The Crucible Act Essay Example for Free

The Crucible Act Essay This meant that God chose each person from birth for salvation or damnation. Only God knew the fate of a person and nothing you did would change it. They lived very strict lives that adhered to the divine law and you were condemned if you didn’t obey it. 2. When Abigail accuses Tituba of witchcraft just to get the pressure off of her and so that they would stop asking her questions. More evidence is found when we discover the affair between Abigail and proctor which could be the reason why Abigail tries to hide the truth about what really happened. An alternative is that they just wanted to do something daring and fun because Puritans were very strict and they didn’t have that much freedom. Or they wanted to use witchcraft to make potions to get men to fall in love with them. 3. Reverend Paris is the minister of Salem. He caught his daughter Betty, Ruth Putnam, and Abigail Williams dancing with Tituba in the woods. He thinks they were performing witchcraft and now he’s worried that he’ll be kicked out of the town for having a witch as a daughter. He is a paranoid, attention seeking, self-absorbed person. Most people in the town don’t like him. 4. Thomas Putnam was a very wealthy man who wanted to increase his wealth buy accusing people of witchcraft and then buying their land. Ann Putnam is Thomas Putnam’s wife who is woman who has experienced many deaths and has bad dreams. She thinks that witchcraft was the reason that she had 7 stillborn children, so she’s okay with blaming these deaths on the supernatural and wants justice for the â€Å"wicked doings† of someone else. Ruth Putnam is the only surviving child of the Putnams. She fell ill along with Betty after Reverend Parris found them dancing in the woods. Ruth goes to Tituba to conjure spirits so she’d be able to communicate with her dead siblings because her mother asked her to. 5. It became suspicious when we found out that Elizabeth didn’t want to sit near Abigail (whom she fired), despite the fact that Abigail has denied doing anything wrong. The commentary gives us a bit of background information and helps us understand some of the things going on in the story. On page 1241 the 5 paragraphs of commentary go into detail about Thomas Putnam, discussing his background life and personality. From this commentary we now know that Putnam was very wealthy and he felt like he had superiority over everyone else. He has a vindictive, revengeful, and bitter personality. This gives us insight into the character so that we can deeply understand them which will help us grasp the story better.

Finding Happiness in Great Expectations :: Great Expectations Essays

Finding Happiness in Great Expectations    Great Expectations is a coming of age novel. This novel is a story of Pip and his initial dreams and resulting disappointments that eventually lead him to becoming a genuinely good man. During his journey into adulthood, Pip comes to realize two diverse concepts of being a gentleman and he comes to find the real gentlemen in his life aren't the people he had thought.    Encouraged by Mrs. Joe and Pumblechook, as a child Pip entertains fantasies of becoming a gentleman. In the eyes of Pip a gentleman is to be wealthy, educated and have a high class, thus Pip's desires. In his mind, Pip has connected the ideas of moral, social, and educational advancement so that each depends on the others. The coarse and cruel Drummle, a member of the upper class, provides Pip with proof that social advancement has no inherent connection to intelligence or moral worth. Drummle is a lout who has inherited immense wealth, while Pip's friend and brother-in-law Joe is a good man who works hard for the little he earns.    Significantly Pip's life as a gentleman is no more satisfying--and certainly no more moral--than his previous life as a blacksmith's apprentice. Pip's desires for educational improvement have deep connections to his social ambition and longing to marry Estella: a full education is a requirement of being a gentleman so he thinks. As long as he is an ignorant country boy, he has no hope of social advancement. Pip understands this fact as a child, when he learns to read at Mr.    Wopsle's aunt's school, and as a young man, when he takes lessons from Matthew Pocket. Ultimately, through the examples of Joe, Biddy, and Magwitch, Pip learns that social and educational improvement are irrelevant to one's real worth and that conscience and affection are to be valued above sophistication and social standing. This new understanding shows Pip who the real gentlemen are.    As Pip grows in age he grows in wisdom and his true identity unfolds as he discovers what it means to be a gentleman. When Pip was young, he knew only of the stereotypical figures of a gentleman. However, Pip comes to the realization that wealth and class are less important than affection, loyalty, and inner worth.

