Analyze and Evaluate the Federal Legislative Process Essay

Analyze and Evaluate the Federal Legislative Process - Essay Example We will get to understand this process even better by looking at the stages the family smoking prevention and tobacco control act, passed through till it was enforced as a law. We will also get to know the content of the bill and its importance. The family smoking prevention and tobacco control act, pub.l.111-31 H.R.1256 This is one of the major statutes in the federal government enacted during President Obama’s time .It came into effect on June 22, 2009 (Encyclopedia). The act gives the food and drug administration the power to regulate the tobacco industry. A signature element of the law imposes new warnings and labels on tobacco packaging and their advertisements, with the goal of discouraging minors and young adults from smoking. The Act also bans flavored cigarettes, limits on the advertising of tobacco products to minors and requires tobacco companies to seek FDA approval for new tobacco products. Legislative process Bill introduction and The First Reading According to ( Freeman), bill introduction and first reading is the initial stage in the legislative process. ... The family smoking prevention and tobacco act was introduced to respond to the decision, which had held that the Clinton administration's FDA had gone beyond its Congressionally delegated authority, thus giving the FDA the authority the Court determined it had lacked. The bill was passed by a vote of 298 to 112. Second Reading and Referral of the Bill to a Committee On May 20, 2009 the senate committee on health, education, labor and pensions were assigned the bill. Committee Stage of Bill The committee reviewed the text of the bill and there being no amendments they passed it to the next stage. Report Stage The family smoking prevention and tobacco control bill was further studied during the report stage by the members of the house of common in the committee and also those who were not in the committee passed the bill to the next stage there being no amendments. The Third Reading and adoption of Bill The members of the house of common came together to decide on whether the bill shou ld be adopted or not. They debated on the final form of the bill and its provisions. The bill provided for: i. Creation of a tobacco center within the FDA authority to regulate the content. ii. Marketing and sale of tobacco products. iii. It require the FDA approval for the use of expressions that indicate the capacity the product poses to health risk iv. limitation of advertisements that could attract young smokers Calls for new rules to prevent sales except through direct marketing. v. Face-to-face exchanges between a retailer and a consumer vi. The ban on flavoring applies to any product meeting the definition of a cigarette according to the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act. This includes any tobacco that comes

Suicide and the Question of Rationality

Suicide and the Question of Rationality Imoghena Usman Suicide and the Question of Rationality and the Thought of Death (Question 6) In her work, Ethical Issues in Suicide, Margaret Pabst Battin tries to determine if suicide can be rational by using a number of criteria. I believe that two of her criteria can be weakened. While I agree that suicide can be rational, I think she fails to examine critical points that could lead to the irrationality of killing oneself. I will argue that suicide can be considered rational due to the humans capacity to make their own choices and their rights over their own body. However, if the individual committing the act are not the ones making the decision by themselves, then suicide in both cases should be determined irrational because it does not involve the individuals deduction process. Battin states that rational suicide is usually defined as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦the individual is not insane, in which the decision is reached in unimpaired, undeceived fashion, and in which the choice made is not a foolish thing for that individual to do, (132). People determine suicide to be something a person would reasonably and knowingly do. Battin comes up with five criteria, which fall into two groups: the first three being non-impairment criteria and the last two being satisfaction of interests, both which could be used to evaluate other acts as well (132). It seems to be based on the humans logical thinking process and their physical and emotional wants. The ability to reason is the first criterion in the list, in which most think is that the person can come up with different logical reasons and the person can evaluate the consequences of the conclusion (Battin 133). However, there are mistakes that people commit while proving irrationality of suicide as Battin states it is thought that people should be able to predict the consequences after suicide if the act itself should be considered rational (133). Battin is explaining that humans must be able to figure out what would or could happen if they kill themselves in a thought process. However, she declares that many people do not actually see these consequences correctly (Battin 134). Battin points out that people do not imagine their deaths correctly (Shneidman and Farberow; Nagel, cited in Battin 1995, 134) or are focused on affecting the other people in their lives in a dyadic suicide (Shneidman, cited in Battin 1995, 134). This would prove that suicides could be rational because i f individuals could not see the outcomes of their deaths, then the argument about consequences would be prove false. Battin goes on to state