A Game of Thrones Chapter Sixty-four

Daenerys The flies circled Khal Drogo slowly, their wings buzzing, a low thrum at the edge of hearing that filled Dany with dread. The sun was high and pitiless. Heat shimmered in waves off the stony outcrops of low hills. A thin finger of sweat trickled slowly between Dany's swollen breasts. The only sounds were the steady clop of their horses' hooves, the rhythmic tingle of the bells in Drogo's hair, and the distant voices behind them. Dany watched the flies. They were as large as bees, gross, purplish, glistening. The Dothraki called them bloodflies. They lived in marshes and stagnant pools, sucked blood from man and horse alike, and laid their eggs in the dead and dying. Drogo hated them. Whenever one came near him, his hand would shoot out quick as a striking snake to close around it. She had never seen him miss. He would hold the fly inside his huge fist long enough to hear its frantic buzzing. Then his fingers would tighten, and when he opened his hand again, the fly would be only a red smear on his palm. Now one crept across the rump of his stallion, and the horse gave an angry flick of its tail to brush it away. The others flitted about Drogo, closer and closer. The khal did not react. His eyes were fixed on distant brown hills, the reins loose in his hands. Beneath his painted vest, a plaster of fig leaves and caked blue mud covered the wound on his breast. The herbwomen had made it for him. Mirri Maz Duur's poultice had itched and burned, and he had torn it off six days ago, cursing her for a maegi. The mud plaster was more soothing, and the herbwomen made him poppy wine as well. He'd been drinking it heavily these past three days; when it was not poppy wine, it was fermented mare's milk or pepper beer. Yet he scarcely touched his food, and he thrashed and groaned in the night. Dany could see how drawn his face had become. Rhaego was restless in her belly, kicking like a stallion, yet even that did not stir Drogo's interest as it had. Every morning her eyes found fresh lines of pain on his face when he woke from his troubled sleep. And now this silence. It was making her afraid. Since they had mounted up at dawn, he had said not a word. When she spoke, she got no answer but a grunt, and not even that much since midday. One of the bloodflies landed on the bare skin of the khal's shoulder. Another, circling, touched down on his neck and crept up toward his mouth. Khal Drogo swayed in the saddle, bells ringing, as his stallion kept onward at a steady walking pace. Dany pressed her heels into her silver and rode closer. â€Å"My lord,† she said softly. â€Å"Drogo. My sun-and-stars.† He did not seem to hear. The bloodfly crawled up under his drooping mustache and settled on his cheek, in the crease beside his nose. Dany gasped, â€Å"Drogo.† Clumsily she reached over and touched his arm. Khal Drogo reeled in the saddle, tilted slowly, and fell heavily from his horse. The flies scattered for a heartbeat, and then circled back to settle on him where he lay. â€Å"No,† Dany said, reining up. Heedless of her belly for once, she scrambled off her silver and ran to him. The grass beneath him was brown and dry. Drogo cried out in pain as Dany knelt beside him. His breath rattled harshly in his throat, and he looked at her without recognition. â€Å"My horse,† he gasped. Dany brushed the flies off his chest, smashing one as he would have. His skin burned beneath her fingers. The khal's bloodriders had been following just behind them. She heard Haggo shout as they galloped up. Cohollo vaulted from his horse. â€Å"Blood of my blood,† he said as he dropped to his knees. The other two kept to their mounts. â€Å"No,† Khal Drogo groaned, struggling in Dany's arms. â€Å"Must ride. Ride. No.† â€Å"He fell from his horse,† Haggo said, staring down. His broad face was impassive, but his voice was leaden. â€Å"You must not say that,† Dany told him. â€Å"We have ridden far enough today. We will camp here.† â€Å"Here?† Haggo looked around them. The land was brown and sere, inhospitable. â€Å"This is no camping ground.† â€Å"It is not for a woman to bid us halt,† said Qotho, â€Å"not even a khaleesi.† â€Å"We camp here,† Dany repeated. â€Å"Haggo, tell them Khal Drogo commanded the halt. If any ask why, say to them that my time is near and I could not continue. Cohollo, bring up the slaves, they must put up the khal's tent at once. Qotho—† â€Å"You do not command me, Khaleesi,† Qotho said. â€Å"Find Mirri Maz Duur,† she told him. The godswife would be walking among the other Lamb Men, in the long column of slaves. â€Å"Bring her to me, with her chest.† Qotho glared down at her, his eyes hard as flint. â€Å"The maegi.† He spat. â€Å"This I will not do.† â€Å"You will,† Dany said, â€Å"or when Drogo wakes, he will hear why you defied me.† Furious, Qotho wheeled his stallion around and galloped off in anger . . . but Dany knew he would return with Mirri Maz Duur, however little he might like it. The slaves erected Khal Drogo's tent beneath a jagged outcrop of black rock whose shadow gave some relief from the heat of the afternoon sun. Even so, it was stifling under the sandsilk as Irri and Doreah helped Dany walk Drogo inside. Thick patterned carpets had been laid down over the ground, and pillows scattered in the corners. Eroeh, the timid girl Dany had rescued outside the mud walls of the Lamb Men, set up a brazier. They stretched Drogo out on a woven mat. â€Å"No,† he muttered in the Common Tongue. â€Å"No, no.† It was all he said, all he seemed capable of saying. Doreah unhooked his medallion belt and stripped off his vest and leggings, while Jhiqui knelt by his feet to undo the laces of his riding sandals. Irri wanted to leave the tent flaps open to let in the breeze, but Dany forbade it. She would not have any see Drogo this way, in delirium and weakness. When her khas came up, she posted them outside at guard. â€Å"Admit no one without my leave,† she told Jhogo. â€Å"No one.† Eroeh stared fearfully at Drogo where he lay. â€Å"He dies,† she whispered. Dany slapped her. â€Å"The khal cannot die. He is the father of the stallion who mounts the world. His hair has never been cut. He still wears the bells his father gave him.† â€Å"Khaleesi, † Jhiqui said, â€Å"he fell from his horse.† Trembling, her eyes full of sudden tears, Dany turned away from them. He fell from his horse! It was so, she had seen it, and the bloodriders, and no doubt her handmaids and the men of her khas as well. And how many more? They could not keep it secret, and Dany knew what that meant. A khal who could not ride could not rule, and Drogo had fallen from his horse. â€Å"We must bathe him,† she said stubbornly. She must not allow herself to despair. â€Å"Irri, have the tub brought at once. Doreah, Eroeh, find water, cool water, he's so hot.† He was a fire in human skin. The slaves set up the heavy copper tub in the corner of the tent. When Doreah brought the first jar of water, Dany wet a length of silk to lay across Drogo's brow, over the burning skin. His eyes looked at her, but he did not see. When his lips opened, no words escaped them, only a moan. â€Å"Where is Mirri Maz Duur?† she demanded, her patience rubbed raw with fear. â€Å"Qotho will find her,† Irri said. Her handmaids filled the tub with tepid water that stank of sulfur, sweetening it with jars of bitter oil and handfuls of crushed mint leaves. While the bath was being prepared, Dany knelt awkwardly beside her lord husband, her belly great with their child within. She undid his braid with anxious fingers, as she had on the night he'd taken her for the first time, beneath the stars. His bells she laid aside carefully, one by one. He would want them again when he was well, she told herself. A breath of air entered the tent as Aggo poked his head through the silk. â€Å"Khaleesi, † he said, â€Å"the Andal is come, and begs leave to enter.† â€Å"The Andal† was what the Dothraki called Ser Jorah. â€Å"Yes,† she said, rising clumsily, â€Å"send him in.† She trusted the knight. He would know what to do if anyone did. Ser Jorah Mormont ducked through the door flap and waited a moment for his eyes to adjust to the dimness. In the fierce heat of the south, he wore loose trousers of mottled sandsilk and open-toed riding sandals that laced up to his knee. His scabbard hung from a twisted horsehair belt. Under a bleached white vest, he was bare-chested, skin reddened by the sun. â€Å"Talk goes from mouth to ear, all over the khalasar,† he said. â€Å"It is said Khal Drogo fell from his horse.† â€Å"Help him,† Dany pleaded. â€Å"For the love you say you bear me, help him now.† The knight knelt beside her. He looked at Drogo long and hard, and then at Dany. â€Å"Send your maids away.† Wordlessly, her throat tight with fear, Dany made a gesture. Irri herded the other girls from the tent. When they were alone, Ser Jorah drew his dagger. Deftly, with a delicacy surprising in such a big man, he began to scrape away the black leaves and dried blue mud from Drogo's chest. The plaster had caked hard as the mud walls of the Lamb Men, and like those walls it cracked easily. Ser Jorah broke the dry mud with his knife, pried the chunks from the flesh, peeled off the leaves one by one. A foul, sweet smell rose from the wound, so thick it almost choked her. The leaves were crusted with blood and pus, Drogo's breast black and glistening with corruption. â€Å"No,† Dany whispered as tears ran down her cheeks. â€Å"No, please, gods hear me, no.† Khal Drogo thrashed, fighting some unseen enemy. Black blood ran slow and thick from his open wound. â€Å"Your khal is good as dead, Princess.† â€Å"No, he can't die, he mustn't, it was only a cut.† Dany took his large callused hand in her own small ones, and held it tight between them. â€Å"I will not let him die . . . â€Å" Ser Jorah gave a bitter laugh. â€Å"Khaleesi or queen, that command is beyond your power. Save your tears, child. Weep for him tomorrow, or a year from now. We do not have time for grief. We must go, and quickly, before he dies.† Dany was lost. â€Å"Go? Where should we go?† â€Å"Asshai, I would say. It lies far to the south, at the end of the known world, yet men say it is a great port. We will find a ship to take us back to Pentos. It will be a hard journey, make no mistake. Do you trust your khas? Will they come with us?† â€Å"Khal Drogo commanded them to keep me safe,† Dany replied uncertainly, â€Å"but if he dies . . . † She touched the swell of her belly. â€Å"I don't understand. Why should we flee? I am khaleesi. I carry Drogo's heir. He will be khal after Drogo . . . â€Å" Ser Jorah frowned. â€Å"Princess, hear me. The Dothraki will not follow a suckling babe. Drogo's strength was what they bowed to, and only that. When he is gone, Jhaqo and Pono and the other kos will fight for his place, and this khalasar will devour itself. The winner will want no more rivals. The boy will be taken from your breast the moment he is born. They will give him to the dogs . . . â€Å" Dany hugged herself. â€Å"But why?† she cried plaintively. â€Å"Why should they kill a little baby?† â€Å"He is Drogo's son, and the crones say he will be the stallion who mounts the world. It was prophesied. Better to kill the child than to risk his fury when he grows to manhood.† The child kicked inside her, as if he had heard. Dany remembered the story Viserys had told her, of what the Usurper's dogs had done to Rhaegar's children. His son had been a babe as well, yet they had ripped him from his mother's breast and dashed his head against a wall. That was the way of men. â€Å"They must not hurt my son!† she cried. â€Å"I will order my khas to keep him safe, and Drogo's bloodriders will—† Ser Jorah held her by the shoulders. â€Å"A bloodrider dies with his khal. You know that, child. They will take you to Vaes Dothrak, to the crones, that is the last duty they owe him in life . . . when it is done, they will join Drogo in the night lands.† Dany did not want to go back to Vaes Dothrak and live the rest of her life among those terrible old women, yet she knew that the knight spoke the truth. Drogo had been more than her sun-and-stars; he had been the shield that kept her safe. â€Å"I will not leave him,† she said stubbornly, miserably. She took his hand again. â€Å"I will not.† A stirring at the tent flap made Dany turn her head. Mirri Maz Duur entered, bowing low. Days on the march, trailing behind the khalasar, had left her limping and haggard, with blistered and bleeding feet and hollows under her eyes. Behind her came Qotho and Haggo, carrying the godswife's chest between them. When the bloodriders caught sight of Drogo's wound, the chest slipped from Haggo's fingers and crashed to the floor of the tent, and Qotho swore an oath so foul it seared the air. Mirri Maz Duur studied Drogo, her face still and dead. â€Å"The wound has festered.† â€Å"This is your work, maegi,† Qotho said. Haggo laid his fist across Mirri's cheek with a meaty smack that drove her to the ground. Then he kicked her where she lay. â€Å"Stop it!† Dany screamed. Qotho pulled Haggo away, saying, â€Å"Kicks are too merciful for a maegi. Take her outside. We will stake her to the earth, to be the mount of every passing man. And when they are done with her, the dogs will use her as well. Weasels will tear out her entrails and carrion crows feast upon her eyes. The flies off the river shall lay their eggs in her womb and drink pus from the ruins of her breasts . . . † He dug iron-hard fingers into the soft, wobbly flesh under the godswife's arm and hauled her to her feet. â€Å"No,† Dany said. â€Å"I will not have her harmed.† Qotho's lips skinned back from his crooked brown teeth in a terrible mockery of a smile. â€Å"No? You say me no? Better you should pray that we do not stake you out beside your maegi. You did this, as much as the other.† Ser Jorah stepped between them, loosening his longsword in its scabbard. â€Å"Rein in your tongue, bloodrider. The princess is still your khaleesi. â€Å" â€Å"Only while the blood-of-my-blood still lives,† Qotho told the knight. â€Å"When he dies, she is nothing.† Dany felt a tightness inside her. â€Å"Before I was khaleesi, I was the blood of the dragon. Ser Jorah, summon my khas.