Topics for Discussion Essay Example

Topics for Discussion Essay TOPICS for DISCUSSION Society and the Media 1- Where do you get the news from? radio / newspapers / TV / Internet 2- Reality shows on TV 3- TV and children The Environment 1- Public transport: a real alternative? 2- Recycling: a good way to be green? 3- Plastic bags in shops. The World of Work 1- Teleworking (working from home): pros and cons. 2- Equal opportunities for men and women 3- Unemployment: effects on society Travelling 1- Travelling alone or travelling with friends (or family) Rural tourism 3- Exotic holidays Relationships 1- Getting married, living together or living alone 2- Families today: working parents / single parents / grandparents bringing up children Health 1- Ways to stay healthy 2- Fast food or traditional food 3- Telemedicine: online patients Language Learning 1- Bilingual education, Internet and language learning 2- Language exchanges, courses abroad Crime 1- How to avoid street robbery or burglary 2- Crime and technology: identity theft Shopping 1- Shopping centres (malls) and department stores versus small shops 2- Opening hours: on Sundays and bank holidays 3- Shopaholics Progress and Science 1- Space exploration: useless or useful 2- The best inventions in 20th century Money matters 1- Is money the most important thing when choosing a job? 2- Charities and NGO’s: for people, animals, civil rights 3- Is pocket money for children a good idea? Computers and Technology 1- Downloading films or going to the cinema Internet and books: will libraries disappear? 3- Effects of Internet on family life Education 1- Single sex education or co-educational schools 2- State schools or private schools 3- Discipline problems in the classroom Leisure and Entertainment 1- Changes in how people spend their free time: cinema music social networks theatre clubbing computer games others 2- Ways to relax: escaping from your daily routine We will write a custom essay sample on Topics for Discussion specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Topics for Discussion specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Topics for Discussion specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer

The Recession-Proof Beauty of Healthcare Jobs

The Recession-Proof Beauty of Healthcare Jobs In a recent Time magazine article that highlighted â€Å"The 5 Best Jobs You’ve Never Heard Of,† a remarkable four out of five were linked to the healthcare industry. In fact, healthcare jobs remain plentiful - even in the face of economic uncertainty. Let’s take a closer look at this phenomenon, along with which positions can expect to see particularly noteworthy growth in the years ahead. The State of HealthcareAccording to the most recent â€Å"Employment Situation Summary† from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, healthcare continued its juggernaut of job growth, adding 22,000 jobs in March 2015 alone. This brought the 12-month total to an additional 363,000, with ambulatory healthcare services and hospitals making particularly strong showings.A number of factors have contributed to this growth, including rising demand, retiring workers, and the ever-growing advancement of science and medicine requiring skilled technologists.No discussion of the chan ging face of healthcare is complete without acknowledging the massive impact of the aging Baby Boomer generation. Approximately 10,000 Baby Boomers turn 65 every day, and will continue to do so for the next 14 years. By 2030, meanwhile, nearly 20 percent of the U.S. population will be of retirement age.Not only does this represent a massive outflux of workers from healthcare positions, but it also constitutes a significant burden: the typical American over the age of 65 suffers from a number of chronic conditions, including hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Research further indicates that just five years from now, 5.6 million new healthcare jobs will exist in everything from pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing to nursing, community, and home healthcare facilities and services.Add in the increased number of insured Americans due to healthcare reform, and the need for more healthcare professionals becomes even more critical.Where the Jobs AreAccording to the Bure au of Labor Statistics â€Å"Job Outlook† breakdown, the average anticipated growth rate for all occupations between 2012 and 2022 is 11 percent. U.S. News and World Report highlighted the top health care positions by Job Outlook,  including the following:Personal Care Aide: 48.8 percentHome Health Aide: 48.5 percentDiagnostic Medical Sonographer: 46 percentOccupational Therapy Assistant: 42.6 percentPhysical Therapist Assistant: 41 percentEsthetician: 39.8 percentPhysician Assistant: 38.4 percentMedical Secretary: 36 percentPhysical Therapist: 36 percentNurse Practitioner: 33.7 percentIn addition to these positions, emotional health professionals, including substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors and marriage and family therapists, are also expected to see significant gains in job openings due to declines in stigmas which previously prevented people from seeking help.Other healthcare jobs which will continue to be in demand include dentists, dental hygienists, p hysicians, pharmacists, medical equipment repairers, dieticians and nutritionists, radiologic technologists, epidemiologists, and opticians.If a challenging career which allows you to help people while also experiencing unprecedented job security sounds like a good fit to you, there are plenty of healthcare positions to choose from.

Smoke Alarm Smart Smoke Detector

Smoke Alarm Smart Smoke Detector Introduction and Background It is usually very traumatising for homeowners in the event of house fires. Loss of property and life are the most likely outcomes associated with house fires. This situation is worsened if the homeowner is not insured or his insurance policy is limited to specific fire damages and causes.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Smoke Alarm Smart Smoke Detector specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In Australia, due to the high prevalence of bushfires, high quality smoke detectors have become an essential part and a compulsory fitting of every household in the country. This is necessary measure adopted to ensure safety of the occupants, and to minimize damages in case of house fires. A typical smoke detector is designed to intersect smoke particles. When smoke particles interfere with the path of light to the sensor, the sensor circuit sequential sets up an alarm irrespective of what caused the smoke. Thus, smoke emanating from cooking or incense stick could set off the alarm. This makes it quite difficult to distinguish between false or actual alarms. As a result, this can contribute to alarm assumptions, which may lead to great damages in cases of fire. What if there was a product that could overcome these issues and simply did the job it was intended to do, making it useful and less annoying? Our Smart Smoke Detector has been designed and built to satisfy the needs and requirements of a typical residential household. According to the National Fire Protection Agency, a well-chosen and working smoke detector will increase the chances of surviving a fire. This is because in case of a fire out break alarm goes on its occupants may have at most 2 minutes to evacuate. Smart Smoke detectors will allow customers to evade the smoke detector and to reduce the annoyance of the alarm. The alarm will still sound only this time by the use of a heat detector, sensitizing the homeowner of a potential fire problem. Approximately after 1 hour, a squeak will sound alerting the user that the smoke detector is being re-activated. Moreover, we will also have a peep to alert the user that the backup battery level is low. This report examines extensively and pinpoints the expected process that Global Engineering will follow to achieve a working prototype of the smart smoke detector. Project Plan The goal of this project is to assemble a Smart Smoke Detector with a smoke detour system. This will be a more inventive and improved adaptation of the conventional smoke detectors obtainable in the market. The main objectives are for this project are to be completed in time successfully and the final product to be marketable globally.Advertising Looking for report on other technology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In order for success to be realized, the team must take into account every aspect extensively to reduce possible failure risks. Consequently, it is crucial for the team to come up with a comprehensive project plan that will take into considerations all the project risks as well as the project completion timeline. This prior planning will ensure that the product is built in an efficient and effective manner enhancing its marketability. Global Engineering outlined the tasks necessary to build the final product while formulating the project plan. This project plan outlined the expected duration of the tasks n which Global Engineering could achieve optimum results. We used Gantt charts in our planning to facilitate the visual display and relationships of these tasks and their timings. Through Gantt chart predetermined project tasks timeline we could schedule resources and staff workloads as efficiently as possible. There are diverse requirements for every task; some tasks need others to be completed before they could be started, while others require employment of a specific knowledge and skill to achieve the complete it, etc. The team defined the project tasks based on various factors and concerns of technical and financial matters. It is most crucial in planning the project to make sure that the end product is priced appropriately, marketable and acceptable by the community. These concerns are enumerated below: Conducting market survey to ascertain whether or not the there is a demand for the product in the community. It is worthy to obtain feedback from current smoke detector users and firms selling smoke detectors. This survey will assist in setting a standard product cost and ascertaining how much people are capable and willing to pay for this product once they are mounted in their homes. In estimating market price for the new Smart Smoke Detector, Global Engineering will have to form a cost budget for construction of the product. Consequently, comprehensive product architecture required to be studied; the study will involve the varying of individual components on both cost and performance basis. Constructing, trying and validating the prototype to ensure that all of the product specifications are met and obtainable. This is conducted so as any fallacies and inadequacies in the prototype can be fixed before the production stage, and to confirm that the Smart Smoke Detector adheres to current safety standards. Developing a marketing and sales strategy which will deal with product promotion, advertising and preparation such as producing banners, brochures and setting up a booth for Trade Fairs. Global Engineering convenes every week to keep members informed on the progress of the project. This meeting also gives the chance to all team members to communicate project concerns and search for support and guidance from other colleagues. In addition, it will assist in identifying any unforeseen risks, hence allowing the team to make decisions and implement action plans to mitigate delays which may arise. These meetings will also operate as a sup port system for the team to attain its goal and ensure a quality product is created. Budget Budgets are very important while undertaking any project and usually determine its success. Budgets usually involve higher estimates than actual costs in order to cushion against any uncertainties or miscellaneous costs such as labour and materials fluctuations. These unforeseen problems can be caused by inadequate research during the initial concept development and architectural design and research stage of the project. In addition, there may be disagreements among members and may result project delays and additional expenses i.e. salaries and rentals on usage of labs which result to variances in the budget.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Smoke Alarm Smart Smoke Detector specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More There are a number of methods to combat such uncertainties which is inclusive of costs cutting wherever possible during t he early stages of a project. Secondly, carrying out extensive research to avoid testing failures, i.e. a certain component might not work, or the circuit as a whole might not work the way it was expected. This will enhance thorough product knowledge prior to the commencement and agreement among members. Consequently, these measures will ensure timely completion of the project within the budget.

UMES, University of Maryland Eastern Shore Admissions

UMES, University of Maryland Eastern Shore Admissions With a 38% acceptance rate, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore may appear fairly selective, but the reality is that most students with average grades and standardized test scores have a very good chance of being admitted. The university looks for a 930 or higher on the SAT, 18 or higher on the ACT, and a high school GPA of 2.5 or better. UMES will also want to see adequate course work in course subjects: four years of English and math; three years of social science/history, and two years of a foreign language and a lab-based science. Will You Get In? Calculate Your Chances of Getting In  with this free tool from Cappex Admissions Data (2016): University of Maryland Eastern Shore Acceptance Rate: 38%Test Scores 25th / 75th PercentileSAT Critical Reading: 400 / 480SAT Math: 390 / 470SAT Writing: - / -What these SAT numbers meanACT Composite: 17  / 20ACT English: 16  / 21ACT Math: 15  / 120ACT Writing: - / -What these ACT numbers mean University of Maryland Eastern Shore Description: UMES, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore is a historically black university and member of the University System of Maryland. The university occupies a nearly 800-acre campus in Princess Anne, Maryland, an easy drive to both the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean. Founded in 1886, the university has expanded significantly in recent decades. Academic programs in business, hotel management, criminal justice, sociology, and physical therapy are particularly popular among undergraduates. On the athletic front, the UMES Hawks  compete in the NCAA Division I  Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. The school fields seven mens and eight womens Division I teams. Enrollment (2016): Total Enrollment: 3,904  (3,277 undergraduates)Gender Breakdown: 45% Male / 55% Female89% Full-time Costs (2016- 17): Tuition and Fees: $7,804  (in-state); $17,188 (out-of-state)Books: $1,500 (why so much?)Room and Board: $9,388Other Expenses: $3,500Total Cost: $22,192 (in-state); $31,576 (out-of-state) University of Maryland Eastern Shore Financial Aid (2015- 16): Percentage of New Students Receiving Aid: 92%Percentage of New Students Receiving Types of AidGrants: 72%Loans: 76%Average Amount of AidGrants: $7,502Loans: $6,525 Academic Programs: Most Popular Majors:  Biology, Business Administration, Criminal Justice, English, Family and Consumer Sciences, Hotel Management, Rehabilitation Services, Sociology What major is right for you?  Sign up to take the free My Careers and Majors Quiz at Cappex. Transfer, Graduation and Retention Rates: First Year Student Retention (full-time students): 58%Transfer Out Rate: 25%4-Year Graduation Rate: 15%6-Year Graduation Rate: 36% Intercollegiate Athletic Programs: Mens Sports:  Basketball, Baseball, Golf, Tennis, Track and Field, Cross CountryWomens Sports:  Basketball, Bowling, Softball, Cross Country, Track and Field, Tennis, Volleyball Data Source: National Center for Educational Statistics If You Like UMES, You May Also Like These Schools: Towson University: Profile | GPA-SAT-ACT GraphHoward University: Profile | GPA-SAT-ACT GraphVirginia State University: Profile | GPA-SAT-ACT GraphNorfolk State University: Profile  Virginia Union University: Profile  Temple University: Profile | GPA-SAT-ACT GraphDrexel University: Profile | GPA-SAT-ACT GraphClark Atlanta University: Profile | GPA-SAT-ACT GraphSalisbury University: Profile | GPA-SAT-ACT GraphBowie State University: Profile | GPA-SAT-ACT GraphFrostburg State University: Profile   University of Maryland Eastern Shore Mission Statement: complete mission statement can be found at  https://www.umes.edu/About/Pages/Mission/ The University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES), the state’s historically black 1890 land-grant institution, has its purpose and uniqueness grounded in distinctive learning, discovery and engagement opportunities in the arts and sciences, education, technology, engineering, agriculture, business and health professions.  Ã‚  UMES is a student-centered, doctoral research degree-granting university known for its nationally accredited undergraduate and graduate programs, applied research, and highly valued graduates.  Ã‚  UMES provides individuals, including first generation college students, access to a holistic learning environment that fosters multicultural diversity, academic success, and intellectual and social growth.