that suicides based on religion, to continue life and experiences after death, and reputation, to be seen in a particular way after death, are rational because it would be hard to prove ability to reason due to error in reasoning (Battin 134-135). Overall, I believe that Battin is stating that rational suicide involves a clear mind and extensive thought process. Adequacy of information is another criterion where it is assumed that many suicides cannot meet this to be considered rational (Battin 137). It is assumed that inadequacy is people committing suicide based of mistaken information, such as an individual with a terminal illness committing suicide based off of a physicians facial expressions, and can involve the persons thoughts about present and future consequences (Battin 137). This would mean that people would not be rational in committing suicide because they do not have the right information to base it off of. However, Battin claims that you cannot determine irrationality of a suicide if there was no way possible of the individual knowing; it can only be judged if there was no attempt to get it from reliable sources (Battin 137-138). I think that Battin is inferring that not having the correct information could mean they are unable to participate in rational thought process. Another assumption of suicide not being rational due to t his criterion is caused by internal factors, such as depression where they can unknowingly suppress certain information (Brandt, cited in Battin 1995, 138). She counters this by stating that you can still have adequate information because the future may be already negative, even with a smaller view (Battin 138-139). Therefore, from her counterargument, she is countering any claims of narrow views that the opposition would try to argue by stating that an individuals health status does not matter. Battin states that some would claim that suicide would be irrational if one committed it because of an unlikely future, but states that committing suicides later, such as in illnesses, would be rational while committing it early would not be (140-141). Battin is saying that it would have to depend on the situation that the individual is in. Overall, I think Battin is trying to conclude that it would be difficult to determine the amount of reliable information needed in order to commit ration al suicide. I think that suicide can be rational since it is in regards to the individuals body and mind because it was what they were born with. It is their choice whether they commit suicide or not and they have the right to do whatever they want with it. I argue that they know their own bodies enough since they have lived in them for so many years and ultimately would know what is best for them. Therefore, it would not be irrational to commit suicide if they are the ones who are committing that act. Some could say that just because you own your body does not make it rational to commit suicide. In fact, you may not know much about your body at all and are making an uninformed decision, thus making it irrational to commit suicide. This would be an example of inadequacy of information being used as an assumption for irrational suicide (Battin 137). However, objectors would not know the humans situation either so it would not be fair to say if an individual commit suicide. This is something Batti n acknowledges when she states that each person has their own ideas about suicide and what comes after (142). It is up to the individual to decide whether they end their lives; if they think they have done enough research and learned as much as they can to commit suicide, then they should be allowed to proceed. However, I believe that suicide is irrational if the person committing the act is not the one who thought about it or came up with the idea to kill themselves. To be more specific, the individual who is committing suicide should have thought about it all by themselves without any influence or coercion. This derives from the original definition given in the text, in which the person should not be deceived when committing rational actions (Battin 132). This is something that I believe Battin should have looked at further since it could have affected her choice of criteria. If they are being influenced by any other person, then that is not their own decision. Even if they are committing the act with their own bodies, their mind was not a part of the decision. One example is if they were a part of a cult led by one main individual who had control over their followers. If that person preached to his followers to drink poison for him, and they do, then they were not clearly thinking about it. They let someone else tell them what to do, not what they thought to do. They should also not be physically forced into committing suicide as well. An example of this could be pointing a gun to someones head while handing them a knife and telling them to slit their throats. Whether from physical or emotional pressure, no one should not have a choice on whether or not to end their lives. I would consider this also irrational because that person is not being given a chance on whether to end their lives or not; someone else is making the choice for them. Battin claims that no act is fully rational with coercion (131).   