A World Lit Only by Fire: the Medieval Mind and the Renaissance

In the first section of William Manchester’s A World Lit Only By Fire, we are taken into a world that is vastly different from our own, and we see a kind of attitude which is rarely seen today. Manchester stresses the fact that the peasants in the Dark Ages had no knowledge of what was happening in the rest of the world. In our age of twenty-four-hour news networks and instantaneous access to information from across the globe through the internet, it is hard to fathom that if we were still living in the Dark Ages most of us would be completely oblivious to the activities of the rest of the world outside of our small village.Manchester also points out that the common people in the Dark Ages had no conception of time. Most would not have known what century it was, let alone the specific date. For most peasants, time passed in a cycle of seasons, and they only needed to know the days of the week in order to know when it was the Sabbath. This is in stark contrast to the life of a modern man. We can know time down to the second. And we need to know time with greater precision. While the peasants of the Dark Ages needed only to recognize the passing of the seasons and when the Sabbath was, modern man often needs to know the time of day precisely.We are constantly on a schedule. School and work starts at a certain time, and we must be there on time. Another fascinating difference which Manchester points out is the fact that most of the peasants did not have surnames and were either referred to by their first name alone, or by a nickname. I found this very strange. Manchester does a good job of showing the differences between the modern mind and the medieval mind. Being aware of these differences allows the reader to appreciate the huge impact that the Renaissance had on Europe.Now in the next section of A World Lit Only by Fire, entitled â€Å"The Shattering,† Manchester shows us several events that â€Å"shattered† beliefs during the Renaissance. Most of these had something to do with the Church at the time because religion was one of the most important parts of Medieval and Renaissance life. The first event that shattered beliefs and changed life did not immediately cause a revolution but had a long-lasting impact on the future of Christianity. That event was the dissemination of the works of Erasmus.With his constant criticism of the Church and his calls for papal reform, he proved that one could criticize the church without being a radical revolutionary, for Erasmus was a devout Catholic. Before Erasmus, few had dared to criticize the Roman Church and those who did were not taken seriously. However, with his satires, Erasmus appealed to all classes of people and gave the people the encouragement to call for reform and criticize the Church. This may have influenced Martin Luther, even though he disliked Erasmus’ work, to nail his 95 Theses to the Castle Church door at Wittenberg.The fact that Erasmus was widely pop ular also contributed to the change in the thinking that anyone who criticized the church would be damned to hell. Even though Erasmus didn’t do anything as revolutionary as Martin Luther, his brilliant satires were able to change the mindset of Europeans and may have enabled, against his own wishes, the Protestant Reformation. The next event discussed by Manchester is the Reformation itself. Sparked by Martin Luther’s outrage at the sale of indulgences, this is the event that split Christianity in half.Those loyal to the existing Christian Church headed by the Pope became known as Roman Catholics, and those who were not loyal to that Church formed different Protestant Churches. Before the Reformation there was one authoritative representative of the word of God; i. e. , the Pope. Most Christian literature was in Latin, but since Latin was essentially a dead language, most people could not read or understand it, and this helped the Church maintain control of Christians of the age. Within this system, freedom of religious thought was extremely limited.Saying anything that contradicted the pope could get you labeled as a heretic and sentenced to jail, or even death. After the Reformation, several different Churches formed and as they formed, they warred with each other. The pope was no longer the supreme head of Christianity as he had been before the Reformation. Bibles where published in living languages. All kinds of opinions were published in pamphlets. One undesirable consequence of the Reformation was the different sects fighting with each other.Each different sect believed it represented the one true religion. Fighting between sects became common. Fighting between Catholics and Protestants was rife. Protestants burned Roman Catholic churches, smashing mosaics and statues, and even killing innocent women and clergy. The Roman Church started its notorious Inquisition, which was especially violent in Spain. Before the Reformation there was only one Christian Church so religious violence in Europe was rare, but after the Reformation religious violence and persecution became commonplace.The Reformation was a major turning point in the history of Christianity. Without it, America today would be a different country, since many settlers in early America came to escape religious persecution. Manchester’s section on the Reformation is therefore perhaps the most important section in the book. In the last section of A World Lit Only by Fire, entitled â€Å"One Man Alone,† Manchester writes about Ferdinand Magellan and his circumnavigation of the globe.In this section, Manchester takes time to go into extremely fine detail about Magellan’s voyage in order to explain what type of man Magellan was, and, more importantly, to show how big the odds were against his actually finishing his voyage. Manchester seems to idolize Magellan, in part because Magellan wasn’t seeking fame or wealth, but instead simply had a dream and was determined to make it a reality, something that I think most people can respect.

International Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

International Marketing - Essay Example Franchising is defined by Czinkota et al as â€Å"the granting of the right by a parent company (the franchisor/ franchiser) to another, independent entity (the franchisee) to do business in a prescribed manner. (2011). 4. The Toronto headquarters must the proceed to design the corporate strategy of DHL Canada. Corporate strategy encompasses â€Å"the long-term, organisation-wide strategy for a business, formulated by top-level managers† (Johnson, Scholes and Whittington, 2009). In doing this, we must get accurate information about important elements of doing business across Canada, namely an Operational Model, Legal Model, Marketing Strategy and Franchising Model. 5. The Operational Model must define how logistics and goods will be moved from one point to another to Canada. This will involve the identification of warehousing, transportation and other systems that would be used. In doing this, we will need to globalise or localise. If we globalise, it would mean that we will maintain the standards in the home country of DHL in Canada. If we decide to localise, we will examine the way other courier companies work and marketing conditions in Canada and then define a different operational model from the scratch. I recommend a mixed strategy of globalisation and localisation. This will enable us to be flexible in drawing up operational requirements for the company. 6. After this, we have to define the legal requirements for our franchising agreements. We will identify the capital base that each franchisee needs and the rules that they have to follow. Also, the contributions they will make to the company for marketing costs will be defined. Additionally, Franchising fees will be given and a timeline for meeting requirements will also be given. 8. When the major planning activities are completed, we can come up with a time, budgetary and resource

BAD MEAT CONTAMINANTS IN FAST FOOD RESTAURANTS Essay

BAD MEAT CONTAMINANTS IN FAST FOOD RESTAURANTS - Essay Example The food item that has to be discussed in this perspective is meat. Fast food industry as known is a rapidly growing industry, and in order to meet their demands they made many changes in the usual process, as they considerably altered the slaughter and meat packing processes. Millions of diced beef pieces are demanded by the fast food restaurants everyday in order to meet their demands of hamburger patties. Meat packing industries first situated in the cities but with the rapid grown sale of hamburgers, conditions are created that meat packing plants are shifted to the remote areas(Segal, 1998 pg 5). Now in remote areas as compared to the cities no skilled labor is available, who slaughter the animal and make meat without considering the health and safety issues which as result augments the contamination of meat. In most of the cases it is observed that fast food restaurants employed large number of underage unskilled labors, just to save their initial cost but that multiplies the contamination of meat because they do not how to cook and how to store and preserve cooked and non-cooked meat. If we analyze this issue in the broader spectrum then we comprehend that meat contamination can be caused because of many factors like biological, chemical and physical. Meat contaminated because of biological factors like bacteria and parasites, because of chemical factors that are caused because of poor performance of workers, poor cleaning conditions and sanitation like food additives, bleaches and in last because of physical factors which are again caused because of the sluggish labor like dirt and broken crockery, because fits created when the joint is applied after the crockery breaks germs gets accumulated there (Schlosser, 2002 pg 4) Meat is also contaminated through cross contamination process, means to say that as we know, working load is so much on the cook or

