There is a German proverb that says “A great war leaves the country with three armies – an army of cripples, an army of mourners, and an army of thieves.” It’s hard to find better words for describing the First World War. The twentieth century started with an event that caused colossal effect on further faith of the humanity. World War I took millions of lives, destroyed thousands of families and crippled enormous amount of human souls. And, of course, it affected economical and territorial state of each country involved. The consequences concerned everyone and everything. Every nation has its own unforgettable memories of that war. But what caused the war itself? What made this horrible international conflict happen?

There are four major factors that led to the war: nationalism, imperialism, militarism, and the alliance system. All these factors created a strong tension between major European powers and the assassination of Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand on 28 June 1914 was enough reason to start a war. Even though the alliance system was the primary cause that triggered the war there were many other issues that led to the situation when the war was unavoidable. Continue reading →

The problems of inequality and poverty are among the most heatedly discussed and topical questions of the XX century. The abundance of developing countries (many of which had appeared on the world map due to social upheavals and coup d’état, or, which is worse, as a result of revolutions – whether peaceful or not) had resulted in the aggravation of the inequality problems.

The term “inequality” is a complex issue that consists of numerous aspects of life – standard provisioning, medical care, education, conditions of work, gender, freedom of choice, etc.

But just being aware of a problem does not solve it, neither do the debates. Only proactive economic programs of poverty and inequality elimination would change the actual matter of facts.

The existing programs are far from being perfect, taking into consideration the fact that, by now, there even are no universal methods of measuring the levels of inequality. The list of most popular instruments of measurement includes the functional and size distribution, Lorenz curves, Gini coefficient, the Kuznets’s inverted-U hypothesis, the headcount index, total and average poverty gap, and the Human Poverty Index. These are the measures most commonly used nowadays. They are probably not ‘ideal,’ because most of them disregard many essential aspects of life and principles of income distribution, and are too generalizing.

The two most commonly used principles of calculating the inequality levels – the size and the functional measures of income distribution – are the basis for further calculations and analysis.

The first one is the most popular among the economists based on the total amount of income received by an individual or a household, disregarding the source of the benefits (employment – industrial sources are neglected as well, interests, rents, gifts, inheritance, etc.). The incomes of different individuals arranged in a general (descending) consequence, and then divided into several groups (sized one-fifth (quintiles) or one-tenth (deciles)). The proportions of the national income distribution determined for each team, and the inequality level is defined. Other methods, for example, the Lorenz Curve helps to analyze the income statistics in a more graphic and evident manner. The numbers of income recipients (in cumulative percentages) are plotted on the horizontal axis (entirely is equal to 100%), while the vertical axis represents the share of total income received by each percentage of the population (also cumulative to 100%). The figure is a square bisected by a diagonal line is drawn from the origin to the upper right corner, and the curve that depicts the actual share of income in the society (the more it curves away from the diagonal (the more significant the bend and the closer it is to the bottom horizontal axis), the higher degree of inequality represented. The curve depiction enables to use another coefficient – Gini concentration ratio – a correlation of the area between the diagonal and the Lorenz curve divided by the total area of the half-square in which it lies (ranges from 0 (perfect equality) to 1 (great inequality)).

The functional distribution deals with the income received by different factors of production (land, labor, capital). But this theory is not flawless, as it does not take into consideration the nonmarket forces (e.g., power, collective bargaining, a personal advantage in lobbying, etc.).

The headcount index is a ratio calculated as a fraction of those, whose incomes are below the poverty line, to the total number of population.

The poverty gap represents an amount of income needed to raise those, who are below the poverty line, up to it. The total poverty gap is the amount of money per day it would take to bring every poor person in an economy up to our defined minimum income standards. The average poverty gap is the correlation of the TPD to the headcount index.

The Human Poverty Index (developed by UNDP) is based on considering the level of three necessary deprivations (of life, primary education, and general economic provisioning).

Simon Kuznets’ inverted-U hypothesis suggested that the distribution of income will tend to worsen in the early stages of economic growth, but at later stages, it will improve. Kuznets illustrated this hypothesis in the form of the graph, and, having studied the conditions of economic growth in some developing countries, found empirical evidence of it. But further studies of developing countries did not wholly support it.

Measuring inequality and poverty is a susceptible case because there is no perfect instrument to do it. The subjectivity of the matter is doubled by disregarding certain aspects of income distribution and excessive generalization. The choice of the measuring device depends upon the needs of the analysis and essence of the studied problem. The more aspects are taken into consideration – the more precise and helpful is the measurement. And this will enable to solve the problem of widespread poverty – a real challenge to the civilized society we want to live in.

Sources:
Todaro, M.P. and Smith, S.C., (2006) Economic Development, 9th edition, Pearson, Addison – Wesley.

To answer the questions posed it’s necessary to explain each theory separately and compare it with one another. That’s why the primary goal of my essay is to speak about such theories of deviance as social control theory, human ecology, differential association, and anomie approach.

At first, it’s necessary to speak about social control theory. Social control theory (also known as social bonding theory) according to its definition is a theory based on methods and techniques used to regulate human behavior to lead it to conformity and compliance of the rules of society [2].

Thus, social control theory identifies human behavior corresponding to the social norms. This approach in contrast to other ones is interested not in what makes people commit crimes, but what makes people refuse from committing a crime. Continue reading →

The Starbucks Corporation is one of the most successful companies in America. Founded in 1971 as a small Seattle-based coffee bean retailing store, it has grown into a multinational business that has one of the most recognized brands in the world.

