Young Male Violence and the Communities that Nurture It Essay examples

Jerry sat nervously at his desk, staring at the clock while about twenty pairs of eyes momentarily glanced over or glared at him. The seconds were slipping by far too quickly as the teacher finished explaining the homework assignment for the next day, and Jerry could feel the sweat slipping prevail over his back in equitable the same way. All day long he had heard second hand threats from the other kids at school that Tim substructure was going to pound him before the day was through, and Tim sent vicious looks his way to reaffirm the rumors. The bell rang and Jerry darted from his seat he ran down the hallway to his locker where he grabbed his skateboard for the ride home. A couple of his friends ran into him, and together they began sprinting out of the school building. One of the teachers yelled after them, Slow down boys Theres no fire They hadnt been fast enough, because Tim and his friends and a whole group of onlookers were already waiting in the alley just beyond the school parking lot. Jerry threw his things on the ground. Tim was furious because Jerry had verbally humiliated him the day before in a restaurant most of the kids at school hung out at to make matters worse, Jerry had just started dating Tims ex-girlfriend. The crowd was excited because both of the boys were pretty well built bets had been placed, and the cliched chant, Fight Fight Fight spilled out before Jerry and Tim could plain exchange words. Without hesitation, Tim threw the first punch and Jerry, stumbling backward, tripped and fell to the ground. The crowd of kids roared and Tim shook hands with some of his buddies. While no one was looking, Jerry sprung up and dealt a hard protrusion to the back of Tims head with the trucks of his skateboard. T... ...minance. If you will recall, in the beginning of this report I stated that a teacher was calling out to some puppyish men, Theres no fire However, in reality there is a fire, and this fire takes the form of the pr essure on young potents to be uncivilised members of our species.Whether it is an urban communitys physical violence, a suburban communitys mental violence, or the sexual violence common to both, it is interesting to tincture that so much of it is strongly upheld and created by the working culture of men. Much of the violence has to do with the pressures on males to be providers something we often think has disappeared. Ultimately, it is exactly these kinds of pressures, norms, and tradition in combination with a general need for acceptance that amount to the stress on young men to make it to the top. This is what fuels the fire of young male violence.

Parental Involvement in their Childs Education Essay example -- Educa

When my six year old girl comes home every Friday I expect a green folder filled with colorful masterpieces she created during merged arts, three new weekly reading books, seven to ten double sided pages of homework, an array of spam letter trying to sell us food and a variety of other things and last nevertheless not least, letters from her teacher. Every week it is my responsibility to go through this folder, respond to communication letters, and work with my daughter to complete any assigned work. If I do not work with her on this it wont get done and she will fall toilet in crop. Yes, there are some days that I wish I could just cant over on my TV and ignore the fact that she has homework, but until she graduates it is my responsibility to insure her future by enforcing rules on homework and school. It seems everything parents do is for their tiddlerren, but who has time to tally more than conferences and study sessions to an already hectic inscription? Every parent wan ts the best for their child, but most arent willing to step up where children claim them most, in the classroom. Parental affair in a childs education makes a world of difference, it lowers dropout rates, raises test scores, improves the childs outlook on education and the list goes on. It would seem like a no brainer that it is really important for parents to find time to be more involved for the sake of their childs future. Yet parents are not doing this willingly, which is the power Florida state Representative Kelli Stargels proposed a faithfulness that would grade parents based upon the most basic parental involvement in their childs education. Could a law enforcing parental involvement be the missing link in the education system or is a childs education the responsib... ... PTA meetings, or school board meetings, its simply trying to enforce very basic involvement in a childs education. Parents should be, and need to be more involved in the education of their children, af ter all the children are our future.Works CitedBelkin, L. (2011, May 22) Whose Failing set Is It? New York Times, 2(L). Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 17 Jan. 2012.Couwels, J. (2011, January 26) Florida lawmaker wants teachers to grade parents. CNN U.S. Retrieved from http//www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/26/florida.grading.parents/index.htmlFriedman, T. L. (2011, November 20) How About Better Parents? New York Times, 11(L). Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 17 Jan. 2012.Kronholz, J. (2012, January 17) Truants The challenges of memory kids in school. Education Next, 11.1, 32-38. OmniFile Full Text Select. Web. 17 Jan. 2012. Parental Involvement in their Childs Education Essay example -- EducaWhen my six year old daughter comes home every Friday I expect a green folder filled with colorful masterpieces she created during integrated arts, three new weekly reading books, seven to ten double sided pages of homework, an array of spam letters trying to sell us food and a variety of other things and last but not least, letters from her teacher. Every week it is my responsibility to go through this folder, respond to communication letters, and work with my daughter to complete any assigned work. If I do not work with her on this it wont get done and she will fall behind in school. Yes, there are some days that I wish I could just flip on my TV and ignore the fact that she has homework, but until she graduates it is my responsibility to insure her future by enforcing rules on homework and school. It seems everything parents do is for their children, but who has time to add more conferences and study sessions to an already hectic schedule? Every parent wants the best for their child, but most arent willing to step up where children need them most, in the classroom. Parental involvement in a childs education makes a world of difference, it lowers dropout rates, raises test scores, improves the childs outlook on education and the list goes on. It would seem like a no brainer that it is really important for parents to find time to be more involved for the sake of their childs future. Yet parents are not doing this willingly, which is the reason Florida state Representative Kelli Stargels proposed a law that would grade parents based upon the most basic parental involvement in their childs education. Could a law enforcing parental involvement be the missing link in the education system or is a childs education the responsib... ... PTA meetings, or school board meetings, its simply trying to enforce very basic involvement in a childs education. Parents should be, and need to be more involved in the education of their children, after all the children are our future.Works CitedBelkin, L. (2011, May 22) Whose Failing Grade Is It? New York Times, 2(L). Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 17 Jan. 2012.Couwels, J. (2011, January 26) Florida lawmaker wants teachers to grade parents. CNN U.S. Retrieved from http//www.cnn.com/ 2011/US/01/26/florida.grading.parents/index.htmlFriedman, T. L. (2011, November 20) How About Better Parents? New York Times, 11(L). Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 17 Jan. 2012.Kronholz, J. (2012, January 17) Truants The challenges of keeping kids in school. Education Next, 11.1, 32-38. OmniFile Full Text Select. Web. 17 Jan. 2012.

Future of Svalbard :: essays research papers

Recently, a lot of focus has been drawn towards glaciers, and how they may mixture due to global warming, and in turn, affect the rest of the population around it. Svalbard is one such place with many glaciers, in particular it is comprised of about two-thirds arctic landmass. With such a high amount of land covered by glaciers, and with the ever-increasing risk of global warming, how would Svalbard change with the combination of these and many other factors? Although the rest of the world is worried that with global rising, temperatures pull up stakes continue to get hotter, Svalbard is likely to suffer exactly the opposite fate. Initially, it will become warmer, but this heat will piecemeal melt the many ice caps and glaciers found around Svalbard. The freshwater released from these huge sources would slowly change the mindscape immediately around it, with the effects it has on the environment dispersal out to affect more and more areas.Firstly, the landscape around would b e dramatically eroded. Whereas a glacier pushes out of the way objects in its path, and erodes the surrounding area through a combination of ablation, plucking and freeze-thaw, the glacier itself commonly hides the features it creates, but when the glacier melts, features such as cirques, horns, artes, hanging valleys and waterfalls can be seen. Also, the melt water would itself cut a fiddling v-shape in the base of the U-shaped valley created by the glacier. The stones in the river, and deposition would cause this. Lateral and terminal moraines would also be created after the glacier deposits some of the rocks and dirt that it will have picked up as it moves. The freshwater from the glaciers would run eventually to the sea, causing sea levels to rise, and also reducing the levels of salt found in the sea. This is in fact disastrous for thermohaline circulation, which carries warm currents to Svalbard from The Gulf Stream, and takes cold water back around to e warmed again. The co ld water travels back along the surface of the sea bed around America, because it has sunk near Svalbard. It sinks due to the levels of salt here. The addition of salt makes the water heavy, dropping to the bottom. When the added glacier water reduces the salt levels, it would, in effect free thermohaline circulation completely. This would mean that, eventually, warm places would get even warmer, without the cooling sea water, and Svalbard would get even colder, without Gulf Stream water warming the East side of the islands.

FAITH AND REASON DURING THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURY :: Essays Papers

FAITH AND REASON DURING THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURY During the seventeenth and eighteenth century many an(prenominal) ideas were placed forth that ended up changing peoples faith and reason. These new ideas challenged humans conception of the universe and of ones place in it. They challenged the view of a person, and they also challenged the belief of the economy. There were many scientists and philosophers during this time period, Francis Bacon, Ren Descartes, John Locke, Nicolaus Copernicus, Isaac Newton, and Adam Smith to name a few. solely of these people contributed to the agitate in peoples faith and in their reason. They were given new ideas and a new way to look at life. Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) helped change peoples reason. People believed that most truth had already been discovered. And those who have applied themselves to the invention of arts have but cast a glance or both upon facts and examples and experience.1 Bacon believed that these people never really worried about the facts. He believed that these people were afraid that movements and changes in philosophy would end in assaults on religion. They were also afraid that their investigation of truth might be dangerous to them. But he believed that all knowledge is derived from sense experience, observation, and experimentation2 and that at that place was much left to be discovered. Bacon believed that we are servants and interpreters of nature. What we know and what we do is only what we have observed of natures order in fact or in thought.3 Ren Descartes helped change the idea of how the person is looked. He also came up with a way of deductive reasoning. He believed that human beings were endowed by beau ideal with the major power to reason and that God served as the guarantor of the correctness of clear ideas.4 Descartes believed in I think, therefore I am.5 He believed that everybody had the ability to think for themselves. Descartes provided a way of deductive reason ing, a way to arrive at an answer. The first step of this process is not to accept anything to be true unless it was not clearly true. The second step is to divide each of the difficulties into as many parts as possible. The third step is to conduct thoughts in order. And the last step is to make detailed reports to make sure that nothing is omitted.6 This method was influential well into the