Mergers and acquisitions-B Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Mergers and acquisitions-B - Coursework Example Are any Sell-Offs Likely? 10 7. Risk – Given that the Majority of Takeovers Destroy Shareholder Value, What Are the Major Risks? 11 Conclusion 13 References 14 Introduction Evidences reveal that M&As can be quite risky to lead the pathway of the acquiring company’s destruction and on the other hand, be highly beneficial to assist the company in the attainment of its long-term objectives. Despite the immense risk, companies opt for M&As in order to gain the benefits of operational leap, integration, larger customer base, channels and higher competencies (Galpin & Herdon, 2007). One of the most risky acquisitions in the recent past can be identified as the acquisition of National Westminster Bank (NatWest) by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in the year 2000. It is recorded as one of the most daring acquisitions, due to the fact that during the period of acquiring NatWest, RBS was recognised to be smaller than the target company. It took a great effort from RBS’s e nd to complete the deal and rewarded it the reputation of one of the leaders in the British Banking Industry (Larsen, 2007). With this concern, the paper will examine the entire process of acquisition considering the various aspects, such as strategic fitness of NatWest, regulatory factors influencing the process, justification of the valuation of acquisition, defence tactics applied, implementation of integration and risks involved in the acquisition. 1. Strategy – How Does The Target Company Appear To Fit into the Acquirer’s Long-Term Strategy? According to the experts, strategic fitness of the target company in M&A is considered to be one of the most significant aspects while determining the plan. Because, underneath every M&A the observed motive of the acquiring company or the merging companies are to increase the value of the two companies together which would be more than the sum of the total values of both the companies. Strategic fit of the target company, thus , holds a significant position to increase the overall value of the acquirer (Lee & Pennings, 1996). The strategic fit of the acquisition and the target company can be analysed in depth considering the fact that M&As are often termed as a past of the strategic objective of the acquirer to attain growth and higher competency (Edinburgh Business School, 2008). The objective can be well identified in the acquisition of NatWest by RBS. It was a horizontal acquisition, which means that the target company and the acquirer belonged to similar product line and also to a similar cultural background. This reduced the constraints in terms of cultural divergences. The prime objective of the acquisition depended on the fact that RBS was facing major difficulties in terms of shrinking stock prices to approx 32% and required growth. Similarly, with an increased competition and reducing market share led by the falling stock price and increased operational costs; NatWest opted to go for an M&A in or der to survive in the industry (Mahar & Polson, 2003). Being three times larger than RBS, NatWest was able to reward a higher market share and increased balance sheet value quite instantly after the acquisition with a paid bid of ?21 billion (NatWest, n.d). Subsequently, the stock price of RBS increased rapidly over the next two years (Mahar & Polson, 2003). Therefore, it is quite apparent that the acquisition proved to be a successful one in the short-term as well as in the long-term perspective. The market

Successful Marketing Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Successful Marketing - Case Study Example Whatever, Anything, a local Singaporean beverages product manufactured by Out of the Box Pte., has successfully met the challenges of the prospect of intense competition and has successfully penetrated into this seemingly closed market. Even though the market situation, as outlined above, communicates the impression of the beverages' market as a closed one, this is not entirely true. The key is marketing. Maoz and Tybout (2002) contend that a well-design marketing campaign is based on the accurate identification of the product's most likely consumer segment and speaks to potential consumers in their language, addressing their needs and even personality traits/quirks, A marketing campaign which subscribes to the principles of advertising and communication excellence will facilitate a new form/product's successful entry into an otherwise closed and highly competitive market. But what is excellence in marketing, communications and advertising According to Hastings and Saren (2003), the theory of excellence in marketing is predicated on the principles of social marketing and interpersonal communication or, at least, the impression of it. In order to give the impression of interpersonal communication with consumers and, as such, garner their loyalty to the product, it is imperative that both the nature of the product meet consumer expectations and demands and the campaign in question combine between public relations and social marketing (Hastings and Soren, 2003). Expounding upon the characteristics of successful campaigns, Barlow-Hills and Soren (2003) begin with the concepts of product choice and innovation. The product must address a market need or aspiration and, within the context of highly competitive markets, be innovative enough to attract consumer attention. While the fulfillment of this first requirement invaluably contributes to the market success of a product, success is ultimately predicated on the marketing and communications campaign which introduces the product to consumer and incites an interest in it, and desire for its possession. Such a campaign, according to Barlow-Hills and Soren (2003) is characterized by innovativeness, on the one hand, and the exploitation of the language and the lifestyles of its targeted consumer market segment, on the other. Whatever, Anything fulfils the two requirements for success outlined in the preceding. The product, per se, may not be innovative since, as already mentioned, the beverages market is practically saturated with drinks to suit all tastes and age groups. Anything is a group of carbonated and Whatever a group of non-carbonated cold drinks. In other words, the product is not new in itself and hardly offers consumers something which is not already present in the market. What is new is the concept behind the product. Both Whatever and Anything come in six different flavors each but are packaged in generic cans with non-identifiers. Accordingly, the customer does not know which flavor he/she will receive, bringing the element of surprise into the equation. in other words, even though the product is not innovative, its manufactures, Out of the Box Pte., imposed innovation upon it through its packaging. It is, thus, that the first requirement for successful marketing was satisfied - product in novation. The

