After the Journey Essay

Steve Clark, who wrote â€Å"Travel Writing and Empire† believes that â€Å"the traveller is altered, sometimes changed utterly† when he or she journeys in an unfamiliar environment; some stories from real life do prove this statement.   There are also well-known fictional travellers who can show how significant and life-changing journeys can be, and this is where we focus.   However, before dealing with these characters, imagine travelling to foreign countries, immersing in other cultures, and either fighting against or indulging in the new experiences.   These experiences, negative or positive, become part of the traveller’s life, however little the effect may appear. Robinson Crusoe’s wanderlust has led him to an experience that he has never thought possible.   All he has longed for is a taste of adventure, but what he has to give in exchange for this adventure is practically his whole life.   Meanwhile, Lemuel Gulliver only wants to relate his travels to other people. He professes that â€Å"I rather chose to relate plain matter of fact in the simplest manner and style, because my principal design was to inform, and not to amuse thee.† (Swift, 1962)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"Robinson Crusoe’s† plot begins with disobedience.     Both Robinson Crusoe’s parents have opposed his desire to go on a voyage. â€Å"He asked me what reasons, more than a mere wandering inclination, I had for leaving father’s house and my native country, where I might be well introduced, and had a prospect of raising my fortune by application and industry, with a life of ease and pleasure†. (Defoe)   Crusoe is reminded by his father that he does not need to seek his fortune or win honour of some kind.   His later wretched condition reminds him of his father’s warnings. â€Å"Robinson Crusoe† is believed to be based on the life of Alexander Selkirk who has run away to sea in 1704.   He has made a request to be left alone in an uninhabited island before being rescued after five years. (Bibliomania) Crusoe’s experience is of course more imaginative and more complex, as Daniel Defoe adds in more adventures for the castaway. Although Crusoe’s situation is not contrived like Selkirk’s, who has clearly requested to be left alone, his strong desire to continue setting out to sea even after a perilous first voyage has led him to a similar fate.   Surviving the first voyage, Robinson Crusoe has continued his adventures and has ended up living in an uninhabited island alone. Crusoe has started the voyage as an inexperienced young man who has lived in comfort; he cannot have gone through his voyages without being changed in some manner.   Crusoe’s love for travel is undeniable.   He has risked not only a secure livelihood in order to pursue the adventure, but also his life.   As a person, he already does not conform to what the society expects of him.   Nevertheless, the castaway experience is still extreme even to an adventurer. Crusoe has to do things that he wouldn’t normally do given his former comfortable lifestyle.   A man who has not been trained to practice a trade, he has learned to create necessary tools and gear ranging from clay containers and clothes, to even a canoe. He has become very self-sufficient and resourceful as needed by the situation.   His daily experiences also range from peaceful inventions to discovering cannibals, saving a native whom he has named â€Å"Friday† and has even earned himself a fortune.   These experiences themselves can affirm that Robinson Crusoe is not the same man who has left his home for the first time.   Robinson Crusoe, who has been expected to live comfortably and without much risk, has proven himself to be capable of seeking his fortune on his own.   He not only changes himself in the process, but he also changes the perceptions of what a person must or must not do in society. Through his example, people are able to see that it can be profitable, although difficult, to go outside of the box that people of Crusoe’s time seem to have locked themselves in.   Crusoe experiences changes in his attitude towards religion.   Even though there is no longer a physical church to attend a mass in, it is in his solitude and with a Bible in hand that he is able to commune with God and nature.    Some critics have noted this as a sign that â€Å"Robinson Crusoe† is a morality story which begins with disobedience and results to conversion. (The Development of the Novel)   What cannot be changed in Crusoe, however, is his humanity.   Humans still long for the company of other human beings.   He does meet and obtain the companionship of the native, Friday, but he is unused to the other man’s culture.   Crusoe later develops a more open-minded attitude towards other cultures because of his immersion into their worlds.   He even tries to understand the cannibalistic ways of the natives. Now, we look at â€Å"Gulliver’s Travels.†Ã‚   Gulliver’s adventures are more fantastical than Crusoe’s.   He encounters little people and giants, and other strange communities.   There must be a change in Gulliver after years of travelling to such places.   In fact, Gulliver has to adapt in each of the four places that he visits. Like Crusoe’s first voyage, Gulliver’s first venture is met with dangerous weather.   This results to his being shipwrecked in Lilliput, where he describes the people to be less than six inches tall. (Swift, 1962)   Gulliver has to convince the Lilliputians that he is harmless.   He later gains their trust and has become the community hero, having been able to help the little people against their rival, the Blefescudans. Gulliver no longer wants to comply with the Lilliputians’ further demands and has to flee to save his life.   After his stay in Lilliput, his numerous adventures include an encounter with giants who make him feel like a Lilliputian, and meeting horses who rule over Yahoos, who are uncivilized human beings. During the various encounters, Gulliver is introduced to different kinds of civilisations.   His understanding of what an empire is broadens, as he encounters the various kinds of kingdoms, with their unique beliefs and practices.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"Gulliver’s Travels† is tagged as a satire; Critics believe in the need to study Jonathan Swift’s background in order to fully understand the historical context in which he is writing the novel.   Swift is reported to have prior political influence, when he was still supporting the Whig Party.   He shifts his alliance to the Tory Party upon hearing that the Whig Party is opposed to the Anglican Church.   When the Whig Party gains more influence, Swift loses his.   This is believed to have caused Swift’s hostility against the government in London. (Glasgow University Library)   The different characters within the various communities Gulliver encounters in the story are said to be based on real political figures. Lemuel Gulliver is altered by his many adventures.   He has learned that there is not just one type of community for which the others are based.   For each new place, he has to adapt in order to fit into the norm.   Each adaptation is a change in Gulliver.   In fact, his immersion into the world of Houyhnhnms, which are horse-like creatures, has even created a dislike for humans in him.   Gulliver has to re-accustom himself to life with ordinary people when he goes home. â€Å"My wife and family received me with great surprise and joy, because they concluded me certainly dead; but I must freely confess the sight of them filled me only with hatred, disgust, and contempt; and the more, by reflecting on the near alliance I had to them†. (Swift, 1962) This is proof enough that journeys can totally alter the traveller, as is with Gulliver who not only changes a bit but drastically. â€Å"It is easy for us who travel into remote countries, which are seldom visited by Englishmen or other Europeans, to form descriptions of wonderful animals both at sea and land. Whereas a traveller’s chief aim should be to make men wiser and better, and to improve their minds by the bad, as well as good, example of what they deliver concerning foreign places.† (Swift, 1962) The above declaration by Gulliver signifies his belief that the traveller can effect a change in how other people think.   Even in real societies, people who have experience living in, or visiting foreign places come back with new beliefs that either blend with or completely erase their old ones.   They may not be completely different people, because Robinson Crusoe still longs for the company of fellowmen, but there are definite changes.   Each experience in life leaves indelible marks in the person who goes through it. Moreover, Gulliver has to undergo an adjustment period after being almost chameleon-like in his adjustments in different civilisations.   Robinson Crusoe has to transition from his comfortable and secure life to a life that is at times spent in solitude and sometimes spent in danger.   He also becomes better in touch with his spiritual side, while becoming a person who can survive anywhere.   It can be then concluded that the two classic novels, â€Å"Gulliver’s Travels† and â€Å"Robinson Crusoe† support Steve Clark’s idea that journeying into unfamiliar territory will alter or change the traveller completely. References Bibliomania. (n.d.). Retrieved October 18, 2007, from Bibliomania: Free Online Literature and Study Guides: http://www.bibliomania.com/0/0/17/31/frameset.html Defoe, D. (n.d.). Robinson Crusoe. Retrieved October 17, 2007, from Dead Men Tell No Tales: http://www.deadmentellnotales.com/onlinetexts/robinson/crusoe.shtml Glasgow University Library. (n.d.). Special Collections Department. Retrieved October 18, 2007, from http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/jan2006.html Swift, J. (1962). Gulliver’s Travels and Other Writings. (M. K. Starkman, Ed.) New York: Bantam Books. The Development of the Novel. (n.d.). Retrieved October 18, 2007, from University of St. Andrews: http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~cjmm/Crusoelec.html   

Political Power in the Prince by Machiavelli Essay

Machiavelli argues in another major work that the purpose of politics is to promote a â€Å"common good.† How does this statement relate to the ideas Machiavelli presents in The Prince? The fact that two of Machiavelli’s greatest and most famous works on political power came into being thanks to the downfall of his own political career is quite ironic. More ironic however is the way he contradicts his statements in each book about the purpose of political power. As previously stated, one of Machiavelli’s major works, referring directly to The Discourses on Livy (1517), argues that the purpose of political power is to promote a â€Å"common good†. Meanwhile, The Prince presents a ruler less worried about the â€Å"common good† and more concerned about maintaining and expanding political power at all costs. â€Å"Laws make men good,† states Machiavelli in book one of the discourses, after a long explanation about how men created politics to create order. At first men searched for the strongest and bravest among them to mold him into a leader they could obey. Machiavelli then says: â€Å"From this beginning came recognition of what is proper and good, as opposed to what is pernicious and wicked.† However, as time went on, the people became harder to satisfy and politics became more complicated. New forms of government and laws were created in order to keep the people in order because as he states in The Discourses: â€Å"men will never be good, except by necessity†. Simple leaders became the tyrants he promotes in The Prince. They sought to be feared by their people in order to be obeyed and maintain power. In The Prince the leader is no longer the strongest and the bravest, but the prudent, more astute. The leader is one that can predict things such as treachery and conspiracy and end it before it can cause further problems in his government. The Prince discusses many ways for an astute leader to rule his state and maybe one or two of these promote the â€Å"common good† of the people, and it isn’t even actual common good. In The prince, the appearance of a common good is more important than having it as a reality. A ruler must appear to be honest and good but doesn’t necessarily have to be. I believe the relation between Machiavelli’s two texts on the purpose of political power is that one describes what politics were made to be while the other discusses what they have actually come to be and how to keep them that way. Instead of a â€Å"common good† it goes more along the lines of what is good for the ruler. While the statements contradict each other more than once, I believe the texts to be somewhat complementary in the sense that alone, they each give a different side or view of what politics actually are, while reading them both gives the reader an expanded, more complete understanding, not only on what politics are and how to maintain that political power, but also on why it has to be that way â€Å"for the good of the people.†

