Biography of Abigail Adams, Wife of John Adams

Wife of the second President of the United States, Abigail Adams is an example of one kind of life lived by women in colonial, Revolutionary and early post-Revolutionary America. While shes perhaps best known simply as an early First Lady (before the term was used) and mother of another President, and perhaps known for the stance she took for womens rights in letters to her husband, she should also be known as a competent farm manager and financial manager. Known for: First Lady, mother of John Quincy Adams, farm manager, letter writerDates: November 22 (11 old style), 1744 - October 28, 1818; married October 25, 1764Also known as: Abigail Smith AdamsPlaces: Massachusetts, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., United StatesOrganizations/Religion: Congregational, Unitarian Early Life Born Abigail Smith, the future First Lady was the daughter of a minister, William Smith, and his wife Elizabeth Quincy.  The family had long roots in Puritan America, and were part of the Congregational church.  Her father was part of the liberal wing within the church, an Arminian, distanced from Calvinist Congregational roots in predestination and questioning the truth of the traditional  doctrine of the Trinity. Educated at home, because there were few schools for girls and because she was often ill as a child,  Abigail Adams learned quickly and read widely. She also learned to write, and quite early began writing to family and friends. Abigail met John Adams in 1759 when he visited her fathers parsonage in Weymouth, Massachusetts.  They carried out their courtship in letters as Diana and Lysander.  They married in 1764, and moved first to Braintree and later to Boston.  Abigail bore five children, and one died in early childhood. Abigails marriage to John Adams was warm and loving‚—and also intellectually lively, to judge from their letters. Journey to First Lady After almost a decade of rather quiet family life,  John became involved in the Continental Congress. In 1774, John attended the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia, while Abigail remained in Massachusetts, raising the family.  During his long absences over the next 10 years, Abigail managed the family and the farm and corresponded not only with her husband but with many family members and friends, including Mercy Otis Warren and Judith Sargent Murray.  She served as the primary educator of the children, including the future sixth U.S. president, John Quincy Adams. John served in Europe as a diplomatic representative from 1778, and as a representative  of the new nation, continued in that capacity. Abigail Adams joined him in 1784, first for a year in Paris then three in London. They returned to America in 1788. John Adams served as Vice President of the United States from 1789-1797 and then as President 1797-1801. Abigail spent some of her time at home, managing the family financial affairs, and part of her time in the federal capital, in Philadelphia most of those years and, very briefly, in the new White House in Washington, D.C. (November 1800 - March 1801). Her letters show that she was a strong supporter of his Federalist positions. After John retired from public life at the end of his presidency, the couple lived quietly in Braintree, Massachusetts.  Her letters also show that she was consulted by her son, John Quincy Adams. She was proud of him, and worried about her sons Thomas and Charles and her daughters husband, who were not so successful.  She took hard her daughters death in 1813.   Death Abigail Adams died in 1818 after contracting  typhus, seven years before her son, John Quincy Adams, became the sixth president of the U.S., but long enough to see him become Secretary of State in James Monroes administration. It is mostly through her letters that we know much about the life and personality of this intelligent and perceptive woman of colonial America and the Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary period.  A collection of the letters was published in 1840 by her grandson, and more have followed. Among her positions expressed in the letters was a deep suspicion of slavery and racism, support for womens rights including married womens property rights and the right to education, and full acknowledgement by her death that she had become, religiously, a unitarian. Resources and Further Reading Akers, Charles W. Abigail Adams: An American Woman. Library of American Biography Series. 1999.Bober, Natalie S. Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution. 1998. Young adult book.  Cappon, Lester J. (editor). The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams. 1988.  Gelles, Edith B. Portia: The World of Abigail Adams. 1995 edition.  Levin, Phyllis Lee. Abigail Adams: A Biography. 2001.Nagel, Paul C. The Adams Women: Abigail and Louisa Adams, Their Sisters and Daughters. 1999 reprint.Nagel, Paul C. Descent from Glory: Four Generations of the John Adams Family. 1999 reprint.  Withey, Lynne. Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams. 2001.

Essay about Should Smoking Be Illegal - 825 Words

One of the largest and most problematic health issues in our society is smoking. Smoking is currently the leading cause of death in our country, due to its harmful and addicting contents, such as nicotine and tobacco. Although millions die from it each year, smoking is the single most preventable cause of death as well. Without smoking, a tremendous amount of money and lives will be saved. I think that our country should ban smoking and the production of cigarettes in order to maintain a healthier nation. Currently in our nation, about 22 % of the people smoke, which is about 60.7 million people. All of these people are losing about 12 years of life, just by smoking. Every year, 440,000 people die of smoking related†¦show more content†¦If the selling of cigarettes is made illegal, all of these companies would completely be out of business and thousands of workers would have lost their job. These companies would be put in debt because they could no longer make a profi t. Although it would be for the best, the entire tobacco industry would be outraged if smoking became illegal. Even though tobacco companies would lose hundred of millions of dollars by going out of business, our nation is already losing even more money from having smoking part of our society. For example, about 75 billion dollars of extra money is spent just on medical care for people with smoking related health problems. Because of this large demand for healthcare, every family in the nation spends about 600 extra dollars on taxes each year to cover these costs. An additional 50 billion dollars is lost in productivity each year, due to the costs of the tobacco industry. I think that all of this money should be used for different things such as scientific research or education. Instead of spending money on cigarettes, our government should be using its money on things that make positive affects on our country and its people. Passive smoking occurs when someone inhales the sm oke of someone smoking nearby. This can occur in restaurants, hotels and even at home. Studies show that non-smokers who live with aShow MoreRelatedSmoking Should Be Illegal742 Words   |  3 PagesApril 2017 Smoking should be Illegal Secondhand smoke is just as bad as smoking the cigarette yourself.Therefore smoking should be illegal because it causes cancer and it s highly addictive. People can die from lung cancer First,SMOKING CAN KILL† states â€Å"lung cancer is the No. 1 cancer killer in the United States for both men and women. It kills more people than breast, prostate, colon, liver, kidney and melanoma cancers combined. Lung cancer is caused by smoking. Next,â€Å"WARNING SMOKING CAN KILLRead MoreSecondhand Smoking Should Be Illegal1276 Words   |  6 PagesIn our generation smoking still exists even though there are some people who quit smoking and there are some still smoke in ages, however the only problem in our society, people who smoke around youngsters called as well as secondhand smoking is a detective around children and adults. It is important that secondhand smoke shouldn’t be smoking around their own children or underage due to health. Secondhand smoking, tobacco smoke is exhaled by a second smoker or is given off by burning tobacco andRead MoreShould Smoking Cigarette Be Illegal?685 Words   |  3 PagesShould Cigarette Smoki ng be Made Illegal? Name Institution Date A cigarette is a small cylinder like filled with cut tobacco leaves and rolled in a paper and ignited for smoking. In most countries, tobacco smoking is legal due to the businesses motives and also the people who are addicted. They cannot do without it. It has immense consequences, and it should, therefore, be illegal from the effects to the smokers, passive smokers and all the human beings due to the pollution of the environmentRead MoreThe Effects Of Smoking On The Baby887 Words   |  4 Pageswhile pregnant is completely unacceptable. The list of negative effects that smoking while pregnant have on the baby range from premature labor to brain defects. Clinical studies have proven the negative short and long term effects that smoking while pregnant can have on a baby. Smoking while pregnant should be illegal, due to the amount of negative effects it has on the baby. One of the most common effects of smoking while pregnant is premature labor. A premature birth is any birth before 37 weeksRead MoreThe Effects Of Smoking On The Baby893 Words   |  4 Pageswhile pregnant is completely unacceptable. The list of negative effects that smoking while pregnant have on the baby range from premature labor to brain defects. Clinical studies have proven the negative short and long term effects that smoking while pregnant can have on a baby. Smoking while pregnant should be illegal, due to the amount of negative effects it has on the baby. One of the most common effects of smoking while pregnant is premature labor. A premature birth is any birth before 37 weeksRead MoreCigarettes should be made illegal1565 Words   |  7 Pagessale of cigarettes should be made illegal Nowadays in the present world smoking cigarettes has become a trend for every age of people and they take it as a fashion. A statistics shows that nearly $8.37 billion are used by the cigarette industries on advertising and promotions annually. And almost $23 million are used every day for the same purpose. The production and sale of cigarettes not only has negative impact on human health, it can even cause death. Because of smoking more than 5 millionRead MoreShould Cigarettes Be Banned in the U.S.?1400 Words   |  6 PagesShould Cigarettes Be Banned in the U.S.? Tobacco has been around in the world for over 2.5 million years. It was not until a few hundred years ago when the tobacco industry decided to put these crops into use and conjure up tobacco products for the community. A popular tobacco product in society is cigarettes, as they are cheap and simple to use. As long as one is over eighteen, acquiring cigarettes is a straightforward process for a reasonable price, albeit the sin tax. It was not until recentlyRead MoreShould Smoking Be Legal?1706 Words   |  7 PagesSmoking tobacco has been in existence for thousands of years. For most of its existence smoking has been acceptable, tolerable, and permitted in our mainstream society. In recent years, smoking tobacco has been under scrutiny. Smoking bans have been introduced to restrict smokers from smoking in public and private places. For example, restaurants, bars, hotels, parks, and beaches throughout the United States have established the bans against public smoking. I discovered th is has significance as itRead More America Needs a Complete Smoking Ban Essay1399 Words   |  6 Pageschildren are exposed to secondhand smoke, many develop life threatening diseases later in life as a result of that exposure. In the United States, smoking should be banned while in the presence of children. Children’s lungs are vulnerable to the effects of secondhand smoke, and this can cause serious problems down the road. Some states have already banned smoking in public and others are in the process. Secondhand smoke exposure has the possibility of causing nicotine dependence in adolescent (nicotineRead MoreShould Cigarettes Be Banned in the U.S.?1444 Words   |  6 Pagesnicotine and other hazardous chemicals to the body, cigarettes also cause a whole host of health implications to the user and the people around him or her. Aside from these health implications, cigarettes should not be banned in the U.S. because of the exaggeration of the results of secondhand smoking , the similarity of the Prohibition era, the devastation of the U.S. economy, and the freedom of one’s own actions. The two main reasons why people want cigarettes to be banned is because of the health

