Sunday, May 24, 2020

Should I Break a Car Window to Save a Dog in a Hot Car

Every summer, people leave their dogs in hot cars — sometimes for just a few minutes, sometimes in the shade, sometimes with the windows cracked open, sometimes when it doesnt seem that hot out, and often not realizing how hot a closed car can get in those few minutes — and inevitably, the dogs die. Unlike humans, dogs become overheated very quickly because they do not sweat through their skin. According to Matthew Uncle Matty Margolis—host of the PBS television series WOOF! Its a Dogs Life—thousands of dogs die in hot cars every year. But what should you do if you see a dog trapped in a car on a hot day? The answer is a bit nuanced, it seems, as theres a legal solution that could take too long and a moral one that may get you in legal trouble! What Is the Problem? On a humid, 80-degree day the temperature inside of a closed car parked in the shade can increase to 109 degrees within 20 minutes and reach 123 degrees within 60 minutes according to the National Weather Service. If the temperature outside is over 100 degrees, the temperature inside a car parked in the sun can reach 200 degrees. A study conducted by the Animal Protection Institute showed that even with all four windows cracked, the inside of a car can reach fatal temperatures. In an example out of Omaha, Nebraska, two dogs were left inside of a parked car for 35 minutes on a 95-degree day. The car was parked in the sun with the windows rolled up, and the temperature inside the car reached 130 degrees — one dog survived; the other didnt. In Carrboro, North Carolina, a dog was left in a car with the windows rolled up for two hours, in the shade, when the temperature hit a high of 80 degrees that day. The dog died of heatstroke. Leaving the car running with the air conditioning on is also dangerous; the car could stall, the air conditioning could break down, or the dog might put the car in gear. Furthermore, leaving a dog in the car is dangerous regardless of temperatures because the dog could be stolen from the car by people who engage in dogfighting or thieves who will then sell the dog to laboratories for animal testing. Leaving a dog in a hot car can be prosecuted under the states animal cruelty statute, and fourteen states explicitly prohibit leaving a dog in a hot car. The Legal Response Unless the dog is in imminent danger—where a few minutes delay could be deadly—the first step must always be to call authorities in order to help prevent â€Å"hot car† dog fatalities. Lora Dunn, Staff Attorney at the Criminal Justice Program of the Animal Legal Defense Fund explains that breaking into a vehicle as a private citizen may not only put you in physical danger but can also expose you to legal liability: Animals are property in every jurisdiction, so taking an animal from anothers vehicle could trigger theft, burglary, trespassing to property, and/or conversion of property charge—among others. If you reach someone who is not taking the situation seriously, hang up and try calling other agencies. You may be able to get help from 911, the local police, the fire department, animal control, a humane officer, a local animal shelter, or local humane society. Also, if the car is in the parking lot of a store or restaurant, write down the license plate and ask the manager to make an announcement for the person to go back to their car. Is Breaking the Car Window a Good Solution? However, if the dog seems to be in immediate peril, the moral choice might be to save it. First assess if the dog in the car is exhibiting signs of heat stroke — which has symptoms including excessive panting, seizures, bloody diarrhea, bloody vomiting and stupor — and if so, you may need to break into the vehicle to save the dogs life. In September of 2013, passersby debated what to do about a dog in a hot car in Syracuse, New York. Just as one of them decided to smash the car window open with a rock, the owner came back and took the dog out of the car, but it was too late. There is no doubt that there will be situations where breaking into a car will save a dogs life, but breaking into a car is an illegal, criminal act and would expose you to civil liability if the owner decides to sue you for damaging their car. When asked about smashing car windows to save a dog, Chief David B. Darrin of the Spencer, Massachusetts police department warns, You could be charged with malicious destruction of property. Leicester Police Chief James Hurley states, We dont advise people to smash windows. In Albuquerque, New Mexico, the police asked Claire Cissy King if she wanted to press charges against the woman who broke into her hot car to save her dog. In that case, Suzanne Jones waited 40 minutes for authorities to arrive before she smashed the car window open. King was grateful for Jones actions and did not press charges. Sadly, not every car owner will be grateful and some may decide to press charges or sue you for damages. For every person who would break a window to save a dog, there is someone who thinks her dog would have been just fine and wants you to mind your own business. You will have been morally right in saving the dogs life, but others dont always look at it that way. Would I Really Be Prosecuted? It seems unlikely, though not impossible. Onondaga County (New York) District Attorney William Fitzpatrick told Syracuse.com, Theres absolutely no way in the world wed prosecute someone for trying to save the animal. Several attorneys in Massachusetts told the Telegram and Gazette that they could not see a reasonable district attorney prosecuting such a case. A search of the internet and a search of legal databases turned up no cases where someone was prosecuted for breaking into a car to save a dog. If prosecuted, one could try to argue the necessity defense because breaking the car window was necessary to save the dogs life, the dog was at imminent risk, and the death of the dog would have been a greater harm than breaking the car window. Whether such an argument would succeed in this situation remains to be seen.

