Philosophy and literature- Antigone by Sophocles Essay

Philosophy and literature- Antigone by Sophocles - Essay Example The king decides to give his predecessor a decent burial and formulates harsh law to punish the Polyneices. Where else it is right to accord traitors the harshest punishment so as to discourage others from trying it, according to Sopholes (441 BC), leaving dead bodies to decay without being buried is not acceptable by the gods. The whole story has evidence of the conflict when choosing between the good and bad. Ismene is also faced with a hard decision to make when confronted by Antigone to lend a hand in burying their brother Polyneices. Unlike Antigone, Ismene decided to stick by the rules of the government, only to latter feel the weight of the cause of action taken by Antigone, which makes her willing to die with her. This conflict begins to manifests immediately after Oedipus, the father of Eteocles and Polyneices leaves the throne and moves out of the kingdom. The two brothers are left behind and they fail to agree on the rightful heir to inherit the throne. Eteocles drives Polyneices out of the kingdom, only to return to challenge the throne with war. The war results to the demise of the two brothers. King Creon takes over the throne and feels that Polyneices acted out of bad faith and portrayed actions of a traitor when he engaged the king in a battle that resulted to both their demise. As a punishment to Polyneices, Creon decides that his dead body will be left to decay and be eaten by vultures while Eteocles was buried with honor. With the love of a brother and the need to do right, Antigone then decides to go against the ruling of the king and decides to bury her brother. The main characters are Antigone and Creon. Antigone is committed to bury her brother regardless of the consequences that are set for anyone who will go against the law. She represents the common man who despite the presence of rules and regulations that are set to govern them, at one point

Unconscious mind Essay Example for Free

Unconscious mind Essay ?The pioneer I chose to elaborate on is Carl Gustav Jung, his views and research tactics have contributed to today’s understanding of psychology and expanded our knowledge on several different aspects and elements of psychology. Jung is best known for his development of archetypes, studies of the human psyche, the dream analysis and the collective unconscious. Carl Jung was born July 26, 1875, in Kesswil, Switzerland; he passed away on June 6, 1961 in Zurich. Originally Carl studied medicine, but also developed an interest in spiritual phenomena. This fascination with medicine and spirituality led him into the field of psychiatry. In 1902, he graduated from the University of Basel with a medical degree. Jung worked with psychiatric patients at the University of Zurich asylum. In 1906, he wrote Studies in Word Association and sent a copy to Sigmund Freud. The two became friends. His time spent working with Sigmund Freud had a major impact on Jung’s later theories and helped him develop a fascination for the unconscious mind. Jung wanted to further understanding of the human mind through dreams, myth, art and philosophy. Jung began to separate from Freudian theory, rejecting Freuds emphasis on sex as the sole source of behavior motivation. It was during this period of intense self-analysis that Jung became increasingly interested in dreams and symbols, later using what he learned during this time as the basis for his theories of psychology. Jung became more organized about his theoretical approach, broke from psychodynamic theories and formed his own theory called Analytical Psychology. Jungs colleagues in the psychoanalytic community turned against him due to parting from Freud. Carl devoted himself to exploring his own subconscious. He recorded his experience in a previously unpublished book known at The Red Book and continued to write and illustrate the book over the next fifteen years, the book became published in 2009. Jung believed the human psyche exists in three parts: the ego (the conscious mind), the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. Jung believed the collective unconscious was a reservoir of all the experience and knowledge of the human species. Jung also believed that the process of individuation was essential in order for a person to become whole and fully developed as a human being. Individuation is a process in which the various parts of a person, including the conscious and unconscious, become completely integrated so that the individual becomes his or her true self. In general, it is the process by which individual beings are formed and differentiated from others. While Jungian theory has numerous critics, Carl Jungs work left a notable impact on psychology. His concepts of introversion and extraversion have contributed to personality psychology and also influenced psychotherapy. His advice to a patient suffering from alcoholism led to the formation of Alcoholics Anonymous, which has helped millions of people suffering from alcohol dependence. According to Jung, dreams are a way of communicating and acquainting yourself with the unconscious. Dreams are not attempts to conceal your true feelings from the waking mind, but rather they are a window to your unconscious. They serve to guide the waking self to achieve wholeness and offer a solution to a problem you are facing in your waking life. Jung views the ego as your sense of self and how you portray yourself to the world. Part of Jungs theory is that all things can be viewed as paired opposites: good/evil, male/female, or love/hate. So working in opposition to the ego, is the counter ego or what he refers to as the shadow. The shadow represents the rejected aspects of yourself that you do not wish to acknowledge. The shadow is more primitive, somewhat uncultured, and a little awkward. http://www. dreaminterpretation-dictionary. com/carl-jung-theory. html Archetypes constitute the structure of the collective unconscious they are psychic innate dispositions to experience and represent basic human behavior and situations. Thus mother-child relationship is governed by the mother archetype. Father-child by the father archetype. Birth, death, power and failure are controlled by archetypes. The religious and mystique experiences are also governed by archetypes. The most important of all is the Self, which is the archetype of the Center of the psychic person, his/her totality or wholeness. The Center is made of the unity of conscious and unconscious reached through the individuation process. Archetypes manifest themselves through archetypal images (in all the cultures and religious doctrines), in dreams and visions. Therefore a great deal of Jungian interest in psyche focuses on dreams and symbols interpretation in order to discover the compensation induced by archetypes as marks of psyche transformation. The collective unconscious is an universal datum, that is, every human being is endowed with this psychic archetype-layer since his/her birth. One can not acquire this strata by education or other conscious effort because it is innate. We may also describe it as a universal library of human knowledge, or the sage in man, the very transcendental wisdom that guides mankind. Jung stated that the religious experience must be linked with the experience of the archetypes of the collective unconscious. Thus, God himself is lived like a psychic experience of the path that leads one to the realization of his/her psychic wholeness. http://www. carl-jung. net/archetypes. html http://www. carl-jung. net/index. html.

Judaism :: essays research papers fc

Judaism Judaism is intrinsically open to history. It looks forward to a future event - the messianic redemption - that will dwarf the importance of Exodus. This paper will discuss the important holidays of the Jewish year and a look into the Holocaust from a Jewish standpoint. I talked to a friend of mine, Josh Cohen. Josh practices Conservative Judaism. I also retrieved some information from a book The Jewish Way; Living the Holidays. Rabbi Irving Greenburg wrote it. I will first explain the holidays I discussed with Josh, and then discuss Josh growing up in the Jewish culture. "They particularly exemplify the focus on developing human capacity in the Sabbath and days of awe. The primary, Holy days that nurture personal life along the way. The Sabbat, on a weekly basis, and Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippers, annually, are the key periods of individual family renewal. These holidays accomplish their goals primarily by lifting the individual out of a routine that controls, too often, deadens daily life." The Sabbat is their weekly ceremony, held Friday evenings, to celebrate the end of a work week. Rosh Hashanah - Yom Kipper is the core that of being on trial for ones life. During that trial one moves from life through death to renewed life. Also discussed in this paper is Hanukkah, the festival of lights. Hanukkah stands for the temple that burned to the ground. The Jewish people only had an oil lamp to provide light for six nights and seven days. Therefore that is why they celebrate Hanukkah for six nights and seven days. Passover is also discussed. It is a time where Jewish families are to be fasting, no bread or meat. This last one week. Similar to the Christian Easter celebration. When a Jewish boy turns, age thirteen into an adult Jew they know it as a Bar Mitzvah. In order for this to happen a young teenage boy must attend Hebrew school. They usually take place a couple times a week. There are three types of Judaism worship Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform. Orthodox would be the most religious, Conservatism being middle of the road, and Reform being the least practiced. Josh grew up into the Orthodox beliefs because of his grandparents. Josh's grandparents, his father's mother and father, were Orthodox. His mother's, mother and father were Conservative. Eventually his mother and father switched over to the Conservative beliefs. The Orthodox beliefs would show the in the center and the women on the outside. They viewed women as caretakers. There are three temples in the city of Toledo.

Green peace :: essays research papers

We interviewed Andra Zommers from Greenpeace. The questions we asked were as follows: 1)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What is Greenpeace? 2)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  How is Greenpeace run/structured? 3)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Why did you get involved in the environment? (Your motivation) 4)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Why Greenpeace? 5)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In your opinion, where is the greatest concern? 6)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Is there any Spiritual emphasis Greenpeace has or that you personally have? 7)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What is Greenpeace’s vision for the future? 8)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What gives you hope? Taken from www.greenpeace.ca: â€Å"Greenpeace is an independently funded organization that works to protect the environment. We challenge government and industry to halt harmful practices by negotiating solutions, conducting scientific research, introducing clean alternatives, carrying out peaceful acts of civil disobedience and educating and engaging the public. Greenpeace seeks to:  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Protect biodiversity in all its forms;  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Prevent pollution of the earth’s oceans, land, air and fresh water;  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  End all nuclear threats;  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Promote peace, global disarmament and non-violence.† It is a global campaigning organization founded in 1971 and contains offices in 27 countries worldwide. They place a high emphasis on non-violent confrontational methods in the hope to raise education and awareness. This is often the motivation behind protests. They do this through lobbying, campaigns, boycotts, discussions and interviews. Their focus audience is the consumer. They hope to inform the consumer to change economic stance to support only companies concerned with the environment. Theoretically, the change in money flow should affect large companies approaches to the environment. Greenpeace is independently run in each country. Greenpeace Canada contains 7 board of director members (Peter Bleyer, Varda Burstyn, John Doherty (chair), John Foster, Karen Wristen) that determine priorities and the annual budget. The Executive Director, Peter Tabuns, handles day-to-day management. It is run solely on public donations and does not accept company of government funding in order to stay independent. Most of the money stays local. Their head office is located at 1726 Commercial Drive in Vancouver. Andra credits her motivation towards the environment largely to the location of her upbringing. The claims that the in-your-face beauty of British Columbia, with its mountains, lakes, rivers, forests and ocean, one cannot help but be drawn and connected by it. This, accompanied by the in-your-face destruction of the environment and abuse evidently seen in British Columbia, one cannot help but also be involved with saving the thing you are so closely connected to. She also expressed much concern with the power corporation seem to have over our lives and her personal desire to educate people and see them change for the better drives her to continue in the field.

