CSL Global Group

Question: Examine about the CSL Global Group. Answer: Presentation CSL Global gathering is a biotherapeutics forte organization, which offers types of assistance in Australia, Switzerland, Germany, America, and the UK. The organization utilizes in excess of 16,000 specialists in more than 30 nations (csl.com.au 2016). Macquarie gathering, then again, is the main supplier of assets, speculation, warning and monetary administration administrations to the major budgetary revolves far and wide (macquarie.com/au 2016). The task targets analyzing the business procedures of the two organizations dependent on their statements of purpose, estimations of the association, partners and corporate social obligations in the market. The venture likewise targets breaking down whether the organizations are meeting with the SMART destinations and objectives. Vision and Mission Statement CSL The biotherapeutics strength organization targets creating biotherapies, which are imaginative and are useful in sparing existences of individuals having hazardous ailments. The focal point of the organization is on the life-cycle the board, security of item portfolio and new item improvement (csl.com.au 2016). The organization is anxious to contribute on its Research and Development area later on to such an extent that to consolidate the most recent innovation inside its item advancement process. The organization has likewise a solid responsibility for the subsidizing of the imaginative clinical items so as to satisfy the clinical needs of the patients later on. Macquarie gathering The point of the Macquarie bunch is to enhance its business procedure, which could be covering a wide scope of capital and warning markets, exchanging, resource account, reserves the executives and other money related parts in the market. This reconciliation of the assorted variety of the activities along with a solid hazard the executives system and solid capital positions has placed the organization to a whole upper hand in the market. Receiving the name of its maker with the holey dollar as its image, the organization targets fusing its mission of down to earth approaches so as to create productive results (macquarie.com/au 2016). Brilliant targets Objective 1: Developing and differentiating the business procedure Key Component Objective Explicit CSL-creating biotherapies, which are inventive Macquarie-differentiating business process conering a wide scope of money related parts Quantifiable CSL-satisfy the clinical needs of the patients Macquarie-produce beneficial results Reachable CSL-Yes, by consolidating the most recent innovation inside the item advancement process Macquarie-Yes, by coordinating the assorted variety of the tasks along with a solid hazard the board system Sensible CSL-contribute on Research and Development segment Macquarie-combination of the assorted variety of the activities with a solid hazard the executives system Time-Bound CSL-Within barely any years Macquarie without a moment's delay Shrewd target: to keep up solid situation by increasing upper hand in the market Source: Created by creator Estimations of the Organization CSL The organization search for cooperative energies with existing specialty units and consider openings in the remedially classes that could help in improving the neglected clinical needs of the patients. The business activities of the organization incorporates an all around portrayed properties, all around approved information and a characterized instrument of activity that has helped it in increasing A solid licensed innovation position in the market (csl.com.au 2016). The organization likewise leads clinical preliminaries and logical warning boards so as to create abilities for supporting the beginning time research openings in the market (Grne et al 2014). Macquarie gathering Macquarie incorporates opportunity, responsibility, and respectability standards inside its business approach so as to understand the advantages of its partners (macquarie.com/au 2016). The organization supports inventiveness, development and enterprising soul inside its partners with the end goal that to empower them to accomplish and prevail over the long haul. The organization understands the importance of chance and incorporates the equivalent to be a piece of its colleagues. The organization likewise trusts in keeping up its guidelines and making obligation regarding all the move of its partners while settling on business choices. The organization likewise consolidates high moral norms inside its business culture with the end goal that to procure the trust of its partners. Brilliant destinations Objective 2: Integrating openings and different standards inside the business approach Key Component Objective Explicit CSL-cooperative energies with existing specialty units Macquarie-incorporating opportunity, responsibility, and uprightness standards inside its business approach Quantifiable increasing a solid protected innovation position in the market Feasible CSL-coordinating an all around portrayed properties, very much approved information and a characterized system of activity Macquarie-keeping up its gauges and assuming liability for all the activities while settling on business choices Sensible CSL-clinical preliminaries and logical warning boards Macquarie-Stakeholders are the primary assets Time-Bound CSL-Within a couple of years Macquarie-Within a couple of years Savvy objective: to create capacities for supporting the open doors in the market Source: Created by creator Corporate Social Responsibility CSL CSL bunch coordinates the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) so as to lead its business forms in a moral manner. This mix of the Corporate Social Responsibility inside the business procedure likewise help the organization in adding to the social, monetary, and ecological prosperity of its networks also. The different CSR need regions of the organization incorporate the Research and Development, helpful, working, biomedical, and different business condition (csl.com.au 2016). The organization likewise actualizes the business practice codes that help in directing and molding the manner in which it leads its business procedure. Besides, the Corporate Responsibility Steering Committee helps in driving reconciliation, mindfulness, and improvement of the CSR all through the organization. Macquarie gathering Macquarie bunch coordinates the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) responsibility in its business forms which helps the organization in concentrating on the regions that are viewed as material to its business (Kuszewski and Crowther 2012). Macquarie bunch likewise actualize explicit Code of Conduct, which bargains in the regions mirroring the hazard and open doors for the organization. The business and the issues of enthusiasm of the companys partners recognize this set of principles as followed by the organization too (Klettner, Clarke and Boersma 2014). The set of accepted rules administers the different financial, social, and corporate components for the organization including the earth, work environment, markets, partners, and the supportability of the organization in direct activities also. Keen destinations Objective 3: Include the CSR in the business territories which are viewed as material to the business Key Component Objective Explicit CSL-need regions of the organization incorporate the Research and Development, remedial, working, biomedical, and different business condition Macquarie-concentrating on the regions that are viewed as material to its business Quantifiable CSL-improvement of the CSR all through the organization Macquarie-upgraded manageability of the organization Reachable CSL-organizing the zones of the organization incorporate the Research and Development, remedial, working, biomedical, and different business condition Macquarie-coordinating the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) duty in its business forms Reasonable CSL-Corporate Responsibility Steering Committee Macquarie-Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) advisory group Time-Bound Inside a year Keen goal: to oversee the corporate factors so as to pick up maintainability in the market Source: Created by creator Partners CSL The partners of CSL bunch incorporate the investors, workers, governments, speculators, and providers. CSL executes polices that administers the chiefs and representatives towards the moral worries in the circumstances of possible clash of political contribution, intrigue, budgetary affectations and pay off. The organization resolves to work with the most noteworthy respectability to such an extent that to pick up the trust of its partners and implant trust in them. The organization has drawn in with NAVEX, which helps, in encouraging the detailing of the questions and worries of the partners of the organization (csl.com.au 2016). This commitment of NAVEX guarantees in exploring and settling the worries and issues of the partners. Macquarie gathering With the accomplished Board individuals and business pioneers, Macquarie targets conveying long haul gainfulness and comes back to its partners by actualizing the guidelines corporate administration and dealing with the market dangers. The partners of the organization incorporates is the financial specialists, customers, providers, governments, representatives and the more extensive network. The organization joins the natural, social and administration (ESG) duty that thinks about the obligation regarding its customers and networks and partners also (macquarie.com/au 2016). The organization has confidence in building solid associations with its partners fro keeping up trust and upgrading the business execution also. Keen goals Objective 4: Gaining trust and trust in the partners Key Component Objective Explicit working with the most noteworthy uprightness to such an extent that to pick up the trust of its partners and inject trust

What is the Taboo Thesis The works of Gorer, Walter, Moller and Cline Essay

What is the Taboo Thesis crafted by Gorer, Walter, Moller and Cline - Essay Example This fear against death has caused individuals to abstain from examining demise in broad daylight and today it has gotten an untouchable, similar to erotic entertainment was in the medieval ages. Sociologists and masterminds, for example, Gorer, Moller and Cline have examined the subject in extraordinary detail with strong research and contemplate and have perceived the changed conduct of individuals towards death. Rather than tolerating its reality and continuing ahead with the truth that we need to leave this world one day, individuals deny demise and this is reflected in their conduct towards death ceremonies and social affairs. Examining about death or the perished individual is viewed as peculiar in the general public. Individuals that discussion of death or the expired individuals face prudery on account of their social condition. Furthermore, consequently passing has gotten a no-no, something not worth discussing. The situation was not the same previously; in actuality this is a cutting edge improvement. This progress in the responses of individuals regarding passing, as noted, considered and clarified by Gorer and his defenders is known as Taboo Thesis. In this paper conversation will be made on the accompanying theory proclamation, â€Å"Death, today, is treated as a fearsome, outsider marvels and has gotten a no-no, with lesser and lesser individuals worried about it. â€Å" Contribution from Gorer Geoffrey Gorer, conceived in 1905, was a prestigious English Anthropologist. He went through his time on earth in understanding the idea of people and how would they coexist with various variety in their lives. Probably the best commitment to the field of Sociology is his work and research on the thought of death, the change that it has experienced the ages and its common status in the ebb and flow world request, completely UK. Interestingly Gorer analyzes the treatment of death in the cutting edge society with that of the idea of sex entertainment in the Victorian Era. This inventive and investigative considering capacity Gorer made him stand apart of different scholars and anthropologists and along these lines his work has gotten exceedingly huge for communists so as to extend their points of view of study on death or other related regions (Gorer 1955). Gorer looks at the treatment of the idea of erotic entertainment in the Victorian period with that of the treatment of death in the contemporary world. In the Victorian time sex entertainment was viewed as an exceptionally personal undertaking and conversation in broad daylight was viewed as a â€Å"eye-brow† raising issue that would prompt prudery in the general public whenever anticipated. Gorer doesn't favor of such responses as he accepts that sexual intercourse and sex are issues known to individuals when all is said in done so veiling them doesn't bode well as individuals will in general talk about issues that they know about, so the equivalent must remain constant for erotic entertainment too. This contention is stylishly sent by Gorer with respect to death and response of individuals to it in the contemporary world. Gorer opines that demise is as large a reality in life as life itself, yet today individuals attempt to sidestep from its reality in a way that is like the Victorian period where individuals maintained a strategic distance from sex and foulness related conversations out in the open. Gorer accepts that the general public is removing itself from the acknowledgment of a widespread actuality and truth and maybe this is something that one would concur with too (Gorer 1955). A contemporary model Let’s think about the Somalian dry spell, named as the â€Å"worst helpful crisis† by the UN. It is very nearly immersing the lives of in excess of 700,000 people in the months to come. This dry season has indicated the genuine substance of people to them, however it is such a pity, that we still don’t care. Regardless of how steep the loss of life is, regardless of how serious a debacle is we simply keep living

