How Is the Holocaust Represented in Films Essay Example for Free

How Is the Holocaust Represented in Films Essay ‘The Holocaust’ was the massacre of nearly six million Jews in parts of Europe controlled by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party leading up to and during World War II. When the Nazi party first came to power in 1933 they began building on the anti-Semitist feelings in Germany; introducing new legislations that gradually removed the Jews from society such as the Nuremberg Laws which prohibited marriage or extramarital sexual intercourse between Jews and German citizens and required Jews to wear an armband with the Star of David on it so they could be identified as a Jew. Encouraged by the Nazi’s, people began to boycott Jewish ran businesses and in the November of 1938 they were openly attacked, these pogroms became known as ‘Kristallnacht’ which in German translates as: â€Å"the Night of Broken Glass† because of the vandalised shops and broken glass windows. During Kristallnacht over 7,000 Jewish shops and 1,668 synagogues (almost all of the synagogues in Germany) were destroyed and the official death toll is ninety-one although it is assumed to be much higher. In 1939, after the invasion of Poland, small areas of towns were sectioned off from the rest of the population where Jews and Romani were forced to live in confined and overcrowded spaces. These were known as ‘ghettos’. The largest was Warsaw Ghetto, in Poland (where ‘The Pianist’ was set), with over 400,000 people living within its walls. Although it contained at least 30% of the population of Warsaw it occupied only 2.4% of the citys area; this meant that the residents of the ghetto were forced to cram in an average of nine people per room. From 1940 through to 1942 starvation and disease, especially typhoid, killed hundreds of thousands. Over 43,000 residents of the Warsaw ghetto died there in 1941. On January 20th, 1942 a â€Å"final solution to the Jewish question in Europe† was devised by the Nazi leaders. Death camps were built in Eastern Europe with new railway systems that were made to transport Jews from other countries to these remote areas. Jews, as well as other ‘undesirables’ such as Romani, Soviet prisoners of war, Polish and Soviet civilians, homosexuals, people with physical or mental disabilities, Jehovahs Witnesses and other political and religious opponents, were rounded up from all over Europe and forced into tightly packed rail freight cars like cattle. If they survived the journey, a small fraction of the Jews were deemed fit to work as slave labour. Everyone else was sent straight to the gas chambers which were disguised as shower rooms to prevent the victims panicking or trying to fight back. People were packed into these ‘shower rooms’ where the doors were bolted shut and a small but deadly pellet of Zyklon-B was dropped in and was activated by the heat of hundreds of human bodies crammed in together, those inside were dead within twenty minutes. By the end of the war six million Jewish men, women and children had been killed; this was more than two-thirds of the Jewish population. We have watched three films based around the Holocaust. The first of the three ‘The Pianist’ is a film based on the true story of a Jewish man, Wladysaw Szpilman: a famous pianist who worked for a polish radio station, living through the Holocaust. The beginning of the film shows the German invasion of Poland, in which Szpilman’s radio station is bombed, and the anti-Jewish laws that the Germans enforce in Poland, for example, when Szpilman is refused entry to the park or the cafà © with his polish friend and made to walk in the gutter to let polish people get primary use of the pavement. Szpilman and his family soon have to move to the Warsaw Ghetto where death became commonplace due to starvation, disease and attempt to rebel against the Nazi’s. The Nazis treat the Jews appallingly; they forced some Jews to dance to humiliate themselves for their own entertainment, a little boy is beaten to death for trying to scavenge some food for his starving family and, in one scene, Szpilman watches from an opposite flat as Nazi soldiers tip someone in a wheel chair out the window because he couldn’t stand up when they ordered him to. After several months in the ghetto, Szpilman and his family are chosen to be taken to the Treblinka death camp, however, Szpilman is saved from boarding the train by Itzak Heller, a Jewish police officer, while his family board the train never to be seen again. Szpilman is then put to work under gruelling, abusive conditions with the ten per cent or so of the Jews that the Nazi’s kept alive to use for slave labour; tearing down the walls that use to separate the ghetto from the rest of Warsaw and rebuilding the houses for new, non-Jewish residents. The Jews who are still alive are planning on rebelling Szpilman helps; smuggling guns into the ghetto. But after almost being caught by a Nazi soldier who suspects he is concealing something in a bag of beans, Szpilman decides to attempt an escape and take his chances hiding in the city. His friend, Dorota, and her husband hide him in an empty apartment near the ghetto wall where he can get by on smuggled food; however he must not make a noise or go outside as there are other, non-Jews living in the building to all believe the room to be empty. From his apartment window he helplessly watches the Jewish ghetto uprising from the 19th of April 1943 to its unsuccessful end on the 16th May. He lives silently in the abandoned apartment for another few months until he accidently smashes a shelf of china plates. Although Szpilman is unhurt the noise alerts other residents to his presence in the abandoned apartment; he is forced to leave his hideout. Szpilman is hidden once more, with the help of people from the Polish resistance, in another abandoned flat but the man supposed to be providing him with food disappears with the money from generous and unwitting donors, pocketing it all for his self. Dorota and her husband find him gravely ill from lack of nutrition but luckily he recovers in time to witness the Warsaw Uprising. His flat gets bombed during the uprising and Szpilman escapes to the abandoned ghetto where he is found by a merciful Nazi officer, Captain Wilm Hosenfeld. Szpilman plays the piano for him to prove that he is a pianist and the soldier, moved by his playing, finds him food and allows him to remain hidden there. Szpilman hides out here until the end of the war when the German Nazis are rounded up and polish prisoners released. The freed prisoners yell insults at the Germans and Hosenfeld, upon hearing that one of the freed prisoners was a violinist, asks him to contact Szpilman; to ask him if he will return the favour of saving him. However, Szpilman is unable to help Hosenfeld as the camp of Nazi prisoners had been moved and Szpilman returns to playing the piano for the Warsaw radio station. As the movie finishes the closing captions on screen tell us that Hosenfeld died in 1952 in a prisoner of war camp but Szpilman continued to live in Warsaw until his death in 2000, aged 88. The second film we watched was ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ this film took a different, perspective of the Holocaust than ‘The Pianist’. This film is shown through the point of view of Bruno, the eight-year-old child of a German Nazi officer; he doesn’t really see the Jews as any different to himself yet despite his innocence Bruno still becomes a victim of the Holocaust†¦ At the start of the movie Bruno and his family are moving because his father got a job promotion as Commandant of a Jewish extermination camp. Bruno is upset and lonely because he was forced to leave his friends in Berlin so when he meets Shmuel, a Jewish boy the same age as Bruno, sitting on the other side of the fence, in the death camp, Bruno immediately befriends him. Shmuel tells Bruno that he is a Jew