How Personal Can Ethics Get Essay

Abstract This paper is about the case study, â€Å"How Personal Can ethics Get†. This paper discusses the dilemmas that Valerie Young has to face at her Chicago based fragrance employer named Wisson. Secondly, I will discuss what I would do if I were in the same dilemma as Valerie. Next, it discusses how personal differences and preference can impact organizations ethics. Lastly, this paper discusses how organizational policies and procedures can impact organizational ethics. How Personal Can Ethics Get? This case focuses on the ethical dilemmas that Valerie Young has to deal with her employer Wisson. Valerie is an immigrant worker that is currently working in the United States on a work visa. Valerie has uncovered unethical practices by her manager Lionel Waters. Valerie has discovered that Lionel Waters was violating Wissons company policy that no employee should take personal payments, bribes or kickbacks to customers or suppliers or the receipt of kickbacks, bribes and personal kickbacks are prohibited. Valerie has discovered documentation showing that Waters is receiving personal kickbacks from two fragrance companies through his personal company. This concerns Valerie since her division only receives projects from these two fragrance companies now instead of the other fragrance companies they have worked for in the past. She did not understand this why they did not work with the other companies anymore. She claimed that the other companies had some great project but these companies did not receive consideration from Wisson. Waters demonstrates the self-serving principle of might-equals right, which states you do whatever you are powerful enough to impose on others without respect to socially acceptable behaviors(). Waters demonstrates this ethical principle by willingly funneling kickback money into his personal business account, which is a violation of company policy. Waters is powerful enough to receive kickbacks from the fragrance companies and keep it hidden since he is an executive at Wisson. Ethical Dilemmas that Valerie Faces Valerie was making copies at work when she found some documents on the printer that belonged to Waters. The documents were on letterheads from Waters personal consultation company. On these documents, Valerie found out that Waters has been collect kickbacks from two fragrance companies. Valerie was very stunned about her findings and she was not sure what to do. Valerie was recently accepted to a Master of Science program and did not want to jeopardize her education nor her job. She decided to keep this quit for the reason that she did not know who she could trust. Valerie is currently in the United States on a work visa. Due to this fact she must have a job in order to remain in the United States. She discusses her findings with her boyfriend who she feels is the only person she can trust. He suggests that she keeps her findings quite until she has completed school and has secured a job since she is on a work visa. Valerie uses an ethical intensity in making her decision. The ethical intensity she displays is the magnitude of consequences, which is defined as the harm or benefit accruing to individuals affected by a decision or behavior(). She displays magnitude of consequences since her decision will affect if she will be able to stay in the United States on her work visa or if she will be forced to leave if she brings forward her findings and loses her job at Wission. Valerie also displays the self-serving principle of hedonist, which you do whatever is in your own self interest(). She displays this principle because she knows that it would be unethical to keep her findings quite but she puts what would benefit her the most first. She decided to keep her findings quite at this time so she could finish her studies and run the risk of losing her job. What Valerie should do? If I were in the same dilemma as Valerie I would handle the situation in a different way. If I had found the personal documents that were violating company policy I would bring that information to the attention of my superiors. I would send this information anonymously. I would do it anonymously due to the fact that I do not want my identity revealed at this time. This would be important for the reason that if my identity were revealed I would run the risk of losing my job due to retaliation from Waters and associates that were inside this situation. I would not want to run this risk given that I am on a work visa and would be forced to leave the United States and jeopardize my education if I lose my job due to retaliation from any insiders. How Personal Differences and Preference Can  Impact Organizational Ethics Ethics is defined as the study of moral values, principles and rules, including the determination of standards of conduct and obligations for individuals and organizations(). This definition implies that one individual may make see one thing ethical while another may see it unethical. Individuals develop their own code of personal ethics based upon a wide variety of sources and belief systems. Virtually everybody acquires and develops their sense of right and wrong via their parents and parental influences(origin). Since there are many views of what is ethical and unethical, Lawerence Kohlberg developed the stages of moral development. This model demonstrates how an individual will make decision on ethical dilemmas within an organization. Kohlberg suggest that an individual progresses through these stages during their lifetime. This model is made up of six stages of moral development, which are divided into three levels of development. The first level of development is referred to as the â€Å"pre-conventional† level. At this level, an individual evaluates ethical issues based on idea of avoiding punishment and seek personal reward. The second level is termed â€Å"conventional† level. At this stage an individual evaluates ethical issues on the basis of the fairness to others and a desire to conform to societal rules and expectations. The highest level is referred to as the â€Å"principled level. At this level an individual is likely to apply principles, such as utilitarian, deontological, or justice, to ethical issues in attempt to resolve them(referece). According to Kohlberg, a person in the principled level is likely to look into themselves rather than be influenced by organizational expectations(reference). Business ethics is defined as principles and standards that guide behavior in the world of business(reference). The stages of moral development can be used to show how individuals at different levels will handle ethical situations within in organization. We can also use the stakeholder and shareholder to express personal differences. Individuals who use the shareholder perspective focuses on decisions that are in the owners’ best interest. Individuals who use the shareholder perspective feels that ethical business practices are ones that make the most money. Individuals who back the stakeholder perspective believe that companies should consider  the needs and interests of multiple stakeholder groups, not just those with direct financial stake in the organization’s profits and losses(business). In other words, organizations that use this perspective consider how decisions will affect individuals on the inside and outside of the organization. How Organizational Policies and Procedures can Impact Organizational Ethics Since individuals have different views and perceptions on ethical issues many organizations have created policies and procedures. These policies are usually termed as the organizations code of conduct. Codes of conduct are formal policies, procedures and enforcement mechanism that outline moral and ethical expectations of an organization(reference). These policies are important to an organization since they lay out the norms and belief of the organization. Policies and procedures allow organizations to handle ethical issues effectively as the rise within in the organization. Policies allow an organization to deal with an ethical matter in a uniform manner since the organization has outlined the norms and beliefs of the organization. Individuals within an organization may have a different set of norms and beliefs resulting in ethical issues being resolved in ways that the organization may deem unethical. Policies and procedures are vital to an organization culture. Conclusion In Conclusion, this case study presents a dilemma that individuals experience on a day-to-day basis’s. It is important for a person to deal with ethical issues in an ethical way. This case also shows how personal differences affect how ethical issues are dealt with. If Valerie was not an immigrant worker on a visa she may have approached this ethical issue in a different manner. It is also important for an organization to have policies and procedures in place to deal with ethical issues as they arise within an organization. Policies are also insure ethical dilemmas are resolved in a manner that the society deems ethical. This will insure that the organizational will thrive in the future.

Chinese penetration of the LATAM market Thesis

Chinese penetration of the LATAM market - Thesis Example Consolidation of the Previous Growth and Second Round of Expansion (1964 – 1973)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦27 c. Growth of Brazil (1974 – 1983)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...28 d. Brazil as an emerging market†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.....31 2. Brazil: Position as an Emerging World Economy†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.35 C. Strategy of China in Import and export to Brazil†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â ‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..37 1. Chinese industrialization and demand for raw material†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦39 2. Chinese liberalization and growth of Chinese trade with BRIC countries†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..40 3. Chinese trade with Brazil†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...45 a. trade in Soybean†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚ ¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.47 b. trade in soy oil†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦47 c. trade in textile†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.48 4. Trends in Sino-Brazil trade and the emerging debates†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦.49 5. Chinese investment in Brazil†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚ ¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..51 6. Mergers and... In this paper we try to see the impact of this development on the United States. At the end of the paper we shall try to address the question of the opportunities and threats in the short run as well as long run for both the countries as a result of this strategic partnership. The world in the last few decades has experienced a major degeneration of the old production relations and the consequent political ties. Free trade agreements and bilateral pacts characterize the trade pattern in a new global economy characterized by increased connectivity and interaction among the market’s diverse stakeholders. This integration of the markets has immensely benefited some countries while adversely affecting others. The adoption of the free trade regimes by some of the developing countries in the past few decades has resulted in an unprecedented growth in these countries. It has also led to a decline of the former dependence of these countries on the advanced countries and on internation al institutions like the IMF and the WTO. A notable example of tremendous growth experienced by a country in the context of liberalization is that of China. The tremendous production capacity at the most advantageous costs has led the country on a fast paced growth trajectory that has attracted the attention of many of the developing countries while threatening the market dominance of a number of economic superpowers. For years China had remain closed to the outside world.

Rainforest Cafe marketing reseach paper Research

Rainforest Cafe marketing reseach - Research Paper Example This study analyses the hospitality and tourism industry, particularly, the hotel industry of London. According to Ruddick, hotels in London are expected to face a weaker trading market this year because of the Olympics hangover. Furthermore, there is an expectation that tremendous growth will be recorded in the hotel industry of the U.K towards the end of the year, as they are expected to make improvements. The hotel market has been chosen for analysis because hotels represent an important element of London’s tourism industry, and the London hotel market is distinct (Cushman&WakefieldHospitality 4). Given that the London hotel market is distinct, this analysis aims at identifying the weakness and threats that face a specific restaurant. It also identifies the hotel’s strengths and opportunities. Further, the analysis provides recommendations on how the restaurant can improve and maintain its strengths, as well as, capitalize on opportunities. Information will be gather ed from customer reviews, annual financial reports and hotel websites. In this analysis, an environmental scan of Rainforest Cafe, located in London will be carried out. The economic, technological, political, socio-cultural, legal, natural and global factors that influence the organization’s operations and success in the market will be analyzed. This will be done in comparison with the major competitors of Rainforest Cafe. First, the analysis will begin with an internal SWOT analysis of Rainforest Cafe to identify its strengths, and threats. Recommendations will be made on how the Cafe can improve on its weakness and maintain its strengths to ensure outstanding performance in the market now and in the future. Secondly, an external SWOT analysis will be carried out to identify the restaurant’s strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities. Finally, a competitive analysis for Rainforest cafe will be carried out to identify organizations that compete with the cafe in general and in terms of product form, product category and budget. Rainforest Cafe Rainforest Cafe is located found in 20 Shaftesbury Avenue, Piccadilly Circus in London (Porter) Par 13. The cafe is committed to supporting worthwhile environmental causes (Rainforest Cafe Par 1). The rainforest cafe works with a UK-based charity, World Land Trust, to try to save as much tropical forest as possible (Rainforest Cafe Par 3). The cafe is among the largest family restaurants in London. The restaurant is built in sucha way that it is jungle-like, and this jungle feel is enhanced by the roaring elephants and other special effects (Porter Par 1). It is themed as a tropical rainforest. Started in 1997, the cafe has been popular ever since The Rainforest Cafe uses information technology to support food services operations, with a remarkable and direct use of information technology. There are other branches across North America and other international locations. This group of hotels entered the industry, and is characterized by significant investments in the physical and operational infrastructures of food services to create a distinct atmosphere and unique theme-based experience for their clients. Apart from providing hotel services, the Rainforest Cafe sells merchandise to both adults and children related to the rainforest theme. The rainforest theme is intended to foster in adult and child customers a sense of excitement about nature, concern for survival in the tropical

Brain Development Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Brain Development - Research Paper Example Brain functions through activity of neural circuits. These circuits are formed from the fetal period and throughout the life by forming synapses in a process called synaptogenesis. The necessary neutrons that a brain will have until death are almost present in a new born baby's brain. During the development stage 250,000 neutrons are added per minute. The brain grows after birth by increasing the size of the neurons and consequent increase in number of supporting cells. The weight of the brain of the newborn is approximately 300 grams. Brain weight increases with age and achieve mature weight between six and fourteen years of life. The baby's brain moulds itself in response to the demands of the surroundings. The child's brain is an amazing learning engine. A child learns to do everything step by step in his growing stage. Children acquire language in a fast pace. It is found out that a baby reacts to language with his complete brain until he is one year old. Brain imaging studies suggest that the brain continues to develop through adolescence and into young adulthood. During adolescence, the parts of the brain that are liable for expressing emotions and for seeking enjoyment tend to mature sooner than the regions of the brain that control impulses, reasoning and decision making. The adult brain is related mostly to the human intellect. The modern science admits that emotions are fundamental to the general mental health. Recent studies show that brain produces new neurons even at the age of seventies. The normal aging process leaves most mental functions unharmed, and even provide the brain with unique advantages that form the root of wisdom The 'Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus', written in the 17th century BC, has the earliest recorded reference to the brain. Hippocrates believed the brain to be the seat of intelligence. Studies of the brain became more sophisticated after the invention of the microscope. In the late 1890s Santiago Ramon y Cajal and Camillo Golgi suggested the neuron doctrine, which established that the functional unit of the brain is the neuron. Related studies by Paul Broca suggested that certain regions of the brain were responsible for certain functions. Modern researches are ongoing to show that distinct areas of the cortex are activated in the execution of specific tasks. The advance in neuroscience in the last 10 years is ahead of that has made ever since the studies of brain began. let us try to brief the current trends in the studies of brain. A child gets adapted to the environment at his birth, due to the presence of abundance of the neural circuit in his brain. Healthy brain cells will die if they don't have to perform during the critical periods of a child's developmental years. Each element of a picture which we see is sent to different parts of the brain for processing. The human brain's capacity is best standardized by the number of connections that develop among its billions of brain cells. Different neurological and behavioral differences come out in the early developmental stages and continue throughout a lifetime. Neuro-biological differences mostly causes many of the gender-specific patterns in learning and behavior. Immobility is unable to get along with complex learning experiences. Continual stress and fear can lead to the physical destruction of neurons in the hippocampus, a sub-cortical structure that plays an important role

