What is the meaning of share value maximization?

The shareholder value represents the interest of stakeholders in a business. Shareholders experiences or seems to see an increase in the value of their shares through dividends or gains at stock exchange. Share value maximization is one of the principles used by management to prioritize the interests of shareholders through projects that will increase profits and ultimately the share dividends. Stock price maximization involves adoption of low cost and efficient processes so as to manufacture goods and services of high quality at the lowest cost possible.Thus, by adopting new technology to produce required goods and services by consumers, is beneficial to the society both in the short and long term basis. In addition, it facilitates courteous and efficient services as well as adequate stocks of merchandise (Kellison, 1991). Discuss the time value of money concept. What is discounting and how is it related to compounding? What is compounding? Explain why earning interest on interest i s called compound interest?Time value of money is concept used in financial management to compare alternatives in investment as well as solving problems that involve mortgages, savings, loans, annuities, and leases. Time value of value of money is based on the idea that the amount of money one holds today is worth more than the expectation that he/she the same amount in future. The currently held money has high value in future as it can be invested and earn interest after some time.Discounting involves calculating or converting specific future amount/value of money at certain discount rate to establish its present value. Thus, a person is able to make judgment on whether to invest such amount of money and reap rewards in future. On the other hand, compounding refers to adding interest earned to the principal amount so that it can go on earning higher interests in its own right. The reason that initial interest earns additional interest i. e. compounded is why it is called compound i nterest (Kellison, 1991).Explain the following statement: While the balance sheet can be thought of as a snapshot of the firm’s financial position as of a point in time, the income statements reports on operations over a period of time? The balance sheet shows the financial position of an enterprise in terms of net assets, capital (stockholder’s or owner’s equity), and liabilities as at the end of a specific fiscal period. At any moment in time, assets are equal to the owner’s equity plus liabilities. Liabilities represent creditor’s claims against the assets of an enterprise.Thus, a balance sheet facilitates a business owner to quickly assess the financial capability and of his/her business. Income statement shows all the business transactions in terms of sales and purchases made, revenue collected, and expenses incurred in given period of time. Therefore, the primary use of income statements is to testify if a company is making profit or loss for a given period of time to the shareholders or potential investors (Frank, 2004). Why is it sometimes misleading to compare a company’s financial ratios with those of other firms that operate in the same industry?First, it is in doubt that different companies apply or use different accounting policies to govern their financial operations. Therefore, a specific accounting policy applied by a certain company may not be similar to another’s policy. For instance, a company may apply accrual basis concept whereas another doest not recognize accruals until they are paid. Secondly, companies operate differently in terms of business activity and management for instance, companies may be in the same industrial sector but they engage in different activities such as production of raw materials and processing.In such a case a production company may be affected by adverse conditions like weather whereas the other is favored by industrial-processing subsidies offered by the governme nt which translates to healthier financial ratios. In addition, some financial managers of certain companies are unscrupulous and such individuals can calculate unprofessionally to lure potential investors. Proper comparison can only be achieved if there are established industrial standards within which all companies can draft their financial ratios (Ibid, 2004).

