Friday, October 25, 2019

The Relationship Between Early Humans and Their Environment :: Environment Environmental Pollution Preservation

The Relationship Between Early Humans and Their Environment In television shows and textbooks, early humans are often presented as being an isolated force within their environments - that is, that they evolved with relatively little influence from their environment. This view often stresses the advances of human beings and their exploitation of the environment as a function of their anatomical development, particularly brain capacity. However, it fails to address the fact that human beings were not as we know ourselves to be today; that we were simply another large carnivore interacting with many different types of animals and environmental conditions, who happened to evolve into a social creature with capacities for reason and innovation. I believe that that aspect of human evolution is extremely important because it is the only way in which one can begin to decipher the reasons why humans evolved from a relatively "dumb" creature, one among many, to the animal which they are today. In A Green History of the World, Clive Ponting analyzes human history from humans' hunter-gatherer roots, their ability to stand upright, their use of speech, and their use of tools. Mary Stiner would emphasize that although these aspects of humanity are important, it is just as fruitful, if not more so, to study the interactions of humans with their faunal counterparts. In doing so, one can try to uncover the reasons why humans evolved into large predators capable of using speech and tools to survive rather than remain like their primate relatives, who are relatively non-predatory. In Stiner's article, "Modern Human Origins - Faunal Perspectives," she emphasizes that because of changes within human beings themselves and changes in the environment (climactic conditions and types of surrounding predators, competitors, and prey) were human beings able to perhaps diverge from these primates with non-modern human characteristics and instead evolve to resemble their predatory competitors. Interestingly, a work on the nature of dogs has shed some insight into this idea of Stiner's - that the predatory competitors of humans rather than human ancestors heavily influenced humans in their hunting and lifestyle habits. It has been debated for some time how dogs became domesticated animals, how and from where they evolved, and how they helped humans to evolve. In a New York Times article by Nicholas Wade ("From Wolf to Dog, Yes, but When?"), Wade convincingly argues that perhaps dogs were never domesticated by humans, but rather domesticated themselves as a survival skill.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Interpersonal Relationship and True Friend Essay

Tens of thousands, or one million? How many people will we meet in a whole lifetime, and how many of them do we have relationships with? Every person is born into a family without their choice, so they try to keep a good relationship with all family members to live happily, but sometimes it can be a misfortune for some people to get along with family members. However, we can choose to have good a relationship or not with acquaintances. Ive met with lots of people, sometimes I don’t get the chance to introduce myself, sometimes I had a good time with them, Sometimes I was disappointed by their behavior, and decided to say good-bye forever. There are many characteristics that determine whether a person is a friend or acquaintance. Considering my experiences, there are three types of acquaintances: true friends, ex-friends, and temporary acquaintances. I believe for a person to be considered a true friend they must be trustworthy and loyal. Someone whom will always stick by your side through thick and thin and would not sell you out. A true friend needs to be fair, caring, and loving. A true friend is someone who can make you smile or laugh; a person that will make you happy when you are sad. However, a true friend needs to be honest and must be able to tell you the truth even if it isn’t pleasant to hear. A true friend needs to be able to tell you something that you might not want to hear. At the same time, a true friend needs to be someone who wont try to change the way a person is and needs to be able to accept different personalities and characteristics. A true friend must know that it is very hard to gain trust; however. it is easy to lose it. People might say that a life without a true friend is no life at all. On the other hand there are people who I can’t say are friends anymore, so I consider them ex-friends. I was once close to them because of good times, humor, first impression, or similar interests, but later found out they used me, lied, and were selfish. I sometimes felt resentful, and realized I had better

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Backwood Mail Order Case Essay

