ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
The popularity of Facebook outside of the US and restrictions in other countries The US, for a long time, has been the primary market for Facebook. Despite the high numbers in the country, however, the social networking site continues to record unprecedented growth outside of the US. Since 2008, the social networking site has more than doubled its global membership. According to Inside Facebook, a close tracker of the company’s growth metrics, Facebook had approximately 34 million members in 2008. A year later, the number grew to close to 100 million with the total audience quadrupling to over 400 million in 2010 1 . Aljazeera, the Arab TV network reported in 2011 that Facebook was netting over 20 million new users every month with the total audience worldwide estimated at almost 700 million in the same year 2 . Perhaps, due to its easy and wide access to many people and the availability of web-enabled cellphones, Facebook has been a target by some authorities, mainly China and a host of Arab countries. China has strict internet censorship laws mainly aimed at limiting dissident activity, while, Arab countries have limited their people’s access to Facebook for fear of opposition networking. Syria, Egypt, Iran and Libya have limited their people from accessing Facebook. Competition to Facebook As it is in the free market economy, Facebook is facing competition in the social network market. Competition gets even more complicated considering the company operates in cyberspace which is largely unregulated and accessible by millions of people with cyber knowledge. As such, a number of social networking outfits have come up and pose a serious challenge to Facebook’s dominance. They include Google+, Badoo, LinkedIn, Myspace, Tagged, Friendster, Hi5 and Zorpia. It is important to note that some of them are younger, while others are older than Facebook. Google + for instance, is younger and enjoys the support of search engine Google. There is consensus among experts; it is one of the most serious challengers to Facebook by virtue of the financial clout of its backers. Aware of the competition, Facebook has responded time and again by launching new products and overhauling its overall look and other critical components such as privacy policies. For instance, Facebook recently changed its look, and privacy policies and observers agree that it was a response to the launch of Google +. One of Facebook’s big competitors is MySpace. MySpace has fewer users than Facebook but also covers many countries. It also allows some countries to use its servers to control political activities. How will Facebook compete with MySpace? A fair assessment will conclude that Facebook has surpassed MySpace and the two cannot compete on a level playing field
Asbestos controversy Among the companies that majored in the manufacture and sales of asbestos and its affiliated products in twentieth century was James Hardie Corporation. Asbestos mines were distributed throughout Australia. Most of the Asbestos products such as Fibro which acted as a building material led to miners suffering from mesothelioma and asbestosis (Handen, Gurmurdulu & Roggli 2000). Despite numerous companies engaging in asbestos mining activities, most of the infection cases were reported from James Hardie. The main cause of most victims coming from this company was its vast activities in asbestos mining in Australia. By the beginning of 2006, it was forecasted that more than 4600 victims will have filed complaints against the company. Year 2010, would see two hundred and fifty staffs getting infected per year. It is from this claims that the company came to accept that the product was harmful and accepted to compensate employees who had been affected. However, the company claimed that it had implemented all the available protective measures for the sake of its employees (Sexton October 26, 2004). The issue led to the government intervening and investigating the matter. The company’s management was found to be guilty of falsifying figures in its expenses report. This eventually led to directors of the company being arrested. Nevertheless, no regulations were found to subject the company into compensating the victims. Pressure mounted by trade unions and government led to the company succumbing and opting to come up with modalities for compensating the victims (Australian Securities and Investments Commission 2007). James Hardie asked for tax deductions as a condition for it to be able to compensate the affected victims. The deal was arrived at in 2007 after the company’s shareholder
When plunging into the world of the Hispanic tradition in literature and visual art, it is not difficult to notice that this culture has its bright and charming peculiarities. Gabriel Garcia Marquez is one of the most significant Spanish-speaking authors who has kept the Hispanic spirit on his literary way; in his turn, Ernest Hemingway, who is considered to be an outstanding American writer, also experienced the strong influence of the Hispanic tradition, which can be explained by the facts of his biography: the author spent much time in Spain, including the days of his presence in Madrid during the Spanish civil war. Thus, it would be rather interesting to compare their literary heritage in terms of both “matter and manner” and to find some similarities. The following analysis is devoted to The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World by Marquez (1994) and Nobody Ever Dies (2008) by Hemingway with separate references to the authors’ other works. The first and the most evident similarity of the works mentioned above is the authors’ intent to rise above the earthly, primitive understanding of life and death and to show their