Walt and Emily Go A-Courtin’

The magnificent spring of 1850 seemed to inspire love for everyone, except Walt.   When I found him pulling leaves of grass from the lawn and talking to them, I knew he needed a lady.  Ã‚   My sister’s friend’s cousin Emily was visiting from Boston, and though he was ten years older than her, we decided it would be perfect. Walt took a bath and trimmed his beard before setting off to visit Emily in Connecticut. Having left just before dawn, Walt was tired from the hours-long ride from Brooklyn when he arrived, but the site of a dainty waif emerging through the door renewed his vigor.   He doffed his hat and said with a smile, â€Å"Greetings!   Miss Dickinson, I presume?† â€Å"I'm Nobody!   Who are you?† she asked in a nervous, diminutive voice.   â€Å"Are you nobody  too?† (â€Å"I’m nobody! Who are you?† 1-2). â€Å"Walt Whitman am I, a Kosmos, of mighty Manhattan the son† (â€Å"Walt Whitman,† 492), he said confidently.   â€Å"I am definitely not nobody, and you, miss, appear to be somebody, too.† â€Å"How dreary  Ã¢â‚¬â€œÃ‚  to be  somebody!† Emily exclaimed.   â€Å"How public  Ã¢â‚¬â€œÃ‚  like a Frog  Ã¢â‚¬â€œÃ‚  to tell one’s name  the livelong June (â€Å"I’m nobody!† 5-7).   I am here and so are you, with our names or without.   Names cannot change that.† â€Å"Your every word is poetry,† Walt said.   He then stepped closer to Emily, took her hand and said, â€Å"Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you, that you be my poem† (â€Å"To You,† 7).   Emily melted at his words; Walt asked, â€Å"Would you care to walk with me, Miss Dickinson?† Emily was nervous, but she had faith that her cousin would not allow a questionable suitor, though his appearance was scruffier than she hoped.   â€Å"Let me get my shawl,† she said running back into the house, returning moments later.   â€Å"It's all I have to bring today,† she said of the cottony shawl.   â€Å"This, and my heart beside.   This, and my heart, and all the fields, and all the meadows wide† (â€Å"It's all I have to bring to-day,† 1-4). The pair walked down to Jefferson Park, talking about life, nature, and their love of writing.   This was only the second time Emily had left her parent’s house in Amherst and she spoke of her family a great deal (â€Å"Emily Dickinson†).   Emily was fascinated by Walt’s stories of traveling from New York to New Orleans.   He explained how seeing slavery encouraged him to move back to New York to start the Brooklyn Freeman (â€Å"Walt Whitman†).   They reached a patch of wildflowers near a vast lawn.   Walt reached down and picked a daisy. â€Å"The runaway slave came to my house and stopt outside† (â€Å"Walt Whitman,† 182), he said.   â€Å"I took him in, cleaned his wounds, ate dinner with him.   He staid with me a week before he was recuperated and pass’d north (189).   I aspire to help all those wishing escape from the cruel bondage inflicted by others.   Or, afflicted upon themselves.†Ã‚   He gave the daisy to Emily. â€Å"I never hear the word ‘escape’ without a quicker blood, a sudden expectation, a flying attitude† (â€Å"I never hear the word ‘escape’,† 1-4), confessed Emily.   â€Å"I reason, earth is short, and anguish absolute.   And many hurt; but what of that?† (â€Å"I reason earth is short,† 1-4). â€Å"In this broad Earth of ours,  amid the measureless grossness and the slag, enclosed and safe within its central heart,  nestles the seed Perfection (â€Å"Song of the Universal,† 4-7),† said Walt.   â€Å"Freedom, democracy, the brotherhood of man—these we will achieve together, or die in absolute misery, pain, and despair.† â€Å"Let me not mar that perfect dream† (â€Å"Let me not mar that perfect dream,† 1), she said, as she placed the daisy in Walt’s lapel.   She picked another one and put it behind her ear.   â€Å"Dreams fuel love, and love, intellect.† The pair walked for hours through the vast lawns of the park, along the foot trails that weaved through the woods.   They realized that any potential love shared for each other would be lyrical not physical, and their spiritual differences ran deep.   They finally made their way back to the house of Emily’s cousin, promised to correspond, and decided to part as friends. â€Å"I hide myself within my flower, that wearing on your breast, you, unsuspecting, wear me too† (â€Å"I hide myself within my flower,† 1-3), said Emily from the front stoop. â€Å"You inspire me, miss, and for this I thank you.   Each meaningful word I write, I will take comfort knowing you will be somewhere doing likewise,† Walt bowed.   â€Å"And now, I shall go forth,  I shall traverse The States awhile—but I cannot tell whither or how long (â€Å"As the Time Draws Nigh,† 3-4).   My words are yours, Miss Emily Dickson.† Walt departed restored, ready to sing the splendors of life, love, and individual freedom.   He needed not a girl, but inspiration, which he found in the young poetess.   Emily went upstairs equally inspired and began to write about the day.   They exchanged letters long after their lone meeting, but Walt and Emily never met again. Works Cited: Dickinson, Emily. â€Å"I hide myself within my flower,†Ã‚   â€Å"I never hear the word ‘escape’,† â€Å"I reason earth is short,† â€Å"I’m nobody! Who are you?†,   â€Å"It's all I have to bring to-day,† â€Å"Let me not mar that perfect dream.† The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Boston: Little, Brown, 1924; Bartleby.com, 2000. 7 January 2007   . â€Å"Emily Dickinson.† Poets.org from the Academy of American Poets.   2007.   7 January 2007 . â€Å"Walt Whiman.† Poets.org from the Academy of American Poets.   2007.   7 January 2007 . Whitman, Walt. â€Å"As the Time Draws Nigh,† â€Å"Song of the Universal,† â€Å"To You,† â€Å"Walt Whitman,† Leaves of Grass. Philadelphia: David McKay, [c1900]; Bartleby.com, 1999. 7 January 2007 .   

