Family Owned Real Estate Properties in London Dissertation

Family Owned Real Estate Properties in London - Dissertation Example This particular paper focused on family owned real estate businesses that are located within the City of London. Among the most prominent real estate companies that are family owned, include the Grosvenor Estate, the Cadogan Estate, the Howard de Walden Estate, and the Portman Estate. According to Darlow (2013), these companies have a big shareholding in the London property market mostly because their founders acquired land in the earlier centuries when land the price of land was low (Darlow, 2013). These families have held the ownership of the parcels of land till the present times when the lands are being developed to property and real estate (Wheaton & Torto, 1990). However, it is important to note that besides these prominent families, there are other small family owned real estate companies that also own a small number of real estate within the London. Whilst focusing on family owned real estate companies in London, the research study focused on the aspect of management in these companies and in particular how the collaborations of property agents work with these family owned businesses. A property agent or a real estate agent is described as an individual that has been approved and issued with a license that enables him to represent either a landowner or a land buyer in a real estate transaction. Such an individual earns a brokerage commission out of such a deal (Mccrea, 2005). Besides the brokerage services, property agents also act as agents for the owners of residential and commercial properties.

Earth Science Essay Example for Free

Earth Science Essay Stars are one of the celestial bodies found in the solar system. Such celestial object produces heat, light, and different forms of radiations such as x-rays and ultraviolet rays caused by its cosmic energy engines. All stars are made up of gas, plasma, and matters comprised of subatomic particles that are extremely heated. From the earth, it may appear that stars are near because of their radiance shining over. However, stars are very far away that most of the scientists have to develop methods in order to calculate their distance. Two of the most notable methods are the parallax technique and the use of Cepheid variable (National Geographic, 2008). The parallax technique is used in order to identify the distance of the stars that are closest to the earth. Due to the revolution of the earth to the sun, the stars that are near to the earth shifts position against the stars that are in farther positions. These changes in the position of the nearby stars are known as the parallax shift. The parallax method functions by observing the distance of the shifting process and determining the earth’s orbit diameter. From there, astronomers are able to determine the parallax angle of the star’s distance. The main principle behind the method is that â€Å"the smaller the parallax shift, the farther away the star is from the earth† (Windows to the Universe Team, 2000, n. p. ). Such method is only applicable for stars that are within the range of few hundred light years from earth. Thus, when stars exceed the given range, the parallax shift could be too small to be measured through this technique (Windows to the Universe Team, 2000). For the countless distant stars that are in the range beyond 100 light years and are in clusters found in a different galaxy, the measurement is identified through the star’s property known as Cepheid variable. Stars that have this property undergo a fixed cycle where they get brighter and dimmer. This property is common among stars that are in â€Å"old age† (Berger, 2002, n. p. ). Because of their abundance in space, astronomers measure their distance by determining the number of cycle when stars are bright (Berger, 2002). There are many ways to measure the distance of the stars. It may be obtained from the stars spectral properties, temperature, brightness, and luminosity. Because of the major efforts in improving the measurements of the distances of the stars, various ways are also formulated in order to determine the cosmic distance of other celestial bodies present in the sky. References Berger, W. H. (2002). Measuring distance to the stars. In Intro to Astronomy: Discussion of the Field of Astronomy, University of California, San Diego. Retrieved September 17, 2008 from http://earthguide. ucsd. edu/virtualmuseum/ita/06_3. shtml. National Geographic. (2008). Stars. Retrieved September 17, 2008 from http://science. nationalgeographic. com/science/space/universe/stars-article. html Windows to the Universe Team. (2000, September). How do astronomers measure the distance to stars? Is it accurate? University Corporation For Atmospheric Research. Retrieved September 17, 2008 from http://www. windows. ucar. edu/tour/link=/kids_space/star_dist. html.

