Gregorian Calendar - Overview and History

Gregorian Calendar - Overview and History In the year 1572, Ugo Boncompagni became Pope Gregory XIII and there was a crisis of the calendar - one of Christianitys most important dates was falling behind with respect to the seasons. Easter, which is based on the date of the vernal equinox (the first day of Spring), was being celebrated too early in the month of March. The cause of this calendrical confusion was the over 1,600 year-old Julian calendar, established by Julius Caesar in the year 46 BCE. Julius Caesar took control over the chaotic Roman calendar, which was being exploited by politicians and others with the haphazard addition of days or months. It was a calendar horribly out-of-synch with the seasons of the earth, which are the result of the rotation of the earth around the sun. Caesar developed a new calendar of 364 1/4 days, closely approximating the length of the tropical year (the time it takes the earth to go around the sun from the beginning of spring to the beginning of spring). Caesars calendar was normally 365 days long but included an extra day (a leap day) every four years to account for the extra one-quarter of a day. The intercalary (inserted into the calendar) day was added prior to February 25 each year. Unfortunately, while Caesars calendar was almost accurate, it wasnt quite accurate enough because the tropical year is not 365 days and 6 hours (365.25 days), but is approximately 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes, and 46 seconds (365.242199 days). Therefore, the calendar of Julius Caesar was 11 minutes and 14 seconds too slow. This added up to be a full day off every 128 years. While it took from 46 BCE to 8 CE to get Caesars calendar functioning properly (initially leap years were being celebrated every three years instead of every four), by the time of Pope Gregory XIII the one day every 128 years added up to a full ten days of error in the calendar. (Purely by luck did the Julian calendar happen to celebrate leap years on years divisible by four - during Caesars time, the numbered years of today didnt exist). A serious change needed to take place and Pope Gregory XIII decided to repair the calendar. Gregory was aided by astronomers in developing a calendar that would be more accurate than the Julian calendar. The solution they developed was almost perfect. Continue on Page Two. The new Gregorian calendar would continue to be comprised of 365 days with an intercalary added every four years (moved to after February 28 to make things easier) but there would be no leap year in years ending in 00 unless those years were divisible by 400. Therefore, the years 1700, 1800, 1900, and 2100 would not be a leap year but the years 1600 and 2000 would. This change was so accurate that today, scientists need only add leap seconds every few years to the clock in order to keep the calendar matching the tropical year. Pope Gregory XIII issued a papal bull, Inter Gravissimus on February 24, 1582 that established the Gregorian calendar as the new and official calendar of the Catholic world. Since the Julian calendar had fallen ten days behind over the centuries, Pope Gregory XIII designated that October 4, 1582 would be officially followed by October 15, 1582. The news of the calendar change was disseminated across Europe. Not only would the new calendar be utilized but ten days would be lost forever, the new year would now begin on January 1 instead of March 25, and there would be a new method of determining the date of Easter. Only a few countries were ready or willing to change to the new calendar in 1582. It was adopted that year in Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, and France. The Pope was forced to issue a reminder on November 7 to nations that they should change their calendars and many did not heed the call. Had the calendar change been promulgated a century earlier, more countries would have been under Catholic rule and would have heeded the Popes command. By 1582, Protestantism had spread across the continent and politics and religion were in disarray; additionally, the Eastern Orthodox Christian countries would not change for many years. Other countries later joined the fray over the following centuries. Roman Catholic Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands switched by 1584; Hungary changed in 1587; Denmark and Protestant Germany switched by 1704; Great Britain and its colonies changed in 1752; Sweden changed in 1753; Japan changed in 1873 as part of Meijis Westernization; Egypt changed in 1875; Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, and Turkey all changed between 1912 and 1917; the Soviet Union changed in 1919; Greece switched to the Gregorian calendar in 1928; and finally, China changed to the Gregorian calendar after their revolution of 1949! Change wasnt always easy, however. In Frankfurt as well as London, people rioted over the loss of days in their lives. With each change to the calendar around the world, laws established that people could not be taxed, paid, nor would interest accrue over the missing days. It was decreed that deadlines still had to take place in the correct number of natural days following the transition. In Great Britain, Parliament legislated the change to the Gregorian calendar (by this time simply called the New Style calendar) in 1751 after two unsuccessful attempts at change in 1645 and 1699. They decreed that September 2, 1752 would be followed by September 14, 1752. Britain needed to add eleven days instead of ten because by the time Britain changed, the Julian calendar was eleven days off the Gregorian calendar and tropic year. This 1752 change also applied to the American colonies of Britain so the change was made in the pre-United States and pre-Canada at that time. Alaska didnt change calendars until 1867, when it transferred from a Russian territory to a part of the United States. In the era after the change, dates were written with O.S. (Old Style) or N.S. (New Style) following the day so people examining records could understand whether they were looking at a Julian date or a Gregorian date. While George Washington was born on February 11, 1731 (O.S.), his birthday became February 22, 1732 (N.S.) under the Gregorian calendar. The change in the year of his birth was due to the change of when the change of the new year was acknowledged. Recall that prior to the Gregorian calendar, March 25 was the new year but once the new calendar was implemented, it became January 1. Therefore, since Washington was born between January 1 and March 25, the year of his birth became one year later upon the switch to the Gregorian calendar. (Prior to the 14th century, the new year change took place on December 25.) Today, we rely on the Gregorian calendar to keep us almost perfectly in line with the rotation of the earth around the sun. Imagine the disruption to our daily lives if a new calendar change were required in this most modern era!