Blaine Kitchenware Case Study Answers Essay

1. ABOUT THE COMPANY Blain Kitchenware, Inc. (BKI), founded in 1927, is a mid-sized producer of small appliances for residential kitchens. BKI has an approximate 10% market share of the $2.3 billion U.S. market for small kitchen appliances, with 65% of sales originating from the US market. The company is public since 1994, and the majority of the shares is controlled by the founder’s family (62% of outstanding shares), who also have a strong representation in the board of directors. Mr. Dubinski – the CEO since 1992 and great-grandson of one of the founders, successfully completed an IPO in 1994 and gradually moved the production abroad in the early 90s. BIK`s current strategy is to complement its product offerings by acquiring small independent manufacturers or the kitchen appliance product lines of larger diversified manufacturers. The financial data at the end of 2006 reflects a strong financial position: The company has raised nearly no debt, it is very liquid, but also under-levered. BKI is one of the strongest companies in this industry in terms of EBITDA margin (22% in 2006), high level of cash holdings and no debt. However, the shift toward higher-end product line could not prevent the margins from a slight decline over the last three years. This was mainly explained by the integration costs and inventory write-downs due to the acquisitions completed so far. The other reason was that its organic revenue growth had suffered in recent years, as some of the core products lost market share. The growth of the top line was mainly due to the acquisitions. BKI’s annual return on equity is significantly below that of its publicly traded peers: 11% compared to an average of 25,9 and a median of 19.5 %. Now the over-liquid and under-levered BKI is facing strong pressure from a private equity group interested in buying the company`s common stock. Thus, the CEO considers a stock repurchase to avoid a hostile takeover. The company decided to distribute all excess cash as a dividend. The second step will be the recapitalization plan to hold permanently $ 300m of debt on the balance sheet, which is a difficult decision due to the first sign of the mortgage crisis. Moreover, the company expects annual revenue decline of 4%  in 2007-2009, and a permanent 2% growth rate afterwards. 2. METHODOLOGY AND VALUATION From a company`s perspective, the benefit of debt is the tax shields created, which are captured by equity holders. The family-controlled company in our case has little experience with holding debt and the board of directors might not easily accept the restructuring plan. What they should know is that the right amount of debt increases the firm’s value and discourages the takeovers. However, a too-high level of debt can lead to financial distress, lower credit rating, and higher interest expenses. For BIK, the credit rating regressed from A (Iteration 1) to A- (Iteration 10), accordingly changing the credit spread from 1.40% to 1.65%. Our aim is to asses the how the proposed recapitalization will affect the enterprise value, after the distribution of the excess cash as dividends, by using APV. We estimate the present value of the firm as if it were all-equity financed (VU), then we add the present value of tax shield associated with the new debt (permanent debt with market value of 300 mln USD), and subtract the present value of bankruptcy costs. We have to estimate expected after-tax operating cash flows , the expected tax shields and discount them at two different discount rates: (unlevered cost of capital) and (usually , cost of debt). For the present value of the bankruptcy costs, we have to first estimate the risk-neutral probability of default of the company. VL = VU + PV (future tax shields from debt) – PV (bankruptcy costs),  or rewritten as  threshold coverage ratio for default  probability of firm default conditional on surviving up to a specified period We start with a forecast of expected after-tax operating cash flows. We assume the annual 4% decline in revenues between 2007 and 2009 from the 2006 level, and a permanent 2% growth afterwards. Analysing the historical values of the operating margins from the Income Statement, we forecast values for the 2007-2009 period. The executives of BKI expect the firm to achieve operating margins at least as high as the historical ones. Thus, we took averages and slightly adjusted them toward higher values. Since the declining tendency in the last three years was cause by integration costs and inventory write-downs associated with acquisitions, which already have been completed. To the EBIT, estimated by using those margins, subtract the taxes, Capex, adjust for Depreciation, Amortization and change in Working capital. The capital expenditures were just over $10m on average per year. The company is expecting the Capex remain modest. Thus, we assumed a Capex of $10m for the next three years. We estimated Net Working Capital by using the average ratio of NWC/Net income of the last three years. Finally, we come up with the value for the operating after-tax operating cash flows for the next three years and the terminal value. We calculate the present value of these cash flows by discounting by the unlevered cost of capital, rU given as 8.7%, which gives us a value of the unlevered firm of ca. $566m. Secondly, we estimate the expected tax shields from the debt level: a permanent amount of $300m market value, and a constant tax rate of 40%. Then we calculate their present value using the appropriate discount rate reflecting the risk, rT (or rD). For the bankruptcy cost, we have the percentage of the unlevered-firm value of 20%, but for the present value, we need to estimate the risk-neutral probability of default q. This probability is calculated iteratively starting from the coverage ratio (EBITt-1 / Interest Expense). We match the coverage ratio number with the corresponding credit rating, which then has a corresponding default. This gives us the yield on debt y, the cost of debt rD, and the risk-neutral probability of default q. The formula for q is q=  where Ï  is the recovery rate in case of default, given here as 41%. In order to calculate the expected interest coverage ratio, we took the average EBIT between 2007 and 2009 for the mean of pre-tax cash flows, as well as the according standard deviation, since our estimation is future based. 2. SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSION We can conclude that by raising debt of $300m the company would be better of, since the value of the levered firm would be 16% higher that the value of the unlevered firm and will discourage the takeovers. However, the sensitivity analysis gives us an optimal value of debt of $354m, which would lead to an optimal ratio between the PV of tax shields and bankruptcy costs and, thus, a value of maximal levered firm of $680m, given that our assumptions for AVP will be realized in the future.

