External Forces that have brought Cross boarder restructuring in the Essay

External Forces that have brought Cross boarder restructuring in the airline industry - Essay Example The cause of this crisis was the increase in the fuel prices as in the worse economic fiasco faced by many nations across the globe. This led to the falling down in demand of fuel in USA and Britain. Breaking out of Gulf War saw many airlines shutting their business down, among these were the Eastern Airlines -US, British airline Air Europe, Pan American and a few smaller airlines like Midway-US and TEA in Belgium. The end of Gulf War was not any better for any of these airlines. From the worlds top-20 airlines only British Airways, Cathay, SIA (Singapore Airlines) and Swissair made a net surplus in each of the three years 1991-1993. The worst hit was the North-American airlines; on the contrary many Asian airlines functioned beneficially. Many airlines needed huge capitals to survive in those years among them was Air France. The member states of the European Union received US $ 10.4 billion in state aid in the year 1995. This was government support offered following authorization by the European Commission. In 1997, Alitalia was given $ 1.7 billion of state aid. Several Airlines received government funds about $ 1.3 billion that were not classified as state support. Subsequently, in 1994 and the years to follow, with financial prudence a number of airlines returned to stipulate development and gain profits. Generally, this was the time when a boom occurred in the airline business. In addition, 1998 was the most lucrative year ever. (Doganis, 2001) By and large, joblessness in the New York state remains towering, at 7.4 percent, and current statistics illustrate that more or less 40 percent of those laid off subsequent to 9/11 are still jobless. Even though billions of dollars in centralized support have been billed to help the airlines affected by the rebellious assault, removed airline employees have by and large been unsuccessful to profit up

Changes in Nursing Essay Example for Free

Changes in Nursing Essay Nursing Passed Down Through the Generations Everyone has probably noticed all of the changes in technology in the last fifty years. Now there are cell phones, tablets, home computers, and so much more. All of these devices are often used every day by all kinds of people in all different professions. People use cell phones to call their bosses and other people around the world for business. Some people use computers all day every day for bookkeeping, journaling and various other jobs. Many people in the medical field use computers, cellphones, and so many other kinds of technology every day, especially nurses. Technology is not the only advancement or change in nursing, there has also been changes in medications, uniforms, racial and gender roles, schooling, and other areas. Nurses can take better care of their patients due to the advancements of medicine and technology in the last fifty years. New machines and computers are always invented that help nurses do their job better. According to Charlene Boyle, a retired nurse, in her interview stated while she worked they had to write all of the patients’ information down and papers and information got lost or accidentally thrown away. In her last few years working the hospitals and doctor’s offices started to get computers in all the hospitals and she said it was a huge change. She said that the computers helped keep the information more organized and easier to find (Boyle Interview). In the article by Julie Blanche called Nursing 50 Years Back and Today: How the Nursing Field Has Changed over the Last 50 Years, she says, â€Å"Nurses also benefited from wireless technology, as they were able to bring their laptop computers into the patient rooms so they could perform other functions, such as admissions work, while keeping an eye on the patients† (Blanche 2). Technology did not only help nurses keep track of patient information, machines and other devices were created to help nurses better treat patients with health issues. Technology helps nurses perform jobs faster and with fewer errors. Fifty years ago doctors and nurses started using the ultrasound machines on pregnant women. Now it is typical for all women to get an ultrasound. According to The History of Insulin Pumps by Elliot Bethke, insulin pumps were invented in 1963 and they were so big it was basically a backpack diabetics had to wear around. Now they are small and most people wouldn’t even notice it if someone was wearing one  (Bethke 1). According to Julie Blanche in Nursing 50 Years Back and Today: How the Nursing Field Has Changed over the Last 50 Years, hospitals made an effort to make it easier for nurses to do their jobs well. The hospitals paid for new bedside technology, including an automated medication-administration system and wireless computers. The medication-administration check requires bar codes for medication, nurses and patients, ensuring that nurses will make fewer errors. With a simple scan, nurses learn if the medication matches the patient and the physicians order (Blanche 1) . The advancements in technology helps nurses to