Establishing a trust or will Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Establishing a trust or will - Coursework Example A land trust enables an owner to transfer their real-estate property to a trust, but maintain their ownership while a family trust would ensure the owner separates his personal property from the real property and ease transfer to the next generation (Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2003). However, the owner faces a dilemma in securing appropriate and requisite contracts in both trusts to ensure ownership when alive and safe transfer to her next generation when she dies. A severalty ownership of both trusts ensures she remains the sole owner of her property in order to eliminate any problems and challenges the property may encounter (Evans & Evans, 2007). A bailment will ensure the transfer of ownership to another party (trustee), but retain ownership because trusts are revocable. Since property consists of land, both tangible and intangible property, bailment is appropriate for intangible property not limited to, title deeds, meeting rules, bank documents, written orders and endorsements (Evans & Evans, 2007). It is necessary to give a gift for transfer of property to the next generation. However, an inter vivos gift ensures transfer of property when both parties are alive while a gift in causa mortis ensure transfer of property to beneficiaries in case of her demise (Evans & Evans,

Recycling the Household Rubbish Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Recycling the Household Rubbish - Essay Example The nations around the world should opt for compulsory recycling of household rubbish to overcome the problems like environmental pollution and ecological disorders. The most crucial aspect of this issue is that the world is running out of room to bury its rubbish. The figures in the recent years show that if the people of America recycled the Sunday newspaper, they could save over 500,000 trees a year. Much more will be the effects if another solid household waste is recycled. Recycling is widely accepted as the environmentally friendly, cheapest and most sensible way to dispose of the household rubbish. To begin with, recycling the waste helps in reducing the amount of methane generated from biodegradable waste, for example, breaking down cardboard in the landfill. It also cuts down the emissions of methane, the most important factor contributing to global warming. Recycling the rubbish will also avert other negative environmental impacts; for instance, it will reduce the number of trees being cut down and will reduce the number of minerals and metals extracted from mines. An important hindrance that stands against the recycling of the household waste is the unreceptive mentality of the society against recycling.  The National Consumer Council (NCC) points out, factors that might restrain people from acting ‘sustainably’ include recycling (Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, 2005). People should be convinced of the fact that the reserves of metal ores are not unlimited. There is only a little gold, silver, tin and other metals remaining in the ground and once they all have been mined out, there will not be anything left unless we are already to recycle what has already been used. Evidently, â€Å"the United States daily generates more solid waste than any other country on earth.† (Barry & Mendoza, 2006, p. 416). Consumption of fast food meals packed in paper or Styrofoam containers has grown alarmingly high.

Sociology - group experiment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Sociology - group experiment - Essay Example Immediately almost everyone's attention was turned to us, the pace at which people danced slowed down. Some people looked directly at us and others stared at us through the corner of their eye. 2 couples left the dance floor and the rest continued looking at us either directly or indirectly and were obviously talking about what we were trying to do or our reason for doing this. When the song ended we left the dance floor and nobody approached us later to ask what we were doing. Our basic assumption was that those in the dance floor would expect us to be dancing to the tune of the song being played. Perhaps, they thought, they would have other party goers which they can grind with and show their dance moves. Maybe we were even interested in becoming acquaintances. We assumed that talking and drinking in the dance floor would have the impression of unusualness that would reveal their expectations regarding our assumed behavior. The theoretical and academic framework underlying the breaching experiment is the sociological field of ethnomethodology. It is the study of the way in which people maintain the present social order. It is a contrast to the belief that human behavior is caused by external causal factors or internalized motivations. According to Brinkerhoff, White, Ortega and Weitz (2006), Ethnomethodology stresses that active reason and knowledgeable character of human conduct are the forces that control our social behavior. Harold Garfinkel of the well known musical duo Simon and Garfunkel established a school of ethnomethodology in the 1960, at a time when the structuralism/functionalism was the dominant theory in the field. Garfinkel conducted experiments to prove that the crucial thing governing social exchange were common sense understandings that were unstable and are recreated every day in each social interaction (Bremmer, 2006) .What Garfinkel did was to perform a series of breaching experiments which broke the accepted rules of a social situation. For example, he planned that some students in a group would cheat at tic-tac-toe. According to the structuralists, social order would have broken down, however, the students incorporated the cheating into the rules and continued playing showing that understa ndings are recreated every day (Bremmer, 2006). It is the intent of this student to perform a breaching experiment on his peers in an attempt to observe this phenomenon. This experiment shows that if behavior is not what would be expected and if that behavior would likely impede that goal, friction will arise as was the case in this experiment. In the case of the activity that we conducted, the people dancing in the dance floor seemed not to have a care in the world and were only concerned with the way they and their partners were dancing. My colleagues and I assumed that even though they displayed this unconcerned behavior towards people they don't know or they don't want to get intimate with, they were indeed very sensitive to what is happening around them. We also assumed that these people expected us to be going in the dance floor to dance as if there was an unwritten agreement or contract that everybody understood and complied with. It was common sense to be dancing in the dance floor. According to Bremmer (2006), breaking common sense barriers often lead to bewilderment gradually

The Experiment Setup and Economic Theory Assignment

The Experiment Setup and Economic Theory - Assignment Example Microeconomics theory puts into account the total of quantity demanded by the consumers and the supplied quantity by the producers. The aim of microeconomics is to analyze mechanisms of the market that put in place the relative prices amongst services and goods, and allocation of scarce resources amongst substitute uses. It also analyzes market failure. In a monopolistic competition, there are some assumptions that the producer has to make concerning the demand and supply as they assume there is a perfect competition in the market. This shows that there are many consumers and producers in the market as one does not require the entry and exit fee to qualify to be the member of that firm. In the monopolistic firm, the prices are controlled by the producer. That is why they are termed as the price controllers as they are the ones who determine the price of a given product. And since they make decisions themselves, they are the ones who determine the prices of the commodity that they sell to the consumers. When the prices are high, the demand goes down as the consumption of the commodity reduces. Due to higher prices, the consumers do not satisfy their needs and wants. As a result of low consumption, the supply of the product goes down in the market. On the other hand, when there are low prices in the market, the product demand increases as the consumers are able to purchase the commodity at a lower price, and due to high consumption rate, the supply also increases. In the first session, one is interested in determining the price of the commodity, thus known as price determination. When the producer lowers the price below the ones shown in the first session, the quantity of the commodity will increase as the demand is high. The result is low prices and low profits. And if the seller increases the price of a product, the demand for that product will decrease as the buyers will be unwilling to purchase the product, thus decreasing the quality of the commodity.  Ã‚  

Genres Of Music Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 5

Genres Of Music - Essay Example The emergent of new musical genres especially those encompassing youths has always associated with aggression, for instance, the rap, which DJ Charlie Chase confirms. Through this chapter, I have come to know that numerous rap superstars in their conduct usually exhibit arrogance probably because they emanate from Puerto Rico, which also characterizes their lifestyle to date. From extensive study and reflection of this except, pride characterizes rap music. This is evident from the DJ Charlie Chase’s words where he contends those at present are arrogant learned the genre from him thus praising himself, which ought not to happen. Besides, regarding genres’ compositions, no one ought to contend they appear in a certain way because of his or her creativity. Since, their (diverse musical genres) present compositions emanating from races’ diversity, for instance, the Latinos and African Americans whose culture is evident in both reggae and rap music. Youths’ qu est to seek societal identity and recognition for long has prompted them to result in utilizing varied ways especially music genres, which I have unveiled via the aid of explicit explanation of these three chapters. Mainly, this encompasses coming up with new versions that defy inclusion of the then conventional ways with the intention of appearing unique in their styles. Consequently, this extended even to the embracing of new styles like dressing codes and behaviors whereby to numerous people, some turn to be arrogant and boastful especially the rap musicians.

