What is the importance of marketing intermediaries in modern marketing?

The question pertains to the importance, which is to say the role, of marketing intermediaries in modern marketing.

Marketing intermediaries fulfill an information role and a logistics role. They create value by adding efficiency to marketplaces for goods or services which are inherently “many-to-many” in nature. That is, most markets have many suppliers, and many consumers. It may be inefficient for every supplier to establish contact with and interact directly with every consumer. Likewise, it may be cumbersome for every consumer to contact every supplier directly in making and implementing a buying decision.

Let’s look first at the information role. Consumers need information about product features, cost, and availability in order to make a buying decision. Intermediaries can add value by bringing this information together from a variety of suppliers in a common format which enables quick comparison and decision-making by consumers. Suppliers need information about demand, who wants what and where, in order to plan production. Intermediaries can offer this information by virtue of their ability to view the market as a whole, that is, across demand for all similar products rather than just how much is being demanded at the moment from a particular supplier. Finally, the information role can include a trust or verification aspect. Intermediaries can have the objectivity to appraise a buyer’s ability to complete a transaction (e.g. what realtors do in “qualifying” buyers). They can provide their own ratings and evaluations of competing products, and offer advice to buyers as to which supplier’s offering will best meet their needs.

The logistics role comes in when an intermediary takes responsibility for obtaining output from a variety of suppliers and delivering it to buyers as they order. They can add efficiency by aggregating related products in one place, allowing multiple but related items to be ordered and delivered together (e.g. industrial supply warehouses). Also, they may add efficiency simply by concentrating warehouse and transport technology and capacity, allowing individual suppliers to focus on creating their products and not internally duplicating logistics functions.

Finally, it is worth noting that the ability of web-based technology to aggregate and disseminate information has dramatically changed the structure, and in some cases the very existence, of market intermediaries.

What differences are there between Miss Maudie's and Miss Stephanie's attitudes to events in Chapter 16 of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird?

There are marked differences between the attitudes of Miss Stephanie and Miss Maudie. In Chapter 16, Miss Stephanie is eager and excited to attend the trial; on the other hand, Miss Maudie refuses to go.

On the day that the trial of Tom Robinson begins, there is a virtual parade of personalities: Mr. Dolphus Raymond, presumably drunk, rides by on his thoroughbred horse in an unsteady manner; a wagonload of women wearing long-sleeved cotton dresses are driven by a bearded man who wears a wool hat. They are Mennonites who rarely come to town. A backward man named X Billups passes; his name is X because an X is all his parents could write when they filled out the birth form. Various other odd individuals pass until the wagon of "foot-washers" pass and one woman shrilly criticizes Miss Maudie, citing a passage from the scripture.

This is the virtual circus of people that the authentic Miss Maudie chooses not to be among in the courthouse. She also feels that it is "morbid" to watch the unfortunate Tom Robinson be on trial for his life, likening the entire affair to "a Roman carnival." On the other hand, Miss Stephanie delights in such goings-on because this occasion feeds her nature for gossip. She passes Miss Maudie's house wearing a hat and gloves for the "gala occasion." Clearly, Miss Maudie is much more charitable in her attitude about people than is Miss Stephanie, who delights in talking about what people have done and said as she has proven in previous chapters, when she has gossiped about Boo Radley and others. 

How has Totalitarianism and the Holocaust discredited the ideals of the Enlightenment?

The Enlightenment, which I will paint in broad strokes, began in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. It privileged reason over tradition and religion. According to this system of thought, rationality was a hallmark of civilization. Enlightenment thinkers believed in human progress, having faith that science would make human life better and that society would become more and more civilized as a result of technological advances. Empiricism, the idea that knowledge comes from observed experience and that such observations could refine our understanding of the universe and lead to freedom from superstition and restrictive traditions, became a cornerstone of Enlightenment thought. Language was understood as a clear windowpane leading to truth.

During the nineteenth century, the Western world made unprecedented leaps forward due to science. New knowledge of disease and sanitation, the invention of the railroad, the telegram, the telephone and other technologies changed life in ways unimaginable at the start of the century. As the world entered the twentieth century, infant mortality dropped dramatically, life expectancy increased by bounds, and the standard of living rose to new heights. It seemed to many that science and rationalism could only make life could better and that modern society was headed for a bright future. Progress seemed assured.

During the twentieth century, however, science and technology  were exploited in ways detrimental to human freedom. As Adorno and Horkheimer discuss in The Dialectic of Enlightenment, humankind's domination of nature to make life better could also be turned against other humans to make their lives far worse. Or as German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer explained, technology could become the master and humankind the slave. This played out in the holocaust, where rationalism was used not to help humans, but instead to refine the systematic slaughter of millions of other human beings, from infants to the elderly, on the basis of being Jewish. Perpetrators of the holocaust used factory methodology to create the most efficient possible killing machine, from coordinating train schedules to maximizing productivity to murdering thousands a day using gas. 

