Thursday, November 28, 2019

Performance of Punong Barangay in Poblacion, Valencia City, Bukidnon free essay sample

A barangay is the simplest unit of Local Government Unit. They handle a small community like purok or sitios. All places in the Philippines consist of this small LGU unit and barangay officials. In this article, you will have a brief idea about the duties and responsibilities of every barangay official that had been elected by their constituents. The Punong Barangay or the Barangay Chairman is the executive head of the smallest unit of the government. He or she is in charge of the governance, development planning, basic services and facilities, compliance to directives, barangay legislation, and fiscal administration. People are required to respect the barangay head’s decision and rules implemented. On the other hand, a barangay chairman may have the power to lead one barangay, but he/she must still follow the law. If a barangay chairman is abusive of his/her powers, people can complain to the COMELEC and get him/her terminated in due process. We will write a custom essay sample on Performance of Punong Barangay in Poblacion, Valencia City, Bukidnon or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The barangay secretary is liable in all of the barangay’s paper works. He/she must always take down notes all of the discussions and plans that has been made in their meeting. She/he automatically re-read his/her report on the next barangay meeting. The treasurer on the other hand is responsible of all of the funds of the barangay. From the budget for properties, budget for projects, and budget for the salary of the officials, he/she must take care of it. As for the seven barangay councilors, they all have their specific tasks that will be assigned by their chairman. They must be on the barangay hall once a week to accommodate the people coming every now and then in their office. All in all, barangay officials must do these following tasks: Formulate measures to eliminate drug addiction. Maintain cleanliness and beautification of their area. Promote peace and order. Promote the well being of the woman and youth rights. Maintain barangay-owned properties and infrastructures. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX DISSERTATION Title: LEVEL OF PERFORMANCE OF THE PUNONG BARANGAYS IN VIRAC IN THE DELIVERY OF BASIC SERVICES AND FACILITIES AS PERCEIVED BY BARANGAY OFFICIALS FOR THE TERM 1994-1997. Author: MENDOZA, ORLANDO L. This research looked into the level of performance of the Punong -Barangay in the delivery of basic services and facilities as provided for in the Local Government Code of 1991.  The following specific questions were answered by the study: 1.What is the socio-demographic profile of the barangay officials in the municipality of Virac? 2.What is the barangay officials perception on the level of performance of punong barangay in the basic services and facilities? 3.Is there significant relationship between the socio-demographic profile of the barangay officials and their perception on the level of performance of the punong barangay in the delivery on basic services and facilities? 4. Is there significant difference in the perception of the punong barangay and those of the other barangay officials on the level of performance in the delivery of basic services and facilities? 5.What are the problems encountered by the barangay officials in the delivery of basic services and facilities? 6.What are the recommendations of the barangay officials to enhance the delivery of the basic services and facilities in the barangay? Several hypothesis were tested which are as follows: 1.The socio-demographic profile of the barangay officials in the municipality of Virac influences their level of performance in the delivery of the basic services and facilities to their respective barangays; 2.There is significant difference between the punong barangays and other barangay officials perfection on the level of performance in the delivery of basic services and facilities in their respective barangay. The descriptive method of research was adapted utilizing questionnaire-checklist as the main instrument in the gathering of data. The study covered sixty-three (63) barangays of Virac, Catanduanes. The respondents were all punong-barangays, barangay secretaries, barangay treasurers, Sangguniang barangay members and the Sangguniang kabataan chairs. There was a total of 667 respondent barangay officials and a 100% retrieval was achieved. The frequency count, percentage, weighted arithmetic mean, standard deviation, skewness, kurtosis, students t-test, Pearson Product moment of correlation and Point Biserial correlation coefficient were the statistical tools in this study. The study disclosed that majority of the barangay officials are male, married and younger than 43 years old. Their gross monthly income falls within the range P3,001-6,000.00 and they have been in their respective positive for 3 years. The highest educational attainment in having earned masteral units and the least achieved was elementary level. They have attended various training related to their positions. The most cited trainings attended are Barangay Administration training program, Barangay Legislation, and Lupong Tagapayapa training among others. Majority of barangay treasurers are male, married, and younger than 47 years old. Seventeen of them are college undergraduate and 16 were college graduates. Barangay Administration training program, Barangay Budgeting, Bookkeeping and Accounting were attended by all of them. The Sangguniang Kabataan chairmen were all single. Most of them are college undergraduates and have attended SK leadership. Most of them are more than 20 years old. The Sangguniang Barangay members are mostly male, married, and with a mean age of 46 years. Most of them are elementary graduates and have attended Barangay Administration Training Program. However, Barangay Legislation which is the focus of their functions was only attended by 38.35% of them. Generally, in the adequacy, the barangay officials the performance of the punong barangay in the delivery of basic services and facilities, as fair,  and in as well as payment of services of the barangay officials to be on salary basic, were among the priority recommendations of the barangay officials themselves. The researcher recommended a training program for all barangay officials to strengthen their knowledge, skills, and capabilities in the fields of planning, financial administration, project development and management, local legislation and community participation so that adequate, effective, efficient and equitable delivery of basic services and facilities could be attained thereby realizing the goals of local autonomy, community development and general welfare of the people.

