It Is Much Better to Die with Dignity Than to Live with Pain Essay

I believe to die with dignity is better than to live with pain, because of euthanasia, seppuku, and organ donation. Euthanasia is from the Greek word which means â€Å"good death†. It refers to end someone’s life without pain and agony. Seppuku is a form of Japanese convention suicide of honour, it is a way of dying with dignity. Organ donation is after the death of terminally ill people to donate their organs to those in need. To begin with euthanasia, euthanasia is a different way of die with dignity. In present-day society, it is considered by a vast majority of the population â€Å"right† when it serves human dignity, or a larger cause. (â€Å"Euthanasia Essay – Right to Die With Dignity†,n. d. ). Euthanasia is responsible for the patient, family responsibility, socially responsible, sensible, rather than immoral. For example, people with senile dementia can’t do anything. Even how they feel brings too much pressure to their family. Life like this, they can’t feel any happiness. Why can’t choose die with dignity? Secondly, it’s a prize of death which literally means† stomach cutting†is a particularly painful method of self-destruction, and prior to the emergence of the samurai as a professional warrior class, was totally foreign to the Japanese( â€Å"Seppuku – Ritual†,n. d. ). To the samurai, seppuku is not only a way to die, it stands for honour, courage, loyalty, and moral character. This is a way to die with dignity, although they were defeated. They don’t want to live with humiliation, so they rather prefer to die. Living in society is not just sleeping,eating,playing. This kind of thing, is a way to give expression to personal value. Further more, organ donation is very sacred way for a person to die. If they live with only pain and there is no way to save them, why they can’t choose medically assisted dying? Increasing number of people choose donate their organs after their death in present-day society. This is a helpful way for others who needed it. To some of people who accept donaor’s organs they can survive. According to the U. S. government, 77 people receive transplanted organs each day. That’s the good news. The bad news is that 19 people in the United States die each day waiting for an organ that never becomes available. Trisha(2011) Organ donation is not only an end of life decision, it can be used to help someone else live longer. On the other hand, organ donation isn’t legal in some of any other countries. There are some poor people or people who need money, they like to donate there blood, kidney, liver to hospital, then they can get substantial revenues. This is not good for people’s health, they can’t for money to organ donation. Organ donation is only for people who will be die, people should respect organs, rather than to make money then they only have to donate their organs. For government, they should control it in a better way. In conclusion, one person if he can’t do the best then choose seppuku, it not reflect he has failure. It is a other way to die with honor. One person if he rather chooses to be medically assisted dying in order to help others. Stand on a good chance, his death can rescue any other patients. One person if he live with only pain, why he can’t choose die with dignity? Life is only left pain, death for them is a better way. Death is not to end of someone’s life, it’s better to die with dignity rather than live with pain.

Economy figures of Australia Essay

The background is about the Electric Bicycles that we take from China, import them, and sell the products in Perth (Australia). We also have our own website that we can sell online to people and ship our bicycles to any where in Australia. In CIA Factbook, Australia is regarded as an example of a prosperous Western-style capitalist economy, with a per capita GDP at the level of the four dominant West European economies. Since Australia has many natural resources, the country becomes a major exporter of agricultural products, minerals, metals, and fossil fuels. Commodities account for 57% of the value of total exports, so that a downturn in world commodity prices can have a big impact on the country’s economy. In addition, the report from CIA also notes that Australian government is pushing for increased exports of manufactured goods, but competition in international markets continues to be severe. While Australia has suffered from the low growth and high unemployment characterizing the OECD countries in the early 1990s and during the recent financial problems in East Asia, the economy has expanded at a solid 4% annual growth pace in the last five years. Below is economy figure of Australia. Table 1 Economy Figures of Australia Population: 21,007,310 (July 2008 est. ) Age Structure: 0-14 years: 18. 8% 15-64 years: 67. 9% 65 years and over: 13. 3% (2008 est. ) Literacy: definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 99% male: 99% Female: 99% (2003 est. ) GDP: Purchasing power parity – $773 billion (2007 est. ) GDP – real growth rate: 4. 3% (2007 est. ) GDP – per capita: $37,300 (2007 est. ) GDP – composition by sector: agriculture: 3% industry: 26. 4% Services: 70. 6% (2007 est. ) Inflation rate (consumer prices): 2. 3% (2007 est. ) Industries: mining, industrial and transportation equipment, food processing, chemicals, steel Industrial production growth rate: 4. 1% (2007 est. ) Exports: coal, iron ore, gold, meat, wool, alumina, wheat, machinery and transport equipment Exports – commodities: coal, gold, meat, wool, alumina, iron ore, wheat, machinery and transport equipment Exports – partners: Japan 18. 1%, US 8. 7%, China 8. 4%, South Korea 7. 4%, New Zealand 7. 4%, UK 6. 7% (2003 est. ) Imports: $160 billion (2007 est. ) Imports – commodities: machinery and transport equipment, computers and office machines, telecommunication equipment and parts; crude oil and petroleum products Imports – partners: China 14. 3%, US 12. 9%, Japan 9. 6%, Singapore 6. 1%, Germany 5. 2%, UK 4. 4%, Thailand 4% (2007) Source: Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 2008 The above statistics show that selling bicycle in Australia is attractive since Australia rate China as main import partners. In addition, the market for electric bicycle is quite enormous considering that the number of people at age 15-64 year accounts 67. 9% of total Australian population. 1. Technology The development of technology in Australia is extensive as Australian university encourages the innovation and invention in all aspects. In addition, the country also consider the intellectual property, which help Australian business to establish and maintain international markets for new technology (IDC, 2008). 2. Legal and Political The International trade laws and regulations assembled by a country emerged from various national backgrounds. Countries possessing different geographical structure for example, would produce different export commodities, thus results a different ‘tone’ of trade laws. Other factors such as the culture of citizens and national politic tendencies have also significant contributions in making a country’s international trade laws. The trade between Australia and China is also based on the free trade agreement commencing in 2005 in which a study conclude that there would be significant economic benefits for both Australia and China through the negotiation of an FTA. Australia’s export and quarantine laws are design to meet certain standard of quality exports goods. It emphasizes on protection towards Australia’s animals, plants, human health and the overall environment. It also emphasizes strict standard regarding certain quality requirements to meet foreign countries’ satisfaction. They believe that export trade is vital to Australia’s prosperity and high standard of living. The commitment to ensure export goods and services quality goes all the way, as Australia implement their steps of ensuring quality, which are: a. In cooperation with the industry involved AQIS makes standard requirements on export goods and services and state them in the legislation. b. Industry are guided to implement management systems to achieve compliance with the stated laws c. AQIS systems are obligated to verify the compliance between the goods/service and the laws by investigations. d. AQIS takes a final action of allowing exports activities or not allowing, in case of non compliance. 3. Culture The Australian culture is considered as the most diverse culture in the world due to the people of Australian historically comes from English People; thus the main culture in Australia is â€Å"Anglo Celtic†. However, as the globalization occurs in Australia, the country’s culture tends to be more Americanized. It suggests that product offering in Australia would in some level follow the trends in the U. S. (Mapsofworld. com, 2008). 4. Ethical Considerations and their management The last mentioned issue in international trade that will be mentioned in this paper is ethics. Business ethics refers various moral and ethical problems that can arise in business activities. The study focuses on how each individual involved within trade activities are burdened with special duties and obligations that must be performed. It emphasizes the importance of ethical guidelines in making business decisions. Some might even say that ethics form the very foundation of international economic activities. What we have been surely witness is the increasing attention on business ethics and its applications in line with the more complicated nature of business and business activities. The importance of ethical guidelines has been increasingly popular lately because of several reasons. First, there is s growing public awareness that societies have the right to expect business to function within ethical boundaries. A company is a part of its community that must live in harmony with the surrounding environment like all individuals and organizations. Furthermore, companies take their resources from their environment, which implies that these companies give something back to their community. For the least, there is an invisible social contract between business and its societies that all business activities will honor and accord with the limitations of justice (England, 2008). In the light of this growing awareness of corporate positions in the community, most companies generate and implement a code of conduct that guides their behavior to internal as well as external parties. The code of conduct represents corporate assessment of what behavior is expected out of employees and managers. Furthermore, the latest development in international business revealed the consensus upon the necessity of an international code of ethical practice to survive the global economy. These global ethical guidelines consist of the following principles: a. Integration, which means all business activities must never be out of the ethical context b. Implementation, which means changing all existing activities to match the ethical standards c. Internationalization, which demands integrity throughout the entire chain of global partnership, frees from cultural sentiments and directed toward the global context (England, 2008). Reference A Successfull Global Trader. Retrieved October 29, 2008 from http://www. dfat. gov. au/facts/search Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).(2008). World Fact book 2004: Australia. Retrieved October 29, 2008 from http://www. cia. gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/as. html England, Lizabeth. Principles of Business Ethics. Retrieved October 29, 2008 from http://exchanges. state. gov/forum/journal/bus1background. htm IDC. (2008). Innovation & Technology Australia. Retrieved October 29, 2008 from http://www. innovation. org. au/ Mapsofworld. com. (2008). Australia Culture. Retrieved October 29, 2008 from http://www. mapsofworld. com/australia/australia-culture/.