Organizational Behaviour Essay Example for Free

Organizational Behaviour Essay Part A consists of three questions. Be sure to include both the questions and the responses in the document you submit. Your total combined responses for these three questions should not exceed 1000 to 1500 words. 1. Marketing specialists at Napanee Beer Co. developed a new advertising campaign for summer sales. The ads were particularly aimed at sports events where Napanee Beer sold kegs of beer on tap. The marketing group worked for months with a top advertising firm on the campaign. Their effort was successful in terms of significantly higher demand for Napanee Beers keg beer at sports stadiums. However, the production department had not been notified of the marketing campaign and was not prepared for the increased demand. The company was forced to buy empty kegs at a premium price. It also had to brew some of the lower priced keg beer in vats that would have been used for higher priced specialty beer. The result was that Napanee Beer sold more of the lower priced keg beer and less of the higher priced products that summer. Moreover, the company could not initially fill consumer demand for the keg beer, resulting in customer dissatisfaction. Use open systems theory to explain what occurred at Napanee Beer Co. Begin with a brief description of open systems theory. Use your own words (paraphrase) and remember to cite all sources using APA style. The open systems theory states that organizations are entities that continually exchange resources with its external environment. The organization is dependent on the external environment for resources such as raw materials, employees, financial resources, and information and equipment which are the organizations inputs. Those inputs are used by the organizations internal subsystems, such as production and marketing, and are subsequently turned into outputs such as products, services, employee behaviours, profits/ losses, and waste/ pollution (McShane Steen, 2009, p. 4). According to the open systems theory (McShane Steen, 2009, p. 4), the organization Napanee Beer Company’s internal subsystems were not operating efficiently. Due to the lack of communication between the marketing group and the production team, production was unaware of the increase in demand for the product and did not order enough inputs to meet this larger demand. Consequently, the materials used were much more expensive than they would have been had they been ordered earlier. This oversight cost the company sales on higher priced specialty beer and caused customer dissatisfaction. Had the production team been aware of the success of the marketing campaign, which was geared towards sporting events where Napanee Beer sold kegs of beer on tap, they would have been able to order the appropriate amount of kegs, saving the company a lot of money. This is not an issue between the external and internal environment but an issue with Napanee’s internal subsystems effectiveness (McShane Steen, 2009, p. 4.). The lack of communication between departments weakened the company’s ability to maximize its input to output capability; therefore, the company was not functioning at a high level of efficiency (McShane Steen, 2009, p. 5.). 2. The sales office of a large industrial products wholesale company has an increasing problem: salespeople are arriving late at the office each morning. Some sales reps go directly to visit clients rather than showing up at the office as required by company policy. Others arrive several minutes after their appointed start time. The vice-president of sales doesnt want to introduce time clocks, but this may be necessary if the lateness problem isnt corrected. Using the MARS model of individual behaviour, diagnose the possible reasons salespeople may be engaging in this â€Å"lateness† behaviour. Begin with a brief description of the MARS model. Use your own words (paraphrase) and remember to cite all sources using APA style. The MARS model represents the four factors that influence people’s behaviour and performance. These factors are motivation, ability, role perceptions, and situational factors (McShane Steen, 2009, p. 26). Motivation is what drives a person in a particular direction and the passion and persistence in which they pursue something (McShane Steen, 2009, p. 26). The ability of an employee refers to their natural aptitudes as well as their acquired capabilities (McShane Steen, 2009, p. 27). An employee’s competencies refer to his or her skills, knowledge and other characteristics that may be beneficial to the organization (McShane Steen, 2009, p. 27). Role perception is the third factor in the MARS model. This refers to how closely the employee’s perception of their job duties aligns with the employer’s (McShane Steen, 2009, p. 27). The final factor in the MARS model is situational factors. Situational factors involve conditions that are not part of the employee’s skill set or personality and are often out of their control (McShane Steen, 2009, p. 28). According to the MARS model of individual behaviour, the possible reasons salespeople may be engaging in this â€Å"lateness† behaviour is first the lack of motivation they are feeling to show up to the office at their scheduled start time (McShane Steen, 2009, pp. 26-28). This could be due in part to the lack of incentive they receive for showing up on time. Furthermore, the absence of negative consequences for showing up late has not shown the sales reps that the company is serious about this policy. In order for the sales reps to be motivated to show up to the office in the morning instead of seeing clients first, there needs to be some kind of reinforcement from the company that demonstrates that showing up on time is a behaviour that they expect and value. The sales reps were most likely hired because of their ability to gain new customers and sell products; therefore, they see this aspect of their job as being priority and do not see the value in showing up at the office first. The biggest factor effecting this situation is role perception (McShane Steen, 2009, p. 27). The sales reps do not have a clear understanding that arriving at the office on time is an essential part of their job duties. It is clear from the sales reps behaviour that they are not aware of the importance of being at the office in the morning before they head out to see clients. While this may be a company policy in writing, it is not well practiced in the office, so it is perceived by employees as a recommendation rather than a rule. Situational factors may also contribute to the â€Å"lateness† problem (McShane Steen, 2009, p. 28). This could be because face time at the office does not support their task goals which are to go out and see clients and sel l products. The sales reps might find the commute to the office an inconvenience whereas they could instead cut that commute out of their day and drive straight to a client’s office. 3. Big Box Construction Company has received warnings from government safety inspectors that employees at some of its construction sites are not wearing the required safety helmets and noise-protection equipment. The company could lose these contracts if safety practices are not maintained. The company has warned employees that they could be fired if they dont wear the safety gear, but this has had little effect. Describe an A-B-C analysis for this situation and provide two types of behaviour modification interventions that might change employee behaviour in this situation. In an A-B-C analysis of this situation the antecedent would be the warning the employees received from the company informing them that they must wear safety gear on the job site. The behaviour is that some of the employees are not wearing safety equipment on the construction sites. And the Consequences are that the employees face termination if they continue to disregard this policy (McShane Steen, 2009, p. 66). Two types of behaviour modification interventions that might change employee behaviour in this situation are: 1) Positive reinforcement, the supervisor can offer praise to the employees who are adhering to the safety guidelines (McShane Steen, 2009, p. 66). In addition, there could be a reward in place such as a bonus for employees who are wearing their safety equipment on the site every day. 2) Punishment, although punishment might generate negative feelings toward the company and supervisor, it is necessary because of the severity of the breach (McShane Steen, 2009, p. 67). The type of punishment will depend on the frequency of the offence. For example, the first offence could result in a write-up, the second offence in a suspension without pay, and the third dismissal. Part B Read Case Study 4.1: Conestoga-Rovers and Associates on pages 97 and 98 of the textbook and answer the three discussion questions that follow it. Your answer for this case study should not exceed 600 to 800 words in length and should incorporate, where appropriate, content from Lessons 1, 2, 3, and 4. Questions 1) Why does Conestoga-Rovers and Associates and other companies try to create a positive work environment? The text explains that according to the dual cognitive-emotional attitude process, the positive emotional experiences employees encounter on a daily basis at Conestoga-Rovers contributes to their job satisfaction (McShane Steen, 2009, p. 80). When employees are satisfied with their job they are more likely to be accommodating to the organization’s clients, helpful to their co-workers, and can experience increased overall productivity (McShane Steen, 2009, p. 87). Therefore, it is beneficial for the company to foster a positive work environment where its employees are frequently feeling positive emotional experiences, so that their outlook on their jobs and the company will be much more favourable (McShane Steen, 2009, p.80). According to the model of emotions, attitudes, and behaviour (McShane Steen, 2009, p. 79), our emotions will have a direct impact on our behavioural intentions which in turn will most likely affect our behaviour. If the employees at Conestoga-Rovers are bombarded with positive emotions in their work environment, than they are more likely to behave in a way that is agreeable to the company. Conestoga-Rovers acknowledges and appreciates its human capital and realizes that its employees knowledge provide a competitive advantage to the company (McShane Steen, 2009, p. 7). They realize that in order for the company to retain its valued employees and attract new ones they need to foster a positive work environment. By â€Å"adapting employment practices† to suit the needs of their employees the company is striving to retain its valued intellectual capital (McShane Steen, 2009, p. 6). 2) How does this company manage to provide events and perks that employees value? At Conestoga-Rovers and Associates having fun and maintaining a work-life balance are fundamental to the company and its employees. This is evident in the many perks this company offers its employees that vary from its extremely active social committee to the onsite daycare facility. As stated in the case study, an employee of Conestoga-Rovers suggested that the company build an onsite daycare facility, never really expecting that they would take her request so seriously. However, much to the employee’s delighted shock the company complied. This demonstrates the company’s dedication to its employees wants and needs. In addition the company has assembled a social committee to listen to what it is that employee’s value and have evidently been able to deliver to the Conestoga-Rovers employees what they want. By doing this for their employees the organization is building organizational commitment and loyalty to the company (McShane Steen, 2009, p. 89). By involving employees in company decisions that affect them and listening to their needs they are strengthening their employee’s social identity within the organization. This shows employees that their opinions are not only heard but are valued and trusted by the organization (McShane Steen, 2009, p.89). The company has a â€Å"work hard-play hard mantra†, and their â€Å"social events and activities play an integral role in the company’s culture (McShane Steen, 2009, p. 97). This is evidently closely aligned with its employee’s values; therefore, the employee’s feel comfort in their shared values with th e company prompting them to remain loyal to the company (McShane Steen, 2009, p. 89). 3) Is it possible that employees can have too much fun at work? From personal experience, I think that it is possible to have too much fun at work. When there are too many social events at work it takes away from an employee’s personal time and time at home with their family. An employee can feel forced to participate in social events that they do not want to partake in, and this can end up having a contrary effect to what the company is striving for. This added pressure to attend social events can add stress for the employee and take away from time needed to complete his/her work. Conversely, having fun at work can help build camaraderie amongst the employees and reduce the consequences of stress such as job burnout. Attending social functions can give employees a break from the monotonous routine of their job tasks; therefore, reducing the risk of emotional exhaustion and indifference towards their jobs (McShane Steen, 2009, p. 91). Fun events with co-workers can also help to build on an employee’s social awareness. For instance, when employees are interacting with each other and building personal relationships as well as professional relationships they are better equipped to â€Å"perceive and understand the emotions† of their co-workers (McShane Steen, 2009, p. 84). Because they are getting to know their peers personal situations a little better, the interaction allows them to be able to experience some empathy for their co-workers.

