Did Tecumsehs Curse Kill Seven US Presidents

Tecumseh’s Curse, also called the Curse of Tippecanoe, stems from an 1809 dispute between U.S. President William Henry Harrison and Shawnee Indian leader Tecumseh. Some believe the curse is the reason that Harrison, and every following president up to Kennedy who was elected in a year ending in zero, died in office. Background In 1840,  William Henry Harrison won the presidency with the slogan, Tippecanoe and Tyler Too, which referenced Harrisons role in the American victory at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. While Tecumseh was the leader of the Shawnee, the opposing side in the battle, his hatred for Harrison actually dated back to 1809. While governor of the Indiana Territory, Harrison negotiated a treaty with Native Americans in which the Shawnee ceded large tracts of land to the U.S. government. Angered by what he considered Harrison’s unfair tactics in negotiating the deal, Tecumseh and his brother organized a group of local tribes and attacked Harrison’s army, thus starting the Battle of Tippecanoe. During the War of 1812, Harrison furthered reinforced his anti-Native reputation when he defeated the British and the tribes that aided them in the Battle of the Thames. This additional defeat and the loss of more land to the American government is purportedly what drove Tecumsehs brother, Tenskwatawa—known by the Shawnee as â€Å"The Prophet†Ã¢â‚¬â€to place a curse of death on all future U.S. presidents elected in years ending in a zero. Harrisons Death Harrison was elected president  with almost 53% of the vote, but he barely had a chance to settle in to the office before his death. After delivering a very long inaugural address on a cold and windy day, he was stuck in a rainstorm and caught a serious cold which would eventually turn into the severe pneumonia infection that killed him only 30 days later—Harrisons inauguration was on March 4 and he died on April 4, 1841. His death was first in a series of tragedies that struck presidents winning an election at the start of a new decade—a pattern that would become known as Tecumsehs Curse, or The Curse of Tippecanoe. Other Victims Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860 as the first person to run under the Republican party. The United States quickly moved into a Civil War which would last from 1861-1865. On April 9th, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant, thereby ending the rift that was tearing apart the nation. Only five days later on April 14, 1865, Lincoln was assassinated by Southern sympathizer John Wilkes Booth. James Garfield was elected to the presidency in 1880. He took office on March 4, 1881. On July 2, 1881, Charles J. Guiteau shot the president, which eventually led to his death on September 19, 1881. The mentally unbalanced Guiteau was upset because he had been denied a diplomatic post by the Garfield administration. He was eventually hung for his crime in 1882. William McKinley was elected to his second term in 1900. Once again, he defeated his opponent, William Jennings Bryan as he had in 1896. On September 6, 1901, McKinley was shot by Leon F. Czolgosz. McKinley died on September 14th. Czolgosz called himself an anarchist and admitted to killing the president because ​...he was the enemy of the people... He was electrocuted in October 1901. Warren G. Harding, elected in 1920,  is widely known as one of the worst presidents of all time. Scandals such as the Teapot Dome and others marred his presidency. On August 2, 1923, Harding was visiting San Francisco on a cross-country Voyage of Understanding to meet people across the nation. He suffered a stroke and died at the Palace Hotel. Franklin Roosevelt was elected to his third term in 1940. He would be elected again in 1944. His presidency began in the depths of the Great Depression and ended shortly after the fall of Hitler in World War II. He died on April 12, 1945, of a cerebral hemorrhage. Since he was elected during one of his terms in a year that ended with a zero, he is considered part of Tecumsehs curse. John F. Kennedy became the youngest elected president upon his victory in 1960. This charismatic leader suffered some highs and lows during his short term in office, including the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the creation of the Berlin Wall, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was riding in a motorcade through Dallas and was assassinated. Lee Harvey Oswald was found to be guilty as a lone gunman by the Warren Commission. However, many people still question whether more individuals were involved in a conspiracy to kill the president. Breaking the Curse In 1980, Ronald Reagan became the oldest man to be elected president. This actor-turned-politician also suffered highs and lows during his two terms in office. He is seen as being an important figure in the breakdown of the former Soviet Union. However, his presidency was tarnished by the Iran-Contra Scandal. On March 30, 1981, John Hinckley attempted to assassinate Reagan in Washington, D.C. Reagan was shot but was able to survive with quick medical attention. Reagan was the first to foil Tecumsehs curse and, some hypothesize, the president who finally broke it for good. George W. Bush, elected in the curse-active year of 2000, survived two assassination attempts and several alleged plots during his two terms in office. While some devotees of the curse suggest that the assassination attempts themselves were the Tecumsehs work, every President since Nixon has been the victim of at least one assassination plot. Elected in 2016, Donald Trump is considered immune from the curse—at least for his first term. The next presidential election will be held in November 2020. Tecumseh will be watching.

The Failure of Education in Pakistan - 717 Words

Education plays an important role in producing skilled individuals and leading the economy towards the path of sustainable economic development. It is only because of education that new technologies and advancement has occurred. Similarly poor educational system may be one of the most important reasons why poor countries do not grow. This is the main reason why the quality of education has a declining trend in Pakistan. The population of Pakistan is more than 180 million but the literacy rate of Pakistan is only 58 percent whereas according to Economic definition, a literate person is one who can read and write his/her name. But many people don’t even know how to read and write. There are many important factors which are responsible for failure in education in Pakistan. Nearly 16% of Pakistans adult population has completed higher education whereas in other countries it is below than 12%. Other factor is that there is not any awareness of education and its importance due to highly conservative ideas. Moreover there are many other reasons of failure of education in Pakistan is difference in education standards like most of the schools on Pakistan are following Cambridge system, a UK based system, some are following Government system which is different according to provinces, and some are following the madarasa system which is broadly consists of religious education. Due to this there comes a difference in opinion of the students of these systems. The other problem thatShow MoreRelatedReasons For The Failure Of Pakistan s Education System1829 Words   |  8 Pagesschools, colleges and universities of Pakistan. Moreover, the purpose of this report is to explore the key issues, problems and the new challenges faced in educational sector of Pakistan. Educational system matures the person mentally, socially, physically and spiritually. 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Cost of Capital, Capital Budgeting and Financial Planning Free Essays

