Annotated Timeline: 1763-1783 Essay

1763: The Proclamation of 1763 was a royal directive issued after the end of the French and Indian War that prohibited settlement, surveys, and land grants west of the Appalachian Mountains. It was an attempt to organize western lands gained as a result of the 1763 Treaty of Paris and it appease Native American tribes who lived in the areas. British North American colonists resented being denied access to lands they felt they had fought for and won in the French and Indian War. 1764-Sugar Act: A law passed by British Parliament which raised taxes on foreign refined sugar, leading to a monopoly in the West Indies that was controlled by British sugar farmers. 1765-Stamp Act: An act proposed by the British Parliament to require the use of stamps for all official documents, or articles. The act met large amounts of opposition and was repealed in 1766. 1765: Stamp Act Congress: A meeting held in New York, after the Stamp Act. It was attended by some of the colonies’ representatives to devise unified protest against Britain. It is considered the first attempt of such ideas. 1766-Declaratory Act: Following the repeal of the Stamp Act, British Parliament reasserted its authority to pass laws on the colonies, even though they did not have representation. 1767-Townshend Duties: Charles Townshend taxed imported good from England such as, paper, lead, and glass. The taxes went straight to the British officials to make them better able to enforce British law. 1770-Boston Massacre: A riot that broke out in Boston due to the colonists disliking for the British troops. The troops fired on the crowd, killing several people. (Boston Massacre 1770) 1773-The Tea Act: An act from British Parliament that gave them a monopoly unfair to American tea merchants, which would lead to more tension. 1773-The Boston Tea Party: In response to the Tea Act, a group of angry colonists boarded a British boat and tossed barrels of tea into the harbor in protest during the night. (Boston Tea Party-1773) 1774-Intolerable Acts: A series of laws passed by England in attempt to punish Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party. 1774-1st Continental Congress: A meeting of all colonies (excluding Georgia) that was held in Philadelphia after the Intolerable Acts to discuss ways to rebel against Britain, such as boycotting their trade. 1775-Lexington & Concord: The first military engagement between England soldiers and American colonists. American’s were on a mission to capture and destroy military supplies, but the British had learned of their plans, and moved the supplies elsewhere. 1775-2nd Continental Congress: A meeting of all colonies (excluding Georgia) that succeeded the 1st continental congress by having ideas of independence. By forming armies, appointing diplomats, and making formal treaties, the congress acted as the national government. (Continental Congress) 1775-Battle of Bunker Hill: After learning of British intentions of occupying the hills around Boston, 1,700 colonists attempted to fight off British troops, but had to retread due to lack of ammunition. 1775-Olive Branch Petition: An attempt to end bloodshed by sending a pact to King George, from the 2nd continental congress, stating that they will be loyal to him, if he repeals the Intolerable Acts. 1776-Common Sense: Written by Thomas Paine, Common Sense challenged the authority of the British government and the royal monarchy. The plain language that Paine used spoke to the common people of America and was the first work to openly ask for independence from Great Britain. (Common Sense-1776) 1776-Virginia Declaration of Rights: A document written to proclaim the inherent rights of man, including the right to rebel against an inadequate government. 1776-Declaration of Independence: A statement adopted by the continental congress that announced the 13 colonies regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. 1777-Battle of Saratoga: A battle fought 9 miles south of Saratoga, New York. The American forces under Benedict Arnold and fellow commanders defeated the British General Burgoyne and laid the groundwork for the entry of France into the war on the American side. 1777-Articles of Confederation: The first constitution of the 13 American colonies. It would eventually be replaced by the Constitution of the United States. 1778-Treat of Amity and Commerce/Treat of Alliance: A commercial alliance signed in Paris between the United States and the French. The treaty was signed during the Revolutionary war. 1779-Virginia Statue of Religious Freedom: A document written by Thomas Jefferson stating that all people are entitled to practice any religion and worship any god of their choosing. 1781-Battle of Yorktown: Led by Washington and the French commander Rochambeau, British troops were defeated in Yorktown, Virginia, as it proved to be a decisive victory for America. (Battle of Yorktown-1781) 1783-Treaty of Paris: The treaty that ended the war between America and England. Spain, France, and the Dutch were awarded land as a result.

Nestle CSR Essay

Corporate Social Responsibility is about how companies manage the business processes to produce an overall positive impact on society. Also you could say that it is a company’s sense of responsibility towards the community and environment in which it operates. Nestlà © believes that for a company to be successful in the long term and create value for its shareholders, it must also create value for society. At Nestlà © this begins with the creation of superior long term value for shareholders by offering products and services that help people improve their nutrition, health and wellness. This is what they call Creating Shared Value. Creating shared value begins with the understanding that for Nestlà © to succeed over the long term, the communities we serve must also be succeeded. It explains how businesses can create competitive advantage, which in turn will deliver better returns for shareholders, through actions that substantially address a social or environmental challenge. Nestlà © focuses on six point, which are the following: -nutrition. – CSV, water. – Rural development. – environment. – sourcing. And human rights. Now we will explain these six points. Starting with nutrition: Nestlà © plays an important role in offering the right kind of products and helping consumers make the right nutritional choices. The second is CSV- Water. A global water crisis is threatening food security because two-third of all fresh water is used in agriculture. With demand for water to set rise by 50 % by 2030, water scarity is a likely scenario for billions of people. Nestlà © is determined to help in addressing this crisis. Rural development. As a global population increases and continues to shift to urban areas, the challenge of producing sufficient agricultural raw materials is becoming ever more difficult. This is why nestle is working hard to ensure they source raw materials in a responsible and sustainable way. (farmers, workers, com munities) Environment: Nestlà © is helping to protect the environment and scarce resources, now and for future generations.

Case study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 28

Case Study Example In the absence of emotional intelligence, the company will not be able to respond to the changes in the external environment promptly. Instead of the conventional qualities of managers, the company is building more focus on strengthening their emotional intelligence. 10.2) I think that Johnson & Johnson has taken the right initiative to improve emotional intelligence of its employees. Training programs will be helpful in making the employees realize how emotional intelligence can benefit the company and also groom their personality. However, training programs won’t be productive if employees do not practice what they learn from training in their daily activities. So apart from training them on emotional intelligence skills, proper monitoring has to be done to ensure that all managers are engaged in improvement. And yes, it is really fruitful to discuss abilities while evaluating performance so that timely training, coaching and feedback is given to employees so that they fix it up before the results gets worse. 10.3) Emotional intelligence will definitely help Johnson & Johnson avoid recalls because when the emotional intelligence of managers is high, they will be able to have better control on their nerves and they will perform without stress. It will also help them take right and timely decisions when it comes to quality and manufacturing so that recalls can be avoided. Emotional intelligence is a combination of a number of skills such as anger management, stress control, self awareness etc. By mastering these emotions, managers can definitely play a role in escalating profits for Johnson &

Florida Immigration Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Florida Immigration - Research Paper Example It is noticed that more than 8% of the workforce in Florida was constituted by the illegal immigrants in 2008. Natural calamities in Haiti too added much to the immigration burden of the state of Florida. The proposed Florida immigration bill attempts to curb illegal immigration by approaching it as a serious law and order problem than a socio-economic issue. The Fear Politics and the Fallibility of Cost-Benefit Analysis It is through a fear politics created by the right wing, illegal immigration issue comes to the forefront of policy making. There has never been more immigration to a country than it could afford. If more people come to Florida, even illegally, it means that there exist conditions for illegal immigrants to be here. It was independently testified by the business community in Florida, especially the sector of Agrarian businesses. And, importantly, the huge majority of the immigrants become successful in finding jobs and adapting the American way of life. In this contex t, it is quite astonishing to see even a theorist such as Huntington would argue that ‘in this new era, the single most immediate and most serious challenge to America's traditional identity comes from the immense and continuing immigration from Latin America, especially from Mexico, and the fertility rates of these immigrants compared to black and white American natives’ (Huntington, 2004, p.3). Therefore, at the heart of immigration debate, lies the hidden racism and xenophobia that our culture would be colonized from within by the alien culture of the illegal immigrant. This xenophobia, the fear politics generated from it is central in the discourse on immigration than supposed socio-economic issues and security matters. ‘Massive Hispanic immigration affects the United States in two significant ways: Important portions of the country become predominantly Hispanic in language and culture, and the nation as a whole becomes bilingual and bicultural’ thus wa rns Huntington (2004, p.7). This is nothing but eloquent and sophisticated articulation of fear of diversity and the negation of core values that constitute America. It is in this wider context, Arizona Immigration Bill and the replicated model of the Florida immigration bill came to existence. The Florida immigration bill has been hotly debated by both the civil society and policy makers in recent times. It is important to note that the current Florida Immigration Bill is stemmed from the more controversial Arizona Immigration Bill. Immigration, in the wider context, is an endemic problem in much of the western countries which are highly developed and industrialized. The United States of America has been at the receiving end of immigration issues from the end of Second World War itself. The rise of both legal and illegal immigration has sometimes developed into a national issue, especially the case of illegal immigration has much to do with other problems such as internal security and welfare distribution. Even the widespread recession in the United States has not resulted in any substantial decrease in the illegal immigration to the country. Arizona Immigration Bill was meant for countering the illegal immigration mainly through the Mexico border. Although the Florida peninsula is surrounded by water, it still experiences illegal immigrati

Money Laundering and Corruption Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Money Laundering and Corruption - Essay Example The government and various financial institutions have made significant efforts of preventing and detecting and fraud issues. This is  when making transactions issues that involve dirty money. Corruption is a moral impunity that involves embezzlement of funds and bribery issues. The government employs operational issues such as use of the FATF for investing corruption and conducting money laundering as well as asset tracing investigations. The Risks Posed By Money Laundering and Corruption to the Global Financial System and International Business Money laundry and corruption pose varied risks towards global financial system and international business. Laundering of money and corruption are interrelated because they both pose risks to customers  and their  products or transaction made and also impose risk to geographical risk factors in varied ways. There are many highlighted cases that have posed risks to many economies across the globe. Therefore, FATF has made considerable ef forts of preventing money laundering and corruption. Therefore, their independent organization have implemented anti monetary laundry and combating terrorist financing activities in order to reduce the risks that may arise from these threats. Understanding risk posed by these threats is significant. This is because it enables the government to provide recommendation for a  reporting entity  to implement  the risk  management systems and assess the level of enhanced due diligence (EDD) in order to reduce risks. Customer Risk Factors Money laundry and corruption issues expose political people and other public official to risks. The measures employed in money laundry are intended to encourage entities to report risk sensitive issues existing in the entity or exposing politically persons to high-risk to customers. The politically exposed persons (PEPs) status does not reveal that a person is corrupt or incriminated for being corrupt, but it reveals the potential risks money laun dering contribute to customers and their transaction process. The risk that corrupt PEP poses to the financial system is seen as one way of putting customers under risk especially when they are making transactions (Karsten 2003, p.15). Business relationships with PEPs contribute to increased customer risks because of increased possibility that an individual is holding. For instance, politicians may misuse authority by influencing their personal gain with an aim of achieving their own advantage. Moreover, the nature of the position may lead to customer risk factors. Someone holding a position in a certain office may have a substantial opportunity and authority of assessing the funds or assets of the state. He or she can take control over the government resources including setting money for combating terrorism issues and other activities; thus exposing customers to greater risks. For instance, the court case of Nicolau Dos Santos Neto, the ex-president of Brazil is one of the incidenc es that reveal the corruption nature of PEPs (FATF Report 2012, p.14). The actual corruption vulnerability may vary depending  upon the extent to which they exercise authority in the hierarchy. It is significant to recognize that not all PEPs cause risks to customers.

