John stuart mill essays

John stuart mill essays John Stuart Mill was the most famous Utilitarian. What utilitarianism is is the ethical doctrine that an action is right if it promotes the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure and absence of pain, by unhappiness pain and privation of pleasure By greatest, Mill means the best, and by happiness he means both intellectual and sensual.However, he feels that we have a certain dignity that makes us tend to prefer intellectual over sensual happiness. Two pleasures may differ in quality, so who decides which is best? Mills answer to this is the decision must rest with those who have experienced both, and those who have experienced both opt for the higher pleasures. Mill believed that we have motivations to abide by the Utilitarian standard of morality. There are two classes of sanctions, or motivations for promoting general happiness. There are external sanctions and internal sanctions. External sanctions arise from our hope of pleasing and fear of displeasing God and other humans. Internal sanctions are motivations inside ourselves to behave in certain ways. Mills refers to this as a subjective feeling in our own minds also commonly referred to as our conscience. He also calls it the ultimate sanction of all moral behavior. Mill believes that this is not innate, but acquired. The principle of utility involves an assessment of only an actions consequences, and not the motives or character traits of the agent performing the action. The principle of utility should be seen as a tool for generating secondary moral principles. For example: dont steal, this in turn promotes general happiness. When in a moral dilemma between two secondary principles for example a moral principle of charity dictates that you should feed a ...

Predicting Formulas of Compounds with Polyatomic Ions

Predicting Formulas of Compounds with Polyatomic Ions Polyatomic ions are ions made up of more than one atomic element. This example problem demonstrates how to predict the molecular formulas of several compounds involving polyatomic ions. Polyatomic Ion Problem Predict the formulas of these compounds, which contain polyatomic ions:   barium hydroxideammonium phosphatepotassium sulfate Solution The formulas of compounds containing polyatomic ions are found in much the same way as formulas are found for monoatomic ions. Make sure you are familiar with the most common polyatomic ions. Here is a list of polyatomic ions to help you. Look at the locations of the elements on the Periodic Table. Atoms in the same column as each other (Group) tend to exhibit similar characteristics, including the number of electrons the elements would need to gain or lose to resemble the nearest noble gas atom. To determine common ionic compounds formed by elements, keep the following in mind: Group I ions (alkali metals) have 1 charges.Group 2 ions (alkaline earth metals) have 2 charges.Group 6 ions (nonmetals) have -2 charges.Group 7 ions (halides) have -1 charges.There is no simple way to predict the charges of the transition metals. Look on a table listing charges (valences) for possible values. For introductory and general chemistry courses, the 1, 2, and 3 charges are most often used. When you write the formula for an ionic compound, remember that the positive ion is always listed first. When there are two or more polyatomic ions in a formula, enclose the polyatomic ion in parentheses.Write down the information you have for the charges of the component ions and balance them to answer the problem.   Barium has a 2 charge and hydroxide has a -1 charge, therefore1 Ba2 ion is required to balance 2 OH- ionsAmmonium has a 1 charge and phosphate has a -3 charge, therefore3 NH4 ions are required to balance 1 PO43- ionPotassium has a 1 charge and sulfate has a -2 charge, therefore2 K ions are required to balance 1 SO42- ion Answer Ba(OH)2(NH4)3PO4K2SO4 The charges listed above for atoms within groups are the common charges, but you should be aware that the elements sometimes take on different charges. See the table of the valences of the elements for a list of the charges that the elements have been known to assume. For example, carbon commonly assumes either a 4 or -4 oxidation state, while copper usually has as 1 or 2 oxidation state.

Traditional Roman Republic Virtues versus Christian Virtues Essay

Traditional Roman Republic Virtues versus Christian Virtues - Essay Example Perpetua and Lucretia depict different virtues as women, wherein Perpetua is shown as virtuous because she willingly accepted suffering for her faith, while Lucretia took suffering in her own hands and asked others to avenge her marred integrity because she and her society assigned ultimate virtue on her sexual purity. Perpetua is different from Lucretia because she lived by the Christian virtue of suffering for her faith rather than renouncing it. She shows courage in accepting her suffering. Her punishment was to face gladiators, and, before they killed her, she told her brother and others: â€Å"You must all stand fast in the faith and love one another, and do not be weakened by what we have gone through.† She embraced her suffering with pride and love. Lucretia did not die for her religious beliefs, but because of her soiled sexuality. She did not even wait for others to punish her for being impure. She said this before committing suicide: â€Å"I will absolve myself of b lame, and I will not free myself from punishment. No woman shall use Lucretia as her example in dishonor.† She could not accept living anymore after being raped because she and her society believed that women must be sexually pure (i.e. have sexual relations only with their husbands). Lucretia killed herself because of her shame, while Perpetua sacrificed her life for her Christian faith.The male interlocutors in these women’s lives lived according to their cultural virtues, wherein Christian males in Perpetua’s life suffered with her.

