1. According to the OECD Glossary of Statistical Terms, is defined by the following conditions: large number of buyers and sellers, there are low barriers to entry or exit the market, all buyers and sellers must have complete access to relevant knowledge, and the product should be homogenous (OECD, 2003). In order for a market to be considered perfectly competitive, all these conditions must be met. In the case of eBay, the first condition listed above is met, since the online auction site is used by many sellers that auction their items, which include almost any category of goods except for goods prohibited by law, like: tobacco, alcohol, a series of textbooks, lottery tickets, and others. A large number of buyers respond to such a variety of offers. Regarding the condition requires for homogenous products, the eBay market is quite similar to any traditional market. The condition regarding entry barriers is more complicated since eBa

There are several models in use to evaluate firm's cost of capital. The cost of capital represents the cost to the firm to acquire money. Therefore, any investment the firm makes must generate a return greater than that cost. If the investment does not, then shareholder wealth will be eroded. Moreover, investor capital represents an opportunity cost. Therefore, if a certain amount of wealth is not generated from the investments, the investors would be better off investing elsewhere. This measure, variously termed the hurdle rate or the discount rate, can be determined using one of the various models. This report shall investigate three of those models – the capital asset pricing model (CAPM), the dividend discount model (DDM) and arbitrage pricing theory (APT). This report will analyze the relative strengths and weaknesses of each of these models in order to determine which one is the most appropriate for FedEx. The first model to examine is the dividend discount m

INTRODUCTION War has a great impact on popular culture within a society and in fact, infiltrates every aspect of pop culture including music, television, film, and even video games that children play. This has been highly evidenced during the present ongoing war in Iraq which culminated following the tragic events of September 11, 2001 however; the impact of war on popular culture can be traced back to World War I in the United States and even further in world history. I. WARNER BROTHERS The work of Betty Warner Sheinbaum entitled: "Warner's War: Politics, Pop Culture & Propaganda in Wartime Hollywood (2002) states that Hollywood "believes in America as firmly as any community or any business believes in it..." (2002) Sheinbaum states a belief that Hollywood has "an ever-present duty to educate, stimulate and demonstrate the fundamentals of free government, free speech, religious tolerance, freedom of press, freedom of assembly and the greatest possi

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) is a consumer products conglomerate. The company was founded in 1886 to manufacture sterile sutures, dressings and bandages to the health care industry. Since then, they have expanded to become a more consumer-focused company. Pharmaceuticals and other medical products were added in the Depression and WWII years. The company has had a long history of international operation, beginning with expansion into Canada in 1919. They are currently headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where they were founded. They manufacture and market three primary categories of goods: consumer health care, medical devices and diagnostics, and pharmaceuticals. The company's brands include Johnson & Johnson, Band Aid, Neutrogena, Splenda, Visine, Listerine and Tylenol. Listerine represents an interesting component since it was a speech by Joseph Lister that inspired Robert Wood Johnson to start his company. The firm is international in scope, operating in 57 c

Introduction Applying the ethical theories of Rest's Four Component Model, Fiske's Four Structures of Social Life and the McDonald & Pack Theory as it relates to Utilitarianism are used as the basis of evaluating the ethical behavior of my bothers' neighbors' taking the broadband signal installed just for his use. Considered stealing, the use of another neighbor's broadband is pervasive in many cities of the world. In this specific instance my brother noticed a major drop in the speed of his Internet connections. After having his ISP out troubleshoot the situation it was determined that during evening hours additional households around him were using the signal. There was no way of know which specific flats or houses, yet the drop off in performance was so much it was measurable. Applying ethics theories to the situation is the intent of this paper. I.Rest Four Component Model Theory Applying the Rest Four-Component Model to the specific situation

The inclusion of disabled individuals in the general social, educational and occupational contexts which are welcoming to mainstream populations is a goal which appears to parallel the progressive orientation of our culture. Modern education shows evidence of the trend toward change, facilitating the increasing integration of individuals who are physically, emotionally or learning disabled into public and private schools. This trend has been a decidedly positive one, with legal, economic and educational strategies coming together to present an effective and productive change in the way that we contend with disabilities. Inclusive practice, which submits that educational institutions should be considered responsible for helping to assimilate disabled students into mainstream population classroom settings and for providing them with the needed support to succeed therein, presents a number of challenges to educators. Namely, the determination of the appropriate curricular methods to b

