The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove Chapter 6~8

Six Catfish's Story Was 'bout fifty year ago. I was hoboing through the Delta, playin juke joints with my partner Smiley. He called Smiley cause he don't never get the Blues. Boy could play the Blues, but he never got the Blues, not for a second. He be broke and hungover and he still always smilin. Make me crazy. I say, â€Å"Smiley, you ain't never gone play no better'n Deaf Cotton, lessin you feels it.† Deaf Cotton Dormeyer was this ol' boy we used to play with time to time. See, them days, bunch of Bluesmen was blind, so they be called Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie Jackson – like that. And them boys could play them some Blues. But ol' Cotton, he deaf as a stone, a little bit more of a burden than bein blind iffin you playing music. We be playing â€Å"Crossroads,† an' ol' Deaf Cotton be over on the side playin' â€Å"Walkin Man's Blues† and a-howlin like a ol' dog, and we stop, go down to the store, have us a Nabs and a Co-Cola, and Deaf Cotton just keep right on playin. And he the lucky one, 'cause he can't hear how bad he is. And didn't nobody have the heart to tell him. So, anyway, I says, â€Å"You ain't never gone play no better than ol' Deaf Cotton, lessin you get some Blues on you.† And Smiley say, â€Å"You gots to help me.† Now Smiley, he my friend from way back – my partner, see. So I says I will get the Blues to jump on him, but he got to promise not to get mad how I do it. So he say okay, and I say okay, and I sets to sic the Blues on him so we can go to Chicago and Dallas and makes us some records and get us some Cadillacs and so on like them boys Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker and them. Smiley, he had him a wife name of Ida May, sweet little thing. He keep her up there in Clarksville. And he always sayin how he don't have to worry 'bout Ida May when he on the road cause she love him true and only. So one day I tell Smiley they's a man down Baton Rouge got him a prime Martin guitar he gonna sell for ten dollars, and would Smiley go get it for me cause I got me a case of the runs and can't take the train ride. So Smiley ain't out of town half a day before I takes me some liquor and flowers and make my visit on little Ida May. She's a young thing, ain't much for drinkin liquor, but once I tells her that ol' Smiley done got hisself runned over by a train, she takes to drinkin like a natural (in between the screamin and cryin and all, and I had my own self some tears too, he being my partner and all, God rest his soul). And before you know it, I'm givin' Ida May some good lovin to comfort her in her time of grief and all. And you know when Smiley get back, he don't say a word 'bout my sleepin with Ida May. He say he sorry he can't find the man with the guitar, gives me my ten dollars, an' say he got to go home 'cause Ida May so happy to see him she been doing him special all day. I say, â€Å"Well, she done me special too,† and he say that okay, her being sad and me being his best friend. That boy was greased to the Blues, and they just wouldn't stick to him. So I borrowed a Model T Ford, drove over to Smiley's, and done run over his dog, who was tied up in the yard. â€Å"That dog was old anyways,† he say. â€Å"I had him since I was a boy. Time I get Ida May a puppy anyways.† â€Å"You ain't sad?† I say. â€Å"Naw,† he say. â€Å"That ol' dog had his time.† â€Å"You hopeless, Smiley. I gots to do some ponderin.† So I ponders. Takin me two days to come up with a way to put the Blues on ol' Smiley. But you know, even when that boy standing there over the smokin ashes of his house, Ida May in one arm and his guitar in the other, he don't do nothin but thank God they had time to get out without gettin burnt up. Preacher once told me that they is people who rises to tragedy. He says colored folk gots to rise to tragedy like ol' Job in the Bible, iffin they gonna get they propers. So I figures that Smiley is one of them who rises to tragedy, get stronger when bad things come on him. But they more than one way to get the Blues on you. Ain't just bad things happening, sometime it good things not happenin – disappointment, iffin you know what I mean? So I hears that down Biloxi way, round 'bout one of them salt marshes on the Gulf, they is a catfish big as a rowboat, but nobody can catch him. Even a white man down there will give five hundred dollars to the man bring that big ol' catfish in. Now you know people be trying to catch him, but they don't have no luck. So I tells Smiley I got me a secret recipe, and we gonna go get that catfish, get that money, and go up to Chicago and make us a record. Now I knows they ain't no catfish big as a rowboat, and iffin there was, he'd be caught by now, but Smiley need him a disappointment iffin the Blues gonna jump on him. So I spends the whole ride down there buildin up that boy's hopes. Cadillacs and big ol' houses ridin on the back of that catfish. We ridin in that ol' dog-killin Model T Ford, two hundred feet a rope and some shark hooks in the back with my secret catfish recipe. I figure we get us some bait on the way, and sho' nuff, I accidentally run me over two chickens got too close to the road. ‘For dark we down on the bayou where that ol' cat spose to live. Them days 'bout half the counties in Mississippi got signs say: NIGGER, DON'T LET THE SUN GO DOWN ON YOU IN THIS COUNTY, so we always plan to get where we goin' ‘for dark. My secret recipe a gallon jar of chicken guts I keep buried in the backyard for a year. I takes that jar and punches some holes in the lid and toss her out in the water. â€Å"A catfish smell them rotten guts, they be there lickety-split,† I tells Smiley. Then we hooks up one them chickens and throw it out there and we sits back and has us a drink or two, me all the time talkin trash 'bout that five hundred dollar and Smiley grinnin like he does. ‘For long Smiley doze off on the bank. I lets him sleep, thinkin he be more disappointed if he wake up and we ain't caught that catfish. Just to be sure, I starts to pull in the rope, and ‘for I got it pulled in ten feet, somethin grab on. That ol' rope start burning through my hand like they's a scared horse on't'other end. I musta yelled, cause Smiley woke up and goes running off the other way. â€Å"Watch you doin?† I yells, and that old rope burnin through my hands like a snake on fire. Well, that it, I think, and I lets go of the rope. (A Bluesman got to take care of his hands.) But when the rope come to the end, it tighten up like an E string and make a twang – throw moss and mud up into my face – and I looks round and see Smiley crankin up that Model T Ford. He done tied the rope on the bumper and now he drivin it back out the bayou, pullin whatever out there in the water as he go. And it ain't comin easy, that ol' Ford screamin and slidin and sound like it like to blow up, but up on the bank come the biggest catfish I ever seen, and that fish ain't happy. He floppin and thrashin and just bout buryin me in mud. Smiley set the brake and look back at what we catch, when that ol' catfish make a noise I don't know can come out a fish. Sound like woman screaming. Which scares me, but not as much as the noise that come back out the bayou, which sound like the devil done come home. â€Å"You done it now, Smiley,† I says. â€Å"Get in,† he say. Don't take more than that for me, cause somethin risin up out the bayou look like a locomotive with teeth, and it comin fast. I'm in that Model T Ford and we off, draggin that big catfish right with us and that monster thing coming behind. ‘For long we got us some distance, and I tells Smiley to stop. We gets out and looks at our five-hundred-dollar catfish. He dead now, dragged to death, and not lookin too good at that, but in a full moon we can see this ain't no ordinary catfish. Sho, he got his fins and tail and all, but down on his belly he growin things look like legs. Smiley say, â€Å"What that?† And I say, â€Å"Don't know.† â€Å"What that back there?† he say. â€Å"That his momma,† I say. â€Å"She ain't happy one bit with us.† Seven It has the soul-sick wail of the Blues, the cowboy tragedy of Country Western. It goes like this: You pay your dues, do your time behind the wheel, put in long hours on boring roads, your vertebrae compress and your stomach goes sour from too much strong coffee, and finally, just when you get a good-paying job with benefits and you're seeing the light at the end of the retirement tunnel, just when you can hear the distant siren song of a bass boat and a case of Miller calling to you like a willing truck stop waitress named Darlin', a monster comes along and fucks your truck and you are plum blowed up. Al's story. Al was drowsing in the cab of his tank truck while unleaded liquid dinosaurs pulsed through the big black pipe into the underground tanks of the Pine Cove Texaco. The station was closed, there was no one at the counter to shoot the bull with, and this was the end of his run, but for a quick jog down the coast to a motel in San Junipero. On the radio, turned low, Reba sang of hard times with the full authority of a cross-eyed redheaded millionaire. When the truck first moved, Al thought he might have been rear-ended by some drunk tourist, then the shaking started and Al was sure he was in the middle of the bull moose earthquake of the century – the big one – the one that twisted cities and snapped overpasses like dry twigs. You thought about those things when you towed around ten thousand gallons of explosive liquid. Al could see the tall Texaco sign out of the windshield, and it occurred to him that it should be waving like a sapling in the wind, but it wasn't. Only the truck was moving. He had to get out and stop the pump. The truck thumped and rocked as if rammed by a rhino. He pulled the door handle and pushed. It didn't budge. Something blocked it, blocked the whole window. A tree? Had the roof over the pumps come down on him? He looked to the passenger door, and something was blocking that one too. Not metal, not a tree. It had scales. Through the windshield he saw a dark, wet stain spreading over the concrete and his bladder emptied. â€Å"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.