Evans and Blackmores Decision Making Assignment

Evans and Blackmores Decision Making - Assignment Example It should be noted that as the acquisition of the new machine will entail discarding the old, all options will benefit from the revenue of selling the old machine. Due to equity considerations, this report opted to disregard the salvage value of the three machines on the sixth year. Since the salvage value of Models B and C cannot be determined, it is more rational to omit the revenue to be derived from the future sale of the machines. The payback period is one of the simplest ways in ascertaining the feasibility of an investment. This tool is used to determine the length of time that the company can recoup its cash outlay. Table 1 shows the computed payback period for the three options. Quantitative analyses show that Model C or the machine from France is the best choice as it has a relatively shorter payback period of 3 years and an NPV of 16,455. However, using the qualitative information supplied by the managers of Evans and Blackmore Model C is the worst choice as the company will be incurring a high training cost together with the lack of local maintenance firm to service the machine. The last factor mentioned is seen to erode the cost savings generated from the machine. It is irrefutable that maintenance services for a machine is very important as it will help the company fully realize the expected gains from Model C. In case of defects, it can be seen that the costs associated with finding a foreign maintenance firm to restore the machine can offset the high NPV and cause disruption in operation. This report recommends that Evans and Blackmore choose Machine A or the machine from USA. Model B is ruled out as it generates a negative NPV. The rationale of the choice is that Model A has a positive NPV though significantly lower compared to Model C. The presence of a local firm to maintain the machine is a significant advantage. 2.0 Make or Buy Decision The quantitative analysis of the make or buy decision faced by Evans and Blackmore is shown in Table 3. It can be seen that the increase in labor cost coupled with the decrease in material costs brought down the per unit cost to 51.94. The computed values are for 8000 units of component X. Table 3 shows that manufacturing 8000 units of component X will entail the company 415,520 while buying will give a cost of $480,000 ($400,000 for the components and $80,000 for stockholding.) Table 3. Make or Buy Decision This report favors the in-house production of component X instead of outsourcing it. The cost of manufacturing the component is relatively lower as shown in the above computation (Table 3). Another important consideration is the stockholding cost associated with outsourcing. It should be noted that the demand for component X is stable and there is even a possibility that

The cultural and memory institutions Essay Example for Free

The cultural and memory institutions Essay There has been a radical change for the cultural and memory institutions across United Kingdom and these changes are moreover due to the changing facet of technology and the growing feature of user demands. The modern trends influence the purpose of the traditional as well as modern culture preservation and its management. The new technology has brought about rapid changes with its ways to preserve culture in its conventional form by scholarly studies and development of supporting strategies. In this regard, the possible ways, UK’s cultural institutions should probably approach is discussed here in this report. The objective of this study is provide recommendations and options so as to make visible the country’s cultural institutions and actors. It is hopeful that the study will help to improve the way UK’s cultural actors organize for the predictable changes that will take place in the next five years. This report aims to converge the three main trends discussed in the report – technology, culture, their interaction in order to increase the social participation and how new emerging web technology and online services can help to increase the public participation in culture. Definitely, internet technology or more profoundly, digitization has changes the scenario to a large extent and has created demands for on-demand, continuously available, personal access to products. Almost every library, archives and museums in UK have become digital by now and have changed their roles from the customary bodies to hybrid organizations that know how to take care of all the various cultural resources. The adaptation of the cultural contents to the digital form of content has presented a new dimension to the society to access their cultural heritage in ways that were unbelievable about a decade ago. According to Paul Fiander, Chief of BBC Information and records, UK, â€Å"The dividend from investment into going digital is substantial. † With the increasing levels of knowledge in the society, there will always be an increasing demand for quality and rich content and the Cultural institutions can cater to this need of learning services that are needed at all levels of the society. The modern internet technologies can play a major role in enhancing and delivering new content about culture heritage of the society. With this addition of innovative internet technologies, users will be able to enjoy easier access to their cultural lives and will be able top actively participate in events and cultural communities world wide. Users will be able to locate their areas of interest, visit virtual museums, and libraries to search for information they would have to toil hard to obtain. According to David Bearman,AMICO, â€Å"Offering highly interactive and rich environments will become a competitive factor within the cultural heritage community. In the future, we will expect that you can manipulate digital images in many ways, turn them around, look at the bottom, etc. Those resources that you cannot manipulate will be perceived as second rate. Moreover, the museums they come from will be perceived as second rate. † Displays, narrations and visuals combined with studies or information are learnt to have more positive effect on any student or end user. Latest advancements can provide a more effective and interactive learning environment for the users to add value to their studies and research works based on cultural heritage. Nevertheless, technology cannot alone boost the growing needs to reinforce a cultural scenario within the British society or anywhere else in the world, for that matter, but it also requires the understanding and the intellectual â€Å"capital† to create and develop new and rich cultural content material. This will help the cultural institutions to unlock the rich cultural heritage to the masses. Meanwhile the private sector has already started its efforts in the direction to re-invent the cultural content online. Amazon, BBC, Wikipedia, Second Life and MySpace have out in considerable efforts in this field and have changes the content landscape on the internet within a short period of time. These companies have done revolutionary digitization changes with the existing online content and have improved it beyond imagination. The truth is that they are inevitably assimilating. However, the next big question is that, what are most suitable policies that can meet the desired aims to merge technology and culture at the same time and what will the opportunities that online cultural opportunities can bring forward in a fast changing world. This paper throws some light in these issues and what can be the roles that the different organizations can play to achieve this aim.

Apollos Oracle at Delphi Essay -- ancient Greek beliefs and prophecies

The Oracle of Apollo at Delphi is shrouded in myth and mystery, but one thing is certain, their prophetic influence stretched far and wide and was detrimental in shaping Greece. Neither war nor boundary was determined without conferring the Delphic Oracle first. The Oracle of Apollo was held in high regard by the likes of "Plutarch, Plato, Aristotle, and Diodorus" (Broad 10). The Trojan War and Theban War were in part responses to the Oracle's forecasts (Fontenrose 4). The Delphic Oracle shaped the decision of Spartans and consulted the "Greek states at the time of the Persian War" (Fontenrose 6). For well over a millennium, devotees would continue to seek the Delphic Oracle's counsel. The Greek legacy is riddled with her prophecies. Delphi, Greece's relative geographic location is in the center of Greece. According to Richard Haywood, its location could literally be the reason that the "Delphic Oracle was near the center of Greek life for centuries" (112). Delphi was inhabited as early as the Bronze Age. The Oracle's existence is believed to have appeared as early as the 8th century BCE (Scott 11). Several stories exist to explain the origins of Delphi. One myth says that Zeus released two eagles "from opposite ends of the world and they met at Delphi" signifying the geographic center of the earth (Scott 36). Another myth claims the word Delphi was obtained directly from a Greek word meaning "womb", indicating the birthplace of the world (Scott 36). However, the Homeric Hymn to Apollo written "between the late 7th century BCE and mid-sixth century BCE" tells the tale of Delphi's genesis in a different light. According to the Homeric tale, Apollo traveled throughout Greece in search of the perfect site for his temple. H... ...'s future, creating a blurred line between the real and fantastical. Fact and fiction continues to cohabitate in the daily debate and rituals of Modern Greece and it is quite possible that the Delphic Oracle is to praise and/or to blame. Works Cited Broad, William J. The Oracle: The Lost Secrets and Hidden Message of Ancient Delphi. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print. Fontenrose, Joseph Eddy. The Delphic Oracle, Its Responses and Operations. Berkeley: U of California. Print. Haywood, Richard. "THE DELPHIC ORACLE." Archaeology 5.2 (1952): 110-18. JSTOR. Web. 25 May 2014. . Lehoux, Daryn. "Drugs and the Delphic Oracle." Classical World 101.1 (2007): 41-56. Web. Scott, Michael. Delphi a History of the Center of the Ancient World. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2014. Print.

Special Education Essay

To efficaciously speak about the consequence of ID’s in the schoolroom I thought who better to speak to than a instructor that has a schoolroom full of ID pupils. Ms. Tornetta Clark. she is an Intervention Specialist in a SED room for classs 1-4 depending upon age. We began our conversation with what lead her to go an Intervention Specialist? Ms. Clark stated that she had ever wanted to be a teacher even as a kid. so when she went to college she decided to go a instructor she started as an simple instructor and subsequently decided to acquire into particular instruction. As clip went on she learned that she enjoyed these kids even more than the others. it was more sweet. So now that we have broken the ice so to talk can you state me what some of the jobs associated with measuring the kids with ID may be? Tornetta asked me which group of kids would I wish to discourse. the culturally diverse. gender particular. the psychological these are all type of ID kids and different types of appraisals. so where would you like to get down? I thought that it would be best for her to state me about the most hard one and she choose culturally diverse pupils. Ms. Clark states that when covering with the minorities there are extra beds of complexness to see particularly if the kid is of another ethnicity than the individual that is making the appraisal. Ms. Clark besides states that she prefers to make the bulk of her appraisals on her ain merely because she has been making this for a long clip and that she has worked with several different ethnicities. Having worked with the different ethnicities I have the upper manus and a kid can experience when they are understood or when person is pacifying them. In my many old ages of learning I have besides realized that kids can experience when person truly understands them and attentions. In my schoolroom we start the forenoon off by stating good forenoon to everyone by name and so we each can remain one thing that happened last dark or over the weekend or merely something that they may desire to portion each kid gets two proceedingss and we have a timer to guarantee everyone acquire choice clip. This is besides something that works good on their societal accomplishments. Now every bit far as the appraisal on the psychological side most of these trial and appraisals are done in the clinic or with the healer. now there have been an juncture or two where I have sat in and I have even administered the appraisal. However the same jobs still exist these trial demand to be tailored to each kid and they are non they are standard which in my sentiment is pathetic each kid is different so each kid should be tested otherwise. Now I asked about gender specific proving but I have merely ran across that twice in my many old ages of instruction. nevertheless it does be and as pedagogues we need to be able to cover with it and go on to tech and keep our categories. There are or at least it used to be several instructors that were homophobic and thought that school is no topographic point for a child’s sexual penchant to come out or even to be discussed. Now in the schools we see it mundane boys keeping custodies with other male childs and misss making the same so therefore it has to be addressed. it can non be slid under the rug any longer. This is something that as pedagogues we besides need to be able to cover with particularly in our SED categories. these child need more unfastened treatments so that they do experience that they are being included. Our kids have a inclination to acquire picked on and so they end up feeling as if no 1 understands them and they begin to contemplate self-destruction. as pedagogues it is our occupation to make our best to discourage those types of feelings and to promote a kid to be true to who they think they are and to non judge others for being different. We attempted to acquire back to the interview with on last inquiry and that was. what are the features of the teacher’s pupils with ID that consequence in eligibility for particular instruction? Ms. Clark informed that the bulk of the pupils that go through some kind of proving do non acquire into a particular instruction plan. However there are grounds for that in some instances it is because the parents do non force and maintain up with the assignments every bit good as follow through with what they need to make every bit far as information that may be needed to acquire a kid into a plan and doctors’ assignments. the letter’s from the doctor’s. There are all kinds of grounds and so there are specific plans that some parents would wish to see their kid in. but there is a waiting list or there is another plan that is comparable but the parent is loath. Besides some parent’s may non desire their kid labeled as a particular instruction pupil so they are in denial. And last but non lest so there are the vicinity schools that are full and there are no exclusions to be made so that the kid can remain with their siblings. this besides goes into the transit kingdom of the jobs as good. some territories offer transit to kids but if there are siblings they can non have transit so parents do non desire their kids separated and that is undrstandbale in most instances. Clark tells me that she feels that if one kid attends the school in the particular instruction plan so the siblings should go to that school every bit good and they should have transit as good. This would likely maintain down some of the confusion on the coachs anyhow. particularly if there is an older sibling that can watch out for the younger 1s. This is how we were raised the oldest ever looked out for the younger 1s and made certain that everyone was home safe when ma and pa got in from work. I think that we need to acquire back to the slogan that it takes a small town to raise a kid and if we did so the school system and the communities would be a better topographic point. After speaking with Ms. Clark I thought about how I raised my kids and she was right when she said that it takes a small town to raise a kid. I was a individual parent for several old ages and I had six kids two were in the particular instruction plan at the vicinity school. I took them to school and my female parent picked them up from school. The neighbour watched them as they would come in the house and have snack a start their prep until I got place from work. I did the same for her on the weekends when she worked and she besides had a kid that was particular demands and we made it work if the school called and I was unable to travel she would travel and frailty versa. The point is that as parents and pedagogues we need to work together to allow our young person know that they are loved and that they are traveling to be taken attention of non merely in the schools but at place every bit good. Mentions Clark. Tornetta: Intervention Specialist. 2013 Personal conversation. June 20.

