Fire! :: essays research papers

I remember the night all too well. It was an August evening and my parents left my younger brother Steve and I home alone as the rest of my family went to one of my younger sister, April’s, softball games. They left the two of us together thinking that they could trust us since I was the ‘older brother’ and that I’m going to be a senior in high school. I guess that eventually proved to be quite the mistake.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As I recall it, Steve and I became bored after watching a few minutes of television. Our cable was disconnected the week earlier, and so the only channels we received weren’t too exciting for teenage boys. Out of desperation, Steve begged me to find something for us to do. I decided that since it was still pretty nice outside, we could go out and create a little fun of our own. And that is exactly what happened†¦ We grabbed the barbeque lighter and began circling our house and driveway looking for flammable objects. Since I was the one in charge, of course I was a little nervous, but I knew, or at least I hoped I knew, that Steve had an idea of what he was doing.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Paper, leaves, and an occasional cat got pretty monotonous, so I told Steve that we should just head back into the house. Now please take note that Steven thrives on attention, and albeit he’s not the brightest crayon in the box, he loves to have people around to laugh and joke with as he attempts his insane adventures. So he suggested that we move onto bigger and better things, promising me that it would be well worth my time. I got a bit curious as to what he had planned, so I went along just for kicks. Besides, how bad could it really be?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Pleased that I was joining him, Steve grabbed a can of bug spray that was lying on our back deck. He also asked me to run into the garage and grab as many aerosol cans as I could find. All that I could gather was a can of Lysol, Raid and a half-empty can of wasp-repellent. I wasn’t exactly feeling too good about this, but Steve assured me that because of scouts, he was a professional pyromaniac. I was as curious as ever by now, and so I was concentrating on his every move.

Childe and Anthropology :: essays research papers

Essay Questions 1. Childe equated civilization with urbanism. Other social scientists, while admitting a considerable overlap, distinguished between the cultural phenomena characteristic of urban areas and those of "civilized" societies. Childe identified 10 formal criteria that, according to his system, indicate the arrival of urban civilization. These are: increased settlement size, concentration of wealth, large-scale public works, writing, representational art, knowledge of exact sciences, foreign trade, full-time specialists in non-subsistence activities, class-stratified society, and political organization based on residence rather than kinship. He saw the underlying causes of the urban revolution as the cumulative growth of technology and the increasing availability of food surpluses as capital. Further archaeological evidence demonstrated that the formal criteria Childe proposed were, in reality, not universal. A core of basic structural trends, however, appeared to be essential as cities appeared in different areas at different times. Some of the problems that may arise with any given set of criteria(s) for defining civilization and the process in which they develop lie within things such as time frame, area, mental capacity of the peoples of the society, and material advancement. In reference to ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, Childe’s criteria apply somewhat directly. This is said because both of these societies had some forms of sciences (i.e. mummification/Egypt), wealth or caste system, and a public works for buildings and city-states. Their only difference lies in that in ancient Egypt, the politics were balanced by kinship rather than residence. 2. Archaeological excavations in Mesopotamia, conducted since about 1840, have revealed evidence of settlement back to about 10,000 BC. Favorable geographic circumstances allowed the peoples of Mesopotamia to pass from a hunter-gatherer culture to a culture based on husbandry, agriculture, and permanent settlements. Trade with other regions, tribes, and chiefdoms also flourished, as indicated by the presence in early burial sites of metals and precious stones not locally available.

