Shanghai And Hong Kongs Contributions To Chinas Economic Modernization

Shanghai And Hong Kong's Contributions To China's Economic Modernization Timothy Scott ECON. 400 Professor Roberts Midterm Essay Shanghai and Hong Kong's Contributions to China's Economic Modernization Some people predict Shanghai will replace Hong Kong in the future. Others argue that Hong Kong will remain as China's gateway to the rest of the world. For the past few months, I studied intensively about China and Hong Kong's history, culture, economy and politics. Hong Kong and Shanghai have made immense contributions to China's economy and modernization. However, I believe that Shanghai is still lacking the proper and sophiscated infrastructure such as the legal system and freedom of the press. In the years to come, Hong Kong will remain the financial and economic center of Asia due to its vast resources, legal infrastructure, history, and culture. In the past two decades, Shanghai has made great contributions to China's economic modernization. According to Cheng Li, in the article, The Color of Money, Shanghai had one-eighth of the total industrial output of the nation in 1980. In the early 1990's, Deng Xiaoping realized the potential of Shanghai, and urged the municipal government to develop the local economy and attract foreign investment. The entire city went under a reconstruction era, also known as the construction fever period. Hundreds of skyscrapers were built, and vast rural areas were transformed into new modern towns. Today, department stores and high rise buildings are not uncommon in Shanghai. The newly built Oriental Pearl TV Tower in Shanghai is now Asia's highest television tower. Shanghai not only underwent a physical change, but its economy boomed as well since 1993. The city has attracted more foreign investment than ever before. Currently, 121 largest transnational corporations operate in Shanghai. Investments include subway lines, highways, bridges and tunnels linking the Huangpu River and Pudong. It is estimated that $2.35 billion has been invested in Shanghai by foreign investment. In addition, the development of Pudong made it China's largest economic zone. Shanghai, without a doubt, is the engine that drives China's economic modernization. At the same time, Shanghai does not have the proper legal infrastructure, and freedom of the press to be the financial center of Asia. During my China traveling seminar in Shanghai, a Shanghaiese lawyer emphasized in order to be successful in China, all you need is a network of connection. This is also known as guanxi and it plays a crucial role in China. The fact is, China is under a system of rule by law and not rule of law. The legal infrastructure does not give you the protection you need from corruption and white-collar crimes let alone ensure an environment of free competition and productive workforce. Shanghai not only lacks legal protection, but it also lacks freedom of the press. The CCP has been and will always be a dictatorship over the media. One of the reasons is because China has always been very protective of its image. Any dishonorable and offensive news to the government, regardless of its importance, would not be allowed to publish. The central government also feels the necessity to control the media in order to prevent rebellions. Therefore, the people of Shanghai and China rarely know the truth behind current news. The importance of proper legal systems and freedom of the press are crucial to China's economic development. If the central government continues to neglect these factors, it will be detrimental to the future development of China. From the period 1949 to 1976, Hong Kong was China's gateway to the capitalist world. Today, Hong Kong has become even more important to Chinese economy and the international world. First of all, Hong Kong has vast resources such as managerial know-how, technology, financial and marketing skills. These important resources has been transferred to China as Hong Kong manufacturers move across the border to take advantage of cheap land and labor force in the 1980's. (Yahuda, p.24) While Shanghai has attracted foreign investments into China, Hong Kong has accounted for between 60 and 80 percent of the total foreign direct investment in China. In 1993, there were 50,868 investment projects of Hong Kong and Macao businesses in China with a value of $76.756 billion. The majority of investments are concentrated in the Guandong province. Through these direct investments, came