and that the Jewish people have been imprisoned here by soldiers, who also took their clothes and gave them the striped camp clothing, and that he is hungry. Bruno is confused and starts having doubts about his father being a good person. However, Bruno regularly returns to the fence bringing Shmuel food and playing checkers with him through the fence. When Bruno’s Mother realises what’s actually happening at the camp through a comment by one of the younger soldiers â€Å"They smell even worse when they burn, she is shocked and appalled as she believed it to be a labour camp. She argues with her Husband, insisting that she and the children should move elsewhere, eventually the Mother wins out but Bruno doesn’t want to leave anymore because of his friendship with Shmuel. Shmuel tells Bruno that his father is missing. Bruno gives him the bad news that he will be moving away for good the next day after lunch. Wanting to make up for letting Shmuel down and naive that his father has likely been murdered, Bruno agrees to help Shmuel to find his father, and returns the next day with a shovel to dig a hole under the fence to get into the camp, and Shmuel will bring an extra set of camp clothing; Shmuels suggestion that he could leave the camp through the hole is rejected by Bruno, who doesn’t know what it’s really like inside the camp and is determined to find Shmuel’s father. Whilst still searching Bruno and Shmuel get caught up in a crowd of people being marched to the gas chambers where both Bruno and Shmuel are murdered with the other Jews. In the meantime, Bruno’s Mother tells his Father, who was in a meeting about increasing the capacity of the gas chambers, that Bruno is missing. They find Brunos clothes next to the hole under the fence and realise that he got into the death camp. His Father runs throughout the camp when he reaches the gas chamber, he realises that Bruno has been brought to the gas chamber with the other Jews, but when He arrives it is too late, the boys are already dead and he is devastated. Upon hearing the Fathers cry of Bruno! his Mother and his sister, Gretel, realise what has happened and are equally devastated. The ending of this film has an element of retribution as Bruno’s father, who has killed thousands of Jewish children, finally gets a taste of what it’s like to lose his child. Finally, the last movie that we watched was ‘Life is Beautiful’. This film was set in Italy about the main character, Guido, a young, Jewish, man who at the opening of the film moves to the city with his friend to work at his uncle’s restaurant where he meets his future wife, Dora, although neither knows it yet. During the beginning of the film you can see how the anti-Semitist feelings built up it Italy for instance when the school children are meant to be lectured on ‘the superior race’, when someone paints â€Å"Beware, Jewish horse† on Guido’s Uncle’s horse, the sign on the shop reading â€Å"No dogs, no Jews!† and, later in the film, when Guido and Dora are married, despite the fact that Guido’s a Jew and Dora’s Italian, people trash their house. On Joshua (Guido and Dora’s son) birthday the Germans arrest Guido, Joshua and Guido’s uncle are taken onto the train to be taken to the death camp Dora insists on going with them even though she isn’t a Jew eventually the Nazi gives in and puts her on the train where she is included with the other Jewish women. Guido is devastated to see his non-Jewish wife board the train. Protecting his son from the horrific truth, Guido tells Joshua that they are simply on a big holiday camp, and he turns the camp into a big game for Joshua, saying that they must win 1000 points to win a real tank and leave. Luckily Guido’s quick thinking saves Joshua from the truth when a German officer requires a translator. Despite not speaking a word of German, Guido steps forward and makes up the Regole del Campo from the Germans body language, claiming that tanks, scoreboards and games of Hide and Seek litter the camp, while cleverly stating that Joshua cannot cry, ask for his mother or declared hes hungry, resulting in the loss of the game, in other words, death. Joshua later refuses to take a shower (repeated from an earlier part in the film), and unknowingly escapes being gassed, so Guido hides him with the help of other Italian prisoners, since there are no other children. Playing messages over the speakers for Dora, kept prisoner on the other side of the camp, let’s Dora know her son and husband are alive, while the Nazi’s don’t speak Italian. With the help of Guidos former German friend, Herr Lessing, Guido hides Joshua amongst the German children, while waiting the German Officers meals. Hiding Joshua in a junction box for the last time, telling him that everyone is looking for him, Guido jeopardises his own survival to prevent the Germans discovering Joshua, while he attempts to free Dora, giving his own life away at the same time. Once the German’s realise they’ve lost the what they desert the camp, closely followed by the surviving Jews escaping, then, when the Americans break into the seemingly deserted camp the following morning Joshua comes out of hiding just as a tank pulls around the corner so Joshua believes that he has won ‘the Game’. Hitching a lift out, Joshua spots his mother reuniting as the film ends. Although all three of these movies are based on the Holocaust each one uses different themes and different view points. Firstly, ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ is filmed from a very innocent, child view point. Bruno is very young and the difference between Jew and German doesn’t matter to him; he doesn’t understand what might be considered wrong in befriending Shmuel. A similar viewpoint is used in ‘Life Is Beautiful’ where Joshua doesn’t know what’s going on because his father told him it was a game. I think that this perspective very effective in displaying the horrors and injustice of the Holocaust and, personally, it makes for a more entertaining film as it uses the audiences’ sympathies to make them more emotionally involved with the plot. However, in displaying historical fact within the film this take has disadvantages because what makes the main characters so innocent is their lack of understanding of their situation which naturally makes it harder for the film to be both educating and entertaining. ‘The Pianist’, however, has a much more grown up approach as, being based on a true story, it sticks to the facts and I felt that I learnt more from that film then I did from the other two. A similar theme that emerges in all three of these films is family. In ‘The Pianist’ Szpilman loses his family early on in the film, although he seems quite close to them before, and he struggles to survive without them probably feeling lonely all those month in hiding with no one with him for company. In ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ you see how Bruno’s family are driven apart by their conflicting opinions of the Holocaust; Bruno’s father is a strong believer in Nazi policy and the commandant of the death camp, however, his Mother is quite shocked and appalled when she learns the truth of what’s happening at the death camp and insists on moving away with the kids, whereas Bruno is young and confused as he’s been brought up being told that Jews are basically evil and German soldiers, like his father, are good but when he befriends Shmuel he realises that some Jews are nice, like Shmuel, and begins to doubt his father. Contrast to this, in ‘Life is Beautiful’ you see how Joshua’s family grow closer together because of the Holocaust; they stick together for each other and Guido even sacrifices himself in hope of saving Joshua. Although we often assume that all of the Nazi soldiers were evil, the issue of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Germans is brought up in all three of these films. Firstly, in ‘The Pianist’ although most Germans are portrayed as evil, the Nazi officer, Captain Hosenfeld, saves Szpilman from starvation or being found and, towards the end of the movie, when he’s a prisoner and begging for help you begin to sympathise with him a bit more, especially when it’s revealed that he died on the caption. Then, in ‘Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ Bruno befriends Shmuel, and Bruno’s Mother and Grandmother openly disagree with Nazi views, which makes you think not to stereotype all Germans as ‘evil’. And lastly, in ‘Life I Beautiful’ although no German steps out and helps Guido and his family, you do see a doctor (who Guido knew before he was forced to work at the death camp) beginning to lose his stability because the work he is forced to do goes against all his moral values. This adds another layer to the ‘evil Germans’ assumption because maybe not all of them were doing it willingly so therefore does that make them bad?

