Clothing and Gender in Virginia Woolfs Orlando Essay -- Virginia Wool

Clothing and Gender in Virginia Woolf's Orlando In her novel Orlando, Virginia Woolf tells the story of a man who one night mysteriously becomes a woman. By shrouding Orlando's actual gender change in a mysterious religious rite, we readers are pressured to not question the actual mechanics of the change but rather to focus on its consequences. In doing this, we are invited to answer one of the fundamental questions of our lives, a question that we so often ignore because it seems so very basic - what is a man? What is a woman? And how do we distinguish between the two? It seems that in ordinary life, we are most likely to distinguish between a man and a woman by clothing. This is more difficult to do in the present day, in which women have adapted much traditionally male clothing for their own use, but in the time periods in which Orlando is set it was still the case that men and women wore distinct clothing. If we consider our everyday experience, it becomes clear that this is the means we use, at least from a distance. Other cues such as hairstyle, quality of voice, and so on enter the equation later, but clothing comes first. A man with long hair is eccentric at worst; a man wearing a dress runs the risk of being beaten to a pulp for this transgression. People wishing to undergo a sex-change operation must undergo a period of living as the opposite gender before going through with surgery - the first and most important thing invariably done here is to purchase a new wardrobe. So, if clothes are the cues that we use to differentiate the two genders, then it is no surprise that Orlando's sex change takes place when it does. In the opening paragraph of Chapter Four, upon Orlando's departure from Turkey, Woolf writes... ...ch woman when in fact it is not very clear what she is. Woolf posits that her choice of clothing points to something deeper: "Clothes are but a symbol of something deep beneath. It was a change in Orlando herself that dictated her choice of a woman's dress and of a woman's sex" (188). If only it were possible for us to change our genders and all the social baggage that comes with them merely by changing our clothing? But Orlando's life is in some ways magical, and this makes it possible. Works Cited and Consulted Boehm, Beth A. "Fact, Fiction, and Metafiction: Blurred Gen(d)res in Orlando and A Room of One's Own." Journal of Narrative Technique 22:3 (1992): 191-204. Thompson, Nicola. "Some Theories of One's Own: Orlando and the Novel." Studies in the Novel 25:3 (1993): 306-17. Woolf, Virginia. Orlando: A Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. Clothing and Gender in Virginia Woolf's Orlando Essay -- Virginia Wool Clothing and Gender in Virginia Woolf's Orlando In her novel Orlando, Virginia Woolf tells the story of a man who one night mysteriously becomes a woman. By shrouding Orlando's actual gender change in a mysterious religious rite, we readers are pressured to not question the actual mechanics of the change but rather to focus on its consequences. In doing this, we are invited to answer one of the fundamental questions of our lives, a question that we so often ignore because it seems so very basic - what is a man? What is a woman? And how do we distinguish between the two? It seems that in ordinary life, we are most likely to distinguish between a man and a woman by clothing. This is more difficult to do in the present day, in which women have adapted much traditionally male clothing for their own use, but in the time periods in which Orlando is set it was still the case that men and women wore distinct clothing. If we consider our everyday experience, it becomes clear that this is the means we use, at least from a distance. Other cues such as hairstyle, quality of voice, and so on enter the equation later, but clothing comes first. A man with long hair is eccentric at worst; a man wearing a dress runs the risk of being beaten to a pulp for this transgression. People wishing to undergo a sex-change operation must undergo a period of living as the opposite gender before going through with surgery - the first and most important thing invariably done here is to purchase a new wardrobe. So, if clothes are the cues that we use to differentiate the two genders, then it is no surprise that Orlando's sex change takes place when it does. In the opening paragraph of Chapter Four, upon Orlando's departure from Turkey, Woolf writes... ...ch woman when in fact it is not very clear what she is. Woolf posits that her choice of clothing points to something deeper: "Clothes are but a symbol of something deep beneath. It was a change in Orlando herself that dictated her choice of a woman's dress and of a woman's sex" (188). If only it were possible for us to change our genders and all the social baggage that comes with them merely by changing our clothing? But Orlando's life is in some ways magical, and this makes it possible. Works Cited and Consulted Boehm, Beth A. "Fact, Fiction, and Metafiction: Blurred Gen(d)res in Orlando and A Room of One's Own." Journal of Narrative Technique 22:3 (1992): 191-204. Thompson, Nicola. "Some Theories of One's Own: Orlando and the Novel." Studies in the Novel 25:3 (1993): 306-17. Woolf, Virginia. Orlando: A Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Blood Ties and Families Essay