Irony a Common Theme

Although they have very different plots with vastly different different characters, a common theme is cleverly intertwined by the authors of the following stories. â€Å"The Interlopers,† by Saki narrates a duel between two neighbors, torn apart by their forefather's grudge. â€Å"Gimpel the Fool,† by Isaac Bashevis Singer, is told by a man thought of as a fool, and forgives all those who mistreat and abuse him. The play â€Å"Pygmalion,† by Bernard Shaw shows the story of a normal flower girl becoming an upper class lady, and all the woes that come with it. The Interlopers,† â€Å"Gimpel the Fool,† and â€Å"Pygmalion† all share the common theme of irony. Even in such different contexts, irony is seen in these tales. â€Å"The Interlopers† has an ironic ending that shocks the reader. Saki starts the short story with Ulrich von Gradwitz seeking his nemisis, Georg Znaeym in a vast forest he calls his own. The reason for such hate would b e many generations before dispute over land and game, which was still existed. When they both face each other, they are both prepared to kill one another, until a tree falls on them. After endless bickering under the tree, Gradwitz tells Znaeym, â€Å"Neighbor, if you will help me to bury the old quarrel I- I will ask you to be my friend,† (4) who then agrees. After this, â€Å"The Interlopers† abruptly ends with the two men ironically being eaten alive by a pack of wolves. In â€Å"Gimpel the Fool,† the main character, Gimpel, is treated as a fool all his life in a village, and doesn't let it bother him, which further convinces the townspeople of his ignorance. This is ironic since Gimpel is actually the smartest of the bunch by thinking to himself, â€Å"let it pass† (1) even though he is labeled throughout the story as a fool. Till the end, the village makes a fool out of Gimpel, through forcing him to marry an outwardly unfaithful woman to acting to his face as if they don't know that all children born from her have different fathers. Finally, after his wife's death, Gimpel leaves his sad little hometown. He then travels around the world, telling tales to many audiences, and enjoying pleasureful company. Indeed, Gimpel was not a fool. In â€Å"Pygmalion,† a phonetics professor, Mr. Higgins, takes the responsibility of training a lower class flower girl, to becoming an upper class woman, which has an ironic outcome due to the fact that her new lifestyle would seem be more comfortable, but in reality is not. Mr. Higgins is forced to teach Eliza the whole English language to her once again due to her own version containing words/sounds such as â€Å"Ah-ah-ah-ow-ow-ow-oo! † (1749) Eliza already being beautiful, it only takes washing up to look like a lady. Resulting from becoming a proper lady, ironically Eliza has to sell herself in order to find a husband, while when she was a flower girl she just had to sell flowers. Keeping up with the superficial world of appearances with everyone watching her every move proves to be too stressful, and Eliza eventually breaks. She then leaves Mr. Higgins to marry someone he considered a fool, Freddy, who was smitten with her. In all these stories,different types of irony is expressed. The Interlopers† has situational irony since the result of the truce of the two men did not result in their freedom, but contrary, their death. In â€Å"Gimpel the Fool,† there is verbal irony since Gimpel is purposely labeled as a fool by the author though the truth is the opposite. â€Å"Pygmalion† has dramatic irony since Eliza believes her life will be better as an upper class woman, though we know that will not be the case, as she herself also finds out the next day. Using irony not only adds twists to these stories, but also contributes to character development and increases suspense.

marketing mix Essay Example

marketing mix Essay Example marketing mix Paper marketing mix Paper Topic: Marketing-(Nike, Inc. ) Introduction Nike was the Goddess of victory in Greek mythology. In 1978 an athlete runner Philip Knight and his coach, Bill Bowerman renamed their small sportswear company as Nike. Since then, the business has increased dramatically. At present Nike, Inc. has already become a major public traded sportswear and equipment supplier in the United States. It is the worlds leading supplier of athletic shoes and apparel and a major manufacturer of sport equipment with revenue in excess of IJS$ 24,13 billion in last year 2012. (Nike,lnc. reports fiscal 2013) . Nike as a most successful company in the world. It must have a well marketing management that can perfectly identify and anticipates customer requirement and satisfy them. There are many marketing elements that must have led Nike to become such a powerful brand. This study will analyse the Nikes marketing mix and its market orientation, in addition a conclusion for marketing of Nike. Marketing mix According to the concept of marketing mix (Neil Borden 1953), marketing mix was defined as an instrument to analyse product, price, place and promotion in order to establish relationships with customers. Product is seen as an item that can satisfy what a consumer demand that includes tangible goods and intangible service. Promotion means all of the methods of communication that marketers use to deliver information to different communities about the product. Place represents the location where the tangible and/or intangible products are provided for customers. Price is a sum of money that a customer pays for the product. Product: In order to satlsTy tne consumers aemana, NIKe Tlrst provides a w10e range of products that involves all aspects of different sport areas for their customer. This eans all the customers could be satisfied by Nikes products, no matter what the needs of the people. Nike has all the equipment for them. Secondly, According to the companys mission statement: to bring inspiration an innovation to every athlete in the world, Nike also makes high quality and environmental goods with most new technology, a good example is the basketball shoe, it utilises the Nike Flywire, Nike Zoom, Nike Air technique that loosens or tightens with the natural notion of the foot and provides support, protection and stability. These techniques can ensure the player has greatest performance in the game. Moreover Nike deem fashion is really crucial factor for any products, therefore Nike hire famous designers to design its product and also providing variety of colors and styles for its customers, that makes more and more people are attracted by Nikes product and using them every day, even though they were first designed for athletes. Hence, Nike has perfectly satisfied their customers by supplying a variable, high quality, technological, and fashionable product. Price: Nike uses premium-pricing strategy. The premium pricing strategy is the application of a fixed price based on the quality of the product. This has made Nike o set relatively higher price than its competitors. This strategy focuses on the consumers who think high quality is more important than the cheap price, and also those who like Nike Company more. This means Nike has to spend more money to build a good company reputation and image such as TV advertisement, celebrity endorsement, sponsoring charitable activities. These can be another reasons for the high price products. In fact this strategy seems to be working very well, as most people who choose to purchase Nike commodities accesses that they are ready for their prices since they feel that Nike is reasonable. Hampy, 2006). Place: Nike sells its products directly and also uses distributors and e-commercial. When selling its products directly, the company has created the idea of Nike towns in different parts of the USA, in order to contact with clients directly and can therefore analyse consumer behaviours. This also can help to measure the level of demand for a particular product. These data play a significant role in their marketing strategy. Furthermore, a right method of distribution might help the company save many valuable resources, but there are also many drawbacks, for instance, if Nike hires a elivering company to take commodities to customer. The customer may expect that delivery companies can do it as fast as possible, this may cost Nike a great sum of money to acquire such a good delivery. Moreover, in case the deliveries are damaged or delayed accidently, the clients will tend to blame Nike for the damage or delay, instead of the delivery company. This will harm the reputation of Nike. Lastly, Nike has been using a successful e-commercial over last two decades. The first e- commercial site was launched in April 1999 by providing over 65 styles of sport roducts to the US market for purchasing (Nike, 2013). This helps the promotion of NIKes products all over tne glooe. Promotion: Nike used to sponsor numerous sport celebrities to publicise their product. Such as Kobe Bryant in basketball, Tiger woods in golf, Federer in tennis. This is a really effective approach to improve awareness, and image of the brand. For example, if a celebrity athlete sponsors a specific brand of athletic shoes, the brand will be associated with success. Besides that, there are also many popular Nike advertisement that spread all over the word, however advertisements do have some isadvantages; they do not target specific customers, and information are received by those who happen to be at a certain location, who are likely not to purchase the product, and this may waste the companys resources. However, this may be not happened with Nikes products, as their commodities fit any category of people, as the company mission statement: to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world, If you have a body you are an athlete. (Bill Bowerman, Nike Co-founder). Additionally, in recent years, because social media is cheap, easy and influential, it provides a crucial promotion platform for Nike. Nike uses Facebook and Twitter to deliver the promotion information to their client, and receives feedback form their customers. This two-way communication can makes Nike select more important and accurate data from customers. All these promotion activities certainly make Nike become the most recognisable brand in the world. Market orientations This theory is to consider the demand and interest of customers, organizations and societies in order to find out which market orientation best suites the company. There are five parts of orientations. 1 . Production-This concept believes that customers prefer products that are both idely available and inexpensive. The marketer should concentrate on reaching high production efficiency, low costs and mass distribution. This concept normally makes sense in developing countries, where consumers only want get the cheap products. 2. Products-This orientation focus on supplying products that provides the best quality, performance and innovative features. However it might sometimes not really fulfill the customer demand. . Selling-This concept means the company is more interested in selling and promoting, they keep promoting their products to stimulate more buying. 4. Marketing-This orientation concentrate on the companys customer needs and what they want in order to makes the company better than its competitors. 5. Social Responsible Marketing-This orientation holds that in order to reach organlsatlons goal, tne organlsatlon not only prov10es a nlgn quallty products, It also should reinforce social and ethical values fore the benefit of citizens. I think there is no doubt that Nike as an organization is market- orientated. According to Phil Knight, COE Nike (2009) answered in an interview that for years we considered ourselves as a product-orientated company however, we now understand the most mportant thing is the consumers as they lead the innovation. They believe that the consumers needs and wants is their most important marketing tool. This can be certainly proved by it offer variety products which cover nearly all areas in order to fulfill different needs of people. A good example is the Nike+ iPod. Nike realised there are some customers used to track their runners space on their iPod, therefore Nike generates some products that have been installed with a radio device that can connect to their iPod and measuring their running distance automatically, however the price does not change that much. Besides that, all Nikes products were designed to be fashionable, this can satisfy those who are not an athlete, but only want a beautiful shoe, then the idea of create you own shoe come out. The customer can design their own shoes on Nike website, the customer can choose and colors and styles they like, and Nike makes it for them. Therefore, no matter who you are, what you want, there always is a Nike product suit you, as you are the most importance for Nike (Phil Knight 2009). This orientation certainly helps Nike earn more marketing, because in the present society, customers have variety of choices. Whether can satisfy the demand of consumers is the most crucial factor to influence the consumer decision-making process. Alet C Erasmus, Elizabeth Boshoff and GG Rousseau2001) Conclusion From the about study, we had understanding the Nike is market orientation company, it deem consumers needs and wants are most crucial elements for its marketing strategy. Besides that, we also analyzed Nikes product, price, promotion, and place base on marketing mix theory. Then we sought out that Nike generates a verity of high quality, fashionable and functional products. And it has buil t a most ecognizable band and a high company reputation and image through by social media, advertisements and celebrity endorsement. These factors lead to Nike became such a successful company. In the future, Nike will continue the principle in order to satisfy more and more customer. world count: 1 Reference: 1. Hampy, J. (2006): Reengineering the Nike Corporation: A Manifesto for Business marketing in Nike, Harper 2. Kohli, A. K. Jaworski, B. J. (1990). Market Orientation: The Construct, Research Propositions, and Managerial Implications. The Journal of Marketing, 54(2),1-18. 3. Ruekert, Robert W. 1992). Developing a Market Orientation: An Organizational Strategy Perspective. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 9(3),225-45. 4. Nike,inc. reports fiscal (2013) fourth quarter and full year results. Available at http://nikeinc. com/news/nike-inc-reports-fiscal-2012-fourth- quarter-and-full-year-results. [accessed 11/08/2013] 5. Nike elevates global e commerce strategy (2013). Available at http://nikeinc. com/news/nike-inc-elevates- global-e-commerce-strategy [accessed 11/08/2013] 6. Ruekert, Robert W. (1992). Developing a Market Orientation: An Organizational Strategy Perspective. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 9(3),225-45. . Phil Knight, CEO Nike on product marketing (2009) available at marketinginprogress. com/ 2009/04/16/phil-knight-nike-ceo-on-product-marketing/[accessed 1 1108/2013] 8. Borden, Neil H. (1964), The Concept of the Marketing Mix, Journal of Advertising Research, 4 (2), 2-7. 9. Naylor, J. (2004), Management marketing in Management 2ed. prennce Hall, PP 520-554. 10. Erasmus, C, A, Boshoff, E and Rousseau GG (2001) , Consumer decision-making models within the discipline of consumer science: a critical approach Journal of Family Ecology and Consumer Sciences, Vol 29.