Business Report to managment on online entertainment Essay

Business Report to managment on online entertainment - Essay Example The special features will include a visually rich content, streaming video linkages to various features, flash and banner advertisements, additional benefits to members as emails on entertainment related activities including alerts on mobile, briefs on stars and music icons, gossip related news to achieve an emotional link up, games, quizzes and event markers. The company logo and motif is as given below:- The company philosophy will be as indicated in its name, to provide holistic entertainment value to persons at one location that is its web site. EntertainmentYou.com will be located in Los Angeles the hub of all entertainment and gaming activity in the World. It will have a lean organization which would be cellular and networked. A large quantum of work will be outsourced. However a minimal required employee profile will have to be maintained. Thus there will be a number of departments. A privacy policy will also be declared. This is essential to build confidence of the customer that his personal data is safe with the company. Customer policy and terms of reference will be clearly stated and personnel will have to accept the terms and conditions before becoming members. There are a number of companies operating in the on line entertainment segment of e business. Some of these are subsidiaries of large entertainment corporations as Sony. These are operating multiple entertainment sites which offer a variety of audio and video services including movies, music and even dating services. Three of these organizations are being covered in the competitor survey given below as follows:- (a) Eonline.com - URL - http://www.eonline.com. (b) Abc.com - URL - http://www.abc.com/ (c) 1netcentral.com - http://www.1netcentral.com These sites have been selected based on the popularity ratings as per Google search, the range of services provided and the variety of communications, new media inputs and overall popularity. A varied profile of the content provided by each site has been attempted to enable drawing maximum inputs for planning EntertainYou.com. Each site is being covered in detail as given below. Eonline.com E! Online is an entertainment web site which caters for a large number of entertainment needs of the modern consumer. These include music and movie reviews, coverage of live events, branded merchandise for film, TV and music enthusiasts, in addition to the latest daily news and celebrity information. The site places its USP as a fun and some what irreverent tone. Its popularity is identified by the 2.5 million users that it gets. Being a subsidiary of E! Entertainment Television Inc which is a large producer and distributor of entertainment news and life style programmes, it has ready stock of information and content available from this reliable source. Over the years it has also created an archive of 16,000 news stories and has a wide range of popular columnists