A Budgetary Control Systems Accounting Essay

A Budgetary Control Systems Accounting Essay I have re-read my last years HNC paperwork and used my current years HND paperwork to help with the various aspects of the report. I used my HNC costing booklets and lecture notes, HND Investment Appraisal literature, HND Business Tax literature, HND Capital Allowances literature and HNC Standard Costing literature. I went to the library and used college resources such as ebray for information of more in-depth budgeting control systems. I used Cost and Management Accounting books which covered cost assignment of direct and indirect costs. They covered issues about fixed, variable and semi variable costs. I used Accounting Theory and Practice for in-depth budgetary planning and variance analysis. I used an up to date Taxation book to allow me the most up to date tax percentages to be used, the correct Asset Investment Allowances applicable and the written down values for Capital Allowance calculations. CASE STUDY ANALYSIS This formal report has been requested by the Managing Director by Ergo design He requires a full business report which will appraise the launch of a new quality ergonomic chair. As well as the appraisal, the managing director would like advice on how to set up and implement an efficient budgetary control system. Ergo Design already make a different range of products and are wanting to find out if it would feasible to undertake the making of another new product. The company currently has spare capacity and as they dont want spare capacity are looking into making a new chair. This however involves the purchase or hire of a new asset namely a new machine which will be capable of making the new product. This asset is not inexpensive and cost  £125,000. Ergo Design are guaranteed an order for 1 year amounting to 1800 chairs to be distributed evenly over the month. The factory is only open 48 weeks of the year to allow for maintenance, repairs etc and therefore leaves 12 periods of 4 weeks to evenly distribute 160 chairs per 4 weeks. The company have had a trial p eriod and all seems to be well. The MD awaits reports before committing final sanctions. APPENDICES 1-9 Attached as appendices is the Activity Based Costing comparison followed by the functional budgets then Capital Investment Appraisal and lastly a Break Even Analysis based on my figures. Appendix 1. Activity Based Costing comparison. I have used Activity Based Costing (ABC) to work out the costs of producing the new product. Ergo Design in previous years have recovered costs using a blanket wide rate based on the number of machine hours. The last two years however they have changed to ABC. I have made a comparison using traditional overhead recovery and ABC. ABC was developed in order to more accurately reflect the factors which cause overhead costs to arise. Overhead costs are attributed to products on the basis that it is activities that cause costs to arise. Each activity can be identified with a cost driver and the cost drivers I have used are machine hours, Labour hours, number of orders, production runs, set up hours and inspections. After the cost drivers have been identified then each cost drivers overheads are collected together. These collections of costs are called cost pools. Each pool is then divided by its driver, for example all overheads in the cost p ool for the materials ordering process would be divided by the number of orders placed to give a value for the cost of placing an order. The costs of all activities relating to a product would be added together to give the overhead element of the cost of production. Because activity based costing shares out overheads using cost drivers compared with the traditional costing systems which use departments, then a greater number of drivers can be used, reflecting all the different activities taking place in the manufacturing process. This leads to a fairer and more accurate way of charging overheads to the products. The traditional methods ignore the detail of many of the activities that actually take place. In my findings the cost of producing the new product using ABC is  £167.95 per unit whereas the blanket method only  £150.18 is allocated for cost, This would give a higher contribution and a higher profit. I have assumed that we are going to be charging  £195 per unit and at this price we are still making a profit of  £63,975 for the first year. We can look at raising prices at the end of the initial 3 year period if the turnover is still constant. My creditors are to allow me credit purchases payable for : Aluminium Sheets. 1 month Memory Foam.2 months Fabric1 month Hardware3 months My debtors are to be allowed 1 months credit sales. A new asset is to be purchased at a cost of  £125,000, which will gather depreciation over 10 years straight line method. The new machine will need to be replaced after this time and will have a residual value of  £15,000. Maintenance will need to be carried out regularly to allow for optimum usage and guarantee residual value. The maintenance cost will be estimated at 5% of the capital cost per annum. The asset is purchased with a long term loan for the full  £125,000. The loan will have a 3% fixed rate interest per annum. The interest is added to the original amount and not compounded yearly. This is to be repaid over 10 years with repayments and interest payments split. The total cost of the loan is  £162,500 with repayments being  £62500 every 6 months and Interest being  £1,875. There is currently spare capacity within Ergo Designs production facilities and can therefore produce 2 batches of 20 chairs per week for the full 48 weeks that the factory is open. This allows for surplus stock of (1920-1800)=120 chairs surplus at the end of the year. We will supply 150 chairs per month to the customer and make 160 chairs to allow for full capacity, this will leave us a surplus of 10 chairs which will be opening stock for the month of Feb and the units will 10 more units every month compounded. The following budgets are prepared for the first six months of the new multi-level chair and include: Appendix 2. Opening Balance at beginning of the month of Jan. This is the beginning of the month and lists the purchases made to enable the company to begin production and sell them at the end of the month. Appendix 3. Key Variables input. As the figures were given for batches I had to break them down into single units costs so that a uniform approach was taken across the board. The direct material costs have accounted for the biggest costs followed by the labour then the variable overheads. Appendix 4. Sales budgets- This is also the main budget which has to be prepared first. It shows that we are to sell 150 units per month at a cost of  £195 creating a sales value of  £29,250. Production budget- This budget is prepared after the sales budget and states the amount of units to be produced within the period. I have carried over excess units in case of any unforeseen circumstances which will