Intelligent Agents Characteristics

Astute Agents Characteristics Report on Intelligent Agents System The exploration for this report was finished utilizing the different books from the library, Internet destinations and PC magazines. Presentation The employments of smart specialists inside the home and in organizations have expanded drastically throughout the years. Wise specialists are a piece of a program that completes an undertaking unaided and applies some level of insight to the assignment. As good as ever savvy operators are continually being planned and created to complete various dull and unsurprising errands. One meaning of a savvy operator, as portrayed by states â€Å"an shrewd specialist sees its condition by means of sensors and acts judiciously upon that condition with its effectors. Thus, a clever operator gets percepts each in turn and maps this percept into actions† In his book, Essentials of Management Information Systems, Kenneth Laudon portrays a keen operator as being â€Å"software programs that work out of sight to do explicit, dull and unsurprising undertakings for an individual client business or programming application†. The structure and creation of a keen specialist needs to think about various elements. This report investigates these contemplations and factors and gives and knowledge into how savvy specialists are impacting organizations and society in general. Discoveries Operator Characteristics Shrewd operators have four primary attributes: â€Å"An operator is a PC programming framework whose qualities are situatedness, self-rule, adapitvity and sociability.† Situatedness At the point when an Agent gets some type of tactile contribution from its condition, it at that point plays out certain activities that change its condition here and there. Self-rule This specialist trademark implies that an operator can act without direct intercession from people or different specialists. This sort of operator has practically unlimited oversight over it own activities and inner state. Adapitvity This operator trademark implies that it is equipped for responding deftly to changes inside its condition. It can acknowledge objective coordinated activities when proper and is additionally equipped for gaining from its own encounters, condition and association with others. Friendliness This kind of trademark implies that the specialist is equipped for associating in a shared way with different operators or people. Structure Considerations One of the most significant parts of clever specialists is the structure of the genuine operator. The operator should have the option to satisfy the undertakings that are required from it, for example to accomplish its objectives. There are four primary angles that should be thought about when planning a keen operator. Percepts This is the data that the specialist gets Activities This is the thing that the specialist needs to do or can do to accomplish its targets. Objectives This is the factor that the specialist is attempting to accomplish Condition The last perspective is the earth wherein the specialist will be working in. The earth where the specialist performs is likely the most significant viewpoint that should be considered as this influences the result of the percepts, activities and objectives. Various Approaches to Agent Design From the operator attributes and structure contemplations come four unique ways to deal with wise specialist plan. Straightforward Reflex Agents Straightforward reflex specialists are the most fundamental type of keen operator. They are moronic, direct associations among percepts and activities. Reflex Agents with Internal State Reflex specialists with interior state are like the Simple reflex operators aside from they recall the condition of nature as contained in before percepts. As the specialists sensors don't give a point by point record of the earth at each information, an impression of the earth is caught over some stretch of time that gave additional data to the operator and empowers it to give better outcomes. Objective Based Agents For an objective based specialist, the operator must know more than the present condition of the earth, they should know the full prerequisites of the objective that they are required to perform. The objective based operator joins the data of the objective with potential activities that will accomplish that objective. This may make the specialist take longer successions of potential activities before choosing the correct game-plan and whether the objective has been accomplished. Objective Based operators additionally mull over what's to come. 3.4 Utility Based Agents Utility-based operators are a definitive type of shrewd specialist and are an augmentation of the objective based operator. Utility operators think about degrees of utility and attempt to augment their own latent capacity. Utility capacities permit the specialist to recognize clashing or elective objectives and choices. The probability of progress and significance of the objective can likewise be thought about and assessed by the utility specialist; the operator would then execute suitable activity to guarantee the best alternative was chosen. Qualification between Environments Open Vs Inaccessible This condition is worried about whether the specialist can see the specific condition of the earth. In the event that the specialists sensors can give it complete access to the condition of the earth expected to pick an activity, at that point the earth is open else it is out of reach. Deterministic Vs Nondeterministic In a deterministic domain, the utilization of similar activities will deliver a similar result each time the procedure or circumstance is rehashed. In any case, in a Nondeterministic domain the ultimate result of the procedure or circumstance will be distinctive inevitably. Long winded Vs Nonepisodic In a long winded condition, ensuing scenes don't rely upon the activities that happened in past scenes, specialists in this kind of condition dont need to prepare. Specialists in Nonepisodic situations do will in general rely upon past activities that happened in past scenes and do will in general need to prepare. 4.4 Static Vs Dynamic A static domain is a situation that doesnt change and the time taken for a specialist to process an activity doesnt matter, as the earth will continue as before. A unique domain changes ceaselessly and an insightful operator must have the option to process activities rapidly before the earth changes. Discrete Vs Continuous In a discrete domain the quantity of particular percepts and activities that a specialist will get is restricted to a set sum, however in a nonstop situation the percepts and activities are boundless. Clever operators that are in an available or deterministic condition don't have to manage vulnerability. Out of reach, Nondeterministic, Nonepisodic, Dynamic, and Continuous situations are the most testing, as these are flighty conditions, different situations are increasingly steady and less unstable. The utilization of Intelligent Agents in Businesses The utilization of insightful operators has expanded drastically in the course of the last multi year, however most of individuals wouldnt mull over the procedure that they do that make their lives simpler. During the1990s, A.D.Little, an administration advisor, assessed that continuously 2000, 15 to 20 percent of all PC applications would contain canny operators. Despite the fact that this figure has expanded a significant sum with the advancement of new innovations. The utilization of astute would agents be able to can be found in each industry part inside the UK and everywhere throughout the world. The most well-known and broadly utilized operators are found inside two primary territories. The first is inside office type situations in which PCs are utilized and the second is on the World Wide Web. In the primary issue, program is the principle explanation behind specialists being utilized so broadly: Working frameworks use specialists to include email and dial up systems administration account, do aggregate administration, include/evacuate projects and gadgets and screen licenses. Spreadsheet operators offer proposals for development and can likewise mentor amateur clients. Programming advancement specialists aid routine exercises, for example, information sifting. The second and zone and presumably the biggest is the Internet. The web utilizes a wide range of sorts of operators to enable the client to discover what they are searching for. They include: Web crawlers improve your data recovery on the Internet Web acing Agents these operators make it simple to deal with a site Web Agents These operators improve the clients perusing experience. Checking Agents These specialists screen sites or explicit topics you are keen on. Shopbots These specialists permit you to analyze costs on Internet. Menial helpers these incorporate virtual pets and work area collaborators. Insightful operators can be found in a wide assortment of circumstances, the table in point 5.1 gives more instances of what specialists are able to do. Despite the fact that operators are making life simpler, it is additionally diminishing the measure of representatives expected to carry out the responsibility. A case of this would be a vehicle producing manufacturing plant. During the 1980s a great many individuals were utilized to make the vehicles yet since the presentation of apparatus that contains a savvy specialist to accomplish the tedious work, various individuals were made repetitive and the situations in which 4 5 individuals carried out the responsibility has been diminished to a couple of men and the machine. An astute operator is something that sees and acts in a conditions. A perfect specialist is one that consistently makes the move that is required to amplify its exhibition. There are an assortment of essential operator program structures. The structures differ in effectiveness, conservativeness and adaptability. The proper structure of the operator program relies upon the percepts, activities, objectives and condition. A few conditions are more requesting than others. Reflex operators react promptly to percepts, objective based specialists act with the goal that they can accomplish t

The Use of 5 Fluorouracil Pumps in Gastro-Intestinal Patients Research Paper

The Use of 5 Fluorouracil Pumps in Gastro-Intestinal Patients - Research Paper Example The creators revealed an investigation including 26 patients experiencing gastrointestinal malignant growths and other epithelial-related conditions. These subjects were managed to constant intravenous implantation of the medicine utilizing a compact siphon. From the 26 watched patients who were set under ceaseless perception, four acknowledged full reduction, another four demonstrated a fractional reaction to the treatment. From 12 of the patients, the sickness stayed stable. The reaction rate from the investigation was 33%. Twenty from the all out number indicated critical improvement as reflected from their general personal satisfaction and execution status after the treatment. The data indicated a 9.5 months middle endurance. The investigation demonstrated that proceeding with the imbuement of 5-fluorouracil brings about palliative worth, from patients experiencing gastrointestinal or other neoplasma condition, identified with epithelial starting point. In overseeing the treatmen t, the use of compact siphons makes the model savvy and a reasonable outpatient model of treatment for these patients. This paper is a review report of 5 fluorouracil (5FU) siphons as utilized on gastro-intestinal patients, representing the data given to patients and the zones of data inadequacy while regulating the treatment (Cascinu et al., 1999). Foundation data on the utilization of 5 fluorouracil (5FU) siphons The administration assessment was incited by the Forever Healthy malignant growth support, which is a disease bolster office working in the US and furthermore expanding its backings administrations and data arrangement to numerous other various areas over the world. The purposes behind endeavor the administration assessment incorporated the data holes obvious in the utilization of the model, notwithstanding the way that the region has been concentrated broadly. A case of the insufficiencies in data incorporates that imparted to the patients just as the group controlling t his treatment. A portion of the regions of data inadequacy remember the absence of information for how to control the reactions coming about because of the treatment. For example, an overdose of 5-FU brings about serious reactions, for example, neutropenia, loose bowels, and hand/foot condition. Then again, a low measurement of the drug doesn't deliver any outcomes or restorative impact. Further, there is a chance of individual restorative equalization existing between the advantages and the reactions anticipated. Subsequently, in light of comprehension of the normal advantages and the impacts of this treatment on the clients, the association saw that there is a need to offer more data to the patients. In view of the better data, they will settle on better choice and increasingly legitimate decisions when utilizing the administration, instead of the present use †which might be influenced by the absence of extensive data. In view of the data conveyed to the clients, more data on the individual-based utilization of the treatment, just as the advantage dangers balance, more regions of data will be revealed, prompting better outcomes from the treatment. For example, more data on the use of the regulated dose contingent upon the body qualities of the patients will be vital to the use of the treatment.

Aaaah! 8 Horror Writing Tips That Will Keep Your Readers up at Night

Aaaah! 8 Horror Writing Tips That Will Keep Your Readers up at Night Would you like to know how to build the kind of horror and suspense into your writing that keeps readers turning pages? In this video, I discuss eight tips for making that happen. Whether you are writing a book in the horror or mystery genres, or simply want to increase the tension in your story, these tips will help you craft fear and engage readers in its most primal, powerful pull.Heres a brief recap of the tips covered in this video:First, take the time to let your reader get to know your characters. When they are emotionally invested, the fear is more palpable.Second, you should try to establish the familiar.Third, try a little subtle foreshadowing.Fourth, consider pacing.Fifth, you should tap into your readers imagination.Sixth, suffocate with tight spaces. Many people are born with an innate fear of closed-in spaces.Seventh, think like a child. Children experience fear on a much more visceral level than adults.Eighth, disorient reality. Losing our grasp on reality is a fear wi thin itself.Check out our free character sketch template or look at the Gotham Character Questionnaire for additonal help.

U-Shaped Kitchen Layout Overview

The U-shaped kitchen layout was developed based on decades of ergonomic research. Its useful and versatile, and while it can be adapted to any size kitchen, its most effective in larger spaces.   The configuration of U-shaped kitchens can vary according to the house size and the homeowners personal preference, but generally, youll find the cleaning zone (sink, dishwasher) on the external-facing wall, which sits in the lower curve or bottom of the U. The stove and oven typically will be located on one leg of the U, along with cabinets, drawers and other storage units. And usually,   youll find more cabinets, the refrigerator and other food storage areas like a pantry on the opposite wall.   Benefits of U-Shaped Kitchens A U-shaped kitchen typically has separate work zones for food prep, cooking, cleaning and in eat-in kitchens, a dining area.   Most U-shaped kitchens are configured with three adjacent walls, as opposed to other kitchen designs such as L-shaped or galley, which only use two walls. While both of these other designs have their pluses, ultimately a U-shaped kitchen provides the most counter space for work areas and storage of countertop appliances. A significant benefit of the U-shaped kitchen is the safety factor. The design doesnt allow for through traffic that might disrupt the work zones. Not only does this make the food prep and cooking process less chaotic, but it also helps prevent safety mishaps like spills. U-Shaped Kitchen Drawbacks While it has its advantages, the U-shaped kitchen does have its share of minuses, too. For the most part, its not efficient unless theres room in the center of the kitchen for an island. Without this feature, the two legs of the U may be too far apart to be practical.   And while its possible to have a U shape in a smaller kitchen, for it to be most efficient, the U-shaped kitchen needs to be at least 10 feet wide. Often in a U-shaped kitchen, the bottom corner cabinets can be difficult to access (although this may be remedied by using them to store items that are not frequently needed). U-Shaped Kitchen and Work Triangle Even when planning a U-shaped kitchen, however, most contractors or designers will recommend incorporating a kitchen work triangle. This design principle is based on the theory that placing the sink, refrigerator and cooktop or stove  in proximity to each other makes a kitchen most efficient. If the work areas are too far away from each other, the cook wastes steps while preparing a meal. If the  workspaces  are too close together, the kitchen winds up being too cramped.   While many designs still use the kitchen triangle, its become a bit outdated in the modern era. It was based on a model from the 1940s which presumed only one person prepared and cooked all the meals solo, but in modern  families,  this may not be the case. The  standard kitchen work triangle  is best placed along the base of the U unless a kitchen island is present. Then the island should house one of the three elements. If you place them too far away from each other, the theory goes, you waste a lot of steps while preparing a meal. If they are too close together, you end up with a cramped kitchen without adequate space to prepare and cook meals.