Perception of the African American Males

Perception of the African American males African Americans males are considered dangerous based on a false identity, misconceptions, and misinformation that are available in the media; this includes but is not limited to rap music, news, and TV shows. This misconception can be traced as far back as slavery. The perception of blacks’ males as being dangerous began when the slave came to America on 1619. Due to the situation of being treated as property, to be freely bought and sold, and that the owner was free to split up a couple or family at any time simply by selling some of his/her slaves. African slaves started to behave in a hostile manner. Because of their behavior the Caucasians immediately started to classify the slaves as being dangerous, and they need to be tame as if they were wild animals. This lead the slave masters to start putting chain and walking around with their rifles when they would be in the fields with them. As it was stated in ‘The Brut Caricature†, it portrays black men as innately savage, animalistic, destructive, and criminal; deserving punishment, and maybe death. Due to the negative influence and portrayals of African Americans males, these individuals are often misguided. The nature vs. nurture theory comes into play. I. e. Low income black males are predisposed to innate qualities, while behavioral traits are learned i. e. through the media. â€Å"Get Rich or Die Trying† is the mentality of most African American males with the help of the media. Most males see themselves as rap stars, sports stars, and or comedians. There is limited exposure of African American as doctors or lawyers at an early age its learned that their chance of success in life is limited. The men in the low income communities have the tendencies of wanting to become like the â€Å"white man†. The main problem is that they portray the idea of â€Å"get rich quick†. These perceptions cause them to turn into drugs, and from there into violence and crimes. According to a 2006 National Urban League report a third of black males will spend time in prison before their 35th birthday. This fact could be because of the high school dropouts and the poor understanding they get from society. Yes, I said the poor understanding from society, because black men are one of the least understood groups in our country. People don't look at the conditions that cause a lot of black men to be in the situations they're in today, they just look at the results. † According to my findings, among men, blacks (28. 5%) are about six times more likely than whites (4. 4%) to be admitted to prison during their life. I also noted that there are more black males in prison in America than are in college. (The Black and White of Justice, Freedom Magazine). Volume 28. Another consequence for African Americans it’s that the â€Å"monster† image given by the Caucasian people are carry by the poor African American people. According to Stallworth (early 1990’s) young black males continue to follow patterns of slavery times. Many fulfill white America’s image of them legitimately by becoming successful gangster rappers, others fulfill these image illegitimately by becoming â€Å"bad niggers† Rappers, therefore reinforce the popular belief that as â€Å"bad ass niggers† young black can achieve fame, recognition, and sense of being (somebody). If they lose, however, they can face a long stay in our jails and prisons or even bodily injury and death. Which it’s happening now days. Media and the African American Males According to the book ‘Black Demons’ there is a â€Å"black pathology† a fundamental weakness in African American families that can be traced to their experiences as slaves. The news media, for example, have taken the lead in equating young African American males with aggressiveness, lawlessness, and violence. Likewise, the entertainment media have eagerly taken their cue from the journalists, and these false images not only affect race relationship but also create a self felling prophecy for African American youngsters, whose limits of achievement can be determined for them by suggestions in the media. A common stereotype about African American men is that they are engage in drug abuse a disproportionate way which it’s not true because according to statistics from the US department of Health and Human services that although eight percent of African American males cocaine, eleven percent of whites have use the same drug. This is, however, not the impression that we get from watching the evening local news or even an episode of television program COPS. Blacks Stereotyped of Being Intellectually Inferior and Criminals. Another common negative stereotype, establishes the African American male as intellectually inferior. Studies directed by psychologist Claude Stale, indicate that African American teenagers are aware that they are stigmatized as being intellectually inferior and the go to school bearing what psychologist Claude has called a â€Å"burden of suspicion† Such burden can affect their attitudes and achievements. These shadows hang over stigmatized people no matter their status or accomplishments. These stigmas have the potential to roll them of their individually and debilitate their attempts to break out of the stereotypical roles. Blacks are the repository for the American fear of crime. Ask anyone, of any race, to picture a criminal and the image will have a black face. The linked between blackness and criminality it’s routinized by terms such a â€Å"black-on-black crimes† or â€Å"black crimes†. I also have to mention the ‘black brute stereotype arise in the early 1870’s. Such stereotype is one of the pictures white Americans have in their heads about black men: as savage, violent amazingly strong and not caring about right and wrong. Even today according to my findings , blacks are three times more likely to be physically threatened, harmed or killed because if their race than whites. So this idea of whites as peaceful and blacks ad threatening to white is not rooted in fact. It is rooted in something else. Yes, there are black men who are violent and savage, who do unspeakable things. But there are white men like that too. In either case they are hardly common enough to reasonably determine one’s ideas about the ordinary people of their race. Rap Music and its influence in African American males Rap music celebrates vulgarity. Indeed, it markets vulgarity; that is its product. It is the vulgar excesses of rap-the profanity, the over-sized jewelry, the naked acquisitiveness, the sexual aggressiveness-that are its hallmarks. New media attention on rap music seems obsessed on instances of violence at rap concerts, rap producers’ illegal use of musical samples, gangster raps’ lurid fanatics of cop killing, and female dismemberment, and Black Nationalist rappers suggestions that white peoples are devils disciples. It seems that rappers to notice the influence they have in people mostly African American people, and by say this type of things they send an incorrect message to their fanatics and other people in general. In most of the songs you can find a high level of aggravated language, images, and high crimes scenarios. . According to the authors of these songs, they just make it for the entertainment of their fans without thinking of the image they are given of their people and themselves. One question and many answers from our society I took the duty to find out the perception that common US citizens have towards African American males, by submitting a question on (answersyahoo. com) people from all around our country answered to my question. The following are the answers to my survey. †¢ People poisonous stereotypes the black males with the â€Å"5 Ds†Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬Å"Dumb, deprived, dangerous, deviant, and disturbed†. †¢ Lazy & uneducated †¢ Drug dealers †¢ Poor †¢ Hate other races †¢ They are dirty †¢ Loud, obnoxious, rude My Opinion For these reasons and many other African American males are consider dangerous for our society. But stop and think for a minute, are they all really dangerous or this is only a big misunderstanding? Can we judge them all as a whole, or there are some of them that can be excluded of being stereotyped as â€Å"dangerous†, â€Å"criminal†, etc? In my opinion we cannot judged them all as a whole and we should also try to understand the reasons behind their actions. We have to learn how to be open minded and see things from different perspectives. We also have to realize that not everything that we see and listen in the media is always the truth, there is always a second part of a story and most of the time we fail to look for that second part. African American behavior has been shaped by us (society) because of our mistreatment towards them and our racism†¦ I believe if we change the way we look at them and express about them, they will change their behavior and we no longer will have to use the statement of â€Å"dangerous† when referring to a African American male. Conclusion To conclude to this issue in question I just have to say ‘Black or white, God gave us the opportunity to succeed, and regardless of the situation we are dealt, we can all live the life we imagined. After s days of research I can’t say there is a wrong or right theory about African American males because everyone has their own way of thinking and their own opinion. But just to add ‘the world would be shocked to know that the majority of black men make the right choices and build successful families and careers every day in America, yet are rarely discussed in the headlines’. Bibliogaphy

Life Or Death Essays - Euthanasia, Medical Ethics, Perception

Life Or Death Essays - Euthanasia, Medical Ethics, Perception Life Or Death Life or Death The beliefs and views of our country are hypocritical and unjust. As we grow from a young child to a mature adult, we are taught many things such as that killing another human being is wrong, it is against the law and goes against most peoples religious beliefs. Yet, there are some instances when this rule does not seem to apply. If someone kills another in self-defense it is seen as an act of bravery, if a soldier kills an enemy in war it is seen as courageous and honorable. But who is to say that these acts are more justifiable than allowing someone who is in extreme pain and suffering to be given an opportunity to end their own lives with the help of another. As the world around us changes at an incredible rate, we must always ask ourselves if these changes are in our own best interest. The decisions that people make are always up for debate by anyone who has an opinion one way or another. The debate of euthanasia has been ongoing for many years and as of now, there is no end in s ight. There are many views on the topic of euthanasia, some people believe that it should be open to anyone who feels that their life is not worth living; while others think that there is no justifiable reason for euthanasia be allowed. These opposing sides have many different reasons for believing what they do, some reasons people give for euthanasia are intriguing and very thought provoking. Some people believe that a person with an incurable disease or severe disability that causes life to be racked with pain or so burdensome that a meaningful and desirable existence has ceased, then this person should be allowed to die. This conclusion should only be allowed after all other alternatives have been thoroughly considered. Another argument that is given in favor or euthanasia is that the role of the physician is to do whatever is best for their patient. This could mean that in some extreme situations the best answer might include hastening death upon the request of the dying. The job of a physician should always be to help their patient in any way possible. It is the duty as a professional to heal, prolong life, and to reduce suffering. In some extreme cases, when every other option is hopeless, the best service that a physician can render would be to help a person hasten death in order to relieve the unnecessary suffering they must go through. Another argument supporting the use of euthanasia is that everyone would benefit if it were legal to show mercy when death becomes preferable over life. With that in mind one must look at the families and loved ones of those who wish to end their extreme suffering. No one would want to watch a loved one die in extreme agony, while sitting there not being able to do anything. This feeling of helplessness and despair would almost be unimaginable. Making anyone watch this while hoping for a quick end to his or her loved ones suffering, would be wrong in itself. Although this type of case is rare in the real world is very rare, just one case alone would be argument enough for the use of euthanasia. While the views of many people may be against the use of euthanasia, it sad to say that in all actuality it goes on almost everyday. Many people have heard of doctors who report that they have, out of compassion and mercy, given heavy doses of morphine to relieve the pain and suffering of patients who are near an inevitable death. While doing this, the doctors know perfectly well what the ending result will be, to hasten death. Somehow this is right, since the goal of this is to ease the pain and not actually to kill the patient. But would it not also be right to do the very same thing with the goal of hastening death? While these views and arguments are very interesting and thought provoking there are many more people who believe that euthanasia is wrong. There are majority of people can be separated into

Free Essays on Cyber Crime

First Yahoo! Then eBay. The Net's vulnerability threatens e-commerceand you The scenario that no one in the computer security field likes to talk about has come to pass: The biggest e-commerce sites on the Net have been falling like dominoes. First it was Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) On Feb. 6, the portal giant was shut down for three hours. Then retailer Buy.com Inc. (BUYX) was hit the next day, hours after going public. By that evening, eBay (EBAY), Amazon.com (AMZN), and CNN (TWX) had gone dark. And in the morning, the mayhem continued with online broker E*Trade (EGRP) and others having traffic to their sites virtually choked off. The work of some super hacker? For now, law enforcement officials don't know, or won't say. But what worries experts more than the identity of this particular culprit or outlaw group is how easily these attacks have been orchestrated and executed. Seemingly, someone could be sitting in the warmth of their home and, with a few keystrokes, disrupting electronic commerce around the globe. DEAD HALT. Experts say it's so easy, it's creepy: The software to do this damage is simple to use and readily available at underground hacker sites throughout the Internet. A tiny program can be downloaded and then planted in computers all over the world. Then, with the push of a button, those PCs are alerted to go into action, sending a simple request for access to a site, again and again and againindeed, scores or hundreds of times a second. Gridlock. For all the sophisticated work on firewalls, intrusion-detection systems, encryption and computer security, e-businesses are at risk from a relatively simple technique that's akin to dialing a telephone number repeatedly so that everyone else trying to get through will hear a busy signal. ''We have not seen anything of this magnitude beforenot only at eBay, but across so many sites,'' says Margaret C. Whitman, CEO of eBay. No information on a Web site was snatched, no... Free Essays on Cyber Crime Free Essays on Cyber Crime Cyber Crime First Yahoo! Then eBay. The Net's vulnerability threatens e-commerceand you The scenario that no one in the computer security field likes to talk about has come to pass: The biggest e-commerce sites on the Net have been falling like dominoes. First it was Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) On Feb. 6, the portal giant was shut down for three hours. Then retailer Buy.com Inc. (BUYX) was hit the next day, hours after going public. By that evening, eBay (EBAY), Amazon.com (AMZN), and CNN (TWX) had gone dark. And in the morning, the mayhem continued with online broker E*Trade (EGRP) and others having traffic to their sites virtually choked off. The work of some super hacker? For now, law enforcement officials don't know, or won't say. But what worries experts more than the identity of this particular culprit or outlaw group is how easily these attacks have been orchestrated and executed. Seemingly, someone could be sitting in the warmth of their home and, with a few keystrokes, disrupting electronic commerce around the globe. DEAD HALT. Experts say it's so easy, it's creepy: The software to do this damage is simple to use and readily available at underground hacker sites throughout the Internet. A tiny program can be downloaded and then planted in computers all over the world. Then, with the push of a button, those PCs are alerted to go into action, sending a simple request for access to a site, again and again and againindeed, scores or hundreds of times a second. Gridlock. For all the sophisticated work on firewalls, intrusion-detection systems, encryption and computer security, e-businesses are at risk from a relatively simple technique that's akin to dialing a telephone number repeatedly so that everyone else trying to get through will hear a busy signal. ''We have not seen anything of this magnitude beforenot only at eBay, but across so many sites,'' says Margaret C. Whitman, CEO of eBay. No information on a Web site was... Free Essays on Cyber Crime First Yahoo! Then eBay. The Net's vulnerability threatens e-commerceand you The scenario that no one in the computer security field likes to talk about has come to pass: The biggest e-commerce sites on the Net have been falling like dominoes. First it was Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) On Feb. 6, the portal giant was shut down for three hours. Then retailer Buy.com Inc. (BUYX) was hit the next day, hours after going public. By that evening, eBay (EBAY), Amazon.com (AMZN), and CNN (TWX) had gone dark. And in the morning, the mayhem continued with online broker E*Trade (EGRP) and others having traffic to their sites virtually choked off. The work of some super hacker? For now, law enforcement officials don't know, or won't say. But what worries experts more than the identity of this particular culprit or outlaw group is how easily these attacks have been orchestrated and executed. Seemingly, someone could be sitting in the warmth of their home and, with a few keystrokes, disrupting electronic commerce around the globe. DEAD HALT. Experts say it's so easy, it's creepy: The software to do this damage is simple to use and readily available at underground hacker sites throughout the Internet. A tiny program can be downloaded and then planted in computers all over the world. Then, with the push of a button, those PCs are alerted to go into action, sending a simple request for access to a site, again and again and againindeed, scores or hundreds of times a second. Gridlock. For all the sophisticated work on firewalls, intrusion-detection systems, encryption and computer security, e-businesses are at risk from a relatively simple technique that's akin to dialing a telephone number repeatedly so that everyone else trying to get through will hear a busy signal. ''We have not seen anything of this magnitude beforenot only at eBay, but across so many sites,'' says Margaret C. Whitman, CEO of eBay. No information on a Web site was snatched, no...