Clyde Kluckholm essays

Clyde Kluckholm essays 1. What is the main point and/or argument in the article? "Culture consists of the values (abstract ideals) the members of a given group hold, the norms (definite principles or rules people are expected to observe) they follow, and the material goods they create." -Introduction to Society Anthony Giddens and Mitchell Duneier. This is how culture is defined in our text. In my words culture is the transmission of behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, values, institutions, and tangible goods among groups of people in a society. Now according to Clyde Kluckholm in his article he argues that peoples culture is what makes up a society. He says that the way we get by life is constructed by one's culture. "Culture is like a map- with it you can navigate a society; without it you will be barley human" says Kluckholm. So his main point is that culture is the reason why we exist today. It is how we get by life. It is a concept which controls the way of life for us humans. 2. What theoretical and/or methodological framework does the article use, and what is the evidence for this? In this article Kluckholm proves his theory by comparing and contrasting different parts of the world to each other. Such as the women in Siberia compared to the women here in America; women in America would find the idea of plural wives absurd, however in Siberia they find it absurd if a women is selfish and is not willing to share her man. And throughout the article he gives other examples from other parts of the world. Later in the article Kluckholm demonstrates his theory by explaining and painting a picture of how a society inherits culture. He states that once an individual is "culturalized" he or she feels a sense of belonging, and is obligated to follow the culture passed down to him or her. Kluckholm also displays his agreement with Ruth Benedict's definition to the concept culture; "Culture is that which binds men together." ...

Simple Cueillir Verb Conjugations in French

Simple Cueillir Verb Conjugations in French There are many useful verbs in the French language. Among those is  cueillir, which means to gather or to pick. Its an irregular verb and you will have to commit the verb conjugations to memory rather than rely on a pattern. A quick lesson will show you how to conjugate  cueillir  and  use its present and past participle. Conjugating the French Verb  Cueillir Verb conjugations allow us to change the verb to match the tense or mood of a sentence. In English, we use -ed and -ing endings to do this, though its more complicated in French. That is because we need to change the verb for every tense and mood as well as each subject pronoun within those. Cueillir  is an  irregular verb  and it does not follow one of the common verb conjugation patterns. This makes learning it more of a challenge. However, you can apply what you learn here to similar verbs such as  accueillir (to welcome)  and  recueillir (to collect). Consider practicing this small group together to make learning each a little easier. For the simplest conjugates of  cueillir, begin by identifying the verb stem of  cueill-. Then, match the subject pronoun to the present, future, or imperfect past tense to learn the correct verb ending. For instance, I gather is je cueille and we will gather is nous cueillerons. Subject Present Future Imperfect je cueille cueillerai cueillais tu cueilles cueilleras cueillais il cueille cueillera cueillait nous cueillons cueillerons cueillions vous cueillez cueillerez cueilliez ils cueillent cueilleront cueillaient The Present Participle of  Cueillir The  present participle  of cueillir  is formed by adding -ant  to the verb stem. This gives us  cueillant.  Its a verb, of course, though its also used as an adjective, gerund, or noun in some circumstances. The Past Participle and Passà © Composà © The  past participle  of  cueillir  is  cueilli. This is used to form the common past tense known as the  passà © composà ©. To use it, begin with the subject pronoun, then conjugate the  auxiliary verb  avoir  before attaching the past participle. For instance, I gathered is jai cueilli and we picked up is nous avons cueilli. More Simple  Cueillir  Conjugations There are more conjugations of  cueillir  that you should know, but here were focused on the most basic. At first, concentrate on the simple forms above, then you can add the following verb forms to your vocabulary. You will find the subjunctive and conditional verb moods useful when the action of gathering is somehow questionable. These two are quite useful in conversation. In contrast, the passà © simple and imperfect subjunctive are primarily literary forms. While you may not use them yourself, being able to at least recognize them is a good idea. Subject Subjunctive Conditional Passà © Simple Imperfect Subjunctive je cueille cueillerais cueillis cueillisse tu cueilles cueillerais cueillis cueillisses il cueille cueillerait cueillit cueillà ®t nous cueillions cueillerions cueillà ®mes cueillissions vous cueilliez cueilleriez cueillà ®tes cueillissiez ils cueillent cueilleraient cueillirent cueillissent The imperative verb form is used for direct and often assertive commands and requests. When using it, skip the subject pronoun: use cueille rather than tu cueille. Imperative (tu) cueille (nous) cueillons (vous) cueillez

Engineering Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Engineering Ethics - Essay Example Electric shock, jumping off from high structures and hanging are among the top 10 methods of committing suicides and these methods involve the use of technology, thus modification in the engineering designs and incorporation of suicide prevention devices can help in reducing the number of deaths. The most important issue associated with the inclusion of suicide prevention devices in the various engineering designs is the high cost associated with it, without any financial benefit for the investor. Engineers can play an effective role in this regard by convincing the investors and clients about the importance of the incorporation of suicide prevention devices in the engineering designs. Safety codes and standards should also deal with the suicide prevention devices and there should be a legal binding to incorporate the suicide prevention devices in the engineering designs of various buildings and products. Jumping off from high structures can cause serious problems to the structure of the building as well because when a human body falls off on the deck of some lower floors while falling off from higher floors, the impact load is so high that it can damage the building permanently. In such a situation, suicide prevention devices can be considered as a financially suitable solution because the future cost of repair of the damage caused by the impact load of falling bodies can be much higher than the cost of initially incorporating suicide prevention devices in the buildings.

The role of Markus Wolf in the Stasi regime in East Germany Essay

The role of Markus Wolf in the Stasi regime in East Germany - Essay Example A positive contrast between the two states may be that the NS was an actual German creation that was further deep-seated, but the Communist state of dictatorship was actually an external imposition which gradually turned softer. An intellectual revolution took place after the serene insurgency in 1989, as swiftly the DDR’s furtive papers were controlled by Bundesrepublik Deutschland. BRD had adequate inducement to publicize the secrets of a previous opponent. Through the meticulousness and purposeful promptness of Germans a great number of documents were provided to scholars who hardly had an expectation to smack it so heavily. The new Russian government was not much likely to reveal its history like the Germans; however, a number of its massive records had been searched out in connection with its previous settlement. Chronicles at the back of the Iron Curtain, due to which one may previously have to seek for the grains of corn in the middle of the heap of chaff, have only the natural limitations of memories. Investigating the outlawed Secret Police records in authoritarianism has a brilliant association to it. While all is required to be reserved undisclosed, these police should have kept the secrets. When the public was to know nothing, the Secret Police were supposed to know everything. (Peterson, 2001) As stated by Koehler (1999) Stasi is actually the title of the ministry of State security of East Germany its actual name in German language is â€Å"Ministerium fur Staatssicherheit†, which is abbreviated as â€Å"Stasi† and pronounced as â€Å"Tazi†. Stasi took fame as the secret police service of East Germany. It had its command center in East Berlin in a huge multiplex building and has a number of minor amenities all over the East Berlin. It has been well known as a successful and exploitive secret police service. Stasi used to have slogan which was translated as â€Å"Defense and Weapon

Journalistic fiction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Journalistic fiction - Essay Example Truman Capote was a famous American writer of the 1960s, he is considered to be a representative of the classical American literature of the second half of the 20th century. He was one of the most significant and bright representatives of the Gothic style in the literature of that years, along with such well-known writers as Harper Lee, William Faulkner, Carson McCullers and Tennessee Williams. The main lines of in his work are considered to be - fiction and documentary. Which he that put together to create the complicated journalistic fiction out of these two already known styles. Summing up the author’s biography we can say that Truman Capote was a famous writer and a journalist who is also known as the ‘inventor’ of the ‘New Journalism’ – a new style of writing which combines the best features of journalism and literature which makes this phenomenon so special. Sometimes it could be called the Narrative journalism. Discussing the issue of th e unconventional frontier genres we should emphasize the actualization of the documentation, in particular, the journalistic articles which gains popularity at the end of the 20th century. Is such a novel a fixing of the bare facts or their interpretation, is this a factographic or belles-lettres work? There are correspondingly different views concerning who is the author of this novel - either he is an objective spectator and those who record the accurate data or he is an involuntary literary man who claims that the text is a kind of literature and the document is only the evidence. Here the novel which is based on the facts and the author who wrote appear to be in between these two descriptions. On the one hand, such novel is accused of its inaccuracy, so the novel cannot be treated as a document. On the other hand, they say that the journalistic fiction cannot aspire to the role of the high literature and mainly is focused on the