Research this questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Research this questions - Assignment Example A report of a research project in a specialist journal will mostly be longer complete with extensive citations to additional research. A report in Financial Times, on the other hand, will be shorter with few citations and may not cite additional research (Grinnell & Unrau 2011, p.149). A report presented in Financial Times will mostly be written by a reporter, journalist- almost anyone. On the contrary, a report of a research project in a specialist journal will mainly be written by either professionals in the field or scholars (experts). Similarly, a report of research project in Financial Times will mostly be written using non technical language. There is the use of an entertaining language to arouse general interest and little documentation (bibliographies) (Kawa-Jump 2003, p.50). The language may also be partially complete with eye catching illustrations to elicit an emotional response. A report in a specialist journal, on the other hand, follows an in-depth research and is written using technical language. In addition, a report in a specialist journal will feature original research studies, bibliographies and references with a language that is objective (Kawa-Jump 2003, p.51). Every research undertaking has philosophical and theoretical ancestry and the foundation and encompasses ontological assumptions and epistemological assumptions (Bryman & Bell 2007, p. 16). A research philosophy refers to the principle on how the data dwelling a certain phenomenal is to be collected, analyzed and used. The key philosophical paradigms that distinguish key components within a research undertaking include positivist derived from natural sciences and characterized by the testing of hypothesis constructed from existing theories (Colwell 2006, p.188). Constructivist, on the other hand, holds that researchers understand situations based on their individual experiences, memories,

Financial data analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Financial data analysis - Essay Example Likewise tools to predict the stock price of the companies, there are certain tools which specifically used to predict the price of a region or a city (Carcello J et al., 2010). The prices pertain to the Wheat Kansas is comparatively higher than that of the Wheat No. 2 Soft Red in almost all the time period. Lots of fluctuation has been found among the prices of both of the prices of the wheat. The average price of Wheat 2, Soft Red is $ 630.48 while the average price of Hard Kansas is $ 860.054. The average price movement for Soft Red Wheat is -0.10744% while the average movement of Hard Kansas is -0.07618. Standard Deviation which is one of the most important things from the aspect of finance and statistics is also applied on the same. From the analysis, it is found that the deviation from the mean for Red Wheat is 4.51%, while it is 3.45% for Hard Kansas. It means that the price of Hard Kansas is comparatively less risky than that of Red Wheat in total. Every organisation runs for the sake of economic profit and to do the same, different actions and strategies would certainly take into consideration. Organisations are of different kinds and there would be different strategies would be applied for enhancing the revenue of the companies (Borodovsky & Gogarten, 2010). Economic downturns and external pressures are always difficult for the companies as a whole because it relates to both short and long term economic prosperity of the companies as a whole. From last few years, the stance of organisations and its productivity are quite blurred merely because of the economic crisis and high external pressure were on a higher side at that time. Finance is a big field, in which there are number of things present and everything has its own importance and significance. There are certain things that come under the ambit of finance and among them; the name of forecasting is one of

Mutagenesis and mapping of a mouse gene, clock essential for circadian Article

Mutagenesis and mapping of a mouse gene, clock essential for circadian behavior - Article Example There is no information in existence that shows molecular elements of clock systems found in mammals. Reports are made on the mouse isolation of mutations that alter two significant circadian rhythms properties: the rhythmicity persistence and the intrinsic period length. When brought together, the given results describe a gene referred to as a clock which is important for normal circadian behavior (Lowrey, 5). Due to the isolation of many clock mutants in different organisms been semi-dominant, the heterozygotes found in the mouse were screened. Due to B6 mice exhibiting robust circadian rhythms, this assay was used in screening circadian mutants. The activity rhythms were observed during light dark cycle exposure. This was to access the entrainment or synchronization behavior. Additionally, in total darkness, it was used in determining the locomotor activity rhythm circulation period (Lowrey, 7). Laboratory mouse was found to have circadian periods that were less than twenty four hours and the B6 mice were found to have periods averaging between 23.3 to 23.8 hours (Lowrey, 8). After testing the G1 which was ENU-treated male offsprings, period length distribution of the activity rhythms of these G1 mice were found to be normal. G1-25 showed circadian periods. They progressively lengthened over the first thirty

Gold and Diamond Mining of Africa Essay Example for Free

Gold and Diamond Mining of Africa Essay * Diamond mining in Africa Ever since the Kimberley diamond strike of 1868, South Africa has been a world leader in diamond production. The primary South African sources of diamonds, including seven large diamond mines around the country, are controlled by the De Beers Consolidated Mines Company. In 2003, De Beers’s operations accounted for 94% of the nations total diamond output of 11,900,000 carats. Nicky Oppenheimer, the current Chairman of DeBeers. * The life of the miners The search for diamonds is not exactly easy. Many miners and diamond diggers in sub-Saharan Africa travel great distances to find work and submit to gruelingly long hours for low wages – or sometimes no wages – in substandard conditions. Child labor has long been a problem in informal diamond mines, especially during times of war. Children have often been exploited to do excavation work because they are small enough to be lowered into small, narrow pits by ropes to dig out sacks of dirt, which is in turn washed by other children in search of diamonds. During Sierra Leone’s 10-year civil war, children were often used as soldiers and workers in the rich Koidu diamond mines that funded the country’s rebels. USAID launched the Kono Peace Diamond Alliance in 2002 to try to improve the working conditions in the mines – particularly for children. But it is an uphill battle across Africa to get children who are either family breadwinners, or fending for themselves or conscripted into slave-like labor to stop working and go to school. A child solider in Africa Land is often cleared and vegetated areas dug up to create open pit mines in he rushed search for diamond deposits, leaving them unsuitable for other farming activities. Informal mining in hilly areas also leads to erosion – and, in turn, flooding. The salt, heavy minerals and chemical products from mining equipment can run off into rivers and pollute vital water sources for mining communities and people living downstream. * gold mining in Africa South Africa accounted for 15% of the worlds gold production in 2002 and 12% in 2005, though the nation had produced as much as 30% of world output as recently as 1993. Despite declining production, South Africas gold exports were valued at $3. billion USD in 2005. Almost 50% of the worlds gold reserves are found in South Africa. Barrick Gold Corporation is the largest pure gold miningcompany in the world, with its headquarters in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; and four regional business units (RBUs) located in Australia, Africa, North America and South America. Barrick is currently undertaking mining and exploration projects in Saudi Arabia, Papua New Guinea, the United States, Canada, Dominican Republic, Australia, Peru, Chile, Russia, South Africa,Pakistan, Colombia, Argentina and Tanzania. For 2008, it produced 7. million ounces of gold at a cash cost of US $443/ounce. As of December 31, 2008 its proven and probable gold mineral reserves stand at 138. 5 million ounces. Peter monk, the wizard of gold mining * The life of gold miners The unknown factor in South Africa is the future of labor costs. The mines employ several hundred thousand miners underground: half the production costs are for wages. Most of the gold miners are members of the black National Union of Mineworkers, which is pressing hard both for political and social reform, and for better wages and working conditions for its members. But the long-delayed beginnings of political reform in South Africa in the late 1980s coincided with a slump in gold prices. The South African gold mines, many of them a century old, were by then the worlds deepest, and were technically very difficult and financially very expensive to operate even in spite of the low wages paid to the miners. The quality of the ore was slowly dropping: the average gold ore now averages less than 5 grams of gold per tonne. Winnie Mandela is on record as saying to black miners, You hold the golden key to our liberation. The moment you stop digging gold and diamonds, that is the moment you will be free. She could not be more wrong. If the gold mines close, the economic disaster will be visited most on the poorer section of society, the blacks. The South African reforms were predicated absolutely on a stable and healthy economy. In 1999, the price of gold dropped to a low point around $250/oz. This was very bad news for South African gold companies, South African gold miners, and the South African government. Gold companies scrambled to reorganize and streamline their operations. By the time the price again reached $290 again in early 2000, the gold industry had changed dramatically, in South Africa and globally. Health problems of gold miners who worked underground include decreased life expectancy; increased frequency of cancer of the trachea, bronchus, lung, stomach, and liver; increased frequency of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB), silicosis, and pleural diseases; increased frequency of insect-borne diseases, such as malaria and dengue fever; noise-induced hearing loss; increased prevalence of certain bacterial and viral diseases; and diseases of the blood, skin, and musculoskeletal system. These problems are briefly documented in gold miners from Australia, North America, South America, and Africa. In general, HIV infection or excessive alcohol and tobacco consumption tended to exacerbate existing health problems. Miners who used elemental mercury to amalgamate and extract gold were heavily contaminated with mercury. Among individuals exposed occupationally, concentrations of mercury in their air, fish diet, hair, urine, blood, and other tissues significantly exceeded all criteria proposed by various national and international regulatory agencies for protection of human health.

Same-Sex Marriage in the U.S.

