Reading and Thought by Dwight MacDonald Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Reading and Thought by Dwight MacDonald - Essay Example He has made a stark contrast between the people in the sixteenth century with the modern day person and highlighted the negative impacts of the habits of a fast paced life. He has used Henry Luce’s journalistic empire as an example to coherently put his point forward to the reader through the examples aforementioned in this paragraph. However, I disagree with Macdonald. Macdonald in his criticism does not look upon the technological advancements and the research and development going on in this world. Modern day technology has made accessibility to information so much easier with the development of tablets, smartphones and laptops. Macdonald considers the internet as a collection of the world untouched literary work. What Macdonald fails to understand is that while the people in the sixteenth century had more time to dwell on the literature they lacked the quantity of literature. There wasn’t information about everything available as in today’s world rather a lot of time was spent on finding relative literature. In comparison, finding topic specific information is extremely efficient and can be accessed immediately. Macdonald starts of his article by underlining how Henry Luce had come to cash on the human natural weakness of being ‘well informed’ and made a journalistic empire for himself. Henry Luce the owner of the ‘Time’magazine coined the term ‘functional curiosity’ and he believes that it is because of this his magazine’s circulation has risen to more than two million people since its inception in 1925. The word ‘functional curiosity can be defined as one of the basic human thirst for obtaining knowledge by searching and looking, it is the kind of hungry and intense thirst for knowledge about what is happening everywhere which is not related for amusement purposes but has a solid belief that everything happening