How Much of My Novel Should I Post Online

How Much of My Novel Should I Post Online This is a hard question to answer because it isnt black and white. There are mixed messages on giving away your novel. Ive listened to agents speak about discovering good writers via serial releases of a novel. What they dont clarify when they say it can be done is this: Theyre only interested when the public gets lit up, afire with the material so that the blog explodes with interest and starts trend setting. If you only have twenty people reading your blog, waiting for the next chapter, you havent achieved what an agent seeks. Good means you are gathering several thousand followers because of how remarkably your work teases them to return for more. People dont just come to you because you posted your story somewhere. You have to work the system and coax people to come to you. That means lots of social media, maybe even a newsletter. You have to act as if the book has been published and you are seeking readers to buy. This is always such a long shot unless you have a platform already or youre pretty darn savvy and willing to work relentlessly to snare readers. What a Catch 22, right? You need to be published to sell well, so whats a writer to do if not post the book online to build afollowing? The problem here is that you take a chance. When you approach an agent about this book, and its been marketed online via your website or blog, or even self-published in eBook form, that agent will ask how many people read/bought your book. If you gathered 450 readers and a dozen reviews, you may be telling an agent you cant sell the book OR the book isnt marketable enough. You take a risk here. For every one person that does well using this tactic to make a name for himself, there are a thousand who crashed and burned. I tend to suggest to new novelists to seek a mid-size publisher that is willing to go the long-haul with you (the long tail business approach look it up). Mid-size and smaller presses want authors for a long time, for multiple books, and they work and cooperate with you as you build your platform through branding, social media, deals with Amazon, etc. That is the route Im taking. Youd think Id have a big platform, but my editors didnt have a clue what FundsforWriters was, and treated me like a newbie. So Ive been in the process for the past year of showing them how hard I can market. And remember this. If people already read the book for free, why would they buy it later when its published? Theyre waiting for book two. Id stick to the straight and narrow. Post other writing to build a following, but not the book youre trying to sell.

Marketing Audit Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Marketing Audit - Article Example Demographics can provide such opportunities as new customers, increased sales, and increased variety of customers, which all point to the increase of sales and productivity. Threats can also occur such as customers moving away, and customers developing other tastes, because of interaction (Cayla & Arnould, 2008). The economy has increasingly become weak, and, as a result, margins keep on falling and so does asset values. Because of these economic difficulties, the company has faced number financial challenges though it remains profitable. To deal with these financial problems, the company is planning to close about 20 of its stores that are underperforming so as o cut costs and save money (Fortune 500 List of Best Companies, 2009). It is clear that with the current financial problems and challenges with the environment, the availability of the company’s raw materials is going to go down with costs increasing. The costs of energy are also likely to increase because of the same challenges. There have been few, if any, complains about the role of the company in conservation and pollution. In fact, the company has been widely recognized for its initiatives in taking care of the environment and in sustainability. The company has come up with a number of goals to fulfill by the end of 2012 to ensure conservation and sustainability. In addition to this, the company also utilizes a carbon footprint, sustainable foods, reusable bags, zero waste, and conservation initiatives to ensure that the company does little damage to the environment (Fortune 500 List of Best Companies, 2009). There have been major technological innovations in today’s global market, and in the grocery industry. For example, there are new technologies for packaging, for eliminating waste, for ensuring green initiatives, and for production and manufacturing. The company

Cover Letter Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 4

Cover Letter - Assignment Example I also have extensive set of skills in Photoshop. I have a long standing interest in drawing and I believe that I possess the skills required for this post. I also recently read in your school website that you are now expanding your elementary school. This is a field that I am familiar with. I have read the details outlining the qualifications sought for this role and I believe I match your requirements as can be seen from the examples outlined: I have qualifications in; printmaking major, painting, drawing, photograph, ceramics, sculpture, art history and Chinese ink painting. In addition to the qualities above, I am also a hardworking, self-motivated and determined individual with a high desire to succeed. I would welcome the opportunity to discuss further, my application with you and to this end, I have attached my curriculum vitae to further acquaint you with the specifics of my background. I hope you will consider me for this position. I look forward to a positive communication from

The Lady and Her Five Suitors - A 1001 Nights Assignment - 17

The Lady and Her Five Suitors - A 1001 Nights - Assignment Example On receiving the news, she nearly loses her wits. She arises, dons herself with her richest attire and perambulates to the household of the police chief. She greets him and presents to him a written petition that purports that the lad had been imprisoned wrongfully. She claims that the youth was her provider and the only one who would come to her where she then appeals to the mercies of the police chief to have him released. To this point, the lady has used deception, and she uses her dressing and donning to lure the police chief into succumbing to her wishes. It is easy to see her line of trickery in saying â€Å"..and I have none other to come to me..† (Byatt), which appears like a sexual appeal in that she has no one to come into her, making the chief to start thinking in those lines. On reading the piece of paper, the magistrate casts an eye on this women and immediately falls in love with her, a classical reaction we find in all her five suitors. She has learned of her charm on men, and she uses it to trick her way through to have them make decisions in her favour. When the magistrate preempts that she has to come into his place, she uses wits, tricking the magistrate again to come into her lodging, as she would do to all her five suitors. She then leaves leaving his heart entirely taken with love for her. She then proceeds to the Kazi of that city to present her case. The woman leaks of cunningness and goes ahead to protest the arrest of the lad, but this time, she says it’s her brother. Sure of her capabilities to mesmerize men, she airs her complaints and as expected, the Kazi casts his eyes on her and falls in love with her, even offering that he would, out of his purse, pay the fine imposed on the woman’s brother. On the request that she comes in, she gives him a date in a place and at a time the same as with the magistrate. She then goes to the Wazir, The king, and a carpenter, doing the same charm and tricking all of them to cooperate to have the youth released.  Ã‚  

Determining Training needs at Summit Credit Union Case Study

Determining Training needs at Summit Credit Union - Case Study Example Summit credit union noted that newly employed lenders did not have the needed skills and information to take up the job and the problem attribute to the way the training curriculum was organized. The problem identification will be through conducting a needs assessment. A needs assessment is the process of identifying and analyzing a company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats with an aim of improving to achieve the company goals and initiatives. The first step in a needs assessment would be an organizational analysis to determine the skill and abilities the organization needs. The analysis establishes whether the training would benefit the company and whether the required resources are available. The analysis also identifies the merits and opportunities of the company and helps to focus on the demerits and threats. The second step is to do a personal analysis to establish who will receive the training and who will conduct the training (Boyer Management Group, 2014). This analysis establishes the level of the existing competency and the areas that require more training. Thirdly, this will involve analyzing the job and the requirements. This analysis will identify the main duties, experience, skills, and competency required to take the job and perform well. The forth step would be to perform an analysis on the performance of the specific task and establish whether it is below the expectations and whether the training will help bridge the gap between the actual performance and the expected performance. Next would be to do an analysis on the content of the training to identify the appropriate content that is in line with the requirements of the specific job. This will help in delivering the appropriate training to the employees. The next step is to establish whether training will solve the employment or there are other underlying reasons of not performing well (Employee Opinion Survey, 2014). Lastly, a cost benefit analysis

Pop Culture Women's Voices Discussion Coursework

Pop Culture Women's Voices Discussion - Coursework Example It was the coming of age of a few older favorites like Madonna, Prince, Michael Jackson, and one of the best girl groups of all time, TLC. There was barely a song out about women â€Å"talking to† men that wasnt about real life, as if musical artists have a great deal of insight into the way men chase and women (supposedly) run, or play hard to get. The song â€Å"No Scrubs† by TLC was phenomenal because of its theme about pride and not giving your girl power to a â€Å"scrub,† or a man who â€Å"hangs out the passenger side of his best friends ride.† The hidden meaning of a scrub is that he is so lame, or unimportant or non-committal, that he cant even manage a car of his own. The song is not dedicated to men, but to women, about belittling themselves to get into a bad relationship that is not true to them or their futures. Women had come a long way, but were also far-removed from the Womens Lib movement of the 1960s. Women were still struggling with sexual and gender identity approximations in the 90s, or how far they could go to be themselves without being left completely alone. The universal answer to a scrub is â€Å"No.† Deadbeats – men who live with others and mothers and own nothing theyve earned speaks to the widely held ideas of the 90s woman, her independence and simultaneous self-initiated sexual exploitation, as if its okay to tease a man and not go all the way. Horizons expand with â€Å"lady music† aimed directly at men about their behaviors and hard-held beliefs about the place of women in