Thorn Queen Chapter Five

I fully intended to make good on my promises, and in Tucson the next day, I began acquiring an odd assortment of goods that I hoped might improve the Thorn Land's situation. Admittedly, they were kind of lame, but I figured I had to start somewhere and was rather proud of my attempts when I finished. I was sitting down in front of the TV with an early dinner that night when Kiyo walked in, clad in his white vet's coat. Naturally, all the animals lifted their heads or actually walked over to him in greeting. If I hadn't been balancing a plate of ravioli on my lap, I would have leapt up and run into his arms. Instead, I gave him a dazzling smile, one that grew larger when I saw he carried a bouquet of flowers. â€Å"I would have been here sooner,† he said, tossing the coat onto a chair. â€Å"But I had an afternoon shift.† â€Å"Hey, I'm just happy to see you at all. I figured you'd still be busy with baby stuff.† â€Å"Nope.† He sat down in a chair opposite me and laid the bouquet down on the coffee table. â€Å"You were amazing there, you know.† â€Å"If by amazing, you mean shoddily dressed and leading on gentry princes-then, yes. Yes, I was. What are those for?† I gestured with my fork to the flowers-an arrangement of brightly colored gerbera daisies. â€Å"Do I need a reason? Aside from you being awesome?† I swallowed the piece of ravioli I'd just chewed. â€Å"Of course there's a reason. There's always a reason. We've talked about this before.† He gave me a lazy, dangerous smile, propping his head up on his elbow as his dark eyes assessed me. â€Å"Right. Standard practices in courtship and mating. Gifts given as subtle suggestions. ‘Here, take these plant sex organs.' Hint, hint.† It was an old joke between us. â€Å"Fortunately, in your case, you don't need to be that subtle. I already know you want sex.† â€Å"True, but I wanted to clear up any doubts. Besides, you've been so great lately†¦I don't know. I just wanted to do something nice. Figured we could have a fun night-although, you're dashing my dreams of taking you out to dinner with the way you're inhaling that ravioli.† â€Å"Sorry,† I said through a mouthful of food. â€Å"I've got a job tonight, so I had to eat early.† His eyebrows rose. â€Å"What kind of raw deal is this? I get off work so I can take you out on the town, and you've got to go into work now? Why can't you have Lara schedule you day jobs?† â€Å"Because I was busy today with Thorn Land business.† Kiyo gave me a wary look. â€Å"Hey, don't judge me,† I warned. â€Å"I wasn't actually over there. But I kind of found out recently that people are starving and going without water.† â€Å"Yeah. I've heard that.† Now I was the one with the incredulous look. â€Å"You knew and didn't tell me?† â€Å"Don't jump all over me! I figured you had people to deal with it. And probably those people had people.† â€Å"Yeah, well, all of those people are having a little trouble. In fact, I've got to go back tomorrow to help round up some brigands.† â€Å"Did you just say ‘brigands'? That's very†¦I don't know. Very 1683.† â€Å"Well, whatever they are, they're a pain in the ass and possibly abducting girls.† I gave him a quick recap. â€Å"You want to go with me and help?† He shook his head ruefully. â€Å"You know, I came here hoping to spend time with you. Instead, I find out you've got a job tonight and are playing sheriff tomorrow.† â€Å"Would it help if I wore a cowgirl outfit?† â€Å"It might.† He came over to sit beside me and kissed my cheek. â€Å"And yes, I'll go tomorrow. I'll even go tonight, if you want the company.† â€Å"You see? We are spending quality time together.† â€Å"I just hope there's some quality time in bed later to help make up for it all.† â€Å"Well,† I said haughtily, setting my plate on the table, â€Å"that depends on you, huh? I have no doubts about my quality.† He put a hand on my thigh and brushed his lips against my neck. â€Å"Oh, Eugenie. Don't push your luck here,† he growled, â€Å"or you might be late for work.† I grinned and answered by way of a long, deep kiss that probably would have turned into more if my appointment hadn't been so close. That, and we also heard Tim coming in the back door. He never took it very well when he found Kiyo and me in a compromising position. The two of us drove over near the university, to a quiet residential neighborhood that was split evenly between single-family residences and crowded houses shared by students. As we pulled up in front of a narrow two-story home in need of a new paint job, Kiyo frowned. â€Å"That microbus looks really familiar,† he said, eyeing the driveway. â€Å"Really?† I asked innocently. We got out of the car and approached the house. When we'd cleared the microbus, Kiyo paused to look at its slew of bumper stickers. Question Authority and Roswell or Bust! were only a few. He gave me a sharp, accusing look. â€Å"Eugenie, did Wil Delaney move?† â€Å"Nooo,† I said slowly. â€Å"But this is a friend of his.† Kiyo groaned. â€Å"If I'd known this, I would have stayed home. That guy is insane. And wait-did you just say he actually has a friend?† â€Å"A friend with a legitimate problem. And you can always go wait in the car.† Kiyo said nothing, merely steeling himself as we approached the door. Wil Delaney was a former client of mine. He was a conspiracy theorist who almost never left his home and whose sole income depended on a blog he ran that furthered his ideas on the government, aliens, mind control, genetic manipulation, and a whole host of other wacky premises. He was quite possibly the most paranoid person I'd ever met. He was also Jasmine's half-brother. It was how we'd met. He'd been the one to hire me to go find her in the Otherworld, long before I'd known anything about Storm King and the prophecy. Apparently, Wil and Jasmine's mother hadn't been so virtuous and had cheated on Mr. Delaney a lot-even with gentry warlords. About a dozen locks unclicked before we were allowed into the house, which was almost as many as Wil had at his own home. The person who greeted us was a woman, a very young one. She was short with plump cheeks, cropped brown hair, and pink cat-eye glasses. â€Å"Is this her?† she asked. A moment later, Wil's head peered around the doorway's side. He looked the same as last time: pale blond hair in need of cutting, glasses, and skin that never saw the sun. â€Å"Yup.† â€Å"Who's the guy?† asked the woman suspiciously. â€Å"Her boyfriend. He's cool. Cairo.† â€Å"Kiyo,† I corrected. I held out my hand to her. â€Å"You must be Trisha.† â€Å"I prefer to be called Ladyxmara72,† she said. â€Å"Because really, we're all just anonymous faces in this society, as far as the government is concerned. Plus, Ladyxmara72 is one of my World of Warcraft character names. Ironic that a virtual society like that can be more honest and egalitarian than our own. Or maybe†¦Ã¢â‚¬  She paused dramatically. â€Å"It's not so ironic.† Wil stared at her adoringly. Beside me, Kiyo made some sort of strangled noise. They led us inside a home nearly as dark as Wil kept his. I guessed Trisha-I refused to call her Lady-whatever-worried about the same issues with radiation that he did. Her home was neater, however, and bore slightly more feminine touches, like furniture that matched and a few scented candles. The candles appeared to be homemade, undoubtedly so they wouldn't poison the air with artificial scents or be laced with trackers that the government could use to listen in on Trisha's conversation. â€Å"So,† said Trisha as we entered the living room. An episode of The X-Files was paused on the TV. â€Å"You're here to take care of the alien problem.† â€Å"I'm here to-what did you say?† I looked back and forth between Wil and her. â€Å"Aliens,† she said. â€Å"My house is infested with them.† I peered around, half-expecting to see E.T. hanging out on the loveseat. All was empty and still. â€Å"I don't really understand. Didn't Wil tell you what I do?† â€Å"We don't know for sure that they're aliens,† he said hastily. â€Å"But there is something here.† â€Å"Of course they are!† she exclaimed. He cowered a little under her glare. â€Å"I've seen them looking in the windows-just like on that documentary.† Immediately, his chagrin turned to outrage. â€Å"Oh, come on! You know that's a hoax. The evidence is overwhelming.† â€Å"The hell it is! There's no way anyone could fake that kind of-â€Å" â€Å"Um, hey, you guys?† I said. â€Å"Can we just get this taken care of? Tell me more about the ali-whatever. Have you both seen them?† They nodded. â€Å"They're short with big eyes,† Trisha said triumphantly. â€Å"But they wear paisley suit coats,† added Wil. â€Å"And they do chores at night.† â€Å"Doesn't sound so bad to me,† murmured Kiyo. â€Å"Why get rid of them?† â€Å"Kobolds,† I said after a moment's thought. â€Å"You've got kobolds.† â€Å"There is no known planet by that name,† argued Trisha. I sighed. â€Å"Just take me to your basement.† Trisha led us through the house, and Wil drifted over beside me. â€Å"Isn't she amazing?† I swear he was on the verge of swooning. â€Å"Your first girlfriend?† I asked. â€Å"How'd you know?† â€Å"Instinct.† Engaging Wil in conversation was always dangerous, but seeing as he never left the house or had much social interaction, I just had to ask the next question. â€Å"How'd you guys meet?† â€Å"On a forum. We were both in this thread and kept arguing about whether there was a government connection between the overdoses of Marilyn Monroe and Heath Ledger, and then we-â€Å" â€Å"Okay,† I said, grimacing. â€Å"That's enough. Really.† We reached the basement door, and Trisha started to go down. â€Å"Don't,† I warned. â€Å"You guys need to stay up here.† I gave Wil a stern look. â€Å"Don't let her down there until we're done. You of all people know I'm not fucking around.† Wil blanched further-if that was possible-and gave a hasty nod. Wil had traveled with me to the Otherworld and fully understood the perils of my job. I could hear Trisha arguing with him as Kiyo and I descended the stairs, yet somehow, Wil managed to do his job and keep her away. â€Å"I never thought it was possible,† said Kiyo, once we were out of earshot. â€Å"He's found and fallen in love with someone exactly like him. I guess there really is someone for everyone.† â€Å"She's a little more assertive than he is, I think.† â€Å"Good. He needs it.† â€Å"On the bright side, this'll be cake. Kobolds aren't an issue.† Kiyo nodded his agreement but wrinkled his nose when we reached the bottom of the steps. â€Å"They're bad-smelling ones, though.† The basement wasn't finished and bore the usual clutter one found in such places. Lots of hiding spots for kobolds. I pulled on a hanging chain, and a bare bulb offered meager illumination. Taking out my wand, I extended my arm and swept the whole basement. â€Å"By the earth and fire you serve, I command you to reveal yourselves.† Shamanic magic tingled from me, through the wand and its gems, and into the room. A moment later, three forms materialized. They were about three-feet high, male, and hardly resembled the big-eyed aliens popular in modern culture. These guys were wizened, with patchy yellow hair. Wil's comment about the paisley coats wasn't entirely accurate either. One wore plaid. â€Å"Why did you call us out?† the one in plaid demanded in a high-pitched voice. â€Å"We haven't done anything to you. We haven't done anything to anyone.† â€Å"You guys, you can't stay here,† I said. â€Å"Not in this house. It's not yours. This world isn't yours.† I was a stickler for world ownership. â€Å"We're helping,† argued one of the paisley ones. â€Å"Do you know how messy these people are? Books and paper everywhere.† If Trisha's house had resembled Wil's before the kobolds arrived, I could well imagine it. Kobolds were kind of like benign goblins, originating in northern Europe and rarely given to maliciousness unless provoked. My hope was that they could simply be talked into leaving. â€Å"That's really nice and all, but I mean it: you can't stay here. I've got to send you back to the Otherworld. Give me a hard time about it, and I'll make it the Underworld.† The plaid one scowled. â€Å"You're as cruel as they say, Eugenie Thorn Queen. We've done nothing to deserve this.† I tried not to scowl right back. Before learning about my gentry blood, I'd often conducted shamanic business under the pseudonym Odile Dark Swan. It was what Otherworld denizens had known and feared me as. I wasn't thrilled to know that no part of my identity was a secret anymore. â€Å"You guys, I am not screwing around. You know who I am. You know what I can do, so stop wasting time.† Wand still in hand, I began to channel an opening to the Otherworld. â€Å"You can't take on both of us, let alone one.† â€Å"No,† agreed the other paisley one. â€Å"But he can.† â€Å"He-ahh!† Furry hands reached around from behind me just seconds after Kiyo exclaimed, â€Å"Eugenie!† Kiyo was normally on high alert but had been as cocky as me about dealing with the kobolds. His attention had been on them, and he hadn't sensed the other threat lurking in the basement. Well, that wasn't entirely true. Kiyo had scented this creature, if the odor emanating from its hands and arms was any indication. He just hadn't made the connection. I still didn't have a good look at my furry-armed captor, seeing as I was still struggling to break free of its grasp. Kiyo was on it in a flash, needing no weapons save his own brute strength. His hands closed around the creature's arms, and he managed to pull them loose enough for me to slip out of its grip. Once free, I was able to get a good look. It was a†¦ Huh. I wasn't really sure. It was furry, brown, and tall, with rounded ears like a mouse or bear and hooves like a deer and a whole other assortment of random animal parts. It gave a strangled roar of displeasure, and I braced for it to turn back on me. Usually, that was how it worked. Creatures who came after me usually had one of two goals: either rape me on the spot or kill me to prevent me from fulfilling the prophecy. But Smokey the Bear, or whatever it was, was going after Kiyo, ignoring me while the kobolds watched gleefully. Kiyo socked the creature hard in the chest, and I noticed a faint ripple of light spread through it that faded quickly. Smokey then returned with a punch that took Kiyo hard in the face and sent him toward the wall. It was hard, too-that punch had been meant to kill. Kiyo's reflexes were too fast, though, and he caught himself before his skull could smash against the solid concrete. I leapt into the fight then, pulling out my Glock. I'd loaded it with silver bullets earlier and was glad I'd done so. I got off a couple of shots into the monster. Each time, I saw its form ripple, but it still didn't come after me. It was too intent on killing Kiyo. The two grappled further, and I continued firing, knowing I had to be weakening it. Nonetheless, one lucky blow knocked Kiyo off his feet and onto his back. The kobolds cheered when he remained still. Me, I screamed in rage, taking my wand in my other hand and facing the furry monstrosity head-on. It attempted no killing blows on me and merely kept trying to get a hold of me as I fired and began the banishing words. Suddenly, Kiyo was on his feet again, thrusting himself between us. â€Å"Stay the hell away from her!† he snarled. I saw all the muscles in his body tense and had a feeling he was on the verge of shape-shifting. Smokey looked angry and turned into full assault mode again. â€Å"Get out of the way,† I said. â€Å"I've got him.† â€Å"I'm not letting him lay a hand on you,† retorted Kiyo, eyes fixed on his foe. A flash of gold glimmered in Kiyo's eyes. Gold like a fox's. â€Å"He's not trying to kill or rape me,† I argued, as Kiyo dodged another crushing blow. â€Å"He wants to subdue me-you he wants to kill.† But Kiyo was dead set on protecting me, and I finally decided he'd be safest if I hurried up and just finished the banishing rather than attempt to protect him. Firmly channeling my power into the wand, I again began opening a gate to the Otherworld. As I did, though, I kept thinking about those ripples I saw when I'd attacked the beast, like it couldn't quite stay together. An idea struck me, and rather than direct the banishing magic into ripping open the fabric of this world, I directed it toward Smokey-or, rather, toward the Otherworldly magic holding Smokey together. Kiyo sprang away from the fight, realizing what I was going to do. Sure enough. A spiderweb of light suddenly covered the monster, fragmenting his form. With the wand, I destroyed the magical bonds, and suddenly-he exploded. But not like Aeson had exploded. It was more like he fell apart. Gone was the large, hulking, furry form. Instead, scuttling on the ground was a swarm of woodland creatures: mice, rabbits, a deer, and a couple of ducks. The mice and rabbits immediately scurried into whatever nooks and crannies they could find. The ducks looked confused. The deer ran up the stairs. With the banishing magic already started, it was easy to complete the actual opening to the Otherworld and send the kobolds through. Just before they vanished, Kiyo leaned toward them-keeping out of the magic's way-and fixed them with a dark, angry expression. The blood on his face from the fight only added to his fearsome appearance. â€Å"Tell whoever sent you here to leave her the hell alone, or I will come after him myself and rip him apart limb by limb. And I'll do the same to you guys while I'm at it. None of you are ever going to lay a hand on her again,† he growled. The kobolds' faces reflected true fear as they disappeared from this world. Silence fell, aside from the quiet and confused quacking of the ducks who still didn't know what to do with themselves. â€Å"Well,† I gasped. â€Å"That was one of the more convoluted schemes I've seen yet.† Would-be rapists often did attempt to distract me with a seemingly ordinary banishing and then would swoop in unexpectedly. This person had sent the kobolds to lure me out and then that woodland conglomeration to actually subdue me and bring me back as a war prize. Kiyo, as an obstacle to that plan, had had to be eliminated first. I took in his ripped shirt and blood. â€Å"Are you okay?† â€Å"Fine, fine,† he said, wiping his face. â€Å"It's superficial. What the hell was that?† â€Å"Some monster that a gentry put together with magic. Bound all those animals into one stronger form and ordered it after me.† â€Å"Will it come back together?† â€Å"No. I broke the bonds, and they're all spreading apart anyway.† â€Å"Um, Eugenie?† Wil's voice suddenly rang down the stairs. â€Å"Is everything okay down there? A deer just ran through the living room†¦.† Kiyo and I both decided later that it was a good thing Smokey had disbanded like he had. Otherwise, if they'd seen his full form, Trisha and Wil would have had enough Bigfoot material for their forums to last until the next century. Goodness only knew what kind of threads and rumors this event alone would start. Trisha paid me in cash once we frisked the deer out of the house, and I told her she was on her own for the other animals in the basement. As we were leaving, Wil briefly caught me alone, his goofy, paranoid expression replaced by a much grimmer one. â€Å"Have you found Jasmine yet?† he asked in a very soft voice. I bit my lip. No matter how absurd I thought Wil was, whenever I saw how much Jasmine's disappearance grieved him, it broke my heart. I'd never told him the truth of her heritage. The only information I'd given him was that she was on the run and hadn't been kidnapped. I thought he'd take comfort in knowing she wasn't being held against her will, but it hurt him to think she didn't want to be with him. He truly loved his sister, no matter how much she despised the human world. It was really quite sad. â€Å"No, I'm sorry. I really am.† His face fell further, and he gave a weak nod. â€Å"Yeah. I figured. I know you'll keep looking, though. And you'll let me know if you find her?† I tried to give him a reassuring smile. â€Å"Sure.† The truth was, I didn't know if I would tell him. It all depended on what state I found her in. If I found her pregnant and bent on conquering the worlds†¦well, I wasn't entirely sure what I'd do then, but one thing I felt certain of was that there was no way I was ever going to let her return to this world.