Lucent Technologies Case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Lucent Technologies Case - Essay Example In this context, multiple factors can be held liable that had been accountable for getting subjected to this setback. Within these identified factors, the profitability of the company along with the equity multiples are the major deterrents. Apart from these two, the asset turnover had also contributed within this ROE fall (Tagliani, 2009). From the above tables, it can be clearly observed that the asset turnover rate dropped down subsequently from 35.25% in 1998 to 25.64% in 2000. As a result, a drop in the level of ROE and Return on Assets (ROA) can also be estimated. Apart from all these, the company business functionality also appeared to have boosted the long-term debt aspect that in turn had negatively impacted the overall financial stability of Lucent Technologies. In a cause and effect manner, the company’s liquidity went down by drastic levels and thus, resulted in deteriorating the performance of the company in the years 1998, 1999 and 2000 (Palepu & Healy, 2007). Lucent Technologies appeared to have made drastic changes within a very short tenure. With the prime intention of attracting more and more investors, the company made significant amount of efforts towards making its annual statements more transparent and understandable. The table below projects a clear understanding of the types of changes identified in Sales, Accounts Receivable, Inventory and Gross Margin for the five quarterly periods i.e. from December 1998 to December 1999. From the above table, improvement in the sales figures of the company can be indentified during the quarter of March-June 1999 by 12 %. Although, the company attained a growth rate for the consecutive two quarters after the quarter of Dec’1998 to March’1999, but could not retain the growth pace in a sustainable manner. The percentage rate of receivables for the company also dropped subsequently. In term of inventory, it

McGraw Hill publishing Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

McGraw Hill publishing - Research Paper Example In the year 1902, John Hill founded the Hill Publishing company. The two men formed an alliance in the year 1909 and formed an alliance to create the McGraw Hill book publishing company. (McGraw Hill-a â€Å"brief history†) The company has three divisions namely, McGraw Hill Education, Financial Services and Information and media. The McGraw hill education division publishes books for primary, secondary, post secondary and professional education. The information and media business provides industry intelligence, analytics and business solutions for better decision making. The group has the following divisions namely Aviation week, Broadcasting, Business week group, JD Power associates, McGraw Hill construction and Platts group. McGraw Hill companies reported a second quarter Earnings per share of $0.52. The revenue of the company has decreased by about 12.4% to $164.1 million dollars, as compared to last year. The revenue in the education segment has decreased by about 17.2% to $555.2 million dollars in the second quarter. The total operating profit declined by about 70.1% amounting to an amount of $21 million dollars. The foreign exchange rates reduced the net revenue by about $10.1 million in this year. The revenue for the Information and Media segment has dropped by about 11.5% to $ 236.2 million in the second quarter. The foreign exchange rates did not have a great impact on the revenues but it led to a decline of $ 2.5 million in the operating profits. The company declared that due to the current economic slowdown the revenue expectations of the company has been reduced by about one percentage and the company expects the revenues to further decrease. The new guidance for earnings per diluted share has been modified and the new forecast for guidance has now been fixed at $2.2 to $2.25. (McGraw Hill-c â€Å"Investor Relations†). The company is headquartered in New York, USA. It also has

Personal finance project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Personal finance project - Essay Example All these make it extremely confusing for a layman to choose the best options for management of his money. The aim of business portfolio management course was to make one understand different financial products that are available to an individual and the desired mix of assets that shall assure certain amount of returns and ways of conducting a better financial management of one’s portfolio. The paper is a study of management of personal finance under a mock scenario, where the student has to manage a portfolio of stock market, metals in the international market as well as bank deposits in banks that belong to Non Islamic category in Qatar. The case provides the student with a startup capital of QR 1,000,000 million along with the freedom to make investments in various investment options available. The investments are made as per discretion of the investor, inclusive of his personal investment strategy and rationale. The paper also highlights objective of the investment scenario, along with a clear presentation of the strategic investment portfolio. The risk return trade off considered by the investor is emphasized and the paper concludes with an estimation of return of the individual at end of the investment period. The rationale of this project is to determine the level of investment understanding of students, after the course of finance. The project is an assessment and a practical understanding of the investment management course undertaken as a part of this course. The project is also a presentation of a mock investment portfolio based on past data of the markets, which portrays a practical view of the real investment scenario and portfolio management case for a finance manager. The project provides insights into the broader real case scenario with help of a hypothetical situation that is presented to the investor. The investor shall invest in a minimum of 3 stocks at a time and maintain portfolios in

