ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
The article “No Comfort In Comfort Foods During Tough Economic Times” describes consumer behavior during times of crisis and difficult financial situation. The author underlines that the long-term value strategy is built on creating strong relationships with customers and anticipating their requirements. A significant new challenge is emerging with regard to value. Companies must now strategize with respect to both the physical product and the “virtual” product, such as information. Overlaps in physical and virtual product occur in many industries, particularly those where a tangible product, such as an automobile, and an intangible product, such as service advice or computer-based information support, coexists. For many individuals and households, demands on time because of longer work days and work weeks, the necessity of having multi-income earners, and the complexibility and choices offered to families in general have increased the value of speed. Speed is what drives services as varied as photo processing, car rental check-in, package and mail delivery, pizza delivery, and eyeglasses. Cars, computers, radar detectors, mortgage loans–the list of products and services is lengthy–have all had product development or delivery times slashed. Increasingly, speed is becoming a value differentiator in business-to-business and other consumer services. Whether it is restaurants, brands of toilet tissue, training seminars, office products, insurance policies, computers, or automobiles, choice is available for virtually every product and service. “When people are in a state of upheaval, they’re more likely to choose an unfamiliar food such as “camembert-and-plum crisps” from Britain rather than good old Lay’s potato chips” (“No Comfort In Comfort Foods During Tough Economic Times” 2009). With deregulation, choice is also a current or near-term reality in telecommunications, home entertainment, and utilities. Choice represents tremendous strategic opportunity, but also tremendous challenge, because, while companies are offering value to their customers, so are competitors. Rather than one-up competitors with options (which customers may not want), one approach some companies have taken is, as previously discussed, “mass customization,” where they can deliver products or services precisely to customers’ specifications. Motorola does this with pagers, Levi Strauss with blue jeans, Andersen with Windows, and Datavision with video tapes. Being ahead of the curve on strategic choice issues also means in-depth and continuing awareness of customer needs, problems, expectations, and complaints. Tucker cites the example of all-suites hotels, a choice opportunity that has had rather limited success because relatively few travelers needed the extra r
The issue of global warming nowadays to a certain extent affects every country in the world. Some of them may even face disappearance from the Earth. Jon Shenk’s 2011 documentary The Island President depicts the tragedy of the small island nation of the Maldives endangered by the global rise in sea level. The story of President Mohamed Nasheed’s strivings reflects how hard but still possible it is for a developing country to oppose the planet destruction. The film covers the first year of Nasheed’s presidency in 2009. Nasheed became the first democratically elected president of the country and an ardent advocate of sustainable environmental policy. From the beginning of this term, Nasheed developed a plan for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the Maldives for the following decade. Those measures were vital because the Maldives is situated at a very low altitude and a slight increase in the sea level resulting from the global warming and greenhouse effect put the country in danger of being flooded (Carrington par. 3). Nasheed planned that all the energy in the country should be solar and wind. He argued that the cost of switching to renewables would be less than the money that the Maldives were spending on energy. As a part of his environmental campaign, Nasheed conducted his first ministerial meeting under the water. In 2009, Nasheed traveled to the Copenhagen Climate Summit where he tried to draw the attention of the world superpowers to the fact that they should reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Thanks to Nasheed’s persistence and firmness in his beliefs he managed to agree with the US, China, and India on gas reduction. His efforts brought the “climate change issue back into political fashion” (Bradshaw par. 1). The Island President is one of the brightest depictions of the rising problem of environmental refugees. Environmental refugees “are defined as those people who have been forced to leave their traditional habitat, temporarily or permanently, because of a marked environmental disruption that jeopardizes their existence and/or seriously affected the quality of their life” (Westra 3). As a coastal state, the Maldives are a likely source of refugees fleeing from the rising sea level. Scientists suggest that under current pollution level and continuing temperature rise the Maldives may disappear in the next 30 years (Sykes par. 1). It may be almost impossible for nearly three hundred fifty thousand of Maldivian people to migrate anywhere. The impending threat of submergence of the whole country under the ocean may lead to social uprisings, cultural and spiritual devastation, and crash of economic ties (Cafaro 109). Moreover, the legal state of environmental refugees is very hard to define. If the state ceases to exist because of f
