Epistemology †Empiricism Essay

Principles like those Parmenides assumed are said in contemporary jargon to be a priori principles, or principles of reason, which just means that they are known prior to experience. It is not that we learn these principles first chronologically but rather that our knowledge of them does not depend on our senses. For example, consider the principle â€Å"You can’t make something out of nothing. † If you wished to defend this principle, would you proceed by conducting an experiment in which you tried to make something out of nothing? In fact, you would not. You would base your defense on our inability to conceive of ever making  something out of nothing Everything we know originates from four sources. The first, our senses, can be thought of as our primary source of information. Two other sources, reason and intuition, are derivative in the sense that they produce new facts from data already supplied to our minds. The fourth source, authority (or â€Å"hearsay,† or â€Å"testimony† of others), is by nature secondary, and secondhand fact-claims are always more wiggly and difficult to validate. Other sources of knowledge are commonly claimed, and it is not inconceivable that there might exist other sources; but if they do exist,  knowledge derived from them is problematic, and careful analysis usually finds that they can be subsumed under one or more of the four known sources and must be seriously questioned as legitimate, separate sources of reliable information. In summary, what is the nature of our knowledge about the real world of objects/events? Our knowledge of reality is composed of ideas our minds have created on the basis of our sensory experience. It is a fabric of knowledge woven by the mind. Knowledge is not given to the mind; nothing is â€Å"poured† into it. Rather, the mind manufactures perceptions, concepts, ideas, beliefs, and so forth and holds  them as working hypotheses about external reality. Every idea is a (subjective) working model that enables us to handle real objects/events with some degree of pragmatic efficiency. However persuasive our thoughts and images may be, they are only remote representations of reality; they are tools that enable us to deal with reality. It is as though we draw nondimensional maps to help us understand four-dimensional territory. The semanticists have long reminded us to beware of confusing any sort of map with the real landscape. â€Å"The map,† they say, â€Å"is not the territory. † An abstraction, by definition, is an idea created by the mind to refer to all objects which, possessing certain characteristics in common, are thought of in the same class. The number of objects in the class can range from two to infinity. We can refer to all men, all hurricanes, all books, all energy-forms—all everything. While abstraction-building is an inescapable mental process—in fact it is the first step in the organization of our knowledge of objects/events—a serious problem is inherent in the process. At high levels of abstraction we tend to group together objects that have but a few qualities in common, and our abstractions  may be almost meaningless, without our knowing it. We fall into the habit of using familiar abstractions and fail to realize how empty they are. For example, what do the objects in the following abstractions have in common? All atheists, all Western imperialists, all blacks or all whites (and if you think it’s skin color, think twice), all conservatives, all trees, all French people, all Christians. When we think in such high-level abstractions, it is often the case that we are communicating nothing meaningful at all. â€Å"The individual object or event we are naming, of course, has no name and belongs  to no class until we put it in one. † Going as far back as Plato, philosophers have traditionally defined knowledge as true justified belief. A priori knowledge is knowledge that is justified independently of (or prior to) experience. What kinds of knowledge could be justified without any appeal to experience? Certainly, we can know the truth of definitions and logical truths apart from experience. Hence, definitions and logically necessary truths are examples of a priori knowledge. For example, â€Å"All unicorns are one-horned creatures† is true by definition. Similarly, the following  statement is a sure bet: â€Å"Either my university’s football team will win their next game or they won’t. † Even if they tie or the game is canceled, this would fulfill the â€Å"they won’t win† part of the prediction. Hence, this statement expresses a logically necessary truth about the football team. These two statements are cases of a priori knowledge. Notice that in the particular examples of a priori knowledge I have chosen, they do not give us any real, factual information about the world. Even though the statement about unicorns is true, it does not tell us whether there are any unicorns in the world. Similarly, the football prediction does not tell us the actual outcome of the game. Experience of the world is required to know these things. The second kind of knowledge is a posteriori knowledge, or knowledge that is based on (or posterior to) experience. Similarly, the adjective empirical refers to anything that is based on experience. Any claims based on experience purport to add new information to the subject. Hence, â€Å"Water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit† and â€Å"Tadpoles become frogs† would be examples of a posteriori knowledge. We know the freezing point of water and the life cycle of tadpoles through experience. Thus far, most philosophers would agree on these points. The difficult question now arises: Is there any a priori knowledge that does give us knowledge about the real world? What would that be like? It would be knowledge expressible in a statement such that (a) its truth is not determined solely by the meaning of its terms and (b) it does provide information about the way the world is. Furthermore, since it is a priori, it would be knowledge that we could justify through reason, independently of experience. The question, then, is whether or not reason alone can tell us about the ultimate nature of reality. 1. Is it possible to have knowledge at all? 2. Does reason provide us with knowledge of the world independently of experience? 3. Does our knowledge represent reality as it really is? Rationalism claims that reason or the intellect is the primary source of our fundamental knowledge about reality. Nonrationalists agree that we can use reason to draw conclusions from the information provided by sense experience. However, what distinguishes the rationalists is that they claim that reason can give us knowledge apart from experience. For example, the rationalists point out that we can arrive at mathematical truths about circles  or triangles without having to measure, experiment with, or experience circular or triangular objects. We do so by constructing rational, deductive proofs that lead to absolutely indubitable conclusions that are always universally true of the world outside our minds (a priori knowledge about the world). Obviously, the rationalists think the second question should be answered affirmatively. Empiricism is the claim that sense experience is the sole source of our knowledge about the world. Empiricists insist that when we start life, the original equipment of our intellect is a tabula rasa, or blank tablet. Only through experience does that empty mind become filled with content. Various empiricists give different explanations of the nature of logical and mathematical truths. They are all agreed, however, that these truths are not already latent in the mind before we discover them and that there is no genuine a priori knowledge about the nature of reality. The empiricists would respond â€Å"No! † to the second epistemological question. With respect to question 3, both the rationalists and the empiricists think that our knowledge does represent reality as it really is. Constructivism is used in this discussion to refer to the claim that knowledge is neither already in the mind nor passively received from experience, but that the mind constructs knowledge out of the materials of experience. Immanuel Kant, an 18th-century German philosopher, introduced this view. He was influenced by both the rationalists and the empiricists and attempted to reach a compromise between them. While Kant did not agree with the rationalists on everything, he did believe we can have a priori knowledge of the world as we experience it. Although Kant did not use this label, I call his position constructivism  to capture his distinctive account of knowledge. One troubling consequence of his view was that because the mind imposes its own order on experience, we can never know reality as it is in itself. We can only know reality as it appears to us after it has been filtered and processed by our minds. Hence, Kant answers question 3 negatively. Nevertheless, because Kant thought our minds all have the same cognitive structure, he thought we are able to arrive at universal and objective knowledge within the boundaries of the human situation. Before reading further, look at the highway picture for an example of a classic  experiment in perception. Did you get the right answer, or were your eyes fooled? One way that skeptics attack knowledge claims is to point to all the ways in which we have been deceived by illusions. Our experience with perceptual illusions shows that in the past we have been mistaken about what we thought we knew. These mistakes lead, the skeptic claims, to the conclusion that we can never be certain about our beliefs, from which it follows that our beliefs are not justified. Another, similar strategy of the skeptic is to point to the possibility that our apprehension of reality could be systematically flawed in some way. The story of Ludwig, the brain in the vat who experienced a false virtual reality, would be an example of this strategy. Another strategy is to suppose that there is an inherent flaw in human psychology such that our beliefs never correspond to reality. I call these possible scenarios universal belief falsifiers. The characteristics of a universal belief falsifier are (1) it is a theoretically possible state of affairs, (2) we have no way of knowing if this state of affairs is actual or not, and (3) if this state of affairs is actual, we would never be able to distinguish beliefs that are true  from beliefs that seem to be true but are actually false. Note that the skeptic does not need to prove that these possibilities are actual. For example, the skeptic does not have to establish that we really are brains in a vat, but merely that this condition is possible. Furthermore, the skeptic need not claim that all our beliefs are false. The skeptic’s point is simply that we have no fail-safe method for determining when our beliefs are true or false. Given this circumstance, the skeptic will argue that we cannot distinguish the situation of having evidence that leads to true beliefs from the situation of having the same sort of evidence  plus a universal belief falsifier, which leads to false beliefs. Obviously, the skeptic believes that nothing is beyond doubt. For any one of our beliefs, we can imagine a set of circumstances in which it would be false. For example, I believe I was born in Rahway, New Jersey. However, my birth certificate could be inaccurate. Furthermore, for whatever reasons, my parents may have wished to keep the truth from me. I will never know for sure. I also believe that there is overwhelming evidence that Adolf Hitler committed suicide at the close of World War II. However, it could be true (as conspiracy theorists maintain) that his death was faked and that he lived a long life in South America after the war. The theme of the skeptic is that certainty is necessary for there to be knowledge, and if doubt is possible, then we do not have certainty. We now have the considerations in place that the skeptic uses to make his or her case. There are many varieties of skeptical arguments, each one exploiting some possible flaw in either human cognition or the alleged evidence we use to justify our beliefs. Instead of presenting various specific arguments, we can consider a â€Å"generic skeptical argument. † Generic Skeptical Argument 1. We can find reasons for doubting any one of our beliefs. 2. It follows that we can doubt all our beliefs. 3. If we can doubt all our beliefs, then we cannot be certain of any of them. 4. If we do not have certainty about any of our beliefs, then we do not have knowledge. 5. Therefore, we do not have knowledge. Pyrrho of Elis (360–270 B. C. ), a philosopher in ancient Greece, inspired a skeptical movement that bore his name (Pyrrhonian skepticism). Pyrrho was skeptical concerning sense experience. He argued that for experience to be a source of knowledge, our sense data  must agree with reality. But it is impossible to jump outside our experience to see how it compares with the external world. So, we can never know whether our experience is giving us accurate information about reality. Furthermore, rational argument cannot give us knowledge either, Pyrrho said, because for every argument supporting one side of an issue, another argument can be constructed to prove the opposing case. Hence, the two arguments cancel each other out and they are equally ineffective in leading us to the truth. The followers of Pyrrho stressed that we can make claims only about how things appear to us. You can say, â€Å"The honey appears to me to be sweet† but not, â€Å"The honey is sweet. † The best approach, according to these skeptics, was to suspend judgment whenever possible and make no assumptions at all. They believed that skeptical detachment would lead to serenity. â€Å"Don’t worry about what you cannot know,† they advised. Some skeptics distilled these arguments down into two simple theses. First, nothing is self-evident, for any axiom we start with can be doubted. Second, nothing can be proven, for either we will have an infinite regress of reasons that support our previous  reasons or we will end up assuming what we are trying to prove. Descartes began his quest for knowledge with the assumption that if he had rational certainty concerning his beliefs, he necessarily had knowledge, and if he did not have certainty, he did not have knowledge. The skeptics who came after Descartes agreed with this assumption. However, as we will see in the next section, Descartes argues that there are a number of things of which we can be certain and, hence, we do have knowledge. On the other hand, the skeptics doubt whether Descartes or anyone can achieve such certainty. Lacking any grounds for certainty, the skeptics claim we cannot have knowledge about the real world. Thus, the skeptics think that Descartes’s arguments for skepticism are stronger than his proposed answers. Such a philosopher was David Hume, whom we will encounter later when we examine empir EXAMINING THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF SKEPTICISM Positive Evaluation 1. Weeding a garden is not sufficient to make flowers grow, but it does do something valuable. In what way could the skeptics be viewed as providing a â€Å"philosophical weeding service† by undercutting beliefs that are naively taken for granted? 2. The skeptics are unsettling because they force us to reexamine our most fundamental beliefs. Is it better to live in naive innocence, never questioning anything, or is it sometimes worthwhile to have your beliefs challenged? Negative Evaluation 1. The skeptics make the following claim: â€Å"Knowledge is impossible. † But isn’t this claim itself a knowledge claim that they declare is true? Is the skeptic being inconsistent? 2. The skeptics use the argument from illusion to show that we cannot trust our senses. But could we ever know that there are illusions or that sometimes our senses are deceived  unless there were occasions when our senses weren’t deceived? 