10 Painful Signs Your Boss is Disrespecting You

10 Painful Signs Your Boss is Disrespecting You There are horrible bosses, cruel bosses, bosses who hate you and are truly out to get you. And great bosses. There are also a million kinds of bosses in between. Some are perfectly decent. Some just plain do not respect you. How can you tell if your boss doesn’t respect you? Rather than relying on your own imperfect intuition, try checking this list of signs that you are being disrespected.1.  Flip FloppingYour boss changes his  mind every day about what you’re meant to be working on. Your top priorities shift constantly. You can’t keep up. He calls you in panic about something that needs to be done ASAP- only to go silent without providing any further instructions- or giving you contradictory instructions later.2. Not Valuing Your TimeYou get asked to do something vague at the beginning of the day, but you can’t seem to get any more clarifying information until- whammo- at the end of the day, a project is dropped into your lap†¦ and needs to be d one an hour ago.3. Ignoring Your NeedsA good boss will check in a couple of times a year to see how you are doing, whether or not you need anything in the way of guidance or feedback, or whether you’re missing any crucial equipment or software to help you get your job done well. This isn’t any fault of yours- it’s just poor management.4. No ExplanationsWhen things change or you’re asked to do things you don’t quite grasp, you ask a question and are met with stiff resistance- the workplace equivalent of â€Å"mind your own beeswax† or â€Å"that’s for me to know and you to find out.† If your boss doesn’t think you need to know things, especially things that might be necessary to you completing your work, that could be a sign that you’re being frozen out. Your concerns and questions should not be uniformly dismissed.5. You Only Get Grunt WorkYou’re constantly getting assigned the mindless tasks that no one el se wants to do- even if you’re just as qualified or more qualified than your coworkers. Or worse, you’re asked to do tedious work that is actually unnecessary for your company or your team.6. MicromanagingEvery piece of work you submit gets over-examined  over by your boss- even if you’ve never made any mistakes and your work is exemplary. This is particularly worrisome if you’re the only one getting micromanaged or over-supervised. Remember, a good boss trusts you to do the job for which you were hired.7. You Feel ReplaceableEven if you have a ton of specialized experience, you’re not consulted. Maybe you know a lot more than your boss does. But you’re never asked. More than that, your boss seems to think that anyone could do your job- despite hiring you and your unique qualifications for that job.8. Bad FeelingsYour boss ignores you, avoids you, laughs at your expense, criticizes you disproportionately or publicly for the slightest mista ke. Her body language suggests she just can’t stand you. She doesn’t make eye contact. She  seems like a totally different and warmer person with everybody else- and a total stern grouchypants with you. A combination of any of these can give you the gut feeling that you’re just not being respected. And you’d probably be right.9. Lack of Face TimeYour boss is always texting or emailing- never inviting you into his office, never stopping by yours. Not even calling. Technology is great, but you can’t forge a real relationship with your boss if you never have any real human interaction.10. Lack of AcknowledgmentDid you just come up with a great idea but your boss can’t seem to admit it was yours? Or worse: did she steal it? Did you make a big contribution, but it’s going utterly unnoticed and unremarked?These are all signs that you’re definitely not being valued. And quite probably being outwardly disrespected. It might be time t o talk to HR or to start looking for another gig.