Survey Description Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Survey Description - Essay Example The demographic questions only focused on the gender and educational level of the participants. The informational questions focused on getting participants opinion on what their thought was about their major, their satisfaction level of the major they are undertaking and whether it was easy for the members to choose their major. For example, the last informational question ask the students whether the preparatory year in college can help a student in selecting the major to pursue. The survey was conducted through writing questionnaires and sending them to students and faculty at English Language Center, using the well-known survey website Survey Monkey. The small number of questions encouraged the students to take part in the survey since it did not consume a lot of their time. There was a total of 16 students taking part with a majority, 14, being female, and only two male students participated in the survey. From the survey 6 were graduate students, 4 were undergraduate and the remaining 6 specified other as their educational level. The major finding from the survey are as follows: Many people start thinking about the major they are going to take at elementary school level. A majority of the student, 71.43%, are satisfied with the major they are taking. Almost half of the participants believe that preparatory year sometimes helps a student choose a

Organization Attractiveness Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Organization Attractiveness - Assignment Example In the general workforce, the two mentioned attributes can be said to be highly applicable to recruiting talent. This is because in a well motivated organization, there is very little for employees to look outside for (Greenberg & Sweeney, 2010). Because employees get all that they require by way of salary, allowances and other forms of remuneration, chances that they will be looking elsewhere after settling for a new job are less. Meanwhile, the longer employees try their hands on one thing, the better they become with their talents (Silzer & Dowell, 2010). Engagement is also necessary in recruiting talent because it is the only way by which employees can have a feeling that their talents are being respected and being put to use (Felps et al., 2009). As far as talented people are concerned, there are other attributes that contribute to their selection of one organization other the other. A working environment that encourages growth is one such attribute. This is because every talented person wants to work in an environment where original talent will not only be utilized but also nurtured to grow (Greenberg & Sweeney, 2010). Finally, competition is crucial for talented people because it forces them to always look out for more in terms of making use of what they already have. Felps, W., Mitchell, T. R., Hekman, D. R., Lee, T. W., Holtom, B. C., & Harman, W. S. (2009). Turnover contagion: How coworkers job embeddedness and job search behaviors influence quitting. Academy of Management Journal, 52(3),

Cheating Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Cheating - Term Paper Example These companies, while advertising, will use every term or means possible to portray the image that a consumer loves as being of lesser value than their product. It can be argued that most adverts aim at the destruction of the image of all other activities that individuals may be involved in and instead work towards the promotion of only those activities that are related to their product. As a result, it can be argued that cheating the customer for promoting a product is part of advertising and the morality, or lack of it, behind the adverts the basis upon which they are founded. Therefore, most adverts, no matter their nature, rarely hold any truth to what they are saying, since they often aim at making the customers believe that the product will fulfill their desires, when in reality, these product do not have that ability. The advertising of products, especially those from internationally recognized brands, is not only done at a local level, the advertising campaigns are also done at a regional, national, and international level. This is often considered the best way to ensure that the advert reaches a wider audience than it would normally have if the campaign were done at only the local level. It can be argued that the professionalism of the advertising company is often brought into question during such campaigns, because despite there being a code of conduct specifying how companies should conduct business, the adverts often create images for their customers which are not based on reality. It can be further argued that the fact that many of the adverts often convince their customers to select their products and shun others of the same quality is a stark example of how these adverts cheat their potential customers. It can be said that adverts are more often than not aimed at ensuring that a company’s products are able to compete effectively against other companies attempting to market similar products and in fact, these adverts are perhaps what can b e used to provide an edge against rival products. An argument can be made that companies are more interested in making as many sales as possible in their target markets and are not at all interested in the wellbeing of their customers (Baker 1213). This is the reason why they will do anything; even make false promises to their customers concerning their products, when advertising, in order to persuade them to purchase them. The main objective that can be made concerning the advertising of products is that it is aimed at ensuring that the sales of the said products are maximized. All manner of images and senses are used to ensure that this aim becomes a reality, meaning that companies will more often than not create products, not because they have the best interests of the customer at heart, but because they wish to increase their sales. Such tactics are more often than not psychological, because the actual product may not meet the standards which are mentioned I the advert. It can b e argued that companies often weave dreams for their customers and not their reality since they often go to the extent of making promises to the consumer about the product being able to fulfill their dreams and aspirations. Some of the most successful companies rely on advertising and their ability to convince their customers, through their adverts, that their products are the

Organization Attractiveness Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Organization Attractiveness - Assignment Example In the general workforce, the two mentioned attributes can be said to be highly applicable to recruiting talent. This is because in a well motivated organization, there is very little for employees to look outside for (Greenberg & Sweeney, 2010). Because employees get all that they require by way of salary, allowances and other forms of remuneration, chances that they will be looking elsewhere after settling for a new job are less. Meanwhile, the longer employees try their hands on one thing, the better they become with their talents (Silzer & Dowell, 2010). Engagement is also necessary in recruiting talent because it is the only way by which employees can have a feeling that their talents are being respected and being put to use (Felps et al., 2009). As far as talented people are concerned, there are other attributes that contribute to their selection of one organization other the other. A working environment that encourages growth is one such attribute. This is because every talented person wants to work in an environment where original talent will not only be utilized but also nurtured to grow (Greenberg & Sweeney, 2010). Finally, competition is crucial for talented people because it forces them to always look out for more in terms of making use of what they already have. Felps, W., Mitchell, T. R., Hekman, D. R., Lee, T. W., Holtom, B. C., & Harman, W. S. (2009). Turnover contagion: How coworkers job embeddedness and job search behaviors influence quitting. Academy of Management Journal, 52(3),

Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 47

Philosophy - Essay Example In his epistemology, David Hume held that all ideas are derived from sense experience; Hume saw ideas as nothing but memory of impressions (Solomon, Higgins, and Martin, 2011). For Hume, impressions are the immediate sensations that we have of things. For Hume, therefore, it is impossible of have ideas of things that we do not sense or we do not have their impressions. In his views on the self, David Hume argued that there is nothing like, simply because we do not have and we cannot have impressions of the self. The following is the argument that Hume advanced in support of his view that self is an illusion, and that what we call self is merely a bundle of sensations. Hume began his argument on the self by claiming that, if you think about the concept self, and if you will ask yourself which of the five senses give you the impression of self, you will realize that none of the five human senses gives one the impression of self as a unified reality. Hume claimed that when he tries to think about the concept of self, what he stumbles upon are particular perceptions such as heat or cold, love or hate, or pleasure or pain. Hume claimed that in his reflections on self, he realized that it was impossible for him to have a unified impression of self without the particular perceptions. For this reason, therefore, Hume concluded that there is no self, but what we call self is merely a bundle of sensations. Hume, however, argued that, although self is a bundle of sensations, we nevertheless have some idea of personal identity or the self. Hume reasoned that the idea of personal identify or the self that we have is an error in reasoning caused by human tendency to associate ideas and to attribute to erroneously attribute to them a causal connection. Because of this human tendency, we associate the various human perceptions and wrongly claim that these perceptions cause the impression of self. Hume, therefore, concluded that the impression of self is impossible, and for that

