Judah ben Samuel Halevi Achievements Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Judah ben Samuel Halevi Achievements - Essay Example The traditional norms and values of Judaism, which were largely based on religious conceptions, were philosophized by the works of Halevi. With reference to this, his contributions to Judaism have been influential in terms of its history and culture. The emergence of Judah ben Samuel Halevi as an intellectual contributor to Judaism has been discussed in the essay. This must be considered along with the historical fact that sustenance of Jewish tradition in a religiously repressive environment had been challenging. The philosophy of Halevi has influenced a lot in this regard. The objective of this essay is to critically analyze the role of Judah ben Samuel Halevi in Jewish history and culture. Judah Halevi moved to Spain to pursue the career of a physician. His early years in Spain were a tribute to the Jewish culture. It was a period which saw perseverance of the Jews in maintaining their culture and beliefs. Popkin has referred to the Jewish life in this period as fragile (177). The re were continued Christian efforts made during this period to reinstate the dominance they had in Southern Spain. However, this was continually contested by the relentless Muslim Almoravid’s efforts to retain their sovereignty. The representation of this resistance in Halevi’s poetry gained recognition among the Jews. ... His prose were perceived well and accepted by the Jewish community as it reflected the Jewish desire for being with God and the passion to return to Zion, the Promised Land. (Popkin 177). He has been referred to as one of the first major thinkers in Muslim Spain. Another Jewish philosopher who lived in Muslim Spain in the same period was Neo-Platonist Solomon ibn Gabirol (Popkin 177). The contribution of Judah ben Samuel Halevi, which became a major milestone in the history of Jews, came in the last decade of his life. In this period, he wrote the prose titled, ‘Book of the Khazars’. This book is known for its intellectual and philosophical content on Judaism. With reference to the Jewish culture, this work from then onwards has served as the religious and philosophical framework for Judaism. Moreover, it could address the philosophical challenges that Judaism faced as a culture and religion at this period of time. This must be read together with the fact that this prose was written in a period when the Jews were striving for an intellectual backing due to the acute pressure from Christianity. This book was persuasive in nature and could successfully bind the Jews together in their traditions and norms. It urged the readers to prioritize their social systems in the order of the mandates as set by their ancestral traditions (Popkin 177). Judah ben Samuel Halevi’s literature became even more influential as he himself set an example by following the philosophical call of change that he made through Book of the Khazars. In the year 1140, he abandoned his personal luxuries that he had in Spain and set out for Egypt, the holy land. This exemplary act along with his philosophies bound Jews together as a culture and religion. Thus, his

Inventory and Fixed Assest Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Inventory and Fixed Assest - Essay Example Inventory is categorized as a current asset in the balance sheet. Most manufacturing companies have large amounts of inventory. That inventory can go down in value for various reasons including technological advances. â€Å"Accounting Research Bulletin No. 43 (ARB No. 43) leads to an accounting valuation method known as the lower of cost or market, or LCM† (Accountingcoach, 2011). Based on ARB No. 43 the word market refers to the current replacement cost of the item. A concept related to the calculation of lower of cost or market is net realizable value (NRV). The net realizable value is defined as the expected price minus the cost for completion and disposal. Another variable that must be considered in LCM calculations are the lower ceiling and upper ceiling. The upper ceiling is the same amount as the NRV, while the lower ceiling is calculated by subtracting normal profit from NRV. The accounting for lower cost or market requires specific journal entries to record LCM. The t wo ledger accounts used by accountants are: Allowance to Reduce Inventory to LCM Loss from Reducing Inventory to LCM Take for example a company that had an inventory with a cost of $70,000 and market value of $68,000. The journal entry to record LCM is illustrated below: Loss from Reducing Inventory to LCM 2000 Allowance to Reduce Inventory to LCM 2000 Capitalizing interest on building construction Interest are typically categorized as an expense under normal accounting rules based on the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). An exception to the rules applies to interest associated with construction projects. â€Å"ASC 835-20 states that institutions are required to capitalize the interest cost incurred during the acquisition process or construction of the asset† (Patel, 2010). As interest gets capitalized they become a part of the historical price of an asset which subsequently must be