Cost Accounting Essay Example for Free

Cost Accounting Essay Questions arise as to why ABC implementation is successful in certain companies and fails in others. Based on the contingency theory, researchers have argued that the reasons for different degrees of ABC success could be due to the different contextual factors faced by each firm. These have led researchers to recognize assessing factors that influence ABC success implementation as an important research area. The following are among the research that have been carried out to examine factors that influence ABC success: Anderson [18]; Shield [3]; McGowan and Klammer [19]; Krumwiede [20]; and Anderson and Young [21] This article has two main objectives; the first objective is to identify research gaps based on the revision of previous research and the second objective is to propose theoretical research framework for current research. This article is organized as follows: Section II presents a discussion of selected articles related to factors influencing ABC implementation and gaps or limitations of previous studies and suggestions for current research are stated in the section III and IV. The framework for current research is provided in section V, Section VI defines each research variable and the final section presents the conclusion. II. PREVIOUS RESEARCH In this section, selected ABC implementation empirical 144 Abstract—In today’s advanced manufacturing and competitive environment, accurate costing information is crucial for all the kinds of businesses, such as manufacturing firms, merchandizing firms, and service firms. Argued to be superior to the traditional volume-based costing system, Activity-Based Costing system (ABC) has increasingly attracted the attention of practitioners and researchers alike as one of the strategic tools to aid managers for better decision making. The benefits of ABC system and its impacts on companies’ performance have motivated numerous empirical studies on ABC system and it is considered as one of the most-researched management accounting areas in developed countries. Previous research on ABC have examined pertinent issues related to ABC implementation such as the levels of ABC adoption in various countries, the reasons for implementing ABC, the problems related to ABC and the critical success factors influencing ABC. This paper reviews the research on ABC carried out within the last decade, from 1995-2008, and from the review research gaps are identified. Specifically, this paper examines the selection of factors influencing successful ABC implementation, variables used by previous research and the definitions and operationalization of the variables. The review reveals that past research concentrated mainly on behavioral, organizational, and technical variables as the main determinants of ABC success but very little research have been done to examine the roles of organizational culture and structure. Based on the research gaps identified, a research framework for future research is provided. Index Terms—Advanced Manufacturing Activity-Based Costing, ABC Success Environment, I. INTRODUCTION In today’s competitive and continually changing business environment, firms need to be vigilant of the impacts of the changes in the business environment and devise appropriate strategies to survive and prosper. Advancements in manufacturing and communication technologies have drastically changed the ways businesses conduct their activities. Adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies such as robotics and computerized manufacturing have resulted in significant changes in the manufacturing cost structure which have led academics and practitioners to argue that the traditional costing methods are no longer sufficient within this new manufacturing environment [1] (Johnson and Kaplan, 1987). This had resulted in the change from the traditional volume-based cost model to new costing methods such as Activity Based Costing (ABC) [2]. Due to its ability in providing more accurate costing information and enhancing firms’ performance, ABC is International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, Vol. 1, No. 2, August, 2010 2010-023X studies, which spanned 1995-2008 periods, were collected from four prominent refereed accounting research journals, in management accounting field: Journal of Management Accounting Research, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Management Accounting Research and British Accounting Review. Factors used by previous research to investigate the effect on ABC success implementation are summarized, and stage of ABC implementation also is outlined. A. Technical Variables Early studies of ABC adoption and implementation undertaken by previous researchers concentrated on technical factors, such as identification of main activities, selection of cost drivers, problem in accumulating cost data. Example of these research are Cooper [9], Morrow and Connelly [22]. However, technical factors alone may not be adequate to explain the factors influencing ABC success implementation. Cooper et al. [23] argued that the key problem during ABC implementation stage is that companies only focus on technical factors. They suggested that to make ABC implementation more effective, non-technical factors such as involvement of non-accounting in ABC implementation process, top management championship, adequate training program to employees about the objectives and benefits of ABC should be emphasized as well. Similar opinions were expressed by Shield [3] and Shields and McEwen [14]. Shield (1995) found no significant relationship between technical factors and ABC success. Shields and McEwen [14] also highlighted that sole emphasis on the architectural and software design of ABC systems leads to the failure of ABC implementation. Therefore many researchers have suggested that new variables should be considered to investigate factors influencing ABC success. B. Contextual, Behavioral and Organizational Variables Recognizing the research gaps in identifying factors that may affect ABC success, academicians shifted their focuses from technical factors to other variables, such as contextual, behavioral and organizational, culture, as well as organizational structure. Anderson [18] conducted a longitudinal investigation of ABC process in General Motor (GM) from a period of 1986 to 1993. In his research, he examined the effects of organizational variables and contextual variables, and segmented ABC implementation into four major stages, initiation, adoption, adaptation and acceptance. He found that organizational factors, such as top management support and training for the ABC system affected various stages of ABC significantly, while contextual variables, such as competition, relevance to managers’ decisions and compatibility with existing systems produced different degree of impact on different stages of ABC. Shield [3] examined the relationships between diversity of behavioral, organizational and technical factors and the success of ABC implementation. She employed Shield and Young’s [24] framework and summarized behavioral and organizational variables as top management support, adequate resources, training, link ABC system to performance evaluation and compensation, non-accounting ownership, link ABC to competitive strategies as well as clarity of ABC objectives. She found that top management support, linkage to quality initiatives and to personal performance measure (pay/appraisal), implementation of training and resource adequacy were the significant predictors in explaining ABC success. She also found that technical variables were not associated with ABC success. Shield’s findings are supported by other researchers, such as Shield and McEwen [14], who argued that a significant cause for unsuccessful implementations of ABC of several companies could be due to the emphasis of architectural and software design of the ABC system and less attention given to behavioral and organizational issues, which were identified by Shield [3]. Krumwiede and Roth [25] also stated that barriers of ABC implementation can be overcome if firms could give importance to behavioral and rganizational variables identified by Shield [3]. Similarly, Norris [26] agreed with Shield’s [3] findings that the association between ABC success and behavioral and organizational variables is stronger than with technical variables. She further highlighted that the impact of behavioral, organizational and technical should be focused at individual level. McGowan and Klammer [19] conducted a survey of 53 employees from 4 targeted sites in the U. S. o examine whether employees’ satisfaction levels are associated with ABC implementation by They also measured their perceptions of the factors associated with the degree of satisfaction, such as top management support; the degree of involvement in the implementation process; objectives clearly stated; objectives shared; training; linkage to performance evaluation system; adequate resources; information quality and preparer over user. Their results indicated that employees’ satisfaction with ABC implementation was positively related with clarity of objectives and quality of ABC information. Gosselin [15] carried out a survey of 161 Canadian manufacturing companies to examine the effects of strategic posture and organizational structure on adoption and implementation of general forms of Activity-based costing. He segmented the ABC implementation stage into adoption and implementation. The research findings showed that a prospector strategy was associated with manager decision to adopt ABC, while centralization and formalization were significantly associated with ABC success implementation. Krumwiede [20] surveyed U. S manufacturing firms to study how contextual factors, such as the potential for cost distortion or size of firms; organizational factors, such as top management support, training or non-accounting ownership, affect each stage of ABC implementation process. His findings showed that the different factors affected the various stages of implementation of ABC and the degree of importance of each factor varies according to the stage of implementation. Contextual factors, such as usefulness of cost information, IT existence, less task uncertainty and large organizations were related to ABC adoption. Moreover, organizational factors, such as top management support, non-accounting ownership, and implementation training affect ABC success implementation. 145 International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, Vol. 1, No. 2, August, 2010 2010-023X In another study by Anderson and Young [21], the relationship between organizational and contextual variables, such as organizational structures, task characteristics, management support, information technology and ABC success was examined. The result confirmed the importance of organizational factors (top management support and adequacy resources) during the ABC implementation stage. In South Africa, Sartorius et al. [27] carried out a mail survey to investigate the effect of organizational factors such as top management, adequate resources, coherence with organizational goals and strategy on ABC success. They found top management support and resources were the crucial factors in explaining ABC success. In the UK, Innes and Mitchell [4] and [12] surveyed the extent of ABC adoption among largest firms. The study aimed to find out factors influencing ABC success by using behavioral and organizational variables, and it was found that top management influenced ABC success significantly. In another study conducted by Khalid [28] using a questionnaire survey among the largest 100 firms in Saudi Arabia, ABC adoption was found to be positively related to diversity of products. In Malaysia, Ruhanita et al. [29] conducted a mail survey and a case study to examine that factors influencing ABC success, especially at adoption stage. They found the significant factors were cost distortion, decision usefulness, information technology and organizational factors. In addition, the findings showed that decision usefulness, top management support, link ABC to performance measure and compensation influenced the ABC success adoption significantly. A case study of one Chinese manufacturing firm was carried by Lana and Fei [30] in China. Their research aimed to examine some key success factors pertinent to ABC implementation within Chinese organizational and cultural setting. The research findings showed that top management support, hierarchical and communication structure and high proportion of dedicated professionals were the significant factors in determining ABC success implementation. Majid et al. [7] used a case study approach to describe the process of ABC implementation in a Malaysian service company and a Malaysian manufacturing company. In this research, they categorized ABC implementation into initiation and adoption, design, implementation and use of information. The purpose of the research was to find out the problems faced during ABC implementation, He found that the factors determining ABC success were top management support, suitable ABC software, and finally, ensuring that all affected employees understand and participate in the ABC implementation stage. And they also found that at different stages of ABC, the dominant factors influencing ABC success were also different. Colin et al. [31] adopted behavioral and organizational factors summarized by Shield (1995) to examine factors influencing the adoption and degree of success of ABC systems and determinants of that success. In their research, the targeted research population was manufacturing and service firms in the UK. They found that top management support, non-accounting ownership, adequate training provided to ABC determined the ABC success. Besides behavioral, organizational and technical variable, some researchers also indicated that the dimensions of national cultures could affect the level of ABC success [32, 33]. Brewer [32] used Hofstede’s taxonomy of work-related cultural values to examine the relationship between national culture and Activity-Based Costing system. In the study, Hofstede [34]’s work was applied to the case of Harris Semiconductor (HS), which has implemented ABC at plants in Malaysia and the USA. The results showed that the level of ABC success in Malaysia was higher than that of U. S due to high-power-distance and collectivist cultures in Malaysia. In addition, Supitcha and Frederick [33] also included national culture’s dimension into framework in a case study of one Thai state-owned enterprise’s budgeting system. They found that due to cultural differences, modifications were required when the organizations in Thailand tried to implement ABC system in Thai environment. Apart from national culture, corporate culture factors were also tested by prior research. Baird, Harrison and Reeve [17] conducted a study to investigate the relationship between the extent of ABC adoption and the organizational variables of size and decision usefulness of cost information and business unit culture. In their research, data were collected by a mail survey questionnaire and samples were randomly selected from business units in Australia. The research finding showed significant relationships between ABC adoption and decision usefulness, cultural dimensions of outcome orientation and tight verse loose control. Baird, Harrison and Reeve [16] examined the relationship between success of activity management practices and organizational factors (top management support, training, link to performance evaluation and compensation, and link to quality initiatives), and organizational culture (outcome orientation, team orientation, attention to detail, as well as innovation). They adopted a survey questionnaire method on randomly chosen business units in Australia. The findings showed that two organizational factors (top management support, link to quality initiatives) explained the variations in success of activity management practices, such as ABC, and outcome orientation and attention to detail of organizational culture were associated with ABC success. They also stressed that compared with organizational culture, organizational factors had stronger associations with the ABC.

