Analysis of Capitalism: A Love Story Essay

Michael Moore is the writer and director of the highly relevant documentary film, Capitalism: A Love Story, which is a film explicating on the financial crisis during 2007-2010 as well as the other aspects such as the economic stimulus package with the government committed in resolving the economic order of the United States and capitalism. The approach used in the documentary film is the dialectic approach. This type of approach was best utilized in the documentary wherein it uses two contradicting ideas that try to overpower each other. The film narrates and explains on the financial crisis as well as of other topics that are encompassed in the film. However, a devil’s advocate that serves as an adverse critic emerges to challenge or question the points raised by the other. Thus, this causes a healthy discussion and arouses the critical thinking of the audience. The documentary film although appeals to the general public; however, the satirical sense of the documentary focuses on the personalities in the government as well as the people mainly involved in the fruition of the ideas discussed in the documentary film. Overall, the documentary film is an eye-opener for the public that leaves room for the audience to critic and think of. The fallacy in the documentary film is the contradicting definition of capitalism expressed in the film. The creator, Michael Moore, expressed the Marxists definition of capitalism and that it needs the state, which is the very opposite of the real definition of capitalism. However, as the film shows how the government dips its control through the different courses of actions in attempt to resolve the problem. The arguments presented by Michael Moore are quite convincing, especially through his dialectic approach that make the viewers critically think of the ideas presented and conduct their own deductions. Although the ideas are more abstract, the viewers make up of the gap through their logical and critical thinking. Reference Moore, M. (Producer & Director). (2009). Capitalism: A Love Story [Motion Picture]. USA.

Traditional Chinese Culture on the Influence

Traditional Chinese culture on the influence of the enterprise culture construction in China Name: Wang Shuyun (Sophie) Any business, its survival and development with its own cultural conditions and cultural environment are inseparable. Enterprise culture is the basis of survival, the standard of behavior, a guarantee of success. My article focuses on the traditional culture, Confucianism, Taoism two ideas on the positive role of enterprise culture, but also a brief analysis of the traditional culture of negative impact of enterprise culture.China’s enterprises in creating organization culture should absorb the essence of traditional culture, discard the dross, the traditional culture in building of enterprise culture to play its due role. Enterprise culture refers to the business philosophy, value systems, historical traditions and work style, performance for the whole spirit of enterprise members, common value standards, precipitation of habit, certain moral norms and cultu re quality.It not only can play the guidance and constraint role to the thought and behavior of staffs, motivate their creativity, enhance the cohesive affinity of enterprise, but also can be more clearly to distinguish this enterprise and the competition, so that it is convenient for consumers to identify enterprise, and then produce identity Enterprise culture is the foundation of the enterprise existing, criterion of performance, and the guarantee of success. The formation of enterprise culture theory began in the 1980 s in the United States.At that time, the whole international economic situation has undergone great changes, Japan in just 20 years, it became the world’s second developed capitalist countries from a defeated country, and became the major competitors of American enterprises, which makes people rethink the phenomenon deeply. After a deep analysis, in the process of enterprise competitions, is the enterprise culture makes Japanese rapid rise, is the enterprise culture plays a major role on Japan's economic development. So the western business US-Led opens a wave create enterprise culture boom.When we explore the Japanese enterprise culture, and found that the Japanese enterprise culture was influenced by Chinese traditional culture. Therefore, when Chinese enterprise is creating the enterprise culture and improving competitiveness, in addition to learning and introducing advanced enterprise culture of eastern and western outside, still necessary to learn from Chinese traditional culture in the ideological treasure. Chinese traditional culture on the influence of positive aspect, about the positive influence of Confucianism and TaoismI The positive influence of Confucianism The representative figure of Confucianism is Confucius, Confucius' thought often is used by the enterprise. There is a ‘the father of the modern industry â€Å"who is called Shibusawa Eiichi, he established the enterprise for the whole life, operated hundreds of business enterprise for example, Prince paper, Oriental textile, and Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industry, the enterprise has been founded more than one hundred years, they are still prevalent.How does he do the enterprise so well, Shibusawa Eiichi explained by himself, is† the analects of Confucius and abacus â€Å", it is Confucian moral and interests are the interoperability of pursuit in the production and business operation, also the moral and economy are the one, or call justice, we consider the ethical moral when we aspire interest factors, we aspire interest factors when we consider the ethical moral. Confucian explanation and couterfacture explanation,made Confucian ideas gain the new strength.The analects of Confucius and the thought of Confucianism are very available for the enterprise culture construction in China, this article mainly from the â€Å"benevolence†, â€Å"faith†, â€Å"justice† and â€Å"harmony† several aspects to discuss Confucianism on the influence of the enterprise culture construction in China. The thought of â€Å"Benevolence† â€Å"Benevolence†, kindheartedness, â€Å"benevolence† is the core of Confucius' thought, is the essence of the Confucian. the word of enevolence appeared 109 times in The Analects of Confucius ,had a variety of explanation, one of the most common and the most important explanation is † love the people,† Confucius answered for several times when Xushen who is his student asked him, did explain:† benevolence is intimate â€Å". In the business management of enterprise in China need to respect their staffs, understand them, trust and tolerant them, and care about them, thus it is effective that enterprises foster employees Loyalty and trust of employee, if the enterprise must consider employees, it can arouse the enthusiasm of employees fullyThe thought of â€Å"Trustworthiness † â€Å"Trustworthiness † is words and dee ds are the one, mentioned trustworthiness for many times in The Analects of Confucius; Analects  · government-funded said: â€Å"people who have no faith do not have to recommend him, â€Å"The Analects of Confucius ·YanYuan† said â€Å"people who have no faith do not have any space to stand â€Å". Faith is a neutral concept, does not contain the class, any person must stress trustworthiness when dealing with people and handling affairs, people who have no faith do not have to recommend him, people who have no faith do not have any space to stand.The enterprise must stress the trustworthiness to make the enterprise success. â€Å"trust† is the positive thought in the Confucian, also is the important model of exchange moral principle in China. It is worth for us to learn and use for reference in the enterprise culture construction today. Because the good faith, externally, first of all, good faith can greatly reduce transaction costs, improve business efficiency ; Secondly, the good faith can set a good reputation for the enterprise to develop a broader market space, thus get more benefit.Internally, only on the basis of good faith, the internal enterprise can achieve the mutual trust, the harmonious interpersonal relationship of mutual understanding, then minimize the internal friction, give full play to people's biggest potential. An entrepreneur with strategic vision should understand these: the enterprise survival is not a day or two days, but the long career. Some enterprise implementation of the principle of bad faith, they will be kicked out the fierce marketing competition quickly. The thought of â€Å"Righteousness† â€Å"Righteousness† is about the moral and socialist.Confucius said, â€Å"One has not lived in vain if he dies after he is told of the way†, the enterprise must set up the correct moral as their action creeds in the cultural construction, and fight for it. Especially, when the righteousness and in terest conflict are contradicting, we must keep a clear head and the right values. Confucius said, â€Å"a gentleman is always moral, vile people just focus on the only gain† († The analects of Confucius, benevolence â€Å"), â€Å"Riches and position without are to me as the floating clouds†, he also put forward the thought that â€Å"Consider righteousness when seeing benefits†.Advocate people to do it when seeing the righteousness, sacrifice for justice, pay more attention to the righteousness and be careless benefits, No matter what to do, don't forget the righteousness. Make personal behaviors conform to the righteousness and moral, and don't care about the utility or material interests. In the enterprise culture construction in China, should set up the correct â€Å"merit† as an important content, when making staffs consciously aware that stress â€Å"justice†, should admit that â€Å"benefit† of necessary, when meeting the purs uit of â€Å"benefit†, need to accept the constraint of â€Å"righteousness†.So, can achieve â€Å"use the righteous to estimate benefits†, â€Å"With a moral to develop interests†, adjust and regulate the action that the enterprises in the economic activity, and make the enterprise obey the law, legitimate the business in a correct way to make money, treating making money as a way, not a destination, Consciously let making money associate with the national prosperity and interests, do charity donations for the education, make benefits reward the society, embody the value orientation of traditional Chinese culture.The thought of â€Å"harmony† Confucian culture emphasizes â€Å"harmony†, Confucius said â€Å"highly summarizes the basic spirit of ritual† harmony is the most precious† is the history of several thousand years of interpersonal relationship, national culture, social relations’ traditional principles. Use the w ay of seeking more common grounds while reserving differences, to coordinate the part of people's interests and requirements. To achieve the overall coordinating, harmony is the Chinese society long-term stability of the important cultural pillar.The Chinese nation strong cohesion also is the result of the tradition of â€Å"harmony†. For the enterprise culture construction is concerned, the relatively popular approach is using three harmony to manage the enterprise , three harmony s are harmonious people,harmonious objectives, and harmonious benefits, namely, the enterprise management need to make people' relationship harmonious, enterprise production and environmental harmonious, the enterprise competition and cooperation get together organically .The Confucian ideas from different aspects in the construction of enterprise culture plays a role, is the enterprise' lubricant of operation. Therefore, the enterprise should with extraordinary grand vision, pay attention to absor b excellent Chinese traditional culture reference to educate staffs and develop employees, make them love their work, solidarity and cooperation, the spirit of harmony, the competitiveness of the enterprises can strengthen. II The positive influence of Taoism The representative figure of Taoism is Laozi, Zhuangzi. The respectively writings are â€Å"Laozi â€Å", â€Å"Zhuangzi†.Enterprise culture construction can absorb reasonable nutrition in China. 1. The thought of â€Å"The nature of the Tao, govern by non-interference. † â€Å"The Taos† is the center thought of the Taoist . Laozi ‘said † The nature of the Tao, govern by non-interference. † means things have its development rule, people should do something according to rules, shall not act just as you please. In applying the enterprise culture construction, firstly, the leader behavior should conform to the natural development rules, and set legal system according to the rules.Secondly, the enterprise should consider its own characteristic and the surrounding environment totally when involving enterprise reform, don't take it for granted. Thirdly, for leaders, should be good at stressing the important issues. the routine affairs are made decentralization to subordinates, so the duty and right are clear, exhaust its power each, leaders seem be at leisure, actually,the work is in the perfect order, it is â€Å"inaction and without exception† 2.The thought of â€Å"Dialectical to things, dialectical at all things†. This is the Taoist thought and essence. Laozi thought, all phenomena are in opposition to each other, such as new and old, filled with failure, high and low, long and short, fortune and misfortune, and so on, and the opposite relationship is also can be changed. Focus on present enterprise, the market is like the battlefield, there is success,also there is fill, in the face of the fierce competition, the enterprises should have a clear underst anding.When the enterprise is in the management difficult period, the enterprise should not be discouraged, through unremitting efforts, have the difficult situation improved and developed in the opposite direction , which is succeed; When the enterprise is in prosperity, also should recognize that the enterprises still exist some problems, which is likely to be hidden, and at the same time, the enterprise competition rises rapidly on barely detectable speed ,the enterprise will fall behind, even may be eliminated carelessly.The thought of dialectical to things to know things, manage the enterprise, is also one of magic weapon that many enterprises win the game to success or avoid arrogance and keep lead. 3. Thought of † The beginning of crumbs† Laozi thought, all the great things of the world, start from the trifle deeds. He said: â€Å"The close columns are born in Baekho wood; the platform of nine layers of begins tired soil; A journey of miles begins with a single s tep. † This has a great enlightening significance for enterprise culture construction.Each enterprise has one dream, the constant development and growth. In order to o realize this dream, it will have to start from scratch, however many enterprise doesn't do this, they are anxious for success, expect them to compare blindly, expand the scale recklessly, introduce foreign capital, ignore its own conditions, also regardless of what are the procedure and regularity, result in appearing management difficulty, funds are wasted, the increase in liabilities and so n a series of unhealthy phenomenon. The enterprise of world Top 500 enterprise, Which enterprise is not clear about the history of hundreds of years? Which enterprise does not rise abruptly based on its accumulated strength? Then they achieve the brilliant achievements. Taoism, broad and profound, it educate today's enterprise has dialectical view of success or failure, conform to rules to manage the enterprise in a thought of â€Å"The nature of the Tao, govern by non-interference. † at the same time, look upon the business enterprise growth in a thought of † beginning of crumbs†, causes the enterprise to sustainable development. The negative influence of Chinese traditional culture Everything is split into two, there is no absolute good or completely bad, when seeing the excellent traditional culture, also should see its negatives, here is the simple analysis of the Chinese traditional culture on the influence of negative aspect 1. The doctrine of the mean impartial, the maintenance arts of harmonic fold Wood show in the forest, the wind will destroy them†, â€Å"shoot the bird which takes the lead†, these proverbs advise Chinese not to be the world's firstly will affect the enterprise competition consciousness of first-class , also greatly affect the enterprise internal personnel selection, training and the use. Governor General of Canada, Wu Bingzhi's father educate d his kids, â€Å"if you don't want to pick the stars in the sky, so you even the dust of the ground also can't get†.In the age of globalization now, the business is more competitive, is full of risk, who is too timid and overcautious, everything is not dare to do it firstly, or competition consciousness is light , no desire to make progress, and do the industry in â€Å"muddle through †mind, I'm afraid the enterprise is difficult to live forever. When former general electric CEO jack Welch talk about general enterprise culture, Had one well-known saying is â€Å"competition, competition, and competition again†. 2. How do you view the success or the failure.How to evaluate the person who often fails. No one dares to say that he will never fail. Modern scientific education research indicates that people learn from mistakes, so, to a certain extent, successful people are the failure of more than others. As a modern merchant, must be not afraid of failure, only the person is not afraid of the failture, who would know failure, will distinguish which is the success through failure, which is the failure of forever, so as to avoid the failure in the key problems.In the traditional Chinese culture, the evaluation of a person is often not see who makes it so many things, but more is to see how many he made the mistake, against many people, how many times he has failed. In this standard, the kind of person who doesn't care no fame, only request no faults, the person who takes care of a good relationship is in the ascendant, but the person who has the big momentum, who is careless of the relationship, who plunges into the affairs often suffer more loss. Long-term since, the enthusiasm of employees will be hit, the harm to the enterprise is self-evident. . Pay more attention to the history, experience, authority and the thought of ranking. â€Å"Don't know the ancient, no righteousness. † I had passed a bridge more than the path where you had w alked . † A big officer's saying is more virtuous than small officer, as if all the leaders are wiser than subordinates in all the problems . The experience of past, were not completely intact are used to guide today's real life, The experience of the past, were not completely intact used to guide today's real life, many experiences for today's often are only core thought about.Above in the role of thought enterprise culture construction, will only make enterprise feudal breath is strong, it is difficult to develop for the Long time. 4. The trend in thought, to pay attention to â€Å"the metaphysical† of the research, and neglected the â€Å"physical† quest, cause â€Å"pay attention to traditional culture, neglect art† bad tendency. In the Confucian culture dominant, formed a very bad idea: advocating â€Å"principles†, despised the â€Å"skill†, People has always attached great importance to â€Å"learn the traditional culture†.This kind of idea and further encourage â€Å"the value of intolerance. The idea for the enterprise culture construction, easy to cause the enterprise just talking morality, no material technology pursuit, in science and technology is the first productivity of modern society, ignore technological innovation is dead, must avoid this narrow traditional culture. Overall, as the traditional Chinese culture running in Asian for the thousands of years, is a complex culture on both sides of the body.Speaking from the positive aspects, it plays the positive role in the construction of enterprise culture, is the enterprise culture innovation, the basement to continue to progress; Speaking from the negative aspects, it also can form the block role in the construction of enterprise culture, is a heavy burden of history. We should see the positive aspect, also need to see the negative aspect, take the essence and discard the dross in order to service modern enterprise culture construction.