Psychology †Consciousness Essay

Education in its general sense is a form of learning in which the knowledge, skills, and habits of a group of people are transferred from one generation to the next through teaching, training, or research. Education frequently takes place under the guidance of others, but may also be autodidactic. [1] Any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts may be considered educational. the word â€Å"education† is derived from the Latin educatio (â€Å"A breeding, a bringing up, a rearing†) from educo (â€Å"I educate, I train†) which is related to the homonym educo (â€Å"I lead forth, I take out; I raise up, I erect†) from e- (â€Å"from, out of†) and duco (â€Å"I lead, I conduct†). PSYCHOLOGY It is the study of Psyche. Psyche it mean mind or soul as it appear in human. It is the totality of the human mind, conscious, and unconscious. The basic meaning of the Greek word psyche was â€Å"life† in the sense of â€Å"breath†, formed from the verb psyche derived meanings included â€Å"spirit†, â€Å"soul†, â€Å"ghost†, and ultimately â€Å"self† in the sense of â€Å"conscious personality† or â€Å"psyche I AM GROWING AS PERSON Like all children, when I was growing up all I ever wanted to do was to be big. I always kept a close eye on my role models (my parents) and always tried to do anything they did. The skills I learn and the attitude I acquired from a young age would be of immense help to me in my later years. From the age of five, the memories I have are those of following my father around the yard watching feeding animals. My father would sometimes give me a small jar / container that I could help him feed the animal and although the job I did was insignificant and most likely not done properly, i always got a sense of pride and satisfaction in my work. In my teenage years my role around the house had changed. My father was no longer around and my mother had the pressure of providing for my younger brother and myself. During school holidays I was responsible for looking after my brother and keeping the amused at the same time, not an easy task at all. During this time I had also managed to get casual employment. Although the money I earn was not significant but it was enough for me to pay for my hobbies and ease some pressure off my mother. Now as an adult I have a steady job. I have never seen myself as a victim from anyone because all the good and bad experiences of my younger years it have helped me become a successful and determined person. The support that I received and continue to receive from my family was also a major drive for me to want to succeed as well. I think that everyone’s life is always full of good and bad experiences. The key is to appreciate the good and find a way of turning a negative situation into a positive. For example, when my father was no longer around it could have been seen to be a negative situation. However, learning to look after my brother and earning a little pocket money was perhaps the best and most useful experiences I had. In humans, growing up can be physical, emotional, spiritual, and psychological. This means that a person becomes more mature as a result of changes in behavior, actions and thoughts that are experienced in the process of growing up. An individual’s character and personality are seen as very vital as they grow up. While growing up, there are many challenges that a person may come across, and the opportunities to become a good person are always there. Due to our uniqueness, we tend to express our beliefs, convictions, and thoughts differently. One very important attribute in relation to growing up is the physical development. Though physical development may not necessarily translate in to growing up, growing up is closely related to physical maturity. An individual is considered to grow up when they display good character and responsible behavior. The process of growing up is always accompanied by a certain level of transformation in an individual, where transformation either makes one a better person or a bad person. At some stage in our lives, we are expected to be changed through the process of growing up. The expectations of the others from us assist in cultivating our actions and behavior that show that we are grown up or we are growing up. An individual who practice self control and display good behavior is a good example of a person who is growing up. These attributes define a grown up person and if a person displays these attributes, the person can be said to be growing up towards the right direction. Discipline is very essential in achieving human fulfillment . Since a person who is growing up seeks this fulfillment, there is no doubt that the only way a person can achieve fulfillment is through discipline.