A&P by John Updike Essay

The story A&P by John Updike is quite well-written. Despite the fact that the story itself does not have too much content, the author is able to keep the reader interested till the very last line. It’s a simple story and the main theme is the rejection of societal norms and restrictions. Sammy who works in the A&P store represents a teenager who takes an on-the-spot decision to stand up to his boss, disagree with his actions and move on with his life. This occurs when three girls in very skimpy clothes visit the store to buy snacks. Their skimpy attire offends the store manager Mr. Langley and he makes it a point to inform the girls that they should be dressed more appropriately next time they enter his store. â€Å"He comes over and says, â€Å"Girls this isn’t the beach† and when the girls react to his statement he says â€Å"I don’t want to argue with you. After this come in here with your shoulders covered. It’s our policy. † Basically, Langley is a conservative who did not like these girls indecently exposing their bodies. On the other hand, this is a free world and people like Mr. Langley have no right to impose their point of view on others. That is precisely why Sammy decided to quit his job even though he is aware that once he loses this job, his life will become more difficult, and his parents will be worried and angry and that there will be consequences of his action. â€Å"You’ll feel this for the rest of your life,† Lengel says and I know that’s true, too†. Nevertheless, he wants to prove his point and wants to stand up for what he believes and that is why he quits and moves on with his life. Overall, it’s a simple story but makes a valid point and is narrated in a very interesting manner. Some questions for others to think about: 1. Why did Sammy feel so strongly about Mr. Langley’s behavior? 2. Do you think Sammy did the right thing? 3. Do you think its right for teenagers today to behave indecently or do you think it’s the old generation which needs to change their attitude? Bibliography 1. Updike, John. (1993) A&P from Rubinstein and Larson’s Worlds of Fiction. Macmillan Coll Div.

Business strategy of US Airways Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Business strategy of US Airways - Case Study Example US Airways initiated a merger with American Airways which was completed in 2013. The merger is a cost leadership strategy in addition to boosting profits and strategically positioning themselves for stiff competition with other industry leaders. According to analyst (Staff, 2013), the company can benefit from $600 million cost reduction under the new deal. US Airways employed a no-frills strategy to lure cost sensitive customers. Though its West Coast flights are within the United States, it operates a full slate of European flights from its East Coast hubs. US Airways has also employed differentiation strategies in a bid to attract a certain segment of the market. US Airways has considerably few international flights but is concentrated in Charlotte, N.C., Phoenix and Philadelphia. Unlike American Airlines, US Airways has little presence in Los Angeles with only a strong presence in outlying airports such as Ontario, Burbank and Long Beach. The merger is a strategy that will make US. Airways presence in Los Angeles significantly felt hence a boost on its performance. Under the new merger, the Group president Scott Kirby indicates that they anticipate targeting corporate customers as they can spend thrice as much as leisure clients, qualifying them as a lucrative segment on the airline market (Staff,

Midterm paper Term Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Midterm - Term Paper Example Complicating this issue even further is the request that the manager makes based upon reflecting the fireworks as the award-winning. Naturally, as no such award exists, the employee is faced with a situation in which either they will make up an award or they will fail if the assignment. Finally, complicating matters even further is the fact that one of the colleague is attempting to take personal gain of the situation by creating the award in exchange for a symposium sexual favor. As a means of understanding this dynamic, the ethical challenges, and the options that are available to the employee, the following analysis will focus specifically on these three segments. Firstly, it should be understood that leveraging any type of favor from a fellow colleagues, whether in exchange for sexual service or any other good or commodity, is tantamount with making up the information and lying about the veracity behind the award. The underlying ethical reason behind this has to do with the fact that it is clear and apparent that the fellow colleague does not have such an award and it has never existed. Thus, by merely passing the buck and claiming a level of ignorance concerning where the support came from or when it was earned and why, the employee in question is not any better of a position as compared to that they had generated this false award on their own. From the case that has been presented thus far there are ultimately three options. Accordingly, the remainder of this analysis will revolve around discussing these options, from the least desirable to the most desirable, and promoting a likely course of action that the employee might consider taking. As such, the first and least desirable option is to refuse to make up any award and directly confront the manager with this refusal. Not only will this most likely result in an immediate termination, it will also leave a very negative relationship and interpretation of the employee’s time at the

How the 22nd amino acid is produced Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

How the 22nd amino acid is produced - Essay Example Even though it’s clear now that the amino acid is a product of enzymes involved reaction with two molecules of lysine, it’s important to know that the researchers are investigating if the molecule might be having complexity in its origin. Pyrrolysine is said to be very difficult to find in organisms and currently only a dozen of organisms posses it, interestingly its discovery was made in 2002 as being genetically encoded by methanogens; microbes that produce methane. The fact that it was first identified in the microbe have made the scientists to look back on the genetic code evolution.Pyrrolysine is now among the amino acids,22 in number that are used for protein synthesis. Protein synthesis involves the successive processes of gene transcription to messenger RNA that comes from the DNA molecule; it relays the genetical information from the nucleus to the cytoplasm where transport and ribosomal RNA carries out the process of translation to produce the required protein from a collection of three amino acids called codons (Kizycki, 2011). The understanding of how the amino acids are made, that is; its biosynthetic pathway provides an in depth knowledge of how amino acids productions can be made. How rare the amino acid is can also be of used (Kizycki, 2011) (Zhang, 2011) (Green-Church, 2011) to manipulate proteins as in the biomedical research, with its mode of synthesis well understood scientists can mimic the procedure to have mass production of other related amino acids for research purposes. The amino acid production process Lysine, other amino acids and some specific enzymes were combined and were anticipated that an intermediates would be produced, the intermediate is an amino acid that is produced during the biosynthetic process, the lysine were labeled so that when mass spectrometry was used it became heavier than the normal one, incidentally one signal produced by the instrumentation had a deviated mass that was attributed to the intermed iate. The biosynthesis of the new amino acid however comes with a surprise that its only precursor molecule is the other amino acid called lysine; this is also affirmed by the Microbiology professor Joseph Kizycki at the Ohio State University that they were not seeing the weird molecule but only the regular pyrrolysine from the two different amino acid they expected.pyrolysine was observed easily as it appeared with labeled lysine (Zhang, 2011). The process to arrive at the amino acid is considered to be very simple as it only involved only three chemical reactions though not all the chemical reactions were known or observed before. What is amazing with the new discovery is that only three enzymes and two molecules with the same origin constitute one molecule with a completely different from the initial molecules used to make it. In the molecule, a portion resembles the precursor completely, but when you compare with anther portion, enzymes are able to link and brings out a complete ly different molecule not been seen at all. The inconsistent nature of the pyrrolysine necessitated the use of mass spectroscopy to precisely analyze the mass of the particles that constitute it. The use of mass spe

Travel agency website Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Travel agency website - Essay Example Man by nature travels from one place to another. This is evidenced by the annual volume of the inbound and outbound travellers here and abroad. Travellers usually utilize one or a combination the land, marine, and air transportation modes. They may travel on their own without the assistance of a travel agency, if they are already familiar of the place to stay in or visited.Majority of them usually employ the services of travel agencies to book various travel services needed and to get rid of preparing it themselves and end up in a costly, unorganized, and not enjoyed travel.With the advent of e-commerce technology and the use of the internet, people from all walks of life may book their travels in a traditional way or online. Online bookings need to be done interactively using a travel agency's website. The website's user interface design is very crucial in a travel agency for it replaces the traditional way of interacting with the customer. The extent of the services and care that a n agency can give face to face to customers should at least be replicated or surpassed in the online version.In a travel agency website we could think of several scenarios of use. The following types of users are considered in this study, namely: the students, the professionals, the tourists, and the immigrants.Students profile includes local, national, international students.... This group includes the business travellers, delegates, participants, speakers, and convenors of conferences, conventions, trainings, seminars and parallel activities. This may also include government representatives to conduct official business activities in this country as well as in other countries. Tourists profile includes local, national, and international tourists. Their goals and needs are the following: booking their travels in a pre-scheduled basis or open scheduled basis, usually they need additional services like hotel accommodations, local travel services, and other services specifically designed for tourists. This group includes a wide and a very diverse array of travellers. Travellers classified in other groups may in one time or another are also classified or combined here. Immigrants profile includes local, national, and international immigrants. They may be inbound or outbound immigrants granted immigrant status here or in other countries. Their goals and needs are the following: booking their travels in a pre-scheduled or open basis, usually they need additional services like hotel, apartment, and house accommodations, local travel agency assistance, and other services specifically designed for accommodating inbound immigrants and helping outbound immigrants. This group also includes government diplomatic representatives and workers The PACT Components Analysis Matrix To clearly identify, determine and describe the people, activities, context, and technologies involved, the following Table 1. PACT Components Analysis Matrix is utilized in this study. Table 1: PACT Components Analysis Matrix PACT COMPONENTS ANALYSIS MATRIX PEOPLE

Financial Planning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Financial Planning - Essay Example There may be some additional cost attached with the purchasing of house is that cost of furniture fixture, electricity cost, maintenance cost and cost of decorating the house. The use of credit card incurs some cost as interest rate. As the interest rate in the credit card is very high like interest rate on the credit card of Shawn is 18% and Mary is 15%. The use of other means of payment like cash payment reduces such costs involved. Thus, they need to reduce the usage of credit cards in borrowing goods and services because the high rate of interest leads to increase in their expenses in the income expenditure statement. For this reason, if they reduce the usage of credit cards then they will be able to save the amount of interest. Shawn wants to sell off his truck any buy something new. From the primary consideration of buying vehicles, it can be said that buying new vehicles is always good though it costs high but the quality of the vehicle is brand new and Shawn can easily repair or maintain the car from the company service center if it’s new. However, if he wants to buy a used vehicle then the cost will be low as after one-year usage of any vehicle, its cost decreases. However, here he needs to consider two things- one is that the age of the vehicle. He should not purchase too old vehicle, which is having low cost because it might not be in a good condition. Second is that only age of the vehicle cannot be the measurement factor for the condition of the vehicle depends on the Km. it has run and depending on the miles or Km it can be decided that whether the vehicle is in good condition or not. Some other consideration in the purchase of a used truck is the property transfer cost and the service it w ould incur to make the used truck running and in a good condition. If the costs involved are much larger or near to the cost of a new truck, he would purchase the new one. Nevertheless, buying an old truck

Aesthetic Consumption Everyday Life Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 3

Aesthetic Consumption Everyday Life - Essay Example The researcher states that we have seen various professionals, more so women creating at least thirty or more minutes to drive out of their workplaces and attend their favorite beauty avenues, and this comprises of salons, jewelry outlets, massage centers and fashion houses among others to keep their beauty or aesthetics at the peak Furthermore, magazines and articles on modern aesthetics are rated to be the most read and this is a clear indication of the modern generation’s dedication to fashion, textile, and jewelry among aesthetic elements. These factors have driven consumer researchers to dig more into the daily consumption of aesthetic elements with regard to today’s economy. There are four basic theories associated with various types of jewelry consumers and these are the traditional, the pragmatic, the minimalist and the critical or allegorical aesthetic consumers. The traditional aesthetic consumers are those who believe that jewels were designed and made for th eir own sake. The jewel is more of intrinsic value than instrumental as other people may see it. These are the people who do not care whether the nose ring was made a decade ago; the most important thing is that they have the ring. The critical jewelry consumers are those are ever updated on the trending or the most recent jewels. They are the ones who do not want to go to a social avenue and realize they do not have the new â€Å"Gucci bracelet diamond† that would automatically ruin their confidence. Critical jewelry consumers would end up spending their entire savings just to have that modern diamond chain to dominate a certain social group. Their main motive is to remain on the top and seen as an icon. Majority of critical jewelry consumers like musicians, actors, comedians, athletes, Media personalities and designers among others people who demand the public attention.