Beowulf: Heroism :: Epic of Beowulf Essays

Beowulf’s author is unknown, as are his motives and inspiration for the creation of the poem. Written some four hundred years before the Norman conquests, it is comprised of three thousand, one hundred and eighty-two lines, dramatically reproducing the timeless struggle between good and evil, along with all the variations that accompany such a story. By far one of the most admirable qualities presented to the reader is the notion of heroism, and the importance of honor. The quality of character was a major element of the heroic man in the world of which the story is set. In relation the personality, James V. McConnell wrote; "Let us define personality as the way in which a person thinks, behaves and adjusts to his or her environment. Such a definition would include the persons traits, values, motives, attitudes, emotional reactions, abilities, self-image and intelligence as well as the persons overt behavior patterns." (McConnell, page 610). He then went on further to say, "A complete theory of personality would not only describe the individual’s present style of adjustment but give some notion of how the person got that way and where he or she was going." Throughout the poem, the author allows the reader to see, in action, the true workings of heroes. Men and women who cast aside their own personal needs and desires for the better of others. During this time society sustained a strong honor code. The actions that an individual amassed over their lifetime was the title by which they were known to the rest of the land, both good and bad. A lot was asked of rulers concerning the protection and expansion of the empire, Kings and Queens were known by their conquests and control of the subjects around them. In the prologue we are introduced to a loved and heroic King by the name of Shild. " How Shild made slaves of soldiers from every land, crowds of captives he’d beaten into terror†¦lived to be rich and much honored. He ruled lands on all sides: wherever the sea would take them his soldiers sailed, returned with tribute and obedience." (Raffel, line 4). This section of the prologue clearly defines the times, in that i t immediately sets up the reader for the level of nobility in the tone of the author, in the expression of dignity that accompanies King Shild’s conquests. His life was associated with greatness and at his death his tribute was great.

College Student Essay

As a student nurse, I was working in a student assignment group, where we were to make a project for a presentation on â€Å"Breast Cancer†. We had four persons in our group. On our meeting day, one of our group members did not come to our group meeting and she also did phone none of us. We were not able to finish our group work because we were missing her part of the project. We did not even know whether she had started her part of the work or not. Our meeting without her part of the work was not productive and we decided to set up another meeting on another day. On next day I met her and asked if everything is fine with her and her family. She confirmed that everything was fine. My expectation was that she would give some explanations or would try to talk about what had happened. She did not show any interest in a further communication. Her behavior was surprising and the same time frustrating for me. I perceived that she was not a responsible person, because before our meeting she did not call us. I also perceived that she did not value and respect other people time. I felt that she even ignored the importance of the group project and the work that she was spouse to complete. The conflict arose in our work group about her part of the work, and we were undecided whether we were to keep on being silent or to start an open discussion about our concerns. Eventually, we did not do very well on our group project and then our group was disbanded when for the next project we had to choose new partners for the group. 2. Communication Despite my perceptions about her, I decided to ask her if everything was fine with her family. She confirmed that her family was fine and then I kept a distance from her because I decided that she did not have a legitimate reason not come to the meeting and in fact this validated my perception that she was not responsible person and she did not value other people time. Because of her behavior the conflict arose in our work group about her part of the work, and we were undecided whether we were to keep on being silent or to start an open discussion about our concerns. Eventually, we did not do very well on our group project and then our group was disbanded when for the next project we had to choose new partners for the group. Even when our group project was completed, I kept thinking about her behavior and I came to the conclusion that there could have been other reasons for her behavior that she never shared with any of us. I feel that the reason for the further events was the lack of communication between her and the group members. Now I regret that I failed the opportunity to fix the situation by an open communication, and create strong group solidarity. But I value this experience for the idea of importance of a communication to build strong group solidarity. 3. Possibilities I formed my perceptions about her having only limited information about her; I did not know the real reason she had that day not to come to the meeting. As I knew that she had a large family with four children, and maybe one of her children was sick, so she had to stay at home with the sick child. As a mother, her baby’s health could be the priority for her. The other reason for her not to come to the meeting could have been an accident and maybe she did not have an opportunity to call us or to let us know about it. Finally, maybe one her close relatives had breast cancer and she was very sensitive to the work project, so she was not able to come and discus the topic with the group members. We never had an opportunity to know what exactly had happened to her since she never talked to us about the reasons for her behavior. 4. Influences Analyzing the event I can identify many assumptions on my part that influences my thoughts. There is another important factor about myself, which formed my perceptions. I have an experience in working with sick children and their parents and in this case I thought that the reason could be that her baby was sick, and as a mother for her the baby’s health is the most important thing for her. I am a very responsible person, and I respect people and their time. I am always early for any meeting or group projects. I am also very careful with my study process, so this made me feel that she did not respect our group member’s time. In my cultural background it is very important if I promise or decide to do something in a group, and I am not able to go on with that, I must let my partners know. Another thing that made an influence on my perception was that I value other people time and I always let them know if I am late. The other reason could be that as an ESL student she had a hard time to complete the work. As an ESL student with some language barriers, I thought that she had a hard time to complete any work. 5. Application of Learning to Nursing Practice I think that perception checking can play a significant role in my critical thinking and decision making process. Only open communication and accurate perception checking can help us to understand other people behavior. It is now my understanding is that I would have done better to discuss the issue with my group partner, and to address the conflict in an open way. Open communication would give me an opportunity to perform and improve my direct perception checking skills. Even somehow I had tried to discover the real reasons for my group partner behavior, my actions and skills were not enough to understand her behavior, to have a whole picture of what happen, rather that make my assumptions. On my meeting with her on the next day somehow I tried to understand the possible reasons for her behavior. That was an example of indirect perception checking process, but not performed completely. I feel that I formed most part of my perceptions on my own assumptions. For my further successful practice I have to learn more about perception checking process and also improve my perception checking skills toward my successful nursing career. Nursing work is always a team work and in my further practice I also will use this experience to build team solidarity.