Written Assignment #5 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Written Assignment #5 - Essay Example because of their association with big organization, and their capability to purchase and stock high volume commodities, act as a distributor of the product. Traditionally, wholesalers were believed to be just an intermediary in the channel with no value addition to the customers, because of the common perception that value addition is done by the retailers only, who sell the final goods. But in the context of ever changing marketing scenario, this has been modified. Customers demand more and have higher expectations from their suppliers, especially distributors. Out of stock for a long time after placing order increases the lead time which is not desirable and it may result in customer penalizing both the wholesaler and the retailer for the incomplete order. Today, customer loyalty is based on supplier performance. Performance is both in terms of quality and timely delivery of the specified products. Customers’ ever increasing expectation of the value added services provided w ith the requirement without any additional cost has been responsible for exerting enormous pressure to the retailers. Thus, in order to handle the requirements, wholesalers must step forward and take proactive actions in terms of close integration with the customers by simplification of the distribution process in a timely and cost effective way and must ensure that the customers are perceiving value added services as unique (udel.edu, n.d.). Potential of the Internet as an efficient and effective communication channel appeared obvious due to the ease of global reach; ease of access; enhanced interactivity; speedy and flexible transaction of large amounts of information in a cost effective way and maintenance easiness (Pyle, 1996; Jones & Visayasarthy, 1998). Modern wholesalers and retailers are dependent on internet in the following

Choose a topic of interest to you that relates to couples or families Essay

Choose a topic of interest to you that relates to couples or families. (I'll attach the instructions) - Essay Example It is true that â€Å"one out of every two marriages ends in divorce† in the current trend (Ambert, 2009). One of the common reasons for divorce to occur in today’s modern day scenario is misunderstanding amid the partners. While discussing the topic of divorce, it can be affirmed that husbands and wives have no time for each other to spend time as they remains quite busy in earning money and saving the same more for future (Bruze et al., 2012). In this process, they forget to enjoy their lives and thus end up divorcing each other. Moreover, there are several other reasons for divorce to happen such as age issue, stress level, cheating and extra marital affair. Divorce imposes huge impact in the lives of the people especially when it occurs in the mid age. It is emotionally distressing and has negative impact on the life of the people, children and the surrounding. It leads to depression, loneliness and gives rise to the feeling of betrayal and failure among oneself (Mo ntenegro, 2004). The Brondenbrenner’s Model, which is also acknowledged as Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory tends to determine the association prevailing between the individuals and their related environment. This particular theory or model is often used to analyse the psychological issues faced by the individuals due to several environmental systems. The model comprises environmental systems that range from â€Å"interpersonal interaction to broad based influence†. The individual level of this model is regarded as a vital aspect as it expresses a relation between the environment and the human behaviour. It relates to psychological dilemma that an individual face after undergoing divorce. It is usually observed that the rate of divorce is usually more amid the adults whose age range falls under the age of 50 and above (Erikson, n.d.). Similar facts can be justified with reference to the article â€Å"The Gray Divorce Revolution: Rising Divorce Among Middle-Aged and Older Adul ts,