This demonstrates that suicide by force could not be rational because if you are being forced with no other options then there is no way that could fully be your decision. Battin also reinforces this in which one of her criteria is that it should meet the interests of that individual (Williams, cited in Battin 1995, 146). Also, both of these points fail the c riteria of ability to reason, in which they can move from premises to conclusion (Battin 133). If the individual is being forced or influenced by others, then they cannot figure out the premises or conclusion by themselves. If suicide is forced or not their decision, then it does not meet their interests but the interests of others, demonstrating that suicide in that regards could not be rational. One objection to my argument could be that the person was able to make those decisions by themselves even if they were coerced or influenced by another individual because they were able to think about it regardless. For example, they could have answered no and walked away, and that would have been more rational because they actually thought whether they wanted to proceed or not. However, I think that would be less rational in certain circumstances than suicide. Not everyone can decline and look the other way. If an adult had the mind of a six-year-old child, then they could not fully comprehend suicide. If the leader of a cult told that individual to drink a vial of poison, it is likely that they would because they may trust them. They would not have the ability to make a rational decision about suicide because they cannot fully understand the situation. The individual may not have the capacity to say no either. The same would go for an actual child as well, as seen in the text where children would not think of suicide as the end of their lives, but only sleeping (Battin 133-134). This does not fulfill the criteria of adequacy of information, because they do not have the information from other resources or there was no effort to get them from reliable sources (Battin 138). This would mean that even if suicide by individuals under those circumstances was considered, it would not be rational because they do not have a variety of information available to make a conclusion, or it would not be possible for them to an informed decision. It does not fulfill the ability to reason criteria either because they are not moving from premises to conclusions (Battin 133). If they cannot comprehend the situation due to their minds age, then there is a chance that they cannot be able to complete that process. If the person with the gun pointed to their head had their spouse threatened who they loved, then they would seemingly have no choice. Battin reinforces this by stating th at people in forced-choice tests choose the option that suits their most fundamental interest (151-152). In this example, it would be the spouse that is saved if the person is selfless. It also goes against one of Battins criteria, in which it does not serve the persons interests which come from their values (Williams, cited in Battin 1995, 146) because it would not serve any interest to kill the spouse if the individual loved them. By committing suicide for these reasons, I do not think they are committing rational suicide because they are being influenced or have no comprehension of what they are doing. Both examples still lack the ability to reason, in which Battin states that the reasoning for suicide that involves living after death could be rational (135). If they are being forced or influenced, then it must be considered someone is doing it for them. They may not be thinking about it at all. Suicide needs to be thought out, not rushed. In my opinion, rational suicide would ne ed to be the persons choice if it, and not the choice of others. In conclusion, I think that suicide can be rational in regards to Battins criteria, but only if it is the persons choice. Works Cited Battin, Margaret Pabst. The Concept of Rational Suicide. Ethical Issues in Suicide. Prentice Hall, 1995, pp. 131-135. Print.

Captain Ahab of Moby Dick :: essays papers

Captain Ahab of Moby Dick Captain Ahab in the novel Moby Dick is quite a character. He is the Captain of the whaling ship the Pequod and is out on a voyage to kill the great white whale named Moby Dick. Throughout his journey on sea, Ahab maintains focus on one thing, and only one thing, killing Moby Dick. It comes to show throughout the story that a close-minded man is blind to his surroundings. On a whaling mission before, Ahab's leg was bitten off by the white whale, and ever since then, Ahab has focused only on the revenge he will get when he kills the whale. The captain's prosthetic leg is then made out of the jawbone of Moby Dick. Ahab's leg becomes a constant reminder of the whale, and a constant motivation for his revenge. Some might describe that character of Ahab to be insane and at times evil. I do not believe he is insane. In a section of the movie, Ahab is seen speaking with Starbuck calmly, and actually sharing his feelings with the crewmember. These are not actions of an insane man. Ahab shows true feeling for Starbuck and his mates. I also do not believe the captain is an evil character. I do believe he became obsessed and in a way infatuated with Moby Dick. He seems to me to be a very ambitious man; there is nothing wrong with wanting and desiring to achieve a goal. On the other hand, being ambitious, and focusing so much on one thing in life that you become blind, are two different things. Ahab is guilty of this. He lets Moby Dick run his life; he desires revenge so badly that it becomes all he thinks about, all he cares about, all of him. Ahab even becomes restless at night because of the whale. It seems to me that Ahab needs Moby Dick to survive, yet in return, Ahab wants to kill him. A lesson is to be learned from Ahab. Keep your eyes open to those around you, and other things that are in your life. If you dwell on the negatives, and of revenge, you're life becomes a waste.

