What does it all mean By Nagel

What does it all mean by Nagel is often referred to as the little book of philosophy amongst critics. This is because the book gives the reader a compact overview of all the fundamental constituents of philosophy such as the dualism of the mind and the body and more complex topics such as the meaning of the existence of man and his consciousness. The attribute that differentiates Nagel’s work from other works on introductions to philosophy and its content is that Nagel uses language that welcomes the new student of philosophy in to the subject. We see this book as one that allows the layman to acquire a basic knowledge of what to expect in further studies into philosophy (Nagel, 1987). The introductory chapter allows for a gentle entrance into the world of philosophy and welcomes the reader to the nature of questions that are to follow in the study of philosophy. In â€Å"How Do We Know Anything? † the second chapter, Nagel states that the world around us is the reality because we can study it and substantiate it, and similarly all the constituents of the world and all the theories are true only if they can be studied and substantiated for their content. In the third chapter â€Å"Other Minds†, Nagel is of the opinion that if one person finds a particular external stimulus pleasant, it is not reasonable to conclude that the next person receives the stimulus with the same interest since the only way for the first person to have come to a conclusion regarding the stimulus is through experiencing it In Chapter 4, ‘The Mind-Body Problem’, Nagel presents to the reader the direct union between the mind and the human consciousness and concludes that in order for consciousness to experience an event, the brain has to receive a stimulus. In Chapter 5, Nagel talks about the perceptions of the words we use and the names we give to the elements of the world around us and if the words we use are truly of any significance or not. In Chapter 6, Nagel argues upon the free will that we exercise and whether or not our will actually is independent and if it is of any actual significance. In Chapter 7, ‘Right and Wrong’, Nagel criticizes the definitions of right and wrong that man uses to manage the day to day activities of his life and questions the legitimacy of those definitions. In Chapter 8, ‘Justice’, Nagel argues upon the justice and inequality of the universe that man dwells in that is beyond the control of man himself. He argues whether it is correct to oppose the occurrence of events of such uncontrollable nature. Chapter 9 discusses the bleakness of Death and the perception that we have for it and the question of it really being that we believe it to be. In Chapter 10, ‘The Meaning of Life, Nagel hits on a chord that is the most sought after in all segments of society. Nagel argues over the reality of the meaning, existence and expectation of life. Nagel uses his trademark method of writing that inspires inquisition in the minds of the reader and allows the reader an opportunity to get a taste of the levels of realization that the subject has to offer and does so without confusing the reader through jargon.

Holden’s depression by J.D Salinger Essay

According to Psychiatric News the depression rate of a normal 16 year old is 11.5%. Holden Caulfield was apart of that 11.5% because he is disconnected with his family, is drinking heavily and is trying to experience sexual relations with older women. In Catcher in the Rye, J.D Salinger uses Holden’s interactions with his family, alcohol and sexuality to demonstrate his depression. This story describes that with Holden’s brother, Allie passing away it makes his depression rate go higher but lowers as he ‘talks’ to him. â€Å"I felt so depressed, you can’t even imagine. What I did, I started talking, sort of out loud to Allie,†(98) said Holden. This shows that whenever Holden would feel down and depressed that the only person to go to was his brother, Allie. This was a way of comfort for Holden throughout the story. There are more incidents when Holden felt depressed and just talked to his dead brother, Allie, which is Salinger’s way to demonstrate his depression. Alcohol demonstrates Holden’s depression also. â€Å"There isn’t any nightclub in the world you can sit in for a long time unless you can at least buy some liquor and get drunk of unless you’re with some girl that really knocks you out,† said Holden which describes that with the word usage of â€Å"at least buy some liquor and get drunk† meant that for him to have a good time he would need to be drunk to have fun. Also, the words â€Å"unless you’re with some girl that really knocks you out† explains that not just being drunk at a nightclub would make him enjoy himself but just having someone to talk to would also help to get rid of the loneliness. Being alone and needing someone to talk to, links back to Holden’s depression issues. Lastly, Holden is mostly saddened by his sexual relationships with older women. Holden’s quote â€Å"don’t you feel like talking for a while†(124) , lets the reader know that he is scared and doesn’t really want to have sex with Sunny and just needed someone to talk to. Holden wanted to keep the conversation going but could not because Sunny was a prostitute and was only there for the money, not for conversation. The words â€Å"don’t you feel like†¦Ã¢â‚¬  shows that Holden is just asking questions, trying to prevent Sunny from doing her job or ignoring the real reason she was there. This shows that Holden only asked Maurice to send up a girl for him so he would have someone to talk to since he could not talk to his mom about his problems since she wasn’t around. As a result, he tries to connect with other older women instead. Salinger uses Holden’s attraction to older women to demonstrate the extent of his depression and need t o have someone to give a listening ear. Catcher in the Rye demonstrates Holden’s depression by J.D Salinger’s usage of his family, alcohol and sexuality. These quotes all show that his use of alcohol, sexual relationships and the lack of family all contributed to Holden’s depression. His is one of the many teenage depression cases that make up the 11.5% of the nation’s depression rate.

Plato's Dialogues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Plato's Dialogues - Essay Example Eventually, the son is taught the unjust speech which enabled them to get rid of the creditors. However, the son also does not spare his father but gives him a beating due to a disagreement on recitation of poetry and justifies his actions using sophistry. The father gets angry and burns the Thinkery as well as chasing students away for deceiving him. What is then the difference between Socrates of the cloud and Socrates of platonic dialogues? These two present Socrates as two different individuals or an individual having two personalities. In the clouds Aristophanes portrays Socrates as an intellectual man who teachers others especially the young how to make arguments. This is contrary to platonic dialogues and especially in his defense (on the Apology) where he argues that he is not a teacher thus there is no way he can corrupt the young. He argues that he is not a wise man as revealed in the oracle by his friend Chaerephon. This he says is because he knows nothing unlike the polit icians, poets and craftsmen. However, in the clouds Socrates is a knowledgeable man who has made a lot of discoveries. When Strepsiades visited the sophistry the student told him of how Socrates had discovered jumped by a flea, the cause of the buzzing noise by a gnat and also huge pair of compasses for measuring the land. Now he was engaged in discovering celestial bodies such as the sun. Besides, his work was to teach the young how to make arguments, in this case there are two types of arguments superior and inferior or just and unjust. Another difference between the Socrates of the cloud and Socrates of platonic ideas besides being a teacher is that in the clouds he is not against nature but following it. Aristophanes says that Socrates emerged in a balloon basket hanging mid-air. He was thus walking in the air to speculate about the sun. This he explained to Strepsiades helps him to suspend judgment and open the mind to new ideas. This shows that Socrates was interested in natur e thus following it to discover more. Furthermore, more of his students were bent on the earth trying to discover what lies underneath the earth thus he was trying to discover celestial bodies. No wonder he was accused of â€Å"studying all the things in the sky and below the earth and teaching the same things to others.† On the other hand, platonic dialogues though they do not deny his concern for natural science do not depict him as following nature either. Instead, he is portrayed as a critical and rational thinker depicted by the manner in which he asks questions and makes conclusions. When the oracle declared him as the wisest man of all he didn’t accept the situation there and then but set out to understand what being wise means by studying those people who considered themselves as wise such as politicians and poets. He discovered that he was indeed the wisest since those who consider themselves wise did not know what to be wise means but at least for him he did not pretend to know and the beginning of wisdom is accepting that we do not know and surely if the gods decided he was wise then he must be wise. He also engaged in questioning Euthyphro to discover what piety and impiety means. â€Å"Is it pious because the Gods love it, or do the Gods love it because it is pious†

Probability Assignment Speech or Presentation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Probability Assignment - Speech or Presentation Example Since the committee consists of 3 members, there are 3! possible permutations of any committee. Thus, we need to divide the number of permutations by 6 to get the number of combinations: When a coin is tossed once, there are two outcomes. It can turn up a head or a tail. When 10 coins are tossed simultaneously, the total number of outcomes = 210. In this event, if the third coin were to turn up a head, then the number of possibilities for the third coin is only 1 as the outcome is fixed as head. Therefore, the remaining 9 coins can turn up either a head or a tail equals 29. The first envelope can be posted in any of the 3 mailboxes. Hence, there are 3 choices for it. Similarly, each of the other four envelopes can be posted in any of the 3 mailboxes. Therefore, the total number of ways these 5 envelopes can be posted in the 3 mailboxes is 3*3*3*3*3 =

Monitoring U.S. citizens' phone conversations to detect potential Essay - 1

Monitoring U.S. citizens' phone conversations to detect potential terriorist threats - Essay Example The very spirit of American political life and popular expectations simply do not allow the state to extend its sway beyond a point where it not only interferes with the personal and professional lives of people and individuals, but rather tempers with the privacy of their private and professional phone conversations. National security is really very important. However, the concerns for national security cannot be allowed to irrationality expand to a level where they start hampering the normal activities of the citizens. The act of monitoring the phone conversations of citizens is also unconstitutional and violates the Fourth Amendment rights of the citizens, which constitute a part of the Bill of Rights (Dripps, 2007). Superficially speaking, the Fourth Amendment to the constitution of the United States of America intends to protect the citizens from illegal search and seizures. Surprisingly, the very purpose of this Amendment was to check the abuse of general search warrants in the American Revolution (Dripps, 2007). In the historical Katz v. United States judgment, the US Supreme Court declared any state intrusion into an area where a citizen has the reasonable expectation and right to seek privacy, to be an illegal search and a violation of the Fourth Amendment (Dripps, 2007). Thus, monitoring of the phone conversations of the US citizens is a legal and ethical violation of their privacy. This in no way means that the law enforcement agencies simply cannot have an access to the phone conversations of the people doubted of having terrorist links. They can do so as per the ways and procedures laid down by the US laws. As per the Fourth Amendment, the law enforcement personnel can resort to a legal search (here monitoring of phone conversations), provided such a procedure is pursuant to a valid court warrant sanctioned on the basis of the information provided by a law enforcement personnel to the court, under an oath

Learning & Professional Practice assignment‏ Essay

Learning & Professional Practice assignment† - Essay Example This paper provides some discussions on the various aspects of learning that are important in understanding how human beings are as learners. Specifically, it explains how people learn as discussed mostly in the view of educational psychology, the methods used to further a person’s learning progress, the way learners responds in different learning environment, and how human beings develop what they learned into a higher level of thinking. People tend to have a general notion that learning usually transpires within the domains of formal educational institutions such as schools and universities. Although most of the knowledge that individuals accumulated over time have been a result of formal training and discourse, it is undeniable that the process of learning is an unending and inevitable phenomenon which happens in any other venues besides formal institutions. As Salmon (1980) puts it, learning also occurs outside schools and universities – that is, within the comforts of the home, the workplace, or any place where we can communicate and socialize with other people. Apparently, this is particularly true with a person’s early childhood learning experiences and equally true with his/her continual learning endeavors after bidding farewells to the academic world on his/her graduation day. In the early childhood years, human beings started to learn through the aid of speech and language which are usually accompanied by effective nonverbal gestures. From reciting nursery rhymes, they stepped up to writing our own essays and poems. From counting one to ten, they moved to memorizing the multiplication table and solving even more complex problems on accounting or mathematical economics. Eventually, they became capable to manage the financial aspects of a business. From learning the rules of a game, they became able to set our own rules or even devise a new game. I have to agree with Cam (1995) that the manifestations of