Comparison Of Internal And External Conflicts And Their...

The comparison of internal and external conflicts and their affects on lives. Essay? HOOK: The story Blue Winds Dancing by Thomas S. Whitecloud demonstrates the experience of a native man transitioning to his life into a white society. It exhibits the internal and external struggles in the native’s life that he encounters throughout his life. However, the native is an outcast and has a longing to go back to his native reserve. In comparison, Angel Levine by Bernard Malamud describes the life of a Jewish man, named Manischevitz, who lost everything: his children, his business, and his wife because of her fatal illness. He reaches out to God, but there is no response which also leads him to lose†¦show more content†¦Manischevitz is distraught when a Black Angel appears to help, and he realises that all hope is lost. This negatively affects Mr. Manischevitz because he seeks affirmation from God, although, he does not believe in the black angel s powers. This leads Manischevitz down a spiral where he smote to the naked bones, cursing himself for having believed † in God to help him in his time of need. On the other hand, in Blue Winds Dancing, the native also undergoes an internal conflict; the native feels alone and lost in the White world. He feels like an outsider with no place in the white world that he desperately wants to accept him. The native compares himself to a hobo because they both are outsiders because they cherish different things from a typical white man. Additionally, the native in the story does not have a name to symbolize that his experience is very similar to many other natives who want to be apart of the white world. Overall, the native is having an Identity crisis because he does not know whether to acculturate and become like every other white man or go back to the blanket because it is familiar to him. He longs for home because he does not agree with the white man s customs of getting a hill and wanting a mountain. He wants to return back home where people can be free and the native can truly be himself. These internal conflicts are similar because both protagonists encounter identity crises which cause them to seek affirmation in their faithShow MoreRelatedComplicated and Tragic Stories of The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzerald1140 Words   |  5 Pagescompletely separate time a young entrepreneur, Jay Gatsby, struggles to exist within a world of wealth in the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Their battle for existence is evident through each authors use of characterization, internal, and external conflict. And, similar to you each of their stories is long, complicated and tragic. In the novel The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, Tom appears no different from others his age, like most he works, goes to the movies and is chasing hisRead MorePost Traumatic Stress Disorder ( Ptsd )1575 Words   |  7 Pageshad low self-esteem prior to being raped, she will have an increased likihood of being diagnosed with PTSD. This is due to the fact that she is already emotionally impaired and may not have the coping skills to overcome the trauma on her own in comparison to a woman with high self-esteem. â€Å"Impaired functioning is exhibited across social, interpersonal, developmental, educational, physical health, and occupational domains† (American Psychiatric Association, 2013, p. 279). According to the DSM-5, thereRead MoreStakeholders Of The Hospital s Internal And External Stakeholders1588 Words   |  7 Pagesfor him to consider how his decisions and actions affect the stakeholders of the hospital. In the course of his daily activities Dr. Do Right wil l interact and impact many of the hospital’s internal and external stakeholders. Internal stakeholders are be committed to an organization’s success. Often internal stakeholders will participate in the strategic development of coordinating resources to fund and sustain an operation. Examples of internal stakeholders which Dr. DoRight might engage daily wouldRead MoreAn Introduction to Organizational Behavior1638 Words   |  7 Pagesof managers ï  ® planning: define goals that flow from the business strategy, set performance objectives, and create action plans ï  ® organizing: divide up the tasks and establish work roles or department ï  ® leading: communicate, motivate, and manage conflict ï  ® controlling: monitor financial and human performance ï  ® concerned with financial, technological, and human and intellectual capitals - roles of managers ï  ® interpersonal: figureheads, leader, liaison ï  ® informational: monitor, disseminator ofRead MoreBulimia Nervosa Argument1639 Words   |  7 Pagesimage in order to reduce the rise of developing an eating disorder of any sort. This technical workshop was designed to go against boosting self esteem by pointing out each person s uniqueness but instead teach the girls how to control of their lives (Fairburn). Unlike interpersonal psychotherapy, with the use of medication, CBT attains several forms of intervention and models that can be used for certain situations. These forms are tailored not only to the affected patient but also towardRead MoreThe Model Of Congruence For Business Enterprise Evaluation1365 Words   |  6 Pageshas to get entry to, along with human sources, capital, statistics, and so forth, as well as less tangible resources (reputation within the marketplace, and so forth) 3) Records: The patterns of past conduct, hobby, and effectiveness that could affect current organizational functioning. 4) Approach: The move of choices about how organizational assets could be configured to fulfill needs, constraints, and opportunities in the context of the agency’s history. System Components: 1) Task: The primaryRead MoreThe Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison1409 Words   |  6 Pagesrole do societal values and different cultures play in developing one’s sense of self. Bildungsroman literature in the 20th century embodies the virtues of different authors’ contexts and cultures, influencing the fictional stories of children’s lives around the world.. The Bluest Eye is a 1970 publication by Toni Morrison set in 1940s Ohio in America, focal around the consequence of racism in an American community on the growth of a child, distinct in its use of a range of narrative perspectivesRead MoreEliot s The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock Essay1502 Words   |  7 Pagessociety because they do not fit into the mainstream social customs. Being that the dominant culture is accepted without any opposition, when members of groups that are not a part of this already established culture are presented the possibility of conflicts or tensions might arise. Either the individual themselves will feel a developed sense of anxiety over what others will think or the rest of society will decide that they must do something to deal with this individual’s s tatus. The characters of HomerRead MoreLeg 500: Assignment 3: Corporate Governance and Ethical Responsibility1802 Words   |  8 Pagesleast three different internal and external stakeholders that Dr. DoRight might have to deal with on a daily basis at the hospital. Stakeholders are individuals who are involved in, have a vested interest in, or a â€Å"stake† in the success of an organization (Merriam-Webster, 2011), such as a hospital. Dr. DoRight is an influential decision maker as the President of the Universal Human Care Hospital and it is important for him to consider how his decisions and actions affect the stakeholders of theRead MoreSpiritual Competence: Sikh Beliefs and Faiths1432 Words   |  6 Pageshealth care team need to address the issues and concerns regarding specific health care practices and religious beliefs and remove their perspective from the situation. The following paper will discuss three different religions while incorporating a comparison of beliefs, perspective on healing and the perspective on health care to that of the Christian Religion. Sikh Beliefs and Faiths Sikhism is reported as the largest non-Christian religious group. There are 22 million followers worldwide. The founder

Ap Us History Project Free Essays

Read, Watch, or Listen (RWL) Project AP US HISTORYName: Directions: Each RWL project will consist of two sections. First, you will choose a source that relates to each of our units in United States history (read a book/portion of a primary source, watch a movie, or listen to an ITunes University lecture). Second, you will either answer five analysis questions or write a reflection paper based upon your source. We will write a custom essay sample on Ap Us History Project or any similar topic only for you Order Now Unit 1: Formation of Colonies – Colonial Wars (1607-1763) Unit 2: Revolution – Constitution (1763-1789) Unit 3: Early National Period, War of 1812, Era of Good Feelings (1789-1814) Unit 4: Jacksonian Democracy, Antebellum reform movements, and sectional tensions (1814-1850) Unit 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1870) Unit 6: Gilded Age (1870-1900) Unit 7: New Imperialism, Progressivism, and WWI (1900-1919) Unit 8: Interwar Period: Roaring Twenties, Jazz Age, and Great Depression (1920-1939) Unit 9: WWII, Start of Cold War, 1950’s Conformity (1939-1959) Unit 10: Turbulent 1960’s, Cold War continued, 1970’s (1960-1979) Unit 11: Reagan Revolution, End of Cold War, Modern United States (1980-2000) Rubric/Directions for Analysis Questions: APUSH – RWL ProjectNameType of Source: Book, Movie, or LectureDateName of Book, Movie, or Lecture 1. Introduction (1-2 sentences) – What is the topic/theme in American history in your book, movie, or lecture? What year(s) did your source cover? (10%) 2. Brief Summary (1-2 paragraphs) (15%) 3. Identify the Thesis (1-3 sentences) – What was the overall main idea and thesis of your source? (15%) 4. Analysis (2-4 paragraphs) – Based upon your knowledge of American history, was your source’s portrayal of its particular time period — Effective? Accurate? Exaggerated? Biased? (50%) 5. Conclusion (1-4 sentences) – Did you enjoy reading, watching, or listening to your source? If there was evidence of bias or inaccuracies, how could your source be improved or corrected? (10%)| Rubric/Directions for Reflection Paper: Format(10 points)| 1. ___ typed – size: 12, font: Times New Roman 2. ___ at least two pages 3. ___ double spaced 4. ___ 1 inch margins 5. ___ name, date, and title of source (Iecture, movie, or literary)| Spelling, Grammar, and Punctuation(10 points)| 1. __ correct grammar 2. ___ correct spelling 3. ___ correct punctuation 4. ___ appropriate word choice and syntax | Thesis/Introduction(10 points)| 1. ___ clear and concise thesis statement that accomplishes the following tasks: a. introduces the main idea of your source (ITunes U lecture, writing, or movie) b. provides your thoughts on the subject c. Provides categories for analysis (body paragraphs 2 and 3)| 1st Body Paragraph(20 points)| 1. ___ provid es a brief summary of your source (ITunes U lecture, writing, or movie) 2. __ 8 sentence minimum| 2nd Body Paragraph(20 points)| 1. ___ elaborate on the main idea of your source and provide your analysis on the topic 2. ___ 8 sentence minimum| 3rd Body Paragraph(20 points)| 1. ___ was it historically accurate? Exaggerated? Bias? How could the inaccuracies be corrected? 2. ___ 8 sentence minimum| Conclusion(10 points)| 1. ___ conclude your essay logically by reiterating your thesis and evaluation| Annotated Bibliography| 1. ___ *** If you do outside research to determine the historical accuracy of your source, you must cite it using MLA***| How to cite Ap Us History Project, Papers

Israeli Gaza Conflict

Introduction The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been a major dispute between Palestinians and Israelis. The conflict began in the 1940s after the United Nations (UN) established a Jewish state in the region. The Gaza-Israel conflict took a new dimension following the election of the Hamas Party in 2005. This conflict escalated after the Palestinian Authority collapsed.Advertising We will write a custom proposal sample on Israeli Gaza Conflict specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This event resulted in new factions that ousted the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) from power. The Palestinians attacked Israel using rockets. Israel’s blockade of Gaza Strip has continued to redefine the future of this conflict. Israel is currently controlling most of Gaza’s territorial waters and airspace. The government of Israel is currently supplying the region with communications infrastructure, water, and electricity. T hesis statement: The history of Zionism describes the aspects of the struggle Israeli- Palestinian and the Gaza-Israel conflicts. Brief Description of the Topic The topic â€Å"History of the Gaza-Israel Conflict† will focus on the issues surrounding the conflict experienced in Gaza. The final paper will offer a succinct historical analysis and discussion of the conflict. Many scholars believe strongly that the conflict has a wider historical perspective than many people think. The creation of Israel in the 1940s resulted in numerous problems in the region. The United Nations used a partition strategy that led to the creation of a new Jewish state. Many Palestinians in the region were unhappy with the decision. However, Israel began to conquer more cities and lands. Several battles and wars occurred in the region. The 1947-1949 War resulted in new developments. Israel had already conquered several cities and territories. Many Palestinians became slaves and refugees. The Jews decided to occupy the newly acquired territories. They gave such landmarks and territories new Jewish names. Many Israelites have been confiscating land from the Palestinians thus resulting in new disagreements. Such individuals have rebelled because Israel has misappropriated their original land.Advertising Looking for proposal on international relations? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Many Palestinians expected Gaza to be part of their state. This proposal seeks to examine the issues associated with this conflict. The final paper will focus on critical issues such as the creation of Gaza Strip and Israel’s treatment of the region. The proposal seeks to understand why these two sides have been escalating the conflict. Hypothesis The Gaza-Israel conflict is a struggle defined by the historical events and upheavals that have dominated the relationship between Palestine and Israel within the last six decades. Research Qu estions The Gaza-Israel Conflict is a major issue that describes the tense relationship between Palestine and Israel. The following research questions will be relevant towards understanding the history of this conflict. What is the history of Gaza Strip? How has the treatment of Gaza by Israel played a significant role towards this conflict? What is the origin of Hamas and what role have they played towards escalating the conflict in the recent past? Conclusion In conclusion, Gaza is currently a Palestinian state occupied by Israel. The Gaza-Israel conflict has continued to take new shapes due to the ideas supported by these two sides. Israel’s decision to confiscate more territories has forced many Palestinians to rebel. This crisis continues to take new twists because Israel has been confiscating more land. The completed paper will explore the origin of the Hamas government and its major roles in this conflict. The paper will also offer useful discussions about the origin and escalation of the Gaza-Israel conflict. This proposal on Israeli Gaza Conflict was written and submitted by user Enzo O. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Feminism has nothing to tell us about the Reality of War, Conflict and Hard, Cold Facts