Introduction The main inspiration behind the making of TV programs can be considered to a very small extent to be in the best interests of the viewers. The fact that Stephen Johnson does not even account for the sixteen minutes of commercial breaks per every episode of ‘24’ is a clear indication that his article is basically aimed at luring more and more people to watch TV for the benefit of the producers and the broadcasters. It is only the millions that are made through the adverts that interrupt highly rated shows like ‘24’, which matter to the producers and nothing like improving the minds of the viewers. To me there is no way that dedicating a number of hours to sit and watch TV is going to be of any intellectual benefit to an individual. In this paper, I will give provide impeccable evidence as to why watching TV as argued by Johnson will not improve anyone’s thinking capacity or knowledge for that matter. Why Watching TV Cannot Make You Smarter Johnson takes time to clear the controversies that arose after a given episode of the ‘24’ show, which brought heated debates on how Muslims were portrayed as terrorists. After this he proceeds to try and show us how the show helps in improving our thinking through being able to conceptualize the many story threads that are intertwined in the plot. This is a clear indication that Johnson makes an assumption that the content that makes the story is not as important as the manner in which the story is told. To me, fiction makes sense if it has a clear connection with reality. Johnson tends to assume that the world as portrayed in the ‘24’ has no connection with the real world. What kind of knowledge then are we compelled to consume if the content we see on prime time TV highlights the endorsement of immoral practices such as the use of torture? With most of the content on television being majorly violence and obscenity, I beg to disagree with Johnson’s arguments. As in the case of the ‘24’ in relation to how it can make me smarter, I believe that the complexities of plot lines and the quick paced action is an effort to make viewers concentrate less on the content of the show. To me, it is like comparing of worded music and no-worded music in passing some information. As Dana Stephens puts it, “Johnson’s claim for television as a tool for brain enhancement is deeply, hilariously bogus” (296). There is no way that by watching the numerous confusions presented in most highly rated TV shows you will increase your thinking capacity. If anything, what watching a lot of TV can do to you is implanting the confusions into your mind. The confusing explanations that Stephen Johnson give about the intertwined story lines in TV shows reflect just how confused you can end up while trying to enhance your brain by watching shows such as the ‘24’ or even ‘The sopranos.’ Johnson (280), talks
The book titled “The Varieties of Religious Experience” by William James was first published in 1902 and is still published regularly in various languages. The author is the 19 th century Harvard psychologist and philosopher, concerned through all his life with the problems of the existence of a human on Earth and the role of religion in human’s life. The questions spoken about in this book are quite interesting and important for any representative of a civilized human society because religion is an integral part of life, especially when a person faces some obstacles on his way. In this case religion becomes the last resort for a human being who has already lost all the trust in people and can hope only for the divine help. In this work we are going to try to examine the actual importance of religion in human’s life, exemplifying our opinions with the statements and thoughts of William James. We will speculate on the point whether the religion contributes positively to an adult life or not, try to find out if it gives people hopes, helps them to live esthetically and to get so badly wished peace of mind. The first reason to prove the crucial importance of religion for any o us can be that religion gives people hopes. Let us put the statement under the scope and analyze it in trying to investigate its essence. From one hand, it is nice when someone finds the “substance” where he feels peaceful, even if this finding needed some difficulties to have happened in a person’s life to be made. But from the other hand, despite the fact that religion does give people hopes, if we want to argue we can say that it is a person who looks for hope in religion when there is no other source of hope. The example here can be a person with a serious disease, doctors can not help him so his choice is to give up or try to fight the problem with the help of religion, with the help of faith. In the history of the mankind the people choosing the second alternative are known as Mind-Cure Movements, social groups promoting positive thinking as the way of curing diseases and depressions(William James, Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature, 2002). But in other words such a person can be called a timeserver – he or she would not come to religion if there were any other help in a particular situation. It seems at least unfair in relation to the religion, to that divine power the person addresses his prayers to. And in connection to this question of decency here comes the second point – does religion help to live ethically if some people, as is exemplified above, change their views with no hesitation and no promise not to change the religion for something else if such a necessity appears with the purpose to satisfy the needs of the person? Many religious people are really ethically conditioned and well-bred in their behavior but it is probably much more connected with their own selves rather then with their religious views. The history gives us lots of examples of crimes and inhumane deeds of religious people, even religious leaders – the crusades, religious wars in France and Germany in the Medieval tim
