A Sicilian Romance by Ann Radcliffe Essay

The happening takes place at the end of 16th century in Sicily, better in the Castle of Ferdinando Mazzini: â€Å"a man. His first wife, Louisa Bernini, died after giving him two daughters, Julia and Emilia, and a son, Ferdinand. After the death of his first wife, he committed the education of his daughter to Madame Menon and married Maria de Vellarno then he moves to Naples with her and his son while Julia and Emilia remained back at the Castle. The Castle was divided into two main parts and only one was lived by the two young girls, Madame de Menon and some servants. The south wing was left empty and there happed strange events, such as terrifying sounds and strange lights. As soon as Ferdinand’s birthday arrived the count of Mazzini decided to celebrate it within the Castle. Lots of people were invited to join the party; one of them was Hyppolito, count of Verona. Julia felt in love with him as soon as she saw him for the first time even him started to feel something strong for the girl. Also Maria de Vellano, who had already known Hyppolito in Naples, liked him so she tried in every way to separate the two young lovers. In the meantime strange facts continued to happed in the southern wing of the Castle. Julia and Emilia, whose bedrooms were next to this part of the castle, were scared by these terrifying sounds so Ferdinand decided to go and control what was going on. Afterwards he decided to talk to his father about the events and the count of Mazzini revealed him a secret concerning the Castle: there was a ghost that wandered in the south wing, a spirit that belongs to a killed persons. While Julia was falling deeper and deeper in love with Hyppolito, the count of Mazzini decided to led she to marry the Duke of Luano, because of his social class and economical position that was very well, and so in this way he could increase his prestige and his power. He proposed it to his daughter and when Julia refused he constructed her to do his will saying that if she didn’t marry the duke of Luano she would have to became nun. Julia, hopeless, decided to run away with Hyppolito to avoid her father will. While they were escaping from the castle, helped by Ferdinand, they were found and the count of Mazzini hit Hyppolito with his sword. Hyppolito pretended to die. Julia and Ferdinand were imprisoned in two different cage of the Castle. By now everything was ready for the marriage between Julia and the Duke of Luano but when the count of Mazzini went to say his daughter to prepare herself for the ceremony he couldn’t believe to his eyes when he found the room completely empty. Suddenly he sent some servants to look for her in the Castle surroundings, but she was vanished and they couldn’t be able to find her. However researches continued and one day a servant told the count of Mazzini to have found the young lady in a house in the middle of Marentino Forest. Immediately the Duke of Luano and his men rushed towards that place but they didn’t find Julia so they thought she could have run away from the house. During the following days the Duke of Luano deceived to see Julia and Hyppolito so, reached them, he laughs against the man. The man is recognised not as Hyppolito so the two people were set free. At the same time at the Castle Madame de Menon decided to leave the instruction of Emilia and to move to her family property in another area of Sicily. Madame de Menon during her trip across the region found a lady who she recognised as Julia, she has found a refuge in the house of a servant. The day after the two women continued their travel but they were soon stopped and taken prisoners by a group of men. They believed to have been caught by the Duke of Luano instead of by the men who had operated the capture. The women found another refuge in a monastery where they met the sister of Hyppolito, Cornelia. The abate informed the Count of Mazzini about his daughter and so he imposed to the abate himself to give him Julia without any conditions although he would have gone with his servants to the monastery and he would have forced her to follow him. The abate, jealous of his power, didn’t accept the proposal so the girl was safe for the moment.  Mazzini returned back to take his daughter but the abate threatened him to reveal his secret if he would have dared to force the monastery. At this, Mazzini said that he would have returned with many soldiers in order to enter into the monastery. Julia was called by the abate, during the night, to be informed about her chance to live free: accept to live in the monastery. The following day Julia received a visit of his brother Ferdinand who was escaped and who informed Julia that Hyppolito was alive, saved by a servant and moved to the coast. The two people decided to try the escape during the night. During the escape they were imprisoned another time but soon set free by the action of Hyppolito. However Ferdinand was not found yet and the couple decided to persist in their intention when they were surprised by the arrival of the Duke of Luano and his soldiers. Julia went into a cave while Hyppolito fought the Duke. Wandering in the cave Julia discovered a door which lead to the cave where her mother was (She was imprisoned 15 years ago by Mazzini); Julia decided to stay with the mother in the cave telling her about Ferdinand and Hyppolito. In the meantime Mazzini had found the infidelity of Maria and this fact made him very upset. Maria de Vellano desperate about being discovered by her husband decided to suicide. Ferdinand decided to return back to his Castle when a strong storm surprised him during the trip so he was constricted to search for a refuge in a small house where he found Julia, his mother and Hyppolito. A Sicilian Romance ::: Setting Events take place in Italy, precisely in Sicily according to the tradition of gothic novels. Sicily, with its layers of lava forming curious involutions and burning whole houses and villages, is the appropriate setting. For a story so concerned with the interpretation of inside and outside, and the permeable cave. The second half of the 18th century saw the increasing of English travellers going to the natural and artistic beauties of â€Å"Il Bel Paese†. There is an alternation of outdoor and indoor spaces and particularly the presence of subterranean settings, that couldn’t be completely included in the indoor sphere. An example could be the cave of Louisa’s incarceration that is a mediating position between nature (open space) and culure (the caste and generally the human expression). In fact the cave can be reached both from the castle and the natural landscape outside. In concomitance with the presence of subterranean locations there is also the presence of high spaces like mountains and hills. The intention of Ann Radcliffe is to create a link and mediation between high places and low ones along all the narration. In spite of detailed descriptions are frequent imprecision: locations are wrong situated, and big mistakes regards the topography of the places; an example can be the confusion between Alps and Apennines. A Sicilian Romance ::: Characters Characters are stereotyped: Julia, the lady persecuted by the villain, the Marquis of Mazzini (and the duke of Luano), the antihero, (Ferdinand and) Hyppolito. The role of the villain can be considered double, in fact in the novel could be traced two villains: Mazzini and the duke of Luano who helps him. Opposed to the villains there are the antiheroes: the Count of Vereza and Ferdinand the Second. The lady is the piece contended by the two parts of the history: the good and the bad respectively the antiheroes and the villains. The character are all flat because they didn’t change during the story. They are analyzed especially from their actions and their behavior. Apart frm Julia they aren’t analyzed physically. All the most important characters are nobles even if there are some servants who haven’t’ a great influence in the story.