History of Washington State Wine industry and it's global future Research Paper

History of Washington State Wine industry and it's global future - Research Paper Example This will be followed by the global future of the industry. The Washington wine is produced from grapes grown in the Washington region and this industry ranks second in the overall production of wine, falling only second to California. The industry has seen immense growth and development and the number of vineyards has grown to over 30,000, which cater to the export needs to almost forty different countries from around the world. The main production of wine takes place in the eastern half of the state, and this half is desert like in nature. Irrigation and water rights are a major interest to the industry and this is solely due to the rain shadow of the Cascade regions (Matthews). Also the Viticulture of the state is also a result of the high levels of sunlight that the area receives. The wine industry was started way back in 1825, when the first wine grapes were planted by Hudson’s Bay Company at the Ford Vancouver. As time passed by 1910, the state saw a high level of increase in the growing of grapes across the state (Gregutt). The credits for pioneers of the plantations however go to the French, Italians and Germans. There were number of efforts for the Wine Projects from wine experts and historians like Ron Irvine and Dr. Walter Clore. These experts were the ones to start the early planting at Fort Vancouver. The year 1854 saw the hybrid varieties of grapes and these were got to the Puget Sound region. As time passed by 1860, wine grapes were being started to plant in the region of the Walla Walla valley. The early 1900s specifically around 1903, found a large number of irrigation projects that were developed. During this time there was a large melt down of the Cascade Mountains and this was a huge opportunity for the people as the soil in these areas was rich volcanic and the weather here was sunny and arid. It was now that the Yakima and Columbia regions also saw the plantations of Italian and German varieties. As time passed by this

Salata Baladi Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Salata Baladi - Movie Review Example "It is this urgency and necessity to tell a personal, closer-to-life story that drives and motivates this family fresco." (Daele, Koen Van; "A Home Movie in the True Sense"; Mumbai Documentary Film Festival; 2008; www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/ c746.shtml #top) Significant is the scene in which, while waiting in vain in Ramallah for the Israelis to reopen the Erez checkpoint which would enable them to visit their Palestinian brothers and sisters, Mary tries to communicate with her Palestinian friend in Gaza via webcam. On the computer they succeed in establishing visual contact but the sound is missing. "Through this technical problem, the director instantly represents the harrowing situation of the Palestinian refugees caught in the Gaza Strip. Collectively punished for decades, this is a people whose voice has been systematically taken away, and remains all too often unheard." (Daele, Koen Van; "A Home Movie in the True Sense"; Mumbai Documentary Film Festival; 2008; www.wmm.com/fi lmcatalog/pages/c 746.shtml #top). The film offers a perspective on how divided loyalties, as those of Mary between her pro-Palestinian convictions and love of relatives since migrated to Israel, make initially for indecisiveness, although blood eventually proves thicker than water. That perspective is unexceptionable as any other would have gone against human nature. Another is that rationalization comes naturally to those thus divided between loyalties. "Distant View of a Minaret" by Alifa Rifaat is a collection of 15 short stories that, the blurb claims, "give readers a glimpse of what it means to be a woman in an orthodox Muslim society in Egypt". (SPARKNOTES from Barnes & Noble). But while the setting may be Egyptian, the stories portraying different woes of women have universal appeal; for instance, a sexually dissatisfied woman, as in the title story, would be apt to remain stoic in the face of the death of her husband anywhere in the world, even in the US, not just in Egypt. In "Bahiyya's Eyes", Bahiyya, an elderly woman, tells her visiting daughter that she had recently visited a hospital where the doctor said she would soon go blind. The imminent blindness, according to her, is the result of copious tears that she had shed all her life for being born a girl. She learned about sex by watching animals; she had fancied a boy in her village, but her family had got her married to another man who died shortly after the wedding. Bahiyya describes the loneliness of being a woman without a man, and that her life and youth had been a waste. The message of this story too is universal because being born a girl is regarded as a curse in several countries, including Egypt, although that perception may still be alien to some advanced countries like the US. In "Degrees of Death", the narrator, who has begun to love the rabbits gifted her, realizes, on seeing nanny Zareefa kill one of them, that there are degrees of death for both human beings and animals as both get killed, either out of need or for sport; and that is a damning indictment of the human tendency to kill men and animals alike with a straight face in any country. "An Incident in the Ghobashi Household" shows to what lengths a woman can go to

No topic Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

No topic - Assignment Example Finally, the overarching application of philosophy in current times were asserted in terms of updating previously archaic topics and issues to make them relevant and useful. These topics include a discussion on three identified areas: medicine, environment, and feminism (Hildebrand). One found the intention to provide a definition of God as interesting; yet still wanting. The definitions that were presented were still very much abstract and readers from a wide range of demographical and cultural background could find it challenging to grasp the concepts being asserted. It was, likewise, commendable to try and explain the different constructs of religion as containing three common elements: a content; a method; and a divine guarantee (Hildebrand). Some ideas which were unique included establishing a link between religion and democracy; as well as affirming that religion no longer plays a significant credible appeal in Western society’s existence (Hildebrand). It could be asserted that the notion was primarily taking the author’s perspective. One strongly believes that religion still plays an active role in contemporary societies’ values and beliefs; as it assists in the formation of values and conformity with moral and ethical standards on a more universal and global scale. However, one finds it difficult to agree with the contention that â€Å"If it can be appreciated that many of our most celebrated achievements have been directly facilitated by a human community (and not by God), then community may provide a powerful source of inspiration for this new, common faith† (Hildebrand 202). One is convinced that human community, by nature, cannot be separated from the purpose of God’s creation. As such, the driving force of human community is still believed to be theologically spurred, especially for very religious groups, like predominantly Catholic nations. The steadfast and firm believe in God has entrenched values and beliefs which emphasize

The Security payment in E- commerce Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Security payment in E- commerce - Essay Example Internet can be considered as one of the most revolutionary inventions of the last century [2]. It is used by different people for different reasons; some people use it to communicate with the other end of the world, some use it to increase their knowledge with the vast information available online [1]. Another area that has made a prominent name in the World Wide Web is E-commerce. E-commerce, which is the process of business transactions on the web; is preferred for its simplicity and ease [3]. However, one of the factors that cause a great degree of concern for customers and merchants is the level of security involved with these business transactions [4], [15]. The mode of payment in e-commerce transactions is through ‘credit cards’; which have established more opportunities for businessmen but at the same time introduced new problems in the whole process of selling goods. The fear of fraud in online business transactions keeps on increasing every year due to the increase in the respective crime [8], [39], [40]. According to National Consumers League statistics for the year 2007; millions of dollars were lost in e-shopping transactions and have exposed the weakness of the credit card payment system [5]. Credit card fraud and identity theft [11] are the two most prevalent security risks. In the past, many efforts have been done to secure online transactions and make this medium a trusting one. During such efforts, the protocol of Secure Electronic Transactions (SET) was developed to secure credit card information from several kinds of attacks present online [6]. Secure Socket Layer (SSL) also helps in providing a secure environment as it provides an encrypted medium to transfer credit card information [7]. The use of biometric has also been proposed by one of the researchers; this proved helpful to prevent identity theft and any false authorization regarding the credit card information. Numerous aspects have to be considered

