Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy Essay Example for Free

Louis Vuitton Moà «t Hennessy Essay Louis Vuitton Moà «t Hennessy (LVMH) is a French multinational luxury goods conglomerate. Its headquarters are located in France, Paris. LVMH was formed after the merger of Louis Vuitton (fashion producer) and Moet Hennessy (cognac manufacturer) in 1987. The company controls around 60 subsidiaries which are often managed independently and each one of them manage a small number of prestigious brands. The main holding company of LVMH is Christian Dior a luxury goods group. LVMH is the largest luxury goods producer in the world. Comparing LVMH with Hermes, LVMH has a huge corporate power, which Hermes doesn’t have and a vast variety of many familiar luxury brands. Some of the most well known brands of LVMH: * Acqua di Parma * Christian Dior S.A. * DKNY * Fendi * Hennessy * Louis Vuitton * Moà «t Chandon * Parfums Christian Dior The current share price of LVMH is about 140 Euros. The following chart represents the revenue of LVMH in million Euros for the first 9 months from 2011 till 2012 in each group. The mission of LVMH group is to represent the most refined qualities of Western Art de Vivre around the world. LVMH aims in continuing to be synonymous with both elegance and creativity. Their products, and the cultural values they embody, blend tradition and innovation, and kindle dream and fantasy. In view of their mission, five priorities reflect the fundamental values shared by all of LVMH Group stakeholders: Be creative and innovate Aim for product excellence Bolster the image of their brands with passionate determination Act as entrepreneurs Strive to be the best in all they do One of the main values of LVMH that clearly relates to the core business of the company and the opportunities pursued in business development is acting as entrepreneurs. As previously mentioned, LVMH has about 60 subsidiaries which all manage some brands and most likely LVMH is aiming to obtain more partners and subsidiaries for luxury product manufacturing in the future. Other value that clearly reflects to their actions and business strategy is to strive to be the best in all they do. In this case it is more than obvious that this value is essential for them based on the fact that LVMH is the leading luxury goods manufacturing company in the world. Innovation is also a value that pursues in their business development, because by obtaining new subsidiaries and partners they create new products in the luxury goods market. [ 1 ]. Online encyclopedia – Wikipedia. Link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LVMH, Article LVMH [ 2 ]. Online encyclopedia – Wikipedia. Link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxury_goods, Article – Luxury brands. [ 3 ]. Official website of LVMH. Link http://www.lvmh.com/the-group/lvmh-companies-and-brands [ 4 ]. http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/q?s=MC.PA [ 5 ]. Official website of LVMH. Link http://www.lvmh.com/investor-relations/documentation/revenue [ 6 ]. Official website of LVMH, Link http://www.lvmh.com/the-group/lvmh-group/group-mission-and-values [ 7 ]. Official website of LVMH, Link http://www.lvmh.com/the-group/lvmh-group/group-mission-and-values

Crowd Simulation in Films

Crowd Simulation in Films This dissertation is about the study of crowd simulation and why the crowd simulation is in need in the movies. Particularly concentrating about the computer generated movies simulating a large crowd is the most difficult task in the production pipeline. So finding a better way to give the audience the feel of crowd is the challenge. Researching about the silhouettes and its uses will help to implement the silhouette to establish the crowd. Silhouettes helps in many ways to create a mystic mood. . As implementing silhouette in the crowd simulation will helps to reduce the secondary animation and facial expression. As there are so many softwares exist to helps the crowd simulation, This paper will focus on a procedure which will create a crowd simulation by transferring the animation from one character to another character in a simpler and easier way. Chapter 1: Introduction Animation gives the life to the character. Animating a particular character takes a long time to give the feel. This dissertation is about researching the animation, animating the entire crowd is the difficult task in the animation pipeline. So this dissertation is mainly carried out to find a way to transfer the animation from one character to another character in a simpler and easier way. Crowd simulation is a process of simulating a group of members, objects or characters. When simulating a large number of characters in a live feature film is not a big deal. Man power is more important in simulating a crowd in feature film. Particularly concentrating on the computer generated movies, replicating the characters animation and behavior from one character to many character is a big deal. A lot of research is done about the crowds and the formation of crowds in society. For example, social gatherings, meetings, assemblies, religious ceremonies and sport events. 1.1| Aim: The main aim of the project is to achieve an essential method for crowd simulation for animation. 1.2| Research question: The research question for this study will be. What is crowd simulation? Why we need crowd simulation? Researching the existing crowd simulation method. Disadvantages of existing crowd simulation method. How silhouette helpful for the animation poses? How silhouette will be useful for simulating a crowd? 1.3| Statement of problem: Animating the entire crowd is the most biggest problem. Technically, creating the crowd is not a big deal but at that same time transferring the animation to each and every character with the different timing is the big deal. The another problem is that the rendering the whole scene with lots and lots of character in a particular scene will make the scene the most complicated one. So finding a better solution for creating the entire scene in Maya with lots and lots of character which has the different timing in their animation. There are several methods for the development of crowd simulation. The major method is using Mayas Dynamics. There are several external softwares which helps to simulate a entire crowd. But the method which said by this dissertation is quite simple and easier than comparing to another external softwares and Mayas Dynamics. 1.4| Objectives: Various types of crowd simulation method. Silhouette/ Various types. To study the golden poses for animations. Explore the secondary motion for animation. New methods of producing crowd simulation. 1.5| Significance of study: Most of the computer generated movies currently released like Madagascar, Horton hears a Who, had a clear idea about the crowd simulation. The focus of the study in this dissertation is about the simulation of crowd in a simpler and easier way and developing a simple procedure for transferring animation from one character to multiple characters. This study is carried out for developing a better technique for crowd simulation in future upcoming CG projects. 1.6| Hypothesis: The hypothesis of this dissertation is an animator can easily transfer the animation from one character to multiple character for simulating a crowd and also using the silhouette to visualize the crowd shot with a different perspective. Chapter 2: Review of literature This chapter will discuss about the article, books, Internet websites, publications which are related to this dissertation. There are few important topics are covered related to the cinematography, photography, silhouette, animation poses, crowd simulation. 2.1| Book and Internet websites: 1. Malcolm Le Grince,2001.,Experimental Cinema in Digital Age It explains about the experiment carried over Cinema from olden days to modern age. This book mainly concentrated about the cinemas that are experimented in modern ages. They experimented using the different types of cameras and various shots that enhances the scene. 2. Bordwell, David and Thompson, Kristian,2001.,Film Art- An Introduction It explains about the art of film making, this gives the introduction about the film making. This book is referenced particularity to study about the lights and its uses. This gives a clear idea about the back lighting is and how essential to shoot a silhouette shot. 3. Beazley, Mitchell and Ang, Tom,2008.,Fundamentals of modern photography It explains about the photography and how photography helpful to convey the moral to the audience. This book concentrates about the camera and its uses for the photography. Rules and techniques for achieving the Silhouette stills. 4. Frost, Lee,2003.,Photography It explains about the various types of photography in various mood setup. How different light setup enchants the scene. This book clearly explains about the advantages and disadvantages of different styles in photograph in different environment. This book is mainly referred to study the advantages and disadvantages of silhouette shooting. 