The Indigo Spell Chapter Twenty-One

SOME PART OF ME BEGGED FOR there to be a mistake. I watched the footage three more times, tossing crazy theories around in my head. Maybe Master Jameson had a twin who wasn't a fanatic who hated vampires. No. The video didn't lie. Only the Alchemists did. I couldn't ignore this. I couldn't wait. I needed to resolve this immediately. If not sooner. I sent Marcus a text as soon as my plane was on the ground: We meet tonight. No games. No runaround. TONIGHT. There was no response from him by the time I got back to my dorm. What was he doing? Reading Catcher in the Rye again? If I'd known what dive he was holed up in, I would've marched over there right then. There was nothing I could do but wait, so I called Ms. Terwilliger both as a distraction and to buy some freedom. â€Å"Nothing to report,† she told me when she answered. â€Å"We're still just watching and waiting – although, your extra charm is almost complete.† â€Å"That's not why I'm calling,† I said. â€Å"I need you to get me a curfew extension tonight.† I felt bad using her for something totally unrelated, but I had to do this. â€Å"Oh? Are you paying me an unexpected visit?† â€Å"Er – no. This is for something else.† She clearly thought that was funny. â€Å"Now you use my assistance for personal matters?† â€Å"Don't you think I've earned it?† I countered. She laughed, something I hadn't heard from her in a while. She agreed to my request and promised to call the dorm's front desk right away. As soon as we hung up, my phone chimed with the expected message from Marcus. All the text contained was an address that was a half hour away. Assuming he was ready for me now, I grabbed my messenger bag and got on the road. In light of my past meetings with Marcus, I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd led me to a department store or karaoke bar. Instead, I arrived at a vintage music shop, the kind that sold vinyl records. A large CLOSED sign hung on the door, emphasized by dark windows and an empty parking lot. I got out of my car and double-checked the address, wondering if my GPS had led me astray. My earlier zeal gave way to nervousness. How careless was this? One of Wolfe's first lessons was to avoid sketchy situations, yet here I was, exposing myself. Then, from the shadows, I heard my name whispered. I turned toward the sound and saw Sabrina materialize out of the darkness, carrying a gun as usual. Maybe if I showed her the one in my glove compartment, we could have a bonding moment. â€Å"Go around back,† she said. â€Å"Knock on the door.† Without another word, she returned to the shadows. The back of the building looked like the kind of place that screamed mugging, and I wondered if Sabrina would come to my aid if needed. I knocked on the door, half expecting some kind of speakeasy situation where I'd be asked for a password like â€Å"rusted iguana.† Instead, Marcus opened the door, ready with one of those smiles he kept hoping would win me over. Strangely, tonight it put me at ease. â€Å"Hey, gorgeous, come on in.† I stepped past him and found we were in the store's back room, which was filled with tables, shelves, and boxes of records and cassette tapes. Wade and Amelia stood against a wall in mirrored stances, their arms crossed over their chests. Marcus shut the door behind me and locked it. â€Å"Glad to see you back in one piece. Judging from your text – and your face – you found something.† All the rage I'd been holding in since my discovery came bursting out. I retrieved my laptop from my bag and had to resist the urge to slam it against a table. â€Å"Yes! I can't believe it. You were right. Your insane, far-fetched theory was right. The Alchemists have been lying! Or, well, some of them. I don't know. Half of them don't know what the other half's doing.† I expected some smug remark from Marcus or at least an â€Å"I told you so.† But that handsome face was drawn and sad, reminding me of the picture I'd seen of him and Clarence. â€Å"Damn,† he said softly. â€Å"I was kind of hoping you'd come back with a bunch of boring video. Amelia, go swap with Sabrina. I want her to see this.† Amelia looked disappointed to be sent away, but she didn't hesitate to obey his order. By the time Sabrina came back in, I had the video cued up to the correct time. They gathered around me. â€Å"Ready?† I asked. They nodded, and I could see a mix of emotions in all of them. Here it was, the conspiracy theory they'd all been waiting to prove. At the same time, the implications were staggering, and the three of them were well aware of how dangerous what they were about to see could be. I played the video. It was only a few seconds long, but they were powerful ones as that bearded figure appeared on the screen. I heard an intake of breath from Sabrina. â€Å"It's him. Master Jameson.† She looked between all our faces. â€Å"That's really the Alchemist place? He's really there?† â€Å"Yes,† said Wade. â€Å"And that's Dale Hawthorne with him, one of the directors.† That triggered a memory. â€Å"I know that name. He's one of Stanton's peers, right?† â€Å"Pretty much.† â€Å"Is it possible she wouldn't know about a visit like this?† I asked. â€Å"Even at her level?† It was Marcus who answered. â€Å"Maybe. Although, walking him right in there – even to the secure level – is pretty ballsy. Even if she doesn't know about the meeting, it's a safe bet others do. If it were completely shady, Hawthorne would've met him off-site. Of course, the secure list means this wasn't out in the open either.† So, it was possible Stanton hadn't lied to me – well, at least not about the Alchemists being in contact with the Warriors. She'd certainly lied about the Alchemists knowing about Marcus since he'd said he was a notorious figure to most higher-ups. Even if she was ignorant about Master Jameson, it didn't change the fact that other Alchemists – important ones – were keeping some dangerous company. Maybe I didn't always like their procedures, but I'd desperately wanted to believe they were doing good in the world. Maybe they were. Maybe they weren't. I just didn't know anymore. When I dragged my eyes from the frozen frame of Master Jameson, I found Marcus watching me. â€Å"Are you ready?† he asked. â€Å"Ready for what?† He walked over to another table and returned with a small case. When he opened it, I saw a small vial of silver liquid and a syringe. â€Å"What is – oh.† Realization hit me. â€Å"That's the blood that'll break the tattoo.† He nodded. â€Å"Pulling the elements out creates a reaction that turns it silver. It takes a few years, but eventually, the gold in your skin will fade to silver too.† All of them were looking at me expectantly, and I took a step back. â€Å"I don't know if I'm ready for this.† â€Å"Why wait?† asked Marcus. He pointed at the laptop. â€Å"You've seen this. You know what they're capable of. Can you keep lying to yourself? Don't you want to go forward with your eyes open?† â€Å"Well . . . yes, but I don't know if I'm ready to have some strange substance injected into me.† Marcus filled the syringe with the silver liquid. â€Å"I can demonstrate on my tattoo if it'll make you feel better. It won't hurt me, and you can see that there aren't any dire side effects.† â€Å"We don't know for sure that they've done anything to me,† I protested. He had a logical argument, but I was still terrified of taking this step. I could feel my hands shaking. â€Å"This could be a waste. There may be no group loyalty compulsion in me.† â€Å"But you also don't know for sure,† he countered. â€Å"And there's always a little loyalty put in the initial tattoo. I mean, not enough to make you some slave robot, but still. Wouldn't you feel better knowing everything's gone?† I couldn't take my eyes off the needle. â€Å"Will I feel any different?† â€Å"No. Although you could walk up to someone on the street and start telling them about vampires.† I couldn't tell if he was joking or not. â€Å"Then you'd just get thrown into a psych ward.† Was I ready for this? Was I really going to take the next step into becoming part of Marcus's Merry Men? I'd passed his test – which he'd been right about. Clearly, this group wasn't useless. They had eyes on the Alchemists and the Warriors. They also seemingly had the Moroi's best interests at heart. The Moroi – or, more specifically, Jill. I hadn't forgotten Sabrina's offhand remark about the Warriors being interested in a missing girl. Who else could it be but Jill? And did this Hawthorne guy have access to her location? Had he passed it on to Master Jameson? And would this information put those around her at risk, like Adrian? They were questions I didn't have the answers to, but I had to uncover them. â€Å"Okay,† I said. â€Å"Do it.† Marcus didn't waste any time. I think he was afraid I'd change my mind – which, perhaps, was not an unfounded fear. I sat down in one of the chairs and tipped my head to the side so that he'd have access to my cheek. Wade gently held my head with his hands. â€Å"Just to make sure you stay still,† he told me apologetically Before Marcus started, I asked, â€Å"Where'd you learn to do this?† His face had been solemn with the task ahead, but my question made him smile again. â€Å"I'm not technically tattooing you, if that's what you're worried about,† he said. I was actually worried about a lot of things. â€Å"These are just some small injections, just like being re-inked.† â€Å"What about the process itself? How'd you find out about it?† It was probably a question I should have asked before I sat down in this chair. But I hadn't expected to be doing this so soon – or suddenly. â€Å"A Moroi friend of mine theorized about it. I volunteered to be a guinea pig, and it worked.† He switched to business mode again and held up the needle. â€Å"Ready?† I took a deep breath, feeling like I was standing on the edge of a precipice. Time to jump. â€Å"Go ahead.† It hurt about as much as re-inking did, just a number of small pricks on my skin. Uncomfortable, but not really painful. In truth, it wasn't a long process, but it felt like it took forever. All the while, I kept asking myself, What are you doing? What are you doing? At last, Marcus stepped back and regarded me with shining eyes. Sabrina and Wade smiled too. â€Å"There you go,† Marcus said. â€Å"Welcome to the ranks, Sydney.† I took my compact out of my purse to check the tattoo. My skin was pink from the needle's piercing, but if this process continued to be like re-inking, that irritation would fade soon. Otherwise, the lily looked unchanged. I also didn't feel that changed on the inside. I didn't want to storm the Alchemist facility and demand justice or anything like that. Taking him up on his dare to tell an outsider about vampires was probably my best bet to see if my tattoo had been altered, but I didn't really feel like doing that either. â€Å"That's it?† I asked. â€Å"That's it,† Marcus said. â€Å"Once we get it sealed, you won't have to worry about – â€Å" â€Å"I'm not getting it sealed.† All those smiles vanished. Marcus looked confused, as though he might have misheard. â€Å"You have to. We're going to Mexico next weekend. Once that's done, the Alchemists won't ever be able to get to you again.† â€Å"I'm not getting it sealed,† I repeated. â€Å"And I'm not going to Mexico.† I gestured toward my laptop. â€Å"Look what I was able to pull off! If I stay where I'm at, I can keep finding out more. I can find out what else the Alchemists and Warriors are doing together.† I can find out if Jill is in danger. â€Å"Getting permanently marked and becoming an outcast kills all those opportunities for me. There's no going back after that.† I think Marcus almost always got his way, and this new development totally threw him off. Wade took up the argument. â€Å"There's no going back now. You're leaving a trail of bread crumbs. Look at what you've done. You already made inquiries about Marcus. Even if you haven't gotten super-friendly with the Moroi, the Alchemists still know you spend a lot of time with them. And one day, someone may realize you were there when the data was stolen.† â€Å"No one knows it was stolen,† I said promptly. â€Å"You hope they don't,† corrected Wade. â€Å"These little things are enough to raise red flags. Keep doing more, and you'll make it worse. They'll finally notice you, and that's when it'll be over.† Marcus had recovered from his initial shock. â€Å"Exactly. Look, if you want to stay where you're at until we go to Mexico, that's fine. Make your peace with it or whatever. After that, you need to escape. We'll keep working from the outside.† â€Å"You can do whatever you want.† I began packing up my laptop. â€Å"I'm going to work from the inside.† Marcus caught hold of my arm. â€Å"You're setting yourself up for a fall, Sydney!† he said sternly. â€Å"You're going to get caught.† I pulled away from him. â€Å"I'll be careful.† â€Å"Everyone makes mistakes,† said Sabrina, speaking up for the first time in a while. â€Å"I'll take that risk.† I slung my bag over my shoulder. â€Å"Unless you guys are going to forcibly stop me?† None of them answered. â€Å"Then I'm going. I'm not afraid of the Alchemists. Thank you for everything you've done. I really do appreciate it.† â€Å"Thank you,† said Marcus at last. He shook his head at Wade, who looked like he wanted to protest. â€Å"For getting the data. I honestly didn't think you'd be able to pull it off. I figured you'd return empty-handed, though I still would've broken the tattoo for you. A for effort, you know. Instead, you just proved what I'd thought before: you're remarkable. We could really use you.† â€Å"Well, you know how to get in touch with me.† â€Å"And you know how to get in touch with us,† he said. â€Å"We'll be here all week if you change your mind.† I opened the door. â€Å"I won't. I'm not running away.† Amelia called goodbye to me when I got into my car, oblivious to the fact that I'd just defied her beloved leader. As I drove back to Amberwood, I was amazed at how free I felt – and it had nothing to do with the tattoo. It was the knowledge that I had defied everyone – the Alchemists, the Warriors, the Merry Men. I didn't answer to anyone, no matter the cause. I was my own person, able to take my own actions. It wasn't something I had a lot of experience with. And I was about to do something drastic. I hadn't told Marcus and the gang because I'd been afraid they really would stop me. When I got back to Amberwood, I went straight to my room and dialed Stanton. She answered on the first ring, which I took as a divine sign that I was doing the right thing. â€Å"Miss Sage, this is unexpected. Did you enjoy the services?† â€Å"Yes,† I said. â€Å"They were very enlightening. But that's not why I'm calling. We have a situation. The Warriors of Light are looking for Jill.† I wasn't going to waste any time. â€Å"Why on earth would they do that?† She sounded legitimately surprised, but if there was one thing in all of this that I believed wholeheartedly, it was that the Alchemists were exceptional liars. â€Å"Because they know if Jill's whereabouts got out, it could throw the Moroi into chaos. Their focus is still on the Strigoi, but they wouldn't mind seeing thing go bad for the Moroi.† â€Å"I see.† I always wondered if she paused to gather her thoughts or if it was simply for effect. â€Å"And how exactly did you learn this?† â€Å"That guy I know who used to be with the Warriors. We're still friendly, and he's been having doubts about them. He mentioned hearing them talk about finding a missing girl that could cause all sorts of trouble.† Maybe it was wrong to drag Trey into this lie, but I seriously doubted Stanton would interrogate him anytime soon. â€Å"And you assume this is Miss Dragomir?† â€Å"Come on,† I exclaimed. â€Å"Who else would it be? Do you know any other Moroi girls? Of course it's her!† â€Å"Calm down, Miss Sage.† Her voice was flat and untroubled. â€Å"There's no need for theatrics.† â€Å"There's a need for action! If they might be on to her, then we need to get out of Palm Springs immediately.† â€Å"That,† she said crisply, â€Å"is not an option. A lot of planning went into getting her to her current location.† I didn't believe that argument for a second. Half our job was doing damage control and adapting to rapidly changing situations. â€Å"Yeah? Well, did you also plan on those psycho vampire hunters finding her?† Stanton ignored the jab. â€Å"Do you have any evidence at all that the Warriors actually have concrete data about her? Did your friend supply you with details?† â€Å"No,† I admitted. â€Å"But we still need to do something.† â€Å"There's no ‘we' here.† Her voice had gone from flat to icy. â€Å"You do not decide what we do.† I nearly protested and then caught myself. Horror set in. What had I just done? My initial intent had been to either get Stanton to take legitimate action or else find out if she might accidentally reveal knowledge of a Warrior connection. I'd thought mentioning Trey would give me valid backup since I could hardly tell her the real reason I feared for Jill. Yet, somehow, I'd gone from a request to a demand. I'd practically yelled an order at her. That wasn't typical Sydney behavior. That wasn't typical Alchemist behavior. What had Wade said? You're leaving a trail of bread crumbs. Was this because I'd broken the tattoo? This was no crumb. This was a full loaf. I was on the verge of insubordination, and my mind could suddenly imagine that list Marcus kept warning about, the one that kept track of every suspicious thing I did. Was Stanton already updating that list right now? I had to fix this, but how? How on earth did I take this back? My mind was racing frantically, and it took several moments for me to calm down and start thinking logically. The mission. Focus on the mission. Stanton would understand that. â€Å"I'm sorry, ma'am,† I said at last. Be calm. Be deferential. â€Å"I'm just . . . I'm just so worried about this mission. I saw my dad at the services, you know.† That would be a fact she could check on. â€Å"You had to have seen how it was that night I left. How bad things are between us. I . . . I have to make him proud. If things fall apart here, he'll never forgive me.† She didn't respond, so I prayed that meant she was listening intently . . . and believing me. â€Å"I want to do a good job here. I want to fulfill our goals and keep Jill hidden. But there have already been so many complications no one predicted – first Keith and then the Warriors. I just never feel like she's fully safe now, even with Eddie and Angeline. It eats at me. And – † I was no actress who could muster tears, but I did my best to make my voice crack. â€Å"And I never feel safe. I told you, when I asked to go to the services, how overwhelming it is with the Moroi. They're everywhere – and the dhampirs too. I eat with them. I'm in class with them. Being with other Alchemists this last weekend was a lifesaver. I mean, I'm not trying to dodge my duties, ma'am. I understand we have to make sacrifices. And I've gotten better around them, but sometimes the stress is just unbearable – and then when I heard this thing about the Warriors, I cracked. All I could think about was that I might fail. I'm sorry, ma'am. I shouldn't have flipped o ut on you. I was out of control, and it was unacceptable.† I cut off my rant and tensed as I waited for her response. Hopefully I'd given her enough to dismiss any thoughts of me being a dissident. Of course, I might have just come off as a totally weak and unstable Alchemist who needed to be pulled from this mission. If that happened . . . well, maybe I'd have to take Marcus up on Mexico. Her characteristic pause was especially painful this time. â€Å"I see,† she said. â€Å"Well, I'll take this all into consideration. This mission is of the utmost importance, believe me. My earlier questioning of your information was not some weakening of our resolve. Your concerns have been heard, and I will decide the best course of action.† It wasn't exactly what I wanted, but hopefully she would be true to her word. I really, really wanted to believe she was on the up-and-up. â€Å"Thank you, ma'am.† â€Å"Is there anything else, Miss Sage?† â€Å"No, ma'am. And . . . and I'm sorry ma'am.† â€Å"Your apology is noted.† Click. I'd paced while I'd talked and now stood staring at the phone. A gut instinct told me I really had driven Stanton to take some sort of action. The mystery was whether that action would prove beneficial or catastrophic for me. Falling asleep was difficult after that, and it had nothing to do with Veronica for a change. I was too keyed up, too anxious about what had happened with Marcus and Stanton. I tried to seize that feeling of freedom again, using it to strengthen me. It was only a spark this time, flickering with my new uncertainties, but it was better than nothing. I fell asleep sometime around three. I had a vague sense of a couple hours passing before I was swept into one of Adrian's dreams, back in the reception hall. â€Å"Finally,† he said. â€Å"I almost gave up checking in. I thought you were going to pull an all-nighter.† He'd stopped wearing his suit in these dreams, probably because I always showed up in jeans. Tonight he wore jeans also, along with a plain black T-shirt. â€Å"Me too.† I wrung my hands and began pacing here as well. The nervous energy from my waking self had carried over into the dream. â€Å"A lot of stuff's kind of happened tonight.† The dream felt real, solid. Adrian was sober. â€Å"Didn't you just get back? How much could've happened?† When I told him, he shook his head in amazement. â€Å"Man, Sage. It's all or nothing with you. Never a dull moment.† I came to a halt in front of him and leaned against a table. â€Å"I know, I know. Do you think I just made a huge mistake? God, maybe Marcus was right, and there was some compulsion forcing me to be loyal in the tattoo. I'm free for one hour and completely go over the edge with my superior.† â€Å"It sounds like you covered your tracks,† he said, though a small frown appeared on his face. â€Å"But I would be disappointed if they sent you somewhere less stressful. That seems like it might be the worst-case scenario from everything you said.† I started laughing, but it was the hysterical kind. â€Å"What in the world's happened to me? I was doing crazy stuff way before Marcus broke the tattoo tonight. Meeting with rebels, chasing evil sorceresses, even buying that dress! Yelling at Stanton is just one more thing on a long list of insanity. It's just like I said at Pies and Stuff: I don't know who I am anymore.† Adrian smiled and clasped my hands, taking a few steps toward me. â€Å"Well, first off, I'm the expert in insanity, and this is nothing. And as for who you are, you're the same beautiful, brave, and ridiculously smart caffeinated fighter you've been since the day I met you.† Finally, he put â€Å"beautiful† at the top of his list of adjectives. Not that I should have cared. â€Å"Sweet talker,† I scoffed. â€Å"You didn't know anything about me the first time we met.† â€Å"I knew you were beautiful,† he said. â€Å"I just hoped for the rest.† He always got this glint in his eyes when he complimented my looks, like he was seeing so much more than just my actual appearance. It was disorienting and heady . . . but I didn't mind. And that wasn't the only thing I suddenly found overwhelming. How had he gotten so close to me without me even realizing it? It was like he had secret stealth abilities. His hands were warm on mine, our fingers locked together. I still had remnants of that earlier joy within me, and being connected to him amplified those feelings. The green of his eyes was as lovely as usual, and I wondered if mine had the same effect on him. There was a little amber mixed with the brown that he had once said looked like gold. He's the only one who never tells me to do anything, I realized. Oh, sure, he asked me to do lots of things, often with cajoling and fast talking. But he made no demands on me, not like the Alchemists or Marcus. Even Jill and Angeline tended to preface their requests with, â€Å"You have to . . .† â€Å"Speaking of that dress,† he added, â€Å"I still haven't seen it.† I laughed softly. â€Å"You couldn't handle it.† He raised an eyebrow at that. â€Å"Is that a challenge, Sage? I can handle a lot.† â€Å"Not if our history is any indication. Each time I wear some moderately attractive dress, you lose it.† â€Å"That's not exactly true,† he said. â€Å"I lose it no matter what you're wearing. And that red dress was not ‘moderately attractive.' It was like a piece of heaven here on earth. A red, silky piece of heaven.† I should've rolled my eyes. I should've told him I wasn't here for his personal entertainment. But there was something in the way he was looking at me and something in the way I felt tonight that made me want to see his reaction. Breaking the tattoo hadn't affected anything between us, but it – and the deeds I'd done this weekend – had left me feeling bold. For the first time, I wanted to take a risk with him, despite my usual set of logical arguments. Besides, there was nothing dangerous in letting him look. I manipulated the dream the way he'd taught me. A few moments later, the lacy minidress replaced my jeans and blouse. I even summoned the heels, which bumped my height up. I was still nowhere near as tall as him, but the small boost brought our faces closer together. His eyes widened. Still holding my hands, he took a step back so that he could take in the whole look. There was almost something tangible to the way his gaze swept my body. I could practically feel every place it touched. By the time his eyes reached mine again, my breathing was heavy, and I was acutely aware that there really wasn't that much clothing between the two of us. Maybe there was something dangerous in letting him look after all. â€Å"A piece of heaven?† I managed to ask. He slowly shook his head. â€Å"No. The other place. The one I'm going to burn in for thinking what I'm thinking.† He'd moved toward me again. His hands released mine and moved to my waist, and I noticed I wasn't the only one breathing heavily. He pulled me to him, bringing our bodies together. The world was all heat and electricity, thick with tension that was only one spark away from exploding around us. I was balancing on another precipice, which wasn't easy to do in heels. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and this time I was the one who drew him closer. â€Å"Damn,† he murmured. â€Å"What?† I asked, never taking my eyes off his. He ran his hands over my hips. â€Å"I'm not supposed to kiss you.† â€Å"It's okay.† â€Å"What is?† â€Å"It's okay if I kiss you.† Adrian Ivashkov wasn't easy to surprise, but I surprised him then when I brought his mouth toward mine. I kissed him, and for a moment, he was too stunned to respond. That lasted for, oh, about a second. Then the intensity I'd come to know so well in him returned. He pushed me backward, lifting me so that I sat on the table. The tablecloth bunched up, knocking over some of the glasses. I heard what sounded like a china plate crash against the floor. Whatever logic and reason I normally possessed had melted away. There was nothing but flesh and fire left, and I wasn't going to lie to myself – at least not tonight. I wanted him. I arched my back, fully aware of how vulnerable that made me and that I was giving him an invitation. He accepted it and laid me back against the table, bringing his body down on top of mine. That crushing kiss of his moved from my mouth to the nape of my neck. He pushed down the edge of my dress and the bra strap underneath, exposing my shoulder and giving his lips more skin to conquer. A glass rolled off and smashed, soon followed by another. Adrian broke off his kissing, and I opened my eyes. He had an exasperated look on his face. â€Å"A table,† he said. â€Å"A goddamned table.† A few moments later, the table was gone. I was in his apartment, on his bed, and was glad that I no longer had silverware underneath me. With the venue change complete, his lips found mine again. The urgency in the way I responded surprised even me. I never would've thought myself capable of a feeling so primal, so removed from the reason that usually governed my actions. My nails dug into his back, and he trailed his lips down the edge of my chin, down the center of my neck. He kept going until he reached the bottom of the dress's V-neck. I let out a small gasp, and he kissed all around the neckline, just enough to tease. â€Å"Don't worry,† he murmured. â€Å"The dress stays on.† â€Å"Oh? Is that your decision to make?† â€Å"Yes,† he said. â€Å"You're not losing your virginity in a dream. If that's even possible. I don't want to deal with the philosophical side of it. And besides, there's no need to rush anyway. Sometimes it's worth lingering on the journey for a while before getting to the destination.† Metaphors. This was the cost of making out with an artist. I nearly said as much. Then his hand slid up my bare leg, and I was lost again. Maybe the dress was staying on, but he didn't mind taking liberties with it. That hand slipped under my dress, running along the side of my leg and up to my hip. I burned where he touched me, and everything within me became focused on that hand. It was moving far too slowly, and I grabbed it, ready to urge it on. Adrian chuckled and caught hold of my wrist, pulling my hand away and pinning it down against the covers. â€Å"Never thought I'd be the one slowing you down.† I opened my eyes and met his. â€Å"I'm a quick study.† All that burning and animal need within me must have shone through because he caught his breath and lost the smile. He released my wrist and cupped my face in his hands, bringing his face down only a whisper away from mine. â€Å"Good God, Sydney. You are – † The passion in his eyes turned to surprise, and he suddenly looked up. â€Å"What's wrong?† I asked, wondering if this was some weird part of â€Å"the journey.† He grimaced and began to fade away before my eyes. â€Å"You're being woken up.†

