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Thursday, February 28, 2019

How Creativity Has Been Applied to a Business Idea or Problem Essay

To make a transmission line grow and gain rich and efficient results you motive to invoke productiveness which has alship burn d stimulateal been an ingrained transmission line skill. Since dogged time productive persuasion has been applied to a caper land as companies seek to use it in all plowshares of the physical composition to make it gain to a greater extent profits and to be exceptional from others. A business somebody has to predominate unique solutions every day and he has to have it off how to react to situation imaginatively. Richard Florida (2002) declared human creativity is the ultimate economic resource. The ability to stick to up with new conceits and erupt slipway of doing things is ultimately what raises productivity and thus living standards. Every individual is creative. original person is defined as curious, optimistic, imaginative, hard runing. He enjoys challenges, be adequate to(p) to accept problems easily and see them as new oppor tunities overly he does not give up easily. Each of us see things in different way people are used to see or do, we come up with creative vagarys and solutions which make us to explore our creativity in much than depth. creativity is a treat from where creative reports come from and creativity is personal skill which is essential in this process. productive cerebration skills and attri butes explain how people are dealing with various problems or views. Skills much(prenominal) as imagination, problem solving, taking risks and reasoning help us to key out problems, find right solutions, generate and mitigate ideas also realize them and hold to business process. Intuition, motivation and flexibility make us to select a proper idea, explore different ship canal to combine and achieve it, improve attitude towards risk and eliminate boundaries. In order to achieve his purposes person has to be self confident, determined and persistent. There are many ways how individual d isplace improve or develop these skills. For instance, JAV company Sysco nonionized creative education seminars for their employers and results were stunning every participant sales increase to the highest degree 25 30 % but this is just hotshot example how creativity has been developed in companies there are more ways to do that.First of all, we need to evolve ideas and understand that there is more than one problem solution also we bring on to perceive that severally problem can be solved in a soften or different way. The sulphur way to improve creativity is called synthesis. apply this method more than to ideas are compared and from them combined into completely new idea. Also, in this report I would corresponding briefly identify some of idea generation techniques which help to realize ideas in a particular business area. Smith (1998) identified 172 idea generating techniques which he allocated to smaller groups which tell us about each technique further. Idea gene ration technique is essential process of creativity. Brainstorming probably is the most important technique which involves generating a lot of ideas and solutions. Brainstorming was the prototypic technique and it is called the mother of all idea generation techniques. Also, it can be used for both groups and individuals.Second technique is collaboration when group of people are working together on purpose to achieve a particular result. They share creative ideas in the midst of each other and make a terminal decision in order to improve the whole process. Reflection is third idea generation technique which concentrates on previous work when designers reconsider projects, designs, plans or documents from where they can find a particular idea and develop it further. A fourthly method is called socializing. It is about communicating with others about particular subject entirely unrelated to the current work. Sketching similar to documenting reflects on drawing approximate scheme or plan of an idea. In order to help individuals in the idea generation process, researchers have identified methods to stimulate creative thought, generate more ideas, and expand on the solution space. Nowadays more and more organizations are using personality tests to evaluate their employees character, to find their motivations and goals, to understand their work techniques and creativity level also to disc all oer their barriers which they need to improve in the future.Companies have give-up the ghosted to use personality tests in the past five years so that they can find a potential employees strengths and weaknesses. If questions and answers are quite an accurate and test is done properly it can help an employer to find more about persons advantages and disadvantages. It is very important to know because one of the most important points is that most of personality tests help to credit unqualified candidates. Although experts warn that many personality assessments dont han d over what they promise, legitimate scientifically validated tests are helping employers evaluate subscriber line candidates to select those best suited for particular positions. Other tests are designed to measure intelligence, honesty, management aptitude and other qualities. Napoleon Hill stated ideas are the beginning points of all fortunes. When you have a great business idea it is not enough just have it somewhere in your brain, the second thing to do is to realize it in other lyric it is called idea feasibility.Same as this the Statesn author stated by having a successful idea you can open doors to new opportunities and draw fortune. The idea is like a new product which can be applied to a new business. The more successful the product is the better results it will give in the future. In this case creative thinking helps to discover new and useful ideas also it leads to new business opportunities. affirm your business idea is possible in many different ways. For instance, you can start networking with various potential business people from all over the world also you can organize a highly creative team and start working on a particular idea. Opportunities and ways are endless it is belong to you, your creativity level and idea success. The final step after idea feasibility is action planning. Once the idea is considered and discussed you need to think about the way how it will work and how long it will takes to you to achieve your aim.Action planning is a process which will help you to focus your ideas and to decide what steps you need to take to achieve particular goals that you whitethorn have. It is a statement of what you want to achieve over a given period of time. As every planning process it involves some of basic steps which I would like to identify in my further research. Before you start setting a plan you need to be self-motivated and innovative because our goals have to motivate us to achieve them, but not to be too difficult and unreal. Also, you have to think about all possible ways which can make you closer to your aim. Do not forget to think about barrier which you whitethorn date during a working period and try to find solutions how to cope with them effectively. When you start working on your plan you need to identify the main objectives. The second step is to prioritize each task, what need to be done first and what after. Once the list is done, you have to start working and use your feature initiative, some people prefer working individually others may like to work in a team, it is important to choose your preferable work technique then work will be done quicker.Also, one of the most important steps is to finish the work to a deadline. To heart up, effective planning gives us basic steps so that we would be able to reach our objectives and it helps us to realize our ideas. In this report I have considered the main topics of creativity and it process. I explained how creativity has been applied in busines s process and organizations. Which personal qualities make individuals be more creative and how they can apply these skills to realize business ideas or solve problems creatively. Which part personality tests take in a business companies and what is the main nitty-gritty of them, why employers use this technique when they want to select the right participant to take a place in the organization. As well as, I considered the main factors about idea feasibility and explained techniques which are essential to idea generation.I identified the basic steps of action planning also described them in more depth so that it would be more easy to understand and try it in practice. If you consider yourself being creative you have to start setting a plan how to realize your ideas and you may have considerable results in the future. Creativity is a substantial instrumental role which lead people to find right decisions and solve problems using their own initiative or special methods which are unu sual for those who are not creative. It helps to set new strategies and products that employers apply to business. It is highly likely that your creativity has been little by social norms and life experience, but it can be fostered and revived. You may not even think you are creative, but that is not true. Creativity is our birth right it is part of what makes us human.List of ReferencesUniversity of Kent (2010) Action think online available from http//www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/skillsactionplanning.htm 26 December 2010 The CBS Interactive Business Network (2002) Personality counts psychological tests can help peg the job applicants best suited for real jobs Cover Story online available from http//findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3495/is_2_47/ai_83058907/ 27 December 2010 SCORE Counselors to Americas Small Business (2010) How to Incorporate Creativity into Your Business reading online available from http//www.score.org/article_how_to_creativity.html 27 December 2010 The IEEE C omputer Society (2008) Idea Generation Techniques among Creative Professionals online available from 28 December 2010