Resistance of wire :: essays research papers

IF YOU INCREASE THE VOLTAGE - MORE CURRENT WILL FLOW. IF YOU INCREASE THE RESISTANCE - LESS CURRENT WILL FLOW (UNLESS YOU INCREASE THE VOLTAGE).' Ã ³`In Metals The Current Is Carried By Electrons 1. Electric current will only flow if there are charges, which can freely move. 2. Metals contain a sea of "Free Electrons" (which are negatively charged). And flow throughout the metal if they are given energy. 3. This is what allows electric current to flow so well in materials.' Ã ³`Resistance Resistance is anything that causes an opposition to the flow of electricity in a circuit. It is used to control the amount of voltage and /or amperage in a circuit. Everything in a circuit causes a resistance (even wire). It is measured in OHMS (Ω). Resistance occurs when the electrons travelling along the wire collide with the atoms of the wire. These collisions slow down the flow of electrons causing resistance. Resistance is a measure of how hard it is to move the electrons through the wire. The resistance of a wire depends on the number of collisions the electrons have with the atoms there will a larger number of collisions which will increase the resistance of the wire. If a length of a wire contains a certain number of atoms, when that length is increased the number of atoms will also increase. E.g. If there is a wire that is half the length of another wire it would also have half the number of atoms, this means that the electrons will collide with the atoms half the amount of times. Also if the length of the wire is trebled or quadrupled then the resistance would also treble or quadrupled.' My prediction was derived from this information. All of this information I collected originated from the Website, "www.studentcentral.co.uk" from encyclopaedias such as "The Oxford Children's Encyclopaedia" and computer encyclopaedias such as "Encarta". Ã ³This scientific information relates to my experiment by stating that the longer the lengths of wire the higher the resistance. Ã ³Preliminary Results Length Of Wire (mm): Voltage (V): Current (A): Resistance (Ω): Ã ³Therefore this information supports my prediction that the longer the length of wire the higher the resistance. Obtaining Evidence: Ã ³The variables I kept the same are: Ã ´The same material used for the wire, Ã ´The same cross-sectional area of wire, Ã ´And the same temperature of the wire. Ã ³The potential difference from the power pack: 2V.

Belong: Charlie Day and Jasper Jones

Hello all, I am here to put forth my ideas about my perception of belonging via reading Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey, and The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do. But first off, what is Belonging? Belonging I feel, is when you have your mates around you, and you're having a good time, knowing who everyone is, fitting in basically. But there can be other parts of belonging when you don't really know people. For example, belonging to a school, but whilst belonging to it, you could still be bullied or harassed.Whilst I was reading Jasper Jones, I came to notice that Carlie, the main character and narrator of this story, belonged to his own world inside his head, where he stores words, as if it's a prize, but he cannot flaunt them, for the town is a mining town, and it would seem that he is trying to be better than them, just because he seeks education. But back to Charlie, he loves to read, and express his feelings on paper, where he can just dive into his own pool of creative ideas, and that's where he truly feels he belongs.Then I go over to The Happiest Refugee and delve into it's bindings, and try to find out if Anh belonged in the Australian culture, and whilst there was was some ups and downs for him, he finally came to. He met a girl, they shared intimacy and he had his local sports footy club, where he belonged to both. But did Charlie feel as if he belonged to his family? I didn't think so. His mother acted as if she she just had to put up with them, because of her secret love life from afar with another man.She didn't think they were worthy of her presence, and if you read the book, you could see the dialogue in which the mother and father had intensive arguments about not talking to each other, the father drifting away and just locking himself in his room. There is also a video which I think is interestign to watch, it was called Who do you think you are? And this episode was for Christine Anu's family, and her search for her family heritage.After she was famous and now considerably old, she is now just beginning to wonder who her other family members are, thinking she does not feel as if she belongs to anything, as she has no idea what her family was like. So they go off an an adventure, and discover the family members, and Christine get's emotional for each member found, and it is a fascinating watch. But to her, as I said, to belong was for knowing who her family members were, what they did, what they acted like.Now back to Anh, and his belonging to his football club, at first in school, some people tried to outcast him, make him feel bad, and that was one of the teachers for Anh's classes, where they were supposed to make posters about how they hated the asian race, despite Anh being there. But I don't think it phased him as much as the teacher wanted it to, in fact, he strived to make himself belong further, to make the teacher accept him, and he eventually did, but Anh didn't feel right about it.And there was one bit in the book, whe n a member from the other football side they were playing called him a ‘gook', and Anh's team mates heard him say that and went on to thump that player as much as they could every time he got the ball in his possession. So that showed his belonging to the team, whilst when they finish the match, they go off on their different ways a bit like Jasper Jones.Now I don't think Jasper Jones ever truly belonged to everyone, I don't believe he had any friends, the whole town hated him, perhaps for his race, or the fact that he steals, and they then push all blame onto him. Then when Jasper found the horrifying scene in the glades, and came to Charlie for help, I think that is when he genuinely had someone to belong to, to confide in, to tell him things, to let it all out.I mean, all the boys grudgingly admired his footy skills, and the girls were all wild about him in secret, but still nobody approached him, just as no one approached Charlie, and that is probably what compelled Jasper to knock on his window that night, to share with him all those things, to take the adventure together. This is my perception of belonging, and I will most likely never understand the concept of it completely, but I have typed out what I think of it, throughout the three texts that I have had to talk about.

