The CEO of WRSX Has Asked You to Write a Short Educational Piece That Essay

The CEO of WRSX Has Asked You to Write a Short Educational Piece That Will Be Given to the Board Of Directors - Essay Example They operate in United States, Europe as well as in Asia pacific. In a survey conducted on the marketing communications and advertising industry the score of the company was below average. Though the customer retention and attraction capability of the company is pretty good, but in other areas of business the performance of the company is not attractive for the investors. This report is an attempt to analyze the reasons of underperforming of the shares of WRSX group and recommend about the changes that may be undertaken by the company management to gain more market shares. The researcher will conduct internal analysis of the company and describe the benefits of internal analysis to the board of directors of the company. Internal Analysis For conducting the internal analysis of the company the researcher will use the SWOT analysis tool and the resource based view analysis (Snell and Bohlander, 2012, pp.53-54). Resource Based View The resource based view analysis of a company is conduc ted to analyze the resources available to the company which can be profitable when it is used strategically. For analyzing this, VRIN framework has been made by the researchers. This framework identifies the valuable, rare, in-imitable and non substitutable resources of the company (helfat, 2007, p.45). For the resource based view analysis the VRIO framework is used to identify the valuable resources and utilized them at their best (Peng, 2008, p.71). The analysis of WRSX using the VRIN framework is as follows. Valuable: The valuable asset of the company is the capability of the team to perform locally. They understand the local customer needs more. Rare: The capability of the company to attract the customers and retain them is the best in the concerned industry (Sanchez, 2008, p.34). This capability will provide them above average return if they use the resources strategically. In-imitable: There are no such in-imitable resources of the company. Other companies in the industry can imitate these resources available to them (McKinney, 2008, p.2). As the advertising and marketing communications is a fast moving industry, so there is enough chance for the company management to develop such resources. Non-Substitutable: The non-substitutable nature of the asset of a company means that the company owns such asset that cannot be imitated by the competitors by any means, and meet the customer needs (Carter, Clegg and Kornberger, 2011, p.87). WRSX doesn’t have such assets which can be substituted by some other asset. Though the company has some valuable resources but they are not using those strategically at present. SWOT Analysis The SWOT analysis of the company is a popular tool for the analysts as it describes the strength, weakness, opportunities and threat of the company (Handlechner, 2008, p.10). Using this tool the management of the company can improve in the areas of their weaknesses, use the opportunities and can take effective steps for facing the thr eats for the company (Mello, 2003, p.43). The SWOT analysis of the company is as follows Strength: The Company prefers to provide service locally. They followed the ‘

Comparing and Contrasting Between Certified Nurse-Midwife and Certified Midwife Essay Example for Free

Comparing and Contrasting Between Certified Nurse-Midwife and Certified Midwife Essay Comparing and Contrasting between Certified Nurse-Midwife and Certified Midwife Every profession has its own beauty. Nursing is a professional industry with responsibility for important tasks in medical systems. For a long time, professional nurses, especially midwife nurses, were considered low-status; they usually did the extra work as assistants in the army. They helped with cleaning, cooking, laundry, etc . A 2012 research by Marjie Bloy found that Florence Nightingale is presented as a public health nurse to promote the modern industry. Because she was the child of a wealthy family, Nightingale’s parents were surprised and disappointed when she decided to become a nurse. Then she demanded medical care improvements for the poor and the industry gradually took important steps to help nurses in health professional ranks. There are several misunderstandings between what a Certified Nurse-Midwife and Certified Midwife are. This essay will analyze this confusion by comparing and contrasting between Certified Nurse Midwives and Certified Midwives. First of all, to understand clearly what Certified Nurse Midwife and Certified Midwife are, we will look at their definitions. According to Hartley Heather, a Certified Nurse Midwife is an individual trained and licensed in both nursing and midwifery, whereas a Certified Midwife is an individual trained and certified in midwifery only. Secondly, what study path should students follow if they would like to become Midwife? The requirement for admission to the Midwifery Education Program for CNM is quite different to CM. In her article Different direction, opportunities, Susan Trossman describes the difference, the requirement for Admission to Midwifery Education Program between CM and CNM: a CM needs a Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university and successful completion of specific science courses, while in CNM, there are 2 cases. If the applicant has a bachelor’s degree, but not an RN license, some programs will require attainment of an RN license prior to entry into the midwife program; others will allow the student to attain an RN license prior to graduate study. However, if the applicant is an RN but doesn’t have a bachelor’s degree, some programs provide a bridge program to a bachelor’s degree prior to the midwifery portion of the program. Other programs require a bachelor’s degree before entry into the midwifery program. In addition, after studying for 5 years, the degree the students are granted are quite different: the CM will have a Master’s degree; whereas, the CNM will have a Master’s or Doctoral degree. Finally, after getting Licensed, Jolivet Rima maintained in her article Nurse-Midwives committed to women throughout the lifespan that although CNMs are licensed in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and US territories, CMs are only licensed in New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island. A 2002 journal by Lois McClosky said CNMs would work in Boards of Nursing, Boards of Midwifery/Nurse-Midwifery, Board of Midwifery, Board of Medicine, and Department of Health. Unlike CNMs, however, CMs would work in Board of Midwifery, Board of Medicine, and Department of Health. On the other hand, in her journal, Lisa L Paine describes what CNMs and CMs have in common. First of all, they both share the Clinical Experience Skills Requirement which includes the management of primary care for women throughout the lifespan, including reproductive health care, pregnancy, and birth; care of the normal newborn; and management of sexually transmitted infections in male partners. Secondly, CNMs, like CMs, Saraswathi Vedam wrote that both are independent management of women’s health care through the lifespan, from adolescence through menopause. Finally, a 2006 article story by Michelle Nolin Flewell discusses the similarities of work places, CNMs and CMs both work in hospitals, birth centers, homes, and offices. The majority of CNMs and CMs attend to births in hospitals. In conclusion, the differences between Certified Nurse Midwives and Certified Midwives are: definitions, study paths and licensures. However, they share some similarities such as Clinical Experience Requirement, Range of Care Provided, and Practice Settings.

Ophelia Essay -- English Literature Essays

Ophelia A play with great value and quality would best describe one of Shakespeare’s intriguing plays, Hamlet. Events, dilemmas, action, and the characters all contribute greatly to make the play interesting and appealing. Every event that occurs leads to the outcome of dilemmas and action. The characters personalities is what makes the action is even more exciting. Each character has got their own special significance in the roles they play. However Ophelia, the daughter of the Lord Chamberlain Polonius, allows an atmosphere of simplicity and delicacy to surround the play. Her simple nature causes inner thoughts that allow us to question her true character. From the start of the play Ophelia seems to always keep her distance and speak very little. She is very distinctive of the other characters and keeps to herself most often. Her first presence in the play takes place when her brother, Laertes, and her father lecture her about keeping away from Hamlet and not believing his love. â€Å"Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood,† (1.3. 6) this is said by Laertes as he describes that Hamlet’s love will last for a little while then fade, which makes his love insignificant. Ophelia doesn’t argue and agrees to remember what he said, however she immediately tells him to make sure he follows his own advice, â€Å"†¦and recks not his own rede.† (1.3. 51) Having said this by her displays a quality that is not usually seen. In accepting her brother’s advice she also makes sure he understands that he needs to take his own advice too. Generally with Polonius, who also disfavors Hamlet, she is very respectful and obedient. After a long lecture from him too she says â€Å"’tis in my memory locked† (1.3. 86) and â€Å"I shall obey my lord† (1.4. 136). In spite of h er love towards Hamlet she doesn’t debate the fact that he has not allowed her to see Hamlet anymore. She tells him the truth about what Hamlet has said or what she feels. Ophelia is the kind of girl who always had her father or brother telling her what to do and what to think. She says, â€Å"I do not know, my lord, what I should think†(1.3. 104) when her father asks her if she believes Hamlet’s love. Here she seems dubious and uncertain of her feelings or what she is to do. Ophelia is seen as inexperienced and very innocent for she doesn’t look like she understands love or her emotions. Due to her inexperience and lack of g... ...as always confident that he would result with the outcome he wanted. He took advantage of every chance he got. For example the players who performed the play ‘Mouse-trap’. Whereas, Ophelia, unlike Hamlet who ‘acted’ mad, really goes mad and sings her sorrow and mourning through. She doesn’t accept to face reality, for she is now on her own and without her father’s support. This proves that she had always needed someone to tell her what to do and how to feel. And now once her father was gone, there was no one to fill the emptiness she felt. Concluding, Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, combines a lot of themes and remarkable incidents. Specifically the roles of each character unite to form an extraordinary impression on the play. Particularly, Ophelia’s character is very perceptive and penetrating. She is described as inexperienced, vulnerable, sensitive and very frail. Leading a very protective life doesn’t result in a positive end for her. Her attitude circles the play with a sense of deep warmth and the role she plays helps express the mood of the play. Although very different from Hamlet’s determined character, she has her own urbane manner. Quotes where taken from the play.

Satan as a Renaissance character

Satan as renaissance character OR Paradise Lost under the influence of renaissance. Milton is the son both of the Renaissance and Reformation. Renaissance begins with the ancient Greek literature. Renaissance meaner rebirth of an interest in classical Greek literature. Renaissance revived man's interest in the world and gave him new eyes to look upon the beauty, love, life, learning and liberty. The earlier world was Thee-centric, meaner the God or Church was at the centre. Each and everything was dominated by Church. Man has had to what Church wanted him to do. Such was the condition of middle age (before renaissance).It is in 15th and 16th centuries that the English poets started reading the classical Greek literature, and the basic theme in that literature was Humanism I. E. The other name of Renaissance. And in renaissance the world became Homo-centric. – There are basically three chief features of Renaissance or Classicism- 1. Individualism – meaner the individual is important, man is important. Man is the centre of each and everything. Human values, emotions, feelings, desires, are important. They should be fulfilled. 2. Worldliness – meaner the things of this world, attractions of the world, like- beauty, revenge, love, power, wealth.Meaner this world should not be neglected. 3. Strong determination / Strength of mind – meaner that the mind plays a role like queen of chess in our life. It is our strength of mind or our attitude that can make a hell of heaven or a heaven of hell. # Satan-a renaissance character- All these features of classicism are clearly visible in Satan also. The ideology of Individualism or Humanism comes from the classical Greek literature. It talks about that man should be free, liberal. He shouldn't be under the supervision of anybody whether it is any person or God. This is what happened during the period of incessant.Society or man challenged the authority of church. And this kind of ideology is reflec ted very clearly in Satin's character. -First he revolted against God. He challenged the authority of the God. -He talks about the end of slavery and lays stress on equality. -He talks about liberty, power:- : To reign is the worth ambition, though in Hell: -Then Satan talks about the freedom, democratic ideology:- : Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven: : Awake, arise, or be for ever fallen: Satan is typically a Worldly fellow. He is a lover of the ambition to become a ruler.He has the extreme love for power:- †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Profoundest Hell, Receive thy new possessor, one who brings A mind not to be changed by place or time: : Here we may reign secure, and in my choice, To reign is the worth ambition, though in Hell: hatred , Jealousy, revenge. He has -So far as the things like Jealousy, revenge are concerned, a person can go to any extent to achieve his aims. Here Satan also uses the false method, cunning strategy to take revenge from God. : Stirred up with me. Y and reve nge, deceived The mother of mankind And we can see that what a strength of mind Satan has! Even after losing to God,Satan speaks like a modern politician that nothing is lost, everything is under-control. : What though the field be lost? All is not lost- the unconquerable will: -Satan has the courage not to bend before anybody. : And courage never to submit or yield: -Satan says that however they are defeated physically, but their minds are the same and only mind matters, †¦. , who overcomes By force hath overcome but half his foe: -Satan becomes an inspiration for the world that instead of crying one must face each and everything in his way. : Is this the region†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. That we must change for Heaven? . Be it so†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Satan is the reflection of such kind of determination that no place or time can change one's mind. And only mind matters the most. : Receive thy new possessor-one who brings -And mind has very important place in our life, because it is the m ind, it is the attitude of ours that in itself can make a situation hell of heaven or heaven of hell. It all depends upon the quality of our mind. : The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven: -Satan also talks about that he would not give God the pleasure that he has bend before God. This kind of ideology became an inspiration for the French Revolution 1789).That's why Satan is called an inspiration behind French Revolution, because the revolt was all about these kind of ideas- individualism, worldliness, and strong determination. The war between Satan and God is a symbol of war between Evil and Good. And it also symbolizes the conflict of Humanism with the dominance of religion or church. It is almost impossible for an artist to save his work from the blowing wind. So is in the Paradise Lost. As the wind was blowing against the dominance of religion or church, so Milton supported the ideology of renaissance with his tremendous work of Para dise Lost.