keep track of patients’ information as well as allowing them to treat the patients in more effective ways. In order to learn about all of the changing technology, the schooling that nurses were required to take was also changed. There has also been many changes in schooling for a nurse. Charlene Boyle, a retired nurse, stated that by her senior year she was running the floor along with the other seniors in her class. She also said â€Å"I had to go to school for three years with one month off a year. Currently to be a Registered Nurse or RN, you have to go to school for four years with your summers off† (Boyle Interview). In A History of American Nursing: Trends and Eras by Deborah Judd, Kathleen Sitzman, and Megan Davis state until the 1960s, most nurses were diploma nurses, nurses who only had their high school diploma, and their education was provided by a hospital or hospital school, not a college or university. Judd , Sitzman, and Davis also state â€Å"Nursing has debated two questions related to education for almost 50 years. First, what should the entry level of education be for practice as a registered nurse – associate or baccalaureate? Secondly, should all nurses be required to participate in continuing education as a part of active or inactive practice?† (Judd, Davis, and Sitzman 187). The book by Davis, Judd, and Sitzman included a survey asking nurses what level of education they have received. According to the survey, 34% of the nurses interviewed have received their associate’s degree, 31% have their baccalaureates degree, 10% have earned their master’s degree or PhD, 16 % have their associate’s degree and are working towards their baccalaureates degree, and 3% are diploma nurses (Judd, Davis, and Sitzman 190). Just as schooling and technology has been improved so have the uniforms that nurses are required to wear. When someone says the word nurse most people invision a woman in a white suit with a red cross on her hat,  but that is not what modern day nurses w ear. Uniform is another major change in the last 50 years. According to Julie Blanche in Nursing 50 Years Back and Today: How the Nursing Field Has Changed over the Last 50 Years, the nurse’s uniforms 50 years ago were the typical white, starch outfits. â€Å"In the 1960s, nurses still wore dresses and stocking as their uniforms†¦ The uniforms also take a turn in the direction of more fashionable than in the past. Some of the more modern touches include belts and feminine cuffs. Don’t forget the hat that was an essential part of the nurse’s uniform† (Blanche 1). Blanche also explained the modern-day uniforms, â€Å"During the 1990s and today, nursing dresses have been replaced with much more user friendly scrub suits. Scrub suits can be found in a wide variety of colors and styles. Some hospitals have specific scrub suit colors for different types of hospital staff and others allow nurses and other staff to choose colors and styles that appeal to th em.† (Blanche 1). Since the uniform has changed that also means that the places where nurses work must have also evolved. The hospitals, doctor’s offices and wherever else a nurse might work were all changing. The hospitals and offices were getting new technology and better prepared nurses. Along with better prepared nurses comes a higher pay and more complex jobs for the nurses to complete. Charlene Boyle, a retired nurse, stated in her interview that when she was a nurse, the job was definitely a lot simpler than it is now. Now it is more complex. She also talked about her average pay as a nurse. She started out getting $400 to $500 a month but by the time she retired she was getting $40 an hour (Boyle Interview). According to TheRichest website by TheRichest an average wage for a nurse today is about $28 an hour (TheRichest 1). The hours that nurses work have stayed the same. Charlene Boyle continued â€Å"I worked eight hour shifts. Sometimes took a day shift from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. or night shift from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. This is what made me start drinking coffee† (Boyle Interview). Changes in technology, schooling, uniforms, hours, and pay are not the only changes in nursing in the last fifty years, there have also been changes in gender and race. The role of a nurse fifty years ago was always a woman’s job. Normally men were the doctors. Charlene Boyle, in her interview recalled â€Å"I had thirty-three people in my class. All of them were women and only one of them was Black all the rest of us were Caucasian† (Boyle). Fifty years ago the Civil Rights Movement was in its  final years and some people were still against African-Americans, which is why it was very uncommon for an African-American to be a nurse. In modern times, men and African Americans are both nurses. Although it is still fairly uncommon to see a male nurse. The change in gender and race are big social changes. There have also been changes in where the role of nurses takes place. According to Judd, Sitzman, and Davis in A History of American Nursing: Trends and Eras nearly a century ago people cared for their family at home. From the beginning of the 20th century until now, hospitals have become