Global Systems Theory Essay Example for Free

Global Systems Theory Essay Global systems theory is perhaps one of the many theories related to capitalism and transnational corporations. This paper attempts to look into global systems theory in the context of capitalism by making use of three articles as part of the literature for the research. By outlining the major contentions for each of these three articles, this paper will further juxtapose these main points with global systems theory and arrive at a more developed and comprehensive understanding of the theory as a whole. Brief Literature Review In Robert Granfield’s article â€Å"Making It by Faking It: Working Class Students in an Elite Academic Environment†, he indicates how working class law students experience inequalities among upper class students which influences the class of law students. By collecting data through observation, personal interviews, small group interview and survey from a national law school in the eastern part of the United States, Granfield was able to expose the essential differences between law students in terms of class background. Through class background, Granfield also identifies the apparent discrimination between working class students and upper class students at school whenever working class students feel that they are being treated as ‘cultural outsiders’. In Hays’ article â€Å"The Ideology of Intensive Mothering: A Cultural Analysis of the Bestselling Gurus of Appropriate Childbearing†, he presents the key components of the ideology of intensive mothering, specifically: children are outside the market value, are priceless and are not economic assets; good childrearing requires intensive commitment on the part of the caregiver, and; childcare is the primary responsibility of the individual mother. The central focus of Hays’ article focuses on childcare especially on the role of mothers towards their children. The author further gives the emphasis that children are ‘sacred’ in a sociological sense because of the fact that childrearing and its effects on children reaffirm the belief in the importance of children. It creates a protected space of security, trust and close human connection inasmuch as it illustrates the generous and nurturing characteristic of individuals rather than being individualistic and always inclined for competition. In Webb’s newspaper article â€Å"A Crowded Family Enters the Space Age† featured in the New York Times, the author explores the case of Eric Alan’s family through the functionalist perspective. From a functionalist perspective, social institutions such as families and governments are analyzed and explained as collective means to satisfy specific or individual biological requisites. These social institutions, along with the rest, are composed of interconnected roles or norms such as the interconnected roles within the family (e. g. father, mother, etc. ). In the case of the family of Eric Alan, the worth of his family proves the idea that the family as a social institution has interconnected roles with the larger society. In particular, having to redesign his familys home into something more breathable exemplifies the presumption that the individual roles in the family, such as the role of the father to provide an inhabitable home for his family, and the family in general is tied with the other segments of the society in such a way that one reinforces the values of the other and vice versa. Featured in the November 8 issue of the New York Times, A Crowded Family Enters the Space Age conveys the story of a father, Eric Alan, wanting to provide a larger house for his growing family with the aid of Architect Neil Denari. In return, Denaris expertise and skills acquire a living experience thus proving to be another feat not only in his career as an architect but also in the discipline of architecture. From a functionalist perspective, this very well provides a real life example of how the units of the society interact together harmoniously in order to continue with survival. Description of the Case Global system theory is a base for the concept of transnational practices. However, cross state boundaries do not necessarily originate with state agencies or actors. The global capitalist system operates to maximize profits at the expense of others. Murray Dobbing (1998) claims that the economic world order has changed and the nation-state is in decline. This paper will outline and support the claims of Dobbing through a discussion of the transnational practices in the economic and the cultural-ideological spheres in relation to the political sphere. The paper will further discuss the agencies that facilitate transnational growth. In the economic sphere, the global capitalist system offers a limited place to the wage earning masses in most countries. It has very little need of the subordinate classes in this sphere as sophisticated machines replace human laborers for cost saving and greater profit for capitalists. As John Kenneth Galbraith in Rifkin’s The End of Work (1995) indicates, the global capital system requires scientific minded managers who have specialized talent and can operate sophisticated machines. Unskilled workers and their families become part of an underclass and face permanent unemployment. Meanwhile, the global economy has created an environment in which many large corporations are becoming transnational corporations which bring wealth to both developing and developed countries often by lobbying to their governments so as to gain access to these developing countries. The governments of developing countries are jeopardizing their own legitimacy to cultivate an inviting environment for the private sector. While the global capital system provides resources for economic development, the global capitals’ desires for low prices and high dividends result in child labor, environmental destruction and the expropriation of land and resources from local communities including indigenous people. In the culture-ideology sphere, the aim of global capitalists is to persuade all classes, especially the working middle-classes, to consume above their biological needs for pursuit of capitalists’ profit, which will ensure the belief that global capitalist system will be perpetuated. The cultural ideology of transnational growth proclaims that the meaning of life can be found in the things that we possess. To consume, therefore, is to be fully alive, and to remain fully alive people must continuously consume. Moreover, the notions of men and women as economic or political beings are discarded by global capitalism as the system does not even pretend to satisfy everyone in the economic or political spheres. Their value to society is determined by what they can afford to purchase. Therefore, people primarily become consumers rather than citizens. The point of economic activity for working middle-class of the global capitalist system is to provide the resources for consumption to create the â€Å"global shoppers,† and the point of political activity is to ensure that the conditions for consuming are maintained. The advancement of the internet and technology has hastened the reduction of trade barriers and the increment of the â€Å"global shoppers. † According to Chomsky (2003), mass media overwhelmingly corporate and embraces the values of corporate leaders. Moreover, the major media outlets are linked in huge media chains, with many of these conglomerates owned by transnational corporations. Corporate control is further solidified by advertising paid in dollars to the media by corporations. Thus, the mass media consistently supports globalization, neo-liberalism, and the politicians who push these corporate agendas. Transnational marketing such as TV commercials, billboards, etc. are forced on the world’s middle-class consumers. Transnational corporations, such as Disney, heavily market their American pop culture products. By selling the same thing, the same way, everywhere with little or no reference to local cultural differences, transnational corporations has homogenized world culture. Analysis of the Case Robert Granfield’s article helps one to understand ‘global system theory’ as a whole. For the most part, Granfield’s discussion on how working class students adapt in the academic environment dominated by upper class law students gives us a brief but useful overview of how working class students attempt to join the remainder of the upper class of the workforce. The startling irony is that while Granfield espouses the idea that working class law students can blend well with their environment which is presumed to give much preference to upper class students by ‘faking it’ or by posing as one of the upper class, global system theory on the other hand implies that there is no substantial place for these working class students especially in the workforce. This is because the lower classes of the society or the working force comprising the bulk of the lower hierarchy, have already been replaced by sophisticated machines. Hence, manpower or physical labor becomes confined to those individuals who have sufficient learning to operate these sophisticated machines. If this is indeed the case, then it must also be the case that global system theory also espouses the presumption that the disparity between the highest and the lowest ranks of the social hierarchy grows parallel to the pace of global capitalism. But Granfield suggests that the working class students have the ability to ‘fake it’ which may also suggest the probability that even the individuals from the lower ranks can also make it to the bulk of the workforce able to operate the sophisticated machineries of the contemporary world. Nevertheless, the totality of the global workforce remains to this day comprised of a large number of working class citizens who fall at the median of the social hierarchy, notwithstanding children or minors who work which leads us to the next point. In Hays’ â€Å"The Ideology of Intensive Mothering: A Cultural Analysis of the Bestselling Gurus of Appropriate Childbearing†, we are given the presumption that children should be given the sufficient care and attention. This includes the idea that children or minors are not individuals who are expected to literally work whether in offices or factories. However, the opposite is true especially among nations below the poverty line or less-developed third-world countries. It is estimated that around 250 million children are under what we call â€Å"child labor† according to the statistics provided by Think Quest, an online database providing global child labor information (Think Quest, 2007). If global system theory is indeed true, then there would be little reason to believe that there is child labor among the less-developed countries where capitalism is beginning to grow its roots since children have very little knowledge on the use of sophisticated machines intended to replace the workers who handle the basics of the tasks in the corporations, for instance. But the case is that 250 million children work across the globe, which prompts us to question the claims of global system theory. On the other hand, global system theory may respond to this criticism by stating that the replacement of manpower with sophisticated machineries is only true for those transnational corporations operating in developed countries. Part of the reason to this is the idea that underdeveloped countries are not suitable locations for transnational corporate ventures largely because developed nations have what it takes for global capitalism—a strong and sustained demand for the goods and services being offered by these corporations. Webb’s article â€Å"A Crowded Family Enters the Space Age† reiterates the presumption that the family has its roles in nurturing its members which partially relates to Hay’s article that children should be nurtured and protected and should be treated as economic assets especially in terms of manpower or a part of the work force. The fact that Webb implies the idea that there are parental responsibilities towards the needs of the family especially of the children at least in terms of a suitable place to live point us to the idea that children or minors should be nurtured and cared for instead of being treated as members of the working class whether or not parents are able to provide for their needs. Ultimately, this brings us to the understanding that the decline of the nation-state as espoused by global systems theory is not fully achieved precisely because the basic unit of the society or of the nation-states for that matter—the family—reinforces the entirety of the nation-state by sustaining its integrity as a functional basic unit able to maintain its internal status. Conclusion In the end, global systems theory may not necessarily apply to the broadest range of nations, from developed to the developing and less-developed precisely because these nations have differences although similarities may also be noted. The presumption that the family remains a cohesive force in the society may substantially refute the claim that the nation-state is dissolving. Nevertheless, there are certain arguments of global systems theory that remains to this day a force with grains of truth in it. Apart from the fact that sophisticated machineries have slowly replaced the manpower of the working and lower classes of the society, capitalism has been reinforced by the expansion of transnational corporations worldwide. Works Cited Chomsky, Noam. Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies. House of Anansi Press, 2003. 1-20. Dobbing, Murray. The Myth of the Good Corporate Citizen: Democracy under the Rule of Big Business. Stoddart, 1998. 49-60. Hawken, Paul. The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability. 1st ed: Harper Business, 1993. 1-17. Rifkin, Jeremy. The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era. G. P. Putnams Sons, 1995. 3-14. Think Quest, http://library. thinkquest. org/03oct/01908/800/whatisit_childlabor. htm, December 4, 2007.

Narrative Essay Example for Free

Narrative Essay CALTEX FUEL POINTE SERVICE STATION Sto. Nino, Gapan city, Nueva Ecija In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Course Bachelor of Science in Information Technology Presented by: Mr. Kevin M. Sesbreno B. S. Information Technology Presented to: Mrs. April A. Atendido OJT Coordinator Republic of the Philippines NUEVA ECIJA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE amp; TECHNOLOGY San Leonardo Academic Extension Campus NARATIVE REPORT ON ON THE JOB TRAINING AT CALTEX FUEL POINTE SERVICE STATION Sto. Nino, Gapan city, Nueva Ecija In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Course Bachelor of Science in Information Technology Presented by: Mr. Emmanuel P. Garcia Mr. Kevin M. Sesbreno B. S. Information Technology Presented to: Mrs. April A. Atendido OJT Coordinator TABLE OF CONTENTS * Approval Sheet * Acknowledgement * Dedication I. INTRODUCTION a. Objectives of OJT b. Industrial Linkages amp; Coordination Office (Philosophy, Mission amp; Goals) II. The Training Agency / Company Profile a. Company Philosophy (Mission, Vision, Goals amp; Mandate) b. History (Company Background) III. Company Organization a. Organizational Structure b. Profiles of the Company c. Function of the Company d. Programs amp; Initiatives e. Expected Benefits IV. Experience Evaluation a. OJT Experience b. Insights Problems Encountered Suggestions amp; Recommendation V. APPENDICES a. Daily Time Record b. Weekly Report c. Evaluation d. Pictorials e. Certificate of Completion f. Author’s Data Republic of the Philippines NUEVA ECIJA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY San Leonardo Academic Extension Campus San Leonardo, Nueva Ecija APPROVAL SHEET In partial fulfillment of the requirements in this NARRATIVE REPORT ON ON – THE – JOB TRAINING for the Degree of Bachelor of Science in Information Technology has been prepared and submitted by EMMANUEL P. GARCIA. Recommended By: MRS. Lorna G. Flores Trainor Accepted and Approved as partial fulfillment of the requirements in the course BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, with rating of MRS. APRIL A. ATENDIDO OJT 1 Coordinator DATE OF APPROVAL: Republic of the Philippines NUEVA ECIJA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY San Leonardo Academic Extension Campus San Leonardo, Nueva Ecija APPROVAL SHEET In partial fulfillment of the requirements in this NARRATIVE REPORT ON ON – THE – JOB TRAINING for the Degree of Bachelor of Science in Information Technology has been prepared and submitted by KEVIN M. SESBRENO. Recommended By: MRS. Lorna G. Flores Trainor Accepted and Approved as partial fulfillment of the requirements in the course BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, with rating of MRS. APRIL A. ATENDIDO OJT 1 Coordinator DATE OF APPROVAL: ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We like to acknowledge the almighty GOD who gave us wisdom and intellectual capacity to let this work be of reality. We want to thank GOD for His guidance, help and protecting us from the first day of my OJT up to the last day, and for giving us strength in everyday just to fulfill this program. Secondly, we would like to acknowledge Caltex Fuel Pointe Service Station for accepting us as there ON-THE-JOB TRAINEE. For giving us chance to experience how to work in their company, and we want to thank also the manager, employees, cashier, security guard for giving me as sort of advice regarding the work that we experienced, for the knowledge that we gained when we worked with them as an OJT TRAINEE. We also wish to acknowledge the following person who helped us to finish/fulfill this program. We would like to thank all people who have helped and inspired us during my on-the-job training. We would like to thank our parents Eric Garcia and Ma. Theresa Sesbreno for their  guidance, concern and understanding and love and care that strongly encourage us in the fulfillment of the desired task. To our Aunt Lorna G. Flores for guiding us and for untiring appreciation. DEDICATION This narrative report is dedicated to our Almighty GOD for His guidance, helped and protecting us up to the beginning of our OJT up to the end of it. We personally dedicate this narrative to our family for their support, effort, moral encouragement, and for supporting us financially just to finish this program, it is dedicated to them because they served as our inspiration to finish this program. And to give our best in OJT. Lastly, we dedicate this narrative report especially to ourselves because we know we gave all our effort and time to finish this program. This work is dedicated to our girlfriend, Hazel S. Odono and Jessie Anne Lafina without their caring support it would not have been possible, and to the effort of our parents, Mr. amp; Mrs. Garcia and Mr. amp; Mrs. Sesbreno just to fulfill this program. I. INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION On the job training or OJT is one method by which students is given a chance to apply the theories and computations that they have learned from the school. It also helps the students to acquire relevant knowledge and skills by performing in actual work setting. Colleges and universities require their students to undergo such training within a specific number of hours as part of the curriculum. For the students, an OJT or internship program provides opportunities to go through the actual methodologies of a specific job using the real tools, equipments and documents. In effect, the workplace becomes a development venue for a student trainee to learn more about his chosen field and practice what he has learn from academy. On the other hand, an effective OJT program also benefits the companies who accept trainees. First OJT or intern provides additional manpower for a lesser labor cost than a regular employee. Most of them are all eager to learn the ropes so chances are high that they will cooperate. Employers can use this internship strategy as a method in recruiting new employees. Since the trainer or the supervisor can follow the trainees’ progress, he can gauge based on performance, behavior and attitude if the trainee will make a good recruit after the completion of his internship. This study examines an early element of federal job training policy implementation the job training plan in order to assess its effect on the fulfillment of federal policy goals. OBJECTIVES OF OJT PURPOSE This is exciting time for me to have an ON THE JOB TRAINING that will allow individuals to learn the knowledge and skills they have been hired to do. OBJECTIVES 1. To provide students the opportunity to promote and broaden her/his philosophy and understanding of the chosen profession. 2. To provide the OJT students the opportunity to integrate theory and practice in his/her professional educations, to encourage the exchange of contemporary thinking between the apprenticeship and the agency and the agency personnel. 3. To enable OJT students to obtain information which can be used as basis for making choices and relation to future careers, areas of specialization, and or for their study. 4. To provide students opportunity to gain experience, supervisory, and administrative function. 5. To enable student- trainee to realize his/her own strength and weaknesses. 6. To help students being an understanding and appreciation of the role duties, responsibilities of a full time professional. 7. To provide student-trainee with experience that will enable him/her to develop sound human relation. 8. To strengthen relationship between the cooperation agency and university. INDUSTRIAL LINKAGES AND COORDINATION PHILOSOPHY Industrial Linkages and Coordination shall be committed to the philosophy of training and molding highly motivated industrial workers who shall be responsible for the development of the country future middle level manpower to spur the economy. MISSION To provide access to relevant and comprehensive industrial training program for the students to enhance technical competence and ensure job placement. GOAL To provide quality training and proper skills, work attitude and knowledge to prospective student trainees in different degree and non degree programs of the university. IV. EXPERIENCE EVALUATION ON-THE-JOB TRAINING EXPERIENCE With almost two months of our OJT in Fuel Pointe Caltex Service Station, we have gained a lot of experience involving to real job situation. The staffs and bosses of F. P. C. S. S, treat us as nice as one of them. They elped us with the things that we must learn about their station as well as the company. In our training we used to arrange and manage records manually. We also encode some records like the total daily sales oil and gas weekly report. Compute the meters of every pump reading. We are so thankful with this opportunity to work with them as a trainee because we have applied and developed us to lear n how to deal with problems that we may encounter with our future job. During our ON-THE-JOB-TRAINING in Fuel Pointe Caltex Service Station, there was no considerable problem in our place assignment. The problems that arise are mostly because we not used to working in that environment. Some of these are; At first, we had lack of self confidence and hard time searching the right approach on our supervisor although they all show kindness to us. We are not consistent on our early attendance, sometimes we got late which is not a good thing about a real job situation. But up to the end of our ON-THE-JOB TRAINING we feel fulfilled and contented with all the knowledge and experience that we have gained of course with all the helped of our good LORD. AUTHORS DATA Name:Emmanuel P. Garcia Age:18 Address:134 Burgos St. San Leonardo, Nueva Ecija Birthday:December 18, 1994 Contact number:0926-600-3350 Father:Eric V. Garcia Mother:Valerie P. Garcia Course: BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology San Leonardo Academic Extension Campus AUTHORS DATA Name:Kevin M. Sesbreno Age:18 Address:153 Burgos St. San Leonardo, Nueva Ecija Birthday:July 25, 1994 Contact number:0935-797-3235 Father:Rico G. Sesbreno Mother:Ma. Theresa M. Sesbreno Course: BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology San Leonardo Academic Extension Campus