Kingship in Macbeth Essay

In his first appearance, King Duncan performs two of the basic duties of a king: punishing the bad and rewarding the good. Upon learning of the treachery of Cawdor and the heroism of Macbeth, he says, â€Å"No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive / Our bosom interest: go pronounce his present [immediate] death, / And with his former title greet Macbeth† (1.2.63-65). The phrase â€Å"bosom interest† means â€Å"vital interests,† but â€Å"bosom† suggests that a relationship of love should exist between a king and his subject. Soon after the witches hail him as â€Å"Thane of Glamis,† â€Å"Thane of Cawdor,† â€Å"and king hereafter!† (1.3.50), Macbeth receives the news that he has been named Thane of Cawdor. This news throws him into a reverie, in which he says to himself, â€Å"Two truths are told, / As happy prologues to the swelling act / Of the imperial theme† (1.3.127-129). Macbeth’s metaphor is dramatic, or musical; he seems to be imagining himself as making a grand entrance as king, or maybe as an emperor, a king of kings. Just as the King is commenting on the treachery of the former Thane of Cawdor, in comes the new Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth. The King greets Macbeth as â€Å"worthiest cousin!† (1.4.14) and says in several different ways that he can’t thank him enough. Macbeth answers with heroic modesty that â€Å"The service and the loyalty I owe, / In doing it, pays itself† (1.4.22-23). That is, it’s payment enough to know that he did the right thing as a loyal servant of the King. Then Macbeth adds, Your highness’ part Is to receive our duties; and our duties Are to your throne and state [stateliness, dignity] children and servants, Which do but what they should, by doing every thing Safe toward your love and honour. (1.4.23-27) â€Å"Safe toward† means â€Å"to secure† or â€Å"to safeguard†; the idea is that it is every subject’s duty to do everything he can for the king, both to keep the king safe and to earn the king’s love and respect. Macbeth’s speech pictures King Duncan as the loving father of a happy family, but Macbeth is already thinking about killing him. When Lady Macbeth receives her husband’s letter about the witches’ prophecies, she is only worried that her husband is â€Å"too full o’ the milk of human kindness / To catch the nearest way† (1.5.17-18). But she’s sure she has no such problem, and she’s eager for the chance to make him see things her way. Holding the letter, and speaking to Macbeth (even though he hasn’t arrived yet) she says, â€Å"Hie thee hither, / That I may pour my spirits in thine ear; / And chastise with the valour of my tongue / All that impedes thee from the golden round,† (1.5.25-28). We might say that she’s going to nag him, but she believes that she is going to enable him to reach his potential. She will â€Å"chastise† (make him ashamed of) everything in him that prevents him from being evil enough to be king. Shortly, Macbeth appears and tells her that King Duncan will be staying with them that night. Lady Macbeth declares that King Duncan will never leave their castle alive and advises Macbeth to be a good hypocrite. He must give the king a warm welcome, the better to kill him that night. Apparently Macbeth shows a little reluctance, because she says, He that’s coming Must be provided for: and you shall put This night’s great business into my dispatch; Which shall to all our nights and days to come Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom (1.5.66-70) â€Å"Sovereign† means not only â€Å"kingly† but also â€Å"absolute.† Lady Macbeth is telling her husband that if he will only do as she tells him, they will be king and queen, with power over all. To her, the essence of kingship is ruthless power. When King Duncan is greeted by Lady Macbeth, he makes a little joke about the social difficulties of being king. He says to her: See, see, our honour’d hostess! The love that follows us sometime is our trouble, Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you How you shall bid God ‘ield us for your pains, And thank us for your trouble. (1.6.10-14) Duncan’s whole speech is based on our ancient custom of a guest saying something like â€Å"I don’t want to trouble you,† and the host replying with some version of â€Å"It’s my pleasure.† By saying that his people’s love is sometimes his â€Å"trouble,† King Duncan is saying that his loving people go to a great deal of trouble for him, and he’s troubled by the fact that they take all that trouble. Nevertheless, when people take trouble for him, he knows that they do it because they love their king, and so he thanks them for their love. Next, referring to himself royally as â€Å"us,† the King jokingly tells Lady Macbeth that he’s saying all of this so that — instead of him thanking her for taking trouble — she will thank God and him for giving her trouble. While King Duncan is at dinner Macbeth almost talks himself out of the murder. He reflects that King Duncan is a good king, not arrogant or selfish. Macbeth says to himself that the king â€Å"Hath borne his faculties [royal powers] so meek, hath been / So clear [uncorrupted] in his great office, that his virtues / Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against / The deep damnation of his taking-off† (1.7.17-20). The day after the murder of King Duncan, Ross speaks with an old man. The Old Man’s memories go back seventy years, but nothing he can remember compares to what has happened during this night: â€Å"I have seen / Hours dreadful and things strange; but this sore night / Hath trifled former knowings† (2.4.2-4). Ross replies â€Å"Ah, good father, / Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with man’s act, / Threaten his bloody stage† (2.4.4-6). The â€Å"heavens† are the heavens above, where God lives, and they are also the upper regions of Shakespeare’s Globe theater. Ross is saying that the heavens frown angrily (â€Å"threaten†) as they look down upon man playing his part on the stage of life, which has been made bloody by the murder of King Duncan. King Duncan should have been honored and loved, so his murder was unnatural, and Ross and the Old Man go on to tell each other of all the unnatural things that have been happening lately. They do not know that Macbeth is the murderer, but as they speak we can see that the unnatural events reflect the contrast between King Duncan and Macbeth. The Old Man says that â€Å"On Tuesday last, / A falcon, towering in her pride of place, / Was by a mousing owl hawk’d at and kill’d† (2.4.11-13). The falcon’s â€Å"pride of place† is the highest point of its flight. And the owl, which usually catches mice on the ground, went up instead of down, and killed a falcon. Also, a falcon is a day creature, and a royal companion, while the owl is an untamable bird of night and death. If things in nature stands for things in human life, King Duncan was the falcon, and Macbeth the owl. Even worse, King Duncan’s horses, â€Å"Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, / Turn’d wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out, / Contending ‘gainst obedience, as they would make / War with mankind.† (2.4.15-18) A â€Å"minion† is someone’s favorite. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were King Duncan’s minions. The King showered them with honors and gifts, but they turned wild and made war on their master. Thus the point is made that Macbeth’s murder of his king is a crime against nature. Just before he sends the murderers to kill Banquo, Macbeth has a soliloquy in which he states his fear of Banquo. He says that Banquo has â€Å"royalty of nature† (3.1.49), and courage, and wisdom. Macbeth also says, â€Å"under him, / My Genius is rebuked† (3.1.54-55). A man’s â€Å"Genius† is his guardian spirit, but Macbeth isn’t being particularly mystic here. He feels that Banquo is naturally superior to him, and just being near Banquo makes Macbeth feel ashamed of himself. For example, he recalls, Banquo defied the witches and challenged them to speak to him. (In contrast, we should remember, the witches’ prophecy put Macbeth into a kind of trance, a reverie of ambition and murder.) In short, Macbeth feels that Banquo is more fit to be king than he is, and for that, he’s going to murder him. After he becomes king, Macbeth has a moment when he tries to be the kind of king that King Duncan was, humble and mild. At his feast Macbeth welcomes everyone, saying, â€Å"You know your own degrees; sit down. At first / And last the hearty welcome† (3.4.1-2). The â€Å"degrees† of the guests are their social ranks. Normally, each guest would receive an individual greeting and then be escorted to his seat, with the highest ranking person sitting closest to the king, and the next highest the next closest, etc. Macbeth tells them that they know where they should sit, and welcomes everyone at once. He will â€Å"play the humble host† (3.4.4), and sit among them, showing how friendly and down-to-earth he is, even though he is now the king. However, he can’t keep up his act because un uninvited guest shows up — Banquo’s bloody ghost. Lennox and another Scottish lord have a conversation in which both of them refer to Macbeth as a â€Å"tyrant.† It’s clear from their conversation that life under a tyrant is a life of fear and lies. Because Macbeth has many spies, they need to be careful what they say and to whom they say it. As the scene opens, they have just gotten to the point at which they are sure that they are on the same side and have many of the same thoughts. As Lennox says, â€Å"My former speeches have but hit your thoughts, / Which can interpret further† (3.6.1-2). Perhaps the other Lord nods agreement, because Lennox now launches on a string of sarcasms about Macbeth. Lennox says, â€Å"The gracious Duncan / Was pitied of Macbeth: marry, he was dead† (3.6.4). This bitter joke describes both Macbeth’s facade — that he was sorry for King Duncan — and the truth about Macbeth, which was that he was sorry for King Duncan only after he killed him. Then Lennox proceeds to ridicule Macbeth’s version of everything that has happened to this point. Banquo died because he took a walk after dark, and Fleance must have killed him, because Fleance ran away. And speaking of that, wasn’t it terrible for Malcolm and Donalbain to kill their father? And of course Macbeth felt terrible about Duncan’s murder, which is why he killed the only two possible witnesses, Duncan’s grooms. If Malcolm, Donalbain, and Fleance were in Macbeth’s power, he’d certainly teach them a lesson or two about killing a father! After a bit, Lennox drops the sarcasm and turns to the subject of Macduff. He has heard that Macduff has gotten on Macbeth’s bad side because Macduff used some â€Å"broad words† (3.6.21) about Macbeth, and because he failed to show up for Macbeth’s banquet. Does the other Lord know, Lennox asks, where Macduff might be? The other Lord does know. Macduff is on his way to the English court, where Malcolm has been respectfully received by King Edward the Confessor. Macduff has gone to plead with King Edward to help Malcolm by sending to Scotland the forces of Northumberland and Siward, two English nobles famous as warriors. If Macduff is successful, Scotland will be freed of Macbeth’s tyranny. Then â€Å"we may again / Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights, / Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives, / Do faithful homage and receive free honours† (3.6.33-36). Under Macbeth’s tyranny, fear of his bloody knife darkens every moment of a person’s life. In contrast to this reign of terror, a true king is given â€Å"faithful homage† and he awards â€Å"Free honours.† Free honours are given by a king in recognition of service; they are â€Å"free† in the sense that person honored does n’t have to be a tyrant’s yes-man in order to receive them. When Macbeth seeks out the witches, he curses them, calls them hags, and demands that they answer his questions. They give him their prophecies, the last of which is that Banquo will be the progenitor of a long line of kings, stretching to James of Scotland and England. Macbeth is stunned, and the first witch says that they will cheer him up with music and a dance, so â€Å"That this great king may kindly say, / Our duties did his welcome pay† (4.1.131-132). The witch is being sarcastic. Macbeth is a tyrant, even to witches, and gave them no welcome; they repaid his angry demand for answers with deceptive and frightening â€Å"duties† — their prophecies. As the witches are the opposite of dutiful subjects, Macbeth is the opposite of a great and kindly king In England, Macduff pleads with Malcolm to lead an army against Macbeth. Eventually, Malcolm says that he will, but first he tests Macduff’s intentions. He wants to find out if Macduff wants what is best for Scotland, or just wants to defeat Macbeth. Malcolm begins his test by saying that Scotland will suffer even more after Macbeth is crushed. The reason: Malcolm will be more evil than Macbeth. First, Malcolm says that he will be so lustful that â€Å"your wives, your daughters, / Your matrons and your maids, could not fill up / The cistern of my lust† (4.3.61-63). Macduff’s response is more than a little wimpy. He says that uncontrolled lust is bad, but he’s sure that Scotland can provide Malcolm with enough willing women to satisfy him. But Malcolm goes on to declare that he’s also so avaricious that â€Å"were I king, / I should cut off the nobles for their lands, / Desire his jewels and this other’s house: / And my more-having would be as a sauce / To make me hunger more† (4.3.78-82). Macduff admits that avarice in a king is even worse than lust, but he’s sure that Scotland has abundance enough to satisfy Malcolm. Such lust and avarice would be bearable, balanced against good qualities. â€Å"But I have none† (4.3.91), Malcolm answers. He goes on to assert that he has not a single virtue that a king needs. Not only that, but he is positively evil, so evil that â€Å"had I power, I should / Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell, / Uproar the universal peace, confound / All unity on earth† (4.3.97-100). After describing himself as the worst possible person on the face of the earth, Malcolm then asks Macduff if someone like him is fit to govern. â€Å"Fit to govern! / No, not to live† (4.3.102-103), Macduff bursts out. Then he laments the fate of Scotland and is about to storm off, but Malcolm calls him back and unsays everything he’s just said about himself. He is, he now says, chaste, generous, and trustworthy. In short, he wil l be a true king, not the tyrant that Macbeth is. After the tyranny of Macbeth is contrasted with the goodness of Macduff and Malcolm, we are again reminded of what a good king should be. A doctor enters and tells Macduff and Malcolm that a crowd of sick people are waiting to be cured by the English king. Their sickness can’t be cured by doctors, but only by the king: â€Å"at his touch– / Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand– / They presently amend† (4.3.143-145). The doctor leaves, and Macduff asks what disease he was talking about. Malcolm explains, â€Å"‘Tis call’d the evil† (4.3.146). (The disease is scrofula, which causes ugly swellings of glands in the neck. It was called â€Å"the king’s evil† because of the popular idea that a holy king could cure it by touching the diseased person.) Malcolm goes on to speak of what a miracle-worker the English king is. He brings God’s healing power to his people, and it’s a wonder, because â€Å"How he solicits heaven, / Himself best knows† (4.3.150). In addition to being able to heal the sick, the English king â€Å"hath a heavenly gift of prophecy, / And sundry blessings hang about his throne† (4.3.157-158). Malcolm doesn’t mention Macbeth, but the only apparent reason for this description of the English king is to provide a picture of heavenly good to contrast with Macbeth’s hellish evil. Shortly after, news comes of Macbeth’s most recent act of tyranny — the slaughter of Macduff’s innocent wife and children. When she walks in her sleep, Lady Macbeth relives the moment just after the murder of King Duncan, when her husband could do nothing except stare at his bloody hands holding the bloody daggers. In her sleep she says to him, â€Å"What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?†(5.1.37-39). Her point is that Macbeth is king (or about to be) and therefore it doesn’t matter who knows that he murdered King Duncan. She thinks (or thought) that kingly power would solve all problems, but it doesn’t save her from madness. When he is brought news of the approach of the English army, Macbeth knows that he could lose the battle, and he tries to find a way to accept defeat. In a famous passage, he tells himself that his life is not worth living: I have lived long enough: my way of life Is fall’n into the sear, the yellow leaf; And that which should accompany old age, As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have; but, in their stead, Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath, Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not. (5.3.22-28) We can see that Macbeth now understands the consequences of being a tyrant. He rules only by fear, which means that all those he rules hate him. Standing before Dunsinane, Siward, the leader of the English troops, comments to Malcolm: â€Å"We learn no other but the confident tyrant / Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure / Our setting down before ‘t†. ) He means that Macbeth seems to be so confident of the strength of his castle that he’s willing to let his enemies lay siege to it, rather than going on the attack. Malcolm replies that Macbeth really doesn’t have a choice: â€Å"Both more and less have given him the revolt, / And none serve with him but constrained things / Whose hearts are absent too† . By â€Å"more and less† Malcolm means both the nobles and the common soldiers; Macbeth the tyrant controls only those who are within reach of his sword. In the final scene, Macduff, carrying Macbeth’s head on a pole, hails Malcolm as king of Scotland and says, â€Å"Behold, where stands / The usurper’s cursed head: the time is free† . The â€Å"time is free† because they are all now free of Macbeth’s reign of terror over Scotland. Macduff then leads the men in a shout of victory and loyalty. He says, â€Å"I see thee compass’d with thy kingdom’s pearl, / That speak my salutation in their minds; / Whose voices I desire aloud with mine: / Hail, King of Scotland!† . Macduff knows that these thanes already think of Malcolm as their king, and now he asks them to join him in shouting out loud, â€Å"Hail, King of Scotland!† And so they do, honoring Malcolm, above whose head looms the severed head of Macbeth.

