Asian Business Environment

Zircon, Zirconia, Zirconium Minerals

Zircon, Zirconia, Zirconium Minerals Zircon may seem a bit drab next to those infomercials for cheap cubic zirconia jewelry. The zirconium minerals are a serious bunch. Zircon Zircon makes a nice gem but its out of favor these days. Zircon- zirconium silicate or ZrSiO4- is a hard stone, ranking 7 ½ on the Mohs scale, but other stones are harder and its colors arent unique. Tradition has a slim dossier on zircon; one site says that it was reputed to aid sleep, bring prosperity, and promote honor and wisdom, but hey, just having the money to own jewels is good for that. It does have some minor mineralogical distinctions. Its the only gem in the tetragonal crystal class, for what that is worth. And its the densest of the major gemstones, but that means a zircon of a given carat weight is smaller than any other gem of equal weight. Maybe zircon can gain more respect if we look at its value to geologists. Zircon grains occur almost everywhere there are sediments because the mineral is so tough. It rises through the crust in igneous rocks and is eroded into the stream system, washed out to sea, and laid down in the sediment beds where it becomes part of the next cycle of sandstone and shale- totally unaffected! Zircon is the ultimate geological recyclable; it can even endure metamorphism. That makes it a great indicator mineral. If you find it in granite in one place, and in a sandstone somewhere else, you have learned something about the geologic history and geographic setting that brought the zircons from the first to the second place. The other thing about zircon is its impurities, especially uranium. The uranium-lead (U-Pb) system of dating rocks has been refined to great accuracy, and U-Pb zircon dating is now a precise tool for rocks as old as Earth itself, some 4.6 billion years. Zircon is good for this because it holds these elements tightly. Zircon is usually pronounced ZURKn, although you also hear ZUR-KON. Zirconia/Baddeleyite Cubic zirconia or CZ is known as a fake diamond, but I think it should instead be considered a superior zircon. CZ is a manufactured oxide compound, ZrO2, not a silicate, and zirconia is a chemical name, not a mineral name. There is a naturally occurring form of zirconia, called baddeleyite. The difference between baddeleyite and CZ is the way the zirconium and oxygen atoms are packed: the mineral is a monoclinic  crystal and the gem is cubic (isometric), the same crystal structure as diamond. That makes CZ extremely hard- only diamond, sapphire, and chrysoberyl can scratch it. The United States stockpiles over 14,000 tonnes of baddeleyite for its zirconium content. Like zircon, it is useful for dating extremely old rocks, though unlike zircon its use is limited to igneous rocks. Baddeleyite is pronounced ba-DELLY-ite by most geologists, but those who know better pronounce it BAD-ly-ite. Zirconolite Zirconolite, CaZrTi2O7, is neither a silicate nor an oxide but rather a titanate. In 2004 it was reported to be even better for dating old rocks than zircon, yielding data as precise as the SHRIMP (sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe) instrument allows. Zirconolite, though rare, may be widespread in igneous rocks but not recognized because it resembles rutile. The way to identify it for sure is by using specialized electron microscopy techniques on the tiny grains before deploying the SHRIMP on them. But these techniques can derive a date from a grain only 10 microns wide. Zirconolite is pronounced zir-CONE-alite. The Geologists Gem To get an idea of what people can do with zircons, consider what researcher Larry Heaman did, as reported in the April 1997 Geology. Heaman extracted zircon (and baddeleyite) from a set of ancient Canadian dikes, getting less than a milligram from 49 kilograms of rock. From these specks, less than 40 microns long, he derived a U-Pb age for the dike swarm of 2.4458 billion years (plus or minus a couple million), just after the close of the Archean Eon in earliest Proterozoic time. From that evidence he reassembled two big chunks of ancient North America, tucking the Wyoming terrane underneath the Superior terrane, then joined them to Karelia, the terrane underlying Finland and adjacent Russia. He called his results evidence of the worlds earliest episode of flood-basalt volcanism or Large Igneous Province (LIP). Heaman capped himself by speculating that the first LIP could reflect either (1) the waning of a vigorous mantle convection regime that prevailed during the Archean and completely dissipated mantle plumes for more than half of Earths history, or (2) the time of catastrophic collapse of a stable density stratification in the Earths core that led to a sudden increase in heat flux at the core-mantle boundary. This is a lot to get out of a few tiny bits of zircon and baddeleyite. PS: The oldest object on Earth is a grain of zircon thats nearly 4.4 billion years old. Its the only thing we have from deep in the earliest Archean, and it provides evidence that even at that time, Earth had liquid water on it.

