Influenzas Impacts on Manchesters Society :: Journalism Media Studies Health Essays

Influenza's Impacts on Manchester's Society Society Shaken Like countless cities across the globe, Manchester, England has had a difficult time adjusting to the impact of influenza. Countless residents are ill. Numerous schools have been closed. A recent decree has banned children under the age of 13 from "picture-houses and all places licensed for amusement." Now, public discussion has begun which could impede upon personal liberties in defense of the public health. A proposed Health Ministry would have the power to compel individuals to medical examinations and quarantines. One proponent within the Ministry of National Service has argued that such powers would mean that "not only influenza, but consumption, venereal disease, and many other of our most deadly plagues could be banished form the land in a few decades." Still, others wonder if such powers could actually be effective enough to warrant the invasion of privacy which they require. "It ain't the government's job to go looking down your throat and up your knickers" complained Manchester native Ms. Winston. Within the judicial system, the strain of influenza has required the easing of some legal precedent. In one example, a recently arrested lady doctor was quickly released from custody per the instruction of the Lord Mayor so that she may aid in the fight against the influenza. This leniency is understandable given the great toll which the extremely contagious disease has had upon health care workers. Recent reports indicate that within Manchester, over 300 nurses are infected, 10 have died, and one half of the ambulance staff is infected with influenza. Gravediggers, too, have been overburdened by the epidemic. The government has recently required that the City Engineer's department lend workers to aid with the required grave digging. Advertisement Epidemic? While the doctors and nurses of Manchester battle vigorously and daily against the influenza outbreak, another struggle rages on within the local papers. Advertising firms have seized upon a boom in local sales of influenza-related products. Companies are capitalizing on the public's increased interest in news reports in order to promote various, competing preventions and remedies for the disease. "'Tis only natural," reports Mr. Robert Thompson, maker of one product claiming to aid in the fight against influenza, "that we provide the people with the critical information of how one might best guard himself or herself against the Influenza. And, it so happens that my Thompson's Pure Phenol is irrefutably the best qualified product to do so. Influenza's Impacts on Manchester's Society :: Journalism Media Studies Health Essays Influenza's Impacts on Manchester's Society Society Shaken Like countless cities across the globe, Manchester, England has had a difficult time adjusting to the impact of influenza. Countless residents are ill. Numerous schools have been closed. A recent decree has banned children under the age of 13 from "picture-houses and all places licensed for amusement." Now, public discussion has begun which could impede upon personal liberties in defense of the public health. A proposed Health Ministry would have the power to compel individuals to medical examinations and quarantines. One proponent within the Ministry of National Service has argued that such powers would mean that "not only influenza, but consumption, venereal disease, and many other of our most deadly plagues could be banished form the land in a few decades." Still, others wonder if such powers could actually be effective enough to warrant the invasion of privacy which they require. "It ain't the government's job to go looking down your throat and up your knickers" complained Manchester native Ms. Winston. Within the judicial system, the strain of influenza has required the easing of some legal precedent. In one example, a recently arrested lady doctor was quickly released from custody per the instruction of the Lord Mayor so that she may aid in the fight against the influenza. This leniency is understandable given the great toll which the extremely contagious disease has had upon health care workers. Recent reports indicate that within Manchester, over 300 nurses are infected, 10 have died, and one half of the ambulance staff is infected with influenza. Gravediggers, too, have been overburdened by the epidemic. The government has recently required that the City Engineer's department lend workers to aid with the required grave digging. Advertisement Epidemic? While the doctors and nurses of Manchester battle vigorously and daily against the influenza outbreak, another struggle rages on within the local papers. Advertising firms have seized upon a boom in local sales of influenza-related products. Companies are capitalizing on the public's increased interest in news reports in order to promote various, competing preventions and remedies for the disease. "'Tis only natural," reports Mr. Robert Thompson, maker of one product claiming to aid in the fight against influenza, "that we provide the people with the critical information of how one might best guard himself or herself against the Influenza. And, it so happens that my Thompson's Pure Phenol is irrefutably the best qualified product to do so.

Love and Hate in Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet :: Free Romeo and Juliet Essays

'Romeo and Juliet' is a play written by William Shakespeare. A prologue is included at the start of the play, which portrays the tragedy between 'star-cross'd lovers'. Elizabethans believed that their fate is in the stars and the prologue increases the anticipation as it shows the way they are destined. Shakespeare has also included devices to dramatise the themes of love and hate throughout the play. In Elizabethan times the audience were involved in the ongoing play. Shakespeare involves the audience in scenes such as the ballroom scene (Act 1, Scene 5.) In Act 1, Scene 5 Romeo enters an enemy?s ball where he and Juliet fall in love for the first time, which angers Tybalt. At the end of Act 1, Scene 4 the mood is foreboding as Romeo believes that things could go wrong at the ball which he was to intrude on. He shows his fear by saying: ?I fear to early, for my mind misgive some consequences yet hanging in the stars? Romeo shows his fear by saying ?fear too early?. This suggests that he believes something there was something not right which made him highly anxious. There is a use of dramatic irony as the audience already know that there was to be problems because of the prologue, which makes keeps the interest from the audience. Elizabethans believed that their fate and destiny is written in the stars. The phrase ?hanging in the stars? which Romeo commented to himself, implies his destiny is in the stars, and it also suggests that because it is in the stars then the Elizabethan audience know definitely that here are going to be ?consequences?. In the beginning of Act, Scene 5 the mood changes from worrying to joyful, as the guests begin to enter the ball which is held by Capulet who is welcoming them. The mood is uplifting because the party is ready to start. The joyful mood is shown when Capulet says: ?Welcome, Gentlemen! Ladies that have toes Unplagu?d with corns will walk a bout with you.? The mood has changed quite drastically from the end of Act 1, Scene 4 to Act 1, Scene 5. This is show by when Capulet is welcoming people to the ball, ?Welcome, Gentlemen!? His excitement showed through the exclamation mark, which suggests that Capulet is full of energy which would lift the spirits of anyone who was to enter. The quotation creates the image of people bustling in, smiling and ready for the party.