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Culture Shock By Catherine Lombard, Jonathan Rempel, And...

Just moved to another country? Are their customs, traditions, and values unfamiliar to you? Constantly feeling tired, depressed, and lonely? Experiencing crucial migraines or always feeling sleepy? Well, you may be suffering from culture shock. When speaking of â€Å"culture shock† one immediately defines it as moving or visiting a foreign country of sorts that is unfamiliar to the individual. However, although that may be true there are other forms of culture shock such as changing jobs, moving to a new home, or even purchasing new items for oneself. I have visited India multiple times at different points in my life to see family and friends, and for each time I have visited I noticed a different effect culture shock takes a toll on me physically and psychologically. To help me unveil methods to manage and prevent occurrences of culture shock I will be using an assortment of articles. Specifically, I will be citing scholarly articles written by Catherine Lombard, Jonathan Rem pel, and Junzi Xia. Along with the use of our textbook Understanding Intercultural Communications written by Stella Ting-Toomey and Leeva Chung. A way to interpret culture shock is to envision it similarly to a disease. It has different stages and effects on every individual, it is hard to isolate, and many don’t feel the pain or discomfort until some time has passed. Everyone experiences culture shock in some shape or form, some with heavier impacts than others; however, there are various exercises for

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Causes for the Central Powers Losing the First World War Free Essays

After the First World War had ceased on the 11th of November 1918, there were a lot of negotiations on the issue of how to sustain peace, and how to treat the Central Powers, which consisted namely of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria. France wanted urgent reparation for the damages Germany had caused, and did not consider giving her a â€Å"mild punishment†, such as the one Britain had suggested. There are several important reasons as to why the Central Powers lost World War One. We will write a custom essay sample on Causes for the Central Powers Losing the First World War or any similar topic only for you Order Now During this analysis I will be looking at the most vital ones, and giving a brief idea of how and why these shaping events took place. There was one particular event involving especially Germany at an early stage of the war: the von Schlieffen plan. In 1914, Germany tried to pursue the so-called â€Å"von Schlieffen plan†, in which the goal was to surround the French armies. They planned to do so by flying through Belgium to the coasts of France, to then capture the Channel ports and use the way of the rivers to surround France, their support and their navy. This was easier said than done; the Belgian resistance was strong, making Germany unable to capture the Channel ports and thus unable to get somewhat control of France. The fact that the von Schlieffen plan failed had a great impact on the Central Powers’ motivation throughout the war, as well the fact that it did not manage to show their authority from early on. Several smaller reasons to why the Central Powers lost also need to be taken into consideration. Britain tried to block German ports and trade routes, making it difficult for them to acquire weapons, ammunition, transport and food from other countries. Considering that the Germans were already exhausted by the war, because of the fact that they did not expect a long-term war. To add to that, there was not a lot the other Central Powers could do to help Germany, meaning that they all-in-all did not get many new supplies of tools for warfare. In conclusion, there were many minimal causes for the results of the First World War, such as British blockade of German ports and trade routes, German exhaustion and the fact that they did not get much help from the other Central Powers. US entered the war in April 1917. This was a vital reason for the Allies’ victory. Seeing as it was at the very end of World War One, and Germany was already exhausted, it did a great deal to their morale when a whole new continent joined the war. The US contributed by providing Britain and France with food, merchant ships and credit. By mid-1918 over half a million American soldiers were involved in the war. As well as the physical help, the USA gave a vast blow to German morale. Thus, the US joining the war was one of the leading steps to the Allies winning. As my short analysis has shown, there were many different reasons for the Central Powers losing the First World War, in which there were small reasons as well as big ones. The causes I have mentioned are the failure of the Schlieffen plan, small reasons such as British blockade, German exhaustion and not getting any help from the other Central Powers and lastly, the US joining the war towards the end. These are only some of the reasons, however they show how German morale to some extent affected the How to cite Causes for the Central Powers Losing the First World War, Essay examples

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Managing International Supply Chain Toyota