Bloomberg Essentials Online Training Program Essay Example for Free

Bloomberg Essentials Online Training Program Essay Hello, and welcome to the equity session of the Bloomberg Essentials Online Training Program. My name is Rosie Genao, and the goal of this training session is to get you acclimated with our equity functionality so you can quickly and easily navigate through the tools that will be vital for your daily investment analysis. I will start with key news functions that will keep you up-to-speed with headlines that can affect your investment strategies, as well as the equities markets on the whole. From there, we will walk through functionality that will help you quickly assess the trends of the equities markets. Finally, we will focus on how you can best use Bloomberg for investment idea generation and in-depth security analysis. Our equities resources fully integrate the very best in real-time data, news and research, providing you with an unmatched level of market data transparency, dynamic monitors, and powerful analytics. With these tools, you can delve into more than 20 years of financial statements, sell-side consensus estimates, extensive technical analysis studies, and idea generation tools for a pool of more than 410,000 equities (ph). As the Bloomberg Essentials news video outlines, Ngo, which is located in 15 company news, is the main news function and platform for real-time news from tens of thousands of sources, including Bloomberg. It has the most important, most popular, and most recent news across any category. This page will automatically update throughout the day so you can stay abreast of news that impacts the markets and your portfolio. For the equity space, you can customize this page to display news specific to the equities markets simply by navigating to the left sidebar, which includes an array of topics and securities, and clicking on stocks. When you click on stocks, you will see the right hand side populate with the relevant news for stocks in the Americas or anywhere across the world. Once you click on stocks on the left hand side, you can select this particular topic as your default simply by clicking on 90 go to save as default at the very top. Notice also that you can use this same sidebar on the left to click into other topics, such as technology or featured news articles that we have on the terminal, such as on European debt. Also note that whenever you see a small B icon next to any article, this means that this is a Bloomberg exclusive story, while the white highlights or indicates that the story has been posted to the system in the last 15 minutes. Another crucial aspect of news functionality is the ability to mine for news and press releases that directly impact a particular investment strategy. You can run NSEgo at the very top, and you will see a drop-down menu appear which will allow you to select the first function, which is news search. NSE provides unmatched granularity for sector, region, or security-specific news. NSE allows you to search through Bloomberg’s extensive database of news by a simple word search. To make your search within NSE as efficient as possible, the function includes auto complete predictive text, which will come up when typing in your search criteria. For example, let’s say we’re looking into a search for IBM. If I were to type IBM, you will see that an entire listing will appear in the drop-down menu where the company itself appears first. As you type in your news search topic, the function provides you with a list of relevant results which you then can result from. This saves you time in putting together applicable news searches. I’d also like to point out that within NSE, you have the option of running a basis or an advanced search, which you can select at the top. With the advanced search, not only can you filter by keywords, but you can also filter on entire ticket lists, topics, people, among other. For example, let’s create a custom news wire that tracks earning news on companies in India. I’ll start with the criteria of earnings. Using the amber search box at the top of the page, I’ll start by simply typing in the keyword itself, earnings. And when I do that, again, you’ll see that the topic itself appears. When you select on earnings, the bottom part of the screen will allow you to start previewing some of the results that are related to earnings. I’ll go back to my search at the top and input India because I’d like to filter for earnings news within India. And when I do that, again, as you can see, you’ll see India appear at the very top. As you continue to add criteria, the results will continue to update at the bottom under preview results. There are other ways on the terminal to find what you need specifically with news. There are pre-set news monitors on the terminal that you can use to get stories as they are released within a specific topic. For example, going along with our example of earnings, if you’re interested in news related to earnings in general, you can run NI ERN. And what that will do is select or pull up a scrolling news monitor of news only on earnings. These pre-set news monitors, as you saw, start with NI and are streaming in real time. The news articles will appear and will flash as the stories come in. As you can see, from here you can further refine the search to meet your specific investment analysis criteria. You can either click on 97 actions at the very top and edit the search, or you can simply add additional keywords in the narrow search box. Bloomberg also provides direct access to sell side and independent research from over 1,500 sources within our research search engine RSEgo. With RSEgo, you have real-time delivery of reports. That ensures that you are getting the information as soon as it is available. With RSE, you have the option of selecting news research articles by category, sector, or simply all research that is available. In the top left corner, you can also filter further. You can select all research or you can select specific filters in the – within the drop-down menu that allows you to choose, for example, between an equity index or perhaps a portfolio that you may already have loaded on the terminal. After exploring the ways in which you can keep up-to-speed with the news and research that affects both the broad markets and your investments, I’d like to move into functionality that will give you a solid grasp of overall market movement and assist you with investment analysis. We’ll start with EVTS. EVTS is Bloomberg’s corporate event and transcript resource, tracking over 100,000 events and transcribing over 25,000 conference calls a year. Coverage includes earnings releases, earnings calls, sales results, shareholder meetings, investor conferences, MA calls, and other relevant company events. Coverage also includes live transcription of calls as they happen, corrected PDF versions of the call, summary reports, and links to webcasts and archived audio. At the top of the screen, you’ll be able to customize a number of things. You’ll be able to select the source from which you want to pull in specific company-related releases. So for example, you can click on source, and let’s select an equity index. For our example, we’ll select the SP, which is SPX. You’ll see that you have the ability to customize the data range. You can select it to now, next seven days, or you can customize further. Once you’re done customizing, at the very top you can press the go key and you will see a list populate at the bottom with the relevant event types pertaining to the source and the particular date range. While you have the ability to export these events into your Outlook calendar simply by clicking into any one of these icons on the far right column, keep in mind that you can also click into each event for links to other analytics, including pages on earnings analysis, fundamental data, research reports, and company news. Once you select an event, which I’ve just done, you can click on analysis in the top left corner to display and analyze a number of – of related analyses that you can continue to run on that particular security. For our example, you can select earnings analysis. In this example, we selected the SP as our security poll. From there, you’ll be able to, depending on the tab that you are on, you can drill down further into each of the sectors comprising the index. As you click into a particular sector, you’re able to drill down further for performance to not only see how the sub-sectors are performing, but also how the securities within these sub-sectors are performing and how they correlate to the overall earnings analysis. You can review on the terminal for investment ideas by screening for stocks in these sectors (ph) using our equity screening function, EQSgo. EQSgo is the Bloomberg equities screening application that allows you to search for securities based on your defined criteria from a broad set of underlying data. The interface used for this tool offers full transparency at every step of the screening process. You can now identify investment ideas with advanced analytical functionality. Before we go into a sample screen, I’d also like to point out that there are three main tabs at the bottom. One, where you can build and edit your screen, two, where you can access the screens that you have already created and saved, and three, example screens where you can access screens already created by Bloomberg for customers like you. So let’s start with the 91 build/edit screen. For a quick example, if we want to search for all companies trading below their cash and equivalence in the materials sector, we can start by searching for our sector by simply typing materials in the amber box in the middle of the page. As I type materials, you’ll see that the drop-down menu updates and allows you to essentially filter for all the materials-related fields that we have. So let’s select the first option, which is materials. The more you type, the further it narrows your choices. So let’s go ahead and select and input our second criteria. Next, for the fundamental criteria, I will search for market cap, again, in the amber field. Select the appropriate field, which in this case is the first one. Select, when prompted, whether I want to view whether it’s greater than, less than, et cetera. In this case, I will select less than. And in the third amber box that eventually appears, I will type in cash to find the field that I am looking for. I will use the default, latest filing, and press go. Now you’ll notice under selected screening criteria that at the bottom you’ll see the number of securities that meet both criterias that I input. You’ll see the exact number in the bottom right. If you have a specific fundamental or technical-based ratio that you’d like to use but it’s not currently available in our list of fields, you can use the formula tab located at the top to create a custom field for use in your screen. This provides full flexibility in your search. Keep in mind that you can also add criteria using the universe criteria given at the very top. This includes full product segmentation and allows you to search for specific revenue drivers. After you finish selecting all of the criteria, you can click on results in the lower right. All of the securities that match will appear in a list with a list of comparable columns. This will include any numerical values from your search criteria. You can also add columns to this view using the amber field above, or also by clicking on fields in the top right. Once you have your securities listed, you can then click into each of them for links to further analysis with the description page. You’ll see not only the description page, but also related functionality for further analysis. So let’s click into company description, the second option. On the description page, you’ll see that the market information for the selected security appears at the top of the screen. Just below that, you’ll find a snapshot of stock data with links to further analysis regarding the profile of the company, issue information, ratios, and revenue and EPS. With this particular page, you can click into any one of the functionalities that’s highlighted to be taken to another page on the terminal for additional analysis. Also, at the top, you’ll be able to click on the report feature, which allows you to create your own snapshot of the company on your screen, and allows you to print it for your Japanese security. To continue your security-specific analysis, Bloomberg offers a wide range of graphing functionality. To start, you can quickly view the historic movement of a stock on GPgo. GP displays historical closing prices for a selected security, which you can see in the upper left, but also features a wide range of customization options. At the top, you’ll see a gray taskbar that allows you to quickly jump between periods, also add annotation, news and zoom (ph). Sorry, I didn’t even go – also, in the upper right, you have the option to add additional securities or studies for your graph, as well as events. If you click into events, for example, you’ll be able to see that you can add events such as acquisitions, dividends, earnings, et cetera, so that you can easily plot them on your graph. To view the underlying end-of-day pricing for this particular security, you can either scroll down one page, or you can simply run the function HPgo for historical pricing. Historical pricing on HP allows you to customize the data range, the currency, and the period at the very top of the page. If you’re interested in further analysis using technical studies, you can continue your graphical analysis of the security by running Graphgo at the top. This function provides you with a number of things. In the top left, you’ll be able to see the chart of the day. Lower left, you’ll be able to create a series of custom charts. To the right of that, we have sample G (ph) charts that already display some of our technical studies and provide you with examples on each of these studies. And in the upper right, you’ll have a number of chart resources that you can use to become more informed on technical studies and charts features on the terminal. Finally, in the lower right, you’ll be able to see the chart showcase of the day displaying essentially why a particular study would be important to view on the terminal. After viewing where a specific security has priced using our chart functionality, you can then switch over to get a fundamental picture of the overall company by running FAgo. FAgo is a dynamic and interactive fundamental analysis tool that displays the financial history of a specific company with full transparency to the financial statements. Here you can identify trends and analyze the value of a potential investment using the statements themselves, as well as comparative techniques and custom templates that allow you to access the data you need quickly in order to make an informed decision on an investment opportunity. The FAgo screen initially wakes up to the key stats tab located in the upper left. But as you can see, there are a series of tabs locates at the top that you can click into and which allow you to drill down further. So for example, clicking on the income statement, you will see that it has a series of sub-tabs as well. To suit your preferences, you can also click on the settings tab at the very top, and this will allow you to adjust your settings whenever you popular or run this particular function. One of the key benefits of the FAgo screen is the full transparency it offers into the numbers. For example, if you’d like to view the statement for which we have obtained a specific data point, simply click into the line item. So let’s say for example that we’d like to click into revenue for Apple. When you do that, you’ll be able to see exactly where we sourced our information from. You can click into the particular line item itself, drill down further, and on the right hand side, you’ll see two icons – two document icons which when clicked on allow you to view the source document itself and highlighted exactly where we got the information from. Let’s close out of this and go back to the main page on FA. You will see a number of things here. You’ll see that estimates, denoted by the letters EST, are included alongside historical data. You can click into any one of these estimates by view consensus estimates from sell-side analysts. This gives you a clear view of where the company has been and where it’s expected to go. Depending on your analysis, you’ll find it very easy to run a specific analysis based on ratios, which you’ll see located at the top, valuations, segments, or additional information with the tabs at the top. Each of these tabs, specifically the additional tab, pulls in the relevant key measures for that industry. With this insight into estimates, we can continue our equity research with the earnings estimate on EEOgo. Here on EEO, we aggregate all earnings estimates for a company in one place so you can quickly gauge market expectations on an investment opportunity. From this page, you’ll see a number of things. Starting at the very top, you’ll have the option to adjust the reporting period, as well as the consensus type and currency. Also from this page, you can customize your settings and set alerts for earnings data, for consensus date that you are interested in for this particular security. This will allow you to stay up-to-speed with any estimate shifts for a particular company. Here in this page we’re looking at consensus estimates which represent a consensus value for each measure based on reported sell-side expectations. Alongside each estimate, which is listed on the left hand side, you’ll see – or you will find the number of estimates received per measure. Whenever you hover over the exact estimate numbers, you’ll be able to see – or this will give you additional information, such as the number of analysts who revised the estimate itself, and other key information. If we click into a specific measure, you can get even more clarity on that figure. From here, you’ll see a breakdown in three main parts. In the top left, you’ll see a quick summary of the consensus data itself. To the right of that, you’ll see the historical values of the consensus data as plotted by the analysts. And just below that, you’ll see a breakdown of all of the analysts who contributed to the consensus. On the left hand side, you’ll be able to see or you’ll be able to click into the research provided by this particular analysis covering the security. And to the far right, you’ll be able to access a graph that allows you to view the analyst estimates historically alongside the price of the particular security that you are – that you are researching. So on one graph you have both the price and the historical estimates or the historical consensus estimates for that particular security. Let’s menu back to the consensus detail screen. And to go into further detail into the area in the top left, the consensus rating at the top is based on the analyst recommendations that are compiled by Bloomberg reporters and researchers around the world. ANR allows you to determine the latest analyst sentiment and identify which analysts have the most accurate equity rating. Another dynamic tool for analyst research is the function ANRgo. This is the home page for analyst recommendations. Here you will see a listing of the analyst recommendations, their price targets, price target time periods, and a consensus rating for a selected equity, which you’ll see in the upper left corner. Here as well, similar to the consensus estimates, you’ll also see a graph in the right hand side to view historical recommendations. At the top, the consensus ranking is based on analyst recommendations. They are compiled by Bloomberg reporters and researchers around the world. This page allows you to determine the latest analyst sentiment and identify which analysts have the most accurate equity rating. Bloomberg assigns a numerical value from one to five for every recommendation, where five represents a buy. In this example, sentiment on Apple appears to be a buy. You’ll see that there are more buys than holds and sells. This can also be seen in the consensus rating located right here in the top (inaudible). Now let’s take a look at the analyst recommendations. In the table at the bottom of the screen, you’ll be able to see that there is a column called BAR. This is the Bloomberg absolute return risk, which essentially highlights those analysts that have returned the most in terms of total return for this particular security. Let’s locate the analyst who has – who has returned the most for Apple. If we scroll down, you’ll be able to see that the analyst from BTIG was ranked first in terms of BAR. To the far right, you’ll be able to see a graph with that particular analyst – you’ll be able to see that this particular analyst for the duration that – for the amount of time that they’ve covered this security, they have excelled in terms of their recommendations. Now that we’ve seen charts, fundamentals, and earnings on a company, I’d like to continue our review of the core equity functionality with a peer analysis tool called relative value, or RVgo. You can use RV to perform a customized peer group analysis so that you can benchmark your security’s performance for capital structure against its peers. Once you are on the relative valuation screen, you’ll see three main sections. In the top left, you’ll be able to see how this particular security ranks across a number of sectors. To the right of that, you’ll key metrics for that particular security in comparison to its peers, to the median for its peers. Just below that, you’ll see the main portion of this screen, which is divided into several tabs. It initially wakes to an overview tab, which is the overview template, but you also have the option of clicking into the other templates that allow you to analyze the security or compare the security in different ways, such as the markets template and the EPS preview template. One great feature about the relative value function is that you can create your own custom template. And from there, you can enter the fields that are most relevant for you, as well as the securities that you would like to compare your main security against. Another peer comparative tool, PPC, complements this analysis. Let’s run PPCgo and you’ll see what I mean. With PPC, you’ll be able to take a different look at how companies fare against their peers by comparing them across product segments. It allows you to perform an in-depth analysis of company revenue by introducing the sector classification that you see on the left hand side, and the hierarchy that allows you to compare, depending on which sector you select, the key measures on the sidebar. On this screen, you’ll be able to select the classification for which you’d like to sort the security by. For example, VIX, GX (ph), or any of the ones listed below. You can also filter by the currency on the right hand side, and finally, by the industry to the right. From here, you will see the hierarchy located on the left sidebar. You can select any measure from the hierarchy sidebar. And then, let’s say for example you click into music download sites for Apple, and on the right side you’ll be able to see the company’s competitors within each product. This adds yet another layer of analysis into data collected through the financial statements to help you make an informed investment decision. You can also click into the numbers under the hierarchy section in order to view more transparency data, similar to what you can do with FA. This covers the basic equity overview on the Bloomberg terminal. The functions we went over today in news, broad market indicators, and security-specific analysis tools are just an introduction to the vast resources we have for you to make informed investment decisions. If you have any further questions, remember that you can hit the help key twice for 24-hour assistance with (inaudible) for future training opportunities. Thank you for your participation in Bloomberg Essentials.

