Monday, September 30, 2019

Island of the Sequined Love Nun Chapter 15~19

15 The Navigator Out on the edge of the world, with no place to stay, no way to move on, no job, no life, no friends; hurt, confused, hot, thirsty, and irritated, Tuck was desperate. Desperate for just the momentary satisfaction that might come from attracting an attractive woman. No matter that he couldn't do anything about the attraction. What was she doing out here? Who cares? What a walk! He quickened his pace, his legs and shoulders protesting against the weight of his pack, and approached within a couple of steps of the blonde. â€Å"Excuse me,† he called. She turned. Tuck stopped and backed up a step. Something is wrong here. Very, very wrong. â€Å"Oh, baby,† she said, hand to her chest as if trying to catch her breath. â€Å"You scare little Kimi. Why you sneakin' up like that?† Tuck was dumbfounded. She wasn't a natural blonde. Her skin was dark and she had the high cheekbones and angular features of a Filipino. Long false eyelashes, bright red lipstick, but lines in the face that were a little too harsh, a jawline that was a little too square. The dress was tight around the chest and there was nothing there but muscle. She wore a huge black medallion at her throat that looked as if it was made of animal fur. She needed a shave. â€Å"I'm sorry,† Tuck said. â€Å"I thought you were something – er, someone else.† Then the medallion turned its head and looked at him. Tuck let out an involuntary scream and jumped back. The medallion was wearing tiny rhinestone sunglasses. It squeaked at Tucker. It was the biggest bat he had ever seen, hanging there upside down with its wings folded. â€Å"That's a bat!† â€Å"Fruit bat, baby. Don't be scared. This Roberto. He no like the light. He like you, though.† Roberto squeaked again. He had the face of a fox or perhaps a small dog – a shaven Pomeranian with wings. â€Å"I'm Kimi. What you name, baby?† Kimi extended his hand limply to shake or perhaps for a kiss. Tuck took two fingers, keeping his eye on the bat. â€Å"Tucker Case. Nice to meet you, Kimi.† He was horrified. Thirty seconds ago he'd been having lustful thoughts about a guy! A guy wearing a fruit bat! â€Å"You look like you need a date. Kimi love you good long time, twenny bucks. Whatever you need, Kimi can do.† â€Å"No, thanks. I don't need a date. What I need is a boat.† â€Å"Kimi can get boat. You like it in boat? Kimi take you round the world in a boat?† He giggled and patted Roberto's little upside-down head. â€Å"That funny, huh?† Tucker forced a smile. â€Å"No, I need a boat and someone who can pilot it out to an island.† â€Å"You need a boat, Kimi can get boat. Kimi can pilot too.† â€Å"Thanks anyway, but I really†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Roberto shrieked. Tuck jumped back. Kimi said, â€Å"Roberto say he want to go on boat with you. How far is island?† Tucker couldn't believe he was having this conversation. He hadn't really decided he would go by boat. â€Å"It's called Alualu. It's about two hundred and fifty miles north of here.† â€Å"No problem,† Kimi said without hesitation. â€Å"My father was great navigator. He teach me everything. I take you to island and maybe we have party too. You have money?† Tuck nodded. â€Å"You wait over there in shade. We be right back.† Kimi turned and wiggled away. Tucker tried not to watch him walk. He was feeling sick to his stomach. He walked to a grove of palm trees that grew along the harbor and sat down to wait. Kimi piloted the eighteen-foot fiberglass skiff out of a shantytown built over the water, across the harbor, to a dock in front of the marina restaurant. Roberto had unfolded his wings and was crawl ing spiderlike over Kimi's head and back, looking for a comfortable spot to get out of the light. Tucker walked to the dock and looked at the boat, then out past the harbor, where waves were crashing on the reef, then back at the little boat. He wasn't sure what he had expected, but he was sure this wasn't it. Something bigger, maybe a cabin cruiser, with twin diesels and a big wheelhouse with some radar stuff spinning on the top – a modest but well-stocked wet bar, perhaps. â€Å"I got you boat!† Kimi said. â€Å"You give me money now, I go get gas and look at map.† Tucker didn't budge. The engine was a forty-horse Yamaha out-board. A rubber tube ran from the motor to a gas tank that took up nearly all the space between the two seats. Tuck guessed it would hold at least a hundred gallons of fuel, maybe more. â€Å"Are you sure this thing has the range to make it out there?† â€Å"No problem. Give me money for gas. Five hundred dollar.† â€Å"You're insane!† â€Å"Gas very expensive here.† â€Å"You're insane and your bat's glasses are crooked.† â€Å"I have to pay man for boat. The rest is for pilot. You buy water, flashlight, and two mango, two papaya for Roberto, and two box Pop Tarts for Kimi. Strawberry.† Tucker felt he was being hustled. â€Å"For five hundred dollars you can get your own mangoes and Pop Tarts.† â€Å"Okay, bye-bye.† Kimi said. â€Å"Say bye-bye to cheap sweaty American, Roberto.† Kimi moved Roberto onto his shoulders and pulled the cord to start the engine. Tuck imagined himself stuck on Yap for another two weeks. â€Å"No, wait!† He unclipped the flap of his pack and dug inside. Kimi killed the outboard, turned, and grinned. There was lipstick on his teeth. â€Å"Money, please.† Tuck handed down a stack of bills. He didn't like it, but he didn't have a choice. Actually, not having a choice made it a little easier. â€Å"Are we going to leave right away?† â€Å"We go through reef before dark so we no smash up and drown. After that it better to go in dark. Go by stars.† Smash up? â€Å"Shouldn't we call for weather?† Kimi laughed. â€Å"You smell storm? See storm in sky?† Tuck looked around. Except for a few mushroom-shaped clouds beyond the reef, it was clear. He smelled only tropical flowers on the breeze and something skunky rising up from his armpits. â€Å"No.† â€Å"Meet me here in half hour.† Kimi started the motor and putted off across the harbor toward a big tank with the Mobil logo stenciled on the side. Tuck walked to the store and bought the supplies, then found the telecom center a few doors down and sent a handwritten fax to the doctor on Alualu to let him know that his new pilot was on the way. He was waiting at the dock when Kimi returned in the skiff, his wig tied down with a red chiffon scarf. Roberto wore a smaller scarf with holes cut for his ears. Strangely, the scarf, in conjunction with the sunglasses, made Roberto look a little like Diana Ross. They say there is a finite number of faces in the world†¦ Tucker threw the heavy pack into the front of the boat, then climbed in and sat down in front of the enormous gas tank. Kimi threw the transmis-sion lever on the motor, twisted the hand grip, and piloted the skiff out into the harbor toward the reef. Kimi steered the boat out of the deep green of the harbor to the turquoise water of the channel. Tuck could see the reef, tan and red coral, just a few feet below the surface at the edge of the channel. He spotted small fish darting around great heads of brain coral. They were more like streaks of color than animals, and as one disappeared another appeared in the line of sight. A few long, slender trumpet fish, looking as if they had been forged from silver, swam adjacent to the boat, then turned and cruised into the reef. They passed the edge of the reef and into the open sea with only a slight bump into the first few swells. Kimi cranked up the motor and the skiff lifted and rode across the tops of the waves, bucking and dropping a gentle six inches, thumping out a drumbeat as counterpoint to the whining out-board. Tucker relaxed and leaned back as Kimi skirted the reef, traveling toward the setting sun until he cleared the island and could make the turn north to Alualu. For the first time since the crash, Tucker felt good, felt as if he was on his way to something better. He'd made a decision and acted on it and in eighteen hours he would be ready to start his new job. He'd be a pilot again, making good money, flying a great aircraft. And with some healing, he'd be a man again too. A quarter mile from Yap, Kimi made a gradual turn that put the sun at their left shoulders. Tuck watched the sun bubble into the ocean. Columns of vertical cumulus clouds turned to cones of pink cotton candy, then as the sun became a red wafer on the horizon, they turned candy-apple red, with purple rays reaching out of them like searchlights. The water was neon over wet asphalt, blood-spattered gunmetal – colors from the cover of a detective novel where heroes drink hard and beauty is always treacherous. Tucker searched the sky for cumulus clouds that looked like they might have aspirations to become thunderheads. How in the hell were you supposed to see weather from sea level? Just then a swell lifted the front of the boat and slammed it down. Tuck felt his tailbone bark on the edge of the seat and was just bracing himself when another swell bucked him to the floor of the boat and a sudden gust of wind soaked him with spray. 16 And Now, the Weather Report The High Priestess sat on the lanai watching the sunset, taking sips from a glass of chilled vodka between bites of a banana. The intercom beeped inside the house and she cocked an ear to the open window. â€Å"Beth, can you come down to my office? This is important.† The Sorcerer was in a panic. He's always in a panic, she thought. She put her vodka down on the bamboo table and tossed the banana out into the sand. She padded across the teak deck, through the french doors to the intercom, and laid an elegant finger on the talk button. â€Å"I'm on my way,† she said. She started toward the back door of the house – a two-room bungalow fashioned from bamboo, teak, and thatch – and caught sight of herself in the full-length mirror. â€Å"Shit.