string(32) " premium is estimated to be 6%\." Assignment| Cost of Capital, Capital Budgeting and Financial Planning| Chapter(s)| 9, 10, 12| Group Name| | Student Name(s)| | Date| | Instructions: HW Assignments will be uploaded to Kean Blackboard and must be accessed from there. You must work in groups where assigned (or independently if not assigned to groups) on homework assignments. Points are noted against each question. We will write a custom essay sample on Cost of Capital, Capital Budgeting and Financial Planning or any similar topic only for you Order Now You are required to submit Home Work assignments electronically on Kean Blackboard using MS-Office or other text editor. You are required to complete your assignments as per the due date indicated by the Professor. Total Points in Assignment: 100 (Points scored will be scaled down to a maximum of 15 towards the final grade) Assignment: Part I: Cost of Capital During the last few years, Harry Davis Industries has been too constrained by the high cost of capital to make many capital investments. Recently, though, capital costs have been declining, and the company has decided to look seriously at a major expansion program that has been proposed by the marketing department. Assume that you are an assistant to Leigh Jones, the financial vice-president. Your first task is to estimate Harry Davis’s cost of capital. Financial Statements iframe class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" style="position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);" src="https://phdessay.com/financial-statements-2/embed/#?secret=vw3HS70LFw" data-secret="vw3HS70LFw" width="500" height="282" title="#8220;Financial Statements#8221; #8212; Free Essays - PhDessay.com" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no"/iframe Jones has provided you with the following data, which she believes may be relevant to your task: a) The firm’s tax rate is 40%. b) The current price of Harry Davis’s 12% coupon, semiannual payment, noncallable bonds with 15 years remaining to maturity is $1,153. 72. Harry Davis does not use short-term interest-bearing debt on a permanent basis. New bonds would be privately placed with no flotation cost. c) The current price of the firm’s 10%, $100 par value, quarterly dividend, perpetual preferred stock is $116. 95. Harry Davis would incur flotation costs equal to 5% of the proceeds on a new issue. ) Harry Davis’s common stock is currently selling at $50 per share. Its last dividend (D0) was $3. 12, and dividends are expected to grow at a constant rate of 5. 8% in the foreseeable future. Harry Davis’s beta is 1. 2; the yield on T-bonds is 5. 6%; and the market risk premium is estimated to be 6%. You read "Cost of Capital, Capital Budgeting and Finan cial Planning" in category "Papers" For the over-own-bond-yield-plus-judgmental-risk-premium approach, the firm uses a 3. 2%judgmental risk premium. e) Harry Davis’s target capital structure is 30% long-term debt, 10% preferred stock, and 60%common equity. To help you structure the task, Leigh Jones has asked you to answer the following questions. . What sources of capital should be included when you estimate Harry Davis’s weighted average cost of capital (WACC)? Should the component costs be figured on a before-tax or an after-tax basis? Should the costs be historical (embedded) costs or new (marginal) costs? (5 points) Sources of capital to be included to estimate WACC are * Long term debt – to be considered after tax * Preferred stock – to be considered before tax ( preferred stock is not tax deductible) * Common equity – to be considered before tax When it comes to corporate financing, most firms incorporate tax effects in the cost of capital. For this reason, component costs should be calculated on an after-tax basis. In financial management the WACC is used primarily to make investment decisions and these decisions hinge on projects expected future returns versus the cost of new or marginal capital that will be used to finance these projects. Thus the relevant cost it marginal cost of new debt to be raised during the planning period 2. What is the market interest rate on Harry Davis’s debt, and what is the component cost of this debt for WACC purposes? (3 points) Pre -Tax cost of Debt is the YTM in the case of a Bond. The current price of Harry Davis’s 12% coupon, semiannual payment, noncallable bonds with 15 years remaining to maturity is $1,153. 72. We used the RATE function in Excel to calculate the YTM: n| 30| PV| -1153. 72| pmt| 60| FV| 1000| Rate (i)| 5%| =RATE(30,60,-1153. 72,1000) = 5% Since this is a semiannual rate, we multiplied by 2 to find the annual rate, which is the pre-tax cost of debt. 5% x 2 = 10% = rd After tax component cost of debt = Interest Rate – Tax Savings = rd – rdT We calculated that the rd is 10%, and it is stated above that the tax rate is 40%. rd(1 – T) = 10. %(1 – 0. 40) = 10. 0%(0. 60) = 6. 0 = 6% component cost of debt, which is the after-tax cost of debt. 3. What is the firm’s cost of preferred stock? (3 points) The current price of the firm’s 10%, $100 par value, quarterly dividend, perpetual preferred stock is $116. 95. Harry Davis would incur flotation costs equal to 5% of the proceeds on a new issue. The cost of preferred stock is simply the preferred dividend divided by the price the company will receive if it issues new preferred stock. No tax adjustment is necessary, as preferred dividends are not tax deductible. Dps is the Preferred dividend = . 10($100) = $10 Pps is the preferred stock price = $116. 95 F is the flotation cost as a percentage of proceeds = 5% rps = Dps / Pps(1-F) = $10 / 111. 10 = 0. 09 = 9% cost of preferred stock 4. Would you expect Harry Davis’s preferred stock to be more riskier or less riskier to investors than its debt? Compare the preferred stock yield to the yield to maturity on the debt and explain the risk/return trade-off between preferred stock and debt from an investor’s point of view. (3 points) Preferred stocks are riskier to investors than debt. Corporations own most preferred stock, because 70% of preferred dividends are non-taxable to corporations. Therefore, preferred stock often has a lower before-tax yield than the before-tax yield on debt. But, the after-tax costs to the issuer are higher on preferred stock than debt. This is consistent with the higher risks of preferred stock. 5. Harry Davis doesn’t plan to issue new shares of common stock. Using the CAPM approach, what is Harry Davis’s estimated cost of equity? (2 points) Harry Davis’s beta is 1. 2; the yield on T-bonds is 5. 6%; and the market risk premium is estimated to be 6%. Risk-free rate: 5. 6% Market risk premium: 6% Beta: 1. 2 rs = Risk-free rate + (Market risk premium) (Beta) rs = rRF + (RPM) bi rs = . 056 + (. 06)(1. 2) = 0. 128 = 12. 8% estimated cost of equity using CAPM approach 6. What is the estimated cost of equity using the discounted cash flow (DCF) approach? (2 points) Harry Davis’s common stock is currently selling at $50 per share. Its last dividend (D0) was $3. 12, and dividends are expected to grow at a constant rate of 5. 8% in the foreseeable future. P0 = $50 D0 = $3. 12 g = 5. 8% D1 = $3. 30 rs = D1/P0 + g D1= D0(1+g)= $3. 12(1+. 058) = $3. 30 s = ($3. 30/$50)+5. 8% = 6. 6% +5. 8% = 12. 4% estimated cost of equity using DCF approach 7. Suppose the firm has historically earned 15% on equity (ROE) and retained 62% of earnings, and investors expect this situation to continue in the future. How could you use this information to estimate the future dividend growth rate, and what growth rate would you get? Is this consistent with t he 5. 8% growth rate provided by Jones? (2 points) Payout rate = 100% – 62% = 38% ROE = 15% Growth from earnings retention model: g = (Retention rate)(ROE) g = (1 – Payout rate)(ROE) g = (1 – 0. 38)(15%) = 9. %. Using the Earnings Retention Model, the estimated future dividend growth rate is 9. 3%, which is almost twice the growth rate provided by Jones, and hence inconsistent. Note that the earning retention model assumes the retention and payout rate will remain constant, as will the ROE on new investments. Under these assumptions, the earnings growth and dividends growth rate will also be constant. 8. What is the cost of equity based on the bond-yield-plus-judgmental-risk-premium method? (2 points) For the over-own-bond-yield-plus-judgmental-risk-premium approach, the firm uses a 3. %judgmental risk premium. We calculated earlier that the company’s bond yield is 10%. rs= rd + Judgmental risk premium rs= 10. 0% + 3. 2% = 13. 2% cost of equity based on b ond-yield-plus-judgmental-risk-premium method 9. What is your final estimate for the cost of equity, rs? (2 points) CAPMrs = 12. 8% DCF rs= 12. 4% Bond-yield-plus-judgmental-risk-premium risk rs = 13. 2% Average rs= 12. 8% Final estimate for the cost of equity, rs = 12. 8% 10. What is Harry Davis’s weighted average cost of capital (WACC)? (2 points) The firm’s tax rate is 40%. Harry Davis’s target capital structure is 30% long-term debt, 10% preferred stock, and 60%common equity. We calculated earlier that the pre-tax cost of debt, rd is 10%, the cost of preferred stock, rps is 9% and the cost of equity, rs is 12. 8%. Wd = 30% rd = 10% T = 40% Wps = 10% rps = 9% Ws = 60% rs = 12. 8% WACC= wdrd(1 – T) + wpsrps + wsrs WACC= 0. 30(. 10)(1 ? 0. 40) + 0. 10(. 09) + 0. 60(. 128) = . 1038 = 10. 38% weighted average cost of capital 11. What four common mistakes in estimating the WACC should Harry Davis avoid? (2 points) Four common mistakes that are to be avoided are 1. Using current cost of debt (instead of historical cost of debt) 2. Mixing current and historical measures to calculate MRP 3. Using book weights to estimate the weight for capital structure (instead of market weights) 4. Misidentifying the capital component sources Part II: Capital Budgeting You have just graduated from the MBA program of a large university, and one of your favorite courses was â€Å"Today’s Entrepreneurs. † In fact, you enjoyed it so much you have decided you want to â€Å"be your own boss. † While you were in the master’s program, your grandfather died and left you $1 million to do with as you please. You are not an inventor and you do not have a trade skill that you can market; however, you have decided that you would like to purchase at least one established franchise in the fast-foods area, maybe two (if profitable). The problem is that you have never been one to stay with any project for too long, so you figure that your time frame is three years. After three years you will sell off your investment and go on to something else. You have narrowed your selection down to two choices; (1) Franchise L, Lisa’s Soups, Salads, ; Stuff and (2) Franchise S, Sam’s Fabulous Fried Chicken. The net cash flows shown below include the price you would receive for selling the franchise in Year 3 and the forecast of how each franchise will do over the three-year period. Franchise L’s cash flows will start off slowly but will increase rather quickly as people become more health conscious, while Franchise S’s cash flows will start off high but will trail off as other chicken competitors enter the marketplace and as people become more health conscious and avoid fried foods. Franchise L serves breakfast and lunch, while Franchise S serves only dinner, so it is possible for you to invest in both franchises. You see these franchises as perfect complements to one another: You could attract both the lunch and dinner crowds and the health conscious and not so health conscious crowds without the franchises directly competing against one another. Here are the net cash flows (in thousands of dollars): Depreciation, salvage values, net working capital requirements, and tax effects are all included in these cash flows. You also have made subjective risk assessments of each franchise, and concluded that both franchises have risk characteristics that require a return of 10%. You must now determine whether one or both of the franchises should be accepted. . What is the difference between independent and mutually exclusive projects? (2 points) Independent projects are those projects whose cash flows are not affected by other projects. If Costco is considering opening a new store in Los Angeles and another one in New York, they would be independent. Mutually exclusive projects are two different metho ds of attaining the same result. If one is accepted the other would be rejected. If Costco were considering relocating its corporate headquarters to Los Angeles or New York, only one of the 2 locations will be selected thus rejecting the alternate location. When projects are mutually exclusive, it means they do the same job or have the same purpose. 2. Define the term net present value (NPV). What is each franchise’s NPV? (4 points) Net Present Value is defined as the present value of project’s cash inflows minus the present value of its costs. It tells us how the project contributes to shareholder wealth. The larger the NPV the more value the project adds and thus the higher the stock price. NPV = CF0 + CF1/ (1+r)1 + CF2/(1+r)2 + CF3/(1+r)3†¦.. + CFN/(1+r)N r = 10% Franchise L CF0L = -100 CF1L = 10 CF2L = 60 CF3L = 80 NPVL= CF0L + CF1L/ (1+r)1 + CF2L/(1+r)2 + CF3L/(1+r)3 = -100 +10/(1+. 10)1 + 60/(1. 10)2 + 80/(1. 10)3 = -100 + 9. 09 + 49. 59 + 60. 11 = $18. 79 Franchise S CF0S = -100 CF1S = 70 CF2S = 50 CF3S = 20 NPVS= CF0S + CF1S/ (1+r)1 + CF2S/(1+r)2 + CF3S/(1+r)3 = -100 +70/(1+. 10)1 + 50/(1. 10)2 + 20/(1. 10)3 = -100 + 63. 64 + 41. 32 + 15. 03 = $19. 99 3. What is the rationale behind the NPV method? According to NPV, which franchise or franchises should be accepted if they are independent? Mutually exclusive? How would the NPVs change if the cost of capital changed? (4 points) NPV is generally regarded as the best single screening criterion, primarily because it is directly related to the firm’s central goal of maximizing the stock’s intrinsic value. NPV tells us how the project contributes to shareholder wealth. The larger the NPV the more value the project adds and thus the higher the stock price. A negative NPV indicates sufficient cash is not being generated from the project to meet cost associated with the project. Zero NPV indicates that cash generated is only sufficient to cover costs. Positive NPV on the other hand indicates that the inflow of cash is larger than the outflow. NPV rules dictate that if projects are independent, both projects should be accepted as long as they have a positive NPV. In this case both Franchise S ; L have positive NPV’s and should be accepted. If projects are mutually exclusive, then the project with the larger NPV should be selected. In this case, Franchise S has a higher NPV indicating that the returns from investing in Franchise S is larger and thus Franchise S should be selected. 4. Define the term internal rate of return (IRR). What is each franchise’s IRR? (4 points) IRR is the discount rate that forces the PV of the inflow of a project to equal the initial cost. In other words it forces the NPV to be zero. IRR is an estimate of the projects rate of return and it is comparable to the YTM on a bond. NPV = CF0 + CF1/ (1+IRR)1 + CF2/(1+IRR)2 + CF3/(1+IRR)3†¦.. + CFN/(1+IRR)N = 0 Using Excel function IRR | Expected | | net cash flows | Year (t)| Franchise L| Franchise S| 0 | ($100)| ($100)| 1 | 10 | 70 | 2 | 60 | 50 | 3 | 80 | 20 | IRR| 18. 13%| 23. 56%| IRRL = 18. 13% IRRS = 23. 56% 5. What is the logic behind the IRR method? According to IRR, which franchises should be accepted if they are independent? Mutually exclusive? How would the IRRs change if cost of capital changed? 4 points) IRR is an estimate of a projects rate of return. If the return exceeds the cost of funds used to finance the project, then the difference is a bonus that goes to the firm’s stockholders and causes the stock price to rise. So if the WACC/hurdle rate(r) is less than the estimated return IRR, it indicates project will be profitable. As in NPV where zero i s the threshold above which the project is considered profitable, r is the threshold above which IRR is considered profitable In the condition where Franchise S and L are independent, both franchises have positive IRR’s and thus both franchises should be accepted. However, when both franchises are mutually exclusive, the franchise with the larger IRR has to be selected, which in this case Franchise S. 6. Construct NPV profiles for Franchises L and S. At what discount rate do the profiles cross? From the NPV profile which franchise or franchises should be accepted if they are independent? Mutually exclusive? Explain. (6 points) NPV Profile for Franchise S ; LCost of Capital = 10%| | Year =| 0| 1| 2| 3| Project S| -100. 00| 70| 50| 20| Project L| -100. 00| 10| 60| 80| | | | | | | r| NPVS| NPVL| | | 0%| $40. 00| $50. 00| | | 5%| $29. 29| $33. 05| | 8. 68%| $22. 32| $22. 32| | | 10%| $19. 98| $18. 78| | | 15%| $11. 83| $6. 67| | | 18. 126%| $7. 23| $0. 00| | | 20%| $4. 63| -$3. 70| | | 23. 564%| $0. 00| -$10. 20| | On this plot the X Axis is the cost of capital and the Y axis is the NPV. IRR is the discount rate at which profile line crosses the X axis. Profiles crossover at an 8. 68% cost of capital. Based on the plot, the NPV for both Franchise S and Franchise L have NPV’s above the cost of capital indicating cash inflow is larger than the costs and thus both projects should be selected if they are independent of each other. On the other hand, if the projects are mutually exclusive, the project with the larger x-intercept (higher IRR), which is Franchise S, should be accepted. 7. What is the underlying cause of ranking conflicts between NPV and IRR? (3 points) Ranking conflicts occur when cost of Capital is higher than crossover rate which causes NPV and IRR to point in different directions. The two basic conditions that cause these conflicts are * Timing difference: When one project receives majority of the cash early while the other receives it later. This is the reason for conflict between Franchise S ; Franchise L * Project size (scale) difference: Significant difference in invested amount can cause a conflict When either timing or size differences occur, the firm will have different amounts of funds to invest in other projects depending on which of the two mutually exclusive projects it chooses. Given this situation, the rate of return at which differential cash flows can be reinvested is a critical issue. Therefore, whenever conflict exists between mutually exclusive projects, NPV method is better to use. 8. What is the â€Å"reinvestment rate assumption,† and how does it affect the NPV versus IRR conflict? (3 points) NPV calculation is based on the assumption that cash inflows can be reinvested at the projects risk adjusted WACC, whereas the IRR calculation is based on the assumption that cash inflows can be reinvested at the IRR itself. Since NPV assumes reinvestment at cost of capital which is more realistic and is typically lower than the IRR (cash flows generally cannot be reinvested at heir IRR), so NPV is the more reasonable method. NPV should be used to choose between mutually exclusive projects. . Define the term modified IRR (MIRR). Find the MIRRs for Franchises L and S. (4 points) IRR overstates the expected rate of return for accepted projects because cash flows cannot be reinvested at the IRR. The Modified IRR (MIRR) rectifies this problem by assuming reinvestment at the WACC or any other reasonable rate. Using excel function MIRR, we calculated the MIRR for Franchise L and S. WACC| 10%| | | | year| 1| 1| 2| 3| Franchise L| ($100)| 10| 60| 80| Franchise S| ($100)| 70| 50| 20| | | | | | MIRRL| 16. 50%| | | | MIRRS| 16. 89%| | | | 10. What are the MIRR’s advantages and disadvantages vis-a-vis the regular IRR? What are the MIRR’s advantages and disadvantages vis-a-vis the NPV? (4 points) MIRR has two significant advantages over IRR. First, MIRR assumes reinvestments at cost of capital rather than investment at IRR which is generally not correct. Thus, MIRR is usually a better indicator of profitability. In addition, the MIRR eliminates the multiple IRR problem because there can never be more than one MIRR, and it can be compared with the cost of capital when deciding on accepting or rejecting projects. MIRR does not always lead to the same decision as NPV in the case of mutually exclusive projects where difference in size and timing can give rise to conflicts. In these considerations, NPV is a better indicator as it selects the project that maximizes value. However, MIRR is superior to the regular IRR as an indicator of a project’s â€Å"true† rate of return. Part III: Forecasting Financial Statements Matthews Industries’ most recent financial statements are available in the attached Excel worksheet and also in the partial model file Ch12 P11 Build a Model. xls from the textbook’s web site. Matthews Industries’ financial planners must forecast the company’s financial results for the coming year. The forecast will be based on the forecasted financial statements method, and any additional funds needed will be obtained by using notes payable. Complete the partial model and answer the following questions. 1. Assume that the firm’s 2010 profit margin, payout ratio, capital intensity ratio, and spontaneous liabilities to sales ratio remain constant. If sales grow by 10% in 2011, what is the required external capital the firm will need in 2011 as calculated by the AFN equation? 10 points) AFNMatthews =| Add’l Req’d Assets| ? | Spontaneous liabilities| ? | Add’n to RE| =| (A0*/S0)? S | ? | (L0*/S0)? S | ? | S1 ? M ? (1–POR)|   | | | | | |   | =| (A0*/S0)(gS0) | ? | (L0*/S0)(gS0) | ? | S1 ? M ? (1–POR)|   | | | | | |   | =| $660| ? | $74. 70| ? | $257. 73|   | | | | | |   | AFNMatthews =| $327. 27| million|    |   |   |   | The required external capital for 2011 as calculated by AFN is 327. 27 Million. 2. If 2010 ratios remain constant, what is Matthews’ self-supporting growth rate? How will the self-supporting growth rate change if each of the following changes occur: (1) the profit margin declines, (2) the payout ratio increases, or (3) the capital intensity ratio declines? (10 points) | PM(1 – POR)(S0)| $234. 30|   | Self-supporting g =| =| | = 4. 17%| | A0* – L0* – PM(1 – POR)S0| $5,615. 70|   | Mathew’s self-supporting growth is calculated to be 4. 17%. Effect on Self-Supporting growth when all ratios are kept constant except one ratio is changed as follows 1) When the profit margin declines, the self-supporting growth percentage drops. Assuming that everything else is constant and M falls to 2. 55%, self-supporting growth g would fall to 2. 96% 2) When Payout-ratio increases, self-supporting growth percentage drops. Assuming that everything else is constant and POR increases to 55%, self-supporting growth g would fall to 3. 39% 3) When capital intensity ratio (A0*/S0) declines, it does not change the self-supporting growth 3. Matthews’ management has reviewed its financial statements and arrived at two possible scenarios for 2011. The first scenario assumes a steady state while the second scenario, the target scenario, shows some improvement in ratios toward industry-average values. Forecasted values for the scenarios are shown in the partially completed file Ch12 P11 Build a Model. xls. If Matthews assumes that external financing is achieved through notes payable and financing feedbacks are not considered because the new notes payable are added at the end of the year, what are the firm’s forecasted AFN, EPS, DPS, and year-end stock price under each scenario? (14 points) Using the file Chapter 12P11 Build a Model. ls, forecasted values for scenarios are as follows: Forecasted Values| Steady State| Target State| AFN| $324. 40 Million| -332. 50 Million| EPS| $3. 16| $5. 66| DPS| $1. 42| $2. 41| Year-end Stock Price| $25. 27| $70. 79| See excel file submitted separately for detailed calculations on Part III. Scoring Sheet: Question #| Max Points| Points scored| Part I| | | 1| 5| | 2| 3| | 3| 3| | 4| 3| | 5 | 2| | 6| 2| | 7| 2| | 8| 2| | 9| 2| | 10| 2| | 11| 2| | Part II| | | 1| 2| | 2| 4| | 3| 4| | 4| 4| | 5| 4| | 6| 6| | 7| 3| | 8| 3| | 9| 4| | 10| 4| | Part III| | | 1| 10| | 2| 10| | 3| 14| | TOTAL| 100| | | | | Points towards final grade| 15| | How to cite Cost of Capital, Capital Budgeting and Financial Planning, Papers