Backwoods is a mail order company that is into camping supplies and outdoor clothing. Gerald Banks, the operations manager of the customer service division, is interested in training his 40 employees in the customer orders group to be more effective in handling customer complaints and problems. The organizational structure is as follows: The customer orders division has 40 employees and four supervisors whereas the shipping division has 32 employees and 3 supervisors. The employees are evenly divided into two shifts – A day shift and a night shift. The customer orders division is responsible for recording customer orders and check availability of each item ordered. The orders are then transferred to the shipping division which is in charge of ensuring the product is shipped to the customers. The constraint to be kept in mind before designing the training program is that service should not stop to their customers. The problems as identifies by a needs assessment specify that majority of the errors resulting in merchandise return is because of incorrect entry of size in the computer. Based on this the goals of the training program include reducing merchandize returns and creating a positive image of backwoods in the minds of its customers and employees. Questions 1. Write several clear, measurable objectives for the training to be delivered to the employees in the customer order group. The needs assessment output indicates problems to be addressed according to the organizational and task analysis. Before setting measurable outputs, the company first needs to perform person analysis as well to identify whether there are some employees who are excellent with certain attributes but lack at certain different aspect. Since the customer order group is the main point of contact for the customers, it is imperative that the quality of customer interaction should improve. Apart from telephone etiquette training, the customer order group should also have deep knowledge about the product portfolio. Keeping this in mind, we suggest the following objectives for the training. a. Development of in depth knowledge about the product portfolio: This objective should make sure that every customer service representative is abreast on the products and the different SKU’s of that product. This will need interaction with the products team, and periodical evaluation will be required for the same. b. Ensuring better data entry by rechecking customer knowledge of sizes: Because 78% of the merchandise returns are due to problems with size, features, and/or color selections, representatives must be trained in data entry, as well as order verification. Most of the problems can be eliminated by order verification and probably a sample, or description of the product. Also a habit of being inquisitive needs to be inculcated amongst the employees so that they ensure that the customer is aware about the different sizes in the different products. c. Being polite and prompt in handling customer complaints: A polite and prompt response from the employee will help in improving customer experience and would thus aid in creating a better image of the company. Also this will reduce the clutter that is caused in the workplace which will  further increase productivity and improve order time. d. Improving the company image and boosting employee morale The company branding has to be improved among the customers so that there can be many more repeat orders. To this extent, representatives have to be trained on the discount/promotional offers, product superiority etc. Career opportunities have to be explained and performance reviews should be setup so that employees are content as well. 2. Develop a recommendation for the training plan that includes the training techniques that should be used and the length of training Since customer orders department interacts with customers on a daily basis, the training technique will primarily consist of an off the job training program conducted in batches so that customer orders can be simultaneously fulfilled. Off the Job training phase in batches: a. Simulation and Virtual Reality techniques are recommended with every employee getting a chance to face a simulated customer complaint call and on the basis of their performance, feedback would be given. b. The training program should have classroom instructions and role plays. This will be helpful in customer interactions, and telephone etiquette. The classroom training session should include representatives from the product department, wherein the participants have an opportunity to clarify real life questions. Role play would include dealing with difficult customers, call forwarding etc. Since each hour of classroom training would require 6 hours of designing, this is an ideal combination. c. It should have an e-learning component. This will include information on the product portfolio and product usage. This component can also include data entry techniques to facilitate timely feed and retrieval of data. d. There should be a peer training component too, wherein star performers in the job would be asked to train newcomers and freshers. e. Cross functional training should be offered to the order processing as well as shipping department, since each department should be aware of the processes in the  other. f. Rewards should be planned for in the training program for the most improved employee. This would help incentivizing the process. A batch plan is recommended, since at any point of time, we cannot have all the customer representatives busy in training. Identification of time slots with lesser load should be done, and batches of 5 would be ideal so that the floor wouldn’t be completely empty at any point in time. Given an 8 hour window, a training of 1 hour every day for two weeks would be ideal to cover the required objectives. This will then be followed up with the on the job component. On the job training phase: This is essentially a follow up phase wherein some of the calls of the employees would be recorded and feedback will be provided on the same. There will also be occasional surprise calls from HR posing as customers. Lastly cards with learning of the training program should be placed on the desk of each employee. This will also act as an effective way to evaluate the training program. 3. Offer a plan for evaluating the training program. Describe the criteria that will be used and the design you will employ. We propose the widely accepted four-level framework for evaluation of the training program. Phase 1: Reaction of trainees: A simple questionnaire can be used to record the response of the trainee with his ratings on the training program. A few sample questions could be: a. What were your expectations out of the program? Were they met? b. How would you rate the time allotted to the training program? c. How would you rate the instructor? d. How would rate the design of the program? Phase 2: Learning of the trainees: The performance of the trainees can be gauged and recorded before the training program. The evaluation criteria would be the average number of errors in the past month and knowledge about product. These scores can then be compared with post training scores to evaluate the effectiveness of the training program. Phase 3: Observation of trained employees: This can be done by recording some of the calls of the employees and occasional surprise calls from HR posing as customers. The improvement in their performance with respect to promptness and politeness of response can help in evaluating the training program. Customer interaction and communication effectiveness should also be evaluated by supervisors. Also feedback can be taken from customers as well. Phase 4: Return on investment: The return on investment can be measured by calculating the savings in cost due to reduction in the number of returns. Also increased number of orders due to better customer satisfaction can be considered in considering the payoff from the training program. This can then be compared with the cost of the training program to measure effectiveness.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Marco Polo essays