Bilingual Child Support in the Classroom

Bilingual Child Support in the Classroom Information about your project Proposed project title Exploring the way bilingual children are supported in the classroom. Proposed research question(s) 5. 1.What challenges do bilingual children face? 22 2. What strategies are used? 33 3. How effective are these? 22 Proposed setting(s)/sample/case for research (e.g. teachers in a local secondary school, fellow students at university, etc). Students at Primary Schools. Section B Answer the questions below in as much detail as possible within the 1500 word limit (Max). You should use research literature, where relevant, to support your answers and include a reference list. Why is your chosen area worthy of research? Explain the rationale for your topic. As the aim of my research topic is to understand the factors affecting bilingual children learning experiences in the classroom, phenomenology was the suitable approach to put myself in the shoe of these students and comprehend their perspective on my research topic. This encouraged me to look into how bilingual students get supported in the school now. Being bilingual can have tremendous advantages not only in terms of language competencies, but also in terms of cognitive and social development (Lambert, 1990, p.210). There are numerous of researches that illustrate benefits of bilingualism, and these researches have taken into consideration that being bilingual not necessary mean speaking more than one language. However, the advantage of being bilingual is to be able to understand the cultural and language and use them more effectively. Cummins argues that if the child learns both languages balance between first and second language could be beneficial. (Baker 2001 p.165 and Cummins 2000, p.57) What is your chosen research design? Why do you think this is the best way to achieve the projects aims? The research design that I have chose is a mixed method approach such as qualitative and quantitative research. Qualitative method is more suitable for my research, as Silver stated that qualitative research concentrates on the study of social life natural settings (2011, p. 194). Qualitative research is a way to understand peoples experiences and their lives, which is why I believe qualitative research is appropriate for my project as I also want to uncover the experiences of teachers and bilingual students. Qualitative data are normally gathered by monitoring, focus groups, interviews and classroom observation. However it may also be gathered from case studies and written documents. The research is focused on the experiences that bilingual children have in the school and how the school takes into consideration their cultural and linguistic backgrounds into teaching style. These questions require descriptive answers and understanding rather than measurements and statistical results associated with the quantitative approach. Qualitative research provides details by allowing to taking it in depth through interviews and the observation in the classroom to observe if the activities that bilingual children are taking part in are relevant to pupils own experiences and reflect on their cultural heritage. This research greatest used to respond why and how question. The strength of qualitative method is to attain more sensible feel of the world that cannot be practised in the numerical data and statistical analysis used in quantitative research; and also Ability to interact with the research subjects in their own language and on their own terms (Kirk Miller, 1986) Achieving high levels of reliability of gathered data due to controlled observations within the classroom and examine the different activities that bilingual children are engaging and the resources that the school use to help them improve their learning. Mini literature review: Using three academic articles summarise key issues relating to your research area. It is radically challenging when the students have different ways of learning, as they need to adopt and learn whole new curriculum and language. NALDIC (2011) identified the challenging task facing the EAL learner in the school: To progress from a radically different starting point from other children and to acquire the appropriate social skills as well as learning a new language. To accommodate the new language, values, expectations alongside the existing ones learned at home (NALDIC, 2011, p17) Their challenges also the ways in which the teacher can support to achieve their potential. Social settings will help the child to pick up basic conversational words and phrases. (Cummins, 1994, p.34). The National Occupational Standards (NOS) are specialised for supporting teaching and learning in schools (STL). This department has provided a range of standards for the teachers to meet when they support bilingual students learning. The national curriculum has provided a framework of what pupils should be able to know, understand and do at key points in their learning. (Education Department.gov.uk, 2015). The support that has been offered for bilingual pupils, which may involve support staff, is as follows; Observing bilingual pupils to monitor the impact of different teaching strategies, learning contexts or to have one-to-one support with students before or during the main lessons. What are your chosen data collection methods? Why do you feel these are most appropriate? The chosen data collection methods are class room observation and interviews. Observation the research watching, recording and analysing event of interest (Blaxter et al., 2010: 199) This can be classroom, meeting room and playground. This type of research is carried out in short term period observation is basic but important aspect of learning from and interacting and observing an understanding about the situation. According to Robson (2011) explain that observation gives you real life in the real world. Classroom observation method gives an insight to see the relationship between teachers and students and the activities the students are encouraged to do and see if they are enjoying it. The data that has been gathered can confirm, contradict and extend other data, for instance observation helps you to see in real life what participants have mentioned in interviews or questionnaire. (Lambert, 2012) It also gives you deep understanding of what challenges bilingual children faces and how classrooms are presented and observe the classroom setting. Interview study highlights the advantage of qualitative research in offering an apparently deeper picture than the variable-based correlations of quantitative studies (Silverman, 2011:18). Interview is in depth allowing the person to express their experiences, their values, aspirations, attitudes and feelings. Semi-structure interview pursuing the information which is most useful for your research and which feels the interviewee can provide. How do you intend to ensure that your research is valid? It is important that research is reliable, valid and tested information as this will help practitioners since they will use other peoples findings which will decrease the chances of subjectivity occurring these are the concepts of data, reliability, validity, subjectivity and objectivity BERA (2011). To ensure data is valid and accurate is to remove problems with design which compromise validity and to gather data from more than one method or from more than one source which is known as triangulation. To make sure that the research is valid is to afford time and resources for researcher training in use of the tool to reduce differences in participant responses across data collectors in order to achieve validity. ( Burton Bartlett, 2009) Using piloting could be important especially if you are collecting data with another researcher in order to observe same lesson and compare the notes that has been taken, to interpret and record events at the same way. This issue is relevant to any method carried out by more than one researcher as it is called inter-observes reliability. How do you intend to ensure that your research is ethical? Research ethics is concerned with respecting research participant throughout each project (Lambert, 2012) Ethical standards promote the values that are essential to collaborative work, such as trust, accountability, mutual respect, and fairness. It is designed to keep it confidential and to protect intellectual property interest. The three main issues most frequently raised in the Western research ethical guidelines and by the professional associations are, codes and consent (Informed consent), confidentiality and trust (Ryen, 2011, p.418). Codes and consent is that the participants has right to be informed clearly what is my research about and how you want to carry it out. According to Silverman perhaps informed consent is seen best as a process of negotiation, rather than a one-off action (Silverman, 2011, 324). In order for the individual to describe and share their accounts or behaviour in the report informed consent was essential. The confidentiality and anonymous treatment of participants data is considered the norm for the conduct of research. Researchers must recognize the participants entitlement to privacy and must accord them their rights to confidentiality and anonymity, unless they or their guardians or responsible others. ( BERA, 2011) To ensure the confidentiality, the school is being aware that the researcher is not going to be using the real name of their school. Also the teacher and the students who take part of the research report are to keep anonymous. This is important in order to protect such identities researchers need to use pseudonyms for the people who are taking part in the project and the school. (May, 2001, pg. 181). The feedback that is being received from participants is not being discussed or shared other than co-researchers involved with the specific investigation to protect the information they shared (Back, 2005, pg. 180). What problems could occur during the undertaking of your research and how do you plan to resolve these? At research place there will be policies and procedure relating to difficult situation such as child going through abuse, bully or any form of sensitive matter which should be shared with a designated member of staff. This will mean breaking the promise of confidentiality which has been given to the participants for greater safety and welfare of the participants. (Lambert, 2012) Ethical dilemma may arise when doing research such as researcher using internet including blog raise new variants of ethical questions concerning confidentiality of data, responsibility to research participant and respect of those actively engaged in the research and those who may be affected indirectly. In these circumstances returning to ethical principles will help the researcher to think through the issue. References Back, L. (2005) Home from Home: Youth, Belonging and Place, in, (Eds..) Alexander, C. and Knowles, C., Making Race Matter: Bodies, Space and Identity, London: Palgrave. Bell, J. (1993), Doing Your Research Project: A Guide for First-time Researchers in Education and Social Science, second edition, Milton Keynes: Open University Press British Educational Research Association (BERA) (2011) Ethical guidelines for educational researcher. London: BERA. Burton, D Barlett, S (2009), Key Issues for Education researchers, London: SAGE Publications Inc. Cfbt.com, (2015). Teaching languages other than English CfBT. [online] Available at: http://www.cfbt.com/en-GB/What-we-do/Support-for-teaching-English-and-other-languages/Teaching-languages-other-than-english [Accessed 27 Dec 2016]. Cummins, J. (2000). Language, Power and Pedagogy: Bilingual Children in the Crossfire. Multilingual Matters: Clevedon. Department for Education and Skills (DfES) (2006) Primary Framework for Mathematics and Literacy. London: DfES. Lambert, M (2012) A beginners guide to doing your education research project, London: SAGE Publication Ltd May, T. (2001). Social research: issues, methods and process. Buckingham [UK], Open University Press Media.education.gov.uk. (2004). A language in common: Assessing English as an additional language. [ONLINE] Available at: http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/a/a%20language%20in%20common%20assessing%20eal.pdf. [Accessed 27 Dec 16]. NALDIC Working Paper 5. (1999) The Distinctiveness of English as an Additional Language: a cross-curricular discipline. Watford: NALDIC. Robson , C. (2011), Real World Research, Chichester (UK) : John Wiley Sons Ltd. Schools.norfolk.gov.uk.( 2013). Equality Services Reading Borough Council Welcoming and Supporting Newly Arrived Bilingual Pupils 3 Equality Services Directorate of Education and Childrens Services Supporting Newly Arrived Bilingual Pupils . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.schools.norfolk.gov.uk/view/NCC137979.[Accessed 26 Dec 16]. Silverman, D. (2013). Doing Qualitative Research: A Practical Handbook.4th Edition. SAGE Publications Ltd. Word count: 1485