Heart of Darkness Essay

Heart of Darkness Essay Heart of Darkness Essay Guilt, disappointment and the fear behind Kurtz’s death Jordan Davis Mr. Allin ENG 4U March 3rd, 2012 Verbal statements may have multiple interpretations depending on one's perspective. In the novel, Heart of Darkness, Conrad makes the reader use his/her own knowledge to generate themes and emotions. Consistently, the theme of the horrific reality is mentioned throughout the novel. Joseph’s character, Kurtz, cries out, â€Å"The horror! The horror† (Conrad 86) during his last moments; however, there is no obvious meaning and leaves the reader to realize the ambiguity of the words. The horror that Kurtz is referring to is the guilt he and Marlow feel, the disappointment of dying, and the fear of the darkness. Guilt is often the result of strong emotional feelings that involve negativity. When one makes a decision with negative consequences, one often experiences the emotion known as guilt. Joseph Conrad’s idea in this novel is to show the feeling of guilt through his characters' experiences working in the Congo. The character, Kurtz, is very good at what he brings to the Company; however, near his time of death he reflects on the inequality that is displayed towards the natives of the Congo. Marlow is careless when he receives his job in the Congo, due to the difference between the two lifestyles he has experienced at home and away from home, â€Å"While I stood horror-struck, one of these creatures rose to his hands and knees, and went off on all-fours towards the river to drink† (Conrad 20). This quote explains that Marlow witnesses a different type of behaviour by being in a diverse society and, naturally, he feels guilty about all of the aspects developed countries take advantage of with regard to undeveloped countries. Both Marlow and Kurtz know that what they are doing is unfair to the natives and the land, but they also know that it is their duty to obey the rules of the Company. Authority is a key component of the emotions that the ‘civilized’ and the natives are meant to experience, â€Å"It was an affirmation, a moral victory paid for by innumerable defeats, by abominable terrors, by abominable satisfactions. But it was a victory† (Conrad 88). The quote refers to some positive aspects of the Congo as well as some negative points, especially Marlow mentioning the terrors, which then turn to guilt throughout the journey. People at times are left with a feeling of guilt due to previous defeat in their lifetime, possibly leaving them displeased. Most people have goals in life that they want to accomplish before they die. In the novel, Kurtz is a respected man because of all he has been bringing to the Company. Although in his last moments of life, he looks back on his life that triggers him to evoke and grasp his true destiny. Before Marlow meets Kurtz, the manager says, â€Å"He will be somebody in the Administration before long. They, above – the Council of Europe, you know – mean him to be† (Conrad 23). The Company has great plans for Kurtz because he is the best at what he does and that is his ability to send in ivory. In the early 1800s, the largest resources in the Congo were ivory and rubber (Spooner 13). Marlow feels Kurtz’s pain as he cries out because everything that Kurtz ever accomplished is about to come crashing down and cut his life expectancy short, â€Å"All that had been Kurtz’s had been passed out of my hands; his soul, his body, his plans, his ivory, his career† (Conrad 91). This quote indicates that through Marlow’s eyes, there is a disappointing end to Kurtz’s life because of the expectations the Company and England wanted from him. The horror is shown in Kurtz’s death since his accomplishments were not at his best yet, and as he is dying with the feeling of guilt, Conrad creates the horror of his death. It is expressed to the reader that the remarkable man has reached his limits but is not happy with the end result of his death. By spending time in a new environment, a person’s ability

Nat Turners Fierce Rebellion essays

Nat Turners Fierce Rebellion essays The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turners Fierce Rebellion by Stephen B. Oates in the Portrait of America Essay Book Nat Turners rebellion was the bloodiest slave revolt in Southern history, and it had a profound and irrevocable impact on the destinies of Southern whites and blacks alike. Nat Turner lived in Southampton County, which is in Virginia. In Southampton County, there were many slaves. The masters of these slaves believed that the Negroes were not any danger because they were well treated. The African Americans did get very enthusiastic about their praise meetings, in a way the whites did not understand, but the whites still believed that they were harmless. Also, white evangelists started coming in from outside the county and exhorting equality at local revivals. Again, the whites believed that their slaves were no danger, and besides a few solitary incidents that there was no danger to them. However, all was not as calm as it appeared. On August 22, 1831, a band of slave rebels led by a black mystic called Nat Turner attacked with guns and axe in the bloodiest slave revolt in Southern history. This sent Virginia, and most of the South, into paroxysms of fear and racial violence. Nat Turner was generally considered harmless, although he was intelligent and spoke of strange religious powers. Turner was accepted as a Baptist priest in the black community, even though he was never ordained. He had a wife, Cherry, also a young slave, however he was separated from her. Turner was a perceptive man and had an extensive knowledge of the Bible. Turner had decided that God would give him a sign when it was time to start the revolt. There was an eclipse of the sun in 1831, and Turner prepared to rebel. Before the rebellion, Turner told four slaves that he completely trusted about the rebellion. Their names were Hark, Henry, Nelson, and Sam. They made so many plans that Turner fell sick and the rebellion di...