Beijing Sammies

The AGROVOC Concept Server (AGROVOC/CS) Workbench is a web-based working environment consisting of numerous functionalities for the distributed management and enhancement of the AGROVOC/CS built from the AGROVOC thesaurus. Following the Semantic Web’s vision, that emphasizes collaboration in the development of data and metadata to be shared and reused across the web, the management of AGROVOC will progressively be transferred from a few individuals in FAO to a wider community of international AGROVOC experts. These interested and competent users will share the collaborative maintenance and extension of AGROVOC, one of the most frequently used terminological resources for agricultural information management in the world. Maintenance of the future extended AGROVOC will thus be completely decentralized with people worldwide contributing to its development. This report provides a brief note on the technical aspects of the AGROVOC/CS Workbench. Technical details †¢ Multilingual web interface and content (UTF8). †¢ The software is developed in pure JAVA (version 1. 5. x), with no calls to any third party modules requiring precompiled DLLs or other operating system specific features. †¢ The Google Web Toolkit (GWT) is used with an Eclipse plug-in for development of the system. It is used to build the system as a fully Java based AJAX client browser application that is compatible with all common web browsers. †¢ Where possible the JSP 2. 0 Expression Language (EL) is used for any JSP development within the project (it’s a way of writing script-less JSP pages). Protege OWL api framework is used to connect OWL. †¢ MySQL is used as RDBMS. †¢ The system is DBMS-independent. Additional database abstraction layer for interacting with the OWL backbone and the relational database will be used (e. g. the hibernate persistence and query service, etc. ). The system follows FAO guidelines for HTML publishing: †¢ Guidelines for Web site development; †¢ File naming convention and file organization guidelines; †¢ Check list for the clearance of Web sites. In summary, the system is based on the following components: Development components †¢ Eclipse 3. 2 †¢ JAVA-JDK version jdk1. 5. x †¢ Apache Tomcat (that supports JSP and JAVA Servlets) Google Web Toolkit (for AJAX framework), version 1. 4. 60 †¢ Google Web Toolkit Incubator, version 1. 4 †¢ Protege OWL API 3. 4 libraries †¢ Hibernate 3. 0 libraries †¢ Hibernate 4 GWT, version 0. 5 RC2 †¢ MySQL version 5 Server side †¢ Windows XP, Windows 2000, or Linux †¢ Apache Tomcat 5. 5. 9 or higher †¢ JAVA-JDK version jdk1. 5. x or higher †¢ MySQL version 5 or higher †¢ Protege OWL API 3. 4 libraries †¢ Hibernate 3. 0 libraries †¢ Hibernate 4 GWT, version 0. 5 RC2 †¢ WAR file with compiled JAVA files and necessary libraries Current Server Configuration †¢ OS : Debian GNU/Linux 2. 6. 22-2 †¢ CPU: AMD 64 bit †¢ Memory: 8GB †¢ MYSQL version: 5. 0. 45 TOMCAT Version: 6. 0. 14 †¢ Java-JDK: 1. 6. 0_04 Required Application 1. MySQL version 5 or above Available link to download: http://dev. mysql. com/downloads/ 2. Apache Ant version 1. 7. 1 or above Available link to download: http://ant. apache. org/ 3. JAVA JDK version jdk. 1. 5. x or above Available link to download: http://java. sun. com/javase/downloads/index. jsp 4. Apache Tomcat version 6 or above Available link to download: http://tomcat. apache. org/download-55. cgi 5. Protege Version 3. 4 beta Build 130 Available link to download: http://protege. cim3. net/download/old-releases/3. 4%20betas/build-130/full/ 6. GWT Version 1. 4 Build 1. 4. 62 Available link to download: http://code. google. com/webtoolkit/versions. html The Step of Configuration 1. Download AGROVOC Concept Server Workbench code from the CVS Server. 2. Download the sql script from CVS Server at folder named sql. Create the database. †¢ Run the sql script file located at your_directory\SQL\administrator_agrovocwb _v_0_2_beta. sql This will install administrator_agrovocwb database. †¢ Run sql script file to install the owl model database located at your_directory\SQL\blank model _v_0_2_beta. sql Here we have provided blank owl model. †¢ You can convert owl file directly to database by using stand alone java program located at: our_directory\src\org\fao\aoscs\server\protege\convertToDatabaseProject. java †¢ You need the change the variables in the file. |18 private final static String url = jdbc:mysql://; | |19 private final static String table = ; | |20 private final static String user = ; | |21 private final static String password = ; | |22 private final static String uri = file:/c:/; | 3. To add model in the ontology list, go to database and table and insert new row with these values. Ontology id: (Auto increment) †¢ Ontology Name: Blank Model †¢ Ontology Description: AGROVOC Concept Server Workbench Blank AOS Module †¢ Database URL: jdbc:mysql://:3306/? requireSSL=falseuseUnicode=truecharacterEncoding=UTF-8 †¢ Database Driver: com. mysql. jdbc. Driver †¢ Table Name: †¢ Database Username: †¢ Database Password: †¢ Display Ontology on the list: 0 for hide and 1 for Show 4. Use java editor to †¢ Change the configuration of the hibernate file that located in your_directory\src\hibernate. cfg. xml Change the property of your connection password instead of â€Å"your_password† and change the property of your connection url instead of â€Å"your_url†. 13 your_password | |14 jdbc:mysql://your_url | †¢ Change the configuration of the database properties that located in your_directory\src\org\fao\aoscs\server\owl\ DatabaseConnection. properties Change the property of your username of database instead of â€Å"your_username† and change the property of your password of database instead of â€Å"your_password†. |4 userAdminDB = your_username | |5 passwordAdminDB = your_password | †¢ Change the configuration of the mail file that located in your_directory \src\org\fao\aoscs\utility\Mail. properties Change the property of your host name instead of â€Å"your_mailserver_host†, change the property of your port instead of â€Å"your_port†, change the property of your user instead of â€Å"your_user†, change the property of your password instead of â€Å"your_password† and change the property of your from information instead of â€Å"sender_email†. |1 host=your_mailserver_host | |2 port=your_port | |3 user=your_user | |4 password=your_password | |5 from= sender_email | †¢ Run build file to create war file using Apache ANT. 5. Copy the war file to folder of tomcat installation directory. 6. You can use the program by opening your browser and type †¢ http://localhost:8080/your_project_name

