The Articles of Confederation :: essays papers

The Articles of Confederation Adopted in congress in 1777 and ratified and in force in (1784?) Adopted for: a) unify in defense and war b) Foreign policy basic principle of articles for states to maintain control under central government assigned specific powers Organization of government: 1) one legislative house - unicameral legislature - passes laws 2) 2-7 delegates per state 3) 9 votes required to pass law 4) 13/ unanimous votes needed to amend Articles Powers: defense - army, navy, and treaties with Indians Foreign affairs - war Money - borrowing, spending, printing, determining value, coining Internal affairs - Judge disputes in special court hearings between states Enforcement laws determined by state therefore enforcement was selective to state desires and rarely done State restrictions - states could not: make war, treaties, international tariffs and coin money Duties of state - states must provide money/army? When requested by congress States must pay taxes based on land Weaknesses of Articles - I. trade regulation - congress had no power to regulate trade - done by states - caused: a) tariffs on imports and exports established by states b) states competed over control of waterways c) Foreign trade was diminishing; interstate trade was also stopping because of tariffs on each other making trade difficult II. Enforcement a) Central government included no enforcement/ executive branch b) Rules mostly ignored 1) taxes decided by congress based on land ( to be paid by states - didn't pay - congress had no income and had to borrow- land basis bad for south - few people and lot of land 2) no income for army - regulated number soldiers per state not given - kept for own defense result - SHAY'S REBELLION - Begun by Daniel Shay - farmer in Massachusetts wanted to begin own government and revolted - Mass. didn't have enough army to quell rebellion - soldiers also farmers and on other side - asked congress for help but appeal to no avail - states didn't list4en to congress cuz didn't care - continued for 6 months 3) Treaty of Paris not enforced - states refused to compensate loyalist for property lost and collect debts owed to British merchants - money all used for war effort Therefore England also violate and move troops to Northwest Territory (fur trade) Spain and England restrict trade on Mississippi and right of deposit in New Orleans III. Money - each state illegally made their own currency- congress could not prevent it - 14 forms of currency causing it to be worthless and inflation - made congress and states suffer - foreign countries unwilling to trade and

Redbox Essay

I. Executive Summary Redbox Automated Retail LLC was started in 2002. It started out being an experiment, funded by McDonalds, with grocery style kiosks and DVD rental kiosks. Within the first year Redbox dropped the grocery side and capitalized fully on the automated DVD vending machine rental. In 2009, Redbox became a fully owned subsidiary of Coinstar. A strategic evaluation of Redbox’s internal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and potential threats are the bases of this marketing plan. While Redbox exhibits non-traditional marketing venues, they have proved to be successful marketing channels. A strong focus is put upon Redbox in contracting with Verizon for the implementation of streaming movies, maintaining the low price for rentals, and the convenience of the kiosks for the busy consumer. II. Environmental Analysis Since Redbox was originally tried as a grocery and DVD rental kiosk, the transition into only the DVD rental market was relatively easy. Redbox is not only its business name; it is also its aesthetic view. It is a fully automated video and gaming rental venue that is all contained within a 12 foot square red box, hence the name. Redbox positions its kiosks in high-traffic areas like gas stations, grocery stores, and pharmacies. These are strategically placed for their intended target markets to have a one-stop shop on their way home from work. The idea behind it was to entice the customer to rent a movie at a store that they are frequently shopping at, without having to make another stop. A. The Marketing Environment 1. Competitive forces. Redbox is in a highly competitive market. They face competitors such as Netflix and Blockbuster. Redbox leads in a competitive stand out by offering quick, convenient and affordable movie rentals. A Blu-Ray movie rents for $1.50 per day and a regular DVD movie rental is $1.20 per day. The Redbox network is nationwide and offers more than 30,000 convenient locations. (4) Blockbuster Express recently joined the kiosk movie rental market which led them to be a direct competitor to Redbox. They also have a leg up on Netflix as Redbox doesn’t require monthly contracts, which is highly appealing to the casual movie viewer. 2. Economic forces. With the present state of the economy, Redbox flourished when the demand for cheaper movie rentals increased. When the Blockbuster brick-and-mortar stores were forced to close, Redbox rentals jumped up 28% from 2010 to 2011. (1) 3. Political forces. There are no foreseen political forces that can alter Redbox’s operations. 