part of everyday life. Hospitals have become places where moth ers bear their children, medical specialties achieve perfection, and new inventions were proved. It is also a place where nurses care for those who need to be cured as well as those who need relief from pain or suffering (Judd, Davis, and Sitzman 192). Before there were hospitals, mothers took the role of nurses. They took care of their children as well as they could with homemade remedies and other medical tips they had learned from their mothers. Now there are hospitals and doctor offices where people go in regularly for check-ups, illness, and injuries. We even have an emergency room where people in urgent need of medical attention go for help. Recently they have also come out with Quick Care offices, most are in Hy-Vee’s and patients can run in and it only takes about ten to twenty minutes for the doctors to diagnose the patient’s sickness. Then they prescribe medicine for the patients that they can fill right at the store’s pharmacy. It makes going to the doctor a lot faster and cheaper. The prices for a doctor’s visit have also changed. According to Charlene Boyle, a retired nurse, in her interview she said that in the 1960’s is cost about $5 to go to the doctor and today it can cost anywher e from $100 to $200 for one visit. It seems ridiculous (Boyle). Hospitals have made it easier for people to get treated for diseases and made it easier on parents to keep their children healthy. Although the prices for doctor’s visits went up, now there is insurance. Insurance helps people pay for visits to the hospital and to doctor’s offices. With all the changes in technology and medicine over the last fifty years, nurses have definitely been able to take better care of patients. The nurses are more prepared and they have more advanced technology to help their patients. Nursing is not the only branch in the medical field that has made advancements. Many more medical careers have  made advancements. The medical field as a whole has improved and has become part of everyday life. Works Cited Bethke, Elliot. The History of Insulin Pumps. BIOE 414 Instrumentation Projects. The Board of Trustees at the University of Illinois, College of Engineering, 13 Dec. 2011. Web. 13 Oct. 2013. Blanche, Julie. â€Å"Nursing 50 Years Back and Today: How the Nursing Field Has Changed Over the Last 50 Years.† HeatheCareers Network. HealtheCareers, 2 Nov. 2010. Web. 15 Sept. 2013 Boyle, Charlene. Life as a Nurse. Telephone interview. 28 Sept. 2013. Judd, Deborah M., Kathleen Sitzman, and Megan Davis. A History of American Nursing: Trends and Eras. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett, 2010. Print. TheRichest. Registered Nurse Salary – How Much Does Registered Nurses Make? Celebrity Net worth Richest People in the World Registered Nurse Salary How Much Does Registered Nurses Make Comments. Google+, 3 June 2012. Web. 14 Oct. 2013.

The Modigliani-Miller Proposition I Theory (MM I)

The Modigliani-Miller Proposition I Theory (MM I) 1. Introduction According to many research of corporation finance, the capital structure decision is one of the most fundamental issues facing to the executives and management level. The corporate finance is a specific area of finance dealing with the financial decisions corporations make and the tools as well as analysis used to make these decisions. The discipline as a whole may be divided among long-term and short-term decisions and techniques with the primary goal being maximizing corporate value while managing the firms financial risks. Capital investment decisions are long-term choices that investment with equity or debt, and the short-term decisions deals with the balance of current assets and current liabilities which is managing cash, inventories, and short-term borrowing and lending. Corporate finance can be defined as the theory, process and techniques that corporations use to make the investing, financing and dividend decisions that ultimately contribute to maximizing corporate value.Thu s, a corporation will first decide in which projects to invest, then it will figure out how to finance them, and finally, it will decide how much money, if any, to give back to the owners. All these three dimensions which are investing, financing and distributing dividends are interrelated and mutually dependent. The capital structure of a company refers to a combination of debt, preferred stock, and common stock of finance that it uses to fund its long-term financing. Equity and debt capital are the two major sources of long-term funds for a firm. The theory of capital structure is closely related to the firms cost of capital. As the enterprises to obtain funds need to pay some costs, the cost of capital in the investment activities is also the main consideration of rate of return. The weighted average cost of capital (WACC) is the expected rate of return on the market value of all of the firms securities. WACC depends on the mix of different securities in the capital structure; a change in the mix of different securities in the capital structure will cause a change in the WACC. Thus, there will be a mix of different securities in the capital structure at which WACC will be the least. The decision regarding the capital structure is based on the objective of achieving the maximization of shar eholders wealth. With regard to the capital structure of the theoretical basis, most well-known theory is Modigliani-Miller theorem of Franco Modigliani and Merton H.Miller (1958 and 1963). Yet the seeming simple question as to how firms should best finance their fixed assets remains a contentious issue. 