† He reached behind his seat for the tire thumper to knock out the windshield and in the next instant Al was flaming bits and smoking pieces flying over the Pacific. A mushroom cloud of greasy flame rose a thousand feet into the sky. The shock wave leveled trees for a block and knocked out windows for three. Half a mile away, in downtown Pine Cove, motion detector alarms were triggered and added their klaxon calls to the roar of the flames. Pine Cove was awake – and frightened. The Sea Beast was thrown two hundred feet into the air and landed on his back in the flaming ruins of Bert's Burger Stand. Five thousand years on the planet and he had never experienced flight. He found he didn't care for it. Burning gasoline covered him from nose to tail. His gill trees were singed to stumps, jagged shards of metal protruded between the scales of his belly. Still flaming, he headed for the nearest water, the creek that ran behind the business district. As he lumbered down into the creek bed, he looked back to the place where his lover had rejected him and sent out a signal. She was gone now, but he sent the signal anyway. Roughly trans-lated, it said, â€Å"A simple no would have sufficed.† Molly The poster covered half of the trailer's living room wall: a younger Molly Michon in a black leather bikini and spiked dog collar, brandishing a wicked-looking broadsword. In the background, red mushroom clouds rose over the desert. Warrior Babes of the Outland, in Italian, of course; Molly's movies had only been released to overseas theaters – direct to video in the United States. Molly stood on the wire-spool coffee table and struck the same pose she had fifteen years before. The sword was tarnished, her tan was gone, the blonde hair had gone gray, and now a jagged five-inch scar ran above her right breast, but the bikini still fit and muscles still raked her arms, thighs, and abdomen. Molly worked out. In the wee hours of the morning, in the vacant space next to her trailer, she spun the broadsword like a deadly baton. She lunged, and thrust, and leapt into the improbable back flip that had made her a star (in Thailand anyway). At two in the morning, while the village slept around her, Molly the crazy lady became, once again, Kendra, Warrior Babe of the Outland. She stepped off the coffee table and went to her tiny kitchen, where she opened the brown plastic pill bottle and ceremoniously dropped one tablet into the garbage disposal as she had every night for a month now. Then she went out the trailer door, careful not to let it slam and wake her neighbors, and began her routine. Stretches first – the splits in the high wet grass, then a hurdler's hamstring stretch, touching her forehead to her knee. She could feel her vertebrae pop like a string of muted firecrackers as she did her back stretches. Now, with dew streaking her legs, her hair tied back with a leather boot lace, she began her sword work. A two-handed slash, a thrust, riposte, leap over the blade, spin and slash – slowly at first, working up momentum – one handed spin, pass to the other hand, reverse, pass the sword behind her back, speeding up as she went until the sword cut the air with a whistling whirr as she worked up to a series of backflips executed while the sword stayed in motion: one, two, three. She tossed the sword into the air, did a back flip, reached to catch it in midspin – a light sweat sheeted her body now – reached to catch it – the sword silhouetted against a three-quarter moon – reached to catch it and the sky went red. Molly l ooked up as the shock wave rocketed through the village. The blade slashed the back of her wrist to the bone and stuck in the ground, quivering. Molly swore and watched the orange mushroom cloud rise in the sky over Pine Cove. She held her wrist and stared at the fire in the sky for several minutes, wondering if what she was seeing was really there, or if perhaps she'd been a little hasty about stopping her meds. A siren sounded in the distance, then she heard something moving down in the creek bed – as if huge rocks were being kicked aside. Mutants, she thought. Where there were mushroom clouds, there were mutants, the curse of Kendra's nuked-out world. Molly snatched the sword and ran into her trailer to hide. Theo The shock wave from the explosion had dissipated to the level of a sonic boom by the time it reached Theo's little cabin two miles out of town. Still, he knew that something had happened. He sat up in bed to wait for the phone to ring. A minute and a half later, it did. The 911 dispatcher from San Junipero was on the line. â€Å"Constable Crowe? You've had some sort of explosion at the Texaco station on Cypress Street in Pine Cove. There are fires burning nearby. I've dispatched fire and ambulance, but you should get over there.† Theo struggled to sound alert. â€Å"Anyone hurt?† â€Å"We don't know yet. The call just came in. It sounds like a fuel tank went up.† â€Å"I'm on my way.† Theo swung his long legs out of bed and pulled on his jeans. He snatched his shirt, cell phone, and beeper from the nightstand and headed out to the Volvo. He could see an orange corona from the flames in the sky toward town and billowing black smoke streaking the moonlit sky. As soon as he started the car, the radio crackled with the voices of volunteer firemen who were racing to the site of the explosion in Pine Cove's two fire engines. Theo keyed the mike. â€Å"Hey, guys, this is Theo Crowe. Anyone on scene yet?† â€Å"ETA one minute, Theo† came back at him. â€Å"Ambulance is on scene.† An EMT from the ambulance came on the radio. â€Å"The Texaco is gone. So's the burger stand. Doesn't look like the fire is spreading. I don't see anyone around, but if there was anybody in those two buildings, they're toast.† â€Å"Delicate, Vance. Very professional,† Theo said into the mike. â€Å"I'll be there in five.† The Volvo bucked over the rough dirt road. Theo's head banged on the roof and he slowed enough to buckle his seat belt. Bert's Burger Stand was gone. Gone. And the minimarket at the Texaco, gone too. Theo felt an empty rumbling in his stomach as he pictured his beloved minimarket nachos going black in the flames. Five minutes later he pulled in behind the ambulance and jumped out of the Volvo. The firefighters seemed to have the fire contained to the as-phalt area of the Texaco and the burger stand. A little brush had burned on the hill behind the Texaco and had charred a few trees, but the firemen had drenched that area first to keep the fire from climbing into the residential area. Theo shielded his face with his hands. The heat coming off the burning Texaco was searing, even at a hundred yards. A figure in fire-fighting re-galia approached him out of the smoke. A few feet away he pulled up the shield on his helmet and Theo recognized Robert Masterson, the volunteer fire chief. Robert and his wife Jenny owned Brine's Bait, Tackle, and Fine Wines. He was smiling. â€Å"Theo, you're gonna starve to death – both your food sources are gone.† Theo forced a smile. â€Å"Guess I'll have to come to your place for brie and cabernet. Anyone hurt?† Theo was shaking. He hoped Robert couldn't see it by the light of the fire and the rotating red lights of the emergency vehicles. He'd left his Sneaky Pete pipe on the nightstand. â€Å"We can't locate the driver of the truck. If he was in it, we lost him. Still too hot to get close to it. The explosion threw the cab two hundred feet that way.† Robert pointed to a burning lump of metal at the edge of the parking lot. â€Å"What about the underground tanks? Should we evacuate or something?† â€Å"No, they'll be fine. They're designed with a vapor lock, no oxygen can get down there, so no fire. We're going to have to let what's left of the minimart just burn out. Some cases of Slim Jims caught fire and they burn like the sun, we can't get close.† Theo squinted into the flames. â€Å"I love Slim Jims,† he said forlornly. Robert patted his shoulder. â€Å"It'll be okay. I'll order some for you, but you can't tell anyone I'm carrying them. And Theo, when this is all over, come see me at the shop. We'll talk.† â€Å"About what?† Robert pulled off his fire helmet and wiped back his receding brown hair. â€Å"I was a drunk for ten years. I quit. I might be able to help you.† Theo looked away. â€Å"I'm fine. Thanks.† He pointed to a ten-foot-wide burned strip that started across the street and led away from the fire in a path to the creek. â€Å"What do you make of that.† â€Å"Looks like someone drove a burning vehicle out of the fire.† â€Å"I'll check it out.† Theo got a flashlight from the Volvo and crossed the street. The grass was singed and there were deep ruts cut into the dirt. They were lucky this had happened after the rainy season had started. Two months earlier and they would have lost the town. He followed the track to the creek bed, fully expecting to find a wrecked vehicle pitched over the bank, but there was nothing there. The track ended at the bank. The water wasn't deep enough to cover anything large enough to make a trail like that. He played the flashlight around the bank and stopped it on a single deep track in the mud. He blinked and shook his head to clear his vision, then looked again. It couldn't be. â€Å"Anything over there?† Robert was coming across the grass toward him. Theo jumped down onto the bank and kicked the mud until the print was obliterated. â€Å"Nothing,† Theo said. â€Å"Must have just been some burning fuel sprayed out this way.† â€Å"What are you doing?† â€Å"Stomping out the last of a burning squirrel. Must have gotten caught in the flames and ran over here. Poor guy.† â€Å"You really need to come see me, Theo.† â€Å"I will, Robert. For sure I will.