† She was naked, of course, and she'd have to cut across the compound to get to the Sorcerer's office. Life had become a lot more complicated since they had hired the guards. She stormed into the bedroom and grabbed an oversized 49ers jersey with the sleeves cut off out of her closet, then stepped into some sandals and headed out the back door. She wasn't really dressed, but it might keep the Sorcerer off her back and the ninjas off her front. The compound consisted of half a dozen buildings spread over a three-acre clearing covered with white coral gravel and concrete and surrounded by a twelve-foot chain-link fence topped with razor wire. At the front of the compound was a pier and a small beach that led to the only channel through the reef. At the back a new Learjet sat on a concrete pad, just inside the fence. Outside of the fence, the concrete runway bisected the island. Past the runway lay the jungles, the taro patches, the villages, and the beaches of the Shark People. The office was a low concrete building with steel doors and a roof covered in solar electric panels that shone red in the setting sunlight. She nodded to the guard by the door, who didn't move until she passed, then tried to get a glimpse in the side of her jersey. She slammed the door behind her. â€Å"What's up? You almost done with the satellite dish? My shows are coming on.† He turned from a computer screen, a piece of fax paper crumpled in his hand. â€Å"We've hired an idiot.† â€Å"Do you want to be specific or should I assume that one of the ninjas has distinguished himself above the others?† â€Å"The pilot, Beth. He missed the Micro Trader on Yap.† â€Å"Shit!† â€Å"It's worse.† He held out the fax to her. â€Å"It's from him. He's chartered a small boat. He says he'll be here tomorrow.† She looked over the fax, confused. â€Å"That's sooner than he was going to get here. What's the problem?† â€Å"This.† The Sorcerer pushed back in his chair and pointed to the computer screen. The image looked like a blender full of green and black paint. â€Å"It looks like a blender full of green paint,† she said. â€Å"What is it?† â€Å"That, my dear, is Marie.† â€Å"Sebastian, you've been out here too long. I know you like abstract art and all†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"It's a satellite picture of typhoon Marie. And she's a big one.† He pointed to a dot to one side of the screen. â€Å"That's Alualu.† â€Å"So it's going to miss us.† â€Å"We'll catch the edge of it. We'll have to put the jet in the hangar, tie everything down, but it shouldn't be too bad. The problem is that the eye will pass right over where our pilot is going to be. I can't believe he went to sea without checking the weather.† She shrugged. â€Å"So we have to get a new pilot. Tucker Case, meet Marie.† She smiled and her eyes shone like desolate stars. Too bad, she thought. The pilot would have been fun. 17 Foul-Weather Friend Tuck was amazed by what the human body could achieve when pressed to its limits: lift tractors, trek a hundred miles through the tundra after being partially eviscerated by a Kodiak bear, live for months on grubs and water sucked from soak holes, and in this particular case, vomit for two hours straight after having ingested nothing but alcohol and airline peanuts for two days. The stuff coming out of him was pure bile, burning acrid and sour, and with the bull rider pitching of the boat, half of it always ended up down the front of him. And between heaves there was no respite, just constant motion and soaking spray. His stomach muscles twisted into knots. It started with the swells rising, first a few feet, then to ten. Kimi piloted the boat up the face of each as if climbing a hill; they were dashed by the whitecap, then a sled ride down into a trough where they were faced with the next black wall of water. Roberto climbed down into Kimi's dress and clung there like a furry tumor. The navigator cried out each time the spray washed over him as Roberto's wing claws dug into his ribs. â€Å"Tie down you pack. Tie you belt to the boat,† Kimi shouted. Tuck found a coil of nylon rope and a folding knife in his pack and tied himself and the pack to the front seat. He noticed that the space under the seat was filled with dense Styrofoam. The boat was, theoretically, unsink-able. Good, someone would find their beaten, shark-eaten bodies. He threw a length of rope to Kimi, who secured it around his own waist. The wind came up as if someone had spooled up a jet engine, going from ten to sixty knots in an instant, dumping gallons of water into the boat with each wave, drowning out the sound of the outboard. Kimi screamed an order to Tuck, but it was lost in the wind. Tuck caught one word: â€Å"Bail!† Riding down the face of a wave, he took the time to look around the boat for a container, but found only the gallon of drinking water. He took the folding knife from his pocket and slashed the top off of the jug. He dumped the fresh water, then, with his feet braced against the inside of the bow and his spine against the seat, he began bailing between his legs, taking a full gallon with each scoop, throwing it with the wind. He bailed as if in a â€Å"run for your life† sprint and he was winded and aching after only a minute, but he couldn't seem to get ahead of the storm. The boat was riding lower in the water. He ventured a glance back to Kimi and saw the navigator had found a coffee can and was braced between the seat and the gas tank, bailing with one hand while steering with the other. His scarf and fallen around his neck and was trailing the blonde wig behind him in the wind. The motor was cranked full-out, and Kimi was trying to keep the boat steered into the waves. If one caught them from the side, they would roll and continue to roll until the storm consumed them. Tuck slowed his pace and tried to fall into some kind of sustainable rhythm. It began to rain, the drops coming in almost horizontal, and as they topped the next wave Tuck realized that half of the sky had disap-peared. They were only at the edge of the storm. The navigator was screaming at him. The sea, the sky, the boat faded to black. One second he was squinting saltwater out of his eyes and staring at an obsidian wall ahead of the bow, then everything went black. Total sensory overload, total sensory deprivation. He looked around for the stars, the moon, a highlight or shadow somewhere, but there was nothing but wind and wet and cold and ache. He shivered and nearly curled into the fetal position in the bow to wait for death. The navigator's screaming gave him a bearing. â€Å"We need light!† Tuck braced himself, then dug into the saturated pack until he came out with two waterproof flashlights. Bless you, Jake Skye. He hit the sealed switches. Light. Enough to see that Kimi was steering them parallel to an ominous wall of water. They would be swamped. The navigator slammed the outboard to one side and gunned it. The little boat whipped around just in time to meet the oncoming wave, ride up and over it. Tucker clung to the boat like a newborn monkey to its mother. Tuck lashed the lights to the anchor pulley at the bow, one pointed forward, one into the boat, then he resumed bailing. A monster wave rose up thirty feet and slammed down over them. When Tuck blinked the salt out of his eyes, he saw that the boat was all but a foot full of water. Another wave like that would swamp the motor. Without the motor to steer, they were lost. Bailing wasn't enough. We're going to die, he thought. Then the noise of the storm was gone. â€Å"No, you're not,† came the voice, â€Å"you fuckin' mook.† The roar of the wind and the screams of the navigator were gone. There was only the voice. â€Å"There's a tarpaulin in your pack. Lash it over the boat so you don't take on any more water. Then move to the stern and bail.† Now there was a picture in Tuck's mind of what he was to do. There were eyelets on the outside of the gunwales to accommodate the line around the edges of the tarp. He needed only to hook the line around the boat and tie it off back by Kimi, leaving just enough of the boat open for the navigator to steer and him to bail water. â€Å"You got it, ace?† Tuck could see it and he knew he could do it. â€Å"Thanks,† he said. Forget questioning where the voice was coming from. He nodded. The storm roared back over him. Five minutes later the boat was covered and began to rise in the water as Tuck sat next to the navigator and bailed. â€Å"You steer!† Kimi screamed. Tucker took the tiller as the navigator let go and tried to rub his hand out of a cramped claw. Tuck took the boat up the face of a monster wave and the skiff went airborne. With no resistance on the propeller, the motor shrieked and Tuck dumped the throttle to keep it from blowing up. The bow tilted skyward and Kimi grabbed the gunwale just in time to avoid being dumped off the stern. They landed hard and the motor nearly went under. The motor sputtered. Tuck worked the throttle to bring it back to life. They were already going up the face of another wave, steeper than the last. If the wind caught them at the top, they would flip. Tuck suddenly remembered a surfing move from his youth. The cut back. There was no way they could continue into the wind and into the waves. Halfway up the face of the wave, he twisted the throttle and threw the motor sideways. It coughed as if expelling a hairball, then roared, sending them across the face of the wave. â€Å"What you doing?