Research Paper on Social Commerce Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

On Social Commerce - Research Paper Example Introduction Social Commerce, falls under the umbrella of electronic commerce with the notable feature of social media or online networks assisting, recommending or supporting the buying and selling of products. The origin of the term social commerce can be traced back to November 2005, where an article at Yahoo! first used the term social commerce to refer to the phenomenon of user ratings, pick lists and user generated content on the internet. Particularly, â€Å"Facebook, Groupon, Pinterest, LivingSocial, Tabjuice, Cafepress, Etsy and others are examples of social commerce websites† (Pearson & Zehr, p. 429). Importance of Social Commerce The entire idea of social commerce aims at harnessing the power of â€Å"word of mouth marketing†. There is much theoretical and empirical evidence about the power of â€Å"word of mouth marketing† and those customers are willing to trust the recommendation of their friend more than the advertising of a product running on prim e time television (Gibbons, p. 27). This is true because, in the past few decades, the number of advertisements and promotions targeted to individual customers have increased individually. Customers do not even notice most of these promotions, let alone buying the products and services based on those promotions (Davies, p. 108). On the other hand, in the recent past, corporations, businesses and their marketers have been accused of deceptive, manipulative, and deceitful techniques to promote their products in their pursuit of profits, something that has led to a widespread distrust on the advertising messages of corporations. A research from Nielsen, conducted in the year 2010, revealed that when purchasing cars over 90 percent of the customers trust the recommendations and advice of their friends. Only 33 percent of the customers appeared to be trusting advertisements and 59 percent of the customers rely on the input from the side of experts. In fact, another study from Wantlet rev ealed that just over 82 percent of the customers seek social input while purchasing goods and services (Pearson & Zehr, p. 429). Consider the fact that according to the statistics of March 2011, over 3.5 million businesses had their pages on facebook and a significant percentage of these businesses had created their business models around facebook, which meant that they did not have any physical presence (Kotler, Armstrong, Wong & Saunders, p. 37). Consider the example of BlendTec, a blend manufacturer, connects with customers using social media. The company maintains a channel on YouTube, with more than 0.5 million subscribers and statistics indicate that its videos have been viewed at least 181 million times. Furthermore, at least 85000 customers on Facebook and 7300 consumers on twitter read the tips and tricks provided by the company (Gibbons, p. 27). The company believes that maintaining a rigorous presence on the social media converts into added sales because it allows dissati sfied customers to find the solutions of their problems and satisfied customers to recommend the products of the company to other friends. In order to account that whether a particular like of facebook converts into sales, the company provides special coupon codes to its customers and then tracks the whereabouts of the redemption of those coupons (Davies, p. 108). Furthermore, the social media and social commerce efforts of the company are

The Louisiana Purchase Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Louisiana Purchase - Research Paper Example Initially, France owned huge land areas dotted along the Mississippi’s western area. The area is called Louisiana. France owned and managed the Louisiana from 1699 until 1762. In 1762, France gave the Louisiana land area to its Friendly neighbor, Spain. However, the French Conqueror, General Napoleon Bonaparte, retrieved the Louisiana property from Spain. Thinking of dominating the large Louisiana expanse filled Bonaparte’s initial penchant. As time went on, Bonaparte realized some troubling reasons that holding to the Louisiana land area were not viable. One bothering reason was a French Commander’s lost in a battle held in Saint Dominque (current Haiti nation). The Haiti war took lots of French soldier deaths. With the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte’s French army in Haiti, under Bonaparte’s brother in law, Bonaparte was thinking of selling lands to pay for Bonaparte’s continuing European war activities (Fleming 2003). Magdalena Alagna (2004) mentions many of the Haiti –based French troops were dying from Yellow fever during the Haiti war campaign. The same Haiti war drained the French coffers significantly. Continuing to pay for the expenses of the Haiti war would eliminate the connection to the ports of North America’s southern shipping lines. Another bothering reason is the increasing American population. Further, France was forced to sell the Louisiana property. With the population growth trend, France felt that it would be impossible to stop the encroaching American population from overflowing into the French territory of Louisiana. Bonaparte decided to transfer the funds allocated to maintaining Louisiana to pay for the cost of invading

