Military Ranks, Units and Weapons

Military Ranks, Units and Weapons Military Ranks, Units and Weapons Military Ranks, Units and Weapons By Mark Nichol Even the best and most popular authors get facts wrong sometimes (often because they leave research to others and don’t vet it, or are careless in their own investigations), but that’s no excuse for shoddy writing that contradicts what a large segment of the readership knows to be true. One area that’s a minefield, so to speak, for writers is the military. It’s easy to find detailed information about military ranks, units, and weaponry, not to mention history, but here’s some basic training: Military Rank Various nations follow differing conventions of nomenclature for military ranks, which specify an individual’s place in the military hierarchy. Charts that compare various military ranks among and within countries abound in print and online, but the major distinction is between commissioned officers, noncommissioned officers, and enlisted personnel. The first category is for personnel, often college graduates, who command units of various sizes depending on seniority. Noncoms are experienced enlisted personnel who supervise smaller groups of lower-ranking personnel. The term captain is a common point of confusion. A captain (the word is from the Latin for â€Å"head†) originally led a company of soldiers of indeterminate size. In modern armies, marine units, and air forces, captains are relatively low-ranking officers probably in their late 20s or early 30s. Naval captains, however, for reasons I won’t detail here, are much higher in equivalent seniority and usually much older. Furthermore, the commanding officer of most vessels is, by tradition, called the captain, though they may not hold that specific rank. In books, films, and television programs, the creators often stretch the bounds of probability as far as rank is concerned. In the original Star Trek TV series, for example, Captain Kirk was very young to be commanding a starship, though the 2009 big-screen reboot gives a plausible explanation for his precocious promotion. (Well, as plausible as anything is concerned when the subject is Star Trek.) By contrast, Brad Pitt’s character in Quentin Tarantino’s World War II action flick Inglourious Basterds [sic] is a mere army lieutenant. People who hold that beginner’s rank are likely to be in their early to mid-20s, but Pitt is old enough to be a lieutenant’s father. Military-style ranks are used in American police and fire departments. In large cities, a captain is a fairly high rank (while lieutenants are fairly common, especially among detectives), but in smaller departments, the chief may hold the rank of captain, and there may be only one lieutenant, or up to several. Similarly, a captain or a lieutenant heads up a fire company, which may consist of only a few firefighters, but a small-town fire department with a single station may be headed by a captain. Military Units You’ve seen it before: a book or movie synopsis that goes something like â€Å"A tough sergeant leads a platoon of commandos behind enemy lines . . . .† The military has a very specific organizational structure, and a platoon, which consists of several dozen soldiers, is never led by a sergeant, who in combat would be responsible for no more than a dozen or so men. As it turns out, the story’s commando unit consists of eight guys. There’s no military unit ordinarily consisting of eight soldiers, but an ad hoc assemblage could informally be called a squad. But if it’s on a special mission, even a mere eight-man unit would likely be led not by a sergeant but by a fairly junior officer, like Tom Hanks’s Captain Miller in Saving Private Ryan (who is assisted by a sergeant, who would take charge if his commanding officer were killed or incapacitated). Military Weapons Plenty of derision has been aimed over the years at war and cop movies and westerns, and at genre fiction, in which the hero’s magic gun never runs out of bullets, but it still happens. (I was annoyed too, while watching an already annoying fantasy film, when a character ambled through a crowded market square with an uncovered double-bladed battle-ax strapped to his back. All he had to do was inadvertently back into somebody to perform an instant nose-ectomy.) Follow the Drill Details like these may seem trivial to civilians, but they’re distracting to millions of service members and veterans, and many others, who know a sergeant major from a major general, a division from a detachment, and a Luger from a Ruger. The same problem afflicts people with firsthand or secondhand knowledge of any other system or profession or industry or avocation. So, if you’re going to write about the military, or about any other topic, do your research, and write it right. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:"Gratitude" or "Gratefulness"?20 Clipped Forms and Their Place (If Any) in Formal Writing