† Kimi shouted. Tuck didn't answer. He was looking for the pocket, the place where the face of the wave would stay the same. If only the motor could maintain speed. The wave was creeping up on them, looming above their backs, but then they were high enough for the wind to catch them. Just enough boost. Just enough speed. The boat flattened out on the face of the wave. They were surfing, a thirty-foot wall of water waiting to crush them from behind should Tuck lose the pocket. Strangely, Tuck felt elated. It was a small victory, maybe even a temporary one, but they were running with the storm and he was in control of something for the first time since the plane crash. He watched the angle of the boat on the face of the wave, gauged its speed, its steepness, and made the adjustments that would keep them alive. The black water seemed to eat up the flashlight beams, but he could see the wave becoming steeper and rising higher as it climbed the ocean shelf toward the hungry reef. 18 Land Ho The island was little more than a coral cupcake with a guano frosting. Not a hundred yards wide at its widest point and only five feet above sea level at its highest, it served as a resting place for seabirds, a nesting place for turtles, and purchase for forty-eight coconut palms. The foliage and coconuts had all been torn from the palms, and the storm-driven waves breaking on the surrounding reef frothed over the island, beating against the trunks and washing away the precious topsoil. Heavy as they were, some of the palms were being undermined by the sea and would soon wash away. Of the three travelers, only Roberto knew the island was there. As a young bat, he had stopped there to rest after leaving Guam, his birthplace, on his way to someplace where the mangoes were sweet and the natives did not consider fruit bat a delicacy. But right now he was too busy hiding inside Kimi's dress, screeching and clawing and generally trying to keep warm, to mention to the navigator that the reason they were suddenly riding the face of an increasingly steep fifty-foot wave was because they were about to crash over a reef. By the time Tucker Case realized what was happening, they were inside an immense tube of water, surfing inside of the curl of the wave. The flashlights refracted off the green water, illuminating the tube, making it appear as if they were inside a giant seething Coke bottle. Tuck tried to keep the boat pointed toward the narrow circle of blackness where the bottle cap would go, where they would have to go to escape. He'd seen films of surfers shooting the curl on the North Shore of Hawaii. It could be done. He clung to that vision, even as the wave passed over the reef and collapsed upon them. The boat rolled once, twice, three times, then tossed end over end and spun just under the surface as the wave frothed over the island. Kimi and Tuck were wound against the boat by their lifelines, beaten against the trunks of the palms, tossed and battered against the boat. For Tucker there was no up, no down, no way to know when he might take a breath of life-giving air or suck seawater and die. He held his breath until he felt as if he would explode, then was slammed between the boat and a tree and he let go. Roberto's wing claws cut deep furrows into Kimi's ribs as he scrambled for air. The navigator had taken a glancing blow across the forehead as the boat rolled over him and was knocked unconscious. Tuck felt himself pulled away from the boat, spun for a moment, then the pressure of the lifeline around his waist. He could see the lights attached to the boat, still shining, the only visual input in the sensory chaos. The boat had caught on something and he was trailing out behind it. Something bumped against his ribs and he reached for it instinctively, catching a handful of Kimi's dress. Roberto was clinging to Kimi's head, growling into the wind. They had passed through the island and come out on the other side. The boat had caught on the last palm tree before they were swept out to sea again. Tuck caught his lifeline with one hand, then wrapped his other arm around Kimi's chest. Slowly, working against the streaming current, more like a river now that the waves had been broken by the reef and the island, he pulled them back to the boat. The boat was afloat, but barely, held up by the Styrofoam underseats and the air trapped in the gas tank. Only an inch or two of gunwale showed above the water. Tuck crawled in, took one deep breath, then dragged the lifeless navigator in after him. Roberto scrambled on Kimi's head to escape the sea and was almost taken by the wind. Tucker caught the giant bat by the throat and lifted him from Kimi's head to his own back, wincing as Roberto's claws penetrated his shirt. Then he hung the navigator over the side and began pumping the water out of his lungs. After a few seconds, he flipped him again and administered mouth-tomouth until Kimi coughed and vomited up a stream of seawater. Tuck held his head. â€Å"You okay?† Kimi nodded as he sucked in painful lungfuls of air. Once he had his breath, he said, â€Å"Roberto?† Tuck pointed to the little dog face that was looking over his shoulder. Kimi managed a smile. â€Å"Roberto! Come.† He took the bat from Tuck's back and held him to his chest. They were safe, relatively; sheltered by the island from the monster swells, they had only the wind and the rain to deal with. The tarpaulin was gone. The boat was full of water, but it was afloat. Miraculously, the flashlights were still attached. Tucker could see the tree that had caught them. He fell back into the bow, hooking his armpits over the gunwales, then slipped into a state of exhausted unconsciousness that could almost be called sleep. 19 Water, Water At first light the coconut palm that had saved them finally gave up and tipped over, releasing the boat to the sea. The outgoing tide carried the skiff and its sleeping passengers through a break in the reef to the open ocean. Tuck, sitting chest deep in seawater in the bow, was dreaming of being lost in the desert when a flying fish smacked him in the side of the head. Startled, he reached up instinctively, as one might slap at a biting mosquito, and caught the fish in his right hand. He opened his eyes. In his mind he was still in the desert, dying of thirst, and the fact that he was now holding on to something that looked like a trout with wings seemed a cruel surrealist joke. He looked around, saw the boat, Kimi slumped in the back, ocean and sky, and nothing else – there was no land in sight. He threw the fish at Kimi. It bounced off the navigator's forehead and into the sea. Kimi screamed and sat up abruptly. Roberto – sunglasses akimbo – poked his head out the neck of Kimi's dress and screeched at Tucker. â€Å"What you do that for?† Kimi said. â€Å"Nice piece of navigation,† Tuck said. Then he mocked Kimi's broken English. â€Å"You smell storm? You see storm in sky?† â€Å"Oh, you big-time pilot. Why you not check weather? What kind of dumb fuck American try to go two hundred miles in outboard, huh?† â€Å"You told me it was no problem.† â€Å"You paying Kimi big money. Not a problem.† â€Å"Well, it's a fucking problem now, isn't it?† Kimi stroked Roberto's head to calm him. â€Å"Stop yelling. You scare Roberto.† â€Å"I don't care about Roberto. We're half-sunk in the middle of the Pacific and we don't have a motor. I'd say we have a problem.† Kimi stopped ministering to Roberto and looked up. â€Å"No motor?† He turned and looked back at the empty motor board. There were marks where the clamps had raked across it as the motor pulled off in the tumble. He turned back to Tuck and grinned sheepishly. â€Å"Whoops.† â€Å"We're dead,† Tuck said. Kimi looked back again where the motor should have been, just to make sure that it was still gone. â€Å"I ask that man, ‘Is motor on good?' He say, ‘Oh yes, is clamp on very tight.' I pay him good money and he lie. Oh, Kimi is very mad.† Roberto barked in agreement. â€Å"Stop it!† Tucker shouted. Roberto ducked into Kimi's dress again. â€Å"We've got to get some of this water out of here. We have no motor. We can't go anywhere. We're adrift, lost†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Alive,† Kimi interrupted. â€Å"I get you out of typhoon alive and you just yell and say bad things. I quit. You get new navigator. Roberto say you mean, nasty, Chevy-driving, milk-drinking, American dog fucker.† â€Å"I don't drink milk,† Tuck said. Ha! Won that round. â€Å"That what he say.† â€Å"Roberto does not talk!† â€Å"Not to you, dog fucker. You no†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Kimi paused in mid-rant and retrieved the coffee can, which had been tied to the boat with a string, and started furiously scooping water out of the boat. â€Å"You right. Now we bail.† â€Å"What?† Tuck looked up to see Kimi was looking, wide-eyed, out to sea. Tuck followed his gaze to a spot twenty yards in front of the boat where a triangular fin was describing slow arcs in the swells. â€Å"Hurry,† Kimi shouted. â€Å"He coming in.† Tucker reached for his pack, causing the bow to dip under the water by a foot. Before he could adjust his weight to counterbalance the boat, the shark came over the gunwale, snapping its jaws like a man-eating puppet. Tuck stood up to escape the jaws and the bow lurched deeper underwater. The shark slid into the boat as Tuck went backward over the side. Fear bolted through his body as if the water had been electrified. He wanted to move in all directions at once. He kicked hard and came up a few feet from the boat to see the shark slide back into the water. â€Å"Get in boat!† Kimi screamed. He was standing with his feet wide, trying to keep the boat from capsizing. Tuck kicked so hard that he raised out of the water to the waist, then he fell toward the boat, catching the gunwale with one hand. Kimi shifted his weight to counterbalance and Tuck pulled himself in just as something hit his foot. He jerked his foot so hard he nearly went out of the boat on the opposite side, then he twisted in time to see the shark sliding down into the water with his shoe in its mouth. â€Å"Behind you!† Kimi screamed. Another shark rose up at Tuck's back. He swung around and punched it on the snout as hard as he could, taking the skin off of his knuckles on the shark's sandpaper skin. The shark slid away. The motion in the bow caused the stern to dip underwater and the next attack came at Kimi. He tossed Roberto into the air as the shark came into the boat. Roberto spread his wings and soared into the sky. Kimi reached down and came up with the rubber fuel line. Tucker looked for anything they could use as a weapon, then remembered the folding knife he had put in his pocket the night before. It was still there. Kimi was slapping the shark with the rubber hose and backing his way up onto the huge gas tank that made up the midsection of the boat. Tuck opened the knife, then lunged forward at the navigator. â€Å"Kimi!† Kimi reached back and Tuck fit the handle of the knife into his hand. The shark had worked half of its nine-foot body into the boat. Its tail thrashed at the water to power the shark up onto the gas tank. Kimi scrambled backward. Roberto swooped and screeched in the air above. Kimi's right foot found purchase on the screw cap of the gas tank and he sat up. Tuck thought he was going to strike the shark with the knife, but instead he cut the gas line and squirted a stream of gas into the shark's gaping mouth. The shark thrashed and slid off the side of the boat. Kimi brandished the knife in the air. â€Å"Yeah, fuckface, you run away. That not taste so sweet as Kimi, huh?† He fell back onto the gas tank and took a deep breath. â€Å"We show that shark who the boss.† Tuck said, â€Å"Kimi, there's more.† He pointed to set of fins approaching from the stern.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