† â€Å"No,† said Qotho. â€Å"We will go. For now . . . Khaleesi. † Haggo followed him from the tent, scowling. â€Å"That one means you no good, Princess,† Mormont said. â€Å"The Dothraki say a man and his bloodriders share one life, and Qotho sees it ending. A dead man is beyond fear.† â€Å"No one has died,† Dany said. â€Å"Ser Jorah, I may have need of your blade. Best go don your armor.† She was more frightened than she dared admit, even to herself. The knight bowed. â€Å"As you say.† He strode from the tent. Dany turned back to Mirri Maz Duur. The woman's eyes were wary. â€Å"So you have saved me once more.† â€Å"And now you must save him,† Dany said. â€Å"Please . . . â€Å" â€Å"You do not ask a slave,† Mirri replied sharply, â€Å"you tell her.† She went to Drogo burning on his mat, and gazed long at his wound. â€Å"Ask or tell, it makes no matter. He is beyond a healer's skills.† The khal's eyes were closed. She opened one with her fingers. â€Å"He has been dulling the hurt with milk of the poppy.† â€Å"Yes,† Dany admitted. â€Å"I made him a poultice of firepod and sting-me-not and bound it in a lambskin.† â€Å"It burned, he said. He tore it off. The herbwomen made him a new one, wet and soothing.† â€Å"It burned, yes. There is great healing magic in fire, even your hairless men know that.† â€Å"Make him another poultice,† Dany begged. â€Å"This time I will make certain he wears it.† â€Å"The time for that is past, my lady,† Mirri said. â€Å"All I can do now is ease the dark road before him, so he might ride painless to the night lands. He will be gone by morning.† Her words were a knife through Dany's breast. What had she ever done to make the gods so cruel? She had finally found a safe place, had finally tasted love and hope. She was finally going home. And now to lose it all . . . â€Å"No,† she pleaded. â€Å"Save him, and I will free you, I swear it. You must know a way . . . some magic, some . . . â€Å" Mirri Maz Duur sat back on her heels and studied Daenerys through eyes as black as night. â€Å"There is a spell.† Her voice was quiet, scarcely more than a whisper. â€Å"But it is hard, lady, and dark. Some would say that death is cleaner. I learned the way in Asshai, and paid dear for the lesson. My teacher was a bloodmage from the Shadow Lands.† Dany went cold all over. â€Å"Then you truly are a maegi . . . â€Å" â€Å"Am I?† Mirri Maz Duur smiled. â€Å"Only a maegi can save your rider now, Silver Lady.† â€Å"Is there no other way?† â€Å"No other.† Khal Drogo gave a shuddering gasp. â€Å"Do it,† Dany blurted. She must not be afraid; she was the blood of the dragon. â€Å"Save him.† â€Å"There is a price,† the godswife warned her. â€Å"You'll have gold, horses, whatever you like.† â€Å"It is not a matter of gold or horses. This is bloodmagic, lady. Only death may pay for life.† â€Å"Death?† Dany wrapped her arms around herself protectively, rocked back and forth on her heels. â€Å"My death?† She told herself she would die for him, if she must. She was the blood of the dragon, she would not be afraid. Her brother Rhaegar had died for the woman he loved. â€Å"No,† Mirri Maz Duur promised. â€Å"Not your death, Khaleesi.† Dany trembled with relief. â€Å"Do it.† The maegi nodded solemnly. â€Å"As you speak, so it shall be done. Call your servants.† Khal Drogo writhed feebly as Rakharo and Quaro lowered him into the bath. â€Å"No,† he muttered, â€Å"no. Must ride.† Once in the water, all the strength seemed to leak out of him. â€Å"Bring his horse,† Mirri Maz Duur commanded, and so it was done. Jhogo led the great red stallion into the tent. When the animal caught the scent of death, he screamed and reared, rolling his eyes. It took three men to subdue him. â€Å"What do you mean to do?† Dany asked her. â€Å"We need the blood,† Mirri answered. â€Å"That is the way.† Jhogo edged back, his hand on his arakh. He was a youth of sixteen years, whip-thin, fearless, quick to laugh, with the faint shadow of his first mustachio on his upper lip. He fell to his knees before her. â€Å"Khaleesi, † he pleaded, â€Å"you must not do this thing. Let me kill this maegi.† â€Å"Kill her and you kill your khal,† Dany said. â€Å"This is bloodmagic,† he said. â€Å"It is forbidden.† â€Å"I am khaleesi, and I say it is not forbidden. In Vaes Dothrak, Khal Drogo slew a stallion and I ate his heart, to give our son strength and courage. This is the same. The same.† The stallion kicked and reared as Rakharo, Quaro, and Aggo pulled him close to the tub where the khal floated like one already dead, pus and blood seeping from his wound to stain the bathwaters. Mirri Maz Duur chanted words in a tongue that Dany did not know, and a knife appeared in her hand. Dany never saw where it came from. It looked old; hammered red bronze, leaf-shaped, its blade covered with ancient glyphs. The maegi drew it across the stallion's throat, under the noble head, and the horse screamed and shuddered as the blood poured out of him in a red rush. He would have collapsed, but the men of her khas held him up. â€Å"Strength of the mount, go into the rider,† Mirri sang as horse blood swirled into the waters of Drogo's bath. â€Å"Strength of the beast, go into the man.† Jhogo looked terrified as he struggled with the stallion's weight, afraid to touch the dead flesh, yet afraid to let go as well. Only a horse, Dany thought. If she could buy Drogo's life with the death of a horse, she would pay a thousand times over. When they let the stallion fall, the bath was a dark red, and nothing showed of Drogo but his face. Mirri Maz Duur had no use for the carcass. â€Å"Burn it,† Dany told them. It was what they did, she knew. When a man died, his mount was killed and placed beneath him on the funeral pyre, to carry him to the night lands. The men of her khas dragged the carcass from the tent. The blood had gone everywhere. Even the sandsilk walls were spotted with red, and the rugs underfoot were black and wet. Braziers were lit. Mirri Maz Duur tossed a red powder onto the coals. It gave the smoke a spicy scent, a pleasant enough smell, yet Eroeh fled sobbing, and Dany was filled with fear. But she had gone too far to turn back now. She sent her handmaids away. â€Å"Go with them, Silver Lady,† Mirri Maz Duur told her. â€Å"I will stay,† Dany said. â€Å"The man took me under the stars and gave life to the child inside me. I will not leave him.† â€Å"You must. Once I begin to sing, no one must enter this tent. My song will wake powers old and dark. The dead will dance here this night. No living man must look on them.† Dany bowed her head, helpless. â€Å"No one will enter.† She bent over the tub, over Drogo in his bath of blood, and kissed him lightly on the brow. â€Å"Bring him back to me,† she whispered to Mirri Maz Duur before she fled. Outside, the sun was low on the horizon, the sky a bruised red. The khalasar had made camp. Tents and sleeping mats were scattered as far as the eye could see. A hot wind blew. Jhogo and Aggo were digging a firepit to burn the dead stallion. A crowd had gathered to stare at Dany with hard black eyes, their faces like masks of beaten copper. She saw Ser Jorah Mormont, wearing mail and leather now, sweat beading on his broad, balding forehead. He pushed his way through the Dothraki to Dany's side. When he saw the scarlet footprints her boots had left on the ground, the color seemed to drain from his face. â€Å"What have you done, you little fool?† he asked hoarsely. â€Å"I had to save him.† â€Å"We could have fled,† he said. â€Å"I would have seen you safe to Asshai, Princess. There was no need . . . â€Å" â€Å"Am I truly your princess?† she asked him. â€Å"You know you are, gods save us both.† â€Å"Then help me now.† Ser Jorah grimaced. â€Å"Would that I knew how.† Mirri Maz Duur's voice rose to a high, ululating wail that sent a shiver down Dany's back. Some of the Dothraki began to mutter and back away. The tent was aglow with the light of braziers within. Through the blood-spattered sandsilk, she glimpsed shadows moving. Mirri Maz Duur was dancing, and not alone. Dany saw naked fear on the faces of the Dothraki. â€Å"This must not be,† Qotho thundered. She had not seen the bloodrider return. Haggo and Cohollo were with him. They had brought the hairless men, the eunuchs who healed with knife and needle and fire. â€Å"This will be,† Dany replied. â€Å"Maegi, † Haggo growled. And old Cohollo—Cohollo who had bound his life to Drogo's on the day of his birth, Cohollo who had always been kind to her—Cohollo spat full in her face. â€Å"You will die, maegi,† Qotho promised, â€Å"but the other must die first.† He drew his arakh and made for the tent. â€Å"No,† she shouted, â€Å"you mustn't.† She caught him by the shoulder, but Qotho shoved her aside. Dany fell to her knees, crossing her arms over her belly to protect the child within. â€Å"Stop him,† she commanded her khas, â€Å"kill him.† Rakharo and Quaro stood beside the tent flap. Quaro took a step forward, reaching for the handle of his whip, but Qotho spun graceful as a dancer, the curved arakh rising. It caught Quaro low under the arm, the bright sharp steel biting up through leather and skin, through muscle and rib bone. Blood fountained as the young rider reeled backward, gasping. Qotho wrenched the blade free. â€Å"Horselord,† Ser Jorah Mormont called. â€Å"Try me.† His longsword slid from its scabbard. Qotho whirled, cursing. The arakh moved so fast that Quaro's blood flew from it in a fine spray, like rain in a hot wind. The longsword caught it a foot from Ser Jorah's face, and held it quivering for an instant as Qotho howled in fury. The knight was clad in chainmail, with gauntlets and greaves of lobstered steel and a heavy gorget around his throat, but he had not thought to don his helm. Qotho danced backward, arakh whirling around his head in a shining blur, flickering out like lightning as the knight came on in a rush. Ser Jorah parried as best he could, but the slashes came so fast that it seemed to Dany that Qotho had four arakhs and as many arms. She heard the crunch of sword on mail, saw sparks fly as the long curved blade glanced off a gauntlet. Suddenly it was Mormont stumbling backward, and Qotho leaping to the attack. The left side of the knight's face ran red with blood, and a cut to the hip opened a gash in his mail and left him limping. Qotho screamed taunts at him, calling him a craven, a milk man, a eunuch in an iron suit. â€Å"You die now!† he promised, arakh shivering through the red twilight. Inside Dany's womb, her son kicked wildly. The curved blade slipped past the straight one and bit deep into the knight's hip where the mail gaped open. Mormont grunted, stumbled. Dany felt a sharp pain in her belly, a wetness on her thighs. Qotho shrieked triumph, but his arakh had found bone, and for half a heartbeat it caught. It was enough. Ser Jorah brought his longsword down with all the strength left him, through flesh and muscle and bone, and Qotho's forearm dangled loose, flopping on a thin cord of skin and sinew. The knight's next cut was at the Dothraki's ear, so savage that Qotho's face seemed almost to explode. The Dothraki were shouting, Mirri Maz Duur wailing inside the tent like nothing human, Quaro pleading for water as he died. Dany cried out for help, but no one heard. Rakharo was fighting Haggo, arakh dancing with arakh until Jhogo's whip cracked, loud as thunder, the lash coiling around Haggo's throat. A yank, and the bloodrider stumbled backward, losing his feet and his sword. Rakharo sprang forward, howling, swinging his arakh down with both hands through the top of Haggo's head. The point caught between his eyes, red and quivering. Someone threw a stone, and when Dany looked, her shoulder was torn and bloody. â€Å"No,† she wept, â€Å"no, please, stop it, it's too high, the price is too high.† More stones came flying. She tried to crawl toward the tent, but Cohollo caught her. Fingers in her hair, he pulled her head back and she felt the cold touch of his knife at her throat. â€Å"My baby,† she screamed, and perhaps the gods heard, for as quick as that, Coh ollo was dead. Aggo's arrow took him under the arm, to pierce his lungs and heart. When at last Daenerys found the strength to raise her head, she saw the crowd dispersing, the Dothraki stealing silently back to their tents and sleeping mats. Some were saddling horses and riding off. The sun had set. Fires burned throughout the khalasar, great orange blazes that crackled with fury and spit embers at the sky. She tried to rise, and agony seized her and squeezed her like a giant's fist. The breath went out of her; it was all she could do to gasp. The sound of Mirri Maz Duur's voice was like a funeral dirge. Inside the tent, the shadows whirled. An arm went under her waist, and then Ser Jorah was lifting her off her feet. His face was sticky with blood, and Dany saw that half his ear was gone. She convulsed in his arms as the pain took her again, and heard the knight shouting for her handmaids to help him. Are they all so afraid? She knew the answer. Another pain grasped her, and Dany bit back a scream. It felt as if her son had a knife in each hand, as if he were hacking at her to cut his way out. â€Å"Doreah, curse you,† Ser Jorah roared. â€Å"Come here. Fetch the birthing women.† â€Å"They will not come. They say she is accursed.† â€Å"They'll come or I'll have their heads.† Doreah wept. â€Å"They are gone, my lord.† â€Å"The maegi,† someone else said. Was that Aggo? â€Å"Take her to the maegi.† No, Dany wanted to say, no, not that, you mustn't, but when she opened her mouth, a long wail of pain escaped, and the sweat broke over her skin. What was wrong with them, couldn't they see? Inside the tent the shapes were dancing, circling the brazier and the bloody bath, dark against the sandsilk, and some did not look human. She glimpsed the shadow of a great wolf, and another like a man wreathed in flames. â€Å"The Lamb Woman knows the secrets of the birthing bed,† Irri said. â€Å"She said so, I heard her.† â€Å"Yes,† Doreah agreed, â€Å"I heard her too.† No, she shouted, or perhaps she only thought it, for no whisper of sound escaped her lips. She was being carried. Her eyes opened to gaze up at a flat dead sky, black and bleak and starless. Please, no. The sound of Mirri Maz Duur's voice grew louder, until it filled the world. The shapes! she screamed. The dancers! Ser Jorah carried her inside the tent.