Strategic management Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Strategic management - Term Paper Example The paper tells that strategic management pertains with the aspect of strengthening the performance of employees, as well as managers to help improve the company’s performance and increase their service proficiencies. Concerning strategic management, this study will dwell on performance management as it is believed to be the core function of strategic management to help employees to improve their skills, knowledge and attitude within a workplace. Employee performance is important because this is a base for having long-term relationship with clients who will become potentially returning clients that will be seeking health care services. Employee performance won’t be able to become competitive without the guidance of strategic management because this is one of the most reliable tools to maintain the highest possible professionalism which can be applied to the organization’s employees. As a consultant, it is essential to provide a brief examination of the organizati on’s performance to determine all kinds of employee performance that will be the center for improvement. The study has chosen health care organization because health care organizations are, to some extent, based on employee’s performance due to the health care services they offer to clients needing medical attention. Health care organization has its own management structures that are operated by different non-medical employees and staff members to handle non-medical related activities. This includes human resources management that is responsible for structuring staff positions to make work limitations for staff in order to to work efficiently, as well as to increase the organized structure of the health care organization. This study will seek to find out all kinds of issues that concern management structures effecting the operations of health care organizations at a specific period of time. Health care organizations give more impression through health care services but people are not aware that there are management structures within the framework of these organizations, as showed by Luelco (2008). They have uniquely organized structure that is different from that of business organizations; that is why these organizations have unique management structures which can be relied on as a role model for other institutions. Health care organization requires significant amount of management procedures in order to create organized structure of health care services that will be available and accessible to the public. Health care organization cannot operate effectively without well-organized process of management because management helps to organize all kinds of operations and facilities that will benefit health care organization’s degree of rendering its services to the public. This study will seek to present the significance of management structure that exists within health care organizations so that the reader can understand and appreciate the stud y by having additional knowledge regarding management principles that can exist within other organizations, not only in health care institutions, as claimed by Castillejos (2007). Human Resources: Strategy and Role within Organizations The human resources will be governed by the supervising manager that will be responsible for improving the performance of employees, as well as

Critically evaluate the role of marketing in developing strong fashion Essay

Critically evaluate the role of marketing in developing strong fashion brands in the 21st century' - Essay Example â€Å"The most effecting marketing plans are those that are simple yet effective and easy to implement† (Daud, 2008). Creation of an effective marketing plan is extremely important for a company because it helps the company create the entire business plan for carrying out the business activities (Perez, 2010). 1.1. Benefits of a Well-Structured Marketing Plan Fashion products manufacturing companies face a lot of challenges if their marketing strategies are not capable of attracting and retaining the customers. For this purpose, companies need to implement appropriate marketing plans because they put positive impact on the future of the brands. Fashion companies also use monitoring methods to determine the success of the marketing plan. Clow (2009, p.484) asserts, â€Å"Evaluation or testing of advertising communications can occur at any stage of the development process†. Some of the most effective monitoring methods include emotional reaction tests, concept testing, an d persuasion analysis. An effective marketing plan brings a lot of benefits to the companies. Traffanstedt (2010) asserts, â€Å"The benefits of a marketing strategy are great if you do it right†. ... Marketing not only helps the companies achieve higher levels of profits but also helps them establish their brands in any international market. Marketing plays a vital role in making a fashion brand popular and successful. It is due to effective marketing plans that most of the new fashion brands get recognized all over the world in a very short span of time. Capon (2008, p.185) found that marketing plays a critical role in developing a product. We can take examples of some of the most popular fashion brands such as Polo, Givenchy, Tommy Hilfiger, and Lacoste. These fashion brands are extremely popular among the public due to the effective marketing campaigns carried out by their manufacturing companies. Marketers first identify the target market and then implement the plan. Dahl (2007, p.23) states, â€Å"By identifying your primary target market, you can do a better job of narrowing your media buys†. This is the 21st century and the world has become a global village. Every f ashion company is aware of the importance of effective marketing strategies because effective and well-structured marketing strategies play a great role in the success of a fashion brand. Saarte (n.d.) states, â€Å"The functions of marketing add value to the product†. Marketing plays a vital role not only in creating the awareness about the newly manufactured fashion products in the pubic but also results in increasing the productivity and profitability of the companies. A fashion brand needs publicity and exposure in order to be successful and marketing is a tool, which companies use to give exposure to their products. Fashion companies make use of different types of marketing methods in order to advertise their brands. Manohar (n.d.) found

Masks of Eternity Essay Example for Free

Masks of Eternity Essay In the episode Masks of Eternity, Joseph Campbell explains the godliness of self. He explains ideas about the past versus the present and the common ways of thinking that have changed the way messages are viewed and interpreted. He goes over the ideas of the inner Christ, the significance of the circle, and peak experiences. Campbell speaks of an inner Christ in all people. It is not a connection to God, but a oneness with him; meaning that you become a part of God. He explains it as the difference of an individual life, meaning the life of the person, and the all encompassing life, meaning the life that turns the world and all other things. He tells of finding it through meditation, finding that center of yourself that can feel a connection to the life around you and the realization that all things are connected and caused by one another. Campbell interprets the things he was taught as a child, about the angel and the demon on either side of him, as the urges that push our decisions in one direction or the other. These energies, he says, come from the different organs of the body. Each needs something different, and the urges that arise are about what is needed most. Campbell also speaks of the significance of the circle. Each culture has some form of importance in the shape of the circle. He talks about the way Native Americans built their villages in the shape of a circle, the way Aztecs made a circular calendar, and the way that each culture put itself in the center of that circle. He talks about ancient cultures believing that everything generates around a specific point, orbiting around it. Campbell also speaks of time going in a circle. In ancient times, it was seen as a reoccurring aspect of life, summer, fall, winter, spring. All things ended and began anew in a pattern. Now, though, time is seen as a straight line. Clocks make us realize that time is flowing past and will never come again. Before, death was looked at as a rebirth; now it is simply looked at as the end. Peak experiences, as Campbell explains, are moments where you can feel the harmony of being alive. For him, it was a race in Colombia. He said he could feel that he was going to win the race, not even because he was winning, but because he could feel it within himself. He explains peak experiences as being in a state of mind that allows you to see your outer most limits and obtain your maximum potential. He goes on to say that not all peak experiences are physical. Some can simply be a thought or realization that changes your outlook on life or solving a problem. Some peak experiences are not the highest points of your life. A life can have many peak experiences as long as you feel that you are at one with yourself and what you are accomplishing. Personally, I understand the inner Christ, not as a connection to the life around us, but a working understanding of the path God has set out for us. I can understand the ideas behind this belief in the inner Christ and the idea that Jesus may have found his inner connection with life, but I do not agree with it. I believe that The feeling they are referring to is the feeling that comes with following Gods path, whether you know him as your savior or not. The idea of the circle on the other hand, I can understand completely. Time feels like it is flowing by without slowing, but there is always the chance of next time. Next time Ill get that raise; next time Ill win; next time I will do better. Time isnt a perfect circle to me, but neither is it a straight line. It is a looping flow, cork screwing back onto itself. My peak realization in life so far was the creation of an art piece in high school. I was working on a drawing of a tree, creating every painstaking detail, and all the tim e, I knew that I was going to be proud of it; that I was going to get it right. I felt accomplished without having yet accomplishing anything. To this day, I can look at no other piece I have finished and count it as my best.

