Friday, November 29, 2019

Announcing the Worlds Ultimate Book Title Generator Reedsy

Announcing the Worlds Ultimate Book Title Generator Reedsy Announcing the World's Ultimate Book Title Generator Titling a book is a bit similar to picking a Fantasy Football team: you're never sure which one’s the perfect fit and you end up trashing sixty combinations in the end, anyway. But the good news is that you’re not alone if you’re stressed about your book title. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice started out as First Impressions. Ernest Hemingway spent months discarding titles before deciding on A Sun Also Rises. Then there was George Orwell, who once planned to title the now-iconic 1984 as The Last Man in Europe. We’re familiar with the struggle, which is why we’re pleased to announce our book title generator: a resource for anyone who’s in need of some title inspiration. It’s got something for everyone, whether you’re dabbling in fantasy, mystery, romance, science fiction, and thriller. Best of all, it stores 10,000+ titles, so you’ll never run out of potential titles again!service@reedsy.com!Any questions about ti tling your book? Leave them in the comments below.

Monday, November 25, 2019

The Orient Express by Agatha Christie Essays

The Orient Express by Agatha Christie Essays The Orient Express by Agatha Christie Essay The Orient Express by Agatha Christie Essay The crime put in front of Holmes seems very mysterious. A womans sister has died a horrible death, from a seemingly unexplainable cause, although there are some clues. The woman herself is now experiencing the same premonitions such as the whistle very late at night and she thinks she may have an impending misfortune. This increases the urgency to solve the case and the mystery is made difficult to explain because it is a locked room mystery. It seems that there is no way for the would be assailant to kill the woman in her bedroom. This engages the readers imagination to work out a solution which the reader will usually enjoy. The case offered to Poirot is not as sinister but just as difficult to solve. A man has been murdered in his room. The murdered man was stabbed twelve times but all the blows were inflicted with different strengths of blow. Some blows were delivered left-handed others right-handed. All initial theories seem impossible. It is also a locked room mystery but there appear to be more clues such as the dented watch, the handkerchief, the match and the pipe cleaner. There appears to be too many clues. This is what makes the case hard to solve. I think that the sheer impossibility and abruptness of Holmess case gives it the edge, because it encourages the readers imagination more. I think that initially Holmess case also offers more of a challenge, as there are fewer clues. One of the things that the mysteries have in common as the stories progress is the false clues or red herrings offered, attempting to confuse the reader and lead them off on a false trail to make the solution more exciting and unexpected. The stories use the false clues in contrasting ways. In The Speckled Band, the gypsies who inhabit Dr. Roylotts land are offered as a possible solution to the case, as are the wild Indian animals that roam his gardens. There is, however, no evidence to suspect their involvement, and so Holmes discounts them as a possibility very early on when he visits the Roylott residence. Helen says that Dr. Roylott made an excuse to move me from my room which heightens Holmes suspicions. There are a lot of false clues and suspects in Murder on the Orient Express. At the start this is interesting but as the plot progresses and every clue turns out to be false the story becomes a bit uninteresting. You just cannot work out who did it because everything seems impossible. Even Poirot says every fresh piece of knowledge that came to light made the solution a whole lot more difficult. Of the two sets of red herrings, I believe that both keep the reader baffled enough to be unable to work out the solution. In The Speckled Band few alternatives are offered so the reader never formulates their own theories and in Murder on the Orient Express the reader is given lots of alternative solutions so the reader is always changing their opinion. The Murder on the Orient Express alternative solutions are better because they make the reader think.

Friday, November 22, 2019

Is the media machine an asset or an obstacle for peace activists Essay

Is the media machine an asset or an obstacle for peace activists - Essay Example The peace movement, being a social movement, is aimed at achieving or maintaining world peace by ending situations that bring conflicts in the human society. In this respect, they work towards ending wars and minimizing the use of violence to resolve disputes. This is accomplished by use of alternatives such as diplomacy, non-violent resistance, pacifism, peaceful demonstrations, supporting political candidates who denounce violence, moral purchasing, and lobbying for certain legislations to be enacted to promote peace. The media, both electronic and print, has been a great asset to peace activists who use it to pass their points across to the general public (Chatfield and Kleidman, 1992). On the other hand, it has also acted as an obstacle to peaceful missions around the world. This paper seeks to analyze how much of an asset and obstacle the media has been to peace activists. The reason WPP (Women Peacemakers Program) and other organizations are putting so much effort to get mainstream media’s attention is because the media’s attention towards peace has been wanting (Woman Peacemakers Program, 2004). In many cases, the media applies only limited effort towards training specialists to cover peace related activities. Compared to sports, humour, business news and fashion which never seem to have shortage of specialist journalists, security and peace issues have very few specialist journalists. Most media companies avoid the trouble of having their journalists specialize only in peace issues. Peace activities to them do not sell and hence are likely to be shunned in most times. The situation is made worse by the meagre financial incentives accorded to peace journalists. Specialists in this area who stick to journalism are in fact viewed as minority. During the cold war period subjects like NATO and Communism came to public focus (Chatfield, 1973). Peace activists at this time, unfortunately, were subject to stereotypical