Same-Sex Marriage in the U.S. Li Luo Same-Sex Marriage in the U.S.:  The Fight for Equal Rights and Equal Citizenship Intro and Thesis â€Å"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.† Declaration of Independence, 1776 When we look back at American history, this well-known statement that was written in the Declaration of Independence has been constantly brought up by different groups of people to defend their equal rights and freedom in the society: America’s founding fathers used it to light up American’s spirit to fight for their freedom and rights from the oppression of Britain; African-Americans borrowed it to fight against their same rights as white people that has been denied by the laws for a long time. And right now, in our generation, we are witnessing a new battle for equality Same-sex marriage. The fight for same-sex marriage has a deep historical origin. Ever since the beginning of human civilization, marital and family relations have always been the foundation of human society. Marriage creates intimacy and family among individuals, it also provides order, stability and consistency which are essential to the survival and prosperity of human society. Based on those principles, people build up traditional family values, provide legal recognition and all sorts of privileges/rights through public institutions to reinforce this social norm. However, as the traditional marital relations and social order are rooted in heterosexuality, many people consider the legalization of same-sex marriage as a threat to this social norm, and refuse to give LGBT people the full rights and citizenship. In this paper, I will analyze the battle of same-sex marriage from three different perspective: rights and obligations; separation of powers and federalism; factions and democratic consensus. In the last section, I will conclude that as LGBT people constantly fighting for their equal right of marriage, and the fact that more and more American people are willing to accept gay people, the nationwide legalization of same-sex marriage looks promising and the boundary of citizenship in American society is being refined. Rights and obligations: the unequal citizenship in terms of LGBT groups’ right of marriage. Citizenship has different meaning in different perspective. Citizenship can be used to describe someone’s legal identity, it also can mean people’s engagement in politics and community. In the article â€Å"The Meaning of Citizenship†, Kerber offered a different way to think about the definition of citizenship – a formal legal status with the possession of guaranteed rights as well as obligations. She believes that rights and obligations should be equal: If a person wants to enjoy the privileges and freedom his or her state provides, he or she must fulfill their obligations as a citizen. However, in some cases, certain groups of people are not being offered equal rights even though they meet their responsibilities. Specifically speaking, in some states, LGBT people are refused to be given the same rights as heterosexual people to marry the ones they love even the same amount of obligations are fulfilled. Besides, since marital and family relations are the foundation of human society, without legal marriage status, same-sex couples usually face many more economic and legal disadvantages compared to opposite-sex married couples, including medical care, inheritance, income tax, etc. Should government provides equal right of marriage to LGBT people? The debates over this topic have lasted for more than four decades. In 1970, two students from University of Minnesota, Richard Baker and James Michael McConnell became the first gay couple to apply for a marriage license (Rimmerman, 101). Unsurprisingly, their application was denied by the local county, and in their appeal case Baker v. Nelson, the Minnesota Supreme Court upheld a state law that limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples (Rimmerman, 101). In the following two decades, many other states successively received similar suits, however, they all ended up in the same fate as the first one being rejected to give the right of marriage for gay couples. It wasn’t until early 1990s that the debates over same-sex marriage emerge to the national level. In 1991, in the case of Baehr v. Lewin, Hawaii Supreme Court rules that denial of same marriage right for same-sex couple violate the state constitution (Rimmerman, 103). This judgment raised a lot of concerns of people who oppose same-sex marriage. They fear that this result might lead to final approval of same-sex marriage in Hawaii and the U.S. nationwide (Rimmerman, 103). Therefore, with the purpose of preventing legal recognition of same-sex marriage in Hawaii, in 1996, conservatives introduced and pushed the pass of The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Under the provisions of the DOMA, the word â€Å"marriage† is strictly define as the legal union between a man and a woman. Furthermore, DOMA permits states to refuse recognition of same-sex marriages granted under the laws of other states. I will consider the debates over this federal law in terms of Equal Protection Clause and Full Faith and Credit Clause. The LGBT people have long been tried to fight for their equal rights of marriage, even though they have faced many impediments from conservatives. There are a series of struggles in court, including Lawrence v. Texas, United States v. Windsor, etc that can proves LGBT people’s struggles. I will analyze some of the most important cases in detail to examine how LGBT groups use their judicial power to challenge DOMA and secure their rights. How separation of powers within government and federalism apply to the same-sex marriage issue. Madison argues that creating â€Å"checks and balances† within government can prevent abuse of power. This idea can be applied to the same-sex marriage issue. In United States v. Windsor, the Federal Supreme Court struck down Section 3 of DOMA that defined â€Å"marriage† and â€Å"spouse† to apply only to heterosexual people. This is an example that Judicial branch checking the Legislative branch. I will also describe other cases including Baker v. Vermont, Hollingsworth v. Perry. In Federalist No. 51, Madison’s argument that a separation of powers can create a balance of interests can be extended to the idea of federalism. Federalism gives states the freedom to make their own policy that suits local circumstances. When different states make different laws and take different attitudes towards the same-sex marriage issue, this is the practice of federalism. To break this inequality across states and local areas, LGBT groups are now working hard to promote the legalization of same-sex marriage on the federal level. The Supremacy Clause and 10th Amendment will also be mentioned to illustrate its principle. Competing factions in the same-sex marriage issue. Federalist No. 10 discussed about how to break and control factions to avoid tyranny of the majority. In terms of the same-sex marriage issue, American society was divided by different groups that either support it or are against it or take neutral stance. I will list some major political and social groups and illustrate their attitudes towards the same-sex marriage issue, including Democratic and Republican Parties, Churches/Religious institutions, and human rights Organizations. Since LGBT group are pushing national legalization of same-sex marriage, is this a tyranny of the majority? I will discuss about this question in detail and give my answer that it’s a majority rule rather than tyranny of the majority. Conclusion Summarize key arguments. Add current data: Marriage between same-sex couples has been recognized on the federal level. As the Supreme Court decided to let stand rulings that allow same-sex marriage in late 2014, now 37 states have legalized same-sex marriage with more states to join them. The road of marriage equality looks more promising than before, and we can see that citizenship is being redefined to provide equal rights to LGBT people. ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY COURSE TEXTS Kerber, Linda K. The Meanings of Citizenship. The Journal of American History 84.3 (1997): 833. Print. In this article, Kerber offers several ways to interpret citizenship, including formal legal status, possession of guaranteed rights and bearing of obligations. She believes that the meaning of citizenship is constantly changing and proposes a new way to look at citizenship: â€Å"A braided citizenship†. Different groups of people from different genders, races, classes and nations of origin have been fighting for their equal citizenship in the U.S. Kerber analyzes each group of people’s struggle in detail to illustrate how the boundaries of citizenship have been changing overtime to support her statement. I will use Kerber’s idea of citizenship in terms of the relations of rights and obligations to help me analyze the legitimacy of gay rights, more specifically, same-sex marriage. And by using all kinds of evidence of LGBT people’s fight for equal rights as part of the braided citizenship to justify how same-sex marriage redefines the boundaries of citizenship. Madison, James. Federalist No. 10: The Same Subject Continued: The Union as a Safeguard against Domestic Faction and Insurrection.New York Daily Advertiser, November 22, 1787. Print. In this work, Madison states that people are diverse by nature and self-interested, so that factions are formed inside every society. He argues about the need to break and control factions which he identifies as a threat to popular governments that may lead to tyranny of the majority. He believes that in a large republic government is run by representatives chosen by its people. With so many different interests and groups, it would be more difficult to form a majority faction, thus it can better guard against the dangers of tyranny of the majority and protect the rights of all its people. I will use this resource to illustrate different groups/factions’ stances in terms of same-sex marriage, and to argue about the question: Is legalization of same-sex marriage a tyranny of the majority? Madison, James. Federalist No. 51: The Structure of the Government Must Furnish the Proper Checks and Balances Between the Different Departments. New York Packet, February 8, 1788. Print. In Federalist No. 51, James Madison addresses how the separation of powers within the government can be created under the new constitution. He believes that people are not â€Å"angels†, which means that if there isn’t any form of control over government, leaders will abuse their power. However, â€Å"Ambition must be made to counteract ambition†. By creating a system of â€Å"checks and balances†, in which the government is divided into different branches, the overlapping power between those three branches would put restrictions on government, thus preventing the misuse of powers, and protect the rights of the people. I will draw on Madison’s idea of checks and balances inside government to argue about how different branches work to protect LGBT people’s rights. I will further consider separation of powers in terms of federalism to examine same-sex marriage court cases. ADDITIONAL AND SUPPLEMENTARY SOURCES Rimmerman, Craig A. The Lesbian and Gay Movements: Assimilation or Liberation? Boulder, CO: Westview, 2008. Print. This book gives people an historical perspective to understand lesbian and gay movements. Rimmerman tackles the challenging issue of what constitutes movement effectiveness and how effective the assimilationist and liberationist strategies have been in three contentious policy arenas: the military ban, same-sex marriage, and AIDS. I will focus on the same-sex marriage policy part of this book, using those detailed analyses of important courts cases in history to examine LGBT groups’ efforts to fight for their equal right of marriage. â€Å"So Far, so Fast.†The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 11 Oct. 2014. Web. 31 Mar. 2015. This article gives a brief introduction of the progress in terms of the same-sex marriage agenda since the early 2000s, and it gives some explanations of why this agenda has changed so fast in such a short time, including the change in moral judgment and transformation of LGBT people, too. I will use this resource in the conclusion to show why the nationwide legalization of same-sex marriage is promising.

Professionalism and Ethics in Counselling

Professionalism and Ethics in Counselling My understanding of professionalism is having the discipline to be aware of and work to a set of values made up of legal statutes, of professional body frameworks and guidelines and of employer policies, frameworks and guidelines, which together detail expected conduct. Those statutes, policies, frameworks and guidelines should be used to identify roles and responsibilities which in turn define boundaries. The British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), of which I am a student member, is the largest professional body in the UK for counselling and psychotherapy and lays down what standards of conduct counsellors, service users and the public expect at a national level. If a counsellor or therapist is a member of a professional body, he or she will be bound by a code of professional ethics framework or in the case of the BACP, the ethical framework†¦it recognises that choices are often not clear-cut, and that sometimes difficult decisions need to be made that, even when taken in good faith, may have unpredictable and unwanted outcomes (Merry, 2002:11) Professionalism and ethics both relate to proper conduct. I view the ethical framework as a list of qualities for how the counsellor should be and a list of behaviours for what the counsellor should do and not do. Examples of the desired attitudes include possessing empathy, sincerity, integrity, resilience, respect, humility, competence, fairness, wisdom and courage. Examples of the desired behaviours include fidelity, autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice and self-respect. The BACP produced the ethical framework to protect both the client and counsellor through good practice in counselling and psychotherapy. It sets out a series of professional and personal values, underlying principles and moral qualities which reflect my attributes as a trainee counsellor in order to promote a safe and professional environment, one where I could enable clients to allow trust to develop within our relationship. I abide by the BACP guidance on good practice which is concerned with client safety, counsellor responsibility and accountability, clear contracting and my competence as a trainee counsellor. It provides information for what counsellors are expected to do and sanctions for consequences of malpractice. I have chosen a hypothetical ethical dilemma, albeit a realistic one, relevant to my chosen placement at The Truce YMCA in Lancaster. A sixteen year old female client presents with news of her parents having separated two weeks previously. She lives with her mum who is drinking excessive amounts of alcohol and who is not coping with the day to day duties of looking after the clients nine year old brother, who is now mostly in the clients care. No other meals are being provided other than school dinners and no money is being allocated to them for food. Last night the clients mum pushed the client against the wall and the client has a head injury. The client asks me not to tell anyone. The ethical dilemma here is that my client has disclosed a Child Protection issue and asked me to maintain the confidentiality aspect of the contract. There are several implications, professionally I must breach confidentiality as there would be no way that I could hold that information, my integrity would be conflicted. I would have a professional obligation that would be impossible for me to ignore. However, by breaching confidentiality this could have severe consequences for the client, myself (our relationship), and the clients family. A question I need to ask myself is: What are our statutory duties and responsibilities? We  have a duty under the Children Act 1989 to safeguard and protect children who may be suffering from abuse. This may be physical, sexual, emotional or as a result of neglect http://www.tameside.gov.uk/childprotection/parentinfo#t2 date accessed, 21st April 2010 The YMCA has put together a procedure flow chart and as part of my training I have been made aware of it. It is a clear example of my role, responsibilities and boundaries. Safeguarding means doing everything you can to protect children and young people from harm. A safeguard is a measure to help reduce the risk of children and young people being harmed. http://www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform/trainingandconsultancy/consultancy/cst/safe_communities_toolkit_english_wdf70126.pdf date accessed, 19th April 2010 The disclosure demands to be sensitively, sincerely and respectfully explored in order to honour the principle of non-maleficence because every child matters. As a trainee counsellor I have an ethical responsibility to strive to mitigate any harm caused to a client even when the harm is unavoidable or unintended (BACP, 2007:03) There are several implications: I am aware that the principle of fidelity requires a responsibility to honour the trust that has been placed in me as a trainee counsellor and that how I move the process forward from this point could alter how the client and I may or may not work together in the future. Without confidentiality and empathy there is potential to harm the relationship, and as Bond (1993:46) states that, responsibilities to the client are the foremost concern of the counsellor. The justification of counselling rests on this work being undertaken in a counsellor-client relationship. Where as a trainee counsellor can I find guidance on consent and disclosure? I could check against the BACP guidelines, with my casework supervisor, my managerial supervisor, the agencies codes of practice and policies, my tutors and Social Services. To avoid the possibility of prosecution I need to respect my role and abide by the BACP guidance on good practice which is concerned with client safety, counsellor responsibility and accountability, clear contracting and my competence as a trainee counsellor. Professional accountability is also key in ensuring public protection and allows the Profession to move forward enjoying the public confidence in the services provided http://www.bacp.co.uk/prof_conduct/ 4th February 2010 The principle of beneficence involves acting in the clients best interest and maintaining the standards of competence and knowledge expected for members who continue to both personally and professionally develop by using supervision for support. As I am working within an agency I am expected, as a member of the BACP, to have ongoing regular supervision for my work with a clinical supervisor and with my managerial supervisor. Supervisors, managers and counsellors have a responsibility to maintain and enhance good practice, to protect clients from poor practice (promoting their wellbeing) and for the counsellor to acquire the attitudes, skills and knowledge required for each of their roles raising awareness and ensuring the fair treatment of all clients and the uniqueness of individual people regarding culture differences, gender or disabilities which involves the principle respect of justice. When considering what action to take the first step I would take would be to explore what the client had told me by clarifying what had been said in order to check out my understanding with the client. It is important to identify that there is a problem and if so I would then work out whose problem it was and in this case it would be the clients. Yet I would be responsible to her, myself and accountable up the chain of command within the organisation. By setting the contract provided by The YMCA clearly so that it is understood by the client there is less chance of misunderstandings and more chance of boundaries being clear at the onset. The agreement of a contract protects both the client and the counsellor. It proves that each party has agreed their responsibilities and boundaries and that they each know where they stand in the counselling process in relation to their obligations to each other. I would need to refer back to the initial contract to remind the client about our agreement that would be in place between us. I would have competently explained at the time that should harm to self or others be disclosed to me that I would need to breach confidentiality. I would use appropriate language for a sixteen year old to understand and include her in the process. I would respect the principle of respect for autonomy by discussing the necessity of safeguarding her, protecting her and her younger brother and, with her consent, chec king whether the child protection officer would be available to enter the room to work it through all together by understanding my job roles and responsibilities and working within my training and experience competently I could deliver a professional level of service that promotes safety and both at the same time being fully aware that she has choices and human rights too. Although I could have a conflict of interest in that I would have to breach confidentiality†¦ Human Rights Act 1998 Article 8.1 Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence. Article 8.2 There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except as such as in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others (Bond, 2010:158). †¦I would protect myself from litigation as I have a duty to observe the Code of Professional Conduct and the other guidelines issued by the BACP. Not all laws are perfect, the problem is that laws are often generalised and open to some interpretation and thats where they can be exploited. The law regarding sixteen year olds (child versus Gillick competent versus adult) and the obligation of Social Services to look after somebody until eighteen years of age is not black and white. Somebody planning to go to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland to end their life is within their own rights and it would be an example of a case where a counsellor could respect the clients dignity. At the first available chance I had I would follow the example of a child protection form, from my safeguarding policy and guidelines provided by the organisation and make very clear, accurate, brief, factual notes of who said what, when it was said, where it was said and the nature of the concern. I would bear in mind that the notes could be read by the client herself and if I was required to write a report for court I would be aware that I have not been trained to write such a report and seek advice. According to Pollecoff, et al. (2002:58) Counsellors and psychotherapists are in a unique position when asked to give evidence†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦unlike other professionals, they do not necessarily keep detailed notes of each session held with a client†¦Problems can arise regarding client confidentiality in the context of presenting reports or giving evidence. I would file the notes confidentially and each client has a code to be used for anonymity purposes, store for six months, once the case is closed, then they are destroyed. Bond (2010:158) suggests The Data Protection Act 1998†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦covers a wide range of requirements to do with record-keeping. I would call my case supervisor and I would explain what has happened, what I did (discussed with line manager and or referral to Child Protection Officer etc.) and ask him if there is anything else I should have done or could do. Working within a multi agency can be useful as it can meet the needs of young people more effectively. Confidentiality procedures are in place and consent must be given by the person concerned and must be present when consented information is shared. There are exceptional circumstances. At the same time how I present myself and interact with people (language, appearance, actions and interactions) influence impressions. There are informal expectations and continuing with both professional and personal development (supervision). Questions like What does the BACP say about this? are what I need to ask myself in during my evaluation in order to do the right thing and knowing how important it is to not do the wrong thing because that could cause damage to more than the client in the room. I hope that I have demonstrated that I understand that there is a need to act within the law at all times but in a way that provides as much support and protection as possible towards the client first and foremost, towards myself and towards the organisational structure and the profession itself. It is not always a case of knowing what to do to as an expert, but it seems to be a case of knowing what to do next and who to go to in order to get the answers needed.

