Saturday, August 22, 2020

Environment degradation Essay

This is the decay of the earth through exhaustion of assets for example water, soil and even air. In natural debasement, the biological system is devastated and untamed life experiences eradication. There are numerous types of ecological corruption that are of negative effect on agribusiness. For example, when living spaces are annihilated, biodiversity is lost and characteristic assets are drained. The earth is generally influenced as creatures which give it life are no more (Schertenleib, Forster and Belevi, n. d). The night crawlers that advance soil fruitfulness are slaughtered by soil contamination. This implies if worms are completely wiped out, the dirt won't be fruitful. The corruption of the earth can happen normally, or through human procedures which incorporates various types of contamination. Regions of worry in a similar idea are loss of downpour backwoods, air contaminations and the ozone consumption. The marine condition is likewise influenced. These sorts of contaminations are known to happen everywhere throughout the world and the fault is on the individuals themselves for the exercises they do. This has harmed the planet’s seas and even the remote regions. Serious catastrophes like oil slicks have demolished the nearby condition. Every one of these risks can be checked by people by halting the steady contamination of nature. To certain degrees, various associations have been framed to help restore areas that have been influenced. One approach to do this is urban horticulture. With urban horticulture, the earth can be rationed since the losses from businesses can be changed over to be composts in the ranches around the urban communities. Measurable realities It is assessed that half of the world’s populaces live in urban areas (UNFPA, 2007). In the urban areas, most populaces settle there for different reasons, for example, studies and looking for work. As monetary tensions build, the urban populace takes part in urban agribusiness as work is accessible with huge populace in urban focuses. The developing of harvests and raising of creatures in the urban regions has gotten normal. Around 800 million individuals are engaged with urban agribusiness worldwide and this has added to the taking care of urban inhabitants (Schertenleib, Forster and Belevi, n. d). It is positive that with food creation or rather the general creation of homestead yields, the city occupants can get by the drove gracefully of food in their particular zones of living arrangement. With enormous populaces in the urban communities and with bounty food items from urban farming, there won't be any case of food insufficiency. Urban inhabitants with low salary spend between 40 percent and 60 percent of their pay on food consistently (RUAF, n. d). The main solution for this is these low salary occupants can begin rehearsing urban horticulture to enhance the consumptions on food. On the off chance that they take an interest in urban horticulture, they will have the option to set aside to 60% of their livelihoods toward the finish of every year (Neondo, 2003). The cash they would have spent on purchasing food can be spared and used to create different zones of the economy. This implies a great deal of to the development of the economy of the specific nation. It is normal that by 2015, around 26 urban areas on the planet will have a populace of 10 million or considerably more (FAO, n. d). To have the option to deal with these populaces, nations are obliged to move in urban agribusiness since they have little options left. It is in this way urged for urban inhabitants to rehearse intensely on urban agribusiness, with a target of getting the nation far from food lack come 2015(FAO, n. d). 2. The range of urban farming and the capacity of important associations Urban horticulture has a few perspectives that recognize it from rustic agribusiness. One of them is the way that it is incorporated into the urban financial and environmental framework. It is apparent that urban agribusiness is inserted in the urban environment of which it collaborates with. Such linkages include utilizing urban occupants as workers and the utilization of regular urban assets for example natural waste as manure and urban waste water for water system. In urban farming, there is an immediate connection with urban buyers and direct positive and negative effects on urban nature (Amin, 2002). Urban farming is additionally portrayed by being a piece of the urban food framework and vieing for urban land with other urban capacities. It is additionally impacted by other urban arrangements and plans. A portion of the associations that impact urban farming both legitimately and in a roundabout way are Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC), Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture (UPA), and the Resource Centers on Urban Agriculture and Food Security (RUAF Foundation)

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Four Debts That Will Surprise You