Modified Insertion Sort Algorithm: Binary Search Technique

Modified Insertion Sort Algorithm: Binary Search Technique Modified Insertion Sort Algorithm with Binary Search Technique: Application to Ranking of Images Retrieved by CBIR M. K. I. Rahmani M. A. Ansari Abstract—Due to the abundance of the high quality digital images in image repositories of very huge size on the ever growing Internet by enterprise houses, research institutions, medical healthcare organizations and academic institutions etc., finding a set of useful images from those image repositories with better precision and recall is a difficult task. Content Based Image Retrieval is a very efficient technology for retrieval of digital images from those databases. The process of image retrieval through CBIR has various phases like: Image segmentation, Feature extraction, Indexing, Clustering, Image matching through similarity measurement and Ranking of retrieved images through ordering them according to similarity value. The performance of a Content Based Image Retrieval system can be improved by improving the performance of some or all of these phases through designing better algorithms. Ranking of the Image data is very important to display the desired images to the in tended users. Images are retrieved according to the matching criteria was involved in the retrieval process. Retrieved images are ordered before they are displayed. For this ranking of the retrieved images are obtained through some easy and efficient sorting algorithm. Insertion sort is one of such algorithms but it is slow because of sequential search technique used to find the actual position of the next key element into the sorted portion of data. In this paper we have modified the insertion sort algorithm by using a novel technique of using binary search mechanism for finding the sorted location of the next key item into the previously sorted portion of the data quicker than conventional insertion sort algorithm. Performance on running time of the new algorithm has been compared with those of other conventional sorting algorithms. The results obtained on image matching parameter show that the new algorithm is better in performance than the conventional insertion sort and merge s ort algorithms. Performance of this algorithm is comparable to that of quick sort. Consequently, the new algorithm will improve the overall performance of Content Based Image Retrieval systems. Index Terms—Algorithm, Binary search, Sequential search, Insertion sort, Rahmani sort, Ranking, Image Ranking I. INTRODUCTION Many improvements have been introduced in searching and sorting algorithms during the last decade. Sorting is the process of arranging the elements in some ordered sequence which can be either in ascending, descending or lexicographic order [1]. Searching is the technique of finding the location of a key element or item in a database or a file. It is estimated that more than 25% of all computing time is spent on sorting the keys and some installations spending more than 50% of their computing time in sorting files [2]. As a matter of fact there has been done much research on the topic of sorting searching [3]. But there is not a single sorting technique which can be considered the best among the rest [2]. Bubble sort, selection sort and exchange sort are applicable for small input size, insertion sort for medium input size whereas quick sort, merge sort and heap sort are applicable for an application expecting large to huge data size [4, 5, 6]. All of the above sorting algorithms are comparison based algorithms and hence can be no faster than O(nlog2n) [5, 6], where O and n have their usual meanings. In this paper a new enhanced sorting algorithm has been introduced which shows more efficiency than the insertion sort and other sorting algorithms like bubble sort, quick sort and merge sort. The technique used for the enhancement in insertion sort is application of improved binary search, adapted from binary search, through which the location of the next element to be placed in the sorted left sub array can be found more quickly than the conventional sequential search used to find that location. The entire paper is organised in the following manner. In section II, the step by step method of the insertion sort is explained after some background work related to sorting technique. The other sorting algorithms like merge sort and quick sort are explained in section III. The new sorting algorithm, Rahmani sort is introduced and discussed in section IV. The analysis of Rahmani sort is done in section V. Results and comparison of performance of various sorting algorithms have been discussed in tabular forms in section VI along with the graphical description of the performance of various sorting algorithms. Finally the conclusions have been drawn and future scope of the research is mentioned in the section VII. Sorting Sorting is a process of arranging the available data items into an ordered sequence. The known ordered sequences have been increasing order, decreasing order, non-increasing order, non-decreasing order and lexicographic order. The process of sorting is applied to a collection of items prior to any such operation which may consume more time and/or space if applied without prior sorting. Definition of Sorting Formally a sorting technique can be defined based on partial order relation. The definition of partial order is given as below. Definition 1. Let R be a relation on a set S. For a, b, c à Ã¢â‚¬Å¾ S, if R is: a) Reflexive, i.e. aRa for every a à Ã¢â‚¬Å¾ S; b) Transitive, i.e. aRb ∠§ bRc ⇒ aRc; and c) Antisymmetric, i.e. aRb ∠§ bRa ⇒ a = b, then, R is a partial order on set S. Sorting is generally defined as an arrangement of a list of randomly input data by their key or themselves into a partial order R, where R implies ≠¤ particularly. Definition 2. For N elements a(1), a(2), , a(N) à Ã¢â‚¬Å¾ S, sorting is a rearrangement of the elements in order to obtain a partial order a(si) R a(si+1) for ∀si, 1 ≠¤ si a(s1) ≠¤ a(s2) ≠¤ , , ≠¤ a(si) ≠¤ , , ≠¤ a(sN) Importance of sorting in computation There are two direct applications of sorting: first as an aid for searching and second as a tool to match entries in files. Broad areas of application of sorting fall in the solution of many other more complex problems, from database systems, networking, MIS, operations research and optimization problems. Sorting algorithm is one of the most fundamental techniques in computer science because of the following reasons. First, it is the basis of many other algorithms such as searching, pattern matching, information retrieval, knowledge based systems, digital filters, database systems, data statistics and processing, data warehousing, and data communications [1]. Second, it plays an important role in the teaching of design and analysis of algorithms, programming methodology, data structures and programming. Furthermore, it is a very challenging problem which has been widely and thoroughly studied [19-24]; the performance is dramatically improved [25-30] and considered the lower-bound of complexity has been reached [19, 20, 29, 30]. It is estimated that over 25% of all computing time is spent on sorting with some installations spending more than 50% of their computing time in sorting files. Consequently, study of sorting algorithms has great importance in the field of computing. A good knack of comprehension of the theoretical intricacies involved in the design and analysis of the underlying sorting algorithm is very much expected of a person who needs to implement the algorithm in real life applications. A Need of Sorting Algorithm with Reduced Complexity Unfortunately, there is no any single sorting technique which may be called the best among the rest. Bubble sort, insertion sort, selection sort and exchange sort are applicable for input data of small to medium size whereas quick sort, merge sort and heap sort are applicable for an application expecting large to huge data size. These sorting algorithms are caparison based and hence can be no faster than O (n log n). There are a few algorithms claiming to run in linear time but for specialized case of input data. So, there is an urgent need of a new sorting algorithm which may be implemented for all input data and it may also beat the lower bound (O (n log n)) of the problem of sorting. This work is an effort in that direction. What is a sorting algorithm? Sorting is a process of arranging the available data items into an ordered sequence. A sorting algorithm is a set of steps arranged in a particular sequence that puts the available data items into a certain order. The well-known ordered sequences have been increasing order, decreasing order, non-increasing order, non-decreasing order and lexicographic order. An efficient sorting mechanism is important to optimizing the design of other algorithms that require sorted data items to work correctly. Well-known ordered sequences Let r1, r2, r3, †¦ rn, be n number of input data items. Then any one of the following conditions must be satisfied for the input data items to be in a sorted sequence. Increasing order: For all 1 à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ £ i à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ £ n, ri à ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¼ ri+1. Decreasing order: For all 1 à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ £ i à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ £ n, ri à ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¾ ri+1. Non-decreasing order: For all 1 à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ £ i à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ £ n, ri à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ £ ri+1. Non-increasing order: For all 1 à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ £ i à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ £ n, ri à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ³ ri+1. Lexicographic order: This is the order in which all the words of the English language are arranged in a dictionary. II. Background Work A. Basic Concepts Sorting [1] is a process of rearranging the available data items into an ordered sequence. An ordered sequence can be any one of the known ordered sequences: increasing order, decreasing order, non-increasing order, non-decreasing order or lexicographic order [2]. A sorting algorithm is a set of steps arranged in a particular sequence that puts the available data items into a certain order. An efficient sorting technique is important to optimize the design of other algorithms that would need sorted key items to work properly and efficiently. For an application, a sorting algorithm is selected according to its computational complexity and ease of implementation. For a typical sorting algorithm ideal behavior is O(n), good behavior is O(n logn) and bad behavior is O(n ²) [1, 2]. The lower bound of time complexity of sorting algorithms using only comparison operation keys is O(n logn) [5, 6]. A sorting algorithm is easier to implement if its number of passes and the number of comparisons along with the actual number of swaps required to be performed can be easily predicted. Efficiency of the algorithm can be improved whenever it becomes possible to reduce the number of comparisons along with the actual number of swaps required to be performed. B. Classical Insertion Sort Algorithm This approach is based on the natural technique of sorting in day to day life by the human beings. Insertion sort is the simple sorting algorithm used in computation for the medium size data items or files. In the classical insertion sort approach the sorting of array elements is performed by inserting each element into its proper position in the previously sorted array. Insertion sort is considered to be faster than bubble sort and selection sort. It is very suitable algorithm for implementation using linked lists though its array implementation is more popular. C. The procedure The array is considered to be logically partitioned into two parts namely the first part and the second part. The first logical part has to be remained sorted always. Initially the first part is having only one element which is the first element of the input array and the second part comprises the rest of the input array. In the beginning, first part is automatically sorted because a single element is sorted by the definition of sorting. In each pass of the algorithm, the first element of the second part is separated from it before it is inserted into the first part’s proper position so that after its insertion the first part remains sorted. Before the start of the last pass of insertion sort, there is only one element remaining in the second part of the array, which is inserted into a proper position of the first part of the array and then the algorithm terminates. Shifting of elements may be required before we insert the current element in its sorted position. Shift operatio ns cost the most in array implementation of insertion sort. A formal description of Insertion sort algorithm InsertionSort (a, n) ‘a’ is an array of size ‘n’ starting at position 1; elements of ‘a’ will be sorted on termination. 1 for j ↠ 2 to n do 2 key ↠ a[j] 3 i ↠ j 1 4 while i > 0 and a[i] > key do 5 a[i+1] ↠ a[i] 6 i ↠ i-1 7 a[i+1] ↠ key Time complexity of Insertion sort is O(n2) and space complexity is O(n). Performance of insertion sort can be improved by quickly finding the location of an element and then by minimizing the number of shift operations required to be performed in its each iteration. Working of Insertion Sort algorithm Fig. 1 The operation of Insertion Sort on the array A = (14, 8, 20, 4, 6, 1) III. Other Sorting Techniques A. Merge Sort Merge sort is based on divide and conquer paradigm. The elements which are to be sorted are collected into an array. This array is divided into two sub arrays of almost equal sizes in top-down manner. Each one of the two sub arrays are again divided into their two constituent sub arrays of almost equal sizes respectively. This division process of the newly formed sub arrays will continue unless their size becomes unity. At size of unity, first of all, the sub array cannot be further divided and secondly the single element in the sub array is sorted, by the definition of sorting. After the last stage of division process, when all newly formed sub arrays are of unit size, the merging of the relevant unsorted sub arrays starts taking place in bottom-up manner with a view to form a sorted sub array (which was previously unsorted) for the next stage. The process of merging continues in the same manner unless the original array gets sorted. While division is a trivial job, the algorithm has to do the most critical job while merging the unsorted sub arrays into a sorted one. Time complexity of the Merge sort algorithm is ÃŽËœ(n logn) which is optimal. The major benefit of Merge sort is its stability and ease of implementation. The drawback associated with this algorithm is additional space requirement of ÃŽËœ(n) for the auxiliary array. B. Quick Sort Quick sort is also based on divide and conquer principle. Quick sort works by partitioning a given array A[p . . r] into two sub arrays A[p . . q] and A[q+1 . . r] such that every key in A[p . . q] is less than or equal to every key in A[q+1 . . r]. Then the two sub arrays are sorted through recursive calls to Quick sort. The exact position of the partition depends on the given array and index ‘q’ is computed as a part of the partitioning process. The main advantages of Quick sort is that it only uses an auxiliary stack and requires only n logn time to sort n items. The drawback associated with this algorithm is that it requires quadratic (i.e. n2) times in worst case. In this case, the situation can be simply overlooked by mistake and hence may cause serious problems. IV. Rahmani Sort Algorithm A. The Concept In the classical insertion sort, we place the first element from the second logical sub array into a proper position of the previously sorted first logical sub array. But while finding the proper position of the element to be inserted, in the left sub array, a simple linear search approach is used which has a time complexity of O(n). Even this linear time complexity of searching the proper location of the element to be inserted may be quite considerable. That is why insertion sort is not a suitable sorting algorithm for sorting large number of elements. So, by improving the search procedure adopted in insertion sort algorithm, somehow or the other, the performance of insertion sort can be improved. The proposed new sorting algorithm called Rahmani sort algorithm is based on the new concept of inserting the first element of unsorted sub array into the sorted position of the sorted sub array. The classical Insertion sort takes O(n2) time. Rahmani sort algorithm is enhancement of Insertion sort by decreasing the time of finding the position of the new element in the sorted sub array. In the following sub section the differences between the Insertion sort and the Rahmani sort are being discussed. B. The Procedure The procedure of Rahmani sort for arranging the input array in ascending order is being describes as below: C. The Algorithm Rahmani Sort is comprising of two sub algorithms, one is RahmaniSort(a, n) and another one is iBinary(a, lower, upper, mid). Here, a = Array of key items to be sorted. n = Total number of elements in the array ‘a’. lower = Lower index of the array ‘a’. upper = Upper index of the array ‘a’. mid = Middle index of the array ‘a’. Algorithm for Rahmani Sort RahmaniSort(a, n) 1 for i ↠ 2 to n do 2 temp ↠ a[i] 3 j ↠ iBinary(a, 0, i – 1, temp) 4 while i > j do 5 a[i] ↠ a[i – 1] 6 i ↠ i – 1 7 a[j] ↠ temp 8 return In the above algorithm, the element would be inserted in its proper position in the left sub array after shifting the rest of the array to the right side by one position. The iBinarySearch algorithm below above is used for finding the position of the largest element which is less than the key element stored in ‘temp’. After finding this position, each element of the sub array from this position onwards will be shifted to the right by one position. The shifting will start from the right hand side. Algorithm for Improved Binary Search iBinary(a, lower, upper, temp) 1 flag ↠ 0 2 loc ↠ 0 3 mid ↠ (lower + upper)/2 4 repeat while lower 5 mid ↠ (lower + upper)/2 6 if mid = a[mid] then 7 loc ↠ mid + 1 8 flag ↠1 9 if mid 10 upper ↠ mid – 1 11 else 12 lower ↠ mid + 1 13 if flag = 0 then 14 return lower 15 else 16 return loc à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºÃƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ This paragraph of the first footnote will contain the date on which you submitted your paper for review. It will also contain support information, including sponsor and financial support acknowledgment. For example, â€Å"This work was supported in part by the U.S. Depart ­ment of Com ­merce under Grant BS123456†. The next few paragraphs should contain the authors’ current affiliations, including current address and e-mail. For example, F. A. Author is with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO 80305 USA (e-mail: [emailprotected] boulder.nist.gov). S. B. Author, Jr., was with Rice University, Houston, TX 77005 USA. He is now with the Department of Physics, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523 USA (e-mail: [emailprotected]).

Grapes of Wrath :: essays research papers

The Grapes of Wrath   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In The Grapes of Wrath the author John Steinbeck describes the life of a migrant family who must leave their land in Oklahoma in order to find work in California. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck clearly expresses that Nature and Man are one. The family is known as the Joads and they later come to realize that fear is not only for themselves but for the sake of the people in the world. The author makes these thoughts known through the different characters in the novel.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In this book Tom Joad is the main character. He starts off just finishing prison for killing a man and feels he is just going to take it easy and be careful. In the beginning he comes off as if he feels no remorse for his crime and hopes to find what he wants and needs. Tom also is portrayed as if he doesn’t take any mess and one in mostly independent. During his spare time he came to the agreement with himself that one must set their personal concerns aside and have peace with one another. Another character is known as Jim Casy. He is a preacher but quite different than normal preachers. He preaches the Emersonian doctrine of the Over soul. For instance he feels that a man’s soul is breaking away from some larger soul and in death this individual soul is reunited with the larger Over soul. This belief by Casy helps him come to see that this is the only way for the migrants to succeed as a whole. Jim also inspires others to do whats right and see life from a different perspective.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Rose of Sharon is portrayed as ill girl who is pregnant and waiting to give birth at any point in time. She comes off as having a bad-tempered and always complaining. Her family is in Great Peril but she only fears if it affects her baby.