Executive Summary Planning for hazard preparedness and mitigation is a crucial step to preventing casualties and severe damage in case of a disaster. While some communities only face one or two threats, other areas have an increased risk of emergency situations and thus require thorough planning. The present paper provides recommendations for hazard preparedness and mitigation for Miami, Florida. Based on scholarly articles and official publications, it is suggested that the community will benefit from risk and vulnerability assessments, the implementation of new technologies, citizen education, and structural damage prevention methods. Applying the proposed strategies would assist the local government in mitigating the key hazards and reducing the risk of damage and casualties. Introduction Emergency management planning is a critical tool that can help to save lives in dangerous circumstances. It is particularly important to implement effective preparedness and mitigation plans in areas that are at a high risk of a hazardous event. Miami, Florida, is a large community that is located in the South-East of the United States, on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. Due to its geographic position and climate, Miami is at risk for a number of hazards, including floods, hurricanes, storms, and wildfires, and there are specific mitigation and preparedness strategies to address these threats. Methodology In order to perform analysis, the information will be gathered from official and scholarly sources. First, to identify the types of hazards that are prominent in the area, the formal emergency mitigation plan for Miami-Dade County will be consulted. Then, scholarly literature and official resources will be searched for preparedness and mitigation strategies relevant to the identified hazards. The information will be coded for common themes to produce a high-quality summary of results. The outcomes will then be interpreted and included in the recommended preparedness and mitigation strategies. The chosen approach will help to provide evidence-based recommendations that could be applied to improve emergency management in the community and reduce damage in case of a hazard. Types and Descriptions of Hazards The information provided in the Local Mitigation Strategy reveals that the Miami-Dade area is at risk for at least four major environmental hazards: floods, hurricanes, storms, and wildfires (Perkins, 2018). This means that a comprehensive strategy is required to ensure adequate preparedness for and response to all hazards. A
One of the basic goals for the master’s degree students is the continued and permanent self-improvement in both personal and professional aspects (McClellan & Stringer, 2009, p. 189). If only the latter point is considered, the best way to achieve it, i. e. develop the knowledge and skills, is to participate in the events that facilitate the experience sharing and communication processes between the professionals from various areas of knowledge. Thus, professional associations’ conferences and meetings are the best ways to enhance one’s professional development. Eastern Michigan University has recently held one of such conferences titled Regional Reacting to the Past Conference (October 16 th – 18 th , 2009). The participation in this conference was a great opportunity for the continued self-development and professional improvement in the aspects of the knowledge in history, understanding the causes of certain historic events, and reacting to the activities of the prominent historic personalities. Track B of the conference, for example, was dedicated to one of the most controversial moments in the history of mankind, i. e. the time when India was about to obtain its independence from Great Britain and start independent development. The fact that the conference is structured in the form of a set of games involving the conference visitors to participate and feel the atmosphere of the past adds greatly to the educational value of the conference (MacKinnon & Associates, 2004, p. 127). Moreover, the great emphasis on the role of personality in the mentioned moment in Indian history is also one of the points of the conference that allow speaking about its value as the events facilitating the professional development of its every single participant. The already mentioned Track B of the conference put special emphasis on the personality of Gandhi for the process of India’s gaining its independence and settling its numerous racial, political, and religious conflicts. Apart from purely historical meaning, this fact adds to the personal development potential of the conference visitor once again stressing the role of self-improvement and the role of personality in any historic process thus encouraging students to improve. Needless to say, the conference dedicated to such a difficult topic as reacting to the past displayed come negative features, especially in respect to the points discussed. In more detail, Track B, apart from the mentioned historic aspects of Indian independence, discussed the tragic moments of the period associated mainly with the lack of religious and racial tolerance and the bloody outcomes of the associated conflicts. However, the negative aspects of the conference cannot outweigh the educational and developmental potential that this meeting of professionals bears for its every participant and thus fulfills the function of any associations’ conference or meeting. Thus, the importance of the associations’ conferences and meetings is obvious as these gatherings of profes