Moby Dick Essay

Melville’s Moby Dick is widely recognized as one of the most complex and brilliant allegorical novels in American literature. As an allegory, the events, places, people and conflicts depicted in the novel represent not only the obvious surface-level elements of the novel, but stand as indications of the novel’s philosophical and metaphysical themes. The allegory of Moby Dick involves an examination into the nature of reality and also into the nature of good and evil, as defined for Melville partially by America’s Puritan heritage. Melville wanted to portray the essence of evil in a symbol, which was the whale, Moby Dick. When Ahab says â€Å"All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks,† (Melville) he is echoing the allegorical construction of the novel in which each thing, such as the whale, Moby Dick, is merely a â€Å"pasteboard mask† (Melville) which hides the true essence beneath, an â€Å"unknown but still reasoning thing† (Melville) which â€Å"puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask† (Melville). For Ahab, the white whale is the mask which disguises truth and the revelation of the nature of reality. In this sense, the white whale becomes a symbol for whatever it is that holds mankind back from the perception of absolute reality. Ahab emphatically reveals his Platonic beliefs when he says â€Å"If man will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is that wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there`s naught beyond. † (Melville) In this sense, the whale represents oblivion, the â€Å"naught beyond† which in Ahab’s mind is plainly associated with death. It is toward the heart of the nature of reality that Ahab strikes with his blood-sealed harpoon, not merely a fish in the ocean. For Ahab the white whale represented both ultimate reality and the wall which separates man from ultimate reality. Ahab’s view of nature and reality is that the visible world and all of the events, people, and actions in it are indicators of deeper, more profound, metaphysical ideas and experiences: when he hunts the white whale which represents evil and oblivion, he is hunting the absolute nature of evil, not merely one of its beasts. The intense hate that Ahab feels for the white whale helps to distinguish Ahab’s view of reality as presented in the novel form the vision of reality Melvile was trying to establish by way of the allegory of the novel. While Ahab believes the white whale to be the symbol of evil, Melville’s depiction of evil through the allegorical structure of Moby Dick is shown, ironically, through Ahab himself and not through the symbol of the whale. Instead, for Melville, the whale symbol indicated the cosmic universe and was exhaustively related through his use of cetological detail and science. In this way, Ahab’s obsession and hate are shown to be a tragic flaw along the lines of some of Shakespeare’s heroes, after whom Ahab’s dialogue explaining his motives for hunting Moby Dick are clearly derived. As Ishmael gains a closer, more intimate apprehension of whales, the development of his character and spiritual insight are correspondingly elevated. The more detailed are the cetological experiences and catalogues, the more wholly expressive and self-possessed and sure becomes Ishmael. Still deeper correspondences between the cetological material and Melville’s narrative form are established in Ishmael’s descriptions of the whales â€Å"blubber† and â€Å"skin† which he posits as being indistinguishable. This is reflected in the narrative structure of â€Å"Moby Dick† where it is equally as difficult to apprehend where the â€Å"skin† (overt theme and storyline) of the novel ends and the â€Å"blubber† (cetological and whaling discourses and catalogues) begin. Melville makes it perfectly clear that the â€Å"blubber† is an as indispensable part of his novel as it is for the whale’s body. â€Å"For the whale is indeed wrapt up in his blubber as in a real blanket or counterpane; or, still better, an Indian poncho slipt over his head;† (Melville) therefore, too, is the expository material, the â€Å"blubber† of the novel wrapped around its central, allegorical aspects. The detailed cetological aspects of â€Å"Moby Dick† may, indeed, prevent the reader from an easy, and immediate grasp of the novel’s â€Å"meaning† or even its astounding climax. Just as the whale’s hump is believed by Ishmael to conceal the whale’s â€Å"true brain† while the more easily accessed â€Å"brain† know to whalers is merely a know of nerves, the secret â€Å"core† of â€Å"Moby Dick† can only be pursued with patience and close, deep â€Å"cutting†due to the organic and harmonious nature of its narrative form. By keeping in mind the previously discussed aspects of the relationship between â€Å"Moby Dick’s† comprehensive cetological materials and their symbolic relationship to the novel itself, its form and themes, Ishmael, while discoursing on the desirability of whale meat as fit food for humans, offers an ironic gesture toward the novel’s probable audiences. â€Å"But what further depreciates the whale as a civilized dish, is his exceeding richness. He is the great prize ox of the sea, too fat to be delicately good† (Melville).