reduce production in later months e.g. machinery breaking down and staff absences etc. The machinery is also working at full capacity if I make the amount required as well as the excess. Direct Material usage budget is prepared next and the figures are for 1 single unit which is obtained from the key variables sheet shown in Appendix 2. Direct material purchases budget is next with figures for the required production for each month and the cost of goods to be purchased. The cost figure is taken from the key variable appendix 2. Direct labour budget figures come from the production budget for the amount to be produced multiplied by the cost of the direct labour unit from key variables appendix 2. Overhead budget gives us monthly fixed overheads and depreciation figures taken from key variables in appendix 2. Variable cost budget†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.This budget takes the amount of units to be produced multiplied by the variable cost per unit. Both these figures are from the key variables sheet. Production cost budget†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦This budget gives us a breakdown of how much each unit will cost to produce. It takes into consideration the material and variable costs and add the figure to the raw material costs. Debtors budget†¦..We have been giving our debtors 1 month to pay after receiving their finished goods. Creditors budget†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦We have 4 of these for each of the different raw materials we need. Each shows opening balances, purchases, payments and closing balances. Appendix 5. The Cash budget shows the inflows and outflows and gives a final figure for the bank balance to go into the Balance sheet. Appendix 6. The Operating statement lists the cost of sales when taken from sales will give us a profit. Expenses are then deducted leaving us with healthy net profit of  £25,744.25 Appendix 7. The Balance sheet is the 6 month balance sheet ending on 30th June 2013. Our current assets are a higher amount than our current liabilities and therefore give us net current assets to be added to the fixed assets. Once the long term liabilities come off then this leaves us with a balance of  £25,844.25 Appendix 8. Capital Investment appraisal. I have started this by working out the inflows for the first 3 years as we know the selling price and we know the change in production. After year 3, I have assumed that turnover will remain stable and have therefore carried out my Capital Allowance calculations over 10 years. I have deducted the Asset Investment allowance of  £25,000 and written down value for each year at 18%. I have assumed a residual value of the machine to be  £15,000 and added the balancing allowance figure to the capital allowances. Using the inflow figures and deducting capital allowances for each year, I was able to work out the taxable amount and tax it at this years appropriate amount. I carried out 2 Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) methods , 1 being Net Present Value (NPV) and the other is the Internal Rate of Return (IRR). The DCF includes all cash flows and the time value of money telling you what you  £1 will be worth in X years ahead. The IRR also includes th e time value of money and includes all cash flows but the IRR if far more easily understood. If the net present value is zero or positive, the project is accepted, I have used 15% and 45% discount factors and they are both returning a positive number so the project should be accepted. You can think of IRR as the rate of growth a project  is expected to generate and a higher IRR value would provide a much better chance of strong growth. The rate for this project is 59.93 so again promoting the acceptance of this project.. Appendix 9. I have put in an extra break even analysis chart for your perusal as break even charts work well with a single product. The break-even analysis is a calculation of the approximate sales volume required to just cover costs, above which production would be profitable or unprofitable break-even analysis focuses on the relationship between fixed costs, variable cost, and profit. The summary shows that the BEP in units 1058 and the margin of safety in units is 742. Costs taken into account are distinguished by variable costs which change in according to the production level. BUDGETARY CONTROL SYSTEMS A budget is a financial plan for an organisation prepared in advance for a given period. Budgets can be prepared as a whole or broken down into component departments e.g. sales and production or purchases or cash or capital etc. There can be many different types of budgets and for a variety of departments such as sales or production or financial items such as capital, expenditure, manpower, purchase etc. The budgeting process is a vital part of a businesss planning and control. The overall objective of the company is prepared in advance and agreed with cooperation and detailed into a feasible plan of action. It is about planning, monitoring, reviewing and amending budgets to suit management objectives. When the long term strategies are written down everyone is starting from the same place and it will not matter if new people come and go, the long term plans will still be there. Long term objectives after being decided need to be broken down into manageable chunks of short term objectives. A limiting factor needs to be distinguished and a budget is prepared solely for this. The most common limiting factor is sales and this needs to be as accurate as possible as all other budgets will be based on the limiting factors budget. Once all the budgets are prepared a master budget is drafted and given to all of the budget holders for agreement. Once any tweaks or changes are made and an agreement reached then the master budget is presented to senior management. When the budgets need to be prepared again for the next period then actual figures are measured against budgeted figures and there are favourable and adverse variances produced showing management what areas need attention and where money is being lost, it may be efficiency problems that are highlighted for attention etc. There is actually an 8 step plan involved in advanced preparation budgeting. Step 1 is agreeing long term goals Step 2 Changing long term goals to short term goals Step 3 Identify limiting factor Step 4 Prepare limiting factor budget Step 5 Prepare all other budgets Step 6 Bring all budgets together to prepare the master budget Step 7 Agree with all budget holders Step 8 Present to the management There are many benefits to having financial planning and good budgetary control to name a few, by doing extensive planning there is a much clearer picture on where the business is going. It will reduce stress in the work place with all staff knowing where, when and how things are to done. Management can keep on top of things and have peace of mind. With budgeting control there is a more detailed structure of how the business is organised. With all the planning, organising and controlling it is easier for management to keep on top of changes and variances and make it easier to quickly adapt to the said changes. There is co-ordination with everyone working in the same direction. Budgets can be used to make communication and motivation more effective using them to exchange information concerning ideas, goals, achievements etc. thus giving staff a sense of togetherness and teamwork with everyone working towards the same goal. There is however barriers with a lack of knowledge, resources or motivation making the planning extremely difficult to start. Maybe not knowing where to start or even how to start. Maybe needing to sacrifice some things for others. Budgets are a time consuming job and to draw up each individual budget is a laborious task but it is still worthwhile as the benefits usually outweigh the efforts. If there is no co-ordination then the planning will