Student Absenteeism Results to Dropping Out of School Essay Example for Free

Student Absenteeism Results to Dropping Out of School Essay

Analysis Of The Air India Airline Tourism Essay

Analysis Of The Air India Airline Tourism Essay It was founded by  J. R. D. Tata  in July 1932 as  Tata Airlines, a division of Tata Sons Ltd. On 15 October 1932, J. R. D. Tata flew a single-engine  De Havilland Puss Moth  carrying air mail (postal mail of  Imperial Airways) from  Karachis Drigh Road Aerodrome to  Bombays  Juhu Airstrip  via  Ahmedabad. Air India serves 11 domestic destinations and 18 international destinations in 11 countries across  Asia,  Europe  and  North America. Air India has two subsidiaries and two affiliated carries. Together Air India,  Air India Cargo,  Air India Express,  Indian  and  Air India Regional  form the  National Aviation Company of India Limited. Air India Cargo It was started in 1954. The airline operates cargo flights to many destinations. The airline also has on ground truck-transportation arrangements on select destinations. As a part of the IATA carriers Air India carries all types of cargo including dangerous goods and live animals. Air India Express Air India Express  is the low-cost  subsidiary of the airline which was established in 2005 during the aviation boom in India. It operates primarily to the  Persian Gulf  and  South East Asia through scheduled passenger services   Indian Indian  which is based in  Delhi  focuses primarily on domestic routes, along with several international services to neighbouring countries in Asia. Air India Regional Air India Regional or better known as Alliance Air serves mainly on Regional routes. Its main hub is  Delhis  Indira Gandhi International Airport. Tangible Assets Fleet and Material Resources Air India is gradually expanding its fleet. In the recent times seventeen new aircraft eight B777-200LRs and nine B777-300ERs have so far joined the fleet and apart from this 15 Airbus A-321s and 16 A-319s have also joined for Indian operations.  Air India now operates 28 weekly services on the international network to three destinations in the  Ã‚  USA New York, Newark and Chicago including a daily NonStop flight between Mumbai-New York and Delhi-New York following the induction of brand new Boeing 777-200LR in its fleet. With a fleet of 136 aircraft, Air India has been gradually expanding its network to cover new destinations in India and abroad. Given below are the details of the Air India Fleet: Network Air India currently operates international flights from Mumbai and 16 other Indian cities, viz. Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Jaipur, Varanasi, Tiruchirapalli, Gaya and Thiruvananthapuram. Commencement of international operations from these cities has obviated the need for passengers from these regions to necessarily travel to Mumbai and Delhi, the traditional gateways, for taking international flights. Passengers boarding or deplaning in these cities can now complete their immigration and custom formalities at their city airport, both at the time of departure and arrival.   Additionally, Air India has code-sharing arrangements with other international carriers. International Hub: After taking the path of consolidation during the past one year, the airline has taken a major initiative towards strengthening its global network and has restructured its operations to Europe and USA by making Frankfurt its operational hub for West-bound flights.   Indian Hub: The Indian Hub resides at Delhi Mumbai Airports which houses facilities for connections to all major Indian cities. On the domestic front AI operates to 64 stations out of which 17 are connected to our international destinations. The 172-seater Airbus A321 aircraft connects all major metros, including all flights on the Delhi-Mumbai sector. Spacious cabin, comfortable seats and the luxury of in-flight entertainment make this a superior product that travellers look forward to. Star Alliance There has been a quantum jump in product profile resulting from induction of new aircraft and consequent expansion of network, Air India will be all set to join the Star Alliance by March, 2011. Once Air India becomes a member, passengers will enjoy enormous benefits, including seamless transfers while travelling across the world, more frequent flyer mileage points, code-sharing leading to a wider choice of flights and access to lounge facilities worldwide. Star Alliance, is a leading global airline alliance of 21 top international carriers. The Star Alliance network offers more than 17,000 daily flights to 916 destinations. Human Resources Air India has more Human Resources than it needs which is evident in the numbers employed. In 2009, 17% of the airlines expenditure went towards salaries which is enormous comparing it with private carriers for whom it was 9.5%. The merger didnt involve any retrenchment. Nor do any of the current recovery measures being discussed hold any ideas of reducing employee strength by huge numbers. Air India has 31,000 employees and 14 recognized worker unions apart from which there are several unrecognized ones. While the unions say they are open to being supportive for the development of a better future for the airline, they do not support privatization of the airline or retrenchment Apart from retrenchment, employees are also worried about the new structure adopted by the airline which they believe will work against their interests. This structure is the so-called SBU structure, one where a large organization is broken up into smaller units, each of which is run like an independent company in principle. In Air Indias case, the problem as discussed by some senior editors officials is that the strategic business unit structure isnt perfect. Under this structure, a Delhi airport manager reports to his strategic business unit head, while his performance will actually be reviewed by the executive director of the northern region. Adding to this the decision on rewarding this airport manager with a foreign posting is in the hands of the commercial director, who is based in