Sunday, November 24, 2019

the shackles of socialist realism essays

the shackles of socialist realism essays The civil strife and chaos that had torn Russia limb from limb in the early 20th Century, although brutally devastating, did not hail the end of the stability and power that had characterized the massive country for so much of history. The continuing strength of what was now the Soviet Union lay in the newly formed support structure provided by Socialist Realism, a force that directed the awareness of, and the arts produced by, the Soviet people. The ideals of Socialist Realism deified Lenin and Marx, attributed the Bolshevik ranks with heroism undaunted by overwhelming opposition, and directed the proletariat towards a better future through reconstruction and industrialization of the state. Socialist Realism was essentially a Party tool that, combined with the Bolshevik ideals of collectivization and unity, would transform the people into a formidable, indestructible mass force. Socialist Realism's central code of conduct was, in Stalin's words, to "above all portray life truthfully." Any form of art that depicted Bolshevik life was to do so in a realistic and accurate manner, "on its way to socialism"; "that will be socialist art, that will be Socialist Realism." (Lincoln 333) This was the paradigm that all Soviet art was to be modeled after; implemented in 1934, the formula of Socialist Realism would heavily influence artistic life in the Soviet Union until the 1960s. The rise of Socialist Realism was rapid and dramatic. It dampened Europe's excitement over Russia's post-schism, secular art by redirecting art inward towards the Soviet people and forcing form and function upon it rather than abiding by the ideal of "art for art's sake." Once again, the ancient religious ideals of Orthodox Russia were shunned, and the Party replaced God at the forefront of Soviet life. The Party mimicked Socialist Realism as a model for the people, who were expected to take the example of their heroic yet humble forefathers and arise fro...

Thursday, November 21, 2019

BUS430 Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

BUS430 - Coursework Example In acquisition, the large company exists but the smaller company is entirely owned by the large organization. In most cases, the acquirer company purchases large portion or all shares of the acquired company thus gaining control over the acquired company. Merger and acquisition strategies are adopted by companies for different reasons. First, companies adopt acquisition and merger strategies for strategic rationale aimed at achieving strategic goals set by organizations. Secondly, a company can enter into merger or acquisition due management failure and financial losses. Political influence also contributes to mergers and acquisitions as they order public organizations to either merge or acquire each other. Other reasons for mergers and acquisitions include internationalization, globalization, accessing cheap resources, increasing production, diversification of products and acquisition of large market share. Several companies have merged, and other acquired other companies in the past few years. Mergers and acquisitions have been successful will others have been unsuccessful. Success or failure of either a merger or an acquisition depends on various factors. Some of these factors include cultural fit, core competency, communication efficiency, core activities of companies, the size of organizations and financial issues. Some of the successful mergers and acquisitions include PETRONAS Corporation acquiring Progress Energy and purchase of WhatsApp by Facebook Inc. PETRONAS Corporation is one of the energy utility multinational corporation is based in Malaysia. The corporation is owned and governed by the Malaysian government, but it actively participates in the international trade. PETRONAS Corporation decided to expand their market and extraction activities by acquiring a Canadian energy company, Progress Energy in December 2012. The acquisition of Progress Energy was agreed to be $4.6 billion that included share

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Speakers' experiences and my the experiences for accounting Essay