Standard Chart of Accounts Explained

Standard Chart of Accounts Explained Numbers provide a great way of summarizing information in a way that it can be quickly understood.This is especially useful in the business world where all sorts of information are presented using numbers.In fact, the whole profession of accounting revolves around summarizing company information into easy-to-understand numbers.One of the tools that is commonly used by accountants to provide a summary of a company’s financial power is the chart of accounts.Unfortunately, a lot of people do not understand this important accounting tool.In this article, we will take an in-depth look at the chart of accounts to understand what it is, what it does and how to design one.WHAT IS A CHART OF ACCOUNTS? The term “chart of accounts” (COA) refers to a list that contains all the accounts that a company uses to record transactions in its general ledger.An account in this case refers to a unique record for each type of the company’s revenue, expense, equity, assets, and liability.The chart o f accounts usually lists the account type, a brief description of the account, the account balance, and an identification code for the account. This information is typically represented in the order by which the accounts are represented in the company’s financial statements.It includes balance sheet accounts as well as income statement accounts. The typical order is balance sheet accounts at the top, with the income statement accounts following.The purpose of a COA is to organize the company’s finances, segregating its expenditures, revenue, assets, and liabilities in order.This orderly listing makes it easier for stakeholders and other interested parties to understand the company’s financial health.It is also an important tool for analyzing a company’s past transactions and using historical data to forecast its future trends.The standard chart of accounts usually contains two main categories â€" balance sheet accounts and income statement accounts â€" which are then further subdivided by account type.The following are the various types of balance sheet accounts:AssetsLiabilities,Stockholders’ or owner’s equity.The income statement, on the other hand, contains the following accounts:Operating revenuesOperating expensesNon-operating revenues gainsNon-operating expenses losses.A well-designed COA achieves two things: it satisfies management’s information needs, and it enables the company to comply with financial reporting standards.The format of a chart of accounts allows a business to tailor its chart of accounts to best suit its unique needs.For instance, accounts in the categories of “operating revenues” and “operating expenses” can be further organized according to business function as well as company divisions.Since it is a flexible financial organization tool, there is no standard length of a chart of accounts.Its length will naturally depend on the company’s size, with larger companies having a larger and more complex chart of ac counts compared to smaller companies.For instance, a large, multinational company that has many divisions may need to list thousands of accounts whilst a local retailer may require as few as one hundred accounts.Depending on the sophistication of the company, the COA may either be paper-based or computer-based.STRUCTURE OF A CHART OF ACCOUNTSLike I mentioned above, the chart of accounts is a flexible financial organization tool, so you will seldom find a company that has the exact same charts of accounts as another company.Each company will develop its own COA based on its own unique factors, such as the volume of business, the nature of the business, the need for external parties to go through the company’s financial information, and so on.That said, there is still a common structure that you will find on most charts of accounts.Accounts in a COA are typically listed in the order by which they appear in the financial statements.For that reason, balance sheet accounts are typicall y listed first, with the income statement accounts following.The typical structure of a Chart of Accounts is, therefore, something that looks like this:Balance Sheet AccountsAssetsLiabilitiesOwner’s (Stockholders’) EquityIncome Statement AccountsThe Various Types of RevenuesThe Various Types of ExpensesSome organizations may also structure their COAs such that various expenses are separately listed by department, with each department having its own set of expense accounts.DIFFERENT ACCOUNT TYPES REPRESENTED IN A CHART OF ACCOUNTSSome of the different accounts that will typically be found on a standard chart of accounts include:Asset AccountsAn asset is a resource that contains economic value and is owned by the organization. Put simply, the term “assets” refers to what a company owns.Part of the value of assets stems from the expectation that they will provide future benefits. A company reports its assets in the balance sheet.When a company buys or creates an asset, this res ults in either an increase of the company’s value or a benefit to its operations.The best way to think of an asset is as something that might in future generate cash flow for the company, reduce its expenses, or increase sales.Examples of assets include land/property, machinery equipment, patents, cash, inventory, investments, buildings, furniture, vehicles, stock, and so on.There are two types of assets: current assets and fixed assets.Current assets are those you can easily convert into cash â€" they include cash, money in the bank, short-term deposits, stock, and marketable securities.Fixed assets are those you cannot readily convert into cash or cash equivalents. They are typically long-term/hard assets. Examples include buildings, patents, land, equipment, machinery, and trademarks.Liabilities AccountsA liability is, to put it simply, what the company owes to some other party (a bank, a person, another company).In other words, liabilities are the company’s legal financial obligations or debts that present themselves in the course of conducting business operations.To settle liabilities, the company has to transfer economic benefits such as money, goods or services to the other party.Basically, liabilities are the opposite of assets: while assets add value, liabilities reduce the company’s value.Liabilities are recorded on the right side of the balance sheet whilst assets are recorded on the left. Examples of liabilities include bank loans, mortgages, accounts payable, deferred revenues, accrued expenses, and so on.There are three main types of liabilities: current liabilities, non-current liabilities, and contingent liabilities.Current liabilities are short-term and are typically due/payable within one year. Examples include interest payable, accounts payable, bills payable, income taxes payable, short-term loans, accrued expenses, and bank overdrafts.Non-current/long-term liabilities are those that are due after a year or more. Examples include bon ds payable, deferred tax liabilities, mortgage payable, long-term notes payable, and capital lease.Contingent liabilities are those whose occurrence depends on a certain event. In other words, contingent liabilities are basically potential liabilities: they may or may not happen. For instance, if a company faces a lawsuit, it may or not be a liability â€" it depends on the outcome of the lawsuit.Accounting standards dictate that a company should only record contingent liabilities if the liability is probable and if it’s possible to reasonably estimate the amount. Examples of contingent liabilities include lawsuits and product warranties.Owner’s/Stockholders’ Equity AccountsThis is the third type of balance sheet account listed in the chart of accounts. It refers to financial capital which is sourced through investment by owners/shareholders.Financial capital is one of the key factors of production.Financial capital is absolutely necessary for any business to get off the ground . No business can operate without capital. Capital comes from two sources: debt and equity.Equity capital, unlike debt capital, is not repaid to stockholders/investors in the normal course of business.Equity capital is the risk capital staked by investors through purchasing a company’s common stock (ordinary shares).Put simply, equity capital is the funds a company generates from the sale of its stock.Owner’s equity is the funds owners inject into the business to finance its operations.For a private limited company, the owners are an entity separate from the business.In that case, the business is considered to owe the equity funds to its owners as a liability in form of share capital. Owner’s equity is also known as liable capital or risk capital.In a case where shareholders are the owners (public limited companies), the equity is known as shareholders’ equity.It refers to the ownership equity spread out amongst the company’s shareholders. Shareholders will vary in rank ac cording to their use of share classes and options.Should the company liquidate its assets, for instance due to bankruptcy, the first priority will be the creditors. The last to be paid will be the owners/shareholders.The accounting equation for owner’s equity is, therefore, the difference between a company’s assets and debt liabilities.The company can break down its shareholders’ equity into the following accounts: common stock, preferred stock, and retained earnings.Expenses AccountsThese accounts represent the company’s expenditures.An expense may be defined as the amount by which an asset reduces in value when it is used to generate revenue for a business.For instance, when the asset has been in use for an extended period of time, the expense that develops is known as depreciation.Examples of common expenses include cost of goods sold, rent, utilities, insurance, depreciation, wages, and utilities.Expenses are typically divided into two main types: operating expense and n on-operating expenses. Operating expenses are those that involve the business’s main/core activities.For instance, the operating expenses of a retailer include the cost of goods sold along with the selling, general, and administrative expenses.In a large company, these are typically sorted according to product line, department, and so on.Non-operating expenses are the expenses which do not involve the business’s main activities. They pertain to incidental/peripheral activities.For instance, a common non-operating expense encountered by retailers is interest expense.Other examples of non-operating expenses that will turn up on a retailer’s income statement include: commissions earned by the sales staff, rent, employee wages, advertising, and the cost of electricity.Revenue AccountsRevenue accounts display the earnings/incomes the company accrues during a specific period. Common examples include sales, interest income, and service revenue.Discounts and deductions for returned me rchandise are also included as part of the business’s revenues.A better definition of revenues is the income a business generates from selling goods or providing services, or from any other use of its capital or assets.This is before the deduction of costs and expenses.Revenue is typically represented as the top item in a profit and loss (income) statement.Net income is determined by subtracting the costs from the gross income.You calculate revenue by multiplying the price per unit by the number of units sold. Revenue may also be referred to as sales or (in the UK) turnover.In a large company, revenue can be subdivided according to the various divisions that generate it.Revenue may also be divided into operating revenue and non-operating revenue.Operating revenue is the sales the company makes from its core business.Non-operating revenue refers to the sales the company makes from other secondary sources.Since non-operating revenues source are typically not predictable or recurring , they are termed one-time events or gains.Examples include proceeds from selling an asset, money awarded for winning a lawsuit, a windfall from investments, and so on.HOW TO NUMBER ACCOUNTS IN A CHART OF ACCOUNTSAccounts in a standard chart of accounts are organized according to a numerical system.The numbering sets up the structure of the accounts and assigns specific codes to the various general ledger accounts.The account number typically involves three key components: the division code, the department code, and the account code.Division CodeThis is usually a 2-digit code. It represents a specific division within the company.For that reason, it is only used in multi-division companies.Single-entity companies do not use this code. If the company is large and has very many divisions, this code is expanded to a 3-digit code, enabling the inclusion of more than 99 subsidiaries.Department CodeThis is also typically a 2-digit code. It represents a specific department within the busine ss; for instance, engineering, sales, accounting, or human resource departments.Account CodeThis is typically a 3-digit code which describes the account itself. Accounts are divided into major categories and sub-categories.Each major category starts with a particular number. Consequently, all the sub-categories that fall under a certain major category all start with the number of the major category.For instance, the first major category is “assets” and begins with the digit “1”. The first account could be “cash” and is labeled “100”. The next could be “savings account” and labeled “101”The second major category “liabilities” starts with the digit “2”, then the liability accounts will be labeled in the 200 to 299 range. The next major category “Equity” will start with a “3”, occupying the 300-399 range, and so on.The account code will not always be represented by 3 digits. In some cases, especially for bigger companies with a more complex chart of accounts, the account code might be represented by 4 digits.As you might have realized so far, the account code breaks down two key pieces of information about an account: the type of major category account and the type of sub-category account.For instance, if you find that an account code starts with 100, you can automatically conclude that this account belongs to the ‘assets’ category.The subcategory account is usually represented by the second digit within the account code. For instance, let’s assume that the account code for a specific account is 109.Since the first digit is 1, we already know that this is an assets account. However, there are different types of asset accounts.Therefore, the second digit is used to show the subcategory in which the account belongs.In our case, this might mean the account falls under the current assets subcategory within the assets category. The third digit denotes the actual identity of the account.If the account number was 115, then t his would mean that this particular account is account number 5 under the receivables sub category within the assets category.Bringing It All TogetherIn a multi-division company which has several divisions and departments, the chart of accounts numbering would be as follows: xx-xx-xxx.If it’s a single-entity company (that is just one division) that has multiple departments, the first two digits (the division code) would be left out. The numbering scheme would instead be as follows: xx-xxx.If it’s a very small business that has no departments at all, only the account code would remain. In that case, the numbering would be simply as follows: xxx.EXAMPLE OF A CHART OF ACCOUNTSBelow is a rough sample COA to help you understand how it looks.Assets (100-199)Current Assets100 Checking Account101 Savings Account102 Deposits103 InvestmentsReceivables110 Accounts Receivable Clients113 Travel Advances116 Notes ReceivableUnbilled Services120 Unbilled ServicesFixed Assets150 Accumulated Dep reciation152 Furniture and Fixtures153 Leasehold Improvements154 AutomobilesLiabilities (200-299)Payables (Short-Term)200 Notes Payable Short-TermAccounts Payable210 Accounts Payable â€" Trade211 Accounts Payable â€" Consultants212 Accounts Payable â€" OtherNet Worth (300-399)301 Capital311 Previous Year’s Retained Earnings312 Current Year’s Profit and LossRevenues (400-499)400 Commercial Sales410 Interest Income422 Grant RevenueExpenses (500-599)Direct Costs500 Direct Labor502 Equipment503 Materials and SuppliesFringe Benefit Costs510 Vacation511 Sick Leave513 Payroll TaxesOverhead Costs 520 Overhead Labor525 Depreciation â€" Office Equipment526 RentGeneral Administrative Costs 530 General Administrative Labor532 Utilities536 Equipment RentalUnallowable Costs 540 Interest Expense541 Contributions542 ExhibitsBEST PRACTICES FOR CHART OF ACCOUNTS DESIGNThe following are the criteria/principles a company should follow when designing a chart of accounts:Do the Mystery Accountant T estA good COA provides structure for the business, uniformity, and enhances communication across the company.It should also be possible for a concerned third party to understand the information provided in the COA without difficulty.To accomplish this, test to see if your chart of accounts passes the Mystery Accountant Test.This is a thought experiment where you try to see if competent accountants unfamiliar with the details of your business can successfully close the book.Can they successfully perform the close or do they get confused because of poor chart design?Can they use the provided code combinations to figure out the nature of each transaction, who is responsible for it, and where the transaction is occurring?Avoid RedundancyThe chart should contain only one type of information in each segment; otherwise, there will be overlapping of information across segments, which can lead to potential inaccuracies during reporting.For instance, if a company defines two of its segments a s “Location” and “Department”, then the location segment should only contain location information and the department information should only contain departmental information.Leave Room for ExpansionSmall companies may tailor the design of their COA to the current size of their business.This is not necessarily a problem.However, if this is a company that is likely to experience growth in future and greater success, it is important to design a COA that leaves room for expansion.Otherwise, when the company grows, there will be risk of some of the segments filling up.This can pose a problem, particularly for a publicly traded company where accuracy of information is legally crucial.Use Logical RangesWhile leaving room for expansion is good, it is possible to get carried away and go to the other extreme where you have ridiculously large ranges.For instance, if a company is small and unlikely to expand, but insists on having a range of values such as 20000-29999.This leaves room f or up to 9,999 accounts.The trends in your business should inform your decision when determining the most appropriate range.Don’t Rely on SpreadsheetsWhile spreadsheets are great tools for organizing simple data, they are not the best choice for transforming data from your financial systems to report results.Not relying on spreadsheets to get financial information is a key best-practices consideration when designing a COA.WRAPPING IT UPThe chart of accounts is one of the most important accounting tools.The COA is essentially a summary of the company’s financial power. It contains both balance sheet information and income statement information.A good chart of accounts reveals the size or financial might of a company.Any interested party can then figure out how large the company is (from the division code and department code or their absence), and see the range and number of its transactions (based on the number of recorded accounts).