Mumbai. The officials recommend is that this entire structure be done away with and a more equitable and just system is brought into place which assures long term sustainability of the organization. IT Technology Resources The IT integration between the erstwhile Air India and Indian Airlines is complete and new technology processes are put in place which are to assure high quality services to the customers. NACIL, the holding company of Air India, has entrusted SITA (Society International Telecommunications Aeronautics) with the task to implement an efficient online booking engine, departure control system, check-in and automated boarding control, baggage reconciliation system (BRS) and a frequent flyer programme. The deal which is a contract worth $190 million (Rs 845 crore) for a period of 10 years will also enable Air India to use SITAs Horizon Passenger Services System. According to SITA, the systems implemented will make Air India step into the league of unmatched technological supremacy on the technological front primarily this includes an integrated IT platform will enable Air India to streamline its ticket distribution system and save on high distribution cost. SITAs Horizon platform provides hosted PSS services to 140 airlines boarding 120 million passengers and will be used to deliver a single airline code which is extremely critcial in order to allow the seamless integration of the former domestic carrier Indian Airlines with Air India for the first time since they merged in August 2007. Another early deliverable will be enabling Air India to meet the requirements for joining the Star Alliance. SITA association with Air India with mission-critical services has been for more than 50 years, including network connectivity at all their domestic and international stations, check-in, air-to-ground communications, fares management and baggage tracing. Air India is now invited to join SITAs Horizon Advisory Board which sets the strategic direction for SITA as it engages with Oracle and other partners to deliver a next generation Passenger Services System which will greatly benefit Air India as it exploits new technology and open systems architecture. SITAs workforce in India along with its local partners NIIT and Mindtree now stands at almost 1,000 highly skilled personnel. Low Cost Resources: Livery Air India and  Indian  unveiled their new livery in May 2007. The logo of the new entity is a Flying Swan with the Konark Chakra placed inside it. The Flying Swan has been morphed from Air Indias old characteristic logo, The Centaur whereas the new Konark Chakra is reminiscent of Indians logo. While the aircraft is a new ivory in colour, the base retains the red streak of Air India. Running parallel to each other is the characteristically evident Orange and Red speed lines from front door to the rear door, subtly signifying the individual identities merged into one. The brand name Air India runs across the tail of the aircraft in  hindi signifying the importance of the National language. The Maharaja This Maharja which is now familiar figure first made his appearance in Air India way back in 1946. Bobby Kooka as Air Indias Commercial Director and Umesh Rao, an artist with J.Walter Thompson Ltd., Mumbai, together created the Maharajah. It began as an attempt as a design for an inflight memo pad grew to take Air Indias sales and promotional messages to millions of travellers across the world. Today, this iconic Maharajah of Air India has become a world figure. The logo has completed 56 years and become the most recognizable mascot the world over. The various ads depicting his antics, expressions, puns have allowed Air India to promote its services with a unique panache and an unmatched sense of subtle humour. In fact the Maharaja has won numerous national and international awards for Air India for humour, sense and originality in publicity. Dining Air India is constantly trying to create a gourmet experience in its dining. The airline offers a choice of menus to interest all types of tastes Indian and Continental. Apart from these, there is western cuisine, a choice of Asian specialities, and even Japanese meals on the India-Japan route. If any passenger has a special food requirement, there is a choice to choose from any of the twenty three special meals. The menus are constantly revamped and the wines carried on board live up to the food they complement. Meals are served in First Class seating to passengers in bone china crockery. Alcoholic beverages are served complimentary.   In-flight Entertainment Air India aircraft are the envy of any radio station with a rich collection of music on board in different genres. Passengers can choose from Indian popular music, Indian Classical, beautiful Ghazals, Bollywood hits and English songs from Western Classical, Pop, Jazz, Country and Nostalgia. A special channel for Regional songs with different routes and demographics has been compiled to suit all passengers coming from different regions. Air Indias video programmes include a choice of the most recent English and Hindi feature films. The finest in comedy, nature wildlife, adventure, action and life style are wrapped in a One-hour video magazine. There are special movies in Tamil, Malayalam, etc selected for passengers travelling from Kochi, Kozhikode and Chennai to the Gulf and Singapore.  Ã‚   On Ground Facilities: Lounges, etc   Air India has its own exclusive lounges at Delhi, London, Hong Kong and New York in addition to the one in Mumbai. At other international airports, Air India has tie-ups with other international airlines or local Airports Authorities for lounge facility.  Ã‚  Ã‚  There is a lounge for unaccompanied minors as well.   Online Booking, Web Check-in, etc The quick, easy and convenient way to book AI tickets online through the Air India website. An e ticket will be generated and the details with the e ticket link will be emailed to the passenger.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Air India has extensive facilities for Web check in and Tele check in for its passengers to provide ease of facilities.