The sound of my alarm clock started ringing

The sound of my alarm clock started ringing.   I tried to stop it in my half-awake state, looking at the clock; it read 7:30 in the morning. I tried to push myself up and prepare for work.   Once I got up, I opened the curtains and felt the sun’s rays touch my eyes.I felt that it’s going to be beautiful day. As I proceed to the kitchen, the smell of brewing coffee aroused my senses and captivated me to drink a cup before heading for the bathroom and prepare for work.After I finished fixing myself, I headed out of my unit and went outside. The sights of the place seem to indicate that fall is fast approaching.   It is when leaves starting to turn to brown, birds chirping and the winds slowly building.As I walk on the sidewalk towards the subway, I glimpsed at children laughing and playing while their parents reprimand them of staying put. Even though the sun is exhibiting its brightness and warmth, the wind seems to overpower him as it sends chills in my body. Afte r a couple of strides, I arrived at the park.There the trees sway as if they are encouraging the wind to never stop. The usual visitors were there doing their own thing. The jogger, as I want to call her, was doing her laps.   The old couple was at their usual places reading the morning papers with each one giving me a smile as I headed my way.There was nothing unusual about this but the weather seemed to indicate otherwise. People looked more calm and cheerful while the birds are as if chirping their last and the wind seemed to blow an aura of happiness to every individual.   As I approached the subway station, I again took the liberty to look at town, seeing that everything seems to be in their proper order, I started to head down.Sitting in the train and recalling the instances that greeted me awhile back, I started to show a glimpse of a smile.   After all that happened, I know for a fact that today is going to be a beautiful day for everyone.

Heartfailure readmissions Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Heartfailure readmissions - Research Paper Example Thus, it is not a shock that heart failure hospitalization is the focus for quality improvement, as well as cost reduction efforts (Wang, 2013). The CMS - Center for Medicare and Medicaid Service has made it compulsory to report hospital-level 30-day readmission rates for heart failure plus acute myocardial infarction in an attempt to enhance outcomes (Simpson, 2014). For this paper, I will be focusing on the safety aspects of heart failure and what we as nurses can do to boost self-management. Since a huge part of self-management includes education, collaboration with healthcare providers, and the actions/behaviors of patients, I will focus on issues such as adhering to the prescribed medication regimen, diet and exercise, and managing stress/emotions. The paper will also describe the barriers to healthy behaviors in the community and describes the priority health concerns and nature of the problem. Patients with heart failure develop harsh conditions due to this illness which affects their safety (Gerdes & Lcrenz, 2013). These safety concerns include severe weight gain, worsening shortness of breath, new or worsening leg swelling, inability to sleep without sitting up, difficulty breathing during the night, which is affected by widespread coughing, chest pain of a heavy feeling in the chest area and finally lack of weight loss effect from extra water pills (Warden et al., 2014). With a small planning, as well as support from nurses, heart failure patients can live safely and comfortably (Wang, 2013). An important consideration might be how remaining in hospital might improve the patients quality of life plus be a genuine source of happiness to the patient. Efforts to enhance heart failure care have focused on clinical and physiological variables, hospital and provider performance, as well as pubic reporting on quality heart failure indicators to recognize and characterize pati ent risk (Warden et al., 2014). To date, there has been far less

