Theories of White Collar Crime Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Theories of White Collar Crime - Essay Example Objectives of white-collar crime are considered as financial gain and organizational success. White-collar crime is committed by persons in high social positions who do so as part of their jobs. They do not involve violence and mostly are money related, and this may include embezzlement, business fraud, and bribery. The theory of conflict theory looks at the types of crime committed by two classes’ in the society. Members of the elite are more likely to commit such crimes as compared to the working class who are more likely o commit crimes like robbery, assault, and murder (Clinard, 2010). White-collar crimes are usually had to prosecute and catch and sometimes hard to identify. White-collar criminals use their power to avoid prosecution. People in power make rules and laws to benefit themselves. The conflict theory in relation to deviance when such people are accused of such crime they usually have the means and power to hire accountants ,lawyers, and people to help them avoid prosecution and may be referred to as deviant. The society itself believes that all laws are fair and are applied fairly, and, therefore, the society does not dwell on the fact that such laws can be unfairly applied, or it might be just. The differential association is a theory that deals with a white-collar crime that explains that behaviors are based on association and interaction with others. Edwin Sutherland proposed this theory (Friedrichs, 2009). This means that through interaction with other people learn values, motives and techniques that form criminal is behavior. It predicts that individuals can choose a criminal path when law abiding is lesser than law-breaking when it comes to rules. However, this theory fails to note that even with association and interaction people can be independent, individually motivated, and rational and, therefore, can avoid criminal behavior. The rational choice theory explains on both

The Pollution Caused by Cruise Ships Essay Example for Free

The Pollution Caused by Cruise Ships Essay Cruise ships and the industry as a whole are vital to the economic stability of the local port cities in which they dock at daily. These ships carry up to 3,000 passengers who spend enormous amounts of money at tourist locations around the world. It is estimated that millions of dollars are generated and placed into the tourism markets annually. This is great news for local communities that depend on the cruise ship industry in order to survive, however it is bad news when it comes to the environment. Cruise ships create a massive amount of waste which ends up polluting our water ways and sending vast levels of pollutants into the air as well. These large ships typically produce around 170,000 gallons of waste water, 21,000 gallons of sewage, 6,400 gallons of bilge water, and 1 ton of solid waste per day ((Brooks Dunn, 2012). Unfortunately, these waste products are dumped into our oceans, seas, rivers, and lakes. There are numerous laws, regulations, and guidelines to prevent such things from happening but most of the cruise ship operations have found a way to work around them. They understand that states such as Alaska and Washington prohibit dumping of waste materials in their waters. The cruise ship corporations have taken advantage of the relaxed laws of places like British Columbia (B.C.) which for the most part allows them to release their waste products into their water areas. This presents a dilemma for the cruise ship industry because they ultimately have to decide between making a profit and being environmentally sound. Corporations such as the cruise ship industry have an ethical responsibility to meet all environmental regulations and laws regardless of where they are sailing. Corporations have an obligation to the general public and that includes making sure they are meeting standards set forth by the government. Environmental groups have a major influence on the general public and can create enough pressure where the reputation of a company is tarnished and sales start to decrease. It would be to a corporation’s advantage to show the general public that it is going above and beyond meeting environmental needs regardless of the rules in a particular country, state, etc. When sailing in international waters cruise ships should go by the strictest of all guidelines. Ethically, a corporation should set the standard for all others to follow. They can’t allow relaxed rules to be an excuse for creating environmental damage. The general public would feel betrayed to learn that a company built on having good, â€Å"clean†, vacation fun is in fact dirtying up the water ways. CEOs of such corporations should exercise due care and professional skepticism. They should ask how my actions will affect the water ways in the future. In addition, executives should question the rules of other countries and do everything in their power not to take advantage of weak laws. Port cities depend on tourism to generate revenue within their communities. It is of the most importance to balance the needs of tourism against the needs of maintaining an environmentally safe society. Compromise is essential in the effort to reduce as much waste going into our waters as possible. These tourist destinations should always work with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to develop reasonable plans that can be accomplished slowly in order to prevent pollution now and in the future. It is understood that cruise ships will always have waste products to get rid of so decisions should be based on what is good for the environment not solely on tourism. The responsibility to maintain a clean and healthy environment is up to everyone. Corporations have a major responsibility as well because they can influence the thoughts, ideas, and beliefs of the average citizen. If a major corporation promotes the idea of improving air and water quality then it can influence the actions of other corporations. The cruise ship industry is in the position to set the standards for all to follow. They have the ability to show others that no matter the location or circumstances that a standard set of rules should always be followed. They should not let profit get in the way of doing the right thing. In the long run doing what is expected is more important than profit. The general public would accept a rise in ticket prices for a cruise if they were informed that it is because of the environmental rules they are trying to follow. Profit is the main goal of any organization, but it should not come at the expense of people’s health and well being. If the proper research is conducted and coordination between countries is established then it should be no reason why environmental needs should not be met. The general public is the first priority of corporations and every effort of compromise should be attempted. References Brooks, L. J., Dunn, P. (2012). Business professional ethics for directors, executives accountants. (6th ed., p. 530). mason, oh: cengage.

US Change From Isoltaion to Involvement Essay -- United States America

From the ideas of isolationism of the 1930's, between 1940 and 1962, the United States went from a country that did not want anything to do with the rest of the world to a country that was involved all over the world. Isolationism was caused not by an unwillingness of the American people to help those in need, but by the thought process that it was more important to help ourselves. During the 1930's, the United States was in the midst of the "The Great Depression". The "Great Depression" began with the stock market collapse of 1929. Prior to the collapse, the United States had enjoyed a long economic boom in which individual wealth had blossomed. That all ended on October 29th 1929. Losses were unbelievable. By the end of 1929, two months after the initial crash, stockholders had lost 40 billion in paper values, or more than the cost of World War 1 to the United States. The stock market collapse heralded a business depression at home and abroad that lasted longer than anything we or the rest of the world had seen. No other industrialized nation suffered so severe a setback. By the end of 1930, there were more than 4 million workers who were jobless. By 1932, that number had risen to 12 million. Jobs were non- existent. Over five thousand banks collapsed in the first three years of the depression, carrying down with them the life savings of tens of thousands o f ordinary citizens. Thousands of people lost their homes. Bread lines formed, soup kitchens dispensed food and apple sellers stood on street corners selling their wares for 5 cents. It was the economic system that had broken down, not individual initiative. Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to the presidency in 1932. During his inaugural address, he declared that the gov... ...rs the United States wanted to contain and then eradicate communism, today it is trying to contain and destroy terrorism. Today, the United States is the only major super power in the world and is asked for many things. From the use of our military to try to rid the world of terrorism, to providing million of dollars for Third World country AIDS research, to providing food for starving countries, to providing a new home for millions of immigrants, the United States is trying to do much for the world. We unfortunately have a most difficult time because other countries do not like our president or what he stands for. Whether that is true or not is open to debate. What is not open to debate is that the rest of the world looks to the United States in times of need. We have lead and will continue to do so because we know that the survival of this planet depends on it.

Defining the Humanities

Defining the Humanities Defining the Humanities The purpose of this paper is to differentiate the humanities from other modes of human inquiry and expression. I will define the humanities of a cultural event of music and how music was an expression of what I know about the humanities, art, style, genius, and culture from the 60s. I will also discuss how the music of the 60s compares with other forms I know about from the same period.One of the definitions of humanities, according to the American Heritage Dictionary, is â€Å"Those branches of knowledge, such as philosophy, literature, and art, that are concerned with human thought and culture; the liberal arts. † Culture is a big part of humanities. Culture, as defined by the American Heritage Dictionary, is the totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and other products of human work and thought. These patterns, traits, and products considered as the expression of a particular period, c lass, community, or population (American heritage dictionary, 2000).Music is an artistic form of sound communication via musical instruments and voice that produce sounds and tones. Music is as old as mankind and cultures past and present have music. The â€Å"oldest known song† dates back 4,000 years ago and was written in ancient cuneiform. Cuneiform is a character or characters formed by the arrangement of small wedge-shaped elements and used in ancient Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian writing (American heritage dictionary, 2000).The certainty of how or when the first musical instrument was invented, however, most historians point to early flutes made from animal bones that are at least 37,000 years old (Bellis, 2010). The music of the 60’s in America is the humanities or culture of the American people of that era. Many changes going on in the 60s including revolutionary changes, extraordinary levels of sexual freedom among youths, and revolting teenagers like no one has ever seen before. Music has consistently been influenced by the trends of its time; reflecting the politics, economics, and lifestyles that exist.The Baby Boomer generation lived during a time when war had a powerful impact on everyone's life. Drugs became, perhaps, one of the most influential variables apparent in the music of the 60s. In the early 1960s a band named the Byrd’s and guys like Dylan changed the way many people looked at music. These bands started an underground wave that flowed throughout the 60s, this became known as the â€Å"Psychedelic Era. † This era introduced drugs to be an important aspect involved in the creation of the music, and was used by the listeners to enhance their experience.Bands such as the Byrd’s and Grateful Dead started experimenting with such drugs as LSD, marijuana, and acid. They believed that drugs could help them create music that would blow the music of the fifties away, and it did (â€Å"T he music of the sixties–the psychedelic eraâ€Å", 1998). The music of the 60s came in many styles. Some of the genres of the era are: Soft rock, (also referred to as mellow rock, light rock, or easy rock) is a style of music that uses the techniques of rock and roll (often combined with elements from folk rock and singer-songwriter pop) to compose a softer, more toned-down sound for listening.Soft rock songs generally tend to focus on themes like love, everyday life, and relationships (â€Å"Soft rockâ€Å", 2010). Hard rock – modify rock and roll (blues, country, and gospel), adding to the standard genre harder sounds, heavier guitar riffs (A short rhythmic phrase), bombastic (long winded) drumming and louder vocals (â€Å"Hard rockâ€Å", 2010). Country rock – formed from the fusion of rock with country (â€Å"Country rockâ€Å", 2010). Folk rock – combining elements of folk music and rock music (â€Å"Folk rockâ€Å", 2010).Punk rock – They created fast, hard-edged music, typically with short songs, stripped-down instrumentation, and often political, anti-establishment lyrics (â€Å"Punk rockâ€Å", 2010). Shock rock – is a wide umbrella term for artists who combine rock music with elements of theatrical shock value in live performances (â€Å"Shock rockâ€Å", 2010). Rhythm and Blues (R;B), Soul, Funk Influenced by R;B (â€Å"Rhythm and bluesâ€Å", 2010). Many artists’ musical roots come from gospel. For example, Elvis Presley started out singing gospel when he was only a few years old later moving onto Rock and Roll (Nite, 1974, p. 95). The art in America of the 60s was influenced by the desire to move into the modern age or future that the space age seemed to forecast. As with the music of the 60s, drugs had an influence on some of the art of the 60s. This art came to be known as psychedelic art (ex. Brummbaer). Major works by Alexander Calder (mobiles and sculpture) or Helen Frankenthaler (non-representational art) showed a desire to escape from details to interpret. Artists wanted to inspire the viewer to leap into the unknown and experience art in their own way.A new artist who appeared was Andy Warhol, a leading name in pop art. Other forms evolving during this time were assemblage art, op art (or optical art) (ex. Vasarely), or kinetic abstraction (ex. Marcel Duchamp), environmental art (ex. Robert Smithson), and pop art, (ex. David Hockney) (Goodwin, 2009). In conclusion, humanities or cultures have been around since the beginning of mankind. Cultures can be estranged in their beliefs hence the creation of new cultures. Music, dance, theater, art, literature, or other cultures can change over time trough many influential channels.For example, the way the war and drugs influence the cultures of the 60s with the songs of war protests and psychedelic art. When changes come about the changes will usually have an effect on the, music, dance, theater, art, literature , or other cultures of the era. The one thing mankind can count on through the years, decades, centuries, and millennium is change.References American heritage dictionary. (4th ed. ). (2000). Chicago, IL: Houghton Mifflin Company. Bellis, M. (2010). Inventing musical instruments. Retrieved from http://inventors. bout. com/od/mstartinventions/tp/musicalinstrument. htm Country rock. (2010). In Country rock. Retrieved May 5, 2010, from http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Country_rock Folk rock. (2010). In Folk rock. Retrieved May 5, 2010, from http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Folk_rock Goodwin, S. (2009). American cultural history 1960 – 1969. Retrieved from http://kclibrary. lonestar. edu/decade60. html Hard rock. (2010). In Hard rock. Retrieved May 5, 2010, from http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Hard_rock Nite, N. N. (1974). Rock on. New York, NY: Thomas Y. Crowell. Punk rock. (2010). In Punk rock. Retrieved May 5, 2010, from Rhythm and blues. (2010). In Rhythm and blues. Retrieved May 5, 2010, from http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Rhythm_and_blues Shock rock. (2010). In Shock rock. Retrieved May 5, 2010, from http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Shock_rock Soft rock. (2010). In Soft rock. Retrieved May 5, 2010, from http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Soft_rock The music of the sixties–the psychedelic era. (1998). Retrieved from http://library. thinkquest. org/21342/text/1960. htm