Speakers' experiences and my the experiences for accounting - Essay Example It also serves as a tool of the eventual decision making in the business setting. Proper accounting portrays the ultimate financial position of the business. The accounting field provides an interrelationship with other departments in any organization. It tends to unify all the fields in any organization. All departments must spend through the consumption of the business resources. Accounting provides the platform of unifying all the expenditure and comparing it with the revenues that the business enjoy. Every department or discipline has a mandate of ensuring proper utilization to minimize the expenditure and maximize the returns. The evaluation of such disciplines is a tremendous initiative in determining the financial position of different disciplines. Examples of disciplines that require the knowledge of accounting to run them include; the human resource, ICT, marketing, and other disciplines. The information obtained from various fields in a business culminates into the final re port that is portrayed in the books of accounts. Amber Herrmann Amber Herrmann is a former graduate of CFCUSM. She started her course in accounting and passed the first accounting course. She later took a business course in human resource management. She graduated as an accountant, but later switched to human resources. The human resource is involved in the recruitment of new employees, performance appraisal, promotion of the employees, and the laying off workers. It is a department that is mostly involved in the maintenance and protection of the employee welfare. Accounting Information used by the Discipline Though Amber is a human resource manager, knowledge of the accounting has propagated her to become the merited manager she is. She provides the insights about the application of the accounting knowledge in the HR department. The department is involved in the management of about 12000 employees. The welfare of these employees has to be protected. The accounting information provi des them with the general liability procedures that the department requires for merited performance. During the annual general meetings, the department must prepare the most credible financial records and present them to evaluate their performance. This involves the use of the departmental cash accounts, balance sheets, and cash flows. This is due to its predisposition in the spending tendencies in most companies. â€Å"HR department has been deemed as spenders. The proper application of the accounting techniques ensures for efficient spending† (Herrmann, 15:01-15:30). The HR is necessitated to provide the final budgeting at the end of every financial year. This involves both the returns and the investments or expenditure. The HR must use the accounting discipline to ensure that the budget is sufficient and not exaggerated. They do not base their eventual values on assumptions, but on the values portrayed in the records. The proper employment of the values is necessary in mak ing the approximation of the supplies to their departments. This may be used to cater for the general liabilities such as employee injuries, legal liabilities, performance appraisal, and payment of the employee salaries. Therefore, the knowledge of accounting is used to monitor the patterns of budgeting (Herrmann, 14:45-15:59). Most organizations believe that the HR is a department that is explicitly involved in costs, and not returns. Amber uses her accounting knowledge to ensure that the money stays in the firm. They try to minimize expenses of

Monday, November 18, 2019

Chinese market Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6750 words

Chinese market - Essay Example The paper describes four subjects which are the basis to validate the hypotheses of this thesis. The subjects are technology, cultural analysis, international market entrance strategies, and the development of foreign investment in China. The technology subject shows how technology has influenced economic markets worldwide during the last century. Through a systematic historical perspective the literature review illustrates how technology has influenced all economic systems worldwide and how the factor breaks national barriers. The cultural analysis section describes the elements of Hofstede cultural dimension model and provides examples of its application. Three different market entrance strategies are described with examples of its usage. The fourth subject shows a historical overview of foreign investment in the target market, China, to illustrate its evolution and inevitable transformation towards an open market. The evolution of the economic systems and the international markets has been impacted by a key variable which transcends national boundaries. This key factor is called technology. Technology is defined as the application of scientific knowledge in industry or business. During the 20th century technology has been a determining factor that has transformed the way nations perform business. During the industrial revolution technological advances help increase the overall worldwide output of goods. All industrialized nations benefited from the application of technology such as massive machinery in their production generation activities.

