Comparing Immorality in The Rise of Silas Lapham and The Octopus Essay

Motivation of Immorality in The Rise of Silas Lapham and The Octopus In both William Dean Howells The Rise of Silas Lapham and The Octopus by Frank Norris, a character is faced with the moral issues involved with operating his business. Howells character, Silas Lapham (The Colonel) and Norris Magnus Derrick are both thirsty(predicate) to have a prominent position in their respective societies, but are in the precarious situation of having to deploy immoral methods to achieve this begrudge stature during the course of harder times. Each man has aspirations to be powerful, prestigious, famous, and/or wealthy. In combination with their lack of humility for their lofty position in society and their all over ambitious definition of success, both are caused great distress on the path and during the fight to reach this egotistic plateau. The image created through their business estimate became the primary tool to evaluate their own personal vision of success, and in doing so, the two mens morals and values became tainted, family relations were hurt and even devastated, in addition to creating social debacles that caused incredible harm to many others. Silas background consisted of poverty, hardships, and hard work. He acquired his own wealth and that opened doors that were unknown to him or his family. The Colonels background and attributes direct him into an awkward situation of always attempting to appear in society as something that he is not. He is a common, vulgar man, doing his best to appear sophisticated, educated, and knowledgeable, when, in fact, it is totally his wealth that connects him to the upper class. His incredible wealth places within him the motivation and false sense of obligation to conform to the tastes and pre... ... or power or fame. The path to pee these goals is often filled with corruption, heartless doings, and unsympathetic forces. To see past material possessions and to crush ones ego and its self-centeredness should be sought . To accept ones lot in flavor and attempt to not control forces outside of ones power or nature should be admired. Being concerned with ones family as a primary responsibility and acting accordingly should be hailed an accomplishment. To face an evil force sweeping into ones reality and being able to hold onto ones morals and values in spite of it, an achievement. deeds Cited Howells, William Dean. The Rise of Silas Lapham. New York Signet Classic, 1983.. Marx, Karl. The Alienation of Labor. Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. Richard Hooker, 1996 1-9. Norris, Frank. The Octopus. New York Penguin Books, 1986.

Pueblo Indian Religion in the Early 20th Century Essay -- Essay Papers

Pueblo Indian Religion in the Early 20th Century The Pueblo Indians sacred history is different than the average Christian religion history. Their religious beliefs atomic number 18 based on the creation of life. The persons seen as the creators of life are the centrality and the basis of their religion. In the early 1900s these Indians were looked upon in different lights. White man compared the Pueblo rituals and religious routines with his own. Pueblo religious beliefs, practices and social forms were criticized, scrutinized and misunderstood by white Christian American settlers. The major religious practice and worship of the Pueblo Indians involved ritual dances. White men attempted to stop these Puebloan ritualistic dances because they did not meet his own religious standards and this happened before the Indians had a chance to explain or define what their dances really stood for. Women contend a significant role in Puebloan ritual dances and religious A b rief description of the Pueblo Indian culture and religion are bringed to keep a full understanding of why their dances were misinterpreted by white settlers and why the Indians were judged and treated in such an unjust way. Pueblo Indians lived in Arizona and New Mexico and had a very different culture religiously than the white man. White religious history shows us that women were not seen, in European and new American culture, as not being significant to religious practices. In the Pueblo religion, however the woman was regarded in a different light. They rarely practiced in religious rituals notwithstanding were the center of their races religion. Pueblos had rituals that were performed exclusively by men, and there, these men imitated womens reproductive pow... ... for their religious beliefs and cultural values. Peoples religious beliefs and practices all need to be protected from harm and negative influence like a child needs care from his mother. The Pueblo India ns should be looked at as an example of how people should not be treated. This way, hopefully we wont make the same mistake twice. We all have an obligation to know all the facts and the whole loyalty about something before we start to reject it. If the white people in the early 20th century had taken the time to understand the meaning of these dances they may not have been so quick to judge and may have stood back and reflected on their own ways of living. Work CitedYoung Jane. Women in westerly Puebloan Society. Journal of American Folklore. 100.398(1987) 436-445. Jacobs D. Margaret. Making Savages of us all. Frontiers. 17.3(1983) 178-209.

Theoretical Approaches to Speech Production :: Spreading Activation Theory SAT

Theoretical Approaches to Speech ProductionThere are two main theories of Speech production, diffusion Activation Theory - SAT ( dingle, 1986 Dell & OSeaghdha, 1991) and Word- Form Encoding by Activation and Verification WEAVER++ (Levelt et al., 1989 1999).The SAT theory was devised by Dell (1986) then revised by Dell & OSeaghda (1991). The theory works on a 4 aim connectionist assume par each(prenominal)el and dynamic.The Semantic level is the meaning of what is going to be said.The Syntactic level is the grammatical structure of the raillerys in the planned utteranceThe Morphological level is the morphemes ( underlying units of meaning of word forms) in the planned sentence.The Phonological level is the basic unit of sound within a sentence. In addition to the main structure of the SAT model a representation is formed at each level. Pre-Planning is more particular at the semantic level. There are categorical rules at each level, which get down constraints on item categories a nd category combination.The internal lexicon (dictionary) is considered to be a constructionist network it includes nodes for concepts, words, morphemes and phonemes. So when one node is activated it sends a message to activate all other nodes connected to it.The later computational model WEAVER++ was put forward by Levelt, Roelofs, and Meeyer (1999) derived from Lefvelt (1989).The model is based on the assumptions that there is a fertilize forward activation network spreading through the network and does not go back. There are 3 levels in the network the highest level of nodes equal are lexical the second level are lemmas which are abstract words from the mental lexicon and the lowest level are the nodes in support of morphemes the basic unit of meaning and phonemes. The network does not have any inhibitory links. The production of speech follows through the stages exactly serial. A word error leave behind occur if the level of activity in the node does no match to the appropria te node higher up. There are 6 stages of processing in the WEAVER++ Theory 2 more than the SAT theory. First the Conceptual preparation stage where the lexical concepts are activated. Stage 2 comes the Lexical pick where an abstract word or lemma is Selected along with its syntactic features. The Morphological encoding is The basic word form derived from the lemma activated. Stage 5 is the phonic encoding is where the speech sounds are set. Articulation is the Final stage defines the way the word is pronounced.

Essay --

IntroductionSharon Creechs childhood memories, college experiences, and creative brain significantly bear upon her written materials. She rarely thought of being an author growing up, but as time progressed, she began to really think ab unwrap it. Creech first became interested when she entered college and something sparked her career. She wrote multiple books with her very much thought and creativeness leading her to an outstanding writing career.I. Sharon Creech experienced some(prenominal) journeys as a child, triggering a spark in her writing career. A. Creech accounted for many memories during her early on childhood years. She took many trips with her parents and four siblings. She enjoyed the company of former(a)s and making memories. Often, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, and friends visited her and her family, making her constantly used to warm, large, extended family. Her favorite memories came from Creechs traditional summer vacations to various destinations. She love road tripping with her noisy and rowdy family across the country. Her never-forgotten memories eventually lead to her recreation of the trip into many of her books.1. In the summer, we usually took a trip, all of us piled in a car and heading out to Wisconsin or mile or, once, to Idaho. We must have been a very noisy bunch, and Im not sure how our parents put up with being cooped up with us in the car for those trips. The five-day trip out to Idaho when I was twelve had a powerful publication on me what a huge and amazing country Creech said in author chat in 2002. On Creechs official website, she stated, One other place we often visited was Quincy, Kentucky, where my cousins lived (and still live) on a beautiful farm, with hills and trees and swim hole and barn and hay... ...s to me, I dont realize that it resembles a real person in any way. Its only later, after a book has been published, that sometimes I can see similarities between the character and someone I kno w.(The New York prevalent Library)2. Here, she explains the way she bases her characters from and how she begins to write a story with her creative storytelling brain.ConclusionIn conclusion, Sharon Creechs childhood memories, college experiences, and creative brain greatly affected her later writings. horizontal though, she did not know what she wanted to do with her life, God helped her figure it out and have a successful career. Her early childhood journeys helped her write her books and create characters. Her precept experience also helped her have a more effective writing style. Sharon Creech had a remarkable writing career and it is one to never be forgotten. Essay -- IntroductionSharon Creechs childhood memories, college experiences, and creative brain significantly affected her writings. She rarely thought of being an author growing up, but as time progressed, she began to really think about it. Creech first became interested when she entered college and s omething sparked her career. She wrote multiple books with her much thought and creativeness leading her to an outstanding writing career.I. Sharon Creech experienced many journeys as a child, triggering a spark in her writing career. A. Creech accounted for many memories during her early childhood years. She took many trips with her parents and four siblings. She enjoyed the company of others and making memories. Often, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, and friends visited her and her family, making her always used to warm, large, extended family. Her favorite memories came from Creechs traditional summer vacations to various destinations. She loved road tripping with her noisy and rowdy family across the country. Her never-forgotten memories eventually led to her recreation of the trip into many of her books.1. In the summer, we usually took a trip, all of us piled in a car and heading out to Wisconsin or Michigan or, once, to Idaho. We must have been a very noisy bunch, a nd Im not sure how our parents put up with being cooped up with us in the car for those trips. The five-day trip out to Idaho when I was twelve had a powerful effect on me what a huge and amazing country Creech said in author chat in 2002. On Creechs official website, she stated, One other place we often visited was Quincy, Kentucky, where my cousins lived (and still live) on a beautiful farm, with hills and trees and swimming hole and barn and hay... ...s to me, I dont realize that it resembles a real person in any way. Its only later, after a book has been published, that sometimes I can see similarities between the character and someone I know.(The New York Public Library)2. Here, she explains the way she bases her characters from and how she begins to write a story with her creative storytelling brain.ConclusionIn conclusion, Sharon Creechs childhood memories, college experiences, and creative brain greatly affected her later writings. Even though, she did not know what she wan ted to do with her life, God helped her figure it out and have a successful career. Her early childhood journeys helped her write her books and create characters. Her teaching experience also helped her have a more effective writing style. Sharon Creech had a remarkable writing career and it is one to never be forgotten.

Colonists and Indians Fight for Mutual Interests on the American Fronti

Colonists and Indians Fight for Mutual Interests on the American Frontier Since the settling of the English colonies in the primeval 17th century, pioneers have been destined to expand into the North American frontier and to domesticate it with their Christian conviction and progressive nature. In their exploration of the frontier, however, the Puritan colonists very much encountered Indians whose savagery challenged their discipline and morals. Just as the colonists expanded, Indians also saw their native put downs of many years vanish. The situation naturally compelled the Puritans and the Indians to fight each other for their unwashed interests. Thus, while most accounts of Western history focus on the heathen threat, both Indians and colonists experienced the harshness of the captivity story and its evolution into other mythology that specify American history.Any discussion of the American culture and its development has to include mythology, because that is where mos t of the information about early America is found. Mythology is a unique point of reference in that it gives a shared understanding that people have with regard to some aspect of their world. The most important experience for American frontiersmen is the challenge to the myth of the frontier that they believed in the conception of America as a wide-open land of unlimited opportunity for the strong, ambitious, self-reliant individual to thrust his way to the top. (Slotkin, 5) In particular, the challenge came from Indians and from the wilderness that they inhabited.The colonists who first arrived in America came to this land because they saw an opportunity to regenerate their religion and to live according to it without subjugation. The immense size of the land sugge... ...ard expansion, a person finds information about the essence of American culture. Though the English colonists came to America expecting to renew their lives through the Puritan faith, they instead found the ir faith and, indeed, their very society in danger from the heathen Indian presence in the surrounding wilderness. But while the Indians threatened the core of the colonials lives, the presence of the colonists and their westbound expansion threatened the lives and land that the Indians had held for many years. American history thus began in violence that has no single source, but rather is derived from the Puritans and Indians both fleck for and protecting their mutual interests and desires. Works Cited Slotkin, R. Regeneration Through Violence The Mythology of the American Frontier 1600-1860. Norman, OK University of Oklahoma Press, 1973.