Feminism has nothing to tell us about the Reality of War, Conflict and Hard, Cold Facts International politics is a vast field; it entails many concepts such as wars, revolutions, global gender inequalities, demands for global human rights, as well as international trade. In order to understand international politics, the focus is usually turned to international relations theory (Griffiths, OCallaghan Roach 2008).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Feminism has nothing to tell us about the Reality of War, Conflict and Hard, Cold Facts specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More For some duration, the international arena has been majorly controlled by many-centered theories that have attempted to explain global politics. However, this phenomenon changed from the end of 1980s, and at the beginning of 1990s, with the advent of feminism as a theory of international relations. Women became conscious of their role in the global arena. This essay discusses the validity of the statement as to whether feminism has anything t o state about the reality of war, conflict and hard, cold facts. Griffiths, OCallaghan and Roach (2008) state that feminism studies women from a perspective of being subjects of knowledge, but not mere objects; although feminism was studied in other social sciences, the function of gender in the international relations has been practically and theoretically sidelined. In the contemporary study of the discipline, several feminist thinkers have stated their political consideration from gender-blind position, and have been biased towards favoring male gander in the society. Over the last two decades, feminism has cropped up as a major concept in the international relations (Sullivan 2002). The main idea of this feminism drive was to confront the basic biases of the discipline. The move aim was to emphasize the ways where women were separated from the analysis of the country, international political and international economic situation and global security. The beginnings of internal rel ations feminism were associated with a more general ferment in the field, often referred to as ‘third debate’ (Dunne, Kurki Smith 2007). Early feminists challenged the field of the international relationships to examine the level of the reorientation and the level of the understanding of the international politics in case gender were a major category for analysis and synthesis and women’s experiences were part of the matter.Advertising Looking for essay on international relations? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The feminism entered the international relations right at the time when the feminist theory was considered as the one deserving attention in the society. Considering the reasons for the emerging of the feminist theory, the problem of uneven and imbalanced relationships between men and women within the concept of the historical social movement is basic one (Elshtain 1995). Therefore, it ma y be stated that the main idea of the feminist theory in the modern society is to comprehend the current existing social order. Unfairness and tyranny may be considered as the main issues of transformation of the social opinion and its direction at feminism theory (Ackerly, Sterm True 2006). There are many different approaches to feminism as different social schools considered it and believed them to be as liberal, Marxist, radical, socialist, psychoanalytic, standpoint, post-colonial and postmodern. Feminism in international relationships may also be considered within these theoretical traditions. Searching for literature devoted to the problems of feminism, many sources may be considered within liberal points of view, however, looking at the situation in general, making the focus on foreign policy, considering public opinion and analyzing various international relationships from the point of view of the feminism, this movement managed to classify themselves as post-liberals. Addi tionally, many women who take par in the international relationships are sure that hey may be considered at the international arena and should be added to the theoretical frameworks (Dunne, Kurki Smith 2007). Gender is considered as one of the categories for analysis in this case. However, the differences which exist between women themselves may cause the division between two groups or labels, post-modern or post-colonial approaches. The impact of these approaches on women is various as well. There is the problem that many women have focus on the issues and problems in the international relation which bother only female part of the mankind. On the one hand, it is important to protect women from rape, trafficking, prostitution, domestic service and too complicated homework.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Feminism has nothing to tell us about the Reality of War, Conflict and Hard, Cold Facts specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More On the other hand, feminists focus only on the aspects they are interested in and it prevents the representatives of this movement to view the general picture and to stress the priorities which may be absolutely different from what feminists consider. At the same time, the importance of the feminists is that they managed to show the life of simple individuals from different angles. Feminists focused their attention not on the society and mankind as a whole, but on separate groups of people and on individuals at the margins of world politics. This diversity of feminist thought should not be considered as the means for the research and analysis in the nature of international relations (Tickner 1992). Being committed to ‘celebration of diversity’ (Sylvester 2002, p. 125), feminists in the international relationships have managed to follow different approaches in their research. Working in this direction, feminist movement challenges the ‘disciplining’ (Sylvester 2002, p. 68) effects of the discipline. At the same time, many representatives of the feminism would vigorously resist such division of the assistance they implement. Instead of identifying the main idea of feminism or developing a set of the beliefs the movement is directed at, it is more important and constructive to show the practical importance and the validity of application of the feminist theories into life (Sylvester 2002). The novelty of the feminism movement and the approach in general has lead to the situation that debates between International Relations feminists have been subdued even though most of the female representatives had absolutely different thoughts and ideas. The self-criticism between different ideas is reduced to minimum and cannot impact the general position of each of the opinions. This may have been contributed by the relative newness of the approach (Sullivan 2002). Therefore, one of the main ideas of feminists in the international relations hips is to make sure that they are heard. Having their principles and ides, they want to create the situation that their approaches and considerations are implemented into life. The shift of focus from women related gender issues to gender in general, took place not only in the literature, but also in the policies that have been geared towards development. However, this move was not without its critics. Sylvester (2002) argues there are some situations when the ‘mainstreaming’ of gender that begun to adopt the term.Advertising Looking for essay on international relations? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In addition, this has created a sort of differences between the intentions of feminists aimed at focusing on hierarchical and unequal relations in the society, and how those intentions were really implemented in the society. In reality, the situation was used for minimizing the political and contradicting character of relationships between women and men in the society (Reus-Smit Snidal 2008). Jabri OGorman (1999) hold that development of the literature sources devoted to women and to the development of the feminism show some noteworthy trends in feminist international relationships. The focus on both sides of gender, therefore, has allowed feminist international relations reconsider the hierarchical structures of imbalance between women and men, the same reasons also allowed the system to consider the women’s subordination. It I impossible to contradict the fact that women are mostly placed on different levels depending of various factors, such as their trace, class, nation ality and geographic setting, at the same time, many women have a definite similarity, the location at the bottom of the socioeconomic scale in all societies (Enloe 1983). For many international relationships feminist theorists, the location of women to the liberal literature on the international economy is problematic as it does not bring out the power structures that are supposed to improve the women standing on the international stage, but it instead covers these structures. This put women at disadvantaged position (Steans 2006). Having examined the feminism theory, does feminism then offers solutions to the reality of war, conflict and hard, cold facts? To answer this query, the relationship between conflict and feminism will be explored. The relation between masculinity and war has been the main idea for feminist research. While the manliness of war cannot be denied as the fact, militaries must toil to convert men into soldiers, to teach them and to prepare them to fight. It is important to remember that the same behavior in the direction of women is considered as something unnatural and the behavior in such a way is considered as not the ‘womanly’ (Tickner 1992). There is one more image of a soldier which offers self sacrifice in order to protect women, children and the vulnerable groups of people in the society. The belief that young males fight to defend themselves, has been a significant driving force for the recruitment of military forces (Risse Simmons 2002). There were times when women were invisible for military services, however, the acceptance of women in the military services in some specific countries make this issue more problematic. Thus, men are unable to ignore women as a fact in the military services. The opportunity and the desire of women to take part in the military services, to participate in the military operations and their presence at the war are the reasons which may place women at the same level with men at the inte rnational arena. Even though military remains a male affair, the presence of women there has changed it. Additionally, public opinion should be considered. Looking at the situation in the Gulf War of 1991 where women died in war, people were really disturbed with the situation and this fact should not be contradicted. Therefore, the presence of women at the war puts them in the situation where they on the one hand, they are motivated by the liberal principle of equality, and at the other hand they are women and they are to be protected. The protection of women and their position as warriors seems incompatible. The presence of women at war is considered differently by various directions in feminism. Liberal feminists believe that equality should be present at everything and they are sure that women at war are exactly what they need to make sure that feminism is flourishing. However, many radical feminists believe that women should reject fighting in men’s wars. In fact, certai n radical feminists claimed that women have a special purpose, they are to bring peace to the world society, therefore, the presence of a woman in the army should have only the peaceful purposes, without wars (Elshtain 1995). Women are fighting for the same rights and attitude as to men. It is important to understand that the presence in the military service and the participation in the war make them equal. At the same time it shows that men are unable to lead wars individually. The presence of women at the war also points at the inability to have a piece. The peaceful development in the international relationships becomes more complicated affair as even women aimed and carrying piece at the society are war directed and want to take part in the military services (Goldstein 2003). However, there are still those women who are aimed at carrying peace in the society. These women want to show their care and maternity feelings. The importance of these women at the international arena is t hat they encourage others for negotiations. Thus, these women give hope to others and it is really important. Performing such function, women place themselves different to men. However, it does not mean that this difference is negative. Women are different from men and trying to show their similarity and equality they are more distinguished and may be considered as unique (Reus-Smit Snidal 2008). Considering the example of the women’s behavior when their peaceful nature served to the settling of the conflicts, the elimination of the nuclear conflict between the powers during the Cold War may serve as a good example as well as the Women’s Strike for peace in the United States in the early 1960s (Sylvester 2002). Defended personal right as mothers women are able to impact the situation in the whole society as it is difficult to imagine the situation when government supports the course to support for nuclear containment (Enloe 1983). There is an opinion that peacefully d irected women and warlike men lead to antagonisms that threaten the validity of feminist projects (Enloe 2000). Sullivan (2002) states that even though peaceful direction of women may impact some decisions, it is unable to change existing gender situation. This allows men to dominate in politics. Still, the gender differences are omitted when meaning support for war (Jabri OGorman 1999). Despite the rise of feminism in the milieu of international relations, there is still a key disparity between academics of international relations in both genders (Goldstein 2003). In conclusion, it should be stated that feminism has much to say about the reality the reality of war, conflict and hard, cold facts. It has been considered that men are more directed at war while women are aimed at peaceful consideration of the situation, still, the desire to remain equal, the feminism movement and culture make the priorities to change. Reference List Ackerly B, Sterm M, True J. 2006. Feminist methodol ogies for international relations. Cambridge: Cambridge Unversity Press. Dunne T, Kurki M, Smith S. 2007. International relations theories: discipline and diversity. New York: Oxford University Press. Elshtain JB.1995. Women and war. Chicago: University of Chicago. Enloe C. 1983. Does khaki become you? The militarisation of womens lives. Michigan: South End Press. Enloe C. 2000. Making feminist sense of international politics. California: California Press. Goldstein J. 2003. War and gender: how gender shapes the war system and vice versa. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. Griffiths, M, OCallaghan T, Roach S. 2008. International relations: the key concepts. London: Taylor and Francis. Jabri V, OGorman E. 1999. Women, culture, and international relations. London: Lynne Rienner. Reus-Smit C, Snidal D. 2008. The Oxford handbok of international relations. New York: Oxford University Press. Risse T, Simmons B. 2002. Handbook of international relations. London: SAGE. Steans J. 2 006. Gender and international relations: issues, debates and future directions. New York: Polity. Sullivan M. 2002. Theories of international relations: transition vs. persistence. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Sylvester C. 2002. Feminist international relations: an unfinished journey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Tickner A. 1992. Gender in international relations: feminist perspectives on achieving global security. Columbia: Columbia University Press.

