Libya's war and its effect on US Communities and Social Change Essay

Libya's war and its effect on US Communities and Social Change - Essay Example When I say economy, we all know that Libya is a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and is one of the largest suppliers of oil in the world and in the U.S. The recent conflict that happened and is happening there and the growing efforts to overthrow the present government had only hampered the normal flow of commerce and international trade. In the case of petroleum products for example, because of the war, it will take longer than usual, if not at all, to transport barrels of oil to desired destinations or buyer countries. As a result, freight is higher than normal. Retailers will then tag prices high enough to recover cost. This is what is happening in the U.S. also. As a matter of fact, one barrel of oil has reached $ 140 on 21st of March this year which is a far leap from the $ 103 per barrel price prior to the conflict. Reports said this is a direct consequence of the war. It is a given formula that fluctuations in oil price also affect the prices of basi c commodities. When this happens, inflation is simply at the doorstep of any economy like the U.S. When inflation occurs, the U.S. government will have to opt between pursuing a fiscal or monetary policy to counter inflation.

The Christian Tradition Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Christian Tradition - Essay Example The moral issue regarding homosexuality is clear. Actually gays and lesbians are immoral people and do immoral acts, at least according to the Bible. Homosexuality violates many Christian principles. However, homosexuals should be loved and accepted even though we cannot accept their homosexuality. The issue regarding homosexuality is actually based on whether it is an individual’s choice or not. If it is an individual’s choice, then homosexuality is evil and the homosexual who practices it deserves to be criticized. However, if there is a reason that homosexuality is not an individual’s choice like it is genetic, then it means that homosexuality is not such a bad thing after all because it is beyond human control. According to a study by Allen and Gorski of the University of California in 1992, â€Å"The midsagittal plane of the anterior commissure in homosexual men was 18% larger than in heterosexual women and 34% larger than in homosexual men† (Allen & Gorski). This means that a part of the brains of homosexual men are actually larger than the brains of heterosexual men. A group of Swedish scientists from the Karolinska Institute also had the same findings. According to the researchers, the brains of gay men have the same sizes as the brains of heterosexual women (Park). ... and should help solve the discrimination and hatred that homosexuals experience, especially that homosexual hate groups are usually based at the church. Therefore, the Church must begin the campaign to help homosexuals, and the Church should also remain open-minded at all times. After all, Jesus said, â€Å"Love your neighbor as yourself,† he particularly did not say, â€Å"Love your neighbor s as yourself† except if he is gay (Mt. 22:39, New International Version). Therefore, in following the footsteps of Christ, a Christian should therefore be the first to understand the grieving homosexual, because Christian love is supposed to be universal. However, even though some scientists and experiments say that homosexuality has a genetic basis and that it is not the homosexual’s fault to be homosexual, the Church maintains its opinion against homosexuality. According to the Book of Leviticus in the Bible, which says, â€Å"You must not have sexual intercourse with a male as one has sexual intercourse with a woman; it is a detestable act† (Lev. 18:22). God is advising a Jewish man here and so God does not agree that it is all right for a man to have sex with another man. The Book of Leviticus is the book of Law of Moses, and therefore it should be obeyed and followed. Homosexuality violates other passages of the Bible. In the Book of Genesis, the men of Sodom want to have sex with the male angels who accompany Lot. They ask him, â€Å"Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them?† (Gen. 19:5). Then, later on, God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah. Thus, we assume that God destroys these cities because of their many moral violations including homosexuality. Another violation of homosexuality is against Romans 1:26-27: â€Å"Even