† Eight The Sea Beast He knew he should return to the safety of the sea, but his gill trees were singed and he didn't relish the idea of treading water until they healed. If he'd known the female was going to react so violently, he would have re-tracted his gills into the folds beneath his scales where they would have been safe. He made his way down the creek bed until he spotted a herd of animals sleeping above the bank. They were ugly things, pale and graceless, and he could sense parasites living in every one of them, but this was no time to be judgmental. After all, some brave beast had to be the first to eat a mastodon, and who would have thought that those furballs would turn out to be the tasty treats that they were. He could hide among this wormy herd until his gills healed, then perhaps he'd take one of the females on a grateful hump. But not now, his heart still ached for the purring female with the silvery flanks. He needed time to heal. The Sea Beast slithered up the bank into an open space among the herd, then curled his legs and tail under his body and assumed their shape. The change was painful and took more effort than he was used to, but after a few minutes he was finished and he quietly fell asleep. Molly No, this wasn't what she had planned at all. She had stopped taking her meds because they had been giving her the shakes, and she'd been willing to deal with the voices if they came back, but not this. She hadn't counted on this. She was tempted to run to her kitchen area and gulp down one of her blue pills (Stelazine – â€Å"the Smurfs of Sanity,† she called them) to see if it could chase the hallucination, but she couldn't tear herself from the trailer window. It was too real – and too weird. Could there be a big, burnt beast lumbering out of the creek? And if so, had she just watched it turn into a double-wide trailer? Hallucinations, that was one of the five symptoms of schizophrenia. Molly kept a list of all the symptoms. In fact, she'd stolen a desk drawer version of the DSM-IV – The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the book psychiatrists use to diagnose mental illness – from Valerie Riordan. According to the DSM-IV, you had to have two of the five symptoms. Hallucinations were one; okay, that was a possibility. But delu-sions, no way; she wasn't the least bit deluded, she knew she was having hallucinations. Number three was disorganized speech or incoherence. She'd give it a try. â€Å"Hi, Molly, how the heck are you?† she asked. â€Å"Not well, thank you. I'm worried that my speech may be disorganized,† she answered. â€Å"Well, you sound fine to me,† she said, by way of being polite. â€Å"Thanks for saying so,† she replied with genuine gratitude. â€Å"I guess I'm okay.† â€Å"You're fine. Nice ass, by the way.† â€Å"Thanks, you're not too bad yourself.† â€Å"See, not disorganized at all,† she said, not realizing that the conversation was over. Symptom four was grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior. She looked around her trailer. Most of the dishes were done, the videotapes of her movies were arranged chronologically, and the goldfish were still dead in the aquarium. Nope, nothing disorganized in this place. Schizo 1, Sanity 3. Number five, negative symptoms, such as â€Å"affective flattening, alogia, or avolition.† Well, a woman hits her forties, of course there's a little affect-ive flattening, but she was sure enough that she didn't have the other two symptoms to not even look them up. But then there was the footnote: â€Å"Only one criterion required if delusions are bizarre or hallucinations consist of a voice keeping up a running commentary on the person's behavior or thoughts.† So, she thought, if I have a narrator, I'm batshit. In most of the Kendra movies, there had been a narrator. It helped tie a story together that was supposed to take place in the nuked-out future when, in fact, it was being filmed in an abandoned strip mine near Barstow. And narration was easy to dub into foreign languages because you didn't have to match the lips. So the question she had to ask herself, was: â€Å"Do I have a narrator?† â€Å"No way,† said the narrator. â€Å"Fuck,† said Molly. Just when she'd settled into having a simple personality disorder, she had to learn to be psychotic all over again. Being schizo wasn't all bad. Being diagnosed schizo ten years ago had gotten her the monthly disability check from the state, but Val Riordan had assured her that since then her status had changed from schizophrenic: paranoid type, single episode, in partial remission, with prominent negative symptoms, persecutory-type delusions, and negative stressors (Molly liked to think of the negative stressors as â€Å"special sauce†) to a much more healthy, post-morbid shizotypal personality disorder, bipolar type (no â€Å"special sauce†). To make the latter you had to fulfill the prerequisite of at least one psychotic event, then hit five out of nine symptoms. It was a much tougher and more subtle form of batshit. Molly's favorite symptom was: â€Å"Odd be-liefs or magical thinking that influences behavior and is inconsistent with subcultural norms.† The narrator said, â€Å"So the magical thinking – that would be that you believe that in another dimension, you actually are Kendra, Warrior Babe of the Outland?† â€Å"Fucking narrator again,† Molly said. â€Å"You're not going away, are you? I don't need this symptom.† â€Å"You can't really say that your ‘magical thinking' affects your behavior, can you?† the narrator asked. â€Å"I don't think you can claim that symptom.† â€Å"Oh hell no,† Molly said. â€Å"I'm just out practicing with a broadsword at two in the morning, waiting for the end of civilization so I can claim my rightful identity.† â€Å"Simple physical fitness regimen. Everyone's trying to get into shape these days.† â€Å"So they can hack apart evil mutants?† â€Å"Sure, Nautilus makes a machine for that. Mutant Master 5000.† â€Å"That's a crock.† â€Å"Sorry, I'll shut up now.† â€Å"I'd appreciate that. I really don't need the ‘voices' symptom, thanks.† â€Å"You've still got the monster-trailer hallucination outside.† â€Å"I thought you were going to shut up.† â€Å"Sorry, that's the last you'll hear from me. Really.† â€Å"Jerk.† â€Å"Bitch.† â€Å"You said†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Sorry.† So without voices all she had to deal with was the hallucination. The trailer was still sitting there, but admittedly, it just looked like a trailer. Molly could imagine trying to tell the shrink at county about it when they admitted her. â€Å"So you saw a trailer?† â€Å"That's right.† â€Å"And you live in a trailer park?† â€Å"Yep.† â€Å"I see,† the shrink would say. And somewhere between those two little words the judgment would be pronounced: crazy. No, she wasn't going to go that route. She would confront her fears and go forward, just as Kendra had in The Mutant Slayer: Warrior Babes II. She grabbed her sword and left her trailer. The sirens had subsided now, but she could still see an orange glow from the explosion. Not a nuclear blast, she thought, just some sort of accident. She strode across the lot and stopped about ten feet away from the trailer. Up close, it looked – well, it looked like a damn trailer. The door was in the wrong place, on the end instead of the side, and the windows were frosty, as if they'd iced over. There was a thin patina of soot over its entire length, but it was a trailer. It didn't look like a monster at all. She stepped forward and ventured a poke with her sword. The aluminum skin of the trailer seemed to shy away from the sword point. Molly jumped back. A warm wave of pleasure swept through her body. For a second she forgot why she had come out here and let the wave take her. She poked the trailer again, and again the pleasure wave washed over her, this time even more intense. There was no fear, no tension, just the feeling that this was exactly where she should be – where she should always have been. She dropped her sword and let the feeling take her. The frosty layer on the trailer's two end windows seemed to lift, revealing the slitlike pupils of two great golden eyes. Then the door began to open, not from side to side, but splitting itself in the middle and opening like a mouth. Molly turned on her heel and ran, wondering even as she went why she hadn't just stayed there by the trailer where everything felt so good. Estelle Estelle was wearing a leather fedora, a pair of dark sunglasses, a single lavender sock, and a subtle and satisfied smile. Sometime after her husband had died – after she'd moved to Pine Cove and started taking the antide-pressants, after she'd stopped coloring her hair or giving a damn about her wardrobe – Estelle had vowed that no man would ever see her naked again. At the time, she considered it a fair trade: carnal pleasures, of which there were few, for guilt-free cookies, of which there were many. Now, having broken that vow and lying in her feather bed next to this sweaty, stringy old man, who was teasing her left nipple with his tongue (and who didn't seem to mind that said nipple was leading her breast over her arm rather than jutting skyward like the cupola on the Taj Mahal), Estelle felt like she understood, at last, the Mona Lisa's smile. Mona had been getting some, and she had her cookies too. â€Å"You are some storyteller,† Estelle said. A spidery black hand crawled up her thigh and parked an index finger moistly on her pleasure button – just settled there – and she shuddered. â€Å"I didn't finish,† Catfish said. â€Å"You didn't? Then what was all that ‘Hallelujah, Lord, I'm comin home!' followed by the barking?† â€Å"I didn't finish the story,† Catfish said, his enunciation remarkably clear, considering he didn't miss a lick. Harmonica player, Estelle thought. She said, â€Å"I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me.† And she didn't. One minute they were sipping spiked tea and the next there was an explosion and she had her mouth locked over his, moaning into him like a saxophonist playing passion. â€Å"You didn't see me fightin you,† Catfish said. â€Å"We got time.† â€Å"We do?† â€Å"Sho', but you gonna have to pay my way now. You done chased the Blues off me and I feels like they ain't never comin back. I'm out a job.† Estelle looked down to see Catfish grinning in the soft orange light and grinned herself. Then she realized that they hadn't lit any candles, and she didn't have any orange lights. Somewhere in the tussle between the kitchen and the bedroom, amid the tossing of clothes and groping of flesh, they had turned the lights out. The orange glow was coming through the window at the foot of the bed. Estelle sat up. â€Å"The town is on fire.† â€Å"It is in here,† Catfish said. She pulled the sheets up to cover herself. â€Å"We need to do something.† â€Å"I got an idea a somethin we can do.† He moved his spidery fingers and her attention was taken away from the window. â€Å"Already?† â€Å"Seem soon to me too, girl, but I'm old and this could be my last one.† â€Å"That's a cheery thought.† â€Å"I'm a Bluesman.† â€Å"Yes, you are,† she said. Then she rolled over on him and stayed there, off and on, until dawn.