Byzantine Thessaloniki

Cassander, the son of General Antipater, ruled Macedonia from 316 to 297 B. C. He founded the third capital of the Macedonian kingdom in the year 315 BC and named it Thessaloniki, after his wife. Thessaloniki was also Alexander III’s half-sister. Formed at the crucial region in the road network, Thessaloniki became the seat of Macedonia’s financial and administrative control. Thessaloniki played a historically important role during the Byzantine period (Ekdotike Athenon). It had had such fortified walls that it resisted several invasion attempts, although it had fell about four times in over thousand years.Thessaloniki was also the place where the Pythian Games were held once in every four years. An artificial harbor was also formed under Constantine the great. There is evidence that the region was inhabited even during the Neolithic period. There are several archeological sites and monuments at Thessaloniki which today highlight its glorious past. The archeological sit es include the Palace of Galerius built in 300 A. D, the Roman Baths and the Roman market and theater, while the monuments include the Galerian Arch built before 305 A. D, and the Church of Ossios David constructed during the late 5th century (Barrett M).Christianity was introduced by Apostle Paul in 50 A. D. Jews are presumed to have first settled in Thessaloniki around 140 B. C, from Alexandria, Egypt. The Jews were given considerable autonomy during the Roman period, which were later curtailed under Byzantium, with Christianity becoming the state religion. Although successive Byzantine emperors introduced restrictions on Jews, they were allowed to live by the traditions and dictates of their religion, thus developing and contributing to their heritage. When Ottoman Turks conquered Byzantine Thessalonki, the Muslims grew in prominence (Hagouel).One of the most notable features of Thessaloniki is its religious harmony with Christians, Jews and Muslims living together under Ottomans . When Sultan Murat II brought in administrative reforms for the city, he offered tax exemptions and religious autonomy to both the Christians and the Muslims. There are very few cities in the world which can claim to have been a continued metropolitan existence for such a lengthy period as the Thessaloniki. Thessaloniki was the second most important city of the Byzantine and the Ottoman empire, after Constatinople.It should be noted here that each era witnessed by Thessaloniki is today represented today by its monuments (Brown). The city remained the center of political, economic and artistic activity, retaining its urban characteristics. By the early Middle Byzantine era, the city already had a thousand year history. In the Middle Byzantine period, trade improved as demand for products from Thessaloniki increased. The traditionally exported items were wool, silk and linen. Other exported items from Thessaloniki included luxury goods bearing metal and glass work, wine, fish and fru its.The sophistication of the Byzantine Thessaloniki architecture is evident from the natural lighting planed at Rotunda at Thessaloniki. The geometric patterns associated with the monument are replicated on the mosaics. The sills of the large windows and the gold tesserae also contribute to the illumination of the mosaics. The mosaic surface is aptly inclined to correspond to the angle of light entering through the large arch shaped windows (Iliadis). The surface inclination of the mosaic also suits the light penetrating through the lunettes, arranged at dome base. Annotated bibliographyThe article by Ekdotike Athenon throws light on the founding of Thessaloniki by Cassander who named it after his wife. During the Byzantine, it was almost an invincible place. The article by Barrett emphasis its glorious past in the field of architecture. It also gives an idea of the introduction of Christianity. The article by Hagouel shows the attitude of Byzantine emperors towards Jews. While mak ing Christianity the state religion, they set restrictions on the Jews. Brown mentions Thessaloniki as one of the few cities in the world with a history of a successful trade.Iliadis looks into the sophistication of lighting at Rotunda at Thessaloniki, where the mosaic is illuminated by natural building. REFERENCES Hagouel P. I. , History of the Jews Thessaloniki and the holocaust. West Chester University of Pennsylvania (2006) [Electronic Version] Downloaded on 3rd July, 2008 from http://www. wcupa. edu/_academics/holocaust/Salonika. pdf Ekdotike Athenon S. A. , Byzantine Thessalonike [Electronic Version] Downloaded on 3rd July, 2008 from http://www. macedonian-heritage. gr/HellenicMacedonia/en/C2. 3. html Barrett M., What to see in Thessaloniki [Electronic Version] Downloaded on 3rd July, 2008 from http://www. greecetravel. com/thessaloniki/museums. html Brown. A. R. , Middle Byzantine Thessaloniki (1999) [Electronic Version] Downloaded on 3rd July, 2008 from http://socs. berkeley . edu/~arbrown/text. html Iliadis I. G. , The natural lighting of the mosaics in the Rotunda at Thessaloniki (2001) Lighting Research and Technology, Vol. 33, No. 1 [Electronic Version] Downloaded on 3rd July, 2008 from http://lrt. sagepub. com/cgi/content/abstract/33/1/13

The 12 Olympians of Greek Mythology

The 12 Olympians of Greek Mythology In Greek mythology, there were 12 Olympians, gods and goddesses, who lived and held thrones on Mount Olympus, although you may run across more than a dozen names. These major gods and goddesses are named Olympian for their place of residence. Greek Names The canonical list, based on the Parthenon sculptures includes: Olympian Gods ApolloAresDionysusHermesHephaestusPoseidonZeus Olympian Goddesses AphroditeAthenaArtemisDemeterHera You may sometimes see: AsclepiusHeraclesHestiaPersephoneHades listed as Olympian deities, but they are not all regulars. Roman Names The Roman versions of the Greek names are: Olympian Gods ApolloBacchusMarsMercuryNeptuneJupiterVulcan Olympian Goddesses VenusMinervaDianaCeresJuno The alternates among the Roman gods and goddesses are: Asculapius, Hercules, Vesta, Proserpine, and Pluto. Also Known As: Theoi Olympioi, Dodekatheon Alternate Spellings: Hephaestus name is sometimes spelled Hephaistos or Hephestus. Examples: Iuno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars, Mercurius, Iovis, Neptunus, Vulcanus, Apollo.Ennius Ann. 62-63 Vahl.From Plautus as a Source Book for Roman Religion, by John A. Hanson, TAPhA (1959), pp. 48-101. The 12 Olympians were the major gods and goddesses with prominent roles in Greek mythology. Although being an Olympian meant a throne on Mt. Olympus, some of the major Olympians spent most of their time elsewhere. Poseidon lived in the sea and Hades in the Underworld. Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Athena, Demeter, Dionysus, Hephaestus, Hera, Hermes, Poseidon, and Zeus are the names of the Olympian gods on the Parthenon frieze, according to the Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World. However, Elizabeth G. Pemberton, in The Gods of the East Frieze of the Parthenon (American Journal of Archaeology Vol. 80, No. 2 [Spring, 1976] pp. 113-124), says that on the East frieze of the Parthenon, in addition to the 12 are Eros and Nike.

Herero Genocide Essays

Herero Genocide Essays Herero Genocide Paper Herero Genocide Paper The occurrences during what has come to be known as the Herero and Namaqua Genocide were brutal and have been seen as the first attempts at genocide. This piece will analyse the issue at large and also two primary sources relating to this tragedy in an attempt to shed light on the subject of the Herero situation in particular. Firstly, to properly contextualise and analyse the two documents, we have to look at who wrote the documents themselves. The author of both documents was Lothar von Trotha, a German military commander and General who was sent to German South West Africa in 1904 to crush a rebellion against the German occupation by the Herero, natives to the land that the Germans inhabited. Lothar von Trotha was an esteemed German soldier and commander and specialised in the suppression of insurrection in German colonial territories having served in China and German East Africa in a similar capacity. Trotha’s mission in German South West Africa was to put a stop to the uprising by the native African tribe, the Herero, that was caused by German occupancy of Herero land. In January 1904, the Herero had risen up against the German colonialists under the leadership of Samuel Maharero. After initial defeats and setbacks against the Africans, the Germans deployed Trotha who had successful experience in situations such as these and he arrived in German South West Africa in June 1904. After initial defeats, Trotha won a decisive victory at the Battle of Waterberg in August 1904 and succeeded in expelling or killing the majority of the Herero from German territory. This is the historical and contextual background to the letters sent by Trotha in early to mid October of 1904, two months after the Battle of Waterberg and following German victory in German South West Africa. The addressees of the documents differ between each one. The first document, Command of the Protective Troops, is addressed to Germans in German South West Africa and is used to show the current status of the Herero, as subjects of extermination. The document is also used to show the Germans what Trotha has made known to the Herero of their plight, it is an aggressive move by Trotha with obvious flirtations to a direct order to kill every Herero on sight, â€Å"within the German borders every Herero, with or without a gun, with or without cattle will be shot, I will not receive any women or children, drive them back to their People and I will also let them be shot at†. The second document is addressed to Alfred von Schlieffen, famed German strategist and Chief of the Imperial German General Staff. The purpose of this document is to explain that Trotha intends to finish off the Herero population (â€Å"I believe that the nation as such should be eliminated†) as well as the reasons which he is using to justify their extermination (â€Å"my intimate knowledge of African tribes has convinced me of the necessity that the Negro does not respect treaties but only brute force I find it most appropriate that the nation perishes instead of infecting our soldiers and diminishing their supplies of food and water† ). Trotha’s mentioning of the Herero as no longer being the subjects of the Germans can be taken a few ways. Perhaps most obviously, it can be construed as meaning that since the Herero nation will be destroyed that the Herero will not survive to be subjects of the German people. He also uses the term to denote that the Herero were once ‘worthy subjects’ of the Germans however through acts of crime and weakness (â€Å"they have murdered, stolen, have cut off wounded soldiers’ ears and noses and other body parts and now do not want to fight anymore because of cowardice† ) have lost the apparent privilege of being German subjects. Document one, the â€Å"Annihilation Order†, can be seen as ordering the deaths of all the Herero, however it can be said that the ‘annihilation’ in mind was not of the people but rather that of their unity or nationhood. Trotha makes multiple references to the Herero â€Å"nation† and its destruction as well as not only killing the Herero but simply driving them off German land, into unoccupied territories well out of German sight and mind. It can also be said that Trotha was most certainly focussed on the destruction of the Herero population as history saw that when his armies drove the Herero out of German zones, watering holes and wells were poisoned so that wandering Herero tribesmen would drink the water and die from the toxins. The two documents analysed in this report do not give us a good indication of the damage that the Germans did to the Herero population in the end if any at all. They are merely contemporary documents of the Herero uprising of 1904 which bring to light the attitudes of the German command and are documents which can only be fully appreciated with a broader context of the issue at hand, thus these two documents are useless in ascertaining the severity and even the existence of the Herero and Namaqua Genocide. Bibliography Erichsen, Casper W. , â€Å"A Forgotten History-Concentration Camps were used by Germans in South West Africa†, in Mail Guardian (Johannesburg) 17 August 2001. Gewald, Jan-Bart, Herero Heroes. A Socio-Political History of the Herero of Namibia 1890-1923†. 1999, pp290-296 Trotha, Lothar von. Command of the Protective Troops. Federal Archive Germany R 1001/2089, 02/10/1904 bundesarchiv. de/aktuelles/aus_dem_archiv/galerie/00061/index. html? inde x=0id=2nr=5#, Accessed: 1 Aug 2008 Trotha, Lothar von. German commander Lothar von Trotha explaining his motivations in a letter to German Chief of General Staff von Schlieffen, Oct. 4 1904. Herero Heroes. A Socio-Political History of the Herero of Namibia 1890-1923. 1999, pp173