The Earth

1.   Generally, atmosphere layers are hot if they contain gases that absorb some of the light that penetrates to that depth. Transparent layers are cool. The temperature of a layer is generally found by the balance between absorption of solar radiation (heating) and the emission of radiation (cooling). A planet reaches a temperature at which there is a balance between absorption of solar radiation and the emission of infrared radiation by the planet’s surface.The material in the atmosphere, which absorbs solar radiation most actively in ozone. Ozone absorbs electromagnetic waves in the ultra-violet wavelength band. It mainly resides in the stratosphere. Nevertheless, emission and absorption of terrestrial radiation occur at any levels, and the amounts are larger as temperature is higher. Absorption of solar radiation, on the other hand, is mostly limited to the ozone layer. Therefore, resulting equilibrium temperature is high in the ozone layer and low elsewhere.The part of solar radiation that transmit through the ozone layer, though somewhat absorbed in atmospheric constituents and clouds, mostly arrives at the surface (of sea and land) and is absorbed there. In the troposphere, the atmosphere tend to lose energy by radiation alone, but it is compensated by the energy transfer from the surface by means of vertical motion of air (i.e. by convection), and relatively high temperature is maintained. The vertical distribution of temperature in the troposphere is essentially determined as the result of convection.The atmosphere emits terrestrial radiation downward as well as upward. Therefore, terrestrial radiation from the atmosphere arrives at the surface in addition to solar radiation transmitted through the atmosphere. The atmosphere, containing water vapor and carbon dioxide, also absorbs a large part of terrestrial radiation emitted by the surface. The surface air temperature in reality (approximately 287 K) is significantly higher than the temperatu re of the radiation emitted by the earth to space (255 K), because of the effect of the atmosphere absorbing and re-emitting terrestrial radiation. Stratospheric cooling and tropospheric warming are intimately connected, not only through radiative processes, but also through dynamical processes, such as the formation, propagation and absorption of planetary waves. At present not all causes of the observed stratospheric cooling are completely understood.2.   The Earth’s rotational axis is inclined 23.5 degrees from the perpendicular to the plane of the Earth’s orbit. The orientation of the Earth’s axis relative to the Sun and its rays changes continuously as our planet speeds along its orbital path. Twice a year the Earth’s axis is positioned perpendicular to the Sun’s rays, when all places on Earth except the poles experience equal periods of daylight and darkness. These times are the equinoxes, the first days of spring and fall, and they occur o n or about March 21 and September 23, respectively. The Earth’s rotational axis is positioned at the greatest angle from its perpendicular equinox orientation to the Sun’s rays on the solstices – on or about June 21 and December 21.As the Earth orbits the Sun, the inclined axis causes the Northern Hemisphere to tilt towards the Sun for half of the year, i.e. the spring and summer seasons in North America. During this time, more than half of the Northern Hemisphere is in sunlight at any instant of time. During the other half of the year, i.e. the fall and winter seasons in North America, the axis tilts away and less than half of the Northern Hemisphere is in sunlight. The tilting of the Southern Hemisphere relative to the Sun’s rays progresses in opposite fashion, reversing its seasons relative to those in the Northern Hemisphere. The changing orientation of the Earth’s axis to the Sun’s rays determines the length of daylight and the path of the Sun as it passes through the sky at every location on Earth. The continuous change in the angular relationship between the Earth’s axis and the Sun’s rays causes the daily length of daylight to vary throughout the year everywhere on Earth except at the equator.At the equator the daily period of daylight is the same day after day. The changing path of the Sun through the sky produces over the year a cyclical variation in the amounts of solar radiation received that exhibit maximum near the equinoxes and minimum near the solstices. The relatively little variation in the amounts of solar energy received over the year produces seasons quite different from those experienced at higher latitudes. Away from the tropics, the variations in the amounts of solar radiation received over the year increase as latitude increases. The amounts of sunlight received exhibit one minimum and one maximum in their annual swings. The poles have the greatest range since the Sun is in their skies continuously for six months and then below the horizon for the other half year.All seasonal changes are driven by changes in the amount of the Sun’s energy reaching the Earth’s surface (i.e., the amount of insolation). For example, more energy leads to higher temperatures, which results in more evaporation, which produces more rain, which starts plants growing. This sequence describes spring at mid-latitudes. Since visible light is the main form of solar energy reaching Earth, day length is a reasonably accurate way to gauge the level of insolation and has long been used as a way to understand when one season stops and the next one starts.3.   