Black House Chapter Seventeen

17 GEORGE POTTER is sitting on the bunk in the third holding cell down a short corridor that smells of piss and disinfectant. He's looking out the window at the parking lot, which has lately been the scene of so much excitement and which is still full of milling people. He doesn't turn at the sound of Jack's approaching footfalls. As he walks, Jack passes two signs. ONE CALL MEANS ONE CALL, reads the first. A.A. MEETINGS MON. AT 7 P.M., N.A. MEETINGS THURS. AT 8 P.M., reads the second. There's a dusty drinking fountain and an ancient fire extinguisher, which some wit has labeled LAUGHING GAS. Jack reaches the bars of the cell and raps on one with his house key. Potter at last turns away from the window. Jack, still in that state of hyperawareness that he now recognizes as a kind of Territorial residue, knows the essential truth of the man at a single look. It's in the sunken eyes and the dark hollows beneath them; it's in the sallow cheeks and the slightly hollowed temples with their delicate nestles of veins; it's in the too sharp prominence of the nose. â€Å"Hello, Mr. Potter,† he says. â€Å"I want to talk to you, and we have to make it fast.† â€Å"They wanted me,† Potter remarks. â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"Maybe you should have let 'em take me. Another three-four months, I'm out of the race anyway.† In his breast pocket is the Mag-card Dale has given him, and Jack uses it to unlock the cell door. There's a harsh buzzing as it trundles back on its short track. When Jack removes the key, the buzzing stops. Downstairs in the ready room, an amber light marked H.C. 3 will now be glowing. Jack comes in and sits down on the end of the bunk. He has put his key ring away, not wanting the metallic smell to corrupt the scent of lilies. â€Å"Where have you got it?† Without asking how Jack knows, Potter raises one large gnarled hand a carpenter's hand and touches his midsection. Then he lets it drop. â€Å"Started in the gut. That was five years ago. I took the pills and the shots like a good boy. La Riviere, that was. That stuff . . . man, I was throwing up ever'where. Corners and just about ever'where. Once I threw up in my own bed and didn't even know it. Woke up the next morning with puke drying on my chest. You know anything about that, son?† â€Å"My mother had cancer,† Jack says quietly. â€Å"When I was twelve. Then it went away.† â€Å"She get five years?† â€Å"More.† â€Å"Lucky,† Potter says. â€Å"Got her in the end, though, didn't it?† Jack nods. Potter nods back. They're not quite friends yet, but it's edging that way. It's how Jack works, always has been. â€Å"That shit gets in and waits,† Potter tells him. â€Å"My theory is that it never goes away, not really. Anyway, shots is done. Pills is done, too. Except for the ones that kill the pain. I come here for the finish.† â€Å"Why?† This is not a thing Jack needs to know, and time is short, but it's his technique, and he won't abandon what works just because there are a couple of State Police jarheads downstairs waiting to take his boy. Dale will have to hold them off, that's all. â€Å"Seems like a nice enough little town. And I like the river. I go down ever' day. Like to watch the sun on the water. Sometimes I think of all the jobs I did Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and then sometimes I don't think about much of anything. Sometimes I just sit there on the bank and feel at peace.† â€Å"What was your line of work, Mr. Potter?† â€Å"Started out as a carpenter, just like Jesus. Progressed to builder, then got too big for my britches. When that happens to a builder, he usually goes around calling himself a contractor. I made three-four million dollars, had a Cadillac, had a young woman who hauled my ashes Friday nights. Nice young woman. No trouble. Then I lost it all. Only thing I missed was the Cadillac. It had a smoother ride than the woman. Then I got my bad news and come here.† He looks at Jack. â€Å"You know what I think sometimes? That French Landing's close to a better world, one where things look and smell better. Maybe where people act better. I don't go around with folks I'm not a friendly type person but that doesn't mean I don't feel things. I got this idea in my head that it's not too late to be decent. You think I'm crazy?† â€Å"No,† Jack tells him. â€Å"That's pretty much why I came here myself. I'll tell you how it is for me. You know how if you put a thin blanket over a window, the sun will still shine through?† George Potter looks at him with eyes that are suddenly alight. Jack doesn't even have to finish the thought, which is good. He has found the wavelength he almost always does, it's his gift and now it's time to get down to business. â€Å"You do know,† Potter says simply. Jack nods. â€Å"You know why you're here?† â€Å"They think I killed that lady's kid.† Potter nods toward the window. â€Å"The one out there that was holdin' up the noose. I didn't. That's what I know.† â€Å"Okay, that's a start. Listen to me, now.† Very quickly, Jack lays out the chain of events that has brought Potter to this cell. Potter's brow furrows as Jack speaks, and his big hands knot together. â€Å"Railsback!† he says at last. â€Å"I shoulda known! Nosy goddamn old man, always askin' questions, always askin' do you want to play cards or maybe shoot some pool or, I dunno, play Parcheesi, for Christ's sake! All so he can ask questions. Goddamn nosey parker . . .† There's more in this vein, and Jack lets him go on with it for a while. Cancer or no cancer, this old fellow has been ripped out of his ordinary routine without much mercy, and needs to vent a little. If Jack cuts him off to save time, he'll lose it instead. It's hard to be patient (how is Dale holding those two assholes off ? Jack doesn't even want to know), but patience is necessary. When Potter begins to widen the scope of his attack, however (Morty Fine comes in for some abuse, as does Andy Railsback's pal Irv Throneberry), Jack steps in. â€Å"The point is, Mr. Potter, that Railsback followed someone to your room. No, that's the wrong way to put it. Railsback was led to your room.† Potter doesn't reply, just sits looking at his hands. But he nods. He's old, he's sick and getting sicker, but he's four counties over from stupid. â€Å"The person who led Railsback was almost certainly the same person who left the Polaroids of the dead children in your closet.† â€Å"Yar, makes sense. And if he had pictures of the dead kiddies, he was prob'ly the one who made 'em dead.† â€Å"Right. So I have to wonder â€Å" Potter waves an impatient hand. â€Å"I guess I know what you got to wonder. Who there is around these parts who'd like to see Chicago Potsie strung up by the neck. Or the balls.† â€Å"Exactly.† â€Å"Don't want to put a stick in your spokes, sonny, but I can't think of nobody.† â€Å"No?† Jack raises his eyebrows. â€Å"Never did business around here, built a house or laid out a golf course?† Potter raises his head and gives Jack a grin. â€Å"Course I did. How else d'you think I knew how nice it is? Specially in the summer? You know the part of town they call Libertyville? Got all those ‘ye olde' streets like Camelot and Avalon?† Jack nods. â€Å"I built half of those. Back in the seventies. There was a fella around then . . . some moke I knew from Chicago . . . or thought I knew Was he in the business?† This last seems to be Potter addressing Potter. In any case, he gives his head a brief shake. â€Å"Can't remember. Doesn't matter, anyway. How could it? Fella was gettin' on then, must be dead now. It was a long time ago.† But Jack, who interrogates as Jerry Lee Lewis once played the piano, thinks it does matter. In the usually dim section of his mind where intuition keeps its headquarters, lights are coming on. Not a lot yet, but maybe more than just a few. â€Å"A moke,† he says, as if he has never heard the word before. â€Å"What's that?† Potter gives him a brief, irritated look. â€Å"A citizen who . . . well, not exactly a citizen. Someone who knows people who are connected. Or maybe sometimes connected people call him. Maybe they do each other favors. A moke. It's not the world's best thing to be.† No, Jack thinks, but moking can get you a Cadillac with that nice smooth ride. â€Å"Were you ever a moke, George?† Got to get a little more intimate now. This is not a question Jack can address to a Mr. Potter. â€Å"Maybe,† Potter says after a grudging, considering pause. â€Å"Maybe I was. Back in Chi. In Chi, you had to scratch backs and wet beaks if you wanted to land the big contracts. I don't know how it is there now, but in those days, a clean contractor was a poor contractor. You know?† Jack nods. â€Å"The biggest deal I ever made was a housing development on the South Side of Chicago. Just like in that song about bad, bad Leroy Brown.† Potter chuckles rustily. For a moment he's not thinking about cancer, or false accusations, or almost being lynched. He's living in the past, and it may be a little sleazy, but it's better than the present the bunk chained to the wall, the steel toilet, the cancer spreading through his guts. â€Å"Man, that one was big, I kid you not. Lots of federal money, but the local hotshots decided where the dough went home at night. And me and this other guy, this moke, we were in a horse race â€Å" He breaks off, looking at Jack with wide eyes. â€Å"Holy shit, what are you, magic?† â€Å"I don't know what you mean. I'm just sitting here.† â€Å"That guy was the guy who showed up here. That was the moke!† â€Å"I'm not following you, George.† But Jack thinks he is. And although he's starting to get excited, he shows it no more than he did when the bartender told him about Kinderling's little nose-pinching trick. â€Å"It's probably nothing,† Potter says. â€Å"Guy had plenty of reasons not to like yours truly, but he's got to be dead. He'd be in his eighties, for Christ's sake.† â€Å"Tell me about him,† Jack says. â€Å"He was a moke,† Potter repeats, as if this explains everything. â€Å"And he must have got in trouble in Chicago or somewhere around Chicago, because when he showed up here, I'm pretty sure he was using a different name.† â€Å"When did you swink him on the housing-development deal, George?† Potter smiles, and something about the size of his teeth and the way they seem to jut from the gums allows Jack to see how fast death is rushing toward this man. He feels a little shiver of gooseflesh, but he returns the smile easily enough. This is also how he works. â€Å"If we're gonna talk about mokin' and swinkin', you better call me Potsie.† â€Å"All right, Potsie. When did you swink this guy in Chicago?† â€Å"That much is easy,† Potter says. â€Å"It was summer when the bids went out, but the hotshots were still bellerin' about how the hippies came to town the year before and gave the cops and the mayor a black eye. So I'd say 1969. What happened was I'd done the building commissioner a big favor, and I'd done another for this old woman who swung weight on this special Equal Opportunity Housing Commission that Mayor Daley had set up. So when the bids went out, mine got special consideration. This other guy the moke I have no doubt that his bid was lower. He knew his way around, and he musta had his own contacts, but that time I had the inside track.