Many social scientists reject the idea that ‘families can be defined only by blood ties. ’ Discuss. The Oxford Dictionary meaning of family is noun (plural families) 1 [treated as singular or plural] a group consisting of two parents and their children living together as a unit. There are many different ideas about what makes a family, and is this idea of what a family is universal and the children’s perspectives. There is a lot of debate with social scientists about the family. Functionalists say that the term family is a universal institution performing functions for society’s survival. Sociologist Murdock suggest that each family has for functions in order to be classified as a family. They are, a common residence, however there are many cases in which families do not share a common residence for example if a child is at boarding school or a parent is in the armed forces. (Murdock, cited by Gittins, D, p. 2). (Gutman 1976) found that it was common among black slave families in the USA for a husband and wide to live on different plantations and see one another for a few hours once or twice a week. Soliende de Gonzalez cited by gittins) found this type of household very common in black Carib society: â€Å"there are groupings which I have called â€Å"dispersed families† in which the father, even though he is absent for long periods of time he still retains ultimate authority over a household for which he provides the only support, and where affective bonds continue to be important between him and his wife and his children†. (Mudock cited by Gittins p. ) next family function is economic co-operation, it’s a broad term and can encompass a wide range of activities such as sleeping and cooking, it occurs between households as well as between individuals within the household (Murdock cited by Gittins p. 4) third is his definition of sexuality is heterosexuality, even though this is only one of many forms of sexuality. They say that this is the most important function of a family because it leads to reproduction. He also suggests that they get pressured into thi nking that’s heterosexuality is a ‘socially approved relationship’ between two adults. However there are critisms of Murdock as he doesn’t take into account the diversity of the ways in which co-residence, economic relations, sexuality and reproduction. Many sociologists say that they are simply western values and ideas of what a family should be like and assume that everyone will agree. (Jessie Bernard 1973 cited by Gittins pg. 3) Another criticism is that families do not need adults of both sexes, or a heterosexual couple, as same sex couples can adopt or can use medical advances (e. . IVF or surrogacy) to become a biological parent. (Edholm 1982 cited by Gittins p. 4) Anthropologists prefer to use the term kinship rather than family, â€Å"the ties which exist between individuals who are seen as related both through birth (descent) and through mating (marriage). † This theory is concerned with the ways in which parentage us assigned, attributed and recognised, descent is traced, relatives are classified, rights are transferred across generations and gr oups are formed. Unlike the functionalist approach the kinship theory stresses the fact that kinship is a social construction and also it emphasises on the variability of kinship depending on how it is defined. There is a debate about whether kinship is biological or social, many of us believe that its biological because of we know who are parents are and they made us so we simply think that kinship is biological but there are cases where children are brought up by parents who they believe to be their biological parents and then find out that they have been adopted and then suffer an identity crises because they do not know who they are anymore. Their own suffering is caused by the ways in which we define kinship in society and there is a clear difference between a ‘biological’ and ‘social’ parents, we see the biological parent as the real parents and that has the strongest bonds with the child, this is a strong western belief. However in other cultures they believe that it is the person who rears the child is defined as the parent regardless who is involved in the reproductive process, for example in some cultures it is common for a child to be raise by a grandparent. ( R. T. Smith cited by Gittins p. ) fond this was common in Guyana and Jamaica and says that ‘close and imperishable bonds are formed through the ‘act’ of raising a child. Fictive kinship (Rapp 1980:292 cited by Gittins p5) stated that fictive kinship was a serious relationship, and how we turn friends into family. It was also argued that kinship is whatever we chose it to be whether that’s biological, social or fictive, it’s a way of identifying others as in some way special from the rest, people to whom the individual or collectively feel responsible in certain ways. Many anthropologists have argued that kinship is simply a system of meaning and symbols, they also state that animals reproduce, mate and form attachments but they do not have a kinship system. (Marx cited by Gittins p 5) argued that it distinguishes people from animals. In child birth motherhood is always known unlike fatherhood, however apart from carrying and giving birth to the child that is where the biological process stops the rest become socially constructed. Gender also affects the ways that kinship is constructed and defined, they are both universally present as mothers and children are but the content of them and the meanings ascribed to them is highly variable. Age is also an important fact when it comes to kinship as people grow up the household composition and resources change. All relationships are different and with society changing there has become many different norms of society. Families do not have to be blood ties or even live under the same roof all the time or have two sec parents. Family isn’t universal.