Portia The Control Freak Essay Example For Students

Portia The Control Freak Essay I would love to write a critical essay about the role of Portia in Shakespeare’s â€Å"Merchant of Venice,† hailing her as one of Shakespeare’s greatest contributions to the society of the sane; however, I find this impossible after re-reading the text. At first, I hung on her every word and was amazed at her wit, but later I found her to be just another Shakespearean psycho. Basically, I understood Portia to be nothing less than an obedient daughter obeying the whims of her dead, over-protective father. She speaks in terms of respect about the coffin ritual, and the reader believes her to be sincere. Later as her character is unfolded, the reader sees a wife in love with the husband who was wise enough to earn her love (and consequently her fortune! ). Beware, gentle reader! Do not fall under the spell of Portia the control freak! The following scenerios must be proof that this woman is not to be trusted! First of all, let’s evaluate the scene where Portia and Bassanio are before the caskets where Bassanio must make his choice. The dialogue directly preceeding the finding of the casket is basic lover’s speech, but wait! Listen carefully to what Portia says: â€Å"If you do love me, you will find me out† (III ii 41). Portia leads Bassanio to believe that the choice he makes in the caskets is his own. She leads the reader to believe that Bassanio’s love for her is the only force which leads to the discovery of the correct casket. However, earlier when Portia is speaking of the preparations for the casket choice, she speaks of music which is to be played while Bassanio makes his choice. Ok, this seems innocent enough; but examine the song–the first two lines of the song rhyme with lead! It doesn’t take long for the subliminal message to be absorbed in Bassanio’s brain, and the lead casket is chosen. This manipulative device is an indication to me that Portia has a need to make things go her way. She is afraid that Bassanio will make the wrong choice, and therefore assists him. Point #2. Portia creates a way of controlling the future of the relationship between herself and Bassanio. Portia gives Bassanio a ring with the words, â€Å"I give you this ring, which when you part from, lose, or give away, / Let it presage the ruin of your love†. Of course, Bassanio gives away the ring first chance he gets. Portia later makes known that the man he gave the ring to was her, and she proceeds to cold Bassanio for his lack of love. Bassanio is trapped! No matter what he does for the rest of their relationship, in his mind will remain the idea that Portia is watching! This is a clever device invented by Mr. Shakespeare; however, it does display a certain obsessive, manipulative air about Portia. Hmmmmm†¦. Lastly, I would like to take a venture. I was wondering earlier while reading the â€Å"Merchant of Venice† why Shakespeare used the doppel- ganger technique in his presentation of Nerissa and Portia. Nerissa follows Portia about and makes the same decisions Portia does. Nerissa s not as bright as Portia, and yet she meets the same ultimate fate as Portia. I am wondering if Shakespeare could have used Nerissa to point out the manipulative characteristics of Portia. It is true that one way that manipulative people feed is through weaker people who uphold them and their values. If anyone has any insight on this thought, let me know! Well, there you have it. My true feelings on Portia. Sure she is to be admired in some aspects, but perhaps as all great archetypes she has her foibles and faults. If anyone finds anything about the aforementioned aspects of Portia’s character, please let me know.

Abortion - Pro-Choice Essays - Abortion In The United States

Abortion - Pro-Choice Without a woman's right to do what she chooses with her body, her freedom and liberty are taken away. If for personal reasons, a women wants an abortion, as is, currently, her constitutional right, she has the freedom to do so. In some states, a woman's freedom to have an abortion has been severely limited. Because of this, many women have had abortions by people not medically licensed to perform them. Many of these unlicensed and unqualified people have used unsterile instruments, thus causing illness or death. A child needs to be loved and wanted. A baby whose mother resents his birth, will not receive the proper care and nurturing he deserves. Perhaps, he would be better off not to have been born. For these reasons, I support the Pro-Choice movement. We all know America as the "land of the free", as sung daily by many in "The Star Spangled Banner". Knowing that many women's autonomy has been taken away, how can we, Americans, who claim to be people of liberty, say the words of "The Star Spangled Banner" in good conscience? Females have been told what to do with and how to treat their bodies. If the right to self- determination is taken away, what will be decided for us next? What we can wear? What we can read and what we can say? Possibly even how we can act? This is not the American way! In fact, it is unconstitutional. We must be aware of this lack of freedom and see to it that women receive it. Sadly, there are many people who can not afford to support a child. There are people who hate themselves and are incapable of loving another. As I see it, it is fortunate, that some women may realize that they are not fit to and can not care for a youngster. However, an anti-abortion law may not give them any other choice. A mother willing to give up her offspring, is likely to resent her own child. This resentment might result in neglect. I would like to propose a compromise. Let there be a law requiring counseling for someone planning on having an abortion. As such, she would have the opportunity to discuss the impact of her actions. After receiving counseling, she would have the freedom to chose whether or not to have the abortion. A woman who decides to have an abortion, will probably not give up even after being told that she may not have one. She may seek an illegal even dangerous alternative. A compromise, such as counseling, should be considered. The government of the United States of America must be directed to work together with it's citizens to insure justice for all. "We the People" must make certain that our constitutional rights are guaranteed.

Free Essays on John Donnes “The Flea“

The use of vivid or figurative language to represent objects, actions, or ideas. Most images in literature suggest or represent concepts or emotions that are difficult to describe or imagine. â€Å"Transcendent† symbols are symbols which have no logical or realistic connection to the things they symbolize. Much of the imagery in John Donne’s poem â€Å"The Flea† is transcendent imagery which is used to illustrate an argument. In the first stanza, the narrator tries to persuade his girlfriend to have sex with him by using an analogy involving a flea and religious imagery. The flea has sucked the blood of both the narrator and his girlfriend and now â€Å"in this flea, [their] two bloods mingled be.† The image of the two bloods being mingled represents the narrator and his girlfriend becoming one, as happens in a religious sense during sexual intercourse - a physical and spiritual union of two souls. The narrator then goes on to say â€Å"Confess it, this cannot be said / A sin, or shame, or loss of maidenhead,† meaning that if a flea can mix their two bloods and it is not a sin, then surely it would not be a sin if they were to become one through intercourse. Then, as another attempt to persuade his girlfriend, the narrator goes on to say: â€Å"And pampered swells with one blood made of two, / And this, alas, is more than we would do.† The narrator uses the imagery of â€Å"swe lls with one blood made of two† to represent being pregnant, and claims that his girlfriend would not be pregnant from having sex just one time, although the flea was pregnant from just one mixing of the blood. In the second stanza, the girlfriend rejects the narrator’s first argument and is about to squish the flea, symbolizing her rejection of the narrator’s argument. The narrator asks his girlfriend to spare the flea because in it â€Å"[they] more than married are.† Once again, this statement symbolizes a physical union of the narrator and his gir... Free Essays on John Donne's â€Å"The Fleaâ€Å" Free Essays on John Donne's â€Å"The Fleaâ€Å" The use of vivid or figurative language to represent objects, actions, or ideas. Most images in literature suggest or represent concepts or emotions that are difficult to describe or imagine. â€Å"Transcendent† symbols are symbols which have no logical or realistic connection to the things they symbolize. Much of the imagery in John Donne’s poem â€Å"The Flea† is transcendent imagery which is used to illustrate an argument. In the first stanza, the narrator tries to persuade his girlfriend to have sex with him by using an analogy involving a flea and religious imagery. The flea has sucked the blood of both the narrator and his girlfriend and now â€Å"in this flea, [their] two bloods mingled be.† The image of the two bloods being mingled represents the narrator and his girlfriend becoming one, as happens in a religious sense during sexual intercourse - a physical and spiritual union of two souls. The narrator then goes on to say â€Å"Confess it, this cannot be said / A sin, or shame, or loss of maidenhead,† meaning that if a flea can mix their two bloods and it is not a sin, then surely it would not be a sin if they were to become one through intercourse. Then, as another attempt to persuade his girlfriend, the narrator goes on to say: â€Å"And pampered swells with one blood made of two, / And this, alas, is more than we would do.† The narrator uses the imagery of â€Å"swe lls with one blood made of two† to represent being pregnant, and claims that his girlfriend would not be pregnant from having sex just one time, although the flea was pregnant from just one mixing of the blood. In the second stanza, the girlfriend rejects the narrator’s first argument and is about to squish the flea, symbolizing her rejection of the narrator’s argument. The narrator asks his girlfriend to spare the flea because in it â€Å"[they] more than married are.† Once again, this statement symbolizes a physical union of the narrator and his gir...