Reaction Paper Rizal’s Poems Essay

1. THROUGH EDUCATION OUR MOTHERLAND RECEIVES LIGHT The third stanza of the poem â€Å"Through Education our Motherland receives Light,† mentions about what education does to those who are under bad influences. Can education really make a change? In our generation, education can only be afforded by those who have money. How about those who can’t? I think this stanza does not apply anymore. There was a time when I caught one of the street children opening my backpack. I realized, how will education turn black crimes pale when those who commit these crimes cannot afford education? There are also those who educated themselves yet, still do deceitful doings at will. That’s why I have doubts in this stanza. Yes, it can change someone. It can produce teachers, engineers, accountants and managers but, it’s true power is somehow nulled by those who fail to give importance to it. Nowadays, people go to school for grades and to earn a degree, and not to learn living life with the right values and morals. 2. THE INTIMATE ALLIANCE BETWEEN RELIGION AND GOOD EDUCATION Written with conviction, the poem made me realize how education would be useless without religion. In the third stanza, the vessel struck by winds represents how a human journeys in a life full of challenges and difficulties. Though life continually goes on when you are educated, it is still like a helm deprived when religious teachings and guidance are not included. Life would be out of control with paths unclear and undecided. Some may even result to ending his or her life in unexpected circumstances. In an instance, a person may successfully earn a college degree, but when struggles come just like the strong winds of Tempestuous Boreas, he or she may not survive when the cruelty of life measures his or her dignity and strength to overcome these trials. One concrete example of that downfall is an act of suicidal.

