Highest Salary Rise for Top Business School's MBA

The quality and student experience of London Business School's full-time MBA programme has again been recognised, in the Financial Times' annual global ranking. The School's programme ranked fourth in the Global MBA Rankings 2012, in the top five with Stanford (1), Harvard (2), Wharton (3) and Columbia (5). The rankings are calculated from data going back three years.

The ranking is based on a number of criteria, comprising 20 metrics with a primary focus on career success. This includes the current salary of the business schools' MBA class of 2008, three years after they graduated; value for money and recommendations from alumni. London Business School's MBA scored particularly highly in aims achieved, ranking second overall, and in alumni recommendations fourth overall. The School's global outlook was reflected by its third placing for international mobility, acknowledging the large proportion of students who have worked outside the UK before, during or after their MBA. International experience, comprising internships, student treks and exchanges also ranked highly (eighth overall), with post-MBA career progress ranking tenth.

Since the Class of 2008, the School has implemented a significant amount of change, through an MBA review, to further enhance the London connection and the student experience of the programme. The class of 2008 enjoyed the highest percentage salary rise of any of the major schools at 134%, which compares the difference between salaries before and after the MBA. In a particularly challenging economic period, the earning power of the MBA proved its value, with the class commanding a $7,205 weighted salary increase over their predecessors. London Business School has seen further proof of its MBA's enduring success, with 93 percent of its most recent MBA class gaining employment within three months of graduating, in spite of challenging times in the job market.

The School offers four part time Executive MBA degrees, which are completed in between 16 and 20 months. Class size has been around 400 students in every annual cohort, with a total of 800 students on the 15-21 month MBA. These are broken into five streams of around 80 students which undertake all core courses together. The school is proud of the diversity of the student body and the 2008 intake - graduating in 2010 - consisted of 320 students from 60 nations with 25 per cent female and only 9 per cent from the UK (20 per cent from North America). London Business School's diverse graduates come from 130 different countries and from a wide range of professional backgrounds. After the completion of the MBA programme, graduates accept top positions with major recruiters across Industry, Finance and Consulting sectors all around the world.

Dragon Stories: Childe Wynde

The king of Northumberland was very old and had lost his wife years ago. He had two children, his son Childe Wynde, and daughter Margaret. Childe Wynde was far away waging a war. It was at this time he took a second wife.

At the wedding banquet, the new queen was cruel to all the courtiers. The talk among the courtiers was of the distinctions between her and the kind and comely princess.

That night, while the king was in a drunken slumber, the queen threaded a tapestry by moonlight, and traced strange symbols on the ground.

Soon after, Margaret awoke, with a strange taste in her mouth, her limbs feeling heavy. She felt terribly hungry.

Then she saw something gleam in the moonlight that frightened her. It was an enormous shining paw. She screamed. But the sound that emanated was a raucous cry. She had been transformed into a dragon.

She thrashed about in panic, as her tail wrecked the chamber. Finally in exhaustion she collapsed asleep.

Awaking to a ravishing hunger, and sensing a herd of sheep nearby, the new dragon ran to the court down the hill and devastated the herd. Finally sated, she retreated to a rocky outcrop.

The people were terrified and sought the council of the court wizards.

"The dragon is the princess Margaret, transformed by the wicked queen," they decried. "If you want her magic broken, and justice served, then call Childe Wynde from beyond the seas, for only he can set everything back."

Though the king could not believe this and kept his wife protected, still, Childe Wynde was sent for. He and a crew of warriors set sail with for home in a ship made from the wood of a pear tree, known for keeping the powers of magic at bay. But the queen had plans for them.

As they approached their home soil, waiting for them was an army of sprites, who raised the waves and danced about the ship in a diabolical dervish.

But the wood of the ship stayed their powers and they fell back into the ocean.

Furious, the witch conjured the ultimate defense. She put Margaret the dragon in a trance, and sent her to the shore to battle the ship.

