Economics and Philosophy

How does the sociological definition of culture differs from non-sociological?

2009-11-01T03:56:00.003Z

Sociological: The culture of a society is they way of life of its members; the collection of ideas and habits which they learn, share and transmit from generation to generation’ (R. Linton 1945).

Non-sociological: 1) High culture
2) Culture as a state of mind
3) Culture as Civilization

What's the difference?

sociology

2009-10-17T18:19:00.002+01:00

Discuss the proposition that whilst class may have lost its force in the collective sense, nevertheless class remains potent both in the creation of individual identity and in the formation of culture

1500 words +-10%

Have to write an essay on this topic(((
kill me...

Unexpected changes

2009-08-13T14:25:00.001+01:00

The French and German economies both grew by 0.3% between April and June, bringing to an end year-long recessions in Europe's largest economies.

Stronger exports and consumer spending, as well as government stimulus packages, contributed to the growth.

The data came as a surprise, with few analysts expecting Germany and France to start to recover so soon.

But economic activity in the eurozone fell by 0.1%, showing the region as a whole is still in recession.

It was the fifth consecutive quarter of economic contraction in the eurozone, but was a marked improvement on the 2.5% drop recorded in the first three months of the year.

End of the year! Yeap! We did it!!!!!

2009-06-06T12:15:00.009+01:00

Do not take drugs! otherwise you will end up like this person...))

Last economics lesson...

Mr. Chris HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

2009-05-03T23:32:00.003+01:00

Mr. Chris I want to congradulate you with your 60's birthday=) I wish you lots of happy moments in your daily routine,creative successes, personal prosperity, enormous and light love and internal satisfaction in everything! Wish you the best, because the person like you deserves all the wonderfull and precious things in the world=))))))
Thank you for everythind you are doing for us!!=)))
Be happy)))))))))

Evaluate the importance of managing aggregate demand to bring about a sustained reduction in the rate of unemployment in the UK economy

2009-04-22T22:37:00.002+01:00

Aggregate demand is the total demand for country’s goods and services in a given price level over a period of time. Formula is AD=C+I+G+(X-M).

If the economy is experiencing high level of unemployment, government is likely to boost the aggregate demand by different demand-side policies. Increase of any component of aggregate demand will lead to an outward shift of the AD curve. One of the effective ways of reducing unemployment is cut in interest rates. As we know investment is the function of interest rates. Therefore it would lead to an increase in investment. Part of the borrowed money people would invest for opening new businesses, therefore creating new jobs for unemployed. Also government can use expansionary fiscal policy. Increase government spending and decrease taxes. All the above would lead to an increase in AD and therefore created jobs would reduce unemployment. However if AD would rise too fast it may cause demand-pull inflation.

As you can see above the demand pull inflation.

Therefore reduction of unemployment would be unsustainable. For that reasons managing AD is very important in order to maintain stable and low inflationary growth.

Also increase in Aggregate Demand wouldn’t reduce frictional, voluntary or structural unemployment. Frictional unemployment (looking between jobs). Structural unemployment. - People without the right skills for the labour market. Voluntary unemployment - when benefits are too high they encourage people to remain on benefits rather than work.

In conclusion I’d like to add that to maintain sustainable economics growth with low rate of unemployment it is necessary to use both demand-side and supply-side policies.

2009-04-22T20:17:00.002+01:00

Why does the Aggregate Demand curve decreases?

Aggregate Demand is a total demand for a country’s goods and services at a given price level in a given period of time.
There are several reasons for decrease in Aggregate Demand curve. To explain them initially we need to know the formula for AD= C+I+G+(X-M).

Where:

• C- consumption

• I- investment

• G- government spending

• X- export

• M- import

Thus, a decrease in any components of AD will lead to downward slope of the AD curve.

Consumption may be decreased because of decrease in disposable income. As we know consumption is the function of disposable income. If disposable income decreases, consumption will also decrease. There are many ways that consumption can decrease. An increase in taxes would have this effect. Similarly, a decrease in income--holding taxes stable--would also have this effect. Finally, a decrease in the marginal propensity to consume or an increase in the savings rate would also decrease consumption.

The second component which might lead to a decrease in AD is Investment. We can say that Investment is the function of interest rates. Therefore if the interest rate rises, investment is falling. It is likely that people are likely to save money rather than borrow with high interest rates. Therefore it also causes the Aggregate Demand curve slope downward.

The term variable that will lead to a shift in the aggregate demand curve is Government expenditure. G is one of the fiscal policy measures. If the government decides to cut spending, it may lead to a decrease in AD.

The fourth term that will lead to a shift in the aggregate demand curve is NX(e). This term means that net exports, defined as exports less imports, is a function of the real exchange rate. As the real exchange rate rises, the dollar becomes stronger, causing imports to rise and exports to fall. Thus, policies that raise the real exchange rate though the interest rate will cause net exports to fall and the aggregate demand curve to shift left.

Also AD may decrease because of fall in consumer confidence. A decrease in consumer confidence brought on by concerns that the economy might be headed for troubled times, which then prompt the household sector to spend a smaller proportion of disposable income on consumption.

Why does Aggregate Demand slope downward?

Aggregate Demand is a total demand for a country’s goods and services at a given price level in a given period of time.

The formula is AD= C+I+G+(X-M).

There are several reasons for downward slope of the AD curve:

• The Real Balance effect states that the inverse relationship between the price level and the quantity demanded of Real GDP is established through changes in the value of monetary wealth

• A fall in the price level causes purchasing power to rise, which increases a person’s Monetary Wealth. As people become wealthier, the quantity demanded from the GDP rises.

• A rise in the price level causes Purchasing Power to fall which decreases a person’s monetary wealth

• The Interest Rate Effect states that the inverse relationship between the price level and the quantity demanded of Real GDP is established through changes in household and business spending that is sensitive to changes in interest rates.

• The International Trade Effect states that the inverse relationship between the price level and the quantity demanded of Real GDP is established through foreign sector spending, which includes US spending on foreign goods and foreign spending on US goods.

revision pack

2009-03-24T00:21:00.002Z

Globalisation

This blog is about global industries and international businesses. Such as: Honda, Chrysler, Starbucks and other global industries. These three articles are about how current economic situation affects the businesses, what decisions they have made.

Production and Operations

What is capacity utilization and how it is important?
apacity utilisation measures the extent to which a business is using its production potential.
Capacity utilisation can be defined as - the percentage of total capacity that is actually being achieved in a given period
Capacity utilisation ( which is traditionally expressed as a percentage) is calculated using this formula:

Capacity utilisation is an important concept because:
- It is often used as a measure of productive efficiency
- Average production costs tend to fall as output rises – so higher capacity utilisation can reduce unit costs, making a business more competitive
- So firms usually aim to produce as close to full capacity (100% utilisation) as possible
It is important to remember that increasing capacity often results in higer fixed costs. A business should aim to make the most productive use it can of its existing capacity.
The investment in production capacity is often significant. Think about how much it costs to set up a factory; the production line with all its machinery and technology.

Social enterprise
I've read the posts on social enterprice=)

2009-03-19T12:35:00.000Z

Just finished all the essays and handed to Ian =D

Specific work

2009-03-18T17:19:00.003Z

Economics. BBC news article 1.

Following this link you can read the article about rising unemployment in the UK. This article, which I have read, shows that during the three months to January, the number of people unemployed totalled 2.03 million. Economists predict that it will rise by 2010 above three million. More and more businesses increase redundancies.
Unemployment reaches the peak. It means that government spending increasing to transfer payments. Such as job seeker allowance etc.

The diagram bellow shows UK unemployment from 1997 to 2009.

I couldn’t think about any relevant business theories to this article.

Economics. BBC news article 2.

Second article is named as “Outlook for Swiss economy worsens “. This is about Swiss economy and futher predictions in the economy. Swiss also have rising unemployment and experiencing sharp decrease in Gross Domestic Product.

Also one of the country's most famous chocolate makers, Lindt, missing it growth targets.

2009-03-18T12:52:00.000Z

Theme 1. Macroeconomics.

Have read through several posts on this part. I wan to summaraise one exam question, which was difficult to answer.

Is roadbuilding an effective way of reducing unemployment?

Arguments for:

• Direct injection and extra demand into the economy

• Big labour supply

• Expectation of a strong ‘fiscal multiplier effect’

• Possible positive accelerator effect

• Reduce cyclical unemployment

Arguments against:

• Skills shortages and spare capacity

• Uncertancy in size of multiplier effect

• Long time lags on transport investment projects

Theme 2. Markets

In what type of market does the iPod operate in?

The iPod can be said to have a monopoly position in the market and well established market dominance. However it depends on how we define the market.

Another view is that the different versions of the iPod compete within an oligopoly.

Theme 1. Business Ethics

2009-03-18T03:08:00.001Z

There are quite a lot of posts on Business Ethics and CSR. I have read most of them, but didn’t quite catch everything written there. But the main points are in my head ( hopefully=).

Ok, what is business ethics? “Business ethics is the behavior that a business adheres to in its daily dealings with the world. The ethics of a particular business can be diverse. They apply not only to how the business interacts with the world at large, but also to their one-on-one dealings with a single customer.

Many businesses have gained a bad reputation just by being in business. To some people, businesses are interested in making money, and that is the bottom line. It could be called capitalism in its purest form. Making money is not wrong in itself. It is the manner in which some businesses conduct themselves that brings up the question of ethical behavior.

Good business ethics should be a part of every business. There are many factors to consider. When a company does business with another that is considered unethical, does this make the first company unethical by association? Some people would say yes, the first business has a responsibility and it is now a link in the chain of unethical businesses.

Many global businesses, including most of the major brands that the public use, can be seen not to think too highly of good business ethics. Many major brands have been fined millions for breaking ethical business laws. Money is the major deciding factor.

If a company does not adhere to business ethics and breaks the laws, they usually end up being fined. Many companies have broken anti-trust, ethical and environmental laws and received fines worth millions. The problem is that the amount of money these companies are making outweighs the fines applied. Billion dollar profits blind the companies to their lack of business ethics, and the dollar sign wins.

A business may be a multi-million seller, but does it use good business ethics and do people care? There are popular soft drinks and fast food restaurants that have been fined time and time again for unethical behavior. Business ethics should eliminate exploitation, from the sweat shop children who are making sneakers to the coffee serving staff who are being ripped off in wages. Business ethics can be applied to everything from the trees cut down to make the paper that a business sells to the ramifications of importing coffee from certain countries.

In the end, it may be up to the public to make sure that a company adheres to correct business ethics. If the company is making large amounts of money, they may not wish to pay too close attention to their ethical behavior. There are many companies that pride themselves in their correct business ethics, but in this competitive world, they are becoming very few and far between.”

The question such as: “is it ‘ethical’ to buy low priced goods produced in poor countries?”, “ is it ethical to close the cigarettes producing company?” etc.

Неужели!=)

2009-03-18T02:45:00.000Z

Jut have finished all the essays...) good-good..) continue to work...

Problem of evil

2009-03-16T23:19:00.000Z

The existence of evil and suffering from it in our world seems to pose a serious challenge to belief in the existence of a perfect God. If God were all-knowing, it seems that God would know about all of the horrible things that happen in our world. If God were all-powerful, God would be able to do something about all of the evil and suffering. Furthermore, if God were morally perfect, then surely God would want to do something about it. And yet we find that our world is filled with countless instances of evil and suffering. These facts about evil and suffering seem to conflict with the theistic claim that there exists a perfectly good God. The challenged posed by this apparent conflict has come to be known as the problem of evil.

The earliest formulation of the problem of evil was presented by ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus (342-270BCE). Nevertheless, Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711-1776) advanced and cited “Epicurus’ old riddle”, “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is impotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Hence, then is evil?” After the all possibilities that Hume tried he concluded that God does not exist.

After Ericurus and Hume a lot of philosophers tried to justify God's actions. It created two main theodicies: Augustinian and Irenaean theodicies. But what is the theodicy? Theodicy is a justification of the God's actions in the world.

First of all, we should mention who is an Augustine. St. Augustine is a 4th century philosopher and theologian; he was a father of a Latin church. Augustine of Hippo based his theory on his reading of key Biblical passages. Augustinian theodicy includes two parts: first - The fall of Adam and the second - The privation of good. In the first part of the theodicy st.Augustine made an accent on the Adam's fall in the Garden of Eden. The main sense is that that choice was made using the free will that God gave to Adam. The second part is about privation of good. The main sense of this part is that evil is just our imagination, nothing more than a picture in our mind.