personal perception of these phenomena. In his The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World, Marquez manages to perform a man found by the villagers dead and alive simultaneously: despite he has met his death in the sea, he remains alive in the imagination of the people who have decided to rest his body. Even after the death of flesh, the spirit of this man has remained able to bring changes to the life of those who are alive and to make them feel “that everything would be different from them on” (Marquez, 1994, p. 461). Thus, the essence of a human is shown as a metaphysical phenomenon, which cannot be influenced by death. As well, Hemingway’s Nobody Ever Dies (Hemingway, 2008) reflects how the author, who had a sad experience of seeing death for many times, perceives the essence of death. The author states that there are matters that are able to outlast a human’s life and to make death insignificant, which is eloquently expressed in the story, “Where you die does not matter, if you die for liberty” (Hemingway, 2008). This thought is also reflected by the story’s name which highlights the immortality of human values and ideals, and by the author’s final words of a touchy epitaph On the American Death in Spain , “Those who have entered it honorably, and no men ever entered earth more honorably than those who died in Spain, already have achieved immortality” (Hemingway, n.d.). As for the literary devices, the literary works of these two authors also possess some similar features. The Hispanic literature is full of visualization, it always creates bright pictures and eloquent images: it is sufficient to recollect Cervantes, who has presented the World the unforgettable images of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza inspiring many painters and sculptors, or the poems of Federico Garcia Lorca, who was able to express his ideas by means of visual symbols, such as oranges, blue walls, or a Gypsy wo
In his book The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere released for the first time in 1962, Jurgen Habermas investigates the beginning, transformation, and the ultimate collapse of the freethinking form of bourgeoisie public sphere. The debate on the ideas of public sphere and opinion emerged in Europe in the eighteenth century. Prior to this period, public authority was represented through a monarchy type of government characterized by rigid bureaucratic systems and authoritarianism. However, with the introduction of capitalism and emergence of a bourgeoisie class, monarchical systems were replaced with a more liberal bourgeoisie form of public sphere. The main purpose of this public sphere was to act as an intermediary between the private spheres made up of family and the economy, and the authoritarian state that was in existence at that time (Habermas 1962). Habernas concepts regarding democratization are grounded on the philosophy of participatory politics as the basis of a true democracy. In The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, he attempts to draw comparison between three kinds of public spheres; the bureaucratic public sphere of the industrial period, the more liberal bourgeoisie public sphere, and the modern form of public sphere that is controlled by the state and a few monopolistic corporations (Habermas 1962). The main themes of this book are the source of the bourgeoisie public sphere and the process leading to its disintegration, and the rise of today’s public sphere. The Industrial Period Public Sphere The public sphere of the industrial period was characterized by very little public participation. Virtually all of public power was in the hands of the state represented by the monarch (Downing 1984). Thus governance was authoritarian and bureaucratic and the general public had little say on political issues that affected their lives. This form of public sphere would later change with the rise of the economic power of the bourgeoisie class. The Bourgeoisie Public Sphere As mentioned earlier, the purpose of bourgeoisie public sphere was to mediate between the private spher
Being a teacher I understand that there are procedures that depict the approach of thinking regarding learning and instructing that stresses learners tasks for such learning actions as a scheduling learning process, intermingling with teachers and other students, researching and assessing the learning process. The objective of my using these strategies is to identify my students who perform poorly and also to recognize those who have the capability of performing in the academic segment of their lives. Through this, I am always put in a situation of helping their students who are said to be of lower performance and in need of revising the complex units of their studies so that they may have a better performance in their studies (Dunningham and Allington, 2007). In this case, therefore I am given the opportunity of enabling my students to assess a number of activities which features issues like the knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation practiced on the students by me as their teacher, since I usually utilize the following strategies to make this exercise successful, this procedure used in many learning institutions they include; Rehearsal procedure This procedure involves repetition of readings which is a strategy that I use when I put a student in a position of memorizing the information provided to him me his teacher this practice is done by the student alone by repeating the mentioning of the information time after time; this may be done as many times as possible according to the will of the student. This repetition practice helps the student to develop his knowledge about the subject matter provided with some different information that he is