Contemporary Issues in Accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Contemporary Issues in Accounting - Essay Example Around the world, governments (typically following the lead of practice) have begun to take notice, putting new disclosure regulations on the book. Despite these new regulations, significant questions remain about whether, and, possibly more importantly, how corporate disclosures about their social, environmental, and economic practices should evolve." (Corporate Disclosure of Social and Environmental Data Mandatory Vs Voluntary. 2004). If a particular organization is operating with an appropriate emphasis on its environmental issues, it means that it is focused on sustainability as well as the well being of the particular society in which the organization exists. Nowadays, the accounting system requires the disclosure of environmental facts in respect of financial accounting reports. The main purpose of preparing the financial accounting report is that to provide useful information about the business to its ultimate users. Such categories of users shall be owners, shareholders, investors, employees, suppliers, creditors and the public as a whole. Moreover, the report so made should be more relevant, it should possess the quality of materiality, accuracy and comparability. Environmental performance and economics measurements relate to a certain extent, as far as the accounting policies and reporting procedures are taken in to consideration. "Environmentally driven innovation can create shareholder value by lowering cost, improving production processes and service delivery, and helping to find new markets. Increased process efficiency is an example of a proven sustainability strategy for decreasing cost and adding revenue, there by improving profitability." (Slater and Gilbert 2004). The users of accounting reports should have a thorough knowledge about the changes that take place within the organization as well as in matter of accounting standard context. The accounting report should disclose the environmental performances, for the purpose of easily identifying and evaluating whether the organization is running as per the requirements of the society. Moreover, this helps to develop the reputation of the organization by comparing various environmental data obtained from the annual accounts of the company. "Investors and users of financial statements need information about the impact of environmental risks and liabilities on the financial position of the company, as well as the company's attitude towards the environment and its environmental performance, to the extent that these factors may have consequences for the financial health and performance of the company. Regulatory authorities have an interest in monitoring the application of environmental regulations by companies and the costs incurred as a result. But companies' voluntary disclosure of environmental data in annual accounts and annual reports is low. Users of annual reports have an interest in ascertaining to what extent environmental protection is an integral part of the company's policies and activities and what costs and benefits are associated." (Accounting: Commission issues Recommendation on environmental issues in companies' annual accounts a

Benazir Bhutto English Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Benazir Bhutto English - Research Paper Example Born to a comfortable lifestyle Benazir had an exemplary primary education in Pakistan that eventually qualified her to be educated in the United States’ Radcliffe College at Harvard University where she graduated cum laude in Comparative Government. She continued her studies in the United Kingdom’s Lady Margaret Hall in Oxford eventually completing additional courses in International Studies and Diplomacy. An astute speaker she eventually led the prestigious debating society as the president of the Oxford Union Debating Society. Benazir’s rude awakening to the tumultuous Pakistan politics was when her father Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was removed from office by a military coup in 1977. Coup leader General Zia-ul-Haq imposed martial law and placed on house arrest the entire family of Benazir. The death of Benazir’s father in 1979 by hanging at the hands of the coup plotters despite international pressure for clemency also exposed Benazir to the hea vy cost of public service. In one of her memoirs she described her time under house arrest. â€Å"The summer heat turned my cell into an oven. My skin split and peeled, coming off my hands in sheets. Boils erupted on my face. My hair, which had always been thick, began to come out by the handful. Insects crept into the cell like invading armies. Grasshoppers, mosquitoes, stinging flies, bees and bugs came up through the cracks in the floor and through the open bars from the courtyard. I tried pulling the sheet over my head at night to hide from their bites, pushing it back when it got too hot to breathe.† (Bhutto) In the first quarter of 1984, under pressure from the international community General Zia allowed Benazir Bhutto to travel abroad for medical consideration. After her surgery Benazir, resumed her political activities outside Pakistan to raise international concerns about the abuses political prisoners are suffering at the hands of General Zia-ul-Haq’s regime. The effectiveness of Benazir’s strategy forced General Zia to respond by holding a referendum to provide local and international legitimacy to his government. However, the referendum failed to achieve its purpose for General Zia, who was furthered pressure by the international community to hold general elections to restore the Parliamentary Government of Pakistan. In response Benazir’s People’s Party boycotted the elections because it violated certain provisions of the Pakistan Constitution. In November 16, 1988, in the first open election in more than a decade, Bhutto’s Peoples Party of Pakistan won the majority seats in the National Assembly. Consequently the first term of Benazir Bhutto as the first and to date only woman Prime Minister of Pakistan also started. (Hughes) Her term lasted until 1990 amidst corruption charges. In the October 1993 elections Benazir’s People Party of Pakistan again gained most of the seats in the National Assembly. However, due to the mounting pressures of the mounting corruption allegations against the people in her immediate circle of friends and family she was again forced to resign. Her reign eventually ended in 1996. Benazir Bhutto’s crusades include the repeal of controversial laws that curtail the rights of women in Pakistan that would include the Hudood and Zina ordinances. These ordinances make it legal for rape victims to be stoned to death. The

Archaeology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Archaeology - Essay Example In order to witness the past culture of a particular society, especially its material culture, archaeological evidences are considered as one of the most significant elements. Archaeological evidence includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts, and cultural landscapes that are the archaeological records of the society. However, the definition of the term ‘culture’ is not free of ambiguity. It has a unique nature of contradictory features. On one hand, culture is a dynamic phenomenon in the sense that it keeps moving and changing through decades and centuries. On the other hand, culture stands tall as a strong static element for societies witnessing various changes through ages. That is to say, the culture of a particular society constructs its own unique identity through ages by being its common image of consistence. This ambiguous nature of culture plays an important role in depicting the cultural lifespan of a society. In the context of archaeological culture, the dynam ic as well as static (or unique) nature of culture can be greatly influenced by cultural interaction of different societies. This paper briefly addresses the role of archaeological evidence with regard to describing the cultural life of past human societies. ... That is to say, a holistic approach concept of culture is essentially required to understand and explain cultural relations in a society. Further, the concept of culture is also associated closely with that of identity, both of an individual as well as the collective identity of a society. A commonly defined relationship of culture, ethnicity and individual relates to the broader understanding and conceptualization of ‘identity’. In the context of archaeological culture study, it involves empirical speculation of all such identities. One of the significant aspects to address while speculating identities is the issue of cultural contact or acculturation or cultural fusion. A historically evident and remarkable element of this culture contact is colonialism the presence of which is inevitable in the study of archaeological culture. Colonialism is considered as one of the most significant causes as well as consequences of cultural contact between cities, states and empires. Archaeology has a special role to play in the study and colonialism, and vice versa. While talking about the varieties of colonialism and their similarities (Gosden, 2004, p. 22), he argues that modern colonialism strikingly differs from the ancient times in the context that the previous includes particular features like â€Å"the creation of fixed orders of racial and cultural difference which were not found in the same manner amongst the Romans or the Greeks for instance.† Further, the result of colonialism has been remarkable: it â€Å"created new worlds through the meeting, clash and sometimes merger of varying values.† (Gosden, 2004, p. 23) Nonetheless, ‘culture contact’ is a broader term that includes a variety of elements other than just colonialism. It

Evaluate the Financial Performance of a Business Assignment

Evaluate the Financial Performance of a Business - Assignment Example Balance sheet Income statement and Cash flow statement. These are the basic statements normally prepared by profit-oriented corporations. These statements help in knowing the profitability and financial soundness of the business concern. These are prepared at the end of a given period of time. Financial statements are used as an important tool to communicate the financial information to parties outside the organization (such as investors, creditors, and other external decisions makers). The Balance Sheet; The purpose of preparing balance sheet is to report the financial position (amount of assets, liabilities, and shareholders’ equity) of a firm during a particular period of time. A balance sheet contains complete information about assets, liabilities, and shareholders’ equity of the company. Assets; Assets are things which have economic value and that which are owned by the company. It include tangible asset, such as plants, trucks, equipment, and inventory. It also in cludes intangible asset, such as trademarks and patents. Cash itself is an asset. Tangible asset can be divided into two, Current asset and fixed asset. Current asset represent the company’s liquidity. This is where companies list all of the stuff which can be converted into cash in a short period of time, usually a year or less (Kennon 2012). Fixed asset is an asset held with the intention of being used for the purpose of producing or providing goods or services, and it is not meant for sale in the normal course of business (Accounting for Fixed Assets n.d). Liabilities: Liabilities include all kind of obligation that a company have. The term liabilities mean the amount of money that a company owes to others. Shareholders’ equity; It is also called capital or net worth. The following formula summarizes what a balance sheet shows: ASSETS = LIABILITIES + SHAREHOLDERS'EQUITY Income Statements; Income statement is a statement which shows the revenue that earned by the com pany during a specific period of time (usually for a year or some portion of a year Income statement also shows the expenses, and the cost associated with the earning of revenue. Income statement also gives information regarding how much the company earned or lost over a period of time. This statement helps to calculate earnings per share (EPS), and it also tells how much money shareholders would get, if the company decides to distribute the whole earnings of the company. Income statement can be also called the statement of operation, or statement of earnings. Statements of Cash Flow; A cash flow statement is a statement that contains a detailed report regarding the company’s inflows and outflows of cash. Cash flow statement is helpful in knowing the net increase or decrease in cash for the period. It is prepared by using the information and reports in the company’s balance sheet and income statement. Cash flow statement is helpful in recognizing the, changes in cash b alance(increase or decrease) sources of cash uses of cash There are three parts included in the cash flow statement. They are (1)  operating activities; (2)  investing activities; and (3)  financing activities. 2. Compare appropriate formats of financial statements for different types of business The financial statements explain from where a company's funds come from, where it goes and where it is at present. â€Å"Owners and CEOs use these statements to manage a business, bankers to check its creditworthiness, and investors to