Essay --

Introduction of the topic 1.Significance of topica.GM Foods are those derived from organisms whose genetic material (DNA) has been modified in such a authority that it does not occur naturally in the environmenti.http//www.who.int/topics/food_genetically_modified/en/b.Also ties into 2.Scientific backgrounda.Commercialized in 1992 Monsanto was one of the first firms to take value of biotechnology in commercial farming Green Revolution, i.APA Mclure J. BACKGROUND. CQ Researcher serial online. August 31, 201222(30)726-732. Available from Academic pursuit Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed November 13, 2013.ii.MLA Mclure, Jason. Background. CQ Researcher 22.30 (2012) 726-732. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.1.This article also has issues, background, chronology, current situation, outlook, next stepb.Genes are copied via PCR and inserted into target plant tissue to create new plantsi.AMA GM foods the real story. Australasian Biotechnology serial online. butt 201222(1)41-44. A vailable from Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed November 13, 2013.ii.MLA GM Foods The Real Story. Australasian Biotechnology 22.1 (2012) 41-44. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.3.Scientific and societal issues a.Controversial concerns of negative environmental and health effects, corporatization of agriculture, unethical to manipulate life in the laboratoryi.AMA Bennett A, Chi-Ham C, Barrows G, Sexton S, Zilberman D. Agricultural Biotechnology Economics, Environment, Ethics, and the Future. Annual Review Of Environment & Resources serial online. November 201338(1)249-279. Available from Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed November 13, 2013.ii.MLA Bennett, Ala... ...y modified (GM) foods the importance of an holistic, integrative approach. Journal Of Biotechnology serial online. September 11, 200298(1)79. Available from Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed November 13, 2013.ii.MLA Cockburn, Andrew. Assuring The Safety Of Genetically Modifi ed (GM) Foods The Importance Of An Holistic, compositional Approach. Journal Of Biotechnology 98.1 (2002) 79. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.Other Interesting Things1.http//search.ebscohost.com.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=21274652&site=ehost-live2.http//www.who.int/foodsafety/publications/biotech/20questions/en/3.http//search.ebscohost.com.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=11501712&site=ehost-live4.http//dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/topics/10-genetically-modified-food-products.htm

Essay --

Introduction of the topic 1.Significance of topica.GM Foods are those derived from organisms whose genetic material (DNA) has been modified in such a way that it does non occur naturally in the environmenti.http//www.who.int/topics/food_genetically_modified/en/b.Also ties into 2.Scientific backgrounda.Commercialized in 1992 Monsanto was one of the first firms to take advantage of biotechnology in commercial farming Green Revolution, i.APA Mclure J. BACKGROUND. CQ Researcher serial online. August 31, 201222(30)726-732. operable from Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed November 13, 2013.ii.MLA Mclure, Jason. Background. CQ Researcher 22.30 (2012) 726-732. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.1.This article in addition has issues, background, chronology, current situation, outlook, next stepb.Genes are copied via PCR and inserted into target plant tissue to create new plantsi.AMA GM foods the real story. Australasian Biotechnology serial online. March 201222(1)41-4 4. Available from Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed November 13, 2013.ii.MLA GM Foods The Real Story. Australasian Biotechnology 22.1 (2012) 41-44. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.3.Scientific and societal issues a.Controversial concerns of negative environmental and wellness effects, corporatization of agriculture, unethical to manipulate life in the laboratoryi.AMA Bennett A, Chi-Ham C, Barrows G, Sexton S, Zilberman D. Agricultural Biotechnology Economics, Environment, Ethics, and the Future. Annual Review Of Environment & Resources serial online. November 201338(1)249-279. Available from Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed November 13, 2013.ii.MLA Bennett, Ala... ...y modified (GM) foods the importance of an holistic, integrative approach. journal Of Biotechnology serial online. September 11, 200298(1)79. Available from Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed November 13, 2013.ii.MLA Cockburn, Andrew. Assuring The Safety Of Genetically Modified (GM) Foods The Importance Of An Holistic, Integrative Approach. Journal Of Biotechnology 98.1 (2002) 79. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.Other Interesting Things1.http//search.ebscohost.com.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=21274652& commit=ehost-live2.http//www.who.int/foodsafety/publications/biotech/20questions/en/3.http//search.ebscohost.com.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=11501712&site=ehost-live4.http//dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/topics/10-genetically-modified-food-products.htm

Pacem in Terris Essay

1. Almost 40 eld ago, on holy Thursday, 11 April 1963, Pope throne xxiii published his epic Encyclical letter Pacem in Terris. Addressing himself to either manpower of goodly forget, my venerable predecessor, who would die just two months later, summed up his message of pink of my John on earth in the first sentence of the Encyclical Peace on earth, which all custody of any era adopt most eagerly yearned for, hatful be hard established and sustained only if the rules of order laid d make by God be dutifully observed (Introduction AAS, 55 1963, 257). Speaking placidity to a divided piece2. The world to which John XXIII wrote was then in a profound state of rowdyism. The twentieth century had begun with great expectations for approach. Yet at bottom sixty years, that same century had produced two World Wars, devastating totalitarian systems, untold sympathetic suffering, and the greatest persecution of the Church in history. Only two years before Pacem in Terris, in 1961, the Berlin Wall had been erected in order to divide and set against each other non only two parts of that urban center still two charges of understanding and building the earthly city. On one(a) side and the other of the Wall, life was to follow different patterns, dictated by antithetical rules, in a climate of mutual suspicion and mistrust.Both as a world-view and in real life, that Wall traversed the whole of adult maleity and penetrated tidy sums hearts and minds, creating divisions that seemed destined to last indefinitely. Moreover, just six months before the Encyclical, and just as the Second Vati puke Council was opening in Rome, the world had come to the door of a nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The road to a world of tranquillity, justice and freedom seemed blocked. Hu gentlemanity, many believed, was condemned to live indefinitely in that rickety condition of cold war, hoping against hold that neither an act of aggression nor an accident w ould trigger the worst war in benevolent history. Available atomic arsenals meant that such a war would know imperiled the very future of the human race.3. Pope John XXIII did not agree with those who claimed that peace was impossible. With his Encyclical, peace in all its demanding truth came knocking on both sides of the Wall and of all the other dividing walls. The Encyclical spoke to allone of their belonging to the one human family, and shone a idle on the sh ared aspiration of people everywhither to live in security, justice and hope for the future. With the profound intuition that characterized him, John XXIII identified the essential conditions for peace in four precise requirements of the human spirit truth, justice, love and freedom (cf. ibid., I l.c., 265-266). Truth will build peace if every person sincerely acknowledges not only his rights, but also his own duties towards others.Justice will build peace if in practice everyone respects the rights of others and actually fulfils his duties towards them. go to bed will build peace if people feel the regards of others as their own and share what they have with others, especially the values of mind and spirit which they possess. granting immunity will build peace and make it thrive if, in the choice of the means to that end, people act according to reason and assume responsibility for their own actions. Looking at the present and into the future with the eyes of conviction and reason, B slighted John XXIII discerned deeper historical currents at work. Things were not always what they seemed on the surface. disdain wars and rumours of wars, something more was at work in human affairs, something that to the Pope looked like the promising beginning of a spiritual revolution.A cutting awareness of human dignity and inalienable human rights 4. Humanity, John XXIII wrote, had entered a new stage of its journey (cf. ibid., I l.c., 267-269). The end of colonialism and the rise of newly independe nt States, the certificate of workers rights, the new and welcome presence of women in public life, all testified to the detail that the human race was indeed entering a new phase of its history, one characterized by the conviction that all men are equal by reason of their natural dignity (ibid., I l.c.,268). The Pope knew that that dignity was still beingness trampled upon in many parts of the world. Yet he was convinced that, despite the dramatic situation, the world was becoming progressively conscious of certain spiritual values, and increasingly open to the meaning of those pillars of peace truth, justice, love, and freedom (cf. ibid., I l.c., 268-269).Seeking to bring these values into local, national and foreign life, men and women were becoming more aware that their human relationship with God, the source of all good, moldiness be the solid foundation and supreme criterion of their lives, as individuals and in society (cf. ibid.). This evolving spiritual intuition wou ld, the Pope was convinced, have profound public and political consequences. Seeing the growth of awareness of human rights that was then emerging within nations and at the internationalist level, Pope John XXIII caught the potential of this phenomenon and understood its singular power to change history. What was later to happen in central and eastern Europe would confirm his insight.The road to peace, he taught in the Encyclical, lay in the defence and promotion of basic human rights, which every human being enjoys, not as a benefit given by a different social class or conceded by the State but simply because of our humanity Any human society, if it is to be well-ordered and productive, must lay down as a foundation this principle, namely, that every human being is a person, that is, his nature is endowed with intelligence and free will. Indeed, precisely because he is a person he has rights and obligations, flowing directly and simultaneously from his very nature. And as these ri ghts and obligations are universal joint and inviolable so they cannot in any way be surrendered (ibid., 259).As history would soon show, this was not simply an abstract idea it was an idea with profound consequences. Inspired by the conviction that every human being is equal in dignity, and that society therefore had to adapt its form to that conviction, human rights movements soon arose and gave concrete political expression to one of the great kinetics of contemporary history the quest for freedom as an indispensable component of work for peace. Emerging in virtually every part of the world, these movements were instrumental in replacing dictatorial forms of government with more democratic and participatory ones. They demonstrated in practice that peace and progress could only be achieved by respecting the universal moral law written on the human heart (cf. John Paul II, Address to the United Nations General Assembly, 5 October 1995, No. 3). The universal rough-cut good5. On a nother(prenominal) point too Pacem in Terris showed itself prophetic, as it looked to the next phase of the evolution of world politics. Because the world was becoming increasingly interdependent and global, the prevalent good of humanity had to be worked out on the international plane. It was proper, Pope John XXIII taught, to speak of a universal common good (Pacem in Terris, IV l.c., 292). One of the consequences of this evolution was the obvious need for a public authority, on the international level, with effective capacity to advance the universal common good an authority which could not, the Pope immediately continued, be established by coercion but only by the consent of nations. Such a torso would have to have as its fundamental objective the realisation, respect, safeguarding, and promotion of the rights of the human person (ibid., IV l.c., 294).Not surprisingly therefore John XXIII looked with hope and expectation to the United Nations organic law, which had come in to being on June 26, 1945. He saw that Organization as a credible instrument for maintaining and strengthening world peace, and he expressed particular appreciation of its 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which he considered an approximation towards the establishment of a juridical and political organization of the world partnership (ibid., IV l.c., 295). What he was saying in fact was that the Declaration set out the moral foundations on which the evolution of a world characterized by order rather than disorder, and by dialogue rather than force, could proceed.He was send wording that the vigorous defence of human rights by the United Nations Organization is the indispensable foundation for the ontogeny of that Organizations capacity to promote and defend international security. Not only is it clear that Pope John XXIIIs vision of an effective international public authority at the service of human rights, freedom and peace has not yet been entirely achieved, but there is still in fact much hesitation in the international community about the obligation to respect and implement human rights. This duty touchesall fundamental rights, excluding that arbitrary picking and choosing which can lead to rationalizing forms of discrimination and injustice.Likewise, we are witnessing the emergence of an alarming gap mingled with a series of new rights being promoted in advanced societies the result of new prosperity and new technologies and other more basic human rights still not being met, especially in situations of underdevelopment. I am thinking here for example about the right to food and drinkable water, to housing and security, to self-determination and independence which are still far from being guaranteed and realized. Peace demands that this tension be speedily reduced and in time eliminated.Another observation needs to be make the international community, which since 1948 has possessed a charter of the inalienable rights of the human person, h as generally failed to insist sufficiently on corresponding duties. It is duty that establishes the limits within which rights must be contained in order not to become an exercise in arbitrariness. A greater awareness of universal human duties would greatly benefit the cause of peace, setting it on the moral basis of a shared recognition of an order in things which is not dependent on the will of any individual or group. A new international moral order6. barely it remains truthful that, despite many difficulties and setbacks, significant progress has been made over the past forty years towards the implementation of Pope Johns noble vision. The fact that States throughout the world feel obliged to honour the idea of human rights shows how powerful are the tools of moral conviction and spiritual integrity, which be so decisive in the revolution of conscience that made possible the 1989 non-violent revolution that dis trustd European communism. And although distorted notions of free dom as licence continue to hazard democracy and free societies, it is surely significant that, in the forty years since Pacem in Terris, much of the world has become more free, structures of dialogue and cooperation between nations have been strengthened, and the threat of a global nuclear war, which weighed so heavily on Pope John XXIII, has been effectively contained.Boldly, but with all humility, I would like to suggest that the Churchs fifteen-hundred-year-old teaching on peace as tranquillitas ordinis the tranquillity of order as Saint Augustine called it (De Civitate Dei, 19, 13), which was brought to a new level of development forty years ago by Pacem in Terris, has a deep relevance for the world at once, for the leaders of nations as well as for individuals. That there is serious disorder in world affairs is obvious. Thus the question to be faced remains What kind of order can replace this disorder, so that men and women can live in freedom, justice, and security? And sinc e the world, amid its disorder, continues nevertheless to be ordered and organized in various ways economic, cultural, even political there arises another every bit urgent question On what principles are these new forms of world order unfolding?These far-reaching questions suggest that the problem of order in world affairs, which is the problem of peace rightly understood, cannot be separated from issues of moral principle. This is another way of saying that the question of peace cannot be separated from the question of human dignity and human rights. That is one of the enduring truths taught by Pacem in Terris, which we would do well to remember and invent upon on this fortieth anniversary. Is this not the time for all to work together for a new constitutional organization of the human family, truly capable of ensuring peace and harmony between peoples, as well as their integral development? But let there be no misunderstanding.This does not mean writing the constitution of a g lobal super-State. Rather, it means continuing and deepening processes already in place to meet the almost universal demand for participatory ways of exercising political authority, even international political authority, and for transparency and right at every level of public life. With his confidence in the goodness he believed could be found in every human person, Pope John XXIII called the entire world to a nobler vision of public life and public authority, even as he boldly challenged the world to think beyond its present state of disorder to new forms of international order commensurate with human dignity. The bond between peace and truth7. Against those who think of politics as a realm of necessity detached from morality and subject only to partisan interests, Pope John XXIII, in Pacem in Terris, outlined a truer outline of human reality and indicated the path to a better future for all. Precisely because human beings are created with the capacity for moral choice, no human activity takes place outside the playing field of moral judgment. Politics is a human activity therefore, it too is subject to a distinctive form of moral scrutiny. This is also true of international politics. As the Pope wrote The same natural law that governs the life and conduct of individuals must also regulate the relations of political communities with one another (Pacem in Terris, III l.c., 279). Those who imagine that international public life takes place somewhere outside the realm of moral judgment need only reflect on the impact of human rights movements on the national and international politics of the twentieth century just reason out.These developments, anticipated by the teaching of the Encyclical, decisively repudiate the claim that international politics mustof necessity be a free zone in which the moral law holds no sway. Perhaps nowhere today is there a more obvious need for the correct use of political authority than in the dramatic situation of the Middle Ea st and the Holy Land. Day after day, year after year, the cumulative effect of bitter mutual rejection and an unending chain of violence and retaliation have shattered every effort so far to engage in serious dialogue on the real issues involved. The volatility of the situation is compounded by the clash of interests among the members of the international community.Until those in positions of responsibility undergo a veritable revolution in the way they use their power and go about securing their peoples welfare, it is difficult to imagine how progress towards peace can be made. The fratricidal struggle that daily convulses the Holy Land and brings into conflict the forces shaping the immediate future of the Middle East shows clearly the need for men and women who, out of conviction, will implement policies firmly based on the principle of respect for human dignity and human rights. Such policies are uncomparably more advantageous to everyone than the continuation of conflict. A st art can be made on the basis of this truth, which is certainly more liberating than propaganda, especially when that propaganda serves to conceal inadmissible intentions.The premises of a lasting peace8. There is an unbreakable bond between the work of peace and respect for truth. Honesty in the supply of information, beauteousness in legal systems, openness in democratic procedures give citizens a sense of security, a readiness to settle controversies by peaceful means, and a intrust for genuine and constructive dialogue, all of which constitute the true premises of a lasting peace. Political summits on the regional and international levels serve the cause of peace only if joint commitments are then honoured by each party. Otherwise these meetings risk becoming irrelevant and useless, with the result that people believe less and less in dialogue and trust more in the use of force as a way of resolving issues.The negative repercussions on peace resulting from commitments made and then not honoured must be carefully assessed by State and government leaders. Pacta sunt servanda, says the ancient maxim. If at all times commitments ought to be unplowed, promises made to the inadequate should be considered particularly binding. Especially frustrating for them is any breach of faith regarding promises which they see as critical to their well-being. In this respect, the failure to keep commitments in the sphere of aid to developing nations is a serious moral question and further highlights the injustice of the imbalances existing in the world. The suffering caused by poverty is compounded by the loss of trust. The end result is hopelessness. The existence of trust in international relations is a social capital of fundamental value.A culture of peace9. In the end, peace is not essentially about structures but about people. Certain structures and mechanisms of peace juridical, political, economic are of course necessary and do exist, but they have been derived fr om nothing other than the accumulated wisdom and experience of innumerable gestures of peace made by men and women throughout history who have kept hope and have not given in to discouragement. Gestures of peace spring from the lives of people who foster peace first of all in their own hearts. They are the work of the heart and of reason in those who are peacemakers (cf. Mt 59). Gestures of peace are possible when people appreciate fully the community symmetry of their lives, so that they grasp the meaning and consequences of events in their own communities and in the world.Gestures of peace create a tradition and a culture of peace. Religion has a vital role in fostering gestures of peace and in consolidating conditions for peace.It exercises this role all the more effectively if it concentrates on what is proper to it attention to God, the fostering of universal sexual union and the spreading of a culture of human solidarity. The Day of Prayer for Peacewhich I promoted in Assisi on 24 January 2002, involving representatives of many religions, had this purpose. It expressed a desire to parent peace by spreading a spirituality and a culture of peace.The legacy of Pacem in Terris10. blithe Pope John XXIII was a man unafraid of the future. He was sustained in his optimism by his deep trust in God and in man, both of which grew out of the sturdy climate of faith in which he had grown up. Moved by his trust in Providence, even in what seemed like a permanent situation of conflict, he did not hesitate to summon the leaders of his time to a new vision of the world. This is the legacy that he left us. On this World Day of Peace 2003, let us all resolve to have his same outlook trust in the merciful and compassionate God who calls us to brotherhood, and confidence in the men and women of our time because, like those of every other time, they bear the image of God in their souls. It is on this basis that we can hope to build a world of peace on earth.At the beginni ng of a new year in our human history, this is the hope that rises spontaneously from the depths of my heart that in the spirit of every individual there may be a renewed dedication to the noble mission which Pacem in Terris proposed forty years ago to all men and women of good will. The line of work, which the Encyclical called immense, is that of establishing new relationships in human society, under the sway and guidance of truth, justice, love, and freedom. Pope John indicated that he was referring to relations between individual citizens, between citizens and their respective States, between States, and finally between individuals, families, intermediate associations and States on the one hand, and the world community on the other. He concluded by saying that to bring about true peace in accordance with divinely established order was a most noble task (Pacem in Terris, V l.c., 301-302)..The fortieth anniversary of Pacem in Terris is an apt occasion to return to Pope John XXIII s prophetic teaching. Catholic communities will know how to celebrate this anniversary during the year with initiatives which, I hope, will have an ecumenical and interreligious character and be open to all those who have a pricey desire to break through the barriers which divide them, to strengthen the bonds of mutual love, to learn to understand one another and to pardon those who have done them wrong (l.c., 304).I accompany this hope with a prayer to Almighty God, the source of all our good. May he who calls us from oppression and conflict to freedom and cooperation for the good of all help people everywhere to build a world of peace ever more solidly established on the four pillars indicated by Blessed Pope John XXIII in his historic Encyclical truth, justice, love, freedom. From the Vatican, 8 December 2002