Presidential Appointments Requiring Senate Approval

Presidential Appointments Requiring Senate Approval What a compliment! The President of the United States has named you to fill a top-level government position, maybe even a Cabinet-level job. Well, enjoy a glass of bubbly and take some slaps on the back, but dont sell the house and call the movers just yet. The president may want you, but unless you also win the approval of the U.S. Senate, its back to the shoe store on Monday for you. Across the federal government, nearly 1,200 executive-level jobs may be filled only by individuals appointed by the president and approved by a simple majority vote of the Senate. For new incoming presidents, filling many, if not most, of these vacated positions as quickly as possible represents a major part of their presidential transition process, as well as taking a significant portion of time throughout the remainder of their terms. What Kind of Jobs are These? According to a Congressional Research Service report, these presidentially-appointed positions requiring Senate approval can be categorized as follows: Secretaries of the 15 Cabinet agencies, deputy secretaries, undersecretaries, and assistant secretaries, and general counsels of those agencies: Over 350 positionsJustices of the Supreme Court: 9 positions (Supreme Court justices serve for life subject to death, retirement, resignation or impeachment.)Certain jobs in the independent, non-regulatory executive branch agencies, like NASA and the National Science Foundation: Over 120 positionsDirector positions in the regulatory agencies, like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Aviation Administration: Over 130 positionsU.S. Attorneys and U.S. Marshals: About 200 positionsAmbassadors to foreign nations: Over 150 positionsPresidential appointments to part-time positions, like the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System: Over 160 positions Politics Can Be a Problem Certainly, the fact that these positions require the approval of the Senate poses the possibility that partisan politics may play a critical role in the presidential appointment process. Especially during times when one political party controls the White House and another party holds a majority in the Senate, as was the case during the second term of President Barak Obama, Senators of the opposition party are more likely to try to delay or reject the president’s nominees. But There are ‘Privileged’ Nominations Hoping to avoid those political pitfalls and delays in the presidential nominee approval process, the Senate, on June 29, 2011, adopted Senate Resolution 116, which established a special expedited procedure governing Senate consideration of certain lower-level presidential nominations. Under the resolution, over 40 specific presidential nominations- mostly assistant department secretaries and members of various boards and commissions- bypass the Senate subcommittee approval process. Instead, the nominations are sent to the chairpersons of the appropriate Senate committees under the heading, â€Å"Privileged Nominations – Information Requested.† Once the committees’ staffs have verified that the â€Å"appropriate biographical and financial questionnaires have been received† from the nominee, the nominations are considered by the full Senate. In sponsoring Senate Resolution 116, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-New York) stated his view that because the nominations were for â€Å"noncontroversial positions,† they should be confirmed on the floor of the Senate by â€Å"unanimous consent†- meaning they are all approved at the same time by a single voice vote. However, under the rules governing unanimous consent items, any Senator, for himself or herself or on the behalf of another Senator, can direct that any particular â€Å"privileged† nominee be referred to Senate committee and considered in the usual fashion. Recess Appointments: The Presidents’ End Run Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution gives presidents a way to at least temporarily bypass the Senate in making presidential appointments. Specifically, the third clause of Article II, Section 2 grants the president the power to â€Å"fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.† The courts have held that this means that during times the Senate is in a recess, the president can make appointments without the need for Senate approval. However, the appointee must be approved by the Senate by the end of the next session of Congress, or when the position becomes vacant again. While the Constitution does not address the issue, the Supreme Court in its 2014 decision in the case of National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning ruled that the Senate must be in recess for at least three consecutive days before the president can make recess appointments. This process, popularly known as â€Å"recess appointments,† is often highly controversial. In an attempt to prevent recess appointments, the minority party in the Senate often holds â€Å"pro forma† sessions during recesses lasting longer than three days. While no legislative business is conducted in a pro forma session, they ensure that Congress is not officially adjourned, thus blocking the president from making recess appointments. Presidentially Appointed Jobs With No Senate Needed If you really want to work â€Å"at the pleasure of the president,† but don’t want to have to face the scrutiny of the U.S. Senate, there are more than 320 other high-level government jobs that the president can fill directly without the Senate’s consideration or approval. The jobs, known as PA, or â€Å"Presidential Appointment† jobs pay from about $99,628 to about $180,000 per year and offer full federal employee benefits, according to the Government Accountability Office.

Comprehensive School Health Program Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Comprehensive School Health Program - Essay Example The second controversial issue is that with the healthy foods on the menu, students have a choice between vegetables or fruits, but they do not have to eat them. Research shows that many students do not eat two out of the five lunch options offered in a day. According to the journal Public Health Nutrition over five hundred elementary school trays studied, students throw away a third of the grain, vegetables, and fruits (Minelli & Breckon 2009). One of the most common budgetary constraint faced by most comprehensive school health programs is insufficient funds needed for evaluation. Often these programs and projects budgets are inadequate regarding the financial support they get. As a result, evaluation funds are usually relocated to other activities. The consequence of this is that the assessment designs are over simplified. It is a way in which schools find it easy to reduce the cost and time requirements that are associated with the valuation process. Oversimplification of evaluations, designs, and procedures of the CSHPs can result in the reciprocated controversies that are related to it. A decent example of an institute that implemented creative measures to tackle budget constraints is Woodland Hills School. The school was faced with budget shrinks and pension costs increasing; the institution had to come up with creative methods to raise funds to cater for the costs. One of the imaginative means applied is through fund raisers that the institution arranged in conjunction with the parents.

Liberalism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Liberalism - Essay Example Liberalim i the culmination of development in Wetern ociety that produced a ene of the importance of human individuality, a liberation of the individual from complete ubervience to the group, and a relaxation of the tight hold of cutom, law, and authority. The emancipation of the individual can be undertood a a unique achievement of Wetern culture, perhap it very hallmark. (Necati , 1998, pp. 447-477) Liberalim alo derive from the practice of adverariality in European political and economic life, a proce in which intitutionalized competition-uch a the competition between different political partie in electoral contet, between proecution and defene in judicial procedure, or between different producer in a free-market economy-i ued to generate a dynamic ocial order. Adverarial ytem have alway been precariou, however, and it took a long time for the belief in adverariality to emerge from the more traditional view, traceable at leat to Plato, that the tate hould be an organic tructure in which the different ocial clae cooperate by performing ditinct yet complementary role. The belief that competition i an eential part of a political ytem and tha4 good government require a7vigorme Oppoiion wa 4all c/nideped drange in eop Edropean c/uft2ia in he Epl9 19th7centUry. (Ne#at( , 19, pp,7447-077) Each nati/N' lHike other polhti"al octrind, lib%0al)m7i hig(ly enitiva 4k tIMe aNd bhpcumtance Each nati/N' liberalim i different, and it ahange in each generation. The hitorical development of liberAlii over recent centurie ha been a movement from mitrup of the taTe' overegnty on the ground that power tend to ba miue, to a willingne to ue the power of government to correct inequitie in the ditribution of wealth reulting from a free-market economy. The expanion of government power and reponibility ought by liberal in the 20th century wa clearly oppoed to the contraction of government advocated by liberal a century earlier. In the 19th century liberal were generally hopitable to the buine community, only to become hotile to it interet and ambition for much of the 20th century. In each cae, however, the liberal' inpiration wa the ame: a hotility to concentration of power that threaten the freedom of the individual and prevent him from realizing hi potential, along with a willingne to reexamine and reform ocial intitution in the light of new need. Thi willingne i temPered by an averioN to udden, cataclymic change, which i ghat et df thE diberal fpnm the7raical.7It i thi ve2y eagern%7to encjurage7ueful ch nge howeve2, that ditingUihe the liberal from 4he conErvativ. (Necati , 0998, pp. 447%477) L BeraL Interna4ional i the w/r(d federat)on /f lIberal political partie. Fo5n$ed in 194 it7ha7becoMe the pre-emInEnt .et/rk fOr 0romotijg liberaliM, trengtheninclib%rah part)E anD for theprmmotion of lhberal de-ocracy arouNd THe7world. Dhere are a .1mber of comMon principle w(ich unite al, liberal partie brom frica, the AmerIca, Aia, and Europe; human rifhT, free7and fair eldction and muhtiparty-democracy, nciah judice, tolerancd, ocial market econgmy, free tr!de, environmental utainability and a trong ene of international olidarity. Naturally in the application of thee principle in different national circumtance there i diverity among liberal partie. All member adhere to the organiation Manifeto'. (Necati , 1998, pp.

The people bomb on 20-20 :: essays research papers

The film â€Å"The people bomb† was a compilation of stories and videos collected from diverse cultures and geographical locations focusing on dramatic increases in human population over short spans of time. This population explosion was having a direct, negative impact on the environment and society of the locations discussed. As a result, involved governments began taking action to alleviate the repercussions of this population expansion and to prevent its continuance. Some of these actions were received harshly by citizens under the acting governments, some were wavered and seen as ineffective for religious reasons and others were successful and becoming more so as time continues. One example of a harshly received marshal action was that of either forced, or persuaded, mass sterilization of societal members. This particular action was taken in India, where citizens from the general population were either forced or coerced into thinking they were being forced to accept ster ilization procedures. Many health and wrongful death issues ensued, as well as moral and emotional objection.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Population expansion, on scales demonstrated in â€Å"The people bomb,† create serious issues for the societies that experience them. A large congestion of people in an area not designed, or capable of maintaining them spawns problems with waste disposal, employment, availability of necessary resources, health, and proper living accommodations. Most commonly experienced in the third world, matters such as these are quickly becoming pandemic in their proportions. Without proper regulation and control of the population or the existence of necessary support programs for a number of people not conducive to their environment, conditions will only worsen.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One may argue that the problem of overpopulation in areas experiencing absolute poverty is inevitable. It may be viewed as a situation only repaired by either force, such as forced sterilization, or the simple end result of an abnormally high mortality rate amongst the population due to poor health conditions.

Commercial Banks Essay

Banks have developed around 200 years ago. The natures of banks have changed as the time has changed. The term bank is related to financial transactions. It is a financial establishment which uses, money deposited by customers for investment, pays it out when required, makes loans at interest exchanges currency etc. however to understand the concept in detail we need to see some of its definitions. Many economists have tried to give different meanings of the term bank. Nature of Commercial Banks Commercial banks are an organisation which normally performs certain financial transactions. It performs the twin task of accepting deposits from members of public and make advances to needy and worthy people form the society. When banks accept deposits its liabilities increase and it becomes a debtor, but when it makes advances its assets increases and it becomes a creditor. Banking transactions are socially and legally approved. It is responsible in maintaining the deposits of its account holders. While defining the term banks it is taken into account that what type of task is performed by the banks. Some of the famous definitions are given below: According to Prof. Sayers, â€Å"A bank is an institution whose debts are widely accepted in settlement of other people’s debts to each other.† In this definition Sayers has emphasized the transactions from debts which are raised by a financial institution. According to the Indian Banking Company Act 1949, â€Å"A banking company means any company which transacts the business of banking . Banking means accepting for the purpose of lending of investment of deposits of money from the public, payable on demand or other wise and withdraw able by cheque, draft or otherwise.† Commercial bank being the financial institution performs diverse types of functions. It satisfies the financial needs of the sectors such as agriculture, industry, trade, communication, etc. That means they play very significant role in a process of economic social needs. The  functions performed by banks are changing according to change in time and recently they are becoming customer centric and widening their functions. Generally the functions of commercial banks are divided into two categories viz. primary functions and the secondary functions. The following chart simplifies the functions of banks. Primary Functions of Commercial Banks Commercial Banks performs various primary functions some of them are given below 1. Accepting Deposits : Commercial bank accepts various types of deposits from public especially from its clients. It includes saving account deposits, recurring account deposits, fixed deposits, etc. These deposits are payable after a certain time period. 2. Making Advances : The commercial banks provide loans and advances of various forms. It includes an over draft facility, cash credit, bill discounting, etc. They also give demand and demand and term loans to all types of clients against proper security. 3. Credit creation : It is most significant function of the commercial banks. While sanctioning a loan to a customer, a bank does not provide cash to the borrower Instead it opens a deposit account from where the borrower can withdraw. In other words while sanctioning a loan a bank automatically creates deposits. This is known as a credit creation from commercial bank. Secondary Functions of Commercial Banks Along with the primary functions each commercial bank has to perform several secondary functions too. It includes many agency functions or general utility functions. The secondary functions of commercial banks can be divided into agency functions and utility functions. A. Agency Functions: Various agency functions of commercial banks are * To collect and clear cheque, dividends and interest warrant. * To make payment of rent, insurance premium, etc. * To deal in foreign exchange transactions. * To purchase and sell securities. * To act as trusty, attorney, correspondent and executor. * To accept tax proceeds and tax returns. B. General Utility Functions : The general utility functions of the commercial banks include * To provide safety locker facility to customers. * To provide money transfer facility. * To issue traveller’s cheque. * To act as referees. * To accept various bills for payment e.g phone bills, gas bills, water bills, etc. * To provide merchant banking facility. * To provide various cards such as credit cards, debit cards, Smart cards, etc.