† He smiles. The gruesome teeth appear, then disappear again. â€Å"Moke's bid? Somehow gets lost. Comes in too late. Bad luck. Chicago Potsie nails the job. Then, four years later, the moke shows up here, bidding on the Libertyville job. Only that time when I beat him, everything was square-john. I pulled no strings. I met him in the bar at the Nelson Hotel the night after the contract was awarded, just by accident. And he says, ‘You were that guy in Chicago.' And I say, ‘There are lots of guys in Chicago.' Now this guy was a moke, but he was a scary moke. He had a kind of smell about him. I can't put it any better than that. Anyway, I was big and strong in those days, I could be mean, but I was pretty meek that time. Even after a drink or two, I was pretty meek. † ‘Yeah,' he says, ‘there are a lot of guys in Chicago, but only one who diddled me. I still got a sore ass from that, Potsie, and I got a long memory.' â€Å"Any other time, any other guy, I might have asked how good his memory stayed after he got his head knocked on the floor, but with him I just took it. No more words passed between us. He walked out. I don't think I ever saw him again, but I heard about him from time to time while I was working the Libertyville job. Mostly from my subs. Seems like the moke was building a house of his own in French Landing. For his retirement. Not that he was old enough to retire back then, but he was gettin' up a little. Fifties, I'd say . . . and that was in '72.† â€Å"He was building a house here in town,† Jack muses. â€Å"Yeah. It had a name, too, like one of those English houses. The Birches, Lake House, Beardsley Manor, you know.† â€Å"What name?† â€Å"Shit, I can't even remember the moke's name, how do you expect me to remember the name of the house he built? But one thing I do remember: none of the subs liked it. It got a reputation.† â€Å"Bad?† â€Å"The worst. There were accidents. One guy cut his hand clean off on a band saw, almost bled to death before they got him to the hospital. Another guy fell off a scaffolding and ended up paralyzed . . . what they call a quad. You know what that is?† Jack nods. â€Å"Only house I ever heard of people were calling haunted even before it was all the way built. I got the idea that he had to finish most of it himself.† â€Å"What else did they say about this place?† Jack puts the question idly, as if he doesn't care much one way or the other, but he cares a lot. He has never heard of a so-called haunted house in French Landing. He knows he hasn't been here anywhere near long enough to hear all the tales and legends, but something like this . . . you'd think something like this would pop out of the deck early. â€Å"Ah, man, I can't remember. Just that . . .† He pauses, eyes distant. Outside the building, the crowd is finally beginning to disperse. Jack wonders how Dale is doing with Brown and Black. The time seems to be racing, and he hasn't gotten what he needs from Potter. What he's gotten so far is just enough to tantalize. â€Å"One guy told me the sun never shone there even when it shone,† Potter says abruptly. â€Å"He said the house was a little way off the road, in a clearing, and it should have gotten sun at least five hours a day in the summer, but it somehow . . . didn't. He said the guys lost their shadows, just like in a fairy tale, and they didn't like it. And sometimes they heard a dog growling in the woods. Sounded like a big one. A mean one. But they never saw it. You know how it is, I imagine. Stories get started, and then they just kinda feed on themselves . . .† Potter's shoulders suddenly slump. His head lowers. â€Å"Man, that's all I can remember.† â€Å"What was the moke's name when he was in Chicago?† â€Å"Can't remember.† Jack suddenly thrusts his open hands under Potter's nose. With his head lowered, Potter doesn't see them until they're right there, and he recoils, gasping. He gets a noseful of the dying smell on Jack's skin. â€Å"What . . . ? Jesus, what's that?† Potter seizes one of Jack's hands and sniffs again, greedily. â€Å"Boy, that's nice. What is it?† â€Å"Lilies,† Jack says, but it's not what he thinks. What he thinks is The memory of my mother. â€Å"What was the moke's name when he was in Chicago?† â€Å"It . . . something like beer stein. That's not it, but it's close. Best I can do.† â€Å"Beer stein,† Jack says. â€Å"And what was his name when he got to French Landing three years later?† Suddenly there are loud, arguing voices on the stairs. â€Å"I don't care!† someone shouts. Jack thinks it's Black, the more officious one. â€Å"It's our case, he's our prisoner, and we're taking him out! Now!† Dale: â€Å"I'm not arguing. I'm just saying that the paperwork â€Å" Brown: â€Å"Aw, fuck the paperwork. We'll take it with us.† â€Å"What was his name in French Landing, Potsie?† â€Å"I can't † Potsie takes Jack's hands again. Potsie's own hands are dry and cold. He smells Jack's palms, eyes closed. On the long exhale of his breath he says: â€Å"Burnside. Chummy Burnside. Not that he was chummy. The nickname was a joke. I think his real handle might have been Charlie.† Jack takes his hands back. Charles â€Å"Chummy† Burnside. Once known as Beer Stein. Or something like Beer Stein. â€Å"And the house? What was the name of the house?† Brown and Black are coming down the corridor now, with Dale scurrying after them. There's no time, Jack thinks. Damnit all, if I had even five minutes more And then Potsie says, â€Å"Black House. I don't know if that's what he called it or what the subs workin' the job got to calling it, but that was the name, all right.† Jack's eyes widen. The image of Henry Leyden's cozy living room crosses his mind: sitting with a drink at his elbow and reading about Jarndyce and Jarndyce. â€Å"Did you say Bleak House?† â€Å"Black,† Potsie reiterates impatiently. â€Å"Because it really was. It was â€Å" â€Å"Oh dear to Christ,† one of the state troopers says in a snotty look-what-the-cat-dragged-in voice that makes Jack feel like rearranging his face. It's Brown, but when Jack glances up, it's Brown's partner he looks at. The coincidence of the other trooper's name makes Jack smile. â€Å"Hello, boys,† Jack says, getting up from the bunk. â€Å"What are you doing here, Hollywood?† Black asks. â€Å"Just batting the breeze and waiting for you,† Jack says, and smiles brilliantly. â€Å"I suppose you want this guy.† â€Å"You're goddamn right,† Brown growls. â€Å"And if you fucked up our case â€Å" â€Å"Gosh, I don't think so,† Jack says. It's a struggle, but he manages to achieve a tone of amiability. Then, to Potsie: â€Å"You'll be safer with them than here in French Landing, sir.† George Potter looks vacant again. Resigned. â€Å"Don't matter much either way,† he says, then smiles as a thought occurs to him. â€Å"If old Chummy's still alive, and you run across him, you might ask him if his ass still hurts from that diddling I gave him back in '69. And tell him old Chicago Potsie says hello.† â€Å"What the hell are you talking about?† Brown asks, glowering. He has his cuffs out, and is clearly itching to snap them on George Potter's wrists. â€Å"Old times,† Jack says. He stuffs his fragrant hands in his pockets and leaves the cell. He smiles at Brown and Black. â€Å"Nothing to concern you boys.† Trooper Black turns to Dale. â€Å"You're out of this case,† he says. â€Å"Those are words of one syllable. I can't make it any simpler. So tell me once and mean it forever, Chief: Do you understand?† â€Å"Of course I do,† Dale said. â€Å"Take the case and welcome. But get off the tall white horse, willya? If you expected me to simply stand by and let a crowd of drunks from the Sand Bar take this man out of Lucky's and lynch him â€Å" â€Å"Don't make yourself look any stupider than you already are,† Brown snaps. â€Å"They picked his name up off your police calls.† â€Å"I doubt that,† Dale says quietly, thinking of the doper's cell phone borrowed out of evidence storage. Black grabs Potter's narrow shoulder, gives it a vicious twist, then thrusts him so hard toward the door at the end of the corridor that the man almost falls down. Potter recovers, his haggard face full of pain and dignity. â€Å"Troopers,† Jack says. He doesn't speak loudly or angrily, but they both turn. â€Å"Abuse that prisoner one more time in my sight, and I'll be on the phone to the Madison shoofly-pies the minute you leave, and believe me, Troopers, they will listen to me. Your attitude is arrogant, coercive, and counterproductive to the resolution of this case. Your interdepartmental cooperation skills are nonexistent. Your demeanor is unprofessional and reflects badly upon the state of Wisconsin. You will either behave yourselves or I guarantee you that by next Friday you will be looking for security jobs.† Although his voice remains even throughout, Black and Brown seem to shrink as he speaks. By the time he finishes, they look like a pair of chastened children. Dale is gazing at Jack with awe. Only Potter seems unaffected; he's gazing down at his cuffed hands with eyes that could be a thousand miles away. â€Å"Go on, now,† Jack says. â€Å"Take your prisoner, take your case records, and get lost.† Black opens his mouth to speak, then shuts it again. They leave. When the door closes behind them, Dale looks at Jack and says, very softly: â€Å"Wow.† â€Å"What?† â€Å"If you don't know,† Dale says, â€Å"I'm not going to tell you.† Jack shrugs. â€Å"Potter will keep them occupied, which frees us up to do a little actual work. If there's a bright side to tonight, that's it.† â€Å"What did you get from him? Anything?† â€Å"A name. Might mean nothing. Charles Burnside. Nicknamed Chummy. Ever heard of him?† Dale sticks out his lower lip and pulls it thoughtfully. Then he lets go and shakes his head. â€Å"The name itself seems to ring a faint bell, but that might only be because it's so common. The nickname, no.† â€Å"He was a builder, a contractor, a wheeler-dealer in Chicago over thirty years ago. According to Potsie, at least.† â€Å"Potsie,† Dale says. The tape is peeling off a corner of the ONE CALL MEANS ONE CALL sign, and Dale smoothes it back down with the air of a man who doesn't really know what he's doing. â€Å"You and he got pretty chummy, didn't you?† â€Å"No,† Jack says. â€Å"Burnside's Chummy. And Trooper Black doesn't own the Black House.† â€Å"You've gone dotty. What black house?† â€Å"First, it's a proper name. Black, capital B, house, capital H. Black House. You ever heard of a house named that around here?† Dale laughs. â€Å"God, no.† Jack smiles back, but all at once it's his interrogation smile, not his I'm-discussing-things-with-my-friend smile. Because he's a coppice-man now. And he has seen a funny little flicker in Dale Gilbertson's eyes. â€Å"Are you sure? Take a minute. Think about it.† â€Å"Told you, no. People don't name their houses in these parts. Oh, I guess old Miss Graham and Miss Pentle call their place on the other side of the town library Honeysuckle, because of the honeysuckle bushes all over the fence in front, but that's the only one in these parts I ever heard named.† Again, Jack sees that flicker. Potter is the one who will be charged for murder by the Wisconsin State Police, but Jack didn't see that deep flicker in Potter's eyes a single time during their interview. Because Potter was straight with him. Dale isn't being straight. But I have to be gentle with him, Jack tells himself. Because he doesn't know he's not being straight. How is that possible? As if in answer, he hears Chicago Potsie's voice: One guy told me the sun never shone there even when it shone . . . he said the guys lost their shadows, just like in a fairy tale. Memory is a shadow; any cop trying to reconstruct a crime or an accident from the conflicting accounts of eyewitnesses knows it well. Is Potsie's Black House like this? Something that casts no shadow? Dale's response (he has now turned full-face to the peeling poster, working on it as seriously as he might work on a heart attack victim in the street, administering CPR right out of the manual until the ambulance arrives) suggests to Jack that it might be something like just that. Three days ago he wouldn't have allowed himself to consider such an idea, but three days ago he hadn't returned to the Territories. â€Å"According to Potsie, this place got a reputation as a haunted house even before it was completely built,† Jack says, pressing a little. â€Å"Nope.