Frankenstein vs. Blade Runner Essay Example

Frankenstein vs. Blade Runner Essay Both Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner are classic science fiction stories that deal with the themes of technology’s effect on humanity and the question of ‘What does it mean to be human? ’ In Blade Runner, the film portrays the human race having a diminished sense of ‘humanity’ because the collective cultures and communities that exist in present day are non-existent in Blade Runner’s dystopian earth. Take for example the confrontation between Chief Bryant and Deckard over whether to ‘retire’ the rogue replicants. First Bryant tries to passively push Deckard to come out of retirement; but when Deckard refuses to comply, Bryant resorts to using abusive threats and bullying to get Deckard to do the dirty work and kill the replicants. This theme continues to appear throughout the movie as the human characters bark and snap at each other constantly. Which indicates the lack of respect they have for each other, showing the breakdown of human relationships in this dystopian world. In contrast, the Replicants, who by all accounts are the most synthetic aspects of the film, appear to have the most genuine compassion, companionship, morality, empathy and courtesy for each other. This makes them appear more human than the actual protagonists in the film. Throughout Blade Runner the replicants tend to hold more civil and polite conversations with one another, demonstrating the compassion they have for each other and a caring empathy that lacks between the humans. We will write a custom essay sample on Frankenstein vs. Blade Runner specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Frankenstein vs. Blade Runner specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Frankenstein vs. Blade Runner specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer By the end of Bladrunner, the replicants appear to have a identity that is more human when compared to the actual humans in the film. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein also functions in a similar way. Frankenstein compares Victor Frankenstein’s creature to Victor himself and by the end, the roles of ‘human’ and ‘creature’ are reversed. Initially the creature is frustrated and is full of hatred for his creator’s abandonment and society’s abhorrence of his appearance. Frankensteins creature explains his anger, saying, There was non among the myriads of men that existed who would pity or assist me; and should I feel kindness towards my enemies? No: from that moment I declared everlasting war against the species, and, more than all, against him who had formed me and sent me forth to this insupportable misery. After realizing that his creator will eventually do nothing to help him cope with being alone in the world and detested by society, the creature kills off Victor’s family, turning the nce urbane gentleman into a monster not unlike the creature. Echoes of the creature’s earlier statements now appear in Victor’s deathbed speech, illustrating the degree in which Victor has become dehumanized. â€Å"I was cursed by some devil,† he cries, â€Å"and carried about with me my eternal hell† (142). Driven by his hatred for the other, the ‘human’ – Victor – distances himself farther and farthe r away from human society and sanity and becomes a creature possessed in finding and killing his creation. After his creator’s passing the creature pays one final visit to his former master and while Victor in the end believes him to be a  insensitive brute, Shelley casts the creature as a martyred classical hero: â€Å"I shall ascend my funeral pile triumphantly and exult in the agony of the torturing flames,† he says (149). Fittingly, the last few pages of the story are taken up with the creature’s own words as he preaches to the reader about his apparent moralistic change in an attempt to give himself self-definition. Another theme that can be seen in both Blade Runner and Frankenstein, is the question of ‘Are creations of science born inherently evil? ’ To put it into context for Blade Runner, Dr. Eldon Tyrell – inventor of the replicants – created machines that functioned almost the same as humans, but they were thrust into the world without any memories and experiences. The replicants were also expected to work and adapt to a changing world with an underdeveloped brain on par with a pre-pubescent child. Dr. Tyrell realised this and thus implanted within them a four-year lifespan with which time they would automatically die. This was due to the fear that the replicants, who were born with a mind of ‘tabula rasa’ or a blank slate, would develop humanistic feelings and become human. From this the movie illustrates that as the replicants (especially the seven rouge replicants) reach the end of their lifespan, they become scared of ceasing to exist and then take drastic measures to allow themselves to live Frankenstein functions in a similar way, the gothic horror novel explores what makes us human and questions the reader to pinpoint what are the attributes of a human being and how do humans become integrated into society. The creature shows that humans and man-made creatures alike are born with inherently good, and nature and the conditions around determine future personality, or the old nature/nurture argument. When Frankenstein’s creation turns against him, the novel shows that it is not the fault of the creature, but rather the wrongdoings of society that forced the creature to act the way he did.