Story Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 3

Story - Essay Example One of the eyewitnesses brought us to the hospital. However, there was an absence of blood for my sister and we could lose her. Luckily, I was a match and my blood helped my sister to survive. What impressed me most was the situation under which the sister received professional help. There were no modern equipment or supplies in the hospital, however, that did not stop doctors, who were obviously so dedicated to what they were doing, from giving the qualified help to my sister. I was watching the simultaneous and concerted efforts of doctors within their team and I realized I wanted passionately to join them. To some extent, the accident predicated making of a decision to become someone who will be able to help others. I decided to apply to a medical school so my dream, which I was nurturing over these years, came true. I have decided to become a gynecologist, a doctor whose aim is to take care of women and give them an opportunity to bring the most precious gift to the world- a new life. During the five years, which I spent working in hospitals of Baghdad, three of them I assisted Dr. Sabri as a volunteer medical technician in an emergency medicine while I was finishing high school and living with my grandparents. Dr. Sabri also helped me to resolve my problem with housing and found the one inside the hospital. I was also hoping to attend college, however, that was not a safe time for a woman to go to training sessions and back to the campus alone and then live there without any family. That is why I greatly appreciated Dr. Sabri’s help with housing. In the period of war, there was a singular access to electricity in the hospital and I used to be the one who was aware of it. Such availability gave me many opportunities to exercise a leadership role. I had also several cases that happened with people outside the hospital and who needed urgent medical help. Thus, once I helped an elderly woman in the shopping center in

Policy on Refunds Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Policy on Refunds - Research Paper Example This should be balanced however with business pragmatism so that the number of refunds will not take its toll on the business bottom line. Before refunding the customer, the business should attempt to replace or repair the unit to keep the sale. If this is unavoidable, the following criteria should be met as a policy; 1. The unit broke down within the manufacturer’s warranty period. It should be established that the malfunction was due to normal use. A brief inquiry as to the circumstance why the unit broke down should be conducted by the frontliners. 2. In cases where customers’ merely had a change of heart with regard to the purchase, there will no refund. If the products are faulty, we will meet our obligations under the Consumer Guarantees Act to provide a remedy. To save the sale, a replacement with an extended warranty can be offered to the customer. 3. The business should not bear the cost for the faulty unit as we are mere dealers. All cost with units that has been refunded due to manufacturer’s defect and within warranty should be passed on to the supplier for refund. B. If the business is in the service sector, prepare a policy on how you will charge your clients. Ensure that the policy complies with all relevant legislation and provides for a clear explanation of the service being offered. Include the terms and conditions that will apply to estimates and quotes and make provision for some system of arbitration in case of a dispute. To keep customer’s goodwill and establish a â€Å"service leader† image among our customers, units which are faulty that are within the manufacturer’s warranty should be replaced without cost and inconvenience to the customers. The business however should be careful that the manufacturer’s criteria for replacement are strictly met so that we can pass the cost to them. For units that malfunctioned beyond the manufacturer’s warranty period, could be repaired by our service business unit at a discount to encourage customer retention and cultivate customer goodwill. This will also incre ase our bottom line as the company can still make business for an after sales support that is not covered by the manufacturer. As much as possible, we will avoid absorbing the costs due to refunds as this will burden our expenditures and undermine our competitiveness. It has to be understood that at this point in time, the business is still in its introductory phase and it will be unwise to jack up prices to factor in costs associated with refunds. The business is still in the process of penetrating the market and it has direct competitors with the same product and as such, pricing should be kept to be competitive to remain viable in the industry. C. A breakdown of all the costs that you will incur in acquiring or manufacturing your products or developing your services up to the point of sale (you may, if you wish, focus on one product or service). The costs should be inclusive, including all materials, labour, administration, insurances, rental, electricity, promotion and other exp enses. The nature of the business is retail so the manufacturing overheads will not reflect in our financial statements. Freight and delivery should be shouldered by the supplier also. Our overhead will mainly focus on the operation of the product distribution and upkeep of the outlet

E-commerce Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

E-commerce - Assignment Example These pages can be viewed through an internet address known as uniform resource locator (URL). There are two main types of websites namely static and dynamic website. Static website offers limited opportunities for the clients or visitors control the information received. Dynamic websites on the other hand offers a dialogue platform between the buyers and sellers. Visitors or clients are informed to their specifications. This work is about alibaba.com. It entails the features that make it better than other electronic commerce website among other issues.Alibaba.com is a Chinese e-commerce website that provides a platform for online market place, payment platforms among other services. It is my favorite e-commerce websites due to the fact that it offers sale and purchase of a wide range of electronic products ranging from laptops, cameras, satellite decoders among others. It is simple to use with limited accounts verifications. Alibaba.com website has got several capabilities that favor the site from other competitors. The site contains contact information through which buyers and sellers can communicate. The contact information includes emails, phone numbers-both mobile and landlines. Further more it has social network tools like face book, twitter, YouTube, Google+ and MySpace among others which ease buyers and sellers interaction. Alibaba.com adopts different business strategies like operational business strategy which ensures; delivery of products to the buyer, operational electronic money transfer system, updated order list among other functions. Business unit strategy is observed by attractive advertisement and fair prices that attract and retain customers. A buyer pays the required amount through electronic money transfer platform, ‘alipay’ before goods’ delivery. Corporate business strategy applies with the website as different companies and individuals can do their business through the website. Security is a very important aspect in

