DeLillo's White Noise and Mao II Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

DeLillo's White Noise and Mao II - Essay Example DeLillo has proved himself as an ace analyzer of crowd situations. Jack Gladney, an off-beat professor in the studies of Hitler at the College-on-the-Hill, is the main character of "White Noise." As much as he is grim and off-keyed, his wife and children are equally the odd combination of bizarre and blas. His wife, Babette, beset with a forgetful mind nurses an ever present premonition of death. Babette's addiction to a drug called Dylar finds her in dalliance with a certain shady Dr. Gray compromising with him her body for drugs, a situation which almost ends in murder. The sons, Heinrich, 14, glum and prone to doomsday anxieties, is a chip of the old block, while 3 years old Wilder is rather assuring and conspicuous by his presence. The daughters, Denise, 11, is a brat and will brook no nonsense from her parents, calling spade a spade, and Steffie, the younger sibling, is a sensitive child who cannot bear to see anyone suffer. It is a classical case of a family living inside a capsule inexorably hurtling towards sure doomsday. The family itself is a telling commentary of the society we live in today. The glum environment may well be the product of a blended marriage with the children having to bear the brunt of a forced step-relationship over which they have no control. The novel highlights the role of children in the scheme of things in the present world. They are more sober, more sensitive, and the target consumers for marauding marketers, reflectively symbolic of the novel's mock surprise towards anything natural and tendency towards more sensitivity and sobriety found among kids rather than the grown ups. Nonetheless, they are warned of the isolation and discomfiture that are sure to follow them soon, by professors at the college. DeLillo's novels have the uncanny effect of touching upon raw nerves. They delve into the not so distant past, hover over the present, and eerily strike at the future bang on target. Written in 1985 with an industrial disaster as background, the "White Noise" draws parallel with the Union Carbide tragedy in Bhopal in 1984, and attempts to rub some sensitivity into a nation benumbed with excessive materialism and prosperity. The United States' prominent world supremacy is akin to the arrogance of Hitler minus the despotic adventurism. Typically, responsibility and control can go to the computer programs. In the quest for comfort and an easy lifestyle, the increasing tendency to fulfill every wish at the press of a button is so pervasive that it is treated as an irritant if the situation turns out to be otherwise. With the Gladney family as the background, "White Noise" goes on to reach out and catch the big picture of the industrial accident and its consequent aftermath when the evacuation lasting nine days causes seemingly endless traffic snarls and panicky inhabitants taking whatever route and protection available to escape the doomed city. News of the impending disaster after the first tentative information about the leak instinctively thrust the population nonchalantly towards their favorite supermarkets. It is only after the death of a man during inspection, and a night of "airborne toxic event" that the magnitude of the disaster sinks in

Ventur and Competition Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Ventur and Competition - Essay Example States is the Federal Sherman Act 1890, with each state having reciprocal antitrust provisions effectively mirroring the Sherman Act (Hovenkamp, 2005). The essence of the Sherman Act is the prohibition of agreements that unreasonably restrain trade, monopolies, attempted monopolies and conspiracies to monopolize (Sherman Act 1890, section 1). The relevant enforcement body is the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice, state attorneys and general or private parties affected by any proposed anti-competitive measure (Posner, 2001). If a joint venture or partnership agreement is found to fall within any of the Sherman Act 1890 prohibitions, the penalties for violation include the following: The main reason that healthcare joint ventures can fall foul of the antitrust provisions under the Sherman Act is that often the partners will be competitors within the same market with the overriding purpose being to pool resources to maximise economic benefits (Elhauge & Geradin, 2007). However, if additional to this, the venture partners continue to compete outside of the joint venture agreement, the antitrust legislation imposes restrictions on conduct between the partners (Hovenkamp, 2005). Secondly, one of the partners in the venture may have market power or the result of the venture will be to increase market power, which can be anti-competitive if the partners to the venture are then enabled to set prices above a competitive level. Furthermore, in considering the proposed joint venture the company should consider the following four issues in particular: In considering compliance with Sherman Act provisions, it is vital for the company to consider the relevant market (Posner, 20010. The relevant market comprises the relevant service market and relevant geographic market (Elhauge & Geradin, 2007). The service market is where the market of services is â€Å"reasonably interchangeable† and the relevant geographic market is â€Å"the area of effective