Totalitarianism, particularly associated with Stalinism in Russia and National Socialism in Germany, used science and technology against humans beings. Both regimes established elaborate systems of technological surveillance and used radio, film and other advanced forms of media to spread propaganda. The underlying idea of totalitarianism was to use technology to control, not liberate, other humans.

After World War II, as Europe and much of the rest of the world lay in ruins and the so-called civilized world came to grips with the holocaust, a good deal of soul searching ensued, as Bronowski, among others, documents. How could European civilization have used rationalism and science in such barbaric ways? People began to question the principles of the Enlightenment, a project that continues to this day. How did science bring us to the technology of genocide, rationalism to the totalitarian state? Since World War II, intellectuals have sought to explore the limits of Enlightenment thinking and to question whether rationalism alone can solve our problems or if instead it holds within its own methodology dangerous seeds of destruction. This has also led to questioning of rationalist and empiricist methods of control used in colonial states: have scientific or quasi-scientific principles been employed more to buttress white supremacy and power than to advance human freedom? Many would say yes and that the totalitarianism and genocide perpetrated against Europeans in the 20th century had its roots in the Enlightenment categorization and control of non-white populations. All of this has worked together to discredit Enlightenment thought. 

`int_0^(pi/2) (2 - sin(theta))^2 d theta` Evaluate the integral

`int_0^(pi/2) (2-sin (theta))^2 d theta`

First, expand the integrand.

`=int_0^(pi/2) (2-sin (theta))(2-sin (theta)) d theta`

`= int _0^(pi/2) (4-4sin (theta)+sin^2 (theta)) d theta`

For the last term of the integrand, apply the trigonometric identity `cos(2theta) = 1 - 2sin^2 (theta)` .

`= int_0^(pi/2) (4-4sin(theta) + 1/2 - cos(2theta)/2) d theta`

`= int_0^(pi/2) (9/2-4sin theta -(cos(2theta))/2) d theta`

`= int_0^(pi/2) 9/2 d theta - int_0^(pi/2) 4sin theta d theta - int_0^(pi/2) (cos(2 theta))/2 d theta`

Apply the integral formulas `int adx = ax`  , `int sin xdx = -cosx`  and `int cos x dx = sinx` .

`= (9/2theta + 4cos(theta) - (sin (2theta))/4 )|_0^(pi/2)`

`= (9/2*pi/2 + 4cos(pi/2) - sin (2*pi/2)/4) - (9/2*0+4cos(0) - (sin (2*0))/4)`

`=((9pi)/4+4*0+0/4)-(0+4*1-0/4)`

`=(9pi)/4 - 4`

Therefore,  `int _0^(pi/2) (2-sin(theta))^2 d theta = (9pi)/4 - 4` .

Paul’s constant question in “Job” is “how much am I worth?”: what happens when he has a minor nervous breakdown?

At the end of "Christ in Concrete," Paul has a minor breakdown and begins to lose his faith as he watches the people around him struggle through the depression, witnesses his godfather falling to his death at a construction site, and fails to receive a sign from God following the accident. He begins questioning the apparent absence of God relative to the inevitability of "Job" (or the necessity of labor) in his life and the lives of other immigrants. Work becomes Paul's primary dedication, rather than religion: work is a constant necessity, and religion failed to help him both emotionally and materially. His suffering and the suffering of his fellow laborers and the trauma of watching his godfather's death due to work were unresolved by religion, so Paul abandons it entirely, and the central institution in his life instead becomes the inevitability of work-- or "Job."

What does Ken ask the oracle?

When the Egypt gang gets the idea for the Oracle of Thoth, there's a bit of competition between April and Toby regarding how the process will work. Toby's plan is selected by the children as the best way to go about it. According to his plan, a question for the oracle will be hand-written and placed in the beak of Thoth (the stuffed owl) without anyone else seeing it. The children will leave without finding out what the question was; the next day, they will see if Thoth has delivered an answer. The lot falls to Ken to ask the first question, which is ironic, because he is the one who is the least interested in the game and the oracle. However, he comes up with a question and leaves it in the owl's beak overnight. When the children assemble the next day, April acts as high priestess. She reads Ken's question, "Will I be a big league star someday?" Surprisingly, when she turns the paper over, an answer has been scrawled on the back. The answer is, "Man is his own star, and that soul who can be honest, is the only perfect man." The children are astounded and mystified as to how the answer came to be there. Later, Toby reveals that he sneaked back to Egypt overnight and wrote the answer--which he had found in a book of familiar quotations.

`(1, -3), 4x - 3y = -7` Find the distance between the point and the line.

Given (1, -3) `4x-3y=-7`

`4x-3y=-7` 

`4x-3y+7=0`

Let A=4, B=-3, C=7, x1=1, and y1=-3

Find the distance between the point and the line using the formula

`d=|Ax_1+By_1+C|/sqrt(A^2+B^2)`

`d=|(4)(1)+(-3)(-3)+7|/sqrt(4^2+(-3)^2)`

`d=|4+9+7|/sqrt(16+9)=20/5=4`

The distance between the point and the line is 4 units.