Practical Demonkeeping Chapter 1-2

PART ONE SATURDAY NIGHT Like one that on that lonesome road Doth walk in fear and dread, And having once turned round walks on, And no more turns his head; Because he knows a frightful fiend Doth close behind him tread. – Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner 1 THE BREEZE The Breeze blew into San Junipero in the shotgun seat of Billy Winston's Pinto wagon. The Pinto lurched dangerously from shoulder to centerline, the result of Billy trying to roll a joint one-handed while balancing a Coors tallboy and bopping to the Bob Marley song that crackled through the stereo. â€Å"We be jammin' now, mon!† Billy said, toasting The Breeze with a slosh of the Coors. The Breeze shook his head balefully. â€Å"Keep the can down, watch the road, let me roll the doobie,† he said. â€Å"Sorry, Breeze,† Billy said. â€Å"I'm just stoked that we're on the road.† Billy's admiration for The Breeze was boundless. The Breeze was truly cool, a party renaissance man. He spent his days at the beach and his nights in a cloud of sinsemilla. The Breeze could smoke all night, polish off a bottle of tequila, maintain well enough to drive the forty miles back to Pine Cove without arousing the suspicion of a single cop, and be on the beach by nine the next morning acting as if the term hangover were too abstract to be considered. On Billy Winston's private list of personal heroes The Breeze ranked second only to David Bowie. The Breeze twisted the joint, lit it, and handed it to Billy for the first hit. â€Å"What are we celebrating?† Billy croaked, trying to hold in the smoke. The Breeze held up a finger to mark the question, while he dug the Dionysian Book of Days: An Occasion for Every Party from the pocket of his Hawaiian shirt. He flipped through the pages until he found the correct date. â€Å"Nambian Independence Day,† he announced. â€Å"Bitchin',† Billy said. â€Å"Party down for Nambian Independence.† â€Å"It says,† The Breeze continued, â€Å"that the Nambians celebrate their independence by roasting and eating a whole giraffe and drinking a mixture of fermented guava juice and the extract of certain tree frogs that are thought to have magical powers. At the height of the celebration, all the boys who have come of age are circumcised with a sharp stone.† â€Å"Maybe we can circumcise a few Techies tonight if it gets boring,† Billy said. Techies was the term The Breeze used to refer to the male students of San Junipero Technical College. For the most part, they were ultraconservative, crew-cut youths who were perfectly satisfied with their role as bulk stock to be turned into tools for industrial America by the rigid curricular lathe of San Junipero Tech. To The Breeze, the Techies' way of thinking was so foreign that he couldn't even muster a healthy loathing for them. They were simply nonentities. On the other hand, the coeds of S.J. Tech occupied a special place in The Breeze's heart. In fact, finding a few moments of blissful escape between the legs of a nubile coed was the only reason he was subjecting himself to a forty-mile sojourn in the company of Billy Winston. Billy Winston was tall, painfully thin, ugly, smelled bad, and had a particular talent for saying the wrong thing in almost any situation. On top of it all, The Breeze suspected that Billy was gay. The idea had been reinforced one night when he dropped in on Billy at his job as night desk clerk at the Rooms-R-Us motel and found him leafing through a Playgirl magazine. In Breeze's business one got used to running across the skeletons in people's closets. If Billy's skeleton wore women's underwear, it didn't really matter. Homosexuality on Billy Winston was like acne on a leper. The up side of Billy Winston was that he had a car that ran and would take The Breeze anywhere he wanted to go. The Breeze's van was currently being held by some Big Sur growers as collateral against the forty pounds of sinsemilla buds he had stashed in a suitcase at his trailer. â€Å"The way I see it,† said Billy, â€Å"we hit the Mad Bull first. Do a pitcher of margaritas at Jose's, dance a little at the Nuked Whale, and if we don't find any nookie, we head back home for a nightcap at the Slug.† â€Å"Let's hit the Whale first and see what's shakin',† The Breeze said. The Nuked Whale was San Junipero's premier college dance club. If The Breeze was going to find a coed to cuddle, it would be at the Whale. He had no intention of making the drive with Billy back to Pine Cove for a nightcap at the Head of the Slug. Closing up the Slug was tantamount to having a losing night, and The Breeze was through with being a loser. Tomorrow when he sold the forty pounds of grass he would pocket twenty grand. After twenty years blowing up and down the coast, living on nickle-dime deals to make rent, The Breeze was, at last, stepping into the winners' circle, and there was no room for a loser like Billy Winston. Billy parked the Pinto in a yellow zone a block away from the Nuked Whale. From the sidewalk they could hear the throbbing rhythms of the latest techno-pop dance music. The unlikely pair covered the block in a few seconds, Billy striding ahead while The Breeze brought up the rear with a laid-back shuffle. As Billy slipped under the neon whale tail and into the club, the doorman – a fresh-faced slab of muscle and crew cut – caught him by the arm. â€Å"Let's see some I.D.† Billy flashed an expired driver's license as Breeze caught up to him and began digging into the pocket of his Day-Glo green surf shorts for his wallet. The doorman raised a hand in dismissal. â€Å"That's okay, buddy, with that hairline you don't need any.† The Breeze ran his hand over his forehead self-consciously. Last month he had turned forty, a dubious achievement for a man who had once vowed never to trust anyone over thirty. Billy reached around him and slapped two dollar bills into the doorman's hand. â€Å"Here,† he said, â€Å"buy yourself a night with an Inflate-A-Date.† â€Å"What!† The doorman vaulted off his stool and puffed himself up for combat, but Billy had already scampered away into the crowded club. The Breeze stepped in front of the doorman and raised his hands in surrender. â€Å"Cut him some slack, man. He's got problems.† â€Å"He's going to have some problems,† the doorman bristled. â€Å"No, really,† The Breeze continued, wishing that Billy had spared him the loyal gesture and therefore the responsibility of pacifying this collegiate cave man. â€Å"He's on medication. Psychological problems.† The doorman was unsure. â€Å"If this guy is dangerous, get him out of here.† â€Å"Not dangerous, just a little squirrelly – he's bipolar Oedipal,† The Breeze said with uncharacteristic pomposity. â€Å"Oh,† the doorman said, as if it had all become clear. â€Å"Well, keep him in line or you're both out.† â€Å"No problem.† The Breeze turned and joined Billy at the bar amid a crunch of beer-drinking students. Billy handed him a Heineken. Billy said, â€Å"What did you say to that asshole to calm him down?† â€Å"I told him you wanted to fuck your mom and kill your dad.† â€Å"Cool. Thanks, Breeze.† â€Å"No charge.† The Breeze tipped his beer in salute. Things were not going well for him. Somehow he had been snared into this male-bonding bullshit with Billy Winston, when all he wanted to do was ditch him and get laid. The Breeze turned and leaned back, scanning the club for a likely candidate. He had set his sights on a homely but tight-assed little blond in leather pants when Billy broke his concentration. â€Å"You got any blow, man?† Billy had shouted to be heard over the music, but his timing was off; the song had ended. Everyone at the bar turned toward The Breeze and waited, as if the next few words he spoke would reveal the true meaning of life, the winning numbers in the state lottery, and the unlisted phone number of God. The Breeze grabbed Billy by the front of the shirt and hustled him to the back of the club, where a group of Techies were pounding a pinball machine, oblivious to anything but buzzers and bells. Billy looked like a frightened child who had been dragged from a movie theater for shouting out the ending. â€Å"First,† The Breeze hissed, waving a trembling finger under Billy's nose to enumerate his point, â€Å"first, I do not use or sell cocaine.† This was half true. He did not sell since he had done six months in Soledad for dealing – and would go up for five years if he was busted again. He used it only when it was offered or when he needed bait when trolling for women. Tonight he was holding a gram. â€Å"Second, if I did use, I wouldn't want it announced to everybody in San Junipero.† â€Å"I'm sorry, Breeze.† Billy tried to look small and weak. â€Å"Third,† The Breeze shook three stubby fingers in Billy's face, â€Å"we have an agreement. If one of us scores, the other one gets cut loose. Well, I think I found someone, so cut loose.