Online Marketplace

WHAT IS ONLINE MARKETPLACE? The online payment marketplace is experiencing an explosion of innovative ideas, plans, and announcements, which one commentator has likened to a â€Å"goat rodeo†, a chaotic situation in which powerful players with different agendas compete with one another for public acceptance, and above all, huge potential revenues. Others liken the payment marketplace to a battle among the four platform titans Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon.Each of these titans have their own versions of a future payment system that challenges the other players. And let’s not forget PayPal, the reigning power in alternative online payment, or the credit card companies who process over 70% of online payments, or the telecommunication wireless carriers Verizon and AT&T who make it all happen. All of these players are also competing for a share of the online payment stream. They all want to help us spend money, for a fee.The continuing double-digit growth of e-commerce is certainly one factor driving market participants, but a more important factors is the emergence of the mobile platform of smartphone and tablets that opens the door for new firms to enter the online payment marketplace based on newer technologies and control of the mobile platform itself. WHAT IS PayPal ? PayPal is a global e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. Online money transfers serve as electronic alternatives to paying with traditional paper methods, such as checks and money orders.PayPal is an acquirer, performing payment processing for online vendors, auction sites, and other commercial users, for which it charges a fee. It may also charge a fee for receiving money, proportional to the amount received. The fees depend on the currency used, the payment option used, the country of the sender, the country of the recipient, the amount sent and the recipient's account type. In addition, eBay purchases made by credit card t hrough PayPal may incur extra fees if the buyer and seller use different currencies HOW TO BUY The easiest way to remember your credit card number is not having to.Remembering 16 digits isn’t easy and typing them in to pay for something isn’t always secure. Now you don’t need to do either. 1 Sign up for free, and add a bank account or a debit/credit card. 2 Speed through checkout at millions of online stores. Just look for the PayPal button. 3 Stay protected from checkout to delivery with our Buyer Protection. Figure 1. 1 show Ebay the example of website use PayPal. Figure 1. 2 show Hop-shop-go example for PayPal. PAYMENT METHODS Choose how you want to pay. Set up your payment methods quickly and easily. 1 Confirm your email address.This helps protect you if someone tries to register a PayPal account using your email address 2 You can add multiple credit/debit cards and have the flexibility to set one as your default payment source 3 You have the option to withd raw any payments received to your bank account. Simply add a bank account to facilitate it. Add a card You can add a credit or debit card to your PayPal account to make payments instantly. To add a card, 1. Log in and click  Profile. 2. Select  Add or Edit Card for payments. 3. Click  Add card  or  Add another card  and follow the prompts.Top-up my PayPal account You can use PayPal to make payments online card-free. Simply top-up your PayPal balance from your bank account. * 1. Log in and click  Top-up. 2. Select Top-up via RHB bank* account. Withdraw funds to a bank account When you receive payments, you can keep the money in your PayPal account for future purchases or add a bank to withdraw it to your bank account. To withdraw your funds, 1. Log in and click  Withdraw. 2. Select  Withdraw funds to your bank. 3. Enter the amount and follow the prompts. TYPES ONLINE PAYMENT Google Checkout ) Wallet One wallet for online and in-store shopping * Buy online with your phone or computer Make purchases at thousands of online shops by signing in to your Google Account. * Buy in-store with the mobile app Tap your phone to pay and redeem offers, using NFC (near-field communication). NFC payments are currently only available in the United States. * Manage your account Sign in to manage your payment information and view your transaction history. 2) Checkout Increase online sales using Google Wallet New! Google Checkout is now Google Wallet for buyers.Google Wallet is a fast, secure checkout process that helps increase sales by bringing you more customers and allowing them to buy from you quickly and easily with a single account, online or in-store. Sell worldwide. Attract buyers in over 140 countries to purchase your goods and services online using their Google Wallet. Convert more sales. A fast, convenient checkout process helps Google users convert more than shoppers who have not used Google before. Protect yourself from fraud. The Payment Guarantee P olicy protects 98% of orders on average – when an order is guaranteed, you get paid even if it results in a chargebackAMAZON Figure 1. 