Mexican society Essay Example for Free

Mexican society Essay Mariano Azuela’s, The Underdogs, is full of characters that represent different sections of the Mexican society at the time of the Mexican Revolution around 1910 and each responds to the war according to their own circumstances and needs. The first such character is Demetrio Macias, a peace loving Indian, representing the poor peasants. His only interest is to protect what little he has. He is drawn into the revolution when he is being hunted by the soldiers of a political leader and he has to abandon his wife and child and watch the soldiers destroy his house. Demetrio responds by putting together a band of sharpshooting bandits who are wanted for various crimes they have committed At the start, Demetrio is full of noble ideas and wants to fight for the poor while taking from the rich, something like Robin Hood. The group is focused and meets with success. However as his group grows larger it becomes more difficult to control, because with each victory comes power and with that the demands. For instance, after each successful battle they feel justified in taking all girls above twelve years of age to â€Å"service† them. As time goes on, the rebels themselves forget what they are fighting for and start taking from the rich and poor alike Luis Cervantes, is a student portraying the educated middle class. He is captured by Demetrio’s men and manages to convince them that is a deserter of Huertas army and was actually trying to join them. He is unhappy with the treachery, and corruption in the Huertas’ army. The unnecessary meanness of the soldiers, rape, burning of homes, looting, torture, murdering of children. 1 Luis is a young man with ideals and a vision for the future. He believes that doing away with the crooked politicians will make Mexico a better place for everyone. While he imparts his wisdom on the bandits, some of them speculate if that is indeed what they are really all about, while majority just dreams about the booty the next town will bring. Luis’ unsuccessful attempts at conveying his insight to the bandits eventually cause him to change his direction and go in search of a business venture instead. The next characters we meet in the story are two women, who symbolize the role of the fairer sex in the Mexican war. First there is Camilla, who provides services such as cooking, or caring for the wounded. Although initially she comes across as a meek person, we see eventually that she is really a strong woman who has a major role to play in Demetrio’s life. Finally, there is â€Å"War Paint. † A very jealous and bold woman, who is always ready to rob anyone in her path. She uses sex to manipulate men and get what she wants. For example, at one point in the story Demetrio is ready to take her to a hotel after drinking heavily. She challenges his manhood by saying that a real man of his standing would find the best house in town, take it over by force if necessary and spend the night there. Thus, they spend the night in one of the best houses in town, and War Paint proceeds to rob it after entertaining Demetrio. It seems to me that the only person somewhat sincere with the revolution is Demetrio. After all he is the only one not willing to run away. He stands his ground and fights for what he believes in, despite the fact that the importance and force of revolution had lost its steam, and knowing in the end that he is outnumbered and will not survive. 1Cogan, Allan . The Underdogs (Los de Abajo): A Novel of the Mexican Revolution by Mariano Azuela. Retrieved from www. mexconnect. com

Effective Reading Essay Example for Free

Effective Reading Essay Reading will always be a part of any educational instructions. From grade school to PhD levels, reading is an essential task that endures every student to be able to comprehend what needs to be discussed in class, prepare for an exam or simply gain new knowledge aside from oral and visual communications. The journal article in reference comes from the Griffith University titled â€Å"Reading Effectively† Basically, the article discusses the major contributory factors for effective reading. It discusses three factors in reading considerations; the type, structure and the purpose. The Type refers to the type of material to read. There are different mediums like journals, textbooks, novels or research papers. Purpose concerns the goal of the reader in reading a document. It can be for enjoyment, in preparation for an examination, assignment or personal knowledge gaining. The Structure explains the format of the material like a narrative, descriptive and expository among others. The article also considers the importance of the mentioned elements before one wish to continue reading a material; so that he can decide whether to execute reading in Scan, Skim, Key (looking for key ideas) or in Full mode (Griffith). The article also mentions the principle behind â€Å"SQ3R† strategy of reading. Survey which primarily intends to look for format clues, Questions to ask about the material, Read, Recall and Review. On a personal note, it is really a good way to establish effective reading by following the SQ3R. It has always been my procedure to first analyze the contents of the book, criticize the purpose of reading by asking a question first and then continue reading, recalling key ideas and reviewing the entirety of a reading material’s contents. References Griffith, (ND). Reading Effectively. Griffith Information Sheet, Retrieved 2009, from http://www. griffith. edu. au/ins/training/resources/reading/content_reading_effectively. html

Case Study: HSBC Balance Scorecard

Case Study: HSBC Balance Scorecard HSBC Holdings plc is a global financial services company in Canary Wharf, London, United Kingdom. As of 2010 it is the sixth largest bank in the world and the Financial Services Group and the company ranked eighth is a composite measure of Forbes magazine. On June 30, 2010, it had total assets of 2.418 trillion U.S. dollars, about half in Europe, fourth in the U.S. and a quarter was in Asia. HSBC Holdings plc was founded in 1991 in London by The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, to serve as a new group Holding Company and to allow the acquisition of British Midland Bank. The bank origins in Hong Kong and Shanghai where the branch was opened in 1865. HSBC is a universal bank. It is organized into four business segments: Commercial Banking, Global Banking and Markets (Investment Banking) Financial Services (retail banking) and Private Banking. HSBC first listing is on the London Stock Exchange and is part of the FTSE 100 Index. It has a secondary listing on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (which is a component of the Hang Seng Index), the New York Stock Exchange, Euro next Paris and Bermuda Stock Exchange à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬. Since August 2010, it was the largest company on the London Stock Exchange with a market capitalization of 115.8 billion pounds that had been achieved. The balanced scorecard developed in 1992, belongs to a strategic management system that includes efficient implementation and effective policies and tasks necessary to promote the companys customers, employees and management meet. The usage of the e Balanced Scorecard can actually vary depending on the structure and philosophy of the company. But in the case of HSBC, it centralizes the use of Balanced Scorecard in a single department. The Balance Scorecard may also be able to identify closely with managers and solve a variety of problems. Background and problems The research problem to be addressed: A study to analyze financial performance and management of HSBC The researcher wants to highlight: A. Financial Perspective B. Customer perspective-which is an approximation of HSBCs efforts to reach target groups C. Business Process perspective shows an alignment of key business processes from HSBC D. Lessons and prospects for growth shows an approximation of the learning curve HSBC Research Objective à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ The researcher wants the vision of HSBC leading operational objectives. Communicate the vision and the individual results. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ The researcher wants to organize wants to commute the HSBCs Business planning, Feedback and learning and then adjusting the strategy accordingly using the balance scorecard Literature Review / Theoretical Framework HSBC is to have sustainable growth as a market leader in the overall market in financial and insurance sectors, as well as leadership in this segment. In both cases, the insurance and financial services at HSBC will play a crucial role. HSBC is able to provide overall guidance to the rule through the acquisition of other banks and financial institutions and utilities are combined into a new, large undertaking. Train their employees, business processes and introduction of new technologies will strengthen the positions of the various financing with HSBC Insurance. This means in practice in the economies of scale to be able to create a distribution network for local and international financing and insurance services. When a market is already controlled by other companies, HSBC has devoted his attention to the development of a premium segment with its funds and various insurance services (2004). HSBC aims to ensure sustainable growth, while continually improving the profitability of the company. The strategy to achieve this consists of four elements: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ The struggle for leadership positions in attractive markets à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Always focus on the sharing of financial and competitive segments of the insurance industry. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Work to improve business processes efficiency and reduce operational costs. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Continued growth through targeted acquisitions, if they are able to create added value for shareholders. Balanced Scorecard and HSBCs Improvement 1)Translating HSBCs vision into operational goals. The appearance of the Panel of the economy reflects the difficulty in managing the growing need for organizations, that require the effective use of valuable resources such as money, materials, equipment and people. And HSBC is no exception to them. That is why the Balanced Scorecard is used by the company to the most effective ways to use their resources through the application of methods of analysis disciplines such as mathematics, science and engineering to determine coordinate derivatives (2003). Through this process, problems with HSBC meet operational objectives in different ways and alternative solutions are then forwarded to management. Management then selects the appropriate measures in accordance with business objectives. Often, the Balanced Scorecard complex issues within HSBC and the high level strategy, resource allocation, design, production and prices and the analysis of large databases. 2) Communicate the vision and the individual results. All businesses and organizations are governed by their goals and tasks. These objectives are often considered a corporate vision or business philosophy .Therefore, some strategies are implemented to achieve these objectives, and is a key element in the characterization of a company or organization. The staff is clearly a key indicator to determine the characteristics of a business or organization. It is known to play a crucial role of human resources for HSBC differentiation and a potent source of competitiveness for the company. Thats why HSBC is constantly investing in the development of human resources, even in times of recession. But determining the extent that HSBC may want to develop human resources depends on its financial performance for a specific period of time. With the Balanced Scorecard from HSBC in the last decade has transformed operations at very low levels of writers to the success of the organization . However, budgets are also increasing at a rate faster than the gross national product. In the midst of this influence on growth and increase, managers and executives from HSBC are misled by the question: How to invest in human resource development? Certainly the answer will not be easy, especially since the actual level of expenditure is often an elusive figure, depending on the financial performance of the organization. However, the balance scorecard allows at HSBCs investment in human resources development to be determined. 3) Business Planning Operational planning is a necessary function within HSBC. In most financial and insurance companies that process is often very difficult due to the rapid evolution and the occurrence of unanticipated events. HSBC uses different methods depending on the speed of customer demand and level of financing, insurance. However, HSBC aims to change for each transaction is not: the efficiency and effectiveness Business planning by HSBC for its activities and resources will be implemented over time coordinates. This allows the company to achieve its goals with minimal resources. Business planning also enables the company to the status of their business plans at regular intervals to monitor and control operations. Planning activities of HSBC is in four elements: planning, production planning, financial planning and budgeting. The program includes the specification of the onset, duration or length, and at the end of planned activities. Work planning is to allocate the necessary staff and delegation of responsibilities and resources Financial planning is to identify the types and needs in terms of equipment. Cost planning is to determine the costs and the possibility of occurrence. 4) feed back and learning strategy and adaptations accordingly. One of the most important factors in improving HSBC is to measure the implementation and use of the Balanced Scorecard as a performance indicator and measures around customer satisfaction. These measures or indicators are measurable characteristics of products and services company that HSBC is normally used to study and improve performance. The indicators are chosen that are able to cover the essential factors that are essential for improving the operational and financial performance of HSBC. Through analysis of accurate information from monitoring processes, measures or indicators themselves may be analyzed and to increase its support for the objectives of this type. Methodology: There is certainly a need to reconcile both the inside and outside functions. While HSBCs operations management involves focusing on the usage of the balanced scorecard as its core competency with market position following its resource base, the company will be at a disadvantage if it neglects the macro and finance and the industry environment. Therefore, HSBC has to be aware of recent changes in the management of operations and changes in the political, economic, legal and demographic or develop customer outside functions such as identifying the market, the link Technology channel bonding, and monitoring. The benefits derived by HSBC, is to use the Balanced Scorecard as from higher incomes. Knowing what the market demands and trends could help the company come to fully exploit its research and development capabilities with insurance and financial services which are not only profitable but also high quality. The strategic option as a marketing tool, where attention to the proximity with customers and focus their comments. On the other side of the coin, there is a great mobilization of resources and risks associated with HSBC will be granted. However, the above option seems to be a practical strategy in the wake of globalization, because there is an abrupt change towards a more integrated global economy and independently. Key stakeholders should not object if HSBC heart of business is not threatened. Centralized control of the company activity is anticipated that key obstacles should exist in the exercise of this option, unless additional time is necessary, given the scope and duration of operations of HSBC. In the meantime, the partnership with HSBCs main competitors is ridiculous at first glance as a measure. But after careful consideration, the measure could pave the way for the company to continue to improve its management. The conclusion is that both parties are increasingly significant in this type of alliance. High performance measurement in operations management capabilities can be combined with their competitors suddenly invincible force that has transformed HSB. Another failure could be possible if one of the competitors of HSBC are in the need for alliances. However, the question remains whether HSBC might be able to implement any of these options, and if these options may be acceptable to key stakeholders. Any merger or alliance may be the exchange of knowledge. This company has always supported the approach of the Interior. It is important to note that the merger could be many implications for HSBC :values à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¹Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¹and culture and resources. Key stakeholders would certainly be affected by options and must be convinced of the positive aspects. Somehow, HSBC will be able to overcome this barrier in the process of implementing the policy options above. CONCLUSION The results of the analysis carried out on the impact of the Balanced Scorecard of HSBC indicated significant effects, even under the threat of unrest. Therefore, we conclude that the management operations of HSBC is still expected to improve faster than average. The review of HSBCs operations management capabilities and resources revealed very little inconsistencies regarding its strategy in using the balanced scorecard. However, the need to reconcile both the inside-out and outside-in approaches becomes a need for HSBC. The analysis of the financial sector environment, and management of operations and functions of HSBC has shown some shortcomings, most of which are distorted to the environment. However, these gaps paved the way towards determining a number of recommended strategic options to secure the competitiveness of HSBC through the continued utilization of the balanced scorecard. In addition, HSBC,has to find a balance between the internal forces within the administration and the evolution of environmental forces so that such policy options can be implemented.