† Billy started to shuffle toward the door, head down, his lower lip hanging, like the bloated victim of a lynch mob. After a few steps he turned. â€Å"If you need a ride – if things don't work out – I'll be at the Mad Bull.† The Breeze, as he watched the injured Billy skulk away, felt a twinge of remorse. Forget it, he thought, Billy had it coming. After the deal tomorrow he wouldn't need Billy or any of the quarter-ounce-a-week buyers of his ilk. The Breeze was eager for the time when he could afford to be without friends. He strutted across the dance floor toward the blond in the leather pants. Having wafted through most of his forty years as a single man, The Breeze had come to recognize the importance of the pickup line. At best, it should be original, charming, concise but lyrical – a catalyst to invoke curiosity and lust. Knowing this, he approached his quarry with the calm of a well-armed man. â€Å"Yo, babe,† he said, â€Å"I've got a gram of prime Peruvian marching powder. You want to go for a walk?† â€Å"Pardon me?† the girl said, somewhere between astonishment and disgust. The Breeze noticed that she had a wide-eyed, fawnlike look – Bambi with too much mascara. He gave her his best surfer-boy smile. â€Å"I was wondering if you'd like to powder your nose.† â€Å"You're old enough to be my father,† she said. The Breeze was staggered by the rejection. As the girl escaped onto the crowded dance floor, he fell back to the bar to consider strategy. Go on to the next one? Everybody gets tubed now and then; you just have to climb back on the board and wait for the next wave. He scanned the dance floor looking for a chance at the wild ride. Nothing but sorority girls with absolutely perfect hair. No chance. His fantasy of jumping one and using her until her perfect hair was tangled into a hopeless knot at the back of her head had been relegated long ago to the realm of fairy tales and free money. The energy in San Junipero was all wrong. It didn't matter – he'd be a rich man tomorrow. Best to catch a ride back to Pine Cove. With luck he could get to the Head of the Slug Saloon before last call and pick up one of the standby bitches who still valued good company and didn't require a hundred bucks worth of blow to get upside down with you. As he stepped into the street a chill wind bit at his bare legs and swept through his thin shirt. Thumbing the forty miles back to Pine Cove was going to suck, big time. Maybe Billy was still at the Mad Bull? No, The Breeze told himself, there are worse things than freezing your ass off. He shrugged off the cold and fell into a steady stride toward the highway, his new fluorescent yellow deck shoes squeaking with every step. They rubbed his little toe when he walked. After five blocks he felt the blister break and go raw. He cursed himself for becoming another slave to fashion. Half a mile outside of San Junipero the streetlights ended. Darkness added to The Breeze's list of mounting aggravations. Without trees and buildings to break its momentum, the cold Pacific wind increased and whipped his clothes around him like torn battle flags. Blood from his damaged toe was beginning to spot the canvas of his deck shoe. A mile out of town The Breeze abandoned the dancing, smiling, and tipping of a ghost-hat that was supposed to charm drivers into stopping to give a ride to a poor, lost surfer. Now he trudged, head down in the dark, his back to traffic, a single frozen thumb thrust into the air beaconing, then changing into a middle finger of defiance as each car passed without slowing. â€Å"Fuck you! You heartless assholes!† His throat was sore from screaming. He tried to think of the money – sweet, liberating cash, crispy and green – but again and again he was brought back to the cold, the pain in his feet, and the increasingly dismal chance of getting a ride home. It was late, and the traffic was thinning to a car every five minutes or so. Hopelessness circled in his mind like a vulture. He considered doing the cocaine, but the idea of entering a too-fast jangle on a lonely, dark road and crashing into a paranoid, teeth-chattering shiver seemed somewhat insane. Think about the money. The money. It was all Billy Winston's fault. And the guys in Big Sur; they didn't have to take his van. It wasn't like he had ever ripped anyone off on a big deal before. It wasn't like he was a bad guy. Hadn't he let Robert move into his trailer, rent free, when his old lady threw him out? Didn't he help Robert put a new head gasket in his truck? Hadn't he always played square – let people try the product before buying? Didn't he advance his regulars a quarter-ounce until payday? In a business that was supposed to be fast and loose, wasn't he a pillar of virtue? Right as rain? Straight as an arrow†¦. A car pulled up twenty yards behind him and hit the brights. He didn't turn. Years of experience told him that anyone using that approach was only offering a ride to one place, the Iron-bar Hotel. The Breeze walked on, as if he didn't notice the car. He shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his surf shorts, as if fighting the cold, found the cocaine and slipped it into his mouth, paper and all. Instantly his tongue went numb. He raised his hands in surrender and turned, expecting to see the flashing reds and blues of a county sheriff cruiser. But it wasn't a cop. It was just two guys in an old Chevy, playing games. He could make out their figures past the headlights. The Breeze swallowed the paper the cocaine had been wrapped in. Taken by a burning anger, fueled by blow and blood-lust, he stormed toward the Chevy. â€Å"C'mon out, you fucking clowns.† Someone crawled out of the passenger side. It looked like a child – no, thicker – a dwarf. The Breeze blew on. â€Å"Bring a tire iron, you little shit. You'll need it.† â€Å"Wrong,† said the dwarf, the voice was low and gravely. The Breeze pulled up and squinted into the headlights. It wasn't a dwarf, it was a big dude, a giant. Huge, getting bigger as it moved toward him. Too fast. The Breeze turned and started to run. He got three steps before the jaws clamped over his head and shoulders, crunching through his bones as if they were peppermint sticks. When the Chevy pulled back onto the highway, the only thing left of The Breeze was a single fluorescent-yellow deck shoe. It would be a fleeting mystery to passers-by for two days until a hungry crow carried it away. No one would notice that there was still a foot inside. PART TWO SUNDAY All mystical experience is coincidence; and vice versa, of course. – Tom Stoppard, Jumpers 2 PINE COVE The village of Pine Cove lay in a coastal pine forest just south of the great Big Sur wilderness area, on a small natural harbor. The village was established in the 1880s by a dairy farmer from Ohio who found verdant hills around the cove provided perfect fodder for his cows. The settlement, such as it was – two families and a hundred cows – went nameless until the 1890s, when the whalers came to town and christened it Harpooner's Cove. With a cove to shelter their small whaling boats and the hills from which they could sight the migrating gray whales far out to sea, the whalers prospered and the village grew. For thirty years a greasy haze of death blew overhead from the five-hundred-gallon rendering pots where thousands of whales were boiled down to oil. When the whale population dwindled and electricity and kerosene became an alternative to whale oil, the whalers abandoned Harpooner's Cove, leaving behind mountains of whale bone and the rusting hulks of their rendering kettles. To this day many of the town's driveways are lined with the bleached arches of whale ribs, and even now, when the great gray whales pass, they rise out of the water a bit and cast a suspicious eye toward the little cove, as if expecting the slaughter to begin again. After the whalers left, the village survived on cattle ranching and the mining of mercury, which had been discovered in the nearby hills. The mercury ran out about the same time the coastal highway was completed through Big Sur, and Harpooner's Cove became a tourist town. Passers-through who wanted a little piece of California's burgeoning tourist industry but didn't want to deal with the stress of life in San Francisco or Los Angeles, stopped and built motels, souvenir shops, restaurants, and real estate offices. The hills around Pine Cove were subdivided. Pine forests and pastures became ocean-view lots, sold for a song to tourists from California's central valley who wanted to retire on the coast. Again the village grew, populated by retirees and young couples who eschewed the hustle of the city to raise their children in a quiet coastal town. Harpooner's Cove became a village of the newly wed and the nearly dead. In the 1960s the young, environmentally conscious residents decided that the name Harpooner's Cove hearkened back to a time of shame for the village and that the name Pine Cove was more appropriate to the quaint, bucolic image the town had come to depend on. And so, with the stroke of a pen and the