Law of Property 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Law of Property 1 - Essay Example Jane carried on paying the instalments on the loan. In 2009 Harry became ill and died. Jane has continued to pay the instalments to the friend direct. Under Harry’s will, all his property passes to his widow, Helena. There is ?1,000 still owing on the loan. Helena, as executrix of and sole beneficiary under the will, has applied for a possession order against Jane. Advise Jane. Students are advised not to consider the Land Registration Acts but to answer the question within the syllabus. 2. Augusta had a friend Julius, who was in financial difficulties. Augusta lent Julius ?5,000 " to get himself sorted out". At Augusta's insistence, Julius put the money into a separate bank account and told the bank, to whom he owed money, that the money was a special loan from Augusta. Julius used ?2,000 of the money to pay various debts before he was declared bankrupt. ?3,000 remains in the account. Augusta died leaving a will containing the following provisions: â€Å"To my son Cassius I leave ?20,000 to enjoy as he likes during his lifetime, provided that, at his death, he leaves any of the money that remains to his sister Demeter, The rest of my estate I leave to Gaius and Lucius on trust, so that they may make grants out of the income from this fund to any of the descendants of my illustrious ancestor Tarquin and their families.† Tarquin lived two hundred years ago and is reputed to have had many children both legitimate and illegitimate. Advise Cassius as to his rights and duties over the ?20,000. Advise Augusta’s executors as to whether they will be able to recover the balance of ?3,000 in Julius’ bank account. Advise Gaius and Lucius as to their powers and obligations with the regard to the residue of Augusta’s estate. Question 1 In the above, it is necessary to consider what rights Jane might have over the property. This will involve analysing how proprietary rights over property can be established. Under the Law of Property Act 192 5 the person registered on the deed for the property will be the legal owner of the estate1. This effectively means that Harry would have been the legal owner despite his promise to give the property to Jane if she paid off the loan. The effect of the Will would mean that the house would transfer in ownership to Helena, which would entitle her to dispose of it in any manner she sees fit2. However, this would create unfairness to Jane who has been paying the money owed to Harry and latterly to his friend on the understanding that she would have a right to the property. As there is no written agreement between Jane and Harry, and Harry has not expressly left the property to Jane in his Will, the only rights she might have in relation to the property would be an equitable interest3. As a result of this, Jane might have to rely on the doctrine of implied trusts to be able to claim a share of the property. Implied trusts can exist through statute or as a resulting or constructive trust. The latter 2 trusts exist in equity only and are applied by the courts to rectify any unfairness caused by the denial of legal property rights through the property only being registered in one parties’ name. A resulting trust occurs where there is evidence that the claimant has made payments towards the purchase price of the property but was not included on the register as an owner. Those relying on this principle have to prove that they expended the money in the belief that they would acquire an interest in the property,

The Effect of Temperature on Rate of Reaction Essay Example for Free

The Effect of Temperature on Rate of Reaction Essay In this experiment I shall be investigating how temperature affects the rate of reaction Rates of reaction The Factors that affect the rate of reaction are temperature, surface area, concentration, catalysts, light and pressure Surface area – Surface area is the amount of solid surface that is available for reaction Only affects solids so this will not affect our experiment When the surface area increases the rate of reaction increases as there is more surface area for the particles to work on, thus, there are more collisions per second Example : It is easier to light a fire with small pieces of stick than using large blocks of wood Concentration Concentration is the amount of molecules of a substance in a given volume Concentration affects solids, gases and liquid so this will affect our experiment When the concentration increases the rate of reaction increases as there are more molecules present, therefore there are more collisions between molecules (Collision theory) Example : zinc reacts fairly slowly with dilute hydrochloric acid but when the acid is concentrated, the rate of reaction increases. Catalysts A catalyst is a substance which speeds up the  rate of reaction without itself going undergoing any permanent chemical change – this means only small amounts of catalysts are needed to speed up reactions When a catalyst is involved in an experiment there is less energy needed for the reaction therefore there is more collisions per second We will not be using catalysts in our experiment Example : Decomposing hydrogen peroxide  solution at room temperature is very slow, but using a small amount of manganese oxide greatly increases the reaction rate and oxygen is given off rapidly Light Light is a form of energy and it causes many chemical reactions to take place. Light does not affect our experiment Example : Photosynthesis Temperature Collision theory is used to explain how different factors affect the rate of a chemical reaction. For a reaction to take place the reactant particles must collide with each other with adequate energy (activation energy), this energy is used to break the bonds between the particles. If the particles do not have enough energy they will bounce off each other without reacting. By increasing the temperature the particles gain more energy and move faster causing more collisions per second. 10oC 60oC Previous Experiments These previous experiments give us background information on rates of reaction: Acid and limestone CaCO3(s) + 2HCL(aq) CaCl2(aq) + H2O(l) + CO2(g) Apparatus – Conical flask, hydrochloric acid, marble chips, cotton wool and scales In this experiment we mix a certain mass of large marble chips with a certain volume of hydrochloric acid in a conical flask and use cotton wool to trap the acid spray. As the carbon dioxide is given off from the flask, the mixture loses mass, this is measured and recorded every minute until the reaction is over. The experiment is repeated again using the same mass of marble chips and the same volume of hydrochloric acid and the same temperature but instead using small marble chips. When we look at our results we find that the larger marble chips take more time to react than the smaller marble chips which show that as the surface area increases, the rate of reaction increases. Decomposition of hydrogen peroxide solution H2O2(aq) 2H2O(l) + O2(g) Apparatus – Conical flask, gas syringe, hydrogen peroxide solution and solid manganese oxide In this experiment we firstly measure the time taken for hydrogen peroxide to decompose and produce 50cm3 of oxygen at room temperature and without a catalyst. We use a gas syringe to measure the oxygen given off. Then we repeat the experiment but instead add a small amount of solid manganese oxide to the hydrogen peroxide solution. When we look at our results we find that without the catalyst (manganese oxide) the reaction is very slow, but when we add the catalyst the decomposition is very fast and oxygen is  rapidly given off which shows that catalysts increase the rate of reaction. Sodium thiosulphate and hydrochloric acid Na2S2O3(aq) + 2HCL(aq) 2NaCl(aq) + SO2(g) + S(s) + H2O(l) Apparatus – Sodium thiosulphate, hydrochloric acid, stop clock, a measuring cylinder and white paper with a black cross In this experiment we vary the concentration of the sodium thiosulphate, add it to a given volume of hydrochloric acid and time how long it takes for the mixture to go cloudy and the cross to disappear. When we look at our results we see that as we increase the concentration of sodium thiosulphate the rate of reaction increases. Hypothesis My prediction is, as the temperature of the reaction mixture increases so to will the rate of reaction as at higher temperatures the particles have more energy and will collide more hence increasing the rate of reaction. This is explained by the collision theory. The collision theory also allows me to predict that my time against temperature graph will have negative correlation as the time taken will decrease as the temperature increases. I also predict this graph will be curved as the time taken will not be directly proportional to the temperature. I also predict that as I increase the temperature of the mixture, the time taken for the cross to disappear will decrease. Reaction In my experiment I shall be investigating the effect of temperature on a reaction rate by reacting sodium thiosulphate in dilute hydrochloric acid as shown in the equation below Sodium + hydrochloric Sodium + Sulphur + Sulphur + Water thiosulphate acid chloride dioxide Na2S2O3 (aq) + 2HCL (aq) 2NaCl (aq)+ SO2 (g) + S (s) + H2O (l) Sodium thiosulphate is a clear liquid and hydrochloric acid is a clear liquid, when they react together the solution turns cloudy due to the sulphur. The reaction is exothermic as the energy required to break the bonds is less than the energy needed to make new bonds. Procedure Apparatus †¢ Conical flask †¢ Measuring cylinder †¢ Bunsen burner †¢ Thermometer †¢ Stop clock †¢ White paper with a black cross Method 1. Measure out 10 cm3 of sodium thiosulphate and 40cm3 of water into a flask. Measure out 5 cm3 of hydrochloric acid an a measuring cylinder 2. Heat the thiosulphate solution to the required temperature using a Bunsen burner 3. Add the acid and start the stop clock. Swirl the flask to mix the solutions and put the solution on the white paper with a black cross 4. Look down at the cross and stop the clock and note the time taken when the cross has disappeared. Record the temperature of the mixture in the flask. Variables The variables we will need to keep constant are †¢ The concentration of sodium thiosulphate †¢ The concentration of hydrochloric acid †¢ The volume of hydrochloric acid †¢ The same colour of cross †¢ The same thickness of cross †¢ Look at the cross from the same height The independent variable is the temperature. We will take 7 different recordings between 10o-70o We will do each recording 5 times and get an average to make sure the results are accurate. Results I will record my results in the table and make a time against temperature and a 1/time against temperature graph as shown below