The history of Yoga Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The history of Yoga - Essay Example The practice did not take long to gain popularity as within a century it had already become a method of both mental and physical exercise in the Western world. There have also been several researches that have been carried out in an attempt to verify the psychological mechanism of action during yoga practice (De Michelis, 55-60). In addition, there has also been an attempt to use this practice as an alternative and complementary therapeutic intervention for patients suffering with psychological disorders such as schizophrenia, or other as you have chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer or asthma. This paper will however focus on the history of this practice and how it has developed over the years. As mentioned above, yoga was practiced in several ancient cultures and it could be said that it is just as old as civilization. However, physically there is no evidence to support this theory and the earliest archaeological findings of yoga practice dates back to approximately 3000 BC (De Michelis, 55-60). However, some scholars have disapproved this theory and dates yoga back to Shamanism in the Stone Age. These scholars believe it was a key practice in therapeutic intervention during this period. ... The main characteristic features of yoga practice as stated in these readings includes ceremonies and rituals that were performed in order to perform certain actions that were physiologically limited by the mind. In this period, the practice was taught by rishis which were also educators on living a harmonious life. They were presumed to have the gift and ability to foresee past reality to their deep practice of spiritual rituals (Samuel, 12-23). Pre-Classical Yoga This period begins with the formation ofUpanishads, which contain 200 Scriptures (Samuel, 12-23). These describe internal perception of reality that is altered and intensified by one’s dedication to Brahman. There are three main principles that were explained in the Scriptures and they include Brahman, Atman and the interrelation between the two entities (Samuel, 12-23). In addition, the Scriptures give further insight on the teachings of the Vedas. In Buddhism, yoga can be traced back to the sixth century BC. In th is period, Buddha began spreading teachings on the religion and his main emphasis was meditation. Gautama was the first to practice yoga among all Buddhists and was able to gain enlightenment by the time was 35 years old (Samuel, 12-23). Around approximately 500 BC a text known as Bhagavad-Gita was formulated and is considered as the oldest documentation of yoga Scripture. In addition, it does not involve other aspects and is mainly focused on yoga. It emphasizes on activity as a form of being alive and importance of our actions exceeding our egos (Samuel, 12-23). Classical Period This phrase possesses another entity of Yoga known as Yoga Sutra. It is believed to have been written

Is it important for people to have popular culture in daily life Essay

Is it important for people to have popular culture in daily life - Essay Example To emphasize on the consumerist and corrupted fiction that is popular culture, this essay will base its argument on James Harold article, ‘A moral Never-Never Land: Identifying with Tony Soprano’. This article will provide the essay with a counter-argument position to Harold’s reasoning. Harold’s article will assist this essay to provide points on why identifying with popular culture is a moral wrong and not vital to the everyday existence of man. The essay will pick various points against Harold’s final stand while also borrowing ideas from his article on why popular culture is a moral wrong. To further illustrate and prove the moral wrong of popular culture, the essay will use Harold’s examples borrowed from the TV series ‘the Sopranos’. In his article, Harold argues that associating with popular culture, in his instance, ‘the Sopranos’, does not affect the general public. He postulates that the show provides a balanced view of the good and bad people that it is impossible for one to get only caught up with the show’s protagonist Tony Soprano. He notes that the show’s other main characters such as Jeniffer Melfi provide the audience with a point of view that holds a different view from Tony’s violence filled life. In his article, the author bases it around the moral aspect of popular culture. Due to its consumerist nature, popular culture mostly tends to be sensationalist and in effect end up holding no moral ground or values. It is for this reason that this essay disputes it necessity to people’s everyday life. The strengths of Harold’s article is that it provides a double view argument on the subject of morality and popular culture. The author provides argument by Pl ato and Tolstoy’s moral criticism of art (Harold, 2011). He uses this countering argument to base his argument that art provides a plethora of perspectives which allow the