Temperature is a number that is related to the average kinetic energy of the molecules of a substance. If temperature is measured in Kelvin degrees, then this number is directly proportional to the average kinetic energy of the molecules. Heat is a measurement of the total energy in a substance. That total energy is made up of not only of the kinetic energies of the molecules of the substance, but total energy is also made up of the potential energies of the molecules. So, temperature is not energy. It is, though, a number that relates to one type of energy possessed by the molecules of a substance.Because adding heat energy usually results in a temperature rise, people often confuse heat and temperature. In common speech, the two terms mean the same: â€Å"I will heat it† means I will add heat; â€Å"I will warm it up† means I will increase the temperature. No one usually bothers to distinguish between these. Adding heat, however, does not always increase the temperature. For instance, when water is boiling, adding heat does not increase its temperature. This happens at the boiling temperature of every substance that can vaporize. At the boiling temperature, adding heat energy converts the liquid into a gas without raising the temperature.When energy is added to a liquid at the boilin g temperature, its converts the liquid into a gas at the same temperature. In this case, the energy added to the liquid goes into breaking the bonds between the liquid molecules without causing the temperature to change. The same thing happens when a solid changes into liquid. For instance, ice and water can exist together at the melting temperature. Adding heat to ice-water slush will convert some of the ice to water without changing the temperature. In general, whenever there is a change of state, such as the solid-liquid or the liquid-gas transition, heat energy can be added without a temperature change. The change of state requires energy; so added energy goes into that instead of increasing the temperature.The Celsius scale has been calibrated to the physical properties of pure water. It illustrates the significance of water as physical matter in all forms. The normal freezing point of water was set as 0  °C and the normal boiling point of water was set at 100  °C.4.   I have picked following atmospheric optical effects to examine and describe.Mirages are optical phenomena produced by refraction of light rays through air layers with large temperature gradients. An inferior mirage (i.e. it appears below its actual position) occurs when the temperature initially decreases rapidly with height. Light rays from the sky moving through the layers will be refracted upward in the less dense air (i.e. bent toward the denser air) giving the appearance of a layer of water. When seen from the ground or water a superior mirage (i.e. it appears above its actual position) occurs when there is a pronounced inversion near the surface, and normally over the sea or a large body of water. A distant object within the inversion layer, even something below the horizon, will appear in the sky above its actual position – possibly totally upside down or the upper portion upside down, but certainly distorted and wavering.A rainbow is the atmospheric optical phenomenon o bserved by solar light’s being reflected and refracted by the round water drops floating in the air. Because the refraction angle varies in the wavelength of the light, rainbow seems divided into seven colors from inside blue to outer red. The observer will see this concentration of reflected light rays as an intensified colored light band. This band consists of the first reflection rays from all the raindrops which lie on the surface of a cone, subtended at the observers eye, with an angular radius of 42 ° from an axis line drawn from the sun (directly behind the observer) through the observer’s head and extended down-sun to the antisolar point i.e. below the horizon where the shadow of the observer’s head might be.The Parhelia. When ice crystals are distributed on some condition in the sky, we can observe the lumps of light like the two suns in both sides of real sun. In case that ice crystals are distributing at random, the refracted light of 22 degrees by the solar light forms the â€Å"22 degrees halo†. But when crystal distributed being their bottom plate paralleling to the ground is superior, only refracted solar light on the right and left of the sun 22 degrees apart reaches observer. These refracted lights are detected as the Parhelia. It sometimes seems that some colors are separated like a rainbow.Circumzenithal arc. Refraction through the edges of plate crystals with nearly horizontal bases may produce a circumzenithal arc which is part of a circle, possibly one third, centered directly above the observer’s head and above the sun, just outside the 46 ° halo position. The halo may also be visible. The circumzenithal arc cannot occur when the sun’s elevation exceeds 32 °.Wave clouds. When air is lofted over a mountain range, it cools, saturates and condenses a windward-side cloud. The air surmounting the summit is just about at saturation, sometimes with respect to ice and at other times with respect to water, depending on the temperature and the height of the mountain barrier. Forcing air up over the overlying atmosphere causes a spring-like rebound and so the air stream downwind from the mountain barrier often undergoes an undulatory wave-like motion. At the crest of such waves, the airmass is supersaturated and a â€Å"wave-cloud† condenses out.