Economic Analysis Forecast Macro Environment Airline Essay Example

Economic Analysis Forecast Macro Environment Airline Essay Example Economic Analysis Forecast Macro Environment Airline Paper Economic Analysis Forecast Macro Environment Airline Paper Overview In todays global economy, firms rely on the analysis of macroeconomic and industry data to develop performance improving strategies and increase their profitability. With this in mind, the following report consists of an analysis of the U. Macro environment, the airline Industry, and Delta Air Lines. It covers both a historic period from 1996 to 2000 and a current period from 2001 to the present. Even though there has been current significant Improvement in GAP, there are new concerns regarding deflation, the present jobless recovery, and the fact that production is increasing at a faster rate than demand. Subsequent analysis will focus on the changing factors that have lead to these results. When facing economic expansion or recession, the Federal Reserve Board (the Fed) relies on different measures to potentially Influence the economic environment. The Feeds current approach has been the opposite; It has expanded the money supply to lower the targeted federal funds rate In order to try to pull the economy out of the recession and generate sustainable amount of economic growth. Economic expansion (1996 2000) contributed to Deltas and the overall airline industry positive performance. On average, the airline industry contributed O. These macroeconomic events had direct effects over the airline industry. For example, increase in labor and fuel costs forced labor cuts in the Industry and the grounding of a significant number of aircraft. The different factors affecting the Industrys performance also have direct effects over Delta Air Lines. This is evidenced by the generation of profits during the expansion period (totaling LOS$ 4,040 million) and losses during the period of economic downturn (totaling US$ 2,934 million). With loss still remaining on their income statements, major carriers, including Delta, are searching for deferent ways o face the new low-cost competition. By analyzing past and current trends in the macroeconomic environment, In the airline Industry, and In Deltas performance, respectively, we highlight existing links between each. It Is Important to mention that our analysis focuses solely on the commercial aviation sector in order to satisfy Deltas informational needs.  Based on this research and analysis, our report is intended to provide an objective macroeconomic and industry forecast for the coming year and provide recommendations to Delta. The Macroeconomic Environment We now analyze the U. Agronomic environment during the historic and current periods. GAP Analysis To understand the changes In GAP behavior we look at its basic components (See Average Growth of Real GAP Components graph). These international economic problems caused the dollar to strengthen against foreign currencies, which in turn debilitated U. This deteriorating environment gave way to the current period, greeted by recession. Worries related to the war with Iraq, as well as persistent concerns about the course of economic activity and corporate earnings, created a high degree of risk aversion mongo Dustless executives Tanat constrained capital spending Ana null. I nose factors will be discussed in more detail in subsequent analysis. Inflation Analysis The general trend for inflation during both the historic and current periods has been to remain low. For example, in the airline industry, Internet fare bookings have decreased overall commission expenses. However, profit margins were contracted as rising costs created higher prices in a competitive market environment. Capacity Utilization In our previous analysis we mentioned the effects of increased productivity and market competition on inflation. These factors were fueled by the overall favorable economic conditions. After analyzing the differences and trends in the macroeconomic environment between the historic and current periods, we now focus our attention on the Federal Reserves role in the economy. Feeds Response To meet the goals of high growth, low inflation, and low unemployment, the Fed looks at the range of variables discussed in previous analysis. 5% in order to try to pull the economy out of the recession and generate sustainable amount of economic growth. The Federal Reserve also lowered the targeted federal funds rate in order o reduce the strain on the economy caused by international economic instability (Asia, Russia, and Latin America). As mentioned in the Inflation Analysis section, price increases have been low throughout this period due to: Decrease in overall spending Decrease in wealth due to poor stock market returns High unemployment rates Lower capacity utilization In the present, fiscal policy has provided additional support to consumer spending. At present, inflation, for the first time since the early sass, is as low as the Fed wants so low, in fact, that threes a remote risk of the economy tipping into a debilitating deflation. The macroeconomic environment has great impact over the strategies used by industries and firms. To illustrate this relationship, we presented in this section an analysis of the most influential factors in industry and firm decision making which are: real GAP growth and its components, inflation, and productivity. Our analysis also covered the inverse relationship that exists between the unemployment rate and both capacity utilization and consumer confidence. The next section focuses on the airline industry. Agronomic environment to the overall industry performance during the historic and current periods. Our main focus will be centered on the industry contribution to GAP, its competitive environment, pricing and economies of scale strategies, and its major costs. The Airline Industry All the macroeconomic factors we have analyzed have direct influence over the behavior of the different industries in the economy. In this section, we discuss the airline industry performance during the historic and current periods by emphasizing the relationship