America s College Promise Act Essay - 1535 Words

Introduction America always considers education as a basic need to develop one s personality and character. This is why it proclaims that every student in America deserves a fair chance at a higher education. It is common belief that a highly educated pool of workforce can better help in economy s growth competing on global front. America’s College Promise Act is also an effort to promote higher education and make it affordable for economically weaker section of the society. This act was unveiled by president Obama by initiating a two year community college program free of cost for responsible students. This scheme is aimed to let the students earn first half of their bachelor s degree and earn needed skills at no cost. This Act also relieved many students of a lot of stress that they experience in college due to the high prices that only few can pay with little struggle. The opportunity for education should be easily attainable by any citizen to further progress the country and its popula tion. The America’s College Promise Act, therefore, is not only beneficial for the general population but also for economic prosperity. Overview The America’s college promise act was proposed by president Obama and introduced by Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Rep. Bobby Scott on 8 July, 2016. The main objective of this act is to make higher education affordable for all. This bill if passed is expected to appropriate around $1.4 billion in Financial year 2016 and $79.7 billion over the periodShow MoreRelatedAmerica s College Promise Act Essay833 Words   |  4 Pagesof alleviating students’ debt is the America’s College Promise Act, more commonly known as the Heads Up America Campaign. Furthermore, I had the privilege of interviewing Claudia Chan, the Government Relations Manager of LaGuardia Community College whose has been working with different groups across campus around the Heads Up America Campaign. Patrick Lavilla: Hi Claudia, tell us a little bit about yourself and your role in the Heads Up America Campaign. Claudia Chan: Hello Patrick, I’m ClaudiaRead MoreA Poor Solution For America s Shortcoming1625 Words   |  7 PagesWelfare. A major issue in today’s society is the debate over free community college tuition. Even though some say free community college tuition would be one step closer to saving Americas crumbling lower class, community college tuition should not be completely free. An education from a community college is already very affordable even for those who are from low-income families. On top of being affordable, free community college tuition as it stands today is easily exploitable by those who don’t needRead MoreThe 2016 Democratic Party Presidential Primaries And Caucuses1487 Words   |  6 Pagesastronomical problem for Americans today and more so, for future Americans. College tuition have been rising for the past 40 years and will continue to do so exponentially. In an asset management report done by J.P.Morgan in 2014, the firm projects the cost of private universities to be at roughly $90,000, and $40,000 for public four-year universities in the year of 2030 (Badkar). If the government remains dormant toward this issue, college students 20 years from now, will be burdened by an even bigger pileRead MoreNew College Compact Or College For All Act?1555 Words   |  7 PagesNew College Compact or College for All Act? The 2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries and caucuses are a series of ongoing heated battles between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. One of the most prominent topic is the issue of student debt. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, student loans have quadrupled since 2004, to $1.2 trillion (Brown). This insurmountable debt is an astronomical problem for Americans today and more so, for future Americans. College tuition has beenRead MoreTuition Free Public Colleges And Universities1619 Words   |  7 PagesTuition-Free Public Colleges and Universities: The Way to Go At the dawn of the twentieth-century, the movement that made a high school diploma widely available for every child in the United States, regardless of the income of their family, solidified America’s place as the home of the most educated workforce in the world, and helped to drive decades of economic prosperity. Now, nearly one-hundred years have passed, and other countries around the globe are catching up. In some cases, foreign nationsRead MoreIs The United States Be Ran By A Black Man?1157 Words   |  5 Pagesmoved back to Hawaii to live with his Grandparents,While living with his grandparents, He enrolled in the esteemed Punahou Academy. Obama excelled in basketball and graduated with academic honors in 1979.After high school, Obama studied at Occidental College in Los Angeles for two years. He then transferred to Columbia University in New York City, graduating in 1983 with a degree in political science. After working in the business sector for two years, Obama moved to Chicago in 1985. There, he workedRead MoreAmerica Is Not A Democracy1592 Words   |  7 Pages How America is not a Democracy â€Å"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America...and to the republic for which it stands...one nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.† (â€Å"Is the United States a Democracy?†) The United States’ pledge is taught to children of all ages, plays an active role in the patriotism of the people, and it symbolizes the citizen’s promise to never violate the Republic of the United States of America. The founding fathers built the foundationRead MoreEssay on LBJs Great Society699 Words   |  3 Pageshis vision of a Great Society in America. This Great Society included an end to poverty and racial injustice, and also was intended to turn America into a place where kids can enhance their mind, broaden their talents, and people could restore their connection with the environment. In order to reach his goal, LBJ enacted numerous proposals involving taxes, civil rights, poverty, and much more. For the most part Joh nson did an excellent job on delivering his promises, but international affairs threatenedRead MoreLyndon B. Johnson s The Great Society1450 Words   |  6 Pagesof what the common people live through each day. Programs for education, the end of poverty, conservation of the wild, housing, social security and the list goes on and on. So how did the Great Society improve or try to improve people’s lives in America by trying to end poverty and discrimination through programs for education and what are the effects today? Lyndon B. Johnson inspired by Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted to create something similar to the New Deal that attempted to help the less advantagedRead MoreThe World Is Flat, By Thomas Friedman1425 Words   |  6 Pagescatching up and in the words of Thomas Friedman, in The World is Flat, [we] simply are not educating, or even interesting, enough of our own young people in advanced math, science, and engineering (349). Therefore, we must combat this issue at hand. America has grown idle due to the achievements of previous ideas and although we have been amusing ourselves, bathing in our own narcissism, we are no longer at the top, no longer a positive anomaly. We aren’t producing skilled and knowledgeable workers to

Game Playing and Artificial Intelligence Essay - 1546 Words

Game Playing and Artificial Intelligence Abstract Since the inception of the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), game playing has had a key role. Likewise, AI has been an integral part of modern computer games. This collaboration of academic and commercial research and development into AI has yielded vast amounts of crossover technology. Academic research problems have become or influenced commercial games and the money gained from the commercial applications of AI have helped advance academic research as well. Highly publicized man-machine tournaments, such as between Gary Kasparov and IBMs Deep Blue have served to showcase the current state of the art in Artificial Intelligence agents. The technology from these game players is†¦show more content†¦Ever since this early research, AI and game playing have gone hand-in-hand in both the academic and commercial worlds. In fact, some games originally developed to help researchers learn how to exploit the capabilities and avoid the limitations of computers, such as the Scrabb le game Maven, are now being marketed to the masses. Child psychologists have long contended that children learn through playing games. Like children, some AI scientists are learning through games.2 Although this is true, Matt Ginsberg, founder of the Computational Intelligence Research Laboratory and programmer of the AI Bridge program Goren-in-a-Box warns that we need to avoid the trap that all AI can do is play games. . . what we want are lessons that transfer out of game playing to make resources more efficient.2 This union of academic and commercial applications of AI has benefited virtually everyone through the development of smarter games and the spin-off of this technology into other arenas, such as the BioTools DNA and protein analysis program that uses the fast brute-force search from the Chinook checkers program to search a large DNA database. Discussion Probably the most famous example of AI in game playing is the IBM chess program Deep Blue which in May of 1997 defeated the reigning international chess champion, Garry Kasparov. IBM claims that Deep Blue can evaluate upwards of 200 millionShow MoreRelatedThe Invention Of Artificial Intelligence1668 Words   |  7 PagesIn our lives today, we all use some form of Artificial Intelligence daily. Some of these activities include: using cellular apps (Google Maps, Siri, Cortana), playing video games, and listening to music. Although the use of Artificial Intelligence has made human life more efficient and effective, it has also insinuated reliance and unsuspecting ignorance into our minds as well, and we do not even see it coming. The history of Artificial Intelligence dates back to the 1950s. Approximately fourteenRead MoreVideo Games And Its Effects On Society1632 Words   |  7 Pagesconcerned with the advancement in video games, worrying that video games are the cause of crime and violence. What hasn’t been talked about much is the progression in cloning and the growing of human organs in pigs, whether this technology could be considered positive or negative is debatable but there are also ethical concerns to consider. Finally another form of technology that has been popular within Hollywood productions is the concept of artificial intelligence. In Ronald Wrights A Short HistoryRead MoreArtificial Intelligence, Theory And Development Of Computer Systems Essay1115 Words   |  5 PagesArtificial intelligence, theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that would normally require human intelligence, such as speaking, decision-making etc. When most people think of artificial i ntelligence (Al), they think of the robots from the movie Chappie, or I, Robot. Those are some examples of what AI could lead to but that is not exactly it. The idea of intelligent machines go back to Greek mythology. The origin of AI can be described as philosophers who tried to explainRead MoreArtificial Intelligence and Video Games Essay1622 Words   |  7 Pagestold that we can create these brains and apply them to many other video game antagonists, like the ghosts from Pac Man or even the opposing team in Madden? These â€Å"artificial brains† are a product of a technology called artificial intelligence (AI). AI in video games can be applied to nearly anything, such as a boss as big as a city to a bird soaring in the sky. They are used to create a sense of realism in what that item in the game would actually do in real life. AI uses many sets of complex algorithmsRead MoreSocial and Ethical Impact of Artificial Intelligence Essay examples1503 Words   |  7 PagesConte nts Introduction III History III What is Artificial Intelligence? III Social and Ethical Issues Associated with Artificial Intelligence IV Part I Social Impact of Artificial Intelligence IV Part II Advantages IV Part III Disadvantages IV Ethical Impact of Artificial Intelligence V Conclusion VI Bibliography VII Introduction As our world expands through the growing abilities and applications of computersRead MoreEssay about Social And Ethical Impact Of Artificial Intelligence1370 Words   |  6 Pagesthousands of years, from stories of Pygmalion to the tales of the Jewish Golem. Anat Treister-Goren, Ph.D. (http://www.a-i.com/) The concepts of the development of artificial intelligence can be traced as far back as ancient Greece. Even something as small as the abacus has in someway led to the idea of artificial intelligence. However, one of the biggest breakthroughs in the area of AI is when computers were invented. Many encyclopaedias and other reference works state that the first large-scaleRead MoreArtificial Intelligence And Science For Knowledge1639 Words   |  7 Pagesto improve man-kind. Artificial Intelligence is a substructure of Engineering where it takes that knowledge of the engineers to improve the training thought of a device with less human interaction. Software, Mechanical, and Robotics, to name a few,are areas where Artificial Intelligence is being used. The way artificial Intelligence has evolved through the years, it has even been able to challenge humans into improving much greater ideas. â€Å"The term artificial intelligence is also used to describeRead MoreAnalysis Of Alan Turing s Idea Of Can Computers Think?1664 Words   |  7 Pagescase for or against Artificial Intelligence from a logistical or ideological standpoint. Refer to the work of Alan Turing in your response. Alan Turing’s idea of ‘can computers think? Is challenged with how complex the human brain is and how computers only know what they are programmed with, even though ‘Deep Blue’(Deep Blue (Chess Computer)) Was able to beat chess champion Garry Kasparov in game one of a six-game match on the 10th of February 1996. Artificial Intelligence can not replicate aRead More`` A Cyborg Manifesto `` By Donna Haraway1129 Words   |  5 Pagesthe best examples is computer games. However, games are still programmed by human not machine. But, what happen if we programmed a self-learning machine or artificial intelligence (AI) that is designed to think and learn from experiences or smarter than human brains? In the reading of â€Å"The Doomsday Invention: Will artificial intelligence bring us utopia or destruction?† by Raffi Khatchadourian mentions that â€Å"Artificial intelligence already outperforms human intelligence in many domains.† He then provides Read MoreThe Ai : Boon Or Disadvantage1004 Words   |  5 PagesTemperamental AI: Boon or Disadvantage in Creativity? Artificial Intelligence has gained an increasing amount of wind in the past few years. Allowing machines to do most of our work for us allows us to focus (or not focus) on different aspects of our life. However, the question must be asked, will giving AI human-like emotions and thought processes actually help us be more creative or discourage us to â€Å"think outside the box?† First and foremost, we need to understand what a Temperamental AI is

Essay Halt Human Trafficking A Global Fight for Human...