Evaluation of Individual Stock and Sector Level

Evaluation of Individual Stock and Sector Level Is there any method of asset allocation within a stock portfolio that can repeatedly and over time outperform a passive index (buy and hold strategy)? The objective of this study is to compare strategies that have been used over the last decades by academics and professionals alike, and to expand on that study to create a real-time portfolio at the end of year t, to observe the portfolios behaviour during the next year (t + 1). This portfolio, unlike those created in previous studies, is not limited to the study of individual stocks, but instead gives importance to sector allocation. In addition, this study also focuses on implementing a long-short strategy in those assets: with the same overall exposure to the market, will a long-short strategy that depends on financial metrics exhibit a better risk-adjusted return than a 100% long strategy? In other words, are financial metrics capable of not only detecting undervalued stocks, but also of detecting those overpriced? Sector allocation is an especially important factor, with previous studies failing to consider sector allocations before moving to find the best classified assets within each sector; rather, they have jumped directly to stock selection. One of the most common strategies for stock picking in the asset management industry today relies on initially choosing sectors that, from a macro perspective, are expected to outperform the market. From this stance, analysts proceed to evaluate specific stocks to choose potential winners. Despite this being the industry standard, only a scarce number of studies exist that use common ratios between sectors to analyse and devise allocation strategies that are first sector-based and then based on individual stock. The objective of this project, therefore, is to focus on a set of financial metrics, both at individual stock level and at sector level, to examine if there is a positive relationship between these ratios and alpha creation. In order to achieve this, a portfolio will be constructed and rebalanced yearly, according to previous end-of-year data. Several traditionally-appraised financial measures, such as P/E ratio, free cash flow to enterprise value ratio and book-to-market value ratio will be employed, as will certain profitability ratios that include data from the income statement, such as gross profit, operating profit and EBITDA. The reasoning behind using measures higher up within the income statement is due to solely to accounting choices in comparison to net income these are less affected by an individual companys accounting process. In fact, revenue and other described measures of profit, are more consistent year to year than net income. Subsequently, this provides the rationa le that these measures are better able to predict future cash flows and, consequently, next years performance. Forward-looking measures such as analysts consensus recommendations and forward EPS will also be utilised and tested. Departing from the hypothesis that these individuals conduct an exhaustive analysis of the financial data at year end t to predict the performance during year t+1, the accuracy of the forecasts will be tested against those same financial measures and valuation metrics existing at year end t. Data will be extracted from a set of databases comprised of Compustat, CRSP and I/B/E/S. Fundamental data will be extracted from end-of-fiscal-year filing, to allow a time lag for the data release of a quarter period (3 months), before a portfolio is rebalanced. Hence, with a fiscal year ending in December of year t, a lag in the release of data will always exist and portfolios will be rebalanced at the end of the first quarter of year t+1. Monthly returns for every stock will be compounded throughout that year over 12 months. Each years universe of stocks will then be ranked by the different valuation metrics to construct a portfolio at year end t in order to assess the portfolios performance during t + 1. Three different sets of portfolios will be constructed for each financial metric each year and, within each set, two strategies will be implemented. For a stocks-only portfolio, only those stocks ranking in the upper quintile (top 20%) will be used each year. For the sector-only portfolio, a market capitalisation average of each sector will be calculated, and the portfolio will be formed by the top 20% sectors ranked in any given year. For the sector and stocks portfolio, an implementation of both criteria will be evaluated. That being said, the portfolio is formed from the top quintile stocks within the top quintile sectors each year. As a whole, this assumes a long strategy, buying in on those stocks on a value-weighted basis each year to constitute a portfolio. In the long-short strategy, the bottom quintile of each respective category will be shorted, and the proceeds used to buy an extra 30% of the top quintile of stocks. Using a long-short strategy will help the researcher examine the feasibility of using these ratios in recognising overvalued stocks as well as undervalued companies, and use this information to construct a more profitable portfolio. A 130/30 long short strategy is used, where a 150/50 long short strategy or other proportions could have also been tested. However, the 130/30 strategy is chosen following the creation and later popularisation of 130/30 mutual funds and investment vehicles. This choice stems from an initial study suggesting that 130/30 was the optimal proportion of long-short positions in a portfolio, even though no empirical data has been found that a 130/30 strategy later maximises alpha. Despite this, given its popularisation and position as an industry standard, our analysis proceeds with this strategy. Ultimately, performance attribution and portfolio statistics will be calculated, such as average return, total payoff, standard deviation, Sharpe ratio and alpha according to the Fama French 3 factor model, correcting for small minus big and high minus low book market value (Fama and French, 1992). This will help in our analysis of the results, to provide a clear and concise indication of which ratios perform best under each strategy and under each level (sector and stock). Literature Review Re-emphasising the importance of sector level asset allocation strategies, particularly at a time in the financial industry when performance attribution analysis stresses return on the relative weighting of sectors in portfolios, it is surprising that existing studies underscore the importance of certain ratios or fundamental data for stocks while lacking the ability to employ a method to identify undervalued sectors. Previous studies from Shiller and Bunn (2014) construct a 140-year regression series based on the relationship between the earnings of different sectors and their yields, creating a CAPE (Cyclically Adjusted Price Earnings) index that identifies sectors with upside potential. Their research indicates that market sectors show price mismatches that can be exploited. According to them, the CAPE index is capable of outperforming the market by an average of 4%. Therefore, the objective of this project is to expand on their results by examining a number of other ratios and fi nancial fundamentals, particularly those related to profitability measures, and to investigate whether these, both at individual and sector level, are capable of forming a portfolio that outperforms the broader index and a buy and hold investment strategy. Gray and Vogel (2012) try to depict not only the ratio that is able to predict higher performing stocks, but also those in the lower ranges; this implies being able to detect not only what are known in the financial investment world as value stocks, but also overvalued growth stocks. According to their research, some measures are more efficient than others in providing insight into which stocks are overpriced. Gray and Vogel (2012) therefore conclude that EBITDA/EV and GP/EV are the metrics that are best able to identify the overvalued stocks. The results in this dissertation agree that the GP/EV ratio is useful to identify overvalued stocks and is hence a good metric to build long/short strategies, but the results also consider free cash flow/EV as a favourite on a risk-adjusted basis for implementing a long-short strategy at stock level. The results of the following study show that stocks exhibiting a low FCF/EV experience low returns, demonstrating an ability to identify overvalue d stocks. Such a contradiction might be explained by the difference in the universe of stocks used or, more specifically, by the use of lag for data release, which corrects the assumption that results are available to the public at the end of fiscal year t. This lag is introduced by Hughen and Strauss (2015) in their comparable study of profitability ratios in portfolio allocation. The analysis in this project goes beyond what the Gray and Vogel (2012) study implies and develops a portfolio strategy to buy stocks that exhibit higher ratios, but also a complementing 130/30 strategy, which short sells stocks exhibiting poor ratios, and proportionally buys in excess those that exhibit a healthy ratio. As Miller (2001) shows in his work, overvaluation of stocks is far more common and of greater absolute value than undervaluation. This supports a rationale for this work. However, care should be taken when dealing with long-short strategies. As suggested by Michaud (1993), costs stemming from short sales in a portfolio could prove quite significant. However, Jacobs and Levy (1995) argue that these costs are not much higher than a long-only portfolio, and are well under those charged by active management. Professionals and practitioners alike have historically depended on several fundamental and financial measures to assist them in the portfolio selection process. Perhaps the most famous is the price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) along with the ratio between earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) and total enterprise value. Fama and French (1992) argue that book to market ratio perhaps most accurately explains the cross section return of stock, which they later include in their three-factor model. In our approach, we include these traditional metrics, while also relying on profitability measures, such as gross profit/EV, introduced by Novy-Marx (2010), and operating profit divided by market value, as presented in Fama and Frenchs (2015) 5-factor model. Ball et al. (2015) proves that the suggestions shown in Novy-Marxs (2010) paper, in which he proposes the existence of a very strong cross relation between gross profit and future returns, regardless of the financial leverage or structure of the firm, are true by constructing portfolios based on highly profitable firms as represented by gross profit/enterprise value. Novy-Marx (2010) concluded that because gross profit is the measure of profit less affected by accounting choices in the income statement, it results in a clear and normalised comparison between different companies. However, Ball et al. (2015) argue that gross profit is not significantly superior to net income (earnings) when analysing an extended time period. After analysing other measures of financial data, they conclude that operating profit, as a percentage of market value, does offer a significantly higher alpha. Therefore, this project continues with the aforementioned financial metrics, and focuses on sector and stock selection to create an annually-rebalanced real-time portfolio. Hughen and Strauss (2015) attempt to use different financial measures to construct portfolios at sector, stock and combined stock and sector levels. The following study complements and verifies the conclusions of Hughen and Strauss (2015) regarding the superior indicators of profitability measures versus traditional measures of valuation such as P/E and book to market in all three levels, and extends their research by looking at forward looking measures and a value weighted approach to the sector allocation, rather than the equal weight approach used in their research. The limitations of assuming sectors to be equally weighted across the portfolio, and not a function of the market value of the components of those sectors, contradict the notion of constructing a value-weighted portfolio. Their construction of portfolios at stock level is value-weighted, whilst at sector levels they equally weight each sector within their top quintile. This is a counterintuitive approach and this paper tackles that limitation by weighting the sectors accordingly respective to their components market capitalization, making periodical rebalances within the year unnecessary and increasing operational efficiencies in a real-life practical situation. It should be mentioned that the universe of stocks used in this study pertains to the SP500, which by definition is a market-weighted index. The project finds some discrepancies with respect to Hughen and Strauss paper, in particular surrounding the performance of the free cash flow ratio. A possible explanation for this is that this study states free cash flow as a percentage of total enterprise value, whilst Hughen and Strauss (2015) compute it as a percentage of market value. The approach taken within the subsequent study results in a much higher risk-adjusted return for the ratio, as measured by the Sharpe ratio, both for long strategies and to identify overvalued stocks. In their research of different financial ratios, Loughran and Wellman (2011) found that EBITDA over enterprise value offers superior performance to a predefined buy and hold benchmark. Their analysis, which comprehends data starting from 1963 to 2009, holds that EBITDA/EV possess a very significant regressive coefficient with future performance. Gray and Vogel (2012) confirm this hypothesis, analysing a time period of 30 years starting in 1980, in their research of different financial metrics. This paper confirms that, at a stocks-only level, EBITDA along with gross profit, both measured as a percentage of enterprise value, offer the highest risk-adjusted returns. For the analysis at both sector and stock level, EBITDA fails to show the same accuracy as the stock-only analysis. Therefore, the following study builds on the findings of previous studies by providing a more thorough examination at sector level. Gray and Vogel (2012) extended their research further by considering periods of economic crisis, in order to identify which financial ratio is most appropriate during high volatility economic downturns. However, they were unable to conclude which ratio is able to identify winners or losers during periods of financial distress, because none behaves in the same systematic manner during selected periods of extreme economic contraction. In their study of different economic coefficients and measures, Welch