Night World : Huntress Chapter 7

She emerged on the rooftop. There was a sort of roof garden here-anyway, a lot of scraggly plants in large wooden tubs. There was also some dirty patio furniture and other odds and ends. But the main feature was a small structure that sat on the roof the way a house sits on a street. Morgead's home. The penthouse. It was as stark and unlovely as the rest of the building, but it had a great view and it was completely private. There were no other tall buildings nearby to look down on it. Jez moved stealthily toward the door. Her feet made no noise on the pitted asphalt of the roof, and she was in a state of almost painfully heightened awareness. In the old days sneaking up on another gang member had been a game. You got to laugh at them if you could startle them, and they got to be furious and humiliated. Today it wasn't a game. Jez started toward the warped wooden door-then stopped. Doors were trouble. Morgead would have been an idiot not to have rigged it to alert him to intruders. Cat-quiet, she headed instead for a narrow metal ladder that led to the roof of the wooden structure. Now she was on the real top of the building. The only thing higher was a metal flagpole without a She moved noiselessly across the new roof. At the far edge she found herself looking four stories straight down. And directly below her there was a window. An open window. Jez smiled tightly. Then she hooked her toes over the four-inch lip at the edge of the roof and dropped gracefully forward. She grabbed the top of the window in mid-dive and hung suspended, defying gravity like a bat attached upside down. She looked inside. And there he was. Lying on a futon, asleep. He was sprawled on his back, fully clothed in jeans, high boots, and a leather jacket. He looked good. Just like the old days, Jez thought. When the gang would stay out all night riding their bikes and hunting or fighting or partying, and then come home in the morning to scramble into clothes for school. Except Morgead, who would smirk at them and then collapse. He didn't have parents or relatives to keep him from skipping. I'm surprised he's not wearing his helmet, too, she thought, pulling herself back up to the roof. She picked up the fighting stick, maneuvered it into the window, then let herself down again, this time hanging by her hands. She slid in without making a noise. Then she went to stand over him. He hadn't changed. He looked exactly as she remembered, except younger and more vulnerable because he was asleep. His face was pale, making his dark hair seem even darker. His lashes were black crescents on his cheeks. Evil and dangerous, Jez reminded herself. It annoyed her that she had to remind herself of what Morgead was. For some reason her mind was throwing pictures at her, scenes from her childhood while she was living here in San Francisco with her Uncle Bracken. A five-year-old Jez, with shorter red hair that looked as if it had never been combed, walking with a little grimy-faced Morgead, hand in hand. An eight-year-old Jez with two skinned knees, scowling as a businesslike Morgead pulled wood splinters out of her legs with rusty tweezers. A seven-year-old Morgead with his face lit up in astonishment as Jez persuaded him to try the human thing called ice cream†¦. Stop it, Jez told her brain flatly. You might as well give up, because it's no good. We were friends then-well, some of the time-but we're enemies now. He's changed. I've changed. He'd kill me in a second now if it would suit his purpose. And I'm going to do what has to be done. She backed up and poked him lightly with the stick. â€Å"Morgead.† His eyes flew open and he sat up. He was awake instantly, like any vampire, and he focused on her without a trace of confusion. Jez had changed her grip on the stick and was standing ready in case he went straight into an attack. But instead, a strange expression crossed his face. It went from startled recognition into something Jez didn't understand. For a moment he was simply staring at her, eyes big, chest heaving, looking as if he were caught in between pain and happiness. Then he said quietly, â€Å"Jez.† â€Å"Hi, Morgead.† â€Å"You came back.† Jez shifted the stick again. â€Å"Apparently.† He got up in one motion. â€Å"Where the hell have you been?† Now he just looked furious, Jez noted. Which was easier to deal with, because that was how she remembered him. â€Å"I can't tell you,† she said, which was perfectly true, and would also annoy the life out of him. It did. He shook his head to get dark hair out of his eyes-it was always disheveled in the morning, Jez remembered-and glared at her. He was standing easily: not in any attack posture, but with the relaxed readiness that meant he could go flying in any direction at any moment. Jez kept half her mind on watching his leg muscles. â€Å"You can't tell me? You disappear one day without any kind of warning, without even leaving a note†¦ you leave the gang and me and just completely vanish and nobody knows where to find you, not even your uncle .. . and now you reappear again and you can't tell me where you were?† He was working himself into one of his Extremely Excited States, Jez realized. She was surprised; she'd expected him to stay cooler and attack hard. â€Å"What did you think you were doing, just cutting out on everybody? Did it ever occur to you that people would be worried about you? That people would think you were dead?† It didn't occur to me that anyone would care, Jez thought, startled. Especially not you. But she couldn't say that. â€Å"Look, I didn't mean to hurt anybody. And I can't talk about why I went. But I'm back now-â€Å" â€Å"You can't just come back!† Jez was losing her calm. Nothing was going the way she'd expected; the things she'd scripted out to say weren't getting said. â€Å"I know I can't just come back-â€Å" â€Å"Because it doesn't work that way!† Morgead was pacing now, tossing hair out of his eyes again as he turned to glare at her. â€Å"Blood in, blood out. Since you're apparently not dead, you abandoned us. You're not allowed to do that! And you certainly can't expect to just walk back in and become my second again-â€Å" â€Å"I don't!† Jez yelled. She had to shut him up. â€Å"I have no intention of becoming your second-in-command!† she said when he finally paused. â€Å"I came to challenge you as leader.† Morgead's jaw dropped. Jez let her breath out. That wasn't exactly how she'd planned to say it. But now, seeing his shock, she felt more in control. She leaned casually against the wall, smiled at him, and said smoothly, ‘I was leader when I left, remember.† â€Å"You†¦ have got to be †¦ joking.† Morgead stared at her. â€Å"You expect to waltz back in here as leader?† â€Å"If I can beat you. I think I can. I did it once.† He stared for another minute, seeming beyond words. Then he threw back his head and laughed. It was a scary sound. When he looked at her again, his eyes were bright and hard. â€Å"Yeah, you did. I've gotten better since then.† Jez said three words. â€Å"So have I.† And with that, everything changed. Morgead shifted position-only slightly, but he was now in a fighting stance. Jez felt adrenaline flow through her own body. The challenge had been issued and accepted; there was nothing more to say. They were now facing each other ready to fight. And this she could deal with. She was much better at fighting than at playing with words. She knew Morgead in this mood; his pride and his skill had been questioned and he was now absolutely determined to win. This was very familiar. Without taking his eyes from her, he reached out and picked a fighting stick from the rack behind him. Japanese oak, Jez noted. Heavy, well-seasoned, resilient. Good choice. The fire-hardened end was very pointy. He wouldn't try to use that first, though. First, he would go for disarming her. The simplest way to do this was to break the wrist of her dominant hand. After that he'd go for critical points and nerve centers. He didn't play around at this. A minute change in Morgead's posture alerted her, and then they were both moving. He swung his stick up and down in a perfect arc, aiming for her right wrist. Jez blocked easily with her own stick and felt the shock as wood clashed with wood. She instantly changed her grip and tried for a trap, but he whipped his stick out of the way and was facing her again as if he'd never moved in the first place. He smiled at her. He's right. He's gotten better. A small chill went through Jez, and for the first time she worried about her ability to beat him. Because I have to do it without killing him, she thought. She wasn't at all sure he had the same concern about not killing her. â€Å"You're so predictable, Morgead,† she told him. â€Å"I could fight you in my sleep.