depreciated over the useful life of the asset. FASB statement No. 34, Capitaliz ation of Interest Costs, provides the guidelines that accountants must follow in order to capitalize interest associated with construction of a building or asset. Three conditions are necessary for the capitalization of interest: 1. The qualifying expenditures must have already occurred 2. The company must be paying actual interest 3. Activities to prepare the asset must be already underway (Young & Gowans, 2009). Expenditures that require cash payment or other transfers of assets are considered qualifying expenditures. Inventory that are manufactured on a routine basis do not qualify for the capitalization of interest. Property that was donated also does not qualify for the capitalization of interest. The two methods to compute capitalization of interest are the weight average and the specific method. There are limits to the amount of interest that may be capitalized. The general rule is that companies can only capitalize interest up to the amount of the incurred interest during an accounting period. â€Å"FASB No. 34 requires for each accounting period disclosure in the financial statements or the notes of the total amount of interest cost incurred and any amount of interest that was capitalized in each accounting period† (Young, et al., 2009). Recording gain or loss on asset disposal

Advantages and Disadvantages of Electric Cars

Advantages and Disadvantages of Electric Cars The electric car has been a hot topic for the last few years. The development of the electric car is everyday news. In every form of media there is a link to the effects of the electric car or its development. But how come the idea of an electrically powered vehicle is at the center of the attention? Indeed the origin of the electric car goes back for centuries. In the 19th and 20th, century electricity was one of the preferred ways to power an automobile. At that time an electric powered automobile was chosen over a fuel powered automobile, because electric powered automobiles were much easier to handle and much cheaper and easier in maintenance. But why did people still chose for a fuel powered automobile? The competition between electric vehicles and fuel powered vehicles was killing. During the 20th century the electric car lost popularity. There are a number of reasons to explain the decrease of popularity. The invention of the automatic starter, the growing market of cheap fuel, the mass production and easier and faster fuelling. Soon, the fuel powered cars using the latest Internal Combustion Engines had more advantages than the electric car. The electric car slowly disappeared. Only after decades the electric car was reintroduced when General Motors produced their first electric car. At first sight, the reintroduction of the electric car seemed a great success and late 1990 it even created a real hype. People really believed the electric car could change the world. Unfortunately the hype was short-lived. Car companies and oil companies started to defend themselves against the change the electric car tried to achieve. Oil companies saw their market slowly fade and car companies feared losing much of their sales. The resistance was extraordinary, even the government was involved trying to stop a successful reintroduction of the electric car. Again, the electric car slowly disappeared.. Today, the competition between electric powered vehicles and fuel powered vehicles strikes again. Who will be the winner now? Will the electric car eventually substitute the regular car? Advantages, youll pay the price. The fact that the electric car was becoming a success in the late 1990 is not a big surprise. People again experienced the advantages of an electric car. People realized they saved lots of money on their fuel costs and produced much less pollution by driving electric cars. They found it an encouraging thought that they contributed to a better climate while they were saving money as well. Contributing to a better climate is now one of the most important concerns in the world. We cant avoid the fact that the climate is changing. Therefore we need to look for alternatives to fight these environmental problems like air pollution and global warming. One of the best alternatives is replacing the old combustion engine vehicles with electric cars. Electric cars produce zero emissions, so they dont contribute to air pollution at all. Besides air pollution, they also make no sound, so they dont contribute to noise pollution either. Unlike the fuel powered cars, the electric cars have got fewer moving parts. The technical construction of the electric car is much simpler and much more efficient. That makes the electric car more reliable and easier in maintenance. All the electricity is stored in high-end batteries. These car batteries are used to have a lifespan of 5 years. These rechargeable batteries are fully recyclable, this keeps the old batteries of becoming a disposal problem. It also makes the electric car more durable en cheaper the longer term. The last few years the prices of oil has risen sharply. Oil is the black gold, but the prices of oil are so high for a reason. Oil is one of the fossil fuels and these