Evaluating use of PowerPoint for teaching in schools

Evaluating use of PowerPoint for teaching in schools Microsoft PowerPoint Program is a presentation software programme that can be used effectively in academic sector (Bartsch and Cobern, 2003). PowerPoint was developed as a business software tool, but its inherent capabilities led to its adoption in education, and this has been the subject of ongoing research. PowerPoint is an easy-to-use software application (Holzl, 1997) and can be used to give dynamic and engaging presentations in the visual mode. Some of the features of the PowerPoint are helpful for lecturers, for example, to highlight key points, and to show assignment information. Additional features such as clipart and cartoons can add interest to presentations (Sammons, 1997). Several researchers have analysed the effects of PowerPoint on student performance and student preferences towards Power Point. These studies have used different methodologies and there are a range of empirical results. These are described in the following sections, where each studys merits and demerits of using Power Point are presented, followed by analysis and conclusions. It is one of the most useful things to know about the secondary school perspective on styles of teaching, and how this impact on the students future. In olden days, it was very difficult for the school teachers to make use of technology in classroom teaching. One of the main reasons is lack of training and equipment. The use of electronic media in school laboratories, classrooms are being increased and are being used in science and technology lessons by teachers who are confident in the usage of modern technology in the classroom (Ofested, 2002). Nowadays, it is also common for the school teachers to give lectures through modern packages and PowerPoint, particular during practical classes. In spite of availability of technologies, still delivery the lecture through chalk and talk approach is dominant one (Dudley and Timothy 2006). Nowadays, in developed countries, the use of PowerPoint in education has become widespread. However in some schools in Saudi Arabia, its usage is not ubiquitous but restricted to some important lessons and topics. This may in part be due to teachers limited knowledge of how to use PowerPoint, so broadening their knowledge might give benefits and make it easier for students to learn. However, in most schools, the classrooms are simply not equipped for PowerPoint presentations a single classroom in the whole school may be the only one equipped for PowerPoint. In addition to that, there may be resistance by some teachers to alter, while others are still hesitant, given the debate over the extent of any positive influence of PowerPoint on the educational performance of students. Past studies are inconclusive about PowerPoint, with contradictory views. However in Saudi Arabia, some studies supported the usage of such technology in Saudi schools for the benefit of learners (Al-Sharhan, 20 06). In general, the discussion about the use of PowerPoint in teaching practice has two important problematic issues: How effective is the technology at improving the quality of teaching received by learners. How consistent is PowerPoints use have teachers the required skills and enthusiasm for its use The first issue can be manifested in the level of satisfaction that may be inspired by the technology. For some researchers, the simplicity of the technology removes more of the teaching professional load and leads to a non-stimulating delivery of content (Pauw, 2002). The second issue tells about the inconsistency within the educational setting due to absence of suitable training and opposition in implementing the technology by someone. This may have negative effects on learners, who were given the different modes of approach in delivering the PowerPoint presentations within the same discipline. Therefore, it is more important in selecting the technology to ensure that it is compatible with the aims of training in order to bring the successful implementation. Purpose of the Study This present study evaluates the use of PowerPoint for teaching in schools. The factors involved in implementing PowerPoint in schools are also explored. Based on this study, it has been found that computer technology and multimedia presentations have no guaranteed effect on quality of learning. On the other hand, It has also been found that the use of such technology motivate the students for positive learning. Moreover, it has been proposed that use of technology is in harmony with the adoption and familiarity of learners of such technology, and so connects prevailing learner and educational cultures. The present study also addressed the factors to implement the way of effective adoption of technology, proper deployment of PowerPoint, training and development, models of teaching practice in mixed formats. At the same time, it is also important for the teachers to keep update the technology and technological changes. Then only, the content delivery and driving force for learning will be maintained. Though, PowerPoint is in greater use among teachers and researchers, but the best format to deliver materials based on learner assimilation needs to be found (Heines, 2000). Research Questions How does the use of PowerPoint presentations in educational institutions compared to traditional presentation, including the use of overhead projectors and handwritten blackboard notes? Does the use of PowerPoint increase the student performance? What are the advantage and disadvantage of use of PowerPoint in teaching? What are the factors affecting the use of PowerPoint presentations effectively? What are the benefits of existing debate on the use of PowerPoint presentations in the classroom setting? What are the opinions of the students in PowerPoint presentations regarding lighting, use of colours, backgrounds, images, and sound, and the way of delivering the lecturers through of slides? Literature review INTRODUCTION Several researchers have made an attempt to analyse the student performance and preferences based on the effects of PowerPoint. In their attempts, different methodologies were used and based on that a range of empirical results have also been proposed. These were discussed based on the use of PowerPoint and its merits and demerits were also presented in the following sections. There has been a lot more discussion over different methods to deliver lecture to the students. In particular, many lecturers use written material delivered on a chalkboard, whiteboard, or by transparent sheet on an overhead projector, and, in last fifteen years or so, the method of presenting the visual information directly from a computer onto a screen. These types of computers and projection technology devices can be seen in the classrooms. This gives the facility to engage the learners through graphics and multimedia presentations. Many faculty members and administrators felt that PowerPoint was initially considered as a cutting edge technology for use in the classroom. Later students felt that the PowerPoint should not be used more often because it is too passive. For example, Creed (1997) argues that the use of computer-based presentations makes the teacher to be too focused. Kask (n.d.) and Parks (1999) suggested that the computer-based presentations make the students to take a nap in larger auditoriums, where the some of the lights in the auditorium have to be dimmed. Prior to lecture, if the lecture notes are provided to the students, students may show less interest in attending the class. Others feel that the PowerPoint offers the ability to provide more concentration to the students. For example, Stone (1999) argues that the discussion in the classroom is improved by the use of computer-based presentations. In the part of the presentation, the discussed questions can be displayed on the screen. Based on the students interaction and response, the students names and comments can also be projected in the presentation. Finally, these interactions and responses can then be printed or given to all students. He also discusses how the exercise and experiments given to the students can be facilitated by incorporating them in the presentations. It can also be argued that the students take less time for taking their notes, whereas the PowerPoint allows more time for interactive activities. Based on the controversy about PowerPoint and its usage, some studies have attempted to measure the impact of computer generated presentations on student performance. Overall, the results have been mixed. A Very few said that the PowerPoint presentations did not have an effect on the student performance, while others said that PowerPoint presentations enhances the student performance. Educational Technology The one of the oldest and most common forms of educational technology is chalkboard. Through chalkboard a current topic of discussion, points to be discussed, points to be noted, end result of the discussion, important issues to be remembered up to certain period of time, summaries of discussion and lines of reasoning. In olden days, the major medium of communication followed by professor to take lecture was chalk and blackboard (Frost Fukami, 1997). The use of pictures, tables, and charts on the chalkboard will add an advantage to the information publicly communicated. This way of delivering lecture is suppressed by the more expensive and sophiscated technologies such as the overhead projector, the video-tape player, the more interactive video-disc player, PowerPoint, computer for computer assisted learning and most interactive whiteboard (Ghrist et al, 2003). In colleges, nowadays several studies have emerged on the use of multimedia in classrooms. Professors are using these techn ologies in mixed and creative way to promote the most learning techniques for the students to satisfy their aims and needs (Thomas, 2009). Nowaczyk et al. (1988) observed that the student interest and awareness of relevancy of topics were enhanced by videos. The static media such as overhead projector contributed to better understanding of the material presented in that instance. Video (VHS or DVD) presentations were made the students to engage in business activities, news, stories, integrate theory, R D activities and new challenges in the workplace and all these activities provide higher value of entertainment than other technologies (Caudron, 1997; Salomon, 1984). In some cases, video presentations and watching videos on particular issue is interesting than other technologies (Fulk et al., 1995). Astleitner (2002) reported the studies concerned with critical thinking of teaching via web lectures. The informations in the audio recording lectures were greatly influenced than video recordings. Though, the difference between the two modalities in terms of retention was nil. During subjective evaluation, students showed better evaluations for audio recordings. Interactive whiteboard is the present educational technology makes the things easier for the teacher to include the presentation content in wider range such as images from the internet, graphs from the excel sheet, text from MS word. Apart from that, student and teacher annotations could be done on the objects. The one of the drawbacks of the Interactive whiteboards is cost. It is more expensive than conventional whiteboards, projector, and screen combination. Their surfaces can be damaged and quite often replacement is required. The negative perceptions of PowerPoint compared to other interactive presentation tool were reported by Wolfs (2007). In his comparison, the use of PowerPoint and electronic presentation tool were compared. Wolfs (2007) studied and compared the students interests in content and perception of pace over the course for 2nd years student. This was done by splitting the participants into two groups. The first group consists of 36 students and the duration was about 50 minutes lectures for each class. The instructor used PowerPoint to project the course content. The second group consists of same number of students and the classroom presenter was used. The classroom presenter is like PowerPoint slide presentation with more interactive features such as write on the digital screen with digital pen, connection can be performed between student and instructor, information can be shared between instructor and student system. Instructor has a laptop computer, whose monitor swivels, lays flat and a llows the user to write on the digital screen using digital pen (notepad). The PowerPoint in the laptop could able to utilize linking features. However, PowerPoint alone doesnt have these features. Hence the classroom presenter had greater impact on the survey results. To predict the difference between two methods, optional web-based post-class survey provided to the group. The advantage of classroom presenter is that it allows the instructor to interact with the device by digitally highlighting information and also have the features to write on the digital slide. Though, the difference in the result is not significant. However, out of 17%, 3% perceived attending lectures using classroom presenter to be more interesting. One of the speculations is that most of the students preferred the added interaction of classroom presenter. This may be cause for speculation of students interaction and instructor presence compared to effectiveness of any presentation tool (Cited in Kevin, 2008). Thomas, (2009), compared five teaching technologies approaches like Projector, PowerPoint, Video, the Internet, and Lecture. And the results are overlapping and merging together. Such as, video can be shown in PowerPoint and internet and PowerPoint slides through web. They also used projector screen as blackboard using black films. Hence, in natural teaching environment, it is difficult to segregate Lecture, Projector, PowerPoint, Video, or the Internet. However, it is believed that the cognitive abilities of the students can be used to focus these five teaching technologies individually. The separate general perceptions about use of each technology can also be provided (Thomas, 2009). In his study, integrated computer workstation used for lecture in all classrooms and the teaching materials were presented on the same large screen using projector, PowerPoint, Video (VHS or DVD), and the Internet. The PowerPoint slides were replaced with traditional overhead color transparencies for l ecture outlines and information. Students use internet effectively for business organization, to refer the links cited in the books, research journals, reports, papers, case studies etc. Apart from this, the current events, news and many other types of information are also accessed in the internet. Internet acts as a largest digital library tool for the instruction. The specific type of classroom presentation will not serve the students needs. Different technologies can be used for different learning objectives. Among all the education technologies, the Lecture and PowerPoint are less active and interesting and also boring than other different approaches. Still these the Lecture and PowerPoint technologies contribute to student performance. All technologies have their own characteristic strength and weakness. There is an urge to develop the practical impacts of these new available technologies on education and students (Thomas, 2009). USING TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM In some studies, it was mentioned that the PowerPoint presentation increases the students motivation and achievements in their lessons (Mantei 2000). In addition to that, most of the students mentioned that it helped them in taking notes and study for exam if instruction is provided in PowerPoint presentations (Noppe, 2007), and they prefer PowerPoint lectures