Why did communist governments rapidly collapse throughout Europe Essay

Why did communist governments rapidly collapse throughout Europe during the late 1980s and early 1990s - Essay Example For instance, US which eventually supported Europe by pushing for democracy with the intention of overthrowing Soviet’s autocratic leadership. The US gained support from the people though its intervention did not help much in liberation of the majority. However, their â€Å"diplomatic† intervention contributed immensely to the communism’s collapse by interfering with its (soviet) leadership. This is evident with the then period’s Reagan doctrine whose core purpose encompassed aiding anticommunist movements. Reagan in his quest to thwart communist’s threats and safeguard US’s interests, he embarked on constructive peacetime strategy that up to date comprise the world’s history. Consequently, this led to signing of subsequent treaties with Soviet aimed at both reducing and shunning any intentions of launching nuclear missiles either in space or land-based (Louka 353). Since, they were detrimental to humanity’s existence (Louka 353 ). This was Reagan’s rapport to destabilize and weaken states that seemed hostile to US’ interests. Therefore, this intervention besides other varied strategies by US undercover utterly rendered Soviet’s regime extremely weak to the extent of not being able to subdue states, which it had conquered. Since, they continued to receive support from outside in form of establishing movements, for instance, Poland’s Solidarity Trade union (Shevel 228). Solidarity in Poland acted as an umbrella of all anticommunist movements in the country whereby its action was immense to the then incumbent regime. Gradually, these Round The table negotiations and strong oppositions emanating from demonstrating workers or movements in varied states led to the collapse of communist system (Shevel 228). Another reason was due to the emergency of nationalism, which not only acted as a democratic project but also an anticommunist force. Nationalism received an immense support especia lly by numerous Communist dominated states that were in quest of liberty and evading Marxist theory. This was democratization process, which received support both from citizens and Polish Catholic Church whereby the latter rejected Soviet way of governance (Muehlenbeck 248). This is because almost all other religions in the state were under the control of Soviet except catholic church that assumed a unique position, hence resulted to offering support to the varied anticommunist movements (nationalism being one of them) (Muehlenbeck 248). Hence, actions of both nationalism and Polish Catholic Church against communist acted as an example to other states that were under the dominion of soviet, which also adopted the same agitation (Muehlenbeck 248). Communist governments in Europe lacked proper strategies both for infrastructure and economic reinvestment. The mainstream regime instead emphasized on military power with the intention of thwarting threats from other global states that sho wed interests in Europe, for instance, US. Poor economic investment yielded to numerous demonstrations especially by workers who cited they were experiencing underpayment besides other varied bad conditions while working. Hence, prompting citizens and powerful movements translate the presence of soviet in Europe did not have any significant impact but to dehumanize the ordinary people. Inadequate economic investment emanated from self-interests that characterized the leaders of the day besides the mainstream soviet regime instead of elevating the ordinary. This fueled the aspect of quick democratization in all states; Poland acting as an example that successfully managed to defy communism (Muehlenbeck 248).

Labour market Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 1

Labour market - Essay Example mployees as well as maximizing their profits, have resorted to transferring a lot of risks to their employees which makes then to feel more insecure about their positions in employment. Owing to the fact that employees are the most essential requirement of an organization, human resources are becoming de-motivated as well as disturbed. As a result of such disturbance, their rate of performance and devotion towards the assigned duties are reducing thereby declining the total productivity of the organization. Therefore, in order to mitigate such negative impacts of jobs flexibilities, maximum extent of the organizations are now trying to implement the strategy of restructuring and reorganization at the workplace. The statement thus portrays a true picture of what is taking place in the current set up in the labor market. A strategy aimed at reducing rate of employee turnover which is as a result of increased flexibility is thus necessary to be introduced and implemented in organizations. Otherwise, it might result in bankruptcy as well as enhancement of termination or attrition of the workers from the organization thereby declining its brand image and portfolio in the market among many other rival contenders. However, due to attrition, the rate of living standard and life style of the employee. As a result of which, the rate of unemployment and poverty is increasing that make hinder the economic prosperity of a nation or country as compared to others (Kalleberg, 2001, pp. 479-504). Organizations thus need to adopt an approach that is geared towards addressing the various forms of flexibilities that is being witnessed in current times. This essay mainly tries to highlight, the fact that due t o various labour market flexibilities, the rate of job insecurity is increasing and may lead into serious consequences in the labor market. Flexibility in the labor market can be described as the ability of an organization to make amendment to its labor force in regard to the

Marketing and PromotionBuilding the image and the brand Essay

Marketing and PromotionBuilding the image and the brand - Essay Example To begin with, it is simple. The simplicity is evident by the choice of two colours; whereby, purple is the background, and white represents the wordings. Thus, it makes it easy to describe and memorise. Second, the logo is timeless. Reason being, it is less trendy therefore it would be relevant for a long time. Third, the logo is versatile. Thus, it makes it possible to be printed in diverse sizes; over various mediums; and dissimilar purposes without losing its significance. Finally, the logo has entirely targeted its audience. This is evident by the use of purple and white colours. Purple meaning royalty and nobility whereas white meaning brilliance and safety. (Mallon) On a personal perspective, the logo for the Art Gallery of NSW would not benefit from any modification. Reason being; it has fully utilized the qualities of a good logo. These qualities include being simple; versatile; appropriate; memorable; timeless and distinctive. Consequently, they will have more customers; because they will have a good feeling towards the Gallery.

Electronic Communication in the Service and HRM Sectors Research Paper

Electronic Communication in the Service and HRM Sectors - Research Paper Example It is claimed further on that HRM is focused on an individual and the positive effects of electronic communication improve organization’s performance. Nevertheless, both face-to-face communication and electronic communication depend on trust, reliability and openness.  Introduction Electronic communication has rushed into the business world. A new era of communication has borne its fruits. Currently, any organization introduces different forms of electronic communication to foster business success. Therefore, e-mails and IMs, social networks and online conferences discussed further are positioned as modern solutions for business challenges. E-communication is a helpful and effective tool enabling people to share their ideas and thoughts instantaneously. E-mail in business is an effective tool of sharing one’s ideas, receiving instantaneous messages, and fostering business: â€Å"Organizations can use electronic  mail for product development, training, giving, and re ceiving work assignments, testing, personnel administration, problem solving, posting notices, marketing, and sending personal communication. Many organizations believe e-mail gives them a competitive advantage, because it is fast, inexpensive, readily available, and not dependent on receiver availability† (Nantz & Drexel 1995, p. 45). This type of electronic communications is especially important for human resource managers, which use it for new employees’ searching or communicating with the employees of the organization. Business letters are delivered quickly and the sustainability of information sent in these messages is relevant to current issues of any business field. A special role electronic communication plays for HRM. E-mail communication can play both a positive and a negative role for a sender. Thus, an individual shoula be careful what and how you e-mail. In any case, whatever he/she writes or sends by means of the Internet can be shown to other people, cr iticized, or misinterpreted. Cyberspace is cruel, and the material sent should be properly considered and grammatically and ethically correct. No vague, intricate, or intimidating messages should occur on the web (Hartman, Lewis & Powell, 2002). Otherwise, a business email turns into a messy and a casual note. Thus, one should set clear goals and proofread messages, because e-mails are means of effective business communication. HRM managers should be focused on appropriate usage by the employees of electronic communication both at work and at home. Very often, an employee can post intimidating messages about his employer and this type of behavior should be appropriately controlled by human resource managers. Challenges and Opportunities of Online Communication in HRM The modern business world is full of opportunities. Both technological innovations and Internet development foster online communication. Modern organizations implement different forms of online communication in their daily practices and try to solve the problems of communication barriers among employers and employees. There is a need to communicate online in compliance with etiquette norms. Business messages should be grammatically correct, concise and relevant (Flynn, 2004). Vague or long letters should be deleted and rewritten, because it distracts attention of the receiver. IMs are used to receive more instantaneous answers, while