Definition and Examples of Abbreviations in English

An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase, such as Jan. for January. The abbreviated form of the word abbreviation is  abbr. — or, less commonly, abbrv. or abbrev. In American English, many abbreviations are followed by a period (Dr., Ms.). In contrast, British usage generally favors omitting the period (or full stop) in abbreviations that include the first and last letters of a single word (Dr, Ms). When an abbreviation appears at the end of a sentence, a single period serves both to mark the abbreviation and to close the sentence. Linguist David Crystal notes that abbreviations are a major component of the English writing system, not a marginal feature. The largest dictionaries of abbreviations contain well over half a million entries, and their number is increasing all the time (Spell It Out, 2014). Here are some common examples of variousl types of abbreviations: AcronymBackronymCommonly Confused Latin Abbreviations in EnglishCommon Revision Symbols and AbbreviationsCommon Scholarly AbbreviationsE.g. and I.e.Etc. and Et al.InitialeseInitialismLogograph Etymology Abbreviation comes from the Latin word brevis meaning short. Examples and Observations In general, spell out the names of government bureaus and agencies, well-known organizations, companies, etc., on first reference. In later references, use short forms like the agency or the company when possible because handfuls of initials make for mottled typography and choppy prose.Abbreviations may be ironic, humorous, or whimsical: for example, the rail link between the town of Bedford and the London station of St. Pancras is locally known as the Bedpan Line; a comparable link for Boston, New York, and Washington is the Bosnywash circuit. Comments on life may be telescoped into such sardonic packages as: BOGSAT a Bunch Of Guys Sitting Around a Table (making decisions about other people); GOMER Get Out of My Emergency Room (said by physicians to hypochondriacs); MMMBA Miles and Miles of Bloody Africa (an in-group term among people who have to travel those miles); TGIF Thank God Its Friday (after a particularly hard working week).AbbrevesToday, the fave (for favorite’) abb reves are obvi (a shortening of Thank you, Captain Obvious’) and belig (a clipping of belligerent, retaining the soft g). Nobody in the young-barflies crowd orders the usual’; it’s the yoozh. My grandnephew Jesse concludes sentences with whatev, which is probs (for probably’) whatever. In this cacophony of abbreves, word endings are scattered all over the floor. Go fig.Tote-SpeakYou see it on Twitter a lot, people exclaiming about their  totes  delish spags  or their  totes  redic boyfs. Linguists Lauren Spradlin and Taylor Jones call this  practice totesing — the systematic abbreviation (abbreviash) of words to effect a certain tone.  The fad  might have started with totally becoming  totes,  but at this point, no entry in the English lexicon  is safe.Twitter SpeakThe following are some  real words  produced by real human beings on Twitter:Totes tradge  (tragic):  David Bowie dying is totes tradge.Bluebs  (blueberri es):  Bluebs in yog  are my favorite snack.Totes  emosh  (emotional): When Cookie hugged Jamal it made me  totes emosh.iPh  (iPhone): OMG I dropped my iPh!If you’re not a millennial — and even if you are — you might think totesing  is  atrosh  and  unprofesh.  But get used to it.  Though no one is quite sure where it came from, this way of  speaking has been around for well over a decade.LogogramsLogograms . . . play a part in the English writing system: these are cases where a word is not just shortened, but entirely replaced with a symbol. Examples include for at,  Ã‚ £ for pound, % for per cent, and for plus. The ampersand, , is one of the oldest. It is a collapsed version of the Latin word et, and: the bottom circle is whats left of the e, and the rising tail on the right is whats left of the t. Numerals are another kind that we read as 1, 2, 3, etc. as one, two, three... And it is part of the business of learning to read and wr ite to know when we should write words in their logographic form and when to spell them out. Sources A. Siegal,  The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage, 1999 Tom McArthur,  The Oxford Companion to the English Language, 1992 William Safire, Abbreve  That Template.  The New York Times Magazine, May 21, 2009 Jeff Guo, The Totes  Amazesh  Way Millennials Are Changing the English Language.  The Washington Post, January 13, 2016 David Crystal,  Spell It Out. Picador, 2014