The corresponding world consumption for oil during

In 2004, the world production of oil was estimated at just over 29. 7 Bbl. The corresponding world consumption for oil during the same period was estimated at 29. 6 Bbl of oil, leaving a surplus of just under 0. 1 Bbl at the end of the year. In the United States, one of largest consumer markets for oil and oil products, from the first week in September 2004 to the first week in September 2005, gasoline prices increased by a staggering $1. 22 per gallon to $3. 12 before dropping to $2. 25 on November 21, 2005. These figures are quite staggering considering that contracts for crude changed hands at 10 USD/barrel in 1999 (Bilgen and Kaygusuz 2004). With the emergence of China in the global market and its increasing demand for oil, it is projected that unless oil companies are able to increase the world production by investing investment in oil and natural-gas production oil prices could increase exponentially over the next ten (10) years. Since oil remains the main energy source in most countries, the demand for oil will remain constant despite the changes in the price of oil (Case, 1999). While theoretically it is expected that there will be a greater demand for oil if the price decreases, it is important to factor in the fact that more governments around the world are implementing energy saving policies as well as trying to reduce to dependence on oil as an energy source by developing alternative sources of energy (hybrid cars, solar power, hydroelectric power) (Simmons, 2005). Given the volatility of oil supply and prices coupled with the harmful effects that fossil fuels have on the environment, it is important to discuss the pros and cons of alternative sources of energy. The most popular and arguably most powerful source of energy today is the sun. Solar energy has been touted as the solution to the world’s energy problems. Being free and efficient, solar energy is a viable replacement for the energy that fossil fuels provide and as a primary source of energy it is renewable (Serra 2006). One drawback, however, is the fact that current technology to harness the sun’s rays is expensive and cannot be availed of by many, especially those in developing countries. On top of this, in order for enough solar energy to be a viable source of alternative energy there has to be an ample supply of it (Serra 2006). This means that a large area which is constantly sunny is the ideal place for the proper utilization of solar energy. There is a lot of promise in this field, however, and soon, as the technology for this improves, solar energy may indeed shed light on the energy problems of the world. Another form of alternative energy that is free and renewable is wind energy. In places that are particularly breezy and have no constant sunlight, harnessing wind energy is a very effective source of clean and renewable energy (Bilgen and Kaygusuz 2004). It has been shown in studies that when the wind is strong it can provide up to 20% of a country’s energy needs (Serra 2006). Aside from the energy that it can provide, it also promises clean and efficient energy as there are no harmful effluents that are produced and it does not require as much space as solar energy. One problem, however, is the fact that wind may not always be constant (Serra 2006). When the wind slows down to a certain speed it also can no longer be harnessed. This being said, life would certainly be a breeze if the world was able to improve the harnessing of wind energy. To water-down the need for fossil fuels, the world can also resort to hydroelectric energy. Using the natural flow of water and gravity, hydroelectric energy is one of the most widely used alternative energy sources in the world (Bilgen and Kaygusuz 2004). With the amount of energy that can be produced, hydroelectric energy produces no waste material and no pollution (Serra 2006). The downside to this form of energy, however, is the fact that the construction and maintenance for hydroelectric power dams is expensive. While there are developments in micro hydro technology, hydroelectric dams can also displace several communities, destroy forest resources and kill other fishes and aquatic life in the area (Serra 2006). This means that while hydroelectric power is certainly a very viable solution to the energy problems of the world there must be several things that should be sorted out and improved for it to be useful as the world’s main energy source. Another alternative energy source that is making waves is the energy that can be harnessed from tidal energy. Similar in function to hydroelectric energy, this type of energy uses turbines that harness the rise and fall of the tides. The natural flow of the oceans currents is harnessed in order to produce energy (Serra 2006). However, due to the peculiarity of the energy source, it cannot be located just anywhere. There are very few sites that are feasible for the location of tidal energy plants and it also poses a threat to local fishing and fisheries (Bilgen and Kaygusuz 2004). Also because tides only occur at certain times of the day it is not as efficient as the other energy types. One of the largest growing sources of alternative energy is biomass. Since this form of alternative energy has a two-fold advantage, reduction of waste and generation of energy, it seems to be the best solution to the world’s energy problems Bilgen and Kaygusuz 2004). Taking animal waste, agricultural crops, grains, wood, mill residues, forest, and aquatics, biomass plants ferment these wastes to generate gases that are then burned to create energy Bilgen and Kaygusuz 2004). The obvious downside to this, however, is that there are harmful effluents that are released. While it indeed captures the gases that are produced, it also releases energy from the burning. The Life in the lap of luxury is indeed a very convenient life but as it is it will be a lifestyle that will be nearly impossible to sustain. It is wonderful to take advantage of all of the technological advancements that are available today but one must always ask whether or not the tradeoff is worth, a moment of pleasure that could be disastrous for this generation and the next. References Serra, J. â€Å"Alternative Fuel Resource Development†, Clean and Green Fuels Fund, (2006). Bilgen, S. and K. Kaygusuz (2004), Renewable Energy for a Clean and Sustainable Future, Energy Sources 26, 1119. Jeff Tester and Ron DiPippo (2007-06-07). â€Å"The Future of Geothermal Energy† (PDF). US Department of Energy – Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. http://www1. eere. energy. gov/geothermal/pdfs/structure_outcome. pdf. Retrieved on 2008-04-16.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Cellphone Addiction

Cell Phones In many ways, cell phones are addictive. The gadgets are an integral part of many people’s days. Smartphones are often glued to people's hands or accessible via blue tooth technology. Negative effects of cell phone addiction include isolation and unbalanced priorities. There are effective solutions for treating the addiction, once you identify the symptoms. Symptoms of Cell Phone Addiction Take a step back and ask yourself how important your cell phone is to your day.If your phone use reduces the quality of your life, you may have an addiction. Perhaps you carry the gadget around with you even when you do not leave home; you look at the screen as you walk and constantly check it for missed calls. Another symptom is you feel the need to have the device with you at the dinner table and look at apps rather than talking to family members over meals. Is your cell phone constantly in your hand or within your line of vision? You obsess over the item; your obsession is a c ell phone addiction.Look at your phone bill. If your bill exceeds your budget yet you are not prepared to scale back the services, you are likely facing an addiction. Another factor to consider is whether the gadget is getting in the way of your social life. Perhaps you cancel lunches with friends in favor of staying home to keep up with social networks via your mobile. When the device gets in the way of your real life events in a negative way, you likely have a cell phone addiction. Causes There are many causes of the addiction.The cell phone may be just one part of a larger addiction to technology in general. After all, many smartphones are equipped with apps to play games, browse the internet, and send emails. Online social media networks are growing rapidly. There are several, with the big players including Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Your friends and family members are joining networks too. You often â€Å"talk† to one another on the networks as your schedules keep you too busy to meet face to face.If you have made new online friends through the networks, your cell phone provides a way to connect with these people when they live in other cities and even in other countries. You trade media links, such as articles and photos. The interaction is fun and you begin to spend more time daily on your mobile device. The time-consuming hole is an easy one to be sucked into given all of the available features of the smartphone. http://christywrites. hubpages. com/hub/cell-phone-addiction-the-symptoms-and-methods-of-treatment

Friday, September 27, 2019

Political parties in the United States Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Political parties in the United States - Essay Example People are either in favor of the Democrats or the Republicans. Recently though, new movements are arising from the grassroots which seek to distance themselves from the influence of either parties but nevertheless carry some of intrinsic liberal or conservative political standpoints of the Democratic and Republican parties respectively. This may be attributed to the fact that satisfaction with how both parties have run the past and present administrations is very low. Whether this phenomenon would lead to the rise of new political parties that would present themselves as viable alternatives to the dominant ones as well as the minor groups in existence is a possibility that remains to be seen. One way of determining this possibility is by taking a look at the history of the establishment of the Democratic and the Republican parties. A study on their respective evolution as the country’s top political forces, which did not only shape opinions but national and international poli cies as well, would provide ideas on the future of American politics as well. At a glance the contradictions of the two parties may seem to have stalled the country in its efforts to advance further or to maintain its status as a world power. However, this brief study would also prove that is the said contradictions that served as factors in the changes that the country continues to experience. A review on the US Constitution would tell that that the nation’s Founding Fathers did not wish to see the country’s political system to be partisan in any way. Such an attitude against partisan politics however may well be considered as a natural reaction to the conditions of the times. Apparently, the nation was still young and unstable. While it had yet to strengthen itself internally, it was already facing threats from external forces. There were other countries in Europe that were interested in certain parts of its territory and there was also the danger of the British tryi ng to regain what pride and power it lost as a result of the American independence. The Federalist Papers No. 9 and 10 pointed out that factionalism and the emergence of opposing political groups would not be advantageous to the country. In Federalist Paper No. 10, however, James Madison explicitly wrote about what he perceived as the great disadvantage of a democracy. His assertion is that â€Å"a large republic is superior to a democracy because a large republic will have more qualified people whose talent will be pooled together, and it will be more conspicuous, thus reducing the chance for corruption.† (Scaros 41) Obviously, even as there were still no political parties at the time because these were basically discouraged, the ideas that would differentiate the basic principles of the Democrats and the Republicans had begun to emerge. In the last decade of the 1700s, the first two political parties emerged. In the study of political history, this was a period that was cal led the First Party System. The Federalist Part and the Democratic-Republican Party main line of contention was about the role of the national and federal government. The former strongly believed in a strong central government, emphasizing that this would result in administrative and fiscal efficiency. The latter, on the other hand considers a

Thursday, September 26, 2019

To Avoid Gaining Weight, Students Should Eat Healthy Essay

To Avoid Gaining Weight, Students Should Eat Healthy - Essay Example This essay touches one of the most disturbing problem among contemporary students and the youth at all. It tells about the reasons and consequences of gaining weight. We all know that we should eat healthy, as much as we know how difficult it is now, when our lives are so fast that all we have lest is eating fast food as well. This paper contains the problem in particular, the proposal, counter argument and the justification.... The fast food is rich with calories, carbohydrates, fatty material and very low in nutrition. So as a result of its consumption, students get obese, ill and sick, addicted and use to suffer many chronic diseases. A recent research has proved that junk or fast food can be a reason for mental disorders and mental problems (Robert 2006). The diet which is low in nutrients and high in calories or fatty material ends up in the mental disorders and many diseases link to human brain. And junk or fast food/ unhealthy diet can increase the likelihood of depression to 60 -80%. Junk food such as pizza, French fries, petty / zinger burgers contain so much saturated fats and are the cause of the people to put on weight tremendously, which in turn cause heart diseases, high cholesterol, sugar, and many other chronic diseases that will put an end to their lives. To avoid such habits among the students race, many measures can be taken. (Assuming the scenario) I will conduct a survey of students in t he FAST-NU University from primary data collection. The food place for the fulfillment of their desire for food is their only cafeteria they have in their university vicinity. The cafe holds most of the junk food with high calories, high carbohydrates with very low nutrition in them. They have burgers, French fries, patties, pastries, butter cup cakes, chocolate and cream cupcakes, pizza, rolls, carbonated drinks etc and only one nutritious item chapatti and gravy. Now it is a big platform for the students to consume those unhealthy items in large number and as a result get obese and fall into above describes diseases. My survey consisted of

A Madmans Diary by Lu Xun Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

A Madmans Diary by Lu Xun - Essay Example From the visit, he learns about the younger brother’s tribulations; he suffered from a mental condition, but he recovered and has since relocated to another area. The narrator is given a diary by the older brother whereby an account of the younger brother’s illness was kept. This is the diary referred to as the ‘Madman’s Diary’ by the narrator, and its contents constitute the bulk of the story. From the diary, we learn of the extreme paranoia of the protagonist during the time of his illness (Xun & Nadolny 36). The story describes about social conditions in china at the time. The diary talks about cannibalism, which is a common practice in Chinese history and culture. During the early 1900s, Chinese people were desperate as a result of the extreme famine, and this culminated into cannibalism. It is this cannibalism that the protagonist describes during his illness by being paranoid that those surrounding him would soon or later eat him up. A deeper analysis of the story shows that the author was castigating and condemning Chinese culture at this time, whereby the strong in society devoured the weaker ones. The character that catches my attention is the madman himself. Even though he has crazy ideas about cannibalism, he typifies change in society. Despite his hardships, he struggles to get better, and later he gets a good job in another city. From his diary, he has given us insight into the Chinese society at that time whereby strong people ‘ate up’ weaker ones (Hsun & Yang