Ideal Democracy Essay

Outline A.) Introduction – Democracy Definition by Latin roots and suffixes a. Background- Articles about the common topic of Democracy and its different definitions. I. Dahl- Dahl’s view in political system. b. Thesis – Through observation from Dahl’s point of view, I will explain the meaning of the ideal democracy while considering how it began during the founding years of the United States and discuss the deficiencies from personal reflection. B.) 1st Topic – Dahl’s Ideal Democracy c. What is Dahl’s ideal democracy? II. Consisting of five standards, Dahl’s ideal democracy is â€Å"a designed set of rules and principles, a constitution, that will determine how the association’s decision are to be made. And your constitution must be in conformity with one elementary principle: that all the members are to be treated (under the constitution) as if they were equally qualified to participate in the process of making decisions about the policies the association will pursue.† In order to govern this association, all members are to be considered politically equal. III. Five Standards 1. Effective participation 2. Voting in equality 3. Gaining enlightened understanding. 4. Exercising final control over the agenda 5. Inclusion of adults d. Why is Dahl’s democracy significant? IV. There are 10 main benefits from practicing the ideal democracy. 6. Democracy helps to prevent government by cruel and vicious autocrats. 7. Democracy guarantees its citizens a number of fundamental rights that nondemocratic systems to not, and cannot, grant. 8. Democracy insures its citizens a broader range of personal freedom than any feasible alternative to it. 9. Democracy helps people to protect their own fundamental interests. 10. Only a democratic government can provide a maximum opportunity for persons to exercise their freedom of self-determination – that is, to live under laws of their own choosing. 11. Only a democratic government can provide a maximum opportunity for exercising moral responsibility. 12. Democracy fosters human development more fully than any feasible alternative. 13. Only a democratic government can foster a relatively high degree of political equality. 14. Modern representative democracies do not fight wars with one another. 15. Countries with democratic government tend to be more prosperous than countries with nondemocratic governments. e. Why Political Equality? V. Political equality is highly recommended under this observation for intrinsic equality and civic competence. C.) 2nd Topic – The Founding Years f. The Constitution g. The Articles of Confederation h. The Democracy in Both i. The comparison between the beginning democracy and the ideal democracy j. D.) 3rd Topic – My Reflection and the Deficiencies k. How Do I compare the US Democracy to Dahl’s Ideal Democracy? VI. After the founding up until the 1960’s civil rights movement l. Discuss the Democratic deficits m. Discuss improvements since the 1960’s n. Discuss the development including developing improvements and imperfections. E.) Conclusion o. Introduction From the definition of the Latin words, the root demo means people and the suffix -cracy means government or rule. When putting the two together to form the word democracy, by definition, the words means to have the people rule the government. This means that all of the people should have their opinion accepted about everything that affects their daily lives. Most people of the United States of America believe that we live in a democracy. To live in a democracy means to have the freedoms that are considered fundamental to human freedom and flourishing. According to an article on the ideal democracy, though democracy is widely considered to bet the most preferable form of government, this conviction alone is not enough to establish its supremacy as the ideal form of government often having flaws when actualized (Coffrin, 2012). Robert Dahl, often called â€Å"the Dean† of American political scientists, is one of America’s most prolific democracy professors and critics. One of his many contributions is his explication of the varieties of power which he defines as â€Å"A† getting â€Å"B† to do what â€Å"A† wants but preferring the