fall apart. Preparing budgets is extremely subjective and they are based on predicted assumptions. ADDITIONAL AND ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES The company has taken out a loan for the CNC machine perhaps they could have hired it for a year or so, see how the product is doing then maybe buy it later on. Leasing equipment means there is not maintenance or repair costs to consider. Instead of keeping the CNC machine for 10 years with a value of  £15,000, Ergo designs can sell it sooner when it is worth more money. The company have adequate production facilities at this time and are therefore not considering contracting out however with proper budgetary controls in place it will be easier to spot any variance changes with efficiency or cost and it may be that in the future it may well be cheaper to contract certain parts of the process out to someone else. They do not run at full capacity in the other products they make and look at contracting out some of that work instead. The company should put in place an advertising campaign for when they believe sales will stabilize to generate renewed interest in the product which can be researched by potential buyers now as it has been on the market for 3 years. As Direct material has accounted for the biggest cost maybe Ergo Design can look around for cheaper suppliers or substitute certain ingredients for others. A price increase could be implemented in later years. CONCLUSIONS The launch of this new product is feasible. It is returning a good profit and there is lots of potential for increasing profitability in the coming next few years and there is room for selling price increases. The new asset can be used for its economical life, sold off earlier or can be hired out to other companies so more room for increased profitability. RECOMMENDATIONS A proper budgetary control system should most definitely be put in place. Future advertising is also a must. They need to do this sooner rather than later as they have only projected increases in turnover for the next 2 years. As the cost of materials are so high, I would recommend that the buyers look around for alternative materials or try to negotiate more with the current suppliers for larger discounts. Lets be aware of the future, this can be done easier with the budgetary control in place. We need to be aware of what our competitors are up to and trends in markets. We need to be aware of what the government is changing and how it will affect the business e.g. Higher corporation taxes, inflation rates etc.

Handmaids Tale Vs. Fire Dwelle :: essays research papers fc

In the two books Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and Margaret Laurence’s The Fire Dweller’s, the protagonists are very different in character. However, both of these women lost their identity due to an outside influence. In each of the books we see the nature of the lost identity, the circumstances which led to this lost identity and the consequences which occurred as a result of this lost identity.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the book The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood our main character (Offred) has had her whole world stolen away by the government of Gilead. This new society is sexually repressed, and is founded by religious extremists. Women are only used to produce children, and have no rights at all in the new world of Gilead.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the book The Fire Dwellers by Margaret Laurence our main character Stacey MacAindra has been thrown into a life of responsibility. She has an uncommunicative husband who means well, but shows her no love. And four children who she feels are being ruined by her every action. She feels that life has much more to offer than the tediousness of every day routine.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The nature of Offred’s lost identity is very drastic. Before the new religious group of Gilead took over the world she was a very normal every day woman. She did what was expected of her time and continued to do so after the take over. She had a husband and a daughter who she loved very much. But the new society which she lives in love is not permitted. “ If I thought that this would happen again I would die. But this is wrong, nobody dies from lack of sex. It’s lack of love we die from. There’s nobody here I can love, all the people I could love are dead or elsewhere'; . Offred also had the choice of free will before her civilization changed. But then slowly women began to lose all of their rights and were no longer allowed to have jobs or even to use money,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  “Sorry, he said. This number is not valid.';   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  “That’s ridiculous, I said. It must be, I’ve got thousands in my account.';   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  “It’s not valid, he repeated obstinately. See that red light? Means it’s not   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  valid,';(p.164). “In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from'; (p.24). Social class was not a racial matter before the take over; and each individual was treated equally.

Free Will and Determinism Views Essay -- Free Will, Determinism

The aim of this essay is to prove the reliability of and why Libertarianism is the most coherent of the three Free Will and Determinism views. It refers to the idea of human free will being true, that one is not determined, and therefore, they are morally responsible. In response to the quote on the essay, I am disagreeing with Wolf. This essay will be further strengthened with the help of such authors as C.A. Campell, R. Taylor and R.M. Chisholm. They present similar arguments, which essentially demonstrate that one could have done otherwise and one is the sole author of the volition. I will present the three most common arguments in support of Libertarianism, present an objection against Libertarianism and attempt to rebut it as well as reject one main argument from the other views. As a result, this essay will prove that one is held morally responsibly for any act that was performed or chosen by them, which qualify as a human act. The Libertarian view contends that one’s actions are not predetermined but rather that people have free will, a precondition for moral responsibility. Basically, human acts are not determined by antecedent causes. Libertarianism is one of the views under Incompatibilism along with Hard Determinism. The opposite of these views is Compatibilism. An example of Libertarianism is: right now, one has the choice to either stop or continue reading this essay. Under this claim, the fact that one can choose between either is not determined one way or the other. Campbell’s view on Libertarianism is quite simple. He suggests that one needs to judge people by their inner acts or intentions to understand free will. To have freedom one must have a precondition of moral responsibility as well as a categorical ana... ...ime or space. Nevertheless, as I stated earlier, for something to be determined I believe that God is required. So, by saying that one needs to eliminate a God and other requirements to have free will, then one falsifies determinism, thus making this view incorrect. All in all, each view about the philosophy of free will and determinism has many propositions, objections and counter-objections. In this essay, I have shown the best propositions for Libertarianism, as well as one opposition for it which I gave a counter-objection. Additionally, I have explained the Compatabalistic and Hard Deterministic views to which I gave objections. In the end, whether it is determinism or indeterminism, both are loaded with difficulties. Nonetheless, I have provided the best explanation for free will, determinism and to the agent being morally responsible for their human actions.

