Essay examples --

All-star football player, Lieutenant Commander, University of Michigan graduate, Yale graduate, adopted, and also the thirty-eighth president of the united states? These are all some ways that you could describe a man by the name of Leslie King Jr. You may be wondering who that is, but he is a president of these United States of America. Leslie King Jr. is the original name of Gerald Rudolph Ford. I am going to tell you all about his childhood, his high school experience, his college experience, his whole election process, his presidency, and his post-presidency experience. Gerald Ford was born July 14, 1913 in Omaha, Nebraska. His parents, Dorothy Ayer Gardner and his father Leslie Lynch King Sr. separated just sixteen days after Ford was born. His father was a wool trader and also was the son of a banker. They were officially divorced in December 1913, where Fords mother Dorothy was granted full custody. Soon after, Ford and his mother moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan to live with Fords grandparents. (Dorothy’s parents) Fords grandfather (Leslie Sr.’s father) paid child support until his death. In Ford’s biography, written by a member of his administration, Ford said that his biological father was known to get physical with his mother. He also stated that the main reason for their divorce was a few days after Ford’s birth his father threatened his mother with a butcher knife. In the biography it said that his father first hit his mother on their honeymoon, for smiling at another man. In 1916 Dorothy remarried a salesman by the name of Gerald Rudolph Ford. Gerald then went on to adopt Leslie, later renaming him Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. Ford grew up with three younger half-brothers from his mother’s second marriage. Thomas ... ... for the vice presidency. That one time in 1960 he almost became the vice president, but the Republican nominee Richard Nixon chose Massachusetts senator Henry Cabot Lodge instead of Ford. Ford continued to run for Congress and continually got reelected. The Fifth District constituents liked ford a lot. They always gave Ford at least sixty percent of their votes. Later in 1963 Ford was named Republican conference Chairman, and two years later was named House Minority Leader. Ford was not commonly known by very many Americans except those from Michigan and those who are part of Congress. This all changed when Ford and Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen talked together at some press conferences, criticizing the â€Å"Great Society Programs† of President Lyndon B. Johnson. These press conferences were known to many as â€Å" The Ev and Jerry Show† (Frank N. Magill, 791) Essay examples -- All-star football player, Lieutenant Commander, University of Michigan graduate, Yale graduate, adopted, and also the thirty-eighth president of the united states? These are all some ways that you could describe a man by the name of Leslie King Jr. You may be wondering who that is, but he is a president of these United States of America. Leslie King Jr. is the original name of Gerald Rudolph Ford. I am going to tell you all about his childhood, his high school experience, his college experience, his whole election process, his presidency, and his post-presidency experience. Gerald Ford was born July 14, 1913 in Omaha, Nebraska. His parents, Dorothy Ayer Gardner and his father Leslie Lynch King Sr. separated just sixteen days after Ford was born. His father was a wool trader and also was the son of a banker. They were officially divorced in December 1913, where Fords mother Dorothy was granted full custody. Soon after, Ford and his mother moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan to live with Fords grandparents. (Dorothy’s parents) Fords grandfather (Leslie Sr.’s father) paid child support until his death. In Ford’s biography, written by a member of his administration, Ford said that his biological father was known to get physical with his mother. He also stated that the main reason for their divorce was a few days after Ford’s birth his father threatened his mother with a butcher knife. In the biography it said that his father first hit his mother on their honeymoon, for smiling at another man. In 1916 Dorothy remarried a salesman by the name of Gerald Rudolph Ford. Gerald then went on to adopt Leslie, later renaming him Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. Ford grew up with three younger half-brothers from his mother’s second marriage. Thomas ... ... for the vice presidency. That one time in 1960 he almost became the vice president, but the Republican nominee Richard Nixon chose Massachusetts senator Henry Cabot Lodge instead of Ford. Ford continued to run for Congress and continually got reelected. The Fifth District constituents liked ford a lot. They always gave Ford at least sixty percent of their votes. Later in 1963 Ford was named Republican conference Chairman, and two years later was named House Minority Leader. Ford was not commonly known by very many Americans except those from Michigan and those who are part of Congress. This all changed when Ford and Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen talked together at some press conferences, criticizing the â€Å"Great Society Programs† of President Lyndon B. Johnson. These press conferences were known to many as â€Å" The Ev and Jerry Show† (Frank N. Magill, 791)

