ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Introduction The Iron Curtain is one of the historical aspects considered when focusing on World War II and the Cold War. Different countries engaged in conflicts, which led to the development of political boundary that alienated European countries into discrete regions. The Iron Curtain primarily involved the Soviet Union blocking some European countries from accessing their satellites. The Soviet Union ensured that the East side of the Iron Curtain connected its allies. The military was also involved in the Iron Curtain since alliances were developed on both sides. The Iron Curtain impacted the economy since various countries operated market finances with their allies, leading to limited trades between nations from the East and West. Immigration restrictions were enacted since the movement of people from the East to the West was restricted. Therefore, one can focus on the various issues involved during the Iron Curtain period and how they relate to contemporary problems. The Identification of the Historical Figure and Background Different events in various countries characterized the Iron Curtain. It was developed in 1946 and ended in 1991 after the Cold War (Burohaima Lobna, 2016). 1 Although many people knew the phrase, its use by Winston Churchill during a speech in Missouri in 1946 increased its popularity (Burohaima Lobna, 2016). 2 One of the Iron Curtain events is the Cold War since it was extended to the airwaves and led to changes in relationships among countries. It primarily involved the Soviet Union, the US, and their respective allies. Thus, the Soviet Union ensured that it heightened its isolation with the non-communist states. Surprisingly, many people claimed that Churchill’s speech increased tension in many countries since more people learned about the Iron Curtain. The expansion of the Soviet Union was addressed, creating awareness in the world. Moreover, many people termed the Churchill’s event as the Iron Curtain Speech since it focused on limiting the Soviet Union from its extension of power without any constraint. Churchill encouraged the US and the UK to unite and ensure that they ended the actions that the Soviet Union was exercising (Larres Klaus, 2018). 3 Thus, the speech’s popularity led many people from the West to learn and accept the metaphor. Stalin heard about Winston’s speech and responded in the Pravda newspaper, where he accused him of warmongering. Stalin defended the Soviet Union claiming that Eastern European states had a strong relationship with his nation and their aim was to safeguard against another invasion (Larres Klaus, 2018). 4 Additionally, he claimed that Churchill created conflicts in Eastern European states and wanted more countries to invade the Soviet Union. Stalin also accused Churchill of criticizing the Soviet Union’s agenda for protecting its territories. A decline in economic development is another factor that was experienced d
Passion is the leading motive in Shakespeare’s Othello and Marquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold . Though the protagonists of the stories regard their feelings as love, the analysis of their actions reveals that their motives are dictated more by selfish passion than by pure and altruistic love. In Othello , the main protagonist is overwhelmed by strong feelings resulting in adverse consequences. It appears that the feelings and actions of Othello are dictated by passion rather than by love. Love is free of selfishness and manifestations of possessive instinct while Othello’s actions are encouraged by his egoism and willingness to be the only master of Desdemona’s body and soul. Though first he truly falls in love with Desdemona, later the strong jealousy overweighs his love and turns him from a loving husband into a passionate one. Othello is a great example of how passion provoked by jealousy can uncover the dark side of the personality. Othello’s unwillingness to listen to Desdemona’s explanations revealing her innocence, obsession with searching for the proves of her unfaithfulness, and inability to judge the events logically demonstrate that Othello’s mind is severely darkened by the devastating jealousy, which is typical of passion. Shakespeare demonstrates the difference between passion and love by the example of Othello, whose devastating passion makes him selfish and destroys his love to Desdemona, whose feelings are altruistic and free of egoism. Iago is another hero of the play driven by passion provoked by jealousy. Though there is a lack of explanations of his motifs, he appears to be guided by jealousy. He is jealous because he thinks Othello has seduced his wife and because of the Moor’s fame and young, beautiful wife. Shakespeare uses this character to reveal how the passion for revenge can drive the person to commit the crimes and destroy the lives of innocent people. In Chronicle of a Death Foretold , Marquez pictures the number of protagonists driven by passion. The passion for honor overshadows love for most characters of the story, as honor is valued much higher than love by the inhabitants of the city. The Vicario brothers serve as an example of such priorities in the society. Prior to the wedding, they do not care about the sister’s feelings and encourage her to marry Bayardo without love. They also pay little attention