4. Legal and regulatory forces. There are several laws and regulations that Redbox should abide by. But with Redbox being in a self-serve kiosk, it can make some of these laws and regulations harder to enforce. The Motion Picture Association of America sets the ratings on movies, and no one under the age of 17 can rent a rated R movie. Redbox does require age verification before renting the R-rated movie(s). The Federal Copyright Act â€Å"governs how the copyrighted material, such as movies, may be used†. (2) A rented or purchased movie doesn’t issue the right to show the movie outside one’s home unless that site carries a license for public exhibition. The Video Privacy Protection Act â€Å"prevents disclosure of personally identifiable rental records† without the written consent of the consumer. (3) The Entertainment Merchants Association regulates the industry for renting DVD’s and/or video games. â€Å"They protect the right to sell, rent, and /or promote the sale and rental of entertainment products and content†. (5) 5. Technological forces. With technology always increasing and new products are always being introduced, Redbox will undoubtedly be affected by technological advances. Consumers’ interest in renting physical movies will be on a decline with companies like XFinity offering the ability to stream movies online and watch them on any screen. Hollywood studios are also putting tighter reigns on places like Redbox. They are trying to delay the rental time frame from when DVDs are released to when they are available for rental. By trying to do so, they believe that it allows the consumer a chance to buy the movie before it becomes available for rent. And the studios receive a higher cut off of sales verses rentals. 6. Sociocultural forces. Today’s fast-paced society allows for less leisure time. Consumers are looking for convenience and easy to use products. Redbox offers a convenient service that allows renters to be able to rent-and-return anywhere at any kiosk. Customers can also reserve a movie online or via mobile apps and pick up at the nearest Redbox location (4). B. Target Market(s) Redbox has three main target market segments, the casual viewer, the family viewer, and the non-web savvy person. For first target market segment, Redbox markets towards the casual viewer. They have a policy of no monthly contract fees unlike their competitor, Netflix, who enforces a monthly fee. The casual viewer doesn’t rent enough movies or games to justify the fee. The casual viewer appreciates the ease and convenience of the locations of the Redbox. While Blockbuster also targets the casual viewer, Redbox is more appealing due to the inexpensive cost to rent a movie. The second target segment is the family viewer. Redbox positions itself in convenient locations for the ease of renting for the busy mom or dad. They can stop off at the grocery store or gas station on the way home from work and also pick up entertainment for the whole family, without having to make another stop. And the third target segment is the non-web savvy person. Netflix requires the use of the Internet to be able to rent movies. For those who either don’t have the technology available or those who are insecure of using a bank account or credit card number online, Netflix is not appealing. And with the focus Netflix on streaming movies online, they are pushing aside the lower income bracket who can’t afford the technology or those who don’t understand the technological lingo required for the streaming usage. That is where Redbox steps in and will capitalize on such consumers. Consumers are being forced to move from the brick-and-mortar stores to another venue of renting movies. With Redbox’s kiosks being user friendly and convenient, many of those consumers are trending towards the use of kiosks. Also the opportunity is becoming available for Redbox to take those valued consumers who are technologically savvy and offer them the option to stream videos online. C. Current Marketing Objectives and Performance Redbox’s current marketing objectives are to drive performance. They want to continue to drive customer loyalty, continue to engage their customers and grow profitability. By engaging their customers, Redbox is always looking to make the rental process more efficient and effective. They have installed several technology upgrades into the kiosks that will shorten the rental time frame by 20-30 seconds. They are continuously working on the most convenient locations and placements of the kiosks to drive their performance and grow profitability. Since 2002, Redbox has at least doubled, if not tripled, their revenue for seven years in a row. They distribute over 37 million disks to their field employees to install in the kiosks per year. Thousands of kiosks are installed every year. They have been able to build the infrastructure of the business to grow with the changing times, to keep up with the customer demands, and to grow their customer base into loyal customers. III. SWOT Analysis A. Strengths 1. Over 30,000 convenient locations nationwide 2. No monthly membership fees 3. Rent-and-return anywhere policy 4. Offers cheaper rental prices, $1.20/night, than its competitors 5. Largest DVD-rental kiosks operator B. Weaknesses 1. Limited access to titles, mostly new releases, and the schedule of release date depends upon the studio, not Redbox 2. Increased costs for DVD acquisitions due to Warner’s discontinued relationship with Redbox (9) 3. Marketing communication channels rarely used 4. Only accepts Debit or Credit Cards for methods of payment 5. Lacking web management in monitoring code sharing websites that allows for free rentals C. Opportunities 1. Tap into the market of streaming movies online 2. Now offers video game rentals at a relatively cheap price, $2/night 3. Mobile applications for IPhone and Droid for yet another ease of renting 4. $7 billion industry, in 2011, according to IBIS World