Liberalism and Conservatism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Liberalism and Conservatism - Essay Example It calls for minimal change in the society. It is established that both ideologies oppose each other, while one calls for change and liberty, the other calls for traditionalism and minimum change. In essence liberalism states independence and growth. It covers the basic meaning of humanity and society. Though there have arisen different strands liberalism, the basic fundamentals of liberalism remain same. The liberal philosophy ignites individualism, egalitarianism, meliorism and universalism. Individualism asserts independence and self reliance while egalitarianism imparts political, social and civil equality among individuals. Meliorism and universalism both have common motives. That is to allow greater sociopolitical interaction. All these separate ideologies converge towards a few common postulates. These are equality and individual liberty, support of private property and individual rights, limited constitutional government and pluralism, toleration and autonomy. In history there have been various critiques on the liberal chain of thought. The most significant of which has been by the conservatives. They have argued that liberalism is in fact pursuit of progress and mate rial gain. This argument was further augmented by a Hungarian philosopher, Karl Polyani. Polyani attacked the liberal economic thought. He stated that human behavior is supported through social interactions not through greed and rational, which in fact drove the free markets (Hill). He also argued that the created free markets brought with it fictitious money. In his view the liberal economic system would ultimately bring with it artificial commodification of land, labour and capital. This would lead to the destruction of the society. The counter ideology is conservatism. It promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and structure. The ideology allows minimal and gradual change in society. As with liberalism, there are many different strands of

Terrorism in Southeast Asia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Terrorism in Southeast Asia - Essay Example In spite of that fact if US being the most powerful state on the planet up till now, as well as that US has its assertive role in the region, the regions and the countries that have been facing the terrorism have not exactly been backing the US in case of the terrorism. It is to be seen as to why that is he case. Now the case has changes to some extent as we shall see in the case of Indonesia (Capie 2004., pp 1-3). South East Asia has been having periodical episodes of terror campaign as well as the episodes of political violence. Both scenarios are related ad counted in the terrorism heading. The terrorist activities include the communists group that is based in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines. The activities are linked against the socialist regimes in these countries. In many cases, the terrorist activities have been directed against some states. As it happened in case of Christian anti-separatist groups in the southern Philippines who were opposing Muslim secessionists and militia groups in East Timor, Papua and various other parts of Indonesia. There have been some developments taking place after the war in Afghanistan in the era of 1980s. In this war, US supported mujahhedin guerillas fought against the soviet occupation forces. Since the 1980s, there have been changes in the face of the terrorist groups and the terrorism in the region (Manyin 2003., pp 12-17). Analysis The role of Afghans has been central to the development of the terrorist networks in south East Asia since many years. There are approximately 230 million Muslims in south East Asia, which is just the 20% of the total percentage of the Muslims in the whole world. This 20% of the Muslim population has moderate views about other religious groups. However, the extreme forms arose from other parts of the world including Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The terrorist groups in these areas were making an appeal to the people to join them. The appeal was strengthened and heightened when there was a recruitment process that went on to recruit the people to fight against the resistance forces of Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Many powerful leaders of the Islamic groups based in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia joined the terrorist groups and were trained, and they served in Afghanistan. After this recruitment stage, there was a boost in the Islamic resistance in Afghanistan on a large scale. This added a lot to the new changes in the face of the Southeast Asian Islamic separatism. The funding was also being gained from stronger movements that were based on an international level having strong financial backgrounds. The role of socio economic factors The socio economic status has further added to the activities of the fundamental Islamic groups in Southeast Asia. All the Islamic movements need to have autonomy. Nevertheless, their mission of gaining autonomy has been under resistance. The resistance has been shown by many central governments. Alternatively, in some cases, the autonomy has been gained but it has been used or implemented in an ineffective way as in the case of southern Philippines. The madrasaas The world saw Asia drown in the financial crisis in the year 1997. Since than there has bean a pressure on the regional

American Religious groups and History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

American Religious groups and History - Essay Example Religion has played a vital role in the establishment of major universities and learning centers such as the Harvard, Princeton, Williams, and Yale among others. Different regions of the country have different representations of the religious groups with the rural consisting of few Catholics except some areas such as Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. Most of the Catholics are in the urban areas such as the Great Lakes and the industrial and mining regions. Judaism is also a religious group in America and is the second largest after and Frank y. Many of the people prophesying Judaism faith are Jews and their descendants and have existed since the 17th Century. Islam takes the third position in America although it just represents a 0.9 percent of the entire population. The other religious groups include the Rastafarianism, Baha’i among others. There are people who do not profess affiliation to any religion and are associated with Atheism, Agnosticism, and Humanism. This population i s increasing at a high rate although they are associated with materialism, criminal behavior, and cultural elitism. America is, therefore, experiencing an increase in religious groups and increase in those who profess no religion. During the period of religious movement in America, the great awakening led to divisions among the denominations such as Baptists, Methodists, and the Presbyterians. Although the first American Protestant Mission was in 1820 in Hawaii, most of the triumphalism happened in the 1960s.

Staff Training and Prevention of Violence in mental Health Care Units Research Paper

Staff Training and Prevention of Violence in mental Health Care Units - Research Paper Example This research will begin with the statement that the growing number of violence in the health care industry has evoked a variety of responses and those health care professionals who work in mental health care units are most vulnerable to workplace violence. There are a large number of studies that focus on the physical assault or verbal violence shown towards mental healthcare workers including nurses, physicians, psychologists and social workers. These studies emphasize the growing need to implement effective strategies to prevent and manage violence and aggression in the mental healthcare setting. While there have been many strategies implemented to manage and prevent violence in the mental health care units, the significance of effective staff education and training has been stressed by many researchers. However, there have not been many authentic studies that unearthed how far staff training contributes to the prevention of violence in the mental health care industry. In this res pect, the U.S. Department of Labor identifies â€Å"lack of staff training in recognizing and managing escalating hostile and assaultive behavior† as a crippling factor in preventing violence in acute health care units. There are also studies that have highlighted the need to offer staff in-service training to the mental health care professionals. The growing statistics on violence towards the health care professionals in mental and psychiatric units is quite alarming and shocking. In this respect, Adams and Whittington (1995) conducted a remarkable study among a sample group of hospital based nurses and community mental health nurses. The results of the study showed that 29% of the target population experienced verbal aggression over a 10 week period; 44% of the incidents involved threats and the rest consisted of abuses (Adams & Whittington, 1995, p. 171). These shocking statistics point towards the need to offer timely staff training to the mental health care professionals . Duxbury and Whittington (2005) have successfully brought out the staff and patient perspectives on violence in mental and psychiatric health care units. The researchers undertook a survey among a sample of 80 patients and 82 health care professionals (3 ward managers, 10 charge nurses, 35 staff nurses and 32 nursing assistants) from three inpatient mental healthcare wards. The mental illnesses of the patients varied from chronic schizophrenia to depressive disorders. The results of the study showed that the patients regarded ‘environmental conditions and poor communication’ as the two significant factors behind aggressive behavior whereas the nurses identified that the patients’ mental illness was the root cause for the violence; however, both the groups were thoroughly dissatisfied with the ‘restrictive and under-resourced provision that leads to interpersonal tensions’ (Duxbury & Whittington, 2005, p. 469). The study also showed that both the pat ients as well as the nurses were also dissatisfied with the way violence and aggression has been managed. The researchers identified staff training in the use of fundamental therapeutic communication skills as the potential solution to this interpersonal tension. The adverse effects of patient violence on the mental health care workers are many and varied. Patient violence on mental health care professionals not only leads to staff sickness and absenteeism but also to various psychological and mental distresses. Whatever may be the underlying causes for violence, â€Å"a major consequence for individuals affected directly or indirectly by violence is often psychological pain, whether depression, anxiety, isolation, trauma or other reactions

To what extent would you agree with the view that the protagonist of Essay

To what extent would you agree with the view that the protagonist of Poe's stories is language itself, and the structure of the tale is its hero discuss with r - Essay Example This internal battle causes Wilson to go insane and eventually attempt to murder a man who looks and acts just like him because he believes that this will reacquire his identity for him. Each of these stories has a protagonist that can be representative of language as a whole because each of them is battling against other forces who are trying to regulate their language. Dupin does not wish to be bound by the conventional rules of investigation, just like many do not like to be bound by the conventional rules of language, so he becomes an innovator in his field, which leads to him solving the crime. Wilson, on the other hand, believes that his own person language is being threatened and so he acts violently in order to protect it. Each of these characters represent language because language, while constantly evolving, must also be protected from external factors, otherwise we will all eventually end up speaking and writing exactly alike. In the story ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue,’ by Edgar Allan Poe, the protagonist is an expert detective named C Auguste Dupin. Poe is often credited with creating the genre of detective fiction that is present today, as he â€Å"introduced three common motifs of detective fiction: the wrongly suspected man, the crime in the locked room, and the solution by unexpected means. Dupin solved the crime by reading the evidence better than the police did and by noticing clues that they had neglected, thus highlighting the importance of inference and observation†1. This story’s use of language focuses on both Dupin and the narrator, who is an overly sympathetic figure and does not believe that Dupin can do any wrong. Dupin forms the plot of this story around his belief that the Paris police department has not done all that it can do to solve this crime. He uses his power of observation to recognize clues at the crime scene