How to Make Your Team CoSchedule Power Users In No Time

How to Make Your Team Power Users In No Time Marketing demand is heating up. According to Content Marketing Institute, 70% of marketers expected to create more content  at the start of 2017. Demand for infographics has skyrocketed by 800%. These numbers add up to one thing: marketing teams are busy. To manage everything and collaborate effectively, we need the right tools to facilitate our best work. That’s why marketers come to . We’ve strategically built our platform to support every piece of the marketing process and empower teams to plan, produce, and promote everything in one place. Whether you’re a writer, designer, or project manager, we’ve got your back. However, sometimes, teams need assistance learning how to use all our features to their full potential (and honestly, that’s a common concern for marketing SaaS tools across the board). Enter this guide. Over the course of this post, we’ll explore how to use as your all-in-one marketing management platform. We’ll guide you through the entire process, from planning to execution, and show you exactly how to use important features to get more work done. How to Make Your Team Power Users In No TimeBefore You Begin: Get Free For 14 Days Trying to learn a new tool can be a total headache. Put the Aspirin away, though, because we’re about to take you on a guided tour of how to use like a power user. You’re about to learn (in super awesome detail) how to leverage the platform for maximum productivity and efficiency. We’ll walk through how to configure and use your entire calendar with your team (and might even dig into some features you didn’t know existed). But before we can do that, you’ve gotta get your hands on a free trial. Sign up free for 14 days, and then we’ll show you how to make the most of your two-week demo. Table of Contents: Team Onboarding Basic Account Setup Marketing Ideation Creating Content Using Without WordPress Scheduling Content Scheduling Social Media Posts Content Curation Chrome Extension Mobile App Reporting AutomationTeam Onboarding: One Platform for Every Team Member makes it easy to coordinate your entire marketing team in one platform. But first, you need to actually onboard all your team members. Visit your Settings page and select Team at the top: Next, click Invite Team Member: You’ll then be prompted to invite them via email. Enter their email address and select their role: Admin: Has total power over your account. Be careful about handing out admin powers. User: Can add and edit items on your calendar. Keep going until you’ve added everyone on your team who needs access. That might include: Writers to craft content and copy that demands to be read. Designers to create visual content that catches attention and pulls in audiences. Strategists who determine what you’re doing to do (and why) in the first place. Developers who make coding magic happen behind the scenes. Analysts who use math (which, to many creatives, may as well be actual magic) to measure performance (whether you like what the numbers say or not). Project managers (AKA professional cat herders) who keep everyone listed above in line and on task. Recommended Reading: How to Improve Your Teams Review Process With Task Approvals Basic Account Setup Once your team is in the tool, its time to configure some custom settings. This will help make sure your calendar is organized in a way everyone will understand right off the bat. Add Custom Content Types Now, your team is probably going to be working on all kinds of content and projects. To keep everything clearly organized, we can create custom content types on our calendar. We’ll create one for every type of project you’ll typically take on. Go into your settings and find Content Types: Now, you can either select predefined content types from the dropdown: Or, you can create your own custom types of content (if there isn’t an option available that you need): Click Create New: Then, enter a name: Next, click the downward pointing arrow to choose a custom icon: Click Save, and you’ll see your new content type added to your list: Keep adding content types until you’ve got everything you need. Set Up Saved Filter Views Not everyone on your calendar necessarily needs to see everything going on. If that’s the case for you, set up Saved Filter Views. These are filtered views that display only what each team member needs to access. They’re easy to set up, too. Start by clicking the funnel in the upper left: Next, use the dropdown menus to select the criteria for what you need to see on your calendar: Click Save as New, and you’re set! Recommended Reading: The Most Effective + Amazing Way to Organize Your Marketing Campaigns Add Custom Color Labels to Sort Projects on Your Calendar When you have a lot of projects floating around on your calendar, keeping them all straight can get tough. This is where Custom Color Labels become essential. Head back to your settings and scroll down to Color Labels: Next, enter in project or content types for each color label: Need more colors (or want more options)? No problem! Select â€Å"Add a custom label† and you can choose from tons more colors and shades: Now, when you add projects onto your calendar, you can select colors to help visually sort them: Here’s how things look after we’ve created a few pieces of content and labelled them how we want: Now, anyone looking at the calendar can clearly see these are three different types of content, based on the color. The busier your calendar gets, the more this is going to help, too. Get Even More Filtering Control With Tags To get more granular with how you control and organize content on your calendar, pick a piece of content and enter tags in the upper left by typing +, followed by your tag: Now, this gives you another layer of control when setting up saved filter views: Now, Let’s Do Some Work: Ideation Now you have your calendar structurally set up to support everyone on your team. Next, let’s walk through how your team can use to produce a real project. For demonstration purposes, let’s say you’re working on a series of blog posts. Your first step is to work through the ideation phase. One common brainstorming process we recommend at involves three steps: 10 minutes spent silently brainstorming ideas. 10 minutes scoring those ideas on a 3-point scale (3 = Awesome, 1 = Total Dud). 10 minutes filtering ideas scored 3 and selecting the ones you’ll actually create. Our CEO and co-founder Garrett Moon and I discuss how this process works in this video: Now, once you have a ton of ideas, where should they go? If you’re using Evernote, you can easily stash them all in a shared note your whole team can access: Next, add your corresponding Evernote notebook in . Click Evernote on the right-hand side of your calendar: Next, select your notebook: Now, you’ll have access to your notes with all your ideas within : Convenient, right? Recommended Reading: Connect Your Evernote Content With Your Marketing Calendar [New Features] Creating Content on Your Calendar Now that we have a ton of ideas, let’s start placing them on the calendar. Click the plus sign on any day on your calendar: Then select your content or project type. For demonstration purposes, we’ll create a Blog Post: Enter in your headline and a description (and any tags that might help you find this later): Select the corresponding custom color label and add an owner for this content, too: Next, click Create Blog Post and you’ll see the following screen: Looks like everything is (nearly) ready to go! Next, let’s pick a content editor we want to use. Our options are: Text Editor: This is a built-in text editor in . File: Or, we can upload a Microsoft Word file. Google Docs: Makes it easy to collaborate with your team on one draft. Evernote: See above. WordPress: If you click More, you’ll see an option to directly create a WordPress draft (if you prefer to write straight in WordPress). If you choose Text Editor, File, Google Docs, or Evernote, you can convert your file into a WordPress post, PDF, or HTML file too. No matter how you’re going to publish your content, there’s an option to support your workflow. Recommended Reading: Learn How to Supercharge Your Workflows With Adding Task Templates Before we start writing our post though, let’s create a Task Template. Task Templates are what we call reusable checklists in . They help make sure you consistently complete every project the right way (and they do some other cool stuff too). Start by clicking the Task Template Picker in the upper right: Then, select New Template: Enter a name for your template (pick something relevant): Next, enter the first task you’ll need to complete in your process for creating this content: For each task, you’ll need to schedule a deadline for that step to be completed: And also assign a team member who will be responsible for that task. Click Assign and pick a team member: Keep adding steps until you’ve built a complete checklist with each step you’ll need. Once you’ve done that, click Close and your Task Template will be available to you anytime you need it: Next, let’s find and apply our completed Task Template: You’ll notice that everyone assigned a task on your Task Template will appear under the Team Members tab. You can find that tab here: Click into it, and you can see everyone working on this piece of content (or add more people as necessary by clicking the plus sign): Once that’s set up, let click the middle column on the left to find our Discussion tab: Here, you can keep a running discussion thread with your team. You can also attach files and leave notes relevant to this piece of content. That could include things like keyword research data, links to sources, or anything else that might be helpful to remember: Now, each time a team member checks off a task, the completion percentage will tick up: When you switch back to the calendar view, you’ll see your completion percentage there, too. This makes it easy to monitor progress quickly when scanning tons of content pieces at once: Scheduling Content: Look Ma, No Hands! One problem with static content calendars is they can’t publish your content for you automatically. Fortunately, isn’t a static calendar. If your WordPress blog is connected to , you can set up every post to publish automatically. That means no more having to remember to copy and paste anything into a CMS from a spreadsheet or doc somewhere. First, connect your WordPress Blog here: Then, follow the onscreen prompts to integrate WordPress using: The Plugin Installer. Or, connect manually using the gallery install process. Once complete, you’ll be able to access WordPress content either using the web app or WordPress plugin. What If I Don’t Use WordPress? Don’t worry! We haven’t totally left you high and dry. If you use another popular platform like SquareSpace, you can still use to manage your content projects (you just won’t be able to automate your publishing through ). Here are a couple great guides to get you started: How I Use With Squarespace How to Use Without WordPress (Demo Video) Schedule Social Media Posts Like a Boss Once you’ve created some awesome content, you’ll want to share it with the world on social media, right? brings content and social together to make that process seamless. Hit up your Social Profiles at the top of your screen: Then, click Connect a Social Profile: Next, connect the channels you’d like: In order to track traffic from social media, you’ll need to integrate with your Google Analytics and bit.ly accounts. Fortunately, this is super easy, too. Go to Settings and click Integrations. Then, scroll down to bit.ly and Google Analytics: Clicking Connect to Bit.ly will prompt you to (you guessed it) connect your Bit.ly account: Clicking Enable under Google Analytics Tracking automatically adds UTM tags to every social media post you publish through . This makes them easily trackable in Google Analytics. Follow this guide to create a custom dashboard in Google Analytics  to measure social performance. Recommended Reading: How to Build a Marketing Report Template Quickly (Free Template) What If I Want to Create Stand-Alone Social Media Posts and Campaigns? We’re not about to tell you the only way to do social media marketing is to share content you’ve created. What about curated content? What about creative social content that doesn’t always link back to your site? What about coordinated campaigns that direct to website or landing pages (rather than WordPress posts)? We’ve got all that (and more) covered. To create a single post, click a day on your calendar and click Social Message in the lower left: Next, select a network: Pick your post type (Text, Image, Video, or Link) and write your post content: If you choose Image, you’ll need to add in a graphic by clicking the camera icon: Then, either click to upload a file or drag one into the window. Finally, you’ll need to select: Date: The day you want this post to publish. Time: You can either choose this manually or let Best Time Scheduling in pick the optimal time for you. Status: Select Draft for a work in progress, Pending Review if someone needs to approve this post before it publishes, or Scheduled to have it post at your selected time. Once you click Add Message, you’ll see the post on your calendar: And hovering over it will give you a preview: If you don’t want every social post visible on your calendar, bounce back to Calendar Settings and toggle them off: Boom! Creating a complete social media campaign requires a different process, but it’s still easy. Click a day on your calendar and select Social Campaign: Give your campaign a title, color label, and select an owner: Click Create Social Campaign and click into the plus signs to create each post: If you want to select your own dates rather than use the pre-filled suggested schedule, use Custom Date for each post: Then, using Task Templates and Task Approvals, your boss or client can approve the campaign after reviewing it: Curate Content Quickly With the Chrome Extension What if you find an awesome piece of content somewhere on the web that you know your audience would love? Add it to your calendar fast using the free Chrome extension. First, add it to your browser (assuming you’re using Chrome) from the Chrome Store: Next, you’ll see the extension in your browser: When you find an awesome piece of content you want to share, click the extension. You’ll be asked to pick a calendar to share it onto (in case you have multiple calendars): Then, you’ll pick your networks, edit your post copy, and schedule the post. This process is the same as scheduling any other social post: Click Add Message, and you’re done. Simple as that. Recommended Reading: How to Curate Content For Social Media to Help Boost Your Reach Manage Social Media With the Mobile App What if you need to do social marketing on the go? Like, say you’re commuting on the train and an important post needs editing. Or, there’s a social media crisis while you’re out of the office. We’ve got you covered with our mobile app. Check out this demo video to see how it works: Then, grab it on the App Store (iOS)  or from Google Play (Android). Automate Content + Social + Team Performance Reporting Building reports manually isn’t exactly fun. Witnessing the magic of ’s built-in reporting features, though? Mind-blowing every time. Start by finding the Analytics panel on the left-hand side of your calendar: Next, you’ll see the three reporting options below: Let’s walk through what each of these can do. Did you know includes robust built-in analytics features?Top Content Reports Which content is most popular on social media? That’s what your Top Content Report tells you. Find all your hottest content in one place and filter it by type, team member, and time frame: If it’s content and you’ve shared it using , you can track it:

ANALYSIS OF U.S. ECONOMY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

ANALYSIS OF U.S. ECONOMY - Essay Example This may perhaps be the reason for the speculation over the state of the economy considering that during the second quarter the gross domestic product rate fell slightly lower than that which was produced in the first quarter of the year. However, these higher numbers may not necessarily mean that the economy is going to bounce back. There is still concern over the consumer spending as this only rose to 2.4% which was less than the estimation and this may well be a concern as consumer spending constitutes about seventy percent of the gross domestic product . There have been cuts in taxes to coax the consumers from spending more and this may perhaps have helped the situation. By cutting taxes to a degree which would encourage spending there may well be a rise in the gross domestic product and this would certainly be a big boost to the recovering economy. There are some economists who believe that within next year the rate may well rise to 3% and perhaps even more but it would be too e arly to measure the specific rate. Consumers have also gained confidence are now more welcome to the idea of spending. Incomes and spending have risen, which in result have led to a fall in the savings. The Bureau of Economic Analysis has submitted the figures of savings which have dropped from $622.8 to $614.8 from September to October. Figures such as these are a good sign that consumers are becoming more confident about spending money and this is a welcome boost to the industries and especially retailers (US Department of Commerce). The rate of the gross domestic product would not be the only assessment of the economy. Unemployment rates in the United States are at a high and have even increased to a rate of 9.8% (United States Department of Labor). According to one report, the rates are still lower than what the actual situation is at the moment due to the fact that those who have stopped trying to get jobs due to the slow economy are not being

Lesson learned Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Lesson learned - Essay Example This in fact is the manifestation of being a good leader. A good business plan is to lower the costs. Many organizations have to face domestic rivalry forces all the players to develop new products, improve existing ones, lower costs and prices, develop new technologies, and continually improve quality and services to keep customers happy; on the other hand, foreign firms lack this intensity. clarity of goals and mission; creating sense of challenge for volunteers; ensuring commitment; ensuring good feedback mechanisms and ensuring task is designed and communicated in such a way that it is not daunting to volunteers. Building on this model, I have reasoned on importance of ensuring that volunteers are informed clearly on goals of the Revive and all expectations levelled so that new volunteers are not expecting too much ‘returns’ from Revive as the organization is a charity. However, in doing the aforementioned of keeping expectations low, I have considered a keep learning to be providing exciting and challenging opportunities and task which will push the workers to happily engage with assigned task. The business plan to capture this is to utilize The Gordon Model that has been pinnacle of success for many organizations. The Gordon Model will not be used be it values stocks that pay dividends however, Fusion LLC will not be based on stockholders investments. The rule of NPV states that all projects that have a positive net value should be accepted. It is also estimated 50 years of future cash flows assuming a 2% annual growth. The discounted rate of 25% (weighted average cost of capital) and in this case where the discounted value is higher the capital budgeting will increase the value of the company. Most organization are success in an element is because they have a powerful understanding of motivating their employees. Motivating employees is truly essential for an

Real Estate Management Tech Project.(Information Systems) Essay

Real Estate Management Tech Project.(Information Systems) - Essay Example Fred Jonathon received his PhD degree in management from the Harvard University. He was the co-founder of the Institute for infrastructure and property development along with Mr. Smithson. Together, they launched the Smithson and Jonathan group in the year 1980. The Smithson and Jonathan group has been the undisputed leader around the globe in supplying fermenter vessels for the bio processing industry. They entered the instrumentation market in the year 1990. Today, their business empire has expanded enormously in terms of size, the brands, and financial strength. The decision to enter in to the real estate segment by the group is backed by the rich experience of both the founders of the company. The real estate management company will act as a single interface for property buying and selling and to provide services for builders, property buyers, and property sellers. According to a recent real estate market analysis report (Thrid quarter 2007 quarterly, n.d.), there is a surge in the demand for office properties and industrial properties in the Unites States. The demand for housing property is also on the rise. The report (Thrid quarter 2007 quarterly, n.d.) provides analysis graphs on the market trends for office property returns, industrial property returns, and apartment property returns for the period 1994 to 2007. The analysis graphs are given below: The analysis graphs indicate the total returns for the period 1994 to 2007. From the graphs, it can be inferred that the total returns on the office properties attained a 22.8 % return, the industrial properties attained a 16.6 % return, and the apartment properties attained a13.3 % return by the year 2007 as indicated by the Figures 1,2, and 3 respectively. The statistics indicate the potential market for real estate. The foray of the Smithson and Jonathan group into the real estate sector, is based on the above market survey. OPERATIONAL PLAN The real estate management company promoted by the Smithson and Jonathon group is unique and will provide a single interface for property buyers and sellers to buy and sell their properties. Further, property buyers and sellers can trade within the company. This involves over the counter trading between the buyers and sellers. Trading of properties may also take place using the web portal of the company. The