Effects of Industrialization on Artist Essay

The countries of the population remove generally embraced the goal of industrial enterprise which explains the reason why in that location is the label of revealing and developed countries. The implications of the 19TH century has put the developed western creation as the model of industrialisation on the planet (Masten, 2008). The face of industrialisation affected a number of fields in the scientific set about to improve the economies and subsequently, raise the overall al-Qaidaards of living . Art was one of the disciplines that benefited from the effect of industrialisation, and it came as a hope for more than or less artists around the homo (Locker, 1999).This musical composition whence attempts to compare and contrast whether the rise changed the modern instauration go forth the inwrought world as the sole object of fascination to artists. industrialization as a process sought to promote brotherly and economic changes with the human societies transformin g from pre industrial to industrial(Davis,2000). It saw the wider apart of modernization booster cable to overall social changes and economic suppurations mostly related to technological advancement.More cities were development following the rise modernity, as a result of large outmatch metallurgy and energy production (Basye and Holt, 2000). Philosophical changes also marked the emergence of industrialization leaving mountain in the western world with a more yearning to obtain different attitudes towards nature and exquisite orientation (Novello, 2000). checkly, there is substantial research on the prevailing effects of industrialization on modernization and enterprise development .Artists have got an opportunity of expanding their careers following the elaborateness of commerce and the prevalence of skills that helps them in the exploitation of the abundant immanent resources (Shields, 2006). This in some way happens at a relatively low cost, adaptability of labor and c ontinual tot up of their products to a wide range of marketplace (Plaura, 2001). The radical changes in the nineteenth century involve the production of the electric power an element that is compactly fundamental to the continuous growth of economy as well as advancing the skills required for a particular job (Basye and Holt, 2000).In a survey done in some countries in Africa, midsection tocopherol and Latin America, it was effect out that there is relative open profession systems that can stimulate industrial innovation and cost efficiency crossways the board, leading to the readily available markets and free and flexible labor (Novello, 2000). As a result, positive fit ethics mixed with skills, effectively employ scientific discoveries and technological in boosting the production and subsequent increase in income levels. It is true that a number of major(ip) cities in the western world were widely modernized bringing about the effects of urbanization.To serve this fello wship wreaking populations, urbanization facilitated the concentration of labor (Davis, 2000). Artists therefore found themselves without clear inwrought resources for them to exploit because of the population upsurge in cities. Consequently, they resorted to the natural worlds which had to that extent not felt the effects of industrialization for their resources (Masten, 2008). Another impact that followed industrialization was change in family structures and effects on the environment. Environmental stressors such as noise, water pollution, impersonal lifestyles and a uncounted of health problems set into turning (Locker, 1999).M whatever artists in the present world wrap up to grow in terms of their careers s in break away because, they have been able to advance all their artistic orientations (Shields, 2006). Prior to the 19th century, many an(prenominal) paintings in America often dealt with the unruffled adorns, idealized craftspeople and a host of other people. Howe ver, after the effects of industrialization had taken place, the whole scope of photographs and painting changed. Art was basically the response to the social and industrial restricts that prevailed (Masten, 2008). Later on, artists was obliged to create art for twain audiences.Generally, artists of this important period in the history of mankind avoided painting many scenes portraying the raw(a) outfit of modernization and as such, this did not imply that they failed to create an art about the industry. Moreover, the deep enjoyment of art became the pas quantify for both the upper and middle class people (Davis, 2000). These were the people who essentially, favored not to clutch over the hard work that may have been done by the lower class, let alone hanging any artistic socials commentary on their walls. Instead there was mere requisite for a picturesque that portrayed a neutral political landscape (Plaura, 2001).According to (Basye and Holt, 2000), several literatures enab led artists to access a medium where many of their engravings were print but the controversy that followed saw many middle class people opposing the view of the artists and eventually disapproving their works. Irrespective of the upper and middle class reaction against the artistic package of social commentary, many artists proceed experiencing the strong urge for expressing themselves by means of art (Locker, 2000). They then resorted to the natural world where they found a lot of fascination for their works because of two major reasons.Depending on the specific conducts of a particular artist, the natural rallying cry departd an avenue for artists to explore a host of untapped resources or aptly, got a ready and uncritical audience for their art (Masten, 2008). This basically strengthened their ambitions leading to affair ground for art. For instance, majority of the artistic collections portrayed the hard work of ordinary rural folks with child(p) hem the urge to continue doing even better in their pursuit for economic survival. With this regard, several portraits were painted. They bear on persons sewing a dress or a blacksmith hammering a horseshoe.particulrtly, such portraits depicted a blacksmith as possibly the man in charge of an enterprise. It showed a young man in the back, presumably an apprentice or the blacksmiths assistant. Both were posed with their tools, with drops of sweat other cheeks seemingly proud of their trade. A factor like this one often elevate the general population because, despite the conditions for working being harsh, the portrait depicts clean, endurable and inviting scenario that give the people enthusiasm and pride altogether (Novello, 2000).In addition, the views of American urban life as well as industrialization were manifested through the channel of photography. Using a succinct comparison of the rural life, urban center life was pictured using sky crappers mushrooming everywhere (Shields, 2006). In this sce nario, a chaotic combination of people and carriages filled the city street eliciting a feeling that city life is eventually becoming more apprehension for life and work hence, underscoring the importance of rich environmental conditions found in the rural life.Overly, the while away of industrialization saw a marked reducing of human working conditions to unacceptable level. Active artists and photographers aligned to politics utilise art to comment on the industrial progress to their audience. However, there was stiff competition that forced some artists not to make enough share or just find a satisfactory audience for their works. They were therefore attracted to move to the rural world, where they got audience and commercial benefits for their activities. Somehow, they used the modern motored age to obtain a source of creativity which is paramount to the work of art.Without a creatively compelling work, their will be audience to stand all sorts of unattractive, and redunda ncy even if your work has the very best of the capacity (Plaura, 2001). There is a general history of artist getting more fascinated to the natural world. With the advent of industrialization, many artistic movements sprang up each(prenominal) with a unique reaction to the feeling of the movement it took after and time (Davis, 2000). Neoclassic which had taken lead form the Greek and Roman art, paved way for a more parallel period called romanticism.At this level, many artists became more imaginative with the rise of individualism, emotional intensity, and freedom describing the underlying the perceptual shift from the modern life to getting oriented to the natural world (Masten, 2008). Realism which followed brought about the realist artists who created artistic works that captured objectives and figures as they appear in real life. Artists found the natural world more ideal in portraying truthful visions of everyday life an idea tat was lots welcome to rural folks that the mode rn ones (Novello, 2006).Many artists felt the need to explore their relationship with nature by traveling through a wilderness. But because urban life had less or no enthralling wilderness, artists resorted for the rural world and found it more fascinating in delivering the exploration objective through a natural world (Plaura, 2001). For example, Mark Catesby, as English artist moved to the rural Northern America and found that it was the most true immersion into the American seaboard and other areas til now unexploited and uncharted to many Americans.He began photographing and drawing natural and social sceneries that had not suffered any natural disintegration, and hence, his works attracted a large shield audience (Shields, 2006). Another artist and explorer, Karl Bodmer, is a testament to the reason pitiful to natural world. he says that the most fascinating factor in the so regarded lost world is the boundless enthusiasm that artists get when they venture into worlds un sl eep withn to many, because there seem to be abundant opportunity and astonishment in those lands (Locker, 1999).The overall benefit is the reminder these places give in acknowledging that at some point, they had stopped at the crossroad of horrible, natural and sacred phenomena. They somewhat develop a relationship with the earth, facilitated by the nature, culture and their sense of fulfillment (Davis, 2000). Furthermore, the natural world is more attracting to artists because it provides the ground that satisfy the curiosity and creativity of many artists. At the heart of every artistic symbol lies the expression of meaning.Artists tend to search for lager meaning in small aspects of life (Basye and Holt, 2000). According to the documentations in archives, the significance of artistic history is logged in the fissure in the midst of wilderness and civilization and this point out the primary focus of artists on rural worlds. Notwithstanding, rural world represents culture and natu re and how it is reconciled with the modernization. Therefore, the imaginative intention of art pulls out the existing radiance in capturing double meaning encased in the metaphors.When they finally take their products to urban setups, they someway manage to prompt the city residents into the world of imagination embedded in the images formed in their minds as a resulted art (Masten, 2008). Moreover, artists use the natural worlds to find sources that subsequently define the unique artistic identities. This is clearly captured in the sentiments of a German poet, Rainer Maria. He believes that as a primary condition for writing a captivating verse, it is imperative that they see a myriad of cities, nature, men and several other things.Accordingly it is perquisite that one should know different flights of birds, animals, not forgetting gestures that flowers make especially when they open and close. The fundamental role of all this condition is to portray the accounts as creative as likely with the unique ability to come up with the work of art that suits in the context of everyday life. The only available source of the adventure is the natural world that is least affected by industrialization (Novello, 2000). Similarly, there is more attraction to the natural world.Artists think that by going there they provide a link between city life and rural life. all told the opportunities of industrialization are made open to village folks giving them a chance to keep a breast with what is happening crosswise the world (Plaura, 2001). For example, there was a painting in rural indium which showed an angel looking as though he is about to laissez passer away from something he is acutely contemplating. It depicted the angel staring with his babble out wide open and the wings flung spread.This is the way artists presents issues in varying worlds and the field pansy found in natural world promotes the efficient delivery of the cognitive content (Shields, 2006). The pa inting reinforces the religious teaching that God watches over us and somehow, strengthens the spiritualism an aspect that is under the threat of industrialization. Conclusion From the foregoing discussion, it is evident that the dawn of industrialization in the 19th century was accompanied by the terse shift in the economical, social and ideological differences that paved way for new lifestyles.Individualism, which became rife as a result of urbanization, left artist with a host of intellectual orientation in terms of creativity. It is evident that the market for their art products got strained obliging them to get attracted to the rural world that had to that degree not adversely suffered from the effects of industrialization. Bibliography Basye, E and Holt, G 2000. Art and architecture The Advent of Industrialization, Yales, Yales University Press. Davis, A. 2000. A Social History of Graphic Art and whole kit and caboodle Industry.New York, McGill-Queens Press. Locker, N. 19 99. Science and Nature An International Journal of Science. Vol. 23 Issues 56, London, Macmillan Publishers. Masten, A. 2008. fine art in the Nineteenth Century. Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania University Press Novello, A. 2000. The Face of Art in the Nineteenth Century. London, Prentice Plaura, N. 2001. Art and Nature Interelationship, Oxford, Oxford University Press Shields, S. 2006. Artists at the Continents land up The Peninsula Art Colony. Michigan, Routledge

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Bilateral or unilateral contracts Essay

The Law of Contract stop be defined as an agreement containing a look to or obligations which can be enforceable by law. Sir John William Salmond a lawful scholar defined a consider as an agreement creating and shaping the obligations between two or more parties. A contract may be in every two kinds either bilateral or one-party depending on the whether both or one party makes a promise or promises. Where both parties to the contract make a promise or promises, then the contract is referred to as a bilateral contract. symmetric is the most common kind of contract in business. Both parties ar bound together at an exact time, this is also referred to as sharedity of understanding. The bilateral one is quite normal compared to unilateral and creates a mutual contraction obligation from the start. (Buckley 1996, 10). Bilateral contract can be explained in the case of Thornton v. Shoe Lane Parking. Francis Thornton a professional musician had a one day job at Farringdon Hall i n primal London. He was to entertain in the BBC with his trumpet.The plaintiff had chosen to leave his simple machine just close to where he was per induceing in a saucily opened multy-storey auto park in Shoe Lane in effect(p) Fleet Street. He drove up, switched the unlesston and got a ticket. When the barrier opened, he parked his car inside the car park. His appointment lasted for three hours after(prenominal) which he returned. An accident occurred as the defendant was loading some goods in his car. The plaintiff later sued Lane Parking Ltd for damages on his car and for the injuries he sustained.Mr. Thornton was compensated $3,637 for the injuries sustained but non for the car. It was found that he had 50% contributory negligence (Buckley, 2005, 7). The major issue in this case was if any attempts were made by the defendant to exclude obligation both to the plaintiff and his car. Altogether the defendant had made some attempts the ticket processed from the machine, the fall guy displayed outside the park and a notice inside the park excluded liability to the car.The rule provided that the terms that can be brought to the parties in the contract are those that occurred at the exact time or before the formation of the contract (Collins, 1999, 23). A contract is said to be unilateral when the promise is single from one party. The other(a) party does not make any promise but only does the act in order to achieve the other parties promise. An example of such a case is where Peter promises to pay Tony $70000 if Tony finds his cat. Tony is not under any obligation to find the cat but Peter is obliged to pay Tony incase Tony finds the cat.An offer of a unilateral contract can be made to the world in form of advertisement. In such situations acceptance will be deemed to have occurred on the fulfillment of the condition. An example of a unilateral contract is the insurance contracts. colored contract can be explained in Carlil v. Carbolic Smoke hunk Co . Ltd, the defendant through an advertisement made a promise to pay $ nose candy to any user of Carbolic Smoke who during a usage period of two weeks contracts influenza. Mrs. Louise Carlil was infected after using the defendants product.She sued Carbolic Smoke Ball for $100 as promised (Cheesman, 2003, 34). Works Cited Buckley Francis. Just Exchange a system of Contracts. London Routledge, 2005, pp7 Buckley J. Peter. Firms, Organizations and Contracts A Reader in Industrial Organization. Oxford Oxford University Press, 1996, pp10 Cheesman Henry. Contemporary stemma and E-commerce Law Custom Edition for Collins Hugh. Regulating Contracts. Oxford Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 23 Students in Arts. New York Pearson Custom Publishing 2003, 4th Edition, pp. 34

Catch-22 and Dr. Strangelove Essay

In Joseph demons novel, Catch-22, and Stanley Kubricks film, Dr. Strangelove, the bureaucrats ar illustrated as illogical and untrustworthy. Hellers attention to administrations such as the hospital and the military-establish custodyt are recognized for their fallible rationality and logic. Similarly, in Dr. Strangelove, Kubrick mocks the absurdities of the nuclear arms race and of the officials of the United States and The Soviet Union as he conveys the malfunction of highly placed regime bureaucrats. Catch-22 and Dr. Strangelove, are two satirical and somewhat historical works that effectively comment on the corrupt and perhaps in compos mentis(predicate) bureaucrats.The lives of Yossarian and the men in his squadron in Catch-22 are non determined by their own decisions only instead, by the decisions of the impersonal bureaucratism. The bureaucrats are absolutely oblivious to any stress the men make to reason with them logically. Major Major, for example, will only project people in his office if he is not there and sends them apart when he returns. Doc Daneeka refuses to ground Yossarian for his insanity because Yossarians desire to be grounded reveals that he is sane.Doc Daneeka elaborates in his discussion of Orr, Yossarians tent-mate. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask and as soon as he did, he would no bimestrial be crazy and would nurture to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didnt, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didnt contrive to but if he didnt want to he was sane and had to. (46)Yossarian and the separates in his squadron find that what they say and do has little effect on their fate when the bureaucracy controls them. Their only plectrum is to follow the illogical rules and use what is expected of them to their own advantage. Yossarians superiors are more concerned with getting a promotion than they are about(predicate) winning the war. Colonel Cathcart, the colonel in command of Yossarians squadron, tries to impress his superiors by bravely volunteering his men for dangerous combat. Cathcarts only concern is being promoted to general. Cathcart continually raises the number of combat missions required of the men before they can be sent home. Yossarian argues with Doc Daneeka who explains, regulations do say you turn in to obey each ordinance. Thats the catch. Even if the colonel were disobeying a Twenty-seventh Air Force order by making you fly more missions, youd still break to fly them, or youd be guilty of disobeying an order of his. (58)Similarly, Dr. Strangelove in any case criticizes the malfunctions of bureaucracy and the inadequacy of officials. General Jack Ripper gives the command to rape the Soviet Union without permission from his superiors or the president. Instead of discussing the idea of an attack with is supervisors, Ripper orders the attack because, according to him Clemenceau said war was too important to be left hand to the generals. When he said that, 50 years ago, he might have been right. But today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversive activity and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodied fluids. -Criticizes the malfunction of bureaucracy. (Dr. Strangelove)Mr. Presidents embarrassment about the issue demonstrates bureaucracy does not function appropriately because those lower in command should not determine the launch of nuclear powers. Further exemplifying the inadequacy of the bureaucrats, the go Chiefs in the war room show their unprofessional and blatant parti pris, curiously toward the Russians. General Buck Turgidson clearly states, Im beginning to musical note a big fat Commie rat, and later refers to them as a bunch of ignorant peons. The Germans are also referred to when Turgidson, upon learning Dr. Strangeloves real German name, passes it off as a Kraut by any other name.Dr. Strangelove, the character, also calls into question the reliability of people in power. Strangelove is clearly the Presidents scientific adviser in the war room whose appearance copies the mad scientist stereotype with his wild hair, black gloved hand, and his clearly brilliant yet psychopathologic mind. Through their presentation of bureaucracy, Heller and Kubrick display why officials and politicians are fallacious to make important decisions concerning the safety of the country. Catch-22 conveys this notion through the bureaucracys enforcement of impractical rules and Catch-22s on the eccentric men in Yossarians squadron. Kubrick suggests the same concept in Dr. Strangelove by frequently demonstrating the disorder, madness and prejudice of the officials. In either piece, the reader carries away the certainty of the instability of the men in control of important military and national decisions.

Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Competency Goals Essay

In mold for fryren to whole tone safe away from position they get a safe surround where they can take cargon and looseness of the bowels comfortably. I am ever racy and continuously find oneself the baberen at all times. Children must never be left unsupervised. In the class, safety precautions such as checking all t ables and chairs for ravish and sharp edges is done weekly. All electrical outlets that be not cosmos used atomic twist 18 covered with safety caps. I guarantee that the barbarianrens written report and play beas argon free of clutter. When the fryren be using scissors, pencils or new(prenominal) instruments, I make sure they carry them in an admit manner to prevent injury. We have on file written con direct from the adverts to take their child for for to each one one emergency aesculapian care if the nurse isnt on campus. Outdoor play areas are checked routine for harmful objects such as bottles, cans, or other litter items before the child ren go out to play. In the center, a give the axe drill is conducted Once a month.A Healthy EnvironmentA healthy environment is essential for effective learning. A visual chance(a) health check is done each sidereal day upon each childs arrival. I respond immediately to accidents, health concerns and emergency conditions calmly. The classroom is maintained in a clean and hygienic environment. While operative with parents, together we assist the children in building good grooming habits b maintaining consistent routines at school and encourage them to do so at home. Hand washing following toileting, washing hands before meals and copse teeth is done in the center to encourage healthy need. Children are able to flourish in an environment that influences their growth and issueledge.A attainment EnvironmentChildren learn by doing and by imitating each other, their parents and their teachers. I delight in and acknowledge each childs ideas, concern and feelings. We provide a vari ety of materials in the class from the books weuse to the toys with which the children play. Participation is back up without any of the children feeling frustrated. An environment is provided where each child has mutant during activities that are allowed and encouraged to fibreicipate in various activities to appreciate each others cultural differences. Each child display their work round the classroom they enjoy seeing their accomplishments. Open talk is provided for each child. I sieve to make sure the childrens daily instrument is followed, but sometimes we get a little behind. Transition from one activity to some other is smooth. efficiency address IITO ADVANCE PHYSICAL AND INTELLECTUALCOMPETENCEPhysicalPhyscial development is grievous for healthy development. Physical activities are designed to be fun for the children. Children like a lot of physical movement. In the class we schedule time to use both(prenominal) gross and fine motor accomplishments. We course of study physical activities during outside time, such as relay races, jumping rope, hula hoops, throwing a ball and just plain exercising. playing period enhances learning both inside and outside. My enthusiasm is shown when I actively play with the children. In the class, we rehearse to music, combining music and movement. Parents are encouraged to get problematical in physical activities with their children. We plan, develop and coordinate fine and small motor skill activities such as stringing large and small beads, cutting with scissors, turning single(a) pages in books, drawing and putting puzzles together. Sleep is alike important for growth. Children need rest during the day. Quiet time with music is played in order to help the child relax.In supposeectualChildren want answers to their questions. Most of their questions start with why. As their teacher, I know that it is important to their questions answered. It is their way of learning. They need to learn how to perceive different things. In the class we use symbols as eccentric of comprehending.Books are used to ask questions and think just about what is being see to them. As part of our schedule, I let the children plan their own activities. They tell me what center they want to go in and what they plan to do in their centers. Children are give the opportunity to talk about their parents, friends and things happening almost home and community. On some Fridays we do show and tell or idol Friday. The children bring items from home and tell the class something about the item. We also bring something to share this way the children in turn ask us questions. In the class, we sing our Alphabet and sounds song. This helps them to learn letters of the alphabet. We play number games for rote counting and shape searching in the class for shapes recognition.COMPETENCY GOAL IIITO SUPPORT SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND TO grant POSITIVE GUIDANCESocial DevelopmentTeachers are in truth important role models for a child. Promoting companionable skills includes helping children begin to recognize the feelings and needs of others. In the class, I always model good social skills around the children. Observation is an important tool while learning how a child feels and behaves. When a child tells me no one will play with him/her, by dint of observation, the child is monitored around his/her peers to see if there is a lack of social developing skills. Helping, sharing, showing concern and cooperation with each other is always encouraged. Children are rewarded with praise for kindness, being helpful and co-op to each other. Each child is made to feel special. Addressing social skills, knowing the childrens cultural play pull down and environment is very important to me. Social interactions are provided through play. Play socially helps children to cooperate and appreciate each other. Children have to be able to get along with each other in order for the day run smoothly.Emotional DevelopmentAs a teacher, I taste to make a great difference in developing delirious skills in the children. Children are encouraged to chatter love, fear, and anger. It is important for me to help the children admit both negative andpositive emotions. Emotional development through play is encouraged. It helps children relieve feelings in a safe environment and kick upstairss self-confidence. I reward each child as an individual and the natural differences in how children express their feelings. In the class, puppets and role-play are used in exhibiting emotions whether positive or negative.in the class, I plan and provide a place for the children to have some down time when they are experiencing negative emotions.Positive GuidanceThe way a teacher acts influences the children. I always maintain a positive berth around the children. The climate of the class is always relaxed. My tone of voice is calm, when speaking with the children. As the teacher in the class, I use guidan ce techniques such as modeling appropriate behavior and allowing the children to act their age. Directions are given in a positive way. The schedule is provided and followed daily so the children will know the routine and can make transitions easier. A helper chart is put up this way, all the children share responsibility of retentiveness the classroom clean and orderly. As a group, we together come up with a set of class rules, which are agreeable with the students and me. Children are encouraged to regimen and dress themselves. Children are praised when they cooperated and help each other, especially during clean up Time.COMPETENCY GOAL IVTO ESTABLISH POSITIVE AND PRODUCTIVE RELATIONSHIPS WITH FAMILIESIt is very important to me to let parents and families of the children I work with know and feel they are a big part of our program. The parents as well as their children are important to me and the overall success of the program. I encourage a accommodating atmosphere among each childs relationships within the family structure. Parents are always welcome in the classroom. Regular communication with the parents is important. It is important to present a united effort to the family of the children with whom I teach. Newsletters are sent home on a weekly basis t parents to inform them of upcoming events. A parent news board is set up to provide dailyupdates to parents on meals, activities and important dates. In order to maintain an open, friendly and cooperative relationship with each childs family we provide parents with opportunities to become involved in the programs.We encourage parents to volunteer in the classroom, attend workshops, serve on policy and advisory committees, attend field trips and attend parent meetings. During parent meetings suggestions are made for improving the daily program. Information about their childs experiences and achievements in the center is provided to the parents. Reports are distributed periodically to help parents under stand the advance of his or her child. Home visits are made twice end-to-end the school term to share activities and materials that parents can use at home with their child. Each familys cultural background, religious and parenting beliefs are respected. Parent-Teacher conferences are other means of communication with parents they are also held twice in a school term. Parents need to know and feel they are a part of the tenet team in the classroom. Together, our common goal is always, the children.COMPETENCY GOAL VTO ENSURE A WELL-RUN PURPOSEFUL PROGRAM RESPONSIVE TO participant NEEDSTo figure a well-run program, I maintain an open communication with my Lead Teacher and other supply members. We work as a team to provide quality, developmentally appropriate activities and materials for the children each day. Im always willing to work with bus monitors, parents and volunteers. It is important to me that the children can flourish well in an environment that influences their grow th and development. Each childs nutritional needs are met. Up-to-date records is maintained on each child. Each childs record is kept confidential. Confidentiality secures the privacy of the children and their families. The parents, staff members Lead Teacher and myself work to identify the strengths and needs of each child. Records and reports concerning growth, behavior, health, and leave of each child is maintained. This information is shared with each childs parent. Schedules are posted and followed daily they are where the parents can articulate them.This way, they know what their child is operative on daily. By using appropriatedguidelines, I observe the children for signs of abuse or neglect and follow through if needed. Center brochures are distributed to each childs family. Each childs progress is discussed with his/her respective parents. Planning is essential. A great deal of time is sent on planning, so that children will have their needs met. I ensure that the classr oom is clean and safe. The classroom is always prepared before the children arrive. source materials, are utilized as needed each day. To stimulate and stir up the children, I consistently look for new and innovative methods. I read various books and education websites to acquire acknowledge. It is important to maintain appreciation for each childs cultural background.COMPETENCY GOAL VITO preserve A COMMITMENT TO PROFESSIONALISMAs a teacher, I enjoy statement Pre-K. I demonstrate a positive attitude toward the children and their parents. It is important to promote quality services. I take advantage of all opportunities to improve my in the flesh(predicate) and professional growth. This growth is beneficial for the children I teach, as well as their parents. I take advantage for personal development by attending conferences, in-service trainings, staff meetings and study groups. I read books, stay in data link with other pre-k teachers and resource coordinators to help keep me informed of changes in the teaching field. Information about the children, their families and staff is kept confidential. Effective communications and working well with my co-workers is very important. I perform my duties professionally no take where I work. While dressing in a professional manner, my hair, nails and bone are maintained clean and attractive. A positive, professional attitude is communicate at all times. Cultural differences in the children are respected at all times. Parents are informed about field trips, home visits and conferences. I ask parents to volunteer in the class, each week I send home a family activity this keeps them involved in learning about their childs experiences at school. I am committed to keeping the children safe, providing good communication, positive guidance and working with the families of the children. It is important for the childrens family and meto work together. The key is teamwork. The common goal is that the parents and myself wi ll do what is best for the child.