The Function Of Food Ordering Online

The Function Of Food Ordering Online Food ordering online is becoming a norm for restaurants which offer takeout and delivery orders. Food ordering online is designed as it is cost effective yet an efficient system to satisfy the restaurants needs. The system is also designed for its ultimate flexibility and performance. The customers will be able to access into the company existing website and browse at their menu and select and place their orders on what they desire. Once they have completed their order, the system will either email or fax the customers order to the restaurant. The online ordering system also enables customers to order days beforehand and the system will execute the order at the specified time. The system has been built to handle large amounts of traffic simultaneously to prevent a system overload. This system is also flexible in a way, whereby customers are able to place online orders quickly, with just a click comparing to the tradition where orders were taken through the phone. More time and cost will be saved ordering online as a phone bill is charged according to the time the phone is on the line. The system was used intended to meet the requirements of all of the clients. With the online order system, the company could save on labour cost as less people are needed in operating the website, instead of people operating a restaurant. With the internet, there will be fewer errors on the orders or miscommunication amongst the customers and the person taking orders. Besides, it provides timely service. The software examines all food orders prior to the completion and corrects human errors. Also, with this system, the registration of online guests is utilized to create valuable marketing campaigns. Internet database Online ordering is easy and convenient yet they have more to improve on their online ordering system. It is good that online ordering system has linked the customers information with the database of the system which facilitates the ordering of customers. In addition, customers information could be tracked easily from their database rapidly if they are regular customers. Advantage With the escort in of the 21st century, many people have found out that it is basically easier to purchase items online. This depends on the consumers preferences. Some people feel unsecure buying items online because they cannot have physical touch or sight with the items they wish to buy. In this case, some people prefer to have the pizza straight from the oven when it is served. Online purchasing provides additional customer service. They not only provide goods, but also provide extra services, such as delivery to the destination that they have requested for. Online purchasing eliminates order taking errors. Customers can view the entire menu and all special offers via official website though online. The system records customers orders when purchasing has taken place. Extra services for example like estimated delivery and carryout times are provided to customers. When ordering via online, even during a busy period such as lunch or dinner time, customers would not have a problem in contacting them and placing their orders. The customers just need to order via online and the system will automatically generate and put it on queue. Online ordering records and stores past records of orders made and allows the customers to view them anytime during their online ordering session. These records will store at the database. The biggest advantage to ordering online, that the customer can save a lot of time and effort. Customers can choose to complete their orders within seconds or take their time and finish when they want. There are no time limits for them to complete their orders, thus, customers can take up any amount of time to order. Instead of planning out time in daily schedule to go out and make a purchase, the consumer can instead go to the web-site when they have a free moment at work or at home late at night, and look up the product that the customers are considering to purchase. They view the full menu and can order any combination of food while the prices are displayed and calculated as they go. It is much easier to make large and complex orders online because they have the ability to be patient, consider their options, and calculate different pricing schemes. Consequently, a customer can use that to their advantage and only do businesses with sites that will help put their transactions through quickly and thoroughly. Addition to that, the advantage of online purchasing is the ability to look at products late at night. Even though the stores have closed for the night, customers can place orders for the next day while the web-site still remains available to make purchases. This means that even after a long day at work, and coming home to deal with the family, the customer still have time left to go online and look for the product they want to purchase. The Internet is there is open 24 hours 7 days, and is always willing to wait for customer to come make a purchase. By going online, the customer do not have to worry about the hassles, such as when they decide that it is time to check out, they do not have to waste the extra time queuing in line. By ordering online, the customer can also take advantage of deals that are only offered to online customers, and often find products that wouldnt be available at a walk in store and special offers are given to online customers. In addition, online ordering increases customer visiting the Dominos Pizza official website. It also gains customer satisfaction and loyalty throughout the company. Due to its convenience of online purchasing service, customer purchase frequency also may increase . The company eliminated or reduced labor costs associated with manual order taking due to technology computerize replaced labor usage. For the Domino Pizza Company, the online ordering system accepts both online and traditional coupons to attract more customers. Customers who order on the web tend to order more because they have a menu in front of them. Robert Mackay, Dominos Pizza Marketing Director Customers who order online are proven to order more per order because they dont feel rushed while purchasing, as they often do over the phone. An Online Ordering website guarantees that the message, promotions and add-on offers are communicated to the customers and rely less on employees. Also, time is saved by not having to key the order into the Point Of Sale System. Between that, fewer mistakes occur during online ordering pizza. Online Ordering provides the perfect solution for office lunch orders. Orders can be collected around the office and one person can enter the orders into the website without the hassle of calling it in. They can take their time and get it right. There are several ways in which online food ordering from a restaurant may occur. A restaurant can have its own website with easy features for placing an order for pick-up or delivery. Some add a third option of being able to make reservations. Instead of calling for a delivery, people just access the Internet, head to the restaurant site and make their order. In financial factor, online ordering system increase the efficiency and cost effectiveness of the ordering operations. For the advertisement, it can create easily or upload promotions to the online ordering site. For instance, this system can increase the customers guest check automatically by customer email by suggesting upcoming sells for additional products. Online ordering increases in sales of goods in the Domino Pizza Company. Disadvantages The trend of shopping online, especially ordering pizza online has gradually been significant in the last decade and online sellers are expected to have improvements on the volume of sales after website features and services altered. There is no doubt that the customers can find great deals online and so many different products which may not be even available in regular stores. By the way, there are certain disadvantages of online ordering. Normally when we shop from a regular store, we can go directly to a sales person face-to-face to enquire and clarify our doubts regarding the food we ordering. It is possible that customers would have a wrong idea of what the products and services is about as the customers and the employee cannot deal face-to-face for a clear explanation. The chances of mishandling the package are volatile. There is a possibility that shipping abroad will damage the presentation of the food that customers ordered and the customer realize it after opening it when the package was delivered and that the person delivering it has already left as food could be very fragile. Another disadvantage is that a lot of companies which sells online state that customers have to pay for the shipping and delivery charges depending on the weight of the product the customer orders. Only a few companies with websites offer free shipping services while some companies provides free shipping services only if the customer has a total purchase of prices exceeding a certain amount. The shipment fee charged often is one of the reasons that customers would not like to order goods online as it is more expensive and does not guarantee that the goods delivered will be in good shape. However, a company must consider on the target market they would like to focus on promoting their products and services to. The elderly are most unlikely to order goods online due to their knowledge of operating a computer. Therefore, if the target market includes the elderly, a traditional service has to be provided to them. Online connectivity issues are the greatest disadvantage for online ordering. The customers add items in online shopping cart, enter information and press submit. The confirmation screen might time out when the internet has an unstable connection. The online customers would not know whether the order has been made or not while reloading the page may cause several billing or several orders. Moreover, customers may also make human errors, such as ordering the incorrect item. This can occur when the customer attempts to place an order. The customer may have accidentally clicked on the wrong item while placing their orders through the website. Even if the consumer clicks on the correct product and provides an accurate product number there may still be mistake made in the ordering process if there are options associated with the item. This problem can be rather disturbing because the consumer will get agitated when the incorrect item is received and therefore, loses customers loyalty towards the company. Another disadvantage is that purchasing online would mean that personal information has to be given to the company when purchasing is taken place. Some companies take advantage of this feature. By purchasing on the Internet, the customer would have to take the risk of having their information taken by online companies and misused. Though this is a very rare occurrence, it is more likely to happen online, than in person. To avoid personal information from being exposed, customers would usually look for a trustable company to purchase goods from. More often, what people dislike about online purchasing is that delivery services are only restricted to certain areas. As a result, people living in rural areas are at a disadvantage whereby they will need to go to the destination whereby the company is able to deliver.

Brave New World :: essays research papers

Brave New World   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is an excellent book. The story accurately depicts the variation between a fictitious â€Å"utopia† and our present world. His vivid descriptions of the events and rituals of the utopians make the story a very quick read.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The story starts out with a group of students learning about the way each member of the population is produced. The DHC explains how each person is predestined for a certain class and job and throughout the fetal growth time, you are conditioned to the environment that job entails. At certain points of their â€Å"assembly line† each embryo is exposed to heat or light to condition the body for certain environments. After birth, the babies are conditioned to like or dislike certain things like books or light. By doing this, the Utopians believe that they will have happy workers and prevent revolutions. The children are constantly exposed to messages that are imprinted in their mind. These messages are designed to have an impact on their thinking and are more mechanical than mental.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Lenina Crowne and Bernard Marx come into the picture after learning how things work. They both work at the hatchery and have been dating, but she starts dating Bernard Marx instead. Bernard is a deformed but highly intelligent man who takes Lenina to a savage restoration. At the reservation, they meet John and his mother Linda, whom was the girlfriend of the DHC and John is his son. Lenina and Bernard take, with permission, Linda and John out of the reservation. Bernard and a friend introduce John to the new world. Lenina tries to make advances toward John but his savage attitude doesn’t allow it.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The downfall of John begins with the death of his mother in the new world. John goes crazy and tries to induce a revolution among the utopians that work at the hospital. He leaves to escape his nightmare, but cannot avoid the people. The Utopians drive him to suicide, which was his only option to escape the new society.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One of the most scientifically interesting parts of the book is the description of the Bokanovsky process. The process allows one egg to multiply into 96 other eggs. This is the basis for a society like this one.