Women Opting Out Of Work

Women Opting Out Of Work Opting out is a term most commonly understood to describe the decision of married women to voluntarily quit professional careers and remain out of the labor force for a relatively extended period of time during which they are engaged in family care giving, primarily motherhood, to the exclusion of paid employment. Women use a variety of strategies to reconcile work and family responsibilities, including time out of the labor force, opting out, by virtue of the attention given it by the media, has assumed special prominence and a distinct identity. The novelty of opting out is that the women said to be returning home to re-create the traditional family form of male breadwinners are, unlike the stay-at-home mothers of the 1950s, seasoned professionals with considerable career success who are making their decisions in an historical context that affords them a wider range of options than were available to earlier generations of women, even privileged women. Employment, when anticipated a t all after marriage, was regarded as short-term and secondary. In the 1970s, educated women made a break with the past and began, in significant numbers, to combine sustained employment with motherhood. Opting out is the ability to exercise this option which is typically open only to women with a male partner whose earnings can offset the loss of their own. (Stone, 2007a) Some women have resorted to opting out of work because they are not satisfied with their careers. They are not choosing to quit but rather are unable to continue, pushed out by the conditions of their jobs rather than pulled home by their children. Highly educated, elite professional women get tired of the demands of work, do not like the effects on their family lives, and opt out of the fast professional tracks of law, business, and journalism to take care of their children. Some of these women are full-time mothers; others work part-time, typically at less demanding jobs. Not all elite professional women are opting out by any means. How much of womens decision to stay home is a choice, and how much is the result of inflexible and hostile workplaces. Suffice it to say here that the ideology of intensive mothering, combined with the rising demands of workplaces and lack of public support for childrens welfare (e.g., healthcare, daycare, maternity and paternity leave) create severe di fficulties for many mothers, privileged and otherwise. (Belkin, 2003, October 26.) Their children are pure, innocent and helpless and need a selfless nurturer who will shelter them from the corrosive outside world, either by providing care herself or ensuring that alternative (although inevitably second-best) care is provided. The mother/child bond is uniquely tight, and lasting, and essential to a childs healthy psychological development and only a mother (not a father, other family member, or paid caretaker) can provide this care. Mothers are responsible for nurturing, listening, responding, explaining, negotiating, distracting, and searching for appropriate alternative care, practices which are so labor-intensive, so time-consuming, so energy-absorbing because mothers understand themselves as largely responsible for the way their children turn out. Children seem happier, more rested and childlike. They get along better with siblings, and are quite creative in their uses of free t ime. (Hays, 1996, p. 120) Professionals who had quit their jobs and were stay-at-home mothers -opted out, as conventionally understood -which found that the large majority of these women were highly conflicted about their decision, Further challenging the prevailing explanation that their decision was primarily about motherhood. (Stone, 2007a) Because of the high cost of living, life becomes expensive thus making women to look for work to support the demands of their families. Middle-class women cant afford to quit their jobs without scaling back considerably. The families of working class parents are believed to flourish with large amounts of unscheduled time, and adult intervention in their activities is not considered a worthwhile use of anyones time. Poor and working-class parents use fewer words with their children, and although children prove quite capable of expressing opinions, adults do not actively cultivate this ability, nor do they cultivate the questioning of authorities and negotiation. Finally, discipline is a matter of rules and sometimes physical force, not reason. As a result, poor and working-class children find themselves disadvantaged vis a vis their middle-class peers, and privilege is passed down. Mothers who work full-time, for instance, often defend this choice as better for the child in the long-r un. Also importantly, mothers are held responsible by others for their childrens well-being, which means that choosing not to adopt tenets of this ideology requires a defense which is often made in terms of the ideology itself. The accomplishment of