Acid Base Extraction Essay -- essays research papers

Acid Base ExtractionThe purpose of this laboratory assignment was two-fold, first, we were todemonstrate the extraction of acids and dwelling houses, finally, realize whatunknowns were present. Second, we were to extract caffeine from tea. These twoassignment will be documented in two separate entities.Introduction Acid/base extraction involves carrying forbidden simple acid/basereactions in order to separate strong organic acids, weak organic acids neutralorganic compounds and basic organic nerve centers. The process for thislaboratory assignment are on the following pages.3) Separation of Carboxylic Acid, a phenylic acid and a Neutral SubstanceThe purpose of this acid/base extraction is to separate a mixture ofequal parts of benzoic acid(strong acid) and 2-naphthanol(weak base) and 1,4-dimethoxybenzene(neutral) by extracting from tert-butylmethyl ether(veryvolatile).The goal of this experiment was to identify the three components inthe mixture and to determine the percent rec overy of each from the mixture.4) Separation of a Neutral and Basic SubstanceA mixture of equal parts of a neutral substance containing eithernaphthalene or benzoin and a basic substance containing either 4-chloroanilineor ethyl 4-aminobenzoate were to be separated by extraction from an ethersolution. at one time the separation took place, and crystallization was carried out,it became possible to determine what components were in the unknown mixture, bymeans of a melting point determination.ResultsProcedure ObservationsInferenceDissolve 3.05g Phenol Mixture was a golden-Neutral acidin 30ml brown/yellow color t-butyl methyl ether inErlenmeyer flask and transfer mixture to 125ml separatory funnel employ littleether to complete the transferAdd 10 ml of waterOrganic layer=mixtureaqueous layer=water(clear)Add 10 ml saturated aqueous Sodium bicarbonateNaHCO3dissolves in solution sodium bicarbonate... ...spCaffeinesalicylate is a Pasteur pipette while theisolated(white color)formed. bea ker is in the churl bath then vacuum filter.Caffeine beaker51.61g -51.56g.05g = 50mg% yield = .05g x 100% = 20% .25gCaffeine salicylate17.198g -17.036g .062g% yield = .062g x 100% = 25% .25gConclusionharmonize to the HPLC graph that follows, my product was very pure. Theactual melting point of caffeine salicylate is 137 degree(C), my product wasfound to have a melting point of 138 degrees (C). As before, of shape thisexperiment was not done completely error-free, the error is due almost entirelyon human error.

Acid Base Extraction Essay -- essays research papers

Acid Base ExtractionThe social function of this laboratory assignment was two-fold, first, we were to border the declivity of acids and smalls, finally, determining whatunknowns were present. Second, we were to extract caffeine from tea. These twoassignment will be documented in two separate entities.Introduction Acid/base extraction involves carrying out simple acid/basereactions in order to separate strong organic acids, weak organic acids neutralorganic compounds and primary organic substances. The procedure for thislaboratory assignment are on the following pages.3) Separation of Carboxylic Acid, a Phenol and a Neutral SubstanceThe purpose of this acid/base extraction is to separate a confection ofequal parts of benzoic acid(strong acid) and 2-naphthanol(weak base) and 1,4-dimethoxybenzene(neutral) by extracting from tert-butylmethyl ether(veryvolatile).The goal of this experiment was to identify the three components inthe mixture and to determine the percent recovery of ea ch from the mixture.4) Separation of a Neutral and Basic SubstanceA mixture of equal parts of a neutral substance containing eithernaphthalene or benzoin and a basic substance containing either 4-chloroanilineor ethyl 4-aminobenzoate were to be separated by extraction from an ethersolution. Once the separation took place, and crystallization was carried out,it became possible to determine what components were in the unknown mixture, bymeans of a melting purport determination.ResultsProcedure Observations deductionDissolve 3.05g Phenol Mixture was a golden-Neutral acidin 30ml brown/yellow color t-butyl methyl ether inErlenmeyer flask and transfer mixture to 125ml separatory funnel using littleether to complete the transferAdd 10 ml of waterOrganic seam=mixtureaqueous layer=water(clear)Add 10 ml saturated aqueous Sodium bicarbonateNaHCO3dissolves in solution sodium bicarbonate... ...spCaffeinesalicylate is a Pasteur pipette temporary hookup theisolated(white color)formed. beaker i s in the ice bath then vacuum filter.Caffeine beaker51.61g -51.56g.05g = 50mg% yield = .05g x 100% = 20% .25gCaffeine salicylate17.198g -17.036g .062g% yield = .062g x 100% = 25% .25gConclusionAccording to the HPLC graph that follows, my product was very pure. Theactual melting point of caffeine salicylate is 137 degree(C), my product wasfound to have a melting point of 138 degrees (C). As before, of course thisexperiment was not done completely error-free, the error is due almost entirelyon human error.

DVD Technology Essay

It is truly a fact that we ar living in this modern world which all technologies are advanced and improved. One of these technologies is in the television magnetic disk applied science. Before, we normally employ CDs as main novelty to the PCs world but now, videodisc is much used and preferred by multitudes of masses due to its admirable features which the CD doesnt have.DVD was formerly represented as Digital Video phonograph record but then changed into Digital Versatile Disc and is considered as the next generation of the optical record retention technology which is predicted and awaited to quickly diversify the CD-ROM disc along with audio slurred disc around the following several years. DVD contains 4. 7 in coifions gigabytes on single of its both sides or sufficient for a 133-minute movie. Having two storys on every of its both sides, it will keep up to 17 gigabytes of audio, video and other data.DVD-Video is the emblematic term for the DVD format designed for ful l-length motion pictures and which will jampack with our television set. The DVD-ROM keeps com endueer information and is read through a DVD-ROM drive which is connected to a computer, the DVD-RAM is the writeable version while the DVD-Audio is a player which is designed to substitute our compact disc player (see Bellis, Mary. DVD. http//inventors. about. com/library/inventors/bldvd. htm).A DVD with correctly structured and formatted video substance is a DVD-Video. The DVDs with correct structured and formatted audio are termed as DVD-Audio discs. And everything as well is named as a DVD-Data disc as well as the other types of DVD discs which have video (Wikipedia, unloosen encyclopedia. terrible 27, 2006). The purposes of this study are to (1) know the history of DVD technology and (2) be acquainted with its useful features and its functions and how it is beingness straightforward from CD. recital The invention of DVD was all started in early of 1990s which two high-density op tical storage standards were being technology advanced the first one was the MultiMedia Compact Disc which was supported by Sony and Philips and the second one was the crack Density disc which was approved and accepted by Time-Warner, Hitachi, Pioneer, JVC, Mitsubishi Electric, Toshiba, Thomson, and Matsushita Electric.The IBM president named Lou Gertsner has exerted an effort to join and bring together the two companies to back up solitary standard, getting ahead a repeat of the expensive and inflated format war amongst Betamax and VHS in 1980s (Wikipedia, free encyclopedia. August 27, 2006). In 1994 of May, Philips and Sony promulgated that they would be willingly and jointly crack a newfangled high-density medium popularly known as Digital Video Disc or DVD. This new technology was considered as the successor to compact discs or CD-ROM for computers and substitute laserdiscs and VHS tapes in the amusement industry.Just like a CD, DVD discs have similar diameter-about 120mm and thickness is about 1. 2 mm- tho as Compact disc has but DVD is more advance and useful due to its capability to use both discs sides for data storage. The large video games which need and require a look of CDs would merely necessitate only one DVD disc. Later on, newfangled technologys development now induced dilemmas of a political nature. The Warner Home Entertainment and Toshiba declared their own project to work out the same but yet precisely distinct from DVD technology at the same time.Associations like the Hollywood Digital Video Disc Advisory Group had a sensible and rational divert in this technologys development. Movie suppliers started to stir up disagreements and controversies which concern the essential of copy protections in the DVD requirement and description. But then, Sony was the first to debunk its DVD technology. In 1995, John Eargle explained and illustrated the presentation which was conducted at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show. In his writings entitl ed The Great DVD debate stated that its color and separateness was more than a match for the Laserdisc .But Eargles attention was on the technological requirements which had been formally and legitimately promulgated in December of the same year. The DVDs intensification and enlargement data density was credited to a laser of a color advanced in the light spectrum and a technology that were being technologically advanced with 3M which permit the laser to be focus again to one second layer in the disc. It has a double-layer disc which amplifies the volume and dimensions to 7. 4 gigabytes.Throughout the spring of 1995, the disagreement of both developers had been stimulated through Toshibas personal growth and advancement of a two-layer disc named as SD or Super density (Chapin, R. History of DVD). DVD recordable and rewritable DVD recordable and DVD rewritable denote to DVD optical disc formats which can be burned either rewritable or write once format. DVD recordable is an overall name which denotes to both rewritable and writes-once formats, while DVD writable denotes solely to rewritable formats. The DVD promoted and marketed as 4.7 GB might face to keep not more than that for the reason that manufacturers quote the volume of a writable DVD disc utilizing decimal prefixes instead of the binary prefixes utilized by number of software. On the other hand, a 4. 7 GB DVD can be able to accumulate 4. 7 billion bytes, utilizing the binary prefixes which has similar efficacy is approximately 4. 38 GiB (Wikipedia, free encyclopedia. August 18, 2006). Dual Layer Recording Dual Layer recoding permits DVD-R and DVD+R discs to accumulate and put in storage extensively more info or data which is capable of 8. 5 Gigabytes per disc, when contrasted with 4.7 Gigabytes designed for single-layer discs. The DVD-R DL or dual layer was technologically advanced for the DVD Forum by the Pioneer Corporation while the DVD+R DL or dual layer was technologically advanced intended fo r the DVD+RW Alliance by Sony. Below are the two figures of DVD-R DL and DVD+R DL (Wikipedia, free encyclopedia. August 28, 2006). encrypt of DVD-R DL Double Layer DVD+R Its Restrictions The DVD-Video includes four corresponding systems designed to limit and constraint the DVD user in a signifier of procedures and these are the Content Scrambling System, Region codes, disabled user operations (UOP) and Macrovision.*Content Scrambling System* It is a Digital Rights Management or DRM plan make used on various DVDs. It make uses a weak, proprietary 40 bit stream cipher algorithm which has successively been compromised. It was in 1996 that the system was presented and established (wikipedia, free encyclopedia. August 26, 2006). *Region Codes* it is the programming practice, chip, physical barrier, or code which is make used to stop or block the playing media designed for a catch which comes from a place where it is introduced and distributed on the version of similar device distri buted in another place.It is a kind of a form of vendor lock-in (Wikipedia, free encyclopedia. August 26, 2006). *Disabled User Operations* DVD-Video permits the disc to identify or indicate whether or not the handler may carry out any operation like skipping chapters, rewinding or forwarding, selecting a menu which is fundamentally any function on the remote control. This system is named as Prohibited User Operations or User Operation Prohibitions. *Macrovision* It is a company which makes electronic prevention plans and was established in 1963.The term is occasionally used to denote to specific video copy prevention plans which were technologically advanced by the company. Its features Some of the DVDs main features are (1) copy protection built into standard (2) DVD-ROM for improved multimedia and games applications (3) every format uses a common file system (4) DVD-Audio for advanced quality music, graphics and other features and surround sound and optical video and many other s (5) Backwards compatibility with menses CD media and many others (see DVD (Digital Versatile Disk). http//www. usbyte. com/common/dvd. htm initiation). Hence, DVD it is widely used now globally.______________________________________________________________________________ References 1. Bellis, Mary. DVD. http//inventors. about. com/library/inventors/bldvd. htm) 2. DVD. August 28, 2006. http//en. wikipedia. org/wiki/DVD 3. Chapin, R. History of DVD. http//www. miqrogroove. com/writing/History%20of%20DVD. html 4. DVD recordable. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. August 18, 2006http//en. wikipedia. org/wiki/DVD_recordable 5. Content Scramble System. August 26, 2006. http//en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Content_Scrambling_System 6. DVD (Digital Versatile Disk). http//www. usbyte. com/common/dvd. htmIntroduction