† She feinted toward his wrist and then tried to sweep his legs out from underneath him. He blocked and tried for a trap. â€Å"Oh, yeah? And you hit like a four-year-old. You couldn't take me down if I stood here and let you.† They circled each other warily. The snakewood stick was warm in Jez's hands. It was funny, some distant part of her mind thought irrelevantly, how the most humble and lowly of human weapons was the most dangerous to vampires. But it was also the most versatile weapon in the world. With a stick, unlike a knife or gun or sword, you could fine-tune the degree of pain and injury you caused. You could disarm and control attackers, and-if the circumstances required it-you could inflict pain without permanently injuring them. Of course if they were vampires, you could also kill them, which you couldn't do with a knife or gun. Only wood could stop the vampire heart permanently, which was why the fighting stick was the weapon of choice for vampires who wanted to hurt each other†¦ and for vampire hunters. Jez grinned at Morgead, knowing it was not a particularly nice smile. Her feet whispered across the worn oak boards of the floor. She and Morgead had practiced here countless times, measuring themselves against each other, training themselves to be the best. And it had worked. They were both masters of this most deadly weapon. But no fight had ever mattered as much as this one. â€Å"Next you're going to try for a head strike,† she informed Morgead coolly. â€Å"Because you always do.† â€Å"You think you know everything. But you don't know me anymore. I've changed,† he told her, just as calmly-and went for a head strike. â€Å"Psyche,† he said as she blocked it and wood clashed with a sharp whack. â€Å"Wrong.† Jez twisted her stick sharply, got leverage on his, and whipped it down, holding it against his upper thighs. â€Å"Trap.† She grinned into his face. And was startled for a moment. She hadn't been this close to him in a long time. His eyes-they were so green, gem-colored, and full of strange light. For just an instant neither of them moved; then-weapons down, their gazes connected. Their faces were so close their breath mingled. Then Morgead slipped out of the trap. â€Å"Don't try that stuff,† he said nastily. â€Å"What stuff?† The moment her stick was free of his, she snapped it up again, reversing her grip and thrusting toward his eyes. â€Å"You know what stuff!† He deflected her thrust with unnecessary force. â€Å"That I'm Jez and I'm so wild and beautiful' stuff. That ‘Why don't you just drop your stick and let me hit you because it'll be fun' stuff.† â€Å"Morgead†¦ what are you†¦ talking about?† In between the words she attacked, a strike to his throat and then one to his temple. He blocked and evaded-which was just what she wanted. Evasion. Retreat. She was crowding him into a corner. â€Å"That's the only way you won before. Trying to play on people's feelings for you. Well, it won't work anymore!† He countered viciously, but it didn't matter. Jez blocked with a whirlwind of strikes of her own, pressing him, and then he had no choice but to retreat until his back was against the corner. She had him. She had no idea what he meant about playing on people's feelings, and she didn't have time to think about it. Morgead was dangerous as a wounded tiger when he was cornered. His eyes were glowing emerald green with sheer fury, and there was a hardness to his features that hadn't been there last year. He does hate me, Jez thought. Hugh was wrong. He's hurt and angry and he absolutely hates me. The textbook answer was to use that emotion against him, to provoke him and get him so mad that he gave her an opening. Some instinct deep inside Jez was worried about that, but she didn't listen. â€Å"Hey, all's fair, right?† she told him softly. â€Å"And what do you mean, it won't work? I've got you, haven't I?† She flashed out a couple of quick attacks, more to keep him occupied than anything else. â€Å"You're caught, and you're going to have to let down your guard sometime.† The green eyes that had been luminous with fury suddenly went cold. The color of glacier ice. â€Å"Unless I do something unexpected,† he said. â€Å"Nothing you do is unexpected,† she said sweetly. But her mind was telling her that provoking him had been a mistake. She had hit some nerve, and he was stronger than he'd been a year ago. He didn't lose his temper under pressure the way he'd used to. He just got more determined. Those green eyes unnerved her. Move in hard, she thought. All out. Go for a pressure point. Numb his arm- But before she could do anything, a wave of Power hit her. It sent her reeling. She'd never felt anything exactly like it. It came from Morgead, a Shockwave of telepathic energy that struck her like a physical thing. It knocked her back two steps and made her struggle for balance. It left the air crackling with electricity and a faint smell of ozone. Jez's mind spun. How had he done that? â€Å"It's not hard,† Morgead said in a calm, cold voice that went with his eyes. He was out of the corner by now, of course. For a moment Jez thought he was reading her thoughts, but then she realized her question must be written all over her face. ‘It's something I discovered after you left,† he went on. â€Å"All it takes is practice.† If you're telepathic, Jez thought. Which I'm not anymore. The Night People are getting stronger, developing more powers, she thought. Well, Hugh had been right on that one. And she was in trouble now. Whack! That was Morgead going for a side sweep. He'd noticed her lack of balance. Jez countered automatically, but her head wasn't clear and her body was ringing with pain. He'd shaken her, distracted her. â€Å"As you said, all's fair,† Morgead said, with a small, cold smile on his lips. â€Å"You have your weapons. I have mine.† And then he threw another of those Shockwaves at her. Jez was better braced for it now, but it still rocked her on her feet, took her attention off her weapon- Just long enough for her to screw up and let him in. He drove upward to catch her stick from below. Then he twisted, sweeping her stick in a circle, forcing her off balance again, trying to topple her backward. As Jez fought to recover, he struck to her elbow. Hard. Wham! It was a different sound from the crisp whack when wood hit wood. This was softer, duller, the sound of wood hitting flesh and bone. Jez heard her own involuntary gasp of pain. Fire shot up her arm, into her shoulder, and for a moment she lost her grip on the stick with her right hand. She forced her fingers to close on it again, but they were numb. She couldn't feel what she was holding. She couldn't block properly with one arm useless. And Morgead was advancing, that deadly cold light in his eyes. Absolutely merciless. His movements were relaxed and easy; he knew exactly what he was doing now. Two more whacks and he got through her guard again. The oak stick slammed into her ribs and she felt another wave of sickening pain. Gray dots danced in front of her eyes. Fractured? Jez wondered briefly. She hoped not. Vampires could break each other's ribs in fun and know that everything would heal in a day or two. But Jez wouldn't recover like that. Morgead might kill her without even meaning to. She couldn't let him keep striking her-but she couldn't retreat, either. If he got her into a corner, she'd be lost. Whack-wham. He got her on the knee. Pain sparked up and down her leg, lighting every nerve. She had no choice but to back up. He was crowding her relentlessly, forcing her to the wall. Morgead flashed a smile at her. Not the cold smile. This one was brilliant, and very familiar to Jez. It made him look devastatingly handsome, and it meant that he was in absolute command of the situation. â€Å"You can give up anytime, now,† he said. â€Å"Because I'm going to win and we both know it.†