Outputs of Nadler-Tushman Model Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Outputs of Nadler-Tushman Model - Research Paper Example The research paper "Outputs of Nadler-Tushman Model" overviews the various outputs of organizations and the ways in which they interact cohesively, in an endeavor to realize the firms’ set objectives. The outputs of an organization fall under three key categories. These include the individual, group and organizational stages. Nadler-Tushman’s theory highlights the process in which various firms acquire and utilize inputs into various outputs. This is usually through a transformation process that serves as an intermediary between inputs and outputs. Besides, the outputs may also fall under the classifications of the work, the people, and the official and informal organizations. In addition, various firms may measure their output, and assess whether the firm is performing and achieving its set goals. As such, the firm knows its economic position and makes resolutions whether to implement change in various non-performing departments. Outputs may also pertain to the mode in which a firm creates products and services, and the efficiency of a firm’s productivity, in their endeavor to accrue revenue. According to Nadler and Tushman, all inputs ought to be applied cohesively, in order for them to change into outputs. Various factors may affect the output of an organization at the individual level. These may include the non-commitment of various individuals within the firm. For example, some individuals may feel unmotivated, and thereby behave in a way that drastically affects the performance and effectiveness of a firm. (Burke, 2010). This is usually through tardiness, non-attendance, among others that lead to low production output of the firm (Stonehouse & Campbell, 2004). As a result, firms ought to mull over ways that inspire workers, in an attempt to boost their ultimate performance. Besides, some non-performing employees ought to be laid aside, whereas the performing employees ought to receive recognition, in order to enhance their efficiency and productivity. Besides, interactions among diverse groups within a firm have a significant effect on the firm’s objective attainment (Stonehouse & Campbell, 2004). Various firms have experienced intergroup conflicts that have led to severe losses within the organizations (Burke, 2010). This might have resulted from uneven distribution of resources within the firm, and failure of management to recognize the performing departments within the organ

Conduct Apple SWOT analysis for deciding whether to investin in that Assignment

Conduct Apple SWOT analysis for deciding whether to investin in that company or not - Assignment Example Every business has its strengths and weakness. Apple is one such a company. Its origins are humble from the garage where the company’s founders, the two Steves worked on their inventions (O’Grady, 2009). The company has grown from those times to the large company that it is today. This article will, therefore, attempt to look into the company and come up with an analysis, to give the potential investor an idea about the company. This will then guide the potential investor towards making the decision on whether to invest in the company or not. One prominent, strength of a company is its ability to be innovative (Ferrell & Hartline, 2011). This allows the company to maintain a competitive edge over its rivals. The launch of the IPod, I pad and the App store has allowed APPLE to become successful. This was done through the product design, branding, strategic alliances and its business model. The APPLE Company’s leadership, for example, has ensured that its corporate governance has remained stable (Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2008); even with the demise of its iconic Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs. This was done by the appointment of Tim Cook who has a long history spanning around 13 years (Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2008). This, in effect, has served to stabilize the company and saved it the turmoil that comes with the search for a successor. Leadership has historically been one of the strong points of the company. In 1997, when the company was facing bankruptcy, it resulted in the hiring back Steve Jobs as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) who helped restore the company’s profitability (Schneiders, 2011). This was mainly through the CEO’s creation of NEXT, as well as, the film company Pixar. This created a platform on, which the company rode on to return to profitability, momentum that has remained to date. Strength of the company has also to do with its brand. The company’s resolve to change the product line, as well

Impact of Globalization Essay Example for Free

Impact of Globalization Essay It has gradually evolved from the 1970s after the advent of different forms of high speed transportation and communication to the age of information technologies around the millennium, to make a single unified community where all the major sources of various social conflicts have disappeared (Scheuerman, 2010 and World Regional Geography, 2009). There are several ways of defining Globalization. As defined by Dr. Nayef R. F. Al-Rodhan (2006), â€Å"Globalization is a process that encompasses the causes, course, and consequences of transnational and transcultural integration of human and non-human activities. The effects of Globalization are manifold. It influences industrial sector, financial sector, labour markets and consumers of a particular country. On one hand it gives rise to more jobs and industries, however, on the other hand, countries are becoming dependant on the other country for a specific product/raw material. Additionally, because of outsourcing jobs from developed economy are being transferred to the developing economy, which has a negative effect on the developed economy and positive on the developing economy. 2. 2 Consumer Packaged Goods and Globalization Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) are sold at relatively low price and are non durable goods like grocery items, soft drinks etc. Large CPG manufacturer has an advantage of strong brands, greater geographical coverage and having major retailers. CPG industry is affected by the change in fashion, fads and consumer preferences, which in turn effects the purchasing decision of a consumer. Therefore, I believe that in the fast and ever changing world of Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) it is imperative to discuss the effects of globalization on this industry. Additionally, there is immense pressure and intense competition between the manufacturers globally to fulfill the demand of consumers. 2. 0 Impact of Globalization on CPG Industry 3. 3 Costs and Benefits of Globalization on CPG Industry There are diverse ways in which globalization impinge on CPG industry. Some are beneficial for the industry and some aren’t. The good side of globalization is explained as follows: a. Profits from emerging markets: Procter and Gamble in year 2006, showed a total sales of US $ 68 billion, out of which US $ 21 billion was from emerging markets. Additionally, from 1992 to 2006, globalization has boosted the American economy by US $ one trillion in Gross Domestic Product (Veiders, 9th July 2007, Supermarket news). b. Consumer’s advantage: The consumer gets the advantage of choosing from wide variety of goods, in addition to the comparative advantage. Additionally, the offshore markets are producing goods at a price which is lower than the domestic production of a particular country. Though this is an advantage to the consumer, this could hamper production and associated profits in some countries (Oline Thompson, 2006, CPG Manufacturing) c. Foreign capital access: Foreign capital access is the main driving force of globalization. This in turn increases the investment power of a particular country to produce better produce economically (13th February, 1996, WTO News (press releases). The other side of globalization illustrates some problems faced by CPG Industry: a. Cultural disparity: A product that might be a necessity in one country might not be even known or used in the other, which would have a negative effect on the CPG industry while trying to encourage its use in a particular country. To cite a salient example, Brazilians usually don’t have breakfast, because they sleep late at night and consumers in China for breakfast eat hot, soft and savoury, while the North Americans love cold, crunchy and sweet breakfast. This was the difference analyzed by Kellogg Company in 2007 (Veiders, 9th July 2007, Supermarket news). b. Global Competition: In this fast paced environment any CPG company have to constantly innovate and differentiate their product, to maintain or increase their market share. Every year large number of new products are being roduced and capture the shelve space of the existing labels and compete with them.

Tootsie Roll Industries Inc. Loan Package Essay Example for Free

Tootsie Roll Industries Inc. Loan Package Essay Tootsie Roll Industries Inc. and its branches makes and sells candy including â€Å"Andes mints, Junior Mints, Charleston Chew, Mason Dots, Sugar Daddy, and the ever popular Tootsie Roll, which has been made from the same formula for over a 100 years† (Hoovers Academics, 2012) Tootsie Roll Industry’s customers include a wide variety of supermarkets, dollar stores, discount warehouse clubs, fund-raising charitable organizations, and the United States Military (Reuters, 2012). Team â€Å"A† studied various financial statements, such as the income statements, statements of cash flows and performed a ratio analysis to look at the Financial Condition of Tootsie Roll Industries. A ratio analysis helps explain the relations between the different statements to help manage the company’s opportunity for improvement when looking at each individual financial statement (Kimmel, Weygandt, Kieso, 2009). The financial review revealed that â€Å"product sales have decreased 2.8% from the previous year in the first quarter and cost of goods sold as a percentage of net sales increased from 64.3% to 67.1%† (Tootsie Roll Industries Inc. 10-Q, 2008). As a result of higher total costs from an increase on the costs of ingredients, packaging material costs, and the Canadian dollar foreign exchange rate Fair Value of financial assets of Tootsie Roll Industries (expressed in thousands) for fiscal year 2007 was reported at $73,928. The company has tried to reduce the use of raw materials by using derivative hedging instruments to reduce the market price exposure, to swings, and increase their net profit (Tootsie Roll Industries, Inc. Financial position, 2008). Tootsie Roll Industries Inc. affronts various risks in the market including the fluctuations in prices for the ingredients to make its’ candies and the cost of packaging and fuel for delivery of its products. The Canadian Dollar exchange rate increases the company’s total costs. The company needs to use Canadian dollars to buy a portion of raw and packaging materials as well as to pay for the company’s operating expenses in Canadian plants. Tootsie Roll Industries, Inc. limits its’ exposure to fluctuations in the markets interest rates by investing in and generally holding securities with a maturity rate of at least three years (Tootsie Roll Industries, Inc. 10-Q,  2008). After Team â€Å"A† reviewed the financial statements of Tootsie Roll Industries, Inc. the team members agreed to the decision that it would be advantageous to open a factory in the United States. This strategy will create job opportunities, and decrease the negative effect of th e foreign exchange rate that the company has been experiencing with the Canadian dollar. The decision of opening a new factory promotes good will in the United States with opportunities to expand the business. Tootsie Roll Industries, Inc. management and stockholders analyzed its financial statements to create the new action plan based on the company’s needs. The accountants and financial advisors completed a deep analysis of the company financial ratios, to identify, and compute the liquidity ratios to determine the company’s ability to repay the debt. The solvency ratios determine if the company will survive over a long term, and the profitability ratios predestine the operating success of the company. The profitability ratios, such as the profit margin ratio result very low 10.4% but still profitable, the debt to assets total ratio was 21. 5%, and with the new loan will increase to 31.5% which is still good for such a large company and the times interest earn ratio increased 5.2 times slightly improving the company’s solvency. The current ratio improved 3.44% demonstrating the company’s liquidity (Appendix 1) Tootsie Roll Industries is thinking about opening a factory in the United States and how this will create more job opportunities and also reduce the negative effects on the foreign exchange rate with the Canadian dollar. The best type of loan to seek is CDC/504 program. This program will allow Tootsie Roll to provide jobs for the community while also improving on its interest rates. The requirements for the loan is to provide financial statements, such as the balance sheet, income statement, statement of cash flow, and retained earnings statement for the past three years. The information provided to a lender for the purpose of borrowing money to build a new facility in the United States. The amount of the loan that Tootsie Roll is asking for is $1million to purchase a facility, or build a new facility in the United States. This would be for building purchase, land, equipment, supplies, and any other soft costs needs. The loan requirements according to Small Business Administration (SBA) structure 40% of total project costs by the participating lending company, 50% covering total project costs and 10% covered by Tootsie Roll (SBA, 2012) Therefore, Tootsie  Roll meets the CDC/504 requirements for the loan by either building or renovating a building. The key is to provide new jobs to the community with the possibility of expansion in the near future. The life of the loan is 20 years at a fixed rate with 90% of financing. This type of loan does not require a balloon payment, however Tootsie Roll will be able to make monthly payments until the debt is paid off. Tootsie Roll can offer it is assets for collateral if the debt is not repaid. These assets can be the other property, plant, and equipment (SBA, 2012) Conclusions Team â€Å"A† discussed the reasons for the company to obtain a loan, and the destination benefits of the funds. Another topic discussed was the loan requirements and how to overcome those requirements with a detailed business plan and strategy to expand the business and offer new jobs to help the economy and the community development. Finally the company had to show the financial statements to present a loan package offer to the selected lender, disclosing the new debt ratio, to demonstrate the company’s ability of repayment for the loan. Present and explain how this loan will benefit the community and its benchmarking strategy to compete in the market with top performance companies and increased their market share. Even though the company is adding another debt to its liabilities, it will still help the company’s growth, and lead the industry. References: (n.d.). Retrieved March 10, 2012, from www.hoovers.com: www.hoovers.com/company/Tootsie_Roll_Industries../rrcsif-1.html (n.d.). Retrieved March 10, 2012, from www. reuters.com/finance/stocks/companyProfile?rpc=66..TR: www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/companyProfile?rpc=66..TR Tootsie Roll Industires From 10-Q. (2008, March 29). The United States Securities and Exchange Commision Form 10-Q. Washington, D.C. Tootsie Roll Industries, Inc. and subsidiariescondensed consolidated statements of financial position. (2008, November 11). Tootsie Roll Industries, Inc. 10-Q. Kimmel, P. D., Weygandt, J. J., Kieso, D. E. (2009). Accounting: Tools for business decision making. Hoboken: John Wiley Sons, Inc. www.sba.gov retrieved 12 March 2012