Democratic assessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Democratic assessment - Essay Example However, in this particular article, we are going to lay emphasis on the democratic organization and structure of Canada and at the same time compare it to the various democracies globally. First and foremost Canada is a country situated in the North American continent. It is a vast nation which stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the pacific and further to the Arctic Ocean. 1Apparently, it is a federal parliamentary nation and at the same times a constitutional monarchy with the royal family as the head of the nation. On that note, the nation is founded on the following values: freedom, democracy, democratic leadership, human rights and finally the rule of law. 2However, the democracy in Canada has faced harsh criticism on the fact that it is termed as being less participatory on the part of representation following the politicians advocating for policies which serve their own interest as opposed the interest of the majority of the people. Despite all that, the government has tirel essly worked to restore the participation of the public through election. In addition to that, elections have provided a forum in which the people of a nation have control over the governing authorities and their policies.3 Apparently, elections have served as a vetting forum for the leaders. In addition to that, through elections people have been able to elect credible leaders for the various public administrative positions for instance the Member of Parliament in the case of Canada and therefore accountability in office has been boosted greatly since failure to deliver on office means one would not be reelected during the next election. 4Furthermore, elections give the people the authority to select the leader they feel will represent them fully in the government; address their grievance to the governing body. On the contrary, through referendum exercises the people have been able to approve the policies they regard in their best interest and at the same time disapprove some of th e policies formulated by the government that they view are unsuitable for the nation’s growth. In other words, elections have given the people power to select which policies to approve to law. 5For instance, in case the government of a nation needs to amend the constitution; which is the law of the country, they may require a majority vote of the citizens in a bid to approve and ensure the participation of the people in democracy of the nation. On a similar theme, people are also given the power to control the policy through the fact that they get to elect new officials during every election. On that note, the newly elected individuals come in with new ideas and policies which are aimed at improving the living standards of people. Consequently, the people are able to keep in check the activities of the government. Apparently, in Canada elections are held on several fronts in the government. 6On that note, there are the national, provincial, municipal and finally the territori al elections. Notably, the parliament of Canada consists of two major divisions; the House of Commons which contain three hundred and eight members and the senate which has one hundred and five appointees of the governor general with the aid of the prime minister. During

Starbucks's finacial analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Starbucks's finacial analysis - Essay Example The cost of equity is calculated by the formula: Ce = Rf + (Em-Rf)*b, where The cost of debt of Starbucks is very low as the company has the vision to attain minimum debt. The amount of debt raised by Starbucks is very low. Due to the tax shield, the cost of debt of Starbucks is very low. The tax rate of Starbucks is 32.8%. The cost of equity and the cost of debt of Starbucks are multiplied respectively to the respective proportions of the debt and equity. The weighted cost of debt and weighted cost of equity are added to find the weighted average cost of capital (Yahoo finance, 2013). The weighted average cost of capital of Starbucks is 11.14%. The earnings before interest and taxes of Starbucks are about 15.7% of the total revenue in 2012. The earnings before interest and tax are the net earnings after operation before interest and taxes are paid (Baker and  Powell, 2009). The increase in EBIT over the last three years is depicted in the table given below. The FCF for Starbucks has been calculated below with the help of formula: Net Earnings before paying interest and tax * (1- tax rate) + Amortization and Depreciation – Net change in working capital – Capital Expenditure. The depreciation and amortization expense of the company consists of the expenses written off by the loss of valuation of its assets due to usage and part of the expenses due to repayment of the loans consisting of principal and interest payments. The depreciation and amortization of the company has increased by 5.56% from 2011 to 2012. The working capital of Starbucks is determined as the net of the current assets after meeting the current liabilities of the company to run its daily operations. The working capital of Starbucks has changed over the years which could be indicated by the trend of change in working capital over the years (Khan, 2004). The compounded annual growth rate