5. Emma Rutherford, Lulu,2009.,Silhouette: The Art of the Shadow It explains about how the silhouette is oriented with the art and craft. This book gives a simple definition for the silhouette as Silhouette is the simplest of art forms. This says about the fascinating history of art and craft in Europe and America. 6. Popular Mechanices (Hadly, Paul, 1947.,Silhouettes for salons,From Pg No. 171 to 173) This book meanly concentrated on the mechanics of machines in 1947. But from the page 171, this book has a quote about the silhouette photography. Hadly had a clear definition for the silhouette photography and he particularity chosen the early morning and late evening time because that light sources will be perfect for silhouette photography. This light sources naturally become the back lighting when the still is taken by aiming the sun. 7. Thalman, Daniel.,Crowd simulation This book is referenced for the purpose to have an clear idea about simulating a crowd and crowd AI. Artificial intelligence is applied on the crowd with speed control, locomotion control and personification control. This book explains from the modeling to the final rendering of the simulated crowd. Also this book gives an idea about simulating the environment sources like clouds, skies, plants, lakes and terrains. 8. Brinkmann, Ron.,The art and science of digital composting: Techniques for visual effects This book is referenced to have a clear study about the digital compositing in the post production pipeline. It has a clear idea about the replication of the rendered mesh. This consumes the render time the 3D softwares like Maya, 3D Max and so on. Simulating a crowd in the post-production level is more better than production level. 9. http://www.digital-photography-school.com/how-to-photograph-silhouettes (Accessed on 02-10-10) This website is analyzed to study about the ways to achieve the silhouette photographs in a simper and easier way. This website gives a tutor to the viewer about the ways to take silhouette photography. 10.http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/85-free-high-quality-silhouette-sets/(Accessed on 02-10-10) This website is referenced to study about the poses of different anatomy models in silhouette mode. Professional animators use the silhouette mode to value the animation key poses. This website has a library of silhouette poses of props, male, female, mammals and so on. 11.http://www.cgtutorials.com/t3343/Autodesk_3ds_max/Crowd_simulation__biped__with_AI_implant(Accessed on 02-10-10) This website is referenced to study about the crowd AI. Artificial intelligence is one of the most important guide to achieve the realism in simulating the crowd. This website gives an idea about the particle effects and the collusion. Energy control, Personification control, direction control, locomotion control is easily achieved in AI. 12.http://www.creativecrash.com/tutorials/how-to-create-a-simple-crowd/page2(Accessed on 02-10-10) This website gives a method to create a simple crowd using the particle simulation. The basic idea in this tutorial is developing a crowd with low mesh ans defining a collision point using locater. The character is animated using the clip and four different clips is imported to 15 characters. These characters are guided using the expression editor. This method is based on the MEL(Maya Embedded Language.) 2.2| Interpretation: By reviewing the literatures like books, magazines, articles and Internet websites, the researcher had a better idea to develop a simple procedure to simulate the crowd and a crystal clear vision about the crowd AI (Artificial Intelligence). This literature review is also concentrated on the silhouettes and its uses in the production field. Silhouette is the best way to represent the enthusiasm. This research helped the researcher is present the entire crowd in the silhouette mode for the enthusiastic feel. Chapter 3: Research Methodology 3.1| Types of research: Analytical This dissertation is of qualitative and quantitative analysis of the title,Silhouette an essential method for crowd simulation animation. This research document carries the content from the Internet website, books and articles. This research is mainly done to develop a procedure to simulate a entire crowd in a simple and easier way and also to research about the silhouette is how essential to visualize the crowd to get a enthusiastic feel. This dissertation is carried out with the information collected through different sources like: Magazines Journals Forums Research papers Books Internet Websites Articles Google search engine and wikipedia are the two major sites helped a lot to gather information from various websites around the web. 3.2| Population: The people who are suitable for this population are Animators, cinematographers and visual effect artists. They were examined by series of questions regarding the simulation of an entire crowd using the silhouette. The population of this research work carries the production experienced person, students, Animation tutors. 3.3| Sampling: Judgment Sampling 3.4| Scope and limitation: This research is limited to the simulation of crowd. Chapter 4:Crowd Simulation 4.1| Definition A crowd is defined to be collection of people or group of people[1]. The term crowd is mainly referred to the collection of humans as well as animals[2]. Crowds in also defined as the sharing of emotional experience. A crowd can be named by the purpose or different types emotions, such as riot, social gatherings, meetings, assemblies, religious ceremonies, general meetings and sport events[3]. 4.2| Crowd: Scholars differ about what classes of social events fall under the rubric of collective behavior. In fact, the only class of events which all authors include is crowds. Clark McPhail, who treat crowds and collectives as synonyms. His important contribution is to gone beyond the others to carry out empirical studies of crowds. He finds them to form an set of types. The treatment of crowds is Gustave LeBon, The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (1896), in which the author, a frightened aristocrat, interpreted the crowds of the French Revolution as irrational reversions to animal emotion, and inferred from this that such reversion is characteristic of crowds in general. Freud expressed a similar view in Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego (1922). Authors thought that their ideas were confirmed by various kinds of crowds, one of these are the virtual economic. In Holland, during the tulip mania (1637), the prices of tulip bulbs rose to astronomical heights. An array of such quotes was quoted by the authors from the different part of the world. Mainly and other historical odds is said by Charles MacKays Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841). At the University of Chicago, Robert Park and Herbert Blumer approved with the speculations of LeBon and other that crowds are formed by emotional. But a crowd is capable of any emotion, not only the negative ones of anger and fear. A number of authors modify the common-sense of the crowd to include episodes during which the participants are not assembled in one place but are dispersed over a large area. Turner and Killian refer to such crowds, examples being Billy Grahams, their expanded definition of the crowd is justified if propositions are compact crowds do so for diffuse crowds as well. Some psychologists have proved that there are three fundamental human emotions: fear, joy, and anger. Neil Smelser, John Lofland, and others have proposed three corresponding forms of the crowd: the panic (an expression of fear), the craze (an expression of joy), and the hostile outburst (an expression of anger). Each of the three emotions can characterize either a compact or a diffuse crowd, the result being a scheme of six types of crowds. Lofland has offered the most explicit discussion of these types. 