The Characteristics Of Bluetooth Technology Computer Science Essay

The Characteristics Of Bluetooth Technology Computer Science Essay It is a short range communication technology to connect to devices using short-range radio frequency(RF) which is intended to replace communication that uses cabling. It is used mainly to establish wireless personal area networks (WPAN),commonly referred to as AD-HOC or peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. This technology now a days are integrated into many types of business and consumers devices such as mobile phones, PDA, laptops, headsets, vehicles, printers. This technology is globally accepted and any devices which are bluetooth enabled can communicate with other bluetooth enabled device located in proximity to one another almost everywhere in the world. Bluetooth is a low cost, low power technology which provides small wireless networks. The devices with this technology connect each other through short range,ad hoc networks known as piconets. Every time a bluetooth enabled device enter or leave radio proximity the piconets gets established automatically and dynamically. Also each device in the piconets offers a simultaneous connection up to seven other devices and that piconet can also belong to several other piconets allowing a limitless connection. This technology also has the ability to simultaneously handle data and voice transmission which provides users with a variety of uses such as printing ,synchronization with PC and laptops, accepting voice calls through hands-free headsets etc. Some of the advantages of this technology includes: Replacements for cable: this technology replaces the use of different types of cabling required to establish a connection between 2 or more different or similar devices e.g mouse, headsets, keyboard, printers etc. Wireless synchronization: It automatically synchronize with bluetooth enabled devices such as laptops via wireless connection. e.g synchronization of address book contained in laptops,cellular phones etc. Internet connectivity: any bluetooth enabled device having internet connectivity can share the internet access with other bluetooth enabled device. One acts as a modem. e.g a laptop can use a internet via a bluetooth enabled cellular phone by establishing a dialup connection through the cellular phone. Bluetooth Technology Characteristics: Bluetooth operates in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz to 2.4835 GHz Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) frequency band. Many technology such as IEEE 802.11 b/g WLAN standard operate in this band. It employs frequency hoping spread spectrum (FHSS) for every transmissions, also FHSS helps to minimize the interference and transmission errors as well as provides a limited level of transmission security. This is done by the technology which detects the devices under the spectrum and avoids the frequency used by the other bluetooth enabled device. Also the communication between the devices uses 79 different radio channels by hoping frequencies at 1 MHz interval giving a high degree of interference immunity and allowing better transmission within the spectrum. This hoping provides greater performance even when other technologies are being used simultaneously with bluetooth technology. Range: the operating range depends upon the device class which include the following: Class 3 radios : supports up to 1m or 3ft. Class 2 radios : found in mobile devices-ranges from 10m or 33 ft. Class 1 radios: used in industrial sector having a vast range of 100m or 300 ft. Bluetooth low energy technology has a range of up to 200m or 600ft. Power Consumption: class 2 device uses 2.5 mW of power. The generic alternate mac/phy in version 3.0 HS enables the discovery of remote AMPs for high speed device and turns on the radio only when needed for data transfer giving a power optimization benefit as well as aiding in the security of the radios. Bluetooth low energy technology, optimizd for devices requiring maximum battery life instead of a high data transfer rate, consumes between  ½ and 1/100 the power of classic bluetooth technology. Data rate bluetooth low energy technology provides a speed of 1 Mbps of data transmission. For version 1.2 and 2.0 EDR the data rate includes 1Mbps and 3 Mbps respectivley. For version 3.0 HS up to 24 Mbps is supported. Security Aspects: bluetooth technology and associated devices are susceptible to general wireless networking threats, such as DOS attacks, eavesdropping, man-in-the-middle-attacks, message modification, and resource misappropriation. Generally the security are classified into three categories: non-secure: in this type any bluetooth device do not initiate any security measures. Service level enforced security: in this security mode two bluetooth device establish a nonsecure Asynchronous Connection-Less (ACL) link. Link level enforced security: in this mode authentication, authorization and optional enryption are initiated when a request of L2CAP(logical Link Control and Adaptation Protocol )connection-oriented or connectionless channel is made. This security mode is established before the connection is made between the devices. Vulnerabilities: Bluejacking: this is a threat which involves a sending of unsolicited messages or business card to bluetooth enabled devices. For this threat to work the sending and receiving device must be within the range of of 8-10m from each other. This is a method usually used for promotional purposes intent rather than with any malicious intention. This method can be quite annoying due to repetitive messages. Also this method does leave a door open for variety of social engineering attacks. In order to prevent this type of attack the device must be set into non-discoverable mode in unsecured areas. Bluesnarfing: this hacking method is done in bluetooth enabled cellular phones and what this attack does is it copies the entire contact book, calender or anything that is stored in the cellular phones memory. This threat can be minimised by setting the device in non-discoverable mode in an un-secured zone. How-ever many software are available in web which can steal information from blue-tooth enabled devices. the back door attack: this attack starts of after being in connection with bluetooth device; through pairing mechanism and if the owner does not observe their device after connection than they are unlikely to notice anything after the device are paired; allowing attacker to use any resources that a trusted relationship with that device grants access to. This means the attacker can not only retrieve data but also use features such as GPRS WAT, internet, modems etc. without the owner being notified. The cabir worm: it is a malicious software that uses the bluetooth technology to look for available bluetooth devices and send itself to them. This worm currently only effects mobile phone which uses symbian series 60 user interface platform. But this threat can be avoided by the user since the user itself has to manually accept the worm and install in order for this attack to be in effect. GPRS it is a non-voice value added service which allows Mobile Phones to be used for sending and receiving data over and internet protocol(IP) based network. It stands for General Packet Radio Services. It is a packet based radio service which is delivered as a network overlay for GSM, CDMA and TDMA networks which enables à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“always onà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  connections. This eliminates the repetitive and time consuming dial up connection. It also reserves radio resources only when there is a certain data to be sent ensuring the maximum utilization of radio resources. This service enables users to use many multimedia application through mobile internet. Along with it it provides user the internet from anywhere and anytime. GPRS handles data in a series of packets which can be routed over several paths through the GSM network. The data is segmented and stored as packets before being transmitted and reassembled at the receiving end. GPRS users get the benefit of instantaneous connection setup and continuous connection to the internet after being logged-in to an APN (Access Point Name) until the user log off and the user only have to pay the data which is actually transmitted. Since this is a wireless technology so and end-to-end connection is not required because network resources and bandwidth are only used when data is actually transferred. This allows efficient use of available radio bandwidth. This reduces the cost compared to circuit switched services since communication channels gets shared and are on a as-packets-are-needed basis. GPRS data speeds ranges from 14.4 kbit/s (using one radio time-slot) to 115kbit/s (by amalgamating time slots). The average data transfer speed is at about 56 kbit/s. The improvement in the data rate allows users to take part in video conference and interact with various websites and similar application using mobile handheld devices as well as from notebook computers. GPRS is based on GSM communication and will complement existing services like SMS. It also complement blue-tooth. Advantages of GPRS: Operators offer new and improved data services to residential and business markets. Uplift the revenues from data services. Opportunity to increase the number of network users. Provides an upgrade path and baseline for UMTS End Users: high speed internet cost effective since charge is carried out only when data is transmitted and not for the duration of connection constant connectivity simultaneous use of voice and data communication Applications of GPRS include: Chat web browsing internet email file transfer file sharing Security: Security threat depend the type of traffic and data service for specific threat. The Gp interface is the logical connection between PLMNs that is used to support roaming data users. The following traffic falls under Gp : GTP : this provides a logical connection between the SGSN and GGSN of roaming partners. BGP : this provides the routing information between the operator and the GRX and/or roaming partners DNS: provides resolution for subscribers Access Point Name (APN) THREAT ON Gp includes Availability Border Gateway Bandwidth saturation : in this type of threat a malicious operator connects to the same GRX which may have the ability to generate a sufficient amount of traffic which gets directed at users border gateway such that required traffice is starved for bandwidth in or out of user PLMN. Finally denying roaming acess to and from the network. DNS flooding: in this threat the DNS server gets flooded with correct or malformed DNS queries denying subscribers to locate GGSN to use an external gateway. GTP flooding: in this threat SGSNs and GGSNs may be flooded with GTP traffic that cause them to spend their CPU cycles processing illegitimate data preventing subscribers to roam or send data out to an external network Authentication and Authorization Spoofed create PDP context Request: Spoofed update PDP context request Integrity and Confidentiality Capturing a subscribers data session WAP WAP stands for Wireless Application Protocol. It is an application environment and a set of communication protocol for witless devices which is designed to allow manufacturer, vendor and technology independent access to the internet and advanced telephony services. Basically it serves as a bridge between the mobile world and the internet as well as intranets offering the ability to deliver an unlimited range of mobile value added services to the users regardless of their network, bearer and terminal. This also enables subscriber to access the same amount of information from a pocket sized devices as they can from the desktop. The WAP specification defines a set of protocols in layers like application , session, transaction, security, and transport enabling operators and manufactures to meet the challenges in advanced wireless service differentiation and fast/flexible service creation. WAP utilizes binary transmission for greater compression of data and is optimized for long latency and low bandwidth. The light weight WAP protocol block is designed to minimize the required bandwidth and maximize the number of wireless network types that can deliver WAP content. Since WAP is based on a scalable layered architecture, each layer can develop independently of the others making it possible to introduce new bearers or to use new transport protocols without having to make any alteration in other layers. Versions of WAP WAP 1.X- WAP 1.0 was introduced way back in April 1998 which described a stack of softwares for internet access through mobile. WAP 1.1 was then introduced a year later after WAP 1.0 in 1999. WAP 1.2 which was the final update of the WAP 1.X series was introduced in June 2000 and the significant update of this was the introduction of WAP push. WAP Push: This version allows WAP content to be pushed to the mobile device with minimum user intervention since this includes a specially encoded message that includes a link to wap address. It can be used over any device which supports WDP like GPRS and SMS. This push version enables users the option to automatically access the WAP content with WAP 1.2 WAP 2.0: This version re-engineered WAP which was introduced in the year 2002 and was a simple version of HTML which is called XHTML. The XHTML helps reduce the bandwidth of internet pages helping user to use the saved bandwidth for other purpose. Benefits: Operators chance to increase the subscriber by improving services such as interface to voice mail and prepaid systems introduction of new application without the need for additional infrastructure or modification to the phone. Enabling the provision of end-to-end turnkey solution which create a lasting competitive advantage. Content Providers; enable content and application developers to grasp eh tag based WML(wireless Markup Language) allowing services to be written and executed within an operators network quickly and easily End Users easy and secured access to relevant internet information and services such as unified messaging and entertainment through their mobile devices. Can access the information from corporate databases. Significant freedom of choice when selecting mobile terminals and application they support allows users to receive and request information in controlled fast and low-cost environment . Applications of WAP: advertising the product directly through the mobile devices allowing the shoppers directly the link to order entry page. Establishment of virtual lan enabling users to play or share information within the grous. Downloading files. Infotainment feature: customer care and provisioning, message notification and call management, email, mapping and location service, weather and traffic alerts, sports and financial services, address book and directory services and corporate intranet application. Security concern over WAP WAP Gateway : this is the most important threat associated with WAP. In this threat WAP devices communicate to web servers through WAP gateway meaning WAP contains unencrypted data for a short period of time which can be highly confidential. In order to avoid this the WAP device must switch to a trusted and secured gateway instead of using the default WAP gateway. Also another solution includes upgrading all wap gateways such that they can work in pass-through mode. When WAP gateway works in this mode it just let pass all the encrypted traffic from mobile phone to server without being decrypted and the gateway would be just a relay for the data stream. Weak encryption algorithms: the encryption protocol encrypts data during the handshake phase which has a possibility to choose the 40bit DES encryption method. In this method, a 5 byte key is used containing 5 parity bits leaving only 35 effective key bits in the DES key. This DES key can be easily hacked through brute force potential for virus attacks: wap contains a scripting language(WMLScript) which makes easier for viruses to affect mobile phone. GSM It stands for Global System for Mobile Communication which is a globally accepted standard for digital cellular communication and most globally used mobile phone system . It is an open digital cellular technology which is used to transmit mobile voice and data services. This design was the first digital design to follow the analog period to enhance the security from analog counterparts in mobile communication. This technology supports voice calls and data transfer rate up-to 9.6kbit/s, along with the transmission of SMS. This operates in the 900MHz and 1.8 GHz bands in Europe and 1.9 GHz and 850MHz bands in the US , Australia, Canada and many south American countries. The users can access the same service when traveling abroad through GSM international roaming capability which is done after harmonizing spectrum across most part of the earth. This gives users to connect seamlessly and same number connectivity in more than 218 countries even if they have different network service provi der. Application of GSM includes: accessing the internet with GPRS being enabled.. Used in E-commerce for services like mobile banking, e-ticketing etc. Advantage of Gsm include: the consumer benefits from the ability to roam and switch carriers without replacing phones and SIM and also to network operators. High voice clarity due to the efficient use of radio frequencies which allows the system to tolerate intercell disturbances. The encryption of speech allows user information to be secured. Also pioneered low cost implementation of the short message service known as text messaging. Introduction of worldwide emergency telephone number feature. Introduction of value added feature such as GPRS EDGE. Threat includes the following: there are mainly two motivation for attackers of mobile phone systems which are: Theft Of service: cloning: In this type of attack, the attacker steals the identifying information from a legitimate phone and loads it to another phone allowing attacker to masquerade as the legitimate phone. What this does is it causes charges to be assessed against the account holder of the legitimate phone. Call Decryption: this threat is based on the encryption method of the GSM network. The attacker had found to decrypt a call with greater speed within 30 seconds with just a laptop and specific radio device back in 2007 and 2008. data Interception: in this type of attack the attacker can easily listen to the transmission of the phone using relatively unsophisticated tools in a effort to eavesdrop on the voice and data transmission occurring. To solve this problem encryption of the data in the air should be maintained.