Imperialistic Attitude Conveyed in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels

One must sometimes wonder what an ideal utopian world would be like. The first things to come to mind would probably rather trivial, such as golden roads, chocolate fountains, etc. However, the underlying core of what a utopian society would be like is one that would have an abundance of two seemingly unknown words, morality and humanity. Morality and humanity would be the greatest grace for any society to have, for any government to be driven by. Sadly, this is usually not, nor has it really ever been, the case. Instead, government is run by a largely imperialistic attitude. That is, whatever can satisfy the greed and hunger of a nation is what matters, not the inhumane suffering that follows afterwards. This imperialistic and dehumanized attitude is both explicitly and implicitly shown in two great novels, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and Voltaire’s Candide, along with some lesser known but no less important stories. Not only is this corrupt imperialism expressed as a whole in these writings, but also in its more detailed aspects, such as globalization of empire, racism, and slavery in a literal and metaphorical sense. The first aspect, empirical globalization, is one that has been rampant for all of the past to the present. By globalization, I do not merely mean exploring another country in a peaceful, knowledge-seeking manner- I wish that were the case. In speaking of this, I am speaking of that which is exemplified so well in the Spanish conquistadors in America, the â€Å"noble† conqueror and king Alexander the Great, and so many more nations and figureheads to mention. These people were and seemingly still are venerated as heroes for finding knew lands, â€Å"taking them†, and becoming incredibly wealthy off those lands res... ...m going on about such things as dehumanization and apathy in speaking of mass imperialism and globalization, but all of these are tied together. The very simple reason for the â€Å"exploitation of man by man for economic gain† is that many people do not care for the lives of anyone but themselves. Others are simply seen as insects that can be used and thrown out. Just property gone bad! All throughout history, humans have sought to create their own utopias. Doing this, most times, ends up creating mass globalizations, imperialism, and xenophobic ideals. Mark Twain said it best, â€Å"I am quite sure that I have no race prejudices, and I think I have no color prejudices nor caste prejudices nor creed prejudices. Indeed, I know it. I can stand any society. All that I care to know is that a man is a human being- that is enough for me; he can’t be any worse† (229).

How Can an Individual’s Sense of Identity be Communicated Through Their Choice of Music?

In today's society individuality can be expressed in many different ways. The use of physical adornments such as clothes and makeup are the first things that spring to mind when discussing ways and methods of identification. However, with the mass media having such a huge influence on the young people of today, it is becoming very easy to determine one's identity through the music they enjoy listening to. This essay seeks to determine how an individual identity can be clearly communicated through choices of music. To a certain extent, music has had an interesting effect on the way individuals express their sense of identity. The 1960's Mods and Rockers are a good example of this. Two different types of people existing in the same society, who were easily distinguished to the type of clothing they wore and their social activities- it could be argued that this has certain relevance to tastes in music. The Mods were, of course, happy to settle for the newly released music of the time. Whereas the Rockers weren't satisfied with the new renditions and so preferred to stick with classic rock music. This eventuated in the two groups leading wholly different ways of life, and the appearances and attitudes of both groups became a likeness of the particular ‘identities' which are recognizable in society today. Today, there is a greater variety of music available to the mass public, and this has inevitably resulted in many different identities being formed. The 1980's trance scene along with the new input of R ‘n' B and Hip Hop (Black rap style music) has influenced a number of new music acts to recreate versions of the biggest hits. This has helped in creating a new identity that many nightclubs cater for. What is known as the ‘Kev', ‘Townie' or ‘Shaz' has been formed! These short names are used to describe people of a certain identity. Usually people of these youth subgroups are fans of hard dance music which they listen to on a regular basis on their personal CD players in public places and are also well known for their up to date flashy mobile phones, sports clothing and tacky jewellery, as well as the occasional baseball cap. There is a rather large congregation of ‘Kevs/Townies' on Saturday nights when they drive their flashy cars around the town centre. ‘Moshers', ‘Goths', ‘Metallers' or ‘Grungers' all form another subgroup which relies almost completely on music taste which is quite the opposite to the group discussed in the last paragraph. ‘Grungers' are people who usually prefer to listen to music such as Nirvana and Red Hot Chili Peppers, and just generally most forms of rock and metal music. Their sense of dress is relatively easy to identify, as a certain identity has been created by the huge mass of youngsters turning to the ‘Grunger' image in the last few years. The ‘hoodie' has become a highly symbolic item of clothing, which many of the group members will wear when congregating. This can be teamed with baggy jeans and trousers, multiple piercings, dyed hair, visible tattoos and other common objects such as various bracelets and jewellery, although hardly ever gold or silver. The two groups previously discussed are the two huge societies in which the members' behaviour is almost completely influenced by popular music. As it is possible to see from the descriptions above, an individuals' sense of identity can be relatively easy to configure when using popular music as the determining factor. Due to this, increasing amounts of youth subgroups are being formed purely by musical taste.