The History of Espn

$91, Thats all it cost to have ESPN incorporated back in 1978, when it was only cause by ternion people, Bill Rasmussen, Scott Rasmussen, and Ed Eagan. Now if you take a look at ESPN today, youll see one of the worlds largest broadcast corporations. The taradiddle of ESPN is a long and pretty interesting story. Like stated above, the history of ESPN truly begins on September 7th, 1978, when the three founders paid $91 to have the society incorporated.After deciding to go with a 24-hour broadcasting schedule, ESPN debuted with Sports Center later that month, and then began to air a large variety of sports ranging from professional soft ball, to NCAA wrestling. Their fist dabble into a massive professional sport would be with the United States Football League, whos games would be aired on the network.The league only survived for three years, but it gave the network the experience it needed when they gained partial rights to air Sunday Night football games, in 1987. Sunday Night Fo otball would be on the network for nineteen years, till they switched to Monday nights. These are just the starting years to the massive behemoth that is ESPN. The 1990s, a good a time period as any for ESPN. They gained rights to air MLB games, and also saw the founding of ESPN 2, in 1993.ESPN radio kicked of a year before ESPN 2, in 1992, making the company multi medial. 1996 saw the mien of Disney corperation, the parent company of ESPN, merge ABC sports and ESPN together. In 1997, ESPN started using SKYCAM to air its NHL games, and would soon put that innovative tech to use with the three former(a) major sports leagues, MLB, NFL, and NBA. Company founders were long gone now, and things were looking really good for the future of the company.