Brave New World Essay -- essays research papers

Summary: Chapter 1 The novel opens in the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre. The year is a.f. 632 (632 years â€Å"after Ford†). The Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning is giving a group of students a tour of a factory that produces human beings and conditions them for their predestined roles in the World State. He explains to the boys that human beings no longer produce living offspring. Instead, surgically removed ovaries produce ova that are fertilized in artificial receptacles and incubated in specially designed bottles. The Hatchery destines each fetus for a particular caste in the World State. The five castes are Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon undergo the Bokanovsky Process which involves shocking an egg so that it divides to form up to ninety-six identical embryos, which then develop into ninety-six identical human beings. The Alpha and Beta embryos never undergo this dividing process, which can weaken the embryos. The Director explains that the Bokanovsky Process facilitates social stability because the clones it produces are predestined to perform identical tasks at identical machines. The cloning process is one of the tools the World State uses to implement its guiding motto: â€Å"Community, Identity, Stability.† The Director goes on to describe Podsnap’s Technique which speeds up the ripening process of eggs within a single ovary. With this method, hundreds of related individuals can be produced from the ova and sperm of the same man and woman within two years. The average production rate using Podsnap’s Technique is 11,000 brothers and sisters in 150 batches of identical twins. Called over by the director, Mr. Henry Foster, an employee at the plant, tells the attentive students that the record for this particular factory is over 16,000 siblings. The Director and Henry Foster continue to explain the processes of the plant to the boys. After fertilization, the embryos travel on a conveyor belt in their bottles for 267 days, the gestation time period for a human fetus. On the last day, they are â€Å"decanted,† or born. The entire process is designed to mimic the conditions within a human womb, including shaking every few meters to familiarize the fetuses with movement. Seventy percent of the female fetuses are sterilized; they are known as â€Å"freemartins.† The fetuses undergo different treatments depending ... ...Helmholtz is preoccupied with the thought that his writing talent could be better used than simply for writing hypnopaedic phrases. His work leaves him feeling empty and unfulfilled. Bernard becomes nervous, jumping up at one point because he thinks, wrongly, that someone is listening at the door. Summary: Chapter 5 After a game of Obstacle Golf, Henry and Lenina fly in a helicopter over a crematorium where phosphorous is collected from burning bodies for fertilizer. They drink coffee with soma before heading off to the Westminster Abbey Cabaret. They take another soma dose before they return to Henry’s apartment. Although the repeated doses of soma have made them almost completely oblivious to the world around them, Lenina remembers to use her contraceptives. Every other Thursday, Bernard has to take part in Solidarity Service at the Fordson Community Singery. The participants sit twelve to a table, alternating men and women. While a rousing hymn plays, the participants pass a cup of strawberry ice cream soma and take a soma tablet with it. They work themselves into a frenzy of exultation and the ceremony ends in a sex orgy that leaves Bernard feeling more isolated than ever.

Nike Case Study Essay

Kimi Ford, a portfolio manager at North Point Group, is looking into the profitability of investing in the stocks of Nike for her fund that she manages. She is supposed to base her decision the company’s data which was disclosed in the 2001 fiscal reports. While Nike management had addressed several issues that are causing the decrease in market sales and stock price, management presented plans to improve and perform better. Nike revenue has been at a plateau since 1997 yet net income and market share were falling. Supply chain issues and the strong dollar negatively affected revenue too. Plans are in place to address top line growth and operating performance. To boost revenue, the company would develop more athletic shoes in the mid priced segment which has been overlooked by Nike in recent years. They also planned to push their apparel line which under strong leadership had performed very well to control expenses. Revenue growth targets are around 8-10% and earnings targets are above 15%. Analyst reactions were mixed as some of them thought this was too aggressive. Lehman Brothers recommended a strong buy while others expressed misgivings and recommended a hold. At this point, North Point Group decided to do their own analysis in order to decide if Nike shares should be purchased for the fund. The weighted average cost of capital (WACC) is the rate that a company is expected to pay its debt and equity holders to finance its assets. It is the minimum return that a company must earn on existing asset base to satisfy its owners, creditors, and other providers of capital or they will invest somewhere else. Companies raise money from many sources such as common and preferred equity, straight, convertible, and exchangeable debt, options, warrants, pension liabilities, executive stock options, governmental subsidies, and others. Different securities, which represent different sources of finance, are expected to generate different returns. WACC is calculated taking into account the relative weights of each component of the capital structure- equity and debt, and is used to see if the investment is worthwhile to take part in. Management notices the cost of capital while making a financial decision. The concept is very relevant in the following managerial decisions and hence its importance: (1) Capital Budgeting Decision. Cost of capital may be used as the tool for adopting an investment proposal. Naturally, the firm will choose the project which gives a satisfactory return on investment which would never be less than the cost of capital incurred for its financing. In the many methods of capital budgeting, the cost of capital is the main factor in deciding the project out of different proposals pending before the management. It determines the acceptability of all investment opportunities by measuring financial performance. (2) Designing the Corporate Financial Structure. The cost of capital is a significant factor in designing the firm’s capital structure. The cost of capital is influenced by changes in capital structure. Financial executives keep an eye on capital market fluctuations and try to achieve the economical and sound capital structure for the firm. They may try to substitute the various methods of finance in an attempt to minimize the cost of capital a nd to increase the market price and the earning per share. (3) Deciding about the Method of Financing. Financial executives must have knowledge of fluctuations in the capital market and should analyze the rate of interest on loans and normal dividend rates in the market from time to time. Whenever company requires additional finance there are better choices of the source of finance which bears the minimum cost of capital. Although cost of capital is an important factor in such decisions, but equally important are the considerations of relating control and of avoiding risk. (4) Performance of Top Management. The cost of capital can be used to evaluate top executive financial performance. Evaluation of the financial performance will involve a comparison of actual profitability’s of the projects and along with the projected overall cost of capital and an appraisal of the actual cost incurred in raising the required funds. (5) Other Areas. The concept of cost of capital is also important in others areas of decision making, such as dividen d decisions, working capital policy, and more. WACC CALCULATION: [pic] One important question is if Joanna Cohen should use a single or multiple of capital for each of Nike’s footwear and apparel divisions? We agree with the use of single cost rather than multiple costs of capital. The reason of estimating WACC is to value the cash flows of the entire company that is provided by Kimi Ford. Plus, Nike business segments have a similar risk and thus a single cost is sufficient for this analysis. Joanna Cohen’s cost of debt was incorrect. An important fact is the WACC is used for discounting future cash flows, thus all components of the cost must reflect the firm’s concurrent or future abilities in raising capital. Cohen wrongly used the historical data in estimating the cost of debt. She divided interest expense by the average balance of debt to get 4.3% of before tax cost of debt. It doesn’t reflect Nike’s current or future cost of debt. The correct way to calculate the cost of debt is explained below. If the cost of debt is intended to be forward looking, it can be estimated by the yield to maturity of bond. The more appropriate cost of debt can be calculated with the data provided in Exhibit 4 of the case. Market data is correctly used rather than historical data. PV: 95.60 N= 40 Pmt: -3.375 FV: -100 The values above were put into Excel’s rate function. This came to a 7.16% annual cost of debt. The tax rate is 38%. The correct way to get the after tax cost of debt is to take 7.16% * (1-38%) = 4.44% The correctly calculated before tax cost of debt is 7.16%. This is significantly higher than Joanna’s incorrectly calculated cost of debt of 4.3%. Her incorrect calculation came from using historical rates rather than market rates. Next, the cost of equity is calculated. It is a good idea to use the 20 year T-Bond rate to represent the risk free rate. The cost of equity and the WACC are used to discount cash flows in the long run, thus rate of return of a T-Bond with 20 years maturity at 5.74% is the longest rate that is available. The geometric mean of market risk premium is 5.9%. This is more accurate than using arithmetic mean to represent market risk premium. By using arithmetic mean to represent true market risk premium, we have to have independently distributed market risk premium. It is often found that market risk premiums are negatively serial correlated. Market average Beta of .69 is used because it is a good indicator of the average Beta’s and their fluctuations throughout the years. Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) |Cost of Equity(KE) | |KE = |Rf + ÃŽ ²(Rf – Rm) | |Rf = |5.74% | = |9.81% | |Beta |= 0.69 |Average Nike Beta | | Next, the weights of debt and equity need to be calculated. The market value of equity is $42.09 share price X 271.5 million shares = 11,427,000 Due to the lack of information of the market value of debt, book value of debt at 1296.6 million is used to calculate weights. Calculations for market and debt weights: 11,427,000 / (11,427,000 + 1297) = 89.8% Equity Weight 1 – 89.8% = 10.2% debt weight WACC Calculation 4.44% After Tax Cost of Debt X 10.2% Debt Weight + 9.81% Cost of Equity X 89.8% Equity Weight = 9.27% The CAPM method was used when calculating cost of equity for the WACC. Advantages and disadvantages of this method are explained below. Advantages: †¢ It only considers systematic risk, reflecting a reality in which most investors have diversified portfolios from which unsystematic risk has been essentially eliminated. †¢ It generates a theoretically-derived relationship between required return and systematic risk which has been subject to constant empirical research and testing. †¢ It is generally seen as a superior method of calculating the cost of equity than the dividend growth model (DGM) in that it explicitly takes into account a company’s level of systematic risk relative to the stock market as a whole. †¢ It is clearly better than WACC in providing discount rates for use in investment appraisal. Disadvantages: †¢ It is practically impossible to estimate betas for many projects. †¢ People sometimes focus on market risk rather than corporate risk, and this may be a mistake. The Dividend Discount Method is another method of calculating cost of equity. The assumption made with this model is that the company pays a substantial dividend, but Nike Inc. does not pay dividends. Therefore, we rejected this model since it does not reflect the true cost of capital. The method Compares dividends forecasted for the next period with the current share price for the firm and then adds the growth rate of the firm. Equation: Ke= D1/ P0 + g †¢ Variables: – G= the value line forecast of dividend growth, which equals 5.5% – PO= current share price, which is $42.09. – D1= DO (1+g), which equal .48 (1+.055) †¢ DO= from dividend history and forecast chart, which equals .48 Therefore, cost of equity = .564/42.09 + .055= 6.7% Advantages: †¢ Allow great flexibility when estimating future dividend streams †¢ Provide useful value approximations even when the inputs are simplified †¢ Can be reversed so the current stock price is used to impute market assumptions for growth and expected return †¢ Investors are able to suit their model to their expectations rather than force assumptions into the model †¢ Specifying the underlying assumptions allows for sensitivity testing and analyzing market reactions to ever changing circumstances Disadvantages †¢ Subjective inputs can result in wrongly specified models and bad results †¢ Over-reliance on a valuation that is really just an estimate †¢ Sensitivity is high to small changes in input assumptions †¢ Flow-through of minor formula or data entry errors when using spreadsheets The Cost of Equity Method is the other method for forecasting cost of equity. The final model used to compute the cost of capital was the earning capitalization model. The problem with this model is that it does not take into consideration the company’s growth. Therefore we chose to reject this calculation. The earnings capitalization model calculations were found this way: †¢ Stands for earnings capitalization model †¢ This model compares forecasted earnings for the next period over the current share price. †¢ Equation: – Ke: E1/ P0 †¢ Variables: – E1= (1+g) * (E0/ # of shares outstanding) †¢ G= retention ratio * return on equity †¢ Retention ratio= retained earnings/ net income †¢ 3194.3/ 589.7= 5.42 †¢ Return on equity= net income/ total shareholders’ equity †¢ 589.7/ 3494.5= 16.88% †¢ G= 5.42* 16.88%= .914 †¢ EO= Net Income, which equals 589.7 †¢ Share Outstanding= 271.5 – E1= ((1+.914) * 589.7)/ 271.5= 4.1572 – PO= Nike current share price, which is 42.09 †¢ Therefore, cost of equity= – 4.1572/ 42.09 = 9.88% Advantage Strong representation of earnings Disadvantages Brealey & Myers argue in Principles of Corporate Finance that this model is not good to use for growing firms but is appropriate for no-growth firms. Hence it is not appropriate for Nike Inc. since this company is still growing. Analysis and Recommendation Kimi ford used a WACC discount rate of 8.4% to find a share price of $63.50. Nike is currently trading at $42.09. This makes the share price undervalued by $21.41. However, her discount rate does not reflect true market value due to the mistakes in her methods we discussed earlier. The discount rate we came up with from using the CAPM was 9.27%. This higher WACC results in a lower share price of around $55.60. Share price has decreased once Joanna’s calculation methods have been corrected, but Nike is still overvalued so we still recommend buying the stock. Share price is now undervalued by $12.97. SWOT Analysis Strengths: †¢ Globally recognized #1 sports brand †¢ Strong marketing, research and development, and innovation †¢ Worldwide logo recognition, brand loyalty, and slogan â€Å"Just do it.† Weaknesses: †¢ Most profits are solely from footwear †¢ Revenue has plateaued, expenses have increased †¢ Supply chain issues affecting financial health too †¢ Price sensitive retail industry Opportunities: †¢ There are plans in place to address top line growth and operating performance †¢ Plans to create more athletic footwear †¢ Also plans to push apparel line †¢ High revenue growth (8-10%) and earning (15%) targets Threats: †¢ Uncertainties in international trade †¢ The market is cut throat †¢ Growing competition from other companies can lead to decreased market share DuPont Analysis †¢ Net Income: 589,700,000 †¢ Sales:9,488,800 †¢ Total Assets:5,819,600 †¢ Common Equity – Common Stock, Par: 2,800,000 – Capital in excess of stated value: 459,400,000 – Retained Earnings: 3,194,300,000 – Total: 3,656,500,000 †¢ NI/Sales: 589,700,000/9,488,800,000 = 6.2% †¢ Sales/TA: 9,488,800,000/5,819,600,000 = 1.63 †¢ TA/CE: 9,488,800,000/3,656,500,000 = 2.60 †¢ Profit Margin * TA Turnover * Equity Multiplier †¢ 6.2% * 1.63 * 2.60 = 26.27% ROE. This Return on Equity is high, further stating the fact that Nike stock is good to buy. Nike has strong financial health and its stock is a sound investment. It would make a valuable addition to any mutual fund. The End Thank You