to traditional lecture (Frey and Birnbaum, 2002). Researchers explored that the end-result of preparing PowerPoint presentations by the students are very limited. Gunel et al. (2006) compared the effectiveness of the students in writing summary report and preparing PowerPoint presentation about two units in physics lesson. In this particular case,It was observed that the students prepared the PowerPoint presentation scored significantly better than the students prepared summary report format. In another study, Marmienà © (2006) investigated the ability of the students in choosing the material and the content of PowerPoint pres entations on professional topics via the internet and also he investigated the students ability to prepare and deliver the presentation in front of the audience. As a result, it was mentioned and reported that preparing and delivering the material through PowerPoint presentation improved the students gaining skills in addition to listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. That is the use of such technologies is more time-efficient compared to traditional way of delivering the presentation i.e. using whiteboard or overhead transparency projector. Hence, more time can be given on interaction and instruction rather than using the traditional way (Mantei, 2000). Susskind (2005) taught two courses on Introduction to Psychology. In these courses, half of the courses, he taught with the help of PowerPoint and other half without PowerPoint presentations in a counterbalanced order across classes. Gradewise, there was no significant difference in student performance. However, the students performance has not increased in many courses that used multimedia presentations (Susskind Gurien, 1999; Szaba Hastings, 2000). In one of the studies, it was demonstrated that there was a decrease in student performance when the instructor switched from transparencies to PowerPoint (Bartlett, Cheng, Strough, 2000). Ahmed (1998) compared the two methods (overhead projector and PowerPoint) of information presentation. He observed very little difference in the performance on exams resulting from the use of these two methods. It was also indicated that that the difficulty of the lectures had a greater impact on the performance of the student than the use of PowerPoint itself. Szabo and Hastings (2000) presented three different lectures; first lecture with overhead transparencies; second lecture with PowerPoint; and third lecture with power point and handouts of the Power Point slides. All these lectures were tested for the same group of students in a physical education course. One week later, mock tests were conducted to the students. While there was no significant difference in grades between two tests on lectures delivered with PowerPoint, the grades from the two PowerPoint lectures were higher than the grades scored with the lecture provided with overhead transparencies. In 1995, Lowery (1999) taught Environment Science course through overhead transparencies. In 1996-1997, the same lecture was provided to the students with the help of Power Point. He found statistically significant differences on comparing the average test scores. The material taught in the year of 1996 and 1997 with the help of PowerPoint have higher average test scores than the course taught with overheads in the year of 1995. In the survey of Sazbo and Hasting (2000), 80% of the students felt that PowerPoint lectures were highly beneficial and that visual emphasis to recall the lecture material during the exam time. The presenters often highlight the main ideas and points with bullets. Based on this information, the audience members and students aware of the tips included in the presentation. In the latter stage, they may specially focus on the points presented in the slides and ignore the elaboration talk given by the speaker (Savoy, Proctor and Salvendy 2009). According to Savoy (2009), the use of PowerPoint, webcasts and podcasts have tremendously increased in university lectures to focus the students attendance and expose the student to the lecture material effectively. However, the easy way of preparation and distribution of information digitally does not always mapped to the enhanced student performance. In one of the interesting parallels with Susskind (2004), a traditional lecture format to a PowerPoint multimedia format has been compared. By doing this, they observed that students thought themselves to be equal and capable if they had learned from the format similar to the E-lectures in this study, as they were learned through traditional lectures. Paradoxically, these were not reflected their performance during exams. It also does not seem to be linked to the presence or absence of multimedia delivery. Using PowerPoint effectively Due to the presence of mixed results among the studies investigated relate to the beneficial effects of PowerPoint on performance, a new perspective fine-grained analysis is needed to assess the impact of delivery style on student performance (Susskind, 2005). All the above studies, did not investigate and concentrate the complexity of the presentations which is also one of the factor directly impacts the performance. For example, PowerPoint presentations can be written with simple text in single coloured screen. Presentations can also be made complex with tables, pictures, graphs, animation effects such as sound effects, visual effects, video clips. The effectiveness of PowerPoint and other multimedia presentations directly depends on the complexity of the presentation. However, several researchers have demonstrated that a few lectures include material which can reduce overall performance of PowerPoint presentations, such as irrelevant sounds (Moreno Mayer, 2000), clusters of text (Schraw, 1998), and irrelevant and unwanted pictures (Mayer, 2001, p. 113). According to Robert Kristi (2002), in the detailed PowerPoint presentations, the items which are relevant (e.g. most of the pictures), and not relevant (e.g. most of the sound effects) to the context were presented. The level of the performance is diminished because of the irrelevant items presented in the presentation. These irrelevant items detract the students concentration. It was also found that the graphics related to the context may be beneficial, and the graphics not related to the context not at all helpful in learning. Also, for a simple presentation, the graphics items are not necessary. But graphics items will be helpful for tedious, complex and difficult lectures. If the graphics items are desired, then the PowerPoint presentations should have the special features to accommodate them in an easy manner. It can be concluded, that the relevant items should only be given in the presentation. (Robert Kristi 2002) It is also worth to mention that some of the flexible features of PowerPoint such as colour, variation in font, image, dynamic model building, or multimedia capabilities bring the student attention close to the context. For digital lecturing, the student enthusiasm depends on the structured pattern of the PowerPoint presentation. Hence, the presenter or the instructor should follow a well-organised and structured pattern of the presentation. Susskind (2005) mentioned about the way of delivering the lecture styles that there is no difference on various styles of delivering the lecture. In his experiment; a mixed participant design and counterbalanced lecture format order were involved. This eliminated any confounding between delivery style and order. Apart from that, it reduced the potential cohort effects via within the subject comparisons. However, methodological issue regarding student assignment has not been carried out. Susskind observed that the students were not assigned random ly. The results of his experiments could be reflected the pre-existing conditions of academic ability, preparation and motivation. STUDENT PREFERANCE AND IMPACT IN COURES EVALUATION Besides evaluating the student performance based on the impact of computer-generated slides, several studies concentrated the perceptions of PowerPoint. For example, Daniels (1999) found that the three-quarters of the students in her analysis preferred PowerPoint presentation rather than chalkboard. Similarly Szabo and Hastings (2000) reported that 90% of the students thought that the PowerPoint lectures grabs more attention than the traditional lecture. Furthermore, 65% of the students in the study preferred PowerPoint and said that the PowerPoint lecture motivate the students to attend the class and 72 % of the students said that they prefer to see PowerPoint used in all courses. In the survey, there was an exception found in students of economics majors (612 students) at Radford University (Hashemzadeh and Wilson, 2007). In their study, students were asked to compare the course lecture provided with and without PowerPoint (not taught by the same professors). It was found that the majority of the students felt that they could able to understand lecture better because they felt more involvement and better interaction with the instructor in the sections taught with PowerPoint. The majority of students preferred courses taught with PowerPoint rather than courses taught without PowerPoint. Frey and Birnbaun (2002) found that the students preferred lectures using PowerPoint than those using chalkboard or whiteboard. They also perceived that the lecture is to be more structured and organized. In their study Students appreciated the advantages of PowerPoint, such as easy to read the slides, keeping the lecture on-track, enlivening the lecture by providing the combinations of pictures and more concise text. They also often criticised badly-prepared and poorly-presented lectures. In common, too much information provided on the single slide and slide was fully composed of similar words leading to boring rather than interesting. Students were less engaged for chalkboard or overhead transparencies techniques were used in delivering the lecture. (Frey and Birnbaun, 2002) Advantages The advantages of presenting lecture through PowerPoint presentations can be generalized as follows: Using the PowerPoint, the course content and the way of delivering the lecture could be framed properly (Nouri Shahid 2005). According to students, observing the lecture through PowerPoint presentations is quite interesting. Thus, giving lecture through PowerPoint presentations affect the students in positive way (Parks, 1999; Nouri Shahid, 2005; James, 2006; Atkins-Sayre et al 2006). In PowerPoint presentations, poor handwriting issues, decrease in visibility due to chalk, perennial issue of dirty blackboards (if blackboard were used for long time) were avoided. (Carlos, 2008) PowerPoint presentation enhances the students interest for attending the classes (James, 2006; Sugahara Boland, 2006 ). Through PowerPoint presentations, the learning capacity of the students is increased. (Harrison, 2006) According to Lowry (1999), after introducing the PowerPoint lecturer classes to first year environmental science course a remarkable improvement was observed in student performance and cognition. Because of PowerPoint presentations, time taken for the students in taking notes was reduced. Most of the students brought their PowerPoint slides printout to the classroom and annotate to them as required. (Carlos, 2008) Providing PowerPoint presentation classnotes to the students indicates a organised set of notes that allows students to transform into a detailed form without putting much effort on it. (Carlos, 2008) In some of the studies, it was found that supply of PowerPoint presentations along with student notes lead to achieve better performance and retention (Kiewra, 1985). It was also found that some studies show that segregating the notes from notes what students taken while observing can also lead to better retention (Aiken, 1975). Another big advantage of PowerPoint presentations is that the instructor can present a lot of material in single lecture such as giving concepts in problem solving, discussion, or review of articles in terms of class materials. Because of this students need not to dedicate more time in taking the elaborate class notes. (Carlos, 2008) Photos, videoclips and hyperlink for elaboarate discussion can be added in the PowerPoint presentation only.(Carlos, 2008) According to Young, 2004, it was proclaimed in one of the most public endorsements of PowerPoint that the students performance and learning experiences are enhanced by the use of multimedia. Students also mirrored this thought. Because the PowerPoint presentation enlighten a lecture with images, pictures that provide additional support to the key points and improved clarity to the texts compared to chalkboards (Young, 2004). And also, it is possible in PowerPoint presentation that the instructor can cover the previous class notes in a single slide to make the students to remember. (Carlos, 2008) Instructors indicated that PowerPoint can be used to update their lectures from time to time and believe that PowerPoint presentation is a valuable tool that help to organize the class notes. (Schwartz, 2005) Disadvantages The disadvantages of presenting lecture through PowerPoint presentations can be generalized as follows: One of the major disadvantages is that instructor has to spend more time in preparing the notes and relevant pictures from the World Wide Web and place the pictures, graphs or tables in the appropriate place. .(Kristi,2003) Most of the lecture presentation will be reused subsequently for next batch students with less time effort. This initial time taken for preparing the presentation by the faculty member is reasonably considered as major disadvantage.(Kristi,2003) From the study by Dudley (2006), it was observed that the electronic presentations were disliked. The main reasons were given; hard copies of the class notes were not given, through presentation lot of material could be covered, complicated pictures and diagram were provided, lectures were delivered very quickly. The additional material had to be added in the PowerPoint presentation notes to reinforce it. (Carlos, 2008) Using chalkboard or a whiteboard in the classroom allows more time in spending a single topic. This gives natural pauses and provides delays in the presentation and discussion before moving to next topic. (Carlos, 2008) Opposition of PowerPoint notes is that the structure of PowerPoint lecture commands a degree of linearity that may creates artificial misguiding hierarchies of informations provided in the lecture (Tuft, 2003), hierarchical organization of content is to be removed (Doumont, 2005), and discourages the chances to redirect or expand upon the delivered points (Schwartz, 2005). Besides adherence usage of pre-designed template, PowerPoint urge to use bullets, which convey the message in detrimental or effective way (Boehle, 2006, Tufte, 2003 Mayer, 2004).Edward Tufte (2003), claimed that the bullets lead to gross generalization, inaccurate logical and superficial reasoning and more often leads to indifferent conclusions. Hanft (2003) also supported that the PowerPoint presentation depress the discussion. Most of the students have positive opinions about the instructors in terms of PowerPoint presentation. Some of the students were complained that instructors used too much text and pictures and information in the slides and makes the slides to be clumsy manner, because of this the material in the slides were difficult to see (Doumont, 2005; Young, 2004). One student at Connecticut College said that her professor would write too long sentences or complete sentence in the PowerPoint slides, rather which she would then read. Because of that the information presented in the slides were become complicated and convoluted (Young, 2004). Further, some of the instructors