Firstly, we should mention that everything that Augustine took into account was taken from the Bible, so, theoretically there cannot be any contradictions and in this case, there is no. This is one of the strengths of his theodicy. Secondly, originally God created perfect world without any evil. Hence, evil is not a part of God's creative work. This point again justifies God's actions. Thirdly, we have point that evil was introduced into the world after man's (Adam's) choice. It connects us to the question about free will. As we know philosophers mention two different types of evil: natural and moral. Moral evil is an evil which caused by people’s actions, while natural is caused by natural disasters, diseases, etc. St.Augustine using first part of his theodicy concluded that all suffering is a consequence of abuse of free will. In detail, natural evil is caused by the imbalance in nature brought by the Fall of Adam and moral evil is caused because the world has become estranged from God and immorality has been able to thrive. From this point we can consider that it was not God's kind of fault, but it was a fault of a man and as a punishment he achieved the existence of evil. Therefore, God is not responsible for man's evil choices. From the second part of the theodicy we also can take some points in favour. Main point is that evil is just a man's imagination, that there is no evil, just illusion of the evil. St.Augustine made a point that perhaps evil contributes to a greater good. This point was supported by another philosopher, Richard Swinburne, who said that all evil exists for the education of mankind. Moral evil is produced by the ignorance; natural evil is intended to teach us responsibility. From this point of view, evil gains another view. In this case, evil seems created for the good purposes, for something great. So, above we can see a good list of the strengths of this theodicy.

On the other hand, this theodicy has a lot of weaknesses. The first weakness is that primordial God created PERFECT world. To the evil appearance there had to be some kind of accident from which the perfect world gone wrong. It means that it should go wrong by itself from nothing, but it is logically impossible. Second weakness is that God created such a perfect world where man did not know what is good and what is evil. Thus how could there have been the freedom to obey or disobey God? Adam’s initial capacity to choose evil must still be attributed to God. Another disadvantage of this theodicy is that Hell appears to be built into the design of the universe in Augustine’s theodicy. It would seem, therefore, that God was expecting things to go wrong, and chose to do nothing about it. From this points we think How can we believe in God’s justice when some have been granted His grace and others not, on an apparently arbitrary basis? And why would a benevolent God have wished any of his creatures to suffer eternal torment in hell? These contradictions make us think about the justification of God's actions more carefully.

Irenaeus, 2nd century philosopher, father of the church, tried to justify God's actions as well. But his work left unfinished and in future John Hick finished it.

The main strength of this theodicy is that this it avoids the problem of Augustine’s ‘spontaneous’ appearance of evil. He thought that God brings in suffering for the benefit of humanity. Throughout our suffering lives we change from the being human animals to "children of God". Another point in favour is that his theodicy does not rely on the Genesis or on the Fall of Adam. Moreover, his theodicy allows for the modern concept of evolution. His theodicy support that evil can also help people in character-building. Evil offers the opportunity to grow morally. If we were programmed to "do the right thing" there would be no moral value to our actions. As I already mentioned, John Hick, Irenaean follower, also had some points on this theodicy. His points are great examples of the strengths of this theory. Mainly, he justified God's actions, i.e. the creation of evil, by this explanation: In order to allow for this development, humans have been created imperfect. So, it is again proved the fact that God basically created imperfect man with the good purposes.

Nevertheless, there are some problems with this theodicy as well. First of all, creation of the imperfect man suggests that God's work was imperfect, what theoretically cannot be, because God is a perfect and everything that he creates has to be perfect. Secondly, people's free choices not always lead to the some new knowledge, growth in power or any kind of development. This is another weakness of this theory. Thirdly, we can accept perhaps that some evil and suffering are necessary for God’s purpose but what about the innocent victims, i.e. children or babies? Another weakness is that Irenaeus argued that everyone goes to the heaven. This would appear unjust, in that evil goes unpunished. Morality becomes pointless. And the last weakness is that how God can be all-loving if he accepts the suffering of the people?

As a conclusion, I want briefly compare these two theodicies. Firstly, we should mark the similarities between two theodicies. They both trace the problem of evil back to human free will. It means that they think that a cause of the evil is people's actions, their choices. Secondly, in both theodicies we can see the fact that on the one hand people have free will, but on the other hand, if people use this free will they cause suffering. Both of them also consider that sometimes evil can be used for something good, to the achievement of something better.

By contrast, there are also differences in these theodicies. The most obvious is that the both theodicies did not have the same starting point, The Fall of Adam. Also Augustine thought that God created perfect world, while Irenaeus did not. For Augustine God is remote from man, having been distanced by his sin. For Irenaeus, as we make this progress we grow closer to God, reducing the epistemic distance between us and God. And the last point that I want to mention is that Augustinian theodicy is a soul-deciding theodicy, whereas Irenaean theodicy is soul-making. It means that the Augustinian theodicy concerned with judgement. Irenaeus is more concerned with the development of humanity.

So, in the end we can say that all theodicies have their strengths and weaknesses as well as similarities and differences. But which of them each person will choose it is a question. Question on which we will never find answer.

Beautiful song by Andy Williams

2009-03-11T08:20:00.000Z

I Will Wait For You
Artist: Andy Williams
English Words by Norman Gimbel and Music by Michel Legrand
From the 1964 film "The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg" starring Catherine Deneuve
Charted at # 113in 1965 by Steve Lawrence

If it takes forever I will wait for you
For a thousand summers I will wait for you
Till you're back beside me, till I'm holding you
Till I hear you sigh here in my arms

Anywhere you wander, anywhere you go
Every day remember how I love you so
In your heart believe what in my heart I know
That forevermore I'll wait for you

The clock will tick away the hours one by one
Then the time will come when all the waiting's done
The time when you return and find me here and run
Straight to my waiting arms

If it takes forever I will wait for you
For a thousand summers I will wait for you
Till you're here beside me, till I'm touching you
And forevermore sharing your love

Why should I be moral?

2009-03-10T22:45:00.000Z

P.S. for Mr. Chris and other teachers just to make sure that I haven’t been to shopping on Monday :)

The conference started at 11:00 till 16:00. And I am going to tell briefly about topics which were discussed on conference.

The moral contract

The speaker was talking about “Why should I be moral?” He looked at different philosopher’s ideas and here some points that I’ve made:

• We each agree to be moral or not

• If everyone would decide not to be moral and act only in their self interest, we are going to end up with problems.

• Prisoner’s Dilemma: Two suspects are arrested by the police. The police have insufficient evidence for a conviction, and, having separated both prisoners, visit each of them to offer the same deal. If one testifies (defects) for the prosecution against the other and the other remains silent, the betrayer goes free and the silent accomplice receives the full 10-year sentence. If both remain silent, both prisoners are sentenced to only six months in jail for a minor charge. If each betrays the other, each receives a five-year sentence. Each prisoner must choose to betray the other or to remain silent. Each one is assured that the other would not know about the betrayal before the end of the investigation. How should the prisoners act? This is the question of morality.

• Morality solves the Prisoner’s Dilemma situation.

• It may also cause the “free rider problem”. For instance you would think that everyone decides to be moral and you have chosen not to be moral, so you can use other peoples’ trust.

• Morality is a collectively in everyone’s self- interest, but it is in each person’s self-interest to break the agreement knowing this, we won’t trust each other.

• Morality is not a historical agreement; you won’t ever find any historical fact, when everyone agreed to be moral. But it is a hypothetical agreement for each of us.

• “Contractarianism” - names both a political theory of the legitimacy of political authority and a moral theory about the origin or legitimate content of moral norms. It says that it is rational to be moral.

• Morality can’t be based on egoism at all.

David Hume

According to Hume morality is a feeling of approval or disapproval. Morality starts from natural feeling.

Sympathy

• Approval is based on sympathy (feeling pain of people pain, feeling pleasure of peoples’ pleasure). But Hume doesn’t mention about empathy, or he means sympathy, but not empathy.

• We are clearly moved by effects of misery

• Sympathy is a reflection of self-interest.

• All moral judgments come from sympathy

Can morality base on sympathy?

Sympathy is stronger for those we know and love; but moral judgment treats everyone as equal. To do moral judgment you should feel more “public and social”. This can involve reasoning.

According to Hume, we approve of what is pleasurable and useful, and disapprove of what is not. But what about ideas of self-denial, self-sacrifice and penitence? Hume reject them.

A little bit of Philosophy

2009-03-08T21:15:00.000Z

The concept of SCEPTICISM

First of all we have to say what is it scepticism? Scepticism is the philosophical school of thought in which doubt is the main principle of thinking, especially doubt in the reliability of truth. In our ordinary meaning scepticism is the permanent uncertainty state or in other words the doubts about everything.

The tradition of the systematic scepticism can be most likely traced to Pyrrho of Elis. Pyrrho was affected by east philosophy, because he spent a part of his adult life traveling with his native, Alexander the Great. He got eastward as far as India and just there he was exposed to non-Hellenic philosophy. He had originally been an adherent of Stoicism (philosophical school of though which consider logic, physic and ethics a part of philosophy). But he was troubled by the disputes that could be found against his own philosophy and within all philosophical schools, including his own. Because of it he was always overwhelmed by his inability to determine which school was correct for him. But finally he achieved the inner peace that he had been seeking. Pyrrho and his school were not actually sceptics. Their goal was ataraxia – the peace of mind. Once it was achieved, inquiry would halt. For them it was good enough. But it was not really good enough for scepticism. Anyway, later thinkers took up Pyrrho's path and extended it into full-fledged skepticism.

Philosophical scepticism can assert that we do not have any knowledge or that we cannot have knowledge. For some people these two claims seem absolutely the same, but actually they are not. The second one is stronger and more difficult to prove. As we know, Socrates tried to say that if we will continue to ask questions we might eventually get the knowledge. The most common opinion among the sceptics in ancient time was that it is impossible to have knowledge, actually some of them believe in that now.

Now we have to understand that scepticism can be about everything or can be about some particular area. If someone believes that knowledge of something is impossible at all, then his or her point of view is a global scepticism. There have been very few global sceptics in the whole history of philosophy. We can say that global scepticism is so bold, because it denies so many things, easier to say that it denies everything at all.

Now if someone says that we do or we can have any knowledge in particular area, then it is local scepticism. In philosophy we have a lot of different types of local scepticism. It can be explained by the different areas of knowledge. And also each sceptic has his or her own point of view on this particular area.

As we already know the main question of the epistemology is “Is knowledge possible?” And the sceptics’ answer is very simple. The answer is “No”. So, actually these two sentences can illustrate the whole conception of scepticism.

Half term dinner!!!

2009-03-04T21:33:00.000Z

Everyone is a philosopher of his own life...

2009-03-04T17:58:00.000Z

Mother Teresa:

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

Personal experience:

Your teacher will laugh at your mistakes. Love him anyway!

You will work hard, but he will not see it. Work hard anyway!

He is disgrasing your blog posts. Do blogs anyway!

Your teacher try to help you, but sometimes you don't appreciate it. Be thankfull anyway.

Sometimes you would hate some people and some subjects. Do them anyway!( because you have to get into best university=)

In the final analisys, you will understand, that everything you do in your life, everything what happening is not idle and will lead to best for you.

Balassa-Samuelson effect

2009-03-01T19:42:00.000Z

The Balassa-Samuelson effect is either of two related things:The observation that consumer price levels in wealthier countries are systematically higher than in poorer ones (the "Penn effect"). An economic model predicting the above, based on the assumption that productivity or productivity growth-rates vary more by country in the traded goods' sectors than in other sectors (the Balassa-Samuelson hypothesis).

The Phillips curve

2009-03-01T17:37:00.000Z

In 1958 Professor Phillips of the London School of Economics found a strong statistical relationship between annual inflation an annual unemployment. The Phillips curve shows a higher inflation rate is accompanied by lower unemployment rate. It suggested we can trade off more inflation for less unemployment, or vice versa.

The Phillips curve seemed a useful compass for macroeconomic policy. By its choice of fiscal policy and monetary policy, the government set AD and hence unemployment. Since there have been years both inflation and unemployment was over 10 percent. Something happened to Phillips curve .

The vertical long-run Phillips curve.

In long run equilibrium, the economy is both potential output and equilibrium unemployment. Sometimes these are referred to as the natural level of output and natural rate of unemployment. Both are determined by real thing not nominal things. They depend on the supply of inputs, the level of technology, the level of tax rates and so on. They don’t depend on inflation, provided all prices and nominal wages are rising together.

First it was wrong to interpret the original Phillips curve as a permanent trade-off between inflation and unemployment. It was the temporary trade off, corresponding to a particular short-run aggregate supply schedule, while the economy adjusted to a demand shock. Second, the speed with which the economy moves back depend on two things: the degree of flexibility of nominal wages, and hence prices, and the extent to which monetary policy adjust interest rate to restore demand more quickly.