fossil fuels are limited. Oil is getting scarcer every day, and youll pay the price. Electricity is not a fossil fuel and therefore not limited. This makes electricity much cheaper than fuel. One of the biggest advantages of driving an electric car are the fuel costs. For example: When you are driving 40 miles a day in an electrically powered car which has got a mileage of 280 watts per hour per mile and a electricity price of $0.10 kilowatts per hour, it would cost you $1.12. When you are driving the same 40 miles in an fuel powered car with a mileage of 25 miles per gallon you would need 1.6 gallons of fuel. 1.6 gallons of fuel at a price of $3 per gallon would cost you $4.80. In this case, driving your fuel powered car is 4 times more expensive than travelling the same miles in an electric car.  [1]   In fact, traveling in your electric car can even be cheaper. Here is another example of saving more money on your fuel costs. Recharging your electric car during the nighttimes when the electricity is cheaper will save you even more money. Disadvantages, every pot will find its lid. Earlier on we explained that driving an electric car has many technical, environmental and financial advantages. How come that not everyone has exchanged his regular fueled car for an electric car? Well, unfortunately there are still some disadvantages about driving and purchasing an electric car. One of the biggest disadvantages is that the electric car is in a high-dollar prototype stage. Car producing companies have to do many research and many tests to find a way to develop these electric cars. The electric cars also have to meet the safety requirements, just like the regular cars. This requires even more research and more investments from the car companies. To makes these investments attractive for the car producing companies, the government provides subsidies. With providing these subsidies, the cost of an electric car will lower and purchasing one will become accessible for everyone soon. Besides the purchase of an electric car, there are also some disadvantages in its use. One of the reasons the combustion engine won the competition a few decades ago, was that it would only take a few minutes to refill your car with gasoline. Refilling an electric car took half a day. Still, refilling or recharging your electric car is one of the disadvantages. It takes 3 to 10 hours to fully recharge a car battery. So when you are running out of fuel, you wont be able to quickly recharge your battery. The only solution is to charge your car battery overnight, just like the way you would recharge your mp3-player.  [2]   Most of the electric cars are equipped with the most available and inexpensive car batteries. This means that when your car battery is fully charged the next morning, you will be able to travel a distance of 50 to 120 miles. This mileage is ideal for traveling from your home to your office. So using an electric car with such travel range, should not be a problem when you are commuting. It will become a problem when you want to go on a vacation. For example, travelling to your holiday destination in the south of France will keep you busy for almost four days. Of course not all the electric cars are equipped with these inexpensive batteries, but the electric cars equipped with more durable car batteries are much more expensive. So if you want to travel larger distances, you always need to be sure that your electric car is equipped with a better and more expensive battery.  [3]   Eventually, with all the new technologies there will be a solution to expand the range of your inexpensive car batteries and speedup its recharge time. But driving an electric car is completely useless if you wont be able to recharge your car batteries. Unlike the regular combustion engine car you cant stop at the local gas station and quickly fill up your tank. Nowadays, more and more of the gas stations have special charging stations, but in most cities there not enough places where you can simply recharge your electric car. In order to recharge your electric car you are dependent on the few charging stations throughout the city. One of these charging stations is the power supply at your own home. People who drive an electric car need to purchase a converter in order to connect their electric car to their home power supply. Most of the time, this is not a problem. It will become a problem if 200 people living in apartments want to recharge their electric cars at the same time. Lucky enough, more and more cities and villages adapt themselves to the rising demand for more charge stations. But, recharging all these electric cars, isnt that damaging to the environment? Earlier we explained that driving an electric car doesnt contribute to the air pollution. In fact, this is actually not true. Driving an electric car produces zero emissions, but in order to recharge your electric vehicle, you need electricity. This electricity is often generated by burning fossil fuels. So indirectly it still has some environmental costs. But even if the electricity used to recharge the electric car is generated by burning fossil fuels, it still is less than a half compared to the pollution produced by regular powered cars. The