Determining Training needs at Summit Credit Union Case Study

Determining Training needs at Summit Credit Union - Case Study Example Summit credit union noted that newly employed lenders did not have the needed skills and information to take up the job and the problem attribute to the way the training curriculum was organized. The problem identification will be through conducting a needs assessment. A needs assessment is the process of identifying and analyzing a company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats with an aim of improving to achieve the company goals and initiatives. The first step in a needs assessment would be an organizational analysis to determine the skill and abilities the organization needs. The analysis establishes whether the training would benefit the company and whether the required resources are available. The analysis also identifies the merits and opportunities of the company and helps to focus on the demerits and threats. The second step is to do a personal analysis to establish who will receive the training and who will conduct the training (Boyer Management Group, 2014). This analysis establishes the level of the existing competency and the areas that require more training. Thirdly, this will involve analyzing the job and the requirements. This analysis will identify the main duties, experience, skills, and competency required to take the job and perform well. The forth step would be to perform an analysis on the performance of the specific task and establish whether it is below the expectations and whether the training will help bridge the gap between the actual performance and the expected performance. Next would be to do an analysis on the content of the training to identify the appropriate content that is in line with the requirements of the specific job. This will help in delivering the appropriate training to the employees. The next step is to establish whether training will solve the employment or there are other underlying reasons of not performing well (Employee Opinion Survey, 2014). Lastly, a cost benefit analysis

Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 9

Ethics - Essay Example One common practice includes amniocentesis which is used to determine whether a child will maintain chromosomal problems such as Down Syndrome. Unfortunately, this testing procedure does not identify these genetic abnormalities until the 16th week of pregnancy, long after the child is already well-formed (Ring-Cassidy and Gentles, 2003). A more modern diagnosis process, the Chorionic Villi Sampling method (CVS) occurs during the first trimester however the procedure has been known to cause limb defects (arms and leg) to healthy children (Ring-Cassidy and Gentles). There does not appear to be a viable prenatal testing system which can accurately predict genetic characteristics, plus the long-term damage to both the mother and the child creates a new ethical dilemma. Deemed bioethics, it is the study of whether prenatal, genetic results are sound enough justification for aborting the fetus. This paper describes the ethics behind this controversial abortion practice. Medical screening technology has not yet advanced to where physicians and geneticists can concretely identify future genetic deficiencies in developing fetuses. In a situation where a pregnant woman is relying on prenatal testing results to determine whether to carry a child to full-term, the current stage of medical research simply provides mothers with no viable options other than to prepare for the eventuality of raising a genetically-deficient child or abort the fetus immediately. Kuhse (1998) clearly offers that prenatal diagnostics is wrong at its very foundation, where abortion becomes the only viable alternative to carrying the child full-term. The author suggests that good-spirited attempts to locate genetic defects such as Huntington’s disease or cystic fibrosis will ultimately lead to a social shift where less-critical fetus issues are assessed

Improving Productivity Essay Example for Free

Improving Productivity Essay To talk about improvement we need to know first what productivity is in a technical view as a work application. As Montano said, productivity is the proportion that is achieved between the made product or proportionate service and the inputs that have intervened in the accomplishment of this product or service[1]; a measure of how efficiently an organization converts inputs into outputs. Taking into account its definition, it is important to know how to improve the productivity in companies. The specialization and division of the work are some of them. These allow major knowledge of the work, increase of the quality and therefore major performance of the workman; in addition there is a better control of the work, a decrease of mistakes and wastes and enables delegation. Mechanization saves time of manufacture, increases number of working hours, eliminates costs of training compensations and rewards, etc. Standardization allows a decrease of costs of maintenance, the scale and scope production. As scientific management (developed by Taylor) arguments, nonstandard labor practices are too expensive and wasteful; their approach was to homogenize the labor element of operation: standard methods and standard time. Productivity improvement involves methods study, with flowcharting as operator-machine time chart. Methods study, aimed at improving as well safety and ease of performing the work; ergonomics and the well design of distribution of plant are important issues in productivity. Effective communication clarifies the objectives of the whole organization and therefore allows saving time. Training, education, planning and coordinating activities form effective work. What is very important is to integrate as many employees as possible into this process. As Leon Ho express â€Å"Procrastination is the biggest time thief of all! † By identifying the reasoning behind procrastination issues, solutions can be found, such as breaking larger projects down into smaller pieces, scheduling some tasks for first thing in the morning so they are done, and delegating any tasks that are so routine they feel like a waste of your time[2]. Without a deadline, people tend to put things off. A time standard acts like a deadline, helping to keep people motivated. In overall reducing cost and waste, analysis methods that are made especially for areas of the organization, quality control and technology are the most known ways to improve productivity in any firm. No matter what type organization is, all search improvement in productivity that obliges better methods and equipments. However, improving productivity should be permanent, alive and part of the organization at all levels[3]. Now, new productivity needs to be broad and integrated. Bibliography MONTANO,Agustin. Administracion de la produccion.