Four Debts That Will Surprise You Four Debts That Will Surprise You Four Debts That Will Surprise YouSurprise! You have more debt than you thought!One of the most important parts of getting a handle on your finances is keeping track of your debt. Unless you walk around with a literal suitcase of money, you are likely going to take on some debt at some point in your life. Debt is not inherently bad, after all. Sometimes taking on certain types of personal or installment loans is the only way many people are able to own a home or go to college.As long as you are always aware of your current and upcoming debts and are able to pay them, there should not be any problems. But some debts can catch you by surprise. Here are four types of unexpected debt that you should keep on your radar.Surprise debt No. 1: Medical debtsThis is a big one: Medical debt is a leading cause of debt problems and financial stress, according to this article from PBS, which examined several studies on the topic. And while you are always at some risk for a medical issue, you may be surprised to learn just how big of a wrench it can throw into your personal financial machinery.“Every American family is one serious medical event away from financial ruin,” warns patient advocate and registered oncology nurse Gail Trauco, who reminds us that trips to the emergency room can be much more costly than charges for nonemergency care. “In an emergency, you do not have time to call your insurance company to ask about what they will cover. As a result, you may find yourself with higher medical bills because of out-of-network charges.”There are very few American families with enough resources to be invulnerable to the worst medical emergencies. While you can do your best to always have insurance coverage and maintain proper health practices, if you still end up in a scenario like the one Trauco describes, she suggests looking into FAIR Health, a national nonprofit focused on health care cost transparency, to estimate health care costs in your area and negotiate a lo wer fee.Asking your hospital or medical office to work with you isn’t out of the question either, as some practices will offer discounts for paying in full or installment options like payment plans. Some health care organizations like Northwestern Medicine even offer financial assistance for eligible patients.“It is important for you to take steps to work through your medical bills to achieve a successful resolution,” Trauco says. “Avoid neglecting bill management; instead, put a plan of action into place for your medical bills. Procrastination can be costly, both for your wallet and for your credit score.”We have talked about how you can handle medical debt and negotiating medical bills before, so give those links a click if you are struggling. We also have an article that specifically talks about handling surprise medical expenses, so you are in luck.Surprise debt No. 2: Autopay gone wrongAutopay is a helpful way to make sure you do not get behind on your bills, but reme mber: Technology is flawed, and autopay systems even if you have properly enrolled aren’t always reliable. That is why you should regularly check that your autopay is functioning properly so you do not have unexpected debt adding up.Obviously if you are checking your autopay too frequently, you might as well not have it at all, but taking a peek every now and then to make sure it is on course could save you a headache later on.Surprise debt No. 3: Car troubleMuch like human medical emergencies, car problems can be unexpected and very expensive. While car insurance may not be quite as complex as doctor networks and medical billing associated with health insurance, managing car repairs is not always a simple drive in the park.If you were involved in a collision, you may be drawn into legal proceedings before insurance will pay out. You may also have to shell out some money in the form of a deductible or unexpected out-of-pocket expenses, depending on your insurance situation.Keepi ng up with regular car maintenance practices will lower your risk of a costly breakdown. However, if you do have to go to a mechanic, be sure to shop around and find someone who will offer maximum transparency and not push you to take on more debt or expense than is necessary.Surprise debt No. 4: Student debt unforgivenessEven if you have a plan to handle your debts, it is important to constantly evaluate how changing circumstances can affect that plan. Recently, many student debt holders have been dealing with an unpleasant surprise that has undermined their debt payment strategy.The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program was signed into law in 2007. It allows student loan holders who make 120 consecutive payments to have their debts forgiven after 10 years if they work in the nonprofit or in the public sector. Or rather, this is how the program was supposed to work, but nearly every every single applicant who has applied for forgiveness has been denied. As a result, many r esponsible borrowers have been hit with the unpleasant surprise of debt they thought was under control.Still, if you have taken out student loans with the expectation that the debt will be forgiven through the PSLF program, you might as well do everything you can to make that expectation a reality.“Firstly, borrowers need to start the process by adjusting their expectations,” advises personal finance consultant Stephanie Bousley. “This isnt going to be the DMV or a credit card application. They do not want you to pass, and the system is designed to minimize your chances. If you expect logic and fairness, and you do not read every document as if you were a really pessimistic lawyer or accountant, you may give them a reason to reject your application. Check and triple-check your application, and try to get a second (or third) pair of eyes on it before sending it in.“Do everything with the assumption [your application] will be rejected. For example, on the employer verification form, make sure whoever signs it is an authorized signatory for the company. A fair and balanced system would allow say, your boss to sign it. Conversely, a system built with your failure in mind would probably use ‘person not a designated signatory for company’ as a reason to reject you. You just CANNOT forget to turn in your mandatory payment certification when you change jobs. Do not forget to put your initials next to any corrections you make on the form.”Bousley also urges keeping track of the dates of all of your qualifying payments and following the latest news on the program.The lesson: Prepare when you canYou can not prepare for every surprise. That is the definition of a “surprise,” after all. But you can always do more to be prepared.