The Effectiveness of Special Weapons and Tactics Teams (SWAT) Essay - 1

The Effectiveness of Special Weapons and Tactics Teams (SWAT) - Essay Example This essay describes the Special weapons and Tactical teams law enforcement that started with the idea of protecting the well-being of police officers in the United States, as they carried out their duties of â€Å"serving and protecting† the public. The idea of being able to extract bad guys efficiently without mass mayhem and creating collateral damage, was the hallmark for the creation of the teams. Whether one is a proponent or a detractor of the existence of SWAT teams, they must strike the same cord when confronted with the issue of the relevance of the teams continued existence. SWAT teams have done some questionable things, and they have accomplished many good things. Before we throw out the baby with the bath water, we must objectively assess the situation and ask the question. Are we better off today with SWAT teams, than we were without them? The researcher of this essay believes that we are definitely better off, and what is needed is that a considerable amount of thought must be directed to how, these teams can be better utilized, while they are on hold waiting for the day, when they will be needed to serve in the capacity for which they were originally conceived. It is commonly held that a good offense is better than a good defense. However, to sum up the researcher states that we know that municipal police departments left to their traditional arsenal and philosophy, are not equipped enough to handle the some of types of confrontations which the bad guys can concoct.

How to bee agood leader Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

How to bee agood leader - Essay Example My research has shown me that task oriented skills as well as communication and interpersonal skills are very much necessary for effective team leadership. Similarly, facilitating the group processes is a significant role of the team leader and timely execution of the task necessitates proper planning, organization, coordination, decision making and problem solving skills, motivation, and sharing of roles from the part of the team leader. Besides, as a team leader I should be a good listener and communicator. I need to communicate my visions to the team members while listening to their valuable suggestions. As my major is in electrical engineering I would prefer to assume a team leader position in electrical engineering. I am aware that electrical engineering involves a lot of technical skills and that collaborative team work is very much essential while undertaking complex projects. Being a team leader is quite challenging as it offers one a unique opportunity to exercise one’s leadership qualities, communication, interpersonal and persuasive skills. For me, it is like a dream come true as I have always yearned to assume a leadership role where I can unleash my potentials. An effective team leader, in my opinion, understands the potentialities and competencies of his team members and inspires them to achieve the organizational goal. The team is most likely to benefit from my leadership as I am aware of the team processes and will make all possible efforts to expand the team capabilities through collaborative team work. Promotion as the workplace team leader has, in fact, increased my responsibilities and roles within the organization and this has prompted me to have greater understanding of the essential qualities of an effective team leader. Bachiochi et al, while reviewing the literature on team leadership, point out a number of qualities required of a successful team