Free Essays - Isolation in Macbeth :: Free Macbeth Essays

Isolation in Macbeth Isolation is a state of being separation between persons or group, or a feeling being alone. There are different factors that contribute to someone feeling alone and isolated. An example of this would be when celebrities go into deep depression because they feel isolated from the whole world. They have all the material things they could ever want, but the one thing they want the most, they do not have. , which is happiness, which comes from satisfaction within oneself and being satisfied with what one has done in one's life. Feeling isolated does not necessarily mean a person is bad. Evidence in Shakespeare play Macbeth , demonstrates this quite clearly that MacBeth's isolation comes from guilt , over-ambition and greed. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth have both shown guilt, but at different stages in the play. Isolating guilty feelings only begins to isolate them from the world around them. Macbeth is the first to feel guilt at the begging of the play, but towards the end he has nothing but isolation. Lady Macbeth has both isolation and guilt. In act III , scene two , lines 6 to 9, Lady Macbeth says, " Noughts had all's spent, where our desire is got without content. Tis safer to be that which we destroy". She is describing how the murder of Duncan has made them lose everything but has made them gain nothing. Her guilt has gotten the best of her by act IV, when all she has on her mind is guilt. When Lady Macbeth says in act V. scene two, line 43 to 44, "Heres the smell of blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand". She knows the murder is irrevocable, and nothing can be done to erase the deed from her mind. Over ambitious feelings pave the way to isolation. When MacBeth becomes over ambitious about something. he begins to get absorbed into the ambition until eventually the rest of the world does not matter anymore. It seemed as though Lady Macbeth wanted the throne for her husband , more than he wanted it for himself. She persuades him until he finally gives in, as shown in act II, line 54 when Lady Macbeth says, "When you durst do it, then you were a man".