Developing Sensor Technology

Developing Sensor Technology Abstract The need for sensor devices has been growing to develop new applications in several technological fields. The current state-of-the-art of this sensor technology used in modern electronic nose designs to operate in a different manner. The chamber of the E-Nose sensor is to be upgraded mainly for reducing the nuisance alarms and to improve reliability to detect smoke which is caused by fire and non-fire particles. This paper gives a brief state of the art of different fire and non-fire particles that emits smoke and various chemical gas sensors used to detect smoke and a fire detection algorithm. Keywords- Sensors; Smoke; Electronic-Noses; Fire Detection Algorithm fire particles; non-fire particles Introduction The conception of an electronic nose could appear sort on an up-to-date technology. Scientists initial developed a synthetic nose within the 1930’s that used sensors to measure levels of ultra-violet light found in mercury. Currently these devices are employed in numerous technological fields for various applications. Presently these devices used as trendy fireplace detection frameworks for the simultaneous estimations of carbon monoxide gas (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), and smoke. The concentration of the rates of CO and CO2 in smoke offers a path to cut back the frequency of nuisance alarms so as to extend the reliability of smoke detectors. The sensors that square measures incorporated during this fireplace sighting system at the side of fire detection algorithmic rule detect smoke that is caused by fire or non-fire particles, and alarmed accordingly. Previous fire detection systems used sensors for measuring temperature, smoke, and combustion products which include oxygen (O2), carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), water vapor (H2O), hydrogen cyanide (HCN), acetylene (C2H2), and nitric oxide (NO) but they does not give any reliable results. Some used Gas Chromatography – Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) along with Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy analyzed smoke [1]. Advances in fire detection systems are being sought to decrease the detection time and the frequency of unnecessary alarms. Most of the research works done with the Multi-Sensor Detectors for accomplishing these goals because there may have some trouble in using smoke detectors with a single sensor to discriminate the smoke produced from fire and non-fire sources. The 95% frequency of unnecessary alarms reported by smoke detectors during the 1980’s in the U.S. is due to that limitation. Section 1 briefly introduces the Fire Detection System incorporated in an Electronic-Nose and different Gas Sensors that detects smoke in Section 2. Later, section 3 gives a brief description about the Fire and Non-Fire Particles and how the sensory system is designed in an E-Nose for preventing Fire accidents in section 4. Finally, we concluded in Section 5. Chemical Gas Sensors The environment needs to be monitored [2] time to time as many accidents took place lack of it. So in order to control the Industrial Process, Chemical Sensing Technologies has been emerging out to mainly emphasize on Control of combustion processes (oxygen) Flammable gases in order to protect against Fire Explosion. Toxic gases for environmental monitoring. Solid Electrolyte Sensor SE sensor [3] [4] is based on the principle of electrochemical gas detection, which is used to detect chemicals or gases that can be oxidized or reduced in chemical reactions. It mainly contains three electrodes: A sensing or working electrode which reacts when gas is available by either oxidizing or reducing the target gas. A counter electrode which provides a comparing converse response to that occurring at the sensing electrode so as to provide a net current stream. A reference electrode that stays unaffected by the chemical reactions occurring on the sensing and counter electrodes and provides a stable potential against which measurements are frequently created. Figure 1. Solid Electrolyte Sensor SEC sensors (Figure 1) used in millions of vehicles to monitor the exhausted gases and minimize the toxic emissions. Thermal-Chemical Sensors Thermal-chemical sensors [2] works on principle that there will be a change in temperature (à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬  T) when heat energy is released or absorbed (à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬  Eh). The pellistor is the most common thermal-chemical sensor (other thermal sensors are based on either on thermistors or on thermopiles). They are used for monitoring of combustible gases. Figure 2.Thermal-Chemical Sensors Gravimetric Chemical Sensors They are also known as piezoelectric sensors [5]. They are of two types used for gas sensing – Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) device and the Quartz Crystal Micro Balance (QCM) as in Figure 4. Figure 3. SAW Device Figure 4. Quartz Crystal Balance SAW device produces a surface wave that travels along the surface of the sensor while the QCM produces a wave that travels through the bulk of the sensor as shown in Figure 3. Both work on the principle that a change in the mass of piezoelectric sensor coating due to gas absorption results in a change in the resonant frequency of exposure to a vapor. Conducting Polymer Sensor: Conducting polymers [2] are plastics and they change their resistance while they adsorb or desorb specific chemicals (Figure 5). The adsorption of these chemicals mainly emphasized on the polarity (charge) and their molecular structure (shape and size). Figure 5. Conducting Polymer Sensor Due to their high sensitivity, low price and rapid response time at room temperatures, Conducting Polymer Sensor best suits for chemical sensing. IR Spectroscopy Sensors: The Spectroscopic Sensors [2] determine the concentration of several gases at a time and they work on the principle that all the gases interfere and adsorb infrared spectrum at specific wavelengths due to their natural molecular vibration. Some systems with narrow band interference filters or laser light sources for a specific gas (like CO2) are termed as monochromatic systems. Figure 6. IR Spectroscopy Sensors In the above Figure 6, some concentration of CO2 present in the sample gas is absorbed by the infrared detector at a wavelength of 4.3 ÃŽ ¼m while an infrared light periodically emitted from the light source. These sensors are most suitable for CO2 gas and shows low cross-sensitivity with different gasses and are moderate at the reaction, fairly good at accuracy and linearity but are cumbersome and costly. Optical Fiber Sensors The optical fiber utilized as a locality of those sensors [6] is coated with fluorescent dye. On association with the vapor, the Polarity variations within the fluorescent dye will changes the dyes optical properties such as wavelength shift in fluorescence, intensity and spectrum changes. These optical as in Figure 7 changes are used as the retaliation mechanism for gas. Figure 7. Optical Fiber Sensor Optical gas sensors are mostly used to detect concentrations of ammonia (NH3). They have very fast response times, short of what 10 micro sec for sampling and analysis and are compact; lightweight can be multiplexed on a single fiber network, immune to electromagnetic interference (EMI) and can operate in high radiation areas. MOSFET Sensors: The metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) sensors [4, 7] based on a change of electrostatic potential. They comprise of three layers, they are catalytic metal also called the gate (palladium), a silicon oxide insulator (platinum) and a silicon semiconductor (iridium or rhodium) as in Figure 8. When polar compounds interact with this metal gate, the current flowing through the sensor is modified. Figure 8. MOSFET Sensor [7] As no hydrogen atoms are released, molecules such as ammonia or carbon monoxide cannot be detected with a thick metal layer. But it can be possible to detect them when the metal gate is thinned. These MOSFET sensors or MOS sensors are very robust and have a relatively low sensitivity. E-Nose as Fire Detection System An electric or artificial nose can sense different types of chemicals and even distinguish particles not only for identifying individuals, but also used for the detection of fire. They work on the principle that smoke is made up of different chemical compounds. These devices consist of dozens of sensors that sense different types of chemical compounds found in the air. Some of the chemicals that cause smoke leads to flames are discussed below. Smoke It is a collection of solid and liquid particulates in air and emits gases when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis [8]. This is a commonly an unwanted by-product of fires (including candles, stoves, fire ramp and oil lamps), but may also be used for fumigation i.e., pest control. Smoke signals is communication for long distances like smoke signals to transmit signals, news or to indicate the people to gather in a place, offensive and defensive capabilities in the military (smoke-screen), cooking, or smoking like marijuana, tobacco and etc.). Heptane: It is a non-polar solvent and minor component of gasoline [9] with chemical formula H3C (CH2)5CH3 or C7H16. This is a colorless liquid and very hazardous chemical that appears which sense like petrolic odor. The structure of Heptane is shown in Figure 9. Figure 9. Heptane Structure It is commercially available as mixed isomers for use in paints and coatings and mainly applied in pharmaceutical manufacturing laboratories and for research development. It has a melting point at −91.0 to −90.1 °C; −131.7 to −130.3 °F; 182.2 to 183.0K Toluene It is a fragrant hydrocarbon (Its IUPAC deliberate name is methylbenzene) [10] is broadly utilized as a solvent and as an industrial feedstock. It is a water-insoluble clear liquid with the typical smell of paint thinners. In some cases toluene is also used as an inhalant drug for its intoxicating properties; on the other hand, breathing in toluene can possibly cause serious neurological damages. Figure 10. Toluene Structure Toluene (Figure 10) is principally utilized as a precursor to benzene. The second positioned application includes its disproportionation to a mixture of benzene and xylene. Methanol Methanol is the simplest alcohol, and is a light, unstable, colorless, ignitable fluid with a unique smell as same as to, however marginally sweeter as that of drinking alcohol which we called as ethanol [11]. It is otherwise referred as methyl alcohol, wood alcohol, which is produced as a by-product of the destructive distillation of wood, wood naphtha or wood spirits, with the formula CH3OH for the structure in Figure 11 (often abbreviated MeOH). Figure 11. Structure of Methanol It is likewise utilized for delivering biodiesel by means of transesterification response. At room temperature, it is a polar fluid, and is utilized as a liquid catalyst, dissolvable, fuel, and as a denaturant for ethanol. Methanol is created regularly in the anaerobic metabolism of numerous mixtures of microbes, and is normally present in little sums in the earth. HDPE Beads High Density Poly Ethylene Beads [1] are white hermoplastic base resin and looks like wax and have the properties of electric wire. Figure 12. HDPE Beads HDPE Beads in the above Figure.12 used for extrusion packaging film, rope, woven bags, fishing nets, water pipes; injection of low-end commodity and housing, non-bearing load components, plastic box, turnover box; extrusion blow moulding containers, hollow products, bottles and it has society of plastic industry resin ID code is 2. Mixed Plastics Blended plastic [12] shown in Figure 13 is a term that covers all non-container plastic bundling sourced from the wastage of households, and it incorporates inflexible and adaptable plastic things of different polymer types and shades. It excludes plastic bottles and non-packaging items. Figure 13. Mixed Plastics Dry Ice: Figure 14 shows that it is the strongest manifestation of Carbon dioxide and fundamentally utilized as a cooling agent. It transmutes at −78.5  °c (−109.3  °f) at Earth atmospheric pressures. This great frost makes the strong perilous to handle without protection due to burns caused by freezing (frostbite). It is referred as Card ice [13]. Figure 14. Dry Ice Fire Detection Mechanism in E-Nose A Novel technique should be employed in E-Nose to respond immediately whenever the fire accidents took place [14]. The main objective of this mechanism is to reduce the nuisance alarms. Several experiments are conducted on various materials that causes smoke and observed how the materials go on burning while ignited them. The table 1 indicates that the ignition method and fire type (how the material burns) of the particular material which causes fire. Every E-Nose contains a sensory system (two components in E-Nose one is sensory system and the other component is a pattern recognition system [15]) and we need to enhance it so that it can be used as the fire detection system. In the sensory system, one among the above mentioned gas sensors are selected such that they detects particular material’s smoke and according to the classification algorithm and differentiate it whether the smoke is from fire and non-fire particles. Table 1: List of Particles Causes Fire The following Figure 15 shows the internal design of sensory system to be deployed in the E-Nose for reducing nuisance alarms as well as to react accordingly to the material that causes a fire. Figure. 15: Mechanism of Fire Detection System Based on type of these chemical compounds, the system can give information to the clients about the Fire and Non-Fire particles [16]. The system will perform the perfect action by ringing alert and empowers the fire extinguisher to keep the spreading of kindle to some degree by grouping fire and non-fire particles. The accompanying Table 2 gives the brief description of distinct fire extinguishers feasible in the market. Table 2: Types of Fire Extinguishers Where each Extinguisher specifies the classes of fires and they are listed below gives the details of their contents for which they belong to. Table 3: Classes of Fire Conclusion and Future Work Presently many more fire accidents are taking place and most of them are regarded as nuisance alarms i.e., the sensors that detect smoke will ring the alarm even though it is not necessary. In order to overcome this problem, this paper provided a novel technology that which holds the potential to give numerous benefits in terms of fire accidents like to reduce the nuisance alarms and to increase the reliability of the sensors. This mechanism not only reduces the false alarms, but also prevents the danger by enabling the in-built extinguisher whenever the fire particle is sensed. In future, we have a tendency to develop the precise classifier algorithm to distinguish the smoke from fire and non-fire particles.