Theravadan Buddhism Essay -- essays research papers

Theravadan Buddhism Throughout history there have been numerous religions and theologies that men and women have entrusted their lives and ways of living to. One of the most intriguing is that of Buddhism. The great Buddha referred to his way as the middle way, and he, as the "Enlightened One" began the teachings of the religion with his first five Ascetics who he shows his middle way. This great occasion is the start to what will be known as Theravadan Buddhism. Although Theravadan Buddhism would later be seen as the "small vehicle," it provides the first idea of the doctrine anatman or having no-self that shapes the ideas of every Buddhist today. Theravadan Buddhism which means "The teaching of the elders," is the teaching of the Buddha in its true traditional form. After attaining enlightenment under the Bohdi tree, the Buddha returns to five ascetic monks he had been associated with previously. He taught them the essential parts of Buddhism which include the vital Four Noble Truths. These teachings were taught by monks, and they give the fundamental truths on which the religion was founded. These are the Four Noble Truths: (1) all life is inevitably filled with sorrow; (2) sorrow is directly due to craving; (3) sorrow can only be stopped by stopping the craving; and (4) this can be done only by disciplined and moral conduct with meditation led by the Buddhist monk. These truths show that the Buddhists saw all things as transient, and being transient there is no eternal Self or soul, hence anatman or no true self. While the Theravadan Buddhist practiced the idea of anatman, there were other movements that practiced the idea of atman or true self. The Upanishadic movement, which started about 300 years before the Theravadan practice, revolves around a story of a boy who Yama tells there is a self in everyone. This true self or atman is covered up by the illusion of an individual. As this way of thinking was being taught, people began to uprise and question if religion is worth it. This leads to many ascetic movements in which people leave their homes to be scavengers. Because this could be done by any it began to get very popular. The many ascetic movements gave rise to many different individual movements... ...low, I feel that all of these ways of life are flawed. In most of the religions only the higher classes can reach the supreme way of life. The regular people are stuck, and they can only help the monks or Brahmans to attain their goal. This seems very unfair even if they are producing good karma. In the Vedic religion the Shudras don't even have the option of studying the holy text. They have no chance of gaining entrance to another level of being until their next life. Theravadan belief of the being no true self is all together mind boggling. If there was no self then how can karma pass from one existence to another. It can't. Each period in time has new ways of thinking and viewing the world. India has been a place of many movements in the field of religion. These early ideas and practices of Theravadan monks can be seen as one of the many religious ideas of the past, that has in some places lasted to the present day. As is the case with all religion, it will be subject to scrutiny, questioning, and slander. While many may not see the Theravadan way of anatman as being right or even sane, it is their way of life and they should be respected for it.

Domus Aurea and the Innovations in the Roman Art Essay

It seems reasonable then to assume that where researchers find evidence of striking artistic innovation in the city of architecture, Nero is to some extent responsible, for the radical improvement of aesthetic quality is considerable. Art historians are agreed that the only major innovation found in the Domus Aurea, is the use of vault mosaics. In AD 64 a devastating fire swept through the capital of the Roman Empire, leaving swaths of the city center smoldering and uninhabitable (Gates 362). Emperor Nero took this opportunity to build a vast, luxurious residence and landscaped parkland called the Domus Aurea, or Golden House. Later, Nero’s critics found several features of the place symbolic of his megalomaniacal self-indulgence, including its artificial lake, the 100-foot-tall statue of the emperor, and rooms with revolving mechanisms. As part of his general reconstruction of Rome Nero could have had the idea of embellishing the central area with parks, groves and fountains. Here in his complex of imperial buildings he could hear audiences and do business, while his people would have access to him and to some of the buildings and grounds. Nero’s comitas and popularitas must be remembered: he was not a man to deprive his public. Shortly before the Fire he held a public banquet in which he extended to the people pleasures normally confined to the few. Tacitus sneer on this occasion, He â€Å"used the whole city as his house† (Tacitus 417), reminds one of the squib Rome will become a house. Nero may have felt he was opening his house to the citizens, while his critics felt that he was excluding the citizens from their city. After the Fire researchers find him offering public entertainment in his Vatican circus and adjacent gardens, dressed as a charioteer and mixing with the plebs (Champlin 74). In any case, nothing suggests that Nero meant to shut himself up in the Domus Aurea. One of the problems for the Pisonian conspirators may have been that after the Fire, with his palace damaged and under reconstruction, Nero was spending his time in imperial properties that were more private, such as the Servilian Gardens. Thus the Domus Aurea Park need not have prevented movement through the centre of the city, though doubtless the routes were changed. Even on the Palatine only a cryptoporticus connected