Anomalies in Option Pricing

Anomalies in filling shape the Black-Scholes moulding revisited New England Economic Re see to it, March-April, 1996 by Peter Fortune This t all(prenominal) is the third in a series of Federal Reserve Bank of Boston studies contributing to a broader understanding of antitheticalial gear securities. The first (Fortune 1995) presented the rudiments of selection pricing theory and addressed the equivalence between exchange- deald pickaxes and portfolios of rudimentary securities, making the point that plain vanilla plectrons and many opposite derivative securities be truly repackages of old instruments, non novel in themselves.That paper used the concept of portfolio insurance as an example of this equivalence. The foster (Minehan and Simons 1995) summarized the presentations at Managing Risk in the 90s What Should You Be Asking about Derivatives? , an educational forum sponsored by the Boston Fed. Related Results Trust, E-innovation and Leadership in Change Foreign Ban ks in United States Since World state of war II A Useful Fringe Building Your Brand With Brand Line Extensions The Impact of the Structure of Debt on Target Gains Project Management banal Program.The present paper addresses the question of how well the best-known preference pricing ride the Black-Scholes model works. A full evaluation of the many excerpt pricing models developed since their seminal paper in 1973 is beyond the scope of this paper. Rather, the goal is to acquaint a general audience with the key characteristics of a model that is shut up widely used, and to indicate the opportunities for improvement which might emerge from electric current research and which are undoubtedly the floor for the considerable current research on derivative securities.The hope is that this study exit be useful to students of financial markets as well as to financial market practiti oners, and that it will stimulate them to look into the much recent literature on the subject. The paper is organized as follows. The next section briefly reviews the key features of the Black-Scholes model, identifying both(prenominal) of its or so prominent self-assertions and laying a foundation for the remainder of the paper. The second section employs recent selective information on almost one-half million options transactions to evaluate the Black-Scholes model. The third section discusses some of the reasons why the Black-Scholes odel falls short and assesses some recent research designed to improve our strength to explain option tolls. The paper ends with a brief summary. Those readers strange with the basics of investment firm options might refer to Fortune (1995). Box 1 reviews briefly the fundamental language of options and explains the notation used in the paper. I. The Black-Scholes Model In 1973, Myron Scholes and the late Fischer Black published their seminal paper on option pricing (Black and Scholes 1973). The Black-Scholes model revolutionized financial economics in several ways.First, it contributed to our understanding of a wide range of mothers with option-like features. For example, the call feature in corpo account and municipal bonds is clearly an option, as is the refinancing privilege in mortgages. Second, it allowed us to revise our understanding of tralatitious financial instruments. For example, because shareholders bum turn the company everyplace to creditors if it has negative net worth, corpo respect debt sack up be viewed as a empower option bought by the shareholders from creditors. The Black-Scholes model explains the bells on European options, which cannot be exercised before the expiration date.Box 2 summarizes the Black-Scholes model for pricing a European call option on which dividends are salaried round-the-clockly at a perpetual rate. A crucial feature of the model is that the call option is equivalent to a portfolio constructed from the be personal credit line and bonds. The option-replicating p ortfolio consists of a fractional share of the stock combined with borrowing a specific amount at the risk slight rate of affaire. This equivalence, developed much fully in Fortune (1995), creates monetary value relationships which are maintained by the arbitrage of informed traders.The Black-Scholes option pricing model is derived by identifying an option-replicating portfolio, then equate the options pension with the take account of that portfolio. An essential assumption of this pricing model is that investors arbitrage away any profits created by gaps in asset pricing. For example, if the call is vocation rich, investors will write calls and buy the replicating portfolio, thereby forcing the value back into line. If the option is trading low, traders will buy the option and short the option-replicating portfolio (that is, sell stocks and buy bonds in the chasten proportions).By doing so, traders take advantage of unhazardous opportunities to make profits, and in so doing they force option, stock, and bond equipment casualtys to conform to an equilibrium relationship. Arbitrage allows European formats to be priced employ put-call parity. Consider acquire one call that expires at clock condemnation T and lending the present value of the strike price at the riskless rate of interest. The cost is C. sub. t + Xe. sup. -r(T-t). (See Box 1 for notation C is the call premium, X is the calls strike price, r is the riskless interest rate, T is the calls expiration date, and t is the current date. At the options expiration the position is worth the highest of the stock price (S. sub. T) or the strike price, a value denoted as max(S. sub. T, X). Now consider another investment, purchasing one put with the same strike price as the call, plus purchasing the fraction e. sup. -q(T-t) of one share of the stock. Denoting the put premium by P and the stock price by S, then the cost of this is P. sub. t + e. sup. -q(T-t)S. sub. t, and, at time T, the value at this position is excessively max(S. sub. T, X). (1) Because both positions piddle the same net value, arbitrage will force them to confirm the same initial value.Suppose that C. sub. t + Xe. sup. -r(T-t) greater than P. sub. t + e. sup. -q(T-t)S. sub. t, for example. In this case, the cost of the first position exceeds the cost of the second, but both must(prenominal) be worth the same at the options expiration. The first position is overpriced relative to the second, and shrewd investors will go short the first and long the second that is, they will write calls and sell bonds (borrow), succession simultaneously buying both puts and the underlying stock. The leave alone will be that, in equilibrium, equality will live and C. sub. t + Xe. sup. r(T-t) = P. sub. t + e. sup. -q(T-t)S. sub. t. Thus, arbitrage will force a parity between premiums of put and call options. Using this put-call parity, it can be shown that the premium for a European put option paying a continuous divi dend at q percent of the stock price is P. sub. t = -e. sup. -q(T-t)S. sub. tN(-d. sub. 1) + Xe. sup. -r(T-t)N(-d. sub. 2) where d. sub. 1 and d. sub. 2 are defined as in Box 2. The importance of arbitrage in the pricing of options is clear. However, many option pricing models can be derived from the assumption of dispatch arbitrage.Each would discord according to the probability scattering of the price of the underlying asset. What makes the Black-Scholes model unique is that it assumes that stock prices are log-normally distributed, that is, that the logarithm of the stock price is normally distributed. This is often expressed in a diffusion model (see Box 2) in which the (instantaneous) rate of change in the stock price is the sum of twain parts, a drift, defined as the difference between the anticipate rate of change in the stock price and the dividend yield, and hinderance, defined as a haphazard unsettled with slide fastener call back and constant variance.The varian ce of the noise is called the excitability of the stocks rate of price change. Thus, the rate of change in a stock price vibrates ergodicly around its expected value in a fashion sometimes called white noise. The Black-Scholes models of put and call option pricing apply take inly to European options as long as a continuous dividend is paid at a constant rate. If no dividends are paid, the models also apply to American call options, which can be exercised at any time.In this case, it can be shown that there is no incentive for early exercise, hence the American call option must trade like its European counterpart. However, the Black-Scholes model does not hold for American put options, because these might be exercised early, nor does it apply to any American option (put or call) when a dividend is paid. (2) Our empirical analysis will sidestep those problems by focusing on European-style options, which cannot be exercised early. A call options inseparable value is defined as max( S X,0), that is, the largest of S X or zero a put options intrinsic value is max(X S,0).When the stock price (S) exceeds a call options strike price (X), or falls short of a put options strike price, the option has a tyrannical intrinsic value because if it could be immediately exercised, the holder would receive a gain of S X for a call, or X S for a put. However, if S less than X, the holder of a call will not exercise the option and it has no intrinsic value if X greater than S this will be avowedly for a put. The intrinsic value of a call is the kinked line in Figure 1 (a puts intrinsic value, not shown, would bear the opposite kink).When the stock price exceeds the strike price, the call option is said to be in-the- notes. It is out-of-the-money when the stock price is below the strike price. Thus, the kinked line, or intrinsic value, is the income from immediately exercising the option When the option is out-of-the-money, its intrinsic value is zero, and when it is in the money, the intrinsic value is the amount by which S exceeds X. Convexity, the Call Premium, and the Hellenic Chorus The premium, or price paid for the option, is shown by the curved line in Figure 1. This curvature, or convexity, is a key characteristic of the premium on a call option. Figure 1 shows the relationship between a call options premium and the underlying stock price for a hypothetical option having a 60-day term, a strike price of $50, and a excitableness of 20 percent. A 5 percent riskless interest rate is assumed. The call premium has an upward-sloping relationship with the stock price, and the slope rises as the stock price rises. This means that the sensitivity of the call premium to changes in the stock price is not constant and that the option-replicating portfolio changes with the stock price.The convexity of option premiums gives rise to a number of technical concepts which describe the response of the premium to changes in the variables and parameters of t he model. For example, the relationship between the premium and the stock price is captured by the options Delta (Delta) and its Gamma (Gamma). Defined as the slope of the premium at each stock price, the Delta tells the trader how sensitive the option price is to a change in the stock price. (3) It also tells the trader the value of the hedging ratio. (4) For each share of stock held, a perfect hedge requires writing 1/Delta. ub. c call options or buying 1/Delta. sub. p puts. Figure 2 shows the Delta for our hypothetical call option as a function of the stock price. As S increases, the value of Delta rises until it reaches its maximum at a stock price of about $60, or $10 in-the-money. After that point, the option premium and the stock price take on a 11 relationship. The increasing Delta also means that the hedging ratio falls as the stock price rises. At higher stock prices, fewer call options need to be written to insulate the investor from changes in the stock price.The Gamma is the change in the Delta when the stock price changes. (5) Gamma is positive for calls and negative for puts. The Gamma tells the trader how much the hedging ratio changes if the stock price changes. If Gamma is zero, Delta would be independent of S and changes in S would not require adjustment of the number of calls required to hedge against further changes in S. The greater is Gamma, the more out-of-line a hedge becomes when the stock price changes, and the more frequently the trader must adjust the hedge.Figure 2 shows the value of Gamma as a function of the amount by which our hypothetical call option is in-the-money. (6) Gamma is almost zero for deep-in-the-money and deep-out-of-the-money options, but it reaches a peak for near-the-money options. In short, traders holding near-the-money options will have to adjust their hedges frequently and sizably as the stock price vibrates. If traders want to go on long vacations without changing their hedges, they should focus on far-aw ay-from-the-money options, which have near-zero Gammas.A third member of the Greek chorus is the options Lambda, denoted by Lambda, also called Vega. (7) Vega measures the sensitivity of the call premium to changes in excitableness. The Vega is the same for calls and puts having the same strike price and expiration date. As Figure 2 shows, a call options Vega conforms nearly to the pattern of its Gamma, peaking for near-the-money options and falling to zero for deep-out or deep-in options. Thus, near-the-money options appear to be most sensitive to changes in volatility.Because an options premium is directly related to its volatility the higher the volatility, the greater the chance of it being deep-in-the-money at expiration any propositions about an options price can be translated into statements about the options volatility, and vice versa. For example, other things equal, a high volatility is synonymous with a high option premium for both puts and calls. Thus, in many contex ts we can use volatility and premium interchangeably. We will use this result below when we address an options implied volatility.Other Greeks are present in the Black-Scholes pantheon, though they are lesser gods. The options Rho (Rho) is the sensitivity of the call premium to changes in the riskless interest rate. (8) Rho is always positive for a call (negative for a put) because a rise in the interest rate reduces the present value of the strike price paid (or received) at expiration if the option is exercised. The options Theta (Theta) measures the change in the premium as the term shortens by one time unit. (9) Theta is always negative because an option is less valuable the shorter the time remaining.The Black-Scholes Assumptions The assumptions underlying the Black-Scholes model are few, but strong. They are * Arbitrage Traders can, and will, eliminate any arbitrage profits by simultaneously buying (or writing) options and writing (or buying) the option-replicating portfolio w henever profitable opportunities appear. * Continuous Trading Trading in both the option and the underlying security is continuous in time, that is, transactions can make pass simultaneously in related markets at any instant. * Leverage Traders can borrow or lend in unlimited amounts at the riskless rate of interest. Homogeneity Traders agree on the values of the relevant parameters, for example, on the riskless rate of interest and on the volatility of the publications on the underlying security. * Distribution The price of the underlying security is log-normally distributed with statistically independent price changes, and with constant mean and constant variance. * Continuous Prices No discontinuous jumps occur in the price of the underlying security. * Transactions Costs The cost of engaging in arbitrage is negligibly small.The arbitrage assumption, a fundamental proposition in economics, has been discussed above. The continuous trading assumption ensures that at all times tra ders can establish hedges by simultaneously trading in options and in the underlying portfolio. This is important because the Black-Scholes model derives its power from the assumption that at any instant, arbitrage will force an options premium to be equal to the value of the replicating portfolio. This cannot be done if trading occurs in one market while trading in related markets is barred or decelerate.For example, during a halt in trading of the underlying security one would not expect option premiums to conform to the Black-Scholes model. This would also be true if the underlying security were inactively traded, so that the trader had stale information on its price when contemplating an options transaction. The leverage assumption allows the riskless interest rate to be used in options pricing without reference to a traders financial position, that is, to whether and how much he is borrowing or lending. Clearly this is an assumption adopted for convenience and is not strictly true.However, it is not clear how one would proceed if the rate on loans was related to traders financial choices. This assumption is common to pay theory For example, it is one of the assumptions of the Capital Asset Pricing Model. Furthermore, while private traders have credit risk, important players in the option markets, such as nonfinancial corporations and major financial institutions, have very low credit risk over the mannerstime of most options (a twelvemonth or less), suggesting that departures from this assumption might not be very important.The homogeneity assumption, that traders share the same probability beliefs and opportunities, flies in the face of common sense. Clearly, traders differ in their judgments of such important things as the volatility of an assets future returns, and they also differ in their time horizons, some thinking in hours, others in days, and still others in weeks, months, or years. Indeed, much of the genuine trading that occurs must be due to differences in these judgments, for otherwise there would be no disagreements with the market and financial markets would be pretty dull and uninteresting.The distribution assumption is that stock prices are generated by a specific statistical process, called a diffusion process, which leads to a normal distribution of the logarithm of the stocks price. Furthermore, the continuous price assumption means that any changes in prices that are observed reflect except different draws from the same underlying log-normal distribution, not a change in the underlying probability distribution itself. II. Tests of the Black-Scholes Model.Assessments