indirectly produced pollution can even be reduced. In the future the electric cars will no longer use electricity generated by burning fossil fuels, they will get their energy from cleaner forms of electricity. With the use of cleaner forms of energy, like windmills or solar cells we will be able to reduce the pollution to less than one percent. Besides the air pollution, there is also one disadvantage about the electric car and its noise pollution. Most combustion engine powered cars make a noise which is recognized by children as the sound of an incoming car. The electric car doesnt make any sound at all. This can be very dangerous for the children playing in the streets. At first sight, this seems not a big problem. But when everyone is driving an electric car, people and especially young children need to adapt themselves to this new and changing environment. Conclusion In this essay we discussed all kind of advantages and disadvantages of the electric car. But the question still is, will the electric car eventually substitute the regular car? The answer to this question is yes! In fact, eventually we have no other choice than to replace the combustion engine powered car with an electric car. Times are changing and so is our climate. The use of limited fossil fuels has changed our environment and we need to search alternatives to generate and use energy. With the technical development throughout the decades we found lots of suitable alternatives. When coming up with alternatives, it is important that it is not at the expense of the economic growth and the current standard of living. Therefore, one of the best suitable alternatives is the development of the electric car. The electric car is making its comeback. A few years ago, we chose a combustion engine powered car because of its convenience and because the car producing companies were afraid to lose most of their profits. Lets not make the same wrong choice again and stimulate the technologic development of the electric car. The age of technology is upon us and we are able to find a solution for every possible disadvantage. Soon we will be able to make an environmental friendly car with the convenience of a combustion engine powered car. Within a few years the use of an electric car is unavoidable, so buy your own electric car tomorrow!

Affirmative Action - Public Opinion vs. Policy :: Affirmative Action Racism Discrimination Essays

Affirmative Action - Public Opinion vs. Policy When Justin Ketcham, a white college student from the suburbs, thinks about affirmative action, he thinks about what happened when he sent out letters seeking scholarships so he could attend Stanford University after being accepted during his senior year of high school.The organizations that wrote back told him their money was reserved for women or minorities. To Americans like Ketcham, it's a matter of fairness. The average white male will claim that it's not fair to attempt to rebalance scales by balancing them the other way. Students like Ketcham are also more likely to claim that affirmative action is a program geared towards curtailing workplace prejudices that really don't exist anymore.But when Hillary Williams, a black insurance company manager from the inner-city, thinks about affirmative action, she thinks about the time she had to train three consecutive white male bosses for a job that no one even approached her about filling. To her, it's also a question of fairness. African-Americans like Hillary feel that there is just no other was besides affirmative action to level the playing field in certain businesses.And so the disparity in public opinion begins. A racially-divided America creates separate groups, which "Affirmative Action issue taps a fundamental cleavage in American Society" (Gamson and Modigliani 170)--each with their own view of affirmative action on different sides of the line. Government attempts to create policy based upon the voice of the people but affirmative action seems to present an almost un-solvable dilemma. Traditionally, it had been a policy that was greatly scrutinized for its quotas and alleged unfairness towards Blacks, but at the same time it had also been praised for its inherent ability to help minorities gets jobs they deserve but could not obtain otherwise. So how do we reach a "happy medium" so-to-speak? In American political culture, it appears as though individualism and egalitarianism are values that find themselves on opposite ends of the political battlefield. In a complex world of political ideology and political culture are sets of values and principles that are widely endorsed by politicians, educators, the media and other opinion leaders that make up the definition of what is to be American (Feldman and Zaller). Some favor the values of individual freedom, especially individual economic freedom, over other values, especially equality and popular sovereignty (egalitarianism). These people are labeled Conservatives. The other side of the spectrum consider themselves as Liberals (Feldman and Zaller).Because we live in a meritocracy created by the strong forces of capitalism, there is a tendency for people to fall behind either in the economy or in the academic community.