3 show Amazon website Amazon Services works with businesses of all sizes to provide products and solutions backed by the power of Amazon. For example, your business can reach millions of Amazon shoppers by selling on the Amazon Marketplace and then leverage Amazon's fulfillment services to manage shipping and provide trusted customer service. Or, if your business already has a website, you can advertise your products to Amazon. com shoppers to drive qualified traffic to your website, and then improve conversion by making it easy for them to buy on your site with their Amazon account through Amazon Payments.If you need a website, or would like to upgrade your current website, Amazon Webstore makes it easy to build a branded eCommerce website. Whether you'd like to Sell on Amazon. com or make your own website more successful, Amazon Services has solutions to help you build your business successfully online. Increase your business capabilities. Get on board with Amazon. If taking your business to the next level includes selling online, or improving your internet-based business, getting to know Amazon Services could make all the difference in your success.Imagine having Amazon, with its world-class technologies, as an ally in meeting your business goals. Think how much simpler things could be if you could leverage the power of Amazon tools and services for your business. Reach Customers Amazon Services offers two solutions that give you access to tens of millions of Amazon customers. You can sell your products directly on Amazon, or reach Amazon customers through our site display advertisements. Sell on the Amazon Marketplace By joining  Amazon Marketplace, you give customers a familiar, trustworthy shopping experience even as you avoid the time and costs of developing a standalone website.Use the Amazon Marketplace soluti on to help make your business what you dream it could be. Advertise on Amazon Get your products in front of millions of Amazon customers with  Amazon Product Ads  or display ads fromAmazon Media Group. With Product Ads, you get placement in targeted locations across our detail pages, search and browse options, the buy box, and tower ads. With display ads, your marketing messages can reach just the right audience in the numbers and channels where you want to be seen. Build a website with Webstore Build your eCommerce site on Amazon Webstore and put the security and scalability of Amazon's cloud behind your site.Robust site design and inventory management tools, plus easy integration with the other Amazon Services products, make Amazon Webstore the right eCommerce platform for businesses of all sizes. List your products on the Amazon Marketplace When you list and sell your products on Amazon, you can quickly take advantage of the same robust and reliable Amazon site infrastructure , including the many seller features and functionality we have worked hard to build. No matter how many products you list, you're eligible to use Amazon's world-class seller technologies. CASE STUDY QUESTIONS ) What is the value proposition that PayPal offers consumers ? How about merchants ? Do any of the competing proposals match the benefits of PayPal ? ANSWER a. PayPal offers consumers How to buy The easiest way to remember your credit card number is not having to. Remembering 16 digits isn’t easy and typing them in to pay for something isn’t always secure. Now you don’t need to do either. * Sign up for free, and add a bank account or a debit/credit card. * Speed through checkout at millions of online stores. Just look for the PayPal button. * Stay protected from checkout to delivery with our Buyer Protection.Buying is free It's free to use PayPal for online purchases in Malaysia. It's the PayPal sellers who are charged a small fee for each transaction. Your eligible purchases are protected Your eligible purchases are protected wherever you shop and pay with PayPal – at no cost to you. Just in case your item didn't arrive or is significantly different from how it was described, we can help you get a full refund. More ways to pay online You can store your bank details and credit/debit cards more safely with PayPal and choose your preferred way to pay the next time you shop.And you can even do it on your mobile. Accepted Worldwide Shop anytime, anywhere from millions of online stores that accept PayPal. b. PayPal offers merchants Solutions for business We have a wide range of solutions for your business. Sell globally and get paid quickly. Looking to sell occasionally on eBay or through your blog? PayPal helps you get paid faster. Fees at 3. 4% + RM2. 00 MYR With our simple and transparent pricing, you'll never be surprised by hidden fees when you receive commercial domestic payments for goods and services at 3. 4% + RM2. 00 MYR. Keeping every seller saferOur industry-leading anti-fraud technology and a team of specialists help to keep you more secure. We provide all sellers with a convenient process for responding to buyer disputes. c. PayPal Competitor Google Checkout is quite similar to PayPal, but it has grown to only 7% of the alternative payment market. Google Checkout a) Wallet * One wallet for online and in-store shopping * Buy online with your phone or computer Make purchases at thousands of online shops by signing in to your Google Account. * Buy in-store with the mobile app Tap your phone to pay and redeem offers, using NFC (near-field communication).NFC payments are currently only available in the United States. * Manage your account Sign in to manage your payment information and view your transaction history. b) Checkout * Increase online sales using Google Wallet * New! Google Checkout is now Google Wallet for buyers. Google Wallet is a fast, secure checkout process that helps increase sales by bringing you more customers and allowing them to buy from you quickly and easily with a single account, online or in-store. * Sell worldwide. Attract buyers in over 140 countries to purchase your goods and services online using their Google Wallet. Convert more sales. A fast, convenient checkout process helps Google users convert more than shoppers who have not used Google before. * Protect yourself from fraud. The Payment Guarantee Policy protects 98% of orders on average – when an order is guaranteed, you get paid even if it results in a chargeback 2) Why would the telecommunications carriers like AT&T and Verizon want to move into the payment business? What chance do they have to compete against Google? What’s their advantage?. ANSWER i)Why would the telecommunications carriers