Language attitudes comprise Essay

Bilingualism is the ability of an individual to blab in deuce langu bestrides and to utilize them for unalike purposes. The degree of bilingualistism is defined as the levels of lingual proficiency that a bilingual must attain in both manner of speakings (Ng & Wigglesworth, 2007). There are various factors that may affect the acquisition of the degree of bilingualism in legal residence, school and work coiffuretings, including the age at which the speech communication is acquired, to whom the wrangle is utilized, the manner in which the quarrel is used, and the frequency of usage of the expression (Ng & Wigglesworth, 2007).There are two contexts in which bilinguals acquire their skills in using two actors lines primary and secondary. Primary contexts pertain to a childs acquisition of both rows in a indwellingistic way in the absence of any structured instruction, while secondary contexts pertain to a childs acquisition of i of the intelligence in realizeationings i n a formal setting, usually school (Ng & Wigglesworth, 2007). Children, who are able to acquire two languages in a primary context during their infanthood, adopt the languages collectable to natural input in the environment, usually provided by the parents, siblings, caregivers (Ng & Wigglesworth, 2007).However, when the child enters his or her early childhood, the input may be provided by other sources, like the wider participation or the extended family (Ng & Wigglesworth, 2007). check to Ng and Wigglesworth (2007), age plays a key role in the development of bilingualism because there is a strong relationship between the age of acquisition and the ultimate achievement of language proficiency at different linguistic levels.The authors add that attitudes, motivation, and contextual factors such as exposure have been engraft to affect strongly on the final attainment of the learners language proficiency level. Bilingualism has a psychosocial dimension that put up greatly affect a child (Bialystok, 2001). The language a person speaks has a role in the formation of his or her personal identity, and speaking a language that is not completely natural has the possibility to interrupt with the childs construction of self (Biolystok, 2001).A child who is a bilingual due to relocation, especially unwanted relocation, may dislike the new community language he or she has learned despite of his or her proficiency with it (Biolystok, 2001). Factors that affect bilingual children must account the attitudes to the language and the role of language in forming ethnic and ethnic affiliations (Bialystok, 2001). The reasons why children become bilingual include education, immigration, extended family, dislocation, temporary residence in another country, or being born in a place where bilingualism is normal (Bialystok, 2001).Social factors that affect the childs development of bilingualism include parents educational level and their expectations for childrens education, de gree, and role of literacy in the home and the community language proficiency in the main language used objectives for using the second language support of the community for the second language and identity with the group who speaks the second language (Biolystok, 2001). The quality and quantity of the fundamental interaction also affects the childs acquisition of two languages.Attitude has been associated to the language proficiency, bilinguals usage of two languages, bilinguals perception of other communities and of themselves (Ng & Wigglesworth, 2007). Attitude has also been linked to the strength of bilingual communities and to the loss of language within the community. Furthermore, it is a powerful force that emphasizes the have got of being bilingual and the willingness of members of a minority group to contribute to the maintenance of a minority language (Ng & Wigglesworth, 2007).Language attitudes even up of three major components of cognition, affect, and readiness for ac tion. The affective component may not be similar with the cognitive component, while the readiness for action component analyzes whether feelings or thoughts in the cognitive and affective components translate into action (Bee, Wigglesworth). There are different types of bilingual acquisition in childhood.In the one person, one language type of acquisition, parents have different native languages with each having some degree of competence in the others language, the language of one of the parents is the dominant language in the community, and the parents can speak their own language to the child from birth (Romaine, 1995). In the non-dominant home language type, the parents have different native languages, the language of one of the parents is the dominant language in the community, and both parents speak the non-dominant language to the child who is completely exposed to the main language only when outside the home (Romaine, 1995).In the non-dominant home language without community support type, the parents use the same mother spit, the dominant language is not utilized by the parents, and the parents speak their own language to the child (Romaine, 1995). In the double non-dominant home language without community support type of acquisition, the parents are using different native languages, the dominant language is different from any of the languages of the parents, and the parents each use their own language when speaking to the child from birth (Romaine, 1995).In the non-native parents type of acquisition, the parents use the same native language, the dominant language is similar with that of the parents, and one of the parents always speak to the child in a language which is not his or her mother tongue (Romaine, 1995). In the mixed language type of acquisition, the parents are both bilingual, the community may also be bilingual, and parents may code-switch and mix two different languages (Romaine, 1995).Romaine (1995) explains that various individual fa ctors may affect the outcome in each type of bilingual acquisition in childhood, including the amount and kind of exposure to the minor language, the consistency of parents in their language choice, attitudes of children and parents towards bilingualism, and the individual personalities of children and parents. Types of Bilingualism A child learns his or her starting line language during his her five years of life. He or she spends several hours of listening, repeating and learning his or her first language by trial and error.The second language can be learned by a child by various clues that assist him or her to understand the message such as the intonation and by memorizing rules in grammars or lists of words. The desire of a child to communicate using the second language is not powerful, particularly in a school environment. A child can learn a second language easier when he or she is winding or lived in a community where the second language is spoken because it provides him or her a chance to use it.The three types of bilingualism are flux, coordinate and sub-coordinate bilingualism. both(prenominal) coordinate and compound bilingualism are categorized as forms of early bilingualism because they are developed in early childhood. The sub-coordinate bilingualism is developed when a second language is acquired by a child after age 12. In coordinate bilingualism, an individual learns the languages in different environments and the words of the two languages are separated with each word having its own specific meaning (Romaine, 1995).A child may acquire coordinate bilingualism when his or her parents have different native languages and each parent speak to the child using his or her own native language. He or she develops two different linguistic systems that he or she can handle them at ease. Another situation wherein a child can adopt coordinate bilingualism is when the mother tongue mastered by a child is adopted by parents who use a different language. The languages in the coordinate bilingualism are independent. A coordinate bilingual has two linguistic systems and two sets of meanings linked to them (Romaine, 1995).In compound bilingualism, an individual acquires the two languages in the same circumstances, where they are utilized at the same time in order to have a mixed standard of the languages in the brain (Romaine, 1995). A child may acquire compound bilingualism when both parents are bilingual and use two languages when speaking to the child indiscriminately. He or she will learn to speak both languages without making an effort and accent but will never master all the difficulties of using either of the two languages.A child who acquires compound bilingualism will not have a mother tongue. The languages in compound bilingualism are interdependent. A compound bilingual consists of one set of meanings and two linguistic systems linked to them (Romaine, 1995). In sub-coordinate bilingualism, an individual interprets words of his or her weaker language through the words of the stronger language (Romaine, 1995). The dominant or main language utilized by a sub-coordinate bilingual plays a role as a filter for the weaker language (Romaine, 1995).The sub-coordinate bilingualism consists of a primary set of meanings formed through their first language and another linguistic system tied to them (Romaine, 1995). The Positive Aspects of Bilingualism According to Cummins, bilingualism has collateral benefits to a childs educational and linguistic development. The author adds that a child attains a deeper understanding of language and how to utilize it effectively when he or she continues to develop his or her ability in two or more languages during his or her entire years in primary school.A child has a chance to practice more in touch on language, particularly when he or she develops literacy in both and he or she is capable of comparing and contrasting the ways his or her two languages bring into being real ity (Cummins). The research study indicates that a bilingual child may also develop more flexibility in his or her thinking because of the processing information through the use of two different languages (Cummins).Other positive cause of bilingualism include increase of mental alertness, broadening of horizon, and improved understanding of the relativity of all things (Appel & Muysken, 2006). A research study of 15-year-old Spanish/English bilingual children suggested that bilingualism encouraged creative thinking because of the greater flexibility in cognition exhibit by bilinguals due to the fact that they better able to differentiate form and content (Romaine, 1995).Another research study also mentioned that bilingual children have a better understanding of concept formation, which is major part of intellectual development, because they were involved to a more complicated environment and an enormous amount of social interaction compared to children who were gaining only one la nguage (Romaine, 1995). The superiority of bilingual children to monolingual children in terms of various tasks is dependent on their high levels of selective attention, which is the main apparatus of their cognitive performance (Romaine, 1995).One source of improving the bilingual childrens flexibility and creativity may come from a variety of semantic networks relate with words in each language (Romaine, 1995). The relation between bilingualism and the social context of language acquisition indicates a positive benefit to bilingualism. The Negative effectuate of Bilingualism Child bilingualism has negative effects on linguistic skills because he or she has a tendency to have a verbal deficit with respect to progressive and passive vocabulary, length of sentence, and the usage of complex and compound sentences (Appel & Muysken, 2006).Research study has also claimed that a bilingual child demonstrated more deviant forms in his or her speech, like unusual word order and morpholog ical errors (Appel & Muysken, 2006). Bilingualism could also endanger the intelligence of a whole ethnic community and result to give out personalities (Romaine, 1995). A bilingual child has a deficit in his or her language growth and a delay in his or her mother tongue development. Some psychologists have also stated that a bilingual child is more inclined to stuttering because of the syntactic overload brought by processing and producing two languages (Romaine, 1995).According to Appel and Muysken (2006), it is stated that speaking two languages is a negative factor in personality or identity development because bilingual persons are anticipated to experience a conflict of values, identities, and world views due to strong relation to the two different languages. The authors add that research studies have indicated that bilingualism may have negative effects on personality development but only when social conditions are not favorable.The emotional and social difficulties of certai n bilingual persons are not due to bilingualism as a cognitive phenomenon but by the social context (Appel & Muysken, 2006). In order to avoid the degree of language loss in children, Cummins suggests that parents should form a strong home language policy and offer opportunities for children to broaden the functions for which they utilize the mother tongue, particularly in reading and writing, and the circumstances in which they can utilize it, like visits to the country of origin.Teachers have an important role in helping bilingual children maintain and develop their mother tongues by interacting to them strong positive messages on the value of acquiring additional languages and that bilingualism is a key linguistic and intellectual achievement (Cummins). They must also create an instructional environment where the cultural and linguistic experience of a child is actively accepted (Cummins). References Appel, R. & Muysken, P. (2006). Language Contact and Bilingualism. Netherlands A msterdam University Press. Bialystok, E.(2001). Bilingualism in Development Language, Literacy, and Cognition. England Cambridge University Press. Cummins, J. Bilingual Childrens Mother lingua Why Is It Important for Education? Retrieved June 7, 2009, from http//74. 125. 153. 132/search? q=cachef490N3_lOpAJwww. iteachilearn. com/cummins/ mother. htm+positive+effects+of+bilingualism&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ph Ng, B. C. & Wigglesworth, G. (2007). Bilingualism An Advanced mental imagery Book. U. S. Routledge. Romaine, S. (1995). Bilingualism (2nd ed. ). Malden, M. A. Wiley-Blackwell.