LNG & LPG vs. Kerosene in Fueling Aircrafts Essay

LNG & LPG vs. Kerosene in Fueling Aircrafts - Essay Example Indeed, there are high-tech types of aircrafts in the world that use different forms of energy, improved technology, and carrying many passengers. Nevertheless, there are other factors that affect the operations in the aviation industry that include environmental factors, price of fuel and other aircraft equipment, and the development of more effective and convenient sources of energy (Federal Aviation Administration, 2009). However, this paper will address the issue of fueling different types of aircrafts in different parts of the world and at different environments. More so, the paper will compare all relevant factors that relate to the usage of kerosene, LPG, and LNG in fueling aircrafts. Ideally, powerful piston engines and jet turbines that run aircraft engines require more combustible and complicated engine fuels than other engines including vehicles. Most importantly, the technological development of aircraft fuels and other relevant technological advancements have a huge impa ct on the engine fuels that aircrafts use today. Indeed, the invention of jet engines propagated a big challenge for engine designers since such engines require fuels that take time to vaporize not like Avgas that turns to gaseous state so easily. Nevertheless, the newly invented equally have other requirements thus mandating the aircraft engineers to use kerosene or a kerosene-gasoline mix instead of gasoline alone. Furthermore, certain types of aircraft operations require specific types of fuel to operate. However, regardless of the used type of jet fuel, all jet fuels must attain the standards aircraft turbine engines and fuel systems requirements. Actually, all aircraft engine fuels must be free from oxidation deposits in high-temperature zones and must be pristine. In the aviation industry, aircraft engineers rate the effectiveness of jet fuels according to its level of octane (U.S Centennial of Flight Commission, n.y). In fact, aircraft engineer prescribe high amounts of octan e in jet fuels as they effectively permit a powerful piston engine to burn its fuel. For many years, the aviation industry used the same kind of gasoline to power aircraft engines. However, after various studies and engine technological developments, they realized that gasoline was not efficient for powering the large, powerful engines used by piston-driven airplanes. Hence, the introduction of JET B fuel in civilian aviation. Though expensive, JET B fuel performs superbly in cold-weather performance and is in the class of naphtha-kerosene. Nevertheless, JET B fuel has a lighter composition making it dangerous to handle and thus not applicable in cold weather. Notably, aircraft combustors demand for jet fuels that are smokeless, that atomize and combust at low temperatures, and release adequate heat. Such fuels should also ignite with controlled radiation and cause no attack to hot turbines (ALGLAS, 2012). Furthermore, long-duration flights, and high altitudes equally necessitate fo r jet fuels with specified requirements. However, flight engineers use petroleum to manufacture almost all jet fuels in the world today. Nevertheless, we still have a small percentage of jet fuels from oil sands, shale oil, natural gas, and coal. Actually, kerosene and paraffin oil-based fuel are the most common jet fuels mostly known as JET A-1.Indeed, JET A-1fuel draws world recognition as it complies with international standards of jet fuel specifications (ALGLAS, 2012). There are concerned efforts to develop other jet fuel plants and move away from the high cost synthetic fuels manufacturers. Indeed, the United States America imports synthetic fuel since it does not have Fischer-Tropsch plants to manufacture jet fuel. Assuredly,

The Eternal Beatles (How did the group develop over the span of their Essay

The Eternal Beatles (How did the group develop over the span of their career) - Essay Example The Beatles were the embodiment of the 1960’s. They began their career as one type of band and ended as quite another altogether. This is the theme of their development, how they transformed from seemingly carefree suit and tie wearing lads who created innocuous, relatively simple songs to counter-culture icons widely perceived as leaders of a societal revolution. For America, the Beatles could not have emerged at a better time. The Beatles appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in February of 1964, served to effectively end the period of deep and seemingly endless mourning the country experienced following John F. Kennedy’s assassination the previous November. Since then, the country and the world has never been quite the same. The Beatles’ influence directly affected music, art, fashion, philosophy and culture from that time throughout the remainder of 1960’s and the band remains iconic still today. The February Ed Sullivan Show attracted 73 million viewers, 60 per cent of all American viewers, the largest ever television audience. That same month, ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ became the Beatles’ first record to make it to number one on the U.S. singles chart and by the next month the ‘Fab Four’ held the top five spots and six of the top ten positions in Canada. Their first national tour in the U.S. during August and September that same year, they â€Å"performed before more people than any other artists in the history of American pop music including Elvis Presley.† In 1964, Americans would spend more than $50 million on sales of Beatle-related merchandise as estimated by The Wall Street Journal.