Divirgent’s World Essay

In a futuristic, dystopian Chicago, society is organized into five factions. Each faction places value solely on a specific virtue, which its members work to cultivate throughout their lives. There is Abnegation, which values selflessness, Amity, which values peace, Erudite, which values knowledge, Candor, which values honesty, and Dauntless, which values bravery. Children are raised in their parents’ faction, and once they turn sixteen, they have the option to choose for themselves which faction will be theirs for the rest of their lives, whether it’s the one they grew up in or not. Beatrice Prior is a sixteen-year-old member of Abnegation. She and her brother Caleb, who is not quite a year her elder, take the aptitude test that will tell them which faction they are most suitable for. The test consists of a simulation of a confrontation with a vicious dog. Beatrice shows aptitude for three different factions, Abnegation, Erudite, and Dauntless, and this means she is something called Divergent. She is warned to never tell anyone of her results – it is dangerous to be Divergent. After much contemplation over whether to stay in Abnegation or switch factions, Beatrice chooses to switch to Dauntless, and Caleb moves to Erudite. In Dauntless, Beatrice changes her name to Tris because she feels it will allow her to start over and become someone else entirely. She makes quick friends with two Candor transfers named Christina and Al, and an Erudite transfer named Will, while three other Candor transfers, Peter, Drew, and Molly, become her enemies. Initiation into this courageous faction involves three stages, and they will be ranked after each one. Only the top ten initiates will become Dauntless members; the rest will fail out and become factionless, forced to live on the streets of the city in poverty. The first stage of initiation involves learning how to fight from their mysterious initiation instructor, Four, and one of the cruel Dauntless leaders, Eric. Because Tris is small, she isn’t a particularly adept fighter, but she manages to get by.

Symbolism In English literatureâ€â€œGravity” Essay

Symbolism is a good tool to use when we come across difficult abstract concepts such as life and death.For example, in her article entitled â€Å"Gravity†, David Leavitt tells us a story about how a mom named Sylvia encourages her HIV infected son Theo to live longer. When Theo started to have bad eye sight in his childhood Sylvia just let him wear her flamboyant glasses despite that people around them all think that Theo looks strange. After Theo grew up, between a drug that could sustain his life and a drug that could save his sight, Theo chose the second one. Sylvia worried that Theo would give up the hope for living, so she tried to encourage Theo to live by a strange way which similar to the way she help him with his sight when he was a child. She threw a very heavy crystal bowl to Theo when they were shopping in a gift store. Theo caught the bowl without thinking. Theo realized that by throwing the bowl, on one side, Sylvia tended to prove that he is still alive. On the other side, Sylvia wanted to encourage him to live longer. The crystal bowl in the story represents exactly what Theo was going through. It symbolizes both life and death. It represents life because it was heavy and valuable â€Å"(The crystal bowl is) Four hundred and twenty- five dollars† (l. 88) This shows that the crystal bowl is very valuable just like that human’s life is very precious. In the same time, crystal bowl represent death because it could easily been shattered. Theo was surprised that he actually did not shatter the bowl â€Å"Theo looked at the floor, still surprised not to see shards of glass around his feet.† (l. 96-97) If the crystal bowl were broken, it would have not value or meaning just like it has lost its life. So, the Crystal bowl in the story represents death. If the bowl shattered, it just like a person lost his/her life. The crystal bowl also represents the character and hopes of Sylvia. The crystal in the story is very showing and pricy. â€Å"(The crystal bowl is) a large ridges crystal bowl, a very fifties sort of bowl, stalwart and square-jawed.† (l. 84-86) It represents Sylvia’s flamboyant and materialism characters. The author tells us that Sylvia has a flamboyant character by describing Sylvia’s bold and flashy glasses†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ harlequins with tiny rhinestones in the corners†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (l. 9) The author also implies that Sylvia is quite materialism by showing us that she care a lot abo ut the price of a graduation gift her sister given to her son  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Don’t you remember that cheap little nothing Bibi gave you for your graduation? It was disgusting.†(l.50-51) On the other hand, the crystal bowl represents the strength of Sylvia’s hope for Theo to live because the crystal bowl is heavy â€Å"’That’s heavy,’ Sylvia said, observing with satisfaction how the bowl had weighted Theo’s arms down†(l.93-94) The heavier the stronger, so the heaviness of the crystal bowl represent the strong will and hope of Sylvia. The author shows us that Sylvia is a strong willed woman who has done extremely stressful things in a role â€Å"The DHPG injections she (Sylvia) took in stride—she’s seen her own mother through her dying, after all, Four times a day, with the equanimity of a nurse, she cleaned out the plastic tube implanted in his chest, inserted a sterilized hypodermic a Sylvia and slowly dripped bag of sight-giving liquid into his vein†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (l.17-20) It shows that Sylvia has tremendous strength just like the toughness the crystal bowl appeared to be. The author also shows us that Sylvia’s hope for Theo to live is very strong. Even though Sylvia was stressed out †Yet she (Sylvia) had also, at about three o’clock one morning, woken him up to tell him she was going to the twenty-four- hour supermarket, and was there anything her wanted†(1. 122-124) This shows that Sylvia was on the edge of mental broken-down. But Sylvia still keeps strong hope for The o to live â€Å"†¦ it had occurred to him (Theo) that she (Sylvia) was trusting his two feeble hands, out of the whole world, to keep it from shattering.† This shows that after all, Sylvia strongly hoped that, showing Theo that he was still strong by throwing the crystal bowl and letting him catch it, Theo would not continue on giving up his life but choose to live longer. The crystal also symbolized the general message which the author is trying to convey to the readers: life should be fully lived. The author shows that Theo was dying and tended to giving up his life. He felt â€Å"†¦wide and unswimmable the gulf was becoming between him and the evereceding shoreline of the will †¦Ã¢â‚¬  (l. 35-36) Even though he felt that way, he still caught the heavy crystal bowl without thinking. It shows the underlining deep and significant meaning of the story â€Å"There are certain things you’ve already done before you even think how to do them†¦ the bowl, which Theo was holding before he could even begin to calculate its brief trajectory†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (l.131-133) This shows us that all human have an instinct for living. By showing us this, the story conveys a message to the readers that even though life is  violable like the fragile crystal bowl; it doesn’t mean that we should give up. Instead, we should look at the positive side of life. Just like the crystal bowl also heavy and strong side, human lives also have a strong side because very one have instinct for living. Therefore, we should have faith to ourselves and stop complaining our own misery but start to look at life in a positive way, and realize that our lives should be fully lived.