Conclusion

We now understand that Phillips curve is vertical in the long run at equilibrium unemployment. The short run Phillips curve is the temporary trade –off between inflation and unemployment while the economy adjusts to a demand shock and works its way back to long-run equilibrium

UNEMPLOYMENT

2009-03-01T17:27:00.000Z

Types of unemployment:

I. Cyclical- arising from lack of demand.

*NAIRU- non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment.

The term NAIRU is an acronym for Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment. It is a concept in economic theory significant in the interplay of macroeconomics and microeconomics. This "full employment" unemployment rate is sometimes termed the "inflation-threshold unemployment rate": Actual unemployment cannot fall below the NAIRU, and the inflation rate is likely to rise quickly (accelerate) in times of strong labor demands during periods of growth. It is sometimes referred to as the "natural rate of unemployment" as well, although this term describes an estimated unemployment rate derived from the market's actual performance while the NAIRU is calculated from the Philips Curve. The point at which the Philips curve, which relates unemployment to inflation, intersects the horizontal axis indicates the NAIRU. In terms of output, the NAIRU corresponds to potential output, the highest level of real gross domestic product that can be sustained at any one time. This is also called the "natural gross domestic product." wiki

People who are cyclically unemployed are normally suffering “ involuntary unemployment”. Employment and the labour force would procyclical (rising in booms and falling in slumps)

*Involuntary unemployment- when worker want to work at the going wage but can’t find a job.

*Voluntary unemployment-when at given level of wages, a worker wants to be in the labour force but does not wish accept job.

New Classical Theories

One new explanation of cyclical fluctuations in employment assumes that they are caused by fluctuations by willingness of people to supply their labour. In other words they believe that cyclically unemployed people are voluntary unemployed. That the supply curve fluctuates cyclically will lead to cyclical variations in employment. New classical explanation assumes that labour markets clear, and then look for reasons why employment fluctuates. Therefore they think that there is no involuntary unemployment.

New Keynesian Theories

New Keynesian Theories believe that many who are recorded as unemployed are involuntary unemployed in the sense that they would accept an offer of work in jobs for which they are trained, at the going wage rate, if such an offer made.

II. Frictional unemployment- is unemployment caused by people who are in-between jobs.
The normal turnover of labour causes frictional unemployment to persist, even if the economy is at potential output.

III. Structural unemployment- arises from mismatch of skills and job opportunities as the pattern of demand and supply changes.

*Mismatch occurs if the skills that firms demand differ from the skills the labour force possess.

According to New Classical view all structural unemployment is voluntary.
Private cost and benefits from unemployment:

When individuals are voluntary- the wage foregone by not working.

Benefits of involuntary- transfer payments from government; value of leisure; expect to get a better job.

Reducing unemployment.

Cyclical unemployment may be reduces bu raising Aggregate Demand. Frictional and structural unemployment may be reduced by making it easier to move between jobs, by slowing down the rate of change in the economy, and be raising the costs of staying unemployed.

Also there are three government policies for reducing unemployment: Fiscal policy, Monetary and Supply-side

Exchange rates and balance of payments.

2009-02-22T17:03:00.000Z

Exchange rate- the price of one currency in terms of another.

Exchange rate regimes: there are two types of exchange rate.

First one is Fixed exchange rate- government maintain the convertibility of their currency at a fixed exchange rate.

A currency is convertible if the central bank will buy or sell as much of the currency as people wish to trade at fixed exchange rate.

Suppose the exchange rate is fixed at E1. When demand for pounds is DD1, there is an excess demand AC. The Bank of England intervenes by supplying AC pounds in exchange for dollars, which are added to UK foreign exchange reserves. When demand is DD2, the Bank sells foreign exchange reserves in exchange for pounds. It demands EA pounds to offset the excess supply EA. When demand id DD, the market clears at the exchange rate E1, and no intervention by the bank is required.

When demand schedule is DD1, the UK is adding to its foreign exchange reserves. When the schedule is DD1 it is running down its resources. If the demand for pound fluctuates between DD1 and DD2 the Bank of England can sustain the exchange rate E1 in the long run.

If demand is DD2, reserves start to run-out, the governments may try to borrow from the International Monetary Fund (IMF)

At best this is only a temporary solution. Unless the demand for pound increases in the long run, it is necessary to devalue the pond. Fixing by devaluation is possible only if both governments will do it for “Fixed exchange rate”

 Floating exchange rate- the exchange rate that is determined in the foreign exchange market by the forces of demand and supply.

 The Foreign exchange reserves are foreign currency held by the domestic central bank.
 Balance of payments- record of money flows coming in and out of a country.
 Current account of the balance of payments records international flows of goods and services and current transfer.

What is on the current account?

• Visible goods
• Invisible goods
• IPD ( interest, profit and dividence)

When inflow equals to outflow, balance of payments is zero.

 Financial account of the balance of payments records international purchases and sales of financial assets.

 Purchasing Power Parity-exchange rate path is the path of the nominal exchange rate that maintains a constant real exchange rate.

The UK balance of payments.

The UK has had a persistent current account deficit for the past 17 years. The deficit has never gained much concern from politicians or Economists. However, with the recent increase in the size and significance of the deficit there are an increasing number of Economists warning that a current account deficit can pose a threat to long term growth.

The application of macroeconomic policy instrumental and the international economy

2009-02-19T22:47:00.000Z

There are three types of government policies.

First one is Fiscal policy:

• Government spending
• Taxation
• Borrowing

Changes in fiscal policy causes changes in AD and AS

Types if tax:

• Direct tax: a tax on income, wealth, profit. Such as: corporation tax, capital gains tax.
• Indirect tax: taxes on spending ( on goods). Like Value Added Tax
• Progressive tax: the marginal rate of taxes rises as income rises
• Proportional tax: the rate of tax is constant
• Regressive tax: rate of tax decreases as income rise

Government spending:

• Transfer payments: government welfare payments. The aim is to provide minimum standard of living for low income household.
• Current g.s.: state provided goods and services. For example National Health Service
• Capital spending: infrastructural spending.

Fiscal policy and Aggregate Supply

• Labour market incentives: cut in income tax will incentive people who are seeking for a job
• Capital spending: spending on infrastructure.
• Research and development and innovations

Human capital: spending on education, training.

Monetary policy

Monetary policy use interest rates. It influences the decision how much we save, borrow and spend. The interest rate s are setting up by Bank of England with help of MPC( Monetary Policy Committee)

Supply-side policies

• Education and training
• Encourage people to open new firms
• Reduction in direct tax
• National Minimum Wage
• Reduction in unemployment benefit
• Reduction in other benefits
• Reduction in trade union power
• Privatisation
• Deregulation

Types of inflation:

Cost push inflation and Demand pull inflation.

Methods of protectionism:

• Tariff is the tax on import. The effect of imposing tariff is to raise prices for imports.
• Quotas. This is a limit on the supply of goods and services. It can be imposed on exports or on import.
• Voluntary Export restraint: a limit placed on imports from a country with the agreement of that country’s government.
• Foreign exchange restrictions.
• Embargoes. An embargo is a ban on the export or import of a product or ban trade with a particular country.
• Red tape. Time delaying customs procedures may be used to discourage imports.

Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply and their interaction

2009-02-17T16:43:00.000Z

Aggregate Demand: the total demand for a country’s goods and services at given price level and in a given period of time.

Aggregate Demand= C+I+G+(X-M)

The components of AD:

• Consumption: the largest component of AD. It is spending by households on consumer products.
• Investment: is the most volatile component of AD. It is spending on capital goods.
• Government spending: is spending by the central government and local government on goods and services. For instance: health service, police, street lights. It doesn’t include transfer payments and job seeker’s allowance.
• Export: products sold abroad.
• Import: products bought from overseas.

Country can have trade surplus, when exports are greater than imports. Also trade deficit, when import is greater than export.

Consumer expenditure.

Factors affecting consumer expenditure:

• Real disposable income. This is probably the major factor affecting consumer expenditure. The proportion of income spent is called Average Propensity to Consume (APC). It is the proportion of disposable income spent. Consumer expenditure divided by disposable income.
• Wealth: a stock of assets, e.g. property, shares and money held in savings account.
• Consumer confidence and expectations.
• The rate of interest.
• The age and structure of population.
• Distribution of income: how income is shared out between household in a country.
• Inflation: a sustained rise in price level.

All this factors affect consumer expenditure. Also it is important to mention Savings. It is not the component of AD, but it has big influence on consumer expenditure. There are some factors influencing household savings.
Such as:

• Real disposable income
• Interest rate
• Confidence and Expectations
• Saving scheme
• Range of financial institutions:
• Government policies
• The age and structure of population

Investment

Influences on investment:

• Changes on Real disposable income.
• Expectations.
• Capacity utilization: the extent of to which firms are using their capital goods.
• Corporation tax: a tax on firm’s profit.
• The rate of interest
• Advances in technology
• Price of capital equipment
NET exports
Influences on export:
• Real disposable income abroad
• Real disposable income at home
• The domestic price level
• The exchange rate
• Government restrictions

A change in every component of Aggregate Demand will cause shift of the AD curve.

Aggregate supply. It is the total output that producers in an economy are willing and able to produce at a given price level in a given period of time.

Causes of shifts of the Aggregate supply curve:

• In the short run are changes in cost of productions.
• In the long run are changes in the quantity and quality of resources.

The quantity of enterprise may be increased by government regulations. Such as privatisation and government incentives to start business.
Privatisation: transfer of assets from the public to the private sector.

Macroeconomic equilibrium: a situation where aggregate demand equals aggregate supply and real GDP is not changing.

The circular flow of income: the movement of spending and income throughout the economy. There are two sectors: household and firms. Between this two sectors are the flows: income, products and factors services( the services provided by the factors of production.

Leakages: savings, import, tax.
Injections: export, government expenditure, export.

The multiplier effect is the process by which any change in a component of aggregate demand result greater change in real GDP.

An output gap: the difference between an economy’s actual and potential real GDP

WILDCAT strikes

2009-02-04T00:04:00.000Z

At first what does wilcat strike mean? It is an unofficial strike, with voting.

“An unofficial postal strike in Oxfordshire is set to continue after some workers voted unanimously against returning to work at a meeting”.(bbc.com)

This article is about Royal Mail workers. They were protesting against the suspension of the union official.
Only 20% of stuff was working normally that day.
"Between 300 to 400 workers were on strike, and of those 150 to 170 of our members attended the [members] meeting today."

Whether they are correct or not?

As I understood they were protesting against closing of Royal Mail officially.
Maybe they are thinking that they are right, or might be they don’t think it is right way but still striking because don’t want to become redundant.
If business is closing they must be strong reasons for that.
And how can it continue to survive when there is no chance except of closure? In my opinion strikers are not right.
And even they would continue to work and business is doing losses they might just don’t receive wages and strike again.

However, Trade Union can support business, so they have financial support and probably will carry on with the same workers.

Little bit of Philosophy

2009-02-03T19:44:00.000Z

"Cogito, ergo sum" (English: "I think, therefore I am")is a philosophical statement in Latin used by René Descartes, which became a foundational element of Western philosophy. The simple meaning of the phrase is that if someone is wondering whether or not he exists, that is in and of itself proof that he does exist (because, at the very least, there is an "I" who is doing the thinking).

LIVING STANDARDS

2009-02-01T20:12:00.000Z

The standard of living is a measure of the material welfare of the citizens of a country. The measure of standards of living is real national output per head of population or real GDP per capita. This is the value of national output divided by the resident population. I am going to compare ten different countries based on eight data. They are: National Income Indicators, Income distribution, Population, Health Indicators, Energy and Environment, Education, Communication and Distribution of GDP by sector and by demand. In Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, Pakistan, Colombia, Russian Federation, Czech Republic, New Zealand, UK and USA.

From the information provided in first data (National Income Indicators) we can say that the highest gross national income is in USA, UK and Russian Federation and the lowest in Ethiopia, Ghana and Colombia. Comparing the gross national income in Russia and New Zealand, we can say that in Russia it is much bigger, however the gross national income per capita in New Zealand is higher, therefore the purchasing power parity is bigger. It may be explained by size of population. In Russia it is much bigger than in New Zealand. The highest PPP estimate is in USA and the lowest is in Ethiopia.

Using the Income distribution data we can mention that maximum income distribution within people with lowest percentage of income falls on Czech Republic, when highest income distribution within the population with high income is in Colombia. However it is has very low percentage among people with low income.

The next table is about Population in these countries. The percentage of population growth in Russia and Czech Republic has declined to -0.3 and -0.1. It tells us that these two countries has high death rate. Therefore it exceeds the birth rate. It causes low percentage of population aged (0-14) comparing with Ethiopia, Pakistan and Ghana. And bigger part of population with age 65+. Also Ethiopia, Pakistan and Ghana has particularly high average annual % growth, thus the population aged 0-14 is much bigger than people aged 65+.