Credit Default Swaps

Credit Default Swaps Credit default swaps are the transfer of third party credit risk from one party to the other party. The purchaser of the swap must make the payments until it reaches the maturity date of the assigned contract. A better understanding of CDS is â€Å"One party in the swap is a lender and faces credit risk from a third party, and the counterparty in the credit default swap agrees to insure this risk in exchange of regular periodic payments (essentially an insurance premium). If the third party defaults, the party providing insurance will have to purchase from the insured party the defaulted asset.In turn, the insurer pays the insured the remaining interest on the debt, as well as the principal†(Investor Words). The worth of credit default swaps results from whether or not a company fails to pay back the amount. The Washington Post Article â€Å"Credit default swaps are insurance products. It’s time we regulated them as such† by Barry Ritholtz on March 10, 2012 explained that it was time to change the laws regarding Credit Default swaps. The article talked about companies like Enron and AIG took advantage of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, that promoted unregualated insurance policies.The CFMA lead to companies wrongly swapping their defaults. The CFMA lead to the 2007-2008 Finanical Crisis that was responsible for the collapse of Lehman Brothers, CitiGroup, Bank of America, Fannie and Freddie. The Telegraph article titled â€Å"JPMorgan losses highlight need for credit default swap regulation† goes into detail about the $17. 5 billion loss JPMorgan experienced due to a series of derivate transactions in 2012. It was first believed that they only lost $2 billion during the first quarter of the year, but by the end it was calculated close to $17. billion. experience. The government is left in a position that they have to help them, in order to prevent another economic depression. Credit Default Swaps need to be either strictly regulated by the governments where these banks are performing these actions or banned all together. These banks are gambling with money that they don’t have to cover their losses. The more the banks can deregulate themselves from the government’s power, the more likely another major economic depression is to happen. Works Cited Blackden, Rick. JPMorgan Losses Highlight Need for Credit Default Swap Regulation. † The Telegraph. N. p. , 21 Mar. 2012. Web. 23 Mar. 2013 Gandel, Stephen. â€Å"Why It's Time to Outlaw Credit Default Swaps. † CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 18 June 2012. Web. 23 Mar. 2013. Ritholtz, Barry. â€Å"Credit Default Swaps Are Insurance Products. It’s Time We Regulated Them as Such. † Washington Post, 10 Mar. 2012. Web. 23 Mar. 2013 â€Å"What Is Credit Default Swap? † Http://www. investorwords. com/5876/credit_default_swap. html. WebFinance, n. d. Web. 23 Mar. 2013

Chem Warfare essays

History of Bio/Chem Warfare essays History of Biological and Chemical Warfare The use of biological weapons and efforts to make them more useful as a means of waging war have been recorded numerous times in history (NBC-MED). [As early as the sixth century BC biological warfare has been reported, when the Assyrians poisoned the wells of their enemies with rye ergot. When plague broke out in the Tartar army camp in 1346 during its siege of Kaffa (present day Feodosia in Crimea), the Tartars set the corpses of those who died on catapults and flung them over the walls. The defenders were forced to surrender when an epidemic of plague engulfed the city. It is also believed that Russian troops used the same tactic against Sweden in 1710. Smallpox has also been used as a biological weapon on several occasions. It is a belief that in the fifteenth century Pizarro presented South American natives with contaminated clothing. The English were said to have done the same during the French and Indian War when Sir Jeffrey Amherst gave French-allied Indians smallpox-laden blankets (NBC-MED).] Fort Carillon, which was held by the same Native Americans, was lost to the English when huge losses due to the sickness forced the defenders out. The first large-scale use of chemical weapons came during World War I. Starting in 1914, both sides used various tear gases in attacks. Yet it was on April 22, 1915 that the Germans used thousands of cylinders of chlorine to attack the unprepared French Territorial and Algerian units along a four-mile line in Ypres. The attack took the defenders completely by surprise, but the surprise would not last long as both sides began developing other gases and more effective delivery methods in the war. By the time World War I had come to an end, more than 100,000 tons of various chemical agents were used (Encyclopedia Britannica) to kill and injure over one million people (Watts) in Europe. ...