Against her will she flew, and landed on the ship, devastating it, causing the crew to abandon ship.

But Childe Wynde and his men, now close to shore, were able to swim to safety.

Surrounding them now was a thick fog, so that they could see nothing. But suddenly Childe Wynde saw an enormous yellow orb manifest. It was the eye of the dragon. Childe Wynde was about to slay the dragon in an act of pity.

But in one last push of will Margaret made a terrible groan. In it were the instructions for her revival.

"Brother thou hast fought valiantly. Now to save me you must perform more acts of bravery. First thou must kiss me thrice upon the mouth, though it tear up your own. As for the queen, the answer lies the very wood of your ship."

The prince immediately followed the first step of instructions. He kissed the dragon on the mouth. The spiny skin lacerated his lips and made them bleed. His kissed her again with his bloodied mouth. And finally though his mouth flowed with blood he kissed her again. Right away the dragon shriveled into a blanket of skin. Under this rough blanket was a lump. The prince lifted up the dragons skin and found his young sister lying there, shivering.

Immediately the prince brought his sister back and approached his father.

"The prophecy has been proven true, now all that remains is to deal with that witch you have as your wife. I hold in my hand the branch of a pear tree. If she be not a witch then touching her with this shall cause no harm."

The king agreed.

They went to the queens quarters and found her huddling in the corner, her eyes wild with fear at the sight of the pear branch. But Childe Wynde had no pity, and touched the witch who was immediately transformed to a frog, which hopped out of the room and was never heard from again.

The World's Water Supply

The Earth is a big place and nearly three quarters of it is covered in water - surely that's enough for everyone?

It is now estimated we have over 3,000,000,000,000,000,000 gallons of it, dispersed not only in oceans, rivers and lakes but also under the ground as well as in the air and clouds. This amount of water is kept constant due the continuous water (or hydrologic) cycle of the earth. As rain falls, it fills the lakes and rivers which flow into the sea where it evaporates into the air as water vapour, forms into clouds and deposits it back again as rainfall.

Oceans contain about 98% of the total amount of water on earth, with 1.6% of the remaining 2% being locked up in the polar ice caps and glaciers. About 0.36% of the remaining 0.4% is out of sight locked away in aquifer rocks and reservoirs, and 0.01% is actually in the air and clouds leaving just 0.03% in our lakes, rivers and reservoirs.

Saline water is of course useless for human consumption and agriculture. Of course there are many millions of salt water life forms including mammals and fish, dependent on salt water, so getting the balance right is vital. The reason for the sea's salinity in the first place is that the Earths' rocks contain sodium and chlorine ions which are collected by the acidic rain (rain that has absorbed some carbon from the atmosphere) and then eventually washed into the sea. In addition to the sodium chloride added to the oceans in this way, the sea beds are continually producing salt via underwater eruptions. Luckily for us, evaporated sea water vapour leaves the salt behind thus the sea remains saline, and may actually be getting more salty. The sea does, however, get rid of a lot of its salt due to the millions of sea creatures that absorb it and after they die, there bones and shells finish up on the sea bed as sediment. Eventually this sediment turns into rock and, where it has risen above sea level over millions of years, this sedimentary rock - in particular limestone - is dissolved by acidic rain and finds its way back into the oceans.

There is currently a worldwide problem with fresh water shortages due to general wastage, increased agriculture and the rise in population - It may surprise some that the average human in the western hemisphere uses over 30 gallons of water every day. Desalination plants would appear to offer some answer to water shortages but whilst they produce some 0.3 percent of the planet's fresh water, but at the current time they are very inefficient energy wise.

The big problem for life dependent on both fresh water and salt water is of course pollution, and whilst the Earths' water remains constant, its quality is quite another matter. Pollution of the world's water supply from industrial processes and agriculture is a problem that needs to be resolved soon - and quickly.