67 Creative Writing Freelance Jobs to Make Money With Your Hobby

All my life Ive enjoyed writing. In high school, I would write poems in my spare time. You know teen angst and all. In University, I took creative writing classes and loved it all. It wasnt until I had my twins that I realized there was a way to get paid for your writing. Its with freelance jobs! But, specifically writing jobs. I started my path as a freelancer when my twins were little and I was a stay-at-home mom. These freelance jobs changed my life for the better. I can write for clients, and clients come to me seeking my services. Its the best of both worlds. If youre reading this and love to write and want to know if your passions can be monetized, I have something for you. I get emails from wonderful people who want to freelance who ask me if their hobbies are profitable. I hesitate in responding because if you dont know, my journey as a freelance writer lead me to business writing. I write for online businesses. Most of my projects are blogging jobs. I write lead generation content for small businesses. And I absolutely love it! But, did you know that you can also make money with creative writing jobs? These are hobbies like gardening or gaming. Imagine writing about the things you love to do those hobbies, crafts, or music lessons you spend time on can make you money? Although my focus is on small businesses, not publications or magazines, I truly want to help anyone interested in freelancing that there are ways to side hustle some income. So, lets get to it. The first part shares with you creative writing jobs and the second part shares with you twenty-one freelance jobs websites you can use to find some work. 46 Creative Writing Jobs 1. Art Did you take art in high school? I did! How about art history in college? The arts is a popular hobby for many of us. Whether its the act of painting, drawing, or teaching about art history, many of us can relate to art. And you know what? There are creative writing jobs in the arts! Many magazines in the arts hire freelance writers. Here are ten of them. 1. Visual Arts News This magazine is Canada-based and focuses on the the Atlantic Canadian art and their artists. Not only do they have a magazine, but also a podcast with great interviews of up and coming new Canadian artists. They post popular stories in their magazine are: Features Exhibition reviews Artists profiles This magazine provides a pitch template and offers suggestions on what they want. If your submission is accepted, payment is between $100-$150. 2. Polymer Arts This publication focusses on polymer clay artwork, and their audience is artists, collectors, and galleries. They stress that Polymer Arts wants to show the people that this form of art isnt kids art; its a skilled and high caliber piece of work. Freelance jobs for this magazine want new writers focus to pitch these topics: Features Materials and tools Testing and reviewing new products and tools Featuring one artist Gallery reviews Business/marketing that appeals to the working artist Personal experience Essay style Broad issues in the polymer community If your submission is approved, you will be compensated. Its unspecified, but other creative writers have mentioned up to $.10/word. 3. Canadian Art This is a contemporary publication that is seeking exciting, visual and a critical perspective from Canadians. This is not an academic publication; they want the untold stories here. There are two types of freelance jobs digital articles and print writing. Digital articles pay $.50/word and print pays $.75/word. Read through their editorial guidelines to ensure your pitch gets approved. 4. Cabinet Cabinet prides themselves in being an art and culture magazine. They enjoy any subject matter as long as it demonstrates how our everyday life is strange, unique or artificial. Cabinetappreciates the unorthodoxdaring theses, unfashionable stances, minute observations, forgotten cultural practices, and found documents. This magazine focuses on contemporary art ideas and does not accept articles that focus on one artist or their work, or review articles or news articles about art exhibitions. If your story is accepted, you will be compensated. Payment for this creative writing job online is unspecified. 5. Art21 Art21 doesnt have a submissions section for their website. But, they do have freelance jobs as Ive read other writers being hired by them. This magazine publishes quarterly and has a big digital section. If you want this freelance writing job, then you have to pitch the editor your story idea. This means doing a bit of digging on their website and social media. Find the right contact person to pitch your story. There is compensation one freelancer quoted $.13/word. 6. ArtNews ArtNews is the most popular and most widely read magazine in the world. If you love art, then you know about this magazine! And according to writers, freelance jobs for ArtNews pays up to $.80/word and pays within a month. To help ensure your pitch to the editor gets read and approved, make sure to check out this article on Contently from the ArtNews editor. She provides actionable advice to help you pitch your story in the best way. Simply submit your idea to the editor and wait! 7. Artsy Artsy supports artists from all over the world. They are the premier platform for collecting art and discovering beautiful art. They have a database of over 1 million galleries, works of art, art fairs and over 100,000 artists. There is no submission page on this site, which means its a good idea to network with the editor and develop an ongoing relationship. Other writers who landed this freelance job have been paid between $.30-.40/word. To pitch your idea, find the right contact person here. 8. ArtForum Artforum is an international monthly publication that focusses on articles and reviews of contemporary art. Again this magazine does not specify a submission page. So, to get paid for this job, you will probably have to contact the current editor David Velasco. As for compensation, many writers have been paid and happy with the process. The average payment is $.32/word. 9. Communication Arts Communication Arts is the leader in the creative industry. Their trade journal is the largest creative magazine around. Their publication caters to artists, graphic designers, photographers and anyone involved in the visual communication industry. Their submission page stipulates a variety of topics you can write about such as business, creativity, emerging design, and culture. What is great about freelance jobs with Communication Arts is they provide 1:1 help and support in the editing process. They provide extensive feedback to help make your piece the best it can be. Writing is compensated with a highly competitive rate, but its unspecified. 10. Kcet Artbound The Kcet network is primarily a television network in Southern California, but they do have a website with a blog for writing jobs in the Artbound section. The Artbound section of Kcet strives to reveal the analysis of how art today is affecting our society and culture. Kcet Artbound has won many Emmys and awards for its innovative content. As one freelancer put it: [Kcet Artbound is a] delightful publication for freelancers! The type of freelance job you might get hired for is like an 800-1000 word criticism piece or review in the arts entertainment coverage. Since there is no submission page for writers, you have to do some investigations to find out the editor and network with them to pitch your ideas to. Gardening Ahh! Gardening and horticulture/farming is a huge hobby for many people. As well, its a great business too. From hydroponics to vegetable gardening or natural pesticides for organic farming there is no shortage of article ideas. Most of these freelance creative writing jobs are magazine based that are high paying and can help build your portfolio as a new freelance writer. Here are seven gardening freelance jobs. 11. Horticulture Magazine Horticulture magazine is one of the best gardening magazines for beginner gardeners and for very serious gardeners. This publication covers spotlights of gardens and nurseries around, gardening designs, and informative pieces on products and accessories for gardeners. There is no formal submissions page, so make sure to visit their contact page to email the editor your pitch idea. Writers who have written for Horticulture were paid up to $500 for their piece. 12. Fine Gardening Fine Gardening covers mostly landscape designs, various plants and harvest information for fruits and vegetables. They are recognized for their extensive library of plants, and their plant information is highly detailed that would delight any botanist. They have an award-winning blog with great advice and information for gardeners. To pitch your idea, contact the Fine Gardening editorial department on this contact page. If your submission is accepted, they generally pay $.44/word for an 1800-word feature. 13. American Horticultural Society If gardening is your passion you will love writing for the American Horticultural Society as your first freelance job. They cover everything from innovative garden designs, plant conservation, heirloom gardening and more. This publication also likes articles on how to construct a simple garden or how to demonstrate using certain gardening tools and products. Please only submit your idea and not the entire article. If accepted, pay is between $300-$600 for 1,500-2,000-word features. 14. Green Prints Green Prints is a wonderful mom-and-pop owned magazine. They share a wonderful story on their About Us page so make sure to read it! This publication shares real stories from real gardeners. They have dubbed themselves as the The Weeders Digest. They love submissions that cover the stories behind gardening and sharing that with their audience. If your submission is approved, top payment for online creative writing jobs in this magizine is $150. Poems are published 4x a year and pay $20. 15. Modern Farmer Modern Farmer is a cutting-edge publication that explores the foods we eat and cook. The articles covered cater to chefs, farmers, cooks, and families. They want submissions that are global and political in nature. While compensation isnt mentioned or specified, writers have been paid for submissions. Its varied, but the top pay is $1.33/word for a 750-word piece. 16. Successful Farming Successful Farming covers a lot of content mediums radio, talk, magazine, and TV which reaches a broad and large audience. If you landed this freelance job, you could be sure that your content can reach more than one type of audience. This publication covers a wide array of topics: Machinery News Markets Weather Family Livestock Farm management Crops Technology With the most up-to-date information for farmers and the farm industry, this is one of the best publications out there. While there is no submission page, this would be a cold pitching opportunity where you will have to connect with the editor. You can try using social media or toot around their website to find the contact information. They do pay for content, and once your piece is approved, the pay is around $.64/word. They do pay for unique images (up to $50). Your piece will go through a round of editing, but the process is more helpful than critical. 17. Cappers Farmer This magazine is distributed quarterly and values what grandmothers taught their families. Articles cover the tried-and-true methods your grandparents taught you. From cooking to crafting to gardening and more, Cappers Farmer shares the homesteading way of living. Their submissions page stresses that they prefer submissions based on rural living such as on farms or ranches. They do pay for your article, but the pay is unspecified. Cars/Automotive Industry Many people are car enthusiasts. They visit car shows or like to tinker around on their classic car or are mechanics. Whatever it may be, if you have an affinity for riding motorcycles or just love cars, you can find a freelance job in your hobby. Lets look at 9 writing freelance jobs so you can start making money. 18. Popular Mechanics Popular Mechanics istheautomotive magazine there is. This publication has been in circulation for over 100 years and covers the most innovative inventions in the automotive industry. Their message is clear they want to provide automotive information in an easy-to-read format. While they dont have a formal submission page, they do hire freelance writers. One writer was paid $.25/word for 1300 word feature article. Other writers state that Popular Mechanics pays between $50-$150 for online content and upwards to $1,000 for print in their magazine. 19. Autoblog Autoblog is an automotive news publication that covers new and used cars as well as industry news, tools, and car reviews. While they do have a submissions page, the pay on this page is low based on pageviews and capped at $50. To find the profitable freelance job for this publication, you need a referral someone that writes for this blog or knows the editors for this site. One writer used this method and was paid $.37/word for a 1750-word criticism review piece. 20. Autonotebook Autonotebook covers a variety of automotive content. The main categories are: Best of Exotic Purchasing Safety One thing I noticed when looking at this freelance job is that the blog hasnt been updated for a couple of years. I would ensure first that they still want content. This can be a good pitch too i.e. how new content can help them reach a bigger audience and grow their SEO and traffic. Their submission page is sparse, but does say they pay using PayPal. So this is a worthwhile gig to have. 21. Motocycle Mojo Motorcycle Mojo is a Canadian publication that publishes 10 times a year. They enjoy and cover real-life experiences and pride themselves in the personal and storytelling angle their magazine has. Their magazine covers all types of motorcycles, history, touring and travel/destination content. They also cover book and product reviews and some vintage pieces. Their write for us page stressed that they prefer submissions over queries. They also want the freelancer to provide previous samples and samples of their photo taking ability. They have to mediums print and digital and requires the freelancer to approve their piece being published to both mediums. They accept 600-800 word for small stories and upwards of 2,000 words for travel features. This gig does pay, but payment amount is unspecified. 22. Road Travel Road Travel is an online magazine aimed at upscale women. This is not a motorsports magazine; rather, it covers travel, safety and personal topics for women drivers. Content is gender neutral, however. Road Travel aim to educate consumers on purchasing, renting or leasing cars or RVs, care maintenance, green vehicles and more. They accept blog articles of up to 300 words and feature articles of up to 1200 words. Payment is based on the editor and freelancer. 23. AAA Midwest Traveler AAA Midwest Traveler is a bimonthly publication for residents of Missouri, Illinois, southern Indiana, and eastern Kansas. This publication is meant to provide their AAA members information on travel, auto safety and features and tips about their AAA membership. To submit your story, send a query to the editor between January-April. They work 6-months in advance, and a copy of the magazine you wrote for is mailed to you. A 1200 word feature goes for $400, and if your story is picked up by their sister publication, thats another $150. 24. Wheels Wheels was my first legit freelance job. I was ecstatic and over the moon that I no longer had to look on content mills to find a project. Wheels is a division of the Toronto Star newspaper and they provide up-to-date and useful information on the automotive industry as well as the entertainment aspect of owning a vehicle. I wrote articles from the perspective of a mom/woman. There is no formal submission page. This freelance job was posted on a job board, but networking and warm pitching can help you land this gig. Find the editor for online content and connect with them! I wrote 800-word pieces for $100. Article ideas were pitched to me, but I did most of the blog topic pitching. 