Gas and oil prices Essay Example for Free

Gas and oil prices Essay Oil and Gas PricesOil and Gas 2There are many issues that cause the cost of oil and gas to increase. The main contributing issue to the increasing cost of oil and gas is supply and demand, when demand is greater than supply, the price of oil and gas will increase. The factors that affect supply include increased demand, problems with refineries and pipelines, and disruption to supply or threat of disruption to supply.With the increased demand for oil in the United States and other countries such as India and China; the extra demand for oil has put enormous pressure on available oil reserves. The Energy Information Administration stated, â€Å"If refinery or pipeline and/or reductions in imports cause supplies to decline unexpectedly, gasoline inventories (stocks) may drop rapidly. This may cause wholesalers to bid higher for available supply over concern that future supplies may not be adequate† (Energy Information Administration, 2008, para. 9). With this in mind, the other underlying factors that affect supply are disruption to supply or threat of disruption to supply along with The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is an organization of oil producing countries which produces over 40% of the world’s crude oil and has two-thirds of the world’s oil reserves. This organization was formed in 1960 to regulate the supply of oil and to some extent, the price of oil. The organization includes Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela. Mouawad, J. stated, â€Å"The cartel has refused to pump more oil, fearing that any hasty move would lead to plummeting oil prices† (Mouawad, 2008 para. 19). With OPEC refusing to increase production and reserves being depleted, a conflict or threat of conflict can be an issue of concern.If there is a conflict or threat of war or conflict with the chance of a disruption in production in an oil producing country will cause oil and gas prices to increase. The most recent conflict that disrupted production is the attacks on the pipelines in Nigeria that caus ed Royal Dutch Shell to decrease exports due to damaged pipelines. Another recent conflict was the exports from Iraq being disrupted by Turkish and Kurdish forces. With these issues increasing the cost of oil and gas, consumers have to deal with the effects as well.With oil and gas prices steadily increasing with no relief in sight, consumers have had to cope with the many adverse effects of high oil and gas prices. There are many adverse effects of increasing oil and gas prices that  consumers have to cope with such as a change in lifestyle, change in shopping habits, and some drastic effects that include not paying utility or vehicle bills leaving some consumers with little options for getting to work. With the increasing oil and gas prices, consumers are left with less expendable income.Consumers are changing their lifestyle, shopping habits, and driving habits. Consumers are left changing their lifestyle by staying home more; therefore, they are eating out at restaurants less, cutting back on entertainment such as nights out at the movies. Consumers are finding themselves combining trips for errands which include paying bills, medical tri ps, and grocery shopping. Consumers are also making the decision of not travel long distances for vacation or decided on not taking a vacation altogether. These effects have consumers looking for alternative ways of travel and more fuel economical vehicles. Mouawad, J., Navarro, M. stated, â€Å"Americans have started trading their gas guzzlers for smaller cars, making fewer trips to the mall and, wherever possible, riding public transportation to work† (Mouawad Navarro, 2008, para. 7). These effects have consumers making adjustments to how they shop.With consumers being left with less disposable income they have changed their shopping habits by shopping online to save money on fuel by not leaving their home to go shopping. Consumers are finding themselves looking for and purchasing sale items whenever possible, purchasing bargain brand items instead of name brand items and shifting their automobile purchases towards vehicles with high fuel economy and away from the large SUV type vehicles which get less gas mileage. Some consumers have traded their SUV`s for smaller more fuel economical vehicles like the hybrid models and som e have bought motorcycles. With consumers in large suburban areas dealing with these effects, rural America is struggling with the effects of the increasing cost of oil and gas. In rural areas such as Mississippi, New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming, and North and South Dakota where consumers incomes are much lower and jobs are scarce, who mostly depend on pickup trucks and vans for transportation are going to extremes in order to cope with the high cost of gas. These effects have rural consumers borrowing money from their employers to help pay for the gas to get to work resulting in less money on payday, and changing jobs for shorter commutes. Some rural consumers find themselves hiring friends and family to drive them for errands due to their family or friends vehicle getting better gas  mileage, requesting buyouts from their employers, not making electric or vehicle payments, and some have gone as far as giving up meat so they can buy fuel.Indealing with these kinds of effects, rural consumers have made the diff icult decisions of changing their job for a shorter commute or moving closer to urban manufacturing jobs. Krauss, C. said. â€Å"Dick Stevens, president of Consolidated Catfish Producers, said that 10 workers walked into his office and volunteered to take a buyout rather than continue commuting from Charleston, Miss., 65 miles away† (Krauss, 2008, para. 24). With consumers continuing to cope with the effects of the ever increasing cost of oil and gas, businesses, both large and small are trying to adapt to the changes.