Atkins and Low Carbohydrate Diets: Not the Optimal Method of Weight Loss :: Health Nutrition Diet Exercise Essays

Atkins and Low Carbohydrate Diets: Not the Optimal Method of Weight Loss In the help of today’s society where looks seem to matter more than personality, different types of diets quickly became popular. In the year 2003 to 2004 the Atkins Diet reached its peak, from its wide advertising to its celebrity connections an increasing amount of Americans focus their interest on this unusual way of losing weight. The Atkins Diet was introduced by Dr. Robert Atkins in 1972. Its purpose is to make a person loose weight by eating foods that are high in protein and lessening foods that are high in carbohydrates. When a person eats foods that are high in carbohydrates, it produces a high amount of insulin which causes the body to quickly change food into body fat. On the other hand, when the body generates low carbohydrates it produces low insulin and this causes the body to search other areas for fuel, which is fat. And when the body does not have energy source that comes from carbohydrates it will turn to another resource which is fat to burn energy. So in other words, the Atkins Diet is stating that you can eat as much food that contains fats and proteins which are mainly steak, eggs and all the other foods that are taught to be unhealthy. Therefore, one question seems to be always asked when talking about the Atkins Diet. Does it work? Low carbohydrate diets have been very controversial because it does not follow the food pyramid and many Americans are puzzled by this idea. But countless people are trying it because of the idea that you can eat large amounts of good tasting foods and still be able to loose weight. There are also other advantages such as sleeping better, no headaches as well as no joint and muscular pains. Weight loss in the Atkins Diet is also rapid compared to the conventional way of loosing weight where carbohydrates are stated to stimulate a person’s appetite that triggers to more eating which can cause breaking the rules and longer time to see results. Many believe that the Atkins Diet is too good to be true and wants to be informed of the bad side of this well known diet. With its focus on fatty foods and meats, medical experts find the Atkins to be unsafe because it limits a person from eating nutrient rich foods.

Indira Gandhi Essay

The period in history usually considered to have begun with the first use of the atomic bomb (1945). It is characterized by nuclear energy as a military, industrial, and sociopolitical factor.Also called atomic age. The Nuclear Age Began When The US Detonated The First Atomic Bomb On June 16, 1945, America detonated the first atomic bomb, starting the atomic age and the biggest arms race in the world. Although the first attempts to make atomic bomb initiated in Nazi Germany they weren’t successful until the US president Franklin D. Roosevelt in cooperation with the British government authorized the â€Å"Manhattan Project† in order to research about production of atomic bomb. A group of top scientists of the time worked for the project with the distinguished physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer being the head of the group. They succeeded to make the first atomic bomb in the US which was detonated in what is now called Trinity in New Mexico. Perhaps at first it was believed that the US would not use that lethal weapon against the mankind but soon people of two big cities in Japan fell victim to America’s atomic bombs. On August 6, 1945, a bomber in US Air Force 509th Bomb Squadron called Enola Gay- which is now kept in a museum in Washington- left a US base in the south of Pacific Ocean and detonated an atomic bomb named â€Å"Little Boy† over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The direct and the indirect death toll caused by this bombardment are estimated to exceed 140,000. This however was not the end as three days after Hiroshima bombing, another atomic bomb, called the â€Å"Fat Man† killed 73,000 and injured 74,000 people in Nagasaki, Japan, not including those who later were found to be the victims of the bombing. Of course there was another bomb made in the Manhattan Project which was never used. Oppenheimer regretted his participation in the Manhattan project after a while and began to speak against nuclear arms, and thus was removed from the project. His regret was of no use though. The Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb on August 29, 1949, with the help of Oppenheime r’s friend, Klaus Fuchs. To keep its superiority in the arms race, the US began the research for making hydrogen bombs and could successfully detonate it in November, 1952. No country has so far used nuclear arms for military purposes except for the US. There is however concerns over some countries possessing nuclear arms, especially as some of them have refused to sign the Non-Proliferation of  Nuclear Weapons Treaty (NPT). â€Å"[Until September 9, 2009] there are over 20,000 nuclear weapons around the world. Many of them are still on hair-trigger alert, threatening our own survival,† said Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, in the Annual DPI/NGO Conference. 18,500 of these bombs were made by the US and Russia. All five permanent members of the UN Security Council –America, France, Russia, China, and Britain- have atomic bombs and have been recognized as nuclear powers in the NPT. The NPT recognizes the countries that owned or detonated nuclear bombs or arms before January 1, 1967 on the condition that they would gradually be disarmed and destroy all their atomic bombs. The museum sketches the history of the nuclear age, which started with the first atomic bomb test in the New Mexico desert in 1945. For a hundred years of war, culminating in the nuclear age, military technology was designed and deployed to inflict casualties on an ever-growing scale.

Uses of Computer in Field of Business Essay

Computer in business: Information Technology (IT) has played a very significant role in taking business to new height. Before computers, the time taken to complete a task was more and however as computer started to be used in business establishments, the processing of work got more stabilized. Some of its uses in the field of business are given below: Keeping records: Computer programs such as QuickBooks and other accounting programs to allow business to keep detailed records. These programs track accounts payable, accounts receivable and sales. They also provide a easy and quick way for a business to send invoices to customers and handle payroll functions. Back office productivity and accuracy can increase greatly when using an accounting program. Budgeting and Forecasting : Computers can be used to prepare budgets and corporate forecasts, inexpensive accounting programs allow even people with limited computer knowledge to develop detailed budgets that will help to keep the company on track. They can also be used to forecasts future sales and business expansions. Spreadsheet program such as excel can also be used for budgeting and forecasting. Inventory Control and Management: Inventory control and management Is a crucial process , especially in establishments related to retail and production, such as details of good, goods coming in distribution of stock and storage details. Preparing Marketing Documents: There are wide varieties of programs that allow businesses to easily prepare dynamic marketing documents. Word for documentation, Spreadsheets for storing large data, Adobe Photoshop provides eye catching customs. E- Commerce: E commerce(electronic commerce) describes the buying, selling and exchanging of products services and information via computer networks there are many applications of e commerce such as: Electronic mail: A service of transporting text messages, videos and audios from one computer to another via internet. Electronic shopping: it allows businesses and internet users to buy goods and services at home, form work and from anywhere in the world. Electronic banking: it helps businesses for transmission of cash from home or on the road using online banking instead of physical bank location Research: The business can use the internet to search its competitors, products and prices by studying their websites. they can also get glimpse on how costumers view their own products by reading their costumer reviews on different websites. Communication: Communication is key when gaining and maintaining clients and other important contacts. Computers give businesses access to email, instant messaging and custom customer contact systems. Computerized phone systems allow for automated support during off hours and a virtual operator can quickly direct callers to the correct department for faster support. Marketing : Computers allow businesses to create websites, stunning ads and complete marketing campaigns. Marketing videos can be edited and custom ads created in-house with the use of specialized software. Businesses can completely develop and manage websites with their own servers or connect remotely to a third-party business to upload their latest content such as articles, product images and blog posts. Storage: Instead of filing cabinets, businesses are able to store millions of files using computers and servers. Data can be stored centrally for easy access from multiple computers or stored locally for individual use. Computerized storage saves space and provides a far more efficient organization strategy. With encryption, passwords and replace keys, data  remains secure. Social issues with the use of computer Computer technology has made several important impacts on our society. Today computer is playing very important role in every field of life. But with thos rapid increase the social issues arising from it are also increasing day by day. Some of its positive issues are given below: Use of computer in a positive way : Business: Today, in global markets, it is impossible to run the business without the use of computer technology.  Many business activities are performed very quickly and  efficiently by using computers. The administrative  paperwork is also reduced by using computers. Many  business use websites to sell their products and contact  their customers. Education: Computers are used in teaching and research. The students can solve different kinds of problems quickly and efficiently by using computers. They can also collect different information on the Internet. Bank: Computers are widely used in banks. They are used in banks for record keeping and maintaining accounts of customers. Most of the banks provide the facility of ATMs. The customers can draw money through ATM card from any branch of that bank (or another bank) at any time of a day. Entertainment: Computers are also playing very important role for the entertainment of human beings. Nowadays, computer can be used to watch television programs on the Internet. People can also watch movies, listen music, and play games on the computer. Many computer games and other entertainment materials of different kinds are available on the Internet. Medical: Nearly every area of the medical field uses computers. For example, computers are used for maintaining patient history & other records. They are also used for patient monitoring and diagnosis of diseases etc. Using Computers In negative Ways: New technology brings with it new opportunities for crime, but in many ways, computers and computer networks have left many open doors for criminal to enter. Some of them are given below: Software theft Software theft costs the software industry an estimated $12 billion a year. Users have an opinion on the ethics of copying software that does not match the publishers and it is not always certain where the law stands on this around the world. Companies are not sure whether copyrights or patents is the best way to protect intellectual property and several look and feel cases have left the issues unresolved.The large question is how to protect intellectual property right without stifling creativity overall. Hacking: Attacks by hackers and computer viruses have cost computer operators a great deal of time and money. Hackers have: broken into computer systems to change exam results (and sometimes grades), disrupted 911 systems, hacked into US military computers sold stolen data to the KGB and blackmailed London banks into hiring them as â€Å"security consultants.† Viruses: Viruses have erased file, damaged disks, and shut down computer systems. The most infamous virus is the Internet worm started by Robert Morris in 1998, tying up 6000 computer systems nationwide. While some people think that hackers are guardians of civil liberties, most legal systems view them as trespassers and vandals. Privacy: Safeguarding privacy in a modern society where so much information about us is public is extremely difficult if not impossible. There have been data disasters involving mistaken identities, data mix-ups, and doctored data which adversely affect people’s lives, including driving and credit records. Aggravating the problem are the issues of calling number identification (CNID or Caller ID) monitoring of e-mail, and data marketing.