Leonhard Euler :: essays research papers

Leonhard Euler   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Leonhard Euler, (born April 15, 1707, died Sept. 18, 1783), was the most prolific mathematician in history. His 866 books and articles represent about one third of the entire body of research on mathematics, theoretical physics, and engineering mechanics published between 1726 and 1800. In pure mathematics, he integrated Leibniz's differential calculus and Newton's method of fluxions into mathematical analysis; refined the notion of a function; made common many mathematical notations, including e, i, the pi symbol, and the sigma symbol; and laid the foundation for the theory of special functions, introducing the beta and gamma transcendal functions. He also worked on the origins of the calculus of variations, but withheld his work in deference to J. L. Lagrange. He was a pioneer in the field of topology and made number theory into a science, stating the prime number theorem and the law of biquadratic reciprocity. In physics he articulated Newtonian dynamics and laid the foundation of analytical mechanics, especially in his Theory of the Motions of Rigid Bodies (1765). Like his teacher Johann Bernoulli, he elaborated continuum mechanics, but he also set forth the kinetic theory of gases with the molecular model. With Alexis Clairaut he studied lunar theory. He also did fundamental research on elasticity, acoustics, the wave theory of light, and the hydromechanics of ships.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Euler was born in Basel, Switzerland. His father, a pastor, wanted his son to follow in his footsteps and sent him to the University of Basel to prepare for the ministry, but geometry soon became his favorite subject. Through the intercession of Bernoulli, Euler obtained his father's consent to change his major to mathematics. After failing to obtain a physics position at Basel in 1726, he joined the St. Petersburg Academy of Science in 1727. When funds were withheld from the academy, he served as a medical lieutenant in the Russian navy from 1727 to 1730. In St. Petersburg he boarded at the home of Bernoulli's son Daniel. He became professor of physics at the academy in 1730 and professor of mathematics in 1733, when he married and left Bernoulli's house. His reputation grew after the publication of many articles and his book Mechanica (1736-37), which extensively presented Newtonian dynamics in the form of mathematical analysis for the first time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1741, Euler joined the Berlin Academy of Science, where he remained for 25 years. In 1744 he became director of the academy's mathematics section. During his stay in Berlin, he wrote over 200 articles, three books on mathematical analysis, and a scientific popularization, Letters to a Princess of Germany (3 vols., 1768-72).

Human Cloning is Wrong :: Argumentative Persuasive Topics

Human Cloning is Wrong I bet many of you have seen Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Multiplicity, or many of the other movies that describe cloning. Most of what you see in these movies is false. What you don't know if that cloning could be dangerous, to the clone and to our society as a whole. It's unethical to have a human clone. What about identity? Humans are guaranteed the right to their own personality. What would happen if we overrode those rights by giving them someone else's genetic identity? True, personality is not bounded in someone's genes, but the clone would share any physical appearance or genetic defect of the cloned. Also, there is a large power struggle here. Cloning involves a degree of power and control over another person's physical identity and that violates their rights and degrades their unique individuality. The person doing the cloning would have more power than any parent would have. Cloning would also deal with killing embryos. You might not have known, but Dolly, the sheep that was cloned in 1996, was one of over 200 sheep embryos and hers was the only embryo that survived. The rest died or were thrown away. Imagine if the failure rate was that high when we started to clone humans. More than 200 embryos, the start of 200 human beings, would die for the sake of just one embryo that would have the same DNA as some one else. Cloning someone, at this present time, would be extremely dangerous to the birth mother and the clone. In studies done on cows, 4 out of 12 birth mothers died. There is also a very high abnormality rate for the clone. There is a very high failure rate, which is showed in the cloning of Dolly.

Samuel Becketts Waiting for Godot Essay -- Waiting for Godot Essays

Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot In Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett asks what it is that we are really doing on Earth. He feels that God plays a key role in the solution to the human condition, however, since we do not truly know if God exists, life it would seem is simply a quest to search for an alternate explanation. Most of the time we attempt to distract ourselves from the issue and try desperately to bring some sort of meaning into our life while silently waiting for someone or something to come and give us an answer. According to Beckett, the definition of human existence is waiting to ascertain if the possibility of salvation with a possible God exists, or if all that lies ahead is darkness; he feels that all other aspects of life are insignificant and essentially can be reduced to nothing. These ideas are illustrated in a play where time seems to be irrelevant, nothing of importance ever happens, and the main characters are left waiting for someone who may or may not ever come. At the very beginning, Beckett hints at his proposal to the solution to the human condition. Vladimir tells the ignorant Estragon the story from the Bible of the two thieves that were crucified at the same time as Jesus. Apparently, one of the thieves believed in God, the other did not--the one who believed was saved. In Vladimir's opinion, this is not that bad a deal: "One of the thieves was saved. (Pause.) It's a reasonable percentage" (8). It seems that according to the story, reward or punishment is handed out depending on behavior (or at least belief). Vladimir's thoughts are somewhat parallel to those of the French philosopher Pascal who rationalized that given the possible outcomes, one is better to bet that God exists. However, ... ...after waiting so long and nothing positive ever happens (besides a few leaves on a tree) that even the persistence of the 'conscious' seems to begin to fade as well. Beckett poses some interesting questions. If all we are doing on Earth is waiting--waiting for answers whose meanings we may never comprehend--is anything that we do significant at all? As humans, it seems that in a sense we do, somewhere in us, realize our condition. However, we try to remain ignorant of it. We look for distractions; we look for something that seems to have meaning just so the absolute absurdity of our life remains masked. We search for answers--answers that may or may not ever come. In our continued waiting nonetheless, it seems our situation continues to become more hopeless.   Works Cited Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot. Trans. Samuel Beckett. New York: Grove Press, 1982. Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot Essay -- Waiting for Godot Essays Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot In Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett asks what it is that we are really doing on Earth. He feels that God plays a key role in the solution to the human condition, however, since we do not truly know if God exists, life it would seem is simply a quest to search for an alternate explanation. Most of the time we attempt to distract ourselves from the issue and try desperately to bring some sort of meaning into our life while silently waiting for someone or something to come and give us an answer. According to Beckett, the definition of human existence is waiting to ascertain if the possibility of salvation with a possible God exists, or if all that lies ahead is darkness; he feels that all other aspects of life are insignificant and essentially can be reduced to nothing. These ideas are illustrated in a play where time seems to be irrelevant, nothing of importance ever happens, and the main characters are left waiting for someone who may or may not ever come. At the very beginning, Beckett hints at his proposal to the solution to the human condition. Vladimir tells the ignorant Estragon the story from the Bible of the two thieves that were crucified at the same time as Jesus. Apparently, one of the thieves believed in God, the other did not--the one who believed was saved. In Vladimir's opinion, this is not that bad a deal: "One of the thieves was saved. (Pause.) It's a reasonable percentage" (8). It seems that according to the story, reward or punishment is handed out depending on behavior (or at least belief). Vladimir's thoughts are somewhat parallel to those of the French philosopher Pascal who rationalized that given the possible outcomes, one is better to bet that God exists. However, ... ...after waiting so long and nothing positive ever happens (besides a few leaves on a tree) that even the persistence of the 'conscious' seems to begin to fade as well. Beckett poses some interesting questions. If all we are doing on Earth is waiting--waiting for answers whose meanings we may never comprehend--is anything that we do significant at all? As humans, it seems that in a sense we do, somewhere in us, realize our condition. However, we try to remain ignorant of it. We look for distractions; we look for something that seems to have meaning just so the absolute absurdity of our life remains masked. We search for answers--answers that may or may not ever come. In our continued waiting nonetheless, it seems our situation continues to become more hopeless.   Works Cited Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot. Trans. Samuel Beckett. New York: Grove Press, 1982.