Week 3 Acct2522

ACCT2522 Management Accounting 1 Session 1, 2013 Tutorial Week 3 – Cost basics Overall Theme We will explore fundamental assumptions of cost functions and discuss the relationships between cost behaviour, cost estimation and cost prediction. The concept of cost driver analysis and its application to cost estimation and cost management will also be discussed. We will also describe how to estimate cost behaviour using managerial judgment, engineering methods and other quantitative techniques. Desired Learning Outcomes and Essential Reading Langfield-Smith, K. , H. Thorne, and R. W. Hilton (2012).Management Accounting 6e: Information for Managing and Creating Value, 6th ed, McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd. (Hereafter referred to as LS) †¢ Chapter 2 †¢ Chapter 3 (include Appendix 3 portion on â€Å"Evaluating the regression equation† p. 108109) TOPIC 3 COST BASICS After completing this topic, you should be able to: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Why are costs important? Wh at does ‘different costs for different purposes’ mean? Understand and apply various classifications of costs. Understand cost drivers and the role of cost driver analysis. Describe and apply the activity hierarchy of costs and cost drivers.Explain the relationships between cost estimation, cost behaviour and cost prediction. Understand and apply various methods for cost estimation. Understand some practical issues faced in estimating cost functions. 1 Tutorial Questions (must be prepared prior to the tutorial) Question 1: Langfield-Smith, Chapter 3, Case 3. 41 Parts Q3-8 only Please note that all numbers in the cost functions should be rounded off to 2 dec places. Excel regression outputs are as follows: Part 1: If only patient load is considered as a determinant of administration costs, a simple regression can be used, utilising Excel.The output is reproduced below. Regression Statistics Multiple R 0. 927088078 R Square 0. 859492304 Adjusted R Square 0. 824365379 Stand ard Error 401. 9749382 Observations 6 ANOVA df Regression Residual Total 1 4 5 Coefficients Intercept Patients 6 181. 36646 3. 838509317 SS 3 953 664. 596 646 335. 4037 4 600 000 Standard error 730. 0175478 0. 775999898 MS 395 3665 161583. 9 F 24. 468191 Significance F 0. 00778042 t Stat 8. 467422 4. 946533 P-value 0. 0010661 0. 0077804 Lower 95% 4 154. 51281 1. 6839882 Upper 95% 8 208. 220107 5. 993030436Part 2: When both patient load and the number of emergency procedures are considered as determinants of administrative cost, a multiple regression must be used. Utilising Excel, the regression statistics are reproduced below. Regression Statistics Multiple R 0. 92919029 R Square 0. 86339459 Adjusted R Square 0. 77232432 Standard Error 457. 669779 Observations 6 ANOVA Regression Residual Total df 2 3 5 SS 3 971 615. 12 628 384. 8797 4 600 000 MS 1 985 808 209 461. 6 F 9. 480532 Significance F 0. 05048959 Standard Lower Coefficients Error t Stat P-value 95% Intercept 5943. 98625 1161 . 190869 5. 18871 0. 01443 2 248. 558665 Emergency 24. 9140893 85. 10570782 0. 292743 0. 788799 -245. 930256 Patients 3. 80756014 0. 889819838 4. 279024 0. 023443 0. 975756281 Upper Lower Upper 95% 95. 0% 95. 0% 9 639. 414 2 248. 5599 639. 414 295. 7584 -245. 932 95. 7584 6. 639364 0. 975756 6. 