The Doctrine Of Unconscionability Contracts Essay

Introduction The doctrine of unconscionability deals with circumstances where contracts are knowingly being exploited by [the defendant] as one party [the plaintiff] is suffering from a ‘special disadvantage’ . This doctrine originated in the mid 19th century from ‘expected heirs’ who expected to inherit property, however before the property was inherited, the owner would sell the property to someone else, typically at a very low price. Thus, the doctrine of unconscionability originally addressed situations where the heir to a property could seek relief, if that property was sold on unconscionable grounds. The law on unconscionability is no longer this straight forward, and now begs the question of whether this doctrine has succeeded in promoting desirable social values or whether it has now brought too much uncertainty into the law of contract. Therefore, this essay will address substantive unconscionability through a broad perspective, addressing issues such as fe minism and economic based views. By addressing these issues, it will be established whether the doctrine of unconscionability is in fact too uncertain in contract law. Body Economic Approach The economic theory of contract is based off of rationality, whereby both parties who entered into the contract perceived themselves as benefiting from the contract. Thus it can be said that the doctrine of unconscionability is based from a utilitarian perspective, whereby the ‘enforcement [of interests in a contract]Show MoreRelatedIncreasing Prevalence Of Class Action Waivers1166 Words   |  5 Pagesfirst challenge towards them, as explained below, involved the California state contract law doctrine of unconscionability. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court eventually struck down this argument but the decision eventually sparked the now controversial circuit split which has led to the Supreme Court granting certiorari to grant clarity on the issue of class action arbitration waivers. A. The Unconscionability Doctrine and the State Court Challenges Arising Out of California Before the current developmentsRead MoreThe Doctrine of Unconscionability in Malaysia: Undue Influence2692 Words   |  11 Pagesï » ¿THE DOCTRINE OF UNCONSCIONABILITY: IS IT APPROPRIATE FOR IT TO BECOME THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLE FOR A CLAIM OF VOIDABLE CONTRACTS ON THE GROUNDS OF UNDUE INFLUENCE? Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction 3 2.0 Concept of undue influence 3 3.0 Doctrine of unconscionability Read MoreSwot Analysis Of Takem s Appliances And Electronics1094 Words   |  5 PagesElectronics Sally Walker, a resident of Virginia, fell behind on her payment of computer purchased and financed through Takem’s Appliances and Electronics, LLC. After the initiation of the collection process, Sally responded with a letter stating the contract is unconscionable and therefore unenforceable, that she â€Å"paid enough† and would not make any further payments, and she will sue for punitive damages and share her story with the local media. Tommy Takem, the owner and operator of Takem’s AppliancesRead MoreDoctrine of Unconscionability: Its Development and Possibilities9798 Words   |  40 PagesPage 1 Malayan Law Journal Articles/2007/Volume 3/DOCTRINE OF UNCONSCIONABILITY: ITS DEVELOPMENT AND POSSIBILITIES [2007] 3 MLJ xliv Malayan Law Journal Articles 2007 DOCTRINE OF UNCONSCIONABILITY: ITS DEVELOPMENT AND POSSIBILITIES Zahira bte Mohd Ishan LLB (Hons) (IIUM); LLM (London) Lecturer, Faculty of Economics and Management, Universiti Putra Malaysia Introduction The term `unconscionability is protean and used in different ways by different judges and commentators to address a fundamentallyRead MoreC.The Placement And Design Of The Browsewrap Hyperlink1025 Words   |  5 PagesCalifornia Court of Appeals held that â€Å"the doctrine of unconscionability applies to all provisions of all contracts and has both a ‘procedural’ and a ‘substantive’ element. Appalachian Ins. Co., 214 Cal. App. 3d at 22 (finding no procedural or substantive unconscionability on a disclaimer of warranties on rocket materials). The procedural element focuses on â€Å"oppression† and â€Å"surprise†Ã¢â‚¬  while there is no precise definition of substantive unconscionability. Id. at 22-23. Oppression relates to unfairRead MoreProprietary Estoppel2557 Words   |  11 Pagesthe elements of as surance, reliance and detriment must be present in order to found a claim of proprietary estoppel . The doctrine has however been widely criticised for being too flexible and uncertain. The main cause of this uncertainty is the lack of clarity surrounding the role of unconscionability. It has been stated that unconscionability is â€Å"at the heart of the doctrine,† and yet there is â€Å"little guidance as to what it means, little explanation of why it is at the centre and thus virtuallyRead MoreBridgewater V Leahy [1998] Hca 663257 Words   |  14 PagesLegal Issues Question One- (319 words) The contract at the centre of Bridgewater v Leahy [1998] HCA 66 is a deed of forgiveness of debt, in relation to the transfer of land. The parties to this contract were Neil York, who bought the interest in the land, and Bill York who sold the interest, and forgave the debt. The contract was entered into on 19th July 1988, with the terms being that Bill would transfer his interests in the Wonga Park fee simple, the Wonga Park perpetual lease selectionRead MoreFormal Components Of An Enforceable Contract1860 Words   |  8 PagesOne of the formal components of an enforceable contract is consideration. Lush J defined consideration as: ‘...may consist either in some right, interest, profit or benefit accruing to the one party, or some forbearance, detriment, loss or responsibility, given suffered or undertaken by the other.’ The definition provides guideline to decide the existence of a consideration. While consideration is necessary for an agreement to be enforceable. The development of equity court has allowed promisesRead MoreUndue Influence Notes7557 Words   |  31 PagesSince the doctrine of undue influence is under the court of equity , it derives from different other doctrines that gives its classification a wide variation from case to case. Thus , it shouldnt be limited a scope of criteria. The criteria shown is only to describe the possibilities of the decisions and distinguishing the doctrine from others , but shouldnt be a consistent set of rules that defines what it exactly it should be in every case and how it should be applied in every case. operatesRead MoreLaw of Contract: Genuine Consent2552 Words   |  11 PagesLecture 8 Law of Contract: Genuine Consent INTRODUCTION Although the contract may have the essentials of a valid offer, acceptance, legal intentions and consideration, its validity or enforceability may be affected by a number of factors. The agreement may be wanting in genuine consent between the parties. That is, although the parties may appear to have reached an agreement, it may not have been genuinely achieved because of misconduct, pressure, unfairness, or fear by those involved