Literary Analysis: Clay and The Dead Essay -- Essays Papers

Literary Analysis: Clay and The Dead In the fifteen Dubliners stories, city life, religion, friends and family bring hope to individuals discovering what it means to be human. Two stories stood out in James Joyce’s Dubliners. One story attempts to mislead readers as it is hard to follow and the other story is the most famous story in the book. In the stories â€Å"Clay† and â€Å"The Dead,† James Joyce uses escape themes to deal with the emotions of the characters, Maria and Gabriel living in the Dublin society. Both stories take place during the winter on Halloween and Christmas, which are the holiday seasons and the season of death. In â€Å"Clay,† the main character, Maria is a patient, old woman and a former maid for rival brothers Joe and Alphy Donnelly. Now that they’re all grown up, she seems to be â€Å"lost† in her life, childless and unmarried, and is now an employee at a Laundromat. Maria has struggled for what seems like most of her life both financially and socially. Maria lives on a small but independent income from a job that earns her the respect of co-workers and bosses. Glimpses of poverty are seen in this story when Maria becomes concerned that she lost the cake that she bought for the Donnelly family. â€Å"Maria said she had brought something special for papa and mamma, something they would be sure to like, and she began to look for her plumcake† (99). Maria’s loss of the cake is painful because she paid a big price for it. Maria was trying to treat her loved ones despite her limited income. Although Gabriel from â€Å"The Dead† isn’t poor like Maria, he isn’t very wealthy either unlike his aunts. Gabriel is just an average writer. He doesn’t hold annual parties like his aunts do every year to make him seem snobbish to others. J... ... U.S.A: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2002. Langbaum, Robert â€Å"The Epiphanic Mode in Wordsworth and Modern Literature.† New Literary History Vol. 14 (1983): 335-358. JSTOR. University of Dayton, Roesch Library. 18 February 2004 . Munich, Adrienne â€Å"Form and Subtextt in Joyce’s ‘The Dead’† Modern Philology Vol. 82 No.2 (Nov. 1984) 173-184. JSTOR University of Dayton, Roesch Library.20 February 2004 Norris, Margot â€Å"Narration under a Blindfold: Reading Joyce’s ‘Clay.’† PMLA Vol. 102 (1987): 206-215. JSTOR. University of Dayton, Roesch Library. 18 February 2004 . Orfe Literature. Ed. James Joyce. 17 February 2004. . Owens, Coilin. â€Å"Clay (3): The Mass of Mary and All the Saints.† James Joyce Quarterly 28 (1990): 257-266.

The Rise Of Starbucks :: essays research papers

The Rise of Starbucks   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Starbucks Corporation has enjoyed phenomenal growth since its early days in 1971 as a quaint coffee shop in Seattle, Washington. The rise of Starbucks can be directly attributed to the following factors; the emphasis placed on product quality, high employee standards, and creating the perfect cup of coffee.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  How a small idea became a huge business. Growing up in Brooklyn Howard Schultz had no aspirations. His only goal was to escape the struggles his working-class parents lived every day (Schultz 107).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Eventually, Schultz discovered his talent for sales, and was hired by a Swedish housewares corporation. By age 28, he was vice president in charge of sales in the United States. He has an excellent salary, a co-op apartment in New York City and was happily married. However, Schultz wasn't satisfied with all he had accomplished. He wanted to be in charge of his own destiny (107). It was then in the early 1980's that he was introduced to the company, Starbucks Coffee and Tea. Starbucks's original was modest but full of character. Schultz was immediately impressed by its charm. Importantly, he thought the coffee was wonderful (Schultz 108). He then had dinner with a friend, Jerry Baldwin owner of Starbucks and his partner, Gordon Bowker. Schultz tried to persuade Baldwin to hire him as an employee, even though it did not seem to be a logical career move. But for Schultz Starbucks held an inexplicable attraction. He soon found many reasons to get back to Seattle and visit (108). Then in the spring of 1982, Jerry and Gordon invited Schultz to meet Board member Steve Donovan. Schultz told the men what he saw for the future of the company. The partners seemed inspired by his vision. But they had decided not to hire Schultz. They felt his vision, was not what they had in mind for the company (108). Schultz still believed so much in the future of Starbucks that he couldn't except 'no'; as an answer. He then contacted Baldwin and protested that he wasn't selfishly interested in a job but it was more so about what he wanted to do for the company. Finally, Schultz had a job working at Starbucks (Schultz 109). Then, after working there for a year, he had a simple experience that changed his life. He traveled to Milan, Italy to attend an international housewares show. While, traveling he noticed a little espresso bar.