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Security Survey Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Security Survey - Assignment Example This survey also involves interviewing all employees working in the firm, day and night shifts, meeting with security officers and other law enforcing bodies in the urban area where the firm is situated (Davis, 2008). This survey, if done properly, will help the firm identify the risks, threats and plan well to reduce the security-related expenses. It will also help the firm to know areas of weakness in security issues. Since this manufacturing plant is located in the urban environment, it is important to recognize the number of risks that it might experience. These risks include theft, air and noise pollution, traffic congestion near the plant and terrorism, which is a global threat to almost all organizations. In order to reduce these risks, the firm needs to erect a tall stone fence that does not allow passer bys to see the activities carried inside the compound of the firm. In this kind of location (urban), one gate to the firm is more effective to allow easier access control. The gate should be made of a tough steel metal that cannot be destroyed easily by thieves and other employees who might intend to sneak with the company’s property. This should be done in all entrances and exits of the compound. To save time while at the access points, two entrances are more suitable to enable security officers conduct friendly security checks to the employees. This will also help the security officers identify outsiders who pretend to be staff members of the firm. The security check helps to prevent the entrance of illegal weapons such as grenades, firearms and other crude weapons that may create a massive loss to the firm. These entrances should have two security officers, both male and f emale. Disasters like fire and earthquakes are experienced in many parts of the world; therefore, emergency exits should be available in all the small and large firms to allow easier

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

MKTG Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

MKTG - Essay Example Teenagers and young adults spend countless hours in front of their television playing video games. The graphics and capabilities of video game consoles such as X-Box 360 have come so far that it is enabling marketers to become creative in the ads they develop through video games. Video game developers are able to gain extra money by introducing ads into their games. This is a brand new advertising medium that has lots of potential for growth. The use of adverting in video games is done through subtle subliminal messages. A lot of games such as Grand Theft Auto there are entire cities illustrated as part of the plot. Advertisers use these virtual cities as their breeding ground for ads. Companies such as Coca-Cola might place a vending machine in the video game; car manufacturers might use their brand name in the car models players’ use in games such as Grand Turismo. Due to the amount of hours gamers spend playing, marketers want to capitalize on this alternative media to send their messages to potential customers. Work Cited Page Emarketer.com. 2011. â€Å"Video Game Advertising.† 5 April 2011.

Monday, September 23, 2019

To teach children about the prevention about spreading germs and the Essay

To teach children about the prevention about spreading germs and the cold and flu - Essay Example Since viruses are micro organisms, they cannot be seen with naked eyes. When the viruses of contagious diseases like cold and flu, enter our body, they reproduce rapidly and damage cells by secreting poisonous toxins. We become sick when healthy cells of our body are destroyed. Infection is the stage when the viruses invade our body and enter cells to start rapid reproduction process. The rapid multiplication produces a huge number of viruses which then destroy their host cells and cause diseases. The physical symptoms like sneeze, fever, cough, running nose etc. occur as a result of activation of antibodies and other such agents of the body’s immunity system that resist or fight the harmful foreign agents (viruses), resulting in physical symptoms The symptoms are indication that our body has started reacting to the invasion of foreign bodies and may need appropriate backup mechanisms like medicines to kill those germs. Working with a group of four children in the implementation and learning methods of the preventive measures was a whole new experience. The curiosity and enthusiasm of the children was contagious and implementing different measures of prevention turned out to be a great learning experience, which was full of fun. Initially washing hands became a big issue with the children but when their hands were put under the microscope and they saw micro organisms, they were quick to adopt this habit! Showing the presence of micro-organisms was a huge motivator for the children to take up and implement other preventive measures in their daily life. They also assured that all their friends and family members would also be informed about the need to wash hands not only as prevention against the infectious diseases but also for healthy living. Information about balanced diet had become a big debate but ultimately all the children agreed that they all

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Flemings and Walloons Essay Example for Free

Flemings and Walloons Essay Flemings and Walloons In the 19th and 20th centuries, Flemings and Walloons were divided by political and economic tensions, but the most outstanding source of division was social differences. The Flemings and Walloons went head-to-head because of the divergence in their culture and ultimately, the way they lived their day-to-day lives. Both of these groups wanted the country of Belgium to be run in their favor, but with that would come a clash of cultures. The first controversy between the Flemings and Walloons was political tension. After the Belgian Revolution in 1830, the new nation of Belgium had to come to terms in context of political leaders, but the dispute between the Flemings and Walloons was so strong that no political settlement could be officiated. In Document 2, an American diplomat speaks about the history of Flemings and Walloons, stating that Walloons are impatient politicians and deny tradition, while Flemings feel strong nationality and are better contenders to run the government. This document is supported by Document 4, where a Brussels-based newspaper claims that Walloon control the north, but resist monarchial power, while Flemings are ardent supporters. In Document 8, a French observer discuses the struggle for political power between the Flemings and Walloons, stating that the Catholic Flemings lead a politically dominant party and their leadership demands must be met over those of the Walloon politicians. Through years of battling, Walloons and Flemings still found their selves butting heads in the political arena, but still, all of that fighting came down to one issue: language. Another controversy that arose was economic competition. The potato famine had reached Belgium by the 1840s, straining the economy and there was a struggle of who would come out on top. In Document 4, a Brussels-based newspaper explains the Walloons in the north, stating that they are prominent in the economy and the Flemings resent their occupation. In Document 7, a Political leader speaks about improvement in the Flemish region, saying that they are under a system of economic exploitation that causes suffering within the Flemish community. In Document 9, a government publication assesses the differences in the economy of the Flemings and Walloons. The Flemish regions remain agricultural and commercial and in Wallonia manufacturers produce textiles and metallurgy, so there is a complete diversion in working economical paths because they run in completely different ways. The hard line of division that separated the Flemish and the Walloons still came down to their refusal to produce together, let alone work together. The last and most dominant controversy between the Flemings and Walloons was social tension. With nationalism on the rise, the Flemings and Walloons were completely divided by their languages: who would be the receiver of national pride? In Document 1, it is made clear that there is a distinct line of separation between the north (Flemish country) and south (Wallonia). In Document 5, a Flemish pamphlet states that there is a bilingual disputation in Belgium and Walloons are trying to invade Belgium with French language, which should be considered absurd while Flemish culture is traditional and the language must be recognized by all Belgians. In Document 6, a French diplomatic observer discusses the differences between Flemish and Walloon thought, saying that while they do spend much time debating in the political setting, that in the end, all of the tension and dispute comes down to the factor of language. In Document 10, a Belgian political leader says that the language issue dares to move even farther that just a matter of being a Dutch speaker or a French speaker, he says that the Flemish culture and history as a whole fights for a real equality of language and culture and that all problems between the Flemings and Walloons stem from their differences in language. In Document 10, a Flemish publicist demands nothing but equal rights, saying that the problems between the Flemings and Walloons are not confined to small areas anymore, but the whole country is in dispute. Lastly, Document 12, taken from a London paper, says that the problems between the Walloons and Flemings are caused by pure jealousy and while they consider themselves better than the other, all are equal, but only they can figure that out. The relationship between the Flemings and Walloons throughout the 19th and early 20th century was a very strained one. While nationalism was rising, the groups kept fighting because of political, economical, and most of all social differences.

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Global Recession: US Responses

