Novel Review of the Man in the Iron Mask Essay

Summary The man in the iron mask is the continuing story of those famous musketeers who were introduced to us in The Three Musketeers – Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and d’Artagnan. While it has been more than twenty years since their great deeds were performed, the four appear to be just as strong and brave as then. When Aramis visited the prison, he saw a man whose face is hidden behind an iron mask. The prisoner has been entombed for eight years, but he is not a criminal and he is yet to commit a crime. But Aramis knows the secret of the prisoner’s identity, a secret that is so dangerous that its revelation could fall the King of France from his throne! Aramis is plotting against the King and he didn’t even told his friends. The motto of the Musketeers has been â€Å"All for one, and one for all.† Has Aramis betrayed his friends? Will they each prevail or is this the end of the four musketeers? Social/ Historical Context The story takes place in the early 16th century in France. The Man in the Iron Mask was a name given to a prisoner arrested as Eustache Dauger in 1669 or 1670, and held in a number of jails, including the Bastille and the Fortress of Pignerol (today Pinerolo). He was held in the custody of the same jailer, for a period of 34 years. The possible identity of this man has been thoroughly discussed and has been the subject of many books, because no one ever saw his face, which was hidden by a mask of black velvet cloth. In the late 1840s, the writer Alexandre Dumas elaborated on the theme in the final instalment of his Three Musketeers. Writing Style The story is narrative. Some words are hard to understand. It is a historical fiction novel. The mysterious prisoner was the central of the story. My Thoughts I only give 4 ratings even though I love the story because I have this feeling while I’m reading the novel that I want more. I wasn’t satisfied, and I don’t know why. This novel is one of my favorite books now, even though I wasn’t super satisfied of the story. I love to read Alexandre Dumas novels. I really like his works especially ‘The Count of Monte Cristo† because of its fast-paced and action-packed plot. He wrote his novels well and it’s not boring. Dumas has a skill in creating complicated and interesting plots that will keep you biting your nails. And the most important thing is that you can get a moral lesson from his novel. I really love the characters in this story because their personalities didn’t change. I love the quotes written in the story. Their friendship in this story is so precious. They work together and help each other. I really like their motto â€Å"All for one, and one for all†.

Iconographic Representation Of Jesus Christ Essay

Jesus Christ, by Christian tradition is known as the lamb of God or the sacrificial lamb, so he is symbolized by a very young lamb seated on a nest of thorns. Other than this Christ is also known as ‘the fisher of men’ which relates to the biblical story of how He was able to gather people into His flock so that they would submit to His teachings; so the ancient symbol for Christ is a simple illustration of the fish as shown in the collage. Other than this, this representation also has something to do with Christ’s words to Peter, when He said, â€Å"Come with me and I will make you fishers of men. This is also the reason why the Pope wears a ring known as ‘the fisherman’s ring† so symbolize his being the Vicar of Christ on earth. Another symbol which represent’s Christ is bread, because he also said during his lifetime, â€Å"I am the Bread of Life, whosoever partakes in my banquet shall have eternal life. †; Christ is also represented by fire, light or a flame because of his pronouncement that He â€Å"is the Way, the Truth, and the Light. †   Another symbol used in the collage is the chi-rho symbol which was an ancient way of writing the name Jesus Christ.