Vark: Educational Psychology and Learning Styles

VARK Analysis Grand Canyon University VARK Analysis VARK refers to a specific style of learning, visual, auditory, reading and writing and kinesthetic leaners. (Fleming & Mills, 1992) VARK assessment questions alert people to the variety of different approaches to learning. (VARK: A Guide to Learning Styles, 2011) For those struggling with learning the VARK analysis can develop a new learning approach or enhance your current learning style by identifying your learning style to more effectively store and recall information. Knowing our own learning style also can help you to realize that other people may approach the situation different from your own. (Connor, 2009) â€Å"Everyone has a certain amount of each learning style, but one learning type will be more dominant that than other. †(Smith, 2011) Throughout our journey of childhood education we are introduced to kinesthetic learning in the early years, JR high visual and read and write and higher learners experience more auditory. (Smith, 2011) Each individual is exposed to different learning approaches however we develop a preference to a specific learning style. Whichever type a person is, will be how they view life and comprehend situations. This is their own, unique personal filtering system. Obviously each of us will become automatically drawn to our same type, and those who filter the same information the way we do. But having diverse relationships will increase our own happiness throughout our lives† (Smith, 2011) â€Å"VARK is a bout learning, not leisure activities. The read/write learners prefer information displayed as words. This learning style emphasizes text based-input and output. People who prefer this modality are often addicted to Power Points, the internet, lists diaries and words, words, words. †(VARK: A Guide to Learning Styles, 2011) Upon taking this test, it reinforced the learning strategies I currently utilize the read and write learning preference. Read and write learners need writing materials to take down points the think are important from what the read, hear and see. (Smith, 2011) The advantage for read write learners they are very independent with learning and can self-teach. A disadvantage to this style of learning preference if a presentation is audio or visual with no opportunities to take notes, this type of learner will struggle with comprehending the content. With a presentation that is more visual and audio, the read write learner must convert this content to a style of words in their head that will help them commit this to memory. (VARK: A Guide to Learning Styles, 2011) Read and Write learners prefer to take information by making list, headings or utilizing book, handouts, essays and manuals. To make their intake of information a learnable package a read and write learner must convert their â€Å"notes† by 3:1 for studying. † (VARK: A Guide to Learning Styles, 2011) These read/write learner to utilize the information they gather often organizes their written words into diagrams, graphs, charts and read their notes and rewrite the principals into other words. The successful output of this information is when they can perform well on a test or assignment. VARK: A Guide to Learning Styles, 2011) Completing the VARK analysis at the beginning of my BSN program reinforced the strengths of my read write learning preference. This learning preference style analysis also gave suggestions if a read and write learner is put in a situation where they must utilize the other learning styles. The suggestion to convert that information into the preferred â€Å"word† method read/ write learners like is an excellent suggestion rather than focusing on the fact one is uncomfortable with the presentation of the material in a non-preferred learning method. University Education is ideal for a read and write learner due to the comfort of reading text, writing notes and essays. † (VARK: A Guide to Learning Styles, 2011) This style learning preference does well with self-teach /learning which a benefit in the online classroom environment. The challenge a read/ write learner might face in the online classroom is the need to l isten to online tutorials, this is a time they would need to convert the information into a preferred â€Å"word† method to process the needed information in a way they better comprehend. The read write learner has a â€Å"AH HA’ moment which is the point the words they intake help them comprehend the topic and process the information long term. (Smith, 2011) References Connor, M. (2009). Ageless Learners: What’s your Learning Style? Retrieved January 20, 2012, from http://agelesslearner. com/assess/learningstyle. html Fleming, N. , & Mills, C. (1992). Helping Students Understand How They Learn [Journal]. The Teaching Professor, 7(). Retrieved from www. vark-learn. com Smith, C. (2011, June). Understanding Every Personality Type: Audio, Visual and Kinesthetic [Discussion Group comment]. Retrieved from http://applecsmith. hubpages. com/hub/Being-Successful-With-Every-Personality-Type-Audio-Visual-Kinesthetic Smith, D. (2011, June 26). Advantages and Disadvantages to different learning styles [Discussion Group comment]. Retrieved from http://www. ehow. com/info_8651838_advantages-disadvantages-different-learning-styles. html VARK: A Guide to Learning Styles. (2011). www. vark-learn. com

The Role of the Health and Social Care Professionals in the Care of an Essay

The Role of the Health and Social Care Professionals in the Care of an ACS Patient - Essay Example 265). Social care professionals are also mandated to provide patients with ACS with sufficient information. Before arriving in the hospital, patients with ACS must be provided with adequate information by the care providers such as the ability of the hospital to adequately manage the condition. Moreover, patient centered care demands that, on arrival, patients are sufficiently informed on the procedure and investigations which they would undergo through. The informative role of health care professional is also important when patients are receiving test results. In this case, health care professional must discuss the available treatment options for the conditions so that patient is enabled to make informed decisions (Marshall, 2011, p. 48). The anxiety which patients with ACS demonstrate reveals that social care professional must be skilled and able to apply these skills in elevating the fears within the patients about their conditions. Movahed, et al (2010, p. 60) point out that the plan of the health care professionals must therefore include providing their patients with accurate information with a view of removing any misconceptions that the patients would be having about the ACS. Nonetheless the most important consideration of the heal care professionals in patient centered care for ACS is provision of evidence based knowledge to their patients and update them about the care and also the management of their condition. Furthermore, health care professionals and social care workers are mandated to assess the understanding of the patient on their condition, treatment and its management. This will allow them to provide the patients with both written and verbal information as they deem necessary (Otterstad and Brosstad, 2004, p. 10). Family members must also be provided with adequate information about the condition of the patient. However, patient centered care especially in providing information to family and friends must not violate the ethical and legal rights of the patient for confidentiality and privacy. In this regard, it is the role of the health care professionals to preserve patient confidentiality and acquire the patient’s consent before informing family and friends about critical aspects of the patient’s condition. Kumar and Cannon (2009, p. 918) shows that in the care of NSTEMI patients and ACS in general, health care professionals play a role of diagnosis and management of the heart condition. This means that health care professionals must have and make use of evidence based knowledge on the assessment, stratification or risk and the management of patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome such as STEMI and NSTEMI. The management plan for social care professionals must be focused on enhancing the experience of the patient and the outcomes of the health care (Schoenenberger, et al, 2011, p. 302). For this to be achieved, health care professional and social workers must have a comprehensive understanding of the various tools which are applied in the diagnosis of myocardial infarction. These tools include physical examination, history taking, biochemical markers and ECG recording. It is thus the role of health care professional and social care providers to apply the various treatment options in the care of STEMI or NSTEMI patient after a conclusive diagnosis has been reached

Henri Matisse, Femme au chapeau Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Henri Matisse, Femme au chapeau - Term Paper Example The paper "Henri Matisse, Femme au chapeau" discovers Henri Matisse and his art. This is in the context of an intricate hat, with a fan firmly held by a gloved arm. There is a clear expression from the vivacious hue in Amelie’s costume. The painting was among the very first developments that came with bright colored canvases. These bright colors depicted Matisse from an expressive point of view. The picture was created from a style that widely involved the use of brushstroke in a non-regulated manner. He used this artistic work to mark his change from the highly expressive styles, into one that involved loose brushwork, synchronized with non-naturalistic colors. This phenomenon depicted an unfinished piece of work that was sketchy in nature. The new idea was a source of surprise to many. Woman with a Hat,’ gives a strong sense of fauvism. Fauvism as a culture and a style began its endeavors and operated within 1900 and 1910. Matisse was the leader of the fauvism movemen t along with a companion painter known as Andrà © Derain. Matisse began his fauvism endeavors at the Ambroise Vollard’s showcase back in 1904, but achieved minute success from his latter works. He then endorsed in expressive and bright colors, which came out well pronounced in his preceding paintings. These included controlled lines and flat shapes. His fauvism culture became eminent between him and his workmates, where he achieved his peak quest with this painting. Woman with a Hat,’ initiated the famous quote by the then critic.

Writing Truly Is Re-Writing Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Writing Truly Is Re-Writing - Personal Statement Example The exercises are particularly interesting because they cater to arousing critical thinking. I have to be more aware of everything that may indicate something in the comprehension of the text. It requires more than just shallow reading or scanning through the words. It is very much like being a detective and looking through the words to find out clues to solve a mystery. Critical thinking was among my favorite task to do because it is particularly interesting as it stimulates the brain. I have learned to be analytical in figuring out what the paper is all about and in trying to make sense of all that I read. The hardest part is trying to put thought into the paper. This, I learned, is an arduous task that requires time and effort. Writing truly is re-writing. The way that I see it, even the best of writers have editors. Being accepting of criticism and taking what you have learned from it to apply it in the future is the true measure of humility. Because it is next to impossible to say that your own piece of writing is perfect. If anything, to say so is either downright arrogant or foolish. Others are born with the talent to write and they only need very little editing as it comes naturally. But I have learned that it is also something that can be acquired. The secret to this is organization. One must first organize his thought as they may not make sense at first glimpse.  

At the Core of Jewish Belief Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

At the Core of Jewish Belief - Essay Example Just as the other cultures themselves have faced, the Jewish population through history has too faced strife and sacrifice that has greatly impacted the past, present, as well as future for them. As for the development of Judaism, the, "Hebrew religion began to give rise to Judaism after the destruction of the temple and the exile of Judah in 586 BC," ("Judaism" p.1). As many would come to know after the end of World War II, Jewish citizens were often referred to in derogatory means as being 'a Jew'. While the person in fact would have been of Jewish decent, the casual throwing out of the label of them being Jewish by extent served as a way to demean and diminish the societal value of a culture and precious belief system. Further elaborating, "The term 'Jew', in its biblical use, is almost exclusively postexilic. The Jewish religion of the biblical period evolved through such historical stages as the intertestamental, rabbinic, and medieval to the modern period of the nineteenth century with Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Judaism," ("Judaism" p.1). Like Christians and Muslims, Jewish people as well have a tenant system of faith. According to the Elwell Evangelical Dictionary of M R Wilson, found at the bottom of the previously used source, modern Jewish faith believers are shaped by the following tenants; (1) Man is pivotal in the universe. He sees himself as a partner with God in the unending process of creation. In rabbinic thought, "God needs man as much as man needs God." (2) Man is a responsible moral agent, fully accountable for his acts. He is free to shape his own destiny. (3) Human progress is possible as man realizes the great potential within him. The nature of man is basically good, or neutral, free from the encumbrance of original sin. Thus man may be optimistic and hopeful about his future. (4) "This-worldliness" is a distinguishing mark of Judaism. The Hebrew Scriptures focus more on earth and man than upon heaven and God. Hence, lengthy speculation about the afterlife and otherworldly realities has never occupied a major position in Jewish thought. (5) All of life must be regarded as sacred. Man is to seek to imitate God in sanctifying his every action. Time must be imbued with the seeds of eternity.(6) Man is to pursue peace, justice, and righteousness. Salvation is dependent upon the betterment of society through good deeds. Historically, Jews have seen the Messiah as God's anointed human representative (not a God-man) who would usher in a golden age of societal and spiritual redemption. Today, however, Reform Judaism teaches that the Messianic Age will appear when humankind collectively, by its acts, reaches a level of true enlightenment, peace and justice. (Wilson Evangelical). One of the founding premises for belief is what most has come to know as the Ten Commandments. It is these ten 'rules' that act as a way to show people what they should and should not do.