His notes

Over the last several years I have been working on and off award an additional degree in Education. I am currently working for the El Paso Independent School District as a classroom instructor, as well as a curriculum writer in US History. I look forward to having you in class. Course Description This course provides an overview of the principal cultural, political, and economic developments that shaped Western civilization from prehistory to the Middle Ages. It presents a framework for understanding current social experience by applying historical perspectives to contemporary issues.After the course, students will be able o use historical knowledge to solve contemporary issues. Policies Faculty and students/learners will be held responsible for understanding and adhering to all policies contained within the following two documents: University policies: You must be logged into the student website to view this document. Instructor policies: This document is posted in the Course Materi als forum. University policies are subject to change. Be sure to read the policies at the beginning of each class. Policies may be slightly different depending on the modality in which you attend class.If you have recently changed modalities, read the policies overriding your current class modality. Course Materials The West: Encounters and Transformations, Combined Volume, e ISBN: 9780205947157 Author: nana Elevate Copyright Pearson Education, Inc. (2014) All electronic materials are available on the student website Week One: Prehistory and the Ancient World Details Due Points Objectives 1. 1 Explain the significance of the transition from the Paleolithic era to the Neolithic era. 1. 2 Compare the cultural, political, and economic developments of Mesopotamia and Egypt.Readings Read Chi. 1 The West: Encounters and Transformations, Combined Volume, e Read Unhistorical: Issue of the Day: From Hunter-gatherers to Food-producers – Overcoming Obstacles Read Unhistorical: Issue of the Day: Geography and Civilization: Egypt and Mesopotamia – Impact of Agriculture? Attendance & Participation Attendance & Participate in class discussion. 8/06 2 Talking Respond to weekly discussion questions. Choose 2 questions to answer and post each week by pm. Week 1 Talking Points What is an important discovery from prehistory? Why is it important?What are the differences between the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras? What is important about the development of human history when we consider the preferences between these two eras? How were the worldviews of the Mesopotamia and Egyptians similar? How were they different? What factors have influenced the way each of these cultures developed their worldviews? What kind of evidence do we have in order to comprehend prehistory and the ancient civilizations? Does the evidence offer a clear picture of these time periods? Why or why not? Which era of Egyptian history was the most successful?Why? Individual Prehistory and the Ancie nt Civilizations Write a 700- to 1,050-word paper in which you explain the significance of the ruinations of humankind from a hunter-gatherer society to a food-producing society. Include the following: A description of the Paleolithic era Events that transformed society from the Paleolithic era to the Neolithic era A description of Neolithic era An explanation of how the transition from Paleolithic to Neolithic was significant in the development of Mesopotamia and Egypt Format your paper consistent with PAP guidelines.Galoshes (before 2000 BCC)-?Earliest known fully-developed literary character )d First written language on cuneiform clay tablets )e Elaborate art work, mosaics (Standard of Our) )f First systematic polytheistic religion 01 Sights: goddess of love, fertility, and wars 02 Elaborate temple rituals in auguries 03 Religion in Sumerian Oh Sacred literature b Influence on Hebrew Bible )g Babylon under reign of Hamburg (1792-1750 BCC) – powerful cultural and political center 01 Code of Hamburg Oh Collection of laws b Earliest evidence of legal system Co Guarantees protection of slaves, women, and childrenOdd Governs complex Babylonian commerce system Oh Principle of Justice is retribution 02 Advancements in mathematics and astronomy 03 Jargon, king of Kodak – Most important figure in Mesopotamia history )2 Political and economic developments of Mesopotamia )a Several dynasties develop concept of monarchy )b Assyria (northern district of Sumerian)-?kings are chief priests )c Babylonian-?kings and priests have separate offices )d In later stages, influx and intermingling of various cultures, such as Hitters and Assyrian )e Expansion into Asia Minor, Syria, Persia, Palestine, and Egypt under