Analysing Titan Marketing Strategies

Analysing Titan Marketing Strategies Titan, a Tata group company entered the watch market in 1987. Since then it has developed into one of the most recognized brands in India. In fact, in a recent survey conducted by A the exclusive Insignia; PSI, for those turned on by technology; and Raga, which has been considered exclusively for women. Titan’s focus has always been on India. Research reveals some interesting facts and figures about this diverse market. The Indian market is estimated at 25 million watches a year, with 50 per cent being sold by the organized sector. Titan is the runaway market leader, with domestic sales of 6 million watches a year. There are 190 million watch-owning Indians; between them they own about 210 million watches. Urban India accounts for 120 million of these watches and 90 millions are on rural wrists. More men than women own watches in India, and more working women than housewives own watches. It is the rural segment within this diverse market that Titan is now looking to tap. â₠¬Å"The key to success is getting into the rural market on a larger scale. The company’s Sonata range is targeted at rural customers, and is part of a strategy where the alignment of price and reliability are crucial. The rage costs between Rs.495 and Rs.1,200 has showrooms exclusively for it, and is sold mainly in small-town India (Kelly, 2006, 144).

E-commerce Operations Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

E-commerce Operations Management - Essay Example Since the first trimester of 2001 when the US e-commerce sales were $7931 million the overall sales increase by 242% six years later for a total $27,092 million online sales in the 1st quarter of 2007 (Plunkett Research, 2007). The largest retail firm in the world, Wal-Mart, caught on to this trend early and set up an internal and external ecommerce business infrastructure. This paper discusses e-commerce solution for customers and for internal business transaction by showcasing the capabilities of the multinational firm Wal-Mart Corporation. An electronic platform that allows business to interact with each other is a business to business network (B2B). A business to business application or e-biz is the exchange of products, information and services among business entities through electronic medium to achieve ecommerce transactions (Searchcio, 2001). The early emphasis of e-commerce was targeting business to customer transaction which has grown tremendously, but B2B have surprisingly become on the biggest forces driving the world ecommerce growth. B2B is a way to achieve significant savings in supply chain activities such as purchases and sales of product and services to other business partners. One of the simplest ways for other businesses to gain entrance into B2B networks is by utilizing the company home page as a portal for users to access a secured system to perform B2B transactions. Walt-Mart decided five years ago to convert their information system into a full B2B network to achieve greater efficiency in their relationships with suppliers and other vendors. The move was rapidly accepted by the business who are involve in business with Wal-Mart which enabled Wal-Mart to perform B2B transaction within a one year time span with 98% of its vendors (Zimmerman, 2003). Wal-Mart created its B2B application with the assistance of a software company called Coty. This firm provided the retail giant with the assistance