Realism in American literature Essay

The novel â€Å"Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane. Is a work of fiction challenging trained English enthusiasts to determine where it fits in; the category of true naturalism or realism. Steven Crains first novel written in 1893 falls after the end of a realist movement starting in 1860 to 1890 this was realism/naturalism in a time when people were ready and wanting stories the common man can relate to. The story starts out in the bowery with a fight indicative of the struggles many were facing being from the middle or lower classes; just one sign of realism. Another good point of realism is expressed thru a vivid telling of the characters, Timmy a rough neck lacking sympathy and having a chip on his shoulder, as well as speaking a dialect of the time and local was expressed clearly in the opening lines A very little boy stood upon a heap of gravel for the honor of Rum Alley. He was throwing stones at howling urchins from Devil’s Row who were circling madly about the heap and pelting at him. His infantile countenance was livid with fury. His small body was writhing in the delivery of great, crimson oaths. â€Å"Run, Jimmie, run! Dey’ll get yehs,† screamed a retreating Rum Alley child. http://www. learnlibrary. com/maggie/maggie_1. htm Jimmy is made to be very understandable and the depth of his character is complex yet explained very well in terms of realism. Realists center their attention to a remarkable degree on the immediate, the here and now, the specific action, and the verifiable consequence† (A Handbook to Literature 428). The alcoholic mother is the dysfunctional matriarch in this story and is the cause of much of the problems plaguing the lives of her children by driving them out thru drunken rages and a grave lack of compassion; a person’s actions are the cause, not extraneous forces, like a naturalist would expect you to believe. In this short story the family consisting of, Pete, jimmy, Maggie, tommy, Mary and father Johnson; all living in a part of the city where everyday life is a struggle for people with low means; this would give convincing indications of realism; furthermore reasoning that outside forces could be the cause in the detriment of their lives; Poverty, economy and socialism being the culprits makes this story lean towards naturalism. Lending to the theory; that they would be different people, if circumstance were more favorable. Even though these characters are extreme in their natures and appear to be over the top in a manor consistant with characteristics common to writings of drama as well as romanticism and falling very much in the realm of naturalism the central theme of family life and tragity are all closely related to humanity and fall into the catorgory of realism in American literature. The play picnic written by William Inge was written in 1953 a time when American writers were utilizing realism in there literature and giving new rise and newer definition to the ideas associated with realism. The American writer was eliminating all argument that romanticism and naturalism could be associated to their works by putting simple life maters to paper and expressing human life as simply as possible whill keeping the focus in the factual characteristics of man womon dialog in the play the picnic it doesn’t get any more down to earth and simplistic. The play takes place in a Midwestern town on Labor Day and goes into the lives of Helen Potts, Hal Carter, Millie Owens, Bomber, Madge Owens Flo Owens, Rosemary Sydney, Irma Kronkite, Christine Schoenwalder and Howard Bevans each one of these people showing in the course of the play all of their personality characteristics, there are no super heroes and no moral teachings to be had in this realistic portrayal of everyday life of the middle class working. Broadly defined as â€Å"the faithful representation of reality† or â€Å"verisimilitude,† it also denotes a particular kind of subject matter, especially the representation of middle-class life. (A Handbook to Literature 428). In the first act a stranger come to stay and engages in romance with two of the sisters one sister wanting the other being wanted as the story goes on we find the mother miss Owens concerned with this strangers advances to her daughter and as it progresses her fears are not unwarranted as the stranger Hal and Madge soon find themselves caught in turmoil associated with love this is romantic in nature yet not romanticism as could be written by Shakespeare instead it is written in common everyday language and is familiar to almost every one alive today, boy meets girl, girl likes boy they kiss, emotions go awry and they both do incredibly stupid things and run off to get married. (Richard Chase the American novel and it tradition) â€Å"states that character is more important than plot or action complex ethical choices are often the subject†. And surly emphasizes the decisions made when Madge runs after Hal. The elder women in the play act just like mothers grandmas and busy body women would gossiping about one another having emotional concerns for everyone in the immediate circle. They show