Fund Flow Analysis

Every business concern, at the end of its financial period, prepares Income Statements and Balance Sheet. Income Statements show the net result, Net Profit, of the business operations and contains various expenses incurred and losses and revenue earned during that period. Balance Sheet gives a summary of assets and liabilities as on a particular date and shows the financial position of the business. The liabilities side of a balance sheet shows the sources from where funds are raised and the assets side shows how the funds raised are utilized. But it does not show the causes or reasons for changes in assets and liabilities, flow of funds, between two balance sheet dates. Therefore, a statement is prepared in addition to the Income Statements and Balance Sheet, to show changes in assets and liabilities between two balance sheet dates, which is known as Fund Flow Statement. It is a statement, also known as Statement of Changes in Financial Position, designed to analyse the changes in financial condition of a concern between to specified dates. The Term â€Å"Fund† The term â€Å"Fund† can be explained in many ways. In the narrow sense, it means cash only. Transactions involving cash receipts and payments are considered in this approach. In the broader sense, fund means working capital, which is the excess of current assets over current liabilities. For fund flow analysis, the broader approach, working capital approach, is considered. The word â€Å"Flow† means change and â€Å"fund flow† means change in funds or change in working capital. Any increase or decrease in working capital is flow of funds. Flow of funds may be either inflow of funds or outflow of funds. Inflow refers to sources of funds and outflow refers to applications of funds. If a transaction brings any change in working capital, flow of funds takes place. This will happen when changes occurs in the values of fixed assets, share capital, long term debts etc. with the corresponding changes in the values of current assets or current liabilities. Many transactions which take place in a business enterprise may increase or decrease its working capital or even may not affect any change in it. Following are some examples: Purchase of fixed assets: When an asset is purchased, cash is going out there by reducing the cash balance. The effect of this transaction is that working capital decreases and this change (decrease) in working capital is called as application of funds. Here the accounts involved are Current Assets (Cash) and Fixed Assets. Issue of share capital: This transaction will increase the working capital as cash balance increases. This change (increase) in working capital is called as source of funds. Here the two accounts involved are current assets (Cash) and Shareholders’ Funds (Share Capital). Sale of Fixed Assets: The transaction will have the effect of increasing the working capital as the cash balance increases thereby increasing working capital. It is a source of funds. Here the accounts involved are current assets (Cash) and Fixed Assets. Redemption of debentures: This transaction has the effect of reducing the working capital, as it results in reduction in cash balance. It is an application of funds. The two accounts affected by this transaction are Current Assets (Cash) and Long-Term Liability (Debenture). Purchase of inventory: This transaction results in decrease in cash and increase in stock thereby keeping the total current assets at the same figure. Hence there will be no change in the Working Capital. In this case both the accounts involved are Current Assets (Cash and Stock). Accepting Bills Payable issued by creditors: The effect of this transaction on Working Capital is Nil as it results in increase in bills payable (a current liability) and decreases the creditors (another current liability). Since there is no change in total current liabilities there is no flow of funds. The accounts involved as current liabilities. Fixed Assets purchased and payment is made by issuing shares: This transaction will not have any impact on working capital as it does not result in any change either in the current asset or in the current liability. Hence there is no flow of funds. The two accounts affected are Fixed Assets and Shareholders’ Funds (Capital a/c). From the above examples, it is clear that there will be flow of funds when the transaction involves: a) Current assets and fixed assets b) Current assets and capital c) Current assets and long term liabilities d) Current liabilities and long term liabilities e) Current liabilities and fixed assets.

The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society

Response to â€Å"The Human Cost of an illiterate society† 1/30/2011 In â€Å"The Human cost of an illiterate society,† Jonathan Kozol attempts to convince his reader that illiteracy is extremely harmful to a society, and that it is the ultimate destruction of a human being’s life. He explains with great detail how being ignorant (unknown) at something so universal like being able to read the directions on a medicine label, can lead to a lifetime of hardship and long term agony.Kozol develops his reasoning by contributing meaningful but real world examples on how being illiterate is dangerous and fatal. For example He uses not being able to explain where you are if something fatal was to happen, and not being able to understand the dangers of a cigarettes label with a surgeons warning on it. After giving a plenty load of examples, he then brings the discussion back to his central argument on how being illiterate can be costly. When a person does not understand wh at they have wrongfully done it can be difficult to prosecute or judge that person.If he is not able to read then that person might not be aware that giving a child too much aspirin could result in overdose which can ultimately lead to death. The question that still remains is should that person be held accountable. According to today’s society the answer is still unknown but to protect the people of this society from that illiterate person, the answer is yes that person must be limited. What this ultimately means is that, he must be kept from society so that he won’t cause harm for his on ignorant habits.He will have to be watched, fed, and kept in an environment where he will always be stable. This top of living can cost a lot of money and this is the financial burden that cost a society so much money. In a way this is unfair because it is not this person’s fault that he can’t read, understand, and think critically. Illiterate people will always be in t he dark, and they will always struggle with trying to figure out the differences between what’s wrong and what’s right.