Duma Key Review Essay Example

Duma Key Review Paper Essay on Duma Key Duma Key this novel is written with a truly royal scale. I think this work, evidence that King has grown. Moreover, increased significantly. If in this book to throw all the mystical component remained the reality of Edgar Frimatla will be no less interesting. And in general, can safely apply for entry into the echelon of authors intellectual bestseller  ». Created by King hero I just conquered. Honestly, this is exactly what I was cultured in literature and in life. Namely, a person is not broken, the struggle with the circumstances, will power, the idea of ​​a super-human, and ultimately win or porazhenie.No not give up, fight to move Vered, lest I love. when the hero, is a hero, not a character who does not know how to get acquainted with the girl, or how to tell wife that he has another, or the whole book suffers from the fact that his boss is a rare svoloch.Vozmozhno I deviate somewhat from the topic but I believe that the show little man that is causing concern the strength not to everyone, it needs . About to be born Dostoevsky Ageev, Lermontov, Nabokov or someone, etc. A naive attempts of a number of contemporary authors and themes of their books make me surprise and incomprehension We will write a custom essay sample on Duma Key Review specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Duma Key Review specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Duma Key Review specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer About the King, and delighted me the hero: the most part. heroes King, these people raised in certain circumstances, forced to fight for survival, to overcome the circumstances. Such as the writer of Misery is beyond praise The Duma Key, King once again resorted to this trick: Edgar Frimatl, had an accident that led to his severe disability, begins his. life anew. Actually, here relevant, the following formula:. If you are successful, you all need, but if you fell out of the cage success the circle of your friends, even close ryadeet In general, the characters of this novel King, cause joy his not typical: the company Friedman on Duma Key will make the old woman with Alzheimers disease and a man aged with a bullet in the skull. Actually, around them, and nakrucheno many storylines On the terror:. To be honest, reading was not terrible, but it is interesting. Why is not terrible? The reason is that to scare me, you can basically horrors perpetrated by human hands, and the will of man. And the King is still the bet is placed on the mystical and paranormal component The bottom line:. Volumetric, but it is interesting .