Encapsulation in Computer Programming

Encapsulation in Computer Programming Encapsulation in programming is the process of combining elements to create a new entity for the purpose of hiding or protecting information. In object-oriented programming, encapsulation is an attribute of object design. It means that all of the objects data is contained and hidden in the object and access to it is restricted to members of that class. Encapsulation in Programming Languages Programming languages arent quite so strict and allow differing levels of access to an objects data. C supports encapsulation and data hiding with user-defined types called classes. A class combines data and function into a single unit. The method of hiding details of a class is called abstraction. Classes can contain private, protected and public members. Although all the items in a class are private by default, programmers can change the access levels when needed. Three levels of access are available in both C and C# and an additional two in C#Â  only. They are: Public: All objects can access the data.Protected: Access is limited to members of the same class or descendants.Private: Access is limited to members of the same class.Internal: Access is limited to the current assembly. (C# only)Protected Internal: Access is limited to the current assembly or types derived from the containing class. (C# only) Advantages of Encapsulation The main advantage of using encapsulation is the security of the data. Benefits of encapsulation include: Encapsulation protects an object from unwanted access by clients.Encapsulation allows access to a level without revealing the complex details below that level.It reduces human errors.Simplifies the maintenance of the applicationMakes the application easier to understand. For the best encapsulation, object data should almost always be restricted to private or protected. If you choose to set the access level to public, make sure you understand the ramifications of the choice.

Critique of self-determination theory Assignment

Critique of self-determination theory - Assignment Example reatest strength of the self-determination theory in education is concentric upon the means by which it serves to help educators understand the concept of motivation within their stakeholders (Brophy, 2010). Though one may be tempted to view the self-determination theory of education as something of a hands off approach, the truth of the matter is that the theory itself encourages educator involvement in the form of integrating understandings of the value of risk within the students. Even though the series by its very nature places the most responsibility within the hands of the student/stakeholder, a proper understanding of motivation by the educator is sufficient to ensure that a given degree of self-determination will ultimately be realized. Likewise, with regards to the greatest weakness, the reader can readily understand that due to the great differentials and personality type that exists within the student body, not all individuals will fully integrate with a self deterministic approach to education. As with any theory, the weakness of the self-determination theory in education hinges upon the fact that although it helps to adequately explain a majority of educator/student involvement, it is ultimately not 100% effective in explaining all educator/student involvement. With regards to the work of Edwards Deci and Richard Ryan, the self determination theory is understood in a slightly different way. Accordingly, these authors note that the self-determination theory, though effective, ultimately seeks to reward those that most actively integrate with the process of education (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Even though this is not a bad thing, it necessarily implies that those students that do not seek to actively participate or motivate themselves will be at a significant disadvantage if this theory is applied universally within education. The authors note that the application of this theory can be seen as something of a reward mechanism whereby the students that

Self-Evaluation- (Justice Theory) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Self-Evaluation- (Justice Theory) - Essay Example John Rawls offers just one of these theories, which is broken into two parts, the Principle of Equal Liberty and the Difference Principle. It is through this theory that human beings can live a in a fair and just society where all of its members are valued and have a place. Of course, there is no such thing as a singular universal solution to the problem, but it does offer some interesting viewpoints. In the simplest explanation Rawls perspective is that the Principle of Equal Liberty allows that each person in the society should have an equal rights to a system that creates a level of compatibility of everyone within the that society. The Difference Principle is also broken into two distinct parts. The first part states that the all of the economic and social inequalities are structured in a way that allows, firstly, the greatest benefit to those in the least advantageous positions. The second part explains that the equalities of society should be formed so that the offices and positions ( political, civic, or professional) should be open to all, regardless of income, station or status (Garrett, 2011). The egalitarian viewpoint of the Principle of Equal Liberty is very libertarian in its perspective. On the surface this principle sounds quite fair and sound. However, in a society filled with classism, the poor, the middle class, and the wealthy it can be difficult to devise such a system based on that principle. In order for everyone to have truly equal rights to all of the same opportunities, be it education, employment, politics, or other forms of public service then the class system would have to be deconstructed or allow it to fade away while this new perspective becomes dominant. The second part of the Difference Principle also favors a rather egalitarian or libertarian perspective in that anyone should have the same

Implementation of the Intervention Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Implementation of the Intervention - Essay Example This has made cancer a topic of discussion at all social institutions: religion, education, political and also at home. Cancer, been a health issue, needs an intervention program that will help to reduce the number of deaths that occur annually. Most people come to learn of their cancer disease when it is too late as they are unaware of the signs and symptoms of the disease and have no access to the right medical services. There is therefore the need for cancer awareness to be raised all over the world, especially to the people living in marginalized areas (DeVita 23). This intervention is a primary level intervention and it needs support from all groups including the government, health care centers and non-governmental agencies. The government should take first priority in creating cancer awareness all over the country. It should work in hand with health centers to learn on the regions that need quick intervention and ways that can be used to educate them about the disease. Non-governmental agencies should also take up their role as advocates for the people who do not have the required information about cancer. DeVita, V. T., Lawrence, T. S., & Rosenberg, S. A. Cancer: Principles & practice of oncology: annual advances in oncology. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Health. 2011.Bottom of

Business information analysis Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Business information analysis - Case Study Example Secondly, this process also ensures that once a business is established, it begins to operate immediately. This owes to the fact that the business is operating under the umbrella of another established and reputable company. However, it is imperative to note that just because a company operates as a franchisee does not necessarily mean that it will have increased sales. This is despite the reduced cost of operation and better market environment. There are various other factors, which should be considered in ensuring that the company makes more profits. They include issues of prices and quality. With customers being so sensitive on matters of prices, it would be imperative that a given business enterprise considers being a price leader. This is a competitive advantage especially where the business is facing a lot of competition. Market research is vital for the purpose of understanding the tastes and preferences of the customers. This ensures that the company provides the required goo ds to the market. Qualitative and quantitative researches ensure that the companies conduct an objective marketing research that addressing the needs in the market. Task 1 Every business aims at obtaining accurate and valid evidence about the target customers. This becomes imperative owing to the fact that there is need to ensure that the business meets the actual needs of the customers (Berghoff 2012, p.90). the latter differ in terms of tastes and preferences making it difficult for the businesses organizations, to respond to their need. The current case of Kidz Sportz is therefore not an isolated one, but a reflection of the market challenges that many companies go through. The company is said to have received more than 100,000 new children who require different equipment and services. However, the management grapples with the issue of lack of enough knowledge on the tastes and preferences of these children. Unless something is done urgently, the company will not be able to provi de objective services to this large number of clients. To assist in solving the stated challenge, the following recommendations are vital: Conducting a market research This is explained as the process through which a company with the assistant of qualified market research team obtains information about the needs, attitudes and motivations of the customers, for the purpose of serving them in the best way possible (Boudreaux 2000, p.3). It is also a way of establishing what the customers know about the market, to enable a company to plan in terms of prices. It is imperative to note that the world of business has become increasingly competitive, prompting management to implement new strategies for success. This information provides a given company with competitive advantage over its main rivals (Bradley 2007, p.89). Secondly, it is a strategy through which the company is able to attract and also retain the customers to the advantage of a given business institution. A market research is also advantageous in the sense that it provides the company with the market size. In the above scenario, the number stands at 100,000 children. This enables the company in its logistical work. For instance, it is able to know the number of equipment and space needed to accommodate all the children. However, the market research is a process that requires funds and qualified personnel. To receive the information needed, both the qualitative and quantitative techniques become important. The Kidz Sportz for instance should carry out its qualitative and

Participation 4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Participation 4 - Essay Example Probability sampling uses random sampling method, where the researcher selects parties to the study randomly. This ensures that the study eliminates bias and makes it easier for the researcher to estimate the sampling error. In his article painter describes the use of probability sampling in research. The example he focuses on is on selection of households from a certain cross section area. The study may focus on selecting all households, which will include even newer households. Alternatively, in selecting a sample the researcher can exclude the newer households and consider those that have resided in the area for a while. The study, therefore, will use a cluster sample, which will focus on areas with old residents. The focus was on European waters and their efforts to improve the status of these waters. In this study, they use judgmental sampling method. In their research, they have selected certain water bodies that they intend to examine and come up with ways of improving their status. The rationale for using judgemental sampling method is that the water bodies are certain and; therefore, the researcher has to focus on a certain area of

Business information analysis Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Business information analysis - Case Study Example Secondly, this process also ensures that once a business is established, it begins to operate immediately. This owes to the fact that the business is operating under the umbrella of another established and reputable company. However, it is imperative to note that just because a company operates as a franchisee does not necessarily mean that it will have increased sales. This is despite the reduced cost of operation and better market environment. There are various other factors, which should be considered in ensuring that the company makes more profits. They include issues of prices and quality. With customers being so sensitive on matters of prices, it would be imperative that a given business enterprise considers being a price leader. This is a competitive advantage especially where the business is facing a lot of competition. Market research is vital for the purpose of understanding the tastes and preferences of the customers. This ensures that the company provides the required goo ds to the market. Qualitative and quantitative researches ensure that the companies conduct an objective marketing research that addressing the needs in the market. Task 1 Every business aims at obtaining accurate and valid evidence about the target customers. This becomes imperative owing to the fact that there is need to ensure that the business meets the actual needs of the customers (Berghoff 2012, p.90). the latter differ in terms of tastes and preferences making it difficult for the businesses organizations, to respond to their need. The current case of Kidz Sportz is therefore not an isolated one, but a reflection of the market challenges that many companies go through. The company is said to have received more than 100,000 new children who require different equipment and services. However, the management grapples with the issue of lack of enough knowledge on the tastes and preferences of these children. Unless something is done urgently, the company will not be able to provi de objective services to this large number of clients. To assist in solving the stated challenge, the following recommendations are vital: Conducting a market research This is explained as the process through which a company with the assistant of qualified market research team obtains information about the needs, attitudes and motivations of the customers, for the purpose of serving them in the best way possible (Boudreaux 2000, p.3). It is also a way of establishing what the customers know about the market, to enable a company to plan in terms of prices. It is imperative to note that the world of business has become increasingly competitive, prompting management to implement new strategies for success. This information provides a given company with competitive advantage over its main rivals (Bradley 2007, p.89). Secondly, it is a strategy through which the company is able to attract and also retain the customers to the advantage of a given business institution. A market research is also advantageous in the sense that it provides the company with the market size. In the above scenario, the number stands at 100,000 children. This enables the company in its logistical work. For instance, it is able to know the number of equipment and space needed to accommodate all the children. However, the market research is a process that requires funds and qualified personnel. To receive the information needed, both the qualitative and quantitative techniques become important. The Kidz Sportz for instance should carry out its qualitative and