Write a memorandum Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Write a memorandum - Essay Example Due to this, the City Council is losing significant revenue collections, crime has gone high, the decline in the waterfront area is more real, and the economy is dwindling. As a result, the council is deciding on how to react on these complaints. In doing this, the Council will use the Measure A, that seeks to revitalize the economy on the waterfront area where the Marina sits. It also relies on the amended Referendum 3 that aims at limiting the government’s eminent domain power by restricting the permissible interpretations of the â€Å"public use† requirement for eminent domain (Dyson 1-2). The council seeks to take over the waterfront area and compensate the owners like Mr. Park. Henceforth, the city plans to transfer the land to public use where it hopes to derive jobs, revenues, and minimize noise on Elm Street. The City also relies on Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 case studies (2005) to succeed in its quest. Mr. Park’s house, marina is on that st reet and the council is bound to make it a stadium. Hence, Mr. Park is seeking legal advice on how to stop the council from taking his waterfront home. In 2000, New London, a city in Connecticut, used its eminent domain powers to acquire private property for purposes of selling it for private use with an aim of boosting the city’s economy. In doing this, New London sought to create more than 1000 jobs, revitalize the economy, and increase tax revenues. As such, aggrieved owners took the matter to court arguing that the seized property was not for public use and the Fifth Amendment Takings limits the government from seizing private property for public use without just compensation. The legal question in this question was whether the city’s seizure and selling of the reference property is of â€Å"public use† according to the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment. In a majority ruling, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled for New London qualifying the city’s

Answer All Questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Answer All Questions - Assignment Example Decisions that can be prescribed in financial terms are covered in the financial strategy (Bender & Ward, 2012). Thus, it could be stated that the financial decisions are different from business decisions that the company may undertake however, they are related to each other and have implications for them. (iii) There are four reasons that market value might differ from fundamental value which are given below: a. The share price often reflect future prospect of the company’s performance (Bender & Ward, 2012). If the market expects that the financial results of a company will exceed the expected growth rates than the share price will react positively in advance (Bender & Ward, 2012). This is usually reflected by high price to earnings ratio. It is understood that companies’ stock which have higher price to earnings ratio are likely to show increase in the market value of their shares as the market develops an expectation that these companies are likely to outperform thei r expected targets. For example, a recent launch of iPhone 5 pushed the market value of Apple’s stocks higher. b. ... ecomes mature and better view of the company’s performance becomes clearer the market value of shares will begin to coincide with the fundamental value of business per share. c. The company announces a future investment project which is expected to yield higher returns for the company and thus, the market reacts positively to the news. Although, the investment is yet to be placed by the positive sentiments about the projections that the company makes for its investment decision can have positive impact up on the market value of the company’s shares. For example, a company Medinah Minerals announced its exploration project in South America which lead to major interest by shareholders in its stocks and the market value went up above the fundamental value of the company. d. If a company approaches to takeover another company then managers or shareholders of the target company may enter in the market to alter the market value of its shares so that higher bid can be achieved . In this case, the market value of shares will be higher than the fundamental value of the company. This is a strategy to prevent takeover bids by other entities. For example, this defense tactic is very much common in the US as compared to the UK. Q2: (i) Year 0 1 2 3 NPV Project A Cash Flows (240,000.00) - - 325,000.00 Discount Factor 1.00 0.90 0.81 0.73 Discounted CF (240,000.00) - - 237,637.20 (2,362.80) 0 1 2 3 NPV Project B Cash Flows (198,000.00) 110,800.00 82,500.00 45,000.00 Discount Factor 1.00 0.90 0.81 0.73 Discounted CF (198,000.00) 99,819.82 66,958.85 32,903.61 1,682.28 NPV is the sum of future cash flows discounted to the present time and it is understood that only those projects which result in positive NPV must be accepted by companies and all those projects which have negative NPV

Regulatory and legislative issues paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Regulatory and legislative issues paper - Essay Example â€Å"Thousands of US organizations must comply with the†¦ Security Rule. The Security Rule is a key part of HIPAA -- federal legislation that was passed into law in August 1996. The overall purpose of the act is to enable better access to health insurance, reduce fraud and abuse, and lower the overall cost of health care in the United States† (HIPAA, 2010). The overall common estimation is that the Security Rule has affected healthcare positively, leading to greater client confidentiality and better information access for healthcare facilities. However, cost is a major issue in implementing new technology covered by the rule, such as the establishment of electronic health records. It is important to provide a general overview of the HIPAA Security Rule, its strengths and drawbacks, and how it is being implemented, and reacted against, in the present. databases, and communications. Patients are expected, and have been shown to, have a greater quality of healthcare because of the rule, because due to it, information and healthcare data is delivered faster, better, and more conveniently. Although some state that the rule is excessive, because the government would have to provide for client confidentiality with or without the law, others state that, â€Å"The real value of HIPAAs transaction standards is the reduction of operational expenses and fragmentation in the health care industry† (Zimmerman, 2010). This shows the law to be cost effective, and it is also gathered to be cost-effective from the standpoint of government costs for social welfare programs like Medicare. Although cost effectiveness and better, safer, faster patient information seem to be key advantages to the HIPAA Security Rule, there are also possible drawbacks as this law extends over time. For example, although ultimately the new technology covered by the rule is designed to make facilities more

Factors Affecting Career Choice Essay Example for Free

Factors Affecting Career Choice Essay Limited-service hotels usually have the lowest operating costs of the three hotel categories, due to their lack of extras. Room rates are typically lower, because these hotels cater to budget-conscious travelers. Full-service hotels often need a larger staff and larger facilities to accommodate guests who require more luxurious amenities. In the United States, no official rules exist as to what defines a limited-service hotel and what defines a full-service hotel; hotels can advertise however theyd like. The hospitality industry, however, generally agrees on the basics of both types of hotels. Services Differences Typically, a full-service hotel like a Marriott or Hilton offers its guests services such as bed turn-down, newspaper delivery, security guards, wake-up calls, room service and a shuttle to and from an airport or other nearby attractions. Conversely, a limited-service hotel generally offers few services; guests get a room for the night, but not much beyond that. Travelers who opt for a full-service hotel will expect a consistency in the service they receive as well as greater attentiveness from the hotels staff. Room Differences A limited-service hotels budget-friendly rooms are much more basic than their full-service counterparts, which means that limited-service hotels tend to appeal more to leisure travelers, as opposed to conference and business-type travelers. To appeal to cash-conscious travelers on the go, limited-service hotels often offer microwaves and mini-fridges, as well as cable TV and Internet, in their rooms. Full-service hotels may offer more lavishly decorated, comfortable suites with high-speed wireless Internet and premium cable TV with movies and other entertainment options. Facilities Differences However, over the years, the standards for facilities at limited-service hotels have gone up: Many hotels and motels that fall under the limited-service category now offer a business center, small gym, laundry facility and a swimming pool. One of the biggest differences between a limited-service hotel and a full-service hotel is the limited-service hotels lack of in-house drinking and dining options; full-service hotels often have at least one cocktail lounge and restaurant. Full-service hotels also often offer facilities like spas and banquet rooms, dry cleaning and 24-hour valet service.