it poses with the macro environment. Traditionally, there has been a direct relationship between the growth of the economy and the growth of the industry. For instance, during the historic period, the industry and the economy were both characterized by decreasing unemployment, and as the GAP improved, the industry sustained profits. In the current period, the industry was badly affected by the existing recession, and even with the recent improvement in the economic environment, the industry has not been able to recover at the same rate as the economy. The changes in the macroeconomic environment have great influence over the industry mainly due to its principle characteristics: The current market structure AT ten Lorene Ministry Is centralize Day a null degree AT market incarceration with a small number of dominant, large firms although other producers are present. In the airline industry, the top airlines historically were American, Continental, Delta, Northwest, US Airways, and United, better known as the Big Six. Traditionally, entry of smaller firms into this market was moderately difficult due to strategies used by the Big Six such as: Cutting ticket prices below actual cost (predatory Holding gates and slots at airports so they can conveniently fly ion and out blocking smaller firms Holding long-term leases on gates and retaining dates currently onto in use to prevent their use by others Holding veto rights over airport expansion projects that might let ion new competitors Controlling critical ground-handling baggage services at dominant hubs; usually charging smaller airlines prohibitively high prices for using them The Industry Evolves Even with the long-standing structure of the airline industry, changes are inevitable. The most important challenge faced is the change in the industry competitive environment. As the airline industry entered the current period, it faced problems related to the general economic recession. The 9/1 1 terrorist attacks and the war with Iraq have led to further dampening effects on the industry. A new breed of carriers is gaining strength in this environment: low-cost airlines. Industry Performance and Contribution to GAP Historically, there has been a very strict correlation between how the airline industry performs financially and how the nations economy performs, measured by GAP. This indicates that the airline industry was a major contributor to the nations economy. During this period, airlines reported high net profits linked to the period of economic expansion discussed in the macroeconomic section of this port. Historical periods profits enabled airline carriers to rebuild their balance sheets from the Gulf War years. Unfortunately, from 2001 to the present, the industry has accumulated net losses. Although GAP figures had already been declining prior to 9/1 1, as the above graph indicates, the slowing economy and the bursting dot. Com bubble also negatively impacted the industry. This deteriorating behavior is once again consistent with the performance of the overall macroeconomic environment. At the present, the low-cost carriers are capitalizing on the debt of the major carriers. This capitalization, coupled with huge investments made by big firms during the historical period (See Aircraft Orders Options graph) to face increased demand, forced big airlines to improve efficiency through cost-cutting measures described in further analysis. The precipitous drop in traffic following the 9/1 1 attacks were mirrored by the industry sharp reduction in capacity fleets shrunk by 298 aircraft. Industry Costs Bleed Profits During the historic period, the effects of decreased demand and increased competitive pressures from low-cost carriers have made major airlines focus on cost management to improve their income statements, which have been yielding negative numbers since 2001. The largest expenses for the airline industry in both the historical and current periods include flying operations (29%), aircraft and traffic servicing (16%), maintenance (12%), and promotion and sales (11%). We begin by analyzing the industry largest expense: labor. More than 1/3 of the revenue generated each day is used to pay the workforce, causing airline labor costs per employee to be among the highest of any industry in the US. The graph to the left illustrates this relationship by comparing en average annual employee compensation In ten Lorene Ministry to Tanat In ten u private industry. The industry presented a steady increase in the number of employees from 1996 to 2000. This behavior is consistent with a moderate industry expansion and contributed to low unemployment rates. Following 2000, airline companies began to look for ways to improve cost management; they began cutting labor costs. When aviation experiences economic difficulties, those difficulties reverberate across the economy. For every Job in the airline industry, an estimated 1 5 jobs are produced in the broader economy. Nearly 100,000 airline employees along with roughly 400,000 others in the U. Fuel constitutes the industry second largest operational expense. During times of relatively moderate fuel prices, these costs averaged 10 to 12% of industry expenses. The industry is exposed to severe price escalation every one-cent increase in the cost of a gallon of Jet fuel costs the industry $180 million per year. Past fuel increases and recessions have had negative effects on the airline industry, and profitability has suffered as a direct consequence of the weakening economy. Within these costs, the main expense is omissions, which constituted 13% of the industry operating expenses in the historical period. Unfortunately for airlines, they are unable to raise their prices in response to these escalated costs due to the highly competitive environment characterizing the industry. This term relates to the fact that once an airline operates in a network of city-pair routes, the marginal costs of adding new routes are low. Demand for Airline Service While the partnerships mentioned before have improved supply issues by limiting domestic competition, carriers must still deal with other factors affecting demand.