Comparison of the Presentation of the Characters Jay Gatsby and Dick Di

Comparison of the Presentation of the Characters Jay Gatsby and Dick Diver from The Great Gatsby   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  F. Scott Fitzgerald is known as a writer who chronicled his times. This work has been critically acclaimed for portraying the sentiments of the American people during the 1920s and 1930s. ‘The Great Gatsby’ was written in 1924, whilst the Fitzgeralds were staying on the French Riviera, and ‘Tender is the Night’ was written nearly ten years later, is set on, among other places, the Riviera. There are very interesting aspects of these works, such as the way Fitzgerald treats his so-called heroes, and to what extent we can call them heroic.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Gatsby and Diver are both presented as wealthy men leading privileged lives. ‘The Great Gatsby’ was written before the Depression, and the optimism and faith in the power of money within the novel demonstrates this belief that people had. Notably, it is the characters’ faith in riches, and not Fitzgerald’s own. Gatsby is a self-made millionaire, making his money through bootlegging. He has acquired vast amounts of money, and believes that this money will help persuade Daisy to love him and leave Tom. This is illustrated in Chapter five when Daisy is shown around Gatsby’s mansion at his request. He shows her every detail, through from the gardens to his shirts and ‘he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes’. Gatsby sees his money and possessions as wonderful things, but they are also more than that, they are a means to an end, the end being Daisy. He bough the house because of where it was in relation to Daisy (across the bay), and he held the most amazing parties in the hope that Daisy, or someone that knew Daisy would come. Gatsby, in effect, devoted his whole life to the search for Daisy, and his money is a tool to help him find his love.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Diver’s attitude to money is very much a contrast to this. Money to him does not represent freedom and choice, but a bind that ties him and constricts him. Diver is conscious through the whole novel that he himself is not the financially dominant member of his marriage, but Nicole, with her seemingly endless riches. ‘Tender is the Night’ is written after the Wall Street Crash and during the Depression, but Fitzgerald has moved his characters away from the Depression of the United States to the French Riviera... ... ideal. Again and again, Fitzgerald underlines the importance of faith and hope, without which America and the American Dream mean nothing, and it is impossible to survive without. Diver and Gatsby can both be seen as the failure of the American Dream, and thus that the America that was supposed to be a place where everything is possible, where freedom and liberty come above all else, is failing herself. In Jay Gatsby and Dick Diver F. Scott Fitzgerald has presented us with tow men who should not fail, who, if there is any justice in the world, should succeed in what they do. However, they do not. Granted, they are not perfect, but they are more heroic and noble that the other characters they are surrounded with. The reason they do not survive is because they are old-fashioned men, with old fashioned, romantic ideals, and they are destroyed by the cruelty and superficiality of modern America. Fitzgerald does not paint a very reassuring picture of his home country, and these two novels display his personal fears about American society. ‘Tender is the Night’ and ‘The Great Gatsby’ are two novels grasping the mood of the moment, and Gatsby and Diver are two men who cannot keep up. Comparison of the Presentation of the Characters Jay Gatsby and Dick Di Comparison of the Presentation of the Characters Jay Gatsby and Dick Diver from The Great Gatsby   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  F. Scott Fitzgerald is known as a writer who chronicled his times. This work has been critically acclaimed for portraying the sentiments of the American people during the 1920s and 1930s. ‘The Great Gatsby’ was written in 1924, whilst the Fitzgeralds were staying on the French Riviera, and ‘Tender is the Night’ was written nearly ten years later, is set on, among other places, the Riviera. There are very interesting aspects of these works, such as the way Fitzgerald treats his so-called heroes, and to what extent we can call them heroic.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Gatsby and Diver are both presented as wealthy men leading privileged lives. ‘The Great Gatsby’ was written before the Depression, and the optimism and faith in the power of money within the novel demonstrates this belief that people had. Notably, it is the characters’ faith in riches, and not Fitzgerald’s own. Gatsby is a self-made millionaire, making his money through bootlegging. He has acquired vast amounts of money, and believes that this money will help persuade Daisy to love him and leave Tom. This is illustrated in Chapter five when Daisy is shown around Gatsby’s mansion at his request. He shows her every detail, through from the gardens to his shirts and ‘he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes’. Gatsby sees his money and possessions as wonderful things, but they are also more than that, they are a means to an end, the end being Daisy. He bough the house because of where it was in relation to Daisy (across the bay), and he held the most amazing parties in the hope that Daisy, or someone that knew Daisy would come. Gatsby, in effect, devoted his whole life to the search for Daisy, and his money is a tool to help him find his love.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Diver’s attitude to money is very much a contrast to this. Money to him does not represent freedom and choice, but a bind that ties him and constricts him. Diver is conscious through the whole novel that he himself is not the financially dominant member of his marriage, but Nicole, with her seemingly endless riches. ‘Tender is the Night’ is written after the Wall Street Crash and during the Depression, but Fitzgerald has moved his characters away from the Depression of the United States to the French Riviera... ... ideal. Again and again, Fitzgerald underlines the importance of faith and hope, without which America and the American Dream mean nothing, and it is impossible to survive without. Diver and Gatsby can both be seen as the failure of the American Dream, and thus that the America that was supposed to be a place where everything is possible, where freedom and liberty come above all else, is failing herself. In Jay Gatsby and Dick Diver F. Scott Fitzgerald has presented us with tow men who should not fail, who, if there is any justice in the world, should succeed in what they do. However, they do not. Granted, they are not perfect, but they are more heroic and noble that the other characters they are surrounded with. The reason they do not survive is because they are old-fashioned men, with old fashioned, romantic ideals, and they are destroyed by the cruelty and superficiality of modern America. Fitzgerald does not paint a very reassuring picture of his home country, and these two novels display his personal fears about American society. ‘Tender is the Night’ and ‘The Great Gatsby’ are two novels grasping the mood of the moment, and Gatsby and Diver are two men who cannot keep up.

The Similarities and Differences Between Thor and God

Thor and the Life of Christ can be looked in the same way. There are similarities between the two people and there are also many differences. There is a common theme between both Thor and the Life of Christ. Prominence, humility, suffering, and exaltation, in that order, are themes that happen to both Thor and Jesus. There are many similar relations that connect to both of these people but are presented in different way. Prominence was big in both of the people. Thor was the Norse god of thunder that everyone bowed down to. This relates to Jesus because he is also a high figure that Christians praise and worship.The level of prominence that these two people have is very similar to each other. Thor lives in a place called Asgard. This is the home of the gods and is very similar to Heaven. Heaven and Asgard may look different but they serve the same purpose. They are both places of High Divine and a place of peace. This is a similarity between the two story lines. One difference betwee n the amounts of Prominence that each one had was that Thor thought too highly of himself. He was very arrogant in the beginning of the movie and even defied his own father’s orders.The difference between Thor and Jesus is that Jesus did not count himself equal with God. This is told in Philippians 2:5-11. Although Jesus was in the form of God he did not count equality with God therefore, he became a mortal and was born in the likeness of men. Unlike Jesus, Thor was cast down to Earth as a punishment. He was punished because he disobeyed his father’s command and went to Jotunheim and started war. Because he did this, Odin relinquished him of his powers and banished him to Earth. This is a contrast between Thor and Jesus because Unlike Thor’s banishment, Jesus did it out of love.These acts brought humility to each person. Thor’s punishment was being stricken from his powers and becoming a mortal. This means that he can no longer fly or has the mighty power of his hammer. He is only human. This brings a type of humility because he has been degraded down from a god to a weak human. He must learn to cope with his human body. Thor no longer had the strength of a god but had the strength of a human which was really weak compared to his god form. This is very similar to Jesus because he was also born through the likeness of men. This means that Jesus was no longer the all-powerful being that people worshiped.Instead he was a mortal that lived upon men. He had limitations as well and faced many temptations in his life as a human. Humility was present because of the suffering and rejection that Jesus received and accepted from people. Many people made fun of Jesus. When Jesus did miracles he was made fun of. He was rejected by his own people and was beaten and mocked by the Roman soldiers. The most painful humiliation that Christ received was his crucifixion. This is humiliation and suffering to Jesus. Although Thor did not receive as painfu l humiliation that Jesus received his still received his own form of humiliation as a mortal.An example can be seen when Thor went to get his hammer. After beating up all of the guards, he ultimately could not pull out his own hammer. This gives an example of humiliation because he was not able to pull out his hammer even though he had finally found it. This shows the suffering that Thor had to endure because he could not take the hammer even though it was in his grasp. This is the ultimate source of humiliation because Thor could not get the one thing he desired most. The humiliation between both people leads to suffering. Jesus Christ and Thor both suffer tremendously throughout their journeys.It is incredible to see how much they can both endure despite how much pain they go through. Jesus suffered a lot as his time of being a human. He was made fun of and was also beaten upon by the Roman soldiers. This is suffering because Jesus went through pain. Throughout Jesus’s suff ering, He was able to stay obedient to God until his death on the Cross. It says this in Philippians. Jesus did stay obedient despite all of the suffering that he had went through. It was basically torture for Jesus but he was able to stay obedient. All of Jesus’s pain that he took was an example of suffering and he did it all to save people’s sins.This suffering also relates to Thor because he also suffered during his time as a human. Thor suffered because he had to watch his friends get tossed around by the destroyer. The destroyer resembled death in the movie. The destroyer came for Thor when Loki ordered to kill Thor. Thor experienced suffering from the Destroyer and in the end faced death. Thor accepted death and faced it face to face and ended up dying. He was willing to die in order to save his friends. This relates to Jesus because he was able to die and go on the cross in order to save His people and the people’s sins.Jesus did not care at all what peop le did to him. When Jesus was on the Cross He said, â€Å"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. † Jesus was able to find sympathy until the very end of his suffering. Thor follows the same storyline as Jesus because he also dies in order to save his friends. Although the deaths are different it gets the same point across that both people went through suffering in order to save the people they cared about. This suffering finally leads to exaltation. The exaltation of Jesus is similar to Thor as well. When Jesus was dying He said, â€Å"It is finished. Thor, in the time of his death, also said, â€Å"It is done. † This shows that they have both accomplished in what they were sent on Earth to do. Thor was able to grow as a person and was able to sacrifice his own life in order to save others. Jesus was able to be obedient until the end was able to die on the Cross just so he could save the world of its sins. This leads to exaltation because Thor ends up getting the hammer and resurrects. He becomes a god again and defeats the destroyer also known as death. Jesus rises after the third day and ascended into Heaven. Jesus also conquered death.These are very similar because they both came back to life after their deaths and went back to their original high positions. Jesus was with God in Heaven and Thor got his god powers back. This is exaltation because they have been praised with the sacrifices they have made and have been rewarded. Before Thor returns to Asgard he tells that he will come back for Jane. This is similar to Jesus’s saying of how he will return for his people. The Tagline of these two movies is two worlds: one hero. Both Thor and Jesus fit this tagline. Thor is the hero of two worlds. The two worlds are Asgard and Earth.Jesus is also the hero of two worlds. Instead of Asgard it is Heaven and Earth. He is a hero to the people of earth because he was able to save the world of their sins. This leads people to look for the hero for guidance. In Thor, Jane looks for Thor every day and make it’s her goal to see Thor again. This is similar to followers of Jesus. The followers of Jesus want to know Jesus more and are always finding ways to find him and get closer to him. The tagline of Thor and Jesus Christ are very similar. Although they are told in some different ways the ultimate view of each are the same.

Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 29~30

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE Talking Up the Dead Nate hadn't seen his old teacher, Gerard ;Growl; Ryder, in fourteen years, but except for the fact that he was very pale, the biologist looked exactly the same as Nate remembered him: short and powerful, a jaw like a knife, and a long swoop of gray hair that was always threatening to fall into his pale green eyes. â€Å"You're the Colonel?† Nate asked. Ryder had disappeared twelve years ago. Lost at sea in the Aleutians. â€Å"I toyed with the title for a while. For a week or so I was Man-Meat the Magnificent, but I thought that sounded like I might be compensating for something, so I decided to go with something military-sounding. It was a toss-up between Captain Nemo from Twenty Thousand Leagues and Colonel Kurtz from Heart of Darkness. I finally decided to go with just ‘the Colonel. It's more ominous.† â€Å"That it is.† Once again reality was taking a contextual tilt for Nate, and he was trying to keep from falling. This once brilliant, brilliant man was sitting in a mass of goo talking about choosing his megalomaniacal pseudonym. â€Å"Sorry to keep you waiting for so long before I brought you down here. But now that you're here, how's it feel to stand in the presence of God?† â€Å"Respectfully, sir, you're a fucking squirrel.† â€Å"This doesn't feel right,† Clay whispered to Libby Quinn. â€Å"We shouldn't be having a funeral when Nate's still alive.† â€Å"It's not a funeral,† said Libby. â€Å"It's a service.† They were all there at the Whale Sanctuary. In the front row: Clay, Libby, Margaret, Kona, Clair, and the Old Broad. Moving back: Cliff Hyland and Tarwater with their team, the Count and his research grommets, Jon Thomas Fuller and all of the Hawaii Whale Inc. boat crews, which constituted about thirty people. On back: whale cops, bartenders, and a couple of waitresses from Longee's. From the harbor: live-aboards and charter captains, the harbormaster, booth girls and dive guides, boat hands and a guy who worked the coffee counter at the fuel dock. Also, researchers from the University of Hawaii and, strangely enough, two black-coral divers – all crowded into the lecture hall, the ceiling fans stirring their smells together into the evening breeze. Clay had scheduled the service in the evening so the researchers wouldn't miss a day of the research season. â€Å"Still,† said Clay. â€Å"He was a lion,† said Kona, a tear glistening in his eye. â€Å"A great lion.† This was the highest compliment a Rastafarian can bestow upon a man. â€Å"He's not dead,† said Clay. â€Å"You know that, you doof.† â€Å"Still,† said Kona It was a Hawaiian funeral in that everyone was in flip-flops and shorts, but the men had put on their best aloha shirts, the women their crispest flowered dresses, and many had brought leis and head garlands, which they draped over the wreaths at the front of the room that represented Nathan Quinn and Amy Earhart. A Unity Church minister spoke for ten minutes about God and the sea and science and dedication, and then he opened up the floor to anyone who had something to say. There was a very long pause before the Old Broad, wearing a smiling-whale-print muumuu and a dozen white orchids in her hair, tottered to the podium. â€Å"Nathan Quinn lives on,† she said. â€Å"Can I get an amen!† shouted Kona. Clair yanked his remaining dreadlocks. All the biologists and grad students looked at each other, eyes wide, confused, wondering if any of them had actually brought an amen that they could give up. No one had told them they were going to need an amen, or they would have packed one. All the harbor people and Lahaina citizens were intimidated by the science people, and they were not about to give up an amen in front of all of these eggheads, no way. The whale cops didn't like the fact that Kona was not in jail, and they weren't giving him shit, let alone an amen. Finally one of the black-coral divers who had that night found the perfect cocktail for grieving in a hit of ecstasy, a joint, and a forty of malt liquor, sighed a feeble ;Amen; over the mourners like a sleepy, stinky, morning-breath kiss. â€Å"And I know,† continued the Old Broad, â€Å"that if it were not for his stubbornness in procuring a pastrami on rye for that singer in the channel, he would be here with us today.† â€Å"But if he were here with us – † whispered Clair. â€Å"Shhhhhh,† shushed Margaret Painborne. â€Å"Don't you shush me, or you'll be munching carpet through a straw.† â€Å"Please, honey,† said Clay. The Old Broad rambled on about talking to the whales every day for the last twenty-five years, about how she'd known Nate and Clay and Cliff when they first came to the island and how young and stupid they were then, and how that had changed, as now they weren't that young anymore. She talked about what a thoughtful and considerate man Nate was, but how, if he hadn't been so absentminded, he might have found a decent woman to love him, and how she didn't know where he was, but if he didn't get his bottom back to Maui soon, she would twist his ear off when she saw him. And then she sat down to resounding silence and tittering pity, and everyone looked at Clay, who looked at a ceiling fan. After a long, awkward minute, when the Unity minister had to head-fake to the podium a couple of times, as if he would have to call a conclusion to the service, Gilbert Box – the Count – got up. He wasn't wearing his hat for once, but he still wore his giant wraparound sunglasses, and without the balance of the giant hat, the glasses atop his angular frame made him appear insectlike, a particularly pale praying mantis in khakis. He adjusted the microphone, cleared his throat with great pomp, and said, â€Å"I never liked Nathan Quinn†¦Ã¢â‚¬  And everyone waited for the â€Å"but,† but it never came. Gilbert Box nodded to the crowd and sat back down. Gilbert's grommets applauded. Cliff Hyland spoke next, talking for ten minutes about what a great guy and fine researcher Nate was. Then Libby actually went forward and spoke at length about Nate's Canadianness and how he had once defended the Great Seal of British Columbia as being superior to all the other provincial seals in that it depicted a moose and a ram smoking a hookah, showing a spirit of cooperation and tolerance, while Ontario's seal depicted a moose and an elk trying to eat a bear, and Saskatchewan's showed a moose and a lion setting fire to a fondue pot – both of which clearly exploited the innate Canadian fear of moose – and the seal of Quebec depicted a woman in a toga flashing one of her boobs at a lion, which was just fucking French. He'd named all the provinces and their seals, but those were the ones Libby could remember. Then Libby sniffled and sat down. â€Å"That's what you could come up with?† hissed Clay. â€Å"What, five years of marriage?† Libby whispered in his ear, â€Å"I had to go with something that wouldn't threaten Margaret. I don't see you storming the podium.† â€Å"I'm not going to talk about my dead friend when I don't think he's dead.† And before they knew it, Jon Thomas Fuller was at the podium being thankful for Nate's support for his new project, then going on about how much he appreciated how the whale-research community had gotten behind his new â€Å"dolphin interaction center,† all of which was big news to the whale-research community who was listening. During the short speech, Clair had caught Clay's neck in what appeared to be an embrace of consolation but was in fact a choke hold she'd learned from watching cops on the news. â€Å"Baby, if you try to go after him, I'll have you unconscious on the floor in three seconds. That would be disrespectful to Nate's memory.† But her effort left Kona unattended on the other side, and he managed to cough ;Bullshit; as Jon Thomas took his seat. Next a grad student who worked for Cliff Hyland stood and talked about how Nate's work had inspired her to go into the field. Then someone from the Hawaiian Department of Conservation and Resources talked about how Nate had always been at the forefront of conservation and protection of the humpbacks. Then the harbormaster talked about Nate's being a competent and conscientious boat pilot. All told, an hour had passed, and when it seemed obvious that no one else was going to stand up, the minister moved toward the podium but was beaten to it by Kona, who had slipped from Clair's steely grip and high-stepped his way to the front. â€Å"Like old Auntie say, Nathan is living on. But no one here today say a thing about the Snowy Biscuit, who – Jah's mercy be on her – is feeding fishes in the briny blue about now.† (Sniff.) â€Å"I know her only short time, but I think I can say for all of us, that I always want to see her naked. Truth, mon. And when I think upon the round, firm – ; † – she will be missed,† Clay said, finishing for the faux Hawaiian. He had clamped a hand over Kona's mouth and was dragging him out the door. â€Å"She was a bright kid.† With that, the minister jumped to the podium, thanked everyone for coming, and declared, with a prayer, all respects paid in full. Amen. â€Å"Well, yes, mental health can be a problem,† said Growl Ryder. â€Å"Being God's conscience is a tough job.† Nate looked around, and, as if following his gaze, the Goo receded around them until they were in a chamber about fifteen feet in diameter – a bubble. It was like camping in someone's bladder, Nate thought. â€Å"That better?† Ryder asked. Nate realized that the Colonel was the one controlling the shape of the chamber they were in. â€Å"Someplace to sit would be good.† The Goo behind Nate shaped itself into a chaise longue. Nate touched it tentatively, expecting to pull his hand back trailing strings of slime, but although the Goo glistened as if it were wet, on the chair it felt dry. Warm and icky, but dry. He sat down on the chaise. â€Å"Everyone thinks you're dead,† Nate said. â€Å"You, too.† Nate hadn't thought about it much, but, of course, the Colonel had to be right. They would have thought him long dead. â€Å"You've been here since you disappeared, what, twelve years ago?† â€Å"Yes, they took me with a modified right whale, ate my whole Zodiac, my equipment – everything. They brought me here in a blue whale. I went mad during the trip. Couldn't handle the whole idea of it. They kept me restrained most of the way here. I'm sure that didn't help.† Ryder shrugged. â€Å"I got better, once I accepted the way things are down here. I understood why they took me.† â€Å"And that would be†¦?† â€Å"The same reason they took you. I was about to figure out their existence from what was hidden in the signal of different whale calls. They took both of us to protect the whale ships and, ultimately, the Goo. We should be grateful they didn't just kill us.† Nate had wondered about that before. Why the trouble? â€Å"Okay, why didn't they?† â€Å"Well, they took me alive because the Goo and the people here wanted to know what I knew, and by what path I came to suspect the content in the whale calls. They took you alive because I ordered it so.† â€Å"Why?† â€Å"What do you mean, ‘why'? Because we were colleagues, because I taught you, because you're bright and intuitive and I liked you and I'm a decent guy. ‘Why? Fuck you, ‘why?  » â€Å"Growl, you live in a slime lair and maintain an identity as the mysterious overlord of an undersea city, you command a fleet of meat dreadnaughts with crews of humanoid whale people, and you're currently reclining in a pulsating mass of gelatinous goo that looks like it escaped from hell's own Jell-O mold – so excuse the fuck out of me if I question your motives.† â€Å"Okay, good point. Can I get you something to drink?† Like many scientists Nate had known, Ryder had plodded on only to realize midcourse that he'd forgotten certain social niceties practiced by other civilized humans, but in this case he was completely missing the point. â€Å"No, I don't need anything to drink. I need to know how this happened. What is this stuff? You're a biologist, Growl, you have to have been curious about this.† â€Å"I'm still curious. But what I do know is that this stuff makes up everything in Gooville, everything you've seen here, the buildings, the corridors, most of the machinery – although I guess you'd call it biomachinery – all of it is the Goo. One giant, all-encompassing organism. It can form itself into nearly any organism on earth, and it can design new organisms as the need arises. The Goo made the whale ships and the whaley boys. And here's the kicker, Nate: It didn't make them over thirty million years. The entire species isn't more than three hundred years old.† â€Å"That's not possible,† Nate said. There were certain things that you accepted if you were going to be a biologist, and one of them was that complex life was a process of evolution by natural selection, that you got a new species because the genes that favored survival in a certain environment were replicated in that species, selected by being passed on, often a process that took millions of years. You didn't put in your order and pick up a new species at the window. There was no cosmic fry cook, there was no watchmaker, there was no designer. There was only process and time. â€Å"How could you possibly know that anyway?† â€Å"I just know things by being in contact with the Goo, but I'm not far off. It might be less time – two hundred years.† â€Å"Two hundred years? The whaley boys are definitely sentient by any definition, and I don't even know what the whale ships are, but they're definitely alive, too. That kind of complexity doesn't happen in that short a time.† â€Å"No, I'd say the Goo has probably been here as long as three and a half billion years. The rocks around these caves are some of the oldest in the world. I'm just saying the whaley boys and the ships are new. They're only a few hundred years old because that's how long ago the Goo needed them.† â€Å"The Goo needed them, so it made them to serve it? Like it has will?