India: Diversity Essay

IntroductionIndia is a huge multicultural uncouth with contrasting religions and antithetic addresss. The culture of India is iodine of the oldest and unique. In India, in that location is astound cultural diversity throughout the country. Every religion has their own rituals equivalent clothing, food and festivals. But they all live like family all all over the population. India is home to several(prenominal) of the most(prenominal) ancient civilizations, including four major orb religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. . India is a vast country, having variety of geographical skylarks and climatic conditions. Its geographical feature gives it a seasonal quality quite different from what one whitethorn suck in witnessed eitherwhere else. In fact the monsoons, or the rainy season, spend and winter atomic number 18 one of a kind. This associate qualities itself is the pride of the country. The life-time styles of individuals, their clothes, musings, sust enance and society, all(prenominal)thing has engravings of this differing qualities. To such an extent, that all together they appear to be a piece of an as one unit.Indian LanguagesThe Indian subcontinent consists of a issuance of separate linguistic communities separately of which sh ar a common language and culture. In India mountain mostly used to blab out many languages and dialects which atomic number 18 mostly variations of about 22 officially recognized regional languages by the Constitution of India and each has produced a literature of great vitality and richness. Hindoo and English atomic number 18 raceal official languages of India. According to numerate of India of 2001, 30 languages argon spoken by more than a million native speakers, 122 by more than 10,000.Some Indian languages create a coarse mythical history. Sanskrit literature isabout more than 5,000 years old and Tamil 3,000. The number of individual languages listed for india is 461. Of these, 447 atomic number 18 animation and 14 are extinct. Of the living languages, 75 are recognized, 127 are developing, 178 are vigorous, 55 are in trouble, and 12 are dying. For example, (Ethnologue Languages of, 2013).Some languages in India do non have compose forms.Though distinctive in fibres, all stand for a homogeneous culture that is the essence of the great Indian literature. The number of people dissertation each language varies greatly. For example, more than 41% people in India speak Hindi. Although some of the languages are called tribal or aboriginal, their populations may be larger than those that speak some European languages. Indias schools teach 58 different languages. The rural area has newspapers publish in 87 languages, radio programmes telecast in 71, and films in 15 languages. (Indiansaga Indian Languages, 2000).Indian way of come up toIn India the most common form of welcome is to join the wield of both hands and say Namaste or Namaskar. Both are Sanskrit rowing which mean I bow to you. This is an appropriate form of greeting in the midst of all castes and rank of people. Religion novel, regional wise and culture wise the system of greeting is different, but the form is same. For example, Hindi speaking people greet the guest by saying (Namaste) welcome, Gujarati People say (Padharo) Welcome and ? (kem chho?) for How are you?, and Punjabi people used to say (Sat sri akaal) Welcome.To say Dhanyawad(thank you) to express ones appreciation is recognized to be great way. Then again, the Westerners engage these two words so regularly and on so loll around an event that really the words have lost their centrality. Actually the absolute majority of the individuals say Thank you, not out of commitment yet to reverse the same then and there. Simply formally say Thank you and give the sack the consideration always is the pervasive reasoning. Actually, Indians feel and admire ones commitment profound from their hearts. As the power of appreciation, it is confirmed by the look and not by the lips. So Indians get dressedt jump at the chance to be formal at eachmoment. They realize that these are words that matter and not to be enjoyed untrustworthily.Religions in IndiaReligion in India is described by differing qualities of religious convictions and practices. India is the origination of four of the worlds solid religions specifically Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. All around Indias history, religion has been a vital a piece of the nations society. Religious assorted qualities and religious tolerance are both built in the nation by the law and custom-built.According to the 2001 census 1, 80.5% of the population of India practice Hinduism. Islam (13.4%), Christianity (2.3%), Sikhism (1.9%), Buddhism (0.8%) and Jainism (0.4%) are the other major religions followed by the people of India. There are similarly versatile minor tribal conventions however these have been influenced by significant r eligions, for example, Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity. 1. Census of India 2001 Data on Religion. Office of the Registrar worldwide, India. Retrieved 2007-12-31. The most predominant religion in India today is Hinduism. Around the range of 80% of Indians are Hindus. Hinduism is a vivid religion with a boundless order of battle of divinitys and Goddesses. Hinduism is one of the old religions on the planet. It should have created something like 5000 years back. after on in aged period different religions created in India. umteen religions have started in the nation and some religions of outside inception have likewise prospered here. India has the refinement of being the area from where significant religions in token Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism have begun in the meantime the nation is home to a few indigenous beliefs tribal religions which have survived the impact of real religions for quite some time and are holding the ground solidly Regional con-presence of var ious religious gatherings in the nation makes it truly special and the appellation solidarity. garment in IndiaClothing in India fluctuates from region to area hinging upon the ethnicity,topography, atmosphere and complaisant conventions of the individuals of that district. Generally, men and ladies dress has developed from basic Langotas and loincloths to blanket the form to flesh out ensembles utilized within every day take for granted as hygienic as on festival occasion, additionally ceremonies as well as rituals and dance performances. In urban ranges, western garments are regular and consistently worn by individuals of all divisions. India likewise has some differences regarding weaves, filaments, shades and substantial of apparel. Color codes are followed in attire dependent upon the religion and custom concerned. Case in point, Hindu women wear white dress to cross-file grieving, while Parsis and Christians wear white to weddings.Every province has its own usage and clothing style for men and women. Generally, men wear Kurta, Shervani, Payzama, Dhoti, Pant-Shirt and women used to wear Saree, salwar-kameez, Gaghara-Choli according to their tradition and regional culture. The men in sikh confederation of India wear Turban (Dastar or Pagri) on their head to protect their hair, which is part of religious manners.Festivals in IndiaIndia is a place that is known for extraordinary differing qualities. The Indian schedule is one long parade of celebrations. These are as fluctuated in inception as they are expansive in number. India is a multilingual, multi-religious, multi- affectionate country. It picture as a place that is known for numerous religions and incalculable dialects, it may well be portrayed as a place where there is celebrations also. India, being a socially diverse and deep social order, praises different holy geezerhood, occasions and festivals. Every last event from the reaping of products, respecting the spring or drizzle, to visual perception the full moon fits euphoric festivals sprinkled with colors, music, society moves and melodies. Indeed the special days of perfect creatures are praised by associating them with specific celebrations.There are three national holidays in India Independence Day on 15 August, 2 October- Mahatma Gandhis birthday and Republic Day from 26 January. States and local religions have their own local festivals, neighborhoodcelebrations relying upon common religious and semantic demographics. prominent religious celebrations bear the Sikh celebrations like Guru Nanak Jayanti, Baishakhi, Hindu celebrations of Makar-Sankranti, Maha-Shivaratri, Diwali, Navratri, Ganesh Chaturthi, Holi, Dussehra, Islamic celebrations of Eid ul-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, Mawlid a Nabi and Christian celebrations of Christmas and days of observances, for example, Good Friday are watched all around the nationThe homes are flawlessly brightened, new dresses are worn for each event, petitions to God offered to Gods , and part of sweets and goodies are cooked. The vast majority of these celebrations are regular to most a piece of India anyway they may be known by distinctive names in diverse parts of the nation. Distinctive societies additionally imply that diverse ceremonies are accompanied. (Budhiraja)Indian FoodIndia planning or Indian cuisine encloses a wide mixed bag of territorial foods local to India. Given the reach of differences in soil sort, atmosphere and occupations, these foods veer essentially from one another and utilize mainly accessible flavors, herbs, vegetables and fruits. Indian nourishment is likewise vigorously affected by religious and social decisions and customs. Indian sustenance is not the same as rest of the world in taste as well as in prep techniques. It reflects a flawless mix of different societies and ages. Much the same as Indian society, sustenance in India has likewise been affected by different civilizations, which have helped their portion in its in g eneral improvement and the place structure.Food of India is better known for spiciness. All around India, be it due north India or South India, flavors are utilized liberally as a part of food. Yet one must not disregard that each and every zest utilized as a part of Indian dishes conveys some or the other nourishing and medicinal lands.Indian nourishment is rich in variety, taste and flavor. Every locale has its own event style of cooking and interesting food. Famous for outlandish sauces and zesty kababs, Indian food has something to fulfill each sense oftaste. The solid flavors of Indian cooking are a direct result of the seasonings, flavors, and the fundamental fixings which incorporate grains, beats, verdant vegetables, fruits, and meat. Flavors and seasonings were utilized even many years back, both for their potential to captivate the sense of taste and likewise for their medicinal qualities for instance turmeric, cloves and cardamoms are disinfectant in nature. Ginger an d cloves help assimilation. Pepper is extraordinary ascendant for throat diseases.According to Indian food recipe, there are sise different tastes sweet, sour, salty, spicy, bitter and harsh. An Indian meal is a well-balanced confederacy of all the six tastes. Often one or two of them forget stand out and it is not often that all six are employed in a dish. (Indian food,)ConclusionThere are diverse parts of the Indian society. Every perspective is honed by individuals not everybody trusts in the diverse viewpoints. As should be obvious it is an exceptionally reliable society, everybody has their assessment towards it, positive and negative. Hence the Indian Culture is an extremely extraordinary society and has different practices. In spite of the fact that the adolescent dont have faith in the customary perspectives, the society lead change with time and wont be accepted any longer due to the advanced world. With everything taken into account the perspectives are every now and again honed however tomorrows era are set to transform it. It is always honored about India Unity in Diversity, we believe it.ReferencesBudhiraja, V. Web log message. Retrieved from http//www.angelfire.com/ca/VinitBudhiraja/festivals.htm Ethnologue of the world India. (2013). Retrieved from http//www.ethnologue.com/country/IN (2013). Ethnologue Languages of the world. (17 ed.). Dallas, Texas SIL International. Retrieved from http//www.ethnologue.com/country/IN (n.d.). Retrieved from http//indiansaga.com/languages/index.html Indian food. (n.d.). Retrieved from http//www.indianfoodforever.com/food-guide/indian-food-cuisine.html Theoffice of The Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India, office of The Registrar General & Census Commissioner. (2001). Scheduled languages in come down order of speakers strength 2001 (Statement No. 4). Retrieved from The Registrar General & Census Commissioner website http//www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language/Statem ent4.aspx

Monday, February 25, 2019

How Effective Is the Media in Creating Dissatisfaction in the Body?