Rationalism (Rene Descartes) and Empiricism (David Hume) Essay

Rationalism (Rene Descartes) and Empiricism (David Hume) - Essay Example According to the research findings there are two contrastive schools of thought; while one gives premium to reason, the other gives premium to experience. The first school of thought that gives premium to reason is the rationalist school of thought. The second school of thought is the empiricist school. While the major proponent for rationalism is Rene Descartes, the major proponent of empiricism is David Hume. Lacey states that rationalism is â€Å"any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification.† Instead of appealing to emotions and their sensory organs, rationalists appeal to the intellect. Like all things, there are extremes in rationalism. While the opinion of some rationalists tends to fall largely in line with empiricism, meaning that they share many links with empiricism; the opinion of others see no reasons with empiricism at all. The former category of rationalists is not absolute in the beliefs they hold about the power of reason. The latter c ategory of rationalists is of those that may safely be described as extreme rationalist. They are the ones that believe that all things can be resolved through reasoning. Although, empiricism as a philosophy has already been broached in this essay, it is yet important to explain further. Unlike rationalism which states that most truths and ideas can be attained mainly through reason, empiricism states that all ideas, knowledge and truths can be attained through experience and what can be sensed by using human senses. The typical empiricist will ask 'How do you believe what you've not experienced?' So, for the empiricist, experience is all. It is through experience that one gets evidence to substantiate whatever opinion one clings to. Empiricists believe that there is no just reason to believe a thing or an opinion which one is not able to test. They do not see reasons why anyone would rely solely on abstract reasoning without applying sense-based experiments (Markie 233). To such em piricist who questions why anyone would trust what they have not seen, rationalists would argue that before that which is seen and witnessed (experience and experiments) came to being, there was that which was not seen (reasoning). Asides David Hume, other philosophers that can be categorized as empiricists are Francis Bacon, John Stuart Mill and Thomas Hobbes. Before one assumes any stance in philosophy, one must have premises that back up the point one makes. One must also be sure to know that all those who have held one opinion or the other about any issue have reasons, most times cogent, for sticking to their opinion. Yet, based on arguments that have been advanced overtime, it won't be wrong to assume that rationalsim carries the day. In putting up a paper like this together, it is important that one lends credence to objectivity. By some yardsticks, one may say that empiricists are right. This is because when rationalists carry out what they believe is the key thing—rea soning, one must note that they do not think in abstract, they almost certainly think about things that have been

Negative impacts of tourism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Negative impacts of tourism - Essay Example (Smith, 2006) Currently, it is approximated that tourism contributes to 10% of global income with at least 10% of the world workforce earning their daily bread from the sector. Viewed as ‘manna from heaven’ most analysts perceive tourisms as a way of balancing foreign trade and as a source of foreign exchange with minimal discussion on the negative challenges it’s associated with. The discussion in this paper will mainly focus on the negative challenges of tourism with deep analysis on language, religion, customs and tradition, drawing examples from various countries known as tourist destinations across the globe. P.62 One of the strongest signs of negative impacts to tourism is on language spoken by the residents. Most communities staying in areas frequently visited by tourists have lost their original language and have instead adopted languages spoken by most tourists, mainly English. For example, the official language of city of Mumbai is Marathi. Current statistics indicate that only 42% of the populace can fluently speak the language. Apart from Hindi, which is also an official language in Mumbai, English is currently regarded as the most prevalent. As business tourism is on the upsurge, English is widely spoken in various professional workforce and commercial communication. (Desai, 2004 p.41) As business tourist increase in number, Bombay Hindi, a pidgin comprising of English, Hindi and Marathi was developed to ease communication. Changes in language have also been associated with the behavior and attitudes amongst the locals. Tourism also results in imposing of the tourist’s language amongst the locals. Malindi, which is one of the coastal towns in Kenya, known for some of the best beaches in world and often visited by tourists is another example of an area where tourism led to degradation of local language. Originally, residents used to speak Kiswahili before being invaded by

Explain how large companies raise capital from the equity and bond Essay

Explain how large companies raise capital from the equity and bond markets. Discuss the relevance of the capital asset pricing model ( CAPM) to company seeking evaluate its cost of capital - Essay Example The firm has to decide whether to raise funds through common stock, preferred stock, bonds or hybrid securities or a combination. In the case of common stock, the firm has to decide whether it should it be rights issue or public issue. The company can put on offer its block of securities for sale to the highest bidder or negotiate a deal with the investment banker. Since in the latter, the investment bankers should carry out a substantial investigation, they would do it for best known companies. Otherwise, the prohibitive costs and uncertainty of clinching the deal would make the bidding for lesser known companies unattractive for the investment bankers. Therefore, only the very large companies, about 100 of the largest companies in New York stock exchange have a choice of seeking competitive bidding for their offering. Others have only an option of negotiated deal with an investment banker. In case of a negotiated deal, the firm has to select an investment banker. Most of the investment banks operate in niches. For instance, older and larger veteran merchant bankers such as Morgan Stanley deal mainly with IBM, AT&T and Exxon and such and Drexel Burnham Lambert deals with speculative issues. Some investment bankers have penchant for new issues, while some others with a conservative brokerage client base would not take up speculative and risky issues. In Stage 2, the firm’s initial decisions will be revisited by the merchant banker. For instance, the merchant banker, after studying the environmental trends, may recommend and convince the management to change their earlier plan of raising $200 million by selling common stock to raising $100 million by common stock and the rest by the issue of bonds. In this stage, the firm and investment banker will come to a conclusion as to whether the banker will work on the best efforts basis or will underwrite the issue. In the best efforts basis, the banker does not assume

Jane Ms Lynch Essay Example for Free

Jane Ms Lynch Essay Jane Ms. Lynch was born and raised in Dolton, Illinois, the daughter of a housewife mother and a banker father. She was raised in an Irish Catholic family and attended Thornridge High School. She received her bachelor’s degree in theatre from Illinois State University and her MFA from Cornell University, also in theatre. She lived in Chelsea for a year and a half. Ms. Lynch began her career in the theatre but quickly moved on to TV. She starred with MDs, and has made guest appearances in numerous television series, including L.   A. Law, Judging Amy, The West Wing, 7th Heaven, Friends, Felicity, Arrested Development, the cult hit Lovespring International, Two and a Half Men, Weeds, Boston Legal, The L Word, Help Me Help You, Gilmore Girls, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Psych, Monk and Party Down, among others. She also appeared in the crime drama Criminal Minds as Spencer Reid’s schizophrenic mother. As of 2009, Ms. Lynch currently appears on the Fox series Glee. GLEE is a musical comedy-drama television series that airs on Fox. It focuses on a high school show choir (a modern GLEE club) called â€Å"New Directions,† at the fictional William McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio. Ms. Lynch has won glowing reviews for her role as the aggressive cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester. Sue is part of the William McKinley High School staff and is the coach of the cheerleading squad, the â€Å"Cheerios†. She detests the Glee Club and their teacher, and attempts to bring them down at any cost. She is jealous of the GLEE club’s talent and also holds grudges to unhealthy, almost super-villain levels, particularly her desire to destroy the Glee Club for getting money that had once been promised to her â€Å"Cheerios†. However, Sue is not completely without her soft-side. She is very loving towards her sister Jean, who suffers from Down Syndrome and who Sue visits as often as she can. This love for her sister caused Sue to donate money to the school to help disabled kids, and to allow a student with Down Syndrome to join the â€Å"Cheerios†. Mary McNamara of the LA Times wrote, â€Å"Ms. Lynch alone makes GLEE worth watching. † On August 29, 2010, Ms. Lynch won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress – Comedy Series. Ms. Lynch recently helped unveil a wax figure of her famous character Sue Sylvester from the Fox hit series at Madame Tussaud’s in Hollywood. While Ms. Lynch commented that it was an amazing honor, she also compared the experience to seeing herself in a coffin.