Thursday, May 21, 2020

Bribery Corruption - 2102 Words

Bribery and Corruption: Is Signing the OECD Convention Enough? Darina Tomayeva 500127919 LAW724 Professor Lan Word Count: 1645 Bribery and Corruption: Is Signing the OECD Convention Enough? Before the 1990’s, the conventional belief was that corruption in developing countries was practically inevitable and in some cases even desirable. However, a more in-depth investigation into this issue suggests that bribery and corruption can cause significant problems for all parties involved. For example, for suppliers of bribes such as corporations, it can cause many uncertainties since the quality and the price of their products are not the only factors considered in the transaction (Hamra, 2000). Therefore, corporations are not usually†¦show more content†¦Russian government authorities claim that the facility violates various safety regulations. However, IKEA argues that the requirement that the mall be able to withstand near hurricane force winds are ludicrous because there is not history of such weather conditions existing in the area. These regulations appear to be intentional and artificial roadblocks put in place due to high levels of corruption. This rece nt incident with IKEA may dissuade other foreign investors from investing into the Russian economy since they will need a large number of approvals from an incredible number of agencies. This process provides for unlimited corruption opportunities. It is challenging for countries to fight against corruption because of the difficulty in proving that such illegal transaction took place (Bloombergs Businessweek Magazine, 2009). In countries such as Russia, corruption and bribery are common because poverty is prevalent among the largest part of the population. On the other hand, Georgia has recently executed a rigorous fight against bribery and corruption. Even though, poverty is wide spread in the country of Georgia, it proved that corruption can be broken with appropriate and decisive reforms. The World Bank’s Doing Business listed Georgia 16th easiest place for a company to do business, up from 112th in 2005 (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, 2012) . With theShow MoreRelatedCorruption and Bribery1795 Words   |  8 PagesCorruption and Bribery April 29, 2015 Abstract In this paper, I will be writing about corruption and bribery. I will define the terms and go on to explain the regulations that have been put in place to stop corruption and bribery. I will then go on to give examples of major corruption and bribery scandals that companies have recently been in and what has been done to punish said companies for their crime. Intro Corruption is defined in the Merriam-Webster DictionaryRead MoreBribery And Corruption Of India716 Words   |  3 Pagesemotionally and intellectually and the presentation of the case that gives a voice. The topic of bribery in India or any other countries for that matter, it is utmost important that we understand the points raised correctly and precisely. For this article, the viewpoint by the author was clear, coherent, and elaborated accordingly to the challenges faced by international firms in the form of bribery and corruption in doing business in the national or state level in India. For every argument, relevant andRead MoreA Brief Note On Bribery And Corruption Of The Public Sector1462 Words   |  6 PagesAnalysis on bribery and corruption in the public sector Introduction There is one statement that â€Å"Bribery and corruption in the public sector, is endemic and unavoidable in all societies†. This essay will make critical analysis of this statement, targeting the public sector. Especially taking the example of US and UK regulatory framework, it will make clear understanding of this statement. Through current academic literature by comparing, contrasting and critiquing views, this essay will developRead MoreBribery and Corruption1492 Words   |  6 PagesThe existence of bribery and unethical behavior is rampant in the world market and may not change overnight. The question of bribery has been distilled in business literature as a question of ethics. In this situation at the airport with the customs officer, it is important to distinguish between business ethics and personal ethics. In a business ethics situation, the Foreign Corruption Practices Act would prohibit offering any bribe to the custom office – for example to free a shipmen t of goodsRead MoreScandal, Bribery, And Corruption2047 Words   |  9 PagesScandal, bribery, and corruption: all aspects of everyday life, and sports. With countless scandals hitting the news every day, it is easy to see that sports â€Å"players† are no exception. With scandal comes crisis communication. Rhetors use strategic language and techniques to save face and restore image after a scandal. Apologia theory is a crisis communication concept which aims to categorize the strategies used in rhetoric to apologize, defend oneself, and restore an individual or organization sRead MoreSiemens Bribery and Corruption Ethical Violation Case1509 Words   |  7 Pagesto the hand in hand prosper of international business globalization. The ethical concerns include corruption, bribery, human rights issues among many others. Business ethics is a form of professional ethics or applied ethics that examines moral or ethical problems that arise in a business enviroment. It involves the application of moral behavior to business situations (Adeyeye, 2012 p 22). Bribery is the offering, receiving, soliciting, and giving of something of value in order to influence anRead MoreCorruption And Corruption Of The Public Sector1530 Words   |  7 PagesBribery and corruption in the public sector, is endemic and unavoidable in all societies 1 The supportive reasons of unavoidable bribery and corruption Bribery and corruption in the public sector have been investigated by government for many years, while such hidden bribery and corruption are the behaviour that members working in the public sector indiscriminately take actions. Bribery and corruption are due to members’ heart swell and unsound personality so as to break the public welfare natureRead MoreEssay On Foreign Corrupt Practices Act1405 Words   |  6 PagesAct (the â€Å"FCPA† or the â€Å"Act†) is one of the primary statutes in the U.S. for fighting against corruption around the world. After the Watergate scandals and revelation of widespread corruption and bribery all over the globe by U.S companies, the FCPA was established in 1977 by Congress [1]. Before passing the FCPA, the government found that more than 400 companies had paid millions of dollars in briberies to foreign government officials to secure businesses overseas. It has been reported that firmsRead MoreMorality of Bribes1100 Words   |  5 Pagesin such a way as to escape hatred. Pastin and Hooker (1980) state that the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) is legislation designed to prevent bribery of foreign officials and other payments for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. The legislation is an attempt to address the problem of corruption, but rather than address bribery from a moral perspective, Pastin and Hooker (1980) raise the issue of whether the legislation itself is moral. They offer two tests to assess the moralityRead MoreThe Foreign Corrupt Practices Act1551 Words   |  7 Pagespurpose of obtaining or keeping a business. The FCPA was enacted by congress in 1977 due to various reports that were made by the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC). The Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) reported different issues concerning bribery and illegal payments by United Sates companies. The FCPA states that it’s unlawful to make payments to foreign officials; having a corrupt intend that will make a foreign official to misuse his or her position in directing a business. The FCPA intends