Evaluating the Historical Capital Budgeting Method Essay Example for Free

Evaluating the Historical Capital Budgeting Method Essay Currently AES employs Project Finance Framework. Project finance tends to be used in projects with tangible assets with predictable cash flows in which construction and operating targets can be easily established through explicit contract. The key to AES projects financing lies with the precise forecasting of cash flows. In effect, the possibility of estimating cash flows with an acceptable level of uncertainty allows for allocation of risks among various interested parties. The ensuing certainty in cash flows allows for high level of leverage and enables project assets to be separated from the parent company. Let us now take a closer look at the pros and cons of the Capital Budgeting System currently in place. Principal Advantages Non-Recourse The separation of the parent company is structured through the creation of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV). This SPV is the formal borrower under all loan documents so that in event of default or bankruptcy AES is not directly responsible before financial creditors. Instead, their legal claims are against the SPV assets. Maximize Leverage Currently AES seeks to finance the cost of development and construction of the project on highly leveraged basis. High leveraged in non-recourse project financing permits AES to put less in capital to put at risk permits AES to finance the project without diluting its equity investment in the project. Off-Balance Sheet Treatment AES may not be required to report any of the project debt on its balance sheet because such debt is non-recourse. Off balance sheet treatment can have the added practical benefit of helping the AES comply with covenants and restriction relating to borrowing funds contained in loan agreements to which AES is also a party. Agency Cost The agency costs of free cash flow are reduced. Management incentives are to project performance. Most importantly close monitoring by investors is facilitated. Multilateral Financial Institutions One of the four constituents that have contractual arrangement with the SPV in a typical project are the banks (an integral part group of financiers that include share holders, insurers, equipment manufacturers, export credit agencies and funds). Among these banks there are multilateral financial institutions (like IFC, CAF and etc). Presence of these institutions as financiers helps in raising capital from these institutes at lower cost and secondly it is also read as a positive sign by commercial banks. Drawbacks Projects V/S Division The company is not only expanding its geographical boundaries, but it is also diversifying its business through backward and forward integration. The current financial model does not provide the AES with the big picture, which now constitutes more number of variables that are being influenced by multiple factors due to the increase in depth and breadth of the organization. Complexity Financing of projects requires involvement of a number of parties. They can be quite complex and can be expensive to arrange. Secondly it demands greater amount of management time. Macroeconomic Risk The current methodology employed by AES for capital budgeting does not take into account the exchange rate risk. This risk will be of higher magnitude in the developing countries because of their unstable monetary and fiscal policies[2]. As we have seen that fluctuation in exchange rate has greatly hurt the AES business and they were unable to mitigate this risk as they haven’t anticipated it. This risk becomes important when the exchange rate fluctuation affects balance sheet items unequally. Thus keeping check on the foreign exchange rate requires timely adjustment of both the items of revenue and expenditure, and those of assets and liabilities in different currencies. Political Risk: This is another important factor which the current financial management system does not take into account. This will be of significant importance when it comes to investing in developing countries where frequent changes in government policies occur. Does this system make sense? The financial strategy employed by AES was historically based on project finance. This approach solely took into account those factors that minimized AES exposure to the project and achieved the most beneficial regulatory treatment thus ensuring availability of financial resources to complete the project. The model worked well for the domestic market as well as for the international operations, provided the opportunities undertook by AES were either in the sector of building and running a power plant or simply buying an existing facility and upgrading it and then operating. The underlying assumption over here was that the symmetrical and asymmetrical risks faced by the project were more or less same irrespective of its geographical location (Refer to Exhibit 3). However when AES started diversifying the breadth of its operations by incorporating other offshoots of energy related business and transforming from a cogeneration to a more utility organization with majority of expansion occurring in developing economies. This diversification of business increased the symmetrical risks like business risk, a classic example of which we see in Brazil where AES experience shortfall in demand /sales volume due to Energy Conservation Policy of Brazilian government and this had a chain effect on debt servicing capacity of the SPV as well the stock price of the parent company. Other factor that current model was not able to include was the risk of devaluation of currency in developing economies which resulted in significant losses due to the inability of the company to survive its international debt obligations. Expansion in developing economies also exposed the business to political risk where the policies change erratically with changes in government. Hence we see that the geographical diversification of business causes asymmetrical risk to increase causing bimodal behavior in the result. Project financing becomes less recommendable as a symmetrical risk becomes more manifest. This constitutes a problem for emerging countries where these risks tends to be at the forefront. Lal Pir Project Valuation Scenario 1: Pakistan In order to calculate the value of project for the Lal Pir project in Pakistan, we first need to calculate the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) using the new proposed methodology. For this we have followed the approach given in exhibit 8 of the case. The first step is to calculate the value of levered ? using the formula and information given in the case[3]. The value of the levered ? comes out to be 0. 3852 or 38. 52%, which essentially means that our project is not very highly correlated to the market return. Using this value of ? we now calculate the cost of Equity (refer Exhibit 4A). We have used the return on U. S. Treasury Bond (i. e. 4. 5%) as the risk free return in calculating the cost of equity. The cost of equity comes out to be 0. 072 and similarly, using the risk free return and the default spread (given in exhibit 7a of case) we calculate the cost of debt which comes out to be 0. 0807. It is important to note that the cost of debt and the cost of equity also need to be adjusted for the sovereign spread (0. 0990 for Pakistan). Once we have the adjusted costs of equity and capital we can now calculate the WACC for the project using the formula given in case where we essentially multiply equity and debt ratio with the adjusted costs of equity and debt respectively[4]. The WACC in this scenario comes out to be 0. 1595 or 15. 95%. However, now we need to adjust this WACC for the risks associated with doing the project in Pakistan and we do this by using Table A given in the case. We know that the total Risk Score for Pakistan is 1. 425 and since there is a linear relationship between business specific risk scores and cost of capital[5] we need to adjust our WACC by 7. 125% thus making our final WACC 23. 075%, using which we calculate our NPV (refer to Exhibit 6) from the year 2004 to 2023, and it comes out to be negative $234. 34 million. Scenario 2: USA For USA similar calculations are made to calculate the WACC (Exhibit 4B). However there are two things that are different. First we see the sovereign spread is equal to zero. Secondly, in this case we would need to calculate the business risk using the information given in exhibit 7a of the case (refer to Exhibit 5). This score comes out to be 0. 64 and using this score, our business risk comes out to be 3. 23% and adding it to our calculated value of WACC, we get our final WACC of 9. 64%. Using this we calculate our NPV for USA which comes out to be negative $ 35. 92 million (refer to Exhibit 7). Adjusted Cost of Capital and Probabilities of Real Events in Pakistan In calculating the adjusted cost of capital for Pakistan the WACC is adjusted for six common types of risks: Operational, Counterparty, Regulatory, Construction, Commodity, Currency and Legal. We can clearly see from table A given in the case that besides construction there is a probability of all these risks actually effecting the project in Pakistan. In these, the highest probability is that of currency risk and the legal risk. The adjusted cost that we have calculated is adjusted by the total risk score for Pakistan. There is a linear relationship between the total risk score and adjustment to the cost of capital, i. e. a score of 1 leads to an adjustment of 500 basis points in the WACC. When we calculate the WACC for Pakistan through traditional formula it comes out to be 15. 95%, however in order to incorporate the risk factor associated with Pakistan we need to adjust it for the Total Risk Score, which in this case is 1. 425. So we simply multiply this by 500 and we find out that we need to adjust our WACC 23. 075%. Since this 23. 075% is adjusted using the total risk score we can safely assume that it incorporates for the probability of the afro-mentioned six types of risks in WACC with respect to Pakistan. Discount Rate Adjustment: USA v/s Pakistan As mentioned earlier the discount rate is adjusted based on the total risk score of the country. This total risk score is compiled from 6 main types of risks, the probability of which varies from country to country. If we simply compare the risk scores for USA and Pakistan[6], we can see that there is a major difference between the risk profiles of both the countries. For instance, while currency, regulatory and legal risks are significantly high in Pakistan, they do not exist in the USA at all. Also we see that operational, counterparty and commodity risks are higher in USA as compared to Pakistan. Similarly when the respective WACCs of the two countries are adjusted for their risk we see that the adjusted WACC for Pakistan (23. 075%) is much higher as opposed to that of USA (9. 64%), which essentially implies that Pakistan is inherently a riskier country to invest in as opposed to the USA and any investments made in this region would have to cross a higher hurdle rate than if they were made in the US region.

The Emergence of Capitalist Economy In Russia :: essays papers

The Emergence of Capitalist Economy In Russia I. Introduction: A Newfound Freedom Imagine you are a high school student just about to graduate. You are about to leave your parents, who have directed your actions for your entire life. However, you have never had to make your own decisions, and are having trouble handling your new situation. Now imagine that on a larger scale. An entire nation released from the control of its "parents" with no idea how to use its newfound freedom. The Russian Federation is only a shell of its former glory as the U.S.S.R. because it had to withstand just such a change. The "high school student", a socialist market in which the government makes all the rules, recently was overhauled. The new economic condition in Russia is a free market. However, the people had no experience in handling the independence that they acquired as the capitalist market was established. It had been a long hard journey to get where they were, and now a longer, harder journey is beginning - the journey into capitalism. II. The Beginnings of Socialism Russia did not exist as a nation just seven years ago. It was formed from the ruins of a greater nation. Russia's current troubles are based on problems it found, or created, during the years it operated under socialism. This theory, which proposes equality and the means of achieving it, has been scorned by the Western world. One must wonder why such a grand conception has failed. A. Karl Marx and the Communist Manifesto By far, the most important document in the development of socialism was The Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and Frederik Engels in 1848. (Berki) This document was published as a reply to politicians who would accuse their opponents of being Communist for the sake of scaring the public. (Marx) Marx's Manifesto was the driving force behind socialism and Communism in Russia. In it, he described the fall of capitalism at the hands of the working classes. (Berki) The following paragraphs are excerpts from that work. "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and

Global Warming Essay -- Environment Climate Change

Global Warming Human kind has entered a brand new relationship with the earth. The constant and increasing pressures we are exerting threaten our planets ability to sustain life itself. Change-in the way we think , and in the way we live-is needed now.Global warming is the most urgent environmental problem the world will face in the next decade and the next century. Few, if any, trends are more important to our future than climate change caused by human activities. Scientist around the world are warning us that global warming poses a major threat to our future quality of life, previously there has been little information on this problem. Right now, the rate of global warming may be 100 times faster than it has ever been. Very soon the earth may become hotter then at any time in human history. In the last decades the problems of atmospheric change have been gravely advanced by pollution resulting from human activities. These environmental changes pose a real threat to the lives of people and wild life.It is vital to all of us that we fully understand the complex relationship between the atmosphere and the earth. The earth is getting warmer. the changes are small, so far, but they are expected to grow and speed up. Within the next 50 to 100 years, the earth will continue to heat up hotter than it has been in the past million years. As oceans warm and glaciers melt, land and cities along coasts may be flooded. Heat and drought may cause forests to die and food crops t...