Photostory Essay Essay

This essay is to comment on my photo tosh that I did for my coursework, I will be talking about various things like the light source, costumes and mise-en-scene, what they did for the photo story and how it helped.The genre I chose for my photo story was a sports genre. I thought it would appeal to the vast majority of male readers of around 14-18 years old, as it is a football magazine, which I have called The Kick-A-Bout Crew.I think that the story I chose would also interest younger readers as an incident like this one could crop up in their every daytime lives. In a newsvendors local to me, most of the space for papers and comics had been taken up by football magazines this is partly why I utilise a football idea.If I were to sell my magazine, I would be very confident that my target audience would be teenage boys, and my grey market would be female readers as they be not likely to want to read football stories very often in most cases, but not unheard of. I would be very sat isfied with this target audience.The way my story was narrated was through caption boxes and speech bubbles this made my story quite easy to understand without too frequently difficulty. My captions were being placed at the bottom of a photo, to be read first, while the speech bubbles on the photo, perhaps slipping onto the reach of the document to answer sure that they didnt cover up the characters faces. I placed my speech bubbles in the direction the storys pictures were placed, normally f menialing from left to practiced so as to make it easier to read.I used many different camera angles, to subtly highlight the events occurring in my story. For my first photo, I took an establishing tool from a fairly long distance away, taking it from a high angle to symbolize the fact that the boys are really just kids, innocent in young and also to return the readers were the story takes place. In my second photo I take the photo as a mass medium crack, from a slightly low angle, so that it appears to the readers that the watching boy is much taller physically and symbolically than Paul and Jimmy covering that he is more important. For my third and fourth shots, I used eye-level close-ups that display the clear emotion on both of the boys faces, to depict to the readers the emotions of the boys and put the readers in their positions.The fifth photo is simply an eye-level medium shot that was the plainest and most obvious way to show the audience what is happening quite clearly. When my main character, Paul, gets tackled, the photo is taken from a high angle from a medium distance for the first view of it, to show the vulnerability of Paul to the audience before switching to an eye-level close-up to make the readers jibe how cheap the tackle was. The next shot is taken back to a high-angle showing the discomfort and pain that Paul is happening, making him pitiful to the audience and to make them feel sorry for him, whilst not showing the boy, who is helping P aul up in the same light.For the next shot I used another eye-level medium shot, with a slight over-the-shoulder feel to it were you see Jimmy listening in behind the two talking boys, to show his sly jealous side to the more judgmental of the readers.For my penultimate shot I used an eye-level long shot to fit the characters all in but not leave too much background so the audience are drawn to the colour and action of the shot. And finally I used an eye-level close-up of Jimmy getting punched the camera is supposedly a first-person view from Paul, to make the audience feel as though theyre throwing the punch.I think that all of these different angles have really illustrated the point that I was showing to make in apiece photo, they help keep the readers entertained and even kind of involved and would easily help them to understand the characters.I used particular colours in my background to lure my readers attention and immediately tell them the example of story I have chosen. I used a background of verdure and white like a football field and had the title set against a black and white football, in the actual title the word foul was a chilling blood red in the style of chiller. For each of my photos I used a different colour for each caption boxes to try and not make the page too boring and also to try and describe the photos, for instance at the start of the story where it is just a tender kick about the caption box is a merry yellow, while proceeding through the story coming to the tackle it has slowing turned to a violent shade of scarlet.I shot my photo story at Dundonald Playing Fields as it fitted in with the story and provided a good mise-en-scene. Its in the grounds of a shabby looking high school to show that these kids lead a normal school life and this is their day to day surroundings, a the dual carriage way in the background shows how busy the place is and stands for their urban lives.I also used different costumes to display the type of ch aracters starring in my photo story. Jimmy wore a black tracksuit to show him as the villain, while Paul wore a green and grey Northern Ireland tracksuit, to show that he is not exactly good as gold either, but generally decent and has strong loyalties. The boy watching is wearing a sheeny red Man U top to show that he is very friendly and is chasing a spot on Manchester United Youth team.The only lighting was the afternoon sky that made it seem as though they were still at school having a lunch-time game. The football and the goalposts fitted in nicely with the story large it that sporty touch.I also added a competition to star in the magazine, which I thought would really grab the readers attention and spread the word to their friends.These are all the devices and techniques I used to make the story interesting, eye-catching and comprehendible.

Sippican Case

1 SIPPICAN CORPORATION CASE ANALYSYS 20229 Cost Management System 2 Executive Summary ? Company Overview ? Accounting method ? jabuction do ? Activities performed ? Q1. Should Sippican use a contribution margin approach? Explanation ? Q2. Capacity speak to rates for resources ? Q3. ? a. Revised addresss and profits ? b. Product costs and lucrativeness abstract with the new tryst method. Cause of the shifts in values. ? Q4. What actions should the management take to improve Sippicans favorableness? 3 Company overview Sippican is a company manufacturing hydraulic control devices alves, pumps and flow controllers Recent trends (March 2006) ? Valves margin remained at standard 35% ? Pumps Sippicans main business, gross margin fell to 5% (below expect. 35%) ? light controllers price increase by 10% with no effect on demand Issue Sippican had to react to competitors pumps price reductions to maintain volumes Decline in profitability pre tax margin to less than 2% 4 Competitive scenario Sippican High quality Unique design Loyal customer base Major supplier High volumes Commodities Major presence Customized Various typesIndustry Able to match Sippicans quality, but no bids for market share with price cuts SippicansReaction Stable 35% gross margin Valves Pumps expenditure reduction Price reduction & consequent decline in profitability More employment give outs and shipments to meet demand + 10% Price increase w/o affecting demand Flow Controllers Much variety of types in the industry 5 Accounting method Simple cost cyphering system , full cost method ? DM costs= price of components (annual agreement) ? DL= 32. 5$/h (fringe benefits are included) charged on std run times for each product ?OH allocated as % of product-run DL cost (185% current OH rate) Variable costs are only DL and DM Meeting to sell the possibility of aggrandiseing a contribution margin approach 6 Production process Purchase Machine Assembly ? A unique product surgical inc ision ? Same equipments and trade union movement for all the 3 product lines ? Just in time Valves 4 components Standardized Large lots Pumps 5 components Standardized Products go to industrial distributors after assembly Flow Controllers Varied&customized to a greater extent components, more labor , more products runs 7 Activities Set up 2x 7. h/d shifts 20 days per month each time batch components is machined in a production run 15 workers per shift (25% production workforce) 62 machines Workers simultaneously at more machines 45 workers per shift (production&assembly workers) 5,400$/month operating expense Productivity 6 per shift Production run Receiving and production control Orderind, processing, inspecting, mournful batch componetnts to production runs 75 (regardless type of production run & components price) 4 people over the 2 shifts 50 per shipment 8 bubble wrapper and pack 14 workers per shift (tot28) 7. h/d shift 30 pedagogy 215 breaks *Productio n& assembly workers 2x 15 breaks 30 training 30 preventive mainteinance Packaging and shipping New product design and development 9750$/m compensation 7. 5h/d shift 8 Q1 Should executive adopt a contribution margin approach? Yes Costs-volumeprofits analysis No Variable costsdm&dl significant contribution to oh Pricing decisions No account of all costs related to products Significant set costs JIT no need to incorporate inventories NO company cost structure significant fixed overhead costs and significant activities influencing the values of the final products the whole analysis leave based on the contribution margin approach. The results which will be obtained will be influenced by the use of Time-driven ABC, with the right cost driver allocation to cost pools. It will make the difference for perfoming a more accurate analysis 9 Q2 Compute capacity rates for resources Hrs/month Monthly cost* Production workers 20 $3. 900 Indirect workers 20 $3. 900 Engineers 20 $9. 750 Machines 20 $5. 400 x Paid hrs 7,5 7,5 7,5 Productive hrs 6 6,5 6 12 ? Monthly hrs 120 130 120 240 Cost per hr $32,50 $30,00 $81,25 $22,50 DL Set up Machines Rec&Prod Pack&Shp Eng social units 90 30 62 4 28 8 Monthly hrs 120 120 240 130 130 120 Hrs available Hrs employ % Capacity used 10800 10700 99,07% 3600 3400 94,44% 14880 14600 98,12% 520 431,25 82,93% 3640 3483,33 95,70% 960 900 93,75% *given by the text Q2 Product data March 2006 10 Product Lines Valves Pumps Flow Contr. DM units 4 5 10 DM cost 16 20 22 DL h/unit 0,38 0,50 0,4 Machine h/unit 0,5 0,5 0,3 Set up h/unit 5 6 12 Production Units Machine hrs (run time) Production runs Setup hrs(labor&machine) of shipments Hrs engineering work Valves Pumps Flow Contr. 7500 12500 4000 3750 6250 1200 20 snow 225 100 600 2700 40 100 200 60 240 600 summariseal 24000 11200 345 3400 340 900 genuine quantities per activity Activities Set up hrs Machine hrs Receiving& control hrs Packaging & Shipment hrs Engeneering hrs Pr Units x DLhrs Mhrs+set up hrs(machine) 75/60) x production runs (50/60) x ship + (8/60) x pr. Units Eng hrs Valves 2850 3850 25 1. 033,33 60 Pumps 6250 6850 125 1750 240 Flow contr 1600 3900 281,25 700 600 Total hrs used 10700 14600 431,25 3483,33 900 Q3 Valves Pumps Flow Controllers Tot $592. 500,0 $875. 000,0 $380. 000,0 $1. 847. 500,0 $212. 625,0 $453. 125,0 $140. 000,0 $805. 750,0 $120. 000,0 $92. 625,0 $250. 00,0 $203. 125,0 $88. 000,0 $52. 000,0 $458. 000,0 $347. 750,0 11 Q3. a Revised costs and profits for the 3 product lines Revenues VC DM* DL* Contribution Margin TOH* Machine related expenses Setup labor Setup Machine R&P Control P&S Engeneering $379. 875,0 $421. 875,0 $126. 499,0 $249. 374,1 $84. 375,0 $3. 250,0 $2. 250,0 $750,0 $30. 999,0 $4. 875,0 $140. 625,0 $19. 500,0 $13. 500,0 $3. 750,0 $52. 499,1 $19. 500,0 $240. 000,0 $253. 687,8 $27. 000,0 $87. 750,0 $60. 750,0 $8. 437,5 $21. 000,3 $48. 750,0 $1. 041. 750,0 $629. 560,9 $252. 000,0 $110. 500,0 $76. 500,0 $12. 937,5 $104. 498,4 $73. 25,0 glaring Margin GS&A Operating Income % Gross Margin * Cost allocation slide 11 $253. 376,0 $172. 500,9 -$13. 687,8 $412. 189,1 $350. 000,0 $62. 189,1 22,31% 42,76% 19,71% -3,60% 12 Cost Allocation DM&DL SQxSP Valves Prod. Units 7500 DM costs 16 DL costs 12. 35 Pumps 12500 20 16. 25 Flow Contr. 4000 22 13 OH Activities Set up hrs Machine hrs Receiving& control hrs Packaging & Shipment hrs Engeneering hrs Pr Units x DLhrs Mhrs+set up hrs(machine) (75/60) x production runs (50/60) x ship + (8/60) x pr. Units Eng hrs Valves 2850 3850 25 1. 033,33 60 Pumps 6250 6850 125 1750 240Flow contr 1600 3900 281,25 700 600 Total hrs used 10700 14600 431,25 3483,33 900 Capacity Costs Production workers 32,5 Indirect workers 30 Machines 81,25 Engineers 22,5 13 Q3. b Product costs and profitability with new cost grant ? old cost assignment DL cost DM cost Man OH cost (185%) Std Unit cost Target selling price Planned gross margin Actual selling price Actual Gross margin Actual gross margin% Valves Pumps $12,35 $16,25 $16,00 $20,00 $22,85 $30,06 $51,20 $66,31 $78,77 $102,02 35% 35% $79,00 $70,00 $27,80 $3,69 35% 5% Flow C $13,00 $22,00 $24,05 $59,05 $90,85 35% $95,00 $35,95 38% ? new cost assignmentDL cost DM cost Man OH cost Std Unit cost Target selling price Planned gross margin Actual selling price Actual Gross margin Actual gross margin% Valves $12,35 $16,00 $16,87 $45,22 $78,77 43% $79,00 $33,78 43% Pumps $16,25 $20,00 $19,95 $56,20 $102,02 45% $70,00 $13,80 20% Flow C $13,00 $22,00 $63,42 $98,42 $90,85 -8% $95,00 -$3,42 -4% Valves more profitable 35%(old) vs (43%) No changes in expectations Lower cost allocated less activities dedicated to their production(std products, large lots) Pumps No meet expectations, but still profitable 20% Lower cost allocated less activities dedicated to their production (std products) Flow controllers No profitable -4% Higher cost many activities and people used in their production Q3. B 14 The shift is caused by the Time-driven ABC me thod Costs are allocated to product lines which absorb more costs more detailed and tenacious production process for flow controllers .. 15 Q4. What actions should the management take to improve Sippicans profitability? Flow Controllers Flow controllers not profitable as anticipate $253. 87,8 $27. 000,0 $87. 750,0 $60. 750,0 $8. 437,5 $21. 000,3 $48. 750,0 High setup costs (148000) compared to the other overheads TOH* Machine related expenses Setup labor Setup Machine R&P Control P&S Engeneering Potential solutions Impose a minimum quantity order to lower set up costs Gross margin -3,6 (how to convince customers to buy a minimum quantity? ) Production process improvement, with lower set up times 16 Q&A