639364 2 Question 2: Refer to Beth and Jessie’s ice cream factory from the tutorial last week. Please assume that in addition to chocolate chip ice-cream, Beth and Jessie have expanded their operations to produce Extra Chewy Cookie Dough ice-cream and Super Creamy Strawberry Cheesecake ice-cream. They hired semi-retired chef on a project-by-project basis to help develop these two flavours; and he is currently experimenting with another new flavour – Very Juicy Mango Delight. We further assume that the processes are exactly the same to manufacture all three types of ice-creams, except that different flavours and different â€Å"extra ingredients† are added. A. Please give examples of the following: Cost object = A box of ice-cream. 1. A unit level cost 2. A batch level cost 3. A product level cost 4. A facility level cost B. For each of the your examples, 1. Suggest a potential cost driver 2.Classify the cost as manufacturing or non-manufacturing 3 Self Study Questions and Solutions (complete in your own time) 1. 2. 3. 4. LS, Chapter 2, Self-Study problem 1. LS, Chapter 2, Review Question 2. 7 LS, Chapter 3, Question 3. 34. Mowen, Chapter 3, Question 3. 10. (Note: You are not required to run a regression, the output table is provided below. 4 Self Study Questions and Solutions (complete in your own time) 1. LS, Chapter 2, Self-Study problem 1. Solution is on p. 61-62 with the following amendments: 4) Answer should a, and h. (Sales and marketing are often used interchangeably. 7) Answer should be a, and NOT b. (The word-processing equipment is used for administration purposes and should not be inventorised. ) 9) Answer should be a, and either g or h. (If the new product packaging is designed to attract customers’ attention and increase sales, the cost of material can also be considered a marketing cost. ) 2. LS, Chapter 2, Review Question 2. 7 When analysing cost behaviour the ‘level of activity’ refers to the level of work performed in the organisation. The activity generally causes the cost and, for this reason, the level of activity is often referred to as the level of cost driver.Activity can be expressed in many different ways, including units produced, number of machine hours, number of direct labour hours, number of transactions, kilometres driven, kilowatts used, pages printed, number of set-ups, number of engineering hours and so on. 3. LS, Chapter 3, Question 3. 34. Answers to this question will vary. Rather than looking for a right answer, students should seek an understanding of the concepts. 1. Given that a full-time technician is hired, this component of the cost is a fixed cost.The additional c ost of repairs by the local dealer may be related to the number of instruments used in the school, or number of hours of instruction. A semi-variable cost. 2. The number of audit hours is a cost driver, which, in turn may be related to the number of students (influencing the number of transactions. ) A variable cost. 3. No cost driver – a fixed cost; step-fixed cost if the number of students grew beyond the ability of existing admin staff to cope and another new staff has to be hired. 4. Number of students enrolled, or number of hours of instruction. Variable cost. . No cost driver i. e. a fixed cost (if annual fixed salary paid) or, (if paid on an hourly basis) the number of hours employed or the number of hours of instruction (i. e. , a variable cost). 6. Number of students enrolled. A variable cost. 7. A fixed cost; no driver. (However, in the long term, the cost of new instruments purchased will drive the depreciation charge. ) 8. Probably fixed; no cost driver. 9. Number of hours the school is open. A semi-variable cost. 5 4. Mowen, Chapter 3, Question 3. 10 Note: You may have a slightly different figure due to rounding (e. g. ,  ±1). 6

