Topic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Subject - Essay Example In this way, according to Epicurus, each individual is allowed to lead the sort of life one needs to lead and to pick the qualities that one regards and thinks about holy and commendable. Henceforth, it hushes up unrealistic to comprehend the creeds of Epicureanism, without paying regard to the significance that Epicurus enriches on unrestrained choice and the human ability to take part in reasonable dynamic. Therefore, the restriction proposed by Epicurus in the circle of basic living and miserliness should be comprehended in the light of these intrinsic human limits. According to Epicurus there is a breaking point to basic living and any individual enjoying the limits of straightforward living is as likely of being wrong as the person who takes part in productive lavishness. According to Epicurus, each individual will in general look for delight throughout everyday life. To place it in straightforward words, every single individual will in general yearn for a real existence that is invested with a proportion of satisfaction and joy. The qualities like trustworthiness, judiciousness and equity stop to hold a realistic and reasonable significance on the off chance that an individual’s life is absolutely without delight. ... Epicurus recommends that while selecting a suitable decision in the issues or effortlessness and so far as that is concerned some other worth, one needs to discover the measure of delight and torment it would prompt and along these lines ought to choose matters while gauging the one against the other. According to Epicurus, â€Å"Necessity is an awful thing, yet there is no need to live with need (36).† Thereby, in the event that one will in general interpret the Epicurean way of thinking in the issues of straightforward living, it sufficiently gets clear that Epicurus eagerly remains against any such thought of basic living that not just increases the substance of torment throughout everyday life, yet additionally denies one of the negligible necessities required to lead a productive and cheerful life. Limits of straightforward living open life to a circumstance of lack and need that in the long run offers approach to torment and hurt. Epicurus cautions the human acumen again st crediting to this thought of having a basic existence that superfluously expands torment and need and thus weakens joy or satisfaction. According to Epicurus, â€Å"Life is demolished by delay and all of us kicks the bucket without appreciating relaxation (36).† Thereby, it gets peaceful clear that Epicurus is absolutely hostile of clinging to limits, regardless of whether it be carrying on with an amazingly basic life that is parsimonious in its methodology and denies the human experience of all joy, or holding fast to an existence of wickedness and indulgence, which power the human cognizance to make involves in the mission for outrageous joy, and along these lines in the long run getting buried in the marsh of agony and deficiency. In this manner, the Epicurean methodology towards the matter of carrying on with a straightforward life is one of control and equalization, which on the

Kes the Play

kes In this task I am expounding on the play called†kes†how Barry Hines the creator of Kes breathed life into his characters. He has broadly expounded and time to deliver this play by attempting to carry his characters to reality by their language , the environmental factors of that zone and the attire they wear. The region where this scene is set is in a harsh, horrendous spot, Barnsley. Despite the fact that Barnsley is nearby to us, it is a modern average workers region were poor unwealthy individuals go to work and attempt to make end meet to take care of their families. Every one of these characters show how they go about as would be expected on a normal day, on the grounds that Barry Hines expected to get over the portrayal that impact his characters in the play. Billy didn't have a decent connection between his family his mother and sibling. His mother couldn't care less for Billy, all she needs to do is go to equalities and knockabout with men, this shows her kids don’t start things out in her life. Billy garments are filthy and horrifying with wholes and stains in them since he doesn’t wash his garments. In the first part of the day when he awakens his mother doesn’t leave tea in the pot for him and instructs him to go to the shop for her to purchase cigs, before he goes to class, so Billy will be late, Billy runs out the house and goes to class in the wake of having a contention with his mother to go to the shop for cigs. His mother doesn’t have any cash for him for hello there school supper since she went through it the prior night or she needs it for the night ahead. Billys sibling Jud takes his snap for school and takes his bicycle so Billy’s got nothing for school. Jud went out one night and become truly inebriated when he returned home, Jud woke Billy up to uncover him since he was too smashed to even consider doing it himself, it is the main way Billy can recover his own by slapping and yelling at him â€Å"you tanked sow og pig charlatan. Billys school life isn't obviously superior to his home life; his school is run down, ghastly and filthy. He thinks the entire world is against him and gets alongside different children in school he doesn’t thump about with any mate’s acknowledge his kestrel winged animal. Barry Hines the other of Kes depicts a puzzling scene into which Billy fits properly when he is battling about a classmate over his sibling â€Å"Im not scared of him that would be on the off chance that he were here I wagered I know someone who could battle him. Before long the battle broke out in the play area everybody assembled round. There is one educator in the school that checks out Billy because of the bird of prey. He helped Billy against McDowel so Billy would not fall into difficulty. The instructor Mr Farthering gets some answers concerning Billy’s sell and inquired as to whether he could see the flying creature. The kestrel is the main delight Billy gets throughout his life, he discovered it in the formers land in the woods and inquired as to whether he could have it, since the time he has claimed Kes (name of the winged animal) he’s been preparing it, he was so keen on this feathered creature he went to the library to discover a book on kestrel however he was not permitted to take it out on the grounds that he was not a part so he took it, since Billy was not affluent his sibling and him needed to share a bed together. Billy has a paper round, when he goes to gather his papers he takes chocolates and beverages he does this since he is eager and he likely doesn’t get enough food at home. Billy does his papers in an awful region, the proprietor of the newsagent Mr Potter said Billys sibling Jud gave Billy ? 10 to proceed to wager on a rough, so he went down arranged to wager for Jud as he was down there, Billy addressed one of Jud’s mates and said it wasn’t worth wagering on that raspy, well Billy didn't should be told twice so he utilized the cash to purchase nourishment for him and his fledgling. When Jud discovered his raspy won and there was no wagered on it he went searching for Billy, however Billy shrouded each time he saw his sibling, so Jud quit looking and went to discover Billys just companion on the planet and killed his falcon. When Billy discovered his fledgling he ran and covered it in the field and hit the sack.