Chemistry IA design format Essay

1.0.0- Introduction 1.0.1- Focus Question- If the mass of magnesium reacted with hydrochloric acid is changed will the temperature of the solution increase and the total mass decrease. 1.0.2- Hypothesis- If the mass of magnesium that is reacted with hydrochloric acid is changed the temperature of the solution will increase and the total mass will decrease. 1.0.3- Theory- The reaction between magnesium and hydrochloric reaction is written as follows, Mg(s)+ 2HCL (aq)—— (MgCl2(aq)+H2 (g) (Ng, 2008, pg 1). This reaction goes through two distinct changes that both have an effect on the energy change in the reaction. Enthalpy refers to changes in energy in a compound (Assut, 2008, pg 1). Two distinct changes can occur. An endothermic change occurs when the energy being absorbed is grater then the energy being released whereas and exothermic change is when the energy being released is greater than the energy being absorbed. Energy is absorbed when bonds are broken and energy is released when they are formed (Newton, 2008, pg1). Energy change cannot be directly measured. However energy change affects the physical force of heat. Therefore a heat change is indicative of an energy change. If the heat increase in the solution the change will be exothermic and if the heat decreases the reaction will be endothermic. In respects to the formula Magnesium forms an ionic bond with chlorine to form the salt magnesium chloride. When this bond is formed energy is released in the form of an endothermic change, this energy drop would be quite small however because the bond is ionic and does not take much energy to create since magnesium and chorine bond easily. However the second change is that hydrogen breaks off from chlorine in the hydrochloric acid and hydrogen is released as a gas. The breaking of bonds would absorb energy therefore forming an exothermic reaction. Hydrogen and chorine however form a very strong covalent bond. Covalent bonds form between atoms with similar electronegative forces and are there for take a lot of energy to break ( Anissimov, 2008, pg 1) Since the endothermic change is weak and the exothermic change is strong it can be predicted that the overall change will be exothermic and therefore the solution will heat up. Temperature change in a chemical reaction can be measured with a device known as a calorimeter. A calorimeter measures the heat of the solution before the reaction has occurred and then again after the reactant has been added (Whel, 2008, pg 1). These two values can be mathematically manipulated to find the relative change in temperature. If two of the same substance have different masses it means there is more of the one substance. In a mass of a substance there is a certain amount of material that can be reacted. By increasing mass the amount of substance that may be reacted increases. Therefore if mass increased the amount that of substance reacted will increase as well providing there is enough of the reactant. This will in turn increase the energy change. Also if more of the substance reacts with the reactant more of the reactant will be used up. This means that if the magnesium is increased there will be more reaction with hydrochloric acid; this means that more hydrogen will be released as gas and the total mass of the solution will decrease. Henceforth the change in heat should be greater if their entire solution is lighter as more of the hydrochloric acid has been reacted and hydrogen lost as a gas. How the reaction works (Figure 1) Mg(s)+ 2HCL (aq)—— (MgCl2(aq)+H2 (g) 1.1.0- Controlling variables 1.1.1- Variables (Table 1) Variable Type of variable Method for control Mass of magnesium Independent Mass will change for each sample, sample range will be 2g, 4g, 6g, 8g and 10g Heat change Dependent This will be calculated by subtracting the final heat of the solution by the initial heat of the solution. The data will be gathered by using a calorimeter Change in mass in solution Dependent This will be calculated by measuring the weight of the solution and subtracting the weight of the calorimeter and the magnesium. The original mass not including calorimeter and the magnesium will then be subtracted by this value to mind the change of mass in the solution. Initial temperature Controlled The temperature of the solution will be heated to 25c and the reaction started immediately. External temperature Controlled The room temperature will be controlled at 24c Volume of hydrochloric acid Controlled The volume of hydrochloric acid will be 40mls per sample. Measuring apparatus Controlled A 50ml calorimeter with electronic thermometer and a scale with milligram accuracy. Time of experiment Controlled The experiment will be ended when reaction is fully complete and reaction will be given 10 seconds to calibrate before results are taken Replications Controlled Standard 5 replications of each sample will be performed. 1.1.2- Control used in comparison- The reacted samples will be compared against hydrochloric acid with no magnesium that is also 25 degrees Celsius. Since the temperature remains constant there should be no energy or mass change, this would mean that on a graph this would represent a straight line which others samples with energy changes (heat changes) could be compared to. – Bibliography Ng, H.N, 2008, Acid reactions, Vat.Gov.Un, Accessed 21/08/09, http://vat.maharashtra.gov.in/communicationcenter/QueryAnswerSubjectwise.php?start=3090&subId=0000000007. Asset, M.A, 2008, Chemical Enthalpy, Nasa.gov, Accessed 21/08/09, http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/enthalpy.html Newton, R.N, 2008, Energetics and bonding, Unknown sponsor, Accessed 21/08/09, http://www.webchem.net/notes/how_far/enthalpy/enthalpy_diagrams.htm Anissimov, T.A, 2007 Chemical bonding, Simon Frasier University, Accessed 21/08/09, http://www.chem1.com/acad/webtext/chembond/ Whel, L.W, 2006, Calorimeters, Stanford University, Accessed 21/08/09, http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/vvc/detectors/calorimeters.html Acknowledgments The procedure of this experiment is a adaption of a previous class experiment. The source of the procedure is unknown, so thanks to Miss Crook for the inspirations for this design.