Global Recession: US Responses LCB/2356 Explain the predictions that the OECD have made concerning the US economy, making sure that you define the terms â€Å"Budget Deficit† and â€Å"Debt† in your solution. A budget deficit is when the nations is spending more then their revenue received. This would mean that expenditure exceeds tax revenue resulting to a budget deficit. The term â€Å"Budget Deficit† is usually used to refer the government expenditure rather than businesses. A debt is an amount of money that is owed to another person or organizations. A debt is usually repaid after a certain amount of time given or when is able too depending on the situation. A debt is a method that is used for some corporation or businesses for making a large purchase of something that they cant afford. The prediction made by the OECD with the budget deficit of 2011 being tacked at 10% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the American debt increasing to 101.1% of GDP. This helps prove the fact that the American government is spending way more than its actually receiving in revenue. This would also help us assume that the American government is putting into effect on the fiscal policy which means that the government increases their spending and decreases taxation. This would lead to budget deficit as expenditure surpasses revenue. There are two schools of thought on how the US government should deal with its current economic problems Deficit Reduction As for the Greek and Irish Governments, Deficit reduction entails a fiscal policy where it decrease the governments spending and increases the taxation rates in order to increase revenue. The objective of a deficit reduction is to make sure that the revenue that the nation is getting are greater than the expenditure that they are doing. Therefore reducing the deficit and possibly bringing about a surplus in budget. A budget surplus would help the nation pay its debts therefore giving the government a capable of developing without having have to repay theirs debts in long term which will also ease up the political tensions with other nations economically. Contractionary fiscal policy, while the budget deficit is reduced and also decreasing the national’s debt, it also has a lot of disadvantages to it. As it decreases the expenditure, aggregate demand would decrease because it is Consumption + Investment + government Spending + (Export – Imports) (C+I+G+(X-M). As increasing the taxes it would reduce the aggregate demand therefore it may cause disincentives to work therefore it would affect the productivity, However this would not effect is the income is really high and balances out with the higher tax. As the government’s spending decreases this would also lead to increase in unemployment which would lead to decrease in consumption because there is no money to be spent by the general population. As shown in the graph above of a contractionary fiscal policy. The decrease in the amount of government spending, G in C+I+G+(X-M) leads to the Aggregate Demand Curve shifting inwards from the AD to AD1. Therefore this will decrease the price level which is an indication of inflation in the economy as shown from PL to PL1. This would also lead to the Real Domestic Output to be decrease from RDO to RDO1. We have to consider the long term affects of Contractionary Fiscal Policy that while it allows a decrease in debt, decrease in spending and increased revenue which reduces the budget deficit. The problem that arises from this as unemployment and decrease in government spending will result in low economic growth and giving it slow progression. Fiscal Stimulus and Progressive Taxation Another school of thought regarding the plan of action to deal with the ongoing American economic crisis is to implement a Keynesian stimulus package with the reform of the tax system in order to make it more progressive. A Keynesian stimulus package is when the government puts in more money in the economy in order the strengthen the economy and preventing a recession by boosting employment and spending, this is also known as a expansionary fiscal policy. A Expansionary Fiscal Policy seeks to expand the money supply in order to have a higher economic growth. The long term effects of expansionary fiscal policy would also have to be considered, Constant economic growth, more job employments, and also more consumption which helps with the economy. However, As the economic grows the inflation rates does too, it also leads to an increase of budget deficit as the expenditure is higher than the revenue gained and increasing the debt that the government would borrow, which eventually would h ave to be repaid. Therefore as for the government to spend more they would have to increase the taxation to balance out the revenue and expenditure. A progressive tax system is when the taxable base amount increase, the tax rates would too. This refers to the more money the person or the organizations makes, the more tax they are charged and the less they are making the less tax they would have to pay. This aims to allow the lower tax payers to be able to keep more money in order for them to continue consuming while increasing the tax revenue. However, people in the higher tax bracket would find this unfair because they would rather everyone pay the same amount therefore implementing this system would make it hard. One of the main goal of the progressive income tax is to make it a tool for redistributing income from the upper class to the lower and middle class, this would help keep the income gap from growing between the rich and the poor. It would also give more revenue to the government because they are collecting more money from the higher incomer earners. This is make the government collect more money from the tax payers rat her than if everyone had to pay the same amount or percentage. As a result, this would help the government develop or provide more programs and services that benefit the society. However progressive tax system also has some disadvantages for it, One would be that some businesses would be discouraged to expand or invest as additional profit is taxed at higher prices. It would also make people feel discrimination as I said before the higher tax earners would see it unfair to them because this system doesn’t promote equality amongst individuals. As shown in the graph above, Its showing the effects of the expansionary fiscal policy, when the government spendings are increased leading to an increase in aggregate demand from AD to AD1 as G in C+I+G+(X-M) making the Aggregate Damand curve to shift inwards. This would also mean that the increase in Price Level, Which is from PL to PL1 and an increase in Real Domestic Output, Which is from RDO to RDO1. Explain in broad terms the background to the â€Å"Credit Crunch† and how this impacted on the real economies of both the USA and the UK The â€Å"Credit Crunch† also known as the financial crisis of 2007 to 2008 is the worst global financial crisis since the â€Å"Great Depression† of the 1930s with its after effects still being considered still as shown by the Euro Crisis. There may be a number of reasons which may include of the credit crunch but its not limited to; the burst of the housing bubble in America, Lack of banking regulation, however the biggest cause would be the encouraged risk of taking from years of stable economic growth and low inflation rates which makes the borrowing and purchasing of bad securities and properties. The housing bubble of America started earlier in 2006 as the house prices were all risen up more than 100%, this is beause of the ease of attaining mortgages at that time. This led to people deciding to take loan and acquire additional property in order to take advantage of the higher value in properties, in other words to buy and resell properties to make a profit. Regardless of that, people in the end are not able to pay their loans because of predatory lending, which is when the loans are advertised at a low interest rate but are switch out to adjustable rate mortgages where the interest charged would be higher amount of the interest paid. This then led to people having have to lose their properties and also leading to a huge decrease in property prices. Therefore this would lead up to a liquidity issue however banks had no liquid assests and leading to the decline and eventually bankruptcy of many banks. The collapse of the mortgage repayment was considered the start of the financial crisis. Another reason would be that the lack of financial regulation and supervision of financial institution who were involved in the risky investments, excessive borrowing and lack of transparency. The borrowing of money made by many banks in order to invest in their project usually ended up being a failure resulting of the bank investing on something that they cant make profit off therefore giving them the inability to repay their debts. The fact that this happened in a very large scale in cooperating many different banks linking each other, it led to the bankruptcy of both borrowers and lenders giving them no more or insufficient money to function. References http://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/expansionary_policy.asp (Accessed 20.11.14 [Online]) http://www.econport.org/content/handbook/ADandS/AD/Shift.html (Accessed 20.11.14 [Online]) http://www.sparknotes.com/economics/macro/aggregatedemand/section1.rhtml (Accessed 20.11.14 [Online]) http://www.ehow.com/info_7742308_pros-cons-budget-deficit.html (Accessed 20.11.14 [Online]) http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/stimulus-package.asp (Accessed 22.11.14 [Online]) http://www.economicshelp.org/macroeconomics/fiscal-policy/fiscal_policy_criticism/ (Accessed 22.11.14 [Online]) http://hubpages.com/hub/Flat-Tax-vs-Progressive-Tax-Pros-and-Cons-for-the-US (Accessed 23.11.14 [Online]) http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/progressive-tax-system-definition-pros-cons.html (Accessed 23.11.14 [Online]) http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/creditcrunch.asp (Accessed 26.11.14 [Online]) http://www.investopedia.com/university/credit-crisis/credit-crisis4.asp (Accessed 26.11.14 [Online])

Friday, September 20, 2019

The Benefits of Team Sports Participation Essay -- argumentative, persu

There are many benefits gained from participating in team sports. Team participation can build self esteem, promote social interaction and help one gain a sense of responsibility. Being involved in a team sport can also help you to attain personal fitness goals and maintain wellness. The time spent practicing with a team, will improve your skills and give you countless hours of enjoyment. Participating in a team sport can increase one’s self esteem. By being part of a team, you will give and receive praise. Receiving recognition from a team mate or a coach will boost your self esteem because you have been acknowledged for your efforts. As you are praised for your efforts, you will become more confident, thus improving your self esteem. Often times, the bond formed between team mates on the field translates into a friendship off the field. As team mates come to depend on each other and know that they are depended on, their level of commitment or responsibility to the game and skills needed for the game increases. Perhaps you have decided that you want to lose weight or just become more physically fit. Being involved in team sports can help you achieve this goal. First of all, decide on a sport that you enjoy. Secondly, start practicing and playing with the team on a regular basis. Last but not least, incorporate healthy food choices into your diet. As you become more active, you will lose weight and become more fit. After you have achieved your goal weight and level of fitness, maintain it by continuing to stay active and committed to a team sport. Having a fun, physical activity to share with friends, such as team sports, will help you maintain wellness. An article titled â€Å"The Benefits of Team Sports† fro... ... in a meeting that there is an upcoming project and that everyone must contribute to the completion of the project, he expects for all the employees to work together to finish. When it comes time to present your project and everyone else had completed their assigned task to specifications but you have gone off and made your own plans for how to complete the project, then it isn’t going to be completed or presented correctly. Because of your inability to listen and follow directions, you could run the risk of you being fired or possibly risk someone else’s job. You will also receive a poor performance review that could end up affecting your paycheck ultimately. Works Cited Alan Smithee, â€Å"How Participation in Team Sports Impacts People’s Lives† Found at www.helium.com Lucy Rector Filppu, â€Å"The Benefits of Team Sports† Found at www.education.com

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Comparing Edna of Kate Chopins The Awakening and Nora of Henrik Ibsen

Comparing Edna of Kate Chopin's The Awakening and Nora of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House Kate Chopin's work, The Awakening, and Henrik Ibsen's play, A Doll's House, were written at a time when men dominated women in every aspect of life.   Edna Pontellier, the protagonist in The Awakening, and Nora, the protagonist in A Doll's House, are trapped in a world dominated by men.   The assumed superiority of their husbands traps them in their households.   Edna and Nora share many similarities, yet differ from each other in many ways.   Two main similarities of Edna and Nora are that they both have an awakening and are like caged birds without freedom; one main difference is that Edna lives in reality and Nora lives in a fantasy world.   Other similarities are: each protagonist seems happy about her marriage in the beginning, is controlled by her husband, and has a secret.   Despite all the similarities, the two protagonists differ in several ways: Edna does what she wants while Nora dreams about what she wants; Edna has a mind of her own while Nora seems to be a scattered brain wife; and Edna stops taking care of her children all together while Nora cares for the children on and off.   Ã‚  Ã‚   An image of a green and yellow parrot in a cage occurs throughout The Awakening; the parrot represents how Edna Pontellier is trapped in her marriage to Leonce Pontellier.   During that time period women were expected to stay at home and perform household duties, take care of their husbands, and take care of their children; women were not supposed to be educated and did not hold a career.   Edna realizes she does not want to perform the expected duties of a woman because she is not happy just being a wife and mother.   In the beginning of ... ...n reality.   Ibsen and Chopin both wrote stories that represent the oppression of women in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century; The Awakening and "A Doll's House' are realistic writings that show society's treatment of women. Works Cited and Consulted: Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym et al. 2nd ed. Vol. 2. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1985. Durbach, Errol. A Doll's House: Ibsen's Myth of Transformation. Boston: Twayne, 1991. Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll's House.   Literature and Ourselves. 2nd Ed. Ed. by Gloria Henderson, Bill Day, and Sandra Waller.   New York: Longman, 1997 Martin, Wendy, ed. "Introduction." New Essays on The (Awakening. New York, NY: Cambridge UP, 1988. Templeton, Joan. "The Doll House Backlash: Criticism, Feminism, and Ibsen." PMLA (January 1989): 28-40.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