Summary Marketing Plan Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Summary Marketing Plan - Term Paper Example The customers get an overall experience of having coffee along with shopping. Therefore, customers can either have coffee when sitting on a couch or while selecting the merchandizes from the shop. This marketing plan will first make a situational analysis for the cafe. In the situational analysis, the overall picture in terms of trends, statistics, size, growth and competition will be discussed. Also, a SWOT analysis will be performed for identifying the strength, weakness, opportunities and threats of the current industry. The report will also give an insight into the current competitors in the industry. A comprehensive explanation of the target market and product positioning will be discussed. Based on all these analyses, a marketing plan will be charted out for the cafe. Situational Analysis Cafe Gam Sung will be located in the Sunnyside neighborhood in New York City. Sunnyside is located in the western part of New York City. Sunnyside’s total population is 29,506 people. T hough majority of the population are Americans, a larger portion is also constituted of people from almost 30 countries. Therefore, Sunnyside is a place with very diverse cultural characteristics. The median income of the region is $37,962. The majority of the population in the area are of the age group of 25 – 39 years; they constitute up to 32% of the Sunnyside population. The next bigger group is 40 – 64 years old people forming around 30%. ... 40% fall below $30,000. Only a meager 1% has an annual income of higher than 150,000 (Movoto, 2012). Sunnyside is a market with a highly growing potential for coffee shops. The major opportunity in the market is that it contains a considerable portion of young population. The population of age groups 19 – 39 years is of great potential for the business. Another opportunity is the rapid development in the technology industry and the growing population that attempt to explore new and advanced devices to pursue the trend. The major threat will be Starbucks, which has a well-established outlet in Sunnyside. Apart from Starbucks, there are also various other coffee shops in the region which can pose a threat to Cafe Gam Sung. The strength of Cafe Gam Sung when compared to other players is that this is not an exclusive coffee shop. Cafe Gam Sung is a Coffee/Tea shop with a focus on technology merchandizes. The main weakness is that Cafe Gam Sung, being a new player, has less experti se in the field compared to the established players. Competitors Some of the major players in the Sunnyside are Starbucks, Baruir’s Coffee, Cafe Marlene and New Post Coffee Shop. Starbucks: Starbucks is the most established coffee shop in Sunnyside. The shop is so popular that people find it hard to get a seat because of the rush. Wi-Fi is also free at Starbucks Sunnyside. Therefore, customers usually spend more time at the shop. They also offer free refill of coffee when the customers spend more time in the shop. This Starbucks outlet also has a friendly staff. Servings are coffee and teas like in any other Starbucks outlet (Yelp, 2012). New Post Coffee Shop: New Post Coffee Shop also serves diners. But this place seems to be least preferred by the customers. People are

Nursing education in the present-day Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Nursing education in the present-day - Essay Example The key to this problem is difference between expectations and reality. The university-workplace transition is, therefore, marked by the students' expectations of the graduate year and the hard reality that they encounter in the workforce setting (Heslop, L. et al., 2001). In response to this perceived gap and in response to the understanding that this will affect the employee satisfaction and employee retention, most of the hospitals developed transition programmes, such as, nurse externship that offered the fresh graduates scope to develop clinical skills enough to enter the formal work force. The conditions that promoted such a plan still exist, and now the authorities having seen the benefits of such transition programmes and having sensed the stresses commonly faced by new registered nurses are stressing on the successful transition of the new graduates to the registered nurse role (Starr, K., and Conley, V.M. 2006). The three factors inherent in special attention to the transition phase of a registered nurse are changes in nursing condition, changing nursing education and healthcare trends, and the reality shock that the new nurses experience. The other agenda was to ease the transition from a student to registered nurse by creating opportunities for the new nurses to acquire basic nursing skill competence and to develop confidence in practice (Allison et al., 1984). The benefits would be immense. If the registered nurses continue to work in the same environment in the second year of practice, the falls and falters of the first year in the phase of transition would enrich the nurses' experience and would allow them to develop a customized strategy for the same environment, if not by experience, at least by...Wellington: Ministry of Health, Published in January 2004 by the Ministry of Health, PO Box 5013, Wellington, New Zealand. Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and British Medical Association ( 2000). Teamworking in Primary Healthcare. Realizing Shared Aims in Patient Care. London: Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and British Medical Association.

Communication Privacy Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Communication Privacy Management - Essay Example A friend of a friend of mine, Lisa, told my friend Anne and me that she discovered that her mother, Margie, was having an affair with a school employee, John (unmarried). The names here are all made up for privacy reasons. The news made me significantly uncomfortable because the woman was, in effect, committing bigamy, and I did not want to be a part of it. CPMT helps me understand this life experience and how it should have been resolved. Petronio offers five principles of CPMT, the first is that people think they own and have a right to control their private information. Private information refers to information that a person owns and that he/she feels must be controlled. Disclosure of private information pertains to the expression of private information to third parties. In my experience, Lisa discloses private information that she does not solely own, thereby breaching the privacy of her mother and John. I honestly did not think that these people would like their illicit affair t o be so openly shared in public, even if it was to Lisa’s friends only. Lisa practiced the first principle of privacy, which is that she thought that she owned the private information about her mother’s affair and she could control who should have access to it. The second principle of CPMT is that people control their private information through setting and using personal privacy rules. Personal privacy rules are not always openly discussed and fully agreed upon, however. Lisa said that when she saw her mother being too intimate with John, she confronted her at home. Margie broke down and disclosed private information about her affair, but she made her daughter promise to not tell anyone, especially her father. Lisa was so mad, but Margie said that she was planning to break up with John anyway, so it was better to keep everything quiet. Still, Lisa evidently did not know how to keep things quiet, and she broke her mother’s personal privacy rules. The five factor s of privacy rules can help explain Lisa’s disclosure behavior. First, culture may have something to do with her openness to Anne. They are both Hispanic Americans, which indicate a collectivist culture. Lisa needs emotional and social support that she thinks Anne can provide. Second, Lisa is a woman who wants another woman to listen to her and be her confidant. Gender can make some women be more open to other women with their private information. Third, Lisa has the motivation for disclosure. Her motivations are to get social support and to share her burden with others. Fourth, the context of the situation must truly be affecting Lisa. She must truthfully love her father and mother to try and keep the private information, but she must feel so hurt that she could not wait anymore to disclose the private information to someone close to her. She told Anne: â€Å"Anne, you’re my best friend in the world, and I feel so messed up. I can’t believe my ‘idealâ₠¬  mom would do this to my ‘ideal’ dad. Everything is a lie in my life.† She broke down and cried afterwards. Something so hurtful may compel someone to disclose such private information to others. Fifth, Lisa must have thought that the benefits outweigh the risk, when she made a risk/benefit ratio. The benefits of disclosure of private information are high: 1) reducing stress, 2) sharing emotional burden, and 3) getting social support. The risks are lower

Nursing education in the present-day Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Nursing education in the present-day - Essay Example The key to this problem is difference between expectations and reality. The university-workplace transition is, therefore, marked by the students' expectations of the graduate year and the hard reality that they encounter in the workforce setting (Heslop, L. et al., 2001). In response to this perceived gap and in response to the understanding that this will affect the employee satisfaction and employee retention, most of the hospitals developed transition programmes, such as, nurse externship that offered the fresh graduates scope to develop clinical skills enough to enter the formal work force. The conditions that promoted such a plan still exist, and now the authorities having seen the benefits of such transition programmes and having sensed the stresses commonly faced by new registered nurses are stressing on the successful transition of the new graduates to the registered nurse role (Starr, K., and Conley, V.M. 2006). The three factors inherent in special attention to the transition phase of a registered nurse are changes in nursing condition, changing nursing education and healthcare trends, and the reality shock that the new nurses experience. The other agenda was to ease the transition from a student to registered nurse by creating opportunities for the new nurses to acquire basic nursing skill competence and to develop confidence in practice (Allison et al., 1984). The benefits would be immense. If the registered nurses continue to work in the same environment in the second year of practice, the falls and falters of the first year in the phase of transition would enrich the nurses' experience and would allow them to develop a customized strategy for the same environment, if not by experience, at least by...Wellington: Ministry of Health, Published in January 2004 by the Ministry of Health, PO Box 5013, Wellington, New Zealand. Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and British Medical Association ( 2000). Teamworking in Primary Healthcare. Realizing Shared Aims in Patient Care. London: Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and British Medical Association.

Entering the Age of Controller-Free Interactive Technology Research Paper

Entering the Age of Controller-Free Interactive Technology - Research Paper Example Testing Kinect has been thoroughly tested to work efficiently with the Xbox 360. It has built-in features that anticipate the Xbox’s potential downsides like heat. Gizmodo (2010) points out that Kinect tests out the heat in its environment with a sign warning passers-by in all caps, , DO NOT OPEN CRITICAL TEST IN PROGRESS. A tiny built-in fan turns on in demand when Kinect assesses a hot environment when the heat produced by the the three sensors and the atmosphere around it mix to create conditions warmer than Microsoft would like (Gizmodo, 2010). Leyvand et al. (2011) report that the developers of Kinect designed the system to reduce mistaken identities. From the tests, it still commits mistakes, but the system allows the players to correct their identity by running through the Kinect Identity process again to reduce the chances of future misidentifications. Ben Kilgore, Xbox’s general manager, claims that Kinect maps out as many people as it can detect depending on t heir distance from the sensor. It shades the people in different colors. However, if a person lines up with another, they both turn into the same color. Kilgore says the â€Å"design focus† was for two people (Gizmodo, 2010). Accessibility Microsoft is an organization committed to serving people of all kinds of abilities. It claims that its mission is to help people and businesses to realize their full potential with the innovation and technology they produce. However, as Kinect is its newest product, it has yet to develop more accessibility features for disabled users. As it is originally designed for full-body motion it has an inherent physical nature of the gameplay that may not serve disabled users well. Microsoft is working to improve the system’s skeletal tracking technology...Gaming technology has come a long way from the antiquated portable Game and Watch to the early video game consoles like Atari, Nintendo Family Computer and old versions of Play Stations. No w, three gaming consoles dominate the market namely Nintendo Wii, Sony Play Station 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360. This paper will focus on Microsoft Xbox 360’s latest additional feature called Kinect which is a gadget designed to work with the Xbox for controller-free gaming and entertainment experiences. The article of Dudley-Nicholson (2010) entitled â€Å"Microsoft’s Back in the Game† which came out in the Herald Sun on November 17, 2010 is the springboard article for this paper. Originally known by the code name of Project Natal, Kinect for Xbox 360 works by using a camera to track 48 parts of the human body, from head to hips, knees to feet and identify colors. An infra-red projector and image sensor detects objects in three dimensions. It is also equipped with microphones to identify voices by removing background noise (Dudley-Nicholson, 2010). The human mind is never satisfied as it continually conceives of new ideas to implement and create intelligent technology to make life more convenient. This is evidence that no matter how impressive new technology continues to develop, human beings will still reign as its masters.