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 31~32 Free Essays

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE Booty and the Beasts The second time Amy came out of the bedroom, she was dressed in her familiar hiking shorts, flip-flops, and a WHALES ARE OUR PALS T-shirt. â€Å"Better?† â€Å"I don’t feel any better, if that’s what you’re asking.† Nate sat at the table with a can of grapefruit juice and a pint of vodka in front of him. We will write a custom essay sample on Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 31~32 or any similar topic only for you Order Now â€Å"I mean, are you more comfortable now that I’m dressed? Because I can be naked again in a flash –  » â€Å"You want a drink?† Nate needed to forget the whole naked encounter as quickly as possible. Applying alcohol seemed like the most efficient method at this point. â€Å"Sure,† she said. She pulled a glass out of one of the kitchen cubbies, the clear door folding back like the protective cover of a frog’s eye. â€Å"You want a glass?† Nate had been sipping alternately from the juice can and the vodka bottle until he had enough room in the can to pour in some vodka. â€Å"Yeah. I don’t like reaching into the cupboards.† â€Å"You’re kind of squeamish for a biologist, but I guess it does take some getting used to.† Amy set the glasses in front of him and let him mix the drinks. There was no ice. â€Å"You adjust.† â€Å"You seem to have adjusted. When did they take you? You must have been really young.† â€Å"Me? No, I was born here. I’ve always been here. That’s why I was perfect to work for you guys. The Colonel has been teaching me cetacean biology for years.† It occurred to Nate that he had seen a few human children around and hadn’t really thought about growing up in Gooville. Someone had to teach them. Why not the infamous Colonel? â€Å"I should have known. When you were trying to locate the whale by listening for it that last day. I should have known.† â€Å"Correction, when I did locate the whale by listening for it, for which you still owe me dinner.† â€Å"I think this is one of those all-bets-are-off situations, Amy. You were a spy.† â€Å"Nate, before you get too angry, you need to remember the alternative to my spying and finding out what you were working on in detail. That would have been to just kill you. It would have been much easier.† â€Å"You and Ryder act like you did me a favor. Like you saved me from some great danger. The only danger I was in was from you in the first place. So stop trying to impress me with the quality of your mercy. You did it all – tore up the lab, sank Clay’s boat, all of it – didn’t you?† â€Å"No, not directly. Poynter and Poe tore up the lab. The whaley boys sank Clay’s boat. I took the negatives out of the packet at the photo lab. I kept them informed, and I made sure you were where they needed you to be, that’s all. I never wanted to hurt you, Nate. Never.† â€Å"I wish I could believe that. Then you show up here like that, trying to convince me that this is a great place to live right after Ryder has given me the speech.† He drained his glass, poured himself another drink, this one with just a splash of grapefruit juice over the top. â€Å"What are you talking about? I haven’t seen Ryder since I’ve been back. I just got in a few hours ago.† â€Å"Well, then it’s always been a part of the plan: Let Amy lure the biologist into staying.† â€Å"Nate, look at me.† She took his chin in her hand and looked him right in the eye. â€Å"I came here of my own free will, without any instructions from Ryder or anyone else. In fact, no one knows where I am, except maybe the Goo – you can never be sure about that. I came here to see you, with all the masks and the role-playing out of the way.† Nate pulled away from her. â€Å"And you didn’t think I’d be mad? And what was with the whole ‘Look how luscious I am’ act?† She looked down. Hurt, Nate thought. Or acting hurt. If she cried, it wouldn’t matter. He’d be useless. â€Å"I knew you’d be mad, but I thought you might be able to get over it. I was just trying to be floozish. I’m sorry if I’m not very good at it. It’s not a skill you get to use a lot in an undersea city. Truth be told, the dating pool is sort of shallow here in Gooville. I was just trying to be sexy. I never said I was a good floozy.† Nate reached over and patted her hand. â€Å"No, you’re a fine floozy. That’s not what I was saying. I wasn’t questioning your†¦ uh, floozishness. I was just questioning its sincerity.† â€Å"Well, it’s sincere. I really do like you. I really did come here to see you, to be with you.† â€Å"Really?† What was the biological analog for this? A black widow spider male falling for one of her lines, knowing innately where it was going. Knowing right down to his very DNA that she was going to kill and eat him right after they mated, but he would worry about after. So time and again Mr. Black Widow passed his dumb-ass, sex-enslaved genes on to the next generation of dumb-ass, sex-enslaved males who would fall for the same trick. Spinning a little conversation: Interesting name, Black Widow. How’d you come about that? Tell me all about yourself. Me? Nah, I’m a simple guy. I’m doomed by my male nature to follow my little spider libido into oblivion. Let’s talk about you. Love the red hourglass on your butt. â€Å"Really,† Amy said. There were tears welling in her eyes, and she lifted his hand to her lips and kissed it gently. â€Å"Amy, I don’t want to stay here. I’m not – I want – I’m too old for you, even if you weren’t a lying, destructive, evil – ; â€Å"Okay.