Inconsistency in The Character of Hamlet Essay -- GCSE Coursework Shak

Inconsistency in The  Character of Hamlet The perfection of Hamlet’s character has been called in question - perhaps by those who do not understand it. The character of Hamlet stands by itself. It is not a character marked by strength of will or even of passion, but by refinement of thought and sentiment. Hamlet is as little of the hero as a man can be.   He is a young and princely novice, full of high enthusiasm and quick sensibility - the sport of circumstances, questioning with fortune and refining on his own feelings, and forced from his natural disposition by the strangeness of his situation. Hamlet seems incapable of deliberate action, and is only hurried into extremities on the spur of the occasion, when he has no time to reflect, as in the scene where he kills Polonius, and again, where he alters the letters which Rosencraus and Guildenstern are taking with them to England, purporting his death. At other times, when he is most bound to act, he remains puzzled, undecided, and skeptical, until the occasion is lost, and he finds some pretence to relapse into indolence and thoughtfulness again. For this reason he refuses to kill the King when he is at his prayers, and by a refinement in malice, which is in truth only an excuse for his own want of resolution, defers his revenge to a more fatal opportunity, when he will be engaged in some act "that has no relish of salvation in it." "Now might I do it pat now he is praying; And now I'll do 't; - and so he goes to heaven; And so am I reveng'd? - that would be scanned: A villain kills my father; and for that I, his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven. O, this is hire and salary, not revenge ... Up sword; and know thou a more horrid hent, Whe... ... explaining the cause of his alienation, which he hardly trust himself to think of. It would have taken him years to have come to a direct explanation on the point. In the harassed state of his mind, he could not have done much other than what he did. His conduct does not contradict what he says when he sees her funeral, "I loved Ophelia: forty thousand brothers Could not with all their quantity of love Make up my sum" - [Act v., sc. 1.]   In conclusion, Shakespeare has been accused of inconsistency with Hamlet only because he has kept up the distinction which there is in nature, between the understandings and the moral habits of men, between the absurdity of their ideas and the absurdity of their motives. Hamlet is not a fool, but he makes himself so. His folly, whether in his actions or speeches, comes under the category of impropriety of intention.

Coming of Age Essay

A coming of age experience can happen any time during one’s life, most often when it is least expected. It is the thread that sews humanity together, a phenomenon, which is undeniable. Society tells us, it is a defining moment in a child’s life, when the world somehow becomes his or her own. Why then is â€Å"Coming of Age† simply relegated to the young? We all experience this phenomenon, from the tender age of four till the ripe old age of ninety-four. It is not an experience based solely on chronological milestones. Coming of age is a defining moment when a person’s wide-eyed nnocence is replaced with something deeper and at times something darker and more sinister, a snapshot in life when one realized the answer rests inside us, not relying completely on God. Consequently, in that way, we are always coming of age, always-losing innocence, gaining understanding, and always discovering new truths about ourselves, emotionally, and intellectually. Coming of age is the act of experiencing a definitive shift in one’s perspective, a greater realization of ones place in the world, and a further understanding of how personal actions and reactions are ntegrally linked. â€Å"That’s not fair† was my signature quotation as a little girl. A life full of Barbie’s, tea parties, and several rounds of Go-Fish card games was very demanding for a five year old. I could only assume the world revolved around which Barbie I wanted to be, what frilly dress I wanted to wear, and my pristine skills of winning every round of Go-Fish. As a little princess, fairness was vital to what made me happy. When I was eight years old, the word â€Å"fair† took on a whole other meaning the day my mom and her best friend, Muffy, took my sister and me to lunch. As we at down at the table, Muffy, the mother of my best friend, Sam, hesitantly twisted the diamond protruding from her gold wedding band. We waited for our lunches in silence, my sister and I only knowing that they had â€Å"something to tell us,† but not knowing what. The silence was unbearable; waiting for something that must have no positive outcome was definitely, as I would term, unfair. After the waitress brought our food, my mom’s voice filled the intolerable silence. Unlike her usual motherly lectures, my mom’s voice seemed Just as excruciating as the