Behaviour in Social and Work Organisations Essay

Behaviour in Social and Work Organisations - Essay Example As argued out by McShane & Glinow (2009), the MARS model contains four pertinent aspects that directly impact on an individual’s performance. At the outset, motivation has been suggested to be the best strategy open to managers bent on boosting employee performance. The ability of an individual to perform a certain task should be critically analysed before placement. It is therefore imperative for managers to avoid any disparity between abilities and job profile during placement (Newstrom, 2007). An individual should behave within the parameters of the position occupied in the society. Newstrom (2007) maintains that no employee should be given roles conflicting with his or her culture. Finally, all the internal and external factors in an organisation must be favorable (Bratton, J. et.al, 2007) to allow an individual to perform. The Johari window has been used in explaining how people interact with one another. Anita (as cited in McShane & Glinow, 2009), explains that the Johari window has four panes which divides a person’s awareness into four different types. In the public pane is all the information about our lives that we bare open to the public. I may have a speck on my face and unless I use a mirror, I’ll never learn of the presence of the speck. Other people can observe this speck and thus know something I don’t know. This is my hidden or blind pane. The unknown pane on the other hand contains information about me that is not known to anyone including myself (McShane & Glinow, 2009). Such information could take the form of dreams or visions. Finally, the private pane contains an individual’s secrets kept hidden from others. Opening this private pane is called self-disclosure (Anita as cited in McShane & Glinow, 2009) which has its dangers. The EVLN model has been designed to explain the behaviour patterns of dissident members in an organisation intend on changing the

Mrs. Turpin in Flannery O’Connor’s Revelation Essay -- O’Connor’s shor

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Mrs. Turpin in Flannery O’Connor’s short story Revelation, is a prejudice and judgmental woman who spends most of her life prying in the lives of everyone around her. She looks at people not for who they are, but for their race or social standing. In fact, Mrs. Turpin is concerned with race and status so much that it seems to take over her life. Although she seems to disapprove of people of different race or social class, Mrs. Turpin seems to be content and appreciative with her own life. It is not until Mrs. Turpin’s Revelation that she discovers that her ways of life are no better then those she looks down upon and they will not assure her a place in Heaven.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Mrs. Turpin shows prejudice in several different aspects of her life. Her prejudice is first seen when she is in the doctor’s waiting room. The story states that â€Å"her little black eyes took in all the patients as she sized up the seating situation.† (339) While in the waiting room, Mrs. Turpin is surrounded by people of many different cultural and social backgrounds. As she gazes around the room Mrs. Turpin immediately begins putting the people into categories. Some she called â€Å"white trash†, others were wealthy and pleasant, and the remainder such as Mary Grace, were ugly. Most of Mrs. Turpin’s free time is also filled with prejudice thoughts. The story states that â€Å"Mrs. Turpin occupied herself at night naming the classes of people.†(341) She spends so much of her life judging other’s lives that she does...