3. Some skeptics would have us believe that it is possible that all our beliefs are false. But would the human race have survived if there was never a correspondence between some of our beliefs and the way reality is constituted? We believe that fire burns, water quenches thirst, vegetables nourish us, and eating sand doesn’t. If we didn’t have some sort of built-in mechanism orienting us toward true beliefs, how could we be as successful as we are in dealing with reality? 4. Is skepticism liveable? Try yelling to someone who claims to be a skeptic, â€Å"Watch out  for that falling tree limb! † Why is it that a skeptic will always look up? Think of other ways in which skeptics might demonstrate that they do believe they can find out what is true or false about the world. 5. Is Descartes’s demand for absolute certainty unreasonable? Can’t we have justified beliefs based on inferences to the best explanation, probability, or practical certainty? Does certainty have to be either 100 percent or 0 percent? The answer is that our reason tells us that â€Å"something cannot come from nothing† and â€Å"material objects do not vanish into thin air. † We will distrust our senses before  we will abandon these beliefs. Hence, our reason seems to have veto power over our sense experience. We often trust our reason even in the face of apparently solid, experiential evidence. The rationalists raise this trust in reason into a full-fledged theory of knowledge. Rationalism is a very influential theory about the source and nature of knowledge. This position may be summarized in terms of the three anchor points of rationalism. These three points are responses to the second question of epistemology, Does reason provide us with knowledge of the world independently of experience? Reason Is the Primary or Most Superior Source of Knowledge about Reality According to the rationalist, it is through reason that we truly understand the fundamental truths about reality. For example, most rationalists would say the truths in the following lists are some very basic truths about the world that will never change. Although our experience certainly does illustrate most of these beliefs, our experiences always consist of par-ticular, concrete events. Hence, no experiences of seeing, feeling, hearing, tasting, or touching specific objects can tell us that these statements will always be true for every  future event we encounter. The rationalist claims that the following statements represent a priori truths about the world. They are a priori because they can be known apart from experience, yet they tell us what the world is like. LOGICAL TRUTHS A and not-A cannot both be true at the same time (where A represents some proposition or claim). This truth is called the law of noncontradiction. (For example, the statement â€Å"John is married and John is not married† is necessarily false. ) If the statement X is true and the statement â€Å"If X, then Y† is true, then it necessarily follows that the statement Y is true. MATHEMATICAL TRUTHS The area of a triangle will always be one-half the length of the base times its height. If X is larger than Y and Y is larger than Z, then X is larger than Z. METAPHYSICAL TRUTHS Every event has a cause. An object with contradictory properties cannot exist. (No matter how long we search, we will never find a round square. ) ETHICAL PRINCIPLES Some basic moral obligations are not optional. It is morally wrong to maliciously torture someone for the fun of it. Sense Experience Is an Unreliable and Inadequate Route to Knowledge Rationalists typically emphasize the fact that sense experience is relative, changing, and often illusory. An object will look one way in artificial light and will look different in sunlight. Our eyes seem to see water on the road on a hot day, but the image is merely an optical illusion. The rationalist claims that we need our reason to sort out what is appearance from what is reality. Although it is obvious that a rationalist could not get through life without some reliance on sense experience, the rationalist denies that sense experience is the only source of knowledge about reality. Furthermore, experience can tell us only about particular things in the world. However, it cannot give us universal, foundational truths  about reality. Sensory experience can tell me about the properties of this ball, but it cannot tell me about the properties of spheres in general. Experience can tell me that when I combine these two oranges with those two oranges, they add up to four oranges. However, only reason can tell me that two plus two will always equal four and that this result will be true not only for these oranges, or all oranges, but for anything whatsoever. The Fundamental Truths about the World Can Be Known A Priori: They Are Either Innate or Self-Evident to Our Minds Innate ideas are ideas that are inborn. They are ideas or principles that the mind already contains prior to experience. The notion of innate ideas is commonly found in rationalistic philosophies, but it is rejected by the empiricists. The theory of innate ideas views the mind like a computer that comes from the factory with numerous programs already loaded on its disk, waiting to be activated. Hence, rationalists say that such ideas as the laws of logic, the concept of justice, or the idea of God are already contained deep within the mind and only need to be brought to the level of conscious awareness. Innate ideas should not be confused with instinct. Instinct is a noncognitive set of mechanical behaviors, such as blinking the eyes when an object approaches them. The theory of innate ideas is one account of how we can have a priori knowledge. Other rationalists believe that if the mind does not already contain these ideas, they are, at least, either self-evident or natural to the mind and the mind has a natural predisposition to recognize them. For example, Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716), a German rationalist, compared the mind to a block of marble that contains veins or natural splitting points that allow only one sort of shape to be formed within it. Thus, the mind, like the marble, has an innate structure that results in â€Å"inclinations, dispositions, habits, or natural capacities† to think in certain ways. In contrast to this view, John Locke (a British empiricist) said: â€Å"There is nothing in the intellect that was not first in the senses. † In response, Leibniz tagged the following rationalistic qualification at the end of Locke’s formula, â€Å"except for the intellect itself. † Obviously, in saying that the mind contains rational ideas or dispositions, the rationalists do not believe a baby is thinking about the theorems of geometry. Instead, they claim  that when a person achieves a certain level of cognitive development, he or she will be capable of realizing the self-evident truth of certain ideas. Leibniz pointed out that there is a difference between the mind containing rational principles and being aware of them. Rationalists give different accounts of how the mind acquired innate ideas in the first place. Socrates and Plato believed that our souls preexisted our current life and received knowledge from a previous form of existence. Theistic rationalists, such as Descartes, tend to believe that God implanted these ideas within us. Others simply claim that these principles or ideas naturally accompany rational minds such as ours. THE RATIONALISTS’ ANSWERS TO THE THREE EPISTEMOLOGICAL QUESTIONS Section 2. 0 contained three questions concerning knowledge: (1) Is knowledge possible? (2) Does reason provide us with knowledge of the world independently of experience? and (3) Does our knowledge represent reality as it really is? While differing on the details, all the rationalists give the same answers to these three questions. First, they all believe that knowledge is possible. Generally, we are able to discern that some opinions are better than others. For example, in the discipline of mathematics some answers are true and some are false. We could not know this fact if obtaining knowledge was impossible. Second, the rationalists agree that only through reason can we find an adequate basis for knowledge. For example, in mathematics and logic we are able through reason alone to arrive at truths that are absolutely certain and necessarily true. Third, rationalists agree that beliefs that are based on reason do represent reality as it truly is. In the following sections, I examine three classical rationalists to see how they illustrate the three anchor points of rationalism and  answer the three epistemological questions. Socrates’ answers to the three epistemological questions should be clear. (1) We are able to distinguish true opinions from false ones, so we must know the standards for making this distinction. (2) These standards could not be derived from experience so they must be unpacked through a rational investigation of the reservoir of all truth—the soul. (3) Since our rational knowledge provides us with information that enables us to deal successfully with the world and our own lives, it must be giving us an accurate picture of reality. However, according to Plato, since the  physical world is constantly changing, sense perception gives us only relative and temporary information about changing, particular things. Being a typical rationalist, Plato thought that ultimate knowledge must be objective, unchanging, and universal. Furthermore, he argued that there is a difference between true opinions and knowledge, for our beliefs must be rationally justified to qualify as knowledge. Finally, Plato believed that the object of knowledge must be something that really exists. Plato and the Role of Reason Do mathematical truths, such as those in the multiplication tables, exist within the mind  or do they exist outside the mind? Plato would say both. If mathematical truths exist only in the mind, then why does physical reality conform to these truths? If mathematical truths are only mind-dependent ideas, then why can’t we make the truths about triangles be anything we decide them to be? The world of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was created in the mind of Lewis Carroll. He could have made the world’s properties be anything he decided. But obviously, we can’t make up such rules for the properties of numbers. We don’t create these truths; we discover them. Thus, Plato would argue, these truths are objective and independent of our minds. But if they are independent of our minds, then they must refer to something that exists in reality. Although the number seven, for example, has objective properties that we discover, these properties are not physical. We do not learn the truths about numbers by seeing, tasting, hearing, smelling, or touching them. From this concept, Plato concludes that the world of mathematics consists of a set of objective, mindindependent truths and a domain of nonphysical reality that we know only through reason. What about justice? What color is it? How tall is it? How much does it weigh? Clearly, these questions can apply to physical things, but it is meaningless to describe justice in terms of observable properties. Furthermore, no society is perfectly just. Hence, we have never seen an example of perfect justice in human history, only frail, human attempts to approximate it. Because reason can contemplate Justice Itself,* we can evaluate the deficient, limited degrees of justice found in particular societies. Particular nations come and go and the degree of justice they manifest can rise or fall. But the objects of genuine knowledge  Ã‚  such as true Justice or true Circularity are eternal and unchanging standards and objects of knowledge. Plato on Universals and the Knowledge of Reality Thus far, Plato has argued that there are some things that we could not know about (Justice, Goodness, Equality) if experience was our only source of knowledge. The soul must have somehow acquired knowledge independently of the senses. But what, exactly, are the objects of this special sort of knowledge? In answering this question, Plato builds on the distinction he has made between the here-and-now realm of sense experience and the unchanging realm of rational knowledge. He says that in the world of sense experience we find that particulars fall into a number of stable, universal categories. Without these categories, we could not identify anything or talk about particulars at all. For example, Tom, Andre, Maria, and Lakatria are all distinct individuals, yet we can use the universal term human being to refer to each of them. In spite of their differences, something about them is the same. Corresponding to each common name (such as â€Å"human,† â€Å"dog,† â€Å"justice†) is a Universal that consists of the essential, common properties of anything within that category. Circular objects (coins, rings, wreathes, planetary orbits) all have the Universal of Circularity in common. Particular objects that are beautiful (roses, seashells, persons, sunsets, paintings) all share the Universal of Beauty. Particulars come into being, change, and pass away but Universals reside in an eternal, unchanging world. The rose grows from a bud, becomes a beautiful flower, and then turns brown and ugly and fades away. Yet the Universal of Beauty (or Beauty Itself ) remains eternally the same. Plato believes that Universals are more than concepts, they are actually the constituents  of reality. Hence, in answer to the third epistemological question, Plato believes that knowledge of Universals provides us with knowledge of the fundamental features of reality, which are nonphysical, eternal, and unchanging. Plato also refers to these Universals as â€Å"Forms. † The following thought experiment will help you appreciate Plato’s emphasis on Universals and universal truth. Descartes on the Possibility of Knowledge Although Descartes was certain he could not be deceived about his own existence, the possibility of a Great Deceiver cast a shadow over all his other beliefs. Unless he could find something external to his mind that would guarantee that the contents of his mind represented reality, there was little hope for having any knowledge other than that of his own existence. Descartes sought this guarantee in an all-powerful, good God. Hence, Descartes says, â€Å"As soon as the opportunity arises I must examine whether there is a God, and, if there is, whether he can be a deceiver. For if I do not know this, it seems that I can never be quite certain about anything else. †12 If Descartes could prove that such a God exists, then he could know that knowledge is possible. But notice how limited are the materials Descartes has at his disposal for proving God’s existence. He cannot employ an empirical argument based on the nature of the external world, for that is an issue that is still in doubt. So, he must construct a rationalistic argument that reasons only from the contents of his own mind. STOP AND THINK Descartes on the Role of Reason In the following passage from Meditation III, Descartes says the â€Å"natural light of reason† shows him that (1) something cannot arise from nothing and (2) there must be at least as much reality in the cause as there is in the effect. †¢ What examples does he use to illustrate each of these principles? †¢ How does he apply these two principles to the existence of his own ideas? The argument that Descartes has given us in the previous passages can be summarized in this way: 1. Something cannot be derived from nothing. (In other words, all effects, including ideas, are caused by something. ) 2. There must be at least as much reality in the cause as there is in the effect. 3. I have an idea of God (as an infinite and perfect being). 4. The idea of God in my mind is an effect that was caused by something. 5. I am finite and imperfect, and thus I could not be the cause of the idea of an infinite and perfect God. 6. Only an infinite and perfect being could be the cause of such an idea. 7. Therefore, God (an infinite and perfect being) exists. THE THREE ANCHOR POINTS OF EMPIRICISM The Only Source of Genuine Knowledge Is Sense Experience The empiricists compare the mind to a blank tablet upon which experience makes its marks. Without experience, they claim, we would lack not only knowledge of the specific features of the world, but also the ability even to con.