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner Chapters 14 Free Essays

string(84) " had lied about these weak, older vampires, too, and we’d never had a chance\." â€Å"I heard someone get hurt – Kristie needs me more than Raoul,† he explained quickly. â€Å"Are you†¦ leaving us?† Riley’s face changed. It was like I could see his shifting tactics written on his features. We will write a custom essay sample on The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner Chapters 14 or any similar topic only for you Order Now His eyes widened, suddenly anxious. â€Å"I’m worried, Bree. I told you that she was going to meet us, to help us, but I haven’t crossed her trail. Something’s wrong. I need to find her.† â€Å"But there’s no way you can find her before Raoul gets to the yel ow-eyes,† I pointed out. â€Å"I have to find out what’s going on.† He sounded genuinely desperate. â€Å"I need her. I wasn’t supposed to do this alone!† â€Å"But the others†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Bree, I have to go find her! Now! There are enough of you to overwhelm the yel ow-eyes. I’l get back to you as soon as I can.† He sounded so sincere. I hesitated, glancing back the way we had come. Fred would be halfway to Vancouver by now. Riley hadn’t even asked about him. Maybe Fred’s talent was stil in effect. â€Å"Diego’s down there, Bree,† Riley said urgently. â€Å"He’l be part of the first attack. Didn’t you catch his scent back there? Did you not get close enough?† I shook my head, total y confused. â€Å"Diego was there?† â€Å"He’s with Raoul by now. If you hurry, you can help him get out alive.† We stared at each other for a long second, and then I looked south after Raoul’s path. â€Å"Good girl,† Riley said. â€Å"I’l go find her and we’l be back to help clean up. You guys have got this! It might be over by the time you get there!† He took off in a direction perpendicular to our original path. I clenched my teeth at how sure he seemed of his way. Lying to the end. But it didn’t feel like I had a choice. I headed south in a flatout sprint again. I had to go get Diego. Drag him away if it came to that. We could catch up with Fred. Or take off on our own. We needed to run. I would tel Diego how Riley had lied. He would see that Riley had no intention of helping us fight the battle he’d set up. There was no reason to help him anymore. I found the human’s scent and then Raoul’s. I didn’t catch Diego’s. Was I going too fast? Or was the human’s scent just overpowering me? Half my head was absorbed in this strangely counterproductive hunt – sure, we would find the girl, but would we be ready to fight together when we did? No, we’d be clawing each other apart to get to her. And then I heard the snarling and screaming and screeching explode from ahead and I knew the fight was happening and I was too late to beat Diego there. I only ran faster. Maybe I could stil save him. I smel ed the smoke – the sweet, thick scent of vampires burning – carried back to me on the wind. The sound of mayhem was louder. Maybe it was almost done. Would I find our coven victorious and Diego waiting? I dashed through a heavy fringe of smoke and found myself out of the forest in a huge grassy field. I leaped over a rock, only to realize in the instant I flew past it that it was a headless torso. My eyes raked the field. There were pieces of vampires everywhere, and a huge bonfire smoking purple into the sunny sky. Out from under the bil owing haze, I could see dazzling, glittering bodies darting and grappling as the sounds of vampires being torn apart went on and on. I looked for one thing: Diego’s curly black hair. No one I could see had hair so dark. There was one huge vampire with brown hair that was almost black, but he was too big, and as I focused I watched him tear Kevin’s head off and pitch it into the fire before leaping on someone else’s back. Was that Jen? There was another with straight black hair that was too smal to be Diego. That one was moving so fast I couldn’t tel if it was a boy or a girl. I scanned quickly again, feeling horribly exposed. I took in the faces. There weren’t nearly enough vampires here, even counting those that were down. I didn’t see any of Kristie’s group. There must have been a lot of vampires burned already. Most of the vampires stil standing were strangers. A blond vampire glanced at me, meeting my gaze, and his eyes flashed gold in the sunlight. We were losing. Bad. I started backing toward the trees, not moving fast enough because I was stil looking for Diego. He wasn’t here. There was no sign he had ever been here. No trace of his scent, though I could distinguish the smel s of most of Raoul’s team and many strangers. I had made myself look at the pieces, too. None of them belonged to Diego. I would have recognized even a finger. I turned and real y ran for the trees, suddenly positive that Diego’s presence here was just another of Riley’s lies. And if Diego wasn’t here, then he was already dead. This fel into place for me so easily that I thought I must have known the truth for a while. Since the moment that Diego had not fol owed Riley through the basement door. He’d already been gone. I was a few feet into the trees when a force like a wrecking bal hit me from behind and threw me to the ground. An arm slipped under my chin. â€Å"Please!† I sobbed. And I meant please kill me fast. The arm hesitated. I didn’t fight back, though my instincts were urging me to bite and claw and rip the enemy apart. The saner part of me knew that wasn’t going to work. Riley had lied about these weak, older vampires, too, and we’d never had a chance. You read "The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner Chapters 14" in category "Essay examples" But even if I’d had a way to beat this one, I wouldn’t have been able to move. Diego was gone, and that glaring fact kil ed the fight in me. Suddenly I was airborne. I crashed into a tree and crumpled to the ground. I should have tried to run, but Diego was dead. I couldn’t get around that. The blond vampire from the clearing was staring intently at me, his body ready to spring. He looked very capable, much more experienced than Riley. But he wasn’t lunging at me. He wasn’t crazed like Raoul or Kristie. He was total y in control. â€Å"Please,† I said again, wanting him to get this over with. â€Å"I don’t want to fight.† Though he stil held himself ready, his face changed. He looked at me in a way I didn’t total y get. There was a lot of knowledge in that face, and something else. Empathy? Pity, at least. â€Å"Neither do I, child,† he said in a calm, kind voice. â€Å"We are only defending ourselves.† There was such honesty in his odd yel ow eyes that it made me wonder how I had ever believed any of Riley’s stories. I felt†¦ guilty. Maybe this coven had never planned to attack us in Seattle. How could I trust any part of what I’d been told? â€Å"We didn’t know,† I explained, somehow ashamed. â€Å"Riley lied. I’m sorry.† He listened for a moment, and I realized that the battlefield was quiet. It was over. If I’d been in any doubt over who the winner was, that doubt was gone when, a second later, a female vampire with wavy brown hair and yel ow eyes hurried to his side. â€Å"Carlisle?† she asked in a confused voice, staring at me. â€Å"She doesn’t want to fight,† he told her. The woman touched his arm. He was stil tensed to spring. â€Å"She’s so frightened, Carlisle. Couldn’t we†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The blond, Carlisle, glanced back at her, and then he straightened up a little, though I could see he was stil wary. â€Å"We have no wish to harm you,† the woman said to me. She had a soft, soothing voice. â€Å"We didn’t want to fight any of you.† â€Å"I’m sorry,† I whispered again. I couldn’t make sense of the mess in my head. Diego was dead, and that was the main thing, the devastating thing. Other than that, the fight was over, my coven had lost and my enemies had won. But my dead coven was ful of people who would have loved to watch me burn, and my enemies were speaking to me kindly when they had no reason to. Moreover, I felt safer with these two strangers than I’d ever felt with Raoul and Kristie. I was relieved that Raoul and Kristie were dead. It was so confusing. â€Å"Child,† Carlisle said, â€Å"wil you surrender to us? If you do not try to harm us, we promise we wil not harm you.† And I believed him. â€Å"Yes,† I whispered. â€Å"Yes, I surrender. I don’t want to hurt anybody.† He held out his hand encouragingly. â€Å"Come, child. Let our family regroup for a moment, then we’l have some questions for you. If you answer honestly, you have nothing to fear.† I got up slowly, making no movements that could be considered threatening. â€Å"Carlisle?† a male voice cal ed. And then another yel ow-eyed vampire joined us. Any sort of safety I’d felt with these strangers vanished as soon as I saw him. He was blond, like the first, but tal er and leaner. His skin was absolutely covered in scars, spaced most thickly together on his neck and jaw. A few smal marks on his arm were fresh, but the rest were not from the brawl today. He had been in more fights than I could have imagined, and he’d never lost. His tawny eyes blazed and his stance exuded the barely contained violence of an angry lion. As soon as he saw me he coiled to spring. â€Å"Jasper!† Carlisle warned. Jasper pul ed up short and stared at Carlisle with wide eyes. â€Å"What’s going on?† â€Å"She doesn’t want to fight. She’s surrendered.† The scarred vampire’s brow clouded, and suddenly I felt an unexpected surge of frustration, though I had no idea what I was frustrated with. â€Å"Carlisle, I†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He hesitated, then continued, â€Å"I’m sorry, but that’s not possible. We can’t have any of these newborns associated with us when the Volturi come. Do you realize the danger that would put us in?† I didn’t understand exactly what he was saying, but I got enough. He wanted to kil me. â€Å"Jasper, she’s only a child,† the woman protested. â€Å"We can’t just murder her in cold blood!† It was strange to hear her speak like we both were people, like murder was a bad thing. An avoidable thing. â€Å"It’s our family on the line here, Esme. We can’t afford to have them think we broke this rule.† The woman, Esme, walked between me and the one who wanted to kil me. Incomprehensibly, she turned her back to me. â€Å"No. I won’t stand for it.† Carlisle shot me an anxious glance. I could see that he cared a lot for this woman. I would have looked the same way at anyone behind Diego’s back. I tried to appear as docile as I felt. â€Å"Jasper, I think we have to take the chance,† he said slowly. â€Å"We are not the Volturi. We fol ow their rules, but we do not take lives lightly. We wil explain.† â€Å"They might think we created our own newborns in defense.† â€Å"But we didn’t. And even had we, there was no indiscretion here, only in Seattle. There is no law against creating vampires if you control them.† â€Å"This is too dangerous.† Carlisle touched Jasper’s shoulder tentatively. â€Å"Jasper. We cannot kil this child.† Jasper glowered at the man with the kind eyes, and I was suddenly angry. Surely he wouldn’t hurt this gentle vampire or the woman he loved. Then Jasper sighed, and I knew it was okay. My anger evaporated. â€Å"I don’t like this,† he said, but he was calmer. â€Å"At least let me take charge of her. You two don’t know how to deal with someone who’s been running wild so long.† â€Å"Of course, Jasper,† the woman said. â€Å"But be kind.† Jasper rol ed his eyes. â€Å"We need to be with the others. Alice said we don’t have long.† Carlisle nodded. He held his hand out to Esme, and they headed past Jasper back toward the open field. â€Å"You there,† Jasper said to me, his face a glower again. How to cite The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner Chapters 14, Essay examples

The Contrast and Comparison Between the Ancient Greeks and Romans Essay Sample free essay sample

The ancient Greeks and Roman civilisations both began their histories with the outgrowth of metropolis provinces. Both of these civilisations made parts to the Middle East. The Greeks had made a wild spread of finds on several Fieldss. This included uranology by Ptolemy. geometry by Euclid. and the doctrine of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius of his Stoic doctrine. Because the Greeks were widely known as a originative and esteemed race. the Romans were influenced by the Iliad ( Homer’s legendary verse form ) that their spiritual beliefs were similar. Roman. on the other manus. act upon how other imperiums would be shaped in Middle East for centuries. Indeed. the Roman Empire formed a centralised province with a set of jurisprudence. and a powerful leader on the top that was supported by military ground forcess. Roman besides contributes to the developments of jurisprudence ; for illustration. The Law of the Twelve Tables which created during the battle of the orders ( 494~287 BC ) . Although both of them were Mediterranean counties. their geographic locations were someway different from each other. On one manus. the Greeks’ metropolis provinces separate by hilly state sides. so their boundary lines were someway protected. On the other manus for the Romans. their locations were largely inland and were surrounded by mountains. north Alps and east by Apennine. For some ground. most of civilisations located near H2O. Greeks and Romans shared this common feature. The Alexander’s imperium expanded Greeks’ district and has contact with the Mediterranean Sea. Black Sea. Caspian Sea. and Arabian Sea. Because of the inland location of Rome. the H2O systems they based on were rivers every bit good as seas. chiefly the Tiber River and the Tyrrhenian Sea. Therefore. Rome was exposed to migrations and invasions. Ancient Greece had no cardinal authorization at the clip of the single self-governed metropolis provinces. As a consequence. wars and conflicts sometimes were fought among the metropolis provinces. For illustration. the Peloponnesian War ( 431BC~ 404BC ) is a war between Sparta and Athens along with their Alliess. It was fought by ground forces Hoplites ( Sparta ) and navy ( Athens ) which caused by the fright of Athenian’s imperial aspiration. Rome. by contrast. became the cardinal authorization of the Roman Empire. During 500 BC. Rome expanded its district slow and steadily and take to the Punic war with Carthage from 264BC to 146BC. By the clip of Caesar’s decease ( 44BC ) . Rome conquered districts throughout the Mediterranean Sea from the West seashore to the east seashore. Significantly. Greek had a period clip similar to Caesar’s conquest. It was the terminal of the fourth Century BC. under the leading of Alexander the Great Greek had conquered districts i nclude Persia. India. Egypt and made the Greet civilisation the common civilization of the Mediterranean and the Near Eastern World. The societal construction in Rome was viewed as hierarchal with slaves at the underside and freedwomans above them. Freedmans were divided by category among the patricians which was the one per centum of the population who control the authorities and held most of the wealth. And the plebian were a lower category of those patricians which conducted the remainder of the population and they were chiefly hapless. On the contrary. free. land-owning and native-born work forces could be the citizen of the metropolis province. Apparently. it was different from the Rome that societal prominence in Greek did non let any particular rights. In Rome. the Italians gained their rights during the civil war. After the civil war the hapless had representatives. the Tribunes in 367BC. in the authorities which spoke for their equalities. Both Roman and Greek economic systems based on agribusiness during the early ages of developments. Because of increasing population. the Grecian metropolis provinces were stretching frontward to seek for new land to settle. Obviously. there were more contacts to other civilizations because of colonisation which lead to incessant warfare in the fourth century. The society suffered every bit good. In fact. metropolis provinces exhausted their resources throughout the wars. As a consequence. people fall to slaves. unemployment and poorness arose with the growing of population. Nonetheless. rising prices took topographic point and so the criterion of life of the Greeks declined. Compare to the Late Republic of Rome ( around 200~31BC ) . the conquering of Greece and Asia Minor created huge new wealth which poured into Rome. It made the issue of inequalities among the society more terrible. Thus. little husbandmans left the land. Because the lands were largely held by blue bloods that little husbandmans couldn’t compete with the latifundia that worked by packs of slaves. However. Roman remained basically agricultural and noncommercialized until the mid-third century BC. Later on in the century. the conquerings of the east brought Roman the sophisticated commercial economic system system of the Hellenistic universe. The equestrians. a merchandise of the economic transmutation. provided the Romans immense net incomes while merchandising as a foreign luxury good. They started to construct roads that played an indispensable function for trading. The conquering of land by Alexander and Trajan non merely produced immense Numberss of slaves but besides stimulated the economic systems. One of the grounds was that the stretch of the districts provided more paths and handinesss. For the Greeks. it resulted circulation caches of gold and Ag. jewellery that acquired through loot. Industries in Greek besides benefited every bit good because fabrication was encouraged by bossy swayers as a agency of increasing their grosss and net incomes through trades that there were more opened markets. For the political relations for these two civilisations. they have similarities. Both of them relied to a great extent on military. As Alexander conquerings. he established metropoliss at cardinal location. Alexandria. which drew thousand of migrators into the cities’ elites. Although Alexander tried to accommodate Persian’s political construction to stabilise and consolidate his conquered districts. his ground forces resisted. As a consequence. Alexander’s generals created a figure of lands. run by Greek disposals which male monarchs were worship as Gods and was extremely relied on military. For Rome. the government’s existent power were held by the senate with two advocates. but the wealth of the imperium intensified the inequalities of wealth and power which led to the civil war that started at 133BC and lasted about a hundred old ages. The causes of the civil war were the devastation of farm lands. landless veterans and chiefly the passage jobs that pe ople were to a great extent taxed. The war was fought between the Optimates and the Populares. The Populares were the people who wanted equalities ; they wanted reform and addition aid from the provinces. The other side. Optimates were the people who were traditional who refused alteration and were reasonably affluent. Augustus ( Octavian- 63BC~16AD ) ended the civil war by winning the Actium conflict in 31 BC that he brought peace to Roman. Much of Roman faith was to a great extent influenced by Greek and Etruscan. The Gods worship by Greeks was the same as the 1s worship by Rome. merely by different names. Both of these civilisations worship multiple Gods. They believed that the Gods someway controlled their lives. If something unflavored for the Gods happened. they believe that they will be punished in some ways or their enemies would hold a better state of affairs than them. Roman and Greek both intend to maintain their Gods happy. As a consequence. their reinforced temples. statues and great memorials for Gods every bit good as doing regular forfeits. Even when Christianity emerged during the first century among the Jews. Romans started to go Christians every bit good. For the historical forms of these two civilisations. the Romans are more admirable than the Greeks. Obviously. the Grecian emerged from single metropolis provinces. and this permitted the edifice of an imperium because there were different faiths and civilizations. As we have seem from the Greek’s history. Athenians were on their manner widening districts. but they failed because of their aspiration in the Peloponnesian Wars. Furthermore. the metropolis provinces were excessively competitory that none of them accepted one another. However. the Romans brought other communities under their control such as the Italian peninsula. They conquered in the first topographic point but so extended its citizenship to those of the conquered people. The Roman Empire lasted longer than the Greeks chiefly because their organized political accomplishments which maintained their control over those conquered people. Several parts had impacts on Western Europe. For illustration the official linguistic communication was Greek in the Hellenic Republic. As an Indo-germanic linguistic communication. it lasted from the Linear B from Mycenaean Greek and had a great influence throughout the household of Western European linguistic communications. What is more. the Roman roads which formed a footing for transit every bit good as communicating web in Western Europe. The Roman civilization did non act upon other states. but in a manner they have assorted several faiths and it was the cardinal civilization base in Western Europe. Most significantly. the Roman alphabet ( Latin Alphabet ) became a common authorship system were loosely used in Western Europe every bit good as the remainder of the universe in modern yearss.