Data Mining and Data Warehouse Essay

nip breeding tap, the extraction of hidden prognostic teaching from humongous selective nurturebases, is a capacityy untried technology with great possible to help companies focus on the close to of the essence(predicate) instruction in their entropy w ar houses. info exploit tools count on hereafter trends and behaviors, every last(predicate)(a)owing workes to make proactive, acquaintance- driven decisions tabulines. information store is a computer system designed to give line of transmission line decision-makers eye blink access to information. The store copies its info from animate systems like order entry, general ledger, and gentlemans gentleman re radicals and stores it for use by executives rather than programmers. information storage w atomic number 18house users use special softwargon package that enables them to create and access information when they postulate it, as opposed to a coverage schedule defined by the information systems ( IS) department. This paper describes the meaning of selective information store and information dig basic architecture of selective information wargonho utilize and information mine, functions and working of entropy tap. It also presents entropy minelaying from information storage wargonhouseINTRODUCTION recent institutions argon under enormous wardrobe with recent development of the technology. Clearly we invite a rapid access to all kinds of information. To assist this we need to consider the ultimo and to identify relevant trend abstract. So to perform any trend analytic thinking we must(prenominal) cook a informationbase. In just about organizations you go out find truly large entropybases in operation for regulation perfunctory dealings. These types of selective informationbases are k straightwayn as available entropybases in most cases they discombobulate not been design to store historic entropy or to respond to queries tho simply to stak e all the applications for day to day dealings.The second type of informationbase put together in organizations is the selective information warehouse. This is designed for strategical decision support and is largely reinforced up from the selective informationbases that make up the working(a) selective informationbase. The basic characteristic of a entropy warehouse is that it contains vast amount of entropy which so-and-so mean billions of records. Smaller, local data warehouse are called data marts. A data warehouse is designed in contingent for decision support queries therefore save data that is needed for decision support is extracted from the running(a) data and stored in the data warehouse along with the time when it was retrieved from operational databases.DEFINITION entropy WAREHOUSINGA data warehouse is a subject-oriented, integrated, time-variant and non-volatile entreaty of data in support of focussings decision qualification transition. Subject-Orient ed A data warehouse flock be employ to analyze a particular subject area. For drill, sales raft be a particular subject. integrated A data warehouse integrates data from threefold data sources. For example, source A and source B may have diametrical ways of identifying a product, except in a data warehouse, there leave be alone a case-by-case way of identifying a product.Time-Variant Historical data is kept in a data warehouse. For example, one lav retrieve data from 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, or even older data from a data warehouse. This contrasts with a operations system, where much just now the most recent data is kept. For example, a transaction system may hold the most recent cover of a node, where a data warehouse pile hold all addresses associated with a customer. Non-volatile Once data is in the data warehouse, it will not change. So, historical data in a data warehouse should never be altered.The following are the typical steps involved in the data warehousing project cycle.* fatality Gathering* Physical Environment setup* info Modeling* ETL* OLAP Cube excogitation* Front End Development* subject Development* Performance Tuning* motion Optimization* Quality Assurance* furled out to Production* Production nutrition* Incremental EnhancementsBenefits of a data warehouseA data warehouse maintains a copy of information from the source transaction systems. This architectural complexity provides the opportunity to * agree data history, even if the source transaction systems do not. * Integrate data from nine-fold source systems, enabling a of import view across the enterprise. This benefit is evermore valuable, but particularly so when the organization has grown by merger. * Improve data quality, by providing consistent codes and descriptions, flagging or even fixing bad data. * feed the organizations information consistently.* contribute a single common data model for all data of avocation regardless of the datas sour ce. * reconstitute the data so that it makes sense to the business users. * Re coordinate the data so that it delivers splendiferous query performance, even for complex uninflected queries, without impacting the operational systems. * Add value to operational business applications, notably customer affinity setment (CRM) systems. data mine (DM) data dig, also known as fellowship denudation, refers to computer-assisted tools and techniques for sifting done and analyzing these vast data stores in order to find trends, patterns, and cor dealings that can guide decision making and emergence chitchating. information dig covers a abundant variety of uses, from analyzing customer purchases to discovering galaxies.In essence, data mining is the equivalent of finding gold nuggets in a mountain of data. The monumental caper of finding hidden gold depends heavily upon the power of computers The purpose of DM is to analyze and understand past trends and predict future trends.By predicting future trends, business organizations can better position their products and services for financial gain. Nonprofit organizations have also achieved significant benefits from data mining, much(prenominal) as in the area of scientific progress. The concept of data mining is simple yet powerful. The rest of the concept is deceiving, however. Traditional methods of analyzing data, involving query-and-report approaches, cannot handle tasks of such magnitude and complexity. Data mining consists of quintet major elements* Extract, transform, and load transaction data onto the data warehouse system. * Store and manage the data in a third-dimensional database system. * Provide data access to business analysts and information technology professionals. * Analyze the data by application software.* Present the data in a utilitarian format, such as a graph or table.Data mining services can be used for the following functions * question and surveys Data mining can be used for product search, surveys, securities industry research and epitome. Information can be garner that is quite expedient in control new selling foot races and promotions. * Information compendium Through the weather vane scraping regale it is possible to collect information regarding investors, investments and specie by scraping through think entanglementsites and databases. * Customer opinions Customer views and suggestions play an primary(prenominal) role in the way a company pass aways. The information can be readily be found on forums, blogs and former(a) resources where customers freely provide their views. * Data scanning Data collected and stored will be not be important unless scanned. Scanning is important to identify patterns and similarities contained in the data.* Extraction of information This is the processing of identifying the useful patterns in data that can be used in decision making process. This is so because decision making must be based on teleph one set information and facts. * Pre-processing of data Usually the data collected is stored in the data warehouse. This data needs to be pre-processed.by pre-processing it means rough data that may be deemed meaningless may therefore re withdraw manually be data mining experts.