How Social Media Contributes To Retailing Marketing Essay

How Social Media Contributes To Retailing Marketing Essay The retailing industry has found itself constantly evolving and transforming in the past two decades. Globalization and advanced technology developments have a very big impact on the retailing landscape. One of the major reasons for this process is the drastic increased growth of the internet and social media. The concept of social media has existed since the days of cave paintings but the internet has made things possible on a whole new scale. In this era, social media is one of the best opportunities available for a brand to connect with its customers. Social media is hot and it is the trend. Globally, customers that are buying the items that they wanted via virtual media had increased drastically. Traditional customer relationship management is not sufficient for a company to interact with customers. Social media has definitely changed the way big companies communicate with their customers. This study explains how social media contributes to retailing. Besides that, this study wil l also describe about the impacts social media have on customer relationship management. Keywords: social media, customer relationship management Introduction Internet is now one of the most important channels of distribution right after high street retailing ever since its commercial launching about fifteen years ago and it is one of the major sources of empowerment and also customer information (Constantinides, Romer and Boria, 2008). The recent developments of internet, information technology and some other Web services had created a bigger area of opportunities in businesses especially retailing. The Internet has changed our lives forever and it  allows  us  to  communicate  in  ways  unimaginable  only a  few  years  ago (Leary, 2008).According to Borges (2009) it is said that commercial internet started to have a huge boom in about mid-1990s to 2001 and it his highly related to the peoples ability to absorb online information and having the choice to buy online product via ecommerce. In this era of globalization marketing and retailing are slowly embracing social media. The social media had given customers the c hance to have more control, information and power over the market process, posing retailers with a number of important dilemmas and challenges according to Constantinides et al. (2008). We often turn to the Internet for encouragement, entertainment, knowledge and advice. Advice on what to buy, where to buy it and who to buy it from (Leary, 2008).Besides that, in the recent years there is rapid growth of marketing strategies that involve in the circle of customer relationship (Pietro Pantano, 2012). Social network which is now widely used by people around the world and it does have a big effect on the systems of customer relationship management and a new way to CRM is coming out as an ideal platform for using social network in the systems of traditional CRM (Pietro, Pantano Corvello, 2012). According to Divol, Edelman and Sarrazin (2012) it is stated that thirty nine percent of companies that they have surveyed have already started using social media as their first choice of digita l tool to reach out to customers. In about four years, the percentage is estimated to rise to forty seven percent. The way organizations are capturing benefits from the internet technology in the enterprise nowadays is totally different from the past where they attend to other enterprise information systems (De Hertogh, Viaene Dedene, 2011). Overview of Social Media What is social media? The term social media is made up of two words that have its own meaning. In general, the word media means to have advertising and communication of information and ideas with channels and publications while the word social implies to the interaction between a group of people or a community (Sisira,2011). According to Sisira (2011) any kind of website that allows its users to have the authority to share the content, views, personal opinion and encourages interaction can be considered and classified as social media. The worldwide users of social media are over 1.5 billion. Social media is now an evolving wave in retailing. Examples of famous social media sites are Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Blogger and Scribd. There is also Flickr or Snapfish which emerged as support storage, to share digital photos and an organization (Stefanone, Lackaff Rosen, 2010). Boyd and Ellison (2007) illustrate a better definition of social network site is that it serves as a web-based s ervice which allow people to build a profile within a system whether it is public or semi-public and to connect with a list of people which they have connection to like their family and friends. Social networking had given us a chance to interact with far more people in numbers comparing to our ancestors (Dunbar, 2012). Social network like Facebook and Twitter has the advantage to able to get and win the heart of its customers because social media can connect to them at a very deep level. Now, it seems like a new social network launches every week. To add on to all these famous networks, location-based social networking such as Foursquare and Facebook Places are on the rise (Kidwai Imperator, 2011). Out of hundreds of social networking site in this era, Facebook is undeniably the worlds largest social network. Facebook initially started in February 2004 and it is originally meant to be a social networking site only for Harvard University students (Brothers, Dewland, Hahn Martin, 2011). Somini (2011) states that Facebook has already reached 800 million users worldwide as of as of September 23, 2011 and the users of Facebook press the like button or comment more than two billion times each day. Besides that, they upload a shocking 250 million photos each day too. Twitter is the second leading social networking site after Facebook. Wasserman (2012) said that twitter has already reached 140 million users as of March 22, 2012. According to Anderson (2011) Twitter is actually a place where its users talk about their daily doings, have a gallery to expose photography and as a platform for famous celebrities to be sure that they are part of their fans lives. Twitter is often described as a micro-blog where individuals publish short and personal message about themselves (Brothers et al., 2011). Before the digital revolution, gathering a large amount of crowd is unthinkable but with Twitter, it is now possible (Dunbar, 2012). Social medias contribution to retailing The use of social media occasionally begins in public communication, marketing and retailing department or other department that have direct connection with stakeholders and customers whether it is in business or non-profit organizations (Evans McKee, 2010). There has been a dynamic change in the retailing industry in this 21st century. It is all because of the rapid growth of the web and social media. Generation Y are putting a greater emphasis on networking by using social media because they approaches work in a different way from their progenitor (Karen, 2009). If you are a marketer or building a brand, do not be worries that your company has missed the boat on taking advantage of social media because the majority of social media programs are actually fighting with each other too (Taylor, 2011)..According to Burby, Atchison and Sterne (2007) social media allows super fast and easy communication with billions of customers in a short amount of time and have certainly raised the spe ed where company and its brand can be created, have more exposure and grow. Social media has an enormous potential and capability for companies to engage with customer, thus increasing revenue and efficiency of the company (Baird Parasnis, 2011).The change in this industry does not depend on the size or a big idea of the company it is now nevertheless more focused on customer demand. The information about weaknesses, the good or bad and how can the product have further improvement can be analyzed within a week now compared to older days where much more time is needed to do so (Yazdanifard, Obeidy, Yusoff Babaei, 2011). Decision makers are trying to find ways to enable firms to earn profit by making use applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Wikipedia (Kaplan Haenlein, 2010). Social media users have the opportunity to offer feedback and feel more involved with a brand when the profiles status is update with positive information and challenges. It enables organizations to increase customer loyalty while at the same time getting feedback from customers and discovering what changes they want (Friedman Friedman, 2008). According to an eMarketer study in 2008, nearly six out of ten United States users now communicate with businesses and believe that the businesses must interact with their consumers and deepen the brand relationship via social networking website (Abedniya Mahmouei, 2010). According to Gilbert (2010) social media cost may be low but there is a need to invest time and energy in it to be successful. For example, if a retailers want to start a blog or Facebook page, they need to update it regularly or no one will return to see the content (Gilbert, 2010). Simply creating a presence on a popular platform like Facebook or Twitter does not guarantee that customers will be attracted to a firms page and engage with the firm and other customers (Culnan, Mc Hugh, Zubillaga, 2010). This is also because the use of social media by customers are v oluntary and interaction among members need time, organizations need to take great steps in order to build communities and learn from the interactions (Culnan et al., 2010). Figure 1: The Social Feedback Cycle (Burby, Atchison Sterne, 2007) As we can see in Figure 1, it is the social feedback cycle. The word of mouth is important as we can see in the figure. According to Brown, Broderick and Lee (2007) a big part of online customer interaction is word of mouth communication and it influences on a persons evaluation and will to purchase a product. With social media, retailers can get data from their customers opinion or talk and use it as a consideration to enhance their product. As retailers and marketers, brand and business are very important and activity that they do need to have a return on investment, whether it is by increased sales, market share or brand recognition and social media that changed the way people interact with one another have a significant help for marketing, retailing, business and also branding (Drury, 2008). How do retailers turn this potential into real business opportunity and how does social media contributes to retailing? As an example, we can take a look at the best practices of some company in the retail sector. Take a look at IKEAs Social Catalogue, their objective is actually to raise awareness of a new IKEA store with almost no media budget at all. According to Shercan (2010) IKEA is the worlds largest furniture retailer that is held privately and sells accessories and ready to assemble furniture. In the late 2009, IKEA had a Facebook campaign where the idea is contributed by Forsman and Bodenfors to promote a new IKEA store to be launched in Malmo and it was claimed to be a social media campaign that have the most innovation in Facebook (Shercan, 2010). The approach of this campaign is to upload photos of the rooms in the ikea showroom to Facebook, then they allow people to tag themselves against an item of furniture for the chance to win it in real life (Lindsay, Matthew, Jamie, Eveline Chris, 2011). When a person is tagged in a photo on Facebook, their friends will automatically receive an up date that shows the photo. This simple competition will make people have the desire to get free stuff which also meant that this campaign had received a huge amount of public relations. With this, IKEA can increase their companys revenue. Dunay and Krueger (2010) also said that Facebook offers unique ways to communicate with customers such as the Facebook Ads as it can be bought on a cost per click basis and it is very popular as it let company to reach the audience that they desire whether it is narrow or wide. Besides that, there is also Starbucks Mayor Offer where mayor of Foursquare in Starbucks at any local store gets to buy a frappuchino at only one dollar (Keath, 2010). This is special as it is the first national special for mayor using Foursquare. In this situation, customers get value from the discounts and they will have a sudden ego boost to become the mayor of their favorite Starbucks or the one nearest to them. Starbucks will of course get popularity in a form of word of mouth and they are able to identify its top customers. On top of that, there are small businesses that use social media as a real business opportunity. As an example is Wrigleyville, a small company that sell sports related clothing in Chicago and Pittsburgh. Wrigleyville has build a Facebook page for three years and now has twenty two thousand likes and the company tracks sales and marketing efforts from Facebook. They also had contest on Facebook on Mothers Day for visitors to upload some picture of Mom demonstrating why shes the biggest fan of Chicago Cubs (Doug, 2012). Social medias impact on customer relationship management (CRM) Customer relationship management is a combination of technology, business processes and people that want and seek to understand a firms customers and it focus on the incorporation approach on relationship development and customer loyalty (Chen Popovich, 2003). The premise of CRM is that is is a process of relationship building and dual creation of value between firm and its customers, to create win-win situations, enhance customer life time value and increase profitability ( Nguyen Mutum, 2012).According to Jayashree, Pahlavanzadeh and Shojaee (2010) customer relationship management is the collection of processes, people and technology that seeks to find costumers of organizations and CRM develops customers retention and relationship.Progress in Information Technology and organizational changes in customer-centric procedures have positive effect in the development of CRM. Organizations which implement CRM successfully, will gain customer loyalty and profitability (Jayashree, Pahlav anzadeh Shojaee, 2010). All employees in a firm are managers of customer relationship, whether you are the receptionist who answers the phone or customer service operator, and everyone in the company handles customers in the departments (Ronald, 2001). CRM focuses on the integration of customer information, knowledge for finding and keeping customer to grow customer lifetime value and it also has an important role to help organizations to keep their customers and to make them loyal. Organizations should know the reasons of leaving customers and finding the ways of keeping them (Ramakrishnan, 2005). With billions of people having access to a variety of social media, the ability of the word to share and connect is infinite and from a business point of view, companies are now allowed to create a customer experience never before done in the past. Traditional CRM was born in the early 1990s and customer behavior is in a very different phase today (Rich, 2010). According to Vissing (2011 ) CRM is one of the most fundamental elements in any organization because of the emergence of social media in the industry. According to IBM research, there is a large perception gap between what the customers seek via social media and what companies offer (Baird Parasnis, 2011).It is important to master online communication in order to know the people that can influence a particular market. Retailers today are working in a challenging era but they are now able to get closer to their customers and engage with them with a timely and relevant manner (Green Starkey, 2011). Together with CRM, social media can achieve a higher financial benefits to companies and it does not matter which sector they are in (Green Starkey, 2011). What does this change mean for CRM and how this social media phenomenon change the way firms interact with their customers? To engage with customer by using social media will definitely fail if conventional CRM approaches remains the same (Baird Parasnis, 2011). CRM has slowly moved to become social customer relationship management (SCRM). A more strategic and holistic approach that combines social media with more aspects in businesses improves the rate of consistency in achieving success (Leary, 2012). Social CRM is often called CRM 2.0 and it grew because of the empowerment of customers that each customer has the experiences, tools and products with the company that satisfy their personal desire (Mosadegh Behboudi, 2011). Social CRM had pulled the world of customer relationship management into sticking with social media and it results in a very unique and interesting way of working (How do you think, 2012). Social CRM is about joining ongoing conversations customers and prospects that are already engaged in while trying not to control them and it is also about understanding where and what kind of people you want to do businesss by hanging out on the Internet (Leary, 2008).Social CRM is now a new paradigm in combining social networking into traditional CRM systems (Askool Nakata, 2011). At the same time, the interactions between buyer and seller can now be effortlessly stored in a CRM database system for the benefit of the marketer and retailers (Nguyen Mutum, 2012). This interactive era has not only increased collaboration between firm and customer but coupled with continuing technological advances, a marketer has now the ability to track and store customer information optimally, in order to customize offerings to suit individual customer needs and desires (Nguyen Mutum, 2012). Kaftalovich (2010) claims that social media allows company to go into their customers social network and enable them to connect with the customers in an informal way. She also men tion that social media is its own lead generation machine and at Luxor CRM, they found that Twitter is extremely effective because they can gather customers curiosity, opinions and interest in the products as well as gathering about the audiences preferences and buying behavior. According to Green and Starkey (2011) SCRM can deliver insight, which will help drive real customer centric innovation. However, what is sometimes proposed is nothing more than the refreshing of old ideas such as one-to-one communication, relationship marketing or customer engagement applied to social media.  Such thinking actually misses the crucial main point that social media is about people interacting with each other (Ang, 2011). To develop a good social media strategy, it is important to realize that technologies are now allowing people to quickly connect, converse, create and collaborate with each other (Ang, 2011). Besides that, the impact of social media on CRM is the raise of customer centricity. In the world of CRM, the enhanced emphasis is being placing focus on the developing measures that are more customer-centric and that give manager a much well rounded idea about how their CRM is performing (Russell, 2001). This growth of social media had an indirectly result to the growth of much more and better customer centric companies. With social media, it does not matter how much revenue you invest but it is the time, knowledge and patience that you offer in order to satisfy customers (Kaftalovich, 2010). The comparison between traditional CRM and social CRM is that traditional is more data driven and process centric while social CRM is more content driven and conversation centric (Leary, 2008).With social media nowadays, people does not really care about companies that kept promoting themselves, instead individuals are seeking companies that can actually provide them with value. According to He ckadon (2010) if brands want to succeed in social networks environment then marketers must keep content fresh and relevant and the information in social networks must be easy to understand and share. In order to become successful in todays retailing world retailers need to understand about people opinion on their brand in the social sphere. Smart retailers will take a look at their social CRM from the public relations, customer support, product development to maximize connection with customers (Bush, 2011). Retailers can help a brand create top-of-mind awareness by responding effectively to user communications (Heckadon, 2010). Retailers should alsofrequently update their brands social networking profiles and status, and establish RSS feeds so followers can subscribe and obtain updated content on their computers and mobile devices (Heckadon, 2010). Besides that, one of the biggest advantages social CRM has over offline CRM is that social CRM can have a much bigger volume of real-tim e data and it can be used to personalize experiences of the company (Bush, 2011). The growth of more customer-centric companies had resulted in social media being a new wave of customer service and it is all about maintaining long term relationship and partnership with their customers and this is not just a business deal. The development of customer centric firms and lead generation definitely is the impacts of social media on CRM. Discussion As conducted and explained earlier, the purpose of this study is to explore the contribution of social media towards retailing and its impact on customer relationship management. The world of retailing is changing rapidly as time pass. Trends and major development in social media is one of the causes for the rapid change in retailing industry. This paper shows an overview on social media from Facebook, the worlds largest social networking site to Twitter, Foursquare, Youtube and so forth. Then, it can be observe that major networking sites really helps a lot in the retailing industry. Many companies limit their employee to have access to social media sites because of their concern on their employees productivity (Karen, 2009). Social media allows company to communicate with a wide amount of customers much faster and efficiently. Retailers will also know how to further develop their product as they can get data about customers opinions, preferences and talk through the word of mouth a bout their product in a short amount of time. This would eventually make the retailers produce what the customers want. Besides that, social media had helped retailers to have more real business opportunities. Firstly, there is IKEA who launches the Social Catalogue and is able to raise awareness with zero media budget. They focus on the desire of human being to get free stuff and consequently they get a huge amount of public relations. Then, we have Starbucks that have the Starbucks Mayor Offer on the Foursquare application. With this, Starbucks is able to gain popularity and also revenue. This shows that creativity does pay off in social media marketing campaign. Social media has definitely contributes to retailing with unique strategies in getting to know more about companys own product and also improving their sales and revenues. Furthermore, it can be observed by reading this paper that social media also have an impact on customer relationship management. We know that all employees are important in managing customer relationship in a certain company and that social media had changed traditional CRM in a more holistic way and soon it became social CRM. The two major impact social media has on CRM is the growth of customer centricity and social media has become its own lead generation machine. Social CRM also enable company to promote and grow their brand through social media tools like Facebook. There has been a shift in power that can be observed when reading this paper as customers are being given much more priority compared to older day where seller or company had the power. Companies that implement a successful CRM will get the rewards in obtaining customer loyalty and long run profitability. Conclusion There is no way to escape social media these days whether it is for individuals or business companies. It is almost impossible to draw a line separating online world from social media. There are many reasons that social media rapidly gain usage in this era of globalization. The ability to achieve news and information through social media is one of the reasons. Companies are changing and rethinking about their traditional retailing and marketing strategies. This shows that social media is contributing to the retail world. Social network is free and is available for everyone to access and it is generating a mass amount of data which is a big help to marketers and retailers. By carefully understanding the importance of customer relationship management, companies can target their customers more specifically as they have the data of their preferences and opinions. This is the impact social media has on customer relationship management. This is the time where every business takes social me dia seriously and adopts it in their departments. It is now a baseline requirement that whether you are a small or large corporation there is need to have online presence and prolonged conversation with customers. Different retail brands will have different needs and they have to adopt different approaches with different customers. It is very interesting to see how the retailing world will be affected by Facebook and Twitter in the upcoming years.