Tips for Scanning Restoring Digital Photos

Tips for Scanning Restoring Digital Photos Do you have old faded or torn photos that youd like to give a facelift? Have you been meaning to take that box of old photos from Grandma and scan them? Learning to create and edit digital photos is fairly easy and very worthwhile. Digitally restored photos can be used to create digital scrapbooks, post to websites, share through email, and print for gift-giving or display. You dont have to be a technology whiz or a graphic designer to become proficient at photo restoration, but you will need a computer, a scanner, and a good (not necessarily expensive) graphics program. Scanning Tips for Digital Photos Check your photos for dirt, lint, or smudges. Gently remove surface dust and dirt with a soft brush or lint-free photo  wipe. Canned air, available at most office supply stores, helps to blast away dust and lint from photographic slides but is not recommended for heirloom print photos.Check the scanner glass for lint, hair, fingerprints, or smudges. Use a lint-free pad or wipe to thoroughly clean the glass (basically anything that is sold as safe for cleaning camera lenses will also work for your scanner). Household glass cleaner can be used to clean your scanner glass, as long as youre careful to spray it directly on the cloth before wiping, not directly on the glass surface. When using your scanner or handling photographs, it is best to wear clean white cotton gloves (available from photo stores and hardware stores) to avoid leaving fingerprints on your scanner or photos.Specify the type of scan. If youre scanning photos, you have a basic choice of color photo vs. black and white . When scanning family photos, it is usually best to scan in color, even if the source photo is black and white. Youll have more manipulation options, and you can change a color photo to black and white (grayscale), but not the other way around. Determine the best scan resolution to assure the quality of your digital photos. The optimal resolution depends on how the image will be printed, saved, or displayed. A good rule of thumb is to scan your photos at a minimum of 300 dpi (dots per inch) to assure decent quality for enhancement and restoration techniques. Its even better to do 600 dpi or greater if you plan to eventually store these photos on CD or DVD, and have space on your computer hard drive to handle such large images.Carefully position your photo on the scanner face down on the glass, just like on a photocopy machine. Then hit prescan or preview. The scanner will take a quick pass of the image and display a rough version on your screen. Check to see that its straight, that no part of the photo has been cut off, and that the photo appears free of dust and lint.Crop the previewed image to include only the original photo. For archival purposes, do not crop only a portion of the photo at this point (you can do that lat er if you want a cropped photo for a specific purpose). However, you should make sure that all you are scanning is the actual photograph. (Some scanners and software will do this step for you automatically.) Avoid corrections while scanning. After scanning, youll be able to edit the image in a graphics software program which offers much more control. The order of steps should be: scan a basic image, save it, play with it.Check your file size before scanning. Youll want to make sure the chosen resolution you wont create a photo that is so large it will crash your computer. Some computers have enough free memory to handle 34MB photo files, and some dont. If the file size is going to be larger than you thought, then adjust the scan resolution accordingly before making the file scan.Scan the original image. This shouldnt take too long, but it could take a few minutes if youre scanning at a very high resolution. Take a quick bathroom break, or get your next photo ready for scanning. Saving Editing Your Digital Photos Now that youve got your photo scanned in, its time to save it to your hard drive. Be sure to choose an archival method and select a good photo-editing program. Storage Tips for Digital Photos Choose your file type. The best file type for scanning and saving archival photos is TIF (Tagged Image Format), the undisputed leader when the best quality is required. The popular JPG (JPEG) file format is nice because its compression algorithm creates smaller file sizes, making it the most popular photo format for web pages and file sharing. However, the compression that creates the small files also causes some quality loss. This loss of image quality is small, but becomes important when dealing with digital images that you plan to modify and re-save (something that you are likely to do when restoring damaged or faded photographs) because the loss of image quality compounds itself at each saving of the file. Bottom line- unless space on your computers hard  drive is at a real premium, stick with TIF when scanning and saving digital photos.Save an archive copy of the original photo in TIF format. You can then place it in a special folder on your hard  drive or copy to CD or DVD. Resist the urge to edit this original photo, no matter how bad it looks. The purpose of this copy is to preserve, as closely as possible, the original photograph in a digital format- a format that, hopefully, will outlast the original print photo. Make a copy of your scanned photo to work on. Use the copy instead of manipulating your original scan. Save it with a different filename (i.e., you can use the original file name with -edited on the end) to help prevent accidentally overwriting the original as you work on editing the photo. Choosing a Graphics Software Program The key to good digital photos is selecting a good graphics software program. If you dont have photo editing software yet, there are a lot of good options available- ranging from free photo editors to beginner photo editors, to advanced photo editing software. For photo restoration, a mid-range graphics software program offers the best balance of function and price. Step-by-Step Photo Repair and Restoration Now that youve done all the tedious work of scanning and saving your photos as digital images, its time to get started with the fun part- photo retouching! Pictures with stains, creases, and tears may have character, but they arent as pretty for framing or photo projects. These photo editing tips will help make your old pictures album-ready. Editing Tips for Digital Photos Open your photo editing software and select the photo. Be sure that it is a copy and not your original digital image. (This way you can always start over if you make a mistake.)Crop your photo using the crop tool. This is good to do in cases where there is a mat or extra wasted space in the photo. Depending upon your