Why Preschool Is Essential For Your Child's Development

When it comes to our children, we only want the very best for them, so whatever those measures may be, it is essential that we take them, so that our kids can have the best and brightest futures. Although it is very hard to say goodbye to our children for the first time when sending them to school, it does get easier, and they are receiving huge benefits from the education they are part of. Many parents worry about sending their children to preschool, however, it may not be compulsory or mandatory, but it comes highly recommended that you do send your children to a preschool or nursery before they attend school. There are many reasons why you should send your children to preschool, as the development and education they receive there will set them up for when they have to attend school. Having your child at home with you for the first three years of their life may not be as beneficial for them, and as we want the best for our kids, preschool is a much better option to take.

As mentioned previously, it is understandable that it is difficult to say goodbye to your young child for the first time, but that two and a half hours a day you get by yourself can do you and your child wonders. Your child will be learning, and performing activities, and you will have some free time to relax and do things around the house that have been put off. There are numerous skills your child can learn at preschools, one being painting, others drawing and making things, they often make gifts to bring home, it can be a very pleasant and wonderful experience for both you and your child.

One of the most beneficial points of preschool is the opportunity your child has to mingle with other kids and communicate with others. Your child will learn social skills, and be able to play and talk nicely to other children and adults. It is so important that your child develops good communication skills before attending school, so that when they finally do go to school, they are ready to learn, and find it easy to understand what teachers and other children are saying to them. They will make friends through communication, and you will see a whole new amazing side to your child's life. It also gives you the opportunity to meet other parents, and even plan things outside of preschool so that your children and you can make new friends. All this really boosts you and your child's confidence in life.

There is a Elk Grove Preschool that has a great reputation, and has had kept that status for its whole lifespan of 17 years. It is called the, "Treehouse Learning Center", and it is one of the most recommended preschools when it comes to Day Care Elk Grove. If you are considering sending your child to preschool, which you really seriously should, the Treehouse Learning Center is the perfect place to send them. Allow your child to mingle and make friends, and watch them grow from a very young age.

How Digital Maps Are Changing Our World

Humans have been utilising maps for centuries, drawing what we know of the world and constantly striving to fill it in with more and more detail. Maps are one of the key tools we have when it comes to understand the world around us, locating valuable information, and generally finding our way around. Now, digital maps are really coming into their own, providing more detail than ever before, increasing accuracy and revolutionising the way we see the world.

For example, these digitised maps provide us with a huge range of options that we can very often tailor to our needs. Modern technology means that we are now able to look at different aspects of our maps to find what we need without being distracted by everything else that is included there. As an example, some maps highlight venues - such as restaurants and landmarks - that might be of interest to tourists in a city, while others might have a focus on green spaces for people to find.

This ability to choose which aspects to focus on is arguably one of the main ways in which digital maps have changed how we view the world: they allow us to look past all the data that we deem to be irrelevant to us and focus only on what is relevant to our interests. On a practical level, this makes maps much more useful and easier to understand for the general consumer.

Digital maps also have a huge range of uses for the professional viewer. For example, there are different types of maps that focus on aspects of topography, such as details to do with how likely a particular area is to flood or what particular pieces of land are currently used for. This can be hugely useful for professions such as planning and architecture, where there is a need to understand the local environment before proceeding with a plan - and understanding the local environment requires more detail than just the layout of the streets.

We are now also able to create 3D models from digital maps, as well as offer information on areas of the world most people will never get to go to. On one level, this is very good for consumers who want to research a holiday destination, for example, or who want to see what particular areas of the world look like to get a feel for them. On another level, this is useful for professionals in need of high quality references and information relevant to their work.

This means that digitised maps have revolutionised how we see the world for both professionals and ordinary consumers alike. We are now able to access more map-based data than ever before, see it more clearly and go into more detail than we were able to do even just a few short years ago. Even simple tools such as the ability to zoom into areas of maps have changed our view of the world, enabling us to see both the detail and the wider context of an area.

As map technology progresses, we can expect digital maps to continue changing the way we see our world.