Friday, November 15, 2019

Medea by Euripides | Plot Summary

Medea by Euripides | Plot Summary Crazed Mother Medea relates to real life if you watch the news and hear about ex-lovers ending their relationships with murder or suicide. Medea is willing to sacrifice everything to make her revenge perfect. Medea shows her complete necessity for revenge when she says, â€Å"anyone running between me and my justice will reap what no man wants.† Not only does she kill two children, she kills her own two innocent children, because she does not want the kids in Jasons hands. This type of crazed revenge is seen too often in todays society. The play Medea can be interpreted as a crazy mother who takes her heart broken anger out on her own innocent children. At the beginning of the play, the Nurse talks about the years when Medea and Jason were in love. She mentions how she was broken by saying, â€Å"but Jason has turned from her; he calls the old bond a barbarian mating, not a Greek marriage.† Jason harshly betrays Medea and it is obvious that it is going to lead to violence and rage when Medea says, â€Å"And when I have ruined the whole of Jasons house, I shall leave the land and flee from the murder of my Dear children, and I shall have done a dreadful deed.† Medea has set her plan to ruin Jasons life by taking her childrens. Jason is very arrogant, but is he really the hero he is made up to be? Medea knows she made Jason who he is when she says, â€Å"I gave him success and fame; I saved him his precious life, not once, many times†¦I betrayed my father for him, I killed my brother to save him.† The reason why Jason is where he is at in his life is because of Medea. She did all the dirty work for Jason, but he repays her by running off and marrying the beautiful girl. Jason does not understand that the reason he holds power is from Medea. This arrogance is one of the reasons why Medea is so enraged at Jason. Medea gives many hints throughout the play of her final act of retaliation. As the story progresses the need to seek revenge also builds inside of her. The initial signs of Medeas potential behavior appear at the beginning of the play when the Nurse tells how Medea is emotionally hurt. The Nurse says, â€Å"But Medea lies in the house, broken with pain and rage; she will neither eat nor drink.† It is completely natural to want revenge on something that has stung you in the past. Medea comes right out and tells Jason that something is going to happen, â€Å"Something might happen. It is†¦likely†¦that something might happen to the bride and the marriage.† Medea bluntly tells Jason that something will happen to disrupt his marriage and she will have revenge for what Jason has done to her. Medea showed her first signs of craziness when she killed her family members and others to get what she wanted. She offers more signs of her future behavior when she screams out in her mind about what she will do, â€Å"What I need: all dead, all dead, all dead, under the great cold stones. For a year and a thousand years and another thousand: cold as stones, cold, but noble again, proud, strait, and silent, crimson-cloaked in the blood of our wounds.† Medea wants all that have betrayed her to be dead. Even though Jason is still living, his pride and everything he had, like his children and the princess, is dead. She says that once it has all been completed she will be proud, and noble. This self-reflection is a major give away toward her crazy inner soul. In Medea, the three Corinthian women often show signs that they are afraid of Medea. One of the Corinthian women says, â€Å"They say she is dangerous. Look at her eyes.† The women tell us that Medea is filled with crazed rage and will do something dangerous. One of the Corinthian women says, â€Å"Women hate war, but men will wage it again. Women may hate their husbands, and sons, and fathers, but women will never hate their children.† This statement says that Medea will hate her husband, but she did not hate her children even though she killed them, and this is ultimately what makes her crazy. Medea also shows many heroic qualities, especially when she is willing to kill her own brother to be with Jason. When she kills her brother, she shows that she is willing to do whatever is necessary to get the job done. Medea has been not only cheated, but also betrayed by Jason. She will not tolerate this abuse from him and does something about it. Medea says to Creon, â€Å"You see a woman driven half mad with sorrow, laboring to save her little children.† Medea builds up enough courage to confront Jason and get revenge. There are two main reasons why Medea decides to kill her children. The first is that she feels that it is a perfect way to complement the death of the princess in getting revenge on Jason. When she tells the chorus of the plans to kill the children, they wonder if she has the heart to kill her children, and Medea answers, â€Å"yes, for this is the best way to wound my husband.† This shows that she believes that by killing her children, she will basically ruin Jasons life and succeed in her revenge. The second reason for Medea killing her children has nothing to do with revenge. If she left her children with Jason, they would be living in a society that would look down upon them since they do not have pure goddess origins. Since she does not want to leave her children with Jason, they really have no place else to go, â€Å"my children, there is none who can give them safety.† Medea decides that killing her children is the best way to get both revenge, and the assurance that her children are not in Jasons hands. Medea ends the play with her crazed mind when she stabs her two innocent kids to death. She confronts Jason with the dead children and taunts him as she walks on saying, â€Å"I do not leave my childrens bodies with thee; I take them with me that I may bury them in Heras precinct. And for thee, who didst me all that evil, I prophesy an evil doom.† Medea shows her craziness throughout the entire play.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

The Internet as a Learning Tool Essay -- Technology Web Essays

The Internet as a Learning Tool The Internet has a universal appeal for most people. We (in the United States) have become dependant on it for our daily routines. We shop, send mail, read the news, look up movie reviews, etc., using the Internet. We depend on this service, because we have told ourselves that "It" has made our lives easier. We advocate the use of similar technologies within the classroom, because we are convinced that the use of computers and having access to the Internet is the best way to educate our children so they can have an equal chance to reach their potential and accomplish their goals. It is true that the Internet is a great source of information. Its value as a resource is immeasurable. Unfortunately, to get this benefit we have to pay a price. In some cases this comes as loss of privacy. The Internet and the digital world are a part of the public sphere; therefore, our speech has to be measured and revised to be appropriate for this realm causing our free speech to be limited. Access to the Internet is also restricted to a certain group of people. One has to own a computer, or have access to one to be able to make use of its benefits. Internet access is uneven, therefore unfair. The other potential problem with the Internet is the access that people with shady intents or with low morality have to it. Anyone with the means to a computer can be online with our innocent children. Are their intents innocent also? In the realm of education, I think that the Internet can be a great resource for information. Research can be easily planned and implemented for the benefit of both students and educators. Unfortunately, this brings us back to the issue of limited access. Some students are more readily... ...ose to a multimedia / interactive classroom as we think we are. The school district (LAUSD) has spent several millions on purchasing computers and hooking them up to the Internet. The emphasis is on acquiring technology instead of implementing it. I still think that the novelty of computers and its tremendous appeal to students of all ages should be utilized to teach. Works Cited "Fast, Easy and FREE Webpages." http://www.webspawner.com/ (1 Nov. 2001). "How to Publish Web Pages." http://itsweb.hartford.edu (1 Nov. 2001). "How to Publish Web Pages to an Internet Server." http://www.surfwise.com/support/publish.htm (1 Nov. 2001). "Personal Publishing." http://www.utexas.edu/ (1 Nov. 2001). "Publishing Your Page for Free." http://home.san.rr.com/artbytes/publish.htm (1 Nov. 2001). "Yahoo! GeoCities." http://geocities.yahoo.com (1 Nov. 2001).