Response to Shakespeare Essay

The key character within the mechanicals is Bottom. In the Hoffman version he presents Bottom as a useless dreamer and even gives Bottom wife who actually says ‘he is a useless dreamer’. He is also portrayed as a bit of a town clown as he begins to perform in front of the town people a couple of kids pour red wine all over his white suit. The crowd that has gathered then begins to laugh and no one goes to comfort him or try and catch the kids that poured the wine, they just stand and laugh at him. In the noble version he is portrayed as a larger than life character that everyone appears to love. The actor that has been cast to play this part, who is larger than any other actor in the film, reinforces this larger than life character. The nest group of characters that Shakespeare throws upon the audience are the fairies, which I mentioned earlier. He takes the audience straight to the heart of the fairy world by showing the King and Queen of fairies, Oberon and Titania. They appear to be having a fight, or a lover tiff and this appears to have a direct affect on the mortal world as when they are arguing the weather is wet and stormy. Also because of this argument between the King and Queen the rest of the fairy world is seen to be in disorder. This is shown in the Hoffman version by their being a party and fairies getting drunk and causing general chaos within the fairy world. In Shakespearean times there were only a limited amount of props that Shakespeare could use during his play therefore he had to transport the audience to the fairy world using their imagination. Shakespeare only had a fraction of what is available to use today in his plays and therefore heavily relied on the audience power of imagination and his ability to create a place by using mere words. Shakespeare uses his words very effectively by emphasising the beauty and richness of the fairy world by using world like, orbs, gold coats and rubies. Another technique Shakespeare uses to try and place the audience inside the fairy world is alliteration. Alliteration helps outline the key words in the sentence and reinforces the beauty of the words that Shakespeare uses. An example of alliteration is in Act 2 Scene 1 when Puck says’ ‘And now they never meet in grove of green, By fountain clear or spangled starlight sheen. ‘ Alliteration is used at the end of both of these lines and imprints a picture of beauty into the audience’s mind. Each director confronts the problem of giving the audience the idea that they are changing realms relative to their respective budget. The Hoffman version uses rich props and obscure settings, such as big colourful trees, to resemble the fairy world. Where as in the Noble version where there is a much smaller budget the fairy realm is represented by different colours and lighting effects and a minimal amount of obscure props, such as big umbrellas that the fairies float in on. Through out the play the theme of dreaming becomes very important and is in fact so important it is in the title of the play. Six characters falling asleep and dreaming during the play, which also reinforce the idea of dreaming. When characters fall asleep and dream it causes confusion with the character that has been dreaming and sometimes the dream even stretches to characters around the sleeper. This is when reality and dreams become so closely entwined it becomes impossible for the characters, and the audience to some extent, to tell between the two. An example of this is Bottom, from the mechanicals, when he has a short relationship with Titania and an ass’s head on his shoulders. When he arises he doesn’t know whether his escapade with Titania was reality or just a dream. The fairies playing tricks with the lovers’ emotion’s and feelings as the put fairy dust in their eyes that reinforce this general feel of confusion. This is done while they sleep so when they wake up and are unsure of what they feel about the people closest to them. Examples of this are with Demetrius and Lysander, both of whom where fixated upon Hermia but when they feel asleep they arose madly in love with Helena and couldn’t care less about Hermia because of what the fairies had done while they were sleeping. Dreaming is also reinforced throughout this play as most of it is set in the dark at night time where dreaming traditionally takes place. Also when in the dark, objects are seen in different light and can be construed in the imagination to look like anything as their shadows mangle the shape of the actual object. In the Noble version the power of the subconscious mind is focused on much more than in the Hoffman version, as Noble uses weird sets and strange costumes throughout the play but especially in the woods where so much confusion and mystification occurs. Not only the actual things the viewers see on the screen are used to create this image of a very powerful subliminal world that this play is set in but also the way in which Noble lays out the play. Noble adds a boy to the play and makes it appear as if the play is the boy’s dream and therefore Noble is able to make the play run like a dream which gives him more freedom to make