Questions: 1. The global competitive business environment has both positive and negative impacts on the automobile industry like Toyota. It forces the company to take an intense look at their global supply chains, to question some of their strategic outsourcing assumptions, searching for location economies, and to root out major technical inefficiencies. Critically evaluate and discuss the global supply chain management challenges/decisions (in terms of strategies, planning and operations) for Toyota to survive and thrive in the next decade as uncertainties in the political economy and stiff competition from competitors begin to hit the organisation. Use the appropriate models, tools and theories to support your arguments. 2. The growing globalized economy has redefined the dynamics of competition for Toyota. With product life cycles shortening, technologies and worldwide rivalries increasing, critical success depends on effective global supply chain management - being able to deliver the right product to the right market at the right time and right pricing.Critically analyse and discuss the potential risk factors and new difficulties that Toyota may have in its effort to continue to dominate the car industry. 3. The internet as an information and communication medium offers new business possibilities in managing the global supply chains. Evaluate how the internet and electronic age will shape the global information structure of Toyota to remain competitive in a globalized and competitive business environment. You may use an appropriate model for this assessment. Answers: Introduction Automotive industry is one of the Australias significant and largest industries that employ large number of people but it is still small by global standards. Last decade has witnessed the trends of withdrawing from the local manufacturing in Australia by the Automobile giants. Mitsubishi was the first company to end the local manufacturing in Australian markets, followed by the Announcement of GMs owned subsidiary Holden and this time finally Toyota had announced to end it local manufacturing in Australia in 2017. Automobile manufacturing and assembling industry has been struggling in Australia due to high costs and low volumes (Bracks, 2008). Also, the industries were in state of confusion about the new policies of the government. But when the Tony Abott, Australias prime minister has clarified to the automobile giants that government is not willing to provide subsidies to the automobile sector (Levien, 2014), Toyota sees no point in continuing manufacturing in Australia and continu es to pay high labor costs despite of fragmented demand and poor forecasts in Australia and thus joined the exodus started by the Mitsubishi, lead by the Ford and GMs Holden and further depressed the already existing gloomy outlook of the countrys struggling manufacturing sector. Toyota, the Japanese Automaker, does not withdraw or shut down its plant easily. It ended its New Zealand factory in 1998 after tariffs were axed to such low levels that Toyota find itself unsustainable to continue the factory and hence shut down. The objective of this report is to elucidate the effect of global competitive business environment on the supply chains and to take an intense look on Toyotas supply chain, its strategy, supply chain planning and operation. This report will cover how the increasing technology and digitalization are shaping the information structure of the organizations and helping them to remain competitive in this age of increasing competition. 1. Toyota Motor Corporation is a top Japanese auto manufacture. Sometime back, A key issue at Toyota was the design of its supply chain, distribution network when the demand of its products is increasing rapidly across the world. AS a result, Toyota Motor defines its global supply chain strategy which it calls Global complementation (Shimizu, 2003). Under this strategy, Toyota decided to open the local factories in every market having demand. The open question now is to decide the production capacity of these local factories. Initially, each local factory setup by the Toyota was for serving the local demand only. In such cases, if there is low demand in any particular region, then it does not make sense to have factory in that country. However, the organization has already setup the factories in such regions and starting and shutting the operations in a region is not easy, it comes at a cost of huge investment. After the Asian recession of 1997, Toyota redesigned all its factories to make them capable of serving the local as well as global markets so that when the local market weakens, it can make the products for the global markets. Let us see some of the important drivers of the Toyotas supply chain in Australia: Raw Material Import Auto suppliers are generally moved to near car manufacturers in most of the areas but not in Australia as it is very expensive. As a result, Toyota ahs to import many raw materials which has pushed the logistics cost very high for the company. Most of the car comes from the plants located at low cost clusters like Eastern Europe, India, Thailand and china in Asia, and Michigan in US. Major auto components suppliers also move their facilities near to these locations. Importing material to Australia from these suppliers incurs high costs to Toyota (Smith, Smith, Sohal, 2005). Local Demand Australia demand for the cars is 1.5 % of the total sales of the Auto worldwide. Out of this number, only .4% of the cars are locally supplier while all the others are imported. This means that Australian people are not buying only models which are manufactured locally but also importing the globally made models. Only Holden cruze and Toyota camry are the only models having significant local demand. Target Market/Market Where it Distributes the Car All the auto makers serve the Global markets from their plant in Australia. Below is the figure having export of all the automakers by the destination. If this view can be narrowed down to Toyota, every 2 of the 3 vehicles it is manufacturing in Australia is exported. Toyota Australia is one of the major exporters of Toyota