Globalization Impact on Public Administration Essay

Globalization Impact on Public Administration - Essay Example Globalization is referred to the phenomenon of converting the local markets into global markets. More specifically, it can also be explained as an initiative to encourage the domestic business players to emerge with the outlook of a global competitor (Globalization-Bowne Global Translation, 2011). It is in this context that globalization has played an effective role to speed up the significance of democracy in public administrations. Democracy, in turn, strongly influenced sociable relations between different nations leading towards a positive impact of globalization on the public administrations practices. It is worth mentioning that implementing democracy to ensure legitimate governance in public services is highly essential in this context. Currently, the public officials are concentrating on the implementation of the democratic governance in their respective administrations which enhances the role of democracy in the system. Thus, because of the interdependent relationship existi ng between public administration and democracy, it is quite likely that the practices of this concept will differ from one nation to the other on the basis of the democratic divergences (Gonzalez, 2004). For instance, public administration practices of United States of America have been claimed as different from that of other countries. According to the experts, the private sectors in US follow a modified and reframed law, sophisticated organizational theory, effective political science and economic implications. It is because of these factors that the public administration in US is quite different from other nations (Riggs, 2000). The public administration of US also possesses certain distinctive features. Among these the most significant feature is that the public administration practices consider a veil between the politics and their administration in order to create and ensure effective and clean governance. In US, the public officials do not allow the political issues to affect the internal atmosphere of the organization; whereas, the tendency differs in certain other nations which may include both developed and developing countries. This significantly assists the public organizations in US to achieve its goal with limited political influence and other similar hurdles. Thus, the US public officials can be observed to approach with an inductive thinking for the betterment of the system (Sezen, 2000). Globalization plays a key role in framing legal constraints and also tends to direct legal practices and modifications in the existing forms through restructuring and expansion. Furthermore, the functions of national legislation have been observed to decline. Simultaneously, the international commercial arbitration centers earned increasing importance after the elimination of transnational commercial disputes. These were the effects of the legal restraints over globalization. Moreover, these effects took place due to the increasing importance of privatization in the jurisdiction of the US. These effects are measured on the basis of increase in the number of commercial arbitration centers. On the contrary, the US practiced a unique jurisdiction for public administration. This in turn diminished the dependency of public administrations on the administrative laws and thus the role played by these laws was also altered (Sezen, 2000). In the similar context, public officials tend to be highly influenced by the cultural bases which again are reflected in their public administra

Human Sexuality Essay Example for Free

Human Sexuality Essay William and Jessie both 23 years old have been dating for 3 years. They plan to get married in 2 years when they finish with graduate school. About three months ago William had an unplanned and alcohol induced intercourse with a colleague from work. The couple are in counseling and working on issues of trust and communication. Recently, they have started having sexual intercourse. Jessie says she is unable to climax like in the past. William says he is doing everything the same and thinks she still blames him. Looking at William and Jessie’s case, I believe that the possible societal and gender influences related to William’s and Jessie’s concerns are the male and female sexual scripts. According to Strong, DeVault, Sayad and Yarber (2008), â€Å"Sexual Scripts refers to the acts, rules, and expectations associated with a particular role† (p. 143). All humans are sexual beings; however we all are diverse in terms of our sexual definitions and script expectations. Sexual scripts are not innate, yet they are learned through culture and socialization (Strong et al. 2008). There are as many distinctive sexual scripts as there are people, nonetheless some of these scripts have common themes and can be recognized as a shared blueprint or trend in the larger society. Some male scripts that are relatable to Williams’s concerns are: Performance is a thing that counts. A man always wants sex and is ready for it and, sexual intercourse leads to orgasm. Society has this idea that is embedded in many people that sex to men is something to be accomplished (Strong et al. 2008). It is important for us to notice that in Williams situation, he is feeling like â€Å"less of a man†, in other words, his ego is bruised, because he cannot make Jessie climax. Additionally, there are sexual scripts allotted to women as well. Some female scripts relatable to Jessie’s concerns are: â€Å"The traditional male sexual scripts focuses on sex over feelings, the traditional female sexual script focuses on feelings over sex, on love over passion† (p. 41). Jessie apparently has issues during sex because she can’t get over the thought of Williams having sexual contact with another woman, especially when William is supposed become Jessie’s future husband. The sexual script that relates to this issue is that the woman does not want to have sex, sex is uncomfortable for her or not pleasurable for her. However due to female sexual scripts, women should not talk about sex (Strong et al. , 2008). Sexual scripts are similar to traditional gender roles; society holds men and women accountable for the roles and expectations that have been set for them and if we fail to live up to them, then we are failures at our gender. Moreover, there are indeed biological and psychological components of William and Jessie’s case. Starting with William, he can’t achieve to make Jessie Climax. Psychological causes include trust and communication related stress and anxiety, because he too busy trying to gain Jesse’s trust. Because of this William is most likely concerned about his sexual performance, trust issues and the guilt of having sexual intoxicate intercourse with his work colleague. For women in particular, emotional closeness is a main component in sexual desire (Strong et al. , 2008) and because William cheated with a colleague, she perhaps could have grown psychologically distant. As stated by Strong et al. (2008), â€Å"Desire is the psychological component of sexual arousal† (p. 92). According to the Masters and Johnson’s four-phrase model of sexual response, Kaplan’s tri-phasic model of sexual response and Loulan’s sexual response model, they all include desire and excitement as key elements to sexual response and pleasure and without these two elements, a person cannot truly experience the true satisfaction of sexual intercourse and an orgasm (Strong et al. , 2008). In relation to this case the developmental concerns related to the early adulthood stage according to Strong et al. 2008) are the following: Integrating love and sex, forging intimacy and making commitments. Integrating love and sex was not integrated when it comes to Williams’s infidelity. William was more so thinking with his penis rather than thinking about the love of his life Jessie. As the female, Jessie thinks more with her heart and values the love for William. The thought of betrayal from William, may possibly be disheartening and could hinder Jessie from climaxi ng during intimacy. In Jessie’s mind, loving William and having that solid connection with him was important to her. Furthermore this developmental concern strongly compares to the male sexual script with thoughts of sex over feelings, while the woman’s thoughts consist of feelings over sex. The key to integrating love and sex was missing because of Williams’s infidelity. Therefore uniting the two will take a longer process to connect. Forging intimacy and making commitments plays an integral part in the developmental concerns in this case as well. According to Strong et al. (2008) as a relationship become more meaningful, the degree of intimacy and interdependence increases. As adults become more intimate, most desire to develop their ability to make commitments. In relation to William and Jesse they are in a meaningful relationship, they were planning to get married and spend the rest of their lives with one another, before the infidelity occurred. It is my assumption the intimacy was on a higher level but after the infidelity occurred the intimacy decreased and the trust and communication issues began to form. During the early adulthood stage young adults begin to attend college and students began to meet lots of people in their age bracket. There will be opportunities during college where students attend plenty of social gatherings (frat/sororities houses and parties) and majority of the time alcohol and drugs are involved as well as risky sexual activities. Strong et al (2008) strongly believes that among college students, the use of alcohol is associated with an increased risk of unwanted intercourse, sexual violence and STDS. Since Jesse and William are in the early adulthood stage, it is a strong possibility William wants to venture out in a since before he gets married. Maybe he feels pressured and tied down to Jessie. Lastly, infidelity is common amongst the early adulthood population. Research by McAnaulty and Brineman (2007), states that 41% of the students identified having sexual intercourse with a person other than ones primary partner as constituting being unfaithful. More students (57%) identified dating/spending time with another as unfaithfulness. Infidelity can greatly affect committed relationships, because it could cause a lack of communication and trust worthiness. When relationships are broken, a lot of emotions occur such as lack of sleep, a decrease in appetite, anxiety and constant crying in some cases.