Capital Markets and Market Efficiency The WritePass Journal

Capital Markets and Market Efficiency Part 1 Capital Markets and Market Efficiency Part 11) Weak form efficiency2) Semi-strong efficiencyStrong-form efficiencyPart 2 Arguments For the Efficient Market Hypothesis Arguments against the Efficient Market Hypothesis Evaluation and Implications for Investors BibliographyRelated Part 1 The Efficient market hypothesis states that all financial markets are efficient in their use of information to determine prices. This means that investors cannot expect to achieve excess profits that are more than the average market profits with similar risk factors, given all available information at the current time of investment, aside from through some form of luck. In part 1 of this report we will discuss the three different forms of market efficiency that Eugene Fama identified in her 1970 report. These can be explained as follows: 1) Weak form efficiency Fama (1970) observes that a market is efficient in weak form if past returns cannot be used to predict current stock price changes. It also assumes that prices on assets that are traded publicly already have and use all available information on the stock at any moment in time. It therefore stands to reason that the weak form of the market efficiency hypothesis means that past returns on stock are uncorrelated with future returns on the same stock. Future prices cannot be predicted by studying carefully the past prices of the stock. Excess returns cannot be earned over an extended period of time by using investment strategies that are based only upon the historical prices of shares or differing forms of historical analysis. This means that this style of technical analysis will not be able to produce high levels of returns on a consistent basis for investors. Overall one cannot expect future price changes to be predicted by using the past stock prices. Simply put weak form efficiency a ssumes that historical analysis on past stock data is of no use in predicting future price changes on stocks. 2) Semi-strong efficiency The semi-strong market efficiency form progresses from the aforementioned weak form market efficiency by stating that markets can adjust easily and very quickly to new information that is provided about various stocks. Fama (1970: 383) cites semi- strong efficiency as whether prices efficiently adjust to other information that is publicly available. e.g. announcements of stock splits, etc†¦   Here it is assumed that asset prices fully reflect all of the publicly available information on the stocks meaning that only those investors who manage to possess additional unique information about the stocks could have an advantage over the market to make large gains. This form also asserts that any price outliers are found quickly and on this basis the stock market manages to adjust. In a semi-strong form efficiency share prices are able to react quickly to new information made available publicly in a quick manner so that no large returns can be gained from using the recent information . This leads us to imply that neither fundamental analysis or technical analysis will be able to produce consistent excess returns. Strong-form efficiency Strong-form efficiency assumes that prices reflect completely any type of new information about the market be that public or private information. Fama (1970: 383) says that strong form tests are concerned with whether given investors or groups have monopolistic access to any information relevant for formation, however Fama claims that the efficient hypothesis model still stands up well. The strong form claims the market price also includes different forms of insider information and not solely public information, and this is how it differs from the semi-strong form. The implications of this is that no one at all can therefore have any kind of advantage over the market in prediction of the stock prices as no possible additional data exists which would provide additional value to any investor. However, if any legal barriers exist which prevents the spread of useful information, such as insider trading laws for example, then this form of market efficiency is not possible. Part 2 The Efficient Markets Hypothesis was introduced by Eugene Fama in 1970. The main idea of the Efficient Market Hypothesis is predominantly that market prices must take into account all available information at any given point. Therefore meaning that no one can outperform the market by using readily available public information aside from through luck. A market is said to be efficient if the price fully reflects information about that market, for example if the price of the stock would be unaffected if all information surrounding it was revealed to all stakeholders in that market. Part two of this report will be critically discussing the evidence for and against the Efficient Market Hypothesis and whether it is possible to exploit market inefficiencies. The implications for investors and companies of the Efficient Markey Hypothesis will also be considered. Arguments For the Efficient Market Hypothesis To begin with following the birth of the efficient market hypothesis the theory was widely accepted, and it was widely assumed that the markets were very efficient in taking this information into account (Malkiel, 2003). It was accepted that when information came to the fore this would spread rapidly and would then be incorporated almost instantaneously into the share prices without hesitation. This meant that technical analysis, study of prior stock prices, nor any analysis of relevent information of a financial sense would lead an investment to achieve more successful returns than holding random stocks which have a comparable risk factor.   