Worldview Assignment Essay Example for Free

Worldview Assignment Essay Every day is a gift and one we should never take for granted. The way we perceive the world around us takes critical thinking and a strong and faithful framework to help guide us through life. The world we live in gets harder and harder and moral responsibility is constantly being challenged. Having a worldview based on structure and faith is crucial to one’s everyday life. In their book, Consider, Dr. Lew Weider and Dr. Ben Gutierrez explain that a worldview is a person’s philosophy of life, a framework a person brings to decision-making, and a filter or lens which a person uses to interpret life and the world around them. Every one person has a worldview. This can be molded by people who surround us from the time we are born to adults. There are multiple groups of people from different cultural and religious backgrounds craving your attention in hopes to share their worldview with you and persuade you. You have to fully desire to understand the teachings of the Bible and be able to spread the gospel starting from the beginning to end. Everything has an origin from which it is created. Having a Christian Worldview I know there is only creator and that is God. I can remember my worldview being shaped as early as three years old. I remember the days of my youth going to church with my family like it was yesterday. From a biblical worldview you can find truth and meaning in the scriptures Genesis 1:1 and Psalm 139:13-26. We know God created the world because our faith and trust start within him. In the Bible, Psalm 8:5 and Genesis 2:15 give identity to mankind. We are strong-willed and viewed as caregivers. We are to nurture all other creatures and the earth around us. In John 17:3 and John 17:20-23 our purpose is the interconnection we have with God. He is the reason we have aligned our life with a Christian framework and one day will be with him in Heaven. In their book, Consider, Dr. Lew Weider and Dr. Ben Gutierrez reveal that Theists answer the questions of morality and ethics primarily through Special Revelation. We have read through scriptures that God loves us all and knows that not one human being is perfect. God knows that only he is righteous and we are given the path to become one with him. Such examples of human nature are found in Psalm 51:5 and Ephesians 2:8-10. The path one human chooses will determine their destiny. In Revelation 21:1-7 and 20:11-15 you will find there is only two ending places in which you will spend eternity. With our faith and our love and commitment we possess as Christians we know our eternity rest within the Heavens above. It is an obligation we have to God to follow his guidance and have comfort in knowing that he knows us better than anyone and one day we will join him. I try hard every day to view the world with an open heart and clean slate. It’s hard not to dwell on events that have happened that was tough, but you have to forgive and forget. I know that I am very blessed. God has given this life and we should open ourselves to love and faith. I see hundreds of people throughout my week and I try to greet them with a smile and a â€Å"Hello†. We need to see the good in people and think of how God would want us to treat each other. If you were having a rough day maybe that one positive experience will uplift you and put you in a better place. Some people live a hard life, some by choice and some by unfortunate circumstances. I’ve always wanted to help heal the people that are sick and need medical attention. It’s been my calling since I was a little girl. I just wanted to help people and I know that God led me down the right path. Currently, I work as a Respiratory Therapist and I come into contact with a lot of ill people. I try my hardest to serve them in a way that I can change their outcome and improve their health. I feel positive and rewarded with the career path I have chosen and I know I am here for a reason. We should take each day as a blessing and strive to be the best person we know how to be. I know these things because my Christian Worldview has put everything into perspective for me. I know what I need to do. I want to help and I want to make a difference in the world. It all starts with believing and God will lead you the rest of the way.

Southern Musical Tradition and the African Tradition Essay -- Music Mu

Southern Musical Tradition and the African Tradition The second major tributary of the southern musical tradition comes from the African continent and is the heritage import of the five million slaves brought to North America against their will to provide the bulk of the labor in the pre-industrial agrarian south. Contemporary blues, while not exclusively black music by any means, remains largely black in terms of its leading performers and, to a lesser extent, its listening audience. The forerunner of the modern urban blues was, however, almost exclusively black and was completely southern and rural. It was, and is, a music born out of the experience of slavery and Jim Crow segregation with their attendant poverty, alienation and suppression. As a musical genre, this remarkable and durable expression has an enormous relevance for the historical development of southern music in general and the southern black experience in particular. Modern blues evolved out of the southern "country blues" and became an urban phenomenon in the same social, economic and demographic processes which urbanized black Americans during the two or three decades prior to World War II. Thus, an examination of the black country blues provides a potentially fruitful vehicle for the study of southern rural culture viz a viz the black experience. At the very least, it provides a means for assessing the perceptions of southern culture which were held and articulated by a sensitive group of observers -- the bluesmen and blueswomen of the rural south. The extent to which their music was received, popularized and appreciated by their audience provides a broader look at the hopes and drea... ...cal development, display similar structural and thematic content and have, since the 1960s, begun to recognize and celebrate these commonalities. Works Cited: Chapple, Steve and Reebee Garofalo. Rock and Roll is Here to Pay. Chicago: Nelson Hall, 1977. Elkins, Stanley. Slavery: A Problem in American Institutional and Intellectual Life, 2nd ed. Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 1968. Morthland, John. The Best of Country Music. Garden City: Doubleday, 1984. Oliver, Paul. Savannah Syncopators: African Retentions in the Blues. London: November Books, Limited, 1970. Smith, M.G. "Social and Cultural Pluralism," in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 83 (January, 1957):763-777. Van den Berghe, Pierre. Race and Racism: A Comparative Perspective, 2nd ed. New York: Wiley, 1978.

The Nazi Party Essay -- History HIstorical Germany Nazis Essays

The Nazi Party During the 1930s, the Nazi Regime attempted to construct what it believed to be a utopian society. The Nazis’ rise to power can be viewed as a modern revolution, in which their objective to create an ideal Nazi Volksgemeinschaft (community of people) was achieved by highly regulating all areas of German life. From the arts and literature to sexual activity and race relations, the Nazi Party implemented legislation that restricted what the German public could see, hear, read, do and even think! The Nazis were able to maintain control over the masses through propaganda, codified and unwritten values, and destructive actions (Night of Broken Glass) that actually determined the conditions under which individuals had to live. The Nazi Party ensured its own strength and continuance not only through legal measures (such as eliminating other parties) but also by shaping a society that excluded certain groups from having political influence, particularly women and Jews. Adolf H itler, chancellor of the Third Reich, gives two speeches that exemplify the Nazis’ efforts to separate and even remove women and Jews from public life and discourage them from participating politically. In the first speech, given on 8 September 1934, Hitler addresses the National Socialist Women’s section and expresses the Nazi opinion that a woman’s most fundamental role is a domestic one and her proper place is in her home. On 30 January 1937, Hitler gives a speech in Berlin concerning the importance of racial purity and ultimately the omission of Jews from German life. Although these two speeches are in many ways explicitly different, they share a number of intriguing similarities. I will argue that these similarities are not merely coinc... ...gitimacy of separation based on racial disparities. Hence, gender goes from a term signaling the two sexes, male and female, to a complex standard indicating that a line must be drawn between groups of individuals if one of these groups is perceived as different and potentially disruptive. After years of oppression and racial cleansing, Nazism was eventually destroyed by forces perhaps not determined by nature but certainly governed by humanity. Works Cited â€Å"Hitler’s Speech to the National Socialist Women’s Section† in Laws and Orders: Humanities and the Regulation of Society. Boston, Massachusetts: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2002. p. 276-277. â€Å"Racial Purity: Hitler Reverts to the Dominant Theme of the National Socialist Program† in Laws and Orders: Humanities and the Regulation of Society. Boston, Massachusetts: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2002. p. 274-275.

Typography

Typefaces vary greatly – they have different looks and deferent meanings for people. Certain typefaces are very formal and elegant; others are casual and relaxed. Some typefaces suggest antiquity; others are very modern. The point is that, Just as the size of the television screen affects television programs, so do the typefaces chosen affect how people will Interpret a given message. † (Berger 2008) Here are 4 example of typography that I will explore In the essay. First, we have the phase Happy Birthday. This example of happy birthday is a happy feeling for a hill's birthday.It gives the impression of fun, excitement. The use of purple let you know that this will be a little girl's party. You can use bright purple when promoting children's products. â€Å"We are affected by the size of a given typeface because size affects the way we respond to the design of individual letters† (Berger 2008). This is why I decided to use a large type size for this phase. Happy B irthday Magnolia Grove Bed ; Breakfast Jackson, Mississippi This example Is a way to combine typefaces with similar proportions. â€Å"ProportionsInvolves how they relate to one another In general, relative to the size or area of the visual field being 200). Here, two hard-w;irking typefaces assigned supporting roles: the Brush Script MET that serves as the spotlight by appearing big and the Basketballs Old Face serves for text. Love is patient and kind This example of script font is elegant and formal. This typography is a design that you would use for a wedding. Script fonts are usually use for formal invitation such as wedding invitations such as wedding, formal dinner parties or in my case I use this font when I am scrapbook.This typography has a feminine feel to me Mexico This example really reminds me of a Mexico. The bold color of red Is an example of all the bright and bold colors of Mexico. Why is typography important? Typography has many advantages and its use has Decode Important Tort various communications on a global level. Learn more auto why the use of type is a staple in everyday life and how its use is something on which we all rely. Reference Berger, A. (2008). Seeing is Believing: An Introduction to Visual Communication (3rd deed. ). New York: McGraw-Hill

Annotated Bibliography by Kapil Muradhia Professor

Kapil Muradhia Professor- Danielle Cochran English-101. 600 September 16th 2012 Annotated Bibliography In 20th century, every human being on the earth is familiar with television, internet and other form of media. We can see the effect of these forms of the electronic media in our daily life. It is helpful to us in lot of ways. The following bibliography reveals the different aspects of electronic media. Bissel, Tom. â€Å"Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter† † They Say I Say with Readings. Eds. Cathy Birkenstein, Russel Durst, Gerald Graff.New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012. 349-362. Tom Bissell in â€Å"Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter† emphasize the importance of video games in our life. Tom supports his affection with the video games by telling his story with a popular video game â€Å"Fallout-3†. He also compares different modes of entertainment, like movies and novels, with video games. According to Tom, Storytelling is the most important t hing for the movies, novels and video games, but video games storytelling is counterfeit.Tome states, even though the video games are frustrating sometimes but he will keep returning to this form of entertainment. Gladwell, Malcolm. â€Å"Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted† They Say I Say with Readings. Eds. Cathy Birkenstein, Russel Durst, Gerald Graff. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012. 312-328. Print. Malcolm Gladwell in his article â€Å"Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted† explains the point that why we don’t need to tweet the revolution on social media.To prove his point, he takes the example of a Black revolution from 1960. Malcolm points out, how a revolution started by four students became huge without the help of any social media. Malcolm also believes in power of social media. Any revolution can turn into bigger size, if social media is used, according to Malcolm. Malcolm states that Facebook and Twitter are tools for keeping up with the people you would never meet or following the people you never met. Stein,Jeannine. â€Å"Watching T. V Shortens Life Span, Study Finds†.Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, January 12, 2010. Web. January 18, 2010. In â€Å"watching T. V Shortens Life Span, Study Finds† Jeannine Stein reveals the fact that how watching T. V every day is shortening our life span. Australian Heart Association conducted a study on 8800 men and women and they found that eighty five percent of them, who were watching T. V for one hour every day, were patient of obesity and diabetes. Jeannine says that watching T. V for one hour every day will raise the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease by 18%.Jeannine believes that we need to spend our time in some physical activities rather than sitting in front of T. V. Johnson, Steven. † Watching T. V Makes You Smarter† They Say I Say with Readings. Eds. Cathy Birkenstein, Russel Durst, Gerald Graff. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012. 277-294. Print. â€Å"Watching T. V. Makes You Smarter† by Steven Johnson is an idea that if we watch T. V, it will make us smarter. In order to support his idea, Steven is comparing the different television shows shown in different time period in the United States television history.Steven is trying to prove, what is good for our children and what is not. Steven believes that television is a tool of brain enhancement. Steven states that instead of keeping the kids away from violent shows or tawdry content, the real challenge for the parents should be whether a given show engages or sedates the mind. Steven believes that smart culture is not something that we force on our children, it is something we share. Stevens, Dana. † Think Outside The Idiot Box† They Say I Say with Readings. Eds. Cathy Birkenstein, Russel Durst, Gerald Graff.New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012 295-298. Print. Dana Steven’s â€Å"Thinki ng outside the Idiot Box† is a huge criticism of the idea that watching TV makes us smarter. Dana believes that if watching TV makes us smarter then we need to watch a lot of TV or watching TV should be the only thing to do in our life. Dana states that grown-ups should be trusted to judge their own shows. According to Dana, she would love to watch a lot of TV, if she gets paid for it. Dana thinks that the idea of considering the T. V. as tool of brain enhancement is hilarious.