motor and Serves close to 13 countries. It has terrific knowledge of Middle East markets and thus Camry which is the number 1 selling car in the Middle east comes from Toyota Australia. In Middle East, Toyota competes with almost every auto manufacturer of the world (https://www.toyota.com.au/toyota/company/operations/exports ). Increasing value of Australian dollars in bringing the exports down and the facility is becoming unsustainable with huge loss incurred every year. Figure 1: Australian automotive exports by Destination (Source: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/the-verdict-is-out-heres-why-australian-car-manufacturing-is-at-an-end-2013-12) Economies of Scale Currently, Australia facility is serving the local as well as global markets. Any car manufacturing plant should manufacture cars between 200,000 to 300,000 to make use of economies of scale and to be cost competitive. However, In Australia, the total vehicle production by all the Auto manufactures is less than two hundred thousand which is less (https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/9309.0). This may be the reason that Mitsubishi, Ford and Holden had already shut down their factories in Australia. Labor Costs, Political and Economic Issue The high value of Australian dollar, increasing local costs of labor, low tariffs and no subsidy from the government make car manufacturing unsustainable in Australia. Below graph is showing that labor costs are highest in Australia while very low in India and Thailand. This graphs interpretation is very powerful and suggests a case in point why Toyota is not shifting their plant to these countries especially when this Australian plant is mainly serving global markets. Middles east markets can also be served from Thailand. Also, there are political issues when the prime minister of the Australia announced to stop the subsidies for the Auto manufacturers. According to the report, Toyota has suffered a loss of 1.7 US dollar in a decade and received only 1.2 billion as part of subsidy (Lansbury, Wright, Baird, 2006) . Figure 2: Australia having highest labor costs (Source: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/the-verdict-is-out-heres-why-australian-car-manufacturing-is-at-an-end-2013-12) In a nutshell, there is no motivation for the Toyota to continue its production in the Australia when there are high labor costs, high value of Australian dollar, poor local demand and when this plant itself is facing stiff competition from other Toyota plants in different countries. 2. In this age of increasing globalization, there is stiff competition everywhere. Automobile industry is also not untouched by it. Toyota is facing huge competition from competitors in terms of innovation and marketing. Huge cost of making the auto parts, huge labor costs and cost of marketing and innovation has increased the cost of the production however; the car manufacturers have to keep their price as competitive as they can. Thus, cost cutting should be on the operations and supply chain and the focus should be on driving the waste in the supply chain and making it as efficient as possible. It is very important that Toyota should at the right time and at the right price. Current scenario in Australia is making it difficult for the Toyota Australia to bear the losses and continue making the cars. Some of the other challenges that are plaguing Toyota global competitiveness are as follows: Reduced demand of cars: Forecasts are not good for the future demand of the cars worldwide. There are many factors attributed to it. High cost of fuels has discouraged people from buying the cars. Environment awareness and awareness among people to use more of a public vehicle to ease the traffic jams ahs also lead to decrease in demand of the cars. There is emergence of Taxi services like Uber worldwide and there is research on how these taxi services will reduce the demand of the cars. When there were less Ubers, car utilization is less. Now, with Ubers running worldwide, Car utilizations has increased very much as cars are used for 10-14 hours in a day. If numbers of people are using the car remains the same, this increase utilization will drastically bring down the demand of the car but this effect will take some time before it is visible (Wallsten, 2015). Huge competition: There is huge competition between Mazda, Honda, general motors, Volkswagen and Toyota. Some of the companies are known for their aggressive marketing strategies while Toyota always remains conservative in the market (Liker, Wu, 2006). Although innovation has been a differentiator factor for the Toyota but other competitors are also investing heavily in research and investment and coming up with new products making their portfolio very diverse which is affecting the demand for Toyota products. Risk associated with Toyotas Just-in-time approach/Risk with keeping minimal inventory: Toyota has been the pioneer of the concepts like lean systems, Just-in-time. These applications have helped the organization to save a lot of money in terms of keeping excessive inventory and help to build the products at a competitive rate. However, this strategy does come at a risk. For example, Toyota keeps the supplies of only few hours in their plant and believes in just in time. This strategy was exposed when during the earthquake of March 2011 in Japan, 75% of the profits of the firm were washed away in a matter of hours. As the plants keep minimal inventory, they have to be shut down because of no inventory available and suppliers are struggling in supplying the material due to the emergency situation (Savaglio, Freiag, 2005). Toyota faces huge loss during that period. 