2. Modigliani-Miller Proposition I The Modigliani-Miller Proposition I Theory (MM I) states that under a certain market price process, in the absence of taxes, no transaction costs, no asymmetric information and in an perfect market, the cost of capital and the value of the firm are not affected by the changed in capital structure. The firms value is determined by its real assets, not by the securities it issues. In other words, capital structure decisions are irrelevant as long as the firms investment decisions are taken as given. The Modigliani and Miller (1958) explained the theorem was originally proven under the assumption of no taxes. It is made up of two propositions that are (i) the overall cost of capital and the value of the firm are independent of the capital structure. The total market value of the firm is given by capitalizing the expected net operating income by the rate appropriate for that risk class. (ii) The financial risk increase with more debt content in the capital structure. As a result, cost of equity increases in a manner to offset exactly the low cost advantage of debt. Hence, overall cost of capital remains the same. The assumptions of the MM theory are: 1. There is a perfect capital market. Capital markets are perfect when investors are free to buy and sell securities investors can trade without restrictions and can borrow or lend funds on the same terms as the firms do investors behave rationally investors have an equal access to all relevant information capital markets are efficient no costs of financial distress and liquidation there are no taxes 2. Firms can be classified into homogeneous business risk classes. All the firms in the same risk class will have the same degree of financial risk. 3. All investors have the same view for the investment, profits and dividends in the future; they have the same expectation of a firms net operating income. 4. The dividend payout ration is 100%, which means there are no retained earnings. In the absence of tax world, base on MM Proposition I, the value of the firm is unaffected by its capital structure. In other words, regardless of whether a company has liabilities, the total risk of its securities holders will not change even the capital structure is changed. As the weighted average cost of capital unchanged, so must the same as the total value of the company. That is VL = VU = EBIT/ requity where VL is the value of a levered firm = price of buying a firm that is composed of some mix of debt and equity, VU is the value of an unlevered firm = price of buying a firm composed only of equity and EBIT is earnings before interest and tax. Whether or not the company has loans or the loans for high or low, investors are all accessible through the following two kinds of investment on their own to create the desired type of earning. 1. direct invested in the companys stock borrowing 2. if shares of levered firms are priced too high, investors will try to take advantage of borrowing on their own and use the money to buy shares in unlevered firms. The use of debt by the investors is known as homemade leverage. The investors of homemade leverage can obtain the same return as the levered firms, therefore, for investors; the value of the firm is not affected by debt-equity mix. The MM Proposition I assumptions are quite unrealistic, there have some implications, (i) Capital structure is irrelevant to shareholder wealth maximization. (ii) The value of the firm is determined by the firms capital budgeting decisions. (iii) Increasing the extent to which a firm relies on debt increases both the risk and the expected return to equity but not the price per share. (iv) Milton Harris and Artur Raviv (1991) illustrated the asymmetric information that firm managers or insiders are assumed to possess private information about the characteristics of the firms return stream or investment opportunities. They will know more about their companies prospects, risks and values than do outside investors. Then it cannot fulfill the assumption of perfect market. Based on the inadequate of MM Proposition I, Franco Modigliani and Merton H.Miller revised their theory in 1963, which is MM Proposition II. 3. Modigliani-Miller Proposition II The Modigliani-Miller Proposition II Theory (MM II) defines cost of equity is a linear function of the firms debt/equity-ratio. According to them, for any firm in a given risk class, the cost of equity is equal to the constant average cost of capital plus a premium for the financial risk, which is equal to debt/equity ratio times the spread between average cost and cost of debt. Also Modigliani and Miller (1963) recognized the importance of the existence of corporate taxes. Accordingly, they agreed that the value of the firm will increase or