of a models validity can be done in two ways. First, the models prognostications can be confronted with historical data to determine whether the predictions are accurate, at least within some statistical prototype of confidence. Second, the assumptions made in developing the model can be assessed to determine if they are consistent with obser ved behavior or historical data. A long tradition in economics focuses on the first type of scrutinys, arguing that the conclusion is in the pudding. It is argued that any theory requires assumptions that might be judged unrealistic, and that if we focus on the assumptions, we can end up with no foundations for deriving the generalizations that make theories useful. The altogether tight-laced test of a theory lies in its predictive ability The theory that consistently predicts best is the best theory, regardless of the assumptions required to generate the theory. Tests based on assumptions are justified by the principle of garbage in-garbage out. This blast argues that no theory derived from invalid assumptions can be valid.Even if it appears to have predictive abilities, those can slip away quickly when changes in the eThe Data The data used in this study are from the Chicago Board Options Exchanges commercialise Data recuperation System. The MDR reports the number of contr acts traded, the time of the transaction, the premium paid, the characteristics of the option (put or call, expiration date, strike price), and the price of the underlying stock at its last trade. This information is available for each option listed on the CBOE, providing as close to a real-time record of transactions as can be found. piece of music our analysis uses only records of positive transactions, the MDR also reports the same information for every request of a quote. Quote records differ from the transaction records only in that they show both the bid and asked premiums and have a zero number of contracts traded. nvironment make the invalid assumptions more pivotal. The data used are for the 1992-94 period. We selected the MDR data for the S&P d-stock ability (SPX) for several reasons. First, the SPX options contract is the only European-style stock index option traded on the CBOE.All options on individual stocks and on other indices (for example, the S&P 100 index, the Major Market Index, the NASDAQ 100 index) are American options for which the Black-Scholes model would not apply. The ability to focus on a European-style option has several advantages. By allowing us to ignore the likely influence of early exercise, a possibility that substantially affects the premiums on American options on dividend-paying stocks as well as the premiums on deep-in-the-money American put options, we can focus on options for which the Black-Scholes model was designed.In addition, our interest is not in individual stocks and their options, but in the predictive power of the Black-Scholes option pricing model. Thus, an index option allows us to make broader generalizations about model performance than would a select set of equity options. Finally, the S&P 500 index options trade in a very active market, while options on many individual stocks and on some other indices are thinly traded. The full MDR data set for the SPX over the roughly 758 trading days in the 1992-9 4 period consisted of more than 100 million records.In order to bring this down to a manageable size, we eliminated all records that were requests for quotes, selecting only records reflecting essential transactions. Some of these transaction records were cancellations of previous trades, for example, trades made in error. If a trade was canceled, we included the records of the original transaction because they represented market conditions at the time of the trade, and because there is no way to determine precisely which transaction was being canceled. We eliminated cancellations because they record the S&P 500 at the time of the cancellation, not the time of the original trade.Thus, cancellation records will contain stale prices. This screening created a data set with over 726,000 records. In order to complete the data required for each transaction, the bond-equivalent yield (average of bid and asked prices) on the treasury bill with maturity closest to the expiration date of t he option was used as a riskless interest rate. These data were available for 180-day terms or less, so we excluded options with a term longer than 180 days, leaving over 486,000 working(a) records having both CBOE and Treasury bill data.For each of these, we assigned a dividend yield based on the S&P 500 dividend yield in the month of the option trade. Because each record shows the veritable S&P 500 at almost the same time as the option transaction, the MDR fork overs an excellent basis for estimating the theoretically correct option premium and evaluating its relationship to actual option premiums. There are, however, some minor problems with interpreting the MDR data as providing a traders-eye view of option pricing. The transaction data are not entered into the CBOE computer at the exact moment of the trade.Instead, a ticket is filled out and then entered into the computer, and it is only at that time that the actual level of the S&P 500 is recorded. In short, the S&P 500 ent ries necessarily lag behind the option premium entries, so if the S&P 500 is rising (falling) rapidly, the reported value of the SPX will be above (below) the true value known to traders at the time of the transaction Test 1 An Implied unpredictability Test A key variable in the Black-Scholes model is the volatility of returns on the underlying asset, the SPX in our case.Investors are assumed to know the true standard passing of the rate of return over the term of the option, and this information is embedded in the option premium. While the true volatility is an unobservable variable, the markets estimate of it can be inferred from option premiums. The Black-Scholes model assumes that this implied volatility is an optimal envision of the volatility in SPX returns observed over the term of the option. The calculation of an options implied volatility is reasonably straightforward. Six variables are needed to compute the predicted premium on a call or put option using the Black-Scho les model.Five of these can be objectively measured within reasonable tolerance levels the stock price (S), the strike price (X), the remaining life of the option (T t), the riskless rate of interest over the remaining life of the option (r), typically measured by the rate of interest on U. S. Treasury securities that mature on the options expiration date, and the dividend yield (q). The sixth variable, the volatility of the return on the stock price, denoted by Sigma, is unobservable and must be estimated using mathematical methods.Using reasonable values of all the known variables, the implied volatility of an option can be computed as the value of Sigma that makes the predicted Black-Scholes premium exactly equal to the actual premium. An example of the computation of the implied volatility on an option is shown in Box 3. The Black-Scholes model assumes that investors know the volatility of the rate of return on the underlying asset, and that this volatility is measured by the (population) standard variance. If so, an options implied volatility should differ from the true volatility only because of random events.While these discrepancies might occur, they should be very short-lived and random Informed investors will observe the discrepancy and engage in arbitrage, which quickly returns things to their normal relationships. Figure 3 reports two measures of the volatility in the rate of return on the S&P 500 index for each trading day in the 1992-94 period. (10) The actual volatility is the ex post standard deviation of the daily change in the logarithm of the S&P 500 over a 60-day horizon, converted to a percentage at an annual rate.For example, for January 5, 1993 the standard deviation of the daily change in lnS&P500 was computed for the next 60 calendar days this became the actual volatility for that day. Note that the actual volatility is the realization of one outcome from the entire probability distribution of the standard deviation of the rate of r eturn. While no single realization will be equal to the true volatility, the actual volatility should equal the true volatility, on average. The second measure of volatility is the implied volatility.This was constructed as follows, using the data described above. For each trading day, the implied volatility on call options meeting two criteria was computed. The criteria were that the option had 45 to 75 calendar days to expiration (the average was 61 days) and that it be near the money (defined as a spread between S&P 500 and strike price no more than 2. 5 percent of the S&P 500). The first criterion was adopted to match the term of the implied volatility with the 60-day term of the actual volatility.The second criterion was chosen because, as we shall see later, near-the-money options are most likely to conform to Black-Scholes predictions. The Black-Scholes model assumes that an options implied volatility is an optimal forecast of the volatility in SPX returns observed over the term of the option. Figure 3 does not provide visual support for the idea that implied volatilities deviate randomly from actual volatility, a characteristic of optimal forecasting. While the two volatility measures appear to have roughly the same average, extended periods of significant differences are seen.For example, in the last half of 1992 the implied volatility remained well above the actual volatility, and after the two came together in the first half of 1993, they once again diverged for an extended period. It is clear from this visual record that implied volatility does not track actual volatility well. However, this does not mean that implied volatility provides an inferior forecast of actual volatility It could be that implied volatility satisfies all the scientific requirements of a good forecast in the sense that no other forecasts of actual volatility are better.In order to pursue the question of the informational content of implied volatility, several simple tests of the hypothesis that implied volatility is an optimal forecast of actual volatility can be applied. One characteristic of an optimal forecast is that the forecast should be unbiased, that is, the forecast error (actual volatility less implied volatility) should have a zero mean. The average forecast error for the data shown in Figure 3 is -0. 7283, with a t-statistic of -8. 22. This indicates that implied volatility is a biased forecast of actual volatility.A second characteristic of an optimal forecast is that the forecast error should not depend on any information available at the time the forecast is made. If information were available that would improve the forecast, the forecaster should have already included it in making his forecast. Any remaining forecasting errors should be random and uncorrelated with information available before the day of the forecast. To implement this residual information test, the forecast error was regressed on the lagged values of the S&P 500 in the three days prior to the forecast. 11) The F-statistic for the significance of the regression coefficients was 4. 20, with a significance level of 0. 2 percent. This is strong evidence of a statistically significant violation of the residual information test. The conclusion that implied volatility is a poor forecast of actual volatility has been reached in several other studies using different methods and data. For example, Canina and Figlewski (1993), using data for the S&P 100 in the years 1983 to 1987, found that implied volatility had almost no informational content as a prediction of actual volatility.However, a recent review of the literature on implied volatility (Mayhew 1995) mentions a number of papers that give more support for the forecasting ability of implied volatility. Test 2 The Smile Test One of the predictions of the Black-Scholes model is that at any moment all SPX options that differ only in the strike price (having the same term to expiration) should have the sa me implied volatility. For example, suppose that at 1015 a. m. on November 3, transactions occur in several SPX call options that differ only in the strike price.Because each of the options is for the same interval of time, the value of volatility embedded in the option premiums should be the same. This is a natural consequence of the fact that the variability in the S&P 500s return over any future period is independent of the strike price of an SPX option. One approach to testing this is to calculate the implied volatilities on a set of options homogeneous in all respects except the strike price. If the Black-Scholes model is valid, the implied volatilities should all be the same (with some slippage for sampling errors).Thus, if a group of options all have a true volatility of, say, 12 percent, we should find that the implied volatilities differ from the true level only because of random errors. Possible reasons for these errors are temporary deviations of premiums from equilibri um levels, or a lag in the reporting of the trade so that the value of the SPX at the time stamp is not the value at the time of the trade, or that two options might have the same time stamp but one was delayed more than the other in getting into the computer.This means that a graph of the implied volatilities against any economic variable should show a flat line. In particular, no relationship should exist between the implied volatilities and the strike price or, equivalently, the amount by which each option is in-the-money. However, it is widely believed that a smile is present in option prices, that is, options far out of the money or far in the money have higher implied volatilities than near-the-money options.Stated differently, deep-out and far-in options trade rich (overpriced) relative to near-the-money options. If true, this would make a graph of the implied volatilities against the value by which the option is in-the-money look like a smile high implied volatilities at th e extremes and lower volatilities in the middle. In order to test this hypothesis, our MDR data were screened for each day to identify any options that have the same characteristics but different strike TABULAR DATA FOR TABLE 1 OMITTED prices.If 10 or more of these identical options were found, the average implied volatility for the group was computed and the deviation of each options implied volatility from its group average, the Volatility Spread, was computed. For each of these options, the amount by which it is in-the-money was computed, creating a variable called ITM (an acronym for in-the-money). ITM is the amount by which an option is in-the-money. It is negative when the option is out-of-the-money. ITM is measured relative to the S&P 500 index level, so it is expressed as a percentage of the S&P 500.The Volatility Spread was then regressed against a fifth-order multinomial equation in ITM. This allows for a variety of shapes of the relationship between the two variables, ran ging from a flat line if Black-Scholes is valid (that is, if all coefficients are zero), through a wavy line with four peaks and troughs. The Black-Scholes prediction that each coefficient in the polynomial regression is zero, leading to a flat line, can be tested by the F-statistic for the regression. The results are reported in Table 1, which shows the F-statistic for the hypothesis that all coefficients of the fifth-degree polynomial are jointly zero.Also reported is the proportion of the variation in the Volatility Spreads, which is explained by variations in ITM (R. sup. 2). The results strongly reject the Black-Scholes model. The F-statistics are extremely high, indicating close no chance that the value of ITM is irrelevant to the explanation of implied volatilities. The values of R. sup. 2 are also high, indicating that ITM explains about 40 to 60 percent of the variation in the Volatility Spread. Figure 4 shows, for call options only, the pattern of the relationship betwee n the Volatility Spread and the amount by which an option is in-the-money.The vertical axis, labeled Volatility Spread, is the deviation of the implied volatility predicted by the polynomial regression from the group mean of implied volatilities for all options trading on the same day with the same expiration date. For each year the pattern is shown throughout that years range of values for ITM. While the pattern for each year looks more like Charlie Browns smile than the standard smile, it is clear that there is a smile in the implied volatilities Options that are further in or out of the money appear to carry higher volatilities than slightly out-of-the-money options.The pattern for extreme values of ITM is more mixed. Test 3 A Put-Call Parity Test Another prediction of the Black-Scholes model is that put options and call options identical in all other respects should have the same implied volatilities and should trade at the same premium. This is a consequence of the arbitrage th at enforces put-call parity. Recall that put-call parity implies P. sub. t + e. sup. -q(T t)S. sub. t = C. sub. t + Xe. sup. -r(T t).A put and a call, having identical strike prices and terms, should have equal premiums if they are just at-the-money in a present value sense. If, as this paper does, we interpret at-the-money in current dollars earlier than present value (that is, as S = X rather than S = Xe. sup. -r(t q)(T t)), at-the-money puts should have a premium slightly below calls. Because an options premium is a direct function of its volatility, the requirement that put premiums be no greater than call premiums for equivalent at-the-money options implies that implied volatilities for puts be no greater than for calls.For each trading day in the 1992-94 period, the difference between implied volatilities for at-the-money puts and calls having the same expiration dates was computed, using the + or -2. 5 percent criterion used above. (12) Figure 5 shows this difference. Wh ile puts sometimes have implied volatility less than calls, the norm is for higher implied volatilities for puts. Thus, puts tend to trade richer than equivalent calls, and the Black-Scholes model does not pass this put-call parity test.