Strategic Development Study of Caterpillar Inc

Strategic Development Study of Caterpillar Inc INTRODUCTION This report presents the Strategic Development Study of Caterpillar Inc. Caterpillar Inc. founded on 15th April, 1925 in California, United Stated. Caterpillar is involved in designing, manufacturing, marketing and selling heavy equipments, machinery and engines and it is also involved in selling financial services to the customers all over the world. Caterpillar is the worlds largest manufacturer of manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines and industrial gas turbines. The organization is serving worldwide and is providing employment to around 104,490 employees. Its products includes Bulldozer, Excavator, Wheel Loader, Haul Truck, Diesel Engine etc. and its services includes Financing, Insurance, Maintenance and Training. The developmental strategies used in the past, present strategies and the strategic planning for the future development of the Caterpillar, are discussed further in this report. Strategic Planning is about the finding the best solution for future problems to be faced by the organizations that not only solves the problems but should also proves to be beneficial to the organization. Caterpillar value statement is We have the people, processes, tools and investments to deliver the quality, reliability and durability customers expect from Caterpillar in each new product introduction. This strategic planning report focuses on three major tasks: Describe the strategies deployed by the organization in the past and their resulting outcomes i.e. the strategic development history of the company. Undertake the evaluation and appraisal of the companys current strategic situation with reference to the companys strategic macro industry and competitive environment and companys endowment of its resources and capabilities. Explore, evaluate and access the strategic choices available and recommend the best strategic plan available for the organization. STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT HISTORY OF CATERPILLAR It has been more than 85 years that Caterpillar is serving its customers and hence ranked worlds number one in its own industry. The company has been developing every year and has maintained its position into the market. In 1980s, Caterpillar came very close to bankruptcy but still it manages to come back as a high tech globally competitive growth company. The company has now proved itself as the worlds largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines and industrial gas turbines. Companys Establishment In April 1925, the financially strong C. L. Best merged with the market leader Holt Caterpillar to form Caterpillar Tractor Co. Caterpillar is involved in manufacturing of heavy equipments used in construction and mining that are recognizable with CAT logo. Because of the intensive competition over the market share, in 1963, Caterpillar forms the joint venture with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. which is ranked 2nd in Japan for manufacturing construction and mining equipments. Caterpillar agreement with Shanghai Diesel in China was helpful in improving the market share of Caterpillar as it was a technology sharing alliance. Come back of Caterpillar from Recession In the year 1981, Caterpillar faced huge economy downtown and was very close to bankruptcy. For 3 consecutive years, the recession costs around $1 million a day to the company which further forces the company to reduce the employment. There were three reasons for this crisis i.e. global recession, strikes and unfavorable currency exchange rates. Company faced many competitors that time including Komatsu Ltd. as the prime competitor. To overcome this recession, the company CEOs introduced various strategic measures like cutting costs, employee reduction, out sourcing of machinery, parts and their components, introduction of modernization, diversification of product line and reorganization of companys structure. These measures were very important that time to save the organization to become bankrupt. Later on the organization worked really well and managed to generate the highest revenues. George Schaefers encouraged the executives to respond to recession. Caterpillar outsources 80% of its parts and components and further they used their brand names for selling the outsourced products keeping the quality control of the products. They doubled their product line in just 4 years from 150 to 300 equipments with an introduction of small and light weighted products along with the customer diversification as well. Caterpillar also focused on repairing its relationship with the labour as they experienced many strikes because of the cost cutting the company successfully achieved the target of an healthy employee and employer relationship. Also employee involvement program was launched by Schaefer in 1986 that involves employee satisfaction, quality improvement and increasing efficiency level. This program was termed as Employee satisfaction Progress i.e. EPS. EPS helps in reducing the rate of absenteeism, decline in labour grievances, saving in costs of upto $10 million and increases employees loyalty. Plant with the future (PWTF) is launched a s a modernization program. Shift from batch production to flexible work cells proved to be good for the organization. The technological improvements and PWTF program resulted in high quality of products, increased efficiency level and high productivity. As a result of all these efforts put by the organization, the Caterpillars 30 worldwide plants managed to cut the inventory level by 50% and manufacturing space by 21% in just 3 years. Also Caterpillars world market share goes up to 50% and its revenues increased by 66% from the year 1985 to 1990. Caterpillar beat the Komatsu by having total sales of over $11 billion in the year 1989, which were nearly twice the sales of Komatsu. The company takes the advantage of the growth in global demand for heavy construction industry at a steady rate of 4.5% in the 1990s and was successful in making its way towards the top most position. Schaefer proves to be the best manager of any manufacturing company of heavy construction equipments. After five year tenure of Schaefer as CEO, Donald Fites becomes the next CEO of Caterpillar Inc. Donald brought leadership style to the organization. He further focuses on reorganization plan that involves the customer needs on priority basis. Research and Development In 1904, Benjamin Holt solved the problem of driving tractors smoothly in moist soil faced by farmers in California by manufacturing a tractor with gasoline engine instead of steam engines that are much lighter in weight and that tractor was nicknamed as Caterpillar. By 1915, the Holt tractors were sold in around 20 countries. Further they formed a company named Caterpillar by merging with best company in tractors. Caterpillar was the first company that introduces diesel engines on a moving vehicle. In 1931, the company created separate engine sales group for the marketing of diesel engines to other equipment manufacturers and they further replaced it with sales and marketing division for serving better range of customers. The company was highly involved in manufacturing replacement parts as well because it generates over a quarter of the total revenue because of two main reasons i.e. sale of replacement parts is more profitable than the whole machines and the replacement parts marke t was less cyclical than that of original equipment. After World War 2, the demand for Caterpillar products increased to reconstruct the disaster happened in Europe because of the 2nd world war. Finally in 1960s, Caterpillar becomes the leader of the heavy construction equipment industry. Further in 1965, Caterpillar expanded its operations to Britain, Canada, France, Brazil, Australia, India and Japan. In 1983, the company starts providing financial services as well. There has been huge diversification in the product line to overcome the recession in the year 1985 to more than 300 products. As the company was developing and diversifying in its operations, it changes its name to Caterpillar Inc. In 2001, Caterpillar was the first company that launches 6 Sigma that helps the organization in improving its quality to the best level. Caterpillar starts sustainable development in the year 2005 as it responded to the Asian tsunami disaster and earthquakes in South Asia. CURRENT STRATEGIES OF CATERPILLAR Caterpillar Inc. is the worlds number one manufacturer of construction and mining equipments, diesel and gas engines and natural gas turbines. The organization is developing day by day and continuously expanding their business. Its market is not only limited to Europe but Caterpillar is selling its products all over the world like China, India, America, Russia etc. Caterpillar serves its customers with the highest quality product at a very reasonable price and also involved in good customer relations. Caterpillar is manufacturing its products at 110 plants worldwide and is selling its products in nearly 200 countries. Caterpillar made its sales through independent dealers that contribute around 66% of the total sales. Caterpillar uses many business strategies for its development and to compete effectively with its competitors. For the evaluation and appraisal of companys current strategies, various strategic tools are used like PESTEL Analysis for analyzing the macro environment, SWOT Analysis for analyzing the capabilities efficiency of resources as well and Porters Five Force Analysis is used to analyze the market, customers, competitors, suppliers etc. PESTEL Analysis For evaluating and analyzing the macro environment of the organization, the PESTEL Analysis tool is used. There are various macro environmental factors that affect the workings of an organization like Political factors, Economical factors, Social factors, Technological factors, Environmental factors and Legal factors. Let us now discuss in detail that how these factors affect the working of Caterpillar Inc. Political Factors Political factors are one of the main factors that affect the operations of the organization. Every country has its own governments with different laws and legislations, rules and regulations, import and export policies etc. As Caterpillar is operating and serving the customers worldwide, it should be aware of the political factors. Economical Factors The economic factors includes the recession, inflation, growth in GDP, growth in population etc. In 1980s, the recession hits Caterpillar badly as it was very close to bankruptcy but somehow it manages to overcome that economic downtown. The rise in the prices of raw material, diesel, petrol, import and export costs etc. is big problems for the organizations. A rise in raw material prices increases the manufacturing costs in Caterpillar and to maintain a balance, the organization has to increase its prices. Social Factors Caterpillar is operating in many diversified countries. Hence it becomes essential to consider the social factors while framing the business strategies. Each and every country has different societies with different values, culture, religions, attitudes etc. the company has to maintain a balance to avoid any kind of discrimination into the organization. Technological Factors A manufacturing organization like Caterpillar needs ongoing technological advancements. It should be updated with all the latest technologies to compete in a better way and maintain its position into the market. Caterpillar is always using the best technologies for manufacturing its construction equipments. Moreover it has invented many new products with the best quality and price range among the whole market. Environmental factors The Caterpillar has moved towards the sustainable development i.e. they are focusing on new technologies and innovations to increase the efficiency and productivity of the organization by not impacting the environment and also providing guidelines to the customers for doing the same. Their mission is to enable economic growth through infrastructure and energy development, and to provide solutions that protect people and preserve the planet. Legal Factors The various laws and legislations of the country in which the company is operating cannot be ignored. The laws related to import and export, employment laws, labour laws, should be taken care of. A lawful and legal organization can effectively survives in long run. SWOT Analysis The SWOT Analysis shows the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats available with the organization and provides an opportunity to the organization to use its Strengths and Opportunities for the betterment of the organization and keep the organization safe from its weaknesses and outside threats. Let us discuss the SWOT Analysis of Caterpillar. Strengths The main strength of Caterpillar is that it is a global leader in its own industry as it is worlds largest manufacturer the construction and mining equipment, diesel and gas engines and natural gas turbines. It is ranked as number 44 among all the organization in 2009 by Fortune 500. It has the highest revenue generation and highest share value in the market as well. It has a strong financial condition as it can grab the worldwide opportunities available. Caterpillar has 110 plants worldwide and is serving around 200 countries which show its huge customer diversification. It has a strong dealers worldwide network which contains over 200 full line dealers that helps the organization in capturing about 60% of the market. Weaknesses In recent years the company has faced many downtowns. The sales volume of the company is decreasing since 2003 which results in less revenue. Also the long term debts of the company have been increasing. The company does most of its sales through its independent dealers. Dealers show a very less confidence towards the Caterpillars new forecasting system. Opportunities Caterpillar has good opportunities of growth in developing countries like India and China. These countries demand lot of construction equipments and engines as well. Again the growth in the population demands more construction. Entering into joint ventures and acquisitions provides good opportunities for the companys development. In 2004, the company formed Caterpillar Power Generation Systems in association with Solar Turbines Incorporates to market the products of both the companies which further reduces the manufacturing costs of the firm and makes the organization more competitive. Threats The outside threats cannot be ignored as they affect the organization adversely. The recent threats faced by Caterpillar include the rise in the prices of raw material especially metal prices. This increases the manufacturing cost and further decrease the organizations profits. The demand of the mining equipments depends on the population growth and Gross Domestic Product growth which is very uncertain. The deal between Caterpillar and United Auto Workers finishes in 2004 which enable strikes and disruptions in work. Hence such contract expuration are great threat to the organizations. Porters Five Forces Porters Five Forces is a business strategy that is formed by Michael E. Porter. He points out the five forces available in the macro environment that affects the abilities and capabilities of an organization. These five forces are threat of new entrants, intensity of competitive rivalry, threat of substitutes, bargaining power of customers and finally bargaining power of suppliers. This helps an organization to be aware of the outside environment and make their business strategies accordingly. The further discussion on Caterpillars Porters Five Forces is as follows: Threat of New Entrants The threat of the new entrants in very low for Caterpillar. Caterpillar is into manufacturing the construction equipments which requires a huge capital and resources. It is difficult for any new entrant to invest that much into this industry when it knows that there are already highly competitive firms available. Caterpillar should compete continuously with its competitors to maintain its position into the market. Intensity of Competitive Rivalry Caterpillar faces a high competition into the market and the other competitors can overcome Caterpillar anytime if they lose focus or using bad business strategy. Caterpillar has around 50 competitors worldwide that controls around 80% of the market. Threat of Substitutes There is nearly no threat of substitutes for Caterpillar as it is involved into the manufacturing of such unique construction and mining equipments. Bargaining Power of Customers The customers have a moderate bargaining power as most of the sales are done through independent dealers and pricing is done according to the markets. Bargaining Power of Suppliers Again the suppliers also have a moderate bargaining power. For manufacturing construction equipments, there is a need of steel or other heavy raw materials which are difficult to transport and also costs very high. Hence an increase in the prices of raw material is a big issue for the organization. FUTURE STRATEGIC PLANNING OF CATERPILLAR Caterpillar has set various targets for future and is seriously involved into the achievement of those targets. The organization has set its strategy as Vision 2020. This strategy sets the stage for the next phase of the companys leadership and growth in the global industries it serves. The visions and missions set by Caterpillar are very practical and will provide further development to the organization. In the past 80 years, Caterpillar has proved itself to be a well established business with effective management and business strategies that helps the organization to maintain its profits and position into the market even at the time of recession. The organization knows the ways of beating the recession and wins back its position into the market. Caterpillars future strategic visions are like becoming a recognized leader in its own industry everywhere, the products, services and solutions provided will helps the customers to succeed, making use of the organizations distributions system as their competitive advantage, maintaining good labour relations and acquiring highly talented people. The organization has set various targets for its next five years i.e. providing the best return to its shareholders, hiring and maintaining the best talented people into the organization and becoming a global leader everywhere they do business. These targets are already achieved by Caterpillar to great extent. The 100% achievement of these targets needs more efforts. Caterpillar is now focusing towards more sustainable development i.e. making the efficient and effective use of the resources available without impacting the environment and also works for the society as a whole. Caterpillar has named as one of the top 10 industrial supply chains in 2010 on Gartners Inc. top 10 list. Also the Caterpillars Chairman and CEO, Doug Oberhelman named into the top 50 people in business according to Fortunes 2010. Hence Caterpillar is actively involved in the development of its business and competing at its best into the environment. Future Recommendations Caterpillar should be opening new markets all over the world as an expansion of its business mostly into the developing countries as around 80% of the population lives there and they demand for such construction equipments on high basis. Also the diversification into the product line and customers is important for further growth. Lack of diversification reduces the sale which has already suffered by the organization. The diversification of the products done by the organization in the past proved to be very profitable. Marketing has become an essential part of any organization. Successful marketing plays an important role in gaining competitive advantage. A wide spread distribution service network is important is essential in competing with heavy construction equipment industry. Joint ventures are important to expand the new markets and diversify into new products. This is important for the growth and development of the organization and to cover a large number of customers. Recently the global economy downturn decreases 25% of the Caterpillar sales. The ability to rebound the economy plays a significant role in the profitability maintenance of the organization. The other critical issues for the organization like changes in the prices of raw material, changes in the government monetary and fiscal policies, the credit risk involves into the financial services provided by Caterpillar etc. should be given special attention as their affect on the organization can proven to be the worst. Continuous growth and development initiatives are important for the maintenance of the topmost position into the market. Like entering into the new markets, diversification of products and services, customer diversification, sustainable development, new distribution channels etc. The full usage of its Strengths like companys strong reputation, dominating among the industry, good financial condition for upto date technology and beating any competition and diversified business competencies, will provide a competitive advantage to the organization.