One is watching the news or reading the latest article from Forbes, and you see the terms “business” and “economics” used interchangeably; one may wonder about the differences. Business and economics are similar in that they are supplements to each other, both dealing with the process of creating products and services and selling them to generate output. These are fields of study that are closely related and include a range of shared subtopics, such as enterprises, marketing, finance, manufacturing, and banking. Both are social sciences that focus on financial measurement and analysis, focusing on variables that impact the market and also focus on short- and long-term projections, as well as the inner workings of various industries. Finally, both business and economics tend to focus on various problems facing the nation, its citizens, government, and private enterprises (Vaidya). However, there are some differences between economics and business, which are based on their conceptual purpose. Economics is a study focusing on understanding human behavior and, in turn, how that reflects on the broader economic elements of whole nations. Meanwhile, business is aimed at studying the process of the exchange of goods and money specifically, and all the related elements starting from production to the final sale, and how a specific enterprise fulfills this process. It can be argued that business is a subset of economics, as the human behavior in that exchange of goods is a point of focus (Casson). A major difference is in concepts, economics deals with theories and broad elements of the economy, such as supply and demand, interest rate, and international trade. While these undoubtedly impact business, both individual entities and as a field of study, business focuses on the process of wealth creation within the context of the economy and typically applies practical theories. Economics focuses on and attempts to maximize the welfare of society, while business is centered on its shareholders. Both face different issues, with economics encompassing poverty, unemployment, taxation, and federal expenditure, while business focuses on product positioning and differentiation, marketing, growth or lack thereof of profitability, and individual or industry performance (Gitman et al.). While business and economics share many commonalities, their conceptual and practical differences make them distinct sciences. Works Cited Casson, Mark. The Theory of International Business . Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. Gitman, Lawrence J., et al. Introduction to Business . OpenStax. 2018. Web. Vaidya, Dheeraj. “Difference Between Economics and Business.” WallStreetMojo , Web.
When evaluating the value and performance of a business entity, stakeholders are more concerned on the monetary value that their management team has been able to attain. When using this notion, there is tendency that non-financial benefits or performance of a firm may be ignored. The use financial data have limitations as a measure of company performance; they only focus on one area of the many aspects that needs to be considered. According to balanced scorecard (BSC) management theory, the performance of a company should involve more than the financial part of it, it should address both financial and non financial parameters (Armstrong, 2006). The hospitality industry is one of the world’s most competitive industries, firms operating in the industry need to focus on their financial gain as well as their non financial part of performance. Stakeholders when deciding whether a certain manager in the industry is performing effectively, they need to have a balance scorecard policy in their systems. With over 1500 outlets across 38 states, chic-fil-A Inc. is the United States’ second largest chicken-based restaurant chain with an estimated value of $1billion, to evaluate its performance, management have implemented a balance scorecard policy. This paper discusses how balance scorecard has been adopted in the company; it will evaluate the management strategy approach and offer recommendations on how they would improve it further. Brief information about the company The company’s success is built around the Chick-fil-A sandwich invented in the 1960s by the establishment’s founder Truett Cathy. It’s a private company based in Atlanta, incorporated in 1964 and currently employing over 57,000 people. The 2009 sales revenue amounted to $ 3.2b representing an 8.6% rise over the previous year’s, with a 2.54% rise in same store sales. Chick-fil-A Inc. dates back to 1946, when two brothers Truett and Ben Cathy, opened a small restaurant called Dwarf House in Hapeville, southern Atlanta, at the cost of $10600. In 1982, other restaurants begun branding and selling their own chicken sandwiches which took away a huge chunk of the company’s clientele, and in an effort to win back the customers, Chick-fil-A put out coupons in newspapers which drew more responses than had been anticipated leading into massive losses for the company, coupled with the delays in the construction industry, a crisis that led into the development of the company’s corporate purpose. It recognized the importance of the Christian roots and faith to the organization which while not seeking to impose their faith on the team members and the clients but to influence them through their exemplary lifestyles, services and products. According to its mission statement, Chick-fil-A endeavors to become ‘The Best’ among America’s fast foods restaurants. while their corporate purpose is “to glorify God by being faithful stewards of whatever is entrusted to them, and to positively influence all people that come in conduct with Chick-fil-A” (Chick-fil-A, 2011). The