Succubus on Top CHAPTER 6

One thing about working in a bookstore is you have immediate access to print media: Nocturnal Admission is a treat for the senses, one of those rare jewels that emerges from the dark obscurity of small clubs and restaurants. Of course, after last night's performance at the Verona, it's unlikely they'll be playing shoddy venues again. Nocturnal Admission is well on its way to becoming a household name – not only at the local level, but the national one as well. The opening staff and I oohed and aahed over the concert review in the Seattle Times, all of us clustering around the information desk, rereading our favorite quotes over and over. The writer had even provided a few words of Doug's bio – after several other lines praising his voice and onstage persona – adding that he worked at a â€Å"local bookstore.† We loved that; the nondescript reference almost made us feel like celebrities too. I let them chat on a bit longer, reveling in my own pride and pleasure for Doug, before finally breaking things up. â€Å"All right, kids, I hate to crack the whip, but I see customers at the door. â€Å" They dispersed reluctantly, but I saw Andy smirking when he thought I didn't notice him whispering something to Casey. The only word I caught was â€Å"whip.† Charming. One would think having a dominatrix reputation would at least make me a more formidable authority figure, rather than a source of ridicule. And today, I was the only authority figure. Paige was out sick again, so I had to unofficially work both her job and my own. At least the staff was in good form despite the late night, which made things easier. Casey seemed unaffected by last night, which I found remarkable. Maybe it was the resilience of youth. After drinking and smoking that much, I doubted I'd have been in as good a shape as she was – and I had the advantage of supernatural healing and recovery. My misgivings about Alec must have been premature, I decided, considering what a good mood she appeared to be in. She smiled every time I saw her during the day and was always ready with a friendly comment to customers and coworkers alike. When I stopped by to take something from a neighboring register, I heard a customer ask her if she knew offhand whether his books would total under twenty-five dollars or not. She flipped through the stack expertly and had an answer within ten seconds. â€Å"With tax, $26.57. Put this one back, and you'll be at $22.88. Closest you can get without going over.† â€Å"Did you do that all in your head?† I asked her later. Dimples showed in her pretty cheeks. â€Å"I'm an accounting major.† â€Å"Yeah, but my accountant sure as hell doesn't do my taxes in his head.† â€Å"Of course not. But this stuff's easy.† Doug came in at noon, much to the delight of the others. Practically strutting, he couldn't stop crowing about the review and kept asking me if I'd read such-and-such in the article. I had to assure him repeatedly that I'd read it all. Like Casey, he too acted untouched by last night's partying. He worked and bounced around with what was becoming his trademark energy. Compared to the two of them, I felt downright curmudgeonly, not to mention inadequate. Sheesh. What were immortality and shape-shifting next to superhuman computations and dazzling stage performances? When I returned from my lunch break, he practically sprinted up to me. â€Å"Kincaid, Kincaid – you gotta help me out.† â€Å"What's wrong?† He inclined his head toward one of the registers. Alec stood leaning against it, flirting with Casey. She smiled and nodded enthusiastically at something he said. â€Å"Alec came by to tell me he got us a major audition over at the Blue Gallery. We have got to go practice. Stat.† â€Å"Good grief. Slow down on the italics.† â€Å"Kincaid, I mean it! You have to cover for me. No one,ll know I left. These guys don't care, and Paige and Warren won't be in.† â€Å"How long do you need?† â€Å"The rest of the day.† â€Å"The rest of the – that's going to be over twelve hours for me! Besides, I can't close. I'm going to a play downtown.† Seth had just secured us some last minute tickets. â€Å"Then†¦stay as late as you can. Janice,ll handle closing.† I hesitated. Warren preferred that the manager or one of the assistant managers close, but Doug was right. Janice could handle it. â€Å"Kin -caid,† he begged. â€Å"Please. I need this. You know I do.† Doug had always been charming and irresistible. Something about him today particularly appealed to me. A master working another master, apparently. When I gave in to his pleas, he picked me up and spun me around in a most undignified way. Two minutes later, he and Alec left, and I settled in for a long day. When it finally neared its end, I felt certain the store would burn to the ground in my absence. Dragging myself away at last, I drove downtown, found parking, and sprinted into the theatre just as the lights were going down. Breathless, I slid into a seat between Seth and his thirteen-year-old niece Brandy. On the other side of him, Seth's brother and sister-in-law waved to me. Brandy grinned. She'd been shy the first time we met but now seemed to regard me as the older sister she didn't have. I adored her too. If Seth and I ever split up, I wasn't sure I was going to be able to handle keeping away from his family. â€Å"I didn't think you'd make it,† she told me, her features faintly discernible in the dim lighting. In days long past, people would have said she and her mother had â€Å"flaxen† hair, but no one really used that term anymore. Still, I always thought it appropriate when I saw that pale shade of gold. â€Å"Just making a fashionably late entrance,† I whispered back. â€Å"Remember that when you're older. It keeps men guessing. Once they start presuming anything, there's no living with them.† Brandy giggled. Seth only smiled, but his eyes radiated approval, as he assessed me. I wore wine-colored silk and had my hair in a French twist. His eyes, I'd long since discovered, could be as eloquent and expressive as his pen. The messages they sent me now hardly seemed decent for a public setting. He moved his hand over to cover mine, so that both rested on my thigh, and as the night progressed, I found myself thinking more about that hand placement than the excellent play. Afterward, he and I stood with his family in the lobby for a while, catching up. Terry and Andrea Mortensen were great people who always treated me with genuine kindness. From what I'd learned of Seth's antisocial habits, I think they regarded me as some sort of last hope for him. Brandy affirmed as much when she and I dashed to the restroom together. â€Å"Dad told Uncle Seth not to screw things up,† she informed me as we washed our hands. â€Å"He said even if Uncle Seth is famous, him getting a woman like you defies belief.† I laughed and smoothed down the skirt of my dress. â€Å"I don't know about that. I don't think your dad gives your uncle enough credit. â€Å" Brandy gave me a sage look, worthy of someone much older. â€Å"Uncle Seth spent last Valentine's Day at a library.† We returned to the lobby and spoke a bit more before Terry declared they needed to rescue the babysitter who'd been left with their other four daughters. Andrea touched my arm as they prepared to leave. â€Å"You're coming to Seth's birthday party, aren't you?† I looked at all of them in surprise. â€Å"When is it?† â€Å"Thanksgiving. They fall on the same day every once in a while.† â€Å"It's a good ploy to get turkey and presents,† remarked Terry. He was shorter and more clean-shaven than Seth but otherwise bore a fair resemblance to his older brother. â€Å"I didn't even know it was coming up.† I shot Seth an accusing look. â€Å"I forgot.† For anyone else, that would probably have been a lie, but I believed him. â€Å"So you'll be there?† Andrea again gave me the impression they were desperate to foster Seth's love life. I could have probably negotiated a stipend for showing up. â€Å"With bells on.† Seth and I went back to his place this time. I shape-shifted into my favorite pajamas – flannel pants and a cami – and crawled into bed with him. His bed was bigger than mine and had a feather duvet, as well as a teddy bear named Damocles who wore a University of Chicago T-shirt. Still a little wound up, we talked in the dark about Emerald City for a while, then moved on to books in general. We had a vast array of familiar literature in our repertoire, and we jumped around authors and genres. We both admired Toni Morrison and Tennessee Williams. Neither of us could get through Anna Karenina. Seth hated Jane Austen, whom I adored. As we debated back and forth, I was relieved to be reminded we truly did have a lot in common. Sex was not the only thing between us, even if it was the only thing that stood between us. At some point in the literary discussion, I began to drift off. The long day had worn me out, and sleep felt luxurious. Seth seemed tired too. He and I drew close, lying on our sides, legs touching. Random thoughts whispered in my head as unconsciousness tugged at me. How Aubrey was doing. Whether Paige's baby would be a boy or a girl. If Bastien was any closer to bedding Dana. How in the world Doug's band had become so amazing so quickly. I opened my eyes a couple hours later, uncertain what had woken me. One of those weird, unseen things that suddenly break you out of sleep, I guessed. Quiet darkness still enveloped us with no sign of morning in sight. A little moonlight filtered inside, casting funny shadows around the desk and other bedroom furniture. Unlike my place in Queen Anne, car traffic here dropped off at night, so I heard only the sound of breathing and electrical humming. Then I noticed that Seth and I had moved our bodies even nearer than before. Our legs wrapped around each other pretzel-style, our arms kept us close together. His scent flooded my nose. As my eyes adjusted, I noticed his were open as well. Intense pools of darkness. He was watching me. Still a little sleepy, I moved my hand up to his neck, twining my fingers in his hair, drawing my face closer to his. His hand rested on the small of my back where the tank top rose away from my flannel pajama bottoms. He touched the skin there just as he had at the concert, his hand sliding toward my side, tracing the curve of my hip before running toward my thigh. The fingers that beat such a steady tattoo on computer keys were as delicate as feathers on me. My eyes never left his as we touched each other, and I swore I could hear my heart thundering in my ears. Then, despite some screaming voice in the back of my foggy brain, I pushed my mouth toward his and kissed him. Our lips were tentative at first, as though surprised they had gotten this far. We tasted each other, slowly and gently. His hand on the back of my thigh slid upward, and something about shy Seth Mortensen stroking my ass sent a thrill through me. A soft exhalation lodged in my throat, and as my tongue explored past his lips, seeking more, he suddenly pushed me onto my back with an urgency that I think astonished both of us. His other hand slid up under my shirt and cupped the bottom of a breast, and through his boxers, I could tell that more than just his hands and lips wanted this to progress. Then, ever so slightly, I felt something else. A slight tingling. Angel-fine tendrils of prickly bliss slowly snaking through me, wrapping around me. Exhilarating. Better than any intoxicant I'd ever experienced. Pure life, pure energy. It was delicious and tantalizing, another dimension of the physical pleasure we stood on the brink of. The fact that it was Seth's was even more alluring. It had his unique essence written all over it. I wanted to dive into it, close my eyes and forget all about being responsible while that sweetness filled me. But I couldn't. My resolve was weakening by the second, true, but I was still holding on. Barely. I broke the kiss reluctantly, trying to muster my strength and move away from him. At the first sign of my struggle, he immediately let me go. â€Å"I – I'm sorry,† I said, sitting up and putting my face in my hands. I rubbed my eyes as though waking from a dream, which in a manner of speaking, I was. â€Å"We can't. It†¦it started†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Just from kissing.† It was a statement, his voice coming out husky with desire and sleepiness†¦and regret. He knew better than most how lethal a passionate kiss could be; I'd almost killed him the last time. Of course, that had been an exceptional situation, and my near-death state had sucked away much more than a deep kiss normally would. â€Å"Just from kissing,† I repeated bleakly. It didn't take intercourse for one person to give themselves up to another. There were no loopholes in this game. Tense silence crept in around us until Seth sat up as well and shifted his body away from mine. I could hear genuine pain and guilt when he spoke again. â€Å"I'm sorry about that. I don't know†¦meant to have better control. But I just sort of woke up†¦and I was half-asleep†¦and then†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"I know,† I whispered into the darkness. â€Å"I know. And I'm sorry too.† More silence. â€Å"I guess,† he finally said, â€Å"I should go sleep on the couch†¦Ã¢â‚¬  I closed my eyes, feeling terrible but knowing he was right. We'd been playing with fire by fooling around with this chaste-sleeping thing. It was a wonder something bad hadn't happened sooner. The more it sunk in, the more I realized how much damage I could have caused. Hell, how much damage had I caused already by taking those few drops of life from him? A week off his lifespan? A few days? Even one minute would have been too much. Bitterness – at the world, not him – dripped from my voice when I spoke. â€Å"No. I'll take the couch. We're at your place.† â€Å"Whatever. Leave me some remnant of chivalry.† I didn't say anything, and we sat once more in awkward silence. A hundred questions hung in the air between us, but neither of us could broach them. Both our faults. When an emotional situation turned uncomfortable, I had a tendency to run from it or pretend it wasn't happening. And while Seth wouldn't exactly run away, he wouldn't initiate the dialogue needed to explore something like this. So we continued sitting there. At last, he stood up. â€Å"I'm sorry. Sorry for what I did.† He blamed himself, which was typical of him but not fair, especially since I had technically touched him first. I should have said something then, told him it wasn't all his fault. But the words stuck on my tongue, held up by my own confused feelings. After a few more moments, he left for the living room. I lay back down, Damocles in my arms, but slept badly the rest of the night. When morning came, Seth and I ate breakfast in more tense silence – he'd finally made my pancakes – broken only occasionally by stiff small talk. We then went to the bookstore together, parting ways quickly. I hardly saw him the rest of the day. Bastien was in the city for some reason or another that night, so he picked me up later and drove me over to his place for the ridiculous heist at Dana's. When I saw the post-sex energy wreathing him, I knew what had brought him downtown. â€Å"Don't you get tired of getting laid every day?† I asked him, wishing I could have gotten laid last night. â€Å"I'm going to pretend you didn't actually just ask that, Fleur .†He then proceeded to ramble on about his various Dana sightings in the last few days, how chummy they were getting, how it could only be a matter of time before the inevitable. When I didn't really respond, he cut me a sidelong glance. â€Å"What's the matter with you? You look miserable.† I sighed. â€Å"I kissed Seth last night.† â€Å"And?† â€Å"And what?† â€Å"What else happened?† â€Å"Well†¦nothing. I mean, a little groping here and there, but that's it.† â€Å"So?† â€Å"So, I shouldn't have done it.† A dismissive look crossed his face. â€Å"A kiss is nothing. It's not like you gave him a blow job or anything.† â€Å"Good lord, you're crass.† â€Å"Don't act like I offended your delicate sensibilities. And you know what I'm talking about.† â€Å"Doesn't matter. I was weak. I got some of his energy from that.† † Fleur , I love you as much as I've ever managed to love anybody, but this whole thing is absurd. You're never going to be happy until you've fucked this guy, so just get it over with. It'll take away the whole forbidden attraction and allow both of you to get on with your lives. â€Å" â€Å"‘Get on with our lives?' What's that supposed to mean?† I asked sharply. â€Å"I mean half the reason you guys are so infatuated with each other is because you can't have each other. It's not love, but it is a normal human reaction, a catalyst for physical attraction.† He paused and considered. â€Å"Your maniacal obsession with his books might also be a factor.† â€Å"That's not true. None of that's true at all. Well, I mean, those books are good enough to be the basis of a religion, but that's not the same thing. That's not why I†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Love him? Hell. I still didn't know if I did or not. I wasn't even sure what love was after all this time. Bastien shook his head, not believing me but not wanting to argue either. â€Å"Fine. Keep going with this. I still think you should fuck him, though. Even if it doesn't make you both realize you're better off apart, it'll at least remove one source of tension between you and maybe let you attempt some sort of normal dysfunctional relationship.† I stared bleakly into space. â€Å"I can't. Not even one night. It'd take years off his life. I couldn't live with myself.† â€Å"Bah. Only a handful of years at most. What's that? Besides, men have done stupider things for sex – with women they don't even really like. If he really does love you, he might think it's a fair trade.† I shuddered. I didn't think it was fair at all, but he was right about the silly things men would do for sex. I'd seen and initiated plenty of them. We finally gave up both sides of the argument when we pulled into his driveway. The clock was ticking, and we had to start this operation. Bastien had watched Dana and Bill drive off earlier, and their teenage son had gone down the street to stay at a friend's house. Shifting to be invisible to mortal eyes, Bastien and I crept out the back of his house and scaled the fence into Dana's yard. It sort of made me feel like I was in a spy movie; I half wished we could crawl under some motion-detecting lasers. â€Å"They have a security system,† I whispered to Bastien as I watched him pick the back door's lock. More useful skills gleaned from long centuries. â€Å"Being invisible isn't going to deactivate it. â€Å" â€Å"No problem. I've done some invisible reconnaissance. I know the code.† Sure enough, he punched it into the console once we were in the house, and the readout's red light turned green. We started in the Dailey office, as that seemed like the most logical place to stash paperwork. Dana had a meticulous sense of organization that creeped me out, and we had to make sure we left everything the way we found it. Unfortunately, most of the stuff was completely useless. Memos. Efficient – and honest – budget reports. Invoices. Press releases. She had a lot of pictures too, which were at least more fun to look at than the papers. Most of them showed family or CPFV events. A number of the shots had Jody in them, which saddened me. I recalled the other woman's sly wit and passion for art. Why would someone with any sort of intelligence want to get involved in all this? â€Å"I didn't realize how active Jody was in this group,† I remarked to Bastien. â€Å"She wasn't so bad. Dana's corrupted her.† â€Å"Dana's a persuasive woman. Hey, did you know Jody's last name is Daniels? And her husband's name is Jack?† We giggled over that and continued searching a while longer before finally abandoning the office. We then ransacked – neatly, of course – any other cupboards or drawers we could find on the main floor. Nothing. â€Å"Maybe there are secret panels behind paintings,† suggested Bastien. â€Å"Or maybe the pool-boy thing was a fraud, Dana's honest with her business dealings, and there's really nothing else to get on her except that she's a prejudiced bitch.† He rolled his eyes. â€Å"One place left. The true sanctuary. The bedroom.† I grimaced. Going into someone's bedroom freaked me out. The ultimate violation of privacy. But Bastien charged on, still confident this wild goose chase would yield results. Fortunately, the bedroom had the neat, sterile look of a hotel, not the warm and sensual air of one's most intimate space. It made searching easier, like I was breaking into a vacant room. We sifted through drawers and closets, again finding little to go on. â€Å"Eek!† I suddenly cried, staring into an open drawer. Bastien flew to me. â€Å"What? What is it?† I held up what had to be the most wholesome pair of granny panties I'd ever seen. They were like great-granny panties. They were even white. You would have thought she could at least go out on a limb and get them in blue or green or something. Bastien elbowed me for my overreaction. â€Å"How can you even act surprised after hearing her rants about modest clothing?† â€Å"Modest is one thing, but Jesus†¦how high do these things go? Up to her neck?† â€Å"Put them back. We've got to – â€Å" Click. We'd both heard. I shot Bastien a panicked look and shoved the underwear back in the drawer. â€Å"I thought you said – † His tone was grim. â€Å"I know, I know.† Someone had just entered the house.