Accounting For Leases And New Proposed Models Essay

Accounting For Leases And New Proposed Models - Essay Example The International Accounting Standards Board calls for a new lease accounting principle that relates to assets and liabilities. This write up proposes criteria to be set for deciding between two interpretations of whether the lease increases or decreases both assets and / or liabilities. SFAS no. 13, which was issued by FASB, was at that time, 2001, showing improvement on the setting of accounting standards for leases. Many write ups on leases followed suit such as 9 FASB amendments, 12 FASB technical bulletins, EITF consensus, 6 FASB interpretations and others. The FASB is continually working to come up with an adjustment to the Statement of Financial Accounting Standards no. 13 (lease) because it has failed to address many questions by many sectors of the accounting, school, business and other companies on the accounting procedures and interpretation of leases. SFAS no 13 states that an asset can be considered a capital lease, where the value of the leased property is included in the balance sheet of the lessee, If the four conditions listed a are met: a) The lease conveys ownership to the lessee at the end of the lease term. b) The lessee has an option to purchase the asset at a bargain price at the end of the lease term. c) The lease term covers 75% or more of the economic life of the asset. d) The present value of the rental payments when using the lessee’s incremental borrowing rate is ninety percent or more of the fair market value of the asset. TWO ALTERNATIVE CONCEPTS OF LEASE ACCOUNTING One of the main points of SFAS 13 is that all lease contracts generate obligations that should be presented in the balance sheet, contrary to what the Financial Accounting Standards Board believes. In fact, SFAS no. 13 states that "a lease that transfers substantially the entire benefits and risks incident to the ownership of property should be accounted for as the acquisition of an asset and the incurrence of an obligation by the lessee and as a sale or financing by the lessor. All other leases should be accounted for as operating leases. (FASB 1976, para. 60)" FASB differs this by saying that not all lease contracts create both a new asset and a new liability. The FASB and G4+1 group have been implementing the FASB standard on lease recording. Companies in Canada, Australia, United Kingdom and New Zealand have also been following the FASB standards. THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND ACCOUNTING FOR LEASES When assessing the generally accepted accounting principles states that accounting information that should be included in the financial statements are those that are submitted on time to the decision makers. These financial statements must also be relevant to the decision making process. Further, the financial statement items should stated in such a way as to permit comparability between two accounting periods or two or more financial entity who are subsidiaries, branches or competitors. Therefore, when rights and obligations are recorded in a lease contract, intangible assets are created. An airline company comes into "existence" when it buys an airplane. According to monsoon, There is a possibility that lessees may record the lease asset in the balance sheet will be boundless because intangible assets cannot be easily estimated. When a bank