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Successfully Navigating the Turbulent Skies of a Large-Scale Erp

Bombardier is the world’s only manufacturer of both planes and trains, it is present in more then 60 countries and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada. Both Bombardier Aerospace & Bombardier transportation employ over 70 000 and posted a revenue of over 18. 3 billion in the fiscal year ended December 31,2011. The case presents the implementation of an ERP system in Bombardier, along with all the major changes the corporation undertook for a successful transition. In the analysis I will address the challenges faced by Bombardier, the challenges associated with the integration of the large system & its benefits.I will also address how the project team managed and communicated it’s vision amongst the firm and how the new roles were defined, communicated & understood. The analysis will focus up to and including the implementation of the system. As the company grew over the years, Bombardier’s strategy of growth by acquisition turned the firm into a â€Å"textbook s ilo organization†. This created problems as systems did not communicate with each other effectively. This inefficiency generated additional costs because the firm had to maintain all the different systems.Another problem, related to the operation of the aerospace division, was the low visibility of inventory and lack of integration between the old computer systems. This caused process delays, low inventory turns & price inconsistency from suppliers. The Bombardier Manufacturing System (BMS) , the group of information technology applications that had been supporting Bombardier Aerospace’s manufacturing activities, had not evolved to cope with the fast changes. The BMS capabilities had become limited. We can assume that Bombardier was not a fully integrated company at that time because there was a clear lack of coordination and unity.An example would be how employees would create numerous stand-alone databases throughout the company on operations specific to their functio n without realizing the negative effect it causes to the rest of the organization such as data errors or omissions. But Bombardier Aerospace was working on becoming an integrated Company, as the Vice-President of Operations and Project Sponsor was aware of the challenges and created a Vision: â€Å"One Company†: To align the operations of its acquired companies by implementing common roles and responsibilities.To meet this enormous challenge, a Enterprise Resource planning (ERP) system was first implemented at Bombardier Aerospace. The first attempt in 2000 was a costly failure. The implementation of this technology without the corresponding organizational changes was the main reason of its failure. The factors that contributed to its breakdown are identified as : Focusing the implementation on inappropriate business processes, an outdated company vision, a weak sponsorship model, insufficient involvement of internal employees and having too many third-party consultants emplo yed on the project.In October 2001, Bombardier Manufacturing Information System (BMIS) was created by the Senior Project Manager to establish a new integrated manufacturing system. BMIS was the first project launched with a vision of an integrated organization. Once completed it would support 9,500 users over seven sites and the main benefit of the system’s integration is the cost savings of over $1. 171 billion and a one time reduction in material inventory of $219 million. To Create & implement such a system, a blue print of the operation was created.An integration team was formed; There role was to identify integration points where a process crossed functional boundaries, and independently resolve integration points that could potentially cause disagreement. The functional council took high –level decisions regarding the design of the projects. The BMIS team requested that the plants provide them with experienced employees for the design phase. Some problems that th e BMIS project manager was concerned about is that there was a lack of strong business employees, although empowered to make decisions and complete the design had to constantly go back to the business in order to validate.Another problem was the documentation that was requested by the BMIS team were not provided. As a result, the Design phase ran over schedule by several months. Bombardier Aerospace decided to go with a progressive implementation of the system. BMIS would be implemented one plant at a time starting with there newest facility, the Mirabel Plant. The Critical success factor for the project was the â€Å" Vanilla† approach to system design: It was important that the first roll-out or implementation of the system at the Mirabel plant to be a controlled one.Bombardier limited the scope of the first roll-out one section at a time and trained the rest of the shop accordingly. This approach would siege the system to one part of the plant and identify lessons for subs equent roll-outs. The Restructuring of the procurement function plays an important role in realizing the vision of the BMIS. As was stated earlier, one of the problems the firm faced was the low visibility of inventory. By improving the visibility, you can reduce inventory levels that would improve liquidity and reduce cycle time.It was decided mid-project to restructure the procurement function, it was undertaken in parallel with the implementation of the BMIS and was called the Material Resource Planning Technology. The main idea for procurement was to minimize the total acquisition cost and overall procurement costs by concentrating on a centralized and strategic sourcing of inventory. This big change would require the training of new employees and have them ready to use the new system.Data Management was also a parallel project, it can be divided in 2 activities: 1. Data Cleansing: identified as a major risk of the project. 2. Data Preparation: Extraction, mapping, staging and c onsolidation of data. Before going live it was important to prepare the users in utilizing the new system. Due to the pressure of staying on schedule, training were delivered to users in a short period of time which wasn’t effective because transmitting such a large amount of information in a sort period resulted in a negative effect.