I waited waaaay too long to get a new computer

I waited waaaay too long to get a new computer My old computer and I had a complicated relationship. We spent three years together, and they were three of the most formative years of my life. I bought my computer off eBay in 2015, right before going off to college. A secondhand Lenovo ThinkPad T420. 4.78 pounds, supposedly indestructible, and according to the Internet a solid development machine. It had been retrofitted with an i7 processor, 256 GB of SSD storage, and 16GB of RAM (those are solid specs, in case youre not a computer person) and I paid around $450 for it, which is like way less than what I would have paid for a new computer with comparable specs. Also it ran Windows 7 which was cool because I was not about to use Windows 8. We had some really good moments, my old computer and I. That laptop submitted my first coding pset at MIT and every pset afterwards for three years. It ran my first programs in Python, Java, and C++. It delivered my first internship offer. It was with me the first time I went abroad and has been to as many countries as I have. I trained neural networks, wrote a dynamic language compiler, and designed a poster for my first conference on that laptop. I even composed my first blog post on its screen. It also screened a lot of the Great British Bake Off. There it is while I was working on my costume design homework from a few semesters ago. We definitely had some dicey moments as well. There was the time I dropped it down the back of my bed onto the tile floorand it survived with nary a banged-up battery. Or that time in 6.01 lab (thats the introductory class in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science) when someone picked up my computer and walked away with it because it was basically the same model as the ones in the lab. Or the time I tried to install Ubuntu and instead deleted the boot drive (the software that turns on the computer) because I followed stupid advice on the Internet and ended up bricking it, and then had to go to MITs tech support desk who told me that they couldnt fix it and I was out of luck, and then they took it into a back room and came back with it working like new anywayand then I did not attempt to install Ubuntu on it ever again. But recently, the bad moments started to outnumber the good ones. There was the realization that the amazing new Bluetooth noise-cancelling headphones that Id gotten from a summer internship would not connect to my much older laptop. Or the time I went to a company info session and was trying to submit the attendance form on my last few percentage points of battery and it look five minutes to boot up and connect to WiFi and then five minutes for the form to load fully and then I hit submit and the computer died. Or the time it took multiple hours to get a simple piece of software (the Heroku CLI, if youre curious) working on Windows for a research projector the time I spent literally ten hours trying to get a piece of hardware to play nice with it for a class projector the time I tried to do some machine learning on it and it took soooooo loooooong to run that I spent the rest of the evening setting up a computer in the cloud instead and I was behind on the rest of the mountain of wo rk I had to door the time I told someone I was an MIT Computer Science student and they shot an incredulous look at my laptop. Finally, last summer, I reached a breaking point. Id spent the summer working with a brand-new itty-bitty laptop for my internship. It was so light that sometimes I had to take off my backpack and check that it was still in there. I went weeks without touching my ThinkPad. And then one day I had to open it to, I dont even remember, buy some plane tickets or send an email or something, and in between picking up the computer, all ~5 pounds of it, and connecting to Gmail (which was a longer period than you might think), I decided that it was time for us to part ways. And sohellooooooooooooooo from my new laptop! Its NEW and it weighs 2.62 POUNDS and it TURNS ON INSTANTLY and it has UBUNTU!!! This is what Ubuntu looks like God its such a relief I cant even tell you. This week, I installed the Heroku CLI (which took like 2 hours with the last laptop) and it took all of two minutes. I almost cried tears of joy. My new machine is a Lenovo Yoga 730 (the newest model :O). Its got an i5 processor with 256GB SSD and 8GB of RAM. I bought it new with Best Buys student discount because I didnt want to deal with a refurb. Its also got a touch screen and it folds into a quasi-tablet (hence the name Yoga) but honestly I dont use the feature that much, except for sometimes pretending Im reading papers on an iPad. I went for another Lenovo because people generally seem to like them, and also my Dad and brother recently got new Yoga 720s and seemed to really like them. Also it was way cheaper than a comparable Mac. I think I paid $730 + tax. But getting the new computer was only half the battle in the war for a pain-free development environment. The computer came with Windows 10 as the operating system. Windows is pretty decent for web browsing and making presentations and word editing and stuff, but its not ok for coding. The Windows command line (that little black and green window that you see in 80s movies, which is the primary and most powerful way that software developers interface with the computer) is totally different from the command line of a Mac or Ubuntu computer, which is what most developers use. To the point that on my old ThinkPad, I had installed two different command line programs whose only job was to mimic Ubuntu. To further illustrate, one time for a class I went to a tutorial where the TA was doing an introduction for how to code in C++, and he asked the students what operating system we were using, and I was the only one who had Windows, and he literally just looked at me and said Im sorry. This is what the Windows command line looks like So Step 2 was to dual-boot. Thats where you install two different operating systems on your computerin my case, Windows and Ubuntu. I attempted dual-booting shortly after buying the computer, so that just in case I messed up again I could just do a clean reinstall of Windows without losing anything. But this time, I managed to install Ubuntu without ruining anything!!! There was a lot of trouble-shooting involved, and I made sure I understood what I was doing while I was doing it, but it worked! In fact, Im writing this post from inside my Ubuntu command line. :) (I actually wrote up sort of a guide on how I dual-booted, so I wouldnt forget and so that my brother