Balanced Scorecard in Telecom

Performance measurement concerns all stake holders of business. Owners without executive powers are obviously most keen to know how their savings and investments are deployed. Employees, especially the ones with many alternate career options, would also like to know the state of health of their organizations, apart from the aspect of how superiors view their contributions. Suppliers worry about the future prospects of the business of a client because it has cascading effects on their own fortunes.Finally, regulators use corporate performance as feedback of macro-economic policies; customers also have tangential interests in the well-being of service providers and manufacturers on whom they depend. There is an increasing disconnect between statutory financial reporting and statements by executive teams about the states of enterprises for which they are responsible. There are many significant events in a corporation’s history which do not find places in profit and loss accounts or in balance sheets.Further, all statutory reporting is historical, whereas many modern lines of business such as telecommunications are in very fluid states. Everyone wants to know the future impacts of present developments, rather than what has already transpired in the past. There is an explosion of interest in non-financial information (Neef, and Cefola). Trends in customer loyalty and retention, development of more effective human resources, the capabilities of corporation to meet future competitive pressures, and the internal ‘engine-room’ operations are typical areas about which little is known through traditional financial reporting.While executives must be pleased at the lack of comprehensive business intelligence for competitors, the lack of directional information can lead to poor coordination and loss of control inside a corporation. All levels of hierarchy require guidance in terms of overall strategy, and how broad directions bear on individual jobs. The concept of a Balanced Scorecard is a popular and widely respected method of translating strategy in to specific implementationThis document constructs a hypothetical case of a telecom company, and attempts the application of the Balanced Scorecard methodology to translate the strategy of this company in to reality. The document concludes with an appraisal of the utility of the method. Business Distinctions of Telecom It is useful to consider the broad structure of the global telecom industry in order to construct a hypothetical case of some relevance.Telecom has shot in to the limelight of late after dramatic developments in technology and extensive consolidation of the industry structure as well. The industry shares a high profile with consumers and regulators alike. The telecom business is integral to modernization of society (Bonocore, 2001). High speed, wireless communication networks have transformed lives, bringing what was almost science fiction to the realm of reality. It is now possible to stay in touch with the world from the comfort of a home, and save on travel and commute times.Convergence between mobile or cellular telephones and computers is another major trend, and the revolution in the work-place of old is now in the process of unfolding at homes, with developments such as Internet telephones and music downloads from this medium as well. The industry is full of dramatic discontinuities; some of these are due to mergers and acquisitions, while the rest is because of disruptive changes in technology (Bonocore, 2001). The technological changes are likely to continue, with exponential jumps in processing speeds of micro-processors, while costs are headed distinctly south.The huge and rapid technological improvements keep creating excess capacities (Bonocore, 2001). The fixed infrastructure costs of telecom players are not sustainable, unless price reductions spur major jumps in demand. There is a fierce battle to capture new customers, to induce t hem to use their telephones as much as possible, and to hold on to them as well. Regulatory changes are breaking restrictions, as between local and long distance telephony (Bonocore, 2001). Large global players can also now break in to new domestic territories.The industry nature as outlined above makes non-financial parameters as important drivers of success (Neef, and Cefola). It is therefore eminently suited for the application of the Balanced Scorecard methodology (Tenhunen, Ukko, Markus, Oy, and Rantanen, 2002). Hypothetical Case Construction Telephone and Data Systems Inc. is a real company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (Form 10-K, 1998). It is a diversified telecommunications operator in the United States, and participates in both the wireless and line telephone segments.A hypothetical case has been created in this document on the historical basis of the company’s 10-K statement for 1997, presented to the Securities and Exchanges Commission in 1998 (Form 10-K, 1998). This document details the company’s strategy exactly a decade ago. The Balanced Scorecard methodology can be applied to this historical but factual situation in a hypothetical way. The numbers and facts in the following paragraphs are not entirely factual, with some simplifications made for the purpose of clarity. Telephone Data Systems Inc.is a relatively small and niche player in the telecom industry. It does not operate at all outside of the United States, and serves customers in only 36 States of its home country. It has less than 10 million customers. The company depends on the United States Cellular Corporation for its