Rhyming words, rhythmic actions, alliterative tone, and music in the mind's eye are all components of some descriptions of beautiful poetry. When the reader can imagine the setting or the scenario being described by the poet then the poet has made his or her mark by employing those components in the effort to transcend events the reader may not be familiar with. Many times the most difficult lyrics to comprehend, when it comes to poetic justice, are words strung together to describe an event or happening so far removed from the reader's experience that to conjure up the required images takes the most powerful words in the English language. So it must seem that Getting Hip to the Lights-Out Way is one such work. The author of this work evoked images that leave the reader with a disturbing feeling of having just read an event that will stay with the reader for quite some time. The image of poking one's eyes out to 'get hip to the lights out way'

The autobiography of Helen Keller is a remarkable work, the memoir of a deaf and blind woman who taught herself how to speak thanks in part to a devoted, steadfast tutor. Her memoir has become a piece of history and has also been transformed into multiple creative media including film. The film version of The Story of My Life takes some liberties with Keller's narrative while remaining true to the overall tone and theme. Using techniques including melodrama, the film version entitled The Miracle Worker focuses almost as much on Miss Sullivan as on Hel

The article The Welshman, the Walkman and the salarymen discusses the transition process at Sony, as conducted by a team of relative outsiders headed by Sir Howard Stringer. The article outlines many of the challenges that Sony faced. These include a lack of technological innovation, an obsolete organizational structure and an organizational culture in need of significant overhaul. Stringer had been able to enact an overhaul of the structure and culture at Sony's American group and was now being asked to do the same in Japan. The Japanese operations, however, presented many challenges not faced in the US operation. Among them were retired salarymen who blocked progress, senior engineers who were so hardware oriented as to be dismissive of software (today the key driver in the industry) and a complete lack of focus on shareholder value. Str

The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze the novel "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison. Specifically it will discuss beauty and race, two very prominent themes in the novel, and how the author portrays them. As many people know, beauty is not how a person looks on the outside, but it is what they are on the inside. The girls in Morrison's novel are too young to comprehend that, but as they grow, they learn about real beauty and the very "ugly" truth of race and race relations in the rural South of the 1940s. White people may be "beautiful" on the outside as Pecola believes, but many of them are ugly and hateful on the inside as Morrison clearly illustrates, and that is one of most important lessons this novel has to offer. Anyone can be beautiful on the outside, but it is the interior of a person – their soul and heart – that really matter as Morrison shows in "The Bluest Eye."

Observations of Dr. King: " ... there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was evidenced sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar, on the ground that a higher moral law was at stake. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks rather than submit to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire. To a degree, academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates practiced civil disobedience. In our own nation, the Boston Tea Party represented a massive act of civil disobedience." While jailed for civil disobedience, Dr. King addressed the concept of laws, specifically differentiating them from objective morality and genuine justice. Laws are mere creations of men, and therefore, are reflective of the best and worst human impulses, opinions, prejudices, and acts selfishness. According to Dr. King, human

The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze the novel "Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return" by Marjane Satrapi. Specifically it will express my reaction to the reading. Just as with the first graphic novel by Satrapi, I had trouble with this book and its flat, one-dimensional drawings. I disliked them so much that I stopped reading and read reviews of this graphic novel, finding reviewers who found the author a "gifted" artist as well as writer. Perhaps I am missing something, but I find her drawings weak, flat, and unemotional, for me they detract from the book, rather than add to its depth and significance. As the author grew up and went away to school in Europe, it seemed as if her story might become more compelling than the original book, and I was right, I did seem to like the story of this book more than the previous one. I found it hard to relate to many of her experiences, such as the partying and drugs, because it seemed to shore up my initial reaction that she was privileged and more than a little spoiled. However, I understood her fears, and her worries about her body and her loneli