natural growth does not, however, mesh as neatly with the procedures and expectations of schools and the workplace as does concerted cultivation, which encourages children to engage in many time management and linguistic practices that institutions expect and reward. (Lareau, 2003) Women do not quit their careers because of a preference to stay home with their children. Some professions might be more or less conducive to womens persistence suggests that there are lessons to be learned from certain fields that might be usefully applied to others, especially the corporate sector. Although virtually all of the women in the sample were happy to have more time to spend with their children, most still identified with their professions and int ended to return to work at some point in the future, although their plans are uncertain. Having a job, especially a fulfilling professional career, is more interesting than housework and child-rearing. Men dont want housewives, Some men fantasize about having a woman running their home and doing not much more, sure. But nowadays, a lot of men prefer to marry more independent women, and would find the idea of supporting a wife intimidating. Women with children are found to have lower full-time, year-round labor force participation rates overall than male graduates or women without children, but those with advanced degrees showed a strong commitment to their careers by returning to work after only brief absences following childbirth (Stone, 2007a) I would agree with Ann Crittenden the Author of The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World is still the Least Valued. This is because she portrays women as the good mother, the wise mother . . . is more important to the community than even the ablest man; her career is more worthy of honor and is more useful to the community than the career of any man, no matter how successful. A mothers work is not just invisible; it can become a handicap. Raising children may be the most important job in the world, but you cant put it on a rà ©sumà ©. The idea that time spent with ones child is time wasted is embedded in traditional economic thinking. People who are not formally employed may create human capital, but they themselves are said to suffer a deterioration of the stuff, as if they were so many pieces of equipment left out to rust. Inflexible workplaces guarantee that many women will have to cut back on, if not quit, their employment once they have children. The re sult is a loss of income that produces a bigger wage gap between mothers and childless women than the wage gap between young men and women. The very definition of a mother is selfless service to another. We dont owe Mother for her gifts; she owes us. And in return for her bounty, Mother receives no lack of veneration. Crittenden proves homemakers are essential to the economic and political success of our country and its inhabitants. She also emphasizes the contributions of the large number of educated women who have chosen to stay home and raise children.(Crittenden, February 2001) Opting out is a luxury unavailable to most women and only applicable to those with high earnings/savings or wealthy partners; professional women with the option to opt out might take it because they are not given flexible options to stay in their professional jobs and parent; women in all job sectors are more affected by the recession, especially in jobs like finance where a male-dominated environment might lead to high-ranking women being axed because of the perception they arent tough enough; women with the ability to pretend they werent forced out of their jobs might do so by claiming they chose not to work to stay home and parentsuch women are not included in unemployment numbers or given the attendant benefits of unemployment; and the new frontier might be the flexibility stigma. The only way to get rid of the flexibility stigma is to embrace a culture where professional men and women each take off work in equal measure to care for children or attend to household tasks. Then, we might in a world where there is a parent stigma but at least it wont be borne solely by women. (Leonhard, 2010, August.) Conclusion. Because it does not conform to the standard conception of a profession, motherhood might seem to have no place in this issue. A woman requires no special expertise, no knowledge, skill or educational degree to become a mother. Furthermore, the work she does as a mother is unpaid, sometimes even unrecognized as work. These two features of motherood its accessibility to any fertile girl or woman, and the fact that society provides no financial compensation to mothers for their hard workare often lamented, though towards very different political ends. In fact, motherhood might be considered the very opposite of a profession: a status dependent upon biological, cultural and social factors, not educational ones, and involving labor done without pay or recognized steps to advancement. (article)