Elizabeth Bishop Essay

Elizabeth Bishop is a very highly skilled poet. She deals with several different but equally interesting subject matters. I am personally drawn to many elements of her work, for example her themes and style of writing. Bishop deals with many different themes, including family, death, beauty and survival. She also uses a very unique and intriguing style of writing. Bishop has a remarkable eye for detail, her poems reach a conclusion and she puts a huge amount of her own life into her work. Firstly I will look at the themes of her poetry. Family, childhood and home are recurring themes throughout her poetry. Bishop had quite an unfortunate childhood and lost both her parents at quite a young age. This is reflected in the unnerving images she often employs in accounts of her childhood. This theme is central to many of her poems. â€Å"Sestina†, for example, is dominated by mages of rain, failing light and tears. Also in â€Å"First Death in Nova Scotia† she captures the confusion of a child faced with the inexplicable fact of her cousin’s death. The use of the third person voice in â€Å"sestina† blends the poet’s adult perspective with the child’s. It also allows Bishop to distance herself emotionally. Quite noticeably there is no mother in â€Å"sestina†, which is reinforced by the repetition of â€Å"grandmother.† This lack of parental figure in Bishop’s life is common in her poems, all but â€Å"First Death in Nova Scotia†. â€Å"Come,’ said my mother† Bishop lost her mother at five years of age. Although her mother didn’t die at this time it is notable that the only poem in which she is mentioned is predominantly about death. It seems Bishop never knew a true home and her search for a sense of belonging is apparent in â€Å"Filling Station.† At first she is disgusted by the â€Å"dirty† filling station. However as the poem progresses she discovers that it is a â€Å"family filling station.† She notices a warmer, more feminine touch in the home. â€Å"They lie upon a big dim doily draping a taboret.† Bishop tells us that â€Å"somebody† embroidered the doily. This somebody is the mother of the â€Å"greasy sons.† There are also many other domestic comparisons in her work, such as the reference to â€Å"ancient wallpaper† and â€Å"tarnished tinfoil† in â€Å"The Fish.† â€Å"The Fish† uses many different types of descriptions. Bishop’s use of both factual, objective imagery and aesthetic, subjective imagery is an element of her work which really appealed to me. In contrast to factual description such as â€Å"rags of green weed hung down† there is quite a bit of romanticising such as â€Å"five haired beard of wisdom.† There is also a contrasting link between the fish and roses. Once again Bishop takes something quite unpleasant and makes it beautiful. â€Å"Speckled with barnacles† is hardly a pleasant image, much like the skin of the fish hanging off. However Bishop’s carefully chosen language shows beauty. Bishop also finds beauty in the most miserable of scenes. This is clear in â€Å"The Prodigal.† The prodigal lives in a pig sty, he leads a truly disgusting life. However Bishop’s ability to find beauty in the most miserable of places shines through. â€Å"The sunrise gazed the barnyard mud with red.† Beauty is discovered through a series of observations in â€Å"Filling Station.† At first glance the filling station is a filthy and thoroughly unpleasant place to be. â€Å"Oil-soaked, oil-permeated to a disturbing overall black translucency.† However she continues to discover more and more about their home and the images become more pleasant. â€Å"Embroidered with daisy stitch with marguerites.† Another interesting theme throughout Bishop’s work is death. â€Å"First Death in Nova Scotia† deals with a child’s first experience of death. The child is younger than five and doesn’t understand death. This is showing where she speaks about the stuffed loon. â€Å"Since Uncle Arthur fired a bullet into him he hadn’t said a word.† The child doesn’t understand what has happened or what will happen to â€Å"little cousin Arthur.† She is unfamiliar with coffins and compares his to a â€Å"little frosted cake† because it is small and white. In the final lines of the poem the child becomes frustrated due to her confusion. â€Å"But how could Arthur go and the roads deep in snow?† Throughout â€Å"The Fish† the animal’s life is in the speaker’s hands. She holds him â€Å"half out of water,† while he breathes in the â€Å"terrible oxygen†, the fish is slowly dying in her hands and she must decide whether or not he is worth saving. Ultimately the speaker decides the fish is far too â€Å"venerable† to lose its life. â€Å"And I let the fish go.† The final theme I will look at is survival. This is shown best in â€Å"The Fish† and â€Å"The Prodigal.† â€Å"The Fish† shows that nature’s creatures are like humans in their ability to suffer and learn from that suffering. The â€Å"tremendous† creature has escaped death at the hands of previous fishermen 5 times. â€Å"A five haired heard of wisdom trailing from his aching jaw.† The word â€Å"wisdom† shows that he has become wise from his struggles. â€Å"The Prodigal† shows survival in a different sense. The alcoholic in this poem will endure anything to maintain his addiction. Surviving in vile conditions to maintain his drinking. â€Å"The Prodigal† also made me question my own attitudes towards addiction, helping me to understand and sympathise with it. Many poems have attention to the senses. This shows Bishop’s commitment to detail. This is very strong in â€Å"The Prodigal.