How Social Media Contributes To Retailing Marketing Essay

How Social Media Contributes To Retailing Marketing Essay The retailing industry has found itself constantly evolving and transforming in the past two decades. Globalization and advanced technology developments have a very big impact on the retailing landscape. One of the major reasons for this process is the drastic increased growth of the internet and social media. The concept of social media has existed since the days of cave paintings but the internet has made things possible on a whole new scale. In this era, social media is one of the best opportunities available for a brand to connect with its customers. Social media is hot and it is the trend. Globally, customers that are buying the items that they wanted via virtual media had increased drastically. Traditional customer relationship management is not sufficient for a company to interact with customers. Social media has definitely changed the way big companies communicate with their customers. This study explains how social media contributes to retailing. Besides that, this study wil l also describe about the impacts social media have on customer relationship management. Keywords: social media, customer relationship management Introduction Internet is now one of the most important channels of distribution right after high street retailing ever since its commercial launching about fifteen years ago and it is one of the major sources of empowerment and also customer information (Constantinides, Romer and Boria, 2008). The recent developments of internet, information technology and some other Web services had created a bigger area of opportunities in businesses especially retailing. The Internet has changed our lives forever and it  allows  us  to  communicate  in  ways  unimaginable  only a  few  years  ago (Leary, 2008).According to Borges (2009) it is said that commercial internet started to have a huge boom in about mid-1990s to 2001 and it his highly related to the peoples ability to absorb online information and having the choice to buy online product via ecommerce. In this era of globalization marketing and retailing are slowly embracing social media. The social media had given customers the c hance to have more control, information and power over the market process, posing retailers with a number of important dilemmas and challenges according to Constantinides et al. (2008). We often turn to the Internet for encouragement, entertainment, knowledge and advice. Advice on what to buy, where to buy it and who to buy it from (Leary, 2008).Besides that, in the recent years there is rapid growth of marketing strategies that involve in the circle of customer relationship (Pietro Pantano, 2012). Social network which is now widely used by people around the world and it does have a big effect on the systems of customer relationship management and a new way to CRM is coming out as an ideal platform for using social network in the systems of traditional CRM (Pietro, Pantano Corvello, 2012). According to Divol, Edelman and Sarrazin (2012) it is stated that thirty nine percent of companies that they have surveyed have already started using social media as their first choice of digita l tool to reach out to customers. In about four years, the percentage is estimated to rise to forty seven percent. The way organizations are capturing benefits from the internet technology in the enterprise nowadays is totally different from the past where they attend to other enterprise information systems (De Hertogh, Viaene Dedene, 2011). Overview of Social Media What is social media? The term social media is made up of two words that have its own meaning. In general, the word media means to have advertising and communication of information and ideas with channels and publications while the word social implies to the interaction between a group of people or a community (Sisira,2011). According to Sisira (2011) any kind of website that allows its users to have the authority to share the content, views, personal opinion and encourages interaction can be considered and classified as social media. The worldwide users of social media are over 1.5 billion. Social media is now an evolving wave in retailing. Examples of famous social media sites are Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Blogger and Scribd. There is also Flickr or Snapfish which emerged as support storage, to share digital photos and an organization (Stefanone, Lackaff Rosen, 2010). Boyd and Ellison (2007) illustrate a better definition of social network site is that it serves as a web-based s ervice which allow people to build a profile within a system whether it is public or semi-public and to connect with a list of people which they have connection to like their family and friends. Social networking had given us a chance to interact with far more people in numbers comparing to our ancestors (Dunbar, 2012). Social network like Facebook and Twitter has the advantage to able to get and win the heart of its customers because social media can connect to them at a very deep level. Now, it seems like a new social network launches every week. To add on to all these famous networks, location-based social networking such as Foursquare and Facebook Places are on the rise (Kidwai Imperator, 2011). Out of hundreds of social networking site in this era, Facebook is undeniably the worlds largest social network. Facebook initially started in February 2004 and it is originally meant to be a social networking site only for Harvard University students (Brothers, Dewland, Hahn Martin, 2011). Somini (2011) states that Facebook has already reached 800 million users worldwide as of as of September 23, 2011 and the users of Facebook press the like button or comment more than two billion times each day. Besides that, they upload a shocking 250 million photos each day too. Twitter is the second leading social networking site after Facebook. Wasserman (2012) said that twitter has already reached 140 million users as of March 22, 2012. According to Anderson (2011) Twitter is actually a place where its users talk about their daily doings, have a gallery to expose photography and as a platform for famous celebrities to be sure that they are part of their fans lives. Twitter is often described as a micro-blog where individuals publish short and personal message about themselves (Brothers et al., 2011). Before the digital revolution, gathering a large amount of crowd is unthinkable but with Twitter, it is now possible (Dunbar, 2012). Social medias contribution to retailing The use of social media occasionally begins in public communication, marketing and retailing department or other department that have direct connection with stakeholders and customers whether it is in business or non-profit organizations (Evans McKee, 2010). There has been a dynamic change in the retailing industry in this 21st century. It is all because of the rapid growth of the web and social media. Generation Y are putting a greater emphasis on networking by using social media because they approaches work in a different way from their progenitor (Karen, 2009). If you are a marketer or building a brand, do not be worries that your company has missed the boat on taking advantage of social media because the majority of social media programs are actually fighting with each other too (Taylor, 2011)..According to Burby, Atchison and Sterne (2007) social media allows super fast and easy communication with billions of customers in a short amount of time and have certainly raised the spe ed where company and its brand can be created, have more exposure and grow. Social media has an enormous potential and capability for companies to engage with customer, thus increasing revenue and efficiency of the company (Baird Parasnis, 2011).The change in this industry does not depend on the size or a big idea of the company it is now nevertheless more focused on customer demand. The information about weaknesses, the good or bad and how can the product have further improvement can be analyzed within a week now compared to older days where much more time is needed to do so (Yazdanifard, Obeidy, Yusoff Babaei, 2011). Decision makers are trying to find ways to enable firms to earn profit by making use applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Wikipedia (Kaplan Haenlein, 2010). Social media users have the opportunity to offer feedback and feel more involved with a brand when the profiles status is update with positive information and challenges. It enables organizations to increase customer loyalty while at the same time getting feedback from customers and discovering what changes they want (Friedman Friedman, 2008). According to an eMarketer study in 2008, nearly six out of ten United States users now communicate with businesses and believe that the businesses must interact with their consumers and deepen the brand relationship via social networking website (Abedniya Mahmouei, 2010). According to Gilbert (2010) social media cost may be low but there is a need to invest time and energy in it to be successful. For example, if a retailers want to start a blog or Facebook page, they need to update it regularly or no one will return to see the content (Gilbert, 2010). Simply creating a presence on a popular platform like Facebook or Twitter does not guarantee that customers will be attracted to a firms page and engage with the firm and other customers (Culnan, Mc Hugh, Zubillaga, 2010). This is also because the use of social media by customers are v oluntary and interaction among members need time, organizations need to take great steps in order to build communities and learn from the interactions (Culnan et al., 2010). Figure 1: The Social Feedback Cycle (Burby, Atchison Sterne, 2007) As we can see in Figure 1, it is the social feedback cycle. The word of mouth is important as we can see in the figure. According to Brown, Broderick and Lee (2007) a big part of online customer interaction is word of mouth communication and it influences on a persons evaluation and will to purchase a product. With social media, retailers can get data from their customers opinion or talk and use it as a consideration to enhance their product. As retailers and marketers, brand and business are very important and activity that they do need to have a return on investment, whether it is by increased sales, market share or brand recognition and social media that changed the way people interact with one another have a significant help for marketing, retailing, business and also branding (Drury, 2008). How do retailers turn this potential into real business opportunity and how does social media contributes to retailing? As an example, we can take a look at the best practices of some company in the retail sector. Take a look at IKEAs Social Catalogue, their objective is actually to raise awareness of a new IKEA store with almost no media budget at all. According to Shercan (2010) IKEA is the worlds largest furniture retailer that is held privately and sells accessories and ready to assemble furniture. In the late 2009, IKEA had a Facebook campaign where the idea is contributed by Forsman and Bodenfors to promote a new IKEA store to be launched in Malmo and it was claimed to be a social media campaign that have the most innovation in Facebook (Shercan, 2010). The approach of this campaign is to upload photos of the rooms in the ikea showroom to Facebook, then they allow people to tag themselves against an item of furniture for the chance to win it in real life (Lindsay, Matthew, Jamie, Eveline Chris, 2011). When a person is tagged in a photo on Facebook, their friends will automatically receive an up date that shows the photo. This simple competition will make people have the desire to get free stuff which also meant that this campaign had received a huge amount of public relations. With this, IKEA can increase their companys revenue. Dunay and Krueger (2010) also said that Facebook offers unique ways to communicate with customers such as the Facebook Ads as it can be bought on a cost per click basis and it is very popular as it let company to reach the audience that they desire whether it is narrow or wide. Besides that, there is also Starbucks Mayor Offer where mayor of Foursquare in Starbucks at any local store gets to buy a frappuchino at only one dollar (Keath, 2010). This is special as it is the first national special for mayor using Foursquare. In this situation, customers get value from the discounts and they will have a sudden ego boost to become the mayor of their favorite Starbucks or the one nearest to them. Starbucks will of course get popularity in a form of word of mouth and they are able to identify its top customers. On top of that, there are small businesses that use social media as a real business opportunity. As an example is Wrigleyville, a small company that sell sports related clothing in Chicago and Pittsburgh. Wrigleyville has build a Facebook page for three years and now has twenty two thousand likes and the company tracks sales and marketing efforts from Facebook. They also had contest on Facebook on Mothers Day for visitors to upload some picture of Mom demonstrating why shes the biggest fan of Chicago Cubs (Doug, 2012). Social medias impact on customer relationship management (CRM) Customer relationship management is a combination of technology, business processes and people that want and seek to understand a firms customers and it focus on the incorporation approach on relationship development and customer loyalty (Chen Popovich, 2003). The premise of CRM is that is is a process of relationship building and dual creation of value between firm and its customers, to create win-win situations, enhance customer life time value and increase profitability ( Nguyen Mutum, 2012).According to Jayashree, Pahlavanzadeh and Shojaee (2010) customer relationship management is the collection of processes, people and technology that seeks to find costumers of organizations and CRM develops customers retention and relationship.Progress in Information Technology and organizational changes in customer-centric procedures have positive effect in the development of CRM. Organizations which implement CRM successfully, will gain customer loyalty and profitability (Jayashree, Pahlav anzadeh Shojaee, 2010). All employees in a firm are managers of customer relationship, whether you are the receptionist who answers the phone or customer service operator, and everyone in the company handles customers in the departments (Ronald, 2001). CRM focuses on the integration of customer information, knowledge for finding and keeping customer to grow customer lifetime value and it also has an important role to help organizations to keep their customers and to make them loyal. Organizations should know the reasons of leaving customers and finding the ways of keeping them (Ramakrishnan, 2005). With billions of people having access to a variety of social media, the ability of the word to share and connect is infinite and from a business point of view, companies are now allowed to create a customer experience never before done in the past. Traditional CRM was born in the early 1990s and customer behavior is in a very different phase today (Rich, 2010). According to Vissing (2011 ) CRM is one of the most fundamental elements in any organization because of the emergence of social media in the industry. According to IBM research, there is a large perception gap between what the customers seek via social media and what companies offer (Baird Parasnis, 2011).It is important to master online communication in order to know the people that can influence a particular market. Retailers today are working in a challenging era but they are now able to get closer to their customers and engage with them with a timely and relevant manner (Green Starkey, 2011). Together with CRM, social media can achieve a higher financial benefits to companies and it does not matter which sector they are in (Green Starkey, 2011). What does this change mean for CRM and how this social media phenomenon change the way firms interact with their customers? To engage with customer by using social media will definitely fail if conventional CRM approaches remains the same (Baird Parasnis, 2011). CRM has slowly moved to become social customer relationship management (SCRM). A more strategic and holistic approach that combines social media with more aspects in businesses improves the rate of consistency in achieving success (Leary, 2012). Social CRM is often called CRM 2.0 and it grew because of the empowerment of customers that each customer has the experiences, tools and products with the company that satisfy their personal desire (Mosadegh Behboudi, 2011). Social CRM had pulled the world of customer relationship management into sticking with social media and it results in a very unique and interesting way of working (How do you think, 2012). Social CRM is about joining ongoing conversations customers and prospects that are already engaged in while trying not to control them and it is also about understanding where and what kind of people you want to do businesss by hanging out on the Internet (Leary, 2008).Social CRM is now a new paradigm in combining social networking into traditional CRM systems (Askool Nakata, 2011). At the same time, the interactions between buyer and seller can now be effortlessly stored in a CRM database system for the benefit of the marketer and retailers (Nguyen Mutum, 2012). This interactive era has not only increased collaboration between firm and customer but coupled with continuing technological advances, a marketer has now the ability to track and store customer information optimally, in order to customize offerings to suit individual customer needs and desires (Nguyen Mutum, 2012). Kaftalovich (2010) claims that social media allows company to go into their customers social network and enable them to connect with the customers in an informal way. She also men tion that social media is its own lead generation machine and at Luxor CRM, they found that Twitter is extremely effective because they can gather customers curiosity, opinions and interest in the products as well as gathering about the audiences preferences and buying behavior. According to Green and Starkey (2011) SCRM can deliver insight, which will help drive real customer centric innovation. However, what is sometimes proposed is nothing more than the refreshing of old ideas such as one-to-one communication, relationship marketing or customer engagement applied to social media.  Such thinking actually misses the crucial main point that social media is about people interacting with each other (Ang, 2011). To develop a good social media strategy, it is important to realize that technologies are now allowing people to quickly connect, converse, create and collaborate with each other (Ang, 2011). Besides that, the impact of social media on CRM is the raise of customer centricity. In the world of CRM, the enhanced emphasis is being placing focus on the developing measures that are more customer-centric and that give manager a much well rounded idea about how their CRM is performing (Russell, 2001). This growth of social media had an indirectly result to the growth of much more and better customer centric companies. With social media, it does not matter how much revenue you invest but it is the time, knowledge and patience that you offer in order to satisfy customers (Kaftalovich, 2010). The comparison between traditional CRM and social CRM is that traditional is more data driven and process centric while social CRM is more content driven and conversation centric (Leary, 2008).With social media nowadays, people does not really care about companies that kept promoting themselves, instead individuals are seeking companies that can actually provide them with value. According to He ckadon (2010) if brands want to succeed in social networks environment then marketers must keep content fresh and relevant and the information in social networks must be easy to understand and share. In order to become successful in todays retailing world retailers need to understand about people opinion on their brand in the social sphere. Smart retailers will take a look at their social CRM from the public relations, customer support, product development to maximize connection with customers (Bush, 2011). Retailers can help a brand create top-of-mind awareness by responding effectively to user communications (Heckadon, 2010). Retailers should alsofrequently update their brands social networking profiles and status, and establish RSS feeds so followers can subscribe and obtain updated content on their computers and mobile devices (Heckadon, 2010). Besides that, one of the biggest advantages social CRM has over offline CRM is that social CRM can have a much bigger volume of real-tim e data and it can be used to personalize experiences of the company (Bush, 2011). The growth of more customer-centric companies had resulted in social media being a new wave of customer service and it is all about maintaining long term relationship and partnership with their customers and this is not just a business deal. The development of customer centric firms and lead generation definitely is the impacts of social media on CRM. Discussion As conducted and explained earlier, the purpose of this study is to explore the contribution of social media towards retailing and its impact on customer relationship management. The world of retailing is changing rapidly as time pass. Trends and major development in social media is one of the causes for the rapid change in retailing industry. This paper shows an overview on social media from Facebook, the worlds largest social networking site to Twitter, Foursquare, Youtube and so forth. Then, it can be observe that major networking sites really helps a lot in the retailing industry. Many companies limit their employee to have access to social media sites because of their concern on their employees productivity (Karen, 2009). Social media allows company to communicate with a wide amount of customers much faster and efficiently. Retailers will also know how to further develop their product as they can get data about customers opinions, preferences and talk through the word of mouth a bout their product in a short amount of time. This would eventually make the retailers produce what the customers want. Besides that, social media had helped retailers to have more real business opportunities. Firstly, there is IKEA who launches the Social Catalogue and is able to raise awareness with zero media budget. They focus on the desire of human being to get free stuff and consequently they get a huge amount of public relations. Then, we have Starbucks that have the Starbucks Mayor Offer on the Foursquare application. With this, Starbucks is able to gain popularity and also revenue. This shows that creativity does pay off in social media marketing campaign. Social media has definitely contributes to retailing with unique strategies in getting to know more about companys own product and also improving their sales and revenues. Furthermore, it can be observed by reading this paper that social media also have an impact on customer relationship management. We know that all employees are important in managing customer relationship in a certain company and that social media had changed traditional CRM in a more holistic way and soon it became social CRM. The two major impact social media has on CRM is the growth of customer centricity and social media has become its own lead generation machine. Social CRM also enable company to promote and grow their brand through social media tools like Facebook. There has been a shift in power that can be observed when reading this paper as customers are being given much more priority compared to older day where seller or company had the power. Companies that implement a successful CRM will get the rewards in obtaining customer loyalty and long run profitability. Conclusion There is no way to escape social media these days whether it is for individuals or business companies. It is almost impossible to draw a line separating online world from social media. There are many reasons that social media rapidly gain usage in this era of globalization. The ability to achieve news and information through social media is one of the reasons. Companies are changing and rethinking about their traditional retailing and marketing strategies. This shows that social media is contributing to the retail world. Social network is free and is available for everyone to access and it is generating a mass amount of data which is a big help to marketers and retailers. By carefully understanding the importance of customer relationship management, companies can target their customers more specifically as they have the data of their preferences and opinions. This is the impact social media has on customer relationship management. This is the time where every business takes social me dia seriously and adopts it in their departments. It is now a baseline requirement that whether you are a small or large corporation there is need to have online presence and prolonged conversation with customers. Different retail brands will have different needs and they have to adopt different approaches with different customers. It is very interesting to see how the retailing world will be affected by Facebook and Twitter in the upcoming years.