When the company had conquered the US market, the growth needs to be made Starbucks’ management consider a strategic alternative to going abroad, which is always a great challenge. The international nature of the company’s business made the ambitions of conquering the world market entirely realistic, but no success is possible without a well-planned and well-performed management of operations.

The aggressive expansion that characterized Starbucks’ business development strategy was fortunate enough concerning gaining market shares in the United States and abroad. Going international is a real challenge for any company, especially about cultural differences and overload of expenses connected with growth and development. Continue reading →

Flyaway Foods (In-Flight Catering) Limited is a company, which produces food air companies. It works with several prominent air companies in several countries. Flyaway Foods also deals with used and returned food trays from previous flights. We will study the opportunities for environmental audit in this company, its perspectives concerning the environmental protection and most important issues for environmental auditing. To get a better idea of the work of the company, we will enumerate the processes performed during the food production. These procedures include preliminary operations, such as sorting, cleaning, and grading; peeling, cutting, freezing or chilling; more complex services, such as milling, refining, preparation for preservation; complicated techniques, used to produce ready for eating products, such as cheese, biscuits, beer, bread. These processes are performed by the most of the companies, working in the food industry, and in Flyaway Foods they are also implemented. Possibilities for environmental audit can be found in many stages of food preparation. Continue reading →

American school plays enormously great role in the future of each of the school children. Its academic impact is really high and influential for the future performance of the student. However, the question should be asked whether the schools are doing everything they can to contribute to the bright future of their students and the prosperity of the entire society?

Obviously, the answer is no. School is the first society that a child faces. Moreover, it is the society where the child spends a substantial part of his or her life. More important, it is the society (community) where child learns. Shouldn’t then the child be taught more about life along with academic disciplines?

School plays a great role in forming the model of future social behavior. In fact, it is the place where children learn how to communicate and get along with numerous of different people. So it would be fair to note that the child just has to apply some ethical and moral values in the everyday life because of that communication. Continue reading →

Introduction

The rapid progress of robotics and artificial intelligence, with computer power doubling every 18 months according to Moore’s Law, has given rise to many far-reaching scenarios about machine intelligence evolution. Scientists are much concerned about the possibility that robots will outstrip humans on many points and the possible legal, ethical and social implications of this development. Given the relatively low level of robot models at this point, regulation on these issues remains scarce. Thus, humanity and separate nations yet have to decide whether they are ready to implement safety regulations for robotics similar to those in the automotive industry and afford intelligent robots with the same rights as sentient beings.

The Power of Robots

Ray Kurzweil in his 2005 book Singularity is Near creates a comprehensive picture of the foreseen dramatic shift in the development of humanity triggered by the proliferation and strengthening of artificial intelligence. Speaking of the exponential growth of computer power in the past decades that enabled computer chess to defeat Gari Kasparov five years after he won against the computer in 1992, Kurzweil introduces the notion of singularity. He defines it as “a future period during which the pace of technological change will be so rapid, its impact so deep that human life will be irreversibly transformed” (Kurzweil 2005:7). Continue reading →

Language development is one of the most important parts of educational process. Language development depends on many factors. Early language development, instructional language development and their interaction are the most important of them.

During my research I’ll try to determine connection between these aspects and find out the reasons of successful learning. To train children’s memory parents should learn short poems, sing songs with their children, name objects and introduce new words. One-to-one conversations with children, where correct pronunciation and grammar is used, can become a very powerful tool of language development. It’s not necessary to correct the child all the time. Sometimes it’s enough to emphasize the necessary word. Conversations should be interesting for children. During them it’s necessary to help the child to build complete sentences, ask questions and answer them. Reading simple stories and discussing them with children is also very important. Encourage writing activities can also have a very good result for the development of language skills. Continue reading →

Every corporation from time to time experiences the need for change management. Sometimes changes are required in the company’s overall strategy, in other situations there is a necessity to change some approaches, marketing plans, advertising, human resource, etc.

In this outline I am going to describe a general sample approach for change management in Human Resource. I am not going to use any specific company, just the overall information, on how do I see effective management for human resource change in the company.

In order to effectively perform the plan for changing company’s human resource, the necessity to perform certain insider research is obvious.

The process should consist of investigating three following areas:

• Executive Summary
• Organizational Analysis
• Human Resource Policies and Practices

Continue reading →

Abstract

The personality and work of Leonardo da Vinci remain an intriguing subject for the later generations fascinated with the work of the great painter. His importance to posterity is not limited to his striking work since he is also widely known for his scientific ideas and theory of art.

Leonardo’s insights into art and science remain in his writings, in particular manuscripts and notebooks that survived to this day. This paper will reveal personal exploration and appreciation of Leonardo’s thought embodied in his written work.

The paper will try to summarize Leonardo’s ideas about painting and other subjects exploring the notebooks of the grand master. It will also render the author’s reaction to the notes and their impact on later generations of scholars and painters, as well as their significance in the life of the grand master.

Introduction

Leonardo da Vinci did not only rely on intuition in his painting; instead, he used a wealth of scholarly ideas to underpin his artistic creation. These ideas found ways into his notebooks that contain hints on various topics including architecture, mechanics, painting, and human anatomy. Continue reading →