My Legends Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

My Legends - Essay Example What happened to me in sixth grade was just a spot of my bad history the real beginning was in junior high school. After graduating from primary school, I went to the fourth junior high school in the city. This was the best school in my hometown, but it was also famous for bad boys and girls. Most bad students from my city came to this school. There were three grades and I made several new friends who always wanted to play. I usually go with them and we played together every day. In China, we can’t smoke and go to the entertainment places. However, I started to smoke and was able to go to internet clubs with them. Sometimes we fight with other students for any reason, so some students were scared of us and treated us as bad guys, but we were not the worst students. Even though I always did bad things, my grade was a little good. I was good at English and Math, and I always got in the first three ranks. At the same time my parents began to work on their own company, so they har dly had time for me, and I started to behave worse. Actually, I thought I would have a party time without my parents’ control over me, but it didn’t take long. One day, I went to the internet club, as usual, not knowing that my mother followed me;. she criticized me and pulled me home. As a punishment, my parents made me kneel for three hours to reflect on what I did. Another occasion, my father learned from his friend that I also involved myself in fighting in the streets, so I was again punished for it.

Does IT lead to job elimination, or job enhancement Essay

Does IT lead to job elimination, or job enhancement - Essay Example s are assembled or foods processed, through the use of robotic arms and conveyer belts, a job that may have been retrospectively been done by a hundred unskilled workers can be done by just a handful of machine operators. Inevitably, given the sensitive nature of labor issue, machines were not very well received by the workers they stood to replace; even today the interrogation of technology is often condemned by those who view it as a negative force rendering people jobless especially in labor intensive economies. While this is a logically sound argument, it is nevertheless one sided in view of the fact that the relationship between labor and technology is not as simple as that. In as much as technology may result in unemployment in some sectors, it has spawned millions of jobs in in numerous sectors and one can even argue that in the end it creates more jobs than it destroys. In the late 19th century at the height of the industrial revolution, a group of artisans working in the textile industry started a revolution of sorts in Britain against the use of machines in the production of textiles. They were afraid that automation of the process of production would cause them to lose their jobs since less skilled and therefore cheaper employees rendering them redundant could operate the machines. The Luddites as they were known became a significant social and political movement and they engaged in numerous acts of destruction in protest of adaption of machines in their industry (Baggaley, 2010). So much so that it is estimated that British soldiers were at some point involved in fighting the luddites than engaging napoleon. Ultimately, the movement was crashed through a series of trials in which the Luddites were convicted for machine breaking, which had been made a capital crime, and many were executed (Edgerton, 2011).  Today, the term Luddite is used to d escribe someone who is seen as being opposed to or slow to incorporate technology (Baggaley, 2010). Proponents

A Spatial Median Filter for Noise Removal in Digital Images Essay Example for Free