Marco Polo essays Marco polo was born 1254 AD and died 1324 AD. He was a traveler and author and his experiences in China influenced interest in Asian trade. Marco polo was born in Venice. Venice was a very important center of trade in medieval Europe many of the goods that were traded include silk porclin and other goods from china. Very little is known about Marco pools early life. Marco polo probably received a typical education included in read, write, and calculate. Marco Polos writings are the primary source of information about the travels of his father and uncle, Niccoli and Maffeo Polo, who were jewel merchants. Marcos father, Niccoli left on an exploring venture when Marcos mother was pregnant with Marco. They left Venice in 1260 on a commercial venture to the Black Sea ports of Constantinople. In 1262 a war broke out behind them and prevented them from returning home, so they processed farther east to the great central Asian trading city of Buhoro. After three years they joined a mission going to the ruler of China. The ruler of China welcomed them and asked them to teach him more about the religion of Christianity. The brothers returned to Europe to ask the pope to help. On Niccolis and Maffeos trip back to China in 1271, with the pope, to teach them more about Christianity, Niccolos son Marco went with them. Due to bad weather during the trip, the rest of the missionaries turned back. The three Polos continued the trip. In 1275 they reached the home of Kublai Khan, the ruler of China. Again, from Marcos writings, the ruler of China welcomed them warmly. The Polos spent the next 17 years in China. Kublai Khan liked Marco because he was a good storyteller. The ruler of China sent Marco on many diplomatic missions throughout his empire. Marco told Kublai Khan many interesting stories and observations about the lands he visited. The ruler of China eventually made Marco ...