Dimson and Mussavian (1998) observe that the evidence accumulated during the 1960s and 1970s was consistent with the Efficient Market Hypothesis view. There was a substantial backing for the weak and semi strong Efficient Market Hypothesis forms. Even though more recent times have seen an attack against the Efficient Market Hypothesis, Roll (1994) still observes that it remains incredibly difficult to make a high level of profit on a consistent basis even with the wildest variants of stock market efficiency. These violations of market efficiency are often sporadic events that do not last for a period of time. This can be seen by looking at the fact that on the whole profitable investment successes are referred to on a consistent basis as outliers (Dimson and Mussavian, 1998). Malkiel (2005: 2) says that: the strongest evidence suggesting that markets are generally quite efficient is that professional investors do not beat the market. Indeed, the evidence accumulated over the past 30-plus years makes me more convinced than ever that our stock markets are remarkably efficient at adjusting correctly to new information. This is showing that the markets must be efficient due to the fact that professional investors do not on the whole beat the market, and therefore all available information must be taken into account by the market prices and thus there is no gain to be had by any investors by using past prices, or publicly or privately readily available information. Arguments against the Efficient Market Hypothesis Malkiel (2003: 60) observes that by the beginning of the twenty first century the intellectual dominance of the efficient market hypothesis had become far less universal and academics were starting to question the premise and were not accepting it as they had done previously. Shiller (2003 ; 83) states that,   Ã¢â‚¬Å"[contained in the EMH is] the idea that speculative asset prices such as stock prices always incorporate the best information about fundamental values and that prices change only because of good, sensible information.† However he then moves on to discuss how not all information is sensible and not all actors are rational, this would conflict with the efficient market hypothesis which relies on information having a large impact on the prices of stock. As well as this several recent reports have shown a range of empirical evidence which suggests that stock returns can actually possess components of a predictable nature, therefore also rejecting parts of the efficient market hypothesis which profess that looking at past trends do not allow for excess gains when investing on the stocks against the market. Keim and Stambaugh (1986) state that using forecasts based on a number of factors can find statistically significant predictability in a range of different stock prices. Lo and MacKinlay (1988) reject the random walk hypothesis, which is so often considered with the efficient market hypothesis theory, and show that it is not at all consistent with the stochastic nature of weekly returns. Empirical evidence of return behaviour which has been anomalous in the form of variables such as price to earnings ratio (Fama and French, 1992) has defied any kind of usual rational explanation and has resulted in a great number of researchers cons idering their views and opinions of market efficiency. Evaluation and Implications for Investors In conclusion, it is clear to see that market prices are not always predictable and that the markets have made large errors at certain points in time, for example at the recent dotcom internet bubble. Here it was obviously possible to exploit the market inefficiency to make money for investors. In the short run it may be possible to exploit these sporadic inefficiencies, but in the long term true value will always come to the fore. As long as these markets do exist, due to it being reliant on the judgement of investors, there will occasionally be errors made and some participants In the market are likely to behave in a less than rational manner, as is inherent in human nature. As well as this all information will not necessarily be sensible and investors are not likely to necessarily use it rationally. Thus irregular pricing or predictable patterns on stocks can appear and be exploited from time to time. In terms of the implications for investors in terms of the efficient market hypothesis, it is plain to see that all markets cannot be one hundred percent efficient all of the time or there would not be an incentive for people who are professionals in the field to discover different facets of information that is often quickly reflected by market prices (Grossman and Stiglitz, 1980). However, things such as the 1999 dot com bubble are exceptions rather than the rule to providing investors with extraordinary returns on their investments to exploit market inefficiencies. Therefore one could assume that the markets are efficient more often than not, and Fama (1970) is on the whole correct. This could lead to the conclusion in agreeing with Ellis (1998) and the overall idea that active equity management is indeed a losers game. Malkiel (2005) further advises on Ellis claim and professes that indexing is likely to produce higher rates of return than active portfolio management. This is beco ming more and more likely to impact investors as markets become more and more efficient, as Toth and Kertesz (2006) show in their examination of an increase in efficiency of the New York stock exchange. Therefore investors are required to question if it is indeed possible or feasible to exploit market inefficiencies using strategies the efficient market hypothesis calls into question. Bibliography Dimson, E. and Mussavian, M. (1998). A Brief History of Market Efficiency. European Financial Management. 4(1): 91-103. Ellis, C. (1998). Winning the Loser’s Game, McGraw-Hill: New York. Fama. E.G, (1970). Efficient Capital Markets: A Review of Theory and Empirical Work. The Journal of Finance. 25(2): 383-417 Fama, E. and French, K. (1988) Dividend yields and expected stock returns. Journal of Financial Economics.(22): 3-25. Fama, E. and French, K. (1992). Common risk factors in the returns on stocks and bonds. Journal of Financial Economics. (33): 3-56. Grossman, S. and J, Stiglitz. (1980). On the Impossibility of Informationally Efficient Markets. American Economic Review. 70(3). 393-408. Keim and Stambaugh (1986). Predicting returns In the Stock and Bond Markets. Journal of Financial Economics. 357-290. Lo and MacKinlay. (1988) Stock Market prices do not follow random walks : Evidence from a simple specification test. Review of Financial Studies. (1): 41-66. Malkiel, B. (2003). The Efficient Market Hypothesis and Its Critics Authors.   The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 17(1): 59-82 Malkiel, B. (2005). Reflections on the Efficient Market Hypothesis: 30 Years Later. The Financial Review (40):1-9 Shiller, R. (2003). ‘From Efficient Markets Theory to Behavioral Finance’. Journal of Economic Perspectives. 17(1) : 83-104. Toth, B. and Kertesz, J. (2006). Increasing market efficiency: Evolution of cross-correlations of stock returns. Physica 360(2): 505–515.