How effective is the media in cr eat dissatisfaction in the automobile trunk stunt man of immature girls? 1. Introductory Paragraph Attention Grabber 75% of teenage girls have a celebrity they facial expression up to for a body image they would uniform to have according to the National Institute on Media and the Family. Definition of eubstance Image Body image touchs to ones dealer of his or her own somatic appearance beguiled by his/her personal experiences, personality and motley social and cultural forces. Thesis Statement The trouble these days is that the media is ceaselessly and greatly impacting the teenage girls of todays generation who are age 13 to 19 years of age to having a cast out and reprobate body image which leads to psycho-physical problems which ca use of goods and services teenagers to go to extremes in rove to contact what they perceive as the improve body. Question Do you feel ashamed, self-aware and anxious about your body? If you do n ot, you have a negatively charged body image and this essay is meant for you. 2. Supporting Paragraph 1 question condemn adolescent girls have an increasing need to be either ultra-thin or to have more sex appeal under the influence of the media which cause a negative body image. In the magazine, you can encounter what is considered as the completed woman and what is not the most in involvement. Teenagers conformity how they see themselves based on what they see on television, magazines, newspapers and websites. Media images depicting ultra-thin and digit anyy altered women models are the reason for body dissatisfaction in girls.What they see mostly in these advertisements are tall, skinny, flawless, and splendiferous women selling counterfeitable products. Fashion marketers use provocative market campaigns featuring young teenage models much(prenominal) as Abercrombie & fitch and Guess. These ads are selling more than just clothing to teens. They are similarly sel ling adult sexuality. Moreover, the medias trending definition of beauty as visualized in celebrities and models would be having a curvaceous bodyline, and large breasts which supposedly growing the sexuality of a woman. Thus, they would eventually feel that they have to look analogous these perfect flawless women in order to be considered beautiful, though this perfect appearance is one that few people can ever attain. Teenage girls are influenced and under constant pressure to be thin, beautiful and highly sexualized and this brings me to my next point on the severe impact of stimulating marketing campaigns. 3. Supporting Paragraph 2 Topic Sentence Teenage girls are both mentally and physically affected by pursuing such perfect body images as ensued by the media. Pretty pictures we see in magazines are often not what we would see in real life. However, teenagers drive and go to extremes to get the look. Therefore, the media is responsible for creating ideals about body image and the influenced teenagers suffer from inferiority complex and resort to unhealthy practices in order to achieve their perception of the perfect body. Firstly, the ultimate effect of the media on teenagers would be depression, and a loss of self-esteem. A study in 1995 found that using up 3 minutes looking at models in a fashion magazine caused 70% of the women to feel depressed, guilty and ashamed.Also, it has caused the development of unhealthy eating habits as the media often brings about the message that physical perfection is what we should all strive for if we want to be booming. Being strongly influenced by the media, teenagers who are striving for the perfect body and to achieve a strong sense of achievement by reducing their weight will eventually get down eating disorders. Teenage girls in that locationfore follow blindly to achieve the perfect image and suffer from psychological problems such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. refer to page 2 and 3 preteens ) These psychological problems then lead to physical problems (refer to page 2 teens) 4. Supporting Paragraph 3 Topic Sentence Not only do teenage girls suffer from psycho-physical problems, but they to a fault go to extreme means and take drastic measures such as plastic surgical procedure in order to achieve the perfect body crafted by the media which in turn, creates more health problems for girls. A study through with(p) by BBC stated that three-quarters of girls who have had plastic surgery think it has improve their lives and 71% would do it again.During 2010, there were over 93000 people who had the plastic surgery in USA (if they cannot achieve the perfect body naturally, they would rather do so artificially. ) Many girls want to undergo plastic surgery as they are obsessed with creating the perfect body. Thus, they are open about having normalized surgery. A dying young woman, Lisa Connell spent $40,000 on plastic surgery as she strongly desired to die looking like movie star Demi Moore. She was convinced that surgery would make her look as beautiful as Demi Moore who endorses cosmetic surgery herself. . Concluding Paragraph After considering the points above, one has to have got that the media has negatively impacted teenage girls both mentally and physically and has caused the desire to have the perfect body to take control of their lives. One thing is certain. The media are to be blamed for the 80% of girls who responded to More Magazine that images of women on television and in the movies makes them feel insecure. The term beauty holds different meanings and understandings to each individual teenage girl.The media has a large influence of what society believes is beautiful and what is not and made teenage girls feel insecure and fear that they are not good enough. However, the numerous problems and damaging impacts of such a negative body image are devastating and one must be sure that aspiring for such beauty is not the way to go abou t life. Inner strength is the key towards a happy and successful life and not beauty. We were all crafted and made by God and there is no need to bother about who you are or what you look like. The important thing is to love yourself and that is all that matters.

Determinants of a Demand Curve:

Movement along the requirement curve There ar many factors determining require- the prime one being price. Price and cadence ar the two components which form the fill curve. Any change in these two variables doesnt cause a arouse in the demand curve but a movement along what is already existent. When prices vary, mensuration is altered. Usually, applying the law of demand, to a great extent bequeath be consumed when prices drop and vice versa. When much goods are consumed due to a drop in prices on that point is an involution in demand and when less is consumed due to an increase in price, it is give tongue to to be a contraction in demand.A shift in the demand curve Factors which do cause a shift in demand include consumer tastes, fashion and trends, income, population, income distribution, consumer expectations and technology. When there is a change in any one of these determinants of demand there lead be an alteration in the demand curve. Since these changes are not a cause of changes in price, there will be a shift in the demand curve. When more is purchased at the same price, the demand curve will shift to the right as demand increases.When less is consumed at the same price, the demand curve will shift to the left, as there is a descend in demand. How the determinants of demand can alter the demand curve are summarised be subaltern 1. Consumer Tastes consumers tastes and preferences change, which may be in favour of a accepted product, increase and decreasing demand for other goods and services 2. Income an increase or decrease of consumer income will affect their disposable income and discretionary spending trends- increasing or decreasing demand 3.Population the population of an area will affect demand. A larger population means more consumers and greater demand and vice a versa. 4. Income distribution an even distribution of income will mean an increase for demand of luxury goods by low and warmheartedness income groups whereas an une ven distribution would lead to increased demand for necessities by low and middle income earners and a decrease in luxury spending. 5. Consumer expectations expectations of future course pries, economic activity and government economic policies may affect demand.If there are expectations of a drop of prices in the future, consumers may choose to protract current spending for the future. 6. Technology Technology allows the production of new and weaken quality products and services, making other products and services obsolete by replace them. Consumers may switch their demand for a superior or more convenient product or service which technology may tote up along. E. g. a newer mobile phone or a labour redemptive device.

Sunday, February 24, 2019

Impact Of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act

Supporters of companies exit semi creation suggest that happen uponing extra capital is one of the benefits forte size companies gain by expiry universal. The proportionnale for firing cosmos is to float the shares of the come with by means of the line market by starting an initial macrocosm offer (IPO) inviting the state-supported to purchase its shares and raise additional capital. Once the caller-up has met all of the requirements for register Security Stock and Exchange (SEC) they are in entry with SOX.Under SOX plane section 404, requires all CEO and CFO to certify and report to the humans the lastingness of internal control over the financial statements. Secondly, corporate social indebtedness (CSR) is another benefit accrued by a strong point size connection by deviation mankind done publication of it information. aside from profitability, corporate social responsibility aids fellowship to position unproductive market- ancestord solutions to social . By CSR redirect negative problems caused by corporate operations onto the consumer and defend their interests while hampering efforts to find just and sustainable solutions.The rationale of publishing attach to information is to give the attach to a platform to state its willingness to institute into consideration the stakes of all stakeholders involved in its financing and operations. This increases public confidence in the ships lodge. Going public as well benefits a medium sized keep participation by increasing its occult-enterprise(a) advantage in the global market. Going public is a strategical objective by some medium sized companies to become emulously aligned. Finally, gain competitive advantage all through expanded capital base and improve public confidence.Create an argument that the same goals may be achieved if the company remain a privately held entity. Provide support for your answers The opponents of public listing held that a company bum acquire th e benefits of passage public while still cosmos private and more efficient. For instance, Leuz (2007) asserts that a company can gain additional capital through borrowing loans from banks as opposed to going public. Corporate social responsibility can in like manner be begeted rase for privately owned companies that actively engage in community forward motion programs.In this way, the company meets the requirements of its stakeholders without exposing itself to public testing and retains its ability to maintain a competitive advantage through internal strengths and enhanced node relationship management (Dolvin & Pyles, 2007). The opponents of going public also hold that a corporation can devise ways of being strategically aligned while retaining its private status. For instance, a private company can make objectives that are strategically aligned to its vision and mission and narrow its market niche to servicing the needs of its customers.This can be achieved through stra tegies such as being the least cost provider for commodities or emphasizing unique customer experience through the provision of quality products. This disqualifies the perception that a company can only gain competitive advantage by going public (Li, Morton & Sonja, 2008). When a company decides to go public, it can typically obtain capital by issuing stocks or bonds. Suggest four (4) leading(a) financial rations that will be evaluated and how each will impact the companys ratiocination to obtain involution funds. Determine whether the results of the ratios would alter the decision to go public.Financial analysis serves as both a control and plan tool. Aids in making important company decisions obtain expansion funds and also on the decision to go public or remain private. Liquidity ratio illustrates the ability of a company to even up its accrued debt in the short term. A company with high liquidnessity ratios is not advised to obtain expansion funds through debt since it can not indemnify up the already accrued debt. It would be advisable for such a company to generate expansion funds by going public since this increases the equity ratio and reduces the debt and liquidity ratios (Alrafadi, & Md-Yusuf, 2011).Activity ratio assesses the ability of the company to interchange its assets to cash. When activity ratio is high, the company should go public since it already has liquid cash and needs to save up more of its finances through the floating of shares compared to borrowing cash. Profitability ratios assess the measures that organizations will use in making money. It mainly assesses the profitability of a company against the earnings ratio, and when this ratio is low, the company needs to remain private then go public since its profitability will not attract any investors (Alrafadi, & Md-Yusuf, 2011).Debt ratio is aimed at assessing what amount of the company capital structure constitutes debt capital. Where the company has a get debt ratio, it means that it has more of equity than debt, which is a good state in a company. In this case, the company can borrow debt capital or go public to gain more funds as it has a strong debt ratio. That it is essential to analyze the financial ratios of a company prior(prenominal) to deciding, whether to obtain more funds by going public (Alrafadi, & Md-Yusuf, 2011).By researching, the results of SOX compliance surveys assess the financial impact that SOX might grow on your company if it decides to go public. Considering the impact SOX compliance, take a position as to whether your company can overcome the challenges posed by identifying the potential advantages and disadvantages that SOX may have on your company. SOX is a legal framework developed by the fall in States with the aim of increasing the accountability and transparency of listed companies, especially pertaining to the cost of going public.Transparency is one of the advantages gained by a medium sized company that uses SOX to g o public. Structures put in place through SOX monitor the internal systems of the company, hinder failure, ensure accurate disclosures and improves the management of risk of the company. This enhances the transparency of the medium sized company and increases its credibility among the public and potential shareholders (Kaserer, Mettler & Obernberger, 2011). Going public with SOX also enhances the reliability of medium sized companies.The consumers and members of the public are able to bid the companys behavior since the company publishes its accounts. Through transparency and modify public scrutiny, shareholders and other stakeholders such as customers are able to calculate the profit of the company, the prospectus and evaluate the ability of the company to meet their expectations in the future. The consumers can through public scrutiny develop confidence on the medium sized company going public via SOX, which increases customer base and profitability of the company (Litvak, 200 7).Additionally, a medium sized company benefits from going public through SOX by enhancing investor confidence in the ability of the company to offer viable returns to investors investment. For example, an investor will be more confident in investing in a company that publishes its financial statements as a requirement of going public. This is because the investor will be able to view the internet of the company and its ability of the provide high returns on the investors capital. This benefits the company through investor loyalty and attracts more potential investors (Li, Morton & Sonja, 2008).Cost is one of the major negative impacts of SOX if a company goes public. For example, a company has to incur underwriting cost, which is a, direct cost for a company going public. The company going public under SOX also incurs indirect costs like under-pricing of its shares in the stock exchange (Wintoki, 2007). The come with also incurs legal cost since lawyers are needed to advise the company on legal consequences of going public. In most instances, the cost of a company going public through SOX outweighs the benefit of going public and may have adverse effects on the company Leuz, 2007).Lack of cover is another adverse effect of a company going public through SOX. For example, a company that discloses its financial records risks sharing its strategic plans with its competitors, which robs the company the ability to remain competitive since its strategies and secrets are available for public scrutiny (Litvak, 2007). Moreover, involvement of external auditors is another adverse effect of SOX going public to medium sized companies. Example prior to being private where a company would have just an internal auditor, a company that goes public also needs an external auditor to verify the internal systems of the Company.This farther exemplifies the operations and the auditing costs of the company by going public as a report of the external auditor are more good compa red to that of an internal auditor (Grifin & Lont, 2005). Make recommendation as the CEO regarding the option (i. e. , going public or staying private) that will best support the companys expansion goals. As the Chief Executive Officer of a medium sized company, I recommend that the medium sized company should go public as this will support the companys expansion goals.This is affirmed by the fact that going public fits into the strategic objectives of the company by being strategically aligned to gain competitive advantage. Although there are costs incurred during going public if the team is committed to the process and there are available resources to go public scotch feasibility evidences that the benefit of going public outweighs the risk and viable infer for any medium sized company. Moreover, though SOX has been challenged, the benefit that accrues to a medium sized company by going public affirms the rationale for a company to go public.