the various imperial buildings: there was no need to weld them all into one enclosed complex, and they may have been intended to remain separate. The Golden House was, nonetheless, probably an overambitious project. Observers would have gained the impression that a vast complex was in hand, because the work did not proceed area by area. Though never finished, a vast number of buildings were started all around the central lake. Nero no doubt spoke with enthusiasm of the technical marvels that were in hand. The unsympathetic may well have reacted as one scholar who wrote, ‘The Fire gave a mortally egocentric autocrat the chance to demand a unique monumental expression of what he considered his worth and position to be†( MacDonald 31). The large remains on the Oppian Hill have by now lost most of their decoration. The grand apartments have been plunged in darkness since the foundations were laid for Trajan’s Baths. Even before that, Vitellius and his wife were disappointed by the lack of decoration and the mean equipment of the palace. The Domus Aurea was left unfinished when Nero died, and the alterations made by Otho interfered with the grand architectural conception of its creator (Colin & Shotter 55). Even so, the construction and design still excite the admiration of architects and engineers by reason of the new exploitation of space and the creation of internal vistas. Two features, in particular, impress by their artistic and architectural originality: the five-sided trapezoidal court in the west wing, which was once matched by a similar one in the east wing, and the domed octagonal room in the centre with its five rooms radiating from it symmetrically. As the new excavations show, the palace originally had two floors, each of which displayed east-west symmetry and was interrupted by the two open trapezoidal courts. The two courts framed the central complex of rooms around the octagon which extended through the upper storey and could probably be viewed from the adjacent upper rooms as well as the lower ones. The octagon room thus formed the focus of the whole building. It is usually identified with the main circular dining room described by historian Suetonius (Garwood 81), though there is no agreement on what elements rotated. It is notable, however, that the inside of the dome shows no traces of decoration, and that the water that rain into the room to the north came in at a steeper gradient than would be necessary for a nymphaeum. Hence the suggestion that some of the water turned a device suspended through the opening in the dome, representing the changes of seasons on the vault. The two grooves on the outer surface of the dome will have served as tracks for the suspended through the opening in the dome, representing the changes of seasons on the vault. The two grooves on the outer surface of the dome will have served as tracks for the suspended device. Whatever the explanation, the study of the Domus Transitoria and the Domus Aurea shows, to an even greater degree than our examination of the coinage, that Nero was an enthusiast who threw himself into grand projects and put at their service the latest Roman technology and the most advanced artistic ideas. Nero’s zeal for the arts, however, did not stop at patronage and planning. If his aim of professional performance was more acceptable to the Greek way of thinking, his desire to achieve that standard in all the arts at once would strike even a Greek as absurd. Finally, the Domus Aurea presents a wealth of architectural innovation including an exploitation of the dome to crate a new conception of internal space. Another dome that employed a similar type of buttressing wall but in a more systematic manner occurs in the octagonal room of the Domus Aurea (Turner 89). The vaults around the octagonal room were combined in a way to create a very clever series of well lit rooms. It was one of the most inventive uses of vaulting yet created by the Romans and one that ushered in a new way of thinking about light and space. It also created new structural issues to be resolved. Like the Mercury dome, the octagonal dome at the Domus Aurea was built within other vaulted structures, the walls of which provided buttressing for the support structure. The most innovative aspect of the design was the way that light was brought in above the haunches of the octagonal vault by means of clerestory windows. As result of the configuration, the dome had to be quite thin if there was to be enough space at its haunches for the clerestory lighting into the adjacent rooms. The structural resolution was a more elegant form of the one employed at Baiae. The octagonal dome was buttressed with a series of eight triangular piers, each constructed above one corner of the vault so that the clerestory windows could fit between them. At the Domus Aurea octagon, the buttressing walls on the extrados of the dome were used to accommodate windows in the haunches, which was possible because of the support from the surrounding structures but also which precluded the use of continuous step-rings. On the other hand, in the Fourth Style or intricate style, a taste for illusionism returned once again. This style became popular around the time of the Pompeian earthquake of 62 CE (Stewart 81), and it was preferred manner of mural decoration when the town was buried in volcanic ash in 79. The earliest examples, such as Room 78 in the emperor Nero’s fabulous Domus Aurea, of Golden House, in Rome. Although the Fourth Style architectural vistas are irrational fantasies. The viewer looks out not on cityscapes or round temples set in peri-styles but at fragments of buildings – columns supporting half-pediments, double stories of columns supporting nothing at all – painted on the same white ground as the rest of the wall. In the Fourth Style, architecture