Animal Use In Medical Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Animal Use In Medical Research - Essay Example Medical research includes acquirement of new knowledge and using animals for testing chemicals and compounds for ensuring safety and guarantee. According to them, no new medicine or drug can be introduced to the market or the patients, until and unless it is tested on an animal. The new drug, medicine or treatment all over the world is confirmed effective based on the tests done on animals (Green, Guyer & Institute, 2011). The surgery on animals is supporting the techniques of transplantation of organ and open-heart surgery. Experiments done on animals do the introduction of vaccines against diseases like polio, rabies, mumps, tuberculosis, and rubella. Also, advancement of antibiotics, insulin, HIV and cancer treatments are done on animals first. The animal research has made the most significant development in reproductive medicine like Vitro fertilization, oral contraceptives, and therapy of hormonal replacement (World Medical Association, 2001). Though many people are of the view that medical research done on the animal is brutal, there would be no possibility to develop so many medications that are found today.The researchers found that the benefits accrued by humans through the research on animals are much more, compared to the losses suffered due to the less number of animals. According to a report by American Medical Association, 99% of the doctors in the US believe that use of animals in medical research has lead to increase in the advancement of the medical sector.

Role of Intermodal Connectors with Freight Movement, Analysis and Essay

Role of Intermodal Connectors with Freight Movement, Analysis and Infrastructure - Essay Example 8). The peak of the problem arose when it became abundantly clear to the industry observers that the traditional â€Å"break bulk† shipping will not be able to carry around the world the increasing cargo while performing their duties of safe delivery of the cargo. This therefore led to the palletization and containerization as a means to resolve the problems. At the same time, a revolution took place whereby, there was the increasing need for the use of bigger ships as it was realised that this could lead to a great reduction of shipping costs since industries increasingly preferred using ships than to the old rail and road methods. From 1945 to 1995, oil tankers increased by size of almost twenty times while dry bulk vessels became almost some fifteen times bigger. With this increase in ship sizes, the industry benefited from a great advantage due to reduction in cost to carry around their raw materials (e.g. this led to the cost of transporting coal by sea from Virginia to Jacksonville, Florida almost three times cheaper than by rail) (Chrzanowski, 1985). Intermodal freight or intermodal connectors can be defined as the shipment of goods involving two or more modes of transportation (sea, air, rail, road) from origin to destination under a single contract of carriage (bill of lading).1 Due to the increase production processes around the world and the need to effectively move the goods around the world, logistics cannot be complete without a good communication method from the manufacturers to the consumers. In this case therefore, logistic systems must be able to rapidly adjust to changing and increasing levels of demand and inventory at each stage of production and distribution around the globe to the final consumer with minimal defects. This can only be achieved with good intermodal connectors. Intermodal connectors that consist of roads,

International business in context Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

International business in context - Essay Example One of the recent such examples is that of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano which erupted in Iceland on 14th April 2010, leading to a huge loss of lives and property and a heavy strain on the economic forces of the nation. Due to the volcanic ash cloud, the air travel came to a complete halt leading to several passengers being stranded on airports, affecting several businesses in the process. The manner in which the industries affected by it reacted such as the hospitality industry, the airline sector, as well as various other tertiary sectors such as internet cafes etc reacted to such an emergency is discussed in the paper. The accounts of the tragedy as narrated by Dr. Nigel, of the Oxford Brookes University, is used as a part of this study, to discuss, analyze and understand the impact and consequences of natural disasters on the external factors of organizations; their competitive strategies; the types of organizations affected and the manner in which they reacted; and the element of ethics with regard to the whole scenario, is discussed in the following sections. Impact on the external environment: When the volcano erupted, several industries were severely affected of which the airline industry and the hospitality industry were the hardest hit. ... Consequently, most of the economic activity moved from one sector to another - such as the road and rail transport industries recorded higher bookings while air travel suffered. Furthermore, several other sectors such as travel and tourism, lodgings and boarding etc suffered huge losses, as travellers were unable to reach their destinations. The hotel and hospitality industry, also, benefitted largely, on account of such a calamity, and raised their prices owing to the huge demand for accommodations. There was a significant level of competition amongst various sectors, such as within the hospitality industry. Various hotels had increased their prices while several others offered accommodations at more or less the same prices. Similarly a fierce competition was observed within the airlines and road travel sector. Each of these sectors within different industries were trying to benefit from the losses or setbacks suffered by the other for a greater share in profit. Several passengers w ere unable to leave the island, while several others were unable to arrive. Thus, the hospitality industry was likely to suffer huge losses, as a result of mass cancellations. The industry thus tried to set off its losses by increasing its tariffs and capitalize on the current situation, rather than facing huge losses. Competitive environment: Marketers usually face two types of competition, namely: direct and indirect. The direct competition is faced with respect to similar goods and services such as competition amongst two hotels or two airline companies. The second type of competition, i.e. indirect competition occurs when a good or service can be easily substituted or replaced by the consumer, but has more or less the similar values with respect