D. Threats 1. Stiff competition with Netflix, Blockbuster Express, and Amazon 2. Websites like Hulu offering movies free of charge via the internet 3. Strained relationship with Warner Brothers by not accepting their terms of a 56 day waiting period to release new releases, resulting in increased costs for Redbox acquiring Warner Brother films (9) 4. Movie studio lawsuits stating they were only making 60 cents on new release movie rentals from Redbox, whereas they make $17 per sale of DVD at Wal-Mart. (9) IV. Marketing Objectives Unlike their major competitor Netflix, Redbox is not a big advertiser. Redbox mainly uses its internet website, in store cross-promotions, and their strategic placement of their red kiosks. On www.redbox.com, they showcase their movie and video game inventory and all their locations of their kiosks. One can also reserve the movies or games on the website and pick it up at the nearest kiosk location. It is a very simple, yet effective website. Redbox uses the placement of their eye-catching, red colored box as part of their marketing campaigns. They are strategically placed in high traffic areas and four wall stores. CFO Scott Di Valerio states that â€Å"Coinstar wants to be the leader of automated retail†. (14) Redbox also uses in store cross-promotions. Take the Orville Redenbacher’s promo, for example, on special marked popcorn boxes; there is a promo code for two free Redbox rentals, a coupon for a free 2-liter bottle of soda and a coupon for Orville’s poppycock popcorn. (15) Everyone associates movies and popcorn together so by running this cross-promotion, it brings new customers to Redbox and be able to experience the ease and convenience of usage. It has made family movie night just a little better. V. Marketing Strategies A. Target Market(s) Redbox uses the strategy â€Å"Think big, start small, scale fast.† All of the opportunities that Redbox reviews and pursues are in big spaces. They also look at new ventures who can realistically reach $100million in revenue in an allotted time frame. But before those big opportunities can be obtained, they need to start small. They believe in the right environment, which includes a small team, a few resources and time to hash over the details, so they can get to a point to accurately scale each venture. When that point is reached, Gregg Kaplan, Constar’s COO, says â€Å"It’s like unleashing the wonderful benefit that Redbox and Coinstar teams and the full organization can take against these opportunities.† (6) Redbox are placing more kiosks in more convenient places in hoping to increase more brand awareness, which is especially critical since they don’t spend much on advertising means. Mobile applications for iPhone and Droid are becoming intensely popular. The application will display a map of all the kiosks available in the area and also allows the viewing of what DVDs that kiosk has available. One can also reserve the movie via the mobile application and pick up at the nearest kiosk. B. Marketing Mix 1. Product. Redbox is the leader in DVD rentals, renting more than 1.5 billion discs to date, in over 30,000 locations. They boast on the fact that Redbox kiosks are available, within a five minute drive, to more than 68% of Americans. (4) And their rent-and-return anywhere policy makes Redbox an undisputable convenient place to rent moves. It is also possible to purchase the DVD at the kiosks or online at Redbox.com. 2. Price. The price to rent a DVD from a Redbox kiosk is astronomically cheap. It costs $1.20 to rent movies, including new releases, and $2.00 for video games. The rental period lasts until 9pm the night following the rental purchase. For each additional day you keep the movie, you are charged the rental fee plus tax per day. If you happen to hold the DVD for 20 days, you are charged $24 plus tax, $34.50 for Blu-Rays, or $60 for video games and the disc becomes yours. (4) These cheap prices have caused a strained relationship with the movie studios in Hollywood. They only earn $.60 per movie rental, where as they earn $17 per DVD sale, no matter the selling price. 3. Distribution. Redbox installs their kiosks in convenient, easy to access places, such as grocery stores, drug stores, restaurants, convenience stores, and large retailers like Wal-Mart. According to Coinstar’s 2011 10-K report, they have 35,400 kiosks available nationwide, each holding about 630 disks. (11) They are available in every state, including Puerto Rico. The kiosk is like the traditional brick-and-mortar video rental store, but only occupies up 12 square feet. Consumers access the movie database via a touch screen, make their selection(s), swipe their credit/debit card, and receive the DVD or video game(s). It is meant to be a quick, efficient and fully automated rental process. The kiosk scans the bar codes of the movies or games to keep track of its inventory. Bar code scanning allows them to track the rentals and the returns easily, especially when they offer the rent-and-return anywhere policy. 4. Promotion. Redbox sends promo codes to individuals who have signed up to receive emails. They also send promo codes via text messages. Those test messages results in a free rental once per month. Another promo Redbox offers are gift cards via email that gives the recipient a code for a free rental. In 2009, Redbox added a free mobile application for iPhone users and in 2011 they made the application available for Android users. The application allows users to sort through the available titles, find a kiosk location, and reserve a movie all from a smartphone.