the play more surreal. This idea of the play being the boy’s dream comes from the opening seen when the audience is taken inside a house to the boy that is sleeping with a copy of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ under his arm. The boy is then suddenly awake exploring a house that is larger than and very unrealistic as doors are enlarged and the boy is made to be very small amongst these huge objects. The reason for the boy dreaming these sequences of events could be because he has read the play as a sort of bedtime story and literal events that could have happened around him or within his family. The boy could have jumbled up the two; reality and fiction, in his subconscious mind and when he fell asleep these idea could have come through. The Noble version could also be thought to take the play to the next level if you like thinking the play to be a more deeper philosophical type of play, rather than a light hearted romantic comedy which Shakespeare original wrote it to be. This philosophical reasoning could be construed as that there is no reality and we all live in one huge dream. In conclusion when comparing the two plays yet they consist of exactly the same characters that say exactly the same words they are quite different. The Noble version appears to be a much funnier play than the Hoffman play becomes of the way certain characters, especially the mechanicals, are presented to the audience. Along with the idea that the Noble version is funnier I believe because Noble has tried to make the play funnier he has also added more fantasy that the Hoffman version mainly because of the sets, back drops and costumes that Noble had decided to use. I think that the Noble version appeals to a younger audience than the Hoffman version does because of its funnier side than the Hoffman version but not a wide spread basis, the film will never be nominated for a BAFTA award or anything of that sort because of its low budget. Where as the Hoffman version has a much higher budget and will therefore appeal to filmgoers rather than people who like to watch Shakespeare on stage. Because of its glamour, lush background and expensive actors I feel that the Hoffman is more magical because Hoffman is able to use whatever set he pleases or go out on location and ‘doll’ up a place to his satisfaction, Noble I don’t think never had that luxury. I think it is more magical because the of setting that Hoffman presents with the film, for example when the audience is taken into the woods and the fairy land I think that the tree in which they are partying appears quite magical. I also feel that the Hoffman version is more romantic because the actors and actresses are always quite close to each and the opening scene illustrates this in the Hoffman version where Hermia, Lysnander and Helena are all pressed closed together. Overall I think that the Noble version is better because I like the way in which Noble has presented the mechanicals and feel that it is more light hearted than the Hoffman version. I also think that the Hoffman version has tried too hard to create the sets that Shakespeare writes about throughout the play and at times is a bit over the top with the backgrounds.

Feasibility study on contract management

Feasibility Study Sample Essay Introduction This is a feasibility study on the proposed Xanadu contract management system. This study aims to prove or disprove the financial prudence of creating and implementing the said system. The proposed contract management system will be responsible for handling outsourced system development contracts. This feasibility study was commissioned by Sr. Vice president of the Xanadu Bellevue Branch, Ann Casey, with authority from the corporate headquarters in George Town, Cayman. The investigation has been executed by the Alpha group whose members include John Tyrion, Grace Stark, Alex Snow, and Arya White. The new system is aimed at processing invoice data, as well as accrued expenses. It is also integrated with a vendor interface to facilitate interaction with the vendors. The key advantage of the new system is reduction or elimination of manual labor and paper work required for the monitoring of contractual payments, which are all prone to human error. This gives the Bank of Xanadu a competitive advantage. Systems Request Summary The bank of Xanadu has recently decided to outsource all its programming work to outside development firms. The proposed system will be responsible for controlling the payments to these development firms. The scope of the project is discussed below. The system should be capable of accepting, processing, and storing the inputting of contractual information as soon as it is received. This information will include invoicing data and accrued expenses. It should also have a vendor interface to provide information to the vendor’s queries. The system will be equipped with internet capability. This will enable the vendors to access it remotely. It will track the bill incurred on the contracts, compare the invoicing to the contract schedule, and record the work performed for the purposes of comparing it to the scope of the system being developed under the contract. It should store all this information on a database to enable the branches and to prepare monthly reports on