Medical Ethics: Patient Wishes vs Doctor Actions :: Medical Ethics

A conflict between a doctor who wants to treat his patient a certain way, and a patient who wants to be treated by the doctor the way she wants. The doctor feels the that certain treatment that the patient wants is dangerous and warns the patient that he will pronounce the patient mentally unstable. This is exactly what happened in the case of Mrs. Jackson and Dr. Lowell. The conflict in this entire article is if weather the doctor can, or can not, accuse his patient mental instability to go about the treatment as he sees fit. Is this an invasion of the patient’s wants and desire for a certain way of treatment? or does the doctor have moral rights to do anything and everything even though it is against the patient’s wishes. What justifies as moral and immoral procedure for a doctor to treat his patient. When faced with this hard dilemma, the article suggests that is use Rule Utilitarianism and Kantian Deontology, to help me solve the problem of weather this justifiable or morally incorrect. Rule Utilitarianism basically reads that â€Å"a person ought to act in accordance with the the rule that, if generally followed, would produce the greatest balance of good over evil.†(Mappes & Degrazia, 13) According to this, if anyone faces a moral dilemma, they should always try to sort of do a Cost/Benefits analysis on the outcomes of their actions versus the good that they would cause. So even today when I was debating if or not I should personally write my research essay, or, pay somebody else to write my essay for me, it took me all of 30 second to decides that even though I might not like what i would be doing for the next three to four hours, part of me know that the happiness i would get from it was unparalleled to anything. However, now, if you look at the Kantian Deon tology, you will find a lot of things that are different. What this theory of morality says is the outcomes are not at all important, but your duty hold precedence over anything. Similar to Rule Utilitarianism, this theory of morality says that any act, as long as it complies with a rule, is morally justified. When we think about this problem in a rule utilitarian way, we have to abide by the rules which clearly state that the patient has the final say in what treatment is going to be used on them. Medical Ethics: Patient Wishes vs Doctor Actions :: Medical Ethics A conflict between a doctor who wants to treat his patient a certain way, and a patient who wants to be treated by the doctor the way she wants. The doctor feels the that certain treatment that the patient wants is dangerous and warns the patient that he will pronounce the patient mentally unstable. This is exactly what happened in the case of Mrs. Jackson and Dr. Lowell. The conflict in this entire article is if weather the doctor can, or can not, accuse his patient mental instability to go about the treatment as he sees fit. Is this an invasion of the patient’s wants and desire for a certain way of treatment? or does the doctor have moral rights to do anything and everything even though it is against the patient’s wishes. What justifies as moral and immoral procedure for a doctor to treat his patient. When faced with this hard dilemma, the article suggests that is use Rule Utilitarianism and Kantian Deontology, to help me solve the problem of weather this justifiable or morally incorrect. Rule Utilitarianism basically reads that â€Å"a person ought to act in accordance with the the rule that, if generally followed, would produce the greatest balance of good over evil.†(Mappes & Degrazia, 13) According to this, if anyone faces a moral dilemma, they should always try to sort of do a Cost/Benefits analysis on the outcomes of their actions versus the good that they would cause. So even today when I was debating if or not I should personally write my research essay, or, pay somebody else to write my essay for me, it took me all of 30 second to decides that even though I might not like what i would be doing for the next three to four hours, part of me know that the happiness i would get from it was unparalleled to anything. However, now, if you look at the Kantian Deon tology, you will find a lot of things that are different. What this theory of morality says is the outcomes are not at all important, but your duty hold precedence over anything. Similar to Rule Utilitarianism, this theory of morality says that any act, as long as it complies with a rule, is morally justified. When we think about this problem in a rule utilitarian way, we have to abide by the rules which clearly state that the patient has the final say in what treatment is going to be used on them.

Epic of Beowulf Essay - The Heroic Epic of Beowulf :: Epic Beowulf herobeo

The Heroic Epic of Beowulf In the course of time, many heroes have made their name and many stories have been written to proclaim their greatness. However, none as captivating as Beowulf. This Anglo-Saxon epic demonstrates it's power with beautiful language, usage of kennings, metaphors, similes, and alliteration. Also, it gives wondrous supernatural beings as in God, and even of powerful creatures as Grendel. On the other hand, it has human struggles and afflictions. The very first element that is discovered by reading this epic is the lofty language that is used. Although, having read only and excerpt, the writing is as glorious as the story itself. Alliteration usage and can easily recognized in line 33, "He found them sprawled in sleep, suspecting nothing..." which demonstrates the "s" sound. Another example of alliteration at work using the "p" sound is line 160, "From my prince, no permission from my people for your landing here." Metaphors provide a distinct characteristic as in line 30 describing terror as "darkness had dropped." Line 128 when sailing across the sea, describing the seas "beating" on the sand. There are few similes but one that stands out most in line 133. "The ship foamed through the sea like a bird..." Using like to describe the similarity of the bird and how the ship traveled across the sea. Probably the most important element of language are the kennings which describe something simple so indirectly. Line 241 describes darkness or night by stating how the moon hangs. Also line 325 describes Grendel in two different kennings as one form of evil. Every hero has their way of fighting evil or protecting from it. In order to fight a supernatural being, one must have a superhuman power which brings us to another characteristic of epic poetry. The very first supernatural being described is the almighty God in lines 7-3 in the beginning. God is definitely been a supernatural being because of his ability and powers that he possesses. He is mostly associated with the Earth's origin and it's inhibitors. Monsters are also form of supernatural being. In this epic Grendel provokes death and cannibalizes human without thought but also enjoying it.

“Look” in The Searchers

Contradicting Ideologies in The Searchers While The Searchers can be viewed from a critical standpoint as a ‘revisionist' Western in terms of its portrayal of Native Americans, certain aspects of the film contradict this overall message. One such aspect is the character Look, who serves a role both as comic relief and as commentary on racist depictions of Native Americans. The Searchers does a superb Job of highlighting the contorted representation of Indians in the Western genre, but Director John Ford's comic portrayal of Look unwittingly reflects the prejudices and stereotypes entrenched inAmerican culture in the 1950s. Look, or â€Å"Wild Goose Flying Across the Night Sky,† appears in a brief flashback sequence delivered from Marty's point of view in a letter to Laurie. The scene portrays Martys quest with Ethan to find the Comanche Chief Scar who had kidnapped his adoptive sister Debbie years earlier. While attempting to purchase a blanket from a Comanche tribe with connections to Scar, Marty inadvertently bestows a bride token upon Looks father, resulting in an accidental marriage.The mise-en-scene in the first flashback sets the tone for the remainder of he scenes featuring Look, establishing a racial hierarchy and foreshadowing the power structure in Marty and Looks relationship. The traditional Native American tune playing throughout serves as a sound bridge that connects all of the scenes featuring Look with an upbeat tempo that sets a lighthearted mood continued throughout the comedic climax in the second flashback. Additionally, character blocking offers insight into Looks social position and foreshadows the outcome of her relationship with Marty.While Marty is negotiating with Looks father, an establishing hot shows Marty standing above Look as she sits cross-legged on the ground. The scene then cuts back and forth between a towering Marty and Look sitting meekly on the ground. This eludes both to white man's dominance and Marty's supr emacy in their relationship. Ford uses scenes of this ill-fated marriage as a humorous interlude in a film otherwise dense with revisionist commentary, grim scenes, and desolate landscapes.While Look is a source of irritation for Marty, it is evident almost immediately that Ford means for Look to be a source of comedic relief from the otherwise intense storyline. In the subsequent scene, as Look dutifully follows Marty away from the Comanche camp and it dawns on Marty that he has accidentally married her, Ethan bursts into delighted guffaws exclaiming, â€Å"[c]ome along Mrs. Pauly! † Look is a source of entertainment for both Ethan and the audience as well, who is expected to laugh along with Ethan's quips.Other characters in the film also find Martys marriage comical; after hearing about Martys marriage, Mr. Jorgensen and Charlie laugh heartily, and while Laurie is upset, she is clearly less concerned about her love interest being married than she is with his new wife's eth nicity. The response of the film's characters to Marty and Looks marriage encourages the audience to view the situation in a comical light. In the second flashback, Look obediently takes care of Marty and attempts to do domestic work at the campsite.Doing everything she can to please Marty, she obligingly agrees to answer to â€Å"Look† despite it having no relation to her real name. The scene climaxes when she dutifully lies down next to Marty on his bedroll tor the night Enraged, M rty kicks ner ott and she tumbles down the hill with a crash. This is followed not with concern for Look by he characters or a change in the tone of the scene, as one would expect when encountering violence against a woman in a movie today, but with yet another quip from Ethan. Laughing, he yells, mfou know that's grounds for di-vorce in Texas!You're really rough. † Additionally, Ford focuses on Ethan rather than Look after her fall. Ethan's lighthearted reaction and the overall tone of the scene signal to the audience that Looks mistreatment should be a source of amusement rather than concern. The same upbeat soundtrack and Ethan's steady stream of mockery connect the first and econd flashbacks, maintaining the first's humorous feel. The stereotypical native tune amplifies Looks already hyperbolized Native American characteristics, and stylized acing greatly contributes to the comedic vibe of the scene.Martys exaggerated anger and seemingly irrational response to Look lying beside him is a directorial play for laughs, as is the fact that Marty's violence is further emphasized by the addition of sound effects. As Look rolls down the small hill, a large crash is heard, increasing the magnitude of the situation while simultaneously increasing comedic effect. Race plays a key role in the audience's reception to this scene as amusing rather than disturbing. This is highlighted best when contrasted with an earlier scene in which Laurie enters a room while Martin is taking a bath, invading his privacy in a similar way.It is unlikely Ford would elicit laughter from audiences at the time if Marty responded to Laurie's intrusion with violence. It is due to the cultural racism and prejudice of the time that audiences were far more likely to value the life of, and therefore care about the treatment of, Laurie. Looks diminished value s a person is made evident by clear differences in how Ford handles both characters in the film. The final flashback has a somber tone and soundtrack meant to elicit sympathy and reflection from the audience.This, however, conflicts directly with how Ford uses Looks character as a comic figure in previous scenes. When Looks body is discovered in the final flashback her death even awakens a moment of sympathy from the profoundly racist Ethan, who covers her body with a blanket. This scene highlights incongruities in the value of white and Indian lives. Historically, the udiences of Westerns were encouraged to grieve for the loss of white characters and applaud the death of Indian characters. This trend is continued in The Searchers.Although Looks death is treated with sorrow and compassion, her death is comprehensible and viewable to the audience because her portrayal rarely rises above that of a comic stereotype. By contrast, Ford's camera does not reveal Martha and Lucy's bodies to the audience out of deference and reverence to their characters. While Ford's contradictory treatment of Look as captured by her death scene may be iewed as revisionist commentary, one can't overlook the fact that there was no precedent at the time for the use of a Native American woman as a comic fgure.It is far more likely that Looks portrayal was not social commentary but rather reflected the director's own prejudices and the reflection of a racially-charged society coming through in his work. Made in 1956, The Searchers came at the beginning of an era of great cultural change toward race and racial stereotypes in America, and therefore may be among the last of its era and genre to offer such an unapologetic portrayal of tradition of racism.Look is a one-dimensional character compared with the strong temale roles ot Laurie and Debbie, and the discrepancies in Ford's portrayal ot white and Indian women underscore the idea that Ford viewed them as inferior. More than ten minutes pass between Looks initial and final appearance and, denied a voice, she has only one line of dialogue. The audience never knows Looks story and has little foundation to connect with her in any significant way; she is viewed only through the eyes of the white men around her.The death of her character is noted, but the udience is given few reasons to care about the human being who has died. By overemphasizing the racism and Native Americans stereotypes in The Searchers, Ford encourages the audience to reflect on the deeply rooted tradition of portraying Native Americans in an excessively negative light in the Western genre. This noble revisionist effort, however, is impaired by Ford's use of Look as a source of comedy. Essentially nothing more than a comic buffoon, the fact that her abuse is entertaining to the audience is an important reflection on Ford and American society at the time.