the cost of capital will decrease with the use of debt due to tax deductibility of interest charges. Thus, the value of corporation can be achieved by maximizing debt component in the capital structure. This theory of capital structure for the study provided an important and analytical framework. According to this approach, value of a firm is VL = VU = EBIT (1-T) / requity + TD where TD is tax savings. MM Proposition II is assuming that the tax s hield effect of each is the same, and continued in sight. Leverage firms are increased in interest expense due to reduced tax liability, has also increased the allocation to the shareholders and creditors of the cash flow. The above formula can be deduced from the company debt the more the greater the tax saving benefits, the greater the value of the company. The revised capital structure of the MM Proposition II, pointed out that the existence of tax shield in a perfect capital market conditions cannot be reached, in an imperfect financial market, the capital structure changes will affect the companys value. Therefore, the value and cost of capital of corporation with the capital structure changes in different leverage, the value of the levered firm will exceed the value of the unlevered firm. MM Proposition theory suggests that the higher the debt ratio is more favorable to corporate, but though borrowing adds an interest tax shield it may lead to costs of financial distress. Financial distress occurs when promises to creditors are broken or honored with difficulty. Financial distress may lead to bankruptcy. The trade-off theory of capital structure theory in MM based on the added risk of bankruptcy and further improves the capital structure theory, to make it more practical significance. 3.1 Trade-off Theory of capital structure According to Myers (1984), a firm that follows the trade-off theory sets a target debt to value ratio and then gradually moves towards the target. The target is determined by balancing the tax benefits of using debt against costs of financial distress that rise at an increasing rate with the use of leverage. It so predicts moderate amount of debt as optimal. But there is evidence that the most profitable firm in an industry tend to borrow the least, while their probability of entering in financial distress seems to be very low. This fact contradicts the theory because if the distress risk is low, an increase of debt has a favorable tax effect. Under the trade-off theory, high profits should mean more debt-servicing capacity and more taxable income to shield and therefore should result in a higher debt ratio. 3.2 Pecking Order Theory of capital structure The pecking order theory stems from Myers (1984) argues that adverse selection implies that retained earnings are better than debt and debt is better than equity. Firms prefer internal finance and if external finance is required, firms issue debt first and issue equity only as a last resort. The pecking order explains why the most profitable firms generally borrow less because they have low target debt ratios but they dont need outside money. As in Baskin (1989), asymmetric information affects capital structure by limiting access to outside finance. Managers know more than outside investors about the profitability and prospects of the firm. Information problems are particularly acute with common stock, announcement of stock issue can drive down the stock price. 4. Conclusion The capital structure decision is one of the most fundamental issues in corporate finance. Regardless of which kind of capital structure, to achieve one of the most optimal capital structures, the company should be mixture of equity and debt and it cannot only focus on equity or debt. Equity is a cushion and debt is a sword, debt is always cheaper than equity, partly because lenders bear less risk and partly because of the tax advantage associated with debt. In general, there are differences in the capital structures of different industries; they are having their own characteristic. The most important thing is the companys liquidity is sufficient or not. In making the decision of how to allocate the fund in which type of assets, the company has to consider and compare the different factors such as NPV, IRR and payback period. In evaluating the NPV, IRR and payback period, cash inflow is fund of the vital element. Therefore the company should know how to obtain the financing and how t o invest it. They should carefully to allocate their resources to maximize the firm value. References: Baskin, J. (1989) An empirical investigation of the pecking order hypothesis, Financial Management, Vol. 18, pp.26-35 Harris, M. and Raviv, A. (1991) The theory of Optimal capital structure, Journal of Finance, Vol. 48, pp.297-356 Merton H. Miller. (1977) Debt and Taxes, Journal of Finance, Vol. 2, pp.261-275 Modigliani, F and Miller, M.H. (1958) The cost of capital, corporation finance and the theory of investment, The American Economic Review, Vol. 48, pp.261-97 Modigliani, F. and Miller, M.H. (1963) Corporate income taxes and the cost of capital: A correction, The American Economic Review, Vol. 53, pp.433-443 Myers, S.C. (1977) Determinants of corporate borrowing, Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 5, pp.146-75 Myers, S.C. (1984) The capital structure puzzle, Journal of Finance, Vol. 39, pp.575-592