Reciprocity in Anthropology

The way every being experiences the world around us is mostly constructed by the culture we are exposed to and brought up in. The world makes sense to us because of the ways culture influences our perception. We experience the world around us in a time, space, and mentality that are built solely by culture. The Kaluli are a tribal clan from Highland New Guinea who experience their lives through reciprocity. The way the Kaluli form relationships amongst one another, communicate, and practice their everyday lives is based through gift-giving and reciprocity.The Kaluli are socially dependent beings who have constructed a social mechanism in which everyone participates in the art of reciprocity to maintain and build these social relations with one another. The Kaluli reify and bring to life reciprocity through ceremonies such as Gisaro, through food and marriage, emotions, and socialization. Frequently, the Kaluli people will hold a traditional ceremony, called the Gisaro, which demonstr ates the importance of reciprocity in their daily lives. Gisaro is a ceremony in which the Kaluli guests perform dance and singing rituals for their hosts. Schieffelin, p. 22) The visitors spend many weeks preparing costumes, songs, and performances for their hosts, while in return the hosts plan feasts at their longhouses for their prospective guests. (Schieffelin, p. 22) During the evening, the Gisaro begins inside the longhouses, and the dancers from the visitors’ side begin performing. (Schieffelin, p. 22) The performing group is made up of roughly 25 men, who begin to dance and sing one by one in the centre of the longhouse, while the audience of hosts’ watch. (Schieffelin, p. 2) The performers will take their turns singing about places and people familiar to one or more of the hosts’ in the audience. Most of the places that are sung about are from the past of a member in the audience and the people that are sung about have died and have emotional ties to a udience members. (Schieffelin p. 23) As the singing and recalling of events related to audience members get intense, so does the emotional atmosphere amongst the audience of hosts’. A member from the crowd will likely begin to resurface past memories of loved ones that have died and will begin to get deeply emotional and will begin to cry. Schieffelin, p. 23) However, immediately after, the emotional host will become infuriated due to the fact that the dancer hurt them with past memories, and in anger the host will grab a lit torch and burn the shoulders of the performer continuously. (Schieffelin, p. 23) The performer however, will not show any sight of pain and one-by-one the performers will continue performing and the whole process of emotional-outbreak and burning will continue until the chirping of birds can be heard in the morning. (Schieffelin, p. 3) At the end of the night, before the visitors made their way back, they paid compensation to those whom they made cry. (S chieffelin, p. 23) The Gisaro ritual shows an abundance of reciprocity in social-relations and emotions. The ritual is based on the exchange between the hosts and the visitors; one provides plentiful food and the other performs and entertains. The reciprocal nature of this social gathering displays the dependency both parties place on one-another to perform their obligated role in the gathering. This kind of social giving and exchanging is basic to the Kaluli way of life. † (Schieffelin, p. 26) Reciprocity of duties aside, there is also an exchange of emotions that can be witnessed in the Gisaro ceremony. The performer hurts the audience member, who then in return inflicts physical pain upon the performer. (Schieffelin, p. 24) In the Kaluli society anger is looked upon as a justification for being hurt or angered, and requires ones to react in an aggressive manner to be compensated for the feelings of anger inflicted upon them. (Schieffelin, p. 34) If the Kaluli men do not rea ct in anger where they are socially required too, they will be looked upon as weak and incapable. (Schieffelin, p. 135) The Kaluli use this is a method to limit how far a person can be bullied and taken advantage of. By compensating oneself through aggressive manners, the Kaluli are able to make sure that no one is pushed further than the other, and that at all times everything is equal. (Schieffelin, p. 136) â€Å"Such interventions, which were quiet common, seem aimed more at allowing the interaction to conclude properly than with scolding or punishing the offender. (Schieffelin, p. 137) Thus, in the Gisaro ritual it is appropriate for a host to be angered by the performer and react in an aggressive manner. By performing the Gisaro, both the visitors and the hosts of the occasion share the exchange of emotion and ritual duties. Like the Gisaro, the Kaluli people partake in many other traditional ceremonies that show the reciprocity of food, labour, and duties. In marriage there i s an abundance of gift-giving and labour sharing which involves both the groom and the bride’s family.When a bride is chosen, the groom must compensate the bride’s family with brides-wealth, and both sides begin to part-take in many ceremonies. (Schieffelin, p. 26) One side will bring the other many fruits and meat, and then the other side will return the favour by doing the same, creating an on-going cycle of food-giving. (Schieffelin, pg. 26) Food is continuously exchanged and prepared by both in-laws because it is one of the best methods the Kaluli use to form and maintain social relations with their in-laws and family. Food as gift or hospitality is the main vehicle for expression of friendly relationship to anyone, kinsman or acquaintance. † (Schieffelin, p. 27) The reason that the Kaluli form such reciprocal customs is to provide the Kaluli people with the â€Å"the basis for the provision of hospitality for visiting, support in conflict, invitations to hu nt and fish, mutual assistance in garden labor, and occasional ceremonial prestations, which are formal customary gifts of food, especially meat. † (Schieffelin, p. 6) The Kaluli people distribute their labours and efforts in food-gathering by creating a mutual-dependency on one another. (Dr. Clark, Lecture 3) By creating a gift-based economy, there is a never ending cycle of giving, and thus there will always be support for the Kaluli people. (Dr. Clark, Lecture 3) Though western societies might look at the Kaluli gift-giving economy as an outdated method, it has shown to be the most efficient as there is less labour needed to be done by everyone and there is always certainty of being provided for. (Dr.Clark, Lecture 3) The Kaluli have found a form of security through these gift-giving rituals and traditions to make sure that they always have food and support. Through reciprocity, the Kaluli try to achieve a balance in their everyday life, and this has become the means in whi ch they experience their world. There is reciprocity to keep balance of food and relationships. Likewise, the Kaluli myths of how nature, their placement in reality, and their after-world presents a different form of reciprocity and balance. The Kaluli believe that at the beginning of time, there were only humans and that there was no nature. Schieffelin, p. 94) However, as time went on there were needs for food, shelter, clothing, and etc. Thus all men were gathered together and were given duties to become trees, animals, water, etc. (Schieffelin, p. 94) The Kaluli recognize that these trees and nature surrounding them are actually people, and that to these people the Kaluli appear to be trees, water, animals, and nature. (Schieffelin, p. 96) This means that the nature-world is a reflection of the Kaluli, and to the world of nature – which are actually people – the Kaluli reflect the world of nature.The Kaluli do not treat this world as a spiritual or sacred world, it is just an everyday reality for them which they refer to as the mama world. (Schieffelin, p. 96) They believe that every day they live in coexistence with the mama world which is identical to theirs and a wild-pig from the natural world is actually the reflection of the man in the real world. (Schieffelin, p. 97) This means that if something were to happen to the wild pig in the unseen world, it would inflict the same actions upon the corresponding man in the real world.Through this ideology and cultural reality, the Kaluli create a balance between the natural world and their own world. At all times there is a coexisting world which reflects their own. Even in death the Kaluli find balance and seem to face avoid the means of facing great damage and loss. â€Å"When a person dies, his wild pig aspect disappears from the mama world. His personal life virtue†¦escapes with his last breath and takes on human form in the mama world where it continues a life very much like the one h e left.In the visible world, the person now usually appears in the form of a bird or a fish. † (Schieffelin, p. 96) As it can be seen, all that happens during the death of a Kaluli is that he becomes a part of nature, and in the mama world the wild pig will become a human. Through this coexisting reality the Kaluli have created for them, the Kaluli reciprocate lives back and forth between the visible and mama world. In such ways, they establish a balance at all time and avoid from feeling a great deal of loss.Language is a very essential role in the lives of the Kaluli people, for it brings to life the culture of reciprocity in their everyday lives. From a very young age, the Kaluli are taught to talk and socialize in ways which expressed their exchanging and gift-giving behaviours. Songs are song about death which reminds the Kaluli the dangers that death brings, because once an individual dies, the act of reciprocating and exchanging comes to an end. (Schieffelin, p. 136) Da ily conversation usually revolves around the lines of who had to compensate whom, and what one got in return for something else. Schieffelin, p. 136) Regardless of the abundance of food the Kaluli have to eat, the Kaluli conversation consists of arguments either refusing or accepting food. There are even specific verbs denoted to the exchanging transaction: Dimina meaning give, and dima meaning take. (Schieffelin, p. 136) These words are used throughout the daily conversations of the Kaluli helping reify their realities of reciprocity. However, the Kaluli have no specific word for sharing, and thus they only see their relationships through give and take. (Schieffelin, p. 36) Through language and socialization the Kaluli continuously bring to life reciprocity and make it a part of their everyday lives. The Kaluli have come to see the world in a way of balance created by reciprocity, and through these cultural views the Kaluli have built their realities. It is a cultural experience in which the Kaluli form social dependencies in order to establish a stable and supportive way for living. â€Å"Idea that exchange, as a system of meanings, is involved in the shaping of particular cultural realities†¦Through the management of meaning exchange becomes a vehicle of social obligation. (Schieffelin, p. 503) The Kaluli create an ongoing cycle of gift-giving in which one is always obligated to give back to the other because of maintain a social circle. Through exchange and the reciprocation of labour and food, the Kaluli recognize them in such a manner where balance must always be achieved. This can be witnessed because when the Kaluli cannot be compensated or find a balance or reciprocate feelings, they become frightened, confused, or even lost. (Schieffelin, p. 45) For example, when the Kaluli hear thunder sounds they become angered because it is invisible and unpredictable, and because they cannot be compensated for their anger they are frightened. (Schieffelin, p. 142) The Kaluli are so used to living in a reciprocal based lifestyle, that if they feel like they cannot establish balance or be compensated, they feel as if they are at a loss and feel hopeless. (Schieffelin, p. 142) The Kaluli through language, food, gift-giving, and ceremonies, always seek to find reciprocity in which they can see themselves compensated and at a balance. Bibliography ———————————————— Clark, Dylan. 2011. Lecture 3, ANT204, Sociocultural Anthropology, University of Toronto, Mississauga, ON, September 14, 2011. Schieffelin, B. B. (1990). The give and take of everyday life: language socialization of Kaluli children. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Schieffelin, E. L. (1980). Reciprocity and the Construction of Reality. Reciprocity and the Construction of RealityReciprocity and the Construction of Reality, 15(3), 502-517. Schieffelin, E. L. (1976). The sorrow of the lonely and the burning of the dancers. New York: St. Martin's Press.

Civil Disobedience : Bane of Boon to the Concept of Just Society? Essay

Even as the nations are engaged in tackling the menace of terrorism among its rank and file, the debate over what makes a ‘just society’ has renewed itself with fresh questions evolving out of it, especially from the perspective of civil disobedience, where issues on ethics, emotion, justification and morality are embedded in an inseparable way and therefore add complexities in the comprehension of just society. Thus this paper weighs some pertinent points involving the concept of just society from the perspective of civil disobedience before arriving at an inference on whether civil disobedience is a bane or a boon to the concept of just society. A Brief Definition of Just Society â€Å"Just Society† refers to a particular condition of a society, where its subjects enjoy some freedom beyond laws that are framed, provided that freedom should ideally be directed towards garnering collective benefits for the society. This facility of a citizen goes down under the head of â€Å"fair treatment† of the state to its subjects and is commonly known as social justice. With time, this freedom has become a medium of the thinkers and well wishers of the society to share and air their views to draw the attention of the government on several issues pertaining to the well-being of the concerned society. Different political ideas, ideologies or situations create different interpretations of a just society. As for example, the left-wing ideology could prescribe an extensive use of income redistribution after judging its present state as a deterrent to the just society, while a right-wing political party could stress on philanthropy, open market system or charity to attain social justice for the society. However, the broad base of just society is powered by the concepts like equality and human rights. A Brief Definition of Civil Disobedience The briefest definition of civil disobedience could be like â€Å"an act guided by conscience towards preventing or developing a condition in the society, which might overstep certain areas of written law, yet that overstepping is not intended to oppose the law†. Civil disobedience is supposed to be an outcome of a serious observation of any flaw or the scope of development in the society, totally backed up by moral and ethical values and totally devoted towards a positive change in the society. Here the gray area lies in the quality of such an observation and inference. For example, a group of thinker might observe that certain areas of taxes are burdening the citizens and thus be waived, while another group might observe a positive impact of taxes on the citizen. However, civil disobedience is supposed to act under the guideline of equality and human rights and it has to be morally justified. Understandably, these preconditions are liable to vary according the laws of various states. The Questions The preconditions of civil obedience raises certain questions like why a civil disobedience would be considered as anarchy, if it fails to remain within such preconditions like moral justification or total submission to the written law of the land. Reasonably, questions like that evolve out of human rights’ parameter or the natural human qualities like emotion – where driven by the cause, one might go overboard and breach the law to end up in the prison. There are questions too, about the applicable yardstick of identifying the nature of civil disobedience or distinguishing it from ordinary offences. Civil disobedience is generally not considered as a crime in a democratic society. Thus, if a civil disobedient is jailed or otherwise punished, it becomes a recognized offence, which, in other words, stands as a different interpretation of the person’s motive. Perhaps it is for this reason even the founder of the very coinage ‘civil disobedience’, Henry David Thoreau, once rued over the apathy of the society towards the plight of the intellectuals who raise voice for the society itself – after he was jailed for refusing to pay the state poll tax to American government as a protest against governmental plan to prosecute a war in Mexico. An agitated Thoreau wrote in his essay – â€Å"Only a very few people – heroes, martyrs, patriots, reformers in the best sense – serve their society with their consciences, and so necessarily resist society for the most part, and are commonly treated by it as enemies† (Thoreau, 1991). Towards Making a Just Society Thus questions like above validate another query like ‘what makes a just state’, and stress on garnering more flexibility through legal parameters instead of leaving the subject on the leniency of the government – like when, in spite of acting on moral drive, a civil disobedient stands at a crossroad where the state can either overlook his/her offence or jail him/her. In either of the action, the government stands to loose – if it overlooks the situation it might be blamed for not doing its duty, and if it imprisons the person, it might be condemned of violating human rights. This indicates that to create a just state, states have a role to formulate a convincing script of the division of justice like Compensatory (corrective) justice, Retributive justice or Distributive justice. The observation of Thoreau as mentioned earlier, also points towards another roadblock towards making a just society. Since the range of values like transparency, security, privacy, integrity and autonomy cannot be fully defined by the scripts of justice, the governmental interpretations of them can invoke mixed reaction among people – some might resort to civil disobedience, some might remain skeptic to the situation. Majority should be able to justify the situation and their best role in it, before pursuing a cause. Thus people should be equipped to meet the standards of civil disobedience or to reap any benefit out of it – â€Å"Justified civil disobedience†, says John Rawls, â€Å"can serve to inhibit departures from justice and to correct departures when they occur; thus it can act as a stabilising force in society† (Rawls, 1971). This situation speaks about the important role of the civil society too – that it is their duty to educate and inform the mass about the nature of civil disobedience (direct or indirect) and the possible consequences attached to them. Alongside it should be a joint effort by state and the civil society to spread awareness about how civil disobedience differs from legal protest, rule departures and conscientious objection – and more importantly how it has no relation with the breakaway groups like radical protesters and extremists. CONCLUSION There can be no doubt that civil disobedience keeps the society lively and interacting, besides being instrumental in guarding the common interest of people through the conscientious voice of the citizens. Without this vigilance, the concept of just society cannot be put into action. While the governmental interpretation of just society determines the scope and outcome of civil disobedience, the clarity of perception of the civil society about ‘just society’ keeps civil disobedience movement on its desired track. Thus, both state and the civil society have to share the task of disseminating appropriate education at the every corner of the society to invoke awareness on judiciary system and the scope of civil rights. This awareness would then automatically serve as a shield to the civilians and as an alert to the state. However, in the modern context of terrorism or increasing rate of violence, some might opine that civil disobedience has lost its sting – which is in fact, not true. Now the new world order evokes global citizens to resort to civil disobedience on global issues like terrorism or environment, which might have no bearing with the local state’s policy or its actions. This speaks about how the civil societies across the globe have adapted itself to the new avatar of civilization – they are now connected to one another for the sake of making a ‘just global society’ – all the while depending on a common tool like civil disobedience. Thus, in both of its new and old role, civil disobedience proves to be a boon to the concept of just society. Ends Works Cited Rawls, John (1971), A Theory of Justice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Thoreau, Henry David (1991), ‘Civil Disobedience’ in Civil Disobedience in Focus. Hugo A. Bedau (ed. ), London: Routledge. Works Consulted Brownlee, K. (2007). Civil Disobedience. Web Article. Retrieved on Dec 1, 2007, from http://plato. stanford. edu/entries/civil-disobedience/#FeaCivDis Civil Disobedience. Web Article. Retrieved on Dec 1, 2007, from http://www. answers. com/topic/civil-disobedience