previous silence; it was uncertain, unfamiliar, and distant. My mom has always been the woman that I admire and would hope to become. The smiles and love she has given to my sister and me have been unconditional and contagious. At the moment, the slightly tilted frown and the unfulfilled eye contact was not the woman that I knew as my mother. All I wish for was to read her mind, fgure out who she had become so that I could make everything better and change her back to the woman I see myself being one day. Muffy began with her understanding voice, a quality that she and my mother share, â€Å"Emily and Peggy, I can see the concern on your faces and we are here to tell ou that Sam has cancer. He will be undergoing surgery next week and all I ask from you is to be as understanding, mature, and as helpful as possible. I know you are both strong and that it is going to be hard for all of us. My best friend, at eight years old, has cancer. I continued to repeat this in my mind. There was no â€Å"He will be find† or â€Å"Everything will be taken car of. † My mind was running with questions, How long has he had cancer? Will he have to undergo chemo? Will he lose all his hair? But unfair. Two years later Sam went through his third treatment. At this point we were told hat he was not going to make it and at that mo ment, as a young eight year old, I began to understand that life’s trials cannot be won like a game of go-fish. I began to understand that life is not fair because I did not understand why someone so caring and loving like Sam would be put through this. I do wish that fguring these things out at such a young age would not be as tortuous as my best friend getting cancer and passing away. However, for me, maturing at that age is accepting that the world does not revolved around me. That losing in a game of go-fish is not the end of the world and to treasure every day of life.

Anne Hutchinson, Early American Religious Dissident

Anne Hutchinson was a leader in religious dissent in the Massachusetts colony, nearly causing a major schism in the colony before she was expelled. Shes considered a major figure in the history of religious freedom in America. Dates: baptized July 20, 1591 (birth date unknown); died in August or September of 1643 Biography Anne Hutchinson was born Anne Marbury in Alford, Lincolnshire. Her father, Francis Marbury, was a clergyman from the gentry and was Cambridge-educated. He went to prison three times for his views and lost his office for advocating, among other views, that the clergy be better educated. Her father was called by the Bishop of London, at one time, an ass, an idiot and a fool. Her mother, Bridget Dryden, was Marburys second wife. Bridgets father, John Dryden, was a friend of the humanist Erasmus and an ancestor of the poet John Dryden. When Francis Marbury died in 1611, Anne continued to live with her mother until she married William Hutchinson the next year. Religious Influences Lincolnshire had a tradition of women preachers, and theres some indication that Anne Hutchinson knew of the tradition, though not the specific women involved. Anne and William Hutchinson, with their growing family -- eventually, fifteen children -- several times a year made the 25-mile journey to attend the church served by the minister John Cotton, a Puritan. Anne Hutchinson came to consider John Cotton her spiritual mentor. She may have begun holding womens prayer meetings at her home during these years in England. Another mentor was John Wheelwright, a clergyman in Bilsby, near Alford, after 1623. Wheelwright in 1630 married William Hutchinsons sister, Mary, bringing him even closer to the Hutchinson family. Emigration to Massachusetts Bay In 1633, Cottons preaching was banned by the Established Church and he emigrated to Americas Massachusetts Bay. The Hutchinsons oldest son, Edward, was part of Cottons initial emigrant group. That same year, Wheelwright was also banned. Anne Hutchinson wanted to go to Massachusetts, too, but pregnancy kept her from sailing in 1633. Instead, she and her husband and their other children left England for Massachusetts the next year. Suspicions Begin On the journey to America, Anne Hutchinson raised some suspicions about her religious ideas. The family spent several weeks with a minister in England, William Bartholomew, while waiting for their ship, and Anne Hutchinson shocked him with her claims of direct divine revelations. She claimed direct revelations again on board the Griffin, in talking to another minister, Zachariah Symmes. Symmes and Bartholomew reported their concerns upon their arrival in Boston in September. The Hutchinsons tried to join Cottons congregation on arrival and, while William Hutchinsons membership was approved quickly, the church examined the views of Anne Hutchinson before they admitted her to membership. Challenging Authority Highly intelligent, well-studied in the Bible from the education provided her with her fathers mentorship and her own years of self-study, skilled