† â€Å"It does have will. It's self-aware, and it knows a lot. In fact, I'd venture to say that the Goo is a repository for every bit of biological knowledge on the planet. This, Nate, this Goo is as close to God as we are ever going to see. It's the perfect soup.† â€Å"As in primordial soup?† â€Å"Precisely. Four billion years ago some big organic molecules grouped up, probably around some deep-sea source of geothermal heat, and they learned how to divide, how to replicate. Since replication is the name of life's game, it very quickly – probably in the span of less than a hundred million years – covered the entire planet. Big organic molecules that couldn't exist now because there are millions of bacteria that would eat them, but back then there were no bacteria. At one time the entire oceanic surface of the earth was populated by one single living thing that had learned to replicate itself. Sure, as the replicators were exposed to different conditions they mutated, they developed into new species, they fed on each other, some colonized each other and turned into complex animals, and then more complex animals, but part of that original living animal pulled back into its original niche. By this time chemical information was being exchanged – fi rst by UNA, then by DNA – and as each new species evolved, it carried on all the information for making the next species, and that information came back to the original animal. But it had its safe niche, pulling energy from the earth's heat, sheltered in the deep ocean and by rock. It took in all the information from the animals that it came in contact with, but it changed only enough to protect itself, replicate itself. While a million million species lived and died in the sea, this original animal evolved very slowly, learning, always learning. Think of it, Nate: Within the cells of your body is not only the blueprint for every living thing on earth but everything that has ever lived. Ninety-eight percent of your DNA is just hitching a ride, just lucky little genes that were smart enough to align themselves to other successful genes, like marrying into money, if you will. But the Goo, not only does it have all of those genes, it has the diagram to turn them on and off. Th at seat you're sitting on may well be three billion years old.† Nate suddenly felt something he'd felt before only when waking up in a hotel with the bedspread pulled up around his face: a deep and earnest hope, motivated by disgust, that in all the time it had been there, someone had cleaned the cast-off genetic material from it. He stood up, just for safety. â€Å"How could you possibly know this, Growl? It goes against everything we know about evolution.† â€Å"No it doesn't. It completely fits. Yes, a complex process like life can develop, given enough time, but we also know that an animal that fits perfectly into its niche isn't pressured to change. Sharks have remained basically the same for a hundred million years, the chambered nautilus for five hundred million. Well, you're just looking at the animal that found its niche first. The first animal, the source.† Nate shook his head at the magnitude of it. â€Å"You might be able to explain the evolutionary path being preserved, but you can't explain consciousness, analytical thought, processes that require a very complex mechanism to perform. You can't pull off that sort of complexity of function with big, fluffy organic molecules.† â€Å"The molecules have evolved, but they remembered. The Goo is a complex, if amorphous, life form; there are no analogs for it. Everything is a model of it, and nothing is a model of it.† Nate stepped back from the Colonel, and the Goo flexed to make room for him. The movement gave him a brief moment of vertigo, and he lost his balance. The Goo caught him, the surface moving forward against his shoulder blades just enough to steady him on his feet. Nate whipped around quickly and the Goo pulled back. â€Å"God, that's creepy!† â€Å"There you go, Nate. Aware. You'd be amazed at what the Goo knows – at what it can tell us. You can have a life here, Nate. You'll see things here you would never see, you'll do things you could never do. And in the process you can help me unravel the greatest biological riddle in the history of the world.† â€Å"I think you're supposed to laugh manically after saying something like that, Colonel.† â€Å"If you help me, I'll give you what you've always wanted.† â€Å"Despite what you think, what I want is to go home.† â€Å"That's not going to happen, Nate. Not ever. You're a bright man, so I won't insult you by pretending the circumstances are any different than they are: You are not ever going to leave these caverns alive, so now you have to make the decision of how you want to spend your life. You can have everything here that you could have on the surface – much more, in fact – but you're not leaving.† â€Å"Well, in that case, Colonel, see if you can get your giant booger to duplicate you so you can go fuck yourself.† â€Å"I know what the whale song means, Nate. I know what it's for.† Nate felt as if he'd been sucker-punched by his own obsession, but he tried not to show the impact. â€Å"Doesn't really matter now, does it?† â€Å"I understand. You take a little time to work into the idea, Nate, but there is some urgency. This isn't just standing back and collecting data – we need to do something. I want your help. We'll talk soon.† The Goo came down and seemed to envelop the Colonel. There was a sound like ripping paper, and a long, pink tunnel opened behind Nate, leading all the way to the iris door through which he'd entered. He took one last look over his shoulder, but there was nothing except Goo, Ryder was gone. Nate was met in the hall by the two big killer whaley boys, who took one look at his face, then looked at each other, then snickered, with big toothy grins. Emily 7 was nowhere to be seen. â€Å"He's a fucking squirrel,† Nate said. The whaley boys went into wheezing fits of laughter, doubling over as they led Nate down the corridor and back to the grotto. Say what you want, Nate thought. The Goo designed these guys to enjoy themselves. As soon as Nate entered the apartment, he knew he wasn't alone. There was a smell there, and not just the ubiquitous ocean smell that permeated the whole grotto, but a sweeter, artificial smell. He quickly checked the main living rooms and the bathroom. When the portal to the bedroom opened, he could see a shape under the covers in his double bed. The biolighting hadn't come on in the bedroom as usual. Nate sighed. The shape under the covers nuzzled into the corner of the bed exactly the way she had on the whale ship. â€Å"Emily 7, you are a lovely – ah – person, really, but I'm – † He was what? He had no idea what he was going to say. He was just trying to get to know himself better? He needed some space? But then he realized that whatever, whoever was under the sheets was too small to be the enamored whaley boy. Nu;ez, he thought. This was going to be worse than Emily 7. Nu;ez was really his only human contact in Gooville, even if she was working for the cause. He didn't want to alienate her. He couldn't afford to. He moved into the room, trying to think of a way that this could possibly not make things worse. â€Å"Look, I know that we've spent a lot of time together, and I like you, I really do –  » â€Å"Good,† said Amy, throwing back the covers. â€Å"I like you, too. You coming in?† CHAPTER THIRTY Motherfluker Clay and Kona had spent the day cleaning the muck out of the raised-from-the-deep Always Confused. Now Clay stood on the breakwater at the Lahaina Harbor, watching the sun bubble red into the Pacific and throw purple fire over the island. He was feeling that particular mix of melancholy and agitation that usually comes with drinking coffee and Irish whiskey at the wake of someone you never knew, and it usually ends in a fight. He felt as if he should do something, but he didn't know what. He needed to move, but he didn't know where. Libby had confirmed that the last message about Nate had been recorded more than a week after he'd disappeared, and it seemed to be more evidence that Nate had survived his ordeal in the channel, but where was he? How do you rush in to save someone when you don't know where he is? All their analysis of the tapes since then had yielded nothing but whale calls. Clay was lost. â€Å"What you doing?† Kona, barefoot and smelling of bleach, came up behind him. â€Å"I'm waiting for the green flash.† He wasn't, really, but sometimes, just as the sun dipped below the horizon, it happened. He needed something to happen. â€Å"Yeah, I seen that. What cause that?† â€Å"Uh, well† – and that was another thing, he didn't have enough of a handle on the natural sciences to keep this whole project going – â€Å"I believe as the sun disappears under the horizon, the residual spectrum bounces off the mucusphere, thus causing the green flash.† â€Å"Yah, mon. The mucusphere.† â€Å"It's science,† said Clay, knowing that it wasn't science. â€Å"When the boat clean, then we going out, record whales and like dat?† Good question, Clay thought. He could collect the data, but he didn't have the knowledge necessary to analyze it. He had hoped that Amy would do that. â€Å"I don't know. If we find Nate, maybe.† â€Å"You think he still living, then? Even after all this time?† â€Å"Yeah. I hope. I guess we should keep up the work until we can find him.† â€Å"Yeah. Nate say them Japanese going to kill our minkes if you don't work hard.† â€Å"Minke whales, yeah. I've been on one of their ships. Norwegians, too.† â€Å"That's some evil fuckery.† â€Å"Maybe. The minke herd is large. They're not endangered. The Japanese and the Norwegians aren't really taking enough of them to hurt the population, so why shouldn't we let them hunt them? I mean, what's the argument for stopping them? Because whales are cute? The Chinese fry kitties – we don't protest them.† â€Å"The Chinese fry kitties?† â€Å"I'm not saying I agree with killing them, but we really don't have a good argument.† â€Å"The Chinese fry kitties?† Kona's voice was getting higher each time he spoke. â€Å"Maybe some of the work we do here can prove that these animals have culture, that they're closer to us than they perceive. Then we'll have an argument.† â€Å"Kitties? Like, little meow kitties? They just fry them?† Clay was musing, watching the sunset and feeling sad and frustrated, and words came out of him like a long, rambling sigh: â€Å"Of course, when I was on the whaling ship, I saw how the Japanese whalers looked at the animals. They see them as fish. No more or less than a tuna. But I was photographing a sperm-whale mother and her calf, and the calf got separated from the pod. The mother came back to get the calf and pushed it away from our Zodiac. The whalers were visibly moved. They recognized that mother/child behavior. It wasn't fish behavior. So it's not a lost cause.† â€Å"Kitties?† Kona sighed, taking on the same tone of resignation that Clay had used. â€Å"Yeah,† said Clay. â€Å"So how we going to find Nate so we can do good work and save them humpies and minkes?† â€Å"Is that what we're doing?† â€Å"No. Not now. Now we just watching for a green flash.† â€Å"I don't know any science, Kona. I made that up, about the green flash.† â€Å"Ah, I didn't know. Science you don't know just looks like magic.† â€Å"I don't believe in magic.† â€Å"Oh, brah, don't say dat. Magic come bite you in the ass for sure. You going to need my help for sure now.† Clay felt some of the weight of his melancholy lift by sharing a moment with the surfer, but his need to act was worrying at him like a flea in the ear. â€Å"Let's take a drive up-country, Kona.† â€Å"They really fry kitties in China?† Kona said, his voice so high now that dogs living around the harbor winced. â€Å"Amy, what, how – what?† The lights had come up, and Nate could see that it was Amy in his bed. It was a lot of Amy that he hadn't seen before. â€Å"They took me, Nate. Just like you. A few days later. It was horrible. Quick, hold me.† â€Å"A whale ship ate you, too?† â€Å"Yes, just like you. Hold me, I'm so afraid.† â€Å"And they brought you all the way here?† â€Å"Yes, just like you, only it's worse for a dame. I feel†¦ so†¦ so naked. Hold me.† † ‘Dame'? No one says ‘dame' anymore.† â€Å"Well, African-American, then.† â€Å"You are not African-American.† â€Å"I can't remember all the politically correct terms. Christ, Nate, what do you need, a diagram? Crawl in.† Amy flapped the covers, threw them back, then struck a cheesecake pose, grinning. But Nate backed away. â€Å"You put your head in the water to listen for the whale. The only other person I ever saw do that was Ryder.† â€Å"Look at my tan line, Nate.† She danced her fingertips over her tan line, which to Nate looked more like a beige line. Nevertheless, she had his attention. â€Å"I've never had a tan line before.† â€Å"Amy!† â€Å"What!† â€Å"You set me up!† â€Å"I'm naked over here. Haven't you thought about that?† â€Å"Yes, but –  » â€Å"Ha! You admit it. I was your research assistant. You had firing power over me. Yet there you are, thinking about me naked.† â€Å"You are naked.† â€Å"Ha! I think I've made my point.† â€Å"That ‘ha' thing is unprofessional, Amy.† â€Å"Don't care. I no longer work for you, and you are not the boss of me anymore, and furthermore, look at this butt.† She rolled over. He did. She looked back over her shoulder and grinned. â€Å"Ha!† â€Å"Stop that.† He looked at the wall. â€Å"You spied on me. You caused all this to happen.† â€Å"Don't be ridiculous. I was just part of it, but all that is forgiven. Look how luscious I am.† Amy did a presentation wave over herself, as if Nate had just won her in a game show. â€Å"Would you stop that?† Nate reached over and pulled the covers up to her chin. â€Å"Lus-cious,† she said, pulling the covers down, revealing a breast with each syllable. Nate walked out of the room. â€Å"Put on some clothes and come out here. I'm not going to try to talk to you like that.† â€Å"Fine, don't talk,† she called after him. â€Å"Just crawl in.† â€Å"You're just bait,† he called from the kitchen. â€Å"Hey, buster, I'm not that young.