Love in the Cornhusks

â€Å"LOVE IN THE CORNHUSKS† By: Aida Rivera Ford Setting:  The  story  happens  in  a  Barrio. Climax:  Tinang  discovers  after  reading  the  love  letter  from  her  first  love, Amado, that she is still loved by him. However, by then, she is already married to a Bagobo and has a son with him. REACTION Aida Rivera Ford, according to my research, has lived with her husband in their large farm in Davao, the place where I live as well. In connection to this, the short story of Love in the Cornhusks is somehow related with her life like its barrio-setting and the characteristics of  the Characters as well.Perhaps, the main character is a woman based on the fact that the writer of this short story is a woman too. The story is very simple, easy to understand and yet realistic. It begins in a situation where the main character, Tinang, starts her day as she visits her Senora with a good vibe that shifted to a different one lately. The author ma de the life of Tinang centered between two men. The Bagobo, her husband, and Amado do not speak in the story but they are characterized differently with each other.It appears that her husband, the Bagobo, is a simple man, whom is satisfied of being a farmer with the 2 hectares of land for his family. On one hand, Amado, the one she loved before her husband, is portrayed as a tractor driver, whom wears formal clothes every Saturday and a yet man who gives importance to his future as he wants to study mechanical engineering someday. I see in the story that in life, choices are given to us and yet what we have to do is to discern and stand in the decision we may select.Hence, marrying is not a joke and to marry the Bagobo is not just a coincidence in Tinang’s life but it is her decision when she did so, even if she did not know yet the reason why Amado had suddenly gone. The last part of the story has some symbolic figures. Tinang still loves Amado even after she got married to her husband. Reading the letter is a moment when Tinang’s feeling for Amado has reawakened. To cry is the first thing she does, then, she tries to recollect her first experiences with him. A snake comes in  the scene sneaking towards her baby.As I analyze it, I see that snake is the representation of such discovery and poses threat towards her relationship with her family. Why the snake is going to her baby? It is because that snake, if Tinang lets herself be taken by her emotion, can destroy her relationship with her Bagobo husband. Indeed, the snake is about to attack her son for he is the symbol and the fruit of the love that she and her husband shared together. In the end of the story, the author’s symbolisms are saying that Tinang chooses to accept the consequences in the decision she made in her life.First, she stands up from her sitting position–telling that life must go on; then she embraced the baby–telling that she has to embrace her own conse quences and situatedness and especially the people whom God has given to her; next, she prayed and beg the almighty not to punish her after thinking other things outside from her married life–saying that she realizes that her thoughts are wrong; afterwards, she checks the skin of the baby searching for some marks–showing the possible scars in her married life after reincarnating the feelings she once had with Amado; and the last one, the letter fell unnoticed among the cornhusk–  saying that she leaves that momentum without knowing that her very strong feeling and longing to Amado, if is not totally gone yet, is at least eased and is left among the cornhusks, which is meant to be consider as only a past of her life. REFLECTION â€Å"Destiny is not a matter of chance, but of choice. † This is a famous saying I have been hearing since my early teenage years. After reading the story, I am affirmed that a relationship tantamount to what Tinang and Amado had is not always certain. Life is full of twisting events and human beings have to understand that decisions done in every moment must be discerned well and its consequences should be accepted.If I were Tinang, I would surely find myself too thinking about the other possibilities that could happen in my life if I did not marry the Bagobo. However, though it is a little bit painful, I know that I cannot rewind anymore the time and what I have to is to accept that life is like that. We tend to experience the excruciating consequences of our hasty or even faulty decisions in order for us to become a better and mature person someday in making decisions once again in our life. Hence, love in the cornhusk, as it is portraying that life has to be dealt with acceptance, I learn that at the end of the day, I must reserve a part of myself a chance of being able to move on and cope with the excruciating moments I may face in the future.

EMPLOYABILITY AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

EMPLOYABILITY AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT - Article Example The following discussion reveals all the important issues highlighted on after intense evaluation of the factors that coincide with learning and employability. The process of elevating employability and personal development The phenomenon is crucial in guaranteeing the society of educated professionals, and career oriented individuals. The subject seeks to emulate the ideal personal skills sort in the elite after completion of academic courses. Employability also seeks to ensure to learners that the working environment has numerous obstacles, which can only be derailed by the expression of the ideal knowledge prior to seeking jobs in the specific industries reflecting personal careers (Gallagher, 2013, p. 259). During personal development, the workshop highlighted that students in different learning institutions needed to involve themselves in self-awareness evaluation processes. Such processes would enable them to accrue an understanding of their individual capabilities, and ideolog ies of the perceptions that may be shown by their potential employers on the event of seeking employment opportunities. ... Further, the study describes that students should rely enviably on the present resources in order to be capable of realizing the future outcomes. Personal esteem and identity match conclusively in this case since students are able to adapt the variables prior to emulation of their personal abilities (Gonon, 2008, p.89). Such practices are salient in enabling the students to realize their potentials in emulating a match in accordance to the needs and wants of the employment fraternity. The seminar highlighted on students’ modelling and rehearsal programs as subjects to the underpinning theoretical frameworks. Mainly, the seminar highlighted on John Locke’s 1968 arguments that employability procedures coincided abundantly individuals’ own goal setting, and future forecasts on their lifelong wishes. Arguments are that the process of employability and accountability further facilitate the improvement of the ideal personal abilities and talents. It is sound for studen ts to understand that their potential is ideal to the acquisition of reassurances that they will be able to earn employment opportunities after completion of their studies. Evidence from the London employability and personal development seminar highlighted that students would be working towards achievement of their future dreams only if they would be building upon their future dreams. Further, these efforts would saliently lead to the acquisition of their dream lives thus they would live quality lives. The theoretical frameworks were important in assuring learners of success since the knowledge accrued during the process would be exhorted in the future learning process. The aspect

Economics answer question Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Economics answer question - Essay Example A decade after the World War II, Japan has experienced astonishing economic figures, flashing a near double-digit "average annual growth rate of 9.2% and increased its real GDP sevenfold" (Itoh, 1). Itoh has identified at least four factors relating to the miraculous climb of the Japanese economy since early 1950's. Generally, what helped Japan gain such a high growth rate are timely help from abroad with a favorable economic environment and sound macroeconomic policies. One of the accidental help to the Japanese economy is the favorable international environment. The "US global strategy of creating a bulwark against communism by the substantial reduction of war reparation in addition to a recovery aid programme" has helped Japan's economy (Itoh, 2). The growth if world trade has also facilitated Japanese exports and imports. The second factor that brought Japan's booming economy was the availability of new technologies. The Japanese were able to easily adapt the technologies brought from the US into their production primarily due to the high adaptability of Japanese workers and rising level of education and training. It has then become an important jumpstart for the Japanese automobile industry. The favorable terms of trade... The fourth reason for the Japanese economic boom was the cheap and docile labor. The "large shift in working population away from agricultural areas provided the necessary amount of relatively cheap labor for the rapid growth of urban secondary and tertiary capitalist industries" (Itoh, 3). Some macroeconomic policies applied by the Japanese government also did well to their economy. It includes the "necessary infrastructure such as seaports, roads, railways and communication system" (Itoh, 4). Generally, "the Japanese economic growth was mainly dependent on expanding domestic market and maintained a relatively low rate of export dependency" (Itoh, 4) The Economic Struggle The collapse of the Bretton Woods International Monetary System has brought a domino effect of economic crisis to Japan. The trade deficit of USA coupled with multinationalization of US firms increase private foreign investments leading to a substantial outflow of dollar funds. This event has resulted in the appreciation of the yen, as all economists know; this event hurt the export of Japan. Countries resorted the fully floating exchange rate in 1973, believing that this would gradually resolve international trade imbalance. However, "the automatic adjustment mechanism did not work particularly in the case of Japan" (Itoh, 6). There also a resulting inflationary pressures making the products more expensive. An over-accumulation of capital also occurred to the point wherein the total of capital became so numerous compared to the Japanese working population. This condition became favorable to worker, therefore nominal wages were observed to have increased by 63% in 1970-1973. After th ese events, "the Japanese economy became

Culture and globalisation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Culture and globalisation - Essay Example Benjamin Barber is one of the proponents of the idea that the notion of globalization is destructive for it threatens morals and religious values of people, the distinctiveness of cultures and can turn the world into one big market. There are four main points in Barbers argumentation. First of all, he presents the notion of â€Å"theme parking† which is â€Å"a kind of diversity but it is the diversity of a theme park† (â€Å"Globalization and Culture† 9). By this, he means that even though there is a diversity, it is simulated, artificial, and, in fact, is far from authenticity. Secondly, Barber argues that globalization is homogenization and standardization of culture that affects peoples cultural and aesthetic values, such as eating fast food instead of spending time with family at a dinner table. Also, the opponent of globalization states that more powerful markets, such as the American one, tend to master and destroy the weaker markets and, consequently, inf luence other cultures. Finally, Barber says that globalization is a threat not only to aesthetic but to religious and moral values of people, especially of the representatives of cultures that differ a lot from â€Å"McWorld†, such as Islamic, Hindu, and Judaic cultures, and that to some extent this threat gives rise to terrorism. Tyler Cowan, in his turn, believes that globalization is the positive trend in the development of the modern society and the entire world. He agues that â€Å"markets support diversity and freedom of choice, and trade gives a greater opportunity for artists to express their creative inspiration (â€Å"Glibalization and Culture† 8). In addition to this, Cowan claims that globalization does tend to increase difference between cultures, and at the same time it frees difference from geographical location. Tyler Cowan also refutes four arguments presented by Benjamin