A Spatial Median Filter for Noise Removal in Digital Images Essay With each snap of a digital photograph, a signal is transmitted from photon sensor to a memory chip embedded inside a camera. Transmission technology is prone to a degree of error, and noise is added to each photograph. Signi? cant work has been done in both hardware and software to improve the signal-to-noise ratio in digital photography. In software, a smoothing ? lter is used to remove noise from an image. Each pixel is represented by three scalar values representing the red, green, and blue chromatic intensities. At each pixel studied, a smoothing ? lter takes into account the surrounding pixels to derive a more accurate version of this pixel. By taking neighboring pixels into consideration, extreme â€Å"noisy† pixels can be replaced. However, outlier pixels may represent uncorrupted ? ne details, which may be lost due to the smoothing process. This paper examines four common smoothing algorithms and introduces a new smoothing algorithm. These algorithms can be applied to one-dimensional as well as two-dimensional signals. Figure 1. Examples of common ? ltering approaches. (a) Original Image (b) Mean Filtering (c) Median Filtering (d) Root Signal of Median Filtering (e) Component wise Median Filtering (f) Vector Median Filtering. The simplest of these algorithms is the Mean Filter as de? ned in (1). The Mean Filter is a linear ? lter which uses a mask over each pixel in the signal. Each of the components of the pixels which fall under the mask are averaged together to form a single pixel. This new pixel is then used to replace the pixel in the signal studied. The Mean Filter is poor at maintaining edges within the image. 1 N ? xi N i=1 MEANFILT ER(x1 , , xN ) = (1) The use of the median in signal processing was ? rst introduced by J. W. Tukey [1]. When ? ltering using the Simple Median Filter, an original pixel and the resulting ? ltered pixel of the sample studied are sometimes the same pixel. A pixel that does not change due to ? ltering is known as the root of the mask. It can be shown that after suf? cient iterations of median ? ltering, every signal converges to a root signal [2]. The Component Median Filter, de? ned in (3), also relies on the statistical median concept. In the Simple Median Filter, each point in the signal is converted to a single magnitude. In the Component Median Filter each scalar component is treated independently. A ? lter mask is placed over a point in the signal. For each component of each point under the mask, a single median component is determined. These components are then combined to form a new point, which is then used to represent the point in the signal studied. When working with color images, however, this ? lter regularly outperforms the Simple Median Filter. When noise affects a point in a grayscale image, the result is called â€Å"salt and pepper† noise. In color images, this property of â€Å"salt and pepper† noise is typical of noise models where only one scalar value of a point is affected.

Essay --

a) Reinhold Messner guessed that Otzi is 500 years old. b) Erika and Helmut Simon first discovered Otzi. c) Otzi probably brought species of grass that do not grow at that altitude. d) Walter Kutschera works with the Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator. e) Willard Libby assumed that C-14 content in the atmosphere was constant over time. f) Rainer Henn flew the iceman to his institute by helicopter. g) Konrad Spindler was the first person to estimate the iceman’s age to be about 4000 years. 2. The Similaun Mountain Peak’s height, in meters, is 3607 meters. 3. After the discovery of an unusual piece of equipment found with Otzi’s body, Spindler made the estimation that the iceman’s age is older than 500 years old on September 24, 1991. 4. A water divide is the line that separates bordering or nearby water basins. 5. a) The Inn is referring to the River Inn which is north of the water divide. b) Situated along the border of Austria and Italy, the location of Otzi sparked many debates. Initially, the water divide between the Rivers Inn and Etsch was used as a guide for the location of the border line, but snow and ice made it difficult to clearly identify the location of the water divide. Otzi was declared to be found just 92 meters within Italy after the clarification of the border line, which means Italy holds possession over Otzi. However, it was later observed that the water from the ice and snow was now draining towards River Inn. c) The Iceman was kept in Austria for six years after his discovery. 6. An ax with bronze-like blade was found with Otzi’s body. 7. The Iceman is kept in a glass vitrine with regulated temperature of -6â„Æ' and humidity of 98% at glacier-like conditions. 8. Zurich and Oxford la... ...or mass spectrometry. 22. AMS determines the isotopic composition of a sample material by first producing a negatively-charged ion beam, which is then subjected to a series of extremely selective filtering procedures in order to find C-14. 23. a) The second step for preparing a sample to be carbon- dated by AMS is the complete combustion of carbon to CO2. b) Iron (Fe) and Cobalt (Co) are used as catalysts in step 3. 24. a) The names of the two articles written by Willard Libby are â€Å"Atmospheric helium three and radiocarbon from cosmic radiation† and â€Å"Age determinations by radiocarbon content: checks with samples of known age†. b) Three articles were cited from the journal called Radiocarbon. c) The name of the article by Nicolussi and Patzelt is called Discovery of early- Holocene wood and peat on the forefield of the Pasterze Glacier, Eastern Alps, Austria.