ITunes price changes hurt some rankings Assignment

ITunes price changes hurt some rankings - Assignment Example The article points out that two days after Apple iTunes Music store raised its prices on some individuals tracks, the sales dipped and with that the rankings of the songs. The iTunes top 100 chart registered 40 songs at $1.29 and 60 songs at the normal $0.99 price point. After the price change, the $1.29 songs lost 5.3 places on the chart while the $0.99 songs gained an average 2.5 chart positions. These changes give a general idea of how incremental changes in revenue can be reached. Moving up and down the chart impacts the revenue greatly which in turn is impacted by price changes. These changes are solely chart position, but a general idea of incremental changes in revenue can be reached. By looking at the unit sales of the most recent Soundscan top track downloads chart, the different between chart positions can offer a view into how moving up and down the chart impacts revenue. An assumption here is that the iTunes Top 100 chart is representative of the Soundscan top track downl oads chart. Given its market dominance, this is a reasonable assumption. I chose this article because it gives a good idea of how small changes in price can turn around Sales. A significant notion raised by this article is the way in which how prices alter the rankings of songs in the music industry. The prices change the rankings and the rankings which in turn impact sales and revenue. This article relates to chapter nine of our text book in which key issues related to initiating and responding to price changes are discussed. Buyer reaction to price changes are a result of the value the customers see in the price change. (Glenn Peoples) Works Cited Glenn Peoples, Nashville. How iTunes Price Changes Hurt Some Rankings. 10 April 2009. 19 May 2011 . Article: 7 in 10 Americans say High gas prices hurt This article is related to a recent chapter that we covered from our text book. Customers don’t react to price changes in a very straight forward way. A price increase is expected to lower sales. This is because a brand’s price and its image are closely tied together. Price changes will alter consumer perception about a particular product and the way they want to consume it. Thus price is a very critical factor. I chose this article because it offers insight into how price changes in a mandatory commodity such as gas influences the common man. The survey was conducted by USA today in which they asked people if recent changes in prices of gasoline have impacted them financially. 7 in 10 Americans believed it did. More than half of them claimed that they have had to make changes to account for higher prices of gasoline. 21% of them felt the impact so heavily that they believed it jeopardized their standard of living. (Stauss) Stauss, Gary. 7 in 10 Americans say high gas prices hurt . 18 May 2011. 19 May 2011 . Article: Apple and Starbucks announce music partnership The article talks of the Apple and Starbucks music partnership. Under this partnership, cu stomers at Starbucks will be able to wirelessly browse, look around for music, buy and download music from the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store at Starbucks on their iPod touch, iphone, Mac or PCs running iTunes in a participating location. They will also be available to avail the new â€Å"Now Playing† service under which the name of the song playing in the Starbucks store at that particular moment will be shown. They will then be able to buy and download songs directly to their device. The partnership will benefit both Apple and Starbucks and is a classic example of horizontal marketing. I selected this article because I felt that having free access to the iTunes Wi-Fi Music store and the Now Playing service of Starbucks is a great ways to attract customers to both Starbucks and Apple iTunes. It will trigger greater revenues for both companies. This

Androids History Essay Example for Free

Androids History Essay Apps can be downloaded from third-party sites or through online stores such as Google Play (formerly Android Market), the app store run by Google. In June 2012, there were more than 600,000 apps available for Android, and the estimated number of applications downloaded from Google Play was 20 billion. Android became the world’s leading smart phone platform at the end of 2010. For the first quarter of 2012, Android had a 59% smart phone market share worldwide. At the half of 2012, there were 400 million devices activated and 1 million activations per day. Analysts point to the advantage to Android of being a multi-channel, multi-carrier OS. HISTORY: Android, Inc. was founded in Palo Alto, California, United States in October 2003 by Andy Rubin,Rich Miner Nick Sears and Chris White to develop. Google acquired Android Inc. on August 17, 2005, making Android Inc. a wholly owned subsidiary of Google. VERSION HISTORY: Android has been updated frequently since the original release of Astro, with each fixing bugs and adding new features. Each version after Astro and Bender is named in alphabetical order. List of Android version code names: ? Android consists of a kernel based on the Linux kernel 2. 6, with middleware, libraries and APIs written in C and application software running on an application framework which includes Java-compatible libraries based on Apache Harmony. Android uses the Dalvik virtual machine with just-in-time compilation. The main hardware platform for Android is the ARM architecture

Are Bull Markets Supported By Rational Growth in Stock Valuations? :: Finance Financial Economics Essays