Profit and Loss free essay sample

Profit and loss accounts, balance sheets Profit and loss accounts, balance sheets Two of the most important financial statements for a business are the Profit and Loss Account, and the Balance Sheet. The Profit and Loss Account shows the profit or loss of a business over a given period of time e. g. 3 months, 1 year, etc. In contrast, the Balance Sheet is like a photograph taken at an instant in time giving a picture of what the business owns and what the business owes at that moment in time. As we shall see it will always balance because what the business owns is financed by what the business owes. The Profit and Loss (PL account)Net profit takes account of other sources of income and expenditure that are not involved in normal operations e. g. interest paid on loans and interest received on having a positive balance in a bank account. We will write a custom essay sample on Profit and Loss or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Turnover is the value of sales made in a trading period. It is some eferred to as sale revenue and is calculated by the average price of items sold x the number sold. Cost of sales calculates the direct costs of manufacturing items, or buying in items to sell them on. Expenses are the overhead costs of running a business. These overheads cant be tied down to particular cost units. For example, it would be very difficult to calculate what fraction of the heating cost of a pen factory can be allocated to just one pen. The Balance Sheet is a statement showing the assets, liabilities and owners capital of a business at a particular Downloaded from The 100 Edition http://www. he100. co. uk moment in time, for example the year end. The Balance Sheet balances because the assets that a business possesses at a specific time have been financed either through the provision of capital by the owners or by the creation of external liabilities: Value of assets = Value of Liabilities Value of Owners capital. There are a number of things that we can see from looking at a balance sheet, for example: 1. The Net Assets of the business, i. e. the difference between the value of the assets and the value of the liabilities.A growth in net assets tends to indicate a growing business. 2. How solvent the business is. In other words, does it have enough assets that are short term, and hence easily converted into cash, to pay any pressing short-term liabilities. Case Example: A typical balance sheet will be set out in the following way (note that we use two columns. The first column is for minor calculations, the second column is for grand totals): Balance Sheet of Superior Traders, as at 31st December 2004 Fixed assets consist of those items that are kept within the business to create wealth over a period of time e. . machinery, equipment, vehicles, computers, etc. Current assets are used in the short period to generate income for a business. For example, in a manufacturing company like Kraft, stocks would represent products that have already been made and are waiting to be sold onto retailers. Typically stocks will be sold on credit for periods of one month, two months, or three months. Retailers buying stocks on credit from Kraft would become Krafts debtors. At the end of the credit period they will pay up in the form of cash, enabling Kraft to buy more raw materials to create further stocks.Creditors due within one year are the sums that a business owes money to in the short period otherwise known as current liabilities. Net current assets is a measure of how solvent or liquid a business is. Many businesses need to have working capital. Working capital is calculated by subtracting current liabilities from current assets: Working capital = Current assets Current liabilities Note that the figure for net current assets appear almost in the centre of a balance sheet, and is a figure that many people will look at first to check on the solvency of a business.Total assets current liabilities is a sum that appears in the balance sheet simply doing what the title suggests. Creditors due after more than one year shows the longer term liabilities of the bsiness. Total net assets is calculated by taking away all the liabilities (both current and long term) from all of the assets (both current and long term). Shareholders funds shows the value of the shareholders capital in the business. It will always be the same value as the total net assets and it balances the account. Downloaded from The 100 Profit and loss accounts, balance sheets Profit and loss accounts, balance sheetsTwo of the most important financial statements for a business are the Profit and Loss Account, and the Balance Sheet. The Profit and Loss Account shows the profit or loss of a business over a given period of time e. g. 3 months, 1 year, etc. In contrast, the Balance Sheet is like a photograph taken at an instant in time giving a picture of what the business owns and what the business owes at that moment in time. As we shall see it will always balance because what the business owns is financed by what the business owes. The Profit and Loss (PL account) One of the most important objectives of a business is to make a profit. The PL account shows the extent to which it has been successful in achieving this objective. Companies are expected to keep their PL accounts in certain formats. Typically the PL account will show the revenues received by a business and the costs involved in generating that revenue. In simple terms: Revenues Costs = Profits. A typical PL account will look like the following: Case Study: PL Account for Superior Traders as at 31/12/2004 You can find out the gross profit of a business by deducting cost of sales from turnover: ? 100,000 ? 50,000 = ? 0,000 You can find out the operating profit by deducting the expenses from the gross profit: ? 50,000 ? 30,000 = ? 20,000 You may also come across the term net profit. Operating profit is earned from carrying out a businesses normal operations e. g. producing confectionery, or selling Christmas cards. Net profit takes account of other sources of income and expenditure that are not involved in normal operations e. g. interest paid on loans and interest received on having a positive balance in a bank account. Turnover is the value of sales made in a trading period.It is sometimes referred to as sale revenue and is calculated by the average price of items sold x the number sold. Cost of sales calculates the direct costs of manufacturing items, or buying in items to sell them on. Expenses are the overhead costs of running a business. These overheads cant be tied down to particular cost units. For example, it would be very difficult to calculate what fraction of the heating cost of a pen factory can be allocated to just one pen. The Balance Sheet is a statement showing the assets, liabilities and owners capital of a business at a particular Downloaded from The Times 100 Edition oment in time, for example the year end. The Balance Sheet balances because the assets that a business possesses at a specific time have been financed either through the provision of capital by the owners or by the creation of external liabilities: Value of assets = Value of Liabilities Value of Owners capital. There are a number of things that we can see from looking at a balance sheet, for example: 1. The Net Assets of the business, i. e. the difference between the value of the assets and the value of the liabilities. A growth in net assets tends to indicate a growing business. Creditors due within one year are the sums that a business owes money to in the short period otherwise known as current liabilities. Net current assets is a measure of how solvent or liquid a business is. Many businesses need to have working capital. Working capital is calculated by subtracting current liabilities from current assets: Working capital = Current assets Current liabilities Note that the figure for net current assets appear almost in the centre of a balance sheet, and is a figure that many people will look at first to check on the solvency of a business. Total assets current liabilities is a sum that appears in the balance sheet simply doing what the title suggests. Creditors due after more than one year shows the longer term liabilities of the bsiness. Total net assets is calculated by taking away all the liabilities (both current and long term) from all of the assets (both current and long term). Shareholders funds shows the value of the shareholders capital in the business. It will always be the same value as the total net assets and it balances the account. Downloaded from The Times 100 Edition.