Ancient Cassiterides Free Essays

Ancient geography The Cassiterides, meaning Tin Islands (from the Greek word for tin: /Kassiteros), are an ancient geographical name of islands that were regarded as situated somewhere near the west coasts of Europe. The traditional assumption, ignoring Strabo, is that Cassiterides refer to Great Britain, based on the significant tin deposits in Cornwall. Herodotus (430 BC) had only dimly heard of the Cassiterides, â€Å"from which we are said to have our tin,† but did not discount the islands as legendary. We will write a custom essay sample on Ancient Cassiterides or any similar topic only for you Order Now 3] Later writers — Posidonius, Diodorus Siculus,[4] Strabo[5] and others — call them smallish islands off (â€Å"some way off,† Strabo says) the northwest coast of the Iberian Peninsula, which contained tin mines or, according to Strabo, tin and lead mines. A passage in Diodorus derives the name rather from their nearness to the tin districts of Northwest Iberia. Ptolemy and Dionysios Periegetes mentioned them — the former as ten small islands in Northwest Iberia far off the coast and arranged symbolically as a ring, and the latter in connection with the mythical Hesperides. Probably written in the first century BC, the verse Circumnavigation of the World, whose anonymous author is called the â€Å"Pseudo-Scymnus,† places two tin islands on the upper part of the Adriatic Sea and mentioned the marketplace Osor on the island of Cres, where extraordinary high-quality tin could be bought. [6][7] Pliny the Elder, on the other hand, represents the Cassiterides as fronting Celtiberia. At a time when geographical knowledge of the West was still scanty, and when the secrets of the tin-trade were still successfully guarded by the seamen of Gades and others who dealt in the metal, the Greeks knew only that tin came to them by sea from the far West, and the idea of tin-producing islands easily arose. Later, when the West was better explored, it was found that tin actually came from two regions: Northwest Iberia and Cornwall. Diodorus reports: â€Å"For there are many mines of tin in the country above Lusitania and on the islets which lie off Iberia out in the ocean and are called because of that fact the Cassiterides. † According to Diodorus tin also came from Britannia to Gaul and thence was brought overland to Massilia and Narbo. [8] Neither of these could be called small islands or described as off the Northwest coast of Iberia, and so the Greek and Roman geographers did not identify either as the Cassiterides. Instead, they became a third, ill-understood source of tin, conceived of as distinct from Iberia or Britain. Od najdawniejszych czasow Brytania znana byla ze swych zloz metali. Fenicjanie i Kartaginczycy sprowadzali stad glownie cyne (plumbum album). Jej glowne zloza wystepowaly w starozytnosci, podobnie jak dzis, na wybrzezu Kornwalii i wyspach stanowiacych jej przedluzenie, slynnych „Wyspach Cynowych† (insulae Cassiterides). W srodkowych rejonach wyspy obficie wystepuje zelazo, ktorego zloza powierzchniowe eksploatowali Brytowie, a z glebokich kopalni wydobywali je Rzymianie. Rzymianie tez rozpoczeli eksploatacje bogatych pokladow miedzi, ktore wystepuja glownie na terenie dzis. Kornwalii, Cardigenshire i Anglesey w poblizu Llandundo. Gory Walii byly natomiast terenami zlotodajnymi kopano tam tez srebro. Tacyt mowi po prostu: „Brytania dostarcza zlota, srebra i innych metali, ktore sa nagroda za zwyciestwo. †Ã‚   Wyobraznie rzymskich najezdzcow rozbudzaly tez inne legendarne bogactwa wyspy, o ktorych opowiada niezastapiony Tacyt: „Ocean rodzi perly lecz nieco sine i blade. † How to cite Ancient Cassiterides, Papers

Management For Organizational Excellence -Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Management For Organizational Excellence? Answer: Introduction Customer communications cover the field that requires an organization to take measures related to communication that enables continuous exchange of interactive information across customer networks to build profitable relationships with customers. There is a growing demand for efficient customer service among customers for addressing their personal needs and requirements. Hence, it is the goal of the customer communication to establish, expand and maintain customer retention and customer relationships. This paper aims at evaluating and analyzing the role of customer communication in efficient management. The first section of the paper discusses and provides a general idea on customer communication. The second section of the paper discusses the areas where customer communication must be implemented and the ways through which they can be incorporated or executed. The third and final section of the paper points out the advantage and benefits of effective customer communication that can p rove beneficial for a business organization. Overview of Customer Communications Management (CCM) With the rising awareness of the importance of customer communication, customers have become more likely to engage and communicate with the vendors. Hence, customers preferences for efficient and effective communication with their vendors are also increasing. Therefore, it has become important for companies to pay attention to the needs of customers by maintaining effective communication with the customers. Customer communication helps the business organizations to frame, personalize and convey information to the customers about their products, services and support throughout their lifecycle through various output media (Goetsch and Davis 2014). The platforms for communicating with the customers can be many, such as marketing, adopting new products, transactions of purchases, and supporting the customers and responding to their queries. Effective customer communications management helps in enhancing the customer experience, end-to-end. Successful and effective implementation of CCM s trategies allows a business organization to engage the customers more personally with the industry while effectively communicating with them via various channels with very little effort. With the emergence and advent of a digital age, customers have become more digitalized as well. Traditionally, the journey of the customers had been linear starting from identifying or discovering an object to evaluating the same to finally purchasing it. However, to state facts, today customers are digital and require a kind of flexibility in the communications processes taking place from the side of the business organization (Alteren and Tudoran 2016). The customers want to be better advised and prefer to have better knowledge on the options they have beforehand and this can be made through effective communications with the customers. Areas of Implementation of Customer Communication The most important tools for customer communication are the ones that help in the establishment of stable customer relationships. In fact, it has been seen that having active communications with the customers is the most effective way to engage customers into interacting. Moreover, indulging the priority customers into active communication is the most effective way to ensure growth of business profitability through customer retention and the establishment of customer loyalty that can prove to be a competitive advantage for business organizations (Mahr, Lievens and Blazevic 2014). Therefore, customer communications has become a number one priority for most business organizations especially given to the fact that there has been a rise in the existence of similar products in the market. In other words, it can be said that customer communications has become necessary for the establishment of trust and reliance among customers and to optimize the operations of customer management of compa nies while providing guarantee for the growth in customer retention rates and for the establishment of long-term customer relationships. However, it is a fact that many companies do not rely on interactive communication with the customers. They encourage hand written mails for the purpose of communicating with the customers since they consider it to be more personal and therefore hopes to establish a better and more stable and personal relationship with the customers. However, such a method of implementing customer communications is not efficient enough. It is so because such approaches to implementation often does not contain any idea on how to address or solve personalized communications (Berger and Iyengar 2013). Furthermore, such types of communication often face technical and organizational glitches as well as the problems associated with limited investment resources. With the emergence of the Web 2.0 and advanced technologies, customers have started preferring active interactions via the web-based media apart from the traditional media (Choudhury and Harrigan 2014). Hence, companies have started giving the web the most importance to carry out active communication with the customers. They have started using platforms like the social media, the customer feedback channels, web pages and official sites and e-mails for communicating information with the customers. Moreover, concepts such as the Customer Relationships Management (CRM) and Enterprise Content Management (ECM) are all integrated within the customer communications framework. The major areas that should be focused on for an active customer communication resulting in a greater customer experience are customer feedback and satisfaction, and customer engagement in company policies (Cornelissen and Cornelissen 2017). Addressing customer feedbacks is essential since it develops within the customers a sense of importance. Responding to the grievances and issues of the customers through active communication facilitates the establishment of the customers trust on the companies as well as renders them a sense of satisfaction on being heard (Filip 2013). Moreover, they feel closer and are able to identify with the organization on a personal level. They also feel ensured that they can reach the organization whenever necessary and their issues will be heard and that the company is always at their service. With regard to customer engagement in the company policies, customer communication plays an important role. Active customer communication from the side of the compa ny, allows the customers to receive information about the company and therefore gain a more elaborate view of the company. Moreover, it enables the customers to play an active role in the decision-making activities of the company as high priority stakeholders since it is they who are affected the most from the company decisions. Customer communication should also be implemented to help the customers gain knowledge about the (Bruhn and Schnebelen 2017)new products adopted by the company along with any new changes made in the old products. Moreover, customer communication helps the companies to get valuable insights from the customers as to any new recommendations or changes that should be made in the company policies and management for the betterment of the companies. Hence, customer communication strategies should be implemented at areas that require and ensure active and interactive participation of both the customers and the companies through mainly web based and digital platforms . Benefits of Customer Communications and Scope for its Improvement It must be noted that customer experience is one of the factors that decides the success of a business organization. To ensure greater customer experience, companies must engage in active interaction with the customers. Active communication between customers and companies can be beneficial for the business in a number of ways. First, it results in the enhancement of customer service that serves as a major concern among the customers of the 21st century. Second, it helps in gaining important feedbacks form the customers that prove beneficial for the companies in case some strategies or provisions need to be improved (Cui and Wu 2016). Third, customer communication between customers and companies helps in maintaining a positive brand image. Fourth, effective customer communication management helps in establishing brand loyalty among customers (Dimyati 2015). Fifth, effective customer communication ensures customer retention and enables the company to attract new customers and thereby e xpand the business. Sixth, effective customer communication that leads to greater customer experience helps the company to achieve growth in their revenue and profitability. Seventh, efficient customer communications management also ensures positive promotion of the brand through word-of-mouth (Blazevic et al. 2013). Eighth, customer communication is more likely to cost less reducing the need for extensive marketing and expenses required for campaigns aimed at customer retention. Ninth, effective customer communication will create open platforms comprising of opportunities to up-sell and cross-sell. Tenth, and finally, it has been seen often that customers who are engaged in effective and active communication with the companies are more likely to forgive and forget a mistake on the part of the company. Effective customer communication can be achieved and improved in a number of ways. Companies must develop web-based and digital platforms for improving the standards of customer communication (Samson, Mehta and Chandani 2014). Companies must engage and economics the customers to share their feedbacks and issues and must respond immediately to the grievances of the customers (Filip 2013). Companies must also inform the customers about any new products or policies adopted via the communicating platforms like social media, traditional media, and official sites of the company. Companies must conduct surveys among customers and gain perceptions of their satisfaction level on the operations and management of the company and ask for their suggestions as how to improve them and then act accordingly. Conclusion In conclusion, it can be stated that customer communication is an essential paradigm related to business management. Effective communication with customers not only helps the organizations to attend to the demands of the customers, but also helps in ensuring greater customer experience. In fact, interacting with customers on an active basis ensures better customer service that is necessary for customer retention and establishing customer brand loyalty. References Alteren, G. and Tudoran, A.A., 2016. Enhancing export performance: Betting on customer orientation, behavioral commitment, and communication.International Business Review,25(1), pp.370-381. Berger, J. and Iyengar, R., 2013. Communication channels and word of mouth: How the medium shapes the message.Journal of consumer research,40(3), pp.567-579. Blazevic, V., Hammedi, W., Garnefeld, I., Rust, R.T., Keiningham, T., Andreassen, T.W., Donthu, N. and Carl, W., 2013. Beyond traditional word-of-mouth: an expanded model of customer-driven influence.Journal of Service Management,24(3), pp.294-313. Bruhn, M. and Schnebelen, S., 2017. Integrated marketing communicationfrom an instrumental to a customer-centric perspective.European Journal of Marketing,51(3), pp.464-489. Choudhury, M.M. and Harrigan, P., 2014. CRM to social CRM: the integration of new technologies into customer relationship management.Journal of Strategic Marketing,22(2), pp.149-176. Cornelissen, J. and Cornelissen, J.P., 2017.Corporate communication: A guide to theory and practice. Sage. Cui, A.S. and Wu, F., 2016. Utilizing customer knowledge in innovation: antecedents and impact of customer involvement on new product performance.Journal of the academy of marketing science,44(4), pp.516-538. Dimyati, M., 2015. The Role of Customer Satisfaction in Mediating Marketing Communication Effect on Customer Loyalty.Researchers World,6(4), p.75. Filip, A., 2013. Complaint management: A customer satisfaction learning process.Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences,93, pp.271-275. Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014.Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson. Mahr, D., Lievens, A. and Blazevic, V., 2014. The value of customer cocreated knowledge during the innovation process.Journal of Product Innovation Management,31(3), pp.599-615. Samson, R., Mehta, M. and Chandani, A., 2014. Impact of online digital communication on customer buying decision.Procedia Economics and Finance,11, pp.872-880.