Monday, October 21, 2019

Moral Autobiography Essays

Moral Autobiography Essays Moral Autobiography Essay Moral Autobiography Essay Over the years have learned to become more accepting and inclusive of all sexual orientations and overall worldviews. This can be seen particularly in my top points on the hermeneutic circle and how I have used my social location to influence my views on justice and sexuality. The hermeneutic circle is a tool that can be very easily related to the life that have lived so far. This ranges from academic to personal to employment. Having a wide variety of points on the hermeneutic circle is something I see as a vital part of who I am, and ultimately makes up who I am today. The first point on the hermeneutic circle that I believe is apt to my life is the very first one. What is the community of accountability for me in my life? I personally serve many roles to please other people. The first example would be in my service organization. Am the District Secretary, and my job is to assist the District Governor with anything that they might need throughout the year. Rarely complete any task with the thought in mind of how it will affect me personally. On a more educational level, complete all my assignments to please my professors and abide by their rules or guidelines. NT simple write a paper how I choose to; I have to follow the guidelines that were set for the assignment. The next point on the circle would be the second one. What are some of my loyalties stated or implied? This point brings me back to my service organization I am a member of. Whenever people ask me to describe myself, I begin with a member of this organization because I am loyal to them a nd their mission. It is something will always believe in and stand by. Another think I would say, but very different, would be that am Irish American. I identify as an Irish American because I am loyal to my family and their roots, but also to the fact that I was born in America and am an American Citizen. What attitude toward social change is being exemplified by my life choices? This is the next point that relates to my life. I believe that social change in America is desirable by the majority of Americans, however it is something we have trouble figuring how to do. Myself believe that we need social change, but also have a strong feeling it will not happen. Many people are stuck on what happened in the past, and need to move on to how to change the true. We can never change the past, and that is where us as Americans are getting stuck. The last point goes hand in hand with my next point pretty well in the context I see it in. What are my thoughts in regards to truth claims? I personally believe that there are never ways to 100% find the truth in situations and that goes back to social change. Any truth can be debated in the eyes of anybody because we are able to have our own opinions on things in todays society. Just because I believe that something is true, doesnt mean another person has to believe in its truth. Everyone is allowed to have their own opinions on things and each person can have their own idea of what is true and what is not. Along with that, all truths are open to examination and interpretations. Just because I believe that something is true doesnt mean I cant change my mind later on. Always allowing for possible revisions and re- imagination. The status of historical claims is something I see as a secondary method or way to explain my position or stance on situations. Ultimately believe that this goes back to the idea of social change and the past stopping us from moving forward. I believe that everything that has happened in the past, both historical and not, has made us the country we are today and we have no need to dwell on that past. When I am making claims always allow room for others to contest or disagree with what I have said, and never take offence if someone does. Being a member of such a service based organization we are always bouncing ideas off each other and giving each other feedback. I will admit that everyone contributes that one idea that changes the entire year and then there is always at least one idea which you regretted saying. Therefore I am always open to comments on my ideas and claims made. In my role as a Transition Leader at Default, I have constantly received feedback from my fellow peers, and value their input and opinions. Receiving feedback from others is a vital part of growing and is something I think everyone should use in their life. Knowledge comes from a multitude of places, and therefore there are many different types of knowledge. The main source of knowledge I use is from experiences. I always remember things that have tried before, ending both good and poorly. This is how I learn what to, or not to do, in the future similar situations. The other source Of knowledge I use is my peers. Learn from my fellow peers almost daily, and it is always so relatable. Having someone else around my age to help guide me through situations really helps during the tough times. All of these points from the hermeneutic circle are all dictated and influenced by my social location. Social location can consist of many different things but the one that define my location the most are my ethnicity, my economic class, and my gender. All three of these social location pieces play a ole of describing who I am as a person. When someone asks me what my ethnicity I am very proud to speak about that. I love being an Irish American, and would love that chance to learn more about my heritage one day. Having this outlook on my ethnicity has enhanced my ethical worldview in the way that I am very open and eager to explore new cultures and ethnicities. Just recently I had the opportunity to be fully immersed in the Arabic culture and the Muslim ethnicity. Allowing myself to open my eyes to new ethical worldviews has been a part of me that I have loved exploring the past few years. There is one thing that hinders this, and that is my economic class. I would consider myself to come from the middle economic class, as in I cant always afford everything my heart wants. I would love to take the time to expand my ethical worldview horizon, but I sadly cant afford to do so. I am never ashamed to say am from a middle class family, but sometimes it hurts your chances to take part in some amazing experiences. Hopefully one day the idea of economic class cannot be a factor when attempting to further your worldview, but as of right now it is hindering my ability. Finally, my gender is one that plays and interesting role in social location. I myself identify as a male and prefer masculine pronouns. However, over the past few weeks I have learned that not everyone is so simple. This is the reason that gender plays such a huge role in my eyes. I have never had any issues with my gender and it never accrued to me that others might while growing up. Gender is something is assigned to us, and is not something that we get to choose, and therefore almost always will have an effect on each persons social location. It doesnt matter what you identify as or what you prefer to be called, your gender will be your gender no matter what. All of these aspects of my social location all come together to help create my overall definition of the word justice. Justice is something that I do not fully believe in, however have defined it in a very clear way in my life. Justice is when the correct punishment or reward is assigned to an action completed by a human, animal, or entity. The problem I have with this is who gets to decide what is right and what is wrong? There has always been some grey rear when it comes to right and wrong because it is not always so clear. Also, in some situations we might say it is right and then someone else might consider it to be wrong. Should one person punish a person while someone else praises another? I do not believe that this will change until we come up with an ultimate way to clearly define something as right or wrong. Overall, everything that has any form of meaning in my life has formed together to make me the human being I am today. Will this be different then every single other human on the planet? Of course it will, but that is also makes us who we are.