Film Review Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 3

Film Review - Assignment Example Based on a true story, Missing weave the incident that took place in Chile in 1973. An American freelance journalist Charles Horman (John Shea) with his wife Beth (Sissy Spacek) is in Chile as the opportunity presents them with the condition of military coup to report on, during and after the regime of Salvador Allande. As the time nears for the couple to leave Chile to return to America, Charles is been abducted by the military, which hints the involvement of the American army – a place where they should not be present. The following events depict the father of Charles, a conservative business man trying to locate his son and get out of the jungle of lies and deception portrayed by the US embassy with his daughter in law. Like every film produced to date, Missing contains a theme, targets a specific audience and has few editing shortcomings. The theme of the movie can be describes as addressing the controversy that had resulted as a result of Charles Horman execution back in 1973 and to clearly portray the involvement of US government in the scenario. For instance, in the start of the movie Gavras educate the people that the proceeding scenes are accounted for and are documented too; this implies that whatever will be shown in the movie cannot be questioned and the scenes are shot after authorizing the incident. So, we can harmlessly assume that the Gavras hinting that the US government was involved and the embassy played a part in approving or commanding the execution of Chalres Horman is correct. But then, this particular controversy clearing scenes opened new questioning from the public as well as the government. People tends to get more involved in a movie if the movie is based on a real incident, as this flick by Gavras falls in the same category the audience targeted by the director was the American citizen, because of the fact that the main victim of the movie was an American and this topic had been controversial for a long period of

Economic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 6

Economic - Essay Example In the next segment of the paper, the cause and benefits of Trans Pacific Partnership related to international trade agreements that has become the headline of The New York Times will also be examined. As per the reports of The Washington Post, the gasoline tax has been static at 18.4 cents per gallon since 1993, as no Federal government has taken initiatives to increase the tax rate in last 20 years. However, as the oil price dropped by 40% in June 2014, many states considered reviewing the rate of the long-static federal gasoline tax. However, such increment in gasoline tax rate involves certain pros and cons as well as economic consequences (Ferguson 153). As per the newspaper report, the most important benefit that the US economy will experience from increasing gasoline tax can be attributed as the potential environmental benefits which may arise from decline in use of crude oil and gasoline. The rationale is based on the connotation that, in case of a higher tax on gasoline and its sub products, the citizen would opt for alternatives such as public transportation instead of personal car that will definitely bring social benefits in real sense. Moreover, as the total revenue obtained from gasoline tax is utilized in the Federal Highway Trust Fund, the Congress is planning to contribute the additional money accumulated from the incremented tax rate for the purpose of reducing budget deficit. The US government is also of the opinion that as increment in the US gasoline tax will encourage the citizen for using alternative sources of energy; such initiative will reduce dependence of US government on the largest foreign suppliers of crude oil, OPEC which in turn will bring higher stability in the entire American economy. According to the notion of Ex President, Mr. George W. Bush, high level of dependency in turn jeopardizes the economic growth to a