The Articles of Confederation Essay -- Governmental American History E

The Articles of Confederation As the Revolutionary War came to a close, the Continental Congress introduced a new form of government as it instituted the Articles of Confederation. The articles established a democratic government that granted the states sufficient power to control their own laws and regulations. However, the Articles of Confederation were ineffective and, hence; they failed to provide a strong government. During this time in an American history, often known as the â€Å"Critical Period†, regionalism and anarchism began to expand as a result of the following reasons. The Continental Congress controlled public affairs, but the Articles of Confederation neglected to grant the Congress power to enforce laws or unify the States. Under the Articles, the United States lacked a solid monetary system to ensure that taxes would be paid and to protect commerce, both nationally and foreign trade. Also, without leading national figure, the strong unity America gained during the Revolutionary War began to diminish along with the nations overall strength. Being that Congress had only the power to recommend actions to the states, the Articles were incompetent. Law and recommendations could not be further enforced by Congress. Each state obtained its own form of a constitution, monetary system and method to enforce the laws. Each state committed strongly to the state laws and self interests rather than to the recommendations of Congress. America’s sense of unity began to plummet as regionalism pitted one state against another. For example, Rhode Island voted to reject Congress’s recommendation of an impost on imported goods because its leaders felt the idea objected the state’s constitution. (Document A) ... ...ct to gain the use of the Mississippi, and it could only negotiate a treaty with Spain, but it was ineffective. During this â€Å"Critical Period†, the Articles of Confederation failed to provide the United States with an effective and powerful government. The American sense of unification began to dissolve compared to the colonists’ attitudes during the Revolutionary War. The states were divided separately into one nation, rather than unified into one nation. Each state, with its own interests, currency, and government debilitated economic progression. Congress had no authority to enforce recommendations, or to unify the states. Without the presence of a president or national court system, it became impossible to make necessary changes within the nation. If this young nation was to survive, the Articles of Confederation needed to be altered or replaced. The Articles of Confederation Essay -- Governmental American History E The Articles of Confederation As the Revolutionary War came to a close, the Continental Congress introduced a new form of government as it instituted the Articles of Confederation. The articles established a democratic government that granted the states sufficient power to control their own laws and regulations. However, the Articles of Confederation were ineffective and, hence; they failed to provide a strong government. During this time in an American history, often known as the â€Å"Critical Period†, regionalism and anarchism began to expand as a result of the following reasons. The Continental Congress controlled public affairs, but the Articles of Confederation neglected to grant the Congress power to enforce laws or unify the States. Under the Articles, the United States lacked a solid monetary system to ensure that taxes would be paid and to protect commerce, both nationally and foreign trade. Also, without leading national figure, the strong unity America gained during the Revolutionary War began to diminish along with the nations overall strength. Being that Congress had only the power to recommend actions to the states, the Articles were incompetent. Law and recommendations could not be further enforced by Congress. Each state obtained its own form of a constitution, monetary system and method to enforce the laws. Each state committed strongly to the state laws and self interests rather than to the recommendations of Congress. America’s sense of unity began to plummet as regionalism pitted one state against another. For example, Rhode Island voted to reject Congress’s recommendation of an impost on imported goods because its leaders felt the idea objected the state’s constitution. (Document A) ... ...ct to gain the use of the Mississippi, and it could only negotiate a treaty with Spain, but it was ineffective. During this â€Å"Critical Period†, the Articles of Confederation failed to provide the United States with an effective and powerful government. The American sense of unification began to dissolve compared to the colonists’ attitudes during the Revolutionary War. The states were divided separately into one nation, rather than unified into one nation. Each state, with its own interests, currency, and government debilitated economic progression. Congress had no authority to enforce recommendations, or to unify the states. Without the presence of a president or national court system, it became impossible to make necessary changes within the nation. If this young nation was to survive, the Articles of Confederation needed to be altered or replaced.

DVD Technology Essay

It is truly a fact that we are living in this modern world which all technologies are advanced and improved. One of these technologies is in the DVD technology. Before, we normally used CDs as main novelty to the PC’s world but now, DVD is more used and preferred by multitudes of masses due to its admirable features which the CD doesn’t have. DVD was formerly represented as Digital Video Disc but then changed into Digital Versatile Disc and is considered as the next generation of the optical disc storage technology which is predicted and awaited to quickly substitute the CD-ROM disc along with audio compact disc around the following several years. DVD contains 4. 7 information’s gigabytes on one of its both sides or sufficient for a 133-minute movie. Having two layers on every of its both sides, it will keep up to 17 gigabytes of audio, video and other data. DVD-Video is the typical term for the DVD format designed for full-length motion pictures and which will drive with our television set. The DVD-ROM keeps computer information and is read through a DVD-ROM drive which is connected to a computer, the DVD-RAM is the writeable version while the DVD-Audio is a player which is designed to substitute our compact disc player (see Bellis, Mary. â€Å"DVD†. http://inventors. about. com/library/inventors/bldvd. htm). A DVD with correctly structured and formatted video substance is a DVD-Video. The DVDs with correct structured and formatted audio are termed as DVD-Audio discs. And everything as well is named as a DVD-Data disc as well as the other types of DVD discs which have video (Wikipedia, free encyclopedia. August 27, 2006). The purposes of this study are to: (1) know the history of DVD technology; and (2) be acquainted with its useful features and its functions; and how it is being distinct from CD. History The invention of DVD was all started in early of 1990s which two high-density optical storage standards were being technology advanced: the first one was the MultiMedia Compact Disc which was supported by Sony and Philips; and the second one was the Super Density disc which was approved and accepted by Time-Warner, Hitachi, Pioneer, JVC, Mitsubishi Electric, Toshiba, Thomson, and Matsushita Electric. The IBM president named Lou Gertsner has exerted an effort to join and bring together the two companies to back up solitary standard, getting ahead a repeat of the expensive and inflated format war amongst Betamax and VHS in 1980s (Wikipedia, free encyclopedia. August 27, 2006). In 1994 of May, Philips and Sony promulgated that they would be willingly and jointly develop a newfangled high-density medium popularly known as Digital Video Disc or DVD. This new technology was considered as the successor to compact discs or CD-ROM for computers and substitute laserdiscs and VHS tapes in the amusement industry. Just like a CD, DVD discs have similar diameter-about 120mm and thickness is about 1. 2 mm- just as Compact disc has but DVD is more advance and useful due to its capability to use both discs’ sides for data storage. The large video games which need and require a number of CDs would merely necessitate only one DVD disc. Later on, newfangled technology’s development instantaneously induced dilemmas of a political nature. The Warner Home Entertainment and Toshiba declared their own project to work out the same but yet precisely distinct from DVD technology at the same time. Associations like the Hollywood Digital Video Disc Advisory Group had a sensible and rational interest in this technology’s development. Movie suppliers started to stir up disagreements and controversies which concern the essential of copy protections in the DVD requirement and description. But then, Sony was the first to display its DVD technology. In 1995, John Eargle explained and illustrated the presentation which was conducted at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show. In his writings entitled â€Å"The Great DVD debate† stated that: â€Å"its color and sharpness was more than a match for the Laserdisc â€Å". But Eargle’s attention was on the technological requirements which had been formally and legitimately promulgated in December of the same year. The DVD’s intensification and enlargement data density was credited to a laser of a color advanced in the light spectrum and a technology that were being technologically advanced with 3M which permit the laser to be focus again to one second â€Å"layer† in the disc. It has a double-layer disc which amplifies the volume and dimensions to 7. 4 gigabytes. Throughout the spring of 1995, the disagreement of both developers had been stimulated through Toshiba’s personal growth and advancement of a two-layer disc named as SD or Super density (Chapin, R. â€Å"History of DVD†). DVD recordable and rewritable DVD recordable and DVD rewritable denote to DVD optical disc formats which can be â€Å"burned† either rewritable or write once format. DVD recordable is an overall name which denotes to both rewritable and writes-once formats, while DVD writable denotes solely to rewritable formats. The DVD promoted and marketed as 4. 7 GB might seem to keep not more than that for the reason that manufacturers quote the volume of a writable DVD disc utilizing decimal prefixes instead of the binary prefixes utilized by number of software. On the other hand, a 4. 7 GB DVD can be able to accumulate 4. 7 billion bytes, utilizing the binary prefixes which has similar capacity is approximately 4. 38 GiB (Wikipedia, free encyclopedia. August 18, 2006). Dual Layer Recording Dual Layer recoding permits DVD-R and DVD+R discs to accumulate and put in storage extensively more info or data which is capable of 8. 5 Gigabytes per disc, when contrasted with 4. 7 Gigabytes designed for single-layer discs. The DVD-R DL or â€Å"dual layer† was technologically advanced for the DVD Forum by the Pioneer Corporation while the DVD+R DL or â€Å"dual layer† was technologically advanced intended for the DVD+RW Alliance by Sony. Below are the two figures of DVD-R DL and DVD+R DL (Wikipedia, free encyclopedia. August 28, 2006). Figure of DVD-R DL Double Layer DVD+R Its Restrictions The DVD-Video includes four corresponding systems designed to limit and constraint the DVD user in a variety of procedures and these are the Content Scrambling System, Region codes, disabled user operations (UOP) and Macrovision. *Content Scrambling System* > It is a Digital Rights Management or DRM plan make used on various DVDs. It make uses a weak, proprietary 40 bit stream cipher algorithm which has successively been compromised. It was in 1996 that the system was presented and established (wikipedia, free encyclopedia. August 26, 2006). *Region Codes* > it is the programming practice, chip, physical barrier, or code which is make used to stop or block the playing media designed for a device which comes from a place where it is introduced and distributed on the version of similar device distributed in another place. It is a kind of a form of vendor lock-in (Wikipedia, free encyclopedia. August 26, 2006). *Disabled User Operations* > DVD-Video permits the disc to identify or indicate whether or not the handler may carry out any operation like skipping chapters, rewinding or forwarding, selecting a menu which is fundamentally any function on the remote control. This system is named as Prohibited User Operations or User Operation Prohibitions. *Macrovision* > It is a company which makes electronic prevention plans and was established in 1963. The term is occasionally used to denote to specific video copy prevention plans which were technologically advanced by the company. Its features Some of the DVDs main features are: (1) copy protection built into standard; (2) DVD-ROM for improved multimedia and games applications; (3) every format uses a common file system; (4) DVD-Audio for advanced quality music, graphics and other features and surround sound and optical video and many others; (5) Backwards compatibility with current CD media and many others (see DVD (Digital Versatile Disk)†. http://www. usbyte. com/common/dvd. htm#Introduction). Hence, DVD it is widely used now globally. ______________________________________________________________________________ References: 1. Bellis, Mary. â€Å"DVD†. http://inventors. about. com/library/inventors/bldvd. htm) 2. †DVD†. August 28, 2006. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/DVD 3. Chapin, R. â€Å"History of DVD†. http://www. miqrogroove. com/writing/History%20of%20DVD. html 4. â€Å"DVD recordable†. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. August 18, 2006http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/DVD_recordable 5. â€Å"Content Scramble System†. August 26, 2006. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Content_Scrambling_System 6. â€Å"DVD (Digital Versatile Disk)†. http://www. usbyte. com/common/dvd. htm#Introduction