When I’ve seen the Health indicators data, I was terrified by the percentage of population who has the access to safe water in Ethiopia. Only 22% of all inhabitants can use safe water. We can see that the under-five mortality rate in Ethiopia and Ghana is extremely high. It may be consequence of low percentage of residence who has an access to safe water and sanitation facilities. Also the highest life expectancy is in New Zealand, USA and UK. And 100% of population has an access to safe water and sanitation facilities. It obviously tells us about standards of living in these countries, because a health indicator is very important factor of measuring standards of living.

Referring to next table about Energy and the environment we can see that Ethiopia, Ghana, Pakistan has very low energy use per capita, therefore carbon dioxide emission are particularly low too. However countries such USA, UK, New Zealand, Czech Republic and Russian Federation has high energy use per capita. It may be because of developed infrastructure.

Next table is Education. Education and Health are very important indicators of living standards. As presumed we can see that percentage of inhabitants with high education is much bigger in USA, UK, New Zealand, Czech Republic, and Russian Federation comparing with Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia and Pakistan. Percentage of children in the labour force in less developed countries which I mentioned before is bigger.

Next data is Communication. Also communication is significant factor of measuring the living standards. This table includes information about percentage of paved roads; telephone mainlines per 100 people, mobile users, televisions, personal computers and internet users. Ethiopia has very low showings comparing to developed countries.

Distribution of GDP by sector and by demand. The lowest distribution of GDP into agriculture is in UK. And the highest in Ethiopia, when the adverse information we can see in distribution in industry.

The National Income Statistics is not ideal way to compare the living standards between countries. There are some limitations such as:
-Errors in Measurement: Black Market and underground activities are not included when calculating GDP. This is because there is no way to accurately measure black market activity. In the United States, this is a relatively small percentage of the total GDP; however, in many other less developed countries, it can go as high as 70% of the country's total GDP.

-Subcategories that are Misrepresented: The various interpretations of what should be included in consumption or government spending plays a big part in the overall determination of GDP.

-Welfare is NOT Measured: GDP only measures the market activity and does not take welfare into account. The economic activity of a country could rise, while welfare could possibly have fallen. Different situations may occur that have a negative impact on the people which cause them to increase spending, therefore increasing the GDP.

-Imbalances between consumption and investment

-Innovation and the development of new products

Attention Mr.Chris!!!!!

2009-01-30T00:30:00.000Z

Mr.Chris may I bring you homework about interpreting economy data on Monday please? Thank you!

2009-01-30T00:24:00.000Z

I have listened to podcast about Obama's administration and ways of recovering from recession. One person was speaking to different people. He asked them about better ways dealing with crisis.

Consumer Price Index and Retail Price Index: the 2008 basket of goods and services

2009-01-29T23:08:00.000Z

This leaflet represents and explains the changes in CPI and RPI over the 2007 and 2008.
The easiest way to understand both CPI and RPI is to imagine a shopping “basket” containing those goods on which people typically spend their money.
CPI doesn’t show us the price of every product in particular.
As it says in the leaflet” It would be both impractical and unnecessary”.
Consumer Price Index represents the average price of typical household expenditure.
In simply words it shows us that goods and services on which household expenses is sufficiently large.
For example: school fees, petrol and gas prices, telephone charges, electricity and gas supply.
However, generally, it is necessary to create a sample of representative items. Also it explains how to select these representative items.
The representative items in 2008 were shown on table 1, also it is an additional to the basket 2008; items removed from the basket 2008.

2009-01-27T23:18:00.000Z

Concept: Parents can rent toys from a set mothly description fee(that is much lower than the price of purchasing toys) and return them when their children become bored with them.

Advantages:

• Many people would find it convenient way to decrease expenses on baby toys
• Attractive price for unlimited number of toys per month
• Mostly don’t have variable costs
• Nice cover of a webpage
• Easy to follow the instructions and order a toy

Disadvantages:

• Many people would like to keep toys for children more than one month
• Easy to copy the idea and create similar website
• Usually babies breaking toys, so they should buy new one
• Competitive market

However I don’t know how much profit they do, they might do a big profit also no. But I think during the recession it becomes more popular, because it’s more cheaper.

Who has gained in the recession?

2009-01-27T20:42:00.000Z

How Do Interest Rates Affect Exchange Rates?

2009-01-23T00:05:00.001Z

Exchange rates are determined everyday in large global currency exchange markets. There is no fixed value for any of the major currency -- all currency values are described in relation to another currency. The relationship between interest rates, and other domestic monetary policies, and currency exchange rates is complex, but at the core it is all about supply and demand.
Interest rates influence the return or yield on bonds. Because, for example, U.S. Treasury bonds can only be bought in U.S. dollars, a high interest rate in the U.S. will create demand for dollars in which to purchase those bonds. A low interest rate, relative to other major economies, will reduce demand for dollars, as investors move toward higher yielding investments. At least, this is true in normal periods of economic expansion.
The relationship becomes a bit inverted, however, when investors become highly risk averse. In periods of credit contraction or recession, money will tend to move into safer assets, driving down interest rates. The low yield on bonds then is a reflection of the demand for their relative safety and low credit risk, and not a deterrent. In late summer 2008, for example, the U.S. dollar gained value against the euro even as interest rates in the U.S. were significantly lower because the likelihood of a U.S. default on Treasuries was deemed less than in Europe. The lack of a federal treasury-system meant responses to bank failure would be country-specific, keeping interbank lending rates in Europe at alarmingly high levels.
Interest rates can also have economic effects, which influence currency exchange. Following the idea of supply and demand, speculators favor the currency of economies that are expanding, creating a virtual cycle of appreciation. An economy who's GDP is rising faster than its monetary base is by default increasing the value of its currency, and this will likely be reflected in currency exchanges.
Interest rates can also have an effect on foreign countries. Japan, for example, set its interest rate well below the rest of the world. The result was a carry trade where speculators borrowed from Japanese banks and converted the yen into other higher-yielding currencies, driving up their relative value in the process. Unfortunately, this effect was one of the principal causes of the global savings glut that triggered the massive global banking failures of 2008.
adopted from www.ehow.com

The role of genes... SOCIOLOGY

2009-01-20T21:20:00.000Z

In my opinion genes are playing a big role in people’s life and behavior. Since we’ve born, our parents are building up our character; they are trying to give us the best things and want us to be successful and all-sufficient person. But anyway, from my point of view, a person character is mostly depends on his genes. Take just for instance situation from my family. My little cousin‘s character is very similar to his father. The ways they deal with some situation are mostly overlapping, but not everything. Maybe some will think that he just copying his father’s behavior, but I want to say that he didn’t live with him, because his father was usually being away on business, and several years later his parents get divorced. So he was living with his mother, but even he didn’t really saw his father a lot, the character in his genes he got mostly from his father. Maybe 50% of character built by external surroundings and 50% of genes. But it could be not true. It’s just my opinion.

Homework on SOCIOLOGY three

2009-01-20T00:26:00.000Z

There are lots and lots of revision there. So i couldn't read all of the information given ther, but i read some topics. The first one is A2 Weath and Poverty. And now i know a little bit more about Marxsism! Also there re three typs of poverty: bsolute, relative nd subjective. I also read about povety in GCSE revision notes.

Homework on SOCIOLOGY two

2009-01-20T00:05:00.000Z

My family and other animals:

This article is about the importance of animals in family's lifes. I as really surprised when i read that some pets like dogs can be substitutes for children and give emotional satisfaction for adults.

Goth and Identity:

Really, i have read this article about 5 times and i couldn't understand even the basic idea. Sorry Mr. Chris

To buy or ot to buy:

The main idea of the article is the qualitative study of children living in families with low or high level of household income.

Homework on SOCIOLOGY one

2009-01-19T23:50:00.000Z

I've seen the video about Economis and Sociology. He was talking about economic as a science, and his perception of some economic stuff is driven on one side by hope and greed and on the other side on fear.
P.S. 9 pieces of homework left! (:

SOCIOLOGY forums

2009-01-18T20:59:00.000Z

1)The student Education Forum

In this forum every person can start their own topic and everyone can see it and tell their opinion, or answer the question if it is. It is easy to register there and start discussion of different topics. I went to see some discussions and clicked on “Global Issues” section. But I didn’t bothered to read anything, I just saw some funny faces(:

2)The Forum Site

The first thing which I saw is advertising. I don’t think that it is a good idea for forums, because people should more concentrate on discussion of some issues, but not on looking for a advertising. Also I didn’t like the COLOR, it doesn’t really attract me. Anyway it looks similar to other forums. Nothing special, just creating a topic and discussing.

3)Science.Central.Com forum

I think this forum is not based on discussing and creating topics, but more on giving some references

4)INTJ forum

This is a community where INTJs can meet others with similar personalities and discuss a wide variety of both serious and casual topics.

5)Explore ideas

This forum is a bit different from others, because you should find a right category at first and cerate a topic.

6)The Student Room

This is the best one. It wasn’t really easy for me to subscribe this forum, but it is divided into different categories, so it more convenient and bla-bla-bla… This is the suitable one, because it is!

How to keep generation Y motivated?

2009-01-18T19:52:00.000Z

At first what is generation Y? The generation Y is a people Born between 1977 and 1994, Gen Y makes up over 20% of today’s population.

After reading the article “Motivating Gen Y” and listening the podcast I nearly have clear understanding of the generation Y and X. The generation Y is indeed dynamic, creative, intelligent and highly motivated. They also have these kinds of characteristics: they are looking for work/life balance, want to be heard and valued, they need regular recognition, and want to work somewhere fun and they are motivated by challenge and a collaborative environment.

In the article about Gen Y Carolyn Douglas mentioned about one of his gen Y workers. She was 25 years old and she was thinking about dismissing from her current work. And her boss motivated her by creating growth opportunities. She was excellent at organization, so he got her involved into this kind of work.

So from the example above, we can say that Generation Y is motivated by getting new opportunities, achieving new and new aims in their life, develop their knowledge and getting new comprehensions, but NOT staying at the same level.

To find how Generation Y and Generation X are getting on together, Adam Jones talked to Tammy Erikson (in the podcast). Also they were speaking about how they behave in the work space, and what makes the generation Y distinctive.

Mnemonics (:

2009-01-18T19:29:00.000Z

SDOL for economics

Specialisation
Division
Of
Labour

New to SOCIOLOGY

2009-01-18T19:08:00.000Z

While reading the topics, I founded that I don’t know a lot of stuff. Many questions have arisen in my mind. At first definitions of some words.

1)Bureaucracy is the structure and set of regulations in place to control activity, usually in large organizations and government. As opposed to adhocracy, it is represented by standardized procedure (rule-following) that dictates the execution of most or all processes within the body, formal division of powers, hierarchy, and relationships. In practice the interpretation and execution of policy can lead to informal influence

2)Hierarchy is a an organisation with few things, or one thing, at the top and with several things below each other thing. An inverted tree structure. Examples in computing include a directory hierarchy where each directory may contain files or other directories.

One of the example of hierarchy is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology, proposed by Abraham Maslow. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is predetermined in order of importance. It is often depicted as a pyramid consisting of five levels: the first lower level is being associated with Physiological needs, while the top levels are termed growth needs associated with psychological needs. Deficiency needs must be met first. Once these are met, seeking to satisfy growth needs drives personal growth. The higher needs in this hierarchy only come into focus when the lower needs in the pyramid are met. Once an individual has moved upwards to the next level, needs in the lower level will no longer be prioritized. If a lower set of needs is no longer being met, the individual will temporarily re-prioritize those needs by focusing attention on the unfulfilled needs, but will not permanently regress to the lower level. For instance, a businessman at the esteem level who is diagnosed with cancer will spend a great deal of time concentrating on his health (physiological needs), but will continue to value his work performance (esteem needs) and will likely return to work during periods of remission.

4) Functionalism is the oldest, and still the dominant, theoretical perspective in sociology and many other social sciences. This perspective is built upon twin emphases: application of the scientific method to the objective social world and use of an analogy between the individual organism and society. Functionalists see society as made up of inter-dependent sections which work together to fulfill the functions necessary for the survival of society as a whole. People are socialized into roles and behaviors which fulfill the needs of society. Functionalists believe that behavior in society is structural. They believe that rules and regulations help organize relationships between members of society.

I am confused with the word “Marxism”. Does anybody know the meaning?? If yes, please help. Thank you.

ATTENTION Mr.Chris!!!