† She held his hand to her cheek. â€Å"What do you mean, ‘okay’?† â€Å"You don’t have to stay. But can I stay with you tonight?† He pulled his hand back from her, but she held his gaze. â€Å"I need to be way more drunk for this,† he said. â€Å"Me, too.† She went over to the scary fridge thing. â€Å"Do you have more vodka?† â€Å"There’s another bottle over there in that thing – that other thing that I’m afraid of.† He caught himself watching her bottom while she found the bottle. â€Å"You said ‘okay. You mean you know a way out?† â€Å"Shut up and drink. You gonna drink or you gonna talk?† â€Å"This isn’t healthy,† Nate observed. â€Å"Thank you, Dr. Insight,† Amy said. â€Å"Pour me one.† â€Å"Nice red hourglass.† â€Å"What?† Back at his bungalow at Papa Lani, Clay sat on the bed with his head in his hands while Clair rubbed the knots out of his shoulders. He’d told her the Old Broad’s story, and she’d listened quietly, asking a few questions as he went along. â€Å"So do you believe her?† Clair asked. â€Å"I don’t even know what I’m admitting to believing. But I believe she thinks she’s telling the truth. She offered us a boat, Clair. A ship. She offered to buy us a research vessel, hire a crew, pay them.† â€Å"What for?† â€Å"To find Nate and her husband, James.† â€Å"I thought she was broke.† â€Å"She’s not broke. She’s loaded. I mean, the ship will be a used one, but it’s a ship. It will still run in the millions. She wants me to find one – and a crew.† â€Å"And could you find Nate if you had a ship?† â€Å"Where do I look? She thinks he’s on an island somewhere, some secret place where these things live. Hell, if she’s telling the truth, they could be from outer space. If she’s not†¦ well, I can’t just run a ship around the world stopping at islands and asking them if they happen to have seen people crawling out of a whale’s butt.† â€Å"Technically, baby, whales don’t have butts. You have to walk upright to have booty. This is why we are the dominant species on the planet, because we have booty.† â€Å"You know what I mean.† â€Å"It’s an important point.† She slid into his lap, her arms around his neck. Clay smiled despite his anxiety. â€Å"Technically, man is not the dominant species. There’s at least a thousand pounds of termites for every person on earth.† â€Å"Well, you can have my termites, thanks.† â€Å"So man isn’t really dominant, whether it’s brains or booty.† â€Å"Baby, I wasn’t saying that man was the dominant species, I was saying that we are the dominant species. Wo-man.† â€Å"Because you have booty?† She wiggled on his lap by way of an answer, then leaned her forehead against his, looked in his eyes. â€Å"Good point,† Clay said. â€Å"What about this ship? You going to let the Old Broad buy it for you? You going to go look for Nate?† â€Å"Where do I start?† â€Å"Follow one of these signals. Find whatever is making it and follow them.† â€Å"We’d need location for that.† â€Å"How do you do that?† â€Å"We’d need to have someone working the old sonar grid the navy put down all over the oceans during the Cold War to track submarines. I know people at Newport who do it, but we’d have to tell them what we’re doing.† â€Å"You couldn’t just say you were trying to find a certain whale?† â€Å"I suppose we could.† â€Å"And if you have your ship and that information, you can follow the whale, or the ship, or whatever it is to its source.† â€Å"My ship?† â€Å"Roll over, I’ll rub your back.† But Clay wasn’t moving. He was thinking. â€Å"I still don’t know where to start.† â€Å"Who has the booty? Turn over, Captain.† Clay slipped off his aloha shirt and rolled over onto his stomach. â€Å"My ship,† he said. Nate was suddenly cold, and when he opened his eyes, he was pretty sure that his head was going to explode. â€Å"I’m pretty sure my head is going to explode,† he said. And someone rudely jostled his bed. â€Å"Come on, party animal, the Colonel sent for you. We need to go.† He peeked between the fingers he was using to hold the pieces of his head together and saw the menacing but amused face of Cielle Nuà ±ez. It wasn’t what – who – he expected, and he did a quick sweep of the bed with one leg to confirm that he was alone. â€Å"I drank,† Nate said. â€Å"I saw the bottles on the table. You drank a lot.† â€Å"I didn’t get a knob so just anyone could use it anytime they want.† â€Å"I noticed your knob. It looks out of place.† About that time Nate realized that he was naked, and Nuà ±ez was standing over his naked body, and he was going to have to let the pieces of his head go where they may if he was going to cover himself. He felt for a sheet, pulled it up as he sat up and threw his legs off the bed. â€Å"I’m going to need a moment.† â€Å"Hurry.† â€Å"I have to pee.† â€Å"That will be fine.† â€Å"And throw up.† â€Å"Also fine.† â€Å"Okay. You go away now.† â€Å"Brush your teeth.† And she left the room. Nate looked around the room for signs of Amy, but there were none. He didn’t remember where her clothes were, but the last time he’d seen them, he was pretty sure they weren’t on her. He stumbled into the bathroom and looked into the basin, mother of pearl with its little siphon fixtures and the green sphincter drain. Seeing that pretty much did it for him, and he heaved into the sink. â€Å"Hi,† Amy said, poking her head out of the retracting shower door. Nate tried to say something – something about trapdoor spiders, in keeping with an arachnid theme he was developing with regard to Amy – but it came out more bubbly and moist than he intended. â€Å"You go ahead,† Amy said. â€Å"I’ll be in here.