Bag of Bones CHAPTER THIRTEEN

I caught the measles when I was eight, and I was very ill. ‘I thought you were going to die,' my father told me once, and he was not a man given to exaggeration. He told me about how he and my mother had dunked me in a tub of cold water one night, both of them at least half-convinced the shock of it would stop my heart, but both of them completely convinced that I'd burn up before their eyes if they didn't do something. I had begun to speak in a loud, monotonously discursive voice about the bright figures I saw in the room angels come to bear me away, my terrified mother was sure and the last time my father took my temperature before the cold plunge, he said that the mercury on the old Johnson & Johnson rectal thermometer had stood at a hundred and six degrees. After that, he said, he didn't dare take it anymore. I don't remember any bright figures, but I remember a strange period of time that was like being in a funhouse corridor where several different movies were showing at once. The world grew elastic, bulging in places where it had never bulged before, wavering in places where it had always been solid. People most of them seeming impossibly talldarted in and out of my room on scissoring, cartoonish legs. Their words all came out booming, with instant echoes. Someone shook a pair of baby-shoes in my face. I seem to remember my brother, Siddy, sticking his hand into his shirt and making repeated arm-fart noises. Continuity broke down. Everything came in segments, weird wieners on a poison string. In the years between then and the summer I returned to Sara Laughs, I had the usual sicknesses, infections, and insults to the body, but never anything like that feverish interlude when I was eight. I never expected to believing, I suppose, that such experiences are unique to children, people with malaria, or maybe those suffering catastrophic mental breakdowns. But on the night of July seventh and the morning of July eighth, I lived through a period of time remarkably like that childhood delirium. Dreaming, waking, moving they were all one. I'll tell you as best I can, but nothing I say can convey the strangeness of that experience. It was as if I had found a secret passage hidden just beyond the wall of the world and went crawling along it. First there was music. Not Dixieland, because there were no horns, but like Dixieland. A primitive, reeling kind of bebop. Three or four acoustic guitars, a harmonica, a stand-up bass (or maybe a pair). Behind all of this was a hard, happy drumming that didn't sound as if it was coming from a real drum; it sounded as if someone with a lot of percussive talent was whopping on a bunch of boxes. Then a woman's voice joined in a contralto voice, not quite mannish, roughing over the high notes. It was laughing and urgent and ominous all at the same time, and I knew at once that I was hearing Sara Tidwell, who had never cut a record in her life. I was hearing Sara Laughs, and man, she was rocking. ‘You know we're going back to MANderley, We're gonna dance on the SANderley, I'm gonna sing with the BANderley, We gonna ball all we CANderley Ball me, baby, yeah!' The basses yes, there were two broke out in a barnyard shuffle like the break in Elvis's version of ‘Baby Let's Play House,' and then there was a guitar solo: Son Tidwell playing that chickenscratch thing. Lights gleamed in the dark, and I thought of a song from the fifties Claudine Clark singing ‘Party Lights.' And here they were, Japanese lanterns hung from the trees above the path of railroad-tie steps leading from the house to the water. Party lights casting mystic circles of radiance in the dark: red blue and green. Behind me, Sara was singing the bridge to her Manderley song mama likes it nasty, mama likes it strong, mama likes to party all night long but it was fading. Sara and the Red-Top Boys had set up their bandstand in the driveway by the sound, about where George Footman had parked when he came to serve me with Max Devore's subpoena. I was descending toward the lake through circles of radiance, past party lights surrounded by soft-winged moths. One had found its way inside a lamp and it cast a monstrous, batlike shadow against the ribbed paper. The flower-boxes Jo had put beside the steps were full of night-blooming roses. In the light of the Japanese lanterns they looked blue. Now the band was only a faint murmur; I could hear Sara shouting out the lyric, laughing her way through it as though it were the funniest thing she'd ever heard, all that Manderley-sanderley-canderley stuff, but I could no longer make out the individual words. Much clearer was the lap of the lake against the rocks at the foot of the steps, the hollow clunk of the cannisters under the swimming float, and the cry of a loon drifting out of the darkness. Someone was standing on The Street to my right, at the edge of the lake. I couldn't see his face, but I could see the brown sportcoat and the tee-shirt he was wearing beneath it. The lapels cut off some of the letters of the message, so it looked like this: ORMA ER OUN I knew what it said anyway in dreams you almost always know, don't you? NORMAL SPERM COUNT, a Village Cafe yuck-it-up special if ever there was one. I was in the north bedroom dreaming all this, and here I woke up enough to know I was dreaming . . . except it was like waking into another dream, because Bunter's bell was ringing madly and there was someone standing in the hall. Mr. Normal Sperm Count? No, not him. The shadow-shape falling on the door wasn't quite human. It was slumped, the arms indistinct. I sat up into the silver shaking of the bell, clutching a loose puddle of sheet against my naked waist, sure it was the shroud-thing out there the shroud-thing had come out of its grave to get me. ‘Please don't,' I said in a dry and trembling voice. ‘Please don't, please.' The shadow on the door raised its arms. ‘It ain't nuthin but a barn-dance sugar!' Sara Tidwell's laughing, furious voice sang. ‘It ain't nuthin but a round-and-round!' I lay back down and pulled the sheet over my face in a childish act of denial . . . and there I stood on our little lick of beach, wearing just my undershorts. My feet were ankle-deep in the water. It was warm the way the lake gets by midsummer. My dim shadow was cast two ways, in one direction by the scantling moon which rode low above the water, in another by the Japanese lantern with the moth caught inside it. The man who'd been standing on the path was gone but he had left a plastic owl to mark his place. It stared at me with frozen, gold-ringed eyes. ‘Hey Irish!' I looked out at the swimming float. Jo stood there. She must have just climbed out of the water, because she was still dripping and her hair was plastered against her cheeks. She was wearing the two-piece swimsuit from the photo I'd found, gray with red piping. ‘It's been a long time, Irish what do you say?' ‘Say about what?' I called back, although I knew. ‘About this!' She put her hands over her breasts and squeezed. Water ran out between her fingers and trickled across her knuckles. ‘Come on, Irish,' she said from beside and above me, ‘come on, you bastard, let's go.' I felt her strip down the sheet, pulling it easily out of my sleep-numbed fingers. I shut my eyes, but she took my hand and placed it between her legs. As I found that velvety seam and began to stroke it open, she began to rub the back of my neck with her fingers. ‘You're not Jo,' I said. ‘Who are you?' But no one was there to answer. I was in the woods. It was dark, and on the lake the loons were crying. I was walking the path to Jo's studio. It wasn't a dream; I could feel the cool air against my skin and the occasional bite of a rock into my bare sole or heel. A mosquito buzzed around my ear and I waved it away. I was wearing Jockey shorts, and at every step they pulled against a huge and throbbing erection. ‘What the hell is this?' I asked as Jo's little barnboard studio loomed in the dark. I looked behind me and saw Sara on her hill, not the woman but the house, a long lodge jutting toward the nightbound lake. ‘What's happening to me?' ‘Everything's all right, Mike,' Jo said. She was standing on the float, watching as I swam toward her. She put her hands behind her neck like a calendar model, lifting her breasts more fully into the damp halter. As in the photo, I could see her nipples poking out the cloth. I was swimming in my underpants, and with the same huge erection. ‘Everything's all right, Mike,' Mattie said in the north bedroom, and I opened my eyes. She was sitting beside me on the bed, smooth and naked in the weak glow of the nightlight. Her hair was down, hanging to her shoulders. Her breasts were tiny, the size of teacups, but the nipples were large and distended. Between her legs, where my hand still lingered, was a powderpuff of blonde hair, smooth as down. Her body was wrapped in shadows like moth-wings, like rose-petals. There was something desperately attractive about her as she sat there she was like the prize you know you'll never win at the carny shooting gallery or the county fair ringtoss. The one they keep on the top shelf. She reached under the sheet and folded her fingers over the stretched material of my undershorts. Everything's all right, it ain't nuthin but a round-and-round, said the UFO voice as I climbed the steps to my wife's studio. I stooped, fished for the key from beneath the mat, and took it out. I climbed the ladder to the float, wet and dripping, preceded by my engorged sex is there anything, I wonder, so unintentionally comic as a sexually aroused man? Jo stood on the boards in her wet bathing suit. I pulled Mattie into bed with me. I opened the door to Jo's studio. All of these things happened at the same time, weaving in and out of each other like strands of some exotic rope or belt. The thing with Jo felt the most like a dream, the thing in the studio, me crossing the floor and looking down at my old green IBM, the least. Mattie in the north bedroom was somewhere in between. On the float Jo said, ‘Do what you want.' In the north bedroom Mattie said, ‘Do what you want.' In the studio, no one had to tell me anything. In there I knew exactly what I wanted. On the float I bent my head and put my mouth on one of Jo's breasts and sucked the cloth-covered nipple into my mouth. I tasted damp fabric and dank lake. She reached for me where I stuck out and I slapped her hand away. If she touched me I would come at once. I sucked, drinking back trickles of cotton-water, groping with my own hands, first caressing her ass and then yanking down the bottom half of her suit. I got it off her and she dropped to her knees. I did too, finally getting rid of my wet, clinging underpants and tossing them on top of her bikini panty. We faced each other that way, me naked, her almost. ‘Who was the guy at the game?' I panted. ‘Who was he, Jo?' ‘No one in particular, Irish. Just another bag of bones.' She laughed, then leaned back on her haunches and stared at me. Her navel was a tiny black cup. There was something queerly, attractively snakelike in her posture. ‘Everything down there is death,' she said, and pressed her cold palms and white, pruney fingers to my cheeks. She turned my head and then bent it so I was looking into the lake. Under the water I saw decomposing bodies slipping by, pulled by some deep current. Their wet eyes stared. Their fish-nibbled noses gaped. Their tongues lolled between white lips like tendrils of waterweed. Some of the dead trailed pallid balloons of jellyfish guts; some were little more than bone. Yet not even the sight of this floating charnel parade could divert me from what I wanted. I shrugged my head free of her hands, pushed her down on the boards, and finally cooled what was so hard and contentious, sinking it deep. Her moon-silvered eyes stared up at me, through me, and I saw that one pupil was larger than the other. That was how her eyes had looked on the TV monitor when I had identified her in the Derry County Morgue. She was dead. My wife was dead and I was fucking her corpse. Nor could even that realization stop me. ‘Who was he?' I cried at her, covering her cold flesh as it lay on the wet boards. ‘Who was he, Jo, for Christ's sake tell me who he was!' In the north bedroom I pulled Mattie on top of me, relishing the feel of those small breasts against my chest and the length of her entwining legs. Then I rolled her over on the far side of the bed. I felt her hand reaching for me, and slapped it away if she touched me where she meant to touch me, I would come in an instant. ‘Spread your legs, hurry,' I said, and she did. I closed my eyes, shutting out all other sensory input in favor of this. I pressed forward, then stopped. I made one little adjustment, pushing at my engorged penis with the side of my hand, then rolled my hips and slipped into her like a finger in a silk-lined glove. She looked up at me, wide-eyed, then put a hand on my cheek and turned my head. ‘Everything out there is death,' she said, as if only explaining the obvious. In the window I saw Fifth Avenue between Fiftieth and Sixtieth all those trendy shops, Bijan and Bally, Tiffany and Bergdorf's and Steuben Glass. And here came Harold Oblowski, north bound and swinging his pigskin briefcase (the one Jo and I had given him for Christmas the year before she died). Beside him, carrying a Barnes and Noble bag by the handles, was the bountiful, beauteous Nola, his secretary. Except her bounty was gone. This was a grinning, yellow-jawed skeleton in a Donna Karan suit and alligator pumps; scrawny, beringed bones instead of fingers gripped the bag-handles. Harold's teeth jutted in his usual agent's grin, now extended to the point of obscenity. His favorite suit, the doublebreasted charcoal-gray from Paul Stuart, flapped on him like a sail in a fresh breeze. All around them, on both sides of the street, walked the living dead mommy mummies leading baby corpses by the hands or wheeling them in expensive prams, zombie doormen, reanimated skateboarders. Here a tall black man with a last few strips of flesh hanging from his face like cured deer-hide walked his skeletal Alsatian. The cab-drivers were rotting to raga music. The faces looking down from the passing buses were skulls, each wearing its own version of Harold's grin Hey, how are ya, how's the wife, how's the kids, writing any good books lately? The peanut vendors were putrefying. Yet none of it could quench me. I was on fire. I slipped my hands under her buttocks, lifting her, biting at the sheet (the pattern, I saw with no surprise, was blue roses) until I pulled it free of the mattress to keep from biting her on the neck, the shoulder, the breasts, anywhere my teeth could reach. ‘Tell me who he was!' I shouted at her. ‘You know, I know you do!' My voice was so muffled by my mouthful of bed-linen that I doubted if anyone but me could have understood it. ‘Tell me, you bitch!' On the path between Jo's studio