Shadow Kiss Chapter 15

Fifteen â€Å"I†¦WHAT?† â€Å"You heard me. I don't know how far things have gone, and honestly, I really don't want to know the details. That's not the point. The point is that it's going to go no farther.† The queen was looking down on me, hands on her hips, clearly waiting for me to swear I'd do whatever she wanted. Except I kind of couldn't. I glanced around the room, certain this was some sort of joke. I looked to the two guardians across the room, half-hoping they'd explain what was going on, but they were doing that seeing-without-actually-seeing thing. No eye contact. I turned back to the queen. â€Å"Um, Your Majesty †¦ there's been some kind of mistake. There's nothing going on between Adrian and me.† â€Å"Do you think I'm an idiot?† she asked. Wow. That was an opening. â€Å"No, Your Majesty.† â€Å"Well, that's a start. There's no point in lying to me. People have seen you together, here and back at your school. I saw you myself in the courtroom.† Damn it. Why had Adrian chosen that moment to be chivalrous and sneak another hug? â€Å"I've heard all the illicit details about what's going on, and it is going to stop right here, right now. Adrian Ivashkov is not going to run off with some cheap dhampir girl, so you might as well rid yourself of that delusion right now.† â€Å"I never thought he was going to – seeing as how we're not involved,† I said. â€Å"I mean, we're friends, that's all. He likes me. He's a flirt. And if you want to talk illicit stuff, then†¦yeah, I'm pretty sure he's got a list of illicit things he'd like to do with me. Lots of illicit things. But we're not doing them. Your Majesty.† As soon as the words left my mouth, I felt like an idiot. From the look on her face, however, it didn't seem like things could really get any worse for me. â€Å"I know about you,† she said. â€Å"All anyone talks about are your recent awards and accolades, but I haven't forgotten that it was you who took Vasilisa away. I also know about the trouble you used to get into – I know about the drinking, about the men. If it was up to me, I'd pack you up and send you off to some blood whore commune. You'd probably fit in well.† Drinking and men? She made me sound like an alcoholic prostitute when, honestly, I'd probably drunk no more than other teenagers at high school parties. Telling her this seemed useless, though. Pointing out that I was still a virgin probably wouldn't have made much of a difference either. â€Å"But,† she continued, â€Å"your recent†¦ achievements make sending you away impossible. Everyone believes you have some glorious future ahead of you. Maybe you do. Regardless, if I can't stop you from being a guardian, I can affect whose guardian you are.† I stiffened. â€Å"What are you saying? Are you threatening me?† I spoke the words tentatively, not as a challenge. She couldn't be serious. Taking me away from Lissa during the field experience was one thing, but we were talking about an entirely different matter now. â€Å"I'm just saying I have a great interest in Vasilisa's future, that's all. And if I have to protect her from corrupting influences, I will. We can find her another guardian. We can find you another Moroi.† â€Å"You can't do that!† I exclaimed. I could tell by the look on her face that she was happy to finally get a real reaction out of me. I was both angry and afraid, and I fought hard against my normal explosive instincts. Diplomacy and honesty were what I needed now. â€Å"I'm not doing anything with Adrian. Really. You can't punish me for something I'm not doing.† I quickly remembered to add: â€Å"Your Majesty.† â€Å"I don't want to punish you at all, Rose. I just want to make sure we understand each other. Moroi men don't marry dhampir girls. They play with them. Every girl thinks it's going to be different with her – even your mother did with Ibrahim, but she was wrong too.† â€Å"With who?† I asked, the name hitting me like a slap in the face. Ibrahim? I'd never even heard of that name, let alone someone called that. I wanted to ask who he was and what his connection to my mother was, but Tatiana just kept talking. â€Å"They're always wrong. And you can try your hardest to change that, but it's a waste of time.† She shook her head, like she felt sorry for these dhampir girls, but her smug air contradicted any true sympathy. â€Å"You can use your pretty face and easy body as much as you want, but in the end, you're the one who'll get used. He may say he loves you now, but in the end, he'll get tired of you. Save yourself the grief. I'm doing you a favor.† â€Å"But he isn't saying he loves – † There was no point. The ironic thing here was that I was fairly certain Adrian did just want to use me for sex. I didn't have any delusions about that. But seeing as I wasn't actually sleeping with him, there was no problem – except, well, that Tatiana seemed to see of all this as a problem. I sighed, suspecting no argument was going to make her believe that I wasn't interested in Adrian. â€Å"Look, if you're so certain we can't have a future together, then why are you telling me this? According to you, he's going to throw me away anyway. Your Majesty.† She hesitated for just a second, and I nearly laughed. Despite her trash-talking about me, my mom, and other dhampirs, some part of her really was worried that I might indeed be charming and pretty enough to seduce Adrian into a disgraceful marriage. She quickly hid her uncertainty. â€Å"I like to take care of things before they become messy, that's all. Besides, it's going to make things easier for him and Vasilisa if they aren't dragging around baggage from you.† Whoa, whoa. My moment of brief satisfaction shattered – into confusion. I was as lost now as I'd been when she first started accusing me of being involved with Adrian. â€Å"Him and†¦ Vasilisa? Lissa? What are you talking about?† I forgot the Your Majesty, but I don't think she cared at this point. â€Å"The two of them are an excellent match,† she said, sounding like she was about ready to purchase some artwork. â€Å"Despite your bad influence, Vasilisa's grown into a very promising young woman. She has a very serious, very dedicated nature that will cure some of his recklessness. And being together would allow them to continue examining their†¦unusual magical situation.† Five minutes ago, me marrying Adrian had been the craziest thing I'd ever heard. It had just been trumped, however, by the thought of Lissa marrying Adrian. â€Å"Lissa and Adrian. Together. You can't be serious. Your Majesty.† â€Å"If they're both here together, I think they'll come around to it. They already have a certain charisma around each other. Plus, both of Adrian's grandmothers came from branches of the Dragomir family. He has more than enough blood to help her carry on the Dragomir line.† â€Å"So does Christian Ozera.† In one of their more disgustingly cute moments, Lissa and Christian had looked up his family tree to see if he had enough Dragomir genes to be able to pass on the name. When they found out he did, they'd then starting naming their future children. It had been horrible. I'd left after Lissa told me they'd name their third daughter after me. â€Å"Christian Ozera?† That condescending smile of hers tightened. â€Å"There is no way Vasilisa Dragomir is going to marry him.† â€Å"Well, yeah. Not anytime soon. I mean, they're going to go to college and – â€Å" â€Å"Not now, not ever,† interrupted Tatiana. â€Å"The Dragomirs are an ancient and exalted line of royalty. Their last descendent is not going to attach herself to someone like him.† â€Å"He's royal,† I said in a low voice that was on the verge of becoming my scary voice. For whatever reason, her insulting Christian made me angrier than her insulting me. â€Å"The Ozera line is every bit as important as the Dragomirs and Ivashkovs. He's royal, just like Lissa, like Adrian, and like you.† She snorted. â€Å"He is not like us. Yes, the Ozeras are one of the royal houses, and yes, he has several respectable distant cousins. But we aren't talking about them. We're talking about the son of someone who purposely became a Strigoi. Do you know how many times that's happened in my lifetime? Nine. Nine in fifty years. And his parents were two of them.† â€Å"Yes – his parents,† I said. â€Å"Not him.† â€Å"It doesn't matter. The Dragomir princess cannot associate with someone like him. That position is simply too prestigious.† â€Å"But your nephew is the perfect choice,† I said bitterly. â€Å"Your Majesty.† â€Å"If you're such a smart girl, then you tell me – back at St. Vladimir's, how are they treated? How do your classmates view Christian? How do they view Christian and Vasilisa together?† Her eyes gleamed knowingly. â€Å"Fine,† I said. â€Å"They have lots of friends.† â€Å"And Christian is fully accepted?† Immediately, I thought of Jesse and Ralf grilling me about Christian. And yes, there were plenty of people who still avoided Christian like he was already Strigoi. It was why he'd had no partner in culinary science. I tried to hide my thoughts, but my hesitation had given me away. â€Å"You see?† she exclaimed. â€Å"And that's just a microcosm of society. Imagine it on a bigger scale. Imagine how it'll be when she's active in the government and trying to get others to support her. He'll be a liability. She'll make enemies just because of him. Do you really want that to happen to her?† It was exactly what Christian had feared, and I denied it now as much as I had to him. â€Å"It won't happen. You're wrong.† â€Å"And you're very young, Miss Hathaway. You're also delaying your flight.† She moved toward the door. The guardians across the room were by her side in the blink of an eye. â€Å"I have nothing more to say and hope this will be the last time we ever have a discussion like this.† Or any discussion, I thought. She left, and as soon as etiquette said I could go, I sprinted off to catch my plane. My head reeled as I went. How insane was that lady? Not only was she convinced that I was on the verge of eloping with Adrian, she also believed that she could work some kind of arranged marriage with him and Lissa. It was almost impossible to figure out which part of that conversation had been the most ridiculous. I could hardly wait to tell the others what had happened and have a good laugh over it. But, as I returned to my room to get my bag, I reconsidered. There was already so much gossip about me and Adrian going around; I didn't think I should be fueling the fire. I also didn't think Christian should hear about this. He was already insecure about his position with Lissa. How would he feel if he found out the queen was already making plans to get rid of him? So I decided to sit on the information for a while, which was hard because Lissa was practically waiting outside my door when I got back. â€Å"Hey,† I said. â€Å"I thought you'd be on the plane?† â€Å"Nope. They delayed it by a few hours.† â€Å"Oh.† Going home suddenly sounded like the best idea ever. â€Å"What'd the queen want?† asked Lissa. â€Å"To congratulate me,† I said glibly. â€Å"Over my Strigoi kills. I didn't expect that from her – it was kind of weird.† â€Å"Not that weird,† she said. â€Å"What you did was amazing. I'm sure she just wanted to recognize you for what you did.† â€Å"Yeah, I guess. So what's going on? What are we going to do with the extra time?† There was excitement in both her eyes and her feelings, and I welcomed a change in subject. â€Å"Well†¦ I was thinking. Since we're at the Royal Court†¦ don't you want to check it out? There's gotta be more to it than a bar and a coffee shop. Seems like we should know this stuff if we're going to be living here. Besides, we've got a lot to celebrate.† The full force of our situation hit me. I'd been so distracted by Victor that I hadn't even really let things sink in: We were at the Royal Court, the center of Moroi leadership. It was nearly as big as the Academy, and there had to be more to it than the all-business side we'd seen so far. Plus, she was right. We had a lot to be happy about. Victor had been put away. She'd gotten a sweet college deal. Only my alleged affair with Adrian had been a downside, but I was willing to put that aside as Lissa's contagious excitement seized me. â€Å"Where's Christian?† I asked. â€Å"Doing his own thing,† she said. â€Å"You think we need him along?† â€Å"Well, he usually is along lately.† â€Å"Yeah,† she admitted, â€Å"but I'd kind of like just us to hang out.† I sensed the thoughts behind her decision. Our brief conversation just before she'd gone to see the queen had made her nostalgic for the old days, back when it had just been the two of us on our own. â€Å"No complaints here,† I said. â€Å"How much can we cover in three hours?† A mischievous grin lit her face. â€Å"The essentials.