Natureview Farm Case

Natureview Farm Case Natureview Farm is a company that manufactures organic yogurt and is the industry leader with 24% market share. Its manufacturing process including the special recipe, longer shelf-life, no artificial ingredients, and product variety differentiated the brand and positioned it distinctively. The yogurt was produced in Vermont and sold in natural food stores only. The current predicament is for them to create a strategic plan, based primarily on distribution-oriented options, to exceed the $20 million revenue mark by the end of FY 2001. This was fueled by the withdrawal of the venture capitalist firm. The distribution strategies revolve around staying in the natural foods stores or further expanding out in to the supermarket channel. Therefore, the problem definition is that there is a need to expand and increase customer base to drive sales which would result in increases in revenues to meet corporate objective. Appendix 1 has a SWOT analysis that will help guide the rest of the discu ssion. Appendix 2 briefly explains the three options in question and has a financial forecast for all three options if they were pursued. Option 1 seems to attain the highest revenue and profit. The firm however would be risking entering the mass market distribution channel which would be a significant shift with its current operations i.e. both the marketing and operations of the firm would need to be re-aligned to meet the large distribution channel. Setting up and effective execution may not be reliably predicted given the 12 month implementation plan. Moreover, horizontal channel conflicts would also possibly be occur due to the customers buying the same product at a cheaper price at a more accessible location. This would give the supermarkets more channel power due to them being able to drive higher sales. Overall, the 8oz market has a 3% expected growth rate, and this number needs to be taken into account as well since it’s not as high as some of the other realized trends which will be discussed below. Option 2 has the next best revenue but not a great profit margin. Again, similar to the previous option, the firm would be entering the mass market distribution channel with all the risks highlighted above including horizontal channel conflict. With this option, the growth rate of the size of the yogurt is at 2% per year; however, the gross profit per sale is relatively high at 43.6%. Again, there is a slower growth rate present here but what’s more important to note is the lack of support provided by retailers for this size of the product. Given that a significantly smaller population purchases the larger tubs, the supermarkets place it in the lowest shelves in-stores and thus, may be overlooked in most scenarios. Finally, Option 3 gives a better profit than the former but not sufficient revenue. Nevertheless, this option highlights the trend and the researched growth rate of 12.5% with the children’s market and multi-pack sales which is an opportunity to capitalize on. This option also bears the least amount of risk due to minimal investment, maintaining and enhancing relationships with existing intermediaries and channel partners, and not having to undergo marketing changes such as brand positioning, or significant production changes. Gross profits with product sales here are 37.6%. There are some critical issues and analysis that need to be investigated before recommending which option be best for Natureview Farm. The first critical issue is that of keeping the company’s existing stance in mind: â€Å"We owe it to our customers, our suppliers, and our distribution partners to make the right strategic choices†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The second is that of not being able to secure other financing options for the company which implies that high-risk initiatives need to be chosen with extra caution. The channel flow analysis in Appendix 3 shows the differences between the supermarket channel and the natural foods channel. The relationship of the incentive compatibility with the service output of bulk-breaking is important since bulk-breaking is one of the primary value-added services that the intermediaries provide, which in turn increases the price of the yogurt for the end consumer. In addition, the product shelf-life is another factor that’s relevant with regard to service output demands. Both these factors are high in demand for the natural foods channel but not the supermarket channel which implies higher incentive compatibility with the former channel partnership. Consumers in turn would also want to be able to purchase a product that lasts longer and is broken down for them already. In the supermarket channel it can also be seen that there are more responsibilities added for Natureview to deal with such as merchandising, payments such as the slotting fee, and added promotions. The natural foods channel has these responsibilities eliminated and has further benefits such as tracking paperwork being down with the intermediaries and the information being passed upstream to Natureview. This does end up increasing the cost due to the additional work done by the intermediaries. The key issue is the horizontal conflict that could potentially occur due to channel power shifts and lack of control from the natural foods channel. Research showed that 67% of the US consumers find that price is a barrier to them purchasing the organic yogurt; this implies that these price sensitive individuals would be more inclined in purchasing the product at the supermarket. Based off the analysis, the best alternative to go forth with would be Option 3. This is mainly because it is the best channel that would avoid any horizontal conflicts stemmed because of a power struggle between the two separate channels. Option 3 also capitalizes on a growing trend in the market and the natural foods industry is expected to grow at 20% annually as well. It would be of interest to maintain and enhance the existing relationships with the channel partners since adding the supermarket channel into the system would make the partnership with the natural foods channel incompatible due to lack of incentives. Furthermore, this is the least risky option that they can invest in with higher returns on investment in comparison with the other options. With existing happy customers, a premium brand position, and strong partnerships with distributors like Wholefoods, Natureview can leverage its equity sources to increase revenue and market share by manufacturing the multipacks tar geted towards the younger population. The decision matrix in Appendix 4 further supports this recommendation. Appendix 1 – SWOT Analysis SWOT ANALYSIS – NATUREVIEW FARM STRENGTHS: No artificials, natural ingredients Market leader with 24% share in Natural Foods Channel Highest shelf-life products Strong Channel Partner Relationships WEAKNESSES: Highly dependent on brokers Only in natural food channel/not supermarket Still a small share in the full yogurt market OPPORTUNITIES: 12.5% growth rate with multi-packaged products for children Supermarket channel THREATS: Not sufficient capital and financing options No experience with supermarket channel Competition intensifying; Horizon Organic with 19% market share Cannibalization of sales Appendix 2 – Three options: Financial forecast Option 1 Forecasted Income Statement (Isolated) Price = $0.74 Revenue $25,900,000 COGS $10,850,000 Gross Profit $15,050,000 Expenses Advertising $2,400,000 Sales $200,000 SGA $320,000 Marketing $120,000 Slotting Fee $1,200,000 Trade Promotions $3,840,000 Broker Fee $1,036,000 Net Income $5,934,000 Option 2 Forecasted Income Statement (Isolated) Price = $2.7 Revenue $14,850,000 COGS $5,445,000 Gross Profit $9,405,000 Expenses Advertising $0 Sales $160,000 Marketing $120,000 Slotting Fee $2,560,000 Trade Promotions $4,096,000 Broker Fee $594,000 Net Income $1,875,000 Option 3 Forecasted Income Statement (Isolated) Price = $3.35 Revenue $6,030,000 COGS $2,070,000 Gross Profit $3,960,000 Expenses Advertising $0 Sales $0 Marketing $250,000 Slotting Fee $0 Trade Promotions $0 Cost of Complementary Cases $150,750 Broker Fee $241,200 Net Income $3,318,050 All the tables presented above have used data from the case for the numbers. The cost of each SKU is derived from Exhibit 3. The Expenses have been derived from the options described in the case. The statements are isolated i.e. they do not take into consideration existing operations and sales of products through the nature foods channel – they are only assessing the options themselves at an individual level. Appendix 3 – Channel Flow Analysis and Incentive Compatibility Supermarket Channel 15% Markup 27% $0.74 Natureview Physical possession à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Ownership à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Promotion à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Payment (Slotting Fee) à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Merchandising à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Ordering à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Payment à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Sales data à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Riskingà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Negotiationà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Distributor Physical possessionà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Ownershipà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Promotionà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Paymentà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Merchandising à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Ordering à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Payment à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Sales data à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Riskingà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Negotiationà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Retailer Physical possessionà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Ownershipà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Promotionà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Payment à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Sales data à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Riskingà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Consumer Natural Foods Channel 7% Markup 9% 35% $0.88 Naturev-iew Physical possession à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Ownership à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Free product caseà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Ordering à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Payment à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Sales data à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Tracking paperwork à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Riskingà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Negotiationà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Natural Foods Wholesaler Physical possession à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Ownership à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Free product caseà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Ordering à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Payment à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Sales data à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Tracking paperwork à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Riskingà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Negotiationà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Natural Foods Distributor Physical possessionà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Ownershipà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Stocking shelvesà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Bulkbreakingà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Payment à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Sales data à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Riskingà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Free product caseà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Ordering à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Payment à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Riskingà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Negotiationà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Retail-er Physical possessionà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Ownershipà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Payment à ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ¸Riskingà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Consumer Appendix 4 – Decision Matrix

Human Resource Management at Delphi Essay -- HR HRM

Human Resource Management at Delphi Human Resource Management is the utilization of human resources to achieve organizational objectives. Various studies have concluded that an organization?s human resources is its people. It can be a significant source of competitive advantage. Achieving competitive success through people requires a fundamental change in how managers think about an organization workforce and how they view the work relationship. It's a new approach within the framework of organizational, behavior that goes beyond the role of just personnel administration. I have learned How job analysis is a systemic process of determining the skills, duties and knowledge required for performing jobs in an organization, How compensation includes all reward that individuals recovery as a result of their employment, and The Occupational Safety and Health is an approved state occupational safety and health program. With today?s work force becoming increasingly diverse, a organization must do more to maximize the benefits of the different employees. Human Resource Managers are evolving from the ?Old School? sideline player to the front line fighters. People have always been central to organizations, but their strategic importance is growing in today?s society. Whereas the human resource inventory is concerned with telling management what individual employees can do, Job Analysis is more fundamental. It defines the jobs within the organization and the behaviors that are necessary to perform the job. It is essential and pervasive human resource technique. The purpose of job analysis is to obtain answers to six important questions: 1) What physical an mental tasks does the worker accomplish? 2) ... ...a hazardous tag on it, if it?s hazardous. The organization needs a system that can control the containers. When a person checks out the container, that same person should check it in at the end of the shift. This will ensure proper labeling of the containers. In conclusion, all these things can be benefical to an organization if utilize in proper context. I have learned How job analysis is a systemic process of determining the skills, duties and knowledge required for performing jobs in an organization, How compensation includes all reward that individuals recovery as a result of their employment, and The Occupational Safety and Health is an approved state occupational safety and health program. Whether an organization choose to implement high performance work practices or the organization has qualified people to perform the work that needs to be done.

The Real Tragedy of Shakespeares Macbeth :: GCSE English Literature Coursework

Tragedy of   Macbeth In a tragedy the main character rises to greatness, then continues to fall down a shame spiral which leads to their down fall. An example of a tragedy is Macbeth. Macbeth is driven up the hill of greatness a rise, then his untamed ambition leads him to death. The process of a tragedy is slow to let the audience become comfortable with the power and happiness of the main character. Then all of the sudden signs appear that the end is coming and the main character heads toward downfall.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the beggining of the play a battle goes on between King Duncan of Scotland and Macdonwald of Norway. Macbeth fought bravely on Scotland's side and even killed Macdonwald himself. King Duncan hears of Macbeth's brave and noble qualities and crowns him the new Thane of Cawdor. The king states that the old Thane should not device, "... Our bosom interest: go pronounce his present death, And with his former title greet Macbeth." (1.2.63-65) Macbeth is hostile to except the rank because earlier three witches prophesied that Macbeth would become Thane of Cawdor even though there was one at that time. Since Macbeth was crowned Thane of Cawdor, Banquo and Macbeth think that the three withches adre able to correctly tell them their fate.   Macbeth now having higher-ranking authority begins to have his ambition act up on him and crave more power. Lady Macbeth organizes King Duncans murder, which increases Macbeth's ambition and enables Macbeth to rise up to the ultimate height. The murder is carried out but not as planned and Macbeth is driven to kill the king himself. Macbeth states after everyone found the dead king," Loyal and neutral, in a moment? no man. The expedition of my violent love..." (2.3.111-112) This was the only done to destroy and thoughts that may have targeted Macbeth that he could have killed the king.   The greediness for power and the witches prophesies have made Macbeth a very disturbed man. Believing in everthing that the witches say, Macbeth hires three murders to kill both Banquo and his son. By having them killed no one shall be in line to take the crown away from Macbeth. Macbeth then hears that Macduff is pondering on ways to seek revenge so Macbeth plans for death of Macduff's family. Macbeth went for his family hoping to hurt him on the inside to show Macduff not to mess with Macbeth.