Essay Starbucks Financial Statements

Essay Starbucks Financial Statements Essay Starbucks Financial Statements Starbucks Financial Statements Analysis 1. Starbucks is a globally well-known brand of specialty coffee over 60 countries. Founded in 1985, Starbucks has high reputation for selling high quality coffee as well as tea and other beverages and fresh food through a well decorated and elegant in-store environment. The main initiative for Starbucks is to â€Å"maintain Starbucks standing as one of the most recognized and respected brands in the world.† Aiming to achieve this goal, the globally disciplined expansion and continuous new coffee and categories are two main methods. 2. As the CEO mentioned in letters to shareholders, â€Å"First, we will remain committed to our coffee core. Second, we will exercise relevant, timely, and courageous innovation.† The most significant internal strengthen of Starbucks is the attention focused on core business-high quality and premium handcrafted coffee. In order to achieve this, Starbucks’s company-operated store in U.S. is about 61%. The internal weakness is also obvious, which is the price. Starbucks’s price is apparently higher than other competitors, which could easily lose customer in times of economic hardship. â€Å"In the China and Asia Pacific region in 2012, we once, again posted strong annual returns, including 11 consecutive quarters of double-digit comparable store sales growth.† The global expansion strategy of Starbucks enables Starbucks to compete in a worldwide stage and leverages the revenue with a huge potential, which is a considerable external opportunity. The major threat is from Starbucks’s competitors, McDonald’s and Dunkin Donuts. They are both offering low ends coffee and challenging Starbucks based on their large scale of sale. 3. In Starbucks case, the auditing firm offered unqualified opinion, which means† states that the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position, results of operations, and cash flows of the entity, in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles.† 4. The net sale of 2012 was strong and achieved $6,630.5 million compared to $5,882.4 million in 2011 and $5,231.2 million in 2010. The selling, general and administrative expenses also increased modestly from $1,457.6 million to $1,596.2 million. Due to the strong in sale, the operating income rose to $782.1 million from $630 million in 2011. Moreover, the interest expense, net reduced from $5.6 million to $2.9 million as a consequence of reducing short term borrowing in order to achieve a more conservative capital structure. The net income achieved $488.3 million in 2012, compared to past two years was a great success due to the outperforming sale. Therefore, the basic net income per share ended with $4.06 per share and $4.03 diluted net income per share which was impressive. 5. The cash reduced slightly from $311.2 million in 2011 to $288.3 million in 2012. The short term investments turned to zero at 2012 compared to $174.8 million in 2011 as a way to slow down the domestic expansion. Besides, the long–term debt remained identical in the past year. The merchandise increased from $803.1 million to $867.4 million during 2012. Meanwhile the property, land and plant increased greatly from