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

What, if anything, was revolutionary about the Scientific Revolution Essay

What, if anything, was revolutionary about the Scientific Revolution - Essay Example he telescope, the dissection and the new conception of the universe will be used to discuss the causes of the Scientific Revolution as well as illustrate how the Scientific Revolution influenced society then and now. Before the mid-1500s, when the Scientific Revolution is generally agreed to have had its start, ideas regarding medicine, the body and the universe were not based on the same sorts of observations that are available to us today. For those who considered the placement of the earth in relation to the universe, it was understood that the earth was at the center with concentric bands of water, air and fire surrounding it. Surrounding these were further bands of the stellar spheres with Jesus and the saints existing even beyond the outermost stellar sphere. Another conception of the universe, the Ptolemaic Universe, was described as consisting of two spheres, the inner one was the earth and the outer one, the remainder of the universe, revolved around this inner core. These images originating in scientific books on the subject produced in this period help to illustrate the depth to which these ideas, born of Biblical interpretations, were believed. However, touching off the debate that w ould eventually change the world, Copernicus wrote to Pope Paul III regarding his soon-to-be published and revolutionary idea that the earth revolved around the sun rather than the other way around (Copernicus 1543 cited in Levick, 2004: 524). Fearful of the backlash his observations might have on a public firmly entrenched in the idea of being central to the universe, Copernicus was working to gain the support of the Pope by pointing out the purely mathematical means by which he came to his conclusions as well as the support he found for this idea in ancient texts. In this letter, he informs the Pope that it is only by assuming a motion of the earth in addition to the observed motions of the other planets can the universe possibly retain its apparent

Monday, November 18, 2019

Reading commentaries (( economics )) Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Reading commentaries (( economics )) - Assignment Example The chapter brings readers to attention of the failure of neoclassical theorists to recognize the upheavals that capitalism was going through, which culminated into emergence of new schools of thought by such economists as Bastiat. Capitalism was subverted by a tinge of imperialism, coupled by a severe depression that ultimately resulted in the Great Depression (Hunt and Lautzenheiser 372). Neoclassical economists assumed normal periods of boom and depression. They also assumed that the economy had self-correcting mechanisms which would automatically fall in action whenever the economy underwent depression. Social unrests such as the World War 1, emergence of fascism and Soviet Revolution had a pervasive effect on the stability of capitalism. The chapter reveals that this instability marked the departure of such economists as Keynes from the classical school of thought. Keynes felt the need to reassess his thinking or ideas which were hedged on classical school of thought. In explain ing the failures of the classical economists, the chapter brings to light two untenable issues that dominated the classical theories. The first issue relates to the concept of utility. ... Classical economists assumed that in equilibrium, the entrepreneur did not make profits. They also failed to analyze the negative features associated with the production process under capitalism. The concept of utility and maximizing profits is clearly elaborated in the chapter. Consumers seek to maximize utility out of a given bundle of good while firms seek to maximize profits. The chapter notes that classical economists came up with abstract ideas to explain the concept of utility maximization. For example, classical economists used indifference curves in their explanation of utility concept and diminishing marginal utility. Classical economists assumed an ordinal approach to consumer preference. The authors have dismissed this as â€Å"conceptually impossible† (Hunt and Lautzenheiser 374). A graphical approach has enabled readers to understand the concept of maximizing utility. The assumption here is that there is consistency in the choice made by consumers and that there are only two commodities involved (Hunt and Lautzenheiser 376). The level of consumers’ income acts as the budget constraint. The concept of indifference curves enabled marginal utility of goods to be measured through analysis of the slope of indifference curves. The concept was also important in determining the equilibrium point at which a firm should produce through the use of isoquants. The chapter also explains how a production possibility frontier was used to arrive at combinations of goods that could possibly be produced in a situation whereby there was efficient utilization of capital and labor in the society (Hunt and Lautzenheiser 375). The chapter has devoted to highlighting key criticisms of the neoclassical economics in order to enable students construct balanced opinions. The

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Effects of Weight Stigma | Article Analysis