2009-01-14T10:13:00.000Z

Mr. Chris could you change the backgroung COLOR of your blog?? It is very hard to read your posts, because of black and white COLORS (:
maybe pink one would be better (: joke!

2009-01-14T10:05:00.000Z

Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BlogBlog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BlogBlog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BlogBlog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BlogBlog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BlogBlog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BlogBlog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BlogBlog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BlogBlog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BlogBlog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BlogBlog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BlogBlog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BlogBlog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BlogBlog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BlogBlog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BlogBlog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BlogBlog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BlogBlog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BlogBlog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BlogBlog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BlogBlog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BlogBlog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BlogBlog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BlogBlog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BlogBlog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog BVlog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog

PHILOSOPHY

2009-01-12T23:56:00.001Z

Today me , Elvi and Sairan went to practical philosophy.
It is the second part of philosophy courses.
We were speaking about HAPPYNESS. Discussed the ways to feel happy, how to solve some problems facing in everyday life and many other questions.
I don’t remember when, but last time I asked John (philosophy teacher) the question about love, what does it mean and what is it at all.
He said that love is truth, truth is everywhere, so love is every time and everywhere (: And someone asked about HATE, he said that it is a mistake of LOVE, and only now I know what it means. It means that there is no hate; it is just an absence of love.
It’s very simple to understand, let’s take an example night and day.
When it’s is dark, it doesn’t mean that the sun is stop shining it is just went for a while to other part of the Earth, and it becomes dark, so the same activity with love and hate… Mmm… one more example: hope everyone knows Yin and Yang, black and white always goes together, and if there is no black, it is white and so on, so on.
And we also talked about homesick…( I think now every EF student understands me=) One old lady told us, that she didn’t see her daughter for 4 years, and I was a little bit upset by this story.
It is so hard for mother do not see her child for such a long time!
I imagined myself in her situation and when she was speaking, I saw that her eyes were full of sorrow…
After she said that her daughter is always in her heart (:

I don’t know why, but I like this courses so much, it helps me to feel better (even if I am dying from horrible cold!) Helps to be STILLNESS! And at least when you speak about good thing you attract them! Law of attraction! Ok, just remember one thing: DON’T WORRY! BE HAPPY! and STILLNESS (:

2009-01-11T18:30:00.000Z

What are the consequences of sustained deflation?

At first what does deflation mean? Deflation- is the general decline in prices, the opposite of inflation.
The consequences of sustained deflation may be: falling company’s profits, therefore closing factories, it causes rising unemployment, income goes down.

How does deflation affect wealth?

During deflation, when prices are falling rapidly and costs of production are remaining the same, producers incurs heavy losses, this causes income to fall. so wealth is contracting too.

How does deflation affect debt?

By the consequence of low prices, debtor’s defaults are increasing. So it’s harder to earn money with high costs and low prices, and therefore hart to give loans back

Sunday 7

2008-12-08T20:21:00.000Z

I'm very sick.
I have high temperature, ad today i did some past papers.

Boom for online fashion firm ASOS

2008-11-23T13:07:00.000Z

a. Possible reasons for the success of ASOS

The first main reason is price. Most of people realize that buying products online is much cheaper than in shops. The main reason for that are comparatively very low costs. So the price is usually cheaper that in real shops. And more people are likely to buy cheaper products, because of crisis.
I have visited their website and it is really attracted me. Because the main page looks like fashion magazine’s cover, and probably consumers are thinking that there are products with good quality, celebrity related brands etc. And it is very convenient, because all clothes you can see on models.

b. Who the main competitors are

Probably the main competitors are similar online shops, like e-bay and other online shops.

c. Strengths and weaknesses of their products

As I mentioned before the most valuable strength is comparatively low price. The second advantage is that all clothes are shown on models and are looking very nice(probably a lot of them wouldn’t look very niche on a tab). Also you don’t have to go out of your house to buy some stuff. And again their site looks very attractive and you think that you are just on the point of buying something!

The main disadvantage is uncertainty. For example if you are buying online at first time you don’t know much about quality, how this clothes will fit on you etc. And you have to wait certain time to get your delivery.

d. What steps can they take to ensure continued success?

• Make some discounts for usual clients

• To make possible to consumer to change already bought product, but on the
condition that they will buy another good with the same price or more.

• Some special events like: “You are the 100000 purchaser! And you get something something….”

• Make accumulation of money. For example with one purchase I can get some amount of money

Evaluation of TeLEGRAPH site

2008-11-18T15:56:00.000Z

“Telegraph.co.uk” webpage is one of the examples of online news.
The main advantage of online news is that they are updating very often.
And you don’t have to pay money, just for the internet.
It is convenient website, where you can find the last updated news in all over the world.
This site provides you graphically colorful images, and also you can see online videos.
In my opinion the creators targeted it probably for different ages, who is interested in news.
This site doesn’t provide you to read news in different languages, so only English speaking peoples can read it.

Christmas Rants: Christmas Cards Archives

2008-11-18T15:34:00.000Z

Christmas Rants: Christmas Cards Archives

The name of this webpage is “Christmas Rants”.

The main idea of creators is Christmas gifts.

You can find there a lot of advices if you are hesitating or can’t find right present for someone, especially for your TEACHER.

Also there are a lot of other preparations for Christmas!

As I mentioned before you can find hundreds of new ideas for making you Christmas night more exciting and your presents more satisfying for people!

As for me it is convenient website, because all presents are distributed on categories, so you don’t waste your time for searching right stuff.

Also everyone can subscribe to this website and do posts!

2008-11-17T16:01:00.000Z

Enterprise:
• Enterprise and Entrepreneur
• Risks and Rewards
• Opportunity cost
• Motives for becoming an entrepreneur
• Government support for enterprise and entrepreneur

Enterprise and Entrepreneur
*Enterprise- the ability to handle uncertainty and deal effectively with change.
- The combination of attitudes and skills to help an individual turn an idea into reality
(Enterprise is also one of the factors of production. Factors of production: Land, Labour, Capital, Enterprise)

*Entrepreneur – a person who starts and runs a business, and has responsibility for the risks involved. In addition, it has to be able to manage the factors of production effectively.

Characteristics of an entrepreneur:
• Market understanding: to know what consumers want and the actions of competitors.
• Initiative: self-confidence, the ability to cope with risk
• A networker: able to build relationships with the business people
• Persuasion: persuade others to do things trust
• Resilience and Determination: able to make a decisions effectively with changes and do not being a procrastinator

Risk and Rewards

A good entrepreneur consider the possibilities, for instance, a risk of closure, will happen next in the business. However the possibility should have been foreseen so that plan could be made. (Risk calendared: look at the risks, compare them with the possible rewards and make a cool decision )
Even there are may be high risks should be taken by an entrepreneur, he still believes the rewards are coming. Reward: money, satisfaction.

Opportunity cost (the next best alternative forgone)

An entrepreneur has given up the choice of the time, money and experience that spent in the business. They are the opportunity cost of being an entrepreneur.

Motives of becoming an entrepreneur.

Despite the financial reasons of being an entrepreneur. The main motive is the satisfaction of having met a challenge and overcome it.
Government support for enterprise and entrepreneur.

Government Grants: sums of money given to a business by the government, however, grants are usually required purpose= Innovation, Research and Development, Training, Economic regenerating, encouraging young people to start their own business.

Business link network: provide the information on grants, support networks.

Generating and protecting a business idea.

• Sources of business idea
• The identification of a product or market niche.
• Franchises
• Copyright, patents, and trademarks.

Sources of business ideas:

A good business idea is usually base on a good understanding of consumers’ tastes and needs of the retail trade.

The main sources of business ideas
• Observation from other ideas
• Using brainstorming: Comes up with different ideas, make a list and then analyze later.
• Thinking ahead: think about the world changes in the future.
• Personal ideas or business experience
• Innovations: new science, technology changes
• Surveys: research of the public

The identification of a product or market niche

Spotting new business opportunities, market mapping is necessary if thinking the changes to society and economic. Also the local living standards to help identifying a product or market niche.
Spotting a gap in the market:
• Less competitors
• Expertise in the market prime the mistakes
• Fill the gap in market niche

Franchises

Franchises is a business structure I which the owner of the business idea sells the right to use that idea to another person, usually in return for a fee and share in any profit makes.
The franchise process
• The franchise is permission to sell the product or brand, or to use the successful format.
• The franchisee buys into the success of the established business. It buys the use of its name, brand, advertising, reputation and support.
• The franchiser is the seller
Benefits:
• can expand their business very quickly
• revenue received from franchisees
• risk is shared as much as of the cost is met by the franchisees
• experience
Disadvantages:
• potential loss of control over the process of the product is presented
• coordination and communication problems may increase as frinchise network rise

Protecting Business Ideas
Intellectual property is the general term for assets that have been created by human ingenuity or creativity.

Patents provide the inventor of a technical breakthrough with the ability to stop anyone copying their idea for up to 20 years. After that the company has the monopoly power .

Copyright makes unlawful for people to copy an author’s original written work
Trade mark: any sign that can distinguish the goods and services of one trade from those of another.

Transforming resources into goods and services.

Inputs, outputs and the sectors of business activity

Inputs: contributes to the production of a product or service the

Outputs: occurs as a result of transformation of business inputs.
Primary production: the extraction of resources at the first stage of production, involving products such as land and raw materials
Secondary Production: transformation of resources to produce finished goods
Tertiary production: transformation of the resources to provide a service.
Adding value
Selling price- costs of raw materials= added value

Ways of adding value:
• advertising
• Branding
• Unique features
• Location
• Packaging
• Personal service
Benefits:
• Differentiation from competition
• Charging a higher price
• Higher profit margins
• Targeting product or service at different market segment
• Reducing the sensitivity of demand to changes in price

Developing business plans

The purpose and contents of business plans
A business plan is a document setting out the business idea and showing how it is to be financed marketed and put into practice. It helps to raise finance from outside sources such as bank.

Contents of business plans:
• Executive summary: brief highlights of a report
• Details of the good or service: features of your idea, explain it from the customer’s point of view
• The market: market trends and market size, also a brief analysis of key competitors
• Marketing plan: customers, prices, forecast of sales
• Organizational plan: people will be in the team, key managers
• Financial plan: a cash flow forecast, idea of the bank balances over the start up period.
• Conclusion: longer-term plans, e.g. exit strategy

The heart of the business plan should be based around competitors’ advantage such as a unique idea, a better good or service, a protection provided by a patent or copyright.

Benefits:
• Forces the entrepreneur to think carefully about every aspect of the start up, it should increase the chances of success.
• If something happened with the entrepreneur, other will keep going with a paper plan.

Problems:
• Over-focus in a plan may mean too little time in spent to do ther things
• High expectation made in a plan, poor result can come as a terrible shock
Sources of information and guidance:
• Banks
• Accountants
• Small business advisers
• Government Agencies

A business plan can help prevent a disorganized entrepreneur from making too many mistakes, however, it cannot substitute the enterprise skills needed for a business.
Conducting Start-up market research

• Primary and secondary market research.

Market research gathers information about consumers, competitors and distributors, to identify, anticipating and satisfying customers requirement profitability.
Secondary market research : gather the data already in existence that has not been collected specifically for the purpose of the entrepreneur.
Methods: - internet
- Trade press
- Government publications
Pros: free of charge; reduce costs, good overview of a market.
Cons: data may not be updated regularly; not tailored to your own needs
Primary market research: gathers information directly from people within your target market.
Methods: retailer research; observation; Surveys.

Qualitative and Quantitative research

Qualitative research seeks out the ‘why’, not the ‘how’ of its topic through the analysis of unstructured information – things like interview transcripts and recordings, emails, notes, feedback forms, photos and videos. It doesn’t just rely on statistics or numbers, which are the domain of quantitative researchers.
Qualitative research is used to gain insight into people's attitudes, behaviours, value systems, concerns, motivations, aspirations, culture or lifestyles. It’s used to inform business decisions, policy formation, communication and research. Focus groups, in-depth interviews, content analysis and semiotics are among the many formal approaches that are used, but qualitative research also involves the analysis of any unstructured material, including customer feedback forms, reports or media clips.
Quantitative research is used to measure how many people feel, think or act in a particular way. These surveys tend to include large samples - anything from 50 to any number of interviews

Sizes and types of sample

• Random sample- everyone in the population has an equal chance of being interviewed.
• Quota sample- selecting interviewers in proportion to the consumer profile within your target market.
• Stratified sample- interview only those key characteristic required for the sample.
• Sample size- the number of people interviewed. This should be large enough to give confidence that the findings are representative of the whole population.
However, using a large sample would cost at least ten thousand pounds, a star-up business definitely cannot afford
Market research will provide accurate sales forecasts for the business as you know the needs/wants of consumers though the findings, besides, it is important to understand the market, it helps you to improve your products or develop a new idea.