Movie Crash Analysis Essay

Choose three characters from the movie crash and compare their relationship elements based on social status, gender dynamics, age, race and tolerance of uncertainty. The opposing characters within the movie â€Å"Crash† depict contrasting lifestyles, attitudes and behaviours. The elements of social status and gender dynamics determine the characters’ tolerance for uncertainty as well as the ways in which they react to societal situations. A situation which may be quite dramatic and life changing for one person might be minimal for another. The following characters including: Jean Cabot played by Sandra Bullock, Daniel played by Michael Dena, and Officer Ryan played by Matt Dillon will be explored throughout this paper. Sandra Bullock’s character â€Å"Jean Cabot† illustrates an unforgettable amount of fear, stress, anxiety and turmoil within the film. For Jean, an upper class, affluent, Caucasian female, it is difficult for her to accept the fact that she has been a victim of a reckless crime as she and her husband were demanded to leave their vehicle while two black males with guns, drove off leaving them terrified and without their car. Jean makes it clear that the incident was in fact her fault because she knew it was going to happen. She makes it clear that she feared the two men based on their skin colour and that she initially did not say anything to her husband because she didn’t want to be implied as racist. Jean’s character shows an immense amount of anger but also a prominent stereo-typical attitude. Based on one experience Jean has had she then proceeds to discriminate against Daniel, a Mexican male who comes to her house to change her door locks. Daniel played by Michael Pena is a working class male in his early 30’s. He has a home and a family and is unfortunately discriminated against time and time again within the film. He is depicted within the film as having a happy life and a caring nature however, he lives in a lower-class neighborhood and can’t help many of his life circumstances. Rather than Jean being the victim it could be made quite obvious that Daniel is in fact the one who is now being placed in a target position. While both Jean and Daniel are victims in their own way, their reactions are immensely diverse. Daniel is a lot more calm and collected. Although his anger shows on his face, he has strong control over his emotions. Rather than speaking up in an angry tone after Jean directs biased comments against him, he still leaves her house with poise. Officer Ryan played by Matt Dillon has a fascinating role within this film. He is a police officer who has been part of the force for quite some time. It is apparent that he has had many incidences where it could be seen as understandable for him to have certain views of individuals based on social class, colour and background. His experiences in the force have allowed him to be present in a variety of situations that have shaped the way he sees individuals. At the beginning of the film, we are made to believe that Ryan is a racist, discriminatory, arrogant cop. Although we learn throughout the movie that some of his experiences do base his strong view points on truth. This is no excuse for him however to inappropriately touch a female car passenger when questioning her and her husband for a minimal accusation. All three of these characters can be compared and contrasted based on their diverse up-bringing and life experiences. For Daniel it is apparent that he has been challenged and turned against throughout his life. However, he has learned to cope and exudes poise and compassion for others. In contrast, Officer Ryan has also been through challenging times and has been a witness to years of criminal activity. Rather than demonstrating any kind of remorse or compassion for innocent victims, he is extremely judgmental even before anyone has proven to commit illegal actions. Both Jean and Ryan share similar hypercritical attitudes towards anyone that they assume could be involved in crime. It is quite sad however, to observe Jean’s discriminatory behavior throughout the film. Particularly seeing as how she has a Mexican female housekeeper, she is still terribly biased and subjective towards others. The symbolism between Jeans relationship with her housekeeper and the way she treats others is prominent. Ironically towards the end of the film, Jean makes a strong statement pointed at her housekeeper that she in fact is her only friend, which promotes the idea that Jean could be making amends with her negative past behavior. In terms of gender dynamics, it is evident that the female characters are significantly more emotional than that of the males. Jean is tremendously expressive in her behaviour while the male roles hold more of their emotions on the inside. Social class as well as gender also has a significant effect on the way the characters display their feelings. Jean is from a far more sheltered world while Daniel has been exposed to a harsher reality. It is only natural that Ryan is confident when it comes