Can Artificial Drainage of Wetlands Have Detrimental Effects on the Cha

Introduction: Wetland soils are widely diverse. They are found from the arctic to the tropics. They can be mineral or organic, seasonal or year-round, marine or freshwater. The one thing they all have in common is that, for at least part of the year, they are saturated with water. This saturation has a significant impact on the soil's characteristics such as the biota, chemistry, and physics. However, over the past century more than half of all the wetlands in the United States have been drained for agriculture and other uses such as construction. When the soils are drained the characteristics are drastically changed. This paper is an attempt to describe the changes in artificially drained soils and to consider a few of the consequences of these changes. Body: The physical properties of saturated soils vary somewhat from wetland to wetland but are characterized by certain processes. One is the interaction of the soil with the watertable. Three patterns of possible groundwater flow have been considered: water could flow into the saturated areas from the surrounding area (discharge), making the saturated area the focal point; water could flow through swamps because of local relief (flow-through); or water could flow from the saturated zone into surrounding areas (recharge) possibly due to differential water use by plant communities or pumping (Crownover et al, 1995). There can also be vertical exchange of water between the groundwater and saturated soil. For example, capillary effects pull water upward into the soil from the water table. Besides the vertical and horizontal flow of water, the area of the soil taken up by water is important. Wetland soils are either saturated or nearly saturated so that much of the pore space is... ...ne flatwood landscape: Soil Science Society of America Journal, 59, 1199-1206. Fausey, N.R., Brown, L.C., Belcher, H.W. and Kanwar, R.S. (1995) Drainage and water quality in the Great Lakes and cornbelt states: Journal of Irrigation Drainage Engineering, 121, 283-288. Leventhal, E. (1990). Alternative uses of wetlands other than conventional farming in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska: EPA/171/R-92/006, 145 p. McBride, M. B. (2003) Environmental Chemistry of Soils: Advances in Environmental Research, 8, 5-19 Mitsch, W.J. and Gosselink, J.G. (2000). The value of wetlands: importance of scale and landscape setting. Ecological Economics, 35, 25-33 Schipper, L.A., Harfoot, C.G., McFarlane, P.N., and Cooper, (1994) Anaerobic decomposition and denitrification during plant decomposition in an organic soil: Journal of Environmental Quality, 23, 923-928

An Observation of My Friend Essay -- Profile Essays, Observation Essay

Sunday - the day of self-loathing for most college students who have squandered their weekends and dread the awaiting workload. Crammed into lounge booths, commiserating over brunch, students nurse sullen moods and hangovers with orange juice and french toast. Allen Wilcox is playing with his broccoli, head cocked, eyes crossed. Looking sidelong to make sure that people are watching, he picks up the half-bagel from his plate, thick with cream cheese, stands up on his chair and rubs it erotically all over the front of his pants. This is so typical. Allen’s world is a stage and the spotlight is on him. We are, all of us, the audience for his life-series of mini-dramas packed with love and heartbreak, pranks and partying and outbreaks of rage. His behavior may be juvenile, but most of us would rather say it is something outlandish, or playful, or just simply and extravagantly histrionic. Allen makes people laugh and sometimes speaks beautifully (did you know that he writes poetry?). This is the same young man who, last summer, kicked a hole through both layers of sheet rock in the ho...

Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 12~13

CHAPTER TWELVE Here's My Coupon, He Said, Singing the Redemption Song Normally, if the whale cops found an unauthorized person on a research vessel, they would simply record the violation, write a ticket, then remove the person from the boat and take him back to Lahaina Harbor. A fine was paid and violations were considered the following year when the permit came up for renewal. By contrast, Kona was delivered to the Maui county jail with both his wrists and ankles shackled and a swath of duct tape over his mouth. Nate and Amy were waiting in the lobby of the Maui county jail in Wailuku, sitting in metal chairs designed to promote discomfort and waffled butt skin. â€Å"It's really okay if he has to stay in overnight,† said Nate. â€Å"Or for a week or so if it would be easier.† Amy punched Nate in the shoulder. â€Å"You creep! I thought it was Kona that got them to let you come to us.† â€Å"Still, jail builds character. I've heard that. It might do him good to be off his herb for a few days.† Kona had slipped his fanny pack full of pot and paraphernalia to Nate before he'd been taken away. â€Å"Character? If he starts with his native-sovereignty speech stuff in there the real Hawaiians will pound him.† â€Å"He'll be okay. I'm worried about you. Don't you want to go get checked?† Clair had taken Clay to the hospital to get a CAT scan and have his scalp stitched up. â€Å"I'm fine, Nate. I was only shaken up because I was worried about Clay.† â€Å"You were down a long time.† â€Å"Yes, and I went by Clay's dive computer. We decompressed completely. The worst part was I froze my ass off.† â€Å"I can't believe you had the presence of mind to decompress with Clay unconscious. I don't know if I would have. Hell, I couldn't have. I'd have run out of air in ten minutes. How did you manage – ; â€Å"I'm small, Nate. I don't use air like you. And I could tell that Clay was breathing okay. I could tell that the cut on his head wasn't that bad either. The biggest danger to both of us was decompression sickness, so I followed the computer, breathed off of Clay's rescue supply when I ran out, and nobody got hurt.† â€Å"I'm really impressed,† said Nate. â€Å"I just did what I was supposed to do. No big deal.† â€Å"I was really scared – I thought you – You had me worried.† He patted her knee in a grandmotherly fashion, and she looked at his hand. â€Å"Careful, I'll get all sniffly over here,† Amy said. They led the surfer into the holding tank, where everyone was wearing the same orange jumpsuit that he was. â€Å"Irie, bruddahs,† Kona said, â€Å"we all shoutin' down Sheriff John Brown in these Great Pumpkin suits, Jah.† They all looked up: a giant Samoan who had beaten an Oldsmobile to death with a softball bat when it stalled in the middle of the Kuihelani Freeway, an alcoholic white guy who had fallen asleep on the Four Seasons' private beach in Wailea and made the mistake of dropping his morning business in one of the cabanas, a bass player from Lahaina who had been brought in because at any given time a bass player is probably up to no good, an angry bruddah who had been caught doing a smash-and-grab from a rental car at La Perouse Bay, and two up-country pig hunters who had tried to back their four-wheeler full of pit bulls down a volcano after huffing two cans of spray paint. Kona could tell they were huffers by the glazed look in their eyes and the large red rings that covered their mouths and noses from the bag. â€Å"Hey, brah, Krylon?† One of the pig hunters nodded and briefly lost control of the motion of his head. â€Å"Nothin' like a quality red.† â€Å"I hear dat,† said the pig hunter. â€Å"I hear dat.† Then Kona made his way to the corner of the cell, the guard locked the door, and everyone resumed looking at his shoes, except for the Samoan guy, who was waiting for Kona to make eye contact so he could kill him. â€Å"Ye know, brah,† Kona said to him in a friendly, if seriously flawed fake Jamaican accent, â€Å"I be learning from my science dreadies to look at tings with the critical eye, don't ya know. And I think I know what the problem with taking a stand against da man on Maui.† â€Å"Whad dat?† ask the Samoan. â€Å"Well, it's an island, ain't it, mon? You got to be stone stupid going outlaw here wid nowhere to escape.† â€Å"You callin' me stupid, haole?† â€Å"No, mon, just speaking the truth.† â€Å"An' what you in for, haole girl?† â€Å"Failing to give a humpback whale the proper scientific handjob, I tink.† â€Å"Goin' ta fuck ya and kill ya now.† â€Å"Could ya kill me first?† â€Å"Whadeva,† said the Samoan, climbing to his feet and expanding to his full Godzilla proportions. â€Å"Thanks, brah. Peace in Jah's mercy,† said the doomed surfer. Forty-five minutes later, after Nate had filled out the requisite papers, the jailer, a compact Hawaiian with weightlifter shoulders, led Kona through the double steel doors into the waiting room. The surfer shuffled in, head down, looking ashamed and a little lopsided. Amy put her arm around his shoulders and patted his head. â€Å"Oh, Sistah Amy, 'twas heinous.† He put his arm around Amy, then let his hand slip to the curve of her bottom. â€Å"Heinous most true.† The jailer grinned. â€Å"Had a disagreement with a big Samoan guy. We stopped it before it got too far. The holding cells are monitored on closed-circuit video.† â€Å"Snatched half me dreads out.† Kona pulled a handful of orphaned dreadlocks from the pocket of his surf shorts. â€Å"Going to cost some deep monies to hook these boys back up. I can feel my strength waning without them.† The jailer waived a finger under Kona's nose. â€Å"Just so you know, kid, if it had gone the other way – if the Samoan had decided to kill you second – I wouldn't have stepped in so early. You understand?† â€Å"Yah, Sheriff.† â€Å"You stay out of my jail, or next time I tell him which end to start on, okay?† The jailer turned to Quinn. â€Å"They aren't filing any charges that merit incarceration. They just wanted to make a point.† Then he leaned close to Nate and whispered, their height difference making it appear as if he were talking to the scientist's shirt pocket, â€Å"You need to get this kid some help. He thinks he's Hawaiian. I see these suburban Rasta boys all the time – hell, Paia's crawling with them – but this one, he's troubled. One of my boys goes that way, I'd pay for a shrink.† â€Å"He's not my kid.† â€Å"I know how you feel. His girlfriend is cute, though. Makes you wonder how they pick 'em, doesn't it?† â€Å"Thanks, Officer,† Nate said. Having shared all the paternal camaraderie he could handle, he turned and walked out into the blinding Maui sun. To Kona, Amy said, â€Å"You better now, baby?† Kona nodded into her shoulder, where he'd been pretending to seek comfort in a nuzzle. â€Å"Good. Then move your hand.† The surfer played his fingers over her bottom like anemones in a tidal wash, anchored yet flowing. â€Å"That's it,† Amy said. She snatched a handful of his remaining dreads and quickstepped through the double glass doors, dragging the bent-over surfer behind her. â€Å"Ouch, ouch, ouch,† Kona chanted in perfect four/four reggae rhythm. CHAPTER THIRTEEN Spirits in the Night Nate spent the whole afternoon and most of the evening trying to analyze spectrograms of whale-song recordings, correlate behavior patterns, and then chart the corresponding patterns of interaction. The problem was figuring out what actually defined interaction for an eighty-thousand-pound animal? Were animals interacting when they were five hundred yards away? A thousand? A mile, ten miles? The song was certainly audible for miles; the low, subsonic frequencies could travel literally thousands of miles in deep ocean basins. Nate tried to put himself in their world – no boundaries, no obstacles. They lived, for the most part, in a world of sound, yet they had acute eyesight, both in and out of the water, and special muscles in the eye that allowed them to change focus for either medium. You interacted with animals you could both see and not see. When Nate and Clay used satellite tags, of which they could afford only a few, or rented a helicopter, from which they could observe animals from a wide perspective, it appeared that the whales were indeed responding to each other from miles apart. How do you study an animal that is socializing over a distance of miles? The key had to be in the song, in the signal somewhere. If for no other reason than that was the only way to approach the problem. Midnight found him sitting alone in the office, lit only by the glow of his computer monitor, having forgotten to eat, drink, or relieve himself for four hours, when Kona came in. â€Å"What's that?† asked the surfer, pointing to the spectrograph that was scrolling across the screen. Nate nearly jumped out of the chair, then caught himself and pulled the headphones down. â€Å"The part that's scrolling is the spectrograph of the humpback song. The different colors are frequency, or pitch. The wiggly line in this box is an oscilloscope. It shows frequency, too, but I can use it to isolate each range by clicking on it.† Kona was eating a banana. He handed another one to Nate without taking his eyes off the screen. â€Å"So this is what it looks like? The song?† Kona had forgotten to affect any of his accents, so Nate forgot to be sarcastic in reply. â€Å"It's a way of looking at it. Humans are visual animals. Our brains are better suited to process visual information rather than acoustic information, so it's easier for us to think about sound by looking at it. A whale or a dolphin's brain is structured to process acoustics more than visuals.† â€Å"What are you looking for?† â€Å"I'm not sure. I'm looking for a signal. For some pattern of information in the structure of the song.† â€Å"Like a message?† â€Å"Maybe a message.† â€Å"And it's not in the musical parts?† Kona asked. â€Å"The difference in notes? Like a song? You know the prophet Bob Marley gave us the wisdom of HIM in song.† Quinn swiveled in his chair and paused in midbite of his banana. â€Å"HIM? What's that?† â€Å"His Imperial Majesty, Haile Selassie, emperor of Ethiopia, Lion of Judah, Jesus Christ on earth, son of God. His blessings upon us. Jah, mon.† â€Å"You mean Haile Selassie, the Ethiopian king who died in the 1970s? That Haile Selassie?† â€Å"Yah mon. HIM, the direct descendant of David as foretold in Isaiah, through the divine consort Solomon and Makeda, the queen of Sheba, and from their sons all the emperors of Ethiopia have come. So we Rastas believe that Haile Selassie is Jesus Christ alive on earth.† â€Å"But he's dead, how's that work?† â€Å"It helps to be stoned.† â€Å"I see,† Nate said. Well, that did explain a lot. â€Å"Anyway, to answer your question, yes, we've looked at the musical transmission, but despite Bob Marley I think the answer is here, in this low register, but only because it travels the farthest.† â€Å"Can you freeze this?† said Kona, pointing to the oscilloscope, a green line dancing on a field of black. Nate clicked it and froze a jagged line on the screen. â€Å"Why?† â€Å"Those teeth? See, there are tall ones and not so tall ones.† â€Å"They're called microoscillations. You can only see them if you have the wave stopped like this.† â€Å"What if the tall one is a one and the short one is a zero? What's that?† â€Å"Binary?† â€Å"Yah, mon, what if it's computer talk, like that?† Nate was stunned. Not because he thought Kona was right, but because the kid had actually had the cognitive powers to come up with the question. Nate wouldn't have been more surprised if he'd walked in on a team of squirrels building a toaster oven. Maybe the kid had run out of pot, and this spike in intelligence was just a withdrawal symptom. â€Å"That's not a bad guess, Kona, but the only way the whales would know about this would be if they had oscilloscopes.† â€Å"And they don't?† â€Å"No, they don't.† â€Å"Oh, and that acoustic brain? That couldn't see this?† â€Å"No,† said Nate, not entirely sure that he hadn't just lied. He'd never thought of it before. â€Å"Okay. I go for to sleep now. You need more grinds?† â€Å"No. Thanks for the banana.† â€Å"Jah's blessing, mon. Thanks for getting me out for jail this day. We going go out next morning?† â€Å"Maybe not everyone. We'll have to see how Clay feels tomorrow. He went right to his cabin when Clair brought him home from the hospital.† â€Å"Oh, Boss Clay got cool runnings, brah. He having sweet agonies with Sistah Clair. I hear them love jams as I'm coming over.† â€Å"Well, good,† Nate said, thinking from Kona's tone and his smile that whatever he said must have been good. â€Å"Good night, Kona.† â€Å"Good night, boss.† Before the surfer was out the door, Nate had turned to the monitor and started mapping out peaks in the wave pattern of the low end of the whale song. He'd need to look up some articles on blue-whale calls – the lowest, loudest, longest-traveling calls on the planet – and he'd have to see if anyone had done any numerical analysis on dolphin sonar clicks, and that was all he could think of right at the moment. In the meantime he had to have enough of a sample to see if there was any meaning there. It was ridiculous, of course. It would never be so simple, nor could it be so complex. Of course you could assign values of one or zero to parts of the song – that was easy. It didn't mean there would be any meaning to it. It wouldn't necessarily answer any of their questions, but it was a different way of looking at things. Whale-call binary, no. Two hours later he was still assigning ones and zeroes to different microoscillations in wave patterns of different songs and felt as if he might actually, strangely, amazingly, be learning something, when Clay came through the door wearing a knee-length pink kimono emblazoned with huge white chrysanthemums. There was a small bandage on his forehead and what appeared to be a lipstick smear that ran from his mouth to his right ear. â€Å"Any beer in there?† Clay nodded to the kitchen. The office cabin, like all the others at Papa Lani, had once been living quarters for a whole family, so it had a full kitchen in addition to the great room they used for a main office, two smaller rooms they used for storage, and a bathroom. Clay padded past and threw open the refrigerator. â€Å"Nope. Water, I guess. I'm really dehydrated.† â€Å"You okay,† Nate said. â€Å"How was the CAT scan?† â€Å"I'm cat free.† Clay came back to the office and fell into the chair in front of his broken monitor. â€Å"Thirteen stitches in my scalp, maybe a mild concussion. I'll be okay. Clair may kill me yet tonight, though – heart attack, stroke, affection. Nothing like a near-death experience to bring out the passion in a woman. You can't believe the stuff that woman is doing to me. And she's a schoolteacher. It's shameful.† Clay grinned, and Nate noticed a little lipstick on his teeth. â€Å"So that's shame?† Nate gestured for Clay to wipe his mouth. The photographer took a swipe across his mug, came up with a handful of color, and examined it. â€Å"No, I think that's strawberry lip gloss. A woman her age wearing flavored lip gloss. The shame is in my heart.† â€Å"You really had her worried, Clay. Me, too. If Amy hadn't kept her head†¦ well – ; â€Å"I fucked up. I know it. I started living in the viewfinder and forgot where I was. It was an amateurish mistake. But you can't believe the footage I was getting using the rebreather. It's going to be amazing for singers. I'm finally going to be able to get underneath them, beside them, whatever you need. I just need to remember where I am.† â€Å"You're unbelievably lucky.† Nate knew that any lecture he might come up with, Clay had already put himself through a dozen times. Still, he had to say it. Regardless of the outcome, he had endured the loss of his friend, even if was for only forty minutes or so. â€Å"Unconscious, that deep, for that long – you used up a lot of lives on that one, Clay. The fact that your mouthpiece stayed in is a miracle.† â€Å"Well, that part wasn't an accident. I have the hoses tight because the rebreather is so temperamental about getting water in it. Over the years I've had mouthpieces knocked out of my mouth a hundred times, kicked out by another diver, camera caught on it, hit by a dolphin. Since you have to keep your head back to film most of the time anyway, with the hoses short so the thing stays in your mouth, it's just a matter of keeping the seal. Man's only instinct is to suck.† â€Å"And you suck, is that what you're saying?† â€Å"Look, Nate, I know you're mad, but I'm okay. Something was going on with that animal. It distracted me. It won't happen again. I owe it to the kid, though.† â€Å"We thought we'd lost her, too.† â€Å"She's good, Nate. Really good. She kept her head, she did what needed to be done, and damned if I know how she did it, but she brought my ancient ass up alive and without the bends. Situation was reversed, I would have never done the decompression stops, but it turns out she did the right thing. You can't teach that kind of judgment.† â€Å"You're just trying to change the subject.† Clay was indeed trying to change the subject. â€Å"How'd Toronto do against Edmonton tonight?† Oh, sure, thought Nate, try to appeal to his inherent Canadian weakness for hockey. Like playing the hockey card would distract him from – â€Å"I don't know. Let's check the score.† From outside the screen door came Clair's voice. â€Å"Clay Demodocus, are you wearing my robe?† â€Å"Why, yes, dear, I am,† said Clay, shooting an embarrassed glance at Quinn, as if he'd only just noticed that he was wearing a woman's kimono. â€Å"Well, that would mean that I'm wearing nothing, wouldn't it?† said Clair. She wasn't close enough to the door for him to actually see her through the screen, but Quinn had no doubt she was naked, had her hip cocked, and was tapping a foot in the sand. â€Å"I guess,† said Clay. â€Å"We were just going to check the hockey scores, sweetheart. Would you like to come in?† â€Å"There's a skinny kid with a half order of dreadlocks and an erection out here staring at me, Clay, and it's making me feel a little self-conscious.† â€Å"I woke up with it, Bwana Clay,† Kona said. â€Å"No disrespect.† â€Å"He's an employee, darling.† Clay said reassuringly. Then to Quinn he whispered, â€Å"I had better go.† â€Å"You better had,† said Quinn. â€Å"See you in the morning.† â€Å"You should take the day off.† â€Å"Nah, I'll see you in the morning. What are you working on anyway?† â€Å"Putting the subsonic part of the song in binary.† â€Å"Ah, interesting.† â€Å"Feeling vulnerable out here,† Clair said. â€Å"Vulnerable and angry.† â€Å"I had better go,† said Clay. â€Å"Night, Clay.† An hour later, just when Nate was getting to the point where he felt he had enough samples marked out in binary to start looking for some sort of pattern, the third spirit in the night came through the door: Amy, in a man's T-shirt that hung to midthigh, yawning and rubbing her eyes. â€Å"The hell you doing up at this hour? It's three in the morning.† â€Å"Working?† Amy padded barefoot across the floor and looked at the monitor where Quinn was working, trying to blink the bleariness out of her eyes. â€Å"That the low end of the song?† â€Å"Yeah, that and some blue-whale calls I had, for comparison.† Quinn could smell some kind of berry shampoo smell coming off of Amy, and he became hyperaware of the warmth of her pressing against his shoulder. â€Å"I don't understand. You're digitizing it manually? That seems a little primitive. The signal is already digitized by virtue of being on the disk, isn't it?† â€Å"I'm looking at it a different way. It will probably wash out, but I'm looking at the waveform of just the low end. There's no behavior for context, so it's probably a waste of time anyway.† â€Å"But still you're up at three in the morning anyway, making ones and zeroes on a screen. Mind if I ask why?† Quinn waited a second before answering, trying to figure out what to do. He wanted to turn to look at her, but she was so close that he'd be right in her face if he did. This wasn't the time. Instead he dropped his hands into his lap and sighed heavily as if this were all too tedious. He looked at the monitor as he spoke. â€Å"Okay, Amy, here's why. Here it is. The whole payoff, the whole jazz of what we do, okay?† â€Å"Okay.† She sensed the unease in his voice and stepped back. Nate turned and looked her in the eye. â€Å"It might be out on the boat, as you're coming in for the day – or it might be in the lab at four in the morning after working on the data for five years, but there comes a point where you'll find something out, where you'll see something, or where something will suddenly come together, and you'll realize that you know something that no one else in the world knows yet. Just you. No one else. You realize that all the value you have is in that one thing, and you're only going to have it for a short time until you tell someone else, but for that time you are more alive than you'll ever be. That's the jazz, Amy. That's why people do this, put up with low pay and high risk and crap conditions and fucked-up relationships. They do it for that singular moment.† Amy stood with her hands clenched in front of her, arms straight down, like a little girl trying to ignore a lecture. She looked at the floor. â€Å"So you're saying that you're about to have one of these moments and I'm bugging you?† â€Å"No, no, that's not what I'm saying. I don't know what I'm doing. I'm just telling you why I'm doing it. And that's why you're doing it, too. You just don't know it yet.† â€Å"And what if someone told you that you'd never have one of those moments of knowing something again – would you keep doing it?† â€Å"That won't happen.† â€Å"So you're close to something here? With this binary thing?† â€Å"Maybe.† â€Å"Didn't Ryder analyze the song as far as how much information it could carry and come up with something really anemic like point six bits per second? That's not really enough to make it meaningful, is it?† Growl Ryder had been Quinn's doctoral adviser at UC Santa Cruz. One of the first generation of greats in the field, along with Ken Norris and Roger Payne, a true kahuna. His first name was actually Gerard, but anyone who had known him called him Growl, because of his perpetually surly nature. Ten years ago, off the Aleutians, he'd gone out alone in a Zodiac to record blue-whale calls and had never come back. Quinn smiled at his memory. â€Å"True, but Ryder died before he finished that work, and he was looking at the musical notes and themes for information. I'm actually looking at waveform. Just from what I've done tonight, it looks like you can get up to fifty, sixty bits per second. That's a lot of information.† â€Å"That can't be right. That won't work,† Amy said. She seemed to be taking this information a bit more emotionally than Nate would have expected. â€Å"If you could move that much information subsonically, the navy would be using it for submarines. Besides, how could the whales use waveform? They'd need oscilloscopes.† She was up on her toes now, almost shouting. â€Å"Calm down, I'm just looking into it. Dolphins and bats don't need oscilloscopes to image sonically. Maybe there's something there. Just because I'm using a computer to look at this data doesn't mean I think whales are digital. It's only a model, for Christ's sake.† He was going to pat her shoulder to comfort her, but then remembered her attitude toward that at the jail. â€Å"You're not looking at data, Nate, you're making it up. You're wasting your time, and I'm not sure you're not wasting my time. This whole job might have been a big mistake.† â€Å"Amy, I don't understand why –  » But she wouldn't give him a chance to defend himself. â€Å"Go to bed, Nate. You're delirious. We have real work to do tomorrow, and you'll be worthless if you don't get some sleep.† She turned and stormed out into the night. Even as she moved across the courtyard to her cabin, Nate could hear her ranting to herself. The words â€Å"doofus,† â€Å"deluded,† and â€Å"pathetic loser† rang out above the tirade to settle on Nate's ego. Strangely enough, a feeling of relief washed over him as he realized that the delusions of romantic grandeur that he'd been indulging – nay, fighting – about his research assistant had been just that: delusions. She thought he was a complete joke. At peace with himself for the first time since Amy had come on board, he saved his work, powered down the machine, and went off to bed.