Meeting Needs of Children with Incarcerated Mothers

Meeting Needs of Children with Incarcerated Mothers RESTRICTED CHAPTER FIVE FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS INTRODUCTION This study was aimed to determine whether the basic needs are met or not by the children of incarcerated mothers in Welikada prison. This chapter facilitates a discussion on the testing and finding relevance to the previous chapter corresponding to the defined hypothesis. Further, facts and figures and results will be discussed and it will also analyse the cross references to the literature reviewed. DISCUSSION BASED ON THE LITREATURE REVIEW As per the World Bank definition â€Å"Early childhood is the most rapid period of development in a human life. Although individual children develop at their own pace, all children progress through an identifiable sequence of physical, cognitive, and emotional growth and change. The Early Child Development (ECD) approach is based on the proven fact that young children respond best when caregivers use specific techniques designed to encourage and stimulate progress to the next level of development†. Many theorists have developed different concepts on the child development process, but once analyse all those very carefully, it seems that the idea is almost same which they have tried to prove. These theorists have discussed the development of human life in different stages of ages, here it is considered only the early childhood development up to the age of 5 years. Based on the literature review, it was analysed the international policy and trends in the care of children born behind bars. Most of the countries adopt the similar procedure that when a pregnant woman is imprisoned, she will be transferred to an outside hospital to give the child birth. This will be done to ensure the appropriate medical care and to avoid the place of birth place being as prison in the birth certificate. 5. In some countries, just after the child birth, they are separated from mother and kept in foster care or handed over to their relatives. This will negatively be affected to the children’s basic needs in their early childhood development such as breastfeeding, mother’s care and mother-child interaction and bond. However, in most states, the breastfeeding is encouraged. Many arguments indicate that child should not be separated from his mother in early stage of a child. In some of the low income countries, the baby delivery is carried out in the pris on. This will give number of health complications for both mother and child. Although some of facilities are available in the prison environment for the child living, they are not directly addressed to the children’s mental, emotional and physical development needs. In some prisons like in Cambodia and India, the mothers and children are not provided with adequate and also extra foods for children, clean water, washing and hygiene facilities, etc. Further, the children’s access to play, education, social interaction with other children and also to the outside of the prison environment are not properly addressed. Due to these reasons, the children of incarcerated mothers face many difficulties in their early childhood while living in the prison environment. Therefore, these literatures indicate that children born behind the bars are facing many development difficulties in their early childhood. However, some prisons like in Canada and Austria provide well advance facilities for mothers and child living in the prison as compared to the other prisons in the world. Although the adequate facilities are provided, the only drawback is the interaction of the children to the outside society is poor. This will affect to the children’s emotional, psychological and social development. (INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK) DISCUSSION BASED ON THE DATA PRESENTATION AND FINDINGS This sample survey was mainly focused to the mothers of children born behind the bars in Sri Lankan prisons. Due to the existing limitations for conduct this research, this survey was restricted only to Welikada prison. During the conduct of survey, it was found that only there were 16 children mothered to 15 incarcerated women. One woman had two children. The existing policy for care of mothers and children was thoroughly analysed during this survey. The pregnant mothers are provided maternity care from outside government hospitals same as other women and also it helps the children to avoid their birth place as prison in their birth certificate. Although the nursery facilities are not functioned as outside, it helps the children to develop their educational, language and cognitive development needs. Further, when the child comes to the age 5 years, he will be separated from the mother and handover to his relatives of kept in foster care. It seems a positive sign that child may get a opportunity to expose to the outside society. SURVIVAL AND LIFE SUSTAINING NEEDS The sample survey highlights some positive signs related to the survival and life sustaining needs for the children of incarcerated mothers in Welikada prison. Though the pure water, food, air, cloths and warmth are satisfactorily addressed, there is some shortage of cloths, variety of food items and extra foods. The provision of same types of food every day will lead the children to refuse the meals. However, these concerns are minor and probably better when consider the respondents’ socio-economic situations in outside the prison. Further, the children are provided with breastfeeding and being with mothers throughout the imprisonment until the child’s age of 5 years. These aspects are positively driven to the children’s physical, emotional developments. LIFE EMBELLESHING NEEDS The needs for the life embellishing development such as provision of toys, some fantasy and entertainment activities are not addressed satisfactorily, but they get enough opportunities to play with other children in the prison premises. However, these activities are restricted to a one particular area inside the prison wall. This restrictive environment hampered the children’s opportunities to explore as well as experience a variety of stimuli. Hence, these areas do not enhance the developmental opportunities of a child through the play. This will negatively affect to the children’s physical, social and emotional development. LIFE PROTECTING NEEDS Both the children and mothers are provided with the separate accommodation without merging with other prisoners, but it is not separated for each mother and child, everybody is living together in a single hall sharing two toilets amongst them. This affects to the child and mother’s well-being and hygienic issues and result in environmental stressors. The toilets and the accommodation areas are not always kept in very clean. The use of two toilets daily by 16 children and 15 mothers is a big issue which children face in the prison premises. Sleeping facilities for mother and child at Welikada prison is not beneficial for the development young children. It is depersonalising and depriving. It makes further worst by the situation that mothers and their children are confined to this area for longer period. The impacts of those are reflected in the mothers’ emotional state and then to the children. It seems that though the children and mothers are separated from other prisoners, the women prisoners have access to children’s living area. This will create number of negative effects on children such as expose to their bad behaviour and languages. It will obviously become a threat to the security of the children and especially for their physical development. Further, there may be some psychological effect on children as creating a unusual fear on men due to the children are always interact only with the women prisoners. On the other hand, these children are at a risk of child abuse and sexual harassment by the other prisoners. The health care facilities provided for the mothers and their children are not fully satisfied. The pregnant mothers have to go outside government hospitals for clinics and baby delivery, but it is also not a regularly happening. Once the baby delivery is done, the provision of care of Midwives for mother and baby will not be available in the prison premises. Further, if someone becomes ill during the night, there is no any medical section to deal with that and they need to call for prison authority for the arrangement to take the patient to outside government hospital. Further, the immunization vaccines are given to the children of different age categories, but the findings realized that they are not getting it at correct time. In accordance with the findings of children’s low weight, shortness and deficiency of vitamins are badly affected to the child development. These indicators show that children face many difficulties during their early childhood development. LIFE DEVELOPING NEEDS The children get enough leisure time and their mothers are also not engaging any activity other than their children. The available nursery helps children to enhance their educational measurer. The children’s access to freedom and thought and information is very low. They have been provided with one television in the hall, but it will not suffice to fulfil the requirement of the children. Above facts clearly indicate that these children have lesser possibility to expose to the outside society. Hence, this will lead to the risk of negative social and academic outcomes and unusual fear to outside people once they discharge from the prison. Further, they have opportunities to participate the religious activities inside the prison, but no cultural activities take place. All above factors discussed are directly affected to the social, emotional and cognitive development of a child. LIFE ENRICHING NEEDS In this aspect, children are benefitted up to certain extent through the prison nursery education. Though they have been tried to develop in this field, children are always exposed to prisoners and their environment. Hence, it is very difficult to get rid of them from that particular society system. Ultimately, this may be resulted to the risk of school failure and fall into conduct some criminals once they come out from the prisons. MOTHER-CHILD INTERACTION AND BOND Mother-child interaction and bond may not be happened automatically, but it may develop gradually over the time which they live together. In the Sri Lankan prison policy, mothers are allowed to keep their children up to the age of 5 years during their incarceration. It was proved during the sampling survey that the attachment existing between mothers and children is either anxious or ambivalent. Based on the literature review and findings from all the surveys, it is concluded that the best interest for the child is not to incarcerate with his mother. RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHERS It is obvious that a child who stays with his incarcerated mother will not have opportunities to form an attachment with the rest of his family (especially with father), relatives and others in the society. In this regard it can be concluded that the child who stays with his incarcerated mother is prevented and restricted in his social development. However, it can be concluded as the prison environment is not favourable to the physical, emotional, social and psychological development of a child.