Owens & Minor’s Case Essay

What is the value-added by Owens and Minor? Is this value-addition panoptic? They own and sell the stemma for the manufacture.They take on the financial essay associated with the function of managing the inventory flow to the hospitals. They c ar for harvest-home returns and carry the insecurity for that.They carry the receivables (cash flow issues due to long payment terms of clients actually a 90 days credit) They carry and manage most of the inventory for the hospitals, which ar whatevertimes even running stockless. They track and verify client legal injurys for contracted product acquires and monitor agreements between end-users and manufacturers The distribution has changed in a way that hospitals required the distributors to carry to a greater extent(prenominal) of the inventory and making more deliveries in lower units of measure, while retention the same originally negotiated prices.This has throw off a stronger burden on the distributors. Owens & Minor creates a clear value-add for some(prenominal) manufacturers and suppliers. Manufactures usually only want to produce and sell the product forwards getting it out of the door whence Owens and Minor takes the full state for all stressful parts of selling a product. On the opposite hand customers dont want to buy and own products ahead they argon ready to use it. Thus Owens and Minor also enables them to achieving more efficient structures, while reducing additional cost related to managing efficiently.2. prise the impact cost-plus set has on distributors, customers, and suppliers. SuppliersSuppliers have no pauperism to try to reduce costs and increase efficiencies since profits remain the same. grocery store require is not taken into consideration. If a supplier has a markup, which takes the resellers price point beyond current market prices, the resellers demand will decrease dramatically. DistributorsServices related to inventory management are not included properly, since the percentage they gain is the same for all products. Whether they are cheap and efficiently to handle or rather problematic. Hence costs will skyrocket if customers will ask for additional dishs (while keeping the same price). They have the drawback of customers engaging in cherry-pickingand only enabling the distributors to manage low-margin, inexpensive products. CustomersCost-plus pricing lead to a complicated pricing structures, since distributors and customers negotiated separate product prices from manufacturers, introduced incentives, let prices vary from customer to customer, covered some products by contract and some dont etc. Hence purchasing managers were nearly unable to properly track actual product costs and compare quotes from competing manufacturers and distributors. 3. What effect will ABP have on customer behavior? Provide an example to illustrate.ABP connects O&Ms gift to the level of the service they provideCustomer is motivated to keep its activities round off to a minimum level and only order services that he really needs ABP helps customers to optimize their service-level and hence their costs. Customers who want to extend their service-level give the bounce get this because there is a way for O&M to price a higher service-level They came up with a relatively simple intercellular substance based on two major cost driversnumber of purchase orders per month and number of lines per purchase order. The number of orders was tied to our fixed administrative fees and the number of lines was tied to our variable coststhe number of times a worker had to go to a product rack, etc.It was a precise primitive way to identify our fixed and variable costs, but it was good in showing the customer that they could lower costs. They wanted to show the customer that instead of being locked-in to a traditional cost-plus contract, they could actually alter their service delivery fee depending on the type and amount of service requested, and the frequen cy and size of each request. In order for the customer to check at ABP as an honest way to do business, we had to share our song with them otherwise they would have viewed it as just another pricing scheme.4. What are the obstacles to successful implementation of ABP at Ideal? How would you address these obstacles? Internal musical arrangements at hospitals (e.g. budgeting, compensation) were tied tocost-plus percentages. Product prices with cost-plus percentages were used to determine absent pricing between hospital departments Technological barriers Customer has to change to an EDI system (electronical data input) Hospital would have to change its systems and procedures for material handling For a hospital to benefit it would have to be willing to change and cut down personnel, equipment and warehousing space. Culture of hospitals (e.g. surgeons have different preferences for many operating fashion supplies) O&M should address these obstacles with the followingOffering to co nvert the activeness fee to a cost-plus equivalent O&Ms logistical services should work closely with customers moving to ABP to help them realine processes and institute cost savings.

Saturday, February 23, 2019

Business Plan Name Course Instructor’s

A seam plan is a written document stating the aims, mission, vision, objectives, and the general management, cost incurred and planning how you will achieve what you requisite (McKeever, 2008).It is a very important document for it will underline guidelines for in store(predicate) purpose of the organization and start to establish baselines for success (Abrams & Kleiner, 2003). A comfortably(p) written disdain plan should contain a three to five-year exchange flow projection.This cash flow will aid the investors in decision making wisely close to the note and make you to realize how much pileus is required to start the running of the channel. It should deeply define the business exertion that includes marketing strategies, and procedures to be followed to attract the customers. It might also project non-homogeneous strategies that discover the leadership styles to be portrayed by the leaders, which should be unmixed and flexible.Business plans are established for ve rsatile objectives for example an organization might be searching for finances from investors a group would be in affect of bank loan while others will want to plan organizations dodge to be sure the organization is successful. No matter the purpose all(a) types of business requires a business plan.Steps in writing an excellent business planLay down the main purpose of the business get wind all the needed data and information of the business purpose focusing on the purpose based on the compiled information Important factors of a business planA good business plan should always fit the business need It is possible to establish a business plan that is so excellent but can unaccompanied be understood by internal members while it is also possible to develop an excellent and well researched business plan that has no use. The business needs should be extremely considered especially its aim, vision and mission statement (McKeever, 2008).It should be realistic A business plan should h ave great ideas which can be utilize for example an excellent, well researched and perfectly written business plan explaining about a commodity that cannot be established has no meaning. Conversely, plan that calls for millions of bills just for investment but lacks management group that can be able to get such investment is a bad plan.It should be direct to the point The entire business plan should be particular in nature that is it should state out duties, expiring dates, forecasts and metric. An excellent planning relies to a greater extent on the subject, the concerned party, the day and the finances (Abrams & Kleiner, 2003). It should underline duties and responsibilities One mustiness be able to point out the duties for idiosyncratics. Any duty without an individual seems difficult to be implemented.It points out assumptions Its very vital for most of the business plans appears to be wrong, they are written by people who deal with come close work and they might be wro ng, hence every plan should display assumption up front for altered assumptions ought to direct to revised plans (McKeever, 2008).It should determine people to be committed Apart from planning, the plan should specify the various duties and responsibilities of an individual then the management should follow up so as to get the duties done by the concerned party, this will enforce inscription and a smooth running of the business.A good business plan should be kept moving by follow up and planning wreak (Abrams & Kleiner, 2003). Every business plan must carry the planning procedures with it, which way of life often check up and course amendment. There is no business plan that is excellent if it is inflexible. Planning doesnt future predict only annually its steering and management that takes a process to often antipathetic check and rectify the course (Pinson, 2001).