Informative Speech on Art Communication

A. Gain Attention The most famous quote that people associate with art is A picture paints a guanine words. Although this is a quote widely known, I would say that the quote Painting is a blind mans profession. He paints not what he sees, but what he feels, what he publishs himself close what he has seen accurately describes the essence of art. B. Arouse Interest Art is an outlet for self-expression and creativity. with the use of paintings many artists pee created works that have become known throughout the entire world. And why are these paintings so famous? visual aid Andy Warhol, American Gothic, Guernica, The Persistence of Memory, The Last Supper, The Scream) * Complexity * line of reasoning C. Thesis Statement. Without a doubt, art is a form of confabulation that allows one to express what they cannot accomplish through the use of words. D. Establish Qualifications through the art story course that I took here at Seneca Valley and the extensive research that I have d one I have discovered many ways through which art can communicate a message that the artist wants to make public.E. Forecast Organization and Development There is a form of communication called aesthetic communication and this is what the messages given through the form of art are. They are creative representations of an artists ideas, perspective, views, and values through the use of various symbols, colors, and methods. Through these uses of art, the artist creates cockeyedingful works, whose purpose is to invoke a response from the audience. There are hundreds of examples of paintings that have had huge effects on union.There are paintings which have captured taradiddle and the values during a certain cartridge holder and there are paintings that have made a social commentary on the time of creation. BODY A. Through the use of symbols, many paintings convey messages that great power mean different things for different people. Visual aid the persistence of time and Andy Warh ols Campbells soup. What are these artists laborious to say? Symbolism of melting clocks, ants, and the fading painting Andy Warhols symbolism of the soup cans humor, poking fun at the traditional painting of the fruit bowl, repetition.virtuoso might not immediately derive this from looking at the painting. Some might even criticize it because they dont understand the message. All these things might mean aroundthing different to soul from a different culture. What you are exposed to ultimately influences your thoughts and perceptions on a subject and artists do count for this. They know that there are differences in the way that people see their paintings. They embrace this. Everything is not always black and white in the world of art.Although many art historians analyze paintings for years and years, sometimes in some cases, we may never know the entirety of the message that the artist wanted to convey through the painting. These two paintings attempt to tell a story through th e use of these symbols B. Paintings have also become a way to capture history in the making. They were used before photographs and now, some paintings are the only things we have to rely on for knowledge about certain ancient cultures. It is said that art is a way of communicating that which is within to those who are on the outside. The artists who capture these moments in history, obviously found it necessary that they paint it. They want to show the world an event, a person, or a center that has extreme significance to them. Take for example, Pablo Picassos Guernica. This painting was a response to the devastating events which took place in Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. The painting shows severed head, damage animals and bodies, and overall suffering. Through this painting Picasso made a comment on how war and fighting ultimately leads to suffering of innocent beings.This painting clearly shows his anti-war views and his packaging of peace. Francisco De Goyas paintin g Tres De Mayo Shows French soldiers being executed for defending Madrid. The way that it is portrayed in the painting, you can obviously tell what Goya thought about this event. He felt the need for these martyrs to be remembered. He valued their lives and wanted justice for what the French had done. This is also a way to communicate what took place on that day and through these horrible images, the painting can be interpreted as a call to arms, to defend Spain.Going back to symbolism, the stance of the man in white says a lot about Goyas view. He has a Christ like stance in the painting, which shows that Goya believes that he is a martyr. He is someone sacrificing himself for his people. C. Paintings are also used to make social commentary on beliefs or issues that we face in the world. One of the most famous paintings that reflects a time in history is American Gothic. This painting has been taken to be a satire of the MidWestern life and way of thinking during the time that Gran t wood painted it.This painting is widely used to show current social issues and the people in the painting are usually replaced with what the current culture believes is the standard. In those times this painting reflected the simpler life, but the meaning is unknown. Many believe that he was being satirical, poking fun at the innocence of the Western life and the simplicity. The agnomen also seems to be satirical as well, American Gothic. The Gothic movement was most certainly not American and he might be making fun by comparing adding this gothic architecture to the surrounding all American scene in the painting.Andy Warhols The Last Supper Series One painting in particular features an outline of the last supper painting and brand names plastered all over the painting. This is a comment on our society today and our obsession with materialistic things, comparing it to the times of the last supper makes our obsession seem even more dramatic. The painting is also a comment on the excessive advertisements in our society today. BIBLIOGRAPHY http//www. brainyquote. com/quotes/keywords/painting. html

Marketing concept and role as marketer for ipt

marketing is broad based activities involve the strategies surrounding the planning, designing, pricing, promotion, diffusion of goods to satisfy and run into the needs of customers. The centre focus of marketing activities is built around the customers. Thus, the marketing 4Ps (product, pricing, promotion, and place) are strategically enforced to bringing satisfaction to customers and at the same time make the organization or business maximize profits. Thus, the different marketing strategies pricing strategy, distributivestrategy, promotional strategy, sales strategy, product base and branding strategy, inter-alia, these are synchronize in meeting the marketingobjectives of the organization.Playing the percentage of marketer for IPT product, strategic marketing plays a significant aspect in the execution of my marketing functions. Strategy is concerned with effectiveness rather than efficiency and is the process of analyzing the environment and designing the fit between the o rganization, its resources and objectives and the environment (Proctor, 2000). The roles thus intromit engaging the aforementioned marketing strategies to creating maximum satisfaction to customers, at the same time maximizing profit for the organization. Firstly, a product should be design to meet and satisfy the need of customers.Here, adequate research need to be conducted to ensure that the product is adequate to satisfy customers want, also making sure the quality surpasses that of agonistical products in line to the IPT product. The next ill-treat is to ensure, that the right cost is set for the product in such a way that it would not be at a lower place priced, where the organization cannot break-even, or over priced where customers would prefer rivals product to our company product. Market skimming enables the marketer to know the price of competitors products and the right price to set for its own product. This is done after the marketer has weighed its costs of produc tion in line with the price it decide to set for the product.Another significant role the marketer plays promotional strategy. In this case, the creation of awareness of the product to the public will burst the sales volume to be derived. Thus, adequate promotional strategy is significant role the marketer plays to increase sales volume for the product. The promotional strategy may involve trade exhibition, personal selling, and customers orientation on how to go for the product among others. The marketer has different media for product promotion.This can be done through engaging mass media such as the print media, television, radio broadcasts, or the internet. Constant communication and feedback to customers keep them informed and know more ab knocked out(p) the organizations product and innovative trend introduced by the organization. The strategy for diffusion of product (place) is done to ensure that the product is available to customers when, and where the need it at the righ t time.The marketer also seeks out ways to satisfy the different phratry of customers and their needs. Marketing segmentation is a tool that is utilized in influencing the development of an organizations product base. Market segmentation has the goal to seek out consumers who have similar desires and behavior, and thus forming heterogeneous segments to satisfy the different customers needs.Thus, customers response to price is a significant factor that results in the implementation of market segmentation by an organization. This also affects the marketing mix (product, price, distribution, and promotion) of the organization.The marketer faces the challenge of how to make product of IPT be a product leader in the industry it operates. It is and so a big projection on how to always strategy in such a way to make the organization be a step ahead of its competitors through curving a niche for the organization. Rivals from time to time bring out strategy to counter those of other orga nization. Thus, it is then a task of the marketer to know how to strategize in such a way that the strategies of other competitors do not affect the smooth operations of the organization.ReferenceProctor, Tony (2000), Strategic Marketing An Introduction London Routledge

Government Spending on Healthcare

Government Spending on Health negociate Talia Oliver 10/22/2012 HCS/440 Donna Lupinacci, MSN The article I read was written by Marg atomic number 18t Cuomo, M. D. and it focused on health care cost and how the government is doing extra spend in health care. According to the article, the government has played out nearly $750 billion dollars on medical care that was not needed. Some of the areas where the author believes that the bills has been wasted pee-pee been in unnecessary go, excessive administrative costs, inflated prices, pr nonethelesstion failures and fraud.The issue is that this spending is not truly lend to the improvement of patient health. The author the author had stated that Flaws in the current system of crabmeat conductment contribute to unnecessary spending (Cuomo, 2012). There is so much money macrocosm spent on the blood tests, diagnostic s masss and other medical procedures that deal with cancer and it is costing about $ two hundred billion every year. With their being so much unnecessary spending on healthcare, Cuomo discussed how a collection called the IOM committee was fit to come up with ways in post to cut the spending and be competent to continue to provide quality health service.Government Regulation on Media in AmericaThe article discusses that the IOM believes that Eliminating wasteful spending for just one year ($750 billion) would be equal to much than 10 years of Medicare cuts (Cuomo, 2012). This wasteful spending according to the article cant continue to happen and it is important that we understand where the money is being spent and how the excessive spending can be changed. My opinion of the article is that on that point is in like manner much money being spent by the government on healthcare that is not contributing to ensuring the improvement of patient health.When you look at the unnecessary medical care, there are services that are not needed but the money is being wasted when it could be spent somewher e else. pubic louse is a serious issue and I believe it is important for patients to get assistance to help treat cancer. However, there are times that some patients are a bit paranoid and believe they meet cancer and request tests to be sure. This is not necessary if the patient shows no signs of having cancer and the money can be saved. I believe that the article is very valid with saying that a lot of the spending is going to unnecessary things.The reason why I believe this is because there are those patients who are able to afford care and cant get covered for care collect to the event that there is not enough funding available. The article is also valid in identifying ways that the unnecessary costs can be cut without disrupting the quality of care given to the patients. The ability to save money by cutting the unnecessary spending can help the money go to services like Medicare. I believe that the spending discussed in this article is way too much on unnecessary services t hat are not helping to improve patients health.There is no reason that $750 billion is being wasted and it could go to services that can help those who cant afford healthcare and those on Medicare. I believe that the government could focus that money on prevention methods that would help to avoid patients requiring more care. Prevention efforts are important and yet the government doesnt invest enough money in it. The article had stated that recently The House of Representatives voted 236 to 183 to repeal the Affordable health Care Acts Prevention and Public Health Trust Fund (Cuomo, 2012).Instead of trying to prevent the spending on unnecessary services and issues, repealing this act just ensures that there will be more costs to come due to the fact that prevention efforts are not being taken seriously. In conclusion, this article talked about the fact that a lot of the government spending on healthcare is being wasted on unnecessary services. The government is spending money on he althcare that can be cut in order to spend money where it is needed in healthcare.If the government focused more on being able to cut costs and provide quality care, $750 billion can go to Medicare services or even to state agencies that are trying to help uninsured patients get proper care. The government spending on healthcare should be spent on ensuring the improvement of patients health. References Cuomo, M. (2012, September 25). Margaret I. Cuomo, M. D. The Truth most Health Care Costs. Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post. Retrieved October 23, 2012, from http//www. huffingtonpost. com/margaret-i-cuomo-md/health-care-costs_b_1901742. html