Nationalistic Strategy of Emiratisation

How to Use Functions and Procedures in Delphi

How to Use Functions and Procedures in Delphi Have you ever found yourself writing the same code over and over to perform some common task within event handlers? Yes! Its time for you to learn about programs within a program. Lets call those mini-programs subroutines. Intro to subroutines Subroutines are an important part of any programming language, and ​Delphi is no exception. In Delphi, there are generally two types of subroutines: a ​function and a procedure. The usual difference between a function and a procedure is that a function can return a value, and a procedure generally will not do so. A function is normally called as a part of an expression. Take a look at the following examples: procedure SayHello(const sWhat:string) ; begin ShowMessage(Hello sWhat) ; end; function YearsOld(const BirthYear:integer): integer; var Year, Month, Day : Word; begin DecodeDate(Date, Year, Month, Day) ; Result : Year - BirthYear; end; Once subroutines have been defined, we can call them one or more times: procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject) ; begin SayHello(Delphi User) ; end; procedure TForm1.Button2Click(Sender: TObject) ; begin SayHello(Zarko Gajic) ; ShowMessage(You are IntToStr(YearsOld(1973)) years old!) ; end; Functions and Procedures As we can see, both functions and procedures act like mini-programs. In particular, they can have their own type, constants and variable declarations inside them. Take a closer look at a (miscellaneous) SomeCalc function: function SomeCalc (const sStr: string; const iYear, iMonth: integer; var iDay:integer): boolean; begin ... end; Every procedure or function begins with a header that identifies the procedure or function and lists the parameters the routine uses if any. The parameters are listed in parentheses. Each parameter has an identifying name and usually has a type. A semicolon separates parameters in a parameter list from one another. sStr, iYear, and iMonth are called constant parameters. Constant parameters cannot be changed by the function (or procedure). The iDay is passed as a var parameter, and we can make changes to it, inside the subroutine. Functions, since they return values, must have a return type declared at the end of the header. The return value of a function is given by the (final) assignment to its name. Since every function implicitly has a local variable Result of the same type as the functions return value, assigning to Result has the same effect as assigning to the name of the function. Positioning and Calling Subroutines Subroutines are always placed in the implementation section of the unit. Such subroutines can be called (used) by an event handler or subroutine in the same unit that is defined after it. Note: the uses clause of a unit tells you which units it can call. If we want a specific subroutine in a Unit1 to be usable by the event handlers or subroutines in another unit (say Unit2), we have to: Add Unit1 to the uses clause of Unit2Place a copy of the header of the subroutine in the interface section of the Unit1. This means that subroutines whose headers are given in the interface section are global in scope. When we call a function (or a procedure) inside its own unit, we use its name with whatever parameters are needed. On another hand, if we call a global subroutine (defined in some other unit, e.g. MyUnit) we use the name of the unit followed by a period. ... //SayHello procedure is defined inside this unit SayHello(Delphi User) ; //YearsOld function is defined inside MyUnit unit Dummy : MyUnit.YearsOld(1973) ; ... Note: functions or procedures can have their own subroutines​ embedded inside them. An embedded subroutine is local to the container subroutine and cannot be used by other parts of the program. Something like: procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject) ; function IsSmall(const sStr:string):boolean; begin //IsSmall returns True if sStr is in lowercase, False otherwise Result:LowerCase(sStr)sStr; end; begin //IsSmall can only be uses inside Button1 OnClick event if IsSmall(Edit1.Text) then ShowMessage(All small caps in Edit1.Text) else ShowMessage(Not all small caps in Edit1.Text) ; end;

Practicality over Aestheticism In Alice Walkers Everyday Use Essay

Practicality over Aestheticism In Alice Walkers Everyday Use - Essay Example This is due not only because Maggie has remained at home with her mother, but because Maggie has learned the skills necessary to their normal existence, skills passed down from preceding generations. Dee shows an interest in family heritage as well, but her exposure to academic and social movements has shifted her priorities to the African connection rather than the African-American roots of her immediate family. This paper will examine how Walker displays a partiality for practical applications of heritage rather than abstract academic curiosity. Dee's degree of distance from her family becomes apparent as soon as she arrives at the house. Her first action is to take a series of photographs to document her family and the domicile, and " never takes a shot without making sure that the house is included." Dee then explains to her family that her name is now Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo, citing that her old name was decreed by her 'oppressors' presumably she and her companion are recent members of the Muslim movement, given that the man greets the mother with the phrase "Asalamalakim." Dee claims the churn top and dasher from the dairy churn - not noticing that they are still needed - to incorporate into some type of artistic table. Dee then wants to claim hand-stitched patchwork quilts semn together by several generations of the family, with the intent to display them at her house by hanging them behind glass. The mother, as narrator, not only shows a knowledge of the family heritage, but still lives in accordance with it. In the very first scene, she expresses an appreciation for her swept yard, saying "It is like an extended living room. When the hard clay is swept clean" The churn top that Dee wants is described as having "the milk in it clabber by now," implying that the churn is an appliance that still gets frequent use in the household. Her slight favoritism for Maggie is revealed in her defending Maggie's claim on the quilts. In the past, Dee was offered a quilt and disdained to take it; the future of the quilts has since been assigned as a sort of dowry for Maggie's eventual marriage to a boy named John Thomas. When Dee left to go to college in Augusta, Maggie remained at home and has become saturated with family culture. She has encyclopedic knowledge of family history: when Maggie recalls Aunt Dee's first husband Henry, called stash, whittled the churn dash, Dee observes that "Maggie's brain is like an elephant's." Maggie herself is a walking connection to the family history, for her burn scars came from the destruction of the girls' childhood house. Most importantly, Maggie remained with her family and learned the skills of her preceding matriarchs. Not only has Maggie communed with both her grandmother and her aunt in the actual making of these quilts, she has acquired the skill of sewing them and is now able to pass the knowledge down to following generations. Opponents of this interpretation would argue that the narrator's perceptions are not only slanted, but hypocritical. They perhaps would argue that the mother's fantasy about meeting her daughter on television indicates a merging of history and progress, with a secret yearning for progress. Another argument could be made that the

International Business Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 3

International Business Strategy - Essay Example To thrive in international business, a firm needs to have excellent international business strategies. These strategies will determine and guide the commercial transactions between firms located in different countries (Hill and Jones, 2012). There are several theoretical models that have been advanced to explain the significance and impacts of international business strategies. The three most used ones, according to Peng (2013), are the industry-based view, the resource-based view, and the institution-based view. Depending on which model was adopted, different strategies can be arrived at by firms to gain a competitive advantage over competitors in an industry (Frynas and Mellahi, 2011). This paper examines the operations, performance and strategies used by SolarWorld USA. It identifies the competitive forces affecting global solar energy, evaluates the resources and capabilities of SolarWorld USA, determine the institutional forces that shape the emergence and the evolution of the industry and, finally, recommend strategic measures that SolarWorld USA can implement to maximize its profitability in light of its declining global market share. This is a view that explains that the firms in a particular industry are influenced by competitive forces in that industry (Peng, 2013). As such, the firm’s strategies will be influenced by the presence of these forces, or lack thereof. These forces were identified and identified by Porter as the bargaining power of suppliers, buyers bargaining power, threats of new entrants, rivalry among firms already in existence, and the threats posed by substitutes (Porter, 2008). Figure 1 shows how these forces interact to determine the firm’s decisions. The global solar industry, just like any other industry, is influenced by these five forces. The bargaining power of the customers determines pricing

Database & Privacy Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Database & Privacy - Research Paper Example es (Custers, 2013).  Indeed, the tension between database technology and privacy will play out with the growing number powerful database applications across the globe. Database privacy leaks usually occur through SQL injections and the victims of such leaks usually feel demoralized because it can risk their life, property, and fortune. Statistical disclosure control has had an enviable reputation because of the protection of the personal details of members of a particular population. Based on Mathematical Optimization, many techniques can be used to solve privacy issues. Frequency tables produce solutions that are biased while algorithms are expensive. Even with the advent of powerful database technology such as modern cryptography, the tension between such technology and privacy concerns will not fade out. Nonetheless, Enhanced Controlled Tabular Adjustment is a modern technique used to overcome most of the privacy challenges (PSD & Domingo-Ferrer, 2014).   Databases play important roles in the society and the more advanced they are, the better they serve the people. Most people recognize the impending risk to their privacy and a 1996 poll proved that 24% of Americans have at one time or the other experienced privacy invasion. In addition, 80% of Americans did not trust how companies used and circulated their personal data during the previous year. Some of the most important roles of databases include ensuring that the fair allocation and distribution of resources (Garfinkel, 2000). In this regard, database privacy leaks reduced the participation of people in keeping better information in such databases, especially hospital and government database privacy breaches. It is however, worth noting that some of the database leaks are beyond control and they should not spark much tension except in circumstances where sheer negligence has led to such breaches (PSD & Domingo-Ferrer, 2014).   Privacy and discrimination have become major issues in the information society.

Chinese business negotiation styles and their impacts on the success of business with indian counterparts

Chinese business negotiation styles and their impacts on the success of business with indian counterparts 1. Introduction With Chinas accession to the WTO and the upcoming 2008 Olympic Games, China will become a new modern country and we will have increasing chances to cooperate with other countries, such as India, from all over the world. Business between China and India is becoming more and more frequent and important, and China will have more opportunities to negotiate with India. The commercial activity cannot go smoothly without negotiation. Business negotiation cannot be separated from culture. Business negotiation is a series of actions, and culture is a lubricant to the process. Knowing about the other sides culture will yield twice the result with half the effort. Also, different cultural values could bring barriers and problems in business negotiation. To understand different negotiation styles of us and India is significant. In this paper, I will analyze the negotiation styles of China and India, and find out the difference between them. Analyzing the business relationship between them and gi ve some suggestions about their negotiation. 2. Studies on the negotiation styles of the Chinese and Indian people 2.1 Chinese business negotiation styles Every people have his or her own negotiation styles, to master his or her negotiation styles will be of great help to the successful business. As a result, what we should understand first is the meaning of Negotiation Styles. â€Å"The negotiation style refers to the words and deeds behaved by negotiators in the course of negotiation. It is closely related to cultural traditions and cultural background, and obviously different from thoughts, characteristics of tactics and behaviors of the negotiators in the other side.† (Ma, 2004, p.450) Generally speaking, China is considered a friendly country. Dating back from Confucius age, propriety (Li jiao) has been paid great attention to. Chinese people are friendly, generous and helpful. Mostly, the Chinese people would warm their guests in either business or travel. The Chinese businessman is accustomed to â€Å"try peaceful means before resorting to force† (Xian li hou bing). When they do business with foreign counterparts, they are very likely to build a good relationship at the first time. In Chinese, there is a phrase â€Å"La guan xi†. If the two sides have cooperated before, the Chinese may possibly remind of the relationship between the two sides, which also has a Chinese phrase called â€Å"La jiao qing†. Acting in good faith occupies a great position in the mind of Chinese businessman, and the Chinese value a lot on emotion. Frequently, the Chineses sincere and warm attitudes help them win a good impression before they do business with others. Nevertheless, â€Å"try peaceful means before resorting to force† also means the Chinese would have their tough attitude as well, especially when they are in a hard situation. They are reserved, seldom showing their attitude directly. Even though they master all details of the negotiation, they would invite their partner indirectly to lay his cards on the table. When the negotiation has reached an impasse or some barrier, the Chinese would attempt to break the deadlock by making generous and thoughtful decision to maintain the relationship. They are easy to give accommodation for the sake of friendship. 2.2 India business negotiation styles Indians are warm and welcoming people who enjoy harmonious relationship. Once one has built a comfortable relationship with the local counterpart, the formal negotiation process can begin. In business, they are good at serving their own interests through trickery, desiring for quick success and instant benefits and scheming for convenience. (Richard, 2004, p.222) As a result, they prefer dealing with samples. Indians are also patient. In the business negotiation, they often spend a lot of time until they make a final decision. The Indians love bargaining. (Waterloo, 2002, p.318) Strangely, in their minds, justice means the counterpart who has more money or who is more popular should pay the bill. When negotiating, they would say naturally,† your capital is much more than us, so you must pay for†¦Ã¢â‚¬ India is an ancient culture with splashes of modernity throughout its business sector. Making researches on each company thoroughly and finding out the nature of their management style are necessary. Many large companies in India are family owned and operated. Dont assume that good relations with one family member could constitute access to the source of comme rcial power. Internal rivalries between family members are bitter, personal, and long-standing. 2.3 China and India business relationship There exists a long traditional friendship between the Chinese and Indian people. People of both countries have had great sympathy with each other and supported each other in the struggle for national independence. On 30, December 1949, the two countries built up relationship. Both China and India are huge markets. They are engaged in economic reforms and, with more economic development in both countries, more varieties of commodity could be offered for exchange. Economic cooperation in the fields of steel, petroleum, space, software, etc. has been developed. (Cheng, 2005, pp.90-91) Since 2002, leaders of the two countries have visited each other frequently, which promoted business between them greatly. China is expected to surpass America, becoming the biggest business partner of India. Both China and India enjoy the most promising foreground all over the world. In 2005, the total trade between China and India reached US $ 18.7 billion, increased by 38% than the last year. China has supported Indias participation in the APEC, while India has always supported China in the Human Rights Commission. Both China and India are huge markets. They are engaged in economic reforms and, with more economic development in both countries, more varieties of commodity could be offered for exchange. They share common interests as follow: The most important common interest between China and India is a peaceful and stable environment for their economic and social development. It is also in the common interest of both China and India to develop more trade and economic cooperation among themselves. Trade between the two countries grew quite fast in the last decade. (Zhang,