could use it as a reference. This comes with a STRONG DISCLAIMER that this is quite specific to MY LAPTOP and you should NOT FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS without understanding what you are doing, but in case its helpful and at your own risk heres the guide :D) Also, ironically, Im taking a class on Operating Systems this semester in which I learned intimately why deleting the boot drive last time was such a bad idea. My setup is so much better now. When I need to make a PowerPoint for my communication class or Skype someone (why do people still use Skype?) I open up the Windows part of my laptop. When I want to work on research or technical homework, I open Ubuntu. I often go all day without having to charge. Also, did I mention how fast and light my computer is? Its so thinnnnnn I feel like I should end this post by giving some advice for selecting a good laptop, especially for freshmen who are looking for a good machine to bring with them to college. But honestly, reflecting on my experience with my ThinkPad and my new Yoga, Im not sure what the ideal strategy is for buying a college laptop. On one hand, purchasing an old refurbished computer was maybe not the best idea. Keeping it for so long was definitely not a good idea. I let my old, slow computer, which wasnt really equipped for the work I wanted to do on it, become a daily annoyance almost without realizing it. Even worse, it became an obstacle to doing research and homework efficiently. If youre going to do something hardlike being a Computer Science student at MITyou should give yourself the benefit of having the tools you need to get the job done. On the other hand, dropping a ton of money on a fancy machine before showing up to college, before you really know what youre going to need it for, before youre even sure what youre going to major in, does not seem smart either. Laptops are not cheap. Even my refurb was not cheap, and new machines with good specs can be exorbitant. And there does not seem to be common wisdom as to what kind of computer is ideal for an MIT student. I see a lot of Macs among Computer Science students, whereas I have heard from my friends studying Mechanical Engineering that they really need a Windows computer because design software like SolidWorks only runs on Windows. So I guess my advice would be to defer judgment, if possible. If you have a serviceable computer already, bring that for the first year or so. Or buy a moderately priced machine that you would be ok replacing in 2-3 years if you need to, once you have a better sense of your requirements. You may have noticed that the specs on my new computer are actually worse than those on my old laptop. Im ok with that because after three years of being a CS major, I have a much better sense of what my laptop needs to handle. I actually dont do a ton of intensive computation on my computer. If I need to do something intensive, like training a machine learning model or running a lot of data analysis, I will use my labs high-powered server or I will set up a computer in the cloud using Amazon Web Services. For my daily life, it was more important to me that my computer be light and hold a decent charge and boot up/connect to the Internet in a reasonable time frame and not do weird things like shut do wn randomly in the middle of my homework. Basically, I chose newness over specs. So if youre looking for a new computer, I wish you all the happiness that Im experiencing with mine :) Post Tagged #new computer

Analysis Of The Stock Market Using Quantitative Approach Finance Essay - Free Essay Example

Quantitative finance started in the U.S. in the 1930s as some astute investors began using mathematical formulas to price stocks and bonds. Harry Markowitzs 1952 Ph.D. thesis Portfolio Selection was one of the first papers to formally adapt mathematical concepts to finance. Markowitz formalized a notion of mean return and covariances for common stocks which allowed him to quantify the concept of diversification in a market. He showed how to compute the mean return and variance for a given portfolio and argued that investors should hold only those portfolios whose variance is minimal among all portfolios with a given mean return. Although the language of finance now involves Ito calculus, minimization of risk in a quantifiable manner underlies much of the modern theory. In 1969 Robert Merton introduced stochastic calculus into the study of finance. Merton was motivated by the desire to understand how prices are set in financial markets, which is the classical economics question of equilibrium, and in later papers he used the machinery of stochastic calculus to begin investigation of this issue. At the same time as Mertons work and with Mertons as sistance, Fischer Black and Myron Scholes were developing their option pricing formula, which led to winning the 1997 Nobel Prize in Economics. It provided a solution for a practical problem, that of finding a fair price for a European call option, i.e., the right to buy one share of a given stock at a specified price and time. Such options are frequently purchased by investors as a risk-hedging device. In 1981, Harrison and Pliska used the general theory of continuous-time stochastic processes to put the Black-Scholes option pricing formula on a solid theoretical basis, and as a result, showed how to price numerous other derivative securities. 2.0 Fundamentals of Quantitative Analysis Definition: Quantitative analysis is a process of disseminating financial data in order to make valid projections regarding the future performance of a corporation or market. Quantitative analysis of stocks is done purely based on numbers. In this type of analysis, the price trend of the stock is analyzed based on historical data using complex mathematical calculations and statistical modeling techniques. Quantitative Analyst: A quantitative analyst is a person who works in the financial markets developing and implementing mathematical models to assist the activities of traders and risk managers within investment banks, hedge funds and other financial institutions. Throughout the industry, such professionals are known as quants. Although the original quants were concerned with risk management and derivatives pricing, the meaning of the term has expanded over time to include those individuals involved in almost any application of mathematics in finance. An example is statistical arbitrage. Differentiated Features: The quantitative analysis of stock is very different from fundamental analysis of stocks. Fundamental analysis considers the business, growth prospects and effectiveness