† Dale moves on to the sign about the A.A. and N.A. meetings. He examines the tape studiously, not looking at Jack. â€Å"Doesn't ring the old chimeroo.† â€Å"Sure? One man almost bled to death. Another took a fall that paralyzed him. People complained listen to this, Dale, it's good according to Potsie, people complained about losing their shadows. Couldn't see them even at midday, with the sun shining full force. Isn't that something?† â€Å"Sure is, but I don't remember any stories like that.† As Jack walks toward Dale, Dale moves away. Almost scutters away, although Chief Gilbertson is not ordinarily a scuttering man. It's a little funny, a little sad, a little horrible. He doesn't know he's doing it, Jack's sure of that. There is a shadow. Jack sees it, and on some level Dale knows he sees it. If Jack should force him too hard, Dale would have to see it, too . . . and Dale doesn't want that. Because it's a bad shadow. Is it worse than a monster who kills children and then eats selected portions of their bodies? Apparently part of Dale thinks so. I could make him see that shadow, Jack thinks coldly. Put my hands under his nose my lily-scented hands and make him see it. Part of him even wants to see it. The coppiceman part. Then another part of Jack's mind speaks up in the Speedy Parker drawl he now remembers from his childhood. You could push him over the edge of a nervous breakdown, too, Jack. God knows he's close to one, after all the goin's-ons since the Irkenham boy got took. You want to chance that? And for what? He didn't know the name, about that he was bein' straight. â€Å"Dale?† Dale gives Jack a quick, bright glance, then looks away. The furtive quality in that quick peek sort of breaks Jack's heart. â€Å"What?† â€Å"Let's go get a cup of coffee.† At this change of subject, Dale's face fills with glad relief. He claps Jack on the shoulder. â€Å"Good idea!† God-pounding good idea, right here and now, Jack thinks, then smiles. There's more than one way to skin a cat, and more than one way to find a Black House. It's been a long day. Best, maybe, to let this go. At least for tonight. â€Å"What about Railsback?† Dale asks as they clatter down the stairs. â€Å"You still want to talk to him?† â€Å"You bet,† Jack replies, heartily enough, but he holds out little hope for Andy Railsback, a picked witness who saw exactly what the Fisherman wanted him to see. With one little exception . . . perhaps. The single slipper. Jack doesn't know if it will ever come to anything, but it might. In court, for instance . . . as an identifying link . . . This is never going to court and you know it. It may not even finish in this w His thoughts are broken by a wave of cheerful sound as they step into the combination ready room and dispatch center. The members of the French Landing Police Department are standing and applauding. Henry Leyden is also standing and applauding. Dale joins in. â€Å"Jesus, guys, quit it,† Jack says, laughing and blushing at the same time. But he won't lie to himself, try to tell himself he takes no pleasure in that round of applause. He feels the warmth of them; can see the light of their regard. Those things aren't important. But it feels like coming home, and that is. When Jack and Henry step out of the police station an hour or so later, Beezer, Mouse, and Kaiser Bill are still there. The other two have gone back to the Row to fill in the various old ladies on tonight's events. â€Å"Sawyer,† Beezer says. â€Å"Yes,† Jack says. â€Å"Anything we can do, man. Can you dig that? Anything.† Jack looks at the biker thoughtfully, wondering what his story is . . . other than grief, that is. A father's grief. Beezer's eyes remain steady on his. A little off to one side, Henry Leyden stands with his head raised to smell the river fog, humming deep down in his throat. â€Å"I'm going to look in on Irma's mom tomorrow around eleven,† Jack says. â€Å"Do you suppose you and your friends could meet me in the Sand Bar around noon? She lives close to there, I understand. I'll buy youse a round of lemonade.† Beezer doesn't smile, but his eyes warm up slightly. â€Å"We'll be there.† â€Å"That's good,† Jack says. â€Å"Mind telling me why?† â€Å"There's a place that needs finding.† â€Å"Does it have to do with whoever killed Amy and the other kids?† â€Å"Maybe.† Beezer nods. â€Å"Maybe's good enough.† Jack drives back toward Norway Valley slowly, and not just because of the fog. Although it's still early in the evening, he is tired to the bone and has an idea that Henry feels the same way. Not because he's quiet; Jack has become used to Henry's occasional dormant stretches. No, it's the quiet in the truck itself. Under ordinary circumstances, Henry is a restless, compulsive radio tuner, running through the La Riviere stations, checking KDCU here in town, then ranging outward, hunting for Milwaukee, Chicago, maybe even Omaha, Denver, and St. Louis, if conditions are right. An appetizer of bop here, a salad of spiritual music there, perhaps a dash of Perry Como way down at the foot of the dial: hot-diggity, dog-diggity, boom what-ya-do-to-me. Not tonight, though. Tonight Henry just sits quiet on his side of the truck with his hands folded in his lap. At last, when they're no more than two miles from his driveway, Henry says: â€Å"No Dickens tonight, Jack. I'm going straight to bed .† The weariness in Henry's voice startles Jack, makes him uneasy. Henry doesn't sound like himself or any of his radio personae; at this moment he just sounds old and tired, on the way to being used up. â€Å"I am, too,† Jack agrees, trying not to let his concern show in his voice. Henry picks up on every vocal nuance. He's eerie that way. â€Å"What do you have in mind for the Thunder Five, may I ask?† â€Å"I'm not entirely sure,† Jack says, and perhaps because he's tired, he gets this untruth past Henry. He intends to start Beezer and his buddies looking for the place Potsie told him about, the place where shadows had a way of disappearing. At least way back in the seventies they did. He had also intended to ask Henry if he's ever heard of a French Landing domicile called Black House. Not now, though. Not after hearing how beat Henry sounds. Tomorrow, maybe. Almost certainly, in fact, because Henry is too good a resource not to use. Best to let him recycle a little first, though. â€Å"You have the tape, right?† Henry pulls the cassette with the Fisherman's 911 call on it partway out of his breast pocket, then puts it back. â€Å"Yes, Mother. But I don't think I can listen to a killer of small children tonight, Jack. Not even if you come in and listen with me.† â€Å"Tomorrow will be fine,† Jack says, hoping he isn't condemning another of French Landing's children to death by saying this. â€Å"You're not entirely sure of that.† â€Å"No,† Jack agrees, â€Å"but you listening to that tape with dull ears could do more harm than good. I am sure of that.† â€Å"First thing in the morning. I promise.† Henry's house is up ahead now. It looks lonely with only the one light on over the garage, but of course Henry doesn't need lights inside to find his way. â€Å"Henry, are you going to be all right?† â€Å"Yes,† Henry says, but to Jack he doesn't seem entirely sure. â€Å"No Rat tonight,† Jack tells him firmly. â€Å"No.† â€Å"Ditto the Shake, the Shook, the Sheik.† Henry's lips lift in a small smile. â€Å"Not even a George Rathbun promo for French Landing Chevrolet, where price is king and you never pay a dime of interest for the first six months with approved credit. Straight to bed.† â€Å"Me too,† Jack says. But an hour after lying down and putting out the lamp on his bedside table, Jack is still unable to sleep. Faces and voices revolve in his mind like crazy clock hands. Or a carousel on a deserted midway. Tansy Freneau: Bring out the monster who killed my pretty baby. Beezer St. Pierre: We'll have to see how it shakes out, won't we George Potter: That shit gets in and waits. My theory is that it never goes away, not really. Speedy, a voice from the distant past on the sort of telephone that was science fiction when Jack first met him: Hidey-ho, Travelin' Jack . . . as one coppiceman to another, son, I think you ought to visit Chief Gilbertson's private bathroom. Right now. As one coppiceman to another, right. And most of all, over and over again, Judy Marshall: You don't just say, I'm lost and I don't know how to get back you keep on going . . . Yes, but keep on going where? Where? At last he gets up and goes out onto the porch with his pillow under his arm. The night is warm; in Norway Valley, where the fog was thin to begin with, the last remnants have now disappeared, blown away by a soft east wind. Jack hesitates, then goes on down the steps, naked except for his underwear. The porch is no good to him, though. It's where he found that hellish box with the sugar-packet stamps. He walks past his truck, past the bird hotel, and into the north field. Above him are a billion stars. Crickets hum softly in the grass. His fleeing path through the hay and timothy has disappeared, or maybe now he's entering the field in a different place. A little way in, he lies down on his back, puts the pillow under his head, and looks up at the stars. Just for a little while, he thinks. Just until all those ghost voices empty out of my head. Just for a little while. Thinking this, he begins to drowse. Thinking this, he goes over. Above his head, the pattern of the stars changes. He sees the new constellations form. What is that one, where the Big Dipper was a moment before? Is it the Sacred Opopanax? Perhaps it is. He hears a low, pleasant creaking sound and knows it's the windmill he saw when he flipped just this morning, a thousand years ago. He doesn't need to look at it to be sure, any more than he needs to look at where his house was and see that it has once more become a barn. Creak . . . creak . . . creak: vast wooden vanes turning in that same east wind. Only now the wind is infinitely sweeter, infinitely purer. Jack touches the waistband of his underpants and feels some rough weave. No Jockey shorts in this world. His pillow has changed, too. Foam has become goosedown, but it's still comfortable. More comfortable than ever, in truth. Sweet under his head. â€Å"I'll catch him, Speedy,† Jack Sawyer whispers up at the new shapes in the new stars. â€Å"At least I'll try.† He sleeps. When he awakens, it's early morning. The breeze is gone. In the direction from which it came, there's a bright orange line on the horizon the sun is on its way. He's stiff and his ass hurts and he's damp with dew, but he's rested. The steady, rhythmic creaking is gone, but that doesn't surprise him. He knew from the moment he opened his eyes that he's in Wisconsin again. And he knows something else: he can go back. Any time he wants. The real Coulee Country, the deep Coulee Country, is just a wish and a motion away. This fills him with joy and dread in equal parts. Jack gets up and barefoots back to the house with his pillow under his arm. He guesses it's about five in the morning. Another three hours' sleep will make him ready for anything. On the porch steps, he touches the cotton of his Jockey shorts. Although his skin is damp, the shorts are almost dry. Of course they are. For most of the hours he spent sleeping rough (as he spent so many nights that autumn when he was twelve), they weren't on him at all. They were somewhere else. â€Å"In the Land of Opopanax,† Jack says, and goes inside. Three minutes later he's asleep again, in his own bed. When he wakes at eight, with the sensible sun streaming in through his window, he could almost believe that his latest journey was a dream. But in his heart, he knows better.