Lalchimiste essays

L'alchimiste essays Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy, has a dream about finding a treasure in the pyramids of Egypt. A gypsy woman and an old man claiming to be a mysterious king advise him to pursue it. "To realize one's destiny is a person's only obligation," the old man tells him. "And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." With the courage of an adventurer, Santiago sells his sheep and travels to Tangiers in Africa. After a thief steals his money, Santiago takes a job with a crystal merchant who unwittingly teaches Santiago important lessons for his long journey ahead. After working at the crystal shop for a year, Santiago earns enough money to cover his losses and return home. But then something unexpected happens. On a desert caravan, Santiago meets an intriguing Englishman. The Englishman's passion for knowledge and his relentless quest to uncover the secrets of alchemy inspire Santiago to pursue his own dream of finding the treasure. As the Englishman searches for the two hundred year old alchemist who resides in the desert oasis, Santiago falls in love with a young woman, Fatima. Exposed to the greatest and eternal alchemy of allloveSantiago thinks he has found the treasure. But the greatest test of all is yet to come. With the help of the alchemist, Santiago completes the last leg of his journey dangerous and infused with discoveries of the most profound kindto find that the treasure he was looking for was waiting for him in the place where he least expected. This story, timeless and entertaining, exotic yet simple, breaks down the journey we all take to find the most meaningful treasures in our lives into steps that are at once natural and magical. It is about the faith, power, and courage we all have within us to pursue the intricate path of a Personal Legend, a path charted by the mysterious magnet of destiny but obscured by distractions. Santiago shows how along ...

Heakthcare strategies Decision-making Tools Essay - 1

Heakthcare strategies Decision-making Tools - Essay Example In which case, the early phase requires creating a small but powerful team to guide the initiative. This is the ideal situation regardless of organization type (Kotter, 2007). Having senior-level management form the core of the group will create the needed sense of urgency. Kotter (2007), however, argued that even in these early days of implementing the strategic plan the guiding team needs to include members who are not part of the senior-level of management. These other members are particularly important for two reasons: to communicate the vision and message of change to their peers and to communicate the challenges and concerns faced by their peers with regards to implementing the strategic plan to senior management. The above approach will not be effective especially at the later stages of implementation when the need to communicate the new vision and strategy becomes mandatory. Ultimately, the strategic plan cannot be implemented without the participation of most of the employees in the organization. According to Kotter (2007) transformation is impossible unless hundreds or thousands of people are willing to help, often to the point of making short-term sacrifices. It is obvious that implementing any new vision will have some effect on employees’ normal activities. This means that employees need to be convinced to believe that useful change is possible with implementation of that strategic plan. Without credible communication, the hearts and minds of the staff will not be captured. This will be counterintuitive to the organization’s plan because when employees are neither fully convinced of senior management’s plan nor are the involved in it, they resist the change Moreover communication is achieved through both action and deeds. Keeping employees in the dark lowers the trust and confidence they have towards senior management. To ensure the successful implementation of this assisted living facility’s strategic

Types of Contracts and Performance-Based Acquisition Research Paper

Types of Contracts and Performance-Based Acquisition - Research Paper Example They are the most common form of contract and are used in majority of the contractual agreements. They are used when uncertainties are involved in contracts and they do not allow costs to be submitted with accuracy to a fixed price contract. It is a favorable contract in conditions where the outcome of the contract or the project is uncertain. A contract which has a written preliminary contractual instrument and which is able to authorize a specified contractor and can begin manufacturing supplies and in performing some specific services is called a letter contract. It could be used in circumstances where the interests of government demand that the contractor is given a binding level of commitment and contractor is able to start working instantly and is able to negotiate a contract in the specified time. Performance based contracts are not literally contracts but a specific acquisition method where requirements can be described by a performance work statement or a certain statement of objectives. Performance based contracts are made to ensure that contractors are able to meet quality levels and payment is related to the specified contract standards. The choice of which contract is to be chosen for vehicle purchase is related to general contract law. Parties to a contract are allowed to select the contract in which they have certain rights and obligations towards each other (Koffman, 2007). It is the most pivotal concept of contract through which parties are obligated to make promises and they are bound to follow those promises made. The ideal contract, which could be chosen for vehicle purchase, is performance-based contract as it portrays a sense of mutual consideration among the parties that may not be any direct or formal prerequisite for selection of a contractual law unless the parties to a contract agree to it. As mentioned before, this contract will ensure that contractors are able to