4.3| Types of Natural crowd: There are already many types of crowd in the society, mainly they are classified into businesses and projects based crowd formation. But when we study about crowd sourcing and the crowds that influence it, we always like to the talking about one big crowd, one only crowd type that can fulfill every task. Well thats not what happens in reality, and Author Nicholas Carr had a interesting blog post which states about this and his mind thoughts over the typology of crowds, after studying about the crowd sourcing we can find a piece for the PBS Digital Nation site. He suggests the following 4 types of crowds in crowd sourcing: Social production crowd: consists of a large group of individuals who lend their individual talents to the devolved creations like Wikipedia or Linux. This one basically fits in the most examples of crowd sourcing. Averaging crowd: classifies exactly as a survey group, giving an average judgment about some complex matter in some cases, is more accurate than the judgment of any one individual person in the society. Nicholas Carr defines that prediction markets are a typical examples of this different types of crowd, or even the stock market for that matter. Data mine crowd: A large group that, the basic common knowledge and understanding of all its members who produces a collection of behavioral data or information that can be collected verified by the authors from various country put under a series of examine in order to gain insight into behavioral or market patterns. The example are defined here is the crowd that are mainly feed Googles search engine and Amazons search engine. So here we all are involving ourselves in this crowd sourcing effort without knowing that were particularly helping the system. Networking crowd: a group that exports and import information through a shared communication system such as the phone network or Internet service. Internet service are mainly concentrated on the social networking like Orkut, hi 5, Facebook or Twitter. Here were not aware about being members of information collection, and if not handled carefully by the companies, could put a backfire on this type of services. After these 4 types, two were suggested. One by Clay Shirky, who was also, involved in this discussion, and another one from a suggestion by a commenter on the blog, Tom Lord. Thats crowd sourcing working right there! Transactional crowd: a group used to coordinate what are mainly point-to-point transactions, such as the type of crowd collected by eBay, Match.com, Innocentive, LinkedIn and similar services. Event crowd: A group organized through online communication for a particular event, which can take place either online or in the real world and may have a political, social, aesthetic, or other purpose. Crowd Simulation in Films Crowd Simulation in Films This dissertation is about the study of crowd simulation and why the crowd simulation is in need in the movies. Particularly concentrating about the computer generated movies simulating a large crowd is the most difficult task in the production pipeline. So finding a better way to give the audience the feel of crowd is the challenge. Researching about the silhouettes and its uses will help to implement the silhouette to establish the crowd. Silhouettes helps in many ways to create a mystic mood. . As implementing silhouette in the crowd simulation will helps to reduce the secondary animation and facial expression. As there are so many softwares exist to helps the crowd simulation, This paper will focus on a procedure which will create a crowd simulation by transferring the animation from one character to another character in a simpler and easier way. Chapter 1: Introduction Animation gives the life to the character. Animating a particular character takes a long time to give the feel. This dissertation is about researching the animation, animating the entire crowd is the difficult task in the animation pipeline. So this dissertation is mainly carried out to find a way to transfer the animation from one character to another character in a simpler and easier way. Crowd simulation is a process of simulating a group of members, objects or characters. When simulating a large number of characters in a live feature film is not a big deal. Man power is more important in simulating a crowd in feature film. Particularly concentrating on the computer generated movies, replicating the characters animation and behavior from one character to many character is a big deal. A lot of research is done about the crowds and the formation of crowds in society. For example, social gatherings, meetings, assemblies, religious ceremonies and sport events. 1.1| Aim: The main aim of the project is to achieve an essential method for crowd simulation for animation. 1.2| Research question: The research question for this study will be. What is crowd simulation? Why we need crowd simulation? Researching the existing crowd simulation method. Disadvantages of existing crowd simulation method. How silhouette helpful for the animation poses? How silhouette will be useful for simulating a crowd? 1.3| Statement of problem: Animating the entire crowd is the most biggest problem. Technically, creating the crowd is not a big deal but at that same time transferring the animation to each and every character with the different timing is the big deal. The another problem is that the rendering the whole scene with lots and lots of character in a particular scene will make the scene the most complicated one. So finding a better solution for creating the entire scene in Maya with lots and lots of character which has the different timing in their animation. There are several methods for the development of crowd simulation. The major method is using Mayas Dynamics. There are several external softwares which helps to simulate a entire crowd. But the method which said by this dissertation is quite simple and easier than comparing to another external softwares and Mayas Dynamics. 1.4| Objectives: Various types of crowd simulation method. Silhouette/ Various types. To study the golden poses for animations. Explore the secondary motion for animation. New methods of producing crowd simulation. 1.5| Significance of study: Most of the computer generated movies currently released like Madagascar, Horton hears a Who, had a clear idea about the crowd simulation. The focus of the study in this dissertation is about the simulation of crowd in a simpler and easier way and developing a simple procedure for transferring animation from one character to multiple characters. This study is carried out for developing a better technique for crowd simulation in future upcoming CG projects. 1.6| Hypothesis: The hypothesis of this dissertation is an animator can easily transfer the animation from one character to multiple character for simulating a crowd and also using the silhouette to visualize the crowd shot with a different perspective. Chapter 2: Review of literature This chapter will discuss about the article, books, Internet websites, publications which are related to this dissertation. There are few important topics are covered related to the cinematography, photography, silhouette, animation poses, crowd simulation. 2.1| Book and Internet websites: 1. Malcolm Le Grince,2001.,Experimental Cinema in Digital Age It explains about the experiment carried over Cinema from olden days to modern age. This book mainly concentrated about the cinemas that are experimented in modern ages. They experimented using the different types of cameras and various shots that enhances the scene. 2. Bordwell, David and Thompson, Kristian,2001.,Film Art- An Introduction It explains about the art of film making, this gives the introduction about the film making. This book is referenced particularity to study about the lights and its uses. This gives a clear idea about the back lighting is and how essential to shoot a silhouette shot. 3. Beazley, Mitchell and Ang, Tom,2008.,Fundamentals of modern photography It explains about the photography and how photography helpful to convey the moral to the audience. This book concentrates about the camera and its uses for the photography. Rules and techniques for achieving the Silhouette stills. 4. Frost, Lee,2003.,Photography It explains about the various types of photography in various mood setup. How different light setup enchants the scene. This book clearly explains about the advantages and disadvantages of different styles in photograph in different environment. This book is mainly referred to study the advantages and disadvantages of silhouette shooting. 5. Emma Rutherford, Lulu,2009.,Silhouette: The Art of the Shadow It explains about how the silhouette is oriented with the art and craft. This book gives a simple definition for the silhouette as Silhouette is the simplest of art forms. This says about the fascinating history of art and craft in Europe and America. 6. Popular Mechanices (Hadly, Paul, 1947.,Silhouettes for salons,From Pg No. 171 to 173) This book meanly concentrated on the mechanics of machines in 1947. But from the page 171, this book has a quote about the silhouette photography. Hadly had a clear definition for the silhouette photography and he particularity chosen the early morning and late evening time because that light sources will be perfect for silhouette photography. This light sources naturally become the back lighting when the still is taken by aiming the sun. 7. Thalman, Daniel.,Crowd simulation This book is referenced for the purpose to have an clear idea about simulating a crowd and crowd AI. Artificial intelligence is applied on the crowd with speed control, locomotion control and personification control. This book explains from the modeling to the final rendering of the simulated crowd. Also this book gives an idea about simulating the environment sources like clouds, skies, plants, lakes and terrains. 8. Brinkmann, Ron.,The art and science of digital composting: Techniques for visual effects This book is referenced to have a clear study about the digital compositing in the post production pipeline. It has a clear idea about the replication of the rendered mesh. This consumes the render time the 3D softwares like Maya, 3D Max and so on. Simulating a crowd in the post-production level is more better than production level. 