supposed to learn. This strategy is always stated to be appropriate only when a student is dealing with only concise information that is to be learned, before attempting the complex one (Novak and Gowin, 1984). Practice Under practice I always encourage my students to practice note-taking which necessitates students reading actively then take notes to understand fully the context. This procedure is appropriate for comprehensive and scientific information. Demonstration This is another type of practice that involves selective underlining which essentially involves the students highlighting the required information in a given text. It also involves underlining key phrases as well as vocabularies in the text given for study. It is appropriate for students in situations when students utilize power thinking for instance classify subjects according to the level of significance. However, it is not appropriate since it limits students to only their imaginations (Dunningham and Allington, 2007). The rationale Entails structuring links involving the text or study materials that students are learning. It is also very useful and essential for generating new ideas. It is reported that this technique is very essential and efficient in learning new topics. The first strategy under this category is that of graphic organizers and it gives confidence to students to reflect information in an innovative approach. It involves doing away with words in materials
Introduction As the name of the company indicates, the Handmade Knitwear will produce manufactured knit products. It is assumed that the organization will deal primarily with the production of scarves, jumpers, and dresses; however, the company will also provide clients with an opportunity to customize their orders by filling out an order form. Therefore, the organization is also going to produce socks, gloves, hats, etc. based on the requirements set by the target audience. In addition, an analysis of the customer demand will be carried out in the target market in order to identify the items that are required traditionally by the target audience. Environmental Analysis Competitive The idea of handmade knitwear is not new; therefore, it is expected that the company will face rather rough competition. However, according to the preliminary analysis data, most organizations existing in the niche are sole proprietorships (Toivanen, Mellner & Wilberg, 2014); in other words, the services are provided mostly by individual entrepreneurs. Hence, as an LLC, the company is unlikely to be threatened by the existing rivals. Economic From the economic perspective, the company is expected to succeed in the target market, as the key factors, including inflation and currency exchange rates, seem rather favorable (Edwards, 2015). Political None of the existing political factors is likely to impede the promotion of knitwear in the target market. Legal Seeing that the organization is going to obtain a license for carrying out the key business transactions, no legal repercussions are expected. As long as the company labels the products in accordance with the Textile Products Identification Act (The Textile Products Identification Act, 2015), no issues will occur. Technological Timely acquisition of the necessary technology is an essential step in the promotion of the company within the target market. Specifically, the necessity to update the equipment that the staff will use for kneaded goods production will be imperative to comply with the company’s quality standards. For these purposes, a quality assurance team will be created, and regular audits will be conducted. Sociocultural Seeing that the company will produce not only woolen but also acrylic clothes so that the needs of all denizens of the population could be met, a conflict with the proponents of environmentalism may be expected. Indeed, according to recent studies, the introduction of acryl into the environment has a destructive effect on nature (Chen, 2014). Primary and Secondary Target Markets Among the primary target audience, women aged 20–40 are identified as the key customers for the company to focus on. The product promoted will include the above-mentioned knit clothes, specifically, shawls, sweaters, etc. As far as the secondary audience type is concerned, teenagers and younger
Porter Airline Toronto: Seasonality Companies that want to emerge successful in the aviation sector should be aware of the problem of seasonality and implement powerful strategies to mitigate it. Porter Airline Toronto continues to face different challenges due to this issue. There are unique aspects or factors that contribute to seasonality. For instance, Porter Airline Toronto is a regional airline that operates from Billy Bishop Toronto Airport. Since this airline has its headquarters on the Toronto Islands, it usually finds it hard to attract a consistent number of customers throughout the year. Demographics also dictate the travel habits and frequencies of different clients. For instance, individuals aged between 19 and 25 years use Porter’s services in a seasonal manner (“Airline insight,” 2018). This is true since they have to travel for academic purposes during specific periods or seasons (Bastola, 2017). The percentage of students in need of transport services tends to increase during the months of February and July. Figure 1: International and Domestic Flights (“Airline insight,” 2018). Similarly, gender is a determining factor when focusing on the predicament of seasonality. For instance, men travel more frequently in comparison with women. They move from one region to another towards the end of every month to visit their relatives, friends, and family members. The number of male passengers also decreases significantly in January and