25. Elephant Insurance If you have a love of the car, did you know you can pick up a freelance job in the automotive insurance industry? Search for automotive insurance companies online and check to see if they have a blog or email list. If they do, theres a good chance they hire freelancers for content writing. Elephant Insurance has a blog with different writers. This is another clue that they probably have freelance jobs. 26. Gasudeansas Gasudeansas covers a wide range of car topics but mostly enjoys car protection content. Their submission page mentions they are open to any topic related to cars and that they will respond to your pitch in a timely manner. They do pay for articles, but its unspecified how much. Cultural Topics From women equality to politics and more, cultural topics relates to the ideas and customs of society. If you took a class in high school or university that opened the doors to cultural studies, did you know you can get paid to write in this niche topic? Lets look at 9 creative writer jobs in cultural topics. 27. Roads Kingdoms Roads Kingdoms set to inform and inspire travelers. They mostly cover food, travel, and politics. They enjoy articles that explore deep storytelling, are original and inspire their readers to take action. If you are interested in writing for them, Roads Kingdoms has provided a post on how to pitch to them. They seek ideas that stand out from the crowd. Reporting is also part of some of their content such as a long-form feature for their Dispatched by Bourdain series. A long-form feature up to 5,000 words goes for $1000 and a piece of web content runs $250. 28. Briarpatch Magazine Briarpatch Magazine covers politics and culture from an original and insightful grassroots perspective. Critical commentary is their bread and butter, and they fiercely reject corporate media and strive for independence and equality. They are a bimonthly publication and offer submissions for journalists and freelancers. If you are interested in this freelance job, they do want a story idea to be pitched. They accept: current events electoral politics grassroots activism economic justice gender equality political importance and more Make sure to check out their guide on how to pitch to Briarpatch before you submit your piece. They do pay for submissions. Anywhere from $100 for short reviews or blog posts to $300 for research-based articles of 2500 words. 29. High Times High Times covers cannabis cultivation and legalization. The alternative health market is a high-paying freelance writing niche. More outlets are needing writers who are well-versed in the cannabis market to talk because the industry is a huge money maker. Cannabis was projected to make $10B this year, which will increase to $22B by 2022. As well, I have had several prospects email me for my writing services to help them market their Cannabis products: High Times strives to uncover the truth and provide the most up-to-date information about the cannabis market. Their submission page mentions they enjoy pitches and story ideas of around 1200 words but does not specify a rate. Freelancers though have worked with High Times and are generally paid $.40/word for an opinion editorial project. 30. Paste Paste covers all types of pop culture topics like politics, comics, books, music, and TV. With a large and of over 400,000 devoted readers, Paste is the go-to place for what is happening in our world right now. They are looking for highly original and unique story ideas that the editors of Paste have never even though of or heard of. Their writers guidelines require a proposed subject, length and some samples of your writing ability. They do pay for submissions, but its unspecified. However, other writers have quoted up to $.10/word. 31. Moment Founded by the acclaimed Elie Wiesel known for his memoir Night, and editor Leonard Fein, Moment is grounded in Jewish living in the States. Each of their topics covers the perspective of Jewish history and information. From Arts Culture to Politics to Jewish World and Israel, Moments rich content is celebrated all around. Moment publishes 6 times a year and if you wish to write for Moment, make sure to submit time-sensitive stories at least 6 months in advance. Their submission guidelines advise you email your query to the editor. Your pitch idea needs to be fleshed out with an outline too. While you can submit the completed story, they prefer the query. The do pay freelancers, but its unspecified on their submission page. However, writers who had their pieces published on Moment were paid $.20/word for a 1,500-word review or criticism piece. 32. Readers Digest Asia Readers Digest is a general-interest family style magazine. The Readers Digest Asia covers culture and arts as well as a variety of lifestyle topics like home garden, health, travel, jokes, and true stories. The Readers Digest Asia website gets over 100,000 pageviews a month, meaning that many potential clients can see your article. Their submission page shows the type of article they seek and the payment they offer: My Story 800-1000 words of an interesting true story. $250 USD Kindness of Strangers 100-150 words of unexpected kindness, generosity or an account of something that changed your life. Up to $150 USD Anecdotes and Jokes Submit your original jokes, comics, cartoons or anecdotes. Pay is $50-$100 USD. Your Deepest Wish Share your deepest desires and compelling wishes. Dont hold anything back. Pay is $200 USD. Smart Animals 300 words of a tale about unique pets. Pay is up to $100 USD. 33. Salvo Salvo calls themselves, a magazine of society, sex society. In essence, Salvo aims to debunk cultural myths with a Christian worldview. This is a magazine of the Fellowship of St. James who want to uphold Christian views. Their submission page details what they want and dont want. They dont want overtly religious pieces of content or have scripture. Your article should focus on the secular young adult audience. They enjoy informative articles with a cheeky attitude. Articles of 600-2500 words are paid at a rate of $.20/word. 34. Bitch Media Bitch Media is a publication that aims to encourage a feminist response to mainstream culture. Bitch Media is an online and print magazine that also has a podcast. Their content is filled with a strong voice in feminism that doesnt shy away from confronting contradictory information in life. Bitch Media explores a variety of feminist topics which include: Activism Questioning gender roles Sexuality Politics Art and Culture Their submission page stresses they seek discussion-provoking critical essays. If you pitch to the magazine component, you will be compensated if they approve your pitch. Payment: $700-$1000 for features, $350 for dispatches, and between $150-$700 for culture stories. 35. ADDitude ADDitude is a magazine for parents, health care professionals, teachers and anyone that supports a child with ADD (attention deficit disorder). Professionals write most of their content, but they do welcome parents, teachers, and others with first-person accounts with children with ADD. There are two types of freelance jobs you can look into the print magazine or blog. The print magazine is paid and it seems like the blog content is not paid. You can send a query or your entire article via email. For print magazine submissions, payment is based on the length of your article, the expertise level and quality of your writing. In general, they pay $.20/word for article submissions. Christianity/Religion The Christianity niche is a big niche online. From mom bloggers writing about faith to services, magazines, and publications that share faith-based content, if you want to write in this vein, you can. Lets look at 4 religious publications with some awesome creative writing jobs. 36. Christianity Today Christianity Today spreads the love of the gospel as a way to help transform lives and bring hope to everyone. Their publication receives over 5 million Christian readers a month. They cover modern Christianity topics and are interested in interviews, reviews, opinion pieces, and unique Christian living. They are not affiliated with any denomination as their audience is primarily made up of evangelical Christians. Their submission page is highly detailed on how to pitch to them, what they want for content and how to submit your pitch. They also say not every accepted pitch is bought (or paid for). They can reject your accepted pitch at any time. While they dons specify payment, when they pay for creative writer gigs, they pay up to $.16/word. 37. Religion News Service Religion News Service is considered one of the largest source of spirituality and religious news. They hope to inform and inspire their audience to make informed decisions based on their beliefs and convictions. They mostly cover current events in religious news and also has press releases and a podcast. They dont formally have requirements for submissions but do have a form to fill out if you want to submit a story. They dont disclose if they pay for articles, but writers have been paid up to $.29/word for a news story. 38. Religion Politics Religion Politics is a publication of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion Politics at Washington University in St. Lois. This is an online news magazine focussed on the two topics that hushed in culture religion and politics! They strive for better communication around religion and politics and how it shapes our culture. Differing political and religious views are encouraged and required when writing for them. Each piece is in-depth, taking into historical and contextual elements and analysis from the writer. Their submission page is sparse and only mentions to pitch a detailed description of what you want to write about and email it to their editor. There is no mention of pay, but they do pay for creative writing jobs up to $.26/word for a 1900 word feature piece. 39. The Christian Science Monitor The Christian Science Monitor is a news magazine that tries to shred the political spins down to the underlying truth. Their approach is to bless all men and what people have to say. This magazine is owned by the church and does adoptive the views of the First Church of Christ. Their submission page states they view new writers work on spec and want to see the quality of your writing first before they accept your pitch. While they dont pay for your first submission, if they like your work and if you write for them, they will commission you to write and will pay for that article whether they publish it or not. And while they dont tell you their rate, other writers have been paid up to $.27/word. Camping Some creative writing opportunities for you! Are you an outdoorsman or woman? No matter what time of year or what the weather is, if you have a weekend or a few days, you grab your camping supplies and you hit the road. And if you decide to become a freelance writer, those camping trips will be a regular thing for you and your family! So, lets look at camping gigs for some cool creative writing jobs. 40. Backpacker Backpacker is a print and digital publication that covers hiking, gear, skills and more. Their readers are experienced backpackers or hikers so any topics for this publication should be verified, informational and credible. To get a feel of what they want from freelancers, go ahead and read a few issues or their blog. Their submission page states that they are only accepting web articles and for new freelancers, they suggest you pitch your entire article to smaller jobs in their departments/categories: Done in a day Weekend Skills Gear They also state that they have themes and will give you the theme when they hire you. On their submission page, they state that they pay anywhere from $.40/word to $1.00 a word for articles. 41. Bay Nature Bay Nature isnt truly a camping topic, but it does explore nature, science, plants of Northern California. The San Francisco population is their audience and want to use their magazine to help them explore and learn about the natural world. A lot of their focus is conservationism, preserving biodiversity, and understanding climate change and how it affects Northern Californians. They do not have a submission page, but they do have a contact page with emails for general queries. I do know that they do pay for articles up to $.80/word for a 2500 feature. 42. Backcountry Digital Backcountry Digital is a camping marketing agency. They help camping businesses with online marketing by using SEO strategies, PPC strategies and content marketing strategies. This means that their clients might need writers for their content team. Using this method can help you can many freelance jobs on this website. I dont know their freelance job rates, but make sure to reach out to them. 43. Outdoor Canada Outdoor Canada is a magazine that seeks researched articles on living in the Canadian outdoors. They are big on fishing and hunting pieces of content on their website. They enjoy different types content like: How-to Entertaining features In-depth reporting On their contributor page they state that they pay between $100-$400 for articles. 44. Western Woods Waters Western Woods Waters is a hunting news magazine for Western Canada. They enjoy content about the Canadian outdoors and controversial subjects regarding anglers and hunters. They do accept product reviews along with their outdoor advice. They have different creative writing jobs 700-word columns on outdoor activities and feature articles + image pack. On their submission page, they state they pay writers $100 for column articles and $150 for feature + image pack articles. 45. Paddling Magazine Do you enjoy canoeing? If you know all about paddling and life on the rivers, then Paddling magazine might help with landing an awesome freelance job in your hobby. The type of articles they seek are: Profiles of influential people in the canoeing industry Travel stories about canoeing How-to articles Family camping Their submission page does not state pay, but I do know you can earn up to $.20/word for an article. Pets Around 85 million families own a pet! Its a booming industry for products, but also for creative writers! There are some jobs for creative writing in this niche! Lets see how. 46. Dogs Naturally Dogs Naturally covers a wide array of topics for dog owners and professionals in the pet industry. Most of the content covers holistic health, nutrition, vaccines and some controversies in pharmaceutical therapies. They do want writers that follow the same philosophy as them holistic and homeopathic care so they can authentically write about TCVM practitioners or natural pet health products. While their submission page doesnt state pay for their content, I do know you can earn anywhere from $50-$200 for an article. Websites for Freelance Jobs Here are 21 freelance job websites to find the perfect freelance job for you! Many of them have creative writing jobs, freelance jobs, remote jobs and more. SolidGigs Workroll Indeed ServiceScape Working Nomads Freemoter Jobspresso Publoft Mediabistro Journalism Jobs Skip the Drive Krop Online Writing Jobs Whisper Jobs Cision Jobs Workhoppers We Work Remotely Authentic Jobs Craigslist Problogger Contena More Freelance Jobs for Writers This list will continue to grow. I found that this will be a huge comprehensive list that takes weeks to research and write. So, I felt instead of not publishing it as half did and letting it sit on my computer for months until I continue to write about more freelance jobs, I thought Id publish as is and add when needed. In the future to add more creative freelance job niches. Over to you Are you excited about the potential of monetizing your hobbies?