purpose, you may also wish to use the crop tool to cut out the background or focus in on a particular person. Since you have saved a copy of the original photo, you dont have to worry about losing important historical details by getting a bit creative with cropping.Fix photo flaws including rips, tears, creases, spots, and smudges, with a variety of handy fix-it tools.Creases, Tears, Spots, Smudges: Most image-editing programs have a cloning or copying tool to help fix photo flaws by filling them in with patches from similar areas in the picture. If the area is large, you may wish to zoom in on the area a bit before applying the cloning tool. The best alternative in low -budget photo editing software is usually the smudge tool.Dust, Speckles, Scratches: Set Radius and Threshold settings at their lowest settings and then slowly increase the Radius until you find the lowest setting that will rid your image of the dust or scratches. However, since that makes your whole image look blurry, you should then bring the Threshold setting way up and then slowly lower it until you find the highest setting that still removes dust and scratches from your photo. Check the results carefully- sometimes this process ends up removing eyelashes and other important content that mimic scratches. Many graphics programs also have a global dust/speckles filter, which looks for spots that differ from their neighboring pixels in color or brightness. It then blurs the surrounding pixels to cover the offending ones. If you only have a few large specks, then zoom in on them and edit the offending pixels by hand with a paint, smudge, or cloning tool.Bye, Bye Red Eye: You can re move that annoying effect in your photos with automatic red-eye removal, or with the pencil and paintbrush found in most photo-editing software. Sometimes an automatic Red-eye Removal tool will change the original eye color. If in doubt, check with someone who has knowledge of the persons eye color. Correct the color and contrast. You may find that many of your old photos have faded, darkened, or become discolored with age. With the help of your digital photo-editing software, you can easily repair and restore these photographs to their former glory.Brightness: Lighten up a dark photo with the brightness adjustment. If its too light, you can darken it a bit.Contrast: Best used in conjunction with Brightness, this feature adjusts the overall contrast- bringing out features in pictures that are mostly middle tones (grays with no true blacks and whites).Saturation: Use the Saturation tool to help turn back the clock on faded photos- giving photos more richness and depth.Sepia-tones: If you want to give your color or black-and-white photo an antique look, then use your photo-editing software to create a duotone (two-color picture). If your original photo is color, youll first have to convert it to greyscale. Then select duotone and choose your two colors (brown shades are the most c ommon for this effect). Sharpen: Use this to add focus to a blurry photo as the final step before saving. Enhancing Your Digital Photos If you have plans to use your newly-edited digital photos in a scrapbook, slideshow, or another digital project, then you may wish to jazz them up with colorization, captions, airbrushing, or vignettes. Enhancement Tips for Digital Photos ColorizationHave you ever wondered how your 19th-century great, great-grandfather may have looked in color? Or perhaps you want to see how that old black-and-white photo would look with a few touches of color- a pink bow here and a blue dress there. If your photo-editor is fairly full-featured, its easy to find out! Begin with a black-and-white photo.Using a Selection tool Lasso), select an area of the image that you wish to add color to. The Magic Wand can also be used for this step, but it requires a bit of technical knowledge and practice to use with black-and-white photos.Once the area is selected, go to the tint or color-balance controls and alter the color level values.Experiment until you get the desired effect.Repeat these steps for each area of the picture you wish to colorize.Colorizing photos can get a lot fancier than what weve detailed above, with techniques such as channel-splitting and transparent layers, plus tips for using the Magic Wand for selecting photo areas. Adding Captions If youve spent any time going through an ancestors collection of largely unlabeled photos, youll understand why we say that you owe it to your descendants (and other relatives) to properly label all of your digital photos. Many photo-editors offer a caption option which allows you to actually embed a caption within the header of JPEG or TIFF format files (known as the ITPC standard), allowing it to be transferred directly with the picture, and be read by the majority of graphics software programs. Other photo information that can be embedded with this method includes keywords, copyright info, and URL data. Most of this info, with the exception of the caption in some photo software, is not displayed with the photo but is stored with it and can be accessed under the photos properties by almost any user. If your photo editing software supports this feature, it can usually be found under Add Caption or File - Info. Check your help file for details. Creating Vignettes Many old photos have soft-edged borders, called vignettes. If your photos dont, its an easy effect to add. The classic vignette shape is an oval, but you can get creative and use other shapes such as rectangles, hearts, and stars. Or you can create a free-hand vignette, following the irregular outline of the subject- as in a portrait.Select an image with plenty of background around the subject. You need this to allow room for effective fading. Use the Selection tool in the shape of your choice (rectangular, oval, etc.), adding the feather option to feather the edges of your selection by 20 to 40 pixels (experiment to find the amount of fading which looks best for your photo). Then drag out the selection until you encompass the area you want to start the blend. The line at the edge of your selection will eventually be at the midway point of your faded edges (in other words, pixels on both sides of the line youve created will be feathered). Use can also use the Lasso selection tool if you wish to create an irregular border. Under the Selection menu choose Invert. This will move the selected area to the background (the part you wish to remove). Then select delete to cut this remaining background from the picture. Some photo-editing programs offer an easy one-click option for adding vignette borders, as well as other fancy frames and borders. Using these strategies, you can save family photographic heirlooms and create a historical record that can be shared digitally and in print.