Introduction â€Å"The rich get richer† is a frequently heard adage in the United States, a country quickly associated with capitalism. US financial markets make headline news on a daily basis, so people are well aware when the domestic stock market’s indices rise or fall. Given the widespread distribution of information on the stock market’s performance, much excitement can easily be generated during a bull market, broadly defined as a trend during which stock prices are climbing. Does the publicity and excitement surrounding a bull market further perpetuate rising stock prices? A look at historic daily closing values for the S&P 500 index from January 2, 1997 to December 31, 1999 reveals overall growth of 99.35%[i], which on average indicates similar growth in the stock prices of the companies included in the index. Clearly, this three year period falls within a bull market, since the S&P 500 is commonly utilized to represent average performance of the stock market on the whole. A return of 99.35% on an investment is excellent and far exceeds the general return on â€Å"risk-free† investments like FDIC insured savings accounts or Treasury bills. [i] Percent change calculation derived from widely published market data Examination of Common Stock Valuation to Account for Rising Share Prices Like most economic evaluations, the decision to purchase a share of a company’s stock is based on an individual’s willingness to pay versus the current selling price of the share. Fundamentally, the willingness to pay is determined by a valuation of that share of stock. For a given share of common stock, the willingness to pay is, or should be, linked to the present value of the stream of future cash flows that the investor will receive from expected dividends and through any expected capital gain for selling the share at a higher price than at which it was purchased.[i] Thus, there are three main factors the affect the valuation of a share of common stock: future dividends, future market price of the share, and the discount rate used. [i] Fundamentals of Financial Management, Eugene F. Brigham & Joel F. Houston, Harcourt College Publishers: Forth Worth, 2001. (p. 409) Future Dividends Are Bull Markets Supported By Rational Growth in Stock Valuations? :: Finance Financial Economics Essays Introduction â€Å"The rich get richer† is a frequently heard adage in the United States, a country quickly associated with capitalism. US financial markets make headline news on a daily basis, so people are well aware when the domestic stock market’s indices rise or fall. Given the widespread distribution of information on the stock market’s performance, much excitement can easily be generated during a bull market, broadly defined as a trend during which stock prices are climbing. Does the publicity and excitement surrounding a bull market further perpetuate rising stock prices? A look at historic daily closing values for the S&P 500 index from January 2, 1997 to December 31, 1999 reveals overall growth of 99.35%[i], which on average indicates similar growth in the stock prices of the companies included in the index. Clearly, this three year period falls within a bull market, since the S&P 500 is commonly utilized to represent average performance of the stock market on the whole. A return of 99.35% on an investment is excellent and far exceeds the general return on â€Å"risk-free† investments like FDIC insured savings accounts or Treasury bills. [i] Percent change calculation derived from widely published market data Examination of Common Stock Valuation to Account for Rising Share Prices Like most economic evaluations, the decision to purchase a share of a company’s stock is based on an individual’s willingness to pay versus the current selling price of the share. Fundamentally, the willingness to pay is determined by a valuation of that share of stock. For a given share of common stock, the willingness to pay is, or should be, linked to the present value of the stream of future cash flows that the investor will receive from expected dividends and through any expected capital gain for selling the share at a higher price than at which it was purchased.[i] Thus, there are three main factors the affect the valuation of a share of common stock: future dividends, future market price of the share, and the discount rate used. [i] Fundamentals of Financial Management, Eugene F. Brigham & Joel F. Houston, Harcourt College Publishers: Forth Worth, 2001. (p. 409) Future Dividends

Brice Family Essay

The Brice family consisted of a family unit of five. The father Davie a lawyer, the mother Caroline, their teenage daughter Claudia, the younger daughter Laura and younger son Don. The family was referred by a psychiatrist who had been seeing Claudia, but felt the whole family needed to be in therapy. The first session was a challenge, the family agreed to go in all together only for the initial session and they were not very comfortable to begin with. The mother Caroline felt the problem that should be address was the issues their teen daughter was having and she did not believe the entire family should be there. Both the mother and daughter came in angry to the therapy session and there was a lot of tension in the room. The father was respectful and stated he was happy to be there, but his body language told the therapist he has not comfortable being there. The youngest daughter Laura seemed to be in a cheerful mood with high energy. The youngest son Don did not show up for the first session. During the session there was an argument that broke out between mother and daughter, Carolyn seems to think they are in therapy to resolve the daughter’s issues that is affecting the entire family, but she does not feel the family as a unit has a problem. Both therapists agreed that it would not be ideal to start the family session without the youngest son Don who did not show up. David and Carolyn did not seem happy with this choice and felt the longer they waited  for their daughter to get help the worst it would get. Carl explain the dynamics of the family and how important it was to have Don at the initiation of the family session, and asked the family to think if they wanted to be a part of the family they are in, and if they did to call and set up a time for the next session with Don include. Dave did not hesitate and agreed to set up an appointment then and there; he looked over at his wife and asked he if she agreed. Carolyn agreed and towards the end of the session Carl connected with Laura the youngest daughter by engaging her in dialog and asking what she thought about everything that was going on in the family. By doing this Carl was able to show the family how every member of the family has a valuable place in therapy, and it is not just about one person. Second Session The second session with the Brice family was as intense as the first one. Don the younger brother did attend the second session. He came in with a sloppy walk. Don has long blond hair and dressed in body shirt jeans and sandals. He introduced himself to Carl and seemed confident. Once the family was settle and the session started the focus of the session would always seem to try and come back to Claudia. Both parents think that Claudia is the cause of the family dysfunction and their marriage is in trouble because of her. Carl did a great job by taking the focus away from Claudia and putting it back on both parents. He was able to have them see that there were other issues that stemmed with them as a couple, and the structure of the family unit. David over working and not being a part of the family and Carolyn being over involved with her mother and her needs. Whitaker and Napier conceptualized the family’s difficulties as a whole problem. They did not see it stem form one family member. They felt the family all had some issues as individuals and as a couple for the parents that were not address when they should have been. Because the issues were set aside they resurfaced and intensified along with Claudia’s changing attitude and miss behavior. This is one of the reasons both parents seem to focus on Claudia and identified her as the main cause of the family’s problems. When using individual understanding of a family’s problem each family member is seen separate. The family is not taken in as a unit, but instead they work on the individual to be able to create harmony in the family. Each member issue are addressed  individually and worked on without the rest of the family having a part. When looked at as individual there is a targeted behavior the individual is seeing as the problem not the family unit as a whole. Carl used the systemic family approach with the Brice family, both therapist looked at the circular interaction of the family problem, the family role of each family member and how they fit in to contributing to the family dysfunction and made sure the entire family was present for the first intervention. Both therapist looked for positive contributions to the social organization of the family that they could look back on to start working with the family as one unit and not focus on one member of the family to be the problem. One of the interventions came by the simple sitting arrangement the family had. The family in the beginning of the session unconsciously sat according to the family structure and how they felt it was. By having the therapist change the seating arrangements was a symbolic change and shift in the family structure to what it should be. Systematic therapy seems to be the best time of therapy for the Brice family. In this paper I have talked about the first two sessions of the Brice family, I have included Whitaker’s and Napier’s conceptualization of the families difficulties and described ho this differs from individual understanding. I also talked about specific interventions used with the family.