Consider the significance of the Edict of Nantes 1598 Essay

The Edict of Nantes immediately followed the Wars of Religion, which further divided France in terms of religion. The Edict of Nantes could be described as a significant development in policies regarding religion in France in the 17th century. The policies were implemented by a monarch who sat on the fence when it came to religion, having devotions to both Catholicism and Protestantism, in the shape of Henry IV. The Edict of Nantes itself was very significant as its policy was the first of its kind in French politics. Never before had a French monarch tolerated both Catholicism and Protestantism and allowed them both to flourish in the same ‘country’. Whatever Henry’s beliefs and motives in implementing such a policy, it was certainly an original policy and a significant development in sixteenth and seventeenth century France. Toleration existed and although it can be argued that Protestants didn’t have very much power and the Catholics remained in near total control of the majority of areas in the country but the Protestants certainly had more power than they had under previous more anti-Protestant monarchs. The Edict could also be described as a turning point. Indeed, it could be described as a very significant turning point. Legislation was put in place in an attempt to avoid discrimination against the Protestants. Discrimination was not evident by the Edict itself; it was more of a case of trying to give the Protestants more rights. Henry couldn’t go as far as giving the Protestants equal legal, religious and political rights because he would lose the support of the Catholics. However, there can be no denying the significance of the legislation. It was the attempt to be pragmatic where religion is concerned which resulted in his death. The significance of Henry’s reign lies in the difference and the pragmatism of his reign. The actual legislation could be described as ground breaking. The rights that the Edict of Nantes gave the Protestants included full liberty of conscience and private worship; liberty of public worship wherever it had previously been granted and its extension to numerous other localities and to estates of Protestant nobles; full civil rights including the right to hold public office; royal subsidies for Protestant schools; special courts, composed of Roman Catholic and Protestant judges, to judge cases involving Protestants; retention of the organization of the Protestant church in France; and Protestant control of some 200 cities then held by the Huguenots, including such strongholds as La Rochelle, with the king contributing to the maintenance of their garrisons and fortifications. In practice, things were slightly different for the Protestants who were oppressed by the Catholics and still weren’t allowed anywhere near Paris. It is clear that full, equal rights for the Protestants were not given by Henry – for example, Roman Catholic judges had more power in the courts than the Protestant judges did and often Roman Catholic bias came through in a number of cases – but there was some attempt to give the Protestants some rights and freedoms which was in itself significant. The Edict of Nantes was also very significant in terms of Henry’s foreign policy. He wanted to protect the southern border of France from the Spanish and Austrian Hapsburgs. Henry was more patriotic than the French kings before him and his policies show this as he placed the Protestants in the south of France, using the Protestants to protect France from Spain. All of this means that – in terms of French foreign policy – the Edict of Nantes carries further significance for a number of reasons†¦ The removal of the Protestants away from Paris and further towards the south means that Henry IV embarked on a policy of centralisation. There is no doubt that Henry converted to Catholicism and tried to maintain as much power as possible for his Catholic friends in the establishment. Policies were made more in a centralised way i.e. from Paris and the Protestants were freezed out in positions of power by the Catholics. This is significant because of the reign of Louis XIII who furthered the centralisation policy, and shows that there was a trend towards centralisation before Louis XIII came onto the throne. This also shows that Henry’s domestic and foreign policy can easily be linked, which is also significant. All of this emphasises how significant the Edict of Nantes was. Henry’s patriotism was also on show in the implementation of the Edict of Nantes. He didn’t want any foreign influence in his affairs and he wanted to appease the Protestants. The best way to appease them was giving them an important role whilst getting what he wanted in his foreign policy by getting the Protestants to protect the borders of France. This is highly significant as never before had a French monarch been as patriotic as Henry and it is also significant because it indicates that Henry didn’t actually want the Catholics to have power in all areas of France which probably indicates that he still had allegiances to the Protestant beliefs despite his conversion to Catholicism. Henry’s tactical manoeuvres were also significant in another way. Basically, he prevented the Wars of Religion from continuing and restarting again. The irony is that his tendency to sit on the fence on the issue of religion in the end cost him his life. This is why some historians place emphasis on the significance of this aspect of the Edict of Nantes. Henry’s early life as a Protestant and his subsequent conversion to Catholicism make the Edict of Nantes interesting as well as significant. To consider the significance of the Edict of Nantes, we have to consider the situation in France before Henry IV came to the throne and even beyond the Wars of Religion. The Wars of Religion were where the Calvinist Huguenots (Protestants) and the Catholics did battle for control of the monarchy. The Catholics won and maintained control of the monarchy; however, it is clear that something needed to be done to prevent another War of Religion from happening. Henry IV was the man with the job of preventing another War of Religion and he turned out to be the perfect man for the job. Unlike most French monarchs in this period, Henry was pragmatic when it came to religion although he had developed a slight preference for Catholicism. Henry felt that they were more important things than religion – his patriotism as opposed to his religious beliefs – but ultimately it was this that caused his downfall and eventual death. However, the very fact that the Wars of Religion didn’t happen again throughout Henry IV’s reign is very significant considering the huge division between the two religions. Another War of Religion could have shaped French history differently, especially if the Protestants/Calvinists came out on top. Today’s France could also have been completely different if a war wasn’t avoided. This makes Henry’s reign and – of course – the Edict of Nantes take on further significance. The Edict of Nantes certainly cannot be described as revolutionary but it was almost a complete reform of the laws regarding religion. In reality, there was little reform because there was major exploitation of flaws in the law by the Catholics. However, this shouldn’t take anything away from the significance of the Edict of Nantes because the laws created Protestant strangleholds in the south of France. Despite all this, the Edict of Nantes takes on an apparent lack of significance because of what happened to Henry and what happened under the reigns of subsequent monarchs. The Edict was indeed revoked in 1685 and steadily the Catholics moved towards a position of total power over the Protestants. So this means that the Edict of Nantes loses some of its significance because the policies of Henry had no impact on future monarchs. During Henry’s reign, however, significance can be attached to the Edict.