of management to determine the value of the stock while quantitative analysis discounts all these factors. The analyst who believes in this technique think that all the above mentioned factors are very subjective and do not portray the exact picture since everyone can interpret these numbers in a different manner. The analysts who believe in quantitative analysis of stocks do not take into consideration the effectiveness of management, business or economy while doing this analysis. Quantitative analysis may also involve such characteristics as company liabilities, sales figures, trading trends, and alike. Unlike qualitative analysis, which may consider more uncertain factors like the quality of management, branding, and intrinsic value, quantitative analysis looks only at me asurable facets. Thus, technical analysis, which employs mathematical models, would be considered part of quantitative analysis. A person who performs quantitative analysis is referred to as hybrid stock analyzed. This is because, he/she is characterized by the attributes of both fundamental and technical analyzed. Purpose: The purpose of quantitative analysis is to employ quantifiable attributes of a particular company in order to determine its securitys or markets value. To do so, quantitative analysis practitioners gather and analyze data such as income statements, company assets, market share, and earnings records. 3.0 Techniques Used in Quantitative Analysis Quantitative analysis in general is simply a way of measuring things. In quantitative analysis of stock, the behavior of a stock is analyzed using complex mathematical and statistical modeling equations. For analysts who specialize in quantitative analysis of a stock, the business or the management mean nothing to them. There is no regard for underlying business at all. All they look for are the numbers. For quantitative analysis, the number crunching is done through advanced computers now days. These people who do this are also called as quants. These quants will do analysis based on complex formula and will decide on sell versus buy option purely based on these equations and numbers. Some of the major considerations while doing quantitative analysis of stock are: Company size First thing which the investors look at is the size of the company. This is usually done in term of capitalization or cap in short. Broadly, the companies are divided into various caps depending upon their market. These are micro cap, small cap, mid cap and large cap. Smaller the cap, riskier is the company since it can go bankrupt very easily. But smaller companies have the chances to grow radically as well. Broadly, the guidelines of distinguishing these caps are: Large cap Tk. 1000 million or more. Mid cap Tk. 500 million to Tk. 1000 million. Small cap -Tk. 250 million to Tk. 500 million. Micro cap Tk. 250 million or less. Criteria based or screen based investing Some analysts use a filter or criteria to select the company which they want to trade on. These criteria are based on quantitative factors. Again this is done using computers since the selection is done pretty fast. Momentum of the company can also be used as a deciding factor. Some companies are just doing well for a few quarters in a row which make people believe that company is in good shape. These companies usually outperform other companies in short run and everyone would like to buy stock of this company. Another interesting topic in quantitative analysis is something called as CANSLIM. CANSLIM is a system pioneered by William J. ONeil that is a hybrid of quantitative analysis and technical analysis. CANSLIM has an interesting acronym. C and A stand for current and annual earnings; N - stands for new (new product or new market); S L stands for small cap and large volumes; I - stands for institutional ownership; and M stands for market momentum. All these aforementioned factors are used to decide buy or sell of a company. 4.0 Modus Operandi of Quantitative Analysis 4.1 Quantitative analysis with respect to trading equities generally includes the following research topics: Annual Reports Financial Statements (Earnings, Revenues, Etc.) Publicly Available Data General Economic Data General Econometric Data 4.2 Quantitative analysis with respect to funds involves evaluating statistical analysis of the trading managers track record. These include: A. Return Analysis Compounded average rate of return Percentage of positive months Consistency Length of Track Record B. Risk Analysis Volatility Measures Standard Deviation Monthly Standard Deviation Annual Standard Deviation Combined upside and downside standard deviation Downside Deviation only Sortino Ratio Drawdowns Maximum Drawdown Depth of Drawdowns Frequency of Drawdowns Time in any given Drawdown Recovery from a Drawdown Reward to Risk Average Return Divided by Maximum Drawdown (Total Return Minus Risk Free Rate of Return)/(The Total of All Drawdowns) (Average Return)/(Maximum Drawdown) Sharpe Ratio: (Average Rate of Return Minus Risk Free Rate of Return)/(Annual Standard Deviation) Treynor Ratio: : (Average Rate of Return Minus Risk Free Rate of Return)/(Degree of systematic Risk-ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ²) Reward to Assets Under Management Evaluating all of the above measures as a manager increases assets under management The average rate of return since the manager first had 50% of their current assets under management. 5.0 Qualitative Analysis of Stock as Input to Quantitative Analysis of Stock Subjective, non-statistical oriented analysis generally comes before Quantitative Analysis. Qualitative research is one of the two major approaches to research methodology in social sciences. Qualitative research involves an in-depth understanding of human behavior and the reasons that govern human behavior. Unlike quantitative research, qualitative research relies on reasons behind various aspects of behavior. Simply put, it investigates the why and how of decision making, as compared to what, where, and when of quantitative research. Hence, the need is for smaller but focused samples rather than large random samples, which qualitative research categorizes data into patterns as the primary basis for organizing and reporting results. Unlike quantitative research, which relies exclusively on the analysis of numerical or quantifiable data, data for qualitative research comes in many mediums, including text, sound, still images, and moving images. This sort of analysis is the most im portant for the following reasons: Stock market is in transition from poor form of efficient market to semi-strong form of efficient