The Impact of Food Allergies on Quality of Life Research Paper

The Impact of Food Allergies on Quality of Life - Research Paper Example When I have really bad allergies, I am absent from the classes, because I don’t want to disturb the classes. I asked my professors to excuse, but they didn’t accept my excuse. In this research paper, I want to let people know that allergies are not contagious to other people, and even if it may disturb my other classmates, it is just something beyond my control. The body has a natural or acquired immune mechanism of dealing with foreign materials which enter it or come into contact with it. This hypersensitive immune mechanism that often detects a harmless substance as a pathogen and develops a mechanism to fight it is called an allergy. Different people are allergic to different substances. These may include pollen, dust, food materials such as bee honey. The body’s immune system which is supposed to guard our bodies against pathogens (organisms or materials which cause ill health) reacts in a manner trying to destroy the material or substance that is harmless. The substances that cause hypersensitive allergic reactions are called allergens. Antibodies in the body are responsible for fighting any foreign material that the body detects as pathogenic. When the body reacts in a hypersensitive manner towards the harmless substance such as dust or honey, these antibodies are produced to fight it. Consequently, this leads to the production of histamine.  

Managerial Control Systems (Take home exam) Essay

Managerial Control Systems (Take home exam) - Essay Example to significantly reduce these emissions (p. 81). The choice of approach depends upon the nature of the business, its motivations and objectives, and the environment it functions in. As a result, there is no one best way by which organizations may achieve their carbon emission targets. The advantages to the firm in the second to the fourth approaches are self-evident, in that energy savings which reduce emissions reduce costs, and the positive publicity enhances the firm’s standing among its consumers. The first approach has to do with the trading of emissions certificates, wherein businesses whose operations require higher emissions purchase pollution permits from other firms who do not need theirs. In this manner, firms who reduce their emission levels have no need for their emission certificates, and may sell them to other firms and therefore earn revenue. Answer to Question No. ... Future-oriented routinely generated information for MCA refers to monetary carbon operational budgeting for short-term decision-making and carbon long-term financial planning long term decision making. Physical carbon accounting (PCA). For PCA, the past oriented routinely generated information includes carbon flow accounting for short-term decision making and carbon capital impact accounting for long-term decision making. The future-oriented routinely generated information for PCA refers to physical carbon budgeting in the short-term and long-term physical carbon planning for the long term. Both MCA and PCA are essentially interrelated. For instance, past-oriented monetary EMA relies on physical information regarding the flow of materials and energy made available by materials flow accounting approaches. On its own, however, past-oriented information is limited. It helps management discern sources of inefficiencies; thereafter, future-oriented information becomes necessary to forecas t the future effects of changes adopted at present (Abdel-Kader, 2011, p. 62). As for short-term information, this is useful where financial data is less volatile. When the data is characterised by high volatility, the long-term focus on carbon-related information becomes more suitable and reliable (Rajapakse & Wang, 2004). Answer to Question No. 3 Various factors influence the volume and type of information that an environmental management accounting (EMA) system provides. Among these are the number, type and functions of managers seeking information from the EMA system and the kind of decisions supported by this information. The structure of the organization and the manner in which its units relate to each other