became just another motif in the painter’s ornamental repertoire (Strong, et al. 104). In the latest Fourth Style designs, Pompeian painters rejected the quiet elegance of the Third Style and early Fourth Style in favor of crowded and confused compositions and sometimes garish color combinations. The Ixion Room of the House of the Vettii at Pompeii was decorated in this manner just before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The room served as a triclinium in the house the Vettius brother remodeled after the earthquake. It opened onto the peristyle. The decor of the dining room is a kind of resume of all the previous styles, another instance of the eclecticism noted earlier as characteristic of Roman art in general. The lowest zone, for example, is one of the most successful imitations anywhere of costly multicolored imported marbles, despite the fact that the illusion is created without recourse to relief, as in the First Style. The large white panels in the corners of the room, with their delicate floral frames and floating central motifs, would fit naturally into the most elegant Third Style design. Unmistakably Fourth Style, however, are the fragmentary architectural vistas of the central and upper zones of the Ixion Room walls. They are unrelated to one another, do not constitute a unified cityscape beyond the wall, and are peopled with figures that would tumble into the room if they took a single step forward. Among the varieties of pavement-decoration with which Fourth Style paintings were combined, the commonest remained black and white mosaics or mortar decorated with insect tesserae – simple types suitable to offset the polychromy of walls and ceilings. But this period also sees more examples of opus sectile in coloured marbles, used both for emblemata and in grander houses for whole floors. Such pavements accorded with the more showy side of Fourth Style taste and were clearly prized as status symbols. As in previous periods, so in the Fourth Style decorative ensembles usually show attempts to harmonize the treatment different surfaces within a room (Clarke 166). The most striking gestures in this direction were the increased use of single-color schemes. Already foreshadowed in the late Third Style, these were much favoured in the Fourth Style for the finer rooms of the house, notably dining and reception rooms. The Fourth Style period is especially fruitful for the study of the interaction of the different media. Researchers find painting working in close relationship with both mosaic and stucco-work in order to produce the ornate effects which were currently in favour, and not surprisingly the close relationship resulted in a good deal of murual influence. Perhaps also emanating from the Neronian court (the first datable instance is to be found in the earlier of the two palaces) is what became known as fourth-style Romano-Campanian wall-painting, which combines the architectural illusionism and colour experimentation of earlier styles into a theatrical, even surrealistic design. The fourth Style apparently died of exhaustion about the end of the century. With it the great age of Roman wall-painting came to an end. The future was to produce some interesting and not unattractive work, but the creative thrust of the late Republic and early Empire was dissipated in a series of revivals and counter-revivals which never fully recaptured the enthusiasm of the initial period. Each of the four Pompeian Style had offered something new and stimulating; the First had taken the Hellenistic Masonry Style of interior decoration and turned it into bright patterns of abstract block work; the Second had opened up the wall with grand illusions of painted architecture; the Third had closed the wall once more and put emphasis on a framed picture-panel, complemented by fine, coloristic surface-ornament; and the Fourth had reintroduced architectural illusionism but substituted lightness and fantasy for the solidity and logic of the Second Style. These development had been spearheaded by painters working in Roman Italy, and they had turned wall-painting from the poor relation of panel-painting into the most vigorous and important branch of the pictorial arts. By the second century A. D. , however, the inventiveness of Roman-Italian wall-painting was declining, and the focus of interest switches to other regions and to other media. Roman builders not only developed the arch, vault, and dome but pioneered the creative use of concrete. These innovations proved revolutionary, allowing Romans for the first time to cover immense interior spaces without inner supports. Recent scholarship on the Domus Aurea complex has suggested that the true novelty of this complex was neither in the technical innovations lauded by some architectural historians nor in its luxurious decorations but rather its scale and location. Works Cited Champlin, Edward. â€Å"Nero. † Cambridge, Mass. ; London: Belknap, 2003. Clarke, John. â€Å"The Houses of Roman Italy, 100 B. C. A. D. 250: Ritual, Space, And Decoration. † University of California Press, 1993. Colin, David and Shotter, Arthur. â€Å"Nero. † Routledge, 1997. Donald, Strong, Toynbee, Jocelyn, and Roger Ling. â€Å"Roman Art. †Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1988. Garwood, Duncan. â€Å"Lonely Planet Rome. † Footsccray, Vic. ; London: Lonely Planet, 2006. Gates, Charles. â€Å"Ancient Cities. † Routledge, 2003. MacDonald, William Lloyd. â€Å"The Architecture of the Roman Empire† : An Introduction Study. New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1982. Stewart. Peter. â€Å"Roman Art. † Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Tacitus, Cornelius. â€Å"The Works of Tacitus†: The Oxford Translation, Revised. Harper & Brothers, 1860. Turner, Jane. â€Å"The Dictionary of Art. † Grove’s Dictionary, 1996.