James Baldwins Go Tell It On the Mountain and Alice Sebolds The Lovel

James Baldwin's Go Tell It On the Mountain and Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones In most religions, especially the Judeo-Christian faith, heaven or the afterlife is a place reserved for those who are able to somehow earn or receive an appointed place there during their life on earth. In the Christian tradition, those who attain eternal life are able to forgo the earthly pleasures that tempt them while they live, and form a separate entity that rejects carnality and remains obedient to God. While recognizing themselves as inherently sinful creatures, they seek to come as close as they can to the holiness of the divine during their life on earth, in order to reap the benefits after death. A separation from the world and an eventual union with the divine is seen as the ultimate goal of the believer. Life is but a means to a final spiritual end. James Baldwin’s novel Go Tell It On the Mountain effectively portrays these ideas through the lives of its many characters. In contrast to the Christian idea of rejecting carnality while alive to attain salvati on, Alice Sebold uses her novel The Lovely Bones to portray coming of age as developing an ability to embrace life and succeed in it despite the pain and evil it can contain, and to see life as a fleeting privilege that, lived well, is an ultimate goal in itself. One important issue that distinguishes the differences between the perspectives of the two novels is that of forgiveness and rejection. In Go Tell It On the Mountain, judgment of sinners is highly emphasized, even if the sinners in questions are family members. Once someone becomes saved, they are expected to reject all ties associated with the world. In Baldwin’s novel, the protagonist reflects that, â€Å"†¦h... ...t life for both the joy and pain it inflicts on all people. To Sebold, the divine can and is present in carnality. While the word has a traditionally negative connotation, here it is representative of all that is associated with life itself. In this novel, carnality is not sin; it is living. Alice Sebold presents a moving and telling novel of loss and gain, despair and great happiness. To her, the ability to live life, and the willingness to accept it, are the marks of maturity, and the definition of love. While Susie, alone in heaven, cannot live as her family does, she comes of age as she releases them to their lives and moves on in her own world without them. The reader knows, as the novel closes with Susie’s parting words, that their protagonist is at peace, and that love has indeed won out over despair. â€Å"I wish you all a long and happy life.†

A New Vision of Science :: Science Scientific Papers

A New Vision of Science ABSTRACT: Traditional convictions regarding science (such as universalism, necessity and eternal validity) are currently in doubt. Relativism seems to destroy scientific claims to rationality. This paper shows a way to keep the traditional convictions of scientific knowledge while acknowledging relativism. With reference to the practicing scientist, we replace descriptivism with constructivism; we modify relative validity with the claim to understanding; and, we offer methodological strategies for acquiring understanding. These strategies we call strangification, which means taking a scientific proposition system out of its context and putting it in another context. We can thus see the implicit presuppositions of the given proposition system by means of the problems arising out of the application of this procedure. Such a change in the understanding of science holds important consequences. There is a personal background for the new understanding of science I am proposing in this article. These ideas that are now comprised within the notion Constructive Realism have been developed over the last twenty years during interactions and in cooperatio with other scientists. Now I am giving them my voice for a couple of short arguments why this new understanding isneeded today. It should be mentioned that the dialogue with my former friends from the Vienna Circle hs, to some extent, been important in this process. The Vienna Circle was so complex and encompassed so many different ideas that some traces of what I am argueing can be found there. Presently, however, my own understanding of sciencehas departed crucially from what is usually considered as the Vienna Circle's stance toward science. Without being aware of it, the Vienna Circle was the last great attempt for a rational metaphysics of science. It was trying to establish a correspondence of purified human mind with the w orld. Probably, this is why they argued so sharply against traditional, i.e. irrational metaphysics. Contrary to the declared position of most of the Vienna Circle's members, however, Constructive Realism does not struggle against metaphysics. I appreciated very much the example of Erwin Schrà ¶dinger because it has wonderfully shown in which degree a scientist is influenced by his metaphysical background. Checking the bckgound of scientific doing one is getting a lot of impressions about metaphysical world.comcepts, metaphysical concepts of knowledge etc. If we lay aside our apprehension to touch metaphysics, science can even bepushed forward by it. In fact we should have many metaphysics. They are offereing unusual perspectives and this is exactly what science needs to progress.

Abraham and his Relationship with God

It is through our unwavering trust and fear in God that he/she is able to truly recognize our faith and deem us righteous or wicked. The near sacrifice of Isaac is undoubtedly the toughest test for Abraham to prove himself to God. The son that Abraham had longed for all his life and whom God finally provided for him was to be killed by Abraham, himself, as a sacrifice. Abraham intending to obey this seemingly merciless and unreasonable request from God was indubitably his most relevant showing of loyalty and trust.The submission of Isaac to his father is symbolic of the death of Jesus Christ, who died with complete trust in God knowing that he died for our sins (Malaty 28). The trust that Isaac shows in Abraham is synonymous with the trust that Abraham shows in God. Just as Isaac trusted that Abraham was doing what was best for him, Abraham knows that God would not steer him in the wrong direction. God consistently rewards the abandonment of natural human reason when obeying a reques t of his/hers. As is reflected in Dei Verbum, â€Å"The obedience of faith† (Rom. 3:26; see 1:5; 2 Cor 10:5-6) is to be given to God who reveals, an obedience by which man commits his whole self freely to God, offering the full submission of intellect and will to God†¦ † (Pope Paul VI 55). Therefore God is characterized in Genesis as knowing what is best for humankind even though his/her methodology is somewhat random and selective (Malaty 39). God says to Abraham after he stops him from killing Isaac, â€Å"for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me† (Genesis 22:12). Throughout Genesis the theme of fear in God is Just as prevalent as trust in God.During his travels Abraham encounters the Pharaoh of the Egyptians and King Abimelech of Gerar. He realizes that both kingdoms have no fear in God and that they will surely kill him in order to take his wife. By telling both the Pharaoh and the King that Sarai is his sister, he protects both kingdoms as well as himself. At first it may appear that Abraham is acting sly or deceitful towards these seemingly innocent rulers. However, it becomes more and more clear that Abraham does not aim to trick or deceive, he simply gives these rulers an opportunity to act morally or immorally in he eyes of God, who in turn can deem them righteous or wicked.Abraham states to King Abimelech, â€Å"l did it because I thought, there is no fear of God at all in this place and they will kill me because of my wife. † (Genesis 20:11). By lying about his wife, he allows God to instill fear into the rulers of both Kingdoms, and in doing so protects the lives of all the members of their lands. God uses fear as a tool to implant faith into his/her followers. When Abraham is sleeping, â€Å"a terrifying darkness descended upon him† (Genesis 1 5:12) and God notifies him of the oppression that his ancestors ill endure.By instilling this sense of terror, God is able to form a bond of trust in his/her followers, which might otherwise go ignored. It can be perceived that God is scaring people in order to get what he/she wants. I look at it from the perspective of God using fear in order to make people realize that he/she is the one true God. And once people come to this realization that he is the father almighty, he has gained their unwavering trust and devotion, as seen through Abraham. He/she does the same with Sarah when telling her that in her old age she will bear a child.She laughs at this and says, â€Å"After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure? † He/she questions her laughter and says, â€Å"Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? † (Genesis 18:12-14). Sarah denied her laughter out of fear of God, and through this exchange she realizes that nothing is too powerful or great for the Lord to accomplish. As such is demonstrated during his dealings with the two cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Th e destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by God was due to their lack of faith. They acted wickedly and had no fear of God, which nevitably led to their demise.God acts Justly in his/her decision to destroy the cities. God believes that trust between him/her and his/her followers is crucial and that it must be mutual. Therefore before burning the cities, God makes Abraham aware of his plan as not to deceive him. The Lord states, â€Å"Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed by him? No, for I have chosen him, that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing ighteousness and Justice. (Genesis 18:17-19). God is aware that Abraham is to be father of many great nations. He/she realizes that if he/she wants these nations to be moral, dignified lands full of righteous and honorable humans, that Godself must not form ulate the foundations of these new nations with deceit and duplicity. Abraham and the Lord negotiate the terms of the destruction and God agrees that no innocent people shall be harmed. After the two angels sent by God realize that no one in the cities is worthy of salvation, the cities are obliterated and only Lot and his two aughters are saved.While in many other books of the Old Testament, God can be seen as vindictive and hypocritical, it is obvious that God is characterized in Genesis as fair and trustworthy. He notifies Abraham of his plans, forming a mutual trust with him, and saves his family from the destruction. It is important to God not only that his followers act morally but also that he/she holds himself/herself to the same standards. Dei Verbum states, â€Å"To this people which He had acquired for Himself, He so manifested Himself through words and deeds as the one true and living God thatIsrael came to know by experience the ways of God with men. † (Pope Paul VI 514). God realizes that in order to make the covenant witn Abraham last he/she nas to esta himself/herself through his actions as the one true God. Acting deceitfully or immorally would undoubtedly Jeopardize that. It is obvious throughout Genesis 11-22 that God looks favorably upon those who show him/her fear, and uses fear as a tool to instill a mutual trust between him/her and his/her followers. Fear and trust go hand and hand in the eyes of God and this is demonstrated through the characters in Genesis.Abraham's near sacrifice of Isaac, the obedience of Pharaoh and King Abimelech, and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah all exemplify this claim. This might cause one to wonder why God must test his subjects' fear if he/she is indeed all knowing. If God already knows that he/ she trusts someone or that this individual fears God, it would appear that he/she tests him/her solely in order to gain their trust. As I stated, trust and fear are synonymous throughout Genesis and God emphasizes their significance while formulating his/her Judgments of certain individuals and nations.