After a Careful Examination of the Arch Communication Inc.

After a careful examination of the Arch Communications Inc. case and the valuation done by the Analyst, we believe that there are following issues with valuation which should be examined very closely – 1) Technicality Error in the preparation of the Free Cash Flow: In the FCF prepared by John Adams: Tax and Change in Net Working Capital items cannot be observed. We may assume that, this was done on purpose since both of these values were accepted as â€Å"0† throughout the forecast period. In the absence of knowledge about the details for tax implications in US and the effect of the expected Westlink Holdings acquisition on existing tax base, we accepted the tax assumption made by John Adams as correct. In normal conditions we need to investigate thoroughly the tax issue and the permitted number of years that loss can be carried forward in US. * We think that accepting the â€Å"Change in Net Working Capital† as â€Å"0† throughout the forecast period is a strong assumption.The negative Net Working Capital (for 2005 Current Assets-Current Liabilities = 33,671-49,172 = 15,501 ) structure may change within forecasted period against to company due to increasing competition. But we still continue with the â€Å"0† ? Net Working Capital assumption of John Adams. 2) WACC Estimate: John Adams used the following parameters/assumptions in his WACC calculations: Rf: 7% Market Risk Premium (â€Å"MRM†): 7% Beta Arch: 1. 6 Borrowing Rate: 11% Eqity/Debt Ratio: 40% / 60% And based on these: Re= Rf+ ? Arch x MRP = 7% + 1. 6 x 7% = 18. 2 % WACC = 0. x Re + 0. 6 x Rd and accepted tax shield from cost of debt as â€Å"0† due to the â€Å"0† tax cost of the company during the forecasted period. WACC = 0. 4 x 18. 2% + 0. 6 x 11. 0% = 13. 88% =>13. 9% * In the absence of details about the ? Arch calculation of John Adams we accepted this assumption as accurate. [ Dear All: Please feel free to comment on Beta and cost of debt assumptions, also on 0 tax assumption in WACC calculation] 3) Terminal Value Calculation: John Adams calculated Terminal Value of the company at year 2005 as $3,568m with 10x EBITDA multiple. Although 10xEBITDA multiple seems close to the existing average EV/EBITDA multiple (the average is 10. 6 for the above 6 companies), this multiple reflects the existing company growth/market expectations. A multiple of 10-12 multiple can used for corporations with high growth expectations but it is unusual and flawed to accept the same multiple for Arch Communication even after 10-years. Normally for mature companies using EV/EBITDA multiple in the range of 6-7 times can be more acceptable. * When $854. m PV of Terminal Value is double checked with the calculation method by Perpetual Growth Rate at the 10th Year Free Cash Flow: 3,568=277. 3(13. 9%-g) => g=6. 118%. Assumption of 6. 12% perpetual growth is both unusual and irrational. * It seems that the discounting formula used for calculating t he PV of Terminal Value seems false. It is discounting 1 more year than the actual 9 years. Hence for discounting the PV of Terminal Value at the Year 2005, it is needed to use the discount rate of 0. 3099. * When a usual market practice was used for the growth in perpetuity (for the calculation of TV) i. . 2. 0% => TV=277. 3(13. 9%-2. 0%) x (0. 3099) =>$722m. instead of $854. 1m. 4) Cash Flow Assumptions: When we check the reliability of the assumptions and the cash flows we observe that: * EBITDA margin is increasing from 36. 2% to 46. 9%. We believe that 46. 9% at a maturing market seems very aggressive. * The book value of Fixed Assets (PP&E and Intangible Assets) decreases to $ 52. 2 m. levels at $ 760. 7 m sales figure. We believe that this seems some problematic for us. a. Whether EV/EBITDA is the right method for calculating the terminal value of Arch Communications Inc.? . If at all EV/EBITDA is the right multiple, is it justified to use a multiple of 10x for valuing the te rminal value when it is assumed that the business has achieved a stable perpetual growth rate? c. Is it valid to use FCF and EBITDA simultaneously in calculating the full enterprise value? The valuation at hand calculates the terminal value using EBITDA multiple and value generated over next ten years using FCF d. Even if the business is not generating any profit at all currently, is it valid to assume no taxes even for the rest of the forecasting period? . Is it efficacious to use a WACC of 13. 9%? Problem: Whether EV/EBITDA is the right method for calculating the terminal value of Arch Communications Inc.? Argument: Since the company is highly leveraged, it may be more prudent to value equity just by using Flow to Equity or levered cash flows. The unlevered cash flows and EBITDA may not †¦(CHOON TO ADD) Problem: If at all EV/EBITDA is the right multiple, is it justified to use a multiple of 10x for valuing the terminal value when it is assumed that the business has achieved a stable perpetual growth rate?Argument: The companies who have achieved a stable growth rate do have EV/EBITDA of 10x by any industry standard. A multiple of 10-12x is used for growing organizations but it is not guaranteed that Arch Communication would be a rapidly growing organization even after 10-years. Even if the valuation using EV/EBITDA is validated – it could only be in the range of 6-7x. Currently, the industry standard is of 10x multiple of EV/EBITDA but that is not guaranteed after 10-years Problem: Is it valid to use FCF and EBITDA simultaneously in calculating the full enterprise value?The valuation at hand calculates the terminal value using EBITDA multiple and value generated over next ten years using FCF Argument: We would also prefer to calculate the terminal value using FCF rather than using EBITDA since the value generated in the next 10-years is also calculated using FCF. We believe that FCF would provide with a better approximation of the terminal value. Problem: Even if the business is not generating any profit at all currently, is it valid to assume no taxes even for the rest of the forecasting period? Argument: FCF is calculated as Problem: Is it efficacious to use a WACC of 13. 9%? Argument:

Clam system Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Clam system - Term Paper Example A clan is an extensive type of lineage that is characterized by blood relations whereby all relatives from either the mother’s or father’s lineage, together with all the ancestors and their offspring in that lineage are considered as members. The main features of a clan include being an exogamous group, having a common ancestor and being unilateral. Being unilateral means that a clan was/is made up families from the father’s or the mother’s side (Middleton and David 38). Clans were and are not made up of a combination of lineages of both the mother and the father. Almost all communities had unilateral clan systems which was either patrilineal or matrilineal lineage. Clans were also exogamous groups because all members of a clan were believed to be descendants of a common ancestor, hence most communities discouraged intra-clan marriages. Some clans had ancestors that some scholars term as mythical, while others had real ancestors. They were also small and they were led by elders who were in charge of making all crucial decisions affecting their clans and that of the community at large, but in conjunction with other clan elders from a community. Unlike the modern type of state governance whereby government officials make decisions purported to be representing the will of the citizens, clans were based on the â€Å"we feeling,† an aspect that made decisions made to be more representative. Almost all clans across the globe had teams of elders or the so-called council of elders who were in charge of making decisions affecting the clan and the community (Hudson, Thomas and Robbie 42). Councils of elders from different clans, but who are from the same tribe or community could come together and make decisions affecting the community at large. In case two or more communities were involved in disputes, clan leaders would select the best representatives to negotiate with leaders from the other communities in order to come up