Retail Strategic Planning Essay

Organized retailing in home and building sector was expected to face stiff challenge from the existing small, independent, and powerful local retailers. Many international retailers like Home Depot, IKEA and Lowe were also eyeing the Indian market which was untapped by organized retailers. They provided all the product categories and services that were required to build a new home or for home improvement or renovation under one roof. Muebles belonging to Casa Moblaje group was a pioneer in this segment. Homepro was the first building mall, which offered a wide range of building materials, home improvements products, and furnishings. They provided information about land availability and selection, and housed offices of architects, designers and financiers. The Home Store and Zeba were in home furnishing segment; Gautier dealt in furniture; and Johnson Tiles was in the sanitary ware sector. Identify Strategic Alternatives Ansoff’s Matrix Muebles had captured a large market of the home building and construction business in Ahmedabad as well as the home improvement business of the surrounding cities and towns. The ideal strategy for Muebles would be to develop the market. The areas surrounding Ahmedabad like Baroda, Surat etc is highly industrialized and lot of construction takes place in these areas. Muebles can target these cities and can increase the size of the market to get larger sales. Retail Mix Variables Product The store stocked products under five major categories Kitchen accessories: Appliances, Crockery, Glassware, Ovens etc Furniture and furnishing: Sofa set, bed, linen etc Bathroom: Tiles, Sanitary ware, Fittings, Taps, and accessories Hardware visible: Door, Window, Safety equipment, Gardening Tools, Washing Machines Electrical equipments: Lights, Luminaries, Chandeliers, Switches, Fans, Generators etc They mainly stored branded products. The store policy was to use the number one brand or the aggressive second. If this was not possible the company entered in to contracts to with smaller players who provided with in store brands. The store stocked approximately 12000 SKUs and had 120 suppliers. As the store move upward in the retail wheel, it took the invisible and les involved products out of the shelf. The visible and high involvement products replaced the invisible. They also increased the share of storing impulse goods in the relevant home decoration and furnishing category. Price The pricing policy of the store varied across the product categories. Pricing was competitive and benchmarked against the traditional hardware and home building material stores in product categories which were usually available in traditional hardware stores . In the destination product categories, the store charged premium price. Store Layout The store was laid out in a grid format. It was functional in nature and was based on a do-it-yourself model. Thirty percent of the shop space was given to 12 partners (vendors) who complete freedom of operation. The store atmosphere was attractive. The format of the store aided the customer to find the right the product. Some products like kitchen fittings were merchandised in simulated conditions to give the customer a feel of the complete range of the store’s offering. Promotion In order to increase the levels of awareness, they were communicating by using a mix of me. dia for brand and tactical advertising. They used the Gujarati and English media to reach out to their target segments. They developed two communication packages, one for the lay consumers with low comprehension of Muebles’s value proposition, and another for the professionals (home builders) who had a relatively higher awareness of the concept. In order to increase the sales of the invisible products, Muebles decided to educate the home builder. The home builder package consisted of developing a critical mass of professionals by rewarding their purchase and then working towards giving them accreditation through a professional course so that they would buy all the materials from Muebles. The apartment package consisted of using direct mails and tie-ups with companies like Electrolux, Pergo, and ICI to give special deals to five different apartment owners. Muebles targeted the HR departments in various companies and offered special deals. The problem in this deal was the acquisition of database of apartment owners. Customer Service Muebles policy was to satisfy the customer. Managers were supposed to visit the shop floor 3 hours a day to understand shopper’s behavior and needs better. Each category had 4 personnel. The total floor level employees were around 20. The floor employees tracked the customer right from the entry to the store and observed them carefully from a distance. The motive was to help the customer in the selection without interfering. The staff was instructed to respect the privacy of the customers. Muebles provided a unique shopping experience to the customer. Consumers were provided a wide range and assured quality, competitive prices, and world class service. They provided value added services to the consumers like * Comprehensive design assistance by a panel of professionals and design consultants * Apartment Packages * Installation service and support * Info mediation through website * Home loan consultancy and loans * Certification programmes for electricians, masons, plumbers and carpenters * Educational programme on do-it-yourself techniques and procedures * Customer loyalty programmes