and Goyal (2007) conclude that the relationship between sector level performance and macroeconomic industrial data is unstable and at most, follows a random relationship. With that in mind, the focus of this paper is instead on building sector data as a market weighted average of the individual microeconomic company ratios and forecasts. Each individual constituent fundamental metric at year end will be used to position the allocation of each asset for the next year based on a ranked system. This construes that this analysis will be based on each stocks financial information at year end t to later construct sector level ratios and metrics, and is not based on macroeconomic or sector level data that, according to Welch and Goyal (2007), do not provide any significant cross-relation with future performance. Theory Development Although the focus of previous literature is in the attribution of portfolio performance to the different ratios and metrics used, the objective of this paper is to examine whether these same metrics, mainly traditional measures, forward looking estimates and profitability ratios, are able to exploit sector and stock level mispricing and generate real-time winner portfolios. Given the availability of forward estimates in the I/B/E/S database, a period from 1990 to 2016 will be examined in this paper. The choice of time period is not a random one; rather, to have consistency in data across the analysis and throughout all the variables used, this period is chosen from the start. To see the limitations of an extended data period, Gray and Vogels (2012) work show an exemplary illustration of such restrictions. They use a period of 30 years, starting in 1980, evaluating which financial metric can predict future performance. They complement their analysis on fundamental metrics by looking at analysts estimates and consensus forecasts, succeeding to recognise the lack of certain information in the beginning years of their timeframe, therefore failing to Nos interesa saber, al igual que el trabajo de Graham y Dodd (1934), cà ³mo el uso de normalizacià ³n de los diferentes ratios y fundamentos es capaz de cambiar nuestros resultados. Segà ºn sus estudios, la normalizacià ³n o media sobre cierto tiempo de estas mà ©tricas financieras, es capaz de mejorar la prediccià ³n de los resultados comparado con una estimacià ³n anual. Segà ºn su anà ¡lisis, la normalizacià ³n deberà ­a ser entre 7 y 10 aà ±os. Anderson y Brooks (2006) recientemente confirmaron esto, llevando a cabo un estudio de la mà ©trica P/E, la cual tambià ©n utilizamos en nuestro anà ¡lisis, pero a la inversa (Earnings/ Market Value). Segà ºn su estudio, basado sobre el mercado en U.K., usando el promedio de este ratio de 8 aà ±os en lugar de usar las mà ©tricas del aà ±o anterior, resulta en un crecimiento de las ganancias de un 6%, ya que es capaz de filtrar el ruido de earnings. Siguiendo estos anà ¡lisis, nuestro estudio abarcarà ¡ tambià ©n ratio s normalizados durante una serie de aà ±os, concentrà ¡ndonos en el universo de acciones del SP500, para confirmar que esta hipà ³tesis es apta en nuestro anà ¡lisis. Sin embargo, Data V.I Evaluation Metrics This paper will focus on three different categories of data inputs. There is an abundant choice of methods and variables in the accounting and financial research world, there is a large set of variables and measures to assess a firms valuation. In order to establish the model, an initial differentiation between these variables should be made. Traditional Metrics To start with, we look at the long standing traditional metrics that long have been appraised by the professionals in the financial industry. This involves the inverse of the P/E ratio, given as Earnings over Market Value of the firm, Book to Market value and Free Cash Flow to Enterprise Value. These ratios, introduced decades back in the origins of value investing by Graham and Dodd (1934), show mixed results according to existing literature. Including this long favourite measures in this research will prove useful when comparing to the other measures. Earnings/Market Value Earnings will be computed following Fama and Frenchs (2001) approach: Earnings = Earnings Before Extraordinary Items Preferred Dividends + Income Statement Deferred Taxes Book value/Market Value Book Value will again be calculated as Fama and French (2001) propose. Following on its definition, Book Value = Stockholders Equity Preferred Stock Free Cash Flow/Enterprise Value Analogous to Novy-Marxs (2010) work, we compute free cash flow as FCF = Net Income + Depreciation Amortisation Working Capital Change Capital Expenditures Enterprise Value will also need to be calculated. Following Loughran and Wellman (2011), we compute it as EV = Market Value + Short-term Debt + Long-term Debt + Preferred Stock Value Cash and Short-term Investments The enterprise value variable will be used again in multiple valuation measures. Profitability Metrics Profitability measures as reported in the income statement will also be used as valuation methods. The focus will be Gross Profit, EBITDA and Operating Profit. EBITDA and Gross Profit will be computed as a percentage of Total Enterprise value, as suggested by the work of Gray and Vogel (2012), whilst Operating Profit will be looked at as a percentage of Market Value. From here on, well expand on this and compute an average of this three profitability measures, in order to analyse if a composite metric is able to detect the cross relation between fundamentals and future returns. The reasoning behind using an average of these three different measures stems from the work of Hughen and Strauss (2015), as they find that the composite measure are less sensitive to changes in the firms structure across different sectors and within sectors, as well as providing more information than just a single variable. This implies that the average measure is less affected by differences in financial leverage across sectors, which results in a more standardised comparison between firms in different sectors. Gross Profit/Enterprise Value Once again following Novy-Marx (2010), we compute every years gross profit as Gross Profit = Revenue Cost of Goods Sold Operating Profit/Market Value Operating Profit, as define in the income statement will be used for this metric. EBITDA/Enterprise Value EBITDA, defined as Earnings Before Interest, Tax and Depreciation Amortisation is calculated by the simple sum of operating and non-operating income; EBITDA = Operating Income before Depreciation + Non-Operating Income Profitability Average Equally weighted average of the three profitability ratios. The reason for selecting profitability measures higher up the income statement, and not focusing solely on the inverse P/E ratio, Earnings/MV or expectations of forward earnings, is because the higher up the income statement we go, the more consistent data proves to be year on year: that is, figures are more normalized and suffer fewer variations, which could explain why they result in being better predictive models, filtering out excessive noise. According to Dichev et al. (2013), profitability metrics are more persistent than earnings and forecast future performance more accurately than net income. Earnings data is affected by accounting choices, whereas gross profit and operating income suffer fewer distortions from this. Forward Estimates Analysing a set of fundamental past data wont be the only proxy used to rebalance our portfolio: analysts stock recommendations will also be evaluated. Two different sets of forward data will be used. In the first place, an average of the consensus forecast of next fiscal years EPS divided by the current market value of each firm will be used. This forecast will be an average of the estimates of each analyst throughout the fourth quarter of year t for year t+1. The consensus mean recommendations from analysts from the fourth quarter of the year t for year t+1 will also be employed. These recommendations are a ranking from 1 to 5, with 1 signalling a strong buy and 5 a strong sell. This is the mean of the different analysts recommendation existing at that time for each individual stock. V.II Data Criteria and Universe To ensure a minimum amount of liquidity in our analysis, we pick the historical constituents of the SP500 Index as our universe of stocks. This results in our analysis not being driven by the performance of smaller capitalisation firms, for which data might not be readily available. As our analysis involves implementing a long/short strategy, the ability to do so with large capitalisation stocks in practice results much easier. Therefore, every year, the appropriate constituents in our portfolio are updated, reflecting the changes in the overall index. This implies that our universe of stocks closely replicate the SP 500 Index on a yearly basis. The constituents as of 1990 will first be extracted, and updated every year thereafter. The analysis is then limited to those companies with a positive market capitalization as of December of year t, as well as to those companies with at least 2 years of data, in order to perform all the analysis in a consistent universe of stocks. In order to conduct the analysis across sectors in a more uniform manner, certain companies were removed from the universe of stocks. This includes REITs, utility and financial firms, as denominated by CRSP. From this, a benchmark is constructed with our new universe of stocks; that is, all those fulfilling the above criteria. This benchmark is a value weighted portfolio of all the stocks for a given year, rebalanced yearly at the end of each previous year (December 31st). Therefore, being a market value weighted portfolio comprising most SP500 stocks, it should closely resemble the SP500 Index. Comparing the quarterly performance of both our benchmark and the index for the period to analyse between 1990 and 2015, and running a corresponding regression, it is found that they correlate with a coefficient of 99.17%. As seen by this observation, our universe of stocks bears similarities with the index, although the payoff at the end of the period differs. The benchmark provides a payoff of $11.13 for a $1 investment (or a 1113%) at the start of the period, in 1990. The SP500 index returns a payoff of $8.86 (886%) at the end of the period. This figures assume complete reinvestment of capital and a compounded growth rate. V.V Model We represent year t+1 to be the year for which the portfolios performance will be monitored, and year t to be the year in which the fundamental data which will estimate performance will be extracted. As most US companies have a fiscal year corresponding to the calendar year, our model will retrieve end of year fundamental data for these companies, corresponding to December year t, allow for a data release lag, and compute the portfolio. The lag in data release is introduced as companies dont disclose their annual financial statements until the quarter after their fiscal year end. This usually happens within two months, as observed from historical data. Taking this factor into account, the model will allow for a lag of one quarter, therefore allowing for information to be readily available to the public at each point in time. Denoting t.(x) as the xth quarter of year t, and t+1.(x) as the xth quarter of year t+1, the above implies extracting fundamental data as of t.(4), allowing for a lag in data release during t+1.(1) in order to construct the portfolio at t+1.(2). The performance will then be measured during one year from then. This model so far deals only with the companies which disclose their end of year information by the end of the calendar year, so a provision must be made for the proportionally low, but still significant, number of companies whose annual results are released at a different date. Hughen and Strauss (2015) tackled this issue by rebalancing quarterly their portfolio, but they recognized the limitations of using quarterly results rather than normalizing their ratios and profitability measures by using annual ones. Gray and Vogels (2012) work consists of an annually rebalanced portfolio as of June 30 every year. Their approach is to use, for firms with fiscal year ending within the last quarter of the previous year, or the first quarter of the year, those fundamentals. For companies with fiscal years ending after March 30, previous years fundamentals will be used. This implies that, no matter when the end of fiscal year is, the latest annual filling will always be employed to construct th eir portfolio, even when this filling is from the second quarter of the previous year. In the following model, the approach will be somewhat different, Therefore, first, a differentiation between the two strategies implemented should be made. Value weighted These buy-and-hold portfolios are attractive not only because they minimize trading costs, but because they are simple to implement from an operational perspective. Mention sector allocation using SICS merge Compustat and CRSP databases. Delisting returns. References Ball, R., Gerakos, J., Linnainmaa, J. and Nikolaev, V. (2015). Deflating profitability. Journal of Financial Economics, 117(2), pp.225-248. Bunn, O. and Shiller, R. (2014). Changing times, changing values. 1st ed. Cambridge, Mass. Dichev, I., Graham, J., Harvey, C. and Rajgopal, S. (n.d.). Earnings Quality: Evidence from the Field. SSRN Electronic Journal. Fama, E. and French, K. (1992). The Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns. The Journal of Finance, 47(2), p.427. Fama, E. and French, K. (2006). Disappearing dividends: changing firm characteristics or lower propensity to pay?. 1st ed. Fama, E. and French, K. (2015). A five-factor asset pricing model. Journal of Financial Economics, 116(1), pp.1-22. Gray, W. and Vogel, J. (2012). Analyzing Valuation Measures: A Performance Horse-Race Over the Past 40 Years. SSRN Electronic Journal. Hughen, J. and Strauss, J. (2015). Portfolio Allocations Using Fundamental Ratios: Are Profitability Measures Effective in Selecting Firms and Sectors?. SSRN Electronic Journal. Jacobs, B. and Levy, K. (1993). Long/Short Equity Investing. The Journal of Portfolio Management, 20(1), pp.52-63. Loughran, T. and Wellman, J. (2011). New Evidence on the Relation between the Enterprise Multiple and Average Stock Returns. Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 46(06), pp.1629-1650. Michaud, R. (1993). Are Long-Short Equity Strategies Superior?. Financial Analysts Journal, 49(6), pp.44-49. Miller, E. (2001). Why the Low Returns to Beta and Other Forms of Risk. The Journal of Portfolio Management, 27(2), pp.40-55. Novy-Marx, R. (2010). The other side of value. 1st ed. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research. Welch, I. and Goyal, A. (2007). A Comprehensive Look at The Empirical Performance of Equity Premium Prediction. Review of Financial Studies, 21(4), pp.1455-1508.