Marketing Management. The success and failure Essay

Marketing Management. The success and failure - Essay Example This perception is not something that the product or the market is assuming by itself. It is created by the product marketers. Though marketing and marketing management has been defined variedly by different people at different points of time, marketing would still stand between the business and consumers or buyers and ensures that the needs of the buyers or customers are met by the company and its products. Marketing management is the one where marketing is managed to deliver the results thus said. Philip Kotler et al., (2006) defines marketing as follows: human activity directed at satisfying needs and wants through the exchange process. Philip Kotler et al., also define marketing management as "the art and science of choosing target markets and getting, keeping and growing customers through creating, delivering, and communicating superior customer value." It is the aim of the marketing manager to ensure that the market keeps growing with additional customers and with or without ad ditional products. Opportunity is the gate through which the products produced will bring in revenue to the company that produced it. Opportunity presents itself to the people who are interested in knowing it. When the opportunity knocks most often the people behind the doors either do not hear it or they are afraid of opening the door. Either way the opportunity is lost. Only a few open the gates for the opportunity to enter and bring in the desired revenue flows. An opportunity occurs out of the environment and its needs. The environment is made up of four elements; Socio-cultural, Technological, Economic and Political. These four elements impact the company to a great extent. All the opportunities also rise out of these four elements. Opportunities arise because of the socio-cultural changes or because of the technological innovations that produce a major source of business opportunity. Economic changes in the market could also throw up opportunities that could be tapped. New regulations and laws might also bring about major changes in the way businesses are done and this could lead to more opportunities. Every opportunity has to be checked out for what it is worth. This can be carried out by analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the system and the opportunity. It is also important that the opportunity provided by the environment, is taken up by the company and has the right kind of skills to bring about appropriately satisfy the requirements of the market (Drucker P J, 1993). SWOT Analysis of an Opportunity Every opportunity should be evaluated based on its own environmental and internal factors. The company should do a SWOT analysis of the existing and new requirement. The company should identify the strengths that are with the management and the strengths of the people who make up the company. The company should be able to identify its own skill in which it is best at. The extent of financial resources that the company has; the kind of bargaining power they might have with their suppliers and their intermediaries, the nature of connections and alliances they have. All these would contribute to the strengths of the company. The weaknesses include the lack of financial resources, the specific skills that does not exist, how old are the IPs and their current state and what the company is really bad in. All these contribute to make the weaknesses of the company. Similarly, the opportunity that

The French Revolution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 3

The French Revolution - Essay Example Basttile was a prison created and maintained by French Monarchs in 1989. It was the symbol of Monarchs which people wanted to see get demolish (Carlyle 109). The falling of the Basttile remarkably stimulated the civilian activity. It increased the morals of the French people, the French public continuing the revolution with much greater impact and force. It was after the falling of the Basttile, the creation of Cahiers took place, which was a forum where a poor’s word was heard and got addressed (Clark 340). Cahiers was a forum, which divided the communication pattern in three Estates. The First Estate was the Estate of the clergy, which belonged to the religious community. The Second Estate was nobility, which was the elite and most privileged segment of the society at the time of revolution. The Third Estate was the middle class, which described the urban and the underprivileged segment of the society (McKay and Hill 590). The plenty of grievances came from the third Estate, which represented the poor of the society. As it was the word of the poor, so it was not much heard in the Elite segment of the society. The composed models came from Paris, which eventually not favored and got accepted in the third Estate. This brought the class discrimination giving the reason to the people to rise up as a revolution (Carlyle 130). Both the Napoleonic Code and the Declaration of the Rights of Man contained ideologies of the French revolutionists (McKay and Hill). It was the social security, security of people’s lives and property and assurance of basic civil rights of each citizen, which both declarations kept in their mention. Both codes had the same agenda and that is to reject the force of oppression at each societal level. The code and the declaration assured the principles of morality, the principles of equality and social justice (Clark). He was the great Haitian revolutionist Toussaint L’Overture who adhered to the principles of

The role of Total Quality Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The role of Total Quality Management - Essay Example The origin of TQM is attributed to Dr. Edwards Deming and Walter Shewhart on statistical control techniques (SCT) that aimed at identifying and managing quality variation in production processes (Charantimath 2006). Charantimath (2006) asserts that TQM extends beyond statistical quality control to incorporate other soft elements such as need for quality employee training, teamwork, integrated processes, supplier quality, employee empowerment and proper leadership, climate of trust and open communication in the organisation. Total quality management has enabled large franchises like Starbucks and McDonalds manage variations in their product, service quality, and attain higher customer satisfaction. Total Quality Management is useful in large franchises such as Starbucks and McDonalds since TQM since customer satisfaction is the ultimate measure of quality and all customers are viewed as owners of the quality. According to Charantimath (2006), the large franchises require continuous improvement and TQM uses analytical tools and employee involvement in determining the quality innovations and improvement ideas that are critical in improving the customer satisfaction. Accordingly, TQM requires visible, consistent and enabling leadership by the management in order to sustain continuous improvement in order to attain competitive edge and overcome competition in the market (Rao 1996). TQM is essential in enhancing the corporate public image since it demonstrates the organisational commitment to delivery of high quality products to the society. The stakeholders will be aware of the initiatives that the organisation has undertaken to improve quality such as continuous improvement and addressing of the customer complaints thus leading to higher customer satisfaction and reduction of costs associated with marketing and addressing customer grievances (Charantimath 2006). TQM improves overall customer satisfaction through understanding and production of

BAIDU & GOOGLE Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

BAIDU & GOOGLE - Research Paper Example The reasons of the above outcome are analyzed below; emphasis is given on the criteria on which the expansion of Google across the Chinese market was based. The reasons for the failure of Google in the Chinese market are also critically discussed. Despite its success in the global market, Google has not managed to acquire the dominance of the Chinese market as an advanced Search Engine machine. In fact, in accordance with a report published by the Search Engine Journal, the share of Google in the Chinese market has been estimated to 32.8% - whereas Baidu controls ‘the 56.8% of the search share’ (Baker 2008). It should be noted though that no significant competition seems to exist in the specific sector – it is noted that Baidu and Google control the 90% of the search share in China. ... wever, the time lost has been significant and Google is currently trying to cover the gap caused because of its short-term exit from the Chinese market. However, in accordance with Hotchkiss (2011) the reasons for the failure of Google in China are not just regulatory; it seems that the specific search engine cannot respond – at least not as effectively as – to the technical demands of the specific sector – emphasis is given on the structure of Chinese characters and the severe delays that can be reported when using these characters in a Search Engine machine. Moreover, it seems that the development of Google China has not helped towards the resolution of the above problem – as it could be possibly expected. The above problem is made clear through the following example: in a study developed by Hotchkiss (2011) in North America and China the time of response of Search Engines was set under comparison. In the case of search through Google – using West ern language – a time period of 8 up to 10 seconds has been required to retrieve the results. However, when using Google China the response to a search query ‘took about 30 seconds, and with Baidu over 55 seconds’ (Hotchkiss 2011). Apart from the time of response, the presentation of the findings is also problematic – referring to Google China. It is explained by Hotchkiss (2011) that the vertical scan (based on relevance) used commonly for checking the results cannot work in the case of Google China; instead it is necessary to check the whole list of results in order to select the required one (Hotchkiss 2011). In accordance with the above, the ability of Google to respond to the needs of Chinese people can be strongly doubted. At the next level, the following fact should be mentioned: in a recent (2011)