Understanding market

The nature and types of market.
Local market: customers are only a short distance away ( easy to duilt relationships, understanding the customers)
National Market: a geographically dispersed market where customers are spread over the large area.
Electronic market: does not have a physical presence, but exists in terms of a virtual presence via the internet.
The importance of demand
Demand- is the desire of consumer to buy a product or service, when backed by the ability to pay.

Factors affecting demand:
• Price
• Income
• Tastes
• Actions of competitors
• Seasonal factors
• Fashion

Types of market segmentation

Market segmentation broke the market down into smaller section with similar characteristics.
• Demographic segmentation: splitting the market in terms of age, gender and social class
• Geographic: looking the market on terms of region or location

Benefits: better understanding the needs of a segment of the market, increase sale revenue; less wasteful of resources; a way of differentiating a product or service from competition enable to charge a high price.
Market size, growth and share.
Market size is a measurement of all the sales by all the companies, with a marketplace.
Volume – quantity of goods sold
Value- price spent by customers

Market growth- the measurement of the change in the market size = New market size- initial market size/ initial market size.

Market share is the proportion of the total market held by one company or product.

Market share= the proportion a company held of the market/ market size * 100%

Choosing the right legal structure for the business:

Sole traders and partnerships.

A sole trader or sole owner is a business that is owned and run by one person. The main reason to be a sole trader is often independence. The main aim is profit. The owner raises the finances himself from personal sources or by borrowing.

Advantages:
• Your are your own boss
• Independence
• Better motivation
• Easy and cheap to start up

Disadvantages:
• Big risk and responsibility
• Difficult to make decisions
• Hard to extend

Closing a business
If she or he is unable to pay debts, the creditor can apply to a court to have the owner declared bankrupt.

Partnerships.

A partnership is a business that is owned by two or more people. So business can use more that one person’s experience. The owners have equal joint control of the business and receive any profit equally. Responsibility is shared among the partners.

Advantages:
• Easy to set up
• Partnership can be formalized by written an agreement known as the Deed of

Disadvantages:
• The decisions of one partner is binding on the others
• Have unlimited liability
• Business has no separate existence

Closing the business.
If any partner leaves, the business ceases to exist and must be re-formed. Partners can be also forced out of business.

Liability- is the responsibility of the owner for the debts of the business.
Activity: list advantages and disadvantages of sole trader and partnership.

Limited Liability Companies
• “Limited”-refers to the way in which the responsibility for debt is limited ti the amount that person initially put into a business.
• “Liability” refers to responsibility for the debts of a business.
• “Company” refers to the legal status of a business. It means that the business has been registered with companies House and is now separated.

Setting up
There must be a minimum two shareholders to register a business a company. Documents needed Memorandum of Association, Articles of Association, Certificate of Incorporation and a company number.

Advantages:
Business become companies to gain limited liability for their owners. This may help to raise capital.

Disadvantages:
It is more complicated to start up a company. The company’s account and finances are open to the public. Conflicts between shareholders.

Going public:
1. Private limited Company have LTD after their names
2. Public Limited Company have PLC after their name. They can sell shares to the publicThis is called floating a company. In the UK you must to have at least 50,000 pounds. And publish a company reports.

Franchises

Franchises occurs when a successful business decides to expand by selling the rights to use their ideas. A franchise is a way of starting, owning and operating a business without a high risk.

The franchise process
• The franchise is permission to sell the product or brand, or to use the successful format.
• The franchisee buys into the success of the established business. It buys the use of its name, brand, advertising, reputation and support.
• The franchiser is the seller

Advantages:
Franchises buy into a established business and may receive help with products, staff, training and sales materials. They may gain a territory without competitors

Disadvantages:
Franchisers charge a fee for the franchise. Franchiser can be quite restrictive.
Multinationals and holding companies

A multinational is a business that has operations in many countries around the world. It also tends to have a global brand.
• Holding company- a company that holds all most of the shares in other companies.
• Operating company- a company that produces and trades
• Parent company- another name for the top company in a group.
• Subsidiaries- businesses that are owned by holding companies
• Transnational- another word for multinational

Multinationals benefit from their size. They can buy a bulk. They can also locate operations to keep costs and taxation down.

Public sector businesses.

A public sector is the one that owned by the government.
There are some reasons to creating a public sector businesses such as:
• National security. Some services could be dangerous if in private hands. Such as army.
• Politics. Sometimes there are political reasons for keeping a particular businesses out of private hands.
• Social.
• Charging.
• Economics
• Monopolies

Who pays for public industry?
The public sector is funded from taxation in three main ways:
• General taxation
• Local taxation
• National Insurance contributions

Examples:
The health service, the civil service, social services, education etc.
Cooperatives, charities and voluntary groups.
Cooperative and mutual societies want to make sure that their members all get a fair
deals.

Charities want to maximize the amount of good that they can do.
Voluntary groups usually provide a service to the community.
Charity- a business that tries to do the most good for its chosen cause.
Cooperative- a group that shares in a business to ensure a fair deal for its members.

Raising Finance

Source of finance available to start abusiness
Internal sources of finance: come from the owners of the business
External Sources of Finance: come from outside the business
Short-term: under 7 years
• Bank Overdraft:
• Trade credit
Medium term: 2-4 years
• Bank loan
• Leasing
Long term: 5+ years
• Owners saving : the way to get a loan or overdraft from banks
• Sales of Shares: only for PLC and LTD
• Reinvested profits: most important sources of long- term finance
• Venture capital loans: high risk capital
• Government loans: grants and loans

However, after a business is operating fully and successfully, cash coming in from customers will provide all the finances.

Locating a business

Quantitative factors – financially related factors
• Cost of Land
• Space
• Accessibility of supply
• Labour
• Market
• Infrastructure
• Government investment

Qualitative factors
• Family link
• Personal reason

Nevertheless, the most important factor is the nature of business.
• Service business
• Manufacturing business
• Method of distribution
• Labour , cost of land

Times article

2008-11-13T21:08:00.000Z

This interesting article is about recent world crisis.

I am absolutely agreed with the author.
He is enlightened and acquaints people with the facts of US “credit cancer”.
He is also giving his own opinions.
The most interesting one for me is his answer to this question:’ should we disqualify all those who failed to foresee the gravity of this crisis’?
While reading this question I thought his answer will be ‘YES’, but I was a bit surprised when it turned completely opposite!
It is written that the economic performance is inherently unpredictable.
Maybe it is true, but however I think it was possible to prevent the crisis.
He is speaking about crisis as a cancer that the world economy was suffering until August was caused by excessive borrowing, property speculation and reckless and dishonest banking practices.
Also a still-deeper cause of this credit cancer was the global imbalance between exuberant consumption and house-price speculation in America, Britain, Spain, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, on one hand, and excessive saving and austerity, on the other, in China, Germany and Japan.

And finally I liked his expression: “There is no point offering chemotherapy to a patient whose heart has stopped”. Does the patient is current world economy? Probably yes, and it is now in the great recession.

HSBC

2008-11-12T22:19:00.000Z

Actually I didn’t get any bank leaflets. I just went to their webpage and get some information, how banks can help to start up a new business?

They have some attractive proposals for entrepreneurs such as:

• A program for 18 month free business banking.
• Special offers. For example, all customers who register for Business Internet Banking currently get £75 worth of Google Awards.
• Free Business Internet Banking and free Business Telephone Banking services
• Access to a wide range of additional accounts, products and services designed to meet your needs.

The main advantage, is that you can do all of it online. It helps you to save more time.
I also found that they are giving advices to people. Helping to manage a finances, plan, market research ect. And again! You can find it all online!

Here is their website:

http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/business/info/starting-business;jsessionid=0000BpR6kF9xZAnz9JXSKMqiAsp:11j71ffl3

NOKIA... Connecting people

2008-11-12T22:09:00.000Z

Company report

Nokia is a worldwide international company that produces mobile phones, multimedia players etc. I think everybody knows Nokia Corporation. It is very successful and popular brand of mobile phones.

The Annual Report that I have received is very long. They included probably all events, financial reports, balance sheet, cash flow statement, change in price of shares between these years.

There are some important changes in 2007 that I want to mention.
• Nokia’s operating profit for 2007 increased 45%

• Nokia’s net sales for 2007 increased 24% to EUR 51 058 million (EUR 41 121 million for 2006).

• Research and development expenses were EUR 5 647 million in 2007, up 45% from EUR 3 897 million in 2006.

So there are huge number of changes in one year period.

Here is their website:

http://www.nokia.co.uk/

Good quote

2008-11-11T22:59:00.000Z

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway.

If you are successful you will win some false friends and true enemies; Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you've got anyway You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway.
Mother Teresa.

I like this quote. I think it is extremly true. But i am not really sure about God, that it is between me and God. Maybe between me and Universe?

Translation into russian:

Люди бывают неразумны, нелогичны и эгоистичны;
Всё равно прощайте им.
Если вы проявляли доброту, а люди обвиняли вас в тайных личных побуждениях;
Всё равно проявляйте доброту.
Если вы добились успеха, то у вас может появиться множество мнимых друзей и настоящих врагов;
Всё равно добивайтесь успеха.
Если вы честны и откровенны, то люди будут обманывать вас;
Всё равно будьте честны и откровенны.
То, что вы строили годами, может быть разрушено в одночасье;
Всё равно стройте.
Если вы обрели безмятежное счастье, вам будут завидовать;
Всё равно будьте счастливы.
Добро, которое вы сотворили сегодня, люди позабудут назавтра;
Всё равно творите добро .
Делитесь с людьми лучшим, что у вас есть, и этого никогда не будет достаточно;
Всё равно делитесь самым лучшим, что у вас есть.
В конце концов, вы сами убедитесь, что всё это - между вами и Богом;
Всё равно это никогда не было между ними и вами.

Дос Муқасан.

2008-11-11T22:36:00.000Z

Махаббатың құдірет күші әлдилеп
Екі жастың табыстырған жүрегін
Жастық жалын, асыл арман, ақ ниет
Бақыт сыйлап ұсыныпты гүлдерін

Той үстінде тәтті күндер, тәтті күндер
Жас жұбайлар шат күліңдер, шат күліңдер
Ән салайық би билейік, би билейік
Шарықтасын шаттық үндер, шаттық үндер

Бірге аттанып болашаққа, өмірге
Тікті бүгін ортамызға отауын
Қуаныш пен шаттық орнап көңілге
Тойламаққа келді бүгін көп қауым

Той үстінде тәтті күндер, тәтті күндер
Жас жұбайлар шат күліңдер, шат

CHARITY

2008-11-11T19:51:00.000Z

Me, Dima and Talgat are organizing a charity competition to help children in need.

It will be a Ping-Pong competition on Friday at 11:00 am till the evening.
The winner will get a certificate.

The entrance fee is only 1 pound!!! All money goes for CHARITY

Please be on time, we need to register you at first.

We hope you will come, maybe just to contribute one pound.

Be so merciful and donate for children who really need a help!
Thank you !

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask me or Dima or Talgat

Remember few thing:

“A good deed is never lost”

“Virtue is its own reward”

“Kind hearts are more than coronets”

GCSE book review. Business Studies. Chapter 2

2008-11-11T19:41:00.000Z

Sole traders and partnerships.

A sole trader or sole owner is a business that is owned and run by one person. The main reason to be a sole trader is often independence. The main aim is profit. The owner raises the finances himself from personal sources or by borrowing.

Advantages:
• Your are your own boss
• Independence
• Better motivation
• Easy and cheap to start up

Disadvantages:
• Big risk and responsibility
• Difficult to make decisions
• Hard to extend

Closing a business
If she or he is unable to pay debts, the creditor can apply to a court to have the owner declared bankrupt.

Partnerships.

A partnership is a business that is owned by two or more people. So business can use more that one person’s experience. The owners have equal joint control of the business and receive any profit equally. Responsibility is shared among the partners.

Advantages:
• Easy to set up
• Partnership can be formalized by written an agreement known as the Deed of

Disadvantages:
• The decisions of one partner is binding on the others
• Have unlimited liability
• Business has no separate existence

Closing the business.
If any partner leaves, the business ceases to exist and must be re-formed. Partners can be also forced out of business.

Liability- is the responsibility of the owner for the debts of the business.
Activity: list advantages and disadvantages of sole trader and partnership.

Limited Liability Companies
• “Limited”-refers to the way in which the responsibility for debt is limited ti the amount that person initially put into a business.
• “Liability” refers to responsibility for the debts of a business.
• “Company” refers to the legal status of a business. It means that the business has been registered with companies House and is now separated.