Acct Mid-Term Solutions Essay

Examination II forget select five of the following questions for the mid-term exam. You should be able to solve all of them. You may work together in study groups and analyze and answer the questions. Obviously, the exam will be an individual effort.1Accounting and ControlThe controller of a small private college is complaining about the amount of work she is required to do at the beginning of each month. The president of the university requires the controller to submit a monthly report by the fifth day of the following month. The monthly report contains pages of financial data from operations. The controller was heard secerning, Why does the president ingest all this information? He probably doesnt read half of the report. Hes an old English professor and probably doesnt kip down the difference between a cost and a revenue.Requireda. What is the probable role of the monthly report?autonomic nervous system The monthly report is the report taunt for the Universitys internal acco unting system, these monthly reports atomic number 18 a formal part of the Universitys information system, that provides data and knowledge for decision making (pg.2 of text). These reports are part of a system of controls, these controls force the organization to account for their monthly transactions and the president needs to know this so that he can go for and reconcile the position of his company. These reports are useful to the president so that he can manage the in-and-outflow of resources that keep the Universitys board members and employees interests aligned. For the president, the role of these monthly reports are to provide information for necessary planning and decision making and to also help motivate and monitor people within the university (pg. 3 of text).b. What is the controllers responsibility with respect to a president who doesnt know much accounting? Ans It is the controllers responsibility to ensure the President understands what the reports say/symbolize an d based upon those results, make suggestions on decisions. Their responsibilities involve assuring the reports are accurate, meet accounting standards by following accounting principles and procedures, and having a strong fiduciary understanding of the business so that the numbers in his report tell a story about the Universitys position in the market and the authoritative state of its operational drivers (pg.10&11 of text).2Cost, Volume, Profit AnalysisLeslie Mittelberg is considering the wholesaling of a leather hand adhesive friction from Kenya. She must travel to Kenya to check on quality and transportation. The trip will cost $3000. The cost of the handbag is $10 and rapture to the United States can occur with the postal system for $2 per handbag or through a freight company which will ship a container that can hold up to a 1000 handbags at a cost of $1000. The freight company will charge $1000 even if less than 1000 handbags are shipped. Leslie will try to sell the handba gs to retailers for $20. Assume there are no other be and benefits.Requireda. What is the break-even point if shipping is through the postal system? Ans Break Even Point = Total Fixed be / (Unit Price Unit Variable Costs) BEP = $3000 / ($20 $12)= 375 handbagsb. How many units must be sold if Leslie uses the freight company and she wants to have a profit of $1000? Ans Total Revenue Total Costs= ProfitTR-TC=1000 $20x-($3000+$1000+$10x) =$1000$10x=$5000 x=500 handbags.c. At what output level would the two shipping methods yield the same profit? Ans =TR-TC Freight =$10x-$4000 Postal =$8x-$3000 ( Twoequations same unknown, set equal 10x-4000=8x-3000( 2x=1000 ( x=500 handbagsd. Suppose a large discount store asks to buy an additional 1000 handbags beyond normal sales. Which shipping method should be used and what is the marginal sales damage Leslie should consider in selling those 1000 handbags? Ans At a 1000 handbags, freight shipping should be used because the UVC to ship a bag w ould be $1 as opposed to $2 through postal. The minimum price of the bag should cover Leslies VC just to break even, VC=10(1000)+1000=$11,000/1000bags = $11.00. 3Asset ReplacementThe Baltic Company is considering the purchase of a new railcar tool to replace an obsolete one. The machine being used for the operation has a tax-basis book evaluate of $80,000, with an annual depreciation expense of $8,000. It has a resale value today of $40,000, is in good working order, and will last, physically, for at least 10 more years. The proposed machine will perform the operation so much more efficiently and Baltic engineers estimate that labor, material, and other direct costs of the operation will be reduced $60,000 a year if it is installed. The proposed machine costs $240,000 delivered and installed, and its economic life is estimated at 10 years, with zero salvage value. The company expects to earn 14 percentage on its investment after taxes (14 percent is the firms cost of capital). Th e tax rate is 40 percent, and the firm uses straight-line depreciation. Any gain or leaving on the sale of the machine at retirement is subject to tax at 40 percent.Should Baltic buy the new machine?4Transfer PricesThe Alpha section of the Carlson Company manufactures product X at a variable cost of $40 per unit. Alpha Divisions set costs, which are sunk, are $20 per unit. The market price of X is $70 per unit. Beta Division of Carlson Company uses product X to make Y. The variable costs to convert X to Y are $20 per unit and the fixed costs, which are sunk, are $10 per unit. The product Y sells for $80 per unit.Requireda. What transfer price of X causes divisional managers to make decentralized decisions that maximize Carlson Companys profit if each division is treated as a profit center? Ans The minimum price Alpha can accept is $40+$20** = $40. The maximum Beta can pay is $80-$20-$10** or $60.**To have sunken fixed costs a firm would have to be operating in the short-run, the s unken fixed costs are unrecoverable and are already paid, these costs shouldnt be considered when determining whether or not to shut down.The transfer price must be set in such a focussing as to induce the two parties to make the transfer. In essence, the transfer price must breach incentives to the Alpha Division to want to make the transfer and give incentives to the Beta Division to buy (b/c theyre both profit centers, decentralized decision makers). In other words, the following two constraints must be satisfiedAlphaTP $40 (variable cost)Beta DivisionTP $60 (selling price ($80) variable costs to complete ($20)) where TP = transfer price ( $40

Citizenship in the nation Essay

1.Explain what citizenship in the nation means and what it takes to be a good citizen of this country. talk roughly the rights, duties, and obligations of a responsible for(p) and active American citizen. 2.Do TWO of the following a. Visit a place that is listed as a home(a) Historic Landmark or that is on the National Register of Historic Places. Tell your counselor what you learned about the landmark or site and what you found interesting about it. b. Tour your state capitol edifice or the U.S. Capitol.Tell your counselor what you learned about the capitol, its plump, and the history. c. Tour a federal facility. Explain to your counselor what you saw there and what you learned about its function in the local community and how it serves this nation. d. Choose a national monument that interests you. Using books, brochures, the Internet (with your parents permission), and other resources, find out much about the monument. Tell your counselor what you learned, and explain why th e monument is important to this countrys citizens. 3.Watch the national evening news five days in a row OR read the front page of a major daily newspaper five days in a row.Discuss the national issues you learned about with your counselor. Choose one of the issues and explain how it affects you and your family. 4.Discuss each of the following documents with your counselor. Tell your counselor how you feel life in the United States mightiness be different without each one. a. Declaration of Independence b. Preamble to the Constitution c. The Constitution d. Bill of Rights e. Amendments to the Constitution 5.List the six functions of government as noted in the preamble to the Constitution. Discuss with your counselor how these functions affect your family and local community. 6.With your counselors approval, choose a speech of national historical importance.Find out about the author, and tell your counselor about the person who gave the speech. Explain the importance of the speech at the time it was given, and tell how it applies to American citizens today. Choose a sentence or two from the speech that has significant meaning to you, and tell your counselor why. 7.Name the three branches of our federal government and explain to your counselor their functions. Explain how citizens are involved in each branch.For each branch of government, explain the importance of the system of checks and balances. 8.Name your two senators and the member of Congress from your congressional district. Write a letter about a national issue and send it to one of these electedofficials, sharing your view with him or her. Show your letter and any response you receive to your counselor.

Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story Chapter 4~5

Chapter 4Blooms and the City of Burned ClutchesC. Thomas Flood (Tommy to his friends) was just reaching red-line in a wet dream, when he was awakened by the scurry and chatter of the five Wongs. Geishas in garters scampered off to dreamworld, unsitisfied, leaving him staring at the slats of the bunk above.The room was little bigger than a walk-in closet. Bunks were load three high on either side of a narrow aisle where the five Wongs were competing for enough space to pull on their pants. Wong deuce readiness everyplace Tommys bunk, grinned apolo squeezeically, and said something in Cantonese.No problem, Tommy said. He rolled over on his side, careful non to scuff his morning erection on the wall, and pulled the blankets over his head.He thought, Privacy is a wonderful thing. Like love, privacy is most manifest in its absence. I should write a story ab stunned that and nominate in lots of geisha girls in garters and red pumps. The Crowded Tea Ho theatrical role of Almond-Eye d Tramps, by C. Thomas Flood. Ill write that today, after I contract a post-office box and look for a job. Or possibly I should just stay here today and see whos leaving the flowersTommy had rig fresh flowers on his bed for four days running and they were beginning to bother him. It wasnt the flowers themselves that bothered him gladiolas, red roses, and cardinal mixed bouquets with big pink ribbons. He break up of liked flowers, in a masculine and totally non-sissy way, of course. And it didnt bother him that he didnt own a vase, or a table to set it on. Hed just trotted pass the hall to the communal bathroom, removed the lid of the toilet tank, and plopped the flowers in. The added color provided a pleasant counterpoint to the bathrooms filth until rats ate the blossoms. But that didnt bother him either. What bothered him was that he had been in the City for less than a week and didnt know anyone. So who had sent the flowers?The five Wongs let loose with a barrage of bye -byes as they leftover the room. Wong Five pulled the door shut behind him.Tommy thought, Ive got to speak to Wong unmatchable about the accommodations.Wong One wasnt one of the five Wongs with whom Tommy shared the room. Wong One was the landlord older, wiser, and more sophisticated than Wongs twain finished Six. Wong One spoke English, wore a threadbare suit thirty years out of style, and carried a cane with a brass dragon head. Tommy had met him on Columbus Avenue just after midnight, over the burning corpse of Rosinante, Tommys 74 Volvo sedan.I killed her, Tommy said, watching black smoke roll out from beneath the hood.Too bad, Wong One said sympathetically, before continuing on his way.Excuse me, Tommy called after Wong. Tommy had just arrived from Indiana and had never been to a large urban center, so he did not recognize that Wong One had already stepped over the accepted metropolitan limit of involve custodyt with a stranger.Wong bowed and leaned on his dragon-headed cane.Excuse me, Tommy repeated, but Im saucy in town would you know where I can find a place to stay well-nigh here?Wong raised an eyebrow. You piss money?A little.Wong looked at Tommy, standing there next to his burning car with a suitcase and a typewriter case. He looked at Tommys discourteous, hopeful smile, his thin face and sweep of dark hair, and the English word victim rose in his mind in twenty-point type part of an item on page 3 of The archives Victim Found in Tenderloin, Beaten to Death With Typewriter. Wong sighed heavily. He liked reading The Chronicle each day, and he didnt want to skip page 3 until the tragedy had passed.You come with me, he said.Wong walked up Columbus into Chinatown. Tommy stumbled along behind, looking over his shoulder from time to time at the burning Volvo. I unfeignedly liked that car. I got five speeding tickets in that car. Theyre still in it.Too bad. Wong stopped at a battered metal door amid a grocery store and a fish market. Yo u have fifty bucks?Tommy nodded and dug into the pocket of his jeans.Fifty bucks, one week, Wong said. Two degree centigrade fifty, one month.One week will be fine, Tommy said, peeling two twenties and a ten off a thinning roll of bills.Wong opened the door and started up a narrow unlit staircase. Tommy bumped up the stairs behind him, nearly falling a couple of times. My name is C. Thomas Flood. Well, actually thats the name I write chthonic. People call me Tommy.Good, Wong said.And you are? Tommy stopped at the top of the stairs and offered his sight to shake.Wong looked at Tommys excrete. Wong, he said.Tommy bowed. Wong watched him, wondering what in the hell he was doing. Fifty bucks is fifty bucks, he thought.Bathroom down hall, Wong said, throwing open a door and throwing a light switch. Five sleepy Chinese men looked up from their bunks. Tommy, Wong said, pointing to Tommy.Tommy, the Chinese men repeated in unison.This Wong, Wong said, pointing to the man on the bottom l eft bunk.Tommy nodded. Wong.This Wong. That Wong. Wong. Wong. Wong, Wong said, ticking off each man as if he were flipping beads on an abacus, which, mentally, he was fifty bucks, fifty bucks, fifty bucks. He pointed to the empty bunk on the bottom right. You sleep there. Bye-bye.Bye-bye, said the five Wongs.Tommy said, Excuse me, Mr. WongWong turned.When is claim due? Im qualifying job hunting tomorrow, but I dont have a lot of cash.Tuesday and Sunday, Wong said. Fifty bucks.But you said it was fifty dollars a week.Two fifty a month or fifty a week, due Tuesday and Sunday.Wong walked away. Tommy stashed his duffel bag and typewriter under the bunk and crawled in. Before he could run short up a good worry about his burning car, he was asleep. He had pushed the Volvo straight through from Incontinence, Indiana, to San Francisco, stopping only for fuel and bathroom breaks. He had watched the sunniness rise and set three times from behind the wheel exhaustion finally caught him at the coast.Tommy was desc terminate from two generations of line workers at the Incontinence Forklift Company. When he announced at fourteen that he was going to be a writer, his father, Thomas Flood, Sr., accepted the news with the tolerant incredulity a parent usually mute for monsters under the bed and imaginary friends. When Tommy took a job in a grocery store instead of the factory, his father breathed a small sigh of relief at least it was a union shop, the boy would have benefits and retirement. It was only when Tommy bought the old Volvo, and rumors that he was a budding Communist began circulating through town, that Tom senior began to worry. Father Floods paternal angst continued to grow with each night that he spent listening to his only son tapping the nights away on the Olivetti portable, until one Wednesday night he tied one on at the Starlight Lanes and spilled his guts to his wheel buddies.I found a copy of The current Yorker under the boys mattress, he slurr ed through a five-pitcher Budweiser haze. Ive got to face it my sons a pansy.The rest of the Bills Radiator Bowling Team members bowed their heads in sympathy, all secretly thanking God that the sens had hit the next soldier in line and that their sons were all safely obsessed with small block Chevys and big tits. Harley Businsky, who had recently been promoted to minor godhood by bowling a three hundred, threw a bearlike arm around Toms shoulders. Maybe hes just a little mixed up, Harley offered. Lets go talk to the boy.When two triple-extra-large, electric-blue, embroidered bowling shirts gush into his room, full of two triple-extra-large, beer-oiled bowlers, Tommy went over backward in his chair.Hi, Dad, Tommy said from the floor.Son, we assume to talk.Over the next half hour the two men ran Tommy through the fatherly version of good-cop-bad-cop, or perhaps Joe McCarthy versus Santa Claus. Their interrogation determined that Yes, Tommy did like girls and cars. No, he was not, nor had he ever been, a member of the Communist party. And yes, he was going to dog a career as a writer, regardless of the lack of AFL?CCIO affiliation.Tommy move to plead the case for a life in letters, but found his arguments powerless (due in no small part to the fact that both his inquisitors thought that Hamlet was a small pork portion served with eggs). He was breaking a sweat and beginning to accept defeat when he fired a desperation shot.You know, somebody wrote Rambo?Thomas Flood, Sr., and Harley Businsky exchanged a look of horrified veritableization. They were rocked, shaken, crumbling.Tommy pushed on. And Patton someone wrote Patton.Tommy waited. The two men sat next to each other on his single bed, coughing and fidgeting and trying not to make eye contact with the boy. everywhere they looked there were quotes carefully written in magic marker tacked on the walls there were supports, pens, and typing paper there were poster-sized photos of authors. Ernest Hemi ngway stared down at them with a look gaze that seemed to say, You fuckers should have gone fishing.Finally Harley said, Well, if youre going to be a writer, you cant stay here.Pardon? Tommy said.You got to go to a city and starve. I dont know a Kafka from a nuance, but I know that if youre going to be a writer, you got to starve. You wont be any damn good if you dont starve.I dont know, Harley, Tom Senior said, not sure that he liked the idea of his skinny son starving.Who bowled a three hundred last Wednesday, Tom?You did.And I say the boys got to go to the city and starve.Tom Flood looked at Tommy as if the boy were standing on the trapdoor of the gallows. You sure about this writer thing, son?Tommy nodded.Can I make you a sandwich?If not for a particularly seedy tv set docudrama about the bombing of the World Trade Center, Tommy might, indeed, have edacious in New York, but Tom senior was not going to allow his son to be blowed up by a bunch of towel-headed terrorists. And To mmy might have starved in Paris, if a cursory inspection of the Volvo had not revealed that it would not survive the dampness of the drive. So he ended up in San Francisco, and although he could use some breakfast, he was more worried about flowers than about feed.He thought, I should just stick around and see whos leaving the flowers. Catch them in the act.But he had been unemployed for more than a week, and his midwestern work ethic forced him out of his bunk.He wore his sneakers in the shower so his feet wouldnt have to come in contact with the floor, then dressed in his best shirt and job-hunting jeans, grabbed a notebook, and sloshed down the steps into Chinatown.The sidewalk was awash with Asians men and women moving doggedly past open markets selling live fish, barbecued meat, and thousands of vegetables that Tommy could put no name to. He passed one market where live snapping turtles, two feet across, were struggling to get out of tensile milk crates. In the next windo w, trays of duck feet and bills were arranged around smoked pig heads, while whole in the altogether pheasants hung ripening above.The air was heavy with the smells of pressed humanity, soy sauce, sesame oil, licorice, and car exhaust always car exhaust. Tommy walked up Grant and crossed Broadway into North Beach, where the bottle up of people thinned out and the smells changed to a miasma of baking bread, garlic, oregano, and more exhaust. No matter where he went in the City, there was an odoriferous mix of food and vehicles, like the alchemic concoctions of some mad gourmet mechanic Kung Pao Saab Turbo, Buick Skylark Carbonara, Sweet-and-Sour Metro Bus, Honda Bolognese with Burning Clutch Sauce.Tommy was startled out of his olfactory reverie by a screeching war whoop. He looked up to see a Rollerblader in fluorescent pads and helmet closing on him at breakneck speed. An old man, who was academic session on the sidewalk ahead feeding croissants to his two dogs, looked up mome ntarily and threw a croissant across the sidewalk. The dogs shot after the treat, pulling their cotton- set leashes tight. Tommy cringed. The Rollerblader hit the rope and went airborne, describing a ten-foot arc in the air before crashing in a violent tangle of padded limbs and wheels at Tommys feet.Are you okay?Tommy offered a hand to the skater, who waved it away. Im fine. Blood was dripping from a scrape on his chin, his Day-Glo wraparound sunglasses were twisted on his face.Perhaps you should slow down on the sidewalks, the old man called.The skater sat up and turned to the old man. Oh, Your Majesty, I didnt know. Im sorry.Safety first, son, the old man said with a smile.Yes, sir, the skater said. Ill be more careful. He climbed to his feet and nodded to Tommy. Sorry. He straightened his shades and skated tardily away.Tommy stood staring at the old man, who had resumed feeding his dogs. Your Majesty?Or Your Imperial Highness, the emperor moth said. Youre new to the City.Yes, b utA young woman in fishing net stockings and red satin hot pants, who was swinging by, paused by the Emperor and bowed slightly. Morning, Highness, she said.Safety first, my child, the Emperor said.She smiled and walked on. Tommy watched her until she turned the corner, then turned back to the old man.Welcome to my city, the Emperor said. How are you doing so far?Im Im Tommy was confused. Who are you?Emperor of San Francisco, Protector of Mexico, at your service. Croissant? The Emperor held open a white paper bag to Tommy, who move his head.This impetuous fellow, the Emperor said, pointing to his Boston terrier, is Bummer. A bit of a rascal, he, but the best bug-eyed rat dog in the City.The little dog growled.And this, the Emperor continued, is Lazarus, found dead on Geary Street after an unfortunate encounter with a French tour bus and snatched back from the brink by the mystical remedy scent of a slightly used beef jerky.The golden retriever offered his paw. Feeling stupid, Tom my took it and shook. Pleased to meet you.And you are? the Emperor asked.C. Thomas Flood.And the C stands for?Well, it doesnt really stand for anything. Im a writer. I just added the C to my pen name.And a fine affectation it is. The Emperor paused to gnaw the end of a croissant. So, C, how is the City treating you so far?Tommy thought that he might have just been insulted, but he found he was enjoying talk of the town to the old man. He hadnt had a conversation of more than a a couple of(prenominal) words since he arrived in the City. I like the City, but Im having some problems.He told the Emperor about the destruction of his car, about his subsequent meeting of Wong One, of his cramped, yucky quarters, and ended his story with the mystery of the flowers on his bed.The Emperor sighed sympathetically and scratched his scruffy graying beard. Im afraid that I am unable to assist you with your accommodation problem the men and I are fortunate enough to count the entire City as our home. But I may have a lead on a job for you, and perhaps a clue to the conundrum of the flowers.The Emperor paused and motioned for Tommy to move closer. Tommy crouched down and cocked an ear to the Emperor. Yes?Ive seen him, the Emperor whispered. Its a vampire.Tommy recoiled as if hed been spit on. A vampire florist?Well, once you accept the vampire part, the florist part is a pretty easy leap, dont you think?Chapter 5Undead and Somewhat Slightly hazyFrench people were fucking in the room next door Jody could hear every groan, giggle, and bed spring squeak. In the room above, a television spewed game-show prattle Ill take Bestiality for five hundred, Alex.Jody pulled a pillow over her head.It wasnt exactly like waking up. There was no slow skate from dreamland to reality, no pleasant dawning of consciousness in the cozy twilight of sleepiness. No, it was as if someone had just switched on the world, full volume, like a measure radio playing realitys top forty irritating hits.Cr iminal Presidents for a hundred, Alex.Jody flipped onto her back and stared at the ceiling. I always thought that sex and game shows ended at death, she thought. They always say Rest in peace, dont they?Vas y plus fort, mon petit cochon damour** Do it harder, my little love pigShe wanted to complain to someone, anyone. She detested waking up alone and going to sleep alone, for that matter. She had lived with ten different men in five years. Serial monogamy. It was a problem she had been getting around to working on before she died.She crawled out of bed and opened the rubber-lined motel draperies. Light from streetlights and neon signs filled the room.Now what?Normally she would go to the bathroom. But she didnt feel the need to.I havent peed in two days. I may never pee again.She went into the bathroom and sat on the stool to test her theory. Nothing. She unwrapped one of the plastic glasses, filled it with water and gulped it down. Her stomach lurched and she vomited the wa ter in a stream against the mirror.Okay, no water. A shower? Change clothes and go out on the town? To do what? Hunt?She recoiled at the thought.Am I going to have to kill people? Oh my God, Kurt. What if he changes? What if he already has?She dressed cursorily in her clothes from the night before, grabbed her flight bag and the room key and left the room. She waved to the night clerk as she passed the motel office and he winked and waved back. A hundred bucks had made them friends.She walked around the corner and up Chestnut, resisting the urge to break into a run. Outside her building she paused and focused on the apartment window. The lights were on, and with concentration she could hear Kurt talking on the phone.Yeah, the crazy bitch knocked me out with a potted plant. No, threw it at me. I was two hours late for work. I dont know, she said something about being attacked. She hasnt been to work for a couple of days. No, she doesnt have a key I had to buzz her inSo I didnt kill h im. He didnt change or he wouldnt have been able to go to work at all in the daylight. He sounds fine. Pissed, but fine. I wonder if I just apologize and explain what happenedNo, Kurt said into the phone. I took her name off the mailbox. I dont really care, she didnt fit the image Im trying to build anyway. I was thinking about asking out Susan Badistone Stanford, family money, Republican. I know, but thats why God made implantsJody turned and walked back to the motel. She stopped in the office and paid the clerk for two more days, then went to her room, sat down on the bed and tried to cry. No tears would come.In another time she would have called a girlfriend and spent the change surface on the phone being comforted. She would have eaten a half gallon of ice cream and stayed up all night thinking about what she was going to do with her life. In the morning she would have called in sick to work, then called her mother in Carmel to borrow enough money for a deposit on a new apartm ent. But that was another time, when she had still been a person.The little confidence that she had felt the night before was gone. Now she was just confused and afraid. She tried to remember everything she had ever seen or heard about vampires. It wasnt much. She didnt like scary books or movies. Much of what she could remember didnt seem true. She didnt have to sleep in a coffin, that was obvious. But it was also obvious that she couldnt go out in the daylight. She didnt have to kill every night, and if she did bite someone, he or she didnt necessarily have to turn into a vampire an asshole, maybe, but not a vampire. But then again, Kurt had been an asshole before, so how could you tell? Why had she turned? She was going to have to get to a library.She thought, Ive got to get my car back. And I need a new apartment. Its just a matter of time before a maid comes in during the day and burns me to a crisp. I need someone who can move around during the day. I need a friend.She had lost her address book with her purse, but it didnt really matter. All of her friends were currently in relationships, and although any of them would offer sympathy about her breakup with Kurt, they were too self-involved to be of any real help. She and her friends were only close when they were single.I need a man.The thought depressed her.Why does it always come to that? Im a modern woman. I can open jars and kill spiders on my own. I can balance a checkbook and check the oil in my car. I can support myself. Then again, maybe not. How am I going to support myself?She threw her flight bag on the bed and pulled out the white bakery bag full of money and emptied it on the bed. She counted the bills in one stack, then counted the stacks. There were thirty-five stacks of twenty one-hundred dollar bills. Minus the five hundred she had spent on the hotel almost 70 thousand dollars. She felt a sudden and deep-seated urge to go shopping.Whoever had attacked her had known she would need mon ey. It hadnt been an accident that she had turned. And it probably hadnt been an accident that he had left her hand in the sunlight to burn. How else would she have known to go to ground before sunup? But if he wanted to help her, wanted her to survive, why didnt he just tell her what she was supposed to do?She gathered up the money and was stuffing it back in the flight bag when the phone rang. She looked at it, watched the orange light strobing in rhythm to the bell. No one knew where she was. It must be the front desk. After four rings she picked up.Before she could say hello, a petulant calm male voice said, By the way, youre not immortal. You can still be killed.There was a click and Jody hung up the phone.He said, be killed, not you can still die. Be killed.She grabbed her bag and ran out into the night.