wireless services, which includes broad band, and has a wholly owned subsidiary for this line of business. The company operates printing and distribution activities through Suttle Straus, Inc in which it has a controlling stake.TDS is focused on rural and suburban USA. It has about 11 thousand employees. Its basic approach is to combine organic gro wth with appropriate acquisitions. It operates each lines of business through a company which it either owns wholly or controls. The company has proprietary access to technology which reduces noise, provides seamless inter-connections, and which also offers cost advantages. Its network is capable of upgrades for value-added services. However, the company does also need to enter new technology areas.The company focuses on geographic clusters in order to control costs, but emphasizes full customer satisfaction in its chosen clusters. Overall, the broad strategy of Telephone Data Systems Inc. is to hold a leadership position in rural and suburban America, making necessary investments to support such a competitive advantage. An Overview of the Balanced Scorecard Concept It is useful at this junction to consider the general nature and principles of the Balanced Scorecard before the concept is applied to the hypothetical case constructed as above.The Balanced Scorecard is essentially a wa y of translating strategic concepts in to action (Keyes, 2005). It can also be used for holistic performance appraisal of an organization. The Balanced Scorecard seeks to integrate the contributions of all stake holders and levels of an organization for the joint implementation of strategic goals (Kaplan, 2002). It eliminates gaps between visionary thinking at the top of an organization and the daily actions of people up to the periphery. The Balanced Scorecard makes a large corporation nimble and responsive.The Balanced Scorecard was first introduced in the early 1990, and is now used by about half of all U. S. corporations (Neely, 2002). Measurement is crucial for building teams and common commitments (Kaplan, 2002). This is at the heart of the Balanced Scorecard system. These measures are a part of a cause and effect link spanning the entire organization; each measure is linked to an organizational outcome. The Balanced Scorecard is built along 4 axes: the financial perspectives drive customer values, while the internal perspectives focus on productivity, and value creation.The customer perspective gives body to differentiation, while the learning and growth perspective dwells on human resources, systems, business climate, and organization culture. Overall the Balanced Scorecard is a means of implementing strategy, and works primarily through simple and transparent measurement of financial and qualitative goals (Neely, 2002). Implementation Priorities and Sequencing This section relates to the hypothetical case constructed earlier in the document. Telephone Data Systems Inc.is ready with a strategy and would like to use the Balanced Scorecard to ensure measured and effective implementation. The process must start with widespread communication of the evolved strategy, because this has been prepared by a mere handful of the most senior and trusted executives in the company (Mai, and Akerson, 2003). Telephone Data Systems Inc. has more than 11 thousand employe es, and the Balanced Scorecard system requires that each of them understands what their company wishes to achieve and how (Kaplan, 2002).Some people are formally employees of owned or controlled, but independent entities: they must also be carried in the massive effort to implement the strategy quickly and well. Share holders, financiers, and technology associates are other stake holders with important roles in strategy execution, so they too must know the direction their company has chosen to take. Finally, competitors also need to be aware of the nuances of company strategy since the industry is in a phase of consolidation.Overall, the management should make special efforts to carry people with them by integration with the Human Resources Management strategy (Kearns, 2003) and by viewing the organization as a living being Communication with such a large and diversified audience is likely to suffer from both dilution as well as distortion (Segil, and Goldsmith, J, 2002). Further, t he subject matter is a top management prerogative, so any word from anyone other than the Chief Executive Officer, will not carry adequate weight or authority (Kaplan, 2002)This communication issue is also an opportunity for the company to showcase its strengths. The Chief Executive Officer, apart from physical one-on-one meetings with the most influential stake holders, decides to use email and video conferencing infrastructure to communicate interactively with each stake holder directly. The core message is that Telephone Data Systems Inc. will be the leader in telecommunications within rural and suburban America. The company will back this super-ordinate aim with all the financial and non-financial investments needed for its realization.The Chief Executive Officer and the core strategy team have decided to launch the Balanced Scorecard on a pilot basis before extending the methodology throughout the Group (Tenhunen, Ukko, Markus, Oy, and Rantanen, 2002). This will serve as a lear ning process and will help the company deal with the potential problems which such a process may entail. Telephone Data Systems Inc. is new to the Balanced Scorecard, and it is known that some phases of the process, such as tying personal remuneration with measured goal achievement may cause instabilities.