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Business overview of reliance travel agency

Business overview of reliance travel agency Reliance travel agency established since 1969 in the forefront of the Travel & Tourism business and is a leading Travel Management Company in Malaysia and is the first Tour and Travel Company listed on the KLSE (1993). Brand value for the company is Trust, Speed and Choice. They specialize in travel package around the globe with experience and quality service Reliance travel network expand to more than 200 destinations in locally and overseas. They provided widest choice of travel destination with great service value such as independent tour bookings, fight reservations, airline ticketing, accommodation bookings, customized tour package and car hire. Reliance senior management team is composed of professional with extensive experience from all aspect in travel field. Besides, with excellent relationship with airlines and travel suppliers, they can provide quality standard service with pair pricing that satisfied their customers. For Reliance, customer satisfaction is the most valuab le asset. Vision To be international well known travel agency brand by serve amazing journey destination and providing fun, leisure, holidays and vacations to customers (Reliance Travel, 2008-2010) 1.1 PESTEL Political Factors Government Policies Reliance has to obey policies of the government where they run their business activities. When nation or foreign company invest in Malaysia, Malaysia government will support them and welcomed their investment by provides many incentives for company that operating in Malaysia. Since the tourism industry is one of the top priorities, they have a bright future operating in Malaysia. Political Stability Political stability in Malaysia creates an opportunity for Reliance to expand their business worldwide. Reliance famous in many countries because of their brand value Trust, Speed and Choice. For political stability companies, represents an attractive expansion opportunity. With good brand value and political stability, this will help to increas e profit of Reliance as well. Economic Factor Malaysia government provides many incentives to national and foreign companies to stimulate further economic growth. Besides, inflation in Malaysia is very low because government controlling the situation cautiously. The latest report of inflation rate is Malaysia was 1.90%, reported in July 2010. The average inflation rate in Malaysia from 2005 until 2010 was 2.77 percent reaching an historical high of 8.50 percent in July of 2008 and a record low of -2.40 percent in July of 2009.   [ 1 ]    Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2010 1.30 1.20 1.30 1.50 1.60 1.70 1.90                2009 3.90 3.70 3.50 3.00 2.40 -1.40 -2.40 -2.40 -2.00 -1.50 -0.10 1.10 2008 2.30 2.70 2.80 3.00 3.80 7.70 8.50 8.50 8.20 7.60 5.70 4.40 * The table above displays the monthly average Source: Trading Economic, Inflation Rate 2010 If there is economic growth in the country and per capital income is increasing due to increase in GDP will create an opportunity for Reliance. This is because purchasing power of the people will increase and they can spend more on purchasing. There is a down fall in the economy of many countries. Growing inflation rate and unemployment rate has reduced the purchasing power of the people. There are many benefits that tourism industry brings to our economy. First of all, when governments promote tourism industry in Malaysia, it will bring foreign currency and generate wealth for country. Besides, it also helps to provide job opportunities and helps economies at district levels, such as improving urban and rural areas which in turn stimulates new business enterprises and promotes a more positive image in an area. For an example, when tourist come to visit Malaysia, their will bring business to Malaysia. This will help to create job opportunities and governments also will develop more infrastructures such as leisure mall to attract more tourists.

Friday, October 18, 2019

Impact Of Educational Systems On The Creativity Development Essay

Impact Of Educational Systems On The Creativity Development - Essay Example In addition, the reforms are also aimed at ensuring that students are taught in an environment that could promote their talents and creativity and not just be focusing on grades. Kaila (2005) argues that while education systems have been in existence for many years, most of them have been grade-centric with little focus on nurturing the learners’ innovativeness and creativity. Nevertheless, Mantel (2005) reports on new legislation in the education systems that address these needs. Particularly, the No Child Left Behind Act has been seen as being quite instrumental in ensuring that teachers work towards raising the performance of all students. While the legislation is arguably a great move towards raising the quality of education, several critiques observe the legislation’s focus on standardized testing cannot effectively tackle the problems affecting the American education system. It is hoped that there will be more educational reforms that will, among other things, lay emphasis on identifying and supporting unique talents among students. Such a move will create a favorable environment for identifying new talent and creativity among students and will, consequently, help in building holistic students (Geist & Hohn, 2009). The tremendous increase in the world population has led to more problems and demand for more services. In order to provide solutions to these inherent problems, Grazer (2013) observes that there is a need for creative and innovative solutions. The high competition in the workplace also demands creative employees with the ability to tailor their offerings in accordance with the needs of the customers. The challenges facing the society also need creative and innovative solutions. As a result, there is a great demand for creative individuals in almost all spheres of life, hence the need for education systems to focus on churning out holistic students.