Sociology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 7

Sociology - Essay Example Different nations of people live in one city, like in New York representing unity in diversity with so many cultures and traditional values. Different languages are spoken. Municipalities also register an inevitable growth and they have to provide transportable roads lighting the roads, similarly and should be committed to provide amenities of international standard to being globalization. The technology is no more permitted, limited to a particular part of the world. It is exchanged in order to serve the public with the latest technology. The globe is no bigger. Globalization and sociology represents a single economy. Single technology, efficiency and quality of the products should be of high standard. Because of globalization and sociology there is conspicuous change with the social life industries. One shall meat and come across different rest of different nationals represent at one place. Different sets of different nationals represent diversified cultures, different languages are spoken at one and the same place, and at one and the same time. They come to know each other from a closer proximity. The intimacies develop; relationships pave way for greater understanding. The social pavilion of life is set to rolling. Broader outlook develop into more knowledgeable and understanding environment. There will be a great impact on the urban sociology patterns of life. The world becomes a small place respectively inevitable economical growth, a pleasant knowledge based environment. The world is no bigger, thoughts of seeing the world; the globe on a huge unknown has become so small so much can be felt immensely. T third world, joyous frivolous, sensible, knowledgeable, cultured by urban socialites will cherish. The development may fold big colonies. A lot of departmental stores will enter into the market to cater to the needs of the conglomeration. The branded cloth stores, all varieties clothes grocers, food

Methods research Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Methods research - Assignment Example Each of the 500 respondents will fill a questionnaire with 30 questions. The questionnaire will be based on a 5-point Likert type scale and ordinal scale with open-ended answers being measured using non-ordinal scale. Prior permission for interview will be obtained from the randomly selected schools. The respondents will only be allowed to participate after agreeing to the consent form. A pilot study will be conducted by randomly selecting a sample of 30 participants; 15 male and 15 female. Necessary adjustments will be made based on the outcome of the pilot study to assure validity and reliability of the research. The research assistants will administer the questionnaires to obtain the primary data. The researcher will administer both closed ended an open-ended questions through personal interview. The closed ended questions will be administered first. The open-ended questions will be administered afterword with an aim of clarifying some of the responses from the closed ended

CASE STUDY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 5

CASE STUDY - Essay Example ver, she lost her chance of receiving consultation fees as well as invitation to conferences, since she thought that the book would receive substantial loyalties. As such, Best incurred additional costs when she was forced look for other publishers, and made her to suffer a setback in her career. She also suffered a diminution of respect in the eyes of her colleagues based on the number of colleagues she asked to review her book. According to contract law, mental illness as well as emotional suffering cannot be recovered in the event of contract breach. A recovery in the event of emotional disturbance prevails in case the breach caused bodily harm (Law Handbook 2014). Additionally, damages resulting from limited circumstances comprising of constitutional violations, intentional torts, or breach of good faith can be recovered (Cohen and McKendrick 2005). In the case of Best, the breach of contract by Engineering Books Incorporated did not create bodily harm, indicating that the contract was unrecoverable. The Plaintiff (Best) contracted with the defendant (Engineering Books Incorporated) for the publication of her manuscript, which the defendant confirmed was right for publication. After Best supplied the company with her manuscript, they told her it could not be published because of the heavy publication costs involved. In this case, Best suffered financial and emotional distress because she lost her chance of receiving consultation fees and invitation to conferences, which made her to suffer a setback in her career. She also suffered a diminution of respect in the eyes of her colleagues based on those she asked to review her work (Abele 2007). Best was forced to seek for third party publishers who confirmed that her work would be published if only she was willing to incur the costs involved. With respect to the damages that Best suffered, she should seek remedies pertaining to negligent misrepresentation and emotional distress. She should sue the company for

Investigating the Strength of a Supermarkets Plastic Bag Essay Example for Free

Investigating the Strength of a Supermarkets Plastic Bag Essay Aim I have been asked to investigate the strength of a supermarkets plastic bag. I am going to test and analyse the plastic bag by investigating how applying a gradual increasing force effects the extension of the material. Apparatus * 30cm by 1cm strip of plastic bag, * Stand, * Clamp, * Boss, * Weights (N)- 100g * 2 wood blocks, * Ruler Method Before we can begin the experiment my group and I will have to set up the apparatus as shown on the diagram but with excluding the weights. We will set up the apparatus by cutting a 1 by 30cm strip of plastic from a plastic bag. We will proceed by placing the strip in between the two wooden blocks and then into the clamp. We will then begin the experiment by applying the first weight of 1 Newton. After applying the first weight we will then measure the length of the plastic strip record the length and calculate the extension. We will continue the experiment by adding another 1 Newton and recording the result and extension again. We will continue to keep adding 1 Newton and recording the results until the strip of plastic snaps or we have recorded a total of 10 results. We will redo the experiment twice again so that the results are more accurate and we can determine an average. To make sure that we keep it a fair test we will make sure that we use the same length of plastic strip each time we carry out the experiment. When we increase the force we will always increase by 1 Newton to keep it a fair test. We will be measuring the length and extension of the plastic strip in centimetres (cm). We are doing to this to measure it. Preliminary Work Before completing the plan we tested the experiment as explained in the method. We found that as we increased the force in 1 Newton that the plastic strip actually snapped under an average of 3 Newtons which didnt give us enough results for the experiment. We tested this 3 times and found that this was happening for each time we carried out the experiment. To compensate for this we have decided to increase the force by only half a Newton so that more results can be recorded. Whilst carrying out the experiment we did record a set of results as follows- Experiment 1 Force(N) Length(cm) Extension(cm) 0 28 0 1 28.4 0.4 2 28.8 0.8 3 29.3 1.3 Experiment 2 Force(N) Length(cm) Extension(cm) 0 28 0 1 28.2 0.2 2 28.6 0.6 3 29 1 Experiment 3 Force(N) Length(cm) Extension(cm) 0 28 0 1 28.5 0.5 2 28.7 0.7 3 28.9 0.9 4 29.2 1.2 From these preliminary results I can see that the plastic extends to no more than 1.3cm of its original length before snapping. These results will help me with my prediction. Prediction I already know that the plastic bag is made up of polymers. These are chemical bonds which make up the properties that form the plastic bag. The polymers in which plastic bags are made are more commonly known as polyethylene. Polyethylene is a straight chain polymer. It consists of chains made up of only carbon and hydrogen. The bond that form the chain are covalent bonds and are held together by relatively weak electrostatic forces, because the bond carbon and hydrogen that form the polyethylene are covalent it means that they share electrons. The displayed formula for polyethylene is The chains can go on and on, The longer the chains the stronger the plastic. Polyethylene is very cheap to produce. It is strong and easily moulded. There are forces acting between the particles or molecules of the polyethylene which prevent the change in shape of the material, which when forces are applied can effect. Under the action of external forces the polymer bonds stretch and begin to straighten. At this point the plastic is actin as an elastic. As more force is applied will continue straightening until they reach a point of equal force, at this point the plastic is in a state of strain and can no longer straighten out. This is where the plastic begins to act as a plastic. If more force is applied the bonds will snap and the plastic strip will also snap. After taking into account of the information I already know and the results from my preliminary work, I predict that as the force is applied to the plastic strip it will stretch as an elastic until the force becomes so great it reaches a point at which it can no longer stretch as the bonds have been straightened and weakened, at this point I believe that the plastic strip will snap. Results Whilst carrying out my experiment I recorded the following results, Experiment 1 Force(N) Length(cm) Extension(cm) 0 28 0 1/2 28 0 1 28.2 0.2 1-1/2 28.2 0.2 2 28.4 0.4 2-1/2 28.4 0.4 3 28.6 0.6 3-1/2 28.7 0.7 4 29.0 1 Experiment 2 Weight(N) Length(cm) Extension(cm) 0 28 0 1/2 28 0 1 28.2 0.2 1-1/2 28.3 0.3 2 28.3 0.3 2-1/2 28.5 0.5 3 28.6 0.7 3-1/2 28.8 0.9 4 29.0 1.1 Experiment 3 Weight(N) Length(cm) Extension(cm) 0 28 0 1/2 28.1 0.1 1 28.1 0.1 1-1/2 28.2 0.2 2 28.3 0.3 2-1/2 28.5 0.5 3 28.7 0.7 3-1/2 28.9 0.9 4 29.1 1.1 I am now going to calculate the average for the extensions of each experiment, Average results Weight(N) Average extension(cm) 0 0 1/2 0.03 1 0.1 1-1/2 0.2 2 0.3 2-1/2 0.4 3 0.6 3-1/2 0.8 4 1.0 I am now going to plot a line graph for each set of results and my average results so that they can be easily viewed and analysed. I will use the line graphs to look for patterns and trends. I can also use the line graphs to determine whether I experienced any anomalous or irregular results.

Eragon The Movie vs. Eragon The Novel Essay Example for Free

Eragon The Movie vs. Eragon The Novel Essay People have different views in life. Some would opt to wallow with the beauty of words and the power of the imagination, while others would opt for movies and witness the wonders of visual effects. Some of the stories made turn out to be inspirations for many, while others become a driving force for people to go on and continue with life. One of the most interesting stories in Literature is Eragon. Due to the story and the lessons that both children and adults would learn, the novel was adapted as a movie into the big screen. However, I believe that the novel version of Eragon is still better than the movie version. THE STORY The story revolves around a young boy, named Eragon, who grew up in a small farm in Carvahall together with his uncle and cousin. During one of his hunting trips in the mountains, he found a big blue stone. The stone attracted him greatly, and Eragon thought that if sold in the city, the stone would be enough to suffice for their winter needs. Unknown to Eragon, the blue stone was actually a dragon egg, ready to hatch. Since care for dragons was prohibited by the king, Eragon had no choice but to secretly raise the poor animal, naming her Saphira. Eventually, they were haunted down by the king’s men and had no choice but to flee the village. Eragon’s uncle, Garrow, died due to his injuries, making him furious and hungry for revenge. Eragon’s journey towards survival with Saphira led to more secrets. In the course of their adventures, Brom proposed that he would do whatever it takes to help Eragon. The symbol in Eragon’s hand shows that he is indeed one of the dragon riders, like how Brom used to be. Towards the course of the journey, he was transformed from an ordinary teenager to a sword-fighting rider knowledgeable in magic and the ways of Dragon Riders. Eragon meets more people and encounters more life-threatening situations towards the course of the journey, which allows him to learn more about himself. His quest for revenge allowed him to learn more about himself, and how his search for answers would lead him to protect a whole Empire. SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES Books always have their own identity as compared to the film adaptations. This may be attributed to the fact that readers are given the opportunity to view the novel in their own way, and see things according to what their imagination has to offer. The book and film version of Eragon had the same dilemma. Both media had the opportunity to share with people the wonders that Eragon’s life had to offer, and at the same time bring them to a world unknown to many. However, the 2 media used also had their own differences. The film version was intricately made in such a way that the viewers would become curious of what the story has to offer. The special effects used in the film version would definitely come as an impressive work of art. The descriptions set in the book, such as Saphira’s appearance were perfectly executed in the film. One who has read the book with agree with me, especially in the details set for the other locations in the film. The language used in both versions were also similar with each other. The book on the other hand, made us of too many words. Some of the dialogues and scenes were cut in the film version, somehow giving the viewers a different impression of how the story would go. Take for example Eragon’s journey. Some of the places were deleted, and even Eragon’s reactions towards Katrina were deleted in the film version. In this manner, the plot of the story was somewhat changed deviating from the original context of the novel. PERSONAL ANALYSIS The film version of Eragon was something to be considered. Those who have read the novel would have different impressions about the adaptation, especially when some of the important scenes and dialogues have been deleted. Although the aim of the producers was to fit the whole book in one film, this should have been done using a different approach. In the same manner, I also admire how the visual effects were executed. Saphira was one of the wonders of the whole story, and this was very well presented in the film adaptation. Arya herself was a wonder to marvel at. As the book would have it, she was a beautiful elf, and was supposed to look mysterious at some point in the story. This was done perfectly, and I believe the actress who played her should also be given credit. Unfortunately, the film and the book had so many differences. The film version would look as if it was another story formed from the original novel, and not an adaptation. Although both had considered to keep the plot as the center of the film, the choice of words made the story difficult to absorb. Both readers and viewers would have difficulty in trying to keep in tune with the story because of the many names and places it included. For someone who has seen both media, disappointment would not come as a surprise. However, for those who have not read the book, the film adaptation is impressive, especially with how Saphira was manipulated. Works Cited Eragon. Dir. Stefan Fanmeier. Perf. Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, Sienna Guillory, Edward Speleers, and Rachel Weisz. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, 20 March 2007. Paolini, Christopher. Eragon. Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2003. â€Å"Eragon. † 2006. Eragon the Movie. 22 January 2009 http://www. eragonmovie. com/main. html? cid=us. â€Å"Eragon. † The Internet Movie Database. 22 January 2009 http://www. imdb. com/title/tt0449010/. â€Å"Eragon. † Book Browse. 22 Janury 2009 http://www. bookbrowse. com/reviews/index. cfm? book_number=1284. â€Å"Eragon (Inheritance, Book I). † 2003. Kids Turn Central. 22 January 2009 http://www. kidsturncentral. com/topics/books/eragon. htm. â€Å"Eragon DVD Review. † 22 January 2009 http://www. shurtugal. com/news/comments. php? id=558anum=50.