† Sound, â€Å"their little feet and snored;† smell, â€Å"the brown enormous odour;† touch â€Å"he leaned to scratch her head;† and sight â€Å"plastered half way up with glass smooth dung.† This attention to all our senses is also strong in â€Å"The Prodigal†. Sound, â€Å"their little feet and snored†; smell â€Å"The brown enormous odour†; touch â€Å"he leaned to scratch her head†; and of course sight â€Å"the sty was plastered halfway up with glass-smooth dung† Our senses are also used in â€Å"Sestina†. Sound, â€Å"rain that beats; smell â€Å"she cuts some bread†; touch â€Å"she thinks the house feels chilly†; and finally sight â€Å"With crayons the child draws a rigid house†. Bishop’s concern with every day, ordinary objects also adds to her compelling dedication to detail. This is at the heart of â€Å"The Fish,† â€Å"Filling Station† and â€Å"First Death in Nova Scotia.† As such she allows us to see how wonderfully attractive the world can be if we stop and pay attention to the details. In â€Å"The Fish† for example, Bishop describes a â€Å"tremendous,† fish that she caught. She compares the fish’s skin to â€Å"ancient wallpaper† and speaks of the â€Å"rosettes of lime† that she sees. Even the aspects of the fish that she cannot see, his insides and entrails, she describes in intricate detail. Likewise this fascinating attention to detail is also apparent in â€Å"Filling Station.† Standing before an average filling station the poet becomes increasingly curious about the place. â€Å"Why the extraneous plant?† she wonders. In â€Å"First Death in Nova Scotia,† we discover Bishop’s commitment to detail was something she possessed even as a young child. â€Å"Edward, Prince of Wales†¦ with Queen Mary.† As she tells this poem from her childhood perspective the images are childlike and unusual, however they stay true to her particular technique. This ability of Bishop’s to see beyond the ordinary, to note and appreciate the wonder in the everyday objects around us is refreshing All of Bishops poetry reveals how time spent observing the world around us can lead to interesting conclusions and insights. Colour is also an appealing quality of her work. There is a lot of colour throughout â€Å"The Fish†, we never go more than a few lines without the next addition of colour. These colours get much more vibrant as the poem progresses, going from his â€Å"brown skin† to â€Å"rusted orange.† The steady progression of colour ultimately leads to the exclamation â€Å"rainbow, rainbow, rainbow!† In â€Å"The Prodigal† she mentioned â€Å"the brown enormous odour.† Attaching a colour to the odour strengthens the unbearable stench and I think it creates one of Bishop’s strongest descriptions. Unlike â€Å"The Fish†, â€Å"First Death in Nova Scotia,† references the same colours repeatedly. Red and white are repeated and references continuously. The â€Å"frozen lake† which the loon sits on is mentioned twice along with â€Å"frosted cake,† â€Å"white like a doll,† and â€Å"left him white forever.† This colour may represent peace or innocence. The child also mentions the loon’s â€Å"red eyes† twice, as well as â€Å"a few strokes of red† and â€Å"warm in red.† This may represent pain or suffering. There is also reference to colour in â€Å"Filling Station.† The difference here is that Bishop focuses on the lack of definite colour. Greys and blacks make up the scene, â€Å"Black translucency.† The repetition of â€Å"dirty† reinforces this. The lack of colour makes the comics stand out, â€Å"the only note of certain colour.† A common theme throughout all of Bishop’s work is her ability to reach a conclusion in order to end the poem. Her conclusions include â€Å"And I let the fish go†; â€Å"But it took him a long time finally to make his mind up to go home†; â€Å"The child draws another inscrutable house† and â€Å"Somebody loves us all†. Quite notable there isn’t a pleasant ending to â€Å"First Death in Nova Scotia† which reinforces the lack of understanding in the child and her inability to give her cousin a happy ending. What I personally admire most about Bishop’s work is how much of herself she puts into her poetry. On a deeper level, â€Å"Filling Station† may be about Bishop herself. She missed and longed for a mother figure in her own life. Sadly she and her mother were separated when she was only 5 years old. â€Å"Sestina† deals with the period of time just after the separation. The mother is absent from the scene and she draws a man who we presume is her late father. â€Å"Then the child puts in a man†. â€Å"The Prodigal† represents her problems with alcoholism and was inspired by drinking in a barn. She, like the prodigal, suffered with addiction. â€Å"First death in Nova Scotia† is the only poem where Bishop mentions her mother, showing us she has some memory of her. It is significant that the only poem where she mentions her is one where death and the understanding of death is the central theme. â€Å"The Fish† shows the ability to struggle on and survive, despite all odds. The Fish was like Bishop because it had grown tired of fighting for its life. Bishop’s poetry displays her need throughout her life to find stability and order. Bishop never outgrew the loss of her mother and the terrible feeling of not belonging. Elizabeth Bishop’s work is fantastic and compelling, allowing the reader to see into her own life through varied themes and subject matters. Her style of writing is appealing and unusual and this makes her an incredibly skilled poet. Bishop is honest in her portrayal of her upbringing which is undoubtable very appealing.