market; Most of the investors have inadequate knowledge of stock market; Most of the investors take investment decision on the basis of information being aired over the sky of the stock market without judgement; Most of the investors are willing to make capital gain; Most of the investors, especially small investors are vulnerable to stock market gambling/crisis originated from any source. Non-statistical Qualitative analysis generally explores the following: Sustainable competitive advantage Quality Experience of Management Employee Morale Loyalty Industry Competitors Strength of Research Development Cyclicality of the Industry Actions towards Investors interests Ability to achieve economies of scale General labor relations Quality and Positioning of Products Quality and Positioning of Services 6.0 Quantitative Analysis-Selection of Security to Buy or Sell An investor or Fund Manager can create An Equity Desk- a set of some stocks which has the potential to grow at a good pace over a period of time. This analysis is an attempt to rank the selected stocks and help an investor decide which among the lot is the best and the worst stock to invest at the current market prices. Basically, this is a quantitative analysis of a set of stocks, based purely on their fundamentals. The TED methodology can be used on any portfolio to determine the best and the worst. The study has taken 11 blue chip stocks for analysis as follows: All the 11 stocks will be analyzed based on P/E Ratio Return on Equity Last 4 years CAGR Sales Growth Last 4 Years CAGR Profit Growth Market Cap P/BV Ratio Debt to Equity Ratio Dividend Yield Last 4 Years CAGR dividend per share growth Dividend Payout Ratio Basically, we will be looking at parameters typically used by both growth and value investors. Ranking Methodology: All the 11 stocks are ranked based on each parameter say P/E Ratio to begin with. A stock with the lowest P/E Ratio gets the highest 11 points, while a stock with the highest P/E Ratio gets the lowest 1 point. Similarly, for other parameters like ROE, market-cap etc, each stock is awarded between 1 point and 11 points depending on where it stands compared to each other. The scores are added at the end, and the stocks are ranked from 1 to 11. Flaw in the Methodology: Looks into the past rather than the future to rank the stocks. ROUND NUMBER 1 THE P/E RATIO Obviously, lower the P/E ratio, the better. Since there are 11 stocks in the portfolio, the stock with the lowest P/E Ratio gets 11 points while the stock with the highest P/E ratio gets 1 point. Company Name P/E Ratio Points Earned 1. AX 11.67 11 2. BX 13.57 10 3. CX 19.29 9 4. DX 19.94 8 5. EX 20.46 7 6. FX 28.94 6 7. GX 29.56 5 8. HX 30.41 4 9. IX 40.23 3 10. JX 43.12 2 11. KX 55.12 1 AX is the cheapest stock of the lot and hence gets rewarded with the maximum 11 points. Meanwhile, KX had a loss making quarter recently, and hence its P/E is extremely high. It is appropriately penalized with just 1 point awarded to it in this round. The rest of the stocks get 10, 9, 8 etc points in descending order based on their current P/E. ROUND NO. 2 RETURN ON EQUITY Higher the ROE, better is the stock for investment. The stock with the highest ROE gets 11 points and the stock with the lowest ROE gets 1 point in this round. Company Name ROE Points Earned 1. BX 94.68 11 2. IX 45.00 10 3. DX 43.01 9 4. FX 39.99 8 5. AX 34.58 7 6. JX 34.55 6 7. CX 24.88 5 8. GX 18.59 4 9. EX 15.46 3 10. HX 13.71 2 11. KX 13.36 1 To find out the stock with the best combination of low P/E and high ROE, we add the points earned by each stock in the P/E round and the ROE round. Company Name P/E Ratio ROE Total Points Earned Ranking 1. BX 10 11 21 I 2. IX 3 10 13 VI 3. DX 8 9 17 III 4. FX 6 8 14 IV 5. AX 11 7 18 II 6. JX 2 6 8 IX 7. CX 9 5 14 V 8. GX 5 4 9 VIII 9. E X 7 3 10 VII 10. HX 4 2 6 X 11. KX 1 1 2 XI For now, the best stock to buy is BX and the worst to own now is KX. But the contest is not over yet. We add the scores earned by each stock in market cap, sales growth, profit growth, debt equity ratio and other rounds. ROUND NO. 3 THE MARKET CAP It is almost always better from capital appreciation point of view to invest in stocks with low market cap. So, in this round, the lowest market cap stock gets the maximum while the stock with the highest market cap to get just 1 point. Expect the GX twins to be hit hard in this round. Company Name Market Cap (TK.in Million) Points Earned 1. BX 513 11 2. CX 914 10 3. FX 1249 9 4. IX 2015 8 5. DX 3960 7 6. AX 6850 6 7. KX 8870 5 8. EX 10000 4 9. JX 12500 3 10. GX 30,000 2 11. HX 60,000 1 ROUND NO. 4 LAST 4 YEAR SALES CAGR Sales growth rates are as important as profit growth rates, if not more. If a stock has a scorching bottom line growth and a dull top line growth, it probably implies that the going might not last long. Bottom line growing faster than top line can happen because of improving margins, for example. But there is only a limit up to which you can increase margins after that, the bottom line growth will align with the top line growth. So in this round, we reward companies with high top line growth and take away points from companies with lower sales growth rates. Company Name 4 year Sales CAGR in % Points Earned 1. EX 87.91 11 2. IX 72.88 10 3. HX 37.88 9 4. FX 35.92 8 5. JX 33.36 7 6. GX 27.69 6 7. AX 24.37 5 8. DX 21.92 4 9. KX 21.00 3 10. BX 18.60 2 11. CX 15.88 1 ROUND NO. 5 LAST 4 YEARS PROFIT CAGR Company Name 4 year Profit CAGR in % Points Earned 1. IX 96.8 11 2. BX 73.21 10 3. EX 71.61 9 4. AX 48.89 8 5. DX 44.8 7 6. CX 38.95 6 7. HX 35.68 5 8. JX 35.57 4 9. FX 31.89 3 10. GX 22.45 2 11. KX 3.47 1 Now we add the scores again after 5 Rounds -Combination of Best Five Quantitative Parameters Company Name P/E Ratio ROE Market Cap 4 year Sales CAGR in % 4 year Profit CAGR in % Total Points Earned Ranking 1. BX 10 11 11 2 10 44 I 2. IX 3 10 8 10 11 42 II 3. DX 8 9 7 4 7 35 IV 4. FX 6 8 9 8 3 34 V 5. AX 11 7 6 5 8 37 III 6. JX 2 6 3 7 4 22 IX 7. CX 9 5 10 1 6 31 VII 8. GX 5 4 2 6 2 19 X 9. EX 7 3 4 11 9 34 V 10. HX 4 2 1 9 5 21 VIII 11. KX 1 1 5 3 1 11 XI ANALYSIS: BX tops each of the 5 rounds except for the rather crucial sales growth round. Although IX looks expensive, it still seems to be among the best stock to buy if we consider the above 5 parameters. KX had an extraordinary expense (write off) in the last period of study. This methodology punishes such a company, because at the end of the day, the market looks at the numbers on the table. Only the perfect companies are rewarded with higher rankings. The contest isnt over yet 5 more rounds to go, before we decide on the winners and the losers.