3. Technology has a very big role in improving the supply chain of today. Information technology can improve the visibility of the supply chain by locating various items any time; IT can make the supply chain more agile and more adaptable. With Information technology, Toyota is able to manage its operations in a better way and able to automate them. Toyota uses Oracle ERP for the management of its back office operations like Procure to pay cycle, Account receivables, Account payables, general ledgers, Order management. It used Demand planner for forecast the demand. It also uses CRM tool to manage the customer effectively. Toyota has also deployed various analytics software that helped to study the customer preferences and generates informative insights about the customer preferences and behavior. It also has a dealer management system which is integrated with the Oracle ERP. This system helps the company to integrate its strategic operations with the help of its dealer. This system is gradually rolled out at various dealers and it generates the entire information for Toyota from the customer enquiry, sales support it is getting from the dealer and after sales services. This system has the entire history of the car (Ch ristopher, 2000). Not only this when Toyota receives any order from the dealer, it will check various global factories that can be used to replenish that order. While doing so, it also considers the existing capacity of each of the factory and what will be the cost of producing the car in various factories considering logistics and transportation costs. After considering so many factors in a flash of seconds using software, it can generate the cost and recommendation to manufacture in various factories. It then places the order with the appropriate factory. Thus, use of information technology and advanced analytics software helped the organization to build intelligence in system that can give very good recommendation. Apart from this, Toyota is also integrated its system with various suppliers and shares the forecasts with some of the key suppliers. It has automated the purchasing for some of the key parts and when the inventory fells below the particular level, automatically purchase order is placed. All these are helping the company to automate the supply chain and reducing the costs. Along with the Tracking id in each car, Customer are updated about their car which is in process of getting manufactured from time to time and the remaining lead time. Customers are also thrilled about getting such notifications. Thus, Toyota is using technology not only keeping the supply chain costs low but also in providing customer delight and making the supply chain effective and competitive. Conclusion Australian automotive industry was dominated once by four Auto manufacturers all of which are foreign owned. All these foreign owned players are receiving heavy subsidy from the government to run their operations and generate the jobs. But still the factors were not very favorable in Australia to manufacture the car. As a result, Mitsubishi was the first company to shut down its facility in Australia followed by the Ford and Holden. Currently, there was only 1 company i.e. Toyota is manufacturing cars in Australia. However, it has also announced to stop its operation in Australia by the end of 2017. The local factors were not at all conducive for the Toyota to continue the production over there. For instance, Australia is having one of the highest labor costs in the word, then there is poor local demand and it is continuously been reducing from the last few years and as a result majority of the output of this plant is used to serve the global markets. At this point, the clear questio n is that why the global markets cannot be served using the other plants located at Thailand or in Michigan that are having the less manufacturing costs (Humphrey, Memedovic, 2003). Not only this, The Toyota Australia has been running in losses from last few years but when the government has announced to stop the subsidy, it becomes unsustainable for the company to continue over there and it announced to halt its operation in by end of 2017. This decision was not at all surprise for the industry experts and it was expected from a long time. References Bracks, S. (2008). Review of Australia's automotive industry: final report. Christopher, M. (2000). The agile supply chain: competing in volatile markets.Industrial marketing management,29(1), 37-44. Humphrey, J., Memedovic, O. (2003). The global automotive industry value chain: What prospects for upgrading by developing countries.UNIDO Sectorial Studies Series Working Paper. Lansbury, R. D., Wright, C. F., Baird, M. (2006). Decentralized bargaining in a globalizing industry: The automotive assembly industry in Australia.Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations, 70-92. Levien, H. (2014). The Abbott government's damning record.Australian Options, (76), 21. Liker, J. K., Wu, Y. C. (2006). Japanese automakers, US suppliers and supply chain superiority.Supply Chains and Total Product Systems: A Reader, 177-196. Savaglio, F., Freitag, B. (2005).Just-in-Time Inventory: Effects on Earthquake Recovery. J. L. Clark (Ed.). Cascadia Region Earthquake Workgroup. Shimizu, K. (2003). A maverick in the age of mega-mergers? Toyotas global strategies. InGlobalization or Regionalization of the American and Asian Car Industry?(pp. 119-143). Palgrave Macmillan UK. Singh, P. J., Smith, A., Sohal*, A. S. (2005). Strategic supply chain management issues in the automotive industry: an Australian perspective.International Journal of Production Research,43(16), 3375-3399. Wallsten, S. (2015). The competitive effects of the sharing economy: how is Uber changing taxis?.Technology Policy Institute.