emotional characteristics common yet subtle. The believability of these characters is an earmark of realism. The complex relationship between rosemary and Howard can be seen in true clarity both of their natures ambitions and is realists in there interaction both when together and apart rosy Mary can be seen as a middle age woman with a man friend she clearly wants more from and necessarily from the need to be with him, as much as a selfish need to be better than all the unmarried women surrounding her and an inherent need to not die single; At the risk of finding herself in a binding marriage with someone she doesn’t show much respect for she begs and pleads for Howard to marry her; at the expense of her own dignity. Howard Bevens character is shown toughly thru his action on stage he is a power driven business man with a need to maintain his freedom from marriage he is a well like person in spite of his drinking and rude talk of women as well as the fact he knows some working girls down at the hotel. When he is getting grilled over the coals by rosemary his true colors start to show up he is fearful of waking up tomorrow without the comfort of still having rosemary afraid of going to the next level of commitment all the makings of a common man to be sure as best examined in the writings of the play â€Å"picnic† there can be no argument to the contrary that this play is anything but a play that fits squarely in the zonra of realism. This play typifies realism in the sense that these people are quite real and very dynamic in their relationships, that they show common desires and fears, and basically live just like the rest of us all too some degree. The complexities in this play â€Å"raisin in the sun† are many and yet most of the dialogue can lead to a lesson in morals closely related to naturalism yet it is more of a realist style of story or play, the concerns brought up with racism and class are both issues relating to naturalism yet these are both contributing factors in the play and are secondary to the main theme of love honor integrity and family values pertaining to an ethnic group. â€Å"Raisin in the sun† is written by Lorraine Hansberry it made its first debut in 1959 A time when in no doubt people were looking for a story where there was hope to be had in overcoming one’s own limitations and rising to the top when life’s predicaments would try to enslave

Gamification

70 percent of global organizations will have incorporated gamification into at least one element of their training program by 2014 according to research firm Gartner. Gamification, put simply, is the use of game theory in platforms of interaction with employees, customers and the wider community. The advent of game technology allows training providers to integrate the positive reinforcements of gaming into the learning environment.While some may roll their eyes and make some assertion that big business is kowtowing to the younger crowd or that gamification is a passing fad, others embracing it and creating loyalty among customers and higher engagement among training participants. A common discussion among training specialists is the cost-effectiveness of training as some studies show that participants retain a mere 10% of content. Indeed, the prospect of sitting all day listening to someone talk about a topic that you have little interest in would test anyone’s tenacity for un divided attention.So while some readers would have already disengaged with this article (because they have little interest in the topic, maybe gamification would have been a better way to engage the nay-sayers to gamification) let us look further at why gamification works: Games give us real time feedback, if a participant gets something wrong they are corrected immediately. It does not wait for the participant to get back to the workplace, wait for the scenario to arise and fail with real-world clients or profits at stake. Games involve problem solving, which sparks our creativity.Games provide us with fun and enjoyment, which increases the motivation to continue playing and maintain our attention. Games involve goals which provide us with the motivation to complete the tasks. Games are based on storylines, storylines create affiliation and emotional attachment. Gamification could effectively destroy the need for those dreaded performance appraisals be it yearly or quarterly. As th e human resource professional in the organisation we are viewed as the uncool ogre come performance appraisal time. The line managers hate them, the employees fear them and we get sick of reminding everyone to do them.Gamification take the performance appraising away from line managers through developing a standardised inventory of correct answers, the employees are given goals promoting competition between departments, which increases social interaction between employees. The gamification pulls employees in rather than us as HR practitioners and leaders having to push the process onto them. It is amazing what a gold star can actually do. Positions that have KPI’s can now be set up as a game to beat your highest score, beat your co-worker with relevant rewards tied to it.