Are you always aware of your surroundings? Do you ever ponder what life would be like if you were abducted? Slavery is still a harsh global reality for too many victims. What we don’t realize is that slavery is not only a piece of history we read about in textbooks. Rather, a realistic element of our world’s current events. The threat of human trafficking endangers citizens of all countries. Victims of modern day slavery comprise a diverse group of men, women, and children of all ages and social classes. These people are trafficked, like drugs, across several borders into a life of sexual exploitation, harsh labor, and severe mental, and verbal abuse. Awareness is imperative to the prevention of human trafficking. The ability to recognize,†¦show more content†¦Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitud e or removal of organs (Newman 17). Defining human trafficking has enabled nations to develop laws and policies against this form of slavery. Theses policies aid law enforcement in identifying trafficking victims and persecuting their offenders (Anker 5). The most important key to justice is the ability to properly identify human trafficking victims. Some common indicators of human trafficking include lack of identification or control of identification documents, coached testimonies, forced sexual assault, lack of free movement, deprivation of food, sleep, and medical care. According to the Department of Homeland Security’s Human Trafficking Indicators pamphlet, victims may be in a nation where they do not speak the native language: disabling them from effectively communicating their situation in an attempt to escape. Nearly 1 in 5 victims of human trafficking know their trafficker; creating an illusion of normalcy for law enforcementShow MoreRelatedWays to Stop Human Trafficking1245 Words   |  5 PagesSolu tions to End Human Trafficking In recent times, the number of human trafficking cases has skyrocketed through the roof. So, what exactly is human trafficking? Human trafficking is defined as a criminal activity, in which people are recruited, harboured, transported, bought or kidnapped for the purposes of exploitation. These exploitations include forced labour, child soldiery, sexual slavery, forced marriages and so on. Statistics show that the main victims of human trafficking consist of womenRead More Its Time to Stop Human Trafficking and Slavery in America Essay1982 Words   |  8 PagesStates has always had an industry where humans have sold other humans for profit. Although the United States abolished slavery and human trafficking with the thirteenth amendment in 1865, the human trafficking industry has not even begun to disappear, despite all the efforts made against it. Human trafficking is an issue that affects various people. As author Kevin Bales said in The Slave Next Door: Human Trafficking and Slav ery in America Today, human trafficking is of â€Å"equal opportunity† (18). It canRead MoreHuman Sex Trafficking1919 Words   |  8 PagesBut you can sell them each day, every day, over and over again. The markup is immeasurable. This quote from the 2005 Lifetime film Human Trafficking, however chilling and horrifying, is true. Human trafficking is the commercial trade of human beings who are subjected to involuntary acts such as begging, sexual exploitation, or involuntary servitude. Human trafficking is an umbrella term used to describe all forms of modern-day slavery. No longer is this a term from the past, but a horrific realityRead MoreThe Issue Of Legalizing Sex Work2819 Words   |  12 Pagesprostitution and human trafficking are tied and how decriminalizing prostitution is claimed to be a key factor in sex trafficking. We will look deeper into those who fight for what they believe are moral standards for societies and their claims. Throughout this essay, I will arg ue for the positive impacts of a fully decriminalized, thus, regulated sex work has on society as a whole, and protects women, children, and saves the government millions of dollars- money that can be utilized to fight sex traffickingRead MoreConservation And Management Of Wildlife1519 Words   |  7 PagesExecutive summary â€Å"The Greatness of nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated - Mahatma Gandhi Unfortunately, we often hear the news about the illicit wildlife trafficking or illegal wildlife trade. Wildlife seems to be traded all around us. It is used not only as pets and trophies but also for food, leather, home decorations and medical purposes. Wildlife is an important part of ecological community as it plays an important role in the environment. I know thatRead MoreThe Executive Cabinet Of Mexico3770 Words   |  16 PagesCabinet is for the United States of America. Topic 1: Mexican Drug Trafficking Background Mexico has long been involved in the trading of narcotics and contraband between the U.S. and Latin America due to its ideal geographic location. Mexican drug trafficking on a large scale has existed since the 1960s. After the downfall in the 1990s of the two major Colombian cartels, Colombian Cali and Medellà ­n, Mexican drug trafficking organizations began to dominate a large majority of drug trade enteringRead MoreCorruption Perception Index5242 Words   |  21 PagesIdentify the five countries with the lowest and five with highest CPI scores according to this index. 1.0 INTRODUCTION Ethics is accepted principles of right or wrong that govern the conduct of a person, the members of a profession and the actions of an organization. There are five ethical issues which are employment practices, human rights, environmental regulations, corruption and the moral obligation of multinational companies. Corruption means misusing public office for personal gain for exampleRead MoreOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 PagesMichael Adas for the American Historical Association TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS PHILADELPHIA Temple University Press 1601 North Broad Street Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122 www.temple.edu/tempress Copyright  © 2010 by Temple University All rights reserved Published 2010 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Essays on twentieth century history / edited by Michael Peter Adas for the American Historical Association. p. cm.—(Critical perspectives on the past) Includes bibliographicalRead MoreInternational Management67196 Words   |  269 PagesINTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT: CULTURE, STRATEGY, AND BEHAVIOR, EIGHTH EDITION Published by McGraw-Hill, a business unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. Copyright  © 2012 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Previous editions  © 2009, 2006, and 2003. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written consent of The McGraw-Hill CompaniesRead MoreChanel Handbags, Target, and Salvation Army Swot Analysis13115 Words   |  53 PagesI’m so tired of reading Vogue and seeing the latest handbag on that beautiful model†. Actually, we hear the opposite and woman and teens want to portray what they see in those ads, which leads us to believe that Chanel marketers are doing just the right amount of advertising to thei r targeted consumer. Discount retailer, Target is known for their Massimo brand that caters to most middle class consumers. When a consumer first looks at a target ad or commercial, they see a little of everything target