Country Of Origin Effects Commerce Essay

Country Of Origin Effects Commerce Essay HASSAN and SAMLI (1994, page 99.) define the effect of country of origin as the influence that the manufacturer country has on the positive or negative consumer judgment. One of the most famous books of this topic is JAFFES and NEBENZAHLs work (2001). It opens the introductory chapter with the following provocative question: Please, fill out the following sentence: A luxury car made in Greece is The question shows the essence of country of origin effect very well. According to ROTH and ROMEO (1992) the COO effect is how consumers consider a product coming from a given a country. Empirical studies have shown that when a customer becomes aware of the country of origin of a product his/her image about the product is influenced either positively or negatively according to his perceptions. Consumers tend to have a stereotype about product and countries that have been formed by experience, hearsay, myth. These stereotypes are generally broad and vague according to which they judge a specific country or a specific product to be the best : French Perfumes, Italian Leather, Chinese Silk and Japanese Technology are all examples of such stereotypes. Therefore the country, the type of product, and the image of the company all its brand play a crucial rule in deciding whether the country of origin will engender a positive or a negative reaction. Country Image : Precursors to Country of Origin Effects Country image can be defined as the sum of information in the consumers mind about a nation/country. In this regard, SULLIVAN MORT and HAN (2000) said, the less information we have about a given country the more dangers the sales of its products will encounter. It has been a long known fact that Made In label is just as powerful and just as valuable as a Made By label. German engineering, Japanese miniaturization, Italian flair, Swedish design, British class, Swiss precision those are brand values which rub off onto all the products that come from those countries Country Image is the reason why, in the early 1990s, Americans bought Toyota Corollas (which were quite expensive) rather than Geo Prizms (which were quite cheap), even though they were exactly the same car, made in the same factory. This is because the American consumers believed that Japanese cars offered greater value than American cars. Countries thus try hard to maintain their images and hence generate a positive reputation for their products in international market. Country image (as suggested in Henry Stewart Publications 1744-0696 (2005) Vol. 1, 2, 164-172 Place Branding) is propagated through channels that can be described in a Hexagonal Pattern of communication : Each of these components has a huge impact on the image that country projects : The loudest branding effort comes from countrys tourism promotion, and peoples experience of visiting the country as tourists or business travelers. The countrys exports with a clearly marked Made in label are powerful ambassadors of the countrys image internationally. The policy decisions made of the countrys government. Policy makers are nowadays much closer to the international media than they ever used to be. From the way company attract the investment, foreign talent and foreign companies to work with it. The countrys cultural activities and cultural exports: a world tour by a national opera company, the works of a famous author, the national sports team. The people of the country themselves: the hospitality they provide to the visitors coming from abroad and the way they behave when abroad. In this regard an under the realms of an experiment asked young people to freely associate the five words they think (adjectives, product categories, food products, values, etc.) are the most consistent with the countries under analysis (this part were inspired by the contributions of Kayanak, Kucukemiroglu 1992; Usunier 1993; Usunier, Lee 2005). The results show that the consumers clearly classified each country with a few product types, this is the stereotype (or the consumer perception) that contributes to country of origin effects while evaluating the available product. The salient result as observed is tabulated below : Country Association Country Association Italy Art History culture China Plagiarism design fashion Cheap Food and Wine(psta, Pizza, Vino Communism Elegance Style Economic and population growth Quality Food and Rice France Fashion Luxury Japan Innovation New Tech Elegance Precission Quality Quality Food(Sushi) Culture Population Food and Wine(Cheese, Baguette, Champagne) Tokyo Germany Cars USA Innovation Beer Freedom Industry Technology Leader ower superiority arrogance Engineering Food (Fast Food) Discipline Organization Multiculturalism Strongness solidity Associated Concepts to Country of Origin From a conceptual point of view it is particularly important to underline that the notion of Country of origin is by no means plain and univocal. Initially, the concept of Country of Origin (COO) was considered as the Made in Country (see the review by Nebenzahl et al., 1997), or the Country of Manufacture (COM) (see the review by Samiee 1994). This was the country which appeared on the made in label, which would generally be the country where final assembly of the good took place. For example designer labels from Gucci, Versace loose their sheen when they include Made in China label because part of the manufacturing tool place there. In contemporary world though other concepts have progressively emerged in the COO literature, such as Country of Design (COD) in the review by Nebenzahl et al., 1997; Jaffà ©, Nebenzahl 2001), referring to the country where the product was designed and developed. For example the latest Audi TT luxury car model was designed in Germany but is being manufactured from Hungary, but with Germanys known reputation in engineering field the model is promoted by the name of country it is designed at. Moreover, global companies nowadays are manipulating brand names to suggest particular origins (country of brand (COB) effects). Thus COO is increasingly considered as that country which consumers typically associate with a product or brand, irrespective of where it is actually manufactured. For example, even though Nike Apparels are manufactured in low cost destinations like India, China etc. the brand recognition of Nike overcomes the country of manufacturing effect and the products are considered to be American. Manifestations of Country Of Origin Effect The country of origin effect can be realized in various different forms among the consumers. The major manifestations are : Individualist / Collectivists Where Individualist favor country of origin bases to ascertain the superior attributes of the product, the collectivists favor home country of origin products over the foreign ones. On Basis of Industrialization Countries are categorized on the levels of industrialization they have achieved. Consumers in such cases are lesser product specific. They believe the products from industrialized nations are superior in quality and thus the products from developing nations suffer bias. Ethnocentrism Under the feeling of national pride, consumers like to purchase the products of home country. For example, the buy American effect, Honda recognized it and specifically mentioned how many component were manufacture in America when launching its models there. One might generalize that for more technical product, there is a less positive perception towards product of developing nations. Similarly, less developed nations have a tendency to favor products from developed nations. Strategies for Usage of COO Effect in International Marketing In contemporary world, companies have come to realize the importance of coutry of origin effect and have started to give it due importance while strategizing their international marketing plans. Nowadays, a companys marketing strategy is dependent not only on the strength of its brand image but the country image as well. According to Jaffe and Nebenzahl (2001), four possible strategies can be used. First scenario considers companies having both, a strong country and brand image. Second scenario considers companies with a weak country image but a strong brand image. Third Scenario looks at companies with a weak brand image, but a strong country image, and fourth scenario looks at companies having both a weak country and a weak brand image. 1. Strong Country Strong Brand Image This is the best position for a company when both the product and the country have strong brand images. In this case, strategically, both the brand and the made in country should be emphasized, especially if it is a global one. Some major examples of this are: Buick (made in US),Sony (made in Japan) and Zeiss (made in Germany). 2. Weak Country Strong Brand Image The scenario of a weak country image but a strong brand image generally refers to products whose production or assembly has been outsourced to developing/emerging economies. In this condition, the emphasis should be placed on the brand name, while the country of origin needs to be de emphasizing as much as possible. BT provides an excellent case of neutralizing the country of origin. A few years ago British Telecom researched the aptness of their brand in overseas markets. The results showed that they had problems with the companys name in Japan where British was synonymous of the past, colonial and not for innovation or moving forward. That is when they decided to become BT 3. Strong Country Weak Brand Image This category contains products which are perceived to be of lower quality vis à   vis the competitors from same country. Strategically, these brands should try to piggyback on strong country image by emphasizing their made in attribute. This strategy works very well for brands/products with bad image or without any image. Some examples include Japanese brands like Suzuki or Miranda Cameras and/or Daihatsu automobiles. 4. Weak Country Weak Brand Image This category contains products that have weak country image as well as a weak brand image. In this case one potential strategy is strategic piggybacking on some strong local brand. For example, Samsung, the South Korean products manufacturer, gained entry into the US in microwave ovens segment distributing them through General Electric under the GE label. Similar strategy was followed by Mitsubishi in its entry into the United States using the Chrysler distribution network. Country or Origin Effect : Critical Results When the influence of country of origin effect and brand perception was studied for convenience, shopping and specialty goods, empirical results (from the paper Luxury brand and country of origin effect: results of an international empirical study, Prof. Gaetano Aiello, Dr. Raffaele Donvito, Prof. Bruno Godey and Prof. Daniele Pederzoli) revealed : Brand Perception and Country of origin have medium and medium high impact on perceptual evaluation of shopping goods and a medium high and high impact on luxury goods. Brand and Country of origin decrease their impact on purchasing decisions; The Country of origin has a medium influence only in the purchasing decisions of luxury goods, while the brand maintains its influence also on shopping goods. Country of origin do not affect evaluation and purchase of convenience goods. Brand affects evaluation and purchase decisions much more than Country of origin in shopping and specialty goods The study also reveals the top most criteria in evaluation and purchase of convenience goods is Price, and Design for specialty goods. Brand Perceptions ranks second in this hierarchy Country of origin is instead around the last of within the items considered. References Astous A., Ahmed S.A., (1999), The importance of country images in the formation of consumer product perceptions International marketing review, vol. 16, n.2. Bilkey W.J., Nes E., (1982), Country of origin effects on product evaluations, Journal of International Business Studies, 13, pp.89-99. Nebenzahl I.D., Jaffe ´ E.D., Lampert S.I., (1997), Towards a theory of country image effect on product evaluation, Management International Review, 37, pp. 27-49. Roth M.S., Romeo G.B. (1992), Matching product categoriey and Country Image Perceptions: A framework for managing Country of Origin Effects, Journal of International Studies, Winter. Jagdish Agrawal, Wagner A.kamakura, Country of origin: A competitive advantage International Journal of Research in Marketing Vol. 16, No. 4 December (1999) P.255 267 International Marketing, Thirteenth Edition, Philip R Cateora, John L Graham and Prashant Salwan SULLIVAN MORT, Gillian Maree HAN, C. Min 2000: Multifaceted country image impact on purchase intensions for goods: a study in the asia pacific economic conference region. (www.digital.re.kr/hanlab/private/discussant.PDF) A Chapter taken from the book Brand America: The mother of All Brands by Simon Anholt and Jememy Hildreth, published by Cyan Books, 2004.