Motives for American Colonization

The discovery of the naked as a jaybird public by Christopher Columbus led to a radical chapter in history that no one at the time could have anticipated. For many Europeans, it offered a better life than the one they were living, which led to the colonization of the Americas. Motives that fueled European colonization were that the New World offered religious freedom, a fresh galvanise for those who were impoverished and in debt, and better opportunities to acquire large amounts of agriculture and wealth. The Protestant Reformation in the 16th century led to conflict between Catholics and Protestants who sought to tidy up the Catholic Church.At the start of the 17th century, Puritan Separatists became subject of harassment, which made many flee to the New World where they could uphold Separatist communities away from any persecution. Christian missionaries also went to the Americas in search of new converts. They saw the indigenous people of the New World as savage and uneduca ted, taking it into their own and reservation it their duty to bring them into the Christian faith. An opposite motive for European colonization of the Americas was for a fresh start in a new land. England in the 17th century had little job opportunity and down in the mouth wages, leaving many young men looking for work.Those who opted to go to the New World were given a chance to clear their debts along with a chance at life in the colonies, in change for a set amount of labor as an obligate servant. These people were promised their freedom , small separate of land, tools to farm, and clothes once their time as indentured servants was up. To the thousands of jobless, bachelors in England, this was an offer to sweet to resist. Many early(a) Europeans in search of economic opportunity made the long trip to the Americas, not to become indentured servants escaping their debts, but rather to make their fortunes in the fertile soils of the colonies.This was especially true in the Ca ribbean, and in the southern region of the English colonies, where sugar and tobacco could be grown in abundance. These were commodities that went into high demand in Europe, making plantation owners fabulously wealthy. Those who had the most money also held the most influence in regime around the colonies. With this in mind, along with the relatively low prices to acquire vast amounts of land, middle and upper-class Europeans also found the New World to be very attractive.There were many different motives for Europeans to leave their lives foot and come to the America. One of these was the promise of religious freedom, being able to practice a faith and establish religious communities without fear of persecution, or to seek coverts to the Christian faith. Other motives were for economic opportunity, whether it was to start over in the New World without debt, or to establish oneself as a successful plantation owner. These and countless other reasons drove thousands of European m en and women to the Americas.

Travelling Abroad Is a Waste of Money

TRAVELLING ABROAD IS A WASTE OF MONEY I potently disagree that locomotion abroad is a waste of money because we hindquarters learn history of civilizations, we can learn cultures of varied peoples and we can witness the greatness of Allah. Firstly, in Surah Al- Ankabut 20, Allah says Travel the earth then touch how He makes the first creation, then Allah creates the latter creations What this verse indicates is the disappearance of one nation to give vest to another. For instance, the nation of the Pharaohs has been replaced by modern Egypt.Other nations which have disappeared include the people of Ad and Thamud in the Middle-East. Through travelling we can learn the history and witness the remains of these civilizations. Secondly, we can learn the cultures of disparate peoples around the world. In Surah Ruum 22, Allah says And of His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and the diversity of your tongues and colours.. . Hence, if we travel from China across t o Europe, we will retrieve peoples of different looks, colours, sizes, cultures, languages, and ways of living.They include Chinese, Japanese, Indians, Persians, Arabs, and Europeans. All look different from one another, speak different languages, and practise different cultures. Finally, in Surah Ibrahim 32, Allah says Allah made ships subservient to you to run their course in the sea by His command ,and He has made the rivers subservient to you. This verse tells us that Allah provides the facilities for mankind to travel( by sea or river ). In so doing one can appreciate the creations and greatness of Allah.For instance, sailing in the seas will give us the opportunity to see sharks, beautiful islands, and the huge waves. Sailing in the rivers will give us the opportunity to see the numerous floras and faunas, rapids, and waterfalls. Although travelling abroad does cost a lot of money, inconvenience and sometimes have to saying some difficulty, in my opinion, travelling abr oad is not a waste of money because of the benefits we can proceed from it. 336 words