Cloning Dialoge :: Argumentative Persuasive Topics

Cloning Dialoge    The setting is a small college's biology class where only three students out of twenty students have come to class because it is the last day before spring break begins. The three students' names are Andy, Kristen, and Eric. Seeing only three students in the class, the professor changes his lecture material into a class discussion involving the recent scientific breakthrough in the field of cloning. During the discussion, the professor explains how the cloning of a sheep named Dolly was done. In addition, the students and the professor share their views on the advantageous and the detrimental side of cloning either humans or animals. Professor: Good morning class! I am sure that you all have heard about the recent scientific discovery in the process of cloning. If not, allow me to fill you in on this current controversial scientific discovery. Last week, a Scottish scientist named Dr. Ian Wilmut from the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland, successfully cloned an adult sheep. I said adult sheep because scientists already have the ability to clone sheep and calves, for farming purposes, from undifferentiated embryonic cells. Is there any questions so far? Kristen: Um, yes, professor. Would you please elaborate on the term undifferentiated cell? Also, the word cloning sounds like something you would hear from science fiction movies or novels--isn't the cloning process very complicated? Professor: To answer your first question, Kristen, an undifferentiated cell is a cell that has the ability to create other specific cells, such as skin, hair, brain, and muscles, as it activates certain genes on chromosomes. For your second question, the concept of cloning is really not that complicated to understand. Allow me to explain as I split Dr. Wilmut's cloning process into three steps. During the first step, udder cells from a six-year-old Finn Dorset ewe were taken and placed into a culture dish. The culture dish, containing low levels of nutrients, starved the cells, causing them to stop their dividing and hibernate its active genes. Meanwhile, the nucleus with its DNA from an unfertilized egg--also called an oocyte--taken from a Scottish Blackface ewe, is sucked out with a hair thin pipette, leaving the empty egg with all its cellular tools needed to produce an embryo. By the way, this process is called the nuclear transfer. Okay, now onto the second step; the egg cell an d a donor cell are placed next to each other and fused together, like soap bubbles, by an electric pulse.