Nintendo Co Ltd Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Nintendo Co Ltd - Essay Example In this study we will try and evaluate the key strategic issue that Nintendo is facing and what are their current strategic options. The three major players in the industry are Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony. For all the players the market is broadly being divided into two major segments such as the hardware segment and the software or the gaming segment. Though there is a major drift in sales for all the three major companies in the recent year we can analyze their positions and strength from the data of the previous year that is 2008. Nintendo noted a 49 percent market share for their consoles i.e. Wii and about a 73% market share for the handheld, which are called the DS. (Elliot, 2008) So it is quite evident Nintendo is a market leader in the hardware segment of the industry. Also notably there were five gaming software made by Nintendo which acquired the top ten spot of NPD software (Elliot, 2008). So the constant mix of the quality hardware and innovative software making Nintendo a prospective leader in the industry. Sony’s product in the hardware segment called the PS3 attributed a growth of 99% on ye ar-to-year basis (2008). Apart from that, though Nintendo is the market leader in the hardware segment. According to the Consumer Behavior Report of 2007 Nintendo’s consoles are readily accepted by the target consumers. But Sony’s playstation (which is their hardware console) recorded over 10 million accounts all over the world. But the USP of Sony remains with the innovativeness and varieties of gaming software they introduce with quick succession. According to Microsoft, their hardware product Xbox 360 enjoys a 49% market share in USA. Also Xbox 360 title, a product in the software segment accounts for 34% in software sales for July 2008. (Elliot, 2008) Though Nintendo is more successful in developing game platforms, but the real focus of the company is on producing games rather than only platforms. (Ackerson, 2008).

Health and environment questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Health and environment questions - Essay Example The lack of people to work and maintain the environmental and economical structure will cause significant problems, as there will not be enough people working. This means that industries such as coal mining and other industrial operations will have to be suspended or short cuts might have to be make to cut down on costs and manpower, which can result in environmental damage (Avert, 2011). Developed countries have the resources and the support in order to help countries such as Botswana with the AIDS epidemic. The first method of supporting can come from the economic funding as well as donating supplies. Many of Africa’s countries are already undeveloped and many of the people live in poverty. If they are able to afford proper medical supplies, they most likely cannot afford anything else. Funding can help alleviate financial pressure as well as make sure needed supplies reach the people. Services can also be given. Like in Botswana, many children are being orphaned and are not receiving proper care and education. Taking these children and putting them in foster homes as well as volunteering and helping educate the problem will help make sure these displaced children learn. Lastly, the biggest component is helping with the medical aspects of HIV/AIDS. Currently, the retroviruses are untreatable and the medical costs of trying to maintain those with the disease are increasingly expensive. Many countries in Africa are unable to afford the costs of trying to research a cure and other alternative medicines for the disease. Developed countries have the technology and the funds, which can help pay for this research, which would have longer positive value than just maintaining the status quo through medical supplies. 2. Honestly, the case of â€Å"better safe than sorry† is more situational dependent. Sometimes in radical situations, fast acting decisions must be made in order to solve the problem at hand, rather than looking that the long-term consequenc es. In terms of medication and thinking about Africa with the AIDS epidemic, this should not be the case. There are many different factors that are already affecting everything from the economy to society itself. Many experimental drugs can have unpredicted side effects. Without knowing all of the facts about the medicines, it would be hard to predict whether they are effective or not. In some cases, they can even cause more damage. According to the precautionary principle, â€Å"the ends would be worth the means†. Opponents of this principle state that especially when dealing with medication, there must be a high degree of likelihood that the medication will work must be at a high percentile. In addition, the biological causality and mechanisms undergoing must be explained and cannot be explained by a correlation. A high probability indicates scientific proof (Kopelman, Resnick, & Weed, 2004). In talking about AIDS, this irresponsibility with the precautionary principle effe cted people in the United States in the 1980s with the transmission of HIV. This occurred because the premise of blood disease and infections was downplayed by medical authorities resulting in many people being unnecessarily infected with the virus (Alban, 2005). 3. Global warming is a life-changing event, which is currently and will change the way in which our society works. It has resulted as a result of human interactions with the Earth and its resources. Increased carbon emissions have caused

Biology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 8

Biology - Essay Example Although there are many definitions of ethics, perhaps the most universally accepted definition regards ethics as an individual or group’s ability to make choices regarding how to behave. Ethical behavior can be broken down into two categories: the choice as it effects the society around the person making the decision, and the decision as it effects the self of the individual making the choice. An individual who is making an ethical decision must think of how the behavior will affect others, in an altruistic manner. There are many different kinds of stem-cells and uses for them, and many people have different ethical perspectives on what science should and should not be able to do in terms of autonomous limits. Forms of therapeutic cloning currently involve taking cells, often stem-cells, to help the individual in terms of rehabilitation and organ transplants. People feel different ways ethically about cloning. These stem cells can be preserved in the individual’s placental cells or other cells and then can used to make replacement cells if there is a problem or disease that comes up during the individual’s life. Therefore, therapeutic cloning uses techniques that are not designed towards cloning an individual per se, but instead using cell growth to help them with possible ailments and therefore improve their quality of life substantially. This process is set to solve problematic The uses of stem cells are broad: they can be used to fight genetic diseases and treat blood disorders, and cord blood carries less risk of infection. There have been studies in which adult patients have received blood cord stem cell units that were only partially matched and grafted successfully. Also, patients with gene disorders have been given stem cell transplants to replace genetic structures, and the exactitude of this measure is heightened