like AT&T and Verizon want to move in to the payments business?The reason why the telecommunications carriers like AT&T and Verizon want to move into the payment business is because of the h uge potential of revenues and another factors is the emergence of the mobile platform of smartphones & tablets that opens the door for new firms to enter the online payments marketplace based on newer technologies and control of the mobile platform itself ii)What chance do they have to compete against Google? Their percentage of chance that they probably have to compete against Google is 30%-70%,from our opinion. Google system is much familiar to the user than AT&T and Verizon.Google also one of four platform titans and already get the public acceptance. Yet, they still have the chance to compete against Google because Google is much familiar with search engines system. iii) What’s their advantage? AT&T and Verizon advantage is that they are from mobile telecommunications (phone company) which is give them the advantage to get public acceptance that in many parts of the world, the phone company is widely used as a payment system, after they announced a mobile phone-based paym ent system called Isi. Unlike Google, AT&T and Verizon is more to payment that makes by smartphone.So, it is their advantage to make step in Electronic payment market. 3) The smartphone giants Apple and Google control the operating systems and technological features of the devices. Google exercises this control not by actually making the devices but licensing its Android system and demanding device makers include certain features. Which of these smartphones firms has the greatest chance of successfully developing a Web-wide wireless payment service? Why? ANSWER Apple advantages is, like Google has already developed an online payment system to support salles ath the iTunes Store.Unlike Google Checkout and PayPal, Apple has not to date developed an online merchant payment system that could be used across the Web. Some analysis believe Apple is considering the idea of extending its existing iTunes payment system to third-party vendors selling digital goods on the Internet. iPhone users can already use their iTunes account to buy some third-party virtual and subscription goods. Apple’s iTunes Store, which could serve as the mobile digital wallet used to store payment information on a consumer’s payment-enabled device,generated net sales of music, software (apps) and content of about $5 billion in 2010.There are approximately 225 milliom iTunes users worldwide with credit card accounts at iTunes. Apple disadvantages is, Apple does not have a presence in the online merchant payment process, a critical weakness. Four instance, you can use PayPal and Google Checkout at thousands of online retailers, but there is no similar Apple digital wallet that can be used across the Web. It only works at the iTunes Store. This may be a case where Apple’s penchants for building walled gardens of hardware and software like the iPhone and iTunes Store has limited its future growth.Google already made its first foray into the merchant payment market with Google C heckout in 2007. Google Checkout is quite similar to PayPal, but it has grown to only 7% of the alternative payment market. Google Checkout stores a user’s financial information, including credit card information, and then presents this information to merchants when the user checks out. Google advantages is, the customer does not have to fill out forms or reveal credit information to online merchants, but instead clicks on a Google Checkout icon on the merchant’s site, and payment is made through Google’s site.As with PayPal, the user stores value on the Google Checkout site in the form of a verified credit card, or a bank account, and the merchant does not have access to the customers credit card information. Google firms has the greatest chance of successfully developing a Web-wide wireless payment service because, the customer does not have to fill out forms or reveal credit information to online merchants, but instead clicks on a Google Checkout icon on the merchant’s site, and payment is made through Google’s site.As with PayPal, the user stores value on the Google Checkout site in the form of a verified credit card, or a bank account, and the merchant does not have access to the customers credit card information. QUESTION 4) What strategies would you recommend that PayPal pursue in order to maintain its dominant position over the next five years? . ANSWER Strategies to maintain PayPal dominant position over next 5 years Intro : Scott Thompson , president of PayPal outlined a strategy to expand PayPal globally, strengthening its dominant position over the next five years. Here the strategies. 1.Increase penetration on eBay – Projected growth on eBay is a function of seller coverage and consumer preference. A one-percent share increase within eBay results in $17 million in incremental revenue for PayPal. While market share in No America is 79%, it is only 41% Internationally so there is still plenty of room to grow on eBay. And new PayPal users on eBay (growing at a rate of 3 million new accounts per quarter) use PayPal across the Internet 2. Grow share in merchants services – PayPal helps merchants to sell more online – those that enable PayPal Express Checkout experience up to a 14% increase in sales.Today, eBay has approximately a 5% share of global merchant services, as much as 9% if you include eBay volume. PayPal has specific strategies for each segment of the market: sole proprietors, small/medium business, and large merchants. Consumers are increasingly global, and increasingly security conscious. They prefer to use PayPal when they shop online. Note the significant growth among SMEs and large businesses. Merchants have discovered the value of payment choice in encouraging incremental sales and higher transaction values, particularly via Bill Me Later.PayPal anticipates that it will achieve 14% merchant services market share in No America by 2011. International market sh are is estimated to be 5-6% by 2011, citing PayPal’s â€Å"unmatched facility for cross border transactions. † PayPal’s global e-commerce market share is projected to be 12-14% (on and off eBay) by 2011. 