Blessing

Blessing is a poem by Imtiaz Dharker and is set in a village in Pakistan. This is a descriptive poem, which uses imagery to illustrate sights and sounds, and creates an atmosphere of frantic joy. The poem also consists of some inconsistent usage of end-rhyme, followed by some usage of metaphors, personification, simile, assonance and alliteration. The poet uses free verse in this poem to emphasize what the poem is about and to make the reader think about the situation and to think about the words used. It has no fixed metrical pattern. The poem begins with a simile ‘The skin cracks like a pod’ this line immediately give the reader an impression of drought and a shortage of water. The usage of the word ‘skin’ could be a literal reference to a person’s skin that had become chapped by constant exposure to the sun or it could be a more figurative reference to the dry, dusty ground that cracks and splits during heat waves and droughts. The word ‘pod’ can refer to a seed pod that opens in the hot weather to release it seeds. The poet uses words that remind the reader that what we are dealing with is a hot country where thirst is common and where after all, ‘there never is enough water. ’ By the words of the first two-lined stanza we are in no doubt to the fact that the villagers here are desperate for water and how much of an amazing and special thing it is for them. The poet involves the reader by asking us to ‘imagine the drip of it’, which is telling us how small the quantity is and to imagine the tiny splash as the water droplet hits the bottom of the cup. It seems as though the person describing the dripping water hasn’t had a drink in a very long time and is fantasizing about that special and delicious drop of water. The fact that the tiny droplet of water creates an ‘echo’ in the mug suggests that the tin mug is almost empty and is like a drop of water hitting a parched tongue. It also makes you think, what kind of person would own a tin mug? Would it be a rich person or a poor person? The reference of a tin mug may imply that the person who owns a tin mug must be poor and not very fortunate. The last line of the second stanza has a religious reference. It personifies the echoing splash of the water as the ‘voice of a kindly god. ’ God is seen as the provider of water and every drop received is a kind of gesture and therefore it is something miraculous and deeply special. The third stanza is the longest one of the poem. It tells us a story of a burst water pipe and how suddenly this ordinary small pipe is transformed into a powerful overflow of water. Water has so much importance and value to these people that throughout the poem it is referred to as if it was a precious metal like gold or silver. The municipal pipe bursts’ tells us the burst of this public (municipal) pipe is an amazing and incidental occasion. It is described by the metaphor ‘the sudden rush of fortune’, like somebody winning the jackpot and the money is rushing out of the machine. As the precious water splashes onto the ground the word ‘rush’ could mean that people are ‘rushing’ around trying to save as m uch water as they possibly can, as it is precious. This same idea is echoed in another metaphor ‘silver crashes to the ground. ’ When caught in the right light water can look like silver or a high polished mirror. The poet may have used the word ‘silver’ to emphasise how precious it is. Line ten flows to line eleven, and the water is described as a ‘flow’ that gives rise to a sudden burst of noise from the villagers, ‘a roar of tongues’. The word ‘roar’ could refer to a group of people since we only have one tongue each and therefore the plural ‘tongues’ suggest a group. The tongues could be roaring with thirst or maybe they are shouting and their combined voices becomes a ‘roar. ’ In this same stanza, the use of the word ‘congregation’ may have two important meanings to the context of the poem. Firstly it may refer to a congregation or group of people, but it also may refer to a group of people in church or being given a religious instruction. We see that the poet uses religious language, the affect being to make the process of saving the spilling water a kind of religious ritual. The poet has already described the water as a gift from a kindly god, so it is only right that collecting it should have some resemblance to a religious ritual. Pakistan is a place where many of them are very religious and have many ways of worship. The men, woman and children are all eager for their share of the spilled water and come with any container that they are first able to see. The stanza concludes with the phrase ‘frantic hands’, which once again emphasizes the desperation that leads the villagers to take even handfuls of water. The poet uses enjambment to link the third stanza to the fourth and final one. This focuses on the children of the village, where the children are described as naked and delighted of the chance to bathe in the water. ‘Screaming in the liquid sun’ is a metaphor that aligns the water to the sun to emphasise the pleasure and warmth of the experience. It shows that all is not doom and gloom since the small children are playing in the water. Alliteration is also used in the phrases ‘polished to perfection’ and ‘the blessing sings’, they combine alliteration and assonance, which creates vivid imagery to portray the excitement of the occasion. The word blessing continues the religious theme which has been running through the poem. The final line flows from the previous one ‘sings/over their small bones. ’ It is a gentle ending, focusing on the children of the village who are in great need of this water.