in midwifery and medicinal herbs, and married to a successful merchant, Anne Hutchinson quickly became a leading member of the community. She began leading weekly discussion meetings. At first these explained Cottons sermons to the participants. Eventually, Anne Hutchinson began reinterpreting the ideas preached in the church. Anne Hutchinsons ideas were rooted in what was called by opponents Antinomianism (literally: anti-law). This system of thought challenged the doctrine of salvation by works, emphasizing the direct experience of a relationship with God, and focusing on salvation by grace. The doctrine, by relying on individual inspiration, tended to elevate the Holy Spirit above the Bible, and also challenged the authority of the clergy and of church (and government) laws over the individual. Her ideas were counterposed to the more orthodox emphasis on a balance of grace and works for salvation (Hutchinsons party thought they overemphasized works and accused them of Legalism) and ideas about clergy and church authority. Anne Hutchinsons weekly meetings turned to twice a week, and soon fifty to eighty people were attending, both men and women. Henry Vane, the colonial governor, supported Anne Hutchinsons views, and he was a regular at her meetings, as were many in the colonys leadership. Hutchinson still saw John Cotton as a supporter, as well as her brother-in-law John Wheelwright, but had few others among the clergy. Roger Williams had been banished to Rhode Island in 1635 for his non-orthodox views. Anne Hutchinsons views, and their popularity, caused more of a religious rift. The challenge to authority was especially feared by the civil authorities and clergy when some adherents to Hutchinsons views refused to take up arms in the militia which was opposing the Pequots, with whom the colonists were in conflict in 1637. Religious Conflict and Confrontation In March of 1637, an attempt to bring the parties together was held, and Wheelwright was to preach a unifying sermon. However, he took the occasion to be confrontational and was found guilty of sedition and contempt in a trial before the General Court. In May, elections were moved so that fewer of the men in Anne Hutchinsons party voted, and Henry Vane lost the election to deputy governor and Hutchinson opponent John Winthrop. Another supporter of the orthodox faction, Thomas Dudley, was elected deputy governor. Henry Vane returned to England in August. That same month, a synod was held in Massachusetts which identified the views held by Hutchinson as heretical. In November 1637, Anne Hutchinson was tried before the General Court on charges of heresy and sedition. The outcome of the trial was not in doubt: the prosecutors were also the judges since her supporters had, by that time, been excluded (for their own theological dissent) from the General Court. The views she held had been declared heretical at the August synod, so the outcome was predetermined. After the trial, she was put into the custody of Roxburys marshal, Joseph Weld. She was brought to Cottons home in Boston several times so that he and another minister could convince her of the error of her views. She recanted publicly but soon admitted that she still held her views. Excommunication In 1638, now accused of lying in her recantation, Anne Hutchinson was excommunicated by the Boston Church and moved with her family to Rhode Island to land purchased from the Narragansetts. They were invited by Roger Williams, who had founded the new colony as a democratic community with no enforced church doctrine. Among Anne Hutchinsons friends who also moved to Rhode Island was Mary Dyer. In Rhode Island, William Hutchinson died in 1642. Anne Hutchinson, with her six youngest children, moved first to Long Island Sound and then to the New York (New Netherland) mainland. Death There, in 1643, in August or September, Anne Hutchinson and all but one member of her household were killed by Native Americans in a local uprising against the taking of their lands by the British colonists. Anne Hutchinsons youngest daughter, Susanna, born in 1633, was taken captive in that incident, and the Dutch ransomed her. Some of the Hutchinsons enemies among the Massachusetts clergy thought that her end was divine judgment against her theological ideas. In 1644, Thomas Weld, on hearing of the death of the Hutchinsons, declared Thus the Lord heard our groans to heaven and freed us from this great and sore affliction. Descendants In 1651 Susanna married John Cole in Boston. Another daughter of Anne and William Hutchinson, Faith, married Thomas Savage, who commanded the Massachusetts forces in King Philips War, a conflict between Native Americans and the English colonists. Controversy: History Standards In 2009, a controversy over history standards established by the Texas Board of Education involved three social conservatives as reviewers of the K-12 curriculum, including adding more references to the role of religion in history.   