How Do Web Search Engines Work Information Technology Essay

How Do Web Search Engines Work Information Technology Essay Introduction A program that searches documents for specified keywords and returns a list of the documents where the keywords were found. Although search engine is really a general class of programs, the term is often used to specifically describe systems like Google,   Alta Vista and Excite that enable users to search for documents on the World Wide Web and USENET newsgroups. Typically, a search engine works by sending out a spider to fetch as many documents as possible. Another program, called an indexer, then reads these documents and creates an index based on the words contained in each document. Each search engine uses a proprietary algorithm to create its indices such that, ideally, only meaningful results are returned for each query. How Do Web Search Engines Work? Search engines are the key to finding specific information on the vast expanse of the World Wide Web. Without sophisticated search engines, it would be virtually impossible to locate anything on the Web without knowing a specific URL. But do you know how search engines work? And do you know what makes some search engines more effective than others? When people use the term search engine in relation to the Web, they are usually referring to the actual search forms that searches through databases of HTML documents, initially gathered by a robot. There are basically three types of search engines: Those that are powered by robots (called crawlers; ants or spiders) and those that are powered by human submissions; and those that are a hybrid of the two. Crawler-based search engines are those that use automated software agents (called crawlers) that visit a Web site, read the information on the actual site, read the sites meta tags and also follow the links that the site connects to performing indexing on all linked Web sites as well. The crawler returns all that information back to a central depository, where the data is indexed. The crawler will periodically return to the sites to check for any information that has changed. The frequency with which this happens is determined by the administrators of the search engine. Human-powered search engines rely on humans to submit information that is subsequently indexed and catalogued. Only information that is submitted is put into the index. In both cases, when you query a search engine to locate information, youre actually searching through the index that the search engine has created -you are not actually searching the Web. These indices are giant databases of information that is collected and stored and subsequently searched. This explains why sometimes a search on a commercial search engine, such as Yahoo! or Google, will return results that are, in fact, dead links. Since the search results are based on the index, if the index hasnt been updated since a Web page became invalid the search engine treats the page as still an active link even though it no longer is. It will remain that way until the index is updated. So why will the same search on different search engines produce different results? Part of the answer to that question is because not all indices are going to be exactly the same. It depends on what the spiders find or what the humans submitted. But more important, not every search engine uses the same algorithm to search through the indices. The algorithm is what the search engines use to determine the relevance of the information in the index to what the user is searching for. One of the elements that a search engine algorithm scans for is the frequency and location of keywords on a Web page. Those with higher frequency are typically considered more relevant. But search engine technology is becoming sophisticated in its attempt to discourage what is known as keyword stuffing, or spamdexing. Another common element that algorithms analyze is the way that pages link to other pages in the Web. By analyzing how pages link to each other, an engine can both determine what a page is about (if the keywords of the linked pages are similar to the keywords on the original page) and whether that page is considered important and deserving of a boost in ranking. Just as the technology is becoming increasingly sophisticated to ignore keyword stuffing, it is also becoming more savvy to Web masters who build artificial links into their sites in order to build an artificial ranking. Did You Know. The first tool for searching the Internet, created in 1990, was called Archie. It downloaded directory listings of all files located on public anonymous FTP servers; creating a searchable database of filenames. A year later Gopher was created. It indexed plain text documents. Veronica and Jughead came along to search Gophers index systems. The first actual Web search engine was developed by Matthew Gray in 1993 and was called Wandex. Basic Fundementals Of Search Engines A search engine operates, in the following order Web crawling Indexing Searching Web search engines work by storing information about many web pages, which they retrieve from the html itself. These pages are retrieved by a Web crawler (sometimes also known as a spider) an automated Web browser which follows every link on the site. Exclusions can be made by the use of robots.txt. The contents of each page are then analyzed to determine how it should be indexed (for example, words are extracted from the titles, headings, or special fields called meta tags). Data about web pages are stored in an index database for use in later queries. A query can be a single word. The purpose of an index is to allow information to be found as quickly as possible. Some search engines, such as Google, store all or part of the source page (referred to as a cache) as well as information about the web pages, whereas others, such as AltaVista, store every word of every page they find. This cached page always holds the actual search text since it is the one that was actually indexed, so it can be very useful when the content of the current page has been updated and the search terms are no longer in it. This problem might be considered to be a mild form of linkrot, and Googles handling of it increases usability by satisfying user expectations that the search terms will be on the returned webpage. This satisfies the principle of least astonishment since the user normally expects the search terms to be on the returned pages. Increased search relevance makes these cached pages very useful, even beyond the fact that they may contain data that may no longer be available elsewhere. When a user enters a query into a search engine (typically by using key words), the engine examines its index and provides a listing of best-matching web pages according to its criteria, usually with a short summary containing the documents title and sometimes parts of the text. The index is built from the information stored with the data and the method by which the information is indexed. Unfortunately, there are currently no known public search engines that allow documents to be searched by date. Most search engines support the use of the boolean operators AND, OR and NOT to further specify the search query. Boolean operators are for literal searches that allow the user to refine and extend the terms of the search. The engine looks for the words or phrases exactly as entered. Some search engines provide an advanced feature called proximity search which allows users to define the distance between keywords. There is also concept-based searching where the research involves using stati stical analysis on pages containing the words or phrases you search for. As well, natural language queries allow the user to type a question in the same form one would ask it to a human. A site like this would be ask.com. The usefulness of a search engine depends on the relevance of the result set it gives back. While there may be millions of web pages that include a particular word or phrase, some pages may be more relevant, popular, or authoritative than others. Most search engines employ methods to rank the results to provide the best results first. How a search engine decides which pages are the best matches, and what order the results should be shown in, varies widely from one engine to another. The methods also change over time as Internet usage changes and new techniques evolve. There are two main types of search engine that have evolved: one is a system of predefined and hierarchically ordered keywords that humans have programmed extensively. The other is a system that generates an inverted index by analyzing texts it locates. This second form relies much more heavily on the computer itself to do the bulk of the work. Most Web search engines are commercial ventures supported by advertising revenue and, as a result, some employ the practice of allowing advertisers to pay money to have their listings ranked higher in search results. Those search engines which do not accept money for their search engine results make money by running search related ads alongside the regular search engine results. The search engines make money every time someone clicks on one of these ads. Different types of search engines Aesop Search The Aesop spider looks for new meta tag to allow webmasters to automatically describe their site. AltaVista The default search results consist of GoTo and results from the Altavista spider (over 500M pages). Displays related searches. Offers translation services and multimedia searches. Ask Jeeves The polite butler Jeeves answers all your questions asked in plain English. If Jeeves doesnt understand your question, it gives you the top-results from other search engines. Brand New Sites Directory of just born sites (less than 6 months old) classified in 284 categories. Direct Hit Search engine which ranks its search results based on user popularity. Often provides good results for popular queries. Entireweb.com Search engine claiming over 80M documents. Excite Matching content from the Overture website is displayed first. After that come the search results from the Dogpile and directory results from ODP. Fast Search Search with a clear interface through a database of over 300 million web pages. Also offers FTP and MP3 search. First-Search.com Returns only the homepage of sites. Targeted at users who are searching for good sites, rather than particular pages. Google! Lists the results in the order of popularity, determined by the number of links from other sites. Frequently gives you right results first. All pages in the Google index are cached, and you can search for pages related to a specific page. HotBot An advanced search engine. There are many configurable options, both in simple as in advanced search mode. ILor search Allows users to create annotated comments on top of search results Lycos Displays matches from sites part of the Lycos Network and very popular sites first. Then follow Open Directory results, sometimes followed by results from the Lycos crawler. On the bottom there are links to relevant news articles and products to buy. Northern Light A search engine for professional web users. They have a general search engine, and a Special Collection of 4M journals/books/mags which are accessable on a pay-per-view basis. PageSeeker Search engine with an interactive interface. [Requires Flash] Raging Search No-nonsense search engine from Altavista. It even returns the same search results as Altavista. There are no banners or any other content that would distract you from your mission. 7Search.com Search results include web site information, such as email addresses, location, age and site popularity. (When available). You can choose to be notified when there are sites matching your criteria added to their database. SearchHippo A crisp and clean spider based web search with free PHP, XSLT and XML code for integration. SearchKing Search engine using searchers input to determine relevancy and placement and has instant indexing. Teoma Search Searches deliver pages grouped by subject and as a listing, seaches can be modified to search for an exact phrase and to include and exclude specific terms. TrueSearch Search engine actively removes dead links. WebCrawler Search engine and web directory. Displays matching categories first. After that come the results from the WebCraweler spider, without descriptions. WISEnut Up-to-date index on almost 1.5 billion pages, including site categorization and international search support. Yep A portal and search engine that ranks sites by popularity. Zerx You can view sites related to another site, or refine your existing search using that site. Google Search Engine Google Search, a web search engine, is the companys most popular service. According to market research published by comScore in November 2009, Google is the dominant search engine in the United States market, with a market share of 65.6%.Google indexes billions of web pages, so that users can search for the information they desire, through the use of keywords and operators. Despite its popularity, it has received criticism from a number of organizations. In 2003, The New York Times complained about Googles indexing, claiming that Googles caching of content on their site infringed on their copyright for the content. In this case, the United States District Court of Nevada ruled in favor of Google in Field v. Google and Parker v. Google. Furthermore, the publication 2600: The Hacker Quarterly has compiled a list of words that the web giants new instant search feature will not search. Google Watch has also criticized Googles PageRank algorithms, saying that they discriminate against new websites and favor established sites, and has made allegations about connections between Google and the NSA and the CIA. Despite criticism, the basic search engine has spread to specific services as well, including an image search engine, the Google News search site, Google Maps, and more. In early 2006, the company launched Google Video, which allowed users to upload, search, and watch videos from the Internet. In 2009, however, uploads to Google Video were discontinued so that Google could focus more on the search aspect of the service. The company even developed Google Desktop, a desktop search application used to search for files local to ones computer. Googles most recent development in search is their partnership with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to create Google Patents, which enables free access to information about patents and trademarks. One of the more controversial search services Google hosts is Google Books. The company began scanning books and uploading limited previews, and full books where allowed, into their new book search engine. The Authors Guild, a group that represents 8,000 U.S. authors, filed a class action suit in a Manhattan federal court against Google in 2005 over this new service. Google replied that it is in compliance with all existing and historical applications of copyright laws regarding books. Google eventually reached a revised settlement in 2009 to limit its scans to books from the U.S., the U.K., Australia and Canada. Furthermore, the Paris Civil Court ruled against Google in late 2009, asking them to remove the works of La Martinià ¨re (Éditions du Seuil) from their database. In competition with Amazon.com, Google plans to sell digital versions of new books.Similarly, in response to newcomer Bing, on July 21, 2010, Google updated their image search to display a streaming sequence of thumbnails that enlarge when pointed at. Though web searches still appear in a batch per page format, on July 23, 2010, dictionary definitions for certain English words began appearing above the linked results for web searches. Productivity tools In addition to its standard web search services, Google has released over the years a number of online productivity tools. Gmail, a free webmail service provided by Google, was launched as an invitation-only beta program on April 1, 2004, and became available to the general public on February 7, 2007. The service was upgraded from beta status on July 7, 2009, at which time it had 146 million users monthly.The service would be the first online email service with one gigabyte of storage, and the first to keep emails from the same conversation together in one thread, similar to an Internet forum. The service currently offers over 7400 MB of free storage with additional storage ranging from 20 GB to 16 TB available for US$0.25 per 1 GB per year. Furthermore, software developers know Gmail for its pioneering use of AJAX, a programming technique that allows web pages to be interactive without refreshing the browser. One criticism of Gmail has been the potential for data disclosure, a risk associated with many online web applications. Steve Ballmer (Microsofts CEO),Liz Figueroa,Mark Rasch, and the editors of Google Watch believe the processing of email message content goes beyond proper use, but Google claims that mail sent to or from Gmail is never read by a human being beyond the account holder, and is only used to improve relevance of advertisements. Google Docs, another part of Googles productivity suite, allows users to create, edit, and collaborate on documents in an online environment, not dissimilar to Microsoft Word. The service was originally called Writely, but was obtained by Google on March 9, 2006, where it was released as an invitation-only preview.On June 6 after the acquisition, Google created an experimental spreadsheet editing program, which would be combined with Google Docs on October 10. A program to edit presentations would complete the set on September 17, 2007, before all three services were taken out of beta along with Gmail, Google Calendar and all products from the Google Apps Suite on July 7, 2009. Enterprise products Google entered the enterprise market in February 2002 with the launch of its Google Search Appliance, targeted toward providing search technology for larger organizations. Google launched the Mini three years later, which was targeted at smaller organizations. Late in 2006, Google began to sell Custom Search Business Edition, providing customers with an advertising-free window into Google.coms index. The service was renamed Google Site Search in 2008. Another one of Googles enterprise products is Google Apps Premier Edition. The service, and its accompanying Google Apps Education Edition and Standard Edition, allow companies, schools, and other organizations to bring Googles online applications, such as Gmail and Google Documents, into their own domain. The Premier Edition specifically includes extras over the Standard Edition such as more disk space, API access, and premium support, and it costs $50 per user per year. A large implementation of Google Apps with 38,000 users is at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. In the same year Google Apps was launched, Google acquired Postini and proceeded to integrate the companys security technologies into Google Apps under the name Google Postini Services. Company Perspectives: Googles founders have often stated that the company is not serious about anything but search. They built a company around the idea that work should be challenging and the challenge should be fun. To that end, Googles culture is unlike any in corporate America, and its not because of the ubiquitous lava lamps and large rubber balls, or the fact that the companys chef used to cook for the Grateful Dead. In the same way Google puts users first when it comes to our online service, Google Inc. puts employees first when it comes to daily life in our Googleplex headquarters. There is an emphasis on team achievements and pride in individual accomplishments that contribute to the companys overall success. Ideas are traded, tested and put into practice with an alacrity that can be dizzying. Meetings that would take hours elsewhere are frequently little more than a conversation in line for lunch and few walls separate those who write the code from those who write the checks. This highly communi cative environment fosters a productivity and camaraderie fueled by the realization that millions of people rely on Google results. Give the proper tools to a group of people who like to make a difference, and they will. Key Dates: 1995: Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page meet at Stanford University. 1997: BackRub, the precursor to the Google search engine, is founded. 1998: Google is incorporated and moves into its first office in a Menlo Park, California, garage. 1999: Google moves its headquarters to Palo Alto, California, and later to Mountain View, California; Red Hat becomes Googles first commercial customer. 2000: Yahoo! Internet Life magazine names Google the Best Search Engine on the Internet; Google becomes the largest search engine on the Web and launches the Google Toolbar. 2001: Google acquires Deja.coms Usenet archive and launches Google PhoneBook; Dr. Eric Schmidt joins Google as chairman of the board of directors and is later appointed CEO. 2002: Google launches the Google Search Appliance, AdWords Select, the 2001 Search Engine Awards, and Google Compute. Conclusion Online research has become an essential skill for writers. What typically took place in libraries, by phone calls or visits to experts in the field is being changed because of the Internet. Experts can sometimes be contacted by email and information, whether it is addresses, phone numbers, or detailed specifics on a certain subject, can be accessed on the World Wide Web. Search Engines have become the most important tools in locating this information, so it is important to know how to use them effectively. Search skills can be developed through practice in using the search engines and by reading the help pages provided by the search engines themselves. Over time, you will learn which search engine is good for pulling up what kind of information. This article will provide a general overview of the various search engines and some of their advanced search features which will help you with your online research.