the expenditure on programming contracts. The system will not be responsible for handling contracts outside those of programming nature. It will not have centralized databases as each of the banking centers are responsible for managing their own expenses. The system will also not be responsible for conducting feasibility studies before the contracts are signed, although the reports it generates can be used to plan for future contracts. The system will reduce the amount of workforce put aside to monitor contractual payments. This will reduce the wage expense for the entire Xanadu group. The employees will also appreciate the ease of recording invoices and producing reports. This will increase their motivation. The Bank of Xanadu will gain competitive advantage as a result of implementing this new system. This is because it will reduce the cost me accounting for contracts. It will also gain from the ease of obtaining information to use in strategic decision making. An example is a situation where the managers at the banking centers or at the headquarters would use the information from the generated reports to compare between bidding contractors. Background Founded in Bellevue, Washington, the Bank of Xanadu has risen from a small bank with three branches in Washington to a global banking group with 2000 branches located all over the continents. It started as a savings and loans bank and spread all over the United States before penetrating the world market using mergers and takeovers. The most recent takeover was in 2012. In the takeover, Xanadu Bank acquired Utopia National Bank. This progress has been made in duration of 30 years due to a culture of always placing the customer’s interests in front of the company’s. Its 100000 employee strive to conform to banking ethics when dealing with its over 10 million customers worldwide. Beginning 2010, the headquarters of the bank were relocated to George Town, Cayman. This was due to the absence of direct taxation in the islands. Small branches in the United States report to banking centers, which in turn report to the headquarters in the Caymans. The international banking centers have the independence to operate in their separate countries. They also, however, report to the headquarters on their operations. The banking centers have the freedom to create their own structure. The human resource includes accountants, contract personnel, loan supervisors, retail, and information system personnel. They are responsible for keeping their own accounts and tracking their expenses, except those involving the whole group, which are handled by the headquarters. The new system has been found necessary for integrating all departments, thus making it easier and efficient to track financial details. The new system is also aimed at reducing the number of unnecessary workers, thus maximizing the profits. Recommendation for Action The system will be developed using the Structured Systems Analysis and Design method (SSADM). Computed below are the Net Present Value and Return on investment of the proposed system. The feasibility study will look at the value of outsourcing the Contract management system. This will be compared to retaining the programming employees to develop an in-house system. Net Present Value (NPV) The net present value compares the future returns on a given investment to the cost that will be incurred investing in the project. In this case, the returns will be the savings made by reducing the salary and the benefits that would be due to the redeployed employees. The Net Present Value in this case is comparing the total savings adjusted to the 8% discount rate to the Development cost that would be involved in developing the system. This is a positive net present value of over $8.9 million. This means that it would be a good financial investment to replace the in-house programmers with outsourced labor to develop Xanadu systems. Return on Investment The ROI will calculate the percentage return on an investment. The formula for calculating ROI is (Return-Investment/Investment * 100). The ROI is 291.6% which is more than enough to justify outsourcing programming services to develop Xanadu’s system. The NPV also recommends the development of the system as is it positive. Assumptions The expenditure used to calculate the Net present value, and the Return on investment has not put into place the fees in training the workers of the new systems. The Feasibility study has assumed that there are no legal fees to be incurred in case of a contractual breach. The discounting figure used (8%) has been assumed to be constant throughout the period under consideration. In calculating the Costs and Benefits of the redeployed employees, the effects of inflation have not been factored. Issues for the user to consider Will the redeployed employees seed legal redress for perceived unlawful termination? Who are the persons who will be authorized to access the data recorded and stored on the new system? Will the company’s already existing hardware be able to handle the running of the new system? Are there better System development methodologies that will ensure the success of the contract management system? Will the outsource programmers understand and meet the ethical standards that are the culture of Xanadu Group?