Introduction Medicare has two sources of funding as Academy of Actuaries (1996 p. 6) explains. The first and the major source is the allocation from the federal budget while the rest of funding is derived from deductions from social security funds and its premiums. Recently, Medicare has not been receiving sufficient funding from the above sources. Consequently, this program has encountered financial and other operational problems that have left its budget in huge deficit. There seems to be minimal action to take by responsible organizations in mitigating the impacts of these problems, leaving the future of this program at stake. This paper addresses some of these problems and the impact they have to the beneficiaries of Medicare program. In addition, it provides and suggests solutions that could be put in place to arrest the situation affecting Medicare program. Medicare problems Owing to the impeding problems, the Medicare program is not going to be sustainable in the near future unless significant measures are taken. To start with, the current funding of beneficiaries by this program does not take into consideration the diversity existing within the senior citizens population. As McKenzie and colleagues (2008, p 445) explains, it allocates Medicare benefits equally to the senior citizens who are 65 years and above. As such, this plan fails to consider that there are differences in health care needs for the senior citizens aged 80 from those who are 65 year of age. To be more specific, there is likelihood for a person aged 80 years to experience health problems more than a younger person aged 65. As a result, this plan is unfair not to the recipients alone but even to the doctors who offer these medical services. According to McKenzie et al (2008, p 445), as the number of senior citizens who are retiring increases, the health care costs have been rising rapidly. Similarly, Medicare liabilities have been escalating with time. At the same time the funding of the health care benefits from the employers is decreasing with even some abandoning it. It is possible that people are going to lose as it becomes more and more expensive. According to the 1995 trustee report, (as cited in American Academy of Actuaries, 1996 p. 6), “in the 35 years (from 1995), the Medicare program income will be sufficient to pay only 47% of the program’s cost and only 35 % of its costs over the last 25 years of that period if the current trend persists.” It is possible to sustain the Medicare program services intact through the support of the federal budget. But as McKenzie, J. F et al (2008, p 445) explains, the federal budget is already experiencing crises with the existing liabilities of this program and there is no likelihood of such choice in the near future. As the rate of healthcare spending increase, policy makers and third party payers will be forced to evaluate new cost-control solutions. As America
Introduction Apple Inc. commenced as the ideas of one individual, Steve Jobs in the late 1970s but now it has grown to become a multinational company that has changed the manner in which people think, interact, communicate, entertain themselves and so on. The company main focus during its days of inception was the I.T industry (Khan, Alam and Alam 2015). However, due to intense competition, Apple Inc. shifted its focus to consumer products such as television sets, cell phones, tables, laptops and desktops. However, the road to success for this company has not been smooth. Apple has faced numerous challenges in the process of its growth. In response, the company has come up with innovative and creative strategies, developed a strong organization culture that aim at achieving its mission and vision, and carefully analyzed feedback and criticism of its products and services. With this in mind, this paper will critically analyze the concepts of creativity and innovation in Apple Inc., the impact of transformational leadership on creativity and innovation, and finally focus on how Apple’s transformational leaders analyze and utilize information in the VUCA (Volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity). With this information, this paper will come up with recommendation that will aim at enhancing operations within Apple Inc. to enhance the competitive advantage that it has over its rival firms in a bid of realizing its operational goals and objectives. Creativity and Innovation Agbor (2008) asserted that culture, structure, strategy, and technology are critical in the process of ensuring success in any organization. However, in the 21 st century, the environment in which firms are operating in have become much more dynamic and require different approaches to achieve competitive advantage. In this respect, Agbor (2008) stated that creativity and innovation are the most important ingredients in ensuring organizational success for contemporary firms. However, for creativity and innovation to be successfully implemented in any given organization, organizational leaders have to ensure that the firm has an environment that will support this approach (Agbor 2008). It is as a result of this fact that Agbor (2008) concluded that leadership could thus be considered as the source and catalyst for creativity and innovation in contemporary firms. Therefore, creativity in any organization is thus determined by the organizational structure and culture that in turn affects the overall innovation process of a given entity. The models used by many organizations in the past have proven not to be effective enough to guarantee success and competitive advantage in the 21 st century. Contemporary firms operate in a dynamic environment that is characterized by rapidly evolving technology, changes in consumer tastes and preferences, globalization, market uncertainties and so on (Jamali, Khoury and Sahyoun 2006). During the 20 th century, firms were able to maintain a desirable level of success, profitability, and market share due to the monopoly that they had either on technology or factors of production. It is as a resu