There are four rooms. Each contains one element of four different sets of four. The sets are: north, south, west and east; earth, wind, fire, water; clovers, spades, hearts and diamonds; and spring, summer, autumn, winter. Thus we have four unique rooms: North Earth Clover Spring; South Wind Spade Summer; West Fire Heart Autumn; and East Water Diamond Winter. The first is characterized by north, earth, clover and spring. The room's walls are green, but the hue is not stable. Rather, it tapers from a dark shade at the base of the walls to sunnier shade towards the top. In the center of the ceiling in a skylight, bringing a ray down the middle of the room that settles on a table upon which sits a large vase filled with bright orchids. Beside the vase, at the north end of the room, indirect light spills in through a large window. From this window a large garden can be viewed. In its present state, it is full of tiny green shoots. Only at the back of the garden does si

The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze the novels "Push" by Sapphire and "Kindred" by Octavia E. Butler. Specifically it will analyze the characters of Precious in "Push" and Dana in "Kindred" as they are portrayed in each novel. Both of these characters are black women, but their experiences are extremely different. One goes back in time to experience the horrors of slavery and prejudice first hand, while the other lives in the modern world in her own version of Hell. They do have similarities, however, and they both represent modern black women in their own way. Precious and Dana seem like they are very different, and in many ways they are. Dana is educated, sophisticated, married to a good man, and generally is very happy and content, until she begins to go back in time. Precious, on the other hand, is abused, illiterate, a two-time mother, and pretty much on her own and cast adrift at a very young age. At first glance, they could not be more different, and their voices are different two. Dana writes with style and purpo

1) FedEx (FDX) is a logistics company engaged in several lines of business. They operate divisions in the overnight courier, less-than-truckload (LTL) freight, ground package delivery, custom clearance and retail office services markets. The core of the business is the overnight courier service, but ground package delivery and LTL are both growing segments of the market for FedEx. In the past few years, FedEx absorbed Kinko's, a retail office services firm. After struggling to integrate the operation, FedEx rebranded it FedEx Office in order to hasten the assimilation1. As growth in the overnight market has declined, FDX has moved aggressively into the LTL market, an industry only now beginning to consolidate. 2) I chose the company for a couple of reasons. First, it is a bellwether firm. Its operations are closely aligned with those of the US economy as a whole, which makes it an interesting study. FedEx also has a significant international presence and competes in se

Daylight Savings Time is the practice of turning clocks ahead one hour in the spring, and turning them back one hour in the fall. Daylight Savings Time happens in most countries around the world, but at different times during the year. Proponents of Daylight Savings Time believe that it not only adds more sunlight hours to the standard day, it saves money in energy, too, because people don't have to use as much electricity during daylight hours. Opponents believe that is no longer t

Media Responsibility The editor of the Toronto Star has a responsibility to uphold the reputation of the newspaper and also to sell newspapers. The newspaper cannot always keep the feelings of those individuals whom it covers in mind first and foremost as this would preclude informing the public about many important events. Even private citizens have their names revealed to the pubic when their actions become newsworthy without their consent. However, newspapers also observe ethical guidelines when releasing names and images, such as when they do not reveal t

Organizational theory and academic business discourse examine, amongst a host of other key organizational principles, the formal idea that leadership is an essential part of effective management, or, for that matter, an essential part of comprising an effective contribution to any working team. However, like many academic concepts which do not easily leap real-world applicability, this theoretical conception of leadership is just that, and in practice, this type of educational content and perspective is quite a bit less relevant than the curricula of formal education might argue. (Koskella, 2002; 1) While leadership is unquestionably an inborn talent that can be honed and improved, it is nonetheless an individualized talent and therefore both rarified and special. Such is to say that the dually important aspects of experience and ability are those who cannot be taught in an academic context. Especially in the organizational sense, one must gather and sharpen these respective quali

Throughout history, stereotypes have been detrimental to those whom they generalize. Most often applied to minorities, or those who are not in power, stereotypes help justify fear, mystery, and hatred of these demographic groups. Associate professor of applied psychology at New York University, Joshua Aronson discussed the impact of stereotypes on people's day-to-day operations and feelings with BU Today, finding that stereotypes can be severely dangerous. According to Aronson, stereotypes can severely impact the learning ability and day-to-day activities of those who fall victim to the generalizations. For instance, Aronson found that African American children perform at about the same level as white children when they are young, but as they grow older, the gaps between test scores increase. Aaronson concludes that this is because the African American children are exposed to stereotypes about themselves, and feel doomed to perform poorly ("The Impact of Stereotypes"