Medieval Battle Tactics Essay -- History Battles Weapons Essays

Medieval Battle Tactics   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Medieval tactics were essential for an attack or siege of a castle. Many tactics and strategies helped develop much-improved version of an attacking artifact, like weapons and sieging machinery. The knights of Medieval England which were the cavalry, improved as the years went by, but never actually had any tactics or strategies. The usual knight would just go out there and fight. The knights were the counter offensive against a small siege, but they were ineffective against a large siege of a castle. A siege was very essential for medieval warfare. Siege was like the most important part of an attack; that is if you’re attacking a castle.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As you know no one inhabited New England back then in the Medieval Ages, so many nations were competing for it. One of them was Rome. Rome inhabited New England first, and as being the first settlers they left some of their customs, which among them was the key to war. The Roman legion composed of a huge amount of infantry and some cavalry was an important factor in Roman War. However, if Rome and England were compared then the cavalry of Rome later developed into the Knight. The well trained infantry of Rome’s legion for attacking and invading now was set to defend in Medieval England as it more compares to the castle. Now that you know some about the origination of the Knight and the castle, let’s get into the tactics used by the land units of Medieval England like the knight and the archers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The knight, being the cavalry of the castle, and also the last line of defense between invaders and the castle, were inferior to a well trained army of foot soldiers. Usually, it was the knight’s ability and bravery decided the medieval battle. The Medieval Knight was trained from childhood. However, they were never taught any strategies. So, when it came to fighting in the battlefield, they used a guerilla warfare method where they would engage the enemy. This was nothing like the disciplined lines of musket men (soldiers with rifles) of the later British; but rather just went out there and everyone fought on their own like a free hand anything goes melee match. When traveling, the medieval knight traveled in a group, however the group was open to attacks because it was not arranged in a strategic way. Soon the knights, who had superior life, and had an advantage towards a one on ... ...troying the defender’s buildings.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Trebuchet, on the other hand, was the biggest of all the siege weapons. Trebuchet lives up to its name meaning slinging machine. The trebuchet had a long arm that had a big end so that the end would help it propel when released. The arm was buckled down to one side, while the big end would hang in the air until the buckle was released. At the top of the arm you would find a sling with a rock inside. When the buckle was released there were usually soldiers at the other side with ropes attached to the weight, and helping it propel by pulling the ropes.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  England came a long way from just plain foot soldiers with minimal padding, to armored knights and siege weapons. Perhaps it was because Feudalism must have affected the way that the medieval forces were and developed along the medieval era of England. Medieval War and War Tactics played a very important role in medieval life because it helped shape future generations of empires. With out war in the medieval ages of England, they would have probably not been prepared for their future role in war among other countries focusing on conquest and expansion of other parts of the world.

Religious teaching Essay

‘Religious teachings offer the only sound basis for moral reasoning.’ Critically examine arguments for and against this opinion. Morality is the knowledge and practice of what is moral, which may, according to your personal view be instinctive, be associated with religion and culture, or be acquired by reasoning. Most, if not all religions have a ‘human moral code’, which follows God’s will. Religious people will consult their religious text, whether it is the Bible, Qur’an or Torah ect, when making a moral decision. Very often these religious texts will lay out a set of rules or guide lines. In Christianity it is the 10 Commandments, in Buddhism it is the 8 Fold Path. Although these ‘rules’ do provide a good moral base, if taken to their logical conclusion they are objective and absolute, leaving no room for the flexibility needed in today’s society. This is taking a Deontological approach; this is when a person has a set of rules that they consider to be absolutely right. They abide by these rules, as they are more important than the effect or outcome. We can use the example of abortion and the 10 Commandments. These religious laws state that ‘Thou shalt not kill’. If taken absolutely this means that abortion is wrong no matter what the circumstances are, even if the child will be born severely disabled or will be born into extreme poverty. For many people moral values are relative to a specific society, time and circumstances, and their moral view can change through changed circumstances, needs, beliefs and knowledge. This flexibility is known as relativism and is the opposite of absolute. This is also known as taking a Consequential approach, when a person looks to the outcome, and decides how to act to achieve that result. They have in mind the aim and believe that actions can be deemed moral if they achieve that aim – the end justifies the means. Because of this many individuals often experience conflict in making moral decisions because they have no absolute code of what is right or wrong. There are several different methods subjective morality: Utilitarianism is the view that you decide whether an action is right or wrong by looking at the consequences, and you should choose they action that will produce the most happiness/least-suffering to the greatest number of people. If we consider whether abortion is right or wrong using the utilitarianism view we would have to say that it depends on the individual situation, and whether the baby would be born healthily or not, and whether the baby would be loved, and the number of people affected by the pregnancy, amongst other things. Natural Law states that morality should use the ‘natural’ form of behaviour, and that humans and society should follow this ‘natural law’. Therefore anything that is deemed as ‘un-natural’ is wrong. This means that in the case of abortion it is always wrong, as pregnancy is a natural occurrence and it should not be ended un-naturally. Social contract theory claims that laws and morals are a human invention upon which we agree to make life better for ourselves. When making a moral decision a person would have to consider the impact upon society and people’s freedom, amongst other things. Once again considering the case of abortion, a person using social contract theory, would consider the effect having a baby would have on their lives, the lives of people around them, and how the life of the bay would be once it is born. I conclude by saying that I think that religious teachings do not offer the only sound basis for moral reasoning. I feel that the individual situation also needs to be considered when making a moral decision as every case has different circumstances. I also feel that although the religious laws do give a good, sound basis for morality the objective and absolute rules stated by religion do not leave room for the flexibility needed in today’s society.

Free Essays on Human Nature- Lord Of The Flies

â€Å"What we call human habit in actuality is human nature† (Jewel, Pieces of You). Society has cultivated the human mind into a sponge, which filters knowledge and moral values that are taught from birth. In the novel, Lord of the Flies, William Golding places fictitious characters on a remote island to test human instinct without outside influences. Golding uses objects such as the Island, the Conch, and the Beast to reflect aspects of our society socially, politically, and psychologically. Golding uses the island to represent the social structure of human nature. One aspect of our social structure is how different each individual is from the next. The plane, which crashed, delivered a variety of personalities with different backgrounds: Ralph, from a loving mother and father, Piggy from his overprotective Aunt, and Jack from a rebellious childhood. These boys are defined by different ages, backgrounds, and characteristics, which represent individuality among the population that exists today. Another aspect of our society is the tendency to form groups. Jack forms a rebellious group of hunters and says, â€Å"We hunt and feast and have fun.† (140). The other, more conservative group, is led by Ralph who states, â€Å"I’d like to put on war-paint and be a savage. But we must keep the fire burning.† (142). This reflects how humans tend to group together and have contrasting beliefs. Political parties today, in which one is more conservative or libera l than the next exemplify a parallel to this statement. The last aspect of society is shown in the war, which displays how socially, humans tend to fight with violence and animosity. â€Å"The ululation rose behind him [Ralph] and spread along, a series of short sharp cries, the sighting call† (199). Jack’s Savages start a fire to kill Ralph, the enemy, but cease to realize that they are only destroying their shelters, food supply, and sanity. This is much like the wars fought in modern ... Free Essays on Human Nature- Lord Of The Flies Free Essays on Human Nature- Lord Of The Flies â€Å"What we call human habit in actuality is human nature† (Jewel, Pieces of You). Society has cultivated the human mind into a sponge, which filters knowledge and moral values that are taught from birth. In the novel, Lord of the Flies, William Golding places fictitious characters on a remote island to test human instinct without outside influences. Golding uses objects such as the Island, the Conch, and the Beast to reflect aspects of our society socially, politically, and psychologically. Golding uses the island to represent the social structure of human nature. One aspect of our social structure is how different each individual is from the next. The plane, which crashed, delivered a variety of personalities with different backgrounds: Ralph, from a loving mother and father, Piggy from his overprotective Aunt, and Jack from a rebellious childhood. These boys are defined by different ages, backgrounds, and characteristics, which represent individuality among the population that exists today. Another aspect of our society is the tendency to form groups. Jack forms a rebellious group of hunters and says, â€Å"We hunt and feast and have fun.† (140). The other, more conservative group, is led by Ralph who states, â€Å"I’d like to put on war-paint and be a savage. But we must keep the fire burning.† (142). This reflects how humans tend to group together and have contrasting beliefs. Political parties today, in which one is more conservative or libera l than the next exemplify a parallel to this statement. The last aspect of society is shown in the war, which displays how socially, humans tend to fight with violence and animosity. â€Å"The ululation rose behind him [Ralph] and spread along, a series of short sharp cries, the sighting call† (199). Jack’s Savages start a fire to kill Ralph, the enemy, but cease to realize that they are only destroying their shelters, food supply, and sanity. This is much like the wars fought in modern ...

I could never be so lucky again essays

I could never be so lucky again essays By General James h. "Jimmy" Doolittle This book is about a famous pilot in World War II named Jimmy Doolittle. When Jimmy was 14 he had a taste for boxing. To encourage Jimmy to quit boxing his mom bought him a motorcycle. So he boxed professionally under the name of Jimmy Pierce. When he was 16 he met a girl named Josephine, but she was called Joe. For three years Joe ignored Jimmy but then she started to accept him and they started to like each other. But Joe didnt like Jimmy boxing so he again started to box under the name of Jimmy Pierce. But when Joe found out she was mad. He then went to junior collage. When he was young Jimmy had two goals, to see the world and to build things. Back then only engineers could build things and only two kinds could see the world, civil engineers and mining engineers, he choose to be a mining engineer. The first two years of the mining engineer course was the same as the other engineering courses, math and science. He went to the famous Comstock Lode, thought the rush was over. Some thing happened that summer, a mining elevator cable broke with the mining boss and a miner on it and it fell 2,900 feet to the bottom of the shaft. Since Jimmy was the only one with first aid training he was lowered down. When he got to the bottom he found the cage, his light went out so he had a hard time finding the door, but when he found it and dropped in, the people were dead. He was raised up and miners suddenly loved him. When Jimmy completed collage he and his friend joined the armed forces. His friend joined the infantry. But Jimmy joined the air force. First he became an instructor. On time he and a student were landing, a plane under them hit the bottom of their plane and crashed, when Jimmy landed he went over to the other plane but the propeller had taken the pilots head off. Then he became a test pilot. While he was a test pilot he tested several ve ...