The Return: Nightfall Chapter 10

Elena was serenely happy. Now it was her turn. Stefan used a sharp wooden letter opener from his desk to cut himself. Elena always hated to see him do this, use the most efficient implement that would penetrate vampire skin; so she shut her eyes tightly and only looked again when red blood was trickling from a little cut on his neck. â€Å"You don't need to take a lot – and you shouldn't,† Stefan whispered, and she knew he was saying these things while hecould say them. â€Å"I'm not holding you too hard or hurting you?† He was always so worried. This time,she kissedhim . And she could see how strange he thought it was, that he wanted kisses more than he wanted her to take his blood. Laughing, Elena pushed him flat and hovered over him and went for the general area of the wound again, knowing that he thought she was going to tease him. But instead she fastened herself on the wound like a limpet and sucked hard,hard , until she had made him sayplease with his mind. But she wasn't satisfied until she made him sayplease out loud as well. In the car, in the dimness, Matt and Meredith thought of the idea at the same time. She was faster, but they spoke almost together. â€Å"I'm an idiot! Matt, where's the seatback release?† â€Å"Bonnie, you have to unfold her seat backward! There's a little handle, you should be able to reach it and pull up!† Bonnie's voice was hitching now, hiccupping. â€Å"My arms – they're sort of poking into – my arms – â€Å" â€Å"Bonnie,† Meredith said thickly. â€Å"I know you can do it. Matt – is the handle right – under – the front seat or – â€Å" â€Å"Yes. At the edge. One – no, two o'clock.† Matt didn't have breath for more. Once he had grabbed the tree, he found that if he loosened pressure for an instant, it pushed harder on his neck. There's no choice, he thought. He took as much of a deep breath as he could, pushed back on the branch, hearing a cry from Meredith, andtwisted , feeling jagged splinters like thin wooden knives tear his throat and ear and scalp. Now he was free of the pressure on the back of his neck, although he was appalled by how much more tree there was in the car than the last time he had seen it. His lap was filled with branches; evergreen needles were thickly piled everywhere. No wonder Meredith was so mad, he thought dizzily, turning toward her. She was almost buried in branches, one hand wrestling with something at her throat, but she saw him. â€Å"Matt†¦get†¦your own seat! Quick! Bonnie, Iknow you can.† Matt dug and tore into the branches, then groped for the handle that would collapse the backrest of his seat. The handle wouldn't move. Thin, tough tendrils were wrapped around it, springy and hard to break. He twisted and snapped them savagely. His seatback dropped away. He ducked under the huge arm-branch – if it still deserved the name, since the car was full of similar huge branches now. Then, just as he reached to help Meredith, her seat abruptly folded back, too. She fell with it, away from the evergreen, gasping for air. For an instant she just lay still. Then she finished scrambling into the backseat proper, dragging a needle-shrouded figure with her. When she spoke, her voice was hoarse and her speech was still slow. â€Å"Matt. Bless you†¦for having†¦this jigsaw puzzle†¦of a car.† She kicked the front seat back into position, and Matt did likewise. â€Å"Bonnie,† Matt said numbly. Bonnie didn't move. Many tiny branches were still entwining her, caught in the fabric of her shirt, wound into her hair. Meredith and Matt both started pulling. Where the branches let go, they left welts or tiny puncture wounds. â€Å"It's almost as if they were trying to grow into her,† Matt said, as a long, thin branch pulled away, leaving bloody pinpricks behind. â€Å"Bonnie?† Meredith said. She was the one disentangling the twigs from Bonnie's hair. â€Å"Bonnie? Come on, up. Look at me.† The shaking began again in Bonnie's body, but she let Meredith turn her face up. â€Å"I didn't think I could do it.† â€Å"You saved my life.† â€Å"I was so scared†¦.† Bonnie went on crying quietly against Meredith's shoulder. Matt looked at Meredith just as the map light flickered and went out. The last thing he saw was her dark eyes, which held an expression that made him suddenly feel even sicker to his stomach. He looked out the three windows he could now see from the backseat. It should have been hard to see anything at all. But what he was looking for was pressed right up against the glass. Needles. Branches. Solid against every inch of the windows. Nevertheless, he and Meredith, without needing to say anything, each reached for a backseat door handle. The doors clicked, opened a fraction of an inch; then they slammed back hard with a very definitivewham . Meredith and Matt looked at each other. Meredith looked down again and began to pluck more twigs off Bonnie. â€Å"Does that hurt?† â€Å"No. A little†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"You're shaking.† â€Å"It's cold.† It was cold now. Outside the car, rather than through the once-open window that was now completely plugged with evergreen, Matt could hear the wind. It whistled, as if through many branches. There was also the sound of wood creaking, startlingly loud and ridiculously high above. It sounded like a storm. â€Å"What thehell was it, anyway?† he exploded, kicking the front seat viciously. â€Å"The thing I swerved for on the road?† Meredith's dark head lifted slowly. â€Å"I don't know; I was about to roll up the window. I only got a glimpse.† â€Å"It just appeared right in the middle of the road.† â€Å"A wolf?† â€Å"It wasn't there and then itwas there.† â€Å"Wolves aren't that color. It was red,† Bonnie said flatly, lifting her head from Meredith's shoulder. â€Å"Red?† Meredith shook her head. â€Å"It was much too big to be a fox.† â€Å"Itwas red, I think,† Matt said. â€Å"Wolves aren't red†¦what about werewolves? Does Tyler Smallwood have any relatives with red hair?† â€Å"It wasn't a wolf,† Bonnie said. â€Å"It was†¦backward.† â€Å"Backward?† â€Å"Its head was on the wrong side. Or maybe it had heads on both ends.† â€Å"Bonnie, you arereally scaring me,† Meredith said. Matt wouldn't say it, but she was really scaring him, too. Because his glimpse of the animal had seemed to show him the same kind of deformed shape that Bonnie was describing. â€Å"Maybe we just saw it at a weird angle,† he said, while Meredith said, â€Å"It may just have been some animal scared out by – â€Å" â€Å"By what?† Meredith looked up at the top of the car. Matt followed her gaze. Very slowly, and with a groan of metal, the roof dented. And again. As if something very heavy was leaning on it. Matt cursed himself. â€Å"While I was in the front seat, why didn't I just floor it – ?† He stared hungrily through branches, trying to make out the accelerator, the ignition. â€Å"Are the keys still there?† â€Å"Matt, we ended up half in a ditch. And besides, if it would have done any good, I'd have told you to floor it.† â€Å"That branch would've taken your head off!† â€Å"Yes,† Meredith said simply. â€Å"It would havekilled you!† â€Å"If it would have gotten you two out, I'd have suggested it. But you were trapped looking sideways; I couldsee straight ahead. They were already here; the trees. In every direction.† â€Å"That†¦isn't†¦possible!† Matt pounded the seat in front of him to emphasize each word. â€Å"Isthis possible?† The roof creaked again. â€Å"Both of you – stop fighting!† Bonnie said, and her voice broke on a sob. There was an explosion like a gunshot and the car sank suddenly back and left. Bonnie started. â€Å"What was that?† Silence. â€Å"†¦a tire blowing,† Matt said at last. He didn't trust his own voice. He looked at Meredith. So did Bonnie. â€Å"Meredith – the branches are filling up the front seat. I can hardly see the moonlight. It's getting dark.† â€Å"I know.† â€Å"What are we going todo ?† Matt could see the tremendous tension and frustration in Meredith's face, as if everything she said should come out through gritted teeth. But Meredith's voice was quiet. â€Å"I don't know.† With Stefan still shuddering, Elena curled herself like a cat over the bed. She smiled at him, a smile drugged with pleasure and love. He thought of grasping her by the arms, pulling her down, and starting all over again. That was how insane she'd made him. Because he knew – all too well, from experience – the danger they were flirting with. Much more of this and Elena would be the first spirit-vampire, as she'd been the first vampire-spirit he'd known. But look at her! He slipped out from beneath her as he sometimes did and just gazed, feeling his heart pound just at the sight of her. Her hair, true gold, fell like silk down to the bed and pooled there. Her body, in the light of the one small lamp in the room, seemed to be outlined in gold. She truly seemed to float and move and sleep in a golden haze. It was terrifying. For a vampire, it was as if he'd brought a living sun into his bed. He found himself suppressing a yawn. She did that to him, too, like an unwitting Delilah taking Samson's strength away. Hyper-charged as he might be by her blood, he was also delightfully sleepy. He would spend a warm night in – or below – her arms. In Matt's car it only got darker as the trees continued to cut out the moonlight. For a while they tried yelling for help. That did no good, and besides, as Meredith pointed out, they needed to conserve the oxygen in the car. So they sat still again. Finally, Meredith reached into her jeans pocket and produced a set of keys with a tiny keychain flashlight. Its light was blue. She pressed it and they all leaned forward. Such a tiny thing to mean so much, Matt thought. There was pressure against the front seats now. â€Å"Bonnie?† Meredith said. â€Å"No one will hear us out here yelling. If anyone could hear us, they would have heard the tire and thought it was a gunshot.† Bonnie shook her head as if she didn't want to listen. She was still picking pine needles out of her skin. She's right. We're miles away from anybody, Matt thought. â€Å"There is something very bad here,† Bonnie said. She said it quietly, but as if every word was being forced out one by one, like pebbles thrown into a pond. Matt suddenly felt grayer. â€Å"How†¦bad?† â€Å"It's so bad that it's†¦I'venever felt anything like this before. Not when Elena got killed, not from Klaus, not fromanything . I'venever feltanything as bad as this. It'sso bad, and it's sostrong . I didn't think anything could be so strong. It'spushing on me, and I'mafraid – â€Å" Meredith cut her off. â€Å"Bonnie, I know we can both only think of one way out of this – â€Å" â€Å"There'sno way out of this!† † – I know you're afraid – â€Å" â€Å"Who is there to call? I could do it†¦if there were someone to call. I can stare at your little flashlight and try to pretend it's a flame and do it – â€Å" â€Å"Trancing?† Matt looked at Meredith sharply. â€Å"She's not supposed to do that anymore.† â€Å"Klaus is dead.† â€Å"But – â€Å" â€Å"There's nobody to hear me!† Bonnie shrieked and then she broke down into huge sobs at last. â€Å"Elena and Stefan are too far away, and they're probably asleep by now! And there isn't anyone else!† The three of them were being pushed together now, as branches pressed the seats back onto them. Matt and Meredith were close enough to look at each other right over Bonnie's head. â€Å"Uh,† Matt said, startled. â€Å"Um†¦are we sure?