Leadership & Professional Development Term Paper

Leadership & Professional Development - Term Paper Example Additionally, I am currently pursuing an advance qualification so it really becomes difficult to balance timings between family, friends, business and studies. According to John (2007), life truly becomes hectic if it is not scheduled in an appropriate manner, and from the current proceedings, I believe one point where I am lacking is time management, and this essay aims at my plan for developing my skill set towards overcoming this weakness. Barth (2005) states that time has an ‘irreversible’ aspect or feature associated with it, and at the same time, it cannot be substituted, nor can it be brought back. Leaders are more booked for time than any other individual as they tend to have more concerned parties demanding their respective time. Subsequently, leaders often realize that 24 hours is a very less sum of hours in a day and there is a lot more that is to be done. Subsequently, time management skills gain extreme importance for leaders in scenarios whereby tasks are more and time is less; leaders, like any other individual, cannot stop time nor can they reduce the speed of it, and neither can they enhance the pace of it. Therefore, effective time management is critical in today’s world for leaders. An extreme example of attaining efficacy is that often leaders give more time to ‘time management’ rather than managing the time; they would give more time to creation of priority lists, exc el sheets, coding tasks with various colors and so on. This, though enhances the effectiveness of managing time, but at the same time it also takes a lot of time in developing such documentation; leading to individuals realizing that wasting time without such hassle is better than doing so with it. Leadership gains success by means of aspiration and inspiration as stated by Kousez (2003); if a leader cannot manage the time well, then a similar expectation cannot be laid towards the followers of the same. This inspirational trait,

Thread Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Thread - Assignment Example Thus, America was observed as a function of consciousness by the Frontiers (Shames, n.d.). According to Shames, America’s frontier provides opportunity and hence, brought the concept of more in order to bring about optimism and retain economic boom. Similarly, the typical consumer behavior suggests of engulfing more satisfaction. The greed for more beyond the satisfaction level of the consumers leads individuals and organizations of the country to be over ambitious for the achievement of goals and objectives. However, this over ambitious nature also leads to the creation of attitude amid people of the America. They had a notion that there is no worst thing than losing. Additionally, they developed an attitude of obtaining the optimum output from every resource (Shames, n.d.). Shames termed 1980s â€Å"an era of nostalgia† because prior to that period the young urban working people were considered as money-oriented. The sole motive of the people of America was that money is the ultimate requirement for them. Also it is to be noted that because of the greed for ‘more’ people did not adapt to e other values and desire that are essential for human being. People were less conscious of the personal lives and his/her social responsibilities. However, in the 1980s the people realized the importance of the social life through spending times with friends and family members. Moreover, in that era the coinage of the two terms namely, ‘hippie’ and ‘yippie’ was done. Thus, Shames rightly termed 1980s as â€Å"an era of nostalgia† (Shames, n.d.). Shames was ironical about the concept of ‘more’ from the American people. This is because he has been observing the people of America to be more inclined to the concept of ‘more’. The people in that period were so busy in their professional work that they had forgotten the social need and responsibility of every individual.

Q4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Q4 - Essay Example Continual improvement can also be added as a basic tenet of TQM concept. This particular principle denotes that improvement of the company in terms of quality as well as quantity should be a continuous process. It is worth mentioning in this context that the sole intention of TQM is to obtain efficiency in managing both quality and quantity with equal importance. The key notion considered in this regard, signifies that balance between quality and quantity is vital to attract customers at an increasing rate and also preserve customer loyalty for a longer time-period. Owing to such significance of TQM, the inferences drawn through this framework must essentially be reliable. This constitutes another basic tenet of TQM, where matrices are required to be used to draw inferences and justify strategies for maintaining a balance between quality and quantity prospects. Last but not the least; managerial leadership practices within the organization also play a major influencing role in contri buting towards the effectiveness of the TQM strategies applied (Reynolds,

Good citizen Essay Example for Free

Good citizen Essay A Good citizen is one who knows his rights and duties as a citizen to maintain his/her rights and perform duties with interest . political rights consist of rights to vote, right to freedom of expression, civil rights are of as vital importance as the political rights. A good citizen defend his political and civil rights very zealously the state help him in the threw of law and justice. Violation of the rights should be punished by the law. good citizen must remember that the right and duties are equal to every one . they must not have bad habits . A citizen free to organize his/ her life as he/she likes. but freedom doesnt mean a citizen can built a house any where . Even it does not mean the house are build in any way a citizen want. it must be built in a perfect way. A citizen cannot throw a garbage or refuse staff out of house any where he/ she likes to. It allows them to shout or make noise at midnight. if they get right to do it, it denies your neighbor rights to sleep properly. so a citizen must retain some discipline. as a good citizen a person have some responsibilities and duties toward the society. A good citizen must not let the poverty percentage higher and literacy percentage lower . A good citizen must have faith and trust on neighbor or society peoples, they should have care for each other when someone get ill or infected by some other diseases. He /She must not let any talent go to waste . it will be a lost for the society and country as well. A good citizen talk in a very well manner with everyone and respect the law and government officer who tries to maintain the law and order .he/she must always pay tax to the government and does not try to evade tax, as it is a evil crime indeed. He/she must know that his own good is linked with the good of other. A good citizen should never favor the evil works like giving bribe to the government office worker for his/her own private work.

Cirque du soleil Essay Example for Free

Cirque du soleil Essay A: Strengths: Every show in 20 years has produced a profit, encourages creativity, niche, financially strong, well known, great marketing, technology, database of 20,000 potential employees, shows have a long run (10 to 12 years), talent scouts recruit from all over the world, creative, leadership. Creative production staff. Great locations. Excellent leadership. B: Weaknesses: High turnover (people get older, can no longer perform), High production costs equals high ticket prices C: Opportunities: New World tours and new permanent facilities in prime locations, D: Threats: Competition, someone could create a show very similar. Partners may want to buy out. 2. Explain how Cirque du Soleil implements, evaluates, and controls the elements of its marketing plan. Implements: Cirque du Soleil builds the market share and the profits follow. Cirque du Soleil has a great deal invested in training, talent, staff etc. Targets adults, lets creative people run it, Lamarre states he guides the company with an invisible hand making sure business policies do not interfere with the creative process. It is Dragone and his team of creative and production personnel not a predetermined budget that defines the content, style and material requirement for each project. Evaluates and controls: Every show makes a profit 3. List and describe at least three keys to Cirque Du Soleil’s competitive advantage. 1. It provides a product/service differentiation competitive advantage. Through production innovations, shows evoke awe, wonder, inspiration and reflection. 2. A niche competitive advantage. It’s unique, productions have distinct personalities, and shows have a language, a conversation with the audience. 3. Built a sustainable competitive advantage, example Mystere costs $45 million to produce and returned over $430 million