The Colossus at Rhodes

Located on the island of Rhodes (off the coast of modern Turkey), the Colossus at Rhodes was a giant statue, about 110 feet tall, of the Greek sun-god Helios. Although finished in 282 BCE, this Wonder of the Ancient World only stood for 56 years, when it was toppled by an earthquake. Huge chunks of the former statue stayed on the beaches of Rhodes for 900 years, drawing people around the world to marvel at how man could create something so enormous. Why Was the Colossus of Rhodes Built? The city of Rhodes, located on the island of Rhodes, had been under siege for a year. Caught up in the heated and bloody battle between the three successors of Alexander the Great (Ptolemy, Seleucus, and Antigonus), Rhodes was attacked by Antigonus’ son, Demetrius, for supporting Ptolemy. Demetrius tried everything to get inside the high-walled city of Rhodes. He brought 40,000 troops (more than the entire population of Rhodes), catapults, and pirates. He also brought a special corps of engineers that could make siege weapons specially geared to break into this particular city. The most spectacular thing these engineers built was a 150-foot tower, mounted on iron wheels, that hosted a powerful catapult. To protect its gunners, leather shutters were installed. To protect it from fireballs hurled from the city, each of its nine stories had its own water tank. It took 3,400 of Demetrius’ soldiers to push this mighty weapon into place. The citizens of Rhodes, however, flooded the area around their city, causing the mighty tower to wallow in mud. The people of Rhodes had fought back valiantly. When reinforcements came from Ptolemy in Egypt, Demetrius left the area in a hurry. In such a hurry, that Demetrius left nearly all of this weapons behind. To celebrate their victory, the people of Rhodes decided to build a giant statue in honor of their patron god, Helios. How Did They Build Such a Colossal Statue? Funding is usually a problem for such a large project as the people of Rhodes had in mind; however, that was easily solved by using the weapons that Demetrius had left behind. The people of Rhodes melted down many of the leftover weapons to get bronze, sold other siege weapons for money, and then used the super siege weapon as the scaffolding for the project. Rhodian sculptor Chares of Lindos, the pupil of Alexander the Great’s sculptor Lysippus, was chosen to create this huge statue. Unfortunately, Chares of Lindos died before the sculpture could be completed. Some say he committed suicide, but that is probably a fable. Exactly how Chares of Lindos constructed such a gigantic statue is still up for debate. Some have said that he built a huge, earthen ramp that got bigger as the statue got taller. Modern architects, however, have dismissed this idea as unpractical. We do know that it took 12 years to build the Colossus of Rhodes, likely from 294 to 282 BCE, and cost 300 talents (at least $5 million in modern money). We also know that the statue had an exterior that consisted of an iron framework covered with bronze plates. Inside were two or three columns of stone that were the main supports for the structure. Iron rods connected the stone columns with the exterior iron framework. What Did the Colossus of Rhodes Look Like? The statue was to stand about 110 feet high, on top of a 50-foot stone pedestal (the modern Statue of Liberty is 111 feet high from heel to head). Exactly where the Colossus of Rhodes was built is still not certain, although many believe it was near the Mandraki Harbor. No one knows exactly what the statue looked like. We know that it was a man and that one of his arms was held aloft. He was likely naked, perhaps holding or wearing a cloth, and wearing a crown of rays (as Helios is often portrayed). Some have guessed that Helios’ arm was holding a torch. For four centuries, people have believed that the Colossus of Rhodes was posed with his legs spread apart, one on each side of the harbor. This image stems from a 16th century engraving by Maerten van Heemskerck, which depicts the Colossus in this pose, with ships passing under him. For many reasons, this is very likely not how the Colossus was posed. For one, legs open wide is not a very dignified stance for a god. And another is that to create that pose, the very important harbor would have had to have been closed for years. Thus, it is much more likely that the Colossus was posed with legs together. The Collapse For 56 years, the Colossus of Rhodes was a wonder to see. But then, in 226 BCE, an earthquake struck Rhodes and toppled the statue. It is said that the Egyptian King Ptolemy III offered to pay for the Colossus to be rebuilt. However, the people of Rhodes, after consulting an oracle, decided to not rebuild. They believed that somehow the statue had offended the real Helios. For 900 years, huge pieces of the broken statue lay along the beaches of Rhodes. Interestingly, even these broken pieces were huge and worth seeing. People traveled far and wide to see the ruins of the Colossus. As one ancient writer, Pliny, described after seeing it in the 1st century CE, Even as it lies, it excites our wonder and admiration. Few people can clasp the thumb in their arms, and its fingers are larger than most statues. Where the limbs are broken asunder, vast caverns are seen yawning in the interior. Within it, too, are to be seen large masses of rock, by the weight of which the artist steadied it while erecting it.* In 654 CE, Rhodes was conquered, this time by Arabs. As spoils of war, the Arabs cut apart the remains of the Colossus and shipped the bronze to Syria to sell. It is said that it took 900 camels to carry all that bronze. * Robert Silverberg, The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (New York: Macmillan Company, 1970) 99.