King Arthur :: essays research papers

Arthur’s Reasons Concerning War   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Since the beginning of time, the chaotic and barbaric fighting called war has been and will happen until the end of the world, that is, unless mankind smartens up. As T.H. White puts it on pages 631-632,â€Å"They were always saying that the present one (war) was to be the last, and afterwards there was to be a heaven. They were always to rebuild such a new world as never was seen. When the time came, however, they were too stupid.† At the beginning of Arthur’s reign he dealt with psychotic men such as King Lot that waged wars for pure sport. Since they had enough money to do so, they would buy expensive armor and weaponry and would kill for game. In his old age, just before succumbing to death, Arthur ponders deeply about the causes of war. It takes him his entire lifetime to figure out the answer to stop the madness. And just when he figures this out, it is way too late to take action upon his conclusion. Although war is waged for many reasons on t he surface, Arthur at long last surmises that it all stems from one, true foundation. After perusing reasons such as people that â€Å"have† or â€Å"have not,† fear of dishonest people, and ancestral feuds, Arthur finally deduces that the true reason for war is land boundaries.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The most sufficient explanation for the idea of war based on the â€Å"haves† and the â€Å"have-nots† is that of Arthur versus Mordred. On page 632, it was simply stated, â€Å"I have, and Mordred has not.† Mordred grew up in shame. He is an illegitimate child with a horrible woman for a mother. Consequently, Modred was jealous of Arthur’s happiness and ability to be justified. Mordred’s jealousy of Arthur causes him to begin a war against Arthur and if this were the true reason for war, similar statements can be said for all wars. This type of war is instigated by possessiveness and greed. Arthur disproves this idea because the solution to ending war would be for everyone to either have or not to have. This idea in present-day terms would be called communism. Furthermore, as the public knows, true communism cannot be attained.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Suspicion of neighboring leaders not telling the truth is yet another one of Arthur’s ideas of why war is set off. It is a fault of the human body to not always tell the truth.

The Awakening Essay -- essays research papers fc

The Relationship of The Awakening and Creole Society In The Awakening, Kate Chopin brings out the essence of through the characters of her novel. In this novel Edna Pontellier faces many problems because she is an outcast from society. As a result of her isolation from society she has to learn to fit in and deal with her problems. This situation causes her to go through a series of awakenings that help her find herself, but this also causes problems with her husband because she loses respect for him and the society she lives in. Throughout the novel she is faced with unfavorable circumstances which confuse and eventually kill her. Kate Chopin uses Creole Society in the 1890s as a basis for her novel and expresses it through Creole women, personal relationships, and etiquette. The Awakening is a book based on French Creoles and their lifestyle which is expressed throughout the novel. Creoles were French Creole Society descendents of French and Spanish Colonists of the 1700s. They had strong family ties because of Catholicism and were a tight community because they where considered outcasts of Anglo- American society. Clement Eaton says that "the Creoles, to a greater degree then Anglo-Americans, lived a life of sensation and careless enjoyment. They loved to dance, gamble, fish, attend feasts, play on the fiddle and to live without much thought of the morrow." Eaton 252 Creoles were very lively outgoing people because of their comfortable tight society. Activities such as Mardi Gras and Sunday afternoon Mass holiday spirits contribute the liveliness of these people (Walker 252). A large reason for their comfort and "live for the moment" attitude was that Creoles did not move west like most other colonists to claim land. Instead they stayed in relatively the same area and just grew in population without consumption of other lands . This caused a shortage of land so it had to be repeatedly divided among the families and it also made it difficult for the plantation system to operate successfully (Walker 253). Background of Creoles: Until 1888 the husband was legal guardian and was given custody of the children when in a divorce. In the 1890 segregation was legalized (Jim Crow laws), but blacks horizons were expanding also. "In Louisiana after the Civil War, African American men had voted in lar... ... of the Old South. Ed. Albert D. Kirwan. Lexington: U of Kentucky P, 1968. 83. Qtd. in Walker, 252. Shaffter, Mary L. "Creole Women." The Chatauquan 15 (1982) : 346-347. Rpt. in "The Awakening": An Authoritative Text. Ed. Margo Culley. New York: Norton, 1994. 137-139. Walker, Nancy. "Feminist or Naturalist?" The Social Context of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. 17(1979) : 95-103. Rpt. in "The Awakening" : An Authoritative Text. Ed. Margo Culley. New York: Norton, 1994. 137-139. Wells, Richard A. "An Etiquette Advice Book Sampler." Decorum: A Practical Treatise on Etiquette and Dress of the Best American Society. (1886): 248-49. Rpt. in "The Awakening": An Authoritative Text. Ed. Margo Culley. New York: Norton, 1994.122-125. Young, John H. "An Etiquette Advice Book Sampler." Our Deportment, Or the Manners, Conduct and Dress of the Most Refined Society. (1882): 56. Rpt. in "The Awakening": An Authoritative Text. Ed. Margo Culley. New York: Norton, 1994. 122-125.

My Favourite Artist

One of the things that we enjoy doing in life is listening to music. I couldn’t imagine life without music because we listen to music almost at any moment of the day and we can find music everywhere, even now, u can find music in the beating of your heart. Music gives us pleasure and makes us forget about our daily problems and tries to relax us for a couple of minutes. i would like to introduce to u guys one of my favourite artist and he was JJ Lin. JJ was born in Singapore and he is a Singaporean Chinese pop singer based in Taiwan. He may not be good looking but he is very cute and his voice is beautiful. It would definitely melt everyone’s heart if u listens to his song. Actually, JJ is among the few artists that I adore because I heard their music first and got addicted before seeing their pictures. But seriously, JJ lin is extremely talented and brilliant, He knows just how to express his emotions in his songs, and make the listeners feel that way too. He is good in composing, singing, dancing and beat boxing too. JJ Lin first started out performing as backup vocalist and writing songs for various artistes before the entertainment spotlight shone on him. JJ came to musical prominence in Asia after he scored himself a ‘Best Newcomer’ award in the 15th Taiwan Golden Melody Awards. Since then he has also won multiple awards in the region, gaining recognition and applause for his musical works far and wide. So far, JJ has released 7 albums but I only collected 3 of his albums. I went to his autograph concert twice. Each album has won him various awards in the Asian region. As a serious musician, he composes each and every song in all of his albums and he constantly seeks to do something different with each album in order to surpass his own and others’ expectations of him.

Gangs

Gangs Inclusive Community Practices- CJS304 Written Reflection Assignment Submitted by: Vanessa B. Smithers Submitted to: Professor Treisha Hylton Date Submitted: Friday, November 30, 2012 Inclusive Community Practices- CJS304 Written Reflection Assignment Vanessa B. Smithers Gangs/Youth GangsThe Service de  police  de la Ville de  Montreal (Montreal Police) have defined a youth gang as â€Å"An organized group of adolescents and/or young adults who rely on group intimidation and violence, and commit criminal acts in order to gain power and recognition and/or control certain areas of unlawful activity† (Public Safety Canada- National Crime Prevention Centre, 2007).Youth gangs have become an urban phenomenon and since the mid 1980’s youth gang violence has increased in amplitude and severity, although the crime rate amongst twelve to seventeen year olds has been decreasing. The Canadian Police Survey on Youth Gangs states that youth gangs are a present and growing concern within Canadian communities, but we have not yet reached the magnitude of severity that is present in the United States of America.According to various Canadian studies, it has been demonstrated that: youth becoming involved in gang related activity are getting younger in age; the level of violence within these groups is rising; that more female youth are joining gangs; school boards are reporting more gang violence within their institutions; school yard bullies are being replaced with groups of youth who perform acts of â€Å"swarming†; and that extortion and drug dealing are becoming daily routines in some Canadian communities.I chose the topic of Gangs/Youth Gangs because it peaks a very high interest for me in regards to my current career as well as my hopes for my future career endeavours. Currently I am a Youth Worker at a shelter for male youth in the downtown Toronto core. Each and every day I encounter a number of youth who have gang involvement or who have p reviously been involved with gangs, some leading to involvement in the Ontario Justice System. Also, for my current Humber College placement I chose to work at Carleton Village Junior and Senior Sports and Wellness Academy located at Weston Road and St.Clair Avenue West. Through engagement and interaction with a variety of multi-cultural youth and children, I have learned that there are a number of students within the school who are in contemplation about joining gangs, some whose siblings and parents are involved in gangs, and a number of children who are on a path to becoming involved in gangs in the future. I have always had a fascination and a keen interest in acquiring knowledge as to why people, more specifically, children and youth choose to become active gang members and what in their lives are catalysts and causes them to resort to gang activity.When I think of the topic of gangs, it brings sadness to me because I am aware that most gang members become involved in gangs dur ing their adolescent years, continuing into their adult years. Although this is a reality for some, through having an abundant amount of experience in working with children, as well as youth with a large amount of potential to be amazing, law abiding citizens, the topic of gangs is something that I feel very passionate about.The part about gangs that brings the most sadness to me is the fact that there are children who strive to be gang members, children who at the age of seven find the idea of gangs to be a phenomenon. They walk around with red bandanas to represent the â€Å"Bloods† and blue bandanas to represent the â€Å"Crips† without actually knowing what it is to be in a gang, until they reach an older age and recruit themselves into the gang life. Within the text book â€Å"Special Needs Offenders in the Community,† Jeff Rush and Rob Hanser state numerous important points which I will briefly touch on.The authors say that working with gangs is difficult because individuals deny that there is a gang problem, ignore the problem, and delay a response to the gang issue, also known as the â€Å"DID syndrome. The authors also state that the following characteristics are ones that are used in defining a gang: formal organization structure, identifiable leadership, identified within a territory, recurrent interaction and engaging in serious or violent behaviour. Within the text book it also states that prison gangs are referred to as â€Å"security threat groups. They mention that most prison gang members were street gang members at one point. The authors extenuate the fact that community collaboration (police and community members) is extremely important in tackling the issue gangs. Unfortunately the book states that gang involvement is usually life-long. The individuals have an abundant amount of forces pushing them to remain within the gang life, undermining most treatment regimens that are assigned to them once they are released from prison.Drawing from the presentation and the text book, I found most of the information presented important although, the most important ideas in relation to the Community Justice field I found were: the DID syndrome discussed earlier ( denying that there is a gang problem, ignoring the problem when it arises, and delaying a response to the problem), prison gangs, and the various stages of the comprehensive problem-solving model : the scanning stage ( looking for and identifying problems), the analysis stage ( to develop a further understanding of a problem), the response stage (developing response options that are consistent, and implementing the responses), and the assessment stage ( provides useful feedback on how well the response is working). I also felt as if studying the gang’s turf is an important factor for prevention and suppression programs in the city.Lastly, I felt as if the Gang Exit Program is a very important strategy where there is an assessment and intake, gang member intensive training and personal development and gang member case management. Within a Canadian context, all of the above points are very prevalent. In relation to the DID syndrome, there are many agencies within Canada, more specifically Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area, that do not ignore or practice ignorance pertaining to gangs. There are ones that focus on identifying gang related issues and determining an appropriate response. Such agencies and programs consist of: Project Prevention & Intervention, Breaking the Cycle and Operation Springboard. All of these listed agencies try to implement comprehensive problem-solving models, prevention, interventions and gang-exiting strategies.In regards to prison gangs, correctional facilities take proactive moves towards preventing any prison gangs and they do this through: segregation of prison members who appear to be in the same ‘gang,’ keeping a close eye on the inmates through direct observation and survei llance, acquiring knowledge regarding gangs locally, provincially and country wide, as well as having the skills to pick up on cues that may be identifying key factors of gang activity. During the class’s presentation on Gangs, amongst all the interesting points, there were two that I took a keen interest to. Firstly, it was stated that the last Canadian Police Survey on gangs was in 2002, and it reported that Canada has four hundred and thirty four youth gangs with Ontario ranking the highest and British Columbia next. Ontario has two hundred and sixteen youth gangs with a total of three thousand three hundred and twenty members, almost half (48%) of all youth gang members are under the age of  18 of which (39%) are between 16 and 18 years old. The second one was regarding the Labelling Theory.Due to stigmas created by media such as newspapers, magazines, movies, books, and music, people have conjured up a set of ideals and norms about races, ages, religions and genders an d use these ideals and norms to anticipate how that specific group is going to act. According to the book, ‘Issues and Perspectives on Young Offenders in Canada,’ Franklinn Tanenbaum developed the social-reaction/labelling theory where he states that â€Å"once a youth has been identified as having committed a delinquent act, the person becomes the thing he or she is described as being† (p. 38). In conclusion, the topic of gangs is something that sits close to my heart. It is my job as a future Community Justice Worker to not turn a blind eye to gang activity.In my opinion, it is the role of me, community members, families and caretakers to lay down and model the fundamental building blocks at a young age to ensure our children feel safe, creative, motivated, cared for, respected, heard, not labeled, not judged, powerful, intelligent and self-empowered. With this approach individuals will hopefully not resort to outside means in order to obtain these feelings art ificially within gangs. Bibliography (2003). Canadian Police Survey on Youth Gangs. Canada: Minister of Public Safety & Emergency Prepardness. Hanser, J. R. (2007). Gang Members as Special Needs Offenders. In R. D. Hanser, Special Needs Offenders in the Community (pp. 229-243).New Jersey, United States: Pearson Prentice Hall. (2005). Youth Gangs in Canada: A Preliminary Review of Programs & Services. Calgary, Alberta: Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family. Public Safety Canada- National Crime Prevention Centre. (2007). Youth Gangs in Canada- What do we Know? Canada: Government of Canada. Wynterdyk, J. A. (2005). Issues & Perspectives on Young Offenders in Canada. Canada: Thomson Canada Limited. ——————————————– [ 1 ]. (2003). Canadian Police Survey on Youth Gangs. Canada: Minister of Public Safety & Emergency Prepardness. [ 2 ]. Victims of Violence. (2011, February 28 ). Gang & Group Violence.