Hurricane Floyd :: essays research papers

A hurricane is easily the most powerful storm that mother-nature can throw at us. Every year people who live on the coasts fight hurricanes with no dismay. A hurricane is simply too strong. Their winds reach speeds of 75 mph. The winds around the eye wall can reach 130 to 150 mph. They are 200 to 300 miles in diameter. The number of casualties is endless, as well as the widespread destruction that takes millions of dollars to repair. Even if the hurricane doesn’t cause a lot of damage, the storm surge will. Storm surge is the great tidal waves that crash into our coasts and make huge floods that are caused by hurricanes.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hurricanes are extremely large area’s of low pressure that are over the ocean in either the North Atlantic ocean, or the eastern North Pacific Ocean. If a hurricane is in the western Pacific Ocean than it is called a typhoon. One in the Indian Ocean is called a cyclone. The danger region of a hurricane is normally in the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean. The hurricane season is the six month time period from June-November. The peak month of hurricanes is September.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hurricanes form over the ocean. Easterly waves, what hurricanes develop from, are long, narrow regions of low pressure which occur in ocean winds called trade winds. At first, these easterly waves can grow into something called, a tropical depression. A tropical depression occurs when winds are up to 31 mph. Then tropical depressions can be upgraded into a tropical storm if the winds reach speeds of 74 mph or less. Then finally a the storm can be bumped up into a hurricane if the winds reach 75 mph.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The National Weather Service is constantly trying to provide us with data and other information about when and where hurricanes are forming. It has been said that the only way to reduce the number of fatalities in serious storms is to give people more warning time for them to go to a safer place. Many times in hurricanes people are told to evacuate there city or state. The more time that people have to do this the more that people will do this. Throughout the entire hurricane season meteorologists keep a close watch on the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. They examine pictures of the area taken by satellites, and also take information on air pressure, wind speed, and temperatures.

This is Your Brain on God :: Biology Essays Research Papers

"With all your science can you tell how it is, and whence it is that light comes into the soul?" ~ Henry David Thoreau Belief in God has long been held to be a superstition by the scientific community as the existence of such a higher power cannot be demonstrated through objective observation. While science is unable to prove whether or not God is real, the field of neurotheology has instead posed a new question that we can find answers to: is there activity in the brain specific to religious experience? Can science in fact shed light on Thoreau's question? Through the use of brain imaging technology, Dr. Andrew Newberg has conducted research in an attempt to find answers to these questions. The participants in his study were Buddhists well-versed in meditation. Newberg used a SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) camera to make an image of the brain of an individual at the moment he reaches the climax of meditation. Such a picture would enable us to look at the brain as it "experiences God." The "peak" of meditation is clearly a subjective state, with each individual attaining it in different manners and having different time requirements. However, the sensation and meaning behind this moment is consistent among all who reach it. At the peak, the subjects indicate that they lose their sense of individual existence and feel inextricably bound with the universe. "There [are] no discrete objects or beings, no sense of space or the passage of time, no line between the self and the rest of the universe" (Newberg 119). As the river flowing east and west Merge in the sea and become one with it, Forgetting that they were ever separate rivers, So do all creatures lose their separateness When they merge at last . . . (Newberg 6-7) Newberg first took baseline images of the brains of the meditators to use as a standard for comparison (Newberg 5). It was important that these scans of the brain be taken while the subjects were at rest so that brain activity while one is simply relaxed could be differentiated from brain activity while one is having a spiritual experience. The baseline scans showed an "even distribution of activity throughout the brain," characterized by a large amount of activity in the posterior, superior parietal lobe and a moderate amount in the prefrontal cortex (Newberg 4).1 The subjects then meditated. When they reached the peak, they pulled on a string attached at one end to their finger and at the other to Dr.