Free Essays on Beowulf, A True Epic Hero

Beowulf, a True Epic Hero Beowulf is an epic poem set in 500 A.D. Over the centuries the poem has been passed on by word of mouth, and later written in Old English. Beowulf, the main character, shines over other characters in the poem. Exemplifying the characteristics of a perfect hero, Beowulf battles the dreadful Grendal, Grendel’s enraged mother, and the fire breathing dragon. Encountering various problems throughout the poem, Beowulf stays mighty. Beowulf epitomizes an epic hero showing bravery, loyalty and pride. Throughout the poem, Beowulf shows what bravery stands for. Although he gets caught in numerous problems, he stays fearless. Beowulf very seldom uses weapons to overthrow his enemies. He uses his bare hands and his masculine ways. Beowulf states: I’d use no sword, no weapon, if the beast could Be killed without it, crushed to death like Grendal, Gripped in my hands and torn Limb from limb. But his breath will be burning hot, poison will pour From his tongue. I feel no shame, with shield and sword And armor, against the monster: when he comes to me I mean to stand, not run from his shooting flames, Stand till fate decides which of us wins. (630-639) Even in Beowulf’s old age he was still ready to take action and battle the fire-breathing dragon. He won’t back down from the dragon, even if it he is winning the battle. His bravery shines through in doing this. Not only is Beowulf brave, but he is extremely loyal too. Loyalty is being devoted to a motive, ideal, or regimen. Beowulf shows loyalty by being devoted to his fellow geats, and being loyal to himself. When he starts something, he never gives up. The loyal Beowulf never lets his people down. Nothing stands in Beowulf’s way, despite his age. Beowulf uttered in his final boast: I’ve never known fear, as a youth I fought in endless battles. I am old now, But I will fight again, seek fame s... Free Essays on Beowulf, A True Epic Hero Free Essays on Beowulf, A True Epic Hero Beowulf, a True Epic Hero Beowulf is an epic poem set in 500 A.D. Over the centuries the poem has been passed on by word of mouth, and later written in Old English. Beowulf, the main character, shines over other characters in the poem. Exemplifying the characteristics of a perfect hero, Beowulf battles the dreadful Grendal, Grendel’s enraged mother, and the fire breathing dragon. Encountering various problems throughout the poem, Beowulf stays mighty. Beowulf epitomizes an epic hero showing bravery, loyalty and pride. Throughout the poem, Beowulf shows what bravery stands for. Although he gets caught in numerous problems, he stays fearless. Beowulf very seldom uses weapons to overthrow his enemies. He uses his bare hands and his masculine ways. Beowulf states: I’d use no sword, no weapon, if the beast could Be killed without it, crushed to death like Grendal, Gripped in my hands and torn Limb from limb. But his breath will be burning hot, poison will pour From his tongue. I feel no shame, with shield and sword And armor, against the monster: when he comes to me I mean to stand, not run from his shooting flames, Stand till fate decides which of us wins. (630-639) Even in Beowulf’s old age he was still ready to take action and battle the fire-breathing dragon. He won’t back down from the dragon, even if it he is winning the battle. His bravery shines through in doing this. Not only is Beowulf brave, but he is extremely loyal too. Loyalty is being devoted to a motive, ideal, or regimen. Beowulf shows loyalty by being devoted to his fellow geats, and being loyal to himself. When he starts something, he never gives up. The loyal Beowulf never lets his people down. Nothing stands in Beowulf’s way, despite his age. Beowulf uttered in his final boast: I’ve never known fear, as a youth I fought in endless battles. I am old now, But I will fight again, seek fame s...

The Planet Saturn essays

The Planet Saturn essays Less than one-third the mass of Jupiter, Saturn is still an enormous planet. Saturn has a mass of about 95 Earths and has a very rapid rotation rate. Because its rotation rate is so rapid, it has an obvious oblateness. This oblateness is caused by a outward push at the middle, from the spin rate, causing a large bulge at the planet's equator and a flattening at the planet's pole regions. Saturn is well known for having more moons than any other planet in our solar system and a spectacular ring system. At least 20 moons have been spotted to date. Their reflective light suggest that most are covered with snow and ice and are probably made almost entirely of water ice. Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is the most intriguing of all Saturn's moons because of its gigantic chemical content. Scientists believe that the atmosphere on Titan may be the same as that of Earth's some billions years ago which eventually led to life on Earth and thus, possibly future life on Titan. The most obvious feature of Saturn, is its planetary ring system. Saturn has 7 main ring sections labeled A thru G. These ring sections consist of over 3,000 individual rings of various sizes, shapes, and compositions. Between some of the ring sections appears to be a "gap", but actually contains some ring material within it. This "gap", is known as Cassini Division, and lies between ring sections A and B. A smaller gap, known as Encke Division, is found in the outer part of ring section A. Of the three main ring sections, B is the brightest, followed by A, and then by the almost translucent C section. Saturn is visibly flattened (oblate) when viewed through a small telescope; its equatorial and polar diameters vary by almost 10% (120,536 km vs. 108,728 km). This is the result of its rapid rotation and fluid state. The other gas planets are also oblate, but not so much so. Saturn is the least dense of the planets; its specific gravity (0.7) is less than that of ...

Lifespan Essay and Journal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Lifespan and Journal - Essay Example In working towards achieving my health and fitness goal I designed a program that adheres to Bandura’s social learning theory. In these regards, it involves his instances of implementing observational or modeling techniques. Bandura developed his social learning theory based on the famed Bobo doll experiments, wherein children were shown an image of a woman punching a bobo doll; the children then entered a room where there was a bobo doll and imitated her actions ("Albert Bandura," 2006). I attempted to incorporate modeling activities into my plan on a more complex level by participating in health and fitness programs that other individuals had participated in that have demonstrated success on their part. I then worked towards modeling their past actions in a conscious way to work towards my goal. Another element of Bandura’s social learning theory I incorporated into my quest to achieve my health and fitness goal was self-regulation. In these regards, Bandura indicates that there are three main steps: 1. Self-observation. We look at ourselves, our behavior, and keep tabs on it. 2. Judgment. We compare what we see with a standard. 3. Self-response. If you did well in comparison with your standard, you give yourself rewarding self-responses. If you did poorly, you give yourself punishing self-responses. These self-responses can range from the obvious (treating yourself to a sundae or working late) to the more covert (feelings of pride or shame) ("Albert Bandura," 2006).

(argument research paper) advertising Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

(argument ) advertising - Research Paper Example Human beings have evolved from uncivilized beings to businessmen. Evolution has affected the lifestyle of the individuals, as the evolution gradually takes place it also keep changing the lifestyle of the individuals. Therefore culture can be defined as the way of life of people. The world around us can be read according to the cultural context. There are few themes which forms the basis of advertisement. These themes are youth, luxury, fashion, beauty etc. Advertising campaigns promote the idea that the solution of the problems of people lies in their consumption pattern which is backed by various cultural aspects. Culture is a key that defines the taste of the consumers belonging to a particular region. Advertisement is used by the companies as a tool to sell the commodities which are in demand due to the influence of the cultural trends existing in a particular society. Advertisement can be defined as the mirror of culture. Culture can be associated with the success of any product. The cultural belongingness increases the emotional attachment of the customers with a particular product and influences the decision making of the consumers (Janjua). It is the significant characteristic of the culture that it changes with time. Similarly the ideas, taste and habits of people also changes with time. Rapid industrialization has contributed towards changing the aspects of people towards many things. They are now going for time and energy saving commodities. Automation has affected the culture and the life style of the people as well. In many developing countries advertisement has influenced the culture and way of living of people. Cultural aspects in underdeveloped and developing countries, such as more children for the security in old age, high population rate due to early marriages, and emphasis of bearing a male child have declined due to advertising. Advertising not merely promotes a commodity but it promotes an idea in a

Promotional Campaign of Pepsi Max Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Promotional Campaign of Pepsi Max - Essay Example This paper illustrates that PepsiCo seeks out new ways to create the strong brand image and gain the maximum possible market share by increasing their customer base. PepsiCo invests a large amount of capital in promotional and marketing communicational activities, to strengthen its brand equity, thereby creating a top of the mind brand recall among the customers. The company has adopted several unconventional promotional mediums to create an effective marketing communication that has allowed the company to create a strong awareness among the customers. The company has decided to step out of the traditional medium of communication and decided to try the internet as the primary communicational platform. The unbelievable campaign has highlighted the message of â€Å"no sugar, maximum taste† of the product Pepsi Max. This campaign is targeted at the customers who are quite conscious about their health and calorie intake. BBC has mentioned that the UK population is becoming increas ingly concerned about their health and rise in obesity. This concern has been addressed by the company and in response, the Pepsi has mentioned that the new product is capable of delivering the same great taste without compromising on the taste of the product. PepsiCo has broken the conventional belief that in order to reduce the sugar content, the taste has to be compromised. The central idea of this campaign is to target the young health-conscious customers and attracting their attention by employing certain innovative promotional activities. The promotional activities of a company are to create awareness among the customers and to strength its brand image so that the customers can have a top of the mind brand recall of that particular brand or product.   The primary objective of a promotional campaign or a marketing communication is to influence the purchase decision of the customers. Every brand prefers to attract customers to them and would want them to choose their products over that of the rival companies. This result makes it imperative for the firms to seek out for new ways to draw the attention of the target customers and influence them to buy a particular product.