Bag of Bones CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO Free Essays

I was finally able to get into the zone, but couldn’t do anything once I got there. I keep a steno pad handy for notes character lists, page references, date chronologies and I doodled in there a little bit, but the sheet of paper in the IBM remained blank. There was no thundering heartbeat, no throbbing eyes or difficulty breathing no panic attack, in other words but there was no story, either. We will write a custom essay sample on Bag of Bones CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO or any similar topic only for you Order Now Andy Drake, John Shackleford, Ray Garraty, the beautiful Regina Whiting . . . they stood with their backs turned, refusing to speak or move. The manuscript was sitting in its accustomed place on the left side of the typewriter, the pages held down with a pretty chunk of quartz I’d found on the lane, but nothing was happening. Zilch. I recognized an irony here, perhaps even a moral. For years I had fled the problems of the real world, escaping into various Narnias of my imagination. Now the real world had filled up with bewildering thickets, there were things with teeth in some of them, and the wardrobe was locked against me. Kyra, I had printed, putting her name inside a scalloped shape that was supposed to be a cabbage rose. Below it I had drawn a piece of bread with a beret tipped rakishly on the top crust. Noonan’s conception of French toast. The letters L.B. surrounded with curlicues. A shirt with a rudimentary duck on it. Beside this I had printed QUACK QUACK. Below QUACK QUACK I had written Ought to fly away ‘Bon Voyage.’ At another spot on the sheet I had written Dean, Auster, and Devore. They were the ones who had seemed the most there, the most dangerous. Because they had descendants? But surely all seven of those jacks must, mustn’t they? In those days most families were whoppers. And where had I been? I had asked, but Devore hadn’t wanted to say. It didn’t feel any more like a dream at nine-thirty on a sullenly hot Sunday morning. Which left exactly what? Visions? Time-travel? And if there was a purpose to such travel, what was it? What was the message, and who was trying to send it? I remembered clearly what I’d said just before passing from the dream in which I had sleepwalked out to Jo’s studio and brought back my typewriter: I don’t believe these lies. Nor would I now. Until I could see at least some of the truth, it might be safer to believe nothing at all. At the top of the sheet upon which I was doodling, in heavily stroked letters, I printed the word DANGER!, then circled it. From the circle I drew an arrow to Kyra’s name. From her name I drew an arrow to Ought to fly away ‘Bon Voyage’ and added MATTIE. Below the bread wearing the beret I drew a little telephone. Above it I put a cartoon balloon with R-R-RINGG! in it. As I finished this, the cordless phone rang. It was sitting on the deck rail. I circled MATTIE and picked up the phone. ‘Mike?’ She sounded excited. Happy. Relieved. ‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘How are you?’ ‘Great!’ she said, and I circled L.B. on my pad. ‘Lindy Briggs called ten minutes ago I just got off the phone with her. Mike, she’s giving me my job back! Isn’t that wonderful?’ Sure. And wonderful how it would keep her in town. I crossed out Ought to fly away ‘Bon Voyage,’ knowing that Mattie wouldn’t go. Not now. And how could I ask her to? I thought again If only I knew a little more . . . ‘Mike? Are you ‘ ‘It’s very wonderful,’ I said. In my mind’s eye I could see her standing in the kitchen, drawing the kinked telephone cord through her fingers, her legs long and coltish below her denim shorts. I could see the shirt she was wearing, a white tee with a yellow duck paddling across the front. ‘I hope Lindy had the good grace to sound ashamed of herself.’ I circled the tee-shirt I’d drawn. ‘She did. And she was frank enough to kind of . . . well, disarm me. She said the Whitmore woman talked to her early last week. Was very frank and to the point, Lindy said. I was to be let go immediately. If that happened, the money, computer equipment, and software Devore funnelled into the library would keep coming. If it didn’t, the flow of goods and money would stop immediately. She said she had to balance the good of the community against what she knew was wrong . . . she said it was one of the toughest decisions she ever had to make . . . ‘ ‘Uh-huh.’ On the pad my hand moved of its own volition like a planchette gliding over a Ouija board, printing the words PLEASE CAN’T I PLEASE. ‘There’s probably some truth in it, but Mattie . . . how much do you suppose Lindy makes?’ ‘I don’t know.’ ‘I bet it’s more than any three other small-town librarians in the state of Maine combined.’ In the background I heard Ki: ‘Can I talk, Mattie? Can I talk to Mike? Please can’t I please?’ ‘In a minute, hon.’ Then, to me: ‘Maybe. All I know is that I have my job back, and I’m willing to let bygones be bygones.’ On the page, I drew a book. Then I drew a series of interlocked circles between it and the duck tee-shirt. ‘Ki wants to talk to you,’ Mattie said, laughing. ‘She says the two of you went to the Fryeburg Fair last night.’ ‘Whoa, you mean I had a date with a pretty girl and slept through it?’ ‘Seems that way. Are you ready for her?’ ‘Ready.’ ‘Okay, here comes the chatterbox.’ There was a rustling as the phone changed hands, then Ki was there. ‘I taggled you at the Fair, Mike! I taggled my own quartermack!’ ‘Did you?’ I asked ‘That was quite a dream, wasn’t it, Ki?’ There was a long silence at the other end. I could imagine Mattie wondering what had happened to her telephone chatterbox. At last Ki said in a hesitating voice: ‘You there too.’ Tiu. ‘We saw the snake-dance ladies . . . the pole with the bell on top . . . we went in the spookyhouse . . . you fell down in the barrel! It wasn’t a dream . . . was it?’ I could have convinced her that it was, but all at once that seemed like a bad idea, one that was dangerous in its own way. I said: ‘You had on a pretty hat and a pretty dress.’ ‘Yeah!’ Ki sounded enormously relieved. ‘And you had on ‘ ‘Kyra, stop. Listen to me.’ She stopped at once. ‘It’s better if you don’t talk about that dream too much, I think. To your mom or to anyone except me.’ ‘Except you.’ ‘Yes. And the same with the refrigerator people. Okay?’ ‘Okay. Mike, there was a lady in Mattie’s clothes.’ ‘I know,’ I said. It was all right for her to talk, I was sure of it, but I asked anyway: ‘Where’s Mattie now?’ ‘Waterin the flowers. We got lots of flowers, a billion at least. I have to clean up the table. It’s a chore. I don’t mind, though. I like chores. We had French toast. We always do on Sundays. It’s yummy, ‘specially with strawberry syrup.’ ‘I know,’ I said, drawing an arrow to the piece of bread wearing the beret. ‘French toast is great. Ki, did you tell your mom about the lady in her dress?’ ‘No. I thought it might scare her.’ She dropped her voice. ‘Here she comes!’ ‘That’s all right . . . but we’ve got a secret, right?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Now can I talk to Mattie again?’ ‘Okay.’ Her voice moved off a little. ‘Mommy-bommy, Mike wants to talk to you.’ Then she came back. ‘Will you bizzit us today? We could go on another picnic.’ ‘I can’t today, Ki. I have to work.’ ‘Mattie never works on Sunday.’ ‘Well, when I’m writing a book, I write every day. I have to, or else I’ll forget the story. Maybe we’ll have a picnic on Tuesday, though. A barbecue picnic at your house.’ ‘Is it long ’til Tuesday?’ ‘Not too long. Day after tomorrow.’ ‘Is it long to write a book?’ ‘Medium-long.’ I could hear Mattie telling Ki to give her the phone. ‘I will, just one more second. Mike?’ ‘I’m here, Ki.’ ‘I love you.’ I was both touched and terrified. For a moment I was sure my throat was going to lock up the way my chest used to when I tried to write. Then it cleared and I said, ‘Love you, too, Ki.’ ‘Here’s Mattie.’ Again there was the rustly sound of the telephone changing hands, then Mattie said: ‘Did that refresh your recollection of your date with my daughter, sir?’ ‘Well,’ I said, ‘it certainly refreshed hers.’ There was a link between Mattie and me, but it didn’t extend to this I was sure of it. She was laughing. I loved the way she sounded this morning and I didn’t want to bring her down . . . but I didn’t want her mistaking the white line in the middle of the road for the crossmock, either. ‘Mattie, you still need to be careful, okay? Just because Lindy Briggs offered you your old job back doesn’t mean everyone in town is suddenly your friend.’ ‘I understand that,’ she said. I thought again about asking if she’d consider taking Ki up to Derry for awhile they could live in my house, stay for the duration of the summer if that was what it took for things to return to normal down here. Except she wouldn’t do it. When it came to accepting my offer of high-priced New York legal talent, she’d had no choice. About this she did. Or thought she did, and how could I change her mind? I had no logic, no connected facts; all I had was a vague dark shape, like something lying beneath nine inches of snowblind ice. ‘I want you to be careful of two men in particular,’ I said. ‘One is Bill Dean. The other is Kenny Auster. He’s the one ‘ ‘ with the big dog who wears the neckerchief. He ‘ ‘That’s Booberry!’ Ki called from the middle distance. ‘Booberry licked my facie!’ ‘Go out and play, hon,’ Mattie said. ‘I’m clearun the table.’ ‘You can finish later. Go on outside now.’ There was a pause as she watched Ki go out the door, taking Strickland with her. Although the kid had left the trailer, Mattie still spoke in the lowered tone of someone who doesn’t want to be overheard. ‘Are you trying to scare me?’ ‘No,’ I said, drawing repeated circles around the word DANGER. ‘But I want you to be careful. Bill and Kenny may have been on Devore’s team, like Footman and Osgood. Don’t ask me why I think that might be, because I have no satisfactory answer. It’s only a feeling, but since I got back on the TR, my feelings are different.’ ‘What do you mean?’ ‘Are you wearing a tee-shirt with a duck on it?’ ‘How do you know that? Did Ki tell you?’ ‘Did she take the little stuffed dog from her Happy Meal out with her just now?’ A long pause. At last she said ‘My God’ in a voice so Low I could hardly hear it. Then again: ‘How ‘ ‘I don’t know how. I don’t know if you’re still in a . . . a bad situation, either, or why you might be, but I feel that you are. That you both are.’ I could have said more, but I was afraid she’d think I’d gone entirely off the rails. ‘He’s dead!’ she burst out. ‘That old man is dead! Why can’t he leave us alone?’ ‘Maybe he has. Maybe I’m wrong about all this. But there’s no harm in being careful, is there?’ ‘No,’ she said. ‘Usually that’s true.’ ‘Usually?’ ‘Why don’t you come and see me, Mike? Maybe we could go to the Fair together.’ ‘Maybe this fall we will. All three of us.’ ‘I’d like that.’ ‘In the meantime, I’m thinking about the key.’ ‘Thinking is half your problem, Mike,’ she said, and laughed again. Ruefully, I thought. And I saw what she meant. What she didn’t seem to understand was that feeling was the other half. It’s a sling, and in the end I think it rocks most of us to death. I worked for a while,’ then carried the IBM back into the house and left the manuscript on top. I was done with it, at least for the time being. No more looking for the way back through the wardrobe; no more Andy Drake and John Shackleford until this was over. And, as I dressed in long pants and a button-up shirt for the first time in what felt like weeks, it occurred to me that perhaps something some force had been trying to sedate me with the story I was telling. With the ability to work again. It made sense; work had always been my drug of choice, even better than booze or the Mellaril I still kept in the bathroom medicine cabinet. Or maybe work was only the delivery system, the hypo with all the dreamy dreams inside it. Maybe the real drug was the zone. Being in the zone. Feeling it, you sometimes hear the basketball players say. I was in the zone and I was really feeling it. I grabbed the keys to the Chevrolet off the counter and looked at the fridge as I did. The magnets were circled again. In the middle was a message I’d seen before, one that was now instantly understandable, thanks to the extra Magnabet letters: help her ‘I’m doing my best,’ I said, and went out. Three miles north on Route 68 by then you’re on the part of it which used to be known as Castle Rock Road-there’s a greenhouse with a shop in front of it. Slips ‘n Greens, it’s called, and Jo used to spend a fair amount of time there, buying gardening supplies or just noodling with the two women who ran the place. One of them was Helen Auster, Kenny’s wife. I pulled in there at around ten o’clock that Sunday morning (it was open, of course; during tourist season almost every Maine shopkeeper turns heathen) and parked next to a Beamer with New York plates. I paused long enough to hear the weather forecast on the radio continued hot and humid for another forty-eight hours at least and then got out. A woman wearing a bathing suit, a skort, and a giant yellow sunhat emerged from the shop with a bag of peat moss cradled in her arms. She gave me a little smile. I returned it with eighteen per cent interest. She was from New York, and that meant she wasn’t a Martian. The shop was even hotter and’ damper than the white morning outside. Lila Proulx, the co-owner, was on the phone. There was a little fan beside the cash register and she was standing directly in front of it, flapping the front of her sleeveless blouse. She saw me and twiddled her fingers in a wave. I twiddled mine back, feeling like someone else. Work or no work, I was still zoning. Still feeling it. I walked around the shop, picking up a few things almost at random, watching Lila out of the corner of my eye and waiting for her to get off the phone so I could talk to her . . . and all the time my own private hyperdrive was humming softly away. At last she hung up and I came to the counter. ‘Michael Noonan, what a sight for sore eyes you are!’ she said, and began ringing up my purchases. ‘I was awfully sorry to hear about Johanna. Got to get that right up front. Jo was a pet.’ ‘Thanks, Lila.’ ‘Welcome. Don’t need to say any more about it, but with a thing like that it’s best to put it right up front. I’ve always believed it, always will believe it. Right up front. Going to do a little gardening, are you?’ Gointer do a little ga’adnin, aaa you? ‘If it ever cools off.’ ‘Ayuh! Isn’t it wicked?’ She flapped the top of her blouse again to show me how wicked it was, then pointed at one of my purchases. ‘Want this one in a special bag? Always safe, never sorry, that’s my motto.’ I nodded, then looked at the little blackboard tilted against the counter. FRESH BLUBERRYS, the chalked message read. THE CROPS IS IN! ‘I’ll have a pint of berries, too,’ I said. ‘As long as they’re not Friday’s. I can do better than Friday.’ She nodded vigorously, as if to say she knew damned well I could. ‘These were on the bush yest’y. That fresh enough for you?’ ‘Good as gold,’ I said. ‘Blueberry’s the name of Kenny’s dog, isn’t it?’ ‘Ain’t he a funny one? God, I love a big dog, if he’s behaved.’ She turned, got a pint of berries from her little fridge, and put them in another bag for me. ‘Where’s Helen?’ I asked. ‘Day off?.’ ‘Not her,’ Lila said. ‘If she’s in town, you can’t get her out of this place ‘less you beat her with a stick. She and Kenny and the kids went down Taxachusetts. Them and her brother’s family club together and get a seaside cottage two weeks every summer. They all went. Old Blueberry, he’ll chase seagulls until he drops.’ She laughed it was a loud and hearty one. It made me think of Sara Tidwell. Or maybe it was the way Lila looked at me as she did it. There was no laughter in her eyes. They were small and considering, coldly curious. Would you for Christ’s sake quit it? I told myself. They can’t all be in on it together, Mike! Couldn’t they, though? There is such a thing as town consciousness anyone who doubts it has never been to a New England town meeting. Where there’s a consciousness, is there not likely to be a subconscious? And if Kyra and I were doing the old mind-meld thing, could not other people in TR-90 also be doing it, perhaps without even knowing it? We all shared the same air and land; we shared the lake and the aquifer which lay below everything, buried water tasting of rock and minerals. We shared The Street as well, that place where good pups and vile dogs could walk side-by-side. As I started out with my purchases in a cloth carry-handle bag, Lila said: ‘What a shame about Royce Merrill. Did you hear?’ ‘No,’ I said. ‘Fell down his cellar stairs yest’y evening. What a man his age was doing going down such a steep flight of steps is beyond me, but I suppose once you get to his age, you have your own reasons for doing things.’ Is he dead? I started to ask, then rephrased. It wasn’t the way the question was expressed on the TR. ‘Did he pass?’ ‘Not yet. Motton Rescue took him to Castle County General. He’s in a coma.’ Comber, she said it. ‘They don’t think he’ll ever wake up, poor fella. There’s a piece of history that’ll die with him.’ ‘I suppose that’s true.’ Good riddance, I thought. ‘Does he have children?’ ‘No. There have been Merrills on the TR for two hundred years; one died at Cemetery Ridge. But all the old families are dying out now. You have a nice day, Mike.’ She smiled. Her eyes remained flat and considering. I got into my Chevy, put the bag with my purchases in it on the passenger seat, then simply sat for a moment, letting the air conditioner pour cool air on my face and neck. Kenny Auster was in Taxachusetts. That was good. A step in the right direction. But there was still my caretaker. ‘Bill’s not here,’ Yvette said. She stood in the door, blocking it as well as she could (you can only do so much in that regard when you’re five-three and weigh roughly a hundred pounds), studying me with the gimlet gaze of a nightclub bouncer denying re-entry to a drunk who’s been tossed out on his ear once already. I was on the porch of the neat-as-ever-you-saw Cape Cod which stands at the top of Peabody Hill and looks all the way across New Hampshire and into Vermont’s back yard. Bill’s equipment sheds were lined up to the left of the house, all of them painted the same shade of gray, each with its own sign: DEAN CARETAKING, No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3. Parked in front of No. 2 was Bill’s Dodge Ram. I looked at it, then back at Yvette. Her lips tightened a little more. Another notch and I figured they’d be gone entirely. ‘He went to North Conway with Butch Wiggins,’ she said. ‘They went in Butch’s truck. To get ‘ ‘No need lying for me, dear heart,’ Bill said from behind her. It was still over an hour shy of noon, and on the Lord’s Day to boot, but I had never heard a man who sounded more tired. He clumped down the hall, and as he came out of its shadows and into the light the sun was finally burning through the murk I saw that Bill now looked his age. Every year of it, and maybe ten more to grow on. He was wearing his usual khaki shirt and pants Bill Dean would be a Dickies man until the day he died but his shoulders looked slumped, almost sprained, a-s if he’d spent a week lugging buckets that were too heavy for him. The falling-away of his face had finally begun, an indefinable something that makes the eyes look too big, the jaw too prominent, the mouth a bit loose. He looked old. There were no children to carry on the family line of work, either; all the old families were dying out, Lila Proulx had said. And maybe that was a good thing. ‘Bill ‘ she began, but he raised one of his big hands to stop her. The callused fingertips shook a little. ‘Go in the kitchen a dight,’ he told her. ‘I need to talk to my compadre here. ‘T’won’t take long.’ Yvette looked at him, and when she looked back at me, she had indeed reached zero lip-surface. There was just a black line where they had been, like a mark dashed off with a pencil. I saw with woeful clarity that she hated me. ‘Don’t you tire him out,’ she said to me. ‘He hasn’t been sleepin. It’s the heat.’ She walked back down the hall, all stiff back and high shoulders, disappearing into shadows that were probably cool. It always seems to be cool in the houses of old people, have you noticed? Bill came out onto the porch and put his big hands into the pockets of his pants without offering to shake with me. ‘I ain’t got nothin to say to you. You and me’s quits.’ ‘Why, Bill? Why are we quits?’ He looked west, where the hills stepped into the burning summer haze, disappearing in it before they could become mountains, and said nothing. ‘I’m trying to help that young woman.’ He gave me a look from the corners of his eyes that I could read well enough. ‘Ahuh. Help y’self right into her pants. I see men come up from New York and New Jersey with their young girls. Summer weekends, ski weekends, it don’t matter. Men who go with girls that age always look the same, got their tongues run out even when their mouths are shut. Now you look the same.’ I felt both angry and embarrassed, but I resisted the urge to chase him in that direction. That was what he wanted. ‘What happened here?’ I asked him. ‘What did your fathers and grandfathers and great-grandfathers do to Sara Tidwell and her family? You didn’t just move them on, did you?’ ‘Didn’t have to,’ Bill said, looking past me at the hills. His eyes were moist almost to the point of tears, but his jaw was set and hard. ‘They moved on themselves. Never was a nigger who didn’t have an itchy foot, my dad used to say.’ ‘Who set the trap that killed Son Tidwell’s boy? Was it your father, Bill? Was it Fred?’ His eyes moved; his jaw never did. ‘I dunno what you’re talking about.’ ‘I hear him crying in my house. Do you know what it’s like to hear a dead child crying in your house? Some bastard trapped him like a weasel and I hear him crying in my fucking house!’ ‘You’re going to need a new caretaker,’ Bill said. ‘I can’t do for you no more. Don’t want to. What I want is for you to get off my porch.’ ‘What’s happening? Help me, for Christ’s sake.’ ‘I’ll help you with the toe of my shoe if you don’t get going on your own.’ I looked at him a moment longer, taking in the wet eyes and the set jaw, his divided nature written on his face. ‘I lost my wife, you old bastard,’ I said. ‘A woman you claimed to love.’ Now his jaw moved at last. He looked at me with surprise and injury. ‘That didn’t happen here,’ he said. ‘That didn’t have anything to do with here. She might’ve been off the TR because . . . well, she might’ve had her reasons to be off the TR . . . but she just had a stroke. Would have happened anywhere. Anywhere.’ ‘I don’t believe that. I don’t think you do, either. Something followed her to Derry, maybe because she was pregnant . . . ‘ Bill’s eyes widened. I gave him a chance to say something, but he didn’t take it. ‘ . . . or maybe just because she knew too much.’ ‘She had a stroke.’ Bill’s voice wasn’t quite even. ‘I read the obituary myself. She had a damn stroke.’ ‘What did she find out? Talk to me, Bill. Please.’ There was a long pause. Until it was over I allowed myself the luxury of thinking I might actually be getting through to him. ‘I’ve only got one more thing to say to you, Mike stand back. For the sake of your immortal soul, stand back and let things run their course. They will whether you do or don’t. This river has almost come to the sea; it won’t be dammed by the likes of you. Stand back. For the love of Christ.’ Do you care about your soul, Mr. Noonan? God’s butterfly caught in a cocoon of flesh that will soon stink like mine? Bill turned and walked to his door, the heels of his workboots clodding on the painted boards. ‘Stay away from Mattie and Ki,’ I said. ‘If you so much as go near that trailer ‘ He turned back, and the hazy sunshine glinted on the tracks below his eyes. He took a bandanna from his back pocket and wiped his cheeks. ‘I ain’t stirrin from this house. I wish to God I’d never come back from my vacation in the first place, but I did mostly on your account, Mike. Those two down on Wasp Hill have nothing to fear from me. No, not from me.’ He went inside and closed the door. I stood there looking at it, feeling unreal surely I could not have had such a deadly conversation with Bill Dean, could I? Bill who had reproached me for not letting folks down here share and perhaps ease my grief for Jo, Bill who had welcomed me back so warmly? Then I heard a clack sound. He might not have locked his door while he was at home in his entire life, but he had locked it now. The clack was very clear in the breathless July air. It told me everything I had to know about my long friendship with Bill Dean. I turned and walked back to my car, my head down. Nor did I turn when I heard a window run up behind me. ‘Don’t you ever come back here, you town bastard!’ Yvette Dean cried across the sweltering dooryard. ‘You’ve broken his heart! Don’t you ever come back! Don’t you ever! Don’t you ever!’ ‘Please,’ Mrs. M. said. ‘Don’t ask me any more questions, Mike. I can’t afford to get in Bill Dean’s bad books, any more’n my ma could afford to get into Normal Auster’s or Fred Dean’s.’ I shifted the phone to my other ear. ‘All I want to know is ‘ ‘In this part of the world caretakers pretty well run the whole show. If they say to a summer fella that he should hire this carpenter or that ‘lectrician, why, that’s who the summer fella hires. Or if a caretaker says this one should be fired because he ain’t proving reliable, he is fired. Or she. Because what goes once for plumbers and landscapers and ‘lectricians has always gone twice for housekeepers. If you want to be recommended and stay recommended you have to keep on the sunny side of people like Fred and Bill Dean, or Normal and Kenny Auster. Don’t you see?’ She was almost pleading. ‘When Bill found out I told you about what Normal Auster did to Kerry, oooo he was so mad at me.’ ‘Kenny Auster’s brother the one Normal drowned under the pump his name was Kerry?’ ‘Ahuh. I’ve known a lot of folks name their kids alike, think it’s cute. Why, I went to school with a brother and sister named Roland and Rolanda Therriault, I think Roland’s in Manchester now, and Rolanda married that boy from ‘ ‘Brenda, just answer one question. I’ll never tell. Please?’ I waited, my breath held, for the click that would come when she put her telephone back in its cradle. Instead, she spoke three words in a soft, almost regretful voice. ‘What is it?’ ‘Who was Carla Dean?’ I waited through another long pause, my hand playing with the ribbon that had come off Ki’s turn-of-the-century straw hat. ‘You dassn’t tell anyone I told you anything,’ she said at last. ‘I won’t.’ ‘Carla was Bill’s twin sister. She died sixty-five years ago, during the time of the fires.’ The fires Bill claimed had been set by Ki’s grandfather his going-away present to the TR. ‘I don’t know just how it happened. Bill never talks about it. If you tell him I told you, I’ll never make another bed in the TR. He’ll see to it.’ Then, in a hopeless voice, she said: ‘He may know anyway.’ Based on my own experiences and surmises, I guessed she might be right about that. But even if she was, she’d have a check from me every month for the rest of her working life. I had no intention of telling her that over the telephone, though it would scald her Yankee soul. Instead I thanked her, assured her again of my discretion, and hung up. I sat at the table for a moment, staring blankly at Bunter, then said: ‘Who’s here?’ No answer. ‘Come on,’ I said. ‘Don’t be shy. Let’s go nineteen or ninety-two down. Barring that, let’s talk.’ Still no answer. Not so much as a shiver of the bell around the stuffed moose’s neck. I spied the scribble of notes I’d made while talking to Jo’s brother and drew them toward me. I had put Kia, Kyra, Kito, and Carla in a box. Now I scribbled out the bottom line of that box and added the name Kerry to the list. I’ve known a lot of folks name their kids alike, Mrs. M. had said. They think it’s cute. I didn’t think it was cute; I thought it was creepy. It occurred to me that at least two of these soundalikes had drowned Kerry Auster under a pump, Kia Noonan in her mother’s dying body when she wasn’t much bigger than a sunflower seed. And I had seen the ghost of a third drowned child in the lake. Kito? Was that one Kito? Or was Kito the one who had died of blood-poisoning? They name their kids alike, they think it’s cute. How many soundalike kids had there been to start with? How many were left? I thought the answer to the first question didn’t matter, and that I knew the answer to the second one already. This river has almost come to the sea, Bill had said. Carla, Kerry, Kito, Kia . . . all gone. Only Kyra Devore was left. I got up so fast and hard that I knocked over my chair. The clatter in the silence made me cry out. I was leaving, and right now. No more telephone calls, no more playing Andy Drake, Private Detective, no more depositions or half-assed wooings of the lady fair. I should have followed my instincts and gotten the fuck out of Dodge that first night. Well, I’d go now, just get in the Chevy and haul ass for Der Bunter’s bell jangled furiously. I turned and saw it bouncing around his neck as if batted to and fro by a hand I couldn’t see. The sliding door giving on the deck began to fly open and clap shut like something hooked to a pulley. The book of Tough Stuff crossword puzzles on the end-table and the DSS program guide blew open, their pages riffling. There was a series of rattling thuds across the floor, as if something enormous were crawling rapidly toward me, pounding its fists as it came. A draft not cold but warm, like the rush of air produced by a subway train on a summer night buffeted past me. In it I heard a strange voice which seemed to be saying Bye-BY, bye-BY, bye-BY, as if wishing me a good trip home. Then, as it dawned on me that the voice was actually saying Ki-Ki, Ki-Ki, Ki-Ki, something struck me and knocked me violently forward. It felt like a large soft fist. I buckled over the table, clawing at it to stay up, overturning the lazy susan with the salt and pepper shakers on it, the napkin holder, the little vase Mrs. M. had filled with daisies. The vase rolled off the table and shattered. The kitchen TV blared on, some politician talking about how inflation was on the march again. The CD player started up, drowning out the politician; it was the Rolling Stones doing a cover of Sara Tidwell’s ‘I Regret You, Baby.’ Upstairs, one smoke alarm went off, then another, then a third. They were joined a moment later by the warble-whoop of the Chevy’s car alarm. The whole world was cacophony. Something hot and pillowy seized my wrist. My hand shot forward like a piston and slammed down on the steno pad. I watched as it pawed clumsily to a blank page, then seized the pencil which lay nearby. I gripped it like a dagger and then something wrote with it, not guiding my hand but raping it. The hand moved slowly at first, almost blindly, then picked up speed until it was flying, almost tearing through the sheet: I had almost reached the bottom of the page when the cold descended again, that outer cold that was like sleet in January, chilling my skin and crackling the snot in my nose and sending two shuddery puffs of white air from my mouth. My hand clenched and the pencil snapped in two. Behind me, Bunter’s bell rang out one final furious convulsion before falling silent. Also from behind me came a peculiar double pop, like the sound of champagne corks being drawn. Then it was over. Whatever it had been or however many they had been, it was finished. I was alone again. I turned off the CD player just as Mick and Keith moved on to a white-boy version of Howling Wolf, then ran upstairs and pushed the reset buttons on the smoke-detectors. I leaned out the window of the big guest bedroom while I was up there, aimed the fob of my keyring down at the Chevrolet, and pushed the button on it. The alarm quit. With the worst of the noise gone I could hear the TV cackling away in the kitchen. I went down, killed it, then froze with my hand still on the OFF button, looking at Jo’s annoying waggy-cat clock. Its tail had finally stopped switching, and its big plastic eyes lay on the floor. They had popped right out of its head. I went down to the Village Cafe for supper, snagging the last Sunday Telegram from the rack (COMPUTER MOGUL DEVORE DIES IN WESTERN MAINE TOWN WHERE HE GREW UP, the headline read) before sitting down at the counter. The accompanying photo was a studio shot of Devore that looked about thirty years old. He was smiling. Most people do that quite naturally. On Devore’s face it looked like a learned skill. I ordered the beans that were left over from Buddy Jellison’s Saturday-night beanhole supper. My father wasn’t much for aphorisms in my family dispensing nuggets of wisdom was Mom’s job but as Daddy warmed up the Saturday-night yelloweyes in the oven on Sunday afternoon, he would invariably say that beans and beef stew were better the second day. I guess it stuck. The only other piece of fatherly wisdom I can remember receiving was that you should always wash your hands after you took a shit in a bus station. While I was reading the story on Devore, Audrey came over and told me that Royce Merrill had passed without recovering consciousness. The funeral would be Tuesday afternoon at Grace Baptist, she said. Most of the town would be there, many folks just to see Ila Meserve awarded the Boston Post cane. Did I think I’d get over? No, I said, probably not. I thought it prudent not to add that I’d likely be attending a victory party at Mattie Devore’s while Royce’s funeral was going on down the road. The usual late-Sunday-afternoon flow of customers came and went while I ate, people ordering burgers, people ordering beans, people ordering chicken salad sandwiches, people buying sixpacks. Some were from the TR, some from away. I didn’t notice many of them, and no one spoke to me. I have no idea who left the napkin on my newspaper, but when I put down the A section and turned to find the sports, there it was. I picked it up, meaning only to put it aside, and saw what was written on the back in big dark letters: GET OFF THE TR. I never found out who left it there. I guess it could have been any of them. How to cite Bag of Bones CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO, Essay examples