to expecting the unexpected as that is his role in life. This is despite the fact that it was inexcusable for him to have carried an undesirable arrogance and a discriminatory attitude at every turn. Throughout â€Å"Crash† the connection between the characters is much more than circumstantial. It is in fact human nature. The movie encourages the audience to realize that we are connected in a much larger context. This context is one that includes human qualities, experiences and emotions. We are all part of one world that has developed and made its own distinctions between itself. People separate themselves based on classifications such as social status, race, age and gender. This separation was depicted clearly in the movie and was shown to create a negative, discriminatory society. The irony of it all was that the characters made it a point to separate themselves from one another yet life brought them together through circumstances and although they may have thought they were vastly different from one another, their lives were in fact very similar.

Diving and Changing the Wreck

Adrienne Rich’s poem Diving into the Wreck   is filled with personal myth at the birth of herself, in either a literal of a metaphoric sense. I will rewrite Rich’s 4th and 5th stanza in order to better utilize her personal myth and to make it more succinct that she is speaking about birth. I will chiefly be using her syntax, but with different word choices and with a different number of lines for each stanza.I breath in blue air,That only gets bluer the more I come out of that dark place.I delve into my subconscious, my unconscious, my primordial mind that only infants still posses.I am born.I am powerful, full of blood and air and crying it all out of me and into meAgain and again.I am the sea of her,For in the sea of my mother I saw the beginning of me.This alone is my story,Something deepIn the elemental self.And now: I remember lessOf my purposeIn this outside worldThat is beyond an umbilical chordThat ties me faithfully to my mother.And yet†¦I belong here to o, just as my lungs adjustTo this new seaSo too does my vision.I see reformed coral reefs,And even though I breathe and eat outside of my motherI am still thereAnd here, breathing just a little bit differently.Works CitedRich, Adrienne. (1973). Diving into the Wreck. Online. 28 March 2009. Poets.Org.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   < http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15228>

Deception Point Page 92

Through the darkness, a staccato burst from the nose of the chopper sent a torrent of bullets chewing across the Goya's fiberglass deck, slashing a line across the stern. Rachel dove for cover too late and felt the searing slash of a bullet graze her arm. She hit the ground hard, then rolled, scrambling to get behind the bulbous transparent dome of the Triton submersible. A thundering of rotors exploded overhead as the chopper swooped past the ship. The noise evaporated with an eerie hiss as the chopper rocketed out over the ocean and began a wide bank for a second pass. Lying trembling on the deck, Rachel held her arm and looked back at Tolland and Corky. Apparently having lunged to cover behind a storage structure, the two men were now staggering to their feet, their eyes scanning the skies in terror. Rachel pulled herself to her knees. The entire world suddenly seemed to be moving in slow motion. Crouched behind the transparent curvature of the Triton sub, Rachel looked in panic toward their only means of escape-the Coast Guard helicopter. Xavia was already climbing into the chopper's cabin, frantically waving for everyone to get aboard. Rachel could see the pilot lunging into the cockpit, wildly throwing switches and levers. The blades began to turn†¦ ever so slowly. Too slowly. Hurry! Rachel felt herself standing now, preparing to run, wondering if she could make it across the deck before the attackers made another pass. Behind her, she heard Corky and Tolland dashing toward her and the waiting helicopter. Yes! Hurry! Then she saw it. A hundred yards out, up in the sky, materializing out of empty darkness, a pencil-thin beam of red light slanted across the night, searching the Goya's deck. Then, finding its mark, the beam came to a stop on the side of the waiting Coast Guard chopper. The image took only an instant to register. In that horrific moment, Rachel felt all the action on the deck of the Goya blur into a collage of shapes and sounds. Tolland and Corky dashing toward her-Xavia motioning wildly in the helicopter-the stark red laser slicing across the night sky. It was too late. Rachel spun back toward Corky and Tolland, who were running full speed now toward the helicopter. She lunged outward into their path, arms outstretched trying to stop them. The collision felt like a train wreck as the three of them crashed to the deck in a tangle of arms and legs. In the distance, a flash of white light appeared. Rachel watched in disbelief and horror as a perfectly straight line of exhaust fire followed the path of the laser beam