Disciplinary Spanking Is Not Child Abuse Essay -- Effective Use of Cor

Child abuse is an issue within society that effects the lives of not only the victims but also the lives of many people in the social order. Child abuse is any mistreatment or neglect of a child that results in non-accidental injury or harm and which cannot be logically explained. There are several forms of abuse and neglect and many state governments have developed their own legal description of what constitutes child maltreatment for the purposes of removing a child and prosecuting a criminal charge. Child abuse consists of different forms of harm including physical, emotional, sexual, and neglect. Physical abuse is any non-accidental physical injury to a child. Physical abuse is an injury that results from physical aggression. Types of physical abuse can consist of beating, whipping, hitting, pinching, biting, or spanking. Spanking is the most used, traditional form of physical punishment, consisting in a beating applied on the buttocks. It involves striking the buttocks repeatedly, usually as a physical punishment, with an open hand. Spanking can also be implemented including belts, whips, rods, paddles, or any other household item. Educators and parents usually administer spankings to children. Spanking usually refers to a child lying, stomach down, across the educator's lap and the parent or teacher repeatedly swatting the child's backside. The issue of spanking is whether it is justifiable or an act of child abuse. Some child specialists, such as Christine Walsh and Michael Boyle, argue that if a parent must administer a spanking, it should not be through anger and only as a last option when other forms of discipline have been deemed unsuccessful. They say that for a spanking to be instructive it must be... ...their child while obviously angered, that emotion is likely to be very noticeable to the child. Unfortunately, that anger is all too likely to become attached to the punishment, resulting in the unwanted link of: mad parent = pain. A serene, calm parent is very much less likely to turn out to be an active part of the negative memory. Obviously, this is completely up to the judgment of the parent, but I have a tendency to concur that not only is spanking less likely to be abused if lightly applied, but also it maintains a better influence when it is applied. I would declare only when there clearly doesn't seem to be any other way of getting through to the child. Spanking is unquestionably not the only effective punishment, and perhaps not even the best, nevertheless I consider it to be effective, when applied carefully, in relation with other teaching mechanisms.

Rene Descartes and a discription Essay

Rene Descartes (1596-1650) was not only a philosopher but also a mathematician and scientist. As a philosopher, he used skepticism as a means of finding the truth of all. His idea was to doubt everything, and in doubting everything, anything that couldn’t be doubted was definite. â€Å"I will doubt everything that can possibly be doubted, he reasons, and if anything is left, then it will be absolutely certain. † (Moore/Bruder 93) This, Descartes felt was the only way to obtain truth and knowledge. This method was to take away all the confidence in everything that was taught to us, what we sense and believe, and the things we take as being obvious. To truly determine if we know anything is for certain we must doubt it all disregarding all we knew about it before. So everything we currently believe is open to discussion and can be questioned. Descartes’ ‘Method of Doubt’ incorporated two well-known conjectures, a dream conjecture and the evil demon conjecture. What the dream conjecture is, is the notion that everything that is reality might just be a dream. Adding to the dream conjecture, is the evil demon conjecture. This evil demon conjecture, in essence, is the concept that if this all [reality], is just a dream, then perhaps there is an evil demon that is deceiving our minds with these false images of reality. So, we can’t assume that our bodies or that anything of our experience exists and can be trusted to be true. For everything we know could be just a dream and not real at all and controlled by a deceiver. No, Descartes was not out of his mind. He was aware that these two conjecture he composed sounded far-fetched. However, that was the whole point. Descartes was on a quest to find certainty in an any-case-possibility. What Descartes came up with after going through and doubting everything was the cogito, ergo sum or â€Å"I think, therefore I am. † What this meant was if you are thinking, you are existing. â€Å"The self that doubts its own existence must surely exist to be able to doubt in the first place. † (Moore/Bruder 93) Subsequently, this was the only true thing we can know to be real. We know that we exist at least in a form of a mind. So we can doubt our physical existence but not our mental existence because you can think. To take this a step further he