posting of a sign – WELCOME TO PINE COVE, GATEWAY TO BIG SUR – history was whitewashed. The business district was confined to an eight-block section of Cypress Street, which ran parallel to the coast highway. Most of the buildings on Cypress sported facades of English Tudor half-timbering, which made Pine Cove an anomaly among the coastal communities of California with their predominantly Spanish-Moorish architecture. A few of the original structures still stood, and these, with their raw timbers and feel of the Old West, were a thorn in the side of the Chamber of Commerce, who played on the village's English look to promote tourism. In a half-assed attempt at thematic consistency, several pseudo-authentic, Ole English restaurants opened along Cypress Street to lure tourists with the promise of tasteless English cuisine. (There had even been an attempt by one entrepreneur to establish an authentic English pizza place, but the enterprise was abandoned with the realization that boiled pizza lost most of its character.) Pine Cove's locals avoided patronage of these restaurants with the duplicity of a Hindu cattle rancher: willing to reap the profits without sampling the product. Locals dined at the few, out-of-the-way cafes that were content with carving a niche out of the hometown market with good food and service rather than gouging an eye out of the swollen skull of the tourist market with overpriced, pretentious charm. The shops along Cypress Street were functional only in that they moved money from the pockets of the tourists into the local economy. From the standpoint of the villagers, there was nothing of practical use for sale in any of the stores. For the tourist, immersed in the oblivion of vacation spending, Cypress Street provided a bonanza of curious gifts to prove to the folks back home that they had been somewhere. Somewhere where they had obviously forgotten that soon they would return home to a mortgage, dental bills, and an American Express bill that would descend at the end of the month like a financial Angel of Death. And they bought. They bought effigies of whales and sea otters carved in wood, cast in plastic, brass, or pewter, stamped on key chains, printed on postcards, posters, book covers, and condoms. They bought all sorts of useless junk imprinted with: Pine Cove, Gateway to Big Sur, from bookmarks to bath soap. Over the years it became a challenge to the Pine Cove shopowners to come up with an item so tacky that it would not sell. Gus Brine, owner of the local general store, suggested once at a Chamber of Commerce meeting that the merchants, without compromising their high standards, might put cow manure into jars, imprint the label with Pine Cove, Gateway to Big Sur, and market it as authentic gray whale feces. As often happens with matters of money, the irony of Brine's suggestion was lost, a motion was carried, a plan was laid, and if it had not been for a lack of volunteers to do the actual packaging, the shelves of Cypress Street would have displayed numbered, limited-edition jars of Genuine Whale Waste. The residents of Pine Cove went about their work of fleecing the tourists with a slow, methodical resolve that involved more waiting than activity. Life, in general, was slow in Pine Cove. Even the wind that came in off the Pacific each evening crept slowly through the trees, allowing the villagers ample time to bring in wood and stoke their fires against the damp cold. In the morning, down on Cypress Street, the Open signs flipped with a languid disregard for the times posted on the doors. Some shops opened early, some late, and some not at all, especially if it was a nice day for a walk on the beach. It was as if the villagers, having found their little bit of peace, were waiting for something to happen. And it did. Around midnight on the night that The Breeze disappeared, every dog in Pine Cove began barking. During the following fifteen minutes, shoes were thrown, threats were made, and the sheriff was called and called again. Wives were beaten, pistols were loaded, pillows were pounded, and Mrs. Feldstein's thirty-two cats simultaneously coughed up hairballs on her porch. Blood pressure went up, aspirin was opened, and Milo Tobin, the town's evil developer, looked out the front window to see his young neighbor, Rosa Cruz, in the nude, chasing twin Pomeranians around her front yard. The strain was too much for his chain-smoker's heart, and he flopped on the floor like a fish and died. On another hill, Van Williams, the tree surgeon, had reached the limit of his patience with his neighbors, a family of born-again dog breeders whose six Labrador retrievers barked all night long with or without supernatural provocation. With his professional-model chain saw he dropped a hundred-foot Monterey pine tree on their new Dodge Evangeline van. A few minutes later, a family of raccoons who normally roamed the streets of Pine Cove breaking into garbage cans, were taken, temporarily, with a strange sapience and ignored their normal activities to steal the stereo out of the ruined van and install it in their den that lay in the trunk of a hollow tree. An hour after the cacophony began, it stopped. The dogs had delivered their message, and as it goes in cases where dogs warn of coming earthquakes, tornadoes, or volcanic eruptions, the message was completely misconstrued. What was left the next morning was a very sleepy, grumpy village brimming with lawsuits and insurance claims, but without a single clue that something was coming. At six that morning a cadre of old men gathered outside the general store to discuss the events of the night before, never once letting their ignorance of what had happened interfere with a good bull session. A new, four-wheel-drive pickup pulled into the small parking lot, and Augustus Brine crawled out, jangling his huge key ring as if it were a talisman of power sent down by the janitor god. He was a big man, sixty years old, white haired and bearded, with shoulders like a mountain gorilla. People alternately compared him to Santa Claus and the Norse god Odin. â€Å"Morning, boys,† Brine grumbled to the old men, who gathered behind him as he unlocked the door and let them into the dark interior of Brine's Bait, Tackle, and Fine Wines. As he switched on the lights and started brewing the first two pots of his special, secret, dark-roast coffee, Brine was assaulted by a salvo of questions. â€Å"Gus, did you hear the dogs last night?† â€Å"We heard a tree went down on your hill. You hear anything about it?† â€Å"Can you brew some decaf? Doctor says I've got to cut the caffeine.† â€Å"Bill thinks it was a bitch in heat started the barking, but it was all over town.† â€Å"Did you get any sleep? I couldn't get back to sleep.† Brine raised a big paw to signal that he was going to speak, and the old men fell silent. It was like that every morning: Brine arrived in the middle of a discussion and was immediately elected to the role of expert and mediator. â€Å"Gentlemen, the coffee's on. In regard to the events of last night, I must claim ignorance.† â€Å"You mean it didn't wake you up?† Jim Whatley asked from under the brim of a Brooklyn Dodgers baseball cap. â€Å"I retired early last night with two lovely teenage bottles of cabernet, Jim. Anything that happened after that did so without my knowledge or consent.† Jim was miffed with Brine's detachment. â€Å"Well, every goddamn dog in town started barking last night like the end of the world was coming.† â€Å"Dogs bark,† Brine stated. He left off the â€Å"big deal† – it was understood from his tone. â€Å"Not every dog in town. Not all at once. George thinks it's supernatural or something.† Brine raised a white eyebrow toward George Peters, who stood by the coffee machine sporting a dazzling denture grin. â€Å"And what, George, leads you to the conclusion that the cause of this disturbance was supernatural?† â€Å"Woke up with a hard-on for the first time in twenty years. It got me right up. I thought I'd rolled over on the flashlight I keep by the bed for midnight emergencies.† â€Å"How were the batteries, Georgie?† someone interjected. â€Å"I tried to wake up the wife. Whacked her on the leg with it just to get her attention. I told her the bear was charging and I have one bullet left.† â€Å"And?† Brine filled the pause. â€Å"She told me to put some ice on it to make the swelling go down.† â€Å"Well,† Brine said, stroking his beard, â€Å"that certainly sounds like a supernatural experience to me.† He turned to the rest of the group and announced his judgment. â€Å"Gents, I agree with George. As with Lazarus rising from the dead, this unexplained erection is hard evidence of the supernatural at work. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have cash customers to attend to.