Friday, November 8, 2019

Beans and More Beans

Beans and More Beans Beans and More Beans Beans and More Beans By Maeve Maddox Considering the flurry of comments triggered by my inclusion of a bean idiom in a recent post, I decided to give the humble bean a post of its own. The noun bean is Germanic in origin. August Fick (1833-1916) German comparative linguist, suggested that bean was cognate with faba, the Latin word for bean, but according to the OED, â€Å"phonetic considerations render this doubtful.† Originally, the word bean referred only to the broad bean (Faba vulgaris), but now it refers to any seed that resembles it. Human beings and beans have had a long relationship; Egyptians buried them with their dead, and Homer mentioned them in the Iliad. On the ancient Roman feast called the Lemuria (or Lumuralia), the pater familias (father of the family) got out of bed at midnight to walk around the house barefoot, throwing black beans over his shoulder. The rite was intended to exorcise any malevolent spirits that had accumulated in the household during the previous year. Pythagoras instructed his followers â€Å"not to love beans,† but he may have been warning them against meddling in politics, not forbidding them to eat beans; beans were used as markers in political elections. Artistotle equated the bean with venery (pursuit of sexual pleasure); to him, â€Å"abstaining from beans† meant â€Å"keeping the body chaste.† As common objects of daily life, beans found their way into literary and proverbial use. â€Å"Not worth a bean† came to mean worthless. Chaucer (1343-1400) uses the expression in â€Å"The Merchant’s Tale.† The hero of the tale is a knight who, after 60 years of bachelorhood, finally decides to marry: â€Å"For no other way of life,† he said, â€Å"is worth a bean.† A person who â€Å"does not have a bean† is poor indeed, although the bean in this expression may originate elsewhere than with the legume. A slang term for a sovereign or a guinea was bean. â€Å"Not to have a bean† meant â€Å"not to have a cent.† â€Å"Not to know beans about something† is to know nothing about it: Charles Faddis Does not Know Beans About Nuclear Energy â€Å"To spill the beans† is â€Å"to reveal a secret†: Drunk Whistleblower Spilled The Beans On Chemtrail Front Company For CIA The business world has a couple of bean expressions all its own. A â€Å"bean counter† is a contemptuous term applied to an accountant or other financial expert by people who feel that creativity is more valuable than mere record-keeping. A beanfeast or beanfest is an annual dinner given by an employer to his employees. The word bean is slang for head: â€Å"Im a bit short on brain myself; the old bean would appear to have been constructed more for ornament than for use, dont you know†Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬â€œP. G. Wodehouse, My Man Jeeves Wodehouse and other British writers used â€Å"Old Bean† as a friendly term of address: â€Å"You don’t mind my asking, do you old bean?† â€Å"Use your bean† means â€Å"think!† The little cap called a beanie gets its name from this meaning of bean, as does the baseball term bean ball, â€Å"a ball thrown at a batter’s head.† This application of bean has also given us a verb bean, â€Å"to hit someone on the head.† A beanery is a cheap restaurant, presumably because the meals are heavy on beans. The American city of Bostonfamous for its baked beansis often referred to as â€Å"Bean Town.† The expression that inspired this post is â€Å"full of beans,† meaning â€Å"full of energy and high spirits†: [In winter I try] to rise and shine, full of beans, every day.   [Reba] seems fresh, fit and full of beans, projecting herself the way I’m told she always does When I defined â€Å"full of beans† as â€Å"full of energy and high spirits,† several readers informed me of another meaning: â€Å"full of baloney† (or what bologna becomes once it is digested.) â€Å"Full of beans† in the sense of â€Å"energetic† probably originated as stable slang. Bean-fed horses were observed to be in good condition and lively, as in these examples from the OED: 1870  Ã‚   Daily News 27 July 5  Ã‚   The horses [] looked fresh and beany. 1843  R. S. Surtees Handley Cross II. vii. 199  Ã‚   [Hounds, horses], and men, are in a glorious state of excitement! Full o beans and benevolence! Another 19th century use of â€Å"full of beans† noted as stable slang was applied to a person â€Å"whom sudden prosperity had made offensive and conceited.† I suppose that such a stuck-up person could be seen as â€Å"full of beans† in the sense of being â€Å"full of it.† Apparently both meanings are current, so don’t be surprised if you get a puzzled look if your meaning doesn’t match that of your listener. I’ll end with what is probably the best-known bean quotation in popular culture, Rick’s farewell to Ilsa in the movie Casablanca: Ilsa, I’m no good at being noble, but it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Creative Writing 1017 Patterns of Sentence StructureHyphenation in Compound Nouns