In his study of the expansion of the Cotton Empire, Sven Beckert continues drawing parallels between what was the first world-encompassing trade product, and modern globalism. The main statement of chapter 8, which he puts forth, is that cotton trade was the predecessor of the global economy as we know it, and served as a foundation for numerous practices and economic institutions. This paper will focus on the analysis of Beckert’s arguments, which he used to support that claim. The modern economy is a world-spanning supply chain, where certain countries produce and supply raw materials, industrial countries work with it to create goods, and post-industrial countries create advanced technology that it sells to industrial countries. The same chain can be perceived in the cotton empire – cotton is grown in the USA using extensive slave labor, then it is shipped to Liverpool and used to create cotton fabrics, after which these fabrics are shipped to China and India, where labor is cheap and allows for producing cheap, durable, and reliable clothes. If we look at the majority of modern industries, the situation is remarkably similar, with China and India still used as the source of cheap labor. As Beckert remarked in his writings, “Never before had any industry connected the activities of so many growers, manufacturers, and consumers across such vast distances.” An alliance between war capitalism and industrial capitalism is what allowed this system to flourish. War capitalism provided lands and cheap labor in the form of slavery and subjugated markets that were otherwise closed. Industrial capitalism, on the other hand, provided the industrial might and skilled labor to turn the results of raw menial labor into advanced products of civilization. According to Beckert, “for the marriage between slavery and industry to succeed, however, first, merchants had to profitably transmit the patterns of machine production and industrial capitalism into the global countryside.” This system benefited everyone – the slavers of the New World and the industrial magnates of the Old World. The only ones that did not benefit from it were the slaves. If we continue to draw parallels between the empire of cotton and the modern globalized economy, we will find even more similarities. For instance, the evolution of the world banking system was spurred by the need of merchants and planters to take loans and make investments into prospective enterprises. The very first Cotton Exchange was founded in Liverpool – the predecessor of Wall Street. Merchants became more specialized in their trades due to the fragmentation of the vast and enormous cotton empire – becoming experts in their areas or regions. Another argument that Beckert offers in support of his statement is the fact that information became an invaluable commodity. With stock prices on cotton rising and falling, and deals becoming risky due to a great abundance of fraud and unreliable one-day companies, reputati
Introduction and Brief Description of Businesses GoPro is a technology company. It was founded in 2002 in the United States. The company specialises in manufacturing action cameras and consumer drones, developing a mobile app, and producing accessories. At the same time, it offers software for editing videos. As for now, GoPro is an international company with revenues over $1,5 billion and almost $55 million of income. Vision and Mission Statements According to the company’s vision, GoPro is driven by dreams and strives for creating products, which would inspire people to become involved in adventures and create experiences. As for the mission, the company’s objective is to offer cameras and video-editing software, which would be helpful for catching the most astonishing moments and adventures and sharing them with the world. These mission and vision statements correspond with company’s product design and a variety of cameras offered by it. So, they are positively connected to its performance. External Assessment Porter Five Forces Analysis   * Industry rivalry – high due to quick development and large size of the industry and a number of substitutes offered by rivals. Primary competitors – Sony, Apple, iON, Garmin, Xiaomi, etc. Three types of rivals – brand, product, and generic competitors;   * Bargaining power of buyers – moderate because cameras are pricey and there are numerous affordable substitutes, i.e. customers choose manufacturers of action cameras based on their financial status and budget;   * Bargaining power of suppliers – low, as the company has an opportunity to switch to other manufacturers in case of necessity;   * Threat of new entrants – moderate, as the industry is developing quickly and competitors are becoming involved in offering substitutes. Still, GoPro is a recognizable brand, which is synonymous with a particular image.   * Threat of substitutes – high. Even though substitutes are of lower quality, they are as well cheaper. PESTEL   * P – political factors: GoPro experiences no governmental intervention and environments in all countries of cooperation are politically stable;   * E – economic factors: constant growth of population, which contributes to potential expansion of consumer base; detrimental influence in case of economic recession due to dependence upon consumers;   * S – social factors: a promotion of GoPro lifestyle – a specific mix of amateur and professional sports. It is promoted via social networks, thus creating a unique GoPro culture;   * T – technological factors: exceptional quality of offered cameras, advanced technologies, mobile app, Instagram account, and YouTube channel;   * E – environmental factors: GoPro launched an educative initiative aimed at increasing awareness of environmental issues;   * L – legal factors: international corporation, which operates based on customs and trade agreements. Success Factors   * Overall brand recognition;   * Advanced technology;   * Developed system of distribution channels. Opportunities   * Offering both affordable and luxury segment products;   * Further expansion of distribution channels around the glo