College Writing Essay -- Education Educational Persuasive Essays

College Writing When I was a senior in high school, I had an ogre for an English teacher. Mr. Bergan was one of the toughest teachers I ever had. The class was College Prepatory writing, and the goal was that, by the time we were finished, we should be able to write concise, well organized papers that would be acceptable to college level professors. Every day we would write papers, and Mr. Bergan closely read every one of them. Then he would hand them back with the details of any problems, and we would have to fix them. No one got an "A" from Bergan on their first hand in. He demanded perfection: any extra fluff had to be trimmed from the paper; any paper that did not end where it started had to be re-written so it did; if the introduction and the conclusion didn't match, we had to start the paper all over again. His demand for perfection paid off, and by the time the year was over, everyone in the class had the skills to write quality papers. Now that I am in college, I have found very few professors that demand such perfection. It seems that half-baked ideas and poorly written papers pass when the teacher doesn't have the time to pay close attention to every paper because he or she has too many other papers to read. I feel that if the teachers placed a demand for higher quality papers, rather than sheer numbers of papers, that student's writing skills would increase. Though I feel I do have the skills to write well organized, well written, high quality papers, I know that I do not utilize those skills on every paper I write. If a paper is due at the end of the quarter, I occasionally find myself waiting until the very last day, the very last possible moment before I start to write. I don't give myself enough time to w... ...flawless. There was really not much I could help this student with, so I asked her why she came in. She told me she wasn't a good writer, and wanted someone who could write well to make sure her paper was o.k. It was. Any student who doesn't realize the importance of his or her writing will not expend the effort needed to write a good paper, nor will they bother trying to obtain the sills needed to write well. They will try to b.s. their way through, caring very little for the paper itself and caring only for the grade they paper will recieve. If these things were done, I do not think it would be necessary to change the way English is taught. But, even if the change would be needed, it makes more sense to start with foundational issues of sentence construction, making sure that the simple sentences are well written, before moving on to any more complex issues.

The Relationship of Torvald and Nora Essay -- A Dolls House Henrik Ibs

The Relationship of Torvald and Nora At the beginning of the play, Nora and Helmer seem to have a happy marriage, although it is quite a childish relationship as Helmer often uses diminutive language and names such as ‘songbird’ or ‘squirrel to talk to Nora. However, by the end of the play Nora seems to have changed. The way Nora speaks changes from being a young girl to being like a woman. Finally, she leaves Torvald. At the start of the play Nora speaks in a very childish manner. You notice this when she says things such as ‘heaps’ and ‘the great blue sky’. This shows that she is mentally naive. She says these things as a child would say them. For example, the lines that she speaks have a lot of exclamation points and as Nora says some things she jumps up and down or claps her hands, this shows the childish way she acts. Torvald speaks to her in very over-romantic language and it seems as though maybe it isn’t real and their love is just part of a game. It is so romantic it seems as though he is trying to convince himself that he loves her. He says things such as ‘squirrel’, ‘lark’ or ‘songbird’. Songbirds are kept in cages so this may have something to do with Nora’s situation as Torvald controls the way she thinks and so she is caged in his world. Torvald also acts very paternally towards Nora and patronises her. Helmer uses the word ‘little’ a lot when he speaks to Nora. He calls her his ‘little Nora’ or ‘little creature’ which shows that their relationship seems to be more paternal than marital. Helmer treats Nora like a daughter. This is really noticeable when he does things like kissing her on the forehead or putting his arm around her. Helmer and Nora play a game and Nora manipulates Hel... ...lived by performing tricks for you, Torvald.’ She also says that Torvald had her as his ‘doll-wife’ and that Torvald played with her as the children played with their dolls. When she announces that she is going to leave him Torvald reacts at first by trying to forbid her from leaving ‘I shall not allow it! I forbid it!’ and since this doesn’t work Helmer tries to use religion as an argument so that she doesn’t leave. Also, he suggests that society will look on her badly, and then he pleads with her not to leave and says that he’ll change for her. However, Nora had her set view even though Helmer tried to use strength, religion and his sweet charm to keep her at home. In the end Nora leaves. She slams the door as she goes which shows a symbolic cut between her former life and the life that she is about to lead. She has finally left her Dolls house.

Cloning :: essays research papers

I am an astronaut stranded on Mars whose spaceship has broken down beyond repair. In my disabled craft there is a Teleclone Mark IV teleporter that can swiftly and painlessly dismantle my body, producing a molecule-by-molecule blueprint to be beamed to Earth. There, a Teleclone receiver stocked with the requisite atoms will produce, from the beamed instructions me- composite with all my memories, thoughts, feelings, and opinions. If I activate the Teleclone Mark IV, I believe that I am the astronaut produced from a blueprint on Earth because the astronaut that was dismantled on Mars is now only a bunch of molecules instead of a living, breathing human being. Suppose further that an improved Teleclone Mark V is developed that can obtain its blueprint without destroying the original, thus â€Å"cloning† me. In that case, I believe that I am both astronauts at once, just with two different consciousnesses.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When I activate the Teleclone Mark IV, the machine dismantles me into molecules and makes a blueprint of it to send to Earth. On Earth, I am reassembled into myself exactly as I was on Mars. I am now the astronaut that was reassembled because the astronaut that was disassembled on Mars no longer exists and is now a bunch of random molecules. It is the same concept as in â€Å"Star Trek† and â€Å"Power Rangers† when people get â€Å"beamed† to a certain place, except with the Teleclone Mark IV, you are being recreated to be exactly like your original form. There was an episode of â€Å"The Magic School Bus† where one of the students accidentally destroyed one of her classmate’s toy soldiers. She then went to a recycling factory, picked out the same material that made up the old toy soldier, and made him a new toy soldier. Even though it is made of the same material and looks exactly the same as the old toy soldier, it is not the same toy soldier because the old toy soldier was destroyed and it ceased to exist. When I was destroyed, I died and my soul went to heaven or hell. When I was reassembled on Earth, I was exactly like myself physically but I had no soul and my soul makes me who I am and separates me from everyone else. Suppose you are using a computer. It is the same thing as â€Å"cutting† something and pasting it to a new location.