† The last remark was not meant as a dig toward the old men, whom Brine allowed to drink coffee all day free of charge. Augustus Brine had long ago won their loyalty, and it would have been absurd for any one of them to think of going anywhere else to purchase wine, or cheese, or bait, or gasoline, even though Brine's prices were a good thirty percent higher than the Thrifty-Mart down the street. Could the pimple-faced clerks at the Thrifty-Mart give advice on which bait was best for rock cod, a recipe for an elegant dill sauce for that same fish, recommend a fine wine to complement the meal, and at the same time ask after the well-being of every family member for three generations by name? They could not! And therein lay the secret of Augustus Brine's ability to run a successful business based entirely on the patronage of locals in an economy catering to tourists. Brine made his way to the counter, where an attractive woman in a waitress apron awaited, impatiently worrying a five-dollar bill. â€Å"Five dollars worth of unleaded, Gus.† She thrust the bill at Brine. â€Å"Rough night, Jenny?† â€Å"Does it show?† Jenny made a show of fixing her shoulder-length auburn hair and smoothing her apron. â€Å"A safe assumption, only,† Brine said with a smile that revealed teeth permanently stained by years of coffee and pipe smoke. â€Å"The boys tell me there was a citywide disturbance last night.† â€Å"Oh, the dogs. I thought it was just my neighborhood. I didn't get to sleep until four in the morning, then the phone rang and woke me up.† â€Å"I heard about you and Robert splitting up,† Brine said. â€Å"Did someone send out a newsletter or something? We've only been separated a few days.† Irritation put an unattractive rasp in her voice. â€Å"It's a small town,† Brine said softly. â€Å"I wasn't trying to be nosy.† â€Å"I'm sorry, Gus. It's just the lack of sleep. I'm so tired I was hallucinating on the way down here. I thought I heard Wayne Newton singing ‘What a Friend We Have in Jesus.'† â€Å"Maybe you did.† â€Å"The music was coming from a pine tree. I'm telling you, I've been a basket case all week.† Brine reached across the counter and patted her hand. â€Å"The only constant in this life is change, but that doesn't mean it's easy. Give yourself a break.† Just then Vance McNally, the local ambulance driver, burst through the door. The radio on his belt made a sizzling sound as if he'd just stepped out of a deep fryer. â€Å"Guess who vapor locked last night?† he said, obviously hoping that no one would know. Everyone turned and waited for his announcement. Vance basked in their attention for a moment to confirm his self-importance. â€Å"Milo Tobin,† he said, finally. â€Å"The evil developer?† George asked. â€Å"That's him. Sometime around midnight. We just bagged him,† Vance said to the group. Then to Brine, â€Å"Can I get a pack of Marlboros?† The old men searched each other's faces for the right reaction to Vance's news. Each was waiting for another to say what they were all thinking, which was, â€Å"It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy,† or even, â€Å"Good riddance,† but as they were all aware that Vance's next rude announcement could be about them, they tried to think of something nice to say. You don't park in the handicapped space lest the forces of irony give you a reason to, and you don't speak ill of the dead unless you want to get bagged next. Jenny saved them. â€Å"He sure kept that Chrysler of his clean, didn't he?† â€Å"Sure did.† â€Å"The thing sparkled.† â€Å"He kept it like new, he did.† Vance smiled at the discomfort he had caused. â€Å"See you boys later.† He turned to leave and bumped straight into the little man standing behind him. â€Å"Excuse me, fella,† Vance said. No one had seen him come in or had heard the bell over the door. He was an Arab, dark, with a long, hooked nose and old; his skin hung around his piercing gray-blue eyes in folds. He wore a wrinkled, gray flannel suit that was at least two sizes too big. A red stocking cap rode high on the back of his bald head. His rumpled appearance combined with this diminutive size made him look like a ventriloquist's dummy that had spent a long time in a small suitcase. The little man brandished a craggy hand under Vance's nose and let loose with a string of angry Arabic that swirled through the air like blue on a Damascus blade. Vance backed out the door, jumped into his ambulance, and motored away. Everyone stood stunned by the ferocity of the little man's anger. Had they really seen blue swirls? Were the Arab's teeth really filed to points? Were, for that moment, his eyes glowing white-hot? It would never be discussed. Augustus Brine was the first to recover. â€Å"Can I help you with something, sir?† The unnatural light in the Arab's eyes dimmed, and in a humble, obsequious manner he said, â€Å"Excuse me, please, but could I trouble you for a small quantity of salt?†

Auto management services

The automotive dealership General Manager ensures the profitability of the dealership by overseeing the various departments which include variable operations (sales & financing), fixed operations (service & parts), and the business office (accounting & administration). Duties of the general manager include, but certainly not limited to, planning, motivating and coordinating the dealership's management through leadership and solid business practices.Job Duties Job duties for a general manger include: Hiring all management positions, completing performance evaluations regularly and eveloping short and long-term goals for each department manager (includes administrative, sales, parts, collision and service departments). Planning and developing short and long-term goals and objectives annually, and submitting time projections to corporate management for approval. Effectively communicating with the comptroller/office manager on a weekly basis to review departmental forecasts and ensure co nsistency with annual projections.Paying close attention to daily operations, recommending and creating improved courses of action where necessary. Explaining the policies and procedures of the dealership to all employees nd following up with employees to ensure that these issues are understood and followed. Providing dealership management with weekly reports on the financial condition of the dealership. Overseeing the monthly financial statement to ensure it is complete, accurate and submitted on time to the management/dealership owners. Coordinating with the business/administrative office to ensure that records and analyses are correctly maintained.Creating a good working relationship with lending institutions and manufacturer personnel and maintaining these relationships. Coordinating regular meetings with the managers of each department to ensure heir profitability and efficiency. Overseeing the hiring and training of all department managers. Maintaining an enthusiastic attitude to build positive employee attitudes and morale. Overseeing and maintaining compensation plans for all employees. Creating cost-effective advertising programs and merchandising strategies for the dealership.Focusing on any customer complaints that department managers are unable to rectify and taking the necessary steps to resolve these complaints. Job Requirements General managers should have at least two years of dealership sales and five years in a supervisory position. Experience in other dealership departments is a plus. They must have strong leadership and organizational skills, and the ability to understand profit and loss statements and manage a large, diverse staff. General managers also must possess strong communication skills to deal with customers, employees and vendors.Managers are required to stay abreast of the federal, state, and local regulations attecting their operations and comply witn them, including hazardous waste disposal and OSHA Right-to-Know regulations. A lso they must provide the necessary training on regulations and ethical practices. AUTOMOTIVE SERVICE MANAGER SUMMARY Directs and coordinates activities concerned with acquisition of automotive equipment and operation and maintenance of automotive fleet repair and storage facilities by performing the following duties personally or through subordinate supervisors.ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES include the following. other duties may be assigned. Coordinates activities of personnel conducting research and testing program on automotive equipment considered for acquisition based on such factors as operational performance, costs of operation and maintenance, operational safety, and compliance with environmental laws and regulations. Reviews and submits staff proposals for modifications to vendor or manufacturer.Directs procurement of all types of company owned and operated automotive equipment and materials, supplies, and parts required to maintain automotive equipment, garages, a nd storage facilities. Coordinates automotive repair and maintenance services to obtain maximum utilization of automotive equipment and prevent operational delays in other departments. SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES Manages total of 7 employees in the Automotive Department. Carries out supervisory responsibilities in accordance with the organization's policies and applicable laws.Responsibilities include interviewing, hiring, and training employees; planning, assigning, and directing work; appraising performance; rewarding and disciplining employees; addressing complaints and resolving problems. QUALIFICATIONS To perform this Job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.LANGUAGE SKILLS Ability to read and interpret documents such as safety rules, operating and aintenance instructions, and procedure manuals. Ability to write routine reports and correspondence. Ability to speak effectively before groups of customers or employees of organization. MATHEMATICAL SKILLS Ability to calculate fgures and amounts such as discounts, interest, commissions, proportions, percentages, area, circumference, and volume. Ability to apply concepts of basic algebra and geometry.REASONING ABILITY Ability to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited standardization exists. Ability to interpret a variety of nstructions furnished in written, oral, diagram, or schedule form. PHYSICAL DEMANDS While performing the duties of this Job the employee is regularly required to stand; walk; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms and talk or hear. The employee is occasionally required to sit; climb or balance and stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl.The employee is regularly required to lift up to 10 pounds and up to 25 pounds. The employee is frequently required to lift up to 50 pounds. The employee is occasionally required to litt up to 00 pounds. The vision requirements include: close vision. While performing the duties of this Job, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear. The employee frequently is required to walk and sit. The employee is occasionally required to stand; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; and reach with hands and arms.WORK ENVIRONMENT While performing the duties of this Job the employee is regularly exposed to moving mechanical parts and fumes or airborne particles. The employee is frequently exposed to outside weather conditions. The employee is occasionally exposed to high, precarious places; toxic or caustic chemicals and risk of electrical shock. Finance Manager Sells new and used car buyers financing and insurance programs. managers also work with financial lenders to give fair interest rates to buyers a nd programs. As with all positions within dealerships, managers are expected to uphold the highest ethical standards.Job Duties Offering vehicle financing and insurance to customers and providing them with a thorough explanation of aftermarket products and extended warranties and a complete explanation of manufacturer and dealership service procedures and policies. Seeking new lending institutions and maintaining good working elationships to secure competitive interest rates and financing programs. Processing financing and leasing deals accurately and securing approval through financial sources to secure approval and through the proper federal, state and corporate channels.Understanding and complying with federal, state and local regulations that affect the new and used-vehicle and finance departments. Creating and maintaining a program with the sales department that will ensure all new sales are referred to the department. Training and providing the sales team with information on f inance and lease programs and the benefits of the dealership's financing and xtended service programs. Job Requirements It is recommended that the finance and insurance manager is recommended has two years of automotive sales experience and one year in a dealership management position.Managerial positions are required to maintain the profitability of their department while controlling expenses and maintaining customer satisfaction. Managers are required to not only understand and keep abreast of the federal, state, and local regulations that affect their operations. F ; I personnel require strong communication skills in order to work with customers, employees and finance and nsurance vendors as they represent the dealership. People working within the automotive retail industry often have to work extended hours, evenings and weekends to achieve their goals.HUMAN RESOURCES Job description Human resource (HR) managers are involved with recruitment, training, career development, compens ation and benefits, employee relations, industrial relations, employment law, compliance, disciplinary and grievance issues, redundancies etc. The Job involves keeping up to date with areas such as employment law, which change often. Generalist HR roles are usually found in small and medium sized ompanies, where the HR manager will deal with the whole range of HR activities. In large multinationals you will otten tind specialists, tor example in learning and development, recruitment or employee relations.Work activities Developing HR planning strategies with line managers by considering immediate and long-term staff requirements Recruiting staff by preparing Job descriptions and Job adverts; deciding on how best to advertise Shortlisting applicants for interview using a variety of selection techniques including psychometric testing Interviewing shortlisted candidates Advising on pay and other issues, including promotion and enefits; administer payroll and maintain staff records Inte rpreting and advising on employment legislation; develop and implement policies on a variety of workplace issues eg disciplinary procedures, absence management, working conditions, performance management and equal opportunities Listening to grievances and implementing disciplinary proceduresAnalysing training needs in conjunction with line managers; planning and delivering training, including staff inductions. Functional Organizations and Product Organization Functional Organizations This is the traditional type of organization. Under functional departments, employees ith closely related skills and responsibilities (functions) are located in the same department. Workers in each of these functions specialized in their tasks and knowledge. For example, senior management set rules and procedures as how to transfer the sales orders into the production schedule, how the customer service deal with complaints and warranty issues. They also have large input in the production process. The ma in advantage of functional organization is efficiency.It works best in small to medium-sized firms that offer relatively few product lines or services. Example of this functional organization will be for a company that anufactured outdoor BBQ stoves. The Sales people get the orders from the customers; the orders are transfer to the production department for production. Products are made and shipping department ships them to customers. Each department is rated by their department performance. Quality department could delay shipment if they feel the product is not meeting specification, affecting Sales target and their commission. Product Organizations Product organizations are formed based on a particular product, or service. Each of these departments can operate fairly autonomously.A key advantage is better oordination and fewer barriers to communication among the functional specialists who work on a particular product. , Therefore, able to response to customers in a timely way. On the other hand, the disadvantage is that product-oriented departments might actually work at cross purposes. For Example, Toyota has a luxury nigh end line ot automobiles called Lexus in addition to their Toyota Brand . Dealer either sells Toyota or Lexus but not both. Each dealer has the same Sales and Service department. The logic behind this split is Toyota management believe the customers who buy the Lexus brand are more affluent and demand higher

Belonging in Romulus, My Father and This Is England