† â€Å"This conversation is over until you come out here fully dressed.† Nate sat down at his little dining table and tried to will away his erection. â€Å"What are you, some kind of fruitcake, some kind of sissy boy, some kind of fairy, huh?† â€Å"Yes, that's it,† Nate said. For a moment nothing but quiet from the bedroom. Then: â€Å"Oh, my God, I feel like such a maroon.† Her voice was softer now. She came stumbling out of the bedroom, the sheet wrapped around her. â€Å"I'm really sorry, Nate. I had no idea. You seemed so interested. I wouldn't have –  » â€Å"Ha!† Nate said. â€Å"See how it feels.† The Old Broad had given them iced ginger tea and set Kona up at one of her telescopes to look at the moon. She sat down next to Clay on the lanai and they listened to the night for a while. â€Å"It's nice up here,† Clay said. â€Å"I don't think I've been up here at night before.† â€Å"Clay, I'm usually in bed by now, so I hope you don't think me dense if I get things clear in my mind.† â€Å"Of course not, Elizabeth.† â€Å"Thank you. As I see it, for years you and Nate have been telling everyone that I'm a nut job because I said I could communicate with whales. Now you drive up here in a froth – in the middle of the night – to deliver the earth-shattering news that what I've been telling you all along is possible?† She leaned her chin on her fist and looked wide-eyed at Clay. â€Å"That about right?† â€Å"We never called you a nut job, Elizabeth,† Clay said. â€Å"That's an overstatement.† â€Å"Doesn't matter, Clay. I'm not mad.† She sipped her tea. â€Å"And I'm not angry either. I've been in these islands a very long time, Clay, and I've lived on the side of this volcano for most of it. I've spent more time looking down on that channel than most people have spent on the planet, but not once did you or Nate ask me why. Didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, I guess. Easier to think I was just a few bananas short of a bunch than to ask me why I was interested.† Clay felt sweat running down the small of his back. He'd been uncomfortable around the Old Broad before, but in a totally different way – the way one feels when a matron aunt pinches your cheek and starts to ramble inanely about the old days, not like this. This was like getting sandbagged by a prosecutor. â€Å"I don't think that Nate or I could answer that question, Elizabeth, so it's not out of order that we didn't ask you.† â€Å"That's a load a shark balls, old Auntie,† Kona said, not looking away from the eyepiece of the eight-inch mirror telescope. â€Å"He's a sweet boy,† the Old Broad said. â€Å"Clay, you know that Mr. Robinson was in the navy. Did I ever tell you what it was that he did?† â€Å"No, ma'am, I just assumed he was an officer.† â€Å"I can understand how you might think that, but all the money came from my family. No, sweetheart, he was a noncom, a chief petty officer, a sonar man. In fact, I'm told he was the best sonar man in the navy at the time.† â€Å"I'm sure he was, Elizabeth, but – ; â€Å"Shut up, Clay. You came here for help, I'm helping you.† â€Å"Yes, ma'am.† Clay shut up. â€Å"James – that was Mr. Robinson's first name – he loved to listen to the humpbacks. He said they made his job a damn sight harder, but he loved them. We were stationed in Honolulu then, but submarine crews were on and off on hundred-day duty shifts, so when he would have time in port, we would come over to Maui, rent a boat, and go out in the channel. He wanted me to be part of the world he lived in all the time – the world of sound under the sea. You can understand that, can't you, Clay?† â€Å"Of course.† But Clay was getting a not-so-good feeling about this trip down memory lane. He had things he needed to know, but he wasn't sure that this was part of them. â€Å"That's when I bought Papa Lani with some of my father's money. We thought we'd live there full-time eventually, maybe turn it into a hotel. Anyway, one day James and I decided to rent a little powerboat and camp on the ocean side of Lanai. It was a calm day and an easy trip. On our way over, a big humpback came up beside the boat. It even seemed to change course when we did. James slowed down so we could stay with our new friend. There were no rules then about getting close to the whales like there are now. We didn't even know we were supposed to save them back then, but James loved the humpbacks, and I had come to as well. â€Å"There was no one but the pineapple-company workers on Lanai at that time, so we found a deserted beach where we thought we'd build a fire, cook some dinner, drink highballs from tin cups, swim naked, and†¦ you know, make love on the beach. See there, I've shocked you.† â€Å"No you haven't,† said Clay. â€Å"Yes I have. I'm sorry.† â€Å"No you haven't. Really, I'm fine, tell the story.† Old ladies, he thought. â€Å"When the trade winds came up that evening, we pitched the tent a little ways off the beach in a small canyon sheltered from the wind. Well, I gave James my best hummer, and he fell asleep right away.† Clay choked on his iced tea. â€Å"Oh, my dear, did an ice cube go down the wrong pipe? Kona, come here and Heimlich Clay, dear.† â€Å"No, I'm fine.† Clay waved the surfer away. â€Å"Really, I'm okay.† Tears streamed down his cheeks, and he wiped his nose on his shirttail. He was suddenly incredibly grateful he hadn't brought Clair. â€Å"Just need to catch my breath.† Kona sat down cross-legged at their feet, having suddenly found that he was interested in history. â€Å"Go ahead, old Auntie.† â€Å"Well, I got a little bit of a headache. So I decided to go back to the boat to get an aspirin from the first-aid kit. Come to think of it, it must have been from the tension in my neck. I always got a crick in my neck when I did that, but James loved it so.† â€Å"Jesus, Elizabeth, would you get on with the story,† Clay said. â€Å"I'm sorry, dear, I've shocked you, haven't I?† â€Å"No, I'm fine. I'm just curious to find out what happened.† â€Å"Well, as long as I didn't shock you. I suppose I should be more discreet in front of the boy, but it is part of the story.† â€Å"No, please. What happened on the beach?† â€Å"You know, we could fuck like mad monkeys, all night long, and it never gave me a headache, but one –  » â€Å"The beach, please.† â€Å"When I got to the beach, there were two men near the boat. It looked like they were doing something to the engine. I ducked behind a rock before they saw me. I watched them in the moonlight, a short one and the tall one. The tall one seemed to be wearing some sort of helmet or diving suit. But then the short one said something, and the tall one started laughing – snickering, really – and I saw his face in the moonlight. It wasn't a helmet, Clay. It was a face – a smooth, shiny face, with a jaw full of teeth. I could see the teeth even from where I was. It wasn't human, Clay. â€Å"Well, I went back and woke James, told him he had to come see. I took him back to my hiding place. The two men, or the man and that thing were still there, but behind them, right there almost on the beach, was also a humpback, a big one. The water couldn't have been ten feet deep where he was, yet he was sitting there calm as could be. â€Å"Well, all James saw was the two men messing with our boat. We had drunk quite a few cocktails, I guess, and James had his big, strong man act to do. He told me to stay where I was and not to move for anything. Then he went after them – shouting at the top of his lungs for them to get away. The tall one, the nonhuman thing, dove under the water right away, but the man looked around like he'd been trapped. He started wading out toward the whale, and James went right in after him. Then, at last, James saw the whale. He just stopped there in the surf and looked. That's when the thing came up out of the water behind him. Suddenly it was just there, looming behind James. I wanted to yell, but I was so afraid. The thing, it hit James with something, maybe a rock, and he fell forward into the water. Then I screamed for all I was worth, but I'm not sure they even heard me over the noise of the wind and the surf. â€Å"The man took one of James's arms, the thing the other, and they swam to the whale with James in tow. Then, Clay, as crazy as this sounds, this is what happened: That whale rolled over, and they stuffed James into it, back by the genital slit, I think. Then they both crawled into it as well. Then the whale kicked its tail until it was in deeper water and swam away. I never saw my husband again.† The Old Broad took Clay's hand and squeezed it. â€Å"I swear to you, that's how it happened, Clay.† Clay didn't know what to say. Over the years she'd said a lot of crazy-sounding stuff, but this was the mother of all crazy stuff. Yet she was more serious than he'd ever seen her. It didn't matter what he believed – there was only one thing to say to her. â€Å"I believe you, Elizabeth.† â€Å"That's why, Clay. That's why I've helped finance you over the years, it's why I've watched the channel all these years, it's why I own two acres right near the water, yet I've lived up-country for all these years.† â€Å"I don't understand, Elizabeth.† â€Å"They came back, Clay. That night the whale came back, and the thing came back to the beach, but I hid. They came back for me. The next day I didn't even go back to the boat. I hiked my way to the pineapple plantation and got help there. They brought me back to Lahaina on one of their big freighters. I haven't been on the water since. The closest I ever go near the water is when there's an event at the sanctuary, and then there are a lot of people around.† Clay thought about the Japanese soldier they'd found on a Pacific island who'd been hiding from the Americans for twenty years after the war was over. Elizabeth Robinson had obviously been hiding from something that wasn't looking for her. â€Å"Didn't you tell anyone? Surely the navy would have wanted to find out what happened to one of their best sonar men.† â€Å"They asked. I told them. They dismissed it. They said James went swimming at night, he drowned, and I was drunk. They sent some men over there, and so did the Maui police. They found the boat, still on the beach, with everything in working order. They found our camp, and they found an empty bottle of rum. That was the end of it.† â€Å"Why didn't you ever tell me? Or Nate?† â€Å"I wanted you to keep doing the work that you do. Meanwhile, I kept watching. I read all the scientific journals, too, you know. I look for anything that might make sense of it. Come with me.† She got up and went into her house, Clay and Kona following without a word. In the bedroom she opened a cedar chest and took out a large scrapbook. She laid it on the bed and flipped it open to the last page. It was Nate's obituary. â€Å"Nathan was one of the best in the field, and that little girl said that a whale ate him. Then she disappeared at sea.† She flipped a page. â€Å"Twelve years ago this Dr. Gerard Ryder disappeared at sea, also studying whale calls at the time, although blue whales.† She flipped another page. â€Å"This fellow, a Russian sonar expert who defected to England, disappeared off Cornwall in 1973. They said it was probably KGB.† â€Å"Well, it probably was KGB. I'm sorry, Elizabeth, but each of these incidents seems to have a perfectly normal explanation, and they happen over such a long period of time in different places. I don't see what the connection is.† â€Å"It's underwater sound, Clay. And they're not normal. All these men, including my James, were experts at listening to the ocean.† â€Å"Even so, are you saying that someone has trained whales? That creatures have been abducting sonar guys and shoving them up whales' bums?† â€Å"Don't be crude, Clay. You came to me because you wanted help, I'm trying to give it to you. I don't know who they are, but what you've told me about there being language hidden in the whale song – it just confirms in my mind that they took Nate, and James, and all these other people. That's all I know. I'm telling you that I'm sure that Nate is alive, too. It's another piece to the puzzle.† Clay sat down on the bed next to the scrapbook. There were articles from scientific journals on cetacean biology, on underwater acoustics, news items about whale strandings, some that didn't seem connected at all. It was the search path of someone who didn't know what she was looking for. He'd gone so long thinking of her as crazy that he'd never given her credit for how knowledgeable she really was. He was realizing only now what had been driving her. He felt like a shit. â€Å"Elizabeth, what about the call about the sandwich? What about the crystals and the whales talking to you – all of that? I don't understand.† â€Å"I did get the call, Clay. And as for the other, I have dreams of the whales talking to me, and I pay attention to them. Fifty years of searching, I take clues where I can get them. Given what I was looking for, I thought magic and divination as valid a method as any tool in the search.† â€Å"See,† Kona said, â€Å"I told you. Science you don't know? Magic.† â€Å"I guess I was casting my faith around carelessly, I just hope I didn't do something awful.† â€Å"Nah, old Auntie, Jah's love on ye anyway, even if you're trampin' around your faith like a ho.† â€Å"Kona, shut up,† Clay said. â€Å"What do you mean, you might have done something awful, Elizabeth?† She picked up the scrapbook, closed it, then sat down on the bed next to Clay and hung her head. A tear dripped down onto the black pasteboard cover of the book. â€Å"When the call came, and the whale said that he wanted a pastrami on rye, I recognized the voice, Clay. I recognized the voice, and I insisted Nathan go out there and take the sandwich with him.† â€Å"It was probably a prank, Elizabeth, someone you've met. Nate was going out that day anyway. You didn't cause this.† â€Å"No, you don't understand, Clay. Pastrami on rye was my James's favorite. I always had one waiting for him when he came in from submarine duty. The voice on the phone was my James.†