developed the clear and distinct test. The clear and distinct test was a test to find out what was true with â€Å"clarity and distinctness. † Meaning, anything that is clear and distinct is true. Using this clear and distinct test, Descartes came to the conclusion that God, in fact, exists. Descartes believed he viewed God clearly and distinctively, and further, God would not let an evil demon toy with his mind, if such a thing did exist. Descartes also thought that there were two distinct substances beyond God, and these two substances were material substance and mind substance. The material substance was all that exists and occupies space and the mind substance is that of thought. â€Å"Because a substance, according to Descartes, â€Å"requires nothing other than itself to exist,† it follows that mind and matter are totally independent of each other. † (Moore/Bruder 95) The result to these two substances being independent of each other is called parallelism. â€Å"The mind, they argued, does not really cause the body to move. When I will that my hand should move, my act of willing only appears to cause my hand to move. † (Moore/Bruder 97)Descartes felt that God was the one who was involved in the mental things that happened and the sequence of material actions. He believed God was the reason those two things happened to happen together. This idea was called occasionalism. Descartes was first to make this systematic account of the mind and body relationship, and also the soul’s contact with the body. (Rorty). Descartes essentially through everything, approached all metaphysical issues by going back and trying to pick apart everything about the basic things. â€Å"Descartes tried to discover metaphysical truth about what is through epistemological inquiry about what can be know. † (Moore/Bruder 97) The profit of Descartes’ ideas is that in the dismissal of everything makes you question and look at elements that may be overlooked because it is human to draw on experience. So, to clear oneself of all former beliefs leaves everything wide open for exploration and opens up a wider scope. The problem I find in his distinct and clear theory is Descartes proof of God’s existence. In â€Å"proving† the existence of God he uses circular reasoning. This circular reasoning is called the Cartesian Circle. The Cartesian Circle is the circular reasoning that, on one hand, we can only know that God exists because we clearly and distinctively perceive it, and on the other hand, we can only know that our clear and distinct perceptions are true because God exits. (Loeb 200-235) This type of reasoning doesn’t make any concrete conclusions on the existence of God. It just keeps going around in a circle, one right after the other. Descartes believe that only his perceptions could be deceived not his mind. So since God was good and perfect, he wouldn’t allow him to be deceived, therefore God exists. To explain his ideas on the existence of God, Descartes states that if one can have an idea of a perfect being, which is God, then a perfect being must exist if we can think it in our minds. All of this to me, doesn’t show any solid proof. Even though you can think something in your mind, doesn’t mean it must exits. I can think lots of things in my mind personally, that doesn’t necessary mean that somewhere, maybe not in the physical world I experience, truly exists. Also, if God did exists, and if God is perfect, as Descartes claims, then why does Atheism and such religious beliefs exist? Wouldn’t perfection be if God could exist and not be questionable? Because what Descartes believes is all that we can perceive clearly and distinctively exists, and he had not given any way that explains how you can perceive God clearly and distinctively, other than stating he can perceive in his mind. Also, another thing that is a problem in Descartes’ method is his goal of proving the existence of the outside world was not valid by any substantial means. There is no proof that any physical object exists aside from a near universal belief that the external world exists. What Descartes says, is that since God makes us believe that there is an external world, then there must be one. However, there are lots of mistakes in his proof of God and it isn’t truly valid. So, therefore we cannot say anything in this external world does exist or either God, based on the knowledge I have obtained on the subject matter on Descartes. From what I have read on Descartes and his philosophical ideas, there are many holes and things to argued; as I’m sure is in most theories. Nonetheless, even though his ideas aren’t entirely credible to myself, I feel that his contributions to the field of philosophy are eminent. Descartes had brought lots of old questions of past philosophers and tried to rationalize them, he failed in my opinion to come up with any competent answers for what he was trying to prove. However, he did prompt other philosophers in his progression to come up later with some better answers to some of these ideas.