9. http://www.digital-photography-school.com/how-to-photograph-silhouettes (Accessed on 02-10-10) This website is analyzed to study about the ways to achieve the silhouette photographs in a simper and easier way. This website gives a tutor to the viewer about the ways to take silhouette photography. 10.http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/85-free-high-quality-silhouette-sets/(Accessed on 02-10-10) This website is referenced to study about the poses of different anatomy models in silhouette mode. Professional animators use the silhouette mode to value the animation key poses. This website has a library of silhouette poses of props, male, female, mammals and so on. 11.http://www.cgtutorials.com/t3343/Autodesk_3ds_max/Crowd_simulation__biped__with_AI_implant(Accessed on 02-10-10) This website is referenced to study about the crowd AI. Artificial intelligence is one of the most important guide to achieve the realism in simulating the crowd. This website gives an idea about the particle effects and the collusion. Energy control, Personification control, direction control, locomotion control is easily achieved in AI. 12.http://www.creativecrash.com/tutorials/how-to-create-a-simple-crowd/page2(Accessed on 02-10-10) This website gives a method to create a simple crowd using the particle simulation. The basic idea in this tutorial is developing a crowd with low mesh ans defining a collision point using locater. The character is animated using the clip and four different clips is imported to 15 characters. These characters are guided using the expression editor. This method is based on the MEL(Maya Embedded Language.) 2.2| Interpretation: By reviewing the literatures like books, magazines, articles and Internet websites, the researcher had a better idea to develop a simple procedure to simulate the crowd and a crystal clear vision about the crowd AI (Artificial Intelligence). This literature review is also concentrated on the silhouettes and its uses in the production field. Silhouette is the best way to represent the enthusiasm. This research helped the researcher is present the entire crowd in the silhouette mode for the enthusiastic feel. Chapter 3: Research Methodology 3.1| Types of research: Analytical This dissertation is of qualitative and quantitative analysis of the title,Silhouette an essential method for crowd simulation animation. This research document carries the content from the Internet website, books and articles. This research is mainly done to develop a procedure to simulate a entire crowd in a simple and easier way and also to research about the silhouette is how essential to visualize the crowd to get a enthusiastic feel. This dissertation is carried out with the information collected through different sources like: Magazines Journals Forums Research papers Books Internet Websites Articles Google search engine and wikipedia are the two major sites helped a lot to gather information from various websites around the web. 3.2| Population: The people who are suitable for this population are Animators, cinematographers and visual effect artists. They were examined by series of questions regarding the simulation of an entire crowd using the silhouette. The population of this research work carries the production experienced person, students, Animation tutors. 3.3| Sampling: Judgment Sampling 3.4| Scope and limitation: This research is limited to the simulation of crowd. Chapter 4:Crowd Simulation 4.1| Definition A crowd is defined to be collection of people or group of people[1]. The term crowd is mainly referred to the collection of humans as well as animals[2]. Crowds in also defined as the sharing of emotional experience. A crowd can be named by the purpose or different types emotions, such as riot, social gatherings, meetings, assemblies, religious ceremonies, general meetings and sport events[3]. 4.2| Crowd: Scholars differ about what classes of social events fall under the rubric of collective behavior. In fact, the only class of events which all authors include is crowds. Clark McPhail, who treat crowds and collectives as synonyms. His important contribution is to gone beyond the others to carry out empirical studies of crowds. He finds them to form an set of types. The treatment of crowds is Gustave LeBon, The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (1896), in which the author, a frightened aristocrat, interpreted the crowds of the French Revolution as irrational reversions to animal emotion, and inferred from this that such reversion is characteristic of crowds in general. Freud expressed a similar view in Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego (1922). Authors thought that their ideas were confirmed by various kinds of crowds, one of these are the virtual economic. In Holland, during the tulip mania (1637), the prices of tulip bulbs rose to astronomical heights. An array of such quotes was quoted by the authors from the different part of the world. Mainly and other historical odds is said by Charles MacKays Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841). At the University of Chicago, Robert Park and Herbert Blumer approved with the speculations of LeBon and other that crowds are formed by emotional. But a crowd is capable of any emotion, not only the negative ones of anger and fear. A number of authors modify the common-sense of the crowd to include episodes during which the participants are not assembled in one place but are dispersed over a large area. Turner and Killian refer to such crowds, examples being Billy Grahams, their expanded definition of the crowd is justified if propositions are compact crowds do so for diffuse crowds as well. Some psychologists have proved that there are three fundamental human emotions: fear, joy, and anger. Neil Smelser, John Lofland, and others have proposed three corresponding forms of the crowd: the panic (an expression of fear), the craze (an expression of joy), and the hostile outburst (an expression of anger). Each of the three emotions can characterize either a compact or a diffuse crowd, the result being a scheme of six types of crowds. Lofland has offered the most explicit discussion of these types. 4.3| Types of Natural crowd: There are already many types of crowd in the society, mainly they are classified into businesses and projects based crowd formation. But when we study about crowd sourcing and the crowds that influence it, we always like to the talking about one big crowd, one only crowd type that can fulfill every task. Well thats not what happens in reality, and Author Nicholas Carr had a interesting blog post which states about this and his mind thoughts over the typology of crowds, after studying about the crowd sourcing we can find a piece for the PBS Digital Nation site. He suggests the following 4 types of crowds in crowd sourcing: Social production crowd: consists of a large group of individuals who lend their individual talents to the devolved creations like Wikipedia or Linux. This one basically fits in the most examples of crowd sourcing. Averaging crowd: classifies exactly as a survey group, giving an average judgment about some complex matter in some cases, is more accurate than the judgment of any one individual person in the society. Nicholas Carr defines that prediction markets are a typical examples of this different types of crowd, or even the stock market for that matter. Data mine crowd: A large group that, the basic common knowledge and understanding of all its members who produces a collection of behavioral data or information that can be collected verified by the authors from various country put under a series of examine in order to gain insight into behavioral or market patterns. The example are defined here is the crowd that are mainly feed Googles search engine and Amazons search engine. So here we all are involving ourselves in this crowd sourcing effort without knowing that were particularly helping the system. Networking crowd: a group that exports and import information through a shared communication system such as the phone network or Internet service. Internet service are mainly concentrated on the social networking like Orkut, hi 5, Facebook or Twitter. Here were not aware about being members of information collection, and if not handled carefully by the companies, could put a backfire on this type of services. After these 4 types, two were suggested. One by Clay Shirky, who was also, involved in this discussion, and another one from a suggestion by a commenter on the blog, Tom Lord. Thats crowd sourcing working right there! Transactional crowd: a group used to coordinate what are mainly point-to-point transactions, such as the type of crowd collected by eBay, Match.com, Innocentive, LinkedIn and similar services. Event crowd: A group organized through online communication for a particular event, which can take place either online or in the real world and may have a political, social, aesthetic, or other purpose.