Bag of Bones CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

I reached for Ki with the part of my mind that had for the last few weeks known what she was wearing, what room of the trailer she was in, and what she was doing there. There was nothing, of course that link was also dissolved. I called for Jo I think I did but Jo was gone, too. I was on my own. God help me. God help us both. I could feel panic trying to descend and fought it off. I had to keep my mind clear. If I couldn't think, any chance Ki might still have would be lost. I walked rapidly back down the hall to the foyer, trying not to hear the sick voice in the back of my head, the one saying that Ki was lost already, dead already. I knew no such thing, couldn't know it now that the connection between us was broken. I looked down at the heap of books, then up at the door. The new tracks had come in this way and gone out this way, too. Lightning stroked the sky and thunder cracked. The wind was rising again. I went to the door, reached for the knob, then paused. Something was caught in the crack between the door and the jamb, something as fine and floaty as a strand of spider's silk. A single white hair. I looked at it with a sick lack of surprise. I should have known, of course, and if not for the strain I'd been under and the successive shocks of this terrible day, I would have known. It was all on the tape John had played for me that morning . . . a time that already seemed part of another man's life. For one thing, there was the time-check marking the point where John had hung up on her. Nine-forty A.M., Eastern Daylight, the robot voice had said, which meant that Rogette had been calling at six-forty in the morning . . . if, that was, she'd really been calling from Palm Springs. That was at least possible; had the oddity occurred to me while we were driving from the airport to Mattie's trailer, I would have told myself that there were no doubt insomniacs all over California who finished their East Coast business before the sun had hauled itself fully over the horizon, and good for them. But there was something else that couldn't be explained away so easily. At one point John had ejected the tape. He did it because, he said, I'd gone as white as a sheet instead of looking amused. I had told him to go on and play the rest; it had just surprised me to hear her again. The quality of her voice. Christ, the reproduction is good. Except it was really the boys in the basement who had reacted to John's tape; my subconscious co-conspirators. And it hadn't been her voice that had scared them badly enough to turn my face white. The underhum had done that. The characteristic underhum you always got on TR calls, both those you made and those you received. Rogette Whitmore had never left TR-90 at all. If my failing to realize that this morning cost Ki Devore her life this afternoon, I wouldn't be able to live with myself. I told God that over and over as I went plunging down the railroad-tie steps again, running into the face of a revitalized storm. It's a blue-eyed wonder I didn't go flying right off the embankment. Half my swimming float had grounded there, and perhaps I could have impaled myself on its splintered boards and died like a vampire writhing on a stake. What a pleasant thought that was. Running isn't good for people near panic; it's like scratching poison ivy. By the time I had thrown my arm around one of the pines at the foot of the steps to check my progress, I was on the edge of losing all coherent thought. Ki's name was beating in my head again, so loudly there wasn't room for much else. Then a stroke of lightning leaped out of the sky to my right and knocked the last three feet of trunk out from beneath a huge old spruce which had probably been here when Sara and Kito were still alive. If I'd been looking directly at it I would have been blinded; even with my head turned three-quarters away, the stroke left a huge blue swatch like the aftermath of a gigantic camera flash floating in front of my eyes. There was a grinding, juddering sound as two hundred feet of blue spruce toppled into the lake, sending up a long curtain of spray, which seemed to hang between the gray sky and gray water. The stump was on fire in the rain, burning like a witch's hat. It had the effect of a slap, clearing my head and giving me one final chance to use my brain. I took a breath and forced myself to do just that. Why had I come down here in the first place? Why did I think Rogette had brought Kyra toward the lake, where I had just been, instead of carrying her away from me, up the driveway to Lane Forty-two? Don't be stupid. She came down here because The Street's the way back to Warrington's, and Warrington's is where she's been, all by herself, ever since she sent the boss's body back to California in his private jet. She had sneaked into the house while I was under Jo's studio, finding the tin box in the belly of the owl and studying that scrap of genealogy. She would have taken Ki then if I'd given her the chance, but I didn't. I came hurrying back, afraid something was wrong, afraid someone might be trying to get hold of the kid Had Rogette awakened her? Had Ki seen her and tried to warn me before drifting off again? Was that what had brought me in such a hurry? Maybe. I'd still been in the zone then, we'd still been linked then. Rogette had certainly been in the house when I came back. She might even have been in the north-bedroom closet and peering at me through the crack. Part of me had known it, too. Part of me had felt her, felt something that was not-Sara. Then I'd left again. Grabbed the carry-bag from Slips ‘n Greens and come down here. Turned right, turned north. Toward the birch, the rock, the bag of bones. I'd done what I had to do, and while I was doing it, Rogette carried Kyra down the railroad-tie steps behind me and turned left on The Street. Turned south toward Warrington's. With a sinking feeling deep in my belly, I realized I had probably heard Ki . . . might even have seen her. That bird peeking timidly out from cover during the lull had been no bird. Ki was awake by then, Ki had seen me perhaps had seen Jo, as well and tried to call out. She had managed just that one little peep before Rogette had covered her mouth. How long ago had that been? It seemed like forever, but I had an idea it hadn't been long at all less than five minutes, maybe. But it doesn't take long to drown a child. The image of Kito's bare arm sticking straight out of the water tried to come back the hand at the end of it opening and closing, opening and closing, as if it were trying to breathe for the lungs that couldn't and I pushed it away. I also suppressed the urge to simply sprint in the direction of Warrington's. Panic would take me for sure if I did that. In all the years since her death I had never longed for Jo with the bitter intensity I felt then. But she was gone; there wasn't even a whisper of her. With no one to depend on but myself, I started south along the tree-littered Street, skirting the blowdowns where I could, crawling under them if they blocked my way entirely, taking the noisy branch-breaking course over the top only as a last resort. As I went I issued what I imagine are all the standard prayers in such a situation, but none of them seemed to get past the image of Rogette Whitmore's face rising in my mind. Her screaming, merciless face. I remember thinking This is the outdoor version of the Ghost House. Certainly the woods seemed haunted to me as I struggled along: trees only loosened in the first grand blow were falling by the score in this follow-up cap of wind and rain. The noise was like great crunching footfalls, and I didn't need to worry about the noise my own feet were making. When I passed the Batchelders' camp, a circular prefab construction sitting on an outcrop of rock like a hat on a footstool, I saw that the entire roof had been bashed flat by a hemlock. Half a mile south of Sara I saw one of Ki's white hair ribbons lying in the path. I picked it up, thinking how much that red edging looked like blood. Then I stuffed it into my pocket and went on. Five minutes later I came to an old moss-caked pine that had fallen across the path; it was still connected to its stump by a stretched and bent network of splinters, and squalled like a line of rusty hinges as the surging water lifted and dropped what had been its upper twenty or thirty feet, now floating in the lake. There was space to crawl under, and when I dropped to my knees I saw other knee-tracks, just beginning to fill with water. I saw something else: the second hair ribbon. I tucked it into my pocket with the first. I was halfway under the pine when I heard another tree go over, this one much closer. The sound was followed by a scream not pain or fear but surprised anger. Then, even over the hiss of the rain and the wind, I could hear Rogette's voice: ‘Come back! Don't go out there, it's dangerous!' I squirmed the rest of the way under the tree, barely feeling the stump of a branch which tore a groove in my lower back, got to my feet, and sprinted along the path. If the fallen trees I came to were small, I hurdled them without slowing down. If they were bigger, I scrabbled over with no thought to where they might claw or dig in. Thunder whacked. There was a brilliant stroke of lightning, and in its glare I saw gray barnboard through the trees. On the day I'd first seen Rogette I'd only been able to catch glimpses of Warrington's lodge, but now the forest had been torn open like an old garment this area would be years recovering. The lodge's rear half had been pretty well demolished by a pair of huge trees that seemed to have fallen together. They had crossed like a knife and fork on a diner's plate and lay on the ruins in a shaggy X. Ki's voice, rising over the storm only because it was shrill with terror: ‘Go away! I don't want you, white nana! Go away!' It was horrible to hear the terror in her voice, but wonderful to hear her voice at all. About forty feet from where Rogette's shout had frozen me in place, one more tree lay across the path. Rogette herself stood on the far side of it, holding a hand out to Ki. The hand was dripping blood, but I hardly noticed. It was Kyra I noticed. The dock running between The Street and The Sunset Bar was a long one seventy feet at least, perhaps a hundred. Long enough so that on a pretty summer evening you could stroll it hand-in-hand with your date or your lover and make a memory. The storm hadn't torn it away not yet but the wind had twisted it like a ribbon. I remember newsreel footage at some childhood Saturday matinee, film of a suspension bridge dancing in a hurricane, and that was what the dock between Warring-ton's and The Sunset Bar looked like. It jounced up and down in the surging water, groaning in all its slatted joints like a wooden accordion. There had been a rail presumably to guide those who'd made a heavy night of it safely back to shore but it was gone now. K yra was halfway out along this swaying, dipping length of wood. I could see at least three rectangles of blackness between the shore and where she stood, places where boards had snapped off. From beneath the dock came the disturbed clung-clung-clung of the empty steel drums that were holding it up. Several of these drums had come unanchored and were floating away. Ki had her arms stretched out for balance like a tightrope walker in the circus. The black Harley-Davidson tee-shirt flapped around her knees and sunburned shoulders. ‘Come back!' Rogette cried. Her lank hair flew around her head; the shiny black raincoat she was wearing rippled. She was holding both hands out now, one bloody and one not. I had an idea Ki might have bitten her. ‘No, white nana!' Ki shook her head in wild negation and I wanted to tell her don't do that, Ki-bird, don't shake your head like that, very bad idea. She tottered, one arm pointed up at the sky and one down at the water so she looked for a moment like an airplane in a steep bank. If the dock had picked that moment to take a hard buck beneath her, Ki would have spilled off the side. She regained some precarious balance instead, although I thought I saw her bare feet slide a little on the slick boards. ‘Go away, white nana, I don't want you! Go . . . go take a nap, you look tired!' Ki didn't see me; all her attention was fixed on the white nana. The white nana didn't see me, either. I dropped to my belly and squirmed under the tree, pulling myself along with my clawed hands. Thunder rolled across the lake like a big mahogany ball, the sound echoing off the mountains. When I got to my knees again, I saw that Rogette was advancing slowly toward the shore end of the dock. For every step she took forward, Kyra took a shaky, dangerous step backward. Rogette was holding her good hand out, though for a moment I thought this one had begun to bleed as well. The stuff running through her bunchy fingers was too dark for blood, however, and when she began to talk, speaking in a hideous coaxing voice that made my skin crawl, I realized it was melting chocolate. ‘Let's play the game, Ki-bird,' Rogette cooed. ‘Do you want to start?' She took a step. Ki took a compensatory step backward, tottered, caught her balance. My heart stopped, then resumed racing. I closed the distance between myself and the woman as rapidly as I could, but I didn't run; I didn't want her to know a thing until she woke up. If she woke up. I didn't care if she did or not. Hell, if I could fracture the back of George Footman's skull with a hammer, I could certainly put a hurt on this horror. As I walked, I laced my hands together into one large fist. ‘No? Don't want to start? Too shy?' Rogette spoke in a sugary Romper Room voice that made me want to grind my teeth together. ‘All right, I'll start. Happy! What rhymes with happy, Ki-bird? Pappy . . . and nappy . . . you were taking a nappy, weren't you, when I came and woke you up. And lappy . . . would you want to come and sit on my lappy, Ki-bird? We'll feed each other chocolate, just like we used to . . . I'll tell you a new knock-knock joke . . . ‘ Another step. She had come to the edge of the dock. If she'd thought of it, she could simply have thrown rocks at Kyra as she had at me, thrown until she connected with one and knocked Ki into the lake. But I don't think she got even close to such a notion. Once crazy goes past a certain point, you're on a turnpike with no exit ramps. Rogette had other plans for Kyra. ‘Come on, Ki-Ki, play the game with white nana.' She held out the chocolate again, gooey Hershey's Kisses dripping through crumpled foil. Kyra's eyes shifted, and at last she saw me. I shook my head, trying to tell her to be quiet, but it was no good an expression of joyous relief crossed her face. She cried out my name, and I saw Rogette's shoulders go up in surprise. I ran the last dozen feet, raising my joined hands like a club, but I slipped a little on the wet ground at the crucial moment and Rogette made a kind of ducking cringe. Instead of striking her at the back of the neck as I'd meant to, my joined hands only glanced off her shoulder. She staggered, went to one knee, and was up again almost at once. Her eyes were like little blue arc-lamps, spitting rage instead of electricity. ‘You!' she said, hissing the word over the top of her tongue, turning it into the sound of some ancient curse: Heeyuuuu! Behind us Kyra screamed my name, stagger-dancing on the wet wood and waving her arms in an effort to keep from falling in the lake. Water slopped onto the deck and ran over her small bare feet. ‘Hold