Typesetting 101 The Only Guide to Interior Book Design You Need

Typesetting 101 The Only Guide to Interior Book Design You Need What is Typesetting? Your Guide to Interior Book Design Think that you’re ready to publish your book? Think again. Before you send your book off to the printers, you not only need to make sure that the content of your book is good - it also has to  look  good on the page. Imagine your gut reaction to a room that’s sloppy and cluttered, for instance. Not great, right? If the interior design of your book is similarly slipshod, your readers will also discover a sudden urge to back away slowly.That’s why we’ll sum up the secret to a more inviting reading experience in one word now: typesetting.In this post, we define what is typesetting, investigate what separates the pros from the amateurs, and reveal exactly what you need in order to make a beautiful book. And of course, we'll answer the biggest question of all: how can you make sure that you’re properly typesetting your own work? Let’s find out.What is typesetting?Typesetting is the process of setting text onto a page. In this stage, which occ urs towards the end of book production, the typesetter arranges the book’s interior to create the best reading experience. He or she will, among other things:Determine the size of the margins,Style the chapter starts, andPick the right font typeface and size for the content.At its core, typesetting is all about visual communication. Underestimating the importance of typesetting is a mistake because that would affect the readability of your book - which, in turn, impacts its sales. In the words of world-class typographer Erik Spiekermann:Disclaimer: we’re the team that created the Reedsy Book Editor. Basically, our objective was to simplify the process of making a beautifully typeset book. We believe that we succeeded.  The Reedsy Book Editor is a one-click formatting tool that makes it incredibly easy to typeset books in a professional manner  -   and it is (and always will be)  free for writers to use.It's a  Ã¢  ¤Ã¯ ¸ Ã‚  for: Text-only books. Find  ou t more about the RBE in this FAQ.Adobe InDesignInDesign is an incredibly powerful design software that professional designers use. You can use it too, though it’ll set you back a cool $239. InDesign is capable of kerning, stroking, paragraph formatting, drop cap stylization - all things that might take you ages to carry out in Word.  But the curve to master its functions is really steep. If you’re willing to spend that time (or if you’re publishing an illustration-intensive book), we recommend trying out its free one-month trial.It's a  Ã¢  ¤Ã¯ ¸ Ã‚  for:  More complex books that contain many illustrations and page spreads.If this is all a bit overwhelming to you, don’t worry! Typesetting is a discipline that takes years to master. If you can’t commit the time that it takes to become a great typesetter, it might be a better use of your resources to work with a pro. Speaking of which...Tips for working with a professional typesetterProfessi onal typesetters are experienced designers whose medium of choice is typography. However, it’s important to make sure that you find the right typesetter for your work, which is why we’ve got some tips for you below - straight from the professional typesetters on our marketplace.1. Get a typesetter who’s familiar with the genre or market of your book. Euan Monaghan: Each category often brings its own conventions and styles. The writer may wish to follow these conventions, or utterly subvert them - but your designer needs to understand the 'normal' baseline for the intended readership.2. Look at typesetting examples of their work. Rachel Reiss: Always feel free to ask them to email you some PDFs, so you can examine their work up close. If they’ve designed different types of books, do the designs vary from book to book and do the different designs feel as though they "fit" the content of the books? Is it easy and comfortable to read the text?PRO-TIP: If you’re on Reedsy’s marketplace, you can click through typesetters’ portfolios to check out typesetting examples of their work.3. Judge the typesetter's work as a reader. Annabel Brandon: When you've encountered someone that may be suitable, try not to look at the design, instead, read their work. If it reads well, and you don't stumble or specifically notice anything, it's perfect. If a designer chooses to add ornamentation, there should be an apparent reason as to why. Otherwise, it's a distraction and doesn't honor the text itself.4. Educate yourself and ask questions. Kevin Kane: Designers, especially book designers, are some of the nerdiest people you’ll ever meet. Having an interest in their trade can make a big difference in the author-designer relationship. Ask questions about the designer’s process, and about the decisions they make while designing a book. If you find a designer who can’t answer your questions about book design thoroughly, you’ve probably taken on the wrong designer.Generally, the cost of a typesetter will depend on the type of book that you’re publishing - the typesetters on Reedsy charge between $500 and $2,000, for instance. However, whichever route you choose in the end, just remember to keep the end goal in sight: a polished, clean, and welcoming book interior that invites readers into the story.Have you typeset a book before? Which typesetting software did you use and what did you think of the process? Share your experiences in the comments below! We'd love to hear your thoughts ⠝ ¤Ã¯ ¸ 

Non Specific topics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Non Specific topics - Essay Example The U.S national economy is different from those of other nations in various ways. Firstly, the US has a liberalized economy. In this economy, the government has minimal control over the economy. Private investors own most of the country’s infrastructure and businesses. Besides having a liberalized, the US has the most formal economy in the world. The US has a functional revenue collection system that provides the required finances. Lastly, the country has market-based economy. In this type of economy, individual/consumers make market decisions. Testing microeconomic theories is a difficult undertaking. This is because an economic phenomenon depends on many valuables. Some of these variables cannot be tested, hence the difficulty in testing microeconomic theories. Moreover, change in dependent variables after each change in independent variable takes a long time or is difficult to establish. In such case, it is difficult or impossible to study the underlying economic situation (Bade, & Michael, 2001). For example, improvement of people’s purchasing power because of infrastructural development might take decades. The Keynesian theory predicts that government’s intervention on an economy results in economic growth. It would be difficult or impossible to test such theory since economic changes takes a long time. The great depression had significant impacts on the US economy. Following these economic extremes, the US government had to restructure its policymaking process. Initially, the US had a rigid economy that was mainly controlled by the government. In addition, the government was the sole developer of economic policies. However, following the depression, the government started involving the private sector in the development of economic policies (McEachern, 2012). The US economy was also based on short-term policies developed by the government. However, following the