† And the door clicked shut like a frightened clam. When Nate had finished reviewing the contents of his stomach, he rinsed his face and the sink, emptied his bladder into the thing on which he would not sit, then leaned against the sink and moaned for a second while he gathered his thoughts. A head popped out of the shower. â€Å"So, that went well.† â€Å"The water’s not running.† â€Å"I’m not showering, I’m hiding. I didn’t want Nuà ±ez to see me. The Colonel shouldn’t know I’ve been here. I’ll leave after you go. Brush your teeth.† And then she was back in her shell. He brushed, rinsed, repeated, then said, â€Å"Okay.† Out she came, grabbed him by the hair, kissed him hard. â€Å"Nice night,† she said. The shower clicked shut, Amy inside. â€Å"I’m too old for this.† â€Å"Yeah, I was going to talk to you about that. Not now, later. Go. She’s waiting.† CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO The Replicator Versus the Imitator Nuà ±ez bought him a large cup of coffee at a cafe where whaley boys stood around pouring down lattes the size of fire extinguishers and exchanging clicks and whistles at an irritating volume. â€Å"If ever there was a creature that didn’t need caffeine,† Nate said. Nuà ±ez kept him moving, while he kept trying to stop to lean on things. â€Å"Don’t ever drink with them,† Nuà ±ez said. â€Å"Especially the males. You know their sense of humor. You’re as likely as not to get a wet willy in the ear, and it’s a real wet willy.† â€Å"I may have to hurl again.† â€Å"Don’t destroy yourself out of spite, Nate. Just accept things how they are.† He wasn’t trying to destroy himself, and he wasn’t spiteful. He was just confused, hungover, and kind of in love, or something remotely like love, except that the pain was more localized in his temples rather than being the overall, life-ruining pain it usually caused him. â€Å"Can we stop in at the Lollipop Guild and get a couple aspirins?† â€Å"You’re late already.† In the corridors she handed him off to a pair of killer whaley boys. â€Å"You should be honored, you know?† Nuà ±ez said. â€Å"He doesn’t meet with many people.† â€Å"You can take my appointment if you want.† The Colonel had a goo recliner waiting for him when he walked through the iris door. Nate sat in it and held his coffee cup like a security blanket against his chest. â€Å"Well, can you see now that life wouldn’t be so bad here?† Nate’s mind raced. Amy said the Colonel didn’t know, but maybe the Goo knew, but the Colonel was tapped in to the Goo, so did he know? Or had he sent her in the first place and this was all a scam, just like when he’d sent her to Hawaii to spy on him? She’d fooled him for a month there, why couldn’t she be fooling him now? He wanted to trust her. But what was Ryder getting at? â€Å"What’s different, Growl? When I saw you nine hours ago, I was a prisoner, and I’m a prisoner now.† Ryder seemed surprised. He wiped the lock of gray hair out of his eyes furiously, as if it had caused him to make some sort of mistake. â€Å"Right, nine hours. So you’ve had some time to think.† He didn’t sound sure. â€Å"I got drunk and passed out. In the clear, lightning-bug light of day, Colonel, I still want to go home.† â€Å"You know, time† – Ryder patted the living chair he was sitting in as if he were petting a dog, sending waves of blush through the pink Goo outward from where he touched. Nate shivered at the sight of it – â€Å"time is different down here, it’s†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Relative?† Nate offered. â€Å"It’s on a different scale.† â€Å"What do you want from me, Colonel? What can I possibly offer you that I get the special treatment of being spared and granted multiple audiences with the†¦ the grand pooh-bah?† Nate was going to say â€Å"with the alpha whacko,† but he thought of Amy and realized that something had changed. He no longer felt like he had nothing to lose. Rider swiped at his hair and clutched at the flesh of his chair with the other hand. He began rocking slightly. â€Å"I want someone to tell me I’m thinking clearly, I guess. I dream things that the Goo knows, and I think it knows things that I dream, but I’m not sure. I’m overwhelmed.† â€Å"You might have thought about that before you declared yourself wizard.† â€Å"You think I chose this? I didn’t choose this, Nate. The Goo chose me. I don’t know how many people have been brought down here over the years, but I was the first biologist. I was the first one who had some idea how the Goo worked. It had the whaley boys bring me to a place like this, where there was raw, unformed animal, and it never let me leave. I’ve tried to make things better for people in Gooville, but – † Ryder’s eyes rolled up in his head as if he were starting to have a seizure, but then he was back again. â€Å"Did you see the electricity on the whale ships? I did that. But it’s not – It’s different now than it has been.† Nate suddenly felt bad for the older man. Ryder was behaving like an early Alzheimer’s patient who is realizing that he’s losing recognition of his grandchildren’s faces. â€Å"Tell me,† Nate said. Ryder nodded, swallowed hard, pressed on – hardly the picture of the powerful leader he’d appeared the night before. â€Å"I think that after the Goo found its safe haven here under the sea, it needed to have more information, more DNA sequences to make sure it could protect itself. It produced a minute bacterium that could spread throughout the oceans, be part of the great world ecosystem but could pass genetic information back to the source. We call the bacteria SAR-11. It’s a thousand times smaller than normal bacteria, but it’s in every liter of seawater on the planet. That worked fine to transmit information back to the Goo for three billion years – everything that could be known was in the sea. Then something happened.