3. Adjacent payment markers The third element of PayPal’s growth strategy is expansion outside e-commerce. Thompson estimated the non-retail marketplace online as $1 Trillion. He specifically noted mobile, social networks, and non-profits (government opportunities were cited by Donahoe earlier).PayPal has demonstrated early leadership in mobile payments, experimenting with solutions in lots of mobile segments until there is industry consensus where consumers will go. Although non-profits were positioned as an adjacent opportunity, there are over 100,000 non-profits currently using PayPal. We’ve watched as PayPal has customized its services for non-profits with special on-boarding process, special features, and special pricing. Will this be the appr oach used for other verticals? Not unlike Amazon, PayPal fosters a close relationship with developers that are creating applications for use online and on the go via mobile devices.The PayPal global Internet payments network can be used to exchange value not just on eBay and within e-commerce but beyond. Thompson acknowledged that opening up the developer network while maintaining a secure environment is challenging and that’s why none of the other payment platforms out there has done it [While Amazon has done this, and done it for payments, PayPal does not consider Amazon to be a global payments platform]. PayPal’s global reach, closed loop network, and risk management/anti-fraud capabilities uniquely position it to â€Å"accelerate innovation on the web† with â€Å"PayPal as the engine in the middle. CONCLUSION The online payment marketplace is experiencing an explosion of innovative ideas, plans, and announcements, which one commentator has likened to a â₠¬Å"goat rodeo†, a chaotic situation in which powerful players with different agendas compete with one another for public acceptance, and above all, huge potential revenues. Others liken the payment marketplace to a battle among the four platform titans Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon. Each of these titans have their own versions of a future payment system that challenges the other players. And let’s not forget PayPal, the reigning power in alternative

Megalania - Facts and Figures

Name: Megalania (Greek for giant roamer); pronounced MEG-ah-LANE-ee-ah Habitat: Plains of Australia Historical Epoch: Pleistocene-Modern (2 million-40,000 years ago) Size and Weight: Up to 25 feet long and 2 tons Diet: Meat Distinguishing Characteristics: Large size; powerful jaws; splayed legs About Megalania Aside from crocodiles, very few prehistoric reptiles after the age of dinosaurs achieved enormous sizes--one notable exception being Megalania, also known as the Giant Monitor Lizard. Depending on whose reconstruction you believe, Megalania measured anywhere from 12 to 25 feet from head to tail and weighed in the neighborhood of 500 to 4,000 pounds--a wide discrepancy, to be sure, but one that would still put it in a heftier weight class than the largest lizard alive today, the Komodo Dragon (a relative lightweight at only 150 pounds). Even though it was discovered in southern Australia, Megalania was described by the famous English naturalist Richard Owen, who in 1859 also created its genus and species name (Megalania prisca, Greek for great ancient roamer). However, modern paleontologists believe that the Giant Monitor Lizard should properly be classified under the same genus umbrella as modern monitor lizards, Varanus. The result is that professionals refer to this giant lizard as Varanus priscus, leaving it to the public to wield the nickname Megalania. Paleontologists speculate that Megalania was the apex predator of Pleistocene Australia, feasting at leisure on mammalian megafauna like Diprotodon (better known as the Giant Wombat) and Procoptodon (the Giant Short-Faced Kangaroo). The Giant Monitor Lizard would have been relatively immune from predation itself unless it happened to spar with two other predators that shared its late Pleistocene territory: Thylacoleo, the Marsupial Lion, or the Quinkana, a 10-foot-long, 500-pound crocodile. (Given its splay-legged posture, it seems unlikely that Megalania could have outrun more fleet-footed mammalian predators, especially if these furry assassins decided to gang up for the hunt.) One interesting fact about Megalania is that its the largest identified lizard ever to have lived on our planet. If that makes you do a double-take, remember that Megalania technically belongs to the order Squamata, placing it on an entirely different branch of evolution than plus-sized prehistoric reptiles like dinosaurs, archosaurs, and therapsids. Today, Squamata is represented by close to 10,000 species of lizards and snakes, including Megalanias modern descendants, the monitor lizards. Megalania is one of the few giant Pleistocene animals the demise of which cant be traced directly to early humans; the Giant Monitor Lizard was probably doomed to extinction by the disappearance of the gentle, herbivorous, oversized mammals that early Australians preferred to hunt instead. (The first human settlers arrived on Australia about 50,000 years ago.) Since Australia is such a huge and uncharted landmass, there are some people who believe that Megalania still lurks in the interior of the continent, but there isnt a shred of evidence to support this view!