Three Pane Model - 1553 Words

A Brief Note on Open Economy ISLM Model (Three-Paned Model) Utility for Business Managers: Firms resort to macroeconomic analysis to make rational judgments about the effects of global events or policy shocks on the economy and thereby on the business environment. But such analysis is often laden with possibilities for logical missteps. The Three- Pane model (open economy IS/LM model) is discussed here as a tool for explaining key relationships in the economy while avoiding the missteps encountered in macroeconomic analysis. What is open economy macroeconomics? Macroeconomic analysis helps firms to explore the interrelationships among a whole host of markets, while microeconomics focuses on variables like price and quantity, amp; cost†¦show more content†¦Therefore, the net capital outflow decreases, which is shown by the fall in CF from CFo to CF1. Likewise, if there is a fall in the interest rate from ro to r2, capital outflow increases, and capital inflow decreases, leading to an increase in net capital outflow as indicated by an increase in CF to CF2. The Capital Outflow (CF) curve is therefore, downward sloping. This means that, higher domestic rates of interest are associated with lower net capital outflows, and lower domestic rates of interest are associated with higher net capital outflows. As mentioned earlier, the three-paned model plots the net export schedule (NX) with respect to the exchange rate, E. E is defined as the foreign currency per unit of domestic currency. If we drop the equilibrium amount of capital flows CFo from pane II to the third pane we get the equilibrium amount of net exports, NXo, which is determined by the intersection of the perpendicular dropped from the CF schedule with the NX schedule. This also gives the equilibrium nominal exchange rate, Eo. [Here, we are assuming price levels at home and abroad as constant, therefore, nominal and real exchange rates can be considered to be proportional. i.e., they won’t be different]. How do we explain the model in simple economic terms? In a closed economy, the rate of interest decided by the RBI defines the simultaneous equilibrium in the product/goods market and theShow MoreRelatedNew Technology : High Efficiency Windows1185 Words   |  5 Pagesolder models of windows only have single-pane glazing. Most of the windows that you find today in newer homes are double-pane glazing. Double-pane glazing consists of two panels of glass separated by gas fills. The last but not least, triple pane glazing is proven to be the most efficient and also the most expensive. These windows come with three layers of glass and each layer provides more installation in your home because of the multiple physical barriers created with the glass. 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JSB Market Research Commercial Drones Market by Type,...

Commercial Drones Market by Type (Fixed Wing, Rotary Blade, Quad Rotor), Technology (Energy Propulsion System, Automation, Collision Avoidance), Application (Government, Agriculture, Manufacturing, Retail) Geography - Global Forecast to 2020 Released On 27th February 2015 Commercial drones or commercial unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) refer to small aircraft which fly without direct human control and are guided by a remote device. The incidents related to natural disaster and public unrest during recent times have necessitated the use of remote sensing and aerial surveillances. Hence, the UAVs have emerged as a viable alternative in such a scenario. They can capture high definition image and video, in addition to feeding real-time†¦show more content†¦- 44) 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Evolution of the Drones Technology 5.3 Market Segmentation 5.3.1 Drones Market, By Type 5.3.2 Commercial Drones Market, By Technology 5.3.3 Drones Market Segmentation: By Application 5.3.4 Commercial Drones Market Segmentation: By Geography 5.4 Market Dynamics 5.4.1 Drivers 5.4.1.1 Increase in Demand From Commercial Applications 5.4.1.2 Prominent Technological Advancements Over the Last Few Years 5.4.1.3 Effective Adoption of Commercial Drones for Law Enforcements 5.4.2 Restraints 5.4.2.1 Stringent Government Regulations 5.4.2.2 Scarcity of Trained Pilots 5.4.2.3 Security and Safety Issues 5.4.2.4 Air Traffic Management 5.4.3 Opportunities 5.4.3.1 Low Operational Cost 5.4.3.2 Monitoring Terrorist Activities 5.4.4 Challenges 5.4.4.1 to Develop Low Cost, Reliable, and Highly Automated Commercial Drones 5.4.4.2 Slow Rate of Commercialization 5.4.5 Burning Issue 5.4.5.1 Use of Commercial Drones for the Timely Delivery of Goods 6 Industry Trends (Page No. - 57) 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Supply Chain Analysis 6.3 Value Chain Analysis 6.4 Industry Trends 6.5 Porter’s Five Forces Analysis 6.5.1 Threats From New Entrants 6.5.2 Threats From Substitutes 6.5.3 Bargaining Power of Buyers 6.5.4 Bargaining Power of Suppliers 6.5.5 Degree of Competition 7 Commercial Drones Market, By Type (Page