Cancer Is The Disease Caused By A Wild Detachment Of...

Breast Cancer Cancer is the disease caused by a wild detachment of unusual cells in a part of the body. Cancer is the name given to a collection of related diseases. In all types of cancer, some of the body’s cells begin to divide without stopping and spread into surrounding tissues. Cancer can start almost anywhere in the human body, which is made up of trillions of cells. Normally, human cells grow and divide to form new cells as the body needs them. When cells grow old or become damaged, they die, and new cells take their place. When cancer develops, however, this orderly process breaks down. As cells become more and more abnormal, old or damaged cells survive when they should die, and new cells form when they are not needed. These extra cells can divide without stopping and may form growths called tumors. How Cancer Arises; Cancer is a genetic disease—that is, it is caused by changes to genes that control the way our cells function, especially how they grow and divide. Genetic changes that causes cancer can be inherited from our parents. They can also arise during a person’s lifetime as a result of errors that occur as cells divide or because of damage to DNA caused by certain environmental exposures. Cancer-causing environmental exposures include substances, such as the chemicals in tobacco smoke, and radiation, such as ultraviolet rays from the sun Types of Cancer: There are more than 100 types of cancer. Types of cancer are usually named for the organs or tissuesShow MoreRelatedStrategy Safari by Mintzberg71628 Words   |  287 PagesSTRATEGY SAFARI A GUIDED TOURTHROUGH THE WILDS OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT HENRY MINTZBERG BRUCE AHLSTRAND JOSEPH LAMPEL T H E FREE PRESS NEW YORK aJaiz. u.frmiu/i  «...* „.;i†¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¢/ . †¢ . . †¢. »Ã¢â‚¬ ¢.. . .. †¢..†¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¢.-.†¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¢a/itiktSii^i THE FREE PRESS A Division of Simon Schuster Inc. 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020 Copyright  © 1998 by Henry Mintzberg, Ltd., Bruce Ahlstrand, and Joseph Lampel All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. THERead MoreOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 Pagesspan we call the twentieth century, no matter how it is temporally delineated. Never before in history, for example, had so many humans enjoyed such high standards of living, and never had so many been so impoverished or died of malnutrition and disease. If the period from the 1870s is included in a long twentieth century (and perhaps even if it is not), migration served as a mode of escape from oppression and poverty and, in many instances, as an avenue toward advancement for an unprecedentedRead MoreDeveloping Management Skills404131 Words   |  1617 Pagescharacterized by chaotic, transformational, rapid-fire change. In fact, almost no sane person is willing to predict what the world will be like 50, 25, or even 15 years from now. Change is just too rapid and ubiquitous. The development of â€Å"nanobombs† have caused some people to predict that personal computers and desktop monitors will land on the scrap heap of obsolescence within 20 years. The new computers will be a product of etchings on molecules leading to personalized data processors injected into theRead MoreStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 Pagesthe phones, suggested they â€Å"avoid gripping [the phone] in the lower left corner.† Steve Jobs called the problem a â€Å"non-issue.† Only later did Apple address the root cause of the problem—and fix it. When you make an error, try to understand what caused it. 4. Reward owning up. If you make a mistake, be willing to speak up and admit it. Too often we dig ourselves deeper into a hole by being defensive about mistakes. That also keeps us from learning from our failures. If we all make mistakes, what