Health Administration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Health Administration - Essay Example QI employs the use of many methods in order to ensure that the services being provided to the customers are improved to the customer’s satisfaction. It also ensures that the products being offered and the whole process improves and becomes of such high standards of quality (Hoyle, 126). Quality management employs the use of various principles in order to make the work of management of the services or products easier while quality improvement follows laid down procedures and guidelines that enable it to improve performance and ensure that the improvement is not just a one-time thing but will always be continuous. The guidelines include following the zero-defect program and ISO certification guidelines among other guidelines. The principles used in quality management include focusing on the customer, involving the stakeholders and better leadership among others. When the quality improvement component works smoothly and effectively, quality management also improves and hence the overall performance of the organization

Parties and Democracy in the Eastern European Countries Essay

Parties and Democracy in the Eastern European Countries - Essay Example Parties help fix the newly established democratic governments in a broader community and influence their stability among the numerous processes of quick social and industrial change. Valuable constitutions and the various processes implicated in the rule of law are reinforced by the possibilities parties put forward for the progress of a more active citizenry and the appearance of a strong democratic political way of life. "There are also strong reasons to believe such conditions are conducive to stable processes of economic development and the formation of effective market economies" (ibid, p.2). The concentration on electoral activity and the methods parties use to reach administration office are particularly important. To the extent of post-communist eastern Europe, it can be stated that involvement in competitive elections is a foremost attribute of party identity development and the advancement of such organizations. Party competition is an important characteristic of the contemporary governments that differentiates them from the single party totalitarianism of the communist era and offers at the present moment a real focus of attention. The single-party government that existed within the Soviet dictatorship, and afterwards reached other parts of Europe and the world, had nothing in common with the experience of the democratic competitive party regime. Modern Eastern Europe contains most of the post-communist countries and the main part of former the Soviet Union. Lewis gives the following classification of eastern European countries: "east-central Europe: Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic; the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania; the Balkans: Romania, Bulgaria, Albania and the most of the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia) former Soviet republics: Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine" (ibid, p.5). 1989 was an important year both for the states of eastern Europe and the growth of a democratic Europe in general. Its most outstanding image can be seen in opening wide of the strongly protected gates set in the Berlin Wall and the enthusiasm with which the inhabitants of Berlin set about its destruction, but consequently it was a process of creation that would do most to resolve how long and in which form this recently received liberty would exist. This probably influenced Velvet revolution in the Baltic states with final fall of the Soviet empire. The main part of the process was the construction of new political organizations and the establishment of a variety of parties competent in expressing the viewpoints and objectives of contemporary population. On the other hand, there was a serious problem faced by the number of post-communist countries - the lack of experience of liberal democracy and the comparative limitation of party development after the countries had gained independ ence. The building of civil society as the main focus of political interest has succeeded during the recent years, since general civil liberties, gained by people, have influenced their outlook and political viewpoints. This is the main characteristic of 'subunits, capable of opposing and countervailing the state' (Gellner, 1991, p.500).  

Marketing Communication Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Marketing Communication - Research Paper Example On the other hand, marketers have also realised the benefits brought about by the use of a combined sources of communication in their marketing endeavours which is widely known as integrated marketing communication plan (IMC) and this concept has significantly gained prominence during the current period (Kotler & Armstrong, 2004 ). As such, this essay seeks to evaluate the extent to which Apple Company effectively uses an integrated marketing communication plan. Explanation of IMC In order to evaluate the extent to which Apple utilises an integrated marketing communication plan in its operations, it is imperative to begin by defining the concept in order to get a clear understanding of its meaning. An integrated marketing communication plan is described as â€Å"a concept of marketing communication planning that seeks to evaluate the strategic roles of a variety of communication disciplines such as advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, direct marketing and public relations ,† (Cant, 2000 p.285). The aim is to coordinate the messages so that they convey the same thing at the same time to the same audience. Duplessis (2005) also posits to the effect that a company integrates or coordinates the use of these communication channels in order to give a clear and consistent message that is compelling to the customers about the products offered which also reinforces the image of the organisation. Integrated marketing communication strategy by Apple According to Buch (2010), Apple has adopted an iAd platform which is a strategy that is meant to support advertising within the iPhone fraternity. This platform integrates the use of the other applications on the iPhone at the same time and the strategy is good in that it enables the company to market its products to various users who can still enjoy the benefit of the other applications at the same time. Though this strategy has been criticised by other sectors of the society, it can be seen that it is very e ffective in as far as advertising of the products offered by Apple is concerned. The idea behind this strategy is to coordinate advertising with the other applications that can be found on the iPhone with the aim of achieving the intended objectives of remaining the leader in the iPhone and tablet industry by the company. Since 2010, it can be noted that Apple has continued to enjoy high volumes of revenue from the sale of iPhones regardless of the negative impacts in the economy that prevailed. Promotion of the products offered particularly the iPhones significantly contributed to the success of the company in its endeavour to waive negative impacts that were likely to impact on its operations. For instance, the company made efforts to spell the unique features of its products and these appealed to the interests of the customers. Promotional efforts such as the decrease in price of products such as the iPod in 2010 greatly contributed to high levels of customer satisfaction (AAPL, 2012). Other companies found it difficult to imitate and Apple harnessed this strategy in its IMC strategy with the aim of appealing to the interests of the customers. Apple’s operations were significantly impacted by various public relations crises in 2008. Despite being on top in terms of innovations in technology, Apple Inc was badly criticised by

Communicate in a business environment Essay Example for Free

Communicate in a business environment Essay 3.1 Describe ways of verbally presenting information and ideas clearly 3.2 Explain ways of making contributions to discussion that help to move them forward 3.3 Describe methods of active listening 3.4 Explain the purpose of summarising verbal communications 4.1 Describe ways of getting feedback on communications 4.2 Explain the purpose of using feedback to develop communication skills Describe ways of verbally presenting information and ideas clearly to present any information or ideas I need clearly I often use simple language and short sentences this makes it easier for everybody to understand. Also I present the information is a variety of ways as some people understand things and concepts in different ways. For example; some people understand by hearing or seeing. Before I present any information or ideas I always plan out what I want to say, I often also take out any information that is not necessary. I also use active and personal language like ‘’you’ and ‘we’’. Explain ways of making contributions to discussion that help to move them forward To make conversation move forward, I often learn to listen to people and give importance for everybody’s ideas. This way I can make positive contributions that can lead to further discussion. I also often do not make a contribution to a subject who isn’t positive or may not affect me or my work. Describe methods of active listening In order to perform within LSG and to develop my skills listening is one the most important skills I should obtain. As it will portray the quality of my relationship with my team and clients. Listening is important as I need to often obtain information from others to learn new things. Methods of active listening include: Listening calmly without interrupting, so that I let the other person speak and show them that I care and respect them Asking others to repeat if I do not understand anything, in order to avoid mistakes Taking notes of important points, so that I do not forget or miss out on any important points Confirming what I have understood, so that there is no misunderstanding of information Explain the purpose of summarising verbal communications The purpose of summarising verbal communication is to identify major points, behaviours, thoughts and feelings that have been discussed. I then often collate all the information I have collected. By doing this is helps to have a clear precise outline of all communications. Describe ways of getting feedback on communications I believe that feedback completes the entire process of communication. Feedback helps us to decide if the communication was effects and useful. I often get feedback from my line manager Scott or I often get it from clients on the phone. If any feedback given is to improve on anything I often make note of the feedback and make a working progress for myself to include the suggestion in my work. Explain the purpose of using feedback to develop communication skills I use feedback for improve my work performance. It helps improve my work ethnic, team work and quality of my work. To help develop communication skills the feedback has to be received and acted upon. Once I have acted upon feedback I always let my line manager Scott know so that he can see I am willing to learn and enthusiastic and this may encourage people to offer me feedback in the future.

The Benefits And Challenges Of Elogistics

The Benefits And Challenges Of Elogistics The increased competition in all sectors due to globalization has forced the companies to reduce business costs. To reduce cost the companies are forming new management strategies like supply chain management and e- logistics. E- logistics means applying the concept of logistics electronically via the internet in order to conduct the business electronically. According to AMR Research( Challenger,2001), E- logistics helps to reduce cost by 10%. According to Sahay,B.S.(2003) logistics contribute to 10 to 12% of GDP . Based on two references e-logistics helps to save about 1.2% of GDP. That is why the companies like Dell, Compaq, Hewlett Packard is favourable to the E- logistics and supply chain management. E- commerce logistics are the activities that ensures that customers get what they need at right time at right place and at minimum cost. E-commerce logistics face many challenges in developing countries like higher tariffs, Complicated global trade rules, Global Terrorism and Geographical Barriers. The lack of knowledge of total cost in online merchant is the main cause for the failure of many electronic commerce in past decades. According to Hesse 2002, Gunasekaran et al 2003, E- logistics is an internet enabled logistics value chain that offer competitive logistics services like contract warehousing, public warehousing, distribution management, target consolidation and transport management.E- logistics consist of four components like one stop value added services, information management, automation in warehousing network and a transportation network. The one stop value added services helps to improve customer satisfaction .For example in government service one stop value added services like making queries and application, to search council services and to make payment can be done all at one time. Information management is where the information is exchanged through electronic media`s like WWW, Internet and EDI. Automation in warehousing operation will reduce human involvement in updating consolidation, loading and unloading. A Transportation network helps to increase flexibility and reduce transportation costs. The difference between traditional logistics and e- logistics are as follows. In case of traditional logistics the volume is very low because large amounts of goods are sent to lesser location like retail stores. But in case of e- logistics the lesser amount of materials are sent to many customers quickly. In case of traditional logistics the objective is that it is efficient and cost effective but in case of e- logistics it is more speed and can meet customer expectation.In case of traditional logistics the information is gathered through fax, paperwork and Management Information System(MIS) but in case of e- logistics the information is gathered through Internet, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Integrated IS. The E- logistics is more reliable and fast than traditional logistics. In Traditional logistics accountability of shipments is linked to limited supply chain but in e- logistics the accountability is expanded in whole supply chain. In E- logistics the customers have high expectation about quality of service and delivery of shipments but in case of traditional logistics the delivery of products is taking long time as the expectation of customer is not met because today`s customer needs faster delivery of goods. In case of traditional logistics there is less complexity in fulfilling international trade but in case of e- logistics there is larger complexity in fulfilling international trade. In e- logistics it is possible to place direct orders with distributors and producers and also helps in accessing more sellers globally but in case of traditional logistics it is mainly done through fax and paper works as it takes expensive and takes long time in getting reply from producers and distributors. In case of E- logistics the demand for shipment is lacking s tability and also not predictable due to huge number of customers but in case of traditional logistics the demand for shipment is predictable . The challenges of e- logistics in developing countries are economic and educational barriers, lack of infrastructure, security, trust and privacy, channel conflicts, delivery logistics, security problems and global terrorism and geographical barriers. In economic and educational barriers the main obstacles for e- logistics is the lack of economic resources, internet usage and standard of education. Most of e- logistics are used by advanced users in developing countries because of lack of resources to use the internet and shop online. Lack of infrastructure means developing countries poor telecommunication infrastructure and short access of computers create barrier in e- logistics .Internet access cost also result in barrier to e- logistics. Security,privacy and trust is different in different countries and there is no provision in many countries govt rules that e- logistics should be legally binding and trust worthy as such it create barriers in E- logistics. According to survey conducted by Forrester Research said that they turned off global trade because of difficulty in process in e- logistics. The main barrier for e- logistics for this is the language and cultural barriers that destroys the different stages of internet infrastructure and adoption and also incapable to deal with direct global orders. According to Leung et al 2000, Gunasekaran and Ngai (2004b), the benefits of e- logistics are enhancing customer service, minimizing cost and also meeting product delivery deadlines. It helps to develop web based inventory control and also helps in building relationship with large logistics companies like DHL,UPS and FedEx. It help to concentrate and understand the customers more readily. It helps in B2B2C à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬commerce for third part logistics (3PL) , it helps to SME`S to develop strategic alliance and also help to meet growing demand. In conclusion due to globalisation the importance of e- logistics is growing eventhough there are many challenges in e- logistics the significance of e- logistics cannot be ignored. In order to use e- logistics effectively we should understand the strength and weakness of e- logistics effectively and we should use in a proper way and should not misuse it. Last but not least in the coming future the importance of e- logistics will be higher and it will be used by many people in the future.