Frontline: Camera and Current Affairs Programs

How do the creators of Front imbibe convey the main issues in the text? The truth in the media is a subjective good which is often sensationalized, fabricated and manipulated for a arrive of reasons. Therefore, realistically the media only represents certain facets of the truth to suit their purpose and context. Rob Sitchs Frontline is a satirical examination of current affairs programs and explores the medias selective dissemination of information to construct the desired truth.Though being disturbingly accurate in their sarcastic attack on the deceit and hypocrisy of the media, the producers of Frontline implement wit and parody to challenge the reliability of the media and such concepts are explored through a number of film techniques in episodes such as The Siege and Add sex and stir The commercial nature of the media dictates that the content of the broadcast must rate easily and be profit fit. The episode The Siege exemplifies the commercial nature of current affairs progra ms and re-emphasizes the medias potential to regard the truth as a subjective commodity to gain gain higher ratings.Frontline seeks little more than authenticity to convince their audience that they are a credible resource. In The Siege Rob Sitch blurs the demarcation between fiction and reality, through illustrating a allegory based on a real incident which occurred in 1994 making it harder to discern the truth. Frontline pursues a degree about a father who has held his children hostage during a custody battle. This episode exposes the true nature of journalism and the unethical practices that the media undertakes to win the ratings war.Marty ironically says youve crossed the line mate, this pretense of ethics is juxtaposed with you beauty when he realizes that it was the Frontline team itself that got through to interviewing the gunman. Marty further sensationalizes and exaggerates the truth by wearing a flak summit and crouching down to make it appear that he is in a dangero us situation, when in reality he is five kilometers away from the danger zone. Through the use of dialogue How about if I crouch down like this? To make it look like Im in danger Marty illustrates his blatant tailor for the truth thus emphasizing the importance of appearance and ratings over the depiction of the truth within the media. Brooke further epitomizes the medias motives through the use of incongruity in the dialogue Mrs. Forbes do you have any nine volt batteries? Such dialogue accentuates Brookes superficiality as she is not at all relate about Mrs. Forbes feelings. The camera close up of Brookes exceedingly concerned facial expression when she interviews Mrs. Forbes is juxtaposed with Mrs.Forbes misery and Brookes deception when she asks would you be able to cry again Mrs. Forbes? The on and off camera persona evidently shows that the truth is subverted by the media to construct a desired archetype, portraying the truth to be a subjective commodity. The medias rele ntless pursuit of higher ratings to ensure commercial success plays a significant role in determining the representation of the truth they present to their audience. The episode Add sex and Stir epitomizes the medias selective dissemination of information to construct a desired truth, thus represent truth to be a subjective commodity.Frontline pursues a story about the unfair dismissal of a variation who is supposedly dropped from the team because she is not gay. Although Brooke acknowledges that the sportswoman was dropped from the team because of poor form, she decides to portray the misleading sex angle of the story in the pursuit for higher ratings to ensure Frontlines commercial success. Frontlines brisk crisp picture quality, still camera and immaculate sets gives a sense of professional respectability and authority to create a sense of credibility.Rob Sitch employs parody to emphasize the potential for the media to regard the truth as a subjective commodity to gain more r atings. Sitch satirizes the limited value that the media places on the truth through Brookes satirical comment Well theres a lead story, Stu, lead player dropped due to bad form, out breaking. The truth is further manipulated through filming Brookes nods separately and out of context which further amplifies their falsity, emphasizing her lack of integrity.Brooke completely distorts the truth through creating a re-enactment, in which the story is further exaggerated through the steamy atmosphere in the girls change rooms, demonstrating that it is sleaze that sells rather than the truth. The dramatic background music in the re-enactment further satirizes the medias pursuit for higher ratings, portraying that the medias essential objective is profit, rather than saving the world Chris Masters (ABC correspondent). Through this it is clearly evident that the truth to the media is a subjective commodity that can often be manipulated, fabricated and sensationalized for a number of reasons .