Social Work Practice with Hispanic Elders

Social Work Practice with Hispanic Elders Dana Adams Gerardo Cantu is a masters level social worker at The Family Center. Gerardos current position with The Family Center, he is Class Facilitator and Case Manager. The Family Center offers individual and family care to elderly clients and their families in a warm and supportive atmosphere. The Family Centers professional team completes a thorough comprehensive assessments to help determine problem areas along with care plans to serve as an ongoing monitoring tool. The Family Center involves and engages the client in the care plan process as it serves as the basis of ongoing communication between the family, client, and Case Manager. Mr. Cantu works with families who are caring for older relatives and has a vital role in a part of a multidisciplinary team that manages the total scope of the needs of elder clients. Mr. Cantu has worked with The Family Center for eleven years, but is new in his role of Case Manager for elderly clients. This population is newly served at The Center and has only been in operation for six months. Mr. Cantu currently manages Twelve cases and completes bi-monthly, in-home visits with clients and their families. During home visits, Mr. Cantu provides informal counseling and social support by listening, understanding, networking, empowering, and encouraging. During his internship for his Master of Social Work degree, Mr. Cantu worked at a local health department where he learned the logistics of working with elderly Hispanic clients and this role in his internship created a road map for his current position with The Family Center. Mr. Cantu is bilingual in English and Spanish, and assisted employed case managers with providing ancillary interpretation services to Hispanic clients. Through community outreach, he learned to enroll clients for medical insurance through the health insurance marketplace, assisted with providing patient assistance for filling out applications for Medicaid, food stamps, WIC, and free medications for low income patients. As a Class Facilitator and Case Manager with The Family Center, Mr. Cantu conducts home visits, assessments, patient intakes, creates patient care plans based on the clients medical, psychological, and social needs. He also leads a monthly support group for caregivers, educating them on physical, emotional and financial strain of caring for their loved ones and teaching them how to balance their responsibilities at home and work. In the present moment, Mr. Cantu states he is pleased with the program and feels The Family Center is serving the needs of families in the local area who need assistance and support with caring for their loved ones. Writer asked Mr. Cantu about the importance of networking within the agency and if he faced any challenges obtaining needed services for his clients. Mr. Cantu explained how networking involves a vast number of agencies working together to enhance well-being and how it takes a variety of agencies to network together to help individuals achieve their goals. Some agencies The Family Center network with for food, medical, financial, day care, and Hispanic services assistance is The United Methodist Church, Area Agency on Aging, Mobile County Health Department, Catholic Social Services, and The Guadalupe Center. The main challenge Mr. Cantu faces is providing adequate transportation services to the clients due to there being a high demand for services in the area. Mr. Cantu assists with transporting clients to scheduled appointments. Applying critical thinking, motivational, and listening skills and empowerment within the context of his professional social work practice and The Family Center, Mr. Cantu understands the value base of the profession and its ethical standards and principles. He states that he always utilizes practice without discrimination and with respect, knowledge, and skills related to clients age, class, color, culture, disability, ethnicity, family structure, gender, marital status, national origin, race religion, sex, and sexual orientation. As stated by Mr. Cantu, he has dedicated his life to helping others and his two prayers are: Use me and Thank you. Mr. Cantu uses communications skills differentially across diverse populations and communities and seeks necessary organizational change if needed. Developing a trusting relationship with my clients enables me to serve as a liaison between them, the community and social service agencies to facilitate access to services and help improve cultural competence and the quality of service delivery (G. Cantu, personal communication, February 1, 2017).   Reflective use of theoretical approaches and knowledge bases underlies his practice with attention to the life course perspective. Evaluating his social work practice and practicing in ways that are culturally and gender appropriate with low income persons and with those who have experienced social and economic injustice is essential in his role at the agency. When asked about his most memorable case, his response was of a client who thought he was her grandson and how she would cook for him during the visit and would not allow him to leave until he finished his plate. He said that he would have to beg her to leave the home sometimes because she would try to make him go to bed and rest. When asked if there were any instances of him having difficulty leaving the home, he explained how one day he had wait until the clients grandson come to the home so that she could see both together to realize that he was not who she thought he was. Mr. Cantu mentioned that it took 2 hours for the grandson to come to the home. Mr. Cantu expressed that he would not have done anything different because his last intention is to upset his clients, but to reassure them. This writer asked Mr. Cantu about culturally sensitive assessments used by the agency used on the elderly Hispanic clients is the Bruininks Motor Ability Test for adults (B-MAT) because the test helps develop an assessment to support service users, families, and clinicians in determining the level of independence with their activities of daily living, support the intervention process and monitor the clients progress (Kesler, Lynn, Sullivan, Thompson, 2011). Family plays an important role when caring for the aging and much attention needs to be given to micro, mezzo and macro systems impacting the client system. Intervention are used within the individual, family, group, organization and community levels. With generalist social work practice, client system assessment is an ongoing social work skill used with all intervention levels and throughout the client intervention process (Hays, 2008). The micro approach focuses on major contributions from the biological, behavioral and social sciences that are essential for understanding the person-in-environment. The mezzo-level practice is concerned with interpersonal relations that are somewhat less intimate than those associated with family life, but more personally meaningful than those that occur among organizational and institutional representative and the macro approach concentrates on development of knowledge and skills for practice in communities, organizations and other social systems. Culturally sensitive social workers should have a standard practice of not making any assumptions when working with a diverse client system. This helps creates a lens that broadens the understanding of the client situation and value is placed on being culturally sensitive as one embraces diversity in the clients who are served by social workers (Hays, 2008).   Completing this course assignment has enlightened this writer about the impact of physical, mental and emotional aspects of aging, and the micro and macro issues of caregiving. Social work involves working with interrelated networks. The ecological theory is an approach to social work practice that addresses transactions between people and their environment (von Bonsdorff, Ilmarinen, 2013). The person and the environment can be understood within their affiliation as they always have great impact on one another. The ecological theory is used for its ability to view the clients whole situation. The ecological theory looks at acculturation, language, and socioeconomic status. The framework, consisting of eight dimensions of treatment interventions (language, persons, metaphors, content, concepts, goals, methods, and context) can serve as a guide for developing culturally sensitive treatments and adapting existing psychosocial treatments to specific ethnic minority groups (von Bonsdorff, Ilmarinen, 2013). The Family Systems Theory focuses on how each member relate to one another. The family is a structure of subsystems and every action/change within the subsystem affects each person. Changes are caused by both normative (predictable life cycle changes) and non-normative (crisis) stresses and the continuity theory states that the aging person try to preserve and maintain internal and external structures by using strategies to maintain continuity to deal with changes that occur during the normal aging process (von Bonsdorff, Ilmarinen, 2013). Aging can be a stressful and challenging situation for someone who is used to being active as they must learn to adjust to the mental, physical, emotional, and financial difficulty that is a part of aging. Social workers can help each individual manage, adjust, and cope with each of these issues. The main goal of a geriatric social worker is to make sure that the needs of the clients are being met.   According to the Administration on Aging, the number of elderly Americans over the age of 60 jumped from 378 million in 1980 to 759 million in 2010 (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2008). Administration on Aging. A Statistical Profile of Older Americans 65.   The National Institute of Aging estimates that 60,000-70,000 professionally trained social workers will be needed by 2020 to work with the older population (Cummings, Galambo, DeCoster, 2003).   The discrepancy between the importance of providing services to Latinos, given their growing numbers, and the preparedness of social workers for serving this population is alarming (Furman, Negi, Iwamoto, Rowan, Shuckraft, Gragg, 2009). Utilizing and implementing multicultural sensitivity is important within the social work profession because this encourages the clinician to focus on significant factors such as ethnicity, race, and spiritual components (Payne, 2014). it is also important to learn about the clients from their perspective, maintain a positive forward-looking outlook, and allow clients to come up with their own potential solutions by looking at the successes they have already experienced (Payne, 2007) rather than focus on what has not worked, or what a practitioner feels are most beneficial. Attaining cultural competence requires social workers to engage in honest and genuine personal self-assessment and introspection coupled with the willingness to challenge and overcome the ingrained stereotypes of Latinos and other minorities that have served to dehumanizing factors and implementing new perspectives that rehumanize minorities (Organista, 2007). Immigration can be a major life stressor and includes i ssues such as health disparities and acculturation (Garcà ­a, 2012). These issues can affect mental health in Hispanics who find that they have limited or no access to the resources of their host culture. Realizing how immigration impacts Hispanics will enhance my service provisions. This writer would be interested in volunteering as a mental health counselor at a free clinic or other organization in the Hispanic community. Since macro practice focuses on achieving long-term change in the economic, political and social environment (Payne, 2014). This writer feels this would be a great avenue for advocacy in the Hispanic community. References: Cummings, S. M., Galambos, C., DeCoster, V. A. (2003). Predictors of MSW employment in gerontological practice. Educational Gerontology, 29(4), 295-312. Furman, R., Negi, N. J., Iwamoto, D. K., Rowan, D., Shuckraft, A., Gragg, J. (2009, April). Retrieved February 10, 2017, from National Center for Biotechnology Information: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2861823/ Garcà ­a, J. (2012). Mental health care for Latino immigrants in the U.S.A. and the quest for global health equities. Psychosocial Intervention 21, (3), 305-318. Hays, P. A. (2008). Addressing cultural complexities in practice: Assessment, diagnosis, and therapy (Vol. 10, pp. 11650-000). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Kesler, K. E., Lynn, J. D., Sullivan, J. D., Thompson, J. M. (2011). Bruininks Motor Ability Test for Adults (B-MAT): Exploring Relationships Among Motor Assessments. Brenau University. Organista, K.C. (2007). Solving Latino psycho social and health problems: Theory, practice and populations. Hoboken, NJ. Payne, M. (2014). Modern Social Work Theory. (4th ed.). Chicago: Lyceum US Department of Health and Human Services. (2008). Administration on Aging. A Statistical Profile of Older Americans 65. von Bonsdorff, M. E., Ilmarinen, J. (2013). Continuity theory and retirement.

Psychology Essay examples -- science

Psychology Males and females have many different opinions in term of choosing their mates and long-term partners. But I strongly agree with Buss on the idea that women give more importance to kindness and generosity in term of choosing their long-term partner. Because I noticed that a man who is kind and generous will spend more time on her and then show love and take good care of the family. But one thing that I do not really agree with Buss is the idea of resource, I do believe that women give importance to resources but to me it is not just for their children but also most for themselves. Because I have the example of a two kids mom who divorce with her husband after he won three million dollar last summer. By divorcing, she did not care about the kids but the money. Also we have more and women who do not want to have kids and still choose their mates base on financial views. One more thing is that I noticed that women like to show off. For example they like to wear expensive clothes with brand name such as Kenneth Cole, they like diamonds and gold. Also women like to enjoy life especially by going to vacation in the Caribbean (Trinidad and Tobago). So women are more likely to refer on financial view in term of choosing their mates beca use they want to acquire that stuff. Men in the other hand do give too much importance to money because they think that they are the ones who have to provide for the family. The primary difference between Hetherington and Wallerstei...

Dunciad: Mock epic and parallels to Rape of the Lock (another satire) E

The Dunciad: A Mock Epic? Honors English   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The fourth book of the Dunciad describes the fall and slow death of the English society that once taught him all the things he knew. He lashes out at his critics, accusers, and nay Sayers in his allegorical poem. It symbolizes a mock epic because of the elaborate use of words, calling on inspiration from a higher force, and using his work not so much to tell a story, but to point out the faults of a social order that can’t or chooses not to see what they’re really doing.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It opens with: â€Å"Yet, yet a moment, one dim ray of light Indulge, dread Chaos, and eternal Night!† [Line 1, A.P.] â€Å"Suspend a while your force inertly strong, Then take at once the Poet, and the song.† [Line 7, A.P.] In tradition of the epic, Alexander calls for the aide of an outside power. He doesn’t follow the rules completely, and replaces the muse with Chaos and Night, but does this only to enforce what he’s trying to do with his point and gives you a picture of where he’s going next. In epics, there’s always a battle or a scene that is brazenly described, adding drama, making it a little more important and draws the reader in. When Alexander Pope describes the room as the educators stand before the Goddess, and the scene where Dullness triumphs over everything that breathes life into human creativity, he makes it a point to describe each scene as a play-by-play battle in itself. An advocate of the empr...

Development Of Defense Of Provocation :: essays research papers

Development of Defense of Provocation Question: Critically evaluate the development of common law principles applicable to the defence of provocation in criminal law from the decision in Mancini v DPP [1942] AC 1 to Mascantonio v R (1995) 183 CLR 58. Assess the degree to which the common law has proved inflexible in responding changing societal needs and expectations. Are there other legal means of achieving substantive justice? At the time of the case of Mancini the concept of provocation as a defence to murder was already a well established one dating back centuries. It originated from the days when men bore arms and engaged in quarrels of violence that often resulted in a homicide being committed. For provocation to be an ample defence to murder it needed to be something which incited immediate anger, or "passion" and which overcame a person's self control to such an extent so as to overpower or swamp his reason. What this something can be has been the subject of many views through the centuries, and these views have strongly depended upon the type of person whom the law has regarded as deserving extenuated consideration when provoked to kill. In the words of Viscount Simon "the law has to reconcile respect for the sanctity of human life with recognition of the effect of provocation on human frailty. " In this regard the difficult concept of the "reasonable man" or the "ordinary man" has developed and with it the legal doctrine that provocation must be such as would not only cause the person accused to behave as he did but as would cause an ordinary man to so lose control of himself as to act in the same sort of way. It is therefore interesting to examine how the doctrine of common law in relation to provocation has responded to changing societal needs and values. It also provides a useful case study in which the development of common law doctrine can be observed. It is useful to conduct a case-by-case analysis of the rule of provocation as a defence to murder in order to more effectively observe the legal evolution that has taken place. In the case of Mancini v DPP [1942] AC 1 the appellant had been convicted for murder after stabbing a man to death in a club. The appellant's counsel contended that the trial judge should have directed that the jury was open to find provocation to reduce the appellant's conviction to manslaughter. Lord Simonds provided direction upon what kind of provocation would reduce murder to manslaughter. He said that the provocation must temporarily deprive