Explore and evaluate Shakespeare’s use of the supernatural in Macbeth Essay

Explore and evaluate Shakespeare’s use of the supernatural in Macbeth, supporting your answer with a detailed discussion of two scenes of your choice. In the play Macbeth, the supernatural is a major theme, and is important on a number of levels: firstly, it held many attractions for its original audience, both general and specific; secondly, the supernatural is an intriguing dramatic device, used to drive the play along and to keep it exciting; finally, the supernatural also has a great thematic significance to the play. This essay will look at each of these points in turn, and supplement them with a detailed analysis of exactly how Shakespeare uses the supernatural in relation to two scenes; Act One Scene One, and Act Five Scene One. It is important, however, to begin with a definition of the supernatural and what it encompasses. The supernatural is defined as forces, occurrences, and beings that cannot be explained by science. When people think of the supernatural they automatically think of dark and mysterious beings such as ghosts and witches, but phenomena such as hallucinations, prophecies, vision and apparitions can also be grouped under the supernatural. The supernatural comes from the two words â€Å"super† and â€Å"nature†. In this case the word â€Å"super† means â€Å"beyond†, so the supernatural can encompass all things beyond nature, or perversions of nature, such as unusual weather and weather and sleep disorders. Finally, the supernatural can also mean disrupting the natural order, such as regicide. When Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, he wrote it for a specific as well as a general audience: The specific audience was James I, and the general audience were the theatregoers of Elizabethan and Jacobean England. It was very important that when Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, he wrote in a way that would appeal to James I. James I had been the Patron of Shakespeare’s band of actors, The King’s Men, since 1603, and it is thought that Macbeth was first performed in August 1606 to celebrate the visit of James’ brother-in-law, King Christian of Denmark, so James I would have been the Patron of The King’s Men for three years. It was important that the Patron enjoyed the plays because he or she was one of the main sources of money for the actors. In Macbeth, witches were the main supernatural phenomenon in the play, and for the audience of the time, witches were believed to be very real, and a subject of great conversation, not only with the regular working-class, but also with the great thinkers of that time. This notion was also memorably and hilariously in the famous debate scene from â€Å"Monty Python and the Holy Grail.† Most importantly, though, the use of witchcraft in Macbeth would have appealed greatly to King James I. James I always had a fascination with witches. In 1950, while he was still King of Scotland, he had over 300 â€Å"witches† tortured in order to extract confessions that they were conspiring against him. King James took an active part in these trials, believing that, since the Kings was believed to be God’s representative on Earth, he would obviously be the main target of these â€Å"agents of the devil†. Also, James himself wrote and published a book about witchcraft around 1597, the Demonology, in which he detailed their supposed powers of predicting the future, affecting the weather, defying all laws of physics and taking demonic possession of innocent people. In 1592, King James had a meeting with a lady called Agnes Simpson, someone who for a long time had been suspected of being a practising witch. James met with her to interrogate her about her witchcraft, but was highly disturbed when Simpson began quoting the exact same words James’s wife said to him on their wedding night. This made James far more engrossed with witchcraft, and made him even more determined to rid the world of these â€Å"agents of the devil†. Finally, in 1604, new laws were enacted by James I stating that practising witches would be punished by execution. Shakespeare not only used the witches to grab the attention of James I; he also used them as a way to flatter James, his friends and his relatives. The witches are used to prophesise the succession of Banquo’s progeny as King, and help to show Banquo favourably: In the original story of Macbeth, found in Holinshed’s Chronicles of Scotland, Banquo is complicit to Duncan’s murder, but Shakespeare changes this to show that Banquo is a honest, pure-of-heart person, which will please James I as Banquo is a old ancestor of his. He also shows Banquo to be a wise person in Act One Scene Three, where Banquo and Macbeth meet the witches for the first time. Macbeth’s reaction is one of ambition, and is captivated by what the witches say, whereas Banquo has a far more cautious response, and is aware that the witches could well be up to no good. I, iii 123 – 126 And oftentimes to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths, Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s In deepest consequence.- This will please James I, to know that his relatives were also aware of witches’ evil. James I is also mentioned in Macbeth, when Macbeth has a vision of eight King’s, on with â€Å"two-fold balls and treble sceptres†. These were James’ regalia, and symbolised James’s power over Macbeth. James I is also seen to have power of Macbeth when Banquo’s ghost is seen sitting in Macbeth’s chair. This use of the supernatural suggests that Banquo’s ancestors will one day take over the throne from Macbeth. Macbeth’s fear of Banquo’s ghost also suggests again that Banquo is superior to Macbeth. Finally, Shakespeare uses the supernatural to interest James I when Macbeth seems powerless in the face of Lady Macbeth’s illness. Malcolm and Macduff talk about how the true king has the power to cure the King’s Evil, as disease called scrofula. James I was believed to have this power and it would have pleased James to know that Shakespeare has shown him to be more powerful than Macbeth. Shakespeare also realised how important it is for plays to appeal to their general audience, and uses a number of different methods to carry this out. The regular people of Elizabethan and Jacobean England also had a fascination with witches, and every town in England would have suspected witches, so it was a common subject of conversation. From these conversations sprouted rumours about the ways and lifestyles of witches, and Shakespeare put hints of these stories into Macbeth. In Act 1 Scene 3, Witch 2 says she has been â€Å"Killing swine†, whilst witch 1 says that â€Å"in a sieve I’ll hither sail†. The people of that time did actually believe that witches killed pigs and sailed over the ocean in a sieve, and hearing these things in a play would have lit up their enthusiastic fascination and would have grabbed their attention. In Macbeth the witches are not only used to fascinate the audience but also to amuse them. The audience would have enjoyed the reference to the witches â€Å"beards† in Act 1 Scene 3, as the witches would have been played by men, and the self-aware joking from the actors would have gone down well with the whole audience. Shakespeare also uses recent events to attract the audience. Macbeth becomes very concerned about the fact that he has no heir to his throne, and the audience will be able to relate this to their recent experience of Queen Elizabeth, who died with no natural heir. The supernatural also adds to Macbeth on a dramatic level, and is used to create suspense, embellish themes of the play and to accentuate the characters personalities, amongst other things. As previously mentioned, the supernatural encompasses hallucinations, and Macbeth’s hallucination of a dagger is a great dramatic device to give the audience the full, haunting extent of Macbeth’s inner turmoil. In some performances of Macbeth, the dagger actually appears hovering onstage, and whilst that maybe an interesting use of special effects, I think it is far more effective when the dagger is invisible, as we can see that he is in fact seeing things, and that what is going on is just in his mind. Similarly, when Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost sitting in his chair, having no one sitting in the chair shows how disturbed Macbeth is. Also, this would the audience in the same position as his friends at the table, perplexed and worried about what is happening. On the other hand, if someone was to play Banquo’s ghost, it would allow for the actor to make use of the stage trapdoor, which would have gone down very well with the audience. Another use of Banquo’s ghost is to mark a turning point in the play; before the ghost’s arrival, Macbeth is authoritative and respected, but his reaction to the ghost shows him in a completely different light, nervous and vulnerable, and this would change his friends’ opinions. This signifies a big change in the play, and from this point onward things become progressively words for Macbeth. Another example of how the supernatural is used as a dramatic device is when Macbeth and Banquo first meet with the witches. The audience know that Macbeth is to be soon hailed Thane of Cawdor, but Macbeth is unaware. This use of dramatic irony gives the audience a sense of superiority, and draws them into the play. Finally, in Act 2 and Scene 4 Ross and the Old Man are commenting on how the events of Macbeth’s regicide have affected the wider world. Here they act almost like a Greek chorus, providing a running commentary on events. The events they describe, such as Duncan’s horses eating each other and a Falcon being eaten by a Mousing Owl effectively tell the audience that Macbeth’s actions have far-reaching consequences. Macbeth is a tragedy, and Shakespeare uses the supernatural to reinforce this. Macbeth is tragic because at the beginning of the play Macbeth is a brave, honourable man, but by the end he is a weak, self centred man, who is eventually killed through fault of his own. This fits Aristotle’s notion of what a tragedy is. In his Poetics he says that a good tragedy has to be about the downfall of a man from a position of greatness to one of lowliness and death. However, Aristotle then goes on to say that it is only a true tragedy if the downfall was brought about by an aspect of the man’s personality, what Aristotle called his â€Å"fatal flaw†. Macbeth’s fatal flaw is his ambition, and the supernatural is used to back this up in a number of ways: The witches in Macbeth are used to show how Macbeth’s ambition takes over everything in his life, and is responsible for Macbeth’s killing of Duncan. In Act 1 Scene 3, the witches don’t say anything about killing Duncan, but Macbeth is so captivated by the fact that he has been told he could be King, his ambition takes over and he would do anything to get to the crown. Shakespeare also uses Banquo’s reaction to the witches’ prophecies to bring out Macbeth’s burning ambition further still. Banquo hears the same things from the witches, but responds in a far more level-headed way, which shows how great an effect Macbeth’s ambition has on his thoughts. Ambition is one of the main themes in Macbeth, but perhaps the most important theme is that of Kingship, and the lengths Macbeth will go to to become King, which includes Regicide. In Shakespearean times people were far more aware of The Divine Right of Kings, and therefore killing a King was the next crime down from killing God. An assault on the King is an assault on God, and it was shown by Ross and the Old Man in Act 2 Scene 4 that the killing of Duncan had supernatural consequences. These consequences are an example of how nature is disordered and unnatural, and the supernatural also conveys this in a number of ways: In the opening scene, the witches talk about paradoxes such as â€Å"fair is foul and foul is fair†, and they say Banquo is â€Å"lesser that Macbeth, and greater.