Blood Promise Chapter Nine

â€Å"I thought you were a dream,† I said. They all remained standing, the dhampirs fanning out around the Moroi in a sort of protective formation. Abe's was the strange face I'd seen while I'd been going in and out of consciousness after the fight by the barn. He was older than me, close to Olena's age. He had black hair and a goatee, and about as tan a complexion as Moroi ever had. If you've ever seen tan or dark-skinned people who are sick and grow pale, it's a lot like that. There was some pigment in his skin, but it was underscored by an intense pallor. Most astonishing of all was his clothing. He wore a long dark coat that screamed money, paired with a cashmere crimson scarf. Below it, I could see a bit of gold, a chain to match the gold hoop earring he wore in one of his ears. My initial impression of that flamboyance would have been pirate or pimp. A moment later, I changed my mind. Something about him said he was the kind of guy who broke kneecaps to get his way. â€Å"Dream, eh? That,† the Moroi said, with the very slightest hint of a smile, â€Å"is not something I hear very often. Well, no.† He reconsidered. â€Å"I do occasionally show up in people's nightmares.† He was neither American nor Russian; I couldn't identify the accent. Was he trying to impress me or intimidate me with his big, bad reputation? Sydney hadn't been afraid of him, exactly, but she'd certainly possessed a healthy amount of wariness. â€Å"Well, I assume you already know who I am,† I said. â€Å"So, the question now is, what are you doing here?† â€Å"No,† he said, the smile turning harder. â€Å"The question is, what are you doing here?† I gestured back to the house, trying to play it cool. â€Å"I'm going to a funeral.† â€Å"That's not why you came to Russia.† â€Å"I came to Russia to tell the Belikovs that Dimitri was dead, seeing as no one else bothered to.† That was turning into a handy explanation for me being here, but as Abe studied me, a chill ran down my spine, kind of like when Yeva looked at me. Like that crazy old woman, he didn't believe me, and again I felt the dangerous edge to his otherwise jovial personality. Abe shook his head, and now the smile was gone altogether. â€Å"That's not the reason either. Don't lie to me, little girl.† I felt my hackles going up. â€Å"And don't interrogate me, old man. Not unless you're ready to tell me why you and your sidekicks risked driving that road to pick up Sydney and me.† Abe's dhampirs stiffened at the words old man, but to my surprise, he actually smiled again-though the smile didn't reach his eyes. â€Å"Maybe I was just helping out.† â€Å"Not from what I hear. You're the one who had the Alchemists send Sydney with me here.† â€Å"Oh?† He arched an eyebrow. â€Å"Did she tell you that? Mmm†¦ that was bad behavior on her part. Her superiors aren't going to like that. Not at all.† Oh, damn. I'd spoken without thinking. I didn't want Sydney to get in trouble. If Abe really was some kind of Moroi Godfather type-what had she called him? Zmey? The snake?-I didn't doubt he could talk to other Alchemists to make her life even more miserable. â€Å"I forced it out of her,† I lied. â€Å"I†¦ I threatened her on the train. It wasn't hard. She's already scared to death of me.† â€Å"I don't doubt she is. They're all scared of us, bound by centuries of tradition and hiding behind their crosses to protect them-despite the gifts they get from their tattoos. In a lot of ways, they get the same traits as you dhampirs-just no reproductive issues.† He gazed up at the stars as he spoke, like some sort of philosopher musing on the mysteries of the universe. Somehow, that made me angrier. He was treating this like a joke, when clearly he had some agenda regarding me. I didn't like being part of anyone's plans-particularly when I didn't know what those plans were. â€Å"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure we could talk about the Alchemists and how you control them all night,† I snapped. â€Å"But I still want to know what you want with me.† â€Å"Nothing,† he said simply. â€Å"Nothing? You've gone to a lot of trouble to set me up with Sydney and follow me here for nothing.† He looked back down from the sky, and there was a dangerous glint in his eyes. â€Å"You're of no interest to me. I have my own business to run. I come on behalf of others who are interested in you.† I stiffened, and at last, true fear ran through me. Shit. There was a manhunt out for me. But who? Lissa? Adrian? Tatiana? Again, that last one made me nervous. The others would seek me out because they cared. But Tatiana†¦ Tatiana feared I'd run off with Adrian. Once more I thought that if she wanted me found, it might be because she wanted to ensure I didn't come back. Abe struck me as the kind of person who could make people disappear. â€Å"And what do the others want? Do they want me home?† I asked, trying to appear unafraid. â€Å"Did you think you could just come here and drag me back to the U.S.?† That secretive smile of Abe's returned. â€Å"Do you think I could just drag you back?† â€Å"Well,† I scoffed, again without thinking, â€Å"you couldn't. Your guys here could. Well, maybe. I might be able to take them.† Abe laughed out loud for the first time, a rich, deep sound filled with sincere amusement. â€Å"You live up to your brash reputation. Delightful.† Great. Abe probably had a whole file on me somewhere. He probably knew what I liked for breakfast. â€Å"I'll make a trade with you. Tell me why you're here, and I'll tell you why I'm here.† â€Å"I already told you.† In a flash, the laughter was gone. He took a step closer to where I sat, and I saw his guardians tense. â€Å"And I told you not to lie to me. You've got a reason for being here. I need to know what it is.† â€Å"Rose? Can you come in here?† Back toward the Belikov house, Viktoria's clear voice rang out in the night. Glancing behind me, I saw her standing in the doorway. Suddenly, I wanted to get away from Abe. There was something lethal underneath that gaudy, jovial facade, and I didn't want to spend another minute with him. Leaping up, I began backing toward the house, half-expecting his guardians to come kidnap me, despite his words. The two guys stayed where they were, but their eyes watched me carefully. Abe's quirky smile returned to his face. â€Å"Sorry I can't stay and chat,† I said. â€Å"That's all right,† he said grandly. â€Å"We'll find time later.† â€Å"Not likely,† I said. He laughed, and I hastily followed Viktoria into the house, not feeling safe until I shut the door. â€Å"I do not like that guy.† â€Å"Abe?† she asked. â€Å"I thought he was your friend.† â€Å"Hardly. He's some kind of mobster, right?† â€Å"I suppose,† she said, like it was no big deal. â€Å"But he's the reason you're here.† â€Å"Yeah, I know about him coming to get us.† Viktoria shook her head. â€Å"No, I mean here. I guess while you were in the car, you kept saying, ? ®Belikov, Belikov.' Abe figured you knew us. That's why he took you to our house.† That was startling. I'd been dreaming of Dimitri, so of course I would have said his last name. But I'd had no idea that was how I'd ended up here. I'd figured it was because Olena had medical training. Then Viktoria added the most astonishing thing of all. â€Å"When he realized we didn't know you, he was going to take you somewhere else-but grandmother said we had to keep you. I guess she'd had some dream that you'd come to us.† â€Å"What?† Crazy, creepy Yeva who hated me? â€Å"Yeva dreamed about me?† Viktoria nodded. â€Å"It's this gift she has. Are you sure you don't know Abe? He's too big-time to be here without a reason.† Olena hurried over to us before I could respond. She caught hold of my arm. â€Å"We've been looking for you. What took so long?† This question was directed to Viktoria. â€Å"Abe was-â€Å" Olena shook her head. â€Å"Never mind. Come on. Everyone's waiting.† â€Å"For what?† I asked, letting her drag me through the house to the backyard. â€Å"I was supposed to tell you,† explained Viktoria, scurrying along. â€Å"This is the part where everyone sits and remembers Dimitri by telling stories.† â€Å"Nobody's seen him in so long; we don't know what's happened to him recently,† said Olena. â€Å"We need you to tell us.† I flinched. Me? I balked at that, particularly when we emerged outside and I saw all those faces around the campfire. I didn't know any of them. How could I talk about Dimitri? How could I reveal what was closest to my heart? Everyone seemed to blur together, and I thought I might faint. For the moment, none of them noticed me. Karolina was speaking, her baby in her arms. Every so often she'd pause, and the others would laugh. Viktoria sat down on a blanket-covered spot on the ground and pulled me down beside her. Sydney joined us a little while later. â€Å"What's she saying?† I whispered. Viktoria listened to her sister for a few moments and then leaned closer to me. â€Å"She's talking about when Dimitri was very young, how he used to always beg her and her friends to let him play with them. He was about six and they were eight and didn't want him around.† Viktoria paused again to take in the next part of the story. â€Å"Finally, Karolina told him he could if he agreed to be married off to their dolls. So Karolina and her friends dressed him and the dolls up over and over and kept having weddings. Dimitri was married at least ten times.† I couldn't help but laugh as I tried to picture tough, sexy Dimitri letting his big sister dress him up. He probably would have treated his wedding ceremony with a doll as seriously and stoically as he did his guardian duties. Other people spoke, and I tried to keep up with the translations. All the stories were about Dimitri's kindness and strength of character. Even when not out battling the undead, Dimitri had always been there to help those who needed it. Almost everyone could recall sometime that Dimitri had stepped up to help others, going out of his way to do what was right, even in situations that could put him at risk. That was no surprise to me. Dimitri always did the right thing. And it was that attitude that had made me love him so much. I had a similar nature. I too rushed in when others needed me, sometimes when I shouldn't have. Others called me crazy for it, but Dimitri had understood. He'd always understood me, and part of what we'd worked on was how to temper that impulsive need to run into danger with reason and calculation. I had a feeling no one else in this world would ever understand me like he did. I didn't notice how strongly the tears were running down my cheeks until I saw everyone looking at me. At first, I thought they considered me crazy for crying, but then I realized someone had asked me a question. â€Å"They want you to talk about Dimitri's last days,† Viktoria said. â€Å"Tell us something. What he did. What he was like.† I used my sleeve to clean my face and looked away, focusing on the bonfire. I'd spoken in front of others before without hesitation, but this was different. â€Å"I†¦ I can't,† I told Viktoria, my voice strained and soft. â€Å"I can't talk about him.† She squeezed my hand. â€Å"Please. They need to hear about him. They need to know. Just tell us anything. What was he like?† â€Å"He†¦ he was your brother. You know.† â€Å"Yes,† she said gently. â€Å"But we want to know what you think he was like.† My eyes were still on the fire, watching the way the flames danced and shifted from orange to blue. â€Å"He†¦ he was the best man I've ever met.† I stopped to gather myself, and Viktoria used the opportunity to translate my words into Russian. â€Å"And he was one of the best guardians. I mean, he was young compared to a lot of them, but everyone knew who he was. They all knew his reputation, and lots of people relied on him for advice. They called him a god. And whenever there was a fight†¦ or danger†¦ he was always the first one to put himself out there. He never flinched. And a couple months ago, when our school was attacked†¦Ã¢â‚¬  I choked up here a bit. The Belikovs had said they knew of the attack-that everyone knew about it-and from the faces here, it was true. I didn't need to elaborate on that night, on the horrors I'd seen. â€Å"That night,† I continued, â€Å"Dimitri rushed out to face the Strigoi. He and I were together when we realized they were attacking. I wanted to stay and help him, but he wouldn't let me. He just told me to go, to run off and alert others. And he stayed behind-not knowing how many Strigoi he'd have to take on while I went for help. I still don't know how many he fought-but there were a bunch. And he took them all down alone.† I dared to look up at the faces around me. Everyone was so quiet and still that I wondered if they were breathing. â€Å"It was so hard,† I told them. Without realizing it, my voice had dropped to a whisper. I had to repeat myself more loudly. â€Å"It was so hard. I didn't want to leave him, but I knew I had to. He taught me so much, but one of the biggest things was that we have to protect others. It was my duty to warn everyone else, even though I just wanted to stay with him. The whole time, my heart kept saying, ? ®Turn around, turn around. Go to him!' But I knew what I had to do and I also knew part of him was trying to keep me safe. And if the roles had been reversed†¦ well, I would have made him run too.† I sighed, surprised I'd revealed so much of my heart. I switched back to business. â€Å"Even when the other guardians joined him, Dimitri never backed down. He took down more Strigoi than almost anyone.† Christian and I had actually killed the most. â€Å"He†¦ he was amazing.† I told them the rest of the story that I'd told the Belikovs. Only I actually forced a little detail this time, telling them vividly just how brave and fierce he had been. The words hurt me as I spoke, and yet†¦ it was almost a relief to get them out. I'd kept the memories of that night too close to me. But eventually, I had to tell them about the cave. And that†¦ that was the worst. â€Å"We'd trapped the escaping Strigoi in a cave. It had two entrances, and we came at them from both sides. Some of our people got trapped, though, and there were more Strigoi than we'd expected. We lost people†¦ but we would have lost a lot more if Dimitri hadn't been there. He wouldn't leave until everyone was out. He didn't care about the risk to himself. He only knew he had to save others†¦Ã¢â‚¬  I'd seen it in his eyes, that determination. Our plan had finally been to retreat as soon as we were all out, but I'd had the feeling he would have stayed and killed every Strigoi he could find. But he'd followed orders too, finally beginning his retreat when the others were safe. And in those last moments, just before the Strigoi had bitten him, Dimitri had met my eyes with a look so full of love that it was like that whole cave filled with light. His expression had said what we'd talked about earlier: We can be together, Rose. Soon. We're almost there. And nothing will ever keep us apart again†¦ I didn't mention that part, though. When I finished the rest of the tale, the faces of those gathered were grim but filled with awe and respect. Near the back of the crowd, I noticed Abe and his guardians listening as well. His expression was unreadable. Hard, but not angry or scary. Small cups began circulating through the group, and someone handed me one. A dhampir I didn't know, one of the few men present, stood up and raised his cup in the air. He spoke loudly and reverently, and I heard Dimitri's name mentioned several times. When he finished, he drank from the cup. Everyone else did too, so I followed suit. And nearly choked to death. It was like fire in liquid form. It took every ounce of strength I had to swallow it and not spray it on those around me. â€Å"Wh†¦ what is this?† I asked, coughing. Viktoria grinned. â€Å"Vodka.† I peered at the glass. â€Å"No, it isn't. I've had vodka before.† â€Å"Not Russian vodka.† Apparently not. I forced the rest of the cup down out of respect to Dimitri, even though I had a feeling that if he were here, he'd be shaking his head at me. I thought I was done being in the spotlight after my story, but apparently not. Everyone kept asking me questions. They wanted to know more about Dimitri, more about what his life had been like recently. They also wanted to know about me and Dimitri as a couple. They all seemed to have figured out that Dimitri and I had been in love-and they were okay with it. I was asked about how we'd met, how long we'd been together†¦ And the whole time, people kept refilling my cup. Determined not to look like an idiot again, I kept drinking until I could finally take the vodka down without coughing or spitting. The more I drank, the louder and more animated my stories became. My limbs started to tingle, and part of me knew this was all probably a bad idea. Okay, all of me knew it. Finally, people began to clear out. I had no idea what time it was, but I think it was the middle of the night. Maybe later. I stood as well, finding it much harder to do than I'd expected. The world wobbled, and my stomach wasn't very happy with me. Someone caught a hold of my arm and steadied me. â€Å"Easy,† said Sydney. â€Å"Don't push it.† Slowly, carefully, she led me toward the house. â€Å"God,† I moaned. â€Å"Do they use that stuff as rocket fuel?† â€Å"No one made you keep drinking it.† â€Å"Hey, don't get preachy. Besides, I had to be polite.† â€Å"Sure,† she said. We made it inside and then had the impossible task of getting up the stairs to the room Olena had given me. Each step was agony. â€Å"They all knew about me and Dimitri,† I said, wondering if I'd be saying any of this sober. â€Å"But I never told them we were together.† â€Å"You didn't have to. It's written all over your face.† â€Å"They acted like I was his widow or something.† â€Å"You might as well be.† We reached my room, and she helped me sit down on the bed. â€Å"Not a lot of people get married around here. If you're with someone long enough, they figure it's almost the same.† I sighed and stared off without any particular focus. â€Å"I miss him so much.† â€Å"I'm sorry,† she said. â€Å"Will it ever get better?† The question seemed to catch her by surprise. â€Å"I†¦ I don't know.† â€Å"Have you ever been in love?† She shook her head. â€Å"No.† I wasn't sure if that made her lucky or not. I wasn't sure if all the bright days I'd had with Dimitri were worth the hurt I felt now. A moment later, I knew the truth. â€Å"Of course they were.† â€Å"Huh?† asked Sydney. I realized I'd spoken my thoughts out loud. â€Å"Nothing. Just talking to myself. I should get some sleep.† â€Å"Do you need anything else? Are you going to be sick?† I assessed my queasy stomach. â€Å"No, but thanks.† â€Å"Okay.† And in her typically brusque way, she left, turning off the lights and shutting the door. I would have thought I'd pass out right away. Honestly, I wanted to. My heart had been opened up to too much of Dimitri tonight, and I wanted that pain to go away. I wanted blackness and oblivion. Instead, maybe because I was a glutton for punishment, my heart decided to finish the job and rip itself completely open. I went to visit Lissa.