Introduction Social networking is the interaction among people who come together through a medium in order to share their experiences with one another. Such media where people meet to socially interact are commonly referred to as social media. The term social media networks therefore refers to the media that connect individuals who intend to interactively communicate with other people in a social aspect that involves sharing of opinion and experience in life. Examples of such media that are popularly known in the current times include Facebook, twitter and YouTube among others which are available online in the internet. This paper seeks to conduct an argumentative writing on whether social media networks should stay neutral or not. The paper will look into the nature of media networks as well as their essence and possible impacts on the society. Social media networks Social media networks are free media in which any individual can air personal opinions. As interactive sites, they offer opportunities for people to collectively discuss and share on different issues that affect their lives. One of such networks that have been recently used by people to discuss and organize their thoughts to a collective voice of defense has been Facebook. An example of such usage was the recent global connection of Palestinian citizens who collectively voiced their concern over their country through a web page in the Facebook social network. The page which is reported to have attracted more than fifty thousand Palestinian citizens provided the people with a chance to express what they considered as oppression of Palestine by Israel. They thus were using the web page as a means of searching for freedom for their country. The Palestinian citizens who linked to the web page also used the social network to call for a demonstration against the Israeli oppressive nature towards Palestine (Press 1). The usage of internet social network has in the recent past been commonly used by citizens to react to authoritative governance of their territories. Issues of oppressions by regimes on their own people have, for example, led to uprisings that are traced to social media networks. Cases such as those that were reported in Egypt where civilians were reported to have used these networks to communicate over the government’s oppression also saw a twist in what was seen as a move to regulate the nature and information that people could pass through these networks (Preston 1). In the wake of the antigovernment uprising that was experienced in Egypt, there were reports of forms of control of what was to be posted in these social media. Though the uprising was attributed to the existence of such networks as reports indicated that they were used by citizens to mobilize themselves for the protests, it was later realized that the media were moving in to control the communications that were made by people through them. Flickr, one of the social networks that were used in Egypt was, for example, reported to have remove
Ancient Rome could be described as multicultural, largely due to the significant areas of land that the Roman Empire controlled at various points, often integrating the local populations and cultures into their own. A wide variety of cultures existed within the borders of the Roman civilization and the Roman population was found to have incredible genetic diversity, having more in common with the Mediterranean states rather than Western Europe (Thomsen, 2019). Some of the cultures that were present under Roman rule include the Gauls, Greeks, Syrian, Egyptian, Lebanese, Persia, and many others. Scholars attribute the cultural and economic success of Rome partially to its ability to embrace a range of ethnic and national identities, often assimilating many elements of the foreign cultures into its own traditions, beliefs or practices. The well-known Pax Romana , a period of prosperity and tranquility for approximately 200 years came at a point when Roman conquests came to a relative end, and a range of cultures were given the opportunity to live in harmony under one central government. While as all Empires, Rome did push some values and requirements upon the regions it conquered, for the most part, the people could live their lives, worship their respective religions, follow their respective traditions, and even maintain their own laws and taxation (Brooks, 2019). Rome by far was one of the most multicultural states in the ancient world that greatly respected the civilizations of others. The primary culture that strongly influenced the Roman culture is likely Ancient Greece. The Hellenistic society led the basis to much what is Roman, ranging from architecture to art to philosophy and politics. The Romans greatly respected the Greeks for their progress and intelligence, and sought to build upon that foundation in the prosperity of their empire including in the aspects of science, literature, law, economics, and even military tactics. Furthermore, the Romans were influenced by the Etruscans, a neighboring tribe to the northwest of Rome, who were allied with and then conquering the newly formed city-state. Etruscans were heavy traders with the Greeks, and had a similarly loose empire of city states, sharing many of the cultural elements. Essentially, the Etruscans allowed for the Greek culture to transition into Rome (Brooks, 2019). However, Rome was influenced by the Etruscans in its early days by contributing to its military capabilities and war-oriented, expansionist society.