Violence, Sensationalism, and the Supernatural in Shakespeares Macbeth :: Free Essay Writer

Violence, Sensationalism, and the Supernatural in Macbeth  Ã‚   Shakespeare had a thorough idea of what his audience wanted. In Macbeth he used violence, sensationalism, and elements of the supernatural to appeal to his audience. Shakespeare knew his audience when he used violence in Macbeth to heighten the effect of the play. One example of the violence is this scene. Lady Macbeth "That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold; What hath quenched them hath given me fire. Hark! Peace! It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman, which gives the stern’st good-night. He is about it. The doors are open, and the surfeited grooms do mock their charge with snores. I have drugged their possets, that death and nature do contend about them, whether they live or die." Macbeth "Who’s there? What, ho?" Lady Macbeth "Alack, I am afraid they have awaked and ’tis not done! Th’ attempt and not the deed confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready; he could not miss ’em. Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t." Macbeth "I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?" Lady Macbeth "I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. Did not you speak?" Macbeth "When?" Lady Macbeth "Now." Macbeth "As I descended?" Lady Macbeth "Ay." Macbeth "Hark! Who lies i’ th’ second chamber?" Lady Macbeth "Donalbain." Macbeth "This is a sorry sight." Lady Macbeth "A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight." Macbeth "There’s one did laugh in sleep, and one cried "Murder!" That they did wake each other. I stood and heard them. But they did say their prayers, and addressed them again to sleep." Here is another example of the violence. Messenger "Bless you, fair dame! I am not to you known though in your state of honor I am not to you known, though in your state of honor I am perfect. I doubt some danger does approach you nearly: if you will take a homely man’s advice, be found here; hence, with your little ones. To fright you thus, methinks I am too savage; to do worse to you were fell cruelty which is too nigh your person. Heaven preserve you! I dare abide no longer." Lady Macduff "Whither should I fly? I have done no harm. But I remember now I am in this earthly world, where to do harm is often laudable, to do good sometime accounted dangerous folly. Violence, Sensationalism, and the Supernatural in Shakespeare's Macbeth :: Free Essay Writer Violence, Sensationalism, and the Supernatural in Macbeth  Ã‚   Shakespeare had a thorough idea of what his audience wanted. In Macbeth he used violence, sensationalism, and elements of the supernatural to appeal to his audience. Shakespeare knew his audience when he used violence in Macbeth to heighten the effect of the play. One example of the violence is this scene. Lady Macbeth "That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold; What hath quenched them hath given me fire. Hark! Peace! It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman, which gives the stern’st good-night. He is about it. The doors are open, and the surfeited grooms do mock their charge with snores. I have drugged their possets, that death and nature do contend about them, whether they live or die." Macbeth "Who’s there? What, ho?" Lady Macbeth "Alack, I am afraid they have awaked and ’tis not done! Th’ attempt and not the deed confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready; he could not miss ’em. Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t." Macbeth "I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?" Lady Macbeth "I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. Did not you speak?" Macbeth "When?" Lady Macbeth "Now." Macbeth "As I descended?" Lady Macbeth "Ay." Macbeth "Hark! Who lies i’ th’ second chamber?" Lady Macbeth "Donalbain." Macbeth "This is a sorry sight." Lady Macbeth "A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight." Macbeth "There’s one did laugh in sleep, and one cried "Murder!" That they did wake each other. I stood and heard them. But they did say their prayers, and addressed them again to sleep." Here is another example of the violence. Messenger "Bless you, fair dame! I am not to you known though in your state of honor I am not to you known, though in your state of honor I am perfect. I doubt some danger does approach you nearly: if you will take a homely man’s advice, be found here; hence, with your little ones. To fright you thus, methinks I am too savage; to do worse to you were fell cruelty which is too nigh your person. Heaven preserve you! I dare abide no longer." Lady Macduff "Whither should I fly? I have done no harm. But I remember now I am in this earthly world, where to do harm is often laudable, to do good sometime accounted dangerous folly.

“Cannon Fodder” and “The Armistice” Essay

The two poems are both written during the time of the First World War, and reflect the emotions felt towards the war. Both poets have different experiences of the war, yet share a common grief. They reflect their grief and other emotions through their use of language. In the poem â€Å"cannon Fodder†, Wilfred Owen tries to convey to the reader the terror that he felt when discovering the corpse of the soldier seven days after his death. Owen uses very powerful imagery to show the reader the horror of the corpse: â€Å"Feeling the damp, chill circlet of flesh Loosen its hold On muscles and sinews and bones† This represents the decay and decomposition of the corpse, and he shows us the horror of seeing the extent of the decay by using a metaphor. The flesh isn’t really holding on to the dead soldiers body, but it is there to inform us that it is falling apart. Owen also tries to convey to the reader the feeling of futility towards the war. He shows the pointlessness of it all by using rhetorical questions: â€Å"Is death really a sleep?† The soldier who has discovered the corpse is asking the corpse this question, but of course, the soldier will get no answer because he is talking to a dead man. This task in itself is pointless, and reminds us just how pointless all of the war seems to Owen. Owen also uses a lot of Prefixes on words instead of using a different word. This can change the mood of a sentence: â€Å"Uncared for in the unowned place† The use of the suffixes makes the place sound so desolate, that it is not worth dying for. The place is called â€Å"no mans land†, and this is why it is referred to as unknown. Uncared makes us feel that there is no recognition of the bravery of the soldier, or for the respect to bring his body in from no mans land. In Owen’s poem, we also feel for the soldier who found the corpse. He thinks back to what the dead soldiers life at home was probably like. This makes us feel as though the soldier wishes he was at home, feeling all of the comforts presented in the soldiers thoughts: â€Å"But at home by the fire† The word but instantly indicates that the mood of the poem is about to change, and that the reader is about to see a contrast between what they have just read, and what they are about to read. Owen also uses his line structure to add power to the words and the meaning he is trying to convey: â€Å"Your bright-limbed lover is lying out there Dead† The last line of the quote is very emphatic and powerful, because death is such a strong word and it is being used alone, almost being used as a false stop to the idyllic life being lived by the dead soldiers lover. During stanzas two, three and four, Wilfred Owen uses the soldier to try and tell the story for the people back home by using the context that they will understand: â€Å"O mother, sewing by candlelight, Put away that stuff.† This quote was used to show the reader that the war would affect them back at home almost as badly as the soldiers are feeling it over in France. In stanzas two, three and four, one can detect a large amount of bitterness, and possibly anger, yet the anger is conveyed more subtly than in poems like â€Å"dulcet et decorum et† where the stanzas are set out almost like tirades. We detect this bitterness by the rudeness to the people back at home. In stanzas three and four, he even tells the mother and the lover what to do. In the poem, â€Å"The Armistice† by May Wedderburn Cannan, the reader feels some entirely different emotions than the ones conveyed in â€Å"Cannon Fodder†. The first different emotion that the reader detects from the poem is relief. The whole office feels this, as it descends in chaos: â€Å"One said, â€Å"it’s over, over, it’s the end: The War is over: ended† The reader can feel the hustle and bustle of the people in the office, as their excitement and relief boil over. This is shown by the repetition in the workers speech. They repeat the words end and over. This is to stress the key fact that the killing will come to an end, and that their families and loved ones will get them back. In the second stanza, the workers also being to recollect: â€Å"I can’t remember life without the war† This shows that to the people, war had become a way of life, and that people had forgotten their old lives. The fact that the people are reflecting about the war is good, because it shows their concern and respect for the men on the front line, and this is probably Wedderburn Cannan’s subtle way of saying thank you to the men who were frontline. The reader can also detect feelings of isolation from the two women left behind after the others leave the room: â€Å"Big empty room† This suggests that the women do not feel left behind by the other staff, but left behind by their men who went and fought, and died in the army. The big empty room is a metaphor for the women’s empty hearts now that the loves of their lives have left them for good. The reader is also given a view of the idyllic thoughts that one of the women is thinking about the front line: â€Å"It will be quiet tonight Up at the front: first time in all these years, And no one will be killed there anymore† This is an idyllic view of the frontline, however it is also ironic, because it is a well-documented fact that lives were lost even after the armistice because it took a while for news to spread of the end of the war. It is also a little upsetting, because these men’s lives are being lost in vain. Wedderburn Cannan also makes us feel empathy towards the two female characters at the end of the poem: â€Å"It’s over for me too†¦my man was killed, Wounded†¦and died† The pauses in the dialogue make the reader feel that the woman is struggling to force back tears. It also makes us feel that maybe she is contemplating what the future holds, and reflecting on her dead husband. The poem comes to an extremely sombre ending, and this is very similar to the ending of the war: â€Å"Peace could not give back her dead.† This makes us feel that the whole war was worthless. Even in the times of peace, people like the woman in the poem are still feeling the grief that devastation of the war had caused. The two poems are from different times, wartime and post-war but the anti-war message is still the same and is still being utilised effectively by the strong language used in both poems. In â€Å"Cannon Fodder†, Wilfred Owen displays to us the full of horror of the war in gory detail, whilst in â€Å"The Armistice†, the horror of the war is the loneliness of the people left behind. Whereas Owen uses shock tactics to put his message across, Wedderburn Cannan tries to draw the reader’s empathy instead.

Walmart, Amazon, and Ebay: Who Will Dominate Internet Retailing?