Online Casino Portal Crown Contender - 1746 Words

Blog 16 – Thrills casino emerges as an online casino portal crown contender We have all seen the advertising campaigns for new casinos, as everyone seems to claim to be â€Å"funky, fresh, and revolutionary†. Sadly, all these claims are usually pretty hollow in most cases. Freshman online casinos seldom deliver on what they promise, with many just leaving players feeling deflated. However, while most new online casinos are underwhelming, Thrills has now looked to buck that trend. Its name says it all, in the same vain as Guts, Thrills is an online casino that packs in plenty of adrenaline-fuelled action. It seems as time passes more and more players seem to be jumping aboard this up and coming name, but can Thrills now realistically be considered a contender for the online casino portal crown? Thrills make no bones about what they are, as they proudly promote how dedicated they are to delivering intense gaming action. How they live up to such claim is that they work with NetEnt, one of the biggest online casino game developers on the planet. What this means is that the software options at Thrills run smoothly and gives this online casino some serious backbone. No matter whether you play through smartphone, tablet, or desktop, you are guaranteed a free flowing casino experience at Thrills due to the backing on NetEnt. Looking at exactly what games Thrills provide, it really is the cream of the crop when it comes to titles. As mentioned above, Thrills is an online casinoShow MoreRelatedWebsite : Web For Comeon Casino1709 Words   |  7 Pagesdevelopers provide software to ComeOn Casino? Throughout the EU there is one online casino that is commanding more online casino portal attention than any other in 2015. ComeOn Casino is a brand that has come out of nowhere to immerge as a serious contender for the online the industry crown. Taking a no prisoners approach to development, the casino has become a player’s favourite in a variety of different ways. Breaking down the reason as to why ComeOn Casino has become a household name isn’t difficultRead MoreIs Casino X Its Presence Felt Among Players?1785 Words   |  8 PagesBlog 13 – Casino-X makes its presence felt among players Don’t be fooled by how easy it seems, building a successful online casino operation is actually quite the challenge. It takes true nerves of steel to even enter an industry that is already dominated by such globally known names. But every now and then a new online casino brand embraces the difficult road ahead. While online casino players quickly dump most new names, there is a name that launched back in 2015 that has all the credentials ofRead MoreManaging Information Technology (7th Edition)239873 Words   |  960 PagesDigital Signals 63 Speed of Transmission 64 Types of Transmission Lines Transmission Media 65 65 Topology of Networks Types of Networks Network Protocols 70 72 86 The Exploding Role of Telecommunications and Networking 88 Online Operations Connectivity 88 89 Electronic Data Interchange and Electronic Commerce 89 Marketing 89 The Telecommunications Industry 90 Review Questions 92 †¢ Discussion Questions 92 †¢ Bibliography 93 Chapter 4 The Data Resource

The Archaeology and History of Bitumen

Bitumen—also known as asphaltum or tar—is a black, oily, viscous form of petroleum, a naturally-occurring organic byproduct of decomposed plants. It is waterproof and flammable, and this remarkable natural substance has been used by humans for a wide variety of tasks and tools for at least the past 40,000 years. There are a number of processed types of bitumen used in the modern world, designed for paving streets and roofing houses, as well as additives to diesel or other gas oils. The pronunciation of bitumen is BICH-eh-men in British English and by-TOO-men in North America. What Bitumen Is Natural bitumen is the thickest form of petroleum there is, made up of 83% carbon, 10% hydrogen and lesser amounts of oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and other elements. It is a natural polymer of low molecular weight with a remarkable ability to change with temperature variations: at lower temperatures, it is rigid and brittle, at room temperature it is flexible, at higher temperatures bitumen flows. Bitumen deposits occur naturally throughout the world--the best known are Trinidads Pitch Lake and the La Brea Tar Pit in California, but significant deposits are found in the Dead Sea, Venezuela, Switzerland, and northeastern Alberta, Canada. The chemical composition and consistency of these deposits vary significantly. In some places, bitumen extrudes naturally from terrestrial sources, in others it appears in liquid pools which can harden into mounds, and in still others it oozes from underwater seeps, washing up as tarballs along sandy beaches and rocky shorelines. Uses and Processing In ancient times, bitumen was used for a huge number of things: as a sealant or adhesive, as building mortar, as incense, and as decorative pigment and texture on pots, buildings or human skin. The material was also useful in waterproofing canoes and other water transport, and in the mummification process toward the end of the New Kingdom of ancient Egypt. The method of processing bitumen was nearly universal: heat it until the gasses condense and it melts, then add tempering materials to tweak the recipe to the proper consistency. Adding minerals such as ochre makes bitumen thicker; grasses and other vegetable matter add stability; waxy/oily elements such as pine resin or beeswax make it more viscous. Processed bitumen was more expensive as a trade item than unprocessed, because of the cost of the fuel consumption. The earliest known use of bitumen was by Middle Paleolithic Neanderthals some 40,000 years ago. At Neanderthal sites such as Gura Cheii Cave (Romania) and Hummal and Umm El Tlel in Syria, bitumen was found adhering to stone tools, probably to fasten a wooden or ivory haft to the sharp-edged tools. In Mesopotamia, during the late Uruk and Chalcolithic periods at sites such as Hacinebi Tepe in Syria, bitumen was used for the construction of buildings and water-proofing of reed boats, with among other uses. Evidence of Uruk Expansionist Trade Research into bitumen sources has illuminated the history of the expansionist period of Mesopotamian Uruk. An intercontinental trading system was established by Mesopotamia during the Uruk period (3600-3100 BC), with the creation of trading colonies in what is today southeastern Turkey, Syria, and Iran. According to seals and other evidence, the trade network involved textiles from southern Mesopotamia and copper, stone, and timber from Anatolia, but the presence of sourced bitumen has enabled scholars to map out the trade. For example, much of the bitumen in Bronze age Syrian sites has been found to have originated from the Hit seepage on the Euphrates River in southern Iraq. Using historical references and geological survey, scholars have identified several sources of bitumen in Mesopotamia and the Near East. By performing analyses using a number of different spectroscopy, spectrometry, and elemental analytical techniques, these scholars have defined the chemical signatures for many of the seeps and deposits. Chemical analysis of archaeological