Avatars Will Replace Faces And Profiles :: Internet Net World Wide Web Media

I never thought when I started blogging that I would receive over fifty thousand views from one website alone. That is a big compliment for an old guy that lives in Brooklyn. I guess whatever I have to say must be stimulating. The lack of comments that I and most other male writers receive is not a sign of poor writing only a sign that women are not interested in a mans individuality or creative ability. I have seen many extremely boring and frivolous articles written by women receive over fifteen compliments. It is obvious that they are coming from lady friends that haven?t the talent to say anything more than ?Very Interesting?. Or ?I love it?. Most websites are dominated by groups of women that support one another. They are called ?Communities? by their directors. I call them ?Cabalas?. Fortunately I can gain popularity without joining any of them. The thousands of views I have received shows that I can stand alone. If I needed the support of groupies to be read, it would be t ime for me to stop writing and go fishing. I would like to remedy the situation and give the floor to those writers that really have something interesting to say but that is impossible. Popularity of the writer not the quality of what is written has always been the rule. A successful writer has to cater to the crowd. If a person chooses to read articles only by writers in their ethnic group nobody can interfere with their choice. Not all people are groupies and many of them are very fair. Their individuality deserves my respect. There is no way to appreciate or understand an article better than when it is written by an author who is represented by an avatar. Without a clue to the identity of the writer the reader is forced to pass judgment only on what is written. This poses no problem for a person that possesses the ability to analyze what is read. But for the groupie an article that does not identify the author creates a state of terror for them, because they must know the identity of the writer. Some groupies only feel comfortable reading an article written by a certain gender. Others demand to know the religion or racial group of the author before reading the article. These groupies by their practice censor the independent writer who attempts to approach a subject fairly.

Heart of Darkness - How Do We Encounter Ourselves in the Modern Society

While I was reading the short story â€Å"Heart of Darkness,† by Joseph Conrad, I recalled an essay I read back in Korea, titled â€Å"Why Do We Read Novels.† The writer of the essay states that the most common reason why we, as people, read novels is that it makes us ask ourselves how the justice or injustice of the real world relates to that of the author’s words. In this way, the short story â€Å"Heart of Darkness† portrays the experiences and thoughts of Conrad through the tale of two important characters, Marlow and Mr. Kurtz. His work forces the reader to ponder questions of the morality, humanity, and insanity which takes place in our human lives. The story is a record of Marlow’s journey to meeting Mr. Kurtz, a morally corrupted being who is a symbolic representation of the darkness and wilderness of the African jungle. It is necessary to pay close attention to the process of Marlow’s journey and meeting with Mr. Kurtz in order to understand the meaning of what he learned from discovering himself and how this relates to our modern world. Unlike other white men who went into the Congo River for unmoral or materialistic reasons, such as to Christianize the natives or to get rich by exploiting all the ivories in the jungle, Marlow does not feel right about how the Imperialistic European countries exploit of the rest of the world. This is shown very clearly when Marlow says â€Å"This devoted band called itself the Eldorado Exploring Expedition, and I believe they were sworn to secrecy. Their talk, however, was the talk of sordid buccaneers: it was reckless without hardihood, greedy without audacity, and cruel without courage, there was not an atom of fore-sight or of serious intention in the whole batch of them, and they did not seem aware ... ... jungles of the Congo or on the civilized streets of London. I feel strongly that one of the reasons why Conrad wrote this novella is to encourage us to ask ourselves about how we encounter ourselves in the contemporary society. He must have felt that people during his time indulged in imperialism, which prevented them from reflecting on themselves. Consequently, there are many evidences in the text that show his cynical view of imperialism. For example, Marlow describes the French army’s firing into a continent as â€Å"a feeble screech† (P.275), implying the author’s pessimistic view towards imperialism. In this way, the people in the modern society indulge in modern things that prevent us from reflecting on ourselves, such as mass media, the internet, etc. Conrad once said â€Å"Facing it, always facing it, that's the way to get through. Face it.† Are we facing ourselves?

History Of The Social Security Program :: American History

In 1935, after bank failures and a stock market crash had wiped out the savings of millions of Americans, the nation turned to their president to guarantee the elderly a decent income. In those days, only a handful of workers had access to pensions from their employers or through State governmental pension programs. Over half of America's elderly lacked sufficient income to be self-supporting. The Social Security Act was enacted at the urging of President Franklin D. Roosevelt to create a social insurance program that ensures workers would have a source of income after they retired. In the decades that have followed, Social Security has become one of the federal government's most popular and essential programs. Despite all our efforts to encourage savings and investment, the private retirement picture has not changed much in recent decades. Even today, barely half of all workers have access to retirement plans at work, and millions reach retirement age without enough private savings to provide an adequate living in retirement. Social Security is still the foundation for most seniors' retirement. Without this critical safety-net program, over half of all older Americans would fall into poverty. Social Security does exactly what it was designed to do. It gives retired people a secure, basic income for as long as they live. At the end of 2005, more than 48 million people were receiving Social Security benefits: 33 million retired workers and their dependents, 7 million survivors of deceased workers, and 8 million disabled workers and their families. Over time, the Democratic Party has implemented changes to the Social Security program in order to adjust to changing times. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson proposed and later signed the legislation to create Medicare. The Medicare program was added to provide universal, affordable health care benefits to retirees. Medicare is the largest health insurance program in the United States. At the end of 1966, Medicare served approximately 3.9 million individuals. As of 2003, it serves about 41 million people. There are 5.6 million Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in managed care programs. Medicare is an entitlement program similar to Social Security and is not based on financial need. Medicare benefits are available to all American citizens over the age of 65 because they or their spouses have paid Social Security taxes through their working years. Since Medicare is a federal program, the rules for eligibility remain constant throughout the nation and coverage remains continuous regardless of where an individual receives treatment in the United States.