A Study of Perspectives Essay -- Paris Burning Film Movies Essays

A Study of Perspectives Livingston's documentary Paris is Burning inspired an awareness of being that I had not previously experienced. The film urges the spectator to reevaluate not only one's breadth of knowledge of the black gay culture in the 80's, but also the perspectives from which one views the film. Personally speaking, the easiest evaluation of the latter topic would be the perspective of a privileged white straight female born into a sheltered and socially traditional household. This background would thus color my reaction to the film: one of intense sadness for the featured interviewees who yearned for an existence which was mostly unobtainable except in the case of extreme sacrifice and typically led to social ostracizing and ridicule (even in some cases, death) – yet this existence they yearned to emulate was something I had been born into without struggle nor appreciation, it was simply my life. But one could say my perspective of pity and guilt was actually somewhat of a perversion of the deeper meaning of the film. My feelings were not enlightened but the opposite – I was subjugating the people's identities in the film by not recognizing their independent validity, and only reacting to their performance of emulation with condescending sympathy. My depression over the film resulted not from what Bell Hooks's depression stemmed as she explains her views on the film: " [It is] a documentary affirming that colonized, victimized, exploited black folks are all to willing to be complicit in perpetuating the fantasy that ruling-class white culture is the quintessential site of unrestricted joy, freedom, power, and pleasure." (Hooks, Is Paris Burning? pg. 149) I was only saddened by the fact that the performers in... ...int their faces brown and wear prosthetic breasts and butts would reference historical oppression, but that this historical oppression still effected people of today and was not simply a story of past times, but a continuing struggle. Like the deeply rooted racism and classism of Paris is Burning, a film seemingly celebrating the culture and people it serves to eventually dehumanize, the actions of Bert and Ernie stood for much more than two Haverford students lacking perspective and foresight. Bert and Ernie's actions stand for a more deeply rooted problem of young people today forgetting that we are still struggling for equality and respect within our society and that no one is immune from this necessity for empathy and understanding. Works Cited: Hook, Bell (1992). Is Paris Burning? , Black Looks. (pp. 145-156). The Muppets Abstract. Oct. 5th, 2004.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Lifestyle of Rococo Era

Rococo emerged in the 18th century as a French art and design style, as well as a way of life for many during that time. Rococo works, designs and lifestyles are characterized by elegant and ornate fixtures, furniture, small sculptures, various ornamental mirrors, as well as different tapestries, reliefs, and wall paintings that compliment the architecture they are placed in. Rococo is not only expressed in the arts, but also in the lifestyles of those who lived during that time. The Rococo era encompassed not only visual arts, but also the way people lived along the era. Looking closely at where the term Rococo came from, we could see that it has roots from the French word rocaille, or shell, which is the most common motif during that time, and also the Italian term barococo or the Baroque style itself. Rococo has been associated with the love of shell-like curves, and the focus on decorative arts. This could be considered as the prevailing fashion statement at that time, where most of the designs of dresses prints and more are related to that of the shell. It was fashion like no other, where curves and other shell like decorations are evident in most pieces of art works. The fist manifestation of the Rococo Era was in the decorative arts and the interior designs. This is accompanied by a change in leadership, where when the King Louis XV succeeded the throne, there were also changes done in the court artists, thus affecting the general artistic fashion. The lavish designs of the Baroque designs slowly faded as the previous king neared his reign’s end. Because of this, the designs that emerged from that were more on the lighter elements, as well as emphasis given on the curves and the various natural patterns. When it comes to the daily life of aristocrats during the Rococo period, it is characterized by a grand lifestyle, where it is full of leisure and recreation, a celebration of how they look at life: grand. Aristocrats had their houses ornamented with delicate gilded furniture, as well as wall decorations. What matters in the Rococo lifestyle is how grand and bountiful it looks to others. This can be seen with architecture in Rococo era, where most of its style is limited to the exterior, wherein its facade is ornamented with other facades. This is a manifestation that Rococo lifestyle is mainly for show, or what is seen by others in the outside. The Rococo era is also characterized as a fanciful and often playful in nature, where the people living in that time were free-spirits, easy-going, and leisure-loving people. Their life depended on their extravagant fashion, as it is a very effective way to express them as to who they really are. As an emergence of the Baroque era, the people living in the Rococo times loved ornately designed dresses, with intricate details of shell-like structures which are very colourful as well as expensive to purchase. What matters to these people is how they would look to others, despite all the money they have spent. The Rococo era can be credited as a movement in the arts during the early 18th century in France. This has emerged from the Baroque era, which was very evident during the age or period of Enlightenment. It is right about the time to face new ideas about the existence of man and to introduce this to the people. The Rococo movement is basically the visual representation of the optimism in which the populace felt in response to the awakening of ideas regarding the human existence. Rococo in its real essence can be considered as both the rise and fall of the Baroque art and era. The emergence of the Rococo era can be considered as the artists as well as the society’s reaction to the heavy works that the Baroque style has created. Rococo symbolized changed, a movement from the grand manner of an artwork as well as a lifestyle, towards a lighter more charming manner which began in French architectural works at the end of Louis the XIVs reign. It has quickly spread all over Europe, arousing the interest of the artists in the region. This is a great event in the context of visual arts, as Rococo presented or portrayed a world outside the realms of our understanding. Rococo was considered to be an art which portrayed another world outside our own, a world of artificiality, make believe, as well as game playing and leisure loving. It is a lifestyle dependent of a person’s stature, as t was considered to be a way of the aristocracy. It is the reflection of how these aristocracies lived their own lives, emphasizing on their indulgences, their wants, and even their utter greed. This is aside from the fact that these aristocracies should be the ones who should help those who were in need. These lifestyles are usually unreflective of their ways that’s why they lack morality, self-discipline, reason and more. The Rococo era is a very colourful part of man’s attempt to understand more about the world through arts. As an emergence of the Baroque era, the Rococo aims to address the shortcomings experienced by those who were from the Baroque era. The Rococo can be considered as a revolution, a movement which everyone anticipates to take over as soon as opportunity tells to do so. As a part of the human lifestyle, the Rococo era gives us another perspective on reality. Works Cited: Rococo Art. (2005).  Ã‚   Retrieved December 17, 2007, from http://www.huntfor.com/arthistory/c17th-mid19th/rococo.htm Dress and Decor. (2007). The Baroque and Rococo Style – Introduction.  Ã‚   Retrieved December 17, 2007, from http://www.theatre.ubc.ca/dress_decor/baroque_rococo_intro.htm Gietmann, G. (1912). Rococo Style.  Ã‚   Retrieved December 17, 2007, from http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13106a.htm Harden, M. (2005). Rococo.  Ã‚   Retrieved December 17, 2007, from http://ww.artchive.com/artchive/rococo.html World Wide Arts Resources. (2006). Art History: Rococo: (1700 – 1760).  Ã‚   Retrieved Decemeber 17, 2007, from http://wwar.com/masters/movements/rococo.html   

Monday, September 16, 2019

With reference to a case study on Brazil, explain what affects rural to urban migration

The following essay is based on a case study of Brazil. I will describe and show the problems of rural to urban migration. The two locations we will be studying are the Caatinga and a city called Belo Horizonte, both located in Brazil (see map below). Rural areas are areas isolated from city centers with very little communication and transport to them. They are very poor areas with little agriculture. Urban areas are city like places where communication, transport and living conditions are acceptable. The Caatinga is one of the most remote areas of Brazil. It is a dry and poor area. It is the largest dry region in South America. The vegetation in this area is very pitiable. Population Pressure happens a lot here. Many people are born and are forced to live in such disgraceful conditions. It is situated in the North-eastern part of Brazil. The Caatinga has serious problems including health and, the most important one, there is a lack of jobs. Another major problem are droughts. Approximately once every ten years, a drought occurs causing large disasters in matters of agriculture and health. Climate also plays a big role in the daily life of the Caatinga inhabitants. The other location we are going to study is Belo Horizonte. It is a town located in the south-eastern part of Brazil. I'm going to concentrate on the surroundings (suburbs) of the town known as the Favelas. These are groups of houses, now changed into neighborhoods where people that migrate from the Caatinga and other rural areas of Brazil move too. Here the houses are mostly wooden shacks or the better ones are made with cement and bricks. Here there is little electricity and water. Living conditions are much better than in the Caatinga. There are more job opportunities for migrated people with no money. People that migrate to these places, in most cases leave the Caatinga with no money at all and will have to live under cardboard boxes until they can afford to build there own shack. You can read also Classifications of Restaurants The most important factor that affects migration are the Push and the Pull factors. Push factors are negative factors. These could include such things as health, education, general living conditions etc. The Pull factors are positive factors. These include things like electricity provided, clean water, better health etc. In this case study, the push factors will be about the rural areas (Caatinga). The pull factors will be about the urban area (Favelas). Migration is affected by these factors. In this study the most important ones are health, climate, job opportunities, education and living conditions. The problems that people face in the Caatinga are very serious. This is why people want to migrate or even are forced to migrate to urban places and Favelas. They do this to try and gain some money and to give better future for their children. Droughts are very common in the Caatinga. When these occur, rivers can dry up and there is no water to drink and to use for agricultural reasons. This brings every time famine, starvation and disease. People can only drink from dirty ponds formed when the last rain had fallen. Illiteracy is another great problem. There are no schools for people to go to. Most of the population cannot read nor write. Children cannot learn how to write and this is why when they migrate, they will have very underprivileged jobs with very little pay. When droughts occur, agricultural land is destroyed along side with all of the crops grown during the year. This brings long periods of time with no one working on the land which means no jobs. With no jobs, people have no money and cannot buy food nor medicines for their family. When the harvesting fails, people can only eat lamb and beans throughout the year until the next harvest is ready. There is no medical care in these areas. Diseases such as Malaria strike young children and elder people causing death rates to increase drastically. This also is connected with transport. Ill and sick people cannot be transported to cities to be taken care of. No food can be imported to the Caatinga. The population of the Caatinga can only live on what they produce, this is called subsistence farming. The climate has also a very important job in the Caatinga and is one of the biggest factors causing migration. All through out the year there is little or no rain at all in some areas of the Caatinga. The temperatures are very high in the summer (reaching over 30à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½) and in the winter are very cold (approximately 10à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½). You can read also Costco Case Study Families in the Caatinga are very large. Some families have up to 15 children and in some cases can reach 20. This is because people want to have more children so that they can be maintained when they reach an older age. Another reason is that diseases can easily kill many children. On average out of 10 children, 5 die of illnesses or starvation. In the Caatinga child labor is also a big concern for the government. Many children are used to farm on the land which isn't of their property. People from the Caatinga decide to migrate to urban cities like Belo Horizonte. They have to walk for hundreds of kilometers with all of their belongings and no money. When they arrive in the Favelas, they have to set up a new life. The Favelas are situated just outside cities. These are groups of houses built by migrates coming in from the rural part of the country. Here their children can receive an education from proper schools. They learn how to read and write so that in the future they will be able to have a better job. Once they reach an older age, children will have to start working to try and get some money for their numerous family. In a case we saw, the money that the father and her daughter earned was à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½12 a month, just enough to maintain their big family. They cannot spend any of it on leisure and entertainment. With the money they can buy proper food from markets and are able to feed the whole family. They can also buy medicines and with time, they can improve their household. The birth rate here is also much lower than in the Caatinga. This is because health is much more advanced and people don't need as many children to maintain them. The death rate is also much lower than in the Caatinga. Medicines to cure diseases are introduced and hospitals are nearby. Electricity and sometime running water in houses is introduced. This is a necessity for many families. The transport and communication is good here. The only problem is that there is no entertainment in these Favelas (no cinema, shops, restaurants etc†¦). The climate here is much better. The temperatures are quite high throughout the year and the rainfall is balanced. In conclusion to my essay, the urban environment is a much better place to live in because of all its pull factors. Urban population is increasing rapidly, 78% of Brazilian population lives in Urban population whilst the other 22% is spread out between rural and Amazonian. I would prefer to live in an urban environment because of all the comforts it can provide compared to the Caatinga. Still people don't have power over their actions. People living in the Caatinga cannot decide weather to move or not. It is a risk they have to take and only some families can take it. It would be hard to help the population of the Caatinga. Brazil, being in some parts a developed country and in others, not developed at all, would find it difficult to provide the funds to help this population. It would need to build a new transport system, including a railway and more roads. It could also build hospital facilities and refugee camps for homeless people. It should improve agricultural facilities adding irrigating systems and it should bring, using aqueducts, water to remote villages. This could also bring problems because people living in the Caatinga might not want their land to be industrialized. Also the funds to help could be received from the population of urban cities which might disapprove. Rio de Janeiro has tried to improve living conditions of the Favelas by expanding its land and becoming the second largest city in the world. It has built on a flat piece of land tall buildings for rich people to move in. It is a much safer place for people to live in. It is actually become a new city called Barra. Barra is one of the safest cities in South America. It has the largest shopping mall in all of South America. The criminality is very low. By building this city, Rio de Janeiro has stopped growing because people move out to Barra more. Soon Barra will become as large as Rio and suffer the same problems if migration doesn't stop.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Culture and Communication Essay