Our perception of belonging is shaped by various aspects, one of the most influential of these being the confined expectations of society. As one understands and accepts the socially constructed definition of how an individual may belong, one begins to label themselves under this classification. This awareness causes one to alter and shape their behaviour according to their own perception of whether or not they belong, which in turn is based on society’s standards. It may serve as a process of belonging, or alternatively, as a barrier. This concept is evident in the first scene of the film This is England, as 12-year-old Shaun enters his new school, wearing his fathers’ old denim jeans. He stands helplessly among his classmates, most in ties, hats and uniform jackets. This juxtaposition immediately shows Shaun’s quickly formed perception of how one may belong in this environment, as a fight is initiated caused by his incompatible choice of clothing. His sense of belonging is determined by society’s expectations, and therefore his behaviour is shaped accordingly. Shaun further isolates himself from the society as a result of this, sitting unaccompanied in the playground. This act of cruelty causes Shaun to place blame upon his mother, who brought him from Germany to England, determined to start life afresh after the death of his father. Consequently, this gives rise to the additional seclusion from what was once a place of belonging, his home, and his family. A similar concept is evident in Romulus, My Father, a memoir written by Raimond Gaita. Raimond’s mother Christine experiences a life of rejection from society. In like manner as Shane encountered upon moving to England, Christine held a powerful sense of belonging to her home culture in Germany, and therefore the sudden change in landscape only furthered the isolation that was also influenced by her mental illness. Gaita feels that her psychological incapacity was exacerbated by the unwillingness of the community to accept and help her. He explains the behaviour of society as â€Å"the unattractive side of a conception of value whose other side nourished a distinctively Australian decency. Gaita’s personification of society shows that the extent to which this cruelty has reached is inhumane. â€Å"Such was the division of the human spirit in that part of the world at that time. Like many other sharp divisions, it could not capture the many worthy ways of being human. It nourished some possibilities, maimed others and would not allow some even to see the light of day†¦Ã¢â‚¬  sense of belonging may have aided in the healing of her illness, but paradoxically it was her illness that meant she would never experience a sense of acceptance. Society’s expectations formed Christine’s latest perception of belonging, in turn shaping her behaviour. The community in which she lived held a strong belief in ‘character’ as a defining quality through which individuals show they have the right ‘fit’ to society. â€Å"Tom Lillie and others disliked my mother partly because they saw her engaging vivacity as a dangerously seductive manifestation of personality in a woman they believed to be lacking entirely in character – a ‘characterless woman’. † In its historical and cultural context, women of rural Victoria in the 1950s were expected to hold a conservative nature. Perhaps that is why women at that time and in that place were especially vulnerable to the deadening attractions of middle-class respectability. † The negative connotations attached to the word ‘deadening’ reflects Gaita’s attitude to such restrictions, expressing through emphatic language his understanding of those who are not immediate conformists to the expectations that society has created. The community is repelled by her inability to care for Raimond, her promiscuity and her obsession with appearance over responsibilities. Christine’s understanding that she may never belong in a society that holds such defined expectations of women shapes her behaviour in that she pushes herself further away from the community, all the while influencing her to attempt to regain a connection with her family. This is England also emphasizes the dominant ideology of its era. White nationalism and patriotism were seen as the norm, and the movement against immigrants was extreme due to the area the film was set in, a low class area, where unemployment records were extremely high. The entire film displays each scene very black and white, as a representation of the reality of the issues in its context. Towards the end of the movie, Combo and Shaun decide to raid a shop with a Pakistani shop-keeper. As Combo leaves the store, he threatens the shop-keeper, bellowing, â€Å"this is our little Shandy, and we’ll come ‘ere anytime we like†. A close-up of the shaken shopkeeper, who does not retaliate to Combo’s words, shows that white people were accepted as being superior to colours. Shaun’s involvement portrays his acceptance of the values and customs that being a skinhead require, and his alteration of his behaviour upon adhering to these expectations in order to belong. The final scene of the film shows Shaun wandering along the beach, carrying a British flag. He pauses and throws the flag out to sea, a symbol of the knowledge he has gained and what has come from his experiences. Shaun is seen at the same location in the beginning of the film, this device being used as a sound and visual metaphor that symbolises the issues and his understanding of belonging have very much changed over time.

Game theory application for lowest price guarantee Essay

The game theory is applicable to a host of issues especially in economics. The theory is applicable where there is a multiplicity of decision makers and each player’s action affects or is affected by what the other party does. To cite a specific example, it is worthy examining how firms make production decisions relating to quality, quantity, pricing, etc. the game theory is equally useful in auctions, contract negotiations, and in voting exercises. Literature review Price setting is a difficult task as there is a multiplicity of players in each business or industry. This is furthered by the fact that each player intends to make the best out of every situation. However, decisions are always taken while accounting for what the rest of the players are going to do. This case holds true especially when the industry being studied is a free market where there is free entry and exit. The fact that competition calls for the adoption of the best possible alternative dictates that a god approach is employed in decision making regarding pricing (Axelrod, 43). Maintenance of a brand is important in the pricing game. A business which has a dominant brand has little work to do since sellers want to stock the products and customer loyalty remains high (Axelrod, 45). At times, changes may prove worthy undertaking. For example when a company is operating excess productivity, it may be forced to lower prices to increase its sales. However, this is only commendable if it does not spark a price war. The chances of achieving minimal interference in the market are desirable though difficult to achieve. This is held because lowering prices of a player’s products will lead to an increased demand for the party’s products assuming that the quality produced is similar to other players’ products (Kalai and Stanford, 400). Even if such products may be of lower quality, it is held that the demand for these products will rise. A rise in a player’s products will definitely lower the demand for other players’ goods in the industry (Kalai and Stanford, 400). This is bound to lead to a price war as the other players must take similar action if they are to remain in business. In the same line of thinking, measures to increase the prices of certain commodities may be counter productive. This means that an attempt to hike the price may lead to resistance from the part of the customers. Such resistance is reflected by the unwillingness to make purchases after a rise in price. An indication of reduced sales also point to an attempt to raise the prices. This indicates that players in any industry or business will always be forced to adopt the lowest possible price. It is only at the lowest prices where firms sell an equilibrium quantity while providing room for profit making. However, lowering of prices below the normal price may send a wrong signal to the customers who may mistake that act as a deceiving ploy to offer them products of a lesser value or quality and thus scare them away (Kalai and Stanford, 402). Such acts not only lead to brand failure as they also hold the potential of reducing revenue to a business entity. A reversal of the price to reflect the actual market pricing may fail to bring back the deserting customers. This may call for re launching of the brand, an expensive issue to any business. However, a gamble of this nature may win customers albeit in the short run. On the other hand, if the businesses in the industry respond by lowering prices, the leading party in lowering prices may have failed as the market share will most likely revert to the normal point. But such lower prices can only be sustainable if they allow a business to enjoy certain profit levels (Chamberlin, 45). Sustainable margins are created through three major ways. The first one centers on product differentiation, the second, on economies of scale, and the third, on the barriers to entry (Hotelling, 41-43). Game theory is useful in pricing strategies especially in oligopolistic industries. In an oligopoly, firms may make decisions regarding whether to increase, to reduce prices or to keep them unchanged (Hotelling, 47-51). The nature of the demand curve in oligopoly is kinked (Kalai and Stanford, 397). This suggests a presence of price stability in the industry. This is possible because in an event of firms increasing prices while others do not change, the