A Disappointing Holiday

The cool breeze swept through my hair, making me shiver with excitement. I arched my neck to take full view of the breathtaking beauty of Eiffel Tower, which towered above me like some iron giant. It was such a lovely day. The melodious chime of the twittering birds filled me with glee. The sun too, it seemed, was in a playful mood, playing hide and seek behind the fluffy clouds. â€Å"Trrring trrring! † The telephone rang all of a sudden; bringing me out of the scenic beauties my mind was roaming in. â€Å"Hello† I said. â€Å"Oh! Hello Ferva beta! I have some good news for you! † It was my uncle. Yes, yes! I am listening! † I replied enthusiastically. â€Å"Well! Your tickets have been confirmed for day after tomorrow. † â€Å"Oh really! † â€Å"Yes. Now be ready beta. Don’t miss out anything and take care! Goodbye! † â€Å"Goodbye uncle! † I replied, bringing our conversation to an end. I breathed deeply, thinking of th e adventures in store for me. Ever since my uncle had invited me to visit his family in Paris during my holidays, I had been simply restless. I had been surfing the Net since the past few days for the best tourist locations, and had even set out a travel plan.I was to travel to Paris and visit the monumental beauties of France. Switzerland’s picturesque locations would be my next destination, where I would scale the snowy Alps; move on to Holland and witness the magnificent windmills; a day or two in Italy, and then back to Paris. It was all perfectly planned! These vacations would be the best ones I ever had! The next day was spent fidgeting around endlessly. My mother gave me a box of chocolates as a token of love, and my sister just couldn’t stop reading out her endless wish list! My father was to drive me to the airport, and I counted each passing second in wait. Honk, honk! † â€Å"Finally,† I cried, and headed straight towards the staircase in full s peed. I really couldn’t believe it! My dream vacation was at last going to come true! Once again my mind wandered to the lush green valleys of Europe and I†¦ â€Å"Ouch! † A sharp cry of pain left my mouth as I found myself sprawled on the concrete steps. In my haste, I had hurt myself. The car that was to take me to the airport took me to the hospital instead. This was the most devastating moment for me. I could not help thinking that my flight was leaving without me, my dream had shattered within the blink of an eye.At the hospital, what I thought was a sprain turned out to be a fracture, and I was strictly restricted to six weeks of complete bed rest. A pall of gloom hung over me as I heard my mother call my uncle to inform him of the accident. I was brought home, and though my fracture had healed to a certain extent, my misery never left me. â€Å"Oh, come on! † said my sister, â€Å"my shopping list can wait until next time! † she added cheerful ly. But I could only answer her with a wry smile. It just seemed impossible for me to come to terms with the fact that my plans could fail.And it was in this time of disappointment that I even complained to Allah. once when I was crying silently over how my hopes had been shattered, my mother came up to me and holding my hand said. â€Å"Beta, I know that you have been let down but you must learn that this is part of life. † She paused to take a breath. â€Å"Always remember, God never harms his creations. In fact, there is always betterment behind every decision. † The calm words of my mother made me realise that no matter how much we plan, the ultimate power is God. This moment of truth made me feel better than before.