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Monday, September 30, 2019

Black House Chapter Nineteen

19 JACK FOLLOWS THE Thunder Five out of the parking lot, and for the moment we will let him go alone on his northward way on Highway 93 toward Judy Marshall's lookout and Judy Marshall's locked ward. Like Jack, the bikers are headed toward the unknown, but their unknown lies westward on Highway 35, into the land of the steadily accumulating past, and we want to know what they will find there. These men do not appear to be nervous; they still project the massive confidence with which they burst into the Sand Bar. In truth, they never really display nervousness, for situations that would make other people worried or anxious generally make them get physical. Fear affects them differently than it does other people, too: in the rare moments when they have experienced fear, they've tended on the whole to enjoy it. In their eyes, fear represents a God-given opportunity for focusing their collective concentration. Due to their remarkable solidarity, that concentration is formidable. For those o f us who are not members of a biker gang or the Marine Corps, solidarity means little more than the compassionate impulse that leads us to comfort a bereft friend; for Beezer and his merry band, solidarity is the assurance that someone's always got your back. They are on each other's hands, and they know it. For the Thunder Five, safety really is in numbers. Yet the encounter toward which they are flying has no precedents or analogues in their experience. Black House is something new, and its newness the sheer strangeness of Mouse's story sinks tendrils down into their guts, one and all. Eight miles west of Centralia, where the flatland around Potsie's thirty-year-old development yields to the long stretch of woods that runs all the way to Maxton's, Mouse and Beezer ride side by side in front of the others. Beezer occasionally looks to his friend, asking a wordless question. The third time that Mouse shakes his head, he follows the gesture with a backward wave of his hand that says Stop bugging me, I'll tell you when we're there. Beezer drops back; Sonny, Kaiser Bill, and Doc automatically assume Beezer is giving them a signal, and they string out in a single line. At the head of the column, Mouse keeps taking his eyes off the highway to inspect the right-hand side of the road. The little road is hard to see, Mouse knows, and by now it will be more overgrown than it was two years ago. He is trying to spot the white of the battered NO TRESPASSING sign. It, too, may be partially hidden by new growth. He slows down to thirty-five. The four men behind him match his change in pace with the smoothness of long practice. Alone of the Thunder Five, Mouse has already seen their destination, and in the deepest places of his soul he can scarcely believe that he is going there again. At first, the ease and rapidity with which his memories had flown out of their dark vault had pleased him; now, instead of feeling that he has effortlessly reclaimed a lost part of his life, he has the sense of being at the mercy of that lost afternoon. A grave danger then and he does not doubt that some great and dangerous force had brushed him with a warning hand is an increased danger now. Memory has returned a miserable conclusion he thrust away long ago: that the hideous structure Jack Sawyer called Black House had killed Little Nancy Hale as surely as if its rafters had fallen in on her. Moral more than physical, Black House's ugliness exhaled toxic fumes. Little Nancy had been killed by the invisible poisons carried on the warning hand; now Mouse had to look at that knowledge without blinking. He can feel her hands o n his shoulders, and their thin bones are covered with rotting flesh. If I'd been five foot three and weighed one hundred and five pounds instead of being six-two and two hundred and ninety, by now I'd be rotting, too, he thinks. Mouse may look for the narrow road and the sign beside it with the eyes of a fighter pilot, but someone else has to see them, because he never will. His unconscious has taken a vote, and the decision was unanimous. Each of the other men, Sonny, Doc, the Kaiser, and even Beezer, have also connected Little Nancy's death with Black House, and the same speculations about comparative size and weight have passed through their minds. However, Sonny Cantinaro, Doc Amberson, Kaiser Bill Strassner, and especially Beezer St. Pierre assume that whatever poison surrounded Black House had been concocted in a laboratory by human beings who knew what they were doing. These four men derive the old, primitive reassurance from one another's company that they have enjoyed since college; if anything makes them feel a touch uneasy, it is that Mouse Baumann, not Beezer, leads their column. Even though Beezer let Mouse wave him back, Mouse's position contains a hint of insurrection, of mutiny: the universe has been subtly disordered. Twenty yards from the back end of the Maxton property, Sonny decides to put an end to this farce, guns his Softail, roars past his friends, and moves up parallel to Mouse. Mouse glances at him with a trace of worry, and Sonny motions to the side of the road. When they have all pulled over, Mouse says, â€Å"What's your problem, Sonny?† â€Å"You are,† Sonny says. â€Å"Either you missed the turnoff, or your whole story's all fucked up.† â€Å"I said I wasn't sure where it is.† He notices with nearly immeasurable relief that Little Nancy's dead hands no longer grip his shoulders. â€Å"Of course not. You were ripped on acid!† â€Å"Good acid.† â€Å"Well, there's no road up ahead, I know that much. It's just trees all the way to the old fucks' home.† Mouse ponders the stretch of road ahead as if the road just might be up there, after all, although he knows it is not. â€Å"Shit, Mouse, we're practically in town. I can see Queen Street from here.† â€Å"Yeah,† Mouse says. â€Å"Okay.† If he can get to Queen Street, he thinks, those hands will never fasten on him again. Beezer walks his Electra Glide up to them and says, â€Å"Okay what, Mouse? You agree it's farther back, or is the road somewhere else?† Frowning, Mouse turns his head to look back down the highway. â€Å"Goddamn. I think it's along here somewhere, unless I got totally turned around that day.† â€Å"Gee, how could that have happened?† says Sonny. â€Å"I looked at every inch of ground we passed, and I sure as hell didn't see a road. Did you, Beezer? How about a NO TRESPASSING sign, you happen to see one of those?† â€Å"You don't get it,† Mouse says. â€Å"This shit doesn't want to be seen.† â€Å"Maybe you shoulda gone to Ward D with Sawyer,† Sonny says. â€Å"People in there appreciate visionaries.† â€Å"Can it, Sonny,† Beezer says. â€Å"I was there before, and you weren't,† Mouse says. â€Å"Which one of us knows what he's talking about?† â€Å"I've heard enough out of both of you guys,† Beezer says. â€Å"Do you still think it's along here somewhere, Mouse?† â€Å"As far as I can recollect, yeah.† â€Å"Then we missed it. We'll go back and check again, and if we don't find it, we'll look somewhere else. If it's not here, it's between two of the valleys along 93, or in the woods on the hill leading up to the lookout. We have plenty of time.† â€Å"What makes you so sure?† Sonny asks. Mild anxiety about what they might come across is making him belligerent. He would just as soon go back to the Sand Bar and down a pitcher of Kingsland while messing with Stinky's head as waste his time goofing along the highways. Beezer looks at him, and his eyes crackle. â€Å"You know anywhere else there's enough trees to call it a woods?† Sonny backs down immediately. Beezer is never going to give up and go back to the Sand Bar. Beezer is in this for keeps. Most of that has to do with Amy, but some of it relates to Jack Sawyer. Sawyer impressed the shit out of Beezer the other night, that's what happened, and now Beezer thinks everything the guy says is golden. To Sonny, this makes no sense at all, but Beezer's the one who calls the shots, so for now, Sonny guesses, they will all run around like junior G-men for a while. If this adopt-a-cop program goes on for more than a couple of days, Sonny plans to have a little chat with Mouse and the Kaiser. Doc will always side with Beezer no matter what, but the other two are capable of listening to reason. â€Å"All right, then,† Beezer says. â€Å"Scratch from here to Queen Street. We know there's no fuckin' road along that stretch. We'll go back the way we came, give it one more shot. Single file the whole way. Mouse, you're point man again.† Mouse nods and prepares himself to feel those hands on his shoulders again. Gunning his Fat Boy, he rolls forward and takes his place at the head of the line. Beezer moves in behind him, and Sonny follows Beezer, with Doc and the Kaiser in the last two slots. Five pairs of eyes, Sonny thinks. If we don't see it this time, we never will. And we won't, because that damned road is halfway across the state. When Mouse and his old lady got buzzed on the Ultimate, they could go for hundreds of miles and think they'd taken a spin around the block. Everybody scans the opposite side of the road and the edge of the woods. Five pairs of eyes, as Sonny puts it, register an unbroken line of oaks and pine trees. Mouse has set a pace somewhere between a fast walk and a medium jog, and the trees crawl by. At this speed, they can notice the moss blistering the trunks of the oaks and the bright smears of sunlight on the forest's floor, which is brownish gray and resembles a layer of rumpled felt. A hidden world of upright trees, shafts of light, and deadfalls extends backward from the first, sentinel row. Within that world, paths that are not paths wind mazelike between the thick trunks and lead to mysterious clearings. Sonny becomes suddenly aware of a tribe of squirrels doing squirrel gymnastics in the map of branches that lace into an intermittent canopy. And with the squirrels, an aviary of birds pops into view. All of this reminds him of the deep Pennsylvania woods he had explored as a boy, before his parents sold their house and moved to Illinois. Those woods had contained a rapture he had found nowhere else. Sonny's conviction that Mouse got things wrong and they are looking in the wrong place takes on greater inner density. Earlier, Sonny had spoken about bad places, of which he has seen at least one he was absolutely certain about. In Sonny's experience, bad places, the ones that let you know you were not welcome, tended to be on or near borders. During the summer after his high school graduation, he and his two best buddies, all of them motorcycle freaks, had taken their bikes to Rice Lake, Wisconsin, where he had two cousins cute enough to show off to his friends. Sal and Harry were thrilled with the girls, and the girls thought the bikers were sexy and exotic. After a couple of days spent as a literal fifth wheel (or fifth and sixth wheel, depending on what you are counting), Sonny proposed extending their trip by a week and, in the interest of expanding their educations, ballin' the jack down to Chicago and spending the rest of their money on beer and hookers until they had to go home. Sal and Harry loved the whole idea, and on their third evening in Rice Lake, they packed their rolls on their bikes and roared south, making as much noise as possible. By 10:00 they had managed to get completely lost. It might have been the beer, it might have been inattention, but for one reason or another they had wandered off the highway and, in the deep black of a rural night, found themselves on the edge of an almost nonexistent town named Harko. Harko could not be found on their gas-station road map, but it had to be close to the Illinois border, on either one side or the other. Harko seemed to consist of an abandoned motel, a collapsing general store, and an empty grain mill. When the boys reached the mill, Sal and Harry groused about being exhausted and hungry and wanted to turn back to spend the night in the motel. Sonny, who was no less worn out, rode back with them; the second they rolled into the dark forecourt of the motel, he had a bad feeling about the place. The air seemed heavier, the darkness darker than they should have been. To Sonny, it seemed that malign, invisible presences haunted the place. He could all but make them out as they flitted between the cabins. Sal and Harry jeered at his reservations: he was a coward, a fairy, a girl. They broke down a door and unrolled their sleeping bags in a bare, dusty rectangular room. He carried his across the street and slept in a field. Dawn awakened him, and his face was wet with dew. He jumped up, pissed into the high grass, and checked for the motorcycles on the other side of the road. There they were, all three of them, listing over their stands outside a broken door. The dead neon sign at the entrance of the forecourt read HONEYMOONER'S BOWER. He walked across the narrow road and swept a hand over the moisture shining black on the seats of the motorcycles. A funny sound came from the room where his friends were sleeping. Already tasting dread, Sonny pushed open the broken door. If he had not initially refused to make sense of what was before him, what he saw in the room would have made him pass out. His face streaked with blood and tears, Sal Turso was sitting on the floor. Harry Reilly's severed head rested in his lap, and an ocean of blood soaked the floor and daubed the walls. Harry's body lay loose and disjointed on top of his blood-soaked sleeping bag. The body was naked; Sal wore only a blood-red T-shirt. Sal raised both his hands the one holding his prize long-bladed knife and the one holding only a palmful of blood and lifted his contorted face to Sonny's frozen gaze. I don't know what happened. His voice was high and screechy, not his. I don't remember doing this, how could I have done this? Help me, Sonny. I don't know what happened. Unable to speak, Sonny had backed out and flown away on his cycle. He'd had no clear idea of where he was going except that it was out of Harko. Two miles down the road, he came to a little town, a real one, with people in it, and someone finally took him to the sheriff's office. Harko: there was a bad place. In a way, both of his high school friends had died there, because Sal Turso hanged himself six months after being committed to a state penitentiary for life on a second-degree murder charge. In Harko, you saw no red-winged blackbirds or woodpeckers. Even sparrows steered clear of Harko. This little stretch of 35? Nothing but a nice, comfortable woodland. Let me tell you, Senator, Sonny Cantinaro has seen Harko, and this ain't no Harko. This don't even come close. It might as well be in another world. What meets Sonny's appraising eye and increasingly impatient spirit is about a mile and a quarter of beautiful wooded landscape. You could call it a mini-forest. He thinks it would be cool to come out here by himself one day, tuck the Harley out of sight, and just walk around through the great oaks and pines, that big pad of felt beneath his feet, digging the birds and the crazy squirrels. Sonny gazes at and through the sentinel trees on the far side of the road, enjoying his anticipation of the pleasure to come, and a flash of white jumps out at him from the darkness beside a huge oak tree. Caught up in the vision of walking alone under that green canopy, he almost dismisses it as a trick of the light, a brief illusion. Then he remembers what he is supposed to be looking for, and he slows down and leans sideways and sees, emerging from the tangle of underbrush at the base of the oak, a rusty bullet hole and a large, black letter N. Sonny swerves across the road, and the N expands into NO. He doesn't believe it, but there it is, Mouse's goddamn sign. He rolls ahead another foot, and the entire phrase comes into view. Sonny puts the bike in neutral and plants one foot on the ground. The darkness next to the oak stretches like a web to the next tree at the side of the road, which is also an oak, though not as huge. Behind him, Doc and the Kaiser cross the road and come to a halt. He ignores them and looks at Beezer and Mouse, who are already some thirty feet up the road, intently scanning the trees. â€Å"Hey,† he shouts. Beezer and Mouse do not hear him. â€Å"Hey! Stop!† â€Å"You got it?† Doc calls out. â€Å"Go up to those assholes and bring them back,† Sonny says. â€Å"It's here?† Doc asks, peering into the trees. â€Å"What, you think I found a body? Of course it's here.† Doc speeds up, stops just behind Sonny, and stares at the woods. â€Å"Doc, you see it?† Kaiser Bill shouts, and he speeds up, too. â€Å"Nope,† Doc says. â€Å"You can't see it from there,† Sonny tells him. â€Å"Will you please get your ass in gear and tell Beezer to come back here?† â€Å"Why don't you do it, instead?† Doc says. â€Å"Because if I leave this spot, I might not ever be able to fucking find it again,† Sonny says. Mouse and Beezer, now about sixty feet up the road, continue blithely on their way. â€Å"Well, I still don't see it,† Doc says. Sonny sighs. â€Å"Come up alongside me.† Doc walks his Fat Boy to a point parallel with Sonny's bike, then moves a couple of inches ahead. â€Å"There,† Sonny says, pointing at the sign. Doc squints and leans over, putting his head above Sonny's handle-bars. â€Å"Where? Oh, I see it now. It's all beat to hell.† The top half of the sign curls over and shades the bottom half. Some antisocial lad has happened along and creased the sign with his baseball bat. His older brothers, more advanced in the ways of crime, had tried to kill it with their .22 rifles, and he was just delivering the coup de grace. â€Å"Where's the road supposed to be?† Doc asks. Sonny, who is a little troubled about this point, indicates the flat sheet of darkness to the right of the sign and extending to the next, smaller oak tree. As he looks at it, the darkness loses its two-dimensionality and deepens backward like a cave, or a black hole softly punched through the air. The cave, the black hole, melts and widens into the earthen road, about five and a half feet wide, that it must have been all along. â€Å"That sure as hell is it,† says Kaiser Bill. â€Å"I don't know how all of us could have missed it the first time.† Sonny and Doc glance at each other, realizing that the Kaiser came along too late to watch the road seem to materialize out of a black wall with the thickness of a sheet of paper. â€Å"It's kind of tricky,† Sonny says. â€Å"Your eyes have to adjust,† Doc says. â€Å"Okay,† says Kaiser Bill, â€Å"but if you two want to argue about who tells Mouse and the Beeze, let me put you out of your misery.† He jams his bike into gear and tears off like a World War I messenger with a hot dispatch from the front. By now a long way up the road, Mouse and Beezer come to a halt and look back, having apparently heard the sound of his bike. â€Å"I guess that's it,† Sonny says, with an uneasy glance at Doc. â€Å"Our eyes had to adjust.† â€Å"Couldn't be anything else.† Less convinced than they would like to be, both men let it drop in favor of watching Kaiser Bill conversing with Beezer and Mouse. The Kaiser points at Sonny and Doc, Beezer points. Then Mouse points at them, and the Kaiser points again. It looks like a discussion in an extremely unevolved version of sign language. When everybody has gotten the point, Kaiser Bill spins his bike around and comes roaring back down the road with Beezer and Mouse on his tail. There is always that feeling of disorder, of misrule, when Beezer is not in the lead. The Kaiser stops on the side of the narrow road. Beezer and Mouse halt beside him, and Mouse winds up stationed directly in front of the opening in the woods. â€Å"Shouldn't have been that hard to see,† Beezer says. â€Å"But there she is, anyhow. I was beginning to have my doubts, Mousie.† â€Å"Uh-huh,† says Mouse. His customary manner, that of an intellectual roughneck with a playful take on the world, has lost all of its buoyancy. Beneath his biker's fair-weather sunburn, his skin looks pale and curdlike. â€Å"I want to tell you guys the truth,† Beezer says. â€Å"If Sawyer is right about this place, the creepy fuck who built it could have set up booby traps and all sorts of surprises. It was a long time ago, but if he really is the Fisherman, he has more reason than ever to keep people away from his crib. So we gotta watch our backs. The best way to do that is to go in strong, and go in ready. Put your weapons where you can reach them in a hurry, all right?† Beezer opens one of his saddlebags and draws out a Colt 9mm pistol with ivory grips and a blue-steel barrel. He chambers a round and unlocks the safety. Under his gaze, Sonny pulls his massive .357 Magnum from his bag, Doc a Colt identical to Beezer's, and Kaiser Bill an old S .38 Special he has owned since the late seventies. They shove the weapons, which until this moment have seen use only on firing ranges, into the pockets of their leather jackets. Mouse, who does not own a gun, pats the various knives he has secreted in the small of his back, in the hip and front pockets of his jeans, and sheathed within both of his boots. â€Å"Okay,† Beezer says. â€Å"Anybody in there is going to hear us coming no matter what we do, and maybe already has heard us, so there's no point in being sneaky about this. I want a fast, aggressive entrance just what you guys are good at. We can use speed to our advantage. Depending on what happens, we get as close to the house as possible.† â€Å"What if nothing happens?† asks the Kaiser. â€Å"Like, if we roll on in there and just keep going until we get to the house? I mean, I don't see any particular reason to be spooked here. Okay, something bad happened to Mouse, but . . . you know. Doesn't mean it's going to happen all over again.† â€Å"Then we enjoy the ride,† Beezer says. â€Å"Don't you want to take a look inside?† the Kaiser asks. â€Å"He might have kids in there.† â€Å"He might be in there,† Beezer tells him. â€Å"If he is, no matter what I said to Sawyer, we're bringing him out. Alive would be better than dead, but I wouldn't mind putting him in a serious state of bad health.† He gets a rumble of approval. Mouse does not contribute to this wordless, but otherwise universal agreement; he lowers his head and tightens his hands on the grips of his bike. â€Å"Because Mouse has been here before, he goes in on point. Doc and I'll be right behind him, with Sonny and the Kaiser covering our asses.† Beezer glances at them and says, â€Å"Stay about six, eight feet back, all right?† Don't put Mouse on point; you have to go in first, speaks in Sonny's mind, but he says, â€Å"All right, Beeze.† â€Å"Line up,† Beezer says. They move their bikes into the positions Beezer has specified. Anyone driving fast along Highway 35 would have to hit his brakes to avoid running into at least two beefy men on motorcycles, but the road stays empty. Everyone, including Mouse, guns his engine and prepares to move. Sonny slaps his fist against the Kaiser's and looks back at that dark tunnel into the woods. A big crow flaps onto a low-hanging branch, cocks its head, and seems to fix Sonny's eyes with its own. The crow must be looking at all of them, Sonny knows, but he cannot shake the illusion that the crow is staring directly at him, and that its black insatiable eyes are dancing with malice. The uncomfortable feeling that the crow is amused by the sight of him bent over his bike makes Sonny think of his Magnum. Turn you into a mess of bloody feathers, baby. Without unfolding its wings, the crow hops backward and disappears into the oak leaves. â€Å"GO!† Beezer shouts. The moment Mouse charges in, Little Nancy's rotting hands clamp down on his shoulders. Her thin bones press down on the leather hard enough to leave bruises on his skin. Although he knows this is impossible you cannot get rid of what does not exist the sudden flare of pain causes him to try to shake her off. He twitches his shoulders and wiggles the handlebars, and the bike wobbles. As the bike dips, Little Nancy digs in harder. When Mouse rights himself, she pulls herself forward, wraps her bony arms around his chest, and flattens her body against his back. Her skull grinds against the nape of his neck; her teeth bite down on his skin. It is too much. Mouse had known she would reappear, but not that she would put him in a vise. And despite his speed, he has the feeling that he is traveling through a substance heavier and more viscous than air, a kind of syrup that slows him down, holds him back. Both he and the bike seem unnaturally dense, as if gravity exerts a stronger pull on the little road than anywhere else. His head pounds, and already he can hear that dog growling in the woods off to his right. He could take all of that, he supposes, if it were not for what stopped him the last time he drove up this path: a dead woman. Then she was Kiz Martin; now the dead woman is Little Nancy, and she is riding him like a dervish, slapping his head, punching him in the side, battering his ears. He feels her teeth leave his neck and sink into the left shoulder of his jacket. One of her arms whips in front of him, and he enters a deeper level of shock and horror when he realizes that this arm is visible. Rags of skin flutte r over long bones; he glimpses white maggots wriggling into the few remaining knots of flesh. A hand that feels both spongelike and bony flaps onto his cheek and crawls up his face. Mouse cannot keep it together anymore: his mind fills with white panic, and he loses control of the bike. When he heads into the curve that leads to Black House, the wheels are already tilting dangerously, and Mouse's sideways jerk of revulsion pushes them over beyond the possibility of correction. As the bike topples, he hears the dog snarling from only a few yards away. The Harley smashes down on his left leg, then skids ahead, and he and his ghastly passenger slide after it. When Mouse sees Black House looming from its dark bower amid the trees, a rotting hand flattens over his eyes. His scream is a bright, thin thread of sound against the fury of the dog. A few seconds after going in, Beezer feels the air thicken and congeal around him. It's some trick, he tells himself, an illusion produced by the Fisherman's mind-fuck toxins. Trusting that the others will not be suckered by this illusion, he raises his head and looks over Mouse's broad back and cornrowed head to see the road curve to the left about fifty feet ahead. The thick air seems to weigh down on his arms and shoulders, and he feels the onset of the mother and father of all headaches, a dull, insistent pain that begins as a sharp twinge behind his eyes and moves thudding deeper into his brain. Beezer gives Doc a half second of attention, and from what he sees, Doc is taking care of business. A glance at the speedometer tells him that he is traveling at thirty-five miles per hour and gathering steam, so they should be doing sixty by the time they come into the curve. Off to his left, a dog growls. Beezer hauls his pistol out of his pocket and listens to the growling keep pace with them as they speed toward the curve. The band of pain in his head widens and intensifies; it seems to push at his eyes from the inside, making them bulge in their sockets. The big dog it has to be a dog, what else could it be? is getting closer, and the fury of its noises makes Beezer see a giant, tossing head with blazing red eyes and ropes of slather whipping from a gaping mouth filled with shark's teeth. Two separate things destroy his concentration: the first is that he sees Mouse slamming himself back and forth on his bike as he goes into the curve, as if he is trying to scratch his back on the thickening air; the second is that the pressure behind his eyes triples in force, and immediately after he sees Mouse going into what is surely a fall, the blood vessels in his eyes explode. From deep red, his vision shifts rapidly to absolute black. An ugly voice starts up in his head, saying, Amy zadt in my lap an huggedt mee. I made opp my mindt to eed hurr. How she dud, dud, dud kick an scrutch. I chokked hurr do deff â€Å"No!† Beezer shouts, and the voice that is pushing at his eyes drops into a rasping chuckle. For less than a second, he gets a vision of a tall, shadowy creature and a single eye, a flash of teeth beneath a hat or a hood and the world abruptly revolves around him, and he ends up flat on his back with the bike weighing on his chest. Everything he sees is stained a dark, seething red. Mouse is screaming, and when Beezer turns his head in the direction of the screams, he sees a red Mouse lying on a red road with a huge red dog barreling toward him. Beezer cannot find his pistol; it went sailing into the woods. Shouts, screams, and the roar of motorcycles fill his ears. He scrambles out from under the bike yelling he knows not what. A red Doc flashes by on his red bike and almost knocks him down again. He hears a gunshot, then another. Doc sees Beezer glance at him and tries not to show how sick he feels. Dishwater boils in his stomach, and his guts are writhing. It feels like he is going about five miles an hour, the air is so thick and rancid. For some reason, his head weighs thirty or forty pounds, damnedest thing; it would almost be interesting if he could stop the disaster happening inside him. The air seems to concentrate itself, to solidify, and then boom, his head turns into a superheavyweight bowling ball that wants to drop onto his chest. A giant growling sound comes from out of the woods beside him, and Doc almost yields to the impulse to puke. He is dimly aware that Beezer is pulling out his gun, and he supposes he should do the same, but part of his problem is that the memory of a child named Daisy Temperly has moved into his mind, and the memory of Daisy Temperly paralyzes his will. As a resident in surgery at the university hospital in Urbana, Doc had performed, under supervision, nearly a hundred operations of every sort and assisted at as many. Until Daisy Temperly was wheeled into the O.R., all of them had gone well. Complicated but not especially difficult or life-threatening, her case involved bone grafts and other repair work. Daisy was being put back together again after a serious auto accident, and she had already endured two previous surgeries. Two hours after the start of the procedure, the head of the department, Doc's supervisor, was called away for an emergency operation, and Doc was left in charge. Partly because he had been sleep-deprived for forty-eight hours, partly because in his exhaustion he had pictured himself cruising along the highway with Beezer, Mouse, and his other new friends, he made a mistake not during the operation, but after it. While writing a prescription for medication, he miscalculated the dosage, and two hours later, Daisy Temperly was dead. There were things he could have done to rescue his career, but he did none of them. He was allowed to finish his residency, and then he left medicine for good. Talking to Jack Sawyer, he had vastly simplified his motives. The uproar in the middle of his body can no longer be contained. Doc turns his head and vomits as he races forward. It is not the first time he has puked while riding, but it is the messiest and the most painful. The weight of his bowling-ball head means that he cannot extend his neck, so vomit spatters against his right shoulder and right arm; and what comes leaping out of him feels alive and equipped with teeth and claws. He is not surprised to see blood mixed with the vomit erupting from his mouth. His stomach doubles in on itself with pain. Without meaning to, Doc has slowed down, and when he accelerates and faces forward again, he sees Mouse topple over sideways and skid behind his bike into the curve up ahead. His ears report a rushing sound, like that of a distant waterfall. Dimly, Mouse screams; equally dimly, Beezer shouts â€Å"No!† Right after that, the Beeze runs headlong into a big rock or some other obstruction, because his Electra Glide leaves the ground, flips completely over in the compacted air, and comes down on top of him. It occurs to Doc that this mission is totally FUBAR. The whole world has hung a left, and now they are in deep shit. He does the only sensible thing: he yanks his trusty 9mm out of his pocket and tries to figure out what to shoot first. His ears pop, and the sounds around him surge into life. Mouse is still screeching. Doc cannot figure out how he missed hearing the noise of the dog before, because even with the roaring of the cycles and Mouse's screams, that moving growl is the loudest sound in the woods. The fucking Hound of the Baskervilles is racing toward them, and both Mouse and Beezer are out of commission. From the noise it makes, the thing must be the size of a bear. Doc aims the pistol straight ahead and steers with one hand as he blasts by Beezer, who is wriggling out from beneath his bike. That enormous sound Doc imagines a bear-sized dog widening its chops around Mouse's head, and instantly erases the image. Things are happening too fast, and if he doesn't pay attention, those jaws could close on him. He has just time enough to think, That's no ordinary dog, not even a huge one when something enormous and black comes charging out of the woods to his right and cuts on a diagonal toward Mouse. Doc pulls the trigger, and at the sound of the pistol the animal whirls halfway around and snarls at him. All Doc can see clearly are two red eyes and an open red mouth with a long tongue and a lot of sharp canine teeth. Everything else is smudgy and indistinct, with no more definition than if it were covered in a swirling cape. A lightning bolt of pure terror that tastes as clean and sharp as cheap vodka pierces Doc from gullet to testicles, and his bike slews its rear end around and comes to a halt he has stopped it out of sheer reflex. Suddenly it feels like deep night. Of course he can't see it how could you see a black dog in the middle of the night? The creature whirls around again and streaks toward Mouse. It doesn't want to charge me because of the gun and because the other two guys are right behind me, Doc thinks. His head and arms seem to have gained another forty pounds apiece, but he fights against the weight of his muscles and straightens his arms and fires again. This time he knows he hits that thing, but its only reaction is to shudder off-course for a moment. The big smudge of its head swings toward Doc. The growling gets even louder, and long, silvery streamers of dog drool fly from its open mouth. Something that suggests a tail switches back and forth. When Doc looks into the open red gash, his resolve weakens, his arms get heavier, and he is scarcely capable of holding his head upright. He feels as though he is falling down into that red maw; his pistol dangles from his limp hand. In a moment suspended throughout eternity, the same hand scribbles a post-op prescription for Daisy Temperly. The creature trots toward Mouse. Doc can hear Sonny's voice, cursing furiously. A loud explosion on his right side seals both of his ears, and the world falls perfectly silent. Here we are, Doc says to himself. Darkness at noon. For Sonny, the darkness strikes at the same time as the searing pain in his head and his stomach. A single band of agony rips right down through his body, a phenomenon so unparalleled and extreme that he assumes it has also erased the daylight. He and Kaiser Bill are eight feet behind Beezer and Doc, and about fifteen feet up the narrow dirt road. The Kaiser lets go of his handlebars and grips the sides of his head. Sonny understands exactly how he feels: a four-foot section of red-hot iron pipe has been thrust through the top of his head and pushed down into his guts, burning everything it touches. â€Å"Hey, man,† he says, in his misery noticing that the air has turned sludgy, as though individual atoms of oxygen and carbon dioxide are gummy enough to stick to his skin. Then Sonny notices that the Kaiser's eyes are swimming up toward the back of his head, and he realizes that the man is passing out right next to him. Sick as he is, he has to do something to protect the Kaise r. Sonny reaches out for the other man's bike, watching as well as he can the disappearance of the Kaiser's irises beneath his upper eyelids. Blood explodes out of his nostrils, and his body slumps backward on the seat and rolls over the side. For a couple of seconds, he is dragged along by a boot caught in the handlebars, but the boot slips off, and the cycle drifts to a halt. The red-hot iron bar seems to rupture his stomach, and Sonny has no choice; he lets the other bike fall and utters a groan and bends sideways and vomits out what feels like every meal he has ever eaten. When nothing is left inside him, his stomach feels better, but John Henry has decided to drive giant rail spikes through his skull. His arms and legs are made of rubber. Sonny focuses on his bike. It seems to be standing still. He does not understand how he can go forward, but he watches a blood-spattered hand gun his bike and manages to stay upright when it takes off. Is that my blood? he wonders, and remembers two long red flags unfurling from the Kaiser's nose. A noise that had been gathering strength in the background turns into the sound of a 747 coming in for a landing. Sonny thinks that the last thing he wants to do today is get a look at the animal capable of making that sound. Mouse was right on the money: this is a bad, bad place, right up there with the charming town of Harko, Illinois. Sonny wishes to encounter no more Harkos, okay? One was enough. So why is he moving forward instead of turning around and running for the sunny peace of Highway 35? Why is he pulling that massive gun out of his pocket? It's simple. He is not about to let that jet-airplane-dog mess up his homeys, no matter how much his head hurts. John Henry keeps pounding in those five-dollar spikes while Sonny picks up speed and squints at the road ahead, trying to figure out what is going on. Someone screams, he cannot identify who. Through the growling, he hears the unmistakable sound of a motorcycle hitting the ground after a flip, and his heart shivers. Beezer should always be point man, he thinks, otherwise we're asking for punishment. A gun goes off with a loud explosion. Sonny forces himself to press through the gluey atoms in the air, and after another five or six seconds he spots Beezer, who is painfully pushing himself upward beside his toppled bike. A few feet beyond Beezer, Doc's bulky figure comes into view, sitting astride his bike and aiming his 9 at something in the road ahead of him. Doc fires, and red flame bursts from the barrel of his pistol. Feeling more beat-up and useless than ever before in his life, Sonny jumps from his moving bike and runs toward Doc, trying to look past him. The first thing he sees is a flash of light off Mouse's bike, which comes into view flat on its side about twenty feet down the road, at the top of the curve. Then he finds Mouse, on his ass and scrambling backward from some animal Sonny can barely make out, except for its eyes and teeth. Unconscious of the stream of obscenities that pour from his mouth, Sonny levels his pistol at the creature and fires just as he runs past Doc. Doc just stands there; Doc is out for the count. The weird animal up on the road closes its jaws on Mouse's leg. It is going to rip away a hamburger-sized chunk of muscle, but Sonny hits it with a fucking hollow-point missile from his Magnum, a bit show-offy for target practice but under the circumstances no more than prudent, thank you very much. Contrary to all expectations and the laws of physics, Sonny's amazing wonderbullet does not knock a hole the size of a football in the creature's hide. The wonderbullet pushes the animal sideways and distracts it from Mouse's leg; it does not even knock it down. Mouse sends up a howl of pain. The dog whips around and glares at Sonny with red eyes the size of baseballs. Its mouth opens on jagged white teeth, and it snaps the air. Ropes of slime shoot out of its jaws. The creature lowers its shoulders and steps forward. Amazingly, its snarling grows in volume and ferocity. Sonny is being warned: if he does not turn and run, he is next on the menu. â€Å"Fuck that,† Sonny says, and fires straight at the animal's mouth. Its whole head should fly apart in bloody rags, but for a second after the Magnum goes off, nothing changes. Oh, shit, Sonny thinks. The dog-thing's eyes blaze, and its feral, wedge-shaped head seems to assemble itself out of the darkness in the air and emerge into view. As though an inky robe had been partially twitched aside, Sonny can see a thick neck descending to meaty shoulders and strong front legs. Maybe the tide is turning here, maybe this monster will turn out to be vulnerable after all. Sonny braces his right wrist with his left hand, aims at the dog-thing's chest, and squeezes off another round. The explosion seems to stuff his ears with cotton. All the railroad spikes in his head heat up like electric coils, and bright pain sings between his temples. Dark blood gouts from the creature's brisket. At the center of Sonny Cantinaro's being, a pure, primitive triumph bursts into life. More of the monster melts into visibility, the wide back and a suggestion of its rear legs. Of no recognizable breed and four and a half feet high, the dog-thing is approximately the size of a gigantic wolf. When it moves toward him, Sonny fires again. Like an echo, the sound of his gun repeats from somewhere close behind; a bullet like a supercharged wasp zings past his chest. The creature staggers back, limping on an injured leg. Its enraged eyes bore into Sonny's. He risks glancing over his shoulder and sees Beezer braced in the middle of the narrow road. â€Å"Don't look at me, shoot!† Beezer yells. His voice seems to awaken Doc, who raises his arm and takes aim. Then all three of them are pulling their triggers, and the little road sounds like the firing range on a busy day. The dog-thing (hell hound, Sonny thinks) limps back a step and opens wide its terrible mouth to howl in rage and frustration. Before the howl ends, the creature gathers its rear legs beneath its body, springs across the road, and vanishes into the woods. Sonny fights off the impulse to collapse under a wave of relief and fatigue. Doc swivels his body and keeps firing into the darkness behind the trees until Beezer puts a hand on his arm and orders him to stop. The air stinks of cordite and some animal odor that is musky and disgustingly sweet. Pale gray smoke shimmers almost white as it filters upward through the darker air. Beezer's haggard face turns to Sonny, and the whites of his eyes are crimson. â€Å"You hit that fucking animal, didn't you?† Through the wads of cotton in his ears, Beezer's voice sounds small and tinny. â€Å"Shit, yes. At least twice, probably three times.† â€Å"And Doc and I hit it once apiece. What the hell is that thing?† † ‘What the hell' is right,† Sonny says. Weeping with pain, Mouse a third time repeats his cry of â€Å"Help me!† and the others hear him at last. Moving slowly and pressing their hands over whatever parts of their bodies hurt the most, they hobble up the road and kneel in front of Mouse. The right leg of his jeans is ripped and soaked with blood, and his face is contorted. â€Å"Are you assholes deaf ?† â€Å"Pretty near,† Doc says. â€Å"Tell me you didn't take a bullet in your leg.† â€Å"No, but it must be some kind of miracle.† He winces and inhales sharply. Air hisses between his teeth. â€Å"Way you guys were shooting. Too bad you couldn't draw a bead before it bit my leg.† â€Å"I did,† Sonny says. â€Å"Reason you still got a leg.† Mouse peers at him, then shakes his head. â€Å"What happened to the Kaiser?† â€Å"He lost about a liter of blood through his nose and passed out,† Sonny tells him. Mouse sighs as if at the frailty of the human species. â€Å"I believe we might try to get out of this crazy shithole.† â€Å"Is your leg all right?† Beezer asks. â€Å"It's not broken, if that's what you mean. But it's not all right, either.† â€Å"What?† Doc asks. â€Å"I can't say,† Mouse tells him. â€Å"I don't answer medical questions from guys all covered in puke.† â€Å"Can you ride?† â€Å"Fuck yes, Beezer you ever know me when I couldn't ride?† Beezer and Sonny each take a side and, with excruciating effort, lift Mouse to his feet. When they release his arms, Mouse lumbers sideways a few steps. â€Å"This is not right,† he says. â€Å"That's brilliant,† says Beezer. â€Å"Beeze, old buddy, you know your eyes are, like, bright red? You look like fuckin' Dracula.† To the extent that hurry is possible, they are hurrying. Doc wants to get a look at Mouse's leg; Beezer wants to make sure that Kaiser Bill is still alive; and all of them want to get out of this place and back into normal air and sunlight. Their heads pound, and their muscles ache from strain. None of them can be sure that the dog-thing is not preparing for another charge. As they speak, Sonny has been picking up Mouse's Fat Boy and rolling it toward its owner. Mouse takes the handles and pushes his machine forward, wincing as he goes. Beezer and Doc rescue their bikes, and six feet along Sonny pulls his upright out of a snarl of weeds. Beezer realizes that when he was at the curve in the road, he failed to look for Black House. He remembers Mouse saying, This shit doesn't want to be seen, and he thinks Mouse got it just about right: the Fisherman did not want them there, and the Fisherman did not want his house to be seen. Everything else was spinning around in his head the way his Electra Glide had spun over after that ugly voice spoke up in his mind. Beezer is certain of one thing, however: Jack Sawyer is not going to hold out on him any longer. Then a terrible thought strikes him, and he asks, â€Å"Did anything funny anything really strange happen to you guys before the dog from hell jumped out of the woods? Besides the physical stuff, I mean.† He looks at Doc, and Doc blushes. Hello? Beezer thinks. Mouse says, â€Å"Go fuck yourself. I'm not gonna talk about that.† â€Å"I'm with Mouse,† Sonny says. â€Å"I guess the answer is yes,† Beezer says. Kaiser Bill is lying by the side of the road with his eyes closed and the front of his body wet with blood from mouth to waist. The air is still gray and sticky; their bodies seem to weigh a thousand pounds, the bikes to roll on leaden wheels. Sonny walks his bike up beside the Kaiser's supine body and kicks him, not all that gently, in the ribs. The Kaiser opens his eyes and groans. â€Å"Fuck, Sonny,† he says. â€Å"You kicked me.† His eyelids flutter, and he lifts his head off the ground and notices the blood soaking into his clothing. â€Å"What happened? Am I shot?† â€Å"You conducted yourself like a hero,† Sonny says. â€Å"How do you feel?† â€Å"Lousy. Where was I hit?† â€Å"How am I supposed to know?† Sonny says. â€Å"Come on, we're getting out of here.† The others file past. Kaiser Bill manages to get to his feet and, after another epic struggle, hauls his bike upright beside him. He pushes it down the track after the others, marveling at the pain in his head and the quantity of blood on his body. When he comes out through the last of the trees and joins his friends on Highway 35, the sudden brightness stabs his eyes, his body feels light enough to float away, and he nearly passes out all over again. â€Å"I don't think I did get shot,† he says. No one pays any attention to the Kaiser. Doc is asking Mouse if he wants to go to the hospital. â€Å"No hospital, man. Hospitals kill people.† â€Å"At least let me take a look at your leg.† â€Å"Fine, look.† Doc kneels at the side of the road and tugs the cuff of Mouse's jeans up to the bottom of his knee. He probes with surprisingly delicate fingers, and Mouse winces. â€Å"Mouse,† he says, â€Å"I've never seen a dog bite like this before.† â€Å"Never saw a dog like that before, either.† The Kaiser says, â€Å"What dog?† â€Å"There's something funny about this wound,† Doc says. â€Å"You need antibiotics, and you need them right away.† â€Å"Don't you have antibiotics?† â€Å"Sure, I do.† â€Å"Then let's go back to Beezer's place, and you can stick me full of needles.† â€Å"Whatever you say,† says Doc.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Playscript

This scene starts in Brian's bedroom on a Saturday morning. He has just got out of bed and Susie, his sister, is calling him down for breakfast. Brian 🙠 talking to himself) Ohhhhhh. Yes! Tomorrow, we are going to the adventure park. Susie 🙠 shouting) Brian, come down! Breakfast is ready! (Brian stomps down the stairs into the dining room where he meets Susie. They both sit down at the table.) Brian: I can't wait to go to the adventure park tomorrow. Susie: What! Mom said we are going to the Science Museum. Brian: No way I'm going to some stupid Museum. I want some excitement. Susie: The museum is nice and educational. We can learn a lot. Brian: (losing his temper) don't we learn enough at school already? Susie: What we learn at school is just the basic things. At the Science Museum we can learn many fascinating things about our world. Brian: Well, I'm not so fascinated. I would rather have fun. Susie: Learning about the world we live in is fun. Brian: We already know about the world we live in. It is called the earth and it is in the shape of a sphere. Susie: Brian. There is so much more to learn about the earth than just the name and the shape. Brian: Well we can learn more about the earth another time because I have been waiting too long for this to let this opportunity pass me by. Susie: No, we can't! The Science Museum is closing this week. We have to see it tomorrow or we will never get to see it. Brian: (In a sarcastic voice) well, that's just a shame. We will be missing it so much. Susie: (hugging Brian) Please. Can't you just delay your adventure trip this time? Brian: Oh Alright but just this time. Susie: Thanks Brian. You're a great brother.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

NSA Eavsdropping VS Privacy rights Essay

Abstract The United States government should not have the right to eavesdrop and target U.S citizens because of matter of national security. However if we have nothing to hide from the government, then why we should be afraid of the government eavesdropping on U.S citizens because of a national security reason, if according to the government it is to benefit and protect us? Should we give our privacy rights away for security? â€Å"Once you’ve lost your privacy, you realize you’ve lost an extremely valuable thing.† (Graham B. 1958). In this essay I will talk about the National Security Agency eavesdropping versus privacy rights. I will also discuss whether the National security agency should have or not the right to take U.S citizens digital privacy away in exchange of security. I will also share my opinion on which side I stand and the reasons why I believe so, supported by veridical facts that are known and have been exposed to the light from the United States government. However I will also emphasize the government’s point of view. Last after having both sides perspectives and facts, I will conclude explaining on which side I stand and the reasons why, based on the research that I will provide to the reader throughout the essay. Should the National Security Agency have the right to listen to all digital communications and target all Americans because a matter of â€Å"national security†? In order for the National Security Agency to have complete access to all types of digital communications it w ould need a warrant against all civilians. Therefore if the National Security Agency is really using secret warrants, then it is violating the fourth amendment of the constitution of the United Sates which is the part of the Bill of Rights that prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures, it also requires any warrant to be judicially sanctioned. Under the Fourth Amendment, law enforcement must receive written permission from a court of law, or a qualified magistrate, to lawfully search and seize  evidence while investigating criminal activity. Therefore if the national security is using these warrants against all U.S citizens, then all Americans are being considered criminals by the government. The Bush administration passed through the congress a secret warrant to give through the United States Department of Defense full access and authority to the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on all United States citizen digital communications and databases. Now what is the National Security Agency â€Å"NSA†, and what is the function and purpose of this agency? The National Security Agency is the main producer and manager of signals intelligence for the United States. Estimated to be the largest intelligence agency in terms of personnel and budget, the NSA operates under the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense and reports to the Director of National Intelligence who is Keith Alexander. The National Security Agency is home to America’s code makers and code breakers. The National Security Agency has provided timely information to U.S. decision makers and military leaders for more than half a century. The National Security Agency is unique among the U.S. defense agencies because of the government wide responsibilities. National Security Agency provides products and services to the Department of Defense, the Intelligence Community, government agencies, industry partners, and selected allies. They also deliver critical strategic and tactical information to war planners and war fighters. According to this information that was shared by Keith Alexander in 2009, the National Security Agency clearly has a lot of power, however this power should be used to target potential threats against the U.S citizens, not the U.S citizens. In the past year, the NSA has repeatedly denied that it is collecting data on U.S. citizens. In March 2012, NSA chief Keith Alexander told Congress that his agency doesn’t even have the ability to collect data on Americans. â€Å"The NSA gathers intelligence under Section 702 of the FISA Amendment Act, which allows the NSA to gather data on non-U.S. citizens outside the U.S. It also gathers tens of thousands of â€Å"domestic communications† by and from Americans in its normal gathering of foreign surveillance, according to declassified court finding.† (PBS. 2013). Now we can observe that there is a contradiction in between what the National Security is saying about spying on people, and what many articles are actually saying. However if these accusations from the people are true, how can we be sure and support them  since the National Security Agency is a classified agency that will never disclose this information with the civilians? A former contractor from the National security agency Edward Snowden gave away his liberty and his salary, which was above two hundred thousand dollars a year. Just to tell the world through The Guardian that the National Security Agency was violating the fourth amendment and spying all digital communications and targeting all civilians as high risk targets against the United States. Snowden said he just wanted the public to know what the government was doing. â€Å"Even if you’re not doing anything wrong you’re being watched and recorded,† (CNN. 2013). Snowden told The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom that he had access to the full rosters of everyone working at the NSA, the entire intelligence community, and undercover assets around the world. â€Å"I’m just another guy who sits there day to day in the office, watching what’s happening, and goes, ‘This is something that’s not our place to decide.’ The public needs to decide whether these programs or policies are right or wrong,† (The Guardian. 2013). When Edward Snowden issue happened and turned the people’s trust and faith against the government, the people started wondering and researching what were the methods that the government was using to target and spy all digital communications. PRISM, for example, is a clandestine mass electronic surveillance known to have been operated by the United States National Security Agency (NSA) since 2007. The Prism program collects stored Internet communications based on demands made to Internet companies such as Google Inc. The Apple Company just officially announced another source that helps the National Security Agency with data and information, when the iPhone 5s came out they announced that they would be sharing their database with National Security Agency. â€Å"Tim Richardson, District Manager of Apple’s North America Marketing Department admits about the sharing of Database with NSA, he said to Jane M. Agni† (Hackersnewsbulletin. 2013). The National Security Agency has been compiling a special database for over a year now to use with the new Apple technology. This clearly says that through the National Security Agency the government has an extremely high interest on listing and monitoring all communications of civilians. Of course people don’t find this acceptable, neither they can believe anything that leaders from the  government say. Civilians now think that when our leaders like the National Security Agency say nobody is listening to your phone calls, after the facts of the whistleblower, it actually means that all phone calls and digital communications are being intercepted, recorded and saved, then converted to text via a computer software which is PRISM. Prism then converted the txt into a metadata that gets analyzed by a computer algorithm and searched by National Security contractors. The contractors can listen to both recorded and live calls, as well as read emails, chats, financial histories, and then get the secret court rubber-stamp for the secret warrant, which is completely against the fourth amendment. However, the government is completely aware that this is a total violation of the fourth amendment, so they classified it as a matter of national security because they know if Americans realized what they are actually doing they will be upset and take action against it. Even if they spent billions of dollars trying to hide it, at some point the will truth come out. And president Obama said the same thing in 2008, but it seems that he didn’t take his own advice, that he gave to his administration in his first speech as president. Eventually the truth came out even that rumors of these violations were going around Edward Snowden made it official and this created many protests against the government. One of the main groups that took action against it is t he Anonymous group, who are an anonymous group of hackers from all around the world who work together against the government. Their weapon against the government is data information, they hack into classified networks and then they share the information they obtain with everyone. Their emblem is, â€Å"Knowledge is free, we are anonymous, we are a legion, we don’t forgive, we don’t forget, expect us.† If a government cannot be clear and not show their people what they want, then the civilians will stand up against the government and that is what the anonymous group is doing. For example, they are having a march on Washington D.C, and they are expecting 5 million people to show up to show the government how they feel about their acts and violations. If they don’t stop denying what has been clearly shown and proved by people from inside the government the people of the United States will take into consideration other options to change the government and its way of doing things without a permission of consent of the civilians. If we look back to history, every time there has been a revolution it is because  the people were tired of an oppressing government and they took action against it, but at the same time Americans are not focused on what is really happening in the government. They are too focused into what the media is feeding them which is another of the government’s methods to keep people distracted from the violations they are doing, and this is what all these anonymous type of groups are doing, which is to try to wake people up to the reality of all the rights we are losing because of a matter of national security. Internet References ACLU. (2013). â€Å"ACLU sues NSA for massive spying program† American civil liberties of union. Retrieved from https://www.aclu.org/secure/aclu-sues-nsa-massive-spying-program-stand-us CNN. (2013). â€Å"Man behind NSA says he did it to safeguard privacy, liberty. CNN Politics. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/10/politics/edward-snowden-profile/index.html Electric Frontier Foundation. (2013). â€Å"NSA spying on Americans†. Defending your rights in the digital world 2014. Retrieved from https://www.eff.org/nsa-spying Parks, Alika. (2013) â€Å"NSA wiretapping. â€Å"Government agencies foster unfair economic advantages†. The Huffington Post. September 9 2013. PBS. (2013) â€Å"NSA ability to intercept domestic communications raises more privacy questions† PBS Newshour. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/government_programs/july-dec13/nsa_08-21.html National Security Agency. (2009). Freedom of Information act. Retrieved from http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/foia/index.shtml The Guardian. (2013) â€Å"Latest on the computer analyst whistleblower who provided theGuardian with top-secret NSA documents leading to revelations about US surveillanceon phone and internet communications†. The NSA Files. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/world/edward-snowden Hackers News bulletin. (2013) â€Å" Apple admits, iPhone 5s finger print database to be shared with NSA†.HN Bulletin News. Retrieved from http://hackersnewsbulletin.com/2013/09/apple-admits-iphone-5s-fingerprint-database-shared-nsa.html

Friday, September 27, 2019

Atomic absorption emission Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Atomic absorption emission - Lab Report Example When a graph of the light intensity against Na+ concentration for the various solutions is plotted, it is observed that there is a linear relationship between the two parameters. This is indicated below. The curve has a clear linear relationship at the start but this change as the concentration and the light intensity is increased. At high levels, the curve tends away from linearity as there are more ions in the solution leading to reduced light intensity of the flame. As more Na+ ions are in more concentrated solutions, they tend to atomize faster as concentrated solutions have less water and more Na+ ions. In addition to this, the curve has some imperfections in its linearity at higher levels of Na+ ion concentration and high light intensity. This is due to the fact that at such level, the a number of excited atoms gets to a limit beyond which they cannot atomize without dropping back to the ground as coalesced Na. The intensity of the light also changes due to self-absorption where at high concentration the more atoms in the flame absorb more light. This makes the curve bend towards the x-axis (concentration axis). In addition to this, it’s clearly evident that the amount of heat emitted by the flame highly depends on the number of Na atoms in the flame. Therefore, to attain a perfect liner relationship, we might need to dilute the samples during calibration as to have a small amount of Na+ ions in the solution. At relatively high concentration, there are many atoms in the flame edges that absorb more light emitted by the inner atoms hence a reduced light intensity. The signal is fairly unstable as the intensity of the light emitted keeps changing over time. This mainly happens due to the change in the atomization rates over time. This leads to the signals relayed changing over time to reflect the changes in the atomization rates hence the

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Businss Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Businss Education - Essay Example So which disciplins nd skills r th most importnt Th most imprtiv skills r nlyticl bility, judgmnt, skill in intrprsonl rltions, th bility to ccpt rsponsibility nd to mk dcisions, gnrl dministrtiv skills (including th cpcity to ld othrs, to pln, to orgniz nd dlgt), brdth nd flxibility of mind, imgintion, fcility in prsonl communiction, nd strong prsonl motivtion. Ths qulitis r not ndd in prcisly th sm combintion for vry typ of position nd for ll kinds of crrs in businss. But, prticulrly for th highr dministrtiv positions, thy sm to b th qulitis tht nd most to b mphsizd. With th incrsing complxity of businss oprtions, th nd for stff spcilists is incrsing, t th sm tim tht thr continus to b n insistnt dmnd for bl dministrtors. Mny studnts will find tht thy cn mk thir most significnt contribution in stff positions. Howvr, th growing nd will b for mn with high lvl of nlyticl bility nd with sophistictd commnd of nlyticl nd rsrch tools drivd from th fundmntl disciplins. Sound trining in th physicl nd socil scincs nd in mthmtics nd sttistics, combind with th bility to pply ths tools to businss problms, is bcoming much mor importnt thn dtild knowldg of currnt prctic or th cquisition of routin skills. Ths conclusions gin ddd strngth from th fct tht similr findings r bing pplid in othr brnchs of duction. closly rltd illustrtion is th movmnt of som of th lding nginring schools towrd n "nginring-scinc" pproch nd wy from n mphsis on spcilizd tchniqus. Th scond qulifiction riss out of th wid vrition in th bilitis of thos who sk businss duction. Unfortuntly, mny who r dmittd to businss schools do not hv th kinds of qulifictions mphsizd bov, nd mny do not hv th mntl bility to cquir th nlyticl tools tht r incrsingly ncssry. Ths studnts will nvr ris fr in th businss world. But vn ths studnts will bnfit most from n mphsis in collg on th bsic nlyticl tools, on th fundmntls of businss dministrtion nd conomics, nd on good gnrl duction. Th long-trm nds of businss nd th crr nds of th studnt rquir tht mphsis b plcd on th kinds of fundmntl knowldg nd bsic skill dvlopmnt dscribd in this nd th prcding chptr. Spcil trining for th first job is justifid only if it cn b don without intrfring with this mor importnt objctiv. Sinc th tim studnt hs in collg, vn if grdut yr or two r ddd, is scrcly sufficint for this brodr objctiv, th opportunitis for prpring th studnt for his first job r svrly rstrictd. This will bcom lss srious problm s businss incrsingly ccpts th rsponsibility for this initil trining. brod curriculum mphsizing gnrl principls, fundmntl knowldg, nd brdth of viw dos not prpr th studnt for th routin nd dtil tht r likly to chrctriz his rly yrs in businss. H must lrn to ccpt th routin nd to bnfit from it. Wht h hs lrnd must b lbortd by xprinc bfor h is rdy for th highr lvls of mngmnt. frqunt complint by businssmn ginst th products of prticulrly th bst known grdut schools is tht "thy ll wnt to b vic-prsidnts tomorrow." Mor nd wisr counsling cn hlp with this problm. mor plntiful us of css nd problms tkn from th lowr lvls of mngmnt cn lso hlp. It is importnt to strss th nd for knowldg tht would id th businssmn in dling

The European Emissions Trading Scheme - A Critical Appraisal Essay

The European Emissions Trading Scheme - A Critical Appraisal - Essay Example The scheme also featured a ‘flexible’ arrangement where Member States created their own National Allocation Plans. Further on, the report looks into the aspects of the Emissions Trading Scheme in a comparative manner that is, the intention at the beginning, actualization stages and the present state. The main aspects include its boundary where at first the scheme focused on power generating companies and those that use energy-intensive operations that is, metal producing companies and oil refineries. The other aspect is extension where the EU Emissions Trading Scheme has formed links with other schemes through emissions-saving projects through two key mechanisms. Third world countries that have a compulsory cap-and-trade system and they have ratified the Kyoto Protocol have also formed links with the EU scheme. This has seen the carbon market expand to a global reach. Finally, there is the calculation aspect that presents three different models for calculating carbon dio xide emissions. Lastly, a breakdown of the issues has come into play since the inception of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. ... Introduction Having no prior experience with cap and trade as well as the need to develop knowledge along with architecture for the program, the European Union set out to begin with only carbon dioxide and a restricted number of sectors. This is following the established Kyoto Protocol that was created with the aim of averting hazardous human-induced interference to the climate system. As soon as the infrastructure was in place, additional greenhouse gases and sectors could be included in successive phases of the program. This would come into effect depending on any further emissions that needed to be reduced. Over time, a carbon price that is widely accepted in Europe was instituted, businesses embarked on including the price in their decision-making and the market infrastructure for a multi-national trading system came into existence (Ellerman, Perthuis and Convery 2010,p.2). The principal design of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme follows that all manufacturing sectors that are par ticularly energy-intensive and electricity generators are obligated to get a permit from regulators for every tone of carbon dioxide that they release. The first phase of the Scheme, taking place from 2005 to 2007, saw the permits being issued free based on companies’ historical emission levels. The second phase, taking place from 2008 to 2012, saw generators of electricity having to purchase some of their permits from auctions organized by the government; while, industrial companies continue to get their permits for free subject to some tightening of targets in acknowledgement of the risk of hurting their competitiveness. The third phase, taking place from 2013 to 2020, will see all permits being auctioned with the exception of particular manufacturing sectors that

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Globalization and Healthcare Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Globalization and Healthcare - Essay Example Professions in the field of construction and engineering have greatly contributed in enhancing healthcare research. Engineers ensure that devices used in healthcare are of quality through their role of quality control and inspections. Additionally, medical devices and machineries require frequent maintenances, which is done by engineering technologist. This paper focuses on the role of construction and engineering in globalization of healthcare. Additionally, the paper will analyze how construction and engineering projects affect global healthcare. There are several roles played by construction and engineering professions in enhancing healthcare. Health care professon do not have skill required to design and manufacture healthcare devices and machineries. The healthcare facilities require to be designed and constructed appropriately, which is only possible through the intention of engineers. Additionally, health care providers cannot maintain the machineries as well as the healthcare facilities. The role of engineers is thus crucial for effective operations in the hospitals. For sustainable health care provision, the healthcare providers must partner with professions from construction and engineering. For globalization of healthcare there is need for changes in medical technologies, which are designed, developed and maintained by engineers. Engineering technologists working in the field of research are involved in developing and manufacture of hospital equipment. The equipment could be for conducting experiments, data collection, record keeping, as well as for diagnosis and treatment purposes. Research conducted by engineering technologists aid in designing of new equipment such as computer aided machineries improving healthcare provision. Professions in construction and engineering play the role of designing and construction health care facilities. They ensure that the healthcare facilities are conducive

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Federal regulations and federal agencies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Federal regulations and federal agencies - Essay Example Banerjee (2009) explains that despite research being the basis of the industry’s product development, pharmaceutical companies still spend more than twice on marketing as much as they spend on research and development. This establishes a motivation into ethical manners such as corporate social responsibility that is likely to develop associations with consumers and establish a competitive edge into profitability. Consumers would appreciate the responsible initiatives and prefer organizations’ products for their social actions and increased sales volume, into higher profits, over competitors would be the consequence. The fear possible and unfavorable legal regulations should organizations fail to act ethically is another reason for my belief that pharmaceutical company would consider ethical manners, even in the absence of legal rules. Legal regulations may induce mandatory cost of compliance that would otherwise be avoided. Failure to comply with legal regulations, even if it is accidental, may attract monetary policies, unlike failure to comply with moral rules and in order to avoid possibility of such fines and possible deregistration, pharmaceutical companies would prefer to operate ethically (Lamb, Hair, and McDaniel, 2011). Profit motive and the need to avoid legal regulation would therefore dictate ethical

Monday, September 23, 2019

Analysis of Terracotta Army Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Analysis of Terracotta Army - Research Paper Example   The artifacts are contained in three pits and so far, documented evidence indicates that up to 7000 warriors and weapons have been excavated by the archeologists. The artifacts contain foot soldiers and war chariots that are made from wood. Foot soldiers are basically lifelike figures that resemble human soldiers. In his study, Dillon indicates that the size of each warrior is approximately 1.8 meters (Dillon 43). Further, they are characterized by broad foreheads and thick-lipped mouths. A significant percentage of these have ornate hairstyles. Nonetheless, they generally show a distinct dedication and determination in their duties. This is because their eyes are directly focused ahead into some distance. The soldiers are also presented to be in a fighting position. Their positions are realistic and their eyes very bright. They have wide nostrils and muscular yet very strong legs. These attributes imply that the horses were well maintained and relatively serviceable. It cannot b e disputed that this particular population invested a significant percentage of resources in war. This also implies that the communities surrounding the region were hostile and equally invested in different wars in social security. The position of their hips and legs imply that they are ready to gallop. Notably, the artifacts show that there were two different types of soldiers; the artillery and infantry. The artillery soldiers are presented dressed in knee-length tunics and short trousers. In addition, they carry crossbows with them, ready to engage in a fight at any time. Seemingly, their uniforms were made from light materials, enabling them to move around with ease. Under battle conditions, these soldiers would probably be dispatched to engage in fighting at any time. The infantry faction, on the other hand, was heavily armored. In particular, they were presented while carrying swords. With respect to the mode of dress, Dillon cites that they wore shin guards and caps in additi on to their normal uniform (Dillon 77). Comparatively, they were also taller than their counterparts.  Ã‚  

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Department of Defense Essay Example for Free

Department of Defense Essay Effective organization management is determined by the level and quality of public relations employed by the leadership in it. This has mainly been the case due to the direct demand for organizations to enhance their images to the external world upon which they rely on. Of greater importance are the services industries which directly rely on the consumers perceptions of their services as opposed to direct supply of products. Being considered as a direct intrinsic system to activate their system for external image, most of the leaders have been strongly embarking on it to ensure higher returns for their organizations. Such has been the case with the (DoD) Military Public Affairs system which has greatly tried to integrate itself with the community via offer of different services and direct interlink with them. Community relations objectives Arguably, ethical demands are considered to be intrinsically derived and externally displayed with emphasis on cohesive relations between organizations and the public. Therefore, it originates from the core of the management and effected by the established systems. In the theory of public relation ethics, Albert Sullivan argues that public relations involves a direct internalized system which is expressed externally via direct activities and interlink with the public (Pearson, 1999). Pearson continues to say that ethics begin with the people’s minds that must conceptualize it to become part of their system. Military Public Affairs has internalized the system by inculcating it to the immediate internal network necessary to develop the correct culture for the DoD. The Department emphasizes on its commitment to fostering good relations on mutually acceptable terms with the public, at home, and abroad on which the military depends on. Of greater importance is the emphasis by the DoD on the need for holistic adherence to human dignity and sanctity at all times (Department of Defense (DoD), 2007). Though military specialists have been calling for less involvement of the military with the public issues, the department has defied odds and ensured direct interface upon which the public have increasingly been informed on the roles and duties of the department in relation to their security and that of the international community. Besides, the policies of the Department of Defense have increasingly been taught to the public and opened for direct criticism as well as possible recommendations on improvements for the same. Direct support and integration with the community According to Russel (1966), human actions and desires are direct reflections for the sense of mind which is often used to denote the best possible consideration that would guarantee highest returns for them. However, this has been a major center for conflicts between the people and their systems in the society. Russel ethics indicates that external consideration is of essence for extended benefits. However, scholars have argued that care should be taken to reduce the negative effects that result from the actions perceived to be good. As a result, the Department of defense has been supporting organizations through loans and fund-raising. The head of DOD Component Command may provide a limited basis for equipments and logistical support to needy organizations especially those dealing with humanitarian services (Department of Defense (DoD), 2007). Besides, the Department officers have been offering voluntary support to these charitable organizations during their off duty periods to boost their development and human services capacity. The department also offers selective benefits and preferential treatment to specific organizations especially those in military operation regions. To ensure it commits itself to serving the community, the department dissociates itself from involvement and support to partisan political activities (Center and Jackson, 1995). Therefore, this assists it to be highly impartial and more effective in serving the community. Increased information and coordination with the public By the time Pearson wrote down the Public relations theory, it was clear that vast criticism had strongly risen on the implication of truth and direct impacts that resulted from its revelation. However, Pearson regards to truth as the direct mirror that indicates an individual or an organizations consideration necessary for establishing the correct picture is pasted in the respondent’s minds for making the correct decisions. Joint civilian meetings and instantaneous meetings with the management served as a direct platform for the system where most people were able to change their minds about the military as well as improve the direct interlink with the system (Department of Defense (DoD), 2007. Through this system, most people had benefited from assistance scheme of the department. Recently, strong appraisals have been posted to the department for ensuring increased information to the community as it directly provides the officers to the department. Conclusion Effective organization management is determined by the level and quality of public relations employed by its management and leaders. Arguably, this has been the main premises that the department of defense has embarked on to ensure better and effective disposal of its duties. Previously, there was strong misconception between the people regarding the role of military until the DoD moved in to clear its image. The direct interlink of the department by giving back to the community has not only raised the confidence of the people to the system, but also improved the general utility of the department. Organizations should struggle to establish better interlink with their consumers and public. Reference List Center, A. and Jackson, P. (1995). â€Å"Public relations Practices, Upper Saddle, N. J. Prentice Hall. Department of Defense (DoD), (2007). Department of defense directive: Public Affairs Relation Policy, Washington: DoD. Russel, B. (1966). â€Å"The elements of ethics† Philosophical essays. London: Longmans, Green. Pearson, R. (1989). Sullivan Theory of public relations Ethics. Public relations review. XV(1989):52-62.

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Advantages And Disadvantages Of The Hospitality Industry Tourism Essay

Advantages And Disadvantages Of The Hospitality Industry Tourism Essay The hospitality industry is a huge and famous industry in this world, and there are multiple areas in this industry. This industry is specialized by training. This gigantic sector includes tourism and tour, traditional hospitality industry such as resorts and hotels, motel and a range of other hospitality services. ( Johnston, 2010). Because of this industry is famous so there is several advantages in this industry. But if we look deep through this industry also got some disadvantages also. The advantage of hospitality industry is that, they afford to provide the full service to their customers. For example, many hotels or resorts are around-the-clock, provide 24-hour operations and staffs are required to work varied shifts and extended hours for their customer satisfaction. Its means they provide the services for their clients all the time. Without bothering the time of the clients ask for the service. For example if any of the clients need foods or any other service at midnight means they can provide all the service to them without any further adore. Besides that, this industry also provides other services such as tour and tourism beside provide only the accommodation service. Mostly the resort department will provide this as their service. It is because mostly the resorts will located at beach site waterfall site. So the people those who are go there can enjoy the beach site by staying there for 2 days or more than 2 days. In this situation, the industry helps their client to enjoy the nature by staying at beach site. The resorts also sometimes will build at jungle site. Those who is interest for stay in jungle for get any deferent experience they can go there and stay there and at the same time can enjoy the jungle life. The hospitality industry is famous for accommodation sector. They provide this sector with multiple categories. For example five star hotel, four star hotels, and three star hotels and so on. So those who are afford to pay the high fee they will choose their standard level hotel such as five star or four star hotels and those who are not afford to pay more fees only for the accommodations for a short period time will choose the lower level hotels. So its shows that this industry provide hotels for all the people according to their living standard. Then glamour myth also a advantage of the hospitality industry. Is means the hotel industry offers you the chance to meet rich, famous and interesting people. So we can meet them at the place where go for rest but at the same time it brings benefit to us. Can get meet any famous person or any important person who are in the same carrier with us. For example, if I ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½m a business person I can get to meet any other business person who is carry on the same business with me, so I can develop my business very well and famous. At the same time they can include scientists attending in-house conferences, foreign tourists, local business people and ordinary everyday citizens. Although you might be able to tell your friends that Hollywoods hottest stars are staying in your hotel, youll probably have to stretch the truth a little to say that you actually talked with them. Celebrities might chat with you like an old friend, out of politeness, only when ordering room service, or not at all. Some may be jovial and even invite you for a drink, while others will treat you with the cool and fun. Furthermore the hospitality industry provides the standard living for their client. They provide services with the standard level such as the rooms that they provide the foods that they provide. They provide the rooms with full furniture and all the equipment. So the client will happily can enjoy all the service of them. So they will satisfy with their service and may be the loyal to the particular hospitality industry. With the advantages of hotel Industry come the disadvantages too. The disadvantage of this industry is long and odd hours. This means that if the client or customer of that particular hotel doesn ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½t like early starts or late finishes, then the hotel industry may not be help them. They may make late to help the client purposely. Besides that, pressure, high standards and deadlines also a disadvantages of the hospitality industry. Working for demanding clients and management is not the downside of working in hotels for it is what the industry is all about but you may find that the pressure of guest and management expectations are more stressful than you ever imagined. Pressure and deadlines are intrinsic elements of the industry and the best hotel workers thrive on conquering the challenges and obstacles placed in the way of personal and company objectives. Culture problem also consider as a disadvantage of this industry. Most of the hospitality industry provides their service with the western style but it not suitable for all the clients of them. For example we can take the Malay religion, they cannot eat all the food especially pork at all and they can eat only  ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½halal ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ food so they face some problems. Then also must prepare with at least a special hall for their praying. Because Malays must at the correct time and must carry on the prayer at the special venue which is called as  ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½surau ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ if there don ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½t have mosque. So some of the hotel or hospitality management sometimes never provides or forget to prepare all this things to them. Besides Malays, in our country the Indian are sometimes will carry on the vegetarian. So the hotels must prepare the vegetarian foods for them. But they never provide this sometimes. So the clients need to go out site of the hotel for find the foods for them. This shows that the hospitality industry never give important for their clients. As the conclusion, the hospitality industry provides the good service for their client with their variety service. But still this industry needs to improve their service to archive the target of their industry. if they improve all this the customers will get happy and will enjoy with service. Question 2 2.1: Find out the factors that affecting travel and tourism. Explain in detail? Tourism comprises the activities of persons travelling to and staying in places outsides their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes. The word staying suggests that tourists stay at least one night. However must acknowledge that day visitors make a huge contribution to the tourist industry and some regions and organizations choose to include day visitors in statistics. It is acknowledged by the World Tourism Organization that tourism is the fastest growing economic sector, bringing foreign exchange earnings to countries and creating jobs. Jobs are not only created directly in tourism but in related industries, for example in construction. Much tourism development occurs in developing countries, bringing economic opportunities local communities. There are several factors that affecting travel and tourism industry which influence the industry. The first factors that affect this industry are technological factor. Nowadays the technology develops very well. So also develop in travel and tourism. The growth of e-commerce and new transportation affect the travel and tourism industry. Nowadays the travel system develops well for example the buses that use nowadays is full of air-condition service, with video and audio system. Travel and tourism has always been an industry that has made extensive use of new technology equipment. Central reservation system (CRS), the use of computers in travel agencies and sophisticated databases for marketing purposes are now ordinary. Increase in competition within the industry will force organizations to use new technology to the full. New developments in transportation make extensive use of new technology, for example the Channel Tunnel, the advances in aircraft design and opening up new long-hall destinations. Then more develop bus is super VIP bus. This is consisting of all the service to t he passengers. So the passengers can enjoy the traveling period. Furthermore, another factor is, the technology develops until the passengers or the customers can get the information of the travel and tourism industry in internet. The particular agency will update all the information in web so the customers can check easily all the information about their tour and can easily contact to the particular agency. This makes the agency famous among the people because all over the world can access their information and can consider to the particular agency. At the same time also help the customers to get all their information in detail and faster too. Cultural and environmental factors also affect the travel and tourism industry. In the 1980s saw the emergence in Britain of a greater environmental awareness and a society that was beginning to take its health and fitness seriously. These factors are likely to remain important influences on travel and tourism developments in the future with so-called green issues high on the agenda. The political aspect also affects this industry. The security concerns over travel have had a serious impact on the travel and tourism industry. Which are leading to increased business failures in certain situation if the government never invent in this industry. The government must provides all the services to help the industry such as prepare a good road for travel and railway tracks for the rails travel so the travel and tourism industry can easily can safely travel. Then the choice of destination also affects this industry. Most of the customer likes to travel for a famous and enjoyable place. So they must bring out the travel and tourism to a famous popular place, which got a high demand among the people. Then choose of place should be according to the age group. If want to carry on a travel and tourism, must be a place where got a lots of fun and entertainment but if want to carry on for veterans means place should be suitable for them. So they can enjoy the travel with fullest and the affect also will be the positive type. Other than age group category there got other group category also, such as leisure customers, business customers, independent travelers, package holidaymakers. So the travel and tourism must be carrying on according to deferent types customers. Besides that, the rule and regulation also will affect the travel and tourism industry. The travel that ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s going to carry should be following the all the rules and regulations that the government stated and the particular place stated. So it will never affect the customers of them. For example, if the tourism place stated that cannot brings camera or video inside means they should tell earlier to their customer so they may follow the rules and will not affect the agency also. If not the agency may affected because did not follow the rules and regulation. While the customers ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ also wont respect to the agency. At the end the customers won ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½t support for the particular industry. The travel and tourism that going to carry on also should be suitable for the season. Because the customers are always like to travel to different destination in a different season. So should carry on the correct travel and tourism event at the correct season. If not it will affect alt the industry. The customer may not will support the agency because they are not giving what they want and they won ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½t satisfy with them at all. At last the food and beverage also will affect the industry, even is not a big issue and important in a travel and tourism industry. The foods that they provide to the customers should be good foods which is not expired or spoiled. If not the customer may get anger with their service and will get disappointment with their service. So if a travel and tourism industry wants to be success means, they should consider all the element of the travel and tourism. And must prepare earlier for everything with full of good service for their customer ¿Ã‚ ½Ã ‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s satisfaction. Conclusion As the conclusion, we have learnt about the meaning of hospitality and the stages of hospitality industry development from traditional to advanced stage and learnt that hospitality management means how to cater for people in a friendly and cheerful manner to enable the guest appreciate in services. Besides that, we have learnt about the meaning and the importance of housekeeping Department in hotel, motel, guest how we have learn about the interdepartmental co-operations among various departments of the hotel and the importance of hotel industry in our society. Furthermore, we also learnt the meaning and types of non-commercial hospitality management and the type of organization that is available. Lastly we have learnt and understood the meaning of the layout in hospitality industry and the necessary and important factors to consider when plan to establish this industry.

Friday, September 20, 2019

Underdevelopment Development Africa And Latin America Politics Essay

Underdevelopment Development Africa And Latin America Politics Essay Introduction The widespread economic international inequities and the big technological gap that exits between the rich and the poor-the developed and the developing countries-have virtually divided the world into two parts: The Rich or the North, and the Poor or the South. The rich countries are technologically developed and economically well off. By virtue of this, they are in a position to maintain and even strengthen their hold not only over international economic system but also over the economies and policies of the poor countries. The poor countries, which are industrially, technologically and economically under-developed, continue to live under the neo-colonial dependence upon the rich. In the past, they were the victims of imperialism and colonialism, and even after becoming sovereign independent states, they continue to suffer from poverty and under-development as the legacies of the past history and face continued exploitation at the hands of the rich countries. The latter through seve ral devices like foreign aid, multi-national corporations,, control over international economic institutions and protectionist trade and economic policies, are virtually forcing the under-developed countries to live with under developed nation and these developed nations create hegemony upon the underdevelopment countries, so called third world countries. If we study the population and resources among these two, developed and underdeveloped nations; 70 percent of population are living in the later category and 30 percent of populations are living as developed nations, but at same time on the side of the spectrum 70 percent of resources excess by developed nations and only 30 percent of resources excess by the underdeveloped nations. This is undoubtedly a very wide disparity. In the international arena every nation interacts with others because of technology and free trading. But the developed countries have been creating hegemony in many ground with their powerful aids of advance technology, sophisticated weapons and powerful army. In this paper I would like to draw the condition of Africa and Latin America and their positions in the contemporary international standards. How these two nations have been suffering chronic hunger, poverty, contagious diseases, racial discrimination, gender disparity, low literacy rate and unstable government all through in the earlier twentieth century. Attributable to these issues, Africa and Latin America have paid heavy prices But the developed nations settled their industries in this region. They pulled out natural resources and used cheap labours and finally they exported goods in the international market. But these two nations did not get any noteworthy benefits out of this, because their lands were merely used for the purpose of industrial development without a reciprocal promise of development even the labour contribution by these two nations are not very significantly rewards . And these industries created more pollution for these nation ultimately the environment pollute d what eventually native people were affected with many diseases. At the rudimentary stages the positions and conditions of both, Africa and Latin America were some how similar. If we see the history of these two nations, the prime source of income was farming. But the rural oligarchies and the rich men were holding the 70 percent of lands and where as there were only 30 percent for the rest of the population. After the independence, African countries they settled their new farming policy, which were based on the cooperative model. In this model the new government was settled down with some reforms in the farming sectors. The government checked the middle men profit for the shake of farmers to sale directly the crops in the market. The new Govt. revised the colonial price standard. It introduced opened market system for market prices. It created the cooperative farms for price fixing and also created present friendly opportunities for a market oriented development. But due to some adverse forces and conditions the policies made by the Govt. were no t effective. Seidman mentioned, how the managerial was so corrupt as a result the price was very low for the peasants to sell their crops out side the county. [INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY SERIES1, Page 242.] Seidman point out that, In Ghana, the peasants objected to the Nkrumah governments state buying agency, the United Ghana Farmers Council. The post-1966 coup government tried to persuade the transnational buying firms to purchase cocoa directly from the peasants, but they refused. Apparently, they preferred to let local traders or cooperatives do the task. That insulated the transnational from blame when falling world prices pushed producer prices down. The Tanzanian government also tried to substitute government agents for marketing cooperatives; but costs mounted, export prices fell, and, blaming the government, many peasants simply stopped cultivating export crops. After several years, the government re-established the marketing cooperatives.The developed countries farmers used pesticides and they cultivate the crops in the large amount of area. But the Africa and Latin Americas farmers did not have capacity to apply in the farming land for increase of the production capacity and t he land fertility was decrease and the environment degradation due to this farmers lost their fertile land. Many African family, they invested their money in the cattle, but send their cattle near the desert sand because of feeding. [INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY SERIES1, Page 243,258] The African society mainly dominated by patriarchy system, so the condition of women was so venerable. The women did not have any property right, even the girl child did not send to school. In Kenya the private ownership only acknowledged to the male members. The Kenya society totally male domination, even in the bureaucracy also effected by the male domination. Whatever policy took place in the bureaucratic level, the women did not include in that policy formulation. The bank also did not give lone to the female members of the family. Particularly any country or a society for their development, the both male and female participation should be necessary. But in Africa and Latin America society was totally mail domination. So it is the one of prime causes of underdevelopment. Hence the position of women have to develop as they have same capacity to generate wealth, and they also have rights to participate in the development process what ultimately help for the progress of nation building.Any society or nation comes in to sphere of underdevelopment due to several reasons, viz. hunger, poverty, unstable government and not solely from the backwardness. Same kind of situation was happening in Africa and Latin America. [The Crisis of African Development: Conflicting Interpretations and Resolutions., p. 527.] Immediately after independent many third world countries adopted some structural development, in the nation building process viz. road, port, hospital, new institution, education and high expenditure in the military sector. However these govt. expenditures remained consistently below those of high income countries. The foreign private investment and exim policy in the international market, But the market did not grow because of inherent corruption in the structure. The developed countries exported the heavy machinery, croups, clothing and food and the third world countries likes Africa and Latin America export the oil, gold and luxury item in the developed countries. We can closely observe how the underdeveloped countries exploit in the international market. The open market gave benefits to the rich developed or the rich countries. The Africa and Latin America did not gain any benefits from the open market and therefore the economy was shrunk. [Underdevelopment of Development, p. 301. Copyright  © 1996 by Sage Publications,] In the 19th century the Latin America society has had barbarism and the European cultural value influenced the Latin American culture. The elite saw the European domination in the society. In the second half of 19th century the Latin America excess the scientific knowledge and export the raw material and import the industrial products. [p. 150 Latin American past, present and future.] For the Latin America economy development, the United Nation Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA )laid the foundation for the economic analysis, empirical groundwork, and institutional support that would later inform the search for the bases of Latin American development. The ECLA scholar such as, Andre Gunder Frank, Raul Prebisch, Paul Baran, and Fernando Henrique Cardoso, combinely worked for the development of Latin America. Andre Gunder Frank gave the dependency theory. In his theory he says that, the capitalism generates the wealth so that, the underdeveloped nations they can interact in the capital global market. But the developed nations they settled down their industries in the underdeveloped reasons. In the open market process the underdeveloped nations they became loser, because the developed nations they settled industries in this poor reason. Extract the minerals and export in the world market. But they did not get benefits out of it. He studied the Chile and Braz il past and present history. This two countries histories reflect that, during the epochs of colonialism free trade, imperialism excess the wealth from this reason. At the present time also the free market capitalism exploit in the name of development. Fernando Henrique Cardoso one of the scholar, who among the ECLA group also gives the theory of dependency. How the poor nations became poorer, due to capitalism and free market the developed nations they access raw material in low price from the underdeveloped countries. Cardoso is a sociologist. He studied the socio economy condition of Latin America. He was the president of Brazil and earlier he worked as a economic minister for Brazil in 1980. [Underdevelopment of Development, p. 162. Copyright  © 1996 by Sage Publications.] After imperialist predominance were able to cope with the new situation by maintaining proprietorship of the local export economy in the hands of native bourgeoisies. Some countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Chile the export sectors controlled by the local bourgeoisie directly linked with productive sector and they gained their own benefits and create the hegemony. So the country was unable to overcome from the poverty. The Africa and Latin American countries has some regional conflicts and for which the neighboring country do not interact with its neighboring countries. For example, in Africa the Zimbabwe is a land lock country, so for its treading, it needed for treading communication through South African countries. But Zimbabwe did not get the permission. So these are the things which are create the situation for the underdevelopment. The World Bank and the IMF funding the finance for structural adjustment. But Africa and Latin American countries still underdevelopment. All the financial support are meet with failure, due to corruption and the institution were not capable to maintained the funds and the bureaucracy was corrupt too. So the World Bank and the IMF funds were not benefits for the development of the Africa and Latin America. But many scholar they criticizes the World Bank and IMF policies. Because these financing agencies, they saw their own benefits, and the return duration was 7 to 8 years and the interest rate was so high and how a country can sustain development within a sort period. Some scholar they said that, the world bank and the IMF work for the developed nation and it controlled by them. [ INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY SERIES1, p. 306. ] Immanuel Wallerstein criticizes the imperialism and he says that neo-imperialism creates its hegemony through open market. The USA and other developed nations they capture the global market and access the raw materials from the underdevelopment reasons, in the low price. So it is a new kind of colonialism settled through MNC and TNC. These agencies work for the developed nations and give the finance support to the underdeveloped countries for industrial development. [p. 355. underdevelopment of development] Conclusion The development and underdevelopment mainly based on the policies and more importantly the structural adjustment. But in Africa and Latin American countries suffered due to many causes, these two reasons have many disparity such as racial discrimination, gender discrimination and feudal base society and many other cause for underdevelopment in Africa and Latin American countries.