Cash Management and Short Term Financing

Running head: CASH MANAGEMENT AND SHORT-TERM FINANCING Cash Management and Short-term Financing University of Phoenix Cash Management and Short-term Financing Structured cash management and efficient short-term financing are both beneficial and important for a company to remain competitive in the market; this will help increase potential profit and shareholder value with the rising stock. Cash management is a tool for the company can use to manage idle funds (cash balances) that are not generating revenue giving the company the ability to use the freed cash to build sources for short-term financing through interest building securities. Cash management techniques include marketable securities, international cash management, collection/disbursement float, and Electronic Funds Transfer. Short-term financing give the company the ability to secure cash needed for production enabling the company to maximize profitability. Short-term financing methods include inventory financing, commercial paper, trade credit, bank loans, receivables financing, foreign borrowing. Cash management Techniques Float is the difference between the recorded available cash and the amount that has been credited by the bank, this results in a time delay when dealing with banking system and the mail service and clearing checks. A company will use the float to minimize collection times and increase disbursement dates to give them more time with the cash on hand to use in interest building securities. Electronic Funds Transfer is quickly replacing the out-dated check system, with the EFT system the ease of electronically deposited funds; this reduces the lag or down time traditionally associated with the manual check. This system increases the efficiency of the banking system and decreases float times for the company. International cash management allows the company to deposit money in countries with a high interest rate returns. This allows the company to invest in high return loans in a source of generating additional revenue. Marketable securities turn non-generating cash into interest generating revenue through CD’S, treasury notes, treasury bills, savings deposits, Eurodollar deposits and commercial paper. The techniques used in cash management are used to reduce or eliminate unwanted cash balances that do not generate revenue and turn them into interest earning securities. Collections control and management is vital in eliminating unwanted cash balances, the entire purpose is for the company to retain the highest rate of cash solvency to maximize profitability. Companies have reduced the use of â€Å"float† methods with the increase of EFT’s, time is not an issue with the EFT, and this transition takes place immediately. However, both float and Electronic Funds Transfer can be used in collections to maximize return. International cash management allows the company to reach for the highest interest rate of return not found in the United States, the use of this technique is more challenging; the ability to manage funds through different geographical locations and time zones can be extensive. The International cash is always susceptible to currency fluctuations, interest rate changes that could end in a lesser value than originally deposited. The International cash management runs at a high risk for the company but also has the potential for the largest gain. Marketable securities are a good technique for cash management but run the risk of company loss with increasing interest rates. Trade credit occurs when a seller or manufacturer of goods extends credit to the company in the form of accounts payable. Bank loans can be used to provide the necessary cash to implement expansion or new product development. Commercial paper is a certificate issued to the investor, by the company; this constitutes a debt that will be repaid. Foreign borrowing lets a company seek outside the normal parameter to obtain loans at a lower rate. Inventory and receivables financing let the company try to get based on their current asset value. Between all the financing options Trade credit constitutes approximately 40% of all short term credit to companies with trade credit a company can take advantage of discounts when the payments are made in a timely fashion, this give the company flexibility in deciding on how long to carry their credit debt. Both bank loans and trade credit are short-term provide immediate funds of financing. However, bank loans are at risk of requiring a higher compensating balance, which lowers the amount of actual money lent to the company. Commercial paper methods of financing have the advantage of being issued below the prime interest rate that banks charge. Commercial paper does not have the challenge of compensating balance requirements but the paper can be lost, stolen, misplaced, or damaged. The commercial paper process has mostly been replaced by a computerized version. Foreign borrowing, like the other techniques, is also short-term but runs the risk of foreign currency inflation or fluctuations. The use of receivables and inventory as collateral in financing is also short-term. Receivable has the advantage when the asset level inflates, as the value increase the amount of money increase that the company can borrow against. The uses of short-term financing or cash management both maintain the goal of ensure sufficient funds the company will need to maximize profitability. Cash management utilizes control over the receipt and payment of cash as to minimize non-earning cash balances and to capitalize the freed up cash in interest earning modes.

Night World : Witchlight Chapter 8

Keller was tempted to check the wards, but she knew it wouldn't do any good. She wasn't sensitive enough to the witch energies to gauge them. They'd been put up by Grandma Harman and checked by Winnie, and she would have to trust to that. The wards were keyed so that only the Dominick family and ordinary humans could come inside. No Night Person could enter except Nissa, Winnie, Keller, and Galen. Which meant, Keller thought with a grim smile, that any lost witch relatives of Iliana's mother who came by were going to get quite a surprise. An invisible wall was going to be blocking them from crossing the threshold. As long as nobody on the inside removed the wards, the house was safer than Fort Knox. Grandma Harman had also taken the limo, Keller found. Sometime during the night, it had been replaced by an inconspicuous Ford sedan parked at the curb. The keys had been in a manila envelope dropped through the mail slot in the front door, along with a map of Lucy Lee Bethea High School. Circle Daybreak was efficient. â€Å"I didn't finish my hair,† Iliana complained as Nissa hustled her to the car. â€Å"It's only half done.† â€Å"It looks terrific,† Winnie said from behind her. And the thing was, it was true. There was nothing that could make that shimmering waterfall of silvery-gold look anything less than beautiful. Whether it was up or down, braided or pinned or falling loose, it was glorious. I don't even think the little nitwit has to brush it, Keller thought. It's so fine that she couldn't make two hairs tangle if she tried. â€Å"And I left my scarf† â€Å"Here it is.† Keller lassoed her. The scarf was ridiculous, crushed velvet in muted metallic colors, with a six-inch fringe. Purely decorative. Iliana choked as Keller wound it around a few times and pulled it tight â€Å"A little aggressive, Boss?† Winfrith asked, extricating Iliana before she could turn blue. â€Å"Worried about being late,† Keller said shortly. But she saw Nissa eyeing her, too. Galen was the last to come out of the house. He was pale and serious-that much Keller saw before she shifted her eyes past him. Iliana's mother actually remained standing at the door with the baby in her arms. â€Å"Say bye-bye to your sister's friends. Bye-bye.