Increase in Crime in the United States :: Crime Research Papers

A crime is defined as "an act committed in violation of a law forbidding it and for which a variety of punishments may be imposed." Crimes are classified into two basic groups; "mala in se" which are crimes that are evil in themselves, and "mala prohibitita" which are crimes that are only crimes because society at the time deems them wrong. In these days crime is more easy perceived by society. Surveys of public opinion in the United States show that more and more people believe that crime is increasing. People feel less safe in their environment and have thus taken measures to protect themselves. But is this view accurate? Most of the crime rates from 2003 to 2015 have risen greatly. In 2003 there was a murder every 27 minutes. Now there is a murder every 22 minutes. The astounding fact is in 2003 there was a violent crime every 6 minutes but now it has increased to a murder every 16 seconds. Crime per thousand from between 1993 and 2015 rose 9.4 percent but from 2010 to 2015 it went down 4 percent. In recent years crime has been decreasing. Property crime, murder, robbery, and burglary have all decreased at least three percent in recent years but that is not much. There is one exception; rape which has gone up 3 percent. Violent crime has risen 40.9 since 1997 while in recent years it has only gone down a tenth of a percent. This may be one of the reasons people feel less safe. People aren't afraid of larceny or property crimes. They are afraid of violent crimes, which is why is recent years they feel insecure. Many people believe the problem is in the trial system itself. Not enough people are convicted. In our trial system where you are innocent until proven guilty and to be proved guilty it must be done beyond reasonable doubt or preponderance of evidence in civil cases. After it has finally been very well proven a judge or jury must unanimously decide the criminal is innocent or guilty or it is declared a hung jury. It also is too easy to get a shorter sentence on a plea bargain. For instance a person accused of armed robbery, an offence that on average a person would get thirty years for; the criminal will often plead guilty to a lesser offence such as carrying a concealed weapon. Carrying a concealed weapon would often give a six year sentence but the criminal often gets off in half that time. So you see how the sentencing just

Physics of Tennis Racquets :: physics sport sports tennis

Missing figures Tennis racquets with old type of strings did not allow power and control over the racquet at the same time. To get a powerful stroke player had to hit the ball with the area of racquet closer to the tip of the racquet (toe). To obtain control and to reduce vibration of the racquet, player had to hit the ball with the area of racquet called â€Å"sweet spot†, located around the geometric center of the head. NASA’s 1973 Skylab 3 mission showed that tapered strings can move the â€Å"sweet spot† from the center of the racquet toward the position of greater power. The NASA research on spider webs, which was meant to find the solution to reduce the vibration on space stations, unexpectedly benefited tennis. NASA’s Skylab, the first U.S. space station, in 1973 carried out the experiment with the space born spiders Anita and Arabella, to learn from spiders how to construct low vibration space stations. Soviet space station Mir had serious problems with vibration. Every use of exercise equipment caused the entire station to shake. Spiders are well known for making their nets capable to absorb the impact of their pray. According to the book â€Å"The Web of the Spider† by Laura Barr Lougee [3], spider webs are made in such a way to keep all tensions in balance. The NASA research showed that the change in diameter of strings changes the stability of a network. This property of strings was used to improve the performances of tennis racquets. It is hard to define â€Å"power† of racquet. According to [4] power could be defined as 1. racquet bounce (high coefficient of restitution) 2. high swing weight (high angular momentum) 3. low work (racquet which gives the greatest ball speed with a given player effort) The easiest way to understand power is the coefficient of restitution (COR). The maximum power occurs when the COR is the greatest. The coefficient of restitution is the ratio of the differences in velocities before and after the collision. COR is defined as difference in the velocities of the two colliding objects after the collision, divided by the difference in their velocities before the collision. COR = coefficient of restitution = linear velocity of the racquet mass center before impact = linear velocity of the ball before impact (will be negative according to our convention that away from the player is positive)

Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 23~25

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE Clair Stirs a Brainstorm For all his admiration for the field biologists he'd worked with over the years, secretly Clay harbored one tiny bit of ego-preserving superiority over them: At the end of the day, they were going to have only nicked the surface of the knowledge they were trying to attain, but if Clay got the pictures, he went home a satisfied man. Even around Nathan Quinn he'd exercised an attitude of rascally smugness, teasing about his friend's ongoing frustration. For Clay it was get the pictures and what's for dinner? Until now. Now he had his own mysteries to contend with, and he couldn't help but think that the powers of irony were flexing their muscles to get back at him for his having lived carefree for so long. Kona, on the other hand, had long paid homage to his fear of irony by, like many surfers, never eating shark meat. â€Å"I don't eat them, they don't eat me. That's just how it work.† But now he, too, was feeling the sawtoothed edge of irony's bite, for, having spent most of his time from the age of thirteen knocking the edge off his mental acuity by the concerted application of the most epic smokage that Jah could provide (thanks be unto Him), he was now being called upon to think and remember with a sharpness that was clearly painful. â€Å"Think,† said Clair, rapping the surfer in the forehead with the spoon she had only seconds earlier used to stir honey into a cup of calming herbal tea. â€Å"Ouch,† said Kona. â€Å"Hey, that's uncalled for,† said Clay, coming to Kona's aid. Loyalty being important to him. â€Å"Shut up. You're next.† â€Å"Okay.† They were gathered around Clay's giant monitor, which, for all the good it was doing them, could have been a giant monitor lizard. A spectrogram of whale song from Quinn's computer was splashed across the screen, and for the information they were getting from it, it might have been the aftermath of a paint-ball war, which is what it looked like. â€Å"What were they doing, Kona?† Clair asked, spoon – steaming with herbal calmness – poised to strike. As a teacher of fourth-graders in a public school, where corporal punishment was not allowed, she had years of violence stored up and was, truth be told, sort of enjoying letting it out on Kona, who she felt could have been the poster child for the failure of public education. â€Å"Nate and Amy both went through this with you. Now you have to remember what they said.† â€Å"It's not these things, it's the oscilloscope,† Kona said. â€Å"Nate pulled out just the submarine stuff and put it on the spectrum.† â€Å"It's all submarine,† Clay said. â€Å"You mean subsonic.† â€Å"Yeah. He said there was something in there. I said like computer language. Ones and ohs.† â€Å"That doesn't help.† â€Å"He was marking them out by hand,† Kona said. â€Å"By freezing the green line, then measuring the peaks and troughs. He said that the signal could carry a lot more information that way, but the whales would have to have oscilloscopes and computers to do it.† Clay and Clair both turned to the surfer in amazement. â€Å"And they don't,† Kona said. â€Å"Duh.† It was as if a storm of coherence had come over him. They just stared. Kona shrugged. â€Å"Just don't hit me with the spoon again.† Clay pushed his chair back to let the surfer at the keyboard. â€Å"Show me.† Late into the night the three of them worked, making little marks on printouts of the oscilloscope and recording them on yellow legal pads. Ones and ohs. Clair went to bed at 2:00 A.M. At 3:00 A.M. they had fifty handwritten legal-pad pages of ones and ohs. In another time this might have felt to Clay like a job well done. He'd helped analyze data on shipboard before. It killed some time and ingratiated him to whatever scientist was leading the project he was there to photograph, but he'd always been able to hand off the work for someone else to finish. It was slowly dawning on him: Being a scientist sucked. â€Å"This sucks,† said Kona. â€Å"No it doesn't. Look at all we have,† said Clay, gesturing to all they had. â€Å"What is it?† â€Å"It's a lot, that's what it is. Look at all of it.† â€Å"What's it mean?† â€Å"No idea.† â€Å"What does this have to do with Nate and the Snowy Biscuit?† â€Å"Just look at all of this,† said Clay, looking at all of it. Kona got up from his chair and rolled his shoulders. â€Å"Mon, Bwana Clay, Jah has given you a big heart. I'm goin' to bed.† â€Å"What are you saying?† Clay said. â€Å"We got all the heart we need, brah. We need head.† † ‘Scuse me?† And so, in the morning, with the promise of a colossal piece of information for barter (the torpedo range) but without a true indication of what he really needed to know in return (everything else), Clay talked Libby Quinn into coming to Papa Lani. â€Å"So let me get this straight,† said Libby Quinn as she paced from Clay's computer to the kitchen and back. Kona and Clay were standing to the side, following her movement like dogs watching meatball tennis. â€Å"You've got an old woman who claims that a whale called her and instructed her to have Nate take him a pastrami sandwich?† â€Å"On rye, with Swiss and hot mustard,† Kona added, not wanting her to miss any pertinent scientific details. â€Å"And you have a recording of voices, underwater, presumably military, asking if someone brought them a sandwich.† â€Å"Correct,† said Kona, â€Å"No bread, or meat, or cheese, specified.† Libby glared at him. â€Å"And you have the navy setting off simulated explosions in preparation to put a torpedo range in the middle of the Humpback Whale Sanctuary.† She paused meaningfully and pivoted thoughtfully – like Hercule Poirot in flip-flops. â€Å"You have a tape of Amy doing a breath-hold dive for what appears to be an hour, with no ill effects.† â€Å"Topless,† Kona added. Science. â€Å"You have Amy claiming that Nate was eaten by a whale, which we all know is simply not possible, given the diameter of the humpback's throat, even if one were inclined to bite him, which we know they wouldn't.† (She was just a deerstalker, a calabash, and a cocaine habit short of being Sherlock Holmes here.) â€Å"Then you have Amy taking a kayak out for no apparent reason and disappearing, presumed drowned. And you say that Nate was working on finding binary in the lower registers of the whale song, and you think that means something? Have I got that right?† â€Å"Yeah,† said Clay. â€Å"But you have the break-in to our offices to get the sound tapes, and you have my boat being sunk, too. Okay, it sounded more connected when we were talking about it last night.† Libby Quinn stopped pacing and turned to look at both of them. She wore cargo shorts, tech sandals, and a running bra and appeared ready at any moment to just take off and do something outdoorsy and strenuous. They both looked down, subdued, as if they were still under the threat of Clair's deadly spoon of calm. Clay had always had a secret attraction to Libby, even while she'd been married to Quinn, and it was only within the last year or so he'd been able to make eye contact with her at all. Kona, on the other hand, had studied dozens of videotapes on the lesbian lifestyle, especially as it pertained to having a third party show up in the middle of an intimate moment (usually with a pizza), so he had long ago assigned a ;hot; rating to Libby, despite the fact that she was twice his age. â€Å"Help us,† Kona said, trying to sound pathetic, staring at the floor. â€Å"This is what you guys have, and you think because I know a little biology I can make something of all this?† â€Å"And that,† said Clay, pointing at the now arranged and collated pages of ones and ohs on his desk. Libby walked over and flipped through the pages. â€Å"Clay, this is nothing. I can't do anything with this. Even if Nate was on to something, what do you think? That even if we recognize a pattern, it's going to mean something to us? Look, Clay, I loved Nate, too, you know I did, but –  » â€Å"Just tell us where to start,† Kona said. â€Å"And tell me if you see anything in this.† Clay went to his computer and hit a key. A still of the edge view of the whale tail from his rebreather dive was on the screen. â€Å"Nate said that he had seen some markings on a whale tail, Libby. Some writing. Well, I thought there was something on this whale, too, before it knocked me out. But this is the best shot of the tail we have. It could mean something.† â€Å"Like what?† Her voice was kind. â€Å"I don't know what, Libby. If I knew what, I wouldn't have called you. But there's too much weird stuff going on that almost fits together, and we don't know what to do.† Libby studied the tail still. â€Å"There is something there. You don't have a better shot?† â€Å"No, this is something I do know about. This is the best I have.† â€Å"You know, Margaret and I were helping a guy from Texas A&.M who was designing a software program that would shift perspective of tail shots, so edge and bad-angle views could be shifted and extrapolated into usable ID photos. You know how many get tossed because of bad angles?† â€Å"You have this program?† â€Å"Yes, it's still in beta tests, but it works. I think we can shift this shot, and if there's something meaningful there, we'll see it.† â€Å"Cool runnings,† Kona said. â€Å"As far as this binary thing, I think it's a shot in the dark, but if it's going to mean anything, you're going to have to get your ones and ohs in the computer. Kona, can you type?† â€Å"Well, on ones and ohs? I shred most masterful, mon.† â€Å"Right. I'll set you up with a simple text file – just ones and ohs – and we'll figure out if we can do anything with it later. No mistakes, okay?† Kona nodded. Clay finally looked up and smiled. â€Å"Thanks, Libby.† â€Å"I'm not saying it's anything, Clay, but I wasn't exactly fair to Nate when he was around. Maybe I owe him one now that he's gone. Besides, it's windy. Fieldwork would have sucked today. I'm going to call Margaret, have her bring the program over. I'll help you if you promise that you'll put all your weight into stopping this torpedo range and you'll sign Maui Whale on to the petition against low-frequency active sonar. You guys have a problem with that?† She was giving them the â€Å"spoon of death† look, and it occurred to both of them that this might be something that was innate to all women, not just Clair, and that they should be very, very afraid. â€Å"Nope,† said Kona. â€Å"Sounds good to me. I'll put on a pot of coffee,† said Clay. â€Å"Margaret is absolutely going to shit when she hears about the torpedo range,† said Libby Quinn as she reached for Clay's phone. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR Orientation to the Blues A small explosion went off over his head, and Nate dove under the table. When he looked up, Emily 7 was bent over staring at him with her watery whale eyes and a mild expression of distress, and Nu;ez was crouched at the other end of the table smiling. â€Å"That was the blow, Nate,† Nu;ez said. â€Å"A little more intense than the humpback's, huh? These ships act like real whales, remember. The blowhole is right above our heads. Vented to the rest of the ship, but, you know, every twenty minutes or so it's going to go. You get used to it.† â€Å"Sure, I knew that,† said Nate, crawling out from under the table. He'd been out off of Santa Cruz searching for the blues. You usually found them by the sound of their blows, which you could hear up to a mile and a half away. He looked up, expecting to see sky through the blowhole, but instead he saw just more smooth whaleskin. â€Å"They behave like whales, but the physiology is completely different to allow for the living quarters. I don't really understand it, but for instance the blowhole is vented down the sides somewhere to some axillary lungs that do the oxygen exchange with the blood. I don't know how they got us electricity at all. I mean, I said I wanted a coffeepot, and they put in an outlet. There are circuits all over the bridge for our machinery. The other bodily functions seem to be handled by smaller versions of liver, kidneys, and so forth around the outside of the cabins. The main spine runs over the top of the ship. There's no digestive system. The ship's digestive system is at the base; it hooks up and pumps nutrient-rich blood into the ship, which stores enough energy in blubber to run it for six months at sea, or around the world at least once. We can cruise at twenty knots as long as no one is watching.† â€Å"What do you mean, ‘no one is watching'?† â€Å"I mean you guys. Biologists. If one of you guys is watching us, we have to slow it down after a couple of hours. Especially if we're tagged.† â€Å"This ship has been satellite-tagged? What do you do?† â€Å"We go to silent running for a while. Then we dive, and one of the whaley boys goes outside and pulls the tag off. We've been tagged twice by that Bruce Mate guy from Oregon State. That guy's a menace. Probably has a satellite tag on his wife to track her trips to the can. If they'd asked me, he'd be the one riding with us now.† â€Å"You know who he is?† Nate was aghast. As a scientist, you were always fighting being overwhelmed by what you don't know, but the magnitude of this whole operation – it was too much. â€Å"Of course. Since commercial whaling backed off, cetacean biologists have been the main focus of our intelligence program. Why do you think you're here?† â€Å"Okay, why am I here?† â€Å"I don't know the whole story, but it's something to do with the song. Evidently you were a little too close to finding our signal in the song, so they yanked you.† â€Å"The aliens were that interested in what I was doing?† â€Å"What aliens?† â€Å"These aliens,† Nate said, nodding toward the pilots and Bernard and Emily 7, who had moved to another table on the other side of the corridor. â€Å"The whaley boys aren't aliens. Who told you that?† â€Å"Well, Poynter and Poe implied that they were.† â€Å"Those jerks. No, they're not aliens. They're a little weird, but not from-another-planet weird.† Bernard looked up from what appeared to be a chart of some sort and gave a half-assed signature raspberry. â€Å"They do that a lot,† Nate said. â€Å"If you had a tongue four inches wide, you'd do that a lot, too. It's sort of a display move with them, like the penis waving that Bernard was doing.† â€Å"Like male killer whales do.† â€Å"Bingo. See, a guy with your background, this is easy to explain. I didn't understand squat at first.† â€Å"I'm sorry, but I can't believe that this ship, the whaley boys, the whole perfection of the way they work, could possibly be products of natural selection. There had to be a design. Someone made all this.† Cielle nodded, smiling. â€Å"I've known a number of scientists in my lifetime, Nate, but I'm sure this is the first time I've heard one arguing in favor of a grand designer. What's that called, the ‘watchmaker argument'?† She was right, of course. It was an accepted premise that intelligent design in nature was not necessarily a product of intelligence, but merely the mechanism of natural selection of traits for survival and really, really long periods of time for the selections to assert themselves. Nate's life's work had been built on that assumption, but now he was giving Darwin the old heave-ho simply because his – Nate's – mind was too small to adapt to the idea of this craft. Well, yes, damn it. Screw Darwin. This was too strange. â€Å"I'm sorry, I'm just having a little trouble getting my head around this. I don't know how you take to being a prisoner, but I don't care for it. On top of that, I could barely sleep on the humpback with the blow going off every few minutes, and I haven't eaten anything but raw fish and water for about five days. I'd be addled even if this didn't seem impossible.† Bernard made a whimpering noise, and Skippy and Scooter followed along in a moment until they sounded like a basketful of hungry puppies, and then they all broke out into wheezing snickers. Emily 7 frowned at them. â€Å"Of course, I understand, Nate,† Nu;ez said. â€Å"Maybe you should finish up your coffee and go to your quarters. I have a few sports shakes in my cabin that will get some carbohydrates to your brain, and I can get you something to help you sleep – the ship's doctor has a full stock of Pharmaceuticals.† She patted his hand maternally. Nate felt a little ashamed for having complained. â€Å"You're not the only human on this ship, then?† â€Å"No, there are four humans and six whaley boys on board. The others are in their quarters. But they're all excited to meet you. Everyone's been talking about it for weeks.† â€Å"You've known for weeks you were going to take me?† â€Å"Well, sort of. We were on standby. We just got the go-ahead the day before we took you.† â€Å"And you, and the rest of the crew, you're prisoners, too?† â€Å"Nate, every person on this ship, on any whale ship, has been pulled out of a sinking or sunken ship, a plane crash at sea, or some other disaster that would have killed them. This is a gift of time, and frankly, once you accept where you are and what you're doing, I'm going to ask you where you'd rather be. Okay?† Nate searched her face for any sign of sarcasm or malice. All he found was a gentle smile. â€Å"Okay.