Bag of Bones CHAPTER ONE

On a very calefactive twenty-four hours in August of 1994, my wife t doddering me she was sacking surmount to the Derry Rite Aid to plectrum up a refill on her sinus medicine ethical drug this is stuff you displace deal over the counter these days, I be restve. Id entire my writing for the day and glume redness to pick it up for her. She said thanks, substanti whollyy she cute to bulge out a piece of fish at the supermarket next en listen any itinerary phone cardinal birds with virtuoso st angiotensin-converting enzyme and in on the whole of that. She blew a court at me off the palm of her touch and went baffle forward. The next time I precept her, she was on TV. Thats how you identify the dead here in Derry no.walking dispirited a subterranean corridor with green tiles on the walls and enormous fluorescent bars over notch, no naked body rolling come to the fore of a chilly drawer on casters you further go into an military post label PRIVATE and look at a TV mixture give out-of-door and produce yep or nope.The Rite Aid and the Shopwell are less than a mile from our house, in a footling neighborhood strip centerfield which in like manner supports a video store, a used-book store named Sp con facial expressionr It just about (they do a very brisk business in my get on withd paperbacks), a intercommunicate Shack, and a Fast Foto. Its on Up-Mile Hill, at the cross of Witcham and Jackson.She parked in front of Blockbuster Video, went into the drugstore, and did business with Mr. Joe Wyzer, who was the druggist in those days he has since moved on to the Rite Aid in Bangor. At the checkout she picked up one of those half-size chocolates with marshmallow inside, this one in the shape of a mouse. I rear it later, in her purse. I unwrap it and ate it myself, personateting at the kitchen table with the contents of her red nonecase spread out in front of me, and it was like taking Communion. When it was deceased excep t for the taste of chocolate on my tongue and in my throat, I burst into tears. I sat in that respect in the swarm of her Kleenex and organisation and keys and half-finished rolls of Certs and cried with my hands over my look, the direction a kid cries.The sinus respirator was in a Rite Aid bag. It had cost twelve dollars and 18 cents. There was some liaison else in the bag, too an item which had cost twenty- dickens-fifty. I looked at this freshly(prenominal) item for a coarse time, conceiveing it that non belowstanding it. I was bewildermentd, perhaps f luxurious stunned, scarce the idea that Johanna Arlen Noonan readiness rush been jumper lead a nonher life, one I knew nothing about(predicate), neer crossed my mind. Not then.Jo left the register, walked out into the b respectable, hammering sunbathe again, swapping her fifty-fifty glasses for her prescription medicine sunglasses as she did, and just as she stepped from below the drugstores slight over hang (I am imagining a minuscular here, I suppose, pass over over into the country of the novelist a little, only if not by to a greater extent solitary(prenominal) if by inches, and you can trust me on that), thither was that shrewish howl of locked tires on pavement that means in that respects going to be any an accident or a very close foreshadow.This time it happened the sort of accident which happened at that stupid X-shaped intersection at least one time a workweek, it seemed. A 1989 Toyota was collecting out of the obtain-center parking cope and turning left onto Jackson Street. Behind the hustle was Mrs. Esther Easterling of Barretts Orchards. She was accompanied by her supporter Mrs Irene Deorsey, also of Barretts Orchards, who had shopped the video store without finding anything she trea certain(a)d to rent. Too some(prenominal) violence, Irene said. Both women were cigarette widows. Esther could hardly have missed the orangish human race deeds kno ck set ashore truck coming down the hill although she denied this to the police, to the newspaper, and to me when I talked to her some two months later, I think it likely that she just forgot to look. As my own mother (another cigarette widow) used to say, The two virtually leafy vegetable ailments of the elderly are arthritis and forgetfulness. They cant be held responsible for neither.Driving the customary Works truck was William Fraker, of Old Cape. Mr. Fraker was thirty- ogdoad years anile on the day of my wifes death, driving with his shirt off and thinking how badly he treasured a cool shower and a parky beer, not necessarily in that order. He and three other men had spent eight hours projectting down asphalt patch out on the Harris lane Extension near the airport, a hot job on a hot day, and Bill Fraker said yeah, he capacity have been going a little too fast peradventure forty in a thirty-mile-an-hour zone. He was eager to get back to the garage, sign off on the truck, and get behind the wheel of his own F-150, which had air conditioning. Also, the dump trucks brakes, while sober profuse to pass inspection, were a long way from tip-top condition. Fraker hit them as soon as he aphorism the Toyota pull out in front of him (he hit his horn, as well), exactly it was too late. He heard screaming tires his own, and Esthers as she belatedly legitimateised her danger and saw her bet for just a trice.That was the worst part, somehow, he told me as we sat on his porch, drinking beers it was October by then, and although the sun was fiery on our demonstrates, we were both wearing sweaters. You greet how high up you sit in one of those dump trucks? I nodded. Well, she was looking up to see me craning up, youd say and the sun was full in her lawsuit. I could see how old she was. I remember thinking, Holy shit, shes gonna break like glass if I cant stop. save old people are tough, more often than not. They can surprise you. I mean, lo ok at how it turned out, both those old biddies unruffled alive, and your wife . . . He stopped then, bright red gloss dashing into his cheeks, making him look like a boy who has been laughed at in the schoolyard by girls who have noticed his fly is unzipped. It was comical, nevertheless if Id smiled, it only would have confused him.Mr. Noonan, Im sorry. My mouth just sort of ran away with me.Its all right, I told him. Im over the worst of it, anyway. That was a lie, but it put us back on track.Anyway, he said, we hit. There was a loud bang, and a crumping penetrate when the drivers side of the car caved in. Breaking glass, too. I was thrown against the wheel hard decorous so I couldnt draw a hint without it hurting for a week or more, and I had a surfacehanded bruise right here. He drew an arc on his white meat just below the collarbones. I banged my head on the windshield hard enough to crack the glass, but all I got up there was a little purple knob . . . no bleeding, no t til forthwith a headache. My wife says Ive just got a naturally thick skull. I saw the adult female driving the Toyota, Mrs. Easterling, thrown crossways the console amongst the front bucket tails. Then we were finally stopped, all tangled unitedly in the middle of the street, and I got out to see how bad they were. I tell you, I expected to find them both dead.Neither of them was dead, neither of them was even unconscious, although Mrs. Easterling had three skintn ribs and a dislocated hip. Mrs. Deorsey, who had been a seat away from the impact, suffered a concussion when she rapped her head on her window. That was all she was tough and released at Home Hospital, as the Derry News always puts it in such(prenominal) cases.My wife, the former Johanna Arlen of Malden, Massachusetts, saw it all from where she stood outside the drugstore, with her purse slung over her shoulder joint and her prescription bag in one hand. Like Bill Fraker, she mustiness have public opinion the occupants of the Toyota were either dead or seriously hurt. The healthy of the collision had been a hollow, authoritative bang which rolled by with(predicate) the hot aft(prenominal)noon air like a bowling ball down an alley. The sound of breaking glass edged it like jagged lace. The two vehicles were tangled violently in concert in the middle of Jackson Street, the drear orange truck looming over the pale-blue import like a hector parent over a cowering child.Johanna began to sprint across the parking lot toward the street. Others were doing the same all moderately her. One of them, Miss Jill Dunbarry, had been window-shopping at Radio Shack when the accident occurred. She said she thought she remembered running past Johanna at least she was pretty authorized she remembered someone in yellow-bellied goldbrick but she couldnt be sure. By then, Mrs. Easterling was screaming that she was hurt, they were both hurt, wouldnt somebody process her and her friend Irene.Ha lfway across the parking lot, near a little cluster of newspaper dispensers, my wife fell down. Her purse-strap stayed over her shoulder, but her prescription bag slipped from her hand, and the sinus inhaler slid halfway out. The other item stayed put.No one noticed her deceitfulness there by the newspaper dispensers everyone was cerebrate on the tangled vehicles, the screaming women, the spreading puddle of water and antifreeze from the Public Works trucks ruptured radiator. (Thats gas the clerk from Fast Foto shouted to anyone who would list. Thats gas, watch out she dont blow, fellas) I suppose one or two of the would-be rescuers might have jumped right over her, maybe thinking she had fainted. To assume such a thing on a day when the temperature was pushing xcv degrees would not have been unreasonable.Roughly two twelve people from the shopping center clustered around the accident another four dozen or so came running over from Strawford Park, where a baseball sustain had been going on. I imagine that all the things you would expect to hear in such situations were said, many of them more than once. Milling around. Someone reaching through the misshapen hole which had been the drivers-side window to pat Esthers trembling old hand. hoi polloi immediately giving way for Joe Wyzer at such moments anyone in a white coat automati bellyachey endures the belle of the ball. In the distance, the warble of an ambulance siren rising like shaky air over an incinerator.All during this, lying overlooked in the parking lot, was my wife with her purse still over her shoulder (inside, still wrapped in foil, her uneaten chocolate-marshmallow mouse) and her white prescription bag near one outstretched hand. It was Joe Wyzer, hurrying back to the pharmacy to get a compression bandage for Irene Deorseys head, who spotted her. He recognized her even though she was lying face-down. He recognized her by her red hair, white blouse, and yellow slacks. He recognized her be cause he had waited on her not fifteen minutes before.Mrs. Noonan? he look ated, forgetting all about the compression bandage for the dazed but apparently not too badly hurt Irene Deorsey. Mrs. Noonan, are you all right? Knowing already (or so I suspect perhaps I am wrong) that she was not.He turned her over. It took both hands to do it, and even then he had to work hard, kneeling and pushing and lifting there in the parking lot with the heat baking down from to a higher place and then bouncing back up from the asphalt. Dead people put on weight, it seems to me both in their flesh and in our minds, they put on weight.There were red marks on her face. When I identified her I could see them clearly even on the video monitor. I started to ask the service medical examiner what they were, but then I knew. recently August, hot pavement, elementary, my dear Watson. My wife died getting a sunburn.Wyzer got up, saw that the ambulance had arrived, and ran toward it. He pushed his way thr ough the crowd and grab spang one of the attendants as he got out from behind the wheel. Theres a woman over there, Wyzer said, pointing toward the parking lot.Guy, weve got two women right here, and a man as well, the attendant said. He tried to pull away, but Wyzer held on.Never mind them right now, he said. Theyre basi call optiony okay. The woman over there isnt.The woman over there was dead, and Im pretty sure Joe Wyzer knew it . . . but he had his priorities straight. Give him that. And he was convincing enough to get both paramedics moving away from the tangle of truck and Toyota, in shapele of Esther Easterlings cries of pain and the rumbles of protest from the Greek chorus.When they got to my wife, one of the paramedics was quick to confirm what Joe Wyzer had already suspected. Holy shit, the other one said. What happened to her?Heart, most likely, the first one said. She got sore and it just blew out on her.But it wasnt her heart. The autopsy revealed a creative think er aneurysm which she might have been living with, all unknown, for as long as five years. As she sprinted across the parking lot toward the accident, that faint vessel in her cerebral cortex had blown like a tire, drowning her control-centers in blood and killing her. Death had probably not been instantaneous, the assistant medical examiner told me, but it had still come swiftly enough . . . and she wouldnt have suffered. Just one life-sized black nova, all thaumaturge and thought gone even before she hit the pavement.Can I help you in any way, Mr. Noonan? the assistant ME asked, turning me gently away from the still face and closed eyes on the video monitor. Do you have questions? Ill answer them if I can.Just one, I said.I told him what shed purchased in the drugstore just before she died. Then I asked my question.The days leading up to the funeral and the funeral itself are day- intakelike in my memory the clearest memory I have is of eating Jos chocolate mouse and crying . . . crying mostly, I think, because I knew how soon the taste of it would be gone. I had one other crying fit a few days after(prenominal) we interred her, and I will tell you about that one shortly.I was jolly for the arrival of Jos family, and particularly for the arrival of her oldest blood brother, postmark. It was outspoken Arlen fifty, red-cheeked, portly, and with a head of lush dark hair who organized the arrangements . . . who wound up actually dickering with the funeral director.I cant believe you did that, I said later, as we sat in a booth at Jacks Pub, drinking beers.He was trying to stick it to you, Mikey, he said. I hate make funs like that. He reached into his back pocket, brought out a handkerchief, and wiped absently at his cheeks with it. He hadnt broken down none of the Arlens broke down, at least not when I was with them but Frank had leaked steadily all day he looked like a man anguish from severe conjunctivitis.There had been sextette Arlen sibs in all, Jo the youngest and the only girl. She had been the pet of her big brothers. I suspect that if Id had anything to do with her death, the five of them would have torn me obscure with their bare hands. As it was, they formed a protective shield around me instead, and that was good. I suppose I might have muddled through without them, but I dont know how.I was thirty-six, remember. You dont expect to have to hide your wife when youre thirty-six and she herself is two years younger. Death was the exsert thing on our minds.If a guy gets caught taking your stereo out of your car, they call it theft and put him in jail, Frank said. The Arlens had come from Massachusetts, and I could still hear Malden in Franks voice caught was coowat, car was cah, call was caul. If the same guy is trying to sell a grieving husband a three-thousand-dollar shut in for forty-five atomic number 6 dollars, they call it business and ask him to speak at the Rotary Club luncheon. Greedy asshole, I fe d him his lunch, didnt I?Yes. You did.You okay, Mikey?Im okay. genuinely okay?How the fuck should I know? I asked him, loud enough to turn some heads in a nearby booth. And then She was pregnant.His face grew very still. What?I struggled to keep my voice down. Pregnant. Six or sevensome weeks, according to the . . . you know, the autopsy. Did you know? Did she tell you?No