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

10 Fascinating Facts About Dung Beetles

10 Fascinating Facts About Dung Beetles Is there anything cooler than a dung beetle pushing a ball of poo? We think not. But lest you disagree, please consider these 10 fascinating facts about dung beetles. 1. Dung Beetles Eat Poop Dung beetles are coprophagous insects, meaning they eat excrement of other organisms. Although not all dung beetles eat poop exclusively, they all eat feces at some point in their life. Most prefer to feed on herbivore droppings, which are largely undigested plant matter, rather than carnivore waste, which holds very little nutritional value for insects (and really, who could blame them for that preference). Recent research at the University of Nebraska suggests dung beetles may be most attracted to omnivore excrement, since it provides both nutritional value and the right amount of odor to make it easy to find. 2.  Not All Dung Beetles Roll Their Poop When you think of a dung beetle, you probably picture a beetle pushing a ball of poop along the ground. But some dung beetles don’t bother rolling neat little dung balls at all. Instead, these coprophages stay close to their fecal finds. Aphodian dung beetles (subfamily Aphodiinae) simply live within the dung they find, often cow patties, rather than investing energy in moving it. The earth-boring dung beetles (family Geotrupidae) typically tunnel below the dung pile, making a burrow which can then be easily provisioned with poop. 3. Dung Beetles Provision Their Nests With Poop for Their Offspring When dung beetles do carry or roll the dung away, they do so primarily to feed their young. Dung beetle nests are provisioned with poop, and the female usually deposits each individual egg in its own tiny dung sausage. When the larvae emerge, they are well-supplied with food, enabling them to complete their development within the safe environment of the nest. 4. Many Dung Beetles Are Good Parents Dung beetles are one of the few groups of insects that exhibit parental care for their young. In most cases, child rearing responsibilities fall on the mother (surprise!), who constructs the nest and provisions it with food for her young. But in certain species, both parents share child care duties to some degree. In the Copris and Ontophagus dung beetles, the male and female work together to dig their nests. Certain Cephalodesmius dung beetles even mate for life. 5. Most Dung Beetles Are Particular About the Poop They’ll Eat For most dung beetles, not just any poop will do. Many dung beetles specialize on the dung of particular animals, or types of animals, and simply will not touch the poo of other critters. Australians learned this lesson the hard way, when the outback was nearly buried in cattle dung. Two hundred years ago, settlers introduced horses, sheep, and cattle to Australia, all grazing animals that were new to the native dung beetles. The Australian dung beetles were raised on poop from Down Under, like kangaroo poo, and refused to clean up after the exotic newcomers. Around 1960, Australia imported exotic dung beetles that were adapted to eating cattle dung, and things got back to normal. Phew. 6. Dung Beetles Are Really Good at Finding Poop When it comes to poop, the fresher the better (at least from the dung beetles perspective). Once a dung patty has dried out, it’s less palatable to even the most dedicated poop eater. So dung beetles move quickly when an herbivore drops a gift in the pasture. One scientist observed 4,000 dung beetles on a fresh pile of elephant scat within 15 minutes after it hit the ground, and shortly thereafter, they were joined by an additional 12,000 dung beetles. With that kind of competition, you have to move quick if you’re a dung beetle. 7. Dung Beetles Navigate Using the Milky Way With so many dung beetles vying for the same pile of poop, a beetle needs to make a quick getaway once he’s rolled his dung ball. But it’s not easy to roll a ball of poop in a straight line, especially when you’re pushing your ball from behind using your hind legs. So the first thing the dung beetle does is climb atop his sphere and orient himself. Scientists had long observed dung beetles dancing on their poo balls, and suspected they were looking for cues to help them navigate. New research confirmed that at least one species of African dung beetle, Scarabaeus satyrus, uses the Milky Way as a guide to steering its dung ball home. The researchers placed tiny hats on the dung beetles, effectively blocking their view of the heavens, and found the dung beetles could only wander aimlessly without being able to see the stars. 8. Dung Beetles Use Their Poop Balls to Cool Off Have you ever walked barefoot across a sandy beach on a scorching hot summer day? If so, you probably did your share of hopping, skipping, and running to avoid painful burns to your feet. Since dung beetles often live in similarly hot, sunny places, scientists wondered if they, too, worried about burning their tootsies. A recent study showed that dung beetles use their dung balls to cool off. Around noon, when the sun is at its peak, dung beetles will routinely climb atop their dung balls to give their feet a break from the hot ground. The scientists tried putting tiny, silicone booties on the dung beetles, and they discovered the beetles wearing shoes would take fewer breaks and push their dung balls longer than the beetles that were barefoot. Thermal imaging also showed that the dung balls were measurably cooler than the surrounding environment, probably because of their moisture content. 9. Some Dung Beetles Are Surprisingly Strong Even a small ball of fresh dung can be hefty to push, weighing 50 times the weight of the determined dung beetle. Male dung beetles need exceptional strength, not just for pushing dung balls but also for fending off male competitors. The individual strength record goes to a male Onthphagus taurus dung beetle, which pulled a load equivalent to 1,141 times its own body weight. How does this compare to human feats of strength? This would be like a 150 lb. person pulling 80 tons! 10. Millions of Years Ago, Ancient Dung Beetles Cleaned up After Prehistoric Giants Because they lack bones, insects rarely show up in the fossil record. But we do know that dung beetles existed around 30 million years ago, because paleontologists have found fossilized dung balls the size of tennis balls from that time period. Prehistoric dung beetles collected the poop of South America’s megafauna: car-sized armadillos, sloths taller than modern houses, and a peculiar long-necked herbivore called Macrauchenia.