May. Bastola (2017) goes further to argue that careers and occupations dictate the frequency and rate at which different American citizens living in Canada use air transport. This is the reason why the percentage of domestic passengers for Porter remains high (see Fiigure 1). Expatriates doing jobs in the United States tend to travel during specific seasons or periods of the year. Those working locally might decide to use other means of transport, thereby contributing to the issue of seasonality. Individuals in various managerial positions form a small percentage of potential customers (Zalagėnaitė, 2018). Despite the fact such professionals travel frequently, their reduced numbers are incapable of solving this predicament. Additionally, a small percentage of people above the age of 50 undertake managerial roles and might not make a significant difference for Porter. Figure 2: Monthly Capacity Trends and Seasonality (“Airline insight,” 2018). The purpose of travel is another aspect that researchers and experts consider to confront this challenge. The rate of passengers tends to increase during Christmas and other festive seasons, thereby forcing companies such as Porter to implement superior measures to meet their demands (see Figure 2). Those travelling for medical tourism will focus on specific holidays or seasons (“Seasonal shifts,” 2018). The geographic location where Porter operates is another aspect that explains why the company continues to face the problem of seasonality. Consequently, different passengers might decide to use other service providers depending on certain factors, including age, the season of the year, and the purpose of travel. It would, therefore, be approp
The political decision of citizens in any country is usually influenced by the situation within the country and by the events at the international political arena. From this point, it is important to examine the dependence between the success and failure of the definite political events and people’s further decisions to participate in the similar events or support political projects. The research question on which the project is based depends on the necessity to examine the possible connection and dependence between the people’s vision of the Arabian Spring’s successfulness and their willingness to participate in protests. To study the research question, it is important to focus on the associated hypotheses. According to the first hypothesis, if citizens perceive the Arabian Spring as unsuccessful, they are disappointed with its results and they are not ready to participate in protests because of the focus on the failure and disappointment. Furthermore, those citizens who discuss the Arabian Spring as successful are inclined to participate in protests and support them because of the focus on the strengths. To examine the research question and support the hypotheses, it is necessary to work out effective survey questions for questionnaires which are developed to study the citizens’ vision of the problem and their perceptions as well as the particular features of demographics which are important to present the description of the sample. That is why, survey questions are developed to state the gender and age characteristics of participants along with the
The article explores the poor growth figures of Japan as well as the dismal improvement in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). According to Obe (2014), the economic downturn that was witnessed in 1997 was mainly fuelled by an increase in sales tax. Even though Mr. Abe’s government was fully conscious of the cause, austerity measures were not put in place. In order to cushion the current economic turmoil, over $50 billion stimulus package has been dispatched by the government. Frontloading of the expenditure phase is expected to kick off from the month of April to September 2014 (Obe, 2014). The export volume has dwindled over the past 12 months, largely due to the weak yen. This implies that exporters cannot significantly benefit from export trade due to the unfavorable foreign exchange rates. It is prudent to mention that Japan’s export engine heavily depends on the strength of the Yen. As it stands now, the nation’s consumers have found it quite cumbersome to bear the brunt of economic stagnated growth. The last quarter mark of 2013 gave a clear indication that the country’s economy was going to perform below the expectation due to the 1 % annualized growth rate (Obe, 2014). The article relates a number of economic concepts discussed in the course materials. First, the concept of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) stands out as the main topic being addressed in the article. The author observes that the rise in sales tax has heavily contributed to the minimal improvement of Japan’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The term “growth rate” has also been used in the article to expound the slow pace at which Japan’s economy is expanding. For instance, the rise in sales tax from 5 percent to 8 percent in the current financial year is expected to trigger a further economic chill or sluggish growth rate. Although GDP growth did not drop in value, it experienced a marginal improvement over the last financial year. The author argues that the slight growth in the GDP index may have been contributed by the high demand for more costly products. GDP was also affected by a gross surge in imports. ‘Gains from trade’ is also another concept that can be derived from the article. As already mentioned, expensive goods brought a lot of gains to local traders. It is apparent that the quality of goods sold is a major consideration for local consumers in Japan. Apart from the economic concepts learned in the course, there are other perspectives and deeper