† â€Å"You go to your quarters now. I'll send around your supplies in a bit. Bernard, would you show Dr. Quinn to his quarters?† â€Å"I'm not really a doctor,† Nate whispered. â€Å"Take whatever respect you can get from them, Nate.† Bernard waited at the entry to the corridor, rubbing his shiny-smooth stomach and grinning. A white coffee mug stood out in contrast against Bernard's abdomen, suspended as it was in the grasp of his penis. â€Å"I've always wanted to do that,† said Nate, deciding that he wasn't going to let the whaley boy get the satisfaction of intimidating him. â€Å"Would be really handy for driving.† Nate bowed toward the corridor. â€Å"Lead on, Bernard.† Bernard skulked down the hall in what would have been a full pout posture, had he any lips to do the actual pouting. He spilled a trail of coffee along the way. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE The Inner Secrets of Cetacean Sluts Nate was just settling into the idea of the organic bunk he was going to be sleeping on before actually settling into the bed. He was not a God kind of guy, but he found himself thanking one nonetheless for the crisp cotton sheets and pillowcase on a feather pillow. He didn't think he really wanted to sleep with his face against whaleskin. There was a soft whistle outside the portal, and the great flap of skin retracted to open to the corridor. Emily 7 stood there with a tray that held two cans of protein shake, a glass of water, and a single small pill. She grinned but did not try to step into the cabin. The small portal required a bit of a crouching and climbing action for Nate to enter, so he guessed she'd dump the tray trying to get through. Then again, she might just be trying to be polite. She waited while Nate took the cans from the tray and set them on the low table, then swung around to take the pill and water from her. Emily 7 whistled and gave him a sidelong glance, causing her right eye to bulge out at him, as he'd actually seen humpbacks do when checking out a boat at the surface. She gestured for him to take the pill. â€Å"You're not leaving until you see me take my medicine?† Emily 7 nodded. â€Å"Well, I guess if you guys wanted to get rid of me, it would have been a lot easier to kill me without bringing me all the way out here to poison me.† Nate took the pill, downed the water, and opened his mouth to show that the pill was gone. â€Å"That okay, nurse?† Emily whistled and nodded, then gently took the empty glass from Nate's hand. She reached up to hit the node, and the portal closed between them. Nate heard her whistle the first few bars of a lullaby. She's sweet, Nate thought, in a tall, malevolent rubber-puppet sort of way. For almost a week the only sleep Nate had been able to get was while he was restrained in the chair in the humpback, and even then it was restless – with the ship blowing every few minutes and the whaley boys whistling communications – so, despite the blow of the blue-whale ship, he fell into a deep sleep filled with vivid dreams. He dreamed of himself and Amy, their naked bodies entwined, slick with sweat under soft candlelight. Strangely, even as he dreamed, he had the semilucid thought that before, whenever he'd taken a sleeping pill, he didn't remember ever dreaming. But that thought was pushed away by the feel of Amy's smooth skin, his fingers softly caressing her muscular legs, her four long, webbed fingers wrapped lovingly around his – â€Å"Hey!† Nate opened his eyes. A softly lit fence of spiky teeth smiled over at him, steamy fish breath washed over his face. â€Å"Uh-oh,† said Emily 7, her voice high and rasping, verging on duck-speak. Nate leaped out of bed and bounced off the wall on the other side of the cabin. Emily 7 pulled the sheet up over her head and burrowed against the wall, digging her melon under the pillow. Then she lay still. Nate stood trying to catch his breath. As soon as he'd hit the floor, the biolighting had come up to high. He pushed back against the flexible wall, then suddenly became self-conscious and pulled his T-shirt off the back of the chair to cover his erection, which was rapidly losing its will to live. She was just lying there. â€Å"Hello? I can see you.† Curled up. Not moving. There under the sheets. All whaley. â€Å"You aren't fooling anyone. You're bigger than I am. You're not hidden.† Just the soft sound of her blowhole opening and closing. Nate realized that it might be easier to hide under the covers if one had a blowhole, as one could cover one's mouth and face and still breathe. Addled by sleep deprivation, residual sleep medication, two cups of coffee, and now a few endorphins, he started to speculate on how a creature might adapt for hiding under the covers, then shook off the biologist rising up in him. â€Å"Come on, we're different species and stuff. That's creepy.† Now a bit of a squeak, more like a whimper, followed by a tiny â€Å"Uh-oh,† like a small elf had been mashed under the covers with a heavy book and had uh-ohed its last pathetic gasp. â€Å"Well, you can't stay here.† He remembered how he'd felt when Libby had left him and by way of explanation she'd said, â€Å"Nate, I don't know, I don't even feel like we're the same species.† At the time he'd felt as if his stomach were being turned inside out. It had ruined him socially for more than a year. Longer than that if he counted the fiasco attraction to Amy. He stepped over to the bunk. Emily 7 scrunched into the corner between the wall and the bed. Nate worked the edge of the sheet loose and cautiously slid one leg under the covers. The lump that was Emily 7's head moved as if she was listening. â€Å"You have to stay on your side, okay?† â€Å"Okay,† wheezed Emily 7 in the mashed-elf voice. Nate awoke to the exhultations of killer whales – high-pitched hunting calls. The pod seemed to be gleefully celebrating a hunt, or at least calling another pod to come along and help. It occurred to him that he was actually riding in a craft that qualified as food for the orcas, and the ship might be in danger of attack. He'd have to ask Nuà ±ez about that. He swung his feet off the bunk, and the lights came up. He realized that he was alone and sighed with relief. There was a fresh set of khakis hung over the chair and a bottle of water on the table. There was a small basin on the wall opposite the bunk, no bigger than a cereal bowl and made out of the same skin as the rest of the ship. He hadn't even noticed it the night before. There were three lit nodules above the basin, like those used to activate the portals, but Nate could see nowhere for the water to come out. He pushed one of the nodules, and the basin started filling from a sphincter in the bottom. He pushed another, and the water was sucked out the same orifice. He tried to foster scientific detachment toward the whole thing but failed miserably: He was creeped out. Nate desperately needed a shave and a shower, but he didn't want to try to wash his whole six-foot-two-inch body in an eight-inch bowl with a†¦ well, a butt hole at the bottom. He'd had just about enough of advanced poop-chute technology, thank you. He splashed some water on his face and dressed in the khakis, wonde ring as he did if the whale ship could actually grow a mirror for him to shave in if he needed it. The whole crew appeared to be up and milling about the bridge when Nate came in. There were four whaley boys at the table with the charts to the right of the hatch, the two pilots at their consoles. Nuà ±ez stood by the table to the left of the hatch, where there were seated a blond woman in her thirties and two men, one dark, perhaps in his early twenties, and one bald and gray-bearded, a healthy fifty, maybe. Not a very military-looking bunch. Everyone turned when Nate came in. All conversations – words or whistles – stopped abruptly. The echo of killer-whale calls bounced around the bridge. Emily 7 turned away from Nate's gaze. Nuà ±ez was leaning against the wall near the nook that housed the coffeepot, actively trying not to look at him. â€Å"Hi,† Nate said, catching eye contact with the bald guy, who smiled. â€Å"Have a seat,† said the bald guy, gesturing toward the empty seat at the table. â€Å"We'll get you something to eat. I'm Cal Burdick.† He shook Nate's hand. â€Å"This is Jane Palovsky and Tim Milam.† â€Å"Jane, Tim,† Nate said, shaking hands. Nuà ±ez smiled at him, then looked away quickly as if the coffeepot needed some immediate attention or she was going to crack up – or both. Everyone at the table nodded, sort of staring at the spot in front of them, like So here we are on a giant blue-whale ship, hundreds of feet below the surface of the ocean, with killer whales calling about us, and Nate fucked an alien, so†¦ â€Å"Nothing happened,† Nate said to the whole bridge. â€Å"What?† said Jane. â€Å"Your quarters satisfactory, then?† asked Tim, an eyebrow raised. â€Å"Nothing happened,† Nate repeated, and even though nothing had happened, from the tone of his voice he wouldn't have believed it either. â€Å"Really.† â€Å"Of course,† said Tim. All of the whaley boys except Emily 7 were snickering. When he looked around, all the males were waving their willies back and forth in time in the air, as if swaying to a pornographic Christmas carol. Emily 7 put her big whaley head down on the table and covered it with her arms. â€Å"Nothing happened!† Nate shouted at them. Silence again on the bridge, just the echo of killer-whale calls. â€Å"Are we in danger?† Nate asked Nuà ±ez, trying desperately to change the subject. â€Å"Are they going to attack the ship? Those are feeding calls, right?† Often, when killer whales found a whale that was too big to be taken by their family pod, or when they happened on to an especially rich school of fish, they would call to other pods for help. Nate recognized the calls from some work he'd done with a biologist friend in Vancouver. â€Å"No, these are residents,† Nuà ±ez said. â€Å"They're just excited about a bait ball they've found. Probably sardines.† Resident killer whales ate only fish; transients ate mammals, whales and seals. Over the last few years scientists tended to refer to them as completely different species, even though they appeared the same to the layman. â€Å"You know what they are by their call?† â€Å"More than that,† Cal said, â€Å"we know what they're saying. The whaley boys can translate.† â€Å"All killer whales are named Kevin. You knew that, right?† said Jane. She had a slight Eastern European accent, Russian maybe. She looked a little amused, her blue eyes dark under the yellow cast of the bioluminescence, but she didn't appear to be joking. She patted the seat next to her, indicating that Nate should sit down. â€Å"Like all the pilots are named Scooter and Skippy?† Nate said. â€Å"Actually, they have numbers like Emily – their choice, by the way – but since there are never more than one pair of them on a ship, we don't bother with the numbers.† Nate suddenly realize that in all his time on both of the whale ships, except when one of the pilots had gone outside to catch fish, the pilots always seemed to be at the controls. â€Å"Don't they ever sleep?† â€Å"Sure,† said Jane. â€Å"We're pretty sure they sleep with half their brain at a time, like whales, so between two of them the ship always has a full pilot. Without one of them at the controls, it's basically a big lump of meat.† â€Å"You said that you're pretty sure. You don't know?† â€Å"Well, they don't know for sure,† said Jane, â€Å"and they're not very excited about our doing experiments on them. Now that you've joined us, though, maybe you'll be able to figure out what's going on with them. We sort of play it all by ear. The whaley boys and the Colonel run things. Cielle, you didn't tell him all this?† â€Å"He was pretty beat,† Nu;ez said. â€Å"I tried to get him settled in as soon as I could.† Nate wanted to protest the â€Å"settled in† comment. After all, he was a prisoner here, but these people didn't behave at all like captors. They immediately impressed him as having the same dynamic that he'd seen in research teams, a â€Å"we're all in this together, let's make the best of it† attitude. He didn't want to yell at these people. Still, it made him a little uncomfortable that she was so forthcoming with information. When your kidnappers showed you their faces, they were giving you the message that you weren't going home. Nu;ez set a plate down in front of him. It had a salad of mixed seaweeds, carrots, and mushrooms, a piece of cooked fish, which looked like halibut, and what appeared to be rice. â€Å"Eat up,† she said. â€Å"A couple of nutrition drinks aren't going to get you back up to speed. We do eat a lot of raw fish, even on the blue, but you need some carbs until you adjust to this diet. There's plenty of rice when you finish that.† â€Å"Thanks.† Nate dug in while the others, all but Cal, excused themselves to work in other parts of the ship. The older man had obviously been charged with Nate's second orientation lecture. Cal scratched his beard, looked around at the pilots, then leaned over to Nate and spoke in a lowered voice. â€Å"They're very promiscuous. You know how dolphin females will mate with all the males in the pod so no one can be assured of who the father of her calf is? They think it keeps the males from murdering her calf when it's born.† â€Å"That's the theory,† Nate said. â€Å"They're sort of like that, and back at base you have a big pod to deal with. You start down that path†¦ well, you've got a lot of whaley boys to sex up.† â€Å"I didn't sex her up,† Nate hissed, spraying rice out over the table. â€Å"I'm not sexing up any whaley boys†¦ er, girls – ; â€Å"Whatever. Look, they're very close. Here on the ship they don't have separate quarters – they share one big cabin. Sex is very casual with them, but they understand that we're a little more hung up about it. Some of them seem to affect human shyness. We generally don't mix sexually with them. It's not forbidden, but it's†¦ you know, frowned upon. It's only natural for a guy to be curious –  » Nate put down his fork. â€Å"Cal, I did not have sex with anyone – I mean, anything.† â€Å"Right. And be careful around the males. Especially if you're in the water with them. They'll bung-hole you just to watch you twitch.† â€Å"Jeez.† â€Å"I'm just telling you for your own good.† â€Å"Thanks, but I'm not going to be around long enough to worry about it.† Might as well throw it in their faces, Nate thought. The older man laughed, almost shooting coffee out his nose. When he recovered, he said, â€Å"Well, I hope you mean you plan on dying soon, because no one ever leaves.† Nate leaned into Cal's face. â€Å"Doesn't it bother you, that you're a prisoner?† â€Å"There's not one of us here who wouldn't be dead if the whaley boys hadn't picked us up.† â€Å"Not me.† â€Å"Especially you. You were always twelve hours from dead since we started watching you. Certainly it had to occur to you how much easier it would have been just to kill you?† Nate just stared for a second. Actually, it had occurred to him, and he didn't see the logic in keeping him alive if all they wanted to do was stop his research. He wasn't going to make that argument verbally, but still†¦ â€Å"Don't overthink it, Nate. If you ever doubted that life was an adventure, it definitely is now.† â€Å"Right,† Nate said. â€Å"But before you ask me where I'd rather be, let me remind you that there's a sphincter in the bottom of my sink.† â€Å"You haven't seen the shower, then? Just you wait.† After he ate, Cal loaned him a copy of Treasure Island to read, but when Nate returned to his cabin, he could barely concentrate on the book at all. Funny what you learn about yourself in a short conversation. One, that he would rather have been accused of having sex with another species than with another male (even of another species). Interesting prejudice. Two, that he actually was grateful, not only to be alive, but grateful to be having completely new experiences every moment, even as a prisoner. Three, that learning was still a high, but he burned to share it with someone. And finally, that he was feeling a little jealous, a little less special, now that he knew that Emily 7 was having sex with all the male whaley boys on board. That fickle little slut. He dozed off with Robert Louis Stevenson on his chest and the sound of killer whales calling in the distance. Outside, the pod of twenty killer whales, most the sons or daughters of the matriarch female, were calling frantically to each other as they worried away at a huge bait ball of herring. Biologists had long speculated on the incredibly complex vocabulary of the killer whale, identifying specific linguistic groups that even  «spoke » the same dialect, but they had never been able to put meaning to the calls other than to identify them as â€Å"feeding,† â€Å"distress,† or  «social » noises. However, had they had the benefit of translation, this is what they would have heard: â€Å"Hey, Kevin, fish!† â€Å"Fish! I love fish!† â€Å"Look, Kevin, fish!† â€Å"Mmmm, fish.† â€Å"You, Kevin, take a run down that trench, fake left, go right, hit the bait ball, nothing but fish!† â€Å"Did someone say ‘fish'?† â€Å"Yeah, fish. Over here, Kevin.† â€Å"Mmmmm, fish.† And it went on like that. Actually, orcas aren't quite as complex as scientists imagine. Most killer whales are just four tons of doofus dressed up like a police car.