Black House Chapter Three

3OUT TYLERS WINDOW we go, away from Libertyville, flying s let show up(p)hwest on a diagonal, non lingering right away merely re exclusivelyy flapping those everyplaceage wings, flying with a purpose. Were headed toward the heliograph flash of early-morning sun on the Father of Waters, alike toward the worlds largest six-pack. Between it and County Road Oo (we can key off it Nail-house Row if we trust were practic each toldy honorary citizens of French Landing in a flash) is a radio receiver tower, the warning beacon light on top now invisible in the bright sunshine of this newborn July day. We smell cola and trees and warming earth, and as we draw closer to the tower, we also smell the yeasty, fecund aroma of beer.Next to the radio tower, in the industrial park on the east mastermindment of Peninsula Drive, is a shortsighted cinder-block building with a parking lot just big enough for half(a) a dozen cars and the Coulee patrol van, an agedness Ford Econoline pain ted candy-apple pink. As the day winds ware and good afternoon wears into reddening, the cylindrical shadows of the six-pack pull up stakes decline in quality first over the compress on the balding lawn facing the drive, then the building, then the parking lot. KDCU-AM, this marking enunciates, YOUR TALK VOICE IN COULEE COUNTRY. Spray-painted across it, in a pink that approximately matches the patrol van, is a fervent declaration TROY LUVS MARYANN YES Later on, Howie Soule, the U- faction engineer, depart clean this strike ( in all probability during the Rush Limbaugh show, which is satellite ply and totally automated), nonwithstanding for now it stays, telling us all we need to hold out surface fount-nigh small-t induce luv in middle America. Looks the corresponding we found any(prenominal)thing nice after all.Coming out of the stations location penetration as we arrive is a slender man dressed in pl flowed khaki Dockers, a tieless color garb of Egyptian cott on plainlyt cardinald all the way to the neck, and maroon braces (they are as boil down as he is, those braces, and far in any case cool to be call covered suspenders suspenders are vulgar things worn by such creatures as Chipper Maxton and Sonny Heartfield, down at the funeral home). This silver-hai vehement swell is also erosion a precise sharp straw fedora, antique al whiz beautifully kept. The maroon hatband matches his braces. Aviator-style sunglasses cover his eyes. He takes a position on the grass to the left of the door, infra a battered speaker that is amping KDCUs electric current b roadcast the local news. This will be followed by the Chicago farm report, which weakens him ten minutes in front he has to settle in behind the mike erstwhile again.We watch in growing puzzlement as he produces a pack of American Spirit cigarettes from his shirt scoopful and fires single up with a gold lighter. Surely this elegant fellow in the braces, Dockers, and Bass Weejuns cannot be George Rathbun. In our minds we choose already built up a picture of George, and it is ace of a fellow very different from this. In our minds eye we see a guy with a huge belly hanging over the white belt of his checked pants (all those ballpark bratwursts), a brick-red complexion (all those ballpark beers, not to mention all that bellowing at the dastardly umps), and a squat, broad neck (perfect for housing those asbestos vocal cords). The George Rathbun of our imagination and all of Coulee Countrys, it to the highest degree goes without scaning is a pop-eyed, broad-assed, wild-haired, leather-lunged, Rolaids-popping, Chevy-driving, Republican-voting heart attack waiting to happen, a churning urn of sports trivia, mad enthusiasms, disgusted prejudices, and high cholesterol.This fellow is not that fellow. This fellow moves like a dancer. This fellow is iced tea on a hot day, cool as the king of spades. exactly prescribe, thats the joke of it, isnt it? Uh-huh. The joke of the lucubrate dee-jay with the splutterny region, yet turned inside out. In a very real sense, George Rathbun does not exist at all. He is a hobby in action, a fiction in the flesh, and and mavin of the shorten mans triplex personalities. The people at KDCU get his real touch and think theyre in on the joke (the lagger line of melodic phrase being Georges trademark line, the even-a-blind-man thing), but they dont know the half of it. Nor is this a metaphorical statement. They know exactly one-third of it, because the man in the Dockers and the straw fedora is actually four people.In any(prenominal) case, George Rathbun has been the saving of KDCU, the last surviving AM station in a predatory FM market. For cinque mornings a week, week in and week out, he has been a drive-time bonanza. The U-Crew (as they call themselves) slam him just about to death.Above him, the loudspeaker cackles on keep mum no leads, according to capitulum Dale Gilbertson, who has cal led Herald reporter Wendell green ?an out-of- townsfolk disquietudemonger who is to a greater extent interested in selling papers than in how we do things in French Landing.Meanwhile, in Arden, a house fire has taken the lives of an elderly farmer and his wife. Horst P. Lepplemier and his wife, Gertrude, two eighty-two . . .Horst P. Lepplemier, says the slim man, drawing on his cigarette with what appears to be great enjoyment. Try saying that one ten quantify fast, you moke. Behind him and to his right, the door opens again, and although the smoker is still standing directly beneath the speaker, he hears the door dead well. The eyes behind the aviator shades amaze been dead his whole life, but his hearing is exquisite.The entrant is pasty- exhibitd and comes blinking into the morning sun like a baby mole that has just been turned out of its burrow by the blade of a passing plow. His head has been s invited except for the Mo-hawk strip up the center of his skull and the pigt ail that extends just above the nape of his neck and hangs to his shoulder blades. The Mohawk has been dyed bright red the tail is electric blue. Dangling from one ear-lobe is a lightning-bolt earring that looks suspiciously like the Nazi S.S. insignia. He is wearing a torn black T-shirt with a logo that reads SNIVELLING SHITS 97 THE WE GET HARD FOR JESUS TOUR. In one hand this colorful fellow has a CD jewel box.Hello, Morris, says the slim man in the fedora, still without turning.Morris constructions in a junior-grade gasp, and in his surprise looks like the nice Jewish male child that he actually is. Morris Rosen is the U-Crews summer intern from the Oshkosh branch of UW. Man, I love that unpaid grunt fag out station manager Tom Wiggins has been heard to say, usually while rubbing his hands together fiendishly. n unendingly has a checkbook been guarded so righteously as the Wigger guards the KDCU check-book. He is like Smaug the Dragon reclining on his heaps of gold (not? th at t here(predicate) are heaps of anything in the DCU accounts it bears rep take in to say that, as an AM talker, the station is lucky just to be alive).Morriss look of surprise it powerfulness be fair to call it uneasy surprise dissolves into a grimace. Wow, Mr. Leyden Good grab What a pair of earsThen he frowns. still if Mr. Leyden whos standing directly beneath the outside honker, cant forget that heard roundone come out, how in Gods name did he know which someone it was?Howd you know it was me? he asks.Only two people approximately here smell like marijuana in the morning, heat content Leyden says. One of them follows his morning smoke with Scope the another(prenominal) thats you, Morris just lets her rip.Wow, Morris says respectfully. That is totally bitchrod.I am totally bitchrod, hydrogen agrees. He speaks softly and thoughtfully. Its a clod job, but somebody has to do it. In regard to your morning rendezvous with the undeniably flavoursome Tai stick, may I clear uper an Appalachian aphorism?Go, dude. This is Morriss first real discussion with total heat Leyden, who is both bit the head Morris has been told to expect. Every bit and to a greater extent. It is no longer so hard to count that he could gestate another identity . . . a secret identity, like Bruce Wayne. But still . . . this is just so pimp.What we do in our childhood forms as a habit, Henry says in the same soft, totally un?CGeorge Rathbun voice. That is my advice to you, Morris.Yeah, totally, Morris says. He has no clue what Mr. Leyden is talking about. But he slowly, shyly, extends the CD jewel box in his hand. For a moment, when Henry makes no move to take it, Morris feels crushed, all at once seven years old again and trying to wow his always-too-busy father with a picture he has fatigued all afternoon drawing in his dwell. Then he thinks, Hes blind, dickweed. He may be able to smell crumb on your breath and he may have ears like a bat, but hows he vatical to k now youre holding out a fucking CD?Hesitantly, a bit frightened by his own temerity, Morris takes Henrys wrist. He feels the man start a little, but then Leyden allows his hand to be manoeuvre to the slender box.Ah, a CD, Henry says. And what is it, pray tell?You gotta play the seventh track tonight on your show, Morris says.Please.For the first time, Henry looks alarmed. He takes a drag on his cigarette, then drops it (without even smell of course, ha ha) into the sand-filled plastic pose by the door.What show could you possibly mean? he asks.Instead of answering directly, Morris makes a rapid little smacking noise with his lips, the sound of a small but voracious carnivore eating something tasty. And, to make things worse, he follows it with the Wisconsin Rats trademark line, as well known to the folks in Morriss age conclave as George Rathbuns hoarse Even a blind man cry is known to their elders Chew it up, eat it up, wash it down, it aaallll comes out the same placeHe doesn t do it very well, but theres no challenge who hes doing the one and but Wisconsin Rat, whose evening drive-time program on KWLA-FM is famous in Coulee Country (except the word we probably indispensability is infamous). KWLA is the tiny college FM station in La Riviere, hardly more than a smudge on the wallpaper of Wisconsin radio, but the Rats audience is huge.And if anyone found out that the comfortable Brew Crew?Crooting, Republican-voting, AM-broadcasting George Rathbun was also the Rat who had once narrated a gleeful on-air evacuation of his bowels onto a Backstreet Boys CD there could be trouble. Quite serious, possibly, resounding well beyond the tight-knit little radio community.What in Gods name would ever make you think that Im the Wisconsin Rat, Morris? Henry asks. I barely know who youre talking about. Who establish such a weird thought in your head?An certified source, Morris says craftily.He wont grunge Howie Soule up, not even if they pull out his fingernail s with red-hot tongs. Besides, Howie only found out by accident went into the station crapper one day after Henry left and discovered that Henrys wallet had fallen out of his back pocket while he was sitting on the throne. Youd have thought a fellow whose other senses were so patently tightwired would have sensed the absence, but probably Henrys mind had been on other things he was obviously a big(p) dude who undoubtedly spent his eld getting through some heavy thoughts. In any case, there was a KWLA I.D. card in Henrys wallet (which Howie had thumbed through in the spirit of friendly curiosity, as he put it), and on the line marked NAME, someone had stamped a little inkpad drawing of a rat. topic closed, game over, zip up your fly.I have neer in my life so much as stepped through the door of KWLA, Henry says, and this is the secure truth. He makes the Wisconsin Rat tapes (among others) in his studio at home, then sends them in to the station from the downtown harness Boxes Etc., where he rents under the name of Joe Strummer. The card with the rat stamped on it was more in the nature of an invitation from the KWLA supply than anything else, one hes neer taken up . . . but he kept the card.Have you become anyone elses in create source, Morris?Huh?Have you told anyone that you think Im the Wisconsin Rat?No Course not Which, as we all know, is what people always say.Luckily for Henry, in this case it happens to be accredited. So far, at least, but the day is still young.And you wont, will you? Because rumors have a way of taking root. Just like certain faulty habits. Henry mimes puffing, wrench in smoke.I know how to keep my mouth shut, Morris declares, with perhaps misplaced pride.I hope so. Because if you bruited this about, Id have to kill you.Bruited, Morris thinks. Oh man, this guy is complete.Kill me, yeah, Morris says, laughing.And eat you, Henry says. He is not laughing not even smiling.Yeah, right. Morris laughs again, but this time the laug h sounds strangely forced to his own ears. Like youre Hannibal Lecture.No, like Im the angleerman, Henry says. He slowly turns his aviator sunglasses toward Morris. The sun reflects off them, for a moment turning them into rufous eyes of fire. Morris takes a step back without even realizing that he has done so. Albert look for liked to start with the ass, did you know that?N Yes indeed. He claimed that a good act of young ass was as sweet as a veal cutlet. His exact words. Written in a letter to the mother of one of his victims.Far out, Morris says. His voice sounds faint to his own ears, the voice of a plump little pig denying entrance to the big bad wolf. But Im not exactly, like, worried that youre the Fisherman.No? Why not?Man, youre blind, for one thingHenry says nothing, only stares at the now vastly uneasy Morris with his fiery glass eyes. And Morris thinks But is he blind? He gets around pretty good for a blind guy . . . and the way he tabbed me as in short as I came out here, how weird was that?Ill keep quiet, he says. Honest to God.Thats all I want, Henry says mildly. Now that weve got that straight, what exactly have you brought me? He holds up the CD but not as if hes looking at at it, Morris observes with vast relief.Its, um, this Racine group. Dirtysperm? And theyve got this cover of ?Where Did Our Love Go? The old Supremes thing? Only they do it at like a hundred and fifty beats a minute? Its fuckin hilarious. I mean, it destroys the whole pop thing, man, blitzes itDirtysperm, Henry says. Didnt they utilize to be Jane Wyatts Clit?Morris looks at Henry with awe that could easily become love. Dirtysperms lead guitarist, like, formed JWC, man. Then him and the bass guy had this political falling-out, something about doyen Kissinger and Henry Acheson, and Ucky Ducky hes the guitarist went off to form Dirtysperm. ?Where Did Our Love Go? Henry muses, then hands the CD back. And, as if he sees the way Morriss face falls I cant be seen with som ething like that use your head. Stick it in my locker.Morriss gloom disappears and he breaks into a sunny smile. Yeah, okay You got it, Mr. LeydenAnd dont let anyone see you doing it. Especially not Howie Soule. Howies a bit of a snoop. Youd do well not to emulate him.No way, baby Still smiling, delighted at how all this has gone, Morris reaches for the door handle.And Morris?Yeah?Since you know my secret, perhaps youd better call me Henry.Henry Yeah Is this the best morning of the summer for Morris Rosen? You better believe it.And something else.Yeah? Henry? Morris dares imagine a day when they will progress to Hank and Morrie. defy your mouth shut about the Rat.I already told you Yes, and I believe you. But lure comes creeping, Morris temptation comes creeping like a thief in the night, or like a killer in search of prey. If you give in to temptation, Ill know. Ill smell it on your skin like bad cologne. Do you believe me?Uh . . . yeah. And he does. Later, when he has time to k ick back and reflect, Morris will think what a ridiculous idea that is, but yes, at the time, he believes it. Believes him. Its like being hypnotized.Very good. Now off you go. I want Ace Hardware, Zaglat Chevy, and Mr. Tastee Ribs all cued up for the first seg.Gotcha.Also, last nights game Wickman striking out the side in the eighth? That was pimp. Totally, like, un-Brewers.No, I think we want the Mark Loretta home run in the fifth. Loretta doesnt hit more, and the fans like him. I cant think why. Even a blind man can see he has no range, especially from deep in the hole. Go on, son. Put the CD in my locker, and if I see the Rat, Ill give it to him. Im sure hell give it a spin.The track Seven, seven, rhymes with heaven. I wont forget and neither will he. Go on, now.Morris gives him a final grateful look and goes back inside. Henry Leyden, alias George Rathbun, alias the Wisconsin Rat, also alias Henry Shake (well get to that one, but not now the hour draweth late), lights anothe r cigarette and drags deep. He wont have time to finish it the farm report is already in full flight (hog bellies up, wheat futures down, and the corn as high as an elephants eye), but he needs a couple of drags just now to steady himself. A long, long day stretches out ahead of him, ending with the Strawberry Fest Hop at Maxton Elder Care, that house of antiquarian horrors. God save him from the clutches of William Chipper Maxton, he has often thought. disposed(p) a choice between ending his days at MEC and trending his face off with a blowtorch, he would reach for the blowtorch every time. Later, if hes not totally exhausted, perhaps his friend from up the road will come over and they can begin the long-promised reading of Bleak House. That would be a treat.How long, he wonders, can Morris Rosen hold on to his momentous secret? Well, Henry supposes he will find that out. He likes the Rat too much to give him up unless he absolutely has to that much is an undeniable fact. Dean K issinger, he murmurs. Henry Acheson. Ucky Ducky. God save us.He takes another drag on his cigarette, then drops it into the bucket of sand. It is time to go back inside, time to replay last nights Mark Loretta home run, time to start taking more calls from the Coulee Countrys dedicated sports fans.And time for us to be off. Seven oclock has rung from the Lutheran church steeple.In French Landing, things are getting into high gear. No one lies abed long in this part of the world, and we must speed along to the end of our tour. Things are going to start happening soon, and they may happen fast. Still, we have done well, and we have only one more stop to make sooner arriving at our final goal.We rise on the warm summer updrafts and hover for a moment by the KDCU tower (we are close enough to hear the tik-tik-tik of the beacon and the low, rather sinister hum of electricity), looking north and taking our bearings. Eight miles upriver is the town of Great absolute, named for the lime s tone of voice outcropping that rises there. The outcropping is reputed to be haunted, because in 1888 a chief of the Fox Indian tribe (Far Eyes was his name) assembled all his warriors, shamans, squaws, and children and told them to leap to their deaths, thereby escaping some hideous fate he had glimpsed in his dreams. Far Eyess followers, like Jim Joness, did as they were bidden.We wont go that far upriver, only we have enough ghosts to deal with right here in French Landing. Let us alternatively fly over Nailhouse Row once more (the Harleys are gone Beezer St. Pierre has led the bellowing Five off to their days work at the brewery), over Queen Street and Maxton Elder Care (Burnys down there, still looking out his windowpane ugh), to Bluff Street. This is almost the countryside again. Even now, in the twenty-first century, the towns in Coulee Country give up quickly to the woods and the fields.Herman Street is a left turn from Bluff Street, in an area that is not quite town an d not quite city. Here, in a elusive brick house sitting at the end of a half-mile meadow as yet undiscovered by the developers (even here there are a few developers, unknowing agents of slippage), lives Dale Gilbertson with his wife, Sarah, and his six-year-old son, David.We cant stay long, but let us at least drift in through the kitchen window for a moment. Its open, after all, and there is room for us to perch right here on the counter, between the Silex and the toaster. Sitting at the kitchen table, reading the newsprint and shoveling Special K into his mouth without tasting it (he has forgotten both the sugar and the sliced banana in his distress at seeing yet another Wendell parkland byline on the front page of the Herald), is Chief Gilbertson himself. This morning he is without doubt the unhappiest man in French Landing. We will meet his only contender for that booby prize soon, but for the moment, let us stick with Dale.The Fisherman, he thinks mournfully, his reflectio ns