Innovations in Ecommerce Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Innovations in Ecommerce - Dissertation Example Thus, realizing the business organizations’ always growing interest in the Internet, many studies and researches regarding business to customers and Internet shopping have been carried out to discover the key attributes or factors that can have influence over customers’ behaviors and decisions while shopping on the Internet. In this scenario, some of the general attributes can comprise the demographic and psychographic characteristics of customers and the quality of products or services. Basically, the e-commerce is the process of carrying out business operations using the Internet. In this scenario, this research will describe the trends of e-commerce. The basic aim of this research is to discuss the role of innovations and latest IT trends in e-commerce and how they affect the retailer and consumer. Introduction Innovations and developments in information technology have always been continued since the emergence of the Internet. In fact, most of the ways companies and people carry out their daily activities and live at the present are determined with the huge web of electronic networks that is commonly known as the Internet (Turban, Leidner, McLean, & Wetherbe, 2005). ). Additionally, the comprehensive availability of the Internet for carrying out business related tasks of the businesses, sellers and buyers is the primary reason behind the development of electronic commerce (or simply e-commerce). Actually, â€Å"electronic commerce is the method of selling and purchasing services and goods and products performed electronically by means of computerized business transactions over the Internet, networks, and other digital technologies† (Laudon & Laudon, 1999, p. 25; Stair & Reynolds, 2003, p. 19). In addition, the term ‘e-commerce’ is commonly used for all the business oper ations that are carried out over the web using a wide variety of tools and software applications that depend on the Internet, such as immediate e-mail, messaging, shopping carts, and web services, UDDI, FTP and EDI, and so many others. Moreover, electronic commerce can be performed between two businesses performing transactions, trading funds, goods, services and data or between a business and a client (Webopedia, 2012; Damanpour & Damanpour, 2001). It is an admitted fact that the Internet has turned out to be a vital part of almost every kind of business. Basically, the simple description of a business is â€Å"any activity or transaction that entails the exchange of products and services with an aim of making money or generating profits. However, if this transaction is carried out over the web it is known as e-commerce. In the past few years, the reality of e-commerce has turned into a full-blown business (Ahuja, 2011; Melissa, 2010; Pozin, 2012). Now people want to shop from hom e by using their computer with a single click and the Internet has made it possible. Now the latest tools and technologies over the Internet have made the life easier. They have provided a lot of benefits to the customers and brought numerous opportunities for the businesses. In this proposal, I am going to analyze the impact of innovations on the business. This basic aim of this research is to show how do innovations in information technologies affect the retailers and customers. Literature Review The innovations and developments in the Internet carry on growing quickly, through which both new and well-established businesses are taking benefits online. In this scenario, e-commerce has emerged as a very attractive and helpful tool. It is an admitted fact that its influences on business economy will be as important as the shift from the agricultural financial

Economic Policy of Egypt Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Economic Policy of Egypt - Essay Example Hence, in this case the economic policy of Egypt is taken up for study. Egypt is one of the most populous countries in the Arab world and the country has been undergoing many significant economic and political changes. The government of Egypt has begun the reform movement in the year 1991. The most important reform that the government has done is reducing the taxes and tariffs. The other reforms include making the national budgeting information more transparent and privatization of public enterprises. The government plans to make the private sector more empowered and hopes that these measures will increase their competitiveness. The essay attempts to highlight the challenges and the opportunities that are created through the new economic policy of the Egypt. Economic indicators show that after Egypt became more vigorously engaged in a process of structural reform to increase the role of private sector, the free market and the international trade in the economy, the country's growth performance has varied from a declining phase in the latter half of the 1980s, to acceleration through much of the 1990s, followed by another declining phase during 1999-2003. The GDP growth rate of Egypt between the period of 1960 to 2000 is as follows: During the period of 1960 till 1970 the country has low growth and the share of private sector was very low. Though the government had adopted import substitution and had introduced social services, the economic growth of the country did not take off. But the period of 1975 till 1985, the country was enjoying a high growth rate in the GDP levels and this was because of the introduction of the Open door policy and from the business created through the Suez canal. Between 1986 - 1991 there was a sharp increase in the inflation rates. The rise in inflation during that period was due to the government's expansionary monetary policy to finance the fiscal deficits which was about 15% of the GDP during that period. Also during this period the government adopted the fixed exchange rate policy which resulted in a very flourishing black market. After 1991, the government of Egypt introduced stabilization efforts and the fiscal deficit decreased from 15% to 1.3 % of GDP and the inflation has returned to single digit values. Also during this period the government adopted the privatization of the state enterprises and also free exchange rate mechanism was introduced. The level of budget surplus of Egypt was -20% in 1991 and there is a huge improvement in the budget surplus to -2% in 2003 because of the combined effect of these policies. According to a study, "between 1999 - 2003, though there was an increase in the budget the country experienced several shocks including the Luxor terrorist attack in 1997, the global financial crisis of 1997-99, and a domestic financial scandal in 1998-99. All of these events had severe repercussions for Egypt and sent the economy into a decelerating growth phase. The financial scandal, in particular, had a chilling effect on the growth of credit to the private sector. Negative shocks continued for the next few years, as witness the September 11 attack (2001) and the subsequent invasion of Iraq (2003). The Egyptian government reacted to the initial shocks by expansionary fiscal policies (clearing of arrears as a stimulus to the private sector, as well as an increase in public investment in "mega" projects), which resulted in a worsening fiscal stance. Budget deficits increased from 0.9% of

Cancer Treatment Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Cancer Treatment - Research Paper Example The choice for treatment depends on factors such as location, degree of severity, grade of tumour and the general state of the patient. In essence, the goal of cancer treatment is to remove or destroy the malignant cells without excessive damage to the body. Surgical treatment involves surgical excision of a tumour or an entire organ but the propensity of cancer cells to microscopically metastases makes it effective only in localized small cancers such as breast and prostate tumours. Radiation therapy can come in the form of radiotherapy, X-ray therapy and irradiation and uses ionizing radiation to kill cancer cells. This kind of therapy is used for the treatment of cancers of the brain, cervix, larynx, breast, lung, pancreas, skin, prostate, stomach, uterus or soft tissue sarcomas. It is also used in the treatment of leukemia and lymphoma. Chemotherapy involves the treatment of cancer with cytotoxic drugs that can have many effects specifically geared towards the elimination of cancer cells. One of the effects of the drugs is to interfere with cell division by hindering the duplication of DNA and the separation of chromosomes. The anticancer drugs travel through the bloodstream making it useful for cancers that have spread. Leukemias a nd lymphomas and cancer of the testicles can be treated with chemotherapy but breast, colorectal, lung and prostate cancer cannot be cured by chemotherapy alone. Monoclonal antibody therapy involves the administration of antibodies that bind to a protein on the surface of the cancer cells. Anti-HER2/neu antibody trastuzumab (Herceptin) and the anti-CD20 antibody rituximab are examples of this type of treatment. Immunotherapy makes use of a variety of strategies to enhance the immune system of patients. Examples of these include interferons and cytokines for renal cell carcinoma and melanoma and intravesical BCG. The most common combination of cancer treatment is surgery or radiation therapy followed by chemotherapy. There are many factors that determine the effectiveness of each method but there is increasing preference for combined modalities. This includes not only the physical uniqueness of the patient but also the socioeconomic limitations of the patient and the state which may be sponsoring the treatment. It is quite well known that cancer treatment is a financially challenging enterprise. 2.0 Research Aim The financial cost of treatment varies according to the degree of treatment required and the goal of the research to be conducted is to determine whether price differentials have an effect in morbidity and mortality in cancer treatment. To be specific, the inquiry would look into whether costlier procedures would to lead better results which would be taken as the lowering or eliminating the cancerous cells in the patient's body. 3.0 Methodology As previously mentioned, there is an increasing trend towards multidisciplinary treatment of cancer implying that there could be difficulties in comparing efficiency and effectiveness due to the overlapping of treatment. There are also many forms of cancer which further compounds the complexity of the issue. These concerns necessitate the need to define and limit the scope of the