A Dirty Job Chapter 15

15 THE CALL OF BOOTY Fuck puppets,† Ray said out of nowhere. He was on the stair-climbing machine next to Charlie and they were both sweating and staring at a row of six, perfectly tuned female bottoms aimed at them from the machines in front of them. â€Å"What was that?† Charlie said. â€Å"Fuck puppets,† Ray said. â€Å"That's what they are.† Ray had talked Charlie into coming to his health club with him under the pretense of getting him into the flow of being single. Actually, because Ray was an ex-cop, watched people more closely than really was healthy, had too much time on his hands, and didn't get out much himself, the real reason he asked Charlie to come work out with him was so he could get to know him outside of the shop. He'd noticed a strange pattern that had developed since Rachel's death, of Charlie showing up with people's property shortly after their obituary appeared in the paper. Because Charlie kept to himself socially and was secretive about what he did when he was out of the shop, not to mention all the little animals that ended up dead in Charlie's apartment, Ray suspected that he might be a serial killer. Ray decided to try to get close to his boss and find out for sure. â€Å"Keep your voice down, Ray,† Charlie said. â€Å"Jeez.† Since Ray couldn't turn his head, he was talking right at the women's butts. â€Å"They can't hear me; look, every single one has on a headset.† He was right, every one of them was talking on a cell phone. â€Å"You and I are invisible to them.† Having actually been invisible to people, or nearly so, Charlie did a double take. It was midmorning and the gym was full of lean spandex-clad women in their twenties with disproportionately large breasts, perfect skin, and expensive hair, who seemed to have the ability to look right through him the way that everyone did when he was in pursuit of a soul vessel. In fact, when he and Ray had first come into the gym, Charlie had actually looked around for some object, pulsing red, thinking that he might have missed a name on his date book that morning. â€Å"After I was shot I dated a physical therapist that worked here for a while,† Ray said. â€Å"She called them that: fuck puppets. Every one of them has an apartment that some older executive guy is paying for – just like he paid for the health-club membership and the fake tits. They spend their days getting facials and manicures, and their nights under some suit out of his suit.† Charlie was wildly uncomfortable with Ray's litany, talking about these women who were only a couple of feet away. Like any Beta Male, he would have been wildly uncomfortable in the presence of so many beautiful women anyway, but this made it worse. â€Å"So like they're like trophy wives?† Charlie said. â€Å"Nuh-uh, like wannabe trophy wives. They don't get the guy, the house, whatever. They just exist to be his perfect piece of ass.† â€Å"Fuck puppets?† Charlie said. â€Å"Fuck puppets,† said Ray. â€Å"But forget them, they're not why you're here.† Ray was right, of course. They weren't why Charlie was there. Five years had passed since Rachel's death, and everyone had been telling him he needed to get back in the game, but that's not why he agreed to accompany the ex-cop to the gym. Because Charlie spent too much time on his own, especially since Sophie had started school, and because he'd been hiding a secret identity and avocation, he'd started to suspect that everyone might have one. And since Ray kept to himself, talked a lot about people in the neighborhood who had died, and because he really didn't seem to have a social life beyond the Filipino women he contacted online, Charlie suspected Ray might be a serial killer. Charlie thought he'd try to get closer to Ray and find out. â€Å"So they're like mistresses?† Charlie said. â€Å"Like in Europe?† â€Å"I suppose,† Ray said. â€Å"But did you ever get the impression that mistresses worked this hard to look good? I think fuck puppet is more accurate, because when they get too old to hold the attention of their guy, they've got nothing more going. They'll be done, like marionettes with no one at the strings.† â€Å"Jeez, Ray, that's harsh.† Maybe Ray is stalking one of these women, Charlie thought. Ray shrugged. Charlie looked up and down the line of perfect derrieres, then felt the weight of his years alone or in the company of a child and two giant dogs, and said, â€Å"I want a fuck puppet.† Aha! thought Ray. He's picking a victim. â€Å"Me, too,† he said. â€Å"But guys like us don't get fuck puppets, Charlie. We just get ignored by them.† Aha! Charlie thought. The bitter sociopath comes out. â€Å"So that's why you brought me here, so I could show I was out of shape in front of gorgeous women who wouldn't notice?† â€Å"No, the fuck puppets are fun to look at, but there's some normal women who come here, too.† Who won't talk to me either, Ray thought. â€Å"Who won't talk to you either,† Charlie said. Because they can tell that you are a psychokiller. â€Å"We'll see in the juice bar after our workout,† Ray said. Where I'll sit at an angle so I can watch you pick your victim. You sick fuck, they thought. Charlie awoke to find not one, but three new names in his date book, and the last one, a Madison McKerny, had only three days for him to retrieve her soul vessel. Charlie kept a stack of newspapers in the house and, typically, would go back for a month looking for an obituary of his new client. More often, if the hellhounds would give him some peace, he would simply wait for the name to appear in the obituary section, then go find the soul vessel when it was easy to get into the house, with mourners or posing as an estate buyer. But this time he had only three days, and Madison McKerny hadn't appeared in the obituaries, so that meant she was probably still alive, and he couldn't find her in the phone book either, so he was going to need to get moving quickly. Mrs. Ling and Mrs. Korjev liked to do their marketing on Saturdays, so he called his sister, Jane, and asked her to come watch Sophie. â€Å"I want a baby brother,† Sophie announced to her Auntie Jane. â€Å"Oh, sweetie, I'm sorry, you can't have a baby brother, because that would mean that Daddy had sex, and that's never going to happen again.† â€Å"Jane, don't talk to her that way,† Charlie said. He was making sandwiches for them and wondering why he always got stuck making the sandwiches. To Sophie, he said, â€Å"Honey, why don't you go in your room and play with Alvin and Mohammed, Daddy needs to talk with Auntie Jane.† â€Å"Okay,† Sophie said, skipping off to her room. â€Å"And don't change clothes again, those are fine,† Charlie said. â€Å"That's the fourth outfit she's had on today,† he said to Jane. â€Å"She changes clothes like you change girlfriends.† â€Å"Ouch. Be gentle, Chuck, I'm sensitive and I can still kick your ass.† Charlie spanked some mayonnaise onto a whole wheat slice to show he was serious. â€Å"Jane, I'm not sure it's healthy for her to have all these different aunties around. She's already had a hard time losing her mother, and now you've moved away – I just don't think she should keep getting attached to these women only to have them yanked out of her life. She needs a consistent female influence.† â€Å"First, I have not moved away, I've moved across town, and I see her every bit as often as when I lived in the building. Second, it's not like I'm promiscuous, I'm just shitty at relationships. Third, Cassie and I have been together for three months, and we're doing fine so far, which is why I've moved out. And fourth, Sophie did not lose her mother, she never had her mother, she had you, and if you're going to be a decent human being, you need to get laid.† â€Å"That's what I mean, you can't talk like that in front of Sophie.† â€Å"Charlie, it's true! Even Sophie can see it. She doesn't even know what it is and she can tell that you're not getting any.† Charlie stopped constructing sandwiches and came over to the counter. â€Å"It's not sex, Jane. It's human contact. I was getting my hair cut the other day and the hairdresser's breast rubbed against my shoulder and I almost came. Then I almost cried.† â€Å"Sounds like sex to me, little brother. Have you been with anyone since Rachel died?† â€Å"You know I haven't.† â€Å"That's wrong. Rachel wouldn't want that for you. You have to know that. I mean she took pity on you and hooked up with you, and that couldn't have been easy for her, knowing she could do so much better.† â€Å"Took pity on me?† â€Å"That's what I'm saying. She was a sweet woman, and you're much more pitiful now than you were then. You had more hair then, and you didn't have a kid and two dogs the size of Volvos. Hell, there's probably some order of nuns that would do you now, just as a holy act of mercy. Or penance.† â€Å"Stop it, Jane.† â€Å"The Sisters of Perpetual Nookiless Suffering.† â€Å"I'm not that bad,† Charlie said. â€Å"The Holy Order of Saint Bonny of the BJ, patron saint of Web porn and incurable wankers.† â€Å"Okay, Jane, I'm sorry I said that about you changing girlfriends. I was out of line.† Jane leaned back on her bar stool and crossed her arms, looking satisfied but skeptical. â€Å"But the problem remains.† â€Å"I'm fine. I have Sophie and I have the business, I don't need a girlfriend.† â€Å"A girlfriend? A girlfriend is too ambitious for you. You just need someone to have sex with.† â€Å"I do not.† â€Å"Yes, you do.† â€Å"Yes, I do,† Charlie said, defeated. â€Å"But I have to go. Are you okay to watch Sophie?† â€Å"Sure, I'm going to take her to my place. I have an obnoxious neighbor up the street that I'd like to introduce to the puppies. Will they poop on command?† â€Å"They will if Sophie tells them.† â€Å"Perfect. We'll see you tonight. Promise me you'll ask someone out. Or at least look for someone to ask out.† â€Å"I promise.† â€Å"Good. Did you get that new blue pinstripe tailored yet?† â€Å"Stay out of my closet.† â€Å"Don't you need to get going?† Ray figured that it had probably started when Charlie murdered all those little animals he brought home for his daughter. Maybe buying the big black dogs was a cry for help – pets that someone would really notice being gone. According to the movies, they all started out that way – with the little animals, then before long they moved up to hitchhikers, hookers, and pretty soon they were mummifying a whole flock of counselors at some remote summer camp and posing the crusty remains around a card table in their mountain lair. The mountain lair didn't fit the profile for Charlie, since he had allergies, but that might just be an indication of his diabolical genius. (Ray had been a street cop, so it hadn't really been necessary for him to study criminal profiling, and his theories tended toward the colorful, a side effect of his Beta Male imagination and large DVD collection.) But Charlie had asked Ray to use his contacts on the force and at the DMV a half-dozen times to locate people, all of whom ended up dead a few weeks later. But not murders. And while a lot of items belonging to the recently deceased had turned up in the shop in the last few years (Ray had found antitheft numbers etched on a dozen items and called them in to a friend on the force who identified the owners), none of them had been murdered either. There were a few accidents, but mostly it was natural causes. Either Charlie was devious to an extraordinary degree, or Ray was out of his mind, a possibility that he didn't discount completely, if for no other reason than he had three ex-wives who would testify to it. Thus, he'd devised the workout ruse to draw Charlie out. Then again, Charlie had always treated him really well, and if it turned out he didn't have a mountain lair full of mummified camp counselors, Ray knew he'd feel bad about tricking him. What if there was nothing wrong with Charlie except that he needed to get laid? Ray was chatting with Eduardo, his new girlfriend at when Charlie came down the back steps. â€Å"Ray, I need you to find someone for me.