end result is a significant fall in demand. On the other hand, if firms reduce the prices, they will gain a market share, the other firms in the industry do not want such a scenario as they also follow suit and consequently prices drop across the industry (Kalai and Stanford, 398). Such a decline in price would see all firms in the industry lose significantly due to poor pricing. In this market a decision by one firm holds a significant bearing in the industry. However, in real world, the kinked curve may never be attained (Kalai and Stanford, 410). This is attributable to the game theory and the complexities involved. To begin with, firms may collude and set prices and production quotas which they stick to. Though this is illegal in some countries like the UK, imposing it is very difficult. Firms may not always pursue profit maximization as they may be willing to make lesser profits if this can raise their market share. Wal Mart supermarket is one such example utilizing this strategy in a bid to expand its activities (Kalai and Stanford, 409). Firms could not be aware of the reactions f other players or may simply choose to ignore the reactions of other players in the industry. To cite an example, a small firm in an oligopoly may avoid cutting prices if it perceives that its action may fail to occasion a significant impact on an industry (Robinson, 22-25). In a monopolistic type of market, the presence of only one buyer implies that price setting is exclusively held by one firm which also happens to act as the industry (Sraffa, 534). This firm can change prices but it must do that carefully (Sraffa, 546). This is held because in as much as the firm can price its products highly, it holds the potential of failing to sell if it goes beyond a certain level of pricing unless it deals in basic goods. So the game theory applies in this case by dictating to the firm to set its price at the point where it maximizes sales and profits. In a duopoly, the presence of two companies or firms is likely to lead to bidding wars and subsequently benefit the customer as a move by one player is easily countered by the other player (Sraffa, 500). This is however based on an assumption that both players are in a position to produce same or slightly identical products. So in a duopoly, prices charged are lowered if the two engage in a game of trying to outdo the other. Findings and conclusion This paper presents pricing as a game in which businesses engage in. it is discernable that every business entity seeks to achieve profits and sustain its growth. This depends on such business’s ability to sell its products. Apart from monopolistic markets the rest have a multiplicity of players. This implies that price setting is a function of other firms’ behavior on the same products. In a competitive environment as realized above, if one player changes the price, other players will counter that move by carrying out a similar adjustment. This may in the end lead to a loss for all players. On the basis of the above realization, industry players are forced to operate on the Nash equilibrium. At this position, each player in an industry is well of playing by the rules of the game. This means the pricing at this point is the lowest the firms can charge, any reduction on the price would seriously affect the profitability of the company. if a player chose to reduce prices in the hope of making profits as a result of increased sales, the other players will follow sit and the end result is a loss for all. In reference to a monopolistic market, the cost of products is the lowest possible as further increments on the price would portend ill for the business’ profits due to reduced sales. On the basis of the evidence adduced in this paper, the game theory holds a huge influence on pricing of products in all markets. The aim of the firms remains the pursuit of pricing their products at a point where they can sustain the businesses. However, the game theory may not lead to the lowest prices if firms collude and if other firms use underhand tactics like issuing threats to other players. Cited Works E. H. Chamberlin. The Theory of Monopolistic Competition. Cambridge: MA Harvard University Press, 2003. Ehud. Kalai and William, Stanford. â€Å"Finite Rationality and Interpersonal Complexity in Repeated Games,† Econometrica 56(2008), 397-410. Harrison, Hotelling. â€Å"Stability in Competition,† Economic Journal, 39 (Mar. 1929):41- 57. John, Robinson. The Economics of Imperfect Competition. London: Macmillan, 2003. Paul, Sraffa, â€Å"The Laws of returns under competitive conditions,† Economic Journal 36(2006), 535-550. Robert, Axelrod. The Evolution of Cooperation. NY: Basic Books, 2004.

Antigone

Evil not only fascinates people in general, but writers as well. In what ways and with what effect has â€Å"evil† been treated in Antigone? In the play of ‘Antigone’, evil appears in many forms. There is the soldier who is a traitor to his nation; the sister trying to prove her love for her family yet ends up breaking the law; the king who so eagerly tries to stop rule-breakers yet he himself neglects his flesh and blood. Here the difference of the two works is seen: The Earth of Mankind gives the impression that characters of power possess evil, whereas in Antigone, evil can be inside all of these opposing individuals. Polyneices, a soldier who fought against his own nation was to be punished as a traitor by not burying him after his death. When his sister, Antigone, goes against the King’s decree and burry Polyneices, she was also seen as a traitor to her country. However their other sibling, Ismene, who sits at home as Antigone fights for her brother’s right, is also said to have performed a crime of being a traitor to her family. Now something we can see from here is that each and every character involved in the story so far possesses evil. This message is summed up by Sophocles in page 204 of the book, in Ode 1, where it says, ‘O fate of man, working both good and evil! ’ What the writer is trying to convey here is more realistic than what is said in ‘The Earth of Mankind’; both evil and good is naturally inside everyone’s mind.It is one’s choice to do which, but performing a crime is inevitable. Everyone has his or her own ‘evil’ deeds, not only the powerful ones. As seen in my previous explanation on who performs evil deeds in the play of ‘Antigone’, we can see that one evil act leads to another, whereas the chain of good doings ends sooner. Eteocles, who was a soldier and a brother to Antigone, fought bravely for his nation and was buried with honor by the King. Although many respect him for his virtuosity, the play didn’t show that further kindness was done because of him.However, when Polyneices betrays his nation and fought against it, a number of people are forced to perform evil in his affect. Antigone had to break the law in order to give him his right of getting a burial. Ismene, who was too scared to go against the decree, was said to be a traitor to her family, as she didn’t come to assist Antigone in her mission. They then cause Creon to imprison the sisters, punish them, which then cause him to have a fight with his son. Creon then causes death of Haimon, and therefore leads to the suicide of the Queen.On page 243, the messenger says, ‘†¦and her last breath was a curse for their father, the murderer of her sons. ’ A number of misfortunes occur as being the result of one act of evil. The play now gives the effect that evil gives more negative outcomes in comparison to good giving positive results. Here, evil is powerful enough to make such a big impact on its surrounding; bigger than the good. Creon sees Antigone as a traitor to his rules, despite her reasons. Creon imprisoned both Antigone and Ismene for the burial of the nation’s traitor, Polyneices, who is their brother.It is true that Antigone has broken the law, but according to her logic, it is more important to follow the rules of the Gods than the King. She feels that the dead, no matter what they did in their lives, deserve respect and be buried, and that it was her duty to do so as Polyneices’ sister. She didn’t care that she is breaking the decree, and may be punished to die, as long as this task is done. Creon, being a non-believer of the Gods in the beginning, thinks that breaking the law is crime, no matter for what purpose.Polyneices was a traitor and he suffers because of himself, thus no one should help him. On page 211, Creon even said to Antigone, ‘An enemy is an enemy, even dead. ’ There is truth in both arguments, and no one can say what is right. Here, the play depicts that the existence of evil depends on how one views it. ‘Antigone’ treats evil as a subjective topic, where it may be seen as a crime from one point of view, but is actually a good deed from another. No evil deed is done without a reason, and the play shows that one should explore, not only what crime has been done, but also why it was done.