The Importance Of Capital Gearing Finance Essay

The Importance Of Capital Gearing Finance Essay Financing and investment are two major decision areas for a company. In the financial decision, the company concerns with determining the best capital structure. There are only two ways that a business can raise money debt or equity. With the right option, the business can minimize its cost and maximize company value. Bos and Fetherston (1993) described that determining debt and equity is an important financial decision faced by companies. The relationship between debt and equity is considered as capital gearing. Hence, in this report, the gearing ratio and its influence to WACC, company value and shareholder wealth will be assessed through the two major theories. Capital Gearing Capital gearing is a term describing the relationship between debt funding and equity funding in a company (Financial Management, 2007). The simplest formula for gearing ratio = (%) For example, ABC Ltd has  £1,000 of debt and  £2,500 of total assets. Thus, capital gearing of this company is: = 40% According to NGFL Wales Business Studies (2009), a company with high gearing is the one who has most of the funding coming from borrowing. It leads to reduced profits available to shareholders because of the increase in interest rate. Moreover, if interest rate increases, the financial costs of business will also go up, thereby total costs of business will rise. However, if a company has a high gearing, it is not really a bad thing. The company may need more money for their expansion activities, taking the opportunity to invest by borrowing at low rates. By using capital from borrowing, the company can take advantage of tax shields. A company with low gearing is the one who has most of the funding coming from investment of shareholders. It proves that the company is developing through reinvestment of profits, minimizing risk (NGFL Wales Business Studies, 2009). For example, in 2009, Apple Inc had Total debt/equity also known as gearing ratio at 0% (ADVFN, 2010). However, low gearing may indicate that the company is not aggressive enough to survive, and may not be seeking opportunities for growth (Pham, 2009). Thus, according to Accounting for Management (n.d.), the importance level of capital gearing is subject to various views. Effects upon WACC, company value and shareholder wealth Debt and equity Debt and equity are the two major sources of funds for a company. So, using of debt and equity proportions are the measurement tools for capital structure. (Glen and Pinto, 1998) In fact, cost of debt is generally less expensive than cost of equity. Nemethy (2010) provided two major reasons for that. Firstly, debt is a secured loan, which may be seized by the lender when the borrower cannot payment their loans. Meanwhile, equity is an unsecured loan because the shareholder cannot seize anything, they only have the right to vote at a shareholders meeting. Thus, an unsecured loan has to a higher interest rate than a secured loan. In other words, cost of equity is expensive than cost of debt. Secondly, Nemethy (2010) said that when the company issues debt in the form of bonds, they pay interest out to their investors, this interest has to be deducted by taxation. It is also called the debt tax shield. Conversely, when the company issues equity, they pay out dividends. These dividends represent corporate income, and they are subject to double taxation: one time by corporation and another time by shareholders. Thereby, the cost of debt is less than the cost of equity. With the two major reasons above, virtually all companies prefer to use debt than equity. However, the increase of debt leads to the increase of risks because when the company borrows money, they would be dependent on the lenders. UoS (2007) stated that a highly geared company may also experience difficulties in attracting fund from investors, who are not attracted by the risks involved in a high-geared company. At that time, the market price of the companys shares will fall. So, the company should choose debt or equity, and the influence of capital gearing to WACC, company value and shareholder wealth. We will assess this problem based on the two theories. The traditional view Modigliani and Miller The traditional view The traditional view of capital structure theory, based on observation and intuition, suggests that an optimum capital structure exists (Cornelius, 2002). In other words, the capital structure of a company has effected on the cost of capital. The more debt in the capital structure of a company, the lower of WACC is. The weighted-average cost of capital (WACC) represents the overall cost of capital for a company, incorporating the costs of equity, debt and preference share capital, weighted according to the proportion of each source of finance within the business (Cornelius, 2002). The formula to calculate WACC: WACC = [ x ] + [ x ] For example, a company has an issued share capital of 1,000 ordinary  £1 shares. The company wants to buy two machines with the price of a machine as  £1,000. As mentioned above, cost of debt is generally less expensive than cost of equity, so, we can assume that cost of debt = 15% and cost of equity = 20%. To buy two machines, the company needs to have  £1,000 for the second machine. There are two options for the company. Option 1: Issuing share (ungeared company) It means that the company will have 2,000 shares in total with  £1 per share. â‚ ¬Ã‚ ¢ Total equity = 2,000 x  £1 =  £2,000 = Total assets = 0% = 20% x = 20% Option 2: Borrowing (geared company) In this option, the company has  £1,000 from initial issuing shares and  £1,000 from borrowing with 15% of interest. â‚ ¬Ã‚ ¢ Total debt = Total equity =  £1,000 Total assets = Total debt + Total equity = 1,000 + 1,000 =  £2,000 = = 0.5 or 50% = [15% x ] + [20% x ] = 0.075 + 0.1 = 0.175 or 17.5% It is clear that when the gearing capital of a company increases, its WACC will decrease. According to Watson and Head (2006), the market value of a company is equal to the present value of its future cash flows discounted by its WACC. Market value of a company = Thus, when WACC of the company decreases, assuming that other factors are constant, the market value of the company increases, in other words, the company value and shareholder wealth increase. The traditional view is usually represented as follows. According to UoS (2007), from all equity financing, WACC first declines because debt financing is cheaper. At higher level of debt (beyond X), cost of equity increases because of higher risks out weights the advantage of cheaper debt financing. Hence after X, the WACC will rise. X will be the optimal debt ratio, where the company will minimize its cost of capital and the company value is maximized. In conclusion, gearing capital is very important because it effects to WACC, company value and shareholder wealth of a company. Modigliani and Miller view In 1958, American academics France Modigliani and Merton Miller (MM), presented a radically different view of capital structure theory. They demonstrated that two companies with identical investments would have the same value, regardless of their gearing capital (Cornelius, 2002). As a result, there is no optimal capital structure for a company. MMs propositions can be presented as follows. MMs proposition (without tax) UoS (2007, p.274) argued that with the same size and the same level of business risks of two companies: one company was ungeared company, another one was geared company. The value of an ungeared company equals value of equity in an identical geared company plus value of borrowings in an identical geared company. Therefore, the only factors that influence the value of a company are risk and return. Returns required by shareholders as reward for risk, , will increase at a constant rate as gearing increases due to the perceived increased financial risk. The rising would exactly offset the benefit of the additional cheaper debt in order for the WACC to remain constant. Lenders have security for their debt so they will not feel at risk whatever the level of gearing; therefore, is constant (ACCA F9 Financial Management: Study Text, 2009). This can be shown as a graph. The WACC, the total value of the company and shareholder wealth are constant and unaffected by gearing levels. No optimal capital structure exists. For instance, there are two companies with the same size and the same level of business risk: one company was ungeared company, another one was geared company. One machine got back  £200 profit yearly. The data of the two companies as follows. Ungeared Company Geared Company Share capital  £1,000  £1,000 Debt  £1,000 Machines 1 2 EPS at  £200 profit level 0.20p 0.25p If the investor in an ungeared company borrows  £1,000 at 15% interest, after buying the second machine, that company has the profit =  £200 x 2 =  £400. â‚ ¬Ã‚ ¢ EPS = = 0.4 p After receiving dividends from ungeared company, that investor has to pay interest for the lender with 15% interest per  £1. Hence, the actual return that investor can receive = 0.4 [15% x 1] = 0.25 p. This is the same return as that expected by shareholder in geared company and it had been created entirely by the ungeared shareholder. Therefore, in this proposition, capital gearing does not effect to the WACC, company value and shareholder wealth. MMs proposition (with tax) Because interest is tax-deductible, the use of debt finance gives rise to a tax saving (Cornelius, 2002). In 1963, MM developed a second version to take account of taxation. MM argued that the value of a geared company was the value of ungeared company plus the present value of any tax shield generated by using debt finance. = + T With:: The value of geared company : The value of ungeared company : The market value of debt T: Corporate tax rate With tax, MM view can be represented as below. According to ACCA F9FM (2009, p.1111), remains constant whatever the level of gearing. Likely as MMs proposition without tax, increases as gearing levels increase to reflect additional perceived financial risk. Because interest on debt is tax-deductible, WACC will fall when gearing increases. And: = x [1 ] = + (1 T) ( ) : cost of equity in an ungeared company : cost of equity in a geared company : cost of debt , : market value of debt and equity in the geared company T: corporate tax rate For example, considering two companies, one ungeared and another geared, both of the same size and level of business risk. Ungeared Company Geared Company  £  £ EBIT 1,000 1,000 Interest (200) PBT 1,000 800 Corporation Tax @25% (250) (200) Dividends 750 600 Returns to the investors Equity 750 600 Debt 200 750 800 Suppose that the business risk of the two companies requires a return of 10% and the return required by the debt holders in geared company is 5%, locking at the table above, tax relief on debt interest (also known as tax shield) in geared company = 800 750 =  £50 For ungeared company Market value of ungeared company will be the market value of equity. It will be the dividend capitalized at the equity holders required rate of return. = 750/0.1 =  £7,500 = 10% For geared company Market value of the equity of geared company is determined by the equity shareholders analysis of their net operating income into its constituent parts and the capitalization of those elements at appropriate rates = [ ] = ] =  £4,500 Market value of debt is determined by the debt holders capitalizing their interest at their required rate of return. = =  £4,000 â‚ ¬Ã‚ ¢ Total market value of geared company = 4,500 + 4,000 =  £8,500 According to MMs proposition with tax, it has: = + T = 7,500 + (4,000 x 25%) =  £8,500 Cost of equity in a geared company: = = = 13.33% = 5% x (1 25%) = 3.75% â‚ ¬Ã‚ ¢ = 13.33% x + 3.75% x = 8.82% According to MMs proposition: = x [1 ] = 10% x [1 ] = 8.82% And = + (1 T) ( ) = 10% + (1 25%) (10% 5%) (4,000/4,500) = 13.33% as per the dividend valuation model above. Thus, under MM theory with tax, there is an optimal gearing level at 100% debt in the capital structure. This is not true in practice because companies do not gear up to 100%. In his research, Cornelius (2002) argued that, in the real world, companies do not raise their gearing ratios to such extreme levels because the high levels of gearing may lead to higher risk of liquidation. Hence, for this proposition, there is no optimal gearing structure, in other words, WACC, company value and shareholder wealth do not depend on the level of capital gearing. The drawback of the two theories According to UoS (2007), both of the two theories may seem to be based on unrealistic assumptions. For traditional view, they ignored taxation, companies have complete choice between debt equity finance, and can change this decision quickly and without cost. It is impossible in the real world. The company could change their decision but it has cost and not quickly. For MM, it was built with assumptions that no transaction costs and individuals or corporations can borrow money at the same rate. In fact, individuals and companies cannot borrow at the same rate, since companies usually have a higher credit rating. Therefore, personal debt usually costs more than corporate debt and is riskier. Moreover, the theory does not mention the issue of bankruptcy costs and other agency costs, as well as personal income tax. Conclusion In conclusion, according to traditional view, gearing capital is very