Effective Praise Highlights Student Effort

Effective Praise Highlights Student Effort Praise works. In fact, educational research since the 1960s shows that students at every grade level and in every subject like to be praised for their work in the classroom. The empirical evidence from the research shows that praise can have a positive impact on both student academic learning and social behavior. Yet, as researchers Robert A. Gable, et al. note in their article Back to Basics Rules, Praise, Ignoring, and Reprimands Revisited (2009)  in the Journal of Intervention in School and Clinic, Given the documented positive effects of teacher praise, it is puzzling why so many teachers make little use of it. In determining why praise in the classroom is not used more often, Gable et al. suggest that teachers may not have had the training through peer coaching, self-monitoring, or self -evaluating and may not feel comfortable in acknowledging positive pupil behavior consistently.   Another reason may be that teachers may not know how to deliver praise that is effective. Teachers may give general praise using phrases such as, â€Å"Great work!† or â€Å"Nice job, students!† General phrases are not the most effective way for teachers to give feedback in the classroom. General phrases are directed to no one or to no skill in particular. Moreover, while these general phrases may be nice to hear, they may be too broad, and their overuse may result in becoming humdrum.  Similarly routine responses such as â€Å"Awesome!† or â€Å"Excellent!† by themselves do not inform the student what specific behaviors brought about success. Arguments against generic praise given indiscriminately have been made by education researcher Carol Dweck (2007) in her article The Perils and Promises of Praise in Educational Leadership. The wrong kind of praise creates self-defeating behavior. The right kind motivates students to learn. So, what can make praise the â€Å"right kind†? What can make praise in the classroom effective? The answer is the timing or when the teacher gives praise. The other important criteria of praise are the quality or kind of praise. When to Give Praise When a teacher uses praise to acknowledge student effort in problem-solving or in practice, make the praise more effective. Effective praise can be directed to an individual student or group of students when the teacher wants to connect praise with a particular behavior. That also means that praise should not be given for trivial accomplishments or weak efforts by students such as minor task completion or the student completing their responsibilities. In making praise effective, a teacher should explicitly note the behavior as the reason for praise in as timely a manner as possible.  The younger the student, the more immediate the praise should be. At the high school level, most students can accept delayed praise. When a teacher sees a student is making progress, the language of encouragement as praise can be effective. For example, I can see your hard work in this assignment.You have not quit even with this tough problem.Keep using your strategies! You’re making good progress!You have really grown (in these areas).I can see a difference in your work compared to yesterday. When a teacher sees a student succeed, the language of congratulatory praise may be more appropriate, such as: Congratulations! You put in the effort to succeed.Look at what you can accomplish when you do not give up.I am so proud of the effort, and you should be too, about the effort you put into this. Should students succeed easily without effort, praise can address the level of the assignment or problem. For example: This  assignment was not as challenging for you, so lets try and find something that will help you grow.  You may be ready for something more difficult, so what skills should we work on next?  It’s great that you have that down.  Ã‚  We need to raise the bar for you now. After giving praise, teachers should encourage students to take advantage of this opportunity to offer a chance for reflection So when you have another assignment or problem like this, what will you do?  Think back, what did you do that contributed to your success? Quality of Praise Praise must always be connected to a process, rather than student intelligence. That is the basis of Dwecks research in her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (2007). She showed that students who received praise for their innate intelligence with statements such as â€Å"You are so smart† exhibited a â€Å"fixed mindset. They believed that academic achievement was limited on innate ability. In contrast, students who were praised for their efforts with statements such as â€Å"Your argument is very clear† exhibited a growth mindset and believed in academic achievement through effort and learning. Thus, we found that praise for intelligence tended to put students in a fixed mind-set (intelligence is fixed, and you have it), whereas praise for effort tended to put them in a growth mind-set (youre developing these skills because youre working hard). Of the two types of praise, Dweck notes, praise for student  effort such as â€Å"All that hard work and effort in completing the project paid off!† improves student motivation. One caution in praising, however, is to Make sure teachers are careful not to be inauthentic to inflate praise for students with low self-esteem. Critics have raised questions about the legitimacy of classroom praise, as rewarding trivial accomplishments or weak efforts. There may be some schools that do not support the use of evidence-based practices such as teacher praise. Additionally, at the secondary level, praise may also be received by students as drawing unwanted attention to an accomplishment. Regardless, there is no evidence to suggest that effective praise has a negative effect on students. Instead, effective praise can provide students with the kind of positive reinforcement that builds on success, motivates them to learn, and increases their participation in class. Steps to Effective Praise Notice effort by the student(s).Make eye contact with the student(s).Smile. Be sincere and enthusiastic.Deliver praise to students in proximity, especially at the secondary level.Prepare for praise by deciding what to say that is specific to the task.  Describe the behavior you want to reinforce telling how you feel about it with specific comments like, Your thoughts were well organized in this essay.Keep records of successful efforts and praise so you can make connections in future assignments. Finally, and most importantly, importantly, do not combine praise with criticism. To keep praise separate from criticism, avoid using the word, but immediately after a compliment. All this can make praise effective in the classroom. Effective praise can provide students with the kind of positive reinforcement that builds on success, motivates them to learn, and increases their participation in class.