Hawthorne, Brown and Poe Essay

The gothic component of the American Romantic Period of 1800-1860 produced several eerie and gothic works by talented literary minds. Three such pieces, â€Å"The tell-tale heart,† â€Å"The Birthmark,† and Wieland were written by Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Charles Brockden Brown. These works of fiction delve into the minds of seemingly unstable protagonists, and in so doing participated in the general Romantic theme of reacting against reason. These authors also adhered further to the Romantic notion of elevating the human spirit as persons in need not of salvation but of being aroused to a truer relationship with the self. Thesis: The main characters of each story defy the conventions of the time through gothic settings, anti-religious demonstrations and revolutionary psychological insights that lead to a better understanding of the dark side of human capabilities. A. Wieland by Charles Brockden Brown 1. Wrote extensively on an array of topics 2. Ushered in the ideas of the American Romantic Period 3. Strong psychological state of female character 4. Weak psychological state of male characters 5. External force having the power to awaken his true character B. â€Å"The tell-tale heart† by Edgar Allan Poe 1. Psychologically challenged character 2. More insight into the inner workings of the unsound mind 3. Takes the reader into uncharted territory 4. Narrator an exercise in self-knowledge 5. Death of a beautiful woman C. â€Å"The Birthmark† by Nathaniel Hawthorne 1. Death of a beautiful woman 2. Gothic tradition of darkness and mystery 3. Puritanical hypocrisy 4. Salvation through self knowledge Conclusion: The three authors Brown, Poe, and Hawthorne, along with their works Wieland, â€Å"The tell-tale heart,† and â€Å"The Birthmark,† demonstrate several aspects of the American Romantic Period in which they were written. They display the gothic preoccupation with the ghostly and/or mysterious qualities of the unknown. They also delve into the psychological mysteries of the mind and demonstrate the moral weaknesses of humans. Finally, they seek to bring humans into such contact with the self so that elevation and improvement of the mind and spirit can come about through a thorough knowledge of the self and its functions.