* vane data web data usually poses many challenges in mining. This is so because of its nature. For instance, web data can be deemed as dynamic meaning it keeps changing from time to time. Therefore it means the process of data mining should be restate in regular intervals. * Competitor abstract There is a need to understand how your competitors are fairing on in the business market. You need to know both their weaknesses and strengths. Their methods of marketing and distribution can be tap. How they snub their overall costs is also quite important.* Online research The internet is highly regarded for its Brobdingnagian information. It is evident that it is the largest source of information. It is possible to ruck up a lot of information regarding disparate companies, customers and your business clients. It is possible to detect drools through online means. * News Nowadays with almost all major newsworthinesspapers and news sources posting their news online it is possible to gather information regarding trends and other critical areas. In this way, it is possible to be in the better position of competing in the market. * Updating data This is quite important. Data collected will be unprofitable unless it is updated. This is to ensure that the information is relevant so as to make decisions from it.How does data mining work?While large-scale information technology has been evolving separate transaction and analytic systems, data mining provides the link mingled with the two. Data mining software analyzes relationships and patterns in stored transaction data based on open-ended user queries. Several types of analytic software are available statistical, simple machine eruditeness, and neural meshs. Generally, any of four types of relationships are sought * Classes Stored data is used to adjudicate data in predetermined groups. For example, a restaurant chain could mine customer purchase data to determine when customers visit and what they typically order.This information could be used to increase traffic by having daily specials. * Clusters Data items are grouped fit in to logical relationships or consumerpreferences. For example, data can be mined to identify market segments or consumer affinities. * Associations Data can be mined to identify associations. The beer-diaper example is an example of associative mining. * Sequential patterns Data is mined to anticipate behavior patterns and trends. For example, an outdoor equipment retailer could predict the likelihood of a take being purchased based on a consumers purchase of sleeping bags and hiking shoes.Industries/field where data mining is currently utilize are as follows 1. Data archeolo gical site in the Banking celestial sphere Worldwide, banking sector is in front of many other industries in using mining techniques for their vast customer database. Although banks have employed statistical analysis tools with some(a) success for several years, previously spiritual domain patterns of customer behavior are now coming into clear focus with the avail of new data mining tools. These statistical tools and even the OLAP find out the answers, but more travel data mining tools provide insight to the answer. Some of the applications of data mining in this industry are (i)Predict customer reaction to the change of interest rates (ii)Identify customers who will be most receptive to new product offers (iii)Identify loyal customers(iv) Pin point which clients are at the highest run a risk for defaulting on a bestow (v)Find out persons or groups who will select for each type of loan in the following year (vi)Detect dissimulatorulent activities in credit rag transacti ons (vii)Predict clients who are likely to change their credit card affiliation in the next drag (viii)Determine customer preference of the contrastive modes of transaction namely through teller or through credit cards, etc.2. Data Mining in the policy SectorInsurance companies can benefit from modern data mining methodologies, which help companies to shave costs, increase profits, retain current customers, take up new customers, and develop new products .This can be done through (1)Evaluating the risk of the assets being insured taking into cypher the characteristics of the asset as well as the owner of the asset. (2)Formulating Statistical Modeling of Insurance Risks(3)Using the Joint Poisson/Log-Normal Model of mining to optimise insurance policies (4)And finally finding the actuarial Credibility of the risk groups among insurers3. Data Mining in TelecommunicationAs on this date, every activity in telecommunication has used data mining technique.(1)Analysis of telecom serv ice purchases(2)Prediction of telephone calling patterns(3)Management of resources and network traffic(4)Automation of network management and tending using artificial intelligence to mention and repair network transmission problems, etc4. Data Mining in Fraud sensingData dredging has found wide and useful application in discordant fraud spying processes like (1)Credit card fraud detection using a unite parallel approach (2)Fraud detection in the voters list using neural networks in combination with symbolic and analog data mining. (3)Fraud detection in passport applications by designing a specific online learning diagnostic system. (4)Rule and analog based detection of false medical cl get hold ofs and so on.An computer architecture for Data MiningTo best present these advanced techniques, they must be richly integrated with a data warehouse as well as tensile interactive business analysis tools. numerous data mining tools currently operate outside of the warehouse, requiri ng extra steps for extracting, importing, and analyzing the data. Furthermore, when new insights require operational implementation, integration with the warehouse simplifies the application of results from data mining. The resulting analytic data warehouse can be utilise to improve business processes throughout the organization, in areas such as promotional campaign management, fraud detection, new product rollout, and so on. Figure 1 illustrates an architecture for advanced analysis in a large data warehouse.Figure 2 Integrated Data Mining ArchitectureFROM DATA WAREHOUSE TO DATA mineDM is a set of methods for data analysis, created with the aim to find out specific dependence, relations and rules related to data and making them out in the new, higher-level quality information. As rarified from the data warehouse, which has unique data approach, DM gives results that show relations and interdependence of data. Mentioned dependences are mostly based on various mathematical and s tatistic relations.Figure 3 Process of knowledge data discoveryEMERGING TRENDS IN DATA MININGWeb mining is the application of data mining techniques to discover patterns from the Web. correspond to analysis targets, web mining can be divided into three different types, which are Web exercising mining, Web topic mining and Web structure mining. Web usage miningWeb usage mining is the process of extracting useful information from server logs i.e. users history. Web usage mining is the process of finding out what users are looking for on Internet. Some users might be looking at only textual data, whereas some others might be interested in multimedia data. Web structure miningWeb structure mining is the process of using graph theory to analyze the node and connector structure of a web site. According to the type of web structural data, web structure mining can be divided into two kinds 1. Extracting patterns from hyperlinks in the web a hyperlink is a structural fraction that conne cts the web page to a different location. 2. Mining the document structure analysis of the tree-like structure of page structures to describe hypertext mark-up language or XML tag usage. Web theme miningWeb content mining is the mining, extraction and integration of useful data, information and knowledge from Web page contents. Data Stream Mining is the process of extracting knowledge structures from continuous, rapid data records. A data stream is an ordered sequence of instances that in many applications of data stream mining can be read only once or a clarified number of times using moderate computing and storage capabilities. Examples of data streams let in computer network traffic, phone conversations, automatic teller machine transactions, web searches, and sensor data.