Free Hamlet Essays: Teaching Deception and Selfishness in Hamlet :: GCSE Coursework Shakespeare Hamlet

Teaching Deception and Selfishness in Hamlet  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Tragedy of Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, illustrates the disintegration of not only a family but a society. In a play riddled with greed, manipulation and dishonesty, the end result is the demise of all the main characters. ?It is clear that the theme of vengeance is merely a vehicle used by Shakespeare in order to articulate...themes central to humanity: relationships between father and son, mother and son, and Hamlet and his friends...youth and age? (Introduction to Hamlet). The children are not at fault for their parents? mistakes. Since youth learn often through observation of the adults around them, society today is hyper-aware of the ?example? that it sets for the future generation; in Denmark during Hamlet?s time period, there was little consideration for the moral structure of the future leaders of the country. Through the conceit of the adults in Hamlet, there are moral repercussions for themselves and the youth of Elsinore, who are unable to bear the burden of the adults? mistakes. The adults at the forefront of the play are Claudius, Hamlet?s uncle/stepfather; Gertrude, his mother and Claudius? new wife; and Polonius, counsel to the King and father of Ophelia and Laertes. Claudius is smug at the onset of the play because he appears to have gotten away with killing King Hamlet, Gertrude?s late husband and Hamlet?s father, in order to ascertain the King?s title and woo Gertrude. He has committed selfish and murderous acts that, in the belief of the time, would damn his soul. In fact, in one soliloquy in Act III, scene III, he admits to himself that he feels no remorse for what he has done, saying, ?But, O, what form of prayer can serve my turn...I am still possessed of those effects for which I did the murder _ my crown, mine own ambition, and my queen? (lines 54-58). The deception that Claudius has commited puts the responsibility of avenging his father?s death on young Hamlet, something that he proves unable to accomplish until the very end of the play, despite several attempts to muster the courage. Claudius also turns Hamlet?s own friends against him by attempting to utilize Guildenstern and Rosencrantz as spies. Polonius, counsel to the King, is a manipulative character intent on winning the King?s approval. His solutions to the problems surrounding the royal family involve spying and lying as means to achieve an end. This is evident in Act III, scene I, lines 49-51, when Polonius instructs Ophelia on how to behave while he and the King are spying on Hamlet.

