International
Essays

Scientology: Its Origins and Its Implications for Society

This paper discussed the issues regarding the study of the practice of consumption as a cultural and sociological issue. The paper briefly outlines and compares the conceptual frameworks and theoretical assumptions of: a) Marxist and critical approaches, and, b) cultural anthropological approaches such as those from Warde who criticize the notion of consumption as free choice.

This paper discusses the attack on Fort Hood by Nidal Hasan. Hasan was convicted of multiple counts of murder. The United States government has chosen to label the shooting as an act of workplace violence. They have refused to label the shooting as an act of terror, despite the fact that Hasan was a radical Islamist who consorted with other terrorists. His crime should be classified as an act of terror.

When a disease is described as endemic, it usually refers to the expected or normal prevalence of an infectious agent for a specific group or region (Beaglehole, Bonita, and Kjellstrom, 1993).

This paper offers an analysis of current market conditions at a major supermarket retailer: Whole Foods. Whole Foods operates in an niche corner of the supermarket industry, emphasizing organic, specialty, and international gourmet goods. It is subject to many of the pressures endemic to the entire food industry,however, such as operating on a low profit margin and being subject to limited supplies due to unforeseen events like weather conditions.

The objective of this study is to determine whether gun control laws will serve to bring about a reduction in the number of homicides in the United States. Toward this end this study will conduct an extensive review of literature in this area of inquiry. This study has reviewed the most pertinent published reports on the effectiveness of gun control laws on reducing murder rates. The findings in this study unequivocally show that bans on gun ownership do not reduce homicide rates and in fact, bans on gun ownership appear to be effective at just the opposite or that being that bans on gun ownership result in higher homicide rates. The rationale stated in the studies reviewed for this phenomenon is that individuals committing crimes are deterred from those crimes by the thought that the victim of the crime may likely be in possession of a gun to protect themselves, their family and their property and that this fact deters many would-be criminals. Findings in this study additionally include that bans on gun ownership does not reduce the numbers of criminals who own guns but reduces instead the numbers of law abiding citizens who own guns which would explain the rationale for the reduction of crimes in states that do not have bans on gun ownership. In other words, in states where gun ownership is banned, law abiding citizens will abide by the law and be without the advantage of the protection of a gun whereas criminals, who do not abide by the laws and who have no regards for what is or is not legal, will purchase guns off of the black market and own a gun despite bans on gun ownership. Therefore, the outcome of laws that ban gun ownership seem to be that the individuals who need the gun to protect themselves, their family and their property are left defenseless against the criminal element who will own guns regardless of any laws banning gun ownership. In light of these findings it would be ludicrous and even counterproductive in fighting crime to remove guns from the hands of the law abiding citizenry since they are the ones most in need of guns to protect themselves, their family and their property from criminals who are already in possession of and who will continue to ensure that they own guns despite laws to the contrary.

European and International Environmental Laws Research Essay

Wal-Mart is the world's leading corporation in the retail industry. It operates in 27 countries of the world with 69 well-recognized brands. With this huge scale of operations and vast business network, Wal-Mart serves a large number of customers with numerous product categories in its retail stores, departmental stores, and discount stores. It is also considered as the fastest growing business corporation in the Global retail industry. It has a huge supply chain network with highly reliable suppliers, distributors, and promotional firms from all the corners of the world. Wal-Mart has always pursued growth strategies for its business operations in the Global market.

Wal-Mart is the name that is well-known to all the households these days because it has established itself as the largest retailer the world over. The sales of Wal-Mart are growing with every passing day as the sales totaled up to more than $280 billion, according to the reports published in 2004. However, it should be noted Wal-Mart did not appear on the international with more than 4500 stores in 14 different countries and with a workforce of 1.5 million over a small period of time. From the very beginning, Wal-Mart worked day in and day out to make sure that it develops the right strategies that would help it to become a success; both at the national and the global level.

This is an overview of supply chain management. It discusses how SCM can be used to create a competitive advantage and uses Apple and Wal-Mart as examples of different strategies. Apple relies on a heavily outsourced supply chain that is able to meet its needs based on quality and innovation. Wal-Mart on the other hand manages its supply chain internally and has built one of the world's most sophisticated supply chain and logistical system in which it uses as its competitive advantage.