† I could tell she had something special in mind, but she was trying to keep it in hidden. She couldn't block me out of the bond, but she had learned that if she didn't think too hard about certain things, then I wouldn't pick up on them easily. She liked being able to think that she could surprise me sometimes. Trying to hide big issues or problems from me never worked, though. We set back out into the cold weather, with Lissa leading the way. She steered us away from the administrative buildings, off toward some others set at the farther end of the Court's grounds. â€Å"The queen lives in that first building,† Lissa explained. â€Å"It's not exactly a palace but the closest we have. Back when the Court was in Europe, Moroi royalty used to live in castles.† I made a face. â€Å"You make that sound like a good thing.† â€Å"Stone walls? Turrets? Even you have to admit that sounds pretty neat.† â€Å"Yeah, but I bet they had crap Internet access.† Lissa shook her head at me, smiling, and didn't dignify my comment with a response. We passed some other buildings that had the same ornate stonework as the others but were tall and built in a style that reminded me of apartments. She confirmed as much. â€Å"Those are town houses, where people who live here year-round stay.† I eyed them, wondering what they were like on the inside, and a happy thought came to me. â€Å"You think that's where we'll live?† The thought caught her off guard, but she soon grew just as excited as me. She, too, liked the idea of us having our own place, free to decorate it and come and go as we wanted. I rather liked the idea of Dimitri living with us too, but here at Court, he wouldn't be with her 24/7. For that matter, I actually wouldn't need to be with her 24/7 either. Would they let me live with her? Or would this be another chance to show I wasn't needed? â€Å"I hope so,† she said, oblivious to my worries. â€Å"Top floor with a view.† I mustered another smile. â€Å"And a pool.† â€Å"How can you think about a pool in this weather?† â€Å"Hey, if we're fantasizing here, we might as well go the whole way. I bet Tatiana's got one. I bet she wears a bikini and has hot guys rubbing her down with suntan lotion.† I expected another eye roll, but Lissa just grinned as she led me into a building that was near the town houses. â€Å"Funny you mention that.† â€Å"What?† I exclaimed. She was about ready to burst with her secret. I was this close to pulling it out of her mind. I would have, too, if I hadn't been so stunned by our surroundings. It was sensory overload: delicate music, fountains, plants, people in white robes, everything gleaming and silver†¦ It was a spa, a full-fledged luxury spa hidden away in an old stone building here at Court. Who would have guessed? A long granite receptionist's desk guarded the entrance, so we only had a partial view, but what I could see was pretty sweet. Women sat along a wall getting pedicures and manicures. Moroi men and women were getting haircuts and color. What looked like a maze of halls could just be seen in the back of the salon, with a directory of arrows pointing to other sections: massage, sauna, facials, etc. Lissa grinned at me. â€Å"What do you think?† â€Å"I think Adrian was right about the Court having all sorts of secrets.† I gave a mock sigh. â€Å"And I hate having to admit that he's right.† â€Å"You've been so down about the field experience and†¦other stuff.† She didn't have to mention Mason's death and the Strigoi fight. I read it from her mind. â€Å"I figured you could use a treat. I checked their openings here while you were with the queen, and they were able to squeeze us in.† Lissa walked up to the receptionist and told her who we were. The woman immediately recognized our names but seemed surprised to be letting a dhampir in. I didn't care, though. I was too bedazzled by the sights and sounds around me. Compared to the harsh, practical lifestyle I usually led, this sort of luxury almost defied belief. After checking in, Lissa turned to me, face eager and radiant. â€Å"I got us set up to get massages with these – â€Å" â€Å"Nails,† I interrupted. â€Å"What?† â€Å"I want my nails done. Can I get a manicure?† It was the most exotic, completely useless thing I could imagine. Well, it wasn't useless for ordinary women. But for me? With the way I used my hands and subjected them to blisters, bruises, dirt, and wind? Yes. Useless. I hadn't painted my nails in ages. There was no reason. Half the nail polish would probably chip off after one practice session. A novice like me couldn't afford that kind of luxury. And that was why I so, so desperately wanted one. Seeing Lissa wear makeup had awakened that longing in me for some beautification of my own. I accepted that it could never be a regular part of my life, but if I was in a place like this today, then by God, I wanted my nails done. Lissa faltered a little. She'd apparently had big plans for this massage thing. But, she had a hard time refusing me and spoke to the receptionist again. It sounded like the receptionist had to do a bit of juggling with her schedule, but she said she could make it work. â€Å"Of course, Princess.† She smiled happily, entranced by Lissa's natural charisma. Half the time, Lissa didn't even need spirit to get people to help her. â€Å"I don't want to be an inconvenience,† Lissa said. â€Å"No, no. Definitely not!† We soon found ourselves sitting at adjacent tables while Moroi women soaked our hands in hot water and started scrubbing them with weird combinations of sugar and seaweed. â€Å"Why the manicure?† Lissa wanted to know. I explained my reasoning to her, about how I hardly had time for makeup anymore and how the abuse my hands went through made any sort of pampering impractical. Her face turned thoughtful. â€Å"I never thought about that before. I just figured you weren't into it lately. Or, well, that you didn't need it. Not with your looks.† â€Å"Whatever,† I said. â€Å"You're the one guys worship.† â€Å"Because of my name. You're the one that guys – like a certain one we know – actually want for other reasons.† Gee, I wondered who she could be referring to. â€Å"Yeah, but those other reasons aren't very noble.† She shrugged. â€Å"The point's the same. You don't need makeup for them to drool all over you.† Then I felt the weirdest thing through the bond. I saw myself through her eyes. It was like looking in a mirror, except she only had a profile view of me. But when she looked at me, she really did think I was beautiful. With my tan and dark brown hair, I seemed exotic to her. She felt pale and washed out compared to me, skinny next to my curves. It was surreal, considering how often I felt scruffy next to her luminous beauty. Her envy wasn't malicious; that wasn't in her nature. It was more wistful, an admiration of a look she could never have. I wanted to reassure her but had a feeling she didn't want me knowing about her insecurities. Besides, my thoughts were interrupted when the woman doing my nails asked what color I wanted. I picked a color that looked like gold glitter. Gaudy, perhaps, but I actually thought it looked kind of cool, and it wasn't like it was going to last long anyway. Lissa picked pale pink, a color as refined and elegant as she was. Hers got painted a lot faster than mine, though, because my manicurist had to spend so long softening my hands and filing the nails. Lissa finished long before I did. When we both had glamorous hands, we proudly held them up side by side. â€Å"You look gorgeous, darling,† she declared, affecting a sophisticated air. Laughing, we went off to the massage area. Lissa had originally scheduled us for extensive massages, but the manicure had cut into a chunk of that time. So we modified the full-body massage into a foot massage, which was just as well since we couldn't have put on robes or any other changes of clothes with our nails still wet. All we had to do was remove our shoes and roll up our pants. I sat down in a chair while my feet soaked in warm, bubbling water. Someone put something into the tub that smelled like violets, but I didn't pay much attention. I was too entranced by my hands. They were perfect. The manicurist had buffed and hydrated them to silky softness, and my nails had been transformed into gleaming gold ovals. â€Å"Rose,† I heard Lissa say. â€Å"Hmm?† The lady had also put a clear coat of nail polish over the gold. I wondered if that would give the nails a longer lease on life. â€Å"Rose.† Sensing that Lissa wanted my undivided attention, I finally looked up from my awesome hands. She was grinning from ear to ear. I could feel that excited news burning in her again, the secret she'd had while we'd been walking over here. â€Å"What's up?† I asked. She nodded downward. â€Å"Rose, this is Ambrose.† I glanced absentmindedly toward the masseuse at my feet. â€Å"Hey, Ambrose, how's it – † I cut myself off before the words holy crap or whoa left my lips. The guy massaging my feet couldn't have been much older than me. He had curly black hair and muscles everywhere. I knew this for a fact because he was shirtless and offered us both a good view of his sculpted pecs and biceps. His deep golden skin was a color achievable only by excessive time in the sun, indicating he was human. The bite marks on his neck confirmed it. A pretty boy feeder. Very pretty. His attractiveness was almost unreal, though. Dimitri was gorgeous, but he had little flaws that made him that much more gorgeous. Ambrose was too perfect, like a piece of art. I didn't want to throw myself into his arms or anything, but he was certainly nice to look at. Lissa, still worried about my love life, had apparently thought this was exactly what I needed. Her masseuse was female. â€Å"It's very nice to meet you, Rose,† said Ambrose. He had a musical voice. â€Å"It's nice to meet you too,† I said, suddenly self-conscious as he lifted my feet out of the water and toweled them off. I was especially self-conscious of the appearance of my feet. They weren't gross or anything, since they weren't usually exposed to the elements like my hands. I just kind of wished they'd been polished up too if this male model was going to handle them so much. Lissa, astute enough to sense me being flustered, could barely stop from laughing. I heard her thoughts in my head: Cute, huh? I cut her a look, refusing to voice my thoughts out loud. He's Tatiana's personal masseuse. That practically makes you royalty. I sighed loudly to let her know she wasn't as funny as she thought she was. And when I say personal, I mean personal. I jerked in surprise, accidentally kicking one of my feet out. Ambrose's deft hands caught it before I hit him in his pretty face, thankfully. I might not have been able to communicate telepathically but I was pretty sure there could be no question to Lissa that the look on my face said, You can't be serious because if you are, you're in big trouble. Her grin widened. I thought you'd like that. Pampered by the queen's secret lover. Pampered wasn't exactly the word that came to mind. Looking at Ambrose's young, beautiful features, I just couldn't picture him getting it on with that old hag. Of course, that denial might have just been my brain's way of refusing to acknowledge that someone who had touched her was now touching me. Ew. Ambrose's hands were checking out my calves along with my feet, and he struck up a conversation about what elegant legs I had. His dazzling white smile never left his face, but most of my answers were curt. I still couldn't get over the thought of him and Tatiana together. Silently, Lissa groaned. He's flirting with you, Rose! she thought to me. What are you doing? You can do better than that. I went to all this trouble to get you the hottest guy here, and this is what I get! This one-sided-conversation thing was becoming a pain in the ass. I wanted to tell her that I'd never asked for her to rent out this guy for me. In fact, I suddenly had images of the queen calling me in for another meeting to yell at me for having a nonexistent affair with Ambrose too. Wouldn't that be perfect? Ambrose continued smiling as he rubbed the soles of one foot with his thumbs. It hurt – but in a good way. I hadn't realized how sore that spot was. â€Å"They go to such trouble to make sure you wear the right black and white clothes, but no one ever thinks about your feet,† he mused. â€Å"How are you supposed to stand around all day and still manage roundhouse kicks and cat stances in bad shoes?† I was about to tell them that he really didn't need to keep worrying about my feet, but something odd suddenly struck me. â€Å"Roundhouse kicks† and â€Å"cat stances† weren't top-secret guardian terms. Anyone could Google â€Å"martial arts† and find out about those kinds of things. Still, it wasn't the kind of topic I'd expect a Moroi to casually throw around, let alone a feeder. I studied Ambrose closer, noting the way his dark eyes so carefully darted around and observed everything. I recalled his fast reflexes in stopping my kick. I felt my jaw start to drop, and I shut it before I looked like an idiot. â€Å"You're a dhampir,† I breathed.