One of their proposals was to remove references to Anne Hutchinson who taught religious views that different from the officially sanctioned religious beliefs. Selected Quotations †¢ As I do understand it, laws, commands, rules and edicts are for those who have not the light which makes plain the pathway. He who has Gods grace in his heart cannot go astray. †¢ The power of the Holy Spirit dwelleth perfectly in every believer, and the inward revelations of her own spirit, and the conscious judgment of her own mind are of authority paramount to any word of God. †¢ I conceive there lies a clear rule in Titus that the elder women should instruct the younger and then I must have a time wherein I must do it. †¢ If any come to my house to be instructed in the ways of God what rule have I to put them away? †¢ Do you think  it not lawful for me to teach women and why do you call me to teach the court? †¢ When I first came to this land because I did not go to such meetings as those were, it was presently reported that I did not allow of such meetings but held them unlawful and therefore in that regard they said I was proud and did despise all ordinances. Upon that a friend came unto me and told me of it and I to prevent such aspersions took it up, but it was in practice before I came. Therefore I was not the first. †¢ I am called here to answer before you, but I hear no things laid to my charge. †¢ I desire to know wherefore I am banished? †¢ Will it please you to answer me this and to give me a rule for then I will willingly submit to any truth. †¢ I do here speak it before the court. I look that the Lord should deliver me by his providence. †¢ If you please to give me leave I shall give you the ground of what I know to be true. †¢ The Lord judges not as man judges. Better to be cast out of the church than to deny Christ. †¢ A Christian is not bound to the law. †¢ But now having seen him which is invisible I fear not what man can do unto me. †¢ What from the Church at Boston? I know no such church, neither will I own it. Call it the whore and strumpet of Boston, no Church of Christ! †¢ You have power over my body but the Lord Jesus hath power over my body and soul; and assure yourselves thus much, you do as much as in you lies to put the Lord Jesus Christ from you, and if you go on in this course you begin, you will bring a curse upon you and your posterity, and the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. †¢ He that denies the testament denies the testator, and in this did open unto me and give me to see that those which did not teach the new covenant had the spirit of antichrist, and upon this he did discover the ministry unto me; and ever since, I bless the Lord, he hath let me see which was the clear ministry and which the wrong. †¢ For you see this scripture fulfilled this day and therefore I desire you as you tender the Lord and the church and commonwealth to consider and look what you do. †¢ But after he was pleased to reveal himself to me I did presently, like Abraham, run to Hagar. And after that he did let me see the atheism of my own heart, for which I begged of the Lord that it might not remain in my heart. †¢ I have been guilty of wrong thinking. †¢ They thought that I did conceive there was a difference between them and Mr. Cotton... I might say they might preach a covenant of works as did the apostles, but to preach a covenant of works and to be under a covenant of works is another business. †¢ One may preach a covenant of grace more clearly than another... But when they preach a covenant of works for salvation, that is not truth. †¢ I pray, Sir, prove it that I said they preached nothing but a covenant of works. †¢Ã‚  Thomas Weld, on hearing of the death of the Hutchinsons: Thus the Lord heard our groans to heaven and freed us from this great and sore affliction. †¢Ã‚  From the sentence at her trial read by Governor Winthrop: Mrs. Hutchinson, the sentence of the court you hear is that you are banished from out of our jurisdiction as being a woman not fit for our society. Background, Family Father: Francis Marbury, a clergyman in the Church of EnglandMother: Bridget DrydenHusband: William Hutchinson (married 1612; well-to-do cloth merchant)Children: 15 in 23 years Also known as Anne Marbury, Anne Marbury Hutchinson Bibliography Helen Auger. An American Jezebel: The Life of Anne Hutchinson. 1930.Emery John Battis. Saints and Sectaries: Anne Hutchinson and the Antinomian Controversy in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. 1962.Thomas J. Bremer, editor. Anne Hutchinson: Troubler of the Puritan Zion. 1981.Edith R. Curtis. Anne Hutchinson. 1930.David D. Hall, editor. The Antinomian Controversy, 1636-1638. 1990, second edition. (Includes records from Hutchinsons trial.)Winifred King Rugg. Unafraid: A Life of Anne Hutchinson. 1930.N. Shore. Anne Hutchinson. 1988.William H. Whitmore and William S. Appleton, editors. Hutchinson Papers. 1865.Selma R. Williams. Divine Rebel: The Life of Anne Marbury Hutchinson. 1981.