The Hunters: Phantom Chapter 35

Elena leaped backward as the phantom caught fire. She was so close that the heat of the flames burned her cheeks, and she could smel her own hair smoking. Shielding her face with her hands, she eased her way forward as silently and sneakily as she could, closer and closer to the phantom. Her legs shook, but she wil ed them stil and steady. She was consciously not letting herself look at or think about Stefan's body crumpled on the floor of the garage, in the same way she had kept herself from looking at Damon and Stefan's fight when she needed to think. Suddenly a burst of flames shot into the air, and for one dazzling second, Elena dared to hope that Damon had done it. The phantom was burning. Surely no creature of ice could withstand that. But then she realized that the phantom was not only burning. She was also laughing. â€Å"You fool,† the phantom said to Damon, in a soft and almost tender voice. â€Å"You think fire can hurt me? Jealousy can burn hotter than fire as wel as colder than ice. You of al people should know that, Damon.† She laughed her strange clinking laugh. â€Å"I can feel the jealousy, the anger that burns in you al the time, Damon, and it burns so hot I can smel the hatred and despair that live in you, and your little petty hurts and rages are meat and drink to me. You clutch them to you and pore over them like treasure. You may have succeeded in casting out a tiny piece of the multitudes of hurts that burden you, but you'l never be free of me.† Around the phantom's feet, tiny blue lines of flame ignited and spread quickly across the floor of the garage. Elena watched in horror: Were these burning traces of oil left by Mrs. Flowers's ancient car? Or was it simply the phantom's maliciousness made solid, spreading fire among them? It didn't real y matter. What mattered was that the garage was on fire, and while the phantom might be impervious to the flames, the rest of them weren't. Smoke fil ed the musty space, and Elena and her friends began to cough. She covered her nose and mouth with her hand. Streaking past Elena, Damon snarled and leaped for the phantom's throat. Even in their current dire situation, Elena couldn't help admiring Damon's speed and grace. He col ided with the phantom and knocked it to the floor, then recoiled, protecting his face with his leather-clad arm. Fire, Elena remembered with a frisson of terror. Fire is one of the few things that can kill a vampire. Her eyes watered from the smoke, but she forced them to stay open as she moved closer, circling around behind the phantom, who was back on its feet. She could hear her friends shouting, but she concentrated on the fight. The phantom was moving more awkwardly than it had been earlier, and did not immediately attack Damon. Through the flames, Elena could see that thick greenish fluid was stil trickling down its solid torso from the wound Meredith had given it. Where the liquid touched the flames, they flickered with a greenish blue tint. Damon lunged for the phantom again, and it flung him off with a shrug. Snarling, they circled each other warily. Elena skittered around behind them, trying to stay out of Damon's way, trying to see how she could help. A crackling from across the room distracted Elena for a second, and she glanced back to see fire climbing the far wal , reaching for the wooden shelves set around the room. She missed seeing what exactly happened next, but suddenly Damon was skidding across the floor on his back, an angry red burn glowing on his cheek. He was up again in a second and prowling back toward the phantom, but his eyes had a slightly wild glint to them that made Elena nervous. Even injured, the phantom was stronger than Damon, and, after his long fight with Stefan, Damon's reserves must be waning. He was growing reckless. Elena gathered her courage and moved closer to the phantom again, as close to the flames as she could stand. The phantom glanced back at her for a second and then away, focusing on the stronger threat. It sprang forward to meet Damon, its fiery arms spread wide and a savagely joyous smile on its face. And suddenly Meredith was there beside Damon. She looked solemn and pale as a young martyr, her lips tight and her eyes wary, but she moved as fast as lightning. Her stave sliced through the air almost too quickly to see, leaving another long cut across the phantom's stomach. The phantom howled, and the flames on its torso hissed as more greenish fluid gushed from the wound. But the phantom remained upright. It snarled and reached for Meredith, who danced rapidly backward, just out of range. Meredith and Damon exchanged a wordless look and moved to flank the phantom, one on either side, so that it couldn't watch both of them at once. Damon cuffed Jealousy, a short, intense blow, and pul ed back a reddish, blistering hand. Meredith swung her stave again, nearly catching the phantom on the arm but instead cleaving only a wisp of smoke. There was a crash as a burning shelf col apsed onto the floor. The smoke grew thicker. Away from the fight, Elena could hear Bonnie and Matt coughing. Elena moved closer stil , again coming toward the phantom from behind, safely out of Meredith and Damon's way. The phantom's heat was like a bonfire. Meredith and Damon were moving in tandem now, as smoothly as if they had rehearsed, dancing in and back, sometimes catching the phantom with a blow, more often passing through a curl of smoke or mist as the phantom transformed its parts from solid to airy shapes. A voice rang out. â€Å"Impera te desistere.