Setting up
There must be a minimum two shareholders to register a business a company. Documents needed Memorandum of Association, Articles of Association, Certificate of Incorporation and a company number.

Advantages:
Business become companies to gain limited liability for their owners. This may help to raise capital.

Disadvantages:
It is more complicated to start up a company. The company’s account and finances are open to the public. Conflicts between shareholders.

Going public:
1. Private limited Company have LTD after their names
2. Public Limited Company have PLC after their name. They can sell shares to the publicThis is called floating a company. In the UK you must to have at least 50,000 pounds. And publish a company reports.

Franchises

Franchises occurs when a successful business decides to expand by selling the rights to use their ideas. A franchise is a way of starting, owning and operating a business without a high risk.

The franchise process
• The franchise is permission to sell the product or brand, or to use the successful format.
• The franchisee buys into the success of the established business. It buys the use of its name, brand, advertising, reputation and support.
• The franchiser is the seller

Advantages:
Franchises buy into a established business and may receive help with products, staff, training and sales materials. They may gain a territory without competitors

Disadvantages:
Franchisers charge a fee for the franchise. Franchiser can be quite restrictive.
Multinationals and holding companies

A multinational is a business that has operations in many countries around the world. It also tends to have a global brand.
• Holding company- a company that holds all most of the shares in other companies.
• Operating company- a company that produces and trades
• Parent company- another name for the top company in a group.
• Subsidiaries- businesses that are owned by holding companies
• Transnational- another word for multinational

Multinationals benefit from their size. They can buy a bulk. They can also locate operations to keep costs and taxation down.

Public sector businesses.

A public sector is the one that owned by the government.
There are some reasons to creating a public sector businesses such as:
• National security. Some services could be dangerous if in private hands. Such as army.
• Politics. Sometimes there are political reasons for keeping a particular businesses out of private hands.
• Social.
• Charging.
• Economics
• Monopolies

Who pays for public industry?
The public sector is funded from taxation in three main ways:
• General taxation
• Local taxation
• National Insurance contributions

Examples:
The health service, the civil service, social services, education etc.
Cooperatives, charities and voluntary groups.
Cooperative and mutual societies want to make sure that their members all get a fair
deals.

Charities want to maximize the amount of good that they can do.
Voluntary groups usually provide a service to the community.
Charity- a business that tries to do the most good for its chosen cause.
Cooperative- a group that shares in a business to ensure a fair deal for its members.

I gave it to Rebecca=)

Philosophy classes

2008-11-11T00:11:00.000Z

Today’s philosophy lesson was very interesting. We were talking about beauty. So what does it mean?

As I understood beauty is truth. Truth doesn’t change, and it is everywhere. Beauty is everywhere, in everything and every time. People should learn how to see the beauty in each thing in this world. Even if you dislike something or somebody, you should learn to find at least something positive, something beautiful in that.
The concept “Beauty” is not something inside of you, inside of everything. What I mean by the word “inside”? Like person’s soul, the way he live, his manners, his behavior, the way of making decisions etc. Something that is not outside of you, for example your appearance or style.

What is beautiful outside is not always beautiful inside, but the beauty what is beautiful inside is always beautiful outside=)

We also was talking about Plato, and teacher told us one story. This story about Saint Eknath. He was ventured to take a holy water from the Ganges. On the way, near a town, a dead dog was lying on the road. He was asked to avoid it because of the bad smell. But then he was close to it and he walked on, saying “The teeth of the dog are very white and bright”. He ignored the smell. After some time he saw a donkey lying on the road nearly dying of thirst. He gave donkey a holy water. Very soon the donkey was full of energy. Having used all the water, Saint Ekhath just prayed to the Lord to whom he was taking the water saying, “ I was asked by thee to fetch holy water from Gangotri to pour over you, but fortunately, you have just met me on the way, so I have happily performed the duty”. The voice of the Lord came to honour the deed.

In my opinion this story teach us to be open-heart to everybody who need a help, and never reject to anyone who is in trouble. Because one day u would be in difficulty and u will need a help…

90 Dual Pizza Oven

2008-11-10T23:45:00.000Z

As you can see above this is the double deck pizza oven that cooks two 12" fresh pizzas in 90 seconds (or frozen pizzas in three minutes), allowing you to cook pizzeria-worthy pies 15 times faster than a traditional oven.
At first view it seems like silly business idea. But there are many advantages in this good.

Advantages:
• Much more productive
• Takes only 90 seconds to cook a pizza
• Not expensive( as you can see in the webpage it costs only $249.95)
http://www.hammacher.com/publish/75085.asp
• Don’t take a lot of place
• Cheap costs--- cheap product--- maybe demand increases(depends on PED)
Disadvantages:
• It may cause the market failure. By eating a lot of fast food people become obese . Just because it is cheap. But it also depend on PED
• It can broke and it would be hard to fix it
• It might be possibility, that very fast cooked pizza wouldn’t be tasty and nobody will buy it, so they may fail with this idea
• There are many substitutes of fast food

From my point of view, it is good stuff, but i wouldn't spend money for this.

A little bit about thinking or maybe philosophy

2008-11-10T02:32:00.000Z

I am reading books, waching documental films, taking extra philosophy clases, but nevertheless i can't understand some silly things.

Lets just speak about "Think or don't think". If we ask some people do we have to think a lot before doing something or not? Some of them will tell you that you always should think before acting, but other part will tell you: "Just do it!"

I am confised about that and it makes me think a lot to finding a right answer.
Ok, let me tell you some stories that are really different from each other, but they two was succsesful in getting the aim! The first example from my life is EF school. When I was studying at school i have read one very interesting book. The name of this book is "Secret". It is really interesting book! And i have learned a lot from this! After i saw a film "Secret" the same one. So the main idea of this film is one way to achieve your aim, is "vizualization". That tells us if you want to achieve something, just think about that, and you will attract it and finally get it. Because when people become that what they are thinking about. And the whole universe will give you all you want. So i decided to use this method, i thought it is so easy! Just to think about it! One day after i found an advertisment about competition in EF school to getting a scholarship. So i was just thinking about that every single moment, i was dreaming to study in UK from my childhood. And of course i did a lot o work. After one mounth someone ringed my phone and told me that i won! I was very happy. So with this example i want to tell you that it might worked in my situation, that i attracted what i was thinking about. The second story is the oposide of first. This time i didn't think about anything it was like sudden idea and was very successfull!!I achieved that i wanted!
So two ways of living life are working?? And how it can be? Think or no?
Does anybody know?

Ice cream vending machine

2008-11-10T02:14:00.000Z

Concept: Creating an ice cream vending machine capable of offering up to 12 flavours and 6 mix-ins at once.
In my opinion it is good business idea. But as you know there are two sides of a coin, so nothing can be ideal.

Advantages:

• It is very comfortable to move from one place to other
• They can change prices depending on what place they are. For example if they are in the beach and there are no other substitutes children and adults would buy their product. Or it can be a lot of other places.
• They can provide a lot of people from different areas

Disadvantages:

• It is only seasonal work. And if it is only one way of earning money, it would be very difficult to find consumers in winter.
• Always provide a car with petrol

"When markets collide"

2008-11-10T01:18:00.000Z

While reading this book just from the beginig I have noticed that for me it is very hard to understand. The main problem i feced is language. There are so menya complicated, new for me definitions and new conseptions. But it is very useful to develop your knoweledge.

This is very important book for everyone who wants to extend his knoweledges in the current Economic and Business situation in the world.
From the first chapter of this book author tells us how this book is useful and how i may help to businessmens. From Mohamed A. El-Erian's words: " The informaion in this book has important practical implications for investment strategies, business approaches, and polisy making".

As i understood the common idea of this book is explaining the political and economic situation in the world. After reading some part of this book i knew a lot of new stuff and consepts. Lie "noise" in market. From the dook we can understand that by this word author means when economic and political problems are dismissed in a market, becaus people are thinking that it is just a market "noise". And he is talking how these "noise" might be not so vizible but after few years apear and give a big danger to market. The main idea of this book i already have mentioned in the prevous post.
This book was published just this year, so there are a lot of present examples and situations. But also Mohamed A. El-Erian is talking about his own experiance and gives a lot of advices and his own opinions.

P.S. Mr Chris i really want to go to LSE, if it is not hard for you can you think about taking me with other students. Please

2008-11-04T19:56:00.001Z

My website:
http://bibinura.synthasite.com/

Mohamed A. El-Erian. "When markets collide"

2008-11-03T23:33:00.000Z

Mohamed A. El-Erian was born in 1958.

He is one of the co-chief executive officers in PIMCO (Pacific Investment Management Company). It is one of the leading global inverstment management firmsHe joined there in May 1999, after working at Salomon Smith Barney/Citibank in London, where he was a managing director heading the emerging markets economic research team from January 1998. He previously leads up Harvard University’s endowment valued to $30 billion. Also he leads the emerging market portfolio management team. Muhhamed A.El’Erian a son of a diplomat, he got a degree in Cambridge University, and after MBA in Oxford University.

His worldwide famous work “When Markets Collide” was published in May of 2008. And Financial Times just named this book "Business book of the year". Also Financial Times said that it is first time in a four years when book had won the prize.

As I understood the basic theme of the book is that nowadays we are practicing big changes on the structure of global capital market. And he is talking that investors should be aware of these shifts, if there are striving to be successful. He also underlines that these shifts has important policy proposition. For an example he takes the market situation in USA. He thinks’ that now market is not yet under the control because of some reasons. As many other people, Muhhamed thinks that it would be possible to predict the USA crisis. Before USA was witnessed other countries crisis, but this time the crisis has erupted in US. So in common he involves USA market situation as a base of a book. He is evaluating the global crisis. Evaluate diminishing of the US allocations, that emerging market causes increasing internal demand etc. In other words in his book he is describing nowadays economic situation in the world.

Also it explains how a collision between markets of yesterday, taking an example the USA, and maybe what may be emerge tomorrow, maybe some opportunities and risks.

In my opinion it is very useful book, if you want to be known by current economic situation. And also very interesting to know opinion of such a great person like Mohamed a. El-Erian.

2008-10-27T00:03:00.000Z

2008-10-26T23:44:00.000Z

Book review

2008-10-21T23:17:00.000+01:00

Exam revision notes

This book divided to five units. I am going to tell you breathly what sort of information this book content’s. And is it useful or just wasting your money.
Ok, let’s start!

Unit 1 “An introduction to economics”

Economics- “ the science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ands and scarce means which have alternative use”

Here the example of one definition. Don’t you think that it is easier to write in other way? More intelligible to express it in other words, which is more clearly to understand to students which are just started learning economics first time in their life.

Maybe this will be more clearly: ” Economics is the science of study how to allocate the scarce resources in a most efficient way”.
Yes! I think so! Let’s go futher

So, in this unit you can learn definitions and explanations such as: economic problem, economic of resource allocation, externalities, optimality and effiency, welfare aconomics, the opportunity cost of resource allocation.

I think most of students has problem with externalities. And a little bit through externalities.

Externalities is the third party effect by others choise.

· Private cost or private benefit + external cost or external benefit = social cost or social benefits.
It can occur as the result of either production or consumption. There is never a contract to pay for external cost or benefit. If there is it is not a social cost or benefit, it becomes a private cost or benefit.

Unit 2 “The industrial structure of the economy”
In tis chapter is more extended way of explanation.
The factors of production:
· Land
· Labour
· Capital
· Enterprice

The size and scale of production:
In the short run and in the long run.

P.S. Question on economies and diseconomies of scale are quite popular at A-level. And so a bit about Economies of scale.
· Economies of scale- is the advantage of producing large scale, in the form of lower long-run average cost.

P.S. there is a poster about economies of scale, so you can easily learn more deeper if you don’t want to open thousands of book and just finaly understand what does it mean.

The theory of demand and supply

· The PED, PES,YES,XED. All definitions in the book
· Shifts of the supply and demand curves
· Movements alond the demand and supply curves. (Important thing to remember: FEEL
THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MOVEMENT and SHIFT!!!)
If demand os supply shifts to the left that means they decreases, if the demand curve shift to the left supply- contracts, if the demand curve shift to the righ supply- extents
· The theories of supply and demand, definitions.

The theories of the firms
· The theory of monopoly
· The theories of imperfect competition
· Monopoly with competition

Price determinants and resource allocation
· Supply factors which affects the price: cost of production, taxes, subsidies, price of related goods etc.
· Demand factors which affects the price: tastes, fashion, income, substitutes, complements etc.

Unit 3 “The financial structure of the economy”
Money and its value
· The value of money

The UK banking system
· Private sector banking
· The Bank of England

Unit 4 “The economy as a whole”

Economic problems of imbalance
· Inflation- a rise in a price level
· Deflation- a fall in the normal price level
· Unemployment- are people who able to work and looking for a job

Problems of instability
· Economic growth- an increase in the productive capasity capital over time.