History of Napkin Folding

History of Napkin Napkins have been in used from the times of ancient Roman Empire and prior to them, in ancient Greece. References to word napkin  dates back to 1384 AD. Spartans from ancient Greece (around 4th century BC)are known to have used bread slices made from a lump of dough as napkins to wipe their hands and it is possible that they ate these bread napkins after use. The ancient Romans (first to 5th century AD) are known to have used cloth napkins (called Mappa) to protect from food spill and wipe mouth. The guests brought their own napkins and carried away left-over delicacies in their Mappa.With the fall of Roman Empire, napkins disappeared from the dining table. Napkins returned to adorn the dining table many centuries later and the classic painting  Last Supper  from 1464-1467 AD by Dieric Bouts depicts the use of Napkins on the dinner table. By 16th century, napkins were part of rich dining experience and came in many sizes, known by various names like diaper, se rviette, touaille (for towel) depending on the size and intended use. 17th century saw the use of big sized napkins measuring 35inches by 45 inches to help accommodate the needs of eating with bare hands instead of spoon/forks.The size reduced when forks and spoons were accepted as part of regular dining experience in major parts of Europe in the 18th century including Great Britain. The 17th century also saw French come up with elaborate rules for nobility class which included instructions on napkin usage, a predecessor to modern day napkin etiquette, including the one which instructs the guests to not use the napkin for wiping the face or clean teeth or worse, rub nose. Asians – Japanese, Thai, Chinese and Indians have not been using napkins during the meal.While Indians are known to use bare hands for meal and rely on water to wash their hands before and after each meal, Chinese and Japanese use those magical chopsticks which seem to pick up everything they eat, keeping th eir hands clean and stain free. Types of Napkins Napkins are made of paper or cloth that is made of cotton or linen. Clothes are quite popular in formal dining while fast foods and certain restaurants too tend to serve paper napkins. Big occasions like weddings often go for paper napkins since sheer number of guests attending the wedding makes cloth napkins less practical.In general, cloth napkins are usually the choice for those who care for ambience and the environment. To me, cloth napkins are environment friendly while exuding a feeling of luxury. Paper Napkin with Monograms It is often possible to have paper napkins ordered for marriages (and other special meal occasions) with names or initials of the bride and bridegroom embossed on the napkin. Customers are given the option of having custom colors, custom patterns, custom monograms imprinted on the napkin. The size of napkin provided at table varies from occasion and place of dining.Smaller size napkins of about 5 inches x 5 inches are used when serving drinks or starters/appetizers or snacks. For lunch, larger sized napkins measuring about 14 inches to 20 inches square size are provided. Napkins supplied for dinner are even bigger, often of size 20 inches to 22 inches square. The idea is to increase the size of the napkin as the quantity of food/drinks served/consumed increases. This helps take care of the increased risk of spillage with increasing quantity of food and drinks. As a host, when providing napkins to your guests or customers, you need a achieve a good balance of size and utility of the napkins.Napkins which are too big in size for the purpose can only increase laundry load for little or no soil/spills on the napkins. Napkins are made of cotton or linen or linen-cotton mix, although it is possible that a few napkins are made of other materials like synthetic or silk. They come in variety of colors although white seems to be the most popular choice of color. I prefer white napkins over other s since it is easy to detect stains early with white napkins. Restaurant set with White Napkins I often see white napkins being used in restaurants.White conveys cleanliness since it is easy for guests/customers to see the care you have taken to ensure the napkin is clean, fresh and washed. Often napkins and table cloths are sold together as a set to form one matching set of clothes adorning the dining table. Napkin Folding Aside from being conscious about color, size and texture of the napkin used for dining, discerning hosts who care for ambience often go for various  napkin folds  that help the guests feel very welcome, convey a feeling that you value their company, that you are willing to go the extra mile to make the occasion a happy one.A great napkin fold adds to the setting. Some of the folds can be so creative and nice that it is difficult for us to make up our mind to unfold them during the start of the meal. This site has a number of napkin folds which will provide fo r a warm, friendly environment at lunch/dinner time. A few are easy yet elegant while others could require a little more time and skill. Pyramid Napkin Fold Some are more formal while others are pretty casual ones. Some of the folds take just a few minutes of your time and even those who have never folded before can do them relatively quickly.Start with the easy ones and then move on to more difficult folds. Some of these folds require stiff clothing or starching while ironing or washing. Try out multiple folds to see which ones you like or prefer. Apart from the many popular napkin folds listed here, you may find it useful to visit a resource dedicated to paper folding Origami for more ideas on how to fold napkins. If you plan to try out complicated Origami folds, be mindful of the fact that an elegant napkin fold on a lunch/dinner table is less about demonstrating your mind skills than it is about setting the mood for a hearty meal.In other words, do not overdo napkin folding. His tory * Creative napkin folding may have started during the reign of Louis XIV, when people decided to present napkins as an art form. However, napkin folding really took off around the turn of the last century. Function * A creatively folded napkin can make the simplest meal classier, and dinner guests are always impressed by an artfully folded napkin resting at their table setting. * Straight Vinyl SkirtingVinyl with velcro hook designed to drape over the foam edge to floor. www. tiffinmats. com Significance * The art of napery folding has been compared to origami, and many different types of three-dimensional figures may be produced. Types * You can learn to fold napkins into pyramids, pockets for flatware, flowers, hats, fans, slippers and various animals. Considerations * The best type of cloth napkin to use for napkin folding is crisp linen, as it holds its shape better than other types of cloth

Organizational structure of international Dairy Queen Essay

International Dairy Queen is a subsidiary of William Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Group. Charles â€Å"Chuck† Mooty is the President and CEO. Charles Chapman is COO while James S. Simpson is CFO, Treasurer and Controller (Hoover’s Inc. 2007). According to President and CEO, Charles Mooty, the main asset of the company is people being a service company. Moreover, the company has franchisees and should be assisted to maintain growth (Jossi 2001). Dairy Queen was originally run as a family corporation until shareholders decided to sell to Berkshire Hathaway. Mooty’s strategy includes the development of people, brand and presence (Jossi 2001). Recent lawsuits filed by franchisees against the mother company had caused too much rift in between the company and the franchisees. Mooty aimed to put the past behind and rebuild the relationship with the franchisees so that IDQ and the franchisees operate as a singular system (Jossi 2001). To revitalize the market, DQ also introduced another concept restaurant, the DQ Grill and Chill. It is a more pricey dining experience that would cost a customer on the average at $6 USD per head. According to Wolkowitz (2005), there are 51 restaurants, two of which are company owned while the rest belonged to franchisees. Jawad Business Group owns and operates the DQ Grill and Chill in Bahrain. The organization structure of International Dairy Queen could be illustrated in the diagram below. Since International Dairy Queen (IDQ) is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, the management team of IDQ is under the auspices of the mother company. Figure 1 – Organization Structure of International Dairy Queen IDQ has the traditional top-down organization where the mother company determined its management and the conduct of business (Berkshire Hathaway). Berkshire Hathaway has accountability to its shareholders. The structure is perceived as such because it was the shareholders who originally approved the sale of Dairy Queen to Berkshire. Therefore, any decision by the management should have the approval of the shareholders before it can proceed. If Dairy Queen’s original owners did not sell their shares to Berkshire, DQ would still remain a family-run corporation. Bibliography â€Å"A Story of Sweet Success† n. d. [Online] Available at: http://www. dairyqueen. com/en-US/About+Dairy+Queen/Corporate/History/default. htm [Accessed 20 July 2007] AgExporter. 1996. Arabian Gulf: Hot Markets for US Foods [Online] Available at: http://www. allbusiness. com/agriculture-forestry-fishing-hunting/557170-1. html [Accessed 21 July 2007] Badawy, M. K. 1980. Styles Of Mideastern Managers. California Management Review . Spring 1980; Volume 22, Issue: 3; 51-58. Bahrain This Month. 2007. Eating Out [Online] Available at: http://www. bahrainthismonth. com/restaurants/cuisine. fastfood. php [Accessed 22 July 2007] Garber, A. 2004. Quick-serve Concepts Upscale Image, Elevate Prices. Nation’s Restaurant News; Volume 38, no. 18;1-4. Ford, C. W. , Nonis, S. A. and Hudson, G. I. 2005. A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Value Systems and Consumer Ethics. Cross Cultural Management; Volume 12, Issue 4; 36-50. Hill, C. W. L. , & Jones, G. R. 2004, Strategic Management Theory: An Integrated Approach 6th ed. , Boston: Houghton Mifflin Hoffman, K. 2005. Drive Thru Gourmet / New Blizzard Flavors May Leave Competitors Quaking in Their Boots, Houston Chronicle. Houston, Texas: 10 Hoover’s Inc. 2007. International Dairy Queen, Inc. Overview. [Online] Available at: http://www. hoovers. com/dairy-queen/–ID__13811–/free-co-factsheet. xhtml? cm_ven=PAID&cm_cat=INK&cm_pla=CO1&cm_ite=dairy-queen [Accessed 21 July 2007] Jossi, F. 2001. A Royal Challenge [Online] Available at: http://www. qsrmagazine. com/issue/interview/chuckmooty.phtml [Accessed 21 July 2007] Kavoossi, M. 2000 The Globalization of Business and the Middle East: Opportunities and Constraints. Westport, CT. Quorum Books. â€Å"March Into Spring as DQ ® Goes Green,† n. d. [Online] Available at: http://www. dairyqueen. com/en-US/About+Dairy+Queen/Corporate/Press+Releases/March+Into+Spring+as+DQ%C2%AE+Goes+Green. htm [Accessed 20 July 2007] Porter’s Diamonds of National Advantage 2007 [Online] Available at: http://www. quickmba. com/strategy/global/diamond/ [Accessed 21 July 2007] Toffler, A. 1990. Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century. Bantam. New York. US Foreign Commercial Services and US Department of State 2004. Doing Business In Bahrain: A Country Commercial Guide for U. S. Companies [Online] Available at: http://www. export. gov/middleeast/country_information/CCG/Bahrain/Doing%20Business%20in%20Bahrain%20FY%202005%20(CCG)%20-%20Final. doc [Accessed 21 July 2007] Wolkowitz, D. 2005. DQ Grill & Chill: Well-Known Ice-Cream Brand Turns Up the Heat with New Look, Expanded Menu, Nation’s Restaurant News [Online] Available at: http://findarticles. com/p/articles/mi_m3190/is_5_39/ai_n9523126/pg_1 [Accessed 21 July 2007].

Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story Chapter 27~28

Chapter 27 Bridging the Boredom Half past midnight. He stood at the top of the southwest tower of the Oakland Bay Bridge, some fifty stories above the gunmetal-cold bay, thinking, Jump or dive? He wore a black silk suit and he paused for a moment, regretting that the suit would be ruined. He liked the feel and flow of silk on his skin. Oh well. Two miles away Jody was walking up Market Street wishing that she could just get drunk and pass out. I wonder, she thought, if I found someone who was really drunk and drank his blood? No, this damn system of mine would probably identify alcohol as a poison and fight the effects. So many questions. If only I'd remembered to ask them. She stopped at a phone booth and called Tommy at the store. â€Å"Marina Safeway.† â€Å"Tommy, it's me.† â€Å"Are you still mad?† â€Å"Not mad enough, I guess. I just wanted to tell you to stay in the store until after daylight. Don't go outside for any reason. And stay around the other guys if you can.† â€Å"Why? What's the matter?† â€Å"Just do as I say, Tommy.† â€Å"I cleaned up the loft. Mostly, anyway.† â€Å"We'll talk about it tomorrow night. Stay at home until I wake up, okay?† â€Å"Are you still going to be pissed?† â€Å"Probably. I'll see you then. Good-bye.† She hung up. How could he be so smart sometimes and so ignorant other times? Maybe the vampire was right, a human could never understand her. She suddenly felt very lonely. She ducked into an all-night diner and ordered a cup of coffee as rent on a booth. She still could enjoy the smell of coffee, even if she couldn't keep it down. She opened the paper she had bought from the bum with her cosmetics bag and began to read through the personals. â€Å"Men Seeking Women,† â€Å"Women Seeking Men,† â€Å"Men Seeking Men,† â€Å"Women Seeking Women,† â€Å"Men Seeking Small Fuzzy Animals†; there was a wide selection of categories. She scanned over the more mundane entries until her eye settled on one under â€Å"Support Groups.† â€Å"Are You a Vampire? You don't have to face your problem alone. Blood Drinkers Anonymous can help. Mon.-Fri. Midnight. Rm. 212 Asian Cultural Center, Non-Smoking.† It was Friday. It was midnight. She was only ten minutes from the Asian Cultural Center. Could it be this simple? The first thing she noticed when she walked into room 212 of the Asian Cultural Center is that all of the people sitting in a circle in molded plastic chairs, all twenty of them, were giving off heat signatures. They were all human. She was backing out of the door when a pear-shaped woman in a leotard and black cape intercepted her and took her hand. â€Å"Welcome,† said the woman. She sported a set of rather wicked-looking fangs that caused her to lisp. â€Å"I'm Tabitha. We're just getting ready to start. Come on in. There's coffee and cookies.† She led Jody to an orange plastic chair and urged her to sit down. â€Å"It's hard the first time, but everyone here has been where you are.† â€Å"Not bloody likely,† Jody said, wiping a speck of Tabitha's spittle from her cheek. Tabitha pointed to a plastic medallion that hung from her neck by a heavy silver chain. â€Å"See this chip? I've been clean and bloodless for six months. If I can do it, so can you. One night at a time.† Tabitha squeezed her arm, then threw her cape over her shoulder, turned dramatically, and stalked across the room to the cookie table, her cape billowing behind her. Jody looked at the other occupants of the room. All were talking, most were sneaking looks at her between sips of coffee. The men were all tall and thin with protruding Adam's apples and bad skin. Their dress ranged from business suits to jeans and flannel. They might have been a chess club out for the evening if not for the capes. To a man, they wore capes. Four of seven had fangs. Two sets of four were made of glow-in-the-dark plastic. Jody focused on two of them whispering in the corner. â€Å"I told you, this is a babe-fest. Did you see the redhead?† He sneaked a look. His partner said, â€Å"I think I saw her at Compulsive Cleaners last week.† â€Å"Compulsive Cleaners, I was going to try that. How are the odds?† â€Å"Lots of gay guys, but a few babes. Mostly they smell like Pine Sol, but it's hot if you like latex gloves.† â€Å"Cool, I'll check it out. I think I'm going to quit going to Adult Children of Alcoholics, everybody's looking to blame, no one's looking to get laid.† Jody thought, I don't know if I want to hear quiet desperation this clearly. She changed her focus to the women in the room. A six-foot-two brunette woman in a black choir robe and Kabuki-like makeup was complaining to a washed-out blonde wearing a tattered wedding dress. â€Å"They want to be tied up, I tie them up. They want to be spanked, I spank them. They want to be called names, I call them names. But try and drink a little of their blood, and they scream like babies. What about my needs?† â€Å"I know,† said the blonde. â€Å"I asked Robert to sleep in the coffin one time and he left.† â€Å"You have a coffin? I want a coffin.† Christ, Jody thought, I've got to get out of here. Tabitha clapped her hands. â€Å"Let's get the meeting started!† Those who were standing found seats. Several men tried to shove their way into the seats next to Jody. A skinny geek with peanut-butter breath leaned in to her and said, â€Å"I was on ‘Oprah' on Halloween. ‘Men who drink blood and the women who find them disgusting. If you want, you can come by my place and watch the tape after the meeting.† â€Å"I'm out of here,† Jody said. She jumped up and headed for the door. Behind her she heard Tabitha saying, â€Å"Hi, I'm Tabitha and I'm a bloodsucking fiend.† â€Å"Hi, Tabitha,† the group said in chorus. Outside Jody looked up and down the street wondering which way to go, what to do. She paused by a phone booth, realizing that there was no one she could call. Tears welled in her eyes. Why even bother to hope? The only person who had the slightest idea how she felt was the vampire who had made her. And he had made it clear that he wasn't interested in helping her – the evil fucker. I should set him up with my mother, she thought, then the two of them can look down on humanity together. The thought made her smile. Then the phone rang. She looked at it for a second, looked around for someone else who would answer it, but except for a guy standing by his car a couple of blocks away, the street was empty. She picked up the phone. â€Å"Hello.† A man's voice said, â€Å"I thought you would show up here eventually.† â€Å"Who is this?† Jody asked. The man sounded young, his voice was unfamiliar. â€Å"I can't tell you that yet.† â€Å"Okay,† Jody said. â€Å"Bye.† â€Å"Wait, wait, wait, don't hang up.† â€Å"Well?† â€Å"You're the one, aren't you? You're real. I mean, you are a real vampire.† Jody held the phone away, stared at the receiver as if it were an alien object. â€Å"Who is this?† â€Å"I don't want to tell you my name. I don't want you to be able to find me. Let's just say that I'm a friend.† â€Å"That's how most of my friends are,† Jody said. â€Å"They don't tell me their names or how to find them. It keeps my social calendar pretty clear.† Who was this guy? Who could possibly know that she was here, right now? â€Å"Okay, I guess I owe you something. I'm a med student at†¦ at a local college. I did some research on one of the bodies†¦ one of the bodies of the people you killed.† â€Å"I didn't kill anyone. I don't know what you're talking about. If I am who you think I am, how did you know I'd be here? I didn't even know I would be here until an hour ago.† â€Å"I've been waiting, watching every night for a couple of weeks. I had a theory that you wouldn't have any noticeable body heat, and you don't.† â€Å"What are you talking about? No one notices anybody's body heat.† â€Å"Look up the street. By the white Toyota. It's running, by the way. If you make a move to come toward me, I'm gone.† Jody looked more closely at the person up the street standing by a white car. The car was running. The man was holding a cell phone and looking at her through some very large binoculars. â€Å"I see you,† she said. â€Å"What do you want?† â€Å"I'm looking at you through infrared glasses. You're not giving off any body heat, so I know you're the one. My theory was right.† â€Å"Are you a cop?† â€Å"No, I told you, I'm a medical student. I don't want to turn you in. In fact, I think I might be able to help you, if you're interested in being helped.† â€Å"Talk,† Jody said. She held her hand over the phone and focused on the guy by the car. She could hear him talking into the cell phone. â€Å"They gave one of the cadavers to our department after the coroner was done with it. It was a male, about sixty years old, the third victim, I think. I noticed that there was a clean spot on his neck, as if it had been washed. The coroner hadn't put that in his report. I took a tissue sample and put it under a microscope. The tissue in that area was living. Regenerating. I cultured it and it started to die, until I added something on a hunch.† â€Å"What?† Jody asked. She didn't know what to think. This man knew she was a vampire, and strangely, she felt an urge to attack. Some protective instinct wanted her to hurt him. Kill him. She fought to stay calm. â€Å"Hemoglobin. I added some human hemoglobin and the tissue started to regenerate again. I ran it through the sequencer. It's not human DNA. It's close, but not human. It doesn't produce heat, doesn't seem to burn fuel the same way that mammalian cells do. The coroner said that he was the one that had drained the blood from the body, but he'd never done that before. And I knew that the guy had been murdered. I made a guess. I saw the ad in the Weekly for a vampire support group, so I've been watching.† Jody said, â€Å"Suppose I believe what you're saying. Suppose I believe that you believe this bullshit, how could you help me? Supposing I wanted to be helped?† â€Å"My major is gene therapy. There's a chance I could reverse the process.† â€Å"This isn't science. I'm not saying that you're right about your theory. There are a lot of things that you don't know, that can't be explained by science. If you don't know that by now, you will. What you're talking about is magic.† â€Å"Magic is just science that we don't know yet. Do you want me to help or not?† â€Å"Why would you want to do that? As far as you know, I kill people.† â€Å"So does cancer, but I still work on it. Do you have any idea what kind of competition there is for jobs in my field? It's an all-or-nothing field. I could end up getting my PhD and giving saccharine enemas to rats for five bucks an hour. What I learn from you would put my resume at the top of the stack.† Jody didn't know what to say. Part of her wanted to drop the phone and go after him. Another part wanted to accept his help. She said, â€Å"What do you want me to do?† â€Å"Nothing yet. How can I get hold of you?† â€Å"I can't tell you that. I'll call you. What's your number?† â€Å"I can't tell you that.† Jody sighed. â€Å"Look, Mr. Scientific Genius, figure out something. And by the way, I really didn't kill those people.† â€Å"Then why are you even listening to me?† â€Å"I guess this conversation is over. Get in your car and get comfortable with asking rats to bend over. Good-bye.† â€Å"Wait, we could meet somewhere. Tomorrow. Someplace public.† â€Å"No, it has to be at night. Someplace private. You could have cops everywhere.† She watched him as she talked. He had put the binoculars down and she could see that he was Asian. â€Å"You're the killer here. Would you meet you someplace private and dark?† â€Å"All right. Tomorrow night. Seven o'clock, at Enrico's on Broadway. That public enough for you?† â€Å"Sure. Can I bring a blood-sample kit? Would you let me?† â€Å"Would you let me?† she asked. He didn't answer. â€Å"Just kidding,† she said. â€Å"Look, I don't want to hurt you, but I don't want to get hurt either. When you leave here, drive like hell and take an indirect route home.† â€Å"Why?† â€Å"Because I really didn't kill those people, but I know who did, and he's been following me. If he's seen you, you're in danger.† The line was quiet for a minute, just the ghost voices of a cellular connection. Jody watched the Asian guy watching her. Finally he cleared his throat. â€Å"How many of you are there?† â€Å"I don't know,† she said. â€Å"I know that all of the victims don't change. It couldn't work. The geometric progression would have the entire human race turned to vampires in a month.† He sounded more confident now that he had brought the conversation back to science. â€Å"I'll tell you what I know tomorrow. But don't expect much. I don't know much. Or I'll tell you now if you want to talk face to face, but I don't think it's a good idea to talk about this with you on a cell phone.† â€Å"Yeah, you're right. Not now, though. Not here. You understand, don't you?† Jody nodded, exaggerating the gesture so he could see. â€Å"The longer you stand there, the better chance you have of being seen by†¦ by the other one. Tomorrow night, then. Seven o'clock.† â€Å"Will you be wearing that dress?† Jody smiled. â€Å"Do you like it? It's new.† â€Å"It's great. I didn't think you would be a woman.† â€Å"Thanks. Go now.† She watched him climb into the Toyota, the cell phone still in hand. â€Å"Promise not to try and track me down?† â€Å"I know where you'll be tomorrow night, remember?† â€Å"Oh yeah. By the way, my name's Steve.† â€Å"Hi, Steve. I'm Jody.