Impact of FTA on international trade Research Paper - 3

Impact of FTA on international trade - Research Paper Example ble indicated the geographical distance between the largest cities of the countries involved in free trade agreements reflecting the intangible and tangible trade costs. The results were expected to be negative with a longer distance as the cost increased with distance (Braga and Mendez, 1983). Language and adjacency were the dummy variables that indicated trade costs such as transportation cost as well as cultural similarity. The adjacency variable indicated the value of unity of countries sharing a common border while language variable indicated the value of unity if common official languages shared among the involved countries. The binary variable FTA was important in capturing â€Å"the general FTA effect on trade flows.† The variables were constructed based on 22 regional trade agreements as well as 86 bilateral trade agreements up to 2006 (Chen and Tsai, 2005). The nested dummy variable is Timedum was used for capturing the external annual time effect at the period. The data was collected through primary as well as secondary sources. Primary data was collected by the help of observations and by conducting interviews; whereas the secondary data was collected from scholarly sources. The sample for estimation of the information includes 178 countries between the period of 1985 to 2005. For the study, the sample was constructed through expansion of the dataset as constructed by Rose (2005). The bilateral trade values, GDP per capital, distance, GDP, language and adjacency variables from the data were set and were expand using the International Financial statistics of IMF (international monetary fund) and the Direction of Trade Statistics. The trade data was taken from the Direction of Trade Statistics (DOT). The dummy variables, i.e., distance, language, Adjacency are kept constant for the study. In the estimation method, a structural change test was first conducted because the sample had a long time series dimension. The cumulative sum of recursive residual

Exchange Rate Regimes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Exchange Rate Regimes - Essay Example The impact of the inherent volatility and unpredictability of exchange rates on macroeconomic conditions is central to the debate about fixed and flexible exchange rates. Real exchange rates are defined as nominal rates adjusted for price levels. Since prices for individual countries, when expressed in a common currency, are subject to the variability of exchange rates, bilateral real exchange rates based on individual-country price levels may be infected with measurement errors. The use of one reference country, such as the USA, gives rise to asymmetries. By definition, the exchange rate is a relative price of two assets and, like other asset prices, is determined in a forward-looking manner in which expectations concerning the future course of events play a key role. Consequently, exchange rates are very sensitive to the receipt of new information. The large and sustained changes in nominal and real exchange rates were among the most significant developments in the world economy in the 1980s. For example, in the first half of the decade, the US dollar appreciated by about 40 per cent against most other major currencies and then, in the second half of the decade, declined, reversing all the previous appreciation. These changes gave rise to international pressures associated with rapidly changing competitiveness of exports; intervention by central banks in foreign exchange markets; and intense debate regarding the extent to which these exchange rate changes interact with current account imbalances. Some economists feel that conventional measures of economic growth based on the output of goods and services (gross national product) do not satisfactorily reflect economic welfare, arguing that they ignore factors such as pollution and the negative externalities from congestion.