For those who go caving they are likely to carry foods and other items. If there is no proper disposal of the wastes, it may lead to pollution of the environment. In many cases, some of these wastes may be poisonous to the animals and as they consume tem they may dies. Therefore one of the most serious problems that may be associated with caving is pollution of the environment. There should be a proper waste disposal mechanism should ensure that poisonous materials like