on, Ki!' I called back. Rogette saw my attention shift and took her chance she spun and ran out onto the dock. I sprang after her, grabbed her by the hair, and it came off in my hand. All of it. I stood there at the edge of the surging lake with her mat of white hair dangling from my fist like a scalp. Rogette looked over her shoulder, snarling, an ancient bald gnome in the rain, and I thought It's him, it's Devore, he never died at all, somehow he and the woman swapped identities, she was the one who committed suicide, it was her body that went back to California on the jet Even as she turned the other way again and began to run toward Ki, I knew better. It was Rogette, all right, but she'd come by that hideous resemblance honestly. Whatever was wrong with her had done more than make her hair fall out; it had aged her as well. Seventy, I'd thought, but that had to be at least ten years beyond the actual mark. I've known a lot of folks name their kids alike, Mrs M. had told me. They think it's cute. Max Devore must have thought so, too, because he had named a son Roger and his daughter Rogette. Perhaps she'd come by the Whitmore part honestly she might have been married in her younger years but once the wig was gone, her antecedents were beyond argument. The woman tottering along the wet dock to finish the job was Kyra's aunt. Ki began to back up rapidly, making no effort to be careful and pick her footing. She was going into the drink; there was no way she could stay up. But before she could fall, a wave slapped the dock between them at a place where some of the barrels had come loose and the slatted walkway was already partly submerged. Foamy water flew up and began to twist into one of those helix shapes I had seen before. Rogette stopped ankle-deep in the water sloshing over the dock, and I stopped about twelve feet behind her. The shape solidified, and even before I could make out the face I recognized the baggy shorts with their fading swirls of color and the smock top. Only Kmart sells smock tops of such perfect shapelessness; I think it may be a federal law. It was Mattie. A grave gray Mattie, looking at Rogette with grave gray eyes. Rogette raised her hands, tottered, tried to turn. At that moment a wave surged under the dock, making it rise and then drop like an amusement-park ride. Rogette went over the side. Beyond her, beyond the water-shape in the rain, I could see Ki sprawling on the porch of The Sunset Bar. That last heave had flipped her to temporary safety like a human tiddlywink. Mattie was looking at me, her lips moving, her eyes on mine. I had been able to tell what Jo was saying, but this time I had no idea. I tried with all my might, but I couldn't make it out. ‘Mommy! Mommy!' The figure didn't so much turn as revolve; it didn't actually seem to be there below the hem of the long shorts. It moved up the dock to the bar, where Ki was now standing with her arms held out. Something grabbed at my foot. I looked down and saw a drowning apparition in the surging water. Dark eyes stared up at me from beneath the bald skull. Rogette was coughing water from between lips that were as purple as plums. Her free hand waved weakly up at me. The fingers opened . . . and closed. Opened . . . and closed. I dropped to one knee and took it. It clamped over mine like a steel claw and she yanked, trying to pull me in with her. The purple lips peeled back from yellow toothpegs like those in Sara's skull. And yes I thought that this time Rogette was the one laughing. I rocked on my haunches and yanked her up. I didn't think about it; it was pure instinct. I had her by at least a hundred pounds, and three quarters of her came out of the lake like a gigantic, freakish trout. She screamed, darted her head forward, and buried her teeth in my wrist. The pain was immediate and enormous. I jerked my arm up even higher and then brought it down, not thinking about hurting her, wanting only to rid myself of that weasel's mouth. Another wave hit the half-submerged dock as I did. Its rising, splintered edge impaled Rogette's descending face. One eye popped; a dripping yellow splinter ran up her nose like a dagger; the scant skin of her forehead split, snapping away from the bone like two suddenly released windowshades. Then the lake pulled her away. I saw the torn topography of her face a moment longer, upturned into the torrential rain, wet and as pale as the light from a fluorescent bar. Then she rolled over, her black vinyl raincoat swirling around her li ke a shroud. What I saw when I looked back toward The Sunset Bar was another glimpse under the skin of this world, but one far different from the face of Sara in the Green Lady or the snarling, half-glimpsed shape of the Outsider. Kyra stood on the wide wooden porch in front of the bar amid a litter of overturned wicker furniture. In front of her was a waterspout in which I could still see very faintly the fading shape of a woman. She was on her knees, holding her arms out. They tried to embrace. Ki's arms went through Mattie and came out dripping. ‘Mommy, I can't get you!' The woman in the water was speaking I could see her lips moving. Ki looked at her, rapt. Then, for just a moment Mattie turned to me. Our eyes met, and hers were made of the lake. They were Dark Score, which was here long before I came and will remain long after I am gone. I put my hands to my mouth, kissed my palms, and held them out to her. Shimmery hands went up, as if to catch those kisses. ‘Mommy don't go!' Kyra screamed, and flung her arms around the figure. She was immediately drenched and backed away with her eyes squinched shut, coughing. There was no longer a woman with her; there was only water running across the boards and dripping through the cracks to rejoin the lake, which comes up from deep springs far below, from the fissures in the rock which underlies the TR and all this part of our world. Moving carefully, doing my own balancing act, I made my way out along the wavering dock to The Sunset Bar. When I got there I took Kyra in my arms. She hugged me tight, shivering fiercely against me. I could hear the small dicecup rattle of her teeth and smell the lake in her hair. ‘Mattie came,' she said. ‘I know. I saw her.' ‘Mattie made the white nana go away.' ‘I saw that, too. Be very still now, Ki. We're going back to solid ground, but you can't move around a lot. If you do, we'll end up swimming.' She was good as gold. When we were on The Street again and I tried to put her down, she clung to my neck fiercely. That was okay with me. I thought of taking her into Warrington's, but didn't. There would be towels in there, probably dry clothes as well, but I had an idea there might also be a bathtub full of warm water waiting in there. Besides, the rain was slackening again and this time the sky looked lighter in the west. ‘What did Mattie tell you, hon?' I asked as we walked north along The Street. Ki would let me put her down so we could crawl under the downed trees we came to, but raised her arms to be picked up again on the far side of each. ‘To be a good girl and not be sad. But I am sad. I'm very sad.' She began to cry, and I stroked her wet hair. By the time we got to the railroad-tie steps she had cried herself out . . . and over the mountains in the west, I could see one small but very brilliant wedge of blue. ‘All the woods fell down,' Ki said, looking around. Her eyes were very wide. ‘Well . . . not all, but a lot of them, I guess.' Halfway up the steps I paused, puffing and seriously winded. I didn't ask Ki if I could put her down, though. I didn't want to put her down. I just wanted to catch my breath. ‘Mike?' ‘What, doll?' ‘Mattie told me something else.' ‘What?' ‘Can I whisper?' ‘If you want to, sure.' Ki leaned close, put her lips to my ear, and whispered. I listened. When she was done I nodded, kissed her cheek, shifted her to the other hip, and carried her the rest of the way up to the house. ‘T'wasn't the stawm of the century, chummy, and don't you go thinkin that it was. Nossir. So said the old-timers who sat in front of the big Army medics' tent that served as the Lakeview General that late summer and fall. A huge elm had toppled across Route 68 and bashed the store in like a Saltines box. Adding injury to insult, the elm had carried a bunch of spitting live lines with it. They ignited propane from a ruptured tank, and the whole thing went kaboom. The tent was a pretty good warm-weather substitute, though, and folks on the TR took to saying they was going down to the MASH for bread and beer this because you could still see a faded red cross on both sides of the tent's roof. The old-timers sat along one canvas wall in folding chairs, waving to other old-timers when they went pooting by in their rusty old-timer cars (all certified old-timers own either Fords or Chevys, so I'm well on my way in that regard), swapping their undershirts for flannels as the days began to cool toward cider season and spud-digging, watching the township start to rebuild itself around them. And as they watched they talked about the ice storm of the past winter, the one that knocked out lights and splintered a million trees between Kittery and Fort Kent; they talked about the cyclones that touched down in August of 1985; they talked about the sleet hurricane of 1927. Now there was some stawms, they said. There was some stawms, by Gorry. I'm sure they've got a point, and I don't argue with them you rarely win an argument with a genuine Yankee old-timer, never if it's about the weather but for me the storm of July 21, 1998, will always be the storm. And I know a little girl who feels the same. She may live until 2100, given all the benefits of modern medicine, but I think that for Kyra Elizabeth Devore that will always be the storm. The one where her dead mother came to her dressed in the lake. The first vehicle to come down my driveway didn't arrive until almost six o'clock. It turned out to be not a Castle County police car but a yellow bucket-loader with flashing yellow lights on top of the cab and a guy in a Central Maine Power Company slicker working the controls. The guy in the other seat was a cop, though was in fact Norris Ridgewick, the County Sheriff himself. And he came to my door with his gun drawn. The change in the weather the TV guy had promised had already arrived, clouds and storm-cells driven east by a chilly wind running just under gale force. Trees had continued to fall in the dripping woods for at least an hour after the rain stopped. Around five o'clock I made us toasted-cheese sandwiches and tomato soup . . . comfort food, Jo would have called it. Kyra ate listlessly, but she did eat, and she drank a lot of milk. I had wrapped her in another of my tee-shirts and she tied her own hair back. I offered her the white ribbons, but she shook her head decisively and opted for a rubber band instead. ‘I don't like those ribbons anymore,' she said. I decided I didn't, either, and threw them away. Ki watched me do it and offered no objection. Then I crossed the living room to the woodstove. ‘What are you doing?' She finished her second glass of milk, wriggled off her chair, and came over to me. ‘Making a fire. Maybe all those hot days thinned my blood. That's what my mom would have said, anyway.' She watched silently as I pulled sheet after sheet from the pile of paper I'd taken off the table and stacked on top of the woodstove, balled each one up, and slipped it in through the door. When I felt I'd loaded enough, I began to lay bits of kindling on top. ‘What's written on those papers?' Ki asked. ‘Nothing important.' ‘Is it a story?' ‘Not really. It was more like . . . oh, I don't know. A crossword puzzle. Or a letter.' ‘Pretty long letter,' she said, and then laid her head against my leg as if she were tired. ‘Yeah,' I said. ‘Love letters usually are, but keeping them around is a bad idea.' ‘Why?' ‘Because they . . . ‘ Can come back to haunt you was what rose to mind, but I wouldn't say it. ‘Because they can embarrass you in later life.' ‘Oh.' ‘Besides,' I said. ‘These papers are like your ribbons, in a way.' ‘You don't like them anymore.' ‘Right.' She saw the box then the tin box with JO'S NOTIONS written on the front. It was on the counter between the living room and the sink, not far from where old Krazy Kat had hung on the wall. I didn't remember bringing the box up from the studio with me, but I suppose I might not have; I was pretty freaked. I also think it could have come up . . . kind of by itself. I do believe such things now; I have reason to. Kyra's eyes lit up in a way they hadn't since she had wakened from her short nap to find out her mother was dead. She stood on tiptoe to take hold of the box, then ran her small fingers across the gilt letters. I thought about how important it was for a kid to own a tin box. You had to have one for your secret stuff the best toy, the prettiest bit of lace, the first piece of jewelry. Or a picture of your mother, perhaps. ‘This is so . . . pretty,' she said in a soft, awed voice. ‘You can have it if you don't mind it saying JO'S NOTIONS instead of ‘KI'S NOTIONS. There are some papers in it I want to read, but I could put them somewhere else.' She looked at me to make sure I wasn't kidding, saw I wasn't. ‘I'd love it,' she said in the same soft, awed voice. I took the box from her, scooped out the steno books, notes, and clippings, then handed it back to Ki. She practiced taking the lid off and then putting it back on. ‘Guess what I'll put in here,' she said. ‘Secret treasures?' ‘Yes!' she said, and actually smiled for a moment. ‘Who was Jo, Mike? Do I know her? I do, don't I? She was one of the fridgearator people.' ‘She ‘ A thought occurred. I shuffled through the yellowed clippings. Nothing. I thought I'd lost it somewhere along the way, then saw a corner of what I was looking for peeking from the middle of one of the steno notebooks. I slid it out and handed it to Ki. ‘What is it?' ‘A backwards photo. Hold it up to the light.' She did, and looked for a long time, rapt. Faint as a dream I could see my wife in her hand, my wife standing on the swimming float in her two-piece suit. ‘That's Jo,' I said. ‘She's pretty. I'm glad to have her box for my things.' ‘I am too, Ki.' I kissed the top of her head. When Sheriff Ridgewick hammered on the door, I thought it wise to answer with my hands up. He looked wired. What seemed to ease the situation was a simple, uncalculated question. ‘Where's Alan Pangborn these days, Sheriff?' ‘Over New Hampshire,' Ridgewick said, lowering his pistol a little (a minute or two later he holstered it without even seeming to be aware he had done so). ‘He and Polly are doing real well. Except for her arthritis. That's nasty, I guess, but she still has her good days. A person can go along quite awhile if they get a good day every once and again, that's what I think. Mr. Noonan, I have a lot of questions for you. You know that, don't you?' ‘Yes.' ‘First off and most important, do you have the child? Kyra Devore?' ‘Yes.' ‘Where is she?' ‘I'll be happy to show you.' We walked down the north-wing corridor and stood just outside the bedroom doorway, looking in. The duvet was pulled up to her chin and she was sleeping deeply. The stuffed dog was curled in one hand we could just see its muddy tail poking out of her fist at one end and its nose poking out at the other. We stood there for a long time, neither of us saying anything, watching her sleep in the light of a summer evening. In the woods the trees had stopped falling, but the wind still blew. Around the eaves of Sara Laughs it made a sound like ancient music.