Counter-Terrorism Project

Terrorists, one of the prominent words that have been recently involved to a lot of social disturbance that often associated to killings of civilians. Such organization is usually recognized as a group of people that is known to create scare to the public and threatened the government by utilizing violence. This is in pursuance of their goal that is either political or religious. Reading articles in the net, I thought that terrorism was already an evident social dilemma in both ancient and contemporary civilization (Jewett, n. d. ).Dating back to the ancient days, acts of terrors are already in existence (Jewett, n. d. ). Barbary and piracy are the most common terrorists that had threatened the lives of early civilization (Jewett, n. d. ). From a personal point of view, I consider terrorists as the most notorious criminals and law offenders in present time. With the various incidents of terror attacks whereas hundreds and thousands of lives had been claimed from series by series bomb ings, such terror activities had create negative impact in the society that caused panic and disseminates anxiety amongst the people.Citing these major events that have something to do with terrorism always make me wonder how these people could do such violent activities despite of thorough campaign against terrorism. Hence, the only thing that runs through my mind when the topic is terrorism is to think and formulate of counter-terrorism actions, which is inspired by thought of protecting the humankind and society against such detrimental activities. Upon reading just the introduction part of the terror training manual, the depiction of Al Qaeda’s commitment to their terror desire is clearly visible. It showcases that organization’s oath for what they believe in.Structured and composed in the most stimulating manner, the Islamic notion of the entire Al Qaeda Terror Group is highlighted well in aid to inculcate the attitude of a true blood terrorist for their new recru its. In addition to this, the organization's disappointment and doubtfulness against the governance of the westerners. Moreover, the introduction of Al Qaeda's terror training manual clearly stated their words of advice to their opposition (Western Government), saying that such unfaithful regimes must know the dialog of bullets, the ideals of assassination and the diplomacy of the cannon and machine-gun.In here, I can clearly say that the Al Qaeda is sending their message seriously towards the opposition and warns that such consequences must be honored than to just disregard. Hence, I could say that the first part of the training manual is the depiction of Al Qaeda's righteousness, which they claim the thought and justify the notion that they are bound in goodness to do such terroristic activities. Browsing more of the manual's pages I have discovered that Islam is not just performing rituals, however, it is a complete system with Religion and government, Koran and sword, worship an d Jihad, ethics and dealing with people.Thus, this characterizes the organization's mission in merely holistic manner, without being pessimistic or distinction between the political and spiritual. One of the major components of the manual that really attract my attention is the instructions that has something to do with falsification of significant document and comprehensive manual to handle individual mission. Certainly, Al Qaeda's terror training manual provides detailed guidelines for their aspiring members on how to forge documents, handling proper finances, and setting up urban and rural bases.This is their profound training practice for the new members in able to avoid any compromise and detection in the secrecy of their terroristic mission. Hence, I see this as an aid to upset their target nations’ sense of security, by hiding their real identity to pursue their terroristic goal. In line with this, it would be helpful if security authorities are cautious to every indiv idual's true identity to determine who are the terrorist and not.By effecting counter terrorism action that could interrupt and detect this strategy of Al Qaeda, it is safe enough to say that such detrimental plan by the organization would be prevented and well managed. In the end, the composition Al Qaeda's terror training manual utterly suggests that the government authorities mostly the western civilization to be care with the consequences might happen such as act of terrorism. Moreover, the training manuals clearly depicts the extent of capabilities of such organization.In addition to this, the manual is a written proof of the things that the Al Qaeda terrorists group could do in the society to harm the people. Personally speaking, I could say the manual was completed accordingly to achieve specific terroristic goal of the organization as every words and instructions are structured in the most stimulating manner to fire up the Islamic passion for their new members. Thus, such tr aining manual must be reviewed thoroughly to intercept any acts of terrorism.Nonetheless, the training manual of Al Qaeda terrorists group would serve as the perfect reference in the formulation of governments counter-terrorism strategy. Furthermore, my read with the training manual of Al Qaeda have took me into some recommendations for counter – terrorism strategy. A counter – terrorism strategy must focus on detection and surveillance in order to prevent any occurrence of terrorism acts that could lead to harm the people.Hence, the starting point of such strategy is to design a more efficient ways to determine and point out trumped-up passports and other significant documents that members of Al Qaeda utilizes for their international travel. Summary of the Statement The above writings are my personal reactions in the Al Qaeda's Training Manual. Those are the incorporations of all the assumptions and knowledge that I acquired upon my readings to the terror training man ual. In a sense, most of the reaction statement that I have written above is the depiction of my own findings after I have read the Al Qaeda's training manual.Starting in the introduction of the training manual, above words stated that Al Qaeda terrorists group is committed and in full service to spread their acts of terrorism in aid to their Muslim oath to Allah. Thus, the introduction appeals to the young Muslims to join them hand in hand to pursue their goal to spread the notions of Islam. In addition to this, the philosophy of the entire Al Qaeda terrorists group is also highlighted in the part of of my response statement to the training manual of the organization.Moreover, the above content tackles the capabilities of the organization to create social disturbance that aims to spread anxiety and harm people by utilizing violence. Also, this paper tells how the Muslim act and reciprocate to their opposition (West Government), and put into account the messages of the organization towards other side. In addition to this, the disappointment of the organization to the western government is as well discussed as it is one of the primary reasons as to why the Al Qaeda terrorist group are against the westerners.Nonetheless, the reactions above are representation of my own thought with regards to designing a counter – terrorism strategy to prevent any occurrence of such detrimental activities. Hence, it is determined the capabilities and significant strategies of the organization to disseminate anxiety in the society and harm the people that are against them. f References Jewett T. (n. d. ). Terrorism in Early America. Retrieved July 25, 2008, from http://www. earlyamerica. com/review/2002_winter_spring/terrorism. htmL Terrorist Training Manual. (n. d. ). Retrieved July 25, 2008, from www. fas. org/irp/world/para/aqmanual. pdf

Planting the Seeds of Jealously in PARADISE LOST

All great works of literature have at their center a strong conflict. After all, if there was no conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist then there would be little of interest to any work. Not all conflict, however, is external. That is, while the protagonist and the antagonist may be in conflict there are also a number of internalized conflicts that the characters possess as well. Often, it is this internal conflict that drives the external conflict. Such is the case with the fourth and fifth books of John Milton's PARADISE LOST as there are a number of internal conflicts that are born of senses of jealousy and inferiority. When we first look at Book 4 of PARADISE LOST we are introduced to the pitiful figure of Satan. Please note, the word pitiful is not used here flippantly. The character truly appears pathetic. Part of this would be the result of Satan essentially being a stranger in a strange land who no longer feels welcome in heaven as he is cast out. This builds into a feeling resentment, anger and jealously towards the Earth in its paradise form. Satan then becomes driven to travel to paradise and disrupt things. It would seem almost as if Satan is a spoiled child who would rather destroy a toy rather than let anyone else play with it. Satan then re-directs his internal conflicts towards the inhabitants of paradise with Eve being his intended prey. If Satan can destroy Eve he can destroy paradise. Of course, if Eve were strong she would be able to fend off his tempting but she is not. This is because she is also internally conflicted. In Book Five, the Angel Gabriel informs Adam that there is the possibility that they may evolve to a higher power. But, in order to do so they must remain loyal to God. On the surface, this would seem like a rather simple task. Simply follow orders and all will be well. Of course, human beings have a tendency to be their own worst enemies and this was not lost upon Adam or Eve. In this case, it was Eve who falters first. Part of the reason for this is that Eve also possesses a certain sense of conflict not unlike Satan. (This is foreshadowed in the dream sequence which we will soon discuss) Satan as a fallen angel feels a certain sense of inferiority towards the angels that are still in the good graces of God. In a similar vein, Eve feels equally conflicted since she feels inferior to Adam. After all, the angel discusses how she and Adam can obtain perfection but he only discusses this with Adam. As such, there is a certain â€Å"snub† Eve feels and this is probably what led to her being more susceptible to the taunts of Satan. In a way, Eve's eventually jealously is similar to Satan. Since the root of Satan's rebuke of God can be traced to his jealously towards son it would not be out of the question that Eve would also feel a similar jealously. Her jealousy, however, is directed towards Adam who is seemingly favored by God and the heavens. Much like with Satan, this jealously would prove to be her undoing. This does not occur in the fourth of fifth chapter but it is foreshadowed by a  sequence where God acknowledges that his creations – the humans – will eventually fall and falter. It would seem that God understands such feelings are human nature and that they can not be circumvented no matter what. Perhaps, God understands that all creatures in heaven and earth are flawed and these flaws lead to the weak emotions of jealously, pride and envy that are their undoing. It is also foreshadowed in the early part of Book Five, Eve has a dream that foreshadows her fall. Adam warns her to not pay mind to thoughts of feeding from the Tree of Knowledge. However, we can see how the seed of such malfeasance is planted. But, there is a clear understanding here that inferiority exists. In other words, since there is a Tree of Knowledge there must obviously be things that Adam and Eve do not know. In other words, they are obviously imperfect beings that are in the shadow of God and the angels. Again, this creates the seeds of jealousy that will later manifest into resentment and defiance. Remember, PARADISE LOST is not so much about physically being cast out of paradise as much as it is about the sad realization that all beings are flawed. Among these major flaws are notions that an individual will suffer from envy and jealously; emotions which can lead to great undoing if not properly placed in check. Sadly, the seeds of jealousy in these two chapters of PARADISE LOST grow until they ultimately deliver what the title of the work would suggest – an outright loss of salvation and the birth of the desire to regain it. This, of course, is another tale for another time.