Environmental Impacts from over Population Essay Example for Free

Environmental Impacts from over Population Essay Introduction The population of human beings on this planet has been gaining exponentially, since the dawn of Man. A basic feature of an exponential increase is that the numbers increase faster and faster as the population doubles and redoubles, with each doubling occurring in the same amount of time (Wright, 2008), As the population continues to multiply, so do the impacts upon our environment and surrounding ecosystems. As human populations increase, the demands for food, supplies, and housing also increase. With these increased demands, there is now a greater strain upon our resources more than ever before. The question then becomes, what are the impacts upon our environment by our population situation, and is there anything that can be done to deal with the problems from this dilemma? Population Impacts As civilization has continued to grow and develop, so has the impact upon our environment by our exploding population. As mankind began to â€Å"modernize†, the Earth began to feel impacts by the choices made from its inhabitants. Beginning with the agricultural revolution, humankind became able to manipulate his environment (Sharp, 2000). During the agricultural revolution, man was able to plant and grow food. As societies were still nomadic in their nature, mankind would use the resources of the Earth to their fullest extent, and then move on to the next area. This started with slash and burn techniques, and for the first time, CO2 levels were modified (Sharp, 2000) As the population of the planet continued to surge, the next great impact upon the environment would be the industrial revolution of the 1800’s. With the boom of the industrial revolution across the world, the demand for natural resources and the impacts upon the environment would soar. More people and natural resources were needed to sustain the new industrial system and the needs of growing societies (Sharp, 2000). The impacts of the industrial revolution were great and vast. For the first time in our world’s history, we could see the potential impacts of using our natural resources and dealing with an ever-growing worldwide population. The effects of population growth upon the environment are becoming revealed at an alarming rate. Between 1960 and 1999, Earths population doubled from three billion to six billion people (Rand, 2000). The world has changed dramatically over the last several years. The landscapes and ecosystems that were present hundreds of years of ago are no longer in existence. We are consuming our natural resources at an alarming rate. In fact, many environmental experts believe that human beings have reached their carrying capacity of sustainable life. How do we meet the challenges of population growth and managing our natural resources without exploiting the environment? First, we must begin to invest in technology that does not degrade the environment (Sharp, 2000). This is very critical to the retention of a sustainable environment for our future. In the past, countries developed around their economic strength. This factor often meant that most nations did not consider long-term environmental impacts by their decisions. These â€Å"slash and burn† techniques by many nations have resulted in devastating consequences to our ecosystems. There are entire species that have become extinct, all in the name of economic progress. This short-term economic gain for many of these nations has resulted in effects that will be felt from generations to come. The eye of man can see the effects of population growth. It also can now project the effects of population demand in the future. One of the growing problems facing mankind today is global climate change. From glaciers melting, to rising oceanic temperatures, and even climactic weather events, the effects of population upon the earth, have impacted our future for many years. Research suggests that temperatures have been influenced by growing concentrations of greenhouse gases, which absorb solar radiation and warm the atmosphere (Rand, 2000). There is still a great deal that we can do to preserve the environment and place a halt to the devastating environment impacts of our population growth. Our sustainability not only depends on us meeting this challenge, but also presents an opportunity to provide for the future of our civilization. An encouraging note is the simple fact that many companies are now becoming â€Å"green† companies, meaning that they are attempting to be environmentally conscious and pursue policies that offer to protect and not neglect our environment. The answers to this problem are two fold. First, we must address the growing populations in the developing world. The populations in these areas are growing at an alarming rate. Many of these areas are already facing critical famines and food shortages of historic proportions. Unfortunately, efforts to implement policies that stress birth control have not been effective. We must address the growing populations in these areas, if we are to tackle the problems that population growth has created upon the Earth. The next problem we must address, if we are to maintain adequate sustainability upon the Earth, is our own consumption issues. As a nation, we are consuming natural resources at an alarming rate. We consume more energy per capita than any nation on this planet. Moreover, we must develop better land-use policies in the developed world. The â€Å"slash and burn† tactics of the past must be stopped and we must acknowledge the fact that we cannot destroy entire ecosystems that have taken hundreds of years to develop, and believe we can replace them by simply planting hundreds of trees that will take years to grow. The impacts of our decisions are great. The choice is clearly impacted by economic factors. As a nation, our demand for consumer goods is at a high level. While our population is growing at a slow rate, our consumption levels have never been higher. Many Americans do not focus on the environmental impacts of their decisions today. We must implement sound environmental policies that embrace this factor. The choices are clear for society. As the population of the world continues to soar, so will the stresses upon our environment. There will be a greater need for usable water, natural resources, and even greater energy demands. While these demands pose a potential calamity for the environment, they also create opportunity for new industries. As mankind begins to recognize the negative effects upon the environment by poor decisions and usage in the past, we as a society can create and environment that fosters the development of â€Å"green† industries and elect government officials that encourage policies that promote the well being of our environment. Conclusion The effects on our environment from our population are visible everyday. One need only look to the smog filled sky, or read the newspapers decrying the shortages of drinking water, and the battles that are ensuing to lay claim to that drinking water to realize the impact of the decisions that face us as a society today. We can change the way we live and stop the poor use of the environment, and we can control the growth of the population in third world countries, or continue the status quo. If we choose poorly, we will face an environmental impact that will test the sustainability, not only of our civilization, but also of our planet.