Effects of Weight Stigma | Article Analysis In their 51st volume, the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology published an article named â€Å"The Ironic Effects of Weight Stigma† in which researchers explore the realistic effects that weight stigmas and weight-related identity threats can have on an individual’s dietary habits and self-efficacy regarding self-control. All subjects in the experiments were female, as it was previously concluded that women are more susceptible to weight-related stigmas as well as weight-related identity threats. The scientists decided to test the effects of these stigmas and identity threats by designing an experiment in which participants first read either an article that presents a weight-related identity threat (experimental group), or an article that is unrelated to weight and obesity (control group), and then were asked to give a brief speech explaining the article, its validity, as well as the implications of the ideas discussed in the articles. After giving their speeches, the participants were placed in an unobserved room for ten minutes with pre-weighed bowls of MMs, Skittles, and Goldfish snacks and told to help themselves to a snack. The observed variables in this experiment included calories consumed after having given their speeches, the participants’ self-efficacy for dietary control (as evaluated by a questionnaire that scales self efficacy for dietary control), the subject’s concern regarding being the subject of weight stigma, as well as the individual’s speech and nonverbal behavior. Although women in the experimental and control groups did not differ in perceived weight, and neither did white vs. non-white participants, it was shown that non-white participants had higher BMIs than their white counterparts. The results of the experiment were certainly ironic, but not to be unexpected. Women who were subjected to weight related identity threat inevitably had a positive correlation between perceived weight and calories consumed, whereas women in the control group had little to no correlation between perceived weight and calories consumed. Essentially, only those who were self-described as overweight would consume more calories after being subjected to a weight related stigmatization, and those who elf-described as overweight would only reflect an increase in calorie consumption after having been exposed to a stigma regarding weight. Furthermore, among women that were exposed to the threat condition, perceived weight was significantly negatively coordinated with self-efficacy regarding dietary control whereas perceived weight had no correlation with self-efficacy for dietary control for women in the control group. Also, self-described overweight women reflected lower self-efficacy for cont rolling their diet when subjected to the identity threat while women who did not describe themselves as overweight reflected higher self-efficacy for dietary control when presented with the weight-related identity threat. The study essentially found that stigmatizations regarding weight often have an effect opposite of what is desired. Being confronted with a stigma regarding weight is likely to cause a person who perceives themselves as being overweight to eat more and have lower self-efficacy regarding their ability to control their own dietary habits, in other words it in no way encourages them to eat healthy or feel empowered regarding their dietary decisions.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Racism versus Civil Rights Movement Essay -- African-American Civil Rig

"Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won. You earn it and win it in every generation." -Coretta Scott King, page666 The 1960's were a time of great turmoil in America and throughout the world. One of the main topics that arouse was black civil rights. In my essay I plan to compare the difference of opinion between these particular writers and directors, towards racism and the civil rights movement in the 1960's The movement truly got underway with civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King jr. and Malcolm X in the early 1960's. Students who wanted to bolt on the equality and protest bandwagon quickly followed. Most of the students went to the Southern states (Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, etc.), to stop the racism and hate crimes. The truth of the matter is that the violence and abhorrence would get worse before it got better. The Klan became stronger and more violent, committing many more lynching and gruesome murders. Bit by bit most of the Caucasian Americans came around to the idea of integration, and did not believe that the African Americans as a 'threat' anymore. The only reason that this great monumental change occurred was because of the great leadership of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King jr., and not to mention the thousands of other less famous civil rights leaders, that worked to change the views of their community. There also where lobbyist and protesters that risked there lives and went out on a limb to struggle against injustice. All factors, put together, made one of the better most changes of the twentieth century. Rob Rheiner (the director of Ghost of Mississippi) has successfully portrayed the blatant dishonesty towards blacks by the police force and Mississippi courts. On one occasion when the accused murderer was in court, the Govener of the state went up and shook hands right in front of the victim's wife. Another example of dishonesty against blacks was that a retired judge had taken home murder weapons (mainly from the African American murders) and kept them as souvenirs. It was later discovered that the police officers had also taken home evidence from crimes against the African Americans, for souvenirs. The murderer portrayed a "couldn't care less" attitude during the first trial in 1962 and the retrial in 1992. He knew that he would be f... ...e a fatal mistake, many times. Quotes "We don't except Jews because they reject Christ and have control of international banking cartels, they are the root of what we call communism today. We do not accept papists, because they bow to a Roman dictator; Turks, Mongols, Tartars, Orientals, or Negro's because we are here to protect Anglo-Saxon democracy for Americans."(page 3) "One day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and girls as sister's and brother's."(page 3) "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of it's creed."(page 2) "Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won. You earn it and win it in every generation." -Coretta Scott King(page1) Bibliography Bibliography The Ghost of Mississippi; Rob Rheiner; Columbia Tristar; 1992 Bernard Aquina Doctor; Malcolm X; 1992; Writers and Readers publishing inc. Kira Albin; Quiet Strength: The Faith, the Hope, and the Heart of a Woman Who Changed a Nation; 2000; Zondervan Publishing House Mississippi Burning; Alan Parker; (I don't know the company that produced it); 1988

Monday, November 11, 2019

Money and Morality Essay

MONEY AND MORALITY: Gifts of eternal truth in moments of the mundane By Cheryl Leis, PhD, Management Consultant/Practical Philosopher As inhabitants of this 21st century Western world, we all have to deal with money. We participate in the world of commerce as a means to obtain those things considered necessities of life. Money plays the role of the most commonly accepted means in this giving and getting from others. And the more money one has, the greater one’s power to regulate the particulars of survival – one’s own and that of others. We use money to participate in the exchange of products or services, individually and corporately – whether employed by or leading an organization. In some cases these organizations are publicly funded non-profits, and in other cases they are private, for-profit ventures. Money and morality is a topic that has surfaced on many occasions in my line of work. One such instance was during a contract with CBC TV to work on the development of a six-part national series titled: â€Å"Beautiful, Filthy Money and the Search for Soul. † The title itself speaks to the ambivalent nature of our responses to money and its presence in our lives. As part of the contract, I appeared as a guest on the panel, where I was asked to complete the following sentence: â€Å"Money is†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Yes, what is money? My response was: Money is a tool for finding out who we really are. What you do with money, and how you live with money’s presence in your life, tells a lot about your values. Or, as Ralph Waldo Emerson puts it: â€Å"A dollar is not value, but representative of value, and, at last, of moral values. † This is apparently pretty close to what Buddhists believe about money. There are times when many of us are faced with an imbalance between money and morality and find ourselves asking in some form or another: How we can put â€Å"Money† and â€Å"Morality† in the same sentence and not end up with an ethical contradiction? The incompatibility of these Mwords is an inherent, yet complex part of being human. And it is only when we face the truth of their incompatibility that we can come to understand the utter necessity of their coexistence. The challenge stems from the fact that there is both a spiritual side and a material side to our situation. When we don’t bring the spiritual side into dialogue with the material side, problems result. This is true for individuals as well as organizations. Think about Enron – what do you think their way of dealing with money says about the moral values that guided senior management there? Each of us could turn the question on our own lives. Money, in and of itself, is neutral. It has no intrinsic value, but is a mere yardstick of value, a means of measuring or comparing in the exchange of one thing for another. Money â€Å"belongs to the class of great mental inventions, known as 1 measures†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Measures of distance – the meter or mile – span the gulf between two things or places yet are not themselves things or places. Similarly, money brings things of different value together without becoming one or the other. † Because money is merely a way of measuring, it is in itself, therefore, not real. Thus, money is both neutral and unreal. Nevertheless, we often seem oblivious to this unreal nature of money and equate it with things that are very real, like our own values. But if, as Aristotle says, â€Å"[a]ll things that are exchanged 2 must be somehow comparable,† what are we saying about our perception of reality when we measure our sense of self-worth by our net-worth? While money is a measure of value, that value can change depending on what the market is willing to bear. It’s rather similar to the story of the emperor’s new clothes. As soon as we agree something no longer has value, our whole perception of it changes. This change in the perception of the value of something affects humans psychologically and emotionally. So when the value of stocks falls through the floor, people react in fear or paranoia. Conversely, when stocks rise like crazy, there is frenzy fuelled by hope and even greed. What then, motivates our relationship with money? With what intention do we strive to accumulate wealth? Do we recognize what our relationship with money says about our values? Money Obsessing For some the question of ethics and money leads down another path. In â€Å"Is Lucre Really 3 that Filthy? † Craig Cox, executive editor of Utne magazine, reflects on his own journey from disdain for the almighty dollar as a child of the 60s to becoming – of all things – â€Å"bourgeios,† earning money and learning to manage it. There was the example by a leading voice of the counter-culture of the day, Allen Ginsberg, who wrote in Howl! of burning all his money in a wastebasket. Times have changed – even for Ginsberg, 1. David Appelbaum, â€Å"Money and the City,† Parabola, Volume XVI, No. 1 (Spring 1991), 40. 2. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1133a 18. 3. Craig Cox, â€Å"Is Lucre Really That Filthy,† Utne Reader (July-August, 2003), 63. who â€Å"†¦of course, sold his papers to Stanford University for 4 nearly a million bucks. † The irony, points out Cox, is that social justice activists who want to eschew wealth in order to bring about social justice and help the poor are in fact helping people to attain the very thing they, the activists, abhor: a comfortable life. He sets up an interesting dilemma when he insists that â€Å"If you insist on embracing poverty in your own life, how do you become a credible advocate for folks who would do almost anything to 5 escape it? † True enough, there are those who become enslaved to money in their attachment to mere accumulation of more and more capital. However, there are also those who are enslaved to money in their ascetic avoidance of it. Both are obsessive behaviours: obsessed with having money or obsessed with avoiding it – like the alcoholic’s family that is obsessed with avoiding alcohol. In neither case is money at the service of the individual as a means of providing for the necessities of life; rather, the individual is at the service of money. Our emotional responses to this neutral thing called money often lead to an automatic attachment of value-statements. We grab on to labels such as â€Å"evil,† â€Å"bewitching,† â€Å"aweinspiring,† or â€Å"filthy lucre. † Respect for money is replaced with either worship or condemnation of it. Emotional and value-laden responses are also evident when conversation turns towards money and self-righteous posturing rises very quickly to the surface with comments like: â€Å"Well, I don’t soil my hands with money. † Or: â€Å"I certainly don’t 4. Ibid 5. Ibid work for money. † A lot of judging of others happens: â€Å"He’s just in it for the money. † Or: â€Å"She’d do anything for money. † This judgmental posturing also leads to ideological positioning. Anyone who focuses on making money is immediately dubbed a capitalist and conversely, anyone who speaks of communal sharing is dubbed a socialist. Subtleties are lost and conversation ends right there. No dialogue is possible. We move from love of money to love of ideology, where anyone who thinks differently than I do about money is immediately evil. Spiritual Moments of Mundane Existence To judge from one side or the other is to forget that we inherently have one foot in heaven and one foot in the mud of the earth below. The challenge is to live in both simultaneously. Living as a human being means learning to deal with money – whether one has a lot or a little matters not. It will do us no good to merely pursue a spiritual life unless we are living equally and simultaneously in the material world. Christians are exhorted to remember that even Bishops, or spiritual leaders, are told to balance both. â€Å"For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how can he take care of God’s church? † (1 Timothy 3:5) A life of wholeness, or one in which the spiritual and the material are in balance, guarantees freedom from distortion. Yet the need for wholeness is also at the heart of the contradiction. The spiritual and the material are of entirely different natures. Not only must they live in the same world, both the spiritual and the human sides of our existence must also have 2 their own identity and remain in full relationship with each other. We have to work at accepting this incompatibility for what it is. These are separate parts of who we are and of our daily existence. These separate parts are in a dynamic relationship one to the other, like notes in a beautiful song: you might have harmony, but you still have separate notes. If they are all the same note, there is not harmony, there is unison. Harmony has tension. It is beautiful because of the tension. Unison is nice, but harmony is richer. Morality And Business Just as it will not help us on an individual level to focus only on the one side of our nature at the expense of the other, likewise it will not help to divide our culture into the spirit-lead and others. It reminds me of a story I recently heard: Two men met for the first time, in of all places, a church on a Sunday morning. The one asked the other: â€Å"So what do you do? † To which the second responded: â€Å"I work as a director of XYZ division of a business. † â€Å"You’re in business? † quipped the first, who was a teacher, â€Å"Oh that’s too bad. † The work of the businessman was seen as inherently less worthy. How far could the conversation go after that? It is a difficult chasm. One finds a classic case of a religious-affiliated venture that refused to acknowledge that it must run itself like a business. After decades of mismanagement, the publishing house cried out to its constituency to get it out of a multi-million debt. One former board member was even quoted in a church publication as saying that this was seen as â€Å"a church venture, not a business venture. † The mistake lay in this eitheror posture. There was no acknowledgment that gifts and talents and skills of different sorts were needed. The disdain goes the other way too. One has only to think of the now infamous corporations like Enron or Livenet, where the situation is merely the reverse: a business enterprise that lacks spiritual sense, and results in moral bankruptcy. If our moral principles give us the framework within which we operate and the ability to continue operating depends upon financial viability, then integrity is automatically lost for any organization when either half of the morality and money equation is lost. Balancing the Equation Only when we pay attention and only when we come to recognize the true place and role we have allowed money in our lives, only then can we possibly hope to reach a deeper understanding of how important a balance between the material and the spiritual is. This deeper understanding may only come in flashes, only fleetingly. Yet the truth that is understood in an instant opens us up to the truth of our everyday actions and existence. In other words, we must become conscious, we must become aware of our human condition – this life lived in a dynamic balance between the spiritual and the material – and be attentive to both. But instead of giving the right amount of attention to those mundane and material aspects of life like taxes and monetary demands put upon us, we often get caught in a bias against money. We would rather point fingers and condemn in broad strokes than engage in dialogue of particular money matters. We would rather alienate than seek to understand. Instead of casting judgment or pretending we, personally, are above being affected by money, we need to face our human situation and recognize we live in two worlds simultaneously. Maybe then we would do a better job of living in both. â€Å"If great truth does not enter into our relation to money, it cannot 6 enter our lives. † And if we do not allow ourselves to face that truth, the negative aspects of our relationship to money will sneak up on us unawares. Bad debts, overdue bills, or an empty fridge will suddenly demand so much of our human attention that we will have no energy left to focus on matters of the spirit. Undeniably, it can be a challenge to live out our moral principles in the marketplace; it is inherent in the challenge of being spiritual and human at the same time. Not giving enough attention to either the spiritual or the material, on an individual or an organizational level, leads to bankruptcy, whether moral or financial. In his book, Business and the Buddha, Dr. Lloyd Field states, â€Å"greed is a choice. † We can choose to allow our insatiable desires to form our intentions or we can choose to recognize where our intentions are ultimately leading us. It is not money or wealth or even the capitalist system that is the problem, he argues. Buddhists regard wealth as neither bad nor negative. Rather, the problem sits plainly with us, human beings, and the intentions which we allow to motivate our thoughts, our emotions and our actions. It cannot be stated any clearer than said in this book: we are exhorted to â€Å"continually make the connection between money and human values. † And then the question that really gets to the heart of the matter: â€Å"What price do we put on our ethics? † We will need to move past our biases and disdain for those whom we consider to be on the other side of the money and morality equation and allow moments of eternal truth and even grace to infiltrate our discussions and our questions. When all gifts and skills are welcome and when integrity is our priority, then there will be the possibility of a true and dynamic relationship between money matters and morality. 6. Needleman, 265.

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Deception Point Page 87

â€Å"Anything?† Rachel asked. The pilot let the arm make several complete rotations. He adjusted some controls and watched. It was all clear. â€Å"Couple of small ships way out on the periphery, but they're heading away from us. We're clear. Miles and miles of open sea in all directions.† Rachel Sexton sighed, although she did not feel particularly relieved. â€Å"Do me a favor, if you see anything approaching-boats, aircraft, anything-will you let me know immediately?† â€Å"Sure thing. Is everything okay?† â€Å"Yeah. I'd just like to know if we're having company.† The pilot shrugged. â€Å"I'll watch the radar, ma'am. If anything blips, you'll be the first to know.† Rachel's senses were tingling as she headed for the hydrolab. When she entered, Corky and Tolland were standing alone in front of a computer monitor and chewing sandwiches. Corky called out to her with his mouth full. â€Å"What'll it be? Fishy chicken, fishy bologna, or fishy egg salad?† Rachel barely heard the question. â€Å"Mike, how fast can we get this information and get off this ship?† 104 Tolland paced the hydrolab, waiting with Rachel and Corky for Xavia's return. The news about the chondrules was almost as discomforting as Rachel's news about her attempted contact with Pickering. The director didn't answer. And someone tried to pulse-snitch the Goya's location. â€Å"Relax,† Tolland told everyone. â€Å"We're safe. The Coast Guard pilot is watching the radar. He can give us plenty of warning if anyone is headed our way.† Rachel nodded in agreement, although she still looked on edge. â€Å"Mike, what the hell is this?† Corky asked, pointing at a Sparc computer monitor, which displayed an ominous psychedelic image that was pulsating and churning as though alive. â€Å"Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler,† Tolland said. â€Å"It's a cross section of the currents and temperature gradients of the ocean underneath the ship.† Rachel stared. â€Å"That's what we're anchored on top of?† Tolland had to admit, the image looked frightening. At the surface, the water appeared as a swirling bluish green, but tracing downward, the colors slowly shifted to a menacing red-orange as the temperatures heated up. Near the bottom, over a mile down, hovering above the ocean floor, a blood-red, cyclone vortex raged. â€Å"That's the megaplume,† Tolland said. Corky grunted. â€Å"Looks like an underwater tornado.† â€Å"Same principle. Oceans are usually colder and more dense near the bottom, but here the dynamics are reversed. The deepwater is heated and lighter, so it rises toward the surface. Meanwhile, the surface water is heavier, so it races downward in a huge spiral to fill the void. You get these drainlike currents in the ocean. Enormous whirlpools.† â€Å"What's that big bump on the seafloor?† Corky pointed at the flat expanse of ocean floor, where a large dome-shaped mound rose up like a bubble. Directly above it swirled the vortex. â€Å"That mound is a magma dome,† Tolland said. â€Å"It's where lava is pushing up beneath the ocean floor.† Corky nodded. â€Å"Like a huge zit.† â€Å"In a manner of speaking.† â€Å"And if it pops?† Tolland frowned, recalling the famous 1986 megaplume event off the Juan de Fuca Ridge, where thousands of tons of twelve hundred degrees Celsius magma spewed up into the ocean all at once, magnifying the plume's intensity almost instantly. Surface currents amplified as the vortex expanded rapidly upward. What happened next was something Tolland had no intention of sharing with Corky and Rachel this evening. â€Å"Atlantic magma domes don't pop,† Tolland said. â€Å"The cold water circulating over the mound continually cools and hardens the earth's crust, keeping the magma safely under a thick layer of rock. Eventually the lava underneath cools, and the spiral disappears. Megaplumes are generally not dangerous.† Corky pointed toward a tattered magazine sitting near the computer. â€Å"So you're saying Scientific American publishes fiction?† Tolland saw the cover, and winced. Someone had apparently pulled it from the Goya's archive of old science magazines: Scientific American, February 1999. The cover showed an artist's rendering of a supertanker swirling out of control in an enormous funnel of ocean. The heading read: MEGAPLUMES-GIANT KILLERS FROM THE DEEP? Tolland laughed it off. â€Å"Totally irrelevant. That article is talking about megaplumes in earthquake zones. It was a popular Bermuda Triangle hypothesis a few years back, explaining ship disappearances. Technically speaking, if there's some sort of cataclysmic geologic event on the ocean floor, which is unheard of around here, the dome could rupture, and the vortex could get big enough to†¦ well, you know†¦ â€Å" â€Å"No, we don't know,† Corky said. Tolland shrugged. â€Å"Rise to the surface.† â€Å"Terrific. So glad you had us aboard.† Xavia entered carrying some papers. â€Å"Admiring the megaplume?† â€Å"Oh, yes,† Corky said sarcastically. â€Å"Mike was just telling us how if that little mound ruptures, we all go spiraling around in a big drain.† â€Å"Drain?† Xavia gave a cold laugh. â€Å"More like getting flushed down the world's largest toilet.† Outside on the deck of the Goya, the Coast Guard helicopter pilot vigilantly watched the EMS radar screen. As a rescue pilot he had seen his share of fear in people's eyes; Rachel Sexton had definitely been afraid when she asked him to keep an eye out for unexpected visitors to the Goya. What kind of visitors is she expecting? he wondered. From all the pilot could see, the sea and air for ten miles in all directions contained nothing that looked out of the ordinary. A fishing boat eight miles off. An occasional aircraft slicing across an edge of their radar field and then disappearing again toward some unknown destination. The pilot sighed, gazing out now at the ocean rushing all around the ship. The sensation was a ghostly one-that of sailing full speed despite being anchored. He returned his eyes to the radar screen and watched. Vigilant. 105 Onboard the Goya, Tolland had now introduced Xavia and Rachel. The ship's geologist was looking increasingly baffled by the distinguished entourage standing before her in the hydrolab. In addition, Rachel's eagerness to run the tests and get off the ship as fast as possible was clearly making Xavia uneasy. Take your time, Xavia, Tolland willed her. We need to know everything. Xavia was talking now, her voice stiff. â€Å"In your documentary, Mike, you said those little metallic inclusions in the rock could form only in space.† Tolland already felt a tremor of apprehension. Chondrules form only in space. That's what NASA told me. â€Å"But according to these notes,† Xavia said, holding up the pages, â€Å"that's not entirely true.† Corky glared. â€Å"Of course it's true!† Xavia scowled at Corky and waved the notes. â€Å"Last year a young geologist named Lee Pollock out of Drew University was using a new breed of marine robot to do Pacific deepwater crust sampling in the Mariana Trench and pulled up a loose rock that contained a geologic feature he had never seen before. The feature was quite similar in appearance to chondrules. He called them ‘plagioclase stress inclusions'-tiny bubbles of metal that apparently had been rehomogenized during deep ocean pressurization events. Dr. Pollock was amazed to find metallic bubbles in an ocean rock, and he formulated a unique theory to explain their presence.† Corky grumbled. â€Å"I suppose he would have to.† Xavia ignored him. â€Å"Dr. Pollock asserted that the rock formed in an ultradeep oceanic environment where extreme pressure metamorphosed a pre-existing rock, permitting some of the disparate metals to fuse.†

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Effects on the Florida Everglades essays

Effects on the Florida Everglades essays The unique natural wealth of lower Florida has excited the curiosity and imagination and has served the needs of man for at least twenty centuries. Its geographic setting still lures residents and tourists. Everglades National Park is at once a limited and a vast sampling of a region full of contrast. It is made up of adjacent, interrelated areas descriptively called the Florida Everglades, the Big Cypress country, the mangrove coast, the Ten Thousand Islands, the Cape, and Florida Bay. The region has nourished, though sometimes harshly, both exotic and familiar flora and fauna. Its people, from the earliest aboriginal Indians to its present day inhabitants, provide clues and records from which the historian can trace the story of its human history. The Park itself consists of over a million acres of land and water, and is our third largest national park. It is an area without any single point of powerful impact. Many other national parks that are chiefly of geological intere st exhibit great peaks, deep gorges, or spectacular scenes of one kind or another. The Everglades, which is chiefly of biological interest, requires a different perspective on the part of the visitor. The creation of the Everglades we see today was caused by the fractious interplay of rock and water, acted out in the distant and recent past. The park is located on the southern Florida peninsula, which is very low and flat because it was once an ancient sea bottom. The highest point in the Everglades is just ten feet above sea level. The bedrock of the area is limestone, which is made up of marine sedimentary rock. The contraction and expansion of continental glaciers have altered the landscape. The Florida peninsula has been inundated by and later emerged from the surrounding seas at least four times in recent geologic history. As glaciers expanded, they consumed bodies of water, including the shallow tropical seas covering Florida, causing the l...

Monday, November 4, 2019

On the book LADY CHATTERLEYS LOVER Research Paper

On the book LADY CHATTERLEYS LOVER - Research Paper Example At first, the term fidelity does not appear to be consistent with the main plot in Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover. The title itself implies infidelity. The main plot centers around an adulterous wife, Connie Chatterley whose husband is rendered impotent as a result of an injury sustained in the war. Lady Chatterley, an aristocrat then takes up an affair with Mellors, the gamekeeper (Lawrence 2009). The question of fidelity arises in a way that challenges normative values existing at the time. While Lady Chatterley is unfaithful to her husband and breaks ranks with her own class, she is faithful to her lover (Niven 1979, 184). Although Mellors is complicit in Lady Chatterley’s adultery and is married himself, he himself is entirely faithful to Lady Chatterley. According to Gabriel and Smithson (1990), â€Å"Mellors seeks the approval of one woman only† (69). The lovers’ fidelity to each other however, calls for infidelity to their respective spou ses. However, from Lawrence’s perspective, he was not concerned with what might be characterized as â€Å"photographic fidelity†(Wuchina 2009, 172). In other words, Lawrence was more concerned with feelings that commanded fidelity rather than a sense of detached duty. This message is communicated through Mellors who, reflecting on his intimate encounters with Lady Chatterley, observed that: The connection between them was growing closer. He could see the day when it would clinch up, and they would have to make a life together (Lawrence 2009, 142). Wuchina (2009) points out that Mellors has â€Å"no second thoughts, or guilt† (174). This is because, â€Å"in its essentials, the relationship, the mutual attraction, is essentially legitimate† (Wuchina 2009, 174). The legitimacy is founded on the fact that Lady Chatterley was in a loveless marriage and was making a particularly difficult sacrifice. In fact, Mellors observes of Lady Chatterley: She was nicer t han she knew, and oh, so much too nice for the tough lot she was in contact with!..But he would protect her with his heart for a little while. For a little while, before the insentient iron world and the Mammon of mechanized greed did them both in, her as well as him (Lawrence 2009, 136). Mellors was obviously referring to the fact that Lady Chatterley was quite young. She was only 23 years old and was trapped in an unusual situation, one that she was too young and perhaps too naive to cope with. Lady Chatterley was for the most part confined to the companionship of her wounded husband and his circle of friends with whom she was essentially bored. As Daum (2008) observes, this is a situation that the young Lady Chatterley had to endure each day and it could not have been easy to cope with (3). Yet in this youthful innocence, the moral code of the times commanded fidelity from Lady Chatterley. Lawrence (2009) immediately draws attention to the fallacy of the moral code of the times. The novel opens with the caution â€Å"ours is essentially a tragic age† (5). Lady Chatterley was trapped in a time where, the First World War and its consequences were still fresh. She was therefore tethered to a marriage in which she could not find happiness and had yet to learn the meaning of life. As the plot moves along, a poignant issue necessarily arises. Is it fair to expect the young Lady Chatterley in the circumstances in which she finds herself to be faithful to her marriage

Saturday, November 2, 2019

Db3 =employee compensation and benefit Research Paper

Db3 =employee compensation and benefit - Research Paper Example This is attributed to the fact that once employees are introduced to the incentive programs, there would be a demand to increase the value of the incentives over time. In most situations, an organization may not be in a position to increase the value of the incentives thus limiting the effectiveness of this particular behavioral change tool. Introduction of the incentive system may have both negative and positive impacts on an organization culture. For instance, Hope & Fraser (2003) point out that the strategy may increase employee competitiveness in an organization and at the same time increase reliability of incentives to influence performance. There are limited long term benefits of implementing incentives programs. With increasing demand on increasing the value of incentives, an organization may be faced with increased expenditure and employee conflict in a long term basis. Bratton & Gold (2007) however, point out that an organization’s culture may benefit from the increasing level of competitiveness of the employee in terms of increased output. It is an obvious assumption that once an incentive program is implemented, it would be a major setback if the program is retracted. Employees in an organization may have a psychological notion based on reliance on incentives for performance. Hope & Fraser (2003) argue that this would negatively affect the employees’ approach on