† â€Å"Animals left the water?† â€Å"Exactly. Until then, everything there was to know – every piece of information that could be known – was transmitted through DNA, replicators, in creatures that lived in the seas. The Goo knew everything. Mind you, it might take a million years to learn how to make an arthropod’s segmented shell. It might take two million years to learn to make a gill or, say, twenty million to make an eye, but it had its safe niche, so it had the time – it didn’t have anywhere it needed to be. Evolution doesn’t really have a destination. It’s just dicking around with possibilities. The Goo is the same way. But when life left the water, the Goo got a blind spot.† â€Å"I’m having a little trouble seeing the immediacy of your story, Colonel. I mean, why, beyond the obvious that I’m sitting inside this thing, is this supposed to be urgent?† â€Å"Because four hundred million years later, the land creatures came back into the water – sophisticated land animals.† â€Å"Early whales?† â€Å"Yes, when mammals came back to the sea, they brought something that even the dinosaurs – the reptiles and amphibians that had come back to the water – didn’t have. Something the Goo didn’t know. Knowledge that didn’t replicate itself through DNA. It replicated through imitation, learned knowledge, not passed on. Memes.† Nate knew about memes, the information equivalent of a gene. A gene existed to replicate itself and required a vehicle, an organism, in which to do it. It was the same with memes, except a meme could replicate itself across vehicles, across brains. A tune you couldn’t get out of your head, a recipe, a bad joke, the Mona Lisa – all were memes of sort. They were a fun model to think about, and computers had made the idea of a self-replicating piece of information more manifest with computer viruses, but what did that have to do with – But then it hit him. Why he’d learned about memes in the first place. â€Å"The song,† Nate said. â€Å"Humpback song is a meme.† â€Å"Of course. The first culture, the first exposure the Goo had to something it didn’t understand. What, maybe fifteen million years ago it found out it wasn’t the only game in town. Three billion years is a long time to get used to living in what you think is your private house only to suddenly find out that someone moved into an apartment above you while you were sleeping. â€Å"For a long time the Goo didn’t perceive that genes and memes were at odds. Whales were the first carriers. Big brains because they need to imitate complex behaviors, remember complex tasks, and because they could get the high-protein food to build the brains the memes needed. But the Goo came to terms with the whales. They’re an elegant mix of genes and memes, absolute kings of their realm. Huge, efficient feeders, immune from any predation except from each other. â€Å"But then something started killing whales. Killing them in alarming numbers. And it was something from the surface world. It wasn’t something the Goo could find out about from its ocean-borne nervous system, so that’s when I think it created the whale ships, or a version of them. Late seventeen or early eighteen hundreds, I’d guess. Then, I think when it had somehow gotten back enough samples of human DNA, it made the whaley boys. To stay camouflaged but to watch, to bring people back here so it could learn, watch us. I may have been the final link that started the war.† â€Å"What war? There’s a war?† Nate had a quick vision of the paranoid megalomaniacs that the Colonel said he’d considered for pseudonyms, Captain Nemo and Colonel Kurtz, both complete bedbugs. â€Å"The war between memes and genes. Between an organism that specializes in the replication of gene machines – the Goo – and one that specializes in the replication of meme machines – us, human beings. I brought electrical and computer technology here. I brought the Goo the theoretical knowledge of memes and genes and how they work. Where the Goo is now and where it was before I came is the difference between being able to drive one and being able to build a car from lumps of raw steel. It’s realizing the threat. It’s going to figure it out.† Ryder looked at Nate expectantly. Nate looked at him as if he wasn’t getting the point. When he’d studied under Ryder, the man had been so cogent, so clear. Grumpy, but clear. â€Å"Okay,† Nate said slowly, hoping Ryder would jump in, â€Å"so you need me to†¦ uh†¦?† â€Å"Help me figure out a way to kill it.† â€Å"Didn’t see that coming.† â€Å"We’re at war with the Goo, and we have to find a way to kill it before it knows what’s happening.† â€Å"Then don’t you think you should keep your voice down?† â€Å"No, it doesn’t communicate that way.† The Colonel looked perturbed at Nate’s comment. â€Å"So you want me to figure out how to kill your god? â€Å"Yes, before it wipes out the human race in one fell swoop.† â€Å"Which would be bad.† â€Å"And we have to kill it without killing everyone in Gooville.† â€Å"Oh, we can do that,† Nate said, completely confident, the way he’d seen hostage negotiators in cop movies tell the bank robbers that their demands were being met and the helicopter was on the way. â€Å"But I’m going to need some time.† The strangest thing was, as Nate left the Colonel’s chamber after being in direct contact with the Goo for only a few minutes, his hangover was completely gone. How to cite Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 31~32, Essay examples