Monday, November 4, 2019

(MACROECONOMICS) Explain why the actual budget deficit is not a good Essay

(MACROECONOMICS) Explain why the actual budget deficit is not a good indicator of the fiscal stance and suggest any other better alternatives - Essay Example Moreover, ideal and functional fiscal stance indicators should embrace in-depth analysis of fiscal policies and collective economic variables. The actual budget deficit has from time to time been used as an indicator of the fiscal stance, although various shortcomings have rendered it a rather inadequate indicator. The overall balance of a government budget is basically a measure of the difference between government expenditure and revenue. In a case where expenditure outweighs revenue, the overall balance presents an actual budget deficit, which is an indication of an expansionary fiscal stance. The actual budget deficit indicates a fiscal stance where the negative impact of revenue on an economy’s aggregate demand is far much implicative of the positive effects achieved through government spending. Gross national product of any given economy at any given time is on the receiving end as it is negatively impacted by the fiscal policies put in place by the government (International Monetary Fund, 1989, p.76). However, the measure of actual budget deficit needs to be analyzed and judged more cautiously for accurate and relevant indication of the fiscal stance. In case keen judgment and analysis of the actual budget deficit measure is compromised, it ceases to act as a good indicator for the fiscal stance with respect to other economic variables. The actual budget deficit is also regarded as deficient indicator of fiscal stance, since it only offers impacts on aggregate demand perspectives and overlooks other economic variables such as economic sustainability, monetary stance, and growth aspects. Moreover, the actual budget deficit overlooks other economic complexities such as the manner in which the deficit is financed with regards to successive impact of the country’s economic variables. Fiscal impact complexities encompass the manner in which an actual budget deficit is financed among other special measures that are put in place to

Friday, November 1, 2019

Listening Without Resistance and Systems Thinking Research Paper

Listening Without Resistance and Systems Thinking - Research Paper Example In addition, I have been judging the accent of the other party in the conversation. I have been thinking that people who have great accent are less literate. This has been making me get less keen when listening to them. Conversations I have had in the past weeks were just discussions. Discussion is listening without a desire to be changed by the conversation (Mozdzierz, 2009). A dialogue, on the other hand, is a special way of conversation in which one is willing to be influenced by the conversation (Robinson & Rose, 2007). The conversations I have had in the past weeks could not fit to be called dialogue. This is because of my behavior of choosing not to be keen when the other party in a conversation had an accent, pronunciation problem or spoke less audibly. In most cases, my actions were either partially or completely withdrawing myself from the conversation. Therefore, I have done more of discussion than dialogue. Conversations could be easily converted to dialogue using several advantage points. One of the points is completing the features of a conversation. According to Nikulin (2010), this could be done by personal voice, unfinalizability, and allosensus. Another point is asking for clarifications during the conversation. This could increase someone’s attentiveness on the conversation. As a result, the conversation would have a great influence on the person and thus converted into a dialogue. The other point is reframing the message communicated during a conversation. This could avoid negative reactions and judgments made during conversations. As a result, the conversation would have a great influence on the parties involved and thus it would have been converted to a dialogue. System thinking is one of the five disciplines defined by Senge to guide activities of a learning organization. According to Wyk (2003), system thinking could be conceptualized as a tool for making complex patterns in a learning organization much