more influence terms. In his book On Democracy, he provides his definition of the real â€Å"Ideal Democracy†. This democracy isn’t much like the democracy we practice today in America. Through observation from Dahl’s point of view, I will explain the meaning of the ideal democracy while considering how it began during the founding years of the United States and then discuss the deficiencies from personal reflection. Body There are a number of ways in which the term â€Å"democracy† is used. When looking upon the definition from the Merriam Webster dictionary, democracy has five separate meanings; two being â€Å"a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections† and â€Å"the principle and policies of the Democratic party in the US† (democracy, 2012). These definitions are describing the actuality of what democracy is however Dahl’s ideal is not mentioned in the dictionary. Dahl’s ideal democracy is only in his imagination. He believes that democracy is really â€Å"a designed set of rules and principles, a constitution, that will determine how the association’s decision are to be made†¦and that all the members are to be treated as if they were equally qualified to participate in the process of making decisions about the policies the association will pursue† (Dahl, 37). In order to govern this association, all members are to be considered politically equal in order to provide opportunities for effective participation, equality in voting, gaining enlightened understanding, exercising final control over the agenda, and inclusion of adults (38). According to Dahl’s outlook, the ideal democracy has at least 10 advantages. Democracy helps to prevent government by cruel and vicious autocrats, guarantees its citizens a number of fundamental rights that nondemocratic systems to not grant, it insures its citizens a broader range of personal freedom than any feasible alternative, it helps people to protect their own fundamental interests, is only a democratic government that can provide a maximum opportunity for persons to exercise their freedom of self-determination and for exercising moral responsibility, it fosters human development more fully than any feasible alternative, it can foster a relatively high degree of political equality, never fight wars with another democratic organization, and countries with democratic governments tend to be more prosperous (Dahl, 60). These selections of standards and advantages are designed to enhance and motivate members to be a part of the ideal democratic process. But the key point to the ideal democracy is political equality. Political equality is highly recommended under this observation for intrinsic equality and civic competence. For intrinsic equality we need to express a moral judgment about human beings intending to â€Å"say something about what we believe ought to be† (Dahl, 65). As the words of the Declaration employed, with moral judgment we claim that one person’s life, liberty, and happiness is not intrinsically superior or inferior to the life, liberty, and happiness of any other (65). We should adopt this principle for ethical and religious grounds, the weakness of an alternative principle, prudence, and acceptability (67). In this intrinsic equality, there must be application to the value to the government of the state in which the government must give equal consideration to the interest of every person. For civic competence, there must be a rejection of the Guardianship as a satisfactory way of applying the main idea. â€Å"Among adults no persons are so definitely better qualified than others to govern that they should be entrusted with complete and final authority over the government of the state† (Dahl, 79). This theory suggests that we be governed by ourselves. From what I’ve learned in part one of Dahl’s Ideal Democracy, the United States of America isn’t so democratic as it is represented to be based upon the founding of the US Constitution and the Articles of Confederation. Works Cited Kolar, M. (2005). What is democracy. Retrieved on March 11, 2012 from http://www.whatisdemocracy.net/ Coffrin, T. (2012). Ideal democracy. Retrieved on March 11, 2012 from http://trevorcoffrin.hubpages.com/hub/IdealDemocracy