† â€Å"Kee-kee,† the baby said. â€Å"Kee-kee!† â€Å"Wave to him,† Winfrith stage-whispered. Keller gritted her teeth. She half-waved, keeping her senses opened for any sound of an impending attack. The baby held out his arms toward her. â€Å"Pui!† â€Å"Let's get out of here.† Keller almost shoved Iliana into the backseat. Nissa took the wheel, and Galen sat up front with her. Winnie ran around to get in the back on the other side of Iliana. As they pulled out, Keller saw the outside of the house for the first time. It was a nice house-white clapboard, two and a half stories, Colonial Revival. The street was nice, too, lined with dogwoods that would be a mass of white when they bloomed. The sort of street where people sat outside on their rockers in spring and somebody was bound to have a stand of bees in the side yard making sourwood honey. Although Keller had been all over the United States, sent from one Circle Daybreak group to another, the hospital where she'd been found had been near a neighborhood like this. I might have grown up someplace like this. If they'd kept me. My parents†¦ Do I hate her? Keller wondered suddenly. I couldn't. It's not her fault. Oh, no, of course not, the voice in her mind said. Not her fault that she's beautiful and perfect and has parents who love her and blue fire in her veins and that she is going to be forced, whether she wants it or not, to marry Galen†¦ Which I don't care about, Keller thought. She was shocked at herself. When had she ever let emotion interfere with her job? She was allowing herself to be distracted-she had allowed herself to be distracted all morning-when there was something vitally important at stake. No more, she told herself fiercely. From now on, I think about nothing but the mission. Years of mental discipline came in handy now; she was able to push everything to the side and focus with icy clarity on what had to be done. â€Å"-stopped a train in its tracks,† Winfrith was saying. â€Å"Really?† There was faint interest in Kiana's voice. At least she'd stopped talking about her hair, Keller thought. â€Å"Really. It was one of those BART trains in San Francisco, Like a subway train, you know. The two girls were on the tracks, and the Wild Power stopped the train dead before it could hit them. That's what the blue fire can do.† â€Å"Well, I know I can't do anything like that,† Iliana said flatly. â€Å"So I can't be a Wild Power. Or whatever.† The last words were tacked on quickly. Nissa raised a cool eyebrow. â€Å"Have you ever tried to stop a train?† While Iliana bit a fingertip and pondered that, Winnie said, â€Å"You have to do it right, you know. First, you have to make blood flow, and then you have to concentrate. It's not something you can expect to do perfectly the very first time.† â€Å"If you want to start practicing,† Nissa added, â€Å"we can help.† Diana shuddered. â€Å"No, thank you. I faint when I see blood. And anyway, I'm not it.† â€Å"Too bad,† Nissa murmured. â€Å"We could use the blue fire on our side today.† They were pulling up to a charming old brown brick high school. Neither Galen nor Keller had said a word throughout the ride. But now Keller leaned forward. â€Å"Nissa, drive past it. I want to check the layout first.† Nissa swung the car into a circular driveway that went past the school's oversized front doors. Keller looked right and left, taking in everything about the surroundings. She could see Winnie doing the same thing-and Galen, too. He was focusing on the same danger spots she was. He had the instinct for strategy. â€Å"Go around the block and circle back,† Keller said. Iliana stirred. â€Å"I thought you were worried about me being late.† â€Å"I'm more worried about you being dead,† Keller interrupted. â€Å"What do you think, Nissa?† â€Å"The side door on the west. Easy to pull up reasonably close, no bushes around it for nasty surprises to hide in.† â€Å"That's my pick, too. Okay, everybody, listen. Nissa's going to slow the car down in the right place. Slow down, not stop. When I give the signal, we're all going to jump out and go directly to that door. We are not going to pause. We are going to move as a group. Iliana, are you paying attention? From now on, you don't go anywhere unless Winnie's in front of you and I'm beside you.† â€Å"And where's Galen?† Iliana said. Keller cursed herself mentally. She wasn't used to working with a fourth team member. â€Å"Hell be behind us-okay, Galen?† She made herself look his way. â€Å"Yes. Whatever you say.† There wasn't the slightest hint of sarcasm in his face. He was dead serious. Absolutely miserable, earnest, and dead serious. â€Å"And Nissa, once you've parked, you join us and take the other side. What room's your first class in, Iliana?† â€Å"Three twenty-six,† Iliana said dismally. â€Å"U.S. History with Mr. Wanamaker. He went to New York to try to be an actor, but all he got was some disease from not eating enough stuff with vitamins. So he came back, and now he's really strict unless you can get him to do his impressions of the presidents-â€Å" â€Å"All right,† Keller broke in. â€Å"We're coming to the door.† â€Å"-and he's actually pretty funny when he does Theodore Roosevelt-or do I mean the other one-â€Å" â€Å"Now,† Keller said, and pushed her as Winnie pulled. They all made it out smoothly, although Iliana yelped a little. Keller kept a good grip on her arm as they hurried to the door. â€Å"I don't think I like this way of coming to school.† â€Å"We can turn right around and go back home,† Keller said. Iliana shut up. Galen kept pace behind them, silent and focused. It was Nissa's usual position when the team wasn't heading for a car, and Keller couldn't help feeling the difference. She didn't like having someone behind her she couldn't trust absolutely. And although the enemies didn't seem to know yet that Galen was important, if they found out, he'd become a target; Face it, she thought. This setup is a disaster, security-wise. This is a horrendous accident waiting to happen. Her nerves were wound so tightly that she jumped at the slightest sound. They shepherded Iliana to her locker, then up a staircase to the third floor. The halls were almost empty, which was exactly as Keller had planned it. But of course that meant they were late for class. Nissa slid in beside them just as they opened the door. They entered as a group, and the teacher stopped talking and looked at them. So did everybody else in the room. Quite a few jaws dropped open. Keller allowed herself a grim inner smile. Yeah, they were probably a bit of a shock for a small town. Four Night People-well, former Night People, anyway. A witch who was almost as small as Iliana, with a mop of vivid strawberry-blond curls and a face like a pixie on holiday. A vampire girl who looked like cool perfection straight out of a magazine, with cropped mink-colored hair and a strangely penetrating gaze. A shapeshifter boy who could have taken the place of any prince in a book of fairy tales, with hair like old gold and classically sculptured features. And, of course, a panther. Which happened to be walking on two feet at the moment, in the guise of a tall girl with a tense, wary expression and black hair that swirled witchlike around her. And, of course, there was Iliana in the midst of them, looking like a ballet dancer who had blundered in from the Nutcracker Suite. There was a silence as the two groups stared at each other. Then the teacher snapped shut his book and advanced on them. Keller held herself ready. He had a neatly trimmed beard and a dangerous expression. It was Iliana who took him on, though. She stepped forward before Keller could draw a breath to speak. â€Å"Mr. Wanamaker! These are my cousins! Well- some of them are my cousins. They're from†¦California. Hollywood! They're here to†¦ do research for . . â€Å".