† Mrs. Flowers leaned against the supporting arms of Matt and Alaric. But her eyes were clear and her voice was steady. Power crackled in the air around her. The phantom slowed only slightly in its fight, perhaps no more than a half second behind in its thrusts and transformations. But this was enough to make at least a little difference. More of Damon's and Meredith's blows landed, and they were able to dodge a few more of the phantom's. Was it enough, though? The phantom flinched when a punch hit home, and it bled horrible green goo where the stave cut it, but it was stil steady on its feet as Meredith and Damon hacked and choked in the smoke and stumbled away from the flames. The rose in Jealousy's chest pulsed a steady dark red. Elena exhaled in frustration and immediately began to cough again. The phantom wasn't staying in one place long enough for Elena to get a good shot at grabbing the rose-heart. Meredith sliced at it with her fighting stave, and this time the stave slid through smoke, and the phantom grabbed the stave in one hand, swinging Meredith toward Damon. Col iding, they both fel heavily to the ground, and the phantom, stil slightly hobbled by Mrs. Flowers's spel , strained toward them. â€Å"I've envied Meredith for her brains!† shouted Bonnie. Her face was smudged with smoke and tears, and she looked incredibly smal and fragile, but she was standing straight-backed and proud, yel ing at the top of her lungs. â€Å"I know I'l never be as good at school as she is, but that's okay. I cast my jealousy out!† The phantom's rose dimmed to a dark pink for a moment, and it staggered ever so slightly. It glanced at Bonnie and hissed. It was only a tiny pause in the phantom's advance, but it was enough for Damon to spring to his feet. He stepped in front of Meredith, shielding her as she clambered up. Without even looking at each other, Meredith and Damon began circling in opposite directions again. â€Å"I've been jealous that my friends have more money than I do!† Matt shouted, â€Å"but I cast the jealousy out!† â€Å"I envy the way Alaric truly believed in something unproven, and turned out to be right!† Celia yel ed. â€Å"But I cast it out!† â€Å"I've envied Elena's clothes!† Bonnie cried. â€Å"I'm too short to look good in lots of things! But I cast that out!† Damon kicked at the phantom, pul ing his smoldering leg back quickly. Meredith swung her stave. Mrs. Flowers chanted in Latin, and Alaric joined her, his low voice in counterpoint to hers, reinforcing her spel . Bonnie, Celia, and Matt kept shouting: dredging up smal jealousies and hurts that they were probably usual y hardly aware of, casting them out to pepper the phantom with tiny blows. And for the first time, the phantom looked†¦ baffled. It swung its head slowly from one to another of its opponents: Damon stalking toward it, fists raised; Meredith, her stave swinging surely as she watched the phantom with a cool and considering gaze; Alaric and Mrs. Flowers reciting strings of Latin words, hands lifted; Bonnie, Matt, and Celia shouting confessions as if they were throwing rocks at it. Jealousy's glassy eyes passed over Elena without real y seeming to notice her: Standing stil and quiet among the entire hubbub, she was not a threat. This was the best chance Elena was going to get. She nerved herself to move forward, then froze as the phantom turned toward her. Then, miraculously, Stefan was there. He grappled at the phantom's back, throwing one arm around its neck as the flames licked at him. His shirt caught fire. The phantom, briefly, was pul ed backward past Elena, its torso toward her, unprotected. Without hesitation, Elena plunged her hand into the fire. For a moment, she barely felt the flames, just a gentle, almost cool touch against her hand as the flames flickered around her. Not so bad, she had a moment to think, and then she felt the pain. It was pure and agonizing, and dark fireworks of shock went off behind her eyes. She had to fight to overcome the almost irresistible instinct to pul her hand back out of the fire. Instead, she groped at the phantom's torso, searching for the cut Meredith had made just above its rose. It was slippery and smooth, and her hand fumbled. Where is it? Where is it? Damon had thrown himself into the flames alongside Stefan, yanking at the phantom's arms and neck, keeping its torso clear for Elena, preventing the phantom from ripping free and throwing her across the room. Meredith beat at Jealousy's side with her stave. Behind her, her friends' voices rose in a babble of confessions and spel s as they did their part to keep the phantom off balance and disoriented. At last Elena's hand found the cut and she pushed inside. It was icy cold in the phantom's chest, and Elena yelped at the contrast – the cold was excruciating after the heat, and the flames stil licked at her wrist and arm. The freezing liquid inside the phantom's chest was so thick, it was like feeling through gelatin. Elena shoved and reached, and the phantom screamed with pain. It was a horrible sound and, despite al that the phantom had done to her and her friends, Elena could not help flinching in sympathy. A moment later, Elena's hand closed on the rose's stem and a thousand thorns pierced her burned flesh. Ignoring the pain, she pul ed the rose out of the freezing liquid, out of the fire, and staggered backward, away from the phantom. She didn't know what she'd expected to happen, exactly. For the phantom to melt like the Wicked Witch of the West, perhaps, leaving nothing but a puddle of vile greenish water. Instead, the phantom stared at her, its mouth open, its pointed, shining teeth on ful display. The tear in its chest had expanded, and fluid oozed rapidly, like an untended faucet. The flames burned low and green where the liquid tracked down its body and dripped to the floor. â€Å"Give it to me,† Stefan said, appearing at Elena's side. He took the rose from her hand and ripped at its petals, now fading to a lighter pink, and scattered the petals into the fire burning up the sides of the garage. The phantom watched with a stunned expression, and gradual y its blazing fire thinned to smoke, its solid form slowly vaporizing. For a moment, a smoky, malevolent image hung in the air before them, its eyes fixed sul enly upon Elena. And then it was gone.