Christ, no But there was a funny look on his face, as if she had told him something. I knew you were trying, of rowing . . . she said you had a low sperm count and it might get hold of a little while, but the doctor thought you guysd probably . . . preferably or later youd probably . . . He trailed off, looking down at his hands. They can tell that, huh? They check for that?They can tell. As for checking, I dont know if they do it automatically or not. I asked.why?She didnt just buy sinus medicine before she died. She also bought one of those habitation pregnancy-testing kits.You had no idea? No clue?I shook my head. He reached across the table and squeezed my shoulder. She wanted to be sure, thats all. You know that, dont you?A refill on my sinus medicine and a piece of fish, shed said. Looking like always. A woman off to run a couple of errands. We had been trying to have a kid for eight years, but she had looked just like always.Sure, I said, patting Franks hand. Sure, big guy. I know.It was the Arlens led by Frank who handled Johannas send off. As the writer of the family, I was assigned the obituary. My brother came up from Virginia with my mom and my aunt and was allowed to tend the guest-book at the viewings. My mother almost emptyly ga-ga at the age of sixty-six, although the doctors refused to call it Alzheimers lived in Memphis with her sister, two years younger and only slightly less wonky. They were in charge of cutting the cake and the pies at the funeral reception.Everything else was position by the Arlens, from the viewing hours to the components of the funeral cerem ony. Frank and Victor, the second-youngest brother, spoke brief tributes. Jos dad offered a prayer for his daughters soul. And at the end, Pete Breedlove, the boy who cut our grass in the pass and raked our yard in the fall, brought everyone to tears by singing sunny Assurance, which Frank said had been Jos favorite hymn as a girl. How Frank found Pete and persuaded him to sing at the funeral is something I never found out.We got through it the afternoon and flush viewings on Tuesday, the funeral service on Wednesday dawning, then the little pray-over at Fairlawn Cemetery. What I remember most was thinking how hot it was, how lost I felt without having Jo to talk to, and that I wished I had bought a new equate of shoes. Jo would have pestered me to death about the ones I was wearing, if she had been there.Later on I talked to my brother, Sid, told him we had to do something about our mother and Aunt Francine before the two of them disappeared completely into the Twilight Zone. They were too young for a nursing home what did Sid advise?He advised something, but Ill be damned if I know what it was. I agreed to it, I remember that, but not what it was. Later that day, Siddy, our mom, and our aunt climbed back into Siddys rental car for the drive to Boston, where they would guide the night and then grab the Southern Crescent the following day. My brother is happy enough to chaperone the old folks, but he doesnt fly, even if the tickets are on me. He claims there are no sectionalisation lanes in the sky if the engine quits.Most of the Arlens left the next day. at one time more it was dog-hot, the sun glaring out of a white-haze sky and lying on everything like melted brass. They stood in front of our house which had become solely my house by then with three taxis lined up at the curb behind them, big galoots hugging one another amid the litter of tote-bags and saying their goodbyes in those foggy Massachusetts accents.Frank stayed another day. We picked a big bunch of flowers behind the house not those ghastly-smelling hothouse things whose bouquet I always associate with death and organ-music but real flowers, the kind Jo liked best and stuck them in a couple of coffee cans I found in the back pantry. We went out to Fairlawn and put them on the new grave. Then we just sat there for awhile under the lace sun.She was always just the sweetest thing in my life, Frank said at last in a strange, irksome voice. We took care of Jo when we were kids. Us guys. No one messed with Jo, Ill tell you. Anyone tried, wed feed em their lunch.She told me a lot of stories. proficient ones?Yeah, real good.Im going to miss her so much.Me, too, I said. Frank . . . listen . . . I know you were her favorite brother. She never called you, maybe just to say that she missed a period or was recovering whoopsy in the morning? You can tell me. I wont be pissed.But she didnt. Honest to God. Was she whoopsy in the morning?Not that I saw. And that was just it. I hadnt seen anything. Of words Id been writing, and when I write I pretty much trance out. But she knew where I went in those trances. She could have found me and shaken me fully awake. Why hadnt she? Why would she hide good news? Not wanting to tell me until she was sure was plausible . . . but it somehow wasnt Jo.Was it a boy or a girl? he asked.A girl.Wed had names picked out and waiting for most of our marriage. A boy would have been Andrew. Our daughter would have been Kia. Kia Jane Noonan.Frank, divorced six years and on his own, had been staying with me. On our way back to the house he said, I worry about you, Mikey. You havent got much family to fall back on at a time like this, and what you do have is off the beaten track(predicate) away.Ill be all right, I said. He nodded.Thats what we say, anyway, isnt it?We?Guys. Ill be all right.And if were not, we try to make sure no one knows it. He looked at me, eyes still leaking, handkerchief in one big sunburned hand. If y oure not all right, Mikey, and you dont want to call your brother I saw the way you looked at him let me be your brother. For Jos sake if not your own.Okay, I said, respecting and appreciating the offer, also knowing I would do no such thing. I dont call people for help. Its not because of the way I was raised, at least I dont think so its the way I was do. Johanna once said that if I was drowning at Dark Score Lake, where we have a summer home, I would die silently fifty feet out from the public beach sort of than yell for help. Its not a question of love or affection. I can give those and I can take them. I feel pain like anyone else. I need to touch and be touched. But if someone asks me, Are you all right? I cant answer no. I cant say help me.A couple of hours later Frank left for the southern end of the state. When he opened the car door, I was touched to see that the taped book he was listening to was one of mine. He hugged me, then surprised me with a kiss on the mouth, a good hard smack. If you need to talk, call, he said. And if you need to be with someone, just come.I nodded.And be careful.That startled me. The combination of heat and grief had made me feel as if I had been living in a fancy for the last few days, but that got through.Careful of what?I dont know, he said. I dont know, Mikey. Then he got into his car he was so big and it was so little that he looked as if he were wearing it and drove away. The sun was going down by then. Do you know how the sun looks at the end of a hot day in August, all orange and somehow squashed, as if an invisible hand were pushing down on the top of it and at any moment it might just set off like an overfilled mosquito and splatter all over the horizon? It was like that. In the east, where it was already dark, thunder was rumbling. But there was no rain that night, only a dark that came down as thick and stifling as a blanket. All the same, I slipped in front of the word mainframe and wrote for an hour or so. It went pretty well, as I remember. And you know, even when it doesnt, it passes the time.My second crying fit came three or four days after the funeral. That sense of being in a dream persisted I walked, I talked, I answered the phone, I worked on my book, which had been about eighty percent complete when Jo died but all the time there was this clear sense of disconnection, a feeling that everything was going on at a distance from the real me, that I was more or less phoning it in.Denise Breedlove, Petes mother, called and asked if I wouldnt like her to institute a couple of her friends over one day the following week and give the big old Edwardian pile I now lived in alone rolling around in it like the last pea in a restaurant-sized can a good stem-to-stern cleaning. They would do it, she said, for a hundred dollars split even among the three of them, and mostly because it wasnt good for me to go on without it. There had to be a scrubbing after a death, she said, even if the death didnt happen in the house itself.I told her it was a fine idea, but I would pay her and the women she brought a hundred dollars each for six hours work. At the end of the six hours, I wanted the job done. And if it wasnt, I told her, it would be done, anyway.Mr. Noonan, thats far too much, she said.Maybe and maybe not, but its what Im paying, I said. Will you do it?She said she would, of course she would.mayhap predictably, I found myself going through the house on the evening before they came, doing a pre-cleaning inspection. I guess I didnt want the women (two of whom would be complete strangers to me) finding anything that would embarrass them or me a pair of Johannas silk panties stuffed down behind the sofa cushions, perhaps (We are often overcome on the sofa, Michael, she said to me once, have you noticed?), or beer cans under the loveseat on the sunporch, maybe even an unflushed toilet. In truth, I cant tell you any one thing I was looking for that sense of opera ting in a dream still held firm control over my mind. The clearest thoughts I had during those days were either about the end of the novel I was writing (the psychotic cause of death had lured my heroine to a high-rise building and meant to push her off the roof) or about the Norco Home Pregnancy Test Jo had bought on the day she died. Sinus prescription, she had said. human of fish for supper, she had said. And her eyes had shown me nothing else I needed to look at twice.Near the end of my pre-cleaning, I looked under our bed and saw an open paperback on Jos side. She hadnt been dead long, but few household lands are so insensate as the Kingdom of Underbed, and the light-gray coating I saw on the book when I brought it out made me think of Johannas face and hands in her coffin Jo in the Kingdom of Underground. Did it get spargey inside a coffin? Surely not, but I pushed the thought away. It pretended to go, but all day long it kept weirdie back, like Tolstoys white bear.Johan na and I had both been English majors at the University of Maine, and like many others, I reckon, we fell in love to the sound of Shakespeare and the Tilbury Town cynicism of Edwin Arlington Robinson. Yet the writer who had bound us closest together was no college-friendly poet or essayist but W. Somerset Maugham, that elderly globetrotting novelist-playwright with the reptiles face (always obscured by cigarette smoke in his photographs, it seems) and the romantics heart. So it did not surprise me much to find that the book under the bed was The Moon and sixpence. I had read it myself as a late teenager, not once but twice, identifying passionately with the character of Charles Strickland. (It was writing I wanted to do in the South Seas, of course, not painting.)She had been using a playing card from some defunct deck as her place-marker, and as I opened the book, I thought of something she had said when I was first getting to know her. In Twentieth-Century British Lit, this had be en, probably in 1980. Johanna Arlen had been a fiery little sophomore. I was a senior, picking up the Twentieth-Century Brits simply because I had time on my hands that last semester. A hundred years from now, she had said, the shame of the mid-twentieth-century literary critics will be that they embraced Lawrence and ignored Maugham. This was greeted with contemptuously good-natured laughter (they all knew Women in Love was one of the greatest damn books ever written), but I didnt laugh. I fell in love.The playing card marked pages 102 and 103 Dirk Stroeve has just discovered that his wife has left him for Strickland, Maughams version of Paul Gauguin. The bank clerk tries to buck Stroeve up. My dear fellow, dont be unhappy. Shell come back . . .Easy for you to say, I murmured to the room which now belonged just to me.I turned the page and read this Stricklands injurious calm robbed Stroeve of his self-control Blind rage seized him, and without knowing what he was doing he flung h imself on Strickland. Strickland was taken by surprise and he staggered, but he was very strong, even after his illness, and in a moment, he did not exactly know how, Stroeve found himself on the floor.You funny little man, said Strickland.It occurred to me that Jo was never going to turn the page and hear Strickland call the pathetic Stroeve a funny little man. In a moment of brilliant epiphany I have never forgotten how could I? it was one of the worst moments of my life I understood it wasnt a mistake that would be rectified, or a dream from which I would awaken. Johanna was dead.My strength was robbed by grief. If the bed hadnt been there, I would have fallen to the floor. We weep from our eyes, its all we can do, but on that evening I felt as if every concentrate of my body were weeping, every crack and cranny. I sat there on her side of the bed, with her dusty paperback copy of The Moon and Sixpence in my hand, and I wailed. I think it was surprise as much as pain in spite of the corpse I had seen and identified on a high-resolution video monitor, in spite of the funeral and Pete Breedlove singing Blessed Assurance in his high, sweet tenor voice, in spite of the graveside service with its ashes to ashes and dust to dust, I hadnt really believed it. The Penguin paperback did for me what the big gray coffin had not it insisted she was dead.You funny little man, said Strickland.I lay back on our bed, crossed my forearms over my face, and cried myself to sleep that way as children do when theyre unhappy. I had an awful dream. In it I woke up, saw the paperback of The Moon and Sixpence still lying on the coverlet beside me, and decided to put it back under the bed where I had found it. You know how confused dreams are logical system like Dal clocks gone so soft they lie over the branches of trees like throw-rugs.I put the playing-card bookmark back surrounded by pages 102 and 103 a turn of the index finger away from You funny little man, said Strickland now and forever and rolled onto my side, hanging my head over the edge of the bed, meaning to put the book back exactly where I had found it.Jo was lying there amid the dust-kitties. A strand of cobweb hung down from the bottom of the box spring and caressed her cheek like a feather.Her red hair looked dull, but her eyes were dark and alert and baleful in her white face. And when she spoke, I knew that death had driven her insane.Give me that, she hissed. Its my dust-catcher. She snatched it out of my hand before I could offer it to her. For a moment our fingers touched, and hers were as cold as twigs after a frost. She opened the book to her place, the playing card fluttering out, and placed Somerset Maugham over her face a tack of words. As she crossed her hands on her bosom and lay still, I realized she was wearing the blue dress I had buried her in. She had come out of her grave to hide under our bed.I awoke with a muffled cry and a painful jerk that almost tumbled me off th e side of the bed. I hadnt been asleep long the tears were still damp on my cheeks, and my eyelids had that funny stretched feel they get after a bout of weeping. The dream had been so vivid that I had to roll on my side, hang my head down, and peer under the bed, sure she would be there with the book over her face, that she would reach out with her cold fingers to touch me.There was nothing there, of course dreams are just dreams. Nevertheless, I spent the rest of the night on the couch in my study. It was the right choice, I guess, because there were no more dreams that night. Only the nothingness of good sleep.