† â€Å"We're really just visiting,† Keller cut in. â€Å"A new show about a high school. Not like that other show. It's more of a reality-based-â€Å" ‘It's just a visit,† Keller said. â€Å"But your dad is a famous producer,† Iliana said. She added in an undertone to Mr. Wanamaker, â€Å"You know, like that other producer.† All eyes, including the teacher's, fixed on Keller. â€Å"Yes-that's right,† Keller said, and smiled while clenching her teeth. â€Å"But we're still just visiting.† She nudged Winnie with her elbow, but it wasn't necessary. Winnie was already staring at the teacher, brainwashing him with witch power. Mr. Wanamaker bunked. He weighed the book he was holding as if he were Hamlet holding Yorick's skull. He looked at it, then he looked at Winnie and blinked again. Then he shrugged and looked at the ceiling. â€Å"Okay. Whatever. Sit down. There are some chairs at the back. And I'm still marking you tardy.† But Keller noticed that as he returned to his desk, his posture was very erect. She did the best she could to glare at Iliana without drawing any further attention to them. â€Å"A famous producer?† she whispered through her teeth. â€Å"I don't know. It was more interesting than just saying you're friends.† You don't need life to get any more interesting, Bubblebrain, Keller thought, but she didn't say anything. She found one thing out that surprised her, though, and she found it out quickly. Her job was made harder by the fact that everyone at the school was in love with Iliana. It was strange. Keller was used to getting attention from guys-and ignoring it. And Nissa and Winnie both were the type that had to beat them off with sticks. But here, although the guys looked at her and Nissa and Winnie, their eyes always seemed to return to Iliana. At break, they crowded around her like bees around a flower. And not just guys, either. Girls, too. Everyone seemed to have something to say to her or just wanted to see her smile. It was a bodyguard's nightmare. What do they see in her? Keller thought, frustrated almost beyond endurance as she tried to edge Iliana away from the crowd. I mean, aside from the obvious. But if all this is about her looks†¦ It wasn't. It didn't seem to be. They weren't all hitting on her for dates. â€Å"Hey, Iliana, my granddaddy loved that get well card you made.† â€Å"Illie, are you going to tie the ribbons this year for the Christmas benefit bears? Nobody else can make those teeny-weeny bows.† â€Å"Oh, Iliana, something awful! Bugsy had five puppies, and Mom says we can't keep them. We've got to find them all homes.† â€Å"Iliana, I need help-† â€Å"Wait, Iliana, I have to ask you-† Okay, but why come to her? Keller thought as she finally managed to detach the girl from her fan club and steer her into the hall. I mean, she can hardly be the best problem solver in this school, can she? There was one guy who seemed to like Iliana for the obvious. Keller disliked him on sight. He was good-looking in a carefully manicured way, with deep chestnut hair, deep blue eyes, and very white teeth. He was wearing expensive clothes, and he smiled a lot, but only at Iliana. â€Å"Brett,† Iliana said as he accosted them in the hall. Brett Ashton-Hughes. One of the rich twins who were having the birthday party on Saturday night Keller disliked him even more, especially when he gave her a coolly appreciative once-over before returning his attention to Iliana. â€Å"Hey, blondie. You still coming Saturday?† Iliana giggled. Keller stifled the urge to hit something. â€Å"Of course, I'll be there. I wouldn't miss it.† â€Å"Because, you know, it would kill Jaime if you didn't come. We're only inviting a few people, and well have the whole west wing to ourselves. We can even dance in the ballroom.† Diana's eyes went dreamy. â€Å"That sounds so romantic. I always wanted to dance in a real old-fashioned ballroom. I'll feel just like Scarlett O'Hara.† No, Keller thought. No, no, no. No way is she going there. She's going to the Solstice Ceremony, where the shapeshifters and the witches are meeting, even if I have to drag her by the hair. She caught Nissa's eye and saw that Nissa was thinking the same. Galen and Winnie were simply watching Brett with troubled looks on their faces. â€Å"Yeah, and I can be Brett Butler,† Brett was saying. â€Å"Plus, the indoor swimming pool will be heated. So if you get tired of being Scarlett, you can be a mermaid for a while.† â€Å"It sounds wonderful! Tell Jaime I said so.† Winnie bit her lip. Keller got a fresh grip on Diana's arm and started guiding her away. â€Å"So it's a promise, right?† Brett called after her. Keller squeezed. â€Å"Yes, but-oh.† Iliana managed to smile and wince at the same time, her arm limp in Keller's grasp. â€Å"Oh, Brett, there's one thing. I've got my cousin and her friends staying with me.† Brett hesitated an instant, giving each girl on Keller's team the appraising look. Then he shrugged and flashed a smile. â€Å"Hey, no problem. Bring them all. Your friends are our friends.† â€Å"That wasn't what I was trying to tell you,† Keller said when they were away from Brett. Iliana was rubbing her arm with an aggrieved expression. â€Å"Then what? I thought it would be fun for you to go.† â€Å"What do you mean, ‘then what'? You're going to the Solstice Ceremony that night, so you shouldn't have promised him.† â€Å"I am not going to the Solstice Ceremony that night, because I'm not the one you're looking for.† It wasn't the time to argue. Keller kept her moving down the hall. Keller wasn't happy. Her nerves were all prickling, and she felt like a cat with its fur standing on end. Very soon, Iliana wasn't happy, either. ‘I always eat lunch in the cafeteria!† â€Å"Not today,† Keller said, knowing she sounded as brusque and tired as she felt. â€Å"We can't risk it You've got to be in a room, alone, someplace where we can control access to you.† â€Å"The music room,† Winnie said helpfully.  "I saw it on the map and asked a girl about it in English class. It's open during lunch, and there's only one door.† â€Å"I don't want to-â€Å" â€Å"You don't have a choice!† Iliana sulked in the music room. The problem was that she wasn't very good at sulking, and you could only tell she was doing it because when she offered her cookies to Nissa, she only insisted once. Keller paced nervously in the hallway in front of the door. She could hear Winnie and Galen inside talking. Even Galen's voice sounded white-faced and strained. Something's wrong†¦ I've had a bad feeling ever since we got to this school†¦ and it isn't any easier having him around. Part of her was worried that he might take this opportunity to come and try to talk to her. And part of her, a very deep inside part, was furious because he wasn't doing it. Goddess! I've got to get my mind clear. Every second that I'm not in control of my emotions means an opportunity for them. She was so absorbed in yelling at herself that she almost missed the girl walking past her. Keller was almost at the end of the hall, and she had to do a double-take to realize that somebody had just calmly slipped by. â€Å"Hey, wait,† she said to the girl's back. The girl was medium-sized and had hair the soft brown of oak leaves, slightly longer than shoulder-length. She was walking fast She didn't stop. â€Å"Wait! I'm talking to you, girl! That door is off limits.† The girl didn't turn, didn't even pause. She was almost at the door to the music room. â€Å"Stop right there! Or you're going to get hurt!† Not even a hesitation in the girl's step. She turned into the door. A thousand red alerts went off in Keller's head.