Planning for the Chevy Volt Essay

What does the Chevy Volt case tell you about the nature of strategic decision making at a large complex organization like GM? From the Chevy Volt case, we can see that GM is a large complex organization and has a lot of processes to make any decision in changing their strategic plan. Moreover, they sticked to the past failure that they had experienced. Therefore, they moved too slow and missed the opportunity to change or adapt themselves to the external trend or a better opportunity. What trends in the external environment favored the pursuit of the Chevy Volt project? -Gas price was increasing sharply because of growing demand in developed countries including China and India -Global Warming become a significant concern so people trend to use the car which produce less Carbon Dioxide. -The cost of Manufacturing lithium ion batteries was falling and new technology make them more powerful -Demand for fuel efficient car like Prius (Toyota) that utilize new battery technology What impediments to pursuing this project do you think existed within GM? -GM already spent a huge investment in developing fuel cells -Many decision makers in GM didn’t want to suddenly switch gears and focus on lithium ion batteries instead -Technology in a large lithium ion battery production was difficult -Failure in the past was the experience that GM still remembered and was afraid to invest in new project What does this tell you about the nature of strategic plans? Chevy Volt project which is partly based on the assumption of fuels prices is rather skeptical. Plan outlay in context of rising oil prices, and environment sustainability only does not in a sense constitute total business plan layout. External environment analysis such as the macro and micro-economic factors also should have been focused, so that an alternative plan layout to develop new innovation for its benchmark cars model that run on fuel and that which should meet the tighter regulation in the future. How do falling oil prices affect the Chevy Volt project? The Chevy Volt project strategic plan was based on factor that kept rising oil prices in contention to market its electric car model for profitability. Falling oil prices can affect Chevy Volt project in terms of profitability directly from the sale of electric cars. Do you think oil prices will remain low? The demand for oil increases, prices also is also likely to surge accordingly. Besides there are no substitute product 5. What will it take for the Chevy Volt to be a successful car ? in light of your analysis, how risky do you think this venture is for GM? What are the costs of failure? What are the costs of not pursuing the project? I think it wills success for the following factors Its new models have cutting-edge designs that sell well, and its quality rankings and fuel economy rise, If every new model has dramatically better gas mileage in government testing than its predecessor, Proper advertising is done like GM products are appearing in hit movies, music videos, TV shows and other media. Cost of not pursuing the†¦

Interpreting New Media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Interpreting New Media - Essay Example As the paper stresses the significant contribution of Twitter towards citizen journalism is unquestionable. Platforms such as Twitter have become sources of information that can be regarded as ‘world changing’ and gaining legitimacy and respect in the provision of up-to-minute news. With increased wireless connectivity and rapid consumption of modern technology, mobile phones have become a means of data transfer systems and portable digital media production. The move has resulted to increase in some citizen journalists who are also eye witness reports. According to the essay findings citizen journalism on Twitter platforms is also challenging the practice and image of journalism in that the public is no longer solely depending on journalists to offer accurate reports. In the recent coverage of Hurricane Sandy in the United States of America, Live eye witness messages were instantly uploaded online sharing the results of the natural disasters from a subjective point of view. Even though these are valid representations of the individual news report, they lack structure, shape, and professional journalistic meaning. Twitter has played an important role in citizen journalism. Citizen journalism has gained much significance through its inclusion and incorporation in mass media report packages and has led to a restructuring and re-evaluation on how journalists network. Modern technology has changed and transformed journalism as a profession.

Accounting #1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Accounting #1 - Essay Example Cost accounting is correlated with managerial accounting work, since it is highly use in the preparation of managerial accounting work. The objectives of managerial accounting are to prepare information in order to optimize the firm’s value and production activity. The reports utilize in managerial accounting include comparing actual results with plans or benchmark prepared at the beginning of the accounting cycle. Other reports include indicators such as orders received, order backlog, capacity utilization, and sales (Garrison, et al., p.4). Some of the main functions of managerial accounting are planning, directing & motivating, controlling, evaluating year end results and closure of the planning and control cycle. Managerial accounting differs from financial accounting in the time scope. Financial accounting deals with historical events, while managerial accounting places emphasis on the future. Managerial accounting does not follow the general accepted accounting principles (GAAP) (Moore & Jaedicke, 1972). The reports prepared by managerial accountants must be timely and relevant so that the users of this information can make decision based on what is occurring or the projection of what may occur. The main users of the work perform by managerial accountants are the executive management team of a company. Just-in-time inventory management is a philosophy of manufacturing based on planned elimination of all waste and on continuous improvements of productivity (Ashland). In practical accounting terms what JIT does is minimize the amount of inventory on hand in order to improve the cash flow position of a firm. Companies order the exact amount of material needed for a production run and the reorder point occurs when the inventory runs out. Precision and timeliness is necessary so that the company does not run out of raw materials or inventory needed to continue to operate. The business world in the 21st century is very competitive and business owners can