According to new research done in the field of linguistics and cognitive science, the balance is starting to tilt again in favor of linguistic relativity. This concept proposes that there is a systematic relationship between the nature of the language a person speaks and the way the person understands the world. Although, it is still not known how much influence language wields over thought, it is now agreed that it does affect the way we perceive and understand the world. At an individual level, we take for granted the role language plays in our thought processes. But, every time we formulate a thought, we almost subconsciously express it in a tongue we are most comfortable with. Language has, over our growth period (especially the formative early childhood years), become intertwined without cognitive faculties. A majority of our thoughts and memories employ language as an expression tool. As such, one must agree that it most influence our thought processes to a certain extent. The intricate features of any language such as grammar and the role of gender to play a significant role on how we perceive the world. Although this influence plays a lesser role when it comes to tangibles like objects for instance, it does have a significant influence on abstract concepts such as time, space and even political concepts. For example, Dan Slobin of the University of California in Berkeley tells us in Alison Motluk’s article You Are What You Speak that while a third of the world’s languages describe locations in absolute terms, many Pacific Islanders use phrases such as â€Å"north of that tree†. Benjamin Whorf, one of the pioneers of linguistic relativity, in his famous analysis of the differences between English and Hopi language, claimed that a Hopi speaker would find relativistic physics easier to understand that an English speaker due to the structure of Hopi language. This facet of language becomes even more important when it comes to worldview and religion. As both of them are in essence, abstract concepts, it can be understood that language does have a significant relationship with them. One can for instance compare how the same religion is interpreted by groups with different languages. Also, once we consider the use of metaphors in languages, we can see how they relate to people’s culture. As the worldview of a people is formed due to the shared experience of a people and the sharing of this unique experience largely employs language, it can be understood that language wields an influence over it. Coupled with the effect of language on an individual basis, one can clearly see the significance a person’s language plays on not only his/her own thought processes, but on the formulation of grander systems of thought. Therefore, one can conclude that language helps shape a people’s worldview and their understanding of religion. The diversification in religion can then potentially create new religions due to conflicts with other prevalent interpretation. The extent of language’s influence can still be argued and should be argued until a conclusion can be reached. But all languages in general should be preserved as we never know when a particular language’s insight might come in handy for resolving modern problems. How has the internet changed global communication? What effect might this have on cross-cultural communication? The Internet probably ranks among one of greatest inventions man has yet made. A relatively young invention, it has revolutionized global communication, and yet, its true potential remains to be seen. It has transcended geographical borders and provided people with a forum to convey their thoughts to the world, unfiltered and unregulated. It has led to the rise of new social groups, ones which have no need for proximity, and given rise to whole new cultures. Although global communication has existed for centuries, never before has it been observed at such an unprecedented scale. With the advent of the internet, rapid information sharing became possible and at virtually no cost. Today, one can find material of any nature on the internet and can access it almost anywhere in the world. One can share information of any nature, be it audio or video or plain text. The fact that it’s unregulated allows people to channel their thoughts in the purest form possible. Social networking sites have created new online societies with their own set of rules and cultures. Instant messaging has provided us with a facility to engage in real time conversations with people from halfway across the world. Used in conjunction with webcams and microphones, we have in essence, the next best thing to face to face conversation. As such, one can see that we are witnessing a new chapter in cross-cultural communication. The internet has the potential to bring people together, from diverse backgrounds, and to promote understanding regardless of geographical, religious, political and ethnic division. One can interact with people at an individual level and due to the vast spectrum of opinions that the internet holds, one can form a more neutral worldview. Hence, in theory, the internet should usher in a new age of global understanding and ultimately form a global worldview. But there still is a catch to it all. Yes, in theory this should all be true, but there still are factors that hamper us all from achieving this. These begin with our own preconceived notions. The internet contains a lot of unregulated information. How do we decide what is true? We use our preconceived notions and hence keep our limited understanding of the world. Furthermore, the internet provides a highly selective information and communication tool, meaning that a person can choose what he/she wants to access and who he/she wants to talk to. Furthermore, the vast majority of people in the world still lack access to the internet and of those that have access to it, a large number still lacks unregulated access. For example, countries such as China monitor internet content and limit access to sites which carry â€Å"inappropriate† material. As such, the internet is still far away from reaching its true potential. But this is no cause to lose hope. The internet is still in its infancy and it still has a lot more avenues to explore. Also, if one is to consider the rate at which the internet has grown so far, one can conclude that it will grow a lot faster in the future. Perhaps ultimately, the internet will truly let us share our thoughts worldwide and finally transcend language and cultural barriers. If so, we can then truly reach a new era of global understanding and perhaps, create more than a global worldview; we can create a collective consciousness. In conclusion, the internet is an extremely powerful tool for global communication and will have far reaching consequences on cross-cultural communication. Works Cited 1. Motluk, Alison. â€Å"You Are What You Speak. † New Scientist. 30 Nov. 2002: 34-38 2. Carroll, John B. â€Å"The Relation Of Habitual Thought And Behavior. † Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. 1997 3. Lakoff, George and Johnson, Mark. Metaphors We Live By. 1980 4. Cass, Stephen. â€Å"How Much Does The Internet Weigh? † Discover Magazine. June 2007 5. D’Emanuele, Antony. â€Å"The Internet: A global communication tool† International Pharmacy Journal. 1995: 68-72

Saturday, September 14, 2019

The Value of Discipline – Short Essay

The Value of Discipline Discipline is the process of training oneself in obedience, self control, skill, etc. The controlled, ordered behaviour results from such training. Discipline is the basis of the whole universe. The solar system is governed by certain laws to maintain perfect harmony and beauty. Without this order, there would be utter chaos. Discipline is a basic requirement of a civilized society. Citizens of a disciplined nation work with a spirit of cooperation and unity. Aristotle has rightly said, â€Å"Discipline is obedience to rules formed by the society for the good of all.Discipline should be inculcated from a very young age. Talent and genius alone are not enough to achieve success. Discipline has an equally important role to play. Talents blossom in a disciplined person. Discipline in schools may reduce the violence and vandalism and help the students to focus better on their studies and career. Discipline is important even in the family. Parents must raise their children in a pleasant and disciplined atmosphere. They should teach them the right values. They should themselves lead an orderly life so that their children can learn from their example.Children growing in disciplined and happy homes become responsible adults. All should follow the rules and regulations laid by law. Discipline means full realization of the sense of responsibility. This will bring progress and prosperity in the society and the nation. A proper and reasonable balance has to be stuck between liberty and discipline. The restraints or discipline must course be designed for the social good and it is obvious that excessive restraints will inevitably lead to the erosion of human liberties. MY ROLE AS A STUDENTMy role as student in a society entails various things. Firstly, to concentrate on studies so that I develop into well-educated individual that make significant contributions to the society in the future. Secondly, to pass on whatever knowledge I have to others. Thi s can take on many forms ranging from helping your siblings to creating awareness about environmental issues such as global warming. Thirdly, to act as responsible youth. This means to steer clear of any unlawful activities. It also involves not damaging the society and avoiding acts of destruction.As a student I shall try and refrain myself from all such activities for my benefit as well as the society's. Fourthly, to do what I can to protect my environment and society. As a student I shall avoid litter places and should try to invest a few hours into community services if possible. As student I will also try to behave respectfully to the elders of the society and take care of their needs i. e. help an elder to cross a road; stand up and make space for an elder to sit if there is none. This list shows about 200 common phrasal verbs, with meanings and examples.Only the most usual meanings are given. Some phrasal verbs may have additional meanings. | | | 1. | | | 2. | | | 3. | | | 4. | | | 5. | | | 6. | | | 7. | | | 8. | | | 9. | | | 10. | | | 11. | | | 12. | | | 13. | | | 14. | | | 15. | | | 16. | | | 17. | | | 18. | | | 19. | | | 20. | | | 21. | | | 22. | | | 23. | | | 24. | | | 25. | | | 26. | | | 27. | | | 28. | | | 29. | | | 30. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |