Conceptual framework

Put together all the materials that deal with similar topics. This way, you can relate the studies with one another. 3. From the card catalogue in a library, you will be able to identify a book that is closely related to your study. Go to the shelf and pick out the book you have identified. The materials in this book will have supporting materials in other books on the same shelf. Look at other books located above, below, to the right, and to the left of the book you have picked out. They may contain relevant materials. 4. Refer to the list of references at the end of the book or journal you have found. Those references will give you the needed relevant materials. How do you organize your RL?Cute concept(s) and variables can serve as your heading and subheadings Chitin the write up, you can further organize based on: – chronology – themes Writing skills required n building up the RL C Paraphrasing C Summarizing Ã'Å¡ Managing quotations CA Synthesizing C Citing or docume nting sources What is a paraphrase? – restating an authors idea in your own words and style (Plat et al. , 2007) – putting a passage from an author into â€Å"your own words (The Writers Handbook, online) ; restating in your own words the statement of others; a Techniques in paraphrasing 1. Imagine as if you were explaining the original text to someone who doesn't share the same background with that of the author of the original material. 2. Write the paraphrase the way you loud give that explanation. 3.Simplify the material, but keep its original ideas intact. Sample paraphrase . PDF Summary or prà ©cis – a condensed version of a longer text that represents the original ideas of the writer's but written in the words of the one writing the summary (Plat et al. , 2007) – a condensation of the original usually one fourth to one third of the length (Tellurium, 2003 in Gonzales et al, no date) How to produce a summary: 1. Read the article to be summarized a nd be sure you understand it. 2. Outline the article. Note the major points. 4. Always use paraphrase when rating a summary. If you do copy a phrase from the original be sure it is a very important phrase that is necessary and cannot be paraphrased.In this case put â€Å"quotation marks† around the phrase. The features of a 1. Start your summary with a clear identification of the type of work, title, author, and main point in the present tense. Example: In the feature article â€Å"Four Kinds of Reading,† the author, Donald Hall, explains his opinion about different types of reading. 2. Check with your outline and your 3. Never put any of your own ideas, opinions, or interpretations into the marry. This means you have to be very careful of your word choice. 4. Write using â€Å"summarizing language. † Periodically remind your reader that this is a summary by using phrases such as the article sample summary. UDF Quotation – a reproduction of the author's e xact words, spelling and grammar Reminder: Make sure you do not overuse quotations in your paper. Otherwise, your paper is simply a representation of other people's work. (Plat et al. , 2007) Rules for placing quotations 1. Put quotation marks around the quotation. 2. Introduce the quotation or place It in proper context. . Copy quotations exactly as they are written. Synthesizing â€Å"to combine the ideas of more than one source with your own† Synthesis ; Report information from the sources using different phrases and sentences. ; Organize so that readers can immediately see where information from the sources overlap. ; Make sense of the sources and help the reader understand them in greater depth. Conceptual framework Put together all the materials that deal with similar topics. This way, you can relate the studies with one another. 3. From the card catalogue in a library, you will be able to identify a book that is closely related to your study. Go to the shelf and pick out the book you have identified. The materials in this book will have supporting materials in other books on the same shelf. Look at other books located above, below, to the right, and to the left of the book you have picked out. They may contain relevant materials. 4. Refer to the list of references at the end of the book or journal you have found. Those references will give you the needed relevant materials. How do you organize your RL?Cute concept(s) and variables can serve as your heading and subheadings Chitin the write up, you can further organize based on: – chronology – themes Writing skills required n building up the RL C Paraphrasing C Summarizing Ã'Å¡ Managing quotations CA Synthesizing C Citing or docume nting sources What is a paraphrase? – restating an authors idea in your own words and style (Plat et al. , 2007) – putting a passage from an author into â€Å"your own words (The Writers Handbook, online) ; restating in your own words the statement of others; a Techniques in paraphrasing 1. Imagine as if you were explaining the original text to someone who doesn't share the same background with that of the author of the original material. 2. Write the paraphrase the way you loud give that explanation. 3.Simplify the material, but keep its original ideas intact. Sample paraphrase . PDF Summary or prà ©cis – a condensed version of a longer text that represents the original ideas of the writer's but written in the words of the one writing the summary (Plat et al. , 2007) – a condensation of the original usually one fourth to one third of the length (Tellurium, 2003 in Gonzales et al, no date) How to produce a summary: 1. Read the article to be summarized a nd be sure you understand it. 2. Outline the article. Note the major points. 4. Always use paraphrase when rating a summary. If you do copy a phrase from the original be sure it is a very important phrase that is necessary and cannot be paraphrased.In this case put â€Å"quotation marks† around the phrase. The features of a 1. Start your summary with a clear identification of the type of work, title, author, and main point in the present tense. Example: In the feature article â€Å"Four Kinds of Reading,† the author, Donald Hall, explains his opinion about different types of reading. 2. Check with your outline and your 3. Never put any of your own ideas, opinions, or interpretations into the marry. This means you have to be very careful of your word choice. 4. Write using â€Å"summarizing language. † Periodically remind your reader that this is a summary by using phrases such as the article sample summary. UDF Quotation – a reproduction of the author's e xact words, spelling and grammar Reminder: Make sure you do not overuse quotations in your paper. Otherwise, your paper is simply a representation of other people's work. (Plat et al. , 2007) Rules for placing quotations 1. Put quotation marks around the quotation. 2. Introduce the quotation or place It in proper context. . Copy quotations exactly as they are written. Synthesizing â€Å"to combine the ideas of more than one source with your own† Synthesis ; Report information from the sources using different phrases and sentences. ; Organize so that readers can immediately see where information from the sources overlap. ; Make sense of the sources and help the reader understand them in greater depth. Conceptual framework Put together all the materials that deal with similar topics. This way, you can relate the studies with one another. 3. From the card catalogue in a library, you will be able to identify a book that is closely related to your study. Go to the shelf and pick out the book you have identified. The materials in this book will have supporting materials in other books on the same shelf. Look at other books located above, below, to the right, and to the left of the book you have picked out. They may contain relevant materials. 4. Refer to the list of references at the end of the book or journal you have found. Those references will give you the needed relevant materials. How do you organize your RL?Cute concept(s) and variables can serve as your heading and subheadings Chitin the write up, you can further organize based on: – chronology – themes Writing skills required n building up the RL C Paraphrasing C Summarizing Ã'Å¡ Managing quotations CA Synthesizing C Citing or docume nting sources What is a paraphrase? – restating an authors idea in your own words and style (Plat et al. , 2007) – putting a passage from an author into â€Å"your own words (The Writers Handbook, online) ; restating in your own words the statement of others; a Techniques in paraphrasing 1. Imagine as if you were explaining the original text to someone who doesn't share the same background with that of the author of the original material. 2. Write the paraphrase the way you loud give that explanation. 3.Simplify the material, but keep its original ideas intact. Sample paraphrase . PDF Summary or prà ©cis – a condensed version of a longer text that represents the original ideas of the writer's but written in the words of the one writing the summary (Plat et al. , 2007) – a condensation of the original usually one fourth to one third of the length (Tellurium, 2003 in Gonzales et al, no date) How to produce a summary: 1. Read the article to be summarized a nd be sure you understand it. 2. Outline the article. Note the major points. 4. Always use paraphrase when rating a summary. If you do copy a phrase from the original be sure it is a very important phrase that is necessary and cannot be paraphrased.In this case put â€Å"quotation marks† around the phrase. The features of a 1. Start your summary with a clear identification of the type of work, title, author, and main point in the present tense. Example: In the feature article â€Å"Four Kinds of Reading,† the author, Donald Hall, explains his opinion about different types of reading. 2. Check with your outline and your 3. Never put any of your own ideas, opinions, or interpretations into the marry. This means you have to be very careful of your word choice. 4. Write using â€Å"summarizing language. † Periodically remind your reader that this is a summary by using phrases such as the article sample summary. UDF Quotation – a reproduction of the author's e xact words, spelling and grammar Reminder: Make sure you do not overuse quotations in your paper. Otherwise, your paper is simply a representation of other people's work. (Plat et al. , 2007) Rules for placing quotations 1. Put quotation marks around the quotation. 2. Introduce the quotation or place It in proper context. . Copy quotations exactly as they are written. Synthesizing â€Å"to combine the ideas of more than one source with your own† Synthesis ; Report information from the sources using different phrases and sentences. ; Organize so that readers can immediately see where information from the sources overlap. ; Make sense of the sources and help the reader understand them in greater depth.

Acc/230 Week 2 Assignment Lucent Technologies Case

Week 2 Individual: Lucent Technologies Case Assignment: Read Case 2. 1: Lucent Technologies on pp. 79 and 80 (Ch. 2) of the text. Compose a 500- to 750-word paper that includes your answers to questions 2-4 on p. 79. Question #2: Evalutat the asset, debt, and equity structure of Lucent Technologies, as well as trends and changes found on the common-size balance sheet. After reviewing the case of Lucent Technologies, we discover that the assets for Lucent Technologies suffered a decline between 2003 and 2004.According to the information provided in the case revealing, the current assets in 2003 was 49. 4% of Lucent Technologies total assets, whereas the current assets in 2004 decreased to 48. 5%. Although, after reviewing the case the percentage of inventory rose from 4. 0% in 2003 to 4. 8% in 2004. We can then calculate there is about a 20% increase in the total inventory holdings. Also it is apparent that Lucent Technologies entire assets in 2003 was 24% and had a decrease in 2004 t o about 20%. This can be measured by the company's cash equivalents and cash.The total debt structure of Lucent Technologies decreased between 2003 and 2004. Lucent Technologies had a decrease in their current liability. In 2003 their current liability was 25. 6% and decreased to 24. 3% during 2004. According to the debts that increased from 23% in 2003 to 26. 4% a year later in the company's total liability, the debts of Lucent Technologies would be considered long term. In 2003, Lucent Technologies had decreased in the representation of total liabilities and shareholders equity on the equity side for Lucent Technologies when compared to a year later.Improvements can happen and the situation of the company now can improve as the year progresses so the company won't look deficit. Question #3: What concerns would investors and creditors have based on only this information? Based on only this information for Lucent Technologies, a concern investors and creditors would have when lookin g at this balance sheet would be the debt structure. When looking at the given information we see a decrease in the total liability, but an increase in the long term liabilities.This could caurse harm to the company since the current liabilities are decreasing from one year to the next. Although, since there is an increase shown for the long term liabilities it balances out to prevent showing a loss. The equity portion is in a superior position for the company. In conclusion, with the given information, Lucent Technologies has been improving looking at 2003 and 2004 and will continue to improve steadily. Question #4: What additional financial and non financial information would investors and creditors need to make investing and lending decision for Lucent Technologies?Some additional financial information that investors and creditors would need in order to make investing and lending decisions for Lucent Technologies would be the company's financial statements. Investors and creditor s would need financial statements for Lucent Technologies because the financial statements contain all the financial information that the investors and creditors would need to make sound investing and lending decisions for Lucent Technologies. The financial statements are the inner workings in a company.The financial statements of a company can be looked at and compared with previous years, in order to find trends in the financial statements and guide investors and creditors to figure out where the company stands and what direction the company may have facing them. Some nonfinancial information that investors and lending decisions for Lucent Technologies would be to know the operating units were created to work together in order to provide cost-efficient solutions and innovative for customers. The business structure can sometimes play a key roll in financial decisions.

Environment assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Environment - Assignment Example Soft energy sources are more sustainable however, as they rely on inexhaustible sources of power compared to hard energy. Once established, soft energy sources are more environment friendly as they do not rely on the burning of fossil fuels or produce deadly by-products like oil-fed engines and nuclear power plants. Soft energy development looks at energy efficiency and utilizes less power as those produced from hard energy sources. To reduce energy use from conventional sources on the property, the first step is to insulate my house to improve heating and lessen the need for heaters. The next step is to install solar power cells on the roof of the house for electricity. A solar water heater (NREL) will also be installed to heat water. Larger insulated windows will be installed in strategic areas of the house to reduce the need for the use of electric light sources during daytime as the windows will serve brighten the interiors of the house. A study of the direction of prevailing winds will be done and some tree will be cut down to clear wind channels in the forest towards windmills which I will construct near the house. These windmills can power generators and can be set-up to pump water from water wells. I will set aside an area where I can cut down trees to use for fuel in the winter months to power the heater and for cooking. Cut down trees will be replanted. Construction of dams have associated environmental impacts such as loss of farm lands, loss of vegetation and biodiversity, sanitation and solid waste disposal, air, water and noise pollution, and impact on river ecology (Byaruhanga et al.). In order to minimize these effects, safeguards and mitigation measures must be applied during the construction phase. Some mitigating measures which could be undertaken during construction is the replanting of vegetation in other areas to minimize vegetation loss; avoidance of environmentally critical

Technology Plan and Effective Online Communication Skills Research Paper

Technology Plan and Effective Online Communication Skills - Research Paper Example First, E-mail etiquette makes it possible for an individual to display professionalism in his/her communication (Miller, 20). This is essential because different types of audience call for different forms of communication. While an individual can use informal language to communicate to their friends and relatives, they are required to communicate in a formal manner to companies and other formal institutions. Therefore, E-mail etiquette helps to enhance professionalism. Secondly, E-mail etiquette goes a long way in enhancing the efficiency of communication. Since E-mail etiquette advocates for proper wording of email messages, it makes it easier for the recipients to interpret and understand the messages than poorly formulated and worded messages (Miller, 33). Finally, E-mail etiquette is essential to help an individual avoid liability. considering that email communication is considered a form of communication just like any other in the eyes of the law, E-mail etiquette helps an indiv idual avoid legal liability, through avoiding making mistakes that warrant legal redress (Miller, 21). Internet technology has made it possible for people to communicate easily, as opposed to the traditional channels of communication which were inefficient and took long. However, it is necessary to apply E-mail etiquette while using email to communicate. The guidelines for enhancing effectiveness and efficiency of email communication include being concise. Composing a long and much detailed email is not favored by many, unless it is mandatory. Therefore, it is important to compose a direct and straight to the point email, which enables the recipient understand the intention of the communication within a short time (Miller, 18). Being concise also helps to make the message fully understandable and improves the chances of getting a prompt response. When an email is composed long and with unnecessary details, it may put off the recipient, making the recipient postpone reading it until he/she gets more time for that. This would delay getting a response (Miller, 38). Another benefit of keeping the message concise is that it eliminates chances of making unnecessary mistakes by the sender. Therefore, constructing a concise email message is convenient both for the sender and the recipient. Another key to E-mail etiquette is proper arrangement of information communicated in the message. The sender should ensure that he/she organizes the information communicated, such that it starts with the most important to the least important (Miller, 46). This makes it possible for the recipient’s attention to be drawn to the most important information first, which prompts him/her to react to the email. Another essential element of E-mail etiquette is numbering questions and putting points in bullet form. This is necessary to ensure that the recipient of the message pays attention to all the vital components of the message (Miller, 25). By numbering all the questions and putt ing the main points in bullets, the email is broken down to standard protocols, which makes it possible for the recipient to understand the whole message. Additionally, breakings down the message into such protocols make it possible for the recipient to address all the parts of the message in the response. While a message is not organized in points and the questions not numbered, the recipient may only

Production of tpa using eukaryotic n prokaryotic cells Essay

Production of tpa using eukaryotic n prokaryotic cells - Essay Example coli (prokaryotic). This is because of the high cost of the purification scheme required on the tPA produced from E. coli. That from the mammalian cells does not require lots of purifications because the cell environment and content is similar to that of the body cells (in vitro). tPA produced in E. coli required more purification to acquire the required state because it is composed of many components that are naturally not found with tPA in vitro conditions. The contents produced together with tPA in mammalian cells are similar to those in vitro hence are not foreign materials resulting to a less purification process. The E. coli based production process utilizes approximately sixteen purification steps (downstream) as compared to the five purification steps in CHO. Since the purification process in mammalian cells is not that complex less operating labour and supervision is required compared to the E. coli based. The CHO process utilizes nine percent of its total cost on operating labour while E. coli based utilizes twenty two percent. Also, the cost of acquiring the different purification units required for the many purification stages is higher in the E. coli based. Mammalian based process utilizes only twenty five percent of the total production cost on recovery (purification) compare to eighty eight percent on E. coli based. For the solubilization and renaturation step in the E. coli based production, approximately five tonnes of urea and twenty-six tonnes of guanidine are required. The bacteria lack efficient secretion mechanisms for tPA, therefore, the proteins are deposited as inclusion bodies. For the recovery of the proteins, a renaturation procedure is required. Since the proteins in the bacteria are produced in low concentrations (about 2.4 mg per litre) the practicability of a renaturation based production process is limited. The E. coli based production does yield to larger quantities of products that

Market research to the success of a new business Essay

Market research to the success of a new business - Essay Example The market research processes help the entrepreneur of the venture to gather relevant information regarding the external business situation based on which he or she can take the suitable marketing and management decisions for the business. The carrying out of a suitable market research can be done through the internal personnel of the company as well as through a third party market research company. Whatever the avenue of the market research is, the results of a market research are expected to add value to the probability of success of the business in the market through an understanding of the external factors that are likely to affect the success as well as the continuity of the business Market research is an essential strategic management tool for the creation of a feasible business plan that would enable a new business venture to initially create a place for itself in the highly competitive business segments and to thrive in the market in the long run as well. Market research conducted for a start up venture is essentially the process of becoming knowledgeable and gathering information about the target market of a new business (Malhotra, 2002). A market research process may serve four types of primary objectives which are Predictive: The predictive view is aimed at analyzing the future trends, opportunities, risks and requirements of the market which helps the company to decide on its priorities and set its objectives and strategies. Descriptive: The descriptive view of market research considers the explanation and description of the existing market situations and aims at identifying the core reasons driving the present market condition (McDonald, 2007). Market research helps a business to understand the context for the new business, accurately define and target the appropriate customer segment, verify whether there is an advantageous level for demand for the products and/or services of the business in the selected market, collect

HIS 122 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

HIS 122 - Essay Example ïÆ' ¨ This book discusses the theology, history, and political theories surroundings the Declaration of Independence. Several published writings and letters of Franklin, Jefferson, and others are presented in the book. The interesting thing about the book is how it explored the idea that the men who fought for, authored, and amended the Declaration of Independence did not have establishing a Christian nation in mind. The author presented data showing that the values of the Orthodox Christian Church are all rejected by Thomas Jefferson. Also, it explores on the concept that equality, and not slavery, is the purpose of the Declaration. Dershowitz presented data supporting the idea that Jefferson rejects the concept of slavery and supports the â€Å"secular humanist† concept. It is controversial, challenging, and disturbing, because it requires readers to rethink their opinions regarding the Declaration ïÆ' ¨ Of all the books reviewed, this is considered the most interesting exploration on the different sides of diplomacy during the American Revolution. It provides an easy and interesting read, thus giving the book a wide array of target readers. It catches the interest even of a general reader, yet provides well-researched data that will also interest any historian. The diplomatic history of the American Revolution is presented in several angles, including America’s diplomatic ties with France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Russia, and Spain. ïÆ' ¨ Simple and straightforward, the book discusses a lot of unfinished businesses caused by the American Revolution. Mainly, there are two very interesting articles that provide a great eye-opener for any reader: â€Å"Two Republics in a Hostile World† by Jonathan Dull, and â€Å"The Ambiguities of Power† by J.R. Pole. The book, particularly these two articles, can be compared to the ideas presented in the book by Dershowitz --- it makes one rethink of their personal opinions on the

The Declaration of Independence and the Major Issue of the US Essay

The Declaration of Independence and the Major Issue of the US - Essay Example The Declaration of Independence no doubt was vital because it united the colonists justified the reasons for liberation, and stated the salutary neglect that was enforced by the King. The scene in 1776 during the meeting of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia was a very crucial one. The colonists have already fought many battles together yet were missing on the aspect of unity(â€Å"Purpose of the Declaration of Independence.†). The Declaration of Independence was vital as it united the colonists since many were reluctant to break away from their birth nation. Many wanted to compromise and mend relations with Great Britain. The Declaration of Independence boosted the unity of the colonists and boldly stated the justification for the separation from a ruthless regime (â€Å"Purpose of the Declaration of Independence.†). The new birth of a nation, independent from the British rule, was faced with a new set of challenges. Undoubtedly, the birth of the new nation has no central government to replace the traditional statutory legislation of the British Parliament. Hence, issues such as commerce, trade, national security became vital issues. The members of the second had to take the obligation in the absence of a national government. The Articles of Confederation was a document that was supposed to define the separation of powers in both the federal and state level. Since the Article of Confederation was adopted in March 1781, the government of the United States continued to enforce its federal powers.

Social Norms vs. Nature Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Social Norms vs. Nature - Essay Example Their inner self connects and they find what they were looking for, in each other’s souls. Annie Proulx implies in Brokeback Mountain that when Jack and Ennis shy away from their natural urges they perish. Suppressing what is natural to them causes them pain and suffering that leads to the demise of their love, on the other hand, Anton Chekhov portrays how a man (Dmitri) pursues what is natural to him and embraces his natural urges with open arms, and in the end finds his true love. In the story The Lady with the Lapdog, Chekhov creates the setting for romantic spark between the two characters Dmitri and the lady. Dmitri’s romantic yearnings are simply unquenchable. He is bored with his wife and constantly seeks the love and affection of other women but never sticks with one. He constantly hunts down â€Å"fresh romance† as the old ones get on his nerves. This might sound unromantic but this is what Dmitri feels deep down inside. He doesn’t love his wife; to Dmitri she is too stiff and boring. This is the context as intelligent readers can guess that either Dmitri will start an affair with the lady, Anna, or at least the desire to have one will burn in his heart. The nature of Dmitri and the way he has transformed into a womanizer predicts that he will look for more chances of betraying his wife. Similarly, in the story Brokeback Mountain, the romance takes place between two men, Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, a homosexual romance which has absolutely no place in their society. It is obvious that what these two men feel, they will try to get it and in turn betray the social norms. That is how the setting of both these short stories builds a perfect setting for infidelity. However in The Lady with the Lapdog, the author plays with the pre-defined roles of characters, as when Dmitri and Anna hookup, they both fear the same thing, is the other person really interested or he is in it for the time being? This is the part where the readers predict that knowing Dmitri’s nature, he is in it for the game, he is bored as always and seeks new romance but as the story progresses things get more complicated than Dmitri’s simple urge to stay away from home and cheat on her wife, an aging seducer. In the book, The Lady with the Lapdog, the motivation for infidelity is not something that the society would look up to. Dmitri is on the verge of breaking up with his wife. He is simply frustrated by his wife’s cold nature and feels betrayed himself. He doesn’t consider it to be unjust to wander around and have flings with other women; he thinks he is taking revenge on his wife. Although there is not one motive for Dmitri’s disloyalty, however one factor that stands out is that Dmitri was not that much into his marriage from the beginning. He just stood in awe of her when they wedded but the wife’s imposing nature lingered on. She considered herself a â€Å"thinker† and used to call h er husband not by his real name but called him â€Å"Dimitri†. Dmitri probably felt emasculated by her actions, and that is why he preferred staying away from home. But the motive for infidelity in the Brokeback Mountain is in drastic contrast to Dmitri’s situation. Ennis and Jack are portrayed as characters struggling with their affectionate feeling toward each other but on the other hand, feeling afraid of being called homosexual.

Critically evaluate Hope and Fraser's (1997) arguments and the reasons Essay

Critically evaluate Hope and Fraser's (1997) arguments and the reasons for their arguments - Essay Example After ascertaining this, the limits of the budget follows. A budget, to be useful to a manager at any level, must reflect the organization pattern. When plans are complete and coordinated very well to fit into the departmental operations, the department budget becomes useful as an instrument of control. Budgeting, Hope and Fraser (1997:22) argue, should be dispensed with because it: "strengthens the vertical chain of command and control rather than empowering managers. It constrains rather than increases flexibility and responsiveness. It reinforces departmental barriers rather than encouraging knowledge-sharing across the organization. It makes people feel undervalued as 'costs to be minimized' rather than assets to be developed. And it is bureaucratic, internally focused and time-consuming." That is quite a diatribe. Yet, it seems from anecdotal and other evidence that budgeting remains 'alive and well' in most organizations. First, there is a risk of overdoing the budget by way of spelling out minor expenses in detail that deprive managers of the needed freedom in managing their units. For instance, a department head in a poorly budgeted company was hampered in a very important sales promotion because expenditures for office equipment exceeded budgetary estimates. Such being the same, the new expenditures had to ... Such being the same, the new expenditures had to be limited, even though his total expenses in his unit where within the budget and he had funds to pay personnel for writing sales promotional letters. In another case, a department's expenses were budgeted in such less important details that the actual budgeting cost of many items exceeded far the controlled expenses. Another risk may lie in allowing budgetary goals to become more important than the organizational goals. As mentioned by Fraser, budgeting strengthens the vertical chain of command and control rather than empowering managers. Managers, in their desire to keep within limits, might forget that they owe loyalty to the organization's ideals and objectives. In one organization with a budgetary control program, the sales department could not get needed information from the medical department on the ground that the latter's budget would not stand such expenses. This conflict exists perhaps because there is no proper coordination; and normally, these are symptoms of inadequate management. Plans constitute a supporting and interlocking network and every plan should be clearly in a budget. It is interesting to note that it is often common for managers to say that an idea is good but it is rejected because it is not within the budget. Sometimes, budgets often control the wrong things. They measure inputs but ignore outputs such as the quality of the product or customer satisfaction. These items may be difficult to measure; yet they may be the key to success or failure of the enterprise. Some managers may no invest in research and development or invest in activities that will result eventually in greater market share because these investments normally do not show immediate results. It is wiser

Postmodern Frame Essay - Text in Art Essay Example for Free

Postmodern Frame Essay Text in Art Essay The use of text within to the visual arts can be traced back as far as the inscribed carvings found on cave walls created by the Indigenous population of Australia approximately 46000 years ago. However, over the past few years, the use of text in art, also known as the art of typography, has become a frequent means of communication for artists in the creation of their works. Text within art can be projected, scrawled, painted, computerised and carved to the point that a work may be created of nothing but language. The art of typography is the technique of arranging type in such a way that makes language visible. It treats fonts as individual entities to be enjoyed by the audience. Some artists deal with language as a character on its own as opposed to a surface to draw upon. These artists place texts in ways that are intended to stimulate the way an audience perceives a work, to evoke emotion or to create a statement. However, others, particularly graphic designers, tend to focus on the decorative powers of text. Regardless of the artist’s intentions, the appearance of text within art can shift our appreciation of their sound and meaning. Artists that explore text in art include: Barbara Kruger, Yukinori Yanagi, Katarzyna Kozyra, Jenny Holzer, Wenda Gu, Shirin Neshat, Miriam Stannage, Colin McCahon and Jenny Watson. Artists such as Jenny Holzer, Wenda Gu and Shirin Neshat explore the cultural implications of language in art and the importance of language to identity through the inclusion of text that reflect a postmodern concern with the way we receive information in our contemporary society. Jenny Holzer is an American conceptual artist who belongs to the feminist branch of artists that emerged during the 1980’s. Originally an abstract painter and printmaker, Holzer became heavily interested in conceptual art and began creating works using text. The introduction of text within Holzer’s work occurred gradually however, over time, they have entirely replaced images. These works are usually displayed in widely viewed, public areas. Holzer’s works typically deal with the idea of communication. She is highly aware of the power of words and the power of the media and therefore has a focus on the ability of language to distort or manipulate truths. â€Å"I was drawn to writing because it was possible to be very explicit about things. If you have crucial issues, burning issues, it’s good to say exactly what’s right and wrong about them, and then perhaps to show a way that things could be helped. So, it seemed to make sense to write because then you could just say it†¦ no painting seemed perfect. In particular, I didn’t want to be a narrative painter, which maybe would have been one solution for someone wanting to be explicit.† – Jenny Holzer. Through the use of text in art, Holzer is able to transmit powerful environmental, social and political messages that reveal beliefs and myths and show biases and inconsistencies that highlight her social and personal concerns of today’s contemporary society. Holzer’s works are confronting and provocative and inspire us to make changes. They make us remember that language is not always a factual statement; it can be true or false depending on the context. Holzer forces us to analyse our own behaviour and consider how we have been influenced and manipulated. Her works are designed to make us stop and think about how we are maturing socially. Holzer’s truisms â€Å"MONEY CREATES TASTE – 1982† and â€Å"PROTECT ME FROM WHAT I WANT 1985† are part of her 1983-85 series – â€Å"Survival†. These are LED installation pieces consisting of large scale text that were projected onto a billboard in Times Square, New York. The inscriptions were bright, clear and menacing and connected themselves to the everyday glow of the city. The phrases were flicked over the busy intersection for two to three seconds creating an element of surprise and capturing the audience’s attention. The main focus of these works was to make a profound statement about the world of advertising and consumer society today. Holzer’s aim was to persuade the audience to pause and reflect on their lives. Her work emphasises the notion that within our society, we are driven by the world of media, thereby producing a mass materialistic, consumerist culture. â€Å"MONEY CREATES TASTE† is almost a plea from Holzer to stand back and assess our needs as a culture rather than what we are fed to believe we want by the media. The use of this concise statement â€Å"PROTECT ME FROM WHAT I WANT† has shown us that we are in the process of losing our identity and sense of culture and can be manipulated by the underlying motives of the media. Shirin Neshat is an Iranian born artist who, upon turning seventeen, moved to California to study art. In 1990 when Neshat flew back to Iran to visit her family, she was confronted by the changes in culture and the narrow restraints of everyday life in the Islamic Republic. She was faced by a very strict, pure form of Islam introduced by the Iranian government in order to erase Persian history. Since having lived in the two cultural contexts of Iraq and the USA, Neshat is able to examine the cultural concerns of individual beings in a metaphorical and poetic way. She attempts to address problems of identity, race and gender in a shocking manner and intends to undermine social stereotypes and assumptions. Her works explore the differences between Islam and the West, males and females, limitations in life and freedom, old and new and the public and the private domains. Neshat aimed to provoke questions amongst her audience as she explored Islam through her art making and comments on issues related to feminism and multiculturalism. However, her works were not only confrontational and symbolic; Neshat also paid particular attention to aesthetics. In her 1994 print and ink, â€Å"Rebellious Silence†, Neshat depicts an Islamic, Muslim woman, covered in a veil holding a gun. Her calm face is divided by the starkness of the cold, steel weapon and is laced with Islamic calligraphy symbolic of the Niqab, a more extreme veil that an Islamic woman must wear as it signifies her obedience to the male supremacy in Islamic culture. Her clothing and weapon make us question whether this woman has rejected her submissive female role to embrace violence. She is looking directly at the camera and looks determined to fight. Questions of motives arise amongst the audience. Neshat’s 1996 work â€Å"Speechless† is a black and white photograph in which Neshat has chosen to make herself the subject. This image is a close up of Neshat’s face. She looks determined and powerful however, like her creation â€Å"Rebellious Silence† – her face is covered with an overlay of Islamic text. The Arabic inscriptions that create the veil act as a barrier. It symbolises the support of the Islamic revolution. The visual struggle between Neshat and the veil is representational of the fight for freedom and the support of religion. By putting the text on her face, the body part where people can identify emotions the most, it serves as a reminder of the power that religion has over women and the oppression it has towards free expression. The gun in the picture is another juxtaposition. The woman seems to be embracing the gun as a part of her, giving off a threatening feeling, but at the same time, it does not feel dangerous because of her conflicted emotions: freedom versus oppression. The inscriptions tell of a man who died in the Iran/Iraq conflict of the 1980’s. This is also insulting to the women who also experienced this conflict. Her art does not disapprove nor approve of Islam, but instead encourages the audience to reflect upon their own ideas, assumptions and expectations. He works carry both personal and emotional connotations. Wenda Gu was born in China and studied traditional, classical landscape painting. He was employed to teach ink painting and although he no longer practices in China, text remains central to his work. This initial technical training has provided the incentive for his most confronting pieces in which the powerful use of language challenges social and political traditions. â€Å"These are questioning and symbolic works that violate the orthodox doctrine of artistic value. They represent a direct threat to authority.† Michael Sullivan. Gu ambitiously attempts to address, in artic terms, the issue of globalism that dominates discussions of contemporary economics, society and culture. He aims to appeal not only to the present population, but also to future generations in his quest to extend the boundaries of human perception, feeling and thought and express humanity’s deepest wishes and powerful dreams. Gu strives to unify mankind and create a utopian feel within his works. Gu worked to simplify the Chinese language and to encourage people to embrace new attitudes towards their old language. He combines a long standing fascination with classical Chinese calligraphy with a contemporary take on universal concerns that cross cultural and ethnic boundaries. Gu’s work today focusses extensively on ideas of culture and his identity and has developed an interest in bodily materials and understanding humanity across ethnic and national boundaries. Gu’s 1994-96 work â€Å"Pseudo Characters Contemplation of the world† is a series of ink paintings in which he uses traditional calligraphic styles and techniques but subverts them with reversed, upside down or incorrect letters. The pseudo character series consists of three ink on paper scrolls in which he has combined calligraphy and landscape, disrupting the conventions of both, powerfully distorting artistic tradition of China. Gu has attacked the written word by glorifying the spirit of the absurd. Gu’s most significant artworks have been a series entitled â€Å"United Nations Project†. This is a series of 15 works that were conceptually planned to relate to the locations social, political, historical and cultural situation. This series confronts two taboos. That of language and the human body. The main material for these installations are human hair collected from hairdressers from all over the world and the hair itself serves as a connection to all people. They typically consisted of screens tied together with twine, forming a canopy of internationally collected hair that was fashioned into nonsensical scripts combining the Chinese alphabet and others. His works are distinguished by the two themes which intersect. The first relates to language and the way in which cultural conventions are signified ad the second, is the use of human hair which is a symbol for significant human endeavours. The human hair is a blueprint containing DNA information, which is common to all humans yet seen fundamentally as individual. Jenny Holzer, Shirin Neshat and Wenda Gu all explore the cultural implications of language within art. They share a prime focus on the links between culture and identity. They have used language and text to convey their powerful messages and have drawn upon their own personal experiences. Concerned with the human condition, both they and their artworks have had a significant impact on society and the way in which we interpret information. Madison ******** Year 12 Visual Arts Art History and Art Criticism. Essay on Text The inclusion of text in artworks reflects a post-modern concern with the way we receive information in our contemporary society and the importance of language to identity. Explore the cultural implications of language in the work of Jenny Holzer, Wenda Gu and one other contemporary artist. Analyse specific artworks to support your argument.

Self-Reflection Paper Essay Example for Free

Self-Reflection Paper Essay The verbal and non-verbal speaking anxiety signs I noticed in myself was that I kept fidgeting, and touching my hair or face. I felt the rate of my speaking was too fast and I was stuttering. I did not move around at all and my feet were crossed the whole time of my speech. During my presentation I need to multi-task by speaking about my topic as I am presenting whatever subject. Do not overthink any speech or presentation or try to impress my audience. The specific areas I intend to work on from this class is to be confident in myself and better my speaking abilities. Try my best not to overthink the presentation and get my point across as clearly as possible. Be more effective in my communication skills, deliver the message succinctly, body language, eye contact, facial expressions, and be incongruent. I would like to be more enthusiastic during my speeches. I want to learn how to speak at my audience’s level and be more connected. Take in everything I am learning and keep practicing. After this course is complete I would like to accomplish my communication skills, body language, eye contact, facial expressions, and presentation skills. I need to be clear in my own head about what message I want to communicate. I would also like my sounds to convey understanding to whatever I am about to speak about. I would like to get up in the front of class at any given time and give a perfect impromptu speech or any presentation without a flinch. I understand our bodies entail many different messages, but I want all of my body’s movements to captivate my audience’s attention and I want them to be interested because of how great of communicator I will be. My plan to improve my weak areas is to listen to my instructor and peers feedback and take that in and put it into a positive and learn from it. I would accomplish my goals by reading the chapters and following the guidelines step by step. Keep practicing because they say practice makes perfect every time.

How has US Immigration Policy been Criticized over Time?

How has US Immigration Policy been Criticized over Time? Directions: How has US immigration policy been criticized over time? Students need to consider public challenges to immigration policy. Write a paragraph using evidence from the sources that compares and contrasts the arguments made in opposition to three historical approaches to immigration policy. Use the Venn diagram to help organize your information Students will examine the actual legislation behind the three actions taken around immigration. Sources Used: Source A: Political cartoon, The Americanese Wall-as Congressman Burnett Would Build It Source B: Excerpt from a speech by Meyer Jacobstein Source C: 1965 Immigration Law Changed Face of America Criticisms Source A Source B Source C List the criticisms of each immigration policy before writing your one page paper Featured Source Source A: Raymond O. Evans, cartoon, The Americanese Wall-as Congressman [John Lawson] Burnett Would Build It, Puck, March 25, 1916 Public domain. Available from the Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3b00563/. Featured Source Source B: Senator Meyer Jacobstein of New York, congressional speech arguing against immigration restrictions, Congressional Record (excerpt),1924 Perhaps the chief argument expressed or implied by those favoring the Johnson bill [the Immigration Act of 1924] is that the new immigrant is not of a type that can be assimilated or that he will not carry on the best traditions of the founders of our Nation, but, on the contrary, is likely to fill our jails, our almshouses, and other institutions that impose a great tax burden on the Nation. Based on this prejudice and dislike, there has grown up an almost fanatical anti-immigration sentiment. But this charge against the newcomers is denied, and substantial evidence has been brought to prove that they do not furnish a disproportionate share of the inmates of these institutions.   Ã‚   One of the purposes in shifting to the 1890 census is to reduce the number of undesirables and defectives in our institutions. In fact, this aspect of the question must have made a very deep impression on the committee because it crops out on every occasion. The committee has unquestionably been influenced by the conclusions drawn from a study made by Dr. Laughlin. This is not the first time in American history that such an anti-foreign hysteria has swept the country. Reread your American histories. Go back and glance through McMasters History of the United States covering the years from 1820 to 1850. You will find there many pages devoted to the 100 per centers of that time. So strange was the movement against the foreigner in those decades before the Civil War that a national political party, the Know-Nothing Party, sought to ride into power on the crest of this fanatical wave. In those early days, however, the anti-foreign movement, strangely enough, was directed against the very people whom we now seek to prefer-the English, the Irish, and the Germans. The calamity howlers of a century ago prophesied that these foreigners would drag our Nation to destruction. The trouble is that the committee is suffering from a delusion. It is carried away with the belief that there is such a thing as a Nordic race which possesses all the virtues, and in like manner creates the fiction of an inferior group of peoples, for which no name has been invented. Nothing is more un-American. Nothing could be more dangerous, in a land the Constitution of which says that all men are created equal, than to write into our law a theory which puts one race above another, which stamps one group of people as superior and another as inferior. The fact that it is camouflaged in a maze of statistics will not protect this Nation from the evil consequences of such an unscientific, un-American, wicked philosophy. Public domain. Congressional Record, 1924. Featured Source Source C: Jennifer Ludden, transcript of All Things Considered program about immigration policy, 1965 Immigration Law Changed Face of America National Public Radio, May 9, 2006 NOTE: Students should listen to the piece online at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5391395. Transcript: 1965 Immigration Law Changed Face of America May 09, 2006 MICHELE NORRIS, Host: From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. Im Michele Norris. ROBERT SIEGEL, Host: And Im Robert Siegel. As Congress considers sweeping changes to immigration law, nearly all the debate has centered on the problem of illegal immigration. Theres been very little talk about the concerns of legal immigrants, the estimated three to four million people who are, as its often said, already standing in line. NORRIS: Today were going to begin a three-part series about the process of immigrating to the U.S. legally. First, were going to step back and look at the history of our immigration law. The current system dates to 1965. It marked a radical break with previous policy and has led to profound demographic changes. As NPRs Jennifer Ludden reports, thats not how the law was seen when it was passed. JENNIFER LUDDEN: This is the kind of rally that was taking place back then. (SOUNDBITE OF CIVIL RIGHTS RALLY) LUDDEN: At the height of the Civil Rights movement, equality, democracy, freedom were the ideas that seized the nation. And against them, the way the United States decided which foreigners could and could not enter the country became an increasing embarrassment. STEPHEN KLINEBERG: I mean, the law was just unbelievable in its clarity of racism. LUDDEN: Stephen Klineberg is a sociologist at Rice University. KLINEBERG: It declared that Northern Europeans are a superior subspecies of the white race. The Nordics were superior to the Alpines, who in turn were superior to the Mediterraneans, and all of them were superior to the Jews and the Asians. LUDDEN: By the 1960s, Greeks, Poles, Portuguese and Italians were complaining that immigration quotas discriminated against them in favor of Western Europeans. The Democratic Party took up their cause, led by the new president. Heres John F. Kennedy speaking to the Italian migration in June 1963. JOHN F. KENNEDY: There are still a good many brothers and sisters of American citizens who are unable to get here, who may have preferences as members of families, but because of the maldistribution of quotas in the European area, we have this situation, which has become nearly intolerable. LUDDEN: After Kennedys assassination, Congress passed and President Lyndon Johnson signed the Immigration and Nationality Services Act. It leveled the immigration playing field, giving a nearly equal shot to newcomers from every corner of the world. The ceremony was held at the foot of the symbolically powerful Statue of Liberty. But if cable TV networks had been there, they probably would not have broken in live. Heres how President Johnson began his speech. LYNDON JOHNSON: This bill that we will sign today is not a revolutionary bill. It does not affect the lives of millions. It will not reshape the structure of our daily lives or really add importantly to either our wealth or our power. LUDDEN: Hearing that now, it is an amazing statement because it proved so wrong. So how could Johnson say that? Sociologist Klineberg says the governments newfound sense of egalitarianism only went so far. The central purpose of the new immigration law was to reunite families. KLINEBERG: So the Congress then said, well, nothings going to change, because were going to give preference to people who are already, who are related to people who are already here. Then it added another provision, if you were a professional of exceptional ability, if you have skills that are in demonstrably short supply, you, too, can come to the head of the line. Congress was saying in its debates, we need to open the door for some more British doctors, some more German engineers. It never occurred to anyone, literally, that there were going to be African doctors, Indian engineers, Chinese computer programmers whod be able, for the first time in the 20th century, to immigrate to America. LUDDEN: In fact, expert after expert had testified before Congress that little would change. Secretary of State Dean Rusk repeatedly stressed the issue wasnt the numbers. No more people were likely to come, it was simply the principle. Listen to this reading of an exchange between Secretary Rusk and a skeptical Senator Sam Irvin, Democrat of North Carolina. Unidentified Man #1: You have in India a lot of people who would like to get into this country, do you not? Unidentified Man #2: We dont have a long waiting list. Man #1: It is because they havent been able to get in. Even with a bleak opportunity to get in, as they have, they have 150 applications for every visa that could be issued. NORRIS: Yes, the present estimate, based upon the best information we can get, is there might be, say, 8,000 immigrants from India in the next five years. In other words, I dont think we have a particular picture of a world situation where everybody is just straining to move to the United States. OTIS GRAHAM: When I first started studying this, I thought, now theyre lying, because they want this thing to pass. LUDDEN: But historian Otis Graham, professor emeritus of the University of California at Santa Barbara, changed his mind. GRAHAM: I changed my mind because Ive found, in the research that Ive been able to do, that so many lobbyists that followed this issue, so many labor union executives that followed this issue, so many church people, so many of those involved said the same thing. So you find ignorance three feet deep. Maybe ignorance is the answer. KAREN NARASAKI: I often wonder whether some of the people knew, but perhaps werent sharing that with other people. Because it would scare them. LUDDEN: Karen Narasaki heads the Asian American Justice Center. She finds the 1965 immigration overhaul all the more extraordinary because theres evidence it was not popular with the public. NARASAKI: It was not what people were marching in the streets over in the 1960s. It was really a group of political elites who, I think, were trying to look into the future of the United States. And again, it was the issue of, are we going to be true to what we say our values are? MARIAN SMITH: Well here you are in the CIS Historical Reference Library, our history office and library. LUDDEN: Marian Smith is the historian for Citizenship and Immigration Services, one of the agencies that replaced the old INS. The files of documents here can be mundane, but the walls are framed with lovely older maps, population charts and demographic bar graphs. SMITH: Apparently we had money back then to actually pay for these kind of color lithographs that would be printed each year. LUDDEN: In 1965, the political elite on Capitol Hill may not have predicted a mass increase in immigration, but Marian Smith pulls out a little agency booklet from the 1966 that certainly did. It explains how each provision in the new law would lead to a rapid increase in applications, a big jump in workload and more and more so as word trickled out to those newly eligible to come. Smith says a lifetime of immigration backlogs had built up among Americas foreign-born minorities. SMITH: And so, they will petition for their family members and they will petition for their family members. And whether were talking about immigrants from Asia, Latin America, Africa, all these portions of the world where there is a demand for immigration. After World War II and with the post colonial status of many of these places, the shifting populations, the ability sometimes for people now to join their family in America, that maybe the only reason wasnt the inability to get a quota visa for the United States. Maybe they had trouble getting out before. LUDDEN: There were other things no one could have predicted, how immigration from Europe dropped off because of lower birth rates and higher standards of living. How Africa imploded and wars and famine there and elsewhere produced waves of refugees. And then the millions of illegal immigrants. But its the system of family-based immigration thats driven this countrys profound demographic transformation. Over time, in a process critics call chain migration, entire families have reestablished themselves in the U.S. Historian Otis Graham thinks the policy has been a terrible mistake. GRAHAM: Family reunification puts the decision as to who comes to America in the hands of foreigners. Those decisions are out of the hands of the Congress. They just set up a formula and its kinship. Frankly, it could be called nepotism. LUDDEN: In fact, President Kennedys original proposal made skills-based migration the priority. But Graham says a broad lobby pushed for the greater emphasis on families. It included churches, ethnic groups whose members had family in the old country and the AFL-CIO. Graham says the union worried about competition from too many highly skilled newcomers. For Karen Narasaki of the Asian American Justice Center, the family focus makes sense. NARASAKI: If you think about families and, you know, if you think about the roles that, say, your parents play when you have children. And how they help you, you know, take care of the newborns and provide support for you or how your brothers and sisters in the Asian community, what often happens is brothers and sisters get together and they buy a home together. They pool their money and they buy a business together. And so it, you know, family is very important to not just the social, emotional wellbeing, but also the economic well being of these communities. (SOUNDBITE OF NATURALIZATION CEREMONY) LUDDEN: At a recent naturalization ceremony, 32 immigrants gather for their oath in the ornate rotunda of Washingtons National Archives. Of them, three are from Western Europe. The rest of those gaining citizenship here are overwhelmingly from Africa, Latin American and Asia. At a basement reception, the new citizens pose for pictures holding tiny American flags and a gift bag that includes a refrigerator magnet of the U.S. Constitution and an ATT prepaid calling card. One older woman is radiant in her Sunday best with a broad-brimmed hat. HANNAH INDOVISI: Im from Nigeria. My name is Hannah Indovisi. And you know the meaning of Indovisi? It means life is first. LUDDEN: And Indovisi was sponsored by her U.S. citizen son, Samuel. SAMUEL INDOVISI: Everybody in the world I dont know if you know this wants to come to the United States of America. All you need to do is go to the embassy, any embassy, and see long, long, long lines of people who want to come here. LUDDEN: In fact, Indovisi has a long line of relatives still in Nigeria whod love to come. Its the same with a brand new citizen munching cookies nearby. AMA BALI: My name is Ama Bali and Im from Sudan. Yes, I have my parents. I have sisters. I have brothers. And Im going to apply for them to come here soon. I hope so. LUDDEN: Are they excited for that?    BALI: Definitely, definitely. I hope they will be here soon. LUDDEN: It may not be soon at all though. The immigration system set up specifically to reunite families is so overwhelmed with applicants, relatives who wait their turn must endure being divided for years. Thats tomorrows story. Used by permission of National Public Radio. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5391395.

What is the Definition of Terrorism? :: Terrorist vs Freedom Fighter

The concept of terrorism is exceedingly difficult to define. Author Gerald Seymour first said in his book Harry’s Game that, â€Å"One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter†. Each individual may view terrorism in a different light. Because of this, there is currently no universal definition of terrorism. However in recent years, it has become increasingly more important to form a definition of terrorism, especially while working in the media. The word terror dates back to the French Revolution. â€Å"A terrorist was, in its original meaning, a Jacobin who ruled France during la Terruer† (Moeller 20). Terrorism has clearly become much broader in the years since its origination. Since the concept was first birthed in France it has been used for separatist, nationalistic, political and religious ends, etc. In the book â€Å"Packaging Terrorism†, author Susan Moeller states that, â€Å"the goal of terrorism is to send a message, not to defeat the enemy†. I think this is an incredibly important concept when one is trying to define terrorism. The goal of terrorism is more about inspiring fear. Terrorists do not generally target high-up government officials, but innocent civilians like those killed in September 11. When an act of terrorism is committed, the effect spreads beyond the victim. When members of Black September killed the Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, there were 11 victims of the attack. Black September’s target, however, was greater than just the Israeli athletes. They inflicted a worldwide terror. When defining terrorism, one must realize that the message is often the goal of the attack. The U.S. Department of State defines terrorism as, â€Å"The calculated use of unlawful violence or threat of unlawful violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological†. Whereas the Belgium Red Cross says that terrorism is committed â€Å"for the purpose of intimidating the population, forcing a third party to act or destablishing or destroying the fundamental structures of a country or of an international organization†.

Essay --

Have you noticed that since the birth of the Nobel Prize, most of the winners are from Europe and America while no one is from China (except for Mo Yan, who won the literature prize in 2012)? As stated, the United States occupies less than 5% of the world's population, but seventy percent of the winners are from US while China that holds one fifth of the world population has only one winner educated in mainland since 1949. What exactly led to present situation of China’s education system? I think China can not foster a Nobel Prize winner because of too much homework, the unreasonable education system, and universities’ not professional enough academic atmosphere. The first reason is that the burden of students today is heavier and heavier. For example, too much homework occupies major parts of students’ spare time. Due to it, students become weighed down with the homework. What is worse, too much homework makes students be afraid of study and exams, which can result in the loss of interest of study. So we can conclude that what too much homework brings to students is not the chance to exercise themselves but excuses for them to evade study. Gradually they regard the process of doing homework as finishing an unwilling mission rather than a way to check up drawbacks in study, which limits the extra time in which students exercise the ability of thinking, querying, and practicing. If students don not have a right attitude towards homework and study, maybe they won not be serious about academic research either when they work in their own fields. Another reason is that the unreasonable education system also contributes to the present situation. Since the recovery of college entrance exam system, the concepts of education have... ... entertainment. Our politics, religion, journalism, sports, education and business are willing to become a vassal of entertainment†. When that happens, even doing the serious research will become a king of trick to attract people’s attention and then fall into jokes. In a word, these three factors contribute to the present situation of China’s education system. The downside of the Asian system is that the national standards do not do much to foster creativity Glenn Zorpette (n.d) We still have a long way to go to perfect our system of developing ability such as E.D.Hirsch Jr (1995) â€Å"higher order skills†, â€Å"self esteem†, â€Å"metcognitive skills†, â€Å"critical-thinking skills†, â€Å"mere facts† which are qualified for society development. I hope one day I can hear the news where a scientist or a writer educated in the mainland of china not other countries win the Nobel Prize.

Maori Art Essay -- essays research papers fc

When looking at Maori art, there is one thing that sticks out amongst everything else with me, and with most likely everyone that sees it for the first time, this is their tattooing skills. They are equipped with many other art skills such as their carvings, weaponry, and townhouses, but the tattoos represent the tribe as a whole and are visible on the people themselves.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The art of tattoo was brought to New Zealand by the Polynesians when they migrated to New Zealand. Men of the tribe are more elaborately tattooed than the women. Their entire faces may be covered as opposed to the women who may only have certain parts of their faces covered such as their chins, cheeks, upper lips, and between the eyebrows. This is to show the dominance in ranking of the men over the women. The fact that the women cannot advance as far as the men shows how that the Maori felt when it came to male dominance over the women.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Other parts of the body can also be tattooed and other colors such as red and blue have been used to tattoo as opposed to just black. The body Moko (tattoos) is used to mark achievements personally in one's life, and also achievements physically such as puberty. Again, these techniques are less practiced in women than in men.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Overall, the tattoos are used to recognize who the people are in each tribe. They specify things such as rank and faith. There are eight ranks among the Maor...

Bag of Bones CHAPTER ELEVEN

I woke in the early hours of the following morning convinced that there was someone in the north bedroom with me. I sat up against the pillows, rubbed my eyes, and saw a dark, shouldery shape standing between me and the window. ‘Who are you?' I asked, thinking that it wouldn't reply in words; it would, instead, thump on the wall. Once for yes, twice for no what's on your mind, Houdini? But the figure standing by the window made no reply at all. I groped up, found the string hanging from the light over the bed, and yanked it. My mouth was turned down in a grimace, my midsection tensed so tight it felt as if bullets would have bounced off. ‘Oh shit,' I said. ‘Fuck me til I cry.' Dangling from a hanger I'd hooked over the curtain rod was my old suede jacket. I'd parked it there while unpacking and had then forgotten to store it away in the closet. I tried to laugh and couldn't. At three in the morning it just didn't seem that funny. I turned off the light and lay back down with my eyes open, waiting for Bunter's bell to ring or the childish sobbing to start. I was still listening when I fell asleep. Seven hours or so later, as I was getting ready to go out to Jo's studio and see if the plastic owls were in the storage area, where I hadn't checked the day before, a late-model Ford rolled down my driveway and stopped nose to nose with my Chevy. I had gotten as far as the short path between the house and the studio, but now I came back. The day was hot and breathless, and I was wearing nothing but a pair of cut-off jeans and plastic flip-flops on my feet. Jo always claimed that the Cleveland style of dressing divided itself naturally into two subgenres: Full Cleveland and Cleveland Casual. My visitor that Tuesday morning was wearing Cleveland Casual you had your Hawaiian shirt with pineapples and monkeys, your tan slacks from Banana Republic, your white loafers. Socks are optional, but white footgear is a necessary part of the Cleveland look, as is at least one piece of gaudy gold jewelry. This fellow was totally okay in the latter department: he had a Rolex on one wrist and a gold-link chain around his neck. The tail of his shirt was out, and there was a suspicious lump at the back. It was either a gun or a beeper and looked too big to be a beeper. I glanced at the car again. Blackwall tires. And on the dashboard, oh look at this, a covered blue bubble. The better to creep up on you unsuspected, Gramma. ‘Michael Noonan?' He was handsome in a way that would be attractive to certain women the kind who cringe when anybody in their immediate vicinity raises his voice, the kind who rarely call the police when things go wrong at home because, on some miserable secret level, they believe they deserve things to go wrong at home. Wrong things that result in black eyes, dislocated elbows, the occasional cigarette burn on the booby. These are women who more often than not call their husbands or lovers daddy, as in ‘Can I bring you a beer, daddy?' or ‘Did you have a hard day at work, daddy?' ‘Yes, I'm Michael Noonan. How can I help you?' This version of daddy turned, bent, and grabbed something from the litter of paperwork on the passenger side of the front seat. Beneath the dash, a two-way radio squawked once, briefly, and fell silent. He turned back to me with a long, buff-colored folder in one hand. Held it out. ‘This is yours.' When I didn't take it, he stepped forward and tried to poke it into one of my palms, which would presumably cause me to close my fingers in a kind of reflex. Instead I raised both hands to shoulder-level, as if he had just told me to put em up, Muggsy. He looked at me patiently, his face as Irish as the Arlen brothers' but without the Arlen look of kindness, openness, and curiosity. What was there in place of those things was a species of sour amusement, as if he'd seen all of the world's pissier behavior, most of it twice. One of his eyebrows had been split open a long time ago, and his cheeks had that reddish windburned look that indicates either ruddy good health or a deep interest in grain-alcohol products. He looked like he could knock you into the gutter and then sit on you to keep you there. I been good, daddy, get off me, don't be mean. ‘Don't make this tough. You're gonna take service of this and we both know it, so don't make this tough.' ‘Show me some ID first.' He sighed, rolled his eyes, then reached into one of his shirt pockets. He brought out a leather folder and flipped it open. There was a badge and a photo ID. My new friend was George Footman, Deputy Sheriff, Castle County. The photo was flat and shadowless, like something an assault victim would see in a mugbook. ‘Okay?' he asked. I took the buff-backed document when he held it out again. He stood there, broadcasting that sense of curdled amusement as I scanned it. I had been subpoenaed to appear in the Castle Rock office of Elmer Durgin, Attorney-at-Law, at ten o'clock on the morning of July 10, 1998 Friday, in other words. Said Elmer Durgin had been appointed guardian ad litem of Kyra Elizabeth Devore, a minor child. He would take a deposition from me concerning any knowledge I might have of Kyra Elizabeth Devore in regard to her well-being. This deposition would be taken on behalf of Castle County Superior Court and Judge Noble Rancourt. A stenographer would be present. I was assured that this was the court's depo, and nothing to do with either Plaintiff or Defendant. Footman said, ‘It's my job to remind you of the penalties should you fail ‘ ‘Thanks, but let's just assume you told me all about those, okay? I'll be there.' I made shooing gestures at his car. I felt deeply disgusted . . . and I felt interfered with. I had never been served with a process before, and I didn't care for it. He went back to his car, started to swing in, then stopped with one hairy arm hung over the top of the open door. His Rolex gleamed in the hazy sunlight. ‘Let me give you a piece of advice,' he said, and that was enough to tell me anything else I needed to know about the guy. ‘Don't fuck with Mr. Devore.' ‘Or he'll squash me like a bug,' I said. ‘Huh?' ‘Your actual lines are, ‘Let me give you a piece of advice don't fuck with Mr. Devore or he'll squash you like a bug.† I could see by his expression half past perplexed, going on angry that he had meant to say something very much like that. Obviously we'd seen the same movies, including all those in which Robert De Niro plays a psycho. Then his face cleared. ‘Oh sure, you're the writer,' he said. ‘That's what they tell me.' ‘You can say stuff like that 'cause you're a writer.' ‘Well, it's a free country, isn't it?' ‘Ain't you a smartass, now.' ‘How long have you been working for Max Devore, Deputy? And does the County Sheriffs office know you're moonlighting?' ‘They know. It's not a problem. You're the one that might have the problem, Mr. Smartass Writer.' I decided it was time to quit this before we descended to the kaka-poopie stage of name-calling. ‘Get out of my driveway, please, Deputy.' He looked at me a moment longer, obviously searching for that perfect capper line and not finding it. He needed a Mr. Smartass Writer to help him, that was all. ‘I'll be looking for you on Friday,' he said. ‘Does that mean you're going to buy me lunch? Don't worry, I'm a fairly cheap date.' His reddish cheeks darkened a degree further, and I could see what they were going to look like when he was sixty, if he didn't lay off the firewater in the meantime. He got back into his Ford and reversed up my driveway hard enough to make his tires holler. I stood where I was, watching him go. Once he was headed back out Lane Forty-two to the highway, I went into the house. It occurred to me that Deputy Footman's extracurricular job must pay well, if he could afford a Rolex. On the other hand, maybe it was a knockoff. Settle down, Michael, Jo's voice advised. The red rag is gone now, no one's waving anything in front of you, so just settle I shut her voice out. I didn't want to settle down; I wanted to settle up. I had been interfered with. I walked over to the hall desk where Jo and I had always kept our pending documents (and our desk calendars, now that I thought about it), and tacked the summons to the bulletin board by one corner of its buff-colored jacket. With that much accomplished, I raised my fist in front of my eyes, looked at the wedding ring on it for a moment, then slammed it against the wall beside the bookcase. I did it hard enough to make an entire row of paperbacks jump. I thought about Mattie Devore's baggy shorts and Kmart smock, then about her father-in-law paying four and a quarter million dollars for Warrington's. Writing a personal goddamned check. I thought about Bill Dean saying that one way or another, that little girl was going to grow up in California. I walked back and forth through the house, still simmering, and finally ended up in front of the fridge. The circle of magnets was the same, but the letters inside had changed. Instead of hello they now read help r ‘Helper?' I said, and as soon as I heard the word out loud, I understood. The letters on the fridge consisted of only a single alphabet (no, not even that, I saw; g and x had been lost someplace), and I'd have to get more. If the front of my Kenmore was going to become a Ouija board, I'd need a good supply of letters. Especially vowels. In the meantime, I moved the h and the e in front of the r. Now the message read lp her I scattered the circle of fruit and vegetable magnets with my palm, spread the letters, and resumed pacing. I had made a decision not to get between Devore and his daughter-in-law, but I'd wound up between them anyway. A deputy in Cleveland clothing had shown up in my driveway, complicating a life that already had its problems . . . and scaring me a little in the bargain. But at least it was a fear of something I could see and understand. All at once I decided I wanted to do more with the summer than worry about ghosts, crying kids, and what my wife had been up to four or five years ago . . . if, in fact, she had been up to anything. I couldn't write books, but that didn't mean I had to pick scabs. Help her. I decided I would at least try. ‘Harold Oblowski Literary Agency.' ‘Come to Belize with me, Nola,' I said. ‘I need you. We'll make beautiful love at midnight, when the full moon turns the beach to a bone.' ‘Hello, Mr. Noonan,' she said. No sense of humor had Nola. No sense of romance, either. In some ways that made her perfect for the Oblowski Agency. ‘Would you like to speak to Harold?' ‘If he's in.' ‘He is. Please hold.' One nice thing about being a best selling author even one whose books only appear, as a general rule, on lists that go to fifteen is that your agent almost always happens to be in. Another is if he's vacationing on Nantucket, he'll be in to you there. A third is that the time you spend on hold is usually quite short. ‘Mike!' he cried. ‘How's the lake? I thought about you all weekend!' Yeah, I thought, and pigs will whistle. ‘Things are fine in general but shitty in one particular, Harold. I need to talk to a lawyer. I thought first about calling Ward Hankins for a recommendation, but then I decided I wanted somebody a little more high-powered than Ward was likely to know. Someone with filed teeth and a taste for human flesh would be nice.' This time Harold didn't bother with the long-pause routine. ‘What's up, Mike? Are you in trouble?' Thump once for yes, twice for no, I thought, and for one wild moment thought of actually doing just that. I remembered finishing Christy Brown's memoir, Down All the Days, and wondering what it would be like to write an entire book with the pen grasped between the toes of your left foot. Now I wondered what it would be like to go through eternity with no way to communicate but rapping on the cellar wall. And even then only certain people would be able to hear and understand you . . . and only those certain people at certain times. Jo, was it you? And if it was, why did you answer both ways? ‘Mike? Are you there?' ‘Yes. This isn't really my trouble, Harold, so cool your jets. I do have a problem, though. Your main guy is Goldacre, right?' ‘Right. I'll call him right aw ‘ ‘But he deals primarily with contracts law.' I was thinking out loud now, and when I paused, Harold didn't fill it. Sometimes he's an all-right guy. Most times, really. ‘Call him for me anyway, would you? Tell him I need to talk to an attorney with a good working knowledge of child-custody law. Have him put me in touch with the best one who's free to take a case immediately. One who can be in court with me Friday, if that's necessary.' ‘Is it paternity?' he asked, sounding both respectful and afraid. ‘No, custody.' I thought about telling him to get the whole story from the Lawyer to Be Named Later, but Harold deserved better . . . and would demand to hear my version sooner or later anyway, no matter what the lawyer told him. I gave him an account of my Fourth of July morning and its aftermath. I stuck with the Devores, mentioning nothing about voices, crying children, or thumps in the dark. Harold only interrupted once, and that was when he realized who the villain of the piece was. ‘You're asking for trouble,' he said. ‘You know that, don't you?' ‘I'm in for a certain measure of it in any case,' I said. ‘I've decided I want to dish out a little as well, that's all.' ‘You will not have the peace and quiet that a writer needs to do his best work,' Harold said in an amusingly prim voice. I wondered what the reaction would be if I said that was okay, I hadn't written anything more riveting than a grocery list since Jo died, and maybe this would stir me up a little. But I didn't. Never let em see you sweat, the Noonan clan's motto. Someone should carve DON'T WORRY I'M FINE on the door of the family crypt. Then I thought: help r. ‘That young woman needs a friend,' I said, ‘and Jo would have wanted me to be one to her. Jo didn't like it when the little folks got stepped on.' ‘You think?' ‘Yeah.' ‘Okay, I'll see who I can find. And Mike . . . do you want me to come up on Friday for this depo?' ‘No.' It came out sounding needlessly abrupt and was followed by a silence that seemed not calculated but hurt. ‘Listen, Harold, my caretaker said the actual custody hearing is scheduled soon. If it happens and you still want to come up, I'll give you a call. I can always use your moral support you know that.' ‘In my case it's immoral support,' he replied, but he sounded cheery again. We said goodbye. I walked back to the fridge and looked at the magnets. They were still scattered hell to breakfast, and that was sort of a relief. Even the spirits must have to rest sometimes. I took the cordless phone, went out onto the deck, and plonked down in the chair where I'd been on the night of the Fourth, when Devore called. Even after my visit from ‘daddy,' I could still hardly believe that conversation. Devore had called me a liar; I had told him to stick my telephone number up his ass. We were off to a great start as neighbors. I pulled the chair a little closer to the edge of the deck, which dropped a giddy forty feet or so to the slope between Sara's backside and the lake. I looked for the green woman I'd seen while swimming, telling myself not to be a dope things like that you can see only from one angle, stand even ten feet off to one side or the other and there's nothing to look at. But this was apparently a case of the exception's proving the rule. I was both amused and a little uneasy to realize that the birch down there by The Street looked like a woman from the land side as well as from the lake. Some of it was due to the pine just behind it that bare branch jutting off to the north like a bony pointing arm but not all of it. From back here the birch's white limbs and narrow leaves still made a woman's shape, and when the wind shook the lower levels of the tree, the green and silver swirled like long skirts. I had said no to Harold's well-meant offer to come up almost before it was fully articulated, and as I looked at the tree-woman, rather ghostly in her own right, I knew why: Harold was loud, Harold was insensitive to nuance, Harold might frighten off whatever was here. I didn't want that. I was scared, yes standing on those dark cellar stairs and listening to the thumps from just below me, I had been fucking terrified but I had also felt fully alive for the first time in years. I was touching something in Sara that was entirely beyond my experience, and it fascinated me. The cordless phone rang in my lap, making me jump. I grabbed it, expecting Max Devore or perhaps Footman, his overgolded minion. It turned out to be a lawyer named John Storrow, who sounded as if he might have graduated from law school fairly recently like last week. Still, he worked for the firm of Avery, McLain, and Bernstein on Park Avenue, and Park Avenue is a pretty good address for a lawyer, even one who still has a few of his milk-teeth. If Henry Goldacre said Storrow was good, he probably was. And his specialty was custody law. ‘Now tell me what's happening up there,' he said when the introductions were over and the background had been sketched in. I did my best, feeling my spirits rise a little as the tale wound on. There's something oddly comforting about talking to a legal guy once the billable-hours clock has started running; you have passed the magical point at which a lawyer becomes your lawyer. Your lawyer is warm, your lawyer is sympathetic, your lawyer makes notes on a yellow pad and nods in all the right places. Most of the questions your lawyer asks are questions you can answer. And if you can't, your lawyer will help you find a way to do so, by God. Your lawyer is always on your side. Your enemies are his enemies. To him you are never shit but always Shinola. When I had finished, John Storrow said: ‘Wow. I'm surprised the papers haven't gotten hold of this.' ‘That never occurred to me.' But I could see his point. The Devore family saga wasn't for the New York Times or Boston Globe, probably not even for the Derry News, but in weekly supermarket tabs like The National Enquirer or Inside View, it would fit like a glove instead of the girl, King Kong decides to snatch the girl's innocent child and carry it with him to the top of the Empire State Building. Oh, eek, unhand that baby, you brute. It wasn't front-page stuff, no blood or celebrity morgue shots, but as a page nine shouter it would do nicely. In my mind I composed a headline blaring over side-by-side pix of Warrington's Lodge and Mattie's rusty doublewide: COMPU-KING LIVES IN SPLENDOR AS HE TRIES TO TAKE YOUNG BEAUTY'S ONLY CHILD. Probably too long, I decided. I wasn't writing anymore and still I needed an editor. That was pretty sad when you stopped to think about it. ‘Perhaps at some point we'll see that they do get the story,' Storrow said in a musing tone. I realized that this was a man I could grow attached to, at least in my present angry mood. He grew brisker. ‘Who'm I representing here, Mr. Noonan? You or the young lady? I vote for the young lady.' ‘The young lady doesn't even know I've called you. She may think I've taken a bit too much on myself. She may, in fact, give me the rough side of her tongue.' ‘Why would she do that?' ‘Because she's a Yankee a Maine Yankee, the worst kind. On a given day, they can make the Irish look logical.' ‘Perhaps, but she's the one with the target pinned to her shirt. I suggest that you call and tell her that.' I promised I would. It wasn't a hard promise to make, either. I'd known I'd have to be in touch with her ever since I had accepted the summons from Deputy Footman. ‘And who stands for Michael Noonan come Friday morning?' Storrow laughed dryly. ‘I'll find someone local to do that. He'll go into this Durgin's office with you, sit quietly with his briefcase on his lap, and listen. I may be in town by that point I won't know until I talk to Ms. Devore but I won't be in Durgin's office. When the custody hearing comes around, though, you'll see my face in the place.' ‘All right, good. Call me with the name of my new lawyer. My other new lawyer.' ‘Uh-huh. In the meantime, talk to the young lady. Get me a job.' ‘I'll try.' ‘Also try to stay visible if you're with her,' he said. ‘If we give the bad guys room to get nasty, they'll get nasty. There's nothing like that between you, is there? Nothing nasty? Sorry to have to ask, but I do have to ask.' ‘No,' I said. ‘It's been quite some time since I've been up to anything nasty with anyone.' ‘I'm tempted to commiserate, Mr. Noonan, but under the circumstances ‘ ‘Mike. Make it Mike.' ‘Good. I like that. And I'm John. People are going to talk about your involvement anyway. You know that, don't you?' ‘Sure. People know I can afford you. They'll speculate about how she can afford me. Pretty young widow, middle-aged widower. Sex would seem the most likely.' ‘You're a realist.' ‘I don't really think I am, but I know a hawk from a handsaw.' ‘I hope you do, because the ride could get rough. This is an extremely rich man we're going up against.' Yet he didn't sound scared. He sounded almost . . . greedy. He sounded the way part of me had felt when I saw that the magnets on the fridge were back in a circle. ‘I know he is.' ‘In court that won't matter a whole helluva lot, because there's a certain amount of money on the other side. Also, the judge is going to be very aware that this one is a powderkeg. That can be useful.' ‘What's the best thing we've got going for us?' I asked this thinking of Kyra's rosy, unmarked face and her complete lack of fear in the presence of her mother. I asked it thinking John would reply that the charges were clearly unfounded. I thought wrong. ‘The best thing? Devore's age. He's got to be older than God.' ‘Based on what I've heard over the weekend, I think he must be eighty-five. That would make God older.' ‘Yeah, but as a potential dad he makes Tony Randall look like a teenager,' John said, and now he sounded positively gloating. ‘Think of it, Michael the kid graduates from high school the year Gramps turns one hundred. Also there's a chance the old man's overreached himself. Do you know what a guardian ad litem is?' ‘No.' ‘Essentially it's a lawyer the court appoints to protect the interests of the child. A fee for the service comes out of court costs, but it's a pittance. Most people who agree to serve as guardian ad litem have strictly altruistic motives . . . but not all of them. In any case, the ad litem puts his own spin on the case. Judges don't have to take the guy's advice, but they almost always do. It makes a judge look stupid to reject the advice of his own appointee, and the thing a judge hates above all others is looking stupid.' ‘Devore will have his own lawyer?' John laughed. ‘How about half a dozen at the actual custody hearing?' ‘Are you serious?' ‘The guy is eighty-five. That's too old for Ferraris, too old for bungee jumping in Tibet, and too old for whores unless he's a mighty man. What does that leave for him to spend his money on?' ‘Lawyers,' I said bleakly. ‘Yep.' ‘And Mattie Devore? What does she get?' ‘Thanks to you, she gets me,' John Storrow said. ‘It's like a John Grisham novel, isn't it? Pure gold. Meantime, I'm interested in Durgin, the ad litem. If Devore hasn't been expecting any real trouble, he may have been unwise enough to put temptation in Durgin's way. And Durgin may have been stupid enough to succumb. Hey, who knows what we might find?' But I was a turn back. ‘She gets you,' I said. ‘Thanks to me. And if I wasn't here to stick in my oar? What would she get then?' ‘Bubkes. That's Yiddish. It means ‘ ‘I know what it means,' I said. ‘That's incredible.' ‘Nope, just American justice. You know the lady with the scales? The one who stands outside most city courthouses?' ‘Uh-huh.' ‘Slap some handcuffs on that broad's wrists and some tape over her mouth to go along with the blindfold, rape her and roll her in the mud. You like that image? I don't, but it's a fair representation of how the law works in custody cases where the plaintiff is rich and the defendant is poor. And sexual equality has actually made it worse, because while mothers still tend to be poor, they are no longer seen as the automatic choice for custody.' ‘Mattie Devore's got to have you, doesn't she?' ‘Yes,' John said simply. ‘Call me tomorrow and tell me that she will.' ‘I hope I can do that.' ‘So do I. And listen there's one more thing.' ‘What?' ‘You lied to Devore on the telephone.' ‘Bullshit!' ‘Nope, nope, I hate to contradict my sister's favorite author, but you did and you know it. You told Devore that mother and child were out together, the kid was picking flowers, everything was fine. You put everything in there except Bambi and Thumper.' I was sitting up straight in my deck-chair now. I felt sandbagged. I also felt that my own cleverness had been overlooked. ‘Hey, no, think again. I never came out and said anything. I told him I assumed. I used the word more than once. I remember that very clearly.' ‘Uh-huh, and if he was taping your conversation, you'll get a chance to actually count how many times you used it.' At first I didn't answer. I was thinking back to the conversation I'd had with him, remembering the underhum on the phone line, the characteristic underhum I remembered from all my previous summers at Sara Laughs. Had that steady low mmmmm been even more noticeable on Saturday night? ‘I guess maybe there could be a tape,' I said reluctantly. ‘Uh-huh. And if Devore's lawyer gets it to the ad litem, how do you think you'll sound?' ‘Careful,' I said. ‘Maybe like a man with something to hide.' ‘Or a man spinning yarns. And you're good at that, aren't you? After all, it's what you do for a living. At the custody hearing, Devore's lawyer is apt to mention that. If he then produces one of the people who passed you shortly after Mattie arrived on the scene . . . a person who testifies that the young lady seemed upset and flustered . . . how do you think you'll sound then?' ‘Like a liar,' I said, and then: ‘Ah, fuck.' ‘Fear not, Mike. Be of good cheer.' ‘What should I do?' ‘Spike their guns before they can fire them. Tell Durgin exactly what happened. Get it in the depo. Emphasize the fact that the little girl thought she was walking safely. Make sure you get in that ‘crossmock' thing. I love that.' ‘Then if they have a tape they'll play it and I'll look like a story-changing schmuck.' ‘I don't think so. You weren't a sworn witness when you talked to Devore, were you? There you were, sitting out on your deck and minding your own business, watching the fireworks show. Out of the blue this grouchy old asshole calls you. Starts ranting. Didn't even give him your number, did you?' ‘No.' ‘Your unlisted number.' ‘No.' ‘And while he said he was Maxwell Devore, he could have been anyone, right?' ‘Right.' ‘He could have been the Shah of Iran.' ‘No, the Shah's dead.' ‘The Shah's out, then. But he could have been a nosy neighbor . . . or a prankster.' ‘Yes.' ‘And you said what you said with all those possibilities in mind. But now that you're part of an official court proceeding, you're telling the whole truth and nothing but.' ‘You bet.' That good my-lawyer feeling had deserted me for a bit, but it was back full-force now. ‘You can't do better than the truth, Mike,' he said solemnly. ‘Except maybe in a few cases, and this isn't one. Are we clear on that?' ‘Yes.' ‘All right, we're done. I want to hear from either you or Mattie Devore around elevenish tomorrow. It ought to be her.' ‘I'll try.' ‘If she really balks, you know what to do, don't you?' ‘I think so. Thanks, John.' ‘One way or another, we'll talk very soon,' he said, and hung up. I sat where I was for awhile. Once I pushed the button which opened the line on the cordless phone, then pushed it again to close it. I had to talk to Mattie, but I wasn't quite ready yet. I decided to take a walk instead. If she really balks, you know what to do, don't you? Of course. Remind her that she couldn't afford to be proud. That she couldn't afford to go all Yankee, refusing charity from Michael Noonan, author of Being Two, The Red-Shirt Man, and the soon-to-be-published Helen's Promise. Remind her that she could have her pride or her daughter, but likely not both. Hey, Mattie, pick one. I walked almost to the end of the lane, stopping at Tidwell's Meadow with its pretty view down to the cup of the lake and across to the White Mountains. The water dreamed under a hazy sky, looking gray when you tipped your head one way, blue when you tipped it the other. That sense of mystery was very much with me. That sense of Manderley. Over forty black people had settled here at the turn of the century lit here for awhile, anyway according to Marie Hingerman (also according to A History of Castle County and Castle Rock, a weighty tome published in 1977, the county's bicentennial year). Pretty special black people, too: most of them related, most of them talented, most of them part of a musical group which had first been called The Red-Top Boys and then Sara Tidwell and the Red-Top Boys. They had bought the meadow and a good-sized tract of lakeside land from a man named Douglas Day. The money had been saved up over a period of ten years, according to Sonny Tidwell, who did the dickering (as a Red-Top, Son Tidwell had played what was then known as ‘chickenscratch guitar'). There had been a vast uproar about it in town, and even a meeting to protest ‘the advent of these darkies, which come in a Horde.' Things had settled down and turned out okay, as things have a way of doing, more often than not. The shanty town most locals had expected on Day's Hill (for so Tidwell's Meadow was called in 1900, when Son Tidwell bought the land on behalf of his extensive clan) had never appeared. Instead, a number of neat white cabins sprang up, surrounding a larger building that might have been intended as a group meeting place, a rehearsal area, or perhaps, at some point, a performance hall. Sara and the Red-Top Boys (sometimes there was a Red-Top Girl in there, as well; membership in the band was fluid, changing with every performance) played around western Maine for over a year, maybe closer to two years. In towns all up and down the Western Line Farmington, Skowhegan, Bridgton, Gates Falls, Castle Rock, Morton, Fryeburg you'll still come across their old show-posters at barn bazaars and junkatoriums. Sara and the Red-Tops were great favorites on the circuit, and they got along all right at home on the TR, too, which never surprised me. At the end of the day Robert Frost that utilitarian and often unpleasant poet was right: in the northeastern three we really do believe that good fences make good neighbors. We squawk and then keep a miserly peace, the kind with gimlet eyes and a tucked-down mouth. ‘They pay their bills,' we say. ‘I ain't never had to shoot one a their dogs,' we say. ‘They keep themselves to themselves,' we say, as if isolation wer e a virtue. And, of course, the defining virtue: ‘They don't take charity.' And at some point, Sara Tidwell became Sara Laughs. In the end, though, TR-90 mustn't have been what they wanted, because after playing a county fair or two in the late summer of 1901, the clan moved on. Their neat little cabins provided summer-rental income for the Day family until 1933, when they burned in the summer fires which charred the east and north sides of the lake. End of story. Except for her music, that was. Her music had lived. I got up from the rock I had been sitting on, stretched my arms and my back, and walked back down the lane, singing one of her songs as I went.