important because the changing of gear may lead to changes of WACC as well as company value and shareholder wealth. If gearing capital increases, WACC will fall. It leads to the increase of profits, in other words, company value will increases. Theoretically, there is an optimal capital structure, in which, the company will minimize its cost of capital and the company value is maximized. In fact, it hasnt found an optimal capital structure yet. Conversely, based on MM theory, it argued that the two companies with the same size and the same level of business risk would have the same value. It does not depend on their gearing. In other words, the level of capital gearing is not quite important for WACC, company value and shareholder wealth. Part B: Explain then critically compare and contrast two investment appraisal techniques indicating their merits and limitations in aiding the sound financial management of a company Introduction Nowadays, investing is very important for a company to survive. According to UoS (2007, p.63) an investment involves the outflow of cash at a point in time in order to obtain benefits in the future. Companies make these investment decisions in order to increase the value of the firm and maximizing shareholders wealth. However, funds are limited, thereby, companies cannot invest in all projects, they must choose between alternative investments. There are four commonly techniques for appraising capital investment projects. Payback Accounting rate of return (ARR) Net present value (NPV) also known as Discounted Cash Flow or DCF Internal rate of return (IRR) also known as Discounted Cash Flow technique In this report, we will look at payback and NPV as two investment appraisal techniques to find out how they can inform future projects, their merits and limitations, and which technique the company would prefer. Explanation of two investment appraisal techniques Payback Payback is the number of years required to recover the original cash flow outlay investment in a project (Brealey, Myers and Marcus, 2001). If the cash flows are constant, the formula is: Payback period = If the cash flows are not constant, the calculation must be in cumulative form. The payback is a commonly used method of evaluating investment proposals. Among alternative investments, the company should decide to invest in the project which payback period is shorter, in other words, this is a project which can recover the initial investment quicker (Ross et al., 2007). For example, ABC Ltd has two projects A and B which cash flows as follows. Year Cash flows from Project A ( £) Cash flows from Project B ( £) 0 (100,000) (100,000) 1 10,000 20,000 2 30,000 20,000 3 40,000 30,000 4 20,000 20,000 5 30,000 50,000 Using cumulative form, we have: Year Cash flows from Project A ( £) Cumulative ( £) Cash flows from Project B ( £) Cumulative ( £) 0 (100,000) (100,000) 1 10,000 (90,000) 20,000 (80,000) 2 30,000 (60,000) 20,000 (60,000) 3 40,000 (20,000) 30,000 (30,000) 4 20,000 0 20,000 (10,000) 5 30,000 30,000 50,000 40,000 It is clearly that after 4 years, project A has recovered all original investment and it will begin making the profit for the company from the firth year, so payback period of project A is 4 years. As for project B, after 5 years, the original investment has recovered and it also generates  £40,000 of profits, so the payback period of this project is: Payback period of project B = 4 + = 4.2 years Thus, following the rule of payback period method, ABC Ltd should invest into project A because payback period of project A is shorter than project B. It means that the company can recover the original investment quicker if they decide to invest into project A. Net present value (NPV) Based on Professional Management Education (2010), The net present value (NPV) method is the classic economic method of evaluating the investment proposals. It is discounted cash flow technique that explicitly recognizes the time value of money. It correctly postulates that cash flows arising at different time periods differ in value and are comparable only when their equivalents present values are found out. The formula to calculate NPV is: NPV = Initial Investment + = Initial Investment + With r is the rate of interest It should be made clear that the acceptance rule using the net present value (NPV) method is to accept the investment project if NPV is positive, to reject it if NPV is negative and consider accepting the project when NPV is zero. For instance, using the same data with example above, in additional, the original proposal of ABC Ltd uses a discount rate of 10%. Using discounted cash flow technique to the present value, we have: Year Cash flows from Project A ( £) Present value ( £) Cash flows from Project B ( £) Present value ( £) 0 (100,000) (100,000) (100,000) (100,000) 1 10,000 9,091 20,000 18,182 2 30,000 24,793 20,000 16,529 3 40,000 30,052 30,000 22,539 4 20,000 13,660 20,000 13,660 5 30,000 18,628 50,000 31,046 NPV NPV (A) = -3,776 NPV (B) = 1,956 > 0 Because NPV of project A is negative and that of project B is positive, in accordance with the acceptance rule, ABC Ltd should choose project B to invest because this project will bring more profits. Analyzing of two investment appraisal techniques Compare and contrast In every company, payback period and NPV are very important to evaluate the value of a proposed project before investing on it. Both of two investment appraisal techniques can measure the sustainability and value of long-term projects. From that, the company can make sound financial decisions. (DifferenceBetween.net, 2010) Regarding calculate technique, payback period is used to calculate a period within which the initial investment of a project is recovered (UoS, 2007). It is equal to the initial net investment divided by annual expected cash flows. For example, a company wants to invest  £10,000 in a new project and they expect to have annual cash flows of  £2,000, so the payback period of this project will be = 10,000/2,000 = 5 years. The shorter the payback period, the better investment is. A long payback period means that the investment will be locked up for a long time, thereby this project is relatively ineffective. Meanwhile, net present value (NPV) uses the time value of money to appraise long-term projects. According to UoS (2007), NPV uses the opportunity cost of capital to discount the flows of cash in and out, over the life of a project to give their value at the present day. NPV method focuses on the present value (PV) because NPV equates to the sum of present values of individual cash flows. For example, a project invests  £1,000 and it will bring cash flows of  £2,000 in the next year, so PV of  £2,000 = 2000/(1+0.1) =  £1,818 with discount rate of 10%. Thus, the NPV of this project = -1000 + 1,818 =  £818. When choosing between alternative investments, NPV can help to define the project with highest present value, and also apply the acceptance rule of NPV, if NPV>0 accept the investment, if NPV Ross et al. (2007) stated that NPV method removes the time element in weighing alternative investment, while payback period focuses on the time required to recover the initial investment. From that, payback period method does not assess the time value of cash, inflation, financial risks, etc. as opposed to NPV, which measures the investments profitability. In addition, although payback period method indicates the acceptable period of investment, it does not take into account what will happen after the payback period and their impact on total incomes of this project. But it is contrary to NPV. Thereby, NPV will provide better decisions than payback when the company makes capital investments. In fact, companies use more often NPV than payback period method. Merits and limitations Merits The most significant merit of payback period is that it is simple to understand and easy to calculate than other appraisal investment techniques (UoS, 2007). Comparing with NPV method, payback method uses fewer costs and less analysts time than NPV. For this method, an investor can have more favorable short term effects on earnings per share by setting up a shorter standard payback period. Professional Management Education (2010) believed that payback period can control investment risks because the longer it takes to recover the initial investment, the more uncertainties there will be during the recovery period. In addition, payback method focuses on the time to recover of the initial investment, so it gives an insight into the liquidity of the project. The shorter payback period, the higher liquidity is. On the other hand, Brealey et al. (2001) stated that NPV is more accurate and efficient as it uses cash flow, not earnings and results in investment decisions that add value. By discounting the flows, NPV can create the comparison between alternative investments, and then, making right capital decisions. NPV method is always consistent with the long-term objective of the shareholder value maximization. We can say that this is the greatest merit of this method. Limitations Payback Consider XYZ Ltd with two projects A and B. It has the same three years payback period, whose flows are as follows. Year Cash flows from Project A ( £) Cumulative ( £) Cash flows from Project B ( £) Cumulative ( £) 0 (100,000) (100,000) (100,000) (100,000) 1 20,000 (80,000) 50,000 (50,000) 2 30,000 (50,000) 30,000 (20,000) 3 50,000 0 20,000 0 4 30,000 30,000 100,000 100,000 Payback Period (Year) 3 3 Ross et al. (2007) stated that the first limitation of payback method is the timing of cash flows within the payback period. Looking at the table above, from year 1 to year 3, the cash flows of project A increase from  £20,000 to  £50,000, while the cash flows of project B decrease from  £50,000 to  £20,000. Because the large cash flow of  £50,000 comes earlier with project B, its NPV must be higher. However, as mentioned above, the payback periods of the two projects are identical. Thus, the problem with the payback period is that it does not consider the timing of the cash flows within payback period. It also shows that the payback method is inferior to NPV because NPV method discounts the cash flows properly. The second limitation is payment after the payback period (Ross et al., 2007). Lets consider projects A and B in the same three years payback period, project B is clearly preferred because it has a cash flow of  £100,000 in the fourth year. Thus, a problem here is that payback method ignores all cash flows occurring after the payback period. For the short-term orientation of the payback method, some valuable long-term projects may be rejected. NPV method does not encounter this problem because this method uses all the cash flows of the project. Because of the first two limitations, the payback method cannot maximize shareholders wealth. According to UoS (2007), the payback period method ignores inflation and discriminates against large capital-intensive infrastructure projects with long times, because it only focuses on the earliest time to recover the initial investment. Net present value (NPV) NPV is the true measure of an investments profitability. But, in practice, it still has some problems. The first limitation of NPV method is cash flow estimation (Professional Management Education, 2010). The NPV method is easy to use if forecasted cash flows are known. However, it is quite difficult to obtain the estimates of cash flows due to uncertainty. The second limitation of NPV is unrealistic assumptions (UoS, 2007). Under NPV method, there is a single market rate of interest for both borrowing lending and an individual can borrow or lend any amount of money at that rate. It is unrealistic, in practice, the interest rate for borrowing and lending is different and everyone has to follow the interest rate for each kind. For example, for Vietnam market in 2011, the interest rate for borrowing at 9% and for lending at 17% per year (Trading Economics, 2012). NPV also ignores transaction costs or taxes. Conclusion In a survey carried out by Graham and Harvey (2001), it was found that 74.9% of respondent companies use net present value (NPV) and 56.7% use payback period method when they appraise the investment projects. It means that in fact, NPV method is used more than payback period method. Techniques % Always or Almost Always Internal Rate of Return (IRR) 75.6 Net present value (NPV) 74.9 Payback period 56.7 Accounting rate of return 30.3 Source: Graham and Harvey, The theory and practice of corporate finance: Evidence from the Field, Journal of Financial Economics 60 (2001), based on a survey of 392 CFOs According to the survey of Graham Harvey (2001) and Sandahl (2003), payback period method is often used in small size companies. The major reason for this can be that payback period method is more simple, cheaper and easier to calculate. Small companies are only interested in the shortest time to recover initial investment because they often lack the source for fund. Moreover, the complexity of the other investment appraisal methods is always a barrier for the small company. However, net present value (NPV) is often used in medium and large size companies (Graham and Harvey, 2001). The major reason for this can be that these companies are interested in the profitability and time value of money than the payback period. They have the source of funds and consider maximizing shareholders wealth as their long-term objective.