Commentary on Cambodia, by James Fenton

Commentary on Cambodia, by James Fenton James Fenton, the poet of 'Cambodia' spent several years in Asia, touring countries such as Cambodia, Vietnam and Indochina and became distressed and exceedingly more and more incensed by the atrocious war crimes being committed by those in authority. He wrote most of his poems upon his return to America, but 'Cambodia' was written while he was visiting Southern Asia. Cambodia was a country devastated by war, and over 2 million civilians died in the various conflicts. The conflict he is referring to here is when American troops conducted illegal bombing raids under the guise of killing Viet-Cong they thought were fleeing into Cambodia. These bombing raids cost 750,000 innocent civilians their lives. Cambodia was then ruled by Pol Pot, who killed up to two million civilians in his reign. James Fenton was particularly disillusioned with those who had the power to stop the war, and became a fervent anti-war supporter.United States

Consider a Career in Immigration Services

Consider a Career in Immigration Services For those interested in a career in U.S. immigration services, consider the three immigration agencies that are within the Department of Homeland Security: U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). These positions include border patrol agents, criminal investigators or agents who enforce immigration policy through apprehension, processing, detention or deportation of illegal aliens, or assisting immigrants through the process of achieving legal status, visas or naturalization. Homeland Security Careers Information Information about careers within the U.S. federal government can be found at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. This office contains further information for federal job seekers including employee pay scales and benefits. U.S. citizenship is a requirement for a majority of these federal jobs. Read the requirements carefully before applying.   Customs and Border Protection According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the CBP is a premier law enforcement agency that safeguards America’s borders. Every day, CBP protects the public from dangerous people and materials attempting to cross the border, while enhancing the nation’s global economic competitiveness by enabling legitimate trade and travel at ports of entry. On a typical day, CBP makes more than 900 apprehensions and seizes more than 9,000 pounds of illegal drugs.  The  CBP offers a comprehensive careers section on its website including job recruiting events. There are approximately 45,000 employees across the U.S. and overseas. There are two major categories in Customs and Border Patrol: frontline law enforcement and mission-critical occupations, such as operational and mission support positions. Current CBP opportunities can be found on USA Jobs. USA Jobs is the official job site of the U.S. Federal Government. Annual salary ranges in CBP in 2016 were: $60,000 - $110,000 for a customs and border patrol officer, $49,000 - $120,000 for a border patrol agent and $85,000 to $145,000 for a management and program analyst. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, its homeland security mission is carried out by a wide variety of law enforcement, intelligence and mission support professionals all of whom have the opportunity to contribute to the safety and security of the U.S. In addition to the core law enforcement occupations, there are also a wide range of professional and administrative functions that support the ICE mission. ICE offers an extensive  careers information  and recruitment calendar  section on its website. Find out when ICE will be in your area for a recruiting event. ICE classifies its job opportunities into two categories: criminal investigators (special agents) and all other ICE opportunities. Positions in ICE include financial and trade investigations; cyber crimes; project analysis and management; litigating removal cases in immigration court; working with foreign authorities; intelligence gathering; investigations into arms and strategic technology violations; human trafficking; and child exploitation. Other roles include security for federal buildings, perform crowd control and surveillance, and work with other federal state and local authorities or enforcement duties that include the apprehension, processing, detention, and deportation of illegal or criminal aliens. Finally, there are a number of technical, professional, administrative or management occupations directly supporting its law enforcement mission. ICE has up to 20,000 employees working in 400 offices nationwide and over 50 locations internationally. Entry-level criminal investigators are recruited directly through recruiters. Contact special agent recruiters at the nearest Special Agent in Charge (SAC) office to apply for a criminal investigator position, but only when ICE is actively recruiting. Check the career section of ICEs website to find out if the department is recruiting. All other ICE job opportunities can be found on USA Jobs.   Annual salary ranges in ICE in 2017 were: $69,000-$142,000 for a special agent, $145,000-$206,000 for senior attorneys, and $80,000-$95,000 for a deportation officer. U.S. Customs and Immigration Services According to U.S. Customs and Immigration Services,   the agency oversees legal immigration to the United States. The agency helps people build better lives while helping to defend the integrity of the nation’s immigration system.  The USCIS Careers site has information on becoming a USCIS employee, pay and benefits offerings, training and career development opportunities, upcoming recruiting events and some frequently asked questions. There are approximately 19,000 federal and contract employees at 223 offices worldwide. Positions include security specialist, information technology specialist, management and program analyst, applications adjudicator, asylum officer, refugee officer, immigration information officer, immigration officer, intelligence research specialist, adjudications officer and immigration services officer. Current USCIS opportunities can be found on USA Jobs. In addition to the website, USCIS has access to job opening information through an interactive voice response telephone system at (703) 724-1850 or by TDD at (978) 461-8404. Annual salary ranges in USCIS in 2017 were: $80,000 to $100,000 for an immigration officer, $109,000-$122,000 for an IT specialist, and $51,000-$83,000 for an adjudications officer.

Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 5

Questions - Essay Example Some families, who are immigrants, move several times throughout the year as their parents follow migrant worker travel schedules and these schools are not prepared for students in these circumstances; often failing to provide adequate opportunity for the student to meet passing criteria. Many complete high schools are undocumented citizens with few choices but to resume work in labor similar to their parents. Providing a path to education and employment, was the goals of the Dream Act that was placed before congress in 2011, failing to get the Senate vote. This act had provisions for higher education and citizenship status and college availability for those immigrants who have been in the United States throughout school with no citizenship. Lack of citizenship greatly increases college tuition, which is another factor that works against promoting higher education of immigrants. Cultural lag creates a social problem within society as one portion of society becomes further advanced or in a more beneficial position and other portions do not, such as the case in immigration. Less educated workers in an ethnic group, often receiving public government benefits and unable to find work contribute to society as a whole. Deblassie, A. (1996). Education Of Hispanic Youth: A Cultural Lag - Research and Read Books, Journals, Articles at Questia Online Library. Questia - The Online Library of Books and Journals. Retrieved from http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5000343563 Immigration and Public Education. (2011). The United Church of Christ | No Matter Who You Are Or Where You Are On Lifes Journey, Youre Welcome Here. Retrieved from

Why does the UK financial services regulator take such a dim view of Essay

Why does the UK financial services regulator take such a dim view of both market abuse and insider dealing - Essay Example 179). Since the past decade, financial markets have experienced essential reforms. This is because globalization has had dramatic and far-reaching effects on United Kingdom. Market abuse and insider dealings are criminal cases for which one is to be fined or publicly censured (Avgouleas, 2005, p. 179). Market abuse is more loosely delineated than insider dealings. Most of the offenses in the financial markets are dealt with under the market abuse regime. The financial service regulator can enforce a criminal prosecution on a market abuse case if it deems fit and if there is sufficient evidence. Market abuse, according to Alexander (2001, p. 12), refers to improper behavior that destabilizes the United Kingdom markets and harms the interests of the ordinary market users and participants. For this reason, the financial services regulation Act has created sanctions and penalties which are adjacent to the criminals’ offenses Act (Compliance Reporter, 2011, p. 2-3). The primary asp ect of market abuse is behavior in relation to shares and other financial instruments transacted publicly in United Kingdom. For behavior to be termed as an insider dealing, it should typify one of the seven types of insider dealings and market abuses as described by the financial service regulator. However, it should be noted that insider dealing and market abuse acts amount to criminal offenses subject to penal sanctions. The misleading statements and courses of conduct with the aim of inducing another person to implement or desist from carrying out rights in relation to investments amount to criminal offenses (The Compliance Reporter, 2011, p. 4). The market abuse regime will nab anyone: not only the individuals working in the financial markets or who manage the quoted companies on the board but also anyone who will attempt to abuse the securities markets in delineated ways. An individual is liable even when the actions were unintentional and or indirect (encouraging such behavio rs). According to Alexander (2001, p. 4), market abuse and insider information regime covers financial instruments such as the shares, futures, warrants, options and debt insurance, and contracts for differences, transacted on every regulated market in United Kingdom. In addition, the regime covers all the operations associated with the financial instruments even when carried out off-market. In other instances, conduct according to other related financial instruments or essential goods may be nabbed, even when the instruments are not transacted on a normal regulated market. In addition, an individual’s conduct involving securities transacted on an overseas unfettered market may be nabbed if an option related to them is merchandized in United Kingdom. The market abuse regime purposes to safeguard markets from harm to their efficiency and to guarantee effectiveness, order and fairness. The financial service regulator has the responsibility of issuing codes of conduct in the mar ket, which give appropriate direction to individuals determining whether behavior constitutes abuse or not. An insider, in reference to Alexander (2001, p. 10), refers to an individual who has inside information about an investment as a result of his or her membership in the administrative or supervisory body of an issuer of qualifying venture or management. An individual may also be an insider due to holding capital of an issuer of a stipulated venture or due to having right to use the data by the fact of employment, professionalism, or responsibilities. In addition, an