Chapter 2 Exercises & Case Exercises Essay

Exercises 1. Consider the statement: an individual threat agent, like a hacker, can be a factor in more than one threat category. If a hacker hacks into a network, copies a few files, defaces the Web page, and steals credit card numbers, how many different threat categories does this attack fall into? a. Overall, I believe this attack falls into four major threat categories: deliberate acts of trespass, compromises to intellectual property, technical failures, and managerial failure. Furthermore, I believe this attack would be categorized as a deliberate act of theft/trespass which compromises intellectual property due to technical and managerial failures. b. It seems as this hacker was deliberately causing harm (i.e. copying files, vandalizing the web page, and theft of credit card numbers); due to their method of entry – hacking into a network – it leaves me to believe there were some technical failures, such as software vulnerabilities or a trap door. However, that is just one possibility as to what could have occurred. This could have also been a managerial failure; say the unknown hacker used social engineering to obtain the information to gain access to the network – proper planning and procedure execution could have potentially thwarted this hacker†™s attack. 2. Using the Web, research Mafiaboy’s exploits. When and how did he compromise sites? How was he caught? c. Michael Demon Calce, also known as Mafiaboy, was a high school student from West Island, Quebec, who launched a series of highly publicized DDoS (denial-of-service) attacks in February 2000 against large commercial websites including: Yahoo!, Fifa.com, Amazon.com, Dell, Inc., E*Trade, eBay, and CNN. Calce also attempted to launch a series of simultaneous attacks against nine of the thirteen root name servers. d. On February 7th, 2000, Calce targeted Yahoo! With a project he named â€Å"Rivolta† – meaning riot in Italian. This project utilized a denial of service cyber-attack in which servers become overloaded with different types of communications, to the  point in which they completely shut down. Calce managed to shut down the multibillion dollar company and the web’s top search engine for almost an hour. His goal was to establish dominance for himself and TNT – his cybergroup. Over the next week, Calce also brought down eBay, CNN, Amazon and Dell via the same DDoS attack. e. Calce’s actions were under suspicion when the FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police noticed posts in an IRC chatroom which bragged/claimed responsibility for the attacks. He became the chief suspect when he claimed to have brought down Dell’s website, an attack not yet publicized at the time. Information on the source of the attacks was initially discovered and reported to the press by Michael Lyle, chief technology officer of Recourse Technologies. Calce initially denied responsibility but later pled guilty to most of the charges brought against him – the Montreal Youth Court sentenced him on September 12, 2001 to eight months of â€Å"open custody,† one yea r of probation, restricted use of the Internet, and a small fine. It is estimated that these attacks caused $1.2 billion dollars in global economic damages. 3. Search the Web for the â€Å"The Official Phreaker’s Manual.† What information contained in this manual might help a security administrator to protect a communications system? f. A security administrator is a specialist in computer and network security, including the administration of security devices such as firewalls, as well as consulting on general security measures. g. Phreaking is a slang term coined to describe the activity of a culture of people who study, experiment with, or explore telecommunication systems, such as equipment and systems connected to public telephone networks. Since telephone networks have become computerized, phreaking has become closely linked with computer hacking. i. Example of Phreaking: Using various audio frequencies to manipulate a phone system. h. Overall, a security administrator could use this manual to gain knowledge of terms associated with phreaking and the in’s & outs of the process (i.e. how it is executed). However, the security administrator should focus on Chapter 10 – â€Å"War on Phreaking† – this section (pg 71-73) deals with concepts such as access, â€Å"doom,† tracing, and security. An administrator could reverse engineer this information to protect his/her systems from such attacks. 4. The chapter discussed many threats and vulnerabilities to information security. Using the Web, find at least two other sources of information on threat and vulnerabilities. Begin with www.securityfocus.com and use a keyword search on â€Å"threats.† i. http://www.darkreading.com/vulnerability-threats ii. Dark Reading’s Vulnerabilities and Threats Tech Center is your resource for breaking news and information on the latest potential threats and technical vulnerabilities affecting today’s IT environment. Written for security and IT professionals, the Vulnerabilities and Threats Tech Center is designed to provide in-depth information on newly-discovered network and application vulnerabilities, potential cybersecurity exploits, and security research results j. http://www.symantec.com/security_response/ iii. Our security research centers around the world provide unparalleled analysis of and protection from IT security threats that include malware, security risks, vulnerabilities, and spam. 5. Using the categories of threats mentioned in this chapter, as well as the various attacks described, review several current media sources and identify examples of each. k. Acts of human error or failure: iv. Students and staff were told in February that some 350,000 of them could have had their social security numbers and financial information exposed on the internet. v. â€Å"It happened during an upgrade of some of our IT systems. We were upgrading a server and through human error there was a misconfiguration in the setting up of that server,† said UNCC spokesman, Stephen Ward. l. Compromises to intellectual property: vi. Today we bring news of action against a site that supplied links to films, music and games hosted on file-hosters all around the world. Authorities say they have charged three individuals said to be the administrators of a very large file-sharing site. vii. To get an idea of the gravity local police are putting on the case, we can compare some recent stats. According to US authorities Megaupload, one of the world’s largest websites at the time, cost rightsholders $500m. GreekDDL (according to Alexa Greece’s 63rd largest site) allegedly cost rightsholders $85.4m. m. Deliberate acts of espionage or trespass: viii. The individual responsible for one of the most significant leaks in US political history is Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden has been working at the National Security Agency for the last four years as an employee of various outside contractors, including Booz Allen and Dell. ix. Snowden will go down in history as one of America’s most consequential whistleblowers, alongside Daniel Ellsberg and Bradley Manning. He is responsible for handing over material from one of the world’s most secretive organization – the NSA. x. Additional, interesting, read: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57600000/edward-snowdens-digital-maneuvers-still-stumping-u.s-government/ 1. The government’s forensic investigation is wrestling with Snowden’s apparent ability to defeat safeguards established to monitor and deter people looking at information without proper permission. n. Deliberate acts of information extortion: xi. Hackers claimed to have breached the systems of the Belgian credit provider Elantis and threatened to publish confidential customer information if the bank does not pay $197,000 before Friday, they said in a statement posted to Pastebin. Elantis confirmed the data breach Thursday, but the bank said it will not give in to extortion threats. xii. The hackers claim to have captured login credentials and tables with online loan applications which hold data such as full names, job descriptions, contact information, ID card numbers and income figures. xiii. According to the hackers the data was stored unprotected and unencrypted on the servers. To prove the hack, parts of what they claimed to be captured customer data were published. o. Deliberate acts of sabotage or vandalism: xiv. Fired Contractor Kisses Off Fannie Mae With Logic Bomb xv. Rajendrasinh Babubha Makwana, a former IT contractor at Fannie Mae who was fired for making a coding mistake, was charged this week with placing a â€Å"logic bomb† within the company’s Urbana, Md., data center in late October of last year. The malware was set to go into effect at 9 a.m. EST Saturday and would have disabled internal monitoring systems as it did its damage. Anyone logging on to Fannie Mae’s Unix server network after that would have seen the words â€Å"Server Graveyard† appear on their workstation screens. p. Deliberate acts of theft: xvi. Four Russian nationals and a Ukrainian have been charged with running a sophisticated hacking organization that penetrated computer networks of more than a dozen major American and international corporations over seven years, stealing and selling at least 160 million credit and debit card numbers, resulting in losses of hundreds of millions of dollars. q. Deliberate software attacks: xvii. China Mafia-Style Hack Attack Drives California Firm to Brink xviii. A group of hackers from China waged a relentless campaign of cyber harassment against Solid Oak Software Inc., Milburn’s family-owned, eight-person firm in Santa Barbara, California. The attack began less than two weeks after Milburn publicly accused China of appropriating his company’s parental filtering software, CYBERsitter, for a national Internet censoring project. And it ended shortly after he settled a $2.2 billion lawsuit against the Chinese government and a string of computer companies last April. xix. In between, the hackers assailed Solid Oak’s computer systems, shutting down web and e-mail servers, spying on an employee with her webcam, and gaining access to sensitive files in a battle that caused company revenues to tumble and brought it within a hair’s breadth of collapse. r. Forces of nature: xx. Websites Scramble As Hurricane Sandy Floods Data Centers xxi. The freak storm flooded data centers in New York City, taking down several major websites and services — including The Huffington Post, Buzzfeed and Gawker — that depended on them to run their businesses. xxii. Several websites stored their data at a lower Manhattan data center run by Datagram, whose basement was inundated with water during the storm, flooding generators that were intended to keep the power on. s. Deviations in quality of service from service providers: xxiii. China’s Internet hit by biggest cyberattack in its history xxiv. Internet users in China were met with sluggish response times early Sunday as the country’s domain extension came under a â€Å"denial of service† attack. xxv. The attack was the largest of its kind ever in China, according to the China Internet Network Information Center, a state agency that manages the .cn country domain. xxvi. The double-barreled attacks took place at around 2 a.m. Sunday, and then again at 4 a.m. The second attack was â€Å"long-lasting and large-scale,† according to state media, which said that service was slowly being restored. t. Technical hardware failures or errors: xxvii. A hardware failure in a Scottish RBS Group technology center caused a NatWest bank outage. xxviii. It prevented customers from using online banking services or doing debit card transactions. u. Technical software failure or errors: xxix. RBS boss blames software upgrade for account problems xxx. The boss of RBS has confirmed that a software change was responsible for the widespread computer problems affecting millions of customers’ bank accounts. v. Technological obsolescence: xxxi. SIM Cards Have Finally Been Hacked, And The Flaw Could Affect Millions Of Phones xxxii. After three years of research, German cryptographer Karsten Nohl claims to have finally found encryption and software flaws that could affect millions of SIM cards, and open up another route on mobile phones for surveillance and fraud. Case Exercises Soon after the board of directors meeting, Charlie was promoted to Chief Information Security Officer, a new position that reports to the CIO, Gladys Williams, and that was created to provide leadership for SLS’s efforts to improve its security profile. Questions: 1. How do Fred, Gladys, and Charlie perceive the scope and scale of the new information security effort? a. Charlie’s proposed information security plan aims at securing business software, data, the networks, and computers which store information. The scope of the information security effort is quite vast, aiming at securing each vulnerability – in addition to the aforementioned, the new information security plan also focuses on the company’s staff. Since extra effort will be required to implement the new managerial plan and install new security software and tools, the scale of this operation is quite large. 2. How will Fred measure success when he evaluates Gladys’ performance for this project? How will he evaluate Charlie’s performance? b. Gladys is appointed as CIO of the team, which is gathered to improve the security of the company due to virus attack that caused a loss in the company; I believe Fred will measure Gladys success by her ability t o lead, keep the plan on track (i.e. time management) and successfully sticking to the proposed budget. Charlie was promoted to chief information security officer, a new position that reports to the CIO; I believe Fred will measure Charlie’s success by his ability to implement the new plan, report his/their progress and the overall success of the new system. 3. Which of the threats discussed in this chapter should receive Charlie’s attention early in his planning process? c. Portable Media Management (Ex. USB, DVD-R/W) should receive Charlie’s attention early in his planning process