Praising And Providing Honest Appraisal English Language Essay

Praising And Providing Honest Appraisal English Language Essay According to Collins English Gem Dictionary, a criticism is a skilled in, or finding fault act whereas praising is an act that expresses approval, admiration of, glorifying and giving commendation. For example, live shows such as American Idol and Americans got talent, where the participants will be judged and evaluated by the judges. The comments may be fair or biased and hurtful. Criticizing someone does not necessarily have to be viewed as something negative because a criticism is given in order to help others to improve themselves or whatever they are lack of. These are positive criticisms that will lead to positive outcomes. However, there are also negative criticisms. These are the kinds of criticisms that are detrimental to an individuals self-esteem. People who are always giving negative criticisms to others should be avoided. Appraisal on the other hand is used in the same sense as the word praise, which means an action that expresses warm approbation of, commend the merits of, glorify and extol the attributes of something or someone (The Concise Oxford Dictionary Of Current English, 1951). We give praises to someone when we agree or enjoy the persons actions. For example, we praise someone when he or she has given an inspiring and awesome speech which has succeeded to move the hearts of others. We praise others when we like them or look up to them due to the qualities that we admire. However, the praises expressed are not always sincere and honest. The praises that are given by others may be false and are actually in the form of sarcasms, ironically. For example, if someone says You have the shape of a pear, he or she might be praising you for the sexy body shape that you have, but it might be also a kind of sarcasm as well which refers to the fat of your body. Providing honest appraisal is quite similar to the act of praising, but it is definitely an honest appraisal. Providing honest appraisal is healthy because it comes straight from the thoughts and feelings. We provide honest appraisal when we sincerely wish to give someone appraisal because we think they deserve our honest appraisal. Our honest appraisal will help to boost the confidence of others and help us not to be biased toward others. 2. Meanings are in people, not in words. Explain this statement. According to Brian Paltridge in his book Discourse Analysis, people do things or perform communication acts in order to achieve their communication goals. Usually people meant what they say, not semantically, literally and not only on surface but every words uttered have its own meaning depends on the situation that they are in and to whom they referred to. For instant, a person who is a driver will understand if someone gives him direction by saying Take 12 oclock after you reach the roundabout. However, other people might get the message wrong if they are in a different situation or they dont know what those words meant. They will assume that Take 12 oclock as the time on the clock or watch. This shows that meaning is in people and not in words. It is also depends on the situation and people who are involve in the context. It is the same when you talk, share information, or story with someone. If your friend tells you about his or her problem, that person will aspect you to listen, paying attention, understand, and show support. During this time, it is important for you to try and get what your friend is saying and try to understand what he or she meant by what the person said. If you have any doubt or seek confirmation, you should rephrase and ask question for confirmation and clarification. Indirectly, you will help your friend understands the problem better and come out with solution by himself. Other than that, words can be very powerful and change peoples life. For example, the words I love you can create a strange and wonderful feeling in your heart toward somebody who feel that you are special in his or her life. It also can change your life in a split second. We should pay attention with the interaction that we make with people around us especially those who are important in our life. It urges us to learn to understand the deeper message relies beneath those words, appreciate it, and how it becomes meaningful to their users. 3. Say what you understand by sexist language and racist language. Why are these forms of speech practice considered offensive in each case? How can we avoid these barriers to effective speech? Sexist language is using language in a way that excludes either men or women when discussing a topic when actually that is meant to include people from both sexes. For instance, the statement Each student chose his own topic for his term paper, leads the reader to assume that all the students in the class were male, despite the probability that half of them were female. Therefore, sexist language is gender bias in using languages. It can occur either consciously or unconsciously. When unconscious, the gender bias in language can be considered to be the product of society: the repetition of sexist behavior and terms used by other people in their speech practice causes the speaker unconsciously produces his or her own sexist language where men are the norm and women the other. Sexist language offends people when they find themselves excluded. If you are using language that is offensive to half of your audience, you will not get your message across. People will not be receptive to your arguments if they are aggrieved by your use of exclusively masculine pronouns. Moreover, sexist language encourages discrimination and can discourage people from pursuing their dreams. In order to avoid these barriers, some strategies have to be taken to achieve effective speech. Firstly, the generic man in common terms includes man, mankind, and caveman are the most commonly used gendered nouns, so avoiding the confusion they bring by using humanity or the human race when you are referring to all people or use person instead of man when referring of a single hypothetical individual. Secondly, avoid gendered pronouns and possessive adjectives like generic he and his by making them plural and use plural pronoun they. Thirdly, sex role stereotypes should be avoided by using genderless titles whenever possible, such as flight attendant instead of stewardess, fire-fighter instead of fireman, and homemaker instead of housewife and avoid adding gender markers to genderless titles, such as male nurse; use the genderless title alone (i.e., nurse). It goes the same for racist language which most of the time are used to hurt other people who are different, in terms of their races. It may cause a lot of negative effects in every single way of its application no matter in what context it is been used. Taking Malaysia as an example, unity is one of the factors why all of us can live peacefully in a country which consist of many different races and not to mention being proud of it. Malaysia once faced racist issue and the last time it happened, thousands of people died in the tragedy and it shows how dangerous it can be when were dealing with racist issue. The point is, there is no particular race is better than the others, as long we are willing to work hard, and everyone could achieve the same success. Whether they (racist and sexist languages) are used on purpose or blindly, it is a form of abuse or bullying and I think we can all do well to watch what words escape our lips, just in case we are repeating things weve always repeated without even knowing that they may be hurting someone. On the other hand, one way to avoid these kinds of languages is always remember than we are not better than anyone else and everybody should be treated equally. By this way, we wont have any prejudice among other races or the opposite gender and of course we will make the world to better place to live.

Free Death Penalty Essays: Religious Perspectives of Capital Punishment :: Argumentative Persuasive Topics

Religious Perspectives on Capital Punishment    Travelling around the world, this paper presents the various religious perspectives evidenced in recent actions taken regarding the death penalty.    In St. Lucia, regional Roman Catholic Bishops, at the Antilles Episcopal Conference held as part of the Antilles Eucharist Congress held in St Lucia in May, publicly stated their wish to see the abolition of the death penalty. The president of the conference, Edgerton Clarke, Archbishop of Kingston, Jamaica, said that while he and his colleagues were mindful of the support for capital punishment in the region they saw life as being of tremendous value, and hoped for the abolition of the death penalty. Capital punishment was one of several issues discussed at the Episcopal Conference which is a forum through which Caribbean bishops examine what is happening in the church and society. The Congress was attended by some 20,000 Catholics from the regional and international community.    In Italy, at a papal mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II at Rome's Regina Coeli Prison on 9 July, prayers were offered for prisoners on death row who were awaiting the end of their existence, and for those kept in inhuman conditions. ''May the death penalty, an unworthy punishment still used in some countries, be abolished throughout the world'' the Pope said.    During the year 2000, the Jubilee Year of the Roman Catholic Church, the Coliseum in Rome has been lit up with a bright white light every time a country abolished the death penalty or announced a moratorium on executions. It was also illuminated if a death sentence was commuted or a prisoner sentenced to death was found to be innocent and released.    In the Russian Federation, meeting in Moscow, the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church on 16 August called for an end to the death penalty. The church gave as its reasons for opposing the death penalty the fact that it can make a judicial error irreparable and also because the penalty causes controversy in society.    In the USA, in February the pastor of the White House, the Reverend Philip Wogaman, senior minister at Washington's Foundry Methodist Church, called for a review of the death penalty, adding his voice to those concerned that innocent people have been condemned and that sentencing is prone to racial bias.    ``Maybe there are circumstances in which historically one can justify this.

Why did Virgil Want to Burn The Aeneid? :: History Historical Papers

Why did Virgil Want to Burn The Aeneid? Publius Vergilis Maro, known to us as Virgil, was born Oct 15, 70 BC in Northern Italy. Octavius, who had always been a friend of Virgil, became Emperor in 27 BC, adopting the name of Augustus. He made Virgil in a sense, a court poet, "although [Virgil] always retained his independence of thought and expression" (Milch 7). However it was the Emperor's initial idea, and not Virgil's own, for him to write the Aeneid. Virgil accepted the project although he later wrote that "he thought he must have been just about mad to attempt the task" (Quinn 73). In the end, after working on the project for eleven years, Virgil thought he had failed in the attempt. He planned a three year trip to Greece and Asia to try to fix what he thought was wrong with the Aeneid. But he died before he could finish, and on his deathbed Virgil asked for the manuscript to be burned. It is puzzling that the author of such a masterpiece, hailed by many as the best piece of literature ever written, and certainly one of the most influential, could look upon his work this way. Not just that it hadn't lived up to his expectations, but that it was bad enough that it should be burned. It doesn't seem to me that Virgil would have asked this simply because he didn't want people to read his work unless it was perfect. He must have thought that there was something actually dangerous about the Aeneid in its present form. In order to try to guess why Virgil believed the Aeneid to be such a failure, it is important to first be familiar with what Virgil was trying to accomplish with the story. Augustus wanted it to be an epic which glorified Rome and ultimately himself. Virgil himself had a passion for Italy and the peace, order, and security that could come as a result of the Augustan age. He had grown up in the midst of civil war and experienced first hand the pain and suffering that it caused. Uniting all Italy under one rule would put an end to civil war and this was Augustus' plan. So in that sense Virgil shared Augustus' vision and was an ideal choice to write the epic. But Virgil also had a deep hatred for all wars and battles, a sentiment which is hinted at in the text of the Aeneid many times.