and the house I stood in the dark with the typewriter in my arms and that dream-spanning erection quivering below its metal bulk all that ready and nothing willing. Except maybe for the night breeze. Then I became aware I was no longer alone. The shroud-thing was behind me, called like the moths to the party lights. It laughed-a brazen, smoke-broken laugh that could belong to only one woman. I didn't see the hand that reached around my hip to grip me the typewriter was in the way but I didn't need to see it to know its color was brown. It squeezed, slowly tightening, the fingers wriggling. ‘What do you want to know, sugar?' she asked from behind me. Still laughing. Still teasing. ‘Do you really want to know at all? Do you want to know or do you want to feel?' ‘Oh, you're killing me!' I cried. The typewriter thirty or so pounds of IBM Selectric was shaking back and forth in my arms. I could feel my muscles twanging like guitar strings. ‘Do you want to know who he was, sugar? That nasty man?' ‘Just do me, you bitch!' I screamed. She laughed again that harsh laughter that was almost like a cough and squeezed me where the squeezing was best. ‘You hold still, now,' she said. ‘You hold still, pretty boy, ‘less you want me to take fright and yank this thing of yours right out by the . . . ‘ I lost the rest as the whole world exploded in an orgasm so deep and strong that I thought it would simply tear me apart. I snapped my head back like a man being hung and ejaculated looking up at the stars. I screamed I had to and on the lake, two loons screamed back. At the same time I was on the float. Jo was gone, but I could faintly hear the sound of the band -Sara and Sonny and the Red-Top Boys tearing through ‘Black Mountain Rag.' I sat up, dazed and spent, fucked hollow. I couldn't see the path leading up to the house, but I could discern its switchback course by the Japanese lanterns. My underpants lay beside me in a little wet heap. I picked them up and started to put them on, only because I didn't want to swim back to shore with them in my hand. I stopped with them stretched between my knees, looking at my fingers. They were slimed with decaying flesh. Puffing out from beneath several of the nails were clumps of torn-out hair. Corpsehair. ‘Oh Jesus,' I moaned. The strength went out of me. I flopped into wetness. I was in the north-wing bedroom. What I had landed in was hot, and at first I thought it was come. The dim glow of the nightlight showed darker stuff, however. Mattie was gone and the bed was full of blood. Lying in the middle of that soaking pool was something I at first glance took to be a clump of flesh or a piece of organ. I looked more closely and saw it was a stuffed animal, a black-furred object matted red with blood. I lay on my side looking at it, wanting to bolt out of the bed and flee from the room but unable to do it. My muscles were in a dead swoon. Who had I really been having sex with in this bed? And what had I done to her? In God's name, what? ‘I don't believe these lies,' I heard myself say, and as though it were an incantation, I was slapped back together. That isn't exactly what happened, bur it's the only way of saying that seems to come close to whatever did. There were three of me one on the float, one in the north bedroom, one on the path and each one felt that hard slap, as if the wind had grown a fist. There was rushing blackness, and in it the steady silver shaking of Bunter's bell. Then it faded, and I faded with it. For a little while I was nowhere at all. I came back to the casual chatter of birds on summer vacation and to that peculiar red darkness that means the sun is shining through your closed eyelids. My neck was stiff, my head was canted at a weird angle, my legs were folded awkwardly beneath me, and I was hot. I lifted my head with a wince, knowing even as I opened my eyes that I was no longer in bed, no longer on the swimming float, no longer on the path between the house and the studio. It was floorboards under me, hard and uncompromising. The light was dazzling. I squinched my eyes closed again and groaned like a man with a hangover. I eased them back open behind my cupped hands, gave them time to adjust, then cautiously uncovered them, sat all the way up, and looked around. I was in the upstairs hall, lying under the broken air conditioner. Mrs. Meserve's note still hung from it. Sitting outside my office door was the green IBM with a piece of paper rolled into it. I looked down at my feet and saw that they were dirty. Pine needles were stuck to my soles, and one toe was scratched. I got up, staggered a little (my right leg had gone to sleep), then braced a hand against the wall and stood steady. I looked down at myself. I was wearing the Jockeys I'd gone to bed in, and I didn't look as if I'd had an accident in them. I pulled out the waistband and peeked inside. My cock looked as it usually did; small and soft, curled up and asleep in its thatch of hair. If Noonan's Folly had been adventuring in the night, there was no sign of it now. ‘It sure felt like an adventure,' I croaked. I armed sweat off my forehead. It was stifling up here. ‘Not the kind I ever read about in The Hardy Boys, though.' Then I remembered the blood-soaked sheet in the north bedroom, and the stuffed animal lying on its side in the middle of it. There was no sense of relief attached to the memory, that thank-God-it-was-only-a-dream feeling you get after a particularly nasty nightmare. It felt as real as any of the things I'd experienced in my measles fever-delirium . . . and all those things had been real, just distorted by my overheated brain. I staggered to the stairs and limped down them, holding tight to the bannister in case my tingling leg should buckle. At the foot I looked dazedly around the living room, as if seeing it for the first time, and then limped down the north-wing corridor. The bedroom door was ajar and for a moment I couldn't bring myself to push it all the way open and go in. I was very badly scared, and my mind kept trying to replay an old episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, the one about the man who strangles his wife during an alcoholic blackout. He spends the whole half hour looking for her, and finally finds her in the pantry, bloated and open-eyed. Kyra Devore was the only kid of stuffed-animal age I'd met recently, but she had been sleeping peacefully under her cabbage-rose coverlet when I left her mother and headed home. It was stupid to think I had driven all the way back to Wasp Hill Road, probably wearing nothing but my Jockeys, that I had What? Raped the woman? Brought the child here? In my sleep? I got the typewriter, in my sleep, didn't I? It's sitting right upstairs in the goddam hallway. Big difference between going thirty yards through the woods and five miles down the road to I wasn't going to stand out here listening to those quarrelling voices in my head. If I wasn't crazy and I didn't think I was listening to those contentious assholes would probably send me there, and by the express. I reached out and pushed the bedroom door open. For a moment I actually saw a spreading octopus-pattern of blood soaking into the sheet, that's how real and focused my terror was. Then I closed my eyes tight, opened them, and looked again. The sheets were rumpled, the bottom one mostly pulled free. I could see the quilted satin hide of the mattress. One pillow lay on the far edge of the bed. The other was scrunched down at the foot. The throw rug a piece of Jo's work was askew, and my water-glass lay overturned on the nighttable. The bedroom looked as if it might have been the site of a brawl or an orgy, but not a murder. There was no blood and no little stuffed animal with black fur. I dropped to my knees and looked under the bed. Nothing there not even dust-kitties, thanks to Brenda Meserve. I looked at the ground-sheet again, first passing a hand over its rumpled topography, then pulling it back down and resecuring the elasticized corners. Great invention, those sheets; if women gave out the Medal of Freedom instead of a bunch of white politicians who never made a bed or washed a load of clothes in their lives, the guy who thought up fitted sheets would undoubtedly have gotten a piece of that tin by now. In a Rose Garden ceremony. With the sheet pulled taut, I looked again. No blood, not a single drop. There was no stiffening patch of semen, either. The former I hadn't really expected (or so I was already telling myself), but what about the latter? At the very least, I'd had the world's most creative wet-dream a triptych in which I had screwed two women and gotten a handjob from a third, all at the same time. I thought I had that morning-after feeling, too, the one you get when the previous night's sex has been of the headbusting variety. But if there had been fireworks, where was the burnt gunpowder? ‘In Jo's studio, most likely,' I told the empty, sunny room. ‘Or on the path between here and there. Just be glad you didn't leave it in Mattie Devore, bucko. An affair with a post-adolescent widow you don't need.' A part of me disagreed; a part of me thought Mattie Devore was exactly what I did need. But I hadn't had sex with her last night, any more than I had had sex with my dead wife out on the swimming float or gotten a handjob from Sara Tidwell. Now that I saw I hadn't killed a nice little kid either, my thoughts turned back to the typewriter. Why had I gotten it? Why bother? Oh man. What a silly question. My wife might have been keeping secrets from me, maybe even having an affair; there might be ghosts in the house; there might be a rich old man half a mile south who wanted to put a sharp stick into me and then break it off; there might be a few toys in my own humble attic, for that matter. But as I stood there in a bright shaft of sunlight, looking at my shadow on the far wall, only one thought seemed to matter: I had gone out to my wife's studio and gotten my old typewriter, and there was only one reason to do something like that. I went into the bathroom, wanting to get rid of the sweat on my body and the dirt on my feet before doing anything else. I reached for the shower-handle, then stopped. The tub was full of water. Either I had for some reason filled it during my sleepwalk . . . or something else had. I reached for the drain-lever, then stopped again, remembering that moment on the shoulder of Route 68 when my mouth had filled up with the taste of cold water. I realized I was waiting for it to happen again. When it didn't, I opened the bathtub drain to let out the standing water and started the shower. I could have brought the Selectric downstairs, perhaps even lugged it out onto the deck where there was a little breeze coming over the surface of the lake, but I didn't. I had brought it all the way to the door of my office, and my office was where I'd work . . . if I could work. I'd work in there even if the temperature beneath the roofpeak built to a hundred and twenty degrees . . . which, by three in the afternoon, it just might. The paper rolled into the machine was an old pink-carbon receipt from Click!, the photo shop in Castle Rock where Jo had bought her supplies when we were down here. I'd put it in so that the blank side faced the Courier type-ball. On it I had typed the names of my little harem, as if I had tried in some struggling way to report on my three-faceted dream even while it was going on: Jo Sara Mattie Jo Sara Mattie Mattie Mattie Sara Sara Jo Johanna Sara Jo MattieSaraJo. Below this, in lower case: normal sperm count sperm norm all's rosy I opened the office door, carried the typewriter in, and put it in its old place beneath the poster of Richard Nixon. I pulled the pink slip out of the roller, balled it up, and tossed it into the wastebasket. Then I picked up the Selectric's plug and stuck it in the baseboard socket. My heart was beating hard and fast, the way it had when I was thirteen and climbing the ladder to the high board at the Y-pool. I had climbed that ladder three times when I was twelve and then slunk back down it again; once I turned thirteen, there could be no chickening out I really had to do it. I thought I'd seen a fan hiding in the far corner of the closet, behind the box marked GADGETS. I started in that direction, then turned around again with a ragged little laugh. I'd had moments of confidence before, hadn't I? Yes. And then the iron bands had clamped around my chest. It would be stupid to get out the fan and then discover I had no business in this room after all. ‘Take it easy,' I said, ‘take it easy.' But I couldn't, no more than that narrow-chested boy in the ridiculous purple bathing suit had been able to take it easy when he walked to the end of the diving board, the pool so green below him, the upraised faces of the boys and girls in it so small, so small. I bent to one of the drawers on the right side of the desk and pulled so hard it came all the way out. I got my bare foot out of its landing zone just in time and barked a gust of loud, humorless laughter. There was half a ream of paper in the drawer. The edges had that faintly crispy look paper gets when it's been sitting for a long time. I no more than saw it before remembering I had brought my own supply stuff a good deal fresher than this. I left it where it was and put the drawer back in its hole. It took several tries to get it on its tracks; my hands were shaking. At last I sat down in my desk chair, hearing the same old creaks as it took my weight and the same old rumble of the casters as I rolled it forward, snugging my legs into the kneehole. Then I sat facing the keyboard, sweating hard, still remembering the high board at the Y, how springy it had been under my bare feet as I walked its length, remembering the echoing quality of the voices below me, remembering the smell of chlorine and the steady low throb of the air-exchangers: fwung-fwung-fwung-fwung, as if the water had its own secret heartbeat. I had stood at the end of the board wondering (and not for the first time!) if you could be paralyzed if you hit the water wrong. Probably not, but you could die of fear. There were documented cases of that in Ripley's Believe It or Not, which served me as science between the ages of eight and fourteen. Go on! Jo's voice cried. My version of her voice was usually calm and collected; this time it was shrill. Stop dithering and go on! I reached for the IBM's rocker-switch, now remembering the day I had dropped my Word Six program into the Powerbook's trash. Goodbye, old pal, I had thought. ‘Please let this work,' I said. ‘Please.' I lowered my hand and flicked the switch. The machine came on. The Courier ball did a preliminary twirl, like a ballet dancer standing in the wings, waiting to go on. I picked up a piece of paper, saw my sweaty fingers were leaving marks, and didn't care. I rolled it into the machine, centered it, then wrote Chapter One and waited for the storm to break.