† â€Å"‘Bye,† he said. He disconnected. Jody hung up the phone and watched him drive away. She thought, Great, another one to worry about. It hadn't occurred to her that her condition might be reversible. But then, the med student didn't know about how the body had turned to dust. Science indeed. Jump or dive, he thought. The silk suit whipped about his legs in the chill wind. The tower's aircraft warning light flashed red across his face and he could see heat swirling off it, dissolving over the bay. His name was Elijah Ben Sapir. He stood five feet ten inches tall and he had been a vampire for eight hundred years. In human life he had been an alchemist and had spent his time mixing noxious chemicals and chanting arcane incantations trying to turn lead into gold and tap the secret of eternal life. He hadn't been a particularly good alchemist. He had never been able to pull off the gold transformation, although by a bizarre miscalculation of chemistry he did manage to invent Teflon some eight hundred years before DuPont would find a use for it. (It should be noted, though, that archaeologists recently uncovered a Viking rune stone in Greenland that mentions a Jew who entered the palace of Constantine the Magnificent in 1224 selling a line of nonstick hot pokers for the Emperor's torture chamber and was promptly given the bum's rush to the city gates. The accuracy of the story has been questioned, however, as it begins, â€Å"I never believed that your letters were true until Gunn er and I†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and goes on to recount the sexual exploits of two Vikings and a harem of brown-skinned Byzantine babes.) Ben Sapir's search for eternal life had been somewhat more successful. Granted, it came with the side effects of drinking human blood and staying out of sunlight, but he had gotten used to that. It was the loneliness that he couldn't abide. Perhaps, after all these years, it would end. He was afraid to hope. It had been a hundred years since a fledgling had lasted this long. She had been a Yanomamo woman in the Amazon Basin and she had hunted the jungle for three months before she returned to her village and turned her sister. The sisters declared themselves gods and demanded sacrifices from the village. He found them by the river feeding on an old woman, and he took no pleasure in killing them. Perhaps the redhead, perhaps she would be the one. Dive, he decided. He leaped away from the tower, jackknifed into a dive, and plunged fifty stories to the black water. The challenge was to avoid changing to mist before hitting the water. That was too easy. The impact of the water ripped the clothes off his back; the stitching of his shoes exploded with the pressure. He surfaced, naked except for one sock that had strangely survived the impact, and began the long swim back to his yacht thinking, I shouldn't have saved her from the sunlight. I must be desperate for entertainment. Chapter 28 Is That a Blackjack in Your Pocket? Tommy booted the Emperor out of the store at dawn. It had been a long night trying to keep the crazed ruler away from the Animals while throwing stock and trying to figure out the logistics of his meeting with Mara, all while under the influence of Dr. Drew's polio weed, which seemed to affect the part of the brain that motivates one to sit in the corner and drool while staring at one's hands. When the shift ended, he declined the Animal's invitation for beers and Frisbee in the parking lot, swiped a baguette from the bread-delivery man, and caught the bus home, intent on going straight to bed. He knew his plan was foiled when Frank, the biker/sculptor, met him outside their building holding a familiar-looking bronze turtle. â€Å"Flood, check it out.† Frank held up the turtle. â€Å"It worked!† â€Å"What worked?† Tommy asked. â€Å"Thick electroplating process. Come on in, I'll show you.† Frank turned and led Tommy through the roll-up door into the foundry. The foundry took up the entire bottom floor of the building, here was a huge furnace making a muffled rumbling sound. There were several large pits filled with sand, and plaster-of-Paris molds lay in them in various states of completion. In the back, near the only windows, stood wax figures of naked women, Indians, Buddhas, and birds, waiting to be cut up and placed in plaster of Paris. Frank said, â€Å"We've been doing a lot of statues for people's gardens. Buddhas are big with the koi-pond types. That's what we needed the turtles for. Monk already sold one of them to a woman in Pacific Heights for five hundred bucks. Sight unseen.† â€Å"My turtles?† Tommy said. He looked more closely at the bronze turtle Frank was holding. â€Å"Zelda!† â€Å"Can you believe it?† Frank said. â€Å"We did them both in less than eight hours. Lost-wax process would have taken days. I'll show you.† He led Tommy to the other side of the shop where a short, portly man in leather and denim was working beside a tall Plexi-glas tank filled with a translucent green liquid. Frank said, â€Å"Monk, this is our neighbor, Tom Flood. Flood, this is my partner Monk.† Monk grunted, not looking up from a compressor that he seemed to be having trouble with. Tommy could see how he had gotten his name. He had a large bowl-shaped bald spot with a fringe of hair around it: the Benedictine version of Easy Rider, Friar Tuck on wheels. â€Å"This,† said Frank, gesturing toward the ten-foot tank, â€Å"as far as we know, is the biggest electroplating tank on the West Coast.† Tommy didn't know quite how to react. He was still stunned by seeing the bronze likeness of Zelda. â€Å"That's just spiffy,† he said finally. â€Å"Yeah, dude. We can do anything we can find. No molds, no wax carvings. You just dunk and go. That's how we did your turtles.† Tommy was beginning to get it. â€Å"You mean that that is not a sculpture? You covered my turtles with brass?† â€Å"That's it. That liquid is supersaturated with dissolved metal. We sprayed the turtles with a thin metal-based paint that would conduct current. Then we attached a wire to them and dipped them in the tank. The current draws the metal out of the water and it fuses to the paint on the turtle. Leave it a long time and the coating gets thick enough to have structural integrity. Voila, a bronze garden turtle. I don't think anybody's ever done it before. We owe you, man.† Monk grunted in gratitude. Tommy didn't know whether to be angry or depressed. â€Å"You should have told me you were going to kill them.† â€Å"I thought you knew, man. Sorry. You can have this one, if you want.† Frank presented the bronzed Zelda. Tommy shook his head and looked away. â€Å"I don't think I could look at her.† He turned and walked away. Frank said, â€Å"C'mon, man, take it. We owe you one. If you need a favor or something†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Tommy took Zelda. How would he explain to Jody? â€Å"By the way, I've turned your little friends into statues.† And this right after they'd had a big fight. He slunk up the steps feeling completely lost. Jody had left him a note on the counter: Tommy: Imperative that you are here when I wake up. If you go out you are in serious, life-threatening trouble. I mean it. I have some very important things to tell you. No time now, I'm going to go out any second. Be here when I wake up. Jody â€Å"Great,† Tommy said to Peary. â€Å"Now what do I do about Mara? Who does Jody think she is, threatening me? What does she think she's going to do if I'm not here? I can't be here. Why don't you keep her busy until I get home.† Tommy patted the chest freezer and an idea came to him. â€Å"You know, Peary, scientists have frozen vampire bats and thawed them completely unharmed. I mean, how would she know? How many times has she thought it was Tuesday when it was really Wednesday?† Tommy went to the bedroom and looked in on Jody, who had made it to bed, but not in time to change out of her black dress. Wow, Tommy thought, she never dresses like that for me. She looked so peaceful. Sexy, but peaceful. She'll be angry if she finds out, but she's angry now. It won't really hurt her. I can just take her out tomorrow morning and put her under the electric blanket. By sundown she'll be thawed out and I'll have handled the Mara thing. I can tell Mara that I'm involved. I can't start something new until this is finished. Maybe with the extra time, Jody will have chilled a little. He smiled to himself. He opened the lid of the freezer, then went into the bedroom to get Jody. He carried her into the kitchen and laid her in the freezer on top of Peary. As he tucked her into the fetal position he felt a twinge of jealousy. â€Å"You guys behave now, okay?† He tucked a few TV dinners around her nice and snug under her arms, then kissed her on the forehead and gently closed the lid. As he crawled into bed he thought, If she ever finds out about this, she's really going to be pissed. Tommy had been asleep three hours when the pounding started. He rolled out of bed, stumbled across the dark bedroom, and was blinded when he opened the door into the loft. He was just regaining his eyesight when he opened the fire door and Rivera said, â€Å"Are you Thomas Flood, Junior?† â€Å"Yes,† Tommy said, bracing himself against the doorjamb. â€Å"I'm Inspector Alphonse Rivera from the San Francisco Police Department.† He held up a badge wallet. â€Å"You're under arrest† – Rivera pulled a warrant from his jacket pocket – â€Å"for abandoning a vehicle on a public street.† â€Å"You're kidding,† Tommy said. Cavuto stepped through the door and grabbed Tommy by the shoulder, whipping him around as the big cop pulled his handcuffs from his belt. â€Å"You have the right to remain silent†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Cavuto said. Two hours later Tommy had been processed, probed, and printed, and as Cavuto had expected, Tommy's fingerprints matched those on the copy of On the Road that they had found under the dead bum. It was enough for them to get a search warrant issued for the loft. Five minutes after they entered the loft a mobile crime lab was dispatched along with a forensics team and two coroners' trucks. As far as crime scenes went, the loft in SOMA was the mother lode. Cavuto and Rivera left the crime scene to the forensics team and returned to the station, where they took Tommy from a holding cell and put him in a pleasantly pink interrogation room furnished with a metal table and two chairs. There was a mirror on one wall and a tape recorder sat on the table. Tommy sat staring at the pink wall, remembering something about how pink was supposed to calm you down. It didn't seem to be working. His stomach was tied in knots. Rivera had done dozens of interrogations with Cavuto and they always took the same roles: Cavuto was the bad cop, and Rivera was the good cop. Actually Rivera never felt like the good cop. More often he was the I-am-tired-and-overworked-and-I'm-being-nice-to-you-because-I-don't-have-the-energy-to-be-angry cop. â€Å"Would you like a smoke?† Rivera asked. â€Å"Sure,† Tommy said. Cavuto jumped in his face. â€Å"Too bad, punk. There's no smoking in here.† Cavuto took great pleasure in being the bad cop. He practiced in front of the mirror at home. Rivera shrugged. â€Å"He's right. You can't smoke.† Tommy said, â€Å"That's okay, I don't smoke.† â€Å"How about a lawyer then?† asked Rivera. â€Å"Or a phone call?† â€Å"I have to be at work at midnight,† Tommy said. â€Å"If it looks like I'm going to be late, I'll use my call then.† Cavuto was pacing the room, timing his path so he could wheel on Tommy with every statement. He wheeled. â€Å"Yeah, kid, you're going to be late, about thirty years late, if they don't fry you.† Tommy pushed back in his chair with fright. â€Å"Good one, Nick,† Rivera said. â€Å"Thanks.† Cavuto smiled around an unlit cigar and backed away from the table where Tommy sat. Rivera moved up. â€Å"Okay, kid, you don't want an attorney. Where do you want to start? We've got you hands-down on two murders and probably three. If you tell us the story, tell us everything, about all the other murders, we might be able to waive the death penalty.† â€Å"I didn't kill anybody.† â€Å"Don't be cute,† Cavuto said. â€Å"We found two bodies in your freezer. We've got your fingerprints all over a book that we found under a third body outside your apartment. We've got you staying at the motel where we found a fourth body. And we've got you with a closetful of women's clothing and eyewitnesses that put a woman near where we found a fifth body†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Tommy interrupted, â€Å"Actually, there's only one body in the freezer. The other is my girlfriend.† â€Å"You sick fuck.† Cavuto drew back as if to hit Tommy. Rivera moved to restrain him. Tommy cowered in his chair. Rivera led Cavuto to the far side of the room. â€Å"Let me take this for a minute.† He left Cavuto grumbling to himself and went to the seat across from Tommy. â€Å"Look, kid, we've got you cold, so to speak, on two murders. We've got circumstantial evidence on another. You are going to jail for a very long time, and at this point, the death penalty is looking pretty good. Now if you tell us everything, and don't leave anything out, we might be able to help you out, but you have to give us enough to close all the cases. Do you understand?† Tommy nodded. â€Å"But I didn't kill anybody. I put Jody in the freezer, which I admit is inconsiderate, but I didn't kill her.† Cavuto growled. Rivera nodded in mock acceptance of the story. â€Å"Fine, but if you didn't kill them, who did? Did someone you know force you into this?† Cavuto exploded, â€Å"Oh Christ, Rivera! What do you need, a videotape? This little bastard did it.† â€Å"Nick, please. Give me a minute here.† Cavuto moved to the table and leaned over it until his face was next to Tommy's. He whispered, raspy and gruff, â€Å"Flood, don't think you can use a wiggle and a wink to get yourself out of this. That might work down on Castro, but I'm immune to it here, you got me? I'm going to leave now, but when I come back, if you haven't told my partner your story, I'm going to cause pain. Lots of it, and I won't leave a mark on you.† He stood up, smiled, then turned and left the room. Tommy looked at Rivera. â€Å"A wiggle and a wink?† â€Å"Nick thinks you're cute,† Rivera said. â€Å"He's gay?† â€Å"Completely.† Tommy shook his head. â€Å"I would have never guessed.† â€Å"He's a Shriner, too.† Rivera tapped a cigarette out of his pack and lit it. â€Å"Looks can be deceiving.† â€Å"Hey, I didn't think you were allowed to smoke in here.† Rivera blew smoke in Tommy's face. â€Å"You had two people in your freezer, and you're giving me shit about smoking.† â€Å"Good point.† Rivera sat down and leaned back in the chair. â€Å"Tommy, I'm going to give you one more chance to tell me how you killed those people, then I'm going to let Nick back in here and I'm going to leave. He really likes you. This room is soundproof, you know.† Tommy swallowed hard. â€Å"You're not going to believe me. It's a pretty fantastic story. There's supernatural stuff involved.† Rivera rubbed his temples. â€Å"Satan told you to do it?† he said wearily. â€Å"No.† â€Å"Elvis?† â€Å"I told you, it's supernatural.† â€Å"Tommy, I'm going to tell you something I've never told anyone before. If you repeat it, I'll deny I said it. Five years ago I saw a white owl with a seventy-foot wingspan swoop out of the sky and pluck a demon off a hillside and take off into the sky.† â€Å"I heard that cops get the best drugs,† Tommy said. Rivera got up. â€Å"I'm going to bring Nick in.† â€Å"No, wait. I'll tell you. It was a vampire. You can thaw Jody out and ask her.† Rivera reached over and turned on the tape recorder. â€Å"Now slow down. Start at the beginning and go until we walked you into this room.† An hour later Rivera met Cavuto behind the one-way mirror. Cavuto was not happy. â€Å"You know, I'd rather you just threaten that I would beat him up.† â€Å"It worked, didn't it?† â€Å"There's nothing there we can use. Not a thing. If he sticks with that story he'll get off on insanity. It's too wild. I want to know how he got the blood out of the bodies.† â€Å"The kid thinks he's a writer. He's showing off his imagination. Let's let him sit awhile and get something to eat. I want to find the Emperor.† â€Å"That wacko?† â€Å"He's been reporting seeing a vampire for weeks. Maybe he saw the kid doing one of the murders.†