directly toward the helicopter. When the Hellfire missile slammed into the fuselage, the helicopter exploded apart like a toy. The concussion wave of heat and noise thundered across the deck as flaming shrapnel rained down. The helicopter's flaming skeleton lurched backward on its shattered tail, teetered a moment, and then fell off the back of the ship, crashing into the ocean in a hissing cloud of steam. Rachel closed her eyes, unable to breathe. She could hear the flaming wreckage gurgling and sputtering as it sank, being dragged away from the Goya by the heavy currents. In the chaos, Michael Tolland's voice was yelling. Rachel felt his powerful hands trying to pull her to her feet. But she could not move. The Coast Guard pilot and Xavia are dead. We're next. 111 The weather on the Milne Ice Shelf had settled, and the habisphere was quiet. Even so, NASA administrator Lawrence Ekstrom had not even tried to sleep. He had spent the hours alone, pacing the dome, staring into the extraction pit, running his hands over the grooves in the giant charred rock. Finally, he'd made up his mind. Now he sat at the videophone in the habisphere's PSC tank and looked into the weary eyes of the President of the United States. Zach Herney was wearing a bathrobe and did not look at all amused. Ekstrom knew he would be significantly less amused when he learned what Ekstrom had to tell him. When Ekstrom finished talking, Herney had an uncomfortable look on his face-as if he thought he must still be too asleep to have understood correctly. â€Å"Hold on,† Herney said. â€Å"We must have a bad connection. Did you just tell me that NASA intercepted this meteorite's coordinates from an emergency radio transmission-and then pretended that PODS found the meteorite?† Ekstrom was silent, alone in the dark, willing his body to awake from this nightmare. The silence clearly did not sit well with the President. â€Å"For Christ's sake, Larry, tell me this isn't true!† Ekstrom's mouth went dry. â€Å"The meteorite was found, Mr. President. That is all that's relevant here.† â€Å"I said tell me this is not true!† The hush swelled to a dull roar in Ekstrom's ears. I had to tell him, Ekstrom told himself. It's going to get worse before it gets better. â€Å"Mr. President, the PODS failure was killing you in the polls, sir. When we intercepted a radio transmission that mentioned a large meteorite lodged in the ice, we saw a chance to get back in the fight.† Herney sounded stunned. â€Å"By faking a PODS discovery?† â€Å"PODS was going to be up and running soon, but not soon enough for the election. The polls were slipping, and Sexton was slamming NASA, so†¦ â€Å" â€Å"Are you insane! You lied to me, Larry!† â€Å"The opportunity was staring us in the face, sir. I decided to take it. We intercepted the radio transmission of the Canadian who made the meteorite discovery. He died in a storm. Nobody else knew the meteorite was there. PODS was orbiting in the area. NASA needed a victory. We had the coordinates.† â€Å"Why are you telling me this now?† â€Å"I thought you should know.† â€Å"Do you know what Sexton would do with this information if he found out?† Ekstrom preferred not to think about it. â€Å"He'd tell the world that NASA and the White House lied to the American people! And you know what, he'd be right!† â€Å"You did not lie, sir, I did. And I will step down if-â€Å" â€Å"Larry, you're missing the point. I've tried to run this presidency on truth and decency! Goddamn it! Tonight was clean. Dignified. Now I find out I lied to the world?† â€Å"Only a small lie, sir.† â€Å"There's no such thing, Larry,† Herney said, steaming. Ekstrom felt the tiny room closing in around him. There was so much more to tell the President, but Ekstrom could see it should wait until morning. â€Å"I'm sorry to have woken you, sir. I just thought you should know.† Across town, Sedgewick Sexton took another hit of cognac and paced his apartment with rising irritation. Where the hell is Gabrielle? 112 Gabrielle Ashe sat in the darkness at Senator Sexton's desk and gave his computer a despondent scowl. Invalid Password – Access Denied She had tried several other passwords that seemed likely possibilities, but none had worked. After searching the office for any unlocked drawers or stray clues, Gabrielle had all but given up. She was about to leave when she spotted something odd, shimmering on Sexton's desk calendar. Someone had outlined the date of the election in a red, white, and blue glitter pen. Certainly not the senator. Gabrielle pulled the calendar closer. Emblazoned across the date was a frilly, glittering exclamation: POTUS! Sexton's ebullient secretary had apparently glitterpainted some more positive thinking for him for election day. The acronym POTUS was the U.S. Secret Service's code name for President of the United States. On election day, if all went well, Sexton would become the new POTUS. Preparing to leave, Gabrielle realigned the calendar on his desk and stood up. She paused suddenly, glancing back at the computer screen. Enter Password:_ She looked again at the calendar.