Sweat By Zora Neale Hurston :: essays research papers

Delia, a flower in a rough of weeds. That is what I got from this story in one sentence, although knowing my grammar possibly not. Hurston’s tale of a shattered woman, gives us a glimpse into what was possibly the life of women at that time. There were many convictions against men in the story, although it may have been unintentional, not to say she was a hard-core feminist there were episodes of male remorse. Narrator, this was a third person account, thus leaving much to the imagination. The conversation’s language was left as if truly taken from an African American speaker in the south in such a time. The way Hurston made the scenery appear before me was like a white sheet gets stained with red wine, unable to wash out of my mind. The narration was very brut in a grammatical manner, giving a wash bucket effect of never being settled. Many of the story’s aspects were dominated by setting a slow rise and crashing climax. There were many such climaxes, Pg. 2, Pg. 7, and Pg. 9, give this such evidence. The flow kept me interested, and would grasp my attention as a TV show would. Although is context was far from a TV show. There was much talk about civil lifestyles by the town folk, which were a particularly an odd selection of people to intervene in such a story. Although the reaction witnessed by this allowed us to get another insight, from a second person perspective. Hurston was very clear about here point of irony, especially by the ending. Hurston kept constant the folk lore style of story telling, by keeping a moral to the story. Many of the stories aspects in moral were shown indistinctively. There were not many hidden messages, Hurston made the story clear to let us easily grasp the moral. There were fore-telling of the end through out the story, such as in the 1st paragraph Pg.

History and Analysis of the Schwarzkopf Advertising Campaign Essay

The media control all mass communication all over the world, its existence is integral to today’s twenty-four hour society. All media is highly influential, from on television to radio, newspapers to magazines, but especially the  £19billion advertising industry. Although many people refuse to admit it we are easily manipulated into buying particular products subconsciously, a well-produced and marketed advert can increase sales revenue for any product. Schwarzkopf hair care & dyes is well known as an alternative to the mainstream hair companies. Hans Schwarzkopf whose first formula in 1903 was an instant hit with his female customers established Schwarzkopf in 1868. The water-soluble powder shampoo, â€Å"The Shampoo with the Black Head†, offered an easy-to-use and value-for-money alternative to the expensive oils and harsh soaps of the time. Since then the brand has continued to grow and is famous for providing striking colours for women with a more adventurous styl e at an affordable price. Their latest advertised product â€Å"Live Unlimited Gloss† hair colour was featured on the back page of Heat magazine issue 533. Heat is the UK’s leading women’s celebrity weekly costing  £1.65 and a target audience of young celebrity conscious women. The target audience for Live Unlimited Gloss hair colour is young women aged 18-25 who want to make a statement with their hair colour and fashions, on a low budget. In the top-right corner of the advert there is the Schwarzkopf logo in silver, set in a black background. To the left of this it says â€Å"111 YEARS Schwarzkopf† in a clear font. This instils confidence in the viewer that the product is of good quality and they will receive the benefits of the company’s long experience. Underneath this, th... ...hine, but also cares for your hair as in the company’s slogan. The third and final bullet-point uses the statistic that â€Å"9 out of 10 women are delighted by the long lasting shine.† The reader is finally persuaded by the largely positive recommendation from other women. By saying the shine is â€Å"long-lasting,† the customer is guaranteed good value for money. In conclusion, this advert from Heat Magazine is very effective in portraying the message of the advert. The advert is subtle, and presents the main feature of shiny hair well, without being too garish and shows Schwarzkopf as being of high quality and professional. Not being someone who colours my hair this product does not interest me directly but I would probably suggest it to another based on this advert. In my opinion, this makes the advert successful as it reaches and is relevant to the target audience.

The Great Compromise, The THRee/5ths Compromise And Tax :: essays research papers

The Great Compromise: The 3/5ths Compromise, and Tax The Great Compromise, the 3/5ths Compromise, and The Bill Of Rights justify that the making of the Constitution was a â€Å"bundle of compromises†. The Great Compromise is the Constitutional Convention’s agreement to establish a two-house national legislature, with all states having equal representation in one house and each state having representation based on its population in the other house. To satisfy the smaller states, each state would have an equal number of votes in the Senate. To satisfy the larger states, the committee set representation in the House of Representatives according to state populations. The Virginia Plan is a plan that proposed a government with three branches and a two-house legislature in which representation would be based on a state’s population or wealth. The first branch as the legislature, which made the laws. The second branch was the executive, which enforced the laws. The third branch was the judiciary, which interpreted the laws. The New Jersey Plan is a plan of government that called for a one-house legislature in which each state received one vote. In providing equal representation to each state, the New Jersey Plan was similar to the Articles of Confederation. The 3/5ths Compromise is the Constitutional Convention’s agreement to count 3/5ths of a state’s slave population for representation and taxation. The southern states had many more slaves than the northern states. The southerners wanted the slaves to be counted as part of the general population for representation but not for taxation. The northerners argued that slaves should not be counted for representation but should be counted for taxation. At the same time that seven of the states ratified the Constitution, they asked that it be amended to include the Bill Of Rights. The Bill Of Rights is the first ten amendments to the US Constitution and consists of a formal list of citizens’ rights and freedoms.