Chapter 16 The Goblet of Fire

I don't believe it!† Ron said, in a stunned voice, as the Hogwarts students filed back up the steps behind the party from Durmstrang. â€Å"Krum, Harry! Viktor Krum!† â€Å"For heaven's sake, Ron, he's only a Quidditch player,† said Hermione. â€Å"Only a Quidditch player?† Ron said, looking at her as though he couldn't believe his ears. â€Å"Hermione – he's one of the best Seekers in the world! I had no idea he was still at school!† As they recrossed the entrance hall with the rest of the Hogwarts students heading for the Great Hall, Harry saw Lee Jordan jumping up and down on the soles of his feet to get a better look at the back of Krum's head. Several sixth-year girls were frantically searching their pockets as they walked – â€Å"Oh I don't believe it, I haven't got a single quill on me -â€Å" â€Å"D'you think he'd sign my hat in lipstick?† â€Å"Really,† Hermione said loftily as they passed the girls, now squabbling over the lipstick. â€Å"I'm getting his autograph if I can,† said Ron. â€Å"You haven't got a quill, have you, Harry?† â€Å"Nope, they're upstairs in my bag,† said Harry. They walked over to the Gryffindor table and sat down. Ron took care to sit on the side facing the doorway, because Krum and his fellow Durmstrang students were still gathered around it, apparently unsure about where they should sit. The students from Beauxbatons had chosen seats at the Ravenclaw table. They were looking around the Great Hall with glum expressions on their faces. Three of them were still clutching scarves and shawls around their heads. â€Å"It's not that cold,† said Hermione defensively. â€Å"Why didn't they bring cloaks?† â€Å"Over here! Come and sit over here!† Ron hissed. â€Å"Over here! Hermione, budge up, make a space -â€Å" â€Å"What?† â€Å"Too late,† said Ron bitterly. Viktor Krum and his fellow Durmstrang students had settled themselves at the Slytherin table. Harry could see Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle looking very smug about this. As he watched, Malfoy bent forward to speak to Krum. â€Å"Yeah, that's right, smarm up to him, Malfoy,† said Ron scathingly. â€Å"I bet Krum can see right through him, though†¦bet he gets people fawning over him all the time†¦.Where d'you reckon they're going to sleep? We could offer him a space in our dormitory, Harry†¦I wouldn't mind giving him my bed, I could kip on a camp bed.† Hermione snorted. â€Å"They look a lot happier than the Beauxbatons lot,† said Harry. The Durmstrang students were pulling off their heavy furs and looking up at the starry black ceiling with expressions of interest; a couple of them were picking up the golden plates and goblets and examining them, apparently impressed. Up at the staff table, Filch, the caretaker, was adding chairs. He was wearing his moldy old tailcoat in honor of the occasion. Harry was surprised to see that he added four chairs, two on either side of Dumbledore's. â€Å"But there are only two extra people,† Harry said. â€Å"Why's Filch putting out four chairs, who else is coming?† â€Å"Eh?† said Ron vaguely. He was still staring avidly at Krum. When all the students had entered the Hall and settled down at their House tables, the staff entered, filing up to the top table and taking their seats. Last in line were Professor Dumbledore, Professor Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime. When their headmistress appeared, the pupils from Beauxbatons leapt to their feet. A few of the Hogwarts students laughed. The Beauxbatons party appeared quite unembarrassed, however, and did not resume their seats until Madame Maxime had sat down on Dumbledore's left-hand side. Dumbledore remained standing, and a silence fell over the Great Hall. â€Å"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, ghosts and – most particularly – guests,† said Dumbledore, beaming around at the foreign students. â€Å"I have great pleasure in welcoming you all to Hogwarts. I hope and trust that your stay here will be both comfortable and enjoyable.† One of the Beauxbatons girls still clutching a muffler around her head gave what was unmistakably a derisive laugh. â€Å"No one's making you stay!† Hermione whispered, bristling at her. â€Å"The tournament will be officially opened at the end of the feast,† said Dumbledore. â€Å"I now invite you all to eat, drink, and make yourselves at home!† He sat down, and Harry saw Karkaroff lean forward at once and engage him in conversation. The plates in front of them filled with food as usual. The house-elves in the kitchen seemed to have pulled out all the stops; there was a greater variety of dishes in front of them than Harry had ever seen, including several that were definitely foreign. â€Å"What's that?† said Ron, pointing at a large dish of some sort of shellfish stew that stood beside a large steak-and-kidney pudding. â€Å"Bouillabaisse,† said Hermione. â€Å"Bless you,† said Ron. â€Å"It's French,† said Hermione, â€Å"I had it on holiday summer before last. It's very nice.† â€Å"I'll take your word for it,† said Ron, helping himself to black pudding. The Great Hall seemed somehow much more crowded than usual, even though there were barely twenty additional students there; perhaps it was because their differently colored uniforms stood out so clearly against the black of the Hogwarts' robes. Now that they had removed their furs, the Durmstrang students were revealed to be wearing robes of a deep bloodred. Hagrid sidled into the Hall through a door behind the staff table twenty minutes after the start of the feast. He slid into his seat at the end and waved at Harry, Ron, and Hermione with a very heavily bandaged hand. â€Å"Skrewts doing all right, Hagrid?† Harry called. â€Å"Thrivin',† Hagrid called back happily. â€Å"Yeah, I'll just bet they are,† said Ron quietly. â€Å"Looks like they've finally found a food they like, doesn't it? Hagrid's fingers.† At that moment, a voice said, â€Å"Excuse me, are you wanting ze bouillabaisse?† It was the girl from Beauxbatons who had laughed during Dumbledore's speech. She had finally removed her muffler. A long sheet of silvery-blonde hair fell almost to her waist. She had large, deep blue eyes, and very white, even teeth. Ron went purple. He stared up at her, opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out except a faint gurgling noise. â€Å"Yeah, have it,† said Harry, pushing the dish toward the girl. â€Å"You ‘ave finished wiz it?† â€Å"Yeah,† Ron said breathlessly. â€Å"Yeah, it was excellent.† The girl picked up the dish and carried it carefully off to the Ravenclaw table. Ron was still goggling at the girl as though he had never seen one before. Harry started to laugh. The sound seemed to jog Ron back to his senses. â€Å"She's a veela!† he said hoarsely to Harry. â€Å"Of course she isn't!† said Hermione tartly. â€Å"I don't see anyone else gaping at her like an idiot!† But she wasn't entirely right about that. As the girl crossed the Hall, many boys' heads turned, and some of them seemed to have become temporarily speechless, just like Ron. â€Å"I'm telling you, that's not a normal girl!† said Ron, leaning sideways so he could keep a clear view of her. â€Å"They don't make them like that at Hogwarts!† â€Å"They make them okay at Hogwarts,† said Harry without thinking. Cho happened to be sitting only a few places away from the girl with the silvery hair. â€Å"When you've both put your eyes back in,† said Hermione briskly, â€Å"you'll be able to see who's just arrived.† She was pointing up at the staff table. The two remaining empty seats had just been filled. Ludo Bagman was now sitting on Professor Karkaroff's other side, while Mr. Crouch, Percy's boss, was next to Madame Maxime. â€Å"What are they doing here?† said Harry in surprise. â€Å"They organized the Triwizard Tournament, didn't they?† said Hermione. â€Å"I suppose they wanted to be here to see it start.† When the second course arrived they noticed a number of unfamiliar desserts too. Ron examined an odd sort of pale blancmange closely, then moved it carefully a few inches to his right, so that it would be clearly visible from the Ravenclaw table. The girl who looked like a veela appeared to have eaten enough, however, and did not come over to get it. Once the golden plates had been wiped clean, Dumbledore stood up again. A pleasant sort of tension seemed to fill the Hall now. Harry felt a slight thrill of excitement, wondering what was coming. Several seats down from them, Fred and George were leaning forward, staring at Dumbledore with great concentration. â€Å"The moment has come,† said Dumbledore, smiling around at the sea of upturned faces. â€Å"The Triwizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to say a few words of explanation before we bring in the casket -â€Å" â€Å"The what?† Harry muttered. Ron shrugged. â€Å"- just to clarify the procedure that we will be following this year. But first, let me introduce, for those who do not know them, Mr. Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation† – there was a smattering of polite applause – â€Å"and Mr. Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports.† There was a much louder round of applause for Bagman than for Crouch, perhaps because of his fame as a Beater, or simply because he looked so much more likable. He acknowledged it with a jovial wave of his hand. Bartemius Crouch did not smile or wave when his name was announced. Remembering him in his neat suit at the Quidditch World Cup, Harry thought he looked strange in wizard's robes. His toothbrush mustache and severe parting looked very odd next to Dumbledore's long white hair and beard. â€Å"Mr. Bagman and Mr. Crouch have worked tirelessly over the last few months on the arrangements for the Triwizard Tournament,† Dumbledore continued, â€Å"and they will be joining myself, Professor Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime on the panel that will judge the champions' efforts.† At the mention of the word â€Å"champions,† the attentiveness of the listening students seemed to sharpen. Perhaps Dumbledore had noticed their sudden stillness, for he smiled as he said, â€Å"The casket, then, if you please, Mr. Filch.† Filch, who had been lurking unnoticed in a far corner of the Hall, now approached Dumbledore carrying a great wooden chest encrusted with jewels. It looked extremely old. A murmur of excited interest rose from the watching students; Dennis Creevey actually stood on his chair to see it properly, but, being so tiny, his head hardly rose above anyone else's. â€Å"The instructions for the tasks the champions will face this year have already been examined by Mr. Crouch and Mr. Bagman,† said Dumbledore as Filch placed the chest carefully on the table before him, â€Å"and they have made the necessary arrangements for each challenge. There will be three tasks, spaced throughout the school year, and they will test the champions in many different ways.. their magical prowess – their daring – their powers of deduction – and, of course, their ability to cope with danger.† At this last word, the Hall was filled with a silence so absolute that nobody seemed to be breathing. â€Å"As you know, three champions compete in the tournament,† Dumbledore went on calmly, â€Å"one from each of the participating schools. They will be marked on how well they perform each of the Tournament tasks and the champion with the highest total after task three will win the Triwizard Cup. The champions will be chosen by an impartial selector: the Goblet of Fire.† Dumbledore now took out his wand and tapped three times upon the top of the casket. The lid creaked slowly open. Dumbledore reached inside it and pulled out a large, roughly hewn wooden cup. It would have been entirely unremarkable had it not been full to the brim with dancing blue-white flames. Dumbledore closed the casket and placed the goblet carefully on top of it, where it would be clearly visible to everyone in the Hall. â€Å"Anybody wishing to submit themselves as champion must write their name and school clearly upon a slip of parchment and drop it into the goblet,† said Dumbledore. â€Å"Aspiring champions have twenty-four hours in which to put their names forward. Tomorrow night, Halloween, the goblet will return the names of the three it has judged most worthy to represent their schools. The goblet will be placed in the entrance hall tonight, where it will be freely accessible to all those wishing to compete. â€Å"To ensure that no underage student yields to temptation,† said Dumbledore, â€Å"I will be drawing an Age Line around the Goblet of Fire once it has been placed in the entrance hall. Nobody under the age of seventeen will be able to cross this line. â€Å"Finally, I wish to impress upon any of you wishing to compete that this tournament is not to be entered into lightly. Once a champion has been selected by the Goblet of Fire, he or she is obliged to see the tournament through to the end. The placing of your name in the goblet constitutes a binding, magical contract. There can be no change of heart once you have become a champion. Please be very sure, therefore, that you are wholeheartedly prepared to play before you drop your name into the goblet. Now, I think it is time for bed. Good night to you all.† â€Å"An Age Line!† Fred Weasley said, his eyes glinting, as they all made their way across the Hall to the doors into the entrance hall. â€Å"Well, that should be fooled by an Aging Potion, shouldn't it? And once your name's in that goblet, you're laughing – it can't tell whether you're seventeen or not!† â€Å"But I don't think anyone under seventeen will stand a chance,† said Hermione, â€Å"we just haven't learned enough†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Speak for yourself,† said George shortly. â€Å"You'll try and get in, won't you, Harry?† Harry thought briefly of Dumbledore's insistence that nobody under seventeen should submit their name, but then the wonderful picture of himself winning the Triwizard Tournament filled his mind again†¦.He wondered how angry Dumbledore would be if someone younger than seventeen did find a way to get over the Age Line. â€Å"Where is he?† said Ron, who wasn't listening to a word of this conversation, but looking through the crowd to see what had become of Krum. â€Å"Dumbledore didn't say where the Durmstrang people are sleeping, did he?† But this query was answered almost instantly; they were level with the Slytherin table now, and Karkaroff had just bustled up to his students. â€Å"Back to the ship, then,† he was saying. â€Å"Viktor, how are you feeling? Did you eat enough? Should I send for some mulled wine from the kitchens?† Harry saw Krum shake his head as he pulled his furs back on. â€Å"Professor, Ivood like some vine,† said one of the other Durmstrang boys hopefully. â€Å"I wasn't offering it to you, Poliakoff,† snapped Karkaroff, his warmly paternal air vanishing in an instant. â€Å"I notice you have dribbled food all down the front of your robes again, disgusting boy -â€Å" Karkaroff turned and led his students toward the doors, reaching them at exactly the same moment as Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Harry stopped to let him walk through first. â€Å"Thank you,† said Karkaroff carelessly, glancing at him. And then Karkaroff froze. He turned his head back to Harry and stared at him as though he couldn't believe his eyes. Behind their headmaster, the students from Durmstrang came to a halt too. Karkaroff's eyes moved slowly up Harry's face and fixed upon his scar. The Durmstrang students were staring curiously at Harry too. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw comprehension dawn on a few of their faces. The boy with food all down his front nudged the girl next to him and pointed openly at Harry's forehead. â€Å"Yeah, that's Harry Potter,† said a growling voice from behind them. Professor Karkaroff spun around. Mad-Eye Moody was standing there, leaning heavily on his staff, his magical eye glaring unblinkingly at the Durmstrang headmaster. The color drained from Karkaroff's face as Harry watched. A terrible look of mingled fury and fear came over him. â€Å"You!† he said, staring at Moody as though unsure he was really seeing him. â€Å"Me,† said Moody grimly. â€Å"And unless you've got anything to say to Potter, Karkaroff, you might want to move. You're blocking the doorway.† It was true; half the students in the Hall were now waiting behind them, looking over one another's shoulders to see what was causing the holdup. Without another word, Professor Karkaroff swept his students away with him. Moody watched him until he was out of sight, his magical eye fixed upon his back, a look of intense dislike upon his mutilated face. As the next day was Saturday, most students would normally have breakfasted late. Harry, Ron, and Hermione, however, were not alone in rising much earlier than they usually did on weekends. When they went down into the entrance hall, they saw about twenty people milling around it, some of them eating toast, all examining the Goblet of Fire. It had been placed in the center of the hall on the stool that normally bore the Sorting Hat. A thin golden line had been traced on the floor, forming a circle ten feet around it in every direction. â€Å"Anyone put their name in yet?† Ron asked a third-year girl eagerly. â€Å"All the Durmstrang lot,† she replied. â€Å"But I haven't seen anyone from Hogwarts yet.† â€Å"Bet some of them put it in last night after we'd all gone to bed,† said Harry. â€Å"I would've if it had been me†¦wouldn't have wanted everyone watching. What if the goblet just gobbed you right back out again?† Someone laughed behind Harry. Turning, he saw Fred, George, and Lee Jordan hurrying down the staircase, all three of them looking extremely excited. â€Å"Done it,† Fred said in a triumphant whisper to Harry, Ron, and Hermione. â€Å"Just taken it.† â€Å"What?† said Ron. â€Å"The Aging Potion, dung brains,† said Fred. â€Å"One drop each,† said George, rubbing his hands together with glee. â€Å"We only need to be a few months older.† â€Å"We're going to split the thousand Galleons between the three of us if one of us wins,† said Lee, grinning broadly. â€Å"I'm not sure this is going to work, you know,† said Hermione warningly. â€Å"I'm sure Dumbledore will have thought of this.