† â€Å"No,† Meredith said. She sounded both grim and hopeful. â€Å"Remember this morning? We are not at all sure. In factI'm sure he's still around somewhere.† Now Matt felt sick, and Meredith and Bonnie looked ill in the already strange-looking blue light. â€Å"And – right before this happened, we were talking about how a lot of stuff – â€Å" † – basically everything that happened to change Elena – â€Å" † – was all his fault.† â€Å"In the woods.† â€Å"With an open window.† Bonnie sobbed on. Matt and Meredith, however, had made a silent agreement by eye contact. Meredith said, very gently, â€Å"Bonnie, what you said you would do; well, you're going to have to do it. Try to get through to Stefan, or waken Elena or – or apologize to†¦Damon. Probably the last, I'm afraid. But he's never seemed to want us all dead, and he must know that it won't help him with Elena if he kills her friends.† Matt grunted, skeptical. â€Å"He may not want us all dead, but he may wait until some of us are dead to save the others. I've never trus – â€Å" â€Å"You've never wished him any harm,† Meredith overrode him in a louder voice. Matt blinked at her and then shut up. He felt like an idiot. â€Å"So, here, the flashlight's on,† Meredith said, and even in this crisis, her voice was steady, rhythmic, hypnotic. The pathetic little light was so precious, too. It was all they had to keep the darkness from becoming absolute. But when the darkness became absolute, Matt thought, it would be because all light, all air, everything from the outside had been shut out, pushed out of the way by the pressure of the trees. And by then the pressure would have broken their skeletons. â€Å"Bonnie?† Meredith's voice was the voice of every big sister who ever had come to her younger sibling's rescue. That gentle. That controlled. â€Å"Can you try to pretend it's a candle flame†¦a candle flame†¦a candle flame†¦and then try to trance?† â€Å"I'm in trance already.† Bonnie's voice was somehow distant – far away and almost echoing. â€Å"Then ask for help,† Meredith said softly. Bonnie was whispering, over and over, clearly oblivious to the world around her: â€Å"Please, come help us. Damon, if you can hear me, please accept our apologies and come. You gave us a terrible scare, and I'm sure we deserved it, but please, please help. It hurts, Damon. It hurts so bad I could scream. But instead I'm putting all that energy into Calling you. Please, please, please help†¦Ã¢â‚¬  For five, ten, fifteen minutes she kept it up, as the branches grew, enclosing them with their sweet, resinous scent. She kept it up far longer than Matt had ever thought she could endure. Then the light went out. After that there was no sound but the whisper of the pines. You had to admire the technique. Damon was once again lounging in midair, even higher this time than when he'd entered Caroline's third-story window. He still had no idea of the names of trees, but that didn't stop him. This branch was like having a box seat over the drama unfolding below. He was starting to get a little bored, since nothing new was happening on the ground. He'd abandoned Damaris earlier this evening whenshe had gotten boring, talking about marriage and other subjects he wished to avoid. Like her current husband. Bo-ring. He'd left without really checking to see if she'd become a vampire – he tended to think so, and wouldn't that be a surprise when hubby got home? His lips trembled on the edge of a smile. Below him, the play had almost reached its climax. And you really had to admire the technique. Pack hunting. He had no idea what sort of nasty little creatures were manipulating the trees, but like wolves or lionesses, they seemed to have gotten it down to an art. Working together to capture prey that was too quick and too heavily armored for one of them alone to manage. In this case, a car. The fine art of cooperation. Pity vampires were so solitary, he thought. If we could cooperate, we'd own the world. He blinked sleepily and then flashed a dazzling smile at nothing at all. Of course, if we could do that – say, take a city and divvy up the inhabitants – we'd finish it off by divvying up one another. Tooth and nail and Power would be wielded like the blade of a sword, until there was nothing left but shreds of quivering flesh and gutters running with blood. Nice imagery, though, he thought, and let his eyelids droop to appreciate it. Artistic. Blood in scarlet pools, magically still liquid enough to run down white marble steps of – oh, say, the Kallimarmaron in Athens. An entire city gone quiet, purged of noisy, chaotic, hypocritical humans, with only their necessary bits left behind: a few arteries to pump the sweet red stuff out in quantity. The vampire version of the land of milk and honey. He opened his eyes again in annoyance. Now things were getting loud down there. Humans yelling. Why? What was the point? The rabbit always squeals in the jaws of the fox, but when has another rabbit ever rushed up to save it? There, a new proverb,and proof that humans are as stupid as rabbits, he thought, but his mood was ruined. His mind slid away from the fact, but it wasn't just the noise below that was disturbing him. Milk and honey, that had been†¦a mistake. Thinking about that had been a blunder. Elena's skin had been like milk that night a week ago, warm-white, not cool, even in the moonlight. Her bright hair in shadow had been like spilled honey. Elena wouldn't be happy to see the results of this night's pack hunting. She would cry tears like crystal dewdrops, and they would smell like salt. Suddenly Damon stiffened. He sent one stealthy query of Power around him, a circle of radar. But nothing bounced back, except the mindless trees at his feet. Whatever was orchestrating this, it was invisible. Right, then. Let's trythis , he thought: Concentrating on all the blood he'd drunk in the last few days, he blasted out a wash of pure Power, like Vesuvius erupting with a deadly pyroclastic explosion. It encircled him completely in every direction, a fifty-mile-per-hour bubble of Power like superheated gas. Because it was back. Unbelievably, the parasite was trying to do it again, to get into his mind. It had to be. Lulling him, he supposed, rubbing the back of his neck with absentminded fury, while its packmates finished off their prey in the car. Whispering things into his mind to keep him still, taking his own dark thoughts and echoing them back a shade or two darker, in a cycle that might have ended in him flying off to kill and kill again for the pure black velvet enjoyment of it. Now Damon's mind was cold and dark with fury. He stood, stretching his aching arms and shoulders, and then searched carefully, not with a simple radar ring, but with a blast of Power behind each stab, probing with his mind to find the parasite. It had to be out there; the trees were still going about their business. But he could find nothing, even though he'd used the fastest and most efficient method of scanning he knew: a thousand random stabs per second in a Drunkard's Walk search pattern. He should have found a dead body immediately. Instead he'd foundnothing . That made him even angrier than before, but there was a tinge of excitement to his fury. He'd wanted a fight; a chance to kill where the killing would be meaningful. And now here was an opponent who met all the qualifications – and Damon couldn't kill it because he couldn't find it. He sent a message, lambent with ferocity, in all directions. I have already warned you once. Now ICHALLENGEyou. Show yourself – OR ELSE STAY AWAY FROM ME! He gathered Power, gathered it, gathered it again, thinking of all the different mortals who had contributed it. He held it, nurturing it, crafting it for its purpose, and raising its strength with all that his mind knew of fighting and of the skill and expertise of war. He held the Power until it felt as if he were holding a nuclear bomb in his arms. And then he let it go all at once, an explosion speeding in the opposite direction, away from him, nearing the speed of light. Now, surely, he would feel the death throes of something enormously powerful and cunning – something that had managed to survive his previous strafings designed only for eldritch creatures. Damon expanded his senses to their widest reach, waiting to hear or feel something shattering, combusting – something falling blind, with its own blood tumbling nearby, from a branch, from the air, fromsomewhere . Fromsomewhere a creature should have plummeted to the ground or raked at it with huge dinosaur-like claws – a creature half-paralyzed and completely doomed, cooked from the inside out. But although he could feel the wind rising to a howl and huge black clouds pooling above him in response to his own mood, he still could sense no dark creature close enough to have entered his thoughts. How strong was this thing? Where was it coming from? Just for a moment, a thought flashed through his mind. A circle. A circle with a dot at its center. And the circle was the blast he'd shot away in all directions, and the dot was the only place his blast didn't reach. Inside him alre – Snap! Suddenly his thoughts went blank. And then he began, sluggishly, slightly bewildered, to try to put the fractured pieces together. He had been thinking about the blast of Power he'd sent out, yes? And how he'd expected to feel something fall and die. Hell, he couldn't even sense any ordinary animals bigger than a fox in the woods. Although his sweep of Power had been carefully made to affect only creatures of his kind of darkness, the ordinary animals had been so spooked that they'd gone running wildly from the area. He peered down. Hm. Except the trees around the car; and they weren't after him. Besides, whatever they were, they were only the pawns of an invisible killer. Not really sentient – not within the boundaries he had crafted so carefully. Could he have been wrong? Half his fury had been for himself, for being so careless, so well-fed and confident that he'd let down his guard. Well-fed†¦hey, maybe I'm drunk, he thought, and flashed the smile again at nothing, without even thinking about it. Drunk and paranoid and edgy. Pissed and pissed off. Damon relaxed against the tree. The wind was screaming now, swirling and freezing, the sky full of roiling black clouds that cut out any light from the moon or stars. Just his kind of weather. He was still edgy, but he couldn't find any reason to be. The only disturbance in the aura of the woods was the tiny crying of a mind inside the car, like a trapped bird with only one note. That would be the little one, the redheaded witch with the delicate neck. The one who'd been whining about life changing too much. Damon gave a little more of his weight to the tree. He'd followed the car with his mind out of absent interest. It wasn't his fault that he'd caught them talking about him, but it did degrade their chances of rescue a bit. He blinked slowly. Odd that they'd had an accident trying not to run over a creature in approximately the same area he'd almost crashed the Ferrari trying to run one over. Pity he hadn't had a glimpse of their creature, but the trees were too thick. The redheaded bird was crying again. Well, do you want a changenow or don't you, little witch? Make up your mind. You have to ask nicely. And then, of course,I have to decide what kind of change you get.