Virginia Woolf and Patricia Williams, though writing with more than six decades apart, tackle strikingly similar issues affecting women--especially professional women--in their respective times and worlds. The details of the inequalities they experience and the solutions they suggest or imply to remedy these inequalities are quite different in some instances, however, as are the methods they employ to present the situations and solutions to the reader. Both logically build a case first to show that there is without question a gender bias, and then to examine this causes and possible remedies. But while Virginia Woof takes a broad political view of the situation, augmented by specific examples from history and close readings of texts with female authors, Williams approach is more personal. Through anecdotes and imagery, Williams makes the struggle a more personal and individually relevant struggle. Woolf's logic is possibly superior but her delivery is drier and more academically stiff. The main reason for the differences of these styles could well be the audiences these two wo

Do you think that levitating is a miracle? Well, not anymore. Scientific discoveries are able to make things and people stand in the air in a state of equilibrium. Although it may seem some sort of witchcraft it is actually only a matter of physics. So, is magnetic levitation a good thing for humanity? Taking into consideration all its possible advantages, the answer should be a strong "yes". But first of all, we should first be able to understand what magnetic levitation is and how exactly it works before analyzing what it could do for humanity. The word "levitation" comes from the Latin "levitas" which means lightness. The levitation process refers to a body standing in the air, that is against the gravity forces, without having any physical support to hold it. (Wikipedia) Just like the expression "magnetic levitation" suggests it, levitation is achieved with the help of magnetic fields. In other words, a body will be maintained in the a

1) The Problem Definition The case study is particular in that it does not clearly present a particular problem that the brand Swatch might be having. Indeed, at the time the case study was written, the brand continued to be highly successful and produce significant revenues for the company. The problem, however, can be anticipated in the Looking Forward chapter. The most important problem and challenge that the company is facing is related to the fact that it needs to find the right alternative solutions for the moment when the market demand will cool off and the customers will have grown over the initial impact that the innovative concept that Swatch brought about would cool down. Indeed, initially, people were so interested in Swatch because the brand had managed to put together in the same product innovation and technology, all at a more than reasonable price. The initial growth throughout the period from 1990 to 1993 was in fact generated by the novelty that the brand had

Mankind's relationship with the gods has been depicted over the centuries through texts and stories. Many texts reveal a belief in Gods that control different aspects of their lives. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Metamorphosis illustrate the importance of gods in life on earth. In each of these texts, we see a society that believes the gods have a direct influence on their daily lives. These texts provide a glimpse of how the gods and goddesses were incorporated into culture as an attempt to explain phenomenon that could not otherwise be explained or defined. As a result of this belief, individuals believed that the gods directed their destiny, for better or worse. The gods could help or hinder life on earth and they could also become involved with humans if they so chose. The relationships could become complicated, much like life on earth and, as always, these relationships were anything but boring. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, we learn that soc

Evolution is a key characteristic of humankind and there is controversy surrounding the matter as it is seen as beneficial by many while others consider it to be harmful. Vaclav Havel states that "We are witnesses to a bizarre state of affairs: society has freed itself, true, but in some ways it behaves worse than when it was in chains," (Havel) and he most probably refers to the fact that in spite the fact that people have escaped communism and other threats, democracy has brought its disadvantages with it. Democracy has had some of its worst effects

The story and much of the music of "The Little Mermaid" is familiar to anyone who was once a little girl-or who knows a little girl. The performance I saw of the Broadway musical is a retelling of the Disney cartoon that has been played and replayed on DVDs in many homes across America before the watchful eyes of young children. Disney's animated feature film is, of course, itself based upon the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale of the same name, and contains such classic songs as "Part of Your World" and "Under the Sea." To prepare for the show, I watched the DVD again, and I also read over Anderson's tale, to re-familiarize myself with the songs. I also wanted to be aware of what the creators of the musical had decided to keep from the Disney animated film, perhaps added back from Anderson that Disney had rejected, and what they had introduced that was entirely new to realize a different creative vision. The musical was splashy (no pun intended) fun with bright colors, dazzling spe