Saturday, April 25, 2020

The Awakening Essays (1855 words) - The Awakening, Creole Language

The Awakening The Relationship of The Awakening and Creole Society In The Awakening, Kate Chopin brings out the essence of through the characters of her novel. In this novel Edna Pontellier faces many problems because she is an outcast from society. As a result of her isolation from society she has to learn to fit in and deal with her problems. This situation causes her to go through a series of awakenings that help her find herself, but this also causes problems with her husband because she loses respect for him and the society she lives in. Throughout the novel she is faced with unfavorable circumstances which confuse and eventually kill her. Kate Chopin uses Creole Society in the 1890s as a basis for her novel and expresses it through Creole women, personal relationships, and etiquette. The Awakening is a book based on French Creoles and their lifestyle which is expressed throughout the novel. Creoles were French Creole Society descendents of French and Spanish Colonists of the 1700s. They had strong family ties because of Catholicism and were a tight community because they where considered outcasts of Anglo- American society. Clement Eaton says that ?the Creoles, to a greater degree then Anglo-Americans, lived a life of sensation and careless enjoyment. They loved to dance, gamble, fish, attend feasts, play on the fiddle and to live without much thought of the morrow.? Eaton 252 Creoles were very lively outgoing people because of their comfortable tight society. Activities such as Mardi Gras and Sunday afternoon Mass holiday spirits contribute the liveliness of these people (Walker 252). A large reason for their comfort and ?live for the moment? attitude was that Creoles did not move west like most other colonists to claim land. Instead they stayed in relatively the same area and just grew in population without consumption of other lands . This caused a shortage of land so it had to be repeatedly divided among the families and it also made it difficult for the plantation system to operate successfully (Walker 253). Background of Creoles: Until 1888 the husband was legal guardian and was given custody of the children when in a divorce. In the 1890 segregation was legalized (Jim Crow laws), but blacks horizons were expanding also. ?In Louisiana after the Civil War, African American men had voted in large numbers, held public office, served on juries, and worked on the railroad?(Culley 119). In Creole society people are generally very warm and open, having plentiful long relationships. A mother's relationship with her children is usually very close, loving, and caring. The children are usually constantly pampered by their mother. Creole women, ? . . . were women who idolized their children worshipped their husbands, and esteemed it holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels? (Chopin 16). Edna Pontellier, was not this type of mother though, she ?. . . was not a mother-woman?(Chopin 16). Edna is just not able to fit in to the Creole society because she was raised in such a foreign way from what Creoles exhibit, it is just too difficult. Just little signs of affection towards her are difficult for her to grasp, she becomes confused when Madame Ratignolle touches her hand during a conversation? (Walker 254). ?'She was not accustomed to an outward and spoken expression of affection, either in herself or others'? (Walker 254). Unbelievably, Edna and her husband are the most distant of all people because they were basically forced into marriage. He limits her and this infuriates her to the point where she gives up and just does as she pleases. He does this by speaking to her like a kid and treating her like a piece of property that he drags around because it is inproper for a man of his stature not to be married (Chopin 7). Robert is the only person in which she has a full relationship with. Unfortunately their relationship is limited they can only truly be friends. Since Adele Ratignolle d oesn't want this relationship to be taken too far or seriously she tells Robert, ?She is not one of us; she is not like us. She make the unfortunate blunder of taking

Wednesday, March 18, 2020

stockley carmichael

stockley carmichael Stokely Carmichael was one of the many civil rights activist of the 1960's. He was a Freedom Rider and a powerful leader. Carmichael was involved with many organizations that helped free blacks. He became the leader of the Black Nationalism. Carmichael also led the way to "Black Power" and became the leader of the Black Power Movement.It all began June 24, 1941, in the Port of Spain in Trinidad, where Carmichael was born. In 1952 he moved to Harlem where he went to school. It was when he was in high school where he was surrounded by segregation became inspired to help fix it. By the end of Carmichael's freshman year at Howard University, where he majored in philosophy, he joined the Freedom Riders. The Freedom Riders frequently met with violence and would be arrested and placed in jail at their destinations.After Carmichael graduated from Howard he joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.Martin Luther King, Jr.SNCC sent hundreds of black and white volunteers to the south to teach, set up clinics and register black voters. As a SNCC field organizer he helped raise the number of registered black voters to 2600 from 70. Carmichael was unhappy with the other parties' results who were involved in trying to increase black voter registration. He then organized the all black Lowndes County Freedom Organization and choose a black panther as it symbol which adopted later by the Black Panther Party.Mr. Carmichael was detained and arrest as a nonviolent volunteer that after 32 times he lost count. He once recalled watching from his hotel room in a Alabama town awhile nonviolent black demonstrators were beaten and shocked with cattle prods by the police. After a while he became frustrated with all the beatings and killings of the nonviolent protesters. His growing exasperation...