Life and career Essay

Singer’s parents were Viennese Jews who escaped the German annexation of Austria and fled to Australia in 1938. His grandparents were less fortunate; they were taken by the Nazis to Lodz, and were never heard of again. [1] Singer’s father imported tea and coffee, while his mother practised medicine. He attended Scotch College. After leaving school, Singer studied law, history and philosophy at the University of Melbourne, gaining his degree in 1967. He received an MA for a thesis entitled Why should I be moral? n 1969. He was awarded a scholarship to study at the University of Oxford, obtaining a B. Phil in 1971 with a thesis on civil disobedience, supervised by R. M. Hare, and subsequently published as a book in 1973. [2] After spending two years as a Radcliffe lecturer at University College, Oxford, he was visiting professor at New York University for 16 months. He returned to Melbourne in 1977, where he has spent most of his career, apart from many visiting positions internationally, and until his move to Princeton in 1999. Animal LiberationPublished in 1975, Animal Liberation[3] was a major formative influence on the animal liberation movement. Although Singer rejects rights as a moral ideal independent from his utilitarianism based on interests, he accepts rights as derived from utilitarian principles, particularly the principle of minimizing suffering. [4] Singer allows that animal rights are not exactly the same as human rights, writing in Animal Liberation that â€Å"there are obviously important differences between human and other animals, and these differences must give rise to some differences in the rights that each have. [5] So, for example an animal does not have the right to a good education as this is meaningless to him, just as a male human does not have the right to an abortion. But he is no more skeptical of animal rights than of the rights of women, beginning his book by defending just such a comparison against Mary Wollstonecraft’s 18th-century critic Thomas Taylor, who argued that if Wollstonecraft’s reasoning in defense of women’s rights were correct, then â€Å"brutes† would have rights too. Taylor thought he had produced a reductio ad absurdum of Wollstonecraft’s view; Singer regards it as a sound logical implication. Taylor’s modus tollens is Singer’s modus ponens. In Animal Liberation, Singer argues against what he calls speciesism: discrimination on the grounds that a being belongs to a certain species. He holds the interests of all beings capable of suffering to be worthy of equal consideration, and that giving lesser consideration to beings based on their having wings or fur is no more justified than discrimination based on skin color. In particular, he argues that while animals show lower intelligence than the average human, many severely retarded humans show equally diminished mental capacity, and intelligence therefore does not provide a basis for providing nonhuman animals any less consideration than such retarded humans. Singer does not specifically contend that we ought not use animals for food insofar as they are raised and killed in a way that actively avoids the inflicting of pain, but as such farms are few and far between, he concludes that the most practical solution is to adopt a vegetarian or vegan diet. Singer also condemns most vivisection, though he believes animal experiments may be acceptable if the benefit (in terms of improved medical treatment, etc. ) outweighs the harm done to the animals used. [6] Due to the subjectivity of the term â€Å"benefit†, controversy exists about this and other utilitarian views. But he is clear enough that humans of comparable sentience should also be candidates for any animal experimentation that passes the benefit test. So a monkey and a human infant would be equally available for the experiment, from a moral point of view, other things being equal. If performing the experiment on the infant isn’t justifiable, then Singer believes that the experiment shouldn’t happen at all — instead, the researchers should pursue their goals using computer simulations or other methods. Applied ethics His most comprehensive work, Practical Ethics,[7] analyzes in detail why and how beings’ interests should be weighed. His principle of equality encompasses all beings with interests, and it requires equal consideration of those interests, whatever the species. The principle of equal consideration of interests does not dictate equal treatment of all those with interests, since different interests warrant different treatment. All have an interest in avoiding pain, for instance, but relatively few have an interest in cultivating their abilities. Not only does his principle justify different treatment for different interests, but it allows different treatment for the same interest when diminishing marginal utility is a factor, favoring, for instance, a starving person’s interest in food over the same interest of someone who is only slightly hungry. Among the more important human interests are those in avoiding pain, in developing one’s abilities, in satisfying basic needs for food and shelter, in enjoying warm personal relationships, in being free to pursue one’s projects without interference, â€Å"and many others†. The fundamental interest that entitles a being to equal consideration is the capacity for â€Å"suffering and/or enjoyment or happiness†; mice as well as human beings have this interest, but stones and trees do not. He holds that a being’s interests should always be weighed according to that being’s concrete properties, and not according to its belonging to some abstract group such as a species, or a set of possible beings, or an early stage of something with an as yet unactualized potential. He favors a ‘journey’ model of life, which measures the wrongness of taking a life by the degree to which doing so frustrates a life journey’s goals. So taking a life is less wrong at the beginning, when no goals have been set, and at the end, when the goals have either been met or are unlikely to be accomplished. The journey model is tolerant of some frustrated desire, explains why persons who have embarked on their journeys are not replaceable, and accounts for why it is wrong to bring a miserable life into existence. Although sentience puts a being within the sphere of equal consideration of interests, only a personal interest in continuing to live brings the journey model into play. This model also explains the priority that Singer attaches to interests over trivial desires and pleasures. For instance, one has an interest in food, but not in the pleasures of the palate that might distinguish eating steak from eating tofu, because nutrition is instrumental to many goals in one’s life journey, whereas the desire for meat is not and is therefore trumped by the interest of animals in avoiding the miseries of factory farming. In order to avoid bias towards human interests, he requires the idea of an impartial standpoint from which to compare interests. This is an elaboration of the familiar idea of putting oneself in the other’s shoes, adjusted for beings with paws or flippers. He has wavered about whether the precise aim is the total amount of satisfied interests, or instead the most satisfied interests among those beings who already exist prior to the decision one is making. Both have liabilities. The total view, for instance, seems to lead to Derek Parfit’s Repugnant Conclusion[8] — that is, it seems to imply that it’s morally better to have an enormous population with lives barely worth living rather than a smaller population with much happier lives. The prior-existence view, on the other hand, seems questionably indifferent to the harm or benefit one can do to those who are brought into existence by one’s decisions. The second edition of Practical Ethics disavows the first edition’s suggestion that the total and prior-existence views should be combined in such a way that the total view applies to sentient beings who are not self-conscious and the prior-existence view applies to those who are. This would mean that rats and human infants are replaceable — their painless death is permissible as long as they are replaced — whereas human adults and other persons in Singer’s expanded sense, including great apes, are not replaceable. The second edition dispenses with the requirement of replacement and the consequent high population numbers for sentient beings. It asserts that preference-satisfaction utilitarianism, incorporating the ‘journey’ model, applies without invoking the first edition’s suggestion about the total view. But the details are fuzzy and Singer admits that he is â€Å"not entirely satisfied† with his treatment of choices that involve bringing beings into existence. Ethical conduct is justifiable by reasons that go beyond prudence to â€Å"something bigger than the individual,† addressing a larger audience. Singer thinks this going-beyond identifies moral reasons as â€Å"somehow universal†, specifically in the injunction to ‘love thy neighbor as thyself’, interpreted by him as demanding that one give the same weight to the interests of others as one gives to one’s own interests. This universalizing step, which Singer traces from Kant to Hare, is crucial and sets him apart from moral theorists from Hobbes to David Gauthier, who regard that step as flatly irrational. Universalization leads directly to utilitarianism, Singer argues, on the strength of the thought that my own interests cannot count for more than the interests of others. Taking these into account, one must weigh them up and adopt the course of action that is most likely to maximize the interests of those affected; utilitarianism has been arrived at. Singer’s universalizing step applies to interests without reference to who has them, whereas a Kantian’s applies to the judgments of rational agents (in Kant’s kingdom of ends, or Rawls’s Original Position, etc. ). Singer regards Kantian universalization as unjust to animals. It’s their capacity for suffering/happiness that matters morally, not their deficiency with respect to rational judgment. As for the Hobbesians, Singer attempts a response in the final chapter of Practical Ethics, arguing that self-interested reasons support adoption of the moral point of view, such as ‘the paradox of hedonism’, which counsels that happiness is best found by not looking for it, and the need most people feel to relate to something larger than their own concerns. Abortion, euthanasia and infanticide Consistent with his general ethical theory, Singer holds that the right to physical integrity is grounded in a being’s ability to suffer, and the right to life is grounded in, among other things, the ability to plan and anticipate one’s future. Since the unborn, infants and severely disabled people lack the latter (but not the former) ability, he states that abortion, painless infanticide and euthanasia can be justified in certain special circumstances, for instance in the case of severely disabled infants whose life would cause suffering both to themselves and to their parents. In his view the central argument against abortion is It is wrong to kill an innocent human being; a human fetus is an innocent human being; therefore it is wrong to kill a human fetus. He challenges the second premise, on the grounds that its reference to human beings is ambiguous as between human beings in the zoological sense and persons as rational and self-conscious. There is no sanctity of human life that confers moral protection on human beings in the zoological sense. Until the capacity for pain develops after â€Å"18 weeks of gestation†, abortion terminates an existence that has no intrinsic value (as opposed to the value it might have in virtue of being valued by the parents or others). As it develops the features of a person, it has moral protections that are comparable to those that should be extended to nonhuman life as well. He also rejects a backup argument against abortion that appeals to potential: It is wrong to kill a potential human being; a human fetus is a potential human being; therefore it is wrong to kill a human fetus. The second premise is more plausible, but its first premise is less plausible, and Singer denies that what is potentially an X should have the same value or moral rights as what is already an X. Against those who stress the continuity of our existence from conception to adulthood, he poses the example of an embryo in a dish on a laboratory bench, which he calls Mary. Now if it divides into two identical embryos, there is no way to answer the question whether Mary dies, or continues to exist, or is replaced by Jane and Susan. These are absurd questions, he thinks, and their absurdity casts doubt on the view that the embryo is a human being in the morally significant sense. Singer classifies euthanasia as voluntary, involuntary, or non-voluntary. (For possible similar historical definitions of euthanasia see Karl Binding, Alfred Hoche and Werner Catel. ) Given his consequentialist approach, the difference between active and passive euthanasia is not morally significant, for the required act/omission doctrine is untenable; killing and letting die are on a moral par when their consequences are the same. Voluntary euthanasia, undertaken with the consent of the subject, is supported by the autonomy of persons and their freedom to waive their rights, especially against a legal background such as the guidelines developed by the courts in the Netherlands. Non-voluntary euthanasia at the beginning or end of life’s journey, when the capacity to reason about what is at stake is undeveloped or lost, is justified when swift and painless killing is the only alternative to suffering for the subject.

Concealment in the Twelfth Night

British Literature: Concealment in Twelfth Night Throughout Twelfth Night, concealment influences each character’s life because it’s essential to portray how falsehood can be amusing or agonizing before they can discover their identity in life. Therefore, the concept of concealment not only affects the characters’ mistaken identities and abilities to express true love, but it gives the story comedic and entertaining qualities.Furthermore, concealment portrayed throughout this story makes each character develop an identity with either showing cleverness or madness, while it also makes each character realize the principles towards obtaining love and truth. For instance, Viola's disguise as Cesario and Feste’s costume as Sir Topas shows that they are both clever and amusing which causes characters to experience deception and confusion until their identities are revealed.With this in mind, concealment not only deludes characters from reality, but it exposes th e abundance of true love among Viola, Orsino, Olivia, Sebastian, Maria and Sir Toby, which leads to three marriages within the story. Nevertheless, concealment causes the people to experience deceptions and illusions, but also provides humor concerning the morality of human behavior. Moreover, the first example of concealment during the Twelfth Night is Viola's disguise as Cesario.Viola’s concealment is central to the plot because it is clearly evident that the fluctuation in attitude to the dual role and the situations and tribulations imposed upon the character Viola/Cesario, ends up creating a better understanding of both sexes and thus, allows Viola to have a better understanding of Orsino. For instance, at the end of the story when Orsino finally realizes who Cesario is, he professes his love to Viola by saying: â€Å"When that is known, and golden time convents, A solemn combination shall be made Of our dear souls.Meantime, sweet sister, We will not part from hence. Ce sario, come- For so you shall be, while you are a man; But when in other habits you are seen, Orsino’s mistress and his fancy’s queen† (5. 1. 352-358). Consequently, Viola learns that in the role of Cesario, she had to be quick on her feet and defend the probing questions and statements as to her love and others love for her. Also, she acquired the skill to bide her time, until the time was right, in case she reveal her true self or intentions.The disguise also prevents Viola from expressing her love for Orsino, it contributes to the dramatic ironies by causing complications of mistaken identity. Moreover, Viola cannot show her love for Orsino, the only way she can express them is in her soliloquies to the reader, this contributes to the dramatic ironies. For example, when Viola conveys to Orsino what Olivia told her concerning love by saying: â€Å"A blank, my lord. She never told her love, But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud, Feed on her damask cheek. She pined in thought, And with a green and yellow melancholyShe sat like patience on a monument, Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed? We men may say more, swear more, but indeed Our shows are more than will, for still we prove Much in our vows, but little in our love† (2. 4. 108-115). There are many examples of concealment concerning Viola alone, which enables her to work for Orsino as a messenger: it causes Olivia to fall in love with her and it causes both of them to disguise their feelings from each other until Orsino becomes aware that Cesario is Viola. Concealment also causes mistaken identity.For example, Sir Andrew goes looking for Cesario, strikes him, finds out later it is, Sebastian. Sebastian hits him in return, but sevenfold, and Sebastian having been in Illyria only a few days is proposed to by a beautiful lady and is hit by a man he had never seen before, † Why, there’s for thee, and there, and there! Are all the people mad? â€Å"(4. 1. 16-1 7). This is a funny series of events started by the disguise of one single woman. It is evident therefore, that the disguises of Viola / Cesario as an example are very important and central to the plot.Also, it portrays how some characters are deceived about their true nature. An example of this is when Orsino sees himself becoming Olivia’s sweet perfections, fulfilling her sexual desire, thought and feeling. He naively believes that he is in love with Olivia when he has never really spoken with her. Another example is Olivia adopting the pretence of mourning and the puritanical Malvolio is tricked into the role of Olivia's suitor and becomes a smiling courtier. As a result, oncealment contributes to most of the comedy because there is the occasion when Feste dresses up as Sir Topas and Sir Toby brings the joke to an end out of self interest than any concern for Malvolio.Feste uses a black parson's gown, which is, ironically, the color normally associated with Malvolio, who i n contrast is dressed in bright colors. This reversal provides a visible symbol of just how thoroughly his pride has been humiliated. Feste says, â€Å"There is no darkness but ignorance† and Malvolio's ignorance has been ruthlessly exposed, although he was ignorant to think that Olivia loved him in the first place (4. . 33). It is the verbal and character comedy of Sir Topas, showing how humor comes from the rapid switching of roles and, if rather uneasily, from the deception of Malvolio. There are also more subtle examples of concealment in the Twelfth Night, the nature of characters as well as their identities are disguised. In the letter to Malvolio, Sir Toby Belch disguises his real motives behind his show of friendship for Sir Andrew. Illyria could also be a disguised England, not many people had traveled in Shakespeare's day and so perhaps he made up Illyria to be a fantasy England.This place could be where all stereotypes of English people get up to a variety of thing s, creating familiar stereotypes in a slightly different setting. Perhaps also, Shakespeare wishes to show his audience how ready humans are to disguise themselves: Orsino and Olivia are both disguising their feelings, Malvolio's vanity and illusions about himself and his mistress help in his humiliation. The irony is that Orsino and Olivia are led to face reality by the characters Viola and Sebastian, who are at the center of the confusion over identity.Disguised characters were a stock convention of comedy, but Shakespeare uses the device to give it wider significance. The play makes us consider what our beliefs are about ourselves and others based upon. Therefore, in conclusion, it can be seen how very important and significant the theme of concealment is. Many forms of concealment featured in the play portray how  emotions and intentions are disguised behind an outer appearance, pretence or an attitude in which the characters possess within each situation.Concealment connects the story, the characters and the different scenes in the play. However, if there wasn’t concealment in the Twelfth Night, there wouldn’t be any humor reflecting the conflicts or problems, which influences the characters’ lives with understanding the truth about love and what causes illusion/deception.Bibliography Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night. The Longman Anthology of British Literature. Ed. David Damrosch et al. 4th ed. New York: Longman, 2009. Vol. 1B. pp. 1217-1272.

Hamlet Thesis

Hamlet Thesis Statement In the play Hamlet, William Shakespeare writes of a tragedy in which Hamlet and Laertes both face the same problem-a murdered father. The paths of revenge that each of them take, parallel their characters and personalities throughout the play. While Hamlet broods over the murder of his father for the majority of the play, Laertes takes immediate action, and upon hearing about the death of his father, he rushes in and is ready to kill Claudius-whom he suspects has killed his father. When they first hear the news of their father’s death, Hamlet and Laertes react in very different ways.When Hamlet hears that Claudius was the one who killed his father, his immediate reaction was grief. This is no surprise, due to the fact that he was still mourning the death of his father, although everyone else had already gotten over it. In fact, most people thought that he was overdoing it ,and Claudius went so far as to tell him that he should get over it, and â€Å"Ye t so far hath discretion fought with nature that we with wisest sorrow think on him together with remembrance of ourselves† (act one, scene two).The way that Hamlet plans his revenge, is more intelligent than the way Laertes plans his. While Hamlet is a more intellectual person, as we can see from his quick wit and sarcasm, Laertes is more impulsive and â€Å"acts, then thinks† as we can see when he says â€Å"I am justly killed with mine own treachery† (act five, scene two). In such a situation, had the play not ended the way it did, Hamlet may have been more successful in avenging his father’s murder because of his responsibility and intellect.Despite the fact that Hamlet procrastinates, Hamlet was smarter in the way he planned his revenge because his procrastination was due to his grief and foresight. Although Laertes trait of acting quickly can be admired and gets the job done, in a situation that involves death and vengeance, strategy and discretion a re a must. From the beginning of the play, we can see that Hamlet is an intellectual thinker. Although he believes the ghost and pronounces that â€Å"it is an honest ghost† (act one, scene five) , he still takes precautions after he promises the ghost that he will take revenge.However, Hamlet is still a little wary of the ghost and therefor decides to feign madness so that he would be able to find out if Claudius was the true killer of his father. Even while feigning madness Hamlet thinks about the whole process of the madness. Unlike Laertes, Hamlet is careful not to disclose what the ghost has told him and only imparts to Horatio and Marcellus what happened when they swear on his sword that they would never speak of what they saw from that point on.One of the reasons why Hamlet is such a procrastinator is because he becomes caught up in the details and potential consequences. In the soliloquy of â€Å"to be or not to be† (act three, scene two) Hamlet loses the will to live and ponders whether it is worth it to exist. Due to the fact that Hamlet suffered the death of his father at a young age as well as well as many other hardships, Hamlet contemplates whether â€Å"Tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against the sea of troubles and by opposing, end them?To die: to sleep; no more;† (act three, scene two). However, after that, Hamlet mentions the potential consequences of the unknown after death. Due to the death of his father and his mother’s hasty remarriage which Hamlet does not approve of, Hamlet is well aware of the consequences of his actions and therefore is hesitant to act rashly. When planning his revenge, Hamlet does not jump to conclusions. When the players come, Hamlet asks them to perform â€Å"The Mousetrap†-a play of a murder similar to that of Hamlet's father's.Hamlet hopes that â€Å"The plays the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the kingâ €  (act two, scene two). Indeed, the plan worked and when Claudius stormed out of the theatre, all of Hamlets suspicions were confirmed. As Hamlet so eloquently noted, â€Å"What, frightened with false fire? †, (act three, scene two) Hamlet was now positive that Claudius was at fault for murdering his father. Another thing that slows Hamlet down in his plan of revenge is that he is a religious catholic, and he is very concerned about mortality.Hamlet is scared that if he kills Claudius, his father’s murderer, his soul will be damned. Hamlet is also scared that if he kills Claudius while he is praying, Claudius will go to heaven and that would not please Hamlet because he said that â€Å"A villain kills my father, and, for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven† (act three, scene three). Contrary to Hamlet, Laertes followed the passion in his heart. As soon as he returned from France and heard the news, he invaded the palace, and then asked the questions- the complete opposite of Hamlet.When Laertes hears that Hamlet killed his father, he expresses intense anger and openly announces his plan to take revenge. In his rage, Laertes yells that â€Å"Let what comes come, only I’ll be revenged most thoroughly for my father† (act four, scene five) and makes up his mind to take revenge no matter how or where. When Hamlet heard that his father had been murdered by Claudius, he had already been grieving his father’s death for a while and although the pain was still fresh, his father’s death was old news to him.Therefore, Hamlet was still able to think rationally and plan his revenge in a more intelligent manner. However, when Laertes heard about his father’s murder, he was so grief stricken that he could not think rationally and just followed what his heart told him- to kill Hamlet. Unlike Hamlet, Laertes has no problem â€Å"to cut his throat i' th' church! †(Act four, scene seven). To Laertes, mortality doesn't mean alot, as he so bluntly puts it- â€Å"Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit! I dare damnation. † (Act four, scene five) Due to his impulsive nature, Laertes tends to be unstable at times.However, Claudius, who suspects Hamlets unusual behavior, joins forces with Laertes to devise a plan to kill Hamlet. This proves a weakness of Laertes'- being unable to carry out his plans singlehandedly. Together, they scheme to kill Hamlet and even come up with a backup plan in case the first one does not go as planned. In the end, his plan of using a poisoned sword backfires when Hamlet ends up using the poisoned sword on him. When weighing in the pros and cons of each of their personalities and flaws, Hamlet took the smarter route in avenging his father’s murder.Although both Hamlet and Laertes die at the end of the play, the reason Hamlet kills himself is because he had nothing to live for. Ophelia, the love of his life was dead, his father was dead and Claudius had died. Since he had nothing to live for, he chose the option of death. On the other hand, Laertes had no choice in the matter because his plan backfired on him and killed him, as we see at the end. Hamlets patience paid off because he, Hamlet achieved his goal, and Laertes, the son of a fishmonger, did not.