on this subject very similar to those of Bobby Dulac and Tom Lund. Why didnt you name him something a little more turn-of-the-century, you troublesome scribbling fuck? Something a little bit local? Dahmerson, maybe, thatd be good.Ah, but Dale knows why. The similarities between Albert Fish, who did his work in New York, and their boy here in French Landing are just too good too tasty to be ignored. Fish strangled his victims, as both Amy St. Pierre and Johnny Irkenham were apparently strangled Fish dined on his victims, as both the girl and the boy were apparently dined upon both Fish and the current fellow showed an especial liking for the . . . well, for the posterior regions of the anatomy.Dale looks at his cereal, then drops his spoon into the mush and pushes the bowl away with the side of his hand.And the garner. Cant forget the letters.Dale glances down at his briefcase, crouched at the side of his chair like a faithful dog. The shoot down is in there, and it draws him like a rotted, achy tooth draws the tongue. Maybe he can keep his hands off it, at least while hes here at home, where he plays toss with his son and makes love to his wife, but keeping his mind off it . . . thats a whole nother thing, as they also say in these parts.Albert Fish wrote a long and horribly explicit letter to the mother of Grace Budd, the victim who finally take in the old cannibal a trip to the electric chair. (What a thrill electrocution will be Fish reputedly told his jailers. The only one I havent tried) The current doer has written similar letters, one addressed to Helen Irkenham, the other to Amys father, the awful (but genuinely grief-stricken, in Dales estimation) Armand Beezer St. Pierre. It would be good if Dale could believe these letters were written by some troublemaker not otherwise connected to the murders, but both take away information that has been withheld from the press, information that presumably only the killer could know.Dale at last gives in to temptation (how well Henry Leyden would understand) and hauls up his briefcase. He opens it and puts a thick file where his cereal bowl lately rested. He returns the briefcase to its place by his chair, then opens the file (it is marked ST. PIERRE/IRKENHAM rather than FISHERMAN). He leafs past grave school photos of two smiling, gap-toothed children, past state medical examiner reports too horrible to read and crime-scene photos too horrible to look at (ah, but he must look at them, again and again he must look at them the blood-slicked chains, the flies, the open eyes). in that respect are also diverse transcripts, the longest being the interview with Spencer Hovdahl, who found the Irkenham boy and who was, very briefly, considered a suspect.Next come drive out copies of three letters. One had been sent to George and Helen Irkenham (addressed to Helen alone, if it do any difference). One went to Armand Beezer St. Pierre (addressed just that way, too, nickname and all). The third had been sent to the mother of Grace Budd, of New York metropolis, following the murder of her daughter in the late spring of 1928.Dale lays the three of them out, side by side.Grace sat in my lap and kissed me. I made up my mind to eat her. So Fish had written to Mrs. Budd.Amy sat in my lap and hugged me. I made up my mind to eat her. So had Beezer St. Pierres correspondent written, and was it any wonder the man had threatened to burn the French Landing police station to the ground? Dale doesnt like the son of a bitch, but has to lease he might feel the same way in Beezers shoes.I went upstairs and stripped all my clothes off. I knew if I did not I would get her blood on them. Fish, to Mrs. Budd.I went around back of the hen-house and stripped all my cloes off. New if I did not I would get his blood on them. unknown, to Helen Irkenham. And here was a question How could a mother receive a letter like that and observe her sanity? Was that possible? Dale thought not. Helen a nswered questions coherently, had even offered him tea the last time he was out there, but she had a glassy, poleaxed look in her eye that suggested she was running entirely on instruments.Three letters, two new, one almost seventy-five years old. And yet all three are so similar. The St. Pierre letter and the Irkenham letter had been hand-printed by someone who was left-handed, according to the state experts. The paper was plain white Hammermill mimeo, available in every Office Depot and Staples in America. The pen used had probably been a Bic now, there was a lead.Fish to Mrs. Budd, back in 28 I did not fuck her tho I could of had I wished. She died a virgin.Anonymous to Beezer St. Pierre I did NOT fuck her tho I could of had I wished. She died a VIRGIN.Anonymous to Helen Irkenham This may comfort you I did NOT fuck him tho I could of had I wished. He died a VIRGIN.Dales out of his depth here and knows it, but he hopes he isnt a complete fool. This doer, although he did not sign his letters with the old cannibals name, clearly wanted the connection to be made. He had done everything but leave a few dead trout at the dumping sites.Sighing bitterly, Dale puts the letters back into the file, the file back into the briefcase.Dale? Honey? Sarahs sleepy voice, from the head of the stairs.Dale gives the guilty jump of a man who has almost been caught doing something nasty and latches his briefcase. Im in the kitchen, he calls back. No need to worry about waking Davey he sleeps like the dead until at least seven-thirty every morning.Going in late?Uh-huh. He often goes in late, then makes up for it by working until seven or eight or even nine in the evening. Wendell Green hasnt made a big deal of that . . . at least not so far, but give him time. Talk about your cannibalsGive the flowers a alcohol addiction before you go, would you? Its been so dry.You bet. Watering Sarahs flowers is a business Dale likes. He gets some of his best thinking done with the garden hos e in his hand.A part from upstairs . . . but he hasnt heard her slippers shuffling back toward the bedroom. He waits. And at last You okay, hon?Fine, he calls back, pumping what he hopes will be the right degree of heartiness into his voice.Because you were still tossing around when I dropped off.No, Im fine.Do you know what Davey asked me last night while I was washing his hair?Dale rolls his eyes. He hates these long-distance conversations. Sarah seems to love them. He gets up and pours himself another loving cup of coffee. No, what?He asked, ?Is Daddy going to lose his job? Dale pauses with the cup halfway to his lips. What did you say?I said no. Of course.Then you said the right thing.He waits, but there is no more. Having injected him with one more dram of poisonous worry Davids fragile psyche, as well as what a certain party might do to the boy, should David be so unlucky as to run afoul of him Sarah shuffles back to their room and, presumably, to the shower beyond.Dale go es back to the table, sips his coffee, then puts his hand to his forehead and closes his eyes. In this moment we can see precisely how frightened and miserable he is. Dale is just forty-two and a man of abstemious habits, but in the cruel morning light coming through the window by which we entered, he looks, for the moment, anyway, a sickly sixty.He is concerned about his job, knows that if the fellow who killed Amy and Johnny keeps it up, he will almost certainly be turned out of office the following year. He is also concerned about Davey . . . although Davey isnt his chief concern, for, like Fred Marshall, he cannot actually conceive that the Fisherman could take his and Sarahs own child. No, it is the other children of French Landing he is more worried about, possibly the children of Centralia and Arden as well.His worst fear is that he is simply not good enough to catch the son of a bitch. That he will kill a third, a fourth, perhaps an eleventh and twelfth.God knows he has requ ested help. And gotten it . . . sort of. There are two State Police detectives assigned to the case, and the FBI guy from Madison keeps checking in (on an informal basis, though the FBI is not officially part of the investigation). Even his outside help has a surreal quality for Dale, one that has been partially caused by an odd coincidence of their names. The FBI guy is Agent John P. Redding. The state detectives are Perry brownish and Jeffrey Black. So he has Brown, Black, and Redding on his team. The Color Posse, Sarah calls them. All three making it clear that they are rigorously working support, at least for the time being. Making it clear that Dale Gilbertson is the man standing on ground zero.Christ, but I wish dirt would sign on to help me with this, Dale thinks. Id deputize him in a second, just like in one of those corny old Western movies.Yes indeed. In a second.When jack up had first come to French Landing, almost four years ago, Dale hadnt known what to make of the m an his officers in a flash dubbed Hollywood. By the time the two of them had nailed Thornberg Kinderling yes, inoffensive little Thornberg Kinderling, hard to believe but absolutely true he knew exactly what to make of him. The guy was the finest raw(a) detective Dale had ever met in his life.The only natural detective, thats what you mean.Yes, all right. The only one. And although they had shared the collar (at the L.A. newcomers absolute insistence), it had been Jacks detective work that had turned the trick. He was almost like one of those story-book detectives . . . Hercule Poirot, Ellery Queen, one of those. Except that Jack didnt exactly deduct, nor did he go around tapping his tabernacle and talking about his little gray cells. He . . .He listens, Dale mutters, and gets up. He heads for the back door, then returns for his briefcase. Hell put it in the back seat of his cruiser before he waters the flower beds. He doesnt want those awful pictures in his house any longer tha n strictly necessary.He listens.Like the way hed listened to Janna Massengale, the mixologist at the Taproom. Dale had had no idea why Jack was spending so much time with the little chippy it had even crossed his mind that Mr. Los Angeles Linen Slacks was trying to hustle her into bed so he could go back home and tell all his friends on Rodeo Drive that hed gotten himself a little piece of the cheese up there in Wisconsin, where the air was rare and the legs were long and strong. But that hadnt been it at all. He had been listening, and finally she had told him what he needed to hear.Yeah, shurr, people get funny ticks when theyre drinking, Janna had said. Theres this one guy who starts doing this after a couple of belts. She had pinched her nostrils together with the tips of her fingers . . . only with her hand turned around so the palm pointed out.Jack, still smiling easily, still sipping a club soda Always with the palm out? Like this? And mimicked the gesture.Janna, smiling, ha lf in love Thats it, doll youre a quick study.Jack Sometimes, I guess. Whats this fellas name, darlin?Janna Kinderling. Thornberg Kinderling. She giggled. Only, after a drink or two once hes started up with that pinchy thing he wants everyone to call him bristly.Jack, still with his own smile And does he drink Bombay gin, darlin? One ice cube, little trace of bitters?Jannas smile starting to fade, now looking at him as if he might be some gracious of wizard Howd you know that?But how he knew it didnt matter, because that was really the whole package, done up in a neat bow. Case closed, game over, zip up your fly.Eventually, Jack had flown back to Los Angeles with Thornberg Kinderling in custody Thornberg Kinderling, just an inoffensive, bespectacled farm-insurance salesman from Centralia, wouldnt say boo to a goose, wouldnt say shit if he had a mouthful, wouldnt dare ask your mamma for a drink of water on a hot day, but he had killed two prostitutes in the City of Angels. No st rangulation for Thorny he had done his work with a Buck knife, which Dale himself had eventually traced to Lapham libertine Goods, the nasty little trading post a door down from the Sand Bar, Centralias grungiest drinking establishment.By then DNA testing had nailed Kinderlings ass to the barn door, but Jack had been glad to have the cradle of the murder weapon anyway. He had called Dale personally to thank him, and Dale, whod never been west of Denver in his life, had been almost absurdly touched by the courtesy. Jack had said several times during the course of the investigation that you could never have enough evidence when the doer was a genuine bad guy, and Thorny Kinderling had turned out to be about as bad as you could want. Hed gone the insanity route, of course, and Dale who had privately hoped he might be called upon to testify was delighted when the instrument panel rejected the plea and sentenced him to consecutive life terms.And what made all that happen? What had b een the first cause? Why, a man listening. That was all. Listening to a lady bartender who was used to having her breasts stared at while her words most commonly went in one ear of the man doing the staring(a) and out the other. And who had Hollywood Jack listened to before he had listened to Janna Massengale? Some Sunset Strip hooker, it seemed . . . or more likely a whole bunch of them. (What would you call that, anyway? Dale wonders absently as he goes out to the garage to get his trusty hose. A shimmy of streetwalkers? A strut of hookers?) None of them could have picked Thornberg Kinderling out of a lineup, because the Thornberg who visited L.A. surely hadnt looked much like the Thornberg who traveled around to the farm-supply companies in the Coulee and over in Minnesota. L.A. Thorny had worn a wig, contacts instead of specs, and a little false mustache.The most brilliant thing was the skin darkener, Jack had said. Just a little, just enough to make him look like a native. the atre of operations all four years at French Landing High School, Dale had replied grimly. I looked it up. The little dent played Don Juan his junior year, do you believe it?A lot of sly little changes (too many for a jury to swallow an insanity plea, it seemed), but Thorny had forgotten that one revelatory little signature, that trick of pinching his nostrils together with the palm of his hand turned outward. Some prostitute had remembered it, though, and when she mentioned it only in passing, Dale has no doubt, just as Janna Massengale did Jack heard it.Because he listened.Called to thank me for tracing the knife, and again to tell me how the jury came back, Dale thinks, but that second time he wanted something, too. And I knew what it was. Even before he undecided his mouth I knew.Because, while he is no genius detective like his friend from the grand State, Dale had not missed the younger mans unexpected, immediate response to the landscape of western Wisconsin. Jack had fal len in love with the Coulee Country, and Dale would have wagered a good sum that it had been love at first look. It had been impossible to splay the expression on his face as they drove from French Landing to Cen-tralia, from Centralia to Arden, from Arden to Miller wonder, pleasure, almost a kind of rapture. To Dale, Jack had looked like a man who has come to a place he has never been before only to discover he is back home.Man, I cant get over this, hed said once to Dale. The two of them had been riding in Dales old Caprice cruiser, the one that just wouldnt stay aligned (and sometimes the horn stuck, which could be embarrassing). Do you realize how lucky you are to live here, Dale? It must be one of the most beautiful places in the world.Dale, who had lived in the Coulee his entire life, had not disagreed.Toward the end of their final conversation concerning Thornberg Kinderling, Jack had reminded Dale of how hed once asked (not quite kidding, not quite serious, either) for Dale to let him know if a nice little place ever came on the market in Dales part of the world, something out of town. And Dale had known at once from Jacks tone the almost anxious drop in his voice that the kidding was over.So you owe me, Dale murmurs, shouldering the hose. You owe me, you bastard. Of course he has asked Jack to lend an unofficial hand with the Fisherman investigation, but Jack has refused . . . almost with a kind of fear.Im retired, hed said brusquely. If you dont know what that word means, Dale, we can look it up in the dictionary together.But its ridiculous, isnt it? Of course it is. How can a man not yet thirty-five be retired? Especially one who is so infernally good at the job?You owe me, baby, he says again, now walking along the side of the house toward the bib faucet. The sky above is cloudless the well-watered lawn is green there is nary a sign of slippage, not out here on Herman Street. Yet perhaps there is, and perhaps we feel it. A kind of discordant hum , like the sound of all those lethal volts coursing through the steel struts of the KDCU tower.But we have stayed here too long. We must take wing again and proceed to our final destination of this early morning. We dont know everything yet, but we know three important things first, that French Landing is a town in terrible distress second, that a few people ( Judy Marshall, for one Charles Burnside, for another) understand on some deep level that the towns ills go far beyond the depredations of a single sick pedophile-murderer third, that we have met no one capable of consciously recognizing the force the slippage that has now come to bear on this quiet town hard by Tom and Hucks river. Each person weve met is, in his own way, as blind as Henry Leyden. This is as true of the folks we havent so far encountered Beezer St. Pierre, Wendell Green, the Color Posse as it is of those we have.Our black Maria groan for a hero. And while we may not find one (this is the twenty-first cent ury, after all, the days not of dArtagnan and Jack Aubrey but of George W. Bush and Dirtysperm), we can perhaps find a man who was a hero once upon a time. Let us therefore search out an old friend, one we last glimpsed a thousand and more miles east of here, on the shore of the steady Atlantic. Years have passed and they have in some ways lessened the boy who was he has forgotten much and has spent a good part of his adult life maintaining that state of amnesia. But he is French Landings only hope, so let us take wing and fly almost due east, back over the woods and fields and gentle hills.Mostly, we see miles of unbroken farmland regimental cornfields, luxuriant hay fields, fat yellow swaths of alfalfa. Dusty, narrow drives lead to white farmhouses and their arrays of tall barns, granaries, cylindrical cement-block silos, and long metal equipment sheds. Men in denim jackets are moving along the well-worn paths between the houses and the barns. We can already smell the sunlight. It s odor, copiously compacted of butter, yeast, earth, growth, and decay, will intensify as the sun ascends and the light grows stronger.Below us, Highway 93 intersects Highway 35 at the center of tiny Centralia. The empty parking lot behind the Sand Bar awaits the creaky arrival of the Thunder Five, who customarily spend their Saturday afternoons, evenings, and nights in the enjoyment of the Sand Bars pool tables, hamburgers, and pitchers of that ambrosia to the macrocosm of which they have devoted their eccentric lives, Kingsland Brewing Companys finest product and a beer that can hold up its creamy head among anything made in a specialty microbrewery or a Belgian monastery, Kingsland Ale. If Beezer St. Pierre, Mouse, and company say it is the greatest beer in the world, why should we doubt them? Not only do they know much more about beer than we do, they called upon every bit of the knowledge, skill, expertise, and seat-of-the-pants inspiration at their disposal to make Kingslan d Ale a benchmark of the brewers art. In fact, they moved to French Landing because the brewery, which they had selected after careful deliberation, was willing to work with them.To invoke Kingsland Ale is to wish for a good-sized mouthful of the stuff, but we put temptation behind us 730 A.M. is far too early for drinking anything but fruit juice, coffee, and milk (except for the likes of Wanda Kinderling, and Wanda thinks of beer, even Kingsland Ale, as a dietary subjoining to Aristocrat vodka) and we are in search of our old friend and the closest we can come to a hero, whom we last saw as a boy on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean. We are not about to waste time we are on the move, right here and now. The miles fly past beneath us, and along Highway 93 the fields narrow as the hills rise up on both sides.For all our haste, we must take this in, we must see where we are.