samples has been somewhat successful in identifying the provenance of the artifacts. Bitumen and Reed Boats Schwartz and colleagues (2016) suggest that the onset of bitumen as a trade good began first because it was used as waterproofing on the reed boats that were used to ferry people and goods across the Euphrates. By the Ubaid period of the early 4th millennium BC, bitumen from northern Mesopotamian sources reached the Persian Gulf. The earliest reed boat discovered to date was coated with bitumen, at the site of H3 at As-Sabiyah in Kuwait, dated about 5000 BC; its bitumen was found to have come from the Ubaid site of Mesopotamia. Asphaltum samples from the slightly later site of Dosariyah in Saudi Arabia, were from bitumen seepages in Iraq, part of the wider Mesopotamian trade networks of Ubaid Period 3. The Bronze Age Mummies of Egypt The use of bitumen in embalming techniques on Egyptian mummies was important beginning at the end of the New Kingdom (after 1100 BC)--in fact, the word from which mummy is derived mumiyyah means bitumen in Arabic. Bitumen was a major constituent for Third Intermediate period and Roman period Egyptian embalming techniques, in addition to traditional blends of pine resins, animal fats, and beeswax. Several Roman writers such as Diodorus Siculus (first century BC) and Pliny (first century AD) mention bitumen as being sold to Egyptians for embalming processes. Until advanced chemical analysis was available, black balms used throughout the Egyptian dynasties were assumed to have been treated with bitumen, mixed with fat/oil, beeswax, and resin. However, in a recent study Clark and colleagues (2016) found that none of the balms on mummies created prior to the New Kingdom contained bitumen, but the custom began in the Third Intermediate (ca 1064-525 BC) and Late (ca 525-332 BC) periods and became most prevalent after 332, during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. Bitumen trade in Mesopotamia continued well after the end of the Bronze Age. Russian archaeologists recently discovered a Greek amphora full of bitumen on the Taman peninsula on the northern shore of the Black Sea. Several samples including numerous large jars and other objects were recovered from the Roman-era port of Dibba in the United Arab Emirates, containing or treated with bitumen from the Hit seepage in Iraq or other unidentified Iranian sources. Mesoamerica and Sutton Hoo Recent studies in pre-Classic and post-classic period Mesoamerica have found bitumen was used to stain human remains, perhaps as a ritual pigment. But more likely, say researchers Argà ¡ez and associates, the staining may have resulted from using heated bitumen applied to stone tools which were used to dismember those bodies. Fragments of shiny black lumps of bitumen were found scattered throughout the 7th-century ship burial at Sutton Hoo, England, in particular within the burial deposits near remains of a helmet. When excavated and first analyzed in 1939, the pieces were interpreted as Stockholm tar, a substance creating by burning pine wood, but recent reanalysis (Burger and colleagues 2016) has identified the shards as bitumen having come from a Dead Sea source: very rare but clear evidence of a continuing trade network between Europe and the Mediterranean during the early Medieval period. Chumash of California In Californias Channel Islands, the prehistoric period Chumash used bitumen as body paint during curing, mourning and burial ceremonies. They also used it to attach shell beads onto objects such as mortars and pestles and steatite pipes, and they used it for hafting projectile points to shafts and fishhooks to cordage. Asphaltum was also used for waterproofing basketry and caulking sea-going canoes. The earliest identified bitumen in the Channel Islands so far is in deposits dated between 10,000-7,000 cal BP at Cave of the Chimneys on San Miguel island. The presence of bitumen increases during the Middle Holocene (7000-3500 cal BP and basketry impressions and clusters of tarred pebbles show up as early as 5,000 years ago. The fluorescence of bitumen may be associated with the invention of the plank canoe (tomol) in the late Holocene (3500-200 cal BP). Native Californians traded asphaltum in liquid form and hand-shaped pads wrapped in grass and rabbit skin to keep it from sticking together. Terrestrial seeps were believed to produce a better quality adhesive and caulking for the tomol canoe, while tarballs were considered inferior. Sources Argà ¡ez C, Batta E, Mansilla J, Pijoan C, and Bosch P. 2011. The origin of black pigmentation in a sample of Mexican prehispanic human bones. Journal of Archaeological Science 38(11):2979-2988.Brown KM. 2016. Asphaltum (bitumen) production in everyday life on the California Channel Islands. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 41:74-87.Brown KM, Connan J, Poister NW, Vellanoweth RL, Zumberge J, and Engel MH. 2014. Sourcing archaeological asphaltum (bitumen) from the California Channel Islands to submarine seeps. Journal of Archaeological Science 43:66-76.Burger P, Stacey RJ, Bowden SA, Hacke M, and Parnell J. 2016. Identification, Geochemical Characterisation and Significance of Bitumen among the Grave Goods of the 7th Century Mound 1 Ship-Burial at Sutton Hoo (Suffolk, UK). PLoS ONE 11(12):e0166276.Cà ¢rciumaru M, Ion R-M, Nitu E-C, and Stefanescu R. 2012. New evidence of adhesive as hafting material on Middle and Upper Palaeolithic artefacts from Gura Cheii-Rà ¢snov Cave (Rom ania). Journal of Archaeological Science 39(7):1942-1950.Clark KA, Ikram S, and Evershed RP. 2016. The significance of petroleum bitumen in ancient Egyptian mummies. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 374(2079).El Diasty WS, Mostafa AR, El Beialy SY, El Adl HA, and Edwards KJ. 2015. Organic geochemical characteristics of the Upper Cretaceous–Early Paleogene source rock and correlation with some Egyptian mummy bitumen and oil from the southern Gulf of Suez, Egypt. Arabian Journal of Geosciences 8(11):9193-9204.Fauvelle M, Smith EM, Brown SH, and Des Lauriers MR. 2012. Asphaltum hafting and projectile point durability: an experimental comparison of three hafting methods. Journal of Archaeological Science 39(8):2802-2809.Jasim S, and Yousif E. 2014. Dibba: an ancient port on the Gulf of Oman in the early Roman era. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 25(1):50-79.Kostyukevich Y, Solovyov S, Kononikhin A, Popov I, and N ikolaev E. 2016. The investigation of the bitumen from ancient Greek amphora using FT ICR MS, H/D exchange and novel spectrum reduction approach. Journal of Mass Spectrometry 51(6):430-436.Schwartz M, and Hollander D. 2016. The Uruk expansion as dynamic process: A reconstruction of Middle to Late Uruk exchange patterns from bulk stable isotope analyses of bitumen artifacts. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 7:884-899.Van de Velde T, De Vrieze M, Surmont P, Bodà © S, and Drechsler P. 2015. A geochemical study on the bitumen from Dosariyah (Saudi-Arabia): tracking Neolithic-period bitumen in the Persian Gulf. Journal of Archaeological Science 57:248-256.Wess JA, Olsen LD, and Haring Sweeney M. 2004. Asphalt (Bitumen). Concise International Chemical Assessment Document 59. Geneva: World Health Organization.