† Fred, George, and Lee ignored her. â€Å"Ready?† Fred said to the other two, quivering with excitement. â€Å"C'mon, then – I'll go first -â€Å" Harry watched, fascinated, as Fred pulled a slip of parchment out of his pocket bearing the words Fred Weasley – Hogwarts. Fred walked right up to the edge of the line and stood there, rocking on his toes like a diver preparing for a fifty-foot drop. Then, with the eyes of every person in the entrance hall upon him, he took a great breath and stepped over the line. For a split second Harry thought it had worked – George certainly thought so, for he let out a yell of triumph and leapt after Fred – but next moment, there was a loud sizzling sound, and both twins were hurled out of the golden circle as though they had been thrown by an invisible shot-putter. They landed painfully, ten feet away on the cold stone floor, and to add insult to injury, there was a loud popping noise, and both of them sprouted identical long white beards. The entrance hall rang with laughter. Even Fred and George joined in, once they had gotten to their feet and taken a good look at each other's beards. â€Å"I did warn you,† said a deep, amused voice, and everyone turned to see Professor Dumbledore coming out of the Great Hall. He surveyed Fred and George, his eyes twinkling. â€Å"I suggest you both go up to Madam Pomfrey. She is already tending to Miss Fawcett, of Ravenclaw, and Mr. Summers, of Hufflepuff, both of whom decided to age themselves up a little too. Though I must say, neither of their beards is anything like as fine as yours.† Fred and George set off for the hospital wing, accompanied by Lee, who was howling with laughter, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione, also chortling, went in to breakfast. The decorations in the Great Hall had changed this morning. As it was Halloween, a cloud of live bats was fluttering around the enchanted ceiling, while hundreds of carved pumpkins leered from every corner. Harry led the way over to Dean and Seamus, who were discussing those Hogwarts students of seventeen or over who might be entering. â€Å"There's a rumor going around that Warrington got up early and put his name in,† Dean told Harry. â€Å"That big bloke from Slytherin who looks like a sloth.† Harry, who had played Quidditch against Warrington, shook his head in disgust. â€Å"We can't have a Slytherin champion!† â€Å"And all the Hufflepuffs are talking about Diggory,† said Seamus contemptuously. â€Å"But I wouldn't have thought he'd have wanted to risk his good looks.† â€Å"Listen!† said Hermione suddenly. People were cheering out in the entrance hall. They all swiveled around in their seats and saw Angelina Johnson coming into the Hall, grinning in an embarrassed sort of way. A tall black girl who played Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, Angelina came over to them, sat down, and said, â€Å"Well, I've done it! Just put my name in!† â€Å"You're kidding!† said Ron, looking impressed. â€Å"Are you seventeen, then?† asked Harry. â€Å"Course she is, can't see a beard, can you?† said Ron. â€Å"I had my birthday last week,† said Angelina. â€Å"Well, I'm glad someone from Gryffindor's entering,† said Hermione. â€Å"I really hope you get it, Angelina!† â€Å"Thanks, Hermione,† said Angelina, smiling at her. Yeah, better you than Pretty-Boy Diggory, said Seamus, causing several Hufflepuffs passing their table to scowl heavily at him. â€Å"What're we going to do today, then?† Ron asked Harry and Hermione when they had finished breakfast and were leaving the Great Hall. â€Å"We haven't been down to visit Hagrid yet,† said Harry. â€Å"Okay,† said Ron, â€Å"just as long as he doesn't ask us to donate a few fingers to the skrewts.† A look of great excitement suddenly dawned on Hermione's face. â€Å"I've just realized – I haven't asked Hagrid to join S.P.E.W. yet!† she said brightly. â€Å"Wait for me, will you, while I nip upstairs and get the badges?† â€Å"What is it with her?† said Ron, exasperated, as Hermione ran away up the marble staircase. â€Å"Hey, Ron,† said Harry suddenly. â€Å"It's your friend†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The students from Beauxbatons were coming through the front doors from the grounds, among them, the veela-girl. Those gathered around the Goblet of Fire stood back to let them pass, watching eagerly. Madame Maxime entered the hall behind her students and organized them into a line. One by one, the Beauxbatons students stepped across the Age Line and dropped their slips of parchment into the blue-white flames. As each name entered the fire, it turned briefly red and emitted sparks. â€Å"What d'you reckon'll happen to the ones who aren't chosen?† Ron muttered to Harry as the veela-girl dropped her parchment into the Goblet of Fire. â€Å"Reckon they'll go back to school, or hang around to watch the tournament?† â€Å"Dunno,† said Harry. â€Å"Hang around, I suppose†¦.Madame Maxime's staying to judge, isn't she?† When all the Beauxbatons students had submitted their names, Madame Maxime led them back out of the hall and out onto the grounds again. â€Å"Where are they sleeping, then?† said Ron, moving toward the front doors and staring after them. A loud rattling noise behind them announced Hermione's reappearance with the box of S. P. E.W. badges. â€Å"Oh good, hurry up,† said Ron, and he jumped down the stone steps, keeping his eyes on the back of the veela-girl, who was now halfway across the lawn with Madame Maxime. As they neared Hagrid's cabin on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, the mystery of the Beauxbatons' sleeping quarters was solved. The gigantic powder-blue carriage in which they had arrived had been parked two hundred yards from Hagrid's front door, and the students were climbing back inside it. The elephantine flying horses that had pulled the carriage were now grazing in a makeshift paddock alongside it. Harry knocked on Hagrid's door, and Fang's booming barks answered instantly. â€Å"‘Bout time!† said Hagrid, when he'd flung open the door. â€Å"Thought you lot'd forgotten where I live!† â€Å"We've been really busy, Hag -† Hermione started to say, but then she stopped dead, looking up at Hagrid, apparently lost for words. Hagrid was wearing his best (and very horrible) hairy brown suit, plus a checked yellow-and-orange tie. This wasn't the worst of it, though; he had evidently tried to tame his hair, using large quantities of what appeared to be axle grease. It was now slicked down into two bunches – perhaps he had tried a ponytail like Bill's, but found he had too much hair. The look didn't really suit Hagrid at all. For a moment, Hermione goggled at him, then, obviously deciding not to comment, she said, â€Å"Erm – where are the skrewts.† â€Å"Out by the pumpkin patch,† said Hagrid happily. â€Å"They're gettin' massive, mus' be nearly three foot long now. On'y trouble is, they've started killin' each other.† â€Å"Oh no, really?† said Hermione, shooting a repressive look at Ron, who, staring at Hagrid's odd hairstyle, had just opened his mouth to say something about it. â€Å"Yeah,† said Hagrid sadly. â€Å"S' okay, though, I've got 'em in separate boxes now. Still got abou' twenty.† â€Å"Well, that's lucky,† said Ron. Hagrid missed the sarcasm. Hagrid's cabin comprised a single room, in one corner of which was a gigantic bed covered in a patchwork quilt. A similarly enormous wooden table and chairs stood in front of the fire beneath the quantity of cured hams and dead birds hanging from the ceiling. They sat down at the table while Hagrid started to make tea, and were soon immersed in yet more discussion of the Triwizard Tournament. Hagrid seemed quite as excited about it as they were. â€Å"You wait,† he said, grinning. â€Å"You jus' wait. Yer going ter see some stuff yeh've never seen before. Firs' task†¦ah, but I'm not supposed ter say.† â€Å"Go on, Hagrid!† Harry, Ron, and Hermione urged him, but he just shook his head, grinning. â€Å"I don' want ter spoil it fer yeh,† said Hagrid. â€Å"But it's gonna be spectacular, I'll tell yeh that. Them champions're going ter have their work cut out. Never thought I'd live ter see the Triwizard Tournament played again!† They ended up having lunch with Hagrid, though they didn't eat much – Hagrid had made what he said was a beef casserole, but after Hermione unearthed a large talon in hers, she, Harry, and Ron rather lost their appetites. However, they enjoyed themselves trying to make Hagrid tell them what the tasks in the tournament were going to be, speculating which of the entrants were likely to be selected as champions, and wondering whether Fred and George were beardless yet. A light rain had started to fall by midafternoon; it was very cozy sitting by the fire, listening to the gentle patter of the drops on the window, watching Hagrid darning his socks and arguing with Hermione about house-elves – for he flatly refused to join S.P.E.W. when she showed him her badges. â€Å"It'd be doin' 'em an unkindness, Hermione,† he said gravely, threading a massive bone needle with thick yellow yarn. â€Å"It's in their nature ter look after humans, that's what they like, see? Yeh'd be makin' 'em unhappy ter take away their work, an' insutin' 'em if yeh tried ter pay 'em.† â€Å"But Harry set Dobby free, and he was over the moon about it!† said Hermione. â€Å"And we heard he's asking for wages now!† â€Å"Yeah, well, yeh get weirdos in every breed. I'm not sayin' there isn't the odd elf who'd take freedom, but yeh'll never persuade most of 'em ter do it – no, nothin' doin', Hermione.† Hermione looked very cross indeed and stuffed her box of badges back into her cloak pocket. By half past five it was growing dark, and Ron, Harry, and Hermione decided it was time to get back up to the castle for the Halloween feast – and, more important, the announcement of the school champions. â€Å"I'll come with yeh,† said Hagrid, putting away his darning. â€Å"Jus' give us a sec.† Hagrid got up, went across to the chest of drawers beside his bed, and began searching for something inside it. They didn't pay too much attention until a truly horrible smell reached their nostrils. Coughing, Ron said, â€Å"Hagrid, what's that?† â€Å"Eh?† said Hagrid, turning around with a large bottle in his hand. â€Å"Don' yeh like it?† â€Å"Is that aftershave?† said Hermione in a slightly choked voice. â€Å"Er – eau de cologne,† Hagrid muttered. He was blushing. â€Å"Maybe it's a bit much,† he said gruffly. â€Å"I'll go take it off, hang on†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He stumped out of the cabin, and they saw him washing himself vigorously in the water barrel outside the window. â€Å"Eau de cologne?† said Hermione in amazement. â€Å"Hagrid?† â€Å"And what's with the hair and the suit?† said Harry in an undertone. â€Å"Look!† said Ron suddenly, pointing out of the window. Hagrid had just straightened up and turned 'round. If he had been blushing before, it was nothing to what he was doing now. Getting to their feet very cautiously, so that Hagrid wouldn't spot them, Harry, Ron, and Hermione peered through the window and saw that Madame Maxime and the Beauxbatons students had just emerged from their carriage, clearly about to set off for the feast too. They couldn't hear what Hagrid was saying, but he was talking to Madame Maxime with a rapt, misty-eyed expression Harry had only ever seen him wear once before – when he had been looking at the baby dragon, Norbert. â€Å"He's going up to the castle with her!† said Hermione indignantly. â€Å"I thought he was waiting for us!† Without so much as a backward glance at his cabin, Hagrid was trudging off up the grounds with Madame Maxime, the Beauxbatons students following in their wake, jogging to keep up with their enormous strides. â€Å"He fancies her!† said Ron incredulously. â€Å"Well, if they end up having children, they'll be setting a world record – bet any baby of theirs would weigh about a ton.† They let themselves out of the cabin and shut the door behind them. It was surprisingly dark outside. Drawing their cloaks more closely around themselves, they set off up the sloping lawns. â€Å"Ooh it's them, look!† Hermione whispered. The Durmstrang party was walking up toward the castle from the lake. Viktor Krum was walking side by side with Karkaroff, and the other Durmstrang students were straggling along behind them. Ron watched Krum excitedly, but Krum did not look around as he reached the front doors a little ahead of Hermione, Ron, and Harry and proceeded through them. When they entered the candlelit Great Hall it was almost full. The Goblet of Fire had been moved; it was now standing in front of Dumbledore's empty chair at the teachers' table. Fred and George – clean-shaven again – seemed to have taken their disappointment fairly well. â€Å"Hope it's Angelina,† said Fred as Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat down. â€Å"So do I!† said Hermione breathlessly. â€Å"Well, we'll soon know!† The Halloween feast seemed to take much longer than usual. Perhaps because it was their second feast in two days, Harry didn't seem to fancy the extravagantly prepared food as much as he would have normally. Like everyone else in the Hall, judging by the constantly craning necks, the impatient expressions on every face, the fidgeting, and the standing up to see whether Dumbledore had finished eating yet, Harry simply wanted the plates to clear, and to hear who had been selected as champions. At long last, the golden plates returned to their original spotless state; there was a sharp upswing in the level of noise within the Hall, which died away almost instantly as Dumbledore got to his feet. On either side of him, Professor Karkaroff and Madame Maxime looked as tense and expectant as anyone. Ludo Bagman was beaming and winking at various students. Mr. Crouch, however, looked quite uninterested, almost bored. â€Å"Well, the goblet is almost ready to make its decision,† said Dumbledore. â€Å"I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the champions' names are called, I would ask them please to come up to the top of the Hall, walk along the staff table, and go through into the next chamber† – he indicated the door behind the staff table – â€Å"where they will be receiving their first instructions.† He took out his wand and gave a great sweeping wave with it; at once, all the candles except those inside the carved pumpkins were extinguished, plunging them into a state of semidarkness. The Goblet of Fire now shone more brightly than anything in the whole Hall, the sparkling bright, bluey-whiteness of the flames almost painful on the eyes. Everyone watched, waiting†¦.A few people kept checking their watches†¦ â€Å"Any second,† Lee Jordan whispered, two seats away from Harry. The flames inside the goblet turned suddenly red again. Sparks began to fly from it. Next moment, a tongue of flame shot into the air, a charred piece of parchment fluttered out of it – the whole room gasped. Dumbledore caught the piece of parchment and held it at arm's length, so that he could read it by the light of the flames, which had turned back to blue-white. â€Å"The champion for Durmstrang,† he read, in a strong, clear voice, â€Å"will be Viktor Krum.† â€Å"No surprises there!† yelled Ron as a storm of applause and cheering swept the Hall. Harry saw Viktor Krum rise from the Slytherin table and slouch up toward Dumbledore; he turned right, walked along the staff table, and disappeared through the door into the next chamber. â€Å"Bravo, Viktor!† boomed Karkaroff, so loudly that everyone could hear him, even over all the applause. â€Å"Knew you had it in you!† The clapping and chatting died down. Now everyone's attention was focused again on the goblet, which, seconds later, turned red once more. A second piece of parchment shot out of it, propelled by the flames. â€Å"The champion for Beauxbatons,† said Dumbledore, â€Å"is Fleur Delacour!† â€Å"It's her, Ron!† Harry shouted as the girl who so resembled a veela got gracefully to her feet, shook back her sheet of silvery blonde hair, and swept up between the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables. â€Å"Oh look, they're all disappointed,† Hermione said over the noise, nodding toward the remainder of the Beauxbatons party. â€Å"Disappointed† was a bit of an understatement, Harry thought. Two of the girls who had not been selected had dissolved into tears and were sobbing with their heads on their arms. When Fleur Delacour too had vanished into the side chamber, silence fell again, but this time it was a silence so stiff with excitement you could almost taste it. The Hogwarts champion next†¦ And the Goblet of Fire turned red once more; sparks showered out of it; the tongue of flame shot high into the air, and from its tip Dumbledore pulled the third piece of parchment. â€Å"The Hogwarts champion,† he called, â€Å"is Cedric Diggory!† â€Å"No! † said Ron loudly, but nobody heard him except Harry; the uproar from the next table was too great. Every single Hufflepuff had jumped to his or her feet, screaming and stamping, as Cedric made his way past them, grinning broadly, and headed off toward the chamber behind the teachers' table. Indeed, the applause for Cedric went on so long that it was some time before Dumbledore could make himself heard again. â€Å"Excellent!† Dumbledore called happily as at last the tumult died down. â€Å"Well, we now have our three champions. I am sure I can count upon all of you, including the remaining students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, to give your champions every ounce of support you can muster. By cheering your champion on, you will contribute in a very real -â€Å" But Dumbledore suddenly stopped speaking, and it was apparent to everybody what had distracted him. The fire in the goblet had just turned red again. Sparks were flying out of it. A long flame shot suddenly into the air, and borne upon it was another piece of parchment. Automatically, it seemed, Dumbledore reached out a long hand and seized the parchment. He held it out and stared at the name written upon it. There was a long pause, during which Dumbledore stared at the slip in his hands, and everyone in the room stared at Dumbledore. And then Dumbledore cleared his throat and read out – â€Å"Harry Potter.†