† This is Shakespeare’s way of showing that things in the play are the opposite of what they seem, and that there are many double meanings to what the witches say. Even the appearance of the witches show that things are reversed and upside down, as displayed by the witches beards. Also, Shakespeare uses the interruption of natural rhythms such as sleep to show how the natural order has been interrupted. Lady Macbeth’s somnambulance is a clear example of how disturbed she is over the death of Duncan, and because Lady Macbeth is always putting a front on in public laced with smiles, sleepwalking is a highly effective way of bringing out her inner turmoil. Finally, Shakespeare uses pathetic fallacy to show what effect Macbeth’s actions have on the rest of the world. The stormy weather and earthquakes described once again by Ross and Old Man demonstrate that there not just a few people suffering from Macbeth’s actions, it encompasses a whole nation. This essay has shown how Shakespeare uses the supernatural in a dramatic, thematic and audience-specific ways, but in order to see just how effectively he integrates into the text, it is important to look at two scenes where it is most memorably used. This essay will be looking at Act 1 Scene 1 and Act 5 Scene 1. ACT 1 SCENE 1 The opening scene is an excellent platform to see the supernatural in its most common manifestation in Macbeth: the three witches. The first scene introduces the audience to the witches, and Shakespeare uses the witches to set the scene for the rest of the play. Before the witches even speak, we know this is going to be a dark, intense play from the stage directions. Firstly, thunder and lightning is Shakespeare’s way of using pathetic fallacy to tell us what sort of mood the play has. Thunder and lightning creates a very tense mood, as you never know when the lightning will strike. It will also create a dark sky, making it every scarier. Thunder and lightning also symbolises that everything is not in order, and things aren’t running smoothly. The second part of the stage directions simply says â€Å"Enter THREE WITCHES.† I have already said how fascinated people were with witches in Shakespearean times, and seeing on stage as soon as the play begins would have lit their enthusiasm and grabbed their attention instantaneously. Witches are of course encompassed by the supernatural. These agents of the devil are there to show that the natural order of things and the natural order of God has been disrupted, and all is not well. When the Witches begin talking, it becomes apparent that they want to meet with Macbeth, and that things in the play aren’t all well. When they say â€Å"when the battle’s lost and won†, these oxymoronic statements show that everything is upside down, and that one thing can quite easily mean the other. It emerges that they will meet again with Macbeth upon the heath before the set of the sun, meaning today. They also talk about their â€Å"demons†, Paddock and Greymalkin, a toad and a cat. People at the time believed witches kept pets to spy on people so they could posses them. James I wrote about it in his book. The language that witches use and the way they talk is quite unusual, and shows why the three have been branded â€Å"The Wyrd Sisters†. When the witches are talking, they never talk in iambic pentameter, the usual pattern of Shakespeare’s writing. The iambic pentameter symbolises a natural rhythm, and the disruption of this rhythm demonstrates the natural order of things has been disrupted. This is very similar to Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking in Act 5 Scene 1. Also, the witches’ phrases seem to carry on from one another. An example of this is when Witch 2 says â€Å"When the battle’s lost and won†, and Witch 3 immediately replies â€Å"That will be the ere the set of sun.† This sort of language could mean that they are all part of one body, and controlled by one greater power, namely the Devil. It also could be seen to show that the witches are using telepathic powers to communicate with one another. The people of Shakespearean times were firm believers that witches could communicate with each other through the power of their minds, and James I also wrote about it in his book The Demonology. The penultimate line in this scene, â€Å"Fair is foul, and foul is fair† once again shows how one thing can mean the other, and that the witches are turning over God’s natural order. The first scene in this play isn’t very long at all, but in it Shakespeare manages to tell us an awful lot about the nature of the play, and sets the scene well for the rest of the play. This haunting scene shows the final degeneration of Lady Macbeth, in which the supernatural plays an important part in conveying the full extent of Lady Macbeth’s troubles. Prior to this scene, Lady Macbeth has never let her cover slip. She has remained â€Å"th’innocent flower† in public, and only alone or with Macbeth has she been â€Å"the serpent under’t†. This is the first point where she subconsciously lets her facade slip. Only when she says she would have murdered Duncan â€Å"had he not resembles / [her] father as he slept† does the audience see she has the tiny piece of humanity, and the audience also sees a glimpse of her guilt when she says that â€Å"Naught’s had, all’s spent, / Where our desire is got without consent.† Apart from these two comments, Lady Macbeth has appeared strong and not let her front slip, so it is a great shock to see her so vulnerable and weak in such a verbal and visual way. The stage directions of this scene are â€Å"Enter a DOCTOR OF PHYSIC and a WAITING-GENTLEWOMAN.† The fact that there is a Doctor is a concern to the audience, because a doctor is only ever present when someone is ill (nature being disordered), or there is a need to stave off death. Also, a waiting-gentlewoman suggests that Lady Macbeth that has to depend on someone else, which is a huge contrast to her ever-independent personality, especially since the waiting-gentlewoman is of a lower status to herself. So just by the stage directions, we know that Lady Macbeth is in need of help. We are also aware of that Lady Macbeth is troubled from the conversation between the Doctor and waiting-gentlewoman. For a start, it turns out that that the pair have been watching Lady Macbeth for two nights now. The fact that Lady Macbeth has let people watch her without her realising shows how vulnerable she is because she doesn’t know what information she is giving to the audience. The gentlewoman then goes on to tell the Doctor (and the audience) a list of what Lady Macbeth has done â€Å"Since his majesty went into the field†. The fact that she automatically throws â€Å"her night-gown upon her† suggests that she is subconsciously ashamed of herself and has a desire to conceal her true self. This is a very effective insight to Lady Macbeth’s inner thoughts, although this is lost in the Polanski version of Macbeth, where she appears naked. This essay has already discussed how Macbeth is full of oxymorons and contradictions, and this scene is no exception. When the waiting-gentlewoman talks about how Lady Macbeth has managed to complete all these actions that usually occur when people are awake (she manages to â€Å"unlock he closet, take forth paper† etc.), it is highly strange for anyone to do them â€Å"in a most fast sleep†. This is another way of Shakespeare showing that nature has been disrupted. The Doctor explains it well that there has to be â€Å"A great perturbation in nature, to receive at once the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of watching!† He then follows this with the oxymoronic â€Å"slumbery agitation†, another sign of a natural rhythm being overturned. Lady Macbeth’s actions are also full of contradictions, as noted by the comments: â€Å"her eyes are open† †¦ â€Å"but their senses are still shut†; and also â€Å"she has spoke what she should not†, displaying once again the fact that she has no control over what people hear her say. Finally, the fact that the servant won’t tell the Doctor what she has seen her do previously heightens the suspense. When Lady Macbeth finally arrives onstage, the stage directions say â€Å"with a taper.† The taper could resemble her isolation, a small candle in a dark room, or it could emphasise her desire for light, in contrast too her â€Å"dark desires†. It would also give extra meaning to Macbeth’s famous â€Å"out, out brief candle† speech, which he gave just after the news of his wife’s death. Sleepwalking is unnatural, as a natural bodily cycle is being interrupted. The audience may have seen this as supernatural possession, possibly by the witches, which would have made the scene even more intense. When Lady Macbeth is in her â€Å"slumbery agitation† it seems as if she is in another world. The fact that she is being commented on by the Doctor and waiting-woman emphasises her isolation from the rest of the world. Also, the fact that the audience can see hear Lady Macbeth without her knowing will give them a feeling of superiority over her, and make her feel less powerful. When Lady Macbeth comes onstage the audience is drawn to â€Å"how she rubs her hands.† The audience are told that she has been known to do this for a quarter of an hour makes clear the extent of her deterioration. When Lady Macbeth first speaks, she talks of the imaginary, supernatural â€Å"spot† of blood on her hand. This mirrors Macbeth’s hallucination of the â€Å"air-drawn dagger†. Lady Macbeth is experiencing what Macbeth has already encountered, but she has suppressed all humanity and compassion in her to such an extent that it has to find a way out, and the only way is when she is unconscious. When Macbeth sees the dagger he appears to have gone mad to the audience, but his cathartic projection of his fears is far healthier. In this scene, Lady Macbeth’s language has changed dramatically. Her first speech is only four syllables long, but it is in prose, as opposed to the formal iambic pentameter verse. Her speech is disjointed, which represents her isolation from the world. Also, there is so little rhythm to it, although it could be argued that the phrase takes a spondaic form, which would suggest a very disordered state and lack of control. Also, her speech is purposefully bland, reserved for those of a lower status, and most certainly not royalty like herself. This is very similar to Macbeth’s linguistic degeneration, when he addresses the Murderers in prose. Lady Macbeth’s language is a highly telling manifestation of her degeneration. The contrast between her poetic, calculated persuasion of Act One to the child-like drivel of â€Å"The Thane of Fife had a wife†. Lady Macbeth’s final speech is of a woman who is no longer exists in the present: she is in the past reliving her memories, almost in some horrifying reverie. The fact she is reliving the past is backed up with â€Å"there’s knocking at the gate†, reflects a reliving of the last few moments before their act of murder was discovered. The speech is also crammed with repetition, with â€Å"come† repeated four times and â€Å"to bed† five. Finally, the phrase â€Å"give me your hand† is a perfect expression of her feelings towards her husband – she still loves him but she still feels the desire to command and control. The doctor’s final speech widens the scope of Lady Macbeth’s experiences to take in the whole world: â€Å"Foul whisperings are abroad† can be used to apply to the death of Lady Macbeth herself, but can also relate to the supernatural side-effects of Macbeth’s regicide. After the degeneration of Lady Macbeth, one of the most powerful and vivid character in all of drama, it is the lowly doctor who talks in poetry, not his usual prose. â€Å"Unnatural deeds/ Do breed unnatural troubles† sums up the play brilliantly, but a terrifying reminder of the consequences the Macbeths have to live with. SECTION SEVEN: conclusion This essay has looked at Shakespeare’s use of the supernatural in great detail, commenting on it in a thematic, dramatic and audience-specific sense and focusing in extra detail on Act 1 Scene 1 and Act 5 Scene 1. Shakespeare makes excellent use of the supernatural through witches, hallucinations, prophecies, somnambulance and freak weather. Whether they dominate the scene or not, the many manifestations of the supernatural are used precisely and effectively to add an extra dimension to Macbeth.