† â€Å"Hang on a second, I have to sign off. Charlie, check out my new squeeze.† Ray pulled up a photo on the screen of a heavily made-up but attractive Asian woman. â€Å"She's pretty, Ray. I can't give you any time off right now to go to the Philippines, though. Not until we hire someone to take Lily's shifts.† Charlie leaned into the screen. â€Å"Dude, her name is Eduardo.† â€Å"I know. It's a Filipino thing, like Edwina.† â€Å"She has a five-o'clock shadow.† â€Å"You're just being a racist. Some races have more facial hair than others. I don't care about that, I just want someone who is honest and caring and attractive.† â€Å"She has an Adam's apple.† Ray squinted at the screen, then quickly clicked off the monitor and spun around on the stool. â€Å"So who do you need me to find?† â€Å"It's okay, Ray,† Charlie said. â€Å"An Adam's apple doesn't preclude someone from being honest, caring, and attractive, it just makes it less likely.† â€Å"Right. It was just bad lighting, I think. Anyway, who do you need to find?† â€Å"All I have is the name Madison McKerny. I know he or she lives in the city, but that's all I know.† â€Å"It's a she.† â€Å"Pardon me?† â€Å"Madison, it's a stripper's name.† Charlie shook his head. â€Å"You know this woman?† â€Å"I don't know her, although the name seems familiar. But Madison is a new-generation stripper name. Like Reagan and Morgan.† â€Å"Lost me, Ray.† â€Å"I've spent some time in strip joints, Charlie. I'm not proud of it, but it's sort of what you do when you're a cop. And you pick up on the pattern of stripper names.† â€Å"Didn't know that.† â€Å"Yeah, and there's sort of a progression going back to the fifties: Bubbles, Boom Boom, and Blaze begat Bambi, Candy, and Jewel, who begat Sunshine, Brandy, and Cinnamon, who begat Amber, Brittany, and Brie, who begat Reagan, Morgan, and Madison. Madison is a stripper name.† â€Å"Ray, you weren't even alive in the fifties.† â€Å"No, I wasn't alive during the forties either, but I know about World War Two and big-band music. I'm into history.† â€Å"Right. So, I need to look for a stripper? Doesn't help. I don't even know where to start.† â€Å"I'll go through the DMV and the tax records. If she's in town we'll have an address on her by this afternoon. Why do you need to find her?† There was a pause while Charlie pretended to find a smudge on the glass of the counter display case, wiped it away, then said, â€Å"Uh, it's an estate thing. One of the estates we got recently had some items that were left to her.† â€Å"Shouldn't the executor of the estate take care of that, or his lawyer?† â€Å"It's minutiae, not named in the will. The executor asked me to handle it. There's fifty bucks in it for you.† Ray grinned. â€Å"That's okay, I was going to help anyway, but if she turns out to be a stripper I get to go with you, okay?† â€Å"Deal,† Charlie said. Three hours later Ray gave the address to Charlie and watched as his boss bolted out of the shop and grabbed a cab. Why a cab? Why not take the van? Ray wanted to follow, needed to follow, but he had to find someone to cover the store. He should have anticipated this, but he'd been distracted. Ray had been distracted since talking to Charlie, not just by the search for Madison McKerny, but also because he was trying to figure out how to work â€Å"Do you have a penis?† casually into the conversation with his sweetheart, Eduardo. After a couple of teasing e-mails, he could stand it no longer and had just typed out, Eduardo, not that it makes any difference, but I'm thinking of sending you some sexy lingerie as a friendship present, and I wondered if I should make any special accommodations for the panties. Then he waited. And waited. And granted that it was five in the morning in Manila, he was second-guessing himself. Had he been too vague, or had he not been vague enough? And now he had to go. He knew where Charlie was going, but he had to get there before anything happened. He dialed Lily's cell phone, hoping that she wouldn't be working at her other job and would do him a favor. â€Å"Speak, ingrate,† Lily answered. â€Å"How did you know it was me?† Ray asked. â€Å"Ray?† â€Å"Yeah, how did you know it was me?† â€Å"I didn't,† Lily said. â€Å"What do you want?† â€Å"Can you come cover the store for me for a couple of hours?† Then, as he heard her take a deep breath that he was pretty sure would be propellant for verbal abuse, he added, â€Å"There's fifty bucks extra in it for you.† Ray heard her exhale. Yes! After graduating from the Culinary Institute, Lily had gotten a job as a sous chef at a bistro in North Beach, but she didn't make enough to move out of her mother's apartment yet, so she let Charlie talk her into keeping a couple of shifts at Asher's Secondhand, at least until he could find a replacement. â€Å"Okay, Ray, I'll come in for a couple of hours, but I have to be at the restaurant by five, so be back or I'm closing up early.† â€Å"Thanks, Lily.† Charlie sincerely hoped that Ray wasn't a serial killer, despite all the indications to the contrary. He would never have found this woman without Ray's police contacts, and what would he do in the future if he needed to find someone and Ray was in jail? Then again, Ray's experience as a cop could account for his never leaving any evidence. But why, then, would he continue to pursue the Filipino women over the Internet if he was just looking to kill people? Maybe that's what he did when he went to the Philippines to visit his paramours. Maybe he killed desperate Filipinas. Maybe Ray was a tourist serial killer. Deal with it later, Charlie thought. For now, there's a soul vessel to retrieve. Charlie got out of the cab outside of the Fontana, an apartment building just a block up from Ghirardelli Square, the waterfront chocolate factory turned tourist mall. The Fontana was a great, curved, concrete-and-glass building that commanded views of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge, and that had drawn the disdain of San Franciscans since it had been built in the 1960s. It wasn't that it was an ugly building, although no one would argue that it wasn't, but with the Victorian and Edwardian structures all around it, it looked very much like a giant air conditioner from outer space attacking a nineteenth-century neighborhood. However, the views from the apartments were exquisite, there was a doorman, underground parking, and a pool on the roof, so if you could handle the stigma of residing in an architectural pariah, it was a great place to live. The address Ray had given him for Madison was on the twenty-second floor, and so, presumably, was her soul vessel. Charlie wasn't sure of the exact range of his unnoticeability (he refused to think of it as invisibility, because it wasn't), but he hoped that it reached twenty-two floors. He was going to have to get past the doorman and into an elevator, and posing as an estate buyer wasn't going to work. Ah, well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. If he got caught, he'd just have to find another way in. He waited by the door until a young woman in business attire went in, then followed her into the lobby. The doorman didn't even look at him. Ray saw Charlie get out of the cab and told his own driver to stop a block away, where he hopped out, threw the driver a five and told him to keep the change, then dug in his pocket for the rest of the fare while the driver pounded on the wheel impatiently and cursed under his breath in Urdu. â€Å"Sorry, it's been a while since I took a cab,† Ray said. Ray had a car, a nice little Toyota, but the only parking place he could find was eight blocks away from his apartment in the parking lot of a hotel managed by a friend of his, and when you got a parking place in San Francisco, you kept it, so Ray mostly used public transportation and only drove the car on his days off to keep the battery charged. He'd jumped in a taxi outside Charlie's shop and shouted, â€Å"Follow that cab!† thus completely terrifying the Japanese family in the back. â€Å"Sorry,† Ray said. â€Å"Konichiwa. It's been a while since I took a cab.† Then he jumped back out and caught a cab that didn't have a fare. He sneaked quickly up the street, going from light post, to newspaper machine, to ad kiosk, ducking behind each, staying in his stealth-crouch, and achieving nothing whatsoever except to look like a complete loon to the kid standing at the bus stop across the street. He reached the underground parking entrance of the Fontana just as Charlie was making for the door. Ray crouched behind the key-card pillar. He wasn't sure what he was going to do if Charlie went for the building. Fortunately, he'd memorized Madison McKerny's phone number, and he could warn her that Charlie was coming. In the cab on the way down here he'd remembered where he'd seen her name: on the register at his health club. Madison McKerny was one of the midmorning fuck puppets from the gym, and as Ray suspected, Charlie was stalking her. He watched Charlie fall in behind a young woman in business dress who was heading up the walk into the Fontana, then Charlie was gone. Just gone. Ray came out onto the sidewalk to get a better angle. The woman was still there, she'd gone only a couple of steps, but he couldn't see Charlie. There were no bushes, no walls, the whole damn lobby was glass, where the hell had he gone? Ray was sure he hadn't looked away, he didn't even think he had blinked, and he would have seen any sudden move Charlie might have made. Reverting to the Beta Male's tendency to blame himself, Ray wondered if maybe he'd had some kind of petit mal seizure that had made him black out for a second. Whether he did or not, he had to warn Madison McKerny. He reached to his belt and felt the empty cell-phone clip, then remembered putting his phone under the register when he'd gotten to work that morning. Charlie found the right apartment and rang the bell. If he could get Madison McKerny to come out into the hallway, he could slip in behind her and look through her apartment for her soul vessel. Just down the hall there was a table with an artificial flower arrangement. He'd tipped it over, hoping she was compulsive or curious enough to come out of her apartment to get a closer look. If she wasn't home, well, he'd have to break in. Odds were that with a doorman downstairs, she didn't have an alarm system. But what if she could see him? Sometimes they could, the clients. Not often, but it happened, and – She opened the door. Charlie was stunned. She was stunning. Charlie stopped breathing and stared at her breasts. It wasn't that she was a young and gorgeous brunette, with perfect hair and perfect skin. Nor was it that she was wearing a thin, white silk robe that just barely concealed her swimsuit-model figure. Nor was it because she had disproportionately large but alert breasts that were straining against the robe and peeking out of the plunging neckline as she leaned out the door, although that would have been enough to render the hapless Beta breathless under any circumstances. It was that her breasts were glowing red, right through the silk robe, glowing right out of the dcolletage like twin rising suns, pulsating like the lightbulb boobies of a kitschy Hawaiian hula girl lamp. Madison McKerny's soul was residing in her breast implants. â€Å"I've got to get my hands on those,† Charlie said, forgetting that he wasn't exactly alone and he wasn't exactly thinking to himself. Then Madison McKerny noticed that Charlie was there and the screaming started.