Reflection and Personal Development Plan

Personal development (PDP) can be defined as â€Å"enabling people to fulfil their potential, to expand their talents and to progress at work and through life with meaning and satisfaction. † (Guirdham, 1995:116). PDP is likely to be an essential tool for development, and helps in the planning of basic strategies require to evaluate and enhance own capabilities. Evaluating personal capability entails reviewing personal qualities like the strengths and weaknesses in various areas of learning. The PDP will help me tackle the areas where weakness was seen in the learning process and ensure the areas of strength are maintained at high levels.The aim of this essay is to give a reflective account of my experience of personal development. I chose to critically reflect on ‘teamwork' and ‘leadership' skills, as not only were these skills some of the essential skills I undertook in my previous job, but these skills are also required for my future development and career prosp ect.In order to examine the factors that enhance or impede the achievement of my chosen skills, I undertook a SWOT analysis to examine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats that affect me, the work environment and I also consider the wider influencing factors.Though we learn from experience, PDP enables us to get into the habit of frequently recording that learning as well as thinking about how it could be applied in the future. Personal development (PDP) can be defined as â€Å"enabling people to fulfil their potential, to expand their talents and to progress at work and through life with meaning and satisfaction. † (Guirdham, 1995:116). PDP is likely to be an essential tool for development, and helps in the planning of basic strategies require to evaluate and enhance own capabilities.Evaluating personal capability entails reviewing personal qualities like the strengths and weaknesses in various areas of learning. The PDP will help me tackle the areas where weakn ess was seen in the learning process and ensure the areas of strength are maintained at high levels.The aim of this essay is to give a reflective account of my experience of personal development. I chose to critically reflect on ‘teamwork' and ‘leadership' skills, as not only were these skills some of the essential skills I undertook in my previous job, but these skills are also required for my future development and career prospect.In order to examine the factors that enhance or impede the achievement of my chosen skills, I undertook a SWOT analysis to examine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats that affect me, the work environment and I also consider the wider influencing factors. Though we learn from experience, PDP enables us to get into the habit of frequently recording that learning as well as thinking about how it could be applied in the future.

The Printing Press

The Printing Press There have been many important inventions over the past millennium. Many of them have helped shape society into what it is today. None however have contributed as much to the world as the printing press has. The printing press was invented in the year 1440 by Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, Germany. The printing press consisted of a large press which held plates where movable type could be inserted to spell out entire books page by page. The press was either operated by a large screw or lever which pressed the inked letters onto the sheet of paper.Once done the letters had to be rearranged to make the next page and then repeated for each new page in the book. This process however slow was much faster than the old method of hand writing the books and great deal cheaper as well. The invention of the printing press was the most important invention of the last millennium because it spread ideas throughout Europe, forever altered modern society and it gave the common people power and the chance to become literate. The printing press was the most important invention of the last millennium because it allowed many important ideas and opinions to be more easily widespread to the general public.The printing press helped the spread of ideas through the production of books. The ability to mass produce books and pamphlets helped many political leaders spread their views to the public more easily. These views of the political leaders, good or bad were now accessible to the general public. The ability to read leader’s views and form public opinions helped shape the world into what it is today. Printed books also explored ideas on science and technology which helped bring forth scientific knowledge that shaped the scientific revolution.The press gave freedom to the general public in a new form of expression of thought. People now had a new way of recording their thoughts and sharing it with others. This freedom of expressive print was very liberating for o nes message could reach many in a short time. The printing press invention was important to people in many fields for it allowed the political powers to continue to expand, it provides the opportunity to share scientific knowledge and it allowed the public freedom to share in print format. Modern society was affected in many crucial ways because of the printing press.One of the ways that society is affected by this invention from so many years ago is that it brought about the standardization of spelling and grammar. This was and still is important because it brought about the awareness that in order to properly communicate there would need to be a standardized form of spelling and spelling rules. This set standard form of spelling shaped many languages and made the written communication of them easy in the past and still today. The second way that its affects are noted still today is it helped spread religious views to various corners of the world in print format.The importance of t his is that this source of books such as the bible or other religious books allowed religious views to be read about and shared in the home rather than just being a message listened to at church. It provided common written messages and because of this many religions such as Christianity could be spread easier throughout the world. These religious writings formed a common base for religion to be prevalent today. Another way in which society was affected by the printing press is that it helped the world’s technology advance faster.People could afford to buy factual books and educate themselves through reading. The more educated that people became, the more they searched for ways to make life better with their knowledge they had acquired from reading books. Today’s society still largely relies on written print as a way to gain knowledge. Modern society and its advancement in written language structure religious followings and technologies advancement are rooted in the his tory of the printing press and would look much different today if the printing press had not been invented.The invention of the printing press allowed many ordinary citizens the chance to own a book and learn to read. Before the invention of the printing press the cost and time to make a book limited the owning of a book to the very wealthy. However with the invention of the printing press as well as the newly found knowledge of how to make paper from the Arabs printing books became rather inexpensive and much less time consuming. These important advancements made it so average people could now afford to buy books, people began to learn how to read and therefore more opinions and ideas were spread.Literacy rates improved and with this knowledge it allowed the common peasants power to understand what was happening in their country. This power of being literate was important because it provided them opportunity to plan to make life better for oneself. Today books still have an importa nce for having books and being literate is important because if one can read and understand things in their world it gives one choices of how they can interact with others. The printing press was the most important invention of the last millennium.Its effects were important in 1440 to spread political, scientific and technological ideas. Its effects are still important today in spelling and grammar, religion and in nonfiction education. It gave people power to be owners of printed material and it promoted a desire to learn to educate oneself to read. The printing press was crucial in the advancement of society. Power in written form is a document to learn from and expand from. The printing press allowed societies historical events and ideas to be documented and allowed man to learn from the past to progress the future. The Printing Press The Printing Press There have been many important inventions over the past millennium. Many of them have helped shape society into what it is today. None however have contributed as much to the world as the printing press has. The printing press was invented in the year 1440 by Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, Germany. The printing press consisted of a large press which held plates where movable type could be inserted to spell out entire books page by page. The press was either operated by a large screw or lever which pressed the inked letters onto the sheet of paper.Once done the letters had to be rearranged to make the next page and then repeated for each new page in the book. This process however slow was much faster than the old method of hand writing the books and great deal cheaper as well. The invention of the printing press was the most important invention of the last millennium because it spread ideas throughout Europe, forever altered modern society and it gave the common people power and the chance to become literate. The printing press was the most important invention of the last millennium because it allowed many important ideas and opinions to be more easily widespread to the general public.The printing press helped the spread of ideas through the production of books. The ability to mass produce books and pamphlets helped many political leaders spread their views to the public more easily. These views of the political leaders, good or bad were now accessible to the general public. The ability to read leader’s views and form public opinions helped shape the world into what it is today. Printed books also explored ideas on science and technology which helped bring forth scientific knowledge that shaped the scientific revolution.The press gave freedom to the general public in a new form of expression of thought. People now had a new way of recording their thoughts and sharing it with others. This freedom of expressive print was very liberating for o nes message could reach many in a short time. The printing press invention was important to people in many fields for it allowed the political powers to continue to expand, it provides the opportunity to share scientific knowledge and it allowed the public freedom to share in print format. Modern society was affected in many crucial ways because of the printing press.One of the ways that society is affected by this invention from so many years ago is that it brought about the standardization of spelling and grammar. This was and still is important because it brought about the awareness that in order to properly communicate there would need to be a standardized form of spelling and spelling rules. This set standard form of spelling shaped many languages and made the written communication of them easy in the past and still today. The second way that its affects are noted still today is it helped spread religious views to various corners of the world in print format.The importance of t his is that this source of books such as the bible or other religious books allowed religious views to be read about and shared in the home rather than just being a message listened to at church. It provided common written messages and because of this many religions such as Christianity could be spread easier throughout the world. These religious writings formed a common base for religion to be prevalent today. Another way in which society was affected by the printing press is that it helped the world’s technology advance faster.People could afford to buy factual books and educate themselves through reading. The more educated that people became, the more they searched for ways to make life better with their knowledge they had acquired from reading books. Today’s society still largely relies on written print as a way to gain knowledge. Modern society and its advancement in written language structure religious followings and technologies advancement are rooted in the his tory of the printing press and would look much different today if the printing press had not been invented.The invention of the printing press allowed many ordinary citizens the chance to own a book and learn to read. Before the invention of the printing press the cost and time to make a book limited the owning of a book to the very wealthy. However with the invention of the printing press as well as the newly found knowledge of how to make paper from the Arabs printing books became rather inexpensive and much less time consuming. These important advancements made it so average people could now afford to buy books, people began to learn how to read and therefore more opinions and ideas were spread.Literacy rates improved and with this knowledge it allowed the common peasants power to understand what was happening in their country. This power of being literate was important because it provided them opportunity to plan to make life better for oneself. Today books still have an importa nce for having books and being literate is important because if one can read and understand things in their world it gives one choices of how they can interact with others. The printing press was the most important invention of the last millennium.Its effects were important in 1440 to spread political, scientific and technological ideas. Its effects are still important today in spelling and grammar, religion and in nonfiction education. It gave people power to be owners of printed material and it promoted a desire to learn to educate oneself to read. The printing press was crucial in the advancement of society. Power in written form is a document to learn from and expand from. The printing press allowed societies historical events and ideas to be documented and allowed man to learn from the past to progress the future.