Government and the economy
· Government policies

Unit 5 “The international structure of the world economy”
International trade
· Advantages: enable to the country to specialise, because if the product doesn’ produce it can import. Consumer can benefit from the lower prices and higher quality
· Measuring the terms of trade
The balance of payments
· Definition

Foreign exchange
The less developed world

I just want to add that it is good book, but sometimes there are very complicated definitions and explanations... But maybe you don't think so....

2008-10-21T02:06:00.000+01:00

I can't believe that i've finished......

2008-10-20T03:11:00.000+01:00

Good stuff

2008-10-19T17:48:00.003+01:00

"I keep six honest serving-men: (they taught me all i knew) their names are What and Where and When and How and Why and Who'.

From " The Elephant's Child" Kipling, 1902

2008-10-19T15:54:00.000+01:00

Something in my mind. Only for this moment....

2008-10-16T14:00:00.000+01:00

Don't worry! Be happy!

Hm... It is very good words, but sometimes i think it is just immposible to follow them.

So i don't why i can't show my feeling!

But i know one thing very well, that i always lie to myself. If i want something but there are some reasons that i can't get it, i am starting tell myself that I don't want it! But it is not true, some part of me is telling that nothing should stop you if you really want it, but other part of me trying prove that it is just a stupid dream or aim, or maybe just wasting a time .

I extremly believe that nothing is impossible, it can be very hard, but not impossible.
But sometimes, in particular when i have bad spirit, it seems unachievable.........(

I am confused with so many things! No i just want to cry, because i don't know what to do! I don't know what i want!

But again i can't do it.... Wan't but can't..... Again and again.......

Thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-10-16T07:53:00.000+01:00

I am so happy with what Mr. Chris told us yesterday!!!!!

When Mr.Chris told us those news all inside of me was full of happiness, joy and the most lovely feelings in the world!!!!!!!!

That moment I just wanted to shout that I am the happiest person in the world!!!!!!!!!!!

But I can't show my feeling, neither my happiness , nor sadness...=(

I really very thankfull for Mr.Chris.....!!!!!=)))))

Thank you!!! Thank you!!! Thank you!!!

So, i am not going to stop working on this project till we achieve the BEST results!!! And i know we will.......

Believe us=)

Just a little note... (:

2008-10-14T20:24:00.000+01:00

Dear Aidana, Anastasia, Mary and Dimaaaaaa!

By tomorrow we should finish our part of the booklet. So i want to say that everybody should take their work to school. Tomorrow I think we have to discuss some stuff.

I just want to remind you, if somebody forget=)

Little bit about my feelings in this moment

2008-10-13T23:25:00.000+01:00

Oh, I am so tired. And I want to sleep....=(

But I have to do my Economics homework! I am so motivated by Chris's words, about surprise that waiting for us!!!!

And I am ready for unsleepy nights, just for this surprise!!!!

Reviewing the book.....

2008-10-13T19:50:00.000+01:00

Today I have finished reading my book.

The name of my book is “The Duck that won the lottery”. The author is English philosopher, Julian Baggini.

The main idea that author wants to transmit to his readers is: people are using some foolish arguments all the time. It can be used by people in different spheres of life. For example: in the radio, in everyday life, at the television, at home, at the school etc.

The whole book consists of a 100 bad arguments. And each of argument has his own disprove. (Of course I’m not agree with some of themю

While reading this book I have noted that the most of examples has taken from everyday people’s life… And I can say approximately that quarter of them overlaps with my life situations.

For instance, let’s take 34th entire. This (my favorite) part of this book elucidates “The post facto rationalization”.

So here is the question, but what does it mean?? If we translate it from Latin into English it will sound like this: “Post facto rationalization”-“AFTER THE FACT”.

So as I understood it is the understanding and evaluating the result of situation after this event happened. For example you can see it in politic life.

All politicians as all people on the world are good in evaluating the situation after it happened.

Or regret of a passed chance to make better choice. I think each person sometimes feel sorry like this.

So, It can just mean something used retroactively(means having reverse power ). Normally, this phrase refers to some legal expression meaning a retroactive law. But not always.

In common it is interesting and exciting book. I would advise you to read it! =)

Podcast...

2008-10-12T18:06:00.000+01:00

Oh, my God! I can't believe that I have finished this podcast!!

I don't know why, but I was creating it for 1 hour!(for this short record!!)

Please don't judge strictly=)

Starting our work....

2008-10-11T19:23:00.000+01:00

This is a post about our review work on OCR Economics book.
As long as David is not responding on our telephone calls, we (me, Aidana and Mary) have decided to divide all the work by ourselves to start it today. So read carefully, what you need to do:
Aidana:Chapter 6: Externalities
Chapter 8: Government intervention and government failureChapter 16: The international Economy

me:Chaptr 3: The nature of supplyChapter 10: Aggregate demandChapter 11: Aggregate supply and macroeconomic equillibrium

Nastya:Chapter 1: Introducing economics
Chapter 4: Using the demand and supply model
Chapter 9: Measuring economic perfomance

Dima:Chapter 12: Balance of payments and the exchange rate
Chapter 13: Macroeconomic policy objectives
Chapter 15: Macroeconomic policy instruments

Mary:Chapter 2: The nature of demandChapter 5: Prices, resource allocation and market failureChapter 7: Other forms of market failureChapter 14: Economic growth

The cover must be designed by any student who studies ICT (Mary, me or Anastasia)

What do you need to do with your chapters:
1. Read it carefully, write a detailed review.
2. A mind map on each chapter
3. Also you should put a vocabulary list on each chapter
4. Don't forget about book reviews!!!
Each of you must read the introduction and two reviews sections in this book. Index will be also useful for you.
If you don't have this book, Mary have got one and Anastasia probably has it too.deadline is Wednesday, by this day you should give your reviews to David and he will check it by Friday.

we meet tomorrow at 11 in new cafeteria.

don't be late.

and a little notice in russian:
если опоздаете, вам будет фигово (русская и казахские девушки вас отпинают).

Sorry me!!

2008-10-10T11:07:00.000+01:00

Yesterday Chris didn't allowed me to be on the lesson. And I was doing stupid faces with Aidana. I understand my mistake and feel sorry for it!!!!!

2008-10-08T23:25:00.000+01:00

2008-10-07T20:40:00.000+01:00

Producer Surplus

Philosophy...

2008-10-06T22:39:00.000+01:00

Today I went to philosophy classes.It was very interesting and exciting. A lot of questions arised on my mind after getting plenty of a new information. Every lesson I am trying to concentrate on the meaning and consequences of discussing of some complicated situations and questions. I think some people find this courses annoying and not useful, but if we look from the other side it is really interesting, specially when you are involved into a lesson.
Today we were discussing a lot of defferent things! We broached such concepts like: love, suffering from close people and some problems in your life, hate, "What is the truth?", dream, future, present and many other.
So the most difficult questions was: "What is the truth?" and also "What is love?". I asked him question about love. Because I thought that he dont know right definition to LOVE. But he sad that love is everywhere. And there is no hate, it is just a mistake of love.... This words seems to me a little bit strange... Because i think I don't completely understand the meaning. Maybe I need a time for it...?? Who knows???
So also we discussed what does the truth mean. "The truth doesn't change"...
Maybe you can think about it and give some ideas???
P.S. Specially for Chris: please sorry if I you will find any mistakes! I am trying hard to improve my english!=)

Economics courses!!!

2008-10-02T00:20:00.000+01:00

Today I went ot some extra economics courses. This courses help to improve and deep our knoweledge in economics!There are many diferences between school lessons and courses . We talked about Economics of the world. In what principles is based and etc.
One woman asked question about The Natural Law of economics.

2008-09-30T19:25:00.000+01:00

because it its business
Plato's Cave
Plato, the most creative and influential of Socrates' disciples, wrote dialogues, in which he frequently used the figure of Socrates to espouse his own (Plato's) full-fledged philosophy. In "The Republic," Plato sums up his views in an image of ignorant humanity, trapped in the depths and not even aware of its own limited perspective. The rare individual escapes the limitations of that cave and, through a long, tortuous intellectual journey, discovers a higher realm, a true reality, with a final, almost mystical awareness of Goodness as the origin of everything that exists. Such a person is then the best equipped to govern in society, having a knowledge of what is ultimately most worthwhile in life and not just a knowledge of techniques; but that person will frequently be misunderstood by those ordinary folks back in the cave who haven't shared in the intellectual insight. If he were living today, Plato might replace his rather awkward cave metaphor with a movie theater, with the projector replacing the fire, the film replacing the objects which cast shadows, the shadows on the cave wall with the projected movie on the screen, and the echo with the loudspeakers behind the screen. The essential point is that the prisoners in the cave are not seeing reality, but only a shadowy representation of it. The importance of the allegory lies in Plato's belief that there are invisible truths lying under the apparent surface of things which only the most enlightened can grasp. Used to the world of illusion in the cave, the prisoners at first resist enlightenment, as students resist education. But those who can achieve enlightenment deserve to be the leaders and rulers of all the rest. At the end of the passage, Plato expresses another of his favorite ideas: that education is not a process of putting knowledge into empty minds, but of making people realize that which they already know. This notion that truth is somehow embedded in our minds was also powerfully influential for many centuries

Thank you, Chris!!!

2008-09-30T00:13:00.001+01:00

Today I have been to philosophy classes. I really like it! Because you always finding something new about your surroundings and about yourself!
Thank you, Chris for helping us! I really appreciate what you are doing for us!!
I like thi lessons very much, and I'm going to continue them.

2008-09-29T23:53:00.000+01:00

2008-09-28T22:42:00.000+01:00

Why might retailers deliberately hammer dents into their own appliances?
I think they might do it sometimes because their product can be very expencive and nobody wants buy it, and they use this method to sell it. Because if they will just decrease the price, consumers might think that the product is low quality and don't want to buy it, but if it will be little bit hurted it is another case!

The brain in a vat:

In philosophy , the brain in a vat is any of a variety of thought experiments intended to draw out certain features of our ideas of knowledge, reality, truth, mind, and meaning. It is drawn from the idea, common to many science fiction stories, that a mad scientist might remove a person's brain from the body, suspend it in a vat of life-sustaining liquid, and connect its neurons by wires to a supercomputer which would provide it with electrical impulses identical to those the brain normally receives. According to such stories, the computer would then be simulating a virtual reality (including appropriate responses to the brain's own output) and the person with the "disembodied" brain would continue to have perfectly normal conscious experiences without these being related to objects or events in the real world.
The simplest use of brain-in-a-vat scenarios is as an argument for philosophical skepticism and Solipsism. A simple version of this runs as follows: Since the brain in a vat gives and receives the exact same impulses as it would if it were in a skull, and since these are its only way of interacting with its environment, then it is not possible to tell, from the perspective of that brain, whether it is in a skull or a vat. Yet in the first case most of the person's beliefs may be true (if he believes, say, that he is walking down the street, or eating ice-cream); in the latter case they are false. Since, the argument says, you cannot know whether you are a brain in a vat, then you cannot know whether most of your beliefs might be completely false. Since, in principle, it is impossible to rule out your being a brain in a vat, you cannot have good grounds for believing any of the things you believe; you certainly cannot know them.
This argument is a contemporary version of the argument given by Descartes in Meditations on First Philosophy (which he eventually rejects) that he could not trust his perceptions on the grounds that an evil demon might, conceivably, be controlling his every experience. It is also more distantly related to Descartes' argument that he cannot trust his perceptions because he may be dreaming (Descartes's dream argument is preceded by Zhuangzi in "Chuang Chou dreamed he was a butterfly".). In this latter argument the worry about active deception is removed.

2008-09-25T19:04:00.000+01:00

Why seatbelts mandatory in cars but not in most school buses?

I think, because school buses foreseed for big amount of people,accordingly bus driver will drive slowly and more accurately. Because he is responsible for many lifes. And the most of buses are stable and risk of being hurted by bus is very little

2008-09-22T09:13:00.000+01:00

Although down in recent months, around 150bn spam messages are sent every day, up 280 per cent from the same time last year, according to the latest quarterly!!
It is impossible!

2008-09-16T21:24:00.000+01:00

At first I would advice to create a business plan. That will include how much money do you need for starting a new business, who will invest you, what product you will produce and finally- will you gain a lot of money from your business? If, yes why? Who will be your consumers? Maybe young people or maybe pensioneers, to know know exactly what they need.
Be confident that your business will be success.

2008-09-14T17:10:00.000+01:00

I can't find busiess book!