“Visiting Hour” by Norman Maccaig

Rewrite – â€Å"Visiting Hour† The poem â€Å"Visiting Hour† was written by the Scottish poet Norman MacCaig. In the poem, MacCaig shows the central idea is loss and death. This central idea is achieved through the use of various techniques such as imagery, structure and narrative stance. The poem is about a visit MacCain makes to a dying relative in a hospital. Throughout the poem, MacCaig gives his thoughts and feeling to how he fails to cope with the situation. The poet also uses enjambment, metaphor and imagery at the beginning of the poem when MacCaig hints at the central idea. Vanishes heavenward†, with the use of enjambment the poet introduces the idea of death. The quotation emphases the theme of death and how MacCaig may not be able to speak to his loved one again. With the use of a metaphor and imagery, as the lift physically rises up, the mood of depression associates the journey to heaven. The â€Å"corpse† represents death. The person he is visiting could easily be a corpse. The poet is occupied of images of death and sees the patient in a negative way. Though not mentioning the word death, his mind automatically makes this assumption.At this point the reader just assumes the central idea is death. Repetition is used as the poet emphasises the central concern of his loved one but also of his admiration of the nurses. â€Å"So many deaths†¦. so many farewells† emphasises how â€Å"miraculous† the nurses seem to him and they are not overwhelmed by the emotion of grief unlike him. MacCaig uses structure as he first mentions the patient, â€Å"Ward 7. She lies†. The four word line immediately links the woman with the hospital. The non-sentence â€Å"Ward 7†³ draws attention to the reality of the situation the poet is in. In a white cave of forgetfulness†, though suggesting a white curtain around the bed, it creates the impression of emptiness. The vivid colours of â€Å"green and yellow† are not present. This suggests the patient's life slipping away and a fear from MacCaig that they will not remember him. A Metaphor is used once again as the poet recognises that while he can physically touch the patient, she is dying and he is alive. â€Å"And between her and me distance shrinks till there is none left but the distance of pain that neither she nor I can cross†, he has entered the hospital, found her ward and reached her bedside but cannot â€Å"touch† her.The central idea is made clear to the reader in the last stanza where the poet writes, â€Å"books the will not be read†. MacCaig notices the uselessness of the gifts brought for the patient. The patient's inability to eat the fruit or read the books reveals their lack of life. In conclusion, the poet achieves the central idea of death and loss by the use of metaphor, imagery, enjambment and structure. By using all of those techniques made the central idea is clear.

Starbucks Hr Management

Strategic Human Resources Management The emergence of strategic human resources management is rooted in manpower planning but it is the work of affirming the importance of managing people effectively as well as pursuing towards more flexible and innovative in order to be able to deliver services in constantly changing environment. Most of the literature review suggested that the advantage of valuable knowledge, unique set of skills and decision making capabilities can results in firm’s competitive advantage and value creation as well (Rochling et all, 2005).Therefore, an appropriate Human Resources practices can develops organizational capabilities such as empowerment, selective hiring, extensive training, performance evaluation, team based work and performance based pay work. Based on these six practices, the initial impact is on what employees have and feel. Selective hiring and extensive training are all aimed at building certain skills that enabling employees to effectivel y perform their jobs.In the addition on these practices along with rewards, performance evaluation, empowerment and team based work will create employee’s perceptions on the company’s fairness and desirability and then, will influence their commitment, motivation and motivation where it will directly affect on the firm’s performance. However, although these six practices being analyzed individually, they are not necessarily being practiced individually. This means that some of these can be combined together in order to get better results such as the combination of empowerment, team based work and rewards.This can be proved from the Whole Food Market case. The unique human resource practices in Whole Food Market was well known and thought to be the main drivers of its growth and profitability in the industry of natural and organic food retailers. The work culture in Whole Food Market was centered on the firm’s grassroots, which are the frontline level of m anagement which helped to eliminate bureaucracy. The firm empowered the existing team member to choose their own new recruits where they feel comfortable with in their team.Besides that, the firm also uses team based incentive (combination of team based work and reward) to improve cost saving as well as productivity. Each department within a store that runs by a team will be given a monthly payroll budget where the unspent payroll money at the end of the month will be divided among the team members. This method has successfully reduces unwanted costs and increases the firm’s performance financially. Extensive training has the potential side where training tends to develop more skillful expertise that eventually will boost up the employees confidents and motivation while performing their job.Whenever the firm did not provide sufficient training and development to the less skillful employees, this may lead to demoralization among the employees and then, reduces the productivity and firm’s performance. For example, Delta Airline, where the firm focuses more on cost reduction and did not put much effort on employee commitment. The firm has deducted training costs which considers as crucial expenses in the airline industry and causes lack of employee engagement in the firm. Consequently, Delta has dropped to the bottom of the industry in performance as compared to its competitors such as Southwest Airline.Every human resource practices costs money to develop and time to implement and these costs however, will go directly to the organization bottom line. For example, being selective in hiring may result in better employees but it will cost more in term of interviewing and testing. Providing more extensive training will increase their skills and potentially their attitudes but it will cause substantial amount of money spent to the firm. Thus, it is vital to implement a high performance human practices that increases productivity and at the same time do not let their costs surpass the benefits or that will bring no real gain for the firm.