themes in lost horizon Essay -- essays research papers

What is Paradise? Throughout history man has sought to create, find, or at least image a paradise on earth, a place where there is peace, harmony, and a surcease from the pain that plagues our lives. On the eve of World War II, James Hilton imagined such a place in his best-selling novel, Lost Horizon. The story itself begins when an evacuation of Westerners is ordered in the midst of revolution in Baksul, India. A plane containing four passengers is hi-jacked and flown far away into the Keun-Lun Mountains of Tibet. The plane crashes and the passengers are welcomed to the valley of the Blue Moon, and the lamasery of Shangri-la. Here they see an isolated monastery shrouded in mystery, which combines Christianity and Buddhism with a focus on the progression of knowledge. The four passengers who land in Shangri-la are Barnard, a boisterous American, Miss Brinklow, a Christian missionary, Mallinson, a headstrong and passionate English youth, and Conway, the main character and WWI veteran who is unattached and somewhat passionless. All of the characters except Mallinson enjoy life in Shangri-la. Conway especially finds himself at home there and eventually the High Lama of the lamasery unveils all its mysteries of to him. Conway learns that the inhabitants, thanks to the climate and a special drug, live to an extreme old age. They devote the length of their lives to the pursuits of knowledge and do everything in moderation. They believe that their hidden society will escape the...