There are many different business trends shaping e-commerce today. For one, ecommerce remains the fastest growing form of commerce when compared to physical retain store, services, and entertainment. Another trend is that the online demographics of shoppers broaden to match those of ordinary shoppers. Also, small businesses and entrepreneurs continue to flood through the e-commerce marketplace, often riding on the infrastructures created by industry giants and increasingly taking advantage of cloud-based computing resources. Lastly, pure e-commerce business models are refined further to achieve higher levels of profitability, whereas traditional retail brands use e-commerce to retain their dominant retail positions. 1b Name and describe three technology trends shaping e-commerce today. There are many different technology trends shaping e-commerce today. One technology trend is that wireless internet connections grow rapidly. Also, powerful handheld mobile devices support music, Web surfing, and entertainment as well as voice communication. Podcasting and streaming take off as mediums for distribution of video, radio, and user-generation content. c List and describe the eight unique features of e-commerce. There are eight different unique features of e-commerce today. First, ubiquity, which means that e-commerce is available everywhere; it is available at home, work, and elsewhere via mobile devices. Mobile devices extend service to local areas and merchants. Next, global reach makes e-commerce unique bec ause technology can reach all the way around the Earth. E-commerce is also unique because of universal standards; there is one set of technology standards, namely internet standards, making communication between computer systems easy. Richness is a unique quality because it makes video, audio, and text messages possible. They are integrated into a single marketing message and consumer experiment. Interactivity is unique because it allows the technology to work through interaction with the users. Another unique feature of e-commerce is information density because the technology reduces information costs and raises the quality. Personalization is a unique feature because the technology allows personalized messages to be delivered to individuals as well as groups. Lastly, social technology is a unique feature of e-commerce because it allows the user to use social networking to share with personal friends, content of many different forms. 2a Name and describe the principal e-commerce business models. There are several principal e-commerce business models. E-tailer sells physical products directly to consumers or to individual businesses. Transaction brokers save users money and time by processing online sales transactions and generating a fee each time a transaction occurs. The market creator business model provides a digital environment where buyers and sellers can meet, search for products, display products, and establish prices for those products. The content provider model creates revenue by providing digital content such as news, music, photos, or video over the Web. The customer can pay to access the content, or revenue may be generated by selling advertising space. A community provider provides an online meeting place where people with similar interests can communicate and find useful information. The portal business model provides initial point of entry to the Web along with specialized content and other services. Lastly, a service provider provides Web applications such as photo sharing, video sharing, and user generated content as services. Other services are also provided such as online data storage and backup. 2b Name and describe the e-commerce revenue models. There are several different e-commerce revenue models that describe how the firm will earn revenue, generate profit, and produce a superior return on investment. The advertising revenue model is the most widely used revenue model. In this model, a Web site generates revenue by attracting a large audience of visitors who can then be exposed to advertisements. In the sales revenue model, companies derive revenue by selling goods, information, or services to customers. In the subscription revenue model, a Web site offering content or services charges a subscription fee for access to some or all of its offerings on an ongoing basis. In the free revenue model, firms offer basic services or content for free, while charging a premium for advanced or special features. In the transactions fee revenue model, a company receives a fee for enabling a transaction. Lastly, in the affiliate revenue model, Web sites send visitors to other Web sites in return for a referral fee or percentage of the revenue from any resulting sales. 3a How do social networking and â€Å"the wisdom of crowds† help companies improve their marketing. Social networking helps companies improve marketing because they link people through their mutual business or personal connections, enabling them to mine their friends for sales leads, job hunting tips, or new friends. The wisdom of crowds†, it is argued that a large number of people can make better decisions about a wide range of topics or products than a single person or a small group of experts. It helps improve marketing by suggesting that firms should consult with thousands of their customers first as a way of establishing a relationship with them and to better understand how their products and services are used a nd appreciated. 3b Define the social graph and explain how it is used in e-commerce marketing. The social graph is a map of all significant online social relationships, comparable to a social network describing offline relationships. It is a small world that links people more tightly than they think. Overall, marking with social media is still in early stages and companies are experimenting in hopes of finding a winning formula. It is used to shape social networks, connecting people all over the world to businesses. 4 Explain how Internet technology supports business-to-business electronic commerce. Internet technology supports business to business electronic commerce because it has potential to have trillions of dollars released for more productive uses, consumer prices would fall potentially, productivity would increase, and the economic wealth of the nation would expand. Business to business e-commerce refers to the commercial transactions that occur among business firms which flow through a variety of different Internet-enabled mechanisms. Transactions are automatically transmitted through networks, eliminating the printing and handling of paper. a List and describe important types of e-commerce services and applications. There are many important types of e-commerce services and applications. Location based services is built with a GPS and compass that can identify your precise location and where the phone is pointed. It can put adds on a website based on a person’s location and can allow business to market over the internet based on a person’s location. Bankin g and Financial services let customers manage their accounts from their mobile devices. Mobile advertising and retailing is where companies can put ads on different aps for smartphones to advertise or have their own aps where a person can download and get coupons and deals just by walking into the store and logging into the application on their smartphone. Games and entertainment platforms are offered on Smartphones where a user can play games, watch TV or videos, etc. and connect to other game players and users all around the world. 5b Describe some of the barriers to e-commerce. There are a few barriers to e-commerce. One barrier is security concerns. With this there are risks of identity theft, viruses, and much more that consumers are worried about because they do not want their information stolen, especially because the internet is so easily accessible. Another barrier through e-commerce is that over the internet, a consumer cannot tough and feel a product, such as a book. There are Kindle apps where you can virtually buy and read a book, but people like reading actual books in their hand. Education also acts as a barrier because with e-commerce, new processes are coming to the surface all of the time making employees having to adapt. This is hard because a lot of people don’t want to change their ways. 6a List and describe each of the factors that go into the building of an e-commerce Web site. There are many factors that go into the building of an e-commerce Web site. First, a team has to be assembled with the right skills to make decisions about technology, site design, social and information policies, and hardware, software, and telecommunications infrastructure. The customer’s demands need to drive the site’s technology and design. The site can eight be built in-house or parts, if not all, of the site can be outsourced to be maintained. With outsourcing, companies need to be aware of their Web-site budget and maintenance. 6b List and describe four business objectives of a typical e-commerce Web site. One business object of a typical e-commerce Web site is to display goods, meaning, making the goods and products easily accessible and viewable to consumers in order to be productive. Another is the objective of a personalized/customized product. This makes the seller stand out from other businesses, making their product stand out and be more appealing than others. This makes the customer want to purchase the unique product. Businesses providing product information is another objective. Consumers do not want to purchase something that they know nothing about; therefore it is important to tell the customer what they need to know. Lastly, the objective of coordinating marking/advertising is important because companies need to advertise their product to consumers in order for them to want to purchase it. Without marketing, the product would not be known and less people would buy it because of this. 6c List and describe four system functionalities of a typical e-commerce Web site. There are many different system functionalities of a typical e-commerce Web site. One is a product database, which is database of all of the company’s products, allowing the company to know how much they are selling and what they have in inventory. The shopping care and payment system functionality allows the user to put interesting items in their virtual shopping cart to purchase. Once they have finished shopping, they can view the total price, edit their order, and continue to check-out all over the internet. A site tracking and reporting system is a great function that allows the company to see who is purchasing what and from where. This is a helpful tool that allows companies the ability to change their market audience to an audience closer to what the site tracking system is displaying. Lastly, a digital catalog is important for a site so consumers can see what exactly a company is selling or offering. 6d List and describe four information requirements of a typical e-commerce Web site. There are several information requirements of a typical e-commerce Web site. Product descriptions, stocking numbers, and inventory levels are important information to have because the business needs to know what and where their consumers are buying so it can be efficiently shipped. Secure credit card clearing is important because consumers want to be able to trust a company with their purchasing information, knowing that the information will not be hacked leading to identity theft. The customer ID, product, date, payment, and shipment date is important for the company to have because it acts as a log of prior business and they can track profitability and productivity. The number of products purchased is important because the company needs to know if they are underestimating or overestimating their sales and must act accordingly.

A Human Resources Report To The Acquisition Board Of XXYY Corporation

XXYY Corporation acquired Red Slash, a family company that has existed for twenty years.   Red slash will be one of the subsidiaries or associate companies for the XXYY Corporation with the Head office at Santa Clara and many offices all over the world.   The new acquisition changes the management structure, with a focus on the combined entity’s human resources.INTRODUCTION The holding company XXYY Corporation will have an extra, one hundred members of staff.   These new human resources from Red Slash are unskilled and are just working for the family/ friend’s business.   Human resources for the new combined XXYY Corporation need to be transformed by using strategic approaches.   This transformation will be improving the intangible assets or resources, which make up the human capital for the company.The body:Transforming the human resources function using strategic approaches will involve a thorough research and development program, on the human resources depa rtment. The strengths and weakness of the members of staff in Red Slash need to be, determined and the main focus should be on the main weakness, which relates to the employment of unskilled family members and friends.   Human capital need to have the necessary knowledge, skills, education and experience to provide entrepreneurial ability, that will coordinate all the other factors of production and improve the Profitability, Earnings per share, Market value and general returns to the XXYY holding company.A plan to improve the human resources for the combined entity, especially the new employees from the Red slash subsidiary. Implementation of the plan should be within the first financial or economic year from the date of merging. The unskilled human capital need to be rejuvenated so that they can effectively coordinate with those in the Holding company XXYY corporation and with the, operational, middle management and Top management personnel.Tom G (2003)To transform the human res ources of Red slash, I will explain the following strategic approaches:Conducting organization analysis through human resource audits, job analysis and revamping the recruitment and selection process:Revamping refers to the changing or arranging the human capital to achieve the company’s success. Human resources in Red slash were not acquired through just and equitable procedures.   The acquisition Board of XXYY Corporation should officially examine the employees who are currently holding positions in Red Slash.This kind of human capital does not posses the initial ability, knowledge and skill to work for the combined entity.   Retaining this kind of workforce will be to the loss of the company, because revenues will be maximized at high costs; huge salaries and wages being paid to unproductive workforce or human resources.   Family people and friends working for Red Slash should be replaced with new employees.   Selection procedures should be fair and justifiable.   The new workforce structure for XXYY Corporation should be composed of only those who have an ability to deliver. Revenues will therefore be maximized at a favorable cost for the new merger.