What is the Quran about according to Fazlur Rahmans Major Themes of Essay

What is the Quran about according to Fazlur Rahmans Major Themes of the Quran - Essay Example The book Major Themes of the Quran by Fazlur Rahman attempts to unravel the intricacies of the Quran with special focus on themes such as God, prophecy, modern society, and disclosure as concerns a stout Muslim and a western scholar (Rahman 19). The Quran is a document aimed at man, with an indication as the guidance for humankind. It has a reference of God’s proper name as Allah, with the name appearing over 2500times in the Quran. His existence as per the Quran is functional as the creator and sustainer of the universe and man. In addition, He is the giver of guidance for man, judges out man individually and collectively as well metes out to him merciful justice. God is the dimension that makes other dimensions possible, giving meaning and life to everything else. He is the all-enveloping, infinite, and the only infinite being. Without God’s activity, the activity of nature and man are wrong, purposeless, and wasteful. The Quran, therefore, emphasizes and re-emphasizes the power and majesty of God (Rahman 23). Concerning the purpose of man, the Quran emphasizes that a man was created specifically to serve God in accordance with his command and through choice. God, therefore, in his outgoing mercy provides man with the necessary knowledge to realize just and fair ends. The choice of whether to use the knowledge and power for good or evil is, therefore, the crucial test for man. The Quran does not prove God but points to him from the existing universe. God is the only one who has created the laws by which nature works. The Quran invites man to make discoveries on the laws of nature and to use it for human good. The Quran proposes that man is God’s creature just like any other created being. However, he is distinguished from the rest of natural creation in that after fashioning him, he breathed his own spirit into him. Man is given free choice in order to fulfill his

Love. company case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Love. company case - Essay Example As a result, the consumers highly value ESPN brand. It is on this principle that the company has successfully pursued growth and development, diversely and dynamically meeting consumer tastes and preferences. Consumer satisfaction has, therefore, played a fundamental role in ESPN brand expansion. Expansion strategies have seen the company becoming a diverse and dynamic network with ABC. Consumer-ESPN is characterized by several core benefits. Accessibility to sports new is not limited. On the same note, sports schedules and all games that are set to take place are made available to those who need them. In other words, ESPN is efficient and effective in offering sports entertainment. ESPN’s products’ diversity considers every aspect of a consumer. ESPN’s actual is offered in different packages. Latest sports updates are televised. To endure that consumers are not glued to the TVs, the company makes its product available through website, magazine, radio station and mobile telephone application (Plunkett, 2006). Point of accessing the product is, therefore, not limited. In relation to augmented product, ESPN can be relied upon for any given aspect of the sports industry. Brand equity of the ESPN is very strong. ESPN and ABC effectively coordinate their activities in a bid to ensure reliability by the consumers. Numerous sports events are made available for the various consumer categories that the company has identified in regard to its brand. In other words, media coverage has been successfully integrated in the company’s means of reaching out to the consumers (Plunkett, 2006). It is through this factor that ESPN’s brand equity has become stronger over time. Brand equity and brand value are intertwined in this case. Easy access to the ESPN brand has enhanced consumer loyalty. Product and/or service delivery by ESPN is, therefore, of great value across different