The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Tolstoy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Tolstoy - Essay Example He has family, friends and a good position that he devoted a major part of his life in cultivating. As a result he has political, personal and social freedom. Ilyich’s free and easy life is pleasant with decorum and lightheartedness, and his nature is agreeable. Through this narrative, Tolstoy studies both life and death, Ivan’s realization about his life not truly lived, and his eventual making of peace with the inevitability of death. Thus, only in his last moments does Ivan Ilyich lose his fear of death, and joyfully perceives the light which replaces it (Tolstoy 56). Great scholars such as Vladimir and Mahatma Gandhi acclaimed the novella as the greatest in Russian literature. The work is interesting to read, rich in insights about human nature, and educative in its content. Thesis Statement: The purpose of this paper is to examine Leo Tolstoy’s story The Death of Ivan Ilyich, and discuss why the main protagonist’s life was not truly lived. Why Ivan Il yich’s Life was not Well Lived Tolstoy through his story insists that Ivan Ilyich is not different from others in the world, and that his extremely simple and ordinary life is â€Å"most terrible† (Tolstoy 9). ... The author depicts his protagonist as a selfish, short-sighted and mediocre person, since the latter’s ideal goal in life was to avoid unpleasantness. Ilyich’s main pleasures in life included playing bridge with his friends, besides liking antiques and living properly and pleasantly. However, it is evident that none of these normal, ordinary qualities can condemn Ilyich as wicked. This is the exact message that Tolstoy wishes to convey to the reader. While Ivan’s existence was akin to living death, his death is a rebirth into a new spiritual life. Therefore, his fatal flaw was that he had lived in a spiritual void (Hobby 34). According to Tolstoy, the fact of living and life ironically includes the certainty of death. Living with pain and illness everyday, Ivan Ilyich suffers for several months while refusing to accept the inevitability of his death (Tolstoy 7). The core of his life had consisted of emptiness, self deception and false values. Most human beings, i n the process of living, we commonly deny the truth of our human condition, pretend to forget about death; and this lie forms a part of the other lies that vitiate our beings. This means that Ilyich had been â€Å"living a literal, physical life but had been spiritually dead† (Hobby 34). Olney’s (p.110) analysis of the story differentiates between â€Å"life as experience† and â€Å"life as meaning†, and states that Tolstoy’s vivid representation through the fictional narrative helps the reader comprehend the truth that was present in the author’s own soul. For Tolstoy the actual meaning of life was different from indulgence in parties, tastefully decorating one’s home, and other

Life Problem Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Life Problem - Essay Example Underlying this conflict is the different opinion the siblings have on whether Edith's actions regarding were in accordance to Maurice's wishes. As Edward states, his father would have wanted all his children to benefit from the estate. Thus, Edith's choice of naming Nancy as a joint tenant is a major conflict among children because as the law of survivorship states, the interests of a deceased joint tenant cannot be passed on by will, but should be passed directly to the surviving joint tenant. In this case, all of Edith's jointly owned properties will be passed on to Nancy after her death unless formal actions are taken up to sever the joint tenancy or include the three children as tenants in common. Furthermore, structural conflicts are also present that make communication, and consequently understanding, difficult. Geographically, all three siblings have left Queensland and now reside in other parts of Australia and the world. Hence, physical communication barriers can cause anxiety and strain relationships, especially for the siblings who have not seen each other in more than 10 years. It also increases the window for misinformation. Edward and the others can also feel threatened by Nancy and Rajiv because of Edith's dependence on them, their residence in the estate, and their control over Darlington. It causes Edward to believe they are disadvantage against Nancy. Edith's health conditions also puts time constraints because as their mother and owner of the estate, she is the only person who can enforce changes in the distribution of Darlington through severing her joint tenancy with Nancy or including the three children as tenants in common without damaging relationships. Such circumstances indicate that relational conflicts are brewing because while Edward and the others feel threatened by Nancy, Nancy feels that her siblings are rallying against her or that they do not appreciate her sacrifices for the estate. These conflicts, although seemingly immaterial, plays an important role in the negotiation because it determines each party's attitude and possibly create a negative behaviour among the siblings, hampering communication even more. While there is a number of methods available, negotiations are the most efficient, viable, and appropriate method to resolve the conflict. As Edward explained, a legal proceeding is not only complicated, but their claims may also be weakened because it is be difficult to establish an enforceable trust based on their father's will. Their geographic location also makes legal proceedings difficult logistically and financially. Furthermore, with Edith's old age and health conditions, it will not benefit anyone to place stress on her. Thus, unless the children can come up with a negotiated outcome acceptable to all, and approach Edith with the outcome in hand, further disagreements among the children can only worsen Edith's condition. It is also important for Edward to understand that if taken to court Nancy's contributions to the farm, Edward and his party's absence and seeming lack of interest in the farm and their mother's welfare, and Nancy's residence in the

A conceptual framework can be easily developed for accounting Essay

A conceptual framework can be easily developed for accounting. Critically evaluate this statement and provide examples to illustrate your answer - Essay Example Solomons emphasized that the accountants must not distort the financial statement to favor one or more parties to the detriment of the other equally interested parties (Solomons 1996). A conceptual framework can be easily developed for accounting. The prior pen and pencil manual recording of business transaction has metamorphosed into the current software based recording of business transactions. FASB and IASB published Conceptual frameworks as guides for the preparation of financial reports. The WorldCom, Enron, and other accounting scandals have precipitated to the U.S. Sarbanes Oxley Act. Presently, there is a move to harmonise the U.S. conceptual framework and the U.K. conceptual framework (King 2006). Interested parties contribute their inputs to increase the ease in formulating the conceptual framework of accounting. A conceptual framework serves as a guide in the preparation of accounting report. A conceptual framework can be easily developed for accounting. Further, the conceptual framework is a group’s painstaking endeavor. Persons and groups from different fields of interest meet to share their opinions, suggestions, comments, and criticisms during the proposal to create a new conceptual framework. Each party will try to make the finalized concept benefit its needs and wants. Finally, a compromised version is approved by a majority of the conceptual framework making group. The approved conceptual framework is then published in accounting journals and explained in the latest accounting textbooks. The companies, especially those listed in the London stock exchange, will incorporate the latest approved conceptual framework in the preparation of its financial statements. Furthermore, accounting is grounded on a conceptual framework. The conceptual framework is to present a fair and true accounting of the daily business operations of the company. Accounting is the language of business. Thus, different parties use the

Recommendations to some of the pertinent HRM problems Essay

Recommendations to some of the pertinent HRM problems - Essay Example The model was chosen because it covers the SWOT analysis, a focus on the training on teams for fostering a more participatory organizational culture, Training programs for the HR group Promotion & recruitment within the company, Performance related pay (PRP) & Annual bonus which is related to company performance, Individual Development and feedback, and finally Performance Appraisals. These points were the recommendations made to address the HRM problems identified in the case. The recommendation was adapted from the work of existing scholars such as Kotter, and Gilbreath. The field of human resource (HR) management is one of the many interesting area of research that has witnessed a paradigm shift within the last few decades (Huselid, A. M., 1995Doty &Delery 1996). Within this area of research, an increasing body of literature contains the argument that, high performance work practices, including comprehensive employee's recruitment, selection procedures, incentives compensation and performance management systems, and extensive employee's involvement and training can improve the knowledge, skills and abilities of firms (Huselid, A. M., (1995), Doty &Delery (1996). Today, with the increasing researchers desires to demonstrate the importance of an effective human resource policy on organisation performance research has shifted from a micro level that previously dominated research interest to a more general, strategic macro level (Huselid, A. M., 1995, Doty &Delery 1996). The term human resource management is not new. It has been widely used by scholars and managers to refer to the set of policies designed to maximize organizational integration, employee commitment, flexibility and quality of work (Huselid, A. M., 1995, Doty &Delery 1996) Jackson & Shuler (2002) referred to it as an umbrella term that encompasses (a).specific human resources practices such as recruitment, selection and appraisal and (b). formal human resource policies which directs and partially constrain the development of specific practices and in all, it comprise a system that attracts develops, motivates and retains those employees who ensure the effective functioning and survival of the organisation and its members (Jackson & Schuler 2002). Cobb Gnyawali & Offstein (2006:315) argued that while effective human resource management and policies have, indeed, been linked to strategic outcomes, human resource management theory has yet to link human assets and HR practices directly to the building blocks of strategy and competitive behavior. Accordingly, their model of strategic human resources links both micro and macro literature streams. 1.1 Structure of Work This paper is aimed at analyzing the case study of the absentee bus crews. The Coal Valley Company where absence seems to be a more acute problem. Absence and lateness are the regular cause of disrupted bus services and are rated as the chief concern of local management. This paper is therefore going to analyse the case thoroughly by looking at the main issues discussed in the case study in section 2 below; evaluating the management control system as described in the case study in section 3 below; analyzing the case using agency and contingency theories in section 4; comparing and contrasting agency and